Ch.213Words Left Unsaid

*

The sun was gradually setting beyond the western mountains.

Looking up, I could see the blue sky beginning to turn red.

Soon, a crimson sunset would illuminate Goldfield.

I dragged my tired legs from labor and slowly walked toward the mansion.

“Ash!”

When I was about halfway between the graveyard and the mansion, Sylvia came running from a distance, waving at me.

I greeted her with a smile and asked, “Did you come to meet me?”

“Yes, I couldn’t even wait because the time without you beside me was too hard. You must have had a tough time alone, right?”

Sylvia said this while brushing off the dirt on my clothes with her hands.

I answered with a smile, “Come on, you worked hard too. How’s the mansion? Did you find it properly?”

“Yes, Pia guided me well.”

“How much cleaning is done?”

“…Yes,”

Sylvia hesitated before answering.

Tilting my head in curiosity, I finally noticed the pungent smell of blood coming from her body.

“…”

“…There was a lot to clean up.”

Now that I think about it, I remembered that day when Pia teleported me to my room.

There were strangers occupying the mansion.

How foolish of me to forget such an important fact.

“Clean up…”

“Yes, clean up,”

Clean up.

The “cleaning” she referred to was surely murder.

As I realized this, the smell of blood suddenly felt overwhelmingly strong in my nostrils.

For a moment, an uneasy thought crossed my mind, and I asked Sylvia with a trembling voice.

“…Sylvia… tell me honestly.”

“Yes…”

“Is the… curse still there?”

Sylvia was startled by my question and shook her head vigorously.

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then… why.”

Sylvia fidgeted for a moment, then slowly sighed and began to speak.

“You seem to have noticed already… They were thieves. Well, in this world, everyone might as well be a thief.”

“Ah…”

I let out a sigh.

It seems those who occupied the mansion were thieves.

But even so, did they need to be killed?

Even if they were thieves, the fact that Sylvia, the hero who saved humanity, harmed people bothered me.

After all, Sylvia was the hero who saved this crumbling humanity.

Besides, those thieves might have been residents of the Goldfield domain.

Among them… there might have been faces I knew.

“Ash.”

Just then, Pia appeared on my shoulder.

I don’t know how long she had been there, but she was perched on my shoulder.

It looked as if I was giving her a piggyback ride.

Pia shook her head and said, “There were no faces you know. They were outsiders.”

“…How do you know?”

“Well, if they were people you knew, they’d be people I knew too.”

“Ah, I see…”

Pia nodded as she said this.

“They made a mess of the mansion, not just the staff quarters but the count’s mansion too. It’ll take weeks just to clean.”

“The count’s mansion isn’t that big, how badly could it be damaged?”

“They seemed to have torn down walls to use for fires.”

“Good heavens.”

I sighed.

It seems the harsh winter outside the Fallen Tree Forest was the same elsewhere.

No, the whole world must be in a harsh winter now.

“…It’ll be alright.”

I nodded.

If Sylvia killed them, she must have judged them to be enemies of humanity.

Even if she had been damaged by long-suffering, I firmly believed she could still make that judgment.

I had no choice but to believe it.

After all, I had to live with her for what little remained of my life.

“You did well.”

Saying that, I tightly embraced Sylvia, whose body was soaked with the smell of blood.

Sylvia rubbed her nose against my neck and made a purring sound.

She looked so adorable that I couldn’t imagine her doing such a vicious deed.

*

“I’ll finish cleaning the mansion. You two go for a walk. It’ll help you get familiar with the area.”

Pia said, looking at me.

Surprised by the sudden suggestion, I looked up at Pia, who was still sitting on my shoulder, and asked, “Is there still a lot to clean?”

“Need to wipe up blood.”

“…Ah,”

At Pia’s blunt response, I nodded.

Seeing me nod, Pia told us not to come back too late and disappeared in an instant.

“…Was there a lot?”

“Quite a bit…”

Sylvia said with an awkward smile.

“I couldn’t control my anger, you know. This place was going to be our home, and those ruffians had made a mess of it.”

“So you killed them all?”

“Not all of them, just a few as a warning. Though I did kill them rather brutally.”

“…”

“No, the first one who attacked me shouted ‘It’s a woman!’ and charged at me. This body belongs to Ash, and yet he dared…”

“…You did well.”

I nodded, taking Sylvia’s hand.

“…You’re not disappointed?”

“Why would I be?”

“Well… I locked myself in the forest to protect people, and yet I killed people like that…”

“They were thieves… and it was our home… and besides…”

“…Hmm?”

“Hearing that now makes me angry too, because you’re mine,”

Sylvia grinned broadly.

“I want to pounce on you right now.”

“My back hurts… Let’s do it tomorrow… no, the day after tomorrow.”

I shook my head, clutching my waist.

My already damaged body, back pain from the long carriage ride.

And then digging soil in that condition.

Today, I wanted to avoid any activity that involved my back, even if it killed me.

But Sylvia licked her lips and gently stroked my chest with her straightened index finger.

Then, in a low, purring, seductive voice, she murmured.

“I… don’t think I can wait that long.”

“I really can’t…”

“Hnnng.”

“Instead, I’ll take you to an amazing date spot right now.”

I took Sylvia’s hand and stepped forward.

Sylvia let herself be led by my hand and matched her pace with mine.

We walked around the domain, talking about various things.

Sylvia asked where we were going, but I avoided answering and just smiled.

The sunset was turning the sky crimson.

And I knew the perfect place to enjoy this sunset.

Since the sunset wouldn’t last long, we might not make it before nightfall, but given my physical condition, I couldn’t move any faster.

I walked at a pace that wasn’t too strenuous and had pleasant conversations with Sylvia.

First impressions.

First meeting.

The moment we first realized our love.

The night we first intertwined our bodies.

How Sylvia spent her time while I was briefly gone.

And what our future ahead might look like.

Some stories I had heard before, and some were new.

But even familiar stories, I could listen to hundreds more times if they came from her voice, and unfamiliar stories were equally welcome if accompanied by her breath.

Throughout the climb up the sloping hill, Sylvia chattered away.

I was too out of breath to respond properly, but Sylvia’s cheerful voice gave me the strength to keep up.

When we finally reached the top of the hill, fortunately, the sunset was displaying its most perfect colors.

“Wow…”

Before I could even explain, Sylvia was already gazing in awe at the scene before her.

It was obvious.

She was entranced by this beautiful sight.

As was I, and as was Laila.

The hill offering the most perfect view of Goldfield’s golden wheat fields.

This place, beloved by everyone living in the domain, was a well-known dating spot and a famous confession location.

The place I had promised myself I would show Sylvia someday.

Finally, I was standing here with her.

As I caught my breath leaning against the elm tree that still stood majestically on the hill, my eyes caught sight of a rotted rope on the ground.

“…”

It was the remains of the swing I had made for Laila.

It seemed to have fallen and been abandoned long ago.

I turned my gaze forward again.

The golden wheat fields I had loved so much were already ruined, but Sylvia’s platinum blonde hair fluttering in the wind under the sunset was no less beautiful.

After taking one last deep breath, I quietly approached Sylvia, who was lost in the view.

Then I gently interlaced my fingers with hers.

Sylvia, without a word, softly squeezed our interlocked fingers.

“…How is it?”

“It’s so… beautiful.”

“Hehe, do you like it?”

“Yes, it’s the most magnificent sight I’ve ever seen.”

“Right? It used to be even prettier. Now the wheat fields are all ruined, but in the old days, there was a golden sea rippling under the red sky, stretching all the way to the horizon…”

“Wow… that must have been really amazing.”

“…It was breathtaking.”

Sylvia gazed at the scene before her for a long time.

I too stood silently, overlapping the memory in my head with the scene before my eyes.

When I shivered from the cold wind blowing from beyond the mountains, Sylvia released our interlocked hands and wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

I moved with her guidance.

Naturally, she ended up embracing me from behind.

Sylvia, holding me tight, pressed her lips close to my ear and whispered quietly.

“I understand now why Ash praised the Goldfield domain so much. And why Maria loved her hometown so much.”

I turned my head to face her.

She was closer than I expected.

“…What about Sylvia?”

“What?”

“Do you think you can love this place?”

Sylvia chuckled.

“What a silly question. I would have come to love this place even without this magnificent view. Just the fact that it’s not that damn forest already earns it points, and on top of that, it’s the hometown of the person I love.”

“Sylvia…”

Sylvia rested her head gently on my shoulder and said,

“Just the fact that it’s Ash’s hometown makes it wonderful enough… and it’s so beautiful too… I’ve never seen anything this pretty in my life.”

I rested my cheek lightly against her head and said,

“I’ve seen something prettier.”

“My goodness, what is it?”

It was a foolish conversation.

Like lines from a popular novel I read as a child, embarrassing and even cliché.

But I deliberately voiced that cliché answer.

Because at this moment, no words could be more perfect than that obvious answer.

“It’s you, Sylvia.”

“Oh my,”

“The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen was Sylvia.”

“Oh my, stop it. This girl is too embarrassed… no, let’s stop, I’m really getting embarrassed.”

“Haha, alright, let’s stop.”

We stood on the hill for a long time.

Finally, even the sunset disappeared beyond the horizon, and darkness began to settle heavily in the sky.

I turned my head again.

Sylvia also turned her head toward me.

Without any signal, the two of us were thinking the same thought, as if we were one person.

And as a result, we slowly merged our lips together, joining our shadows into one.

A hot kiss warming our bodies chilled by the night wind.

Every part of our bodies touching in embrace was warm, but where our lips met was burning hot.

White breath mingled with her exhalations.

My breath also rose in white wisps.

Seeing each other’s breath, we sealed our lips even more tightly, not wanting to miss even a small breath.

“Haah…”

After a long kiss, as our lips slowly parted, a silver thread of saliva hung between them.

The thread slowly stretched downward and then snapped.

At the same moment, both of us opened our mouths.

“Um… Sylvia”

“Ash, you know.”

Having spoken simultaneously, we looked at each other and chuckled together.

Even such an awkward moment was so lovable.

“You go first, Sylvia,”

“Hmm, you go first, Ash.”

“What is it? Now I’m curious.”

“I’m curious too. About what Ash was going to say.”

In this situation, what else could be said?

A man had brought his lover to his special place.

The two confirmed their affection for each other under a beautiful scene.

There was only one final word to conclude the situation.

Surely Sylvia was about to say the same thing.

“Then shall we say it together?”

“…Huh?”

“I’ll count to three, and we’ll say it at the same time.”

For some reason, Sylvia looked a bit puzzled but slowly nodded and said,

“Suuure… well… let’s do that.”

Her lukewarm response bothered me, but it was probably nothing.

Perhaps she just wanted to hear my voice clearly or some such trivial reason.

I looked at Sylvia’s face and slowly began counting.

“One. Two.”

Sylvia swallowed hard.

“Three!”

I shouted energetically.

“I love you, Sylvi…”

“I’m pregnant.”

…What did I just hear?