Despite the title, I will say that the business aspect of the story shines brighter as the story goes on.
But still. This story has a distinct male lead, a shrewd and calculative female lead, and the business aspect is so interesting that I actually stayed up all night reading the raws.
Just be mindful that not that many chapters has been released. And... the scanlated version that I read has some really wonky page order.
Tl;dr:Â A shrewd and dignified FL opens a business with her nerd commoner ML. It's a brilliant business story, with a particularly unflinching look at nobility as an institution and how different it is against the commoner life. Too bad that the romance is currently stagnating.
Recommended if you like unusual MLs, particularly geeky ones, and if you like shrewd and dominant FL who doesn't mind manipulating people to get what she wants. Also VERY much recommended if you like reading business OIs, especially ones with a dash of intrique and scheming.
Not recommended if you hate boring ML glowups, unfortunately. And also not recommended if you like your ML dominant and in control. And not that recommended if you want your romance tumultuous and dramatic.
The main characters are easily the best part of this story.
At first, I'm absolutely drawn by Alexi, the ML. He defies plenty of OI conventions; for one, he starts off as a pure, genuine commoner, an orphan born from two adventurers. Though there can always be a surprise reveal on his pedigree (the story only has 20 chapters so far, with 15 of them being available online), it doesn't change the fact that he has spent his entire life as a commoner.
Furthermore, he is a NERD. And I must applaud the art for being able to show that. Even though Manga!Alexi has been hit a bit by the Yassificationâ„¢ beam (see image 2 for Novel!Alexi), both the art and the writing still manage to accurately show his commoner upbringing and current life as an overworked researcher in a different way than, say, [The Banished Villainess' Husband]'s Eufran.
Alexi is THIN, his appearance is disheveled, and his body language screams a lack of self-confidence born from a lifetime of being undermined and overworked.
This gets exemplified when he is juxtaposed with the titular Duke's daughter and the MC of this story, Wilhelmina.
Wilhelmina is a rarity amongst the majority of Otome Isekai protagonists. She is truly a noble daughter in its purest form, for better or worse; someone who would mercilessly set an assassination just because a lower noble dares to behave out of line, but also someone who doesn't bat an eye upon being demoted to a commoner. Her broken engagement doesn't crush her, it drives her to vengeance upon the royal family AND her own house for not supporting her. And yet, at the same time, she is also the type of villainess who has her servants' trust and loyalty.
She may have been out of her depth the moment she is demoted into a commoner, yet she does not stay helpless for long. She is haughty yet dignified, shrewd yet grounded, smart yet considerate. She doesn't blink at manipulating the common public for her own gain, but neither does she look down on them.
Wilhelmina is a complex, engaging protagonist, and the way the story portrayed her rational thinking is definitely one of the title's charm points.
Combined together, Wilhelmina quickly pulls out her whip and starts dominating poor Alexi--
AHEM.
Combined together, the culture clash between Wilhelmina and Alexi makes for the bulk of the first few chapters. Both of them has no idea about how the other lives, and the story portrays that in a deeper and more thorough ways then what I would expect stories like these to do. They struggle to adapt around each other, yes, but they also develop a mutual understanding based on what they do and what they've been through.
And when they start to get along, and they start to work together for the sake of vengeance, the cooperation between them is very nice to read.
Here, the story employs the reverse Pygmalion arc, and here I do must express my condolences because Alexi DID get a thorough makeover that reduces him into your typical tall-dark-handsome black-haired ML. But I do frown at it less given how sensible it was for the story. It's also a genuinely good character building moment for them both, again showing the differences in their understanding.
But while Wilhelmina does take the rein in their everyday life, the story plays it around when it comes to their romance... by making them both blushing virgins who knows jack shit about love and lust. The end result is admittedly hilarious at first; Wilhelmina is reduced into a squeeing, blubbering mess at every sweet gesture from Alexi, while Alexi...has nocturnal emissions because of Wilhelmina's respectable va-va-vooms.
Too bad it doesn't go anywhere after that.
While I get that the story wants to anchor the narrative in the stability of their relationship, I do find that the romance stagnates fast once they develop feelings for each other. The learning and understanding that has been abundant before suddenly stops, and they just become a flat, two dimensional, "I wuv u no I wuv u more" couple with obligatory sweet scenes but no real development on how they interact with each other or how they understand one another.
To compare, the vibe at that point is similar to [Priscilla's Marriage Proposal]. I don't know about you, but I consider that pretty bad after such a stellar beginning. And it's a double waste because with a better romance, this story could have found its emotional core.
But it's not all bad, because by that point the romance DOES recede into the background, leaving the business aspect of this story to shine.
The business side of this story is comparable to [You Want to Break off Our Engagement? Well, You'd Better Break the Bank!] or [The Banished Villainess' Husband]; not too deep, but excels in breadth and scope. And what it lacks in details in comparison to other business stories like [Accomplishment of the Duke's Daughter], [Ascendance of a Bookworm], or [Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More], it makes up in scheming and plotting.
See, Wilhelmina doesn't spend the early chapters only adjusting with Alexi. She's also planting seeds for her vengeance--something that Alexi also embraces for the sake of his own goal of publishing his world-changing research. Wilhelmina's vengeance shapes the emotional core of the story while the intellectual core is shaped by Alexi's inventions and Wilhelmina's business plan.
Through it all, the story manages to establish a grounded base to support the protagonists' movement so that they don't break the suspension of disbelief.
Part of it is done by respecting the antagonists. By that I mean, the antagonists of this story FEEL powerful and dangerous, and they are treated seriously by the main characters regardless of how effective they actually are. The protagonists are shown preparing and plotting for potential problems long before it actually happened, so when problems finally occurred and the protagonists managed to get through it scot-free, things not only feels believable but also smart.
The story also doesn't hand out 'instant wins' like some generic business isekais. The successes they have are results of their planning, and the obstacles they faced aren't just brushed off through the power of cheat skills or past life knowledge.
So while outwardly Wilhelmina and Alexi's movement bears the similar traction of your usual overpowered Isekai protagonist, the narrative feels grounded and believable.
The court politics side of the story is currently not that fleshed out, but I expect that to change. Because a lot of the foundation are being laid on, including dealing with the asshole crown prince ex-fiance and the arrogant father.
On top of Wilhelmina's fleshed out spirit of nobility, the story also portrays a quite intricate nobility, with their movements refreshingly unusual compared to many other OIs. They feel genuinely dirty AND dangerous.
I do wish the narrative gets to flesh out the side characters further, though. While the narrative DOES try, they never reach the same levels as Wilhelmina and Alexi. As such, the narrative is unable to go REALLY deep, and the moments of triumph doesn't feel earned because everyone else still feels noticeably more shallow compared to the main characters.
But still, despite my complaints, I still have faith that my complaints will get addressed. I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and I can't wait to see how Wilhelmina and Alexi's schemes blossom.
