THIS IS GOOD 10/10 As for the background I'm still confused as to why they had to use her ...

Idk i suspect thay maybe the crown prince doesnt like the original veronica or maybe shes infertile cause the protagonist ends up having a child and he was taken away by them, but thats just my guess

real Veronica was sick and they thought that might effect her chances of marriage to the prince...
to show the society that she is healthy and well, they used fake Veronica.
After real Veronica got better and her position in the society seemed more solid and safe with fake Veronica doing everything in her place, she killed the fake Veronica.
That's kind of the gist I got but I could be wrong about it as well...

No, you're right. They literally stated this in previous chapters but it seems a lot of people forgot about it lmao. I'm really curious what happened after Elena died before. Does the crown prince noticed anything or was the scheme uncovered or something? It seems like The Prince and Elena had a very wonderful relationship and also... That babyyyyy

according to a future raw chapter I saw, it seems like the prince is not so fond of the fake Veronica...I am not sure though since I don't know how to read Korean.

https://tkor.red/그림자_황비_13화.html

That's the raw link on chapter 13 I believe...

Wait so that means we actually get to see the alternate life after her death!??? Bruhhh I'm sold

I don't think so according to the story so far, when I said fake Veronica, I meant the MC, that was MC's flashback to "before" she died~
she is the Fake Veronica cause she is replacing the real Veronica...
but I did read a spoiler below in the comments, my assumption about the prince was wrong, looks like he is nice guy and he is the ML in the story

Ohhh okok. I didn't catch that "fake Veronica" I thought you're talking about the actual Veronica for a sec. But hey, I do hope the mc is actually good since based on the prologue, it did seem like they're actually in love with each other (The Prince and Elena)