I can see why Leon was so cold in the past. He hated the idea of having a "fiancé" at ten years old in the first place but no one set him right so that hatred eventually became indifference. The Emperor indirectly contributed a lot towards Leon's cold personality. He was more focused on making babies than paying attention to his current son. Leon was neglected. Unlike the examples set by most novels, Neglect doesn't mean just turning a blind eye towards the child's well being and letting them get bullied, etc. It also means being inattentive towards the child's mental and moral development. Countless fathers, who are good in person, do this only to complain in the future about how their sons strayed from the right path and scream "what went wrong?" In the Emperor's case, he passed away before seeing what kind of a cold hearted b**tard his son had become.
As someone said in this thread before, indifference is also not good. Like father like son, at least in this case...
Didn't read all pages yet but from the first page this what I got The book that he found was her dairy & seeing that she was abused that was written inside the dairy. When he found it thats when he decided to go back in time & not because everything fell apart after her death but because he wanted to give her a happy life Is that right?
Spoiler: Thoughts I beg to differ. Having loving parents/family does not always guarantee that the child/children will grow up well. There are various other factors that go with the way a child develops. This is the case for not only fiction, novels, etc., but also in real life. Really, parents are not all knowing. There will be some aspects that they lack in. There's no doubt that Leon's parents do love and care for him and I'm sure they do/did try to raise him well. However, yes, inattentiveness can also be a form of neglect. In this case, mostly on the Emperor's part. He was more worried about a child who does not even exist than his current son. Also, family dynamics with royalty/nobles is very different. I think at a certain age, they don't really try to interfere (I think there's a better word for this) too much with their kids since they think their competent enough, even more so when he was grown up and was already an adult. Honestly, I don't think she 'loved/loves' Leon, but it's not too far fetched to say she had some feelings towards him. In a way, it was understandable for Leon to be turned off/reluctant because how sincere was she regarding feelings/love? She did it for him, but it was only so that she could be the prefect empress. Really, everything was about being the perfect empress—it was her obsession. Except for the emotions part, Leon didn't seem to treat her horribly and did the duty he was expected to and showed her courtesy as empress. They both have their problems. Also, I don't think we had his POV yet when she died in front of him? (if I missed it somewhere pls tell me). Do we actually know what he himself felt/thought at that time? It was more of a narration from a third person POV (mahwa, I didn't read this part in the novel since the manhwa was already translated so idk if it's different). So far, I'm liking how the story is developing, especially Leon—he's actually trying and being sincere, learning from his mistakes, knows what he's lacking/weakness and doing everything he can to be better.
I've seen a lot of shitty ML who directly abuse/cheat/killed the FL for whatever reason got the second chance (Abandoned Empress, I Don't Want To Be Loved, Taming My Beastly Husband, Lady To Queen) but all the Isekai novel/manhwa I read so far never give a second chance to the Villain FL, the villain FL who get second chance only those who are so in love with the ML but never hurt the ML directly, they became evil out of their jealousy (Villainess is Marionette, Doctor Elise) and if there is villain FL who directly hurt/abuse/cheat the ML, they only got second chance only after somebody from Korea 21st century transmigrated into their body (When I Stopped Being a Wicked Mother In Law, I Became Evil Duchess, I Transmigrated into Reverse Harem Game and many more).
I'm currently reading the manhwa, idk what to feel. I was thinking why MC is really nice and sweet towards lizzie, was it love or was it all just based on guilt because of the previous life..
There’s nothing wrong if he feels guilt towards her. Feelings are complicated and don’t remain stagnant at one stage as long as they keep interacting with each other. He might not love her yet and I’m sure she doesn’t love him yet either but I expect their feelings will grow and change just like they themselves will grow and change. They’re just kids right now even if the crown prince has the memories of his past life. He’s also a newbie at romance and human relationships too.
I believe Leon’s reason for reversing time wasn’t because of guilt or because he necessarily loved her (first TL)but after finding out about how much she suffered and everything she went through, he just wants to make sure she lives a happy life this time around...but even though his main reason was to make her happy, I’m sure he does feel guilty about not treating her well and his feelings in the second TL are probably those of love. Also some people might think differently which I understand, but I don’t really think Leon is guilty of anything. We’ve said it already but in the first TL, although Leon never showered Liz with gifts/affection he never intentionally did anything to hurt Liz either, he was simply indifferent or as he said himself “disinterested in her.” Of course he doesn’t feel that way himself hence why he’s always apologizing to Liz.The only ones who should be feeling guilty and punished are her parents.
Leon himself feels guilty towards the empress. For him, his indifference towards her doesn’t exonerate him. That’s why he regret it so much to the point of begging the sorceress to turn back time at any cost to himself. Not doing anything doesn’t mean the person wouldn’t feel guilty especially when he realized just how much he neglected her and misjudged her situation to the point of not knowing anything or appreciating anything at all about her. He also felt himself unworthy to even try to make her happy this second time around and instead desired that she would find someone who would truly make her happy. I don’t think these feelings are simply out of “pity” towards the empress. I’d also like to point out that I don’t judge male leads harshly like many do on this forum. I see nothing wrong with Leon getting a second chance to make his empress happy.
yeah i think so too. if the two of them tried to solve their problems maybe they would fall in love with each other. and yes must protect our baby
**when i think about it, the word "love" that i used maybe is too strong especially for a newbie at romance. the word i used was incorrect, my bad** anyway I actually have nothing against it if he feel guilty cause its good at least he still has conscience to feel bad about what happened in previous life and trying to he's trying to make it up now. I was just wondering what he actually feels towards her cause I don't want it to be a pity, that kinda feel miserable