Chapter 74
Ariel is sensitive to emotions.
Therefore, even if Mephisto Pheles doesn't specifically mention Alice, the slightest hint of affection towards her shakes Ariel's heart.
Yes. She was jealous of Alice for receiving favoritism from Mephisto.
So she decided to play a mischievous prank.
Even if she says it's a prank, it's simply not telling Alice what she knew.
For example, what Pinocchio will do with the items obtained through their trade.
Well, if he actually succeeds, it would be troublesome for Ariel too.
But it would be quite amusing to see the distorted expression on Alice's face when she gets stabbed in the back.
...
POV Switch - Alice
"...The table is broken."
I took out my wallet.
I had about 30,000 won.1
I apologized to the employee, very embarrassed.
The employee said it was probably a defective item and that I didn't have to pay for it, but I insisted I would and asked for the price.
...More expensive than 30,000 won.
I called someone.
"...James. I'm really sorry..."
...
"Hmm. It's strange how you're bothered by a broken table when you completely obliterated the factory and its underground with nuclear missiles."
James said as he drove.
I couldn't help but blush.
I made up the bare minimum of excuses.
"It's because I don't have enough pocket money."
James chuckled at those words.
I felt even more embarrassed.
I gestured for him to change the subject, and he brought up something quite serious.
"From what I heard, it looks like you ran into a really big guy. This is the first time since I joined the Institution that I have seen an anomaly with such a high security level."
Ruler.
A monster that can single-handedly create a world-ending scenario.
It is no wonder that James, who is not one of the research directors, does not know.
"He knows about the kids. He must have seen the thread of fate connecting us."
The fight targeting children will begin again.
I expected James to help again.
Seeing my expression, he leaned back in his seat and spoke in a weary voice.
What he said was uncharacteristic of him.
"...Honestly, I don't know if I can be of help."
I couldn't believe that James, who had tried to face such a huge devil before, would say something like this.
I asked back in surprise.
"What do you mean, James?"
"It's not like I'm always full of confidence. I have no intention of running away, but the bigger the scale, the less individual strength matters. It's going to be quite tough."
When a situation arises, James' role will be to eradicate the monsters.
If the Machine God, bigger than a building, were to fully reveal itself, the bullets fired by an individual would not be enough.
I put myself in James' shoes.
...In terms of war, would he be an infantry?
If so, James' fear is understandable.
I said this to appease him.
"Don't worry James, I will protect you if you want."
I smiled as kindly as I could.
Although I am a devil.
Will James cheer up if I give him a hug? It was when I was thinking that.
"What if I don't want that?"
"Huh?"
His answer again exceeded my expectations.
I felt like a fool.
As I was embarrassed, he tried to wrap up the conversation.
"I'm grateful, but I decline. Sorry for bringing it up."
"Uh, um... Okay."
When I looked at James to see if I had done something wrong, he glanced at me while driving and said.
"...I hope you don't read too much into what I just said. I was just anxious because I am also human. But I don't want to be protected. How should I put it... If there is a chance that the outcome will change when I risk my life, I am willing to do it. I'm just afraid of not being able to achieve anything at the end of my efforts."
James' fear was completely natural.
If there is no result waiting for you at the end of your efforts, there is nothing more vain and miserable.
I thought the same thing... If there were a God, it would be nice if he came down from the sky at the last moment and rewarded humans for their hard work.
It's strange that there is a devil but no God.
"I see. I'm sorry. I didn't know that."
I pretended not to care, but checked James's mood.
Because I wanted to make him relax a little.
James shook his head.
"I told you, don't let it get to your head."
"..."
Why do I get caught every time?
A moment of silence.
James tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
He seems to be thinking about a new topic.
I guessed that the topic he was about to bring up was a question he'd always had.
"So, Alice. Do you want to protect the children?"
I tilted my head when I heard that question.
Because it was such an obvious question.
"That's right. I want to keep them safe."
"I see..."
James mumbled very softly after hearing my answer.
The pronunciation and volume was so low that no one but me could hear it.
Have you changed a bit?
"...?"
I didn't understand the muttering.
What on earth has changed about me?
...
And it was the next day.
"Alice!"
Suho seems to be full of energy today.
When I asked if something good had happened, Suho asked how I knew.
Actually, everyone knew.
Even though there was nothing particularly noticeable in his voice, it seemed like everyone noticed it.
It's not that important.
"Today is club activity day."
These kids are still the same.
Wouldn't it be better for horror game protagonists to restrain themselves?
Then you might meet a real monster.
"You never get tired of it. What are you going to do this time? As long as it's not dangerous, I'll allow it."
When I said that, the children blinked and stared at me.
What's with this atmosphere?
It felt like I had said something strange.
Suho said with a smile.
"When did Alice become our mother?"
"..."
My face turned red again.
I covered my face with my palms, but anyone could see that I looked embarrassed.
There have been a lot of shameful incidents recently.
We'll see, you guys.
"Hehehe..."
Ha-rim laughs happily.
I motioned to Suho as if to tell him to speak quickly.
"Okay. So what are you going to do?"
"It's about a ghost story that's going around these days. Kyeong-min told us before, it's about a living machine."
"...!"
A living machine.
Is it the influence of the Machine God?
It's so fast. I got a little serious.
"Alice? What's going on?"
"It's nothing. Do you want to keep talking?"
This time Kyeong-min started speaking.
In terms of knowledge alone, he probably knows more than Ha-rim.
"Hmm... Judging by Alice's expression, she seems to have forgotten or was thinking about something else when we were talking. You have to listen carefully this time. It's a cliché story, but there used to be a lot of graves around here."
"Graves? Really?"
Eun-jeong didn't pay attention either. Kyeong-min grunted slightly.
"I don't know. Isn't it a ghost story that's hard to tell if it's true or not? Anyway, the souls of dead people remain without attaining Buddhahood, and then their souls seep into objects and move around every night."
"That resembles the Japanese tsukumogami."2
The reality is completely different, but people tend to give plausible reasons to strange phenomena.
That's also a characteristic of ghost stories.
This is going to be far more dangerous than the kids realize.
"Wow. It really moves? How do you find something like that if it's hiding around you?"
When Eun-jeong asked that with interest, Kyeong-min showed her how to tell the difference.
"Recently added sightings say they were screaming that they were in pain, but I guess everyone couldn't see them because it was dark. In the beginning, they said it looked like a wooden doll or a mannequin... This part is strange."
"It's scary that it screamed in pain. Maybe it’s actually the screams of people attacked by the machine monster?"
"...No way! Or so I wanted to say, but we did see a real ghost last time, so I'm not sure."
"..."
I was worried.
It is very likely that that ghost story is the influence of the Machine God.
There can't be just one monster, and no matter what the kids do, they won't be able to make a single scratch on these monsters, which are characterized by their hardness.
Can the kids be of any use as a force?
This place is different from the game. The other person is not a monster either.
There is no such thing as a strategy guide.
Monsters have clear weaknesses that even kids can exploit.
Like riddles, or being turned into games.
But is the same true for anomalous objects?
Should I stop the kids?
My role is to protect.
I can't let the kids get involved in something they can't overcome.
I am very conflicted.
"Alice. Alice!"
"Uh, yeah?"
"So Alice, are you going?"
"What... What were we talking about?"
When I scratched my cheek, Kyeong-min pouted, asking if I was daydreaming again.
I gave an awkward smile, which for some reason made Kyung-min happy and lifted his mood.
"Ahem. There's a big scrap metal dump just past the intersection... I sometimes hear crying there. The pronunciation was similar to pain. It might be a living machine!"
"So we decided to go after school. How about Alice, are you going?"
I thought about it before answering.
"...Alright. I'll go."
I cannot control the children who are overflowing with curiosity.
No matter how close someone is, controlling them unilaterally can sever the relationship.
Even if you succeed, it will never be perfect as long as humans think.
As long as they don't forget something that is the basis of their actions.
"Wow! Alice is going too!"
"Alice, just join the club already."
"I don't know when I will be able to participate in club activities, so put it on hold."
"Hmph."
After school, the kids headed to the scrapyard.
The intersection is difficult to walk to or take a bus.
The children chose to walk even though it took time.
"It's already dark."
"Yes. For some reason, it feels like the sun set early today."
Is this an ominous sign?
Without being noticed, I summoned the monster of eavesdropping.
It whispered to me.
[It hurts... It hurts...]
...!
The living machine is over there.
It seems that the ghost story the children heard was not a lie.
I can't let the kids get hurt.
I suddenly asked them.
"How long would it take to run there?"
"Hmm... It's quite close for a bus... So it'd take about eight minutes by running."
"Then how about a race? The last one there buys ice cream."
"Huh?"
"On the count of three, we're leaving. One. Three."
I said that and ran away.
My suddenness caught everyone off guard, but it didn't really matter.
As I ran, I created a mirror in the children's blind spot.
"Hey?! Why are you so fast?!"
In the mirror, a faceless and tall man appears.
A monster so thin that it looks as if it might fly away at any moment.
"Slenderman. Can you protect the children from being seen?"
Slenderman nodded and disappeared through teleportation.
Although it is the first monster to attack the kids, it is probably a pretty good monster to protect them at the same time.
"It's more serious than expected."
I trespassed into a scrap metal dump and came face to face with a monster barely tall enough to climb the wall.
Unlike the living machines I saw in the factory, it was all in one piece.
It had huge arms that weighed a ton.
Is it an upgraded version?
I tried to approach to deal with it and give rest to the suffering human inside the machine.
"...Huh?"
But I stopped when I noticed it was fighting something.
Bang!
A wooden body with weapons made of iron against the living machine.
"It's wooden dolls."
Wooden dolls are anomalous objects from the Workshop.
Are the mannequins and wooden dolls mentioned in the ghost story referring to these?
Since it was not made purely of wood, it could easily have been mistaken for a machine.
But why are wooden dolls fighting the living machine?
I apologized to the machine, which muttered inwardly that it was in pain, and decided to watch for a while.
'Sorry. Just for a while.'
The wooden doll divided up their roles and attacked as if they were forming a party.
However, it had no significant effect in the face of a monster larger than them.
Boom.
The machine swung its arms and some dolls fell out.
The living machine has the upper hand.
"!"
However, the wooden dolls began to come one by one, either over the wall or through holes.
The wooden dolls, which had increased in number, began to tangle and merge with each other.
It is an ability that is quite similar to that of the living machine.
Bang!!!
The wooden dolls grew to the size of the living machine, and stabbed their arms into the center of what was supposed to be the living machine core.
Then the machine collapsed and the puppets ended in victory.
"...Why are you looking at me?"
After finishing its work, the giant wooden doll turned its head towards me.
Sure enough, it's running towards me.
I sighed and created a mirror.
"If it is made of wood, it will be weak with high heat!"
What came out of the mirror was blue flame.
It is a floating ghost fire.
"Could you burn it for me?"
As if in response, a large flickering wisp flew towards the giant wooden doll.
As the doll waves its hand, the area that comes into contact with the Will-o'-the-wisp light catches fire and burns up.
The doll tried to put out the fire, but when it didn't work, it gave up and ran towards me again.
I created another mirror.
"It's still weak. We need one more."
The guy I'm calling this time is something with a human face on a flaming wheel.
This monster is a Japanese yokai that still occasionally appears in popular media.
It's name, who is also known as the wheel of the underworld carriage, is.
"Wanyūdō."3
The fiery wagon-wheel monster emerged from the mirror, spinning and charging like a biker on a motorcycle.
Its speed was too fast for the giant doll to keep up with, and its mobility was no match for it.
Wanyūdō climbed up the doll's legs and reached his head in an instant.
Flames erupted from its wooden tire.
The flames enveloped the doll and brightened the surrounding area.
!!!
In the end, the doll burned to ashes except for the iron parts.
"..."
I quietly looked at the doll that had become ashes.
It was then.
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause was heard from the hill of machine parts broken by the doll.
For a clap, it was dull.
Because it wasn't skin that bumped into each other.
From a distance, you could mistake it for a human with an elongated nose, but it was a doll made of wood and iron.
However, unlike other dolls so far, it spoke to me.
"Strange monsters living inside a mirror. Truly, it's Alice."
A feeling of kinship.
This guy... Crafting game!
"You are..."
"Pinocchio. Call me Pinocchio."
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