Ch.89Reunion (2)

“Did you miss me?”

“…Ah,”

I missed her.

I missed her so much.

Sincerely, with all my heart, there wasn’t a single moment when I didn’t long for her.

She walked toward me slowly, one step at a time, with her hands behind her back and her body slightly bent forward.

With each step, her neatly combed golden hair swayed gently.

Her footsteps were so light that she looked almost like a butterfly or a fairy.

She slowly walked up to my side and whispered, bringing her face close to my ear.

“What’s with that silly mask?”

A voice tinged with a shy smile.

It felt like my ears were melting.

Was this a dream?

Her voice, appearing so suddenly again, was so enchanting that it seemed impossible to believe it was real.

But the sensation of her golden thread-like hair gently brushing against my wooden mask told me that this was definitely reality.

My imagination could never be this detailed.

“Ash. Are you not going to say anything?”

There was so much I wanted to say.

As much as I had missed her, as much as I had longed to see her, no, even more than that.

An apology for disappearing without a word.

An explanation of how I was still alive.

A question about where she had been.

Resentment about why she had taken so long.

A complaint asking if she knew how much I had missed her.

The shocking truth that the Demon Lord was still alive.

My determination to help her finish her journey and mission.

And,

My sincere feelings that I loved her, missed her, longed for her so much.

But I couldn’t readily speak any of those words.

I had so much to say that it felt like everything was stuck in my narrow throat.

“Ah…”

Perhaps because my thoughts and words were crowded in my throat, fighting to get out first without establishing any order, only muffled sounds kept coming from my mouth.

“Ash, hehe.”

Finding my behavior amusing, she smirked and slowly removed my mask.

Our red eyes glowed softly in the dark surroundings, and our gazes intertwined gently in the air.

Her red eyes looked at me.

I was looking at her too.

Even though I was already looking at her as much as I possibly could, I wanted to look at her even more.

If I could, I would have engraved her image inside my eyeballs.

Judging by her lingering gaze, she surely felt the same way.

“…Ash.”

Perhaps, I thought, the reason I couldn’t say anything was because she wasn’t asking me anything.

She must have wondered why I disappeared, must have resented me for vanishing without a word,

Must have been miserably sad, abandoned once again in that terrible solitude during the months I spent in the spirit realm.

Yet she didn’t ask about my intentions or circumstances, nor did she blame me with even a single word.

She showed no signs of sadness or anger at all.

At this moment, there was only one thing she was asking me.

“I missed you so much, Ash.”

“…Ugh,”

“Didn’t you miss me?”

With trembling hands, I slowly embraced her neck.

As if she had been waiting for that touch, she hugged my back tightly, like a large beast closing its jaws.

That strong force.

Ah, it was real.

It really was her.

It really was Silvia.

“…I missed you.”

“…”

“So, so much… I was so lonely, I missed you so much…”

“Me too.”

“…I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Silvia.”

“Mmm,”

She shook her head while still embracing me.

“No.”

“…?”

“If you’re really sorry, you wouldn’t call me that.”

“Ah… haha,”

“You’re laughing after crying?”

“…I missed you, Noona.”

Silvia, no, Silvia Noona slowly ran her hands over my body, the same hands that had been hugging my back.

Her rough, hard hands, covered with calluses, felt so good.

Her hands freely glided over my skin, slowly climbing up my arms and shoulders, reaching my collarbone and neck, and finally touching both my cheeks.

She dropped my mask that she had been holding in one hand and gently cupped both my cheeks.

“I missed you so much too.”

I closed my eyes.

It was an instinctive action, knowing what was coming next.

Silvia never betrayed such instincts or experiences of mine.

Her hot, soft lips touched mine.

Despite being apart for quite some time, our lips found their places like perfectly matching puzzle pieces.

They naturally found where they belonged, filling the gaps between our lips.

Yet whenever empty spaces still formed, they were filled with each other’s hot breaths.

And finally, her hot, sweet tongue invaded between my lips, cutting through all those gaps.

I opened my mouth for her tongue without any resistance.

No, I even gently bit her tongue with my lips for a little stimulation and fun, and went out to meet her tongue with mine.

Our tongues intertwined.

Like us, our tongues embraced, kissed, and shared each other’s warmth.

I hugged her neck so tightly it seemed like I might break it.

Knowing it wouldn’t break from this much pressure, I embraced her with all my strength.

She clearly liked this kind of pressure.

Seemingly pleased that I remembered this, Silvia’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at me, forming happy eye-smiles.

She was lovely.

She was lovely beyond words.

Suddenly, as an unpleasant scent brushed my nose, I slowly raised my head and pulled away from her lips.

Even though I was the one pulling away, my tongue seemed reluctant, reaching out to her tongue until the very last moment before finally separating.

“…A smell.”

“Oh, do I smell? I was late because I took a bath and did laundry before meeting Ash.”

“You didn’t need to do that… I would have preferred if you had come sooner…”

“I wanted to look pretty for Ash.”

“…Ah, anyway!”

“Hehe,”

My face turned bright red at her honest and bold statement.

“Silvia Noona… I smell blood on you. Are you hurt somewhere?”

Her clothes were much more worn than when we had parted, but they were still quite clean from washing.

Her hair swayed softly, and her skin had a healthy glow.

She must have done laundry and bathed at a river.

But even so, a faint smell of blood remained on her body.

My nose wasn’t particularly sensitive, so she must have had a wound somewhere on her body.

Or maybe it was… that time of the month.

“…Ah,”

The smile disappeared from Silvia Noona’s face.

It was an extremely cold and frightening expression.

I had seen her angry a few times during our time together, but I had never seen a face like this.

No matter how much I searched my memory, I had never seen such an expression before. Silvia Noona looked down at me slowly with that face.

I could see dark, unfathomable emotions churning in her red eyes, which had looked so lovely just moments ago.

Those eyes, darker than the night forest.

I unconsciously tried to step back, but she firmly grabbed my body.

With an eerie smile that only pulled up the corners of her mouth unnaturally, she said:

“It’s not my blood.”

*

We entered the cabin together.

It was a cabin I had built to be with her, and I had planned to proudly tell her I had built it for her when she appeared,

But now that she was here, I couldn’t say anything.

Embarrassment and shame blocked my words.

The empty cabin with no furniture or decorations was nothing compared to her home that I had burned down—it was practically a worthless abandoned building.

As I watched her slowly sit down on the bare floor around the lit firewood in the middle of the room, my shame intensified.

I sat down beside her and said:

“The house is… not much, right?”

“Ash built it, didn’t you?”

“Oh, how did you know?”

“I can tell just by looking.”

So it was that obviously crude.

When I was living alone, I had postponed making furniture thinking I only needed to endure it myself, but looking back now, it was a foolish decision.

I should have made at least basic furniture in advance, so it would be ready whenever she returned—that belated regret filled my mind.

The most urgent need was a place to sleep.

Of course, while I might somehow manage to build a bed frame with my skills, I couldn’t make a mattress or blankets that required cloth.

Even that uncomfortable bed in Silvia Noona’s cabin living room, where I once slept, seemed so precious now.

As I had felt when I first entered the forest, I was reminded again how difficult life was without the touch of civilization, and I awkwardly opened my mouth.

“I couldn’t do anything alone.”

“…”

“I guess I can’t do anything without you, Silvia Noona.”

“You say that after building a house?”

“This is… more like a barn than a house. There’s no furniture.”

“Ash.”

She shook her head and said:

“I couldn’t even build a house like this. The furniture I had was just stuff I brought from Milwood Village.”

“…That may be true, but.”

“And…”

She slowly spread her arms and looked at me.

Like someone entranced, I crawled into her embrace.

Silvia Noona hugged me and stroked my back as she said:

“Even without blankets, it’s warm like this. Right?”

“But when winter comes,”

“Let’s do it together. We can do it.”

“…”

We held each other for a long time without saying anything.

She really didn’t seem to want to ask anything about when we parted.

At least for now, she seemed to want to enjoy the warmth of her loved one after a long time apart.

I found that so grateful and lovely about her.

I carefully rested my head on her shoulder.

Her silky soft breath touched my face.

“Look, Ash.”

“…Yes?”

“Even without furniture. This place has everything I need.”

“…?”

“You know… I can’t do anything without you either.”

“…What?”

“I realized it clearly while you were gone. I’m nothing without Ash now.”

“Silvia Noona…”

I slowly turned my head and kissed her cheek.

She also lowered her head and lightly kissed my cheek.

Making an exaggerated kissing sound that might seem childish, she smiled broadly.

“You don’t know how much I’ve missed this.”

“…Me too.”

“Now, I’ll never take my eyes off you.”

“I’m sorry…”

No matter how much she didn’t press me, I knew well that it didn’t mean she hadn’t been hurt.

Almost simultaneously with my apology, she shook her head and said:

“Don’t say you’re sorry.”

“…But,”

“Don’t.”

She spoke firmly and gently bit my earlobe.

I shuddered at the thrilling sensation.

She touched the teeth mark on my earlobe with the tip of her tongue and whispered in my ear:

“Tell me you love me.”

It was a request I couldn’t refuse.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

Speaking directly into my ear, the persuasiveness of her voice was on a completely different level from mine.

It felt like her love was being engraved into my very bones.

As much as the size of that love, I couldn’t avoid feeling heavy-hearted whenever I thought about the loneliness she must have felt.

With guilt weighing on my mind, I slowly buried my face in her shoulder.

Although the time without her was hard for me to endure, it must have been even more difficult and painful for her.

At least while I was being treated for demonic energy in the spirit realm, she would have been wandering around this forest, which was only natural.

I asked in a subdued voice:

“How was it while I was gone?”

“It felt much longer than the few years I spent in the forest before meeting you—it felt like a year.”

“A year? Wasn’t it about three or four months since we last met?”

“For me… it was a year.”

I was at a loss for words.

That’s right.

Silvia had no concept of time.

Then a year would be correct.

If she felt it was a year, if it seemed like a year to her, then it was a year.

“How long did the time we spent together feel like?”

Silvia smiled and said:

“Well… less than a month?”

“…”

“I thought I wasn’t someone who fell in love so quickly. But Ash was so lovable I couldn’t help it.”

“…That’s right.”

If she said it was a month, then it was a month.

If she said it was a year, then it was a year.

What did time matter anyway?

“From now on, I’ll always be with you.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than she pressed down on my shoulders and laid me on the floor.

“Yes, we won’t be apart anymore…”

.