To add some clarification to the confusion:
Two ways to have memories:
1. Suicide
2. Wishes after death
Suicide: Ines committed suicide at 26 years old when she was the crown princess Ines Valenza. She then regressed 10 years to age 16. Her life from a baby to 16 years old was a repeat of the timeline she actually married Oscar. Her 16-year-old self then woke up with regressed memories from the previous life.
Ines committed suicide again at age 20. Instead of regressing 10 years from 20, she regressed 10 years from age 16. So she wakes up in this current life at 6 years old with regressed memories of both past lives then she chose Carcel.
Ines cannot commit suicide again. She cannot regress 10 years from age 6. If she committed suicide again in this current life, she will cease to exist, or so she believes. This is another reason why Ines decided at age 6 that she was not going to make any more mistakes and she decided to live out her life quietly until she can finally die and attain eternal rest. That was her greatest desire. Even now she still has this desire although she changed her mind on how she wants to live until her death. For example, the last thing Ines says at the end of the side story is that she looks forward to her eternal rest. This was her goal from the beginning and still remains her goal to the end. She doesn’t want to live again.
Rebirth & Wishes
Both Carcel and Emiliano were reborn. The difference between them is what they wished for in this life. Both died an unpredestined death. When a person dies an unpredestined death, they are granted wishes for the next do-over life. Do-over lives is solely to correct the person’s fate. Once they achieve their fate, there are no more do-overs for them.
Emiliano has memories because he used his wishes to ask for memories in this current life. He did not wake up with regressed memories. The memories came to him over time unlike Ines who wakes up in each life with regressed memories. There is only one other character who is like Emiliano in terms of ‘manner of receiving memories’ and that character wakes up with memories of a certain life in every timeline at about age 10 years old.
Carcel instead used his wishes to help Ines value her life. Every time he dies, in the death state, he learns who he was and who Ines truly is to him so he used all his wishes on Ines. He never asked for memories. The reason he is getting memories when he shouldn’t is probably because Anastasio, the representative of God, is helping him to be able to protect Ines against her enemies since she has failed twice already by committing suicide. Anastasio met Ines in ch95 and as he said, some children keep making mistakes and therefore keep repeating their lives and they’re stuck in a cycle. Anastasio wants to help Ines. He saved her when she was a little girl who was trying to accidentally die. Now that he met Ines again and he commended her for making the right choice, he gave her the visions to further help her to understand things that even a certain character knew all along.
oh my god thank you haven't been able to read the novel at all, this was so helpful bc i really did not understand anything from the new released chapters （/TДT)/
i love u
Inés original goal in this life was to live for herself and then die properly to gain eternal rest. After repeating her lives, she’s weary. She didn’t even have any hope except to die without making any mistakes. Around the time she almost died from hyperventilating because of the pendant, the next day when she woke up, she said this in her thoughts:
————————
Novel excerpt:
Don't do anything stupid. Don't make a mistake. She had a goal. Even Emiliano couldn’t stand in the way of that.
She had to live as well as she planned, and die properly. Emiliano would be confined safely in Bilbao like a pitiful slave for years and in five years, or ten years, he will gain a reputation to shine—and she will have the perfect freedom by then to live without any relation to him. (Since she secretly sponsors him as an artist)
And one way or another, she would live and die contentedly alone. But more than ever, it will be a complete life. She would live a life where she would never lose anything again, live without knowing pain, and live without loving anyone. Only solely for herself.
—————.———
Of course we know by now she’s changed her mind about the way she intends to spend her life before death but her goal simply changed to living a long life next to Carcel then dying and resting eternally.
Meanwhile, Ines Escalante hasn’t shown up for four chapters this season already. It will be interesting to see what she’s thinking when she wakes up from fainting on the street. The comic strip preview already shows she’s with Luciano who is watching over her while she’s lying in bed.
And while her husband is in Bilbao doubting she loves him, Ines herself knows she loves her husband:
Ines laughing in delight over her beautiful name, Inés Escalante de Perez, which puts her under Carcel’s shadow
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-218835/pg-35/
Ines gets annoyed by the thought of Maria in Calztela where she left her husband. Novel tells us in a later scene she was pleased by Raul’s letter that reported Carcel refused Maria’s visit by saying his wife was not at home so he won’t receive visitors.
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-219895/pg-5/
When Luciano asks how is Carcel, Ines says her husband is amazing and he’s the reason why she’s doing better. Her brother is surprised and tells her he’s never seen her smile like that before. Manhwa left out that on the way to the Formente match, Luciano also tells Ines that she blushes every time he mentions her husband.
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-232122/pg-28/
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-232122/pg-29/
24-years-old Ines blushing and acting giddy like a teenager after reading her husband’s affectionate address: Sol de mi Vida
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-242587/pg-45/
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-242587/pg-46/
Inés crying after finding out an assassin attacked Carcel in their bedroom in Calztela
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-248232/pg-45/
Inés full of hostility towards Oscar who she thinks is the one behind the assassination attempt
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-248232/pg-53/
Ines’s shopping spree to sends guns, weapons and ammunition with numerous notes reminding her husband to protect his life which belongs to her
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-249210/pg-42/
i already know she loves carcel but this is like a recap reassurance. I love it <3
How could I have ever dared to think that you love me? - Carcel Escalante
It’s understandable that Cárcel would make the above statement when Inés has only confessed to ‘liking’ him after he himself asked her if she ‘likes’ him. In addition, Carcel always has the lowest expectations when it comes to Ines’s love (Mermaid & Sailor).
BUT, what about Inés Escalante’s point of view? The below shows clear, irrefutable evidence that Inés Escalante is in love with her husband. One of the biggest points of the Mendoza arc is that the nobility come to understand Carcel and his wife are actually scandalously in love with each other.
Ines laughing in delight over her beautiful name, Inés Escalante de Perez, which puts her under Carcel’s shadow
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-218835/pg-35/
Ines gets annoyed by the thought of Maria in Calztela where she left her husband. Novel tells us in a later scene she was pleased by Raul’s letter that reported Carcel refused Maria’s visit by saying his wife was not at home so he won’t receive visitors.
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-219895/pg-5/
When Luciano asks how is Carcel, Ines says her husband is amazing and he’s the reason why she’s doing better. Her brother is surprised and tells her he’s never seen her smile like that before. Manhwa left out that on the way to the Formente match, Luciano also tells Ines that she blushes every time he mentions her husband.
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-232122/pg-28/
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-232122/pg-29/
24-years-old Ines blushing and acting giddy like a teenager after reading her husband’s affectionate address: Sol de mi Vida
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-242587/pg-45/
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-242587/pg-46/
Inés crying after finding out an assassin attacked Carcel in their bedroom in Calztela
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-248232/pg-45/
Inés full of hostility towards Oscar who she thinks is the one behind the assassination attempt
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-248232/pg-53/
Ines’s shopping spree to sends guns, weapons and ammunition with numerous notes reminding her husband to protect his life which belongs to her
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_broken_ring_this_marriage_will_fail_anyway/uu/br_chapter-249210/pg-42/
If Carcel was chosen because he was the safer choice, we should note even more that Emiliano was chosen as an escape from Oscar. The story is regression. The painters were also there in the timeline Ines married Oscar but Ines didn’t so much as bat an eye at anyone but Oscar.
Ines chose Carcel to divorce him and it shows she WAS NOT OPEN to loving him unlike with the other two men she was with before. Therefore, it makes it even more evident that she couldn’t help loving Carcel despite her schemes, walls, cynicism, etc.
Cancel was and is Inest first and her original husband and lover
About Ines never looking at Carcel in the past, let’s clarify why:
In the timeline Ines married Oscar and became Ines Valenza, she acknowledged Carcel as exceptional and outstanding. How do I know this? In the manhwa, during the flashback to hunting at 14 years old (around manhwa ch65), the novel provided more information. During the hunt, the novel told us Ines’s thoughts. She saw 14 year old Carcel as a rival who surpassed her in everything she loved doing. No one had ever beaten her until he appeared. She also begrudgingly acknowledged that Carcel made ‘Her Oscar’ who should be the most desirable man in the world, mediocre. But guess what? Ines was still firmly on Oscar’s side against Carcel.
The above is the mindset that Ines had for Carcel early in that timeline. Later, when she became crown princess and was at court, she rarely saw Carcel. Looking back on that timeline, Ines Escalante (Carcel’s wife) even observes that Carcel kept himself away from crown princess Ines Valenza and Ines Valenza also kept herself away from him because of the way Oscar would treat her if she so much as talked to Carcel. Ines Escalante also observed that Carcel used to look troubled when he saw Ines Valenza and he stayed far from her. She also wondered how they became like strangers when they used to be unfriendly playmates. That’s because there were things happening behind the scenes between Oscar and Carcel in that timeline that Ines didn’t know. It was mostly Oscar tormenting Carcel one-sidedly. But even crown princess Ines Valenza acknowledged Carcel as “he who was called the most handsome man in the world beyond borders”. Her attitude of indifference to Carcel during that timeline in particular was because of Oscar’s behavior and because of the noblewomen who always noisily told stories about Carcel which Ines Escalante (Carcel’s wife) now realized were probably mostly false since Carcel was a magnet for rumors by both men and women and never defended himself against them but simply ignored them.
So, all Ines Valenza knew about Carcel who essentially became a stranger to her, were the rumors that noble women would make up about him as they used Carcel’s name as a trophy to spread lies. Ines Escalante mentions this in the novel during the arc where she lets the crazy lady into the house. Ines Escalante thought of these things and that’s why she suddenly dreamt of the crown princess timeline when Oscar had sexually assaulted her and Carcel appeared on the palace ground and approached her. At the time, Ines Valenza (crown princess) tried to seduce Carcel and Carcel told her he couldn’t bear to hear her talk of herself in such a way. In the novel, Ines Valenza says in her thoughts, she knew for a fact that Carcel would never take his lord’s wife. She thought of herself as the exception and that Carcel wouldn’t be interested in her.
After Ines Valenza kills herself, she regresses to the next life. She was thinking of how to get out of marrying Oscar and decided to choose the first man that she could to runaway. Of course there was no Carcel around since Ines is the crown prince’s fiancée. In addition, Ines Valenza already thought that Carcel was never interested in her. Keep in mind it’s Ines Escalante who realized Carcel loved Ines Valenza in the crown princess timeline after she was able to observe him in the flashback and after she had already begun to truly know Carcel Escalante during the first months of marriage in the final timeline. Ines Escalante was able to understand that Carcel loved Ines Valenza after looking at his behavior, expressions and eyes.
So, in the end, from Ines’s perspective, she had no clue Carcel Escalante loved her and was interested in her before in any timeline and she never thought he would love her. If she did, she would have never chosen him in this final timeline for her great divorce plan.
From Carcel’s perspective, he loved her but she never looked at him. The thing is, Ines and Carcel are the same age. By the time Carcel began to think of girls as girls, Oscar, who is four years older than him, had already won over Ines who from an early age was in turn playing hard-to-get towards Oscar who showed interest in her. When she finally became engaged to Oscar, Carcel and her were already separated into cousin and fiancée of Carcel’s cousin before they were 7 years old. Carcel needs to realize that Ines has never TRULY looked at him until now. That’s why she told him at the hunting lodge, when she was crying about the gun, that she noticed him this time.
Wow the manhwa really took out a lot of important information that would’ve helped the events of those chapters flow a lot smoother than they did.
Maybe the manhwa team took chances since I’m guessing once ines finds out about carcel meeting Emiliano and later on when she finds out that carcel remembers their previous lives she communicates her perspective to him anyway?
Manhwa team tends to focus on events rather than the details that helps the reader to understand both Carcel and Ines better. They probably felt the Calztela arc was too slow so they cut a lot from that. The Calztela arc is important because not only was Ines healing, she was falling for Carcel (her heart loved him first as confirmed by novel and via Q&A by the author) and Carcel was influencing her to change.
Regarding Ines’s indifference to Carcel in previous timelines, there’s no explanation needed for this couple. They understand each other. The past is also just the past and no longer exists nor matters. The rule of the world is that there’s only one lifetime in the end. Carcel’s focus will be protecting his wife and waiting for her to open up to him. He doesn’t care about her past indifference to him. All that matters to him is the present time. For Ines, you will see how she knows she doesn’t have to explain anything to him and ultimately, it doesn’t matter in the face of the NEW memories she will receive this season.
That makes sense. I’ve heard it’s a common issue when adapting novels into manhwa form. There are only a rare few manhwa that actually take time to adapt everything from a novel well.
this should be pinned. It made the story easier to digest. I love the story by itself but sometimes its hard to comprehend without guidance. thank you for enlightening a fellow reader like me
I see some like to say ‘high and mighty’ nobles without including Ines. Reality check: even in poverty Ines was being taken care of like a princess/noble. If Ines learned anything in those four years of poverty, where is any of that learning? Surely those who paid attention must have realized by now that Ines can’t cook, clean nor even sew properly. If some readers think Ines isn’t thoroughly a noble, maybe they should try reading the novel although I think the manhwa makes it very clear, she’s inveterately a noble. What did she say about the doctor who treated her mental illness? What did she say when telling off Alfonso? Did she lift a finger to help Carcel cook, prepare bath water, etc., when they went hunting? Absolutely not. Ines has always been a noble in all timelines. In the novel she said Emiliano crawled on his hands and feet to support her like a princess of a poor country. She might be wearing shabby clothes but her spirit is still one of a noble. So don’t deceive yourself that Ines does like other noble women who run away and actually learned how to be a commoner. She doesn’t even know the value of things to budget like commoner women.The bottom line is, she’s not and never was suited for a poor life.
Funnily enough she herself kinda mentions this in her internal monologue.
The author, Kim ChaCha, clarified this plot in her questions and answers. Ines did in fact use Emiliano as an escape from the crown prince. In ch 11, they were complete strangers. Ines was looking for a man to seduce to runaway with. Ines was also looking for ‘love’ after her horrid life with Oscar where he humiliated, abused and devalued her. As Ines Valeztena in this current life states, her 16 year old self from the previous timeline would be slapped by her 28 year old self (crown prince TL), for saying she ‘loved’ a man (Emiliano) whom she knew literally nothing about after spending only 10 days with him. So Author clarifies and said what Ines felt at the time she ran away was excitement like a teenager.
Author also explained that Emiliano loved Ines right away. In other words, after Ines had sex with him all night, by the next morning, he declared he was in love. That’s when she gave him the green pendent and even implied to him it was not payment for sex.
Author said it’s during the years on the run, when Emiliano was her only companion and life was hard, Ines began to love him after they faced everything together. He also treated her very well compared to how she was treated when she was in the highest position. Furthermore, author said Ines had the mentality that commoners would value love unlike nobles so she had preconceived notions about this matter as well.
Go back to the ep where she first learns about the assassination attempt on Carcel’s life and Ines blatantly says she hung the portrait first then put Emiliano in it, a man who was a complete stranger who she knew nothing about. In other words, that’s Ines admitting she put the frame up as Love then hung Emiliano in it. Like putting the cart before the horse. Then she said fortunately, Emiliano fit into the frame because he was kind and loved her. She even says he fit her teenage ‘Delusions’.
Then author said, after Emiliano was killed before Ines’s eyes, all that love she felt for him turned to guilt. After all, she dragged an innocent man into her troubles with Oscar by plotting deliberately to seduce him. Not only was his prospects as an artist destroyed, he ended up losing his life. They were also notoriously scandalized throughout the country and that’s why Ines had to discard her name. She was known as Juana of Sevilla. No longer Ines Valeztena. She also married under fake names as we saw in the ep with Anastasio.
Just so you know, he’s quiet because he feels apologetic to Carcel. As Ines said before, in ep20 or 21, Carcel helped Emiliano to save his life. Then why did he end up dead? He made Carcel’s efforts in vain. That’s one of the reasons why he’s quiet at first upon seeing Carcel.
So many clues when that library reflexively opened and then shut again immediately. Aria hearing things she never heard from current Axel before yet it’s like she went into a fugue state then returned to reality without realizing it.