Spoiler Born As The Hidden Daughter Of A Villainess And The Male Lead

I mean, if your hidden ability is closer to mild (uncontrolled) clairvoyance from both of your spoilers (thank you both!), its more likely she did and was prepared. MC was hidden from existence for a few years, if the price to pay was the fall of a duchy then its a small price if MCs spirit is another one of incredible rank alone. Seems like you both haven't reached the duchy living arc.

Can't believe sperm donor prequel ML could still go lower. He literally threatened his savior. Both have guardian rights in this scenario (even when you consider the era). MC has no signs of malnutrition or abuse, other than powertripping, he shouldn't be able to take MC.

 

Roberick: "geez, two fires in such a short time, I wonder who is behind this? What do you think Perion, my faithful friend? You have the blessing of the spirit of fire, do you have any theory about it?"

 

The worst part is that perion vanishes right after that mysterious second fire and roberick doesn't even question it lol

 

I've read a little further and I'm having really mixed feelings about roberick. We've well established the fact that roberick is a real fkn douchebag, but in recent chapters he's been overly protective of Edith, to the point of imprisoning perion (not for burning the annex but because he tried to slander Edith without any proof) and GETTING ANGRY AT CHASTIA!! Like bro! Pick a side will ya! But since chastia's anger and worry WERE justified, I can conclude that roberick is a douchebag.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Chastia supports perion when he raises suspicion on Edith, which i kind of understand because alea (chastia's daughter) nearly died and Edith was the only one present on the scene and Edith has every motive to kill alea (acc to the one dimensional thinking all og leads of the og story had) but from roberick's behaviour (and it could very well be a stretch) i have a few theories
1. both Mariette and roberick knew about something and acted acc to that
2. The most overused trope, aka the brainwashing thing (for which i suspect alea)
3. Roberick is a plain and simple asshole with whom you should never form any sort of deep relationship with.
Chastia has acted hella normal ngl for what I've read so far. She acts frightened around Edith as if she's afraid of her taking away chastia's position. It very well feels like she's THAT desparate to never return to her previous life. The most suspicious character so far has been alea without a doubt. She's always mentioned to be having blank expressionless face whenever Edith gets recognised. Also, it seems that there's some imperial drama lol. They mentioned that the current emperor was abused by the previous emperor and he formed a friendship with roberick based on their mutual hatred for the previous emperor. But guess what? He also has a son who he abuses the same way....
ALSO (istg this is the last thing) this is from MTL so idk if it was just a grammatical error, but roberick shouts at the emperor asking whether he would destroy his current family too, which further raises my question about roberick's truth.

 

They think that a 7-year-old girl is capable of murder? How old is Chastia's daughter?

 

Spoiler: Duchy

Rounding back to this one, Shiron (gramps) and Edith separate before she arrives at the duchy. She promises to visit monthly and swears that she'll restore his honor, and take down Roderick's (dad). Edith does write him daily letters but it's TBD if gramps is actually receiving them - need to read more to find out.

Once she's at the duchy, she can tell that servants dislike her and generally ignore her when she asks for stuff, but they can't bully her because Roderick treats her so well. He visits her often, always asking her how she is etc., but she finds him annoying. Also lower/middle level spirits stay with her (Undine, Nyx) and then curse out the servants who look down on Edith.

Because Chastia (stepmom, ogFL) is so scared of Edith and runs away in fright every time they meet, Edith stays in her room a lot to avoid bumping into her. Upon her arrival, Chastia unwillingly agrees to Roderick glossing over the whole situation saying well she's here, there were some circumstances (btw, he didn't initially tell her that Edith was coming - Perion did) but she says I can't be her mother. Roderick nods and says he understands. Nyx, one of the water spirits, calls Chastia a coward for running from Edith and Edith doesn't correct him lol.

Alea greets Edith as well on the first day and the adults ask Edith to greet her Unnie (older sis in korean). Instead she addresses her directly as Alea (considered rude in korean - even if you're a year apart you're expected to address your seniors correctly), refusing to acknowledge Alea as family, and says we're basically same age. The adults awkwardly gloss over it and after that she doesn't see Alea again for a while.

Spoiler: Family History

Some more family history, taken from gramp's perspective. So gramps was bffs with Roderick's parents and his entire family was executed by the previous emperor for being traitors (I think they were set up). Gramps then takes in Roderick and raises him as a son. Mariette is kind to Roderick growing up and slowly helps him come out of his shell, eventually falling in love with him. Even when Roderick broke Mariette's heart saying he loved someone else, gramps was upset but he still loved Roderick as a son.

Meanwhile, Roderick befriended the crown prince (current emperor). The CP was abused by his father and later overthrew him - this is the same father who killed Roderick's family. CP now current Emperor decides he wants to overthrow the older nobility and makes a plan with Roderick to screw over Gramps + Mariette. Gramps wasn't aware of any of this and fell into their trap before realizing it was too late to prepare. They were subsequently kicked out of the nobility, and Mariette begged gramps not to tell Roderick about Edith on her deathbed and to take care of her.

Along with Roderick, gramps took in another boy (considering that they're just a shelter for strays - def been vilified unjustly). This boy was the one who disappeared after a while (I forget when) but a few months before Ch. 1, the guy told Roderick he had a child with Mariette before promptly disappearing again.

Chastia had a previous relationship before Roderick which produced Alea. Roderick agreed to adopt Alea as his own child, but there's hints in the early chapters that he really hates Alea's father.

 

Does the sperm donor have any redeeming qualities? Every spoiler just makes him worse and worse.

Also, his wife is a huge hypocrite is she wants him to treat her daughter as his own, but refuses to do the same for his own daughter.

 

Series Discussion

Since 3 & 4 translations are now available for free, a little discussion from me and thanking the + asking for new spoilers. REALLY happy MC is consistent in hating sperm donor prequel ML (I dunno which one to call him at this point. Former feels great just to express our dislike for the man, but since the earlier thread, people kept calling him... ML so I guess second stuck with me correcting myself a little bit. I hate him so much, I barely try to remember his name). I am currently in a weird place whether which theory Korraa mentioned should be plausible while I'm reading the translations. I feel like brainwashing was off while reading 3 & 4. Plus, prequel ML is obsessed with MC. If this was brainwashing, he wouldn't care. But the recent spoilers with the outright, unjustifiable hate towards mom as a whole... is off. Even higher spirits had to tell MC something was off. Like... I know people/commoners were not properly educated at the time (at least depending on the series, there should be educational institutions for butlers and maids, or maybe the church taught them) and we have different values as modern people but I still find it hard to believe the hatred. One comment in particular in ch.4 hit me. Why is Chastia's ex husband, from implications alone, an abuser, did not get Alea a pass from being hated as a bloodline when it could be the same application towards MC with her mom? Or is this a case of in their twisted view of era and situation, mom was in the wrong for being unjustly the center of rumors who lost not only her fiance to a commoner WIDOW but a target of the new set of nobility? I mean, its really hard to believe, other nobilities whose titles SHOULD be a target themselves (even the corrupt ones) could've soft allied with gramps just because they were on the same boat, not to mention the nobility shown in series general who look down on commoner turned nobles (but to an extent, maybe they were pressured since her current husband is a war hero). I'm also thankful there's at least SOMETHING to keep MC sane in the duchy situation, the spirits and not full on abuse. I hope we get a power tripping situation. She's already hated, might as well go all the way since her destiny is already to be hated like her mom but I guess wanting to restore gramps honor would prevent that.

Next, the nobility purge. Why... did prequel ML agree with this? At least an exception with gramps should've been possible, what we know of gramps is his character is good from MCs POV, maybe even prequel ML. Its just his daughter that is hated. This is weird knowing his backstory of losing his parents from unjustified charges. Was it CP? Was it Perion? What kind of sweet nothings would let a man ruin his benefactor?

Chastia spoiler is oddly satisfying. A true coward. Refreshing to read really. She had the balls to ask mom to respect their love but is running away from MC... pfft. Again, I acknowledge for her it was THE best one way ticket away from an abuser AND get rich but it feels off whenever I see this trope in a series. Even if she had prequel protagonist protection status, I find it hard to believe there is no opposition in secret. What about the old staff of gramps duchy? Their kids? They saw the parents grow up together. The outsider between the two brought another woman, and the spirits already said Mariette wasn't the kind of person prequel ML or Perion said she was (so its a relief MC will just keep hating sperm donor, Perion, and hopefully the current emperor)

 

Similar to what @Korraa mentioned before, his redeeming attribute is how well he does try to be a decent father in spite of everything. I think he's just a brick more than anything.

Spoiler

Perion (his aide) on the other hand is pure irredeemable trash. When Edith initially goes to the Imperial Palace to get her title as the Duke's successor conferred, Ahmed (assumed to be a prince and is abused by the emperor, possibly future ML?) creates chaos in the crown prince's palace with his ice spirit. Alea and others servants there are all injured and Roderick comes running to the girls, checking on Edith first (she was scared and crying) and then seeing Alea bleeding from the arm, heals her.


Once they're back at the duchy, Shastia freaks out about Alea's accident. Perion then accuses Edith of causing the ice mess and trying to kill Alea, and someone (him or Shastia) says remember who her mother was. Edith stares back wanting to counter, but sees all the servants glaring at her, and no one believes in her. Roderick is the only one to defend her (causing a fall out between him and Shastia) and he later imprisons Perion (who never apologized) when Edith's third attribute is proven to be Earth (Earth spirit shows up saying I had to come early cuz you were all trying to kill a 7 year old I blessed).

Also when the emperor orders Edith to be engaged to the crown prince, Roderick curses him out, says you want to bring down my family again? and threatens to become emperor's enemy.

Shastia actually seems like the most sus in the situation. When Alea initially goes to the imperial palace with Roderick and Edith, her eyes are clear and she shows how she's jealous of the attention Edith gets. Once the Earth spirit clears things up, Edith looks back at Alea, who was in Shastia's arms, seeing that Alea's eyes are glossed over and she appears unaware of her surroundings.

 

I am LOVING the bits and pieces of spoilers both you and @Korraa keep giving out. Well appreciated. Ah, drat! Are we back to suspecting Chastia again (I'll be leaning with her name in this scenario. Very fitting to a wishy washy female heroine in public). At what chapter of the novels are both of you from already and how far is the novel currently?

Edit: Can't believe the elemental spirits are still contracted with owners like this.

 

Probably cause alea was alive when the abuse took place and (hopefully not) was abused as well.

Spoiler: Spoiler till where I've read so far.

I read a little further, and I'll explain the reason why no one can touch Edith.
1. Edith has well established herself as one of the strongest (future elementals) as she has the spirit of life which only blesses a person once a millenia, the spirit king of water and the spirit king of earth.
2. Major spoiler here and one which i DID NOT LIKE AT ALL, but Edith is now the crown princess....
How it all happened:
None of the nobles liked alea already. They all acknowledge Edith but outright ignore alea. Also, roberick does nothing to up alea's status either.
The crown prince is a fkn pussy and I'm sure the ML is going to be the other hidden child.

About the child and the whole incident:
He's extremely powerful and was the one caused the incident where alea nearly got killed. Along with alea, the cp and the second prince were also nearly crushed. Edith tries hard to stop the ice block (? It was MTL, but something was crushing the cp's palace) using her water elemental but fails because water is less powerful than ice. When naiad (water spirit king) tells Edith that it would be a good chance for her third spirit to be revealed, the boy asks Edith about her name and as soon as Edith tells him her name, the block(?) Vanishes. The boy later gets beaten by the emperor who tells him that he would rather make his useless eldest son as the heir than giving the throne to the boy. The boy later, when alone, says edith's full name and watches her.

The aftermath of the whole incident:
Roberick never even looks at Edith suspiciously and hugs her being thankful that she's safe, alea calls roberick and tells him she's injured and roberick heaks her. At the duchy chastia hugs alea, and Edith stealthily tries to escape not wanting to ruin the family moment and perion appears and questions Edith. Roberick shouts at perion saying how can a 7 year old girl think about killing people? (This is where i start to suspect something's wrong with roberick) chastia shouts saying her daughter nearly died and perion tells roberick that "she's her mother's daughter" this is where every servant looks at Edith suspiciously and she can't defend herself in front of these gazes. Nyx shouts at the servants and urges Edith to call out naiad, which she does. Naiad confirms edith's innocence and everyone accepts..... Except, guess who? YES, perion! Perion accuses Edith again saying they don't know her third spirit and it might as well be an ice spirit! This greatly angers naiad, cause how dare a mere pathetic asswipe of a human question her words! She gets really angry and tries to drown everyone who doubts her words. Edith is really confused and tries to stop naiad and here's where oreid, the earth spirit king enters. The part here was really confusing cause it was MTL, but the gist was that roberick was really shocked and asked what's oreid doing here and oreid says, "what else, I'm edith's third spirit and here to prove her innocence." This greatly shocks roberick, chastia and perion. Roberick imprisons perion for daring to slander the name of the young lady of the great duchy, and he's disappointed in chastia for supporting perion. He ignores chastia, takes edith's hand and takes her to her room. I don't remember if he apologizes to Edith for perion and chastia's actions but I'm guessing he did. Alea looks at Edith with a dull and expressionless face which gives Edith a sense of ominous foreboding. Edith becomes extremely popular for her talent and even the emperor covets her. He summons the entire family to the court and asks roberick to make Edith the crown princess. Roberick get really mad at the emperor and says that there's no way Edith is ever going to be the crown princess. The emperor tells him that he's endangering his family by refusing his order, at which roberick lashes out saying if he would kill this family of his too (again i suspect roberick but this is MTL so i could be wrong) and the entire family goes out of the court. Chastia asks roberick if he would really make Edith the crown princess, at which roberick refuses and chastia says that she's glad because that position was meant to be alea's at which he remains silent. At first Edith is happy, but then she decides it's better to use imperial family's influence to get back her grandfather's position and duchy because her grandfather is old and getting brownie points from emperor would be quicker. She tells roberick that she's going to become the crown princess at which roberick tells her she doesn't have to. She says that alea is going to inherit the duchy, so at the very least she shluld become the crown princess. Roberick tells her that he has no intention of passing down the duchy to alea as she doesn't have his blood. Still Edith insists on becoming the crown princess and roberick cedes. On entering the palace for training, she's told that due to the recent incident, no one except the royal family can summon spirits. So she bids goodbye to naiad, oreid, and ilphius. She's summoned by the emperor who introduced her to the pussy crown prince. They go to the garden. The cp tries to look cool in front of Edith, but the other boy, the one who's imprisoned makes an ice puddle below cp's feet and he falls down and can't get back up. Cp starts crying, Edith tries consoling him but fails so she tries to get the servants and gets lost in an illusion. This is till where I've read so far.
I forgot to mention that at two incidents, the one where perion is slandering Edith and the one where cp falls on his butt, Edith sees snowflakes which probably means that the boy is constantly looking at Edith. Also, the boy has a name but i forgor

I don't suspect chastia as much as alea tbh. Chastia looks like too big of a pussy to actually plot anything. I have a theory where alea has gone back in time, but then again she's only two years older than Edith meaning that she was just two when the whole incident happened so i guess i debunked my own theory lol. But i still don't think chastia has the courage to pull anything shady. I suspect something's up with roberick and Mariette and maybe the emperor has a hand too

 

Reading all the current spoilers I have to say:
Roberick/Roderick is quite the delusional immature idiot shitbag father for forcing his biological daughter Edith to be seperated from her beloved grandpa whom he shamelessly betrayed and bringing her to a hostile unhealthy enviroment where she as a 7 year old little girl can only rely on herself, the elemental spirits and him the bastard she so dislikes who still causes all the misery drama for her!!!

How much and long does our MC have to keep enduring all of her stupid father's arrogance and selfishness???

Fantasy Fathers who are flawed but have proven to be very competent at caring & protecting their victimized daughter from anything AND earning for forgivness:

• The Archmage's Daughter
• I Was Born As The Demon Lord's Daughter
• MY DAUGHTER IS THE FINAL BOSS!
• Retired Heroes (Manga/Manhua)

 

Series discussion

Thank you for the new batch of spoilers @Korraa ! Can I ask how or when MC meets her 2 first spirits? The earth was already spoiled, I'm just curious on the other 2. Also... is the spirit of wisdom still alive but not summonable or something after her mom passed away?

Going back to the discussion, where on manhwa planet is Chastia getting the audacity/confidence Alea has the right to be crown princess/wife of a prince when she stole someone's place? They were COMMONERS! (I'm usually annoyed with this antagonist trope but unless the noble in question is still low ranked or the commoner in question is something unique or powerful themselves, the relationship thankfully in the end (if not for Roberick's probable indirect threat), the nobility did not approve of this). Perion as well. How is his loyalty towards Chastia higher than anyone else? If he loved her to this extent, enough to commit crimes without remorse, what hasn't stopped him from being her husband and making sure Mom and the duchy's rep wasn't in need to be destroyed. Bruh. Alea isn't even his child but he's acting like his the hidden father in an NTR setting where their child winds up big and he thinks he can use this to his advantage or something similar. P.S @Korraa I honestly and completely don't get your theory of something off with Roberick, since you already spoiled what you currently read so far, can you explain in detail the off thing with Roberick that you have noticed?

And before I forget, Roberick according to the MTL, ACKNOWLEDGES he ruined Mariette's family (with the "he would kill THIS family of HIS... TOO?! I know its MTL but how is this man a prequel ML?! He still impregnated the villainess offscreen in the former plot)? He KNEW what he was doing DESPITE gramps being his savior?! I can understand if gramps was like a criminal head mastermind but tf?!

 

the first two spirits were revealed when the fire broke out. Ilphius was the first to come out and he tells Edith the chant to summon naiad who comes out to extinguish the fire.

As for something being off with roberick, that's the exact reason why i think something's off with roberick. As i said both times, this was MTL so the grammer could be off and so can the way i perceived the words, but this sentence along with roberick's recent overprotectiveness regarding Edith really makes me believe that there's something more to roberick than we know. Mariette's spirit could sometimes see future. The spirit was said to be extremely upright and strict. Also, Mariette spent majority of her time with spirit king of wisdom. With such a character by her side, i don't think it's possible that Mariette was of weak mental fortitude. I might be reading too much into this (i am probably thinking too much) but maybe Mariette and roberick had a plan about everything. In the first place, it's unclear how Mariette got impregnated. From all that we've heard about Mariette, i don't think it's possible that she did anything disgusting to get impregnated. I'm pretty sure it was consensual from both side. Also, there's many things regarding edith's birth. When did chastia come in their lives? Was Mariette already pregnant when she came? Did no one notice that Mariette was pregnant in the meantime? I've heard that sometimes pregnancy's can go unnoticed till even 6 months in. Are you telling me that in just 6 months, they were both able to destroy an entire duchy? And that's considering that her pregnancy went unnoticed, so the time frame could be even shorter. Also roberick doesn't look like he takes too much care of chastia. Almost as if it's just a formality. He's been more protective of Edith than he's been of chastia and alea.

Before Edith came, alea was the highest ranking noble lady who could become the crown princess. In fact, if it wasn't for edith's abilities, alea was the favourite to become the crown princess as she is also quite close to cp.

Perion looks like a minor villain who no one cares much about. He's like that annoying glasses guy who always inserts himself and thinks he's the centre of the world. I agree with you wholeheartedly. If he loves chastia so much, why didn't he kill roberick, take over the duchy using some underhanded way like forging a will and marrying chastia? He has no problem killing powerless people but can't kill roberick probably because of how powerful he is.

Roberick reaaaallly confuses me. What the heck is wrong with that dude? I really think there's something wrong with him. But well, this could be author's inconsistent writing and probably roberick is actually the brain-dead character and is probably just doing shit on a whim.
There's many characters that haven't yet been properly shown so far like the person who spilled the beans, the gramps' friend and the boy who intercepted the letter. Also the third hidden prince (the boy with ice spirit who's name i forgot) his story isn't explained so far. The tokens i purchased from the free coins i got by creating my account have nearly all gone so I'm nearing the end of what I can tell you, after that it's a chapter per day . You can make an account and you'll get 3000 coins using which you can buy a decent amount of tokens and read more chapters and give us more spoilers

 

ah this is pain

 

Spoiler: Imperial Family History

So the previous emperor during gramp's and predecessor Duke Hailean's generation went crazy because he was jealous of his son the crown prince. Essentially the imperial family had been blessed by the fire spirit but the power was weakening over time. The previous emperor was jelly that his son's power surpassed his, hence the abuse.

Empress Elijah, the current emperor's deceased beloved wife, gave birth to current crown prince Valerian (who Edith is engaged to) and to Essimed (presumed ML, named after his mom). When empress was pregnant Essimed started manifesting ice powers in the womb which was a surprise to everyone since they were known for fire, and the empress insisted on giving birth at the cost of her life. Emperor loved her and wanted to love both his kids as he had promised her, but Essimed was a mutant, both with his powers and as a kid.

He had ice abilities from birth, never reacted (smiled, cried or spoke a word). The emperor was reluctant to see him and his empty eyes, preferring his firstborn Valerian who was affectionate, talkative and resembled empress (has red hair and green? eyes vs Essimed who has black hair and blue eyes). He still tried to raise Essimed normally until the kid's fourth birthday when he was tested for spirit attributes. Valerian is revealed to have no powers (along with 3rd prince) and thus disqualified from the throne, but Emperor was still counting on Essimed to have a lower level fire attribute. Instead he's has ice and darkness attributes (spirit of fear and spirit of hatred).

Historically speaking (like thousands of years of seeing this), the spirit of darkness and all lesser darkness spirits have been known to cause chaos & evil and anyone blessed by them were bound to fall into madness/cause harm. Dark spirits were constantly rejected/oppressed and several decades before dark spirits joined with Arcane (spirit king of darkness) worshippers to massacre/cause wars throughout the continent to the point where the other spirit kings had to get involved in the human realm. Because of that, the kings of the continent made an agreement that anyone blessed by darkness should be put to death immediately.

Given the general fear about dark spirits, the empress dying to give birth to Essimed, and the Emperor's own memories about competition for the throne/being abused for his powers, he decided to tell the world the 2nd prince had died and locked him in an abandoned castle for the rest of his life (he was still the son of emperor's beloved wife so emperor couldn't kill him). Handel (originally 3rd prince) became the 2nd prince and all traces of Essimed were erased.

Spoiler: Essimed

Essimed was influenced by the spirits of darkness, who unlike other spirits who taught love and kindness, taught him negative emotions like resentment and hate. They told him the emperor locking him up was wrong and to hate the imperial family and everything in the world.

He escaped the abandoned castle multiple times and tried to kill his brothers several times. The emperor in turn hated Essimed, increased the things confining him and later whipped him (eventually turning into 3-4x/week abuse).

Roderick is aware of the abuse and has been present for several of Essimed's beatings. He'll say things like "Don't do that. He's your son." but he never made any attempts to stop the emperor, which Essimed hated more. He decides to get revenge on Roderick after hearing that he loves his new daughter and intends to use her name to curse her. When Edith went to the palace, he offered to stop the ice attack if she told him her name.

After that he observes her (he saw the incident with Perion accusing her of attempted murder) and later when she's engaged to Valerian, he makes a pathway for her to visit. He threatened her to visit several times, but after another ice incident (froze Valerian's hand to a tea cup) he's heavily beaten by the emperor and stops calling her. Edith later sees the emperor whipping Essimed and when he thinks she ran away to never return, she comes back with ointment for his wounds.

 

Spoiler

That sounds like 1 huge self fulfilling prophecy top me

 

any more spoilers, the fathers in this story are something else the king can't see what he is doing to his sons, even if we say that the fl father was mined controlled to heat the mom: I think there is something off about the other kid dad... the mom even worst she marred like 3 men and that is not normal for the time period they lived in.

 

Series discussion/user reaction

Unless proven otherwise or a sudden reveal, I'd defend granpa for being a good parental figure or even a good dad to Mariette and Roberick. I feel like his only mistake without knowing his decision would lead to this was announcing Roberick was the heir and not his own flesh and blood (I know it was a different time period with different viewpoints but... his own daughter is contracted to a spirit of WISDOM. There's no better candidate than that to leave the care of your lands.

How about the other dads based on the previous spoilers here?
Former king was replaced by his son. I forgot if there was a mention of rebellion here or it was a smooth transition. It just feels weird he would allow the sudden shift of having the older nobilities lose their title.

Son turned father in the current main story is abusing one of his sons for being contracted to a spirit of darkness and for being a total weirdo in general

Roberick would've been a good parent but his desperation with his bloodline is making him shortsighted. Its only thanks to his title and authority MC is unable to be fully bullied right now. She HAS to be reliant to him but then again, she had to be defended by 2 spirit kings, and his own men was stubborn enough not to believe said spirit.

Alea's father is a POS abuser. That's it

 

*FYI I added a characters list to the beginning of this thread cuz the author put so much world building in this novel that it's hard to keep up

Spoiler: Edith's Engagement

Edith made a plan to help Essimed escape from his prison. During her official engagement ceremony to the crown prince, he called on Illypia to appear and stop the ceremony, saying Essimed was her destined partner in spite of his darkness attributes. Obviously the King had a fit but a bunch of things are revealed: Essimed's past as a hidden prince, Phoenix disappearing, the 2 other princes having no power. The nobles were pissed that they'd been lied to and pushed to have Essimed crown prince since he was only prince with spirits. Essimed is officially established as Edith's fiance and regained his place as 2nd prince of the empire. Roberick didn't like it but he couldn't stop Edith with her spirits.

From this point on, I'm going to go a little out of order since the novel flips back and forth between past and present story telling.

Spoiler: Great Destruction/Battle whatever you want to call it

So 70 years ago, Arcane worshippers and dark spirits rebelled and caused chaos through the continent. The spirit kings came together to bless 7 humans with strength to fight against it - outside of Shiorn, each of the spirits warriors had only 1 attribute power (normally people have 3) but with the power they had inhuman strength. Shiorn was not blessed with spirit power but instead had incredible muscle power. After the darkness was pushed back, all of the countries agreed to kill dark spirit owners on sight except for kingdom of Nisha where dark worshippers dwell and the spirit warriors went into hiding/returned back to their normal lives trying not to catch attention.

Spoiler: Shiorn's Past

Shiorn married Atara (spirit warrior of water) and they had Mariette in their old age. The previous emperor tried to get Shiorn to marry his daughter but Shiorn swore an oath to follow the emperor/not rebel which carried into the next generation. Hence, even knowing how crazy the emperor was and how ambitious the crown prince was, Shiorn couldn't do anything when Emperor Oswald (2nd gen) brought him and Mariette down.

Spoiler: Notes about the Spirit Kings

Before all other spirit kings came into being Arcane existed in the darkness. He is the 1st among them to be created, hates humans, and wants to destroy mankind.

There is a concept of neutrality in the universe. Basically there always needs to be an equal balance between all the spirits - evil vs good, darkness vs light, etc. Lore, spirit king of Wisdom, upholds this concept.

There is also a split between the spirit kings of those who are absolutely against Arcane and want to destroy him vs those are more neutral. Oried (spirit king of Earth) and Illypia (spirit king of Life) are among those who hate Arcane, along with some others whose names I forgot. Possibly Ignis, spirit King of Light as well. It's for this reason Illypia took away her blessings to Roberick - more explained later.

Ariel, Spirit King of Wind, is among those who are neutral.

Spoiler: Judith and the Kandels

Formerly one of the main duchies of the Roshan Empire, the Kandels were destroyed after committing a taboo and wiped from history. Originally Judith, spirit commander of electricity (lightning) grew up in an environment where all of the family children were to kill each other hunger games style to win the successor role. Judith manifested lightning powers after seeing her newborn baby brother killed and retaliated against her half siblings.

She grew up being friends with Shiorn in childhood and despite being used her family for power (especially by her half brother Jordi), came to know what it was like being loved (platonically) through Shiorn and his parents. After fighting the great spirits of darkness 70 years back, she retired and tried living a quiet life.

Meanwhile, her half brother Jordi became the new Duke of Kandel and was greedy for power, always intent on using his sister. After Atara (Mariette's mom) died, he pushed Judith to become Shiorn's 2nd wife so they could produce another powerful child with her powers. Judith refused to get married to anyone (respect to her) and Jordi then looked to other means. Jordi used Meinhardt, who was the expected successor of the family because he manifested electric powers as well.

In order to increase Meinhardt's powers, Jordi gathered a ton of adults and children, sacrificing them to Arcane. Judith showed up just after all the people were sacrificed and used her powers to destroy all those in the Kandel family except for Meinhardt (who she always liked). Meinhardt witnessed the destruction of his family and Judith's last words to him to not live like her, not sacrifice for others but to live for himself.

Spoiler: Meinhardt's Story

After the Kandels were destroyed, Mariette found Meinhardt and brought him to the Bastevan duchy. At first he just wanted to die but over time Mariette helped him and she became his reason to live.

Meinhardt was arguably the closest person to Mariette, and knew about her future plans and helped to implement them. He was stigmatized for being the child of a family of Arcane worshippers and then later stigmatized as the villainess's henchman who followed Mariette in everything.

Before she died, Mariette told him about what Lore, Spirit King of Wisdom had revealed to her about the future, and he swore an oath to protect Edith. Mariette was also the one who told Meinhardt to reveal Edith's presence to Roberick after 7 years, saying it's ok so long as he can protect her. Afterwards, Meinhardt disappeared because he couldn't bear to see Mariette's death (she knew in advance she would die), and following her directions, told Roberick after 7 years.

When it came to Edith, he initially planned to protect and watch her from the side without her being aware. However after a kidnapping incident, he decided to get involved. Once that's resolved, Shiorn asks him about his disappearances before letting him go again. He appears in front of Edith again when Arcane dragged her into the past. She and Meinhardt are eventually able to escape back to the present and she begs him to stay with her in the imperial palace so he complies.

As a character Meinhardt always felt guilty about Judith's sacrifice for him and indebted to Mariette. He wanted to protect Edith from the dangers of the world by having her live in ignorance but Edith breaks down his barriers. He realizes how strong she is and eventually tells her the history about her mom and what happened.