if he treats her like an empress or showed that he actually cares, MC be killed in an instant so that Veronica can replace MC. That's why he was acting hard towards MC because he doesn't have the power to save her, yet. He actually aquired the power that he needed but it was too late. To the duke and Veronica, he was only a puppet emperor since he doesn't have a real power and the duke is more powerful than him.
I see what you mean . The baby made it harder for the Crown prince too . But still the way he treated her was the worst .
He could at least show her some kindness or at least ask for her well being when no one was around .
If he shows that, obviously mc would be expecting her to save him and in the time of her death she would feel more betrayed since the crown prince was supposed to care for her. Remember that before she died Veronica poisoned her mind by making her think that the Crown Prince never loved her because she wasn't Veronica. And MC would be dependent on Crown Prince since he's the only one who cared. You'll know why in the future chapters. You can't just say, he should have done this and that when spies were literally everywhere. His hands are tied and he's doing the best that he can to gather power. The situation that they were in wasn't the best and he also had to treat her like that so Veronica would be reluctant to replace MC as the empress and buying himself time. If you were in his situation where you've got no power even when you're the emperor and that you're wife and child will be killed if you show an ounce of interest towards them because to some people they're disposable. She would have died earlier than she's supposed to die if the crown prince cared. You do realize showing love and affection to someone isn't a one time thing and people are bound to see.
My point is, you're asking too much from him when I've repeatedly said that he doesn't have power and showing an ounce of interest on MC would get her killed. It's not like he didn't regret what he did. They're using them as leverage and they're just toying the crown prince. I am vehemently defending him because I've also read his hardships, humiliation against the duke and veronica just to keep mc alive. Him hurting mc, hurts him too, it's not like he wanted to, he's forced to be that kind of person by duke and veronica. If you want to point fingers at someone, it's them but for me, I'm happy that thr ML is the crown prince because he actually had a justifiable reason and a backbone to go against them just to save his family even though he was too late, even though he almost killed himself but he still stayed.
I'm not disagreeing with you cause I understood it and I agree with you tbh .
I know he had like zero power to save himself much less the MC.
what I'm saying is , if he did all of this to protect her life , wel ummm, he failed . Cause she died .
And thank you for taking the time to explain. I appreciate it
I'm not sure if the crown prince was like that to her under pressure or something but still his behaviour was unreasonable , he could at least treat her right as an empress
Anyway I'm not rooting for any ml at the moment because our FL is doing perfect by her own . These guys will only ruin her plans but idk it might change later