WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 36: Alice’s Nightmare (1)
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Dawn.
Even the night was hidden behind clouds, leaving the landscape without a trace of starlight.
Only faint remnants of spring fluttered in the distance like petals.
Thick blackout curtains covered the window.
A room without even the faintest source of light.
In the clinging darkness, only thin, raspy breaths could be heard.
“...”
Haa, haa-
Black hair lay scattered across the bed.
A girl was asleep.
“Mm, ngh...”
Was she having a nightmare?
Her brow furrowed, and she kept tossing and turning.
Her breathing was ragged.
-Alice!
Deep in her subconscious, the girl was running away.
A black corridor.
Unsteady footsteps crossed it.
There was no end in sight, only terrifying sounds behind her.
-Don’t stop! We have to go!
-If they catch us this time, there really won’t be any turning back!
-I’ll help you, so just keep running...
It was always the same dream.
She ran.
She ran.
The girl’s life had always been about running away.
Horrible things chased her from behind.
-Just a little farther!
-We’re almost there!
Alice, Alice.
A child who should never have been born.
Even as she ran, the girl knew.
-Ah...
She knew what ending was about to come.
No matter how many hundreds of times it repeated, the ending of this hell was always the same.
The figure running ahead of her.
Long, flowing hair swayed, then the figure suddenly collapsed.
For some reason, her lower body had been severed.
-Alice.
The figure called to her.
Sprawled across the floor and groaning in pain, she still called to her.
-Alice...
Blue eyes exactly like the girl’s own.
They were slowly losing their light.
-R... run...
No.
I don’t want this.
Don’t say that.
I can’t do this without you.
We barely made it out of that horrible place alive.
We finally thought we could escape. We finally had hope.
-You have to live... no matter what.
But.
Why.
Why was the world only this cruel to us?
-Alice...
-Thisallhappenedbecauseofyou.
Crash!
The dream shattered into pieces.
The girl jolted upright in bed.
“Gasp, gasp...!”
Her whole body was soaked in cold sweat.
Her mind was still hazy.
Only after taking several breaths did she realize it had been a dream.
Reflected in her blinking blue eyes was the same lonely room as always.
Before she could even calm down, intense nausea surged up.
“Urk...!”
The girl rushed to the bathroom.
Then, gripping the toilet, she emptied her stomach.
She hadn’t eaten anything all day, so only clear stomach fluid came out.
“Ugh, urgh...”
Little by little, sobs mixed into her dry heaving.
Tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
Her face was a complete mess.
Before she knew it, the girl had slumped over, sobbing her heart out.
“Sis... S-sis...”
Someone whose identity she didn’t know.
A feeling that might have been longing, or perhaps guilt.
The girl was barely clinging to her mind as it threatened to collapse.
As she staggered beneath the headache, auditory hallucinations suddenly rang in her ears.
<WelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderlandWelcometoWonderland>
A voice that had echoed endlessly since that day.
The grotesque whispers shook her mind.
<ShouldwekillLetskillSavemePreparethecroquetgameNoWhatshallweusefortheballsImnotthatkindofpersonCutoffhumanheadsandpreparethemHeheheIdontwanttohurtthemThiswillbefunHeheheheheHumanheadoneHumanheadtwoSisterhuhIhititwithahammeranditsbrainshatteredHelpmeSisterWeshouldcutoffnewonesandpreparethem>
<Accept it.>
<YoucanneverescapefromthestrangestrangestrangeWonderland.>
She covered her ears.
She didn’t want to hear it. She felt like she would go mad.
If she gave in to it like this, there would be no turning back.
<Hehehe.>
Everyone.
They would all die.
<Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.>
Nightmare.
How long can I resist?
How long can I remain myself?
Someday... No, perhaps as soon as tomorrow morning.
What will happen to me if this nightmare consumes me?
<Alice.>
<Youshouldneverhavebeenborn.>
Alice, Alice.
A child who should never have been born.
The girl’s dawn always began this way.
* * *
“Hmm...”
The practical training was only two days away.
To check over my plan, I visited the site where it would be held.
The Student Hunting Grounds.
At present, students were barred from entering while preparations for the exam were underway.
Of course, that didn’t matter to someone like me, who could slip in with Wall Clipping...
“Would this spot do?”
A dense forest.
As I surveyed the area, I found a suitable location.
Then I took out a crystal ball and tossed it into the bushes.
I arranged it to look as though someone had dropped it by accident.
“Good. It looks more natural than I expected.”
I covered it with a few branches so it wouldn’t be found too easily.
It was incredibly simple, but that completed the preparations for my plan.
All that remained was to wait.
“I should head back quickly.”
The faculty would be starting their patrol soon.
* * *
And so, on the day of the practical training.
The students arrived at the designated area early in the morning.
My teammates and I stood among the crowd.
“There are so many people! I’ve never seen this many students gathered at the Student Hunting Grounds!”
“That makes sense. Half of the first-year cadets are doing their practical training here.”
“I heard the other half are doing theirs on the fifth floor of Purgatory!”
“With so many students, they probably split them up to make things easier to manage.”
The practical training had been divided in two.
Training held at the Student Hunting Grounds, and training held on Purgatory’s fifth floor.
The content wasn’t any different. Like I said, it was just a way to divide up the students.
Naturally, my target had been the hunting grounds from the start.
‘Because the incident happens at the hunting grounds.’
Unlike Purgatory, where things would proceed without issue, an incident was set to occur at the hunting grounds.
It was an event that could wipe out everyone inside if things went wrong.
This time, it was the work of the Cult, worshippers of the Evil God.
To keep the original story moving as it should from here on, I had to stop the event.
‘That’s why I recruited Ranne as a teammate.’
The fifth floor of Purgatory, or the Student Hunting Grounds.
Which side you were assigned to was decided at random.
Normally, I could have selected one myself, but I had chosen Impossible difficulty.
As the highest difficulty setting in the game, it made things inconvenient in all sorts of ways.
‘I had no choice but to go wherever fate sent me...’
But.
Things changed if Ranne and Alice were on my team.
When I was with the two of them, I was almost guaranteed to be assigned to the hunting grounds.
‘Should I call this another kind of bug?’
Either way, I was glad things had worked out.
Smiling beneath my mask, I looked over each of my teammates.
“How is everyone feeling?”
“Mm! I couldn’t be better! I think I’ll be able to perform at my best!”
“Just as expected of Miss Ranne. I can’t tell you how reassuring it is to have you on the same team.”
“You flatter me! I’m the one honored to be with you, Sir Viktor.”
Ranne answered brightly as usual.
The other girl, on the other hand, kept her mouth tightly shut.
“Then... how are you doing, Miss Alice?”
“...”
“Miss Alice?”
“... Ah, ah? I’m sorry. I-I got distracted for a moment...”
“It’s all right. The practical training will begin soon, so please focus for just a little longer.”
“Y-Yes...”
The girl nodded weakly.
Had she been tormented by nightmares again?
‘I’ll need to keep an eye on her.’
After a quick check, I turned my attention to the students.
A red-haired woman was explaining the practical training.
Chief Investigator Javert Droit.
As always, her eyes were utterly blank.
“This practical training will involve monster hunting and survival.”
The professor supervising the exercise briefly explained its contents.
“There are various monsters inside the hunting grounds. You will gain points for every monster you hunt, and teams with higher scores will receive higher grades. During the time limit, hunt as many monsters as possible and earn points.”
Then.
“During the practical training, competition between students is fully permitted. If you successfully subdue another student, you may take their points.”
It wasn’t enough to simply be good at hunting monsters.
In the end, competition between students was the key.
Could you avoid having your points stolen by other teams?
Could you steal points from other teams?
At first, everyone would focus on hunting monsters, but by the end, conflicts between students would take center stage.
‘You really can tell this is an academy obsessed with competition.’
It was called practical training, but it was really just an extension of the exam.
A method of forcing students into conflict to spur their growth.
Having finished the explanation, Javert looked over the students.
“Any questions?”
““...””
Everyone had known the details for days, so no one raised a hand.
After confirming their reaction, Javert took out a crystal ball.
“Then we will begin at once.”
Her voice announced the start.
After she manipulated the crystal ball a few times, a bright light appeared beneath the students’ feet.
When I looked down, I saw an enormous magic circle.
Rippling waves of mana enveloped the students.
“You will now be teleported inside the hunting grounds. Your arrival points will be completely random, and the time limit for this practical training is forty-eight hours.”
Whoosh-
The scenery blurred.
Only her final words reached my ears as they faded away.
“Then, I wish you good luck.”
Flash!
My vision turned pure white, then flickered black.
Cool mana wrapped around my entire body.
After around ten seconds.
“Oh?”
When I opened my eyes again, we were standing in the middle of a forest.
Dense undergrowth. A landscape that reminded me of a jungle.
My teammates looked around in wonder as well.
“So this is the Student Hunting Grounds! It’s my first time actually coming in here!”
“It’s, it’s huge... The trees are so tall, too...”
“Hehe, it’s large enough to rival an ordinary forest.”
I shrugged.
As we looked around, an unfamiliar noise came from behind us.
Rustle-
It sounded like bushes being crushed.
Ranne must have noticed as well, because she urgently called out to me.
“Sir Viktor! Behind you...!”
-Roar!
Before the girl could finish warning me, a figure burst from the bushes.
It stood at least five meters tall, its entire body covered in thick hide.
It looked like a cross between a bear and an alligator.
A three-star monster, a Geltian Bear.
-Roaar!
The moment it appeared, it swung down a massive forepaw.
Its sharp claws shredded the bushes apart.
A heavy blow fell toward my head.
Boom!
The explosive sound made my ears ring.
But I was no longer standing there.
The monster panicked at the disappearance of its prey.
“Activate. Scythe.”
I had moved behind it.
When I spoke the command, the gloves I wore came undone.
They scattered into mist, then compressed into a dark crimson scythe.
Stab!
It pierced through the monster’s back.
The blade forced its way through the tough hide.
The monster screamed as it was struck.
Perhaps the attack hadn’t been enough to kill it, because it only grew more frenzied.
-Roar, roaaaar!
I didn’t waver.
I only spoke another command.
“Activate. Thorns.”
Shkraaash!
Thorns burst out from inside it.
Dozens of spikes turned its insides to mush.
Unable to resist any longer, the monster went limp.
“Hmm.”
A three-star monster in one combo.
The performance really was absurdly overpowered.
As I admired it anew, a notification rang from my crystal ball.
[Monster ‘Geltian Bear’ defeated.]
[You have obtained 30 points.]
[Points accumulated so far: 30]
The system shared points among teammates.
Notifications also appeared on Alice and Ranne’s crystal balls.
As the two checked their screens, another notification sounded for me.
This time, it was the familiar mechanical chime.
Ding!
[Sub Quest]
-Title: If You’re Going to Do It, Do It Right!
-Details: Place third or higher in the practical training.
-Penalty for Failure: None
-Reward: Consumable Item ‘Very Stealthy Necktie (B-)’
[Time Limit: Until the practical training ends]
Right.
If I was going to do it, I should do it right.
I snickered and rested the scythe on my shoulder.
Across from me, my teammates voiced their admiration.
“M-My goodness... A monster that large, in one hit...”
“As expected of you, Sir Viktor!”
There was much to do.
I had to raise our rank, and I had to stop the incident that would soon occur.
It looked like I would need to stay busy during this practical training.
“Well... there’s no time to hesitate.”
My mask smiled.
“Shall we go take it? First place.”
Footnotes:
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