Proof (1)
Proof (1)
Lately, I kept feeling that this world did not revolve around me.
Even when I tried to skip over stories I didn't want to endure by ignoring everything else and pushing past, the diligent characters kept moving according to their own designs.
Just as in the original work, where Claire became entangled with Alice and the provoked Alice wound up infiltrating the casino in a bunny-girl getup, this time too, Alice was spurred on by Bella and ended up infiltrating the casino.
She must have felt a great deal during yesterday's conversation. Bella's whole demeanor was the very image of a "woman with a past"—entirely unlike her usual self. Someone who had once had dreams, but had been reduced to such a state by cruel reality. If I hadn't possessed any prior knowledge, I probably would have been fooled just as thoroughly.
The reason Bella deliberately approached us back then was probably to provoke us, too. She likely intended to drag me in for certain, while also getting a laugh at Alice's expense on the side.
In actual fact, I ignored all the intermediate steps and pushed forward immediately, and Alice, for her own part, donned the bunny-girl outfit and infiltrated on her own. I didn't even need to think about who had procured that outfit for her. Obviously, it could only have been Bella.
Slamming open!
"Hah!"
When I abruptly flung the door open and entered, Alice, who had been holding the blue scrap of cloth, drew in a sharp breath.
She hadn't put on the stockings yet, though.
"Were you planning to put that on here and go out in it?"
"Wha—what?!"
When I questioned her right away, Alice opened her mouth for a moment as if to protest, but then, following my gaze to her own hand, she hid what she was holding behind her back.
I stepped fully inside Alice's room and shut the door.
"If you go out wearing it from here onward, you'll draw far too much attention."
"I—I know that too, you know?"
Perhaps realizing that I had seen through everything from the start, Alice's reply was steeped in resignation.
As her hands dropped limply, the piece of cloth and the stockings she had been gripping drooped toward the floor. When I turned my head, I saw the mask and the pair of rabbit-ear headbands lying on the desk as well.
"I was... I was going to put it on under my clothes, and then just take off the outer layer..."
"......."
But perhaps it was hard for her to endure my silent gaze; Alice's face flushed red, and she bowed her head deeply.
That sight looked strangely forlorn.
I'd thought that, thanks to the confidence I'd steadily instilled in her since childhood, Alice had become someone far more self-assured than her original counterpart. Apparently, that wasn't quite true.
I almost sighed, but I held it back. Looking at Alice in front of me now, I could see that if I did such a thing, her pride would plummet even further into the dirt.
"First, let's sit down and talk. After that, you can decide whether to go through with what you were about to do."
"...... Fine."
When I gestured toward the bed as I spoke, Alice sat down on it without another word.
She must have thought to herself that what she'd been about to do wasn't really something befitting an imperial princess.
Seeing Alice plop down onto the bed, I started toward the chair, but then changed my mind and sat down on the bed beside her.
Of course, I didn't sit close enough that our bodies were touching. I kept a little distance—enough, however, that she wouldn't feel I was too far away.
"First, please explain why you intended to go outside in this outfit."
I spoke while looking at her hands.
"No, but—the thing is, I wasn't planning to go out in this—"
Alice, who had turned her head toward me as if to begin some excuse, closed her mouth the moment she saw my face.
"That's...."
And then, after mumbling to herself for a while, she slowly started to speak.
"It felt like I wasn't doing anything."
"Not doing anything?"
"Even when we went to Winterfield for the field practicum, I was just comfortably carrying out requests with my friends."
"You were simply doing what any student ought to do."
"But... in that same time, you earned a tremendous achievement. So great that no one would have thought it strange if you'd received a medal on the spot."
"......."
Well... that was true. Strictly speaking, it was a matter entirely unrelated to the assignment, so by the grading criteria I should have received a failing mark. However, citing that the accomplishment I had achieved during that time could not be ignored, Jennifer had given me a perfect score and moved on. And when it came to receiving some sort of decoration for it, separate from that... indeed, that might actually happen.
"What I did was something I was obliged to do, so—"
"...... Something you were obliged to do?"
Alice cut me off.
"What kind of thing is it, that you are obliged to do?"
"That is—"
"What's this 'something you're obliged to do,' when you're an imperial princess just like me?"
"......."
Alice was looking straight at me. We were sitting side by side, but she had turned her body slightly toward me and turned her head to fix her gaze directly on me.
And from her face, I felt an odd, commanding pressure.
I had felt this kind of atmosphere once before.
Back when I was about to enter the academy, the emperor had tried to send me not to the academy but to the northern front. Alice had come to me in furious indignation, found the morphine in my room, marched straight to the emperor, forced a decisive negotiation, and essentially dragged me off to the academy.
The same sort of aura she had then was radiating from Alice's face now, as she looked at me.
"Father... doesn't distinguish between you and me. Or between Bella and me, or Lucas, or Jaden. You know that, don't you."
Alice clenched her fist tightly. The piece of cloth in her hand crumpled inside her grip.
"But after hearing the words that you considered me the next emperor, Father didn't make any particular remarks. That doesn't mean he believes in my ability; he simply puts more stock in your will. Isn't that it?"
So that was the kind of conversation they had exchanged when they met the emperor, then.
... Indeed, judging from how the emperor treated me, he might well have placed greater weight on my decision than on Alice's will.
"Let me ask one thing, too. Last year, I just assumed it meant you were acknowledging me, so I glossed over it without thinking. But... why do you believe that I should be the next emperor?"
"......."
"What did you look at in me, to think of me as the next emperor? Ability? Character? Or were you simply looking at my bloodline? Or was it usefulness? Would I bring you some kind of benefit in the future?"
What exactly had I looked at in Alice, I wondered, to decide that I would "make her the emperor"?
The reason I had been soft toward Alice.
It was, in truth, simple enough that it didn't even require consideration.
I simply liked Alice.
Not only Alice; I liked every character who had appeared as a protagonist in the Aetherna Chronicles.
The care I had shown Alice came from the same place as the care I had shown Claire. It was simply because they were characters I had liked, even before I came to this world.
If I were to be honest, I'd be lying if I said my heart hadn't raced when I first met her.
It was only that the desperate circumstances, the enemies I had to face, and the hundreds of considerations I had to juggle had buried that initial emotion beneath an avalanche of thoughts. But the very first thought I'd had—yes. It had been "I'm happy."
When I met Claire, I had been afraid. If I'd stayed in that place, I would have inevitably suffered exactly the same thing that Claire had suffered in the original work. When I met Alice too, beyond the joy of meeting her, I had also felt fear of the emperor, and an intense irritation toward Lucas, who kept charging in at every moment without the least sense of timing.
But even so, I couldn't fully erase the delight of realizing that I had entered the story of that game.
The reason I kept moving so fervently inside that story was, at the core, because I truly wanted those characters to live safely through it all.
"......."
And yet, strangely enough.
The simple words "because I like you" were oddly difficult to say. Even though I knew that if I felt embarrassed after saying them, I could just turn back time—even though I knew I could simply blurt them out and then undo it if I got flustered—
strangely, I had the sense that this, of all things, was something I must not do.
"See."
But Alice seemed to interpret my silence differently.
At my attitude, Alice wore neither an expression of disappointment nor one of sadness.
Somehow, she looked relieved.
And for that expression alone, I could not fathom the reason.
"In that case, let me prove it."
Alice looked at me with a determined expression as she spoke.
"Prove to you that I have the ability to ascend the throne. That I'm not someone who merely receives your protection, but someone worthy of protecting you."
"......."
"Not just someone who insists that she's your sister, but someone who can stand properly as one. I want you to give me the chance to prove that."
"......I am,"
"Yes. You may already know everything. So I know this is an unreasonable request. I know it isn't what someone who calls herself your sister is supposed to say. But...."
Alice's fingers tightened further around her clenched fist.
"But... this is what I want to do."
Simply because she wanted to do so.
If you delved deeper, it was nothing but willfulness, with no coherent logic behind it, a plea that was ultimately no more than self-satisfaction.
But—
"......I understand."
In the end, I, too, was moving from the same kind of reasoning.
"In exchange, allow me to accompany you. Your Imperial Highness... no, Alice, please act as you see fit. I will follow and assist you when the need arises."
"That's."
"Because an emperor is not a being who moves alone. I believe you are entitled to have at least one person at your command."
If this was going to happen regardless, then I hoped she would do it somewhere within my sight.
This was a major event, after all.
"......."
Alice stared at me blankly as I said such things.
That was understandable.
Because, at this moment, I was not diligently controlling my expression the way I usually did.