You Said I Was a Persecuted, Terminally Ill Grand Duchess? - Chapter 45
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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 45
Grrrrowwwwl.
“!”
At the loud rumbling of my stomach clock, I hurriedly lowered my head.
Since this was underground where sounds echoed well, it was such a resounding noise that, with a little exaggeration, everyone here could hear it.
Can a human stomach really make such a loud sound?
“…Pfft, ahem, hmm.”
In the end, laughter I couldn’t hide kept leaking out.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t laugh. This is driving me crazy!’
She was being stubborn saying she wouldn’t eat, but she’s not being honest!
Unfortunately, I had a soup bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, so I couldn’t cover my mouth.
“A-are you laughing? That wasn’t me!”
Katarina’s urgent excuses followed after.
When I glanced up, her face was red enough to be clearly visible even in the darkness.
Meeting her wavering eyes made it even harder to hold back my laughter.
“Ah, pfft, no. Heh. I wasn’t laughing?”
“You are laughing!”
Sad thoughts, sad thoughts…
“Sob, sob sob, I’m crying.”
“Who would believe that? Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Huh. You weren’t?”
“Rene!”
“Ahahaha!”
Ah, this is killing me with laughter. Why is this so funny?
In the end, I roughly set down the soup and laughed heartily for a while.
No, she’s too cute!
Anyone can see it was her, but she’s pretending it wasn’t!
Katarina also stared at me, then seemed to find it funny too as she quickly turned her head to hold back her laughter.
Even that was so funny that I ended up teasing her.
“Puhaha! What, why are you laughing? Honestly, you find it funny too. Euhaha.”
“F-funny, who! No, the Duchess is laughing so funnily first!”
“What do you mean laughing funnily, euhaha. I’m, I’m going crazy.”
In the end, we held our stomachs and rolled around the underground prison laughing for a while.
Like teenage girls who would laugh just watching fallen leaves roll by.
At the unexpected commotion, a torch from beyond the corridor briefly shone our way.
The soldiers who had stepped aside probably found the sudden burst of laughter puzzling and looked over.
How much time had passed like that?
Having finally composed my subsiding laughter and gotten up, I offered the soup to Katarina again.
“Haa. Done laughing? Now eat your food.”
How dare you starve in front of a romance novel reader?
That won’t do!
When I waved the spoon quite dramatically, Katarina pouted her lips as if she couldn’t win.
“Hmph. I’ll just taste it, whatever.”
Though she replied curtly, this time Katarina obediently accepted it.
I crouched in front of Katarina as she hurriedly put soup in her mouth and smiled gently.
“You were honestly hungry, weren’t you?”
“I really had no appetite until now. In this situation, wouldn’t it be stranger if anything went down…”
Katarina replied while grumbling but still taking a proper bite of the bread from the tray.
I just smiled warmly watching her.
A slightly gaunt face.
Her beautifully shining golden hair was all disheveled.
From how much she had cried, her swollen eyes had reduced the size of her originally large eyes by about half.
It seemed she had suffered quite a bit mentally.
After moving the somewhat emptied bowl back to the tray, I spoke again.
“Listen, Katarina. When I came to my senses, everyone was saying you pushed me. Did you really do that?”
Clang.
Even at my calm question, the startled Katarina dropped her spoon to the floor.
Katarina’s entire body, which had turned pale again, was trembling.
This incident must have been a great shock to her as well.
I firmly grasped her shoulder through the iron bars to calm Katarina down.
Her unfocused eyes were shaking endlessly as if trapped in a nightmare.
“Katarina, Katarina!”
“…Yes?”
Gulp, Katarina swallowed dry saliva and finally met my gaze.
I spoke to her with an even more serious expression.
“Listen carefully. I have no intention of punishing you.”
“!”
Her pale blue eyes widened greatly in surprise.
“Wh…why?”
The question that followed was tinged with wariness.
I just smiled broadly.
“Why? Do you want to be punished?”
“Th-that’s not it, but… it’s strange. I tried to… kill you.”
Toward the end, Katarina’s voice grew smaller and smaller.
Tears began to well up in her eyes again.
Katarina curled up again and buried her face in her knees.
The thin woman’s shoulders shook as sobs leaked out.
“That’s exactly why. That’s what’s strange.”
I plopped down and crouched in front of Katarina as well.
It took some time to understand the situation after waking up.
But no matter how I thought about it, it was full of strange points.
“There’s no way you would have pushed me, right?”
At my words, confusion crossed Katarina’s face as she slightly raised her head.
“…Do you really think so?”
She was so shaken that her voice was trembling uncharacteristically.
I quietly nodded and added again.
“But there might be a reason why many people are saying the same thing. So tell me honestly.”
“…”
“Katarina, did you really push me?”
Katarina didn’t answer.
It was probably closer to say she couldn’t.
I could clearly see her whole body trembling.
I also questioned Katarina more carefully, word by word.
“The emotions you felt in that moment, your thoughts, and even your actions. Tell me everything honestly. If you don’t remember, it’s fine to say you don’t remember.”
Right after losing consciousness and waking up.
Setting aside everything else, there was only one reason I came to the underground prison to meet Katarina.
‘Our tsundere Katarina wouldn’t do that!’
Katarina Hugo.
In 『Northern Grand Duke’s Spring』, she initially seems like a villainess but eventually becomes an ally who understands and helps the heroine.
At first she’s resentful thinking her position was stolen, but gradually feels sympathy for Rene, who is good to the point of being frustratingly naive.
In the end, she was a supporting character who acknowledged her jealousy and greed, returned to her family, and enjoyed a reasonably happy married life with a suitable young man from an appropriate family.
She was also the person who grieved more than anyone else at the funeral after the original Rene died from illness.
‘Most importantly, from what I remember….’
Rather, she tried to save me.
Of course, due to my actions that were vastly different from the original, the current Katarina might have taken a different path from the original.
But that didn’t mean Katarina Hugo was a villain.
‘No matter how many variables arose, the person herself wouldn’t have changed.’
On the swaying rowboat.
At that moment, Katarina had definitely reached out her hand to me.
Her intention was clear.
‘Katarina was trying to grab my hand.’
Just before I fell into the water.
The sight of her throwing her body forward desperately trying to catch me was vivid.
With a face pale as a sheet, something I’d never seen before.
So isn’t it only natural?
“I… believe in you. That you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
* * *
Before Katarina’s eyes, water splashed up once again.
Splash!
A cold and eerie sensation engulfed Katarina.
Once again, her hearing became muffled as if waterlogged.
Her vision blurred and her heart pounded relentlessly.
Her breathing kept trying to become shallow.
“Katarina, breathe.”
“!”
Small hands touched her cheeks.
Katarina’s tears flowed down along Rene’s soft hands.
Rene smiled faintly as she carefully wiped them away.
A clear face without a trace of suspicion.
‘How….’
How can you be like that? Even to someone like me, of all people.
Something kept surging up from within, pressing against her chest.
Katarina asked with a trembling voice.
“Why… do you believe in me? I was cruel to you. I spread malicious rumors, and for a moment I really wished something bad would happen to you.”
“That’s….”
Rene opened her mouth with an unreadable expression.
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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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