133 – Growth (3)

＊

“…It seems like it’s too much.”

Sylvia muttered as she looked at me lying on the floor.

“… Yeah,”

I nodded with an awkward smile.

The morning came and the day broke, but I couldn’t wake up as normally as I usually do.

The muscle pain spread throughout my body, especially my legs and feet, which were swollen, and my thigh muscles were clearly in severe cramps.

Even when Sylvia poured divine power into me, it only made me feel better for a moment, and my leg muscles continued to twitch incessantly as if they were living creatures with their own will.

Sylvia said with a sigh.

“I didn’t expect this. To think that this would happen just because I ran that much.”

“… Isn’t it because of what I did at night?”

“You do that all the time.”

“I’ve never done that after running all day. And in the end, Sylvia passed out first, so I had to move.”

“…”

Sylvia blushed and slowly turned her head.

He seemed embarrassed that he was always the first to surrender during night shifts while talking about how he lacked stamina.

She coughed slightly and continued.

“Let’s take a rest today. It would be better to run once every two days.”

“Then, am I taking the day off today?”

“We can’t just let you play. We don’t have time. How about you train yourself in magic or some kind of psychic thing? Of course, I can’t help you with that.”

“government ordinance…”

As she said, there was no one who could teach me spirit magic right now.

If there was one, it would be Pia, but Pia didn’t seem to know much about spirits other than herself.

In the end, my spirit magic is practically limited to coordinating with Pia.

It would be closer to a demon shaman who uses a servant horse rather than a spirit shaman.

I nodded and said.

“Okay, I got it. I’ll talk to Pia and find out as much as I can.”

“Well, it’s good, but…”

“…Sylvia? Is there something bothering you?”

Sylvia said, scratching the ball.

“It’s a little scary to see Ash talking to someone alone when there’s no one around.”

“…”

As I remained silent, Sylvia waved both her hands and continued speaking hurriedly.

“Oh, of course I know. It’s just that I can’t see the spirits. It’s not that I don’t trust Ash or think he’s crazy.”

“…”

I still can’t believe it,

No, it would be more accurate to say that I am half in doubt.

I want to believe it because it’s my word, but in reality, since I can’t see anything, it seems difficult to believe it blindly.

I said with a sigh.

“I understand, Sylvia. You don’t have to rush to fix it like that.”

“Ah… yeah, thanks Ash.”

“Once my skills develop to the point where I can prove that I can control spirits, I’ll be the first to prove it to you.”

“Proof? It’s not that I don’t trust Ash…”

Sylvia scratched my cheek with an awkward smile.

I opened my eyes slightly and stared into Sylvia’s eyes.

Sylvia slowly rolled her eyes and avoided my gaze.

Feeling a bit sad, I sighed.

“I mean, I’ll show you first.”

“Oh, yeah. Wow. I’m looking forward to it…”

“…Sylvia.”

Sylvia quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, Ash, are you hungry? Let’s eat breakfast first. When you have muscle pain due to physical activity, you need to eat well so that the strength can be stored in your body. I’ll catch some fish right away.”

I can’t prove it, so I must be a sinner,

Thinking so, I nodded and answered in a weak voice.

“… okay.”

＊

Now that she had mastered the art of fishing, Sylvia quickly caught two large fish and threw them into the campfire.

We had planned to share a piece of golden-cooked fish, but Sylvia had to fillet the fish with her own hands and feed it to me, whose whole body was stiff, so her portion of fish ended up burnt black.

To be exact, it was because all her nerves were focused on the sight while her fingers were moving in and out of my mouth as she fed me the fish flesh.

I tried to complain to her, who put her thumb and index finger in until they touched my tongue, even though there was no need to.

Her eyes were unusually red, her cheeks were flushed red to match them, and her breathing was slightly rough, creating an atmosphere that made it seem like she couldn’t be bothered, so I finished my meal, being careful not to provoke her.

After the meal, Sylvia took a moment to catch her breath and got up from her seat with a flushed face, saying she would patrol the forest to see if anything was unusual.

This was because the number of monsters may have increased as the forest had not been explored for a while.

I was worried that Sylvia might be hungry since she hadn’t had a proper meal, but Sylvia shook her head and said it was okay, looking surprisingly refreshed and happy.

She smiled, saying she was already full without eating.

“Pia.”

After about an hour, when I was able to get up on my own, I called Pia.

As always, Pia suddenly appeared out of nowhere, walked quickly over to me, and sat down in front of me.

“what,”

Pia’s voice sounded somehow blunt.

The ears that stood out on top of its head were also stretched forward, looking like horns rushing toward me to stab me.

I asked in a puzzled voice.

“Pia? What’s wrong?”

“what.”

“No… somehow the atmosphere is a bit…”

“…joy,”

I tilted my head for a moment and asked in a stammering tone.

“Are you… angry?”

“It didn’t work.”

“…?”

Pia turned her head to the side, puffing out her cheeks, and squeezed her eyes shut.

Anyone who saw it could tell that I was angry.

I had no idea why Pia was upset, but I had to somehow appease her. So I slowly reached out to Pia with my aching body and stroked her head.

Pia still had her head turned away and was blowing her nose, but her ears twitched in time with the movements of my hand, so I could tell that her anger was slowly subsiding.

“Stop being angry.”

“…tooth,”

“What did I do wrong?”

“I was wrong.”

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out what I did wrong.

Did I do something wrong to Pia?

No matter how much I thought about it, no answer came to mind.

Rather, it was because there had been no instances of Pia being called out for a while.

“…Um, first of all, I’m sorry.”

“first?”

“Sorry.”

I decided to apologize first, even though I didn’t know English.

Asking her what I did wrong might only make her even angrier, and it would be difficult for her, who was only about the age of a six-year-old girl, to properly explain her feelings.

Fortunately, my apology seemed to have eased Pia’s mind somewhat, and her ears fell back down comfortably before perking up again.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Yeah, I was wrong.”

“You won’t do that, right?”

“…Uh, um, I’ll try not to do that.”

“Ash…”

“I won’t do that.”

You wouldn’t do that unless you knew what it was.

Pia seemed satisfied with my apology, as she crawled over to me and sat down between my legs.

And then he pressed the back of his head against my chest as if telling me to caress him more.

I nodded and stroked her hair, patting her.

It felt like a big puppy begging to be petted.

Well, foxes are also canines, so my impression may not have been that wrong.

“lol.”

After stroking Pia’s head for about thirty minutes, I finally started to hear her humming along with a pleasant smile.

I guessed that now was my chance to ask her about spiritism.

“Pia.”

“huh?”

“I have a question.”

“Ask.”

I paused for a moment and began to think through the questions in my head.

I wanted to ask about spiritism, but since I knew so little about it, I had no idea where to start.

I currently don’t even know what I can do with spirit magic.

In fact, it was difficult to easily gauge the power and limitations of spirits when considering the many miracles performed by the Green Lady or the past case of Malice building a castle in one night.

All I knew was that Pia could assist or enhance my magic.

But it was clear that spirit magic would be of much more use than that.

Otherwise, there would have been no need for me to join the warrior party in my original destiny before it was ruined.

I was thinking hard and asked carefully while trying my best to gauge Pia’s mood.

“Pia is a spirit, right?”

“huh”

“Wow, then what can Pia do?”

Pia answered, kicking her feet alternately.

“Ash can do whatever he wants.”

“…hmm,”

That wasn’t a particularly helpful answer.

I asked again, a little more specifically.

“That’s great, what are some examples?”

“I can do whatever Ash asks me to do?”

“…”

Pia tilted her head and looked up at me with her chin lifted as if to ask me what kind of question I was asking.

I felt a bit confused for a moment by the child’s vague and nonsensical answer, but I tried not to show it and continued to praise Pia and pat her on the head.

“Awesome, Pia is amazing.”

“Pia is amazing!”

“That’s amazing.”

“Ash is an idiot, Pia is great.”

“…That’s amazing.”

I swallowed my exasperated sigh and asked again.

“So if I wanted to cut down all the trees in the forest, or teleport to my house, would you be able to do that?”

I’ve made some ridiculous demands.

Of course, it wasn’t that I wanted to cut down all the trees in this forest or go home.

To begin with, I didn’t even know what Pia was capable of, so I just wanted to make some ridiculous demands and then find out how capable she was through her rejections and explanations.

Pia stared at me with her round eyes and answered in her usual cheerful voice.

“huh.”

“… what?”

“You can do it.”

.