Loving The Cursed Werewolf King-Chapter 135: The Runaway Child

Ronan ordered William and his knights to continue their journey. They accepted the order by rushing back to their respective horses.

Ronan got on his horse and pulled the reins out of the forest the same way they had entered.

Arielle looked back one last time. Her brows furrowed as she saw a man glowing from the darkness. The man was wearing a long tunic that touched the white ground.

His long hair that hung down to his back was also white. Arielle felt that he looked awfully familiar, but she couldn’t remember who the man was or where she had met him.

When Arielle opened her mouth to tell Ronan about the figure she saw, the man in white put his index finger on his lips. He was asking Arielle not to say anything.

The girl batted her eyes, thinking maybe she was hallucinating. However, the man was still standing in the same place. A few moments later, the stag they released earlier came closer to the man dressed in white, watching Arielle’s departure, as she was getting further and further away.

The man in white and the deer stood side by side, watching Arielle go. The girl’s heart skipped a beat as the man waved his hand at her.

"What’s the matter, sweetheart? You still haven’t let the deer go?" Ronan asked curiously because Arielle kept looking behind her.

Arielle looked up for a moment and then looked back at the forest. She no longer saw the man and the deer. The girl was silent for a moment, thinking about what Arielle had just seen. Maybe what she saw just now was really just a hallucination.

"Nothing. I just wanted to make sure the deer had gone away," Arielle replied quietly.

Ronan chuckled and patted Arielle’s head lightly.

"No need to be sad. You still have five naughty rabbits in the palace," replied the man, making Arielle smile again.

"You are right."

***

Arielle’s and Ronan’s group had passed the frozen lake, and one by one, houses began to be seen, which had lit oil lamps or torches in front of their houses to light the way.

The sky was getting darker, meaning night would fall soon. Arielle’s cheeks started to turn red from the drastic drop in temperatures. The snow was still falling slowly too.

When passing through a quiet village, at the end of the road, Arielle could see the figure of a small child sitting alone on a boulder. As Arielle got closer, she saw that there was a roll of cloth beside the boy.

Arielle continued to watch the child who was sitting with his face buried in his palms. The boy didn’t care about the approaching row of horseshoe sounds. Arielle glanced briefly as they passed the boy.

"Wait a minute," Arielle asked, making Ronan slow down his horse.

"What is it?" the man asked.

"I seem to know that boy."

"Who?"

Ronan stopped his horse for a moment. He looked back when Arielle also looked back.

"May I come down?" asked Arielle making Ronan even more confused about the girl’s request.

He looked around. He felt like if he stopped for a while, no one would see him passing through the street. Ronan pulled one of the reins of his horse to turn around. With slow steps, he drew closer to the little boy who was sitting alone on the rock.

William and several other knights also stopped, waiting for the king to return to lead their group to go back to the palace. They put their horses aside to give way to Ronan and Arielle, who suddenly turned around.

The priest got off his horse to help Arielle down. The girl lowered the hood of her coat and approached the little boy slowly. She tilted her body slightly to make sure that the boy was still alive.

The little boy sitting alone didn’t realize someone was approaching him until Arielle tapped his little shoulder.

Arielle gasped at the boy’s battered face. His right eye was swollen, and there was a cut on the corner of his lips. There was even a trace of dried blood under his nose to his cheek. The boy’s clothes were very messy and dirty. Arielle frowned at the small bald spot on top of the boy’s head.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Arielle quietly.

The girl sat on the snow to align her face with the boy.

"You’re the boy who gave me flowers at the festival back then, right?"

The boy’s lips parted slightly when he remembered who the woman sitting in front of him was. The child’s face turned red and then he looked away, not wanting to be stared at by Arielle.

"Go away, miss. I don’t know you," he lied.

Arielle remained where she was. She glanced at the boy’s feet. The roll of cloth beside him turned out to be containing clothes and a loaf of frozen bread.

"Did you run away from home?" asked Arielle.

The girl rose to her feet, making the boy glance at Arielle, then pretended to look the other way when Arielle looked back at him. The boy’s gaze met with a masked man on the side of a large, pitch-black horse.

Ronan raised one of his eyebrows because he was curious to see the boy who was also looking at him with a cold gaze. He remembered who the boy was. Ronan smiled slightly at the boy’s battered face.

The man wondered, what was the boy doing outside this cold house? Sitting silently on a rock by the side of the road? Wouldn’t his family look for him? The corner of her eye found a roll of cloth.

Did the child run away from home?

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Ronan shook his head in disbelief at what he saw. A snotty child who might not be ten years old dared to leave his home alone? Was his battered face the result of stealing food on the side of the road?

"You want me to take you home?" Arielle said, making the boy’s body stiffen.

The boy did not reply to Arielle’s question. He got up from the rock, grabbed the roll of cloth, and walked away. He left Arielle, who was still standing, waiting. The child walked with limp steps making Arielle feel sad.