The mont Ailetta finished speaking, Noah already felt a headache forming.
"What exactly do you an by curious?"
"What else can I an? Of course, she tried drinking Gwen’s blood while she was asleep."
Noah slowly brought a hand over his face.
Truthfully, after everything he dealt with lately, part of him genuinely wondered why this surprised him anymore.
But as he tried to imagine the scenario taking place, he found it more amusing than he thought it would be.
It didn’t help that he imagined Eve doing it while half asleep.
A faint breath escaped Noah that almost resembled a laugh.
That reaction imdiately caused both won to stare at him.
They were expecting him to find the experience hilarious, but only after the initial surprise.
"Dear..." Ailetta questioned slowly. "Are you not curious about what happened afterward?"
"Not really," He answered surprisingly fast, and from the lack of energy behind it, they could tell that he ant it.
"You must know that my senses are surprisingly sensitive to danger. If I didn’t wake up, then that ant that there was no danger. Mayhem perhaps, but if it didn’t bother enough to disturb my sleep, then why worry?"
The two won found it impossible to argue against his logic.
Strangely enough, listening to Noah explain it so matter-of-factly only made both of them feel sowhat immature about how dramatic their own reactions had been.
anwhile, Noah finally rembered sothing else before the conversation could end completely.
"Also..."
Both of them looked back toward him imdiately.
"Before we move against the goblins, I still need to see how my blood reacts with the rest of you. So co back once you finish discussing things."
Noah turned as though the matter was already settled.
However, he only made it several steps before noticing the two were following behind him.
Ailetta and Arachne were almost on the sa wavelength.
Compared to so goblins, Noah’s blood naturally felt far more important.
Or perhaps more accurately, far more tempting.
Ailetta lightly cleared her throat as she noticed Noah’s peculiar gaze directed towards them.
"...The goblins aren’t going anywhere."
Arachne imdiately nodded in agreent.
"We can finish the discussion later."
Noah looked back toward the two of them blankly.
He shouldn’t have been surprised by how quickly their priorities shifted. Yet sohow he still was.
"...You two are unbelievable."
Ailetta imdiately smiled innocently.
"We prefer... spontaneous."
Noah chose not to respond to that.
Instead, he simply continued walking while both won naturally fell into step beside him.
—
anwhile, on the opposite side of the territory, Alexandria was currently experiencing a problem.
"...Are you going to keep ignoring ?"
Alexandria’s ears twitched to the continuous silence afterward.
Her eyes slowly lowered toward the shadow beneath her feet. At first, Alexandria genuinely thought the shadow had given up, and she lost the ability for the shadow to summon itself.
But every now and then...
She could still feel it reacting faintly beneath her. Especially whenever she was interacting with the other felines.
Which only made the current situation feel even more awkward sohow.
Alexandria hesitated briefly before trying again.
"You were right about a lot of things yesterday... I just want to make it right."
Truthfully, she didn’t even fully understand what "making it right" was supposed to an yet.
How exactly were you supposed to apologize to a part of yourself you spent years suppressing?
Her shadow, on the other hand, finally showed a reaction. A pair of eyes opened to look at her.
But it turned into a glare that was scrutinizing and judging at the sa ti before closing again.
Seconds passed by afterward without a reaction.
Alexandria’s ears had straightened with an anxious eagerness when she thought her shadow was finally willing to speak to her.
Only for the silence to imdiately return again.
Gradually...
Her ears slowly flattened again. The disappointnt behind the motion was so visible that even she realized how pathetic she probably looked right now.
"If... If you’re trying to make see how it is to be ignored, then it’s working..."
Alexandria couldn’t stop herself from getting emotional.
At first, she didn’t even know why she cared this much. It was only later that night, when venting to Dobby hit ho, why she was so invested in making ands.
"Perhaps it isn’t you that is seeking forgiveness to make ands."
Dobby’s calm voice replayed itself clearly within her thoughts.
"Perhaps you desire forgiveness for yourself."
At the ti, Alexandria felt spite for Dobby for the very first ti since they had been together. She lashed out; it was impossible not to.
The words sounded cruel, and with Dobby’s even tone, it felt heartless. It was as though he was reducing everything she felt down to selfish guilt.
And when she repeatedly demanded how he could possibly say sothing like that to her...
Dobby simply listened quietly until she finally exhausted herself.
Only then did he speak again.
"Projection is a two-way mirror... On one side, you see your reflection as clearly as you see yourself. You recognize your own suffering within it. You understand those feelings deeply, so you wish to protect that reflection from experiencing them again."
At the ti, Alexandria didn’t understand where he was going with it, but she realized that he wasn’t discrediting her integrity as she had assud before.
"And on the other side is the one who caused the suffering to begin with."
"Even if your reflection is not the sa as the one standing opposite it, the marks left behind still ca from them."
"Pain does not vanish simply because the hand that caused it disappears."
"The parts of yourself you buried away to survive... Those things were shaped by what stood on the other side of that mirror."
Dobby’s voice remained calm throughout the explanation, never once sounding accusatory.
"Eventually, one stops asking whether they are looking at their own reflection anymore..."
"Or whether they have slowly begun resembling the image they wished to forget."
The mory caused Alexandria’s chest to tighten painfully all over again.
Because now she finally understood why those words affected her so deeply afterward. And why it pained her so much after realizing what she inflicted upon her shadow.
Her shadow was more than just her anger, jealousy, or her selfishness. It was also that lonely part of herself that suffered long ago.
And the part that was abandoned after realizing it only existed as a replacent for soone else.
Now, looking down toward the shadow beneath her feet, Alexandria felt sothing inside her tremble.
Because the more she reflected on everything... The harder it beca to separate herself from the people she hated and yet couldn’t stop loving.
"...Am I..." Her voice weakened slightly. It was hard for her to go through with the question.
"Am I just as bad as them?"
The mont those words left her mouth, the shadow fully materialized, standing directly in front of Alexandria with an even deeper glare than before.
"Don’t you dare say sothing so stupid in front of again."
Alexandria visibly flinched at the sudden response.
"But-"
"Idiot, do you still not understand even now?"
"Everything you do, the reason you’ve been ignoring , and ignoring yourself all this ti. You don’t see it?"
Its voice was dripping with frustration.
"Do you know why you buried all of those feelings away in the first place?"
"You were a replacent for them, a pet to fill in their own pain. And you played the perfect part of a replacent."
"And you know it. We both know why you still want to be called the 3rd. You have to keep reminding yourself that you were loved because of who you are."
"Because if you stop believing that..."
Its expression twisted into sothing that was close to disgust and utter disappointnt.
"Then you’ll have to acknowledge that they only loved the role you filled for them instead."
Alexandria felt as if the world was caving in on her. She wanted to ignore it all, to run away. And yet, her body refused to move.
Because sowhere deep down, Alexandria understood that this was sothing she needed to hear.
"And instead of staying true to who you are, you buried every ugly feeling you thought would make people stop loving you."
"And eventually..."
The shadow’s magnificent, vibrant eyes locked directly onto hers.
"You buried , too."
Alexandria’s throat tightened painfully. The guilt hit so hard that she found it impossible to look at the shadow anymore.
The shadow stared at her for several monts before irritably clicking its tongue.
Alexandria imdiately tried wiping at her eyes afterward despite barely realizing tears had started forming at all.
"...Stop crying."
"If you want to make it up to , then start by proving to that you don’t resent what I am. And who you are."
That part moved her more than anything else said so far. It was probably the only non-malicious thing that her shadow had ever said to her.
Alexandria’s ears slowly folded back again, but this ti she was atleast able to look up.
"...You really are awful at this."
The shadow huffed to itself before turning to look past Alexandria’s figure.
"I’m done, you can have her before I get even angrier."
Alexandria flinched, every inch of fur straight as an arrow. Slowly, she looked behind her to find Dobby calmly smiling.
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