Chapter 43 – Plancia Alice (1)

Alice couldn’t concentrate on her studies until nightfall.

She needs to get some air.

I’ve been sitting at my desk for too long.

I kept going around the outside, making various excuses. It was because Sylvia hadn’t returned until quite late. It was time for the other Faculty of Magic students to come back leisurely, but there was no news from Sylvia.

“Sylvia? Well? I don’t think I saw you today?”

Facing her classmate, who tilted her head and said she hadn’t seen Sylvia’s face, Alice felt her stomach ache. Could it be an accident? Or, couldn’t she overcome the wounds of a broken heart and made an extreme choice? While worrying about biting her nails, she noticed that her pretty nail art was peeling off.

Her faded color gave Alice the unpleasant feeling of facing the wallpaper from the days when she was confined alone in her room.

Wallpaper and horizon.

Alice remembered the time when she was locked in her room alone. At that time, she said, the things Alice faced were old and dirty things. The mottled wallpaper from the accumulation of cobwebs and mold, and the horizontal lines on the mattress that face her every morning when she opens her eyes.

Alice disliked anything with a cold sensibility. She didn’t like the mottled rise of the clouds in the sky, and she hated the moment when the sea and the sky split distinctly in the sunlight. All of those moments were because she made the dark straight line she was facing even higher.

The straight line of the corner that separates the wall from the wall and the horizontal line that separates the floor and the mattress.

Even after Isabel became her new mother and a close older sister named Elena, Alice hated the line that crossed her eyes and the warmth of her cold room.

“Sylvia. When are you coming… Huh?”

Sylvia.

Sylvia was the only one who could fill her heart with warmth. There was a clear difference between loving and wanting to be loved. If Isabel and Elena were the ones who had to love each other for the rest of their lives, Sylvia was the one she wanted to hug and hold on to. She is the kind of person you want to hug and whisper love to.

An existence that shines from far away and can be heard clearly even during trivial conversations.

An existence that blows away bad memories.

“Uh?”

Alice stopped biting her nails and hardened them. It was because Sylvia was walking. Tidying up the hem of her skirt and her dressing, she came running cautiously. She feared that Sylvia had the wrong idea, and her anxious heart melted like snow in her, and she waved her hand like a child at the running Sylvia.

“Sylvia!”

Like a person on a journey, she shouted loudly and smiled brightly, waiting for him to shake her. Sylvia, who had come running, looked at her window with her puzzled face, and when she recognized Alice, she smiled and waved her hand. Then she walked under the window sill and she asked.

“Alice. What are you doing? Are you very energetic today? Did something pleasant happen?”

Sylvia inquired after her Alice, as if her broken heart was nothing. Alice’s heart was filled with Sylvia’s words, and the fact that she was all right eased her mind, so she said with a grin.

“No. No big deal than that I want to talk to you today. Are you okay?”

“Story?”

“Huh.”

Sylvia nodded her head and she replied:

“Okay. Then I’ll go to my room and change clothes.”

“Huh. Come fast.”

As soon as Alice closed the window, she dived onto the bed, pounded her mattress and hugged her pillow. Rolling over like an animal charmer, she jumped up and started cleaning her room.

She shoved all the trash that was scattered on the floor into the trash can, and roughly folded the clothes she was wearing and put them in the closet. The room, which she normally felt was okay to clean in moderation, only felt like a mayhem right before Sylvia arrived.

I threw the books I was studying for the exam under the desk and pushed the chair so that I didn’t even think I was studying. She boiled water in the magic pot, and Sylvia prepared her favorite flavored tea and put it on the desk.

“Ah… Aren’t there any sweets?”

There were no sweets in the cupboard. It was an ambiguous time for Alice to buy it herself. Alice rang the notification bell and contacted her management office.

“This is Room 203 Plancia Alice. Ask the servant to buy some snacks and send them to me.”

“The person in room 203 is out right now.”

“Yes? Are you going out? Where?”

Alice scratched the back of her head at the unexpected news of her going out. She’s like that, she’s prone to fights. She told me not to go anywhere, so why isn’t she at an important moment like this? She is about to leave as Alice spurns her seat. I got a call from the management office again.

“Oh, I just got in. Instructions have been delivered.”

Alice finally let out a sigh, and she began to clean herself up again. She swept the dust off the floor and brushed off the fallen leaves near her window. After she straightened out the crumpled mattress she had just thrown herself into, the seemingly perfectly tidy room was complete.

As she nodded in admiration for her own cleaning skills, she heard a knock on the door.

Alice, startled by her, hopped in her place, tidied her up, tied her hair back, and swung the door open with her smiling face.

“Oh, I bought some sweets…”

Evan was there, sweating profusely, holding her snack bag as she breathed heavily. Alice stopped her smile and she looked over at her Evan with a slightly flustered expression before asking.

“… She didn’t have to come running, but didn’t she come in too much of a hurry? Her face is red too.”

The irritation that had been welling up a moment ago disappeared like snow melting. It was because she didn’t know that she would jump like this when she said she wanted to eat sweets. Evan laughed at Alice’s words and replied.

“…It’s a request for my beloved daughter, and of course I have to do it.”

The uneasiness that had soared fell again. Alice shook her head and said.

“It’s gross, so don’t talk like that. Anyway, sorry for the sudden rush. And, don’t go out too much. Aren’t there only a couple of people getting hurt because they got into a fight with the nobles?”

“Okay.”

Alice closed the door and started setting the cookies. Alice didn’t know where Evan was wandering around like that. It was because sometimes she didn’t come even when I called her to go to the library to borrow a book with her. Lately, she wondered if Evan had made a woman other than Isabel.

“Ah, no.”

Of course, that was the realm of her doubts.

Alice thought of the possibility of an affair herself, but had to laugh and shake her head.

At the academy, there were no people as pretty as Isabelle except for Alice herself, Sylvia, and the academy prostitute. It’s ridiculous that a man who married an aristocratic wife and was on the verge of turning his life around had an affair with an academy prostitute, and Sylvia had a boyfriend from the Templars.

“I have no one to cheat on, but that’s not it.”

It was clear that she was just doing her best to enjoy herself even though she was living in the academy for six months. Alice pulled out her chair, looking with satisfaction at the sweets she had set out. Just in time, she heard another knock on the door.

“Alice. I’m here. Can I come in?”

“Huh! Come in!”

Alice thought her voice was a little higher than her usual. Is it because you’re excited? Her heart raced and the corners of her mouth twitched. Sylvia was wearing a pajama that was a bit thin but neat and tidy, and she stood in the doorway. Her eyes were darker than usual, and the smile on her lips felt dark.

“Oh, come on in.”

Alice, who had been excited at the thought of inviting her Sylvia just a moment ago, regained her senses when she saw her shadowy smile.

What am I happy about now? Wasn’t Sylvia right after she suffered a broken heart? She had promised to comfort her and to protect her from being swayed by her like this in the future, but what’s the use if she’s excited all by herself?

Alice hardened her heart again as she seated her Sylvia in her chair.

Today was not the usual day to invite Sylvia. It was the day she reestablished her own relationship with Sylvia, and the day her Sylvia comforted her.

“Oh, this is my favorite car. Did you prepare again for me? Thank you.”

“Oh, no. Shall we have a cup of tea first?”

Steam rose from the teacup. Alice held her teapot in her hand and looked at Sylvia’s face as she savored the scent of her tea. When she looked at her face, nothing came to mind as she was hypnotized. As if someone is controlling her thoughts, she only thinks of Sylvia.

That her love makes people stupid, Alice felt every moment.

“The tea smells good.”

Sylvia said so and put down the teacup. It wasn’t until she heard the teacup rattle that Alice acted like someone who had awakened from hypnosis.

“Uh? Uh, yes.”

She was smiling on the outside, but she was rotting on the inside. She had made up her mind many times, because the result of her firm determination was always this shape. She couldn’t figure out how to rhyme her, she couldn’t figure out how to change the subject.

She used to do everything she had to say, but acted like an idiot in front of Sylvia.

“By the way, what did you call me for today?”

Sylvia asked Alice with her smile. Alice realized that Sylvia hadn’t put her breast front on properly today. When she slightly bent her waist, her lewd breasts were exposed. Alice said in a low voice, avoiding her gaze.

“That, that…”

“Alice. Look at me and talk to me.”

“That, so…”

Sylvia held Alice’s hand. Alice’s heart pounded and her face flushed. She couldn’t figure out what to do. It’s normal to hold her hand, but it felt different when Sylvia held her hand today. The tips of her fingers were relentlessly running over the back of her hand.

“Poem, Sylvia…”

“Alice. Do you like me?”

“Uh?”

What was Alice supposed to say in response to her words coming out of Sylvia’s mouth? As usual, of course I like it. She should have replied, “She’s a friend.”

Or, maybe she was in the mood for her and she should have kissed her first?

Alice’s answer was not very important to Sylvia.

The sound of pushing a button.

The sound of falling clothes.

“Alice… I am too hot.”

Sylvia’s voice clings to her blushing face.

Alice couldn’t do anything.