It does seem like the Emperor has loved the OG Erina for a very long time, even as he has grown to hate her more and more, and their relationship has grown so complicated and hopelessly tangled they would never be able to straighten it again on their own. Since this is the case, I can see the story hitting a snag (for me, personally) since I never like it when a character who has a dedicated love for another... is suddenly ok switching to a transmigrated replacement. This is another part of the reason why I feel this would have worked better as an amnesia fic. Still, it is early days. Maybe this will be reincarnated-transmigration, and the MC was the OG Erina, reborn in the modern world, and then dropped back into her life as Erina? No idea, but we'll see!

Once MC realized that she didn’t actually transmigrated, the reality that she really destroyed so many lives in her attempt to be a duke becomes a great shackle. Yet, somehow, a moment of sacrificing-her-life-for-another-yet-not-really and a few apologies here and there is supposedly enough to redeem her and she is thus given her happy ending.

He came back from war and without knowing just how this young lady tried hard to survive, her real circumstances (medical bills for mom), he immediately starts judging her and condemning her, pushing her to commit even more atrocities. Not to excuse Erina, of course. She is the main antagonist of her own life and made decisions that made her hate herself, but he certainly didn’t help and I hate that it wasn’t even addressed.

I know he was in contract by the Duke, literally being blackmailed. But since it takes a while to address that everytime the ML scenes come he always seems so scary in the beginning. I know why he does this or why he's so cautious, but I cannot help but fear/sympathetic for the MC. It was interesting to say the least

The reason she save Ethan and his sister, about why she feel guilty about Sally (?) Despite not only Ethan and others tried to kill her.

I think later on she's sympathetic with the ML, even if she doesn't cause most of it, she feels guilty about it and try to fix it in her place abandoning her plan to run away peacefully

Not only that I feel like the OG Erina is kind too but because her family, she tries just so hard to save her mother

In the past the ML pushing OG Erina away too (with his own reason), making her seem that she has no one on her side. After that, when she's almost poisoned which make her pigeon died by her brother her dad doesn't care and instead hit her. Making her losing hope at anything else, which I think it's why she have this contract thing with the ML. Not saying that her action are right though.

There may be the chance that the MC and the OG Erina is the same though since there's quite a bit of evidence leaning towards it