Basically it is one-sided. Yeah people say there are hints but its nothing concrete at all, their relationship has pretty much stayed the same since the beginning (a.k.a no developments) so it doesn't matter. The MC is hardcore friend-zoned and is stringed along by the heroine after his confession which was right at the start. Yes she's really nice to the MC but shes nice to everybody as well enemies, so it does't come off as anything special even if she does something extra for him. Plus it's just not believable for someone to take months to figure out if they like someone or not, especially with all the time they spend together. She has very firm grasp of who the MC is as person yet its still dragged out. Not even pre-teens would take that long. The story doesn't have to end if they get together, there could be so much more.

But the amount of time its taking has really killed the suspense, completely. There's no pay off at the this point. Something as simple as this should never be drawn out this long. If she were to suddenly fall in love with MC after all this time for some reason it would be like "whatever finally".

What it makes even more ridiculous is that the MC never doubts it, he has a cartoon level of love for the heroine for no real reason. Everytime he spends time with her its like he's achieved some life goal, and it just comes off as s*upid and sad. He shows no interest in any other females at all despite initially only being attracted to the heroine just because of her looks (this would never happen, he would be going after more women too). Nor does any other women show interest in him. Not saying he has to have a harem (definitely no), but its just so sad. Especially when you consider how EVERYONE else around him is liked by someone and the author constantly reminds you of this.

The author has taken the exact opposite of the typical harem route. Instead of girls automatically falling in love with the MC and chasing after him endlessly without doubts or any reciprocated feelings, its the MC chasing after the single heroine. And guess what? It's just as bad and unbelievable. At this point, I think it'd be a billion times more interesting to see the MC try to move on and see some new developments instead of the perpetual p***yfooting.

The author will sometimes conveniently forget that the MC can insta KO the hero party that took down the Demon Lord handily. The worst instance of this is vol 2 during mission to get magic ores. The MC should be able to take out the final monster easily even from the inside without protection yet was too afraid to do it. And its not like he was holding back or trying hide his power, he completely forgot who he was. "I'm happy my friends are here just in case sometthing goes wrong". Lol If he can't handle it then his friends shouldn't be able to do anything at all, the gap in power is that much. It just bad storytelling.

I also find it odd how no one has approached the MC to join his party as an adventurer despite him rising through the ranks super quick by himself, even though asking people to join your party is established to be normal, he seems to be invisible to other adventurers.

The side story starts with the male MC going around the side characters getting more and more jealous as everyone is getting valentines gifts other than him. His fortunes change towards the end of the story as Cecilia comes to find him, asking him out to dinner. At the end of the night he's given his valentines gift of cookies and a chocolate cake. He's a tad disappointed to learn that everyone else also received a valentines gift from her until he mentions the chocolate cake, realising he's the only one who got chocolate cake cementing the fact that she has special feelings towards him.

there is a guardian diety and because its the guardian of the village he starts looking at it like an enemy and investigates it/provoke it. like its the guardian diety of that village so just leave it the f*ck alone.