This is surprisingly good, in a way. The lady starts out pretty terrible; a dangerous, mu*derous and frustrated villainess. As it goes on she becomes a cute (r) Tsundere and the scenes between her and the butler lead give me a surprisingly light and happy feel even during the smut. But don't get it wrong, this is an adult novel, and there are some dark psychological happenings here. Might need an experienced eye to read

Honestly the Tags are there so the warning is obvious if this isn't your cup of tea. I'm not that far into it but honestly its hard to swallow. Both MC are very unlikeable. Starting with the girl, its obvious the author is intentionally writing her character as horrible as possible, with an obvious redemption arc that will make us like her or a underlying reasons for her behavior. I can't imagine how there could be any feelings of happiness with the smut scenes considering the actions of the MC... more>> in Chapter 7. The MC is also the typical Japanese light novel beta MC, and its honestly hard to read the abuse he goes through. Of course all sympathy goes out the window because again chapter 7 (honestly I don't think it was justified, he should've just left).

But those are the thoughts of a normal reader, because the truth is this is just a badly written hentai that is pretending to be a light novel. If you ever watched any hentai or read any doujins you see the signs. And you might wonder, didn't it have a tag of Smut? Yes, yes it did but that's just cause there is no hentai tag. This a hentai B-plot, which is why the characters are nonsensical and the author trying to add so much extra fluff like "in a game world" or "magic medieval society" actually degrades the novel. Am I being to harsh, perhaps, but considering I've read better smut in fanfics then we have a serious problem. Sorry for the rant <<less

This story is bizarre if I'm being honest. It sordid qualities seem to hint at such a dark story, but then it feels like there's a redemption arc and the author swing a 180 to nigh wholesome.

I have no idea how to take this novel, as the start, will cut a large portion of the audience off, and then the rest that remain might bizarrely also dislike the almost charmingly wholesome turn around.

Likely my ignorance with the genre, or culture.

Start up pretty meh but ramp up to be pretty good especially when they explore MC backstory and his maid army it's very refreshing to read morally grey MC that just prioritize his job while the Female Lead is pretty annoying to me she's a horrible person and in no point I find her cute or sympathize with her I enjoy to see MC evolve from being a simp to her to become Male Yandere.

There some Smut in this novel but if you follow long enough the smut become the... more>> boring part and that's a good story for me. <<less

Re: Male Yandere

I checked this out as a fan of the male yandere tag. Here are the traits of the Crow (male yandere and servant butler, MC) made apparent from the first ten chapters:

1. Handsome. A lot of girls are enamored with him.

... more>> 2. Skilled/proficient enough in thievery or mu*derous combat. This is due to his background as a person from the slums.

3. Morally grey. He supports and carries out orders of his "master", Isabella (Villainess Duke's daughter, FL), despite her despicable personality and atrocious commands.

4. Objectifies women he has slept with (see chapter 8).

5. Vengeful. FL constantly abuses him and when he got back memories from his previous life, he realized that he was sick of it, so he r*ped her in her sleep as a revenge.

This was not up to my taste, but I know I am not the audience for it anyway. I think that when they say that this series is dark and edgy, what they really mean is that the MC is a misogynist coolguy—which is just not the fantasy I am looking for when I read male yandere novels. Granted, most male yandere are toxic and abusive anyway, but they are depraved in such a way that is still centered around the love interest. If you are looking for that, you would not find it here.

Still, Crow is unhinged and these unhinged romantic* efforts are directed towards Isabella, so I guess he counts as a yandere by technicality. He's just not a male yandere for the 'girlies'. To borrow a popular quote format: Crow isn't a yandere because he's obsessed with Isabella. He's a yandere because he hates other women. They're not the same.

Edit: * I said romantic here, but it's really not...? I think the term "unhinged s*xual pursuit" fits much better. <<less