Heyyoopanda

Lydia was a commoner. Her mom hated her and was jealous of her beauty, which could have lead to physical abuse. Her dad had perverse eyes for her, and who knows if she was SA’ed when she was even younger? She got married to the first man who paid attention to her AT 15!

She grew up with no love — and the only love she knew was the love bombing, manipulation, emotional abuse and utter betrayal from her cheating “dead” husband. She found out pretty early on that he cheated after leaving her with so much debt, which is why she’s so cautious of Alteris’ love proclamations and feelings. She’s traumatized of “love” y’all. Even after the “dead” husbands love bombing faded she went through emotional abuse. “You think you’re better than me now that you know xyz? You’re nothing without me. You’re just an empty vase.”

Do you remember when Lyrica found out bout her bio dad? That he wasn’t even dead, he just dropped them with a shit ton of debt and had a new family to live happily with? WITH A BIO DAUGHTER (from the mistress) THE SAME AGE AS LYRICA?! And to also be fully rejected by THAT human waste?? Lyrica understood the situation and didn’t want her mother to find out because they BOTH went thru suffocating poverty bc they thought his ass was dead.

LYDIA HAD NO SUPPORT SYSTEM. SHE WAS THROWN OUT OF HER HOME AND HER PARENTS ABANDONED HER. SHE WAS A SINGLE MOTHER WITH NO SUPPORT, ALL ALONE WITH CRUSHING DEBTS THAT GREW BY THE HOUR!! From an estate to the slums is insane and can easily break a person.

She thought of giving up Lyrica up but still held onto her. Its better that she did too, as Lyrica has said in one of the earliest chapters that some kids(probably orphans) had followed some ”pied piper” but never returned. (Most likely slavery/human trafficking)

Of course she fell for the evil duchess as she was the only power who offered to get her out of poverty, of course she would be their dog. Of course she would find opportunity when she could. Did she overindulge? Duh. Who wouldn’t? Why else would people try to find wealth and power? Like I said before, Lydia is a product of her surroundings. She only knew that wealth and power could bring comfort and happiness. She feels the most human in her flaws.

The story starts with Lydia’s worst sides — stealing her daughters wages and being a drunk. But Lyrica still fiercely loves her mother (AND TIL THE VERY END OF THEIR PAST LIFE TOO) because they only had each other. How can you be a loving mother if you’ve never experienced love before? How, until the very end, when you’ve only experienced betrayal, find out that you had unconditional love all along from a person she didn’t expect? Yes she thought Lyrica would turn her in as that was Lydia’s guilt. But this is the same person whose only been burnt before.

And yes Lydia “sold” Lyrica to the old count. It’s literally what nobility did at the time to stabilize their positions / power. Is it right? No. But in that era Lydia practiced what she knew. Her parents also sold her to the Lyricas bio dad — the only thing different was the similar age between them.

Not everyone’s idea of maternal love can be idealized, and Lydia is trying her best in her second life with what she knows. This second life is her redemption, and she found a community who fiercely loves Lyrica as she does. Lydia does intentionally pick the people who she thinks would be safe for her daughter, and even rejected Lauv as he caused a freaking massacre in their previous life. He’s a time bomb and Lydia only wanted to protect Lyrica from that, but in the end had enough faith in her daughter to end up trusting him. It’s only because of Lyrica’s insanely pure love and magic power that she was able to subdue Lauvs rampage. She can’t spend her entire time with Lyrica as she is trying to build a secure base as a “contract” empress to ensure their futures (Lyrica and Lydia). Alteris dgaf bc he’s a mf’ing dragon who has lived several centuries. He doesn’t give a shit — he’s essentially a placeholder until Atil becomes of age. Does no one remember that he’s been emotionally neglecting Atil to the point that Atil thought Alteris was trying to get him killed?

Lydia is such a well written character that she brings so much dimension to this story and webtoon. Do people hate her because she’s flawed like a regular human being? She didn’t even know she could rewind time until she woke up in her second life — it just happened as she earnestly wished she could redo everything for LYRICA’s sake after experiencing hell.

Lyrica is so pure and so good she feels unreal. She’s not like other children as she had to mentally and emotionally grow up early to support herself and her mom. Yes she grew up through abuse. Most kids would have run away if we’re being honest, but she’s the fantasy character that we’re reading, and mostly from her point of view in this story.

In conclusion, give Lydia a break.

She made herself known that she overheard plans for treason in ch14. (╯°Д °)╯╧╧
Like that’s automatic death in most situations, not even grounds for blackmail.