
He is painfully selfish. He didn’t turn back time because he suddenly realised that he loved her, no, he turned back time because her death was negatively impacting him. As in, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t continue his reign without her.
When the empress told him “The feeling of accepting your mate and being loved by her, I’m sure you’ve experienced it” in chapter 4, he was SILENT. Why? Because he hasn’t experienced it. He doesn’t, and never has, loved and accepted Solan, when Solan loved and accepted him.
A dragon experiences emptiness when they lose their mate, like in the picture, he started bleeding when he lost Solan. He felt pain after she died, not because he loved her and was saddened by her passing, but because that’s just what happens to dragons who have lost their mate.
(On another note, the author better explain the story behind the noose he gifted her before she died, and what the aftermath of her death was.)
I think he’s trying to win her heart so he doesn’t have to go through that pain again. At first I thought “ah he just needs her to retain his crown”, but he’s willing to not become the emperor to stay by her side, so that theory is out the window. Anyway, let’s see what happens. He’s just deluding himself into thinking that he loves her, when in fact he doesn’t… and I sincerely hope that he author keeps his obsessiveness (because I like my obsessive and possessive MLs haha) but makes her either get with someone else or she stays happy single. That’s the end of my long rant.
“Let’s start over” “I’m sorry”
Repeating those 2 phrases will never undo 14 years of neglect. He doesn’t love her, and never has, and I hope she never forgets that.