MC decides to raise her 'independence' money by using her biological family's hereditary purification skill to partner with the duchess to create antidotes to the duchess's poisons. As the duke's family has the power of destruction, MC explains this ability to the duchess as the power to 'destroy' poison, and asks that the transaction between them be kept a secret from the rest of the family.

MC drinks the poison to create the antidote using her purification ability, the pain is real, the suffering is real, it's just that MC won't die as her body will naturally create the antidote.

The duchess discovers that MC's secret antidote creation method was this self-harm behavior and ends the deal with MC. She learned that MC is desperate to raise 'independence money' enough to drink poison... so the Duchess plans to squash this independence plan. MC won't need to leave if she becomes attached to the family right? So, the duchess makes many 'family bonding' opportunities lol

Duchess never felt anything for MC, when she saw MC, she always saw a shaking trembling and fearful child. So, she decided not to approach MC and will silently play this 'scary duchess' role that MC seems to see her as. But one day that timid child came confidently to propose a plan to sell antidotes together...

That's literally the duchess's current position on MC. Not love, not hate, it's just better to leave MC in the care of others. She knew MC would be lonely growing up like that, but she chose to ignore it. Until she saw the outcome, and regretted not stepping in earlier.

The ML, Rayan, is the direct lineage of one of the great 7 families.

His family perished 300 years ago, where his father, mother, and Rayan, were all recorded to have passed away in a house fire.

Are you confused? Hahahaha speculate 'how' all you want.

MC's mother is the Librarian of Ishtar that rewound time using Pride's power (one of the 7 deadly sins Irkala sent to destroy earth) and sent MC's soul into another dimension to hide her from Irkala.

MC's mother brought the newborn MC to the Duke's house to raise safely while she was gone, the Duke knew MC was not his biological daughter from the start, but he didn't realize he was raising her lonely until she asked to leave.

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Ah hold on, basically Ishtar is the goddess of heaven and Irkala is the goddess of hell, the sisters fight over earth.

In recent chapters, MC deliberately walked into a trap with the logic that “if I know it’s a trap, it’s not really a trap.” Nah, it was still a trap. A bunch of people died and it created a lot of trouble for the MC.

Once they start to actively care about the MC, they mostly show it by being disrespectful of the MC’s boundaries and showing hostility towards people (like the ML) who the MC is close to because, shocker, they actually treat her well.

The younger brother creepily declares himself MC’s dog, and largely makes her life worse or more complicated by being “protective” in a way that is actively s*upid or disruptive. The two-faced older brother keeps initiating unwanted skin-ship, which the MC logically interprets as indifference to her well-being, as this brother has poor control over his power to destroy anything he touches. Both the brothers are stalkers.

The duchess tries to get closer to MC, but at least does it in a way that respects MC’s boundaries, so she’s ok. She discovers early that MC is planning to leave the family but doesn’t snitch about it to everyone else out of respect for MC. She just tries, in her own way, to convince MC to stay.

Raeyans backstory and the connection between him and Elodie. I also have such second lead syndrome for the prince omg