A new set of teacakes were lined up on the table…… Or rather, food exists in Alice’s house huh……. No, well, they obviously do. I didn’t realize it since she had the image of someone who’s always hungry…… hey, wait a minute? I’m sure Alice doesn’t need to eat or sleep……. So, I guess that hungry-looking self she had before was just an act to fool me huh.
Well, even though eating is just supposed to be their preference, this woman still acts like she hasn’t been fed for days……
[……Ah, where were we again?]
[At the moment when the Evil God appeared.]
[Ahh, that’s right. That Evil God, the mastermind called it the “Great Evil God of Despair”, but that Evil God didn’t have any kind of will. It just follows the reason of its existence, destroy the world.]
[……………….]
I see, it’s not that this Evil God is evil because it intends to destroy the world……. It’s just that it’s a kind of catastrophe that works for the sole purpose of destroying the world from the moment it appeared……
[As soon as that Evil God arrived, “Darkness enveloped the hearts of humans around the world, and lured them to despair”, well, just because it’s the last boss, it used the last boss’s mental attacks? What a disgrace of a last boss, it is. How about you just physically smack people around?]
[You just smoothly dissed it huh. Well, enveloping the hearts of humans around the world with darkness……. Isn’t that amazing…….]
[I guess so. Well, it would be OK if you imagine it as Isis-san’s magic power of death spreading around the world. Well, in terms of ability, Isis-san is many times stronger than it……]
I see, that certainly is a mental attack. If the magic power of death is to force the other person to fear death, then the Evil God’s power is to force all humans in the world to feel the emotion of despair…… Hmmm. It looks like an outrageous being just from listening to her story.
[In reality though, it was quite a dangerous opponent…… Not only does it paint the humans’ hearts in darkness, but it also dyes our vision in black…… If it remains like that, the people all over the world would die.]
[……Such a monster, how could it be……]
[Just because it was given despair, it would instantly fall to despair, the human hearts aren’t that simple, you know? Rather, it’s because despair exists that they try to resist it…… and at that moment, the hearts of all humans in the world were connected as one because of the Evil God. That’s why…… it was an opportunity.]
[………………]
The joking look on her face changed to a serious look and Alice continued speaking.
It seemed to imply that the content is important from here on out.
[The small wishes in the hearts of people around the world, a sure hope for the future…… With the power of Ἑκατόγχειρες, I weaved all of those thoughts into my own body. To defeat the Great Evil God of Despair, to protect the people I care about……. I weaved the whole world together.]
[………………….]
[In conclusion…… I won. I defeated the Evil God and defended the world…… Some even started calling me the “Hero of Hope”.]
[……Alice.]
I wonder why? It was supposed to be…… a happy ending. It was a victory for Alice, who gathered the hopes of the world against the Evil God, who wanted to envelop the world in despair.
It was supposed to be a great event, just like the ending of a legend…… but why does Alice have an uncheerful look on her face?
[……That was a joyous event, as the world became at peace…… it would have been great if it had ended there.]
As if to answer my question, Alice gives a self-mocking smile.
[……I noticed the anomaly right away. No matter how many days I didn’t eat or sleep…… I found myself not getting tired at all.]
[ ! ? ]
[Weaving hope around the world…… my body originally couldn’t withstand such immense energy…… So, that must be why…… my body evolved…… No, it transformed. “To a monster that surpasses the Evil God”……]
[………………….]
Alice, who is supposed to be the Hero who defeated the Evil God, before she knew it, became a monster that surpassed the Evil God…… I see. That’s why she said she was “Ex-Human”…… Alice must have exceeded her limits as a human at that moment.
In a world where humans are the only race existing, she has become a being that is completely out of the norm.
[……Well, that doesn’t mean I was persecuted or anything like that. I mean, they actually couldn’t. At that time, I’ve already become someone that the whole world couldn’t defeat, even if they were united.]
[Is…… that so……]
[Yes. However, my partner…… my best friend laughed at my distress, telling me “Idiot. Just because you acquired power exceeding human intellect, you think you’re a God? How stupid.”…… and treated me no differently than she ever did before. My little sister and my friends were also the same. They naturally laughed at me, as if they were telling me that no matter what kind of being I’ve become, I will still be me.]
Whether it’s Alice’s best friend or her little sister…… For them, it doesn’t really matter if Alice became someone beyond human intellect.
No matter what happened, Alice is still Alice…… I’m sure that hearing those words would make Alice happy, and I could see it from her expression now.
[……However, my despair…… started at that moment.]
[……Eh?]
As if to interrupt such an atmosphere, speaking in a heavy and pained voice, Alice lowered her head for a moment…… before looking up again with a smile on her face, as if she was about to cry.
[……From the moment my body was transformed…… I had become “immortal”.]
[Wha…….]
[That’s right. Now, just as Kaito-san imagined…… while the people I love and cherish with all my heart and soul are getting old…… My body remained this way for a long, long time.]
[……………….]
Now, I finally understand. I understood the despair Alice has been experiencing……
The story told so far is the story of a girl who was called a hero, and “defended those important to her”…… And now, it was the story of the girl “who lost them”……
[My mother died, my father died…… The cruel passage of time took away my loved ones one after another. Over and over again, I experienced the death of my loved ones. When my little sister, the most important person in the world, died of age while still worrying about me…… I cried so much that tears won’t come out anymore.]
[………………….]
How much…… grief has she felt? For the people she protected, even fighting an outrageous being like an Evil God…… How much grief did Alice’s heart has experienced, having to see their deaths……
[…… I…… thought of myself as “invincible”. As long as I have people to protect on my back, my heart will never be broken. That I can be as strong as I want, and I can beat even the mightiest of opponents…… And it certainly was true.]
[………………]
[My heart would never fall as long as my loved ones were around…… But losing those people…… My heart, it broke into very small pieces…… broke so much that it was laughable.]
I can’t say anything. The pain of being left along, I know a little bit about it.
When I lost my parents and was left alone, I felt a terrible emptiness in my heart…… and I’m sure Alice felt that too……
At the same time, my question was answered. Why did Alice manifest such a tremendous fury for Eden-san…… Perhaps, she is afraid of losing her important people more than anything else.
Because she definitely experienced so much of it……
[……When a loved one dies, a cold, dark hole is left in your heart where the person should have been before…… The hole may be small, but it will never go away…… That hole will remain in your heart, forever and ever.]
[……Alice.]
[I couldn’t bear the thought of being left alone. I didn’t have the confidence to carry their deaths with me…… So, when all my loved ones are gone…… I thought that I couldn’t live anymore.]
[ ! ? ]
Her heartbroken voice, her tear-filled eyes…… They were telling us that Alice’s words aren’t an exaggeration.
However, if that’s the case, then why is Alice still living in front of me now? Did something happen that changed her mind?
[……The last one left was my best friend. She’s amazing. She apparently “doesn’t want to leave me alone”, and that thought alone kept her alive for much longer than the others…… However, her limits still arrived.]
[……………….]
[A future where I am left alone to mourn for others, and where I would take my own life…… My best friend must have sensed this. Therefore, on the verge of my best friend’s death…… She placed a “curse” on me.]
[……A curse?]
[Yes. A gentle, yet painful curse…… And it still binds my heart today. A curse I couldn’t go against, namely “my best friend’s last wish”…… I still vividly remember the conversation I had with my best friend at that time.]
Slowly as if she was reflecting each of those words, painfully as if lamenting her heartbreaking fate, Alice began to quietly say the words of her last remaining memories with her best friend.
Dear Mom, Dad———– Alice’s past, the details that continued to torment her, were finally revealed. At the same time, it was also the answer as to why Alice has shown such fury. At that time, Alice’s anger might have been———– because of her laments.
<Afterword>
? ? ? : [Whoa there, that’s it for the meantime. As expected, we’d want to break it up in a way that would make the readers curious. Next chapter, the curse left behind by the girl she lost, the important person she had protected…… The climax of Alice’s arc is finally arriving! Eh? No, I’m just Alice-chan’s fan, you know?]
T/N: 27/195+1