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

118 – Persuasion (2)

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The more I thought about it, the more I realized that their distrust of me was actually a completely natural reaction.

A close childhood friend who has spent a lot of time together since childhood.

Or, if a young lover who showed off his cute little brother-like side suddenly starts talking about being able to see spirits or having a mysterious power to control spirits, it would be common sense to worry first rather than believe it.

This would be even more so if we knew that the person who said those words had suffered from a series of hardships and adversities that would not have made it strange for them to develop a mental illness.

In fact, even I had my doubts.

I have often wondered if all that I had experienced was nothing more than a vain fantasy created by my feeble, dying mind after losing my entire family.

The piano I see in front of me is just an illusion created by my imagination, and I wonder if I have actually gone crazy.

I’d be lying if I said I’d never had such an eerie suspicion.

But fortunately, or unfortunately, all of this was true.

It was real and it was true.

The mysterious giant tree that had not existed before suddenly grew in the middle of the lake and the demon king’s aura that fired a signal flare to revive the world were proving that the world was falling apart and in chaos.

Maybe I really was crazy, but it was just a thought.

If I really believe that I have gone mad, how can I believe in the existence of my sister Sylvia or Alice before me?

The person I love, the person I miss so much.

To protect them, I had to trust my memories, my experiences, and myself.

I clenched my fists and told him everything that had happened to me and about the spirits.

After several hours of conversation, Sister Alice nodded.

“Okay, I got it, I got it.”

“…Do you believe me now?”

“I have to believe it, since he says so much.”

I kept my mouth shut in an ambiguous reaction, not knowing whether I really believed it or just wanted to pretend to believe it and move on from this conversation.

Sister Alice said, scratching her head.

“But I still disagree with your opinion.”

“opinion?”

Sylvia reacted in bewilderment, not knowing what Alice was talking about.

Alice glanced at Sylvia and slowly opened her mouth.

“Ash. Even if you can truly control spirits, I don’t know if you’re strong enough.”

“…That’s true.”

“I can purify the magical energy that has accumulated in your body, but the journey to the Demon King’s Castle is not a picnic.”

“… i know.”

“Wait a minute, what are you talking about that I just can’t understand?”

At Sylvia’s question, Sister Alice sighed and fell off the wall she had been leaning against.

She said as she slowly passed me by.

“There’s no need for me to object or anything, because Sylvia would never allow it.”

“… Sister.”

“But I know that I absolutely need that b*tch on my journey to defeat the Demon King. I also know that I am absolutely incompetent to match the strength of a warrior. So, why don’t you try to persuade me? If you convince Sylvia, I will follow you without question.”

“…”

My sister just walked past me and towards the cabin door.

“Where are you, Sister?”

“I need to get some air. My head is spinning.”

Saying so, Sister Alice left the cabin.

It seemed like she had complicated feelings of her own.

They had to hurry up and subdue him as soon as possible before the Demon King was completely resurrected, but my older sister thought that she wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

Perhaps the basis for that judgment came from the battle with Sylvia.

It was easy to see that the experience of being thoroughly trampled by Sylvia had been a great shock to her in many ways.

Of course, since the Demon King has not yet regained his full power, the fact that he lost to Sylvia does not mean that he will lose to the Demon King, but at least Sylvia is better than going alone…

No, it was an undeniable fact that going with a colleague, no matter who, would be a much more stable journey of hardship.

“…Sister,”

The problem was that she didn’t want me to accompany her, and Sylvia wouldn’t move unless I accompanied her.

Even though the two of them were together, this was by no means a picnic, as she had said.

A path where you can die at any time, and where countless unparalleled heroes have already lost their lives.

As a close friend of Sister Maria, it seemed like there was a conflict between the thought that she couldn’t let Ash go down that path and the thought that she had to take a risk for the sake of this world.

Well, before she was my fiancée, Sister Maria’s childhood friend, she was an Inquisitor directly under the Pope of the Goddess Church.

We have a mission to protect this world and make it a better place.

“Ash.”

At the sound of Sylvia calling, I slowly turned my head to face her.

Sylvia’s eyes were trembling with anxiety.

“I don’t understand what you two are talking about at all. The Demon King’s Castle?”

“…”

“But, just in case… Really, just in case…”

In fact, those problems were nothing more than optimistic thoughts based on an extremely hopeful situation.

“…That’s not what I think, is it?”

All of this will happen under the precondition that I can convince Sylvia of my intention to enter the Demon King’s lair.

I took a slow breath.

We have to persuade them.

If only to prevent the destruction of the world.

“Sylvia, I have something to tell you.”

I began to open my mouth with a determined expression.

＊

I explained softly.

The cruel truth is that Sylvia failed and the Demon King did not die.

She had a pained expression on her face.

I felt extremely uncomfortable and in pain the whole time I was talking, so how much more so must it have been for her.

One of the reasons I’ve never been able to bring up this subject with her before is probably because I’ve been reluctant to bring up her failures.

However, if she already knew, there was no need to delay any longer.

Finally, I told her everything I wanted to say, including that I wanted to join her on her journey to kill the Demon King who deserved to die. Then I slowly closed my mouth and watched her reaction.

Contrary to my expectations that she would express strong opposition, she listened to me silently.

She said, slowly closing her eyes.

“Alice… did that woman give you a false sense of humor?”

“No, it was the green lady who told me about the Demon King’s existence. And that I have the power to control spirits.”

“…the green lady.”

“Do you think Sylvia’s story about me seeing spirits is a lie? That it’s just a delusion created by my fragile mind that has gone through too much hardship?”

Sylvia shook her head.

“Believe me.”

“…”

“The carriage accident scene that was so far away, or the amount of magical power that was so great for a wizard with no talent… No, even without such logical evidence, I could clearly feel that there was something special about Ash.”

Honestly, I thought it was just a feeling of love, but I didn’t bother to argue.

Sylvia slowly opened her mouth again.

“But just because you can see spirits doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly want to catch the Demon King. That green woman isn’t doing some strange tricks on you, is she?”

“Sylvia.”

I closed my lips for a moment and organized what I wanted to say in my head.

There were so many things to ask and answer, but the first thing to check was whether she really had no intention of going to kill the Demon King like Sister Alice had said.

“The green lady also told me this.”

“…”

“I must help the hero defeat the Demon King. That is my destiny.”

“fate…”

“The reason I came to this forest, and the reason Layla lost her life in the process, was a fateful effort to correct this twisted future that was leading humanity to destruction.”

Sylvia’s face wrinkled.

I knew what she was thinking too.

No matter how great the good, the feeling of being at the mercy of fate is never pleasant.

When I heard those words from the green lady, I too was so angry that I screamed.

“… Ha, damn it,”

Sylvia let out a small curse.

I could fully understand that feeling.

“I don’t care if this world is going to end.”

“Sylvia.”

“I was already cut off from this world. I chose to be cut off. As a warrior, to prevent this damn world from being destroyed.”

Sylvia’s lips moved quietly, but powerfully.

The regret and anger that filled every syllable made it feel like it was resonating deep in my bones, even though my voice was quiet.

“How much more must I do? What more must I do? How long must I sacrifice, suffer, and be in pain?”

“Sylvia,”

“no.”

“…”

“I don’t want to face my failures, and I don’t want to sacrifice myself for people I’ve never met before. Above all…”

Sylvia’s eyes flashed open, and her red eyes turned straight towards me.

Inside, I felt as if a sizzling, sticky, pitch-black emotion was enveloping my whole body.

Sylvia slowly leaned her upper body forward and approached me, placing both arms on the ground.

Like a herbivore frozen in the face of a predator, I allowed her to approach.

She slowly came towards me and grabbed my legs, my shoulders, and finally my cheek as she spoke.

“I don’t want to do something so dangerous that I might lose you… Ash.”

I listened to her quietly.

A chill runs through my whole body.

Even at the moment of the carriage accident, even at that time, when she was quietly breathing life into me, hiding her face and real name from me,

This peculiar chill that I felt even when my body, contaminated with magic, cooled down in the cold rain.

I knew this feeling so well, it was now so familiar.

This cold air was a sign to me that death was near.

My sense of the scent of death was now almost at a precognitive level.

Sylvia is thinking of stopping me.

Even if it means killing me.

No, I don’t mean to kill her, but her calm appearance is different from mine, and her anxious mind is so agitated that my fragile body will surely meet its end.

However, it wasn’t just death that I became accustomed to.

“Sylvia.”

“…”

I called Sylvia’s name, reached out, and gently touched her cheek.

Her skin was extremely cold.

It seemed as if her fear was seeping out of her.

I said with my eyes slowly closed.

“I don’t want to defeat the Demon King for the sake of humanity.”

“… what?”

“It’s not that I’ve gained the power to see spirits and am running wild without knowing what to do, nor is it because I want to prevent the world from ending. Of course, it’s not because I want to take revenge on my older sister Maria who died now.”

“Then why on earth… hmph,”

I gently put my arms deep behind her neck and pulled her head.

With my eyes closed, I slowly covered her lips with mine.

Under no circumstances, under no emotions, would she ever refuse my kiss.

Sylvia, although flustered, slowly pressed her lips against mine.

Their slightly parted lips dug into the space between them.

Her lips were as hot as a scald against her cold face.

Slowly, the warmth seemed to spread across her face.

I slowly fell and opened my closed eyes.

Sylvia looked at me with a slightly dissatisfied expression.

“…Tch, you’re not trying to convince me with something like this, are you? It’s so cowardly…”

“Sylvia…”

“… huh,”

“The reason I want to get rid of the Demon King is because of Sylvia.”

“… what?”

I smiled slightly and grabbed her cheek.

And I quietly confided to Sylvia one of my little wishes, something I had never told the green lady or my sister Alice.

“When it’s all over, when this curse that binds us to this forest is lifted…”

“…”

“I want to get married to Sylvia.”

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