Chapter 2

Passing through the thick grassy forest, I stooped flat and moved forward. I kept walking, pushing hard through a small gap in the path, which I wouldn’t be able to get into unless I was a child. It hasn’t been a long time since I was struggling through the grass where I couldn’t see any traces of humans. Looking at Argen’s back I asked.

“Is it far?”

Argen, who took the lead, shook his head excitedly.

“Not so much.”

In the end we skipped lunch. There was nothing I could do because Lulahel, who seemed to be in the castle, went out again. If she didn’t eat, our share of rice didn’t come out either. No matter how much the emperor ignored us, it was a different story if we died, so the servants also made our share when they took care of Rurahel’s meal.

On the contrary, it meant that if they don’t take care of Lulahel’s meal, we won’t have our share either. Lulahel hated the poor quality food made by her servants and wandered out of the castle. Thanks to that, we were tiny even for  five year old children. I could bet it was because I couldn’t eat much at the age where we should be eating this and that. My stomach growled because I haven’t eaten anything properly since yesterday evening.

“We arrived.”

Without realizing it we arrived at our destination. As I was hating the grass that kept sweeping the red burning wound from being beaten by Lulahel, Argen cried proudly with his arms around his waist.

A small, secret space hidden between the untidy grass and densely grown trees. It was a secret place that only the two of us knew. As if it had been made it artificially, the round space was a haven for us, which no one knew.

“…… it’s been a long time since we’ve been here.”

“Whas it two years?”

“We came when we were three, didn’t we?”

When we were three years old, we found this place on foot. Still, the trees, which looked so tall and bigger back then, are now quite low.

Actually, if we hadn’t remembered this place yesterday, we wouldn’t be here now.

While thinking about what to do for our birthday, we happened to remember this secret place we found when we were three. Back then, we came and went from time to time. Indulging in the faint memories, I lifted my head and looked around the trees.

“It’s bearing fruit.”

At my words, Argen raised his head up. When I was three years old, I was too young to climb trees, but not now. Near the castle, there were all the rare fruits that were picked only occasionally

“I’ll climb this tree.”

I said, touching a tree with my hand in hand. My mouth was watering when I saw the fruit I wanted because I was starving. The fruit on the tree I was going to climb was a long yellow-colored fruit that tasted like a mixture of blueberries and strawberries when peeled. We made our birthday cakes with these fruits. It wasn’t a high-quality cake made of bread and whipped cream, instead it was a crude layer of pastry and fruit, but it was just as good.

Argen also went to the tree next to me and raised his head to see what kind of fruit it was. I took advantage of the gap and climbed up the tree that would have been  hard for ordinary people to climb. It was Argen’s and my special ability even when we didn’t know how to climb trees.

At first, I was clumsy, but after trying to climb up once or twice, I suddenly came down like a monkey. I carefully speculated that the reason why 5-year-old children, who were smaller than their peers, can easily climb trees was because of the flow of royal blood.

Of all the things I’m good at, I’d like climbing trees, but how about that? What’s good is good. The fruits easily dropped, and not long afterwards, a large amount of fruits were collected satisfyingly.

“It looks delicious.”

I sat side by side with Argen in a suitable place and began to peel the fruits we gathered with our tiny hands. Compared to the ones sold in modern supermarkets, the huge sugar-rich and tasteful fruits kept making my mouth water.

I sat face to face with Argen and began placing hard-pressed fruits on a large leaf. In the middle of it, I brought a piece of fruit towards Argen’s mouth, but Argen had the same idea as me and held a fruit in his hand while making eye contact. I put the fruit that Argen was trying to give me in my mouth and brought out the main subject that I wanted to do first.

“Happy birthday, Arien.”

“Happy birthday.”

I sat on the floor with piles of fruit in between and received a congratulation from Argen, and I also greeted back. It was the birthday of only the two of us whom no one would congratulate.

******

Watching the light shining through the trees, I shook off the sticky juicy from my hands. There was so much nectar that the juice flowing down my wrist was already wetting my sleeves. recalling the faint memories, there should be a place where a stream of water flowed a little further from here.

When I got up to go wash his hands, Argen gave me a confused look.

‘Where are you going?’

Argen picked up the purple fruit in front of me.

“To wash my hands.”

We had similar tastes in food. In fact, it is not enough to say that it is similar since it was exactly the same. thanks to that, among the fruits that were piled up, certain fruits were already gone. Argen was about to bite the fruit in his hand, but instead he glanced at me and said.

‘I’m coming, too.’

‘Then get up quickly.’

Come to think of it, after reincarnating, though it may not be really worthwhile, I have one ability that fits in with the fantasy world. Even if Argen is in an eye-catching place, I can talk inside without having to say anything. It was also the same for Argen.

Because the fruit juice was wetting my clothes with its sticky texture, I urged Argen to hurry up by kicking his bottom while he was still crouching down on his feet.

At my urging, Argen got up and looked down at his sticky hands and frowned.

“It’s delicious, but I think I’ve become a primitive animal.”

“You can’t go back and pick up the fork, you know.”

Argen also nodded to say that he had to bear this amount because he ate it by hand. I looked around eagerly to see which direction the stream was and finally found a trace.

“Found it.”

As if this was the road, I noticed traces that were carved onto the tree with stones. The traces located below Argen and my height seemed to tell us how young we were when we were looking for this place at the time.

Argen pointed his finger at the tree, putting his chin on my shoulder to see if I had found any traces like him.

“We were really small when we were three.”

I started walking along the trail, recalling the memories I had carved with my small hands. The hard work of my childhood was worth it.

The traces of a child’s small hand were still strong.

“This is the last place?”

“Huh?”

Unlike other trees that had long arrow shapes, we stood still when they saw a tree that had a deep X mark carved into it. As I turned my head a little more to the side, warm sunlight poured down as if the forest came to an end and a transparent stream of water running underneath it caught my eyes.

The clear, clean water reflected the sunlight and shimmered, while the sound of birds and wind sweeping the grass tapped my ears.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been here.”

“We haven’t been here since we were three.”

I approached the water and squatted down. As I dipped my hands in the water, cool water brushed past my hands.

“It’s all over my sleeve.”

“Come here.”

I was soaking my hands for a moment when I noticed the sticky red nectar on my sleeve. Thanks to that, I remembered the purpose of finding the place and dipped the end of my sleeve in water. As if he was displeased with my clumsy one-handed rubbing of the sleeve, Argen grabbed my sleeve that was lightly soaked in the water.

I thought the stain wouldn’t come out, but fortunately, it was wiped off early, and the color went out well.

“It’s one of the few dresses I have, so I should save it.”

I squeezed water from my faded sleeve and shook my arm hard to shake off the excess moisture. The sun was nice so it was about to dry up soon.

“You won’t be able to wear it if you’re bigger.”

I stuck out my lips slightly at Argen’s stinging words and lowered my head to look at my clothes.

“It was pretty, but it’s too bad.”

It fits me perfectly even now, but it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to wear it if I get bigger.

No matter how little we ate, children will grow up. Not just any dress, but a light forsythia dress was one of the only precious belongings I had in my hands. I thought that it would be possible to use it later if I kept it well because it was the clothes I got when I was well off.

When Argen saw that I had finished washing my hands, he straightened his knees and got up. While crouching, I brushed off the grass on the edge of the dress with my hands. Argen sighed as if he had found something. I followed Argen’s gaze, wondering what he was looking at.

“Arien.”

“What, Argen.”

“That’s it, right?”

“What?”

“The tree we played with.”

What Argen pointed to was a tree with beautiful blue leaves. A little taller than other trees, it had well-grown stems with no diseases or wounds.

“I couldn’t climb the fruit trees, so I went up there for sure.”

“You almost fell down.”

The tree, which we used to play with, came into our view when we lifted our heads higher. Just in time, I made eye contact with Argen and laughed then approached the tree without having to say anything else.

When we were younger, this tree seemed to be so big, but now that I see it, I don’t think we’d be able to climb it despite being a master at climbing trees. Perhaps he was thinking the same thing, but Argen held my wrist when I grabbed the tree with both hands.

“Are you going up?”

“I’m going up.”

“Until where?”

“Where do you want to go?”

Looking up from under the tree, I could only see the blue leaves. But I knew what it felt like to hide among the leaves and look down at the world. Like a bird flying in the sky and a horse running in a field, the world seemed to be open.  We, who are always sanctioned and confined, loved the landscape so much that we didn’t know what to do.