I totally get the frustration with the pacing, Oriandu, you're spot on about how the update-by-update format has buried the main plot under endless corruption beats, making Leto seem like a clueless idiot even though he's not written that way. It's a classic side-effect of writing the story as he goes, something N_taii has openly acknowledged in private conversations with me. The big reveals are spaced out by months of H-scenes, the narrative momentum stalls, and Leto’s early competence ends up feeling wasted. Part 2 being a brand-new project (because of the RPG Maker map limit) should finally let him tie everything together without that way, but right now it definitely hurts.
Where I push back hard, though, is the idea that the girls are irredeemable or have become “as bad as the men”. N_taii has been extremely consistent, both in public PoLs and in the long private exchanges we’ve had, that he refuses the lazy “sex = instant happy slut” route. These women are not gleefully evil; they are drowning in rationalisations built on manipulation, guilt, and supposed “greater goods”, and the guilt is still there under the surface.
Rose isn’t turning cruel because she enjoys it; she’s trapped in a duty-versus-love nightmare, handing over an amulet she doesn't knows is fake because the Duke convinced her it’s the only way to keep the Peacekeepers running and protect her people (and Leto). She doesn’t love the Duke; she’s been psychologically cornered, and the moment the full truth drops, that house of cards collapses.
Cyanna isn’t “justifying evil” out of some moral void; Ulrod is weaponising the childhood guilt she still carries over the fact that he lost part of his life saving her. He’s become the one place her constant self-doubt can quiet down, so she clings to the pleasure as a coping mechanism, not because she’s proud of it. She still loves Leto and is deliberately hiding Rose’s cheating from him because she can’t bear to hurt him.
Haylen’s fall is pure maternal trauma: she sees orphan Jazon as another Leto and is desperate to keep him from going dark. He’s twisting that instinct into “let’s start a new family together”. The second she realises he’s the one blackmailing her protégées and spying for the Duke, it’s going to destroy her.
Even Lily, the least corrupted, is only chasing money because Nezar keeps blocking every independent path she tries to take, and she’s painfully aware she feels “inferior” next to the others; her upcoming confession to Leto is proof she hasn’t let go of him at all.
A genuine, non-forced happy ending is absolutely still on the table, and it’s exactly what N_taii is aiming for: Leto finally learns everything, there are brutal confrontations (no sugar-coating, no graphic play-by-play of the acts, just the raw facts), the girls break down, explanations and tears flow, and then the player decides who deserves forgiveness. There will be no “everyone pretends nothing happened” lie; Leto will know the full betrayals, and any reconciliation will have to be earned through time and regret. I think that a selective harem is very likely (Lily and Cyanna almost guaranteed, Rose and Haylen much harder and choice-dependent), and Leto will be far more proactive than Noah ever was.
I really wish the revenge route to finally put Leto in the driver’s seat: Jazon on his knees begging, the Duke’s bigger scheme blowing up in his face, Ulrod exposed for the monster he is. No external puppet-master like Mórë this time.
No, I’m not blind to how bleak it feels right now, and the wait has absolutely been painful. But everything N_taii has told me privately, plus the way the choice system and corruption flags are structured, points toward genuine emotional payoff and catharsis, not the “everyone becomes a happy whore and Leto just shrugs” scenario that a lot of us dread (and that only the most hardcore, humiliation-focused NTR purists are actually rooting for).
Here’s hoping the Lily wrap-up (dropping any day now) and the big Haylen update finally start turning those promises into reality.
