I'm not against melodramatic gothic fairytales with impossible premises, but this series is just dumb. Also, it's not horror, if you're wondering. It's a badly plotted political intrigue with dark, kinky overtones and a lot of plot-required dumbness, like:
* A deposed prince kept alive but not imprisoned or exiled, because Plot Needed It.
* A stupid, contrived and really dumb plan involving identity change that convinced me the author has never heard about regents, because I'm sure the characters would have.
* The water gate, which has half a dozen problems that don't really need to be explained to any person that has ever seen a barrage and the amount of work involved in keeping it. And let's not talk about irrigation, canals and the engineering problems of sending water out.
* The sincere lack of mothers, queens and consorts for all those men, and the absurd lack of nobility in a giant castle (maybe the nobles didn't support the new king and were mass-murdered, but this would mean their jobs would be taken by raised up commoner aides. And, yes, nobles have jobs, because running a country is hard work.), and let's not mention Where Does The Food Comes From, because that's such a common grievance with fantasy manga that I don't even feel like complaining anymore.

And then there is the extremely powerful trained assassin that sweats poison but never considers spitting on some guards and getting the hell away from everything. She's a doormat, which is expected from the way she was raised, but she's not even an interesting doormat, you know, with a cool pattern. I'm not talking about redeeming qualities. This story happens in an yandere nightmare of a setting, no one has redeeming qualities. I'm talking about doing anything besides existing. She thinks about doing things but stops at the first obstacle (which is usually one of the ikemen princes), does not react even when threatened, humiliated or tortured and calls that never giving up (which should throw away any possible interpretation of her passiveness as depression). In truth, it feels more like she's a gothic lolita doll, which is a shame for someone with such a cool power, but a mortal sin for a main character.

To be fair, though, the story (such as it is) is efficiently told, the narrative is fluid and the art is expressive, though stylized to the point characters seem to be posing for a photo half the time. It's just that nothing seemed thought all the way through, like the author was too invest on making things look cool to actually work the dense, dark, corrupt story she promises.


PS: Why was she wearing a corset to her sickbed?
PS2: I really recommend boiling water from natural sources before drinking, it kills most bacteria and parasites as well as evaporates several contaminants. It's ancient wisdom! (but not on this series)
PS3: The author coded power evil, which is a normal thing in manga, but I wonder if she noticed how she coded women-with-power as evil-without-redemption. This is some troublesome stuff to have inside when you are a woman.