I Can’t Run Away From the Girl Who Saved Me

102 – Two Faces (2)

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“Ugh,”

I woke up with a shiver from the ticklish sensation on my knee.

After reuniting with Sylvia, I started looking around as a habit every time I opened my eyes.

“Today too… I went out.”

Miss Sylvia wasn’t seen today either.

I thought about getting up early in the morning while I was still asleep and going for a walk, but she definitely didn’t have that habit when she lived in her cabin.

By the coolness against my skin, I could tell she had not been by my side since the night before.

No, actually, I had a vague feeling about it before.

I’m not sure, since I’m having a hard time keeping track of time and days, just like her, but I’m sure it’s been a month since I’ve been waiting for her in this empty cabin.

Thanks to that month of solitude, my skin had naturally become more sensitive to the warmth of others, and that keen sense vividly conveyed her absence to me.

When I fall asleep, Sylvia disappears somewhere.

It seemed like she wasn’t sleeping at all.

As I spent the day in this shack, which was so lacking in everything, I tried my best to overcome the sleepiness that was creeping in, but eventually my eyes would drift off.

The last scene that appeared in my slowly fading vision was Sylvia’s smiling face, always looking at me with affectionate eyes.

However, on the contrary, I haven’t seen her sleeping even once in the past few days.

Of course, it could simply be that she went to bed later than me and woke up earlier than me, but every morning when I opened my eyes, the cold, empty space in the cabin would forcefully remind me that she had been away during the night.

“…under.”

I lay there, scratching and messing up my hair.

I hated these empty mornings so much.

Because it made me imagine ominous thoughts.

“Are you crazy…”

Every time I opened my eyes in the morning and saw that she was not there, I wondered if I had gone crazy.

In fact, Ms. Sylvia never came back to me, and this was nothing more than a miserable hallucination of me freezing to death in a cabin by the lake.

That’s the kind of worry I’m talking about.

under,

No,

Maybe I was dying in the rain on the day I broke up with Sylvia, and I was looking at this sight.

I’m a spirit sorcerer,

Perhaps that absurd story is nothing more than a miserable imagination created by a weak person like me who had no power.

The cold I feel all over my body may be because the cold rain is pouring down on my body as I die in the forest.

No, no.

When it rains, I have to go back even further.

Maybe all this is just a long, illusory vision of me lying there in a miserable state, my whole body broken, in a carriage accident that rainy night.

It could be that this is the world I am looking at, unable to accept reality, as I gasp for breath next to the dying or already dead Layla.

In fact, it was also the most likely hypothesis.

She meets a warrior, falls in love, hears the story of her sister’s death, and discovers hidden powers and destiny.

At first glance, this story, which is as absurd as a child’s dream, is everything I wanted.

As a man, I also wanted to experience love and s*x with a nice woman.

It was hard to accept the sudden death of my proud older sister, and I was secretly envious and jealous of her, so I desperately hoped that I had the same potential as her.

Ha, that fits perfectly.

I was becoming increasingly convinced that, like the little match girl in the fairy tale, I too might be dying and seeing all these illusions.

“…Miss Sylvia…come quickly.”

I muttered, hoping she would come back soon.

I wanted to prove to her with the warmth with which she embraced me that the days I spent with Sylvia were not a vain dream created by my miserable imagination.

That’s why, after they met again, he called her ‘Sister Sylvia’ and acted cute, which was not appropriate.

Only now can I truly understand Sylvia’s feelings.

It was only at this moment that I finally realized why she had acted so strangely when she asked to become my family.

When I’m alone, I feel numb, but when someone is by my side, only then can I truly see this terrifying emptiness.

She was addicted to my presence, to my warmth.

As if I am thirsting for her presence right now.

“…that thunder and lightning.”

I suddenly remembered the time when she used to imitate my younger sister in front of me even though she wasn’t even my sister.

At the time, I found Sylvia’s strange behavior very bizarre, but now that I think about it, it’s really annoying.

I saw her yesterday, and I even had my body with her all day yesterday.

I really wanted to see Sylvia.

Usually she would show up around this time, but today she still hasn’t shown up.

At that moment, I felt a tickle in my knee again and flinched.

“…?”

Since the leather hadn’t been properly processed yet, I wondered if it might have been infected by lice living in the deer’s fur, so I slowly lifted the deer leather that was covering me instead of a blanket.

“Pia?”

My tiny guardian spirit was wriggling under the covers and licking my knees.

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Was it the day before yesterday?

During a hot night with Sylvia, my knees got scraped without me knowing it.

It was such a minor wound that even Sylvia didn’t notice, and I didn’t want to whine and ask for treatment for such a minor wound, so I just left it alone. However, it wasn’t surprising that Pia suddenly appeared and started licking the wound on my knee.

No, more than that, I was embarrassed by Pia appearing on her own without me even calling her.

Instead of her usual appearance of being covered in fireballs, Pia had a bluish silver glow.

Now that I think about it, I remember the green woman explaining that this spirit wasn’t a spirit of fire, but that it just appeared on my flames because I didn’t know how to communicate with spirits.

The sight of the tiny baby fox repeatedly squeezing my scabbed knee had a fatal cuteness that made my heart feel at ease just by looking at it.

I smiled and gently patted Pia’s head.

Pia flinched briefly at my touch, but soon began to push her head into my palm and whine as if asking for more petting.

Looking at that sight, I felt the emptiness and depression that had been plaguing me until just a moment ago subside a little.

I said this, recalling that I was able to endure it because Pia was by my side during the time when Sylvia was away.

“…thank you.”

Pia looked at me with her wide eyes, not knowing whether she understood what I was saying or not, then smiled with her fox-like squinty eyes and accepted my hand.

The ears on top of his head slightly flutter as if in a good mood.

I lifted Pia’s body slightly.

It had been more than a day or two since I had slept while hugging Pia’s warm body while Sylvia was away, and I missed the feel of her fluffy tail feathers, so I wanted to hug her tightly after a long time.

“Pia, you’ve grown a little bit?”

As I put both hands under Pia’s front legs and lifted them, I could clearly feel the weight that was heavier than before and the girth that I could hold was much larger.

I looked at the guy with a puzzled expression, but Pia turned her head to me as if asking what was going on and sniffed the tip of her nose.

“Have you grown up in the meantime? I don’t remember giving you anything to eat, but… Do spirits eat anything?”

I hesitated for a moment at the sudden change in the guardian spirit, but when I saw Pia flailing her legs as if asking why I wasn’t hugging her quickly, I decided that it didn’t matter.

I hugged Pia tightly in my arms.

“Ouch”

Pia let out a thin, cute cry and fell into my arms.

Rather, it seemed like the bigger size made it feel better to hold.

Soft body and fluffy fur,

And the feeling of her clean, smooth skin was so soft that I thought I could hold her for minutes or hours.

“…for a moment”

skin?

I was so surprised that I pulled Pia away and looked at her.

“why?”

Pia opened her eyes wide and asked me why.

Did you ask…?

For a moment, I froze, unable to grasp the situation.

“Hurry up and hug me.”

Pia had become a little child who looked about six years old.

“Pia?”

The child nodded and hugged me tightly.

I was so embarrassed that I held the child in my arms and patted him stiffly.

Looking at her silver-blue hair, I could tell that she was definitely my guardian spirit, Pia.

No, why on earth did it take the form of a human?

“Pat it.”

“Oh, yeah…”

As I stroked his head as he requested, I felt two pairs of large ears that were pulled back and stuck to his hair.

As soon as my hand touched it, its two fox-like ears perked up.

I slowly ran my hands through Pia’s hair and felt where a person’s ears should be, but there was nothing there but a wisp of hair.

“…Are you really… Pia?”

“?”

Pia looked like she didn’t understand my question.

Or maybe it’s an expression that says you don’t know why I’m asking such an obvious question.

At that moment, while absentmindedly patting Pia on the head and thinking hard about the situation that was not yet fully understood.

Suddenly the door to the cabin opened.

“Ash, wake up…”

“Oh, Sylvia.”

“… uh?”

No, the gates of hell have opened.

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