Ch.48Anne’s Diary (4)

“……”

I look down at the fox cradled in my arms.

A girl with crimson hair, tears streaming down her face, burying her face against my chest.

I gently pat her trembling back with a calm hand.

Though she looked haggard, there were no signs of injury or experimentation on her.

It seems I was able to rescue her in time.

I quietly embrace the fox’s cold body.

I hoped she would regain her composure, if only through my faint body heat.

‘You must have suffered so much.’

Bergen Belsen.

How much pain must she have endured while staying in this laboratory?

In real time, it had only been a day, but in this place where the time axis was distorted, a week would have already passed.

Enough time for one’s spirit to break.

[EP6. Bergen Belsen]

-The Lost Girl, Monsters Who Cannot Cry-

The darkest episode in the original work.

Perhaps because of its uniquely gloomy and unpleasant atmosphere, it was a story that strongly divided users.

It took inspiration from an actual historical tragedy, after all.

As such, it was difficult content to enjoy with a light heart.

‘I should have come sooner.’

I struggled because it was a place not marked on any map.

It was also beyond the territory of the Empire.

Fortunately, based on information obtained from the “Abandoned Laboratory” last time, I was able to track the facility’s location.

That was the one silver lining.

“It was my oversight.”

I never expected the fox to get involved.

She was originally a character with no connection to this episode.

I thought I just needed to prevent Lezia’s kidnapping, but a problem arose from a completely unexpected place.

I inwardly sigh.

“Miss Irene.”

“……Yes.”

“By any chance, did you meet a girl named Anne while you were here?”

“……”

Her expression suddenly stiffens.

Seeing tears welling up again in her black eyes, I could be certain.

‘So you did meet her.’

It seemed that while the character experiencing the episode had changed, the detailed flow remained the same.

The controller also started his part by meeting Anne.

Irene grabs my sleeve with trembling hands.

She seemed tormented by a terrible nightmare.

I quietly calm the fox.

As I continue to soothe her sobbing for a while, a voice comes from behind me.

“Commander.”

It was Neria.

Having gone out to clean up the surroundings, she was now waiting at attention, apparently finished with her role.

The corpses of guards are strewn throughout the corridor.

The other members are the same.

They each maintain their positions as if waiting for the next order.

We needed to move soon.

I whisper softly.

“Miss Irene. We are about to clean up this laboratory.”

“……”

“As much as I’d like to tell you to rest, I’ll ask first. Would you like to join us?”

“……I want to go with you.”

“It won’t make for pleasant memories.”

“I know. Still.”

The fox slowly pulls away from my embrace.

Though her face was a mess from tears, her eyes were alive, not dead.

Her pupils held transparent sorrow.

“There’s something… I need to confirm with my own eyes.”

Perhaps it was lingering attachment.

The girl seemed unable to let go of hope.

“I respect that.”

I nod.

This was the fox’s choice.

It wasn’t something I could arbitrarily impose upon.

I, who had belatedly appeared as a mere extra, simply turned my back and gave orders.

“Then… shall we begin in earnest?”

The pure white robe flutters.

As I take steps toward the firmly closed door, the footsteps of the members following behind echo neatly.

A thickening bloodlust fills the corridor.

I murmur.

“It’s time for logging.”

It was time to cut down the wicked trees.

***

‘Bergen Belsen.’

A laboratory where all manner of inhuman experiments were conducted.

One of the main strongholds of the cult group ‘Baob,’ and also a place of massacre that claimed the most victims each year.

It was a facility that served as a pillar of the organization.

Its location was also hellish.

A wilderness surrounded on all sides.

It was a land untouched by human footsteps due to its rough and harsh geographical characteristics.

Numerous ravines cut through the land, and the laboratory was situated in the deepest underground among them.

Thanks to this, it was impossible for outsiders to set foot in the facility.

Only those permitted could come and go through teleportation.

-If the day comes when Belsen falls, it will surely be the day the world meets its end.

A truly impregnable fortress.

As such, Belsen held special significance.

Thanks to its bizarrely twisted time axis, it could efficiently extract experimental results, so there was no reason for headquarters not to support it.

As a result, despite the facility’s modest size, many personnel gathered there.

-With this much power, we could easily crush any baronial family.

-If we continue to accumulate research at this rate… we’ll soon be able to manifest a grand hell in this world.

That’s how the laboratory director evaluated it.

Over 300 elite troops were stationed at the facility.

No other branch of similar size could match this level.

No one imagined Belsen’s downfall.

They thought it would continue its legacy forever.

But.

“We’re under attack!! Unknown intruders in the facility…!”

“Damn it!! How did they get in?!”

“Everyone grab the experiment data!!”

“Arghhhh!!”

A tree is still just a tree.

It helplessly falls before a raised axe.

The facility is one-sidedly butchered.

“What are the guards doing?!”

“They’re all dead!! Laboratory 17 has already been wiped out!!”

“Where did these bastards come from…!”

“Everyone respond calmly!! Prepare the spirit prison just in case!”

“Damn it! Die!!”

Elegantly fluttering pure white robes.

The white-clad intruders “clean up” the facility with skilled hands.

As if they’ve done this many times before.

The people dance gracefully.

Attacks avoided with fluid movements.

Then, with magnificent strokes of their swords, the heads of the cultists blocking their way take flight.

They’re swept away helplessly.

“These bastards, it’s like they’re reading our attacks… guhk!”

“Aaaaargh!!”

“The chief researcher is down!!”

“Communication… contact Laboratory 83 and request backup!!”

“No signal! They seem to have been taken out already!”

“Damn it all!!!”

A scene resembling a massacre.

Countless deaths roll across the floor.

Even in this battlefield where blood and flesh fly, the intruders move with calm steps.

Thud, thud-.

Their noble appearance was like seeing white angels.

Silver blades judge sin.

“This can’t be… how could this happen…”

“We’re no match for them!!”

“Hey, release the chimeras in the laboratory!”

“Retreat for now! Hold out until the director comes out!!”

Where had Belsen’s reputation gone?

In its current state, they were no different from cockroaches being crushed underfoot.

Eventually, the black mages flee, retreating from the front line.

News of the intruders reaches the devil.

“What did you just say?”

“I said there seem to be intruders in the laboratory.”

“Intruders…?”

Laboratory Director Josef Kramer.

The man known as the Devil of Belsen mutters in disbelief.

After staring blankly for a moment, the director soon bursts into laughter.

“Haha! They’ve got guts.”

“……”

“Where are the intruders now?”

“According to the last report, they passed Laboratory 37. They seem to be heading for the stairs to the lowest level.”

“Hmm, are they going to where the failures are?”

The director mutters with interest.

The lowest level of Belsen. Coincidentally, that was the space where his “artistic soul” resided.

Do they know our information?

The director smiles sinisterly.

Whoosh-!

As he clenches his fist, a dark red aura surges around him.

The aura of black magic that terribly stains the air.

It was enough output to potentially bring down the entire facility.

“I shouldn’t leave these rats be.”

The man rises from his seat.

He prepares to greet his guests, surrounding his entire body with an explosive aura.

His mouth corners split grotesquely to both sides.

“I hope this will be an enjoyable artistic activity.”

The devil takes a step.

***

Meanwhile.

The fox was running down the stairs.

“Haa, haa…!”

Rough, gasping breaths.

The breath rising from within is hot.

Her lungs feel like they’re burning.

“Ugh…!”

Her consciousness blurs momentarily.

It’s due to the fatigue accumulated over the past few days.

She feels like she might lose consciousness and collapse at any moment, but each time, she bites her lip and endures.

Her slender legs stagger endlessly.

All she holds is a single sword.

Today, it feels especially heavy.

As she endures the splitting dizziness, suddenly a voice brushes past her ear.

A conversation she overheard a few days ago.

-What should we do with today’s failures?

-Move them to the lowest level.

-Yes, understood.

She needed to go to the lowest level.

There was someone she wanted to find.

If yesterday’s experiment had indeed ended properly, the girl would surely be at the lowest level.

The fox runs down the stairs.

“Damn, an intruder!!”

“Don’t let her go down!”

Obstacles occasionally block her way.

Irene swings her sword without hesitation.

Clang! Kragk…!

A fierce sword dance blooms like a flower.

Though pushed to her limits, her senses become even more acute because of it.

Her gaze is venomous.

She advances, treading on precarious life.

Slash-!

Once again, she cuts someone down.

Behind the clean slicing sound, a tingling sensation spreads through her fingertips.

Her vision flickers.

“Ugh, haa…!”

Irene didn’t stop.

She cuts down mercilessly.

There were opponents she couldn’t handle with her own strength.

At those times, the boy beside her offered help.

“My, my… we’re a bit busy, you see!”

Snap-!

With a flick of his fingers, the guard disappears.

Turns to ash and scatters.

For a while, the fox’s desperate rush continued.

And then.

“……”

Irene finally arrives at the lowest level.

A vast space greets her.

A scene of countless iron cages lined up in rows.

It reminded her of the beast cages in the basement of a slave auction house.

-Sniff, hehe… your hand is warm, big sister.

Here.

There was someone she needed to find.

Tak-!

The fox crosses between the iron cages.

The chilly air circling the underground.

What’s confined behind the bars are none other than “failures.”

<Keeeeek-!>

<Gurk, grrrr-?>

<Aah… uaaah>

Things that were once human, but could no longer be called such.

Byproducts of vile desires.

Irene desperately rolls her eyes.

While desperately wanting to find the girl, part of her hoped she wouldn’t be here.

A sad contradiction flows down.

<Kueeeeek!>

<Hello hello hello hello hello hello?>

<Kyaaaaaaak!!>

And so.

After wandering a bit more, the fox was finally able to discover it.

A body lying in a corner cage.

“……Anne.”

She murmurs the name.

But it was laughable.

What appeared through the bars was no longer the girl she knew.

The fox silently stares at the floor.

<Kiruruk… kiruk>

A mass stuck to the ground.

Its appearance resembled a slime, but seeing it in person was more horrific than words could describe.

Irene didn’t have the courage to describe it.

“……”

Thud-.

Her legs give out and she collapses.

The scene she had desperately tried to deny had become reality.

<Kiruruk…?>

Anne wriggles.

Perhaps even as a monster, she hadn’t abandoned her kind nature.

She shows no hostility toward humans.

Rather, that aspect made it even more painful.

“……Ha.”

A hollow sneer bursts out.

Her vision blurs.

Tears are already falling down her cheeks.

It’s terrible despair.

“This is… too cruel…”

She knew.

That it would end like this.

It was a tragedy predetermined from the moment she was trapped in this hell.

But.

-Still, sometimes… wouldn’t it be okay for good things to happen?

She liked those words the girl had said.

For a brief moment, she wanted to hold a similar hope herself.

“Miss Irene.”

“I… I was too late.”

“You did your best.”

“What sin could such a good child have committed……”

The world is unreasonable.

At the same time, it’s cruel.

Everyone must live their predetermined fate, and people merely play along on a grand script.

Sometimes, she felt that life had no value at all.

“Miss Irene.”

But.

The reason people still search for hope is…

“It’s not too late yet.”

Because sometimes, wouldn’t it be okay for good things to happen?

“It’s too early to shed tears.”

“……What?”

Words she couldn’t understand.

Irene raises her lowered head to look at the boy.

There are smiling, narrowed eyes.

The snake sings a low whisper.

“I’ve always liked happy endings, you see.”

Thud, thud-.

The boy approaches the cage.

Before the fox can stop him, the snake places his hand on the soft mass.

Then he murmurs.

“Break.”

Clang-!

The sound of glass breaking comes from somewhere.

Simultaneously, the shadow hanging from the boy’s fingertips quickly envelops Anne’s body.

“You!? What are you…!”

“Shh, be quiet.”

Crunch, crunch-!

A strange noise.

The silhouette covered by shadow wriggles.

After a moment that feels like an eternity, the covering shadow turns to dust and scatters.

The fox couldn’t continue speaking.

“An, ne…?”

A girl was sitting in the cage.

The person she had been searching for so desperately.

The name that had stayed by her side for the past few days was sitting there with an unharmed body.

Anne yawns softly.

“Yaaawn…”

Eyes blinking as if just woken up.

The girl, rubbing her eyes sleepily, soon meets the fox’s gaze.

“……Eh? Fox sister?”

“Anne…!”

Irene embraces the small body.

Warm body heat colors her embrace.

As the realization that she’s alive sinks in, tears fall once again with affectionate feelings.

Her cheeks burn hot.

“Huhu.”

The snake quietly watched the scene.

It was a nostalgic expression.

Although life may be a tragedy.

Sometimes, miracles can come along that erase even such tragedies.

And.

“Today, it seems I am your miracle.”

For the two girls, it was now.