So in this chapter, Wilhelm went to aid Luden in the battle against the monsters, taking Billoi with him and saving Rein and Bianca as seen. Per last chapter, he is totally using this to get close to Rein, he literally just said that he's going to use Billoi as a hostage. He's just told Rein that Billoi will be in her care for a week. I suspect he will give her time to get bonded with Billoi and then use him to put himself in the equation.
Rein, meeting Wilhelm again for the first time in 5 years, is glad to notice that he looks at her coldly now (more of her falling for his act, I guess he's playing hard to get), but also feels bad that he seems so broken. She never fell out of love with him, that was just never part of the story. She feels bad for him because she still loves him, clearly. The story is and has been that she fell in love with him before the betrayal and now those two feelings coexist within her. She's disgusted by him and wants him gone from her life (the predominant feeling), but she also loves him deep down. That's why she's acting how she is in this chapter towards him. She sees that to others he may seem okay, but she can tell that he is different to how he was and feels bad that he looks so broken to her.
Rein reunited with Billoi and decided to make amends, accepting him and deciding to give him her love now. Bianca doesn't seem too happy to have a brother, we'll see if that actually goes somewhere or if it's just a tease of drama before it becomes nothing.
Rein dropped off Billoi as ordered to by the imperial family. Wilhelm refused to let her leave and ended up doing more manipulation shit about a promise they made when she was still being fooled by him. He made his wish to have his way with her for 3 days while she lay there like a corpse devoid of emotion at the rape and she left afterwards. Now we're at 5 years later, in the meantime Wilhelm has neglected Billoi the entire time and now we see Rein has a daughter that is obviously Wilhelm's... Again... She seems to have had no problems bonding with this one since it isn't male and doesn't look like a carbon copy of it's father
She has, once again, chosen not to blame the child for it's father's mistakes and decided to give birth to it despite the rape circumstances. This is 2 for 2 now
Okay, so she chose to birth yet another rape child, this time being straight-up rape and not retroactive rape after realizing she's pregnant with a man that had tried to kill her childhood friend and crush and had been lying to her and manipulating her the whole time. Are y'all still going to act like she is a heartless bitch? All these people being like "she abandoned her son" when she chose to give birth to him because she didn't want to blame him for the father's actions, took care of him as long as she could, never abused him and then handed him off to her closest friend when her trauma wouldn't let her be around him anymore, only to be ordered to give him up by the imperial family. Here she is AGAIN, not allowing what Wilhelm did to her make her choose abortion because the child is innocent despite the father
Meanwhile Wilhelm has already and continues to give away how he really is. A psychotic manipulator that will stoop to any low to get her, even sacrificing her own happiness by trying to kill someone she's close to and watching her struggle through that for years as he plays the role of pillar of support through all he's put her through
AHHH THANK U, so good to hear smth with sense, she has a solid trauma, lost everyone and the one, whom she tried to trust after all the hardships, betrayed her, graped her 2 times and is still messing with her. She is a very strong and complicated character. Rein is not just manipulative person with no feelings. She's hurt, and yet still standing here with head high, doing all in her power to manage her responsibilities. Wilhelm is also a very complex character, but it pisses me off how readers view Rein as the bad one and not the "real villain". It's not romance, it's a dark story with deep plot. I really like it, and I looove Rein
So firstly, I wouldn't say the FL is "weak", it's more like she's powerless. She's a very strong person that has endured a hell-like life for the sake of her sister. She's been abused physically and verbally since she was a child and because she's pretty she's always had men lusting after her and people assuming that she's a whore and uses her looks to get things. Since she's a "noble" (in name only), pretty much everyone around her assumes she's a sheltered princess, which couldn't be further from the truth. The entire story is just *riddled* with people assuming things about her.
People in the comments seem pissed off that she used the ML, but she had no choice. It was that or marry an old man under threat that if she didn't, her sister would have to. Her real plan was to have the ML take her virginity so that her betrothed would get pissed and call off the engagement. She knew her step-sister wanted to marry her off for the connection, she wanted to get revenge on her family by ruining that connection. She wanted to run away from the situation so bad that for a second she panicked and ran to the ML and asked him to take her away. She didn't know his feelings and was surprised when he very quickly kissed her and made his feelings known. He told her he can't take her away, but that he would kill her betrothed. She didn't take him seriously. She assumed he wouldn't be able to, she was just planning to get caught during her wedding night no longer being a virgin and getting revenge when all the sudden her betrothed and his son are dead.
So she used him to take her virginity and he jumped at the thought that she loved him. Which she did and does, but he didn't realize that she didn't *just* use him, it was also exactly how he thought. She tried to explain that she can't leave because of her sister, but he left her there feeling betrayed by her thinking she *just* used him. He still doesn't know how she feels and now someone is trying to force her to make him fall out of love with her so there's more to misunderstand now in how she's acting.
This all could have been avoided if she had just took her sister and left with him when he came for her. Either she never brought up the topic of running away with him and bringing her sister because she really was just using him and she was saying what he wanted to hear. Or author was just lazy with the plot and didn’t even consider this an option. Joining a monastery was stupid because it took her away from her beloved sister and I’m 99% sure they would have sold her little sister to the highest bidder in like a year tops.
instead of saying she’s weak or powerless, I will say she hasn’t been making smart decisions ( ̄へ ̄)
Rein:
- Regressed and, in canon, immediately had all her memories right away. Her consciousness just gets sent into her younger self, regression.
- Accidentally ran into Wilhelm at a younger age when a man tried to rape her and he "just happened" to be there. She recognized him from her last life as her shitty husband's mad dog that listened to any order that was given to him and carried it out without a single bit of hesitation.
- Took young Wilhelm in to use him for her plans, because if he grew up and followed his original timeline he'd be a force to be reckoned with on her ex husband's side. The one she plans to get revenge on.
- With the mindset of using him, still genuinely cared for him since he's a child and treated him as a mother would a son. Not seeing him as a romantic interest in the slightest, actually being in love with Dietrich, a main point of contention for Wilhelm in his new role at her side. At this point it looks like he's *fallen* in love with her, but this is before the reveal that he's actually a regressor that was already obsessed with her (literally worships her as his master and goddess. Literally).
- Has Dietrich teach him to be a knight (a noble profession in a medieval setting) so he can fight battles for her as he did for her husband in his past life. He seems to have no issue with this until he notices that she is not looking at him as a possible romantic partner, since she raised him. Then suddenly he wants to bring it up to her, only after being caught manipulating (he killed Dietrich intentionally) to be like "well you used me" so she feels bad for him.
- Gives both Wilhelm and Dietrich a cloth, Wilhelm hates this and kills him to take it and because he needed him out of the picture so he could be her lover.
- Asks Wilhelm about Dietrich's belongings and is lied to that there were none found.
- Continues on with her plan to have him wage war while grieving Dietrich, but unable to stop her plan now to grieve as it was a crucial time. During this time, Wilhelm works on changing her image of him from "boy I raised" to a possible romance option by flirting, playing the part of a cute puppy lover to her and "being there for her" in her grief over Dietrich even though he caused it and knew that while doing this the whole time.
- Thinking Dietrich is dead, after much deliberation on how she feels for Wilhelm since up till now and his flirting she has never looked at him as a romantic option, gives in to his wants and demands to change the nature of their relationship. She determines it's weird and she's not into it, but will literally throw that to the curb for the sake of her goal of revenge. Now their relationship is more romantic as he wanted.
- Is hinted to by Wilhelm that he's a regressor too, she's just confused about this till after the crown prince dies.
- Basically waits around until he kills her ex for her. She doesnt like that he took it into his own hands, but deals with it and finally truly feels love for Wilhelm in her heart (not just putting up with the discomfort as she had chosen to do earlier) and they have sex, getting her pregnant. Has the talk about regression with him, he lies saying that he had no memories until after the battle Dietrich died in.
- Truly enjoys life with Wilhelm for a bit there, but then we're foreshadowed that someone knows something Wilhelm was lying about. He looks at her with his trademark "my true nature" crazy eyes to keep her fucking mouth shut or he'll kill her. Rein gets suspicious anyways because of what she heard, but puts it to the side for a bit.
- More enjoying life until she sees the cloth on his sword that he himself had told her to her face wasn't there. Finally she has no choice but to acknowledge literal reality as it is in her face. She confronts him with that he intentionally tried to kill Dietrich and he lies to get out of this by trying to reframe things. He said that he didn't remember his past life until it was too late and Dietrich had already died. He also lies saying that he hid the cloth because he didn't want to make her sad and claims that he cared about Dietrich too, with crocodile tears in his eyes.
- Meets with one of the people who were there with Dietrich and Wilhelm at the battle who tells Rein how "impressive" Wilhelm was in the battle, taking charge and leading the men with such precision that it was to the point that it was like he knew what was going to happen. This reveals the first part of his lie: he remembered at the time of death. She leaves him, deciding to break up, but still believing the second part of his lie that he at least cared for Dietrich at one point.
- Reunites with Dietrich, who meets with Wilhelm for her. She decides to watch the encounter because of what he'd said about caring about Dietrich. Upon seeing him, she noticed that his *very* first reaction on seeing him, no provocation yet, is to exclaim and put his hand on his sword. He doesn't know Dietrich is alive and if what he said to her is true, the context here is supposedly that his loved friend has come back from the grave. Hence it all being a lie, the suspicions she had earlier that he knowingly did it being confirmed.
- Decides to have his baby, despite how completely and utterly disgusted she is with what he did to her, because she doesn't feel it would be fair to the baby. So it's basically a rape child at this point. Tries to take care of it at first, but gradually falls more and more into post partum as it starts to look more and more like the guy she despises (and still loves, which makes it worse because it's just constant feeling of betrayal. His plan worked, she really did fall in love with him).
- She eventually leaves him to Dietrich to raise as she can't handle it anymore to take care of him.
- Flash forward some years and now she's dropping the child off with his father as she birthed him and did all she could for as long as she could under the circumstances and now his toxic psychopath father is using him to try and get in contact again. Ever the manipulator. He heard the child looks like him and jumped right on that when using her *father's sword* (huge detail, the sword has always been important to her) failed. At this point he hits her with the "I didn't kill him! He's alive! He came here with you!", which much to my disappointment was actually taken as a valid argument in the comments section... Of course that's a completely stupid argument, since he didn't intend for Dietrich to live. The issue being the psychotic manipulation, which persists whether Dietrich lived or not. Rein still grieved for him for years. She had to live in a world without him, that was her reality and Wilhelm benefited from that all according to his plan. Unfortunately he was discovered after obtaining everything he wanted, her heart.
He has his entire life turned sideways and he just... Takes it all in stride. He ends up in a hotel room with a guy, as a straight man, and not only has sex the one time, but also when they wake up and even honestly admits he wants to keep doing it. He immediately wonders if they're dating now, decides they must be and reacts with that in mind when told that he'd probably have no issue having sex with other guys now. He just starts dating him with no drawn out concerns or drama. Then when it becomes public he just lets himself be outed and rolls with it, worrying more about his bf than people's opinions and ends up publicly dating him with even his work friends knowing!
He even accepted the confession in front of everyone at work lol
I see people seem to hate Genas, which I don't really get. People act like because he started them off on the wrong foot that he's the reason they're estranged and it's like... That's not how that works. They had years to talk, she had years for her anger to subside, he had years to tell her why Genas did what he did, she had years to try and find answers, etc.
Genas said it to her, remember that he was fully confident and assured her that Enoch would treat her well and when she said she'd never forgive him he said that he's sure she will eventually forgive him. The issue is that she played brick wall the entire time, wasting away both emotionally and physically, Enoch refused to talk about what matters and only tried to make her feel better without explaining anything and Genas is an outsider to their marriage so of course he's not just randomly showing up and trying to mediate... Driet also never explained that this all started with the sacrifice of Enoch's mother's heart, which is pretty relevant to whether or not she hates him. As we know, knowing all the facts she feels stupid and desperately wants to turn back time.
Genas assumed she'd be angry for a bit and get over it and that Enoch would have told her about everything eventually. It's just an arranged marriage, they're royalty... That's what the necklace scene is about. He realizes that Enoch didn't tell her what happened or she wouldn't be wearing those in front of him. The point isn't "you're wearing those in front of me", it's that "he didn't tell you". Which means Enoch did what he does and self sabotaged. He didn't think he deserved her and regretted hurting her by removing her from her family, so he let her hate him. He planned to use his own crystal to heal her.