#the progression of her personality and attitude towards MC is more realistic of a romance than any of the others

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It’s so sad you can’t “romance” Jaehee cause honestly her route is pretty damn romantic 😭

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Midnight Cinderella: Alyn Honey Route Review [SPOILERS]

​“I swear to stay by your side and protect you for the rest of my life.”

For all the flaws they might have, the writers at MidCin seem to be really good at one very important task: crafting attractive characters. And with his epic Noctis-style haircut, red eyes, and endearingly grumpy attitude, Alyn Crawford is nothing if not super attractive!

I’m a fan of stories that aren’t love-at-first-sight, since it’s more realistic, so the beginning of Alyn’s route was really fun to read. Alyn, head knight of Wysteria, is super suspicious of MC when they first meet, and definitely doesn’t think she’s suited to be royalty. But he nonetheless does his duty to protect the princess, rescuing her former students from muggers, and teaching her how to ride a horse (the horse trope is one of my biggest weaknesses in romance stories, haha). They even develop a sort of quasi-friendship, where they take care of horses together and MC tells Alyn bedtime stories. It’s not surprising that MC falls for Alyn quickly. I would, too, if I were in her shoes. Unfortunately, while the feeling is mutual, tragic backstory makes Alyn reluctant to give up his knighthood. 

“If I shared your responsibility of ruling Wysteria, I could no longer risk my life to protect yours. And I can't just do that. I want to protect the things I hold dear with my own hands.”

But eventually, jealousy kicks in. Alyn doesn’t want to stand by while another suitor sweeps MC off her feet. And so, he starts up a clandestine and mildly steamy relationship with MC. In the meanwhile, plots are afoot: Laurelia, a country allied with Wysteria, faces a border dispute with Stein. And to make matters worse, a Stein spy is discovered (spoiler alert: it’s Nico), and Protea, yet another neighboring country, makes a power grab for Wysterian territory and declares war. It’s a clusterfuck, and to top things off, MC is reluctant to have Alyn risk his life on the front lines. 

Here, Alyn’s route unfortunately encounters the same issue that Rayvis’ route did: the political intrigue is poorly written and nonsensical at times. There’s no buildup of tension or true sense of stakes: problems are simply introduced, and then resolved in the next chapter. And because the characters never really “fight for” the resolution, the problems just end up seeming cheap, if that makes any sense. For example, towards the end of the route, MC meets with Stein, and answers just one softball question from King Byron (“How do you feel about this conflict?”). And with that, Stein shifts its alliance from Protea to Wysteria. I mean...wtf? This isn’t a board game, Stein. 

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that the setup for Alyn’s route was fantastic (and arguably more realistic than in Rayvis’ route), but the plot resolution was weak. Ah, well. In the end, this route still had many enjoyable moments! :)

Choice quotes:

​“Teach me something. I’m ready to be your pupil.” ​“Could you do what we just did with someone else?” His low voice made my heart beat in my throat. ​"I care for you. A lot more than you do for me, I think.” ​And finally... Giles had me cornered against the bookshelf. I slowly raised my head to look him in the face.” (I’m not even on your route yet, Giles! <3)

Personality: 8/10. Alyn is Rayvis’ mirror: happy-looking on the outside, grumpy on the inside (while Rayvis looks pissed but seems cheerful enough). It’s endearing in its own way, but I def. prefer Rayvis’ personality.

Appearance: 9/10. His appearance really grew on me as the route progressed! 

MC: 2/10. MC was really bland in this route. She was also super passive. While many times she thought about helping out her country, she didn’t seem very good at taking initiative.

Plot/Payoff: 4/10. The romantic buildup was fantastic, but the political intrigue - both internal and external to Wysteria - was painful to read.

Personal enjoyment: 6/10. The storyline is...not the great, but I like Alyn as a character quite a lot, even if he’s a bit of a trope! ^^

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