Spoilers are unmarked for this section, proceed with caution!
- Aria's downfall and execution in the first timeline. The poor girl was manipulated into making the worst choices for herself, culminating in her not realizing she was being set up by Mielle until it's too late. She's beheaded by her own stepbrother, unable to speak because her tongue was cut out, all while Mielle laughs at her from a distance. If it weren't for her powers activating, Aria would've died betrayed and alone.
- Asher's fate in the first timeline. He had to marry the girl whose family nearly assassinated him as a young boy and became unable to do anything out of his own free will, just to survive another day.
- Aria's breakdown during Mielle's birthday/engagement party. While she admits she didn't have romantic feelings for Oscar, Aria still feels betrayed by his passive attempts at showing his feelings and almost chucks his gift in rage. Then she spots Asher's tulips, and her anger fades into a calm determination to be better than she was in the past.
- While she is unquestionable cruel towards Aria and her mother, Emma was just a widow who got taken in by the original Countess Roscent out of the kindness of her own heart. It's why she taught Mielle to be so arrogant and haughty; Emma believes this is the only way for Mielle to survive high society, and the best way to repay the original Countess Roscent for saving her. And how does Mielle repay Emma? By stabbing her in the back, just like Emma taught her to. Even Aria pities how brutalized her former adversary looks as she's sentenced to death by hanging.
- Oscar in general. He's a sad guy who just wants to be with the woman he actually loves, only to be trapped in an engagement with her awful sister by his own awful sister (who also verbally and physically abuses him). He finally stands up to Isis for the first time in his life, but does so by betraying her, leading to her execution as a traitor and his banishment as a commoner. His only solace is that he got to help Aria not cry anymore... until he sees her coldly watching his sister's execution up on stage as the Crown Prince's lover, and realizes he didn't do anything to really help her after all.
- Isis's final moments. Her anger and paranoia fade away as the execution nears, until there's only a sense of relief left in her that her brother is going to survive.
- The entire story of the Piast family:
- Violet is torn from her home country and her lover to be with a man she does not love, only to be exiled back to her country after her husband discovers their son is not his. She still feels guilt over tearing her family apart, which is partly why she dotes on Aria; she never thought she would have one.
- Chloe is torn away from his family and his Love at First Sight "Apple" (aka Carin) without being able to take her away, never knowing what happened to her or that she had his baby until 17 years later. He falls into such a deep depression that his biological father has to conduct a search for the mysterious woman with little leads to go off of, so that Chloe will finally inherit the title from him.
- Judge Frey never being able to see her mother and brother for a long time because of their exile. When she meets Aria one-on-one, she has Aria dress up in men's clothing for her, and the sight brings the judge to tears.
- After Mielle is finally executed, Aria has to come to terms with the paranoia plaguing her since the first timeline, now that her greatest adversary isn't around to distract her. She also realizes that thanks to the Roscents, she's unable to truly understand platonic and familial love outside of her transactional worldview. She does eventually learn to embrace the Piast family, even crying as she goes back to the empire after her coming-of-age ceremony.
- Bliss believing the best way to save Aria from becoming gravely ill in the future is to never be born. And she's only six years old!
- Worse is, she doesn't even consider that her plan will mean her twin sister, Lippe, will also not exist. It takes a very long argument between the two sisters for Bliss to come to an understanding that she's not to blame for her mother's illness.
