She married the late emperor bc of political reasons - typical for this area, she barely 20, he over 50. (you can read it in ch. 29) She is younger than the current emperor (Feistre) aka her stepson. I don't know why she wants Arlendo (step-grandson) to be crown prince, it looks like she has some kind of scheme and wants revenge but nothing is revealed yet.
The current emperor still hasn't decided who the next heir will be.
Might contain a spoiler
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Based on duchess theory and investigation. Arlendo is not the emperor's son. He is the child of the late emperor and empress medea that's why empress medea highly supports him because Arlendo is her son. Medea has done some shitty tricks to make this happen. You can check Ch. 84 Sai and Duchess Salvatore's conversation. This is when the duchess had suspicions about what really happened when Medea gave birth. Also, the topic was also mentioned at Ch.94 when duchess heard about Aitera's confession about his Father and Empress Medea alliance.
Sorry if the explanation is quite messy but you can go to the chapters i mentioned to further understand what I'm talking about
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I’m confused, the empress media is she also married to the king, does she have kids too or not. Who’s the kings brother is that Conrad’s dad or the real father of the first prince