Title: Betrayal of Dignity

Author: Kimpa (novel)

Adaptation/Artist: Manta’s Production Team (It’s literally a paragraph)

Rating: Mature with low spice

Genre: Historical, Palace Intrigue, Romance, Marriage of (In)Convenience, Drama, Angst

Hosted On: Manta Comics

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Would you sacrifice your honor to marry a Duke?

In order to save her family from ruin, Chloe Verdier must find a groom for her sister, Alice. She soon runs into the handsome but arrogant Duke Tisse who makes a proposal that could save them. When Alice flees with a mysterious man, Chloe must seek out the Duke in the biggest gamble of her life.

My Thoughts:

I hate Damian Tisse more than I have ever hated a male lead in a webtoon thus far.

Now I really do love yandere characters. I love manipulators. I love murderers.

But what I cannot stand in my fiction? An abuser who is set up to be the romantic lead.

Duke Damian Tisse is just garbage, straight up… because he’s mean. He is so cruel to Chloe from the very second they meet and a huge portion of that is the one-two punch of his ableism and misogyny. Chloe Verdier does what she can and she’s very kind. While society looks down on her for being one of two daughters to a dying noble house and for the disability that leaves her using a cane to walk, she actively tries to reject expectations and live a life she’s proud of.

From the moment they meet – when Damian’s men are at her father’s estate after a battle – he belittles her. He makes fun of her limp, her cane, her inexperience with men, and her wealth. He is just so dang nasty to her while delivering his digs with a smile. I cannot stand him. I genuinely do not understand the point of him or what he actually wants with Chloe because he doesn’t even seem like he likes her. He seems like he wants to own and control her, but 22 episodes in (a drop in the bucket, I know), I can’t even begin to fathom what’s going on there.

Even when I read the novel spoilers and nearly became a Red Lantern out of rage, I still couldn’t understand. Why is he here? Why is he bothering Chloe. I want to transmigrate into this series and strangle him. Yes that is exceedingly violent but y’all would understand if you read this series and watched him mistreat his wife.

He’s giving off vibes like the husband in Please Kill My Husband except he’s not (currently) a rapist. He’s just an ableist abuser who is mistreating his wife and actively destroying her reputation – appearing o cheat on her the week of their wedding, embarrassing her in front of his friends, undermining her authority in his territory, and even slyly threatening her with the complete destruction of her life by saying that people would think her male servant is her lover. He’s just so unfair to her and I don’t even know why?

I’m sure there’ll be some tragic backstory where he’s under a curse or she was mean to him when they were children, but y’all… I have thrown my phone repeatedly while reading this series. Chloe might forgive him, but I won’t.

Anyway, this is a really gorgeous webtoon. Truly. I want to fight Damian, but I enjoy looking at him while I’m raging. And let’s be clear, I’m not hate-reading this series. I’m hating while reading it. There’s a difference, I’m sure. Because I do like Chloe and I’m hoping against hope that she gets a happy ending while Damian gets his head pulled out of his ass (and maybe cut off?? I don’t know.)