So MC is investing in the things the original heroine would have invested in, and she's now working with the merchant the original heroine worked with, and I'm going to guess the MMC was a love interest who was set aside by the original heroine (and was likely the girl he was late night mystic ball messaging).
I'm thinking that she's going to earn the ire of the empress/heroine because she either
A) Taking all the opportunities that the heroine was thinking about
or
B) Feels like MC has stolen from her because they were once hers, despite discarding them.
I hope the original heroine is a good person though; so often we get the original heroines and they're incredibly selfish and wicked people, to the point where them being normal or even good feels very refreshing.
