No I’m pretty sure he’s always cared for her it was stated earlier in the webtoon by the prince that the fathers weakness is his daughter. It’s a literal “my father doesn’t love me but in reality the father loves the daughter a lot” cliche. I’m pretty sure for the prologue of the story (just a theory) he took her to that place to keep her safe and gave her a sword to protect herself. It looked like the duke was already planning a rebellion and that poison incident was just a catalyst for it.
there is actually a reason why he treated her like that in the past, the spoiler is that he can't show the king that her daughter is his only weakness because the king will then use the mc to order the father to do anything he likes and when I said use I meant torture. The king is threatened by the father influence on the public as he is a hero, if ever the father showed mc that he cared he can use her and get the father to kill anyone he like without being suspected
And? That doesn’t excuse him not telling her in secret and telling her he loved her. She deserved/s to know that she’s loved. He could’ve explained himself to her but he left her to die in the book. Giving her a sword and not even explaining what she needed to do with it, letting her believe and assume that he wanted her to kill herself.
Keeping her safe yet letting her misunderstand and letting her believe she was a mistake. Also doesn’t excuse him telling her not to look for him when she was smaller.
If I was him I’d tell her that she is my weakness and I’ll always love her. I have to treat her as if I don’t love her in front of everyone else but in private I’ll always be a doting father to her. If I seem harsh to her I’ll always apologize for it. But instead he never did that lmaooo
well that's the whole plot, the story really isn't about the mc and ml relationship, it's how will the father fix his relationship with his daughter.
Just wish the original Lubelian (idk how to spell her name) knew that he was protecting her by not attending her birthday banquets, not really communicating anything to her and lead her to believe she was never loved and was a mistake.
Ugh I hate the father so much. Even before the MC took over he was still treating his daughter like shit. There’s no excuse for such shitty behaviour, only now does he start caring about her.