feelin’ SYLeepy these days

What a cold, cruel person you are.

Continue being this cold, cruel person. Continue being showered in love you could care less for, from people you don’t actually care about. Have fun in the next place you wander to. I wish you everything you want and desire, and pity the next poor souls you decide to ‘befriend’ half heartedly for years, only to burn the moment you lose use for them.

But the moment another country does, it’s over for them. Because in Obelia’s current state, it’s a pretty weak country in itself even with magicians. Magicians are homebodies, staying in the tower mostly to work out magic theory and experiment, develop and improve spells that can help with agriculture and citizens’ lives in general. There aren’t really combat magicians. Or like, combat isn’t supposed to be the focus. Felix is an exception, but there appears to be no other knight or guard who uses magic from what we’ve seen, especially offensively or defensively. So the most skilled magician to our knowledge who uses magic offensively is Claude, and Lucas.

But the emperor can’t win a magic war on his own. And if another country revives the era of magic in their own way, what Lucas misses and reminisces about, why would he dare ruin that for Wizard tower wizards who he sees as nitwits and fools? Would Lucas choose between Athy and a new golden era of wizards? Would ATHY even want him to choose her? Would Athy even want to fight? Hell, I don’t think she could even choose because if this other country is advanced in combat magic in ways Obelia isn’t, Obelia is screwed either way.

And if Lucas chooses Athy, would he be happy being used as a magic tool for her? A magical tool of war? He would be the only one capable of fighting against an army of combat magicians. Hell, Cabel was able to withstand his blasts in the novel just because he had a charm (THAT REPELLED/NULLIFIED MAGIC, BY THE WAY). What if this country of combat magicians could use this magic repellant magic at will, forcing Lucas to fight physically? He loses that fight.

It strengthens the bond between wizards and royals, and actually gives a reason why wizards are so respected and higher status than the nobles due to them being able to teach royals something no one else can even with all the noble blood in the world. I doubt it’s expected for the emperor to teach their heirs magic, meaning another wizard has to teach them don’t they? Or they just. Self teach. Which is SO inefficient and not thorough at all (then again, Plutus’ world building is pretty dog crap). So then who teaches them magic?

I say this because Athy didn’t have anyone to teach her magic. Lucas was there, but his role was to be her playmate, not her tutor or teacher. Never mind the fact that Felix and Claude would never expect Lucas to teach Athy magic. In the novel, we don’t even get shown how Lee Jihye suddenly gets immersed into magic enough to be renowned as a genius among the wizards. It’s just pre timeskip (absolutely zero interest, nor skill unless it’s basically a do or die situation) to post timeskip (fixing ancient magic formulas in the tower and known as a genius already). At least in the manhwa, we get shown how unsteady Athy’s magic is and she asks for help, and eventually it’s Claude who actually helps her (my one and only favorite father-daughter moment between the two), but we get absolutely zero of that in the novel (and I lokey am starting to think that it was written just to not explain why Lee Jihye can use magic so casually from the last time skip onwards, because Lee Jihye can move furniture and clean stuff up from the floor casually with magic post time skip + purify black magic from people ig and etc, without the reader even seeing any of this practiced or taught to her).

Give Athy new and better love interests, give her a girlfriend, give her anything other than the bland of a two she has in canon, even develop the few named background characters sobs

In LP, Athy has an escort to the Irain’s ball referred to as Lord Blancelle. The phrasing also makes it sound like he offered to escort her. Wouldn’t it be nice if Athy/LP!Athy acquainted herself with a young lord outside of the royal drama or powerful wizard space? Or even House Irain’s heir, who is soft and flower-like, which is close enough to Lee Jihye/Athy’s supposed taste and preference for princely men. Hell, why not Helena the other Irain child, who shares so many things in common with Athy (their personalities, a bit bold and forward, resemble one another and they keep in contact if you squint).

The premise would basically be that after Jen’s black magic gets sealed(?)/removed(?) and the fascination everyone affected was under goes away, noble society has practically forgotten about and moved on from her as they do.

Except one.

Lord Zarvier wasn’t in love with her. He knows that now, looking back on it. He didn’t really know why he was so infatuated with a girl so clearly meant to be betrothed to someone else. Yet even after her name seemed to disappear among the nobles who, too, vied for her attention—he can’t help but keep thinking about her. And so unlike those who treated her as a worn trend, goes out of his way to find her.

I believe it’s mentioned that Imperial Mana was a special mana only the royal family owned which they’ve had since founding, so as long as you had the gene you would have the eyes and mana. How strong the jeweled eyes are, are seemingly indicative of how strong the individual will be or how strong the Obelian genes are supposedly given that Aeternitas’ eyes and mana were so weak that Lucas in irritation questioned and insulted his birth and origins (fueled by his Master’s recent passing, but I digress).

In regards to inbreeding, I personally don’t think it was heavily practiced though there’s definitely a possibility—less for the gene, and more for trying to keep imperial secrets, or possibly generations where Obelian Royals were experimenting thinking wizards could be stronger via inbreeding—as from what I understood, the Obelian gene is very dominant meaning any child sired would almost definitely have jeweled eyes (which honestly makes me wonder about why Claude and Ana’s father had an affair—he didn’t make her/take an official concubine until Claude was revealed/born. She remained a servant until Claude existed, meaning he risked an Obelian bastard on a whim and only acknowledged her existence after Claude was born instead of anticipating a jeweled eyed child’s birth. Additionally, the existence of the Ruby Palace practically confirms that every child born from an Obelian will almost definitely have jeweled eyes—that is why you must keep every concubine close, in the chance a jeweled eyed child is born and you can see to them quickly). However, the royal family had an incredible number of secrets, such as the knowledge of mana beasts that weren’t passed down to every child, where realistically, had mana beasts been so common in Obelian children like they were made out to be, nobles must’ve suspected or found some pattern (which means there definitely must’ve been assassination plans involving young bastards/the fight for the throne and mana beasts as mana beasts are connected to their owner and affect their owner’s health. Perhaps that was why the Empress hurt/killed Claude’s mana beast—as a last resort to kill Claude).

However, to ask me specifically about mana, I don’t actually know much because of how absolutely horrible wmmap’s lore magic-wise is, especially in the novel sobs. The topic of black mana/magic vs normal mana/magic vs imperial mana/magic is INCREDIBLY vague—what exactly is even the difference between imperial mana and normal mana? Is it just aesthetics? Then why make such a big deal about it? Is there a reason mana beasts only seem to manifest from Obelian wizards? Or is it in reality that mana beasts are very common, it’s just that the Royal Family keeps it a secret which results in normal wizards premature deaths due to being in the dark about their mana beasts?

And don’t get me started on the ambiguity of black magic. At least in the manhwa, you can tell what black magic probably is due to the dark aura vs the varied colors of other people’s mana. But in the novel, there is no real explanation or described difference in appearance or even usage in terms of black mana vs every other mana—and it only gets more stupidly confusing and vague at the topic of ancient magic, which is worse than black magic supposedly which is what Lucas used on himself. Hell, despite everyone being born with mana according to Lucas, why is it that black mana and ancient magic are things that aren’t natural? That you must learn and research in order to use it—yet Jennette exists. A girl whom has both imperial mana and black mana, as her jewel eyes are made from imperial mana. Rather, this almost implies that imperial mana, black mana, and ancient mana/magic(?) are additives to the natural normal mana since all three can be taken away from you. With black mana and ancient magic being learned and taken away from you, this THEN should imply that the outlier of imperial mana which can also be removed, is actually learned—yet it’s genetic and natural? Then what exactly does Jen have then—if her black magic is sealed and can be subdued by normal magic (seen via the SINGLE instance of Lee Jihye seemingly purifying the effects of black mana on the nobles it affected + what Lucas does to clean up Athy’s mana), and her imperial mana is taken, does that not just make her a normal girl with normal mana? Since when it’s taken from her/sealed, the black magic effects on the people it were still on completely disappeared like a line being cut, it implies she has no black magic to use anymore. But you need mana to live it seems, so she can only have normal mana left. Yet why is she still treated like a monster and an abomination?

Genuinely, at least manhwa-wise, I don’t think it’s possible sobs

Hell, when Claude’s mom speaks to him before passing away, she still refers to him as “Prince”, rather than “Emperor” or “Your Majesty”.

As Aeternitas had successfully wrapped himself in Ana’s head at the time, this would’ve been right before the coup I imagine, since Claude’s Mother’s death was what made Claude rebel in the first place. I’ve started to think that the “previous tyrant emperor” could possibly have been their father, rather than Ana. Disregarding how quick Ana’s empirical reign would’ve been, Ana never seemed to show the same cruelty Claude had when it came to those beneath him. When given the opportunity to kill (even while being goaded on by his supporter/ally), he turns away from it. The one who makes the final decision to brainwash/mind break Roger in ch.84 is Aeternitas, shown via the red eyes and red lighting vs Ana’s blue eyes and blue lighting.

Aetti even goes on to say Ana is prone to hesitation, and being soft. Cruelty doesn’t come naturally to Ana (his behavior and actions toward Athy and Claude are a result of him genuinely believing they are shrewd and nefarious (as a byproduct of Aeternitas’ grooming and influence), seen with the image below in Ana’s POV), and if done is always the last resort (in the sidestories, he’s even the one to tell Claude to hold back/go easy on the criminal commoners—which doesn’t fit the narrative put out that he was supposed to be a tyrant towards the people, and Claude was the ‘just’ Emperor who was ‘kind’ to the people). I just can’t see this person as someone who can be such a horrible tyrant enough to be renowned as one for the maybe 1-2 years he could’ve realistically been an emperor.

But their father—who betrayed his legal wife’s trust, the wife who seemed to have been the reason and aided his ascendancy to the throne in the first place, slept and neglected/mistreated a maid and seemed to pit his children against each other while turning a blind eye to further neglect and abuse toward the son he had just accepted and acknowledged in the fight for the throne—seems much more likely for tyrant and abusive behavior, instead of Ana. So I’m much more partial to the idea of the “previous tyrant emperor” in the history books referring to their father, or the classic old “the winner writes history” and Claude just recorded the series of events as such.

After all, in Claude’s perspective, since he doesn’t do anything to commoners (yet) and does the bare minimum of paperwork while mistreating and threatening nobles (yet is still aware of and does nothing about the human trafficking(?) between nobles, as brought up by @sharper-than-a-serpents-tooth…), coupled with his innate distrust and resentment towards nobility and royalty in general, he must think he’s a saint compared to the previous ones despite all evidence pointing otherwise, as he immediately assumes the commoner dancer he invited into the palace for his birthday banquet was a spy and he should kill her…