Varkas was so severely abused by priests, including sexually by one, that his forced stay with them stripped him of his emotions. They literally killed the light inside of him, he himself described it as a death. So when y'all are talking about this infuriatingly stoic man, he himself has lost the ability to even recognize human emotion. It's actually Talia who makes him rediscover his feelings one after the other.
And my sweet baby Talia is akin to a feral kitten who is doing absolutely everything in her power to stay alive. Her hatred towards the twins, her resentment of her brother, the abuse she gives staff who formerly tormented her, etc etc is all this giant shield that she wears because there are knives pointed at all sides. She's the product of an affair, seen as this harbinger of doom. Men lust after her, clerics publicly shame her, her father doesn't care and her mother uses her as a tool. She cannot trust anyone, so she hates everyone. Every time she lets her walls down, she suffers because of it.
Y'all need to really give these characters a chance, and give the author an opportunity to show you who they are. Writing them off because they're not "good" or "green flags" does an immense disservice to the story because THIS is the natural outcome of an upbringing like this, not the sweet soft MC's or noble MLs of other tales.
This was so odd. How are we going from this wholesome story of him caring for this black cat, previously demonstrating that he'd respect boundaries by letting him go at his pace, to... this? Hated this chapter, it felt so cheap. Honestly felt more like the author got bored of their own story and did whatever to start driving smut along.