This elevated the whole subgenre of noble villanous ladies, in all the ways! Very satisfying read
A) the villainess doesn't reincarnate/do over/transmigrated, instead she is a ghost, trying to solve her own murder. She's not repentant, hasn't learned her lesson etc. She is simply straight up flawed character, but as pointed out, what she did was pretty crap that definitely didn't amount to a beheading.
B) the story is from the POV of this innocent girl 10 years later.
C) the world has a backstory that isn't just a boring canvas. It's rich and we are given glimpses of it without just infodumps. It sort of even has a bit of the GOT feel going on with all of Scarlet's "friends" introduced in the manga! You know it feels like we are seeing the characters post 10 year epilogue of the actual 'otome game' events, and the facade of each character hid these really decadent and interesting characters.
D) the mystery component here is fun. It's got intrigue, conspiracy, and seems to be the best mix of detective sleuthing and such. The Villainous ghost and innocent girl are kind of like a detective cop duo team lol.
E) So many strong, and/or female characters! Moral ambiguity! I mean, just her 'best friend's that was a degenerate apparently. She put on all these airs of piety supposedly, and we are told it was all fake... But in the end, she did warn the orphans right before she died. So she had at least some affection for them.
I'm actually a bit bummed that the widower seems to be getting set up to be the Male romantic lead, and it would be an awesome subversion if it ended up not being the case, and instead they partner up to unravel the conspiracy but DON'T try ending up together. I k ow that's a step too far for manga lol, but this is an awesome premise, and I really want to read the WN/LN someday if it is half as good.