I know you're not defending but many people say this to make Seungho seems better, and honestly, if you think about it from our reality perspective, Seungho is waaaay worse, you can find many manipulators around you but not many abductors and rapists that roam around freely
If the story wasn't in ancient times, Seungho would immediately belong to jail.
Very few things in life cut deeper than rape.
You're seeing it from a reader's perspective and I agree with your opinion but if we're being serious for a sec, the learned sir is less, less worse than Seungho even though he's a snake.
Most people would choose a lying, manipulative bastard over a murderer and a rapist.
IH and SH are not the same type of asshole. SH while being an aggressor has always been upfront about his assholery. Literally what you see is what you get. He is literally vocal about being an asshole so it’s no surprise when he does something shitty.
IH on the other hand hides his true nature under false pretenses. Literally the first scene we see of him is with a little girl that’s gifts him a pretty leaf she finds and he smiles at her and thanks her and then immediately THROWS THE LEAF ON THE GROUND. Like that type of shit is really low. IH is the type of the person that will stab you in the back while for SH you will see coming from the front (in theory you at least have time to escape if you see SH coming).
THEY ARE BOTH ASSHOLES AND DESERVE THE ELECTRIC CHAIR. I’m just saying SH wears his evil on his sleeve while IH hides it. That’s all.