Chapter 02 ….
When I opened my eyes again, what I saw was a familiar ceiling.
There were no ashes fluttering before me, no menacing magic.
“Then… is this heaven?”
Judging by the ornate patterns, it looked like heaven, at least at first glance…
“Do people in heaven like these patterns too? They’re exactly like Duke Agnito’s taste…”
Wait. Agnito?
I shot up from the bed. On one side, stacks of old belongings and a worn-out desk. A broken window crudely patched with glue.
“This is… my room? What on earth happened…?”
At that moment, a sharp headache struck me.
As the pain gradually subsided, memories of unfamiliar scenes began to surface.
They were all different faces, but their life journeys were similar.
Orphans with no family. Children craving love.
Yet in the end, they never received the affection they longed for and died from accidents or severe illness.
The most recent memory among these past lives was my life in South Korea—which ended with being hit by a truck.
Then came the memories of Hanisha… that is, of ‘me.’
Only then did I realize:
All the things I had just seen were memories of my past lives.
“What… on earth is going on…?”
As the flood of memories poured over me, I blinked blankly.
Then, something caught my eye.
A mirror placed to the side, reflecting a small child.
A frail figure too hard to estimate the age of, slightly gaunt cheeks.
Short, stubby hands.
Disheveled silver hair, wrapped tightly in bandages.
Hanisha. That is… me.
A child who wanted recognition from her family but ultimately died alone.
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“A gloomy thing.”
“A wicked thing that seems to have sucked all the luck from the household.”
The current me was not much different from the ‘me’ I had last seen in South Korea.
I was momentarily speechless.
Objectively seeing myself through someone else’s eyes was a first.
“So… this is what I looked like.”
So dark, so pitiful…
While I became like this, what was I clinging to?
I… what I wanted was…
“…I wanted to be Agnito.”
The words slipped out unconsciously.
At that moment, my consciousness gradually cleared.
I had lived for others’ recognition, never caring what happened to myself.
But all I got in return was betrayal.
Then…
“Maybe this time, I can live for myself.”
Coming back to the past meant knowing the future.
“In other words, I could change the future.”
The confusion slowly turned into determination. Regaining my composure, I began to assess the situation clearly.
My maternal uncle, Duke Agnito, never acknowledged me as his illegitimate child. I was a disgrace to the family.
Yet he later recognized me as a noblewoman and even intended to marry me off to the leader of the rebellion. That showed how closely the Agnito family was tied to the royal household. But the rebels would never let Agnito’s child go unpunished.
“I can’t stop the rebels from attacking, but…”
I could at least avoid witnessing the moment of their attack.
“To do that, I first need to escape from Agnito…”
It was then.
Suddenly, the door opened and someone entered.
“Goodness, Miss Hanisha!”
A familiar voice followed.
Orange hair. Brown eyes. A slightly worn maid uniform.
“Ah.”
Time had passed, but the memory remained vivid.
The one person in this household who had always treated me kindly while everyone else ignored me.
My only friend, my personal maid—Lisa.
As the eldest daughter of the household, Lisa had come to this distant estate to work as a maid to earn money for her family.
She said seeing me reminded her of her youngest sibling, and she wanted to take care of me even more.
But Lisa shouldn’t have done that.
“P-Please don’t treat the young lady carelessly…!”
Because she had blocked my cousin, Bert, from tormenting me, Lisa had been locked in solitary confinement.
“Don’t give her even a sip of water or a piece of bread.”
It was a cold winter, and Lisa couldn’t survive the cold and hunger—she died.
I was too young to fully understand what loss felt like.
Only when I held her cold body in my trembling hands did I realize:
This is what it feels like to lose someone precious.
So painfully, so sorrowfully that I could hardly breathe…
But now, Lisa was alive.
Alive and standing before me.
With the same face as back then.
My vision blurred for a moment, then cleared. Lisa’s eyes widened as she approached me.
“Are you okay, young lady? Are you still in a lot of pain?”
She gently wiped the tears from my eyes. I must have cried without realizing it.
“I thought you were fine since you didn’t make a sound while unconscious…”
Lisa looked helplessly at my head, wrapped in bandages.
It had been so long since someone touched me like this.
Tears threatened to fall again, but I sniffled to avoid worrying her.
“I had a nightmare. I guess it scared me a little.”
“I should have stayed by your side… I’m sorry.”
“No, Lisa. You’ve been busy… but what’s that?”
“Oh, I brought it just in case. It’ll help if you put it on your head.”
She placed a cold, hard ice magic tool from the kitchen on the back of my head.
“…Thank you, Lisa.”
“Not at all. I just picked it up while tidying.”
Lisa smiled brightly, but I knew how hard it had been for her to get this common household magic tool.
As my maid, being ‘Hanisha’s maid’ meant she was at the very bottom of the household hierarchy.
Bang!
At that moment, the door suddenly flung open without knocking.
“So you’re awake, huh?”
A voice I did not want to hear.
Sharp eyes, dark blonde hair unlike mine.
Bert, Duke Agnito’s son and my cousin.
“Was your strength weak? Too bad.”
Despite having no permission, Bert strode into the room. Lisa hid me behind her.
“C-Cousin Bert… what brings you here…?”
“I came to visit the sick.”
“Huh?”
“I said, I came to visit the sick.”
Bert smirked. A sinister aura swept over the room.
“Here, a gift for you.”
He dropped a piece of burnt bread on the floor.
“You probably couldn’t eat properly while unconscious, so I brought it specially. Isn’t it a great get-well gift?”
Bert shrugged. Lisa bit her lip, helpless.
This was my place.
To silently endure lowly insults.
The illegitimate daughter of a corrupt saint.
“After Esther, Bert’s twin sister, manifested her powers, it would get a little less…”
That was in the distant future. For now, the Agnito household had no saints, and Bert despised the current state of things.
“Listen carefully. You should be grateful for this much if you’re a child tarnishing Agnito’s reputation. Got it?”
Lisa wrapped her arms protectively around me. Rather than arguing, this was her maximum defense.
Even so, Bert stood there confidently.
When he tormented me, or when I knelt in front of solitary confinement pleading for Lisa’s release,
“You should have listened better.”
He had always been arrogant in the face of my despair.
“……”
I drew in a quiet breath, fists tightening unconsciously.
“Why aren’t you eating? I said eat!”
“……”
“Ah, your head is injured so your hands are slow? Should I feed you?”
Thinking I was scared, Bert picked up the dropped bread and strode toward me.
“Here, eat.”
He held out the bread.
“Today’s a special day. I snuck this from the adults just for you.”
A piece of bread, charred on one side and just now dropped on the floor.
“Y-Young lady…”
Lisa could do nothing but watch.
I looked at the bread and spoke.
“…You know, Bert. Do you know what karma is?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“It means receiving what you gave before. I used to hear this often where I came from.”
My grandmother, who followed shamanistic beliefs in a past life, often said it.
Since the heavens took care of me, an orphan, they would return the favor.
‘And yet, whenever I tried anything, it would come back as karma, so I couldn’t do anything.’
Why I recalled this now, I didn’t know.
But what I had to do was clear.
“……Did you eat something wrong? What’s the big deal? And didn’t I tell you to speak louder? I still can’t hear you!”
Impatient Bert pushed past Lisa and came right up to me.
When he was right in front of me, I slowly took the hard bread from him. Bert’s face showed a triumphant smile.
“Yes, you should have listened earlier.”
Words I had heard endlessly above my head repeated.
I straightened from my crouched position.
More precisely… my upper body!
Smash!
I struck Bert’s chin with the crown of my head as if waiting for the moment.
“Ah!”
Bert let out a loud groan and collapsed to the floor.
The impact stung my head, so Bert must have felt considerable pain as well.
“Y-You insolent wretch…!”
There it was—finally the words came out.
Even after one blow, he still jabbered without conscience.
I approached Bert. His face clouded with shock.
“Why are you coming closer… and what’s with that bread?”
Thanks to Bert, I learned one thing.
Hard bread hurts.
A lot.
Smash!
I swung the bread at Bert with full force.
“Ahh!”
Without stopping, harder.
“Ahhh!”
Bert began screaming so loudly the entire Agnito mansion could hear.
