152 – Alice (3)

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As soon as morning came, I woke up with my eyes wide open.

No, it would be more accurate to say that it had to happen.

I woke up with a start as something flew towards my sleeping crown and hit it with a loud noise.

“Eww!”

Startled, I took a deep breath, sat up quickly, and looked around with only one eye barely open.

As the cold pain penetrated my still half-asleep mind, I pressed the back of my head with my palm and felt a small bump popping out.

“Ahhh… It hurts so much…”

“It’s disappointing,”

“second…?”

“Sylvia said that Ash was good at avoiding things, but it’s not like that’s the case.”

As I squinted my eyes in pain, my blurry vision also began to focus.

Alice, who was looking at me as she threw several small pebbles upward and caught them again, was leaning one shoulder against the wall and looking at me.

A pleasant crunching sound could be heard as the tossed pebbles fell back into her hands.

“Who… Me?”

“Good morning, Ash.”

My older sister smiled brightly and greeted me in the morning.

Given the circumstances, it seemed clear that she had thrown the stone at me while I was sleeping.

After realizing the situation, I glared at Sister Alice with a resentful look, but she ignored me and continued speaking.

“Is it because of the fight with Sylvia yesterday? You slept really well. I know, there’s nothing sweeter than a good night’s sleep after finishing a big task.”

Sister Alice said that and smiled bashfully.

Sister Alice’s smiling face, which was so bright that it was a little absurd.

I said, gently rubbing the center of my palm against the top of the bump.

“Can you explain to me what this is?”

“I tested to see if I could avoid it or not. The results were… well, as you can see.”

“No, how do you avoid attacks that come flying while you’re sleeping?”

“Can I do it?”

“…?”

“Maybe Sylvia can do it too?”

I opened my mouth wide at Alice’s nonchalant attitude.

Sisters Sylvia and Alice.

It was already a well-known fact that the two of them were strong, but hearing it again made me realize how different they were from me.

“By the way, what about Sylvia?”

“I went hunting.”

“From the morning?”

“I ordered you to do it. You brought all these things, from armor to various small items, so shouldn’t you show some sincerity?”

“… aha,”

“Besides, I haven’t eaten properly for the past few days, and as I said yesterday, I’ve missed the month I promised, so I’m in a bit of a rush.”

“You don’t look that hungry?”

“I was maintaining my physical condition by forcefully using my divine powers. I think I only ate once every three days. I was maintaining just the bare minimum of energy needed to move my feet.”

“… At this point, aren’t these two just demon lords?”

Judging by the fact that he was making silly jokes, he seemed to have woken up a little by now.

As I slowly prepared to get up from my seat, Sister Alice also took her upper body off the wall and spoke.

“Okay, then…”

Sister Alice suddenly grabbed the pebbles she had been throwing and catching again and began to speak slowly.

“Open the blanket and come out right away.”

“…Follow me? Where are you going?”

“It’s a call to come out of the hut.”

“Uh… why?”

When my sister opened her hand, small pieces of rock were falling down.

I stared blankly at her palm with a bewildered expression.

My sister shrugged her shoulders, then dusted the remaining gravel in her hands onto the ash-filled campfire and continued speaking.

“I’m going to test it.”

“test?”

“Yeah, to test how well Sylvia trained Ash.”

“No, I already passed…”

“That’s Sylvia, and I don’t know how much Ash can move yet.”

“…”

I let out a deep sigh and lowered my head.

Yesterday’s dreamlike victory was already a miracle that was achieved through countless coincidences and luck.

But anyway, a victory is a victory, so I was relieved that it was over, but I never expected that there would be another obstacle.

I shook my body slightly, rubbing the shoulder that had been pierced during the test yesterday.

Seeing Sister Alice throwing stones at sleeping people made me confident that her test would not be easy either.

Sister Alice saw me like that and giggled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t fight with you like I did with Sylvia yesterday.”

“That’s fortunate…”

“Of course, I won’t be concerned about whether you pass or fail. This isn’t an exam, it’s just a test.”

“Huh…? What does that mean?”

“It’s just like I said. I just wanted to know in advance how far Ash can move, so you don’t have to be so scared.”

I nodded slowly, reassured by her words.

Of course, I wasn’t particularly scared.

Although he was lucky, he was secretly feeling a sense of elation because he had won against Sylvia, and he was also thinking that since he had decided to join her on her journey to the Demon King, he couldn’t just avoid fighting or strife.

But, that’s just my opinion.

Since I didn’t particularly enjoy fighting, I muttered with a small sigh of relief.

“Ah… I told you in advance. I was nervous that you would tell me that you had to surpass my standards before I could take you with me to kill the Demon King.”

“I would like to, but you have to join this journey anyway.”

“Why? Are you afraid that if I don’t go, Sylvia will say she won’t go either?”

Sister Alice looked puzzled at my words, but soon nodded slightly and said.

“Ah… I guess you could think of it that way. What Sylvia said yesterday… um,”

“Sister?”

Sister Alice suddenly stopped talking, closed her eyes quietly, and slowly shook her head from side to side.

“No, it’s nothing. I’ll go out first, so come out when you’re ready.”

“Could you please tell me what the test is about?”

“Well, just think of it as a review of everything Ash has done so far. If you’re curious, come out quickly.”

After saying that, Sister Alice quietly opened the cabin door and went out.

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When Sister Alice said she would see how far I could move, she meant it quite literally.

As I trudged out of the cabin, she told me to run.

Without even knowing English, I started running as she said.

“It’s disappointing,”

It’s been thirty minutes since I started jumping.

Sister Alice muttered softly as she watched me running around the cabin, panting.

“It seems like I have stamina, but I’m too slow.”

Sister Alice was just staring at me with her arms crossed.

No, rather than staring at me, I think he is simply observing me and thinking about it.

Of course, it was true that he had become accustomed to running, evading, and dealing with enemies over the past month or so, but he was still far behind Sylvia, who could literally run at a speed that made it seem like she was disappearing before his eyes, or Alice, who clearly had physical abilities similar to hers.

“Okay. You can stop running now. Come here.”

Sister Alice looked at me silently as I approached her, panting and trying to catch my breath.

I wonder if my physical abilities are not up to her standards.

I thought I had grown a lot because Sylvia always praised me, but it seems that it was just a generous evaluation that came from Sylvia’s goodwill.

As Sister Alice watched me intently, her sharp eyes made me feel like the armor of confidence I had gained from yesterday’s victory was being peeled off, layer by layer.

I slowly and quietly waited for Sister Alice to speak, catching my breath.

Sister Alice, who had been looking at me for a while, soon uncrossed her arms and began to speak.

“Still, the speed at which your breathing is returning is fine, Sylvia trained you well.”

“…Oh, really?”

I guess she was timing it until my gasping for breath stopped.

Her evaluation, which seemed somewhat professional, made me break out in a cold sweat without me knowing it.

“I have good stamina and good recovery, but my speed is too slow. It’s a little slower than how an average person runs. My left leg moves a little strangely, and my right ankle feels a little twisted, so my posture is weird.”

“Ah… that is,”

Sister Alice’s eyes were accurate.

“When I came into this forest… I got into a carriage accident, and Layla died at that time too… I told you last time, right?”

“Ah, then at that time…”

“Yeah, my leg was completely ruined back then, but thanks to Sylvia’s careful care, I recovered… but back then, I was told that I might never be able to run again.”

“…”

“At that time, I accepted it calmly, thinking there would be nothing to run for, but who would have thought that I would end up facing the Demon King?”

“Let me see for a moment.”

Sister Alice squatted down in front of me and began to touch my legs and knees.

As her hand touched my leg, which had already felt fine for a long time since the accident, something began to feel strange.

Sister Alice was pointing out with amazing precision the exact spot on my leg that was badly damaged.

“Here, and here too, it’s twisted, the bones here are not aligned properly.”

“Huh…? No, unnie, just wait a minute…”

“It’s even more amazing that she ran like that. Of course, you can tell that she did her best at the time, but… it feels like she relied more on her natural healing power than her divine power… Maybe that was the limit of Sylvia’s divine power.”

“Oh, sis, wait a minute, I think I need to get up…”

“Just stay still.”

I feel sorry for Sister Alice who was speaking with a serious face, but I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying at all.

Her face was right at my groin area, as she squatted down in front of me and quietly looked at my legs.

Of course, the distance was far enough, but if you looked at it from the front, it was definitely a composition that could easily be misunderstood.

“…”

And right in front of them was Sylvia, holding a bow and a huge deer.

Even standing so far away, amidst the thick shadows and dense trees, her platinum hair was clearly visible.

Even those red eyes raised to their limit.

.