Ch.154Alice (5)

*

“I don’t know when I’ll die.”

I could understand the sentence that flowed from Alice’s lips.

‘I am going to die soon.’

What’s so difficult to comprehend about that statement?

Yet, I couldn’t grasp the meaning behind Alice’s sorrowful confession at all.

Die? Who? Alice?

Even I, who had no connection to the Divine Church, could feel the holy power overflowing from her body.

Despite having no talent or sensitivity for holy power, Alice’s divine energy was like a vast ocean, so clearly perceptible.

Even without her wielding it, the sheer overflow of her power was like a massive wave—an immense white energy.

That sacred aura, fundamentally distant from death, curses, or any malevolence, was enveloping Alice’s entire body at this very moment.

That’s why her strange confession shattered into pieces in my mind, colliding chaotically.

“But… Ash might be able to save me.”

“Sister…?”

With a face that seemed to calmly accept fate while simultaneously revealing a desperate clinging to the faintest thread of hope, Alice looked at me.

From that expression, I realized.

I didn’t understand, but I instinctively felt it.

“You’re… dying?”

That her words were true.

I slowly lowered my head to look at the bracelet wrapped around my wrist.

Malice’s bracelet.

According to the memories that had flowed into me, this was merely an item from legends or fairy tales.

A bracelet worn by Malice that could resurrect the dead.

While the existence of such a relic was certainly true, the legends surrounding it were nothing but absurd—cheap stories found only in orally transmitted folk tales or unofficial histories.

I still had no idea why Alice was dying, but I could clearly see that this trivial legend was the faint hope she was clinging to.

“…Ha,”

The silver thread of the bracelet dug into my skin with a chilling coldness.

The wrist where the bracelet was wrapped felt increasingly heavy, causing me to drop both arms with a thud.

Coincidentally, I couldn’t feel any mystical power from the bracelet.

I slowly raised my head and looked at Alice with trembling eyes.

“…Why,”

“…”

“What are you saying? Why would you…?”

Moisture began to gather in Alice’s blazing golden eyes, making them sparkle, but my reflection still wasn’t visible in them.

This was because the light emanating from her eyes prevented any image from being reflected.

Like a flame flickering in the wind, that golden radiance was sparkling and swaying slowly.

“…No,”

Alice started to say something but stopped, biting her lip for a moment.

She slowly inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.

The gesture resembled the breathing of ascetics forcibly suppressing their emotions and distractions.

Then, squeezing her eyes shut, she slowly began to speak.

“No, you’re misunderstanding something, Ash.”

“Huh?”

“I meant that heading toward the Demon King’s castle is dangerous enough that we could die at any time.”

“…”

Alice spoke with a slight eye-smile, her eyes still tightly shut.

The desperate expression she had shown just moments ago had vanished without a trace.

She continued speaking with that playful expression that reminded me of our childhood.

“What’s with that serious face? What were you thinking?”

“…Sister,”

Does she think I’m an idiot?

It was such a clumsy lie, an embarrassingly rough attempt to cover up.

There’s no way that heavy atmosphere from just moments ago could have been nothing.

No matter how pathetic I might be, I wasn’t stupid enough not to notice something like that.

“Explain what you—”

“If you could use that bracelet, I’d feel reassured knowing that even if Silvia or I died in battle, you could help. That’s what I was hoping for.”

Alice rudely cut off my words and rambled on.

Her attitude clearly showed her firm resolve not to answer any questions.

“…”

“What, do you think I’d lie to you? We’re childhood friends—don’t you trust me at all?”

“…No, it’s just…”

“I’m more trustworthy than you, who rolled around with another woman while having a fiancée.”

“…”

Alice’s characteristic mischievous joke.

It was something I had missed so much, wondering when I would hear it again after she and Maria left the estate, but I never expected to hear it like this.

While I was very glad to hear it, her joke now was merely a curtain forcibly hiding the path to a sad truth.

I still couldn’t understand why, but it seemed clear that Alice was dying.

And soon.

“…Ash.”

Alice, who had been staring at my face, seemed to realize I wasn’t going to let it go. She softly called my name.

Though I couldn’t be certain since my reflection wasn’t visible in her eyes, my face was surely crumbling, on the verge of tears.

She quietly placed her hand on my head and slowly stroked it, tousling my hair.

“Forget it. I was talking nonsense.”

“…”

“Even without that bracelet or spirit magic or whatever, you’re already essential to this journey. Both Silvia and I have limitations when it comes to using magic. Even if we can somehow manage combat, there are plenty of situations that can only be resolved with magic.”

“…Don’t change the subject.”

“…”

“Explain it to me. Why are you saying you’re going to die?”

“…I told you to forget it.”

Alice let out a small sigh.

“I really… I was determined to accept it calmly… but I couldn’t…”

“What on earth… what’s happening to you?”

Alice didn’t answer.

Like a chest tightly locked with a lock that would never open, she firmly sealed her lips and slowly rose from her seat. She turned around and walked toward the cabin.

I followed her movements with empty eyes.

Her steps became more vigorous and upright the further she moved away from me.

Finally, as she grabbed the doorknob of the cabin.

Alice slowly opened her mouth.

“Don’t worry, Ash.”

“…”

“Even if I die, you… at least you will be happy. That’s what I’m dying for.”

*

Alice coughed lightly and looked around.

Looking again, she noticed that the walls and floor of the cabin were completely covered in ash and soot.

It was only natural, considering the bonfire placed in the middle of the room had been burning continuously throughout the winter.

Alice cleared her throat and said:

“Don’t you ever clean?”

“I’d need cleaning supplies first. Besides, I got used to living here and didn’t even notice the ash piling up.”

Silvia, who was roasting a deer leg over the bonfire, answered without even looking at Alice.

“You’ll get lung disease before we even reach the Demon King.”

“Well, I’m fine since holy power circulates through my body, but Ash is surprisingly unaffected too. Maybe it’s because he’s been exposed to demonic energy once.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Silvia shrugged and said:

“It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. We’re leaving tomorrow…”

“…”

“And we’ll never return to this place again.”

Alice nodded lightly at Silvia’s words.

“…Right, either we return to Goldfield when everything’s over, or we die. One of the two.”

“We will definitely return. With Ash.”

“Sure, sure. You two will return, and I’ll die. I see now it’s not one or the other—it’s both.”

“…”

Silvia fell silent at Alice’s curt response.

Alice, too, had nothing more to say if Silvia wouldn’t retort.

In the heavy silence that weighed down the cabin, the dangling deer meat made sizzling sounds as the fat dripped onto the fire below.

Just as the aroma of the browning meat began to subtly fill the cabin.

Silvia slowly opened her mouth.

“Ash isn’t coming in.”

“Damn it, I must have complicated things by saying unnecessary things.”

“Why did you do that?”

“…”

“You act all noble talking about not having the face to see Maria, not having enough time to make Ash happy, but when you actually contemplate death, did your judgment momentarily cloud due to unbearable fear?”

“…You ask as if you already know. Disgusting woman.”

Silvia smiled slightly at Alice’s accusatory admission and continued:

“Well, I can understand clinging to even the smallest hope when it appears.”

“Seems like you eavesdropped on everything, like a little rat.”

“Alice, you have no idea how loud your whimpering was.”

Alice couldn’t retort to Silvia’s observation, knowing better than anyone how emotional she had become during her conversation with Ash, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

She hadn’t intended to say anything in the first place.

She had planned to calmly hand over the bracelet along with news about Eric.

But Alice had unwittingly spilled the story of her own death to Ash.

That tiny spark of hope that had begun to flicker from the moment she received the bracelet from Eric.

The small possibility that perhaps Ash could save her—Alice had clearly intended to bury it deep in her heart.

But she couldn’t.

It burst out.

It was because of this cursed mechanical heart that not only amplified her emotions at will but was now even driving her to death.

“It was an unintended mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“A mistake…”

“…If you have something to say, say it clearly.”

Silvia slowly turned her head to look at Alice.

“What do you think would happen if your wish came true?”

“…What?”

Silvia slowly turned her entire body to face Alice.

With her back to the bonfire, her face was completely engulfed in shadow, with only those ominous red eyes gleaming, flickering with their sinister killing intent.

“What if Ash could save you?”

“…I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it.”

“Stop lying. If you hadn’t thought about it, why would you mention it to Ash? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“…”

The two red lights floating in the darkness slowly narrowed.

It was the shape of Silvia’s eyes squinting as she glared at Alice.

“I’m telling you this in advance, so you don’t get any foolish ideas.”

“…”

“Even if you survive, there’s no place for you by Ash’s side. Remember that.”

“…”

“Ash is no longer your fiancé. He’s mine. My Ash alone. Remember that fact clearly, Alice.”

Alice slowly lowered her golden eyes and closed them.

Beyond her tightly shut eyelids, she could still feel Silvia’s obsessive gaze.

She wanted nothing more than to gouge out those eyes right now, but Alice took slow, deep breaths to calm the fierce impulse created by the machine.

Silvia.

Her disgusting possessiveness toward Ash was already a curse in itself.

Even if the Demon King’s curse disappeared, the Silvia who had been transformed by the past few years would never return.

She would forever obsess over Ash, forever bare her teeth and snarl madly over anything related to him.

But precisely because of that.

Alice could guess that in this ruined world where laws and rules had disappeared, no one could protect Ash better than Silvia.

Alice slowly nodded.

“Yes, I know.”

As long as Ash was happy, as long as Ash was safe,

As long as Ash could find happiness,

“Ash is your lover, Silvia.”

Alice could accept it.