CHAPTER 4
Translator & editor : Cuties
I haven’t seen the boy for a while afterwards. In the anti, I kept having nightmares. Rather than nightmares, they were actually ancient mories I kept reliving.
But after a long ti, I couldn’t tell if they were really mories or just my imagination. It occurred to that maybe even the boy was part of the imagination I had created, that’s why he didn’t show up.
Is this reality that I’m living now? Maybe even I am an illusion.
I stroked at the scars left on my body. I couldn’t rember clearly when I got them and what they originally looked like. Over the years, too many people have co for and I have suffered too much. I might already be dead and stuck in a dream I’m never waking up from.
When I opened my eyes, I could only see the dark. I started having too many thoughts after I t the boy. I tried to kill ti as I always did, but it wasn’t easy. The white afterimage bothered . That beautiful and cold as snow whiteness crept into my mind and rejected the darkness.
It must be snowing sowhere.
Suddenly, I thought I wanted to see the snow. And then what? After relieving one’s thirst, there was only a greater desire. It was better to get used to longing and forget about it.
I hugged my knees and buried my face between them. Boy, why did you co to and make so distressed? It was better to be forgotten by people. It was better to wait for the day when no one was looking for .
After eting the boy, the emotions that I had forgotten ca to mind again and made impatient. The day we first t, I’d have preferred it if he had put a sword in . I wish he’d stabbed in the heart and froze it. Then it wouldn’t have been this painful.
You won’t even last forever. You’re going to die in the end.
“Asleep?”
I opened my eyes to a faint voice. I thought it was a hallucination, but I raised myself when I saw the white hair of a boy sitting in front of . The boy continued his speech in a quiet voice instead of staring at .
“Don’t you feel wronged?”
I can’t understand what he ans.
“Isn’t it unfair for you to be called a witch and to be blad?”
He stared at , waiting for my answer. I kept my mouth shut looking at the darkness that was still filling my tower, and thought that if I didn’t give him an answer, he’d stay like this, so I finally replied.
“I have nothing to feel wronged about to tell the truth.”
“But it’s not true.”
Do you doubt the world? Are you saying that the world is wrong? It’s a useless thing to do.
“I know. The fact that it’s not your fault, but you have to deal with the consequences. And the fact that were so repeatedly accused that you started doubting your innocence. In the end, even you don’t believe in yourself.”
The boy muttered to himself as if he wasn’t expecting an answer. His voice was so lonely and sad. I looked at the boy’s weakly outstretched arm. It wasn’t this long the first ti he ca. And it wasn’t this sturdy.
While I was dreaming, the boy grew up while swallowing ti. I always stayed in the past, and the boy faced the future. And I had only bore traces of scar, but the boy wore wounds.
“You don’t think I’m a witch?”
The boy, who had not answered my words for a while, opened his mouth.
“I don’t know that. But I know this. I used to think killing you would end everything, but it wouldn’t. Killing you won’t change anything. Nothing changes when you die. If this is really a curse, then you’re also a victim of it.”
Victim of the curse, you say. I can’t read the boy’s mind at all. The boy murmured helplessly in a smaller voice.
“And so am I.”
I closed my eyes. It seems that the young warrior will not be able to kill the witch even if he grows older. The light that would save the world, save , was swallowing itself.
The reality was very different from fairy tales.
*
The boy brought sothing with him. H kept moving around with a great deal of grunting and groaning. The thing that he had been moving back and forth for a while was none other than water. There was a long water barrel, and there was also a large one that, funnily enough, seed to fit my size perfectly.
The boy handed a dry cloth.
“You must have felt uncomfortable because you haven’t been able to wash for a long ti, but wash as much as you want.”
He didn’t show it, but my dirt seed to bother him. The boy left soon but I sat still. My eyes were on the barrels that lay in the dark. It was strange to think that the small tower, the place where everything was rotting and dying, contained water that made life possible.
The boy did. He has sun-like eyes and snow-white hair, and he is living a short life. And he kept telling that he was alive and connecting with the world. The boy radiated the sll of earth, the warmth of the sun, and the freshness of the wind.
I heard a laugh from sowhere. I was conjuring mories up again. The world was so beautiful before the darkness took over. And I was happy. I didn’t want to go back to that ti. There was nothing I could do back there. The future hasn’t changed. I’ll have no choice but to spend a long ti again.
The water did rot. Unlike other things, it didn’t die and only embraced new lives. It was hard to notice because it was infinitely small, but a small seed was growing inside the barrel. It grew gradually, taking root. But it was clear that this plant was also going to die because there was not much water left. In the anti, the boy did not co to visit.
The boy didn’t co often from the start. Still, it’s been quite a while since his last visit. He grew and changed every ti he ca. And every ti he ca, I lost hope for my prophesied light.
I flipped the card over. It was still saying that light appears and drives away the darkness. It was no longer possible to know what the divination ant. Because the boy was gradually becoming like the dark. The young warrior was losing his strength in sympathy with the witch.
“What? Does it still say I’m going to die?”
The hand that grabbed the card was all scarred. The wounds seed to have healed and left only traces. His long-grown hair was tied together and he spoke with a lower voice than before. The boy turned into a young man while the stagnant water was gradually fading in favor of new life.
“Yes.”
“Are you still looking at my divination? Why?”
“To see my divination.”
He kept asking, not understanding what I was saying, but I ignored it. I got up after organizing the rest of the cards. The boy who has beco a young man has surpassed my height. And his personality has also changed a lot.
“Why didn’t you wash up? Are my words a joke to you?”
“Why should I listen to you?”
“When soone shows you goodwill, shouldn’t you at least accept it?”
Why would I do that? For whom? I tried to take his hand off my arm, but he held it tightly and wouldn’t let it go. He pulled hard and made face him. The young man’s once neatly bound hair fluttered about.
I knew a man with hair similar in color to the young man’s. I thought it was beautiful to the point of enchantnt at the ti, but not now. The young man’s hair scratched my mind like a sharp dagger. As ti went by, the hair that grew longer gradually beca sharp and stabbed .
“It’s been a long ti, aren’t you happy to see ?”
The young man still didn’t understand . The more I see him, the more I suffer.
“Were you always this small? And were you always this thin? You didn’t keep killing yourself while I was gone, did you?”
The young man was unaware of his growth. He didn’t know about the relationship between and my frozen ti.
“Didn’t you miss ?”
Is he trying to teach how to wait? Was it not enough to unfailingly inform of the passing ti? Is he trying to remind of the past, make aware of the present, and even make wait for the future?
You are the cruelest man I have ever t.
“I missed you. I thought I was going crazy because I wanted to co see you sooner.”
You hurt so much.
Reviews
All reviews (0)