He didn't realize how good the female lead was to him until after he pushed her away and had to work to convince her to give him a second chance (I love this trope too). But I really happy that they got back together in the end and even had another child together.

So, the thing is: the duke, MC's father, is the scummiest of scums. This is no exaggeration, and you end up learning near the end. Anyway. The ML's father was a shitty emperor, he was useless and was totally in the hands of the MC's father and the other high nobles. So after the duke told some sweet nothings to the emperor, the marriage was arranged. This ends up with the crow prince being forced to marry some random girl he barely knows because his shitty father is being used to the duke finally achieving his dream of being the true power behind the emperor. So here is where all begins to go to shit. The ML does not like the MC. This makes sense, he was forced and all, and knew that the duke was dangerous. So he treats his fiancee nicely, but only in public. He never sees her for real. So he did not notice how much she adores him. This culminates in the one-day empress saga that I talked about before. He have the first night, got up, and was notified of his father's death and the first thing he does when sees she woke up is get rid of the torn in his side, MC. Oh boy. MC is devastated. All her dedication and love were met with this after the happiest day of her life. But she knows that there is nothing to do. She sees that ML never gave a single sh*t about her and her dedication. So she resigns to her fate and accepts what he proposes and gets the f*ck away from all this crap.

Now, I got very, very, really, pissed off. After all, he did not even try to contemplate her side in this all. More so he never even considered her as a person for real. He knew in some way she was there but did not give a single f*ck. And if you did not get pissed about it you have no soul.

Having put that out. He is justified in part. Yes. He thinks of and sees her as a puppet doll of her father. So he knew that if he gave her an inch to her, he would be trapped by the duke. So he always treated her almost like air. Does this justify it? 100% not. But there is some reason for his take. At this point is important to talk about how she treated it as a fantasy and whatnot. But I would say this is wrong. Considering that MC did not have a mother to guide her while growing up, and her father practically brainwashed her about being the perfect empress for the family. She put ML on a pedestal as the most important of her life. But never left it clear that she truly loved him. This is a shitty justification, but have a spec of sense in it. Not that I'm happy writing this, but I have to be (somewhat) fair here. This point is kind of talked about eventually, with her making a mea culpa. So it is nice that it was treated right.

But my problem with the ML is that he barely had an evolution. This novel has some of the common tropes of Josei novels. First is the ML that only notices what he lost after having lost. Hell, this is basically the whole theme here. This is not bad by itself, but have some problems in the novel. I say this because one would hope that the ML that sees his error would try his best to be better and right his wrongs. The problem is that the ML is unbearable, in the sense that he says and does what he think is right and f*ck you all what I tell is the law, deal with it. So, you start getting pissed off at his every word and attitude. And I would say it gets better, but barely. He forces MC to follow some of his whins thinking he is helping, but it ends up only f*cking up even more her plans. Add to that his whineness at times. That goes for another trope, the ML which is a big child and is possessive. This one got more pissed off. At one point MC tells him that he had already f*cked up her life, and he should at least have the decency to leave her alone. But he keeps trying to keep her close, because of his guilty after leaving her alone for years taking care of a child alone with not even a single f*cking penny (this when he did not know the child was his). Dude. For real. I would like it if someone just got real and said it would be best if he just respected her simple wishes of leaving her in peace at the bonnies to carry on with her peaceful and happy life. But then we would not have this almost 190 chapters long novel. He got (kind of) better. But is still possessive and solves everything at times with the worse possible solution. So I maintain my assessment that he is an ass and should not have a happy ending. His insufferable persona is tiresome.

The best we get in the novel, and what justifies my 5 stars, is when ML gets sh*t for his a**holesness. The nicest moment is when she compares him to her own shitty father. It is an overstatement, after all, you end up knowing that her father was planning to get rid even of his son and marry some barely adult girl. But anyway he did deserve to hear that and more. The sheer f*ckery of him not trying to look at her as a human attests to his brattiness and imbecility. So when he got some shit, I got happy. It is just a shame that most of the resolution is him overcompensating with mony every time he f*cks up. What overburdens MC and almost did not get better. And how the MC gets to like ML again was strange. It makes sense but seems rushed and forced. But this must be me pissed off or whatnot.

I have just some gripes. Some are useless. Others would break the novel. But I think it is valid to talk briefly about it. First is the fact that they could do a better job trying to protect the child's identity. I understand that they were poor and with almost no options. But she could just treat the child as a nephew from the start. It would add some nice drama. Or they could leave the child with someone along the way, like the apothecary, maybe. The sad part is that we did not get the tale about the prince finally knowing the dirt his father made on MC. This one would be interesting and is sad not to have. It would be a nice 5 chapter mini-saga. And sadly Naen did not get a happy ending. She deserved at least some nice closer.

There are other points about how bad ML gets, or how to better try to hide the prince. But those were the more important points of all. I would say that most characters are more incompetent than they should be, which is a kind of realism I was not happy to see here, lol.

Withe the duke after so many assacination attempts and other problems that duke should have been poisoned or quietly killed long ago