Chapter 5
Chapter 5
“Noona isn’t an adult.”
“I am an adult. I’m over 100 years old, I tell you!”
“Liar. You think I wouldn’t know because I’m a kid, right?”
Luke snorted, saying that being 100 years old would mean she was a super old grandma. He thought he wasn’t young enough to believe that kind of story.
More than that, why was she living here alone when she hadn’t told him that story earlier? She didn’t seem like a witch who did bad things. Could it be that she was a different witch from the one his grandfather talked about? Curiosity about her surged wildly in Luke’s mind.
“What’s noona’s real age? Tell me without lying. I’m seven years old. I’ll be eight next month.”
“Why does noona live alone in the forest and not in the village?”
“Where are noona’s mom and dad?”
“Why did noona build a house out of sweets? Do you like sweets? I like them too.”
He didn’t keep his mouth still for a single moment.
“I came into the forest with my dad. But at some point, he just went off somewhere on his own. While I was looking at a super huge stag beetle!”
The witch burst out laughing at his claim that sounded indignant. Luke felt a strange sense of delight every time she laughed at his stories. A greed arose to tell her more stories and make her laugh more.
“Then by now your father might have become a lost child in the forest just like you.”
“That’s probably not it. My dad knows the forest well. He’s a farmer now, but he was originally a hunter. Until my mom died. Five years ago, it’s an old story. It happened when I was little.”
“A seven-year-old saying ‘when I was little’?”
The witch giggled again, as if those words sounded strange. She muttered that ‘human perception really is different,’ as if she couldn’t agree that five years was a long time.
It was true that he had made her laugh this time too. But Luke wasn’t very pleased, thinking he was being ignored. Wasn’t she completely treating him like a little kid!
Of course, she did look older than his peers and was taller. But she didn’t look as old as his father. As he was pouting, Candice tilted her head.
“Luke.”
Candice, who had been quietly looking at the child’s face, frowned. Her fingertips brushed against Luke’s cheek. Startled, Luke turned his head sharply to avoid her touch.
Wait, was she trying to kiss him right now?
Luke’s heart pounded loudly. Full of tension, he waited for her next move. Then Candice held his cheek and lifted his head up.
Luke couldn’t speak and only swallowed dryly. It was unbearably embarrassing that she was scrutinizing him closely. But he did want to receive a kiss.
“You hurt your chin.”
Right. He had.
Luke only then remembered that he had fallen and scraped his chin. Candice made a regretful face, saying it must hurt, and got up from her spot.
She wasn’t giving me a kiss?
Luke’s disappointment was far from small.
What Candice took out from the shelf was a medicine container. But this medicine container was fascinating.
Normally medicine was precious, so the containers were typically small. But the witch’s medicine container was as big as Luke’s head with a bit of exaggeration, so it was very impressive.
“Does it hurt?”
Candice asked while applying medicine to the wounded area.
“I’m fine.”
Luke was honestly stinging, but he held it in firmly. If he couldn’t endure even this much, he felt like she would treat him even more like a little kid.
“Anywhere else… you hurt your knee too!”
She only now noticed the hole in his pants and let out a lament. His knee hurt far more than his chin, as if the wound was deeper. Luke had to bite his lips tight to keep from making any sounds of pain.
Hadn’t he learned that whining about being hurt was something only weak bastards did?
“Why did you come into the forest to the point of getting hurt like this?”
Candice, who had been applying medicine to his wounds, asked.
“This is a place people don’t come into often.”
“I needed firewood.”
Luke secretly let out a breath and answered. Winter was coming soon. They needed firewood to safely get through the cold winter. But the firewood the lord had permitted the residents was woefully insufficient.
“I can’t let my kid freeze to death.”
And so his father had resolved to enter this Black Forest to gather firewood. Because this forest, unlike other forests, was not owned by the lord.
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