underdog's Favorite

It was a manhwa tall dark black haired girl who excelled at sports and school with a short orange hair guy who likes her and is also sometimes mistaken for a girl

Ok so I think I get the gist of the ending, basically Yuju was murdered, giju commits suicide, young do is framed by jamin and killed by the assassin, raehee burns down the house, killing both herself and rapist dad. BUT I’ve been trying to reread and figure out some other things and I really can’t and would love to hear other thoughts.
-who was responsible for the yuju’s kidnapping? The father? Why take it that far when raehee could have just brought yuju home when she found her? Plus it seems like raehee hired the guys because she said she paid them triple to keep yuju safe.
-how did giju’s birth mother know the adoptive parents? Is this just open to speculation?
-others have asked this but what the f was sun’s revenge? It seems like it’s against the entertainment industry pervs but she’s talking to jamin about some kind of debt, and he’s been pimping her out since high school, that scene where he hits her and insults her is so brutal. She talks about a debt, so maybe he helped her take revenge and then used her to frame young do? Her whole timeline was super confusing to me, I could never tell where she was in her career
-the blond woman with short hair is a part of giju’s subconsciousness, I think maybe she’s a stand in for the dolls and girls on notebooks that he likes, but I couldn’t figure out where this split consciousness thing came from. It seems like it’s from trauma and not being able to handle reality but it kind of comes out of nowhere
-giju starts talking about some kind of conspiracy after yuju gets kidnapped, like everyone knew everything and they were all working together and I had no idea what he was on about unless it was just a psychotic break

So clearly I was really confused by this but even with that lack of clarity I thought this was so beautiful. I loved the surreal touches like the saxophonist as the harbinger of doom but I just think it got too cluttered with that sort of thing by the end. I’m definitely going to be thinking about this for a long time

RECOMMENDATIONS
Stigma has a similar dark vibe and the art is also really striking and unique. I’d also put A Thousand Cranes up there as giving me a similar feeling. Maybe a spoiler but both of those have way happier endings

Read at your own risk!!
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Eudith or Judith is related to the previous King. So she's a royal. The previous king have a sister whom he loves so dearly to the point that it suffocating her. Her sister (Judith's Grandmother) fell inlove with a commoner. The previous king opposed their relationship due to the differences of their status, so her sister ran away and married that commoner (Another Spoiler: She fell inlove because of his looks). So yeah, Judith came from a royal lineage, and Sophie (Duchess Winterwald) probably knew that she's from a royal lineage because of her eyes. Having a purple or light purple eyes are rare and only the royal lineage has it.

Just leave a comment if you want another major spoiler.

I just caught up and finish the latest translated chapter in the novel and then I saw this update! as expected it's still different to see pictures rather than words (≧∀≦) I've been itching to spoil someone and talk about it :((

Honestly this story is kinda boring, but the art is really pretty except for the fact that sometimes their mouths look huge. I will read to chapter 20 then decide whether or not I should drop it... (づ￣ ³￣)づ

>>OBS.: I'm reposting this so more people who want to know how this story ends can find it<<

So I just read the end of the novel (spanish translation) and came here to share with those who want to know what will happen. I'll write a summary of everything since the novel has 230+ chapters and I can't detail everything that happened. I'm not fluent in english so there will be a lot of mistakes, please bear with me.
THOSE WHO DON'T WANT TO GET SPOILED, STOP READING
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-Yvonne, the duke's lost daughter, actually died and her body is being used by the last survivor of a cult called "Leila" (that's the spanish name, idk if in english there will be another name for the cult). The cult members eat humans, specifically those who have mana, and they once wanted to exterminate all humans and govern the world;
-The cult was stopped by ancient mages who united and imprisoned/killed all the members of Leila, with the exception of one, who was hidden; after using all their forces the ancient mages disappeared;
-This last survivor wants revenge against humanity, and plans to dominate the world. It can use some kind of brainwash and makes people think that they are good. After a lot of years going around and eating some humans to gain strength, it found Yvonne, and possessed her body;
-Some things happen and Penelope finds out that Yvonne is the cult leader (this was b4 Yvonne comes back to the Duke's house), but she doesn't say anything 'cause no one would believe her;
-Iklies betrays Penelope and brings Yvonne back home (in the past Vinter was the one who did it). He did this so Penelope would want to get out of the duke's house and run away with him. His love is more like obsession, but I still pity him don't ask me why;
-Penelope is a descendant of the ancient mages, so she's the only one who can stop Yvonne;
-Yvonne actually won once, she brainwashed people around her, got Penelope killed, since everyone thought she was a villain, and dominated the world;
-Vinter, who was brainwashed and helped Yvonne, came back to his senses and understood that the only one who could stop Yvonne, Penelope, was killed by them. He then sacrifices himself and uses a forbidden magic: the magic to turn back time, just so Penelope could defeat Yvonne;
-Because he used forbidden magic, that version of Vinter became trapped in a magic circle;
- Yvonne was the only one who came to the past with her memories. And Penelope, who didn't remember anything of the past, kept making the same mistakes again and again. And Yvonne kept winning, and the time kept coming back to the past, due to Vinter's magic.
-After dying so many times, Penelope's soul broke into pieces;
-A small piece of her soul reincarnated as our MC, in korea. So in fact the MC is Penelope, that's why she was summoned to the "game". Her body in korea is in a coma, dying of cancer;
-A lot of things happen, Penelope and the crown prince fall in love with each other but they can't communicate and misunderstandings keep happening;
-Vinter from the present probably died in a confront with Yvonne. I say probably because it's not clear, but he exploded his office with him and Yvonne inside to try and kill her, but she survived. Penelope couldn't find his body;
-Instead Penelope finds the other version of Vinter, the one that reversed time and that is trapped. He tells her the truth abt everything. She tries but is unable to free him;
-Iklies helps Yvonne 'cause she promised him the crown, and Penelope. They invade the imperial castle and kill the emperor (the queen, the second prince and some nobles also help Yvonne because she promised they would become members of Leila and gain power);
-Yvonne gets an artefact that was in the castle and that she needed to become more powerful;
-There is a war in the castle. Yvonne's people and the duke's/the crown prince's people fight each other. At this point the duke already knows that that isn't his real daughter;
-Derrick gets badly wounded and almost died, we discover that he had romantic feelings for Penelope, that's why he treated her badly, to cover his improper feelings towards his sister;
-From what I got Reynold's feelings towards Penelope aren't romantic but as brother and sister. He is just an annoying asshole who hurts the people he likes;
-In the battle Iklies sacrifices himself to save Penelope, he said that he loved her. She gets really sad because it was kinda her fault that he became obsessed with her. If she didn't use him to get out of the game, he wouldn't become like that, is what she thinks;
-Penelope doesn't actually see him dying since other things happen in the battle and she goes off to fight Yvonne, but she believes he died because the wound was too serious;
-Penelope kills Yvonne;
-The game ends and she can choose to go back to korea, but the crown prince is heavily wounded and is dying;
-Penelope told him b4 that she wasn't from that world and that se would come back to her real life after killing Yvonne;
-Even though he's dying, the crown prince says to Penelope that she should go back to her home, that he will always love her and that he would go after her no matter where she was;
-Because she won the game, Penelope got a reward: dragon's fangs, wich she could use to cure her sick body back in korea;
-But she decided to use it on the crown prince and stay in that world with him;

The actual story ends here. Now there's an extra story, abt life after everything. It is still being translated. Until now Penelope couldn't find Iklies body, so I'm kinda hopeful that he survived. She's now trying to find a way to free Vinter from the magic circle, but she is not sure if he's even alive anymore.

And that's it. I'm not fluent in spanish so some parts of the story got lost to me, but it was still an enjoyable read. The only thing I didn't like much is the lack of romance, it was more of an adventure, but maybe we will get more romance in this extra story, I'm hoping for it.

why do I feel like the person who rejected(?) him during his school days was maybe dr han? that's why he was so shocked seeing his picture and the friend thought he had seen dr han somewhere?

It has come to my notice that alot of the people on this website only support the G in LGBTQ+ this is because yall sexualize them and that's why yall sympathize with them.
GAY MEN DO NOT NEED YOUR ATTENTION AND YOUR SYMPATHY.
DO NOT SEXUALIZE GAY MEN IN REAL LIFE.
LEARN HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN FICTION N REAL LIFE.
SUPPORT NOT ONLY GAY, BUT THE WHOLE COMMUNITY.
How do you support? Do not make or tolerate homophobic and transphobic comments. Respect the LGBT community and support rallies, donate whenever you can. Contact helpline numbers if you know of any incidents where a sexual minority is being harmed.
IF I HAVE GONE WRONG SOMEWHERE IN THIS COMMENT PLZ TELL ME SO THAT I CAN LEARN MORE.

Below is masive spoilers from the novel.
And yes... The dad is still scum.

Spoilers.
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So here goes.

The main antagonist in the novel is not Cosette, but the father!

All the problems of the novel have one main cause, the father.

The first wife, Cosette's mother was slanderd and abused by followers of the second wife.
Yes the dipshit had two wives at onece.. First wife was favored so second wife's family tried to soil her reputation, even going as fars at to hire assasins and start rumors of her being infertile. (second wife was not part of any of this).
The father saw him self as a Neutral... Entety so he didnt intervein and let it all pass.
Finaly sending the first wife away for being infertile, not knowing she was pregnant.

First wife svares Vengenace on the household and makes a deal with a demon, in exchange for her soul the demon will destroy the household. Onece the contract is setablished the first wife dies and so does her child un benowns to her, as she hadnt given birth yet. The demon inhabits one of the children Cosette ( she was carrying twins one male and one female). The second child a boy is alive and plots vengeance (Cosette's brother). Cosette was never born so the demon inhabits her body = she was never a live. The brother makes a pact with the demon to take down the household.
The duke that introducses Cosette is actualy her twin brother after the pact with the demon... he is never seen again because all who make a pact with the demon dies not long after. (the demon changed him to look older for its revenge)

The father actualy never thought FL wasn't his child... but because he was Neutral he didnt wana change peoples minds or interfear with the rumors created by Cosette. .. What a prick.

Fl awakens her power but Cosette beats her to the punch with showing it of.. so everyone thinks FL is fake and a witch/ demon that will bring chaos and destruction at the age of 20... so they vote to execute her...
Cosette didnt actualy summon the water spirits, she just stole the ones FL summoned making fl and everyone think she awoke.)
The Neutral ashat of a father finaly desides to cast his neutrality out the window and votes yes to execute Fl... This despite knowing she is his daughter and not a witch..

The person who brings FL's soul back to her body 2 months before Cosette shoved up was.... The FUCKING FATHER... aparently with FL's death hell came to earth and Cosette was proven to be a demon.


The father desided to not resurect Fl, nope Fl comming back to life with her memores was just a happy accident... What the father was trying to do was send himself back to his past self with memories in tact to prevent the destruction of his household...
SO it was all to save his own ass...
The Spell was rushed and faulty, needing 2 strong magiciant to pull it off and the father being one of them. If the spell succeeded they would both be sent back but only one woould have the memories the other wouldnt. But Fl got her memores so the father only has fragments.

Cosette shoves up and father desides to rty playing father... letting Cosette and FL physicaly fight---Fl gets tired and leaves home with her brother to travel and abandones her father..

The dad is a selfish ahole why only turned back time to save himsel.. and Fl was brought back as a fluke..

Please don't judge this story or the characters (including Cinderella!!) too early. Moreso than a romance, this story is about sisterhood, family, and women discovering their independence in an era/place where it isn't really allowed. These four women go through a lot, but all of their struggles are around supporting and protecting each other against the world no matter what.

I don't want to spoil too much but.......
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Iris (the eldest daughter) and the Crown Prince fall in love. However, Iris refuses his pursuit for a long time. For one reason, its because she doesn't think she's good enough for him. But the bigger reason is because she believes its her responsibility to protect the Countship and her mother and sisters. If she married the prince, then the countship would fall to her sister's husband and her sister would have to marry someone she doesn't love. Furthermore, no one would accept her as Crown Princess and there would be a lot of struggles to go through and other nobles would target her family. She doesn't want to put them in that position. For that reason, her plan is to marry a very wealthy older man (like 3x her age). Because he's so old she basically would be in charge of things so she's be able to provide for her stepmother and sisters.

Lily (the second eldest) desperately wants to be a painter, but professional artist is one of the many jobs that women aren't allowed to have. Despite that Lily is determined to paint. A knight (the prince's swordmaster) falls in love with her and she loves him back, but more important to her than romance is her dreams and ambitions! She refuses to marry him until she's 30 because (a) she wants to try to pursue being a painter despite the social obstacles and (b) she wants to protect Ashley (Cinderella) by shielding her until Ashely is strong enough and prepared enough to fight for the right to be Countess in her own right, without marrying.

Ashley (Cinderella) despite being clumsy and initially very emotionally weak, she is very very hardworking and determined once she decides on something. At first, she just wants to not be hated by her step-sisters and step-moth, but after they become close thanks to the FL, she feels the warmth of family for the first time (her mother died in childbirth, her father ignored her completely and spent most of his time on trips, and the servants didn't do anything but feed her). After that, her greatest wish becomes to protect and be together with her family forever. She doesn't have a love interest AT ALL. Her entire focus is on helping Mildred make money and eventually she plans to take over the Countship without marrying so that she can support her stepmother and also provide backing for her stepsisters.

Okay, sorry this is gonna be a long post haha(also I already post this as a reply but let me post this on the actual timeline haha (〜￣△￣)〜, and also I search for the chapters and which page which is like kinda giving us the subtle hint that Alek is the one who marked Little Hen(sorry i just love his nickname given by Ivan) anyways, his first pain imprint (ch.8; pg. 7) Alek is the one who found him in the restroom, and it didn’t show how he found him, if its coincidental or not, AND now it connects to how Alek found Little Hen in the storage room ( ch. 80; pg.14) remember Little Hen got attacked(?) by Uncle pheromones (ch.79; pg. 42) and got overwhelmed(?) to the point where it hurts and at the same time frame, ALEK felt it too OR but it also a possibility that he just smell the pheromones because it’s outside the meeting room, (see, its like it can be just coincidental or not hahaha.) Now let’s check (ch. 20; pg.15) Alek mentioned that the snake tribe doesn’t like it when their marked partner smell of other fellow snake pheromones, and this just happened after Ivan and Little Hen just got a sexual intercourse (subtle hint, now it can be either way, it can be that he said it because he’s the one who marked Little Hen or he’s saying/explaining it because Ivan marked Little Hen but Little Hen kinda have that sexual relationship(?) with Alek at that time.) AND now we’re kinda near at the latest chapters, let’s go back to where Ivan and Little Hen got a doctor check up (ch. 67; pg. 15) the Doctor mentioned that Little Hen pain imprint(?) or irregularities is because the marker (which is we, at the mean time, assuming that it’s Ivan) LACK STAMINA, for one, I can’t believe that Ivan LACK STAMINA, he can’t even believe it himself AND NOW let’s kinda go back to Alek and Ivan first meeting and how Ivan kinda pull Alek to stand up (Alek was kneeling(?)) and go with him BUT Alek stumbled saying he cramp his legs ( ch. 51; pg. 30) and how their other relatives whispering how Alek is a “weak little thing” and it kinda even keeps on being mentioned in the next chapters even tho it’s not really that noticeable( on how Alek doesn’t wanna show his weakness etc.) BUT THEN AGAIN THE NEXT CHAPTER after the check up of Ivan and Little Hen with this “lack of stamina” scenario (ch.67; pg. 15.) ON (ch. 68; pg.12) IT SHOWS THAT Alek is using the gym and it continues even to (ch. 69) where Little Hen just keeps on imitating Alek’s workout which feels like contradicting the “lack of stamina” IN CONCLUSION this theory of mine is just full of contradictions to one another scenes hahaha. Like example this one chapter (ch.67) gives subtle hints that Alek might be the marker BUT it will contradict it on the next chapter(s)/page(s) just like when (ch. 68) but please don’t quote me on this one haha, this is my theory only) ┗( T﹏T )┛

chap 8 page 7 first pain imprint
Chap 20 page 15 snake tribe pheromones
Chapt 79 page 42 uncle pheromones
Chap 67 page 15 lack of stamina
chapter 68 page 12 gym Alek
Chap 51 page 30 first meeting/ lack strength

This is a spoiler that I found in the Novel Updates for The Abandoned Empress. Credit to yooyunayoo for this summary.

I know everyone is pissed that Tia ends up with Ruve after he raped her, killed her family, her unborn child, and her, but there's a reason for all that.

SPOILER ALERT !













So the background is, Ruve's father, the Emperor, has always been very cold and distant to him, raising him with harsh expectations and no love. The Emperor was actually in love with Tia's mom, Jeremiah. Keiran (Tia's dad) was engaged to be married with another woman (Karsein's mother actually) in a political marriage, but he also fell in love with Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was in love with Keiran, not the Emperor. The only person in the empire who can break off the official engagement between Keiran & Karsein's mom is the emperor, but obviously the emperor wants them to get married so he can hopefully marry Jeremiah. However, Keiran offers to swear an oath of absolute loyalty to the Emperor if he will give up on Jeremiah and allow Keiran to marry Jeremiah by breaking the official engagement.

The Emperor/King is actually a very just, wise man and he realizes he cannot put his own personal feelings ahead of the good of the Empire, so he gives up on his love for Jeremiah and breaks off Keiran's engagement so Keiran can marry Jeremiah and then Jeremiah gives birth to Tia.

Just some background, I'm probably mixing them up (?) but Tia's family is part of the "Aristocrats" (I think) which mainly support the Emperor and on the other side you have the "nobles" or something, which oppose the emperor. The emperor is actually not as powerful as you think, as the noble faction have basically 50% the power of the empire and the Emperor+aristocrats the other 50%. The emperor needs to ensure the aristocrat faction that supports him is unified (there's in-fighting inside both factions), which is why he wanted Keiran to swear an oath of absolute loyalty to him.

Tia has her father's coloring, but looks exactly like Jeremiah, which is why the Emperor (who was in love with Jeremiah), loves her so much and treats her like a daughter. He gives her all the love he has and gives zero love to his son. The reason is because in order to survive as Emperor, you have to be cold, logical, rational, and strong-willed. He does love prince Ruve a lot, but was perhaps misguided.

The aristocrats all have harsh expectations on Ruve to grow up to be intelligent, rational, capable so everyone is always telling him "You need to stop whining, you need to be better". On the other hand, Tia is naturally gifted and smart and everyone always says "Tia is so amazing, we love her so much!" Imagine being a young boy, growing up and seeing how everyone, including your own father, loves Tia so much and nobody gives any love to you at all. Of course he grows to resent Tia.

Only two people ever showed "love" to Ruve, which is Jeremiah and Duke Jenna/Zena (or whatever his name is, the main villain). However, when Jeremiah gets assassinated later on, she happily gives up her life to protect Tia, while ignoring Ruve (who was also in the same room), so Ruve feels betrayed that Jeremiah didn't care about him at all, which I mean, of course this woman will protect her biological daughter over the unrelated prince. Like Jeremiah rushes to Tia and covers Tia with her body, while leaving Ruve to fend for himself against the assassins.

After this, Duke Zena is the only person who shows any "love" to Prince Ruve, which is why he believes anything Zena says. Zena basically tells Ruve that Tia is an unfeeling, incredibly manipulative and intelligent woman who is out to marry him so she can get more power for her household and the aristocrat faction. Thus Ruve hates Tia even more.

Tia, on the other hand, despite being loved by everyone, also has really harsh expectations put on her and she feels she cannot show any weakness, that she must prove herself to be a capable Empress. She actually does have trouble expressing her feelings which is why Zena's whole "she has no feelings" rings true to Ruve. However, through her actions, Tia proves that she cares deeply about the Empire, her household, and even Ruve.

However, one day Ji-Eun magically appears and is denoted the "child of god" and the one who is supposed to be empress. Ji-Eun is basically an average Korean 16 year old girl. Imagine getting thrown into a game of thrones setting at 16. She lost her friends and family and is completely alone in the new world. Zena tells Ji-Eun about all the s**t that goes down and basically says "If you don't manage to get Prince Ruve's support, you will probably get raped and killed cause the politics here are deadly". He also tells Ji-Eun "Ruve is desperate for love, so just be happy and smiling and tell him you love him". So Ji-Eun, terrified for her life, does everything she can to seduce Ruve and he falls in love with her because she is "honest" with her feelings and "innocent".

Thus Tia becomes the "abandoned empress" and Ji-Eun the actual empress. Ji-Eun now gets to enjoy a life of luxury and wealth, while Tia does all the official Empress duties as the "Queen". The Empire is thriving and everyone thinks "Life is so good and our Empress is such a wonderful, kind, happy person, while that b***h Tia thinks she's so much better than everyone. She always acting so stuck up."

NOW THE IMPORTANT PART. Zena's plans are in motion and he wants even more power, so he begins to poison Ruve with a psychotropic drug that makes him angry, bipolar, and schizophrenic. He also feeds lies to Ruve and Ruve hears the people+staff... basically everyone saying how Tia is a total smug, superior b***h who is power-hungry and pissed off her plans to get power failed cause Ji-Eun showed up. There are rumors that Tia wants to assassinate Ji-Eun so she can get back the place of Empress.

Ruve confronts Tia and wants her to be honest with him, but she basically thinks "I'm scared of you, I cannot be honest with you" and tells him "you won't believe me anyway" and Ruve goes "So you're basically admitting all the rumors about you are true." Now don't forget he is drugged with those psychotropic drugs, so that's when he rapes her. And of course, he later pushes her and causes her to miscarry.

He does feel extremely guilty about this, but when Tia finds out she miscarried and can no longer have children (her womb is damaged), she laughs crazily in front of many maids/servants, basically cursing god (Vita) for her life. Zena and the palace staff report that Tia laughed like crazy, saying "I'm so glad I don't have to give birth to that f**ker's baby. Thank god I had a miscarriage". Of course Ruve gets pissed off at this and thinks what kind of monster is happy her baby died. Thus Tia just confirmed all the rumors about her.

Tia's father, Keiran, understands Tia is unhappy and miserable and begs Ruve to take Tia away. He wants to fake her death and have her live quietly in another country. At the same time, Zena fakes an assassination on Ji-Eun and blames Tia for it, but Ruve has some moments of clarity. He thinks "If Tia wants to escape to another country, why would she risk killing Ji-Eun? The only point in killing Ji-Eun is if Tia wants to stay and become Empress."

I'm kind of confused too with the novel/webtoon, but I think there's not enough evidence to tie Tia + Keiran + her house into the assassination attempt, but Ruve & Tia fight and he lies to her that he killed her father, because he wants to hurt her in retaliation for her laughing that their unborn child died. Tia, who was also poisoned by Duke Zena, goes crazy upon hearing her father was killed and stabs Ruve. Of course, now there is enough evidence that Tia committed treason, attempted assassination of the Emperor, so Zena and everyone votes to have her executed. Ruve actually votes against them but is outvoted. He only wants Tia banished to another country. He was actually trying to grant her wish to escape the palace. He was setting her free.

However, Tia is executed and dies thinking Ruve had killed her father and sentenced her to death when none of that actually happened.

Anyway, now that Tia is gone, Ruve continues to get crazier after being poisoned with the drugs, Zena causes unrest in the Empire by continuing to gather more power, and Ji-Eun must now do all of Tia's duties. How can you expect a modern 16-21 year old girl to run an Empire? Ji-Eun makes a ton of dumb decisions and that with all the other crazy going on means the Empire goes to ruins.

All the people that used to praise Ji-Eun and say "Tia is so smug and unlikable" suddenly turn on Ji-Eun. Suddenly everyone says "Ji-Eun is such a dumbass. How can anyone be so dumb? She's probably faking dumb and is actually evil and wants us to all suffer and die. Nobody can be THAT dumb. When Tia was Queen, she was so smart and the Empire was thriving." Basically everyone regretted trashing Tia and wished she were still alive and the Empress.

Ji-Eun is devastated that suddenly everyone turned on her and one day Ruve finally tells her, after another dumb decision, "Why are you so dumb? I wish you had died and Tia was Empress". Ji-Eun also gets pregnant at this time and feels so alone and powerless and worried about the future of her baby.

Ruve has figured out at this time that Zena is not his "father figure" but was actually poisoning him and that everything about Tia was a lie. For instance, Ji-Eun keeps saying she loves him but after 5 (?) years together, has no idea what his favorite/disliked foods are, whereas Tia figured it out within a couple of weeks. Tia also took so much pressure off him by handling many Empire matters for him, whereas Ji-Eun actually stresses him out with more work with her dumb decisions. He realizes Tia loved him and showed it through actions, just not words, while Ji-Eun's words were empty and hollow and betrayed by her careless actions.

Ruve also realizes that he is dead soon, especially if Ji-Eun gives birth to a son, since Zena will kill him and then assume the role of "regent", while raising and brainwashing the baby who will one day inherit the empire. Ruve has a way to save his life by killing Ji-Eun and he considers it, but realizes that killing her + the unborn child will be doing the same thing to her what he did to Tia, something he regrets with all his heart. And in case you forgot, he actually wanted to save her life and send her away from the empire, just Zena + the nobles were too powerful and ordered Tia executed. I think the webtoon actually portrayed this badly since they showed Ruve kind of with a superior/unfeeling look on his face while she was executed, when in reality he wanted to spare her.

So he instead realizes he's lost and Zena will now take over the Empire, so he gives up on being Emperor and tries to run away, but Zena gets wind of this and sends soldiers to assassinate Ruve. Ruve falls down a cliff and as he lies dying, he gazes up at the moon (the king is the sun and the moon symbolizes the queen/empress) and he thinks the moon is Tia and basically begs her for forgiveness and thinks death is not so bad since he will be reunited with Tia.

This is all background and Tia gets sent back in time, of course.

SECOND TIMELINE

This time, Tia realizes she should be more "open" with her feelings and she's not actually alone, there's so many people who support her and love her. Don't forget she also thought her father was somewhat "unfeeling" but realized he risked his life and household to make her happy. He begged Ruve to fake her death and let her live quietly in another country, showing how much he actually loved her.

Thus 2nd timeline (2TL) Tia shows her emotions more and Ruve, seeing Tia showing all these emotions and laughing with Karsein + Allen, realizes she is not unfeeling and cold. Also, don't forget that Tia inheriting her household makes it impossible for her to become Empress (due to some rules and stuff), so how can Tia be power-hungry and out to manipulate him, Ruve, when she appears to want to break off the engagement? Thus 2nd timeline (2TL) Ruve realizes a lot of what Zena said about Tia was a lie.

Oh, and BIG SPOILER ABOUT ALLEN, but Allen, despite being much more capable than his brother, is passed over in favor of his older brother. Allen wants to inherit the household, thinking he is better than his brother, but the parents think it's unfair, since the oldest son is supposed to inherit. Even though Allen is definitely better, the oldest son is capable still. Allen thinks this means his parents don't really love him and he gets driven to Zena's side as a spy.

Allen also is sociopathic and possessive of Tia. At one point, he considers killing her father, Keiran, because Keiran sees through Allen's true nature. He also kind of has an erot*c daydream about strangling Tia to death so she will always be his. His other plot is to kidnap Tia and keep her locked up in a secret house forever, so she will belong to him only.

However, he does have a moment of clarity where he realizes he is f**ked up in the head and he double-crosses Zena to the current Emperor, who sends Allen away to another country, but thanks him for realizing the error of his ways.

So Allen did love Tia enough to realize his love for her was messed up and psychotic. He willingly went away to protect Tia from himself.

Ruve falls in love with Tia because of how expressive and lively she is in the second timeline, and also because, if you've forgotten, he loved Jeremiah (Tia's mother) because only Jeremiah + Zena ever showed him love +affection, and Tia resembles Jeremiah.

After Ruve died in the first timeline, Ji-Eun gives birth to a girl, who cannot inherit the throne and with Ruve dead, it means the royal lineage is broken. Zena can now over take the throne legally, so he decides to kill Ji-Eun and stabs her and her baby daughter to death.

Ji-Eun b****es to god/Vita about how unfair her life was and Vita (God) offers Ji-Eun a choice. She can send Ji-Eun back to modern day Korea with her memories completely erased, or she can send Ji-Eun back to the moment she arrived in the Abandoned Empress world with her memories intact.

Ji-Eun does miss Korea + her family, but don't forget this choice came literally 10 seconds after she got stabbed in the stomach by her "friend" Duke Zena. Ji-Eun hates Ruve for abandoning her ("I wish Tia was alive and you were dead instead"), hates Zena for manipulating and killing her, and most of all, hates that Tia took everyone's love even in death. Remember, after the Empire started to crumble, the people and Ruve all said they regretted how they treated Tia and wished she was the Empress and said Ji-Eun was dumb trash.

Ji-Eun also thinks if she runs away to Korea with her memories erased, it means admitting to herself she lost to Tia, that she is and will always be inferior to Tia. She thinks if she actually works hard she can match Tia and become a powerful empress who can take revenge on Prince Ruve + Duke Zena. Thus in her anger and pride, she chooses to relive a second life instead of going back home to Korea.

When Ji-Eun arrives this time, she does everything she can to seduce Ruve because she wants to make him fall in love with her so she can then toss him aside and destroy him, the Empire, and Zena.

But at this point Ruve only loves Tia and none of Ji-Eun's attempts work. So she instead asks Zena to adopt her, so she can have the aristocrat backing and become Empress. Her second goal, of course, is to spy on Zena and find out his weakness so she can kill him.

Zena though is smart and while he wants to manipulate Ji-Eun and make her Empress, doesn't trust Ji-Eun at all. By the way, Ji-Eun has a special power where she can heal flowers/plants, just not humans. Tia's power from God is that she can hear Vita's voice/holy messages, just like some priests can.

Anyway, yada yada, s**t happens and then one day Tia gets stabbed and almost dies, but Ji-Eun who finally realizes that neither Ruve nor Tia are the true villains, begs God to save Tia's life and Vita/God tells Ji-Eun she can save Tia by giving up her magical powers and losing her status as a "child of god". Ji-Eun willingly does so and Tia's life is saved.

Ji-Eun works with Ruve + Tia to bring down Zena and Zena does get judged for his crimes and his whole household is beheaded and killed.

Ji-Eun saw herself as a protagonist in an isekai novel, thinking that she was the main character and Tia was the villainess out to steal her position and love, but realized in the end, she was actually the villainess. This is why she saves Tia's life, because she wants redemption. She also regrets so much not taking Vita/God's offer to go back to Korea with her memories erased.

Ruve and everyone else in the Empire wants to kill Ji-Eun, since she is a co-conspirator and Zena's adopted daughter, but Tia begs them for mercy, however, Tia is overruled, just like first timeline Ruve was overruled when he asked for clemency for Tia.

Tia visits Ji-Eun in prison and asks why Ji-Eun hated her so much and why Ji-Eun decided to save her. Ji-Eun tells Tia "I was supposed to be the protagonist, I was supposed to be loved and have a happily ever after, but even in death you stole that from me. Ruve & the people told me they loved you more and that I was useless trash. You have everything that I don't have."

At this point Tia gets pissed and goes "WTF. Ruve + the people executed me and treated me like trash for years. How can you be jealous of me?"

At this point Ji-Eun goes "Be honest, you looked down on me."

And Tia does admit she looked down on Ji-Eun as being dumb and incompetent and was upset that Ruve + the people loved her despite Ji-Eun being a dumb Empress.

The girls both find it ironic they envied the other.

At this point Tia gives Ji-Eun an option, which Ruve agreed to. She gives Ji-Eun two bottles, one with real poison and one with a Romeo+Juliet poison that will fake death. Ji-Eun can choose to die or she can be smuggled away to another country and live there quietly for the rest of her life.

Tia tells Ji-Eun "this is your choice" and then walks away and you never find out what choice Ji-Eun chose but in side stories I think it says she chose to live.

Tia & Ruve get married and have 2 daughters + 1 son. The daughter inherits the Marquess household while the son becomes the greatest Emperor in the history of the Empire.

Vita had originally said the "blessed child of god" would bring eternal happiness to the empire, but in the first timeline, the empire crumbled due to Zena and everyone (including Zena) lost. In the second timeline, they all lived happily ever after, except Zena + ji-Eun. Since Ji-Eun gave up her powers, Tia is the only "child of god" in the second timeline. Also, Ji-Eun eventually comes to peace with her life and lives a quiet, but fulfilled life as an ordinary person in another country. Kind of bittersweet she never got to see her Korea family again, but that was her choice and she has to live with it.