I gotta say... some unexpected developments.
So not only do we have a 1 year (at minimum) timeskip, but also a temp change in PoV. I certainly didn't expect that.
Also, that's her mom talking to the scribe. Curious if she's slated for a redemption arc after realizing how she treated her daughter.
I suppose it depends on whether the scribe manages to uncover the truth and reveal it to her. From the looks of it, Karina's mother is sadly ignorant of Karina's disposition. However, I'll at least credit her with actually loving her daughter enough that her own perception of Karina hasn't exactly been warped by all of the gossip and rumors. Also, there's likely some guilt involved, since as far as she's aware, Karina did everything that she was supposed to in order to be a proper queen of the empire, at the behest of her parents, only to end up having her engagement renounced and then exiled. Then not long after being exiled, she died in an avalanche.
And now, rather than at least properly mourn for her or offer their respect to her memory, the Kingdom (especially the royal family) is doing everything in their power to tarnish her memory and discredit her legacy, all the while remove any tangible evidence of Karina, so as to not make the Royal Family look bad or questionable.
That said, the lengths that the Kingdom is going to makes me wonder if they went after Karina's family home in order to destroy any evidence of Karina's existence as well as forced her family to swear to never speak of her. If so, it would explain why her mother is acting as if she was a former servant to the family, despite still wearing her earrings.
Thanks for this, and looking forward to the next one.