Thank you very much for the detailed reply! I actually remember getting to the part you mention (Gisette interrupting me before MM) in the demo years ago now! This time I somehow overthought it I think by trying to seduce her brother and also sadly missed the Gazebo event.
This game is not to be taken lightly that's for sure even in the story mode, so I actually referred to the booklet a bit before abandoning that save and starting new game as the pirate princess from Hise, pursuing Ria romance route and fortunately I was able to secure her romance before MM and got to the murder plot now (which is all new to me because that's where things ended in demo). I just hope I can finish this route without any problems because Ria deserves all the love and hugs in the world! (in this route I somehow even managed to have Anaele, Emmett and Hamin all in love with me which fortunately all of them took the rejection very well, which was easy really as they are always the most agreeable people in the game xD where-as in my previous route I basically ended with no romance and even no friends)
I actually planned to romance Ria as a shy good natured and non-ambitious widow first before realizing from the booklet that it's literally impossible for you HAVE to be ambitious to even get the widow route! I'm saving the ambitious widow route for Gisette now as it'd make more "sense" I think than my first route (court lady from Corval) given that I'd be from Revaire AND would be ambitious indeed!
Sorry for the long post, I just get too excited with this game!