◈ Mistaken for a Masked Monster
──────
Vulgar Slaughter, Cowardly Survival (1)
All day, Alice had been running.
Every time their eyes met, she'd nearly jump out of her skin.
She was doing her best to hide it. That much was obvious. But...
[Viktor, did you perhaps do something wrong to that child?]
'As I suspected... the princess had noticed.'
[She's making it so obvious. She's frightened half to death.]
'I'm not entirely sure myself. Beyond that one time I spoke to her, we've barely crossed paths at all.'From where I stood, it was plain as day. She wasn't the type who could lie. The girl either pretended not to notice my gaze or found quiet reasons to slip away before I could approach.
'I have business with her.'
I couldn't keep letting her dodge me forever.
So I steered her, patient and methodical, until she had nowhere left to run.
A back alley, thin on foot traffic.
No escape from here.
I raised my arm without ceremony and cut off her retreat.
"Alice-yang."
Only then did her eyes finally meet mine.
Those blue eyes, already threatening to well up for reasons I couldn't begin to fathom.
"Caught you at last. You've been running all day..."
"Ye, ye, y-yes..."
No.
What is going on with you.
We've only met twice.
I thought, genuinely baffled.
'Princess.'
[What is it? My loyal vassal.]
'Honestly,in your opinion, is my face that unsightly?'
[...You're wearing a mask, aren't you? I've never once seen you without it.]
'Ah. Right, that.'
It definitely wasn't an ugliness problem. And not to toot my own horn, but the face underneath wasn't bad at all.
I pushed the thought aside and refocused. Whatever the reason, the task came first.
'Today's schedule is packed.'
No time to dawdle.
Whatever that strange reaction was about, I could puzzle it out later.
"How about a little date? Just the two of us."
"Ye, ye... y-yes...?"
Her eyes darted every which way.
She looked like something had just hit her square in the chest.
"Nothing too dramatic. There's just someone I'd like to introduce you to, Alice-yang."
"So, someone you'd like to introduce... to me? All of a sudden... why...?"
"We agreed to be friends, didn't we? Do you remember? The day I found your necklace."
"Ah..."
"Since we're getting closer anyway, I thought I'd introduce you to another friend of mine. You're still getting used to life at the academy, aren't you? The more people you know, the better."
"I-i-is that so..."
"You'll come along, right?"
"......"
"Alice-yang?"
"Yes! Yes! I'll, I'll go! Please let me come!"
She wavered and stumbled over her words, but followed in the end.
Watching her like that, something odd settled in my chest.
The date comment had been a throwaway line, just for fun, but was she really that put off by it?
Even for me, seeing my favorite character from the original react like that stung a little.
'Even if I had to drag her, the errand still needed doing. But...'
Something in me drooped.
Was I getting a little excited there for a second? Maybe I really was doomed to have no luck with romance this time around either.
I let out a quiet sigh. Something stirred in my front pocket.
The princess peeked her head out.
[Viktor, you really are something else.]
'Princess? What do you mean?'
[You said 'date.' You could have just told her you had business with her, but instead you went and teased her with that word and got nothing to show for it...]
'Well, in a broad sense, it's not wrong, is it?'
[...?]
'When a man and a woman are walking together just the two of them, that's a date. What else would you call it?'
[Th, that's what it is?]
I mean... sure?
Why do you sound like you just learned something new.
[Th, then... does that mean I've actually been going on dates with Viktor this whole time, every single day...?]
Definitely a vampire. Being such a conservative race made her genuinely clueless about this sort of thing.
'Well, to be fair.'
A race that gets stoned in the street if they don't stay chaste before marriage. A race that takes the Theory of Spiritual and Bodily Purity as a required course. And on top of that, vampires were said to pledge themselves to only one partner for their entire lives.
An unambiguously chaste species, through and through.
'Come to think of it... how long do pureblooded vampires live? Around 300 years, wasn't it?'
Ordinary vampires lived about 200 years, but purebloods were a different matter. And for those who carried especially strong royal blood, like Carmilla, the rules were something else entirely. The nobler the bloodline, the greater the power.
'How old are you, princess?'
[Hm! I am turning 30 this year!]
'...'
[Viktor? What's wrong?]
I had been treating her a little like a younger sister, but she was actually quite a few years my senior.
Calculated in human terms, we'd come out roughly similar in age, but still.
'I should keep treating her with proper respect.'
As a kid raised in the land of eastern courtesy, the feeling it left was... complicated.
I was still turning it over when I noticed our feet had brought us to the destination.
"Ah, here we are."
"This is... Building A, isn't it?"
Building A.
The space used by Class A students. That building alone was as wide as a decent-sized university campus.
Alice blinked, glancing around in confusion.
"Um... what brings you here, exactly..."
"A friend of mine is enrolled in Class A."
"Is this the person you mentioned introducing...?"
"That's right. The person I'm looking for."
Lectures should have wrapped up by now. I'd sent word ahead of time, so it was only a matter of waiting.
We stood there a little awkwardly for a while.
Then, in the distance, a familiar head of golden hair.
The moment she spotted us, she lit up and came running over.
"Oh! Viktor-gyeong! You've been waiting here!"
"Ranne-yang. It's been a while."
Ranne Kihano.
The protagonist of the original game, Ranne & Grandia Academy: The Märchen. Also Class A's second seat. A girl I'd crossed paths with back during the entrance exam.
I met those bright violet eyes and offered a warm greeting.
"Last time was the entrance ceremony, wasn't it?"
"Yes! A whole week! I was so disappointed we only caught each other's eyes for a moment at the ceremony!"
"Ranne-yang is as spirited as ever. I was sorry to lose you to a different class."
"I was so shocked when the class assignments came out. I was certain you'd enroll as Class A's top student."
"Gracious of you to think so. I'm just grateful."
"I never say anything I don't mean!"
Fitting for a protagonist.
Ranne was radiating positive energy at full blast the moment they met, so happy to see him it was like watching a golden retriever wag its tail.
"By the way, the favor I asked of you,you've been keeping your word, haven't you?"
"The favor... ah, right! Of course, I've been keeping my mouth absolutely shut!"
"That's a relief. As I mentioned at the time, I have personal reasons."
"Yes, I understand! Viktor-gyeong is my lifesaver, after all! Something like this is the very least I can do!"
I'd left one request with Ranne beforehand.
Keep it a secret that I hunted Booky.
And keep quiet about the power I'd shown, and the strange things I'd done.
'The Apostle of the Evil God... if word got out that I took down The Reader, all kinds of trouble would follow.'
There was no telling how the faculty might react. They might connect it directly to clearing Purgatory Floor 70 and start keeping a close eye on me.
Fortunately, Ranne was the sort of person who kept her word.
"It was a strange request, I'll admit, but don't worry!"
"Reassuring to hear."
"By the way, I've been hearing rumors about you! They say your performance at the recent exam was extraordinary!"
"I really am a hot topic, aren't I. If even Ranne-yang has heard."
"Of course I would! You're the first friend I made at this academy. How could I let news about you go in one ear and out the other?"
A bit of easy small talk.
After the pleasantries, I got straight to the point.
"Shall we get to the real reason I came today, Ranne-yang?"
"Ah, right. You mentioned there was someone you wanted to introduce."
"Correct. Please say hello to each other. This is Alice-yang."
"Lovely to meet you, Alice-yang! You're Viktor-gyeong's classmate!"
"Oh, um... h-hello? It's a pleasure to meet you..."
Thwump.
Ranne grabbed her hand without hesitation and shook it firmly.
Alice flinched.
As for why I'd arranged this meeting in the first place...
'Ranne's presence will be good for Alice.'
The Nightmare.
Alice's original sin.
Her ability was a madness triggered through dreams.
'An immensely powerful force, one that would one day become a calamity, but the problem is that she has no control over it...'
Alice was poor at managing it. She'd been born with a constitution that simply worked that way.
Why she hid her ability. Why she refused to take part in things like sparring. All of it came down to this.
Fear that her mistake might hurt someone.
Fear that her cursed power might kill someone.
The poor girl lived locked inside her own anxiety.
'And on top of that... Alice's ability comes with mental erosion.'
Nightmares, without end. A state where it becomes nearly impossible to separate what was real from what was a dream.
Until she could fully control her ability, the madness would keep quietly eating away at Alice's mind.
'That's why I need Ranne.'
The protagonist, Ranne Kihano.
She radiated positive energy in every direction.
Not just as an impression, either. She genuinely gave off divine energy wherever she went, a natural consequence of being born with an enormous wellspring of holy power.
Simply keeping the two of them close would significantly ease Alice's Nightmare.
'Well... even that is only part of it.'
The rest, I could help with directly.
Two years remained before Alice bloomed into a catastrophe.
There was still time.
For now, the goal was simply to ease the mental strain on her. Given how sensitive a power the Nightmare was, careful handling was necessary.
Besides, it would also give her a real friend to lean on.
'In the original story, she went through something like social isolation.'
Humans, even in a gutter, find ways to rank each other within it.
There were scenes that described Alice failing to fit in with her classmates. Preventing that too was part of the reason I wanted to put our protagonist right beside her.
I smiled.
"Ranne-yang. You said you'd grant me any one favor, didn't you?"
"Of course! Viktor-gyeong is my lifesaver."
"Then please look after Alice-yang for me."
"Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."
"I'm glad to hear such a quick answer."
"Um... Viktor-nim? What does, what does all of this... mean..."
Right.
Alice had just been sold a friend against her will. Completely independent of her own wishes.
"It's alright with you too, isn't it, Alice-yang?"
Well.
It's for your own good anyway.
I'm making sure you don't turn into a calamity.
Look at Ranne. What a bright, easy-going kid.
"Y-yes..."
"I trust you'll keep close to each other."
"I'm counting on you from here on, Alice-yang!"
"...Yes."
Alice couldn't get a word out. She just nodded.
The atmosphere was warm.
One thing handled, at least.
***
Amateur matchmaker.
A few hours after the academy day wrapped up.
In the hours since, the sky had gone dark, the moon and stars out in full.
Under the cover of that night, I slipped quietly out of the dormitory.
[Viktor? Where are you off to again, at this hour?]
"Better to stay out of people's sight. Night really is the best time for this sort of thing."
[If not for how exhausting it is...]
"Get some rest, then. We've got quite a distance to cover tonight."
Out of the building, I found a suitable spot.
Then the map-clip. I slipped clean through the wall and out of the academy entirely.
We walked through a dark alley.
By now, Carmilla had shed her bat form and was back in her original shape.
"You were pressing yourself against the wall in that strange posture again, and then the location just changed in an instant. No matter how many times it happens, it never stops being strange."
"Ha, the details are trade secret, I'm afraid."
"I wasn't expecting you to share. More to the point, you've left the academy grounds entirely tonight, haven't you? This doesn't feel like anywhere nearby..."
"That's right. We've come quite far tonight."
I looked around.
A city.
The kind of quiet that only comes with the night, a little eerie around the edges.
We walked side by side through the dark landscape.
At an easy pace, I spoke.
"We're in a city some distance from the academy. You know where we first met? Around there, near the underground waterway."
"The waterway... the area where I was nearly executed."
"Yes. Lucky that I arrived in time."
"Still gives me a chill, thinking back on it. But why come all the way here all of a sudden..."
The princess shuddered with revulsion, then tilted her head in curiosity.
I looked at the screen floating before my eyes and answered. My breath had cooled, just slightly.
"There's something I need to take care of."
Ding!
[Sub-Quest]
-Title: O Vile Slaughter, O Craven Survival.
-Description: Stop the New Kingdom vampires from constructing a 'Human Ranch.' Rescue those kidnapped by the vampires.
-Failure Penalty: City 'Riventa' destroyed.
-Reward: Endless goodwill from the city of 'Riventa.'
[Time Remaining: 2 hours 59 minutes 57 seconds]
I toyed with the mask.
In my hand, the bright, colorful balloon sword.
In the other, a pale white shard of a stake,a fragment of one used before.
The corner of the mask's mouth curled. Pleased.
"Shall we go."
A vampire hunter, out on shift for the night.