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

75 – Fox (3)

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My eyes widened at the sensation of a cold needle hitting my eyelid, so cold that all nerves in my body were on edge.

However, even though I opened my eyes, there was only pitch-black darkness spreading across the world, as if I had closed them.

It seemed like it was still night.

Or I’m dead.

When I came to my senses, I could feel cold particles stabbing my entire body.

I shivered, hugging my arms against the coldness running down my skin.

The coldness that touches not only your body but also your face countless times.

It’s raining.

The rain was pouring down.

As I slowly turned my head around, I saw a very faint light nearby.

A fox-shaped fireball created by my magic.

The fox, which had been hiding under a tree trunk with its body curled up, had shrunk to the size of a palm, probably due to the rain, and the light and heat it emitted had clearly decreased.

When I slowly spread my palm to cover the fox’s head, the fox stuck out its head, then slowly raised its body and came under my palm.

I kept my hand in place and slowly pulled my arm towards me, blocking the rain, and the fox followed my palm and came towards me.

I brought the fox into my arms, hoping to get some warmth.

Although it was a slight fever, it was definitely warm when I held it in my arms, and although it was a faint light, when I held it close, I could briefly see the face of Sylvia, who was sleeping next to me.

She was asleep with her head down, hugging her knees.

I looked at her beautiful profile for a long time as she breathed evenly.

He must have been quite tired, seeing as he didn’t wake up even in the cold rain.

Since when did it start raining?

Perhaps because it was cold from the rain during the night, my body was in a completely different state than before I went to sleep.

‘…Light.’

It was a strange sensation.

My body, which was so heavy before I fell asleep, felt very light.

But that didn’t mean my body was fine.

Even though it is light, it is too light.

It felt like I couldn’t feel the weight of my body.

Is it only the weight of my consciousness that I feel?

I smiled at the strange feeling that my thoughts were distant from my body.

It felt as if he was looking at my body from a distance.

When I looked at my body like that, my entire body and internal organs were covered in demonic energy.

The flame of life burning inside my heart, which was beating so weakly that I could barely hear it, was burning very weakly, as if it would go out at any moment, like the body of this fox sniffing in my arms.

I knew it instinctively.

Perhaps I will not see the morning sun.

Rain continued to fall from the sky.

A rainy night in the forest.

The feeling of the cold rain hitting my body and the icy mud floor.

A body that somehow moves even though it is dying.

The image of death engraved in my bones replays.

“Ha… hahahaha,”

To the point where I couldn’t help but laugh, the current situation was similar to the day of the carriage accident when I first entered this forest.

The day Laila died.

There was no such irony in thinking that I too would die in similar circumstances.

I looked at Sylvia.

I can’t tell if I turned her head or was looking at her from the beginning.

The moment I felt like I just wanted to see her, I was looking at her.

Is it because of this feeling that my consciousness is strangely not attached to my body?

Me dying in the cold rain, a fox-shaped flame flickering faintly, Sylvia’s very beautiful face.

This whole situation felt like a dream.

Maybe, really maybe.

All of these things that have happened to me so far may have been nothing more than a pitiful dream I had of dying in the rain after a carriage accident.

The carriage rolled and bounced, a hallucination I saw as my life was fading away, with my brain and internal organs dragging out.

It may be nothing more than a fleeting delusion on her part, of being rescued by her beautiful woman and sharing her love with her.

And now, finally, the time allowed to me has come to an end and I have been forcibly repatriated to face the cold reality of death.

I smiled slightly thinking about such a fleeting thought.

“Ugh,”

Strangely enough, the body is raised.

I slowly stood up and leaned against the tree.

Thankfully, and very sadly, it wasn’t a dream.

I met Sylvia and we fell in love.

I loved her.

She loved me.

Is there anything else so fascinating?

Is there any more luck than this?

I looked down at her for the last time.

As if knowing my feelings, the fox stayed near her face for a moment and reflected on her face.

The fox stretched out his front legs, opened his mouth wide and yawned, and soon began to walk slowly towards his rain.

The little burning beast was walking through the darkness, suddenly stopping and looking back at me.

It was as if he was telling me to follow him.

‘Will you even guide me to the place where I will die?’

I smiled and nodded.

Ah,

I wanted to see Sylvia go out of the forest.

I wanted to be with her just a little longer until the moment her life ended.

However, because the situation changed during the night, that wish could not be achieved.

I couldn’t leave this forest anyway, so I had to leave.

Because all of this was not a dream, I had to leave even more.

I wanted to close my eyes next to her, but

No matter how selfish and greedy I was, I didn’t want her to see my dead body next to her as soon as I woke up in the morning.

Well, there is no case in this world where the death of a loved one is not sad, but I wanted to at least somehow avoid showing to the public that I had died while she was sleeping.

How much can Sylvia blame herself?

“…I love you.”

Very quietly, rolling her little sound in her mouth so little that she could barely hear it, I confessed my feelings to her for the last time.

Then he slowly raised his arm and covered my mouth with his trembling hand.

This was to prevent any dry coughing sounds.

I honestly don’t know either.

Is it right to do this?

What is the correct answer?

Then, wouldn’t following the magical opinions created by my magic be at least a small consolation for the time I have devoted my life to studying magic?

With that thought in mind, I walked along with the fox, moving my feet with difficulty.

The fox stayed a few meters ahead of me and walked at the same pace as my steps.

My eyes were blurry, so in my vision, the fox’s shape was all blurred and almost looked like a small light.

Like the day I first met Sylvia,

I slowly moved forward, guided by the faint light that seemed to appear in the darkness.

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“Uhm,”

Sylvia opened her eyes to the heavy pain she felt in her back and neck.

Looking at the bright field of view, it seemed like morning had come.

Perhaps it was because she slept in an uncomfortable position, but her whole body felt like it was going to break.

The floor was unpleasantly wet and soggy.

“…Rain?”

It seemed like it had rained all night.

Oh my god.

It is said that the most effective way to wake a sleeping person is to shower them with water, but they fell asleep without even knowing that it was raining.

Sylvia was disillusioned with her own foolishness.

“Wait a minute, Ash.”

Ash’s face, with an extremely pale complexion, came to mind belatedly.

She was already in critical condition due to accumulated demonic energy, but there was no way she would be okay since she was sleeping out in the rain.

Sylvia turned her head and looked to her side, with the intention of breaking her neck.

“…Huh?”

Sylvia thought that her eyes had become strange.

“…Huh?”

I was so shocked that I couldn’t even say the right words.

As if someone had been hit by a petrification spell, Sylvia was frozen in place and staring blankly at the spot where Ash was lying. The only moving part of her body was her eyes that were shaking like crazy.

Silvia, who had been frozen for a while, slowly stretched out her hand and touched the spot where Ash was lying.

All I could touch was cold, wet, and slimy mud.

“…Ah, ah… Huh?”

Her hands groping the ground become increasingly anxious and urgent.

Even though her eyes were open, she moved like a blind person.

She deserved it.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, she couldn’t even grasp the situation.

She had been acting like an idiot for a while, but as she became more aware of the situation, her complexion gradually began to turn blue.

“Ah, ah ah. No,”

None.

There is no Ash.

“Ah, ah, ah… No, no, Ash… Ash!”

None.

Looking at the place being cold and with stagnant rainwater, it has been a while since I left.

In the middle of the night, in the rain, with that body

He left on foot himself.

Sylvia knew the meaning well.

“Ahh, ah ah,”

Even now, there have been a few times when Ash wasn’t in the right place, but it was all just a matter of terrible misunderstanding or timing.

But Sylvia understood well that the current situation was completely different from those situations.

For the first time, Ash left Sylvia’s side of his own will.

“Why, why… Ash, why? Why! Why?”

Sylvia slowly crawled across the floor, fumbling for the spot where Ash had left her, and muttering frantically.

It was a question she had no way of answering, but it seemed like she already knew the answer.

Ash left.

He guessed his own death and left with his dying body.

“You said that to me…”

You said you definitely felt like you could endure it.

You asked me to go out to the forest together.

Was it a lie?

Did you feel like you were going to die right away because of the rain last night?

Why, why did you have to leave me with that body?

Why, from me?

Why?

“You said you loved me…”

How on earth can you do this to me after saying such things?

Why?

Oh?

Something suddenly appeared in Sylvia’s mind.

What kind of person Ash is,

What Ash has done to me.

When his eyes rest on Sylvia’s face

When his cooking enters Sylvia’s body.

When the word love comes out of his mouth,

When his lips accept Sylvia’s lips.

When his body slowly clings to Sylvia’s body.

When his insignificant strength hugs Sylvia tightly.

When he smiles and accepts Sylvia’s request, who desperately wants him.

In all those moments, Sylvia could feel how much Ash cared for and loved her.

Ash clearly loved Sylvia.

Maybe not as much as Sylvia loved Ash, but it was clear that she loved him just as much as she loved him.

What was the reason he left?

Yesterday, it didn’t seem like he lied much.

Sylvia could clearly feel when some of the magic energy accumulated in his body was released with divine power.

That he won’t die during the night.

If the situation had been that urgent in the first place, he wouldn’t have been able to use magic.

Then why did Ash leave him?

In response to the question repeated thousands of times in that short moment, Sylvia came to one conclusion.

“It’s because of me.”

He must have been worried about Sylvia who would see his dead body.

I don’t know if he will die in a few days or if his condition worsened due to the rain last night.

I guess he didn’t want to see me as a cold corpse when he opened his eyes.

“…Fool.”

Sylvia’s trembling arms could no longer support her body as she crawled on the ground, and she fell to the floor.

Sylvia crushed her own cheek and forehead into the muddy floor where Ash had been lying.

That was all her Ash could feel now.

During all of these adventures, tears continued to flow from her empty eyes.

“… Too much, too… Harsh.”

Silvia muttered, looking around her with empty eyes.

She knew she had to find Ash, but she just couldn’t find the strength in her body.

She didn’t know where to start.

Perhaps because of the rain, the footprints were no longer visible, so it wasn’t easy to track them.

No, no.

These are all excuses.

With Ash’s walking speed, even if she left right after Sylvia fell asleep, she could scour this radius and find as many people as she wanted.

It was an ignorant method, but she could find it as much as she wanted.

If you search this forest right now, you’ll definitely find it, but for some reason, Sylvia couldn’t get up from the floor.

“…Ash… Shh. Uh, ugh,”

She was completely unsure of herself.

If Ash really died,

I couldn’t bear to look at the body.

The reason Ash left last night was probably because he knew that well.

Sylvia finally distorted her face.

“Ugh, ugh…”

No, not yet.

It is still too early to cry.

Sylvia slowly lifted her body up from the floor.

Something like determination appeared on her face.

Even if she fell, even if she was like this, even if she fell and lost her courage, she was once called a warrior.

Sylvia held both of her hands together in front of her chest, holding in her hands a handful of courage that had been squeezed out of her entire body.

Then she slowly began to recite her spell.

A tracking spell she once used to find the missing Ash.

It was the magic that brought Sylvia back to him who was being chased by the she-bear.

Today, like that day, it was clear that he would take Sylvia back to the person right before she died.

Sylvia closed her eyes tightly and spit out the last word of her spell.

If you wait a little while, a red mist will appear in the air, following Ash’s traces.

“…”

After some time, Sylvia slowly opened her eyes.

“…Ah,”

Nothing was seen.

The magic failed.

The order was not completed.

“…Ha,”

Sylvia clearly knew the meaning.

It meant that there was nothing to track.

“Ah, ah… Ash…”

Sylvia eventually burst into tears like a child.

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