NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Don't you have yourself to live for?
"Well, if the wall's that hard, just put a cushion to soften the impact, boss. It's not that hard to think of."
Ah, yes. There was such a method. Why didn't he think of that?
"I'll keep running so take your time to get the cushion or whatever." Alice said. "Oh, and compensation for making me go through this, add an extra bucket of chicken. Oh, and add some fries this time around. hehe."
She looked cheeky as she demanded that sort of compensation. Mark shook his head. It was only food with her.
He made the order to get several thick mattresses. With the force Alice was using to be able to move such a big treadmill with her own power then the impact would definitely not be small.
"It's ready." Mark announced.
"Did you make sure to get the chicken?" She asked just to be sure.
"If I didn't get it, would you keep running?" Mark asked and she frowned heavily, her mouth twisting upside down.
"Oh, look at you acting the smart pants boss. I could keep running forever, you know. And then my energy would deplete completely and when that happens, you just might get a scolding for not doing a very damn good job. Your call." She said and he sighed.
It was her life they were trying to protect, yet she was acting so shamelessly and making it about him. Ah, where did such a girl come from?
"Yes, Miss, Alice. I got you your fried chicken. All three buckets and a currently melting ice cream." He said, and Alice's eyes widened.
"What? We can't let the ice cream melt." She said and, without warning, stopped running on the treadmill, and it sent her flying backward with great force.
There were a total of ten thick mattresses placed behind her, but her body made a hole through all of them, and she still hit the wall, bending the alloy but not enough to break it.
"Miss Alice!" Mark called, alarmed, and rushed to her.
Alice coughed.
The entire place was covered in feathers from the mattresses and she couldn't stop coughing. Then, that coughing turned into repeated sneezing.
"Are you alright? That was reckless. You could've died." He said and she looked up at him with a carefree smile and said,
"And why is that a problem? It's not like I have anything worth living for anyway." She said which took him by surprise. Such words with that smile did not go together at all. "Except eating, that is." She said and got up. "Other than that, I don't have anything to live for."
"Don't you have yourself to live for?" He suddenly asked and she pretended to give it a thought before saying,
"Hmmm, now that you mention it," she glanced at him through her corner eyes and grinned. "Nah!"
That was actually quite painful to hear. She was no more than 16 or 17 yet she couldn't even find anything to live for.
How painful and sad had her life been?
She didn't look like she went to school and from her tone of speech, no one took care of her with love while she was growing up.
"Why are you staring, Boss?" Alice called, stretching her arms above her head. "Don't dilly-dally and get me my ice cream and chicken already. You're the one who said my ice cream is already melting."
"You... You still need to be interrogated." He said after recollecting his thoughts, but he was still a little absent-minded.
"Oh, that... Can't I do that while eating? I'm really hungry." She said.
Mark was still a bit lost in his thoughts. He felt pity all of a sudden but shook it off. Why fill out for a girl who didn't care?
Two powerful machines powered by huge mana Crystals that were hard to come by in dungeons. Two powerful machines were used to test Alice. And those two powerful machines were broken beyond repair.
The experts checked the treadmill after Alice got off and discovered it wasn't working anymore. Several of her footprints were all over the machine, dug deep, in fact. It was like she weighed more than the material used on the machine.
Well, that explained the kind of power she used to move it while it was off. When it was not in operation, that part of the treadmill would not even move an inch, yet she was able to make it move so fast like that.
Thanks to both machines breaking down during the test, a sound and efficient result could not be presented. It made them skeptical to try out more machines to see if they would also break, but they would incur losses if they did.
It was risky.
"So, Miss Alice," Mark called as he did the asking but he did not ask right away and watched her as she used the ice cream which he had lied to be melting as a topping for her chicken.
He brushed his nose bridge.
'Is she really going to finish all that? I haven't heard of awakeneds who get hungry or even bother to eat, knowing they can get energy from mama Crystals gotten from the dungeons. Most of them just eat for eating sake and the taste of food.' he peeped at her. She didn't look like she would hold back one bit. 'And she's not doing it for eating sake. She looks like she's really hungry.'
He stared at her in disbelief. He could've sworn he gave her food about an hour ago. How was she still so hungry?
"Boss, you're so sly," Alice spoke up and he broke out of his thoughts. "You told me my ice cream was melting but it's perfectly fine."
"Well, I had one of my guards with an ice attribute to keep it like that." He said. "If I didn't say that, I was worried you would really keep running. You're unfathomable."
"Well, it worked out, I guess." Alice said and stuffed her mouth with a full spoon scoop of ice cream and let out a chilled sigh. "Hah, I think I'm gonna get brain freeze. Just how long has it been since I got to lick ice cream? It's been years. Forever, even. Hm, I better savor this."
Mark watched her. She was a teenager yet it had been years since she tasted ice cream.
The monster apocalypse came seven years ago out of nowhere. It ruined lives and left a lot of children orphaned. Alice must've been among those children, and because it was catastrophic everywhere, those children were not taken proper care of, and most of them landed in bad places.
Places that stole their childhood innocence and taught them nothing but how to be selfish.
"Miss Alice," he called and she looked up at him. "...if you need someone to talk to..."
"About what?" She tilted her head, oblivious of his reasons, and then, realizing that he had faltered a moment there, he shook his head.
"Forget about it. I'll start asking questions. Please answer me as truthfully as you can." He said and she nodded.
"Boss," Alice called, suddenly sounding serious. "...don't look at me like that." She said, probably referring to the look of pity he had on his face when thinking of how rough she might've been living.
Then, with a goofy smile, she said,
"Well, if you feel pity for me, you can buy me more fried chicken. You can even get me steak, hehe. It's all I'm asking."
Seeing her act that way, he couldn't help but feel she was pretending to be strong when her heart was beyond repair.
But what would he know? He only met her the previous day.
"I'll start with the questions." He said. "When did you discover you could do more than an average human could?"