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

12 – housemate (3)

＊

Unfortunately, or naturally, I was caught by Silvia-san in an instant.

Well, he’s a warrior who subdued even the demon king, but he can easily catch up to the level of running of an ordinary person like me.

Even if there hadn’t been a wagon accident, he would probably have been caught easily.

I was out of breath probably because I hadn’t run in a long time.

No, honestly, it’s not just a matter of physical strength.

It was also because of the incomprehensible sight I had just seen and the subtle fear aroused by her desperate look as she held my arm now.

It was a different kind of fear from the murderous fear Sylvia-san exhaled.

If the fear then was the fear of literally predicting death, the fear now is the fear of facing something incomprehensible.

Silvia-san protested with a blushing face, breathing but not breaking.

“Where did you see it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything.”

“Did you hear…?”

“no. no. I didn’t hear you.”

“…”

I desperately pretended not to know.

Of course, I wasn’t brave enough to ask for an explanation of the sight.

Even if the woman who subdued the demon king had a futon fetish or a smell fetish, how many people would have the courage to point it out?

Ms. Sylvia opened her mouth, tried to say something, then paused, tried to speak again, then paused, repeating.

Even so, the gaze of those two eyes was fixed on me.

I said trembling.

“That, uh… that,”

“…I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong anyway. must be wrong.”

“I didn’t think anything of it. Help me.”

“What you saw… so…”

Sylvia tried to explain something, but she kept her mouth shut and blushed even more.

I decided to try to understand her.

Let’s think

Why was she holding my blanket and sniffing?

Do you like duvets?

No, you were calling my name over and over again.

maybe me?

I shook my head.

how old is she

He said he went to the same academy as my sister, so he must be the same age as my sister.

So, even with a wide margin of error, it means that she is 3 to 5 years older than me, and since I will be 21 on my birthday this year, that means she is a sturdy young woman in her mid-twenties.

So, yes, there is s*xual desire…?

Of course, women have needs just like men.

It is estimated that she has been here for about four years.

I’ve been living here on my own since I was about 20 years old.

And I was the first stranger she had met in years and with whom she was living.

If that’s the case… well, couldn’t it be?

Since she must have spent her most energetic period full of yin energy in this forest where no one was around, she might have longed for the warmth of a man.

In the first place, my appearance is not great enough to charm the warrior, so this situation must be caused by this special and unfortunate situation she finds herself in.

If so, isn’t this level of fetish very good?

It’s to the point of being fortunate that I didn’t show more ugliness.

I said with an awkward smile.

“Yeah, it can be. It’s so lonely… or his body is hot, that. Well… I think I heard somewhere that hunting or using one’s body violently creates such a desire…? That, so, how… Um. No, what should I say?”

Sylvia’s face was about to explode, and her whole body trembled.

Then he screamed loud enough to echo through the forest.

“Oh, oh… misunderstood!”

＊

“Wow, wow, this rabbit looks so delicious…”

While I was preparing a dish in the kitchen, I looked at the earthenware that had been trimmed and only lean meat was left.

“…”

But no answer came back.

I cleared my throat once and started cooking.

To be honest, since it’s been a while since I’ve been cooking, I was a little looking forward to this time, but thanks to an unexpected incident, it was difficult to fully focus on cooking.

I glanced toward the table as I put the cut vegetables in the pot and brought it to a boil.

Silvia was sitting at the table with her face covered.

I feel like I’ve been sitting in that position for three hours already.

I tried to muster up the courage to say something, but I didn’t get an answer.

Well, if you think I got caught by Sylvia sniffing her futon… Ugh,

Just imagining it for a moment was terrifying.

Wouldn’t it be similar to the situation when your family caught you masturbating?

I don’t know what to comfort you at all.

Should I say ‘It’s okay’? No, it won’t be okay at all.

Conversely, what if I was in that situation?

Uh… can I do it? No, that’s just as weird.

More than anything, I wasn’t okay with her continuing to behave like that either.

Aren’t you too ashamed to let them sniff my body odor?

At first, she repeatedly said it was a misunderstanding, but in the end, she didn’t even tell me why she acted that way.

However, I did not have the courage to inquire into her motives.

‘Excuse me, but why were you sniffing my blanket?’ How do you ask the question

In the end, my choice was to do my best to change the topic.

“Before the vegetables are all cooked- put the meat seasoned with herbs, oh?”

I hummed in an awkward voice, adding notes to the cooking process.

It was because if I didn’t say anything, it was awkward and I couldn’t stand it.

However, my pitiful hasty attempts to erase the silence had the fatal result of beeping at the final note.

In the wind, I was embarrassed again and kept my mouth shut.

As a result, a more embarrassed air than before filled the cabin.

In this place, surrounded by awkward silence, only the sound of boiling broth could be heard from the hearth.

Ah, the fun cooking time I thought wasn’t like this.

“… I’m done.”

After about an hour of silent cooking, I took out two wooden bowls and poured them into the hard-boiled stew.

Until the cooking was completed, Mr. Sylvia sat with her face covered.

It looked as if he had been turned to stone by a vicious petrifying spell.

The magic name is shame.

I carefully set the bowl in front of her and the spoon beside it.

In the bowl, a stew full of well-cooked rabbit meat and vegetables rose with fragrant steam.

On top of the stew, he tore the grilled rabbit meat with his hands and placed it as a topping, and then simply chopped up vegetables on top.

There was also a side menu with mushrooms grilled to a golden brown and stuffed with chopped chives and potatoes.

Yesterday, I made a big sound, so I made it with a lot of effort, and it looked pretty good on the outside.

Salt was not available after all, so it was inevitable that it was bland, but I was sure that the taste would not be bad as well as the appearance because the savory taste was enhanced with herbs and mushrooms.

However, despite their efforts, there was only an awkward and cold atmosphere in the cabin.

It was not in the mood for a meal at all.

“Miss Sylvia. Eat it.”

“…”

“…”

Of course, the reason I suggested cooking was because I wanted to treat the woman who had done so much for me.

It was food for her from the start, so I couldn’t force it unless Sylvia was in the mood to eat.

But honestly, it’s a dish made with ingredients that I don’t have, and I thought I’d be a bit disappointed if I didn’t enjoy it properly.

I gulped and made up my mind.

“Are you embarrassed about what happened during the day?”

I asked her a question with an obvious answer.

Of course, I didn’t ask because I didn’t know.

It was just to appeal to the attitude that I no longer care.

Sylvia-san’s body trembled greatly upon hearing my question.

“It could be.”

“Oooh,”

“…Sylvia-san was just contemplating whether or not to wash the futon, wasn’t it because she had a different meaning?”

“…!”

I dug a hole for her to escape.

Also, warrior

Don’t miss that little gap.

“Yeah, right… it was like that.”

“U-isn’t it?”

Of course, I know that it wasn’t just an act to determine when to wash my duvet.

And, of course, she will know that I care.

We started kissing each other for a lie that no one would be fooled by.

“Oh, how long has it been since I came here? In the meantime, you must have sweated a lot.”

“That’s right, I was sick and sweating a lot… I just checked to see if there was a bad smell…”

“Heh heh, now that my legs are fine, I can do chores like that.”

“No, it hasn’t been long since I’ve gotten better, so don’t overdo it.”

“Did you see me running away? It’s okay now.”

“ah,”

“Ah, ah,”

Oops, I made a mistake.

She recalled the sight of me running away, and her face began to blush again.

Just like me before, cold sweat started pouring down her face like rain.

Again silence fell over the table.

damn it

＊

In the end, what broke this confrontation was the fragrant smell of the food that had been infused with my efforts and the rumbling of the stomachs of the two of us who had been hungry all day.

No matter who said it first, my stomach rumbled at the same time, and she and I looked at each other and smiled awkwardly.

She slowly raised her spoon and began to eat the stew slowly.

“…uh,”

“…!”

What’s wrong with your mouth?

I looked at her with a tense expression.

“Wow… delicious?”

“done!”

“…?”

“Oh, no.”

Without realizing it, I was so happy that I screamed.

It was because Sylvia-san’s reaction just now was so vivid that I could never think of it as a lie.

As soon as she ate the stew, her expression, which still had an awkward vibe, turned into a startled expression in an instant.

I sighed as if I had finally relieved myself and sat down on the back of the chair.

“Whoah… I’m glad you like it.”

“I didn’t have high expectations because it was a stew I ate a lot while camping in the past…”

Sylvia opened her eyes wide like a rabbit, and soon began to eat the stew in succession.

Looking at it, memories of the peaceful days of the past flickered before my eyes.

If my family had not become an aristocratic family, I would have succeeded my father in becoming the count’s chef.

Of the siblings, I was the one who resembled my father’s cooking skills the most.

In fact, before becoming an aristocrat, he often cooked meals for his older sister and younger brother instead of his busy father and mother.

Even when they both had no appetite and couldn’t even eat other food, they would always eat at least one spoonful of the dish I made.

Especially on days when I was hungry, I emptied the bowl all the way to the floor and laughed with satisfaction.

The faces of the two people with bright smiles that could not be found in aristocratic appearances passed before my eyes.

Of course, at that time, Laila was a baby who could only eat porridge, so she doesn’t remember it now, but she will definitely remember it.

… idiot.

remember what

both of them are dead

“ash?”

“Ah yes?”

I suddenly came to my senses when I heard Silvia-san’s voice calling me.

“What are you thinking?”

“Oh, no… that’s-”

“…everything, I’ll say it again, that’s where it goes!”

“It’s not like that. a little.”

I calmed down Sylvia-san who was about to run away again and slowly opened my mouth.

“Before… I used to cook like this for my family…”

“…I see.”

“…”

If I knew that a future like this would wait, then I would often use the expensive ham that my sister wanted to eat.

I should have worked a little harder to find the cherry tomatoes that Lila liked.

The lid on the sadness in my heart opened slightly, and such regret was about to pour out like a flood.

Ha, what does it all mean?

The only thing waiting for is death at such an early age.

I still used to wonder from time to time.

Why did they both have to die so quickly?

Why did I have to survive like this?

I sincerely hoped that there would be some meaning to the deaths and fates of these two people.

If it was just an unfortunate coincidence, wouldn’t it be too unfair and sad misfortune?

At that moment, I heard Sylvia’s voice tearing up my thoughts.

“I must have been happy.”

“yes?”

“Your family must have been happy. Because you cook like this.”

“Ah, something like that…”

I subconsciously tried to refute her words.

It was both humility and, in fact, correction.

It was because my skills weren’t as outstanding as my father’s, and the word happiness couldn’t be so awkward considering the ending of our family.

But when I saw her expression, I was speechless.

There was deep envy and deep longing on her face.

Like someone who hasn’t been happy in a very long time.

Hearing of someone’s happy days made him so jealous that he seemed genuinely jealous and envious instead of smiling happily.

She took a bite of the mushroom dish I made and squirmed with her eyes closed.

The jaw moved very slowly.

She was trying very slowly and delicately to feel the texture of her teeth cutting through the mushrooms and the spicy sweetness of the vegetables stuffed into the mushrooms.

After tasting the food in her mouth for a long time, she swallowed it in one gulp and said with a faint smile.

“delicious. really.”

“Sylvia-san…”

I reflected on my short thoughts.

You must have missed the warmth of a man?

It is not such a simple and superficial desire.

She must have missed human warmth itself so much.

Social interactions such as conversations, arguments, and fights.

Someone to share human feelings such as intimacy, friendship, and love.

A hero worthy of praise, she gave up all of that and entrenched herself in this outback.

Maybe you could have asked for help.

Living at such a miserable level that I was so moved by food without even a hint of salt,

Even though she suffers from a cold loneliness that permeates her skin to the point where she can’t keep up with the scent of the man she lives with, she can’t ask anyone for help.

He could have somehow told the world about his survival and his curse and asked for help.

Even though she knew what kind of danger the world would face, she must have encouraged her countless times with a sense of reward worthy of the achievement of defeating the demon king.

But she just endured it in silence.

Alone in this forest where there is no change or event to the extent that the sense of date disappears.

Wounds kill the body, but solitude drowns the ego.

Even death may have been just an enviable way out for her.

“I will do it every day from now on.”

“uh? really?”

“Tell me if there is anything you want to eat. Of course… I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it perfectly because the materials available are limited.”

“…”

“No, tell me everything. I will try to make it somehow.”

“…Whoops, thank you Ash.”

Silvia-san blushed and laughed.

I don’t know how many times her face blushed during the day.

It might be an illusion because the only light in the dark cabin was a candle, but somehow, it seemed that her face was the most red of the day.

“… It’s kind of hot.”

“Iknow, right. Contrary to what I imagined, summer in the forest is also very hot.”

“Of course, it is very hot. Lots of bugs.”

“Um… I don’t think I’ll be needed for a while if it’s this hot.”

“what?”

“A blanket. So borrow it if you need…”

“I said it was a misunderstanding.”

“…yes.”

After many twists and turns, the dinner I prepared was a success.

As soon as she finished eating, she picked up my blanket and threw it into the laundry basket.

The force was so great that I couldn’t speak to her any more that day.

.