I wonder... if Rashta was the one telling the story?

I've also wondered that, early on......I soon realized that from her perspective she'd still be unlikable. She could very well settle into being a concubine, however, she's vying for the highest position only second to the king. Mind you, the rite to becoming queen is rigorous and she wants to take the back door. And her relationship with the king? it's clear their love is merely a farce and she's only with him for power/ money. She's also intent on hurting those who overshadow her and doesn't like taking any responsibility....Doesn't she seem quite petty and self-serving? I feel like even from her perspective, these actions would leave a terrible taste to the reader.

Neither do I. However, if you were slave, what would you do to get out of it? I don't know. I don't blame her for trying to get out of a terrible situation. Being raped and forced to have a child and then having the child taken away must have been a bad experience for her. I blamed the prince. I think he's the real bad guy in this. It's wanting to help a poor slave girl to try to be better but too betray your wife? He's so selfish.

That is an excellent point. But I also have to consider how she may have been raised. Being a slave, she wasn't taught to know any better. She doesn't even know how to read. It's sort of like she was put onto another planet and was supposed to automatically know the customs. She is conniving though, although I think she just is trying to overcompensate for her ignorance, which she really needs to be educated. I think the prince should have insisted on her going to some kind of schooling before putting her into a quart in the middle of nowhere. It's like throwing a toddler to the deep end of a pool. The prince should have known better and I feel like she's really dumb. I don't know how to feel about that but I need the Prince is the worst. Also Rashta is not that good either but seeing she is too ambitious and naive that she does bite off more than she can chew.

Rashta tends to step on people to get ahead even if they’ve done nothing wrong
As shown with the rumors and then her uprooting a scandal from years ago to save her own skin from oh no- gossip. Plus she's annoying. And does pretty much everything wrong. Also she'd be a boring, stereotypical shoujo protagonist on top of all that. Also the drama about her child and her bribing would be annoying. And, I doubt our perception of the emperor would change, since he’s a bitch in either scenario.
Also she’s a home wrecker, so I would still side with the empress, and empress hasn’t even done anything wrong
Plus, um if we’re gonna add race into this equation, which is honestly unnecessary, it would not change anything about Rashta's unlikeable personality. We don’t even know if the slavery in this world is based on race. And rather than racist, people appear to be more classist in this story.
There's kinda no point in this what if thing since in our view of the story, we see everything. And everyone's true character. The author does a good job and letting us know everyone's points of views.
I think if we changed a significant plot piece it wouldn’t rlly mean anything, cuz at that point it’s just a completely different story. Like if Rashta was actually tolerable and the main character. The author made these characters the way they are for a reason lol, and it doesn’t add much to out comprehension or understanding to just change and imagine a big piece of plot.

She may not be educated but I wouldn't say she's unfamiliar with noble etiquette. Even though her master was a baron, he's still a noble. As an unpaid worker at a nobles mansion, I believe she wasn't a hard laborer, if she was, she'd have coarser skin/ calluses or even freckles for being out in the sun for long - which she doesn't. She also wasn't raped by the baron's son, they had an affair. Only the son didn't want to take responsibility. It's why she feels so insecure about the King's love. The king is trash, no doubt. He got honey-trapped and it's quite embarrassing. She has a very good EQ and extremely manipulative, but what's the point if she'd rather take it out on those innocent (i.e. the maid and baroness). At the moment, she no longer has the identity of a slave but a concubine. She is actually a level higher than a commoner (perhaps even a baron), but she wants to be more nobler. She's attracted to the glitz and glam of the upper class, so her greed and shortsightedness will be her downfall.

She's a fully grown woman, and knows exactly what she's doing in terms of manipulating people and getting herself out of trouble.
She's intelligent enough to understand she's simply not qualified to be empress.
Her being a slave doesn't mean she doesn’t know common sense. She may be stupid, but she's not that stupid.

my question is what does race have to do with anything? even if she was a poc that does not change the fact that she is homewrecking to save her own skin, you asking if she was a poc has nothing to do with this story, for one, she's not, and even if she was what would that change? she would still be homewrecking. two, we don't know how slavery is done in this story. yes, slaves are considered less than a person but as you can tell rashta is clearly not a poc, she's white through and through. three, even if this was in the pov of rashta we would still see her being again a homewrecker, still vying for the position of empress, and still continuing to be her 'ditzy' self. rashta does not care who she hurts as long as she comes out on top while the empress is just doing her best to accommodate the hand she's been given. so no, if this was in rashta's pov i would not side with her. in fact it would make me hate the story because in every single shoujo romance you've probably read the 'villainous' queen was just someone trying to protect what was hers to begin with.

Exactly, like why try to bring race into this
This world doesn’t even bring race into the equation, it’s based on class