So I Was the Persecuted Grand Duchess Destined to Die? Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Relief, real and unmistakable, settled inside Katharina.
Stubborn as she was, she crumbled completely in front of her parents.

But…

“Grand Duke, please… show mercy!”

Thud.

Without hesitation, they dropped to their knees at Xavier’s feet.

“We received the gist of the situation by messenger hawk. She’s still young. Ignorant, foolish, a child who doesn’t know anything. I will apologize in her place. This is my sin, for raising her poorly. So please…”

“And for the loyalty the Hugo family has offered Celeste for so many years, please, we beg you, grant leniency!”

“Please… at least spare her life. Please, just her life!”

A beautiful middle-aged woman, who looked strikingly like Katharina, pressed her upper body nearly to the floor as she sobbed.
The kindly-looking older man beside her did the same.

The fragile hope that had flickered on Katharina’s face shattered into pieces.

As if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she whispered in a trembling voice,

“Father… Mother… what are you talking about? I didn’t harm the Grand Duchess. I didn’t… I swear…! You don’t believe me?”

“Katharina, this isn’t the time for pride,” the countess scolded her, voice thick with tears. “Please… understand what’s happening!”

With the room turning chaotic again, Xavier rose, pressing his fingers to his aching temple.

Then, with chilling indifference, he delivered his judgment.

“Lock Katharina Hugo in the underground prison. She is a traitor who sought to harm the Grand Duchess. This is an insult, and a challenge, to House Celeste itself. I will not let it pass lightly.”

“Xavier!”

“Your Grace, please!”

Voices chased after him like a tail, but that was all.

And so, back to the present.

Drip. Drip. Drip…

Listening to the steady fall of water, Katharina curled in on herself.

In the pitch-black darkness, the only thing she could see was a feeble torch burning far away on the wall.

Even in spring, the northern underground held a biting chill.

Clutching a rough blanket she’d never once needed in her life, Katharina sniffled.

Her beautiful eyes were dull with exhaustion, her face gaunt.
Her cherry-red lips had lost all color, cracked and dry.

“Sniff….”

How had it come to this?

Tears fell endlessly.

“Ugh, she’s crying again. Again.”

“Waaah…!”

“Leave her. What else can a pampered noble miss do in this situation besides cry?”

The guards standing outside the bars mocked her openly.

But none of it reached her.

In her head, the moment of falling into the water replayed again and again,
that frantic sensation of swinging between water and air, life and death, river and nothingness, until her breathing kept turning ragged.

Splash.

The illusion of violent waves rose in front of her eyes, and her vision blurred.

The boat flipping, the plunge into the river, those seconds were painfully vivid.

I really did… I must have pushed Renée… the Grand Duchess.

What came before, the fierce storm of conflict inside her, was strangely hazy, as if someone had cut it out on purpose.

Maybe it was her mind protecting itself.

If Xavier hadn’t appeared at that exact moment, Renée truly might not exist anymore.

“L-Lady Katharina pushed the Grand Duchess… Everyone here saw it…!”

The one who’d said it wasn’t an enemy.
It was Katharina’s own personal maid.

A girl with trembling eyes, always afraid of her.

It had been years since she’d been assigned to serve Katharina, and yet Katharina still didn’t even know her name.

Maybe this was the natural result.

Everyone who’d been there spoke with one voice.

The ladies she used to keep close.
The servants who moved like her hands and feet.
Even her own parents, none of them believed her.

What a ridiculous spectacle.

“No…”

Even when she tried to deny it, another voice inside her kept repeating the same thing.

But can you really say it wasn’t you? You don’t even remember properly.

That question sank like a blade into her chest.

If she couldn’t believe herself,
who would?

“Hngh…”

So all Katharina could do was cry, quiet, miserable tears.

Then—

Step. Step. Step.

Neat, composed footsteps, so close they stopped right in front of her cell.

“Hah…”

After days in darkness, even the candlelight in the visitor’s hand hurt her eyes.

Katharina blinked several times, and only then did the world sharpen into focus.

But she didn’t need focus to know.

The one holding the candle was…

“!”

Not an imagined figure.

It was Renée Blanche in the flesh.

“Katharina.”

A voice a little hoarse.

The beautiful woman looked thinner than she had days ago.

So she finally woke up?

Katharina had heard that Renée still hadn’t regained consciousness even after Katharina came to.
Then Katharina had been thrown straight into this underground cell. She didn’t even know how much time had passed.

Thank goodness. She didn’t die…

That part was genuine.

Even if someone called it hypocrisy, Katharina felt true relief that Renée was alive.

If Renée had died, Katharina would have been crushed by guilt. She wouldn’t have been able to live normally.

But the very next moment—

Facing Renée herself filled Katharina with a fear so deep she couldn’t measure it.

“……”

Renée’s expression was calm, unreadable.
And even in the dim light, those pomegranate-red eyes shone as they stared down at Katharina.

Is she going to kill me? Torture me? She won’t just let go of the woman who tried to kill her.

Whether it was the bone-deep cold of the dungeon, instinctive terror, or both—

Katharina’s jaw began to shake so violently her teeth clicked.

Then another set of footsteps approached from far away.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Small and light, until they turned into a young voice.

“Grand Duchess. I brought what you asked for.”

“Thank you, Ginny. Go back upstairs first. It’s cold down here.”

“Should I bring a thicker shawl?”

“No need. Go on.”

“Yes, then I’ll take my leave.”

“!”

Katharina’s eyes widened as she recognized the maid who bowed neatly and withdrew.

It was the very maid who had testified that Katharina pushed the Grand Duchess, Katharina’s own personal maid.

The girl’s face, usually stiff with tension, wore a gentle smile Katharina had never seen before.

For a brief moment, their eyes met.

In the maid’s trembling gaze, Katharina read something faint, something like contempt.

She truly believed Katharina had pushed Renée.

This girl had been assigned to Katharina by the Hugo household.

And now she clung to the Grand Duchess like a bat switching roosts.

But…

Do I even have the right to blame her?

Katharina had only just learned the girl’s name was Ginny.

The realization brought a rush of emotions she couldn’t even put into words.

Maybe… all this time… I’ve been living the wrong kind of life.

Katharina folded in on herself even more.

If she claimed she hadn’t felt wronged when she was branded a criminal, that would be a lie.

She’d thought they were framing her, and that belief had made her refuse to bend.

But… nobody believed me. Like my words weren’t even worth hearing.

At this point, she was too drained to even feel indignation anymore.

This chain of events, and the fact that someone had nearly died by her hand—

Even for someone as willful as Katharina, it was a horrifying shock.

And yet Renée’s voice remained gentle.

“Why didn’t you eat? I heard you haven’t touched food the whole time you’ve been locked up.”

“……”

“Don’t do that. At least try this. It’s cream soup. I asked the chef to make it thin so it’d go down easier.”

Katharina didn’t answer.

It was hard to even look at Renée’s face,
and there was still a shred of stubborn pride left in her.

But Renée insisted, lifting a spoonful of soup and sliding it between the iron bars until it hovered right in front of Katharina’s face.

Only then did the warm, rich scent reach her.

And as if by magic, hunger surged up inside her.

“…No.”

But pride made Katharina snap her head away.

She buried her face deeper between her arms.

This, this isn’t what I want…

She knew her behavior was wrong,
but the stubbornness rooted in her for a lifetime wouldn’t break.

As Katharina replayed her own attitude in her mind, that gentle voice fell again over her head.

“You’re not going to eat?”

“……”

“Haa… if you don’t eat, you might really collapse…”

And at the exact moment Renée’s small sigh and concern spilled through the bars—

Grrrrrrrrooowl.

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