160 – Heart (2)

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Although the sunlight was barely visible between the tall trees, Alice nevertheless opened her eyes as soon as morning came, like a finely tuned clock.

Alice opened her eyes wide and sat up, as if someone had woken her up, her face drenched in cold sweat.

Alice held her breath and slowly looked around.

Grass, trees, stones, dirt.

And, Ash.

As the figure of Ash, still fast asleep, entered Alice’s slowly rotating field of vision, Alice finally took a deep breath and began to breathe slowly.

“… under,”

“I woke up alive and well again today.”

At that moment, a sharp voice struck Alice’s ear.

Alice reflexively turned her head toward the voice.

On top of a branch that can only be seen after lifting your head for a long time from the base of the tree where Ash is sleeping.

Sylvia was sitting on that branch.

“If anyone saw me say I’m going to die soon, they’d think I was lying.”

“… Phew.”

Alice said, wiping the cold sweat off her hands.

“It sounds like I’m dissatisfied with being alive,”

“Fortunately, your heart doesn’t cause any problems with your hearing.”

“Your curse seems to have caused considerable problems to your personality,”

“Haha, look at this.”

As soon as they opened their eyes, they exchanged harsh words, but Alice and Sylvia didn’t seem to care much.

Neither of them had the heart left to be hurt by a few sharp words, and neither of them had any desire to become best friends again.

Alice quietly clenched her teeth and lifted the clothes stuck to her skin.

With a creepy squeak, the flesh between her collarbone and breastbone fell away.

Before a groan could escape from between her clenched teeth, the torn skin began to heal.

“It looks painful just by looking at it, why don’t you just take it off??”

“Since when have you cared about my pain?”

“I’m not worried that you’ll get sick, I’m just worried that you’ll look disgusting.”

Alice laughed in vain at Sylvia’s curt response.

“Now you’re pretending to be a girl, you b*tch who chops people up alive like meatballs.”

“…”

Sylvia, who had been spitting out nasty words, shut her mouth tightly as if she was speechless.

It must have been a terrible experience for Sylvia to have trampled Alice so mercilessly, but it was also a bit uncomfortable for Sylvia.

This was because Ash had directly asked Sylvia to ‘apologize to Sister Alice’.

Even Ash himself had bowed his head along with her, so Sylvia tried her best not to mention it.

If Sylvia were to provoke Alice by bringing up the events of that day, it would be obvious that Ash would hate it, so Sylvia, who would die for Ash, would try to keep her words to herself as much as possible.

Alice slowly lifted the breastplate she had taken off and covered her distorted upper body.

Sylvia opened her mouth softly towards Alice.

“Is it because of Ash?”

“…”

“It’s embarrassing to show your bare skin because Ash is here. Ha, who calls whom a girl?”

“That’s not it.”

“No… Ah!”

Sylvia snapped her fingers, making a clicking sound, and nodded.

“I see. So you don’t want to show your ugly, distorted skin.”

“…”

“It’s better if Ash is embarrassed, right? If he feels embarrassed or scared, he’ll get hurt, right?”

“Why are you hurt? Even I don’t like the idea of ​​a heart full of holes.”

“…That’s true,”

“No, I already told you. I have time left…”

“You fucking idiot, do you think I don’t know? I can tell just by looking at your expression. What you think of Ash.”

“…”

Alice pursed her lips.

Rather, he just moved his hands busily without even making eye contact, as if he didn’t care what was said.

Sylvia spoke to Alice again as she slowly put on her breastplate and got up.

“Do it right.”

Alice asked, letting out a sigh.

“… what,”

“You say no, you say you’re going to die soon and that you have no hope, but then you make a face that looks like you’re dripping with regret. If Ash’s head isn’t in a good state right now, if it weren’t for this situation, Ash would have noticed.”

Alice felt her heart skip a beat.

The sound was so loud that it must have reached Sylvia’s ears.

Alice pursed her lips with a disgusted expression.

I was really sick of this old heart that was so unnecessarily honest that it couldn’t even hide its painful feelings when it got to the point.

“… under,”

As Sylvia said, Alice still had feelings for Ash.

No, rather, it had grown even bigger than before.

When I first heard the news of the engagement, I just thought, ‘Oh, so that’s how it is.’

At the time, I was busy attending the academy and working hard to get into the warrior party.

I was furious when I heard that Ash had died along with his family.

But the anger was more a result of guilt for not being able to protect Maria’s family than of the feelings she felt about her fiancé’s death.

When I heard that Ash and Layla might be alive, I also vowed to myself that I would definitely find them for Maria.

To Alice, Ash was just a little boy from her memories, the younger brother of her precious friend and a mischievous prankster.

It would make sense, since the last time I saw Ash before he went to the Academy, he wasn’t even a young man yet.

But it was after meeting the grown-up Ash that her love really began to burn.

Ash was growing up really well.

That was true of her delicate yet upright personality, and her body, which was far from athletic but still had a manly look to it.

But if Ash’s charm was simply a matter of appearance, I certainly wouldn’t have been drawn to him like this.

Although Ash seemed to be taking care of himself quite well on the outside, he had a deep scar of sorrow and excruciating pain that he could never hide.

Alice’s eyes caught the traces so easily.

Of course, the misfortunes that Ash had to face while unprepared were so vicious that anyone who had experienced them would not have been able to overcome them easily, so it was only natural.

It seemed that the wounds carved into that slender body were not completely covered by Sylvia’s love.

That fact made Alice feel deep compassion.

“That’s not it.”

Alice shook her head and spoke softly in a stiff voice.

It was something he said to Sylvia, but it was also something he said to himself.

no.

no.

I shouldn’t think like that.

As I said, I have no time left.

Because I’m going to die soon.

“lie.”

Sylvia answered with a snort.

Rattling,

Alice’s heart also shook its head, laughing at Alice.

Alice gritted her teeth.

“Fuck,”

okay,

Yeah, this fucking thing,

How could my heart not be moved?

Ash, who has become a much more wonderful man than expected, even shares memories of his childhood and develops maternal love for the wounds left by the tragic incident.

Above all, didn’t those tragic events occur at the intersection of memories shared with Alice?

Perhaps that was the biggest reason Alice fell in love with Ash.

Just as Alice was the only remaining trace of Ash’s past, Ash was also the only remaining trace of Alice’s past.

After losing everything, Alice went crazy for revenge and volunteered for an experiment to have this dog-like heart installed.

It may be natural that she would develop a strong attachment to Ash, the only precious person left to her.

No, it would be stranger if that didn’t happen.

Even, that Ash was her fiancé!

I was first!

Why wouldn’t I be shaken, why wouldn’t I feel wronged!

Rattling,

“Whew, whoa…”

Alice took a deep breath, slowly, so quietly that Sylvia couldn’t hear.

Let’s be cool.

You have to think coldly.

This is a mistake.

It’s just an illusion created by a racing heart.

It’s a fake emotion created by this damn heart that keeps going hot and burning hot emotions even more.

“…ha.”

Alice barely managed to suppress her racing heart and forced one corner of her mouth to rise.

And then he spoke slowly, chewing and spitting out each word.

“Ha, you used to act like you had no interest in things like dating or love, but now you’ve become a love expert to the point where you can tell someone’s feelings just by looking at their face?”

With a hostile taunt directed at Sylvia, the racing heart tried to change the direction of the emotions it was focusing on.

However, the effort put into turning the directional key instantly turned into meaningless resistance with one word from Sylvia.

“Because I did it.”

“… what?”

“Because I had a face just like yours.”

Oh, no.

Alice felt her face flush for a moment.

The heat that starts from the chest, from the heart, rises through the skin and muscles to the face.

I felt a hot sense of shame and embarrassment, as if my brain was ripening.

Alice shook her head vigorously in denial.

I had to deny it.

Otherwise, I really felt like I couldn’t stop,

“I don’t like Ash!”

That was when.

“… Huh?”

“vain…!”

“Sister…?”

Ash’s voice was heard as he woke up, half-asleep.

Alice looked up at Sylvia in surprise.

Sylvia was looking down at Alice with sinister, red eyes.

“… you,”

I really hate that b*tch.

Alice muttered to herself.

.