Chapter 21: The Heirloom
"My lady... is it truly the right choice to send the Precious heirloom of your house, rather than a protective amulet? Especially when it's already been seven months since the time it was supposed to be given?"
"... And when you barely have anything left from your old household?"
The middle-aged maid spoke cautiously, carefully. She was treading on a sensitive subject, one she knew her lady disliked discussing, but she couldn't stay silent. She still wanted to offer her advice, because the young prince... he was, in many ways, the last hope of the Solvaire household. The last descendant of a noble line that had been completely wiped out.
He was the only one who might one day revive the name of House Solvaire. And of course, she wanted the best for him.
But the young woman...
No... was she truly a woman yet? Or still just a girl? That was debatable.
But, a girl who looked barely eighteen.
A girl who had been forced into motherhood far too early, thanks to the lustful whims of a powerful old man.
A girl whose noble household had been shattered, reduced to ruin, by that very same man.
No longer a daughter of a noble house. Not yet a mother with power of her own.
Just a girl; caged, and voiceless. That was who she truly was.