Chapter 5: Memories of Rabbit and Alice’s Secret
Chapter 5: Memories of Rabbit and Alice’s Secret
“IT’S dark, Alice, so don’t lose sight of us.”
“It’s dark, Alice, so try not to stumble.”
Dum, Dee, and I maneuvered our way through the moonlit streets of London. The three of us were dressed in black coats to blend in with the darkness on our way to the National Archives building.
There, we would search for clues about this secret of Dark’s that Tierra revealed to us.
If a nobleman were to be questioned about an unsavory past, there should be some kind of official record that remained as a result.
The archives were closed, and on top of that, documents regarding private hearings weren’t available to the public. For those reasons, we chose to sneak in under the cloak of night.
We might be pushing our luck, but I could end up falling for Dark if I don’t do this.
Ever since the incident with Tierra, I felt a tender tug at my heartstrings each time I thought of Dark. He wasn’t just aware of the time I spent living in the East End, but he even respected me for it, and that fact alone made me far too happy for my own good.
Looking back on it, on the night of the ball, Dark was only capable of observing my locked heart from the outside. But now it would be easy enough for him to gain complete access…
…because I was unlocking it from the inside.
If he truly managed to steal my heart…
I’d be dead in no time at all.
Danger is more likely to befall the heroine in this game as she gets closer and closer to her love interest. If I was living in Dark’s route, I couldn’t pursue him romantically.
I needed to look for a side character to marry who posed no threat to my life, unlike Dark. The more I thought about it, the more I was sure it was my best shot at cheating death. And yet…
…deep down, he was the only one I wanted to be with.
What girl wouldn’t be flustered to find herself in this situation?
I just wanted a reason to get over him already. If there was proof that he was a horrible man, I could probably overcome these feelings for him.
With the proximity to the river Thames and the dusting of nighttime mist on the streets, the air became damp and pungent the closer we got to the archives. We hid behind a tree near the back gate to survey the area, where we saw guards patrolling the perimeter of the darkened stone building.
Breaking into this building would be no easy task for a human. But luckily…
The three of us were stigmata—demon children. We sat down under the tree and held hands to form a circle.
“Are you ready, Alice?” “Are you ready, Alice?”
The matching moles under their eyes turned into droplets of liquid. Like black ink, they dribbled down their cheeks and expanded, forming the rose-shaped stigma on their faces like tattoos.
Warmth crept into my hands like static electricity from their fingertips. I felt my bangs lift up in the breeze as warm air rose past my head. It turned denser and denser, then split apart loudly.
CRACK!
A shockwave rippled through me. Looking down, my hands, my coat, my boots—they had all gone transparent. As if I were peering through polished glass, I could see the lawn beneath me without any obstruction.
I turned my arms over. The glow of the streetlamps was pouring through my hands.
“I’ll never get used to this…”
I was witnessing the power of “Hide and Seek,” the Tweedle brothers’ stigma.
It allowed the users and anyone holding their hands to turn invisible but didn’t offer any means of attack.
“I wonder why you two ended up with this power,” I said aloud.
Jack’s flames were the embodiment of his hatred for the person who tore apart the Liddell family. Leeds’s Liar’s Tongue came from his life before his rebirth, where he experienced many hardships.
A stigmata’s power originated from the thoughts and emotions they felt when they perished.
“We didn’t want to be found, Alice,” they chimed in unison.
Dum and Dee began to speak about their past as duelists.
Twins were such an unusual phenomenon in the fighting world that the two were allowed to compete as a pair. They became the ultimate duo, but when greedy higher-ups caught wind of them, they were ordered to face each other as opponents.
Neither boy was capable of hurting the other. But they would be killed if they didn’t obey…
In the end, they decided to flee on the eve of the duel.
“They sent people to find us.”
“We curled up real small to hide in the sewers.”
“But it was pitch-black…”
“And so cold, we couldn’t breathe anymore.”
The boys held each other as they drifted away, and in their final moments, they shared the same thought: If no one could see us in the first place, we wouldn’t have had to come here.
The passing demon fancied that idea. The twins were each given a stigma on their cheeks and awakened from their eternal sleep.
“…I’m sorry for making you relive all that.”
I cast my eyes to the ground, having glimpsed the pain they went through. Dum and Dee stared up at me with wide eyes. They approached me, and each nudged their cheeks against mine.
“Don’t grieve for us, Alice.”
“It’s all part of how we came to meet you.”
“Yes… That’s right.”
Dum and Dee appreciated their tragedy in the end, since it served as the reason our paths crossed. But I didn’t feel the same way. I couldn’t accept that tragedy was ever a necessary prelude to happiness.
How pathetic of me…
A gust of wind blew through us, and the clouds shifted in the sky until they were covering the moon.
“Stand up, Alice.”
“The night’s on our side now.”
The twins led me toward the gate by my hands.
We waited for the moment when the guards switched positions, and then we passed through the back gates. The guards, both with bayonets strapped to their shoulders, turned around as if they sensed something. But try as they might, they wouldn’t be able to spot us, and they’d assume we were nothing more than a passing breeze.
The three of us arrived at the rear entrance, which was sealed shut with a large lock. It was clear we would be unable to enter without the proper key or the necessary force to break the lock. But thankfully for us, I had a trick up my sleeve.
When you examine this lock in the game, it gives you the choice to wrap around to the side of the building.
I led the twins into a side road behind the building.
The stone walls of the archives were old but sturdy. Unlike Japanese buildings, which were made to be rebuilt within a short span of time, this one didn’t have a single spot we could exploit to enter.
I scanned the walls with my eyes until I spotted a window with what appeared to be a warped frame.
The stone used in the construction of these buildings was barely affected by rain and wind, but the same could not be said for the wooden window frames. They absorbed moisture from rain and bloated up, then dried out again under the sunlight.
The foggy town of London was prone to constant changes in weather. Rainy days would be interrupted by periods of sunshine, followed by more rain, only to repeat again over and over. This weather pattern caused wood to shrink down, warping its shape within the buildings.
I couldn’t see a lock on the window, so I let go of the twins’ hands. The stigma’s power left me and I was visible once more. I had to hurry, or I’d be spotted by any guard that approached us.
I removed a wire from my small bag, looped the tip, and fed it into a gap in the window frame. I lowered the wire down into the room until it caught on the weight that held the window shut. These types of windows would open when the weight was pulled up.
One, two, three!
I tugged on the wire with all my might. The window slowly began to open in front of me.
Suddenly, I noticed an orange glow coming from the back gate. The light hit the surrounding trees and spread in all directions, wavering as it crept toward us. A guard was coming our way on patrol.
I held the wire in position and called out behind me.
“Dum, Dee. You first,” I whispered sharply.
The pair leaped in through the open window as instructed. Their past as duelists seemed to make them strong jumpers. They crouched on top of the window frame and reached their hands out to me.
“Come in, Alice.” “Come in, Alice.”
“Right.”
As they pulled me inside, I realized the ribbon around my waist was hanging out the window, so I quickly tugged it back. I then closed the window as quietly as possible and held my breath, putting my back against the wall. The light outside passed by us and disappeared in the direction of the front gate.
“I don’t think anyone spotted us…”
I lit a nearby candlestick with one of my matches. The room we were in was large enough to host a banquet party, and the walls were lined with tall shelves.
They were all stuffed with books. I found the lower drawers filled with stacks of documents when I opened them too. The papers stated they were reports about completed inquiries, and each one bore the signature of the presiding head of the hearing.
This is it!
We had snuck into the exact reference room we were looking for. I struck a victory pose in my imagination.
During the events of the game, Alice visits the same National Archives when she finds herself stumped by a case. It’s a location that provides a strangely coincidental piece of information that leads to solving the case in the end.
If my life was still operating under the system of Evil Alice’s Lover, I was certain this place would have important information for me…!
The twins cocked their heads at my triumphant expression.
“What are you investigating, Alice?”
“What should we be looking for, Alice?”
“I want information on Earl Knightley. Bring me everything you can find about him from the last twenty-three years.”
“Got it!” “Got it!”
They saluted me before scattering to different sides of the room. Soon afterward, they returned with their arms stuffed full of documents.
I leaned against the shelf and flipped through the paper under the light of the candle.
“1885…1884…1883… Here it is…”
Under the row of K names, listed on a paper from five years earlier, was the name “Lord Knightley.”
These four objections have been presented in opposition to the inheritance of the Knightley earldom.
The paper stated that after Dark’s predecessor passed away, many of his relatives sought to claim the title of earl. This was something possible within the world of the game where titles could be revoked under special circumstances.
“That must have been hard on him… Oh?”
I frowned when I spotted the fourth objection.
Just like the others, it was an objection to Dark’s inheritance of his title. But this one presented an understandable reason for why the Knightley family should be stripped of their entire peerage.
The late Lord Knightley was a known devil worshipper. His eldest son, Dark, was said to be born from his mother after they achieved communication with a demon. To this day, the son shuts himself away in the castle, never to show his face among society. He is not a suitable heir for the title—
“Dark? He used to be a shut-in?”
It was hard for me to believe. Dark always had such a flamboyant personality and loved to stand out from the crowd. How could someone like that be a shut-in? Though, that wasn’t the problem the document was underlining…
“Maybe Dark understands stigmata because his father was a devil worshipper?”
But there was no truth to him being conceived by summoning a demon. If he had been, Dark would definitely look much more frightening than he did.
“Ah! Alice! Look out!” came overlapping cries from behind me.
I was reaching toward the next stack of documents when I found myself suddenly covered in a rain of paper from above.
The twins had tipped over an open drawer.
I popped my head out of the papers that now buried me.
“You gave me such a fright…! Be careful, you two.”
“Yes, ma’am!” “Yes, ma’am!”
They stood up and dashed off behind the bookshelves.
Now alone, I started to pick up the papers that were scattered about. Then my eyes stopped on an old document.
Regarding Bernard Sting’s adoption into the Liddell family—
“This is about Uncle Bear…!”
Bear was the younger brother of Alice’s father. His permanent residence was in Italy, but he traveled from country to country, buying and selling rare furniture and wares. He was a trader by profession.
During the events of the tragedy three years prior, we heard that Bear was on an island to the south, purchasing clothes from the native people there, and he rushed back to London as soon as he learned of the murders. When “Alice” was never identified among the bodies, he continued to search, believing me to still be alive. Eventually he would also help me restore the status of the Liddell family.
Bear was a famous philanthropist and managed multiple orphanages as well. His role was not just in name only—Bear would even walk through London and personally offer kids shelter from their life on the streets. He was a truly kindhearted man.
Bear was also the one who found the twins wandering the streets after their rebirths and introduced me to them.
“So Uncle Bear was adopted…”
He was taken into the family sixteen years earlier, right after my birth.
I was a bit saddened to learn that Bear and I weren’t actually blood relatives…
But it doesn’t matter that he was adopted. Bear is still family. He’s my dear uncle!
We spent some more time sifting through all the documents but were unable to find anything else relating to the Knightley family.
Once I finished returning the records to their shelves, the three of us cloaked ourselves with the twins’ stigma and left the archives. We tiptoed quietly down the hallways and out to the street where we found a carriage to board.
The carriage rattled loudly as we took off. I gazed out through the window at all the night-colored sights. Unlike in my past life, not every building and street was lit up by electricity this late in the evening.
The carriage wasn’t lit either. My body was entirely blacked out by the night.
Perhaps it was my identity as “Alice” that gave me comfort in times like these. I enjoyed the feeling of my skin sinking into the darkness as if it were no longer a part of this world at all. It felt just like falling asleep in a pitch-black room.
From across the river, Big Ben displayed a time nearing midnight.
As the twins dozed off to sleep, their heads in my lap, a random thought entered my mind.
I wonder where Jack and Dark met.
I had no memories of any real “guests” visiting the Liddell estate while my father was alive. Bear and other relatives who knew of the house’s traps would sometimes come to check in, but that was it. If the former Lord Knightley and his son had visited us, I would have surely been officially introduced to them, but I couldn’t remember any kind of big event like that.
Jack was the son of a long line of workers who served the Liddells, so even though he accompanied Father on shopping trips from time to time, there would’ve been no need to take him to the Knightleys’ London residence.
It would have to remain a mystery until Jack was able to recall the details.
But still, I can’t believe that Dark was…
Though I was surprised, I didn’t think any less of Dark for being a shut-in. Everyone lives different lives under different circumstances, after all. It’s no shock that some would want to just completely close themselves off to the world from time to time.
Why, even I could have been called a shut-in at one point in my life.
As a child, I spent most of my time alone, playing with dolls. There was the occasional chat with Jack or game of hide-and-seek with the maids, but I still spent many days inside our house.
Although, for the span of one summer, I did have an actual “friend.”
He was a young boy whose family asked us to take him in temporarily. We didn’t speak to each other at first, since the boy was so painfully shy that he would always cover himself in his bedsheets to hide.
He never told me his real name, so I called him Rabbit.
“But that definitely wasn’t Dark…”
I was certain of this fact. As far as I could tell, the boy didn’t resemble Dark whatsoever.
“Wherever he is today, I hope he’s happy…”
I whispered that brief prayer for my friend. Suddenly, the carriage jolted and screeched to a halt.
The twins shot up and peered through the window, rubbing their eyes.
“What was that?” “What was that?”
“I don’t know. We just stopped all of a sudden.”
I looked out and saw a cluster of black shadows surrounding the carriage. They wavered like smoke and stretched their arms out, severing the reins between the driver and his horses.
The horses bolted away from us. The driver let out a scream and fled from his seat.
“What are those things…?”
“This is bad!”
“We need to hide!”
The twins pushed me down into the seat and shoved the carriage doors open without a moment of hesitation.
Dum shot out of the carriage, whisked two daggers out of his inner coat pocket, and lunged toward the shadows. Dee removed and unfolded the small crossbow that had been strapped to his suspenders, then took aim and fired at the foes from the cab.
But the shadows only wavered in place, as unaffected as the wind.
Dum’s blade whisked through the shadows. Dee’s arrows floated above them.
“Take that!”
Dum was impatient. He swung his dagger down hard, and the shadow suddenly vanished, then reappeared around one of the roadside trees.
His blade now buried in the tree, Dum anchored his feet and pulled as hard as he could, but the dagger was still stuck deep inside the trunk. The other shadows began reaching out for him, their hands twisting into the shape of knives. I pushed Dee out of the way so I could leave the carriage.
“That’s enough!”
I aimed my pistol and pulled the trigger. The unharmed shadows turned away from Dum to face me. I couldn’t make out any eyes in their dark figures, but I could still tell they were out for blood.
“If you’re here for a fight, then I’ll entertain you, so step away from Dum this instant. Dee, go help him.”
“But, Alice…”
“Now!” I barked.
Dee ran off toward Dum as I commanded. In return, the shadows began to creep in my direction. They gathered to form a single, swirling cluster. It looked like a black wave was bearing down on me.
“All right, you’ve certainly got my attention. What do you want with me?”
I pretended to be calm and surveyed the shadows surrounding me.
There was no response. They just continued to sway like the rippling summer air.
“I see… If you have nothing to say, I’m afraid I’ll have to send you on your way!”
I fired my gun wildly in each direction, but the shadows didn’t appear to take any damage. I was out of ammo all too soon, and the wall of shadows began to close in around me.
What do I do?!
“Stay away from Alice!” “Stay away from Alice!”
Dum and Dee had retrieved the dagger from the tree. They plunged through the shadows and stood on either side of me. The shadows in front sent their pointed fingertips straight at Dee, and without a second to hesitate, I pulled the two boys into my embrace.
“Please, no!”
I felt the night breeze blow through me as they attacked.
“Ngh!”
The impact ran down my body, sending heat rippling through my arm. I could feel blood pouring out of my skin. I desperately bore the pain so as only to keep the gun in my grip. Without it, I’d have no way of protecting the twins.
I was mustering up the strength to point the weapon up at the shadows when I noticed something strange.
The shadows weren’t wavering anymore. They looked like the surface of a calm lake undisturbed by wind.
What on earth?
I stood in confusion, and at that moment, a torrent of water poured down on the shadows from above.
“How is everyone doing tonight?”
With a greeting like something a performer would ask his audience at a concert, a man descended from above, clad in a crisp white suit. It was none other than Hisui. The crescent moon of his stigma was visible on the side of his stomach, and he held large bubbles of water in each hand.
The twins lit up as soon as they saw him.
“Hisui!” “Hisui!”
“Sorry I am late.”
With a smile, Hisui put his hands together and plunged them forward. The bubbles shot out a powerful waterfall that blasted the shadows away. I stood up with the twins.
“It doesn’t look like we can eliminate them for good.”
Hisui then held out his hand toward me like a child asking for candy.
“Please, fire.”
“Fire?”
I removed the matchbox from my bag.
“Will this do?”
Hisui slid out and lit a single match from the box. When he connected the orange flame with the bubbles in his hands, the water bloomed into a white-hot fire.
“The water’s burning?”
“Me-ta-nol. His Lordship taught me this.”
“Oh, it’s methanol?”
Methanol is a type of alcohol that’s poisonous to humans but serves a useful role in sanitation and as fuel for alcohol lamps. It appeared Hisui’s stigma allowed him to produce all kinds of liquids.
He covered the flaming orb with a veil of water, quickly split it into four quarters, and sent them in each direction around us. They shone brightly like large lanterns.
The shadows dissolved into the ground like melting ice when the beams of light hit them.
“Shadow cannot beat light. It is my victory.”
Their remnants crawled like bugs on the ground. Together, they were forming the shape of a human with the ears of an animal.
“What are they?”
“Minor demons. They are faint like shadows.”
“I didn’t know demons could have animal ears.”
“Not ears. They are demon horns. Greater demons can hide them.”
“Horns…”
A memory from my childhood suddenly flooded into my mind.
It was about my friend, the boy who was deathly shy. I never told him this, but I knew what he was hiding under the sheets he always wore.
My friend had two long lumps sprouting from his head. I could see the shadow they cast on the floor even when he was hiding them. That’s why I called him Rabbit.
I always thought those lumps looked like a rabbit’s ears. But I was wrong.
He wasn’t hiding ears—they were demon horns.
“Rabbit was a demon…”
Hisui tore off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around my wound to stop the bleeding.
“Alice, can you bear the pain?”
“Alice, is there anything we can do?”
“I’m fine. It’s not a deep cut.” I tried my best to soothe the twins’ fears.
Hisui stared at the remnants of the shadows around us and spoke.
“His Lordship ordered me to keep you safe as mouses, so I will escort you home.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it… By the way, did you mean to use the idiom ‘safe as houses?’ Your English has really been improving lately; even I struggle with idioms sometimes.”
“Thank you. I will remember that next time.”
It was a relief to know the shadows couldn’t attack us as long as we had Hisui’s flames.
If Dark sent Mr. Hisui out to find us, he must have predicted that we would be sneaking into the archives tonight.
Just when I finally thought we were one step ahead of him too.
I clutched my throbbing arm and sighed quietly to myself.
♥♥♥
AFTER escorting us back to the Liddell estate, Hisui stood in front of the entryway taking deep breaths.
“In, out. In, out. I am okay now. That was hard work.”
He reached out and pulled the twins into a big hug. With one eye on them, I used the other to survey our surroundings.
The minor demons didn’t follow us home. But I was still worried that the dark spots underneath the trees or the shadows cast by the gates would spring to life at any moment.
“Hisui?”
“Are you going home now?”
Hisui let go of the scared twins and nodded. He turned to me and held out one of his floating water lanterns.
“Take this. Demons chase you.”
“Chase me…?”
“But you are safe here. Something strong is here.”
“Strong? What do you mean?”
I cocked my head at Hisui and he brought his index finger up to his lips.
“It is a secret. His Lordship says I cannot tell.”
“Very well. I’ll find a way to get it out of Dark later. Thank you for your help tonight, Mr. Hisui. Please be safe on your way home.”
“Farewell.”
He waved back at me. We watched as he and the remaining three flame orbs disappeared into the distance.
Somehow, I felt as if the darkness embodying him was snickering at me.
Jack scolded me as he tended to my wound, then sent me off to bed.
The water lantern still burned brightly as it sat on my bedside table.
I was safe as long as I had those flames. I knew that, yet I couldn’t help but glance underneath my desk and behind the damask curtains on the wall. Did my lamp always cast such dark shadows off my parasol? The fear only made the ache in my arm worse.
My life was never one without danger, but ever since I met Lord Knightley—since I met Dark, it was one terrifying experience after another.
Before Dark came into her life, “Alice” never wavered in her calm demeanor. Be it falling into a pond or opening a package full of snakes, there was almost nothing that I couldn’t shrug off as a necessary part of my life.
I did have emotions, but I never felt as though I experienced them as strongly as others. Neither grief nor joy affected me much at all.
Maybe I grew up that way to become a proper otome game heroine.
I’m merely a vessel for the player to project their emotions onto. Not even I can change my own life—that role belongs to the player alone. But that all changed after I met Dark.
It’s actually a relief to reach twists in the story I’ve never seen before. It makes me feel like I’m not being controlled by some other person, for better or worse.
The Tweedles were curled up at the foot of my bed, sleeping away like a pair of cats. If I retired from my father’s business, I wouldn’t be able to work with them anymore.
“Marrying a side character and living a long life… Is that really my only path to happiness…?”
I took in the sound of their gentle breaths and waited for morning to arrive. Just as sunlight started to pour through the window, I heard a knock on my door.
Jack entered the room holding a silver tray.
Leeds was behind him, his face visibly pale. He had been out on personal business until the morning, and I assumed he heard about the injury when he returned.
The two filed into the room and rushed to my bedside.
“How’s your wound, my lady?”
“It’s just a small cut on my arm,” I answered.
I slowly sat up in bed. My mind was foggy from staying up all night to keep a watchful eye on things. Leeds took one look at my bandages and his whole face fell.
“It looks so painful,” he said, almost in tears.
“It’s not that bad. Jack wrapped it up a lot more than it needed.”
Leeds reached out and covered my mouth to keep me from downplaying the pain. He sat on the edge of my bed.
“I just knew I should have gone with you. How could I be out of the house when you needed my help? I’m such a fool…”
“Don’t be so upset, Leeds. It will heal in no time. There might be a bit of scarring, though.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“What do you mean?”
Leeds placed his hands on both of my cheeks.
“If you’re left with a scar, then I’ll take you as my bride. I don’t give a hoot if you dress in rags, or if you can’t speak anymore, or if you’re covered in scars from head to toe. You’re still perfect to me. Even if all that was left of you was your head, why, I’d still kiss you every single day!”
“Leave Miss Alice out of your disgusting fantasies!”
Jack smacked Leeds on the forehead and placed the tray on my lap. It was carrying a delicious-looking breakfast—buttered toast and a creamy soup filled with carrots and celery, still steaming.
“Eat something. You need your strength to heal.”
“Thank you, Jack.”
In between bites of toast, I informed them all about the events of the previous day. Leeds sat in a chair by my bedside, sipping his cup of coffee and stroking the twins’ hair.
“Sounds like these two did very well. I’m so proud of them.”
The boys let out cute little mumbling sounds in their sleep.
“And Hisui told you the shadows were demons?”
“Yes. It appears that minor demons take the form of shadows because they’re not powerful enough to hold a shape.”
“But why are demons after you?”
“I can think of one reason…”
The idea in my head was a common trope for DLC content. New characters always end up connected to the center of the story. The big picture had to involve these new versions of Lord Knightley, the Sleeping Beauties, and the shadow demons—the details that were unlike what I remembered from the original game. That was the angle I needed to view it from.
“With us investigating the Sleeping Beauty cases right now, I believe the shadow demons could be trying to prevent us from finding the perpetrator by targeting me.”
We only broke into the National Archives to find information on Lord Knightley, but from the outside, it could have looked like we were there to investigate the other cases.
“So you think the culprit is a demon?”
“Probably more like a human who has some kind of connection to demons.”
“A demon connection…”
Leeds seemed skeptical of my theory, but Jack’s face lit up.
“That means a stigmata might be behind it!”
“Considering the nature of the cases, I think that’s highly likely. We must find out if there are any stigmata in London who can control minor demons.”
I snuck glances at them when I finished speaking. Neither boy seemed to notice the fear I was feeling. The conclusion I’d reached after a night of staring into the darkness terrified me.
What if the culprit was none other than Rabbit? Would I have the strength to carry out punishment against my one and only friend?
Whoever it is, they must face my judgment. I am “Alice,” after all…
Trying to convince myself of my resolve, I finished my breakfast and set the spoon on the tray.
“Let’s limit our operations to daytime from now on. I’d like the Tweedles to rest up as well. Could you two take on the investigation for today?”
“Oh, of course. But are you sure we shouldn’t stay with you? If more demons come to attack…” Leeds’s words trailed off.
“I’ll be fine. Mr. Hisui told me we wouldn’t see any demons as long as we were here at home. It’ll be more dangerous for you two, so please be back before dark.”
“We will. And I’ll be expecting a big hug for my hard work when I return.”
Leeds stood up with a wink and silently exited the room. Jack followed behind him with his sword in hand.
“We’ll be back. Leave the dishes in the hall for me.”
“Wait, Jack,” I said quietly.
He turned around slowly at the sound of my voice.
“What?”
“There’s something I want to ask you, but it’s not related to the Sleeping Beauties. Remember how you told me you’d met Dark before? What about his father, the former Lord Knightley?”
It wouldn’t be strange for a devil worshipper to have some kind of tie to the Liddell family. Jack nodded, and it appeared my theory was correct.
“I remember him. I saw him with your father in the drawing-room of a nobleman’s estate. He was quite the skinny bloke, and his face was as pale as a corpse.”
“What? I remember a man like that…”
But I didn’t meet him in anyone’s drawing-room.
The previous earl had once arrived at our mansion at the crack of dawn. He was there to deliver a young boy who wore a bed sheet wrapped around his body.
“Maybe he was…”
Rabbit was not a character I had ever encountered in the game during my previous life. It was foolish of me to only now be realizing what that meant.
Rabbit is another new character they added to the game!
“Why didn’t I notice before…?!”
Seeing me drape my hand across my forehead in shock, Jack cocked his head in confusion.
“Did you figure out who the culprit is?”
“No, but I now know the true identity of my childhood friend.”
“You had friends?”
“Hey! Even I had one or two… Well, no, it was just one. But he was real!”
I chased my poor-mannered butler out of the room in a fit of anger.
♥♥♥
AFTER the boy arrived at the Liddell estate, he spent all his time keeping himself locked up in the guest room.
Feeling adventurous, I wandered through the trap-laden mansion and arrived at his doorway.
“Aren’t you bored in that room? Why don’t you play with me instead?”
Like any four-year-old, I didn’t feel a single ounce of fear interacting with a stranger.
I crept toward him, which sent the boy into quite a panic.
“S-Stay back! Bad things will happen if you talk to me.” He was mumbling as he pulled the sheet down tighter over his body.
I chased him around the room as he tried to escape me.
“I’m the Liddells’ daughter, and I’m not scared of you one bit.”
“You should be. It’s my fault that Mother—”
“I don’t care about your mother. Who are you? What’s your name?”
“D-Don’t!”
The boy retreated to the back of the room and curled up under the large window.
His trembling hands, clutching the sheet around himself, were completely pale.
I kept my distance that time and crouched down, placing my chin in my hands to observe the boy.
The sheet made his head look perfectly round, but it was casting two long shadows on the floor, sprouting out from his skull. He looked just like the wild rabbits I’d seen while playing tag with Jack in the garden.
Picturing how they hopped across the grass, I suddenly had an idea.
“If you won’t tell me, then I’ll make up my own name for you. You’re ‘Rabbit’ now. I’m really good at chasing rabbits. Ready, set…go!”
I raced to the window at full speed and wrapped my arms around the sheet that covered Rabbit.
“EEK!”
“Caught you! Will you be my friend, Rabbit?”
“I can’t. What if something happens?”
“Then we can fix it together! And we’ve got Her Majesty to protect the people of the kingdom like us, so she won’t let anything bad happen. C’mon, let’s shake on it, as friends!”
I stuck my hand under his sheet. Rabbit returned the gesture and timidly squeezed my hand.
“…Okay.”
At that moment, I could see beautiful silver strands of hair peeking out from under the fabric.
It looked nothing like the white fur of the wild rabbits I used to chase.
♥♥♥
“…RABBIT.”
I opened my eyes and awoke from the distant memory. The light from the setting sun poured in through my window and painted the room orange. Hisui’s water lantern appeared to have burned out, as the space on top of my bedside table was empty.
“It’s almost evening already. I slept through the whole day.”
The Tweedles were gone by that point. I assumed Leeds and Jack were back from their outings as well.
Just as I set my feet on the ground, the rays of sun beneath them suddenly darkened.
Something’s outside.
I reached for the gun under my pillow and stared out the window.
There was a figure standing there, but it wasn’t Jack, Leeds, Dum, or Dee. It could only be an intruder. I watched as they placed their hands against the glass, as if to peer into my room.
Their shadow bore two horns sprouting from their head—the mark of a demon!
As soon as I saw them try to open the window, I pulled the trigger.
The glass shattered with a loud bang. The intruder quickly retreated from the window.
“ALICE!”
Four voices cried out upon hearing that sound. They rushed into the room.
Leeds immediately went to check the window, while the twins guarded both sides of my bed. Jack turned back toward the door and held up his sword so that no one else could enter.
“Where is he?”
“He ran. It’ll be night soon, so don’t chase him. But I’d like you to search the mansion, just to be sure.”
I walked to the broken window and leaned out far enough to look outside.
I spotted something shiny stuck to the window frame. Picking it up and examining it, I saw it was a sapphire-encrusted brooch made in the shape of a rabbit.
At that moment, I was overcome with the same excitement I felt as I chased after the hopping rabbits all those years ago.
“So I get another chance to catch you… Hehehe!”
“A-Are you all right, my lady?”
All they could do was look at each other in confusion as they watched me chuckle to myself.