I think this is a case like light and shadows, where the original story was good, but genuinely left an excellent setting ready with many good characters established. Many stories make boring characters by giving them some trait and turning them into Jane/jon doe boring, ie everyone gets a redemption arc. Hugh never died, so he can still be a villain here, Eva never got her satisfying end, but she might here, they didn’t auto promote Zachary to emperor somehow so Bianca could be empress, leaving no political challenges left in their way. By not giving them the perfect ending and leaving them all a little flawed or unsatisfied, but avoiding disaster, the sequel was well set up.
My only complaint is that the author did some weird gymnastics with the poor royal family line almost all dying in order to make the ML kinda the right age to be a love interest of Alexandria. Other than that the author left a lot of good and interesting character pieces on the board who had their own motivations and goals.
And also they make Alex much more older than Cyril, but he got 2 body now the one with his og body and the one with his body from the future, I'm curious how the author will navigate between his two body, which body will he end up with, the younger past one one or the future one and what would happen to the one that he didn't end up with, will it disappears or just laying there, thats also become my question when i saw how he got 2 body.
But i don't think Zachary would be the emperor though cause i think he wouldn't want to leave arno duchy, but i do think he will be Cyril strongest political support in pushing him became the emperor cause that is one thing that Cyril didn't have in his past life strong and stable political support, also with his current power i think he would learn how to navigate the political system by them time he ascend the throne, with Bianca in Lahoz keeping his og body company and protecting him i guess he would be in better position from the past since he knew the future now.
I can say that I like this arc more from the og, not that I don't like Bianca stories but, Cyril as a Saint and the action wise in the stories really impactful. They keep you wanting more from their story either from Cyril part or Alex part, they really kept me wanting more of their stories, and im glad Zachary and Bianca still alive even the other og character from the og Marriage of Convenience in this story even though this arc focused on Cyril and Alex, glad seeing them doing well.