ETLI5

Camping here for the chosen one with the paragraph

I am so lost with the plot.

Oh boy buckle in. It’ll take more than a paragraph so read if you want— I adore this series bc of the plot and how all the characters fit in.
I’ll explain who the characters are and then how they fit in the plot, because there are a lot of characters and they almost all fit into it like puzzle pieces. Skip down for the plot.

SPOILERS:

Elle is a knight.
Adel is her best friend. But Adel has been plotting against her, bc Adels family fell from nobility bc of Elle’s family. Elle, being virtuous, forgives her, and Adel comes to terms with the fact that she was really terrible towards someone who didn’t deserve it.
Maurice is the nephew of the commander of the November knights, and Elle’s friend.
Lavern is Maurice’s assistant, and Elle’s friend. She is in love with Maurice.
Pippin is the crown Princess, Elle is her guardian knight after she saved her when she was kidnapped, for which she still suffers trauma.
Claire is the empress, mother of pippin, sister of duke Lorraine and Duchess…Laurent, I think? She has been struggling to make diplomatic relations with the East.
Charlotte is the daughter of duke Lorraine, cousin to pippin, and has a massive crush on Elle. She runs a fan club abt Elle. Her father does not care about her, for unknown reasons.
Andre is Charlotte’s guardian knight, and loves charlotte, who saved him from the streets.
Antoine is Charlottes little brother.
Duke Lorraine attempted a coup quite a few years ago, during which Duchess Laurent’s husband was killed.
Theo is the son of duchess Laurent, cousin to Pippin and Charlotte, and is considered a “mad dog”.

That’s a lot, but here’s the plot:

The main points of the plot have to do with relations to the east, serial murders, and attempted coups. The serial murders and the strained relations to the East are to weaken the standing of the current empress in order to do a coup, all orchestrated by duke lorraine.

More long winded:
Theo has regressed in time. In the original timeline, Elle has no relation to pippin or Charlotte, and is framed for the serial murders and the coup. Theo falls in love with her, as she is (willingly) framed in place of him being framed. He regresses when she is executed.
He kills a bunch of cadets who took pleasure in Elle’s downfall originally, and self exiles for five years, during which he discovers serial murders around the Lorraine estate that never got reported (we now know this is because of Schemes by the higher ups).
Now he is the assistant of Elle, and determined to keep her alive.
Children with connections to AILE (Elle’s fan club) but also children of merchants related to trades with the East start to be murdered. Elle is almost framed, but Theo stops it.

Meanwhile, Elle investigates the slave trade bc her friend, who is the commander of the October knights (can’t remember her name) asks her to. Adel has incidentally become involved in this, as she discovers her ship has been used to transport slaves.
The slave trade has been set up to look like it has the endorsement of the royal family, which would seriously hurt relations with the east.

Meanwhile again, we find out that the last girl murdered (before pippin) is going to be a girl named Leah, and that she would be murdered because she was planning on pretending to be Claire’s illegitimate daughter, and this would be in the way of the coup. The real illegitimate daughter is Laverne.

Then Adel is used as bait by the serial killer for the purpose of framing Elle (again) bc Elle is a threat to the Schemes. Theo, however, takes the fall and is arrested instead. Adel cannot testify, as she is in a coma.

Now the eastern delegation is here, and duke lorraine is going full throttle with his Schemes. He has told the eastern delegation that the royal family has part in the slave trade, with a royal plaque he stole as proof.
He is also really trying to kill pippin with the serial killer, who is actually Andre. We find out that the duke has been abusing physically (and implied sexually) Andre for years and has forced him to do these killings bc if Andre doesn’t, Charlotte will be killed.


That’s it so far! It’s complicated (but well strung together, I love it) so if you have any specific questions I can answer :)

Thanks.

Thank you the chosen one with the paragraph

Thank you Ligh , that looked very complicated but was helpful by your summary , if only translations in the comic were better. But nonetheless this was very insightful, I also love the art & story but couldn't understand few of these recent episodes so thank you for your time to explain all of it