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

181 – Sister (5)

＊

Balder was confused.

It was because I suddenly felt my heart pounding while looking at Ash.

Of course, it’s not like Ash suddenly got stronger or unleashed some hidden power.

Balder, who did not want to miss the ridiculous spectacle of his pitiful brother’s son being torn to pieces by his own sister’s corpse, who had refused the chance to be with the Demon King despite having the bare minimum of affection for him as a family member, did not take his eyes off Ash for even a moment, and Ash still looked weak and inadequate as he staggered and eventually knelt on one knee.

However, Balder sensed an unfamiliar yet somehow familiar aura flowing from Ash’s appearance.

I felt uneasy, my heart swaying with unidentifiable emotions.

Is this fear?

Me? To Ash?

Why on earth?

Balder did not look down on Ash.

If you look at it with a cool and objective perspective, it is difficult to feel any pressure from Ash’s appearance.

I turned around slightly, wondering if that crazy woman Alice was up to something, but Alice was still tied up in the air, wrapped tightly in Balder’s string.

At that moment, Balder noticed cold sweat running down his forehead.

“… what,”

Balder looked startled and turned his gaze back to Ash.

But Ash was just slowly getting up on his trembling legs.

“What did you do? No, I didn’t do anything…?”

Balder was confused.

The fear of not knowing English was strange and unpleasant.

Balder gritted his teeth.

I don’t know what they did, but it must be just a trick.

Perhaps the feeble conscience he still has left him is making him reluctant to kill his only surviving blood relative.

Balder thought so and forced himself to calm his body that was trembling with fear.

After letting out a small sigh, he gave orders to Maria’s corpse, which was being controlled by the threads emanating from his fingers.

Maria’s body looked straight at my younger brother and recited the spell.

Liquid swaying in the air gathers into the shape of a giant sphere and swells.

The sphere, which was easily the size of a person, grew infinitely larger.

From Ash’s perspective, it would appear to cover almost the entire sky.

It was an amount equivalent to drawing all the water from a huge lake together.

A realm that cannot be imitated with ordinary magic,

Balder smiled at the overwhelming magical power of Maria, who dared to challenge the Demon King.

I don’t know what tricks you’re using, but it’s no use.

Without even getting close or lifting a finger, Ash was sure to drown.

As soon as Alice’s spell ended, the giant water sphere began to fall toward the ground.

Ash still couldn’t move.

He just stood there, stupidly staring at the overwhelming mass of water falling on him.

Ash opened his mouth wide.

Balder thought it was meant to scream.

But what came out of Ash’s mouth was a bit unexpected.

“I will believe you.”

At the same time, the ball exploded in the air.

“Ugh!”

Balder and Maria were swept away by the sudden explosion and the waters spread out in all directions, and they fell to the bottom.

Although he didn’t die thanks to the new body he received from the Demon King, it wasn’t a light shock.

Balder, who was lying on the ground and rolling roughly, raised his head through the pain to figure out what had happened.

However, all that was visible in his vision was a vast darkness.

“… What the heck is this…”

It wasn’t dark.

It was the ground.

A huge pillar of earth, not clearly visible until just a moment ago, stood tall.

This pillar of earth rose up in an instant and burst the cistern.

Magic? No, Ash definitely didn’t memorize the spell.

Did Maria’s magic malfunction? Did Alice do something?

No, it was all impossible.

Balder felt fearful again at the fact that he had no idea what Ash had done.

“…Ah, this fear…”

Only then did Balder realize the nature of the fear he had felt.

This fear is unfamiliar yet familiar.

It was definitely a feeling I had felt before.

I don’t know why, but it’s really blasphemous,

“… Demon King…?”

This commotion was similar to what he had felt the day he first encountered the Demon King.

“What nonsense am I talking about! That can’t be possible.”

Balder shook his head harshly, denying his own impudent thoughts.

Then he tried to check whether the thread at his fingertips was still connected to Maria.

Maria was a puppet corpse.

A special undead created by the Demon King who highly regarded Maria’s abilities, forcibly capturing her soul and imprisoning it in her body.

Even without Balder’s control, it could fight to some extent, but it was nothing more than an unintelligent animal spamming magic, so it was a doll that was only useful when under Balder’s control.

So Balder sent magic power through his thread to try to sense Maria.

“…Okay, it’s still connected.”

Balder, who had found Maria, ran towards Maria, going around the giant earthen pillar blocking his view.

However, what Balder saw was something he could never have expected.

“… Oh, my God.”

Ash was burning Maria.

Balder let out a laugh without realizing it.

The nephew Ash he knew was a kind and gentle fool.

He was an unambitious brat who took after his crippled father and considered greed a sin.

When the Demon King learned that Ash was coming towards him with Alice and Sylvia, he ordered Maria to kill Ash, and Balder thought that the Demon King’s order was justified.

Because I thought that the weak Ash would definitely not be able to harm my sister.

However, it seems Balder misunderstood him.

Balder slowly approached Ash.

Judging by the feeling of the thread attached to her fingertips, Maria was still able to move.

I don’t know what he did, but it didn’t matter.

Because he is not an immortal being who cannot die.

Balder, who had planned to divert Ash’s attention for a brief moment to distract him and then attack him with Maria’s magic, slowly walked towards Ash and clapped his hands.

“Ash, you’re more tenacious than I thought.”

Despite the applause, Ash’s gaze was fixed on the burning Maria.

Ash’s expression was so hardened that it felt cold, but Balder was satisfied with that.

Well then, there’s no way Ash would burn my sister and not care.

It was clear that Ash was mentally exhausted.

Balder began to taunt Ash, trying to get his attention back to himself, laughing at his expression that clearly showed his true nature.

“… Ash, I didn’t know you were such a crazy person.”

“Balder…”

“You should call me uncle. Isn’t that what you called me when you were little?”

“…”

Ash didn’t answer.

Balder decided to raise the water level.

“No matter what, you burned my sister.”

“…”

“There is no blood or tears.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Look at the way you speak, it’s no wonder your father was such a pitiful person.”

Ash’s face slowly turns towards Balder.

Balder smiled through gritted teeth.

“But you were quite brave, unlike your father. Even as he was dying, your father just kept begging me to save him.”

“…”

“I told him I’d let him live if he spit on the top of my shoe and licked it, but he just crawled over to me, stuck his head in my shoe, and licked it. Hahahaha, I wondered what he had been eating to get so fat, but it turns out he was just some fucking idiot who ate everything in sight.”

“… you,”

Ash began to scrunch up his expression fiercely, as if trying to break his hardened face.

That night, I ran away with Layla, leaving my parents behind, to an attack by unidentified humans.

You must have now learned that Balder was at the scene.

“Don’t look at me like that, you cheeky nephew. I kept my promise.”

Balder spread his arms out in an exaggerated manner, like an actor performing on stage.

It was just a cheap act to provoke Ash.

“Yes, I didn’t kill your father on the spot. I became the nourishment for the weakened Demon King along with your mother.”

“…!”

Balder slowly raised both arms as if he was feeling joy.

Even though it was an act intended to provoke Ash, the joy was genuine.

It was because I truly thought that it was an unworthy end, sacrificing that pitiful brat that I didn’t even want to call my own blood relative to hasten the Demon King’s resurrection.

“why…”

“hmm?”

“Why did you do that?”

“What do you mean? Betraying the kingdom? Treating your niece like a doll? Or killing your parents?”

“All of it!”

Ash’s scream was quite powerful, but it was nowhere near the fear he had felt just a moment ago.

Was it a mistake after all?

The rising pillar of earth might just be a trap prepared in advance.

Balder looked at Ash with some relief.

“Ash… Unlike those stupid humans, I saw the truth.”

“… truth?”

“The truth that humans will ultimately be defeated, the truth that the Demon King will ultimately rule this world.”

“Don’t make me laugh, the Demon King was driven to the brink of death by Sylvia’s hands. Humans weren’t weak enough to be defeated by such a idiot.”

“But, with just a little bit of me encouraging you, the kingdom you lived in collapsed.”

Ash kept his mouth shut.

Balder didn’t close his mouth at all.

“The prince was seduced. That violent fool fell for the idea that if the Demon King were to wreak havoc on the world, he would want a violent leader rather than a peaceful king. That alone was a great blow to the royal authority.”

“…”

“It cleverly revealed that the truth about the Demon King’s resurrection had been hidden by the Goddess Church. The church, which had been focused solely on increasing its power in place of the threatened royal family, collapsed in one blow, and the kingdom, which had lost both order and faith, began to collapse on its own, unable to overcome its own size, not by the hands of demons, but by the hands of humans.”

“…”

“I absolutely cannot understand how such a pitiful bunch can be better than the Demon King.”

“That’s not what I asked, you son of a b*tch.”

Ash growled, baring his teeth roughly.

It looked like a small, fox-like animal.

“I asked why you hurt my family.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why did you do that? Why did it have to be our house? We were your family too. I called you uncle and followed you. Sister Maria too!”

Balder said with a look of genuine pity on his face.

“Why? Ha, our cute nephew thinks he’s special, you idiot. You didn’t even consider my story.”

“what…?”

“It was just a territory I was familiar with, so it was easy to invade. If you were a relative of the Staff family, you wouldn’t be suspected, and I definitely gave your father a chance. After all, we were brothers, as you said. But that idiot refused outright. He was a retard who was content to be a mere cook for a count’s family rather than reign by the Demon King’s side.”

“…”

“Well, he was just a man of that caliber, and now that I know that, I don’t feel any guilt about sacrificing him. What could he have done if he had lived anyway? Would he have been able to leave behind any achievements? At best, he would have baked some amazing strawberry tarts.”

Balder spat on the floor.

Seriously, it was because he thought the man, who was his older brother and Ash’s father, was so pathetic that he didn’t even want to mention him.

“…I will kill you.”

Ash’s body slowly turns towards Balder.

Balder twitched his fingertips slightly without Ash noticing.

Maria was ready.

If he gave the order, Maria could fire magic at Ash at any moment.

Balder smiled with satisfaction and decided to provoke Ash a little more.

The moment he turns his back completely on Maria, I spray magic on his back.

Dying at the hands of my sister and at the hands of one of history’s greatest wizards, Ash will meet an unjust death like his father.

Balder spoke, his lips twitching and his laughter escaping.

“Am I wrong? If your father had the courage to burn your sister like you, he wouldn’t have died so miserably. Oh, come to think of it, when you ran away from your parents, I remember there was a really ugly brat there.”

“…!”

Ash’s face and body turned completely towards Balder.

“From now on, watch your mouth.”

“Hoo.”

“If you say even one word about Layla, I will burn your tongue to the root.”

Balder laughed heartily, his fingers snapping shut.

Maria quietly got up, engulfed in flames behind Ash.

Balder shouted at Ash mockingly.

“What about that brat? Did you burn him to death like your sister?”

In an instant, Maria’s body was once again engulfed in scorching flames as if it were about to explode.

A hellishly hot flame rose as if it would never go out, and the flame flowed along the thread connected to Maria.

Balder was startled by the flames that suddenly reached his hands and cut the threads.

“Ugh!”

At that moment, Balder was hit by a huge, hammer-like wind and was blown backwards.

I rolled on the ground, losing my balance, but I didn’t roll on the floor.

Even before he could roll, Ash had already come near and stopped Balder by stepping on his head.

Ash pressed hard against Balder’s head.

Balder groaned softly as he felt his forehead being crushed by the small pebbles of the dirt floor.

Ash’s low voice could be heard through the groans.

“okay.”

“…”

“I burned Layla to death.”

“… what?”

“That may be why I didn’t have much resistance to burning Sister Maria.”

“…”

“Would it be different if I said I was your uncle?”

Balder’s heart pounded loudly.

.