Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

Lunar Eclipse (7)

Viktor stood before Jersian.

A few minutes earlier.

The moment he arrived, the boy headed straight for Alice.

Then he immediately cut down the vampires surrounding her.

Behind his white Jester Mask, he looked at the girl calmly.

"Alice-yang."

"V-Viktor-nim...? You came!"

"I'm counting on you to handle the people in the Cathedral."

Thud-.

After that brief request, he shoved her shoulder.

Alice was instantly teleported by a [map-clip bug] judgment.

She tumbled into a corridor and hit the floor.

"Uh, uhh...?"

As she looked around in confusion, she soon realized she was indoors.

It was the Cathedral building Viktor had torn through just moments ago.

More precisely, the basement where the kidnapped people had been imprisoned.

Now the newly freed villagers were hiding there, murmuring anxiously.

'The villagers...? Did Viktor-nim free them?'

There had to be at least 300 people.

Only then did Alice fully grasp the situation.

His words about entrusting the people in the Cathedral to her.

'That makes sense.'

If they stayed packed together here, they would just become ghoul targets again.

There had been a reason Viktor looked to her.

'Someone has to lead them.'

They needed someone to take command.

Someone who could push back the incoming ghoul horde and evacuate them safely.

Viktor had assigned that role to Alice.

'He entrusted it to me.'

The girl steadied her shaken heart.

Carmilla worried her for a moment, but she forced the thought away.

If Viktor had reached the scene, his plan had to be moving as intended.

Alice believed him.

That alone was enough to make her move immediately.

"E-everyone! Please pay attention...!"

Alice called for their attention.

Her thin voice rang out through the restless crowd.

"I-I'm a member of Slayers! M-my name is Unnion! I-I'm the subordinate of Deputy Commander Garulik, t-the one who just saved you all!"

"S-Slayers...?"

"That's the person from earlier! The one who got us out of the basement...!"

"That man even treated the people who had turned into ghouls!"

"You're from the same group? D-did you come to rescue us?"

"Now that you mention it, you're both wearing similar masks..."

Luckily.

Maybe because Viktor had prepared them in advance, people listened to her quietly.

In that sense, bringing up the name Slayers had been exactly the right call.

Alice explained the situation step by step.

'First, we need to get out of the Cathedral.'

That had been Viktor's instruction.

Get everyone out safely somehow, and evacuate them outside the Cathedral.

'But... there are too many. It has to be at least 300.'

Outside, ghoul packs were still roaming around.

This was not something that could be solved by sending out unarmed people.

Alice sank into thought.

'Getting out of the Cathedral isn't the end. They'll definitely track us. We can't leave this many people standing exposed in the middle of the street.'

They needed shelter.

A place to hide from pursuers, and even if discovered, a place they could hold out.

At least until this whole situation was over, they had to endure inside it.

So what she needed to figure out right now was simple: was there a nearby building large enough to hold this many people?

'Ah... the Grain Warehouse!'

As Alice drew a map in her head, she quickly found a building that fit all the conditions.

The Grain Warehouse.

It was close too.

Less than 500 meters from the Cathedral.

Alice mapped out an escape route toward it.

"Everyone! From now on, y-you need to follow me! Make sure no one gets left behind, p-please look after each other...!"

She moved fast.

She deployed Trump Cards around them to assist the evacuation.

Then Alice took the lead and started down the path to the Grain Warehouse.

Whenever the ghouls tightened their encirclement, the Card Soldiers held them back.

-Grrr...!

-Kiik, kikiiiik!

-Bark! Urk, bark!

Maybe because so much noise had broken out.

The nearby ghouls all focused on them.

They tried to move as quietly as possible, but with this many people, that was hard to maintain.

With every step forward, the feeling of being surrounded grew stronger.

'No.'

A chill ran down her spine.

The Card Soldiers were being pushed back by sheer numbers.

'At this rate... people are going to get hurt soon.'

People were following her because they trusted her.

The sturdier men were at the front, beating back approaching ghouls with clubs, but even that would fail once the numbers grew any further.

Alice was getting anxious.

'We still need about five more minutes to get there...'

Only 500 meters.

Even with a large group, it should have taken twenty minutes at most.

A path that would have felt routine on any normal day now felt impossibly far.

Soon, even the winding alleys had ghouls lying in ambush.

-"W-what...?!"

-"Be careful over there! They're jumping out from the side paths too!"

-"Let's each cover a direction and keep watch! At this rate, we'll all be eaten!"

The crowd started to panic.

They had hit a wall.

Alice clenched her fist as she measured the remaining distance.

'I have to find a way.'

Their firepower was lacking.

There were not enough soldiers to break through this encirclement.

In that situation, Alice had no choice but to decide.

'A way...'

There was only one thing she could try now.

The crown floating above her head.

Her clear pale eyes trembled softly.

Alice hesitated, then bit her lip hard.

'Let's do it.'

This was not a place to retreat.

Even if she had to push herself, she had to carry out her role here.

The girl slowly closed her eyes.

Then she sank into a faint layer of consciousness.

-"Alice-yang."

-"I'm counting on you to handle the people in the Cathedral."

Words no more than whispered fragments.

Still, they were enough to push the girl forward.

'I don't want to disappoint him.'

A role he had entrusted to her as if it were obvious.

She wanted to carry it through as if that were obvious too.

Because that person had believed in her.

Because she did not want to disappoint that person.

'I can do this.'

Kuuuuuu-!

The black crown began to shake violently.

When she practiced with Viktor, she had succeeded a few times.

Though the success rate had been below ten percent.

'I can't fail this time.'

A situation that had pushed her to the edge.

That desperation drew her focus to its absolute limit.

Dreams began to seep from her fingertips, and white cracks spread around the crown.

'Stay calm. Remember how we practiced with Viktor-nim...'

Something her old self could never have imagined.

Back then, the moment she hit a wall, she would have cowered in fear.

Instead of facing the Nightmare, she would have looked around for somewhere to hide.

But not now.

-"Alice-yang."

-"Stay with me and learn how to control Nightmarification."

Because there had been someone who taught her how to fight back.

Because there had been someone who held her close.

Because there had been someone who promised to come save her no matter what, even if she fell back into the mire.

-"If you succeed in controlling Nightmarification, you won't suffer from nightmares anymore."

-"You'll be able to live a normal life like the other children."

-"I will give you that life."

Only that person had said those words to her.

Only that person had reached out and held her.

So Alice held that white hand tightly.

Dark crimson mist raged beside her falling black hair.

"Wake up...!"

Shrrrnk-!

A sound like cards flipping one after another.

From inside the writhing mist, white soldiers soon burst out.

<[

<[

<[

Trump cards.

From them, subtract the four queens and two jokers.

Cards remaining.

48.

The number of soldiers, once limited to a mere nine, multiplied several times over.

The Nightmare pushed far past its limits, as if it might break out of control at any moment.

Pitch-black shadows crackled, bulging as if about to twist into grotesque forms.

"Wake up...!"

But the queen's cry did not allow it.

A voice that did not tremble, did not cry.

The girl's resonance awakened the Nightmare.

The consciousness locked in a tug-of-war tilted toward awakening.

At the front line where Nightmare and dream mixed, a slender blade cut through.

"Wake up!"

Alice.

A girl who had always been dragged around by nightmares.

But today, at last, her dream did not become a nightmare.

<[

<[

<[

The scene flashed white.

Thunk-!

The chaotic cards aligned all at once.

They knelt in order and paid respect before their monarch.

"......"

Whoooooosh-.

A black queen's banner fluttered.

Alice.

The title the world had once given her.

Because she held the night, they named her after that pitch-black light.

"This is an order."

Black Queen.

The sovereign who ruled all dreams.

"Protect the people."

A clear command.

The queen's voice became the final blow, completely driving the Nightmare out of the soldiers.

After that, the Trump Cards spread in all directions and helped evacuate the people.

The ghoul horde that had been tightening the encirclement was cut down without mercy.

-"The path is open! Everyone, quickly, into the Grain Warehouse...!"

-"We're almost there! Don't push, move slowly!"

-"Strong men stay to the end, get the elderly and children inside first!"

The road was cleanly cleared.

The surging crowd kept order and entered the Grain Warehouse safely.

They evacuated everyone without leaving behind a single straggler.

"Haa..."

Alice came in last.

Only after closing the door and giving several more commands to the soldiers could she finally collapse.

That short burst had drained her mental strength, and her power was still being consumed as the soldiers kept moving.

It felt like she might lose consciousness at any second.

'Not yet...'

But she gritted her teeth and endured.

She swayed for a moment, then stared into the distance beyond the window.

The plaza where Viktor and Carmilla were still fighting.

With a faint breath, Alice murmured.

"......Viktor-nim."

Please.

Hoping both of them would return safely too.

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