On a dark and stormy night Countess Calmia Phlox and her co-conspirator/lover Storoni enjoy A Glass of Chianti after killing her longtime opponent, Duke Rudbeckia Matari, cementing their political faction's final victory in the struggle for the throne. However, a few moments later Calmia suddenly wakes up to find herself a ten year old girl again, twenty years in the past, on the day of her twin brother's death. Said death is what allowed Calmia to become the countess in her previous life and she's torn on whether or not should she prevent it from happening again. This time, however, Ellua is rescued by another boy, who unexpectedly comes to the Phlox estate: none other than Rudbeckia Matari. As it turns out, Rudbeckia came there to deliver the letter from current Duke Matari to Count Phlox, proposing a marriage between their children. Both kids dislike each other on sight, but Calmia assumes Rudbeckia wants the engagement to strenghten his position as the future duke, so she concedes to it on the condition he helps her inherit the title of the countess. They agree to remain engaged until she turns 20, at which point they will dissolve the deal.
Calmia sets out to work hard to gain her father's approval and earn her title, but along the way she makes some unpleasant realizations about her previous life, while in the present not everything is going according to her plans.
In the meantime, however, certain things in their country, Elmark, do go the same way, namely the massive road building project and incoming trade exchanges with neighboring countries that will reshape the political landscape as well. The Phlox family estate, Pliaze, is placed close to the western border, making it an important trade hub for the foreign merchants, particularly ones coming from a faraway country of Ighalo and bringing along certain magical stones that play an important role in both timelines.
It can be read here
. The comic is an adaptation of a Light Novel of the same title.
Provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Storoni becomes this to Calmia once she realizes how much he manipulated her in the first timeline. This is not improved by his increasingly possessive behavior towards her.
- Ren Molly to Ellua, due to her aggressively pursuing him.
- Abusive Parents: Count Phlox, mostly of the neglectful variety. In the first timeline he blames Calmia for Ellua's death and refuses to see her, even slapping her when she tries to win his affection by dressing up as Ellua. Despite her being his only heir, he completely neglects her education, instead leaving everything in the hands of his apprentice, Storoni.
- In the second timeline, despite Ellua being alive, he still neglects Calmia and deliberately sets her up for failure to make sure she won't be a threat to Ellua inheriting the title and estate. At the same time he keeps forcing Ellua to become the count, despite the latter's constant refusal and obvious disinterest. After Calmia reveals she helped run the estate during their father's absence, he almost slaps her, only to be stopped by Storoni. Later, after she collapses at her debutante ball and suffers from a fever for a few days, he never shows any interest in her health or wellbeing.
- Accidental Murder: In the first timeline Storoni intended to feed Calmia a lesser dose of the same potion they gave Rudbeckia. However, since Rudbeckia switched the potions, it ended up killing her. This eventually drives Storoni insane.
- Accidental Time Travel: Calmia was not meant to drink the poison Rudbeckia swapped with the one he was given.
- Adult Adoptee: After leaving Pliaze following Count Phlox's death, Storoni gets adopted by Count Setibus, who also betroths him to his daughter.
- All of the Other Reindeer: In her first life Calmia was shunned by other aristocrats for her unladylike appearance, unfashionable clothing and provincial upbringing. Interestingly, despite their enmity, Rudbeckia was the only person to never criticize her appearance and even told off a fellow nobleman for mocking her looks.
- Almost Kiss: Rudbeckia and Calmia at her debutante ball. Calmia faints from exhaustion before anything happens.
- It happens again during Rudbeckia's inspection of Pliaze after Calmia officially becomes the heiress. This time she pushes him away, feeling remorseful for killing him in the previous timeline.
- And Then What?: Rudbeckia asks Calmia what she's eventually planning to do with her life after she achieves her goal of becoming the countess. She starts backing the first princess and plans to break her engagement to Rudbeckia.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The magical jewels of Ighalo. They can be used in alchemy, to create medicine and potions, wands, keys, jewelry, statues and even for time travel. However, they have certain severe drawbacks, like attracting monstrous beasts or causing a plague.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Rudbeckia poses several ones to Calmia on his first visit to her after the timeskip, when she tries to rip into him for leaving her alone and not helping with becoming the heiress. Namely: what had she done herself to advance her chances in the meantime? Does she expect him to do all the work, and if so, why would she then deserve the title? And most importantly, does she even have any further plans for her life once she becomes the countess? All of the above (along with other revelations she received that day) give Calmia some pause to rethink her general outlook on life.
- Arranged Marriage: The engagement between Calmia and Rudbeckia. They both consider it a farce until Rudbeckia doesn't.
- Count Phlox plans to marry Calmia to his apprentice, Storoni, instead, in order to keep Calmia at the estate, helping Ellua run it, and keeping the family out of politics. Calmia sees right through it and does everything to avoid this fate.
- Later Storoni becomes engaged to an earl's daughter... who has been comatose for years. It's instantly made obvious this was arranged to make Count Setibus part of the second prince's faction.
- Bastard Angst: Crocus suffers from a sense of inferiority due to his illegitimacy, which is why he's so bitterly focused on trying to wrestle the crown from his half-sister.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Calmia and Rudbeckia, from the moment they meet in the second timeline (and, implied, in the first timeline as well).
- Bifauxnen: Calmia in the first timeline kept her hair short to spite her father and wore male clothing mostly out of insecurity after being rejected by other noble ladies at her first official outing due to her inadequate upbringing for a noblewoman. She has long hair and exclusively wears dresses in the second timeline, implying she no longer has problems with her femininity.
- Body to Jewel: It's eventually revealed that the magical stones are actually crystallized hearts of ancient monsters, which is why they're reappearing in Elmark and attacking people.
- Boyish Short Hair: In the first timeline Calmia initially cut her hair hoping to emulate her deceased twin brother. When this backfired, with her father refusing to see her until she grows it out again, she kept it short as a symbol of having given up on trying to win his approval.
- Brother–Sister Team: Ellua and Calmia. While Calmia becomes the acting countess following their father's heart attack, they actually both run the estate and have pretty good synergy, especially when it comes to confronting outsiders.
- Cain and Abel: Callen and Rudbeckia. It ends with Rudbeckia killing Callen.
- Age-reversed with Crocus and Persica.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Calmia attempts this on her father several times, usually without much success. She notes with irritation that whenever she makes some actually valid point, Storoni has to reiterate it for her father to even pay attention, since he just acts annoyed she dared to speak up. She eventually manages to land a blow when talking to the count on his deathbed, when she points out he doesn't love neither her nor Ellua and just views them as his puppets to fulfill the roles he designed for them instead of living people.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Calmia and Storoni basically won in the first timeline, managing to put the second prince on the throne while the first princess gave up without a fight after her lover left her. However, to secure his legitimacy, the prince still needed the official support of Rudbeckia, head of the most powerful noble family in Elmark and a popular hero in the eyes of the common folk thanks to leading the fight against the invading monsters, so Storoni came up with a plan to poison Rudbeckia with a potion that would remove his will and make him into a puppet. Rudbeckia caught wind of it and used magic jewels to concoct a poison that would instead kill him and send him back in time, swapping it with Storoni's potion.
- Later Calmia refuses to let Rudbeckia and Ellua kill Storoni, since she needs him and prince Crocus to follow their original plan in order to successfully foil it.
- Cheerful Child: Ellua as a kid. He grows up to be a Keet.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Storoni and Calmia in the first timeline. He was her father's apprentice and apparently fell in love with her at first sight. This is somewhat dubious considering his extremely manipulative nature, but admittedly, he and Calmia were together since their teenage years until their thirties.
- Soundly averted in the second timeline, despite Storoni's attempts at invoking it.
- Coordinated Clothes: Calmia and Ellua usually wear similarly cut clothes from the same or similarly patterned/colored fabrics.
- Country Mouse: Sometime in the past Phlox family for some reason removed themselves from the capital and their function as royal tutors, and moved to the countryside. In the first timeline Calmia remained there until she made her social debut at 20, when she went to the court and was thoroughly mocked by other nobles. In the current timeline Calmia basically uses her engagement to Rudbeckia to force her father to hire better tutors for her and allow her to socialize more, as well make her debut earlier. She has no problem blending in when she comes to the court by the time she's 19.
- However, she's still shown to be sometimes insecure, for example asking Rudbeckia if her dancing was bad when he notes she seemed tense while dancing with Rhashid.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Storoni grows increasingly possessive of Calmia once she starts to slip from his grasp.
- Rudbeckia, to a lesser extent, also becomes more jealous of his fiancée, appearing almost from thin air wherever some man tries to flirt with her.
- Baron Navin is famously possessive of his wife, barely letting her leave their home.
- Curtains Match the Window: Calmia and Ellua have silver hair and grey eyes.
- Disguised in Drag: Calmia and Ellua swap clothes in order for Calmia to enter the basement library unnoticed. They're pretty quickly detected.
- Princess Persica disguises herself as one of her male cousins in order to covertly meet Calmia at her debutante ball. She manages to fool most people, but Rudbeckia recognizes her instantly.
- Disowned Sibling: Quite literally. After becoming the duke, Rudbeckia officially disowns Callen from their family, making it seem he was never part of House Matari.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Calmia goes through a minor nervous breakdown once she realizes how much she was manipulated by Storoni in her first life, and worse, that Rudbeckia had probably seen it clearly and pitied her. Even worse, Rudbeckia's POV chapter pretty much confirms it.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Rudbeckia was an avid wine collector and connoisseur in his first life. Since he died via poisoned wine then, he's currently rather put off by it.
- Dropping the Bombshell: Calmia deliberately drops one on Rudbeckia on the day she's officially introduced to the first princess. She gifts her with a present very similar to the one Rudbeckia had given the princess in the first timeline, and using the same wording he did. This is when Rudbeckia finally realizes Calmia is a regressor as well.
- Dumb Blonde: Callen's fiancée is not very bright, publicly harassing Calmia about her relationship with Rudbeckia over a year after they broke up and accusing her of "craving power while being a woman", at a party where Princess Persica, a very likely heir to the throne, and Rudbeckia, her advisor, are present.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Calmia initially assumes Rudbeckia is seeking a "beneficial engagement" in order to strenghten his chances at inheriting the dukedom. He's actually also a regressor and the reason he proposed to her was to keep an eye on her and, more importantly, Storoni. She fairly quickly figures out the truth, however, while Rudbeckia still has no idea she also went back in time and keeps wondering about some of her decisions.
- Establishing Character Moment: After being introduced to the Phlox siblings, Prince Crocus talks to them as if their father was still alive, many months after the latter's death. Upon being informed that Calmia is now the countess, he instantly implies there must be something wrong with Ellua if he didn't inherit the title and brings up the topic of his rejected proposal to Calmia, making her rather uncomfortable.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Ellua is an all-around Nice Guy and the most unambiguously good person in this story, but he openly loathes Storoni, reacting with genuine disgust when the latter even stands close to him. When Calmia considers asking Storoni for help with paperwork after their father is rendered bedbound and they overwork themselves trying to keep up, Ellua actually begs her not to go to him, offering to work even harder despite being exhausted. Later, after Count Phlox dies, Ellua readily agrees to help Rudbeckia arrange a fatal accident for Storoni, but Calmia shoots it down, rightfully pointing out that killing him now, when he openly works for the second prince, is a terrible idea.
- Evil Gloating: When he realizes Calmia and Ellua are getting overwhelmed with work after the count falls ill, and correctly assuming she's about to ask for help, Storoni gloats at Calmia that she shouldn't have rejected him earlier, but he might help her if she begs him. This backfires when Calmia instead rejects him again and goes on to hire a modest, hardworking minor nobleman to help them handle the estate.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Ellua absolutely hates Storoni even though he's unaware Storoni was behind the attempt at his life and makes it clear he wants him to stay away from his sister. Played for Laughs with his instant dislike for Rhashid, as they later become best buddies.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: While Elmark is your typical run-of-the-mill vaguely 18-19th century western European country, Ighalo seems to be a mix of Levant and India.
- Feed the Mole: Calmia keeps being nice to Storoni in front of household servants, since she knows most of them report back to Rudbeckia and she wants both him and Storoni on their toes.
- Flashback Nightmare: As her relationship with Rudbeckia progresses, Calmia starts to dream about the night she killed him with increasing frequency. Ironically, she at first considered getting rid of him to be her highest achievement, only to grow remorseful of her actions.
- Floral Theme Naming: Kalmia, phlox, rudbeckia, crocus and primula (Storoni's surname) are all genera of flowers. Persica is a Latin name for a peach.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Played With since they're only betrothed, but despite Calmia's attempts at breaking off their deal after she becomes the countess, Rudbeckia staunchly refuses to dissolve their engagement.
- For Want Of A Nail: Ellua's survival makes Calmia realize how much his death influenced her life in the previous timeline. Her rejection by their father left her alienated at the family estate, where servants, fearing the count's displeasure, didn't even talk to her, and vulnerable to Storoni's manipulation, since he was the only person to acknowledge her existence. The rumours surrounding Ellua's death placing the blame on his sister also influenced Calmia's reputation long before she entered high society.
- Also thanks to Ellua surviving and having most access to the basement library, Storoni had much less opportunities to learn and his knowledge of magical stones is nearly nonexistent compared to the first timeline, giving Calmia a major upper hand over both him and Rudbeckia.
- Invoked when Calmia notices the infrastructure development in the second timeline takes longer than in the first one and wonders whether her current friendship with baroness Navin (whose husband is involved with the road development and is currently in conflict with another noble also backing it) influenced it somehow. Subverted when it turns out it was Rudbeckia who deliberately delayed the project.
- Foreshadowing: Rudbeckia claims that the engagement between him and Calmia had been his father's idea, and he came to Pliaze to deliver the offer personally out of respect for count Phlox but the fact it took several days for the Matari servants to figure out Rudbeckia was in Pliaze suggests both the engagement and his trip to the Phlox estate (in terrible weather conditions, no less) were actually Rudbeckia's ideas.
- Friendly Shopkeeper: Rhashid, a merchant from Ighalo, who early on provides Calmia with some exotic items, mainly the magical jewels. He and the Phlox siblings later become good friends, albeit Rhashid's (and entire Ighaloan delegation's, for that matter) reasons for coming to Elmark weren't exactly pure.
- Gender-Blender Name: Rudbeckia is a name usually given to girls.
- The Ghost: Second prince, who is constantly mentioned thorough the story as the man whose candidacy for throne Calmia and Storoni supported in the first timeline over his older sister, and for whom Storoni still works behind the scenes in the second timeline as well. He's eventually introduced in the last chapter of the first season.
- Great Big Library of Everything: Not that great, but the Phlox estate is full of books and has a large basement library containing books on magical stones, beasts and alchemy, some of which are locked. The Phlox family used to be the teachers of the royalty of Elmark, and the basement books actually belong to the royal family who for some reason handed them over for safekeeping.
- Hates Their Parent: Downplayed, but in both timelines Calmia gives up on trying to appease her father. In the second one, when he collapses in front of her, she doesn's seem particularly concerned, instead still pressuring him to make her his heir with a smile on her face. Also, neither she nor Ellua show much attention to their father being confined to his bed following his stroke, instead using him for basically rubberstamping all their decisions regarding the estate. When he finally dies, Calmia notes she felt wronged by how peacefeul it was.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Storoni in the first timeline. While Rudbeckia drank the poison on his own accord and design, Storoni poisoning Calmia led to her going back in time as well and ultimately foiling his plans. Rudbeckia theorizes that the sacrifice of two lives in the first timeline was what allowed them to go back further in time, meaning that Calmia was able to shake off Storoni's influence early on in her second life.
- Also him convincing Count Phlox to return the basement library to the royal family and gloating about it to Calmia leads to her destroying the keys to the books just to spite him.
- In general, Storoni's attempts at making Calmia feel cornered, helpless and underappreciated by her father ultimately result in her mistrusting him even more and seeking help elsewhere just to prove him wrong.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Count Phlox suffers from one after he confronts Calmia about her receiving an invitation to the court from princess Persica and seeing Ellua hand over his keys to the basement books to her.
- In the first timeline he got one after learning of Calmia's affair with Storoni. In both cases, this ends up with him being bedridden for the rest of his life.
- Human Sacrifice: Most powerful magical stones need a major sacrifice to work, which is why Rudbeckia had to die in the first timeline for his time-reversing stone to work. Storoni inadvertently strenghtened it even more by accidentally poisoning Calmia as well, making her and Rudbeckia go back in time further than the latter originally planned.
- Ill Girl: Georgianne Enfil. Calmia befriends her at the debutante ball and later uses her father's, Viscount Enfil, spy network to gain information in exchange for pharmaceutical research she gets from Judelle.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Rudbeckia falls for Calmia because in the world where he already knows of everyone's moves, she's the only person who remains unpredictable and defies him at every turn.
- Impoverished Patrician: Storoni, whose family was a fallen minor nobility. Upon meeting him Rudbeckia even points out he's basically no different from a commoner.
- Played With the Phlox family, who, while not suffering from any financial trouble, nevertheless lost most of their power and prestige as the royal tutors after withdrawing for some reason from political and social life.
- In the same vein, the Bonnette family, while also implied to be wealthy, are no longer respected as talented artists, something they were famous for in the first place. Calmia even invokes it when talking with Hailey as a Commonality Connection between them.
- Improvised Lockpick: Played With. Calmia realizes there are not enough keys to open all the locked books in the secret library, but figures out she can open them using the jewels of Ighalo if they're cut to be narrow enough to fit into the keyhole (they don't need to be cut into the exact shape).
- In Spite of a Nail: In the first timeline, upon hearing about Calmia's and Storoni's relationship, Count Phlox suffered from a heart attack, which left him bedbound for the rest of his remaining life. Same thing happens in the second timeline as well, only this time it's because Calmia received an invitation to the court from the first princess and Ellua definitively told him that he's ceding his title onto his sister.
- Also, upon becoming an adult in both timelines, Calmia fired all the servants in the Phlox estate. In the first one because she didn't want anyone who still remembered Ellua around, in the second one because most of them were Rudbeckia's spies, while the rest were still loyal to her father.
- This is also another reason Calmia rejects the idea of killing off Storoni. She wants him and the second prince to stick to the similar plan they made in the first timeline, so she can prevent it thanks to her first life knowledge.
- Informed Ability: Ellua is said to be a genius, but aside from his linguistic skills he doesn't seem to be smarter than his sister. However, he definitely has a high emotional intelligence and is easily able to see the feelings of others.
- Inheritance Murder: After Ellua's death in the first timeline, Calmia is accused of sabotaging his saddle with this motive in mind. Note that she was ten years old at this point. It's later revealed it was Storoni's work in order to make Calmia the heiress.
- It Runs in the Family: When Rudbeckia asks Calmia how she would deal with someone she knew would kill her, she instantly replies she would kill them first. When she later asks Ellua the same, he gives her the same answer.
- Princess Persica has a very sharp tongue and does not hesitate to make digs at both her friends and enemies. Her maternal cousin, Ren Molly, while less blunt, is similarly skilled at making people squirm with her comments.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: The Molly brothers are extremely protective of their sister, Ren.
- Ellua hates Storoni for creeping on his sister and tries to scare off any man hitting on her who's not Rudbeckia, while Calmia, remembering Ellua died in the first timeline, does everything to protect him. When Edward Molly hits him, suspecting he had something to do with Ren's disappearance, Calmia instantly retaliates by slapping Edward.
- Lessons in Sophistication: Calmia receives hers, at her own insistence, from Baroness Navin. Considering she never received any (which ended in humiliation) in her first life and she had to almost fight her father to agree to them in the second timeline, she seems to genuinely enjoy and apply herself to them. It also helps her widen her (until then nonexistent) social circle thanks to the baroness.
- Light Is Not Good: Storoni is blond, has gold eyes and usually wears light colors, especially compared to dark haired, dark eyed, black-clad Rudbeckia, but he's a cold-blooded schemer with a borderline yandere-ish obsession with Calmia.
- Like a Son to Me: Count Phlox says so about Storoni, when introducing him to Rudbeckia. In the first timeline he basically considers Storoni his proper heir, teaching him everything Calmia was supposed to know as the next head of House Phlox. In the second timeline Storoni actually seems to care about the count more than his own children do, staying at his bedside most of the times, although it also does allow him to manipulate the count even more.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Calmia's father clearly thought that, refusing to see her until she grew back her hair, with her refusing to do so until his death and beyond. She keeps her long hair in the second timeline, even wondering what Rudbeckia thought of her when seeing her for the first time with long hair and wearing a dress. She eventually grows up to be more ladylike than in her first timeline.
- Lost Technology: It's very strongly implied the Ighaloan jewels used to be previously known in Elmark, but for some reason all that knowledge was locked up and kept secret in the basement library at the Phlox estate, most likely at the behest of the royal family.
- Further confirmed in chapter 65, when Calmia gifts the first princess with a magical jewel that has been discovered IN Elmark itself.
- Love at First Sight: Storoni claims he felt this about Calmia when they first met as children (he's 4 years her senior). She doesn't quite believe him, but it's later revealed he did go insane after accidentally killing her in the first timeline (albeit what he actually planned to do to her was not exactly much better).
- Make It Look Like an Accident: In the first timeline Ellua died after falling off a horse. Officially it was an accident, but there are rumours about the reins being sabotaged, with people pointing at Calmia as the guilty party. It's later revealed it was Storoni's work.
- Mirroring the above incident, in the second timeline Rudbeckia and Ellua plan to give Storoni Ellua's horse as the parting gift, with the reins cut. However, when Ellua tells Calmia about it, she refuses to lend her approval, noting this a very obvious ploy, especially since Storoni had just recently made himself the enemy of their family.
- The Man Behind the Woman: Storoni was this to Calmia in the first timeline. He's a very talented schemer, but his low birth and lack of personal resources forced him to stay in the shadows, using Calmia, a noblewoman from a prestigious family, as a front, while she mistakenly believed herself to be an equal mastermind to him. Figuring this out in the second timeline is a very bitter pill to swallow for Calmia, especially since she also realizes Rudbeckia saw her clearly for who she was: just a puppet for a man who used her her entire life.
- Later it's revealed Storoni actually grew to resent staying in Calmia's shadow and planned to turn her into basically an obedient zombie for himself using the same poison they gave Rudbeckia, but did not anticipate Rudbeckia switching the poisons, kickstarting the entire plot.
- Manipulative Bastard: Storoni, albeit he was much more successful in the first timeline. Calmia, after realizing how he manipulated her originally, is extremely distrustful of him, while Rudbeckia is actively working against him.
- Calmia eventually becomes much better at the game on her own.
- Marry for Love: Princess Persica is marrying Prince Apis after they've fallen in love with each other. This is also part of the reason she dissolves the engagement between Calmia and Rudbeckia, since she declares her followers shouldn't be forced into an arranged marriage while she's marrying someone she loves. Later she tells Rudbeckia he should start actually courting Calmia if he's upset by this breakup.
- Missing Mom: The twins' mother died giving birth to them. She's only mentioned once.
- Mistaken for Romance: Ren assumes Hailey and Ellua are lovers. Both deny this.
- The Mole: Over the course of four years Rudbeckia manages to replace over half of staff at Phlox household with his spies. Calmia figures it out by going through employee records, which also tips her off that Rudbeckia is a regressor like her. She later fires them all along with what remained of her father's faithful servants.
- She also recognizes "Glen", the man Storoni meets behind her back, as the second prince's spy she saw multiple times under multiple names in her previous life.
- Money Dumb: Ellua turns out to be this, but he's just a teenager, so he still has some time to learn.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Rudbeckia eventually starts plotting to kill Storoni, although he has many other arguably valid reasons to do it besides his rather unfounded jealousy over Calmia.
- My Sibling Will Live Through Me: Somewhat subverted with Calmia in the first timeline, who cut her hair and put on her brother's clothes hoping it would make her resentful father treat her as Ellua. After she gets brutally rejected, with her father declaring he won't see her until she grows her hair out again, she decides to keep it short just to spite him. Several flashbacks also portray her wearing dresses and it's implied she started permanently wearing male clothing only after she was mocked for her somewhat frumpy dress at her debut outing.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Ellua absolutely detests Storoni for constantly creeping on his sister, complains about Judelle being smitten with her and is rather apprehensive of Rhashid, albeit he later warms up to the latter. However, he adores Rudbeckia and does everything keep him and Calmia together.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: This is Calmia's biggest issue, in both timelines. In the first one, she only became the countess because her twin brother died, leaving her father with no other choices, and even then, he treated Storoni more like his heir, while Storoni was puppeteering Calmia all her life until he decided he doesn't need her anymore. In the second one, despite all her talent and hard work, she still becomes the countess only because Ellua willingly gave up his position for her. Even though Pliaze territory flourishes thanks to her, after arriving to the capital, Calmia is only seen as the fiancée of future Duke Matari and sister of Ellua, who just became an overnight sensation thanks to his linguistic skills, while people only talk about her looks.
- Persica lampshades this as she makes Calmia her personal advisor and dissolves her engagement with Rudbeckia, so Calmia no longer will be known only as "Duke Matari's fiancée".
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Ren Molly is very openly infatuated with Ellua, who's very openly not interested with her.
- Not Good with Rejection: Storoni. After Calmia gets engaged to Rudbeckia in the second timeline, he sulks about it for 3 years before trying to make a move on her. Calmia sort of strings him along to manipulate him, but rejects him or avoids the topic every time he tries to press her. After Calmia destroys the keys to the library books he squeezes her wrist to the point of leaving bruises while lamenting about Rudbeckia getting between them.
- Oblivious to Love: Calmia does not treat Rudbeckia's romantic gestures seriously, viewing them more as his ploys to win her over for his political purposes, as she still believes he hates her for what happened in the first timeline. When Rudbeckia suggests he would kill Storoni, she instantly assumes he's going to kill her next. This is partially caused by her increasing feelings of remorse for murdering him, and she eventually tries to push him away by revealing she's also a regressor.
- Omniglot: Ellua is easily proficient at any language he tries. Upon coming to the capital, his ability to speak Ighaloan instantly makes him famous.
- Operation: Jealousy: Subverted. Calmia and Rudbeckia openly flirt in front of Storoni, but Calmia just wants Storoni to be jealous in order to make him easier to manipulate (and she still resents him for manipulating her in her first life) while Rudbeckia just hates him and wants him to slip up, so no romantic feelings are involved on their side at first. It still works, with Storoni becoming more unhinged every time he sees them together.
- Parent-Preferred Suitor: Count Phlox prefers Storoni over Rudbeckia as Calmia's future husband. Ironically, he suffered an almost fatal stroke after learning of Calmia's affair with Storoni in the first timeline, although according to Calmia, it had more to do with their relationship being publicly talked about than the affair itself.
- Parents Suck at Matchmaking: Count Phlox intends to break Calmia's engagement to Rudbeckia in order to marry her to Storoni, despite Rudbeckia being superior to Storoni in basically every way. Then again, the count doesn't want Calmia to marry well, but to be kept away from politics and matters of the family estate. What he doesn't know, Storoni himself is very involved in politics, willing to pull the entire Phlox family into it, and in the first timeline he arranged Ellua's death in order to make Calmia the heiress, whom he then manipulated her entire life in order to fulfill his ambitions.
- Parental Favoritism: Count Phlox makes it pretty clear he views Ellua as his only heir and Calmia might as well not exist, except maybe as a quiet supporter of her brother while staying married to Storoni.
- Speaking of which, the count treats Storoni as his other son, in the first timeline teaching him everything he should have told Calmia instead, and in the second he plans to marry them to make sure Calmia won't be any political threat to her brother. In fact, Storoni is the only person who actually stops him from hitting his daughter and has to repeat what she said earlier to make her father pay any attention.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Zigzagged. Count Phlox is less than pleased with Calmia's marriage offer from Duke Matari, despite all the power and clout this would give their family, but eventually caves in and agrees to the engagement. However, he's still planning on eventually breaking it in order to make her marry Storoni, even though Calmia points out it would be a politically and socially disastrous decision.
- He also instantly rejects second prince's marriage offer to Calmia.
- Parental Neglect: Count Phlox refuses to see Calmia after Ellua's death in the first timeline. Sadly, his treatment of her in the second timeline, where Ellua is still alive, is only marginally better.
- Peggy Sue: At what she assumes to be the high point of her life, Calmia goes 20 years back in time to relive her childhood with her now alive brother, while engaged to her former mortal enemy. She figures out fairly quickly Rudbeckia is also a regressor.
- The Plague: The magical stones cause one in Ighalo. The whole reason why Ighaloans brought them to Elmark and insisted on trading them as their "cultural export" was part of the plot to bring the epidemic to another country to see if the locals could come up with the cure since Ighaloans couldn't find any. Calmia is well aware of it, but informs prince Apis that his plan won't work since the plague won't spread in Elmark because its local medicinal herbs would provide instant cure without anyone noticing the disease. This is also the reason prince Apis left Persica in the first timeline: second prince caught wind of his plans and used it to blackmail him. Apis, fearing this would wreck Persica's reputation and ruin her chances at getting the throne, left her with no explanation and later died of the plague in his home country. Ironically, this caused her to break down mentally and completely withdraw from competing for the crown.
- Politically-Active Princess: First princess Persica takes part in trade negotiations, competes for the throne with her younger brother, welcomes foreign delegates and actively searches for promising allies across the country.
- Poor Communication Kills: While Calmia's knowledge that Rudbeckia is also a regressor while he remains oblivious of her gives her the upper hand in many situations, this also leads to her fiancé severely underestimating her and creating even more problems, mainly when he rejects the idea that she's the one who ordered spying on Storoni, which leads to Rudbeckia intercepting a very important letter regarding Storoni's moves and Phlox family losing their library as a result.
- Proper Lady: Baroness Navin, whom Rudbeckia recommends to Calmia as an etiquette tutor.
- The Purge: After becoming an adult Calmia pulls a bloodless one on the entire household staff, firing them all, since she knows most of them are spying on her for Rudbeckia while the rest are still loyal to her father.
- Purple Is Powerful: Calmia is portrayed wearing purple in promotional artwork for both novels and the webtoon, also almost every time she or someone else puts her in symbolic Imagine Spot. Given her ambitions, it's safe to say it has more to do with power than grace (although she definitely becomes more ladylike in the second timeline).
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Calmia delivers a minor one to Storoni, pointing out that after her father's death he will have to find himself a new pawn, since he has no power on his own and can only manipulate people while never stepping into the scene himself.
- Rebellious Princess: First princess Persica, who regularly disguises herself in drag, sneaks out of the palace, "has a truly filthy mouth" according to her brother and openly carries out an affair with a royal from another country.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: The second prince himself proposes to Calmia via her father when she's 16. Count Phlox rejects the offer on the spot, claiming that their house does not deserve such honor, but it has more to do with his fear of getting tangled in politics than anything else. Said fear isn't exactly unfounded, however, since Calmia notes that the prince's proposal was most likely an attempt at breaking the prospective union between houses Phlox and Matari, as such union would become a part of the first princess' faction.
- Remittance Man: Rudbeckia's brother, Callen, after losing their competition for the dukedom, was sent to a country villa under the health concerns pretext. He later reaches out to the second prince, offering to betray his family.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Somewhat subverted with Rudbeckia and Calmia's engagement. Their relationship isn't supposed to be romantic neither to them nor in the eyes of the public (they do play it up in front of Storoni to rile him up), but Rudbeckia starts to slowly fall in love with Calmia, to the point where he openly asks her to not break off their deal when she turns 20. Calmia is notably more resilitent, still viewing him as her political opponent, even though they're now on the same side.
- Running Gag: Calmia constantly receiving bracelets from various men. In her country giving someone a bracelet is an expression of romantic intent.
- Saying Too Much: Ellua does it twice in the same conversation, first telling Calmia about their father planning to marry her off to Storoni, then mentioning the basement library.
- Rudbeckia accidentally reveals to Calmia he knows a bit too much about what happens at the Phlox estate to brush it off as a mere guesswork. This, and his irrational animosity towards Storoni, prompts Calmia to check the employee records, which make her realize he started planting his spies at Pliaze at roughly the same time he came with his first visit, and confirms her suspicions Rudbeckia is a regressor as well.
- Secretly Wealthy: Rhashid passes himself off as a "humble peddler", but he's actually the son of an extremely wealthy family back in Ighalo, as well as the member of Ighaloan prince's delegation.
- Selective Obliviousness: After Calmia tells him to let her investigate the jewel of Ighalo, Rudbeckia realizes she's the person behind some of the mysteries he'd been trying to figure out for a while, but instantly rejects the idea since it would mean that Calmia is a regressor as well.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Some of the more important books in the basement library are fitted with locks that need very special keys to open them. Attempting to destroy the lock results in the book disintegrating in a matter of seconds.
- Self-Made Orphan: Calmia informs Rudbeckia of his brother conspiring to kill their father. He actually succeeded in the first timeline, but with the turmoil their family had been thrown into and general political unrest arounds them, Rudbeckia never found the culprit, especially since he had no idea his exiled brother again came into contact with the second prince's faction.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Rudbeckia switched the poison Calmia gave him in the first timeline with one that would send his soul back in time. After coming back to the past, he starts by proposing to her, so he can keep an eye on her and Storoni.
- Sex–Face Turn: Averted. Despite Rudbeckia hoping otherwise, Calmia still declares she's going to dissolve their engagement even after they have sex.
- Shipper on Deck: Ellua for Calmia and Rudbeckia.
- Shrinking Violet: Hailey Bonnette, another one of the young noblewomen Calmia befriended at the debutante ball. In order to boost her confidence (and get access to someone who can be of use to her future plans, as she knows from the first timeline) Calmia encourages her to try her hand at sculpting the jewels of Ighalo.
- Sibling Murder: Rudbeckia eventually kills his older brother. According to him, it's not technically fratricide, since as the new Duke Matari he removed Callen from the family tree, but nobody sees it that way, himself included.
- Sibling Rivalry: There's a rather one-sided one between Calmia and Ellua. Ellua is actually the only person in the estate who cares for Calmia and has her best interests at heart, while at the same time Calmia, at her current mental age, can clearly see that their father is setting up everything for the benefit of Ellua at his sister's expense. She loves her brother, but refuses to give up her potential chances at inheriting the title, even though it ultimately boils down to Ellua willingly giving up his rights to the title for her.
- Played straight with the first princess and the second prince's fight for the throne.
- This happens mostly offscreen, but Rudbeckia had to compete with his older brother for the dukedom. He's designated as the heir quite early due to his prodigious accomplishments (thanks to being an adult in child's body), but his brother still has a minor chance at succeeding and is working against him behind the scenes.
- Smug Snake: Calmia in the first timeline was absolutely convinced she was a major political player, while, in actuality, Storoni was behind everything, only needing her as his front thanks to her title and the newfound geopolitical importance of Pliaze due to the new trade routes.
- Storoni in the second timeline keeps unsuccessfully attempting to either woo or manipulate Calmia. While he manages to secure some minor victories against her and Rudbeckia, he tends to shoot himself in the foot sooner or later.
- Spanner in the Works: Rudbeckia and Calmia are both this to each other. On one hand, Rudbeckia comes from a more powerful family, is slightly older, lives in the capital and is in general given much more freedom than Calmia, who's constantly undermined by her father due to her sex, kept in a provincial estate with virtually no friends or supporters besides her twin brother and is a target of manipulation for many men around her. On the other hand, being out of general sight gives her many opportunities (mainly establishing trade with Ighalo and getting her hands on as many Ighaloan jewels as possible before trade negotiations even start and Rudbeckia begins to monitor the market) while she has a major advantage over her fiancé: she knows he's a regressor, and he doesn't know she is one as well, until she basically spells it out for him.
- In general, Rudbeckia is trying to prevent the Ighaloan stones from entering the Elmark's market since he knows they will inevitably attract the magical beasts to their country while Calmia anticipates it and starts collecting both the jewels and knowledge about them, while preparing for the invasion (she even gives him a heads-up by presenting him with one jewel quite early on). So Calmia knowingly undermines Rudbeckia by getting the stones before they enter the official trade, while Rudbeckia unknowingly undermines her by prolonging the road construction project (albeit this also gives her the advantage of having more time to get much more jewels from Rhashid before the official trade is established, leaving no sales' documents).
- Storoni, despite not being a regressor, is also one, albeit he has much less advantage than he had in the first timeline thanks to Ellua being alive and Calmia being immune to his manipulations. However, his relationship with Count Phlox gives him a lot of influence over the man, mainly in regards to his support for the second prince. In chapter 56 it turns out he convinced the count to return the books in the basement library back to the royal family. Why Calmia didn't anticipate it despite monitoring Storoni's moves? Rudbeckia intercepted the letter from her spy informing her of it.
- Spare to the Throne: As it turns out, Callen was originally designed to be the Matari heir, while his younger brother was destined for the clergy and the youngest, Rudbeckia, for the military. Rudbeckia ends up becoming the duke.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Persica and Apis in the first timeline. Apis was blackmailed by the second prince of Elmark into breaking up with Persica and returning to Ighalo, where he later died of the plague, while Persica went through a mental breakdown and gave up on trying to become the successor, allowing her brother to become the king.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Count Phlox's attitude towards his daughter's ambitions. He deliberately instructs her tutors to teach her only the most basic etiquette and subjects, refuses to even acknowledge her efforts, limits her social outings and tries to actively bar her from gaining any knowledge. Even at his deathbed, he still tries to convince Ellua to become the count. While historically noblemen may have had problems with allowing their daughters the same education as the sons, they usually still tried to marry them well; Count Phlox plans to ultimately break off Calmia's engagement to politically powerful House Matari and marry her to Storoni, a poor minor nobleman from a fallen family, just to make sure she stays in Pliaze, helping Ellua run the estate and not posing any threat to his inheritance.
- And this is just the second timeline. In the first one, in addition to completely rejecting her, Calmia's father never taught her anything she should know as his heir, instead giving all his knowledge to Storoni and basically treating him as his own son. Calmia didn't even know about the basement library until the second timeline.
- However, it's implied there might be more to his attitude than just misogyny, considering House Phlox's sudden and inexplicable withdrawal from politics and social life a few generations prior.
- Despite Hailey's success as the sculptor of the magical stones, her parents seem unhappy about it and instead insist on her finding a suitable husband.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Everyone in the Elmark royal family seems to have dark red hair.
- Callen, Rudbeckia's older brother, has slightly more angular face, longer hair and his eyes are a duller shade of blue, but from a distance they look pretty much indentical. Both brothers and their father also share the same coloring.
- Members of the Molly family all have brown hair and green eyes. Persica, who is related to them via her mother, has green eyes as well.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Calmia and her brother do a Twin Switch, so she can go to the secret library and read the books there. She succeeds. Just as the reader assumes this is going to be a regular occurence from now on, so Calmia can finally surprise her father with her knowledge and gain his approval, it turns out they get caught and berated for it the next day. And no matter how much Calmia learns, her father doesn't care, because in his eyes she's just a girl.
- As it turns out, running the family estate as a pair of barely prepared teenagers is actually hard work. Calmia and Ellua spend a lot of time poring over documents and after working themselves almost to exhaustion, they have to conclude they still need help. Even after employing more people to help with paperwork, they're still mostly stuck at Pliaze without much time for travel or entertainment.
- Despite Rudbeckia getting basically free reign to do whatever he wants as the new Duke Matari and his brother being condemned for his actions, which included planning a patricide, Rudbeckia's murder of Callen doesn't exactly go smoothly between him and his parents.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Calmia does it to Storoni after he asks her for a goodbye kiss in exchange for some information. She refuses, telling him her fiancé would be jealous. At this point, Rudbeckia, who'd been eavesdropping on them the whole time makes himself known and Calmia kisses him instead to spite Storoni.
- Thanatos Gambit: The poison Calmia and Storoni intended to give Rudbeckia in the first timeline wasn't supposed to kill him, just allow them to basically turn him into their puppet. However, Rudbeckia realized that and managed to switch the poison with another one, made using magical stones, that would kill him and send his soul back in time. What he didn't take into account was Storoni also poisoning Calmia, which is why she regressed as well.
- Their First Time: Calmia and Rudbeckia have sex after the masquerade ball at the royal palace. This is also their first time having sex at all in the second timeline.
- Timeskip: Several, from a three year long one between Calmia's engagement to Rudbeckia and their next meeting, to a few shorter ones.
- There's also an over year-long timeskip between season 1 and 2.
- Tsundere: Calmia towards Rudbeckia. She's definitely more on the tsuntsun side, constantly teasing and keeping him at arm's length. However, it's implied her constant rejection of him is caused by her feeling guilty about killing him in the first timeline.
- Twin Switch: The twins pull it briefly when Calmia asks Ellua to let her go to the basement library in his stead. Ellua happily obliges and Calmia manages to sneak in, but they're discovered the very next day.
- The Unfavorite: Calmia to her father. He isn't a particularly loving parent to Ellua either, but he clearly puts his son's wellbeing over hers.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Pretty much everyone, even the characters that technically should't be able to afford it.
- Unperson: As the Duke Matari, Rudbeckia removes his brother from the family register, making all documents signed by Callen null and void and himself basically non-existent. Not that Callen has much time to suffer the consequences of it, since he's killed almost immediately after. He's not even allowed a funeral under his family name.
- Unwitting Pawn: Calmia for Storoni in the first timeline. The realization of how much she was used and manipulated all her life prompts more major changes in her character than even Ellua's survival.
- Also, Count Phlox for Storoni, in both timelines, especially after he falls ill.
- Upper-Class Twit: Rudbeckia shows shades of that, being rather dismissive of his concerned servants, asking Count Phlox why he allows someone as lowborn as Storoni to address his children so familiarly, being rather conceited about his looks, and, in both timelines, teasing Calmia about her "cheap looking bracelet". However, Calmia notes he was otherwise known for appreciating people for what they did instead of who they were, and his blatant dislike of Storoni has different reasons than his social station.
- Played more straight with his older brother, Callen.
- Prince Crocus firmly believes highborn people are inherently better than commoners, which is why he belittles Storoni by comparing him to Callen, even though Storoni is much more competent than the latter.
- Virgin-Shaming: Princess Persica makes fun of Rudbeckia for being engaged to Calmia for so long yet never having sex. This flusters him enough to grab Calmia and leave the meeting.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Calmia towards her father in both timelines. In the first one he rejects her after Ellua's death, but still has to make her the countess since she's his only living relative, so Calmia gives up trying to win his approval and even deliberately keeps her hair short so he would keep refusing to see her. She assumes he would treat her better in the second timeline, since Ellua is alive there, only to realize he still views her as unnecessary baggage no matter how well and hard she works to be acknowledged by him (and the discovery of the basement library, of which she had no idea in the first timeline, makes it even more clear he never considered Calmia his rightful heir). She stops trying altogether and doesn't even bat an eye when the Count suffers from a stroke in front of her.
- Workaholic: Calmia. After being chastised by Rudbeckia for basically sitting on her hands during the 3 years between their engagement and next meeting, and discovering the basement library, she throws herself into studying and working to become the countess and learn everything about the jewel of Ighalo and the beasts. She stays up for 3 nights studying the locked books and eventually collapses from exhaustion on the last day of her debutante ball, suffering from a fever. Later, after she assumes the duties of the countess after their father falls ill, both she and Ellua overwork themselves to the point where they have to hire another person to help them handle all the estate affairs. Even then, Calmia is so busy with developing Pliaze and making sure it will be secure from monster attacks, she constantly rejects princess' invitations to the court.
- After the timeskip Calmia focuses on working against Storoni and the second prince to the point of fainting from exhaustion. Ellua complains about her asking him to bring her paperwork instantly after regaining consciousness.
- Yandere: Storoni, in both timelines, although he's rather subtle about it.
- You're Not My Type: Calmia's initial response to Rudbeckia's marriage proposal. He claims the same about her.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Calmia's father says so to her after Ellua dies in the first timeline.
- Youngest Child Wins: Rudbeckia is the youngest son of House Matari and is eventually declared to be the next duke.
