WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 105: Project Alice-02 (3)
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Allie, who had been running ahead, suddenly crumpled.
Snick-.
“...Huh?”
Crash-!
Allie’s body sprawled helplessly across the ground.
Liss, who had been running after her, froze in shock.
“Sis...?”
Splat-.
The dry ground at her feet rapidly grew sticky.
When she looked down, bright red fluid was pouring out in roiling waves.
“Ugh, ngh...”
Allie’s lower body was gone.
More precisely, everything below her navel, her hips and both legs that should have been there, had vanished.
Things that should never have spilled out were pouring from the cleanly severed surface.
The hideous colors froze Liss’s thoughts.
“...Sis?”
It was a trap the Cult had set.
Probably a device meant to stop intruders.
It had originally faced outward, so it should never have activated in this corridor.
But when the research facility was half destroyed and part of the building collapsed, it had turned toward the hallway.
“Uh, ah...”
Splat-.
Allie had been unlucky enough to get caught in that trap.
Liss had been out of her mind, but her sister’s groan brought her back to herself.
“Sis...!”
Allie’s upper body trembled.
Her lower half had flown somewhere, but Liss couldn’t find it anywhere nearby.
As Allie’s insides spilled out in a horrific mess, Liss collapsed before her.
“No... Sis, why is this happening...?!”
“Ghk, ngh...”
Only the sound of blood bubbling came from Allie’s throat.
Liss panicked, but there was nothing she could do anymore.
“Sis! Don’t close your eyes! Stay awake...!”
All she could do was cry.
The girl clung to her sister’s body as it gradually grew colder.
A beastly wail burst from her, along with desperate denial and despair.
“Sis, sis...!”
“...Li, ss.”
Her pale sister opened her mouth.
The words slipped from her lips as they struggled to part.
Allie stammered.
“My... little sister...”
“Sis! Don’t talk! I’ll, I’ll go get someone...!”
“I’m, sorry... Ghk, cough!”
“Don’t talk! Please, sis...!”
“I always... wanted to stay by your side...”
Had she already sensed her own end?
Allie’s expression was far too peaceful.
She only parted her lips and looked up at her sister through hazy eyes.
“Listen...”
“No! I said don’t talk! The Church, the Church people can fix you...!”
It was already too late.
Both sisters knew that.
“You know... my little sister, ghk... if you end up... going outside alone...”
“I won’t go alone! I’ll never leave you behind!”
“I’ll give you... my name...”
“No, no... I can’t, without you...”
“So... you... At least you, live as Alice.”
Allie. Liss.
A name they had split apart so simply it was almost ridiculous.
Yet now, given back by her sister, it would become whole again.
“We promised we’d always be together! We have to stay together...!”
“I’m... sorry...”
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
Tears kept filling her eyes, making it hard for Alice to breathe.
“Don’t apologize...”
Before Alice now lay only the body of a test subject who had lost her name.
The girl couldn’t let go of the body that had grown even colder.
Too many moments flashed through her mind.
Hot tears fell as those fleeting scenes passed.
-It’s okay. You’ll definitely be happy someday.
Words the test subject had always said.
Alice broke into sobs.
“We said we’d be happy... You said everything would be okay, sis...”
“...Sis... is okay.”
The test subject felt the same.
Hot, clear tears streamed from her eyes that would soon go dark.
A truth she barely managed to breathe out.
“Alice being happy... is sis’s happiness...”
So.
“You have to... be happy.”
It had been a tragic life.
Born without knowing why, suffering and hurting, loving someone, dreaming, despairing, and hoping over and over, nearly grasping everything at last, only to lose it all as though it had been an illusion. Such a dreamlike life.
“I love you, my little sister.”
The dream had ended.
With those tender final words, the test subject never moved again.
Her lips closed and never opened again. No more breath passed through her nose.
“Sis.”
Alice embraced the dead test subject.
She wasn’t warm.
She didn’t smile.
She didn’t hold Alice or comfort her.
She was simply resting with her eyes closed, her heartbeat gone.
“Ah, ahh...”
Her sister was gone.
The nameless test subject had died, leaving only Alice behind.
For some reason, Alice couldn’t let go of the test subject as she screamed and cried.
* * *
Her memories after that were hazy.
She had completely lost her mind, leaving only scattered fragments behind.
‘Sis.’
Alice was eventually rescued.
Valter Droit and Javert Droit had been active on the Church’s front lines at the time.
After clearing out the research facility, they found her while searching for surviving civilians and took her in.
-I never imagined such a young child had survived...!
-Javert, go call the priests!
Somehow, she survived.
Afterward, Alice stayed at an orphanage run by the Church.
A few more years passed, and with Valter’s help after he became headmaster, she enrolled at Grandia Academy.
-Miss Alice.
-My name is Viktor.
A few days later, she met the boy who would change her fate.
Alice’s life had been marked by such twists and turns.
‘No.’
Alice.
Every moment she had spent in the research facility remained with her like a scar.
A nightmare she couldn’t shake off or overcome... and one she couldn’t allow herself to.
Recently, spending time with good people had seemed to dull the pain.
Yet that nightmare had become reality again before her eyes, as if mocking Alice.
<Miss Alice.>
“...”
Oz (OZ).
The faceless man was looking at her.
That alone was enough to make the girl feel swept away by heavy waves.
-I prepared a special drug for this project, you know?
-I made sure the test subjects would suffer as much as possible.
The torture she had endured in the laboratory.
-I hope you’ll fulfill my dream.
The painful moments and the mind worn down by recurring nightmares.
The black drugs injected into her wrist every time.
The researchers laughing beyond the glass.
Alice-02, left behind in utter misery.
And the sister who had watched over her, shining brightly even in that gutter.
-You had another scary dream? You couldn’t sleep and kept crying.
-What do you mean you’re okay? Come here, into your sister’s arms.
-When we finally escape, I want to see so many places. The sea, filled endlessly with saltwater, mountains where all sorts of plants grow together, snowy fields piled with white ice crystals... Ah, I want to go to an academy too, a place where people our age gather!
-Let’s build a quiet house and live there together.
Then, the corridor again.
The bloody smell she still remembered clearly.
-Sis... is okay.
-Alice being happy... is sis’s happiness...
A scene that had repeated countless times.
A dream that held onto her and refused to let her go whenever she slept.
That festering moment of farewell.
-You have to... be happy.
-I love you, my little sister.
Painful, cherished memories tangled together in a mess.
Before she knew it, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Her heart felt cold enough to have stopped, and she wanted to strangle herself right then.
Dark thoughts pressed at the girl, stirring up her habitual nausea over the past.
‘Sis.’
Crackle, crackle-.
The crown floating above Alice’s head shook.
It began to flicker with static, and its tips soon started turning pitch-black.
‘Where... is sis?’
The girl’s nausea searched for someone.
The test subject who had looked so much like her.
The test subject whose body had never even been properly recovered.
And the test subject Alice was prouder of and trusted more than anyone in the world.
‘Where are you?’
Sis.
‘I’m scared.’
Nibble, nibble-.
As if it had been waiting for this moment, the nightmare began to eat away at Alice.
The girl froze, unable even to think of resisting.
Her consciousness drifted farther away.
It was as though the concept from beyond the window was trying to cross over once more.
Alice was falling into mental collapse, unaware that she was being devoured.
“Miss Alice.”
Tap-.
Someone’s hand rested on her cheek.
Its warmth was somehow reassuring.
It wasn’t her sister, but the voice calling to her was every bit as gentle.
“...Ah.”
The masked boy.
He was wiping away her tears.
As his fingers brushed aside the droplets, his whisper reached Alice’s blurred world.
“Look over here.”
“...”
“I’m here.”
“...”
“Take deep breaths. Slowly. Don’t push yourself.”
“...Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.”
“Good.”
His hand stroked her cheek as if praising her.
The nightmare’s rampage had already settled.
The unstable crown returned to normal as well.
Alice, who had been out of her mind, broke down as she held onto the warmth on her cheek.
“Vik, tor...”
Her voice sounded like a plea.
‘Once again, it was your hand that caught me.’
Footnotes:
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