Chapter 81 (2/2)

Alice couldn't remember a time after she had arrived in Wonderland when she had been treated inhospitably. Twins, Baby, Cheshire, and, most recently, March were the only ones. Filled with anger, she clenched her fists.

”I'm Alice. I'm sure you've heard the rumors about me.”

She was Heart's girlfriend—to be more exact, his mistress—and the miracle girl. Those were the rumors floating around Wonderland about Alice.

Li snorted. She had heard from March that Heart seemed to like someone else. And a miracle? That power had initially belonged to Li, and she knew it wasn't as great as Alice was making it out to be.

Her parents had always warned her about the dangers of her powers and had wanted her to stay at home most of the time. And so, from a young age, she had not been allowed to go out freely or even attend school. She had to be home-schooled instead. Up until then, her healing powers had been nothing but a burden to her.

And finally when her powers were revealed to the world, they had become the cause of her parents' death by the agents who worked with her father. In the time she had been able to penetrate Alice's memory while living inside her, she had gathered this information. After learning all of this, she despised her powers.

A miracle? To her, these powers were nothing but a curse.

Upon hearing Li scoff, Alice glared at her angrily. Even though Li knew this, she went even further and looked at Alice with eyes full of hate.

”Why are you laughing?”

”It must be so nice to be living in a dream.”

”What?”

”Those powers look good to you? That pathetic power that can't even heal yourself? Even when the reason you ended up in this place alone was because of those powers?”

”What are you talking about…?”

The only people who knew that she was unable to heal herself with these powers were Heart, Peter, Jeremy, and Cheshire. Among these people, the only possible person who could have told Li about this was Cheshire. Or she had already known about it. It was then that Li started to reprimand her.

”Aren't you embarrassed that you had to lose everything with powers that didn't even belong to you?”

Alice's face turned white as she stared at Li. Li didn't realize what she had said and continued to talk, but Alice deciphered immediately the meaning of what she had just said. There was no one who knew that Alice was a substitute for the real Alice Liddell. If she had to choose, there was only one person who knew.

”Are you...Alice Liddell…?”

Only the owner of the body knew.

At that moment, Alice felt like she was in danger. Alice also remembered March taking Li's side instead of hers. If it continued like this, she might lose everything. She charged at Li.

Crash! The two girls fell to the floor. Alice's white and lovely fingers were crushing Li's thin neck. Li was kicking at Alice with her nails digging into Alice's hand, but the strength of her grip did not loosen.

”Die, die, die,” Alice muttered like a curse.

Li, who had been thrashing, soon went limp, and her head fell to the side. Alice smiled like an angel.

”I am the lead. I am the lead to be loved. So I don't need the likes of you here.”

Hearing Li's pulse and breathing, Alice knew that she was still alive. Alice went into the kitchen and found the box that she had seen only once before. Inside it was charcoal.

After many failed attempts, she finally got the firewood to light, and she brought it over to the living room. Li was still unconscious.

When Alice got close to Li, she heard a doorknob turn. Alice jumped in surprise and dropped the firewood. The sofa caught on fire. At the same time, the door hit the door sill.

Alice ran out of the house. Jeremy was waiting for Alice from a few feet away. Worried that he would overhear what was happening inside, she had commanded him to stay away from the house. She was glad she had done this.

After Alice was far away from March's house, a man appeared from the narrow space between the houses. He had light blond hair that was tousled messily and had a bandage around his left eye and cheek.

He looked up at the black smoke coming out of the house and smiled widely.