Shards of the Broken Heart

After a couple of hours, Alice stirred up from her sleep. She kissed me lightly on the cheek and went to the bathroom to clean herself. After cleaning herself and fixing her dress, she looked at me and then went out of my room.

Only a few minutes after, could I open my eyes. I couldn’t pretend to sleep anymore. I rushed towards the bathroom and emptied my stomach by throwing up everything stored in it. Acids, digestive juices and even blood. I continued to vomit for many minutes before slumping on the ground, drained of my strength.

In these last couple of hours, I used the ‘Colour Feel’ ability many times and observed Alice while using it. The repulsion I felt had decreased a notch as I was able to take back the control of my ability. But the nausea I felt was still there.

I tried to use my black flames and destroy the ball of black, as I had done to the sinister purple shackles in Anais. But instead of devouring the ball, the flame tried to nourish it, thereby increasing its size. Subsequently, the revulsion I felt towards Alice rose manifold.

I had to hold in the urge to puke or violently shove Alice away for so long, but I couldn’t anymore.

After puking out everything in my stomach, I felt my mind relax. Slowly, I started to assemble all the pieces I had gathered.

(Something is not right with me. There must have been a relation between Alice and me before. I might also get a vision related to one of the past lives of me and Alice.)

With the few experiences of seeing memories of different people living different lives in different worlds and times, I had come to understand that these memories were somewhat linked to me.

These memories or visions were vivid, and I experienced every emotion and scars as if they were engraved in me. The familiar feeling I felt from Anais was the same as the one Sheila had towards Dastan.

Alice’s case might be similar to that of Anais, except for the fact that instead of having a feeling of familiarity and solidarity, I feel a tremendous amount of repulsion from her. I don’t feel any violent tendencies to harm her, just an intense feeling of loathing for her.

(The ability of 'Color Feel' is not entirely under my control as it has activated many times on its own. I have to stop using it while I am in the presence of Alice.)

If not for my deep affection for Alice, there would be a great possibility of me getting affected by the sudden feelings of repulsion, leading to the creation of cracks in our relationship.

(There is something in me that I don’t know of, and it is trying to control my emotions. Even though I don’t know how to handle it, I have to live with it and find out the truth behind it in due time.)

I took a long bath to clean myself up and donned a new set of robes.

There were still a few hours before the dinner. Till then, I intended to do some cultivation.

…

…

…

When I entered the dining hall, my mother and Alice were already seated around the table.

Alice was wearing a new peach-colored lace skater dress. Whereas mother was wearing a lavender-coloured long-sleeved chiffon dress. It was a refreshing sight as mother generally used to wear white flowing robes tied with a sash on her waist. Her new appearance caught me off guard as I stared at her for a little longer than intended.

Alice was sitting beside mother and was tapping at the remaining free seat beside her, indicating me to sit on it. But I chose to sit opposite to her to prevent the nausea from resurfacing again due to her proximity.

Alice was a little sulky at my decision, but before she could say anything, the Luna sisters entered the hall and, after greeting us, took the seats beside Alice.

They started chit-chatting with Alice, which resulted in her blushing and playfully hitting them in protest. As a result of her cute antics, the sisters giggled and prodded Alice even further. Even if they tried to hush their voices, I was still able to hear them.

‘So, how long have you been loving each other?’

‘Who made the first move?’

‘Did you do it?’

‘What else you tried except kissing?’

With each subsequent question, Alice's face turned redder, and the Luna sisters delved even deeper to dig out more juicy deeds/ While I was looking at their joyful banter, mother leaned near me and whispered in my ear.

“Ohh, I am also very curious about all your sessions. You should tell your inexperienced mother in great detail about it one day, okay darlingg~?”

After turning my head, I found my mother’s face close to me and jerked back.

“Wha-what are you saying, mom? At least don’t come too close to my face so suddenly?”

She looked at my actions, smiled mischievously and tried to close in to tease me more. But the entrance of Anais brought everyone’s attention to her.

Both Alice and I heaved sighs as we were saved from the further teasing due to Anais’s entry.

Anais, with her impeccable dressing sense, rocked a floor-length burgundy gown with a plunging neckline that threatened to spill out her assets any moment. The dress had a thigh-high slit that revealed one of her smooth and long legs. The dress covered everything, making it look not too revealing, but still managed to exude her charm.

My throat went dry before I shifted my gaze away from her. From the moment she entered the hall, her eyes were fixed in my direction. Her eyes and her alluring figure drew my gaze in. And if I had looked any more, I was afraid I wouldn’t have been able to extract myself from her spell.

But my luck was not on my side, as Anais took the seat right next to mine after greeting everyone. To not get entangled by her charms, I trained my eyes on Alice, who was sitting in front of me.

Alice looked between Anais and me with a slight frown, but the Luna sisters started excitedly chatting with Anais about her dress, leading her to smoothen her brows and join in the girls talk. Surprisingly, Anais also didn’t try to do anything else to me and wholeheartedly answered the barrage of questions shot at her.

As everyone was present, mother signalled the maids to bring forth the dishes. And so, the dinner started.

In between the dinner, we made small talk with each other and planned the future moves. Mother was the first to raise the topic.

“Lucas, when are you going to participate in the rebellion?”

“Tomorrow, I plan to go to the sinkhole near Stilpan along with big sis and defeat the beast inside it first. It will take us a few days to return after clearing up the sinkhole.”

“Hm, it’s good. The Spirit Beast’s cultivation will be around the 5th stage of Star Formation. It won’t be an easy opponent, so you will have good training while fighting against it.”

We, mother and son, talked about it casually, but the Luna sisters choked a bit on their food. They drank water to flush down the food stuck in their throat before turning their head to ask Alice.

“What is your cultivation level?!”

“1st stage of Star Formation for both of us.”

Alice replied nonchalantly, clearly expecting the reaction from the Luna sisters.

“What! How can you? Even I am still in River Consolidation…”

But Elfie didn’t continue her question anymore and just took the fact for granted that we two siblings were going to fight against a Spirit Beast who was many stages stronger than us. Even Anais was astonished by our strength, but the way she reacted was completely different.

She put her hand on my thigh and started stroking it slowly. She blew air in my ears and whispered seductively.

“~Oh my my~, you have gotten much stronger than the last time. Even I am only now in the 1st stage. It looks like I have to keep you always pleased to protect me in the future.”

Every movement of her hand and every syllable spoken was tantalising to the maximum extent. This was not like her usual playfulness. She was much more assertive, and it made my throat get dry. I gulped, trying to wet my throat and control the rising heat.

I carefully took her hand away from my thigh and answered her while trying hard to not look at her face.

*Cough* “Ahem, I will definitely protect you without even without any incentives. But you won’t be able to go with us together. So, you should train along with the Luna sisters for a few days before leaving for the capital.”

I turned my head towards my mother, who was listening to our conversation with interest. She stopped eating her food and looked at Anais carefully. Then she smiled delightfully and said.

“It would be best if I could form a good bond with you, Anais. It will be very beneficial for my dear son if it happens. He will be pleased if it happens. And training together is the best method to familiarise with each other. Isn’t it Anais?”

Anais answered the question with a slight stutter, which was very unusual of her.

“Ye-yes, you are correct Ms. Thenan.”

“Oh, need not call me that. You can call me by my name, Sylvia.”

“Yes, Syl-Sylvia.”

I switched back to look at Anais’s face and found it to be the same as usual, but there was almost an imperceptible shade of rosiness spreading through her cheeks.

It was an incredible scene as I had never seen Anais blushing, but just a statement or two of mother made it possible. I peered at my mother’s face, who was able to do such a feat and found her smiling playfully while observing the reactions provided by Anais. It seemed like she saw the acts committed by Anais on me and was having fun while teasing Anais for it.

Clearly, she was the one who was the boss in our house. I remembered the flawless spanking attacks Alice and I suffered from, and once again swore myself to never try to hoodwink her as nothing can deceive her sharp eyes.