Bruh...
For starters: Alaina probably killed dozens of innocent people to make her scheme believable. She admits turning Cass' mom aganist the Real Regis hence causing the Real Regis' death indirectly, and right after admitting that, she also admits killing Cass's mom and using her 'death' to frame our father to manipulate both Priscilla and Cass for years so she also caused 'coup' in a way, a coup that if failed; lots of people died because of it including Aker and Ludwig, your loyal friends and teachers. After our father sat on the throne, she also admits killing dozens of people again to make the 'marriage' between Seraphine and King happen. Ah, lets not forget how she poisoned to King all through his life to make him barren and send oracles to him to make him more delirious. I can only hope that this is the full iceberg not the tip.
Well, Conrad on the other hand, raided some places and interrogated some illegal and suspicous Elves. This, what you call extreme and cruel methods...? I am also %100 sure that all he had done is fair and right by the Golden Order so no abuse of position/power. He is a fuckin puppy beside Alaina if we were to compare them by the degree of cruelty.
And if you believe Conrad, Alaina also probably killed your grandma too lol, maybe Red Emperor himself too. But I don't like giving her that much of a credit so my other candidate in that matter is Ludwig.