lmao bro. u taking tsundere / hiding affection too far. some bij literally came out of no ...

I probably just resents the mother of his other two children. think it was explained in one of the earlier episodes but he loved this one girl who can bear children. That's when this other girl came claiming to be his kid who looks exactly like him with the same name him and his previous lover discussed perhaps giving to their potential maybe child he, I guess just clings onto her in memory of his love of his life who was, assumably forced away from him.this gives explanation to why he was so cool to his daughter and son but it's not an excuse.

oof that's what I thought too. but I read some spoilers and it seems that at the end of the day u can really only blame the Duke himself for being sooooooo "neutral" lol. some more spoilers below. I read it from the spoilers thread in nu.
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okay. so I read that mc's mum is the 2nd wife and the 1st wife is the cossette mum. basically he somewhat loved w1 and viewed w2 as a breeder cos w1 technically couldn't bear a child. w2 family is powerful and greedy(the wife herself supposedly isn't.) so the w2 family decided to spread bad rumors and insults about w1. w1 told the Duke but the Duke insisted on being neutral.

I thought about that possibility as well, but that just makes him even more of an asshole. You can't blame children for that. They have nothing to do with your feelings for their mother. I mean, act like an adult, please. This reminds me of the despicable emperor from "Pet of the Villainess", favouring one son because he's the child of the woman he loves and abusing the other. He's still YOUR child, heartless monster.

for me. I think he's too obsessed with being neutral and following the whole you shouldn't show affection kinda thinking. because he almost religiously follows that rule, he foregoes everything else.