The Gladius ceremony. MC says Xavier changed after that. He was less bratty, more serious, and there was definitely a major shift in his emotional core. We aren't told what actually happened in the forest for several chapters.
Then we finally get a reveal with a flashback. Xavier presents his father with the protocore of the wanderer he slew in the Gladius Ceremony.
This crucial dialogue in Ch. 8 (you can watch it here if you don't have it) is when we learn that:
A. protocores are actually hearts
B. wanderers were once living beings
C. sacrifices to the planet's core are what keep the planet alive thanks Astra
I was confused for a bit because of this line:
My assumption was that MC was the sacrifice first and I was thinking, was MC sacrificed in her past life as a devoted follower of the king?
No. This doesn't make sense. Reading it over, it makes much more sense if it was the heart of mother.
Why he's so insistent on a sitting ruler being a strong queen. Why he hates his father so ferociously. Why he seeks vindication for the life of the woman he loved first: his mom, and is trying desperately not to repeat what his father did: sacrifice the woman he love(d) to feed the planet.
This is when his father tries to protest:
"A king cannot act on his emotions or only protect the people he holds dear."
We don't know if the decision was difficult for his parents. We don't know if his father was tyrannical and took his wife's life by force. We don't know if they loved each other dearly and this tore him apart, if his mother went willingly because she knew it would mean giving her son a future. So many things to assume. We only know that Xavier is only seeing one side of this story, and not really hearing his father out.
So Xavier rejects the throne so that he doesn't have the obligation to do that. And Xavier is seeking desperately to protect the woman he loves, almost at the cost of the planet, to try to prevent history from repeating itself. But Love and Deepspace has a weird habit of timelines and history repeating itself anyways so IDKKKK WHAT THIS MEANS.
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