The main character is for some reason super dismissive of the second prince, to the extent of cutting off his follower's arms when he insults the MC and forcing the second prince to promise publicly never to get close to the MC or his fiance. Although the second prince seems to have a very light crush on the fiance (although maybe it's just fascination with a pretty girl in the same class, because the prince does have a fiance he loves), the prince never really goes out of line or does anything to deserve such vehement rejection. The MC never gets any repercussions from treating the second prince like tr*sh, either.

I'm also kinda miffed on how the first arc ended. The big reveal is that the MC's father thought the MC's mother was cheating on him with the now-emperor, so he treated the MC like tr*sh once she died out of grief since he loved her a lot when he was young. The emperor denies these claims, and the MC's fiance confirms that he's not lying. Given only that, the father looks like a clear villain, but the novel adds so many other details that I really wonder if that was the full story.

• • The MC's mother is described as almost never home, always partying with other nobles. She doesn't even come home when he returns from a long business trip to greet him, and it's implied they don't spent much time as a couple.

• • The MC's mother seems to generally be pretty muted when around the MC's father. So when the father decided to surprise his wife and show up at her current party, only to see her chatting super happily with the now-emperor, I can see why he'd be suspicious. And when he hears that they've been meeting up regularly while the father was on his business trip, frankly my own radars might be blaring too.

• • The nail in the coffin for the father is that his wife announced when the father got home that she just got pregnant when she comes home a few days later. He was on a long business trip, his quiet wife announces that she recently got pregnant, and the servants confirm that she's been partying it up with another man?

• • 9 months later (not, you know, 8 months like you might expect given when the father left), the MC is born with features just like the current emperor.

• • The father tried to divorce his wife, citing personal marital conflict. However, his request gets denied by the emperor, and he's told to raise his child with love. So he can't even escape even when he's aware that his suspicions will make him a toxic influence.

• • The emperor abdicated a few days after the trial where the father condemned him in public for cheating on his wife. The emperor denied the claims that time, but the timing lines up.

There's no justification for the father's actions to his son, but I won't deny that there appears to be a lot beneath the surface that the author is kinda brushing off. Maybe the wife just had a late pregnancy, or maybe the MC just got some recessive genes for his appearance - who knows? It's also not confirmed whether the MC's fiancee's lie detecting ability is 100% accurate, so I'm curious if future arcs explore these issues. It also raises an interesting question - if a father knows he's a bad influence and petitions that he should leave the family for everyone's sake, but the petition gets denied saying that he should just try harder, to what extent is the emperor who devoted the position complicit in the tragedy that ensued? It's also not confirmed whether the MC's fiancee's lie detecting ability is 100% accurate.