The Princess's Doll Shop

“Hey, kid.”

“That…”

“Come and get it.”

His grass-green eyes widened.

GOLD!

The palm of that hand, which resembled a fossilized branch, didn’t have a copper coin nor a silver coin, but a gold coin.

Since the kid was born and raised in the slums his entire life, this was his first time looking at gold this closely.

“You want me to take it?”

“That’s right.”

“W-Why? Why are you giving it to me?”

The kid was trying hard to reason. But it wasn’t that easy to peel his eyes away from the glimmering golden light.

The boy’s small hands and feet twitched on their own.

In his neighborhood, for him to buy a piece of bread the size of his fist, he needed six copper coins.

For a young beggar, the only way to get coins was to beg for it, but since it wasn’t going well these days, he barely had anything to eat. It’s been a long time since he saw anything close to bread, let alone bread crumbs.

Even now, he was about to go around each corner scouring for food scraps.

Then, how much bread can I buy to eat with that gold coin? 100 copper coins was equal to one silver coin, and 100 silver coins were equal to one gold coin…

He gulped. He didn’t know numbers over a hundred, but regardless, he knew very well that he could buy an outrageous amount of bread with it.

“Don’t bother if you don’t want it. I’ll give it to another kid who’s braver than you.”

“N-No! I’ll take it! I’m the bravest one here!”

As the skeleton-like hand was about to disappear back into the box, the kid shouted in a rush.

It was because he thought of his younger sibling’s face.

Although he had neither home nor parents, at least he had a younger sibling. His only treasure.

‘If only I had that gold coin, I could buy a lot of bread for us.’

With his mind set, the redheaded child walked slowly towards the wooden box and reached his hand towards the gold coin.

He was nervous, but at the same time, he felt confident.

Even if I get caught by that skeleton hand, I’m confident that I could break it off and run away.

“Huh…?”

After the kid grabbed the gold coin with his fingertips, it faded away like a mirage; he realized that his confidence was arrogance but it was too late.

Grasp!

The skeleton hand latched onto the kid with a strength of unknown origin. It relentlessly held on.

The thin, small redhead couldn’t even scream before his vibrant grass-colored eyes turned to ash.

POOF.

The gray ash fluttered away in the spring breeze and the hand that absorbed more power slithered back into the wooden box.

“From now on, just a little more…”

The dirty alleyway not hit by the rays of the sun was solemn once again.

* * *

From the strong sunlight streaming in, Kathia woke up. It was probably far past noon.

The first thought that came to her was, “How could Madam Murphy let me sleep in this late?”
She would’ve already barged in with the serving cart.

In a daze for some time, she suddenly realized and sat up.

That’s right. This isn’t the palace anymore. Not even the mansion of some ruined aristocrat either.

This is the cute two-story home that I dreamt of from my previous life!

Pondering with a bit of melancholy in the corner of her mind, Kathia soon smiled brightly and straightened up her legs in a rush, which still felt awkward.

While stumbling around to find her slippers, she soon realized that she didn’t have to do that anymore and grinned.

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There was no one to look at nor nag at her, so as soon as she stepped on the floor with her bare feet without hesitation, she stepped on something tiny.

What? Kathia moved her foot to see what she had stepped on.

“Thread…?”

Why is there thread on the floor? Picking up the small yellow thread that was about the length of her fingertip, she nodded as soon as she realized.

She carried all the luggage except for her dresses until late last night to the work room, so she probably stepped on it by accident.