Not long after Roxy finished speaking, Alice's long, butterfly-wing lashes fluttered faintly and uneasily.
The noisy voices around her, filled with worry and concern, seemed to come from the distant horizon, gradually growing clearer in her ears.
Then Alice slowly opened her red eyes, a trace of confusion lingering in them.
At first, her vision was a blur. All she could make out were shifting silhouettes and hazy halos of light.
Gradually, though, familiar faces etched with anxiety came into focus.
There was her mother Hilda's beautiful, tear-streaked face.
There was her grandfather Sauros's wrinkled face, filled with anger and lingering fear.
There was her father Philip's conflicted face, trying to remain composed yet unable to hide the pain in his eyes.
There was Ghislaine's striking face, usually so cool, but now showing a hint of concern.
And... that annoying blue-haired magician.
Finally, Alice's gaze settled on the face of Cui Ciyou, the black-haired young man holding her.
A flicker of confusion crossed her beautiful red eyes, followed by a surge of complicated, unreadable emotion.
Alice's lips parted slightly, as though she wanted to say something.
But the willful, unreasonable words she usually tossed around seemed lodged in her throat. She could not get a single one out.
In the end, all those churning emotions came together in just two words.
In a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, with a bashfulness and embarrassment she would never normally show, Alice uttered those two words:
"Thank... you..."
Hearing those words, Cui Ciyou looked at the unusually shy and weak Alice in his arms.
Comparing her to the energetic "red-haired she-monkey" who usually bounded all over the place, he could not help smiling.
Cui Ciyou reached out with his right hand and gently brushed aside the fiery red strands on Alice's