It was good until the second half, but once the prophetic writings arc ended, it just slowly fizzled into standard Shoujo territory. The art style lost its distinctiveness, the characters became gradually flatter and more flanderized, and the comedically business minded and uncaring FL suddenly started constantly bringing up her engagement’s termination sadly as if she cared about it more than the money she received for breaking it, while simultaneously becoming the standard “oh my god, this person is treating me nicely and is also attractive, my existing character does not matter and I must fall in love” FL.
If you liked the first half, leave the series be once the “heroine” gets her dues, the series becomes practically unrecognizable aside from the characters’ general appearances afterwards, and it’s like their souls are removed and replaced with shitty cardboard cutouts after that point. Maybe I’m just malding because the FL was an aromantic idol before the second half, but seeing her forcibly thrown together with one of the first platonic friends she could open up around, especially after receiving multiple pages to express her disinterest in becoming queen, just feels like a total massacre of her character and what drew me to her. Her family was supportive of her wanting to not marry and do business like she loved instead, the prince enjoyed her company as a bluntly entertaining friend, and she never seemed interested in anything that didn’t purely benefit her like a total boss, but then she just went and threw all of that characterization away to marry someone she expressed no feelings beyond friendship towards for so long? This’ll be one of those series where I tell myself it ends at chapter 18, because if I don’t, I’ll have to remember the massacre of our aromantic boss lady FL that carried the series for so long, and was crushed under the weight of the author’s inability to handle her uniqueness in a respectful way. RIP.