You Said I Was a Persecuted, Terminally Ill Grand Duchess? - Chapter 44

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 44

 

What settled within Katarina was unmistakable relief.

 

No matter how stubborn she was, it seemed she inevitably crumbled before her parents.

 

However…

 

“Your Grace, please show mercy!”

 

Thud!

 

They knelt at Jenos’s feet without hesitation.

 

“We heard the general situation through the messenger bird. She is still young and an ignorant child who knows nothing. We apologize in her stead. It is my fault for raising her poorly. So please…”

 

“Please, considering the loyalty our Hugo Family has devoted to Celeste all this time, we beg for your leniency!”

 

“Please spare her life, please just spare her life!”

 

A beautiful middle-aged woman who looked just like Katarina sobbed while pressing her upper body to the floor.

 

The same was true for the kindly-looking middle-aged nobleman.

 

The hope that had briefly settled on Katarina’s face crumbled to pieces.

 

As if she couldn’t believe any of this, she muttered in a trembling voice.

 

“Father, Mother… What are you saying? I didn’t harm Her Grace the Duchess… Really…! Don’t you believe me?”

 

“Katarina, this is not the time to be prideful! Please understand the situation!”

 

Countess Hugo scolded her daughter with a voice full of tears.

 

As the hall became noisy again, Jenos rose from his seat, holding his throbbing head.

 

Then he delivered his verdict indifferently.

 

“Confine Katarina Hugo to the underground prison. She is a traitor who tried to harm the Duchess. This is an insult and challenge to Celeste that will not be taken lightly.”

 

“Jenos!”

 

“Your Grace! Please!”

 

Various calls followed like a tail, but that was all.

 

* * *

 

And so, back to the present.

 

Drip. Drip. Drip…

 

Katarina curled up her body while listening to the regular sound of water droplets falling.

 

In the pitch-black darkness, the only thing visible was a faint torch hanging on the distant wall.

 

The Northern underground was cold even in spring.

 

Katarina sniffled while clutching a blanket she had never worn once in her life.

 

Her beautiful eyes were haggard from exhaustion, and her cherry-like lips had lost their vitality and become completely dry.

 

“Sniff…”

 

How did it come to this?

 

Tears just kept flowing endlessly.

 

“Geez, she’s crying again. Crying again.”

 

“Waaahhh…”

 

“Leave her be. What else would a delicately raised noble young lady know how to do in this situation besides cry?”

 

The guards standing outside the bars openly mocked her.

 

But none of their words reached her ears.

 

In her mind, the memory of the moment she fell into the water kept replaying endlessly.

 

The urgent sensations of moving between water and air, life and death, void and river kept making her breath catch.

 

Splash!

 

Katarina’s vision blurred at the illusion of fierce waves rising before her eyes.

 

The moment the rowboat capsized and she fell into the river water was drawn so vividly.

 

‘I really must have pushed Rene… the Duchess.’

 

Before that, the situation of extreme internal conflict was not well remembered, as if deliberately cut out.

 

In a way, it might have been her mind’s trick to protect herself.

 

If not for Jenos appearing at the right timing, Rene really would not have existed in this world.

 

“K-Katarina pushed Her Grace the Duchess… Everyone here saw it…!”

 

The one who said that was none other than Katarina’s personal maid.

 

The girl who always had tearful eyes and feared her.

 

It had been several years since she served Katarina, but perhaps it was natural for the personal maid to act that way since her master didn’t even know her name yet.

 

Everyone who was there said the same thing with one heart and one mind.

 

The young ladies she was close with, and the servants who were like her limbs.

 

Even her own parents couldn’t believe her, so what a ridiculous situation this was.

 

“No…”

 

Even when she tried to deny it, another voice in her heart kept repeating the same words.

 

‘But can you really say it’s not true? You don’t even remember that moment properly.’

 

Even that question became a dagger stabbing into Katarina’s heart.

 

When she couldn’t even believe in herself.

 

Who would believe her?

 

“Sniff…”

 

So all Katarina could do was shed tears sorrowfully.

 

Then.

 

Step, step, step.

 

Elegant footsteps resembling their owner stopped right in front of her.

 

“Ah…”

 

Having spent days in darkness, even the candlelight held by the approaching person was dazzling.

 

When Katarina blinked several times, her focus finally adjusted properly.

 

But even without going through this process, she could instinctively tell.

 

The person standing with the candle was…

 

“!”

 

Not imagination, but the real Rene Blanche.

 

“Katarina.”

 

A slightly hoarse voice.

 

The still beautiful woman’s face looked much more gaunt than a few days ago.

 

‘Did she just wake up?’

 

Katarina had heard that Rene hadn’t awakened even after she regained consciousness.

 

After that, she was immediately thrown into this underground prison, and she didn’t know how much time had passed.

 

‘Thank goodness. She didn’t die…!’

 

This much was sincere.

 

Even if someone might call it hypocrisy.

 

Katarina was deeply relieved that Rene was alive.

 

If Rene had really died, Katarina too would have been crushed by guilt and unable to live a normal life.

 

However, right after that.

 

Actually facing Rene herself, she became immeasurably frightened.

 

“…”

 

An inscrutable, strange expression.

 

Even under the faint light, her pomegranate-like eyes sparkled brilliantly as they stared down at Katarina.

 

‘Will she kill me? Or torture me? She wouldn’t leave alone a woman who tried to kill her.’

 

Whether it was because of the bone-chilling cold of the underground prison, or instinctive fear.

 

Or perhaps both.

 

Katarina’s jaw trembled so violently it made chattering sounds.

 

Then, other footsteps could be heard from far away.

 

Tap, tap, tap.

 

Those small and light footsteps soon turned into a young voice.

 

“Your Grace the Duchess. I’ve brought what you requested.”

 

“Thank you, Genie. Go up first. It’s quite cold here.”

 

“Shall I bring you a thicker shawl?”

 

“That’s not necessary. Go ahead.”

 

“Yes, then I’ll take my leave now.”

 

“!”

 

Katarina’s eyes widened as she witnessed the face of the maid who bowed politely at the waist.

 

There stood her personal maid, the one who had testified that Katarina pushed the Duchess.

 

Her face, which had always been rigid with tension, now wore a gentle smile she had never seen before.

 

For a moment, their eyes met.

 

Katarina read the subtle contempt mixed in the young maid’s trembling eyes.

 

It seemed she truly believed that Katarina had pushed Rene.

 

Yet she was a servant assigned by the Hugo family to serve Katarina.

 

Like a bat, she had immediately attached herself to the Duchess.

 

But…

 

‘Do I even have the right to blame that child?’

 

Katarina had only just learned that her name was ‘Genie.’

 

As she realized this fact, indescribable emotions came flooding in.

 

‘Perhaps, all this time I… may have been living the wrong life.’

 

Katarina curled up even more.

 

It would be a lie to say she hadn’t felt wronged when accused of being a criminal.

 

She thought they were trying to frame her, which made her deny it even more stubbornly.

 

‘But… no one believed my words. They acted as if they weren’t even worth listening to.’

 

At this point, she was so discouraged that she didn’t even feel wronged anymore.

 

This entire series of events and the fact that someone nearly died by her hand.

 

Even for the willful Katarina, it had been an extremely shocking incident.

 

Meanwhile, Rene’s still gentle voice reached her.

 

“Why haven’t you eaten? They said you haven’t touched any food since being confined.”

 

“…”

 

“Don’t be like that, at least try some of this. It’s cream soup. I specially asked the chef to make it thin in case it would be hard to swallow.”

 

Even at Rene’s kind words, Katarina didn’t respond.

 

It was partly because she found it difficult to look at the woman’s face, and partly due to her remaining petty stubbornness.

 

But Rene deliberately scooped up a spoonful of soup and pushed it through the iron bars right up to Katarina’s face.

 

The savory scent of the soup finally reached her nose.

 

Then, as if by magic, she began to feel hungry.

 

“…I don’t need it.”

 

But out of pointless pride, Katarina turned her head away sharply.

 

Then she only buried her face deeper between her arms.

 

‘This, this isn’t right…’

 

She knew her behavior was wrong, but the stubbornness that had taken root over a lifetime wouldn’t bend.

 

As Katarina reflected on her recent attitude, that gentle voice fell over her head once again.

 

“You won’t eat?”

 

“…”

 

“Sigh. If you don’t eat like this, you might really collapse-”

 

Just as a small sigh and worry poured out from beyond the bars.

 

Grrrrrrowwwwwl.

 

A sound like a ship’s horn echoed powerfully through the silent underground prison.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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