Chapter 227: One Alice (2)

“Excuse me...”

“Ah, you’re here.”

It was close to midnight.

A girl hesitantly entered my bedroom.

“Miss Alice.”

Alice had come again today to remove my nightmares.

She’d appeared saying she wanted to help me sleep peacefully.

It was also an extension of the excessive protectiveness everyone had shown these past few days.

I spoke with a little awkwardness, guilt, and gratitude.

“You really don’t have to worry about me like this every time.”

“N-No... I want to do this.”

“I feel sorry for troubling you.”

“That’s not true! If anything, I’m so, so happy that I can be of help to you somehow, Mr. Viktor...”

Alice shook her head vigorously, insisting she was fine.

Her reaction was so cute that I let out a laugh.

“Heh... Hearing you say that makes me happy too.”

“I-I’ll do my best! Shall we begin right away?”

“Yes. I’ll be in your care today as well.”

Was she trying to forget her embarrassment?

The girl hurried through the process, hiding her flushed cheeks.

I wanted to tease her a little more, but stopped myself. I felt as though she might cry if I pushed too far.

“Then... please lie down here.”

I quietly lay down on the bed.

Alice pulled a chair close and settled to my left.

If I turned my head slightly, we could easily meet each other’s eyes.

Her blue eyes held a deep focus, as though she were concentrating on something.

“Phew...”

She took a long, deep breath.

Before long, a faint haze bloomed from her fingertips.

It was neither overly dazzling nor gaudy, but neat and elegant, like a plucked iris. A fragment of night and reverie.

Rustle.

Alice carefully grasped those petals.

The thin light melted away, and her paint-stained fingers touched one side of my temple again.

‘It’s amazing every time.’

The turmoil within me settled, and a warm sense of buoyancy washed over me.

It felt as though I had become a sailboat floating on a puddle.

It was a night when even a short breath felt elevated.

In low voices, we exchanged a few words.

“Um, do you think it’s helping at all? How have you been sleeping lately...?”

“It’s definitely helping. Thanks to you, I’ve been sleeping soundly lately. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept this comfortably.”

“T-Then that’s a relief... I was worried because you seem to have nightmares often, Mr. Viktor...”

“Oh? Can you tell that too?”

“Like I said, I can handle the world of dreams now.”

In the dimly colored room, only our breathing seemed alive.

As the pale lamp flickered, Alice spoke with the shadow cast by its light as her mask.

“...Mr. Viktor.”

“Yes, Miss Alice.”

“Thank you for saving my sister. I... don’t think I ever properly told you that.”

“It was something I did on my own. Besides, you’ve already thanked me several times.”

“B-But... I wanted to say it clearly, without choking up or slurring my words.”

“When you get down to it, Miss Alice, you’re remarkably diligent too. Maybe Ranne rubbed off on you.”

“That... might be true...”

Alice chuckled softly.

Her smile had become natural now.

I watched her, then found myself caught in a somewhat new realization.

‘At first... she seemed so fragile, like she might shatter.’

When had she grown this much?

When had she become able to smile so brightly?

“...So much has happened, after all.”

“Yes?”

“I mean you, Miss Alice. Me too, of course. When we first met, Miss Alice was so afraid of me.”

“T-That, that, that was! Well, there were times when I was, but... that was before I understood how kind you were, Mr. Viktor...”

“I wasn’t blaming you. I was only thinking about how much things have changed. You too, Miss Alice. Me too. Our relationship as well.”

Though they trembled slightly, her fingers stroked my hair.

I rested my cheek against that touch.

It was warm.

She was such a warm person.

“Back then, you never would’ve dreamed that you’d become someone who protected another person’s dreams... would you?”

“No... And I never would’ve imagined that the person I protected would be you, Mr. Viktor.”

“That’s certainly true. Back then, we were both still inexperienced with each other.”

“Experienced or not, you were always perfect to me, Mr. Viktor. To the point that I worry about you now.”

She smiled tenderly.

As though she were layering the past over the present, those blue eyes held depths far deeper than the Viktor before her.

“You know, Mr. Viktor.”

“Yes.”

“I hated life. I hated the world. The path I had walked was painful, and I was afraid of the path ahead. So I hated living. I couldn’t bring myself to hate everything that lived, so I hated myself for living among all those living things.”

“That’s a sad thing to say.”

“Back then, every day felt like hell. I couldn’t control my power very well, and the trauma from the laboratory kept me from getting along with people. On top of that, I was always terrified that nightmares might swallow me one day. I lived with my head full of anxiety. Wondering whether I might hurt countless people someday, whether there would come a day when I would no longer be myself...”

Poor girl.

Born from injustice and made to live for malice, how twisted and tragic her life must have been.

I could never fully understand the weight or depth of her resentment, but for a moment, I tried to imagine it.

The times when she had hated, despaired, grieved, and wanted to kill herself.

One Alice.

“Perhaps... it would have been more fitting to say that I was dying rather than living back then.”

And yet, I thought of the courage that had allowed her to endure until today.

Life was, by nature, a process with death as its destination.

Under the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds[1], all things and all lives would someday reach the end of their days.

But whether one called that living or dying depended on one’s own will.

“But then... I met you, Mr. Viktor.”

The girl confessed what had made her erase the words “dying” and begin writing “living” instead.

Her shy sentences blossomed like a bouquet.

“After that, my life began to change.”

Alice did not tremble.

Instead of stammering, she conveyed her feelings in a clear voice.

She reflected on every moment that she and I had walked through together.

“You saved me when I was running wild. You trained me so I could tame my power. You told me that it was all right for someone as lonely as me to keep living. Everything changed as I lived each day by your side. So I thank you with my whole life.”

“I haven’t done that much for you. And even those things would have been impossible without your own efforts, Miss Alice.”

“I gained so many dear friends, and I learned to handle the power I once thought was cursed. I overcame the trauma related to my father, and I even found my sister, my one and only regret. In the end, I came to love the self I had hated so much.”

Tears fell from Alice’s cheeks.

Beyond her radiant smile, joy overflowed.

“Miss Alice...”

“I’ve received so much from you. How could I not love you?”

Alice kept caressing my cheek.

She had forgotten even to conjure dreams. Her palm held only my warmth.

Quietly, I lifted my head so she could touch me comfortably.

Perhaps that consideration pleased her, because the girl laughed once more.

“Heh... Really...”

She looked so happy that I smiled without realizing it.

With a slightly flushed face, Alice spoke.

“I’m happy when I’m by your side, Mr. Viktor.”

“That’s a relief. I’m glad I can be someone who makes you happy, Miss Alice.”

“I’m so, so happy. I’m happy, and happy, and I become so happy that I wonder if it’s all right to be this happy.”

“I feel the same way when I’m with you, Miss Alice.”

“Really? Then I think I’d be as happy as if I had the whole world.”

“Of course.”

Alice wiped away the hot tears gathered in her eyes.

Then she slowly leaned down.

“Mr. Viktor.”

As she looked down at me, our faces naturally drew closer.

Her lukewarm breath reached the bridge of my nose.

A slightly hesitant breath.

But her eyes had already made their decision.

“I’ve already received so much from you, Mr. Viktor... but I still want to be greedier.”

“What would you like to be greedy for? If it’s you, Miss Alice, I’ll gladly give you anything.”

“W-Well...”

Her cheeks turned red.

Alice’s face drew closer still.

Just before our lips met, the girl stopped and asked quietly.

“Would it be okay... if I kissed you...?”

Her blue eyes trembled with aching affection.

===

Alice and Unknown.

That concludes the maid outfit illustrations.

Footnotes:

[1] Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds: A Buddhist cosmological term for the vast multitude of worlds that make up the universe.