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(it’s pretty long, but has whole story)
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MAIN STORY SPOILER:
Princess Zelle was the eighth princess of Roymond, who reduced her presence so she won't be seen as a threat killed by her older siblings. Because of that, she avoided everyone of power and kept to herself. When Granor invaded her kingdom, she and her younger siblings fled to distract the enemies from her older siblings, the more powerful royal heirs. She was captured and woke up as a falcon.
She floundered around before becoming a messenger falcon of Valhail, the commander of the Roymond army and her 2nd sister's fiance. Because normal cavier falcon aren't smart, they keep getting captured by enemies. Valhail noted that Zelle seemed to be able to understand human speech and was initially suspicious, thinking that she is a spy. He started trusting her when she was injured on her first mission because the enemy wouldn't hurt their own spy. Zelle was a bit reckless because she prioritize the success of the army over her own life, which made Valhail mad a lot. She managed to figure out the map of the enemy's camp and was so well successful that the Granor called her the 'Eye of the Sky'.
Later, the Granor army claimed to have Zelle's body and threatened to kill her if the Roymond army attacks them. As the only known royal heir alive, Zelle is very precious to the Roymond army. Valhail managed to start a surprise attack, win the battle, and reclaim her body alive. However, they found that she was poisoned and would die in 30 days without an antidote. Bird Zelle got frustrated and bit her body on the neck, trying to wake herself up. Then Zelle flew off and was shot by poisoned darts after getting lured into a trap.
Zelle woke up as human again. Valhail started suspecting her to be a spy after she slipped a few times (she was supposed to in a coma ever since she was captured so she couldn't be aware of what's going on in the war). Eventually, it boiled to a point where Zelle admitted she was the bird and start quoting back the things Valhail said to the bird. Valhail was stunned, and while coming to terms with the truth, Zelle escaped. She was attacked by barbarians but was saved by Valhail, who admitted to believing her.
Spoiler: their reaction
[There is a lot of awkwardness afterward because Valhail remembered he was rude to the bird a lot and Zelle was embarrassed by her behavior as a bird (cozying up to Valhail because she wanted to survive. He even asked her if that was sincere or just for survival. Zelle answered that she was lonely as a bird and he was the only one who recognized her intellect )]
Zelle used her presence to boost the army's morale (the king and all his concubines are dead, along with many heirs). They continue to search for the remaining heirs (1st, 2nd, 4th, 9th, 10th). At one battle, they tried to divide the much larger Granor army. Zelle offered to be a bait, but was turned down by Valhail in favor of a fake bait. The battle was successful and the Granor retreated after taking a big loss. However, a Roymond assassin attacked Zelle, saying only the Eastern King should be the real ruler. Zelle suspected it was one of her siblings. She later strike up a friendship and alliance with Hilde, a politician from the East.
Spoiler: first kiss
[Their first kiss happened after the assassination attempt. Zelle was in shock after one of her maid shielded her and was stabbed (don't worry, she survives) and Valhail barely managed to save her in time (he also gave her a necklace before the battle, which somehow bought Zelle precious time against the assassin). Zelle was a little hysterical and said that she wanted to live. When Valhail reassured her that she was alive, she said she can't feel that she's alive (she's in shock) and he proved her wrong by kissing her. He later apologized for the disrespect and asked to be punished, but Zelle refused, saying she kissed him back too.]
Later, 4th prince was revealed to be alive. He claimed to have fought his way out of where he was imprisoned. Zelle was happy to see him until he later accused her of getting a good reputation and respect from the army by sleeping with Valhail and other higherups.
Spoiler: 4th Prince
[He was the firstborn son and the most favored child of the king. However, because he is younger than his siblings, they are ahead of him in line to the throne. He developed an inferiority complex and chose to buy and harass women who looks like his sisters. He even remarked that it was a shame his full-blood sister, the 3rd princess, was dead because she was the prettiest of all the royal heirs. Right after he said that, he said that Zelle was a lot prettier than he realized. ]
Valhail got really mad at 4th prince for insulting Zelle. During an argument in the Armory, Zelle scratch herself on a spear with a poisoned tip and fell unconscious. She woke up in her bird body, which had been in a coma due to the same poison. Valhail realized this when the bird showed up and he worried about her a lot, refusing to send her to the enemy's camp. (One of his soldier even asked him if he fell in love with a bird because he was seen treating bird Zelle so tenderly. I think it was at this time that Valhail first admitted to one of his soldier that he loves Zelle) Zelle met Adele, a lady from the west who was thought to be a nerd. Zelle discovered that Adele is a genius and is well educated with eastern history. Zelle gave her some messages she got from the Granor and Adele managed to decode them, which talked about how the Granor are worried about their food supply. Valhail learned of Adele's intelligence through Zelle and asked Adele to identify the poison and figure out a cure.
Adele found that the cure is the poison after being diluted. They awoken soldiers that were poisoned in battle, but Zelle wouldn't wake up. Valhail later took Zelle to the cliffs where crystal roses grew. He told her that she should live her life however she want and he would support her. (Even during the war, Zelle didn't want to throw her presence around too much because she was afraid that her older sisters might kill her after the war is over and Valhail realized that) Zelle realized that she like him. Later, Zelle, in her bird body, participated in the war by gathering a bunch of birds and targeting the enemies' layout (they just followed her for some reason, which surprised her and she used it to her advantage) Adele figured out that both blood and poison were involved. She also figured out the history of Zelle's ancestor, who was said to have golden blood and shared that blood with cavier falcon and Zelle realize that could be the answer to why she can wake up in a cavier falcon's body. Zelle woke up after the new cure was administered.
After Adele met Zelle in her human body (she doesn't know Zelle is the bird, only Valhail and two of her maids, including the one that was stabbed, knows), she praised Zelle a lot because she found out through her investigation that Zelle faked a letter pretending to be 1st princess to save grain harvest from a typhoon and saved a lot of people from starvation a few years ago. Zelle was embarrassed because forging letter is a crime and she was trying to keep a low profile to stay alive. Later, rumors of how Zelle saved the grain supply spread though the people of Roymond. The Roymond army won the battle and reclaim Roymond's castle from the Granor. Zelle threw a banquet to celebrate. Granor sent a message asking to end the war.
Later, they found out the rumors about the 4th prince was true and Zelle thought that she must stop him from taking the throne. At the banquet, Valhail's people came and reveal that 4th prince did not fought his way to freedom, but his mother bought him with the lives of 200 Roymond people. A lot of people were angry. Valhail fought with 4th prince and mocked him for his perverse taste toward women who resembles his sisters, humiliating 4th prince in the battle to avenge the victims.
Not long after, 4th prince was found dead, having been killed brutally. In addition, her 2nd sister showed up now that the war has ended with soldiers of her own. She admitted to starting the war with Granor to get rid of 1st princess, but Granor betrayed her. She was the one who was bought out of prison with the lives of 200 Roymond people, but framed the shame on 4th prince. She was the true Eastern King (Her initials were the anagram for Eastern King. Zelle thought it was either 4th, 9th, or 10th because their maternal family are from the East) Zelle tried to run away with Valhail but surrendered after 2nd Princess threatened to kill Zelle's maids. She then imprisoned Zelle, trying to marry her off to Adele's brother, who was on 2nd Princess's side. But to do that, 2nd Princess must ascend the throne to gain the authority for that.
One of Zelle's maid slipped her the poison to putting her soul in the bird's body. Zelle took it, trying to help Valhail find evidence of 2nd Princess's crime. 2nd Princess killed off two of her own men who could be important witnesses, disheartening Zelle for failing. 2nd Princess was also annoyed with Valhail because he was her fiance but he asked to broke off his engagement and even fell in love with Zelle. Zelle pricked herself with a poisoned spear, waking up as a human again. At the coronation, Valhail's men broke in with evidence of 2nd Princess's crimes and the witness is - surprise - Adele's brother who 2nd princess is trying to marry Zelle to. (Earlier, Zelle accused him of wanting to possess her more than actually loving her, or he wouldn't have let 2nd princess imprison her) Most of the soldiers did not know of 2nd Princess' treason and served her because she was now first in line to the throne with the death of 1st Princess. Valhail's private army is loyal only to Zelle because Valhail swore an oath of loyalty to Zelle during the war and his army only obey the owner of the necklace, which Valhail gave to Zelle.
The 2nd Princess is carried away, screaming at Zelle the whole time, blaming her for everything. With no other heirs, Zelle took the throne and became Empress. She went to look for her bird body, hoping to cure the poison for good and find a way for the bird to live its own life (which might be impossible because it only contain Zelle's soul. When Zelle is in her human body, the bird is unconscious), only to find that the bird had died not too long ago, after Zelle was crowned. Valhail said that the war was too harsh on the bird's body in addition to the poisoning. They buried the body and erected a monument at its burial.
SIDE STORY:
Valhail asked her when she fell in love with him, Zelle replied that it was when he took her to see the crystal roses, so Valhail later proposed to her surrounded by crystal roses. They got married and got a son really quickly. First prince is Russellzen (Regen). Second prince, four years younger, is Kargale. Third princess, ten years younger than Russellzen, is Artiel. Artiel is doted on the most. When Russellzen was 15, the young emperor Recalius of the Belott empire (age 8) greeted them and must have made a mistake, because Artiel scolded him loudly. Amusingly, Recalius seemed to fell in love with Artiel, which made Russellzen and Kargale really protective. Recalius later start learning martial art from Valhail.
SOURCE: By Sarahlin from Novel Updates
2021-07-11 08:26 marked
2021-02-22 21:05 marked
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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.
2020-07-01 11:25 marked
SPOILER!!!!