"Then our family grew poorer and poorer... sorry, I could only lie in bed all day. There was so little I knew."
"Actually, things never got quite that bad in the end. Although our family had fallen on hard times, we still had enough to eat."
"I once told Father that if things got too bad, he could sell my old jewelry, but he said it wasn't a matter of Pounds Sterling."
"There wasn't really anything wrong with a poorer life. I could see that little courtyard from my window, where so many beautiful flowers bloomed. Father had more free time, too. Although he grew quieter, he still spent plenty of time with me, sitting quietly beside me and watching those flowers with me."
A light flickered in Elsa's eyes, and she smiled unconsciously, but her lips soon pressed together again.
"Those days lasted for a while, but at some point, everything changed."
"Father seemed to suddenly owe a large sum of money. That shouldn't have happened, because by then he had disbanded all his caravans and stopped doing business. We were living entirely on our savings."
"I suspected someone had targeted him, but who would target a merchant family that had fallen on hard times? We barely had any money to begin with."
"He seemed to start acting strangely, too, as though he was busy with something. When I asked him, he just shook his head."
"What made me realize something was wrong was the time he forgot to prepare my meal."
"You know, my hands and feet had all been cut off by then, and I could hardly take care of myself at all, so Father considered cooking one of his most important tasks. Whenever he walked toward the kitchen, he always looked serious and focused."
"But not