there is a side plot where he does show some interest in the 13 year old candidate for the crown princess, BUT that sh*t is shut down within a couple chapters. The MC has a conversation with him where she literally goes "don't force a child to do anything" and the prince listens and later reassures her that nothing will happen. So like, is he a messy player who deserves to die alone? Yes. But is he the scum of the earth? Nah, I don't think so.

the MC literally always ends the letters with, "you don't have to respond if you don't want to." so like she isn't a horrible person--she understands what boundaries are and how not to be annoying lol.

the half-sister is the ogFL she works as ogMC maid - her birth was accidental as ogMC father mistook maid mother as his dead wife on a drunken stupor (i know some men just couldn't keep it in their pants!). The half-sister mother is said to be unambitious and just want to live quietly birthed half-sister and got her a place to stay in the mansion as ogMC maid. Half-sister seemed pretty content with her situation -there are no schemes or tropes of an abused half-sister or being left out, it isn't a dog blood/sisters-tearing-each-others-face-off, illegitimate versus legit children kind of novel, I don't know where the other reviewer got that impression. The half-sister is proud of her profession per the half-sister's perspective, she is even competing with the maid of the MC bff, with regards on how to make their Ladies beautiful or stand out in soirees. Half-sister actually thinks that ML is not good enough for MC since he is wasting her lady's effort in writing letters for him and him not replying. I appreciate that the author took time to write out half-sister perspectives as MC maid, to make it clear to the reader that she doesn't harbor any ill will but I thought that it could've been executed well. Even so it showed that half-sister clearly looks out for her Lady and only has her good intentions in mind. As of chapter 67 there wasn't any sign of dissatisfaction from half-sister regarding her situation as marquis illegitimate daughter. Actually there aren't any scenes or perspective from both marquis and half-sister about what they thought of each other. It's always with the dad dotting the MC.

Honestly, the novel is mainly focused on the MC and ML romance development, mostly on how MC pursued ML. ML kind of quickly fell in love with MC.
The ognovel is about the ML being a commoner soldier being granted the ogMC-an eligible spoiled daughter of a marquis to be his wife as a reward and to pull him over to emperor faction. But ogMC ran away and half-sister get sent as collateral, in short ML and half-sister fell in love, foolish ogMC gets dead. Now, our MC reading the ognovel, said that if ogMC was her she wouldn't run away, ML is hot and a respectable kind of guy who respects and treats his wife well, she already has a crush on the ML before transmigrating and made up her mind to pursue him should she have a chance, I mean who wouldn't? Then she fell asleep and woke up as ogMC.

When half-sister and ML met in the current novel, no spark or fireworks flew whatsoever, since by then ML and MC are pretty much head over heels for each other. For half sister I am hoping there might be a potential ship with ML war buddy, which I'm really looking forward to.

I do have to disagree with the other comments saying that the FL is "snatching" the ML when in the first place and in the original novel the ML is supposed to be wedded to the original side character and the FL is not the original side character so why does she have to follow the trope and what, be dead? It's also hypocritical when the original FL and ML only fell in love in the later stage so no snatching is involved when they weren't even in a relationship. The comments saying that the FL only wanted to live a lavish and lazy life; of course she who died of cancer and had been working all her life, being an orphan, being bullied and being in failed relationships would want to take it easy in life. She also does not manipulate her feelings towards the father, she is revising what the original side character hadn't done; as the FL is living the side characters life of course she wants to make the relationship with the people around her better and her reputation to be better because in the original novels plot the side character's relationship with her father and her reputation are both awful.

The ML is also like those real life soldiers, he hates war but he can't be bothered to do nothing about it. In both the original novel and the the one with the transmigrated FL, he is an unambitious man who only wants to stop the war and live his life quietly and peacefully. He also didn't object when the emperor originally bestowed a marriage for his as he didn't have a lover or someone he liked. With the FL he wants to have better achievements to be worthy of her, as he is in a sense is a commoner and she is a noble in which may be looked down upon. He is also an honest and loyal man as he only wants to be with only one woman and was saving himself. I liked his character because almost all of the male characters that I've read so far has this "power" to almost do everything but in here he doesn't.

There are also the FL's friends the Duke's daughter Violet, the crown prince Hiel and the Marquis's younger son limontri. The crown prince is what we call a casanova or simply a playboy. He likes people to flock over him and to praise his looks but he still has a clear line. He did like Violet's looks (she's 13 at that time 😑) but backed down when FL told him off and he listened. The way he acts maybe disgusting to other people who'll read this but he is a genuine person who cares for his friends and family. He doesn't bother falling in love as he knew that his future wife maybe chosen for him; I actually have complicated feelings towards this character but I lean more on liking him despite the fact that I hate it when people have many "relationships" at the same time. Moving on to Violet she is just like the FL when it comes to their views of what they like about their future husband. She is extremely mature for her age due to her father's teaching as she will also succeed his title as the duchess so she is trained since she was little be it in terms of socializing, with hunting and discerning people. She has a goal set for her future self; I honestly love her character. And limontri he is also somewhat similar to the FL, same age as the crown prince (19) and future prospect of violet. He is a man who knows his position (for their time as he knew he wouldn't inherite the title) and a man that also cherishes his relationship with people. He is a sincere friend towards the FL and the crown prince (I honestly like them all 😅).

The Emperor is also a casanova like his son in his younger years but stopped once he met the empress and only love one woman after she died. The Original FL lucine, she didn't have a bad relationship with the FL and her father because she didn't live with them. It's almost like a stranger and not a stranger. In a sense she didn't grew up with them so she is content with what she have now and has a good relationship with FL. They treat each other as sisters (in a sense they are sisters) but act like their position outside of the manor. I also like her character. 😂 There is also the Thurwin which almost serve as the ML love advisor. He is also a soldier and a good friend to the ML.

She made it of course and ML fell head over heels with MC in almost no time.

There were too much of side stories about MC and ML while there were lack of side stories about other couple such as Hiel and Elsa and Limontri and Violet.

Limontri and Violet indeed ended up together after being friends for years but I also want to see more of them especially after Violet became an adult (not gonna lie though, I also expect a sm*t scene from them).

And what about Hiel and Elsa? Till the end, Elsa still couldn't trust Hiel. And with Elsa's low status, it must be hard for her to be a crown princess. Don't know if they would make it because the author didn't mention them in the side stories. It's really a pity because Hiel was one of MC's best friend so I hope he would be happy too.

There's also Lucine, the original heroine. I didn't resent MC for snatching ML away from her since if ML was really for Lucine, he won't fall in love with MC no matter how hard MC tried to woo him. But the fact that ML easily fell in love with MC proved that his fate with Lucine wasn't absolute. However, I still hope that she ended up with a good man too and be as happy as if she was with ML. Too bad till the end, she still didn't end up with anyone.