For all I enjoy the reincarnated Villainess genre, it has to be said that most of the times the protagonists aren't really villains, nor does the author take much advantage of the setting other than to romanticize courtly love. This is not the case here, and it's leveraged to great drama.
Penelope Eckhart has to suffer through the worst of nobility: The need to keep up appearances, the obsession with bloodlines and the mistreatment of those inferior, like, for example, a fake illegitimate child brought in to cover up the disappearance of the real one. As a result, even though the protagonist only has to suffer for a tiny bit of her life, as she has incarnated here, she has to fight tooth and nail to even get the tiniest modicum of respect.9/10
As for the characters, they're all amazing. Penelope is clearly traumatized, and acts harshly and without considering other's intentions because in her mind, they could only possibly want to hurt her. But that's the case for basically every character here. Whether it be the royal court, the witch hunts, or matters of pedigree, every single character is stretched far beyond what they could reasonably be expected to overcome, and it results in a bunch of people, some naturally good and some more grey, to turn on one another at any turn in the hopes that it might alleviate at least *some* of their burdens. It feels like everyone is pulling every other person's strings in a completely different direction to everyone else, which makes for great angst. The characters are all great. They all simply feel like people trying their best to survive in a world that will not tolerate even the slightest imperfection from any of them, and it's heartbreaking. 10/10
In terms of visual design, this might very well be the prettiest manga/hwa/hua I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The drawings are very impressive and beautifully stylized, the color palette is incredibly vivid and striking, while cleverly giving every character their own very distinctive major color, and the art direction is always above average, with some REALLY stunning panels (the last panel in Ch. 143 comes to mind). Even though all of this story is amazing, if I could only give one praise, it would be to the art. 10/10
So, uh... get to reading it already. You won't regret it.
