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DO NOT READ WITHOUT READING THE RECENT CHAPTERS OF THE MANHWA (UNTIL CHAPTER 47)



People hate Lucio too much but he really isn't a bad person. Except for making Patrizia queen because she's infertile, everything else was Rosemond's doing. Petronilla was executed because of Rosemond and Lucio didn't even know she did it until evidence proved otherwise. He's a great emperor despite his emotional disposition. Unless you read the novel, you probably won't be able to realize that.

Also let me point out that Lucio in the previous timeline was an affection-craving fool but in this timeline, he is more self-aware and in denial because he knows Rosemond doesn't love him. Although he didn't show it at the beginning, he was actually having doubts about her. This is because Rosemond also has memories of the past and her self-awareness of her past mistakes altered her personality. I'm quite sure she truly loved Lucio despite manipulating him in the past timeline but in the present, she's so focused on becoming queen that it became her downfall in the end.

(LUCIO)
The previous emperor (Lucio's father) was married to Alisa, the daughter of the most powerful Duke in the kingdom. But Alisa was infertile and at the same time the emperor's concubine, Janet, gave birth to an heir. As a queen who could not give birth, Alisa was basically useless so she decides to take Janet's son as her own. But the truth was that she just wanted to fuse her jealousy and abuse the kid; physically, emotionally, and sometimes sexually as well. Lucio grew up believing Alisa was his mother and didn't understand why she treated him like that. Days before his birthday, Alisa called Lucio to the courtyard telling him she had a gift for him (Lucio never once celebrated his birthday so he was excited). When Lucio arrived, Alisa threatened him to kill a person hidden underneath a white veil. He refused but then she began to beat him up until he gave in. With a sword she gave him, he stabbed the person under the veil multiple times. Alisa, laughing crazily, then reveals that she wasn't his real mother and that the person Lucio killed was Janet, his biological mother. At that time the emperor was away from the palace so when he came back, Alisa was dethroned from her status as queen and Lucio was never the same again.

(ROSEMOND - warning mention of sexual assault)
Rosemond is the daughter of a prostitute and a Baron. When she was 10, her biological mother was killed by the Baroness then the Baron took her in. She was treated like a maid and abused in the estate. At one point, her half-brother began to see her as a woman and so he raped her. Rosemond wanted to become queen in order to not only destroy the Baron's household but to also eliminate anyone who judged her for her commoner background. That's when Rosemond decided to "coincidentally" meet the emperor and share her painful story with him. Because of that, Lucio sympathized with her, and her plot to becoming queen began.

(DUKE EPHRENY)
(by order of nobility: duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron)
Duchess Ephreny was the daughter of a Marquis and Duke Ephreny was the son of a Baron. When they were younger, he seduced her, spiked her drink, and raped her. When she became pregnant, she decided to marry him because she had no memories of the rape and was convinced she loved him. Keep in mind though, that Duchess Ephreny is a blood descendent of the Ephrenys so she has a general claim of all rights and wealth while her husband is only powerful because of his wife's last name. Soon after the Duchess bore a son and her husband went from Marquis to Duke. The reason he was able to gain such a high title was because he manipulated the previous empress Alisa. Because of him, Alisa began to hate Janet (Lucio's biological mother) which ultimately lead to her forcing Lucio to kill his own mother. Rosemond knows about this because of her past memories, so she uses it to blackmail Duke Ephreny.

There are 3 pillars in the kingdom. The chancellor of the three was the Dukedom of Oswins (empress Alisa's house). But because Ephreny manipulated the previous empress Alisa into committing treason, Duke Oswins secluded himself. This gave way for the Dukedom of Ephreny to climb to the top. Thus, Rose being adopted makes her a high-status woman of the empire, second only to Patrizia. Rosemond's plan is to become Princess of Ephreny, announce that Patrizia is infertile, and work to becoming queen dowager. She basically plans to become a widowed queen where she gets rid of Lucio after bearing his child in order to gain an immediate legal claim of the throne, through giving birth to the heir.

Patrizia and Lucio grow increasingly close especially when she sees Lucio hurting himself due to a psychological attack in the next chapter of the manhwa (chapter 48). They also keep coincidentally seeing each other in the garden at night, which is also where Lucio tells Patrizia about his past. This all happens while Rosemond went away to her parent's house so when she came back Lucio began to reject her because he started to side with Patrizia. Everyone who knew about his past would avoid or judge him, but Patrizia pitied him and didn't understand why he was so used to pain. He then falls for her kind and genuine personality as well as her capabilities as queen.

On the evening of the Nation's Founding, Rosemond is officially adopted as Duke Ephreny's daughter. Lucio and Patrizia are both close but awkward with each other, mainly because Lucio is starting to subtly act on his feelings by always being around Patrizia and constantly asking if she's tired or not (yes he's really falling in love with her and infinitely dumping that bimbo) but Patrizia doesn't know how to react to him. But while she's alone, Rosemond appears and suddenly talks about rumors of how Patrizia hadn't slept with Lucio yet. She then asks why Patrizia isn't pregnant yet and claims Patrizia could be infertile which makes Patrizia incredibly furious because infertility is a great taboo (see what happened to late empress Alisa) among the public. And with their culture (especially considering she's the queen) it defines her dignity as a woman as well. Patrizia slaps Rosemond a couple of times out of anger after she proposes they both have a fertility test to find out the truth. After the fight, Lucio pulls Rosemond away to talk. They argue and break up after Rose admits she was only making use of his trauma and that Patrizia would never love a man who killed his own mother.

Because of Rosemond's scandalous actions, the Council decides to have the fertility test but Patrizia refuses to take it. Lucio keeps desperately urging her to, but Patrizia doesn't listen because she was positive she isn't sterile. That's when she realizes why Lucio was acting strangely desperate. She connects the dots and finds out about Lucio's plan with Rosemond of getting a queen who couldn't give birth. Patrizia feels devastated and betrayed while asking him "How are you any different from empress Alisa?!" then leaves him alone. After returning to her palace, she orders her maids to find a perfume called stereen (?) and gift it to Rosemond. When Rosemond received it, she started using it a lot, thinking it was Patrizia's way of licking her shoes for mercy.

One evening, Rosemond enters Lucio's bedroom and makes Lucio drink an aphrodisiac in order to force him to sleep with her. At this point, Lucio is completely in love with Patrizia even though she absolutely hates him. So he leaves the room to restrain himself because Rosemond wasn't going to leave. By coincidence, he meets Patrizia outside. Seeing his state, Patrizia suggested he slept with Rosemond/maid/any woman in the palace but he didn't want to. So Patrizia decides to help him and they have their first night together.

Petronilla actually has memories of the previous timeline. Patrizia finds this out during Lucio's birthday banquet. Rosemond had changed the traditional birthday flowers to sage - empress Alisa's favorite flowers that by the scent and appearance, could give Lucio severe psychological attacks because of his PTSD. But Petronilla was able to change the flowers to amaryllis and exposes her past memories to Patrizia. Because of that, Patrizia finds confidence in finding a way to kill Rosemond. She was depressed knowing her efforts were wasted because she's infertile, but it became her strength because she realized that she finally had nothing else to lose.

Petronilla has an important role in helping Patrizia expose Rosemond. Because of her, the truth about January (Duke Ephreny's mistress) conspiring with Rosemond will be revealed. In the end, she manages to steal the letters Rosemond sent to January in order to provide them as evidence in court.

Patrizia is confused with her feelings after sleeping with Lucio, so she goes to her parent's home for a visit. On her way back to the palace, she's ambushed by assassins. Patrizia had purposely exposed the fact that she was leaving for her parents' home so she already expected the assassination to happen. And according to the plan, Patrizia has the royal guards save her while she purposely slices her arms and legs with a knife for better effect and to cause an uproar among the people about someone trying to harm the queen. When she returns to the palace, Lucio says it was Rosemond's plan because he heard her talking about the assassination with her maid. Rosemond is again sentenced to execution and Lucio whole-heartedly agrees with it. She tries to get Duke Ephreny to save her but Patrizia and Petronilla had compiled Rosemond's letters to January and sent them to Duchess Ephreny.

The Duchess's son with the Duke had died because of the illness so the Duchess was mentally unstable. And after returning to the empire and reading through the letters about her husband raping her, she kicks January and the Duke out of the mansion. So Rosemond then has no one to save her from execution. Days before her death, Patrizia confronts Rosemond about what she did to Duke Ephreny, January, and basically all her crimes. Rosemond claims she would survive because apparently, she was pregnant with Lucio's child. Patrizia then exposes that the perfume she gave Rosemond as a "gift" before had contained chemicals that could make her infertile. So Rosemond ultimately became infertile as well. After that, Rosemond is killed without delay.

Patrizia tells Lucio that she wants to step down from being queen. Lucio panics and begs her to stay. He always felt like he was alone in the palace but having Patrizia there made him feel like he wasn't (it was a very dramatic and emotional scene ngl. you could practically smell his mental state crumbling) In the end, Patrizia stays in the palace because (1) Lucio, as emperor, wouldn't let her, and (2) it wasn't that simple to just stop being queen.

In an effort to appease her, Lucio asks Petronilla about things Patrizia liked. Because Patrizia liked sweets/chocolate, Lucio asks the chef to teach him how to bake. He then keeps sending sweets to Patrizia that he baked on his own.

Petronilla tells Patrizia to stop staying in the past because her mission to save her family is complete. Petronilla admits that she did love Lucio (in the previous timeline) but it shouldn't stop Patrizia from loving him in the present because Lucio loved Patrizia and she wanted Patrizia to finally live happily. This is when Patrizia decides to accept her feelings for Lucio. Coincidentally that night, Lucio had another psychological attack. Patrizia goes into his room to comfort him and tell him she accepted his feelings. They slept together for the second time, but as lovers.

Anything after that is very fluffy husband-wife moments with Lucio still baking sweets for Patrizia from time to time. There's a scene during Patrizia's birthday banquet where she sees Lucio being seduced by a woman who wanted to be queen but he harshly rejects her. When he realized Patrizia saw him with the woman, he adorably tries to explain the situation frantically. They end up dancing on the balcony, having a steamy kiss, and also watching the fireworks together. Patrizia then, for the first time, tells Lucio that she loved him.

The last chapter of the original story is about Petronilla and Rothesay's wedding. Lucio and Patrizia are attending but in disguise. Other side stories after the main story are about (1) a coup de tat in the previous timeline after Petronilla died, (2) Rothesay's POV when he met Petronilla, and (3) Lucio and Patrizia's family life.

Patrizia and Lucio's family life is about Lucio being forced to choose a concubine in order to produce an heir because Patrizia was "infertile". Patrizia agreed to it but Lucio knew she was hurt and always cried a lot because the one thing she wanted was to have a child with the man she loved. Lucio promised she would be his one and only queen. When Patricia went to do charity, she met this old guy claiming he knew her and asked to see her later. During the concubine selection, Patrizia chose Lady Petunia among the candidates but she turns out to be another bitch that belongs to the street who openly insults Patrizia in front of everyone. Lucio then defends his wife and puts the bitch right where she belongs. Before Patrizia reselects another candidate, the old man from before arrived and exposed himself as the physician who conducted her health documents during the queen selection. Apparently, he heard Rosemond's plan in choosing the queen, so to save his daughter who was one of the candidates, he messed up Patrizia's fertility results.

Patrizia and Lucio then do the deed a lot of times (づ￣ ³￣)づ in order to make babies. Lucio joked about having 10 kids but Patrizia laughed saying it was impossible for her to give birth for 10 straight years. Lucio suggests they keep having twins to limit it to 5 years lol. One month later Patrizia is confirmed to be pregnant. Lucio kept feeding her berries and they kept being lovey-dovey.

Time skip 7 years later their first son Dylan wants to sleep with his mom. Lucio says you only sleep with someone you marry so Dylan says he wants to marry Patrizia. Lucio gets annoyed (cute) so Patrizia tells Dylan to sleep early and get tall because she likes tall people. Lucio has the AUDACITY to feel proud because he thinks he's pretty tall lmao. The three of them end up sleeping beside each other. Dylan then asks how babies were made and Lucio tells him if he wants a brother he should let him and Patrizia "hold hands alone". After that night Dylan keeps giving them time alone (⌒▽⌒)

Another time skip, Dylan has triplets as younger sisters; Regina, Ressie, and Raine. Lucio by this time is already in his 40s but Patrizia still describes her heart beating fast when she's with him despite them being together for 20 years already. Patrizia says none of the emperors throughout history have been as good to their queens as Lucio was to her. But maybe Dylan would break the record and Patrizia was really proud to have him as her son. Lucio also gets jealous since none of their children wanted to marry him, including his triplet daughters. All of them wanted to marry their mom.

The next night it's Patrizia's birthday and she's surprised with gifts. After opening them, the children tell Lucio and Patrizia to kiss. They kissed and lived happily ever after. The END


If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The spoilers here are only the main events in the novel so I skipped out on the minor details that didn't affect the plot drastically.

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.