How bout his original lover tho i feel pretty bad for her from the start
ok so for his lover; i'm not 100% sure how that would have gone if they'd stayed together - but it likely would have lead to unhappiness and potentially ruin. ml being a broke noble & original lover not being from a filthy rich family; even though the family liked him as a person her parents seemed to have some hesitations.
as for spoilers about her: she goes full on delulu yandere spiral. she can't accept that he's married and she refuses to accept that his feelings have shifted. she starts to plot mc's ruin with shit like 'damaging her reputation' by musing about/plotting to have another man alone with her. (doesn't get to planning phase.) she also idolizes mc's knight persona and spirals over that. eventually it gets to a point where she completely snaps and tries to stab and murder mc. my memory is a little hazy but mc either blocks it -because knight- or is /about to block it/ but ml has a whole /0 thoughts jumps in front to protect his bae/ moment and gets stabbed instead -not fatally-; one of the two. p sure 2nd.
but yeah; the original lover just refused to accept any level of reality and was drunk on the idea of a perfect love. after mc opened ml's eyes to the situation; he finally saw that it wouldn't have been very feasible had the two stuck together because not only were the finances an issue and her dad probably would have had one or both of them killer if they ran off, but their mindsets would have also been trouble. mc told him that if they'd truly been in such a deep love and he'd really wanted to be with og lover so badly that they should have eloped and i'm pretty sure she repeated that much to og lover who then decided it was absolutely what they would be doing -even tho he's now married and in love with mc- and didn't consider that she herself was too pampered to survive as a pauper.
also take this with a grain of salt lol i've already forgotten 60% of what went on rip but the fosho fosho was it was p doomed and og lover goes yandere
Okay nvm i cant feel bad for that lmao
so idk why no ones mentioned this but like my theory anyways
obv he's the previous royal fams prince
the current royal fam he hates are the ones who either framed him for killing his own father or they poisoned/controlled whatever him to kill his father; either way - responsible
the reason he married mc to ml is because ml's father probably helped him escape execution, get a new identity, and start a new life. or was his loyal retainer? either way; there's some debt there.
but yeah he's pretty trashy as a father. i also think maybe the mother was actually really loved and cherished by him and the shitty current royal fam caused her death in some way & might also have had some hand in the 'witch' rumors (though this would counter them framing him so idk??? double playing????). which would lead to these authors fav cliche route of a failure of a father not knowing how to show love or affection to the daughter who resembles their lost love. esp if the mother was in a weakened state from the plot to oust them and went into labor and died that way.
edit* SPOILERS:
ok i went for raws and i was riiiiiiiiiight (only half right in here) I had a different theory but i thought it was more likely so i didn't want to spoil anything potentially but writing it out BUT FOR THE PART THAT I DID WRITE OUT:
yes, there was a debt. it was obvious when dad told ml to thank his father. the debt?; ml's father replaced dad (willingly) for the execution & died in his place. that's why he had them get married despite gaining basically nothing from the union. (so, yes; he is the prince.)
also dad does love mc who does overly resemble his beloved deceased wife. there's reasons for how he raised her and his attitude and like it sucked and maybe he could have been better but author did pretty well here. i kinda excuse him? or forgive.
(i really want to scream about the parts i was theorizing outside of the above that turned out to be spot on BUT IT WOULD RUIN IT CRI. though they're all logical leaps so if you think a little you should come to the same ideas~) ASIDE FROM ALL THAT LOL
this story (up to c25 where i'm at) is less about mc and ml (fair enough amount tho) and more about mc & her dad. their past. their history. his intentions and reasons. her learning and healing. there's some really good moments there and there's some really good unrelated moments that make this gold.
mc and ml actually very cute together. he becomes worthwhile. man doesn't get in her way and works hard to change and be with her. he really grows. he also learns a shit ton along with mc and THIS IS JUST A VERY WELL DONE STORY OK LOL