#judith regulus

1. Would you ever consider making a list of Callisto’s wrongdoings in the future? I’d love to see a character analysis on him, especially since most discussions about him seem to focus only on his love for Penelope rather than his actual character.

2. Although we didn’t see much of Callisto and Penelope as parents, do you think they would be good ones? I’m not sure, but I noticed some red flags in how they treated Judith. I don’t know if it’s a tradition or something, but why is a three-year-old living in a palace of her own? Even with maids and attendants, shouldn’t she be closer to Penelope and Callisto’s room? There’s also a scene where Judith says “papa” and Callisto tells her to call him Your Majesty or Father from now on. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but these moment didn’t sit well with me.

1. Would you ever consider making a list of Callisto’s wrongdoings in the future? I’d love to see a character analysis on him, especially since most discussions about him seem to focus only on his love for Penelope rather than his actual character.

Yes, I'm considering that, since I noticed that the manhwa ver. ACTIVELY SOFTENS Callisto even BEFORE he genuinely liked Siyeon, which I think is so that his more undesirable traits (like his sadistic tendencies) would be less pronounced to the readers.

The narrative doesn't want him to be a 'red flag', he is supposed to be a likeable ML, that's why there are so many 'cute and funny' moments between them, and chibi drawings of him to make him seem less scary.

While that certainly worked, it also makes people take him less seriously since (heavy on the manhwa) the story was never keen on showing the FULL extent of his selfishness, nor treat side characters as people.

"It's a historical manhwa, and at first Siyeon thought it was just a game-" to be fair, in the first place, yes, that's how the story presented itself. That's why it's so important just WHAT was shown and HOW it was shown as.

The reason I think people talk more about Callisto as a love interest and less about him as a character or person is because THAT is how the narrative prefers to PRESENT him as. It doesn’t want to show him too much as his own person other than "Siyeon's boy", and so also downplays the times where he was 'against' her, as well as some scenes of his violence.

An example is the garden scene where he was about to kill Siyeon by raising his sword to cut her down.

Take a look here in the manhwa version:

Then here is how he is portrayed in the novel:

I felt like I might pass out. I couldn’t find the button anywhere. What’s worse, the crown prince was still intent on killing me. He was lifting his sword above his head, preparing to strike.

“W-wait! Wait a second!” I shouted at him.

He tilted his head to the side.

“So you feel more like talking now, do you?”

In this case of the manhwa, there was a certain detachment between Callisto and the sword (even putting them in separate panels). It didn't even fully show him holding the sword when he raised it to kill her since it truly DIDN'T WANT the scene to leave an impact on the readers.

More than how he is portrayed less of his own character just to be more palatable as an ML, some of his ACTIONS itself were changed, which while is okay, no doubt made the scenes less impactful.

Look at this manhwa ver. of the second prince's birthday banquet:

Reynold stared at his new niece with a frown, he found her resemblance to the bast… uh… the emperor disconcerting but she was still adorable away from that. He turned to Derrick and smugly declared, “I’m going to be her favorite uncle!”

Derrick merely rolled his eyes. “You go do that.” He said as he turned his attention back to the baby in their father’s arms. The Imperial bastard was staring at them hard.

Father was still sobbing, upset about her resemblance to her father and the lack of features that she had inherited from Penelope who was asleep within her room, napping after an evening spent feeding the babe. The Emperor faired better than the Empress in this case it seemed. Penelope had refused to use a wet nurse for the little princess and the Emperor insisted on being awake as long as his wife and newborn daughter was awake.

“Hello, Princess. You and I are going to have so much fun!” He said happily.

-

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Step one in Reynold’s plan was to spoil his niece with presents. She was too young yet for some of the things he planned. Like causing mischief within the palace and getting back at the emperor for stealing away his sister. Reynold decided that he was going to get the funds immediately.

"Father, I need..." He began.

"No!" Father said immediately.

"But..."

"Reynold..." Father trailed off too. "You should know that I'm most likely going to say no to whatever harebrained scheme you have."

"But you don't know what I'm even going to ask."

"It's still a no."

"It's for Judith." He said.

Father immediately straightened and reached for his cheque book. "What do you need?"

"I want some money to buy her presents."

Father handed him a blank and signed cheque within a moment.

-

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Penelope hadn't looked pleased when he arrived with ten carriages filled with presents for a baby who was only two days old. Especially when he told her there were at least twenty more set to arrive soon. She sighed at the wasteful extravagance of it all especially the amount of clothes he'd gotten her since she would outgrow them all within a few weeks, well before she even managed to put any of them on.

He ignored her and focused on the baby in his arms, making faces and snuggling up to her.

-

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Step two was quality time.

Reynold spent as much time as he could with Judith, often fighting against his sister and brother-in-law for more time when they came upon him trying to sneak the baby out for some play when she was due to be put down for a nap.

Reynold often also found himself getting kicked out of the imperial palace grounds for sneaking into the nursery to play with her and 'causing mischief' and being a bad influence on his rapidly growing adorable niece.

Though he was allowed to read books to her and was often invited to tea parties with her dollies and little adventures around the palace grounds and within the Duchy.

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Step three was to be the adventurous fun uncle.

Read step two.

But to enumerate, they would go around the forest and look for cute little critters for Judith's ever-growing menagerie of pets. Did it get out of hand at times? Definitely not. Unless you ask Penelope, the Emperor, Father, and Derrick.

Speaking of Derrick, his brother was the level-headed calm uncle who always brought them down from their high of playing and enjoyment.

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Step four was to be supportive.

This meant that Reynold was always there. Through every scraped knee, every derisive word sent Judith's way for her wings or gender especially in regards to her status as the heir. He was always there, ready to throw a punch or to give her a listening ear, a comforting word, a hug, anything she needed.

And it wasn't just for her, but for her siblings as well.

There were many, many, more things that Reynold had done to become the favorite uncle, things that eventually translated into becoming a good father.

Idea: Judith, the not-so-imaginary imaginary friend.

So how about this? From the time Siyeon is 12 until the moment she transmigrates, she has had the sudden company of what she believes to be an imaginary friend:

A girl with blonde hair and pink eyes, she has golden wings and wears medieval European clothing.

She appears at random times and only she can see her, no matter how surrounded by people she is, she mainly appears at times when she is too sad and feels alone. That time when her mother died, when she moved in with her father, moments of her loneliness at home, bullying at school.

Her imaginary friend appears at those moments to console her and tells her about her own life, that she lives in a palace, that her parents love her and that she has friends. Basically, whatever Siyeon would like, but she doesn't hate her imaginary friend.

Judith: Do you want to be an archaeologist? My mother is also an archaeologist.

Then, when she transmigrates, Judith appears and is surprised.

Judith: Now you look more like mom!

But Siyeon doesn't have the mind to think about that much, so she lets it go, Judith is almost constantly with her and helps her feel relieved surrounded by so many people she doesn't like. She then arrives at the scene of her meeting with Callisto.

Judith: That looks like the servant emperor! Why is he attacking you!?

Still, Siyeon lies that he likes her and he lets her go.

You know those pets in video games that follow you but disappear during difficult times? It's something like that, except that Judith does not disappear and after the hunting event, she spends her time telling Penelope some secrets of the palace and its surroundings, this is how she this time arrives at the cave with Callisto escaping from the assassins. .

Without the need to jump off a waterfall, but they still have to go under it and end up soaked. When you find the magician's body with the scrolls, Judith tells him her spell to destroy her magic circle saying that it is a game for her.

In Soleil, Judith sees the game screens.

Judith: Those spells? Those are nothing, say these to save little uncle Laon.

He proceeds to give her a list of spells enough to destroy the cultists and save the children on the island, he also gives her the spell to teleport with Callisto so they don't drown, Judith still complains to Vinter saying that she can't believe that his teacher has done something like this.

Bad news: Leila can see it too.

Bad news for Leila: Judith may perceive her as a demon.

Thanks to this, Penelope trusts Yvonne less when she arrives at the dukedom.

And then the 18th birthday party…

When Penelope wakes up, Judith is crying and lamenting because her little mother could have died. Later, he helps her escape from the dukedom by evading her servants and accompanies her to Soleil. But that is the last time she sees her, because she disappears as soon as she leaves the dukedom.

They meet Callisto and then Penelope learns the truth. But not from Judith.

Things continue as in the novel, they defeat Leila and years later, when Penelope gets married and has her daughter, she can only laugh out loud when her little girl with blonde curls and pink eyes with golden wings on her back looks at her. first time. She tells Callisto about her not-so-imaginary friend and they both laugh, but they are nervous. What will they do if her daughter disappears?

The answer is that she doesn't. When Judith breaks the mirror of truth and then returns to her parents later that day, she tells them about her imaginary friend Siyeon, and about a young mother she saw in a dream.

[1\?]

Penelope and Callisto's relationship begins six months before the young woman's debut. Eckhart is in love with the Crown Prince and believes that her feelings are mutual. They meet secretly, knowing that neither the duke nor the emperor will support their relationship due to political tension inside the capital. They do not show their feelings and what they know in public, for fear of being revealed.

But after Yvonne returns, everything changes. Callisto rejects Penelope and laughs if she talks about their relationship, saying that she allegedly made them up. Heartbroken Penelope barely remembers how the debut is going, how the terrible thing happens - the poisoning of Yvonne.

The whole family blames her for this, not wanting to listen to any excuses and evidence. Left completely alone under a house ban in her room, the young woman did not know what to do when an angry Callisto came to her, wanting to avenge his new lover.

Penelope, miraculously manages to survive this meeting and escape.

Thanks to the low-ranking magic she learned, after the events of the hunting competitions, she was able to leave the capital and go to the most remote part of the empire, where she wanted to settle down and start living again, hoping that the duchy, like the Crown Prince, would not search for her anymore. They enjoying happy life with the real daughter of the Eckhart family.

But she didn't know at all how she could make money here. The jewelry and the torn dress that she was wearing, she sold for good money on the first day. But money tended to run out, and it was a bad idea to think about work when they were completely gone. Climbing into her small travel bag, Penelope found a fragment of a Mirror.

"What a useless garbage," she snorted and wanted to throw it into the swamp, as the shard began to shine brightly in her hands, showing her and the fact that she put the shard of the mirror back in the bag and went somewhere. "What the hell?"

Thinking about it, she decided not to throw it away and watch. Maybe the thing wasn't as useless as she thought it was. In the evening of the same day, after a hearty snack and going into the room she rented in a tavern, she took out a fragment and tried to make it show at least something other than a reflection again. But nothing worked. Giving up, she muttered: "Maybe I was dreaming.."

The shard shone again. Penelope looked there and saw herself creating something out of boards and fabric. Finally, she understood how it worked and figured out how to make money.

"Wizards? You mean the charlatans?" the owner of the tavern was perplexed with the guest's question. "If you need useless freeloaders, then they live on the outskirts of the city, towards Aunt Dor's farm. One of them also has such a strange sign.. With a cat? Or something similar to it."

Thanking for the information, Penelope went to the local wizard. The middle-aged man was immensely pleased with her until he realized that she was rather not his client, but just a random passerby who was unlikely to give money.

"I need a room. For divination, I see the future of people and can help them find out the truth." Penelope explained.

"A fortune teller? I hardly believe it, but if you pay rent, I will be glad to consider you a fortune teller" the man happily rubbed his hands, hoping for a promising income in his pocket from another "charlatan".

What was his surprise when the number of customers in a small fortune-teller's room became more and more every month. At first, the young woman did not charge her clients who were residents of a small town. Satisfied and especially impressionable, they told their visit to Penelope to their neighbors, and those to other neighbors from the neighboring village, spreading the story further and further.

In addition to ordinary citizens, aristocrats began to visit it, although not of the upper class, but still. From earls to viscounts. Fearing that she might be recognized, Penelope decided to furnish the room with an entourage and wear a suit that hides her eyes and hair. In it, she looked like a mystical fortune teller whose gaze is hidden from the visitor.

The fee for services grew, Penelope paid the wizard money for rent and assistance in servicing clients. A simple room has turned into a real mystical corner with incense and magical objects, one view showing that a real member of the magical world works here.

But in addition to the man, a nanny settled in the house, who looked after little Judith, who required a lot of attention and time, which Penelope did not have because of constant work and a desire to feed and provide a comfortable future.

Until one day, a strange old man comes to her for a foresighted session, asking her to tell about him and his past. Of course, she had similar clients who, due to illness, forgot where they lived or something important that they needed to remember and she did not charge them, letting them go with a pure soul to their loved ones.

But this old man was definitely not that kind of person. His past was filled with horror and death. A shard of a mirror reflecting fragments of the past into a glass ball chilled the blood in her veins. The old man, with a certain weariness and sadness in his eyes, watched his past.

"Let the Mirror show what will happen when I leave the city," he asked. "How do you know--?.." asked Penelope, frightened. "I know a lot of things, child. And I know that very soon the knight's guard will arrive here and take you to the capital. Aren't you, as one of the last representatives of the ancient magicians, afraid to be on your knees again in court for something you didn't do?" "Wh-what?.." "Ask the Mirror to show you if you think I'm lying, child. My name is Uwe, I am an elder from a small town where ancient magicians and ordinary magicians who were expelled from their lands live. I've heard a lot about your abilities and I see that you can use a fragment of an ancient magical artifact - the Mirror of Truth. This is amazing and truly an innate talent that not everyone can possess. I've come to help you. There aren't many like you and me left, but there is a place where you and your daughter will be safe. I can offer my protection and help so that you can live in peace without hiding behind all this masquerade. But we don't have much time and we need to decide right now."

Penelope looked at the flashing Mirror of Truth and clenched her hands into a fist nodded to the man. She needed to escape anyway if the imperial knights were already heading here. There's no reason for her to stay in this city. And Judith, too.

Seven years later, the empire makes a truce with the ancient magicians after a fierce struggle against Leila. In order to consolidate the alliance, the emperor and the elders sign a trade agreement on the purchase and sale, as well as participation in the cutting of precious stones for magical weapons. The Empire also creates conditions for magicians so that they can receive education and not be infringed on their rights.

In order to strengthen the established relations, an academy is being built on the territory of the empire, where both people and wizards will study in the same building in order to create a new generation that will rely on each other. Duke Eckhart's (Derrick) adopted daughter, 7-year-old Nora, and other children from aristocratic families become one of the elementary school students. Nora was a reserved but very kind child who was bullied despite the authority of her family.

The girl was taken from a shelter sponsored by the Eckhart family. Nora, who had lost her parents and was left completely alone, appreciated the duchy for sheltering her and giving her the opportunity to get an education that her own father could not have dreamed of. She was a timid and kind girl who knew that if she rebuffed her abusers, she could be worse off because of it, and not them at all. She kept silent about it and endured, pretending that she was not upset at all by the words of her peers.

Fortunately, by the beginning of the year, her roommate did not come because of family problems, so the first months of study the whole room was in her harness and no one could tell classmates how she cried, remembering all the hurtful things that other children did to her.

On one of the everyday school days, the girls called her behind the building to talk about her being too smart during math lessons. But as soon as the main offender managed to open her mouth, dirty water poured on top of her, which was used to wash the floor in the classroom. Offended girls screamed promising to take revenge on prankster until she saw who did it.

"You shouted too loudly, it prevented me from calmly preparing for the lesson," said a golden-haired girl looking out of the window with a bucket in her hands. "Oh, I'm sorry, Judith!..We're leaving!" classmates immediately ran away with a bully, apparently not wanting to get involved with a stranger.

Nora wanted to thank the savior, but Judith quickly lost interest and went back to class closing the window without saying anything. Eckhart spent the rest of the day in peace and quiet. Tired of the amount of knowledge she had gained, Nora went into her room and realized with horror that the same girl was sitting on the next bed.

So imagine that Judith being a very active child and spoiled by her father sometimes acts out.

*Penelope is giving a lecture №10201017 about importance of education*

Judith: I am sick of this! I will just marry rich!

Penelope *is triggered*: I can’t believe my daughter said this!

Judith: Why can’t you? That’s exactly what you did!

Penelope: …

Callisto *who came to ask them to dine already and is in an adjoining room*: *snickers*

Penelope: *is frantically looking for an excuse and a reasoning for Judith to continue studying*

Penelope: Well yeah, but only because I was pregnant with you!

Judith: WHA-

Two out of my five headcanon calliope kids, along with some of their traits and background! And some crumbs on the other siblings as well if you squint. (Special thanks to @kuroneko1815 who heard me out on my rant about them lol)

Callisto was ecstatic when he saw that the twins’ hair color was the same as Penelope’s; he insisted that the eye color complimented their pretty hair color.

Just like their mother, the siblings have a love for expensive things, especially rubies and emeralds, (blame their father, Callisto covered them in emerald jewelry since they were literal babies).

Growing up, Dante will start to resemble his father more and more, while Eden will take after Penelope with looks.

The twins wear ‘coordinated’ earrings. Dante’s earring has a star, that he wears on his left ear, while Eden has a moon earring on her right ear.

The gold earrings were actually Callisto’s and Penelope’s, but when the twins were born, the married couple immediately knew the earrings would suit the children better. It was a toss on who’d get the star, and who the moon, but in the end with Judy’s and Kayden’s help, they settled for the current arrangement.

Turns out the choice suits the twins nicely since Dante is more outgoing, therefore ‘as bright as a star,’ while Eden can be more secluded, which alludes to the different phases of the moon.

They also have ‘complementary’ moles of sorts. The position of the moles actually defined the placement of the earrings, Dante has a mole under his left eye, and Eden has one underneath her right eye.

Dante is the only one out of the two that has always had dimples, however growing up, only the dimple on the left side remained. The dimples come from Callisto and his mother (whom I decided to call Eleanor), whom had dimples on both sides, while Callisto has only one on his left side.

Dante is the oldest of the two, and takes every chance he gets to rub it in Eden’s face, which consequentially gets him whacked on the head.

They show their love by beating each other up, it’s just how they are.

Chaotic middle children.

Walking potty mouths. The ‘no cussing rule’ only worked on Judith and the baby of the family, Rigel. Kayden can and will curse, however he chooses not to, he has more ‘fancy ways’ of insulting people, but Dante and Eden are the foul-mouthed duo of the family. Sometimes Callisto’s crude language pales in comparison to the twins’ appalling choice of words. The only time they don’t curse at all is in front of Penelope, mom is a scary being that should not be angered in any way.

Stick together like glue, where one goes, the other follows.

They will get angry if someone assumes they like the same things, aka the dumb stereotypes that always follow twins.

Once at a party hosted by a noble, someone tried to serve a meal that had a big amount of peppers in it to Dante just because Eden likes peppers; Dante ended up grabbing that servant by the collar of his uniform and threatening him, because he has a strong dislike for raw peppers after he got sick as a child after eating some. The only thing that stopped the servant from getting sucked punched was Judith’s interception of the whole thing.

People refer to them as ‘The Terrors’ because personality wise, they’re basically copy and paste of Callisto’s more brutal tendencies. (Reynold was the one that started referring to them as that, however he means it in a playful and teasing manner, he loves the two gremlins to death).

Literally the karma of shitty people, because despite all of this, the twins only go after the bad and questionable ones.

The two of them aren’t mean, in fact they’re very nice, kind and playful once you get to know them. A good example of the people present on Eden and Dante’s hit list are the ones exactly like Gloria Kellen and her fetch dogs, aka the bullies.

The twins are the equivalent of ‘the hot cheeto girls’ when it comes to defending someone from bullies.

Out of the two, Dante is the more volatile one. He’s the one that picks fights the most out of the five Regulus siblings. The altercations are usually put to rest by Kayden, and when his older brother isn’t there to stop him, Judy will try to placate Dante.

Dante is very irritable when it comes to people he doesn’t like, and won’t hesitate to call someone out on their bs.

He gravitates more towards swordsmanship, and has a collection of all kinds of swords, which are his pride and joy. Some of them he forged himself overtime with the help of his father; you can find any type of sword you can think of in that collection, from normal ones to magical and very powerful ones, to ancient sword relics.

Dante combines magic and swordsmanship, and has this one special attack of ‘flying swords,’ it helps that some of his swords are somewhat sentient thanks to the magic he imbedded into them with Penelope’s help.

Oftentimes he can be found training with Kayden and Callisto, who teaches them everything he knows.

On the other hand, Eden is the more ‘docile’ of the two. People usually would rather deal with Eden than with Dante because they deem her more well-mannered, when in reality they should watch out when it comes to her.

Eden is actually more of a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of girl. Cross her and she’ll dig up any and every information on you in under an hour. Give her 20-40 minutes and she’ll have your entire life’s events at hand.

She’s the blackmail girly, and has her own special ways of making people talk when she needs/wants something, ways that actually don’t include any sort of harm, at least not physical.

Eden is in fact, a telepath, who also makes use of telekinesis. I’m talking about literally eradicating trees and yeeting them at someone if she’s testy enough, all of that without breaking a sweat. She could be sipping tea while controlling random objects to do all the work for her.

All of the Regulus kids have an inkling for music, and each has their own designated instrument. Judith plays the piano; Kayden has his cello; for his brash nature, no one would expect Dante of all people to play the violin, but he does, and he’s pretty much a prodigy when it comes to that; Eden has her beloved harp and lyre; Rigel plays the flute, and later on, he also picks up on how to play the guitar.

Speaking of talents and hobbies, Eden can be found very often in the kitchens trying out some of her recipes. The kitchen staff are some of her favorite people.

The Head Chef is always the first who tries her dishes, (yes he’s the test subject), this man has went through food poisoning because of little Eden’s very dubious deserts, yet he’s still the first who offers to try out her weird concoctions. He’s pleased to see her improvement as she grows, the Head Chef is basically an adoptive uncle at this point.

Judith and Callisto are the ones who get the finished, improved and actually edible result to try out firsthand. They have no idea Eden gave the Head Chef food poisoning a few times, and are giddy with the fact that they are the first to try her dishes, ignorance is bliss after all and Eden couldn’t agree more, she doesn’t have the heart to tell them the truth.