Honestly, Cedric and Artezia's personalities are great and the way they counter people in conversation is so fun and a bit witty.
@Ronoso and @Noirenowaru: Agreed! There are a few small things I would like to add:
1. I'm fairly certain she ended up returning to before Cedric fell for her. Thus why he hadn't noticed or met her yet.
2. This isn't a case of the female lead being romantically dense for the sake of plot. Artezia has a good reason for not noticing anyone's affections for her: her upbringing. Her half-brother doesn't give a damn about her (as though she were a serving girl) and her mother is outright emotionally abusive (and manipulative). Not to mention she's looked down on by most people around her — even servants — as someone who "shouldn't have been born" and you get the present results. This is also why she believes she is ugly, and why she has to be so calculating in order to survive.
3. Leshia forgave her probably because Leshia was aware of Cedric's feelings for Artezia as well as having some idea of Artezia's situation. I doubt that Leshia had any romantic feelings for Cedric, but either way, she seems to have accepted the fact (no idea if she supported it or not, but that's a different question).
4. I'm guessing that the reason why Cedric had a dream about the previous timeline is either due to the fact that he witnessed the spell up close or that the spell's goal was to fulfil his wish. (There may be other reasons, but those appear to be the most likely at present.)
YEEEE all these theories im so soft 🥺❤️ i do hope they end up happy together and he manages to teach her what love is and treasure her uwu thank you for the translation!!
Lol good work team n please don't collapse
Through I have to say, ever since you pointed out the eyebrows.... I can't stop noticing it Orz
Whyyyyyy did u have to make me see it??!! Now i can't unsee it! 😭
Totes agree with all your points, and they’ve spurred on some extra comments of my own
1) You made a great point about Tia not recognising affection towards her. And while I did poke fun at the FL misunderstanding trope, Tia being so deprived of love in any form also makes her misunderstanding of the nature of Cedric’s affection for Leshia very understandable as well.
It makes perfect sense that Tia can’t recognise familial love when she’s never experienced it, let alone that between siblings. I mean, Tia’s experiences with Lawrence are a living nightmare. And the only other sibling relationship in her family is her stepdad executing his brother and sister-in-law for treason. Not exactly the best examples of brotherly love.
So if Tia saw Cedric treating Leshia well and heard the musings of a gossip-monger or two, of course she’d assume he loved her romantically instead of like a sister as he’d said. Her only known examples of how brothers behave —her murderous half-brother and stepfather— are far and away from any sort of goodwill, let alone affection. Like you said, it’s really not just a matter of her being dense, but of what her whole traumatising life has conditioned her to think.
As an extra note, it also doesn’t help that OG!Cedric seemed extremely careful about making sure Tia didn’t catch on to his weak spot for her. I mean, I don’t blame him, he must’ve been weary of her exploiting his feelings for her scheming (more’s the irony, considering Tia seemed to have her own soft spot for him) but no wonder she thought he despised her. Girl asks if you trust her and you start babbling on about how you know all her dirty little secrets. (I really wonder if that’s how he always avoided the subject of how he felt about her.)
Honestly, it makes me a little sad for the OG timeline, because if Cedric had just sincerely asked her to come over to his side a little earlier, things could have been very different.
2) On the subject of Leshia, considering how it’s been emphasised that marrying Lawrence was her own choice, as well as how her last words to Tia were ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you’, I wonder if Leshia’s motives for the marriage were to save everyone —the kingdom and Tia— by reforming Lawrence? I mean, if that was the plan, it clearly didn’t work out, but it seems the most reasonable explanation for why Leshia knowingly walked into hell & apologised to Tia for her failure. (Lesson learned: the Power of Love is only effective when there’s actually love involved.)
If Leshia did indeed have an inkling of Cedric’s feelings for Tia (which is an absolutely delicious idea I dearly hope is true) it defo would’ve been extra motivation to go through with it. Save the kingdom and your big brother figure’s love life, all in one go. Damn shame it didn’t work out.
3) This is a personal theory without much evidence going for it, but I think that waaay down the line, maybe near the finale, Cedric will remember everything from the previous timeline. I say this because I really can’t see any other way Tia could let herself be happy.
I mean, looking at how the story will proceed, let’s assume Tia does everything right this time. She and Cedric get married, she makes him emperor, etc. Let’s say she even figures out the Leshia misunderstanding, and realises Cedric never saw her that way. Let’s say Tia finally figures out that she loves Cedric and he loves her back, and is presented with the choice of just staying married to him and being Empress by his side forever.
I don’t think she’d let herself accept that.
Like, one, I don’t think Tia would let herself pursue her own happiness. She doesn’t see herself deserving of it. Like, even if she does do things right this time, she’ll just see all her efforts and sacrifices as what she owes the people, not as something that makes her redeemed. She wouldn’t think that gives her the right to be happy, let alone be empress — worse, I think she’s quite serious when she
says that her not being empress is for the good of the empire
. Girl probably sees herself as an evil tool who corrodes everything they touch and must be kept safely locked away after use. And ‘tools’ have no right to happiness, right?
Two, I don’t think Tia could accept Current!Cedric’s feelings without feeling like she’s tricked him, because from her POV, he’s only ever seen her ‘be good’. He doesn’t know all the terrible things she did in the previous timeline, so he doesn’t really ‘know’ her, so he doesn’t really love ‘her’, just the person that she’s been since the rewind. Which is still her, but I don’t think that logic would fly with Tia.
So, even if she knew that Cedric loves her back, I don’t think she could bring herself to stay. She’d still want the divorce, she’d still want to give up on being empress, she’d still want to give up on being with him. Because she wouldn’t think that she deserves any of it.
And imo the perfection solution for this —really the only thing that I think could possibly change Tia’s mind— is to have Cedric remember everything. Not just so he can tell her he loved then and still loves her now, if not more than before (lbr, DoubleTimeline!Cedric would be brimming with adoration & awe towards Tia for literally sacrificing her life twice over to make things right). But, more importantly, so that the most morally righteous person Tia knows can tell her that she’s allowed to be happy.
So, it’s not Tia forgiving herself or earning the forgiveness of someone else (really, she’s wronged too many for that to work), but just receiving love and acceptance from the one man who she was sure would despise her if he really knew everything about her. Which would in turn give her the hope and confidence to spend the rest of her life, still redeeming herself, yes, but also allowing herself to be happy.
Lol, also I can totes see Cedric working an angle and telling Tia that the best redemption for her crimes against the empire is to spend the rest of her life as an empress striving for the empire. Being married to bae is just a side perk. Totally.
Either way, I’m confident it’ll end well since we have the security of ‘Cedric’s wish being fulfilled’, but I am deeply curious as to how everything will play out.
