Ch.23Training (1)

*

It seemed to have rained during the early morning, as the ground was damp.

The sky was clear, and the air held just enough moisture to feel refreshingly crisp.

It was a beautiful morning.

The morning sunlight streaming through the open window, accompanied by the fresh scent of grass, was dazzling.

I rubbed my eyes and slowly woke from my sleep.

“Did you sleep well?”

Very close, right beside me, I heard Silvia’s voice.

Of course I did—she had slept with her arms around me.

“Y-yes… Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I slept well.”

Still half-asleep and not fully conscious, I nestled into her embrace to escape the slightly chilly morning breeze.

Silvia stroked my disheveled hair.

“See? I told you so.”

“…”

Silvia said this with a triumphant expression.

I deliberately chose not to answer.

Though her chest softly cradling my face felt incredibly pleasant, somehow my pride wouldn’t let me readily admit it.

Last night, she had ultimately refused to button up her shirt.

I was extremely flustered by this outrageous behavior, but even when she was being this unreasonable, I had no way to control her.

Fortunately, as she had once mentioned, the bed was wide enough for two people to lie down comfortably, so I tried to position myself as far away from her as possible.

But Silvia boldly rolled my body over and pulled me into her embrace.

She held me against her chest like a hen incubating an egg.

Let me say it again.

She did not button up her shirt.

I was flustered and asked her to let me go, but Silvia refused with a smile.

‘I know you haven’t been sleeping well lately. You said you were too scared to sleep alone tonight, so you need human warmth.’

With this strange logic, she refused to release me.

Overwhelmed by rising embarrassment, I finally confessed my honest feelings: ‘I can’t sleep because my heart is racing.’ But that statement backfired.

She held me even tighter.

Was it because of my irregular sleep pattern over the past few days?

Or was it because the tension had finally released after nearly being killed by a bear?

Despite my excuse, I was instantly pulled into sleep in her embrace.

And I slept soundly until this morning.

I had to admit, frustratingly, that it was the most refreshing sleep I’d had in the past few days, or perhaps since entering this forest.

“See? How much better would it have been if you’d just listened to me from the start?”

Silvia said this in a triumphant tone, poking my cheek with her finger.

Even without looking, I could easily imagine her expression.

“…”

As if desperately trying to preserve what little dignity I had left, I kept my mouth shut and burrowed into her embrace seeking warmth.

It was also my way of telling her to stop poking my cheek.

“Ah, Ash… th-that place… ah,”

“Huh?”

The moment I heard her startled yet somehow seductive voice, I snapped wide awake.

Like a compressed spring suddenly released, I bounced away from her.

“…What was that just now?”

Damn, now that I was fully awake, I suddenly realized what I had been doing.

In my sleepy state, I had been nuzzling my face between her breasts.

No wonder it felt so warm.

No, that’s not the point.

Anyway, I asked her in a flustered voice.

But Silvia just stared at me blankly, her face flushed as she covered her chest with both arms.

After a moment, she spoke quietly with a faint smile.

“…Pervert.”

“N-no, you misunderstand.”

“I never expected this from you.”

“No… what did I do?”

“…I can’t say it out loud.”

“Aaaah!”

I flailed my arms in the air, stuttering like an idiot.

Silvia looked at me and chuckled.

Seeing her face, I realized this was another one of her pranks, and I fumed with anger and embarrassment.

Silvia seemed to find even my anger adorable.

Well, it’s not like my anger could cause her even the slightest scratch.

Just as a pouting three-year-old would look cute to me, my anger probably appeared just as harmless to her.

Silvia slowly sat up and looked out the window as she spoke.

“Ash, take a look at the weather outside.”

I looked at the window with a sulky expression.

It was beautiful weather.

Just like that morning when I first headed to Layla’s grave after regaining consciousness.

A cool breeze came through the window, caressing my face as it passed.

I could feel my hair gently swaying.

Looking at the clear, cloudless sky outside and the trees below displaying their deep, vibrant green, I said:

“The weather is nice.”

“Yes. Perfect for some hard work.”

“…Pardon?”

“After breakfast, let’s start training.”

*

Sadly, breakfast was a major failure that tarnished my honor as the cook of this cabin.

The bird she had caught for yesterday’s dinner had only been skinned and smoked.

That was because there was another ingredient that needed to be processed.

The bear that she had cut in half yesterday.

Since the meat was so large and there was no way to keep it fresh here, we decided to eat the bear first.

Eating the bear that had tried to eat me.

Serves it right. I’ll fry it, sauté it, grill it, boil it—I’ll eat it in every way possible.

Honestly, that’s what I was thinking, but I nearly died from the effort of removing that huge hide.

The belly and surrounding meat had become inedible due to decomposing entrails after being left overnight, so after I salvaged the edible parts, she took the bear’s body somewhere to dispose of it.

In the end, only the meat from the back and the four limbs were usable.

But the bear was so large that even one thick hind leg provided enough meat for both of us to eat a meal with plenty left over.

However, the bear meat had a very strong gamey smell, and the cabin had run out of herbs.

The reason I had gone into the forest yesterday was because we had run out of herbs and spices.

I tried my best to mask the smell with some old alcohol that Silvia brought—too stale to drink pleasantly—but ultimately failed.

I managed to choke down breakfast, eating meat that gave off an unpleasant odor.

Let me remember this.

Bears are not helpful in life.

The one fortunate thing was that Silvia didn’t mind the gamey smell and ate relatively well.

She didn’t seem particularly sensitive to such odors.

While that was fortunate, seeing her enjoy even this smelly meat made me a bit sad, thinking that perhaps she couldn’t tell much difference between this and the dishes I usually worked hard to prepare.

After finishing the meal, Silvia took out some tea leaves she had hidden in the cupboard and brewed tea.

I asked her as she steeped the tea:

“Why did you hide the tea leaves?”

“I didn’t hide them, I just stored them deep inside.”

What’s the difference…?

“…So why?”

“Because we can’t get more tea leaves. I’m saving them.”

“…Ah, I see.”

As I listened to her, I thought about whether there might be something in the forest that could be used to brew tea.

But before I could say anything, as if reading my thoughts, Silvia smiled and spoke:

“Honestly, if you pick flowers and boil them, that’s flower tea, and if you pick pine needles, that’s pine needle tea, but real tea leaves—there’s only a little left in this container. That’s why I only drink it on days when I really want it, or on very special occasions.”

After her explanation, she carefully poured two cups of tea and handed one to me.

Indeed, the possibility of tea plants existing in this forest was very slim, and even if one were lucky enough to find tea leaves, processing them into black tea would be beyond the capabilities of ordinary people who don’t know the method.

In fact, if we had tea leaves earlier, they could have helped mask the gamey smell of the bear meat, but I could understand why she wouldn’t want to use precious black tea for that purpose.

When I lived at the mansion, I drank a lot of tea thanks to the Countess who loved it.

Personally, I preferred milk tea, but the Countess always firmly stated that black tea should absolutely be drunk black.

The bitter taste that initially didn’t suit me at all had now become completely familiar.

The smell of black tea after so long improved my mood.

Well, “so long” was actually just a month or two ago.

Count, Countess.

I wonder if they’re doing well.

And Sister Alice too.

Suddenly, the people I’d left behind in the outside world began to come to mind.

Having lost all my family, I had relatively easily accepted the fact that I needed to stay in this forest, but thinking about it now, I missed them terribly.

I took a sip of tea to clear my thoughts.

A fragrant bitter taste with a sweet astringency.

Yes. This is black tea.

It feels like it warms not just my body but my heart as well.

I took another sip and asked her:

“Is today a special day?”

“The day I slept with you.”

“Keh-hak!”

I spat out that precious black tea.

Silvia giggled at my reaction.

*

After drinking tea and letting our food digest, Silvia and I went to the riverside for training.

She brought the large bearskin that she had cut in half yesterday and handed it to me.

“What’s this?”

“Put it on.”

The bearskin wasn’t processed into clothing; it was just in its raw state.

I asked blankly:

“You want me to wear it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Just wrap it around you. Think of it as covering your stomach and back somehow.”

The weather was moderately cool, but it was still summer.

If training involved physical activity, wearing such a fur pelt might make me faint from the heat.

I looked at Silvia with a puzzled expression, but she just smiled brightly.

“…Do I have to wear it?”

“If you don’t want to die.”

“…What?”

She smiled and pointed somewhere with her finger.

I slowly shifted my gaze following her finger.

There lay the torso part of the bear that had become inedible and was discarded.

She must have brought it here.

Silvia chanted a short spell and created an ice shard the size of her thumb in her hand.

Then she threw it at the bear’s carcass.

The bear’s carcass exploded.

“…”

“Ah, I need to control my power better.”

“…”

“I told you last night what we’d be doing, right? If you don’t want to die, put it on.”

Without a word, I wrapped the bearskin around my entire body.

Let me correct myself.

Bears are helpful in life.

She’s going to throw that ice at me now.

With the same power that exploded the bear… no, I should pray that she doesn’t fail to control her strength.

Otherwise, that ice might easily pierce through this bearskin, then through my stomach, and even through the trees across the river.

I felt a level of fear similar to when I heard the bear climbing up toward me in the tree yesterday.

She looked at me, nodded, and said with a smile:

“Now. Training begins. Run.”

.