I think it's most probably supposed to be cringy for us to relate to sword emperor better rotten
Definitely why else would his reaction be shown only then and not sooner or all the time in between their pda? I think it might also be a stab at all the readers who always consider romance in a shoune story a complete no-go and a reason to stop reading lmfao
I liked the romance in this but I can’t lie, I cringed at the ‘Matriarch/Consort’ scene ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭