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

176 – A Short Break (6)

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The Demon King’s Castle.

The gigantic monstrosity, mysterious and evil, was peering at us from beyond the opaque curtain that covered its body.

No matter how obscured it was, the fact that I hadn’t discovered the Demon King’s abode, even though it was right in front of me, gave me a slight creepy feeling and a sense of emptiness, but soon after, a subtle sense of accomplishment washed over me, thinking that I had made it this far.

I did it.

The final chapter of this journey, destiny, and tragedy that began with the carriage accident, or even earlier, the moment when Sylvia failed to defeat the Demon King.

It’s a sense of accomplishment that you’ve come this far.

“Ugh,”

However, at that moment, a sudden, overwhelming sensation rumbled in my stomach so violently that it completely erased that small sense of satisfaction.

Without realizing it, I raised both arms and wrapped them around his shoulders.

Cold? No, fever?

My body is shaking like crazy.

I was taken aback by the sudden physical reaction, but I quickly realized what this sensation was.

This was terrifying.

We have reached the Demon King.

That also meant that we were in the hands of the Demon King.

The Demon King’s castle, that monster, the Demon King breathing within it.

Right now, at this moment, it seemed like he was looking straight down at me.

A primal and absolute physiological rejection.

A feeling of discomfort and goosebumps, like sinking into a worm-infested pit, tickled the inside of my skin.

Just by facing the fact that I was standing near the Demon King, all my fragile courage was torn away.

At that moment, someone grabbed my hand tightly.

“Ash.”

“… Pia,”

“are you okay.”

The tiny hand, reminiscent of Layla’s, held tightly my hand, which was several times larger than itself.

The warmth transferred from her hand to mine.

The warmth soon slowly washed away the uncomfortable sensations that had been crawling on my body.

Pia spoke slowly.

“Breathe.”

“ha…”

“good job.”

Pia squeezed my hand even tighter.

Gradually, night was coming.

＊

I told my sisters Sylvia and Alice everything I had learned.

The Demon King’s castle is nearby, and the identity of the person is probably a spirit sorcerer.

The two people stared carefully in the direction I pointed and quickly found the hidden Demon King’s castle.

The curtain that covered the Demon King’s castle seemed to have a nature closer to obstructing recognition rather than completely hiding the figure.

Once I became aware of it, the monstrosity began to reveal itself more and more clearly.

Sylvia looked up at the night sky and wrinkled her face.

“Damn it of all people…”

“…”

Sylvia closed her eyes tightly and opened her mouth softly.

“I know you know, but we can’t barge in now.”

“What’s the problem?”

When Sister Alice asked back, Sylvia frowned and continued speaking.

“It’s night. Unlike the demons, we have poor night vision, so facing the Demon King in the middle of the night is tantamount to suicide.”

“I can follow the flow of magic.”

“That’s up to you.”

“You can do that much, but even if you can’t feel the flow of magic, you won’t be hindered just by having your vision blocked.”

“Ha, you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

Both of their gazes turned to me at the same time.

In the end, it was me who became the problem again.

Sister Ellis closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded and said.

“Then I will go alone.”

“what?”

“If I hadn’t met you guys anyway, or if Ash hadn’t been able to convince you, I was going to go in alone. Nothing would have changed.”

“Will that work? Think about it.”

“What could possibly go wrong? Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Think about it, how do you know what kind of threats might be inside the Demon King’s castle?”

“…”

“There could be traps, there could be ambushes. Even if we can’t decapitate the Demon King, if we can eliminate most of those threats in advance, you and Ash can just finish them off tomorrow morning, so it seems like a better strategy than going in and annihilating everything at once. Isn’t that why you, Sylvia, went first and we followed you?”

“Yes, there is no problem with the operation itself.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Sylvia said, waving her fingers in the air in frustration.

“You damn magician.”

“…”

“What will Ash do if you run off to the castle first? It’s okay now because you’re with us. At this concentration, Ash will die of magic poisoning in 30 minutes.”

It was certainly as he said.

I hadn’t realized it until now thanks to Sister Alice’s divine powers that had allowed me to recover, but this was not a place where a normal human could enter alive.

The magic in this place was certainly very thick, as the massive amount of magic that had contaminated this entire forest had poured out from that Demon King’s castle.

Even though I didn’t feel like my body was accumulating poison like before, I could still feel the acrid air prickling my throat every time I breathed.

If Sister Alice left me now, I was sure I would die immediately.

Of course, she could share some of her divine power with me, but in the current situation where I didn’t know what would happen, I was worried that such a measure would be too much.

Sylvia shouted at Alice.

“That’s why I left you two behind and went ahead. Do you think I left you alone so you and Ash could become friends? Because I liked you? I wanted to walk with Ash too!”

“Ha… Okay, I understand.”

Sister Alice sighed and ruffled my bangs as she spoke.

“But that doesn’t mean I can just wait for the morning to come. Not to mention the fact that my heart might stop beating at any moment.”

My sister’s golden gaze was directed straight at the Demon King’s castle.

“I don’t think the Demon King would have just hidden himself.”

“Are you going to do something?”

“… We’ve come this far, and we haven’t encountered any real obstacles. There were only a few monsters. Even if the Demon King’s power has weakened, he can’t be this defenseless.”

“I wonder if I’m being too scared…”

Sylvia nodded.

“Because the Demon King I saw was definitely a cunning guy.”

“Could you stop calling me that Demon King?”

We turned around at the sudden voice heard from behind us.

He was a peddler boy.

He spoke as he walked towards us with feeble steps.

“Calling that kind of mongrels the Demon King is an insult to the Demon King and the Demon Race.”

“… Where did you hear it from?”

“I’ve heard pretty much everything I need.”

The boy slowly approached us.

According to him, the current Demon King was a traitor who killed the original Demon King and usurped his position.

It is possible that the demons hate the current demon king as much as humans, or perhaps even more than humans.

The current Demon King is a being who has destroyed not only the human world, but also the order of the Demon Tribe.

As if to prove that the prediction was not wrong, the boy’s eyes were distorted with anger.

“Take me.”

“… what?”

“I know the entire structure of the castle. Unlike you humans, I have night vision, and as a demon, I can also use a little magic.”

Sister Alice shook her head.

“A little magic isn’t enough. I don’t trust you enough to trust my back.”

“I agree with Alice. I can’t just trust a demon I just met today.”

“I don’t trust you either, but I have no particular reason to betray you.”

“Don’t you know? How would you know that you’re that lizard kid’s subordinate?”

“what?”

The boy’s face was greatly distorted.

It was a threatening face, as if he was about to draw his sword at any moment.

However, to Alice and Sylvia, such threats were nothing more than trivial and ridiculous flirtation.

“If you don’t want to lose, show your face, demon.”

“… Ha, damn it. What have I become.”

The boy let out a sigh.

It was such a miserable sight that I wanted to offer some comfort, but I didn’t.

Not only would I not be able to protect the boy from those two people, but trying to comfort a crying child would only make him cry even louder.

In the first place, I didn’t think he would welcome my comfort.

The boy introduced himself as a peddler, but there was an air of arrogance and stubbornness about him.

“You said you knew the structure of the castle.”

“Yeah, originally it was my…”

“?”

“Ha… no, that’s enough.”

The boy stopped talking with a sigh.

Sylvia rested her chin on her hand for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth.

“Demon.”

“… why.”

“If you know the entire structure of the castle, do you know if there are any other entrances or exits besides the main gate?”

“… I know a few.”

“Sylvia!”

Sister Alice shouted at Sylvia.

“You want to go with this demon? Are you crazy?”

“Just now, you were the one who suggested going in. Why are you angry?”

“The situation is different from before. Should we take this guy with us?”

“I have no intention of fighting while entrusting my back to you. I just want to guide you until we can infiltrate the castle.”

Sylvia said, pointing to her sister Alice.

“Alice, you’re right. There’s no way the Demon King didn’t prepare anything. He might have placed traps and ambushes all over the castle, from the front gate to the back gate, and maybe even things we can’t even imagine.”

“…”

“But if you sneak into a place they don’t expect, it’s a different story. If it’s a trap, you can probably get past it, and if it’s an ambush, you can surprise them by attacking their waist and cutting them off.”

“Yes, definitely. If you can trust that demon.”

“Oh, man, to be honest, I’m a little hesitant. Is this kid the true enemy of the Demon King, or is he just a weed?”

The boy groaned in displeasure.

“I told you not to call that lizard cub the Demon King.”

“what,”

Sylvia gave the boy a threatening look.

The boy stumbled backwards.

Sister Alice said, blinking her eyes slowly.

“Let’s first sort out the current situation.”

“Okay, for now…”

Sylvia hugged my head tightly.

“Thanks to our Ash, we discovered the Demon King’s castle, but the sun is setting.”

“You have two choices. Wait for the morning, or attack now.”

Common sense would have made it right to wait until morning.

Day is the time of humans and night is the time of demons.

It was foolish to pick a fight at a time when we were at a disadvantage.

Above all, unlike Sylvia, who was relatively fine, Alice and I needed to relieve the fatigue accumulated during our trip.

But, despite that, Sister Alice insisted that it was right to storm in right away.

Her heart could have stopped at any moment.

If that happens, not only Sister Alice, but I will also die.

That’s why she insisted that we must move as quickly as possible.

He added that since we are practically in the maw of the Demon King, taking it easy would be tantamount to suicide.

Sister Alice, who was making her argument, looked somewhat anxious.

Perhaps, she too is feeling the same fear I felt the moment I recognized the Demon King’s castle.

“But the variable is…”

Sister Alice glanced at the peddler boy.

“That demon’s existence.”

“… Yeah, this kid definitely makes things a little more complicated.”

“Should I just kill him now? Then there won’t be any trouble later.”

The peddler boy swallowed and spoke in a trembling voice.

“Humans are truly savage.”

“How did you know the structure of the castle so well in the first place?”

“…Because I’ve seen it before.”

“You know the structure of the castle and the route to infiltrate it just by looking at it?”

“… It’s been a long time. My father… was Your Majesty’s close subject.”

“Where is your father?”

“It’s dead. That little lizard killed it.”

“…”

The boy said with a blush.

His tightly clenched fists were shaking.

Is there such a thing as family affection among the Demons?

It felt like I knew where the boy’s hostility towards the current Demon King came from.

“…Okay, then let’s do it like this.”

After discussing for a long time, Sylvia and Alice finally came to a conclusion.

.