Ch.59Burning Machine (3)

# Alice Leaves the Vatican

Alice left the Vatican and made her way into the city.

Despite being near the headquarters of the Goddess Church, the merchant streets were filled with the same worldly bustle as any other city, teeming with the energy of materialistic people.

But Alice didn’t mind this atmosphere.

The petty schemes of customers trying to haggle prices down with elaborate stories and merchants using flowery words to earn an extra coin seemed like innocent games compared to the crimes committed by the villains she usually hunted.

Rather, such commotion was evidence that people’s hearts were free from major worries.

While many nobles, wealthy individuals, corrupt clergy, and villains denounced Alice as a ghost or demon, walking through the bustling city streets, she appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary woman.

Alice left the main road lined with street vendors and ventured deeper into the alleyways.

The clean streets gradually became broken and dirty.

By the time she stepped into an alley so dark that barely any light was visible, the noisy voices had diminished to distant echoes.

In the middle of an alley with dilapidated, damp walls that seemed about to collapse, she spotted a small door that required ducking to pass through.

Alice approached, bent down, and opened the door.

Orange light from numerous candles spilled through the doorway into the dark alley.

This was the city’s secret tavern—no sign, no visible light, but known to those who needed to know. It was frequented by people who couldn’t easily show themselves in public.

Alice slowly stepped inside.

After closing the door behind her, she was hit by a wave of stuffy, hot air.

The air, which made her hair flutter slightly, was mixed with the smell of greasy meat and the sharp scent of cheap beer.

Unlike the quiet alley outside, inside was filled with the sound of a whining violin and the shouts of drunken patrons.

Glasses flew through the air, and scantily clad waitresses giggled in men’s arms while secretly pilfering coin purses. The oblivious men, with beer foam stuck in their beards, guzzled their cold beer greedily.

Alice passed through this chaotic scene and headed toward the back.

At the deepest table, partially hidden by a large wooden partition, sat someone waiting for her.

Seeing Alice, he smirked and said:

“So you’ve come, monster.”

“Call me monster one more time and I’ll really kill you.”

“Sorry, I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Have you been waiting long?”

“I have, but when have we ever met at a set time anyway?”

The man pointed to the seat across from him with a good-natured smile.

Alice sat down with familiarity and said:

“Beer.”

The man nodded and caught a passing server to order two beers and recommended appetizers.

As the server was about to leave, he grabbed her, slipped five coins into her cleavage, and she responded with a sly smile and a light kiss on his cheek.

Thanks to his generous tip, the waitress brought their beer and food within a minute.

After she left, Alice spoke:

“It’s funny every time I see it.”

“What is?”

“How smooth you’ve become. And how comfortable you are with women. You used to be so awkward and shy.”

“A man grows by meeting women.”

“Please. I don’t want to hear about my friend’s sex life.”

Alice frowned at him.

As she said, the two were old friends.

The man laughed heartily, brushing off her jab.

“Hahaha, come on, let’s drink before we get into serious talk, Alice.”

He raised his beer mug with a chuckle.

Alice smiled slightly, raised her glass to clink against his, and took a slow drink.

The magically chilled, thick beer slid down her throat, cooling her esophagus pleasantly.

Unfortunately, the cold drink couldn’t cool the constant mechanical heat in her chest, but it seemed to help her mood at least.

“Whew.”

“Hah, you drink that so refreshingly.”

“You’d understand if you had to live with a hell-fire spewing machine in your chest.”

“It’s supposed to be a holy power engine. You’ll be divinely punished for that.”

“Divine punishment? Haha…”

“…”

Alice took another drink of beer.

After emptying the large mug completely, she exhaled deeply and said:

“Let it come, if there’s anything left to take from me.”

Hearing her voice, which sounded like a sigh of resignation, the man looked at her briefly before putting down his glass with a hollow smile.

Alice sighed, caught her breath, and slowly called the man’s name:

“Eric.”

“What?”

Eric.

The son of Mr. Hardy, who had been the gardener for the count’s family.

A boy the same age she had known since childhood.

Of course, there had been an insurmountable class difference between Alice, the daughter of the count and employer, and Eric, the son of a commoner employee. But after the great misfortune that had torn through her life, that difference no longer mattered.

Alice was now an inquisitor for the Goddess Church and its secret weapon.

And Eric was an informant for a mercenary organization that would take on any job for the right price.

Alice had often relied on Eric’s help to identify villains for execution and gather evidence of their misdeeds.

Despite his questionable status, Alice trusted Eric, having known him for so long they could be called childhood friends.

Besides, he was the only one with whom she could share memories of Maria and Ash.

“I’ll get straight to the point.”

“Yes, let’s hear why the famous holy virgin has summoned a lowly thief like me to such a sacred neighborhood.”

Eric leaned back in his chair with exaggerated flair.

“I have a request,”

“Don’t casually mention that to me. Submit it formally to the organization.”

“I did. It was rejected.”

“Huh? Our organization rejected it? Ha, those bastards at the request desk… Since when do they pick and choose jobs?”

“They said they absolutely wouldn’t do something as crazy as searching the Lying Tree Forest.”

The smile disappeared from Eric’s face.

“I see… That’s different then. Even though we risk our lives for a living, that’s off-limits.”

“Ha, you’ll steal, rob, beat people up, or kill them without a trace, but you won’t accept a request to find someone in a forest?”

“The crazier a person seems to be about dying, the less they actually want to die.”

“If you heard who I’m looking for, you might—”

“No, even if a princess or the Pope were in that forest, I wouldn’t go. Everyone here knows about the priests you sent there who died en masse.”

“Ha, news travels fast.”

“You know how quick the informants are around here.”

Alice wasn’t intimidated.

She was confident Eric would change his mind if he knew who was there.

“Want to hear who’s there?”

“No, don’t tell me—”

“Ash and Laila.”

“Don’t tell… What?”

“And probably Mr. Hardy too.”

Eric dropped his glass in shock.

Fortunately, he didn’t spill the beer, but he still looked quite stunned.

“Is this reliable information?”

“Yes.”

“And information you’re giving away for free?”

“You told me Balder Staff was behind it all, so consider this a gift from me.”

Eric slowly exhaled, relaxed his frozen expression, and picked up some food.

After chewing silently for a moment, he spoke with forced casualness:

“…Ha, the Goddess Church is not to be underestimated. How did you find out?”

“Unlike your methods, we used a more direct and traditional approach. Investigation.”

“Ha, you traced every clue from the carriage’s departure point to the forest? You couldn’t have done it yourself… Haha, you must have really established yourself within the Goddess Church.”

Alice sighed, running her hand over her face.

“…But some priests died because of it.”

“Of course. Our people would have died too if we’d sent them. You know that place isn’t somewhere to go lightly.”

“…They were carefully selected priests. They shouldn’t have fallen to mere monsters.”

“…You made a mistake. Do you think that forest is called a magical boundary for nothing?”

Alice glared slightly at Eric.

Although she had heard about the forest’s dangers, she never imagined all five would meet such pointless deaths.

They were all priests with considerable combat experience.

She had told them they could abort the mission and flee if they felt their lives were in danger, but the fact remained that she was essentially responsible for their deaths. She resented Eric for emphasizing this fact.

He surely knew why she was going to such lengths.

Feeling a surge of anger, she snapped:

“Did you hear me correctly?”

“I did.”

“Ash and Laila.”

“Yes.”

“Maria’s siblings. That Maria. The three of us were inseparable. Have you forgotten? And you…”

“Stop it.”

Alice snorted at Eric’s interruption.

He probably anticipated her next words.

There was no point hiding it.

Eric had liked Maria since he was a little boy not even ten years old.

The day Maria first left for the academy, it was Eric who cried with Ash, begging her not to go.

Alice, boarding the carriage with Maria, had laughed at the sight and got hit by Eric.

Now it was a cherished memory.

As dear as that memory was, Alice growled with contempt:

“Stop what?”

“Alice.”

“Where’s the Eric who cried when he heard Maria died? Where’s the Eric who promised to protect her siblings? Why is only this cowardly idiot left?”

“Hey,”

“Maria died facing the Demon King to protect us, and you’re so precious about your own life?”

“…I said stop.”

“We couldn’t even find Maria’s body in the Demon King’s castle, and her parents had to bury empty coffins! And now you want me to forget about Ash and Laila and bury empty graves for them too? You bastard!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“My mother’s body was at least found. Maria’s parents were captured by those damned heretics and torn to pieces so thoroughly their bodies couldn’t be found! Huh? Where’s the Eric who promised me in front of Maria’s empty grave that we’d get revenge? You fucking—”

“I said stop!”

*Smack!*

Eric slapped Alice’s cheek.

With a dry sound like hitting stone rather than flesh, Alice’s reddish-brown hair swayed lifelessly as her head turned to the side.

Alice was an object of fear among nobles, the wealthy, even royalty and within the Goddess Church itself.

Though no one knew she was an artificially created hero, everyone knew what she did.

But Eric had never feared Alice.

He knew what was embedded in her heart, what kind of monster she had become, what that pig farm was, and what punishment Alice inflicted on villains who provoked her anger.

Alice slowly turned her face to look at Eric.

Eric winced, clutching his hand as if it hurt from the slap.

Alice, on the other hand, felt no pain.

She was just surprised.

Eric sighed and said:

“Calm down. There are many ears around.”

At Eric’s words, Alice took a deep breath and slowly bowed her head.

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You’ve been like this occasionally since you got that holy heart of yours.”

He was right.

Since getting this mechanical device, she found it hard to control her anger.

Rather, it seemed like the rage that made her blood boil was the driving force that powered this machine more vigorously.

The machine used anger as fuel to provide Alice with strength and holy power, and the heat emanating from her heart made her emotions burn even hotter.

Those heated emotions were then sucked back into the machine, pressing the pedal frantically.

An angry Alice was like a runaway locomotive charging toward villains.

And Eric had unhesitatingly slapped her.

In his eyes, Alice wasn’t the Goddess Church’s heaviest sword or a holy virgin, but the same troublemaker daughter of Count Goldfield from their childhood trio.

Somehow, the anger in Alice’s heart subsided a little.

“You…”

“I’m not apologizing, you monster. Did you replace your face with machinery too? It felt like hitting a piece of metal. Damn.”

Eric cursed with a grin.

Alice found herself laughing despite herself.

Seeing that she had calmed down, Eric leaned back in his chair, still rubbing his hand.

His palm was swollen and red.

Alice sighed and spoke:

“You’re calm. Even though I said your father is there too.”

“What? Think I have no blood or tears?”

“No… I just… thought at least you would understand how I feel.”

“…Alice.”

Eric picked up his glass, drained the remaining beer, and continued:

“Of course I’m sad and troubled too. About my father, and Ash and Laila… I really want to see them.”

“Then please help me—”

“But I can’t act irresponsibly because of that.”

“…Eric.”

“You’ve been away from the estate since you went to the academy, and I left my hometown three years ago, so neither of us was in Goldfield when it happened. That’s why I know what you’re thinking.”

“…”

“I should have been there, should have spent more time with my family, should have protected Maria’s siblings somehow.”

“…Yes. That’s why—”

“I know, I get it. The guilt of not being there. That’s why you go around cutting off nobles’ heads like a madwoman and build that disgusting pigsty where you cut off people’s limbs and throw them in. I understand it a hundred, a thousand times over. My heart feels like it’s being torn apart just thinking about it, I think about it every night… But…”

“…”

“…Still, I can’t send people to a place where they’ll obviously die. If you want to go, go yourself.”

“I want to go too. But…”

Alice’s lips trembled before she stopped speaking.

She wanted it too.

If she could, she would go to that forest right away to retrieve even a piece of Ash and Laila’s remains.

But no matter how much she wanted to, she had a reason why she couldn’t go to that forest.

“I can’t go… I can’t leave places where people live.”

“Ah, I suppose even a holy virgin is under surveillance by the church?”

“It’s not that…”

Even though Eric was a childhood friend with whom she shared important information, she couldn’t yet reveal this truth.

A truth Alice herself had only learned today.

An unprecedented calamity that could lead to humanity’s extinction was approaching.

The Pope had said that a great crisis would someday come to this world.

That was why the Pope continued these terrible experiments despite watching countless people die.

Since the Goddess herself had apparently given the revelation, it must be true.

The Pope wouldn’t have the hobby of turning people into weapons with such grandiose lies.

That’s why Alice couldn’t leave the city.

She could visit corrupt territories to punish nobles, but she couldn’t enter a remote forest where no people lived.

She needed to be ready to receive communication from the Vatican the moment any sign of impending doom was observed anywhere in the world.

“…Damn it.”

“…Seems you have reasons you can’t talk about.”

“…Sorry.”

“It’s fine, I don’t tell you everything either.”

Eric gestured to a server and ordered two more beers.

The server who brought the large mugs looked at Eric with concern as she took away the empty glasses.

She had apparently witnessed their argument earlier.

Eric dismissed her with a smile as if nothing had happened.

After the server left, Eric handed a new beer to Alice.

Alice silently raised the mug.

A small envelope was attached to the bottom of the mug.

“What’s this?”

“A gift for my gloomy childhood friend.”

“Ha, you’ve really become a playboy, you crazy bastard.”

“Open it. You’ll love it.”

Alice took a sip of beer and opened the letter.

Inside was a single line with an address.

“What is this?”

Eric drank his beer, wiped the foam from his mouth with his arm, and said:

“Kuh, can you guess what it is?”

“…It’s an address.”

“Right.”

“No way?”

“Hehe. It was quite some work.”

*Thump, thump, thump*

Her head began to heat up.

Simultaneously, Alice’s chest grew hot with a clamorous sound.

Anger was rising.

At the same time, joy and a twisted smile appeared.

Eric also pulled up one corner of his mouth and said:

“Balder Staff. I found that fucking bastard.”