Ch.87Mask (6)

*

Dawn, before the sun has risen.

At this time when the whole world is dark and deep blue, Alice slowly rose with a rustling sound.

Her back and waist were stiff as if they might break at any moment from sleeping on the hard floor, but Alice exhaled through her nose and forcibly lifted her rigid waist, emitting cracking sounds.

“Huu,”

A sigh escaped involuntarily from the heavy pain.

Would there ever come a day when sleeping on the bare ground would become familiar?

Alice thought she would certainly never adapt to it.

But she wasn’t particularly dissatisfied.

Though the world now was no different from hell, she wasn’t spoiled enough to not appreciate having at least a roof in this forest of fallen trees, which had been no different from a green hell established above the human world even before everything happened.

But that too would end today.

There was no more time to hesitate.

Alice blinked her eyes two or three times while sitting, then slowly began to rise.

As always, she wanted to leave the cabin before its owner woke up.

“Are you leaving?”

Oh no,

It seemed she was late today.

Alice answered toward the voice coming from inside the room.

“You’re up early. Did I wake you?”

“No. I didn’t sleep.”

“I see…”

The masked man, the owner of this cabin.

Honestly, he was a timid man who seemed more like a boy than a man, but he was certainly an adult given his towering height.

He claimed to suffer from a strange illness that prevented human gazes from falling upon him, though Alice had never heard of such a disease.

But living in this forest filled with magical energy meant all sorts of bizarre things happened, so Alice didn’t bother questioning him about it.

She wasn’t a doctor, and even if she herself had an illness, she wouldn’t know everything about it. Besides, seeing how he frantically averted his eyes, he didn’t seem to be lying.

Perhaps she could heal him with the holy power welling up in her body, but she felt no particular obligation to do so.

The game she brought each night was sufficient payment for the past few days of shelter, and he probably didn’t expect more in return for offering his living room that didn’t even have a bed.

Besides, Alice wasn’t particularly skilled at handling holy power.

Though she had received knight training, she had never been educated as a saint, so all she could do was pour out ridiculous amounts of holy power.

Inefficiently pouring holy power could instantly heal most wounds, but she couldn’t perform the delicate manipulations needed to cure someone else’s illness.

Of course, if she kept pouring holy power into his body, the disease might eventually be cured, but that would ruin Alice’s daily plans, and she had no time to spare.

Even if she had a day or two to spare, she didn’t want to use such precious rest for someone whose name she didn’t even know.

‘If I defeat the Demon King and return alive, and if I’m still alive by then… well, who knows then.’

Alice thought this as she slowly put on her breastplate.

The man’s voice flowed from inside the room once again.

“Honestly, I didn’t think you would sleep either, Inquisitor.”

“…Did you hear something about that?”

“Yes.”

Last night, he had told Alice.

He said he might know where the subordinates she was so desperately searching for were.

When she pressed for details, he said that a few months ago, he had found five corpses attacked by monsters and buried them in the village where he used to live.

When she asked about the exact location and how to find them in the vast cemetery, he explained that “it’s actually a small communal cemetery where only villagers are buried, and since there was no way to know their names, I just carved a blessing phrase on the tombstones, so it should be easy to find which ones they are.”

Alice nodded and asked if he had seen any other missing persons.

He replied that apart from his own companions, that was the first and last time he had seen people.

Alice slowly opened her mouth, quietly savoring the simultaneous feelings of elation and guilt that had come over her when she heard the news last night.

“That’s precisely why. If they really are my subordinates, I couldn’t face them with a foggy mind.”

“…I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner.”

“It’s not like you deliberately hid it.”

“…”

“Did you deliberately hide it?”

Alice asked in a low voice toward him as he hesitated to answer.

The man answered hurriedly.

“N-no, that’s not it… th-that… um,”

It takes him a while to choose an appropriate answer in his mind.

Somehow, his bumbling demeanor reminded her of a boy she often saw in her childhood.

That child who probably no longer exists.

“Ah, I just didn’t think they would be clergy members.”

The man hastily answered, as if pushing away Alice’s consciousness that was about to sink into reminiscence.

Alice nodded at his answer.

“They wouldn’t have come wearing cumbersome priestly robes to explore this forest, so it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t describe their appearance in the first place, and even if I had, you would have forgotten their faces by now.”

“…I… guess so?”

“Besides, we still don’t know if those bodies are actually my subordinates.”

“How can you tell? Surely you’re not planning to dig up the corpses…”

Alice chuckled at the man’s impertinent imagination and answered.

“I can tell just by going near the corpses. With holy power.”

“Holy power can detect that too?”

“People with holy power leave traces of it even in their corpses, and since everyone affiliated with the Goddess Church carries holy power with a similar atmosphere, I can roughly identify them.”

“…Atmosphere?”

Alice tapped the toe of her steel boots on the floor to fit them snugly and said.

“The holy power carried by the Goddess Church’s priests has a strangely model student smell. Especially Melvin.”

“…Are there holy powers with different smells?”

“There are.”

“For example?”

The man kept asking questions.

As if he didn’t want to let Alice go.

Alice was a bit surprised that she didn’t find the man’s questions annoying at all, and unconsciously smiled.

“Mine.”

“…?”

“Mine tastes like metal.”

It might sound like a strange answer, but it was true.

Alice slowly moved her feet to go outside.

As she grabbed the doorknob of the cabin, the man spoke again.

“Um, excuse me.”

“Hmm?”

The sound was a bit closer, suggesting he had come near to see her off, even if just her back as she left.

Alice waited for his words without turning around, lest her gaze fall upon him.

“Take care of yourself.”

“…Okay.”

“And also…”

The man hesitated before slowly opening his mouth.

“See you again.”

Alice asked back.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean…? Just what I said.”

“Really?”

“It’s just a greeting. Why do you ask?”

“…Hmm, it feels like it’s been a long time since I heard words like that.”

Alice opened the door and stepped outside.

See you again.

Knowing it probably wouldn’t happen, she couldn’t return the same words.

“Take care.”

Alice slowly moved her reluctant feet forward into the forest where magical energy writhed.

*

The place the man had directed her to wasn’t far from the lakeside.

This burnt ruin was a place even Alice had passed by several times.

But she never imagined that within it would be a cemetery where those she had sent to their deaths were buried.

Was it because she had hoped, against all odds, that they might still be alive?

Seeing their graves now wouldn’t make her cry, but for someone like her who was about to challenge the Demon King and likely face death, this was a past mistake and regret she needed to confront.

Alice shook her head.

It wasn’t certain yet that it was them, so she shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

With that thought, she slowly stepped into the small communal cemetery located in a corner of the village ruins.

“Ah…”

There was no need to check further.

As soon as she set foot in the cemetery, she could feel the faint remnants of holy power slowly seeping into her body.

Upright and exemplary, holy power so rigid it was almost boring.

It was Melvin.

“…Ha, damn it.”

Alice slowly approached the tombstone without a name engraved on it.

Indeed, the tombstone with many blank spaces was easy to spot in this small cemetery.

Alice slowly put her hands together and prayed.

Even for someone with as little faith as her, being an important person in the Goddess Church, she thought this prayer might reach them.

With that thought, she slowly closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Melvin. Truly.”

There was no answer.

There couldn’t be.

The dead do not speak.

A fact as obvious as it was cruel.

“I don’t know if this will ease your mind, but I’ll be dying soon too. If I’m unlucky, I’ll die even sooner. And if I’m extremely unlucky, I’ll die slowly, suffering for a long time.”

In the forest filled with magical energy, the sound of birds could no longer be heard.

Today, there was no sound of wind or rustling animals either, so all she could hear was the regular mechanical sound that occasionally clanked inside her chest.

She thought she had grown accustomed to the heat that could melt flesh, but today her chest felt even more painful.

“I’m sorry…”

Alice slowly raised her head and unclasped her hands.

She didn’t dare ask for forgiveness.

She didn’t seek forgiveness anyway.

Just like the revenge she had pursued, she wouldn’t mind if they resented her and sought vengeance against her.

She didn’t regret spending all the money she had earned while serving the Goddess Church to support their families.

“When I’m gone, feel free to curse me, hit me, cut me, resent me all you want.”

Alice said this as she stepped back.

Now that she had no more excuses to linger, it was truly time to go.

If the Demon King’s castle would be her grave, she would be quite satisfied with that.

The honor of defeating the Demon King, the fame of saving the world.

More than those things, if she could die beside Maria, who would likely be dead somewhere in the Demon King’s castle, that would be enough.

Moreover, according to the Pope’s revelation, Eric’s investigation, and information obtained from interrogating the captured Third Prince, it was almost certain that bastard Balder was also hiding in the Demon King’s castle.

Avenging her friend and closing her eyes in the same place where her friend lay.

Alice, who had regretted all her life not being skilled enough to join the hero’s party, found such an ending quite appealing.

“It’s time for me to go now.”

Alice slowly shook her head.

Her dark brown short hair, cut before entering the forest, gently swayed.

Just as she was about to turn around,

Something caught the edge of her vision.

“…?”

It was a tombstone.

Next to the tombstone where her five subordinates were buried was a more elaborate and beautifully inscribed tombstone with more densely written content.

A certain word engraved on that tombstone seemed to be sucked into Alice’s field of vision.

“Laila Staff.”

.