Damn this was an amazing read, I srsly want to kiss the art, this story is an obsidian jew...

I’m kind of speculating whether the father did lay his hands on Theo when he was a kid because there are remarks like the first time Cedric prepped him he did say that why is it soft, has he done this before (⊙…⊙ ) and on chapter 1, he did say that Theo’s expression thankfully shows he didn’t know how to give head? You guys saw how shady the dad pulled young Theo into the room on the secret reveal (He already killed all the kid too) right? And him smiling at the mom’s funeral was actually because of the fact that now there’s no one guarding Theo from him anymore? It’s hard not to imagine anything I swearrrr
All the bs of his dad about making him obey, the most noticeable being the comment obsessing over him staying even if it means he has to fulfill the role of his mom (⊙…⊙ ) Theo saying he’s disgusting all the time throughout the story (so hear me out, idk but the word disgusting doesn’t sit quite well with me if it’s because he watched or directly killed (?) kids, i’d choose like sinful, evil or sth like tainted (mental damage), disgusting is heavier on the physical damage for me, maybe I’m just overthinking it) and the last panel where he saw his face in the mirror, is it implied that he actually did saw his face in the mirror when having sex in the past that now he is able to recall the distorted image of his face enjoying sex? Giving theories is real fun y’all give an award to this webtoon please
So I was thinking what the dad actually wrote in his diary about how to control Theodore was actually to snap fingers and give him a taste of lust (or shit like that) rather than just snapping his hand (which is what Cedric did in the first few chapters), the dad failed to train him to cedric’s attempt (acceptance and devotion) because the ghost was keeping him sane? The visualization is kind of insane but I’m brain dead rn so if you’ve read all my yapping down here have a good day sis

Far fetch but for the why is it soft part I’d actually like to imagine that he prepped himself for him like he had experience with his dad can’t believe I wrote that down but yeah

I’m just sharing theories here I’m sorry in advance if my overthinking analysis is offensive in any ways, it’s not intentional

I speculate the same... the smile the father had at his mothers funeral and the desperation of the mother to "save him" leads me to believe that the father made him do more than killing. Especially when he brought children to the manor when he was on the brink of death, he had a sinister smile and made remarks filled with connotations of wanting the look-alike children to perform acts that require them to kneel before him. At the end of that sequence, he even went on a schpiel saying "i should've kept you around longer even if it meant i have to make you replace your mother" or something along the lines, which is disturbing to realize that even if he hadn't laid hands on Theo at that point, he was planning to, which makes sense why the ghost of theo's mother lingered around so long, haunting the children of the manor, begging for theo to run away or for cedric to save him.

What I don't understand is how cedric was able to stay safe from the same fate theo had, considering he was deemed to be theo's replacement. Was it because now that theo's mother had died he didn't want theo to play the role of a son and instead something more sinister so he got cedric to be his actual 'son'? who knows ...

Thank u for replying to my rant omg

What the hell I actually wrote a 500 words essay to express the same speculation as you but mangago ate it up