I think the biggest thing people possible hate about Leon is that he was rather wishy washy with his goals. Leon had a mindset of wanting to be like his brother and be a great king everyone would love when he would have to take place as king. The thing that stings the most with our MC being in a sense of betray would be how Leon was the very first person MC met as from Aunt Bess that MC got to know on a personal level along with Saine and Ilya. Leon was the one that end up not judging your character right off the bat and even saw your actions to save their healer and even went as far to save those kids from thieves. Whether you ended up friends or lovers he had time to know MC before getting to the castle.
When the gang gets to the castle and meet Julian, sure he didn’t trust MC but didn’t outright put you on the chopping block but made it clear he didn’t trust you even if his brothers did, to get to the point where the gang had to go find a cure in a village as another notion where they went and this was another moment for the MC to be able to do something about, even Ilya say at some point how reckless MC can be when it comes to helping and how it could get them killed, this could be a huge indicator of 2 things that could have gone on in Leon’s head is that the MC is caring and willing to put their life on the line for people just like how he and his gang does but this could also have the same impact of giving later on the problem of making Leon think that MC is capable of going so far to reach a goal that it kills them could be dangerous especially since MC sister ended up being the homewrecker when Julian gets killed
Leon as heated in his emotions as he is always do before he thinks so it can be a little impulsive on his part later down the road. Now the biggest thing here that made it break my heart the most is when the MC bled their heart out to the gang about their sister and the things they went through and even gave information to help the cause for them, this here was the biggest thing that made me sad about Leon’s swift decisions later in the story. Leon didn’t have full trust in himself and even worse didn’t have trust in the actions of recruiting the MC and everything started to blur at this moment for him, in his position he possibly would start blaming himself for even letting the MC join because the MC sister killed his brother, the MC could go off the deep end and destroy them, he started to feel like he was to blame for his brother’s death, he wanted to live up to society standards of being like his brother so he blinded himself as wanting to make things right for his people…so many heated emotions and guilty set in and even worse knowing the trust he put in his friend or love with MC is shaken because of his inferiority complex of trying to be someone he was not in the end.
Saine didn’t have a strong connection with Julian like Leon did and for the right reasons because Saine was a rather smart cookie and even he could have had another role rather than just a prince to be sent off in marriage so he felt overlooked and no position to be king and made it feel like he didn’t get his right position to fit in other than forced to do something he didn’t want to do, Leon even saw Saine’s worth and on a certain level another sense of feeling less than Saine because of how smart he is, granted Leon being clueless is a bit of a running gag but it does show how it all led up to it.
When it came to the battle for Param was another hurtful thing because of Ante, Ante was doing her job but at the same time given our Leon friend here he ended up making assumptions and taking her words only instead of weighing the options later as I said he seems very impulsive with stuff. Leon seemed to have some anxiety from knowing that the battle is almost over and he’ll have to take the throne afterwards and as I said he’s already rattled at that feeling of wanting to be like Julian and live up to the expectation from the pressure of people seeing how he’d lead, sure Leon can fight but he isn’t the most articulate when it comes to leading and the paperwork given how he lounges around rather than study up like Saine(let’s be honest Saine literal jacks of all trades here, dude had goals and was totally overlooked by his older brother).
MC is left rattled too because they have to face the dreadful fear of their sister and yeah telling the gang about her was honest but also the noose around their neck because they too made it a responsibility of her actions being their fault too so another reason why they bled their heart out eve though that also put a lack of trust given how long they stayed around the gang so Leon thinking 'why would you hold this important information from us!?!" is justified yet even knowing someone for a while doesn’t mean that everyone spill secrets from knowing them for a while so MC could have kept the secret and ended up having it exposed some other way or ripped the bandage off and tell them so they did and in a sense that should have brought but trust and distrust at the same time, Ilya and Saine possibly saw more good out of MC from their actions while Leon started his decline from his own mind blowing, Ilya has respect for MC for saving her life and willing to save kids even an impairment for them if gone through that, fought with them in the battle, and helped with the curse problem when MC could have sat and done nothing. Saine saw the same thing and even was seen and valued by the MC and not just some little prince, go through his route and he even bleeds his heart out himself and wants to be something more than just another cog to be depressed and having no purpose other than connections.
After the battle with sister the MC had to suffer with the note of another disaster that would have befell them…bad enough MC was least liked in the beginning by the people in the country and blatantly can see that from when they become retainer, MC was just that random foreigner in their country and whether word spread about MC’s sister or not is left in the air but the actions of the MC’s magic definitely could have raised eyebrows and threw distrust in the mix, so MC had to deal with the feeling of being ostracized and it never feels good knowing you worked so hard to just want a peaceful life from living a nightmare only to be pushed into a role once more into having to fix a mess that seemed to be on the MC.MC went on to comfort their friends and even say they may come back to see them even though they weren’t sure and when you talked to your chosen route mainly if you chose Leon then you could have had the option to not belittle him and even tell him to rule as himself and not as his brother, the MC could even see that he was grasping at who he was other than the emotional brute so this leaves a huge impression on him but still doubt never leaves that easy since it has built up for a long while. MC goes and find out where the source of destruction will happen and goes back to trauma land and learns of the Saintess the very person Ilya wants to be and comes to realize they have to kill the Saintess…a huge impact on this countries functioning so it just added to that noose but I guess MC thought they would have had made it anyways even if they did succeed given their do or die actions. So they get there and Ante is in the way, MC can have a choice to tell her to move yet she doesn’t and in right she should have given our MC rank yet she disobeyed this rule even if it would have been wrong on Ante’s part on failing to protect the Saintess but the MC being denied to enter already planted the truth that MC didn’t truly belong in the first place and they couldn’t even have access even with their rank so the MC did what they had to do, in the end I am surprised that Ante didn’t take the heat for disobeying someone of status even if MC was in the wrong so Ante’s say shouldn’t have held any weight given the fact on that alone, now would be different if MC came in full throttle lashing out. Poor MC had to suffer through so much only to be ousted by the people from their distrust before it even began for them, none really respected the MC and directed the pain to MC for being to blame not only as Leon’s shameful retainer but also as some foreigner bring doom and gloom to them. To add to the wound even more the MC’s friend or lover status with Leon hurts so much because all that they bonded over was thrown down the drain long ago when Julian’s death happen and what broke the horse’s back was now the MC not telling him the truth…Leon stuck with the words of a nobody spymaster and the pressure of his people wanting someone to blame in the end and what better way than place the MC because they’re to powerful to handle, to determined and might backstab us like now until their dying breath to destroy us, and even the weight of trying to redeem himself for all the faults of recruiting the MC, bring despair of the king dying, his actions of putting trust in someone he feels might betray him and his people, him wanting to live up to be something similar to his brother, the weight of having to kill someone he thought as a lover or friend, the weight of having to be disliked by the people or even his gang…he had a lot going on in his head and couldn’t be himself and somewhere on the way he didn’t even once heed the words of being himself if the MC told him this before leaving, it sucks because the Leon the MC knew was a broken man that didn’t even see himself and in some way the MC came to see this for themselves too because of how they went through, but it hurts that Leon didn’t try to even give a few days time to put on an investigation to find out because there had to be a reason, didn’t any of the actions before it led to killing the MC matter in the end, knowing that they bled their heart out and the trauma they had to face, to feel like no one was on their side when everyone in his country seen them as an ill omen, Leon was blinded by what his people wanted then and there and wanted someone to blame in the end, either Leon didn’t want to face the blame and find the truth of his friend/lover’s silence or he just couldn’t handle the fact of his mistakes and wanted MC killed as a way to fix the problem to be a decent king. His impulsive actions ended up hurting the people that trusted him on both sides in the end, the gang he led tried to plead with him only to be snubbed by his own guilt and impulsive thoughts of being like his brother, the people praising him later for fighting off the invaders including his friend/lover only to realize that the MC wasn’t the one at fault yet no one truly cared for the MC and just used them and pushed them aside like day old bread rather than see the MC’s actions as genuine in the end so adding a statue does make for an insult and a holiday because you’re celebrating a day you killed someone that saved you and none truly knew the MC it was like some horrid consolation prize for being the punching bag in the end even after being alienated by everyone except for Saine and Ilya which both wanted to find the truth and believe in the MC and even tried to get to know rather than crush underfoot with complete doubt. It hurts even more because they killed the MC in the worse possible way, not only letting them rot in a cage nearly starving with no magic and barely alive as is, it’s torture being alone with one’s own mind and slowly dying from it crushing you from the weight of loneliness but to have to face one last face of a friend/lover look at you in rage, guilt, and pity all the same even worse a punch to the face if being the evil villain in that moment to realize the person you once knew wasn’t there anymore, to see someone you got to know end up looking at you like a person they didn’t know and looked so lost in the end, makes it worse if you end up kissing him and making him doubt himself more and end up hating himself later from the aftermath when the truth comes to light only to breakdown his mental state to utterly nothing leaving him hollow inside because his worst fears came to light and him seeing himself as a failure in the end on both sides as a king and friend/lover to MC and even his gang Saine and Ilya. Don’t get me wrong I’m mad and sad about the MC dying by Leon but a lot can be seen from how their mental states were which led to a sad outcome of lack of trust and communication only to be weighed down by their own mind from their actions. Kind of wish they didn’t kill the MC is such a slow and painful death though, being burned to death is no fast death and suffocating to death on top of it is overkill because suffocating is the equivalent to drowning you going to be strangled for a good few minutes maybe quicker if you panicking, brain damage is not good to have after a set amount of time and roasting on top of it, the MC was literally rotting in a prison dying both physically and mentally and overkill in burning to suffocation as a way to ease pain, no it was outright choking to death which is not an easy death, it takes a few minutes then pass out then roasted to pieces basically they would have roasted a dead body beforehand so it was just a cremation at that point especially if what was said about how they were trying to suffocate you before burning to death. I’d take getting my head chopped off than that, such a brutal way to die from the people and Leon approving it so fast without a trial I’d be scared but given if I was rotting from my own brain and hunger well probably would feel anything after a while even the MC was saying they wanted to rest, you can literally see how much the MC was dying mentally and wanted it to be over, to be isolated is torture itself and it does bring in its own can of worms to see the truth of reality for yourself when you stare at yourself from the weight of what has been done and I guess MC accepted in the end, everyone wants to be happy yet can’t bring that happiness to everyone because we all have to think for our own survival and to help someone you have to help yourself but this seems to have led to the MC being the one giving up so much so they did grow into seeing all the things they had to give up for people who only wanted to pass blame onto others rather than own up to it in the end even now knowing that statue being up does make me upset cause it represents just some guilt people don’t want to own up to for their faults, I wouldn’t want someone celebrating my death after saving you only to realize it’s a cop out to patch a wound for some so called justified death when they put their hand into it being that way. It made it all the more real to show that those people didn’t get the true meaning of that sacrifice MC did only caught up in their own delusions in to thinking some great hero died for them yet not taking responsibility especially when Leon had to push through with it, only person with the guilt ends up with Leon because he knew the MC, yet to blinded by his own shadow berating him for his own betrayal of doubt and taking in other people’s expectations so he could be great, he didn’t look to himself like he did before he was king. He did what he wanted in his own way even listened and even tried to be more open to his team when they had their opinions and took them into account so after a while Saine ended up ignored, Ilya ended up ignored, MC ended up ignored, all for people who didn’t know the full story and him wanting validation in the end without having the input to even put his own thoughts in the mix. 
Love the writing and angst in the first book for sure but geez my poor poor MC got to go through more shallow people not seeing them for who they are and not from always what they want from MC. I can agree that I wish we could go on an island and live away from the chaos cause it feels like a bunch a babies running around pointing fingers to blame and wanting power while innocent lives are being tossed around like a mixed salad or somehow our MC can build our own posse of people and say “No more to this farce we’re carving out our own path whether any of you like it or not! We’re tired of being the punching bag and the tool for all to use and toss away!”. Never in my life have I ever want to be the bad guy but given how people can push you to be the bad guy can be rather tempting because the wrongdoers where the bad guys first and foremost that would have led me to be a force to be dealt with…surprised the MC haven’t cracked and literally went insane, some serious will power, clearly the MC got some purpose or something because at the point people should have crumbled from so much but this come to show that those that don’t break clearly is someone they better watch because they can be something everyone fears the most, MC knows themselves and learn all the time and never blames but themselves and people don’t like it that the MC is strong but I don’t feel it’s just because of the strength of those special powers they have only but keeping them in their place as a game changer because of the strength they have mentally and they’re willing to use the MC but it’s only because they’re afraid and they’re creating more and more of a ‘monster’ later from all this stuff they are putting the MC through, so it feels like it will come full circle for someone…MC is a ticking time bomb themselves and people who don’t stick to them in knowing how they are then they’ll get blasted too. Karma will eventually get it’s just dues and I hope to get to see of what. 
