One side of me wants Su-Ah to bite him to read the angsty drama slop fall out but the other side of me is “oh shit, oh no! nooo!!”. Su-Ah is proving himself to be a real asshole, when MC has issues due to Su-Ah’s marking without permission, his good boy acting wasn’t fooling me. It won’t happen but I hope MC ends up with someone else or with no one and goes on a self-acceptance journey or something.
I’m not sure where people are getting their information, because that’s not what I read in the novel?
Massive spoilers:
TLDR: ML is an orange flag and did two significantly cruel things.
Leshak (ML) is an orange flag and did two red flag things. I’ve read wayyy worse ML’s . He did two pretty cruel things and has a manipulative/possessive personality in general but gets better, especially in the side stories. The two things he did, one I can understand to a point given the circumstances and happened largely due to a misunderstanding. But I never read any grape scenes and there’s 18+ in the side stories. You could argue it was inferred, but again I didn’t even read anything where it could be inferred. Anyways, here’s what the ML did.
First thing: made Radan a prisoner of war, put him in a cage and planned to kill his family in front of him. Because Radan was the blue snake and Radan had assassinated almost his entire family prior to current events. The ML didn’t know the extent of Radan’s life and how he was treated. He gave Radan a chance to explain himself, but because of Radan’s inability to effectively communicate it didn’t happen. However, ML regrets everything really bad once he finds out.
Second thing: during ML’s crazy phase he shackled Radan for several days in his bedroom. ML kissed him and touched his chest even though Radan didn’t like it, but nothing else was written. It could be argued they “did it” but it wasn’t written or really inferred—and their “first time” after these events seemed more legitimately their first time. ML behaved this way to get Radan to remember him. This part of the story made me frown and not like the ML from that point on despite his “redemption” hence my air quotes.
Despite those two things, ML does “redeem” himself to a point. If I had to pick him or Ozdin I’d pick the ML. Ozdin is a secondary ML, kinda? Ozdin’s affection for Radan felt superficial and he wouldn’t listen to Radan bc “Radan didn’t know what he wanted”. Whereas the ML actually listens to Radan’s requests and feelings.
*ML gives Radan the highest ranking of Duke and his own palace that is also catered to his blindness I.e. servants wear bells, lots of flowers and fragrances, soft furniture, etc.
*Marries Radan, I think? I can’t remember but Radan is established as his lover and ML swore to never take another lover or empress and the story states he never did.
*Caters to Radan and does whatever Radan wants pretty much. Also respected Radan’s wishes when he rejected ML in bed lol.
*Is jealous of Radan’s pets and doesn’t like them but lets him keep them anyway.
*without giving too much context of a big plot point, ML vows to stay with Radan despite the dangers and spend all 90 nights with him. Which is a little endearing given how as time progresses, Radan might get very saddened by circumstances and their relationship might get strained but ML vowed to stay with Radan no matter what happened.
https://foolishtranslationss.wordpress.com/bloody-moon/
Gross. Why are you saying grape? Do you believe that rape is something to be ashamed of? Should victims not be able to talk about their rape? Do you think that rape should be censored and mentions of rape should be removed from society?
Do you think refusing to talk about rape will do anything except empower rapists?
Gross. The fact that you are trying to erase rape and to stigmatize people who talk about rape is gross.
That's not at all while you're doing it. You're doing it because you have tiktok brain. You don't see the harm you're doing because you don't think critically. Saying the word rape is not in any way cursing, triggering, or harmful. Making it so people feel like they can't talk about rape is.
Why do most rapists get away with it? Because being a rape victim is highly stigmatized, it is widely considered something to be ashamed of, it is something that you are not supposed to talk about, and reporting it is incredibly harmful due to all the victim blaming. People are taught not to talk about rape and now you and all of the little tiktok brain degenerates are reinforcing that. You just lack the critical thinking skills to understand what you're doing.
Use the link I gave to the web novel c:
Vol 2 chapter 26 - The Face of Truth and Vol 2 chapter 27 - The Master of the Heart
Note: it’s not a real “regret arc” it’s those two chapters bc Leshak goes crazy right after. If you want a better regret/redemption arc then that would be vol 2 chapter 38 - The Waters That Could Not Be Escaped — and onwards from there, especially with the side stories.











Edit: y’all I am reading on ridibooks and using Google Translate. It’s $6 in total for both books. If you don’t want to pay you can find translated copies up to chapter 10 (like 12% of the novel) on the web. It’s not rocket science to find them I promise, so I’m not going to send tons of links to people. And given the current placing of the translated novels, they’re behind the manga and it’s easier to read on ridibooks.
This is a big spoiler so beware
I am reading the novel and I will tell you that the prince(King) and Dam are endgame and after reading the ending of book 2 for confirmation they’re both romantically involved with each other. How they get there is a long rocky road and after Dam runs away and then returns to the palace, Mok-young (Prince) basically realizes he loves Dam and enters deep regret, longing and groveling for Dam despite Dam being completely traumatized and terrified of him. Also, the novel is jumping from past timeline and present timeline, so unlike the manga that is showing all the past events leading to the present I am reading the present timeline after the framing the princess event and then it’ll jump back to the past timeline. Which I prefer to reading an intense opener before being launched into the past universe for the next 30+ chapters. I’m on page 116/258 currently for novel 1. In essence, Dam returns to the palace with Mok-young, stays in the concubine palace and somewhere along the way becomes Chief Eunuch. It was also stated that the prince’s friend (in a conversation), the one that seemingly likes Dam, helped Dam escape by having him pretend to be a court maid and it was thought Dam was dead—probably by faking his suic-de, but haven’t gotten that far yet, I’m speculating. Then Mok-young finds out he’s alive and spends years searching for him and went nutty and wiped out the corrupt officials. But that’s as far as I got.
Side note: this is more speculation but it seems that Mok-young waits for Dam’s consent until the end of book 2(a statement was made by prince’s friend in book 2), but I find that hard to believe so I’m not sure if there’s anymore penetration sex scenes after the flashbacks. Also, literally the first night Dam is back in the palace Mok-young sleeps in bed with him and starts kissing his neck and shoulders and only stops after about sending Dam into a panic attack so there’s that, why I’m skeptical by that remark at the end of book 2. The author is trying to frame it as Mok-young’s trauma caused him to treat Dam poorly and fail to realize his affections until Dam flees, and then gets his redemption when he finds Dam again. Which personally, is so stupid and there’s no redeeming for Mok-young for me. I’m just really invested in this novel (the writing is honestly really freaking good the trauma aside, which I feel puts a realistic perspective on palace life in historical times) and I think the manga only doing past events first before the present timeline doesn’t do it justice.
Side side note: Mok-young sometimes refers to Dam in the present as Dam-a which according to a translator means “deep love”, so fucking cringe from Mok-young LOL