Some exposition/rant in spoiler Spoiler I was reading mtl of an otome villainess novel. The mc had the power to literally erase a mountain den of terrifying demons from existence with a snap of her fingers. So she went to her fiancee, the prince, and went: "I have found something I want to do with my life, so let's break off our engagement. I hope you can now pursue your true love" At that point the prince has been flirting with the otome game heroine (Well, not flirting, but it was enough for the pre-reincarnation villainess to bully the heroine), mind you. So, the prince goes: "no, your sudden offer intrigued me so I'm not breaking off the engagement" Okay. What we have here: 1) she said there was something she wanted to pursue in her life, which was casually disregarded, 2) the prince had been acting like garbage flirting with someone despite being engaged, 3) she could erase that mf with a snap of a finger with no evidence, which, while I wouldn't approve of, still should have given her some fucking self-confidence. What's the point of a powertrip when the mc is a human equivalent of a doormat in terms of character? But she let it slide. Why? Cause she was a spineless pathetic excuse for a protagonist. Also, she later needed to go do a trial and some npc's, prince included, tagged along, despite them being weak enough in comparison she could have literally sneezed and turned them into crimson spots on the floor, but she didn't argue and even went "waah, swaanks fuur going alonn wishh muaa shelfishneshh". I was like: "why do you even need these useless garbage teammates who are a definite liability? Tell them to fuck off, sigh" And then I dropped it, and we're here. Requirements: 1) no bg (yuri and no romance only) 2) female mc 3) mc doesn't need to be op, but she needs to have a backbone. She doesn't need to be an unreasonable "my way or the highway" Karen, but she should treasure her opinion and if someone insists going against her plans or forcing their opinion on her in any way or to any degree, she should defend her point within reasonable bounds (can be unreasonable too) 4) no useless companions. In power trip novels, often mc can do anything and needs nobody but there's a cast of characters that are frankly unnecessary and feel like are tacked on forcibly. I want none of that. If it's a companion, they should have their worth. Can be mtl.
I'm confused on the first point, so am I correct in assuming yuri/Shoujo Ai is okay but other forms of romance is a no-go? (EDIT- I missed the spoiler rant when first typing this out but good God, that novel sounds like a pain in the ass to read) I recommend checking out "Two as one princesses", the first 12 chapters are very hard-hitting, and time is necessary for it to transition into the fluffy bits of the story. Some readers (in the reviews at least) find the MC duo's lack of motivation in dealing with the main villain disappointing, however it personally doesn't bother me much. (Because everyone handles trauma differently, while revenge route would be satisfying to read, it really deters from the goals that the MC duo establish much later on in the story) **Minor spoilers here** MC duo isn't a pushover, the two literally smack the shit out of an entire gathering at a guild and leave them to deal with the post-processing aftermath because the guild violated an agreement with the MC duo. Currently on syosetsu there's 260 ish chapters available out of which about 90 of them are translated, very fluid translation- given the fact that it is very hard to communicate the excitement in their voices due to how the Japanese language handles speech patterns.
Then I'd recommend checking out "Life with a tail" if you haven't already. Very spicy yuri on there. I would also recommend "Blunt ogre girl's way to livestreaming", it's a nice slice of life-y novel imo. P.S. I forgot to link two as one princesses, so here it is alongside the other ones. https:// www(.)novelupdates(.)com/ series/two-as-one-princesses/ https:// www(.)novelupdates(.)com/ series/blunt-type-ogre-girls-way-to-live-streaming/ https:// www(.)novelupdates(.)com/ series/life-with-a-tail/
Hmm, maybe try: BOFURI Didn’t I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (though she does have weak resistance to cute girls when it comes to her backbone) So I'm a Spider, So What?
I recommend "Golden Experience". There's no sign of romance till the current chapter and probably till the end too cause the genre doesn't have that tag. MC doesn't have any stupid teammates and also doesn't want any. She only has subordinates and they're all NPCs. She's OP and smart and there's good character development.