Spoiler A Stepmother's Märchen

I want to know what happened to Alberon on the 2nd timeline

 

Been a while since I last checked this thread but let me just say the adaptation does a good job of early showing EliasxOhara. Elias the rulebreaker and the "rule-abiding" Ohara. She went to the trial to provide testimony for Jeremy's sake so she's still decent in this timeline.

Nora and his mom salvaging a little of their relationship was a great thing

 

You know what they say, opposites do attract. I hope Ohara's father will have apoplexy. I'm not gonna feel bad that he's gonna be and that she got Elias instead of Jeremy. If Jeremy doesn't want to marry Elias can still get the title.

I agree. I know that his mom is trying but it would be also better if his father also comes around. It does a great job of reminding my own family dynamics. One parent wants everybody to get along and is clueless while the other is stubborn. The kid is left drowning in his self-angst. At least Nora can also support his mother even if his stubborn of a father can be longer to work on.

 

Honestly, I was quite confused about Ohara's father stance in the story. I also forgot if he showed up prior to the party (and the comments at the time, painted him as a neutral to good chara), so again, I was confused at his stance.
I mean, someone HAD to be Ohara's influence in being evil in first timeline. At least the knight, despite his bigger sin of being the one to kill Shuli HAD an excuse (relationship with the church, huge respect with the first marchioness, and most of Shuli's first timeline actions more damaging to the rep even if it was all to protect the kids)

 

I know right, I love this ship, I don't think ohara gonna become evil this time, iam liking elias × ohara too, why do I feel that ohara gonna fall for elias first

 

I read all the messages of this topic and I may have missed something, but in the novel is it explained how or why MC goes back 7 years in time?

 

would anyone who read the novel know how to tell me what happened to johanes' first wife? in the morning it seemed that she was using crutches that used to be a knight.

then he stops spying on her for the cardinal?

 

She might have been influenced, but this influence only added to jelousy she felt towards Shuli. She knew Jeremy had eyes only for her. Her father helped her nurture this hate. This is what I get from spoilers so far.

 

Best not to think about that too deeply if worldbuilding does not have magic. This one has religion, sure but they're an antagonistic force
Best explanation we could get are the kids being unhappy after Jeremy's wedding and wanted a second chance in life. We can count Nora in the mix too despite a weaker relationship with Shuli in timeline 1

 

Let's just say a Wizard did it.

 

Hi.. do you know how many novel chapter are available until the end? and how many completed manhwa chapter ?

 

Hi.. Do you know how first prince lie is being known by the people... And detailed summary about when people know about shuri death and what happened to jeremy ex fiance??

 

And In the original timeline... is the knight who killed shuri is known by people? did he get executed? sorry for asking too much hehe

 

Ohana, Jeramy's former fiancee ends up marrying Elias, in both lives. From what I read in the spoilers in the first life she tricked Elias into getting her pregnant and being forced to marry her, in the second life they stay together because they like each other.

 

Pretty sure he was in on it in Timeline 1, forcing our favorite eldest sibling to approve of the marriage.

 

I don't know. It hasn't been mentioned that far.

 

Yeah, it's like no matter what timeline or whatever happens, it's Elias and Ohara's fate to get pregnant and force the marriage. That's like the only thing set in stone in this series.

 

After the most recent chapters, I had some additional thoughts.

There's a lot of discussion about how the parents in this story are "bad parents", which they are. As I was rereading, I had an epiphany. Shuli may be the only parent in this story where their children are genuinely their first priority. Johannes might be as well, but I don't think we've seen enough of him to know for certain. What we have here is a very well done intrigue-filled court setting, where everybody has their own agenda. For us, it's "common sense" to love our children and love them the best. How could we otherwise? In this kind of setting though, love in general doesn't even make the top 10 things to consider. It's more important to marry advantageously, maneuver your children to the right spots, and (ultimately) to protect yourself and your family. That's why Johannes married Shuli after all. Love just isn't a priority with your spouse or with your children. On that front, I can see why Elizabeth (the current Empress) is so bitter about it. Maybe I've been reading too many villainess mangas, but Elizabeth is probably someone who was engaged to the current Emperor since they were young and had been trained for all her life. Then the Emperor seemingly throws all common sense out the window, goes back on the promise and contract that was made to her and her family, and gives the position Elizabeth is expected to take up to a random nobody who doesn't have the training or knowledge for the job. For LOVE, the Emperor basically spat in Elizabeth's face and said she wasn't good enough, and all that time and resources wasted as well as the promises meant nothing. With this kind of realistic setting they're going for, that was probably no small humiliation and people probably weren't kind about it either. At the end of the day, she's just a noblewoman that the Emperor rejected, high-ranking family aside there CLEARLY must be something wrong with her. (Always the woman's fault, almost never the man's. But even then it's still at least partially the woman's fault somehow.) While she ends up married to the Emperor anyway, her position probably still isn't all that stable. It doesn't matter if Ludovica is dead, Elizabeth STILL has to compete with her and her lingering influence. At the end of the day, Ludovica was "the Emperor's true Empress" while Elizabeth is just the broodmare needed to give birth to the afterthought of a spare since Ludovica already gave birth to "the perfect heir". It's no wonder she's bitter.

Historically speaking, our societally expected level of love and devotion (and lack of expected economical or social benefits) to children is fairly recent, comparatively speaking. High infant and child mortality rates purportedly made an environment people just did not tend to get as emotionally invested in their children. They weren't raised like that, and it just wasn't a norm in the culture or society. The other thing is that children were NECESSARY THINGS TO SURVIVE (secure your position, help make money, etc), rather than a source of love and fulfillment. This is a line of thinking that lingers even to this day. Not kidding, there are first world countries that either only very recently (1980s and 2000s recently) or still don't recognize spousal or child abuse, even going so far as having to sign convention statements about how children are not the property of their parents. And that's what nearly every other parent in this story is doing. They all have their own personal agendas and their children are just...there for economic and societal purposes. Johannes and his wife seem to be the only ones who really just...got a life. They grew to love each other and it obviously shows through...well look how many children they had. Now, look at how many children other people in this story had. Pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous and not all that well understood. Giving birth to even one was a feat, so kudos to bio mom for taking that risk over and over again. At the same time, it wasn't something a noblewoman could truly refuse to do. So everybody else had just enough children to be what they needed. Of the living parents, Shuli is the only one whose agenda is to PROTECT THESE CHILDREN.

The loss of status, wealth, and power she faces by annulling her marriage is utterly unthinkable to most of these nobles, and probably not that different to a prison or death sentence for many of them. ESPECIALLY as Shuli is a noblewoman, rather than a nobleman. It's a smear on two of the only real currencies she has: her reputation and her worth as a woman in fulfilling the expected needs of her husband. The kicker is that she doesn't give a fuck. This horrid, unthinkable thing is something she will execute without blinking because keeping power, status, and wealth were never her true priority. Even in her first life, she only struggled to keep it because it was something she needed to fulfill her promise and protect the kids. I'm glad she now has the chance to face all these issues as an adult (in a 14 or 15-year-old body) with a clear mindset of " =_= spout all the shit you want, I'm raising 4 stepkids as a single mom and trying to maneuver court intrigue, do you think I have any fucks left to give". Less emotional and mental stress, all in all.

In conclusion, yeah Shuli is best mom! She's the only one who actually and distinctly prioritizes her children, and the irony is that the only non-bio mom in this story is the only one who truly gives a fuck. It's something that's just so starkly different from everybody else in those underlying implications of the story. So even her past mistakes are a lot more forgivable than any of the other parents, as her mistakes came from a 14-year-old's (a middle schooler) lack of experience in trying to protect and raise her stepchildren ALONE. And yeah, the other parents are bad parents. All these other parents see their children as something else ("heir", "prince", "spare", "someone to manipulate") first, and children second if at all. And as such, their "children" just are not their priorities. Nobody gives as many fucks about their children (as THEIR CHILDREN) as Shuli gives about hers.

Side note: Glad that Jeremy and the kids are getting an early peek at the dangers of court settings as well as early disillusionment. Him realizing that telling the truth means jack shit in this kind of environment is a great way of demonstrating how sheltered these kids are and why Shuli's role is so vital to the point Johannes robbed her of her childhood. It's just that dangerous, and I love how the kids are getting first-hand, front row experience of the lengths Shuli goes to protect them. I also like to think about how this might be a source of inspiration for them in the future, especially in Rachel's case since she's marrying a prince and will have to deal with her own series of court intrigue.

 

Was it ever said he was engaged to the previous empress first? I don't think it was said and everyone Is assuming cause "woah what if the antagonistic person was good" is the fad right now. Also the previous empress was a noble so it probably wasnt a broken engament thing. And this novel is pretty grounded in reality (besides the time travel) so im not sure it would go down that road. At most they were probably candidates. We also haven't seen any sign of the princes already having finances so I think the whole engament as kids thing isnt common in the novel

Sometimes bitter peole are just bitter. Oh no your the most powerful person in the counry but your still sad over high school level relationship drama to the point ypu neglect you son. Let me play the worlds smallest violin for you.

And she did harm shuli in the end cuase of her inferiority complex which would have caused her social death.

But I'm sorry. A grown ass women, an empress at that is projecting her hate and inferioty over a long dead women onto a child lmfao.

 

Oooo, actually can you expand on that (the spoilers)? For reference, I'm a manga reader and am basing my rambling on the past spoiler posts here, including #472 by PencilPen about Elizabeth and the Emperor being engaged until he, the Marquis, and the Duke fell madly in love with Ludovica (a much lower ranking noble, from what is being said). And I think someone else mentioned that the Prince is actually engaged to someone who is like Elizabeth 2.0? If you have clarification, would definitely appreciate it! And if I'm missing something here, someone please tell me. I couldn't keep all of the spoilers straight.

For the rest, I was going for a character analysis? Not justification anyway. I was using her as a prime example of one of the "oh course they're a bad parent" as well as some speculation on the kind of environment this is, which together makes a great example of how starkly different Shuli's priorities are to everybody else's. One of my favorite tropes is when characters are quietly badass like this just because they're playing on a completely different playing field having a completely different conversation.

But on the note of character analysis, I would like to disagree with the general idea I've seen in this thread of her being someone who is bitter for the sake of being bitter, that she has an inferiority complex, or trivializing this as equivalent to high school level drama. Resentful, YES. Projecting a shit ton on an innocent person, ABSOLUTELY. Abusing her powers just because she can and would face no repercussions for it? Well, this is the reason we have the saying, "Eat the Rich". However, while she may be bitter, it certainly doesn't seem to be for the sake of it or that she truly has something like a diagnosable inferiority complex (according to what I've seen thus far manga and comments). If she was just being bitter or suffering from a complex, I doubt she would let up on Shuli so suddenly. Once Shuli was proven as "Not Ludovica" in the Empress' eyes, the Empress just...did a 180 and had the whole fiasco brushed off as if she wasn't the one who started shit in the first place. And she didn't need to. She could have made this Ludovica look-a-like lose standing and power by just letting the trial run its course. I also have a hard time trying to fit together the image of someone who is bitter and suffering an inferiority complex against their romantic rival as someone who would reportedly favor the rival's child, who is noted to look like the aforementioned rival.

Rather than being a bitch with hurt feelings, I think it's actually much worse. Abusive, neglectful people with hurt feelings are much easier to deal with or change than someone who very deliberately chooses to prioritize other matters over their child. The former take actions, make decisions, and reacts based on a largely emotional scale, to which there's also the chance of there being some trauma there. The latter however is someone who very consciously looked things over and made the objective decision that other things are more important, that their priorities lie elsewhere, so they would devote energy to that rather than their child. And that first one is hard enough to change as is. Unless something is going on in secret between Elizabeth and her son, what's shown so far (like her conversation with her brother) is that she's a calculating woman who knows what's what. My current impression is that her moves are very calculated and that she (like many parents in this story) have prioritized maintaining their own power, authority, and influence over their children. Someone earlier speculated that her making very deliberate maneuvers to favor him (where all the nobles can see), and therefore showing her support for him to be the heir apparent, is a move on her part to basically get on his good side. I think I agree with that.

On her part when it comes to Shuli, rather than being jealous, bitter, and romantically threatened, it feels like a more hardcore version of those scenes where the villainess invites the heroine to a tea party in order to have the entire gathering gang up on her. Basically, it's definitely an "I'm going to show you your place" event. But with that 180, rather than doing so out of jealously, her sudden change of mind at Shuli's action seems to imply that this might actually be more of curb-stomping someone she sees as challenging her power rather than her romantic rival. Here is another low-ranking noble girl who doesn't know her place, who is utterly helpless and incompetent and survived by the grace of men doing everything for her, and who would is now single and could catch the Emperor's eye. I've yet to see if the Empress actually loves the Emperor (someone correct me if there has been a moment please), but a mistress who looks like the previous Empress and who is favored by the Emperor and the Prince is definitely a threat to her power. When Shuli showed herself as being someone who actually knows how to play the game, independent, and someone who likely knows better than to take advantage of the Emperor's whims, she was just no longer a threat. All this which is to say that I think it's exactly because Elizabeth and everybody involved are the most powerful people in the country that this isn't as simple as a high school drama. When the main players are these kinds of people, every action they take has consequences and is just a move in a game of check-and-balance for power. And while Elizabeth may be powerful, her power isn't a linear or solid thing. And in the end, I think she decided to leave her son as is and focus more on being Empress.

(It's also worth pointing out that royal children historically don't have that much in the way of interacting with their parents early on. Queen Elizabeth II (LOL) of the UK and British Commonwealth has received flack for leaving her children with nannies for long periods of time in order to juggle her responsibilities after she became Queen.)

And that's not even going into how, on top of being Empress and all the pressures that come with it, that Elizabeth is coming into the Imperial family as a STEPMOTHER. The beautiful, BEAUTIFUL irony here, is that the author draws the parallel between Shuli and the Empress in that they're BOTH competing with dead women. It's neither of their faults, but they're the ones who have to deal with the aftermath. They're both faced with having to deal with the kind of difficult family situation and adjustments that the story really focuses on (A STEPMOTHER'S Fairytale) that's awkward enough as it is normally, to say nothing of all the strings and danger that come with being royalty. While the Empress has to fill in the space left by Ludovica, the first part of this story was Shuli competing with the original marquises. It's not like Shuli wanted or was truly trying to compete with her, but she lived in an environment that ranged from somewhat cold to outright resentful as people looked at her, inevitably compared her to the original marquises, and resented or found her lacking. And even if her home situation is better now, looked what happened when she went to talk to the Count (the kids' bio uncle) and the Madame (bio uncle and bio mom's mom) tried to rip Shuli a new one on the grounds that Shuli was an interloper that stole her dead daughter's position and status. Both Empress and Shuli know how to deal with stuff like this, but it's just so interesting seeing how they each go about it in a way to get what they want. The Empress in order to...well, be the Empress. Shuli, in order to protect the kids.

I just LOVE going into these characters. X3