"How's the old man doing?"
After lunch, while driving Alice to the lab, Twiggy abruptly asked Alice about Old Timefield's condition.
"Grandfather isn't doing well. Lately the time he can spend out of bed walking has been getting shorter and shorter—he's even handed all his work over to Grandpa Arnold to deal with."
Alice's ears drooped. She was deeply worried about Old Timefield's condition, but there was nothing at all she could do.
"Sigh. I know what you came here for, but I still have to tell you—this technology isn't mature yet, and I can't guarantee the old man could survive it."
Old Timefield's grave illness was looming, and there was currently no better treatment available—only the Etherealization technique that Twiggy had once used on herself could be given a try.
"I know, but there's no other way now."
Alice's expression was one of utter despair. She knew the risks of this method too, but there really was no better option.
"Sigh…" Twiggy let out another sigh. Her impression of Old Timefield wasn't bad; if he really were to die because of this, Twiggy would probably find it rather hard to accept.
"Remember to take one of the latest wristbands back for the old man to wear—it should be able to slow his symptoms a bit. As for the Etherealization therapy, that'll need more mature technological support."
Twiggy still didn't want to let the old man take such a risk so rashly, so she proposed using the wristband first to delay the spread of the Ether Corruption symptoms.
Alice nodded; she too felt this method would be a little more reliable.
Then she looked at Twiggy again, opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something, yet in the end saying nothing at all.
"If you've got something to say, just say it. I'm not going to throw you out of the car."
Twiggy cracked a joke, and Alice finally worked up the courage to ask her.
"I was hoping you could teach me Ether science."
After Alice finished saying this, all the strength seemed to drain out of her.
Twiggy was stunned for a moment as well, as if she hadn't expected Alice to ask such a question.
"How unexpected. I thought you'd ask something about Geno."
Although Twiggy herself didn't much care about Alice's situation, Alice was, after all, still a young lady, and when it came to matters of the heart she probably couldn't be as open-minded about it as someone with a screwed-up head like Twiggy.
She'd assumed the girl would be somewhat hostile toward her, yet to her surprise Alice actually wanted to study Ether science with her.
"Because I want to uphold the Timefield name with my own strength. Studying under you is the way I can improve the fastest."
Alice explained why she wanted to study with Twiggy, while at the same time pouring out her true feelings to her.
"As for Geno, I know full well that I'm the one who came along later, and the reason I'm with him is because of the marriage engagement Grandfather forced upon us. That's why I've never thought I should have Geno all to myself."
"I love Geno. He's the first man to like me because I'm Alice, and not because I'm a Timefield. And what's more, he's the one who taught me what courage is, what responsibility is."
The first time Alice met Geno, she'd treated it as nothing more than completing a task; but as she gradually got to know and talk with him, she came to realize this man's unique charm.
He was blunt, and rather foolish too, but he had his own set of logic and principles, and would never tolerate anyone hurting the people he cared about.
And so Alice, without even realizing it, like a spring breeze drifting over a grassy meadow, naturally fell in love with Geno.
"So then, what do you think of me?"
Twiggy suddenly grew interested in this; she wanted to know what sort of image she held in this little rabbit's eyes.
"Honestly, when I first found out Geno already had someone he loved, I was pretty devastated. Because this was my first love, and yet it had already failed right from the very start."
Alice clutched her chest, as if recalling the feeling from back then, then looked resolutely at Twiggy.
"But I soon came to terms with it. I clearly came to understand just how much Geno loves you—you could say he'd be willing to give up everything he has for you. I couldn't imagine what kind of woman could make him so infatuated."
Twiggy twitched her eyebrows. How come she'd never known she was so amazing?
"But the moment I saw you, I understood—why Geno likes, no, loves you so much, and the reason I could never defeat you."
"Oh? And what's that?"
Twiggy was curious too. Although she and Geno loved each other deeply, if she were actually asked to put it into words, she couldn't really explain it either.
This was probably a case of being too close to it to see clearly.
And Alice soon gave voice to the answer to this question.
"It's because you and Geno are fundamentally the same kind of person."
"Hmm?"
Faced with Twiggy's puzzlement, Alice carried on with her train of thought.
"Whether it's you or Geno, the two of you are both the type who sees the other as more important than yourselves—there's no room left in your worlds to fit a single other person."
Twiggy fell silent, because she realized that what Alice said was right—she really did see Geno as more important than herself.
"But the love between you two is wrong, it's deformed, because apart from each other, you haven't even left a place for yourselves."
As Alice spoke, her gaze toward Twiggy took on a trace of sympathy and wholehearted admiration.
"To love someone so much that you don't even leave a place for yourself—and for there to be two such people in this world, who moreover love each other—how could I ever possibly defeat you?"
Alice shook her head, but quickly composed herself again.
"Still, I did find a way to take part in it."
"And that's to win you over!"
"?!"
Twiggy's eyes went wide; she could hardly believe what her ears were hearing.
"You two have each filled your entire worlds with one another, so as long as I intertwine myself with you, I'll naturally be able to leave a trace in Geno's world too."
This was something Alice did out of necessity, but she didn't regret it in the slightest.
"And the results proved I succeeded—just like today, when Geno, for the first time in any real sense, gave me a response, instead of brushing off my feelings with some perfunctory rejection."
Recalling the words Geno had whispered into her ear today, Alice broke into a smile without even thinking.
"But this of yours, this is just too—"
"Too demeaning, is that it? It's fine. I don't see it that way. From the very beginning I set my heart on Geno, so as long as I can have him, I'll use any means and do anything at all."
Alice's gaze was firm; she was no longer the indecisive little rabbit she once had been.
Her grandfather falling ill had made her realize she had to grow up—and she would be the one to shoulder the future of the entire Timefield family.
____
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