Hmm, ok then. Spoiler below
--------spoiler------
Emperor gets infected but uke saves him with the anthidote which is his horn. I never actually liked the second male lead but he is the one who gave uke a name. In the end all three are alive and well.
And that is all i can spoil. But disregarding the end, the road to the end is complex and bitter in some point, like the emperor will break uke's fingers soon.
So just keep reading :)
He will have feelings for him. He will mature too. Uke will also love him and even he is the murderer of his mother he will save him from poisoning with cutting his own horn and feed it to the emperor. You should know that the horns of imae contains important nerves and cutting a horn gives pain like cutting an arm and there will be afteraffects like dizzness or faiting vs.
I read the novel and all i can say is without spoiler, we are still in the beginning of the story. Very beginning! Like 1/100 of the road and it's a bumpy road.