Yeah, I’m honestly shocked it was Shu Gabi because she was the all-too-obvious choice. But by the end of last episode, I was sitting there thinking, “Okay, if it isn’t her, then who the hell could it possibly be?”

• Anyone from the Kou clan is almost completely off my suspect list. Both Reirin and the Empress were targeted, and Tousetsu himself was in the dark until recently.
• The Kin Consort seems too inept and the Kin maiden too just to be doing anything this elaborate. The whole “Kin white lady directing Leelee” thing was a fake, too. And we’ve now seen curse magic connected to both the Kin and Shu gifts given to Reirin and the Empress.
• The Blue Consort (sorry, I forget the clan name) feels similarly inept, and the Blue maiden is so young and seemingly innocent that she doesn’t exactly scream “mastermind behind a palace conspiracy.”

And then there’s Shu Gabi. The suspect who was so obvious that I basically convinced myself she couldn’t possibly be guilty.

She took in Kougetsu after Kougetsu learned forbidden magic following her parents’ suspicious “suicide.” She planted the seed of, “If only you were like Reirin.” Kougetsu then taught her curse magic. And despite Reirin’s frailty being widely known, Kougetsu was genuinely surprised to discover just how sickly she was, suggesting that information had been deliberately kept from her. Gabi also seemingly has a grudge against the Empress for taking the position that could have been hers. And, of course, it was Gabi’s gift to the Empress that caused her to become sick. Oh, and then there’s the extremely obvious foot curse, presumably connected to Venomcraft.

Like… COME ON. It’s a neon sign pointing directly at her. But that’s exactly why I don’t buy it.

If it really was Shu Gabi, what’s her actual motive? Revenge against the Empress for taking the top maiden position? In the process, she’s burning down both the Shu and Kou clans. That’s an absurd amount of collateral damage.

So let’s assume she’s a red herring, like many of us have been expecting. If that’s the case, then a few things suddenly become interesting:

• Gabi asked to learn forbidden magic because she needed to counter someone else’s forbidden magic. In doing so, her own leg became cursed.
• In the flashback, when the prince—now the Emperor—became ill, that could potentially have been Venomcraft as well.
• We know maidens sometimes gave gifts to other maidens to present to the prince as their own. Gabi gives the Empress the handkerchief to present to the prince, but the Empress keeps it instead. So the cursed Kin and Shu gifts given to Reirin and the Empress could potentially have originated with a third party.
• Forbidden magic can apparently facilitate body-swapping and silencing. It’s entirely possible that someone else has been swapped or silenced.

So in this hypothetical scenario, the Kou clan remains the victim, while both Shu and Kin have been framed.

And that leaves one clan that has come out of this whole thing remarkably clean: The Blue clan.

And honestly? The Blue maiden being so young, sweet, and seemingly completely innocent would make for one hell of a twist. The motive would also be comparatively straightforward: eliminate the top rival—Reirin—and arrange for all the blame to fall on Kougetsu.

I still maintain that the titular “Inept Villainess” is actually Kougetsu.

And I love that Kougetsu and Reirin are finally starting to understand each other. Kougetsu spent her whole life desperately wanting what she thought Reirin had, while Reirin is basically considering every day a gift from Kougetsu.

Which is why I’m increasingly convinced there’s way more going on here than “Shu Gabi is evil.”