Anyway, now that Tia is gone, Ruve continues to get crazier and is desesperate after being poisoned with the drugs.

Ruve has also figured out at this time that Zena is not his "father figure" but was actually poisoning him and that everything about Tia was a lie. For instance, Ji-Eun keeps saying she loves him but after 5 (?) years together, has no idea what his favorite/disliked foods are, whereas Tia figured it out within a couple of weeks.

Every time he forced himself to smile, he thought of Tia to make himself smile.

Tia also took so much pressure off him by handling many Empire matters for him, whereas Ji-Eun actually stresses him out with more work with her dumb decisions.

He (finally) realizes that Tia loved him and showed it through actions, just not words, while Ji-Eun's words were empty and hollow and betrayed by her careless actions.

Ruve also realizes that he is dead soon, especially if Ji-Eun gives birth to a son, since Zena will kill him and then assume the role of "regent", while raising and brainwashing the baby who will one day inherit the empire.

Ruve has a way to save his life by killing Ji-Eun and he considers it, but realizes that killing her and the unborn child will be doing the same thing to her what he did to Tia, something he regrets with all his heart.

And in case you forgot, he actually wanted to save her life and send her away from the empire, just Zena and the nobles were too powerful and ordered Tia executed.

I think the webtoon actually portrayed this badly since they showed Ruve kind of with a superior/unfeeling look on his face while she was executed, when in reality he wanted to spare her. Also the part when he ask her to kiss his feet to spare her father's life isn't in the book I think it was added afterward to exaggerate Ruve's angry, bipolar, and schizophrenic side because of the drug.

So he instead realizes he's lost and Zena will now take over the Empire, so he gives up on being Emperor and tries to run away, but Zena gets wind of this and sends soldiers to assassinate Ruve.

Ruve falls down a cliff and as he lies dying, he gazes up at the moon (the king is the sun and the moon symbolizes the queen/empress) and he thinks the moon is Tia and basically begs her for forgiveness and thinks death is not so bad since he will be reunited with Tia.

Ruve's POV and death was quite heartbearking because we get to see how his mind and sense of reality were completely broken by the poison.

He was not able to discern what was real from what wasn't, who were friends and who were foes, and his paranoia was fed by Tia's emotionless attitude.

We can see how he desperately loved Tia, and each time he clunged to the tiny smiles or emotions she showed to try to regain his sanity, only to be drowned in despair, anger and madness when she pulled her social mask back on again.

He hated and despised himself so much that he thought Tia could never love him and that she was disgusted to be touched by him because of his commoner blood (He's mother was a servant). He thought he was soiling her when he was touching her.

He didn't kill Keirean after Jieun's attack, he just said this to Tia because he thought she was leaving him because he couldn't give her children anymore after she was declared barren - so he had become useless to her. Remember he think she is power-hungry and he accept to be a tool for her if it allows him to be by her side.

Furthermore it seems that when the poison takes over, Ruve gets into a kind of rage that makes him say things he doesn't really mean and do things he regrets after. Now, were this lie intentional or not ? That is hard to say.

Maybe Ruve lied in order to save his face in front of Tia (because he thought Tia was only using him as a breeder and a pawn). But it's more likely Ruve said those words in a fit of rage. You know, how sometimes you're just too angry and say things you don't think.

Last but not least, as the poison deprive him of sleep, Ruve drinks heavily in order to be able to sleep (and it's the wine he drinks on order to sleep that is poisoned). So he's clearly addicted to alcohol too. And we know how people act when under alcohol.

This said, Ruve never knew he was truly hurting Tia with these words. Had he known he was hurting her (and not simply annoying her and getting in the way of her schemes) the end would have been very different for the both of them. Ruve really thought Tia didn't have any feelings for him... or any feelings at all for that matter.

He really wanted their child to be the next emperor because he truly believed she was the only one who could raise the future emperor. He knew Jieun was unfit to be the mother of the crown prince, and he was feeling guilty to think this because he was supposed to love Jieun, as she was the only one who was warm to him and saying she loved him.

He was disgusted with himseld to be drawn to a woman who was so cold to him and only saw him as a political tool and a breeder, when he had a woman who loved him. (Ruve is definitely a one-woman man, it utterly broke him and his sense of honour and self-respect to have two wives.) But he can't do anything against that 'cause Tia and him are soulmates so he will forever fall for her and reciprocally. It's their fate.

When Tia comes to plead for her father's life, Ruve loses it because she comes with just a pin in her hair.

She doesn't wear the tiara she's always wearing and that only royals should wear. It shows that she is his queen and his wife, and she has removed it.

It's mentioned that, secretly, Ruve greatest pride was to be Tia's husband, even if he thought she was using him.

He thinks he has completely lost her and that broke him. [2nd timeline Ruve sends Tia a beautiful music box with a silver haired girl wearing a saphire and diamond tiara for her coming of age, after she publicly rejected him and their engagement. It is his way to say he still hope she will one day be his empress. So the tiara is an important symbole in the novel.]

When he falls from a cliff after being wounded and surrounded by soldiers he sees the moon (the moon is the symbole of the empress) and for him it's Tia who comes to him. He dies only thinking of Tia and all the things he could never tell her and ask her.

He dies regretting that he didn't had the chance to start a family with her and regretting not telling her he loved her.

He just hope she's happy where she is and he is glad and almost moved to tears just by thinking that he will finally be reunited with her. Which is funny because he won't, 'cause Tia was sent back in time.

Last detail, on the day of the execution, this is not portrayed in the manhwa, but Ruve was moved by Tia's tears when she looked at him. Ruve briefly regained his sanity and wanted to stop the execution. He was lifting his arm to stop the executionner when Jieun hung on his shoulder and arm, preventing him from doing so. And the axe fell and Tia died.

Bad timing.

I know that some people sill won't be convinced (and that's fair) but tbh, just like with Jieun, I've found even this Ruve very pitiful and his story broke my heart. Even more as I knew whom he could have been had he not been misled, poisoned and betrayed since childhood.

This is all background and Tia gets sent back in time, of course.

Tbh, now that I know what really happened I can't hate first Ruve even after what he did. I can't forgive him either but he wasn't master of his actions and mind so I think he is rather pitifull...