■■■'s Nightmare (7)
'The Red Knight.'
The boss monster of the First Calamity, Pitch Night.
While Ranne and ■■■ kept running from it, I slipped away and handled my own business.
The preparation had paid off.
Everyone seemed to have bought my death without a second thought.
'Well... I did bring along a matching outfit, a matching mask, and a chunk of meat to play the corpse.'
If that still wasn't enough to fool them, that would have been the frightening part.
I kept moving, those idle thoughts trailing behind me.
Every corner of Zone A within the barrier, I had to cover all of it.
Not alone, of course. As always, Her Highness had lent me a hand.
[Viktor.]
"Your Highness."
[I went to the spots you pointed out, and sure enough, other cadets were there. They must have been trapped in Zone A along with us. I knocked them all out and moved them somewhere safe. I dealt with it quickly, so I shouldn't have left any trace of myself.]
"Well done."
Every student caught up in the mess had been moved to the edge of the barrier.
If they started wandering where they shouldn't-the plan could unravel.
Smooth going.
"I've finished my end as well."
While Carmilla ran her circuit, I swept through the broader expanse of Zone A.
Every recording magic tool planted throughout the forest, I tracked each one down and smashed it.
The faculty checking the footage later would have been a problem.
The whole area was already saturated with dark mana anyway. Blaming a power surge was plausible enough.
"And last..."
The crystal orb I had tossed into the exam grounds a few days before the practical.
I quietly retrieved that too.
Preparations were airtight.
Once everything was settled, we made our way back to the scene.
"Hmm."
The Red Knight had clearly gone on a rampage. The forest was an absolute wreck.
Crimson armor stood so tall its head nearly grazed the ceiling above.
Before it, two girls lay broken and small.
Ranne had lost consciousness. ■■■ had simply collapsed where she stood.
"Just... arrived at exactly the right moment, it seems."
Dark hair in wild disarray. Jade eyes gone black and lifeless.
■■■ was barely moving her lips, murmuring to herself.
As though talking to something that wasn't there.
-Sure...
-Do whatever you want.
The words she breathed.
What unfolded next was beyond description.
A few seconds after her lips stilled, ■■■'s Nightmare scattered itself across the world.
A horrifying sight.
If the word "apocalypse" could be given a face, it would look something like this.
'So this is it.'
■■■'s Nightmare.
All manner of creatures crawled and writhed out of nothing.
A monstrous bird, queens, chess pieces, card soldiers, a rabbit...
Ominous things swarming everywhere. Ominous mist spreading outward.
'Wonderland.'
The name belonging to the Third of the Seven Calamities.
I gazed at the grim spectacle before me.
Every last one of them, called forth by ■■■.
'A dream.'
The girl's power.
The ability to turn dreams into reality.
Wonderland was a species of nightmare that fed on that power, parasitic, living beneath it.
[What in the world is that...]
Carmilla, murmuring in a daze.
Hell.
The creatures swarmed the Red Knight and dragged it down, tore through its armor piece by piece, ripped out whatever lay inside. What had been tentacle-like innards was mutilated beyond recognition.
Soldiers rampaged in madness. Queens radiated a crushing, murderous pressure.
The familiar mechanical chime rang at my ear.
Ding!
[Main Quest Cleared!]
-Title: Pitch Night
-Objective: Defeat the boss monster 'The Red Knight.'
[You have stopped one of the Seven Calamities!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
The calamity had been cleared.
But there was no time to open the inventory.
The status window had gone blazing red.
Beeep! Beeep!
[Emergency Quest Triggered!]
[Emergency Quest Triggered!]
[Emergency Quest Triggered!]
Urgent notifications flashed past, nothing like the usual.
I brushed off my sleeve and quietly took hold of my scythe.
[Emergency Quest]
-Title: WelcometoWonderland.
-Objective: Stop the rampaging '■■■ (Project Alice-02)' from being consumed by the Nightmare.
-Failure Penalty: Apocalypse: reign of the 'Black Queen.'
-Reward: WelcometoWonderlandandkneelbeforetheHeartRedWhiteBlackQueenswhoreignoverthetworld.
[Time Limit: ???]
The text in the status window twisted strangely.
With the blinking red at my back, I started toward the girl. Unhurried.
'Yes.'
This was what I had been waiting for.
This moment, the Nightmare breaking free from inside ■■■.
'Let's see what we can do.'
The corners of my mouth curled on their own beneath the mask.
Starting now, I was going to shatter the girl's nightmare.
***
"......"
■■■ sat in a daze.
Just as she was about to be swallowed by the Nightmare, a boy had appeared before her.
"Heh heh."
A scene that might as well have been hell. And yet the jester was laughing through all of it.
Hidden behind the mask, she couldn't quite make it out. But she was certain he was grinning.
"...How."
Lost somewhere far away, ■■■ murmured the word.
Nothing else came out.
Everything about the situation was incomprehensible. Even the swarming nightmares seemed to pause, thrown off their rhythm.
'How.'
She had confirmed the body herself. How was he alive?
How was he unaffected when the Nightmare had spread this far?
How had he made the White Queen disappear just now?
How had he appeared as if he'd been expecting this?
What did he intend to do?
How.
How.
How.
"......"
All of it tangled together, and she went silent.
Her throat couldn't form a single sentence. It only trembled.
Something she couldn't understand.
Maybe it had always been that way, from the very beginning.
From the day the girl had watched the boy through the veil of a dream.
'Unknown.'
He had always been an unknown to her.
■■■ forgot even to keep asking.
Looking up at that mask, the world went quiet.
Like something cast under a spell, everything sank into a lukewarm stillness.
"Well."
The jester didn't answer.
He only tilted his head, playful.
"Does it really need to be known?"
Do you really want to know?
That expression as he looked down at her.
■■■ sat frozen, unable to nod.
"Well... we can talk properly later. Let's put out the fire first."
A hand, gently stroking the girl's head.
Flutter.
Then he draped something over her, pulled from the robe, his school uniform jacket.
"Wait here a moment."
A breezy request. He took his scythe and turned his head slowly.
Behind the jester, the nightmare horde was seething.
"My, there really are a lot of them."
A faint murmur.
"One queen down, just two more to go..."
The bare minimum to bring things under control: kill the queens directing the nightmare.
The jester stepped lightly in place for a moment.
"Your Highness."
"What is it, my loyal servant?"
She had appeared at his side, silver hair flowing down, crimson eyes glinting between the strands.
"I'm leaving Miss Ranne and Miss ■■■ in your hands," the jester said. "Please keep both of them from getting hurt."
"What are you planning?"
"Back in a moment. A few things to knock down."
"Be careful. They carry a strange energy."
"No need to worry. It'll be over before you know it."
The next moment.
The jester's silhouette flickered and leaped across the space.
Only sparks remained, like afterimages.
Crack.
<[
<[◆◆◆◆◆◆]>
The nightmares looked around in confusion.
When the boy reappeared, it was high above.
'The Jabberwock.'
The shadow that had been circling the skies this whole time. A monstrous bird, as enormous as the Red Knight.
From atop its head, the boy brought the scythe straight down.
"This one first."
Thunk!
The blade sank deep into the crown of its skull.
Right through the notoriously tough hide, smooth as a knife through tofu.
From where the scythe hit, the creature's form began to dissolve.
<[Skreeeee!]>
The Jabberwock thrashed to throw him off. He only murmured calmly.
"Engage. Thorns."
Boom!
Dozens of thorns erupted from the tip of the blade.
The creature's head exploded, not even a silhouette left.
Limp, the Jabberwock fell.
Crack.
The jester flickered again.
This time among the card soldiers. Before they could react, he was already swinging.
"Hup!"
Slash!
The blade swept cleanly through everything in every direction.
Card soldiers dissolved on contact.
Without hesitation, he sprinted through the crumbling mass.
Slash! Slash!
Every swing swept cards away like dead leaves in a gale.
Cutting through that forest of cards, he found the Heart Queen.
<[
More mannequin than human. A featureless face, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, only a heart drawn across it.
She was backing away, soldiers raised in front of her like a shield.
"And where do you think you're going?"
Slash.
One casual swing. The wall shattered to pieces.
The jester was already right in her face.
Corners of his mouth split to his ears.
A dark-red arc carved through the air.
"You didn't actually think you could run, did you?"
Slice!
The Heart Queen went down with no chance to resist. One of three queens. The cornerstone of the nightmare.
And yet her head fell with such bleak ease.
It flew cleanly. The body crumpled to the floor.
"Phew... that was tough."
His words aside, the boy brushed off his sleeve without a care.
Scores of sliced-up soldiers lay at his feet.
The jester's mask only grinned.
"So... just one left?"
The Red Queen.
The last one standing.
"......"
■■■ watched it all in a daze.
What she was seeing refused to be believed.
'This can't be real...'
The nightmare she had always thought could never be fought. And so a life spent running. Crying alone in silence, letting herself rot from within, too lonely even to ask for help.
-Life has a way of surprising you.
-Someday you might meet someone who'll save you.
And yet, beneath it all, the contradiction of wanting to be saved anyway.
The foolish hope that someone would reach out and hold her.
Because she wanted the pain to end.
-■■■.
-You can definitely be happy someday.
In the end, she had wanted exactly that, to be happy, just as someone had once told her she could be.
■■■, ■■■.
A child who should never have been born.
And yet, if there was something she had longed for...
-Like what?
-A prince on a white horse, coming to save her.
The girl held her breath.
Light sparked back into eyes that had gone black.
The resignation drained from her gaze, and tears welled up, soft and slow.
The blood-tears already running down her face were diluted, clear tears blending in.
"Ah..."
A cry that had waited too long to come.
Without thinking, she clutched what had been draped over her shoulders.
The jacket he had given her. Cloth that still held his warmth.
'...The person unni talked about.'
A prince on a white horse.
The one who would save her.
■■■ watched his back and thought.
'Maybe.'
Maybe even this wretched life could have light come through.
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