Alice's Nightmare (1)
Dawn.
Clouds thick enough to smother the stars. A sky that held nothing.
The last scraps of spring drifted past like fallen petals, pale and already gone.
The windows were covered.
Heavy blackout curtains.
Not a sliver of light existed anywhere in the room.
From the thick darkness came only the sound of sharp, wheezing breaths.
"......"
Dark hair splayed across the bed.
A girl lay sleeping.
"Ngh, mmm..."
A nightmare, maybe.
Brow creased tight, she kept turning, restless. Her breathing came rough.
-Alice!
Deep unconsciousness.
The girl was running.
A black corridor.
Her stumbling steps cut across it. No end in sight, and from behind, only terrible sounds closing in.
-Don't stop! You have to keep going!
-If they catch you this time, it's really over!
-Unni will help you, so just keep running like this...
Always the same dream.
Running.
Running.
The girl's life had always been one of running. Terrible things chased her from behind, and they never stopped.
-Just a little further!
-Almost there!
Alice, Alice.
A child who should never have been born.
Even as she ran, the girl already knew.
-Ah...
The ending. She knew it was coming.
Hundreds of times it had played out, and it always ended the same.
The figure running ahead of her.
Long hair swaying, then collapsing.
Her lower half was gone. Cut away.
-Alice.
The figure called her name.
Sprawled across the floor, letting out agonized sounds, and still she called her name.
-Alice...
Pale blue eyes that mirrored the girl's own.
The light in them was going out.
-Run... a...way...
No.
Stop.
Don't say it.
I can't go on without you.
We barely made it out of that terrible place. We had that hope, just barely, that we could finally escape.
-You have to survive... you must.
And yet.
Why.
Why does the world only do this to us.
-Alice...
-itallhappenedbecauseofyou.
Shatter!
The dream broke apart.
The girl jolted upright in bed.
"Hah, hah...!"
Her whole body was soaked in cold sweat.
Still half-asleep. Only after a few breaths did she realize it had been a dream.
Her pale blue eyes cleared. The same thing as always stared back: a lonely room.
Before she could catch her breath, a wave of nausea surged up.
"Urgh...!"
She scrambled to the bathroom and grabbed the edge of the toilet.
She hadn't eaten all day, so all that came up was clear stomach acid.
"Ugh, urgh..."
Between the dry heaves, crying crept in.
Tear tracks streaked down her pale cheeks.
A face that had completely fallen apart.
At some point, the girl had sunk to the floor and was just sobbing.
"Unni... un... ni..."
A face she could almost but not quite place.
An emotion she couldn't tell apart from longing or guilt.
The girl clung, barely, to a mind on the edge of collapse.
Staggering through the headache, something crept into her ears.
<welcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderlandwelcometowonderland>
Since that day, a voice that never stopped circling.
The grotesque whisper shook her mind.
<shallwekillletskillsavemepreparethecroquetgameihateitwhatshouldwedowiththeball imnotsuchapersoncutahumanheadandprepareithahahahaIdontWantToHurtAnyonethissoundslikefunhahahahaonehumanheadtwohumanheadsunniohihitittoohardiswungthehammerleftandthebrainsjustbrokeaparthelpmeunn iletssliceafreshonetoprepare>
<acceptit.>
<becauseyoucanNEVEReScapeFromWonderlandWonderlandWonderland.>
She covered her ears.
She couldn't listen to this. She was going to lose her mind.
If she was consumed like this, there would be no coming back.
<hahahaha.>
Everyone.
They're all going to die.
<hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.>
The Nightmare.
How long could she resist.
How long could she remain herself.
Someday... no. Maybe as soon as tomorrow morning.
If this Nightmare consumed her, what would she become.
<Alice.>
<Youshouldneverhavebeenborn.>
Alice, Alice.
A child who should never have been born.
Every dawn was like this for the girl.
***
"Hmm..."
The practical was two days away.
I had come out to the location in advance, partly to check on my plan.
The Student Hunting Grounds.
Currently off-limits to students, sealed off for exam prep. Not that it mattered to me, I could slip through the walls whenever I liked.
"Will this spot work?"
Dense forest.
I looked around until I found the right point, then pulled out a crystal orb and tossed it between the bushes. Arranged it to look like someone had dropped it by accident.
"Good. More natural-looking than I expected."
I layered a few branches over it so it wouldn't be spotted too easily.
Simple as that was, the prep work was done. All that was left was to wait.
"Better head back."
The faculty patrol was due to start soon.
***
And so, the day of the practical arrived.
Students had come in from early morning, gathering at the area they'd been briefed on in advance. Among the buzzing crowd stood my group and me.
"So many people! I've never seen the Student Hunting Grounds packed like this!"
"That makes sense. Half of all first-year cadets are doing their practical here."
"I heard the other half is doing theirs on Purgatory Floor 5!"
"With so many students, they probably split the groups to make it easier to manage."
The practical had been divided in two. One group in the Student Hunting Grounds, the other on Purgatory Floor 5. The content was no different between them; it really was just a headcount split.
My target had always been the Hunting Grounds side, of course.
Because the incident happens here.
Unlike the Purgatory group, which would run smoothly, the Hunting Grounds had an event scheduled to go wrong. One that, if left unchecked, could get everyone inside killed.
This time, the hand behind it was the cultists, the worshippers of the Evil God.
To keep the original story on track from here on, this event had to be stopped. That was part of why I had recruited Ranne onto the team.
Purgatory Floor 5 or the Student Hunting Grounds. Which one you got was decided at random. Normally you could choose, but I had picked Impossible difficulty, the highest setting in the game, and it was unkind in all sorts of ways.
No choice, no say. You went where fate put you.
But.
With Ranne and Alice on the team, the math changed. Having both of them meant almost guaranteed placement in the Hunting Grounds.
Could probably call that a bug in its own right.
Either way, things had worked out.
Behind the mask, I smiled and glanced at my teammates.
"How's everyone feeling?"
"Couldn't be better! I think I'm ready to give everything I've got!"
"As expected of Miss Ranne. I can't say how reassuring it is to have you on the team."
"You're too kind! If anything, I'm the one honored to be fighting alongside you, Sir Viktor."
Ranne answered in her usual spirited fashion.
The other one had her lips pressed shut.
"And... how are you feeling, Miss Alice?"
"......"
"Miss Alice?"
"...Ah, huh? Sorry. My m-mind wandered for a moment..."
"It's alright. The practical is starting soon, so just try to focus a little."
"Y-yes..."
A weak nod. Barely any energy behind it.
She'd been up with the nightmares again.
I'll have to keep an eye on her.
With that brief check done, I turned my attention toward the front of the crowd.
The red-haired woman was running through the practical briefing.
Chief Investigator, Javert Droit.
The same flat, mineral gaze as always.
"This practical consists of monster hunting and survival."
She gave a brisk summary of what they'd be doing.
"Inside the hunting grounds, various monsters have been prepared. Each monster you hunt earns your team points, and the team with the highest total receives the best marks. Use the time limit to hunt as many as you can."
And.
"During the practical, competition between students is permitted without restriction. If you manage to subdue another student, you may take their points."
Hunting monsters wasn't the whole of it.
The real heart of the exercise was student versus student. Whether you could hold on to your points, and whether you could take someone else's. Early on everyone would focus on the monsters, but toward the end it would come down to direct conflict between teams.
Just what you'd expect from an academy obsessed with competition.
Even a practical was just a test by another name. The whole design was to grind students against each other until they grew.
Done explaining, Javert swept her gaze across the crowd.
"Any questions."
""......"
They had all been briefed days ago, so no one raised a hand.
She noted the silence and reached for her crystal orb.
"Then we'll begin immediately."
A few gestures across the orb, and the ground beneath the students' feet lit up bright. Looking down, a massive magic circle spread across the floor. Rippling waves of mana wrapped around the crowd.
"You will all be teleported into the hunting grounds now. Your landing spots are completely random, and the practical lasts forty-eight hours."
Shff.
The background began to blur.
One last sentence reached their ears as everything faded.
"Best of luck."
Flash!
The world flared white, then blinked to black. A cool rush of mana swept over the whole body.
Ten seconds, maybe.
"Oh."
When I opened my eyes, we were standing in the middle of a forest. Dense undergrowth. The kind of scenery that brought a jungle to mind.
My teammates were looking around in wonder.
"So this is the Student Hunting Grounds! I've never actually been inside before!"
"It's w-wide... The trees stretch so high..."
"It is comparable in scale to a proper forest, after all."
I gave a small shrug.
We were still looking around when something reached us from behind. An unfamiliar sound.
Rustle.
Undergrowth being crushed underfoot.
Ranne caught it too. She spun and shouted.
"Sir Viktor! Behind you...!"
ROOAAR!
Before she even finished, something burst from the bushes.
At least five meters tall. Thick hide covering it head to tail. Something that looked like a bear and a crocodile had been thrown together.
A three-star monster. A Geltian Bear.
RRAAAR!
The moment it appeared, it brought one massive forepaw crashing down. The undergrowth shredded along those razor claws. A crushing impact dropped toward the top of my head.
Boom!
An eardrum-rattling crack.
I was no longer standing there.
The prey had vanished. The monster, confused.
"Engage. Scythe."
I had already moved to its back.
At the command, the gauntlets I was wearing came apart. Dissolved into mist, then compressed into the shape of a dark red scythe.
Thunk!
It drove straight through the monster's back, the blade forcing itself between the thick hide.
The monster screamed.
Not enough to kill it. The thing went berserk instead.
RAWRR, RARRR!
I didn't flinch.
Just said the next word.
"Engage. Thorns."
Shcrack!
Thorns erupted from inside the monster. Dozens of spikes turned its insides to pulp.
The thing went slack.
"Hm."
A one-shot on a three-star monster.
Broken, as always.
As I was shaking my head at that all over again, the crystal orb chimed.
[Monster 'Geltian Bear' defeated.]
[30 points obtained.]
[Current total points: 30]
Points were shared between teammates, so the chimes went off on Alice's and Ranne's orbs too. While they checked their screens, another chime went off for me. This one the familiar mechanical tone.
Ding!
[Sub Quest]
-Title: If You're Doing It, Do It Right!
-Objective: Finish in the top 3 of the practical.
-Failure Penalty: None
-Reward: Consumable item 'A Very Discreet Necktie (B-)'
[Time Limit: Before the practical ends]
Right.
If I was doing it, I was doing it right.
With a quiet laugh, I rested the scythe across my shoulder.
My teammates were still staring.
"G-goodness... a monster that big, in a single hit..."
"That's Sir Viktor for you!"
Plenty to do. Rankings to climb, and an incident to stop before it started.
This practical was going to keep me busy.
"Now then... no time to hesitate."
The mask smiled.
"Shall we go claim it? First place."
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