I think she really admired him but not in a romantic way like she respected him as a leader of his people and was obsessed with wanting to be acknowledged by him as a rival and be his equal. When she was dying I think she felt regret over being too stubborn and thought she should have followed him and fought beside him instead of against him for pride’s sake.
Mmm I found the beginning a bit confusing on how both of them felt. Even Arhad’s feelings and past actions still confuse me a bit their relationship seems super complicated. I think she cared about him more than anyone else in her life but she also had really strong feelings of competitiveness towards him. She totally denied herself feelings and relationships in her past life so maybe she couldn’t acknowledge or fully understand it. I think she sees it as admiration and hasn’t even considered it any deeper until very recently in the story.
In her previous life in the beginning, she was just an obsessed sword maniac with no friends that wanted to defeat Arhad because she saw him as a rival and then a master. She also probably mistook this feeling for obsession than love/romantic because she never experienced love as a child.And also, Arhad didn't want her to see him as a master as he was romantically interested in her. He tried to shake her off that path but she only came back to bite him harder and harder. When she said she hated him but couldn't hate him, probably bc she thought he wasn't taking her seriously at all when it came to fighting her. This new life, she has tried out a lot of new things as getting friends and opening up. It is hinted that Arhad was the one who turned back time as he has memories of their previous life like she does.
I don't have a specific chapter nor do we have it solid confirmed yet, imo. We did get an instance here they explained Ianna was a reincarnation of Robenstein (idk how to spell rn) while Arhad was a reincarnation of someone who Robenstein loved. So it seems like right now he's just obsessed with getting Robenstein's love through the reincarnation.
At first, it was really that red god that Arhad was really obsessed about. But since it was insinuated that the red god is Ianna's in her past life, so in a sense, Arhad turns his obsession to Ianna. He would't be that obsessed of Ianna from the start without just cause, after all. Though, I think, the chapters nowadays seldom shows Arhad's or the devil's obsession of the red god, instead, it showed his obsession of Ianna in their former life where Arhad killed her. In a sense. His obsession was just a continuation of the life he had in the holy era but this time in the present, his obsession to Ianna is much more. It was just like, you were in despair and then you were suddenly given hope, after all it's been so long since he met the red god and then he met Ianna. Then, the present where he actually had a verry high percentage of obtaining Ianna, a verry high percentage, much much more the previous lives even during the time they were living in the holy era.
Wait, do you mean to say, confessed his love to Ianna? ( ̄∇ ̄")
Did Ianna fall in love with Arhal at her previous life?
I don’t know because she treat him like someone she respect