Ch.139Negotiation (2)

*

It might be stating the obvious, but the training was incredibly grueling and difficult.

Though I accepted it silently without showing any reaction, honestly, the training Silvia imposed on me did feel somewhat brutish.

With Silvia’s attitude swinging between indiscriminate violence and warm encouragement, my mental state was closer to a beast being tamed than a human. My body, exhausted to the point of collapse every day, made even my firm resolve feel like mush.

Literally, after running all day, my legs would be filled with fatigue and pain. At some point, Silvia began giving me the task of dodging her attacks while my legs were trembling uncontrollably after finishing my runs.

Before I knew it, the weapon in her hand had naturally changed from a tree branch to that intimidating longsword of hers.

Day after day.

As time went on, her attacks became increasingly sharp and threatening, and her attitude toward me gradually changed from smiling to cold detachment.

Of course, when training ended, she would embrace me with her characteristic lovely smile as if nothing had happened, and whenever I fell or failed, she would encourage and cheer me on with a bright smile.

But even so, I was starting to wonder if this was borderline abuse.

However, I never held any resentment toward Silvia.

The emotions visible in her increasingly resolute demeanor weren’t anger directed at me or impatience with my growth rate.

She was tense.

She was steeling herself.

With each passing day in this forest, as the day to face the Demon Lord drew closer, her body and mind were gradually preparing.

I found this transformation quite impressive.

Though it was strange to see Silvia’s expression hardening and her lips tightening more frequently, it also seemed oddly natural in a peculiar way.

It was as if something that had been hiding its true identity was gradually returning to its original form.

In fact, she began to exude the same aura as when I first saw her.

After about five more days, Silvia no longer chased after me while I was running.

I could now run steadily without needing Silvia to whip my back.

While I ran around the lakeside all day by myself, Silvia would go into the forest with her sword and return covered in blood.

Needless to say, not a single drop of that red, sticky liquid was hers.

By that point, the atmosphere Silvia gave off began to exceed the level of my first impression of her.

A heavy, solemn atmosphere, with eyes that flashed sharply as if honed to a fine edge.

Just looking at her gave me chills.

I felt my hair standing on end.

I had never seen Silvia like this before, but instinctively, I could tell.

Silvia was gradually returning to being a hero.

*

“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”

After the sun had set, I returned to the cabin and collapsed onto the neatly laid out bedding on the floor.

My body, without an ounce of energy left, hit the floor helplessly, but by now, such impacts barely even tickled.

Slowly extending my hand to touch my shoulder, I could feel the damp blood soaked into my clothes was still warm.

Just five minutes ago, Silvia’s sword had been embedded about a knuckle deep in this shoulder.

I gave a faint, hollow laugh at how nonchalant I was about this fact.

“Hah… I guess you can get used to even this.”

At first, it was terrifying enough to cause trauma, but after so many repetitions, I’d grown accustomed to it.

Of course, I adapted quickly because I knew Silvia would stop before severing any part of my body, and afterward, she would heal me with her holy power.

“A sword really is different… I thought I was making quick judgments, but I always seem to be half a beat too slow.”

There was a huge difference between a tree branch and a sword in terms of speed and power, not to mention the intimidating aura it projected.

Thanks to all the training I’d endured, I could now watch Silvia’s heavy attacks coming at me until the end, but no matter how hard I tried, my timing was always slightly off, and I couldn’t avoid getting cut.

According to Silvia, my timing was correct, but my movements were too sluggish.

In my opinion, the real issue was making me dodge after my legs were trembling from running all day.

“Phew… sleepy.”

I was exhausted enough to fall asleep right away, but I was also hungry.

Hunger and sleepiness.

Two of the most fundamental human desires were in fierce competition within my body, but in the end, hunger emerged victorious.

I forced my constantly closing eyes to stay open as I waited for Silvia, who was washing off blood by the lakeside.

She said she had hunted a deer in the forest, and fortunately, it wasn’t seriously contaminated with demonic energy, so she could purify it sufficiently.

The anticipation of eating fatty meat after so long provided strong motivation to keep my drowsy mind alert.

After waiting for some time, the cabin door opened, and Silvia entered carrying two plump deer hindquarters with the skin removed. Her hair was still damp from her recent bath.

“Brrrr, c-c-c-cold,”

“Come quickly, come here and warm up by the fire with me.”

“I-I ran straight here from the lake, and my hair is already frozen.”

“It’s really cold today.”

“For someone saying that, you were sweating a lot.”

“I bet even an ice golem would sweat buckets if it had to run around all day like me.”

“Hehe,”

Silvia, shivering, hung the deer hindquarters over the campfire.

“There. Now we just have to wait.”

“How long will it take?”

“Hmm, about two hours?”

“…Two hours?”

“By the way…”

“Yes?”

Silvia spread her arms toward me.

She then called my name and rushed toward me.

“Aaaash!”

“Whoa!”

Silvia burrowed into my arms and slipped her ice-cold hands inside my top, tucking them into my armpits.

I squirmed and resisted the tingling sensation that sent shivers down my spine.

“Aaack! Silvia, aaaah!”

“Hehe, warm.”

Silvia mischievously smiled and nuzzled her cheek against my chest, clinging even closer.

This was one of the reasons why I didn’t mind Silvia, who could swing with one hand the sword I could barely lift with two, and who lately had been cutting me with that same sword.

When training ended, she immediately shed her hero persona and returned to the Silvia I knew.

The mischievous, playful girl with a lovely smile.

Sometimes Silvia reminded me of a giant puppy with beautiful golden fur.

Especially in how she preferred physical skinship over verbal communication.

I struggled to detach Silvia, who was rubbing her cheek against me, and said:

“Stop it! That’s enough! It tickles!”

“Hehe, your resistance is weak, Ash?”

“That’s because I don’t even have the strength to lift a finger right now!”

“Hmm? Really?”

Silvia gave a sly smile and then straightened her hands inside my clothes, trying to remove my top.

“Not even strength to lift a finger, you say?”

“…Silvia, don’t.”

“We have some time until the deer cooks anyway.”

“Still… don’t. I don’t want to.”

I turned my head slightly, averting my gaze from Silvia.

Beyond the warmly blazing campfire, Pia, who had been sitting silently, gave me a thumbs up.

“Why?”

Suddenly, Silvia’s voice turned cold.

It was a cold, chilling voice that seemed cracked somehow, making even the campfire seem to diminish slightly.

“Um… I’m just, tired…”

“I’ll do everything, Ash. You can just lie still.”

“No, that… uh… ah, right. I sweated a lot, and you just bathed, so—”

“I don’t care. Ash’s sweat isn’t dirty at all. Since it came from Ash’s body, I want to lick it all up.”

It was a creepy, frightening statement, almost as unsettling as seeing Silvia draw her sword during the day.

“B-but…”

“Why?!”

“…S-Silvia?”

Silvia glared at me fiercely and shouted.

“You’ve been saying that a lot lately! That you’re tired, that you’re exhausted. You’ve been avoiding me every day.”

“…That’s not it—”

“What’s wrong? Are you bored of me now? Or is it because I hurt you during training? Why are you avoiding me? Why are you rejecting me? Why? What did I do wrong? I’m doing this for you!”

“N-no…”

“…”

I had indeed been avoiding intimacy with Silvia as much as possible lately.

But it wasn’t because I was tired of her body, or because I disliked her.

It was because Pia had begged us to stop having sex in front of her.

I knew Pia was always by my side even when I couldn’t see her, but I hadn’t really thought about it properly until now.

Of course, being a spirit, Pia wasn’t actually young, but she appeared to be only about six years old. Thinking about how I had repeatedly been intimate with Silvia while Pia was watching made me feel somewhat uncomfortable about sharing a bed with Silvia.

But apparently, Silvia had reached her limit first.

Silvia hung her head low and muttered in a gloomy voice.

“It’s been ten days, Ash. Ten days.”

“Huh…?”

“It’s already been ten days… since you’ve embraced me.”

Good grief…

Due to our long life in the forest, Silvia had lost track of dates.

For her to state so firmly that we hadn’t been intimate for exactly ten days meant she had been counting the days, waiting.

I answered with a trembling voice.

“I want to do it too, but…”

“Then let’s do it, Ash…”

It seemed I wouldn’t be able to avoid this.

I looked anxiously toward Pia.

Pia had been frozen in shock since the moment Silvia shouted.

At that moment, Silvia grabbed my chin with firm strength and turned my face to look at her.

“Where are you looking?”

“Ah, just… at the deer… I’m hungry—”

“Liar.”

Silvia’s cracked voice began to veer in a strange direction.

“…You’re looking at that fox, aren’t you?”

“…Huh?”

Pia flattened her ears, trembled all over, and then vanished from sight.

.