This happened before her debutant.. while strolling she ment an old woman who told her she would die in 4yrs? Which in the original the villainess Merria died, so the old woman gave her a ring which had some kind of power and the old woman told her that the person who needs the ring's power will save her.
This event was the reason why the current Merria didn't appear on society after her debutant. She was afraid to meet the ML and be the center of the society again.
As per the later chapters Reukis approached Merria because of the power and he badly needs it from her to calm his darkness... But now he needs her for a different reason UwU
Technically, neither had a love rival. People tried to get in their way but there wasn’t officially a love rival.
Her father disapproved of their relationship because of the incident in the past where Reukis supposedly killed his parents with the darkness. It’s discovered later that it’s a witch that messed with his power and ignited his overflow of the darkness. It happens again later when the same witch (young lady version), in this timeline, tampered with his power. MC rushes in to save him with the power of the same witch (old lady version) who gave her the ring. MC gets injured but saves Reukis. MC spends a week unconscious and learns from the god (writer) that she’s the true Meria all along. So she’s the one who was in love with the CP in the first timeline and did all those things. She also learns that Reukis didn’t die because he rebelled against the CP for Shannon. No, Reukis died because he found out the truth about his parents death, killed Helena for killing his parents, then killed the witch and himself by exploding his darkness power. The witch survived the darkness after a very long time and ends up in the second timeline. This time she decides to help Reukis and Meria and that’s why she gave Meria the ring. All along the person that Meria was supposed to help was Reukis.
After MC wakes from her unconscious state, after she saves Reukis, she finds out that her father banned Reukis from their estate. MC was upset but understood her father. She, however, teleports to Reukis and finds him gaunt, sleepless and sad. At first he wanted her to go back since he thinks she almost died because of him but MC tells him he doesn’t really mean it. He starts to cry and the two hug. Then butler finds them and the butler is surprised and sincerely thanks Meria for being alive. The two go inside to rest and MC puts Reukis to sleep. He was badly in need of it.
Later when he wakes up, they have something to eat. Afterwards, Reukis asks her to stay. She decides to stay but send a message to her father to inform him that she’s staying the night. The two have their first time together. The next day they have to deal with the fallout of Helena, the witch Arienne (she kidnapped Meria and tried to kill Reukis) and Shannon. If you guys have any questions about anything, let me know. I read the novel volumes although I haven’t finished the last volume.