Alice Tale in Phantasmagoria Chapter 159

We've had enough rest.
Today we'll finally conquer the labyrinth of mist.
We mobilize before the morning sun rises.
It's become such that it's difficult for light to reach us even at midday with the sky being covered in darkness.
Time is precious.

「――We're going.」

The gallant Silvi-chan tries to guide us.
Since it's only that girl who knows the route.
I just somehow became worried, so it came to be that I also walked beside her holding her hand.

「Obsessive parent.」
「I think it can't be helped when having such a cute daughter……」

Even though s.h.i.+on is also thoughtful with her family.

「Everyone-sama, the mist blocks our vision whether looking forward or to the side. Please look only to your feet. If there are fallen leaves, then that is the correct path.」

Silvi-chan is collected issn't she.
Crisp notes from stepping upon fallen leaves reverberate.
Certainly, we're being careful as everyone lacks vision, our progress is slow whatever we do.
There's also no leeway for pointless chatter.
Because it's something that would make us go off course isn't it.
In the labyrinth of mist, apparently there's no correct answer except the straight path of this trail of fallen leaves.
Somehow, it feels like crossing a suspension bridge between the tops of large buildings……nervous.

――Fufufu, ahaha

「This is……」

Suddenly, an unnerving laughing voice reverberated.

「Do not mind it, it is merely the mischief loving fairies.」

Then are even such things here……
I feel like, it's getting a little off from the domain where people live.

――Ahaha, human human, it's been a long time

「They are enjoying watching our reactions. You must not mind them.」

Silvi-chan reemphasized herself.
She's a child that can be relied upon.
Fumu, fairies love mischief, is it.
Should I a.s.sume they're starved for amus.e.m.e.nt then?
This world is filled with mysteries but, somehow there are also『authentic seeming』elements arenn't there.

――Ahaha, ufufu

「……」

Be that as it may……the cackling laughter of faeries deep within the forest truly is unnerving isn't it.
This is practically a supernatural phenomenon.
It is a little better, in as far as I understand the trick but……
You know, I'm kind of bad with this sort of stuff arenn't I.
Like, since I really hate things like summer ghost specials?
And since that night at the hot spring inn is a trauma?

「Are you alright, mother-sama? There is nothing to be concerned of you know.」

Perhaps she saw through my inner heart, my hand was tightly gripped by my daughter.

「Si, Silvi-chan……」

I almost choked up……

「Which was the guardian?」
「It's because it's ojousama.」

Hecklers jumped in from behind but, I don't mind it.
I understood that, Silvi-chan is an angel.
Kindly, as if her hands were saying it's okay you know, she firmly pulls my hand for me.
This child is……she has a kindness that gives people courage.
Such warmth, heartening.
This is, Luminchan's prided nee-sama.
This is, my and Kran's beloved daughter.
Aah……how to describe it……

「Mother-sama……?」
「Nn?」
「Ah, no……that is, such overly forward behavior……」
「N～n, because I'm happy.」
「Ah……」

I also firmly returned her tight grip from my side and, my daughter acted fl.u.s.tered.
Fufu, cute.

――Turn back, turn back
――You'll be cursed, you'll be cursed
――Kyahaha, hyahaha

In top form are you!
I was about to reflexively react but, I won't go along with that attempt.
The current me is invincible due to beloved daughter power.

「Be that as it may, Silvi-chan, can I a.s.sume you receive lots of confessions or the like?」
「Eh? No? There has not been a time when I have received such a statement. Ah, but Lumina's friends often confess to her you know? Fufu, because she's cute is she not?」
「Hei～?」

Certainly Luminchan is innocently cute.
But Silvi-chan is……I see.
I look fixedly at my daughter's face.
She's abashed from being praised but, I can sense from her face something of my and Kran's features that seems to captivate with an otherworldly sort of beauty.
Kind eyes provisioned with deep affection at her age.
Mannerisms that make you feel her n.o.bility.
All of that pushes her toward idolization.
Fuumu……

「A flower of the peaks is it……」
「?」

Even her befuddled face is adorable.
This type of thickheadedness isn't like Kran is it.
……Then whose is it?
……Well it's fine.
Does there exist a partner to go along with this child, who can gain my approval?
This child is a princess-sama isnn't she, so surely a partner is something that's absolutely necessary issn't it, I kinnda don't like that……

「Marisan, please protect Silvi-chan okay!」

I had an unpleasant fantasy so I ended up giving that request in a spinal reflex.

「Ufufu, I will not be picking out something like a suitable partner for princess-sama you know, since that would cause Kran to remand me.」

I was sudden but this person, she took in my intent well didn't she?
Capable people really are incredible……
But that's good, Marisan was an ally.

「But from what I have heard, would it be fine for her to get together with someone like this『Lumina』sama?」

……An ally?

「Cer, certainly there's no problem with Luminchan, but a different problem is……」

I've told you they're sisters haven't I, though the wombs are different……

「That sort of thing is common in the world of n.o.bles.」
「That's so!?」

No that's right, on that note, was it such a thing even in my world in the middle ages??

「Maa? Lumina……?」
「Ah, ah～ since it's fine not to think strange things okay, Silvi-chan?」

Marisan, I'll remember this later……
Don't indoctrinate my daughter in strange things okay.

「Ufufu.」

…………An ally?

「! Be quiet, everyone-sama take heed.」

With Silvi-chan's brief words, we tighten our focus again.
Huh? This party's leader is……who was it?

――Now, the trial!!
――Enjoy it, to your utmost!

Together with the spirit's conspicuously large voice, the mist suddenly deepens.
We're being swallowed――into the mist.
Even the feeling from holding hands with Silvi-chan is going away.
This is――the mist's judgement!

「Ku……! Everyone, be safe―― !!」

I shout with my full force, before everything is swallowed into the mist.

◇■◇■◇

I merely walk, within pure white mist.
There isn't particularly the feeling of lacking consciousness but, I became isolated at some point.
A faint warmth remains on my left hand but, I can't find Silvi-chan either.
Even if I was given warning ahead of time, it's bewildering.

「The mist's trial, was this……」

This current s.p.a.ce is, completely cut off from reality……
I suppose it's something like drifting through the world of dream.
I wonder if it's something like the eternal worldKakuriyo?
According to my daughter, was it something like, a test where only those with a strong will can move forward?
Will, iss it?

「Lightning Field.」

For the nonce I try deploying a barrier.
…………Nn.
Nnn?
Un…………I'm not, sensing anything am I.
It's merely a white world.
There's no meaning in it so I release the barrier.
But magic can be used right?
I run a flash of lightning through my right hand.
Fumu, it's not that I can't fight.
Let's resist with our full power should anything come up.
Okay okay……shall I try advancing for now?
Walking with a trot.
Walking earnestly.
There's nothing.
I feel like my mind is going to turn strange.

「U～～～～n, very worrying.」

Can I a.s.sume everyone's alright?
Maa I don't mean to brag but among my comrades the one who most seems to be mentally fragile is me alone!
In short, if I can escape this, that means everyone will escape.

「Fumu.」

I try looking to my side for a bit.
My footsteps, why are they possible?
I try lightly striking the white surface and a note like a wind instrument's resounds.
Clearly not dirt so, this really is another s.p.a.ce.

「Oh?」

I finished confirming it so I try raising my vision and, at some point there was a door there.
Unnaturally, there's only that door within open s.p.a.ce.
It's overly abnormal.
I try circling around the door but, it really is a single door with no trick nor contrivance.

――Ahaha

「Scary, you've come out then fairy.」

A ball of light suddenly appeared before my eyes.
It's not particularly a form like a small human, I really can't see anything but a ball of light.

――Pa.s.s through, human

Well I did think that should be so.

「It can't be helped can it, there's no meaning to it even if I act confused so. Men are guts.」

I resolutely open the door and step in.
――The environs changed.

「This is――」

It's suddenly a town's image.
Haphazard isn't this……
Furthermore this place is the royal capital, isn't it.
Did I return to the starting point?
I try looking about and, there's a disquieting presence.
Perhaps there's something going on, people are moving every which way with a severe appearance.
No……I have a memory, of this scene……

――Onlooker, watch closely

Onlooker? ……For the time being I observe with deep caution.
There's no mistake, it's the royal capital of that time……
Time went back?
I don't understand the reasoning for it but, the scene before my eyes is real.

「――tsu」

The setting becomes tense.
Ma.s.ses of people are cut down, by manufactured troops of the commonwealth that came surging in.
A child whose parents were killed is sobbing.
The surrounding brave adults trying to save that child, are cut down one after another by the commonwealth soldiers.

「Doing this before my eyes……! Thunder!!」

……It doesn't come out!?

「Lightning!!」

No reaction, what sort of thing is this!?

――Fufu, ahaha

「tsu! Fairy! What sort of thing is this!?」

――That's why, onlooker
――You, whoever it is, can't save

「――」

That sort of thing, is it……
I try touching a nearby building as a test――I pa.s.s through.
VR is it?
This is in bad taste isn't it……
There's nothing for me except, watching people being ruthlessly killed.
That's right……this is, something that happened, and can't be taken back anymore.

――Saa saa, continue

The setting switched over.
This is……the battlefield where I fought the white dragon.
The form of the dragon is shown rampaging in the distance but, this is different from the specific location where the dragon was.
It's, the battlefield's rear.
The guards standing by, took the beastmen's surprise attack and were annihilated.
Fiercely, without mercy.
Heads flew, innards spill out, the ground is stained with a rotten stench.
……The opposite side to my fight with the dragon.

――Ahahahahaha

「That's not it!! I mean, I couldn't ignore the dragon at that time!!」

Ss.h.i.+t!
To that fairy, what does such an excuse become……
I'm made to dazedly watch a past for which nothing can be done anymore.
The imagery flows in this manner, and eventually I ended up arriving at a setting which I had seen before.
The setting where the beastman gentleman's sword, that seemed like it was about to swing down upon Saira stops, and the man's stomach is pierced.

――Understand this child's feelings??

Saira's pupils expanded, into the look of absentminded eyes.
A sob of a mood painful to such an extent that it seems like blood would be coughed out.

「That is……Saira was, that person's……」

I avert my eyes.
I said nothing, to that child.
She did the best she could.
Everyone did what they could with their full power.
That was the result so, therefore I said nothing to that kind child.
Even so……

「How, should I have called out to her……」

Without minding such things as my sentiments, once again, the setting changes.
The timeline is a mess.
Next is――Rinal.
The town burned.
The image of bandits trampling down as they please.

――Because of the weak you, many died

After all this time……this, s.h.i.+tty fairy!

――Ahaha, good eyes aren't those

I heard voices coming, from nearby.

『Why……I……what did I do』
『d.a.m.nn it, it hurrts』
『Ueeee, mother-sann!』

Stop, don't go so far to show me this!!
Because I understand!!
Because I was weak……because I was merely in a sightseeing mood……!

――You are truly incomplete

The setting changed again.
This place is……the forest near Wilmington's western national border.
This is……

――Ahaha, you don't know, I'll let you see

「Ah, aah……」

－―――Aim, is shown.
The Aim taking position deep within the forest, shoots an arrow through a chimera as she gathers time for her allies to escape.
That was all on her own.
Shot with an arrow by Carmel, even with her hands and feet having become a mess she continues to resist.
And so――she's teleported to the bottom of a cliff along with a child from her unit and, a large rock such that a person's body absolutely couldn't take it――

「Aim……people such as you are……」

I can't use magic anymore, even when I try to hold up the boulder I pa.s.s through it.
It won't change, nothing changes.

――Ahahahaha, laughable laughable

Together with the fairy's ridicule, the Aim that granted Carmel a single arrow is――swallowed into sediment.
I lost my strength.
I fall to my knees.
Even so, I continue to watch as the scene s.h.i.+fts its setting.
In one room of the royal capital's church, a sister girl broke into tears.

「I won't forgive you, I won't forgive you, I won't forgive you!!! Aim, Aim was……Uaaaaaa!」

Aim's childhood friend……
I shuddered.
It was obvious……
Something like, that girl is strong……that's nothing more than an excuse.
Nothing more than an excuse I used to convince myself.

――This is, your sin

That's right, this is what I started.
I suppose, this is clearly my sin.
Something like everyone coming back alive is laughable.
Did I intend to go play house or somesuch?
Or perhaps something like main characters don't die, did I not escape that sensation of a game?
……I'm fed up.

――Saa, enjoy yourself

Once again, the setting switches over.
This place is……
I knew my own pupils had expanded.
Sitting on the wagon, a small back with dangling feet.
Her trademark twin tails were swaying, in the flowing wind.

「……aah」

Even though I don't want to watch, I can't avert my eyes.
Even presuming I know what comes after this, my chest grows heated at this nostalgic form.

「?」

The side of her face which her sloth leaves shallow in emotion, turns slightly toward me and……our eyes met.

「――!?」

My heart jumped.
Such a thing, there's no way that could be.
And yet that person was, staring in this direction for some time.

『Hou?』

It can't be, she's noticed!?
Is such a thing……?
In surprise and, from the nostalgia of that voice, my heart tightens up.
It becomes as if I'll be sucked into those blue eyes.

――Tillbell, as expected

『Fun, I don't know where you're watching from but……so I see. Alice, are you there?』
「Till!!!」

The scream from here, doesn't seem to arrive over to there.
A character who misunderstood someone's voice showed her head.

『Did you call me? Till.』
『Mu? No, this is not your matter.』

――The me of that time.
The sort of thing of watching myself from an objective vantage has a strange feeling to it doesn't it……
……Looking objectively, un……a beautiful girl I suppose.

『What is that so, then were you speaking to yourself? I'm not going to end up worrying whether you're going senile will I.』
『……Blizzard.』
『Wai!? Cold!!!?』

On that note, I get the feeling that such a thing happened along the way.
Till spoke in something of a mutter.
I thought however young she looks she's close to 300 years issn't she and such but……

「……Haha, please don't make me laugh okay, at a time like this.」

I suppose, Till knew then……of the things that would happen after this.
No, such a thing isn't so is it.
I suppose it's just, the difference in resolve.

『Oi, the Alice over there.』
「――!」

Till……

『In any case it's a matter of yours. I suppose you intend to come to a clear decision but are hesitating in worry? What an effeminate person.』

A person's behavior s.h.i.+fts, by the difference in their resolve.
I suppose that is surely so.

『Fumu, maa I'll go leave you advice from a person with experience――isn't that basically fine?』

Till narrowed her blue eyes in a nostalgic sort of manner and, affirmed the indecisive me.
I wouldn't think this would come to pa.s.s……

『Fun, it can't be helped even if you irrationally attach a reason, so give it up.』

I suppose she's speaking in reminiscence, while thinking back to something.

『Putting a lid on things you dislike, laughing during sad times, showing an amiable smile even though you're not enjoying yourself. Such things are not called growth. For the act of killing your self to be growth, is, farcical.』

Aah……
Till lectures『me』while reclining in exaggerated arrogance.

『What's called living, isn't easy you know? It decays away from those who intend to understand it.』

It softly comes into my chest.
Resounding.
Hot.

『Kufu, it's fine to resist to the best of your ability……aah, I'm a bother so how about going on ahead?』

Really, because she talks as if it's a laughing matter, this person is……

「……Haa, Till……I love you too much.」

I do have regrets, that's obvious.
But in short, the act of erasing those isn't necessary.
Even in a malicious reality, I am……
The past me happily went by in front of, such a present me.

『Till! I went and bought rice so, I went and made onigiri. Since you can't fight on an empty stomach can you!』

The Till making an annoyed face as an onigiri is thrust in front of her eyes comes to seem as if she's about to erupt.

『Mu……it would get my hands dirty so I don't need it.』
『Mouu, I thought this is it so I had this scarce food lent to me you know! Everyone is enduring, even the people attached to the guard!』
『Then, it's fine to give it to the refugees or such over there, I don't need it.』
『……Saying such a thing, didn't you not eat anything yesterday or the day before, I'm worried! I'm really worried～tsu!!』
『Yare yare, how noisy……then feed it to me. My hands would become dirty.』

Till shut her eyes and waited with her small mouth open.
In that place『I』went, it can't be helped can it, and while doing that I helped her meal along with a happy seeming face.

「Unfair arenn't you, me……you seem incredibly happy.」

Aah, I also want to take care of Till……

――Successor, are you satisfied?

I came to feel, this fairy is also somehow good natured.

「……I suppose so.」

The image, showed one casual act from within the evacuation and then it readily finished.
I had thought I would surely be shown that for a second time but……
There's no need.
I remember that scene vividly, even without being shown it.
Things like my weakness or regrets or grat.i.tude, are as memories at a level that words do not express.

「When I think of the past, it becomes painful. But, that it's fine like that……because you wouldn't have me put on airs, Till is……」

Being caught up in the past and depressed is, also like me.
Even so, it's also me to feel the desire to protect Silvi-chan or Luminchan's group.
I also have to think properly, on the future.

「There's no such thing as growing in one bound, but I am definitely walking along my path……」

――My mood cleared.
The moment I felt it――even the mist clears as if I'm waking up.
Within a pure white s.p.a.ce, color begins to return.
I come back, from a another s.p.a.ce.
Feeling the sensation of soft fallen leaves, smelling the scent of forest greenery, hearing the chirping of birds.
While I look about the surroundings for confirmation, even the mist of the forest clears away, gentle sunlight that filters through the trees flows in as the dazzling environment spreads forth.

「You've finally come then, Tillbell's left behind child.」

――And so at that place a sharp eared……elf female stood as if she was tired from waiting.