Chapter 44
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 44: Someone's Something
“Miss Alice.”
“......”
At the short call, the girl looks up this way.
Beyond her tear-filled blue eyes, the smiling clown mask reflects.
“What happened here today is a secret.”
“A secret...”
It was better for what happened today not to leak out as much as possible.
Putting aside my active role spreading, there was nothing good about Alice's abilities leaking outside.
Especially if talk about the [Black Queen] spreads, the heretics' side will start paying attention too.
Among them, ‘that bastard’ would be included too.
Things would become complicated in many ways.
‘I have to hide it at least until Alice gets used to her abilities.’
Nightmarization.
An ability that truly wouldn't fall short even if called the strongest in the worldview.
If Alice becomes able to control the nightmare, I gain an ally no different from a nuclear weapon.
‘Well... it's not something that will happen in a day or two.’
Of course, it was a story for the distant future.
For now, the tasks right in front of us were urgent.
First of all, becoming capable of taking care of her own body is the priority.
“We will talk about the details next time. Just the two of us. Without anyone knowing.”
“Just the two of us... without anyone, knowing...”
Alice muttered along, as if chewing over my words.
I tilted my head and asked to get confirmation.
“You understand, right?”
“......Yes.”
With dazed eyes, the girl nodded as if she understood.
I stroked her head, meaning she was admirable.
I quite liked her obedient attitude.
“Good girl.”
“Yes...”
*Jjeojeok, kugugugung—!*
While exchanging a few words, a vibration rang from the high ceiling.
The source of the noise was outside the barrier surrounding the hunting ground.
Did the faculty members slowly find a way?
The pitch-black curtain began to crack little by little.
“Nice timing.”
*Jjeojeok, jjeojeojeok—!*
The ceiling cracked sufficiently.
Before long, the barrier shattered to pieces.
Beyond the scattering shadows, the blue sky shone.
“......”
Looking down at my arms, the girl had lost consciousness in the meantime.
Is it closer to fainting than sleeping?
‘Well... fatigue must have piled up due to the aftermath of the rampage.’
I laid the slender body next to Lanne.
It's about time the faculty members stormed in.
I also lay down next to the two people.
The students will be rescued without any problems like this.
To avoid suspicion, I also needed to pretend to be unconscious.
[ 🦇 Carmilla ]
[Viktor.]
“Princess.”
Carmilla had already returned to her bat form.
The Princess landed on my chest and wiggled back into my front pocket.
A small hand tapped *tok tok*.
[ 🦇 Carmilla ]
[You worked hard today too.]
“Should I call it the fate of one who saves the world? Princess, thank you for accompanying me on my personal matters.”
[ 🦇 Carmilla ]
[Don't say such things. If it's Viktor's matter, isn't it no different from this lady's matter?]
“That's reassuring.”
Afterward, quietly closing my eyes.
It seemed I could hear the shouts of the faculty members from afar.
I calmly let go of my consciousness, intending to get some sleep.
‘It was a long day.’
Like that, the 1st year's first practice ended.
***
It felt like I had a short nightmare.
No... would it be right to express it as a nightmare?
Unlike what she usually dreamed, it felt like a calm, warm dream.
—It was hard for a long time, wasn't it.
—You're admirable. Truly admirable.
Her cold breath felt like it would melt.
Because a cozy temperature seemed to wrap around her body.
It felt like she fell asleep easier, and more comfortably than usual.
And.
“......”
Alice opening her eyes in an unfamiliar bed.
Everything was colored white.
‘Where is this...’
She was sure she had lost consciousness in the forest.
An unfamiliar ceiling, and an unfamiliar scenery.
The girl looked around her surroundings for a moment.
While she was feeling confused, a voice soon came from the front.
“Miss Alice.”
“......”
The boy wearing a mask.
Viktor was sitting on the sofa opposite her.
He rose from his seat as if he had been waiting for Alice.
“Is your body feeling a bit better?”
The voice she had heard in her dream.
Only then did Alice grab hold of her half-asleep consciousness.
‘......It wasn't a dream.’
Her breath subsided at the surging sense of reality.
While her blue eyes were rolling, the boy laughed *fufu* and explained the situation.
“It's the academy infirmary. Though its scale is too extraordinary to simply call it an infirmary.”
“How...”
“Right after Miss Alice lost consciousness, the faculty members succeeded in dismantling the barrier and entering inside. The other students trapped inside the barrier were also rescued safely. Fortunately, they say there are no severely injured personnel.”
“......”
“Currently, everyone is taking a rest in this building.”
Alice listening blankly.
Before long, she realized something was holding her hand.
A girl was asleep, face down on the hospital bed, holding Alice's hand.
“......Princess Kihano?”
Lanne Kihano.
It was blonde hair that looked like melted sun woven together.
With the temperature filling her palm, Alice looked down at her in fluster.
“She was keeping watch by your side the whole time. She was nursing Miss Alice all night, and just fell asleep a moment ago.”
“How much time, has passed...”
“A full day.”
“A day...”
Alice quietly looked down at Lanne.
Blonde hair disheveled on the white hospital bed.
Viktor stroked Lanne's head as if finding her admirable.
The warmth held in her hand; Alice hesitated at the unfamiliar sensation and opened her mouth.
“How is Princess Kihano's condition...?”
“They say there are no problems. Since she's a naturally sturdy person. I also poured a healing potion on her, and since coming to the academy infirmary, she even received a full checkup. I heard there are no particular abnormalities.”
“Th-thank goodness...”
Alice unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.
A heart that had been secretly anxious, wondering if something went wrong.
—Miss Alice.
—I will buy time, even if it's brief.
Perhaps, it was because the receding back view.
The back that protected her flickered before her eyes.
While she was holding Lanne's hand tightly, her eyes met the boy's pleased expression.
“Miss Alice.”
“......”
Calling the girl with an affectionate voice.
An indescribable sentiment pressed stiffly on Alice's heart.
She flinched and trembled her shoulders, but soon parted her trembling lips and answered.
“......Yes.”
“What happened yesterday. Only the two of us know the part related to the nightmare. And it must stay that way in the future. You remember, right? What I told you was a secret.”
She remembered.
A secret just between the two of them.
How could she forget.
Alice quietly nodded her head.
“Good.”
The boy laughed shortly and approached the hospital bed.
The white mask came close right up to Alice.
It was still a creepy appearance, but for some reason, the girl was not afraid.
Her heart settled.
“Miss Alice. I will make you a proposal.”
Proposal.
The content the boy had mentioned in passing yesterday.
The conversation that followed was an extension of that time.
“You must have seen it yesterday. I have the power to help Miss Alice. I can extinguish the nightmares, and through that, I can suppress Miss Alice's rampage as well.”
“......”
She retraced the memories remaining like a dream.
The army of nightmares that poured out terribly.
However, the boy's scythe that swept them away single-handedly.
He broke the rule of being an 'unkillable existence' head-on.
—Miss Alice.
—So you were in a place like this. I looked for you for a long time.
It was a miracle.
At least the boy the girl looked at was like that.
“I will help. Stay with me and learn how to control Nightmarization.”
The words saying he would help.
That content was truly something out of a fantasy.
In other words, it was a wish the girl couldn't even dare to imagine.
“It is taming that aggressive disaster as your own. If you succeed in controlling Nightmarization, you won't suffer from nightmares anymore. You won't have to be swept up in anxiety and obsession every day either.”
“......”
“Like other children, you will be able to spend an ordinary daily life.”
Controlling Nightmarization; it was an idea she couldn't even imagine.
Because she believed there couldn't possibly be a person who could do such a thing.
However...
“I will give you such a life.”
The boy in front of her eyes was promising as if it were perfectly natural.
About a possibility that only seemed vain, and the girl's future.
Alice had no choice but to be dazed and absent-minded.
It was a story about herself, but it felt like listening to a story from another world.
“Of course, there is a price. Because this isn't simply help, but a proposal.”
“......”
“Please be close to me. Whenever I ask for help, you must prioritize it above all else and come running. You must take my side in any situation, and you must use your power for me in any situation. Of course, I intend to do the same for Miss Alice. In short, becoming an absolute ally to each other.”
“Absolute, ally...”
“Instead, I promise Miss Alice a better life.”
“......”
“How is it? Are you a little interested?”
After hearing all of the boy's story.
The first thought that came to Alice's mind was one thing.
‘Why...?’
Why.
Only that short word was caught in Alice's throat.
‘Why, going this far for me...’
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why is he doing so much for her?
As if saving her from the rampage wasn't enough, this time he'll help her control it.
Giving her a way to overcome the nightmare like that, giving her an ordinary life too...
‘Why.’
Alice couldn't understand.
The things the boy presented as a price, most of them were also contents where he sacrificed.
Since he was that strong in the first place, her shabby power didn't seem like it would be of any help.
This too was closer to a clause to protect the girl.
‘Why are you, to me...’
Alice was weak, but she wasn't stupid.
She could understand the flow of the proposal.
This was a proposal where she was unilaterally receiving.
‘I...’
The girl couldn't understand.
Alice, Alice.
The child who shouldn't have been born.
Because she had always thought so.
Help received from others, a better life, those things didn't exist in her world.
She believed they shouldn't.
—Then how about this. Being close friends from now on?
That's how it was.
It was clearly like that...
—Miss Alice.
—You've suffered a lot.
The boy crossed the boundary Alice had drawn far too easily.
So, Alice found Viktor difficult.
He was an unknowable person.
‘Strange.’
Thinking about it, it had been like that from their first meeting.
The boy was always favorable to Alice.
—You said we are in the same class.
—Since our paths crossed like this, how could I not help you.
When they first met, despite not knowing her, he helped her when she was in trouble.
He found her sister's necklace that she almost lost.
—Fufu.
Alice's ability, ‘One Dream of a Different Form’.
He harbored enough favor toward the girl for signals to communicate with each other.
—We agreed to be close friends, right? You remember, right?
—Since we're getting to know each other, I wanted to introduce you to my other friend too.
Whether he was concerned about Alice who always walked alone lonely, he even introduced his friend Lanne to her.
—Miss Alice.
—Because I can help you.
In this incident, he even fought directly for the girl.
He tore off Alice's nightmares and saved her when she was about to be swallowed by the nightmare.
‘This is...’
All of this happened in a period of less than a month.
Things she received from the boy in a period of less than a month.
Alice couldn't understand.
‘What on earth.’
At first, she just thought he was one of her misfortunes.
When she peeked at the boy's secret on the 70th floor of Purgatory.
Alice thought she had stepped into an irreversible hell.
Because she believed the boy would kill or torment her to silence her.
So, she feared Viktor's existence so much...
‘He wasn't.’
He was different from her thoughts.
Alice trembled saying she was scared, but Viktor was always kind to her.
An inexplicable affection would pile up layer by layer in her heart.
‘I don't know...’
Now she had become unable to know anything.
What the boy is.
The misfortune, or fortune, that came to her.
It had reached a stage where she couldn't even distinguish that simple boundary.
‘Just, I...’
Because the curves of life changed far too drastically,
Because she was surprised by the sudden shining light and hope,
Because she couldn't possibly believe that moment,
Even though she opened her messy eyes and raised her body, life didn't hurt,
Neither the numb muscles of her body, nor the headache that throbbed like a habit, nor the auditory hallucinations of the nightmare lingering in her ears, nothing was tormenting her...
‘It's strange.’
Tears welled up, brimming.
Because she had never felt like this in her life.
A feeling like being left in an empty, quiet world.
That was unfamiliar and scary, yet so comfortable she couldn't hold back her tears.
‘I, what should I view you as...’
Such a question.
Also, what do you view me as.
What do you view me as, to be so devoted to me who is nothing.
The affection that no one in the world except her sister had ever given her entire life.
How could you give that so easily...
Because she was curious about that.
Also because she was scared.
And again, because her heart fluttered.
The girl couldn't stop the flowing tears.
“Yes...”
She just nodded her head.
“I will, I want to do it...”
Words she had never held in her entire life.
The girl spoke to someone other than her sister for the first time.
“Please help me.”
Her voice trembled ungracefully, but the boy smiled just from that.
A warm palm rested on Alice's cheek.
Fingers gently wiping away the tears.
The boy answered briefly.
“Willingly.”
A moment remaining like a miracle.
Alice gripped the boy's sleeve tightly.
Afterward.
Until she ran out of energy and fell asleep again, she didn't let go of that sleeve.
***
A few hours later.
A hospital room where everyone was asleep, and only I remained awake.
“......”
Alice was sound asleep.
Perhaps because the Nightmarization progress had dropped significantly, her complexion was definitely comfortable.
Lanne, face down next to her.
I stroked the two of them once each, then sat on the windowsill in the corner of the room.
‘The cleanup is finished...’
I opened the status window with a light manipulation.
Since everything was over, it was time to have a settlement time.
Innumerable accumulated quest completion messages appeared all at once.
*Ting—!*
[Cleared Emergency Quest!]
- Title: WelcomeToWonderland.
- Content: Stop the Nightmarization of ‘Alice’ currently running wild.
[Surprisingly, you completed the quest without killing the host!]
- Content: Stop the Nightmarization of ‘Alice’ currently running wild.
[Surprisingly, you completed the quest without killing the host!]
- Special rewards are provided. Please check your inventory.
*Ting—!*
[Completed Hidden Quest.]
- Title: Queen Slayer
- Content: Defeat the boss monsters reigning over Wonderland: ‘Heart Queen’, ‘Red Queen’, and ‘White Queen’.
[You massacred the Queens with an amazing performance!]
- Content: Defeat the boss monsters reigning over Wonderland: ‘Heart Queen’, ‘Red Queen’, and ‘White Queen’.
[You massacred the Queens with an amazing performance!]
- Special rewards are provided. Please check your status window.
*Ting—!*
[Cleared Sub Quest!]
- Title: If going to do it, should do it properly!
- Content: Take a rank of 3rd or higher in the practice.
[You took 1st place in the practice with an amazing performance!]
- Content: Take a rank of 3rd or higher in the practice.
[You took 1st place in the practice with an amazing performance!]
- In addition to the existing rewards, additional rewards are provided.
“Well then, shall I check the rewards?”
It was settlement time.
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