Girl no
To hill his freedom isn’t with Ivan and Owen since that is still a living in hiding. That’s just him trying to justifying and convincing the king to let him leave because the king won’t unless hill pull that “freedom card”
He is far from selfish, had he been selfish he would have said fuck off those tadel people I will stay with the king and child and marry the king. You know he would cause he does love the king
The problem is hill is too much selfless that he thinks way too much about other people, even though he knows that personally he didn’t do anything bad, he just happened to be born in the wrong family
Hill's "freedom" is metaphorical. He doesn't want physical freedom as much as he wants mental freedom.
He was always trapped in his kingdom ny his father, forced to play a puppet, never allowed any thoughts of his own. But after everything for fixed , his guilty still never went away. He believes he doesn't deserve happiness.
His brain is complex
Hmm if I'm looking at it from hill perspective.
Id say he left ml and the child to not cause any harm.
Which is very selfless indeed I can agree .
But at the same time he choos his brother and owen over his own child that didn't sit right with me.
Even if it was to not cause trouble, the way he did it ,and telling ml that his love is only due to the mark, just made me want to slap him.
Hmmmmmmmm
Hill's decision to leave was not JUST about finally having 'freedom'. It was about saving the only other family member he had left (and the only person that ever tried to actually protect him before he met Crispin), it was about protecting his child's happiness, it was about preventing that future where everyone is against Crispin as king because he's sheltering the enemy prince. And yes, his decision to leave was also a result of his insecurity in their relationship as a whole. He did not think Crispin genuinely loved him outside of the physical bond that was made between them (but obviously, as we can see, they did truly come to love one another outside of the bond). In his own way, Hill was doing what he thought would protect EVERYONE he loved.
In my eyes, no one is at fault in the generation of people we are reading about. Their minds and lives were molded by the centuries of hate that accumulated between their kingdoms, and there is no way to measure how much that prejudice/bias has affected the way they act.
Even Crispin has his moments, like I remember how he guilt-tripped Hill saying "Just for that person (Hill's brother), you're willing to compromise to this extent, I can only imagine how insignificant I and our child are in your heart", to a Hill that had just come out of a six-month COMA after giving BIRTH (along with symptoms of postpartum depression), and had only asked to be exiled along with his brother so he could rescue him. Not to mention that they had already agreed Hill would be allowed to leave after giving birth LONG before he had actually given birth, and Crispin was desperate to have Hill stay. No one is black and white in this manhua (except the ancestors who started their blood feud in the first place, they are to blame for the suffering the current generation is going through).
Hill's concerns were laid out completely in chapter 58:
"You know very well that with my identity, keeping me here by force would only make life hard for both you AND the child in this royal family. At this point, why would you break our past promise and the trust your vassals have in you, just because of personal feelings?" Yes, it was harsh of Hill to say that Crispin was acting out of personal feelings, but he was THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE (and you need to consider that Hill did not think Crispin's feelings for him were genuine. He thought he was simply affected by the physical bond between them). And in HIS pov, Crispin was being irrational and overestimating his abilities to manage everything. It's hard to trust someone and feel secure when you've never felt that in a single moment of your life.
This! People just hate on Mc while they can’t even comprehend the story well.
Also it was crispin who told him in the beginning that their feelings is just due to the bond
Well said. If I were in Bottom's situation, I would probably do the same thing.
My thoughts on hill , he doesn't like the palace and was always trapped there longing for freedom.
He also knows he and ml being together would bring issues and thus why he doesn't want to stay with him.
His dad used him to get a baby with the enemy and he was always a pawn .
I cant blame him for most of his actions.
But he was selfish and put himself first instead of his child.
So he basically choose his freedom and happiness over his child and ml.
Wise ml is always considering hill feelings and putting his feelings aside for hill.
(Thats what I'm seeing in current chapters )