Not Knowing The Betrayal Of That Day Chapter 51 Discussion

Disclaimer: At the time of this review, I've been reading until chapter 51, and the novel hasn't been fully translated. There's some spoilers bellow, so read at your own discretion.

First of all, I wanted to point out some important plot points that I feel everyone who wants to read this novel needs to know, just to make expectations clear: there's a lot of ab*se and angst. Like, explicit, detailed descriptions of physical and emotional ab*se. Both the male lead (Hert) and the female lead (Tessa) are extremely broken, and have gone through 7 years of torture and ab*se from their respective captors. The story is rather dark, so if you expect fluffy and sweet romance, look elsewhere, because this ain't it.

To read a summary of the main of conflict in this novel, see the following spoilers:Spoiler

When they were children, Tessa and Hert used to be best friends, and they both lived in the same orphanage. One day, some sketchy guys arrive at the orphanage and trick Tessa into signing a s*avery contract for Hert, knowing she was an orphan who couldn't read or write (yes, this all happened because Tessa was illiterate). The orphanage director was complicit in this as well, saying the contract is for Hert to be made into a servant to work at a noble's house. Anyways, Hert is unknowingly sold into s*avery, and to top it off, Tessa's farewell letter to him was forged by the orphanage director, saying horrible things about how Tessa just used him to get a comfortable life as some noble's consort, convincing Hert that he was just a tool and Tessa never cared about him, enraging him to no end. Tessa, unknowingly, also signed a contract to become a noble's consort, and was hoping that at least Hert would be together with her at her new home. Well, turns out her new "husband" is abusive as hell, and she was just a replacement for another woman he couldn't add to his harem. She spends the next 7 years being tortured by both him and his son, and pretty much treated like garbage by the rest of the harem. As for Hert, he was turned into a gladiator, and made into pretty much a killing machine. He eventually works his way up to be a knight captain, but he's traumatized by the whole thing. They meet again when Hert tracks Tessa down and kills everyone in the noble's castle, save for Tessa and her husband's son, with the full intent of taking revenge.

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As others have already pointed out, the angst does drag on for a bit in the beginning, and the female lead is a bit irritating in that she refuses to explain what really happened, but when taken in mind the absolute horror they both go through, it becomes understandable later on that it's a difficult topic to talk about. By the time of the novel's events, the female lead is traumatized beyond recognition, her body is deteriorated and frail from years of torture, and it has affected her to such degree she's unable to open up to anyone. The male lead is full of anger and on the verge of insanity, and pretty much has a hateboner for the female lead.

About the s*x scenes: as I said above, this novel is pure drama and angst, so in the beginning, the s*x scenes are a bit hard to read through. This is because the romance doesn't kick in until much later, and the male lead spends a good chunk of the story hating the female lead, being cruel and mean to her. So you can imagine any s*x scenes between them in the beginning are far from lovey dovey love making, rather is just hatef*cking. I don't know if it's r*pe because Spoiler

the female lead willingly offers herself to him

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Anyways, I read this mainly because it was tagged under male yandere. Yes, the male lead Hert is a yandere, but I'd say he's written as a more layered character than your usual yandere. He's been obsessed with the female lead since they were children, but the whole betrayal and years of ab*se made him both hate her and love her at the same time, and by the time they meet again, he has a lot of conflicted feelings about her. His personality is rash and aggressive, he curses a lot, and is fueled by nothing but anger and hatred. His character arc is to discover what happened during those 7 years, and the more he knows, he more he spirals into insanity.

Conclusion: It's a dark story where the drama and angst are first, romance second. There's chapters and chapters of trauma, angst, hate, anger, and everything in between. The female and male lead take a long time to come to an understanding, and the centerpiece of this story is the male lead uncovering what really happened 7 years ago, while slowly losing his mind. The female lead also heals from her trauma as well. If this kind of story is not your cup of tea, then just skip it.