WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 103: Project Alice-02 (1)
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After that, we tore through the maze-like corridors with unstoppable momentum.
Perhaps because Caitlin took the lead, we were able to handle the situation without suffering any notable losses.
‘Should I call that fortunate? That thing that looked like a failed experiment hasn’t appeared again, either...’
Crackle-!
A fierce current burned the Chimeras alive.
Leaving that slaughter behind, I glanced down at my sparkling Balloon Knife.
‘It’s better than I expected.’
Caitlin’s depleted strength had recovered to more than half.
It had resolved a whole range of problems at once, including stamina, mana, and fatigue.
Considering the skill was still Rank B and would continue to grow, it was unquestionably top-tier.
‘Once I raise it to its peak, no support item will be able to compete with it.’
At this rate, it really might become the Absolute Balloon Sword.
After entertaining those pointless thoughts for a while, we crossed a vast area.
After running for about an hour, the maze-like corridor suddenly came to an end.
A massive door stood in our way, tightly shut.
“This is...”
Had we finally arrived?
As I murmured before the door, the others looked up at the enormous gate as well.
“Viktor, could this be...”
“Yes. I think this is the path we’ve been searching for.”
An exit, or a boss room.
Tension hung over the group.
Then I heard thin, ragged breathing. It was Alice.
“Ugh...”
“Sir Viktor! Alice’s condition...!”
The girl had complained of motion sickness the entire way.
Now, she was staggering so badly that Ranne had to support her.
Something ingrained in her instincts seemed to be reacting. Cold sweat poured down her pale forehead like rain.
“I think we need to hurry!”
“...”
“Sir Viktor?”
“...”
“Sir Viktor!”
“...Yes. Let’s move.”
The sight of her was heartbreaking.
For a moment, I wondered if I was doing something cruel to Alice. Then I clenched my fist and shook off the thought.
‘In the end... the key lies with Alice.’
I wasn’t someone who gave answers.
If anything, I was someone who asked questions.
Whatever awaited us ahead, all of it was my question.
At the same time, it was up to the others to write down the answer.
‘There’s no turning back now.’
Thud.
I placed a hand on the thick door.
Despite its heavy appearance, the gate opened easily with only a little force.
Rumble-!
As though it had been waiting for us.
I led the hesitant group forward, beyond the pitch-black darkness.
““...””
The space was as deep and vast as the deep sea.
The corridors we had just crossed were enormous in their own right, but compared to this place, they felt like nothing.
The area was dark as though night had fallen, and cold as if deep-sea water covered the floor.
Figures in black robes stood all around us.
Hundreds of silhouettes formed a wide circle without so much as a twitch.
“They’re all dark mages. Keep your guard up.”
““...!””
My words made the others flinch.
They gathered their strength and prepared to fight at any moment.
Step. Step.
We walked between the Cult members.
The space was pitch-black, but one spot alone was lit.
‘Found it.’
It was like the only spotlight shining on an unlit stage.
A single table stood in that small illuminated area.
And someone was seated before it.
“...”
A man in a spotless white coat, like a doctor’s, sat with his face buried in a chart.
We stopped before the table.
“...Ah.”
Alice froze the moment she saw him.
She couldn’t move forward or turn around and run. She simply stood still.
Even through her mask, I could tell what her expression must have been.
She had probably gone deathly pale.
<You’ve come.>
Tap.
The man at the table set down the chart.
With a grotesque voice, he rose from his seat.
His shabby coat fluttered slightly as he turned toward us.
<I never expected you to make it this far.>
The man had no face.
No eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears.
No, it looked less like a face and more like an empty void.
It wasn’t human.
It was a human who had once been human.
A human who had abandoned his humanity.
““...””
An unpleasant aura crawled down our spines.
Crushed by that atmosphere, the others couldn’t bring themselves to speak.
Just as the sickening silence began to churn my stomach, the man stood before us with a limp posture.
<Ah... guests I never invited. My dear chunks of meat.>
<I’m Oz (OZ), a mage who governs life.>
<And I am the master of these depths.>
The man greeted us with perfect etiquette.
Those flawless manners only made the feeling of the uncanny valley worse.
<There are so many things I want to ask you. How did you learn of this place? How did you enter it? What organization do you masked people belong to? How did you break through corridors crawling with Chimeras? How did you traverse that maze-like path by the shortest route without being stopped even once...?>
“...”
<I have so many questions.>
He was smiling.
He had no face at all, but Oz was undoubtedly wearing a broad smile.
<But before that, there is someone I wish to greet first...>
Oz turned his head.
His gaze passed over me and landed on the little girl supported by Ranne.
<Alice.>
“Ah, ah...”
<It’s been a long time. I never expected you to come here of your own accord.>
Alice couldn’t answer.
She only trembled and clung tightly to Ranne, who was supporting her.
As if she wanted to hide even a little, Alice concealed herself behind Ranne’s golden hair.
<Alice. Alice. The child who should never have been born.>
<Yet the child who was born by my hand.>
Oz continued speaking regardless.
He seemed genuinely delighted.
<My lost creation... a vessel and trace meant to receive the Black Queen’s great soul.>
None of it made any sense.
Sensing that something was terribly wrong, the others closed around Alice.
“Miss Alice, I think you should stay right behind me.”
“What? You know that bastard? Why’s it acting all friendly toward you...!”
“The stench is unbearably foul. It smells like a soul has rotted and flies have gathered around it. It makes me feel like I’ll vomit at any moment.”
The others stepped forward and added their own words.
Then Alice spoke in a strained whisper, and everyone’s thoughts came to a halt.
“Fa... ther...”
Father.
“...What?”
“Father... Did you just call that thing your father?”
“Miss Alice! We don’t know what that thing is, but you mustn’t let it deceive you so easily!”
The others panicked, but Alice only lowered her head.
Oz sneered as though watching the scene unfold.
<Ah... so you ran away to that world.>
<You mixed in with ordinary humans and pretended to be an ordinary human too.>
Hahahahahahahahahaha-.
The laughter tore at our ears.
<To think that, with a body that had become the root of nightmares, you were enjoying such a game of playing house...>
<Even after killing your beloved older sister with your own hands.>
<Miss Alice? Don’t you think that’s shameless?>
Burn marks.
Black scorch marks lingered in the girl’s eyes.
Within eyes like shattered charcoal briquettes, only white remnants pooled, brimming like tears.
<You’re not even human.>
“No...”
<Miss Alice... No, should I call you as I did before?>
<Alice-02.>
The truth about something.
The man casually crushed the girl’s fading embers beneath his foot.
<An experimental subject born during the Chimera Project.>
<Neither human, nor even a doll.>
<And yet someone like you appears among ordinary humans, pretending to blend in... How ridiculous.>
The bomb finally went off.
The others who had surrounded Alice couldn’t help but freeze.
“...What did that thing just say?”
<It seems you kept it thoroughly hidden from the other humans?>
Malice writhed in the air.
Alice staggered as though she were suffocating beneath it.
Behind the stunned group, I silently watched the girl.
‘Alice.’
Her real name was Project Alice-02.
A biological weapon the Cult had been developing for the apocalypse.
‘And the second Alice.’
That was the girl’s true identity.
Footnotes:
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