Now this makes a lot more sense about why the emperor was readily able to reflect and see how things went wrong with Lizzie.
I wondered how such a cold-hearted guy was able to have such an absolute change of heart (without the usual drama of a trash ML hitting rock bottom *coughs in soviesh*t*) toward the Empress. His own parents had such a loving relationship, meanwhile he was with someone who completely unnerved him as a person and he couldn't emotionally connect with on any level. He's actually a pretty normal guy who didn't hate his partner, but couldn't understand them at all, and realized he never actually tried. And when he was confronted with this truth he instantly owned up to how he never reached out to her and just wanted to giver her a better life anyway he could since all she could do before was exist in relation to him.
Like whaaaaaaat. I'm still waiting for the catch from that witch in the first chapter, but I really am rooting for this guy. This is like a crazy amount of character development that isn't based off of omg I never knew she was this lovely before~ & I'm. Here. For. It 😤