139 – Negotiation (2)

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It may seem obvious, but the training was extremely difficult and arduous.

I had been accepting it silently without showing it, but honestly, the training that Sylvia had suggested to me felt a bit ignorant.

Sylvia’s attitude, which alternated between indiscriminate violence and warm encouragement, made my mental state closer to that of a trained animal than a human, and my body, which was so tired that it almost gave out every day, was making even my strong will weaken.

After literally running all day, my legs were full of fatigue and pain, but at some point, Sylvia started giving me the task of avoiding her attacks while I was shaking my legs like crazy after finishing my run.

Before she knew it, the weapon she was holding had naturally transformed from a tree branch into her icy longsword.

One day, another day.

As time passed, her attacks became sharper and more threatening, and her attitude toward me gradually became colder and more indifferent.

Of course, after the training was over, she would hug me with her signature lovely smile as if nothing had happened, and whenever I fell or failed, she would encourage and cheer me on with her bright smile.

Even so, wouldn’t it be safe to say that this is barely even a case of abuse?

It was to the point where I thought about doing that.

But I never had any complaints about Sylvia like that.

The emotions I saw in Sylvia, who was becoming more and more determined, were not anger toward me or impatience due to my speed of growth.

She was nervous.

I was making up my mind.

As each day passed in this forest, and the day she would face the Demon King again drew closer, her body and mind also began to gradually prepare.

That sight was very impressive to me.

It was because Sylvia’s change, in which she gradually hardened her expression and kept her mouth tightly shut for an increasing amount of time, seemed very unfamiliar, but at the same time strangely natural.

The sight seemed as if something that had been hiding its identity was gradually returning to its original form.

In fact, she started to give off the same vibe I had when I first saw her.

After about five more days, Sylvia stopped chasing me as I ran.

Now, I could run steadily without Sylvia having to whip my back.

While I was running along the lakeside all day long, Sylvia would go out into the forest with her sword and come back covered in blood.

Of course, it goes without saying that not a single drop of that red, sticky liquid was Sylvia’s.

By then, the vibe Sylvia was giving off was starting to go beyond my first impression of her.

A heavy and serious atmosphere, sharp, piercing eyes.

Just looking at it gave me the creeps.

I felt the hairs standing on end.

I had never seen Sylvia like this before, but I knew it instinctively nonetheless.

Sylvia is gradually turning into a warrior.

＊

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

As the sun set and I returned to the cabin, I collapsed onto the blanket neatly spread out on the floor.

My body, with not a shred of energy left, fell helplessly to the ground, but now this shock was no longer even a tickle.

He slowly reached out and touched my shoulder, and the damp blood soaking into my clothes still felt warm.

Just five minutes ago, Sylvia’s sword was stuck in my shoulder about a finger’s length away.

I let out a faint laugh at myself for being so indifferent to that fact.

“Ha… I guess I’m getting used to this kind of thing.”

At first it was so scary that it became traumatic, but after repeating it so many times, I got used to it.

Of course, the reason I got used to it so quickly was because I knew that Sylvia would stop me before she cut off my body, and after that, I learned that she would heal me with her divine power.

“It’s definitely dark… I thought I made a quick judgment… but it keeps feeling like I’m half a beat slower.”

There was a big difference between the tree branches and the sword in terms of speed, power, and even the spirit that came out of them.

Perhaps it was because of the training I had undergone so far, but I was able to stare at Sylvia’s deep emotion as she flew towards me until the very end, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t avoid getting cut because the timing was a little off.

Sylvia said that the timing was right, but the movements were sluggish.

I think it’s because they tell you to dodge with your legs still wobbly after running all day.

“Ugh… I’m sleepy.”

I was so tired that I wanted to fall asleep right away, but at the same time, I was hungry.

Appetite and sleep desire.

Two of the most fundamental human desires were in sharp conflict within my body, but in the end, it was appetite that won.

I kept my eyes wide open as I waited for Sylvia, who was washing the blood off at the lakeside.

He said that he had been hunting deer in the forest, and fortunately, it was not seriously contaminated with magic, so Sylvia was able to purify it sufficiently.

The anticipation of eating fatty meat for the first time in a long time became a powerful motivation to keep my mind from getting hazy.

How long have I waited?

As the cabin door opened, Sylvia, freshly bathed and with her hair hanging down wet, came into the cabin carrying two plump hind legs of a skinned deer.

“Ugh, cold, cold, cold, cold.”

“Come quickly, come here and let’s warm ourselves by the fire.”

“Wow, I ran straight from the lake here and my hair is already frozen.”

“It was really cold today.”

“For something like that, you sweat a lot?”

“If an ice golem ran around like me all day, I think it would sweat a lot.”

“Huh huh,”

Sylvia hung the deer’s hind legs over the campfire, shivering.

“Okay. Now just wait.”

“How long will it take?”

“How about an hour or two?”

“…An hour or two?”

“There is more… than that.”

“huh?”

Sylvia opened her arms towards me.

Sylvia soon ran towards me, calling my name.

“Ash-eeee,”

“Whoa,”

Sylvia dove into my arms and put her ice-cold hands inside my shirt, placing them under my armpits.

I writhed in resistance against the spine-chilling thrill.

“Eww! Sylvie ah ah ah”

“Hehe, it’s warm.”

Sylvia smiled mischievously and snuggled closer to me, rubbing her cheek against my chest.

This was one of the reasons why I didn’t pay attention to Sylvia, who was swinging the sword with one hand while I could barely lift it with two, and who was even cutting me with it these days.

As soon as the training was over, she immediately shed her warrior face and returned to the Sylvia I knew.

A cute girl who is mischievous, playful, and has a lovely smile.

Sometimes Sylvia looked like a giant puppy with beautiful golden fur.

This was especially true in the case of those who preferred physical contact over verbal contact.

I said, trying to push Sylvia away from me, who was rubbing my cheek.

“Stop it! Stop it! It tickles!”

“Hehehe, Ash, is your resistance weak?”

“Well, I don’t even have the strength to lift a finger right now!”

“Hmm? Really?”

Sylvia smiled sinisterly and then firmly held the hand inside my clothes to try to take off my top.

“You don’t even have the strength to lift a finger?”

“… Don’t do it, Sylvia.”

“It’ll take some time for the deer to ripen anyway.”

“Still… don’t do it. I don’t want to do it.”

I turned my head slightly and looked away from Sylvia.

Pia, who was sitting silently across the blazing warm campfire, looked at me and gave me a thumbs up.

“why?”

In that moment, Sylvia’s voice grew cold.

It was a cold, chilly, somewhat cracked voice, so cold that it felt like even the size of the campfire had shrunk slightly.

“Uh… I’m a little tired…”

“I’ll do it, Ash, you can just lie still.”

“No, that… that, that uh… oh, right. I was sweating a lot, Sylvia, you just came back from a shower.”

“It doesn’t matter, Ash’s sweat isn’t dirty at all, rather, it comes from Ash’s body, so I want to lick it all up.”

It was a scary, chilling statement, just as creepy as when I saw Sylvia with her sword drawn during the day.

“Ha, but…”

“Why on earth!”

“…Sil, Sylvia?”

Sylvia glared at me fiercely and shouted.

“You keep saying that these days! You say you’re tired, you say it’s hard. You avoid me every day.”

“… That’s not it,”

“What’s wrong? Are you sick of it now? Or is it because I hurt Ash while training him? Why are you avoiding me? Why are you rejecting me? Why? What did I do wrong? I’m doing it for Ash!”

“Oh, no…”

“…”

I’ve definitely been avoiding sleeping with Sylvia as much as possible lately.

But it wasn’t because he was sick of Sylvia’s body, or because he hated Sylvia, or anything like that.

It was because Pia asked him to please stop having s*x in front of her.

I knew that Pia was always by my side even when I couldn’t see her, but I never really thought about it, which was the cause of my trouble.

Of course, since she was a spirit, Pia wasn’t that young, but still, when I thought about how I had overlapped with Sylvia countless times while she was staring at me, even though she looked like she was only about six years old, it was true that I felt a little awkward sleeping with her.

However, it seems that Sylvia reached her limit first.

Sylvia lowered her head and muttered in a gloomy voice.

“Ten days, Ash. Ten days.”

“uh…?”

“It’s already been ten days… Ash hasn’t hugged me.”

oh my god…

Due to her long life in the forest, Sylvia had no sense of time.

The fact that she was so adamant that we hadn’t had s*x for exactly ten days meant that she had been counting the days until she didn’t have s*x with me.

I answered with a trembling voice.

“I want to do it too, but…”

“Then let’s do it, Ash…”

I thought it would be difficult to just let it go.

I looked at Pia with an anxious expression.

Pia was frozen in shock from the moment Sylvia screamed.

At that moment, Sylvia grabbed my chin and with great force turned my face to look at her.

“Where are you looking?”

“Oh, that’s… I’m a bit… hungry,”

“lie.”

Sylvia’s cracked voice began to shift in a strange direction.

“…You’re looking at that fox, aren’t you?”

“…uh?”

Pia flattened her ears, shivered, and disappeared.

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