In fact, he wanted to slap his daughter on the cheek and reprimand her. A child with a strange ability was born to him, but she would not obey.

‘Annoying bitch.’

But he couldn’t raise his hand because the royal family showed much interest in Sienna, who had the powers of prophecy.

In particular, the queen often called her niece, Sienna, to the palace, saying she was cute and was to be her companion. So if he put his hand on Sienna, he would be caught.

For this reason, the Duke was inevitably forced to find another ‘means’ to pressure and torment her.

Sienna had no interest in toys or dresses, even in childhood. But she was fortunately quite attached to her younger brother, Akkard.

She tried to hide her affection for him and feign apathy, but no matter how exceptional she was, Sienna was still a child and couldn’t wholly fool a shrewd adult’s eyes.

Akkard naturally became a way to intimidate her. It was ridiculously harsh to suffer from her biological parents, making them helpless.

They were still too young to fight against the cruelty and heartlessness of the world.

“Sienna, you don’t want your brother to be in pain, right? So tell me.”

Despite ruthless and vicious threats, Sienna only bit her lip and sealed her mouth. The Duke’s mouth twisted with a cruelly contemptuous sneer when he saw her small head bowed down.

“Oh my, if you’re going to be so stubborn, I can’t help it either.”

The horsewhip in his hand rose high. Ferocious violence was executed on Akkard’s little crouched back.

‘He’s insane!’

Damia couldn’t believe her eyes. She covered her mouth with her trembling hand, unable to take her eyes off Akkard crying in pain.

“Aaaah!!”

When Akkard finally fainted after being whipped, the previous Duke secretly summoned the priest. And he handed out a lot of money to completely heal Akkard.

But the terrible whippings never stopped.

Amid the agony and tortuous times, Akkard’s crouched body grew gradually. At first, he looked like a child, and he soon became a teenager.

It wasn’t just Akkard’s build that changed. His face weeping, screaming, and full of pain gradually became expressionless.

It was like watching a young beast caught in a trap. The creature struggled in agony, eventually lost its senses, paralyzed in pain, and was slowly dying.

At least in Damia’s eyes, that’s how it looked.

“Horrid, only because he was born as my brother, he suffered like that.”

Sienna, watching beside her, murmured in a strained voice full of remorse. As they watched his pain together, Damia’s heart wildly ached, and without thinking, asked Sienna:

“How… … How long have you suffered?”

“Who? Akkard?”

“No, both of you.”

Damia answered without hesitation. Akkard suffered the most from physical pain, but Sienna was undoubtedly a victim too.

She could feel Sienna’s emotional pain vividly. She continued to look ill watching her brother exposed to violence because of herself.

Sienna, who understood her meaning, smiled sadly. She replied, looking back at her past Akkard, who shrank and tried to avoid the lash.

“… … Until I came of age.”

It was a dream, of course, but it was heartbreaking just to hear it. Flogged since childhood.

Damia lowered her eyes and quietly opened her mouth.

“I want to express my sincere remorse. About you, and the pain he went through.”

At those words, Sienna’s eyes widened. Turning her head, she looked at Damia without saying a word for a while, then said abruptly,

“You’re still a good kid, Damia Primula.”

Then, the illusion in front of them disappeared. Watching her own past fading, Sienna declared in a distant but clear tone:

“I am not bad. The bad ones are those who try to use my powers.”

“I think so too.”

“And Akkard, he knows this too. But.. … .”

Sienna could not finish her words. For a moment, Sienna’s complex and subtle emotions seemed to flow into Damia.

As she said, Akkard knew that his sister was innocent. But his body was already conditioned to violence, and the starting point of all this pain was always the name ‘Sienna.’

His instincts naturally branded his sister with pain. Because of this, Akkard was reluctant to seek Sienna even after he had grown up, and found his own way and drove their father away.

It was inescapable. For pain was imprinted in the depths of his soul like a tree ring, for a long time.

“And I, too, might hate him a little bit,”

Sienna admitted quietly.