I am so confused

yes, Claude and anastacius are half siblings, they share the same father but different mother. Lucas is the grand wizard/sorcerer (whichever whatever) magician of the country. Despite looking like Athy’s age he is the oldest character in the novel and in the country, and him being the wizard of the country, he serves the emperor and has to meet them. In the panels, anastacius was remembering his meeting with Lucas, who said that he (anastacius) is not fit to be the throne. Anastacius wanted to prove Lucas that he is he only rightful heir to the throne, and the dark speaker that talks to anastacius is not Lucas but the dark energy that he absorbed. Anastacius wants to kill Claude because he wants to prove Lucas that he’s the only one rightful for the throne and not the “illegitimate child”

ok uhh athanasius was the one who stole from lucas' tower nd lucas was pretty mad abt that so that explains the flashback , he wants to kill claude probs cuz of his mom + the dark magic that's emphasizing his terrible side , he's using jeanette bc she has pure intentions when she brings objects into the palace nd stuff but he inserts curses and other dark magic stuffs into the stuffs she brings into the palace to kill claude nd yea they are biological brothers they just have diff moms

Jeannette is anastacius child born from dark magic. He is using Jeannette’s crystal eyes (the eyes that show that they have royalty blood) to play the idea that “Claude has another child, and Claude should take care of Jeannette and while he’s taking care of Jeannette, Jeannette’s whole being as a child born from dark magic will ruin claudes health overtime” which is what he is doing right now. He’s gaining Jeannette’s favor because I’m the end Jeannette is his only true “family” and if he does succeed in taking the throne, he has a successor with him that also uses dark magic/has dark magic.

anthasius is pretending to be dead and hes the one who came lucas' tower and took his magic/potions? hes not really gaining her favor but using her as shes kinda close the claude. idk if claude and anthasius are biological brothers but idc. anthasius is using jenette by sending her a curse through her bracelet to claude to kill him. anthasius just wanna be king ig

also im pretty sure that anthasius is jenette father...but idk

I'll try my best. Athanasius is still alive because rn he is possessed by the soul of that guy who was obsessed with Lucas, I think he was called the Empire's strongest emperor and he's like over 200 yrs old or smth. So basically the guy possessing him used some sort of magic I think. We saw in an earlier chapter when Claude's brother was still himself and they had a good relationship where the stalker guy was calling Athanasius.

Lucas isn't manipulating anyone, but he can sense something is wrong.

I'm not sure why he wants to kill Claude but I think it's to annoy Lucas- I saw somewhere that the stalker guy saw how much Lucas liked Athy so he wants to mess with Athy by killing Claude thus getting to Lucas because Lucas loves Athy (hehe, I prefer Lucas)

He's using Jeanette as Jeanette is Athanasius's biological daughter. He's using her desire to have a real family to get to Claude, Athy and Lucas. As Jeanette has black magic, she has capabilities to be used as a pawn and kill Claude. However, her magic isn't strong enough yet so Athanasius is using the fact that Jeanette can numb Claude's headaches to transport curses to Claude like in the most recent chapter.

Claude and Athanasius are half-brothers. Their father conceived Claude with a concubine(?)

I'm not sure if I got everything right, but feel free to ask more questions. (●'◡'●)

what is that dark magic that he has around himself tho? It looks like that the shadow talks to him..

Is that dark magic that he absorbed, from Lucas or from himself? And if it is from himself, how did he get that and why was that shadow talking to him?

So is he convincing her to keep on going to see Claude because "she is their real family" but through her, he knows that Claude is getting weaker and is dying faster if he is near her?

He IS Jennette's biological father. And they are half siblings. thanks!

So that dark magic is the soul of the stalker that's possessing Athanasius. You can tell by the black messy hair that it's the messy blonde haired kid that Lucas savagely dissed. Idk why it's black rn, but it's probably due to his black magic.

hmm idk i haven't gotten that far in the story yet but it's probs like the spirit of another person or smth like the other comments said

I'm not too sure myself, but I think it's his own black magic. He was once called the strongest emperor of the empire's history, so it's probably relating to that. Idk we'll find out or you can find a spoiler from someone who's read the novel.

Wow great thanks! But im still confused about the stalker guy and the Athanasius. I don't remember seeing a stalker and it looks like the brothers didn't like each other since he was considering killing Athy's mom and he had a mad face when some girl said that his younger brother was talking bad about him (in the past). So I'm not sure if they had a good relationship. Also, some people are saying that Athanasius had beef with Lucas because Lucas said he couldn't be emperor since he "wasn't capable" and Athanasius wanted to prove that he could, thus wanting to kill Claude. But you said that he is being possessed by some king..? I'm confused about that. Is that why he had a shadow that was talking to him?

Yup, that's it exactly. Jeanette can numb Claude's headache's due to her affinity for black magic and as Claude's headaches stem from his usage of black magic, Jeanette's affinity from being artificially born numbs his headaches but worsens his symptoms rushing Claude to his death. However, this takes time so this is why stalker guy inside of Athanasius is giving Jeanette curses so that when she gets near the emperor he starts to react as the way he did in this chapter.

ohhhh. So Athanasius is DEAD like DEAD, dead, right? And that stalker that we still don't know of is just using his body for his own needs which is getting back at Lucas for something? But if he possessed him, was it right after Athanasius died or was he in him even while Athanasius was still alive?

ok thank you for all the explanation!

ah i see! Do you know the real intentions of the stalker guy tho?

Ok so the brothers had a good relationship when Claude was little. We saw this in a chapter where a bruised Claude goes looking for Athanasius after the stalker guy was summoning Athanasius. As they got older, the stalker guy's influence over Athanasius grew and Claude's and Athanasius's relationship got worse. Stalker guy, AKA the guy inside of Athanasius grew a complex after being harshly treated by Lucas and pursued disrupting him so that he could prove him wrong about being trash. Killing Claude is a step on the path of getting Lucas to admit he was wrong by killing Athy's precious father and thus breaking her- this will effect Lucas because he loves Athy and so he thinks he can resolve his complex (not that he knows he has a complex, but it's really just an obsession due to his want for praise as he looked up to Lucas as a child). Just to clarify, but this isn't Athanasius's desire, Athanasius is a pawn and the stalker guy is controlling him through possession. You can tell everytime Athanasius's eyes turn red.

Yes, he wants to hurt Lucas who is the object of his obsession.

I'm not sure, there's evidence of his soul still being alive through his flashbacks we keep seeing. But, he is being controlled heavily by the stalker guy.