The bullying phase was just terrible for leyla. The duke would make her cry, make herself feel humiliated or sometimes even throw such hurtful insults.

Moving on to the second phase, the duke was still mean at times but he started becoming flirtatious giving her compliments, and Idk I guess he did some things that would take leyla by surprise as he was more tolerable (don't remember much). Instead of wanting to see her cry, he started wanting her attention. At this point I thought like yeah maybe he is redeemable and can overlook his past actions of bullying if he gets better

BUT NO! He knew he had the power and leverage over leyla when a certain incident happen that got one of her loved ones into trouble. So he coaxed leyla in exchange for his help, she would have to give herself to him= r*pe.

My heart really broke for her especially when she had to spend the first night with him. And the next couple weeks was hellish for her having to sleep with him every night. I couldn't help but notice she was developing depressive symptoms (Low mood, guilt, always tired, losing appetite and decreasing in weight, being tearful at times). At the same time, Matthias started showing leyla affection especially in bed, providing meals, giftings and tried to initiate conversations with her bcs at this point it's obvious he's simping for her. So this leads confusion to leyla as she initially loathes him very much but some of his actions contradicts to how she thought he was going to treat her. There were already hints that she too was falling for him (yuck ugh ew).

I read many saying how cruel Matías is and how "poor" Leyla is, for me they are both guilty, both equally toxic and bad in the head. I'll start by saying that not all of Layla's suffering is Matías' fault, he was just bothering her, she could ignore him, and the moment she saw that the jokes were escalating, she told her uncle, but no, he was so worried about not hurting her. To his uncle silent, that was the first mistake, the second was wanting to marry Kyle, when I saw Kyle in the manwha I thought he was the Ml, but then it was Matías, I had a good impression of him, until I read the manwha, Kyle is very immature, just as selfish as Matías, of course not cruel, but selfish, deep down he knew that Layla didn't love him but he insisted, insisted and insisted, which helped break Layla little by little, it must have give the FL her space, not apply more drama, even more so when she saw that her family did not seem entirely happy, just as Kyle's father said, it was Kyle's and the father's fault that the mother did those things for not drinking Taking into account his feelings, Kyle knew how hurt Layla was, so knowing that, he should never have crossed the line, because unlike Matías, he was not willing to go to any lengths for her, now for me the culprit of the separation of Kyleand Layla was Kyle's mother, even if Matías had told the truth to the police, that did not change the fact that my mother hated Layla, that lady was worse than Matías's grandmother and mother, well moving on to Layla She is a very naive girl, it seemed strange to me that when she meets ML again she gets distracted which leads to her falling off her bicycle, for someone who made you fear and feel helpless the first thing you would do would be to run away from there, but she stays, and that was the beginning of everything, since she was little, Layla was always enthralled by Matías's beauty, but she felt so inferior that everything Matías did made her feel how small she was in the world, and This gets worse when she grows up, throughout the novel they mention that Layla is proud, and this is very true, Layla could have put a stop to Matías, avoided so much pain if she had been more honest with herself, she is caught up in wanting to be a better person for herself. Uncle and her only friend Kyle, she was willing to sacrifice her freedom, throughout the novel they mention Leyla's freedom as if getting away from the duke would provide her with this freedom, but it is not like that, living for another is not freedom, Layla always deceived herself, In my opinion, by saying that she wanted to go back to the old days, nothing is static in life, and even without Matías's intervention, as time went by she was still going to hurt Kyle or even worse, hate him, or feel bad for her. Every time she looked at her uncle, Matías was her demon, but also her savior, she was able to place all her hatred in him, along with her tears because doing so was easy, but at the same time she hated to change because doing so would mean leaving that cage that She called it happiness, this is clear when she runs away with her uncle, she wanted so much to be free and to be happy with her uncle, but she starved herself to death. Is that being happy? Now Duke Matías, raised as the perfect duke, never knew affection, not maternal, paternal or even grandmother, the mother because she was very much from the nobility did not raise Matías very closely, adding to that that she did not give him affection, A child like that grew up and it is obvious that when he falls in love he is going to do everything wrong, neither Matías nor Layla knew that they had fallen in love, even when he forces her to sleep with him, she enjoyed it, was that being forced? She knew it, and that's why she despised herself, from then on I knew that Layla needed a psychologist just like Matías, it's not good to be very good in this life, Layla was not a saint, she didn't owe an apology to anyone, not even her fiancée. Matías, because at the end of the day the one who pressured her was Matías and the one who looked for her was Matías, but not Layla got depressed and apologized, she wanted to make everyone happy, she never gave others the option to decide, in this novel They are all very bad, it is worth highlighting Claudine, for me she was the character who had everything, and the one who lost the most important thing, with her there was no drama of any kind, Riette adored her, but she lost him and just when she realized, and then get married, in the end the only thing that matters is being the noblest, when Claudine is older I imagine she will regret it

von Herhardt the Male Lead is the type of person who is possessive towards Leyla the Female Lead. He is kinda of ]a jerk because he is not a gentle person that he technically r*ped Leyla. He is forcing himself towards her.

Serves him right because when she escaped from him he is very devestated and kind of heart broken in a sense. He definitely deserves that kind of punishment for treating her like an a**hole.

two people from different world fall at the first sight but ignored their feeling because of their difference then end up hurting each other before finally accepting the said feelings.

she's an orphan so she needs to smile all the time to make others happy without considering her own feeling but ML is the one who makes her cry

kill the only romance option for Caludine and still dead till the end. Like in other story a huge possibilities that Riette gonna survive somehow but NO. AUTHOR REALLY KILLED HIM. Oh not only that but Caludine also MARRIED TO SOMEONE ACROSS THE SEA