Yeah I definitely see it now, I didn't see these kind of nuances from the manhwa at all. Speaking of precious memories, did prince know from the beginning, in that timeline he married Ines, thus grooming her from the start to be his wife, or did he regain his memories later in engagement? Like I know U said Ines chose him and got duped by him, but regardless like as kids wasn't she already expected to be with crown prince? Like in the current timeline the reason why she avoided that whole trainwreck with the prince is because she's using engagement with Carcel as a shield, immediately and effectively at such a young age. If I remember correctly, Ines was the most likely candidate to be prince's fiancé and she was also like most valuable noble girl in society at the time, with the appeal that the royal family would also be allied w her family. **Im also curious like how the whole thing would play out if she didn't run away, didn't engage to Carcel, but still refused the crown prince? Is it possible to scrape by refusal and bargaining, or would that just lead to another version of timelines where her family had to suffer drastically for it again? I just don't have a grasp the power balance between her family and the royal family, the extent of what they can and can't do. I also can't clearly remember- I know in some timeline Ines was staying in her room due to health issues, did that knowledge stay only within her family? Or did the crown prince know as well?
About the timing of Oscar’s memories, I think the author answered that outside the novel. I can’t remember the answer so I will have to ask one of my fellow novel readers. As I mentioned before, everything is complicated. Oscar has always wanted Ines purely from the fact that she was the only high-ranking girl in their generation and therefore worthy of him. (Funnily, in this timeline, there are at least five high-ranking girls in the next generation lol) Nevertheless, Ines was always the one who had the choice because she could choose from among the crown prince, Carcel and the other heirs of dukes like Enrique, Dante and Leonardo. This is why it was necessary for Oscar to win Ines over because whomever Ines chooses, her father would only approve marriage according to her choice.
Regarding power dynamics, like everything, it depends on the circumstances. As long as Valeztena doesn’t do anything to ruin or disadvantage their position, Ines’s father is free to be a rogue politician who isn’t beholden to the imperial family. He isn’t a loyalist. Carcel’s family is a loyalist to the imperial family. However, it’s kind of funny how Carcel’s grandfather was loyal to the imperial family but refused to marry his daughter to the royal family. It’s the daughter who sullied herself and forced her father, Carcel’s grandfather, to marry her off to the imperial family to retain her respectability. That daughter is Oscar’s mother and her father has many harsh things to say about her and the emperor.lol I hope the manhwa includes Carcel’s grandfather advice to him when he was just a little boy about how to maneuver and balance loyalty to the royal family and what to do when he’s sick of the royal family and obligations to them. That should be next ch or so if they include it. Once again we see that the characters act like human beings with complicated thoughts and behavior.
There are 17 great noble families and lesser noble families. For example, Carcel’s mom is not a noble from the 17 great families. She’s a noble below that status but became a duchess. Ines’s family is part of the 17 great families but they rank at the very top where there are only five families that are dukes. That should give you an idea of their ranking.
As to Ines in the previous timeline, if she hadn’t runaway ‘with a man’, she could have appealed to her father. The problem was, he wasn’t at home at the time. He was away in another part of the country for business. Even so, if she had thought through it, it would have been better not to weaken her family position or place of bargaining by running off with a man. If she had run off with Juana, her waiting lady, it would have been far less scandalous. Besides the selfishness of a teenager, Ines had isolated herself in the previous timeline from her family so she had become used to no longer confiding in her family since even in the previous timeline she never told them about all the horrible things that were happening to her. To me it seemed like she forgot she could rely on her father. It would have been so much better to start negotiating before she did anything rather than after she ran away. At least the optics wouldn’t be so bad.
Ines was mentally ill between the ages of 16 and 20 because of her guilt towards the artist and their child that she killed in the previous timeline. Her mind was involuntarily bombarded with memories that terrorized her every waking moment for four years. Her family hid her sickness because it could ruin her chance of getting married since no one wants to marry a mentally unstable woman. Their family is not the only one to hide illness. The same will happen to Carcel’s younger brother. His fiancée’s family will hide her sickness from the Escalante family and she will die suddenly so Carcel’s brother will get such a big shock that he becomes deeply distraught. It’s such a beautiful part of the story as Carcel and Ines supports him in his grief.
Ines past traumatized me. And her brother.... He knew she was being abused... I just... no matter how good her life now, I just can't bring myself to read this. Really triggering, I wish that prince will get the most painful death.