@SugarArirang Same here. She is truly acting in the best interest of someone else (the prince), but just like mc she has trouble seeing the plot has been averted. The only difference is that ppl actually plot against her to lead her into this situation (like prince said in a prior chapter, he wants to make her a scapegoat for a "condemnation event" just to assuage mc's psyche).
- The evidence she found was legit, she was just unaware that this time the father was a spy and not a criminal (sad coincidence).
- The ppl who had told her they had been bullied were stated this chapter to likely have actually been feeding her that information, which with her assumptions led to further ones (unfortunate bias).
- The brother had actually led her on about being maltreated (prince's orders a few chapters back).
- bertia had actually tried to follow plot and bully her (affirming her bias/view on the world)
- She is led on by 'hedonistic men' who says anything they think she wants to hear, but is fine throwing her to the ravens when in public (likely to further affirm her misunderstanding and make her shoot herself in the foot thinking she has backup)
All combined with her having a supposedly really good reason to fixate on the prince like this (mc wants to sacrifice both herself and her family for said unsaid reason, no matter what bullshit author ends up coming up with, it clearly is legitimate from a plot-perspective. And she even made it very clear she knows of it to when she shouted at mc a few chapters back, about how she is ok not getting any other capture target, but mc blocking the prince-route is actually something objectively unforgiveable), it really paints a pitiable picture about her current situation.