Chapter 1: The Road Not Taken, A New World’s Burden

If only I were given another chance, perhaps I wouldn’t have turned onto that elevated road on that rainy night.

It was an evening many years ago. My wife had called unexpectedly, her voice laced with panic, to tell me our daughter was running a high fever. Without even a moment to request leave, I sped towards the hospital.

At nine o’clock, the rush hour for workers heading home, the elevated bridge was choked with traffic, utterly jammed.

I glanced at my phone, a sense of dread washing over me. At this pace, I had no idea when I’d reach the hospital.

My wife had called over a dozen times, her tone shifting from urgent pleas to frustrated complaints, before finally settling into a helpless, ‘Forget it.’

As the call disconnected, my heart grew even more anxious.

Outside the car window, the heavy rain continued relentlessly, accompanied by a cacophony of horns.

There was no sign of the congestion easing.

Suddenly, I felt utterly useless. Before we married, my mother-in-law and my parents had clashed over the bride price.

The dispute had dragged on for quite some time, ultimately resolved only when my wife repeatedly told her own parents, ‘Forget it.’

Back then, she had believed I could offer her a good future.

As for now…

I pressed a hand to my forehead, realizing I couldn’t even conjure her smiling face anymore.

When did it start? After we married? Or after our child was born?

“Beep-beep.”

The navigation on the car’s tablet flickered.

I glanced over, noticing that this usually unreliable navigation software suddenly displayed a complete route.

This route showed no red congestion markers; it was a straight line, as if drawn with a ruler, leading directly to my destination.

“In 50 meters, turn left. Keep to the right side of the road. Wet road ahead, please drive safely.”

Following the navigation’s prompt, after driving for a certain distance, I indeed found that elevated road.

Unlike my current route, that road was utterly empty, devoid of any vehicle. The streetlights on both sides seemed broken, either unlit or flickering erratically.

‘Why is there no traffic there?’

A hint of doubt surfaced, yet at that moment, my overwhelming anxiety to see my child and my wife overshadowed everything else.

Slowly, I steered the car onto the elevated road, my foot pressing gently, then firmly, on the accelerator.

‘Have a pleasant journey,’ the navigation system seemed to say. Or so I recall.

“Ah—”

I bolted upright, my eyes snapping open, gasping for air, a splitting headache throbbing in my skull.

‘Why am I having that dream again!?’

It had been ten years since I left that world…

Clutching at the lingering pain in my head, I desperately tried to recall what had happened after that moment.

But as always, I only remembered regaining consciousness in a place that resembled medieval times.

Serfs, feudalism, poverty, nobles, lords…

A strange country, strange faces, a strange language…

Everything I had once known was gone.

I stood amidst a vast, bewildering emptiness.

Soon, the initial anxiety of arriving was washed away by an unknown fear.

Hunger and cold made me realize that merely surviving was the most crucial thing.

Due to the language barrier, I repeatedly encountered obstacles when I first tried to interact with the local inhabitants.

Everyone treated me as a beggar, a barbarian, casting glances filled with disdain and revulsion.

Thus, during those initial days, I truly experienced what it meant to ‘eat in the wind and sleep in the dew,’ to be ‘alone and helpless.’

Reality brutally declared, in this manner, that I had fallen from civilization into ignorance, becoming an abandoned infant in another world.

Yet, I must admit, human resilience is as tenacious as a cockroach.

Even I could scarcely believe that ten years later, I had not only largely mastered the language of this world but had even found a ‘job’ in this barbaric era.

However, this ‘job’ came at a great cost.

Lost in thought, I surveyed my current room.

It was a simple, cramped space. Dim light filtered through the sole small window, which lacked glass and was instead fitted with a few rough wooden planks.

Opposite the window, against the wall, stood the wooden bed where I now lay. It was covered with a thin straw mat and a coarse linen blanket.

To my left lay a storage chest made of wood, its surface mottled with age and bearing several distinct scratches on its lid. Inside, my few changes of clothes were stacked.

Following the line of the chest to the corner of the room, a crude small table stood. Upon its surface rested an oil lamp and a few yellowed papers—my small notebook for recording daily tasks.

The entire room was virtually devoid of decoration. The walls were exposed stone bricks, and the only mirror hung on one side, its surface cracked, for it was merely discarded rubbish from the lord’s wife.

There was no noble luxury here, no comfortable indulgence.

In my former life, I would have said even a black-hearted agent’s shared apartment was better than this.

But now, I considered this place a haven after a weary day, the only spot in this manor, in this entire world, where I could truly relax.

I rose, used the privy, washed, and dressed.

Before the broken mirror, I picked up a small razor blade, lingering, contemplating whether to shave my beard.

Yet, I scrutinized my reflection, turning my head this way and that, and found no beard to shave.

‘Forget it…’

Ultimately, I put the blade down. Following my usual routine, I tidied my appearance, opened the door, and walked directly to the manor kitchen via the narrow servants’ passage.

The moment I entered, several maids in black and white uniform dresses noticed me. They curtsied slightly, greeting me respectfully.

“Good morning, Steward Sir.”

“Hello, Steward Sir.”

“Chief Steward, good morning to you.”

Aware of my presence, the numerous other maids in the kitchen also turned to look at me.

These maids, some youthfully radiant, others possessing a mature charm, were a beautiful sight within the manor.

Seeing them, my previously sullen mood lifted somewhat.

“Alright, everyone, don’t stop your work. Today is the day His Lordship meets an esteemed guest, so you must not make any mistakes. Everyone, do your jobs well, and you can rest properly tonight.”

The maids nodded in unison, resuming their tasks.

I straightened my posture, my gaze sweeping over their work.

Being the manor’s steward, or rather, the chief steward, was my current occupation.

The chief steward was one of the few men, besides His Lordship, permitted among the women of the manor.

This position demanded not only an outstanding demeanor but also unwavering loyalty to the lord.

As an outsider who had only been in this world for ten years, obtaining this job had required immense sacrifice.

However, apart from His Lordship and the Lady, no one knew the full extent of the sacrifices I had made for this position…

Nor would I ever let them know.

“Hmm…”

My gaze lingered among the maids for a moment, finally settling on a small, petite maid, short in stature.

Her name was Lulona. Due to the recent famine, her parents had sold her to the lord I now served for the price of twenty loaves of bread. She now worked under me as a kitchen helper.

Perhaps aware of her origins, this childlike girl’s face bore a weariness beyond her years, always giving off a sense of aloofness.

I approached her, observing her preparing a fruit platter for the upcoming meal.

Likely due to malnutrition, her slender arms showed almost no trace of muscle. Even cutting fruit was a considerable effort for her.

Seeing her struggle, a pang of sympathy went through me, and I stepped forward.

“Allow me.”

Almost without giving her a chance to refuse, I took her small knife and the fruit, swiftly and neatly slicing the platter.

“There you go.”

Upon seeing the task completed so quickly by me, or perhaps simply seeing me, Lulona’s previously tense lips curved into a faint, happy smile.

“Thank you, Papa…”

“Hiss—”

Startled, I clapped a hand over her mouth, ensuring no one nearby had heard, then spoke to her with a hint of severity:

“How many times have I told you? When we’re working, you must address me by my title!”

“Oh…”

Lulona averted her face, her lips pouting again in disappointment.

‘This child!’

Feeling a touch exasperated, I quickly gave her a few instructions, then picked up the fruit platter and headed towards the dining room.

Along the way, I felt a degree of annoyance at Lulona’s thoughtlessness.

Her current status, after all, belonged to His Lordship’s maids. Even if I was the manor’s chief steward, and even if I was different from others, I could not bear the accusation of casually coveting His Lordship’s ‘property’.

‘I must propose this to His Lordship at the appropriate time…’

But on reflection, I knew I couldn’t expect too much from such a young child.

After all, a child of Lulona’s age should rightfully be happily nestled beside her parents.

‘I will treat you as my daughter.’

The words I had blurted out not long ago echoed in my mind.

Perhaps this was fate. Lulona was so much like my daughter from before.

Her appearance, voice, personality, temperament—to me, she was like a shadow that had crossed over from another world.

In my former world, I hadn’t had the chance to fulfill my duties as a father.

Over these ten years, I’d regretted it countless times…

Therefore, acknowledging Lulona as my daughter and raising her to adulthood was perhaps the only way I could think of to make amends for that regret.

Unconsciously, I had arrived at the dining room door.

According to the day’s schedule, His Lordship, whom I served, should currently be discussing important matters with the esteemed guest.

As far as I knew, that guest seemed to be from the neighboring ‘Moon Isle’.

Moon Isle and the Coldwind Fief, where I currently resided, were two adjacent lands. A few years prior, there had even been conflicts, meaning their families should logically harbor an ancestral enmity. How then, could their envoy be considered an esteemed guest?

As I pondered this question, I cautiously pushed open the side door to the dining room, only to hear a sharp female voice:

“Then let’s just give Lulona to him as a concubine!”