The Protagonists of the Novel Escaped Chapter 13 Discussion

The one strength of this novel is that it's a somewhat unusual plot, but fails in execution and pretty much everything else.

My biggest gripe is that the MC is a pushover. It's not immediately clear, but as you read more and more, you realise that he is pathologically subservient. It's fine to not outwardly provoke figures of authority; if you do that without the strength to back up your words, you'll pay the price. However, that's not the problem with MC; he has no desire to stand up or disobey anyone who is slightly higher than him in authority. Several times, he pledges "absolute obedience" to the princess and even when he thinks about the sword given to him by his brother, he thinks to himself that if the people from the holy kingdom ask him for the sword, he will give it to them immediately. The thought of hiding or somehow keeping the sword never even crosses his mind.

The author tells you that the MC is calm and collected, eloquent and with a sharp gaze, but this is never reflected in the story. Here are some of the things this so-called "calm and collected" individual does:

• Blushes at the sight of a woman. There's no context to this. He just looks at her face and blushes because she is pretty.
• He was so scared of the princess at first that she had to reassure him upon noticing his fright (twice).
• He meets the other princess, and her "beautiful appearance" makes him feel dizzy and he stiffened as soon as he saw her.

I would continue, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that list would be huge. The number of times MC is "frozen stiff" or his whole body "trembled" is insane. Look, I have no problem with this, but don't claim he is some cold-blooded, stoic guy when he is obviously not. He also gets called "eloquent" but the moment his supposed "oratory skills" are needed, he does nothing. He lets some kid do the speaking for him because he doesn't have the guts—or, let's be honest, the skill to speak.

If that was my only problem, I would not rate this novel so poorly. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver pretty much everywhere else. The plot is fast-paced in the sense that a lot is going on, but unlike fast-paced novels, none of the plots are ever resolved, so it just keeps throwing mini-plot on the reader without any resolution. It's also unclear what the MC's goal is, and he's always just reacting to the plot, getting dragged along by the currents and the characters.

Last, but not least, what happened previous to chapter 1 is full of plot holes. An entire party is revered as heroes, but they left like 90% of their enemies alive and free. If you're willing to put up with all of this, you might enjoy it, but if you want to avoid wasting your time, I'd recommend passing on this one.