Ch.174Short Break (4)

The peddler boy stood frozen in place, unable to move.

As his rigid expression, as stiff as his frozen posture, gradually filled with shock, his gaze remained fixed solely on Silvia and the sword in her hand.

Just by looking at his lips, repeatedly opening and closing irregularly, one could easily guess the shock he had received.

I couldn’t say anything.

I couldn’t even offer hasty words of comfort.

Even that Alice sister could only squeeze her eyes shut with a bewildered expression.

We remained frozen like that, as if collectively under a petrification spell.

Only one person here could speak and move right now.

“You came earlier than I expected? Seems like you’ve adapted quite well.”

“… Ha,”

“Hmm? What are you all doing? Just standing there like that, and who is this boy?”

Silvia wiped the blood off her sword with a few swings and slowly approached us, wrapping the blade in its leather scabbard.

The boy slowly turned his face toward me.

Barely withstanding his gaze, I painfully forced my lips open.

“S-Silvia.”

“Yes? Ash, what is it… what’s wrong?”

“…”

What should I say?

Where should I even begin?

Given the circumstances, it seemed clear that Silvia had harmed this demon boy’s companions. Was there even a correct answer to salvage this situation?

Situation assessment, lies, comfort, questioning, evasion, apology.

Numerous options swirled chaotically in my mind, but it seemed none of them could resolve this situation.

However, urged by the boy’s empty eyes staring intently at me, I managed to extract a single sentence from the many questions raging in my mind and squeezed it out bit by bit.

“… That blood, what did you cut?”

My choice was to understand the exact situation.

Perhaps, just perhaps, there was a possibility that Silvia hadn’t harmed the demons.

No, I don’t know.

Even Alice sister tried to kill this boy the moment she met him.

If I hadn’t stopped her, she would have certainly killed him.

What about Silvia?

I’m not a fool.

I knew well that Silvia was just as aggressive as Alice sister, and that she preferred resolving matters through force even more than her.

But just maybe, there was a slim possibility that the blood on Silvia’s sword wasn’t from demons.

I decided to bet on that.

After all, there was no other way to resolve this situation.

The outcome had already been determined not by what I would do, but by what Silvia had done.

I asked again with a trembling voice.

“A-animals or… something like that, right? Right?”

Silvia tilted her head and asked.

“Hmm? Ash, are you hungry?”

“…”

“Answer the question first.”

Unable to stand it any longer, Alice sister urged Silvia to answer.

The boy’s head slowly rotated back toward Silvia.

“What’s with you all of a sudden?”

“Silvia… please answer,”

“… You must be really hungry,”

Silvia grinned.

“I thought as much, so I caught a wild boar. I was waiting for Alice because it needs purification.”

“Huh? Then that blood…”

“I was distracted with butchering the boar and neglected the blood on my sword, so I was wiping it off. This village site seems perfect for camping too, so today we’ll go this far…”

Fortunately, it seemed the bloodstains on Silvia’s sword weren’t from demons.

Just as I was about to breathe a slight sigh of relief, the boy shouted at Silvia.

“The people!”

“Oh my, you startled me. Who is this? Why is he suddenly shouting?”

“Where did the other people go! Answer me!”

“…?”

Silvia shook her head and said.

“I don’t know.”

“…?”

“There was no one here from the beginning.”

“Don’t lie! Until just a week ago, there were definitely—!”

“Demons, I suppose. Yes, traces remained. But when I arrived, there was already no one here.”

“… What?”

The peddler boy ran past Silvia into the interior with an expression of disbelief.

Silvia blankly watched him go, then turned her head back toward me and asked.

“Who is he? How did you end up coming here with three demons?”

“We met on the way. He said his companions were here…”

Alice sister continued my explanation.

“We were following your trail, and our paths overlapped. I thought you might be here, but I didn’t expect it to be true.”

“Hmm, what a coincidence.”

“Really, those demons who were supposed to be here, you didn’t kill them?”

“Ah, I really didn’t kill them.”

Silvia answered irritably.

“Do you think I’m some kind of barbarian who kills first and asks questions later whenever something bothers me?”

“…”

“…”

“What? Why are both of you silent?”

I stammered a response.

“N-no… it’s just,”

“Ash…”

“I-I thought demons were always the Dark Lord’s minions… so I thought Silvia would eliminate them first and think later.”

“…”

“That’s what Alice sister was going to do…”

“Hah…”

Silvia sighed and said.

“This is the difference experience makes. Demons are surprisingly reasonable and masters of magic, so fighting them is just troublesome. You can usually negotiate and move on.”

“Was it like that before too?”

“… Yes, there weren’t many demons to begin with, but among those we met, some would turn a blind eye for money or surrender after a brief fight. Of course, there were those who fought to the end… but you know. We had Maria.”

“I see,”

No matter how powerful demons might be, they were no match for Sister Maria, it seems.

At times like this, I was frequently reminded of how remarkable my sister was.

“… So, there’s no problem then?”

“Yes, do you have any issues, Ash? Did you get hurt somewhere… probably not, since Alice would have healed you.”

“Yeah… I’m fine.”

I approached Silvia with unsteady steps.

Now that the tension had eased, I felt a strong urge to embrace her.

It was understandable, as for the past few days, the time Silvia and I could spend together was limited to just thirty minutes in the dead of night.

Even those thirty minutes only occurred if Alice sister and I managed to catch up with her, and even then, I would often fall asleep quickly due to overwhelming fatigue.

By the time I woke up, Silvia would invariably be gone, making it extremely difficult to properly face her during the past few days.

Once, I suggested traveling together like before, but Silvia just shook her head and said it was better to kill the Dark Lord as quickly as possible and return to normal life.

I didn’t understand why Silvia was suddenly rushing the journey like this.

Of course, Alice sister didn’t have much time left, but honestly, Silvia hadn’t shown much concern for her until now, which made it all the more puzzling.

Of course, there was no way for me to know what was in her heart.

Silvia’s reason for suddenly hastening her pace, Alice sister’s remaining lifespan, the purpose of the necklace, the whereabouts of the missing demons.

Everything was concerning, but I couldn’t understand any of it.

Though I was worried about the boy who had run into the campsite looking for his companions, I was relieved that Silvia hadn’t massacred the demons and slowly embraced her.

“Mmm…”

“Oh my? What’s this, Ash? Suddenly being clingy?”

“We haven’t had time to face each other for days. We only saw each other briefly late at night…”

“That’s true… why? Were you lonely?”

“Yes.”

“Ah,”

I mumbled with my face buried in Silvia’s embrace.

Silvia let out a small sigh and stroked my head.

“I see…”

“…”

“Yes, me too…”

“You’ve always been the one initiating… honestly, it was a bit burdensome, but when it stopped, I felt empty…”

“Ash…”

Silvia gently grabbed a handful of my hair and slowly pulled back to lift my face.

Our eyes, shining with the same color, met each other.

Silvia suddenly tapped her lips twice with her finger.

“Then this time, you initiate… Ah,”

Without answering, I briefly pressed my lips against hers, like a bird’s beak touching.

Silvia looked surprised for a moment, then asked in a gentle voice.

“Why are you so cute?”

“… I don’t know,”

“So you do know you’re cute?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“Why don’t you know?”

Silvia slowly embraced my back and gently kissed my lips.

Unlike what I had done earlier, it was a bold kiss that deeply covered my lips.

The sweet breath and soft tongue of Silvia, which I hadn’t tasted for a long time, were incredibly sweet.

After being lost in that sensation for quite a while, I suddenly pulled my lips away in surprise.

“Ah, right. Um, Alice sister is watching…”

“She left, just now.”

“Huh?”

“Alice already knows we’re lovers. She gave us space on her own. She seems to have gone to look for that boy who ran inside.”

“… I see, I feel sorry for making her uncomfortable,”

“Don’t worry about it, not now.”

Silvia kissed my lips once more.