
It is revenge. All mc’s abusers is dead. Even Jerome suppose to be dead but mc decided to pull him out of suicide plan(revenge to royals family plan). Some of his abusers died on other ppl arms but the person still related to mc somehow and mc know that they died. Mc doesnt want simon and jerome to die bcs he fall in love with them but simon decided to ruin everything cuz hes jealous of jerome and trying to pull mc to double suicide and then get shot to death by jerome. The novel is more satisfying and easier to skip disturbing part, its better if you wait for someone to share the novel and read it instead.

He actually successfully kills jerome for a second but then regrets it and immediately resuscitates him back to life— so i wouldn’t say Raymond ever “gives in” to the ML, more like his intentions towards him changes over the years at the same time Jerome himself changes over the yrs, which makes their relationship a special case.
The only reason why this story is better then non zero sum is because the mc is actually getting a revenge arc and kills the mf'ers.