I hope the author dwell further into the backstory of how she was reduced to a tyrant by the duke. I'm not content with the vague reasoning of "oh, the duke fed the emperor some drugs and alcohol." Yea, I'm not buying on how easily the OG emperor was drugged when her backstory spoke so highly of her.
I looked at the raws, and it appears as though there is another antagonist who has someone with the magic that sparks madness in people, so Yulia might have been influenced by magic, drugs, and alcohol, which means she didn't stand a chance and makes it even more tragic for me.
I like her as a main character. Still I have to say, when characters like this are going out of their way to do things outside of the plot, it always annoys me that they’re shook when their actions change things and people make different decisions.