Okay I have a few theories on how Clarice makes it past 18
1- she actually isn’t a princess (not likely bc they probably verified her blood before letting her stay in the palace once she was born)
2- her power of speaking to rocks leads to her being pardoned somehow
3- the duke overthrows the emperor
4- the emperor interacts with Clarice and finds her cute enough to live (unlikely bc that’ll defeat the big plot too early on)
5- the emperor is like “if you win this war I’ll give you anything” and the duke leaves for war and there’s a time skip and he wins and asks for Clarice to be pardoned
6- the emperor ends up getting a complicated relationship with Clarice where she’s just entertainment for her and he has no intention on letting her live until years later when she’s close to 18 she almost dies somehow and he’s like omg wait I don’t want you to die and after she survives he pardons her
Maybe I’m reading too much into this but I hope he’s fine and doesn’t do anything else, it’s clear he isn’t in a good mental state and wasn’t he the same person who said he doesn’t do apologies, maybe it’s just character development but the whole “sorry I got you involved” has me thinking something bad is about to happen especially Eunyung saying he’ll NEVER be able to escape from the house
I read the comments and went into the story expecting myself to be so confused but I understood everything and in my opinion the story was so well written omg I loved it almost as much as radio storm, I’m choosing to believe this universe isn’t connected to the radio storm universe so I can convince myself Jesse and Law live happy and won’t die
I usually hate toxic bls but passion is fine for me, esp since ilay and taeui’s dynamic isn’t one that has me fearing for taeui other than the noncon (which every toxic bl has) I can’t see ilay ever hurting taeui, ilay’s dynamic with Taeui also lets taeui not fear him to an extent as tay is still bold and blunts at moments but idk if that’s bc he’s just taeui lol
That’s just how Tae is.
I haven’t read the comic version of the mirror scene, but in the novel before it all goes down Ilay asks Tae if he regrets it (tying him up and all that jazz from before he left UNHRDO) and Tae thinks for a while says no, which surprises Ilay. Tae just says that even if he knows it might not end well for him, he won’t lie because he doesn’t regret it and if he had to do it again he would .
So yes, he’s instinctively afraid of Ilay, but at the same time confident enough to face him.
Also, I think what makes this couple different from most is that both started liking each other before they even realized it and before anything bad happened between them. In the novels were shown inside Tae’s head. The I honestly think it happened almost (if not) from their first meeting (well Ilay “met” Tae first through those phone calls and he allowed him to call him by his name from the beginning which is something he doesn’t do. Nobody calls him “Ilay” outside of his family, so I think thst was a huge hint the author dropped early on).
LMAO TAE ACTUALLY SAID THAT?? Taeui might actually be one of my fav mcs but yeah they both started off with positive feelings for eachother so maybe that’s why they’re different then other black flag couples and also because ilay only started being possessive after like 90 chapters letting their relationship develop beforehand unlike other possessive mls where it’s just from the get go and the uke is just scared as hell from the beginning
I went back to read their conversation.
“No… … I have no excuse."
He sighed and shook his head. Ilay smiled subtly while looking at Jeong Tae-eui.
“¿You’re not sorry? Looks like you’ve been thinking about this for a while.“
"Well… … . If I say I’m sorry, you’ll hurt me less? But thinking of everything that happened, I don’t think that’s the case…after all, people need to be true to themselves.”
Jeong Tae-eui said calmly. Ilay looked at Jeong Tae-eui with a face as if he’d been hit, but then he burst out laughing. It sounded like a happy laugh, but Jeong Tae-eui noticed his eyes began to shine. Even if they hadn’t known each other for long, he knew enough.
“So you’re not sorry then?”
Tae asks him what exactly he had to be sorry for since there were a few things he did to piss him off.
Ilay smiled, but a Tae knows very well that his smile doesn’t mean he’s happy.
Ilay asks him about his life while he wandered around as Kim Young-soo, but Tae remains mum.
“Tell me".
Jeong Tae-eui furrowed his brow. He wasn’t sorry for what he’d done to Ilay. There were so many things that it was hard to count them, but it may be something that could set him off.
“… … . Did you curse me?
Jeong Tae-eui asked, unsure.
Jeong Tae-ui looked at Ilay silently, then he sighed and shook his head.
"I don’t know what passed you off more, but I don’t regret anything I did.”
"¿Not even a bit?"
"Not even a bit."
Ilay asked as if giving him one last chance, but Jeong Tae-eui shook his head again with conviction.
"Hmm.” He said, then shut up deep in thought and just started at Jeong Tae-eui.
Originally I found a Spanish group that did MTL translations of the novels, then I found out I was missing some side stories and found a raw novel site.
https://booktoki341.com
I have been recapping the novels on my blog as well. There are at least 2 side stories not posted on the raws website.
If you want to check them out later, I can send you the link to my blog.
Okay but actually, I don’t see Minho living more than a year, like unlike these other Stockholm syndrome manwhas he never fell in love with taekyung like he’s just miserable, but I’m glad the author atleast didn’t make him fall in love after all of that