Chapter 40
A memory from some time ago.
A basement where not even a sliver of light could reach.
Alice was huddled against the hard iron bars, crying quietly.
“Sniff, sob···.”
Covered in wounds.
Fat tears rolled down her haggard cheeks.
Even as she cried, Alice did not know why she was crying.
“Ugh, hhk···.”
A day no different from any other.
Yet why were her emotions such a mess today?
“Alice.”
As she muffled her sobs, she suddenly sensed someone behind her.
At the same time, a gentle hand stroked Alice’s head.
When she raised her head, a girl who looked exactly like her was standing there.
“S-sis···.”
Alice moved her lips as if she had been caught.
Regardless, her sister crouched down in front of her.
She gently reached out her hand.
She wiped the face covered in tears.
Dark wet spots dotted the white sleeves.
“You’ve ruined your pretty face.”
A playful remark.
The girl did not ask Alice anything.
Why she had been crying.
Why she wore such a sad expression.
Why she had been hurting herself.
“It must have been hard.”
There was no need to ask.
Her sister’s condition was not much different from her younger sister’s.
A body covered in wounds, pristine white clothes, surgical scars left on her arm···.
A complete wreck.
The sisters were alike.
But if there was one thing that differed···.
“You held on well today, too. You’re amazing, little sis.”
“S-sis···. Rubbing your cheek against mine hurts···.”
“Ah, sorry. That’s where you’re hurt. Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?”
“Mm··· I-I’m okay.”
Her sister did not cry.
Alice had never once seen her cry.
Instead of crying, she simply always smiled brightly.
“That’s a relief! The wound isn’t too deep.”
A basement without a single ray of light.
Cold iron bars.
Even in such surroundings, her sister’s smile sparkled.
And so, Alice often relied on her sister.
“Sniff, sis···.”
“Oh my~ Our little spoiled one! Don’t you like your big sister a little too much?”
Her sister noticed the timidly outstretched arms and immediately embraced her.
Whenever she was held in those arms, Alice could forget hell, if only for a little while.
A spoiled child.
Maybe that was true.
She had been that age, after all.
The girl was at an age when she should have been throwing tantrums and acting spoiled.
“Sis, sis···.”
“That’s right. Good girl, my little sister.”
Looking back, Alice realized that her sister could never have been anyone’s spoiled child.
She had become the one who indulged others from an early age.
Alice had always been a burden to her sister.
“I’m scared···.”
She was scared.
She did not want to be hurt.
She wanted to escape this place.
But Alice was utterly powerless before the iron bars.
The girl had no power and could do nothing.
“Ugh, sob···.”
“It’s okay. Everything will be all right.”
Perhaps that was why Alice cried so much.
Because her tears alone came at no cost.
Because crying was the only thing she could do freely.
“Now, take a deep breath. Breathe with me.”
“Sob, haa···.”
Every day was a repetition of being broken, trampled, and driven to despair.
It was a life too harsh for young girls to endure.
And so, she sometimes had thoughts like these.
Why did everything turn out this way?
Why did only I, why did only we, have to live like this?
The longer life went on, the more of a mess it became; the harder she struggled, the deeper she sank.
“Sis···.”
Did any of this have meaning?
If life meant becoming a mess and sinking, was there any reason to force herself to keep living?
Alice trembled.
“Alice.”
Whenever that happened, her sister would take her hand.
A warmth that was never cold.
“It’s okay··· It will surely get better.”
Though it was painful now, she said, it would bloom someday.
A hand that had given Alice courage countless times.
A hand that had kept her alive countless times.
A hand that promised a farther future, even when things were sad and painful.
Without that hand, Alice might have died long ago.
“······Really?”
“Of course. Have you ever seen me lie?”
“How? In what way···?”
“Hmm··· For example? Maybe a prince on a white horse will come to rescue you···.”
“······.”
“You might meet someone who will save you someday, you know? That’s how life is.”
“You always say things like that, sis. That it’ll be all right someday, that I have to believe it will···.”
“Is that so? Still, that’s how we survive.”
Her sister smiled brightly.
Before long, Alice had stopped crying as well.
“You always have to believe that tomorrow will be better.”
“······.”
Belief.
Her sister especially liked that word.
The thing that makes people keep living.
The thing that makes people human.
“But···.”
It was something Alice could not understand.
Just belief.
Could it change anything by itself?
An extension of thought, a corner of optimism, or perhaps simply a sense of indebtedness.
Could something so insignificant really change the world, or even a person?
“Who knows? I don’t know either.”
“······.”
“Just. Just believe.”
That was how she found the strength to endure today.
Her sister added with a bright smile.
A girl who looked exactly like Alice.
Yet a girl who differed from her in many ways.
“So···”
Believe.
“You’ll definitely be happy someday.”
A tightly clasped hand.
Alice could not shake it off.
Not knowing what it meant, she merely nodded several times.
“That’s my little sister! You really are such a good listener.”
“Mmm··· Sis, my cheek hurts···.”
Someday.
She said that even this cursed life would one day receive light.
***
Her consciousness briefly drifted away.
Had a flashback passed through her mind?
Alice’s mind had revisited the old days she had spent with her sister.
“······.”
When she raised her head, armor soon filled her field of vision.
A bright-red knight stood above her head.
It was easily ten meters tall.
Tentacles writhed beyond the helmet as they looked down at the girl.
“Ah···.”
A short sigh.
She could not even bring herself to move a finger.
A sinister pressure was bearing down on her body.
<.···Ah, what pitiful little lambs...>
Then, the calamity moved.
A sword raised until it nearly touched the ceiling.
Dark-red energy condensed around the blade, warping her vision.
‘I’m going to die.’
She belatedly tried to take a step, but her body would not follow.
At this distance, escaping was impossible.
Screeeech-!
A slash soon fell from above her head.
Alice squeezed her eyes shut.
However, the attack never reached the girl.
“Miss Alice!”
Someone urgently darted forward.
A platinum-colored spear swung through the air, scattering starlight in every direction.
‘Kihano-Style Spearmanship Secret Technique’
-Night Sky-
A dazzling flash.
The unleashed technique collided head-on with the Red Knight’s strike.
Kwaaang-!
A shattering roar as though heaven and earth had been overturned.
Golden and black hair whipped in the surging backdraft.
Then someone snatched up the frozen Alice and ran.
“Run!”
“L-Lady Kihano···?!”
It was Ranne.
Only then did Alice come to her senses and begin sprinting through the forest.
The landscape was strewn with mutant corpses and rotting undergrowth in every direction.
It was a scene better described as hell than a forest.
“Miss Alice! Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I-I’m fine! More importantly, you··· You were hurt while helping me···.”
Ranne ran ahead of her.
Her appearance was a complete mess.
Her right arm was torn to shreds, her forehead was torn wide open and bleeding, her breathing was unnaturally ragged, and cold sweat poured down her face like rain···.
She was clearly far from normal.
“Haa, haa···.”
She could have dodged on her own, but she had stepped forward to protect Alice.
She had taken such a monstrous attack head-on.
It was a wonder she was still alive.
As expected of Class A’s second-ranked student.
“Cough···!”
But.
That was all.
<.O people of the godless king.>
She had reached her limit.
Ranne had no means left to resist.
If her body had at least been intact, she might have endured by striking and retreating···.
<.Rise and worship before the god.>
<.For He shall bring death upon all life.>
But she had already been utterly wrecked.
There was nothing she could do with her battered body.
All she could do was be pursued alongside Alice and buy them a few more seconds.
Her legs wobbled.
“Ghk, whew···.”
“Lady Kihano! What do we do? I-I can’t stop the bleeding···!”
Alice, white-faced, hurriedly supported Ranne.
The two girls’ speed naturally began to slow.
The Red Knight was pursuing them from behind.
Thud, thud, thud, thud-!
Heavy footsteps filled their ears.
The ground shook as though an earthquake had struck.
Perhaps it felt no need to hurry, because it was walking leisurely.
But its strides were so long that it seemed it would catch up after only a few steps.
“······.”
It was time to make a decision.
Ranne, who had been dragging herself along, suddenly opened her eyes wide.
As if to say that this would not do, she shook off Alice’s support.
Snap—.
“L-Lady Kihano···?”
Alice stopped, dazed.
Ranne picked up her spear and turned to look back along the path they had come.
“Haa, haa··· Go on ahead. I’ll buy us some time, if only for a moment.”
“W-what?! What are you saying?! There’s no way you can beat that···!”
“If we stay like this, it will catch us both. It is more rational for one of us to remain behind here.”
“You’re already in terrible shape! Nothing will change just because you stay behind!”
“Go.”
Ranne was being stubborn.
She looked as though she had already resigned herself to death.
“This barrier··· We surely aren’t the only ones trapped inside. There must be other groups caught up in this as well. Join them. Then we should be able to hold out somehow until the professors arrive.”
“But what about you, Lady Kihano···!”
“I’m already finished! There’s no way for both of us to escape. In a situation like this, leaving the injured person behind is the right decision. Besides, that is an opponent even Sir Victor couldn’t react to before being defeated! It isn’t someone we can hope to handle at our level!”
A clear cry despite her exhaustion and injuries.
Ranne took a deep breath and gripped her spear.
Faint starlight hovered beside her.
“Go! Even I will only be able to hold it off for a few minutes.”
“Ugh, uh···.”
Alice felt as though she were about to burst into tears.
‘How can she···.’
Step, step—
Her gaze followed the back moving farther ahead.
The girl chose sacrifice as though it were only natural.
She raised the tip of her spear and made her presence known with all her might.
“Come, knight of vile energy!”