The Princess's Doll Shop

They finally granted her permission to see Hannah after waiting for such a long time. It was about a week before the day set to head to Forune.

Getting up first thing in the morning, Kathia held the throw in her arms and waited until the time for her to see Hannah in front of the lower-level prison cell. That time felt so long yet so short.

“It’s only going to be for a while. Any type of contact is prohibited, and if there’s anything you wish to pass along, you must give it to us first to inspect it.”

“Understood.”

The prison guard kept repeating these words and Kathia replied in a cold manner.

To the guy who went out of his way to set up this meeting, I couldn’t bear to thank him with empty words.

It was because his identity was none other than the assistant officer of the imperial guards.

For his own selfish act to lessen his guilt, Kathia wasn’t innocent enough to say thanks to a person like that.

“Ah…”

That moment, she heard Hannah’s voice through the damp wall. ‘Child,’ she called. That was her calling for Kathia without a doubt.

“Mom!”

Running towards the direction of the sound, Kathia suddenly stopped in front of the metal prison cell. The slight smile she had turned cold then vanished.

In the prison cell, Hannah looked far worse than she had imagined.

Her upper body was confined like her two arms. Metal links were chained around her thin ankles.

The moment she put her eyes on the hard gag they had put inside of Hannah’s mouth to prevent her from taking her own life, Kathia clamped her eyes shut.

“I’ll undo the gag. So you can talk with her.”

Assuming that Hannah won’t bite her tongue in front of Kathia, the assistant officer who was present when her stepdad was killed, nodded his head, indicating what to do to the prison guard.

Clang! The guard went inside the cell, using his rough hands to undo Hannah’s gag.

“I can’t stay too far away.”

The assistant officer who said so, with the prison guard, stepped about 5-6 steps away.

After inhaling deeply, Kathia kneeled and sat down to match Hannah’s, who was unable to stand up, eye level. She wasn’t quite happy with her action and talked in a quiet voice.

“The floor’s cold…”

She almost said, “What about you, Mom?” Kathia tried hard to smile looking at Hannah, who was sitting down on the cold prison cell floor without anything warm underneath her.

“I’m OK. Ah, here—”

Thinking it was a good thing that her voice didn’t falter, Kathia offered the throw she had in her arms. The assistant officer came and snatched it away immediately.

After carefully inspecting the dark blue throw, he couldn’t find anything suspicious so he went into the cell and carefully wrapped it around Hannah’s shoulders. Hannah couldn’t freely use her hands, so he decided to do that for her, but he had quite a strange look on his face as he did it.

Trying to be considerate after all this time was amusing, and it might not just be Kathia thinking so.

“Did you knit this yourself?”

“Yes, because I wanted to give it to you, Mom.”

“How pretty. Then again, our Kathia was always good with her hands ever since she was young.”

Hannah with her hands bound touched the edge of the throw. It was a throw that she knitted layers and layers on to make as warm as possible.

Truthfully, the cape of wolves’ fur the Emperor gifted Hannah to use in the winter would’ve been a better choice, but Kathia didn’t want to put it on Hannah.

“Thank you. It’s very warm.”

As she was almost buried in the thick throw, she smiled warmly and spoke.

Even if she looked like this, she still seemed so beautiful and radiant. To such a sight, Kathia felt her heart tightening so Kathia lowered her head.

There were so many things she wanted to tell Hannah. She couldn’t explain everything, because there were others, but basically, she wanted to tell her not to worry, it’ll be alright, and that they’ll be together forever.

But she just couldn’t open her lips easily. Because the current situation Hannah was in was too much for Kathia.

Murder.

By Hannah, who was like a spring flower. By Hannah, who looked so emaciated.

No, it couldn’t be. Kathia already knew how strong of a person Hannah is.

Objectively, Hannah was a weak person. She was passive, cried a lot, feared a lot, and she was the type of woman who couldn’t say anything bad to other people.

But.. Kathia knows. Only Kathia knew.

When they were living together by themselves, how persevering she was in raising her.

Whenever Kathia got sick, she would hold her and quickly run towards where the doctor was.

Or worse, for the kids who were bothering Kathia, Hannah went to their houses, and one by one, she physically fought with their parents.

And the only reason Hannah accepted the love of Viscount Haze while scorning the others was for her to give Kathia the best environment to grow up in.

“If I weren’t here…”

Hannah, as far as Kathia was concerned, grew weak enough to jump into the pond and strong enough to kill someone.

“If it weren’t for me, you would’ve been happy for sure.”

Beautiful, rich, peaceful, she would’ve lived while receiving love from everyone. At least, she wouldn’t have killed anyone.

If I weren’t around. If I wasn’t here. Repeating the same words over and over again, Kathia who was frowning and about to cry, heard the arrival of Hannah’s voice.

“You were a child who especially didn’t cry.”

Hannah looked at Kathia who had her head down. Gazing at her sunset-colored eyes that were comforting and warm as if she was waiting.

“From birth, you didn’t cry much. The midwife was worried because you didn’t cry much. I thought that was all my fault. Because I cried too much when I had you in my stomach. I thought that that’s why you didn’t cry much. The Kathia who didn’t cry was small and pitiful, but pretty. Breathtakingly pretty.”

Remembering the day when Kathia was born, Hannah’s eyes sparkled.

Love, affection, joy, admiration, all those feelings combined, she was trying to speak through her eyes.

But soon, her sunset-colored eyes started to turn sorrowfully hazy. Going even further back, she remembered the time before Kathia was born.

“That man… Yes, because of that man, I cried throughout all 10 months. Like a fool. That man said he loved me, but in the end, he didn’t respect me at all.”

That man. Kathia automatically thought she was referring to her birth father.

At the same time, a bad hunch came.

I thought it wouldn’t get worse than this.

“Because you were conceived through unwanted intercourse.”

Below hell, was another layer of hell.