chapter 02
“You—what on earth has gotten into you today?! How could you do something so thoughtless!”
“Mom! Kick her out!”
“Yeah, tell her to get out right now!”
Kick me out?
They’re the ones who locked me inside the house until adulthood and treated me like a servant.
If they had only made me work, maybe I could have endured it.
But that wasn’t all.
Some days I was their punching bag.
Other days they made me dance and act like a clown to make them laugh.
They even pushed me into the lake today—when I can’t even swim—and once, they abandoned me alone in the mountains at night.
When a typhoon hit, they made me clean the yard.
Then they’d stomp around the house in muddy shoes and force me to scrub the floors until they sparkled.
And that wasn’t the worst.
One morning, after collapsing from exhaustion and finally falling asleep at dawn, they splashed filthy dishwater on me, shouting that breakfast wasn’t ready yet.
Even the devil wouldn’t go that far…!
Yet I endured it all like a fool.
I told myself it was just because I was the youngest—that they were teasing me—and if I obeyed, they would eventually treat me kindly.
But as time passed, I finally realized the truth.
There was never any love in how my family treated me.
The decisive moment came when I was fifteen, and my sisters were sixteen.
We were poor, but we were still nobles, so the royal capital sent invitations for my sisters to attend the upcoming debutante ball.
Naturally, everyone was ecstatic.
I too felt a flicker of excitement, secretly eavesdropping as I waited for my own invitation the following year.
“Hey! What if we sell Serena as a maid? We could use that money to buy our dresses!”
Daisy’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
Caroline, who had been fretting about what to wear, brightened immediately.
“Not a bad idea! Daisy, I’m amazed you actually came up with something useful.”
“Mmm… it’s a good plan, but if Serena’s gone, who’ll do all the housework?” Rianna said worriedly.
Caroline smirked smugly.
“Then we should just sell her off completely. For life. That way we’d get plenty of money. We can buy our dresses and hire a new maid. By then, I’ll marry into a good family.”
“Oh my! That’s perfect! Why didn’t I think of that? Getting rid of Serena and bringing in a proper maid would make things so much easier.”
“Wow, Caroline, you’re so smart!”
They weren’t talking about hiring me out as a servant.
They were talking about selling me into slavery.
As they started to seriously discuss how much I might sell for—and which dresses they could buy with the money—I ran from the house, trembling.
If I’d had even a little money, or if I’d been an adult, I could have run far away or found work.
But I was only fifteen.
So I hid in the forest for days, praying they wouldn’t find me.
But there was a limit.
After fifteen days of barely eating, drinking, or sleeping, I returned home half-dead.
“P-Please, don’t sell me…! I’ll work hard, I promise! Just—please!”
When I fell to my knees and begged, the first thing I noticed was the state of the house—it was a complete wreck.
Having to do chores themselves for the first time, my family looked like they’d been through a war.
“You little brat! Where the hell have you been?!”
“Get in the kitchen and make dinner, now!”
Barely standing, I forced my body to move and prepared their meal.
After that, they piled on more chores—cleaning, laundry, errands—so relentlessly that selling me seemed to have slipped their minds.
I was relieved. I thought maybe it had just been a cruel joke.
But later, I learned the truth:
it wasn’t compassion. They simply didn’t have enough time before the ball to sell me, and I wasn’t worth much anyway.
That was the day every last shred of affection I’d clung to disappeared.
I had only one goal left.
“Save money and get the hell out of this cursed house.”
So I ate less to save on food, slept less to secretly do odd jobs, and worked myself half to death.
And after all that—after finally escaping that nightmare—I’ve come back to the past?
To live through all this again?!
It was insane. I wanted to scream until I broke.
Serena, pushed past her breaking point, finally exploded—pouring all her years of resentment at her mother and sisters.
“Why do you always treat me like trash?! I did everything you told me to—worked like a slave without a single complaint! So why?! What did I ever do to deserve this hatred?! WHY?!”
“Damn it all—!”
At that moment, the door slammed open.
Her father, Asubel, had returned home.
The reek of alcohol filled the air, and his slurred words made everyone’s faces twist in disgust.
Thud!
He stumbled, fell, and rolled across the dirty floor, splashing mud and spilled wine everywhere.
“Dad?!”
“Father, are you okay?!”
The sisters gasped.
Even Serena, who’d just been shouting through tears, was stunned into silence at the pitiful sight of the man who was supposedly her father.
“Asubel, you—don’t tell me you’ve been drinking again, in the middle of the day?!”
Rianna pounded her chest in frustration.
“What’s wrong with you?! Are you trying to make me lose my mind?!”
Asubel, staggering to his feet, shouted back indignantly.
“Damn it! You think I wanted to drink? It’s all because of Starlight! That’s why!”
“Starlight…?”
Serena’s eyes widened. That name—she’d heard it before. It was a bad omen.
“What are you babbling about now?!” Rianna snapped.
“It’s the new horse! They said it’s descended from Silverlight! A champion breed! So I bet everything on it—but how was I supposed to know the damn beast wouldn’t even leave the starting line?!”
Silverlight. Starlight.
Two names that sent icy dread through Serena.
Her memories slammed into her like a hammer.
She was ten when it happened.
Her father had lost everything betting on a horse named Starlight.
Rianna had fainted when she found out.
Fainting might’ve seemed dramatic, but there was a reason.
“…You didn’t use the money from the kitchen, did you?”
Because that money had been their entire household budget for the month.
“What—?!”
Rianna’s shriek pierced the room, while Asubel’s face turned ashen as he realized what he’d just confirmed.
“N-no, wait! I was going to win it back—double it, even! I was sure Starlight would win!”
“Are you even human—?!”
Smack!
Rianna screamed and collapsed in fury.
“Mom?!”
“M-Mother!”
Daisy clutched Caroline’s shoulder, shaking her desperately.
“She’s not dead, right?! She’s not, is she?!”
“Of course not! Don’t say stupid things!”
Caroline snapped, though her face had gone pale. She leaned over their mother, trembling, and placed a hand under her nose.
A faint breath of air.
She was alive.
Relieved, Caroline barked at her sister.
“What are you standing there for?! Help me lift her!”
“R-right!”
Daisy scrambled to assist.
Meanwhile, Asubel—her useless father—was still babbling, trying to defend himself.
“I-I didn’t mean it! I really thought I’d win it back! I was tricked! I swear, I was tricked!”
Serena felt the world spinning around her.
Everything—every word, every action—was exactly as she remembered.
Her mother fainting.
Her father’s excuses.
Not a single detail out of place.
It was as if time had truly turned back.
No… no way…
Her ears rang as if she were underwater.
Her sisters’ voices sounded distant, echoing, urging her to help.
But she couldn’t move.
The shock was too great. Her mind went blank as her body fell backward.
And just before she lost consciousness, Serena prayed desperately.
If this isn’t a dream… then please, just let me die instead…!
