CHAPTER 368: ALICE, A BORN WITCH-II

The two of them quickly became friends, bound together by the rare secret of their powers, odd gifts that set them apart from the rest of the world. To Circe, the bond felt genuine, a comfort in knowing she wasn’t alone. To Alice, however, it was something else entirely.

Alice mirrored Circe’s enthusiasm, nodding at her ideals, pretending to share her fascination with magic. But in truth, she had never once cared for helping others, nor had she devoted any thought to mastering her own abilities. What use was there in nurturing something so limited? Her power, after all, could do little more than shift objects without her hands. It was convenient, perhaps, but hardly the sort of strength that could carve her path to authority, the thing she truly desired above all.

But Circe, with her boundless curiosity, began to show Alice what their strange gifts could truly do. Slowly, almost unwillingly, Alice, who once dismissed her own ability as useless, found herself drawn in.

Circe spoke of possibilities, of magic rooted in blood, perhaps a lineage that had blessed them both at birth. She spoke with awe, with hope. Alice listened, smiling as though she shared that wonder, while inside her heart stirred with something far darker.

As Circe unraveled the mysteries of magic, teaching Alice what she had learned, Alice began to see the truth: this was no mere parlor trick, but the seed of real strength. Power that could command. Power that could break chains. Power that could force the world to kneel.

For the first time, Alice felt the thrill of what her bond with Circe could bring her. The closer she stayed by Circe’s side, the closer she came to rising above the masses she had always despised, those crawling insects she longed to trample beneath her heel.

And when Circe made her first contract with a demon, Alice’s delight was boundless. Finally. At last. The path had opened. If Circe could wield such might, then so could she. She would not simply grow strong. She would become the strongest.

But Circe didn’t allow her to make the contract with demons so easily.

They fought on a stormy night with Alice demanding the reason for her refusal but Circe was firm.

"If I had the choice to not form a contract with a demon, I wouldn’t have made one!" Circe yelled, finally exhausted by Alice’s constant pleading. "I am doing this for you, if I knew what this power could truly bring, how could I allow for it to touch a close friend of mine?"

Alice frowned, "Are you sure you are uttering those words because you do not want me to be hurt? Or deep down you are afraid that I would be stronger than you? Even stronger than what you are and that’s why you wish to clip my wings early?!"

"Alice!" Circe raised her hand to the sky, "When have I ever wished to hurt you? To think of a friend like you who I have seen as my own sister as a rival that I should clip their wings?"

The wind howled so loudly that Circe’s words nearly drowned in the roar of the storm, but Alice heard them sharp and clear yet in her heart she still accuse Circe for being afraid to become the second after her.

"A sister?" Alice bitterly chuckled, her wet hair plastered to her face. "If I were truly a sister to you, Circe, you would trust me. You would let me take this path beside you. Instead, you stand there like some self righteous guardian, holding all the power for yourself."

Circe’s shoulders sagged, her breath shaky. "It isn’t power, Alice. It’s chains. If I let it, it will consume everything I am. I wouldn’t want this power either but I have to... it is in order to protect the future that Atlas wants for Versailles."

"Atlas! Atlas! And Atlas! You use his name to allow yourself to do things that you stopped me from. You told me that you gain this power to protect him but can I not gain the power to protect myself either?"

"You don’t need such power!" Circe said, "Your power is already enough to protect yourself. Unlike me, you have better option than dancing with the devils! I cannot control this power properly and how could you?"

The rain splattered between them, sheets of water dividing their gazes. Alice’s lips trembled, in anger, "It’s all excuses. It’s simply excuse that you spew to me. Just because I live in comfort, I cannot have the power that you acquire?"

Circe’s eyes widened, tears mixing with the rain. "Because I don’t want to lose you to it! You think strength will make others bow down to you, but Alice... the demon doesn’t give without taking."

For a long moment, silence hung between them, broken only by thunder cracking across the heavens. Then Alice’s face hardened, her desperation crystallizing into fury.

"Then you are no sister of mine," she spat, stepping back as lightning lit her shadowed expression. "If you will not help me, I will find another way. With or without you."

Circe’s hand reached out, trembling, but Alice had already turned, her figure swallowed by the storm.

And for the first time, Circe felt the storm raging not just outside, but inside her chest, a hollow ache where her dearest friend had once stood.

Since then Alice became obsessed with finding demons to form a contract with but the truth was never so easy. Unlike Circe who had spent her early years studying magic, Alice was never too interested, easily leaving her in the darkness with the steps needed to find a demon or to form a contract with them.

Circe herself didn’t want to end their friendship on a bad note and continuously wrote her letters, begging for an understanding.

Alice who only saw the letters as a reminder of how lesser she was to Circe began to burn them one by one, wondering if she should break into Circe’s house or beg Atlas to help her when something clicked in her head.

Yes.

She didn’t have a reason.

Circe didn’t allow her to form a contract with demon because she didn’t have a reason.

What if she gave that reason?

By then even Circe couldn’t say anything otherwise.

It was the dark thought that consumed Alice’s mind, turning into a resolve that soon morphed into a detailed plan.

By the morning of a Sunday, Alice’s house had been engulfed with fire.

Everyone in the house had been found dead, including Alice’s newborn younger brother who wasn’t only found burnt but stabbed and mutilated into numerous pieces, a case that overturn Versailles overnight but also allowed Alice to come to Circe and beg her for the demon contract.