Pls somebody explain in a dumber way how Blondie ml died in the past life??? Weren't the l...

Ml died because Yuder (mc) killed him on orders of the new emperor (Katchian who is ml’s cousin iirc). And no I don’t think they were lovers but they did have a physical relationship and had feelings for each other presumably but they didn’t have that official title of ‘lovers’ yk. Sorry if ur still confused I suck at explaining

Omg nooo babe u did such a great job I understand it fully now thankyouss sm and also thx for telling me tht the evil-emperor-to-be is their cousin cuz that got me wondering for days! But if he's merely a cousin then why does he get the crown prince title and not our Duke .....

I thought it was because he’s the current emperor’s son. So he would be the crown prince and the duke’s nephew?

So a duke can't become king, to become a duke you have to promise loyalty to the king, and attempting to take the throne is considered betrayal

This is how the relationships between a king and a duke used to work in real life as well, not just fantasy

Thanks for the info cuz I really am not that interested in the king trope usually just trying to read smtg new so this one got me confused as hecc... And so what u r telling me is that Duke prolly chose his position and just don't wanna be the crown prince?? Okok

nahh the ml didn't really choose his position, the empress (his mother) gave the duke position to him and the emperor to his brother keilusa.

Emperor keilusa doesn't have a son nor any offspring. Katchian is basically a cousin that has the most potential in the candidates to become the crown prince

He didn’t really choose, but there’s a good reason that he would never become emperor anyway that’s a spoiler you’ll learn soon (=・ω・=)

Some clarification from the novel (MAJOR SPOILERS BE WARNED DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS)
1. Although we hear from Yuder’s own mouth that he killed him, to this day we still haven’t had the full flashback in the novel. Also Yuder’s memories are missing or unreliable when it comes to Kishiar due spoilery reasons. Yudrein assassinated him on the new emperor’s first order to him. Both kishiyu were aware this was Yudrein’s first test as a sign of loyalty. The Arcane Legion/Cavalry had only been established recently without a solid foundation. Kishiar knew when placing Yudrein as his successor that he would have to choose between him and the Cavalry and he intentionally taught him to prioritize the Cavalry/AL above all and the empire (this would lead to Yudrein’s execution years later). The new emperor felt threatened by Kishiar because he was the last remaining direct descendant of the imperial bloodline while the emperor was adopted by kishiar’s brother through the crown prince selection. New emperor was only distantly related through the diarca bloodline. Also the Duke of peletta position is not inheritable and removed princes/princesses out of the succession line due to them being historically low in lifespan (major spoilers of the after effects of an incestous bloodline so I won’t elaborate much). Kishiar’s father (former former emperor) and kishiar’s step grandmother (dowager empress Inella la Orr) had a massive dispute over the crown prince position. His father preferred Kishiar as crown prince but kishiar’s precarious health forced him to go with the dowager’s wishes and removed Kishiar from the line of succession and grant him Duke of peletta. Inella la Orr was a daughter of diarca and step mother of kishiar’s father. Kishiar was living on borrowed time due to an unstable vessel and would have died around the time of Yudrein’s assassination anyways in a messy explosion of unstable powers. He cleared his castle in peletta on the assassination night even his adjutant, nathan was gone. This would be to set up a clean death for himself and to see Yudrein one last time. Lowkey assisted euthanasia.
2. They were “lovers” in a ‘friends with benefits’ way although it was def more than friends but not exactly a full romance. It’s implied in the manhwa but their first time was mutual noncon because of overlapping heat and rut. This threw both their bodies into disarray. Kishiar was on borrowed time atp and kept emotional distance and knowledge from Yuder even though he was training him as his successor. It was also very detrimental to Yuder’s general reputation at the time. After Yudrein became commander, Kishiar would sneak into the capital and his office to sleep with him (Yudrein thought their affair would stop esp when Kishiar returned to his fiefdom, Peletta). To this day readers are still flabbergasted on why they both continued their affair even tho they both believed that their feelings were unrequited. Kishiar thought his emotional distance would deter Yudrein from loving him and Yudrein thought Kishiar was disgusted and disliked fully touching a commoner (kishiar always wore gloves even during sex lol). Yudrein also thought it was only due to the noncon incident and secondary genders and that kishiar and himself were just addicted to being physically intimate. A lot of what I said above is still very complicated, every first tl flashback has new info that makes everyone lose their mind.

NOVEL SPOILERS

So, he became the Duke of Peletta and rescinded his right to the throne to his brother for reasons that will be explained later. The emperor and his wife ended up being unable to have children for spoiler reasons so Katchian was brought in as the new heir after a succession battle between the ducal houses. Again SPOILERS - the Emperor actually wants Kishiar to be his heir and is taking steps to do this but Kishiar is resistant to the idea because he wants to cure his brother (very abridged version, novel readers don’t spoil what happens, lol).

With regards to the cousin thing - basically every ducal house is extremely connected to the imperial lineage; hence why so many noble characters have blonde hair and/or red eyes. He’s distantly related to the imperial family but basically all of the noble boys who were nominated would’ve been similar in that respect. More of this will be explained as the story continues - hope this helps!