ok, as a reader of the novel I have a few things to say, but as I'm using Google Translate and to avoid too many spoilers I'll be brief. Regarding Arthur's past, there will be more flashbacks throughout the story, his past life is VERY important to the plot, so you will gradually learn about it in this war arc. As for the romance stealing the focus of the plot, it won't happen, the focus isn't on the romance as it was in this first part of the story. Regarding the manhwa, things here are happening much more, much more hurriedly than in the novel, in the novel there is a whole description of the characters' feelings and mental debates that are not there here, especially Arthur, he has a lot of mental debates and almost none it was passed on to the manhwa. In the novel you can create much more connection with the characters. Regarding the rest, don't worry, there's still a lot to happen, a lot will still be developed, including the things you mentioned not being developed.
All things considered, I definitely prefer the novel, I only come here to see the scenes drawn and how it was adapted.
We're on chapter 178 and we just got face reveal and glimpse at his childhood I'm honestly kind of bored. Still super weirded out by pushing the whole Tess and Arthur thing like Arthur is a grown man inside a child's body and honestly I hate the romantic development it doesn't suit the story they could have easily just kept it as him wanting to be connected to his family. This story is def giving tell don't show, like we keep getting told that Tess is strong but besides the recent inclusion of war she has not done much of anything really and I'm just fed up with this damsel in distress plot line. We know Arthur struggled in his past life and was caught up in revenge bc they tell us but they never show us the little pieces of info that would have been incredibly timThey should have aged Arthur up some stuff was just downright a waste of time that could have been skipped like all this almost 200 chapters and we still have nothing abt his past life. Also almost all the relationships feel rushed I'm supposed to feel connected with the characters and connected to their bonds but tbh I feel nothing. It all feels so forced there is not chemistry between Tess and Arthur it was kind of like boom she kissed oh no now I can't treat her like a child anymore. Yes you can bro wtf are you going on abt. Complete assassination of his character and just bad development like his literal first thought was am I criminal. And everyone forcing them together with this corny joke bro like this is an action manhwa and usually I don't find problems with romance in action manhwa as long as it does not take away from the actual plot of the story or is an integral part of the plot. Its been droning on for so long I'm not even interested in the actual plot anymore like Istg we spent chapters doing being cringey over Tess and Art with little to no chemistry when we could have developed Cynthia more as a character or Elijah so that the death and mystery behind them would be more impactful. Instead Elijah was basically used as comic relief until he was finally need for the plot, like they could have shown his envy in a non comedic way to put stress on the audience and. tension in the story but no suddenly he hears a voice in his head boom that's his character now. I don't feel connected with the characters and the plot could have been sped up like him beating up those random npc and becoming a teacher was unnecessary yet we got so much of that, and yet when he's literally in the land with higher beings we do a massive skip and suddenly he pops out like hello? we just learned abt a whole other substance called aether and he is literally working with gods. and tbh it would have been more plot accurate for Arthur to feel some sort of mental imbalance from the constant death it makes him more human and makes the reader more connected to his struggle. Don't even get me started on the parents that was a whole dumpster fire like the issue got solved just cuz he went away like y'all said some of the most messed uo things to your son but wtv ig?? Anyways just my two scents honestly his first life would have been more interesting than wtv is going on now