Yeah the mother arc was not necessary, it could have been mentioned that due to almost being r*p*d she turned cruel and became who she was today, literally someone feared across the continent, but no, we get whole backstory and details lmao, I do agree the mc is evil and unpredictable, I also like the pov of the novel, we get this feeling of a mastermind playing a game while seeking his own pleasures, not knowing what the next move will be, I'm more interested in expanding on the power system, it was a really cool upgrade from the standard tier 1-9