Yeah, even though we are frustrated because we know that the ML is completely different now we can't blame MC for reacting with a trauma response for the torture he had to endure for like 10 years and it just happens that his heart was broken on top of that. That's just ptsd and c-ptsd central... So we can only hope for recovery and healing of trauma but even then you can't be mad if he chose in the end to leave because you can't force something just because things are "different" now. If I were in his position I would rather the country collapse because of me rather than see the face of my rapist and the source of both my heartbreak.
It’s not that I don’t understand why he’s nervous. Like you said: trauma. At the same time, it’s not like ML knows this and he grew into a better person because the MC taught him to be better. I mean, I would be hella confused too if the person I spent years with all of a sudden hated me for something I can’t remember doing. At the same time, the MC is completely in the right to be terrified, especially with what we know happened in his past. I’m simply hoping that he begins to understand at some point that this is not the same person as before. He wasn’t born evil, he was raised wrong. And it was the MC who changed this and taught him compassion. It’s something that they will need to talk about together at some point, and I know it will take time for MC to see him differently. I just hope he doesn’t continue to judge him based off of the actions of a past the current ML didn’t commit nor remembers.
*My brain thinks too fast and the errors are making me...*(╯°Д °)╯╧╧
Exactly. Even if the emperor now is better (from what we’ve seen so far I still find him abusive and problematic though), the trauma from the MC’s earlier life should still be so strong that it doesn’t matter if he’s changed. It’s the same face, same voice, same hands, etc, that did all of those horrible things to him. MC really shouldn’t want to be anywhere close to him at all. The story would actually be better if him falling in love with the emperor anew (because that is clearly where this is going) would be much more slow burn. The author is moving it along so fast that it’s pretty unrealistic. When it moves along this fast it only makes it look that the MC really didn’t care all that much about the horror he lived through earlier. After all, he can just let it go because a kind word and a beautiful smile. It cheapens the story for me ╮(￣▽￣)╭
The MC is deadly afraid of what the ML could do or become because he’s already seen the worst of the ML. You need to understand that no matter if he’s gone back to the past or if the goddess was lying, the things the emperor did to him are still vivid in his mind. It’s called a trauma. If we had read in detail for 30 chapters how the emperor rapped him, abused him and manipulated him, you bet we would all hate him. Also the fact the emperor rapped him next to the body of a child the ML surely knew was loved by the MC is kinda….