beta
Honestly, I don’t hate either of them. Arnold I like a lot more, I think he genuinely has always had good intentions and just the wrong methods or understanding. Etienne lost all pity from me when he kept chasing after the poisoned cup. But at the same time, the author does such a good job of humanizing him to understand why he just doesn’t know how to love and while I don’t pity him, I empathize with him. In another world, both of them would have been their own MLs, this just wasn’t the story for them.
Also if I had a nickel for every time I read about a blonde noble named Etienne who was grossly obsessively in love with a woman to the point that he would willingly make her suffer to be able to keep her by him with the idea that eventually maybe she’ll accept it, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened more than once.