DAAAAAAMMMNNNNN THIS IS MIND BLOWING SPOILER THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think there are only 2 chapters that the children appear in. Side story 15 and then special side story 4. Its just them as kids. There are 5 or 6 in side story 15 and I dont think it says for the other one, but its young. These are the last chapters so thats it, unfortunately. Theres honestly more chapters (like 6 or 7 maybe?) while Selena is pregnant with them than the actual kids, but those are cute too.
Thank you so much for the spoilers~! Although I'm sad that a translation scan group will formally drop it since the manhwa will be licensed by tappytoon with a title of "Caught by the Villain" . Nevertheless, thank you again for all the hardwork for the spoilers
Hi. So I started reading this and immediately noticed that it's a fall in love with the villain story. I'm looking around but spoilers are not helping me so I thought I'd just ask. Why do I want the female lead to end up with the villain of the story?
In this case... I'd say it's because the villain's the best of a bad lot. The hero of the story (the 2ML) is a yandere who does a lot of messed up things even when they have no relationship with each other; she tries to "fix" him, but they're unable to communicate effectively, he doesn't listen to her, and interacting with him just makes things worse, for her and everyone around. (Nearly getting the girl you want to woo executed for treason is not the greatest date plan, to be honest.) Meanwhile, the villain (ML) makes mistakes, corrects them, listens to her opinion, corrects further, communicates what they want, and at the end of the day, makes her happy just by being her friend. He even considers giving up his dream just to be with her. (His biggest crime is using her father to pressure her into his service, but afterwards he's basically harmless; he feels guilty for manipulating her and and works to make up for it while knowing that making amends for her father still won't get him back in her good graces.) Him falling in love added complications to their relationship, but that was mostly just because she was posing as another person.
Okay, but why is the hero the villain and the villain the hero? Was the hero not a yandere in the story? Was there some qualifier that had the villain treat her brother worse? I'm just kinda tired of this mahwa trope of falling for the person that is responsible for the character dying, and Mahwas are the absolute worst for this story arc. They seem to thrive on the idea of abusive men becoming the love interest because the author says so. Abandoned Empress has been a personal tipping point for this. The amount of hoops the story is going through to try and make that prince the love interest after the brutal early chapters just blows me away. It's okay when the original character is getting their comeuppance but this guy just plain exploited her brother and got her family killed for personal gain, so he doesn't seem like a guy who is suddenly all caring. I just see nothing in original backstory that makes me feel that this guy is actually a decent person, so I'm expecting a bunch of plot contrivances to make it work.
But the ones got killed weren't her family back then, she didn't experience the original story and for her it's just a "if" kind of future that she's trying to avoid, so in my opinion she doesn't care about the method of avoiding that future, and is hoping for a peaceful future where none of the ones important for her or the ones she has a relationship with die.
I'm more concerned about the novel heroine being a lesbian rather than the hero being a yandere. I can understand a political marriage, but for the novel to depict them as actual lovers is kind of...wow. As for the difference between the FL and her brother: there was a logical reason for the difference in their treatment! To put it briefly, Celestin was desperate for money to save his family and accepted the villain's job offer at once. So it was a simple employer/employee relationship, where Celestin followed his orders and later died because the villain threw him away. They never talked; it was an entirely professional relationship. Conversely, the FL refused to work for the villain and hid her ability. When she gets pressured into working for him anyway, she laid down rules for what she wouldn't do and insisted on a deadline. And because he had to work to get her to work for him, the villain learned about the FL's burden (her father's health), which also humanized her for him. This made it possible for their employer/employee relationship to become a friendship over time.
I don't get your first question. Hes a villain because he was the villain in the original story. Afaik its not like this is her 2nd life as selena, she was just isekai'd. Those events in the novel never happened to her personally. And Celestine was a generic henchman. I wouldn't say Ignis was "abusive" because they were in a professional relationship. All henchmen are used by their bosses, its not like Ignis was anymore ruthless with him.than anyone else. He was only a tool, but its not like Ignis hated Celestine.
Ok so alot to unpack here. For starters, I'd like to just preface this by saying, for me, these types of stories you need to look at the original novel as something somewhat separate. It's a novel, not what is actually happening. I think of it sort of like a prophecy that may or may not come true. Especially with this story, where we see very early on that the novel is different from reality. In "Abandoned Emperess", she went back in time. It was the same world and people for sure, and the things that happened, really happened, and they happened to her, not some character in a book. In this story, it feels like the novel is not meant to be exactly the same (which i like as it adds some surprise and its a bit different). Selena notes with every new character it seems how different they are from what she read. Ignus has a goofy soft side, Letio is crazy and violent, neither brothers like ilea, Ilea has no interest in men whatsoever, the witch hates ignus immediately instead of falling in love, ect. Theres plenty of examples of it but these were just some that came to mind. A common theme in this story is that the reality shes in is surprisingly different and not the same at all. In fact, many things are the opposite of what she read in the novel. EDIT: (So I know this is already a super long post, but I just wanted to add this thought because I feel its relevant, but didn't want to make a whole post.) It has been 18 years since Selena read the novel, and I think we easily forget that. No matter how hard she would have tried to remember the details, it would have already been a few years since she read it before she would even have been able to write. I'm in my early 20's, and I can hardly remember the whole plot or details of books I read in high school no matter how much I loved them. I can't imagine how much would be remembered correctly or even at all after 18 years. END OF EDIT. I see what you mean with being tired of the "he killed me in the past life and now we are in love, for reasons?" trope, but I dont think this is it, or at least I feel its done well here. For starters, Selena never lived in this world, nor do we even know if the events in the book she read ever even really happened. And even if they had, I dont think Ignus was ever really abusive as you've said. In "Abandoned Emperess" I also got so angry because the ML was super abusive and then in the next life hes just....fine? For reasons? And im supposed to accept that? But ignus, while the antagonist of the story, was never abusive with her or anything. He used Celestine, but Celestine was a mercenary that signed up for the job. He knew what he was doing and Celestine was ultimately killed (along with his family) for trying to assassinate Letio in the original. If you ask me, her death in the novel was just as much, if not more, Celestines fault. Even in the new life, Celestine makes his specialty assassination, without the influence of the ML. The most evil thing we see ignus do imo in this time to Selena is make her wait like a month to see the elf because he knew she would leave once her father was cured. And while that's definitely horrible, he does have him being treated during that time, and also agonizes with his own guilt about waiting. Doesnt make it ok, but he did alot to try and make it better and also learned from his mistake. One thing I like about this manhwa is that the male lead both has a conscience and feels guilt when he messes up, but then also has the ability to grow and learn from it. That doesn't normally happen sadly in alot of these. Hes scheming and manipulative, but hes definitely not evil and we get to see an interesting internal dialog with him that I enjoy. Someone who is at heart a good person, but due to circumstance and experience does some bad things and constantly struggles with "wheres the line?" Or "do the ends justify the means?". Personally, its way more interesting to me than a nice guy with a pure heart. It's also easier to forgive him though imo because Selena is lying too. She lies about her identity at first, but later also teams up with mercenaries in secret and goes out of her way to sabotage ignus' investigation (while for a good purpose, still a betrayal). Ignus almost dies twice due to her lies, regardless of her original intent. It all works out, but id say they are pretty even in terms of sins at this point. They both have lied, for good or bad reasons, but both have learned those lies and gotten through it and are stronger for it. I like that, instead of just the classic Mary Sue lead changing the evil male lead. While it is that to an extent, this feels more human and interesting to me.
I see, so the novel isn't actually true then. I was assuming that the story was a 1 to 1 recreation of events up until that point, and bits of personality she didn't know about were just stuff that was irrelevant to the plot. Hmm. Some good points. Thank you. That makes me feel much more reassured on this story. I don't need him to be a saint, I just need to know he doesn't need a ton of author fiat to suddenly flip into being the new hero. One bit I'm still confused on is does the villain of the story want to kill the protagonist, and what is his reason for wanting to do so?
What does this question even mean? You're being very unclear here. Are you asking why the ML/Ignus (novel villain) wants to kill Tetio (novel hero)? Or why Ignus (or Letio?) wants to kill the FL/Selena (which he does not)? Or why the many noblemen supporting Letio's claim to the throne want to kill the FL? Or are you talking about some other murderous combination I don't even know yet? If it's why does Ignus want to kill Tetio, that's literally been covered before in this thread already. Two candidates for Emperor will inevitably clash for the throne.
Ignus ends up trying to kill Letio because of the emperor. The emperor is an asshole that has no love for Ignus. I don’t think they ever explain exactly why he doesn’t love Ignus, but its implied it is due to Ignus having demon blood from his mothers side. Ignus was ostracized as a kid for this by other people, so I figure that might be why his dad never showed love for him as well. At the beginning of the story, the emperor hadn’t made Ignus the crown prince, even though he was the only known heir of the empire. Not only that, but the empress (Ignus’ step-mother) hates him as well and had tried to kill him on multiple times. Its really only thanks to Ignus’ increase healing abilities that he is still alive. Therefore, he knows that ascending the throne is the only way for him to stay alive. Ignus makes an allegiance with Duke Enoch (Illia’s dad), who has great influence with the nobility. He hopes that his marriage to Illia and the support from the Enoch dukedom will finally make the emperor crown him as prince. However, before he is able to ascend the throne, the emperor finds out that he has another son, Letio. Ignus had worked really hard to gain support from the nobility, so this wasn’t too terrible for him at first. However, Illia falls in love with Letio. It is at this point that Ignus has no choice but to try and get rid of Letio, or he will lose everything. Selena even mentions that Letio and Ignus got along really well before the truth about Letio’s birth was known. Edit: ^-This is all from the novel Selena read, so its not referring to what actually happens on the story
@Aniserose Please don't confuse tomaO2. Larne only just managed to convince them that the novel and the story itself depict two entirely different situations. Such as: in the story, Ignus and Letio were never friends, or even friendly (too much jealousy going on here). Illia never falls in love with Letio. That was all novel events. The only thing that remains the same between the novel and the story is the political reasons for their conflict. Scrap the rest. (Also, Letio is the Hero, not the Protagonist--that's Selena--which is another reason why no one has answered the question yet. It literally makes no sense, pending further explanation.)
I was asking why why the ML/Ignus (novel villain) wants to kill Tetio (novel hero). It's hard to find anything on this when I read though the pages again. It's a ton of translations behind spoilers, and not a lot of discussion. I did a skim through again, and I really wouldn't know where discussion on the two men's rivalry comes from. I feel like it's a bit more than mutual politics. I'm assuming Tetio isn't going around trying to kill Ignus for the spot?
Didn't we already say that Tetio was a yandere? In the story (not the novel), Tetio wants to kill Ignus because of Selena. Tetio has an unhealthy obsession with her after his childhood, and wants to help her to pay her back (and he imagines he's in love with her). He killed all the knights/recruits who bullied Selena, and he also had grudge against Ignus for basically endangering her (ie, recruiting Selena as his personal Knight while thinking she was Celestin). So he wants to get Ignus out of the way so Selena doesn't have to pretend to be her brother anymore. (Hoping this is actually coherent, because my phone is being more psychotic than usual. )
Sorry for interrupting the flow, but I was curious if any translator has decided to pick this up outside of the spoilers provided. I'm assuming our best shot are these spoilers and the manhwa? I apologize in advance if there was something mentioned throughout the thread. I didn't want to get too deep just yet since there are spoilers. Also, thank you for all the spoilers! It is very kind of you.