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This is gonna be a long comment… oh, and SPOILERS!!!!! (reveals final ships)




Ready?


Alright, the gist of the spoilers is that Dani ends up with Jiho. Surprise! Jiho (white hair) is the true ML of the story, not Chunyeong (black hair). Ch 75 just felt like a huge bomb had been dropped. If anything, the story thus far seemed to push Chunyeong as the ML. I honestly thought that the ships were going to be Chunyeong x Dani and Jiho x Yoryeong. It makes sense, doesn’t it? The back and forth banter between Jiho and Yoryeong, the way he looks out for her, their natural chemistry… Same with Chunyeong and Dani. I mean, prior to ch 75, the readers never really realized that Jiho had romantic feelings for her… or did we? (⊙…⊙ )

Prior to my reading the spoilers, I always felt that the dynamic between Jiho and Dani to be… odd. There were small and subtle moments and just the way they interacted that made me question if Jiho had a crush on her. Of course, these moments are not as blatantly obvious as Chunyeong’s with Dani… but they were there. I had to re-read the early chapters to check it again for accuracy. I’m not gonna lie, there’s an abundance of Chunyeong’s moments that easily overshadow Jiho’s, but there are flags nonetheless. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Ch 7: The story begins when they are in middle school to quickly establish the relationships they have, which also shows Dani meeting Chunyeong first by literally bumping into him (a classic shoujo trope). The story quickly time-skips to when they are about to start freshman year in high school. This time, the first boy that we see interact with her is Jinho. If Chunyeong was the true ML then he should've also been the 1st guy we see her with after the time-skip.

Ch 8: Ju-in happily hugs Dani. Jiho is about to reach out to touch Dani, but Yoryeong cuts in which causes Jiho to look annoyed. These 2-3 panels are overshadowed by the eye contact between Dani and Chunyeong which leads the readers to think about them and not about the small interaction earlier with Jiho.

Ch 21: Chunyeong’s visit to Dani turned sour. Jiho, after hearing from Yoryeong at how depressed she is feeling, calls Dani and offers to hang out with her. He treats her to a café and has an important conversation with her but feels annoyed that Chunyeong went to visit Dani alone and that Dani wanted to know if Chunyeong likes her, which she had to clarify was in terms of friendship. (jealous, much?)

Ch 22: The important conversation continues! Jiho sees through Dani’s doubts but she cannot bring herself to be truthful to him. Instead, she asks that they pretend to be strangers once school starts.

Ch 25: We get a flashback of when Dani went “missing” for a day. After getting her blisters treated by Yoryeong, Dani gets up but loses her balance. She crashes on to or gets caught by Jiho. See, in typical shoujo fashion, it’d be the ML who would play this part so I wondered why it was Jiho instead of Chunyeong.

Ch 28: HK boys and Yoryeong ends up eating samgyupsal with Dani and her parents. Chunyeong suggests staying with Dani until the end of the day so that they won’t disappear. Jiho notices Dani’s tensed expression and suggests to continue the conversation inside. After hearing the story, he concludes this is the reason why she requested that they act like strangers in school. He also looks visibly disturbed when Dani starts crying. It's his reaction that gets screentime, not the others'.

Ch 29: The conversation continues! Jiho realizes the painful situation that Dani would be left in if they all forget her again.

Ch 31: Jiho stands in between Dani and Yoryeong and deliberately teases Dani, only to be stopped by Eunhyung.

Ch 36: Yoryeong calls Dani on her cellphone to interrogate her about the blond-haired boy she saw him with. Ju-in tells Dani that he doesn’t want a new “dad”, but interestingly enough, Jiho is also curious. He snatches Yoryeong’s phone and tells Dani he “wants to see his (blond-haired boy) face”. (jealous?)

Ch 37: Jiho expresses interest again regarding Ruda (blond-haired boy). Dani asks him why he is so curious about Ruda. Jiho hesitates with his answer but then says his question isn’t about Ruda, it’s about whether or not Dani is okay since he heard they were holding hands and stuff. He feels relieved when Dani says she is okay. Dani is perplexed when Yoryeong says that boys who dye their hair can’t be trusted since the HK boys also have sparkling hair in varying colors. There is a panel that specifically shows Jiho’s reaction, showing he is confused as to why Dani is looking at them oddly. I always found it strange that it was his reaction that mattered the most, hence the only one getting a panel drawn while the other HK boys did not.

Ch 42: Jiho arrives at school and notices Yoryeong’s gloomy mood, which he correctly guesses to have something to do with Dani. He has friendly banter with her to presumably cheer her up. But his demeanor changes after he leaves the classroom. He looks for Dani and finds her with Ruda just as the latter blurted out a passionate confession of wanting to become friends. His attitude for the most part is like a boyfriend who just caught his girlfriend meeting with another guy (at least that’s how it looked to me) but then regains his composure by rejecting Ruda on behalf of Dani. He tells Ruda that Dani isn’t attracted to boys whose eyes and hair aren’t black or brown, revealing to Dani that he is aware of her preferences.

Ch 43: Jiho escorts Dani back to her classroom and notices her lack of sleep. His expression throughout this exchange is… unreadable. He is concerned about her but it felt like there was something else. This was another situation that made me ask, “If Cheonyong is the ML, then shouldn’t he be the one in this scene? Why is it Jiho?”

Ch 45: Ah, yes. The first time Jiho brings up the confession. He tells Dani that she was already confessed to in the past but she doesn’t remember. Jiho looks upset and then flustered that she doesn’t remember (it’s only in ch 75 that we find out it’s actually him who confessed). However, this scene is completely overshadowed by Jiho stepping in to protect Yeoryong from an aggressive suitor.

Ch 46: On the train ride home, Jiho sits next to Dani and he teases her about her love life. This is after Dani got her fortune told about the car accident so I guess Jiho was trying to lighten the mood. But, again, it’s Jiho who is doing this, not Chunyeong. He even opens the conversation by referencing Eunhyung’s earlier phone conversation with Dani about how his mom died in a car accident. I know they’re all friends, but the closest friend Eunhyung has among the HK is Chunyeong so it would make sense for Chunyeong to open this topic, not Jiho.

Ch 47: Jiho takes Dani and Yeoryong home by car since Yeoryong’s aggressive suitor is waiting by the school gate while the rest of the HK deals with the suitor and his goons. He makes it a point to Dani that the car-accident fortune didn’t apply to him so she’ll be safe if he rides with him. He sternly warns Dani to be careful in the future. He glances every now and then at her while in the car. See? It’s these meaningful glances that he gives her that always made me question his feelings for her; whether it was just friendship or something else.

Ch 49: More interactions between Dani and Jiho… this time, because of an espresso machine. Chunyeong also wants a cup, but Jiho teases him since he doesn’t like bitter things. He is dumbfounded when not only does Chunyeong take a sip of coffee but he does so from Dani’s cup. (jealousy?)

Ch 51: Jiho is worried that Dani and Eunhyung aren’t back yet from their errand. He is so worried that he decides to go out to look for them but disguises it as a simple walk so as not to worry Yeoryong and Ju-in.

Ch 55: Yoryeong and the HK boys each send a text message to Dani, but it is Jiho’s message that is given emphasis (even tho the text message is played for laughs)

Ch 56: Jiho, Chunyeong, and Yoryeong make their way to Dani’s classroom. Jiho gives Dani text updates on how close they are getting to her classroom.

Ch 57: Dani and Ruda hide in one of the unused classrooms. They are of course found by the HK group but it is Jiho who reveals himself first.

Ch 60: Jiho questions Dani specifically why she was hugging Ruda in the corridor. This topic is quickly forgotten as they hear about Chunyeong who has gotten into a fight with Ruda in the men’s room.

Ch 63: Jiho escorts Dani home while the rest of HK group deal with the aggressive suitor and goons that caused Dani’s near-death by truck-kun.

Ch 66: Jiho refers to Dani’s house as “his” house too. It’s also been established in earlier chapters that Jiho maintains a friendly relationship with Dani’s parents. They watch a video of their middle school days, and everyone points out that Jiho had changed so much since then (ch 75 reveals he changed because of Dani). They continue to watch the video but are surprised by something. We see the group stunned to silence but, again, it is Jiho’s expression that is given importance by showing it in a solo panel.

Ch 67: The video continues! Dani walked in on Jiho as he was changing. Jiho is flustered while Dani is unfazed. He asked Dani, “Do you even see me as a man?” Dani replies, “Since when did was have a man and woman relationship?” (ouch) Σ( ￣□￣||) The video ends with Yoryeong calling Jiho a pervert.

Ch 68: No Jiho moment here, but a case of misdirection from the author and the FL just not getting it. Dani continues to watch the video on her own and sees the “something” that surprised the group earlier. It’s basically Cheonyong smiling at her. His expression is very sweet. While Dani thinks it’s nice that he can make that kind of expression, she isn’t convinced that it is romantic because of how novels or otome games usually go. The takeaway here is that she became conscious of Chunyeong but still didn’t find Jiho’s question (Do you see me as a man?) worth noticing. Poor Jiho… ╥﹏╥

Ch 69: Dani’s class pressures her into finding out what the HK’s class is doing for the retreat. Out of the group, she picks to call Jiho. His response to her is short and simple. After the call ends, he looks troubled at the notion of treating Dani like a stranger.

Ch 70: The freshmen are assembling for the school retreat. Jiho is obviously the first to spot her. He is worried that she might topple over unless she properly wakes up and then annoyed that Ruda came to support her. He then sends her a flurry of text messages telling her to wake up. He's about to send another text message but deletes it instead and asks Eunhyung if Dani would possibly sit next to Ruda on the bus. Eunhyung notices the expression he has so Jiho dismisses it as annoyance at how they had to go through 3 years for Dani to open up to them while Ruda easily got close to her. Eunhyung accepts this response but thinks to himself about how Jiho’s expression now is similar to the expression he had in the video (when he asked Dani the question). He also notes that while Jiho and Chunyeong had different expressions in the video, both of them gave off the same feeling. In other words, Eunhyung noticed that it’s not only Chunyeong who is harboring a crush on Dani. (≧∀≦)

Ch 74: The confession is teased again but this time implied that it is Dani who rejected Jiho’s confession. Of course, this is fully revealed in ch 75.

So, these are all the moments or subtle hints that I found. These moments are, again, greatly overshadowed by the amount of screen time Chunyeong and Dani have together. However, I think they are enough to plant that seed of doubt in the reader. “Are Jiho’s feelings towards Dani really just friendship?” That was the question I kept asking whenever those subtle moments happened. The important conversations he would have with her, the complexity of his expressions, the meaningful glances he gives her… It was all there, we just didn’t see it right away.

Perhaps the most obvious "evidence" we had but never realized was in ch 7. After Dani comes to the conclusion that she is in a novel and recognizes Yeoryong as the heroine, she picks out Jiho as the ML among the HK. There you go! Jiho was always the ML!

I understand why there’s a ship for Jiho and Yeoryong. They banter like cats and dogs, they’re competitive with each other, Jiho has on more than one occasion come to Yeoryong’s defense. He even calls himself her boyfriend in ch 72 to get rid of a persistent guy that’s pestering her. But it’s plain to see that they never saw each other romantically and only had a platonic relationship.

On that note, I also noticed the other ship of Eunhyung x Yeoryong also forming in the background. Think about it. Sure, Jiho was the first to step in to protect Yeoryong from the aggressive suitor in ch 45, but when the guy starts to get violent, it’s Eunhyung who steps in to defend her. Although Jiho pretended to be Yeoryong’s boyfriend in ch 72 to get rid of a persistent guy, it is Eunhyung who suggests that Yeoryong give out his own number if she is met by another guy who persistently asks for her number. I thought that it was just him being the protective friend until it dawned on me just how much of trouble he’s invited by doing this. Yup, he loves her. (≧∀≦)

Anyway, I haven’t read the rest of the spoilers other than the final ships. I kind of wish I didn’t because it somehow robbed me of naturally liking Jiho. I was already intrigued by his character but I had also fallen into the “Chunyeong is ML” trap, and I heard that the novel does let you naturally see Jiho’s struggle and love for Dani. What should have been a natural progression felt like a bucket of ice thrown at me because of one single spoiler. I’ve accepted it. I’ve gotten over it. I’ll continue to read it because, well, even without the spoiler I already felt that Jiho had a crush on Dani, I only wish I’d gotten there when the story was ready to take me there.

P.S. I didn’t read the spoilers here. It was on another site. The comment didn’t come with a spoiler tag. It was just “FL ends up with white hair. MC ends up with red hair. This is a spoiler.” I mean, who puts a spoiler warning after the actual spoiler??? (╬￣皿￣)凸


Anyway, thanks for reading this uber long post. (￣∇￣")

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.