the misunderstanding was hilarious already but then the shining reference came and I'm just rolling from laughter now pfft-
I just find it quite amusing (and clever) how when Ahin first found Vivi (as a rabbit) she was crying out of fear for her life. Now in human form, during their first 'official' meeting with Ahin, Vivi is once again crying but in fear for someone elses life being lost instead; which is Ash who's literally dying there please hurry up and help her ╥﹏╥
Anywho this chapter was a bit short (no rush to the creator tho I understand that there could be some circumstances which I don't know of) and Ash is still sprawled up in the floor with blood and stuff so let's all cry with Vivi Σ(っ°Д °;)っ
Alright, first of all Jin-woo is about to fight other sovereigns so yey for that. Second, he's about to become the 'real' shadow monarch, we're going to see the og monarch woop woop! But Jin-woo's gonna get a bit roughed up first tho... Lastly, his dad is about to show up wooooo~ it's gonna be a bitter sweet reunion（/TДT)/
I meant to like! Sorry :/
Wait can you maybe spoil it a bit more for me and elaborate on the bitter sweet reunion..? I love spoilers I’m sorry lol ┗( T﹏T )┛
Yeaahhh indeed en very sad too
because jin-woo "dies" in order to integrate with the shadow monarch his dad comes to protect the body and then after jinwoo finds him and they talk briefly before his dad dies
Sure! I think I got a bit carried away with this tho, might've enjoyed retelling too much so my apologies. You can skip to the last part of the reply to see the scene where they converse, but for a bit more context then feel free to read the whole thing ^^ To anybody else who'll come across this reply, please be advised that this contains spoilers for a chapter that would be coming for a bit far away from now. For anyone who wants to read ahead, the current chapter we are in is included in Ch.216 of the novel. The things I say here covers Ch.216 to Ch.224 although it's a summarized version for the most part.
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So, before this reunion there are a lot of other things that would be happening. Long story short, Jin-woo will be a bit roughed up by the other Sovereigns, he manages to take care of the insect lady but the Sovereign of Frost and the Sovereign of Beastly Fangs would eventually kill him. He dies, which triggers his passive ability and then he meets with the previous Shadow Sovereign, Ashborne. Through him, we'll learn truth about the past, the future, and about the system. During this time Jin-woo would be sleeping with his body being completely unguarded from the outside so while all this was happening, someone would come and protect Jin-woo's body. As the Beast Sovereign and the Sovereign of Frost senses Jin-woo's heart beating once again, they tried to make a move on him but someone blocked their attacks. It was his dad, as to give his son some time to fully receive the power of the Shadow Monarch, he fought off the other sovereigns. Yes, he knew everything. Turns out, when he disappeared all those years ago he was actually taken by the Brilliant Fragments of Light. Since then, they used him as a vessel for one of their own. But unlike the sovereigns, the Fragments of Light don't fully take over of their hosts body, they just let them borrow a bit of their powers, kinda like how Thomas Andre, Christopher (something, forgot his name but the other special authority rank hunter that got killed a while back), and Goh Gun-hui's situation is, so his ego is retained. He still remembers everything, the only catch with his situation is that his body slowly deteriorates as he continually borrows the power of the Fragments of Light, nonetheless he still protected Jin-woo because he is his child and he was also ordered to. At first, he was actually ordered to eliminate Jin-woo because the Fragments of Light thought he was a threat to humanity, Jin-woo's dad couldn't do it even though he had to since obviously he didn't want to harm his child, he tried his best to delay his mission for as long as possible until thankfully the Fragments of Light realized how Jin-woo was the only one who could protect humanity from the sovereigns so they instead ordered for the dad to protect him. So, during this fight where his child needed his protection more than ever, he decided to protect him even if it means to lose his life afterwards.
Jin-woo eventually wakes up after getting the shackles of the system off, just before the Sovereign of Frost deals a last strike to his father. The Sovereign of Beastly Fangs ran away (he's a filthy coward tsk tsk) but he took care of both it and the Sovereign of Frost no problem as he's much stronger now than he was before. After the battle ended, the man who was covered in a robe that protected Jin-woo (his father) fled from the scene, while he was conversing with Igrit and Beru about what happened he was out he noticed how the man dropped their shortswords and realized how they're identical to what his father uses. Seong Il-hwan, Jin-woo's father went to find shelter in an abandoned building, he felt that his body couldn't hold up anymore so he fled the scene as fast as he could although he wanted to converse with Jin-woo even for a little bit. He didn't want Jin-woo to see him in such a state and thought that it was better to just quietly disappear just like that. At this point, one of his arms were already gone and disintegrated into ash due to him using the Fragments of Light's power to protect his son. Soon enough though, Jin-woo arrived to where his father is.... (the next parts are taken directly from the translated novel, figured it'd be better to be read this way)
He didn’t even have to take a look to know just who it was standing before him like this. It was Jin-Woo.
Even though here was the son whose name he so wanted to call out to, he still resolutely brushed past Jin-Woo’s side while hiding his face with the hood.
However, Jin-Woo turned towards the departing man and asked.
“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t have noticed it if you went away like this?”
Halt.
Seong Il-Hwan’s steps came to a halt.
But, how….?
He turned around towards his son, only to spot a certain item thrown by Jin-Woo slowly flying at in an arc towards him.
Grab.
What Jin-Woo returned was a shortsword. It was Seong Il-Hwan’s own shortsword that he ended up dropping after his left hand became useless.
He stared at the weapon for a moment or two, before raising his head. Jin-Woo was staring back at him with reproachful eyes.
Jin-Woo could still remember quite clearly that particular shortsword.
When he was a young boy, he got found out while playing around with his father’s shortsword and received a scolding worth remembering.
Only now did Jin-Woo consciously realise why his own weapons had been set as shortswords when the previous Shadow Sovereign swept through the battlefields with a longsword, instead.
It was all because of the memories he had of his father.
Influenced in part by his memories, the dungeons generated by the System ended up presenting Jin-Woo with daggers and shortswords as his main weapons all this time.
His hushed voice continued on.
“Are you going to leave again without saying anything, Dad?”
‘Dad’.
That one word dug deeply into Seong Il-Hwan’s heart and he had to remove his hood.
His right hand was slowly turning into ash as well.
His son flinched greatly after realising the state of his hands, but Seong Il-Hwan formed a thin smile as his reply and spoke.
“I didn’t want to show you this sight.”
Jin-Woo understood that a body turning into ash after exhausting all lifeforce couldn’t be saved no matter what. He hurriedly tried to get closer, but Seong Il-Hwan raised his right hand to stop his son.
His left arm had scattered away in dust and only his shoulder remained by then.
Jin-Woo hesitated, before remaining in his spot, and asked his father.
“Then, what about you, Dad?”
“…..?”
“Didn’t you want to see me again? Dad?”
Surely, he could still use his right hand for the time being, so how come…
Jin-Woo’s question caused Seong Il-Hwan’s raised arm to slowly go back down.
“I wanted to see you. Always.”
….To the extent that, even if you couldn’t see me, I still felt happy from the fact that I could see you from far away.
Jin-Woo finally came closer to his father until he stood right before his face. Seong Il-Hwan reached up with his remaining hand to gently touch his son’s face.
Thick tears falling from the boy’s eyes wetted the back of his hand.
‘This foolish father wasn’t able to do anything for you, yet despite that, you have….’
“….Grown up so well.”
Jin-Woo opened his mouth.
“Is this the Rulers’ doing? Are they throwing you away after using you?”
A scary amount of rage could be felt in Jin-Woo’s voice now.
Seong Il-Hwan shook his head, though.
“They only gave me an opportunity to make a choice. I chose to protect you, that is all. And that choice was not wrong.”
And now, even his remaining right hand was turning into ash and scattering away.
“I wouldn’t have minded talking to you for a little bit longer, but….”
And he wanted to stay here for a little bit longer, too….
He had done something reprehensible.
He ended up making a boy say goodbye to his father not once, but twice now. He tried so hard to hold back, but in the end, tears began flooding out from Seong Il-Hwan’s eyes.
“I’m sorry for not being a good father to you.”
Those were his last words.
Shururuk….
Seong Il-Hwan’s body, all his lifeforce exhausted from fighting against the Sovereigns, turned to ash. Jin-Woo hurriedly tried to embrace his father’s body slowly crumbling away, but….
What remained in his palms wasn’t a person, but grey-coloured powder.
Eventually.
In the spot where Seong Il-Hwan once stood, nothing remained.
Something from deep inside angrily welled up in an uncontrollable burst. Jin-Woo couldn’t hold it back anymore and in the end, raised his head towards the sky and roared out loudly.
“Uwaaaaaah-!!!”
When he did, the Mana in the atmosphere reverberated.
The sky, the air, the ground – they all cried.
And soon, Jin-Woo’s mouth began emitting the heavy, grave voice similar to other Sovereigns.
[Hear me, remaining Sovereigns!!!]
If all these events were set in motion simply because the Sovereigns decided to settle on Earth, then….
Then, I shall make them pay an unforgettable price for that.
I've been waiting to see his dad for so long u.u he's like a shadow without making any appearance
Now I'm crying
you're in for quite a ride so hang on tight, things are just getting started :>>
I’m literally tearing up…thank you so much for the info╥﹏╥
it was no problem at all~ glad I could help satisfy your curiosity ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Well, first of all your child started it. As we all know, Balzac has bullied Tia multiple times now and this is the only time where he seriously gets reprimanded, it's about time he learns the consequences when it comes to his unsightly actions. Second, maybe if you were a good parent then this could've never happened. The child's mindset is very disturbing and quite frankly his way of thinking is not very rational, he's also a bit of a hypocrite which might be a lot to say for a child but from what I've seen so far, I won't shy away from calling him that word. Where else could Balzac have gotten all these traits? From his parents of course, the apple doesn't fall far from its tree as they say (￣へ￣)
he's right yjh you're pretty late but 10/10 for your entrance tho, just casually crushing the supposedly 'strongest' ruler while exchanging loving (deadly) glances with your friend (づ￣ ³￣)づ
wait until they find out that they imprisoned members of the royal family and their guardians （￣へ￣）
Finally finished this, it took me two days which is a bit longer than my usual reading pace, now I'd like to leave some of my ramblings for the future me incase I look back to this manhwa at some point. (warning: contains spoilers because I'll be talking about what happened throughout the story so please proceed with caution)
I see a lot of readers displeased with how Tia and Ruve ended up together in the end despite Tia's effort to cut ties with the royal family. Some even said that this is just an example of bad writing and such. To be honest, when I got spoiled with the ending at first I did share the same sentiments. I thought that no matter what redemption phase Ruve had I still wouldn't agree with him and Tia being endgame especially after having 2 other potential male lead's (Allendis and Carsein). But, as the story progressed and things got revealed little by little, I started to understand why this and that happened and tbh I thought it was brilliant, how we were walked through this journey that they wanted to tell.
I'm not saying that it doesn't have it's flaws, but I will say that despite what others think (which I respect since that's their opinion), imo I didn't just waste my time on this thing. We were shown why Ruve treated Tia that way, for me it's not there to justify his actions but instead to help us understand him a bit more. All three of them were, in a sense, victims to the fates that have been twisted in their past life and all suffered cruel deaths in the end.
Now I'd like to talk more about the male lead, Ruvellis. I didn't like him, my heart did hurt a lot, as cheesy as that sounds, when I saw how he treated Aristia during the first timeline. Tia didn't do anything wrong, she wasn't a villainess or anything but she was being treated like one. He was giving her unexplained hate and was so cruel to her even until the end during her execution. All of that combined lead to me despising him and not understanding why Tia still ends up with him during the second timeline (when I read the spoiler which was early on the chapters, probably around 20-30). At the time (in the second timeline), he was still an arrogant jerk so even though I know he hasn't done any of the things he did in the past just yet, I had some hostility towards his character. He showed signs of change, although at some point I wanted to accept the change and support him for Tia, I keep getting reminded of how he was during the first timeline. So, I said at the time that I'd wait for Jieun to appear and see how he reacts. Now, when Jieun appeared and he still showed affection to Tia, I felt conflicted once more because I started to feel that them being together doesn't sound too bad anymore but I still had this doubt that I couldn't shake away from me since we haven't learned about why he was so angry at Tia back then other than his envy. Next, the poison entered the plot and we finally have our answer. Ruve disliked Tia because the feeling of affection that he longed for which he never got all went to Tia, but it was mentioned that their clashes wasn't that bad yet until Tia entered the palace. Meaning the poison must've contributed a lot to Ruve's actions back then, long story short he wasn't on his right mind. Again I'm not saying that this justifies his actions but instead it helps us understand him. It just shows how people can change depending on what type of fate befalls at them.
I just realized how long this is now so I'll just get to my main point. In my interpretation, the story shows us how easily people change. It shows us the different sides of a person's story, how there's no such thing as a good and bad or a black and white personality to a person. We all just get influenced by what surrounds us, we may make stupid decisions and clouded judgements, we can be afraid of repeating past mistakes and as a result it can hold us back from other things that life has to offer, we may compare similar events to the other and in turn forget that we live in the present and not the past. In the end, we are all humans who makes mistakes, we are given brains we can use to think and emotions used to feel. Two qualities which are unique to us which often clash during times of judgement and that's totally normal. When we make mistakes, we shouldn't be afraid of it or run away from it; instead we should take it and learn from that experience.
Tia tried to run away from Ruve, that's something that we can't deny. She thought that was the best way to avoid repeating the mistakes from her past life. But as I said earlier, people change and humans are influenced by their environment and the people around them. Just like the butterfly effect, one change can ripple to a bunch of other changes to ones fate. Each of them (the characters) learned how to forgive, forget, and cherish what they have and I think that's what the important thing is. I guess in a sense, we can say that sometimes there are more to things than what meets the eye? I also think that the blood vow in the end was very clever, where instead of Tia, it was Ruve who made the vow, this way we can see that he's really not the same as the past Ruve from the first timeline. Right, I think it's better to call it that he grew into a better person instead of "he changed." Because he didn't change, it was just that the second timeline Ruve chose a different path for himself. Just like how Tia chose hers, I just realized that now lmao anyways I'll stop now though I still have much to say.
All in all I liked this story, it was a bit of a stressful read for me (props to the author/creator too for that, another reason why I thought this was great is due to having many different emotions whirling inside me while reading this and it was so interesting, I had so much to say because of it) which was probably why I took my time reading it and I was unsure how it'd end but I liked it a lot. It made me comtemplate about a lot of things, now I'm looking forward for what my future self has to say if ever I visit this manhwa again. It'd be interesting to see if I still have the same opinion as now (￣∇￣")
P.S. If there's anybody who read all this then thank you for taking interest in my ramblings, it's so long that I'm almost 100% sure no one will read this lmao
beru is so cute pls but igrit is still my fav shadow soldier (づ￣ ³￣)づ also it's interesting cuz they changed this fight scene quite a bit (it's not the same as in the novel) I'm excited to see how things will turn out in the end... maybe we'll see jin-woo's dad earlier than I thought since it seems they're speeding the phase by quite a lot
hi can i ask? what chapter is this in the novel?
this and the previous chapter is covered in chapters 216-217 of the novel ^^
THANKYOU!!