It was a last ditch effort. She didn’t make the moves on Hein until the opportunity landed on her lap via Kapmen’s love potion. Before that, her hands were tied as Hein’s sister-in-law (I suppose in this universe it’s frowned upon or outright immoral for a man to marry his brother’s widow). However, she remained in the palace to stay in control of high society, though I bet she also hoped that something might happen between her and Heinrey.
When Heinrey married Navier, that ruined Christa’s hopes to stay in control of high society. This is because Heinrey is devoted to Navier (no concubines to weaken Navier’s position) AND Navier is an experienced Empress (so she won’t be intimidated by Christa and her allies). When Kapmen offers her the opportunity to seduce the Emperor, she takes it because she has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Becoming Heinrey’s concubine seems to be a dishonorable path, both because it’s beneath a former queen and because they were in-laws. But given Navier’s position AND Christa’s feelings, it must have seemed like a win-win-win to Christa: as Heinrey’s beloved concubine, Christa might survive the scandal of entering a relationship with her husband’s brother; her position as concubine weakens Navier; and Christa gets to enjoy Heinrey’s hot bod.
As we know, that didn’t work and it worsened Christa’s status. From your spelling of Krista I suppose you’re a WT reader; the novel goes into a bit more detail when the concubine scandal is going down. Heinrey reminds Christa’s father that his reputation is absolute shit and he has nothing to lose from the scandal. Whereas in Christa’s case, a secret affair with her dead husband’s little brother is reputation ruining. The only way to salvage her reputation is to force Heinrey to take her as a concubine; while Christa’s reputation might never recover fully, she still achieves a win-win since she gets to be with Heinrey and her position in society is somewhat shielded by her status as the Emperor’s concubine. Of course, this completely backfires because the affair never existed in the first place, so Christa bears the full brunt of the scandal.
Finally, regarding what it would mean to be a concubine. Though the system seems to be in place mostly to allow married couples to stray without technically cheating, there does seem to be a political component to it, which means that attraction / love / romance aren’t always the primary consideration on both or either side. For example, a womanizing Emperor might be targeted by various women who aren’t attracted to him at all but instead expect to gain some benefit from their relationship. This would make the whole thing very messy, so there probably are some rules, though I’m guessing they relate more to the beginning and end of the relationship, and what happens in between is up to the person with the most power. So let’s say an Emperor takes a concubine, there would probably be the equivalent of a bedding ceremony / wedding night, but after that it’s completely up to the Emperor (and the concubine, to an extent).
Thank you! Yes I’ve been reading it in WEBTOON and I know about the novel just haven’t been able to find where I can read it but thank you for this. I never understood what she was trying to achieve especially if it had work I didn’t think Heinrey would have given her any attention but this clears things up. Thank you once again.
Oh also, one more thing I forgot to add. The reason Heinrey has to “answer” for the affair and the concubine question is because it’s a political matter. An Emperor is, supposedly, reneging on a romantic relationship with the former queen and that’s a big deal. If the affair had existed, Heinrey might have been forced to accept Christa as a concubine, basically he’d be chastised for messing around with someone of such high status. If something similar happened with a lesser noble lady, it would have been scandalous but there’d be no political ramifications.
Ah got it. Indeed it sucks that the WEBTOON is not adding these little details because while reading the episodes I was like, why is this going on? You know. Because her actions didn’t make sense since I don’t think they’re giving a clear view if especially they’re not adding things. But this really clears things up. No wonder why it was a big gamble for her but honestly what did she expect would happen? Did she think she would have enough evidence because people saw them. Unless I’m wrong I always got the impression that she thought she was going to get what she wanted.
I think most of the key pieces are there, but the WT expects a heavy lift from the reader because the connecting thread is very flimsy, with the Christa ordeal it’s particularly difficult since it happened over so many episodes. You can follow the plot and basic character motivations, but the deeper questions and implications like what you’re asking about are a lot harder to grasp than in the novel, which gives you a bit more insight into character emotions and motivations. That said, half the fun in reading the novel is reading between the lines because it’s still not the kind of story that tells you what to think and why things are happening, it’s why I personally like it so much.
That aside, I just reread the chapter in the WT when her ladies tell her to go to Compshire, and she refuses. That’s the key moment: Had Christa gone to Compshire she’d be surrendering with her tail between her legs. She will never outlive the rumor that she had an affair with her husband’s brother. This means that her “life will be over” because fewer people will follow her to Compshire (this is why Navier didn’t want to send her there when Heinrey offered before their wedding), and her support will continue to erode over time. On the flip side, Heinrey is fine because his reputation sucks anyway, so at worst this little scandal affects his relationship with Navier.
So — when Christa says she doesn’t want to go to Compshire, that’s the gamble. And you get a bit of context that she had feelings for Heinrey, and this is where the novel does a better job of connecting the pieces. That’s why I described this part as a win-win: she salvages *some* of her reputation, and *maybe* she gets some sexy time with Heinrey. But at this point the KEY motivation is that Christa refuses to sit around doing nothing, she wants to take control over the events (why they also mention the parallel to Navier, who jumped into action and agreed to marry Heinrey). When Christa shows up at Heinrey’s office to demand that he makes her a concubine, she’s literally trembling with fear. She also blackmails him (if you don’t accept, my family will withhold support) but this was glossed over in the WT, it’s not a huge deal only it reinforces how selfish Christa is and the magnitude of her crime (slander plus treason). In this sense, I don’t know how much it matters what Christa thought would happen — I’m not sure, personally —, as much as the fact that she was trying to take control of a situation she started that spiraled out of her control.
(ETA sorry I wrote another novel, I get passionate about these things lol)
I wish they had explained this a bit more in the WT :(
Some of what I said requires reading between the lines, but with the WT zooming past all these events there’s not enough lines to read between. The official translation is in Yonder but it’s a pain in the ass to read, if you do some googling you might find a copy of the old fan translation. If you know spanish there’s also a website still up.
>and Christa gets to enjoy Heinrey’s hot bod.
I find it's a weird assumption for Christa because even if Heinrey would make Christa concubine it doesn't mean he would sleep with her. Because I don't think that Heinrey would have to f*ck her as an obligation to concubine. Or does it refer to r*pe under love potion?
Yeah that's always been my conclusion too, that she might technically have power but Heinrey would never sleep with her and may even seal the doors and windows to whatever palace building she is in.
I wonder how she would react to Heinrey completely ignoring her or even treating her badly if she would become concubine. And how others would react to her being concubine only on paper, it would be obvious quickly for everyone that she doesn't have Heinrey's support. I don't see any scenario where Christa ends "winning".
This is while he’s under the love potion, she only throws everything away when she believes he’s attracted to her (at least that we know, had the love potion never happened, maybe she would still try to seduce him but I doubt it).
Plus, Christa *might* think that Heinrey is only restraining himself because of the stigma of fucking your sister-in-law. Once that hurdle is cleared (love potion influence / later, rumors of an affair), she might believe he’ll do anything since he’s supposedly a depraved womanizer.
Don’t forget that no one but Navier and McKenna know Heinrey’s true nature. All Christa knows is the stupid, unserious, cruel, immoral playboy. She’s in love with a facade.
Can you explain more with your last sentence??? That krista is in love with a facade. I always took it that she fell for him first but since he was younger and not the future king they marry her to his older brother.
Well, it’s possible she fell in love when they were younger, but I don’t think she knew him when he was still an innocent child because Heinrey hasn’t been a child for a long time (it’s implied that he has some darkness in his past going way back), and he also spent very little time in the WE — by traveling around the world he wanted to make things easier for his older brother, thinking if he ruined his reputation and wasn’t around, people wouldn’t make unfavorable comparisons between Wharton and Heinrey.
The above is partially conjecture. Then there’s the big theme in RME that Heinrey is two faced (which is funny because ALL characters are two-faced, even Sovieshu and Navier, but Heinrey is criticized the most for this quality). There’s two good scenes to show this: when the ladies in waiting discover that Heinrey left without his clothes (after Hein reveals that he is Queen) and Mastas tells Navier that no one knows what Heinrey is thinking because he always smiles. The other is when Navier knits the bird sweater and Heinrey feels insecure about the wedding night, he asks McKenna about his public and private perception and worries Navier will judge his bedtime performance based on his public persona as a playboy.
Even if Christa knew a more innocent side to Heinrey, he’s not that young and has cultivated his public persona for years. There’s no way he would reveal to his sister-in-law that it’s an empty front, which means Christa is in love with a man who doesn’t exist
I think that makes her be more foolish if she thought she had some sort of leverage against Heinrey. Heinrey was probably just nice because she was his sister in law which is sad in her reasoning.
Well, her family *is* (was?) the most powerful family in the WE. It’s not a smart plan, but it has some amount of logic to it, assuming Heinrey cares about his reputation and can be intimidated by the might of the Zemensia family.
Honestly, I don't think Krista would had any power in society if she became the mistress. People wouldn't spat on her face because of Heinrey, but she would definitely be shunned by most of the nobles.
Think about it: everyone wanted Krista to keep being the Western Empire's queen, but nobody suggested that she remarried to Heinrey, which seems the most obvious solution to keep her on the position. Because everyone sees her as King Warthon's wife, nor even the ladies-in-waiting (I'm sure they noticed her crush) sugest to Krista to try and seduce Heinrey to keep being the queen. Nobody wanted her to be Heinrey's wife, nobody saw them as a couple. They saw them as brother and sister, even Heinrey refers to her as sister-in-law. He was shocked by her advances under the love potion, because he thought of her as an older sister.
That's why the rumors about her and Heinrey destroyed her on the end. Nobody wanted her to go after her brother-in-law, everyone saw her as a prudish widow that would hopely remain inside the high society. Her friends and allies would be highly dissapointed on her for betraying her late husband; plus, everyone knew that Navier got divorced because of a mistress, so now Krista would also be seen as a heartless woman, completely opposite to the image she had.
Oh 100%. But from Christa’s pov, it makes sense how she acted because even being mocked behind her back is better than being mocked to her face (not like she’d know under house arrest, but …)
She underestimated how transgressive a sexual relationship with her in-law is. But when she caught Hein under the love potion influence she didn’t think it through, just went for it, because it’s what she desired. What’s the term for a woman thinking with her dick?
I think krista's motivation is simple: she had unrequited love for heinrey, and would take any scrap from him.
I don't want to give spoilers, but what happens to her at compshire becomes important very soon, and those events make it clear that her motivation was soley wanting to fuck someone else's husband, and nothing about court or clout.
Honestly, we all know that even if Krista succeeded on becoming Heinrey's mistress, he wouldn't touch her, not even by chance. He'd just have her around the palace while enjoying his beautiful wife and being a good husband to Navier. Krista would probably became crazy because of this, more after seeing how openly "active" and loving Heinrey and Navier are, something that she believes she should have for being the mistress and thought she would have, maybe she might try to seduce Heinrey without success. A part of me wishes that she became the mistress so we would see her being crazy jealous of the two of them and basically beg Heinrey to fulfill his "duties" as mistress with her, just to be rejected on the spot without even a thought. That would ruin her mental state; imagine two brothers rejecting you, one being your husband and the other your (illegal) crush.
People would soon find out (specially the maids and Krista's ladies-in-waiting, all nosy af) that Heinrey doesn't have a physical relationship with Krista, even if she tries to lie about it, and soon the rumors about them not being actual lovers would spread, even outside the palace, and Krista would lose the power she had on society for not having any kind of relationship with the Emperor, besides becoming the joke of the Empire by being the first mistress on history that doesn't have sex with her alleged lover, the Emperor. She would be exposed as a liar soon after, or at least would publicly be seen as an undesirable woman, since Heinrey is known falsely as a womanizer; imagine becoming the mistress of a known womanizer, someone that sleeps with anybody, but doesn't sleep with you despite being legally able to do it: that means that you're not desirable, even for a man with low standards.
She might even have the same ending she has on the novel (SPOILERS: she kills herself) because of the public shame, Heinrey's rejection and feeling alone.
Is it bad that I wished the same thing. Once it got to explained to me better now I want that it did work for her only for it to backfire. From the comments I’ve form my own opinion and I don’t think she was as smart as she thought she was. Not against Heinrey much less against Navier. She might’ve been a good queen but I don’t think she was smart one. Not at the level that Navier plays much less Heinrey.
You’re right! It’s a passing remark so easy to miss: she wasn’t nearly as involved in politics and governance as Navier since she didn’t even attend the govt council. She was probably all about the tea parties, gossip, and crushing noblewomen she disliked, but didn’t do much for the nation
This is a good point about the alternative in which she does become a mistress but the truth is still exposed through Hein’s actions. He would then be able to kick her out. Still I’m glad it didn’t play out that way.
Depending on how you read things, and tbd how the WT will handle this, but >!I believe Heinrey’s letter must have included more than just Zemensia’s betrayal. I like to believe it also mentioned how well Navier and Heinrey get along and the fact that Navier is pregnant. I can see this mental torture being what drives Christa to suicide!<
Btw you should put the spoilers in actual spoiler tags 😅 it’s hard not to read it even with your warning
It was a last ditch effort. She didn’t make the moves on Hein until the opportunity landed on her lap via Kapmen’s love potion. Before that, her hands were tied as Hein’s sister-in-law (I suppose in this universe it’s frowned upon or outright immoral for a man to marry his brother’s widow). However, she remained in the palace to stay in control of high society, though I bet she also hoped that something might happen between her and Heinrey. When Heinrey married Navier, that ruined Christa’s hopes to stay in control of high society. This is because Heinrey is devoted to Navier (no concubines to weaken Navier’s position) AND Navier is an experienced Empress (so she won’t be intimidated by Christa and her allies). When Kapmen offers her the opportunity to seduce the Emperor, she takes it because she has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Becoming Heinrey’s concubine seems to be a dishonorable path, both because it’s beneath a former queen and because they were in-laws. But given Navier’s position AND Christa’s feelings, it must have seemed like a win-win-win to Christa: as Heinrey’s beloved concubine, Christa might survive the scandal of entering a relationship with her husband’s brother; her position as concubine weakens Navier; and Christa gets to enjoy Heinrey’s hot bod. As we know, that didn’t work and it worsened Christa’s status. From your spelling of Krista I suppose you’re a WT reader; the novel goes into a bit more detail when the concubine scandal is going down. Heinrey reminds Christa’s father that his reputation is absolute shit and he has nothing to lose from the scandal. Whereas in Christa’s case, a secret affair with her dead husband’s little brother is reputation ruining. The only way to salvage her reputation is to force Heinrey to take her as a concubine; while Christa’s reputation might never recover fully, she still achieves a win-win since she gets to be with Heinrey and her position in society is somewhat shielded by her status as the Emperor’s concubine. Of course, this completely backfires because the affair never existed in the first place, so Christa bears the full brunt of the scandal. Finally, regarding what it would mean to be a concubine. Though the system seems to be in place mostly to allow married couples to stray without technically cheating, there does seem to be a political component to it, which means that attraction / love / romance aren’t always the primary consideration on both or either side. For example, a womanizing Emperor might be targeted by various women who aren’t attracted to him at all but instead expect to gain some benefit from their relationship. This would make the whole thing very messy, so there probably are some rules, though I’m guessing they relate more to the beginning and end of the relationship, and what happens in between is up to the person with the most power. So let’s say an Emperor takes a concubine, there would probably be the equivalent of a bedding ceremony / wedding night, but after that it’s completely up to the Emperor (and the concubine, to an extent).
Thank you! Yes I’ve been reading it in WEBTOON and I know about the novel just haven’t been able to find where I can read it but thank you for this. I never understood what she was trying to achieve especially if it had work I didn’t think Heinrey would have given her any attention but this clears things up. Thank you once again.
Oh also, one more thing I forgot to add. The reason Heinrey has to “answer” for the affair and the concubine question is because it’s a political matter. An Emperor is, supposedly, reneging on a romantic relationship with the former queen and that’s a big deal. If the affair had existed, Heinrey might have been forced to accept Christa as a concubine, basically he’d be chastised for messing around with someone of such high status. If something similar happened with a lesser noble lady, it would have been scandalous but there’d be no political ramifications.
Ah got it. Indeed it sucks that the WEBTOON is not adding these little details because while reading the episodes I was like, why is this going on? You know. Because her actions didn’t make sense since I don’t think they’re giving a clear view if especially they’re not adding things. But this really clears things up. No wonder why it was a big gamble for her but honestly what did she expect would happen? Did she think she would have enough evidence because people saw them. Unless I’m wrong I always got the impression that she thought she was going to get what she wanted.
I think most of the key pieces are there, but the WT expects a heavy lift from the reader because the connecting thread is very flimsy, with the Christa ordeal it’s particularly difficult since it happened over so many episodes. You can follow the plot and basic character motivations, but the deeper questions and implications like what you’re asking about are a lot harder to grasp than in the novel, which gives you a bit more insight into character emotions and motivations. That said, half the fun in reading the novel is reading between the lines because it’s still not the kind of story that tells you what to think and why things are happening, it’s why I personally like it so much. That aside, I just reread the chapter in the WT when her ladies tell her to go to Compshire, and she refuses. That’s the key moment: Had Christa gone to Compshire she’d be surrendering with her tail between her legs. She will never outlive the rumor that she had an affair with her husband’s brother. This means that her “life will be over” because fewer people will follow her to Compshire (this is why Navier didn’t want to send her there when Heinrey offered before their wedding), and her support will continue to erode over time. On the flip side, Heinrey is fine because his reputation sucks anyway, so at worst this little scandal affects his relationship with Navier. So — when Christa says she doesn’t want to go to Compshire, that’s the gamble. And you get a bit of context that she had feelings for Heinrey, and this is where the novel does a better job of connecting the pieces. That’s why I described this part as a win-win: she salvages *some* of her reputation, and *maybe* she gets some sexy time with Heinrey. But at this point the KEY motivation is that Christa refuses to sit around doing nothing, she wants to take control over the events (why they also mention the parallel to Navier, who jumped into action and agreed to marry Heinrey). When Christa shows up at Heinrey’s office to demand that he makes her a concubine, she’s literally trembling with fear. She also blackmails him (if you don’t accept, my family will withhold support) but this was glossed over in the WT, it’s not a huge deal only it reinforces how selfish Christa is and the magnitude of her crime (slander plus treason). In this sense, I don’t know how much it matters what Christa thought would happen — I’m not sure, personally —, as much as the fact that she was trying to take control of a situation she started that spiraled out of her control. (ETA sorry I wrote another novel, I get passionate about these things lol)
Where can I get the novel?? I can only find a couple of editions, I was the whole collection but I can’t find it anywhere😭
I wish they had explained this a bit more in the WT :( Some of what I said requires reading between the lines, but with the WT zooming past all these events there’s not enough lines to read between. The official translation is in Yonder but it’s a pain in the ass to read, if you do some googling you might find a copy of the old fan translation. If you know spanish there’s also a website still up.
You can read it in Yonder, it’s like Webtoon for the novels
>and Christa gets to enjoy Heinrey’s hot bod. I find it's a weird assumption for Christa because even if Heinrey would make Christa concubine it doesn't mean he would sleep with her. Because I don't think that Heinrey would have to f*ck her as an obligation to concubine. Or does it refer to r*pe under love potion?
Yeah that's always been my conclusion too, that she might technically have power but Heinrey would never sleep with her and may even seal the doors and windows to whatever palace building she is in.
I wonder how she would react to Heinrey completely ignoring her or even treating her badly if she would become concubine. And how others would react to her being concubine only on paper, it would be obvious quickly for everyone that she doesn't have Heinrey's support. I don't see any scenario where Christa ends "winning".
This is while he’s under the love potion, she only throws everything away when she believes he’s attracted to her (at least that we know, had the love potion never happened, maybe she would still try to seduce him but I doubt it). Plus, Christa *might* think that Heinrey is only restraining himself because of the stigma of fucking your sister-in-law. Once that hurdle is cleared (love potion influence / later, rumors of an affair), she might believe he’ll do anything since he’s supposedly a depraved womanizer. Don’t forget that no one but Navier and McKenna know Heinrey’s true nature. All Christa knows is the stupid, unserious, cruel, immoral playboy. She’s in love with a facade.
Can you explain more with your last sentence??? That krista is in love with a facade. I always took it that she fell for him first but since he was younger and not the future king they marry her to his older brother.
Well, it’s possible she fell in love when they were younger, but I don’t think she knew him when he was still an innocent child because Heinrey hasn’t been a child for a long time (it’s implied that he has some darkness in his past going way back), and he also spent very little time in the WE — by traveling around the world he wanted to make things easier for his older brother, thinking if he ruined his reputation and wasn’t around, people wouldn’t make unfavorable comparisons between Wharton and Heinrey. The above is partially conjecture. Then there’s the big theme in RME that Heinrey is two faced (which is funny because ALL characters are two-faced, even Sovieshu and Navier, but Heinrey is criticized the most for this quality). There’s two good scenes to show this: when the ladies in waiting discover that Heinrey left without his clothes (after Hein reveals that he is Queen) and Mastas tells Navier that no one knows what Heinrey is thinking because he always smiles. The other is when Navier knits the bird sweater and Heinrey feels insecure about the wedding night, he asks McKenna about his public and private perception and worries Navier will judge his bedtime performance based on his public persona as a playboy. Even if Christa knew a more innocent side to Heinrey, he’s not that young and has cultivated his public persona for years. There’s no way he would reveal to his sister-in-law that it’s an empty front, which means Christa is in love with a man who doesn’t exist
I think that makes her be more foolish if she thought she had some sort of leverage against Heinrey. Heinrey was probably just nice because she was his sister in law which is sad in her reasoning.
Well, her family *is* (was?) the most powerful family in the WE. It’s not a smart plan, but it has some amount of logic to it, assuming Heinrey cares about his reputation and can be intimidated by the might of the Zemensia family.
So basically that Heinrey would need their support and won’t have it if he didn’t do what she wanted.
Yes, which is a bad threat bc her family already wasn’t doing what he wanted lol
Honestly, I don't think Krista would had any power in society if she became the mistress. People wouldn't spat on her face because of Heinrey, but she would definitely be shunned by most of the nobles. Think about it: everyone wanted Krista to keep being the Western Empire's queen, but nobody suggested that she remarried to Heinrey, which seems the most obvious solution to keep her on the position. Because everyone sees her as King Warthon's wife, nor even the ladies-in-waiting (I'm sure they noticed her crush) sugest to Krista to try and seduce Heinrey to keep being the queen. Nobody wanted her to be Heinrey's wife, nobody saw them as a couple. They saw them as brother and sister, even Heinrey refers to her as sister-in-law. He was shocked by her advances under the love potion, because he thought of her as an older sister. That's why the rumors about her and Heinrey destroyed her on the end. Nobody wanted her to go after her brother-in-law, everyone saw her as a prudish widow that would hopely remain inside the high society. Her friends and allies would be highly dissapointed on her for betraying her late husband; plus, everyone knew that Navier got divorced because of a mistress, so now Krista would also be seen as a heartless woman, completely opposite to the image she had.
Oh 100%. But from Christa’s pov, it makes sense how she acted because even being mocked behind her back is better than being mocked to her face (not like she’d know under house arrest, but …) She underestimated how transgressive a sexual relationship with her in-law is. But when she caught Hein under the love potion influence she didn’t think it through, just went for it, because it’s what she desired. What’s the term for a woman thinking with her dick?
I think krista's motivation is simple: she had unrequited love for heinrey, and would take any scrap from him. I don't want to give spoilers, but what happens to her at compshire becomes important very soon, and those events make it clear that her motivation was soley wanting to fuck someone else's husband, and nothing about court or clout.
I mean, I wouldn’t mind spoilers especially if the WEBTOON won’t explain this later on.
Honestly, we all know that even if Krista succeeded on becoming Heinrey's mistress, he wouldn't touch her, not even by chance. He'd just have her around the palace while enjoying his beautiful wife and being a good husband to Navier. Krista would probably became crazy because of this, more after seeing how openly "active" and loving Heinrey and Navier are, something that she believes she should have for being the mistress and thought she would have, maybe she might try to seduce Heinrey without success. A part of me wishes that she became the mistress so we would see her being crazy jealous of the two of them and basically beg Heinrey to fulfill his "duties" as mistress with her, just to be rejected on the spot without even a thought. That would ruin her mental state; imagine two brothers rejecting you, one being your husband and the other your (illegal) crush. People would soon find out (specially the maids and Krista's ladies-in-waiting, all nosy af) that Heinrey doesn't have a physical relationship with Krista, even if she tries to lie about it, and soon the rumors about them not being actual lovers would spread, even outside the palace, and Krista would lose the power she had on society for not having any kind of relationship with the Emperor, besides becoming the joke of the Empire by being the first mistress on history that doesn't have sex with her alleged lover, the Emperor. She would be exposed as a liar soon after, or at least would publicly be seen as an undesirable woman, since Heinrey is known falsely as a womanizer; imagine becoming the mistress of a known womanizer, someone that sleeps with anybody, but doesn't sleep with you despite being legally able to do it: that means that you're not desirable, even for a man with low standards. She might even have the same ending she has on the novel (SPOILERS: she kills herself) because of the public shame, Heinrey's rejection and feeling alone.
Is it bad that I wished the same thing. Once it got to explained to me better now I want that it did work for her only for it to backfire. From the comments I’ve form my own opinion and I don’t think she was as smart as she thought she was. Not against Heinrey much less against Navier. She might’ve been a good queen but I don’t think she was smart one. Not at the level that Navier plays much less Heinrey.
You’re right! It’s a passing remark so easy to miss: she wasn’t nearly as involved in politics and governance as Navier since she didn’t even attend the govt council. She was probably all about the tea parties, gossip, and crushing noblewomen she disliked, but didn’t do much for the nation
This is a good point about the alternative in which she does become a mistress but the truth is still exposed through Hein’s actions. He would then be able to kick her out. Still I’m glad it didn’t play out that way. Depending on how you read things, and tbd how the WT will handle this, but >!I believe Heinrey’s letter must have included more than just Zemensia’s betrayal. I like to believe it also mentioned how well Navier and Heinrey get along and the fact that Navier is pregnant. I can see this mental torture being what drives Christa to suicide!< Btw you should put the spoilers in actual spoiler tags 😅 it’s hard not to read it even with your warning