Reader since 2021 but

please share it to me. I really like this manhwa but I'm not sure anymore....

Copying and pasting this from a comment thread I was apart of because it was too much going on lol.

So, by the end of Book 1, Maxi is forced to leave Anatol to train as a mage. This decision is not made out of personal ambition or selfish desire, but rather it's part of a calculated plan that Princess Agnes thought of in order to protect Riftan from the political and legal consequences of his actions (Beating Maxi's father).

While Riftan beating Maxi's father was arguably the only genuinely redeemable action Riftan ever takes on Maxi’s behalf, it places him in danger of punishment. Maxi’s departure is meant to protect him, not herself.

As expected, Riftan is upset by this decision and unfairly lashes out at Maxi. He refuses to see Maxi off when she boards the ship and coldly tells her that if she leaves, he will not wait for her, and he'd erase her from his mind—essentially forgetting all about her. He shouts at her, tells her to "get the hell out" of his room, and Maxi ends up leaving in tears. Only after she's gone does he collapse emotionally, admitting that he lied, that he would, in fact, wait for her and that he cannot live without her. The narrative frames this breakdown as a moment of realization and supposed emotional growth. Three years later, Maxi returns.

At this point, we're led to expect some form of reckoning or at least an acknowledgment of his earlier cruelty, relief at her safe return, or even a sincere attempt at reconciliation. Instead, Riftan does the opposite. Upon their reunion, he pointedly ignores her. He avoids her, refuses conversation, and withholds any emotional engagement. This behavior is not neutral or passive; it's actively punitive. He spends the early part of Maxi’s return emotionally stonewalling her, forcing her into uncertainty and distress while never explaining himself, as "punishment" for leaving him. This prolonged emotional manipulation culminates in the infamous "banquet scene."

In retaliation, Maxi provokes Riftan by attending the banquet in a deliberately revealing dress and dancing with another man right in front of him. Her actions are immature and reactive, sure, but they are also a direct result of Riftan’s sustained avoidance and refusal to communicate. Rather than addressing the underlying conflict, Riftan responds with violence disguised as passion. He forcibly pulls Maxi away and has sex with her in a guest room. This doesn't occur once, nor in a momentary lapse of control.

He confines her with him for an entire week.

During this time, he repeatedly has rough sex with her despite her physical discomfort, emotional distress, and explicit protests.At one point, Maxi is crying and begging him to stop, yet he ignores her pleas—pretending as if he can't hear her. The scene itself doesn't read as consensual reconciliation but instead—at least from my perspective—as coercion sustained over days. When he finally stops, he smugly asks her, “Isn’t this what you wanted?”—a statement that reframes her earlier attempt to provoke communication as justification for her suffering.

What makes this sequence absolutely disgusting and egregious is that it follows directly after Riftan’s supposed realization at the end of Book 1. There's a noticeable lack of remorse, no offer of an apology for his earlier withdrawal, no accountability for his emotional punishment of Maxi upon her return, and no acknowledgment of the harm he's caused both before her departure as well as after her return. Instead, the story substitutes communication with sexual dominance and expects the reader to interpret this as romantic intimacy rather than borderline sexual abuse.

Far from demonstrating growth, this arc confirms that Riftan’s internal feelings—his guilt, fear, and obsession—never translate into meaningful behavioral change. Maxi bears the emotional consequences alone, and it pains me to witness an otherwise wonderfully written female lead be reduced to a sex object because of the ML's emotional volatility.

If you're expecting a "happy ending," after what was essentially a hellstorm of misunderstandings and miscommunication, then, honestly, it's best if you look elsewhere. At some point, Riftan finally tells Maxi that he's "proud" of her, but along with the lack of accountability or proper apology for his emotional avoidance during the entire first half of Book 2, him telling Maxi he's "proud of her" feels more like a hollow platitude than anything meaningful. Then at the end, he makes a dramatic scene by declaring a "knight's oath" to Maxi, but again, the gesture is incredibly hollow because of everything he had done to her and never once apologized for. All in all, I'd say to just drop it. It's "an ending," but I wouldn't call it a positive or even *good* ending. I think it speaks for itself when Maxi, in her own words, admits she's begun to feel more like a younger sibling than a spouse to Riftan because of his seemingly withered passion for her. So, after the festering disaster of watching them fumble and fail in their relationship, that's the best we get? The FL is left feeling like the little sister to her once obsessively horny husband. What mess this story has been, I swear.

Anyways me personally, I have no problem with male leads being assholes and toxic but it’s just the fact that the story portrays him as a loving husband when he quite lit treats Maxi like shit