CHAPTER 331: POSSESSED BOY-II

Alice blinked as she found the voice familiar. But that couldn’t be... It couldn’t be. After all the owner of that voice had died! She had watched her die, watched the life drain from her eyes. She had stood at the grave, listened to the eulogy, seen the coffin lowered into the earth.

And yet—

"You—" Alice choked, a whisper of disbelief scraping her throat.

Noah, still seemingly lost in a daze, suddenly smiled. The curve of his lips was eerie, otherworldly.

Then, in perfect unison, both he and the cat spoke, one voice echoing through two mouths.

"Still as pathetic as ever, Alice."

Alice’s expression twisted. The usual glimmer of amusement that played on her lips curdled into a sneer of irritation.

The cat’s words had struck something raw, a nerve no one else could have hit.

Noah chuckled, low and slow, the sound oddly detached, like a boy possessed by a ghost too old for his skin.

"I’m not surprised you ended up crawling to Morpheus one day. You always were fascinated by him, weren’t you? Was it his face you obsessed over? Or the fact that no matter how hard you tried to catch his eye... he never once looked your way?"

His smile widened cruelly. "You really do have a habit of chasing things you’ll never have. A strange little hobby, falling for the unattainable."

Alice clenched her fists, jaw tightening. Her breath shook with fury.

The beauty that had once framed her expression was gone now, twisted away by a scalding truth she had no power to deny.

Because every word, every jab, was real.

And she hated how raw it felt to hear it said aloud.

"How are you still in this world?" Alice gnashed her teeth, "A dead being should just disappear shouldn’t it?"

The cat let out a laugh but the voice that came out instead appeared from Noah’s throat. He moved away lively, as though he had been moving like a puppet according to how the white cat lala would have moved if it really had a human body.

"A dead being... yes, I am dead but my business still hasn’t finished yet," he tinged his voice with humor. "I am not too curious of what you plan to do from now on, Alice. If you wish to destroy Versailles, that is none of my concern. You also knew that I have always despised this land and wished for it to be engulfed by fire."

Alice cut in, not missing the edge. "Yet you protected it like your most valuable treasure."

Noah’s gaze flicked to his nails. He nodded slowly, almost theatrically. "Because to him, this land is a gem. Who wouldn’t guard the thing the one they love holds most dear? That’s what protection is, making his world- his dream- unbreakable."

He smirked, then leaned forward slightly, hand lifted to his mouth in an exaggerated gesture as if feigning innocence. "But you wouldn’t ever understand that. You never truly cared for someone. You only loved the idea of possessing what you could never control."

Alice’s lips curled into a sharp "tsk." The insult stung, not because it was untrue, but because the speaker knew exactly where to aim. Her calm fractured, replaced by something hotter and more jagged. This was the part of her that always got under her skin, the part that exposed the raw edges she spent so much effort hiding.

"So," Alice snapped, voice laced with venom, "what does the great witch want with someone like me, someone who apparently knows nothing about love or caring?" Her smile curved, mocking. "Or are you here because you’re finally afraid? That now, with Morpheus and I aligned, we’ll reduce this kingdom to dust, until not even history dares to remember its name?"

"Afraid?" Noah exhaled slowly, almost bored. "Alice, when have you ever seen me afraid of anything?"

That made her flinch, barely, but enough. Her brows twitched, lips drawing taut.

Noah took a deliberate step forward, his voice lowering into something far colder. "I’m not here because I fear your destruction. Burn it, if you wish. Versailles has survived worse." His hands moved gently, and the white cat nestled in his arms stirred before leaping down. It stretched, yawned, then curled languidly on the marble floor, eyes half lidded, but locked on Alice, wearing a sneer only cats could manage.

Noah’s gaze, however, sharpened like a broken shard, "But you should remember something well, Alice." His smile turned grim, a haunting echo of someone who once lived and bled. "I’ve never taken it kindly when someone threatens what I treasure."

He stepped even closer now, voice dripping with a grim warning. "Even in death, that doesn’t change. You would do well to carve this into your heart, because if you touch what’s mine, you’ll find the grave doesn’t silence me. It summons me. I hope you’re ready to see what happens when you treat my descendant with disrespect."

"Fuck!" Alice screamed, slapping at her dress as Noah casually flicked a finger.

From the folds of green velvet, maggots erupted, those small, pale, and bloated things writhing across her skin in thick, pulsing clusters. They didn’t crawl so much as burrow, already biting into flesh before her hands could tear them away.

Panic twisted her face. She didn’t hesitate to start a spark then flames.

Fire surged up her body, devouring fabric and flesh alike. The dress disintegrated into ash within seconds, her skin blistering, peeling, melting. The stench was sickening, but Alice didn’t scream. She gritted her teeth, eyes wide with fury, not pain.

To a witch like her, fire was mercy. Fire was cleaner than what he had unleashed.

She staggered back, her scorched body already beginning to stitch itself together. Burnt skin peeled away to reveal raw muscle beneath, slick with blood. But she didn’t falter. She glared at Noah with hatred thick enough to choke.

Those weren’t ordinary maggots. They were the poisoned ones, an ancient hex "she" had used countless times. Parasites that dug into the skin, carried venom that liquefied organs within seconds.

"Haha," Noah let out a chuckle. "I forgot a few of my magic but this one still stuck," he hummed. "How do you enjoy it, Alice."

Exploding in anger, Alice clenched her fists tight before yelling out in anger, calling out to the name of the witch that had now took a form of a young boy.

"CIRCE!"