How can he become the king if first he is not of royal lineage and second he doesn't have the necessary connections with the nobles? sometimes you all just make things appear more easy than they actually. I do agree however on the fact that the devilish empress needs to go forever.
Rishar did not do that because he knows that Etienne also wants to become an Emperor
You will know in the later chapter
And if Rishar become Emperor, there will be people who will try to take Etienne's life as his existence can become a thorn in the kingdom
And Rishar just want to be Etienne's knight, someone that can protect
This would all be solved if Rishar just simply became emperor!! If he ascended the throne and not ettiene then that bitch empress will never become powerful again. He literally will have power to overthrow anyone and he can use that power to protect ettiene too. If he really wanted to give him happiness then just become the emperor!!! It's not as free as running away together but it's the easiest way cuz the current emperor already wants Rishar to be emperor SO JUST TAKE IT AND KILL THAT BITCH OF AN EMPRESSSSS!!