Ch.110Secret Conversation (2)

As I lit the firewood that Alice had brought, warmth quickly began to spread throughout the small cabin.

Alice and I sat facing each other across the campfire.

She silently gazed at the flames without saying a word.

I decided to speak first.

“Ah…”

“…What?”

However, the words that came to mind couldn’t easily leave my mouth.

It had been so long that I was happy to see her, and it was amusing how we hadn’t recognized each other last time, and it was incredibly moving to meet again like this.

But still, I needed to start with an apology for Silvia’s atrocities and express gratitude for her patience despite experiencing such terrible things.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“…”

“…Because Silvia won’t apologize?”

“…”

I closed my mouth at her sharp response.

I had no excuses to offer.

In truth, although the Alice sitting before me now looked completely fine, making it difficult to fully comprehend, she had essentially been killed by Silvia not just once, but dozens of times.

“…I’ll try to convince her to apologize somehow—”

“Don’t bother. It’s meaningless anyway.”

“…”

Alice cut me off and fell silent again, staring blankly at the flames.

She seemed to be finding comfort in watching the flickering fire.

Well, considering her terrible condition just hours ago, perhaps what Alice needed right now was stability rather than apologies or regrets.

I observed her carefully.

Honestly, she had changed so much from my memories that it was surprising I recognized her at all.

She had matured considerably since then, but her eyes had grown much sharper, and her overall physique, including her hair, had become thinner yet somehow rougher. Despite the holy aura emanating from her, there was a contrasting gloomy and painful atmosphere surrounding her.

Although I had reached this forest after experiencing terrible things myself, it was evident that she too had endured no small amount of hardship and adversity.

I pushed some ash toward the center of the fire with a long stick and said:

“You’ve… changed a lot, sis.”

“…A lot of time has passed.”

“Yeah… a really long time.”

Alice, hugging her knees, continued staring at the flames before glancing up at me.

“You’ve grown a lot too.”

“Have I…? When was the last time you saw me? When I was thirteen?”

“Fourteen.”

“Ah… you must have been surprised since I look so different from the Ash you remember.”

“I was surprised.”

Alice chuckled slightly and slowly moved her lips.

“You’ve become handsome. You’ve grown well.”

“Really?”

“If you had come to the Academy, the seniors would have adored you.”

She said this with a slight smile.

Seeing her smile, I felt like I could finally glimpse a bit of her childhood self in her face.

She looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

“Haah, it’s been almost seven years.”

“…Since I last saw you and Maria after you entered the Academy… that’s right.”

“…Hah.”

We both fell silent simultaneously.

It was the same for Maria—I hadn’t seen her since she entered the Academy either.

Seeing Alice now made me realize vividly that Maria’s current appearance would also be quite different from what I remembered.

Alice was staring at me intently.

She was probably thinking about Maria too.

She sighed and slowly opened her mouth.

“I know why you came into the forest.”

“…”

“And I roughly know what happened.”

I immediately understood what Alice was talking about.

It was a topic I honestly didn’t want to bring up, but one we needed to address.

After all, Alice had adored Layla.

“I saw the grave.”

“…Yeah.”

“You made it, right?”

“…”

I silently stirred the ashes.

Alice slowly nodded and said:

“It must have been hard.”

As soon as I heard those words, my throat felt constricted.

I could breathe and swallow, but there was this feeling of something lodged in my throat that wouldn’t go away.

I felt that if I parted my lips even slightly, something unswallowed beyond that constricted throat would pour out, so I kept my mouth shut and answered with a voice tinged with moisture.

“…Yeah.”

After sitting quietly for a while, she muttered under her breath, “That’s why you fell for that woman.”

I heard it clearly, but pretended not to in order to avoid making things worse.

Alice slowly got up and came to sit beside me.

Then she quietly grabbed my wrist.

“…Sis?”

A pure white light poured from Alice’s hand.

I already knew what this light was.

It was the light of holy power that Silvia had shown me a few times before.

Alice’s holy power was much larger, brighter, and warmer than what Silvia had shown.

When she slowly removed her hand from my wrist, the distinct wounds and knife marks had completely disappeared.

Although she had only healed some fairly large wounds, I noticed that her holy power far exceeded ordinary levels and slowly asked:

“…You said you’re an Inquisitor?”

“Directly under the Pope.”

“I didn’t know you’d joined the Goddess Church.”

Alice gave no answer.

I didn’t press further.

If my memory was correct, there were no other children between the Count and his wife.

Well, there had been, but they all lost their precious lives early for various reasons.

So the rightful heir to the Goldfield territory was Alice alone, and the fact that she had devoted herself to the Goddess Church meant that some problem had arisen with the Count, his wife, or the Goldfield territory.

When I didn’t ask anything, she slowly turned her head toward me and stared at me for a long time.

As white light gathered in her golden eyes, she slowly bit her lip.

“Sis?”

“Kuk—”

At that moment, her right eye split with a cracking sound.

Alice gritted her teeth, groaned, and covered her eye.

“Alice!”

“I’m fine…”

When she removed her hand from her eye, it had returned to normal.

She had healed it with holy power in that brief moment.

Alice slowly sighed and said:

“As I thought, it doesn’t work.”

“What did you just try to do?”

“I tried to remove your curse, but it seems holy power isn’t effective.”

It seemed she had attempted to lift the curse placed on me.

Considering her body that recovers no matter how damaged it gets, and her high position directly under the Pope, it was easy to realize that Alice’s holy power was far from ordinary.

The fact that the curse didn’t transfer even when facing her confirmed it.

But was it because it was the Demon King’s curse, or was there another reason?

I couldn’t determine the exact cause, but judging by how her eye was instantly and grotesquely torn, it seemed that even Alice couldn’t lift this curse.

This meant that even if Silvia had somehow managed to return to the city, this curse would never have been lifted.

I looked at her with concerned eyes and spoke:

“Are you really okay?”

“…I’m used to the pain.”

Was she talking about Silvia’s atrocities, or did she mean she had endured terrible pain for much longer?

I nodded without asking further.

“…Still, thanks for trying.”

“It’s not because of the demonic energy. From Silvia…”

“I know.”

“Hah, so you were lying back then.”

Alice laughed dryly and lightly hit my head.

Come to think of it, when I didn’t know her identity, I had avoided meeting her with the lie that I had a disease that prevented me from seeing people’s faces due to demonic energy contamination.

I nodded and said with a sigh:

“…If I had known it was you last time, it would have been better. Then I wouldn’t have needed to lie.”

“I agree.”

“Still, back then I was afraid the curse might transfer if we faced each other.”

“My eye throbs, but such things don’t work on me.”

“How could I have known that?”

Alice nodded.

As we continued our conversation after so long, I suddenly felt a heaviness in my heart.

This wasn’t the kind of conversation I had wanted to have.

Or rather, I hadn’t wanted to gloss over things like this.

I had dreamed of this moment many times.

It wasn’t just Alice specifically, but imagining reunions with the connections I had lost from my past was a precious way to kill time for me in this barren forest, especially during the times when Silvia wasn’t by my side.

I had constantly imagined and hoped for it.

I had even imagined conversations with Maria, my parents, and even Layla, who were already dead.

Of course, I had thought about Alice too.

I had refined what I would say many times and thought of several topics for pleasant conversation.

Memories from Goldfield territory, or recollections of our foolish childhood days that only we remembered.

However, now that I was actually meeting her, we were only exchanging uncomfortable and heavy conversations.

Of course, the situation had made it so.

There were too many things that needed to be said beyond what we wanted to say, and it was a bit awkward after such a long time apart. Plus, she had been tortured by Silvia, and I had lost Layla.

Perhaps we had both walked such painful paths that it was difficult to exchange pleasant banter and smile.

But the bigger issue was that something essential seemed to be missing from our conversation.

The relationship between Silvia and Alice showed no signs of improving, as Pia had said, and talking about Layla in depth was too painful for me to continue.

We couldn’t even bring up Maria, and I didn’t feel comfortable asking detailed questions about her decision to join the Goddess Church.

Deciding this wouldn’t do, I slowly addressed her:

“Sis.”

“Ash.”

Ah, we spoke at the same time.

I gave an awkward smile and gestured for her to go first.

“You go first, sis.”

“Ah, okay… I have something to ask you. Can you answer?”

“What is it… sure?”

“A question I really want an answer to.”

Unlike her clear response, I spoke with a somewhat vague tone.

“If you really want to know… I’ll answer anything I can.”

“Hmm…”

She paused for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.

“Why do you like Silvia?”

.