StoryofMinglan's Topics (147)

Carcel and Ines weren’t really close in the past two timelines. However, Carcel helped Ines whenever he could.

During the Crown Princess timeline, Carcel stayed far away from Ines once he realized he loved her as a teenager. They were even more estranged after he returned from the academy. Ines said he used to look troubled when he saw her and kept his distance at banquets. In this crown princess timeline:

-Carcel secretly gifted her his grandfather’s cherished gun since it was lighter than most guns and the recoil when using it significantly lessened the burden on her shoulder. Why didn’t Carcel give it directly to her instead of giving it to Oscar who lied the gun was from him? To avoid causing her any trouble.

-Near the end of the main story, Ines will learn that Carcel was doing what he could to protect her in the crown princess timeline. I won’t say how he tried to protect her since it would be a spoiler. Anyway, he could only do so much for her since he wasn’t her husband and had no close relationship with her.

-Ines will also learn how Carcel helped to avenge her.

In the Fugitive timeline, Carcel and Ines had little interaction. When he was able to help her:

-Carcel hid Ines and her family for a night in a safe house. This is mentioned early in the novel. Carcel also made arrangements to help her people but something happened that will be revealed in the upcoming Bilbao arc. This is the only contact Carcel had with Ines in that timeline after she ran away. The years before that occurred the same way as the previous timeline since the timeline is a repeat of the crown princess timeline until Ines decided to run away. That means Ines was engaged to the crown prince during the past 10 years just like the timeline before. So she and Carcel were just rivals in hunting. Nothing more. Not even friends.

I often see readers talk about Ines and freedom as though marrying Carcel somehow limits her freedom. The way I see it, the only times she wasn’t free is in her two previous lives. As crown princess caged in the palace, restricted by palace rules, and oppressed by a terrible MIL and horrible husband, she wasn’t free. As a fugitive, hiding from the authorities, hiding from her neighbors, and using the fake name Juana, she wasn’t free. She couldn’t freely go anywhere in Ortega. She said she didn’t dare go near populated places. She couldn’t make friends with anyone and had to keep to herself since she’s a fugitive and everyone in Ortega knew she publicly cuckolded the crown prince.

In contrast, married to Carcel, she can practically do anything. He doesn’t restrict her in any way unless it’s for something like her health. Heck, her initial plan was to live on her estate and spend her life doing the things she loves to do like hunting and horseback riding but now she gets to enjoy those things with someone who loves doing those things too. She can go anywhere in Ortega using her own name. Her family nor in-laws restrict her in anyway. She made genuine female friends for the first time in any life. To top it off, she eventually gets a grand ship equipped with canon guns that can set sail from the shores of Ortega to go anywhere in the world it could take her. That’s beautiful freedom.

Ines is thoroughly a noble woman who is a product of her society. She believes in marriage and having children. I often see readers mistake her for some woman who doesn’t want marriage, doesn’t want a man and doesn’t want children. As unhappy as Ines was in her marriage with the crown prince, even she thought the unmarried Carcel was irresponsible for failing to do his duty to marry.

As to children, in this current timeline, after Ines decided not to get a divorce from Carcel, why then is she still focusing on trying to get pregnant if she doesn’t have to get a child right now in order to divorce him? Before the hunting trip, at the hunting lodge, and in Mendoza, we as readers saw she wants to get pregnant now despite the fact there’s no rush. In the novel, we know she reminds Carcel that her mother had Luciano at 18 years old. The fact that she mentions this further affirms the fact that she observes custom/tradition. She thinks Carcel and her at age 23/24 are far overdue for children.

The only reason Ines thought about independence in the beginning of the story was because of her two horrible past lives. She just wanted to live to die. She wanted to live her life without making any more mistakes so that she can die a natural death. If Ines truly wanted to divorce Carcel and she hated marriage, she still had the opportunity to do it. However, she chose to stay married to Carcel. No one forced her to stay married and it’s the best damn decision she will ever make in any of her lives. Since I read to the end of the story, I can say her journey of love and healing is simply amazing.

On a side note, I don’t know what it is about Ines that makes some readers think they know her better than the author who created her. When I read the novel, I was quite surprised how much Ines follows the traditions of her noble society in terms of marriage and children.

Occasionally I see readers claim Carcel only began to love Ines after she rejected him. This is FALSE. First and foremost, Carcel is always naturally drawn to Ines at 7 years old and then develops a romantic “like” for her in his teenage years. This current life is probably the only time he was confused about what he felt for her in his teenage years because he didn’t experience a courtship with her despite being engaged to her and the manhwa cut out the fact that she was hard at work lovebombing him via letters and employing various methods to confuse him and twist his views of love so he wouldn’t fall for her. In this current life, Carcel realized he loved Ines after she almost died. Earlier the same day, his mentor told him that he’s in love with his wife and Carcel found it unbelievable. He kept denying that he was in love with his wife.

We already know Ines has memories because she committed suicide. We know this is most likely the case because she committed suicide twice and both times she regressed 10 years with memories. Then why do some characters have memories and some don’t? There is only one other way to get memories and it will be explained in Bilbao in the cathedral of the archbishop. However, it means that other characters either committed suicide and it hasn’t been revealed yet or they gained memories through the other method. Carcel is the only anomaly because it’s a fact that he didn’t have memories so he falls outside the criteria for memories.

Another thing, God did not make Ines suffer. Ines suffered because of her choices. Later it will be revealed that her suffering is partly because of the other method and the Apostle even encouraged her to think differently and she said she will bear the consequences. The Apostle even tried another way to overrule her stance but it didn’t work. Human beings have the freedom to obey or disobey.That’s their freewill. Ines always chooses her own way and Ines never ever blames anyone else for her suffering. She knows she chose a bastard that ruined her life then a random stranger (ch 94) whom she blames herself for ruining. She doesn’t blame Anastasio or God in any way because all of her choices were her own.

This ch shows that Ines still has freewill which is an important aspect of human freedom. Ines has always chosen her own husbands. In the case of Emiliano, this ch shows she was warned that her path will lead to doom but she freely CHOSE to ignore the warning. Since freewill is important, the Apostle will not “force” her on the correct path. In the ch Anastasio even says:

THERE ARE ALSO CHILDREN WHOM I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER.

I prefer the novel’s statement where Anastasio says “Sometimes there are children who do not do as I wish”.

It shows more clearly that he wants to help them but he also respects their freewill. So all he can do is warn those who are on the wrong path and pray they heed his words. It’s not like the Apostle delights in Ines’s suffering. If he didn’t care, why give her a chance to live again so she can fulfill her true path of happiness?

About her misaligned lives, the Apostle can see the future. So when he warns her he already sees the things she will suffer. It’s not the first time he has warned her either. Ines has never heeded his warnings and due to this, she fell into the crown prince’s hands. In contrast, just like he can see her future of doom in her misaligned lives, he can also see the future of who is the person who will bring her blessings and happiness on her true path of destiny.

The ch begins with Ines remembering Rogelio was the priest who presided over her vows with Emiliano. She and Emiliano used the fake names Juana and Alejandro. (Juana is Ines’s waiting lady and Alejandro is her favorite horse) Previously she had forgotten the warning the priest gave her at the time. She had heard a voice in her head warning her that her path was not the one God had planned for her and she will eventually end up committing sin again (suicide probably since it’s Catholicism). The priest adds that perhaps this suffering is part of her destiny in the end.

Switch to present day, Ines eventually remembers Rogelio’s true name is Anastasio. Anastasio is the Apostle of Resurrection. Ines begins to remember various memories of the times she met Anastasio. She remembers she met him in the current life as a child who almost fell off a hillside carelessly. She also saw him as a martyr when she was the crown princess who was drunk almost every day if not every day.

Anastasio is responsible for overseeing the fates of people. That’s why he says:

SOMETIMES, THERE ARE CHILDREN LIKE YOU WHO STRUGGLE TO RETURN TO THEIR DESTINED PATHS.....NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES THEY REPEAT THEIR MISALIGNED LIVES. (Probably why the novel author purposely named the manhwa THE Broken Ring)

Anastasio commends Ines for making a good choice this time. After he says this, only then she receives the memory of Anastasio reciting scripture over her death bed with Alondra and Alfonso bowing their heads in reverence. Notice she’s still young. All her other deaths were suicide yet here she is dying in her bedroom in Calztela from obvious sickness.

Reminder that manhwa will be on break this week returning on January 18th.

It’s sad the manhwa left out Ines’s full reaction to hearing Carcel was attacked in their room. I’m dropping a rough translation of her reaction from the Korean novel here:

“…l'm so angry. Escalante... this stupid Escalante......"

As such, her affection and anger seethed as if they were going to explode. She wanted to hug him tightly as if strangling him with her awful temper. She wanted to kiss his whole face right away, and bite his lips until they bled. She wanted to take off his clothes and see where he was injured, and even though she wanted to cry, she wanted to harass him in disgust. She wanted to ride right away to Calztela and slap his handsome face. Then grab him by the collar, climb on him and show him who was his master, his wife…

Then she felt like she would cry again like an idiot. With tears streaming down her face. Who was he to make her like this?

'Oh. How new and stupid that would be.'

She imagined the face that would look up at her as she cried blankly. In the end, he would laugh awkwardly, and while laughing, his eyes would be distorted... He would kiss her whole face and tell her not to cry. Cárcel Escalante, who had no pride, and would apologize for his mistakes when he had done nothing wrong.

For anyone wondering, the character at the end of ep94 is Anastasio. Ines calls him Rogelio because in one timeline that was his name. His true name is Anastasio. He is the Apostle of God. He’s also known as the Apostle of Resurrection. He’s tied to the correction of fate and therefore repeated lives. So he overseas the fate of people. In this ep Ines reacts instinctively to him almost like she’s helplessly drawn to call out to him. Maybe because earlier in the chapter she was pondering on the fact that she keeps trying to escape Oscar and it’s like a cursed life.