I think since they call the past red dragon first chief, I think it's more like reincarnation
Like in Lilly's case too. Eve's mother didnt steal the heart, Her previous self did. Eve's mother was Lilly's reincarnation. At least as far as I know. The mermaids had several leaders before Eve visited them so imo there was a few hundred years between Eve's mother and Lilly from the past.
If I had to guess I would say it will play out like what you said and it comes a full circle.
Noelier seems to have a little bit of memories from past because when he said "I can't risk to lose you again" to Eve as if he already met her and lose her. So I think he did remember Eve as Lily? I'm really sure, I really hope Eve is the true companion of the crimson dragon and the one who stole the heart.
A dragons life span is way different. It’s a time reversal. Everything that’s already happened has happened and they have reversed it in order to change it. They say past life but it’s the same time line reversed kinda like time travel but you can’t go to a time that hasn’t existed in the first place.
Okay, so Eve is pretending to be Lily in order for the story to not be messed up. As far as I can tell, she traveled back in time and took what was supposed to be her mom’s place. She then went to the South under her name, met Noelier, and inadvertently stole the heart from him. So, the only people who knew she was the one knew her as Lily not Eve. If we assume the time travel is on a closed loop and everything that occurs in the past has already happened because this is how it always was going to happen, (I am assuming this based on the fact that Eve did not stop existing when she took Lily’s place or when she met her) then we can conclude that the only error that was made by the old mermaid chief was that he simply recorded wrong name for the dragon chief’s mate? In this case, then she is in fact the one who stole the heart and caused everything to happen exactly as it did. If that is the case and dragons live for a long time, how old is Noelier? Is he a 3000 year-old man trapped in a 25 year-old’s body? Did he remember that it was Eve who stole his heart or does he also think of her as Lily? Does this mean that Eve stole the heart and hid it away somewhere and now she can retrieve it? I have do many questions!!! I guess I’ll just wait for more chapters to release… ╥﹏╥