What this story chose to make as a core conflict is a series of escalating misunderstanding and basically ML's insecurity preventing him to be honest.
That's cheap. That's lazy. That's simply the narrative wanting the thrill of reconciliation WITHOUT giving the main characters genuine flaws to fix.
So the reconciliation happens with things as simple as the ML saying his true feelings. and EVEN THEN the narrative has to delay that as long as possible by adding more conflicts and intrigue and conspiracy that, of course, creates more pointless misunderstanding and emotional pain between MC and ML.
Sigh.
The extra comics they make after each chapter are clearly meant to untangle the worst of the knots by showing the behind the scene, and in most cases the ML's true feelings. I think they are aiming for some gap moe, but to me that only comes off insulting. Because the narrative itself is clearly flimsy enough that simple yonkoma comic can reduce the tension.
Not all is bad, tbh. I actually like the small relationships made between the side characters. Even the second saintess actually shines in these little moments.
But again, the core conflict was too flimsy, too cheap drama. It's frustrating.
