"I had the best life a man could ask for."
And with that word, his body faded. Now only a clock was laid on top of the bed. Alice stood there, no tears falling down from her eyes. Dry as the day her mother died.
The sound of click-clack echoed in the room. Sound of metal hitting each other filled the emptiness of the room. Closing eyes Alice concentrated on those sounds. Her self-blame faded away whenever she came to clockmaker's room. It was indeed Julius-magic.
"…"
The long haired clockmaker, Julius stayed silent. Alice knew he was being considerate of her. His speechless was what cured her, helps her get over Jericho's death. Just as people say; time is the best medicine.
To be honest, from a 3rd point of view, Jericho's death was no near tragic—rather it was death scene out of a movie; a B-grade movie where they attempt to move the audiences' feelings by worn out clichés. He died with a smile on his face. He even got his last words clear and finished—so little in this world gets those blessings.
However, that doesn't mean it wasn't sad. It may not be tragic, but it was saddening. Without their cheerful, kind-spirited boss, the gallery never seemed to be the same. No difference in paper works, no one was slacking at their job, everything remained the same in work. But everyone, even the residents in Wonder World knows there's more than business.
Workers and residents, everyone in the territory was down. Alice too was low in spirits. She didn't want to make others concerned so she proceeded in work. She worked hard like usual but job isn't enough to fill in the missing chunk. Nothing can. Despite Jericho's words—he would be easily replaced with another card—nothing could ever replace him. And given by the current situation, no other would. Even the kindest person on Earth wouldn't be enough.
Alice sat on the floor, her body curled up against the wall. Her long hair blocked her expression from Julius's sight. The echoing sound stopped for a moment. Alice held up her face slightly in wonder. He gave her the 'I'll-tell-you-something-so-stop-being-so-depressed' look. Alice mentally prepared for whatever he was going to say.
Julius opened his mouth, and then closed. Instead of scolding or giving advice he let out a deep sigh. The one she used to hear at the Country of Hearts.
In the foreigner's hand rested the clock. Not 'a' clock but 'the' clock. The clock that used to ticked inside of Jericho which no longer worked now. At his death his subordinate handed her his clock. At first Alice refused to since she knew she'll never bring herself to give it to Julius one day. But everyone there choired she the most fitting person to. She gave up at 'Jericho would want you to.'
Julius frowned at that moment, an alerted warning expression painted over. She knew why and what would happen too. In fact she knew too well of the consequences for not handing over the clock. That red knight will come for her one day, sooner or later, and slash her at once—of course, with his annoying trade-mark grin. Getting Aced or not it wasn't important compared to her lover's clock.
Alice was floating in her dream. Opening her eyes met the gaze of the incubus. He looked sick as always, pale skin, linear body, lips near the shades of blue. The only difference from the usual was is sad empathy sending face. She was familiar with that kind of faces; she had enough of them in her life. Alice knew he made 'that' face because he cared. Genuine care isn't enough for Alice stopping herself to be disgusted with it though.
"I-I didn't mean to hurt you. Alice, I'm so—"
"It's fine. No really, it's okay. It'll help more if you stop reading my mind you know."
Nightmare made a face on that.
"B-but…"
"No buts, Nightmare. I just don't feel like being read."
Depressed, Nightmare pouted on her demand. There was no way for Alice to know whether he stopped or not, but at least it was better than not showing any rejections. Seriously that incubus is blind when it comes to finding where to stop.
"I'm so jealous of him! The clockmaker always seems to know how to make you feel better. Even without…mind reading…"
Regardless of how pathetic this incubus may look he also has good advice stored inside of him. Alice is aware of it.
"Well Julius is Julius and…you're just…you."
"I'm being useless because I'm me?!"
"Uh, pretty much? Yes."
"So…so…ah, I feel so sick! I might just throw up blood…"
Fortunately for Nightmare he did help Alice improve her emotions. Only in a different way—different from how Julius helps her.
"You should stop coming here."
Alice was shocked at his sudden words. Her eyes were dry but she felt like crying at that instant. Julius, not skillful in socializing but always a keen man, catches on that detail. He quickly adds another sentence on the previous one.
"Jericho will haunt me forever for this."
Then he makes a loud tsk sound complaining about how bad he is at comforting women. Contrasting his complaints he pats Alice's head. More like petting than patting, rough but warm-hearted action. It reminds Alice of Jericho. He used to do the same. It delivered compliment better than his words. Alice would always feel ticklish in her heart whenever Jericho patted her head.
"You have no idea how possessive a man could be. If he finds out that you've been coming over my room the best thing I could get is being dead."
She smiled bitterly to his comment.
Returning from Christa's invitation for a 'play-date' Alice is left drained out. Sidney is guiding her the way out of the castle's maze. He used to loathe her but when he found out Christa works after playing with the beloved foreigner, he is more than welcome for Alice to come over. Alice on the other hand is just burdened with everything.
"Please come after 14 time periods."
"I'll try my best."
"Thank you."
Alice swears she have never seen a face more desperate than Sidney's.
"This territory wouldn't last for long. Please go to another territory as you wish."
Alice spoke the word Jericho once asked her to. He believed every person—even faceless deserves to choose ones fate when possible, especially in a world so forceful like theirs. She had waited until things settle down a little. Alice thought she must have looked so cold and heartless for saying such words. Alice expected to be blamed. What happened in reality was, they started panicking.
"You're going to leave here?!"
"B-but we can't possibly do that! We want to be here!"
"I want to inherit my kids to live in this territory—"
"We still want to serve you!"
"All of us want to work for Ms. Liddell and she's kicking us out—"
She blinked at the last comment.
"Wait, what?"
With that everyone froze on the spot. Another chaos flooded in.
"Our boss is now Ms. Liddell."
"And we all want to be by Ms. Liddell's side of course!"
"You've been our boss since our boss's declaration!"
"Why would we want to go to another territory while leaving our boss here?"
Stunned the foreigner was frozen to the spot. This is the first time that her being a boss, struck her. Alice was never aware of it. She worked like the other ever since she could remember. So she thought she wasn't a special person, something like a boss. Instead she thought herself as one of the workers.
"I-I'm the head Mafioso?"
Was all she managed to choke out. Life is a roller coaster; first she gets kidnapped by a rabbit, she arrives at an insane world, gets thrown into Country of Dia and now she's the head of the mafia, graveyard and the gallery. What would be next, she wondered.
"Oh."
"You're that little foreigner kid from before."
"Uh, I am. Hello Grey."
Grey replied in a short snort. Alice started walking besides Gray. She can't help herself but to notice the groceries Grey is holding. She silently prayed for Nightmare's sake.
Walking within the crowd the two remained silent. Grey seemed to be uninterested in Alice's presence. Alice was sure Grey too knew about Jericho. It was a mystery how he thought about it. If he did have an emotional opinion with the happening, he didn't let it show on his face. Some may think it's rude but it suited Alice. She was so tired and sick of people looking her with pity-filled eyes.
"So how is it in here?"
"Why is everybody asking me how is it in the station? How is an assassin supposed to know such things?"
"Grey lives here so—"
"I, don't, live, here."
Grey snapped. She decided to not mention about it any further.
The territory that seemed to be ever-blue started to regain its bright atmosphere. People were starting to move on. This included Jericho's subordinates who now argued that they're Alice's. Not they had forgotten about him but somehow, they just managed to get over the sorrow and move on. They moved ahead while carrying the memories with Jericho.
Before noticing Alice was doing the same too. She wasn't so depressed as much as she used to be. If she were still in the Country of Clovers she would have blamed herself for being so heartless. However now she knows moving on doesn't mean cold-hearted, moving on has nothing to do with kind or cold.
Alice is glad now she is able to distinguish them apart now.
"Here."
She hands Julius the cherished. The clockmaker's expression shifts for a moment. He pauses and looks at Alice in the eye as if to ask her if she would regret it later or not. Alice just nods. She just had the feeling—no words would be the best phrase to express her decision.
Slightly hesitant he takes the clock out of her fingers. Then he serves her a smile that makes her proud of herself. It is the same face he makes when Alice succeed in brewing him a 100-score coffee.
The thing is, how long she have stayed here, she was never fine with death. It was an obvious thing for her to reject being a Mafioso. Being a mafia boss is even worse for her. She would never bring herself to be one.
"We don't have to a mafia."
"Really?"
Alice felt guilty. She was forcing them to change their occupations just because of her little guilt.
"Well, we have the gallery. And if we want to move our bodies once awhile, we can go to the graveyard."
"I don't mind at all."
Scary looking, muscular grown men smiling and telling everything is fine is something not all teenage girls get. When they're subordinates, it is a light year away from being normal.
"Some of us are actually hired for art talents. Some of us can start drawing stuff and hang them on the gallery."
"That sounds fun! I used to sculpt things for a hobby."
"What about adding music in this place? Gallery can always include more cultural things."
"Something like a concert band?"
"Yeah, or a string orchestra."
People started making suggestions for in replacement of being a mafia. It started from painting things and all the way to making a library. Various ideas popped and dissolved. Alice tried her best to remember all of them.
"Maybe we could bake for a living," said the woman sitting next to her, "the Hatters are making tea. Why not bake?"
"The Hatters are making tea?"
"Yes. It's quite known story—you didn't know?"
"This is the first time I'm hearing that."
To Alice it was no news. Blood would love to relate his idol with his work.
"Then baking it is!"
"Let's show the Hatters what we're made of! Sugar and spice with everything nice!"
"When we send our baked goods to those guys let's include that Chemical-X we got from that bargain."
Watching every single person becoming so passionate about baking, Alice let out a dry laugh. People were so occupied with the idea of beating the Hatters with their baking skills to hear her dry reaction.
"What does baking have to do with tea?"
Julius grunted towards their passion.
"Haha…"
"Don't just laugh, stop them before things get bothersome,"
"Hahaha…"
Julius does have a point. However Alice doesn't plan on stopping them. It seemed right for them to get noisy and laugh out loud. As if they were a big family all together. This kind of situation was what fitted them the most.
"You can teach them how to bake."
"That's the worst joke you've ever made."
A laugh leaks out of her lips mixing with the sound of other people's laughter.
It's all messy and uncleaned, not really the ideal way of writing I suppose. I wrote this because Jericho deserves love! He's a poor guy; he's most likely to not appear in the squeal in this series. Why does Quinrose have to be so Urobutcher to me? He may be not may most favorite but he is a nice and sweet guy! ...Although...my first fanfic was about him dead...
I'll try my best to improve next time, if I ever write one. Thank you for reading this!