Hilda finally woke up from her sleep, after crying herself off last afternoon, and found herself in her bedroom, still unchanged even after the series of events.

She could now hear the wails of the wind and then as she stayed longer in her room, she suddenly hears cooking and smells smoke from downstairs.

She knows her mother just died but then her mind came up with a solution. It was just Kaisa, doing her job downstairs.

She then got herself up from her bed and walked downstairs to see Kaisa, trying to make a genuine smile for her, making sure that she feels that everything is fine.

But Hilda knows best, she arrives at the dinner table and slumped her face on it, waiting for her breakfast to be served.

Kaisa hesitated to even converse with her, knowing what happened to her mother and as the fire almost burned a side of the eggs, she decided to not ask her what's wrong.

As she placed the plate of eggs and meat on the dinner table, she noticed that Hilda didn't have the appetite to eat, she just…...stared at it like she's waiting for something.

Kaisa sits down right next to her. "Look, I know things are getting tough." Kaisa starts, hoping that this might be enough for Hilda to open up neatly to her. "But I do know what it's like to lose someone you love, it didn't happen to me but I still feel sorry for your loss."

Hilda looks at her in the eye. "Look, you really don't have to. I know you would say that." Hilda opens up, insisting on Kaisa to not feel sorry for her, for this is her own loss she has to deal with, not hers.

Kaisa let out a sad exhale.

"I know… i just feel… better doing it for you."

"Then...I suggest you get a new job now, since Jared isn't gonna keep you for long anymore."

"I...I know but I think he doesn't know this yet."

"Well then."

Hilda then got up from her seat and grabbed a newspaper and offered Kaisa some classifieds and took some on her own, and as Kaisa looked across the paper she saw a curious opportunity; a secretary/maid.

Meanwhile with Frida and David, they were just back home from a doctor's appointment as she had a deep cut in her torso.

"Hilda needs to be dealt with…" Frida said with pain aching from her chest.

"Look, I know it's hard but we can't let father know… he would get personal and… he isn't a great fighter but… I fear Hilda might kill us if we try…"

"You are…. Right….wait the calculator!" she said with quick thinking while rushing to her designed workshop, which Stephen gave solely for her to make the calculator.

David felt a bit tense and sorry for Frida, but at the same time he knew she was a single delay away from the whip, so he had to make up time for her.

As he waits, he goes up to his father's workroom where he is seen writing down contracts and paperwork in his desk while also throwing away a crumpled piece of paper on the floor.

"Hey dad," he said as he entered his office "So… about that economics class…"

Stephen turns around from his desk to his son. "Yes, what about it?"

"I'm thinking that...I changed my mind," David lied, crossing his fingers in his back with his right hand while rubbing his neck with his left, "I slowly realized that the world of economics is actually...not that complicated as I thought and I would really like to know more."

Stephen immediately stares at him in the eye with disbelief. "Really?"

David nods.

Stephen then gets up from his seat and gives his son a heartfelt hug while David tries to keep a safe distance, not wanting the hug.

"Oh Christ, I'm so proud of you."

Back at Hilda's house, Hilda finally finished her breakfast and is currently upstairs, taking a bath in her bathtub, all prepared and readied by herself, and as she lowers her head towards the water, she ponders over her future without her mother.

"If I don't save up my mother's remaining savings, then I would either lose it by the time I'm 20 or get robbed randomly out of nowhere."

Hilda continued her silent bath, closing her eyes for a short nap in the lukewarm bathtub water and she enjoyed the warmth until the bathroom door was full of noise.

Someone's knocking.

"Come in!" Hilda yelled from her bathtub, annoyed that whoever was knocking disturbed her nap.

The door slowly opens and it shows a hesitant Kaisa peering into the openly ajar door.

"...madam, sire Jared is here."

Hilda tensed up, disturbing the calm water, and got out of the bathtub, using a towel as a robe and wrapping it around her and with her blind eye twitching and itching slightly, she ran downstairs.

As Jared saw her, going downstairs with a towel wrapped around her, barely even dried, he and his family immediately went up to her.

"You have a lot of explaining to do!" he said as his father and mother tried to appear destroyed to appeal to her emotions.

But Hilda was unresponsive, as she put on a blank expression only a corpse could pull off so far, rolling her eyes.

Their enger dissolved in confusion as Hilda kept her blank stare at them.

"Are you going to-"

"Leave."

"Excuse-"

"Leave." she said as she imposingly stepped down the stairs.

They stepped back in response.

Hilda kept her eyes locked, and contained herself from lashing out, knowing how exposed she is, literally. The family was somewhat aware of what she could do and may fear a response.

"Mother died… So I need to go to the funeral."

They seemed somewhat affected.

"Leave, just, fuck, off, of my house."

They slowly turned around, visibly mad but not with the will to confront her any further and left the house.

After they left the house, Hilda shed a tear and went back to her bath, crying loudly, with her cries echoing only within the marble tiles of the bathroom, containing her cries inside.

Meanwhile with David and Frida, both were tense as hell as Stephen was out looking for economics teachers that accepts Frida.

"You shouldn't have done that," Frida said as she screwed two cogs together.

David looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Frida, I know it sounds absurd but this is the only way we can support your cause and at least get my father to shut up about it."

Frida gave it mind and after thinking about his decision while also listening to his father's ramblings of success, profit and legacy, and after a while, she accepted his decision.

She had a relatively busy day, screwing the little cogs into place and trying for fuck's sake to make the machinery work, but it wouldn't. She was no engineer but she had to try.

Hilda meanwhile was… simply waiting, she was getting a good vest out of her closet, a thick leather coat, a hat, some standard brown pants and a white buttoning T-shirt.

She's planning to go to her mother's funeral, wanting to pay her respects and at least try to forgive her while she still can.

Kaisa, meanwhile, was just getting stuff done around the house and looking through the classifieds again, nothing of any interesting job opportunity appeared, and as expected most of them were already taken by others and even if there are vacants, most of them had their requirements for men only.

Trollberg was starting to release their slaves, in part of their growing abolitionist movements, which flooded the market with cheap labour that came from the rural hinterlands surrounding the city and elsewhere all over Britain.

Kaisa placed the newspaper down and approached Hilda for any job suggestions that she could take because most jobs in the classifieds are for men.

She walks upstairs and hears scraping noises inside Hilda's bedroom and knowing that they're the only people in the house, she walks inside to ask her something.

"Hilda, may I talk to you?"

Hilda turns around, quickly hiding the contaminated knife into her desk drawer before shifting her chair towards her. "Yes, why?"

"It's just that… well… Jared didn't pay me a lot...and by a lot, I meant he didn't pay me the agreed paycheck, or anything… all the time…" Kaisa said to Hilda, telling her about how Jared didn't pay her for her services even though they both agreed to it.

"Yeah… I know, sorry for that."

Hilda glanced at Kaisa for a while, seeing her lips curve to a sad face before glancing back to her drawers to put the knife further away from the drawer to hide what she is planning to do with it.

"So… May you pay me in advance, just enough for me until I get a job?" Kaisa requests, pouting out a sad face with sincerity.

Hilda thought about her options here. If she would provide for her paycheck, then she wouldn't have to bother her again once she meets a minimum that she can bail out of once Kaisa finds a job but the only con in this option is that if she doesn't pay, she is gonna be bugging her every time, which might include a time where she sees what she is doing with a knife and might call the Constabulary.

But she knows that denying her the pay would be too immoral for her to do as she saw the hardships Kaisa had to go through and also fears that she might fall into the influence of Jared and -- by extension the Haustad family -- to use her as a tool to undermine her and make her accept Haustad policy to make her wed Jared, which is sometimes she hates more than David himself.

"..Sure…I guess."

Hilda then carefully put the knife in her pocket and opened a small drawer which her mom filled with savings for her 18-year-old anniversary. She then counted the money before splitting it and handed a good portion to Kaisa, who smiled in return and left the room, while glancing back at her with a sad gaze.

She let out a sad exhale as she looked at the knife, stained in dark-red blood.

She carefully pulled it out, not wanting the blood to be smeared on her vest. "Don't worry mother, your will will be fulfilled."

Then Hilda places the knife back into her drawer before walking out of the house to tend to the funeral.

She arrived at the funeral just a few blocks away from her home.

It was… empty… but not devoid of people, the priest was there but so few people showed up… There was the doctor, of course, and Kaisa, but no other familiar faces… she wondered how much about her mom she really knew.

The funeral went on… she was… silent. She didn't talk, she prayed and listened to the priest all the way.

Then they buried the body while the priest doused it with holy water as the procession comes to an end

Hilda was filled with hate, like a fire ever growing and ever-burning, she had just attended the funeral, which had very few people,although she would have wished at least a few more joined as well. But she was mostly focused on the last testament in her will… she had to kill Jared.

Well, not now, first she had to find a way to sustain herself first.

"A-Alright… T-This should be easy, I'll look through the classifieds and… get a good-paying job… M-Mom did it…and...maybe it would work too."

She looked at the small opium container.

"Mom also used this, though I assume it's for medicinal purposes." She took it and drank a small amount to ease the pain, as the bridge fight still made her feel uncomfortable and she can still feel the bruises and scars that were left from the fight.

She looked out the window, it was finally raining softly, gently patting her windowpane and giving off a calm noise inside the house.

Hilda let out a faint smile at the rain and also wanted to give herself some time to breath and relax, and so she grabbed an umbrella and walked outside, going all the way to that so iconic place which she almost drowned David in… she looked down at the water, the showering rain covering her eyes.

"Why the long face?" someone asked.

"It's raining."

"And so?"

"They say it washes away the sins."

"They don't…"

"They wash away blood, good enough."

Hilda grabbed the knife as the stranger concernedly walked away and cut her hair shoulder-length, was sloppy but would do.

It was time to let the rain wash away her past.

It was time to start anew.