Well actually, it's a lot more common than you think in history. Remember a lot of these marriages were arranged and it wasn't me from love. So in a way if you are obligated to be underneath somebody who was sweaty and you couldn't stand them, sometimes having somebody there to take the you know, you know? Is a relief. There are actually a lot of parts in history where the concubine and the queen were quite close because they were together in dealing with an oppressive male, you know, bully of a person. Also there were a lot of concubines in Queens that help each other out because they were both stuck in a situation.
As a slave you have to remember that she was a slave and she was sa abused in a way, since she was 10 so I think in a way she was hoping that the empress would help her get a better life and guide her through this thing. Since it was always seems normal for men to cheat on their wives with their slaves. That's like, you have to remember in the south, it happened a lot, it even in South america, like for instance, I hate to say it but my great-grandfather had an affair with a 16 year old maid when he was 42 and she had a kid and she wasn't a villain. Because she was 16. Remember Rasta here is 16 and she was enslaved since she was 10. That's 6 years of abuse she went through.
I read from the start again to see how she behaved from the beginning, from what I know, the ass told rashta he was in a marriage of convenience, so no love, obviously she doesn't have a reason to not want to be with the emperror when she was a fucking slave, anyone helping, she would take their hand.
The asshole had to come clean from the beginning to the empress if he didn't think it was nothing bad, but he knew from experience from his father what is a mistress.
What I see in the beginning, the relationship of the emperror and the empress, is not so good from how the story always portrays, like friends, sweethearts yada yada. He was cold to her, sometimes even rude like no respect just showing his power as a emperror.
The empress was taught that he could get a mistress, that in their case, it wouldn't be weird when they don't love each other, even though they loved each other when they were young. So her being rude to rashta in the beginning I blame sovieshu for not talking to her so she can process everything.
I don't know if the 2 could be friends like, the empress is the epitome of education when rashta didn't know how to read or write. So when rashta tried anything, the empress just saw it as an insult to her.
Rereading the story, I saw how her downfall began. She didn't have anyone on her side to REALLY help her, scold her, lead her in the right direction. All the people just wanted to be in her good grace. The maids didn't do anything, the ass just wanted her as a pet to relieve his stress and go gaga "oh so cute, she doesn't know anything, so diferent from empress...". If he really loved her, he would get her an education when she stepped there, but he didn't want, he even said he didn't want her to change, but its obviously she had too.
Annnnd IT'S DUKE ERGI THE MASTERMIND, he always said the wrong things to her, the bad advices, said she would lose her sit and things like that, put bad thoughts into her head, that she couldn't trust the emperror and he would tire of her quickly so she had to start doing things if she didn't want to lose this life.
I'm tired, Don't know how I could write so much. Before I reread it, I though rashta was two faced, but its just because on the chapter 1, that is a sneak peek of chapter 70 I guess, when the story is suuuuuper advanced, she smiled when the emperror said he wanted to divorce the empress. But in the beginning she wasn't two faced, just ignorant for obvious reasons...
Like, anyone knows you can't just go and be friends with the wife, when you are the mistress!
BUT, IN THE END, IT'S ALL SOVIESHUS FAULT
(︶︿︶)=凸