To My Beloved, I Present My Exquisite Nightmare (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 66

The moment the words ended, half of Alice’s perfectly composed face crumbled like a mud tower. Laila felt a bone-chilling shiver run down her spine and braced her legs.

Alice had seen through all of Laila’s fear. With a raspy, wheezing sound like a hoarse nightingale, she approached Laila and gently ran her pale fingers around Laila’s throat as if caressing it.

“So, I suppose I’ve been the one protecting this child, haven’t I? Without me, this poor thing would have died long ago—either at her own father’s hands or by her own. If I let this child go, she wouldn’t survive even a year. Is that what you want?”

Laila kept her head tilted sharply upward, motionless. Alice’s fingers were icy cold, and at any moment, they could have clamped down on or pierced her throat.

“You’re trembling. Of course you fear me. You should fear me—I could take your life at any instant. But honestly, your body tempts me more. You might prove more useful than this child.”

Alice whispered. Though it sounded like a humming murmur, it was anything but pleasant to hear.

It was the kind of sound one might hear only in a nightmare. Feeling her blood turn to ice, Laila squeezed her eyes shut tightly, then suddenly let out a long breath. Slowly, she moved her eyes to follow Alice’s movements.

A tree that fears winter shall never bear fruit in its lifetime. Laila silently recited a line from a book she’d once read.

She didn’t know why that phrase came to mind just then. Perhaps because this tomb-like landscape, filled with dust and ash, reminded her of winter? It felt as if a cold wind blew through the cracks in the bark.

Laila’s tightly closed lips slowly parted.

“…Yet behold, you wandering souls of suffering. The tree that willingly exposes itself to the bitter cold shall rise again with spring, bearing new blossoms and fruit.”

Alice’s eyebrows twitched.

“What on earth are you babbling about?”

Laila’s crimson eyes, still lifted defiantly, locked onto Alice.

“I’m saying I’m not afraid of you.”

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