And also

I think the author meant to write it as the duke had no choice. It was the kingdom or his family and that he chose the kingdom over his family in agreement to completely neutrality.

The author didn't really do a good job of showing that tbh and the author only ever really implied it. But I'm 90% sure that they were going for that.

By killing the MC, in a way, he's actually admitting that the MC is his daughter. Which means he does trust his wife, but he has to pick the choice that won't destroy the world. Honestly, by admitting she is his daughter, he's kind of foolishly admitting his um questionable love for her. I think that + Cosette's manipulation causes Keira's execution to show him in a really bad light, but I don't think that's entirely it.

I don't know, but there is a ongoing thing in this um manhwa about honour in death. Like, Erez and Joseph both stating they would do anything for her and so on. Death isn't seen as the worst result, death in humiliation is. If you die honourably then it isn't considered a 'bad' death. It's pretty weird now, but it is something fairly common in books in general. Especially medival-style-fantasy ones.

The only reason why it seems like an unfair death, is because we know Keira is the real one. That and her perspective skews things. She thinks she's the real one. She still thinks Cosette is the fake one. She doesn't consider the possibility that they are BOTH his daughters. Thereby, she never thought that she might be the cause of millions of deaths.

There is this idea, in literature, about um post-honourable death, where people reflect on the hypocrisy of an honourable death. Like, why do we have to die for others? Is there a crime just for existing if your existence causes suffering? Sort of thing.

In the culture portrayed by the manhwa, Erez literally says, death isn't viewed in the same way as humans because demons are a more power based structure. Power is connected to life and so on. Humans have a more thoughtful approach to life, which makes it so that they equally value their deaths and how they die. Like how some generations don't like be cremated and some don't like being buried.

Which is probably why, the duke would have preferred Keira to be executed knowing that she was his daughter and that he would always recognize her as his daughter. At the same time, be it at the cost of him losing a daughter. He's equally dumb as his daughter.

The duke of Edinburgh (?) is a piece of shit though.

It's honestly pretty common in reincarnation manhwa to overlook the ex-past... they do it because the audience doesn't have the brains to be interested in a side character facing a personal dilemma that doesn't involve hot guys.

Cosette was manipulating the Duke! I think that’s what is implied up to chapter 117. … he wasn’t acting on his own volition; rather that’s the demon’s power she keeps attempting to use! Σ( ￣□￣||)

Oh my god!?? So Cossete was manipulating the Duke for ignoring thr mc even when she was a child!? So that's why the Duke ignore her or neglect her? Be fucking for real. The Duke is still a shitty father to his children nonetheless. He's a shitty person, a shitty husband

The point I was making if you bothered to read it was that her father isn't a ducking stay at home father whose only job is to take care of his kids. He functionally runs an entire kingdom with millions of people. He's told one of his children will bring about ruin possibly kill everyone. Use half of your limited brain cells and ask yourself if the average idiot would be able to be a normal father. Everytime he looks at his kids he'll only think of the dilemma he faces. That maybe one day he'll have to execute this cute girl who he wants to love. Remember religion is basically absolute in this world so no he can't just refute everything.

Honestly he's being highly irresponsible right now by being nice or mean to a specific daughter. He has to stay impartial or what he assumes is impartial for the sake of millions of people. That and Cosette been a eh-level manipulator of course he'd going to side with her. Not only that but Keira is really god forbid stupid in the first round. She's immature and lacks any level of wisdom as most kids are. So yeah her dad who is also a blockhead decidedly likes the 'mature'-playing-innocent Cosette. I don't know but these two are literally the same kind of stupid.

Anyway his stone-like personality，prophecy，and not to mention the societal pressure on him to be the model duke makes him the perfect haelstorm for how he treated Keira.

Do you really honestly think someone with that kind of pressure will be a good dad? Do you think they'll be able to be your ideal father without worrying and feeling guilty that they might be raising a catastrophe? Do you really honestly think someone who is a direct and straightforward as the idiot duke would be anything but cold and conflicted?

Be ducking for real.

He shouldn't have neglected his kid sure but at least we can agree that it's not without reason. Like I said，the author did a terrible job at expressing the political and social climate at the time. They made a good situation and I honestly don't think they even realized it which made it so that the dad's sudden change seemed odd.

And no that moronic he should still be nice to his daughter doesn't apply to 99% of realistic humans. Humans make dumb decisions in dilemmas that have pros and cons - it's their nature. To judge someone singularly on how they treated someone without talking about the circumstance is like assuming something is an apple because you can see a red dot from 1000 m away. It could be a red truck in the middle of a car accident and you just called it an apple.

He's a shitty dad for a real reasonable reason imo and it's not fair to even call him a shitty dad. Like the manhwa says he does regret it. IF YOU READ WHAT I WROTE then you'd know there are inconsistencies in his behaviour that suggest that he did want a good relationship with his daughter but he felt that his moral duty of protecting an entire kingdom overrode that - which as a leader is fair.

I don't know how else I could possibly be more clear on why it's unfair to blame her dad and call her dad a completely awful person.

And your pity of Cosette is ridiculous. So it's okay for her to drag someone completely innocent into her revenge plans， ruin their life and destroy the world for 'revenge' but it's not okay that the duke chooses to be impartial at the cost of his family's happiness if it means he might have a better chance of saving the entire kingdom? Alright.

Cosette is pitiful but to compare the duke against Cosette is a stupid comparison. They don't even face the same problems??

No matter how many times you defended that shitbag dad and justify his actions, that doesn't change the fact that mc been through a lot. He regrets it? Sure but that doesn't mean all of what he did is written out. Be fucking for real, I pity the cossete who died at young baby and not the demon cossete, it's natural for demon to not care about innocent people, I didn't even compare them, I just hate the Duke like many of the people here who read the manhwa, it's funny how you're passionate about defending one's character who everyone hates on, Like it or not, accept it, Your justification is useless, i still hate him including that shitty grandfather, he's like the ML of abandoned empress and in the end the dumb mc chose to be with him cuz he has "reason" why he made the mc first life shittier.

No, no… I meant once Cosette appeared and went to live in the ducal mansion! It is obvious in chapter 70 that she was attempting to use her powers on him, but Beatrix caused a rain storm and lightning to interfere with her plans. Otherwise, Cosette would have manipulated him at that time… the effects are unknown b/c she failed! (▰˘◡˘▰)

Also, the duke explained why he distanced himself from his children, which was basically b/c as the “shield of the empire”, the Parvis family felt they couldn’t afford to let their personal feelings affect them and their decisions regarding their duty to and safety of the empire. The duke purposely detached himself from his children so that him being a loving father wouldn’t cloud his judgment, even when making a hard decision like letting the child he raised die while protecting the one he didn’t raise! He thought restraining himself from showing love was essentially being a responsible Parvis duke! It’s no excuse for being a crappy father, but that’s what he said! ╮(￣▽￣)╭

I just think it's unfair for people to be that pissed at him. I didn't say what he did is written out, I said that what he's done is reasonably human under his circumstance.

I don't care if you hate him, and my justification isn't useless. It just means that I bothered to think about everything that was going on as a whole, and will continue to do so because I think it make more sense to hate characters knowing precisely what I hate about them. If you hate him, you hate him. If everyone hates him, everyone hates him. I defend him because I thought there'd be some merit in thinking about it elsewise rather than some people justifying their hate without regard towards the circumstance because that's... more logical... and more interesting-? I like him as a character because he's more interesting than Keira

And I never read the abandoned empress (or if I did it's been too long ago). So honestly not sure what you're referencing-

The average MC is faultless in these things or their faults are ridiculous, whenever there is someone who is even slightly more realistic and faces problems that makes them unlikeable people hate them for doing bad things. The only forgiveable mistake is one that is relinquishable in manhwa, but most mistakes aren't relinquishable and imo it's kind of stupid.

(it was also really early in the morning (like 3:30 am) when I wrote it, so if I sounded grouchy, sorry about that. And I misread the Cosette thing, so sorry about that. I'm also aware I genuinely sound annoyed in general regardless of the circumstance ╮(￣▽￣)╭)