“I want to become someone that others find difficult. Like the people living in Tienda over there.”

The girl who spoke like that looked plain.

“Wait and see, someday I’ll go up there. I will become an incredibly difficult person there!”

However, she had eyes that sparkled like stars.

And the astrologer sitting beside her was the only one who knew the girl’s loveliness and yet-to-be-revealed brilliance.

For that reason, the astrologer chuckled lightly while contemplating the girl’s fate.

“Does a person have to be difficult?”

“Yes?”

“How about living happily without difficulty?”

“Living happily without difficulty? How can that be when it’s not difficult?”

Young Ivy heard something that didn’t sound like words. So, the astrologer asked the innocent and mischievous girl.

“Are difficult people the ones you mean by strong people?”

“No, it’s different. If strong people can overcome adversity, difficult people are those who don’t encounter adversity. They avoid and be cautious by themselves. Difficult people don’t get involved in difficult and dirty things, unlike easy people who easily get caught up in all sorts of troubles. Even strong people can’t always overcome adversity. Even if they do, they’ll be hurt as much as they’ve suffered. Eventually, they may become weak and easy people. So, you should be someone who originally becomes a person avoiding adversity.”

The argument of the twelve-year-old girl, who had received no education and had not even mastered reading, was sharp and incisive. So, the astrologer couldn’t help but feel sad.

“But difficulty is relative.”

“That’s right.”

“Even if you become someone more difficult than now, there will be someone even more difficult in the world.”

“That’s right. Then I’ll become an easier person again.”

“What will you do then?”

“I’ll become more difficult. Until I become the most difficult person in the world.”

The child, tempered by the storms of the world, answered boldly.

The astrologer looked at the child with hidden eyes under the hood and murmured quietly.

“He was my friend.”

“What do you mean?”

“The most difficult person in the world that you mentioned.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s true.”

“Why are you begging on the streets if you were friends with someone like that?”

“Even being like a beggar… No, right?”

The astrologer said in a shocked tone. Ivy shook her head vigorously in front of him, and the astrologer argued a little unfairly.

“Really. He was the most difficult person in the world. Everything in Tienda moved at his word.”
Ivy looked at the astrologer with eyes that weren’t particularly bright. However, she seemed to anticipate the continuation with curiosity. But the following words that came out were quite lacking.

“But that person wasn’t very happy.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, why?”

Ivy hesitated and then replied confidently.

“I haven’t experienced difficulty, so I don’t really understand the hardships of difficult people. I’ll teach you when I become difficult enough myself.”

The astrologer finally burst into laughter at Ivy’s self-confident attitude.

When the man with his face covered chuckled gently, Ivy was momentarily surprised and then subtly avoided his gaze.

“You’re not laughing, sir.”

“Do I have to laugh?”

“It’s funny, saying something like this when you have nothing. Don’t you think it’s boasting?”

Since the topic, which had been full of bluff, was accepted so readily, Ivy started to act proud instead.

The astrologer, a strict and meticulous child, whispered again as she noticed Ivy’s stubbornness.

“I don’t think so. You can do anything you want.”

Eventually, Ivy’s cheeks turned rosy.

Ivy tried to cover up the fact that her face had turned red by pretending to cough. But unlike her arrogant behavior, Ivy’s tender heart was busy beating with the first acknowledgment she had ever received in her life in front of other people.

About eight years since that sweet and poignant memory was engraved somewhere in her heart, Ivy was reconsidering his words.

If you can do anything you want, what on earth do you know to say such a thing?

If you’re really a person from a different time, will the future me be able to do anything I want as you said?

I hope it doesn’t mean achieving things by struggling. It’s much better to be a person who doesn’t encounter adversity than someone who can always overcome adversity. Ivy thought like this as she faced a new adversity.

“I choose this.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m completely serious.”

Ivy said decisively as she looked at her bright red dress.

Unlike the elaborate dresses worn by Tienda’s ladies with multiple layers, the thin and simple pieces of cloth were so thin that it was confusing whether it was clothes or socks.

It was an inappropriate garment that, if worn, would not only reveal the contours of the body but also expose the skin through the deeply cut and elongated parts, making it incapable of serving the basic function of clothes.

So, when Dees avoided that blatant red, Ivy looked at him with amusement.

“It’s a wrong judgment.”

“Why?”

“Activity and defense are excessively low.”