NOVPUBAfter returning to the facility, James and I had to endure Carol's scolding.
Although we had successfully captured the wolf and delivered it to the facility, earning recognition for our efforts, we weren’t punished. However, because we had ignored Carol’s orders, our trustworthiness had taken a hit.
If the facility ever decided that a contract wasn’t enough and that I needed to be restrained with chains instead, things would get complicated. I pondered that possibility as I looked at Carol, who, uncharacteristically, wore a serious expression.
“I already said I’m sorry.”
“Ugh.”
I interlocked my fingers behind my back and tapped the ground with the tip of my shoe, avoiding eye contact. Carol let out a deep sigh before speaking again.
“I understand that those children are precious to you.
But I wish you would trust our people a little more.
There were ways to ensure their safety without resorting to force.”
She wasn’t wrong.
In my rush, I had nearly killed the wolf.
There were definitely other ways to handle it—ways that wouldn’t expose my abilities, ways that could have resolved the situation without drawing attention.
But if their memories were erased, then wasn’t it all irrelevant?
“...Is it really that big of a deal for me to use my powers?”
“Of course, some people might think so.”
“...”
“The Cathedral.
They are in a cooperative relationship with our facility and specialize in using divine power.
With that power, they’ve been hunting anomalous beings—particularly demons—for years.
They’re quite extreme in their methods, often clashing with the facility since their goal is complete extermination rather than containment.”
The facility and the Cathedral... Both claimed to stand for order, but the facility leaned toward neutrality, going so far as to protect certain demons, while the Cathedral was aggressive toward anything even remotely demonic.
“So, what you’re saying is... if my existence is discovered, the facility won’t be able to protect me?”
“No, that’s not it. But it will inevitably lead to a high-stakes, extreme conflict.
The Cathedral holds the advantage when it comes to combating demons, so making enemies of them would be a major loss for us.
Their power isn’t something we can just dismiss.”
“But their strength doesn’t surpass that of the facility, does it?”
Carol scoffed at my question.
“Hah. Do you really think those religious fanatics hold more influence than the facility?
They’re only convenient to have around when fighting demons.
If there hadn’t been a sudden increase in demonic activity, we would have crushed them ages ago.”
Carol clearly didn’t like the Cathedral.
Then again, for a neutral organization like the facility, dealing with ideological groups like them must have been a constant headache.
But did the research director even have the authority to make a statement like that?
She was speaking as if she could actually carry it out.
“Do you even have the authority to do something like that?”
“It’s just a figure of speech. A figure of speech.”
Oh.
“So, in the end, I won’t be receiving any disciplinary action?”
“Hah! You wish!
Instead, you owe the facility a small favor.
This isn’t coming from me—it’s an official request from the organization, so the contents might be different from what you’re used to.
Don’t worry. It won’t be anything too inhumane, and we’re not going to ask you to kill anyone.”
“Got it. I appreciate the leniency.”
Seeing Alice accept her words so easily, Carol felt a small pang of guilt.
She hadn’t explicitly forbidden Alice from using her abilities, and considering she had managed to complete the mission without any casualties, she should have been praised instead of reprimanded.
In fact, since Alice cared so much about those children, she probably would have taken action the moment she overheard James’s phone call. In that case, it had been the right call not to inform her at all.
It was obvious, yet Alice had no idea.
‘She’s so naïve.
I may have manipulated things to turn out this way, but seeing her accept it so easily makes me feel like a terrible person.
...But that’s exactly what makes her Alice.
That’s why she’s so damn lovable.’
If they were really going to argue about who was in the wrong, Carol, who had pushed for more experiments, should have been the one getting scolded.
Only pointing out Alice’s mistakes felt unnatural.
So, in the end, Carol decided to let it go.
“Alright. Let’s stop with the serious talk, shall we?
Regardless of what happened, you did an excellent job capturing that monstrous wolf without any casualties.
All I did was scold you.”
“It’s fine. But what exactly was that wolf?”
“Hmm... Well, I suppose telling you would be a fitting reward.
Like most entities in this facility, it doesn’t have a completely known origin.
That wolf—D-184-23881—is no exception.
However, we do know about the incident where it first appeared.”
“And that would be?”
“An American city that was completely consumed by a forest.
Inside that forest, an overwhelming number of wolves appeared.
At the time, they were weaker than normal wolves, but the ones that escaped began developing anomalous traits.
They eventually became strong enough to require military intervention.”
Wait.
This was the same story Maria had told me before.
She had mentioned that a great demon with a predominantly red appearance was responsible.
So that’s what this was about.
“That’s why you’ve been capturing the ones that got away, huh?”
“Exactly.”
“Then who was the one that turned the city into a forest?”
Carol grinned mischievously.
“Fufu... That’s—”
“That’s—”
Why was she drawing it out like this?
“Not something I’m telling you!
She’s too dangerous! If I let that information slip, it could get me killed!”
“You’re joking, right?”
“No, I mean it! My life would literally be in danger.
And it’s not that I don’t trust you, but accidents happen, you know?”
“Fine, forget I asked. I was just curious.”
If even Carol, who had no issue spilling secrets, was this cautious, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how dangerous this entity must be.
Maybe just knowing about it triggered some kind of anomalous effect?
Still, I couldn’t shake my curiosity.
The breadcrumbs of information had been there since the Ella incident—I had to wonder what kind of being it was.
Carol must have noticed my expression because she finally gave me a small hint.
“A demon of stories. One of them.”
“?”
“Just a little hint. That’s all you’re getting.”
“???”
After that, I finished my conversation with Carol and spent the rest of the day playing games with James.
It was ironic—playing a game inside a game.
My preference was horror games, but after everything I had been through, I wasn’t about to risk getting sucked into another nightmare.
I’d stick to simple online games for now.
...Wait. This was a game world, wasn’t it?
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“James! Those are holy-attribute monsters! You need to hit them with dark-attribute attacks for maximum damage!”
“I didn’t make any dark-attribute weapons, so I don’t have a choice. But honestly, why are holy-attribute monsters even attacking us? If they were on our side, they wouldn’t be monsters in the first place.”
“It’s all up to the developers. In this game, angels or whatever—they’re just the game company’s secondary creations. Basically fake. Might as well not exist.”
There was no absolute rule in fan creations. If the developers said so, then that was how it was.
...So in this case, would that make them gods?
...No, that didn’t quite fit. No developer was omniscient or omnipotent. Which meant there was no such thing as a true god in any created world.
We took down the in-game angels and looted their items.
Not bad.
But since my character couldn’t use them, I’d have to sell them.
Seeing my in-game currency balance grow, I felt satisfied.
“Did your conversation with Research Director Carol go well?”
“Yeah. She said the facility would ask me for a favor in exchange, but I’m not sure what it’ll be.”
“It’ll probably be something simple. Maybe dealing with failed containment subjects or helping with minor experiments.”
“Failed containment, huh... How many times has that happened?”
Urban legends.
Whether they were true or not was impossible to determine, but some of them were likely caused by containment failures at the facility.
The original versions of those stories... That was an interesting thought.
Mary was one of those cases, if I remembered correctly.
“James. Didn’t you say you’d show me the original version? The original Mary.”
“Yeah, I did. You want to see it? It’s in this branch.”
“I do.”
James got Carol’s permission, and we headed to the containment area.
A manager greeted us when we arrived.
Since this wasn’t a research-related visit, it seemed Carol didn’t need to be directly involved.
“Hello! It’s been a while.”
She spoke with enthusiasm, but I had no idea who she was.
I gave her a confused look.
“...Uh, sorry, but who are you again?”
“What? You saved me last time... You really don’t remember? My name’s Emma. Codename: Weed!”
...Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely recalled something.
She must’ve been one of the people I saved when I wasn’t in my right mind.
“I think I remember. Glad you’re okay.”
When I smiled, Emma exaggeratedly threw her arms open in an overly dramatic reaction.
The glimpse of her toned muscles between her sleeves suggested she was into working out.
“Ha. You’re adorable! If only all containment subjects were like you!”
“Ador—never mind. Anyway, we’re allowed to look around, right?”
“Of course. Director Carol gave her permission. P-231 entities are harmless as long as you don’t make direct contact, so you don’t need to be too cautious.”
Emma led us to a space designed to resemble an ordinary street.
One strange detail stood out—public payphones were clustered together like nests.
A strange creature, neither a snail nor a larva, slithered out of one of the receivers, oozing sticky liquid.
“...So those things live inside phones?”
Putting a phone to my ear suddenly felt a lot less appealing.
From now on, I’d be using anomalous means for making calls.
While we were observing, Emma activated a complex machine, saying she needed to feed them.
Ring, ring.
A call signal was sent to the nest of bugs. Somewhere in the distance, an animal shrieked.
Probably a chicken.
“These are phone-parasite insects. They move between phones using a girl’s voice as their signal.
Anyone who answers the call experiences a stabbing pain, as if they’ve been pierced by a knife, while their mind and body are gradually consumed.
Most victims die, but some survive. That’s how the urban legend spread.”
...That was horrifying.
Honestly, Mary was way cuter than this.
“This is really different from what I expected.”
I created a mirror and called forth Mary.
The entity resembled a young girl, but she looked nothing like the Mary I had met before.
Back then, Mary wasn’t just an anomaly—she was something that carried a human soul.
A being with an anomalous body but a human soul...
That was why she had been able to pass on peacefully.
Mary. Are you happy there?
Your ending was one of the better ones. Maybe I’m a little jealous.
She tilted her head, puzzled by my expression.
I asked her to return, and she obediently stepped back into the mirror.
Lady Spider, Ella, Piero... They had ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) all found their own endings.
So why hadn’t I?
“......”
“You said you could control anomalies. Have you had any issues?”
“No. No problems. But I still don’t know how strong this power is or what consequences it could have.
I just use it when I feel like I can.”
The anomalies whispered to me, asking to be called.
After finishing the tour, James and I returned to the facility and settled back into our usual routines.
As always, Carol would occasionally drag me into her experiments, and when I got bored, I played a few games.
It was a dull life, but it was comfortable.
Oddly enough, James hadn’t shown up even once during that time.
According to Carol, he was incredibly busy.
One day, she came to find me.
“Aaaalice? The facility has a little request. Would you be willing to help?”
“What is it? Just so you know, I’m not killing anyone.”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. Some of our agents requested backup.
We’d like you to assist them.”
“It’s up to you, of course. You can refuse if you want.”
“You say that, but your eyes are screaming, ‘Please say yes.’
...Fine. I’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”
“Thank you!”
“So what’s the job?”
“...Hmm. Some annoying people have been causing anomalous terrorism.”
Carol paused, thinking about how to summarize it.
The longer she hesitated, the more it irritated me. Did she think I was stupid or something?
“Basically, there’s a delinquent with a paintbrush running around causing trouble, and we need to put them in their place.”
...What the hell was that supposed to mean?
