It was more like them being concubines are just a facade to the outside world (especially to the empress and her goons) to hide the truth that some of them are his knights (and that he have a lot of skilled people under him). While the other who are not lady knights just seek refuge in Axias and helped him in anyway they can (e.g. pretending to be part of his harem). And he treated them as his own people.
The novel has already ended at around 230 chapters including side stories. The comic is still ongoing at around 69 chapters.
What about that red haired mistress? Irene? She seems to be in love with ml and doing something shady.
She did not know that the ML's harem was actually a knightage in disguise, so all the while she really thought that it was a real harem. She is a noble who fell in love/besotted with the ML. And she thought that if she becomes part of his harem she will be noticed and become his wife. But sadly, ML would not even pay her attention. He just let her stay there so that his cover won't be blown away. Yeah, from what i saw and barely understood from the raws, she did something shady. Spoiler: From what i understood Please take this with a grain of salt (as i am no native korean speaker nor i know korean language, i can understand just bits of korean) from the gist of it, she purchased a dagger and learned some spell to make the ML fall for her/notice her (but the spell was actually something to summon a demon/start a plague or something, and was the cause for Anna's death)
I've got some spoilers but bear with me my english is not that good Spoiler: the red head irene and the plague the red head named irene is fell in love with the grand duke and wants to receive his affection. She felt jealous to rieta as she receive everyone attention but mostly the grand duke. Irene is kinda distant with everyone else and is often in her room. One day she met a suspicious man that gave her a dagger and basilisk blood, he said she need to stab the grand duke with the dagger if she wants him to love her or stab herself while looking at the grand duke in the eyes, she hesitated but didnt take the dagger and left. Well, the dagger suddenly is in her bag, and she tried to throw it away but the dagger keep coming back to her and so she is tempted to use it and when in her room she draw the sign on the floor and planning to stab herself while waiting for the grand duke so she can look him in the eye. But, suddenly the plague started and the little girl got it bad. she know it is because of her and wishing it would be over (actually she doesnt want anything to happen to the little girl) as she is hiding in her room. Then the grand duke, rieta and saintess come with a few women in the building, irene is locking herself in the room but knowing the grand duke wanted to visit her room she eagerly opened the door but suddenly feels flustered with rieta and saintess presence and she try to close the door but the saintess block her and everyone saw the symbol that she drew with the basilisk blood. The women got mad and knew she is the cause of the plague that kills the little girl then irene grab the dagger while looking in the grand duke eyes. Fortunatelly rieta grab her, grand duke grab rieta and the saintess grab the grand duke and they all vanished. Rieta and the saintess can feel irene emotion while we dont know what the grand duke feels and they face to face with a demon/devil. Long story short the saintess killed the demon (there is another background of the saintess of why she is so powerful) while grand duke and rieta bring irene out. This whole fiasco started because irene negative feelings made the demon create a crack in the castle and made the little girl the sacrifice. The saintess said her negative feeling killed the child and irene got imprisoned. Later irene father throw her away but the mother begging for forgiveness and irene tried to kill herself but the child mother said "dying is easy so live your hard life, repent, and atone for your sins" then it is decided that she and her mother would left axias and be devoted and taking after the children whose affected by the plague in the foundation and her family would lend their marble and silver mines for 10 years to axias, then irene gave a scarf to rieta but rieta bless the scarf and gave it back to irene and said "be happy, for maybe she (the little girl who died) would say the same" Spoiler: Grand duke and the women This time rieta talking with killian and ask if he didnt know how the other women in the castle feels but quickly shut her mouth and got embarased. But this got him thinking and calling all the women who ever had feelings for him. He said sorry and all the women said it's just in the past and he said he hoped they can leave wherever they want and search their own happiness. Some women needs time to think and some refused but killian gave them time until axias east building got redone Spoiler: The female knight so the female knight pledge themself to killian and they are promised to never ever had feelings for killian and vice versa. They are trained separately from the other knight before but now they are trained together. Spoiler: Rieta joining the female knight in the earlier chapter killian invited rieta to joined the female knight but she still has time until she decided. While talking with the other female knight rieta asked would she needs a sword if she wants to be a knight and they said yes and wondered if thats also the reason she learned to ride a horse, she said yes. This got the short haired female knight named rachel confused and asked her "rieta you want to joined female knight" then the other knight said "you dont know the duke already asked her? So you already decided rieta?" Rieta said yes. Then rachel goes to giselle and asked her the same thing. This got them worried because the number one rule for the female knight is to never have a feelings for the grand duke and vice versa. Well I guess rachel and giselle already know killian and rieta feelings and giselle is the one who strongly oppose rieta as a female knight There is so much fluff for killian and rieta from chapter 60+ and rieta starting to be aware of her feelings, and we got a glimpse of rieta's possible family/ancestor also there is the reason why axias got cursed and that makes me hate killian's father and uncle. Well I guess this manhwa is in hiatus for now
Does anyone know, is rietta a lost descendent of the royalty that is able to subdue demons with their blood?
Anyone know why the wandered saint told the duke to not let Rietta on his side? And he told the duke that she's his unwanted fate??
In my opinion, I think it's more like the saintess is telling Killian that if he is close with Rietta he may fall in love with her. The duke as of now does not want to fall in love and marry or sees marriage as something he doesn't want (maybe because of what happened with his mom and dad).
What I understand from the course of the story, my hypothesis is that Rietta is somehow connected with the fallen kingdom - the one with Princess Beatrice whose mother cursed the current kingdom (I forgot the name of the kingdom). Recent chapters have shown Rietta have some skills that are beyond what a commoner can access with their meager resources and connection: having immunity on lower demons, skills in doing governance report, etc. I think she's part of the royalty. And that makes it complicated for Killian whose family (particularly the father and his uncle), caused the fall of the other. Just my two cents.
Chapter 68 Rietta, the ML is already yours. Girl, you don't gotta prove your loyalty. This is such a good underrated manwha.
In chapter 63 the saintess said rietta was having an affair, then in the next chapter she tells him she loves him plus she has been very clingy to him since he came. Does that mean all this while she had a crush on the saintess? Cuz most people know her as the wife/mistress of the duke so that’s prolly why the saintess caller her having feelings for him an affair
I found some spoilers(i forgot where) that Anna is the MC's daughter(idk if it's true) and by the time they found about anna being the MC's daughter, Anna's already dead bc of the plague. Can anyone confirm if this is true or not...?
Saintess is a woman, if its a man they will be called saint. And she said if she was 10 years younger she would be joining the eastern masnsion It's not having an affair but more of rieta has something to say or some secret she hides. And rieta is very fond of the saintess because she grew up in the church I think, and she respect her as everyone in the church wants to be a saintess and rieta also dreaming to be a saintess before
Are you sure saintess is a woman cuz I’ve looked through again and he’s definetely a guy. Are you sure about that affair because as the saintess was about to leave she told him/her that she loves her and the saintess said she would have to get in line
According to the official translation, it is stated she is a woman. Her name is Saintess Tania. Rietta (MC) was her fan as she looks up to her as her role model since way before. What she meant when MC told her she love her (it is as a fan) and and she have to get in line as she have a lot of admirers/fans.