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hi! can yall recommend me some angsty bl??? thank you!!! ༎‿༎

Smut
Give me the smuttiest you've read
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Does anyone know of any BL's with mermaids? Thanks!!

I have this theory that BL mangas whose title is 2-4 seemingly random english words are always worth checking out. So far I have a good track record.

So I just skimmed through the whole novel because I was too curious.. and I have some mixed feelings

I know we’ve been constantly warned that this is a villian (or a ‘wicked girl’ as she likes to say) who stays like that until the end, but I -naively- still assumed there would be character development? I love anti-heros, I love multidimentional villains, I love some moral ambiguity! But I was still hoping she would grow to realize that there are things in life that have more value.. I am NOT saying I was hoping she would give up her revenge, no way.. just that she wouldn’t center her whole existence around it? I was hoping that she would grow and realize she has an amazing life, people that love her, and that her so called family have no power over her and then get her revenge swiftly, cut and dry and it’s over.. but no... she pushes her revenge to a degree that was so unnecessary it made me uncomfortable.. I will explain:

SPOILERS

Let’s start with the count, his ending really left a bad taste in my mouth.. first of all, mielle the dumbass pushes her father off the stairs and tries to frame aria. Aria finesses her in court and her lies are revealed. Mielle ends up in jail. FANTASTIC! count wakes up, turns out he’s completely paralyzed he cannot talk or move only blink. You would think huh... that must satisfy aria.. but no. When his real children abandon him, Aria and her mom pretend to be the loving wife and daughter until he can speak a little and move his arms slightly.. the father starts to realized he was wrong, but too little too late. Later, the count loses his title and becomes a commoner, and his money is also running out. Aria advices her mom to divorce him, which is absolutely valid because he never respected her or her daughter, but she lies about it saying that it’s a divorce on paper only to protect their money from the government. Then after the papers are signed she tells him that actually the money is for her alone and so is the new villa bye bye have fun living the rest of your life in a facility since you’re disabled and can’t take care of yourself. Now after all this the revenge must be complete right? Right? kind of. Because after both his children die, aria receives news that the former count killed himself.. her reaction? ‘haha! Such a perfect revenge! Better than I could’ve ever planned!” like.. I’m sorry, am I supposed to cheer?.. I didn’t expect regret or anything but at least indifference would have been nice... Talk about kicking a dead horse. He was a shitty selfish man who that I am glad is out of your lives but damn.. he did not deserve all that.. have a liiiiittle empathy.

Now for Cain.. pervy possessive step brother who killed her in her past life and helped mielle frame her in this life, just to keep her from the prince.. ew. Definitely did more to deserve revenge than the count, at least. Okay so- bla bla he gets arrested and charged for treason along with mielle. All the other aristocrats that got arrested are sentenced to get beheaded, but aria saves them both, deceiving them into thinking that she is doing it out of sisterly affection, and they believe it. Now that was my first red flag because beheading for treason? Deserved because they committed the crimes and everyone else got punished. Why did she save mielle? Because she still had more in store for her. Why did she save Cain? Because she thought that if he lived mielle would have more to live for, which would make her downfall more satisfying. Just.. chills, man. Aria might be a sociopath. Anyway, Cain and mielle both lose their titles and become commoners and start essentially working fo aria in her mom’s new mansion. Cain basically learns his place, and even thanks aria for letting them live and works quietly. But again, too little too late I guess. Because guess what aria does! She ‘tricks’ mielle into poisoning Annie (Annie was basically mielle’s new mistress and higher than her in status so she was enjoying it too much and being a bit of a bully, as aria planned of course) just like she herself was tricked in her previous life to poison mielle, because she loves poetic justice I guess and wants mielle to go down the same way. Anyway, instead of Annie drinking the cup, Cain who wasn’t even supposed to be there but was invited by aria, drank it instead and was poisoned. Of course, mielle tried to stop him but was too late, and revealed that she knew something. Cain, with his dying breath, asks if she really did it, and mielle stutters and doesn’t deny anything, and Cain dies knowing he was killed by his sister, who also paralyzed his father, who he did his best to protect after everything,. Like maybe I have too much empathy to enjoy this novel? Maybe I’m not the target audience? Because I don’t think being wronged means it’s satisfying to inflict this much pain and suffering on people who wronged me, and then enjoying it.. idk.

I don’t have much to say about mielle. She went out the same way aria did, so it was ‘the perfect revenge’. People yelling all around her to kill the wicked woman! crying over poor saint aria, the saint who protected her little sister only to be betrayed by the evil bitch over and over, and mielle’s head falls off to the cheers of the crowd, probably thinking the same things aria was thinking in chapter one, but no royal blood in her veins that can awaken life saving super powers, unlike aria. so that’s the end for her.

The royal blood? A tidbit I am also conflicted about. Aria makes a name for herself as a commoner daughter of a prostitute who rose from the bottom, built herself to become a huge investor and captured the heart of the crown prince..and proved that class and family and blood doesn’t mean shit. Then you find out! Her paternal grandfather Marquise of a foreign country, and his wife, her grandmother, used to be married into the royal family, drank some holy water or something that basically guarantees that any child she bears is part of the royal family.. which makes aria both a future heiress to the Marquise but also, kinda, a royal. Which is what gave her the hourglass powers. And they use this to rub it in the face of Princess isis like haha! she actually has a higher status than you! Sike! which... why does it matter? Doesn’t this shit all over the a ‘your value isn’t determined by your blood and class’ thing we had going? Why ruin such a good thing? makes me sad.

any spoilers for the original mc or???????

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.

I read the original webnovel & I could have sworn that (INCOMING SPOILERS ABOUT THE SAINTESS)
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The whole reason why she burned her family to death was because she was being parasitized by an evil fairy. The webnovel raws said that yes, she IS the Saintess, but as a little girl, she rescued a dying fairy she found in the woods, but it turned out to be an exiled criminal of the fairy world that fed on & fueled negative emotions.

Apparently this was supposed to be some sort of trial by God, but even the narrative points out how unfair this was to a child (seriously, DON'T rescue the pitiful injured mascot you find in the woods? really??). Sandra had some sort of complex about her appearance (it didn't resemble her beautiful mother) & as a result of the fairy's power, every time she felt envious of someone, she'd drain their attribute (& life force) from them, which is how she got her face & long black hair.

She wouldn't remember doing any of this because of the fairy & the whole mummification/stealing thing ended up as the whole "if you make the Saintess mad, God will curse you" rumors. Her saint powers got severely nerfed because of the fairy's possession, but she can still do saint stuff like healing people. It's repeatedly mentioned that there's a dark aura around her & it infests the places where she "cursed".

In fact, when Wilfred tries to disprove that she's the Saintess, he gets "cursed" as a result (since she IS the Saintess, just corrupted). BTW - the reason why Shin's brother looks like a corpse is because he also got drained - Sandra saw them & was envious of their happy family life since her family was gone now.

The key to healing the victims (slowly) is MC's spirit power infused-onigiri, but yeah MC CAN fully restore them with her spirit power or whatever. The big climax of the webnovel is purifying Sandra of the fairy, but this damages Sandra's mind severely & she suffers massive PTSD & suicidal tendencies after coming to her senses.

Frederick refuses to believe that Sandra really looks like that (she's not ugly, just kinda plain-looking) & Sandra doesn't want anything to do with him. Eventually, Sandra starts to recover from everything (after a chat with the MC & the few people that Sandra actually helped even in her corrupted state) & becomes a priestess to atone for her sins. She still has her holy powers but they're no longer on the same level as that of a Saintess.

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.