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

110 – Secret Talk (2)

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As soon as Sister Alice lit the firewood she had brought, heat began to spread throughout the small cabin.

My sister Alice and I sat across from each other around the campfire.

Sister Alice just stared at the fire without saying a word.

I opened my mouth to that older sister first.

“ah…”

“… what,”

But the words that came to my mind were not easily able to come out of my mouth.

It was nice to see you again after such a long time, and it was funny that we didn’t recognize each other the last time we came, but it was also very touching that we were able to meet again like this.

But still, the beginning had to be an apology for the atrocities Sylvia had committed and gratitude for enduring such a terrible thing.

“Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“…”

“… Sylvia won’t apologize?”

“…”

I kept my mouth shut at my sister’s sharp reaction.

There was nothing I could say to make excuses.

In fact, it was just that I couldn’t feel it because Sister Alice, who was sitting in front of me right now, looked so fine, but in reality, it was as if Sister Sylvia had been murdered several, no, dozens of times.

“…I will try to convince him to apologize somehow.”

“Fine. It’s meaningless.”

“…”

My sister cut me off and then closed her mouth again, staring blankly at the flames.

It seemed as if he was looking for stability while watching the flickering flames.

Well, she had been in such a horrible state just a few hours ago, so perhaps Alice needed stability more than an apology or reflection right now.

I looked at my sister carefully.

Honestly, it was surprising how different she looked from my memories, to the point where I recognized her at first glance.

Although he had become much more mature than before, his eyes had become much sharper, his overall body line, including his hair, had become thinner and rougher, and although he exuded a divine aura, a gloomy and painful atmosphere hung around him in contrast.

I, too, had gone through terrible things to reach this forest, but it seemed clear at a glance that she, too, had been through a time filled with no small amount of hardship and adversity.

I said, pushing the ashes into the fire with a long stick.

“Sister, you’ve… changed a lot.”

“… It’s been a long time.”

“That’s right… It’s really been a long time.”

Sister Alice hugged her knees and stared at the flames, then glanced up at me and said.

“You’ve grown a lot too.”

“Right…? When you last saw me, how old was I? I was thirteen?”

“fourteen,”

“Ha… You must be surprised to see me. I’m a lot different from the Ash you remember.”

“I was surprised.”

Sister Alice chuckled and slowly moved her lips.

“You’ve grown up so well. You’re so cool.”

“Uh… Really?”

“If I had come to the academy, I would have been treated with some cuteness by my seniors.”

She said that and smiled faintly.

When I saw her smiling face, it felt like I could see a glimpse of her childhood in her face.

My sister looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

“Ha, it’s been almost seven years.”

“… I haven’t seen Sister Maria since I entered the academy… so that’s how it turned out.”

“… under,”

We both shut our mouths at the same time.

The same goes for Sister Maria, whom I haven’t seen since entering the academy.

Through Sister Alice, I was able to vividly realize that Sister Maria’s final appearance would be very different from the one in my memories.

Sister Alice was staring at me.

Perhaps he was thinking of his older sister Maria.

My sister sighed and slowly opened her mouth.

“I know why you came into the forest.”

“…”

“I know roughly what happened.”

I could immediately tell what Sister Alice was talking about.

To be honest, it was a topic I didn’t want to bring up, but it was also a story that had to be brought up at least once.

Sister Alice… really loved Layla.

“I saw the grave too.”

“… huh.”

“You made it?”

“…”

I stirred through the ashes in silence.

Sister Alice nodded slowly and said.

“It was hard.”

As soon as I heard that, I felt suffocated as if my throat was blocked.

My breathing was easy and my saliva was flowing, but for some reason, the feeling of something stuck in my throat just wouldn’t go away.

I felt as if if I opened my lips even a little, something I couldn’t swallow would pour out of my blocked throat, so I kept my mouth shut and answered in a tearful voice.

“…huh,”

My sister sat quietly for a while and then muttered softly, ‘That’s why I fell for that kind of girl.’

To be honest, I heard it clearly, but I pretended not to hear it so as not to make a fuss.

Sister Alice slowly got up and sat down next to me.

And then he quietly grabbed my wrist.

“…Sister?”

A pure white light poured out from Sister Alice’s hand.

I already knew what this light was.

It was the light of divine power that Sister Sylvia had also shown several times.

Sister Alice’s divine power was much greater, brighter, and warmer than what Sister Sylvia had shown.

As I slowly removed the hand that was holding my wrist, the scars and knife marks that had been clearly visible were completely gone.

Although I had only healed a relatively large wound, I noticed that her divine power was far beyond the ordinary, so I asked slowly.

“…You said you were an Inquisitor?”

“Directly under the Pope.”

“I didn’t know you joined the Catholic Church.”

Sister Alice didn’t answer at all.

I didn’t ask any more questions either.

If I remember correctly, the Count and his wife had no other children.

No, there were some, but they all lost their precious lives early for some reason.

So, in the end, the only rightful heir to the Goldfield estate was Alice, and the fact that she had converted to the Church of the Goddess meant that there was a problem with the Count and Countess, or with the Goldfield estate.

When I didn’t ask anything, my older sister slowly turned her head toward me and stared at me for a long time.

She slowly bit her lip as white light gathered in her golden eyes.

“Sister?”

“Ugh,”

At that moment, her right pupil split open with a popping sound.

Sister Alice clenched her teeth, moaned, and covered her eyes.

“Sister Alice!”

“are you okay…”

When I took away the hand that was covering her eyes, her pupils returned to normal.

In that short moment, he was healed by divine power.

Sister Alice sighed slowly and said.

“As expected, it’s not working”

“What did you just do?”

“I tried to remove your curse, but it doesn’t seem to work with divine power.”

It seemed like she was trying to lift the curse that was placed on me.

In fact, considering her body that could recover no matter how damaged it was and her high position as a direct subordinate to the Pope, it was immediately clear that Sister Alice’s divine power was not ordinary.

It was clear to me that the curse did not move even when I faced her like this.

But is it because of the Demon King’s curse, or is there another reason?

The exact cause is unknown, but judging by the fact that her eyes were suddenly torn open in an ugly manner, it seemed that even Sister Alice could not have done this curse.

That means that even if Sylvia had somehow returned to the city, the curse would never have been lifted.

I looked at her with worried eyes and opened my mouth.

“Is this okay?”

“…Because I’m used to the pain.”

Is this a story about Sylvia’s misdeeds, or is it about the terrible suffering she has been suffering for a much longer period of time?

I nodded without even asking.

“…Thank you for trying though.”

“It’s not because of Magi. It’s because of Sylvia…”

“know.”

“Ha, then you lied then.”

Sister Alice gave me a hollow laugh and gently patted my head.

Come to think of it, back when I didn’t know her true identity, I avoided meeting her by lying that I had a disease that made me unable to look at people’s faces because I was contaminated with magic.

I nodded and said with a sigh in my voice.

“…I wish I had known you were my older sister last time. Then I wouldn’t have had to lie.”

“That’s true.”

“Still, back then I did it because I was afraid that if we met face to face, the curse would be passed on to me.”

“My eyes sting, but that doesn’t work on me.”

“How would I have known that?”

Sister Alice nodded.

While I was talking to her after a long time, I suddenly felt a suffocation in one corner of my heart.

Actually, I didn’t want to talk about this.

No, even so, I didn’t want it to end like this.

I’ve dreamed of it many times.

It wasn’t that I had been looking specifically at Sister Alice, but still, imagining meeting the past connections I had lost was one of the precious ways for me to kill time in this barren forest, especially when Sister Sylvia was not by my side.

I kept imagining it, I kept hoping for it.

I even imagined meeting and talking to my dead sister Maria, my parents, and even Leila.

Of course, I also thought of Sister Alice.

I thought about what I was going to say over and over again, and even thought of a few topics to have a pleasant conversation about.

Memories from the Goldfield Estate, or memories of our reckless days that only the two of us remember.

However, when I actually met her, we were only talking about awkward and heavy things.

Of course, circumstances made it that way.

There was so much more to say than I wanted to say, and it felt a little awkward seeing her after such a long time, plus she was tortured by her sister Sylvia, and I lost Leila.

It must be because we have both walked such a painful path that we cannot laugh and share pleasant jokes.

But the bigger problem was that even the stories we shared were missing something.

The relationship between Sister Sylvia and Sister Alice showed no signs of improving as Pia had said, and the story about Laila was too heartbreaking to bring up, so I was the first to keep quiet.

I couldn’t even bring up the topic of Sister Maria, and I didn’t feel comfortable asking her about her actions in detail after she joined the cult.

I decided that this couldn’t go on, so I slowly spoke to her.

“Sister.”

“Ash.”

Oh, my words overlapped with hers at the same time.

I smiled awkwardly and waved to my sister.

“Sister, speak first.”

“Oh, yeah… Well, I have a question for you. Can you answer it?”

“What is it…?”

“A question I really want to hear the answer to.”

Unlike my sister’s clear answer, I spoke in a slightly muddled tone.

“I really want to hear it… I’ll answer anything I can.”

“hmm…”

My older sister paused for a moment and then slowly opened her mouth.

“Why, do you like Sylvia?”

.