Ch.179Sister (3)

# *

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Maria said that while looking at Alice.

Alice shook her head as she lay sprawled on the floor.

“No, no, that’s impossible.”

“Alice… it’s me, it’s really me.”

Maria slowly approached us, one step at a time.

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Though I wasn’t as disoriented as Alice, I too couldn’t believe the scene unfolding before my eyes.

The reason I was relatively more composed was because Maria’s face seemed somewhat unfamiliar.

Since I hadn’t seen her for quite some time before her death, her face had changed from what I remembered.

Of course, traces of her childhood appearance remained, but Maria’s face, having grown up apart from me, was utterly unfamiliar—so much so that I certainly wouldn’t have recognized her if I’d passed her on the street.

But it was different for Alice, who had spent every day with her at the academy while I was away.

Alice trembled all over, then desperately mustered her courage and lashed out.

“Who are you?! Reveal yourself! No one can impersonate my friend!”

“I told you, it’s me.”

“No, that’s impossible…”

“Alice…”

“D-don’t come any closer!”

Maria obediently stopped.

I looked back and forth between her and Alice, trying hard to assess the situation.

My head was spinning from fatigue and confusion.

Who exactly was this person in Maria’s form?

Friend or foe?

A foolish question.

There was no way she could be a friend.

The place of her appearance was too suspicious, and the timing was too malicious.

This being, appearing in Maria’s form at this time and place, was clearly the Demon King’s scheme to interfere with us.

Alice must know this much as well.

Yet, for some reason, her wavering gaze revealed uncertain conviction and growing anxiety.

As if driving a wedge into Alice’s shaken emotions, Maria slowly opened her mouth.

“You were always like this.”

Alice flinched, and Maria looked down at her with a sigh.

“Hah— Remember at the academy, when I asked you to go to the nearby village with me?”

“…!”

“You said you couldn’t because you had classes.”

“Ah…”

“I said, ‘I have classes too, I’m suggesting we skip them,’ and you absolutely refused. You said that no matter how fun going out might be, that fun wasn’t valuable enough to take precedence over classes. That’s what you said, Alice. Remember?”

“… Ah,”

“And how was it?”

“…”

“It was fun, wasn’t it? Just like I said.”

This was a story I didn’t know.

Being an academy anecdote, it seemed to be a memory shared only between the two of them.

I became even more confused.

Was the person standing before me really Maria?

“… Yes, it was.”

Alice nodded silently.

Maria looked down at Alice with a mischievous smile.

It was her characteristic playful smile that remained in my memories too.

“Have I ever been wrong?”

“… Ah, yes…”

“It’s the same this time, Alice.”

She started walking toward us again.

“Alice, look carefully. It’s me, really me. Your friend. Maria, who’s been your best friend since the Goldfield estate.”

“Ah… ugh,”

Maria approached slowly but steadily.

Alice’s eyes gradually began to moisten.

With a voice as trembling as her gaze, she slowly opened her mouth.

“Is it… really…?”

“Yes,”

“Really?”

Maria slowly reached out her hand toward Alice.

I blocked Alice, swatting away that hand as I said:

“Stop.”

“…?”

Maria wore a puzzled expression.

Without taking my eyes off her, I spoke to Alice behind me.

“Sister, pull yourself together and get up. We can’t be sure yet.”

“B-but…”

“You know where we are. Right in front of the Demon King’s castle. This could be the Demon King’s trick.”

“…”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Approaching us so casually at a time and place like this.”

Maria said:

“Of course we’re in front of the Demon King’s castle. He saved my life.”

“‘He’?”

“What’s wrong with showing respect to someone who gave me life?”

“The Demon King killed you in the first place, and you’re showing respect because he saved you? Is something wrong with your head?”

“I’m telling you I didn’t die, Alice. Who is this boy anyway?”

Alice slowly rose to her feet.

Her legs wobbled like a newborn fawn’s, and she barely managed to stand by leaning on my shoulder.

Maria frowned and said:

“Don’t interfere. Alice would recognize me.”

“… That’s right.”

Alice said.

Her weak, gentle voice carried a faint laugh.

Whether it was joy at seeing Maria again or a hollow laugh because the whole situation seemed so absurd, I couldn’t tell, but Alice definitely let out a small laugh mixed with a sigh.

“That magic just now was definitely the magic Maria used well.”

“There’s no better magic for subduing someone without bloodshed.”

“The voice, the face, they’re exactly like the Maria I know.”

“You’ve… changed a bit, Alice. You look thinner.”

“… And besides, no one else knows that story you just mentioned.”

“I checked attendance with an illusion. We were probably the only two who ever skipped class at the academy without getting caught by professors, right?”

“Ha, haha…”

Alice gave a hollow laugh.

“It’s Maria. No matter how I look at it, it’s Maria.”

“Oh, Alice. I knew you would recognize me!”

Maria immediately approached with open arms.

She looked like she was about to embrace Alice.

Alice gently pushed my shoulder away and moved toward Maria.

Then, slightly extending her arm,

“That’s why I can’t forgive you,”

She plunged her sword into Maria’s chest.

“… Ali… ce?”

“I can’t forgive you.”

Heat.

An unbearable heat radiated from Alice in all directions.

My face felt like it was burning, so I covered it with both arms and stepped back.

Alice’s armor heated up until it glowed bright red.

Hot steam erupted from her body like from a racing locomotive, and the air around her wavered with heat haze.

Even the center of her armor, the breastplate and backplate near her heart, were slowly melting.

Maria slowly collapsed to her knees, muttering:

“H-how could you… to me…”

“Who are you?”

“I, I am…”

“How dare you.”

Alice muttered quietly.

Despite her gentle tone, the anger and killing intent emanating from her were chillingly cold, unlike the heat radiating from her body.

“Not only do you imitate Maria, but you also defile my memories with her?”

Maria’s upper body slowly fell to the ground.

Alice twisted the holy sword and pulled it out of Maria’s body.

Maria lay there as if dead.

“How did you figure it out?”

As she spoke, Maria rose into the air as if lifted by something.

# *

Maria—or rather, the unidentified entity that had taken Maria’s form—slowly descended to the ground at a distance from us.

The movement was light and graceful, as if setting down something precious.

“Strange. It should have been perfect,”

“…”

Alice gripped her sword handle more tightly.

“The speech, behavior, habits, I acted them all perfectly,”

“… You bastard.”

“I studied and practiced so hard for years, looking through all the memories. I know everything about Maria now,”

Maria’s movements became increasingly bizarre.

It was an unnatural, awkward movement, as if someone were controlling her body like a puppet with strings.

With that awkward movement, Maria pointed a finger at Alice and said:

“How did you know?”

“…”

Alice silently glanced at me.

Maria also read that glance and slowly moved her finger to point at me.

“Because of that boy? What could that boy possibly have said to make you realize?”

“…”

“Who is that boy anyway?”

“If you were really Maria, you would never have said ‘that boy.'”

“… Strange, I didn’t see anyone like him in the memories of the past few years. Is he your lover or something?”

Surprisingly, she didn’t recognize me at all.

Or perhaps it’s not so surprising.

She isn’t Maria, after all.

She must be someone disguised as Maria or some kind of illusion.

Judging by what she’s saying, she seems to have stolen and read Maria’s memories, but I’ve never heard of such magic.

That means it must be the Demon King’s doing.

The reason she didn’t recognize me must be because she hadn’t seen the memories of the day Maria and I met.

“…”

Alice slowly stepped forward.

My arms behind her stung.

I must have been burned by the heat emanating from her.

That’s how I knew.

The current Alice, who had reduced her words and whose manner of speech was gentle, was filled with indescribable anger.

Alice didn’t answer anymore.

No, she didn’t even open her mouth.

Without shouting or cursing, Alice instantly rushed toward Maria.

Maria chanted a spell.

A huge, translucent blue shield appeared, blocking Alice’s path.

“Are you going to kill me? I’m Maria, you know?”

“I will.”

Alice instantly shattered the shield and advanced.

“Well, technically this body is Maria’s, right? Are you going to cut it? Stab it?”

“You son of a—!”

“Well, I won’t just take it quietly…”

Maria began to chant another spell.

Or at least, she tried to.

Until her mouth was suddenly blocked by flying clay.

“Mmph!”

Maria looked at me with a startled expression.

As she suspected, I was the one who had created and thrown the clay with magic.

Trying to block her magic would have been futile if she had Maria’s magical power intact.

But physically blocking her mouth would prevent her from chanting spells.

“That boy is.”

“Mmph?”

“Maria’s younger brother.”

With those words, Alice cut off Maria’s head.

With a spurt of blood, Maria’s head flew into the air.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

But even after waiting for a while, I heard neither her body falling nor her head rolling on the ground.

When I gently opened my eyes, Maria’s head was floating in the air.

“What… is this?”

Alice, seemingly unsurprised, took her stance again.

She looked ready to split Maria’s head in two at any moment.

At that moment, Maria’s floating head made a sound again.

“…Younger brother?”

A different voice somehow.

Lower and cracked, like that of a middle-aged man in his forties or older.

“Ah, aha! I see!”

The voice wasn’t coming from Maria’s head.

Someone was standing in the darkness, holding Maria’s head.

It was such a bizarre sight that I wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before.

A middle-aged man holding Maria’s head in one hand and a bundle of strings controlling Maria’s body in the other.

I realized that the method he used to hide himself was the same sorcery the Demon King’s castle had used.

Could this man be the Demon King?

But he didn’t look like a lizard.

In fact, he didn’t look like a demon at all.

No scales, no horns, and his skin color wasn’t much different from a human’s.

While I was observing him, he slowly turned his gaze toward me, and our eyes met.

The man looked at me and smiled broadly.

“You must be Ash! Wow, you’ve grown a lot! Almost unrecognizable.”

“…Huh?”

At that moment, Alice shouted loudly.

It was a sharp, noisy scream that could tear through the forest.

“BALDERRRRR!”