This is a, well, let's call it a promising novel that doesn't quite suit my tastes.
Long story short, you'll basically see two factions in reviews here.
- The MC is f*cking beta
- The novel is so f*cking good
That's pretty much it, and to some extent, both those factions are right. Let me explain why.
Basically, the protagonist starts as an ultimate beta of sorts. HOWEVER, he is excused, for he is a goddamn servant (and literally a pet). He'll simply get his head chopped off if he goes alpha on any of love interests, all of whom are literal leagues above him in strength and influence. The protagonist has to take multiple steps in order to bridge the gap, and only then can he act alpha around them. Mind you, an alpha in his position would leave the place and start a new life elsewhere or scheme to milk the most benefits for himself while pretending to be a lowly servant.
The protagonist doesn't really have the first option. He's basically the public enemy, and he's got no power of his own. He's basically the literal fox exploiting a tiger's might. If he leaves the palace, he's likely to die very quickly. Moreover, he doesn't have the option of rejecting love interests (or at least he's convinced so). Therefore, he only has the option of scheming secretly and biding his time, which he does (and that's why this novel is
weak to strong). What we should complain about, however, is that he doesn't milk his position for all its worth.And that point is why I don't really like this novel. It takes a long time until the MC gets some actual power and can start to leverage his options. For example, he only has one love interest more or less in the bag by the point I've read to (or two, depending on your point of view, but I won't spoil beyond what I already mentioned).Long story short, he acts like a beta, but he's forced to do so by the setting, and it's temporary. However, this doesn't mean we have to like this. It takes quite some patience to enjoy this story (yes, it's enjoyable in the end), but I feel the need to take a break from it because even though the protagonist is forced to act like a puss at the start, I don't enjoy such novels anymore. However, the awareness of whys and hows helps with accepting it and enjoying the read.I won't really go into details on anything else like setting and characters. I'm sure there's enough description of those among 1-2 pages' worth of reviews here. I will just say that they are decent but nothing special, so your choice of whether to read this novel probably boils down to the tags, the issue I've described above, and ero (it's actually not bad; the author didn't forget about h**ny readers who want moar, either).
