Ch.106Discovery (1)

*

“Eeek,”

Pia grabbed the curved blade with her bare hands and pulled it with a grunt.

I tried to stop her, worried she might cut herself on the sharp edge, but Pia shook her head and said,

“Ugh, just wait a bit.”

Pia let out fighting sounds like “Heeyah! Yah!” as she exerted herself, but the blade didn’t budge at all.

Seeing that she wasn’t leaving any handprints on the blade, it seemed that the issue wasn’t lack of strength, but rather that her spirit body simply couldn’t exert physical influence in the first place.

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to stop as she puffed her cheeks with effort, but at least I didn’t have to worry about her cutting her hands, so I calmly began to consider ways to remove these blade handcuffs.

After struggling with her slipping hands for quite some time, Pia suddenly withdrew them and said with a huff,

“Why aren’t you helping?”

I chuckled at her childish complaint and said,

“How am I supposed to help…”

“I’m Ash’s spirit.”

Pia pointed at me as she spoke.

Looking at her pouting face as she declared herself my guardian spirit, I nodded.

“…Right?”

“Ash is a mage.”

“Yeah… so?”

“…?”

“Umm…?”

Pia sighed and smacked her small hand against her face.

Her expression seemed to say, “I can’t believe you don’t understand this. How frustrating.”

As a spirit, Pia might be much older than me, or perhaps she came into existence when I was born, being my guardian spirit.

I didn’t know much about spirits’ lives, but at least she appeared to be a six-year-old child,

And being scolded by such a child made me feel a bit dejected.

Whether Pia understood my feelings or not, she began explaining to me again with her childlike limited vocabulary.

“When Ash uses fire magic, Pia goes whoosh with fire~. You know?”

“I know… oh?”

Pia raised her hands near her ears above her head and wiggled her fingers, seemingly trying to express flames.

I finally realized what Pia was trying to say.

“…Ah,”

“You get it? You get it?”

When I let out a sigh of realization, Pia perked up her fox ears and bounced excitedly.

I nodded.

I had been confused because our first meeting was when she appeared through my flames, but Pia wasn’t a fire spirit—she was my guardian spirit.

“Should we try wind?”

“Yes, Pia likes wind.”

And I was a mage.

A theory-focused oddball, but definitely a mage.

I chanted the spell.

Wind, rise, sharpen narrowly, shoot forth.

Wind Cutter.

With my hands bound, I couldn’t aim precisely, but I chose this spell thinking Pia could do it.

Pia’s hair slowly rose into the air, and soon her entire body began to spiral inward around her chest like a vortex.

In the blink of an eye, Pia transformed into a small whirlwind swirling inside the cabin.

Various odds and ends in the cabin were lifted and flew around wildly.

The embers from the campfire were carried by Pia-turned-wind, swirling around.

The wind approached me.

My bangs fluttered wildly, and with embers flying everywhere, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Whoa!”

For a moment, I felt like my arms would be caught in the wind, so I tensed my muscles and tried my best to keep my body stable.

That’s when it happened.

*Ping!*

With a sharp sound like metal breaking, the wind calmed down.

When I cautiously opened my eyes, Pia had returned to her original form and was slowly approaching to sit between my legs.

“Did I do well?”

“Yes, thank you, Pia.”

“Then, hug me now.”

*

After stroking Pia’s head for quite some time, I put on the clothes that had been covering me and left the cabin.

The riverside near Millwood Village, filled with countless memories I shared with Miss Silvia.

It seemed that some secret Miss Silvia wanted to hide from me was concealed there.

What could possibly be there that would make her go so far as to restrain me to keep it hidden?

“…I could accept any secret,”

I muttered briefly.

Did I fail to give her enough trust?

Well, it might be difficult to trust someone who disappeared without a word for several months.

‘Tell me you won’t go, that you’ll listen to me’

‘No, you’ll definitely sneak off’

It’s my fault.

The attitude Miss Silvia showed just before attacking me wasn’t anger or irritation, but fear.

The fear that I might disappear again.

The fear that I might leave her was deeply embedded in her.

If so, this extreme action of hers was ultimately my fault.

My fault for making her think that way, for making such a strong person so afraid.

I rubbed my sharply cut wrist, blaming myself and making a resolution.

“If I show her that I have no intention of leaving Miss Silvia no matter what I see, she’ll probably calm down a bit.”

I muttered this while looking at Pia.

Pia shook her head firmly and said,

“Pia doesn’t like that woman. Scary.”

“…She’s not that scary—”

“Smells like blood. Every night.”

Pia cut me off and stated firmly.

But seeing how she followed me out with her small steps, it seemed she didn’t want to let me go alone.

I patted Pia’s head.

Pia narrowed her eyes in pleasure, fluttering her ears and pushing her head up against my palm.

I slowly moved forward with Pia in tow.

*

“Damn it, damn, it, all!”

Each time a word left Silvia’s mouth, the flesh inside the crumpled metal was trampled and crushed mercilessly.

After irritably wiping off the blood and flesh splattered on her face, Silvia gritted her teeth and crushed Alice’s regenerating head.

“Just die already! Please!”

Alice, who would normally become docile after this much punishment, was stubbornly regenerating her body today.

Silvia, who had been in a terrible mood all day after attacking Ash, continuously vented her anger and shouted,

“I’m sick of this! Sick of crushing this damn piece of meat every night, sick of killing you over and over! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had to do that to Ash!”

But Alice’s endlessly regenerating head, especially her eyes and lips, showed a twisted sneer toward Silvia without hiding it.

Hero? Maria’s friend? Ash’s fiancée?

Now nothing more than a piece of meat,

Yet it was Silvia who was officially appointed as a hero, Silvia who was with Maria in her final moments, Silvia who had been intimate with Ash, but Alice, who had nothing but an endless future of being crushed, was still sneering at Silvia.

Exhausted in both body and mind, Silvia was about to stomp on those arrogant golden eyes when she suddenly stopped and muttered,

“Fine, have it your way.”

Silvia grabbed Alice’s regenerating head with one hand and lifted it up.

Of course, she didn’t forget to keep stomping on the other parts to prevent them from regenerating.

“Do you have something to say, you disgusting piece of flesh?”

After waiting a moment, Alice’s head, which was grotesquely wriggling and slowly taking shape, first formed one eye, an ear, and lips.

As soon as the lips regained their form, they opened.

“I just find it funny watching you squirm, you bastard.”

“Ha,”

“What’s wrong? Had a fight with Ash?”

“Shut up.”

“Did Ash say you smell bad?”

“If you don’t know how to keep your mouth shut, I’ll keep it open for you.”

Silvia stuck her fingers into Alice’s chattering mouth and tore down her lower jaw.

The wet tongue lost its support and hung limply, with blood-mixed saliva dripping from its tip.

Silvia shook off the bloody mess on her hand and said,

“Much better when you’re quiet.”

Alice made choking sounds and then couldn’t make any noise at all.

She could only roll her eyes around and blink at Silvia.

Silvia grasped Alice with both hands and said quietly,

“You’re weak, yet you don’t know how to keep your mouth shut. You should understand by now that this is why you ended up like this.”

Silvia’s warning, or rather, her torture mixed with obvious anger and hatred.

Yet Alice was still provoking Silvia even with just her grotesquely remaining upper jaw.

Despite having lost the lower half of her face, the way she twitched her upper lip and looked at Silvia with crescent-shaped eyes was unmistakably a sneer.

Silvia crushed that eye with her thumb.

The lower jaw, which had somehow reattached itself in the meantime, kept moving up and down, emitting hoarse giggles.

“What’s so funny? Can’t you assess the situation? Or have you finally gone mad?”

“Hahaha, what are you so afraid of?”

Alice’s words made Silvia flinch.

She thought Alice couldn’t see her being startled since she had crushed her eyes, and tried to compose her expression, but Alice, held in Silvia’s hands, didn’t miss the moment when Silvia’s fingertips trembled.

Alice opened her mouth.

“I can see you’re scared.”

“…How can you see anything without eyes?”

“What is it? What are you afraid of?”

“…At least it’s not you.”

“Haha, you’re not afraid of the Demon Lord, not afraid of me, and confident you can kill anyone who comes your way. So what could the great Miss Silvia possibly be afraid of, that she takes out her frustration on this weak piece of flesh?”

“…”

After mocking her with formal speech, Alice started giggling when Silvia fell silent.

Having run out of patience to listen to Alice any longer, Silvia was about to smash Alice’s head against the floor.

At that moment, Alice spoke again.

“Shall I guess?”

“…”

Silvia ignored her.

Whatever she heard would just be disgusting nonsense anyway.

Just as Silvia raised Alice’s head high and was about to slam it down to the floor, the head clutched in her hand shouted through a twisted sneer with a murky voice,

“Hahaha, to the left!”

At those words, Silvia froze in place.

Why did that laughter, clearly forced through such a miserable state, send chills down her spine?

Why did Alice’s cry, so small it would be drowned out by the flowing river due to her lack of lungs, sound so loud?

“Hehehe,”

“…”

Left,

Why did that single word, with no particular meaning, squeeze her heart so much at this moment?

Silvia couldn’t figure out the reason.

No, she knew but was in denial.

The worst possible scenario that could happen at this moment.

She didn’t need to try hard to imagine it—the terrible imagery spreading in her mind was like a curse.

It can’t be.

It can’t be.

He can’t be here.

She wanted to believe that, but her merciless head slowly turned to the left, regardless of her will.

Her will screamed to stop, but her instinct ultimately moved her gaze toward that great fear.

“Miss Silvia…”

“…Ah,”

Silvia dropped Alice’s head.

As Alice’s head rolled on the floor, she spoke to Silvia with a voice full of certainty of victory.

“Silvia, did you ever anticipate this scene?”

“No…! No, this can’t be!”

“During all those days of being crushed and drowned, I imagined and waited for this moment.”

Silvia couldn’t respond to Alice’s words.

Her gaze, no, all her attention was fixed on the figure that had appeared to her left.

Silvia opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“A-Ash. It’s not what it looks like…”

Silvia slowly reached out toward Ash as she approached.

However, her own hands that came into her view were covered in so much blood and flesh that there was no way to explain it away.

Ash seemed to have lost strength in his legs, slumping to the floor with a gaze full of fear.

Although she knew that no one could misunderstand this scene, Silvia moved her trembling lips with a thread of hope.

“Ash… it’s a misunderstanding. It’s not what it looks like…”

However, Ash’s wavering gaze wasn’t directed at Silvia.

“Alice… sis?”

“…Ah, no, no! No!”

At that moment, Silvia failed to realize.

That she had completely let go of Alice’s flesh.

“Silvia.”

The naked Alice slowly rose, picked up her head that was calling Silvia, and placed it on her neck.

Slowly, the skin connected, sticking together like two pieces of clay merging.

“You should have feared my imagination.”

Silvia didn’t respond.

Or rather, she didn’t seem to hear.

She kept muttering that it wasn’t what it looked like.

Alice grabbed the metal that had imprisoned her and brought it down on the back of Silvia’s defenseless head.