Chapter 211: OZ (8)

Sister.

My beloved sister.

-Today's experiment seemed harder than usual, didn't it?

-Even so, my pretty little sister! You held on well today too.

If I hadn't had my sister, I wouldn't have survived those days.

The laboratory was cramped, and living there was painful.

-You had another scary dream? You can't sleep, and you've been crying this whole time.

-Of course you're not okay. Come here, get in your sister's arms.

The place where we lived.

The room was like a stark white hell, and demons lived beyond the glass windows.

Even in that laboratory, my sister alone seemed to shine.

-What? I look like an angel from a fairy tale?

-Ahaha! Don't say such embarrassing things!

My sister, smiling gently, was invincible. Whenever I hid behind her wingless back, everything became quiet.

I thought she really was an angel.

She looked quite different from how angels were described in fairy tales, though.

Still, whenever I cried quietly, the arms that held me so gently felt more angelic than anything.

-When we get out of here someday, let's build a quiet house and live there together.

-We can just run away! Or are you planning to stay in this laboratory forever?

-Of course we will! But it'll be our secret. Father must never find out!

-When we finally escape, I want to visit so many places, the sea said to be endlessly filled with salt water, mountains where all kinds of plants grow together, snowfields piled high with white ice crystals... Ah, and I want to go to an academy too, where people our age gather!

After a hard day, my sister would tell me about our dreams.

About traveling all over the continent together.

Those few sentences were enough to keep me alive.

Perhaps that was one of the happiest moments of my life.

-It's okay. You'll definitely be happy.

-Your sister guarantees it.

I learned love from my sister, so I was able to live as a person.

I didn't become the monster Father wanted me to be.

I'm living as a human instead.

I've met so many good people, so many people I'm grateful for.

I've traveled all over the continent and seen a world far wider than that laboratory.

-Um... For example? Maybe a prince on a white horse will come save you.

-You might meet someone who'll save you someday.

That's right.

They didn't ride a white horse, but there were people who saved me.

Somehow, it seems like my sister was never wrong.

And I found someone I love, too.

It's okay. Don't worry.

Loving that person doesn't mean I'll stop loving you.

-Hey... my little sister, ngh... if you end up going outside alone...

-I'll give you... my name...

-So... at least you... live on as Alice.

Sister.

My foolish sister, who thought only of her little sister until the very end.

-Sis... ter, is okay.

-Alice becoming happy... is your sister's... happiness...

That moment is still vivid.

How could she talk only about her little sister's happiness even in the face of death?

-You have to... be happy.

A life of cruel twists.

Born without knowing why, suffering and hurting, yet loving someone, dreaming, despairing, and hoping again and again, only to nearly grasp everything in the end before losing it all as though it had been an illusion. Such a dreamlike life.

-I love you, my little sister.

Even through a life like that, my sister told me she loved me.

Her love changed my world.

So I'll spend my whole life loving you too.

I won't forget you for even a single moment.

<Now then... Alice? Shouldn't you greet someone you haven't seen in a long time?>

“Sis... ter?”

I love you, Sister.

Even if we meet again someday, I'll love you.

* * *

“......”

A cold silence settled over the room.

Alice and the others stood there in a daze.

<What do you think? I put quite a bit of work into this piece.>

They blinked several times, but the figure across from them still resembled someone.

Her hair had been bleached white and her eyes had turned red, but Alice was certain.

The girl before her was her sister.

Project Alice-01.

The sister who had lived through those hellish days with her.

Alice seemed to have forgotten even how to breathe.

Her distinctive blue eyes shook violently.

The faceless man continued his lively explanation as though none of it mattered.

<Project Alice-01. Or should I call her Allie? Anyway, I recovered her corpse. Her entire lower body had been severed, so bringing her back wasn't an easy task...>

His voice brimmed with excitement.

He sounded as though he could barely contain his delight.

<I managed it in the end. I received help from the New Kingdom. Pureblood vampire blood turned out to be a material that works surprisingly well in Chimera experiments. Thanks to that, I was able to restore her in perfect condition.>

“Sister...”

<Of course, I didn't simply restore her. Through a few modifications and restraints, I adjusted her to make her even more suited to being a weapon.>

“Sister! It's me, Liss!”

<Ahaha! Of course she doesn't recognize you. Do you think Oz would handle the finishing touches so carelessly? I locked away her old memories. In other words, this one isn't Alice-01, nor is she Sister Allie. She's a weapon that carries out only the commands entered into her. She exists solely as Project-Unknown.>

“How could you...?”

Oz quietly stepped back.

He staggered badly.

The injuries Viktor had inflicted on him didn't seem to be healing easily.

Perhaps realizing the danger, Oz sent Unknown forward.

<Then, Unknown? Eliminate the intruders.>

“Yes, Father.”

<I don't expect you to win, so at least buy as much time as possible. Until I manifest the project. Project-Emerald City was originally scheduled for a month from now, but I suppose I'll have to move the plan up. If I don't manifest it immediately, I won't survive.>

“I will eliminate the intruders.”

Leaving that mechanical voice behind, Oz escaped the laboratory.

A white-haired girl blocked our path as we tried to pursue him.

Her red eyes reflected nothing.

Only the commands entered into her and the results she sought to produce existed there.

“I will eliminate them.”

Unknown spread both hands.

A pitch-black crown appeared above her head, settling there as though it were orbiting.

‘Wait, that's...!’

It was an ability based on the [Black Queen], just like Alice's.

The power Alice-01 had possessed.

Then black mist painted over our vision.

Soldiers shaped like playing cards and chess pieces leaped out from within it.

[♠]

[♦]

[♥]

[♣]

Yet they were quite different from the soldiers Alice commanded.

Their forms were far more grotesque and unpleasant.

They resembled the soldiers Alice had created at the start of the semester, when she had been unable to control her power.

Though they were formed from the same power of the [Black Queen], there was a difference in the elements that combined to make up their existence.

‘They're different.’

If Alice's soldiers were [Dreams], Unknown's soldiers were [Nightmares].

The former were refined, while the latter possessed a crude and vicious kind of power.

Unknown summoned hundreds of soldiers in an instant.

“All troops. Advance.”

The army of nightmares surged forward.

But the ruler of dreams on the other side was already prepared to strike back.

“Sister! Please, wake up...!”

Alice wore a black crown and cloak, just like Unknown.

She reached toward the approaching soldiers.

“Stop, all of you!”

A different yet identical command of the [Black Queen].

The charging soldiers stopped.

Alice seized control at once.

The soldiers shed their grotesque forms and gradually changed into refined [Dreams].

“Eliminate them.”

“Stop!”

The two exerted their influence as if testing their strength against each other.

Control was seized and seized back without end.

The soldiers accordingly changed from dreams to nightmares, then back again.

“Sister...!”

Though cold sweat ran down her face, Alice desperately called out to Allie again and again.

Unknown only answered with indifferent eyes.

“Urgh...!”

The battle was evenly matched.

No, Alice's control was actually one step above Unknown's.

But whenever a decisive moment came, she couldn't bring herself to press her sister any further.

That hesitation kept their standoff balanced on a knife's edge.

“Miss Alice? Please hold her there.”

“Lord Viktor...?”

Just as she couldn't see a way forward, someone entered the battlefield.

It was the boy holding a scythe in one hand and a Balloon Knife in the other.

‘If it's a nightmare, bugs are still the best way to tear it apart.’

When Alice had been consumed by nightmares before, Viktor had used bugs to tear them all away.

When it came to powers related to the [Black Queen], he could be called their natural enemy.

The boy cut down the soldiers one by one and quickly closed in on Unknown.

Before long, a clown mask was reflected in her red eyes.

“It's a pleasure to meet you. I hear you're Miss Alice's older sister.”

“......!”

As though he had teleported, he was suddenly right before her.

His greeting was bright.

The boy's hand gripped her pitch-black shoulder.

Then he pulled, as if tearing the nightmare out of Unknown.

Riiip-!

Part of the darkness wrapped around Unknown tore away.

The writhing aura of nightmares shrank back for a moment.

Then the murkiness cleared from the girl's eyes.

“Ugh...”

White hair swayed as she staggered with a groan.

Though dazed, her clearer pupils fixed on the girl before her.

“...Li, ss?”

It was only one word, but Unknown had definitely murmured it.