I'm sad that I didn't let this marinate because it's a wonderful story, or to be more precise: It's unfolding to be one. This comment is being made after the latest update (chapter 31: offical tl). I had about two theories I wanted to type out, so if that's not your lane, please scroll on. The first theory was about the empress and the reason she wanted Helena as a spy and the second being who Isabella is and what kind of role she potentially played. Of course we were also introduced to Helena's birth mother, so there's a chance she will be making an appearance in the coming chapters, especially since she left alive and didn't die off. While I was thinking about my first theory it almost tied in with my second theory. Now let me explain. The empress wanting to keep an eye on Benjamin is a justified response if she had intel on him plotting something. But like other readers and Helena, I've noticed Benji doesn't seem to have any ill intent at all. As it's portrayed, he just seems withdrawn and depressed. And he's cute with how excited he got about his wood carvings, I just wanted to mention that lol. The empress wanting to push away any potential rumors with her son and Helena is also plausible, but they wouldn't have been close and allowed that type of relationship if that's what they truly wanted to prevent. Rereading that sentence is funny, 'that type of relationship' lmfao, friendship. I'm also getting the feeling there's a distorted relationship between the empress and Helena, for some reason, I think the nightmares are due to the empress. Why else would she have that nightmare where the empress is looming before her and she drops the tea… and the tea itself looked like something was in there. Was she being given something? Does the empress have sorcerers on hand? Anyway, the empress is really suspicious and she seems to have knowledge on the fire at the count's estate. Whether she had something to do with it, or simply knows of it, I can't pinpoint. Which brings me to the second theory. Isabella. I can't see her being Benji's mother as he calls her by name, but one things for certain is that she is a 'sinner'. I can't remember what they're called so I'll be using sinners. From what I can tell, Benji too must be a 'sinner' as he has the marking on his back- which is potentially there to cover any of the other characteristics of a sinner, hence why his red eyes don't glow. She must have been his nanny or something of the sort. The count's house must have had a lot of sinners, that's something that's been poking at my mind since we learned that other person kept them as slaves. All those that left seem to be ashamed of what occurred during the fire, so it's got to be something to do with the sinner's, especially taking into account how Benji feels indebted to them. Connected this idea to the empress: could she have caused the fire to get rid of the sinners in the estate and expected a rebellion? She gave a good piece of info when she said Benji might be involved with a certain group, but the only group coming forth are the sinners, just as Helena can see. Maybe the previous workers of the house complied with the demand. The reason I even came to this idea was because of how the slaves being freed was portrayed. He put the hut on fire as a distraction, but that creates a parallel for us readers to the estate fire. Was the fire at the estate done as a distraction? Hmm, but then that would diverge from my first theory with the empress being the root cause. Well, it's never bad to have multiple theories, but I can't really think of much more for Operation Estate-Fire Distraction theory. One thing I can think of with all these,,,thoughts,,, is that the empress is most likely the true villain of the story. Either her or the emperor, which we have no info on. My brain just thought up something else, but I'm going to leave it at this because this is getting too long.
I'm sad that I didn't let this marinate because it's a wonderful story, or to be more precise: It's unfolding to be one. This comment is being made after the latest update (chapter 31: offical tl). I had about two theories I wanted to type out, so if that's not your lane, please scroll on.
The first theory was about the empress and the reason she wanted Helena as a spy and the second being who Isabella is and what kind of role she potentially played. Of course we were also introduced to Helena's birth mother, so there's a chance she will be making an appearance in the coming chapters, especially since she left alive and didn't die off. While I was thinking about my first theory it almost tied in with my second theory. Now let me explain.
The empress wanting to keep an eye on Benjamin is a justified response if she had intel on him plotting something. But like other readers and Helena, I've noticed Benji doesn't seem to have any ill intent at all. As it's portrayed, he just seems withdrawn and depressed. And he's cute with how excited he got about his wood carvings, I just wanted to mention that lol. The empress wanting to push away any potential rumors with her son and Helena is also plausible, but they wouldn't have been close and allowed that type of relationship if that's what they truly wanted to prevent. Rereading that sentence is funny, 'that type of relationship' lmfao, friendship. I'm also getting the feeling there's a distorted relationship between the empress and Helena, for some reason, I think the nightmares are due to the empress. Why else would she have that nightmare where the empress is looming before her and she drops the tea… and the tea itself looked like something was in there. Was she being given something? Does the empress have sorcerers on hand? Anyway, the empress is really suspicious and she seems to have knowledge on the fire at the count's estate. Whether she had something to do with it, or simply knows of it, I can't pinpoint.
Which brings me to the second theory. Isabella. I can't see her being Benji's mother as he calls her by name, but one things for certain is that she is a 'sinner'. I can't remember what they're called so I'll be using sinners. From what I can tell, Benji too must be a 'sinner' as he has the marking on his back- which is potentially there to cover any of the other characteristics of a sinner, hence why his red eyes don't glow. She must have been his nanny or something of the sort. The count's house must have had a lot of sinners, that's something that's been poking at my mind since we learned that other person kept them as slaves. All those that left seem to be ashamed of what occurred during the fire, so it's got to be something to do with the sinner's, especially taking into account how Benji feels indebted to them. Connected this idea to the empress: could she have caused the fire to get rid of the sinners in the estate and expected a rebellion? She gave a good piece of info when she said Benji might be involved with a certain group, but the only group coming forth are the sinners, just as Helena can see.
Maybe the previous workers of the house complied with the demand. The reason I even came to this idea was because of how the slaves being freed was portrayed. He put the hut on fire as a distraction, but that creates a parallel for us readers to the estate fire. Was the fire at the estate done as a distraction? Hmm, but then that would diverge from my first theory with the empress being the root cause. Well, it's never bad to have multiple theories, but I can't really think of much more for Operation Estate-Fire Distraction theory.
One thing I can think of with all these,,,thoughts,,, is that the empress is most likely the true villain of the story. Either her or the emperor, which we have no info on. My brain just thought up something else, but I'm going to leave it at this because this is getting too long.