Chapter 10: The Echoing Slap and the Confession of a Broken Heart
The silence in the room resembled that suffocating stillness before a storm.
The boy sitting on the carpet hadn't stopped staring at the bed for a moment.
Professor Elara, arms crossed, waited patiently.
Suddenly, there was movement in the bed.
Alicia furiously threw off the thick quilt she had taken refuge under.
When she sat up, her hair was a mess, her face scorched by the salt of tears.
Her ocean-blue eyes were no longer clear; they had turned bloodshot from crying, swollen and red around the edges. But the truly frightening thing in those eyes wasn't sadness.
Pure, burning anger and deep disgust were boiling there.
Her gaze pierced the boy sitting on the floor like an arrow.
"Why are you still looking at me like that?" hissed Alicia. Her voice came out tearing through the knots in her throat.
She pointed a finger at the boy, her hand trembling uncontrollably. She turned to Elara and started shouting.
"You see it too, don't you Professor? Do I need to say how useless, how pathetic of a thing he is?"
Alicia's voice rose with every word, ringing off the walls of the room. "Look at him! There isn't even a crumb of mana inside him. No past. No identity. Even calling him F Rank would be a compliment! He is absolutely nothing!"
Elara frowned and spoke, "Alicia, watch your words."
But Alicia was like a burst dam; it was impossible to stop her. She came to the edge of the bed, stood up, and leaned over the boy.
"It's all his fault!" she screamed. "If he hadn't come... If no one had appeared in that damned circle, at least they would have said 'it failed'. But this... He caused me this humiliation! If it weren't for him, maybe everything could have been different in another attempt!"
Her breath came in gasps, but she continued to spill her poison.
"Did you hear how they laughed in class? Did you see how they looked at me? It's all because of this freak!"
As Alicia looked at the boy's expressionless, blank face, her anger turned into madness. "Stop looking at me like that! Say something! Apologize! Cry! Do something!"
The boy did not move.
This indifference blew Alicia's last fuse. Trembling with her whole body, she shouted as if tearing her lungs apart:
"I wish you had never existed! I wish you had rotted away in that dark hole of yours!"
SLAP!
A sharp, fleshy, and echoing sound exploded inside the room.
Alicia's head whipped violently to the side. She felt a burning pain spread across her cheek in a tenth of a second. Her hand went involuntarily to her face, eyes widened in shock.
Opposite her, Professor Elara, who was sitting just a moment ago, was now standing. Her hand was still in the air, and her palm was slightly red.
There was no trace of that usual soft, motherly expression on Elara's face. Her hazel eyes shone with disappointment and a stern warning.
"You went too far, Alicia," said Elara. Her voice wasn't shouting, but it was so cold it seemed to drop the temperature in the room. "You crossed the line."
Alicia stared at Elara with unbelieving eyes, dazed by the shock of the sting on her cheek.
Meanwhile, for the little boy sitting on the floor, time, space, and meaning had become intertwined.
That complex knot inside him tightened even more. His mind replayed Alicia's last sentence and the sound of the slap that followed over and over again.
'I wish you had never existed.'
'Why?' This question was the only thing echoing in the boy's mind.
He had only heard a call. He had seen a light in the darkness, been caught in the warmth of that light, and come.
He hadn't planned this. He hadn't wanted this. It was this red-haired girl who summoned him.
Then why was he the guilty one?
The boy didn't know human emotions. He didn't have the experience to define sadness, hatred, or regret.
But what he felt was heavier even than that infinite nothingness. In the center of his chest, a non-physical heart felt as if it were being squeezed by invisible hands.
Is the mistake me? he thought. Is my existence a mistake?
If he ceased to exist... If he evaporated right now and returned to where he came from, would this crimson light be happy? Would everything be better?
Logic told him "Go." "Leave the one who doesn't want you."
But deep in his heart, that primal bond whispered the exact opposite.
He wanted to look at those red hairs, those blue eyes; he wanted to be near them.
Even though he had been slapped, even though he had been insulted, the thought of separating from her was frightening enough to shatter his existence.
His heart was trapped between the desire to exist and the necessity to cease existing.
This dilemma was raging like a silent storm beneath the boy's expressionless face.
Alicia slowly collapsed back onto the edge of the bed under the impact of the slap she received. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, her voice cut off.
She slowly lifted her eyes from the floor and turned them to the boy sitting on the carpet.
He was still the same. Still in that frightening, that annoying stillness.
He had reacted neither to the insults he received nor to the slap that exploded in the room.
In those pitch-black eyes, there was not a crumb of pain, nor anger, nor fear. Only... Emptiness.
This situation wounded Alicia even more. While she was suffering enough to turn herself inside out, it wasn't fair that this entity who ruined her life was as unfeeling as a wall.
She wanted to shout again, to shake him. But the sting on her cheek and that heavy, judgmental gaze on Elara stopped her.
Her respect for Elara, and a bit of fear, stuffed her words back down her throat.
She bowed her head, her hair curtaining her face. She murmured in a broken voice, low enough that only Elara could hear:
"You see it too... I have no future with him. I am finished."
Elara's stance softened. Her hand in the air dropped slowly to her side. That hard, disciplined professor mask melted away, replaced by a compassionate, worried big sister.
She approached the bed and knelt on one knee on the floor in front of Alicia. Thus, their eye levels were equalized.
"Look at me, Alicia," she said softly.
Alicia reluctantly raised her head.
"The Alicia Emberlune I know," Elara said, emphasizing the words. "Is not someone who would abandon a living thing entrusted to her by fate, who would persecute it, just because it looks weak, just because it didn't turn out as she expected."
She reached out and gently stroked Alicia's other cheek, the side she hadn't slapped.
"You know you weren't serious when you said those things just now. This isn't you. You are just heartbroken, your pride is hurt, and you don't know what to do. You are looking for a culprit to direct your pain at."
Elara's eyes filled up, but her voice was strong.
"Remember your mother and father, Alicia. They were the Empire's strongest mages, yes. But what made them legends wasn't their magical power. They always protected those weaker than themselves. They used their power not to crush, but to be a shield. That was the source of that deep love and fear they created in people."
Alicia's lips trembled, fresh tears began to glide from her eyes.
"You are their daughter!" said Elara with a voice full of belief. "You are not someone to give up just because you have a contracted monster weak compared to others, just because you experienced a setback. You are an Emberlune. It is in your nature to rise from your ashes."
Elara cast a brief glance at the boy, then turned back to Alicia.
"Maybe that boy isn't a dragon. Maybe he isn't a phoenix either. But he is yours. And you can be stronger than anyone. I believe in you."
Alicia shook her head. Her shoulders shaking, she began to cry.
"I'm not strong enough..." she whispered, her voice so frail it seemed it would get lost in the wind. "Everyone hates me. Everyone expects me to fail. I can't carry that burden, Elara... I am not my mother."
Elara reached out and took the young girl into her arms. Alicia took refuge in Elara's chest like a baby, her sobs wetting the shirt.
"Shhh..." comforted Elara, running her hand through Alicia's crimson hair. "No one is strong enough to be considered perfect, honey. We are not gods. We are just humans. We will fall, we will bleed, and we will cry."
She took Alicia's face between her hands and wiped away her tears with her thumbs.
"But what matters is what we do after we fall." Elara signaled with her head toward the boy who was still watching them motionlessly on the floor.
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