Note: Dropped this after ~2.1 volumes read. Don't be fooled by the book's title. Everything is perfectly understandable, both to the reader and the characters themselves. We all know what's going on, in fact, so much so that it's hard to understand where the title even derives from. Viola, daughter of an earnest but down-on-their-luck Earl, recieves a betrothal proposal from the most important Duke of the kingdom. How is it possible? Viola can count on one hand the amount of noble events she has attended since her debut, is rather lacking in the beauty department, and her family is deep in debt. There is nothing desirableabout her; what is going on??? Except that in the next scene, the Duke comes to her house and explains what's going on in clearly laid-out terms. He needs a noble show-wife so that he can stay with his lover of dubious pedigree, and he is willing to give her and her family an otherwise happy life.

And... that's it. Viola accepts the mutually beneficial contract, and the rest of the story revolves around the Duke falling in love with Viola in the most obvious and explicit way possible. For in fact, it turns out that Viola was actually a Mary Sue in disguise; an ugly duckling turned into a swan, a lady-of-the-house in perfect control of the largest manor in the kingdom, and with the capability to extract the best of her talented people. However, our dear protagonist, decides to interpret every explicit romantic move of his as an inexplicable action, and every compliment to be flattery, no matter who or how many say it.

The story goes nowhere. The only hinted-at end-game is that they eventually form a happy couple after volumes of misunderstandings and forced drama. The characters are flat, with barely any other personality other than lovey-dovey and extreme loyalty. The protagonist doesn't extend past 'homebody' and 'hates extravagance', and the love interest is essentially an extremely competent (work-only) manchild.

Something that threw me off quite a bit, which I can't explicitly confirm if it's a matter of translation, but I'd assume not given the frequency of the happenings, is the anachronism of the writing at times. We're supposedly in a medieval-like society, yet the narration keeps making modern references, such as 'helicopter parenting', 'war flashbacks', or 'man the battlestations'.

All things said, I'd say the first volume is readable, but the second does not inspire confidence that the story is going to improve by any measure, and the forced drama in its latter half (broken vase, cheating rumor) solidified my waning interest. I don't understand how this series has 9+ volumes.