The way I see it is he was groomed and has a bit of Stockholm syndrome and wanted to get o...

Now the empress wants to burn everything that makes him remember his old love... I don't know. I think he will have a mental breakdown.

By the way, the empress is the worst couple ever and every time I read about them I feel the stress he has xDDDDD

Honestly I don't class what he feels for that woman(previous empress) as love since he was groomed. And yes I also think it's only a matter of time before he has a breakdown. Like ngl getting rid of the things like that before he's mentally prepared to get rid of them completely first is a wrong move. He's already slowly trying to move on by removing them from his Palace but she's trying to accelerate it.

And yes the empress is definitely the worst.

Let's say that the previous empress used him instead of her real husband. So this way she was feeling better, but in the end he fell in love with her.

I did not feel she was a bad person at first (previous empress) but it's true that she depended on him, and that was left as "we were lovers, well, onesided loves", when they should have commented more about it.

I felt it was left as a subtle topic, and nothing else was mentioned about it. Maybe I skipped some information.

And btw I have read the word "groomed" everywhere and still haven't looked for its meaning xD I am not native English speaker and I was lazy haha ヾ(☆▽☆)

"Groom" is a word usually used when referring to an older, more matured person that gives false or immoral ideas that manipulates a way younger, immature or vulnerable person (a child) into someone they could exploit.

Genas was, in fact, a vulnerable person who did not receive love nor care from his family which left him surviving on his own, a situation similar to Enoch yet different because Enoch had someone to company him and was at least acknowledge as "crown prince" in the surface. As an illegitimate child, scorned by everyone, how would you feel if suddenly someone finally showed up giving you all type of attention and love? Although the empress was a victim to her own circumstances, we cannot deny that she groomed Genas. Instead of showing her support as a mother figure to him, she used her influence and title to launch herself onto him as if he was her life-support. No matter how mentally ill she was, it is by no deny that what she did was totally wrong. Infront of her own living blood-related child, she literally under her illusions manipulated Genas into thinking she loved him. Even though Genas knew that what she was just the figure of the late emperor, how could he easily resist her? I mean, she was the only one that "loved" him, and nobody was there to tell him it's wrong.

It's not about if Genas is in love with the late empress or not that is the issue here, but actually the fact that the late empress used her own power and influence, fully conscious of what she's doing EVEN AFTER WAKING UP FROM HER FRENZY she still sticks to Genas, pretending what she did was not wrong at all.

Considering her position, I honestly can't stand her at all. How could she? What's so different from what's happening now with the now empresa and what she did when she was alive? She's still using him and making him relive his trauma by asking him to help Enoch, while not giving him any political or emotional support.

Speaking of which, during this whole time, that woman didn't help not her real son nor the man who resembles her love of her life. Maybe we can't ignore that maybe there was some genuine concern she had for both of them, but either way, I still don't want to victimize a woman who has clearly had a negative influence in all her children.

I know it's just a story and just a character. Anyways, this is the end of my ted talk.

Oh no that's fine your English is good, groomed is when a child is a manipulated and used by an adult from a young age.

This is a better definition : Grooming is when a person builds a relationship with a child, young person or an adult who's at risk so they can abuse them and manipulate them into doing things.

The abuse is usually sexual or financial, but it can also include other illegal acts.

In the context of this webtoon the empress did this with the current emperor when he was a young person. When it was happening at the time he also mentioned he didn't like it.
But yes it can seem like he did love her.