Alicia tilted her head slightly. "Why…? Well, I've always been that way," she said with a shrug.
It was a simple answer—but I was not yet satisfied.
'Let me probe some more.'
I leaned in a little, lowering my voice. "If you don't mind… I'd love to hear your story."
It wasn't meant to be heavy, but somehow, the words dragged something tight out of my chest. And I didn't even know why.
Alicia turned to me, mildly surprised. Then her expression shifted into something playfully cruel.
"Oh dear, are you truly that bored?" she teased with a mocking smile. "Well then… I suppose I'm bored too. I knew I should've followed Ruby!"
"And why did you not?" I asked, trying my best to will away the warmth rising to my cheeks.
She tapped a finger to her chin, brows furrowed slightly. "I didn't want Ruby to think I was a nuisance… a burden. Though, if I'm honest, I already am one."
The urge to speak up hit me fast—to deny her words, to tell her that Master Raven would never think of her that way.
But before I could open my mouth—
"Back in my world," she said softly, eyes distant now, watching the wolves tumble through the grass as the breeze played with her golden hair, "everyone saw me as a burden."
Her voice carried a strange stillness, one that made my heart ache.
"At first, I didn't care. But over time, as it kept happening… I started to feel it. Hollowness. I was five when it really sank in."
Oh, her memory serves her well—I'd expected to bring out my memory-searching waters for her.
"Only Ruby was different," she went on.
"How did you meet Ruby—uh, Master Raven?" I quickly corrected myself, the moment I felt that familiar flicker of bloodlust.
She clearly wanted that name to be hers alone; her eyes gleaming in danger for a short while.
Alicia's gaze didn't soften, but her words did. "Ruby had been locked away in our home since before I was born. Got into trouble with Papa, apparently."
Papa?
For someone so fearsome, she could sound surprisingly… childlike. Childish and dreadful in the same breath.
"When I wanted to read and write," she continued. "I'd run into the basement where he was held, then laid on the ground."
Her smile grew, softened by nostalgia.
"He was the most magnificent creature I'd ever seen, towering over 20 feet up, his crimson eyes seemed to wrap me up in a warm embrace. He didn't question my being there, he only watched me like a silent guardian."
I see.
Alicia must truly love him... Her arms hugged herself unconsciously as she spoke, and her cheeks took on a soft pink hue—subtle signs, yet revealing much.
"It made me feel seen. That I wasn't a burden to someone, and I wasn't something to be always feared. Thus, I made it a habit. I'd go down each day and write stories—little fantasies where he and I would elope to another world, where no one could bother us and our love. I never thought... it would actually happen."
"Such is fate..." I murmured.
"But what truly transpired that made you lot migrate to this side of the heavenly piece?"
I try to reject it but... Speaking like this, in such a friendly, familiar manner...
I liked it.
I am an ancient sea monarch; not only do I have no friends, I rejected all the powers who sought attachment with me; scorning their games of affection and alliance.
I thought it was weakness, and a way for others to exploit that weakness. A blade waiting to slip into one's back.
But that's different now.
Falling in love with Master Raven has already rendered me feeble of mind, so why don't I sink deeper into this warm feeling of weakness?
Let me be undone in full.
Even if Alicia sees me not the same, I... I see her as friend. As rival worthy of my acknowledgment.
"I believe... something was developing," Alicia began, her brow tightening. "Something dark. I couldn't name it, but the air felt filthy, and people began losing their minds—screaming, hurting others... acting like vile beasts."
"So it was no mere happenstance," I said, narrowing my gaze. "But the work of some hidden power?"
"Perhaps. Papa didn't want Mama and me involved. He cast a deep sleeping spell on us both."
"And it worked?" My eyes widened without will. "As one might expect of Bond, the Seventh Mortal Power."
The Mortal Powers... Each one an anomaly upon the world's stage—monsters in mortal skin.
And yet, even among them, Bond was one who always stood apart.
"Of course!" Alicia beamed, her eyes gleaming. "Papa is very strong, you know!"
Heh. She finally turned to face me, fists clenched like a young priestess defending her deity.
So she's warmed up to me, if only slightly. And the faith she holds in Bond… it's as deep as the oceans I ruled.
"You seem to love... Papa, very much." I stated.
The spark in her softened, and she glanced away—only to return her gaze to mine with unsettling sharpness.
Wh-what?
Did I speak wrongly?
"I want to tell you something..." Her tone dropped like eventide, and she leaned in close.
I fought the creeping warmth in my chest as her form drew closer.
"If you tell anyone else, I'll never forgive you. Are we clear?"
"Y-yes. I promise," I replied, taken by her sudden trust.
Ahh... To be allowed into one of her secrets—she has truly begun to accept me.
"Papa is actually..."
She paused. I could almost hear the silence pressing upon us.
"Papa is actually God, hiding in human skin."
"..."
Eh?
God?
Bond... is God?
How?
Nonetheless... it would explain some things.
Still—how did she come to such a conclusion?
'Let me extract more information.'
"Might I ask for further detail?" I whispered, and she gave a solemn nod.
"You see," she began, "when I was born for the first time—"
Normally, we're born on 'first times' only, but okay.
"—I looked around the spacious room at all the people present... and felt utterly disappointed."
I nodded sagely at first...
"I see…" Then I frowned. "Wait—your memory goes that far back?!"
She paid my outburst no mind, continuing with a grave expression.
"I felt like a giant among clueless, disposable insects. Utterly unimpressed. So much so that when Papa rushed in with a beaming face and tried to lift me from the bed, I held his finger and broke it."
"As a baby?!" I gasped.
"Even so," she replied coolly. "What child wouldn't be furious to behold a gathering of clowns as their first vision of the world?"
"None!!" I said instinctively, almost appalled.
Oh dear... I had known Alicia to be eccentric, but—what exactly is she?
"Before I reached three," she went on, unfazed, "I had thoroughly subjugated Papa's entire estate. Every servant bent to my will, placed precisely where they belonged—underfoot. Even Mama—though in her case, she seemed to find delight in me stepping on her."
"Forgive me," I murmured, "but your Mama must be... one of a kind."
"Yes. She's a fairy."
"That's... not the 'one-of-a-kind' I meant—but oh. You are half-fairy, half-human?"