beta
ok so I've seen many people tired and complaining about how this keeps unnecessarily dragging so I brought some SPOILERS (the entire novel spoiled) in case you just want to know the main things and turns READ ONLY IF YOU WANT SPOILERS:
(possibly not in chronological order since I read it long ago)
Rashta's baby is not Sovieshu's, which is revealed before the entire nation on a public paternity test. The one that's actually infertile is Sovieshu (and it was his fault because of the laced cookies story). Navier is pregnant with twins, Rashta ends up being hated by the entire nation for multiple deeds, but the fake princess and giving the Eastern empire's port to Duke Ergi are the main reasons. He is scheming against her because of his hate towards mistresses and because he wants revenge against sovieshu and his own mother's life being ruined (his mother is old and sick, confined in a shack while another woman took her place). After being shunned, having her life ruined and her daughter taken away from her, Rashta ends up killing herself after being sentenced to life imprisonment and screaming to the whole empire that sovieshu was impotent. Roteshu/Lotteshu and Alan get sentenced to death because of Her. Sovieshu was so shocked after finding up the baby wasn't his he decided to send her away to a foreign noble family to raise and care for her, but realizes he loves her anyways after she leaves in a carriage with viscountess Verdi. He even had decided to adopt her anyways and make her the first female empress (Navier and the previous ones were married to the emperor but were not the main ruler). When he commands to go and stop them to bring the baby back, springwater bandits get to them first and attack the carriage, not knowing the baby princess was inside. One of them finds her and bc he wanted to be a father he happily takes her with him and she ends up belonging to their people being named Motte. The lost of Navier and his baby Glorym was too much for Sovieshu who entered a terrible mental state. During a crisis, he fell off his room's window and the fall made him lose his memories, becoming his 17-year-old self, who was madly in love with Navier. He would only regain his memories at night. After learning what his present self had done he became his own hater and was determined to win Navier back at any cost, while trying to get rid of his night(original) self. Mastas and Koshar end up falling for eachother (and they are the cutest thing ever). Navier becomes an ice mage thanks to Heinley and does actual magic, which saved her from an attempted murder. Evely/Evalie's actual parents are Rashta's fake parents (the ones that are desperately looking for their long lost daughters) and they harass their own daughter without knowing it. They find that out when they were already sentenced to death and ask someone to give Evely all their remaining wealth without revealing that they are her parents because they were ashamed for all they did to her. Heinley is actually kind of a bloodthirsry psycho but became soft because of Navier. Among the Springwater bandits there is this girl named Dartha who was adopted years before and discovers that she is a healing mage while trying to save her adoptive mother's life. This girl is later discovered to be Evely's sister, the second daughter of the now deceased Isqua couple. The Isqua sisters story is too long to summarize but know that in my opinion it is the best plot of the novel. Navier gives birth to twins: a girl named Laurie (Lauren) and a boy named Kai (Kaiser). Heinrey shows preference for Laurie since she looks a lot like Navier. They both can turn into baby birds from an early age. In the future, Laurie is beautiful but has a calculating mind and an easier time killing, while Kai has a soft heart and is more timid and wise. Navier is afraid of them both fighting over the Westren Empire's throne. Kai is willing to give up the throne for his sister's sake. His sister is too ambitious and willing to do whatever it takes for the empire's sake. Motte grew up raised by the bandits. They knew thanks to Dartha that the kid was the emperor long lost daughter and knowing that many people were looking for her, they decided to hide her under a fake hair color, age and gender without telling her the reason, in hopes of her never being found by the emperor (they were still way better parents than her biological ones). Still, she wanted to be a royal knight and eventually got found out. Formed a strong bond with Laurie and swore loyalty to her, promising to become the best knight to serve her in the future. Lastly, the kids' beloved uncle McKenna gets his own love story with a genderless dragon that can turn human (male and female) and it was funny because he loved the dragon when they were a girl and hated them when they took a male appearance, without knowing that it was the same person. They later have a dragon child named Coco, who Laurie falls in love with. They become a couple later in life. Motte grows up and encounters Sovieshu multiple times without him recognizing her. When he finally does she already knows she doesn't want to be his daughter or a princess, so they just meet one last time (fully knowing who the other is) but didn't say anything, just whispered goodbye. Later in time, Kai inherited the Western Empire while Laurie inherited the Eastern Empire. Sovieshu and the Western Empire royal family kept a good relationship, as Laurie would become Sovieshu's successor.
I probably missed a lot of interesting turns but that's all I could remember. Note that the final side stories are about Navier visiting Duke Kaufman's nation (Luipt Kingdom), a "what if" story about Rashta being saved by Navier and taking her side against Sovieshu, and lastly one about Sovieshu traveling in time thanks to a relic and trying to stop the divorce from happening.