Can an interesting premise and gorgeous visuals be ruined by Korean romances tropes? Yes. Let's preface by saying the magic system and learning it in this series is the most engaging thing Ive seen since the first time I read Harry Potter as a child. But every arc, every challenge ends in a misunderstanding trying to forcibly ship the two least compatible lover possible. Like you thought the Japanese tropes of a perfect couple held back by blushing and misunderstandings was infuriating? The Korean trope of trying to pair 2 incompatible people into a dysfunctional relationship is far worse. Try to pair an arrogant, abusive bull FMC, who unapologetically traumatised and almost sexually assaulted the MC, give them no character arc, no attempts at change or self improvement and throw misunderstandings at her to force her together with a genius MC who is willing to die for his ideals... so long as those ideals involve anything other than resisting bullying or abuse, whereupon he will direct 100% of his genius to rationalizing, enduring and enabling that behaviour from others. Throw constant misunderstanding every arc to try to force them together without any emotional growth between the two of them and you have a recipe for what I believe is called a 'sweet potato development'?

So yes, a trash FMC/ship can ruin a good manwha if it's not only unnecessary, unapologetic and stagnant, but also constantly forced on the reader every few chapters, and tries to whitewash bullying and SA. If you're able to ignore that the visuals are really good, and the magic systems are great. Would be at least a 6-7/10 if it didnt try to force the FMC on the reader (and the MC).

Some of you guys had me thinking this manhwa was the devils spawn with ur trash talking reviews 😭😭 YALL FOOLED ME. I’m lucky I still have this manhwa a chance bcs no joke I binge read all 85 current chapters and enjoyed this sm. Sure, the FL is trashy at first, but I’ve seen worse— and she redeems herself fairly quickly. Like come on, I don’t see u guys giving this same terrible treatment to red flag MLs in another manhwas… Bffr.

the reveal about the heaster and the archmage was done so well brooo I could not have guessed that

I actually enjoyed the reveal and how they played it tbh. Unfolding it like that and how his half truth really had them questioning their heaster they don't know to well was believable. Really well written and portrayed

Overall, this manhwa has really good art, an enjoyable engaging plot, and an irable main character who doesn’t make me cringe.

It’s weird, im guessing they’re kids, but even so it’s somewhat concerning? Being unable to criticize a character because she's the heroine? And justifying it all because she uses the most tired trope in manga/manhwa, the Tsundere?

Regarding the story
It starts well enough, the MC is stupidly talented but that's standard for manhwa, he's also loyal to his friend and especially to his family, and doesn't get intimidated or pushed around even by powerful nobles.

This is all thrown in the trash by chapter 19 when the "heroine" is introduced, as the others have said she has no redeeming qualities, she's just a selfish, no empathy, egocentric bitch. That would be bad enough but the problem is that the whole character of the MC in the first chapters is thrown away as he is bullied by her and doesn't show any of the courage he had when facing the nobles.

By just the introduction of this character the author has basically ruined his story, she'd be great as a 1 off throwaway villain to be forgotten about quickly like she would in any competent story, but this isn't one.

Do yourself a favor and read literally any other manhwa, you'll probably find better characters and plot than this one. I suggest Return of the frozen player, Survival story of a sword king in a fantasy world, Legend of Northern Blade.

TL;DR I like the story. But because there are no long term consequences for any villain it makes every single arc extremely predictable and extremely boring. I can only give it a 3/10 at best. Maybe future seasons will do it better and I'll raise it.

I really liked this story. I like the protagonist, I like how earnest and nice he is. I hated the beginning because I find evil noble plotlines focused on bullying extremely boring, but the arc afterwards was nice, and had a great ending too. The magic school arc then starts off well. I love magic stories, and magic in this one is really cool.

But then you have the female lead. Let's see. Bullying, attempted murder, potentially rape, kidnapping, attempted murder again, more bullying. In any other situation, she'd be a villain with zero redeeming traits. But in a tsundere this is supposed to be part of the charm? I genuinely despise this trope. It is cancerous and ruins pretty much every story that has it.

But besides the tsundere which in the end only really lasts a few chapters you have the real problem with the story that is present in every arc, has not diminished in the slightest.

I like this story, but it really, really suffers from extremely 1-dimensional bad guys. You're either the protagonist's friend and you have depth, or you're not and you're just evil. And worse than that. Even though others try to kill the protagonist countless times, it's always brushed off. Like I'm sorry, if you try to kill someone, but fail, and in the end feel bad about it, you've still attempted murder, and you're a horrible person. The way the plotlines are written is some of the worst I've seen in any Korean webtoon, and I've read most of the translated ones. And the reason it stands out so much is because this actually has good writing in other parts. But when it comes to the villains and the obstacles put in the protagonist's way are genuinely like a 2/10 at best. Despite the story as a whole deserving like a 6 or a 6.5.(My ratings are much harsher for these types of stories, but you can imagine it has an 8, if you only use the 5-10 rating scheme)

Also minor thing, why does the teacher wear her bed clothes when she comes to visit the protagonist in what is presumably the male dorms? Like when his classmate visits, she's wearing her regular outfit. Is she trying to seduce her poor student?

Honestly it’s pretty good, the entire magic system is a bit messed up and doesn’t work sometimes but I think it’s just the translation that causes that. Sure the mc slightly feminine but what harm does that do. It has its cringe moments but most stories have that. I think it would be better if the mc wasn’t dating anyone but I’m thankful he’s just fake dating since the girl is a less than optimal person. I like the trio tho honestly I love them best part of the manwha

Half-decent until magic school which ruined it. I also really don't like this whole childish innocent kindness of the MC its honestly disgusting.

A kid has minor bullies & they become his friends. The kid gets stronger. The cycle repeats. The story gives the heavyhanded message that work & persevance makes you stronger. Plus, everyone works at their own pace and learns in different ways. Aka, just some basic shounen vibes with a mage setting.

(I don't know why some of these reviews are acting like the story is something else.)

However, like the science behind this magic just dont make no sense. I literally mean this author knows next to nothing about physics but keeps on spouting lies like they smart. This author should have leaned more into the soft magic descriptions cos they definitely don't know how this world works.

It was pretty good until Shirone went to Hogwarts knock off and then it flatlined. I barely skim chapters now hoping it will get good again.

The first arc is basically BL, next arc is a Harry Potter magic school? The transition is very badly written that the two arc feels so detached even though there's no timeskip.

personally I'd have enjoyed it more if the Mc were more ..manly( although he does have some manly moments but overall he gives a feminine vibe), the Fl had better setting and the Ogent family drama that was forced just to add the cliché academy stuff didn't happen or done in a better way. I don't know what happens later, it might be better but I don't think I'll continue to read it