As far as novels go quality wise I would say this one is passable. The MC has a clear mental illness, very single minded, hellbent on being useful even if it destroys him, and constantly battling feelings of inferiority. What about this novel that grabbed me is the fact that the MC doesn't get stronger. He's tried to get stronger but nothing has ever worked out. He can't use magic anymore due to his curse, he compares himself to the Hero constantly which demotivates him, and simply just feels like... more>> no matter how hard he tries he wont ever be good enough for the people who love him. Conflicts throughout the novel usually revolve around his mental state as being a normal person surrounded by strong people.

To anyone who finds the MCs strange rants nonsensical I suggest listening to Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies to better understand what the author was attempting to portray.

The dichotomy between the MC and the rest of the characters is really funny to me. The hero, mage, and saint are one dimensional characters you have seen a thousand times over in every novel, but now they have to deal with a pretty relatable manic suicidal individual. Their acts of care to "help" him go as far as just doing everything for him which makes his mental deteriorate even more because all he wants is to be useful to the hero party. It's funny to see the heroines flail around and finally learn that they have to treat the man they like as an actual person with feelings and goals rather than just a body pillow.

Communication seems to be the main idea of the novel. How important communication is, and to help others you cant just act by yourself you have to really sit down and understand them if you want to help them get better, which is good, it just falls a little flat at times with its execution.

Final thoughts: It's alright. The novel is as interesting as you can be in a cliche korean isekai hero party academy romance novel. <<less

I kinda get what the author was going for, but I think it just falls flat.

Summary:

As the title suggests, the hero party disbanded without issue. The girls were all in love with MC but he being the only 'normal' (non-superhuman) among them, was worn out from the feeling of inferiority and decided to leave on a journey. 6 months later he shows up at the academy where the hero is the headmaster and all his yandere ex-teammates start to converge on him.

This starts the main plotline of the novel which... more>> is MCs mental illness. The MC pretends to be ok but is obviously messed up, he does things he claims are random but are clearly a cry for help. Like opening the door to the hero's office because it looked 'interesting' rather then just admitting he wants help from her.

The second major plotline is the girls, who in reality are less in love with the protagonist and more with the idea of him. While they are by no means portrayed as evil, nothing they do makes you believe they truly love him. They are far more preoccupied with their own needs and wants from him than whatever he's going through. They expect unconditional affection from him when he's so clearly incapable of such emotions, yet blinded by jealousy they can't see that.

This could have been really interesting, the idea of what expectations and a misguided sense of love can do to a person's psych. The girls while not intentionally, essentially becoming the protagonist ab*sers and all of them coming to terms with that eventually.

Unfortunately, execution wise it falls entirely flat for me. Because after 28 chapters I'm still not interested in anyone in this story.

I don't care about the MCs backstory. The novel doesn't do a good job of teasing what happened to him because all of his actions are incredibly forced and boring. The author just keeps using MCs weak mental state as an excuse to push him from one forced harem situation to another rather than give him any agency.

The girls are even less interesting. They do a terrible job of conveying the most basic feelings to MC and except the obsession part are just really dull characters.

Ultimately I'm just like, yeah you girls don't deserve him and I genuinely don't care what happens to MC because he himself doesn't seem to care one bit.

That's a terrible spot for a story that is heavily reliant on sympathy to be in.

When he starts getting bullied at school I never waited for the girls to find out and go psycho or for him to show his true strength. I was just like "whatever" cause the character is constantly like "whatever I just got beat up, it's fine".

In the end the story just exists in a quagmire where it's not serving any of its points well. Neither the portrayal of MCs mental issues nor the girls as love interests. <<less

Pretty good so far. I feel like there should be a tag 'mental illness'... the MC is a mess. "Past trauma" is definitely part of it and that's a good partial-tag for it.

And the issues caused by that illness are multiplied by the misunderstandings caused by the inability of the competing yandere FLs to:

• • not recognize that the MC is a mess, both of his own making and that they've contributed to; and

• • fail to communicate in a way that considers the needs/lilmitations of the MC instead of their self absorbed needs.

If you don't read this as a 'dense protagonist' (which properly isn't tagged anyhow) but read it as an MC with pretty severe issues who needs help, then it's off to a good start.