Ok this will be VEEERY long, you can just skim through to get to what you actually want to know. It's kinda obvious but: beware of BIG SPOILERS!! I basically spoiled the whole plot. IF you want to avoid major spoilers/plottwists and just want to know the ending: SKIP the last section "VOLUMES SUMMARY" and stop before that!
GENERAL INFO The novel is 6 volumes, about 250 chapters (which is LONG for a shoujo let alone a smut), with each volume being mainly focused on one of the 6 targets/male leads. Order of conquest/smut: 1) Arthur/Asher (paladin, white hair) 2) Karamchant (crown prince, long platinum hair) 3) Liam (king, blue hair) 4) Lucius (fairy, blond hair) 5) Galian (politician, brown hair/beard in the novel illustrations) 6) Halsenravion (emperor, dark hair)
CONTENT WARNINGS - dubcon/noncon both from a few MLs to the FL AND from the FL to the MLs (women in male dominated fields I guess...?) - there are mentions of dark themes in the backstories such as rape, suicide, prostitution of minors etc. - the fairy looks very young and it made me uncomfortable how (even though: 1) he's actually 51, 2) he's supposed to look about 20 physically which is only 3 years younger than FL, 3) he's definitely NOT an innocent fairy, quite the opposite) they CONTINUE talking about how young his body is compared to the others and to FL's "mature woman's body" UGHHHH - the author REAAAALLY likes to talk about (AND DESCRIBE?!?) the MLs' previous relationships/marriages/one-night-stands, even for example Liam's first night with his first wife (I was like: wtf, do I need to know all these details??) or about Galian selling his body as a TEENAGER! to men and women (not described, only the aftermath/context, but still wtf). I personally found it all a bit hard to stomach and skipped a lot of pages, including the traumatic scenes
ENDING/harem hierarchy In the end they're in a happy polyandrous relationship and they all kinda live together: the god gifted them the ability to teleport from their country to the Vatican (and opposite) whenever they want, so they can manage their public affairs and then come back when they're horny essentially lmao. There ends up being a hierarchy that they themselves establish, or better TWO hierarchies: - ASHER is considered the head of the harem because he's infinitely stronger than ALL 5 OTHER MLS TOGETHER, as they assessed in the final chapters when Asher went crazy out of jealousy and they all fought him (Heziana ended up beating him up because, surprise! She's the Pope so she can neutralize his divine power lmao) - LIAM however is literally considered the main wife because he's the one Heziana clearly trusts and loves the most (they're all ok with that, they just feel competitive). I was SO happy that the two non-scheming cutie pies, my favorites, are the heads of the harem instead of the other arrogant (although lovable) bastards . Especially Liam, I thought he would be the most uninteresting but I ended up being much more invested in him compared to the others. Heziana actually ends up being more or less the dom in all of their relationships AND THE MOST HORNY ONE lol, even the ones that try to dominate her end up being dominated.
VOLUMES SUMMARY + BACKSTORIES 1) ARTHUR/ASHER My personal favorite together with Liam. The paladin loyal only to the Pope that is literally a powerhouse. He's the first to be conquered and the only virgin (I love that he and FL were kind of each other's first time, so cute). After the happenings of the manhwa they sleep together more times before the next target/conquest and UGH I LOVE HIM HE'S SO CUTE. I'll have to admit that the power dynamic between him and FL and him clearly not being able to refuse made me a bit uncomfortable, but he's actually very much into it (he just refuses because he feels like he has to repress his own sexual desire as a member of the church) so it's fine I guess...? He was the one that FL found the most difficult to deal with, both because of his loyalty to the church and doctrines and because of his self-punishing behavior (he's used to literally whipping himself if he makes a mistake or acts upon his desires, poor baby :(((). She had to gently coax him the whole time to avoid him killing others and himself. He's the ONLY one who didn't know UNTIL THE VERY END that Heziana was sleeping with other men because he was too innocent to put together the clues and thought she was very close friends with everybody, and it was heartbreaking when he found out :(. He went completely batshit crazy and tried to kill all the other male leads, even demolishing the Vatican and not gaf about other innocents present, with the excuse of them trying to depose the Pope to marry her, when in reality it was just him being jealous and afraid that she was gonna abandon him to get married. He never tried to hurt Heziana, but they had kind of a (unilateral) fight because Heziana thought he only liked her because she was the Pope and not as herself (not true, they made up after she beat some sense into him lmao). At the end he's still at the Vatican at FL's side, sometimes taking missions.
2) KARAMCHANT The second target surprisingly (I though he and the emperor would both be the last 'main' targets). Backstory: The crown prince of the eastern empire, who wants a war due to his god complex (a gift from daddy dearest) about wanting to conquer all countries and unite them to obtain peace. His ultimate goal is peace, so he's not just a war crazy tyrant, but still wtf are you doing?! He starts off extremely arrogant, wanting to seduce the innocent (at least that's what he thinks) FL in order to have the Pope on his side. Their first time is of his initiative (at least that's what he thinks x2 lmaooo) BUT he gets extremely humiliated when he feels SO good that he has premature ejaculation AHAAHAHAHAHAH FL even innocently (really) asks him if it's normal for men to come this fast OMG AHAHAHAHAHAH. After that he starts to literally run away from the FL out of embarrassment, with FL hilariously hunting him down. From then on it's FL that initiates and kinda forces his hand. There's even one scene (that personally made me uncomfortable but whatever) about Heziana tying him up S&M style and essentially raping him: I mean he was only refusing because he didn't want to further embarass himself, not because he didn't like her let's be clear, BUT he still said that he didn't want to a lot of times and she didn't stop, yikes. Still, she frees him afterwards and he enthusiastically fucks her himself afterwards so all is well, no offense taken on his part. After their first time he offers to give her a position as a concubine, not even an empress. To the Pope?!?!? FL is legitimately VERY pissed. But after a few encounters (after the S&M one lol) he actually starts wanting her as his empress, and is rejected every time obviously . He's the one who least accepts their poly relationship at the end apart from Asher (although much less then him), he only reluctantly agrees because he thought of one day making her choose him (NOPE not gonna happen). He was initially so arrogant but he ended up being surprisingly cute, even FL starts finding him very cute.
3) LIAM () The third target and main wife :D I LOVE HIM SO MUCHHHH Backstory: He's always been very apathetic, which didn't allow him to develop deep relationships with anyone, not even his mother or his first wife. He had a peaceful but difficult first marriage: he actually DID love his wife (not as much as he later loves Heziana, who's essentially his soulmate) but didn't realize it and didn't give her attention during their marriage. Plus, his libido was very low (not with FL :D) and that made her feel further neglected, so at one point she divorced him and later married someone else she loved. This really traumatized him and made him dread the thought of being loved by someone again only to disappoint them and make them suffer. For this reason he initially fought his own feelings for FL. He initially got interested in her because of her intelligence in politics, as he really wanted someone on pair with him that he could discuss strategies with. Then he accidentally finds out that FL is sleeping with other men (2 previously conquered male leads) and gets VEEERY jealous, trying to convince himself that it's not because of love. He's the only one that genuinely fell in love from the beginning, the only one whose love was always completely pure without ulterior motives (or without it being initially mostly loyalty like in Asher's case), the only one that she FULLY trusts and leans on and the only one whose ONLY purpose was peace just like FL, which further makes them perfect partners and soulmates. After they sleep together and solve all misunderstandings, they're basically attached at the hip for the rest of the story (AAAAAAHHHH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH EJDJIFKSKFJFKSO). He becomes kind of her secretary and they work together to achieve world peace and plot against the other male leads who have ulterior motives in order to bring them to their side. At the end he's the one who's most accepting of the poly relationship and actually encourages it, because he likes that FL can find what he lacks in other lovers and will never get depressed like his first wife did due to neglect (which is actually very sad TT). He does still sometimes get jealous though.
4) LUCIUS/LUCIO The fourth target, the fairy prince. Backstory: There's a LOOOOT of lore in his backstory that is connected to the whole background of the story. *** context (you can skip): 15 years ago there was a brutal war (the one that left FL orphaned) involving the whole continent. In their world there were these "7 Stars", 7 powerful families with strong magic powers. These families have always been human, and as such the power of the 7 Stars is seen as the power given to humanity by God to protect the humans from other species. All 'successors' of these families have a mark on their back that glows when magic or divine power is used or infused, but they become the proper Star only after a succession cerimony. FL herself is a successor of the March Star that didn't have the succession cerimony so she's incomplete and only relies on her omnipotent divine power as the Pope instead of magic. Anyway, 15 years ago one of the 7 Stars allied with the North and attacked the Fairy Kingdom seemingly out of nowhere, starting a chain of conflict and destruction through the whole continent as more and more people got involved. After this, that particular Star ("July Star", they're called with months of the year) and his successors got blamed for everyone's tragedies and universally hated/hunted. *** He's supposedly the fourth prince, the illegitimate son of the Fairy King that he had with a human woman. BUT turns out that everything he believed in was a lie: first we find out that he has the mark of the July Star (he's not just a successor, he's the new actual July Star), and the Fairy King convinced him and FL that his mother was the half sister of the previous July Star and that caused him to inherit the mark. THEN however turns out that ALL THIS WAS A LIE AS WELL!! Basically: the Fairy King, his presumed father, actually killed his real family. Lucios is the son of the previous July Star (who was old when he died, because remember that Lucios is 51 and they had him early) and a random female fairy, who both have NOTHING to do with the Fairy King. This bastard found out that a half-fairy inherited the July Star's powers, got greedy to make that power (that's supposed to be the humans') property of the fairies'. So he killed his mother, kidnapped young Lucios while perfectly knowing that the July Star would go crazy to get back his beloved son. And that's what the father did: he started the war to take Lucios back, and almost destroyed the Fairy Kingdom (yup, the king brought destruction to his own people) but was eventually defeated and executed without achieving his purpose . The Fairy Queen is very angry about the king's actions but FOR THE WRONG REASONS!! She believes that her beloved husband's change in personality and terrible actions were all because of Lucios, the cursed child because of whom the war started. In the 4th volume, the queen imprisons the king and then banishes (and tries to have killed) the poor Lucios who's now in complete confusion and despair at what he found out. Enters Heziana: she feels a connection to Lucios because all the Star families are VEEEERY (emphasis on VERY) distantly related so she kinda considers him her only family member, but not only that, she genuinely started to care about him (although platonically), so against public opinion she decides to publicly shield him and protect him by making him part of the Vatican. She's very badass at this point, emphasizing to all the fairies in the Vatican trying to kill him that SHE'S THE POPE, she's the one who has all the power here. Lucios is actually one of the most forceful male leads, surprisingly: their first time (before all this mess) happened because Lucios literally DRUGGED HER, she didn't know what she was doing and later feels very guilty because she believes to have actively seduced/sa'ed someone she came to consider as her little brother, when in reality the one who was sa'ed was her (not that I felt that bad about it, she did the exact same thing to all of them so...). After all the mess, Lucios also emotionally manipulates her (and blackmails her with his own survival) into sleeping with him: he tells her that she's the only one he has now, so if she wants him to be obediently protected by her side he needs to be sure that he has a connection to her. So they start actively sleeping together, yay I guess lmao. At the end he kinda becomes the petty, white lotus concubine of the harem who's innocent before the FL but plots to gain more favor than the others at her back AHAHAAHAH.
5) GALIAN The fifth target, the politician from the southern republic. He's actually... * suspence * ... THE MASTERMIND. Let me explain: Backstory: He had a very difficult childhood as a war orphan (like FL, but he was never saved), he had to do literally anything to survive and get food, from criminal offenses to prostitution, and the fact that he was willing to do anything allowed him to survive and eventually rise to politics until he became the current representative. Because of this difficult childhood, he started wanting to basically destroy everything, so he started distributing this horrible drug that caused a plague in the present story AND managed to convince Hanselravion, emperor of the west who also wanted to destroy everything (for reason I'll explain in a bit), to purchase this drug from him and use it to cause caos and destruction. He literally plotted the whole progression of the conflict in the background. FL finds evidence of his plot in his room: he literally tries to rape her (this piece of shit) BUT FL is strong and badass af in the Vatican so she frees herself and imprisons him in a subspace she created. She herself tortures him to get information about the drug/who created it/etc., and at one point she notices that.... HE'S ACTUALLY REALLY LIKING THIS LMAOOOOO she's here whipping him, kicking him and all and HE'S HARD AND HAPPILY PROVOKING HER TO MAKE HER BEAT HIM UP MORE AHAHAAAAHHAH. After that SHE takes the initiative and, in order to get him on their side but also because... she kinda had an awakening as a sadist LMAO, she sleeps with him starting a textbook hardcore S&M relationship. After just their first time he's SO whipped (literally and figurately lol) that all he wants is to stay by her side and abandons all his plans because "he found what he was looking for", basically someone to beat him into submission I guess . He actively provokes her, and she sistematically responds by punishing him or rewarding him if he does something good. His behavior is a result of his traumatic childhood: by finding FL, his perfect dom, he can have control over his own pain, because in the end it's HIM who chooses when to 'misbehave' and be punished. He's actually really jealous, ESPECIALLY of the most submissive ones of the harem (mostly Asher because he envies his position as "FL's dog" lmao) he wants to be the only one being dominated .
6) HANSELRAVION The sixth target, the emperor and as such the highest ranking among all the male leads. He's the one I was anticipating the most and also the one I was the most DISAPPOINTED in, not because of what he did or his difficult personality (which has reasons) but in terms of lack of development on the author's part. The author took her time with all the others, that had a more gradual development over the course of at least 1-2 volumes (even in terms of their feelings for FL gradually developing). Well, apart from Galian, who completely folded almost immediately once Heziana started acting like a dom lmao. Hanselravion however only had the last volume, or better HALF volume because the rest was dedicated to Asher acting up, Hanselravion's backstory and the ending of them living together. Which means that it was all SO SUDDEN AND UNDERWHELMING. Backstory: he was a powerless cowardly prince, whose only support became his wife (they didn't love each other romantically and were equally cold, but still cared about each other). His horrible older brothers one day decided to humiliate him by... brutally gang-raping his young bride. IN FRONT OF HIM. (probably the subplot I found the hardest to read) His wife got pregnant and eventually died with the child due to a difficult birth. This made him go batshit crazy, (legitimately) blaming his brothers for her death. He got his revenge by killing them and becoming the emperor, BUT he was still extremely unstable and depressed, which brought him to wanting to destroy his corrupt country and then himself. He CHOSE to become a terrible tyrant while plotting to eventually be defeated and erased together with his hated country, he was literally rooting for Heziana and the other sovereigns to win against him all along. Which is also why he is currently acting like an asshole, sa'ing FL etc., which is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of his actual personality. He WANTS to be hated. Anyway, as the last target she has to conquer for peace, FL is in a rush because it's literally her last chance and there's no time, so she chooses to actually respond to his provocations (which leaves him completely baffled LMAO) and take the initiative. She kinda forces herself on him (he initially only feels the need to accept because he can't betray his own image that he cultivated), but well... he actually ends up liking being dominated as well, A LOT?! Anyway, with the power of pussy, completely out of nowhere, he realizes that he just felt lonely all along and that FL is his happiness he doesn't want to let go of (it was almost comedic to read because of how absurd it was imo AHAHAHAHAH it had the same energy as the power of friendship solving everything in shounen mangas), completely letting go of his destruction plans. The end. He could have been interesting but it seemed VERY forced, and he's also the only one that the FL literally didn't have time to develop feelings for, she just felt obligated to fulfill her duty, he fell for her (why? Idk), Asher tried to kill them, the novel ended. That's it. I feel like after (literally) 12 years of writing the novel the author got tired and just wanted to get the last male lead out of the way and end the story, such wasted potential :/
Anyway, I wasn't expecting anything (I'm just here for the poly, don't mind me :D) BUT I actually got REALLY invested, it was kind of a pity to see it end even though it was so long.
I think I covered basically everything, but feel free to ask questions if there's something I forgot!
Ok this will be VEEERY long, you can just skim through to get to what you actually want to know.
It's kinda obvious but: beware of BIG SPOILERS!! I basically spoiled the whole plot.
IF you want to avoid major spoilers/plottwists and just want to know the ending: SKIP the last section "VOLUMES SUMMARY" and stop before that!
GENERAL INFO
The novel is 6 volumes, about 250 chapters (which is LONG for a shoujo let alone a smut), with each volume being mainly focused on one of the 6 targets/male leads.
Order of conquest/smut:
1) Arthur/Asher (paladin, white hair)
2) Karamchant (crown prince, long platinum hair)
3) Liam (king, blue hair)
4) Lucius (fairy, blond hair)
5) Galian (politician, brown hair/beard in the novel illustrations)
6) Halsenravion (emperor, dark hair)
CONTENT WARNINGS
- dubcon/noncon both from a few MLs to the FL AND from the FL to the MLs (women in male dominated fields I guess...?)
- there are mentions of dark themes in the backstories such as rape, suicide, prostitution of minors etc.
- the fairy looks very young and it made me uncomfortable how (even though: 1) he's actually 51, 2) he's supposed to look about 20 physically which is only 3 years younger than FL, 3) he's definitely NOT an innocent fairy, quite the opposite) they CONTINUE talking about how young his body is compared to the others and to FL's "mature woman's body" UGHHHH
- the author REAAAALLY likes to talk about (AND DESCRIBE?!?) the MLs' previous relationships/marriages/one-night-stands, even for example Liam's first night with his first wife (I was like: wtf, do I need to know all these details??) or about Galian selling his body as a TEENAGER! to men and women (not described, only the aftermath/context, but still wtf). I personally found it all a bit hard to stomach and skipped a lot of pages, including the traumatic scenes
ENDING/harem hierarchy
In the end they're in a happy polyandrous relationship and they all kinda live together: the god gifted them the ability to teleport from their country to the Vatican (and opposite) whenever they want, so they can manage their public affairs and then come back when they're horny essentially lmao.
There ends up being a hierarchy that they themselves establish, or better TWO hierarchies:
- ASHER is considered the head of the harem because he's infinitely stronger than ALL 5 OTHER MLS TOGETHER, as they assessed in the final chapters when Asher went crazy out of jealousy and they all fought him (Heziana ended up beating him up because, surprise! She's the Pope so she can neutralize his divine power lmao)
- LIAM however is literally considered the main wife because he's the one Heziana clearly trusts and loves the most (they're all ok with that, they just feel competitive).
I was SO happy that the two non-scheming cutie pies, my favorites, are the heads of the harem instead of the other arrogant (although lovable) bastards . Especially Liam, I thought he would be the most uninteresting but I ended up being much more invested in him compared to the others.
Heziana actually ends up being more or less the dom in all of their relationships AND THE MOST HORNY ONE lol, even the ones that try to dominate her end up being dominated.
VOLUMES SUMMARY + BACKSTORIES
1) ARTHUR/ASHER
My personal favorite together with Liam.
The paladin loyal only to the Pope that is literally a powerhouse.
He's the first to be conquered and the only virgin (I love that he and FL were kind of each other's first time, so cute).
After the happenings of the manhwa they sleep together more times before the next target/conquest and UGH I LOVE HIM HE'S SO CUTE.
I'll have to admit that the power dynamic between him and FL and him clearly not being able to refuse made me a bit uncomfortable, but he's actually very much into it (he just refuses because he feels like he has to repress his own sexual desire as a member of the church) so it's fine I guess...?
He was the one that FL found the most difficult to deal with, both because of his loyalty to the church and doctrines and because of his self-punishing behavior (he's used to literally whipping himself if he makes a mistake or acts upon his desires, poor baby :(((). She had to gently coax him the whole time to avoid him killing others and himself.
He's the ONLY one who didn't know UNTIL THE VERY END that Heziana was sleeping with other men because he was too innocent to put together the clues and thought she was very close friends with everybody, and it was heartbreaking when he found out :(. He went completely batshit crazy and tried to kill all the other male leads, even demolishing the Vatican and not gaf about other innocents present, with the excuse of them trying to depose the Pope to marry her, when in reality it was just him being jealous and afraid that she was gonna abandon him to get married. He never tried to hurt Heziana, but they had kind of a (unilateral) fight because Heziana thought he only liked her because she was the Pope and not as herself (not true, they made up after she beat some sense into him lmao).
At the end he's still at the Vatican at FL's side, sometimes taking missions.
2) KARAMCHANT
The second target surprisingly (I though he and the emperor would both be the last 'main' targets).
Backstory: The crown prince of the eastern empire, who wants a war due to his god complex (a gift from daddy dearest) about wanting to conquer all countries and unite them to obtain peace. His ultimate goal is peace, so he's not just a war crazy tyrant, but still wtf are you doing?!
He starts off extremely arrogant, wanting to seduce the innocent (at least that's what he thinks) FL in order to have the Pope on his side. Their first time is of his initiative (at least that's what he thinks x2 lmaooo) BUT he gets extremely humiliated when he feels SO good that he has premature ejaculation AHAAHAHAHAHAH FL even innocently (really) asks him if it's normal for men to come this fast OMG AHAHAHAHAHAH. After that he starts to literally run away from the FL out of embarrassment, with FL hilariously hunting him down. From then on it's FL that initiates and kinda forces his hand. There's even one scene (that personally made me uncomfortable but whatever) about Heziana tying him up S&M style and essentially raping him: I mean he was only refusing because he didn't want to further embarass himself, not because he didn't like her let's be clear, BUT he still said that he didn't want to a lot of times and she didn't stop, yikes. Still, she frees him afterwards and he enthusiastically fucks her himself afterwards so all is well, no offense taken on his part.
After their first time he offers to give her a position as a concubine, not even an empress. To the Pope?!?!? FL is legitimately VERY pissed. But after a few encounters (after the S&M one lol) he actually starts wanting her as his empress, and is rejected every time obviously .
He's the one who least accepts their poly relationship at the end apart from Asher (although much less then him), he only reluctantly agrees because he thought of one day making her choose him (NOPE not gonna happen).
He was initially so arrogant but he ended up being surprisingly cute, even FL starts finding him very cute.
3) LIAM ()
The third target and main wife :D
I LOVE HIM SO MUCHHHH
Backstory: He's always been very apathetic, which didn't allow him to develop deep relationships with anyone, not even his mother or his first wife. He had a peaceful but difficult first marriage: he actually DID love his wife (not as much as he later loves Heziana, who's essentially his soulmate) but didn't realize it and didn't give her attention during their marriage. Plus, his libido was very low (not with FL :D) and that made her feel further neglected, so at one point she divorced him and later married someone else she loved.
This really traumatized him and made him dread the thought of being loved by someone again only to disappoint them and make them suffer. For this reason he initially fought his own feelings for FL.
He initially got interested in her because of her intelligence in politics, as he really wanted someone on pair with him that he could discuss strategies with. Then he accidentally finds out that FL is sleeping with other men (2 previously conquered male leads) and gets VEEERY jealous, trying to convince himself that it's not because of love.
He's the only one that genuinely fell in love from the beginning, the only one whose love was always completely pure without ulterior motives (or without it being initially mostly loyalty like in Asher's case), the only one that she FULLY trusts and leans on and the only one whose ONLY purpose was peace just like FL, which further makes them perfect partners and soulmates.
After they sleep together and solve all misunderstandings, they're basically attached at the hip for the rest of the story (AAAAAAHHHH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH EJDJIFKSKFJFKSO). He becomes kind of her secretary and they work together to achieve world peace and plot against the other male leads who have ulterior motives in order to bring them to their side.
At the end he's the one who's most accepting of the poly relationship and actually encourages it, because he likes that FL can find what he lacks in other lovers and will never get depressed like his first wife did due to neglect (which is actually very sad TT). He does still sometimes get jealous though.
4) LUCIUS/LUCIO
The fourth target, the fairy prince.
Backstory: There's a LOOOOT of lore in his backstory that is connected to the whole background of the story.
***
context (you can skip):
15 years ago there was a brutal war (the one that left FL orphaned) involving the whole continent. In their world there were these "7 Stars", 7 powerful families with strong magic powers. These families have always been human, and as such the power of the 7 Stars is seen as the power given to humanity by God to protect the humans from other species. All 'successors' of these families have a mark on their back that glows when magic or divine power is used or infused, but they become the proper Star only after a succession cerimony. FL herself is a successor of the March Star that didn't have the succession cerimony so she's incomplete and only relies on her omnipotent divine power as the Pope instead of magic.
Anyway, 15 years ago one of the 7 Stars allied with the North and attacked the Fairy Kingdom seemingly out of nowhere, starting a chain of conflict and destruction through the whole continent as more and more people got involved. After this, that particular Star ("July Star", they're called with months of the year) and his successors got blamed for everyone's tragedies and universally hated/hunted.
***
He's supposedly the fourth prince, the illegitimate son of the Fairy King that he had with a human woman. BUT turns out that everything he believed in was a lie: first we find out that he has the mark of the July Star (he's not just a successor, he's the new actual July Star), and the Fairy King convinced him and FL that his mother was the half sister of the previous July Star and that caused him to inherit the mark. THEN however turns out that ALL THIS WAS A LIE AS WELL!! Basically: the Fairy King, his presumed father, actually killed his real family. Lucios is the son of the previous July Star (who was old when he died, because remember that Lucios is 51 and they had him early) and a random female fairy, who both have NOTHING to do with the Fairy King. This bastard found out that a half-fairy inherited the July Star's powers, got greedy to make that power (that's supposed to be the humans') property of the fairies'. So he killed his mother, kidnapped young Lucios while perfectly knowing that the July Star would go crazy to get back his beloved son. And that's what the father did: he started the war to take Lucios back, and almost destroyed the Fairy Kingdom (yup, the king brought destruction to his own people) but was eventually defeated and executed without achieving his purpose .
The Fairy Queen is very angry about the king's actions but FOR THE WRONG REASONS!! She believes that her beloved husband's change in personality and terrible actions were all because of Lucios, the cursed child because of whom the war started. In the 4th volume, the queen imprisons the king and then banishes (and tries to have killed) the poor Lucios who's now in complete confusion and despair at what he found out.
Enters Heziana: she feels a connection to Lucios because all the Star families are VEEEERY (emphasis on VERY) distantly related so she kinda considers him her only family member, but not only that, she genuinely started to care about him (although platonically), so against public opinion she decides to publicly shield him and protect him by making him part of the Vatican. She's very badass at this point, emphasizing to all the fairies in the Vatican trying to kill him that SHE'S THE POPE, she's the one who has all the power here.
Lucios is actually one of the most forceful male leads, surprisingly: their first time (before all this mess) happened because Lucios literally DRUGGED HER, she didn't know what she was doing and later feels very guilty because she believes to have actively seduced/sa'ed someone she came to consider as her little brother, when in reality the one who was sa'ed was her (not that I felt that bad about it, she did the exact same thing to all of them so...).
After all the mess, Lucios also emotionally manipulates her (and blackmails her with his own survival) into sleeping with him: he tells her that she's the only one he has now, so if she wants him to be obediently protected by her side he needs to be sure that he has a connection to her. So they start actively sleeping together, yay I guess lmao.
At the end he kinda becomes the petty, white lotus concubine of the harem who's innocent before the FL but plots to gain more favor than the others at her back AHAHAAHAH.
5) GALIAN
The fifth target, the politician from the southern republic.
He's actually... * suspence * ... THE MASTERMIND. Let me explain:
Backstory: He had a very difficult childhood as a war orphan (like FL, but he was never saved), he had to do literally anything to survive and get food, from criminal offenses to prostitution, and the fact that he was willing to do anything allowed him to survive and eventually rise to politics until he became the current representative. Because of this difficult childhood, he started wanting to basically destroy everything, so he started distributing this horrible drug that caused a plague in the present story AND managed to convince Hanselravion, emperor of the west who also wanted to destroy everything (for reason I'll explain in a bit), to purchase this drug from him and use it to cause caos and destruction. He literally plotted the whole progression of the conflict in the background.
FL finds evidence of his plot in his room: he literally tries to rape her (this piece of shit) BUT FL is strong and badass af in the Vatican so she frees herself and imprisons him in a subspace she created. She herself tortures him to get information about the drug/who created it/etc., and at one point she notices that.... HE'S ACTUALLY REALLY LIKING THIS LMAOOOOO she's here whipping him, kicking him and all and HE'S HARD AND HAPPILY PROVOKING HER TO MAKE HER BEAT HIM UP MORE AHAHAAAAHHAH.
After that SHE takes the initiative and, in order to get him on their side but also because... she kinda had an awakening as a sadist LMAO, she sleeps with him starting a textbook hardcore S&M relationship. After just their first time he's SO whipped (literally and figurately lol) that all he wants is to stay by her side and abandons all his plans because "he found what he was looking for", basically someone to beat him into submission I guess . He actively provokes her, and she sistematically responds by punishing him or rewarding him if he does something good. His behavior is a result of his traumatic childhood: by finding FL, his perfect dom, he can have control over his own pain, because in the end it's HIM who chooses when to 'misbehave' and be punished.
He's actually really jealous, ESPECIALLY of the most submissive ones of the harem (mostly Asher because he envies his position as "FL's dog" lmao) he wants to be the only one being dominated .
6) HANSELRAVION
The sixth target, the emperor and as such the highest ranking among all the male leads.
He's the one I was anticipating the most and also the one I was the most DISAPPOINTED in, not because of what he did or his difficult personality (which has reasons) but in terms of lack of development on the author's part.
The author took her time with all the others, that had a more gradual development over the course of at least 1-2 volumes (even in terms of their feelings for FL gradually developing). Well, apart from Galian, who completely folded almost immediately once Heziana started acting like a dom lmao. Hanselravion however only had the last volume, or better HALF volume because the rest was dedicated to Asher acting up, Hanselravion's backstory and the ending of them living together. Which means that it was all SO SUDDEN AND UNDERWHELMING.
Backstory: he was a powerless cowardly prince, whose only support became his wife (they didn't love each other romantically and were equally cold, but still cared about each other). His horrible older brothers one day decided to humiliate him by... brutally gang-raping his young bride. IN FRONT OF HIM. (probably the subplot I found the hardest to read) His wife got pregnant and eventually died with the child due to a difficult birth. This made him go batshit crazy, (legitimately) blaming his brothers for her death. He got his revenge by killing them and becoming the emperor, BUT he was still extremely unstable and depressed, which brought him to wanting to destroy his corrupt country and then himself. He CHOSE to become a terrible tyrant while plotting to eventually be defeated and erased together with his hated country, he was literally rooting for Heziana and the other sovereigns to win against him all along. Which is also why he is currently acting like an asshole, sa'ing FL etc., which is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of his actual personality. He WANTS to be hated.
Anyway, as the last target she has to conquer for peace, FL is in a rush because it's literally her last chance and there's no time, so she chooses to actually respond to his provocations (which leaves him completely baffled LMAO) and take the initiative. She kinda forces herself on him (he initially only feels the need to accept because he can't betray his own image that he cultivated), but well... he actually ends up liking being dominated as well, A LOT?! Anyway, with the power of pussy, completely out of nowhere, he realizes that he just felt lonely all along and that FL is his happiness he doesn't want to let go of (it was almost comedic to read because of how absurd it was imo AHAHAHAHAH it had the same energy as the power of friendship solving everything in shounen mangas), completely letting go of his destruction plans. The end.
He could have been interesting but it seemed VERY forced, and he's also the only one that the FL literally didn't have time to develop feelings for, she just felt obligated to fulfill her duty, he fell for her (why? Idk), Asher tried to kill them, the novel ended. That's it.
I feel like after (literally) 12 years of writing the novel the author got tired and just wanted to get the last male lead out of the way and end the story, such wasted potential :/
Anyway, I wasn't expecting anything (I'm just here for the poly, don't mind me :D) BUT I actually got REALLY invested, it was kind of a pity to see it end even though it was so long.
I think I covered basically everything, but feel free to ask questions if there's something I forgot!