Chapter 42
‘The Red Knight.’
The boss monster responsible for the first calamity, Chil-ya (漆夜).
While Ranne and ■■■ were running from it, I moved about in secret and took care of what I needed to do.
Perhaps it was because I had prepared so thoroughly.
Everyone seemed convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was dead.
‘Well, I did bring similar clothes, a similar mask, and even a lump of meat to play the corpse.’
It would be scarier if they still hadn’t been fooled.
I ran around while entertaining such pointless thoughts.
Speed was the key to this plan.
I had to search the entirety of Area A, which had been enclosed by the barrier.
Of course, I wasn’t doing it alone; as always, our princess lent me a hand.
[Victor.]
“Princess.”
[When I went to the location you indicated, there were indeed other students there. They must be the children trapped in Area A with us. I knocked them all unconscious and moved them to a safe place. Since I dealt with them in an instant, not even a trace of my presence should remain.]
“Thank you for your hard work.”
All the students who had been caught up in it with us were moved to the edge of the barrier.
If they started making a fuss for no reason, they could throw the plan off.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
I had finished my own business as well.
While Carmilla was running around, I made a wide circuit of Area A.
I found and smashed every recording magic tool laid throughout the forest.
It would have been troublesome if the faculty checked later.
There was plenty of demonic energy around anyway, so I could just pass it off as an overload that made them explode.
“Lastly…”
The crystal orb I had tossed into the testing grounds a few days before the practical exam.
I quietly retrieved it.
With this, the preparations were perfect.
After wrapping things up, we returned to the scene.
“Hmm.”
The forest had been utterly wrecked, presumably by the Red Knight’s rampage.
The red armor stood tall, its head almost touching the ceiling.
Only two pitifully crumpled girls stood before it.
Ranne was unconscious, and ■■■ had collapsed as well.
“I seem to have arrived at exactly the right time…”
Her black hair was disheveled, and her grayish eyes had gone dead black.
■■■ merely mumbled to herself.
As though she were speaking to something that did not exist.
-Yes…
-Do as you please.
Words muttered under her breath.
What unfolded next defied description.
Seconds after her lips parted, ■■■’s nightmares were scattered across the world.
It was a horrifying sight.
If the word ‘apocalypse’ were given visual form, perhaps it would look like this.
‘So that’s it.’
■■■’s nightmares.
All kinds of monsters came crawling out with wet, squelching motions.
A monstrous bird, queens, chess pieces, playing cards, rabbits…
Ominous things swarmed everywhere, and ominous fog spread outward.
‘Wonderland.’
The name belonging to the third of the Seven Calamities.
I calmly watched the murderous landscape before me.
Every one of them had been summoned by ■■■.
‘Dream.’
The girl’s ability.
The power to turn daydreams into reality.
Wonderland was a type of nightmare that lived parasitically off that power.
[What on earth is that…?]
Carmilla muttered blankly.
It was hell.
The monsters rushed in, knocked the Red Knight down, then tore open its armor and pulled out its entrails.
The tentacle-like interior was mangled beyond recognition.
Soldiers rampaging in madness, and queens radiating oppressive killing intent.
A familiar mechanical sound rang in my ears.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the main quest!]
-Title: Chil-ya (漆夜)
-Description: Defeat the boss monster ‘The Red Knight (The Red Knight).’
[You have stopped one of the Seven Calamities!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
It said I had cleared the calamity.
But I had no time to open my inventory.
Because the status window turned bright red the next moment.
Beeep-! Beeep-!
[Emergency quest generated!]
[Emergency quest generated!]
[Emergency quest generated!]
Unlike the usual notifications, an urgent alert flashed by.
I merely brushed off my sleeve and quietly gripped my scythe.
[Emergency Quest]
-Title: Welcome to Wonderland.
-Description: Prevent the nightmare transformation of ‘■■■ (Project Alice-02)’ currently running wild.
-Failure Penalty: The reign of the apocalypse ‘Black Queen’
-Reward: Welcome to Wonderland, and worship the Heart, Red, White, and Black Queens who reign over the world.
[Time Limit: ???]
The letters in the status window twisted strangely.
Leaving the flickering red behind, I lightly set off toward the girl.
‘That’s right.’
I had been waiting for this.
For this moment when the nightmare inside ■■■ escaped.
‘Let’s see what you can do.’
The corners of my mouth twisted upward of their own accord beneath the mask.
From this moment on, I intended to smash the girl’s nightmare to pieces.
***
“······.”
■■■ sat there blankly.
Because of the boy who had appeared before her just as she was about to be swallowed by the nightmare.
“Hehe.”
A landscape no different from hell.
And yet, even in such a scene, the clown was smiling.
Though the mask made it hard to see, she was certain he must have been grinning slyly.
“······How?”
■■■ muttered absentmindedly.
That was the only word that escaped her.
After all, every aspect of the situation was shrouded in mystery.
Even the swarming nightmares were briefly driven back by the commotion.
‘How?’
She had clearly checked even the corpse, so how was he alive?
How was he unharmed when the nightmare had spread this far?
How had he just made the White Queen evaporate?
How had he appeared as though he had been waiting for this?
What did he intend to do about this situation?
How.
How.
How.
“······.”
Perhaps because all the words were jumbled together, no voice came out.
The throat that could not form even a single sentence merely trembled.
Something she could not understand.
Perhaps it had been that way from the beginning.
From the day the girl had watched the boy beyond her dreams.
‘The unknown.’
The boy’s existence had always been an unknown to the girl.
■■■ had even forgotten to continue her questions.
As she looked up at the mask, everything around her was quiet.
As though entranced by something, the world sank into a lukewarm silence.
“Who knows.”
The clown did not answer.
He merely cocked his head playfully.
“Do you really need to know?”
Do you truly wish to know?
The boy looked down at her with that look in his eyes.
■■■ stood frozen, unable to nod.
“Well… shall we have a proper conversation later? For now, I think it would be best to put out the immediate fire first.”
A hand lightly stroked the girl’s head.
Flap-.
Then he covered the disheveled ■■■ with something.
What he took from his robe was the school uniform coat he usually wore.
“Please wait a moment.”
The clown made a breezy request.
Then he gripped his scythe and slowly turned his head.
Behind the clown, a horde of nightmares was seething.
“Wow… there are quite a lot of them.”
A faint mutter to himself.
“I’ve taken care of one queen. I just need to get the other two, right…?”
The minimum requirement for bringing the situation under control.
To instantly kill the queens commanding the nightmares.
The clown paced on the spot for a moment.
“Princess.”
“Why do you call me, my loyal retainer?”
A girl who had appeared beside the clown at some point.
Silver hair spilled down her back, with red eyes flashing between the strands.
The clown tossed the words at her.
“I’ll leave Miss Ranne and Miss ■■■ in your care. Please protect them so that neither of them is hurt.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“I’ll be back in a moment. I have a few creatures to put down.”
“Be careful. They radiate a strange energy.”
“There’s no need to worry. It’ll be over in an instant.”
The next moment.
The clown’s figure flickered as he leaped through space.
Only sparks remained behind him like afterimages.
Crackle-.
<[♥♥♥♥♥]>
<[◆◆◆◆◆◆]>
Perhaps startled by his sudden disappearance, the nightmares looked around them.
The boy who had vanished like that reappeared high in the air.
‘Jabberwock.’
The shadow that had been flying overhead all this time.
A monstrous bird as large as the Red Knight.
From atop its head, the boy brought his scythe straight down.
“I’ll start with this one.”
Stab-!
The blade plunged deep into the crown of its head.
Ignoring even its famously tough hide, it sank in smoothly, as though chopping into tofu.
At the same time, beginning at the point where the scythe struck, the monstrous bird’s form began to melt away.
<[Screeeeeech-!]>
Jabberwock thrashed to throw the clown off, but he merely muttered calmly.
“Ignition. Thorns.”
Boom-!
Dozens of thorns exploded from the tip of the blade.
The monstrous bird’s head burst apart without leaving even a silhouette behind.
Jabberwock fell, robbed of its strength.
Crackle-.
The clown’s body flickered once more.
This time, the boy appeared among the playing-card soldiers.
Before the soldiers could even notice him, he was already swinging his scythe.
“Hmph…!”
Shraaak-!
The blade swept cleanly through everything in front of him.
Immediately afterward, the playing cards touched by the scythe melted away.
Without hesitation, the clown raced through the things crumbling around him.
Shraaak-!
Shraak-!
Every time the scythe swung, the cards were swept away like autumn leaves in the wind.
Beyond the forest of playing cards stood the Queen of Hearts.
<[♥♥♥♥♥]>
Its appearance was closer to a mannequin than a human.
Only a heart was drawn on its featureless face.
It appeared to be backing away, using the soldiers as shields.
But.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Slash-.
The wall shattered to pieces from a single light swing.
The clown had already reached the queen’s nose.
The corners of his mouth stretched to his ears.
At the same time, a dark-red curve was drawn through the air.
“Surely you didn’t think you could escape?”
Shk-!
The Queen of Hearts was killed before it had any chance to resist.
One of the nightmare’s central figures.
One of the three queens.
Yet its neck was sliced through far too easily.
Its cleanly severed head flew through the air, while its torso sprawled on the ground.
“Phew… what a workout.”
Unlike his words, the boy calmly brushed off his sleeve.
Countless severed soldiers lay at his feet.
The clown’s mask merely grinned.
“Then… that leaves just one, doesn’t it?”
The Red Queen.
The boy spoke while looking at the last queen remaining.
“······.”
■■■ watched the scene in a daze.
It was a sight she could not possibly believe.
‘This is impossible…’
The nightmare she had believed she could never resist.
And so, the life she had always been forced to spend running away.
The solitude of crying quietly alone, letting her insides rot, yet unable to ask for help.
-As you go through life.
-You might meet someone who will save you someday, you know?
And yet, at the same time, she had hoped for salvation—a contradiction.
The foolish hope that someone would reach out and catch her.
Because she wanted the sadness and suffering to end.
-■■■.
-You’ll definitely be happy someday.
In the end, the girl wanted to be happy, just as someone had told her she could.
■■■, ■■■.
A child who should never have been born.
And yet, if she had longed for something…
-For example?
-Maybe a prince on a white horse will come to rescue you.
The girl held her breath.
A spark of life glimmered in her pupils, once blackened.
Resignation peeled away from her gaze, and tears welled up softly.
The tears of blood streaming down her cheeks were diluted as something transparent mingled with them.
“Ah…”
Her sobs gradually grew louder.
Without realizing it, she clutched tightly at what was draped over her shoulders.
The coat the boy had draped over her, a cloth still warm with his body heat.
‘The person… my sister was talking about.’
The prince on a white horse.
The person who would save the girl.
■■■ thought as she looked at his back.
‘Maybe.’
Maybe even this terrible life would one day let in the light.