TL;DR - Started off interesting but hasn't developed and has a couple things that are unfortunately cringy.
Let me start off with what this manga does well:
Clean artwork. Looks good, didn't spot any weird proportions or anything anywhere. Having said that, it's pretty average. Nothing really stood out about it.
Nice lore/setting. A lot of detail is put into explaining how things work in this particular world. Lots of different monsters/materials yielded from them, the effects of said materials on different things, the mechanics of how magical devices work, etc. I wish other mangas did more of this to help immerse into the world.
Heroine is somewhat interesting. I like that she's dedicated to her work and very intelligent. No overused tropes, no unnecessary tsundere, no quickly falling in love with someone at first sight or damsel-in-distress type situations. It's refreshing. But there is one notable issue, mentioned below.
Having said that, I can't rate this any higher than average because it has some pretty big issues:
After 8 (pretty long) chapters, there's still no clear conflict. Nothing super interesting has happened so far yet. I'm not seeing any obvious conflict or big thing that the character is working towards. She formed a new company after leaving her old one, but there's been little discussion about what the goal for this company is, what her plans are for building it up, etc. There was a pretty sudden and major... clash? with a character that you thought was on the heroine's side, but he ends up being brushed off pretty easily and pretty inconsequential. More details at end of review.
Male lead is gross and cringy AF. Not in your typical way - in some mangas, the male lead has a savior/power complex and is completely overpowered, childish, and immature, and somehow magically attracts hundreds of women for no reason. In this manga, the male lead is the white knight of white knights, constantly thinking of nothing but being a gentleman and provider/protector to Dahlia. Lots of puppy dog references, forced "cute" or warm fuzzy "there for her" moments that are just... ugh. No guy in real life is like this, and if he is, then he's trying way too goddamn hard. He has no personality other than "Dahlia is wonderful, how can I better serve her?" and it's repulsive. Plus, his character doesn't even make sense - he grew up being so attractive that other boys hated him, and he even joined the army in the most dangerous unit/team that goes out and hunts monsters, but somehow he's this carefree, childlike simp?
Everything is too convenient. I can't say much without spoiling things, but aside from one inconvenient situation and one annoying character, everyone/everything else is way too helpful mushy gushy towards our heroine. There's no tension or excitement because literally everyone's out to help her and make sure she succeeds. There's no chance of failure, and there's also no sense of danger whatsoever. It doesn't feel like there are any stakes, and that makes it difficult to care about what happens next.
As I mentioned, I'm a big fan of how this manga does more world-building than other stories, but it comes at the expense of character & story development. I also can't get invested in this because I just dislike the male lead and once he's introduced he basically makes up more than 50% of the panels.
So far it's just been a bunch of little shopping trips with different people or random adventures into town or the forest, coupled with the male lead being a complete simp. This review is written 8 chapters in, which sounds premature, but each chapter is pretty long. I'm not sure I have any interest in continuing.
***MAJOR SPOILERS***
Yes, the author makes out the split between Dahlia and Tobias to be a big deal, but you never really feel it because the character herself doesn't feel it. They were forcibly engaged without romantic feelings, sure, but she literally does not give a single fuck about him suddenly calling off their engagement. In real life you'd at least have some kind of reaction - even if she didn't love him they were together for years and went through a lot together whether it was training, study, working, or inventing things together. They were even there for each other when each of their fathers died - you don't just go through all of that and then just have zero reaction when suddenly one of them decides to rip themselves away, romantic feelings or not.
Not to mention, he basically tried to make off with all of their joint inventions as just his by putting them under his name, but she's only shown to be mildly peeved for a few panels, and she doesn't even want him to be punished. Tobias's new fiancee literally apologizes to her for stealing her man and her reaction is just, "oh it's water under the bridge!"
As a reader, it's hard for me to care about any of these things when the heroine herself doesn't give a shit. It doesn't feel like a real conflict, and none of the characters, Dahlia especially, feel like real people.
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