I thought it behooves the emperor if the child is Duke Kalisto's?? Wasn't he spouting some bs before about marrying the girl off to his son to gain the Kalisto's bloodline, not to mention she becomes a living weakpoint for anyone/everyone to target if they want to harm the Kalisto house? Doesn't her presence basically effectively weaken the Duke's ability to go off wherever he wants whenever he wants, because he now has someone to protect at home?
Like I really don't understand how sending her back to Count Zackary is even beneficial, other than just killing her to torture the Duke mentally/emotionally? But even then that doesn't affect the power of his status...it's just a short-term way of bullying the Duke.
I'm so confused. I have no idea why this is getting dragged out so long.