Isabella De Mare

* Isabella After the Return (17)
* Isabella Before the Return (32)
* Isabella After the Return (Comic)
* Isabella Before the Return (Comic

Isabella De Mare is an antagonist in Sister, In This Life I Have Become the Queen. The older step- sister of Ariadne & the older half-sister of Arabella and the younger sister of Ippolito, she has ambitions to become the highest-ranking woman in San Carlo.

## Appearance

Isabella is heralded as the fairest young lady in San Carlo, with long golden hair, a creamy peach complexion, pink lips, and violet-colored eyes. Her breasts are small and dainty, something she dislikes, and wears special garments to make her chest appear full.

## Personality

Isabella’s beauty in only skin deep. She is vain, spoiled and entitled, aiming to become the most highly exalted lady in San Carlo by any means necessary. She only wants to marry Alfonso to become Queen, even stating in the first timeline that he deserved to die for failing to elevate her status. She is willing to use Ariadne to get out of marrying what she believes is an unworthy man. It’s also shown she is easily jealous, as shown when Ariadne starts garnering positive attention, even getting upset when Cesare starts paying attention to Ariadne, despite the fact that Isabella still has no intention to marry him. She even changes her mind about Cesare when he starts seriously pursuing her hand, proving that her entitlement and greed runs so deep she cannot stand the idea of losing anything to someone else, even if she didn’t want it before.

## History

### Early Life

Isabella De Mare was the second born child of Lucrezia, from previous relationship and the first daughter (Isabella share the same father with Ippolito). Despite being born out of wedlock, her mother and Cardinal de Mare’ de facto marriage meant she was recognized and treated as though she was a legitimate daughter of nobility.

Isabella grew up to become recognized as the most beautiful woman in all of San Carlo. She was spoiled by her step-father, groomed and educated well, in the hopes he would one day marry her off to elevate her family’s standing. Isabella became haughty and vain, sharing her mother’s ambitions to make herself the most highly-exalted woman in San Carlo.

She went to Ramboiullet Shelter and came upon two orphaned sisters, offering to take one of them away to be her maid, but at the cost of leaving one of them behind. The younger one, Sancha, refused to leave his sister behind, but the older one, Maletta, happily accepted, fooling her sister with false promises that she would retrieve her from the shelter with the opportunity.

### First Timeline

Both Isabella and her parents had their eyes on Prince Alfonso, the kingdom’s sole lineal heir, for Isabella’s husband. But when the King suggested that Cardinal De Mare ally their families by marrying Isabella to Count Cesare De Como, Isabella refused to marry him. Despite being officially recognized as Alfonso’s cousin, Cesare was rumored to be the King’s bastard son. Isabella refused to settle for becoming a mere countess, let alone a wife to a possible bastard. The Cardinal agreed. Lucrezia found a loophole for the problem. Instead of Isabella, they would marry Cesare to Ariadne, the daughter sired by the Cardinal with a maid, who wad born out of wedlock like her siblings but treated as such, working on a farm. The Cardinal agreed, and the betrothal was set between Cesare and Ariadne. However, this greatly angered Cesare, who had had his sights set firmly on Isabella for his bride.

Sometime after this, Alfonso was in the middle of arrangements to marry Princess Lariessa of Gallico, when his mother, Queen Margaret, was assassinated by Cesare’s mother, Countess Rubina. The incident greatly upset the Gallico kingdom, since Queen Margaret had been a Gallican princess when she married King Leo, and it led to them sending their army to seize a region that once belonged to Estrucan. This, in turn, greatly upset the people of Estrucan, starting a new wave of prejudice against Gallicans, which mostlu became directed at Prince Akfonso, who was half-Gallican himself by his mother and was betrothed to another Gallican woman. Under pressure from the people, the marriage negotiations were cancelled, sending Lariessa and her party back to their homeland. Upon their departure, Leo decided to grant the people’s wish for a Crown Princess of pure Estrucan blood, but he also wanted his son’s bride to be of a noble family with no military power or maternal relation. Isabella was one of the final two candidates, along with Marquess De Baltazar’s daughter Julia.

When the kingdom started to decline, King Leo sought the church’s support for a diplomatic solution. As the daughter of the Cardinal, Isabella was an easy shortcut to the church’s support. He arranged the marriage, and Isabella succeeded in marrying Alfonso and becoming the Crown Princess. Within a year, she became pregnant with his child, but miscarried. Soon after, Cesare staged a coup, accusing Alfonso of poisoning their father, who had recently become ill. It wasn’t long before Isabella’s husband was assassinated by Ariadne, who sought to help make Cesare King. Eight years later, Cesare, now on the cusp of becoming King, asked again for Isabella’s hand, as despite Ariadne’s devotion and sacrifice, he still lusted after her sister. Now that Cesare was the new King and not just a count, Isabella gladly accepted his proposal. When Ariadne found out, she was devastated, even arguing the law that the King could not marry a widow who had lost her innocence. But Cesare and Isabella claimed that she had remained chaste during her short-lived marriage to Alfonso, enabling her to seek another husband. They were married almost immediately, while Cesare locked Ariadne in a tower.

After her wedding to Cesare, Isabella visited Ariadne in the tower and confessed that she didn’t care about the murder of her previous husband, since he was unable to make her the Queen, and thus, according to Isabella, deserved to die. She also confessed that Cesare had lusted after her the whole time he’d been engaged to Ariadne, even going to her behind Ariadne’s back. Isabella told Ariadne that she shouldn’t trust a man, and that it was useless to sacrifice herself for one while expecting something in return. She then mused that in time, Cesare would grow bored of Isabella and begin to miss Ariadne for her years of service to him, so, not to leave loose ends, she had an assassin stab Ariadne in the back with a sword.

### Second Timeline

After Ariadne travels back in time to the day she was summoned to the manor, she tests Isabella. She provokes the youngest De Mare child, Arabella, who moves forward to assault Ariadne, but the latter dodges out of the way just in time, and Arabella accidentally pushes Isabella down the stairs. When the Cardinal appears and demands an explanation, Arabella tries to lie and claim Ariadne pushed Isabella. Ariadne lies that Arabella was playing roughly with her and pushed Isabella by accident, then tells her father to ask Isabella to confirm. Just as Ariadne expects, Isabella goes along with her and claims Arabella pushed her by accident, snatching up the chance to play the kind older sister to her bullied half sister, condemning her full blood sister in the process. Arabella is confined to her room for three weeks as punishment.

Later on, Isabella went to Ariadne’s room with her mother and her personal maid Maletta, who claimed that Ariadne had struck her without reason. Ariadne told Lucrezia that Maletta had mocked Isabella and her siblings for being bastards raised as legitimate noble children, dismissed Cardinal De Mare’s status, and suggested that should Maletta herself win the Cardinal’s favor and bear his child, that child would be of the same status as Ariadne, meaning Maletta would not need to treat Ariadne as her superior. Lucrezia was enraged at the idea of Maletta coveting her husband, and ordered the maid to be whipped, before chiding Ariadne for acting in an unladylike manor. Ariadne suggested that she repent by going to Ramboulliet Shelter for three days, but Isabella craftily raised the days to five.

Upon Ariadne’s return to the manor, she brought a girl from the shelter, insisting that she become her personal maid. At first, Lucrezia was against the idea, but then Isabella recognized the royal family crest on the handkerchief presented by Ariadne, who insisted it was from Prince Alfonso. Isabella insisted that Sancha stay, believing that letting her stay at the manor would allow Isabella to impress the prince if she ever got the chance to meet him. She took the handkerchief from Ariadne to use as a conversation starter should that chance arise.

Sometime after, the women of the De Mare family were invited to a royal sermon at the palace by the Queen, which excited Isabella, as it was an opportunity to impress the woman she hoped to make her mother-in-law. Ariadne was given a hand-me-down gown from Isabella, which she had Sancha try on and dirty before departing for the palace. Isabella tried to impress Queen Margaret and the other ladies by stating her favorite part of the sermon, but expressed envy for the flory of the Saint’s second sacrifice, and for the notion of having everyone mourn one’s death, making her and her family look bad. It was only through Ariadne’s quick thinking that the situation was salvaged. During the meal following the sermon, Isabella received compliments on her gown by Countess De Marques, leading her to flaunt herself in her dress in front of the Queen and ladies, while explaining that her family’s personal seamstress made it, but it only served to make them notice how plain Ariadne’s dress was compared to hers, making them question how well Lucrezia was treating Ariadne. Isabella tried to do damage control by saying that their seamstress was busy with sewing clothes for Ariadne, and that she lent her little sister a dress out of kindness. Ariadne took advantage of this to show off the stained chemise, implicating neglect from her stepmother. The ladies were appalled, and Queen Margaret dismissed Isabella and her mother from the gathering at once, while keeping Ariadne a little longer.

Later on, Isabella’s private lessons with Arabella were interuptted by Ariadne, who spoke perfect Gallic, prompting the tutpr to praise her, which earned envy from Isabella, who believed the spotlight was hers alone. But she consoled herself by remembering that the State Mass was coming up, during which she was sure she would take the spotlight. On the morning of the mass, she wore her best blue dress trimmed woth gold, and picked out a golden cross to wear, using special garments to enlarge her chest, hanging her cross to carry it suggestively over her bosom. She also applied pearl powder foundation and used rosewater on her cheeks and lips. Meanwhile, she compared her appearance to Ariadne, who was dressed plainly.

As expected, upon the De Mare family’s entrance into the cathedral, everyone was mesmerized by Isabella’s beauty and style, with women gossiping over her outfit choices and men expressing desire for her. This greatly pleased Isabella. Among the spectators was Cesare De Como, who had his sights on Isabella as his bride. During the mass, the Apostle spoke, reminding everyone of Jesus Christ’s humble origins as a shepherd’s son born in a stable. In the middle of his sermon, however, Ariadne spoke out and denounced him as a heretic, followed by people coming in to arrest him as such.

Ariadne was praised for this act, and later invited to the palace by the King to receive a reward. The reward was a box of jewelry from Queen Margaret, which included the Heart of the Deep Blue Sea. Isabella asked Ariadne to gift her a pair of golden earrings with purple gems from the collection, but Ariadne refused her on the basis that each piece of jewelry was engraved with the Queen’s initials, and she didn’t want to risk offending the Queen by giving away any of her generous rewards.

Later on, Ariadne suggests to Arabella, who wants a pipe organ to perform a church hymn that she wrote, to have Isabella ask their parents for the organ in her place, since they would oblige Isabella any request. Isabella initially refuses Arabella’s request, calling a pipe organ a "frivolity" despite pampering herself with jewelry and cosmetics that cost more, but changes her mind when Arabella plays the hymn she wrote. She agrees to ask their parents for the pipe organ, but under the condition that she gives Isabella the credit for writing the hymn upon it’s public debut.

At the masquarade ball, Isabella witnesses both Prince Alfonso’s protective affection towards Ariadne, and Count Cesare’s promise that he will send a nessage to her father asking for Ariadne’s hand specifically. Enraged and envious of havong been spurned in favor of another woman, her illegitimate half-sister, no less, Isabella has a private tantrum, before she starts reflecting on Count Cesare, deciding that, despite not having a claim to the throne, he was a perfect match for her otherwise. She then decides to seduce Count Cesare away from Ariadne.

Later, as she walks back to the party, she sees a portly man and a woman in a yellow gown and Silent Woman mask having sexual relations with each other against a tree. At first, Isabella fears the man is raping her, but she hears the sounds if pleasure coming from the woman, meaning she enjoys it. Isabella recognizes the man thrusting with the woman to be Marquess De Campa, a man infamous among nobility for being a disgusting pervert. The mask falls off the woman, and Isabella immediately recognizes her to be Countess Clementé De Bartolini, Ottavio’s older sister and Count Bartolini’s younger wife. Clementé hears voices and realizes she’s been caught, running past Isabella with her mask back on. In this unexpected scandal, Isabella sees a golden opportunity to ruin Ariadne. Taking advantage of the situation at hand, Isabella plants the bracelet from Count Cesare at the scene before running back to blend in with the crowd. When Ariadne appears on the scene, she then tells Leticia that it was her who was the mistress, and the viscount’s daughter declares it to the rest of the ball guests.

However, to Isabella’s anger, both Prince Alfonso and Count Cesare come to Ariadne’s rescue, defending her and making up claims to disprove the allegations against her. After the crowd departs, Isabella broods over her failure and accidentally drops the loose ruby from her tote, which is witnessed by Camellia. Camellia mocks Isabella for having yet to be engaged to a suitable nobleman, and her shameless flirting with other men. Isabella rebuttals by pointing out that that Ottavio clearly prefers her to his own fiancé, whose face Isabella compares to a pig’s, before finishing with a threat to Camellia to know her place. Camellia, enraged, finally snaps and, having had enough of Isabella’s arrogance and manipulation, proceeds to tell everyone she knows about what she saw, sparking rumors that Isabella is the true mistress of Marquess De Campa which spread through high society like wildfire, eventually reaching the Cardinal.

As the debutante ball approaches, Isabella is mortified to discover that she has received no invitations from any of the young noblemen to be her partner, knowing that it is because of her false reputation as Marquess De Campa’s mistress. Isabella decides to take matters into her own hands and schedules a meeting with Countess Bartolini, the true mistress. Once they meet, Isabella, who knows that Clementé knows that she saw her face during the forbidden tryst, shames her for letting Isabella take the fall for being Marquess De Campa’s mistress to save herself, and appeals to her charitable side to convince her to find Isabella a partner for the upcoming ball.

## Relationships

### Romantic

#### Count Cesare

Cesare originally sought Isabella’s hand in marriage, since she was considered the most beautiful and sought-after woman in San Carlo, and thus by having her, he would have the best, proving himself the most distinguished man in the land. Unfortunately for him, Isabella was against marrying him, as she felt she deserved better than a mere count for a husband. She got out of it by replacing herself with Ariadne in the betrothal, lying to him that her step- sister had persuaded her father to take her place, and married Cesare’s half-brother Alfonso instead, which enraged Cesare, and blamed the Cardinal and Ariadne instead of her.

Years later after, after the death of Alfonso by Ariadne’s hand, Cesare proposed to Isabella again, despite still being engaged to Ariadne, and Isabella accepted this time, since Cesare had become the soon-to-be King. They were married and crowned King and Queen while Ariadne was imprisoned in the tower.

When Ariadne travels back in time, Isabella is still against marrying Cesare, and still wanting to have Alfonso for her husband. This changes however, when Cesare turns his romantic attentions to Ariadne, out of a desire to "steal" her away from Alfonso. This causes Isabella, despite not initially wanting Cesare, to plot to win him back after him out of jealousy and entitlement, as she can’t stand the thought of losing something she once had to Ariadne. Even though she didn’t want to be with Cesare initially, she hates the idea of losing his attention to someone else.

After the rumors of her being the secret mistress of Marquess De Campa ruin her reputation, Isabella loses her power over most of the gentlemen at court. When the debutante ball approaches, she doesn’t receive a single invitation to escort her. During a visit to Countess Clementé De Bartolini, the true mistress, Isabella bumps into Cesare, who is visiting his friend Ottavio. She waits patiently to get a moment alone with him, and once she does, she suggests that he make Ariadne jealous by taking Isabella to the ball as his partner.

#### Prince Alfonso

Isabella was determined to become the highest ranking woman in San Carlo. Thus, she planned to marry Prince Alfonso and become the Crown Princess, and eventually the Queen. In the original timeline, Isabella succeeded in this goal, marrying Alfonso and becoming the Crown Princess. She even became pregnant with his child, although she miscarried later on. However, after Ariadne’s murder of Alfonso, Isabella becomes engaged to his brother, Cesare, and reveals to Ariadne that she had only cared about Alfonso for what he could give her, like the position of the most noble woman in the land, and since he could no longer do that for her, Isabella is uncaring about his death.

Things change drastically when Ariadne travels back in time. Isabella is still dead set on marrying Alfonso, but he is shown to be uninterested in her, preferring Ariadne’s company instead. Despite Isabella’s attempts to catch his eye, Alfonso favors her half-sister over her.

#### Ottavio De Contarini

Ottavio is just one of the many men that Isabella flirts with. She flirts with Ottavio to annoy his intended, Camellia, even though she has no intentions of seriously pursuing him as a husband. He, among other gentlemen, even gifted Isabella an expensive tiara with their initials, stating it was from him to her.

In the second timeline, he found Isabella at the nunnery following her banishment from her father’s home, She intentionally seduced him which resulted in him impregnating her, and stole her from the nunnery and broke his engagement to Camellia to marry Isabella instead.

### Familial

#### Ariadne De Mare

Despite being step- sisters, Isabella only sees Ariadne as a tool for her own personal gain. She only supported Ariadne being brought into the family so that she could take Isabella’s place in the arranged marriage to Cesare. After Cesare rises up to become the successor and asks for Isabella’s hand again, she accepts this time, despite the fact that she knows her sister is madly in love with him. On the day she marries Cesare and is crowned Queen, she taunts Ariadne in the tower for being so loyal to Cesare, telling her men cannot be trusted nor sacrificed for, before having a knight kill Ariadne with a sword through the heart, so that she would not interfere with Isabella’s triumph in the future.

When Ariadne travels back in time, she has the upper hand, plotting to escape her engagement to Cesare, willing to destroy Isabella’s worth if need be. Isabella tries to "put her in her place", but Ariadne is much bolder now and fights back against Isabella’s bullying.

#### Cardinal De Mare

Isabella is the step daughter of the esteemed Cardinal De Mare, and considered his most valuable asset to elevating their family’s status. As Isabella is considered the most beautiful and refined young lady in San Carlo, the Cardinal has plans to marry her off to the highest ranking gentlemen. He has groomed and spoiled and educated Isabella from birth, giving her every chance to secure a high match, preferably with the kingdom’s sole lineal heir, Prince Alfonso. Due to this, the Cardinal refused to marry Isabella to Cesare, seeing her as far too much worth than to marry off to a mere count and illegitimate child.

#### Lucrezia De Mare

Isabella takes heavily after her mother, Lucrezia. Both are beautiful, ambitious, and conniving. Lucrezia hated the idea of her precious oldest daughter being married off to a lowly count, when she believed Isabella deserved so much better. She is the one who saved Isabella from the betrothal to Cesare by suggesting that Ariadne take her place. Lucrezia even seems to favor Isabella after her youngest half-sister, Arabella, even blaming Arabella for the music recital gone wrong, even though Isabella is the one who claimed ownership of Arabella’s song and messed up in front of everyone.

When Isabella was accused of being Marquess De Campa’s secret mistress, Lucrezia consulted a fortuneteller to check her daughter’s future. The fortuneteller said there were disturbances in the magic, and asked the mistress to bring her the Heart of the Deep Blue Sea to use it’s powers to clear it up. However, Lucrezia’s attempts tp steal the jewel tp save Isabella’s future failed, and she was banished from the household and replaced by Ariane as the family head, although she would eventually be welcomed back, albeit as a mere family member and not the house mistress.

When the people learned that Lucrezia had caused an innocent girl to be murdered as an unintentional result of her assassination of Maletta, they cried for her blood, prompting the Cardinal to have her executed in secret to ward off the angry mob without disgracing his family. Isabella was initially against this, begging Ippolito to change their father’s mind and save their mother, but when he pointed out that both their marriage prospects would be ruined for good if noble society learned that they were the children of a murderer, she left her mother to her fate to salvage her own future.

#### Arabella De Mare

Isabella cares little for her youngest half-sister Arabella. Like she does Ariadne, Isabella only bothers with Arabella when she can use her to benefit herself. Isabella has always stolen the spotlight from her youngest half-sister with her beauty and charm, overshadowing the latter’s exceptional musical talents. Even their parents prefer Isabella, as Ariadne proves right when she suggests they would only buy an organ that Arabella wants if Isabella asks for it. Isabella agrees when Arabella asks her to ask their parents, but only under the condition that Isabella is given full credit for the sympathy that Arabella writes to make herself look even more gifted in the eyes of high society. When the concert goes wrong, Arabella is blamed, even though the event was ruined because Isabella couldn’t read the sheet music and Arabella had stepped in to help.

As Arabella and Ariadne got closer, Ariadne sough to save Arabella from contracting the oncoming plague that had taken her life in the past timeline, by having her sent to a music academy abroad. However, while Ariadne was away, Isabella caught Arabella searching in her drawers for something to gift Ariadne in gratitude, finding the clasp she’d used to sabotage Ariadne’s dress during the debutante ball. Isabella chased Arabella trying to get it back, causing Arabella to stumble at the top of the stairs and fall down, knocking her out cold. Terrified of being blamed and sent away, Isabella returned to her room and left her half-sister injured to save herself, leading to her death.

1. ↑ Chapter 3
2. ↑ Chapter 3
3. ↑ Chapter 2
4. ↑ Chapter 1
5. ↑ Chapter 2
6. ↑ Chapter 3
7. ↑ Chapter 4