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This is a fantasy story that was written right.

All characters are well made, believable and understandable. The battles aren't very detailed, but they are easy to read and even more important: fun to read. The world isn't much different to what you expect for this kind of story but the different perspective of the main characters makes it more refreshing.

The mercenary actually acts like a veteran and tries to be cautious, not a know-all-about-everything-that-happens that you can expect for this plot. He's also level headed for his profession.

The witch is nice as well, and she's the main drive for the direction the two of them ... are taking. Although her old age, her immaturity and inexperience living in society clearly shows again and again, but she's not frustrating or annoying, she reads nicely as someone who loves to learn and IS learning about living with others.

I'd say there's nothing yet too extraordinary in the first 17 chapters that will make you absolute love this, but it's just such a refined work that I couldn't find anything that I didn't like. Thus the 10.

AND OH MY GOD IS THIS A MAIN CHARACTER THAT GOES TO THE ADVENTURERS GUILD BUT DOES NOT BECOME AN ADVENTURER?! Sooooooo refreshing.

It's refreshing to see works where the MC isn't the most overpowered one because of a cheat power, knowledge about the future, access to a secret store, or any other common trope these days.

Unfortunately, although this one has an interesting premise, it fails to deliver immensely. Everyone is completely an imbecile and incapable of thought, with the exception of the MC. Even the returnee has less agency in the direction of the story than our dear MC.

For a story that tries to convey that the MC is smart, if everyone else is just completely dumb, then he doesn't feel smart anymore. All the antagonists so ... far are easily handled by him; all the "good guys" are also easily handled by him. Any amoeba-level manipulation he tries to do always works.

Everyone and everything is just a stepping stone for our MC. No matter what, he will always be right; any bet he makes, he will win. The manhwa looks like it's trying to convey that his team looks up to him as a good guy. Meanwhile, some of his "dark" monologues are made in the presence of his team, who will never react to any of the sketchy stuff he's saying.

[SPOILERS BELOW], but honestly, it doesn't matter too much.

In the initial arcs, although there are a lot of flaws, you can certainly enjoy enough to ignore them. But in the slums arc, there is zero possibility of continuing. The MC makes vague and extremist claims about the homeless, about how ALL of them are lazy and charity is useless. And as always, the story will make it so that EVERYONE living in the slums is incapable of wanting to work.

The "saint" he's trying to recruit by making these claims is also, like the other "good guys," dumb and with no conviction. To convince her, he uses a transmutation spell to make himself look like a girl and lets himself be attacked by the homeless living there. This alone makes the "saint" decide that the MC is completely right. Like, WHAT???

If the homeless were as dangerous as he said, there would already have been an attack. The story wants you to believe that in 3 YEARS the "saint" never saw any attack or fight in the SLUMS, and then the first one she sees is enough to break her convictions? If so, the MC doesn't feel smart anymore because everyone he "manipulates" is simply at the intellectual level of a 3-year-old child.

I absolutely love Mother's Contract Marriage.

I love some of this villainess genre histories, mainly The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen, but it's getting so much saturated that it's becoming the second isekai to me.

But this one is such a subversion of the genre because we are not following the person who goes back in time/enters a book/reincarnates in a noble society, we are following their daughter. Such a premise is interesting in itself but it's executed in a lovely way.

I love the main character, who is a real child, not an adult in a child's body, not a super genius child, just a child. But ... the thing that sets Lilyca apart of others in a special way is the optimism and trust that she can put in others. Between conniving nobles and the bottom of society she always use her childish imagination to keep her wonder and navigate through life.

If you don't care much about the deconstruction of the villainess genre and also don't care about such a refreshing and good main character you can honestly just look at the pictures, because they are the most dropping gorgeous art I've ever seen. Honest to god, I have no idea how the artist can pump these chapters maintaining such a good art level.

I highly recommend this one, even more if you have read some villainess histories and is getting tired of the genre.

The Iceblade Sorcerer is as bland as it comes.

All the characters have somewhat interesting story beats that could be explored like Amelia background as a noble or the half-elf troubles with prejudice, and these are explored, but in the most bland, uninteresting and superficial way possible. The half-elf is introduced in one chapter and after 2 more chapters all her problems seem solved in a way that is just trash.

Some other plot points like the teacher's betrayal are just not good enough, the manga only breathes in the moments where the main character acts like the Iceblade Sorcerer, but outside that it fails to live ... to expectation.

The biggest redeeming quality of this manga is the art which is unique and really good, but is completely wasted in this story.

TL;DR at the ending

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The story doesn't really exists, but for this kind of manga that's not really a problem.

The art is cute and is easy on the eyes.

The characters are all right, there isn't anything to write home about them but they are enjoyable.

... ===============================================================

TL;DR

It's a cute and fun story, but it seems that it was cut short: the ending comes out of nowhere and it's very unsatisfying.

Other than that this is a manga worth reading in your spare time, just don't expect too much out of it.

In the end, although the unsatisfying ending, it's a enjoyable!