Crown of Thorns

I sent Evan back.

Evan hesitated for a long time, and eventually took a heavy step, either because he didn’t learn anything or because he wasn’t confident in facing people again. His back looked very pitiful, but I couldn’t help it. It was not right for a warrior to be in the arms of a witch.

However, I couldn’t be at ease following him and seeing him enter his house, not after passing through people’s accusing gazes and pointing fingers. I felt bad. I felt pathetic because I could neither step up for young Evan nor help him endure the mistreatment.

I would rather reveal Evan’s power, and let the people know that he is the light to save the world, but the world had not changed at all while I was trapped in the tower. No, rather, it got filthier. Why am I a witch? Why can’t I be a shield to protect the light and help the world go forward?

If this were a fairy tale, then people would admire and follow strong and righteous things. They would kneel before the warrior’s marvelous strength.

But the reality is different.

The truth is decided by the powerful, and the world will turn its back on him before he can boast of what he has.

So you must wait patiently until you meet the shield that will protect your strength, young warrior.

He’s too young and too weak to stand up to the world, so he has to wait until the shield appears.

Evan’s small crouching figure made me want to embrace his shoulders, but I couldn’t, so I ended up escaping alone like a fugitive. Then I went around the village and looked at the world that was flowing without rest. I looked at what was going on, who was thinking of what, and what would happen in the future. I was trying to find an opportunity for Evan, but it was quiet.

When I came back without much result, the warm interiors of the tower welcomed me instead of the terrible darkness. The sunset had seeped in and filled the room with beautiful colors. The floor, which seemed to sink like an endless swamp, had been cleared away.

He’s obviously like the boy in my memory, but so much has changed around him. I was suddenly overcome with fear. Am I changing the present correctly? Am I able to create the future that I want?

But there is no way to confirm. Evan’s future was still showing death, and my future still remained the same. After a little while more, I could see what the future would bring, with this present that I had changed. Because Evan was finally changing, little by little, from the boy in my memory.

I decided to clean up the tower and prepare this and that for Evan, who is no more of an ordinary human being than me. Soon, my eyes were blackened and the scenery around me was changed. It was the house where I lived. This was the only place to bring the things that I needed. It was only natural that the witch could not leave the tower and go to the market or meet a merchant.

It was still heartbreaking to have no one, and it was sad that I couldn’t keep what I had in my memory, but I didn’t care. Evan, my last hope, was the top priority. I decided to do my best for the present because all of this would come as a bigger sadness if I had the same ending again.

As I entered the kitchen thinking about what to bring, I could see the mess all over. When I was busy bringing food and utensils for Evan, I turned the floor into a mess, and the remaining food was spilled around everywhere. There were black marks everywhere I touched. I looked down at my hand. It wasn’t long since I washed, but the tower was so filthy that I also got dirty again.

Indeed, cleaning up the tower was a priority. I washed my hands and feet and tidied up what I had messed using water-flowing spells and cleaning tools.

After returning to the tower, I poured water all over it. The walls and floors were all dirty. I swept the floor, wiped the walls and windows, pushed furniture, and threw out rotten things. There was no rest at all. While going in and out of my old house, the spots I passed by got dirty again. But it was clear to me that even if I washed myself, it would again be the same because of the dirty tower. I didn’t know what to prioritize, so I just decided to clean the tower first.

Meanwhile, the tower gradually darkened. The sun seemed to be setting. I cleaned the stairs and soon wiped my body without much care. After washing, I went to clear out the mess I created in my old house. Now I felt clean.

After I washed my clothes, I decided to look for things to take to the tower while waiting for them to dry. I packed food and food storage items, various ingredients, and kitchen utensils.

As I had to teach him how to read and write, I looked for paper, pens, and simple books to read. Fortunately, the fairy tale books that I saw when I was young remained the same. I passed my finger through the fairy tale books stuck in the bookcase. I remembered a voice reading a book. I picked out the interesting ones to read. Among them was the story of a warrior saving the princess. I wondered how he would react after reading the story of a warrior who kills the witch and saves the princess.

I also thought about what I should take for me to use, however, I couldn’t think of anything right away. The young warrior was what mattered most for now. And lastly, I cleaned and arranged things one last time. Tools for living were placed inside the tower of the witch waiting to be killed. It was so strange and unusual that I couldn’t take my eyes off it for a while.

This was no longer the tower where the witch was locked up. It was a home for raising and protecting the warrior.

The tower’s interior was dark again because of the night that covered the whole world, but it was a completely different darkness. The items I had brought were reflected faintly in the moonlight. I couldn’t see well, but I felt something was in there, unlike when there was nothing. Is this the starlight Evan was talking about? Suddenly, a silly thought came to mind. I didn’t know why, but I suddenly remembered the boy who was looking to see stars.

“I want to see the stars.”

It suddenly gave me a desire to see the night sky. I hesitated for a moment and then left the tower. Now there was no reason to hesitate, forget, or fear. Rather, I had to get used to it. I had to go a little further.

The first thing to welcome me was the cool breeze. It was itchy. The gale touching my hair was tickling my heart. And it smelled. It was the scent of flowers that had made themselves bloom, settled among the thorns surrounding the witch’s tower. The smell of grass was also prominent. Every time the wind blew, the scent of grass flew along.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw a world covered with darkness. It was darker than the world that I saw in gray, but it was different. There was a shining moon, and there were also stars showing off their brilliance, not willing to lose out in brightness to the moon. The light sank into me. It enveloped me in silence.

The view before me was so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I sat on the grass floor like that and looked at it without hesitation. There was no time for boredom, I was kept busy watching floating clouds, creeping stars, and hearing the sounds of grass bugs. The world was still alive and breathing. I was captivated by the indescribable feeling of seeing the world again that existed only in my memory.

It got worse as the night receded and the morning came. The world gradually brightened as the sun, which was too bright to look at, emerged, and drove out the comfortable darkness. I didn’t expect to see such a scene again, and I didn’t know how beautiful it was, so I didn’t even think to enter the tower and just looked at the world.

I couldn’t move because of the beauty of the world.

*

“I’m here.”

“Welcome.”

Time passed and Evan came. The stairs were still dark, so he couldn’t feel anything different, but he was surprised as soon as he entered the room.

“What is all this?”

He looked at the items and food that I brought and expressed his admiration. Maybe he was hungry, so he took a bite from a fruit, and then finally, he noticed me.

“It’s yours.”

I told Evan that he could eat as much as he wanted and pointed to my front seat. Evan managed to understand, walked quickly, and sat down. It was an excited and cheerful walk, without knowing where he was heading. His expression was minimal but bright. It was shining more and more in the sunlight.

“Did you prepare this for me? What’s more, The tower and you both got so clean.”

“You were the one who said it would be better to clean up because you had to keep learning here.”

“Well, thank you.”

I nodded at Evan’s acknowledgment. Somehow I felt ashamed, so I hurriedly opened the book. I didn’t know what he was so happy about, but Evan kept smiling. He knew he was smiling, but he didn’t seem to want to hide or suppress it. His smiling face was so lovely. I couldn’t take my eyes off the book because I couldn’t bear to look at him.

“First of all, let me tell you about the power you can use. Light is largely divided into treatment, purification, and attack.”

Treatment was literally the ability to heal wounds and scars, while purification was the ability to make dirty things clean, and attack was the ability to burn opponents or make oneself invisible with light. In addition, it was possible to light up or move around or to teleport using light. Just as I used the darkness to do various things, the same went for the light. Depending on how one used it, the abilities varied widely, even if they were of the same nature.

And the more natural energy you can hold in your body, the more power you can borrow. It is important to accumulate knowledge, but one has to deal with and feel the energy of nature in order to grow their reservoir. To do so, it was better to be under the light. Sometimes it would not be bad to teach him under the bright sun, instead of the tower.

“I’m going to teach you how to clean up or attack so that you can protect your body once you encounter a monster.”

Since monsters were born in darkness, the aftermath would be considerable if he attacked them with light. But Evan shook his head at my words.

“I’ll start with treatment first.”

“Why?”

Evan, who hesitated for a moment to answer, opened his mouth.

“I get a lot of scars, don’t I? I want to get rid of these scars.”

Evan said, showing his arms. I nodded at the remark. Come to think of it, Evan’s most useful ability was healing. No one would hunt him down for being cursed with that as his ability. And everyone would want him.

Evan could have saved the world from suffering in the future.

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T/N : CoT now has an editor, you can look forward to better english from now on.