pika318: The only reason why we're updating so many chapters at once is because Moko-chan finished the whole story (in 2 days) but spilt it into various chapters. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Sound Horizon belongs to Revo
Chapter 1: Stepmother
Mother was gone. Mother who gazed at me with tender eyes has left for a faraway place. I can no longer feel the soft touch of her hands, I can no longer hear the melody of her voice. No longer, no longer. Mother had gone away seven winters after my birth.
I wondered why no one misses Mother except for me. I thought my Father would but he did not. I thought Father loved Mother the most but he said now he only loves me. I do not believe it. He does not love me like mother does. If he did, then why do his touches cause pain and his voice cause fear?
No one loves me anymore. The other mother does not love me. She looks at me coldly and walks away when I approach.
I want the mother who has gone away.
Seven winters had passed since my child's birth. She had grown to be beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful in the land, maybe even the world. I used to be a loving, caring mother to her but…
After those seven winters, the King desired her, his own flesh and blood. The days passed, night after night, the King committed sins that only beasts would have done.
I did not know what to do. How can I approach this child? How do I protect her? I do not have the face to look at the girl in the eye when I failed my duty as a mother.
That painful look she gives me when I draw near, I dare not look at it for long. I could do nothing but cower away from it. And then from just merely avoiding, I went to hide away in the chamber with a great mirror.
Step-mother is increasingly spending more time in the chamber with a large mirror. The servants in the castle had told me that the mirror possessed magic. Was step-mother jealous of me? Is that why she refused to look at me? Because I am more beautiful than she was?
I stared at the mirror. The mirror calms me. I was looking at myself. The useless woman who could not even protect her own child. Was there anything…anything that I can do?