Kirito opened his mouth to say something, but a different voice spoke up first, loud and determined.
“Forgive my interruption, Pontifex.”
It was Alice the Integrity Knight, who had been silent all this time, now striding forward in her metal armor. Her long blond hair shone brilliantly in the moonlight, as if competing against Administrator’s own silver locks.
“It was also Commander Bercouli and Vice Commander Fanatio’s view that the Integrity Knights at present would not be sufficient to fight back the coming invasion of the forces of darkness. And mine, as well. Of course, every last member of the knighthood would fight to the bitter end if need be, but do you have a means to protect the defenseless citizens after the Integrity Knights are all gone? Surely you cannot be thinking that you alone could destroy all of the enemy’s hordes!”
Her fierce, beautiful voice swept through the chamber like a cool breeze, ruffling her adversary’s hair. The pontifex’s smile waned. She stared at her knight in gold, seemingly surprised.
Alice’s words came as a shock to Eugeo, too, for a different reason.
Alice Synthesis Thirty the Integrity Knight. The temporary, artificial persona that now inhabited the body of his childhood friend Alice Zuberg.
She was a cold and impartial administer of the law’s justice—or should have been, the way that she had smacked Eugeo when she’d arrested them at the academy days ago. Within Alice the Integrity Knight, there shouldn’t have been a single smidgen of all the emotions that made Alice who she was—her kindness, her innocence, her love.
But the way she had just spoken was different. It was as if the old Alice had grown into being an Integrity Knight herself.
She didn’t notice the way Eugeo was gaping at her. The Integrity Knight thrust the end of the Osmanthus Blade into the floor with a mighty clang! and continued, “Holy Pontifex, earlier I said that your obsession and deceit brought the knights to ruin. Your obsession was in the way that you stole all weapons and power from the people of the realm, and your deceit lies in how you even abused your faithful Integrity Knights! You tore us away from our parents—from wives and husbands and siblings—locked away our memories, and filled us with false pasts, telling us we were summoned from some celestial realm that does not exist…”
She stopped, lowering her gaze momentarily, then straightened up and defiantly continued, “If this was a necessary thing to protect this world and its people, I will not chasten you at this moment. But why could you not even trust in the loyalty and respect we have for you and the Axiom Church?! Why did you have to implement such accursed measures that forced our very souls into servitude?!”
Eugeo saw a number of tiny droplets slide down the profile of Alice’s shapely face.
Tears.
Tears, from Alice the Integrity Knight, who should have lost all emotion.
As he watched, stunned, the knight arched her back to stare boldly up at her ruler, without bothering to wipe her cheeks clean.
But those words, sharper than any sword, failed to register on Administrator any more than a slight breeze would. She smiled coldly and said, “Well, well, Alice. These are quite heady thoughts you’ve been juggling. And it’s only been five…six years? So little time…since I created you.”
Her tone of voice was the lightness that came from the lack of any emotion or connection. It was also reminiscent of polished silver. There wasn’t even the barest hint of warmth in it.
“…You claim that I did not trust in my Integrator units? Why, I’m almost offended. I trusted you very much…You were my sweet little clockwork puppets, rattling away for my benefit. You clean and polish your sword regularly so it doesn’t get rusty, don’t you, Alice? It’s the same thing. The Piety Modules I gave you are my present, the proof of my love. That way, you can always be my sweet little toys. You won’t be plagued by all the stupid troubles and pains that the lower people have.”
And with that transcendent smile, Administrator lifted her left hand and spun the triangular prism between her fingertips. It was the improved version of the Piety Module she’d taken from Eugeo’s forehead.
Through its wavering purple light, she gazed down at Alice and whispered, “Poor, poor Alice. Look at how your pretty face is twisted. Are you sad? Or are you angry? If you’d just stayed as my little puppet, you would never, ever have had to feel such pointless things.”
Alice’s tears dripped lightly off her cheeks to hit her golden metal armor, a sound that was joined by something hard creaking. It was the Osmanthus Blade pointed into the ground at her feet—and piercing the thick carpet to gouge right into the marble floor underneath.
She clenched the sword so hard she was damaging the indestructible structure of Central Cathedral, her voice cracking and trembling. “So you think that Uncle…Commander Bercouli spent three hundred long years of service to you without the slightest bit of anguish or doubt? You are saying you don’t recognize the long-held pain within the heart of the man who swore deeper, longer loyalty to you than anyone else did?”
There was an especially loud crack from the sword. Alice drowned it out by bellowing, “Sir Bercouli was constantly torn between his loyalty to the Axiom Church and his duty to protect the common people! Many times he pleaded to the senate to strengthen the Royal Knights of the four empires, who were knights in nothing but name, but I don’t suppose you knew that! He…Uncle even knew about the seal placed within our right eyes. That alone should be proof enough that he suffered a vast torment unlike anyone else’s!!”
But even this ragged, tear-streaked missive was met by nothing but a cold smile on Administrator’s pale features.
“…Why, this saddens me, to realize that you thought so little of my love. Of course I knew these things.” She beamed, but there seemed to be a whiff of cruelty behind her expression. “My poor Alice, let me explain something to you. Number One…Bercouli did not start worrying about such tawdry things just now. In fact, he said much the same thing about a hundred years ago. So I fixed him.”
She giggled musically. “I looked into Bercouli’s memory, found the mass of troubles and anxieties, and erased the whole lot of them. And not just him…I do the same for any knight who’s been around a good hundred years or so. I helped them forget all about the pain. Don’t worry, Alice. I don’t get bent out of shape over a little mischief. I’m going to erase whatever memory it is that’s making you look so sad, too. You’ll go back to being a precious little puppet with no need to think before you know it.”
The only thing left in the cold, heavy silence that followed was Administrator’s quiet, mirthless chuckle.
She wasn’t human anymore.
It was so obvious to Eugeo now. The fresh wave of chills rolling over his skin told him as much.
She had the power to erase human memories or create them anew. Eugeo had undergone that terrifying process himself. Just a simple spoken command of three sacred words on his part was all it took for Administrator to lock his memories out of reach, make him into an Integrity Knight, and force him to attack Kirito.
If Administrator had gone through the full, proper process of the Synthesis Ritual, Eugeo probably wouldn’t have regained his wits this way. But some hole in Eugeo’s memories that had always been there—though he had no idea why or how—had ultimately saved him from that fate.
That didn’t mean his sin was absolved. Against Chudelkin, all he was able to do was momentarily distract the enemy with sacred arts. He couldn’t assume that alone made all forgiven. In truth, he still didn’t have the right to stand side by side with Kirito…
He focused on the Blue Rose Sword clenched in his right hand, then felt Kirito’s gaze on his cheek. But he couldn’t look back and meet it.
Alice murmured, “Yes…I am feeling sadness and pain that threatens to tear my breast asunder. It is a wonder that I even have the strength to stand.”
Bit by bit, her trembling voice regained firmness. “But…I do not wish to erase this pain, this new se
nsation. It is the pain that tells me I am not just a knight puppet, but a real human being. Your Holiness, I do not wish for your love. I do not need you to fix me.”
“…A puppet that refuses to be a puppet,” Administrator replied musically. “But that does not make you human, Alice. Just a broken puppet. It doesn’t matter what you think, I’m afraid. Once I resynthesize you, all of these feelings you have now, and everything else, will cease to exist,” she said, the gentlest of smiles for the cruelest of words.
“Just like you did for yourself, Quinella,” said Kirito, breaking his silence at last. Once again, he used that strange name. And once again, the smile vanished from the girl’s face.
“Didn’t I tell you not to bring up the past, little boy?”
“If I do, will that erase the truth? Even you can’t alter the past as you please. You were born like any other person. You’re a human being. And that fact can’t ever be deleted…can it?”
Suddenly, it clicked into place for Eugeo. When they were in the Great Library, Kirito must have heard about Administrator’s true name and birth from Cardinal.
“Human…yes. Hu-man,” Administrator murmured sarcastically, the little grin back again. “I’ll admit that hearing that word from a boy from the other side prompts some conflicting feelings. Are you saying you are more special than I am? That an Underworldian like me should shut up and mind my own business, perhaps?”
“Not at all,” Kirito said, shrugging. “In fact, in many ways, I think the people from this world are superior to those on the other side. But at the root of it all, we’re still the same human beings with the same souls. And you’re no exception to the rule. Does living for a few hundred years mean a human being becomes a god? It doesn’t, does it?”
“…And what is your point? That as human beings, we should all sit down and enjoy tea time together?”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t object to that…but my point is that because you’re a human being, you cannot be perfect. People make mistakes. And the mistakes you’ve made are reaching the point where they cannot be contained. Now that the Integrity Knights are half ruined, if a full-scale invasion from the Dark Territory comes, the human realm will fall.”
Kirito paused and glanced at Eugeo before continuing, “Eugeo and I were in the cave that goes through the End Mountains in the far north two years ago, and we fought a band of goblins that came from the far entrance. I’m sure whatever Integrity Knight was guarding the area must have missed them. That’s going to happen far more regularly now. Eventually, the incursions will become an invasion, and the world you’ve taken such pains to maintain—or stagnate, as the case may be—will be exposed to an unstoppable wave of destruction and violence. I can’t imagine that this is what you really want to happen.”
“Says the boy who destroyed those knights himself. But your point is acknowledged. And?”
“You might think that as long as you survive, you can always start over afterward,” he said, his tone getting harder and darker, as he slid his foot half a step forward. “Maybe you could create more laws to control the overflowing hordes of darkness and those lucky few human survivors—perhaps a new control structure, some Church of Darkness, or something along those lines. But unfortunately for you, that won’t happen. Because on the other side, there are people who have true, absolute authority over this world. They’re going to think this was a failure, and they can and will start over. With the push of a button, everything in this world will vanish. The mountains, the rivers, the towns…and all human beings, including you, will disappear in an instant.”
By now, Kirito’s words were beyond Eugeo’s understanding. The same could be said of Alice. She turned, eyes red and puffy, looking at the black-haired swordsman with curiosity.
Only Administrator herself seemed to perfectly grasp the implications of whatever Kirito was saying. Her teasing smile was all but gone, replaced by narrowed silver eyes that seemed to freeze whatever they looked at.
“…No, that would not be pleasant,” she said. “I do not like hearing that some stranger can treat this world like their own garden to do with as they please.”
She steepled her slender fingers, covering the lower half of her face. The toying, teasing note in her voice when she’d been speaking to Alice was all but gone.
“But then…what of you? What of you people from the other side? Do you grapple at all times with the possibility that your world was created by some higher power and attempt to curry the favor of that force or being so that your own world is not wiped clean, too?”
Kirito did not appear to be expecting this question; he bit his lip and did not respond. Administrator sat up on the invisible floating sofa and spread her arms. Her long legs straightened out to a standing position. Her naked form was more beautiful than any depiction of a goddess, shining in the moonlight and casting an overwhelming holy presence throughout the room.
“…Of course you do not,” she continued. “You people created a world and the lives within it, then decide to erase them when you do not care for them any longer. So, coming from such a world, what right do you have to argue with my choices, boy?”
She looked up at the ceiling—no, through the marble roof and into the night sky far beyond it—and declared, “I refuse. I will not beg those who fancy themselves gods of creation, pleading for the right to my continued existence. If you heard the tales the little ones recite, then you should know that my reason for existing is to rule, and nothing else. It is that desire alone that moves me and gives me life. My legs exist to climb over others to greater heights. They are not meant to bend at the knee!!”
The air rushed and swirled around her, buffeting her silver hair. Eugeo faltered a step, overwhelmed by the force of her presence. Administrator was the enemy who overwrote Alice’s memories and allowed the nobles to languish in corruption—but she was also the supreme ruler of the world, a being who was half human, half god, and would never spare a glance for a common peasant like him, a fact he was now reminded of.
Even the partner who had guided Eugeo all this way swayed with the weight of the moment, but then he recovered and took a step forward instead. He thrust his sword into the ground before him, just to emphasize his own presence.
“In that case,” he bellowed, so loudly that the window behind him rattled, “are you going to let this land be overrun so that you can be the ruler of a nation without subjects, sitting on a throne in name alone, waiting for your lonely end?!”
All the youthful beauty of Administrator’s carefully sculpted face melted away, and the full, true age of the woman underneath came to the fore in the form of pure rage. This too faded in short order, until her pearly lips wore that mocking smile again.
“…I’m offended that you think I haven’t given a single thought to this all-out invasion, as you call it. I’ve had plenty of time to think…for time alone is my ally, and not the people on the other side.”
“So you have some means of avoiding the end?”
“I have the means and also the objective. Ruling is my reason for existence…and there is no limit to its bounds.”
“What…? What does that mean?” Kirito asked, taken aback. She didn’t answer him immediately. Instead, she let a note of mystery linger in her smile, then clapped her hands together as if to say that the conversation was over.
“I can tell you the rest of it once you’ve become my puppet. And Alice and Eugeo, too, of course. But if you want a teaser, let me just add that I have no intention of accepting that the Underworld will be reset…or allowing the ‘final stress test’ to happen. I’ve already gotten a sacred art prepared for that. Rejoice, for you three will bear witness to it before anyone else.”
“…Sacred art…?” Kirito repeated skeptically. “So you’re going to rely on system commands and all their inherent limitations? You think that the commands you can execute will completely wipe out the hordes of darkness? When you can’t even handle the three of us right here.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s true. Clearly, you have lost. Your long-range attacks will take seconds, and Alice can stop them. Meanwhile, Eugeo and I will cut you down. If you try to paralyze me with a contact-based command, I’ll do what I just did to Chudelkin again. I hate to rely on theory at a time like this, but a single spellcaster without a front line to hide behind cannot beat a group of swordsmen. That’s an ironclad rule that has to apply to this world, too.”
“Single…single, you say,” she chuckled. “That’s a very good point. Yes, in the end, numbers are the problem. Having too many pawns means you cannot control them all. Too few, and they cannot withstand the stress test. I grew the Integrity Knights over time to meet that balance…but…”
Without her trusted retainer Chudelkin, the supreme ruler was all alone. But she exhibited boundless confidence in the face of the three rebels. “To tell you the truth, the knights were only a stopgap. The military force I truly seek doesn’t need memory or emotion or even the power to think. All it needs to do is destroy whatever foe is before it, over and over. In other words…it doesn’t need to be human.”
“…What are you…saying…?” Kirito mumbled, but Administrator ignored him. She lifted her left hand high, holding the triangular prism that glowed an eerie purple color: Eugeo’s Piety Module.
“He was an idiotic clown, but Chudelkin did prove himself useful. He gave me enough time to construct this drearily long command string. Now…awaken, my faithful servant! My soulless slaughterer!!”
That was when it hit Eugeo.
The sacred chanting he’d heard when he’d first returned to this room, coming from the inside of the bed. An extremely long art, one of the greatest challenges even for the pontifex, as it could not be abbreviated with willpower alone. And now she was about to execute it.
What she sang next was just two simple words, too brief to stop, but more horrifying than anything else she could have said.
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