Chapter 19

I didn’t not understand how the boy’s hoarse voice sounded so hopeless.

“I…….”

I just said nothing and looked down at the boy. The boy blacked out before he even heard my answer.

He was still holding the hem of my robe tightly in his hand.

“……”

I muttered in tears.

“…What do you want me to do, you fool?”

Would this little one really grow up and come to take my life?

I looked at him again. Even considering his age, he was small and skinny, and seemed to be in poor nutrition.

He was like a person who had been chased all his life even though he was young. He seemed so cornered.

I couldn’t believe he was in a situation where he was so skinny, small, and bleeding everywhere.…. 

Besides, there was no one looking for him, so he was in a position where he could barely plead to a passing girl.

After hesitating for a while, I made up my mind.

‘Let’s just take care of him for a few days.’

‘I’ll only take care of him for a few days, until he recovers. Think of it as helping the injured, not Rixus.’

If I had found an injured wild beast, you would have helped.

Once I made up my mind, I acted quickly.

I made a stretcher by weaving straw into a wooden frame, and carried the boy while groaning. The nearby hut was the destination.

I couldn’t take the boy who was not resistant to poison to the place where I lived, so I thought of that residence as a temporary solution.

This hut was an occasional resting place for hunters, and one of my favorite places for when I got out of the swamp and watched Spinel.

I didn’t know it would be used like this.

I laid the boy down in the hut, scooped up clear water and spilled it into his mouth.

The boy strangely accepted the water, drinking it.

‘Oh, I can save him.’

A sense of pride welled up in my heart.

“I need to treat him first. Wait a minute.”

I went into the forest that way and picked herbs. I even chewed a few of them myself.

To detoxify from the poison, I also had to regularly consume detoxification herbs. It was a habit I developed while living in the poison swamp.

Occasionally, I would pick those herbs and sell them at Spinel’s marketplace. I would buy minimal necessities and food with the money I earned.

During then, to hide my identity, I would put an eye patch over my eye and sprinkle magic stone powder I picked up on my left eye to make it black.

But now, I was out of that, so I ran straight to the boy.

I chewed the herb and applied it to the boy’s wounds.

“I’ve done everything I can do for you, Rixus.”

Now, it was out of my hands. The rest was up to him.

“You have to overcome it and get up.”

* * *

After that, the boy woke up only after three more days and nights.

When he got up, he asked where he was and how many days had passed, and thereafter, he kept his mouth shut.

I was sure he was at a loss.… He must have realized what kind of situation he was in.

‘What kind of child’s eyes are like that……?’

The child’s eyes were as deep as hell. He looked exhausted, like an old man. He looked like a person who was strongly rejected by the whole world. 

He must have been hungry because he had starved for at least three days. Yet he didn’t even say he wanted to eat.

Looking at the boy’s dry lips, I thought of what to feed him.

“Come on, eat this.”

At my voice, the boy looked at me.

“What is that?”

“It’s porridge made of oatmeal and milk. With blueberries on top.”

“I hate oatmeal.”

“……”

‘Oh, you don’t like it? Are you going to freak out? Your Highness the Crown Prince.’

What could I say about oatmeal to someone who only ate delicious food at the Imperial Palace?

In the poison swamp where I lived, this was the best meal.

Hearing him complaining about food made me feel bloated for some reason. How much delicious food have you eaten in your lifetime that you would complain?

“Then starve to death.”

Even though I was also a child, I spit harsh words at him.

“If you starve to death, you won’t be able to find the person who made your eyes that way.”

“……”

Then the boy opened his small mouth and ate the oatmeal porridge.

At first, he frowned a lot as he chewed it, but then his expressions gradually expanded.

Munch munch.

“…….”

……I guessed, this reaction meant it’s delicious?

I added another spoonful, just in case.

The boy quickly took it and ate it.

Munch munch.

‘A child is a child.’

“Tasty?”

When I asked, the boy replied with a faint blush.

“……Ummm. It’s delicious.”

The gentle answer was cute, so I smiled a little. But I soon straightened my mouth and made a serious expression.

‘I shouldn’t show him affection. He will leave once his leg is healed.’

The kindness I had shown to this little boy who would come after my neck later was enough.

I tried not to forget that fact.

While stirring the oatmeal porridge, I held out another spoonful.

“You can’t grow if you complain about food. That’s why your body is thin.”

The boy stared into the distance with his blind eyes, fumbled at the spoon with his hand, and cautiously took another bite.

“I can’t eat in the Imperial Palace. Because of the poison in the food.”

“…….”

Rixus licked his cracked lips as he answered calmly.

I had nothing to say, so I looked at his skinny forearms again.

He was also much shorter than his peers.

I was sorry that I hated him for complaining about food because I thought he ate only delicious food.

“Then… How do you eat?”

“I’ll go to the Imperial Palace’s kitchen and eat the leftovers. If I’m lucky.”

Yes, at least someone else’s leftover food wouldn’t be poisonous… 

I have been so busy with my life all this while that I have never thought about what kind of life Rixus was leading.

Come to think of it, at a young age, he was in a situation where there was no one who would protect him in the Imperial Palace.

There would be enemies everywhere trying to kill him.

Thinking like that made me sad.

I put two more blueberries on top of the oatmeal porridge and the boy took it well.

My heart softened as if I was watching food go into the mouth of the youngest sibling of the family.

After he finished the last bite, I wet a towel with water.

“Lift up your arm. You’re muddy.”

“Am I very dirty?”

“Yes. Very… So, raise your arms high.”

“Okay.”

The little boy meekly raised his arms. That calm action made me smile for some reason.

I started wiping the mud off his bare arms. After all, it was all muddy because he had fallen off a cliff after it had rained.

It was when I moved the towel carefully and approached the boy’s neck that the redness of the inner skin came into the naked eye.

It was such a disgustingly clear mark.

I grabbed the collar of his clothes and pulled it back, revealing a fairly large burn from the neck down to the shoulders.

It looked like it must have been very painful when it was formed, to have his skin so red and rough.

‘What kind of child has something like this?’

I frowned and asked.

“…Why do you have this?”

“It’s nothing.”

It’s nothing special?

“There was a fire in my room, but I couldn’t avoid it.”

Was there an incident where the prince’s room caught fire? I vaguely recalled an episode about a nanny while digging into my memory of the original work.

‘Oh, the nanny was trying to start a fire.’

She had sneaked into the prince’s bedroom with oil and lamps. If he hadn’t woken up in the middle because it was cold, he would have been burned to death.

But the boy woke up… 

The nanny was startled and dropped oil and a lamp at her feet. She was quickly engulfed in flames.

The nanny was one of the only people who stood by Rixus until the very end in the Imperial Palace. After losing his parents, she was also the adult he trusted and relied on the most.

Rixus hugged the burning nanny and wept.

At that time, Rixus knew that the nanny was trying to kill him.

Nevertheless, the reason he cried while holding her was probably because he knew that after she died, he would be really alone.

‘I didn’t want to know this pitiful side of him…’

Rixus and I were just floating like islands in the world, growing up without any warmth.

The natural enemy on the opposing side was living the life most similar to me.

When I realized it all over again, my heart was strangely sore.

At that time, the boy who was quietly surrendering himself looked at me with eyes that couldn’t see and asked a little shyly.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

I replied calmly.

“You do not need to know.”

“…….”

“Anyway, you’re leaving soon. As soon as you all get better.”

In response to my indifferent reply, the boy insisted with a slightly sullen face.

“But, tell me.”

I quietly looked at Rixus’s face.

Even though he was young, he was the crown prince.

He must have heard a lot about the news of the enemy. He might have heard of this; the cursed odd-eye abandoned in the poison swamp.

‘If you knew my name, you wouldn’t want to be by my side either.’

I suddenly remembered the words my mother had poured out to me when I visited the royal palace a few days ago.

Those words profoundly expressed regret having given birth to me… 

Who would welcome a girl who was rejected even by her parents?

The unlucky odd-eye saved him. If I said so, wouldn’t he be offended?

“You’ll run away from me when you hear my name. It’s a misfortune.”

“……”

Rixus’ had a puzzled expression.

“I have a terrible thing on my face.”

I scornfully said.

If I could, I wanted to dig out my eyes and throw them. Because all misfortunes started with these eyes.

“…….”

Then the boy’s finger pushed against my chin.

I looked at him quietly.

The boy’s fingers fumbled and brushed my cheeks…… touched the tip of my nose.

It was a very careful and precious touch.

“No.”

The boy answered me quietly.

Rough but warm fingers were all sitting on my eyelids and eyelashes.

Soon, he smiled softly and warmly, curving his unfocused eyes.

“You are pretty.”