Five days have passed since Alice performed daily routines such as jogging, sit-ups, squad jumps, and push-ups.
This time, at dawn Alice was jogging around a small-scale fountain to do jogging, she did not get tired in the 20th round but was better than before. Both of them are still able to jog with their white shoes on their legs, neither from the calf nor the soles of the feet.
"Even though it's only been five days, I've been feeling that my stamina has increased a little."
Alice admits that she is no longer exhausted, that she has now got 50 laps, a record she had never had when she first did it.
But even so, she kept jogging to find out how far her legs reached her limit.
Not far from where Alice ran, in one of the windows on the second floor that showed a man watching her running around the fountain making her smile small while her gaze focused on Alice's figure who remained jogging.
"She didn't give up, did she?"
For the man, Gerald, someone who usually does something that can torment them because of his own activities most of them give up immediately and choose not to continue, but Alice doesn't seem to show it at all.
Instead, she continued to do her routine by doing jogging around the fountain even though her face and body were sweating that wet her knee-length casual dress.
"I hope you don't give up at all, Miss."
Returning to his steps, Gerald did not want to stay at the window for fear of being caught noticing him, choosing to return to his duties as king's advisor by doing some of the duties Arga had given him.
Finishing jogging when she reached 70 laps around the fountain, Alice sat in a garden chair close to the flower yard and the fountain on the trail to rest her body with the fresh air her body felt at dawn.
"My legs can't go on... That means I've reached the limit.
While enjoying the fresh air at dawn, Alice slowly fell asleep.
"Looks like I'm gonna have to... Resetting.... About...."
Before she could finish her words, she closed her slumbering eyes in a long brown garden chair on black wood and iron, leaning without showing any caution because she believed she was fine as long as the knights outside the castle were watching her.
•••••
Alice POV
"Uwah... There's a lot of ikemen."
That day, I was the one who always spent time after school reading comics and novels admiring the characters of ikemen men who always had good looks and their cool attitude made me wonder what it would be like if I were a heroine to replace the heroines of the story.
Just imagining it makes me happy, especially if it comes true then the girls' dreams are definitely realized.
What girl hasn't dreamt the same thing as me since they became my brains? That's impossible, isn't it?
If the girl was a regular person, maybe I could believe that they never had the wild imagination about her with the ikemen guy they wanted, but in the case of my otaku girl, I don't think anyone would want her just by imagining their thoughts.
Ah...
If I could feel what the heroic characters around them are filled with men of icemen, maybe it'd be like heaven for me to come true.
•••••
"....."
Suddenly Alice awoke from her dream which she felt shortly after the light of the sun at 6:00 p.m. hit her face a little, she held her forehead with a wondering face.
"Why, in so many dreams, did I dream of my dark past as my otaku girl?"
Not wanting to admit that she had ever been a stupid girl who had no idea of real life, she completely condemned herself as Nia in her previous life for doing wild imagination that she herself had never imagined for now after experiencing life in the fantasy world she is feeling today.
"Oh, my God."
Long breaths heard from Alice, she really hopes that her dark past as an otaku girl will disappear from her mind so that she can forget your pathetic self when she was in middle school and high school.
Immediately standing up and entering the main entrance in front of the castle, Alice is welcome to enter by the two knights guarding the front by opening a large double door in front of them for Alice to enter.
As soon as Alice entered the lobby, she went up the stairs on the right side of the loop with a red carpet tapestry on the steps leading up to the second floor, where her room was.
"Though I live with power and wealth, somehow my life is not as free as my old life has been."
Mumbling slowly like breathing to herself, Alice believes that she shouldn't complain about the matter at all.
Since becoming successors to the throne, many of them, knights and maids look upon her with respect, saying and behaving politely as if Alice were a conglomerate in her old world.
Although Alice was not concerned with her status and position, she only wanted to be equal to them but realized that if she did so, the Nishimura family's name would be tarnished later because of her good behavior similar to that of her mother among nobles from other factions such as Yamada and Christina.
"Even so, somehow I felt someone following me."
Stopped for a moment, she looked back where a glimpse of a black shadow suddenly hid in another hallway.
About the same size as Alice, a white-haired girl, with a cute white face, suspected that she had been spying on her all along.
"So, I'm not just a hallucination."
Nodding in agreement with her thoughts, Alice resumed her steps regardless of the girl who followed her because she knew that she had no evil intentions, ignoring her rather than face-to-face to demand an explanation from her that she would not have been able to tell her.
"I shouldn't show any suspicious gestures at all."
If even a slight suspicious gesture is found out, Alice believes that a girl her age who follows and spies on her will find out the unusual thing Alice is thinking that should only have a 6-year-old girl's mind.
"I think it's better if I get to know her later."
Mumbling slowly as if breathing, there is a small nod from Alice that shows that she will ask her mother, Luna, to get herself together with the girl so that she can become close as a friend to dispel her curiosity.
Entering her room, Alice sighed with relief as she was no longer followed and spied on by the girl hoping it would be impossible for the girl to hear what she was doing in her room.
"Is she aware of my existence?"
Eri fears that if she is discovered, the blonde will no longer act unawares but will fully increase her vigilance so that she will not be followed again.
"What will I do if I fail?"
Holding her two hands held in her heart, Eri's worries become more apparent in her face as she looks at the door of Nishimura Alice's room, fearing that she will no longer be able to spy on Alice that will upset Lisa, her mother.
The shadow of being scolded by her mother fills her mind, causing the trembling Eri to hope that this does not really happen so that she can remain loved and loved by her mother while her father goes to work in a distant region that rarely returns to the castle to see her.
Not far from where Eri stands, a gray bald-faced boy, a pair of amber eyes, Ken, looks at Eri staring at Alice's room door.
He clenches his hands vigorously trying to hold back the emotion of not making Alice distracted by Eri's mistake, he just remains silent before finally leaving without directly confronting Eri.
"No matter what happens, I won't let you do anything to her."
There is a burning determination in Ken's amber eyes, he strengthens the determination that he promises to protect her from anything that bothers her not by orders from her father, Edi, but rather by admiring Alice's persistence.
•••••
Ken POV
That day, I saw something I'd never seen before.
At 6:45 AM, I was accidentally accompanied by some maid to look around the lobby while I was taking a detour, and I saw the dining hall door open.
Inside the dining hall, I saw a little girl with long blond hair who was helping other maidens lay dishes of breakfast with a variety of menus. Both food and drink, her hands were skilled despite her weak and fragile body.
Upon learning that he did so regardless of his status and position as a nobleman, my heart was moved not to follow the words of my father who told me to use him.
Well, right.
Maybe I'll be the only unreliable boy because it would be against my father's principles as his son, Yamada Edi, but I'm fine.
As long as I can make that girl a happy life, I will do everything I can to protect her peace even if I have to defile this hand with blood.
This is all I want.
•••••
At night, Alice opens the door to her mother's room, Luna, enters her room while her mother is busy doing her work at her desk while she sits in a chair, not a wink.
"Mom, can we talk?"
"Yes."
Stopped for a moment, a pen made of bird feathers was placed in black ink, she turned to her daughter who seemed hesitant to interfere with her mother's work.
But instead of being disturbed, Luna replied with a small smile on her face to her daughter, the curious look on her face was seen on her expression.
"What's the matter, Sweetheart?"
"Ah..."
Immediately Alice hugs Luna, she then looks at her mother with her eyes shining with a cheerful face.
"Mom, can I meet kids my age?"
"Eh?" Surprise was seen in Luna's face.
She did not expect that Alice, her daughter, would say something she had never thought of in the first place, making her heart moved and proud of Alice's own initiative.
But she should not show her emotions. She needs to know why her daughter asked her that.
"Why do you want to know them, Sweetheart?"
"Cause I want to have friends. I'm tired of doing anything by myself, like; accompanying Grandpa, lazing around in my room to sleep."
Hearing Alice's adorable frank words, Luna just laughs quietly because she doesn't expect her daughter to be adorable to talk about her daily activities without being covered up at all.
"Why are you laughing, Mom?"
"Sorry..."
Wiped away tears accidentally falling down her cheeks, with Luna's little smile staring at Alice.
"So, when do you want to get to know them?"
"Hmmm...."
In silence, Alice thought about when she could get acquainted with them.
It was thought she wanted to say immediately, that she could not force her will to push her mother to do something out of her job because this task could be carried out by her grandfather, Arga, only that Alice feared it would end up as an order that sounded like compulsion, not sincerity to do on her own initiative.
"I'm up to you, Mom."
"Awww... You are so cute, My Beloved Daughter."
In Alice's arms, Luna can't help herself while rubbing her cheeks on Alice's cheeks to relieve stress from her work.
"Turns out mom just likes Grandpa, huh?"
Only to be surprised at her mother's attitude, which, in addition to being firm, Alice really didn't expect that the fruit falling not far from the tree was a truly existing proverb.
As proof of this, her current mother is just like her grandfather who can't resist her love for Alice makes Alice confused. Is she as cute and adorable as she deserves to be hugged?
Although thinking about it was pointless, Alice dismissed her thoughts so she wouldn't be curious about things that had nothing to do with her development because it was such a waste of her time on her second chance.