NOVPUB"Alice isn’t sleeping today... Is she still mad? She even looks like she’s frowning."
Alice was actually focusing her senses on every mirror in the school.
Naturally, that kind of concentration made her furrow her brow.
But Shin Ha-rim, unaware of this, assumed Alice was still upset.
"Maybe she’s just uncomfortable with the person who made her mad sitting right next to her!"
I tore a page from my notebook and wrote a note.
The message was simple: I’m sorry. Let’s go eat something delicious together later.
I slid the note over to Alice. She read it, then wrote something in return and handed it back to me.
[Be careful of mirrors.]
"...?"
I glanced at Alice in confusion, but she was still frowning.
Then I realized—it wasn’t anger.
She was focused on something else entirely.
Maybe she had a peculiar way of thinking...
I kind of liked that!
I wondered what she was so concentrated on.
Of course, I still paid attention in class.
It wouldn’t feel right to slack off when the teacher was putting in effort.
But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out what had Alice so fixated.
"Come to think of it, she told me to be careful of mirrors."
Why would she say that?
Could it be related to the Alice urban legend?
I reached into my bag and pulled out the mirror I had brought for the séance.
As I ran my fingers along its surface, I noticed Alice flinch slightly every time I touched it.
She looked... ticklish?
Alice glanced at me before hurriedly passing me another note.
[Please, either focus on class or do anything else. Just stop touching the mirror. I’m begging you.]
"...?"
It was odd, but exchanging requests like this felt... kind of nice.
Like we were getting along.
I smiled and nodded.
The teacher suddenly cleared his throat.
"Ahem. I have an urgent matter to attend to, so today’s lesson will end here. You can wander outside the classroom, but don’t get too loud!"
Yes!
Who doesn’t love extra break time?
I turned to Alice.
"Want to go get something tasty after school?"
"Sorry, but I can’t. Oh, and don’t misunderstand—I’m not mad anymore."
"Busy, huh? Got it... Oh, by the way! Our club’s gathering later for a séance. Want to join? We explore supernatural stories and mysteries. If you’ve got nothing else to do, come with us!"
Alice seemed to hesitate.
I really didn’t want her to refuse.
I clasped my hands together, eyes sparkling with anticipation.
Alice sighed, then nodded.
"...Fine. But if you do anything weird to me again, I will make you pay."
"Ahaha. Of course!"
I jotted down our plans in my notebook, then, without any hesitation, grabbed Alice’s soft hand and pulled her along to the clubroom.
A little later, Kyung-min and Soo-ho arrived after a bathroom break... but where was Eun-jung?
"Soo-ho, where’s Eun-jung?"
"She’s by the door, watching Alice."
Sure enough.
I could see just the tips of her twin tails peeking from behind the entrance.
It seemed she realized she had gone too far when Alice got angry.
"Eun-jung! Alice isn’t mad anymore, so come on out!"
Eun-jung hesitantly poked her head out and glanced at Alice.
Then, cautiously, she shuffled toward us, stealing nervous glances along the way.
Alice didn’t glare at her, only closing her eyes quietly.
Taking that as a sign of forgiveness, Eun-jung perked up and scurried over to Alice’s side.
"So, how are we doing this séance?"
"Today, we’re trying mirror séance."
"Mirror..."
Mirrors... The mirrors around here are dangerous. But would that thing really pop out of such a small one? Even if I can, I don’t know if it can.
...If anything suspicious happens, I’ll just break it.
I left Alice to her thoughts and switched off the lights.
Then I took out a candle we had prepared in advance and lit it.
From our previous club budget, we had all pooled money together and bought some occult items.
"What’s that?"
"It’s a crystal ball we bought from an occult shop. Look closely—you can see a beach inside. Pretty cool, right?"
"What’s it supposed to do?"
"Nothing, really. It was cheap, so we bought it. I figured if you surround yourself with mysterious things, mysterious things might happen!"
...So it’s not actually an occult item at all.
Alice looked like she wanted to say something, but she held back.
I ignored it and began chanting.
It was just some generic spell I found online.
But it was all we had, so it would have to do.
After finishing the incantation, I stared into the mirror.
"Yep. Nothing happened."
"Has it ever worked before?"
"Never~"
And then—
Music started playing from the crystal ball.
"What the hell?"
The melody sent a ripple through our minds.
It seeped into our hearts, whispering.
Telling us to be honest.
Like bubbles rising from the ocean floor, emotions began spilling out of us.
"I don’t want to go to cram school anymore!"
"I want to play Tank in League, but my teammates keep making me Support! It’s so annoying!"
"Waaah~! I wanna be spoiled more! A little longer!"
Kyung-min, Soo-ho, and Eun-jung all confessed their frustrations.
Then, before I even realized it, words slipped from my own mouth.
"I don’t want to be lonely anymore."
Eun-jung suddenly clung to Alice.
Alice wasn’t completely unaffected either.
She looked like she was about to return the hug, but at the last moment, she shook her head and hurled the crystal ball out the window.
CRASH!
The sound of something shattering snapped us back to reality.
"...What just happened?"
Soo-ho muttered in a daze.
Alice opened her mouth to explain—
But before she could, her phone buzzed.
Bzzzt—
She pulled it out.
I was close enough to see the message.
"The route overlaps exactly."
"The target has suddenly stopped moving."
The target...?
A chill ran down my spine.
I turned my head—
And saw him.
A man in black clothing wearing a wooden mask.
"A beautiful song has awakened my heart. Ahh...
Yes. People should be honest with their emotions.
Even if that honesty leads to ruin."
His voice sent shivers down my spine.
From within his coat, he pulled out a knife.
I instantly knew—this was no ghost.
My feet instinctively took a step back.
"Killing children... is so much fun."
He stepped forward.
"Four of you, huh? Unfortunately, I’m short on time. I’ll have to settle for just two."
"There are five, mister."
"...?"
Alice’s voice.
The man turned to look at her.
He had barely noticed her.
Even though she was standing right there.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
"A teleportation ability using mirrors instead of appearing inside them...
Well, that’s unexpected.
All that effort watching the mirrors, wasted. That’s annoying."
"You..."
"What? Are you going to run away?"
The man swung his knife at Alice.
But in the blink of an eye, she was already standing behind him.
"How—?!"
"I just moved fast. Now, what’s in front of you?"
A full-length mirror...
There was a full-length mirror standing directly in front of the man.
"A mirror... Pretty familiar, isn’t it? For both you and me.
So, as a special treat, I’ll give you a first-time tour."
[Of the world inside the mirror.]
Alice swept out her slender leg, kicking the man squarely in the back.
He had no time to resist—he was sucked into the mirror.
And Alice followed right after him.
We barely had time to process what had just happened...
But the lingering effects of the strange music left our curiosity burning.
We instinctively leaned closer to the full-length mirror that had suddenly appeared.
The world reflected in it... was not our own.
Inside, Alice walked toward the man.
-----
"Damn it. A goddamn workshop product? They never told me about this!"
The petty thief—no, the esper Jin Myung-seok—cursed under his breath.
He had only stepped into the mirror...
And yet, before him stretched an entirely different world.
It looked similar to the space he had just left, but anyone paying attention could tell—this world was insane.
"A workshop product, huh? So that’s where you got that. Or did you take on a commission? Well, doesn’t matter. Either way, I’m handing you over to the organization."
Alice approached him with light, graceful steps.
The man instantly realized—this girl was the ruler of this world.
He didn’t know how she controlled such a space, but he knew he couldn’t let himself get caught easily.
"You think I’ll go down without a fight?"
The man reached into his coat and pulled out something—
Three wooden dolls.
"Those... Did you get them from the workshop?"
Alice showed a flicker of interest.
"No, I stole them."
"Figures."
Alice shook her head, exasperated.
The man sliced his own arm with his knife, letting his blood drip onto the wooden dolls.
A rattling noise filled the air—
And the dolls grew.
They expanded, now standing at 1.5 times the height of a grown adult, their wooden limbs twisting as chainsaw-like blades sprouted from their hands.
Wood and steel.
That was the impression they gave.
Alice had seen something similar before among the organization’s containment anomalies.
They must have been made in the same place.
Vrrrrrrr—
The mechanical whir of the chainsaws echoed.
The man smirked, now confident in his advantage.
Alice remained expressionless.
She tilted her head slightly and asked,
"Villain. Do you think you’re a villain?"
It was an unexpected question.
But the man had heard it before.
Because he had asked himself that question countless times.
And the answer was always the same—self-justification.
"A villain? No! I’m just being honest. You only get one life, so you should live by your own rules.
What’s wrong with chasing pleasure? If anything, the one at fault is whatever god made me this way."
"So, you don’t think you’re a villain."
Alice nodded.
Not as if she accepted his answer—
More as if she had expected it all along.
"..."
"Well, that’s fair.
People have different opinions.
But your opinion doesn’t matter.
Because on stage, villains aren’t judged by themselves—
They’re judged by the audience."
The man frowned, not understanding.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"A villain so disgusting he makes the audience sick—
Could never be the protagonist."
If such a play existed, the audience would only boo.
And an unpopular performance—
Would eventually be erased.
That was why the criminal standing before her—
Would never even get a chance to try his luck.
"So, you—
Can rot in the darkest corner of the stage."
"What—?"
From somewhere, a blade flew through the air.
It moved like a bullet—
But the high-performance workshop dolls barely managed to dodge in time.
Their chainsaws revved even louder, buzzing menacingly.
"This world is Wonderland inside the mirror.
Nothing that happens here is strange...
Wait. Saying that nothing is strange in Wonderland...
That’s a fun wordplay, don’t you think?"
Alice let out a small laugh.
And behind her—
A monster appeared.
It was covered in knives.
"The Kitchen Knife Horror... You again?
Eating nothing but iron can’t be good for you."
The knife-covered monster twitched in denial.
Then, it lunged—straight for the workshop dolls’ chainsaw blades.
The three wooden dolls held their ground, fighting off the creature.
Their strength wasn’t to be underestimated.
But that was as far as they would go.
Because in this world—
The Kitchen Knife Horror wasn’t the only monster lurking in the dark.
Clatter. Clatter.
The sound of metal scraping against metal echoed as more creatures approached—entities with bodies partially made of iron. Needles, knives, spears, and other jagged shapes bristled from their forms.
Beyond them, a fire-like anomaly swelled, preparing to melt the steel, while elsewhere, a rust-borne plague spirit rushed forward to consume the corroded remains.
"Damn it! My ability isn’t activating!"
Realizing he had no chance of winning, the man tried to escape—only to find that his power wouldn’t work.
Of course, it wouldn’t.
His teleportation ability worked around mirrors.
But this was the inside of a mirror.
There were no fixed coordinates for him to escape to.
Before the creatures could tear him apart, Alice delivered a sharp kick to his leg.
Crack!
"AAAAAGH!!!"
"Shut up. You should be grateful this is all I’m doing to you.
I’ve only recently started to understand this place myself, and there are far greater horrors here—ones even I can’t wake unless certain conditions are met.
So for your own sake, don’t be the idiot who wakes one up."
"This is a raw deal... Pinocchio... you bastard!"
The man’s ranting was starting to get ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ annoying.
Alice needed a way to shut him up.
It would be even better if it stopped him from using his powers entirely.
As she glanced around, looking for a solution, she noticed a figure standing nearby—
A man with bloodshot eyes and an overgrown beard.
"Oh, perfect timing. Sandman, could you put him to sleep?"
The Sandman glared at Alice, visibly annoyed.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. It’s loud, isn’t it? Just put him to sleep, and I’ll leave you alone."
The Sandman—the mythological figure who brings sleep—stepped forward.
He sprinkled sleep-inducing sand into the man’s eyes, and just like that, he was unconscious.
Alice had no right to judge this man’s crimes herself.
She had already promised to turn him over to the organization.
When she stepped out of the mirror—
She was immediately met with the stunned gazes of the club members.
"..."
"Amazing! Absolutely amazing! Alice, who are you?!"
"You helped us, right...? So you really are the Alice from the urban legend!"
Excited, Ha-rim and the others bombarded Alice with questions.
But Alice only wore a sorrowful expression.
Ha-rim was the only one who noticed it—and the only one who felt a sense of unease.
And then—
"...Erase it."
A massive, elderly face emerged from the mirror.
It was the Forgetfulness Horror.
And just like that, the children’s memories were erased once more.
"It never feels good to be the one erasing their memories.
...How much of it disappeared this time?"
Alice slept.
Shin Ha-rim thought Alice sure did sleep a lot.
Sleeping all the way through the end of class...
Ha-rim decided to let her rest and took out a notebook to jot down some tasks.
[To-Do List]
... 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
13. Go do a mirror séance with Alice.
...
"When did I write this...?"
Hadn’t they already finished the séance with the club?
Did she doze off and forget something?
Oh well.
About ten minutes later, Ha-rim gently shook Alice awake.
Alice groggily rubbed her eyes as Ha-rim spoke.
"Sorry for making things difficult for you... As an apology, I’ll treat you to something delicious. Want to come?"
Alice murmured, "So this is where we are..."
Ha-rim didn’t understand what she meant, but it didn’t really matter.
Alice said yes, and that was all that mattered.
Ha-rim gathered the club members and led Alice to a snack shop they often visited.
Alice found the tteokbokki spicy—but she didn’t seem to hate it.
They would have to bring her here more often.
Alice was... unique.
Being friends with her would make every day exciting!
