Yall I couldn't take the suspense and went to look for spoilers. I only read the character spoilers not plot spoilers, so I don't too much in detail about these characters.
There are 3 princes:
1st prince - son of green hair and a duke, adopted into the imperial family
2nd prince(ML) - son of empress and her lover, pretending to be princess
3rd prince - son of green hair and emperor, legitimate heir, crown prince
I get the "princess" is a boy but what was that bit at the end? Does he have an older brother? Is he pretending to be both prince and princess?
Sounds like the second one with whatever male form means, but it doesn't make sense. Why would he need a female form if he's already a prince??
i think the mother wants them to both be alive?
I dunno if it's also in this story but mostly if two men are born in a high rank family, both should fight to be determine who the heir will be, and even if the brothers don't want to they have to, because it needs to be determined who is the winner either a smart move or a deadly move (basically strong or smart, hahaha lol du get what I'm explaining I'm not really good in it hahahha) but the Empress wants to protect them both so our little Male lead is gonnu be a pretending to be a girl. Leo (our fl ) would actually be friends with him, it's according to the spoilers i read haha
That's All! hope you get it hahaha
Regarding the "male form". In the kr ver, the "princess" addressed his brother as "hyung-nim" which is a way to address an older male if you're a boy. I think the transaction group wanted to emphasize on that...
I have not read the novel but given by the preview of the older brother in the latest chapter, i think the brother is the son of the emperor while the "princess" is not..... maybe that's why the empress wants to protect him
Well why /doesn't/ she tell him? She went to him wanting to announce that she was back.
The beginning had a good reason that he just wouldn't believe it and end up killing her, but now he's confirming her identity and she doesn't want to tell?