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

117 – Persuasion (1)

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I proudly showed off to you that I was the master of the spirits from the legend, but when Sister Alice returned, her reaction was confusion, fear, and regret.

Even when I explained about the spirit and the green lady, she just shook her head and looked at me with worried eyes.

“Unfortunately, it was because I lost Layla that I became obsessed with such delusions.”

I couldn’t hide my frustration as I watched Sister Alice shedding tears with a complicated expression.

My sister said, touching her forehead.

“Well… it makes sense, since you’ve been living in our mansion your whole life, so many difficult things have happened at once that are too much to handle.”

“No, that’s not it, Sister…”

“This wasn’t the time to be stubborn. Ash was so messed up…”

“Excuse me, let me speak.”

“I’ll forgive Sylvia. I can’t burden you anymore… But let’s talk more about the Demon King.”

“…”

Sister Alice hugged my head tightly and then jumped down the tree branch.

I heard the sound of Sister Alice’s leg breaking as it fell straight to the floor.

But she started walking towards the cabin as if nothing had happened.

I stared blankly at the sight and sighed.

“… No… It’s a good thing to reconcile, but… Ha,”

I felt strangely confused, as if I had become a clown.

Well, it turned out the way I wanted, but I still feel strangely uneasy.

“No… well, if the two of them reconcile, that’s fine… but that’s fine…”

I shook my head from side to side to shake off the uneasy feeling in my head.

Since I had to explain the spirits to Sylvia anyway, it was something I could do all at once while they were both in the cabin.

Pia, who was sitting next to me and shaking her legs while crossing them, looked at me and said.

“Ash.”

“huh?”

“you idiot?”

“…”

Pia tapped her own shoulders, then raised both hands above her head, waving her fingers wildly.

It was a gesture that seemed to express flames.

“…ah,”

“Are you stupid?”

How did Sylvia, who, like Alice, could not see Pia, see the shape of a fox?

Isn’t it because it was surrounded by flames?

As I nodded my head while blankly looking at Pia, Pia laughed and stuck out her tongue.

“Are you stupid?”

“Pia. That’s awesome.”

“Pia is awesome, Ash is an idiot-”

“…I admit it.”

Pia teased me to my heart’s content and then quickly disappeared.

Left alone, I scratched my head for a moment and slowly climbed down, holding onto the wooden pole.

I was worried that Sylvia and Alice might fight, but it seemed like they were having a good conversation since they weren’t making any loud noises.

I walked towards the cabin.

As I stood in front of the door, I heard what sounded like two people talking about something.

I couldn’t confirm what they were talking about, but fortunately there didn’t seem to be any shouting or swearing.

I decided that it would be a bad idea to interrupt and ruin the mood while two people were having a serious conversation, so I waited for the conversation to stop for a moment.

After a few minutes, after the sound of people coming and going had stopped, I opened the door slightly and stepped into the cabin.

“Are you two okay now?”

“… Ash.”

Sylvia ran towards me with a worried expression on her face.

Sister Alice was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, quietly looking at Sylvia.

I nodded towards Sylvia.

“Did you apologize properly?”

“…I did. Alice accepted it too… and more than that…”

“…?”

Sylvia looked down at me with watery eyes and said:

“You should have told me in advance…”

“…yes?”

Sylvia said, holding my hand tightly.

“I knew Ash was having a hard time, but…”

“…ah,”

“I never thought I would have such delusions… Really…”

There was a deep sense of remorse in Sylvia’s voice.

“No, it’s not a delusion…”

“Oh, well… of course… I trust Ash.”

Sylvia said that, holding my hand tightly and crying.

No matter where I looked, there was no sign of trust at all.

Sylvia’s attitude was more like chiming in with the ravings of a psychotic patient.

It seemed that rather than reconciling, the two stopped fighting out of concern for my condition.

I said with a sigh.

“No… Hey, both of you sit down for a second.”

“Ash,”

“I’ll explain everything.”

“…Ash, I trust Ash, but,”

“Oh, please sit down first…”

I let go of Sylvia’s hand and slowly created sparks from my fingertips.

＊

The gazes of my sisters Sylvia and Alice as they looked at me were filled with even greater regret and shock bordering on astonishment.

It seems like explaining about spirits in the form of Pia wrapped in my magic wasn’t necessarily a good idea.

Well, it’s not surprising that their reaction was so harsh.

Unlike the image of the fox wrapped in blazing flames, which gave off a certain sense of mystery and mysterious charm, the image of the burning six-year-old girl was bizarre and frightening even to me.

“What kind of magic is this? What kind of pervert created this magic to summon the image of a girl on fire?”

“Maria said… that magic takes on the character of the user… Damn, I didn’t know Ash’s heart was this broken…”

“There… that,”

Sister Alice glared at Sylvia and growled.

“… After being with you for four years, Ash started acting strange.”

“Sister, it’s not like that…”

Sylvia also did not give up and glared at Alice.

“Ash didn’t say anything like that until yesterday, when you showed up!”

“No… that’s not it…”

I couldn’t hide my embarrassment as a sharp chill began to pierce between us again.

I looked at Pia with resentful eyes, unable to do anything.

Pia, with hot flames all over her body, stares at me intently.

“sorry.”

He disappeared after leaving a word behind.

An apology for providing the idea that created this mess.

Or is this an apology for creating this mess and then running away irresponsibly?

I couldn’t tell, but one thing I was sure of was that the two were leaning in as if they were going to strike each other at any moment.

I quickly stepped between the two and said.

“Please, both of you, listen to me!”

“Ash…”

Alice sighed deeply, covered her head, and opened her mouth.

“Ash, there are no such things as spirits in this world. They only appear in fairy tales.”

“I said no. What you just saw was my guardian spirit, Pia. Or do you think I have a taste for girls on fire?”

“Then what the fuck, why is your guardian spirit a flaming little lady? Wasn’t spirit supposed to be more like… a little babyish image?”

“She was originally just a girl like a fox, and I just set her on fire! It’s just a spirit, so my sister and Sylvia can’t see it!”

Sister Alice was terrified.

“You set it on fire?”

“No, it does sound a bit strange when you say it that way… but, there won’t be any pain.”

“… uh,”

“…”

madam,

The more I explain, the more George feels like he’s going crazy.

“Ash, that’s a bit…”

Sylvia also muttered with a trembling expression.

While you are making people like mashed potatoes.

“Oh my,”

At this point, I had no choice but to change my mind.

Since neither of us could see spirits, it was impossible for me to provide evidence that I was a spirit user.

It might have been easier to prove if I had great skill in summoning spirits or if I had a large number of spirits.

The only spirit by my side was Pia, and all I could do was ask for magical assistance.

In the end, all I could do was convince them with a logical explanation from the beginning.

I took a deep breath, inhaled slowly, and opened my mouth in a calm voice.

“Sylvia.”

“… huh,”

“Do you remember how far it was from Millwood Village to the scene of the carriage accident?”

Sylvia nodded.

“Do you remember how horribly wounded my body was when I first knocked on Sylvia’s cabin door?”

“Yeah, it took me a few weeks to open my eyes again… and even longer to walk again…”

Sylvia looked up at the ceiling as if recalling that time.

“Thinking back now, those were good times…”

“…”

Now that I realized that her obsession with me was serious, her words sounded creepy at first, but I didn’t bother to react.

Maybe she was simply drawing her own cabin, which was now gone, and I was the one who burned it down.

“…Common sense tells you that how could you walk that far with that injury?”

“That’s Ash’s mental power…”

“Sylvia, Sylvia, if you had the same injury, would you be able to walk with your mental strength?”

“…”

Sylvia shook her head.

“It’s true that Ash cherished and cared for Layla, but Ash wasn’t a very mentally strong person to begin with.”

Sister Alice, who had been quietly listening to me, also muttered slowly.

I nodded my head, pointing at that older sister.

“That’s right, at that time, I dragged my dying body towards the light that I could see in the distance, and finally barely reached the cabin where Sylvia lived. In fact, it was a distance where there was no way to see any light.”

“… So Ash, what you’re saying is… something helped you reach Sylvia?”

“yes.”

“That’s a spirit?”

“That’s correct.”

I finally feel like I’m making some progress.

I didn’t miss this opportunity and looked at Sylvia again and said.

“Sylvia. We used to come to this lakeside together, right? No, you probably came here often even when you were living alone without me.”

“yes?”

I threw open the cabin door and pointed outside.

My fingertips were pointing towards the giant tree that the green lady had grown with its roots in the middle of the lake.

“There was no such thing back then, right?”

Sylvia slowly approached the door, stuck her head out, and spoke with wide eyes.

“Huh? Definitely…”

“…Ash, what is that tree?”

Thanks to Sylvia’s reaction, it seemed like Sister Alice also started to listen to what I said.

I think it’s almost done.

“The Green Lady… She is the queen of the spirits who ruled over this forest of reclining trees, transformed into a tree.”

“…”

“… It’s such a fairy tale.”

I hurriedly waved my hands as the atmosphere suddenly became cold.

To add some authenticity, I opened my mouth and spoke to Sylvia.

“Sylvia, you remember. I was dying from being addicted to magic. I told Sister Alice about it too. I was addicted to magic and almost died, and I broke up with the person I was living with at the time.”

“…”

Unlike my older sister Alice, who still frowned as if she couldn’t believe what I was saying, Sylvia stared at me as if she had realized something and muttered.

“Then at that time… what disappeared…”

“Yes, it was the green lady who saved me. She took the magic from my body, purified it in this lake, and then used all her strength to turn me into a tree.”

“Sure… I came to this lakeside after losing Ash, but Ash wasn’t there then… And that tree too…”

“…”

I let out a sigh of relief as I watched Sylvia slowly try to understand my explanation while putting the circumstances in context.

Certainly, while the Green Lady was removing the magic from my body, I was in the spirit realm, and during that time, Sylvia would not have been able to find me anywhere in the forest.

It was understandable for her to be surprised that I suddenly appeared at the lakeside.

But since my story was scratching that itch, it was clear to Sylvia that the spirit stories would no longer sound like the mere delusions of a madman.

“I learned that I was a spirit sorcerer and that the fox that appeared on my flames was my guardian spirit when the green lady explained it to me.”

At that moment, Sister Alice tilted her head and said.

“Since when have you been seeing spirits?”

“I was able to see without the flames… after I met the green woman.”

“…”

“…why?”

“Then the time zone doesn’t match. The spirit helped me during the carriage accident when I first came to this forest.”

“No, I mean… Ha, this is really difficult.”

Anyway, it seemed like it would take a long time for the two to completely understand each other.

I continued to explain, waving my hands and feet diligently, determined to somehow learn the art of spiritism.

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