“…A while ago, you mentioned something,” Alice said abruptly, looking down with her arms wrapped around her knees.
I abandoned the tangle of thoughts I was trying to unravel and looked over at her.
A few moments later, she continued, voice slightly nasal from being blocked up. “After the wall broke, and we fell through it…you said you planned this rebellion in order to correct the pontifex’s mistake and protect the human world.”
“Yeah…that’s right,” I said, noticing the blond hair that fell down Alice’s back.
After several seconds of silence, she continued, “I do not believe…everything you’ve said yet. But…with the minions of the lands of darkness on the outside of the tower…I must admit that your claim that the Integrity Knights are just regular human beings with their memories manipulated seems to be true. In other words…I cannot deny that our master has been deeply deceiving us in order to make us her faithful servants…”
I held my breath. By removing their memories and inserting the Piety Module into the fluctlight of the Integrity Knights, Administrator forced them to be absolutely loyal warriors. No matter what Eugeo and I said to any of the knights we’d met thus far, none had expressed a single word of doubt toward the Church. In that sense, it should’ve been stunning to me that Alice said what she did. Perhaps she had something in her that the other artificial fluctlights did not.
She didn’t undo the grip around her upright knees as she whispered, “But on the other hand, our primary duty as commanded by the pontifex is to protect against an invasion from the Dark Territory. Even now, more than a dozen of my fellow knights are riding their dragons, fighting over the End Mountains. If she hadn’t created the Integrity Knights, the dark forces would have invaded our lands long ago.”
“Ah, well…”
…That’s because this isn’t the way the world is supposed to work.
Those growth resources—i.e., experience points—the Integrity Knights were monopolizing were supposed to be distributed throughout the populace. The people of the realm should have taken up swords and fought against invading goblins, the same way Eugeo and I did in the northern cave, to get stronger. Administrator had taken that possibility away from them.
Alice wouldn’t understand that on the spot, though. Instead, I had to hold back my rebuttal as she continued, quiet but firm, “You claim that my birth home, the place where my parents and sister must still live, is at the foot of the mountains to the far north. In other words, if an invasion begins, they would be the first to fall victim. Even if you defeat all the Integrity Knights and turn your blades on the pontifex herself, who will protect all the distant rural villages like Rulid? You don’t expect to vanquish the entire forces of darkness just with the two of you, I hope.”
The tears in her eyes weren’t totally dry yet, but there was a newfound willpower in her voice. Still, I couldn’t give her an answer right away. Compared to Alice’s open determination to save the people of the world, I still had secrets to hide.
I had to fight the sudden urge to truly spill it all and explain that this entire world was a creation. Instead I said, “Then let me ask you this…If you fight with the full might of the Integrity Knights, do you believe that you can absolutely, without fail, fight off an all-out invasion from the Dark Territory?”
“…”
Now it was Alice’s turn to be at a loss for words. I looked back to the stars and traveled the memories I’d built over the last two years.
“I told you about how my partner and I battled a band of goblins from the Dark Territory. Even those goblins, the lowest members of the forces of darkness, were frightfully skilled and powerful with their weapons. The Dark Territory is full of them, and those dragon-riding black knights, and dark sorcerers controlling their own minions, right? If they all attack at once, then even with all the Integrity Knights together, plus Administrator, you’re not going to be able to hold back the tide.”
The vast majority of this information was just repeating what Cardinal had told me, but Alice seemed to accept it as fact in stride; she didn’t bite back the way she often did. After a few moments of reflection, she murmured, “It’s true that Uncle…er, Commander Bercouli seems to have his own doubts. The Dark Territory already has tens of thousands of elite forces, and if they breach the eastern gate all at once, even the knights may not be able to keep up…But on the other hand, there is essentially no other worthwhile power in the human realm aside from ours. You mentioned that the children of elite noble houses receive special training in the sword and sacred arts—but their skill is aesthetic in nature and not suited to true battle. We will simply have to work together, with the few dragons we have, and trust in the blessings of the three goddesses. You understand the situation, don’t you?”
“You’re correct…There’s nothing here to counteract the armies of darkness aside from the Integrity Knights,” I said, gazing straight ahead. “But that’s a situation that Administrator created by design. Your pontifex was afraid of any kind of power that threatened her absolute rule over the Human Empire. That’s why she gathered tournament champions and rebels against the Taboo Index, removed their memories, and rebuilt them into faithful knights. Or to put it another way, Administrator does not have an ounce of trust in the people of this world.”
“…!”
Alice sucked in a sharp breath. Once again, she didn’t have an instant rebuttal. Praying that I’d struck a nerve deep in her soul, I continued, “If she trusted the people who live here, she would form well-equipped militias and allow them to train, and perhaps there would be a battle force capable of countering the Dark Territory’s now. But she didn’t do that. She allowed the higher nobles—the people who should be first to fight if a war erupts—to be slothful and decadent. Now their souls are corrupted…just like the two Eugeo and I attacked at the academy.”
Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek’s attempted rape of Tiese and Ronie was just two days ago. If the stress test arrived and the Dark Territory invaded the human realm, scenes like that would occur everywhere, in horrifying numbers.
“But it’s not too late to do anything about it yet. I don’t know how much time we have until the Dark Territory invades, whether it’s one year or two…but if we can arrange a large human army by then, perhaps…”
“We can do no such thing!” Alice cried. “You just said it yourself. The nobles are all craven and corrupt! If a war begins and the four imperial houses and nobles are called upon to take their swords and fight, they will oblige only in name and ensure that their lives and fortunes are kept intact!”
“You’re right that most of the higher nobles have no real intention of fighting. But some do have their pride, and among the lower nobles and common people, there are those with the will to protect their families and towns…and this world as a whole. If the wealth of weapons stored in this tower is distributed to them and you folks teach them your true swordfighting and sacred arts, it’s not unthinkable that we could have a proper army built up within a year.”
“The common…people…?” she repeated.
“That’s right,” I said. “Even if we just take volunteers rather than conscripting an army, we should be able to build quite a crowd. There are already guard garrisons in the towns and villages all over. The problem is…at this point, such a strategy is impossible to employ.”
“Because…the pontifex…would never allow it…”
“Right. We couldn’t even persuade her based on its wisdom. An army that can’t be forced into absolute servitude is just as terrifying to Administrator as the forces of darkness are. That leaves just one conclusion: We must break Administrator’s absolute rule, effectively use what time we have left, and build a defensive force for the upcoming invasion,” I declared, but I couldn’t help but feel irony in that statement.
Rath, the company behind the Underworld, had a close connection to Seijirou Kikuoka, an officer with the nation’s Self-Defense Force. That meant this entire op
eration had to have deep ties to national security in the real world. Perhaps they even meant to utilize artificial fluctlights like Eugeo and Alice to control their weapons of war.
I couldn’t possibly condone such a thing, and yet I was arguing that tens of thousands of civilians should be turned into soldiers for a massive war.
Alice had no idea of this inner dilemma; she was silent for her own reasons. No doubt she was balancing a scale with her soul-etched loyalty to the Axiom Church on one side, and on the other, the words of the intruder she’d escorted here by her own hand. Her expression was controlled, but I knew I couldn’t fathom the true depth of her anguish and indecision.
Eventually, I heard a brief phrase on the night breeze.
“…see her?”
“What…?”
“If I help you…and we regain my hidden memories, will I be able to see Selka…my sister again?”
I had to clench my jaw. She could do it. Of course she could see her. But…
I wasn’t sure whether I should relate my earlier prediction, but the last thing I wanted to do just then was mince words. I steeled myself and said, “Yes…you will. If you use your dragon, it will only take a day or two. But there’s something you need to hear first…”
I stared right into Alice’s eyes, about four feet to my right, and continued, “It’s not exactly you who will be reuniting with Selka. The moment you get your memory back, you’ll return to being Alice Zuberg from before the Synthesis Ritual, and Alice Synthesis Thirty will cease to be. You’ll lose your memories of being an Integrity Knight and return this body to its rightful persona. It’s cruel to say, but…the you right now is a false Alice created by Administrator.”
Her shoulders trembled at various points as I spoke. But there were no more sobs. Seconds later, she spoke in a voice with all emotion restrained.
“Once you told me…that the Integrity Knights were a creation of the pontifex…I had a feeling this might be the case. That I stole this body from a girl named Alice Zuberg…and have monopolized it for six long years.”
I had no idea what to say to this. No doubt she had a storm of feelings, but Alice only gave me a brave smile. “I must return what I have stolen. That would be the wish of Selka…her parents…your friend…and you, I suspect.”
“…Alice…”
“But…I have just one request.”
“Which is…?”
“Before you return this body to the persona of the original Alice…will you take me to Rulid? And then, in secret…I wish to see Selka, my sister…and my family. If you can do that for me, I will be happy.”
She ended there and slowly turned her head to look at me. In that very instant, the moon cast a ray of light between the clouds to the east. With her entire outline framed in golden beams, Alice’s red and swollen eyes softened, and she smiled just a bit. I couldn’t take it and had to look up at the moon.
We’d get Alice’s memory back. That was the only thing that Eugeo truly wanted—and therefore, what I wanted as well.
But it would also be a death sentence for the Integrity Knight—no, the young woman—clenching her knees next to me. An unavoidable sacrifice, and an inescapable set of priorities. I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Yes…I promise. I swear to you,” I said, eyes to the sky. “I’ll take you to Rulid before we return the memories.”
“…You’d better,” she warned. I looked at her and nodded. She returned the gesture, took a deep breath, and put on a brave face. “All right, then. In order to protect the realm…and all the people within it, I, Alice Synthesis Thirty, hereby abandon my title and rank of Integrity Kni— Aah!!”
Her proclamation quickly turned to a shriek. Her golden armor rattled as she bolted backward and covered her right eye. Devastating pain twisted her beautiful features.
I was momentarily stunned into rising off my seat, until I recalled an incident from a few days prior.
Eugeo had cut off the arm of Humbert Zizek to save Ronie and Tiese, and by the time I’d reached him, his right eye had blown clear out of its socket, and tears of vivid blood were spurting down his cheek.
In the school’s detention cell that night, Eugeo had described what he’d felt. The moment he tried to attack Humbert, his arm went cold and dead as if it didn’t belong to him, and his right eye burned with agony. Floating in front of him were bright-red, unfamiliar sacred letters…
Alice had to have been experiencing the same phenomenon. It was some kind of mental block, I suspected, triggered whenever the individual tried to fight against the orders carved into her soul.
“Don’t think about anything! Shut off your mind!” I shouted as I approached, holding down her left shoulder. With my other hand, I grabbed her wrist and forced it away from her right eye.
“…?!”
Alice’s sapphire-blue eye was no longer the same—instead, there was a blinking red tint to it. I gasped and leaned in to get a better look.
Along the edge of Alice’s circular blue iris, there was a series of fine, radiating red lines that rotated slowly. They weren’t of equal width, and their arrangement looked random. It was almost like…a bar code.
Ever since Eugeo had described what had happened to him, I’d assumed it was Administrator who’d installed this mental block on the Underworldians. But I couldn’t ever recall seeing anything resembling a bar code during my two years there.
So this…isn’t Administrator’s doing…? But then, who…?
I gasped.
The circular bar code stopped rotating, and a strange string of symbols passed over Alice’s contracted pupils. The bright-red series of letters looked like
For a moment, I was unsure how to read them—until I realized they were mirrored. Alice’s retina was on the other side of the letters, so their direction was reversed from her point of view. The letters spelled out SYSTEM ALERT.
It was a phrase I was long familiar with from using PCs, typically accompanied by an unpleasant dinging sound. That phrase should have no meaning to Alice and the Underworldians, though. In their lives, all Japanese words were considered the “common language,” while English was known as the “sacred tongue.” Hardly any of the citizens actually understood the definition of the words; they considered them unnecessary.
When learning sacred arts, the initial System Call and its subsequent English commands were essentially treated like sounds, and their meanings were ignored. When I taught Eugeo the various sword skills that I identified as special techniques of the Aincrad style, he always marveled that I understood things about the sacred tongue.
So this SYSTEM ALERT warning was meaningless to the Underworldians. That meant the mental block installed in Alice and Eugeo wasn’t from Administrator but from people in the real world—members of Rath’s staff…
Alice let out a high-pitched scream right in my face, cutting off my thoughts. “My…my eye, it’s burning…! And I…I see some kind…of writing!”
“Don’t think! Empty your mind!!” I shouted, placing my hands on either side of her dainty face. “What’s happening to you now is a kind of mental barrier that happens to those who try to defy the Church. It’s causing that pain in your eye in an attempt to enforce your unconditional obedience…If you keep thinking about that, your eye’s going to burst!”
Unfortunately, given the circumstances, the more I warned her, the more it could backfire. No human being was so in control of their mind that they could stop thinking about something on command.
Alice squeezed her eyelids shut. But that wasn’t going to remove the red letters superimposed over her eye. Her hands floated out into the air and clutched at me when they brushed my shoulder. With each little shriek of pain, more and more force was pressed through her fingers, making my bones and muscles creak. But I knew that my suffering was nothing compared to hers.
I applied pressure to her face with my palms, hoping that it might at least calm her thoughts a bit. In the background, I desperately considered the turn o
f events.
Several of the Integrity Knights, including Alice, had already broken a taboo before. I knew that because it was how they’d been brought before the Axiom Church and given the Synthesis Ritual.
But in Alice’s case, there had been no splitting pain in her right eye when she committed the crime of trespassing into the Dark Territory eight years ago—at least, nothing compared to Eugeo’s. According to him, Alice crossed the boundary line without even realizing it. In other words, at the moment of the violation, her mind had no conscious understanding or intent to break that taboo.
Most likely, the mental barrier she was suffering was a reaction to intentionally trying to break a taboo. The instant she got the idea, the pain in her eye started, followed by the SYSTEM ALERT warning, to instill fear of the taboo. As obedient as the Underworldians already were by nature, this magic-seeming mental block had to be sufficient to keep them almost perfectly subservient.
However, if the mental barrier was the work of Rath’s employees, that created one very significant paradox. The purpose of the Underworld test was, I suspected, to create artificial fluctlights that could break rules—or more accurately, that could judge a constructed morality system for themselves. If you had an Underworldian close to a breakthrough, what would be the point of a crude, violent mental block that forces them backward?
Wouldn’t that mean whoever constructed this alert system was intentionally delaying the success of the experiment? Who would such a person be, and what was the point?
I briefly considered the replicated persona of Heathcliff, Akihiko Kayaba, but cast that aside. He wished for the creation of a true alternate world, so he wouldn’t interfere with the evolution of the artificial fluctlights. And this sort of forceful handiwork wasn’t his style. Perhaps it was some kind of group or individual hostile to Rath, performing sabotage.
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