Just a speculation, but it seems that since Azathoth can't really comprehend mortal suffering, being an amoral God, he was initially just intrigued by her. She was the only human who truly saw him for what he was and somehow remained partly unaffected by the ever changing world under his control. Over time, though, he began to value her (forced) companionship. Not understanding how fragile the human psyche is, he assumed he could make her dependent on him, completely overlooking how human emotions actually work. Because of that, he didn't expect her to end up feeling nothing but hatred toward him.
When he finally realized what he had done, it was already too late. Trying to fix it, he likely erased parts of her memory and reshaped the world into something she would consider normal, hoping that, if he slowly revealed his true nature, she might accept him this time.
By human moral standards, he's clearly evil, and I don't blame her at all for hating him. (Honestly, I wouldn't have minded an ending where she somehow escapes, even if that's impossible given his omnipotence.) But from his perspective as a chaotic creator, morality is just another random construct, something that came into existence by chance through his creations. He does genuinely like her, just not in a way a human would and CERTAINLY not in a way that is favourable to her.
This chapter really fits with this song in a symbolic way:
On the farm, every Friday
On the farm, it's rabbit pie day
So ev'ry friday, that ever comes along
I get up early, and sing this little song
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run
Bang, bang, bang, bang! Goes the farmer's gun
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run, run
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run
Don't give the farmer his fun, fun, fun
He'll get by without his rabbit pie
So run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run
And of course an Eldritch God, a daemonic God in his case, is evil. He doesn't have the moral standards of humans. He adheres to them now only for a show, in order to have mc. Mc was the only one unaffected in a dimension he controls, so she's the only one he could ever consider worthy of his focus.
Most Greek gods are cruel, narcissistic beings, and Apollo is no exception. He was arrogant long before Eros arrow struck him and only grew worse after it. A god like him is incapable of love, that's why the arrow didn't truly inspire affection, but obsession. Apollo embodies male greed, the insatiable desire to possess, to claim, to consume. He's willing to endanger Daphne's life for the sake of his pursuit, and even after Peneus transforms her into a tree to protect her, he desecrates her sanctuary, cutting off a branch from her to wear as a crown. He never lets her rest, convinced he's entitled to anything he desires. The only one Apollo ever truly loves is himself. How I wish Eros had struck only Daphne with the arrow of hatred, so that she could see the hollow, shallow truth of what Apollo is, and flee from him with clarity.
The myth of "Phoebus and Daphne" tells of Apollo, the god of music, sun, and poetry, who falls in love with the nymph Daphne after being shot with a love arrow by Cupid. Daphne, also shot by Cupid with an arrow of lead, rejects all forms of love. Apollo pursues her relentlessly, but as he is about to catch her, her father, the river god Peneus, transforms her into a laurel tree to save her.
So, since ml is 100% the demonic Soultan Azathoth, basically the creator of the universe, the flute part (in which he said her voice is better than a flute) was a reference to the fact that Azathoth is asleep and is kept in that state by other amorphous entities which play the flutes. If the flutes stop, he will wake up and if he wakes up, the whole world will end.
This will happen because he "generates" worlds through his dreams and he does so randomly, that's why he is called "the idiot blind God", because he represents chaos and randomness. The universe after all IS believed to be random and chaotic.
I can empathize with what he endured as a child, the abuse from his parents and the torture he later suffered under the emperors orders. His life was marked by pain and betrayal (clearly there was a conspiracy against his house). But his past doesn't erase his crimes. It can't justify the way he treats a woman who is faultless in his suffering, a woman who genuinely loved him and even helped him.
His behavior is not born of love but of selfishness and obsession. He channels his hatred of the emperor and her family into her, weaponizing her loyalty. He manipulates her guilt, sexually abuses her, and deliberately breaks her until she becmes a fragile, compliant shell of her former self, a fucking doll he can always access and control.
Major spoiler ahead:
In the manhwa this abuse is depicted, but in the novel it's even more explicit.
Her first experience with him is a brutal rape. He
"rescues" her from a forced marriage to a fifty yearold man, something arranged by her own brothers (that want the throne), but his salvation is nothing but a creepy ass opportunity for him, he literally tells her "Either live sucking my dick or kill yourself. Those are your only options". She of course chooses rape because it's the only way to survive.
At one point he even says, while raping her, "Maybe it shouldn't just be me enjoying this hole. Such a waste, maybe your subordinates should have a taste too", degrading her.
All of this cruelty stems from a misunderstanding because he believes she agreed to send him to the border, even though it was solely her brother's order. He forgets everything she has done for him, everything she sacrificed, and takes her loyalty for granted. The suffering she endures is the direct result of his filthy mistrust. Eventually she reaches a breaking point. She wants to die, to leave her place as empress. Only when he loses her does he realize too late that he truly loves her. Regretful he begs her to punish him, and she does until he is groveling on the floor, asking for forgiveness.
I won't spoil any further details. But the story is a devastating portrait of how trauma can twist someone into a monster and how, in the end, remorse is often not enough to undo what's been done.
I feel empathy towards what he went through as a child, abused by his parents and then going through torture due to the emperor(obviously there was a conspiracy going on). However, his past and what he went through, don't erase the crimes he commits towards a, faultless to his circumstances, person, especially considering she was actually of help to him in the long run and harboured genuine feelings of love towards him. His behaviour is the result of selfishness and obsession which he justifies with the hatred he feels over what her father, the emperor, did to him. He purposely sexually abused and fed her with guilt, turning her into a vulnerable little doll that he'll be able to always have access to. The empress is nothing but a traumatised shell of her former self, under the control of a person that took advantage of her feelings and loyalty. She was forced to face the reality of the people around her so fast, it broke her.
She didn't cheat. She was drugged and raped. People really need to work on their reading comprehension so this can get through their thick head. This sounds like victim blaming to me. A person under the influence CANNOT consent and she screamed at him to stop.
Also spoilers from the book since i read it(whoever wants to also read it, go to eternaluna scans they have the best translation and if you don't want to buy earlier the chapters from 26 until 40 (it's less than 5 usd) they will get released for free pretty soon):
The boyfriend is a piece of shit who cheated on her countless times and saw her a piece of meat. Back then he made people isolate her and approached her when her mom died and she was vulnerable, because he wanted to sleep with her. He reveals who he is pretty soon by lusting for the 'governess' (blond bitch who abuses the maids) and having a mental breakdown, saying Anna will make him a 'cuck'. She even breaks up with him after seeing his true face and that's BEFORE she gets into the coercive relationship with the Marquis you'll see her getting into in the next chapters, with the hope that she can get back to her world.
Her relationship with the marquis is coercive and violent, she's not a willing participant. Saying an assault victim cheated in the first place, is absurd and callous.
Also, for people who wonder about it, Anna's current age is 24, the boyfriend's 25-26 and the Marquis (Rothbart) is 38. In the past, her version from the other dimension, married him when she was 21 and he was 24. But they met when she was 19 and he was 22. She gave birth at 24 and left him, so her current age is symbolic.
The person saying she "cheated" on her boyfriend is insane because she quite literally got drugged and raped. Wtf are you on?
"He's nothing but a low life thug!"
Said the sociopath rapist who wants to get his victim pregnant, without any care if the father and baby die. If mc is a thug, the. he is lower than trash. Dropped. Aside from having a ridiculous plot (you'll see what i mean once you read it), ml is so fucking disgusting, i'd rather not waste my time more.
Don't bother with this story. I'm convinced it was made to be a rage bait.
MC and her brother are surrounded by predators, and it's fucking sickening. The lawyer is despicable, the pedophile even worse, and the aunt's comment that the brother is "at fault" for his SA made my blood boil. He was, and still is, a child. The story captures very realistically how threats and psychological control work in an abusive household. The FL was conditioned to believe she's a burden, that everything is her fault. The brother, meanwhile, was groomed into thinking he was responsible for his own assault, silenced with threats, and forbidden to tell his sister.
Mc was forced to grow up too quickly, carrying the responsibilities of the adults who failed her, all while being resented for things she had no power over. Her baby brother, drowning in fear and trauma, turned his anger on her, the closest figure he expected to protect him. I don't blame him for that. But I also don't blame her. Being "the adult" was never meant to be her role: she was a child too, suffering through her own abuse.
And no, her pain wasn't limited to "just a slap" as some claim. The slap was only one glimpse of a much bigger pattern. Abuse doesn't have to be tallied like points in a competition, both siblings endured it, both are victims, and both deserve freedom from it.
Cool manhwa but it's NOT josei. I want to be able to use the tag Josei and actually find Josei manhwa, not seinen. The motherfucker who misplaces the tags, may you step on fucking LEGO