Crown of Thorns

16-20

CHAPTER 16

Translator and editor : Cuties

The young warrior who has not come for a long time appeared. I have been following the boy around and watching him, but I have yet to find a way to keep him by my side. The boy from my memory came close to me with doubts watching me as he grew up into a young man, but the boy in front of me was still young and I couldn't figure out how to make him understand.

The boy, who standing with a frown near the wall, came close looking at me quietly, saying nothing. Then he crouched in front of me and looked into my eyes. I can't take my eyes off the boy's hair, which is clearly shining in the dark.

But soon my eyes darted to his newest wound. It must have been caused by the thorns when he entered here. His gray-looking expression did not affect me very much, but the red blood oozing from his wound made it look painful and it tugged at my heart. And the tear in his skin was slowly and roughly healing and settling as a scar. It is fortunate that his wounds do not fester or rot, and it is also surprising how they can be healed so cleanly.

"You."

The boy's mouth opened and I turned my gaze back to his face. But he hesitates and can't muster up his words. He's just such an ordinary boy, but he turns into a completely different person when he enters the city walls. It's the monsters in human shapes that make the boy change so. People are sometimes so vicious and cruel.

The boy, who hesitated to speak, eventually closed his mouth with a small sigh. Then he got up and looked through the inside of the tower. But there's nothing to see. Most of the items rotted away, and the remaining ones smell bad, making it difficult to get close to them.

But the boy looked around as if he didn't care and soon lifted the cards on the rotten table. The old cards were shuffled at once by the boy's hands. The boy came with his cards and crouched down in front of me.

I looked at the card that the boy put down because I thought what it meant. The card that lay closest to the boy, as if to ridicule my resolution, was showing death. When I reached out and quickly flipped the card over, the boy turned it over again with a puzzled look on his face and looked at the picture.

"Why did you flip this all of a sudden?"

Because I don't want to see it. Because I'm not confident seeing that future again.

Instead of answering, I collected all the cards including the one was interested in and arranged them. When I put the ten cards stacked together on the floor again, the boy continued.

"Look at my future."

"What?"

"You can see my future. Please look at it."

"Do you believe the witch's fortune telling?"

As if my words were unexpected, the boy who was facing me nodded. It was such a small nod that I couldn't see it without looking closely. But I didn't miss it and there was a stir somewhere in my heart. Because I couldn't believe the boy who could believe me.

I wanted to ask why, but I was not confident in hearing the answer, so I quietly mixed the cards. Maybe it's just because I want to see the card's fortune again, or because I don't think he has a reason to lie. Or I may think that it is not a bad thing, so I don't have to treat it as a lie.

The young warrior was still too far from believing the witch's words and had no reason to do so, and most of all, he was not a boy who grew up in a reliable environment. I'm not confident looking into it yet. I wasn't prepared to see what kind of eyes the world is looking at him with and how broken the heart of such a young and beautiful boy is.