For those who have not understood the MC's behavior in this chapter (I apologize in advance if a few steps are not understandable, but English is not my first language and for the wall of text that will follow):
Lord Lexen is a small nobleman from the Western lands. He has economic problems and risks financial collapse, but he is still a nobleman and has land, which gives him, though small, decision-making power over the choices of his kingdom.
For this reason the protagonist chose him as husband for one of her closest helpers, after having had him divorced from his wife; in this way she obtained legal political power even in western lands, and considering how economically powerful the Rozan dukedom is, climbing to the top is not so difficult.
She could have just bought the title, but getting into the socio-political and economic circuits of a realm from outside with a purchased title and doing so through marriage with someone who is already in that circuit is completely different and much, much more difficult, and so she avoided many more closures and hostilities.
Obviously, ML has no interest in Mr. Lexen or his wife; after paying them a large amount of compensation for the “disorder”, she simply asked them to retire in a quiet life away from the nobility, so as not to get involved in her work under the bench.
In practice, while Grand Duke Evron is conquering Western lands in a military and “heroic way”, she works in the undergrowth of semi-legality to achieve the same result, so as to make the actions of future consorts much easier without affecting the aura of an honest person who possesses