Hannah’s mother gently began, "Hannah, your father will be a great king, and you will be the happiest princess." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

At that time, she was young and believed every lie sketched with true love and happiness.

Her mother believed them, too.

Until three days later when a starship laden with weapons broke into their homeland without warning.

Leading them was their new king, her own biological father.

All the lies were pierced through.

The past six years had been nothing but a carefully orchestrated deception.

The man she called "father" was in truth a disfavored prince of the imperial royal family.

In the presence of his more accomplished brothers, the man had nothing to show off but his good looks.

If things continued that way, once his paternal half-brother ascended the throne, he would be banished to a desolate land with no chance of return.

Therefore, he had to make his move first.

And his first step was Southport.

To be precise, it was the vast energy source hidden beneath this planet.

That day, war came to Southport.

For an entire month.

The sky was shrouded in gunpowder smoke, the view filled with ruins and rivers of blood.

People struggled, screamed, but lost their lives without even a chance to resist.

All beauty shattered in an instant.

On the scorched earth, people who were forced to surrender knelt down, silently shedding tears.

Hannah didn’t cry; she was held in her mother’s arms, listening to how that man coldly announced Southport’s fate.

After that, she no longer had a home.

The gods had forsaken her world, taking away the blessing with them.

From then on, only suffering and pain befell her.

The ruined planet welcomed many outsiders; aside from the energy source taken by the imperial family, Southport still had much to covet and plunder.

Gold and silverware, ancient porcelain, famous paintings and books, anything that could be converted into cash, they took it all.

That included children and young women.

To avoid these outsiders, Hannah could only keep taking her mother to different places to hide.

She had no money and couldn’t afford a ship ticket, so she had to stay in Southport.

But she and her mother had become the sinners of the entire Southport.

Apart from the outsiders, every time she went out, Hannah had to face the rage of the Southport locals who had lost their loved ones.

Ostracized, targeted, beaten.

They would circle around her, stoning her while yelling, "It’s because he’s your father, a father’s debts are paid by his children, you and your mother are the sinners of Southport!"

The stones hit her back hard, Hannah stumbled and fell forward, hitting her head on a sharp rock and instantly blood began to flow.

The group took the opportunity to rush over, kicking Hannah over and over.

They kept cursing, "Sinner," "Pay with your life."

That year, Hannah was six years old.

Among those circling her were her former playmates.

All about the same age.

At first, she thought about resisting, showing those people a sharp, cold glare like a lion cub just out of the den.

It made the people around her afraid.

But the next second, another stone hit her head.

"If it weren’t for your father, our families wouldn’t have died, you sinner!"

Yes, even though she hated that man as much as they did, he was still her father.

A father’s debts are to be paid by his children.

So, she could only resign herself to her fate.