
Hm... I'm really conflicted. On one hand Baek is probably a better choice for her mentally (though it'd be a very cliche story), on other hand, she will die if she chooses him. She is already an unpopular ruler, everything is handled by Dowun and he is clearly the one with the most power. Then, if we are talking about who saved her... Baek saved her life once on whim but Dowun saved her from a fate that could have been worse than death - he saved her repeatedly too. I do not believe she would have been able to live on peacefully had her brother become the kind and/or her step sister left 'alive' and in power. She is acting out like a child, not a queen. She tries to go against Dowun not by accumulating power and connections but by going out whenever she wants and worsening her reputation ...??? Reading this story gives me an uncertain feeling of anxiety where I just believe it will end as a tragedy unless she somehow becomes a capable queen. Even she knows she is a puppet right now and puppets are disposable... Dowun is extremely flawed as a human being but very capable as a future queen consort. Truly the kingsmaker - and if he chooses somebody else to support, it will be the end of her. If you see it as a business partnership, treat your business partner right - especially if he is the reason you stood up and are still standing. She chose to be where she is now, she chose to work with him, she chose this bloody path, so now I don't want her to abandon everything for a false sense of comfort and all of her citizens with it.
I wish she and Dowun became a power couple instead of this weird af love triangle where the whole country is at stake. Anyways, apparently I'm an M and am addicted to this anxiety inducing story, so that's fun!

Honestly, any route involving love here will become a cliche with the power of love she will conquer the frozen heart of a bad guy or will run away with the other one and will live happily ever after
I'm curious about how realistic the author wants the story to be - if she wants it really close to reality then I think there could be 2 scenarios
1) she will marry Dowun, ie the 'for the kingdom I will suffer through a loveless marriage' route because with the amount of misunderstanding and lack of communication on top of so many emotional scars it will be impossible for them to reconcile, they will be nearly perfecr rulers but will continue to hurt and numb each other,
2) she will choose Baek, ie the 'for love I will sacrifice a kingdom' route. Here she will either abandon the country to live with him or forcefully make him queen consort even though both of them lack the ability to govern and neither of them has a good backing or resources which will result in internal war or the country will be enfulfed by surrounding countries that will take advantage of a weak ruler.
Maybe I'm anticipating angst too much because right now I'm not exactly haply with either ML options
They might as well be all speaking a different language and communicate by playing charades lol