I've come up with a few theories that you'd probably like:
1.a) The family was worse than mc knew and/or
1.b) The Lord was following the Emperor's orders. The mc and his brother were spared because the Lord was a good person and knew they had nothing to do with the (potentially supposed) treason. The Lord was told to kill all of the family but spared the innocent.
2. The Lord took on such a brutal career because he wanted to become a good fighter to take down the emperor some day.
3. He decided to take this career also because he wanted to be the one to kill people both so others don't have to do it and do something worse than him didn't take the job. Basically, if he's doing it, at least he will be kind to add many as possible. He'll kill the fewest people possible.
Now most of this is wishful thinking, but there have been little hints here and there that any of this could be likely. For example: during the time it's fashioned after, the rule was to kill the traitor and their entire family, no question; but not only is mc still alive, his brother was afforded the kindness of dying from illness. There was a letter mc had read that implied his disdain for the emperor, or he was talking to someone or something. I can't write remember, but there was a letter that was significant to my theories and I remember him showing a dislike at some point.
There is more but I can't remember right now.
Yeah I really hope so! especially with the 1.a/b one haha we haven't gotten a lot of backstory on the Lord and it bound to be a tragic considering his scars. He most likely didn't have a choice so if he has a really good redemption arc and a valid backstory I'll be happy, no matter how tragic his life may have been, what he's done and his attitude isn't something that can be easily forgiven. In all I'm just hoping the story doesn't end completely in the Lords favor, I need to regret, redemption, reflection, and a little revenge for me to love this y'know. Thanks for the theories!!
Absolutely! And I'm glad they seem to have brought you if even a little hope for the future of this story. I'm not holding out for hope, but it's always better to have a little of it rolling around in our heads ^-^
Honestly I hope his family where horrible pieces of shits that did something bad to the Lord so they low-key deserved to die. If not the best ending logically is for the uke to kill the Lord, run away/be freed and start a new life, or commit suicide. It'd be a icky or an immoral ending if his family were good people and he ends up with the Lord and they live happily ever after. Another ending I would accept is for the Lord to almost die and lose everything, genuinely become a good person and then they could slowly fall in love or something. Idk he has just done so much damage to the uke that if he doesn't suffer any type of revenge, karma, and redemption and just gets to live happily ever after with the uke it would feel incomplete and make no logical/emotional sense y'know? It'd be a complete Stockholm situation with no real development, which would be fine but I feel like the author would try to pass it as, "oh they just fell in love and he forgave him, it's not phycological or unhealthy!" I can also see them both dying in the end because of their sodomy sins