I know I'm autistic and asexual, so I don't always notice these things, but damn... Saying they have been pretty clear about it being romantic feelings is a bit delulu.
We know because we know who the FL and ML are in this story, but we shouldn't mix our future knowledge with the characters and where those characters are right now.
Are you guys ok literacy crisis for real. We had a whole POV about her feelings for him, which sure i guess if you need her to outright say "i like him" you can call it subtle? And a whole story about how she's a muscle fiend so that's why she's like passionately wandering around i guess? Tho her dream is to be an RMT and she's gonna have other clients eventually.
Not to mention all those drooling instances were in ML POV where it's also been obvious he's a super unreliable narrator who's interpretation of her and her actions are wildly skewed. Unless that was missed too?
Not really from ML POV when she first meet him ML isnt there, when she get her first danse it wasn t on ML POV, when she welcome the brother and sister in the "salon"/guestroom ML isn t there
Now you are mixing "respect" with "love" she is greatfull to ML indeed, she respect him as well, he s kind to her (probably the first one who is kind to her in her entire life) so of course she will "like her master" doesn t mean in a romantic way dear.

Too often when FL tries to pair ML with someone it's clear that ML have feelings for FL, or it's some isekai shiet that FL things they should be together.
This time everything is so ambiguous, that it makes sense. There hasn't really been clear romantic feelings from FL or ML, even if there is some caring, pairing him up with a good person isn't a bad idea.