I don’t like him, either. I’m lukewarm. I’m trying to explain why he makes sense, is so interesting, and is still potentially redeemable.
I used the phrase “terminally upper-class” to describe him. As in someone shaped by his surroundings to the extent that only serious interaction with new things will change him.
He’s 26, only recently kicked out into the world on his father’s whim. He’s trained. Not experienced. His recent joining Laios’ party is literally the first adventuring he’s ever done.
He’s a rich kid out on his first outing into the real world.
He already knows that the retainers are people. He grew up playing with them, literally raised by one of them. He started off knowing they were people.
I think he is in a depression and choosing to ignore that fact because it is easier than dealing with the feelings caused by caring about these people, while being powerless to help them. Something he hadn’t yet been forced to acknowledge until learning that the most formative person in his life, is also his dad’s favourite plaything. He knows they are people, and is trying reconcile that with the cards that real life has dealt them. And yes, he is failing. Hard.
Of course, he isn’t really powerless, but going from feeling that way to knowing otherwise, and then acting on it, can take years, no matter how old you are. And I think Maizuru is banking on it happening. Though she herself probably doesn’t realize how far Shuro will want to change things when he finally processes it all.
Still wouldn’t let him have Falin in a million years. She could do so much better.