WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 206: OZ (3)

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The Oz Subjugation Operation.

A plan to strike down the calamity before it arrived.

'We need to hurry.'

According to Lefil's report, less than a month remained until Eclipse erupted.

Oz had been fickle even in the original story, so I couldn't rule out the possibility of his schedule suddenly being moved up.

That was why we had to strike first.

The moment his project manifested, tens of thousands of lives would vanish.

And that would only be the beginning.

The numbers would grow exponentially, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, then millions.

'Once the project manifests, the Empire will collapse within weeks...'

The Mage of Life, Oz (OZ).

He was that cruel and unpredictable.

In a way, he alone might have been more dangerous than the entire Cult put together.

'I have to kill him.'

The infiltration operation.

The one most shaken by it was, of course, Alice.

'...Is it really right to make Alice face that man?'

Even now, the name Oz must have been traumatic for her.

Her cursed creator, and the man who had murdered her older sister.

Project Alice-01.

Project Alice-02.

He was the bastard who had driven Allie and Liss into hell.

The girl tried to act as though she had overcome it, but anyone could see it was a strained performance.

"......"

"Miss Alice."

Twenty-four hours remained until the subjugation operation.

Alice kept staring blankly into space, as though lost in thought.

I patted her shoulder, and only then did she jolt in surprise.

"U-uh...?! L-Lord Viktor?"

"Miss Alice."

"Ah... d-did you call me? I'm sorry. I was just lost in thought for a moment..."

"Are you all right? You don't look well."

"Y-yes... I'm fine. I was just really distracted..."

"I see."

Alice forced a smile.

I carefully sat beside the girl, who looked somehow drained.

Sensing the strange mood, the others gave us space one by one.

The first to get up was Caitlin, who had been sprawled across the sofa opposite us.

"Hey, monster. Let's go into that room."

"Why?"

"I'm sleepy. There's a bed in there."

"Go by yourself. Why do I have to follow the top student of Class B just because she's sleepy?"

"Fuck... Shut up and come already! Keep whining and I'll fry you."

"Are you scared? Are you afraid to sleep alone?"

"Fuck... Fine, let's say I am. Come with me."

"It's okay. That can happen. The top student of Class B is weak, after all."

"You really want to die...?"

Even as she bickered with Rin, Caitlin dragged her into the bedroom.

The rest of the group also left the living room.

'Other than Rin, they all know what Alice went through...'

Ranne, Carmilla, and Caitlin had heard Oz explain it himself during the school trip.

Javert had known Alice at least seven years before we did.

After all, the headmaster and Javert, both active in the field at the time, had rescued Alice from the Cult branch.

At any rate, the living room grew quiet.

I was able to speak calmly with the girl.

"Miss Alice."

"Y-yes...?"

"You don't have to force yourself."

"......"

I gently stroked her black hair.

As though I had hit the mark, Alice pressed her lips tightly together.

"There's no way you could be all right. You went through something like that, and now you're about to face that past again."

"......"

"Tell me honestly. Are you really okay?"

"Well, um..."

Alice couldn't answer right away. In the end, she lowered her head.

She took a deep breath, as though trying to calm her trembling.

Her hand fidgeted. I carefully took it in mine.

Her fingers flinched in surprise, then intertwined with mine and held on tightly.

"...I'm still scared."

"I see."

"Even now, I sometimes dream about that time. The experiments I went through in the laboratory, the endless moments of pain..."

I could feel her trembling too.

So I held that fragile hand a little tighter.

"That man never showed mercy. No matter how many times we begged or cried... H-he would just grin as though he was having fun and keep recording the results of his experiments one after another. He did it to me, and he did it to my sister too. Every day... every single day, we were pushed to the very brink of death, then healed, then pushed there again. Over and over..."

"It must have been painful. Sad, and full of resentment too."

"Sniff... Y-yes. It was so hard... so..."

Alice finally burst into tears.

I quietly ground my teeth.

I had gained a few more reasons to kill Oz.

"Miss Alice."

I embraced the wounded girl.

Her slender back still hurt.

'Maybe.'

Maybe I was being cruel to this child.

Was it really okay to force her to face a wound she hadn't overcome?

Wouldn't it be better to remove her from the operation, even now?

My thoughts became tangled.

One corner of my heart stung for no reason.

I made up my mind and met her tearful eyes.

"Miss Alice? I think it would be better if you sat this operation out..."

"N-no! I can't!"

But the girl shook her head.

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation in her answer.

"I have to do this... no matter what."

"But, Miss Alice..."

"I'm scared. I want to hide. I want to run away. But I can't do that this time. If I step back now, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself..."

She trembled.

Yet her will was firmer than that trembling.

"This is for my sister too..."

Allie.

The sister who had given her name and her whole life to her.

The girl who had originally been called Liss now sat here as Alice.

-Our names, Allie and Liss, make up Alice, so we're only whole when we're together.

-No matter what happens, we can't ever be apart! Okay?

It was the first love she had ever known.

The only thing that had kept the girl sane in that laboratory.

"You know, my sister always said that if we ever got out of the laboratory, she wanted to travel all around the vast continent... She was curious about everything, and she wasn't easily frightened. No, maybe even that was an act for my sake. I was always such a crybaby. Maybe she had to keep smiling to comfort me. Like an idiot. There's no way that horrible place didn't scare her. There's no way she could have been carefree enough to talk about dreams..."

"She sounds like she was a kind person."

"Yes..."

Large tears dripped down her face.

Alice sobbed softly.

"I grew up feeding on my sister's kindness. And it wasn't just my sister. Now, I live depending on you too, Lord Viktor. So much time has passed, but I feel like I haven't changed at all since those days in the laboratory."

"Miss Alice, you've been doing more than well enough. You don't need to blame yourself like that..."

"When my sister spoke about her dreams, I had a dream too. I wanted to become someone like her. Strong, bright, and kind."

Even as she cried, Alice's eyes were clear.

"I can't step back. I've run away hundreds of times and hidden thousands of times, but I can't do that this time. This is the life I inherited from my sister. The life you saved, Lord Viktor. If I let this moment slip away, I don't think I'll ever be able to face either of you with my head held high."

"Miss Alice..."

"My father is certainly frightening, but there's something I'm even more afraid of."

A small, pitiful child.

In just a few months, the girl seemed to have become quite composed.

'When did she grow this much?'

Pride, fondness, sorrow, and all sorts of feelings mixed together.

Alice wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

Then she gripped my hand tightly again.

"Lord Viktor."

"Yes, Miss Alice."

"I... want to find my courage."

"If you put it that way, I can't refuse to help you."

I smiled playfully.

Right, courage.

"Let's go see that bastard who calls himself your father."

"Yes...!"

The girl had grown so strong.

* * *

Twenty-four hours later.

The Oz Subjugation Operation began without delay.

"Is everyone ready?"

<There are no problems.>

<All is likewise well on this end.>

Voices rang through the rings.

I stood in a dark hallway.

'The place where Oz's true body resides.'

This was the hideout Lefil had personally discovered through infiltration.

We were currently waiting in three separate teams.

The teams had scattered to carry out their respective roles.

After finishing our final preparations, I quietly gave the signal through the ring.

"Then... we'll begin the subjugation operation."

Rumble!

A vibration echoed through the Cult branch.

The other teams had begun moving.

"Let's go too."

"Y-yes...!"

"Mm! I'll open it! Please step back, both of you."

Without hesitation, we broke through the laboratory door in front of us.

Boom!!

The door was torn away by Ranne's Starlight.

Inside stood a man in a pure white lab coat, looking startled.

<Well... It appears we have unexpected guests.>

"Oz."

<It's been a while. You were Mr. Garulik of the Slayers, weren't you?>

"I came to kill you."

<Oh my, how exciting.>

"Hold out your neck obediently."

Right.

Now then, shall we try killing him?

Footnotes:

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