As someone who read this as it came out I’m a little disappointed at how it all ended up playing it. There were many interesting aspects and dynamics to this story I wish had been explored. The madness, the weird sibling incest thing, the current emperor’s hidden identity, etc. I was hoping the story would at least explore some of it. Tbh I think they ended it with them growing old and sayan dying because they couldn’t figure out how to end the story. I wish there was more actual story because all the interesting foundations were there but it was barely touched on.
On that note carmine and sayan shared the same form of madness and for carmine it was all consuming. There was so much to explore there but it was like they gave up and just never really went into it apart from sayan has medication and resists and doesn’t want to tell ilic about it. Then up and dies and ilic never finds out why we was tormented for all those years beyond just “I love you”. He knew he was insane but idk I wish there was more story there
Seo eunsong reminds me of Cha eunwoo even though they look nothing alike. I think it’s the enlightened expression they got going on, total repression of any expression, complete poker face and a princely calm aura. In my head he has Cha eunwoo’s voice too. I actually imagine taegun’s voice to sound deeper than his, similar to Mignon’s voice in Mignon.










The way I thought the cover was fanart of mo guanshan and he tian lol