I have complicated feelings about what happened, perhaps because I'm emotional ab*se victim myself. Don't get me wrong, his mother gets what she deserved. She is absolutely guilty of abusing Karhan and leaving him defenseless and neglected in his own home. The fact that she was manipulated by Blair does not change this. But she's also a victim. First emotionally ab*sed by the duke that she couldn't help but have feelings for, she had no defenses for someone as cunning and manipulative as Blair. I believe her greatest sin is not looking deeper into events in the house and believing Karhan was perpetrator because he started to look like the Duke and was a silent boy who didn't express himself well. So unlike other villains, while she doesnt deserve Karhan's forgiveness, I think she does deserve a second chance. That's why personally, my favorite side story is the chapter where its revealed that while they are not on speaking terms, Karhan does send his mother gifts. So reader, if you're reading this spoiler, and were hoping Karhan completely abandons his mother when she leaves the ducal household, you'll be disappointed. While no chapters after this discuss Rebecca, I would like to hope that in the distant future Karhan will initiate a line of communication with her so she can at least die not feeling like a complete failure.

lol at how the duke's lover didn't attend his funeral. she was obviously either with him for the money or because she was not in a position to say no to a high ranking noble. I'm inclined to believe the latter personally, as I feel someone there for money would still want a rapport with the current duke, so I think she's probably grateful she can get on with the rest of her life instead. Did he deserve to be mu*dered though? No, but between his familial negligence and the duchess being manipulated in blair's palm, how were they supposed to know their eldest son was a drug addicted psychopath with anger management problems? Besides, he didn't want to be a Duke and planned to retire ASAP after an heir was formally decided. Is it best that he died? I think so, as again, his lover obviously wasn't with him out of love and for all we know was with him because the only power that can say no to a ducal family is the royal family itself.

as for blair, I was happy he recognized lilia was a threat that could easily see through his lies, and I think he ultimately got exactly what he deserved in the end. but also like, lol. lmao even. he got so close to the aging emperor, seeing him as his great yet he'll never know that his presense only made it easier for the crown prince to usurrp the throne. I prefer to believe the father of his victim did not give him a slow, quick demise.

FL was heartbroken by her Fiancee, who cheated on her with multiple other women. She finds this out by going to a fortune teller who forces her to see the truth. Shortly after, she locks herself in her room for a few days, hoping that he'd come and comfort her or apologise. He doesn't. Facing all this, she forces herself to accept it and she resolves herself to begin slaying. She reforms herself to become her true personality and not the one she forced herself to adopt because of her ex-fiancee's 'ideal type'. After humiliating him in public, she goes to a balcony so she can cool down. There, FL meets ML and they get close (she recognises him as someone she met in a story, he almost got scammed and she helps). ML tells her about his stalker and soon said stalker appears. My memory is a bit fuzzy here but she somehow scares the stalker off and makes the ML an offer to help each other (a contract relationship) so both of them can escape their crazy partners. Yes, ex-fiancee clung onto her. ML says he'd think about it and a few days later they meet. ML accepts and they... Kind of... Can't remember. But soon she meets with his aide, who ML saved on the battlefield (ML 'voluntarily' went to the battlefield and fought). Aide doesn't really trust her but he soon warms up to her. FL, who'd gotten farther away from her family since her first engagement, begins to fix their ties. She resolves herself to stop pushing them away and succeeds. ML gets invited to FL's home to basically be interrogated since he has a lot of bad rumours surrounding him (poor guy, he's a terrible pushover so she's also trying to help him be more friendly and confident). He passes all tests but they don't exactly like him. Later, he's about to leave when he meets FL's father and FL's father starts liking him. This is cause ML accidentally pretended to be someone who appreciates art, so he also gets invited to an exhibition. I'll skip over some details cause now, exhibition time. So the ML is listening diligently to FL's father and learning about art (he'd also been cramming so FL's father didn't hate him for things like lying) and when FL's father has to leave for some reason, ML is left alone. This makes him wander about till he meets a group of elders who start hating on him since they think he doesn't care about art and stuff. FL appears and they still hate on him until she confirms that he was invited (she didn't know, she just wanted to cover up for him) and then he starts textbook describing an artwork to prove them wrong (they told him to). They then spend some time together and I think it ends when FL's father reappears. Soon, they're drinking together and he's fully drunk. He spills a lot about himself but she doesn't care () (in the way she doesn't judge) and when she wakes up, she feels feelings. He also does. Soon, she decides to change the contract into her helping him become the successor and she also finds out that he hadn't learned anything and was a puppet successor basically. So she arranges for the best tutors and it turns out he's a genius. He learns quickly and I forgot to mention that when she saw him smile for the first time, she wanted to know what he thought. He said puppies even though it was her smile and compliments so they made a code that basically was, if she said puppies to him then he'd think of the scene to smile. Cause if he forced a smile, he'd look like a villain. He soon also needed to learn swordsmanship so they went to see the little tournament being held that'd help choose FL's escort. ML realised that he missed swords a lot more that her thought and eh ends up fighting FL's mother (who turns out to be some kind of sword genius master that had to give up since she was a woman). It ends with his loss but he also made her use 2 hands, which was rare, especially considering the fact that he'd never learned swordsmanship. FL's mother tells him that his sword was meant more for practical use (he used it to kill rather than anything else), she tells him quietly so only he hears it. FL's mother takes him in as a disciple. Ml, one day is reading a book about how to master love and one of his teachers walk in and sees it. Apparently, he wrote the book. Teacher realises that ML is in love and offers help by telling him that if like isn't enough to describe the feeling, then it's love (ML didn't understand the feeling) and soon, it's the FL's b-day. But before that, FL's brother is being harassed at work so ML goes to his father for help and it works. FL's brother then reveals the corruption of his higher up. This higher up was also ex fiancee's dad and the one harassing FL's brother. ex fiancee's house reaches rock bottom after she also reveals his cheating and they hide in the shadows. Back to bday, ML gets her some gifts, like a little necklace and something else I can't remember. They're a bit drunk but that's when he realises that he loves her, since he was still in denial. Later on he tells this to FL's mother, who tells him to be a fox. He doesn't understand and asks the FL if she likes foxes. She says she likes wolves better and he gets this wrong. Later, she thinks he meant hunting so she tells him, apologises and says she likes foxes more. He captures a wild fox (dw it wasn't harmed) but releases it after being properly told was fox-like meant. He does commit by later lying that he felt a bit sick so he could have her attention. Didn't work since as she turned out to have a bad flu and he took care of her instead. Forgot to mention that FL also found a genius painter and they became really famous. Later on, there's a banquet and she attends with the ML. He shows how different he is and then he and FL dance. They then go to a balcony and that's when she realises she likes him. But he'd already left to go 'home'.

Explanation for ML's family: No-one except his mother used to love him. But now she hates him since she thought he'd been tormenting her for everything (pretty sure it's ML's brother tho). ML's mother used to love the Duke (ML's father) but I'm pretty sure the Duke liked someone else and only got with Duchess (ML's mother) for political reasons and all. After their first night, she had her first child so he told her that he didn't need to go over anymore since he'd feared the successor. However, one day he was drunk and accidentally had s*x with her and said he loved her, it was obvious that it was probably the person he loved that he'd imagined her as. She then got preggo with the ML. She treasured ML but, as mentioned earlier, she was tormented and began hating him. ML's brother didn't like him much since he was wary of ML's genius and talent. So ML's brother decides to make Duchess hate ML to that he could take the Duchy. The plan is obviously foiled by the FL meeting ML. Duke also made ML promise to go to a mini war in return for helping FL's brother.

Back to story, ML stands up to Duchess and she slaps him. He tells her that he's planning to be the actual successor and then it goes to FL calming down protests for a recent business she was raising. Through her money (cause she's rich af), they all agree to the deal happily. Then it goes to ML's brother learning about everything that's happened.