NOVEL NEXT chapter 11
11 – housemate (2)
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“ash…?”
Sylvia dropped the three rabbits she was holding onto the floor.
Then he turned and ran toward the cabin.
It’s gone.
No, did it exist from the beginning?
After suffering from the pain of being alone for a long time, isn’t it a pitiful thing that my head is spinning?
Sylvia kicked the door open as if to break it open.
The corner of the door, almost blown off, hit the wall hard enough to make a huge nick, and I shuddered.
Then, with the sound of the hinge breaking, it fell down.
Sylvia didn’t mind and went inside the cabin, stepping on the broken door.
Silvia was greeted only by the silence of the empty space, where no one could feel any presence.
“… Am I crazy?”
The table is clean, not a speck of dust.
There are only new dishes and dishes that have been washed.
Luggage or clothes, Ash, who was a shipwrecked person in the first place, had nothing that could be called a special burden.
“…”
There was no sign of Ash anywhere in the cabin.
As if it never existed in the first place.
Sylvia stumbled as she felt the energy draining from her body.
She leaned her back against the missing door frame and collapsed.
She had a blank look on her face for a long time, then she smiled dejectedly.
“Ha ha ha… I should have thought of it with common sense.”
Who would come to this forest in the first place?
You said you were in distress? But did you walk all the way here? does that make sense
A memory too vivid to be mistaken.
Is my head completely ruined?
Maybe these damn cursed eyes are hallucinating in a new way to haunt me.
Sylvia let out a grin.
ash.
I don’t even have enough imagination.
Maybe the name was a hint.
Like his name, he disappeared like ashes.
Suddenly, her eyes saw the bed Ash was lying on.
Originally, it was a soft pedestal for placing swords or armor.
Because of the resentment of the villagers who blamed him in their dreams every night, he buried the armor in the graveyard, wrapped it in black cloth, and put it under the bed.
After that, I was using it as a kind of sofa, and after Ash came, I gave it to Ash to use it as a bed.
She herself knows it well, having laid down several times.
Since it wasn’t designed as a bed from the beginning, my back would hurt if I lay there for a long time.
“About the 20th… Ha, that can’t be.”
No matter how good Ash was, if he slept in a place like that for days, his back would get sore and he wouldn’t be able to stand it.
The more she thought about it, the more her doubts grew that the existence of Ash was an illusion created by her poor brain.
Sylvia unknowingly crawled towards the new bed.
There was a well-folded duvet on the bed.
It was originally a tablecloth, but I gave it away because there was nothing else that could be used as a blanket.
Ha, the tablecloth is the duvet.
It’s not a play house,
“I wonder if I went crazy and played house by myself… Crazy b*tch,”
Sylvia slowly picked up the blanket and held it to her face.
I’m sure there’s nothing but the musty smell of dust coming from the futon.
sniff,
“…ash?”
Sylvia’s eyes gradually opened wide.
The smell of ash was clearly permeated through the soft scent of sunlight rising from the thin blanket on the cot by the window.
Sylvia grabbed the blanket tightly and snuggled her nose like crazy.
“The smell of ash…”
It was definitely what she thought was Ash’s smell.
What is it? Is Ash real?
Or did he just mistake the smell of this tablecloth for the smell of ash?
In the midst of confusion, Sylvia suddenly remembered the three rabbits she had dropped from the graveyard.
I saw it clearly the moment I dropped the rabbit.
Layla’s tomb, which never existed before.
Doesn’t that mean that Ash also exists?
ah…
Alas, that’s right.
Sylvia seemed to know what she was mistaken for.
That night, it was clear that Ash had come to his cabin with his injured body.
It’s just that he couldn’t overcome it.
Of course, it was not an injury that a normal person could possibly endure.
My God, how could I have been so mistaken?
It was Ash who died, not Lyla.
I was going crazy with loneliness and didn’t want to let go of him, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, so I was just watching a hallucination that never happened.
“…a crazy b*tch,”
Sylvia buried her nose in the blanket and inhaled.
He persistently and deeply inhaled, as if trying to hide the faint smell of ash.
“Haaa… Ash… Ash,”
“… Mr. Sylvia?”
“…!”
Sylvia turned her head in surprise at the man’s voice coming from the door.
Ash was standing in front of the door, holding a colander full of weeds, looking at him.
…
asshole.
how perplexed you are
Of course, it must have been empty for a while.
The memories of 20 days can’t be entirely hallucinations.
You can understand it if you cool down a little, but why are you acting like an idiot…
Sylvia buried her face in the blanket she was holding and sighed, blaming herself just before she had forgotten her cool and ran amok.
There was a deep relief in her sigh.
And with the relief, another emotion that came up quietly calmed Sylvia’s heart.
Ash looked at himself without saying anything.
“…”
“…”
By the way, why is Ash’s expression like that?
Ash averted his eyes, blushing with a strange expression mixed with embarrassment, embarrassment, and bewilderment.
It seemed as if he was trying hard not to make eye contact.
It was only then that Sylvia took a closer look at what she was doing.
And slowly I realized
The image of herself sniffing Ash’s blanket and calling his name with her nose tucked in.
“…”
“Ah, no, do that….”
“Oh, no, wait, you have to come.”
Sylvia’s face was as red as her eyes.
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I was confident that I could make a dish that was much tastier than this when I ate bland potatoes with Silvia last night.
Isn’t it natural that there is at least one thing that even a hero can’t do?
If there was delicious food, it would have been a little easier for her to endure the lonely days.
So, isn’t serving her delicious food the best reward I can give her?
So, I will cook with confidence. I’ve said it, but when I looked into the kitchen, this wasn’t normal.
“…there is no seasoning at all.”
There was a reason why the liver was bored.
There were no condiments or spices in her hut.
Well, if you think about it for a bit, it was natural.
There was no way a peddler would come to a forest like this, and even if he did, there was no way she would meet her, so salt and pepper were out of the question.
In addition, there are no animals to raise, so it is impossible to obtain butter or cheese made from animal milk.
“Oh, it’s a big deal, really..”
Maybe she’s good at cooking, but she just couldn’t get the right ingredients?
Maybe it wrinkled in front of the chrysalis?
Anxiety slowly crept into my mind.
I lightly slapped my cheeks with both hands and forced my anxiety away.
“No, if you search the forest, there will be at least something like herbs. Sylvia must have been unable to find it because she did not have the relevant knowledge,”
If you pick up any weed, you can get into big trouble.
No, but didn’t she know a lot about herbalism?
I slapped my cheek once more.
“Let’s not think about anything sinister.”
I grabbed a colander, strapped it to my side, and left the cabin to get herbs for herbs or mushrooms to accompany my food.
A thick forest surrounds the ruins.
I was a little afraid because I had heard that there were many wild animals, but there must be something to eat.
Thinking so, I wandered through the woods, being careful not to go too far to prevent any misfortune.
Assorted edible mushrooms such as wild bracken, wild strawberry, mugwort, shiitake or morel. and many others.
There was more food than expected in the forest.
Seeing that there was not even a trace of harvesting, it seemed that Silvia-san did not know how to distinguish between these things.
I couldn’t find anything to make up for the saltiness, but I picked chives and other herbs to add spiciness, and I looked up at the sky while slowly beating my back.
It must have been noon, as the sun was right overhead.
“Is this much gain in an hour?”
Seeing the colander full of vegetables brought a satisfied smile to my face.
Wouldn’t it taste great even if you boil the hotpot?
I slowly straightened my back and relaxed my swollen body.
If you collect too many, it may be difficult to find again next time.
After I remembered the places I had gathered so far, I took a colander and went back to the cabin.
As we got closer to the cabin, something felt strange.
No, it was strange that the door was missing.
Did a bear come in while you were away for a while?
I cautiously approached the cabin.
The closer I got, the clearer I could feel the presence of someone inside the cabin.
…what if it’s a real bear?
I was very nervous, and I peeked in carefully from the entrance where the door had been blown out.
And what I saw.
“Haaa… Ash… Ash,”
It was Sylvia, shouting my name over and over and sniffing my futon with her nose.
“…Sylvia-san?”
“…!”
I think I saw something I shouldn’t have seen.
Neither Sylvia nor I said anything.
Sylvia buried her face in the blanket and began to let out a long sigh.
uh what Do you keep going when I see you?
…uh, um,
You must be more daring than you look.
In this case, it would be right for me to avoid the seat.
I said slowly backing away.
“Ah, no, do that….”
“Oh, no, wait, you have to come.”
She blushed and reached out to me, moving closer.
I set the colander down on the floor and ran away.
It was the first time I had run since I had seriously injured my leg in a carriage accident.
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