The World Has Become Kinder to Her

## Side Story: The Beginning of Punishment  

Hession Estelle, the legitimate heir of the Estelle family and the perfect nobleman, stood in stark contrast to his half-sister, Lotus Estelle. Born with the family’s signature red hair and green eyes, Hession was blessed not only with beauty but also with exceptional swordsmanship, earning him admiration from nobles and love from many noblewomen.  

On the night Lotus returned to the past, Hession, busy with his duties as the future head of the Estelle family, went to bed later than usual. That night, he had a long and vivid dream about Lotus.  

In his dream, Hession became Lotus. It was as if his soul had possessed her body.  

As Lotus, Hession experienced everything she had gone through. He felt the sting of being ignored by their father, not for any fault of her own, but simply because she was an illegitimate child. He endured the cold treatment and abuse from the servants of the marquis’ household.  

But that was only the beginning. After Lotus made her debut into society, she was met with scorn and humiliation from the other noblewomen.  

Was it because she made some grave mistake or committed a serious crime? No. There was only one reason—she was a *filthy illegitimate child*.  

No matter how modestly she dressed, she was criticized. No matter how lavishly she dressed, she was mocked. If she made the slightest misstep in etiquette, she was berated. Even when she displayed intelligence beyond her peers, it was met with sneers. The words hurled at her were sharper than any sword Hession had faced on the battlefield.  

In Lotus’s eyes, Hession was a complete bystander.  

Naturally aloof and distant, Hession had always focused on his swordsmanship and the duties assigned to him. His half-sister had never been a priority.  

But when society began referring to Lotus as a one-night companion, she became an object of his contempt.  

Hession took pride in himself and the family, and seeing Lotus drag the Estelle name through the mud infuriated him.  

“I can’t bear to watch you disgrace yourself any longer,” he had said.  

In the dream, Hession struck Lotus.  

He couldn’t stand seeing her in the garden, engaging in intimate contact with the notorious libertine, the son of a viscount.  

As a skilled knight, Hession’s slap left a red mark on Lotus’s delicate cheek.  

Though it must have hurt terribly, Lotus didn’t make a sound. She simply bit her lip and stared at him, her eyes filled with resentment and tears. Inside, she was screaming:  

*This disgraceful image you see is one that you, your family, and the pretentious nobles of Bahamur’s society have created!*  

Her silent scream was one of utter despair.  

Hession, experiencing her feelings, felt his chest tighten painfully. It was a crushing pain, almost unbearable, even for him—a man who had endured countless hardships as a knight.  

Yet this younger, more fragile woman had borne it.  

Lotus continued to spiral downward, and when she finally heard those cruel words from Rikheus, the man she loved, she sought to end her life in the Venous River.  

At that moment, a child had fallen into the river, and without hesitation, Lotus had leapt in to save them.  

Hession felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. *How could she do that?*  

Even after experiencing the insults, rejections, and contempt that filled Lotus’s life, Hession found himself hating his family, the nobility, and the world itself.  

These weren’t events he had *actually* lived through, but Lotus’s deep-seated resentment and sorrow had seeped into him.  

Had Hession truly been in her position, he might not have saved the child. Even if he had jumped in, he would have hesitated.  

But there was no hesitation in Lotus’s actions. She reached out to the child with certainty, without a moment’s doubt.  

As she sank into the cold depths of the river, a chilling, sinister laugh echoed in the background. The eerie sound jolted Hession awake.  

“Huff, huff…”  

Experiencing even a fraction of a woman’s tragic life had left Hession, despite his solid mental strength as a knight, shaken.  

He grabbed the newspaper from the bedside table, the edition from September 27, 672 of the Imperial Calendar—yesterday’s date. So today must be September 28, 672.  

The dream had been real. A mix of reality and illusion, it had turned into a horrifying nightmare.  

*How could it have felt so real?*

*No, I need to think rationally,* Hession told himself. Even the greatest of mages cannot turn back time, so everything he experienced must have been a dream.  

After a few moments of sitting in confusion, Hession got up from his bed and headed to the adjoining bathroom. Splashing cold water on his face helped clear his mind a little.  

*…I should talk to Lotus.*  

After wiping his face dry, he hastily fixed his clothes and headed toward her room.  

Only when he reached her door did he realize that it was late at night, and visiting her at this hour was improper. Normally, his composed nature would have stopped him from doing something so inappropriate, but the lingering effects of the dream pushed him forward.  

“Lotus,” he called, softening his voice as much as possible.  

In response, there was no reply—only the sound of quiet sobbing. Hession’s keen hearing picked up her muffled cries.

*Why is she crying so bitterly?*  

Under normal circumstances, Hession would never have come to his half-sister’s room this late, let alone linger if she didn’t respond. But the dream had changed something in him.  

“I’m coming in,” he said, opening the door.  

Inside, he found Lotus curled up on her bed, tears streaming down her face. Her tear-streaked expression was haunting, and despite having seen women cry before, this moment struck Hession in a way none ever had.  

The sorrow and grief he had felt in the dream, when he had experienced her life, came rushing back to him. His chest ached, and for a brief moment, the pain was overwhelming.  

“Why are you crying?” he asked, his voice softer than usual.  

Lotus blinked, clearly startled by his presence. Slowly, her lips parted.  

“Why… do you care?”  

Her words were laced with suspicion, distrust, and a tinge of resentment. In that one question, Hession could sense all the pain she carried.  

And yet, he had a strange feeling he already knew the answer to his own question.  

*Whatever has happened, I am partly responsible for these tears.*  

To Lotus, Hession was the indifferent half-brother, often cold, sometimes even disdainful. At least, in the real world, he had never struck her like he did in the dream.  

*She used to call me ‘brother’ when we were younger,* Hession recalled. But that was long in the past—time that could never be recovered.  

Now, instead of calling him brother, she met his questions with suspicion. And it was his fault she had become this way.  

For the first time, Hession found himself at a loss for words. He didn’t know how to fix what was broken between them, or even if he could.  

Lotus, looking like a wounded animal, curled up further on the bed. For a moment, Hession imagined her body riddled with invisible arrows and daggers, as if the emotional wounds were physically manifesting in front of him.  

*If I weren’t trained as a knight, I might have screamed in horror,* he thought, biting down hard on his lip to hold his composure.  

After a moment of silence, Lotus raised her head slightly and murmured, “Why…?”

Only now, after walking in her shoes through the dream, could Hession truly see her. She wasn’t just a rebellious illegitimate child—she was a deeply wounded woman, hiding her pain behind a hardened exterior. She had been forced to walk a path of thorns simply because of her birth, and she was his pitiful half-sister.  

It dawned on him then how cruel his indifference and disdain had been toward her. The only thing he could say in that moment was the truth.  

“…I’m sorry.”  

Lotus’s eyes widened in shock, clearly stunned by his words.  

“Am I… dreaming?”

To Lotus, Hession’s apology seemed impossible to believe. Considering how he had behaved all these years, it was natural for her to feel that way.  

“If it’s nothing serious, get some rest. It’s late,” he said, his tone neutral.  

“…Okay.”  

At this moment, that was all he could say. Hession was not the type of man to speak sweetly, especially not to someone who clearly viewed him with suspicion and distrust. Offering her comforting words wouldn’t mean much given the long-standing distance between them.  

*I’ll step back for now. I need to figure out her current situation,* he thought.  

In the dream, Lotus had been a girl with no one to turn to, constantly isolated and in pain. Even Hession, who had only briefly experienced her emotions through the dream, had felt so overwhelmed that he had found himself in tears. Every moment of her life had been filled with loneliness and suffering.  

Hession knew he could never become the gentle, caring brother she might need, but he resolved that he would at least avoid causing her more sharp, painful wounds, like the ones from his past behavior.  

It was the first promise he made to himself, for the sake of his half-sister, after waking from that long nightmare.  

***

Perhaps because he had gone to bed in an exhausted state, Marquis Estelle also had a dream. A long, painful nightmare.  

In the dream, he had become a child—his illegitimate daughter, Lotus.  

The marquis had never loved his wife passionately, but he had respected her and hated causing problems. He had always despised his father, who had brought scandal upon their family with mistresses and illegitimate children. The marquis had sworn never to follow the same path.  

So, when he drunkenly took a maid into his bed one fateful night, resulting in Lotus’s birth, he had been filled with dread.  

*My life has been stained by an irreversible mistake,* he had thought at the time.  

He couldn’t bear to look his wife or son in the eye. If only he could erase that night from existence, he would have done so in a heartbeat.  

But it was too late. His only option was to pay off the maid and send her away, hoping that the whole situation would quietly disappear.  

He believed that was the best course of action he could take.  

For a while, he thought the mistake had been buried for good, but fate was cruel. The maid returned, gravely ill, bringing the child with her before she died.  

When he first saw his daughter’s face, he was shocked by how much she resembled him. There was no denying that she was his child.  

An illegitimate daughter who had lost her mother—his conscience, or what little of it remained, couldn’t bear to throw her out.  

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Crown Princess Irene intervened and mediated between him and his wife, allowing him to formally recognize Lotus as his daughter.  

In exchange for his wife’s forgiveness, he had to transfer some of his assets into her name, but the child was officially registered in the family.  

However, the marquis lost much of his wife’s trust, became a father who could not face his son with pride, and gossip about his affair spread throughout Bahamur’s social circles.  

He blamed Lotus for it all.  

If only that child hadn’t been born, none of this would have happened. He resented and hated her for a sin that wasn’t hers.  

The marquis, being human, occasionally felt a twinge of guilt. He knew he was being cowardly, but he quickly shook off those thoughts.  

*After all, I acknowledged a low-born illegitimate child as my own and brought her into the estate,* he reassured himself. *I’ve given her food, clothing, a place to sleep, and a high-quality education. A little resentment and hatred are fair in return for the trouble she’s caused.*  

But now, having walked in her shoes and experienced life from her perspective, everything felt different.