Chapter 96
In the western part of the royal capital stands a forest known as the 〈Thorn Forest〉.
The forest is managed by the Roseberg family, descendants of the 〈Thorn Witch〉, and the Roseberg estate stands deep within it.
The adults who lived near the forest repeatedly warned their children, "Don't go into that forest," but children naturally want to do whatever they're told not to do.
Moreover, the 〈Thorn Forest〉 was full of things that stirred children's sense of adventure, including beautiful flowers and trees bearing sweet fruit.
Thus, the children regularly sneaked into the forest while evading the adults' eyes, playing at adventuring and picking flowers and nuts.
But even those children had one unspoken rule.
They never went beyond the largest oak tree in the forest.
Beyond the oak, thorny brambles grew denser, and farther still stood the estate where a terrifying family of witches lived.
That was why they must never go beyond the oak tree.
If they ever reached a place where the brambles grew, they had to leave immediately.
Otherwise, the 〈Thorn Witch〉 would have the man-eating roses drain their blood and turn them into ingredients for the witch's potions.
＊ ＊ ＊
One sunny day, several boys visited the 〈Thorn Forest〉. Each had a wooden sword carved from wood tucked into his belt.
To mischievous boys, vines hanging from trees were giant serpents blocking their path, the flowing stream was a sea of magma, and darkened trees were wicked black dragons.
"This giant serpent has venomous fangs! Don't approach carelessly!"
"Leave it to me! Hyaa!"
"I have slain the legendary evil dragon!"
Playing the parts of the hero Ralph and his companions, they swung their wooden swords, leaped over the stream, defeated serpents and black dragons, and continued through the forest.
As they marched deeper and deeper into the forest, they finally noticed something.
Thorns had begun appearing among the trees around them. They had crossed the forbidden boundary—the largest oak tree in the forest.
When the boys realized this and hurriedly tried to retrace their steps, they saw a small figure on the other side of the brambles.
It was a boy somewhat younger than them, perhaps not yet ten years old.
"Hello there!"
The boy appeared from behind the brambles with a bright smile and greeted them.
If he had been an ordinary child, they would have assumed he was a city boy who had come adventuring just like them.
But the boy who emerged from the shadow of the brambles was far too beautiful.
He had finely formed features that seemed to have drawn all the gods' favor, beautiful curls reminiscent of roses, and vivid green eyes framed by long lashes.
He wore a pure-white shirt and short trousers with suspenders. The clothes were plain but high-quality, making it obvious that he was the child of a wealthy family.
The boys who had come adventuring began edging backward.
A rose-haired clan living in the Thorn Forest—the descendants of the 〈Thorn Witch〉.
The story of the First 〈Thorn Witch〉 was just as famous as the story of the hero Ralph.
She was a hero who saved the nation by wielding black flames to burn countless dragons and turning enemy soldiers into a sea of blood at the Man-Eating Rose Fortress. Yet she was also a wicked seductress who bewitched the king with her beauty.
The beautiful boy, whose appearance called that First 〈Thorn Witch〉 to mind, smiled cheerfully and spoke.
"Hey, let me join you. Let's play together!"
His smile was innocent.
But the boys felt fear rather than familiarity at that smile.
Exceptional beauty could sometimes instill an intense sense of awe in people. The beauty this boy possessed was of that kind.
The boys paled and backed away. Among them, one especially large boy stood his ground and opened his mouth.
"Sure, I'll play with you."
At those words, the rose-haired boy's face lit up.
His green eyes sparkled, and his pale cheeks flushed red.
"Yay! Really?"
"But there's one condition. We're heroes, you see. We don't play with cowards."
The large boy raised the wooden sword tucked into his belt and pointed its tip at one of the trees.
It was the largest oak tree in the forest.
"If you can climb to the top of that tree and come back down, we'll accept you and let you play with us."
"What, that's all? Piece of cake!"
The rose-haired boy rolled up his sleeves and began climbing the tree with ease. He was probably accustomed to climbing trees. In no time at all, he had reached the very top.
At that moment, the large boy ran up to the oak... and kicked it as hard as he could.
The rose-haired boy's small body fell from the tree unceremoniously.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
The boy rolled across the ground several times, then lay still.
The boy who had kicked the tree raised his wooden sword heroically and shouted.
"See that! I defeated the evil witch!"
The other boys cheered, but at that very moment, the trees began rustling even though there was no wind.
It was the sound of the brambles around the boys stretching out their branches.
The sharp-thorned brambles extended their branches and crept toward the boys as if they possessed wills of their own.
As the boys stood frozen before the terrifying sight, a girl emerged from deep within the brambles.
She had rose-colored hair, green eyes, and a freckled face. She was in her early teens. Frowning, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"What are you doing?"
When the girl wrinkled her nose and spat the words out, the brambles stretched their branches as if answering her.
The boys threw down their wooden swords and fled the scene screaming.
"Aaaaaah! It's a witch! One of the witch's followers is here!"
"She's going to suck our blood! Run, run!"
When the boys fled in a panic, the freckled girl—Melissa Roseberg—snorted and walked over to her brother, who was lying on the ground.
When she prodded his body with the tip of her shoe, her brother moved his face slightly and looked up at Melissa.
His face was horribly smeared with dirt and a nosebleed, yet he still wore a foolish grin.
"Sis. It hurts."
"Are you stupid?"
"............"
Melissa folded her arms and looked down at her foolish brother.
She had no intention of helping her fallen brother to his feet. The dirt and blood would stain her clothes.
Even so, if she didn't take him home, their great-grandmother would make a fuss, so Melissa thought for a while before offering a compromise.
"If you can't walk, I'll call a servant for you. If you can walk, then walk home by yourself."
"...Hey, Sis."
"What?"
"I greeted them properly, with a smile."
Melissa clamped her mouth shut and wrinkled her nose.
Her brother was a genuine prodigy, both in appearance and magical talent, rivaling the First 〈Thorn Witch〉.
Therefore, so that he could become head of the family, their great-grandmother—the Third 〈Thorn Witch〉—always sternly told him that the 〈Thorn Witch〉 must be someone who inspired fear. That was why he rarely smiled at home.
But Melissa knew.
She knew that he secretly brought a mirror into his room and practiced smiling.
Watching him stand before the mirror, massage his cheeks, and smile at his reflection with an awkward grin while saying, "Hey, hello!" was unsettling, to put it mildly.
And now, with his face smeared with a nosebleed, dirt—and tears, her brother muttered with an awkward smile:
"I greeted them properly with a smile, but they hated me."
"............"
"I wonder what I did wrong."
"How should I know? Think about it yourself."
Melissa felt neither pity nor sympathy for her brother. She simply thought he was foolish.
He had everything Melissa lacked: breathtaking looks and more talent than he knew what to do with. Yet he was completely unaware of his own gifts.
That was why he had no idea why people avoided him.
"Oh, if I grew vegetables or flowers and gave them to everyone, do you think they'd all become my friends?"
As expected, this foolish brother of hers understood nothing.
Melissa gave a small shrug and sighed.
"If you've got enough energy to talk that much, you're fine. Get yourself home before Great-Grandmother loses her temper."
＊ ＊ ＊
On a mountaintop in Marquis Hioon's territory, Raul Roseberg—the 〈Thorn Witch〉 and one of the Seven Sages—was at a loss.
"Hmm, this is a problem."
In his hands were three large nuts he had just picked.
He had climbed the tree because he had seen some delicious-looking nuts and wanted to give them to Monica and Cyril, but now he couldn't get back down.
This had happened several times before.
He was good at climbing trees, so he would casually climb one, thinking, "Well, it'll work out somehow," only to lose his nerve at the height and find himself unable to descend.
As he wondered what to do, he heard Cyril's voice from below the tree.
"Lord Roseberg. We came here to conduct a geological survey, so would you care to explain why you needed to climb a tree?"
Below the tree, Cyril stood with his arms folded, glaring at Raul. Beside him, Monica fidgeted anxiously, waving her hands pointlessly.
Still clutching the nuts, Raul waved at them.
"Well, I saw some delicious-looking nuts, and I wanted to give you two some."
"...Weren't you afraid of heights?"
At Cyril's words, Raul gave him a thumbs-up and a sharp wink.
"Yep, I sure am!"
"Then why did you climb up?!"
"Well, I thought maybe I could do it."
In fact, climbing wasn't particularly difficult as long as he only looked upward while doing it.
And so he would get carried away, climbing higher and higher while thinking, "I can do this, I can do this," until he could no longer get back down.
Cyril sighed deeply at Raul's carefree laughter.
"Anyway, come down already. There's something I need to confirm about the results of our geological survey."
"Yeah, I can't get down, so come help me!"
"Never climb another tree again!"
Though Cyril shouted angrily with his brows raised, he immediately began chanting in a rapid voice.
He presumably intended to create an icy slope so Raul could slide down from the tree.
But before Cyril could finish his incantation, a fierce gust roared past, and Raul's body tilted precariously as the wind buffeted him.
"Yikes."
When he shifted his weight forward to correct his backward-leaning body, an unpleasant cracking sound came from beneath his feet.
The branch beneath him had broken because he had put his weight on it awkwardly.
"〈Thorn Witch〉-sama!"
Wind blowing upward from below caught Raul as he fell—Monica had conjured it without chanting. Raul's body bounced several times on the cushion of air before rolling onto the ground.
Raul lay on his back and gazed up at the blue sky.
The sensation of falling, the powerful impact, the pain. The boys' voices came rushing back from deep within his memory.
──See that! I defeated the evil witch!
The voices of Monica and Cyril rushing toward him cut through the old memory.
"L-Lady 〈Thorn Witch〉! A-are you all right?!"
"Are you injured?!"
Monica and Cyril appeared in his view, which had been filled only with blue sky. Both of them were looking at Raul with worried expressions.
Raul couldn't help but laugh, his throat trembling.
"Fheh, heheheh... hehehehehehehehehe."
When Raul suddenly started laughing, Cyril looked at Monica with a grave expression.
"...It looks like he hit his head. We'll get him to a doctor right away."
"Y-yes!"
Cyril and Monica were genuinely worried about Raul.
That made him so happy—so very happy—that Raul sprang to his feet and held out the nuts he had been clutching the whole time.
"I'm fine. Let's eat the nuts together!"
"Lord Roseberg, more importantly, let me check you for injuries..."
"If we eat something outside together, that makes us friends, right? And call me Raul!"
As Raul offered them the nuts with a carefree laugh, Monica smiled uncertainly, while Cyril shouted, "Listen to what I'm saying!"