
Again SPOILERS:
Oh yea, and our Dahlia is really just Dahlia. She never read the novel, it's just knowledge of those other timelines compressed down so she doesn't go mad like O'neil did.
Something or other about 2 Dahlias existing in the same timeline, which is why the memories of O'neil Dahlia melt into our Dahlia in this twisted way. I didn't exactly get that, from the dialogue snippets I read it also feels like O'neil gave our Dahlia that novel formated info on purpose.
Her sus dreams are also from those other timelines btw, remains of memories that her mind is processing subconsciously.
YO just let me sob in here for a moment, bc this started with me just finding this River guy sus. I see comments, I read SOME FEW spoilers, I go and look on the novel update forums, and jesus christ - nail me up there with him.
If you want spoilers on the specifics about Rivers and his cushy behaviour:
The guy sees the maid he grew up with in Dahlia. He grew up seperated from his family with that maid and fell in love with her, but he thought she died.
His father also pushed him to get close to Dahlia for political gains.
So yea, the guy gives his all to rizz her up but is quick to drop the act when it turns out that the maid's still alive. But he's not a bad guy, just desperate for his first crush.
And guess what? There's so much MORE to the story, holy fucking shit.
The reason why that maid is so similar to FL is bc she's really just Dahlia from another timeline. And wait that's not all, that alt timeline Dahlia is also actually O'neil the supposed novel FL. I'm speechless guys.
O'neil/og Dahlia is stuck in a timeloop bc ML made a deal with the devil in which he pays with his own happiness to fuel those time reversals (which is also why his life is so shit in this current timeline, bc it's not the first one - his family was actually pretty normal in the og timeline but got progressively worse each time FL returned). In that first timeline FL ended herself bc of the schemes of her paternal aunt and uncle who killed her parents to take the dukedom, and ML regreted not being there for her and stopping her in time.
So, og Dahlia goes a bit mad over all that dying and coming back, and eventually decides to travel to an optimal timeline (timeline of our Dahlia) where she's happy and can help from the shadows, so Dahlia can be as happy as possible - shortly whereafter she wants to just freeze time to be rid of this torture. She becomes O'neil, chills out with River and plots and waits.
But in the end the loop is broken, she won't be freezing anything and fades away peacefully (after exploring the world a bit.. and poor rivers is left to chase after her) since she can't exist that long in a timeline she doesn't belong to.
So in the end you could really say that he does love Dahlia in a very confusing ass way.
I'm not the only one who's totally overwhelmed by that, am I? Like not even in a bad way, just omg.