The ML and the FL were childhood friends/engaged before they were ever even remotely lovers. The ML was young and dumb, and felt that the little control he had over his life was best embodied by this forced engagement. Years of viewing the FL in this way, starting from when he was very young, led to him almost willfully ignoring the actually very wonderful things about her, which is why years later, after meeting her again under different circumstances, he's able look back at those times and reevaluate his opinion of her under a more mature and adult lens.

The time apart also gave him the necessary space to see things with more clarity. That's probably why I personally disagree with people saying it doesn't make sense or wasn't explained why he would 'suddenly' have feelings for the FL. I think he always deep down knew that she was a good person, but his foolish and boyish mentality and failure to see the bigger picture since he was young caused him to connect her as the root cause of all his strife.

I think it's human nature, especially when we're young, to view our circumstances as being 'the worst'. Like how we're struggling so much, but everyone else has it so easy in comparison to us. Having so little control over his life and then seeing the FL seemingly having no issue with how things were, he (like the literal child he was) believed her to have it easier than him. It didn't help that she was beloved by everyone around her, especially the Empress Dowager at the time, giving off the look that she was breezing through everything.

And he never got the chance to grow out of that mindset, having no one around him to encourage him to broaden his thinking or maybe consider that the FL isn't who he thinks she is or who he made her out to be. Obviously, that led to him trying to get away from her the literal second he was given control over his own life. That obviously doesn't make what he did right, but I think it makes him a really interesting character, and more 3D as a person than a novel like this normally would.

It boggles my mind a little that the top liked review on this novel is one mindlessly calling the ML an 'ab*ser' and that this novel is about a woman getting back with her ab*ser. That individual clearly did not read past the summary, so their review should be seen as invalid since they didn't even read the novel itself. If they had, that's not a conclusion they would've come to.

My issue with the ML pretty much starts and ends with how he had s*x with the FL only to divorce her the next morning. Duty or not, he could've just said "Let's not and say we did" and just stayed in the same room as her until morning. Unless I'm missing something, there was literally no reason for him to have done that, especially since he wasn't even really physically attracted to her at the time.

This part really just feels like a vague justification for the overall plot rather than something that adds details or characterization to the ML. It takes two to tango and make a baby, so the author needed this to happen, but very little effort was put into having it make sense, and I could even argue that it makes NO sense given the ML's personality or previous behaviors. But I digress.

This novel definitely has its bumps and long stretches, but I believe in the payoff, or at least the potential for a payoff. The Emperor has his suspicions on Theor's parentage, at least in regards to him being the FL's son due to him having a similar allergy as her, but no big reveal as of yet. The characters here are much deeper than I think anyone is giving them credit for or even that this genre would allow for, which is probably why I'm still invested at this point.

It was an arranged marriage, which he did not want from the start. He tried to end it before their first night & even tried to send her money afterwards, which SHE refused. He develops a cute relationship with the son and dotes on him. Astelle also doesn't take him back right away, he really has to work for it.

I see people saying that it's satisfying in the end seeing the ML's "suffer" regretting his actions but I just can't lol, the ML is all woe is me I'm so pitiful and the narrative is trying to make the readers unwillingly sympathize with him like lol f*ck no, nobody gaf about you dawg.

This dude somehow thought it was a great idea to do a public proposal to his ex-wife, who he threw out right after their wedding night 6 years ago (and who told him before that she did not like him and wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible). And when she turns him down, he locks her up.

a troubled childhood (no mom strained if any relationship with his father), a forced marriage engagement from his father who was a weak emperor controlled by the nobles (something he hated and wanted to change), before they divorced he asked you never loved me anyways and she responded in the affirmative, he was jealous of the fact that everyone around her loved her (not true but although he had no family his only grandmother loved MC more then him) and she was always able to live life with a smile (not true either he just didn't understand her circumstances and the effort she put in to always be able to smile) while he felt he was under so much pressure, stress and suffering. As the literal CHILD he was he jealous of her and her engagement with him embodied how others had a control over his life. The moments of good he had with her were often distorted by mc's father who was outright his enemy and would make him push back from her not letting himself get too close to her. He was not able to see her for just her and could not look past his jealousy, childhood trauma, and her father and saw those as part of her when in fact all she did was work hard for the boy she liked and people's responsibilities of her. She was a kind hearted girl who never did any wrong and always lived up to expectation and prioritized others happiness. Often these stories have a perfect ML but this was the FL and MC.

However, none of them were excuses for him being a tr*sh person to her at times and outright cold. He was raised a crown prince and thus perhaps always had an arrogance to him and with the environment it is understandable even if in the context a monster of a human being was raised but it is also easily and equally possible for an amazing human being to be raised and ML lies somewhere between the middle and an amazing human being. Irrefutably he did some irredeemably tr*sh things. When she jumped in a frozen lake to save him and was blamed by others suspecting her to have fallen in first he did not clear the air nor take the extra effort to take care of her. When she planned her first ball he stood her up for the entire ball. She whose few sources of happiness as a child from 10-20 years old while being forced to study to be an empress and forego her childhood, her innocence, and time due to the external pressures, jealous, and forced responsibilities from others was just to be able to dance was unable to dance at her own first ball that she painstakingly planned and was forced to awkwardly stand and watch everyone else as your first dance partner or escort must be your fiance and as the crown princess must strictly adhere to this rule. He locked her to a house (power tripping lack of control issues within him - refer to struggle against nobles and desire to be different from his father who influenced him and was controlled by nobles)

She was the daughter of the Duke who was always scheming and greedy. One would naturally think that she was just a doll who was forced into the engagement and marriage. He never thought that her feelings for him was real. He just thought she was a puppet to give birth to the next Emperor and she was used by her father as a spy to the ML, but those weren't actually true.