I Can’t Run Away From the Girl Who Saved Me

206 – A World Where Everyone Is Unhappy (1)

＊

The demon king is dead.

The horrifying being that seemed as if it would never die, having received countless blows from Sylvia’s sword, not dying even when its head was cut off, and recovering its damaged body in a coffin, eventually died.

The sword of Saint Alice.

The magic of Archmage Maria.

The power of warrior Sylvia.

The answer that humanity has come up with in the face of a global crisis has proven to be the right answer, even if it took a long, painful time and countless hardships along the way.

In the end, it was the warrior who killed the Demon King.

Of course, this Demon King was a completely different being than the ones who had put humanity in danger several times before.

That’s why, even though we won, so many wounds remained.

Humans were on the verge of destruction, and the Demons were also in a situation where their survival was uncertain.

A great scar was left on all who walked upon this earth.

“no.”

I shook my head.

There is no need to be sad.

We won and we defended.

Although it may take a long time, human history is not interrupted.

When the hand of the goddess who has temporarily left the world returns one day, this fate will finally return to the right path.

I decided to be grateful for that fact for now.

“…”

The demon boy was repeatedly crushing the piece of the demon king’s head stuck to the sole of his shoe with a blank expression.

The demon king we finally defeated ended up like this.

The demon boy assured with a stern face that he would not be able to be resurrected twice now.

Sylvia quietly told me that he was the son of the previous Demon King who was killed by the current Demon King.

Now, I understand how he was able to stop the Demon King’s resurrection.

His perfect prevention of the Demon King’s resurrection was probably revenge for what happened to his father.

The previous Demon King.

The boy’s father was the one who would have been Sylvia’s enemy in the right fate.

What kind of demon was he?

Does the boy miss his father?

When I think of the boy who was pulling out his dead companions one by one from a pond filled with a disgusting smell that seemed to tear apart his brain, I wonder if it is not true that the demons have no human feelings.

With that thought in mind, I turned my gaze away from the bitter profile of the demon boy.

For some reason, the face of my deceased father came to mind.

The demon boy opened his mouth quietly.

“I didn’t think I would receive help from humans… Ha, no… It wasn’t that I received help, you guys did everything. But we, the demons… didn’t do anything.”

“…”

I couldn’t offer any hasty words of comfort to the discouraged boy.

We’ve lost too much to tell you that you did your best.

No matter how vile the usurper and murderer of his own kind, the fact that the Demon King is ultimately a Demon does not change.

I didn’t have the leisure to console the demons who had made things this bad by failing to deal with one traitor among their own kind.

I didn’t want to compare our losses and figure out who suffered more, but the weight of my sister Alice, who was sleeping in my arms forever and never waking up, was a clear indicator of what we had lost and how much we had sacrificed.

Sister Alice didn’t move at all.

Her body, with only the upper half remaining, did not recover, nor did it disappear, leaving only the heart behind.

I could no longer feel the hot heat that the machine gave off as it spun around, nor the faint divine power that had been healing my body.

Her body was occupied only by a light weight that seemed too light for even me to lift, much less than the weight of an average person.

Tears are flowing.

I remember my days at Goldfield Estate.

The view of the hill I had climbed with my parents, Layla, my sister Maria, and my sister Alice was vivid before my eyes.

“ah…”

Now there is no one who saw that sight with me.

Everyone who had memories of that day looking down at that beautiful scenery with me has died.

“…Ahh, ahh… ugh,”

I buried my face in the nape of Sister Alice’s neck.

The hot water dripped down onto her skin, which had become so cold.

The faces of my parents, Layla, and my sister Alice linger in my mind.

I will never forget it.

Because now it’s something only I remember.

＊

Before we left the Demon King’s castle, we exchanged a brief greeting with the Demon Boy.

He decided to live in this old castle.

As he had been a peddler among humans, he could have lived with humanity if he wanted to, but he was the right owner and successor of this castle.

The face of the boy who vowed to revive this land that had been defiled by the Demon King looked a little more mature than I had expected.

He has become the new Demon King.

Of course, he made it clear that he had no intention of becoming hostile to humanity.

With a pointless joke that he wouldn’t dare to pick a fight after seeing Sylvia fight.

I smiled faintly at his mischievous joke, but his stern face let me know that it wasn’t a joke.

After exchanging some jokes and pleasantries, we slowly walked away.

Finally going back.

To the cabin on the lake watched over by the green lady.

“…Ash, how are you feeling?”

While walking down the street, Sylvia asked with a worried look on her face.

I nodded and answered.

“It’s bearable.”

“Don’t lie. Just give it to me.”

Sylvia said as she looked at the body of Sister Alice, which I was holding in both hands.

But I shook my head.

“Sorry, I don’t want to do that.”

“Ash, isn’t it uncomfortable to go like this?”

“…”

As she said, it was true that our current appearance looked a little funny.

I was walking very slowly, staggering, carrying Sister Alice’s body with both hands as if I was carrying a sack of rice, and Sylvia was walking hesitantly, keeping pace with my slow pace, holding onto my shoulder with one hand.

Sisters Pia and Maria were slowly following us.

It was as if they were playing with trains.

But there was nothing I could do.

Sister Alice treated me and I got a little better, but my body was a mess from fatigue, aftereffects, and a considerable amount of magic energy.

Although the demon lord had died and the magic energy in the forest had cleared up quite a bit, Sylvia had to keep touching my body and breathing divine power into me thanks to the remaining magic energy in the forest.

“Ash, I understand how you feel, but… how are you going to go back that long way in this condition? As you may remember, there were many times when you went up and down cliffs along the way. You won’t be able to make it to the end at this speed. Alice was really…”

“…”

“You’ll end up corrupt. Just hand Alice over to me and take my hand as we walk.”

Sylvia rarely noticed her slip of the tongue and corrected her words.

I already knew that she didn’t like Sister Alice.

The fact that her sister confessed her love to me just before she died must have been very irritating to Sylvia.

However, that did not mean that Sylvia’s voice or attitude revealed any hostility towards Sister Alice.

She was genuinely concerned about me.

I’m worried that I might collapse along the way.

“… no.”

But even though I knew Sylvia’s feelings, I had no choice but to refuse.

When I hold hands with Sylvia, she has no choice but to carry Sister Alice on her shoulder with one hand.

Of course, it wouldn’t be that hard for Sylvia, but I could never see my sister Alice being carried around like a burden.

“… Ash.”

“Whew… I’m sorry. I know I’m being unreasonable… but…”

“…”

Sylvia closed her eyes tightly and sighed.

I walked with unsteady steps.

That was when.

My vision started spinning, and then all of a sudden, the strength left my legs.

Luckily, before I fell, Sylvia grabbed my armpits with both hands and helped me up.

“Look at this! Now you can’t even walk properly.”

“Haa… Phew…”

“Listen to me, Ash. Please.”

Is it really inevitable?

As Sylvia had said, the road back to the cabin was not smooth.

There are cliffs to climb up and down, and precipices to jump over with all your might.

It was a difficult road even for a healthy person like me, so it was a road that was nearly impossible for me to pass through now.

At that time, while I was catching my breath and racking my brain.

Sister Maria spoke.

“Ash, how much magic has been restored?”

“huh?”

“I’m talking about magic. Magic is all you need.”

I realized what Sister Maria was talking about.

Naturally, my head turned towards Pia.

Pia tilted her head and accepted my gaze.

“Teleport…”

“Yeah. No, I thought you knew that from the beginning, but it turns out you didn’t?”

Sister Maria asked me with a slightly surprised tone.

“…I didn’t know.”

“You’re so honest, it makes me mad, you stupid little brother.”

“No, let me tell you in advance…”

“You didn’t have any magic power right now anyway, and I was the one who used up all your magic power in the first place, so I was embarrassed and kept quiet until now. But I never thought you wouldn’t have even thought about it.”

“…”

Sister Maria snapped at me in her characteristically smart tone.

Do you think everyone in the world is a genius like you?

No, this time it wasn’t her being smart, it was just me being stupid.

I called Pia with a sigh mixed with self-reproach.

“Pia…”

“Ash, you can’t do it. You don’t have any magic.”

“I know. I can figure it out.”

I held Alice as tightly as I could with one arm, and then extended the other arm to Pia.

Basically, spirit magic consumes my magic power, but I could replace the magic power with other resources.

For example, my blood.

“Ash, do you know what your physical condition is right now? Are you telling me to suck your blood right now?”

Pia shouted angrily in a hoarse voice.

Certainly my physical condition was not very good at the moment.

If you see flashes of vision intermittently, you may be fainting for a very short time.

But now there was no other way.

No, rather, it was because he was in such a terrible physical condition that he needed Pia’s help even more.

“Please, Pia. Let’s go back to that cabin.”

“Ash, if you do that, you’ll really…”

“I’m going to die. But is there any other way? Besides, if I keep walking like this, I might die before I even reach the cabin.”

“… Ha, Ash is always like this. He always makes demands like this. He keeps creating situations where I might kill Ash.”

There was a grumbling tone to Pia’s voice as she lowered her head and grumbled.

I looked at that piano and said.

“I guess it’s because I’m dying all the time.”

“Do you know how sad I feel every time that happens? How helpless I feel?”

“… Sorry.”

“No matter what I choose, Ash always dies. So what am I? I just choose how Ash dies.”

“I’m not dead yet.”

“That’s fortunate! But then again, I’m in danger of dying!”

Pia exploded.

As luck would have it, everything Pia said was true.

I don’t know if Sylvia knew or was pretending not to, but I was dying in real time, right now, at this very moment.

This was because the magic energy that had already accumulated inside my body was steadily eating away at my life every moment.

Walking to the cabin in this body was tantamount to suicide.

Of course, it was obvious that sucking blood was not a good thing either.

“Pia.”

“…”

“If I’m going to die, I’d rather be in a cabin than on the road. There’s the green lady, and there’s also Laila’s grave nearby.”

“Ash!”

It was not Pia who shouted, but Sylvia.

Sister Maria also had a slight frown on her face.

But I opened my mouth without caring.

“Then let’s think about it this way. You know that the green lady has removed all the magic from around the lake? Even if it means pushing myself a little, it would be better for my body if I got to that lakeside as quickly as possible. Don’t you think so?”

“… but that’s true,”

“Please, Pia.”

“… hmm,”

Pia was swayed by my persuasion.

Her shaking pupils are proof of that.

As I gradually reached the limit of supporting Sister Alice with one arm, I held her up with both hands again and waited for Pia’s answer.

After a while, Pia closed her eyes tightly and answered briefly.

“Still… I don’t like it.”

“Pia…”

“It’s not that I won’t do it. But I won’t suck blood.”

“…What does that mean?”

Pia lowered her head and slowly opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“I don’t really know much about spirit magic either. It’s just that whenever I want to do something for Ash, I can only think of something I can do. I’m a spirit too, but I don’t know much about it. I’ve never learned it.”

“… huh,”

Sister Maria nodded to Pia’s words.

It seemed that the spirits naturally learned their abilities when they encountered certain situations.

In fact, humans didn’t really learn how to move their arms or walk on two feet.

You’ll just find out when the time comes.

Pia was a very young spirit, if you consider her to be a spirit.

There is still much to learn and much to know.

Of course, the same was true for Sister Alice, who was now practically a newly born spirit.

“So… this is just a hypothesis.”

“huh…?”

Pia continued, stuttering.

“Maybe it’s okay even if it’s not blood.”

“then… ?”

Pia couldn’t answer right away.

Pia, with her head bowed and holding the hem of the leather clothing I had made with both hands, looked like a shy girl.

I opened my mouth to urge Pia, who was hesitating without speaking, to continue.

That was when.

“… Oh, no way.”

Sylvia opened her mouth with a sigh, as if realizing something.

For some reason, there seemed to be a hint of anger in Sylvia’s sigh.

Sylvia continued, frowning sharply.

“These, as they go back…,”

.