I Can’t Run Away From the Girl Who Saved Me - Chapter 214



214 – I ended up leaving the girl who was with me.

＊

Perhaps the dense branches and leaves were holding back the flow of time.

The days in my hometown of Goldfields passed by so quickly, unlike the days in the forest of trees that lay dormant.

When I came to my senses, I was startled to realize that the season had changed.

Goldfield, which had been an agricultural land from the beginning, was still a land that reacted sensitively to the passage of time even though the farmers and commoners had disappeared, so the change of seasons was felt even more keenly.

Of course, the reason time passed quickly was not simply due to differences in environment.

The fact that I have been so busy is also one of the factors that makes me feel like time is passing quickly.

There was plenty to do, including helping Pia clean the mansion thoroughly, throwing away broken and worn-out furniture, and gathering materials with Sylvia to make new furniture.

This was my hometown, but now it was also my new home and Sylvia’s, so I put even more effort into it.

Although I had no intention of living in it, I also cleaned the Count’s mansion thoroughly.

Not only that, he went around the ruined estate, buried the scattered corpses, made new gravestones for Sister Alice and Layla, and also threw away all the various waste materials that were scattered around the streets.

Since Sylvia, Pia, and I alone couldn’t manage the entire estate, we only actually touched an area within a 5km radius of the mansion, but by the time we were done organizing things to some extent, spring, which had come at a certain point, was almost over.

＊

It wasn’t until early summer that we finally started to enjoy our honeymoon life in earnest.

The problem was that by then Sylvia’s belly had already begun to bulge.

Of course, I was overjoyed to learn that she was pregnant.

The very fact that Sylvia and I were having a child was so lovely, but an even bigger reason was that she would have someone to stay by her side in my stead when I was about to die.

My greatest comfort and consolation was that at least Sylvia would not be left alone.

Even if it turns out that Sylvia was able to communicate with spirits like her sister Maria and Pia because of her pregnancy, it was a bonus that the child in Sylvia’s womb was also playing a leading role in the subjugation of the Demon King.

Just like me, Sylvia, Alice, Pia, and Maria, the child in this womb was also an unsung hero who played a crucial role in saving humanity.

Of course, as the life inside her belly gradually took shape, we couldn’t have nights as intense as those we had in the forest together.

I too was very sad that I would not be able to spend the night with her for the time being, but at least I was not as sad as Sylvia.

I could bear it, at least because I had no intention of forcing anything bad on the child or the mother, but Sylvia would often look down at her protruding abdomen with pouty eyes, which was interfering with the newlyweds’ main task.

One day, he even confided in me that he felt like punching himself in the stomach.

Every time that happened, I tried my best to appease Sylvia.

I tried hard to appeal to her that I wanted a child who looked like her, and I took care of everything that would make her uncomfortable.

Of course, she was a warrior, so sometimes she would whine about wanting to move on her own, so we often went out for walks as long as it was not too much.

In order to appease her bubbling s*xual desire while even putting maternal love on the back burner, I tried all sorts of strange things.

Of course, most of these were things that started at Sylvia’s request.

Most of her requests for caresses were so bizarre that I wondered where she got such knowledge, but it was much better than seeing her pounding her belly, so I tried my best to satisfy her.

For the sake of my little remaining dignity and my exceptionally sensitive sense of shame, I will not describe the ‘pseudo-s*xual acts’ I engaged in, but they were at least as extreme and bizarre as any would ever have been committed if there had been a single other living person in this domain besides us.

If I may give you even a hint, there is now not a single part of her body that my tongue has not touched.

Not a single place, really.

＊

Although our living conditions have changed completely, our lives haven’t changed much.

From waking up to the warm morning sunlight to spending most of the day together, there was not much difference between a cabin in the woods and a mansion in the plains.

The only change that occurred was that Sylvia avoided physical exertion as much as possible due to her pregnancy.

Unable to go hunting due to her bloated belly, Sylvia instead began to cultivate a large vegetable garden in the front yard of the mansion, and Pia, who knew the geography of the estate like a thousand years ago, often went hunting in the nearby mountains.

Perhaps because she had been growing herbs since she lived alone in the cabin, Sylvia was quite adept at managing her garden.

Of course, I did the rough work, like digging the ground or pulling out weeds.

On the other hand, I ended up doing a lot of more strenuous work than I did in the forest.

This was because he spent his time cutting down rotten crops scattered across the fields of the ruined estate and periodically visiting the cemetery to manage the graves.

In fact, I guess my job is to be a gravedigger.

I never once thought in my life that I would become a professional gravedigger, but surprisingly, this job suited my aptitude quite well.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to it now, or because these are the graves of people I care about, but I quite enjoy taking care of the graves.

“… under”

Suddenly, I looked back and realized that it was around this time last year that I first entered the forest, and I let out a small laugh.

Just one year.

I realized that I had become such a different person in just one year, and that the world had changed so much in that one year, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Of course, everything changed for the worse, but there was one thing that changed for the better: my happiness.

Last year, on the day I first experienced a carriage accident.

I thought I was the most unfortunate person in the world.

But now, I can proudly say that I am one of the happiest people in the world.

It was rewarding and satisfying to take care of the graves of the Count and his family.

Sometimes, I would look at what was growing in the garden and hug Sylvia who would come out to greet me. No matter how many times I did it, I never got tired of it.

Falling asleep holding hands with her in the large bed my parents had shared made me so happy that it felt like a sin to ask for more.

When I put my hand on her stomach, my head filled with happiness that seemed to compensate for all the pain I had suffered so far.

If you gently put your ear to her belly, which is growing bigger and bigger every day, you can hear the mysterious beating sound of life, small but clear.

The sensation was also eerily ecstatic.

Pia also put her ear to Sylvia’s stomach and then fluttered her two ears on top of her head in surprise.

My child and Sylvia’s.

It was a magical existence that made me happy just by imagining it and putting it in my mouth.

Even Sylvia began to look with increasing affection at the fruit of our love wriggling inside her belly.

Before going to bed, we would always place our hands on her stomach and kiss each other whenever we felt the baby’s presence.

I love you.

I loved my new family so much that it made those words seem so insignificant.

I felt a little guilty about living so happily in this world where everything was ruined, but whatever.

I think we deserve it.

I may not have it, but Sylvia definitely has it.

Deserve to be happy forever.

＊

In the blink of an eye, the season had changed to fall, and Sylvia’s belly had grown quite large.

Although we didn’t know the exact date, it seemed clear that our baby would be born sometime next month at the latest.

However, there was no longer any happy atmosphere in Sylvia’s and my mansion.

“Cluck, cluck,”

“…Ash?”

I’ve had a cough that won’t stop for several days.

I had been coughing dryly all night while I was sleeping, but I slowly opened my eyes to Sylvia’s voice.

Now that I could tell Sylvia’s feelings to some extent just by hearing her voice, I could feel the confusion and shock in her voice.

I slowly raised my head, feeling uneasy as if something dry and grass had been spread all over my chest.

“… ah,”

My blanket and top were soaked with blood.

Hard, dried blood had seeped into the space between my clothes and my skin, and when I forcibly pulled at the clothes, it came off my skin with a crackling sound.

I could tell just by looking at it that I was losing a lot of blood, so I slowly turned my head to look at my face in the large full-length mirror in my bedroom.

Bloodstains that clearly had come from inside the mouth covered the corners of the mouth, cheeks, and chin.

How much blood did he vomit?

My face reflected in the mirror was pale and bloodless.

I took a deep breath, wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth with my sleeve, and muttered.

“I see… Now…”

In fact, my body was in a state where it wouldn’t have been strange if it had died a long time ago.

Although a lot of the magic energy accumulated in his body had disappeared, the organs that the magic energy had scratched through were still in disarray, and the magic energy still remaining in his body was preventing those organs from recovering.

Up until now, Sylvia had been forcibly keeping him alive by pouring in divine power every day, but now it seemed that even that had reached its limit.

Sylvia shook her head and said.

“No… Don’t say that.”

“You knew it… Sylvia, I’ve told you this several times.”

“No, I don’t know… Th, first… Take off your clothes… and wipe off the blood…”

Sylvia got out of bed and staggered over to get the basin.

I tried to grab Sylvia, thinking that it might be too much for my pregnant body, but I couldn’t hold on to her because my body didn’t have the strength.

Just putting my legs down on the bed felt like it took all the strength in my body.

By the time I managed to get up from the bed, Sylvia had already returned to the room carrying a basin filled with water.

Sylvia placed the basin at my feet and sat me back down on the bed.

“Just stay still… I’ll wash you.”

“…Ha, haa… gulp,”

A few drops of blood came out mixed with his cough.

A few drops splashed on Sylvia’s face, but she paid no attention and just wet a towel with water and wiped my mouth.

Every time her hand touched my face, my head would sway and fall limply.

I smiled weakly at that sight.

“haha…”

“What’s so funny, it’s so serious right now!”

“That’s right…”

“…?”

“This is probably when Sylvia is at her weakest, but I’ve become even weaker… I guess I’m destined to never be able to defeat Sylvia again.”

Sylvia’s hand stopped.

Are you angry?

I lowered my head, avoiding Sylvia’s gaze.

Yet I could tell that she was staring at my face for a long time.

After a moment of silence, she dropped the bright red towel into the basin and slowly stroked my face with her bare hand.

“you idiot.”

“…”

“I’ve never beaten Ash. He always beat me.”

“…”

I was speechless at the sound of Sylvia’s lonely voice.

Actually, I wanted to ask what that meant, but I knew that if I opened my mouth now, all that would come out would be a dry cough.

Sylvia soaked the towel in water again, took off my shirt, and began to wipe away the blood stains that had accumulated on my neck and chest.

I silently accepted her hand.

Sylvia’s hands were rough and rugged, but at the same time very warm and caring.

She would be a good mother.

＊

From noble mtl dot com

For a week after that, Sylvia and I did almost nothing.

There were probably a lot of fallen leaves on the grave and weeds growing wild in the garden, but no one cared.

Within a week, I had become so weak that I could not even leave my room on my own, and with each passing moment, Sylvia’s obsession and affection for me only deepened.

In fact, Pia was in charge of most of the meals and housework, but she didn’t express any complaints.

He just brought me food, put his head on my lap, cried for a while, and then disappeared.

We all felt that the final moment was approaching, something we could not deny no matter how hard we tried.

Sylvia spent as much time with me as possible.

By the end, I was literally with her twenty-four hours a day.

The face of my beloved was always in my sight, and her scent was always nearby.

Considering my ferocious fate, isn’t this a very luxurious ending?

I used to laugh weakly while thinking like that.

One night it felt unusually chilly.

I looked at Sylvia’s face, gasping for breath.

Perhaps today will be the last day I can see her.

If I fall asleep today, I will never wake up again.

I blinked my eyes slowly and guessed that I was dying.

Every time I closed my eyes, the faces of my parents and Layla would appear in my dark vision.

Did they come out to greet me?

It was such a happy and grateful story, but I was more concerned about my wife whom I would soon have to leave behind than about the family I would soon be with.

That’s why I was trying hard to keep my eyes open and look at my lovely wife.

Sylvia was holding my two hands tightly and pouring out divine power without meaning to.

I thought about stopping her, but she wasn’t the type of person to listen to me, and I didn’t want to argue until the end, so I slowly began to organize what I wanted to say to her.

“Sylvia…”

“… huh,”

“love you.”

“… I love you too, I love you too much. Very much.”

Sylvia’s lips were trembling.

Her face still had the same scared expression as when she had cut my shoulder.

I looked at Sylvia like that and slowly opened my mouth.

“Sorry…”

“What… What is Ash sorry about…”

“I wanted to spend more time with you…”

“…”

Sylvia held her breath for a moment, then forced the corners of her trembling lips upwards and smiled miserably as she continued speaking.

“Of course… Of course Ash will spend more time with me… He will receive a new citizen from Goldfield Estate… We will watch our child grow up together… He will also give him a younger sibling… So… huh?”

“…”

“So… don’t go… Ash.”

Sylvia pleaded in a pitiful voice.

“Don’t go… If Ash leaves… I’ll be here alone… What should I do…”

“…”

I couldn’t say anything.

Requests to be buried next to Layla, jokes about how we’re both new parents and haven’t even decided on a name for our baby yet, and final words of love.

I had prepared many words, but they all fell apart as empty echoes in the face of the jewel-like tears shed by the blue eyes of this lovely woman who, despite the past week of her care, was not at all ready to let me go.

I tilted my head slightly.

It was a kind of signal that I had been sending her consistently for the past few days, even though I didn’t have the strength to touch her face.

Perhaps because of her week-long experience, Sylvia recognized the signal right away.

Her lips slowly approached mine.

Her lips gently brushed against mine, which were only slightly trembling.

It was a short kiss, but Sylvia poured divine power into it.

Her desperation was palpable.

“…Sylvia.”

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

“I saw death in the Demon King’s vision.”

“… uh?”

Sylvia made a dumbfounded sound, as if she didn’t understand what I was trying to say.

We thought that the Demon King’s illusion was an effect that showed the opponent the sight he most wanted.

Sylvia said she saw a peaceful everyday life with me in her fantasy.

But in my vision, I heard the voice of the Almighty telling me that it was time to die.

“I wanted to die. I guess I was just too tired.”

“… Ash,”

“That’s as far as my bowl goes…”

“No, Ash, Ash is a great person. Much more than Ash knows.”

“… That’s not true.”

I shook my head and then let my head fall limply into Sylvia’s arms.

Sylvia just hugged my head tightly.

“Ash, stop it… We can do this. Ash can do this. He can live… So stop saying such scary things. Please… Please, I beg you… Okay?”

“Sylvia said…”

“… uh?”

“The reason I love Sylvia… is because she killed people that day…”

“…”

“no.”

I struggled to catch my breath.

“I just fell in love with Sylvia because she was so beautiful. She was as pretty as a fairy… The Sylvia I saw that day, bathing in the river, was so beautiful…”

“Ash…”

“How about Sylvia?”

“… what?”

“If I hadn’t shown up in the forest that day, would Sylvia have loved me?”

I asked Sylvia a tough question.

To belittle her love, so that she can live without me.

“What are you talking about…”

“I’m not great. I’m just someone who happened to be next to Sylvia… I was lucky enough to be loved by Sylvia… That’s all.”

“…”

“And Sylvia, she was just lonely…”

“No, no. That’s not true. Absolutely not.”

Sylvia shook her head sharply, still holding me in her arms.

I continued speaking with difficulty, my voice growing smaller and smaller.

“Sylvia… stop being so stubborn.”

“No!”

Sylvia cut me off harshly with a shout.

“No matter how lonely I was, no matter how much I suffered in the pain of being alone, if it hadn’t been Ash who knocked on my door that day, I wouldn’t have fallen in love.”

“Sylvia…”

“Ash, no. I love Ash. I love him because he is Ash, not because he is some random guy who comforts me. I will love only Ash.”

Is it because I am in Sylvia’s arms?

It seemed as if her intense emotions were being poured out on me.

As expected, her love was too big and heavy to be cut off with a three-inch tongue.

Eventually, I was happily crushed under its weight.

“…Thank you…I’m so happy.”

“I love you, I love you… So… Please…”

Sylvia’s warm heart enveloped me like a fierce flame.

In her warm embrace, I felt like I was going to die from her fierce heart.

It would probably be the happiest death in the world.

However, I couldn’t close my eyes happily like this, and Sylvia, who would be left alone, kept coming into my mind.

“But… we have to break up now…”

“No… no, I can’t let you go like this. I can’t live without Ash.”

“That’s stupid.”

Sylvia can live on her own.

No, there was no need to live alone anymore.

“Now the curse is lifted, and there is no more Demon King.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“When I die… I’ll leave this place and meet other people. You’re a hero… a warrior… Even in this world, there’ll be a place that’ll accept Sylvia and our child…”

“Ash, don’t say anything.”

I left a selfish favor for her.

“Meet other people, soak in… love other people.”

“Ash!”

“Please… I brought Sylvia here because of my greed… and I was truly happy… and this is enough for me…”

“Stop it, I said stop it!”

The view is getting farther away.

I felt as if her warm embrace was wrapping around my entire body and soon seeping into me as one.

I struggled to squeeze out the last words.

“Please live… together with other people… and mingle. That is… my last request… y… you understand?”

“That will never happen, okay? Ash, don’t say such horrible things.”

“…”

“How can you ask me to love someone else? How… How can you, Ash?”

“…”

“I will never…”

“…Ash?”

.