1

…Huh? Look at that crowd. What’s going on?

One afternoon, as Oz Vessalius was walking down a corridor at Pandora Headquarters, he saw a group of uniformed Pandora staff up ahead. The atmosphere seemed too pleasant and genial for a work conversation. The group was clustered around a single employee, and he was talking to them about something.

His curiosity piqued, Oz trotted over to them. When he was close:

“Excuse me, could I ask what’s going on?”

He peeked into the group from the rear, calling to them as politely as he could.

Up until that point, the employees hadn’t noticed Oz’s approach, and at his voice, they flinched and turned around, all at once. One of them bowed his head, saying, “I-I’m terribly sorry, Oz-sama! During work hours, but we’re…,” and the others followed suit, lowering their heads.

“Oh, no… Please don’t. I wasn’t trying to give you a warning or anything like that.”

Oz waved one hand vigorously, giving them an awkward little smile. “Never mind that,” he continued:

“What were you talking about? Something interesting?”

It was after lunch, and, with nothing in particular to do, he’d been bored. His valet Gilbert had gone off somewhere, saying something about an errand.

The Pandora staff members were evasive. Possibly they were embarrassed at having been caught chatting during work hours by Oz, the next head of the House of Vessalius. However, from inside the group, a voice said, “Um, I was…,” and one young man stepped out in front of Oz.

Oz had a good memory, but even he didn’t know the names and faces of everyone who worked at Pandora. This man wasn’t someone Oz had seen before. The youth looked apologetic.

“…I was showing my coworkers a photograph, and then…”

“A photo? Of who?”

“Uu, y-yes, of my, um…

“It’s this.” The young man held the photo he had in his hand out to Oz.

The photo showed a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. It looked as if it had just been born.

The baby was being held by a woman with a gentle expression on her face who was probably its mother.

“Woooow, a baby! It’s so cute!”

When Oz cheered his approval, eyes sparkling, the young man blushed self-consciously. Hesitantly, he told him that the baby had been born last week. When Oz peppered him with questions, seeming as happy as if it were his own family, the man told him that the baby was a girl, and that they’d decided to name her Mireille.

“Mireille-chan, huh? She’s going to be a beauty, I just know it! I mean, look how cute she is already!”

Oz’s cheerful reaction seemed to relax the other staff members, and they began talking.

“We were just discussing what we should send to congratulate them.”

“We were saying that cute baby clothes might be good, since it’s a girl, or that maybe toys would be better.”

“From personal experience, I’m telling you they’d probably prefer to get necessities like diapers—”

Oz listened happily to the colleagues’ noisy, lively discussion.

This is kinda nice…

Wanting to be a part of that happy atmosphere, Oz said, “Over here!” and raised his hand. “If you don’t mind, let me send something, too,” he insisted. Immediately, the young man’s eyes went wide. Rather than being happy, he waved both hands frantically, seeming embarrassed. “You don’t have to go that far,” he demurred, but Oz laughed.

“This is something to celebrate, and I want in! Aah, but I’m not sure what to give…”

Oz thought hard. He’d never given anyone a present to congratulate them on a new baby before, and nothing in particular sprang to mind.

Oz’s little sister Ada was six years younger than he, and he tried to remember what sort of presents had arrived when she’d been born. However, the glaringly bright and sparkly, ostentatious, custom-made cradle that his super-enthusiastic Uncle Oscar had sent had made such an impact that he couldn’t remember anything else.

Ada cried when they tried to put her to bed in that thing, and it ended up going into storage…

“Hrrrrn,” Oz groaned, looking obviously troubled. Then one of the members spoke to him:

“Oz-sama, why not give them a ticket saying you’ll date their daughter for a day when she grows up?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!”

The unexpected suggestion startled Oz. The young father was also startled; turning red, he reproached his presumptuous colleague: “Watch what you’re saying!” That said, although he’d been surprised and caught off guard, Oz didn’t feel the least bit put out.

“No, I wouldn’t mind that at all. …I’m just not sure something like that would be enough…”

As he spoke, beaming, the young man’s colleagues cheered.

Then, encouraged by Oz’s easy answer, someone said, half-jokingly, “Lucky you! She might just marry into the purple!” At that, someone else said, “You’d better thank your wife for giving you a beauty,” and a third person even said, “Invite me to the wedding!”

I didn’t promise that much… Oz thought, a little wryly. He wondered, impressed, whether all this excitement was the result of “baby power.”

Feeling that it wouldn’t be nice to throw cold water on the gathering, Oz just listened, smiling. The young man kept desperately bowing to him and scolding his colleagues for having fun with such a presumptuous topic, but he was the only one. “Please don’t pay any attention to them,” he said, sounding as if he was at his wits’ end.

Oz thought. She’ll be old enough to go on dates in, what, twelve or thirteen…no, fifteen more years, I guess.

Then the young man continued:

“…By that time, no doubt you’ll have a family of your own, Oz-sama.”

Those words resonated violently in Oz’s heart.

“”

The Pandora staff members had gone back to their duties, and Oz was walking down the corridor toward his room.

“A family, huh?” he murmured softly to himself.

He tried to imagine himself with a family, as the young man had said, but he just couldn’t see it. Before he started a family, there’d have to be a wedding. For that, he’d need a partner.

…Half involuntarily, Oz’s hand gripped his coat, over his chest. Under the coat, engraved on his chest, was the proof that Oz had made an illegal contract with a Chain. It was an incuse in the shape of a clock. He’d heard that, when the hand of the incuse completed one round, its illegal Contractor was destroyed.

He knew. He’d accepted this situation himself, and so he had no regrets.

As a result, ordinarily, he never even thought about things like this.

But.

Did excessive exposure to happy atmospheres cause adverse reactions? Maybe so: As Oz reached the door to his room, his shoulders were drooping slightly. With a dejected sigh, his head down, he set a hand on the door. As he opened it, the door felt heavier than usual.

A lover…hmm… Will I have one of those, too, someday? …No, but, in a situation like this… I mean, I’ve even got the incuse…

Oz stepped into the room, his thoughts wandering around and around.

Just then:

“—Oz!” A voice called him, sharply.

When Oz raised his head, he saw a girl standing arrogantly in the center of the room.

The girl’s name was Alice.

Alice was a slight, pretty, black-haired girl who seemed to be about Oz’s age. She was actually the B-Rabbit, a Chain feared even in the Abyss. However, for reasons that had nothing to do with that, Alice had been traveling with him ever since they met, and Oz cherished her.

She was fearless and straightforward, and she’d saved his heart many, many times. Just being with Alice seemed to make the world brighter. That was how precious she was to him.

“So you were in my room, huh, Alice?”

Oz hadn’t seen her since that morning.

“I was waiting for you. You kept me waiting forever!”

Alice’s attitude was so haughty that she seemed to be saying, What do you mean by making me—ME!—wait?

She was always this way, and Oz smiled, looking relieved.

“Sorry. I was just wandering around.”

“Hmph. Whatever. Never mind that, Oz. I have a ‘request’ for you.”

“A request? You do? For me?”

Oz answered her question with more questions, a startled expression on his face. When Alice asked for things, she usually phrased it as an order: “Feed me meat.” Even when she didn’t, she always spoke to him as if she outranked him. He wasn’t sure whether Alice had ever used a word as humble as “request” before.

That said, in contrast to her words, Alice nodded grandly. “Mm-hm!” There was no trace of the humility of someone asking for a favor. She folded her arms boldly, puffed out her chest proudly, and, with an arrogance that practically screamed, Be grateful that I’m deigning to ask you for something, she said:

“Oz, make a child with me!”

“……………………………………………Huh?”

Oz’s mind was a perfect blank.

She’d said she had a request, then phrased it as an order as usual, but never mind that. The bigger problem was what she’d said. Alice’s words had entered his ears and reached his mind, but he completely and utterly failed to understand them.

A child? By “child,” did she mean a baby, like the one in the photograph he’d just been shown?

Not even possible, Oz thought, with a forced little smile.

There was just no way that Alice would abruptly say, “Make a child with me.”

…Which meant he must have misheard her.

Here Alice actually asked me for something, and I heard wrong. How could I?!

He actually felt remorse: I’m no good. He wanted to hear her out properly, and if it was a request he could grant, he wanted to grant it. Oz looked slightly apologetic, but his voice was cheerful and earnest:

“Uh, I’m sorry. What did you just say, Alice?”

“……Mu?” Alice scowled at being answered with a question, but, since there was no help for it, she said it one more time:

“Make a child with me! I mean, we’re making one, Oz!”

Oz found himself abruptly confronted with:

A baby-making declaration, skipping all the preliminary steps!!

He froze.

2

As Oz stood petrified, looking as if he’d lost his soul, Alice watched him, curiously. “???”

“Um……uh…… Listen, Alice.”

Forcing his body to move—it had gone so stiff he thought it might make cracking noises when he tried—Oz moved his lips, asking Alice a question. “What?” Alice tilted her head to one side.

“Is that, um, some sort of joke…maybe…?”

“Don’t be an idiot! I always mean what I say.”

As she answered, Alice’s face was the picture of seriousness.

Oz knew this, too. No matter what happened, Alice never lied, and although she might tease and be sarcastic, she never told the sort of jokes that drew their fun from tricking people. The Alice Oz knew wasn’t the sort of girl who could do that.

In which case…

“Then, um……you meant that?”

“Mm! Of course. I want a child.”

“…………Why…all of a sudden…?”

He wasn’t even sure whether a Chain and a human could have children together, but he set that doubt aside for the moment. Why, for what reason, had Alice decided she wanted a child? She couldn’t possibly know that the thought of having a family had crossed his mind—ever so briefly—a moment ago, could she?

Alice put her hands on her hips, as if to say, That’s a very good question!, and spoke haughtily:

“Because I realized that, right now, it’s what I need most!”

I really don’t get it, Alice-san!

This explanation that explained nothing only deepened Oz’s confusion. He couldn’t even imagine making a child with Alice. He couldn’t possibly do a thing like that. It wasn’t a matter of whether he liked her or not. If asked whether he liked her or not, of course he liked her. …But.

No, but, I really can’t! I can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t! I like Alice, but—! She’s important to me, but—!

Their relationship wasn’t that kind of relationship at all, or at least he hadn’t thought it was.

…What he did understand was that Alice was “Serious!”

He understood that, no matter how little he wanted to.

He wanted to shake his head violently. However, in that case, what should he tell Alice?

He didn’t know that either.

“Let—Let me calm down and think about it for a little! I’m sorry!”

Barely managing to get those words out, Oz dashed from the room.

Alice watched him, perplexed. As Oz ran to the door and opened it, Alice’s voice followed him—“I won’t wait long. I’ve hung on as long as I can already!”—but he didn’t have the wherewithal to respond.

Alice wants a child with me. Alice wants a child with me. Alice wants a child with me—

The words spun round and round in his mind like a spell. Oz ran down corridors haphazardly, and the next thing he knew, he’d come out onto a balcony that overlooked the garden. Pandora’s garden was, as always, a splendid sight, but right now, Oz’s eyes didn’t even register the view.

There was no one else there. Just Oz.

Oz set both hands on the balcony railing, gripping it tightly. Anxiously, painfully.

“What…should I do…?!”

He looked up, as if hoping for an answer from heaven, and in that instant:

Whirr… With a sound as if it was slicing through the wind, something came falling down and hit Oz right smack in the face.

Oz blacked out.

And— He dreamed.

He was in court.

In the center of the austere court, where gray was the main color, Oz stood on a witness stand surrounded by a waist-high railing. He was the accused. On his right was the prosecutor’s seat, and on his left was his counsel’s seat. In front of him, on a slightly higher platform, was the judge’s bench, and behind him were rows and rows of gallery seats.

Every seat held an Oz. The seats were filled with Ozes.

“What need is there to hesitate?!”

An Oz in glasses and a suit stood up violently from the prosecutor’s seat, hounding the Oz in the witness stand.

Flinching at the force Prosecutor Oz displayed, Oz the accused said:

“B-but I…”

“The defendant considers Alice very important. That is an acknowledged fact!”

At Prosecutor Oz’s words, a low murmur went up from the Ozes in the gallery: “That’s right.” “That’s right.” “Very true.”

Spurred on by the gallery’s reaction, Prosecutor Oz continued sharply:

“You think the world of Alice, and she has asked you for a child. Why can’t you grant that request?!”

A hum of agreement rose from the gallery.

Oz had been asked for something.

If the request came from Alice— If it was something he could grant, he wanted to give her anything she asked.

Oz had thought that. He’d thought it from the bottom of his heart.

Oz the accused gulped, took one deep breath, clenched his hands into fists and spoke.

In a voice that rang through the court, he said:

“That’s right! Alice really is special to me, and I’m really grateful to her, and she’s done so much for me I could never completely pay her back… If it’s within my power, I want to make every wish Alice has come true!”

“There, you see?! In that case, you should be able to comply!”

Prosecutor Oz pressed Oz the accused triumphantly.

However, his shoulders and back trembling, his eyes tearing up a bit, Oz the accused said, “But.

“But, but…”

“No buts, ands, or ifs!”

“But, I don’t think this is quite what that meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaans!!”

It was a lament torn straight from his soul. Overwhelmed, the gallery fell silent.

However, Prosecutor Oz didn’t even flinch. “It’s exactly what it means!” He struck the prosecutor’s seat.

“The accused has already committed himself! Your Honor, there is no room for objection here. Pronounce the accused—”

“Objection! Wait, please.” A voice broke in from the counsel’s seat.

Counsel Oz, a slightly more grown-up version of Oz the accused, stood from his seat.

“I haven’t completed my cross-examination yet. Issuing a verdict now would be hasty.”

“What are you talking about? We already have the answer!”

Counsel Oz calmly turned aside Prosecutor Oz’s sharp words with a shake of his head. Then he left the counsel’s seat and slowly walked over to Oz the accused.

“Having a child is a wonderful thing. That said, when doing so, the feelings of both parties are important. Alice is very special to you; that much is true. However, Defendant, are your feelings for Alice romantic ones? Might they not be feelings of affection for a family member?”

“…………!” Uh-huh! Uh-huh! Oz the accused nodded vehemently.

“Give your answer clearly, in words, please.”

“A-Alice is special to me as family!”

“Oooooh!” The Ozes in the gallery buzzed. Then they began whispering to each other: “Well, sure.” “Yeah, I guess I knew that.” “Mm-hmm.” The mood in the court, which had been leaning toward the prosecution, had begun to shift in favor of the defense.

“Objection! He’s shifted the focus from the subject at hand!”

Prosecutor Oz roared, striking the prosecutor’s seat with a bang. He stood, pointing at Oz the accused.

“The question was whether or not the defendant is able to fulfill Alice’s request. The defendant himself testified that he wants to grant all of Alice’s wishes, provided it is within his power to do so! In that case, grant them he should! After all, she was serious enough to actually ‘request’ it!”

“Uh, y-you could be right… Alice did look pretty serious…”

Pressed hard by Prosecutor Oz’s verbal onslaught, Oz the accused came very near to agreeing with him in spite of himself. When he looked over, Judge Oz—who was seated on the dais, a splendid handlebar mustache under his nose—was nodding soberly. Disheartening comments were being bandied about the gallery: “He’s got a point.” “He hasn’t done anything really manly in front of Alice.” “She mostly ends up saving him, doesn’t she?”

“The verdict, Your Honor! Pronounce him guilty and order him to make that child!” In high spirits, Prosecutor Oz looked to the dais.

The court fell silent.

Even as Oz was convinced by Prosecutor Oz’s remarks, he couldn’t accept them, and the blood drained from his face.

After a long pause, Judge Oz raised his gavel.

Drawing one deep breath, he brought the gavel down on the bench with a loud clack.

With every eye in the court on him, in a solemn voice, he said:

“It appears we have our answer. I pronounce the defendant guilty and sentence him to ‘Go make that kid with Alice!’—”

“Wait, Your Honor.” At the very last minute, Counsel Oz raised his voice.

He had interrupted Judge Oz’s sentence, and a commotion rose from the gallery. Prosecutor Oz fixed Counsel Oz with a sharp glare. The eyes that had been focused on Judge Oz turned to Counsel Oz.

Bewildered, Oz the accused also looked at Counsel Oz. Answering him with a nod, Counsel Oz quietly began to speak.

“Your Honor, it’s still too early to hand down a verdict. We’re overlooking one important thing.”

“Preposterous! As if we could have overlooked anything!”

Prosecutor Oz spoke fiercely, but Counsel Oz was unruffled. “No,” he objected.

“We must not forget that, while this is Oz’s problem, at the same time, it is also Alice’s problem. No doubt it’s true that Alice is serious. However, we don’t know how well Alice understands what it is she’s saying so seriously.”

Huh? Oz’s eyes went wide. Counsel Oz continued.

“Much doubt still remains with regard to Alice’s powers of understanding. Here is the proof.”

He held up several photographs of Alice biting, or getting ready to bite, Oz’s and Gilbert’s cheeks. After he’d shown them around the court, Counsel Oz announced a decisive fact:

“She is under the impression that a kiss on the cheek, that simple gesture of affection, is actually a bite on the cheek. I can’t imagine that such a girl has a correct understanding of what it means to ‘make a child’! Because, you see, Alice is a simpleton extraordinaire—!!”

At that point, Oz came to with a gasp.

“……Huh? I…”

He sat up on the balcony, looking around curiously. He remembered something falling down and hitting him in the face, and he understood almost immediately that he’d blacked out because of it. However, there was nothing on the balcony.

It was as if nothing had fallen in the first place.

“Hmm?”

Oz was perplexed, but he soon shook his head roughly. That’s not important! The dream he’d seen while he was unconscious had been a weird dream—he’d been both denouncing and defending himself—but it had made him realize something important, something he hadn’t noticed in his panic.

That’s right…!

With a silent shout, he leapt to his feet, then ran from the balcony back into the building. He made a dash for his room.

Alice had keen insight, and she could be terribly quick on the uptake, but sometimes she was a simpleton extraordinaire. She might have spectacularly mistaken “making a child” for something completely different. …Not that he knew what she’d mistaken it for, or how she’d managed it.

Oz reached his room. He flung the door open. Inside, annoyed at being kept waiting, was Alice.

“Oz! How long are you planning to make me wai—”

“Before that, Alice, there’s something I want to ask you!”

“…Uh-huh. What?”

Possibly she’d been daunted by Oz’s ferocious determination: Alice obeyed easily, and she didn’t get mad at having been interrupted.

Gasping for breath, Oz worried over how he should ask, and even as he worried, he asked:

“Um, Alice, listen. D-do you know what ‘making a child’ means? Really know, I mean?”

The subject alone was enough to make Oz’s cheeks flush a bit.

With an attitude that practically said, Don’t ask pointless things, Alice snorted loudly.

“What a stupid question! You think I’d go to the trouble of making a request if I didn’t know?”

Even as she said it, Alice’s cheeks went slightly pink, and she fidgeted a little.

Oz’s heart flipped over.

Looking almost like an embarrassed young lady, Alice said:

“…I-I thought about it properly. I thought, if I was going to make a child, I wanted it to be with you.”

“Actually, please give me a little more time!”

With tears in his eyes, Oz ran from the room again.

3

“…………! …………!”

Oz dashed through the corridors. The Pandora employees he passed every so often seemed startled at the sight of Oz running, almost in tears. Of course, Oz didn’t have the emotional leeway to care about anything around him.

Although there was no rule that said he had to go there, he ended up running out onto the same balcony again. As if pointlessly retracing his actions, he gripped the railing tightly with both hands. Calm down, calm down, calm down, he told himself silently, over and over.

Calm down…—I can’t! How could I be calm about this?!

Oz felt something like vertigo.

He thought he might pass out again, but if he did, he was afraid he’d see the rest of that courtroom dream, and this time, he was sure he’d lose. Oz muttered, talking to himself. Alice had declared that she knew what it meant to make a child.

“I really don’t think she does… But she did look as if she knew… I think. But…”

Desperately, he ordered his thoughts. Something had struck him as odd.

Even if it was true that Alice knew, where had she found out? Where had she read about it?

Or…

“Did someone…tell her—?”

At his own quiet mutter, Oz’s eyes flew open.

“That’s it,” he gasped. He wanted to tell himself off. Why hadn’t he thought of that possibility!?

Counsel Oz’s voice echoed in his mind:

“Yes, well done. I’m glad you noticed that. It’s true that Alice knows what it means to make a child, and it’s equally true that she isn’t trying to tease you. However… It’s still possible that someone planted the idea in her head and is having fun teasing you through her! Because, you see, she’s a good girl who’s unexpectedly obedient about believing what she’s told—!”

Oz let go of the railing and whirled around. Inside his head, he was repeating, That’s right, that’s right, that’s right!

Fiercely, Oz dove back into the building. He pounded through the corridors.

A light of hope had been lit in his chest.

That’s right! And I only know one person who’d do a thing like that—

Once again, Oz reached his room. Silently telling himself to calm down, he opened the door.

Inside, Alice was prowling around the room, looking cross.

When she saw Oz, her face grew stern, and she yelled at him:

“What’s the matter with you!? First you come back, then you leave… Are you trying to make me mad?!”

“Never mind that, Alice!”

Oz ran up to Alice, caught her by the shoulders, and put his face very close to hers.

Oz was still panting for breath, and he looked desperate. Seeming overwhelmed, Alice leaned back slightly.

Oz thought. In the first place, he couldn’t believe that Alice had gotten the idea of “making a child” on her own. In that case, it was appropriate to assume that there was someone else involved.

Oz looked Alice straight in the eye, without blinking.

“Alice, listen. Who told you about this ‘making a child’ stuff? …It was Break, wasn’t it?”

Right. He couldn’t think of anyone else who’d pull a prank like this one.

He probably told her that if she made a child, she’d get a stronger ultimate power or something—

He had no idea what was so much fun about doing things like that, but he was sure that was what had happened.

It had to be that. If it wasn’t that, he’d have a serious problem on his hands.

……But.

“Huuuh? Why would you bring up the old clown now? He’s got nothing to do with this.”

Alice’s answer could not have been clearer.

With an even more triumphant look, she continued, proudly:

“When I was in town yesterday, I saw a family with children. It made me want one. —Heh! Oz, did you know? Children are wonderful things. Mm-hm, I want one, too. I want one, no matter what.”

In Oz’s mind, Counsel Oz had a brisk smile on his face…and a white flag in his hand.

Oz looked down. His shoulders and back quivered. Oz’s bangs hid his expression, and Alice couldn’t see it.

Trying to peek at Oz’s face, Alice moved hers up closer to his…

And then…

“Uu, uu…… Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Oz, pushed to the limit by confusion, bewilderment and an incomprehensible sense of defeat, went to dash from the room yet again. As Oz ran off, Alice threw up her hands in a huff and yelled:

“Oz, would you quit?! You’re just a lowly Oz! How dare you run from me over and over like that?!”

Of course Oz didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

As he opened the door and dived through it, he collided with somebody. When he looked up, he saw his valet, Gilbert Nightray.

Gilbert was tall, and Oz’s head only came up to his chest.

Gilbert had only just reached the room when his master abruptly came flying into his arms, and he was thoroughly flustered right off the bat. “Wh-what’s the matter, Oz?!” he asked, his voice unsteady.

But Oz couldn’t answer.

He just barely managed to repeat, “Alice is… Alice is…!” in a choked voice.

Then, leaving only an unfinished “Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice—” behind him, he pushed Gilbert away and ran off. He was sprinting hell-bent for leather. Astonished and left in the dust, Gilbert soon came back to himself with a gasp.

“Oz! Wait!”

Hastily, he rushed after him.

Gilbert wasn’t the only one to set off in pursuit of Oz.

In Oz’s room:

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Alice raked up her glossy black hair with both hands. Her irritation was on the verge of boiling over.

“What was that?! What’s wrong with that jerk?! He better not mess with me!”

To begin with, Alice hated being made to wait for people, and although fond of issuing orders, she loathed taking them. She wasn’t about to wait for Oz in his room any longer. Oz had said he wanted time to think, and she’d given it to him, but waiting this long had pushed her past her limit.

Cloaked in an aura of wrath, Alice stomped noisily out of the room.

She kicked the door open with enough force to break it down and went out into the corridor. …But Oz wasn’t there. Alice looked right, then left. Snuffling audibly, she sniffed the scents in the air.

Her eyes glinted like those of a starving carnivore. Got him!

“Heh-heh-heh!” A disturbing laugh slipped from between Alice’s pretty lips.

“If that’s how it’s going to be, Oz, I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll catch you right away, and I’ll make that child if I have to force you!”

Alice set off at a ferocious pace.

She looked just like a wild animal that had been loosed from its cage.

4

A few minutes later.

“Seaweed head?!”

“Stupid rabbit?!”

The two of them had been chasing Oz separately. Strangely enough, when Alice and Gilbert ran into each other, it was on the very balcony Oz had fled to twice. Both were a bit startled to encounter someone other than the person they’d been chasing, and then, in unison, they yelled:

“Where’s Oz?!”

Their words came out in perfect sync, and they gave low, simultaneous growls: “…Mrgh!” Their expressions held a mixture of impatience and irritation. Gilbert felt that losing sight of his master when he’d run off in tears made him a failure as a valet, while Alice had thought she’d been successfully tracking Oz, and she’d been completely wrong.

For a short while, they exchanged prickly glances, but then—

“Hmph.” Alice turned away first.

“I don’t have time to deal with you right now. I’m off.”

As she spoke, she made to leave the balcony and go back into the building. Gilbert grabbed her shoulder from behind, stopping her: “…Hold it.” Alice turned back, as if he was a royal nuisance. Gilbert’s face was serious. “I’m worried about Oz, too, but…” he muttered quietly.

“Oz said, ‘Alice is…’ What did you do to Oz, stupid rabbit?”

He interrogated Alice with a force that wouldn’t allow any evasions. With a snort, Alice looked back at Gilbert with eyes that were just as dangerous as his. She shook off Gilbert’s hand, planted her own hands on her hips, and answered grandly, saying she wouldn’t run or hide.

“I didn’t do anything to him. I just told him.”

“‘Told him’? Told him what? As if anything you said could upset Oz—”

Gilbert had probably been about to say like that.

However, without waiting for him to finish, Alice spoke with a ferocious smile.

“I only told him ‘Make a child with me.’”

“……………………………………………Huh?”

Oddly enough, Gilbert’s reaction was exactly the same as Oz’s had been the first time he’d heard this request from Alice.

Gilbert’s face was blank. He looked as though the inside of his head was pure white. Moving his hand with a stiff, stuttering motion, like a broken machine, Gilbert pointed at Alice, and—again, exactly like Oz—asked, “……What did you just say?”

Having now had two people respond as if they hadn’t been listening to her properly, Alice puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

“Are you both deaf!? I said I want to make a child with Oz!”

“Why are you talking crazy all of a sudden, rabbit~~~~~~~~~~~~?!!”

Gilbert grabbed Alice’s shirtfront.

“Are you stupid?! No, I know you’re stupid, but are you terminally stupid?! Do you know what making a kid means? Child-rearing is really tough: It means changing diapers and feeding it milk and giving it baths and staying up all night with it when it cries and cuddling it and saying ‘There, there’—and that’s not even the problem! Don’t you dare say insane stuff to Oz and cause him trouble!”

Gilbert—red-faced, steam spouting from his head, eyes whirling—scolded Alice.

Alice, who’d been yanked into the air by her shirtfront, drew her brows together in displeasure.

“Shut up!”

She rammed her forehead into Gilbert’s and shook his hand off. “Hmph,” she huffed, straightening her rumpled shirt.

Gilbert looked at Alice. He had a hand to his forehead, and he seemed dizzy.

Alice folded her arms, striking a grand pose.

“‘Stupid stupid stupid stupid’… Is that the only word you know, you low-watt seaweed head!? I am always serious, and I always mean what I say!” she said with a flourish.

Overwhelmed by that overpowering, self-confident force, Gilbert was aghast. Holding his forehead, which had gone red, he thought, dazedly, Is she nuts? At Gilbert’s silence, Alice smiled triumphantly, gloating: “Ha-haaaa.”

Gilbert spoke.

“……Why…do you want a kid? Do you want to……to marry Oz?!”

He seemed absolutely unconvinced, as if he didn’t even think he could accept it.

“Marry…?” Alice murmured. Her face softened slightly. Her expression was so fragile and gentle that Gilbert was almost won over in spite of himself. For a little while, Alice seemed to think. Then she answered:

“What’s this ‘marry’ business? Can you eat it?”

“Huh?!” said Gilbert.

“Well, if it’s edible, I’ll eat that, too.”

Alice looked as if her curiosity had been piqued; her nostrils were twitching. Gilbert hung his head silently, as though he was getting a headache. Then, as if something had caught his attention, he muttered, “……That ‘too’?” Stiffly, he raised his head.

“Answer me, stupid rabbit. What do you want a kid for in the first place?”

“Hah! That’s obvious.”

Alice looked down her nose at Gilbert: Don’t you even know that, you fool!? Then, with an attitude of complete condescension, as if saying, I suppose there’s no help for it. I’ll make an exception and tell you, she answered:

“Heh-heh-heh…… Obviously. Because I want to eat delicious things. Why else?”

“…………!?”

Gilbert was dumbfounded. It was as if he’d abruptly taken another hit to the head.

He shook his head, wondering if he’d heard her wrong. However, Gilbert had definitely heard what Alice had said. She wanted a child so she could eat it.

Pandora had confirmed the existence of Chains that devoured humans. However, Gilbert had never thought he’d hear those words come from Alice’s mouth.

It was true that Alice was the B-Rabbit, a vicious Chain that other Chains feared.

Lately, he’d only been exposed to her greedy, stupid-rabbit aspect, so he kept forgetting, but…

Did this mean Alice was revealing her true nature as a Chain?

With cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, Gilbert spoke:

“Enough joking around. To…eat? Are you serious!?”

“You forgot ‘deliciously.’ That part’s important. If it’s Oz’s child, I bet I’ll experience flavor like never before!

“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaah!” As Alice laughed, exhilarated, she looked like the devil himself.

Gulping, Gilbert barred Alice’s way. In a low voice, he muttered, “……I won’t let you.”

Alice only gave a dangerous-sounding sigh: “Hoh…

“You’re going to get in my way?—You…you lowly marine product?”

“Of course I am! As if anyone would let you do that! Think again, you stupid rabbit.”

“I will not! No one—but no one—gets between me and my meals.”

Alice widened her stance slightly, dropping her hips. It was the stance of a carnivore about to leap at its prey, a stance that said, Maybe I’ll eat you, too. Even as Gilbert felt baffled, he told Alice off, anger clear in his voice.

“And anyway, you know there’s no way Oz would agree to that…that ridiculous demand!”

“Why you… Are you mocking my lofty ambition?!”

Alice’s eyes were growing colder, sharper, and more dangerous. However, Gilbert didn’t care.

“What’s lofty about it?! …I thought you were a halfway decent sort…someone I wouldn’t mind acknowledging, and yet you—! So, what, does this mean Chains and humans are fundamentally unable to coexist?!”

“Interesting! Now that you’ve gone that far, I expect you’re prepared, right!?”

A savage smile burst onto her face, and Alice launched herself.

In an instant, she’d landed right in front of Gilbert, leaned back into a midair somersault, and unleashed a kick. Her target was Gilbert’s chin.

However, at the last second, Gilbert twisted and evaded it. The toe of Alice’s boot grazed his cheek, drawing a red line. “Oho, you dodged that!” Alice laughed loudly. As she touched down, she switched directions and came at Gilbert again.

“Tch!” Gilbert clicked his tongue and stretched out an arm to capture Alice. Alice struck it aside with her hand and cut loose with a roundhouse kick. Realizing he wouldn’t be able to dodge this one, Gilbert intentionally took the kick in his side, then trapped her leg.

Just as he was about to take her down and pin her to the floor, Alice’s free leg aimed a kick at Gilbert’s temple. There was really no way he could let that one hit home; Gilbert dropped the leg he’d caught and leaned back, avoiding the kick.

“Hah! And here I thought all you could do was shoot a gun. Not bad, Raven!” Alice sounded elated, delighted.

“Just calm down, B-Rabbit!”

Gilbert’s anger was boiling over. However, Alice didn’t seem to care what he said, and she launched another kick.

Gilbert dodged that kick, but on taking the follow-up volley of knees and legs that Alice rained down on him, he reflexively drew his gun from inside his coat. He didn’t intend to shoot, of course. He’d only thought the threat might serve to cool Alice’s head. But—

Alice’s face wore a taunting smile: Go on. Shoot.

The air between them grew tenser and harder.

Finally, just as it reached its limit, and a cat’s small “mew” was heard somewhere in the distance…

“Hah!” Alice gave a scornful laugh and charged him head-on, and Gilbert spat out, “You complete idiot—” His fingers tightened on the grip of his gun.

The two of them screamed at the same moment.

“Stupid rabbit! Don’t be rash! You’re not eating a baby!”

“Seaweed head! I just want to eat yummy grilled pork skewers!”

And then…

“……………………………………………………Huh?”

The two stopped in their tracks, staring at each other.

5

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah……”

Oz heaved a long, long sigh. He was sitting at the foot of an elm tree in the courtyard at Pandora Headquarters, leaning back against the trunk, his legs flung out in front of him. The soft light that filtered through the leaves dappled his clothes.

I can’t believe I panicked and ran away from Alice…… I’m the worst.

Remorse weighed on him so heavily he felt as if he might sink deep into the earth. He’d considered himself to be calm and collected under most circumstances, and he didn’t think he was slow-witted. He couldn’t believe he’d been thrown into confusion so easily, just because someone had told him they wanted to “make a child.”

No, well, I just…… I mean, I can’t even imagine it…

He’d been startled and upset, and he hadn’t known what to do. No, that wasn’t right: He knew exactly what he had to do.

He couldn’t grant Alice’s request. That was all there was to it.

Uwaaah… Am I a complete failure as a guy…?

Oz had lost all self-confidence.

Without really meaning to, he curled up, hugging his knees and burying his face in them. What should he say to Alice? How should he apologize? The thoughts went around and around in his head, but no answer presented itself. He tightened his arms around his knees, curling up even smaller.

It was as if he hoped he’d keep getting smaller and smaller until he disappeared.

—Lick.

As Oz sat there, hiding his face and hugging his knees, something licked his fingers lightly. “???” Oz raised his head.

A familiar white cat was sitting demurely on the grass, licking Oz’s hand.

It seemed almost as if it was trying to comfort him.

“Hey, you’re Snowdrop…… What’re you doing here?”

The cat was always with Oz’s little sister Ada, and he thought it was odd to see it at Pandora Headquarters. Was Ada here? As Oz looked around curiously, he saw two figures enter the courtyard from the building. Oz’s shoulders shook slightly.

It was Alice and Gilbert.

When Gilbert caught sight of Oz, he called to him. His voice held both relief and worry: “Oz!” Gilbert was holding Alice by the scruff of her neck, as if she were a cat, and Alice was struggling. “Lemme go!”

“—So that’s where you were, Oz. I looked all over for you.”

Coming right up to Oz, Gilbert broke into a relieved smile. Alice was trying to shake off his hand; crossly, she said, “It’s not my fault!” Oz could only watch, perplexed; he didn’t know why Gilbert was doing that.

“Don’t worry, Oz. It was all a misunderstanding. All of it.”

“…A misunderstanding?”

Gilbert’s words left Oz as perplexed as before.

“Right, see…” Gilbert began to explain, but then stopped. He pushed Alice’s head toward Oz.

“Explain it yourself,” he told her. Alice looked blank. “Explain what?”

This irritated Gilbert.

“Why you suddenly started saying you wanted a kid!”

“Ah, that.” Looking as though it all made sense now, Alice glanced at Oz.

Alice had already told Oz that the reason she wanted a child was because, right now, it was what she needed most, but—

Alice shook off Gilbert’s hand, puffing her chest out proudly.

“I already told you! Because I want to eat delicious things!”

“To eat……?! Gack, koff!” Oz was so startled that he choked.

Gilbert smacked Alice upside the head. Alice complained—“Quit hitting my head!”—and then gave a little growl. Oz had no idea what was going on.

With a resigned sigh, Gilbert said:

“Forget it. I’ll explain. It’s going to take a while, but hear me out, Oz.”

Oz nodded. Snowdrop, the white cat, clambered up onto his knees, so he hugged it to his chest as he listened to Gilbert.

Gilbert began to speak, relaying what Alice had told him about “yesterday.”

Yesterday, Oz, Gilbert, and Alice had gone into town together. However, just after they’d reached the town, Alice had wandered off, and they hadn’t seen her again for a little while…

During that time, Alice had walked around town on her own, and she’d ended up rescuing a young man from one of the street stalls who was being harassed by a gang of toughs. “Rescued” might not have been quite the right word—apparently the toughs had tried to harass Alice, too, so she’d casually knocked them out cold—but at any rate, the young man had been terribly grateful.

In thanks, the youth had treated Alice to one of the skewers of grilled pork he sold at his stall. According to Alice, she’d enjoyed it.

At that point, Oz had absolutely no idea how this story was connected to making children.

Telling him that the next part was the problem, Gilbert continued.

As Alice was eating her pork skewer, new customers arrived: a family with children. The family bought the same sort of pork skewers Alice had and sat on the bench beside the stall to eat them. Alice said the flavor of the grilled skewers had been only so-so, but apparently the family with children had eaten theirs with delight, as if they were the best things they’d ever tasted.

Finding the situation odd, Alice asked them directly, not bothering to choose her words carefully:

“Hey, you. Are those pork skewers actually that good?”

The family looked a bit startled at having been spoken to so abruptly, but the mother smiled and answered. “Yes, they’re very good,” she’d said.

“…And then the mother said this to the stupid rabbit.”

Gilbert pulled a very sour face.

To wind up the story, he relayed the mother’s remark—which had been overflowing with affection, and had become the cause of all this trouble—to Oz.

“‘Food you eat with your children seems many times better,’ she said.”

“Isn’t that amazing, Oz?! Many times better!” Alice was terribly excited.

She clenched both her hands into fists and leaned in toward Oz, eyes sparkling. Oz was speechless.

Gilbert scratched his head, looking disgusted by Alice’s attitude.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Um, Alice-san?”

In contrast to Alice, who kept repeating “Amazing, amazing,” Oz was silent for a long time, but he finally managed to squeeze out a few words. Alice looked at him: “What?”

“When you talked about making a child, was that maybe—?”

“So meat would taste many times better, obviously! What else could it have been?!”

Alice puffed out her chest with an attitude that seemed to say, The world revolves around me! Once again, Oz’s words deserted him. As Oz sat in silence, Gilbert watched him worriedly.

Failing to notice Oz’s appearance, Alice said that, when she’d told the mother she was going to make children, too, the mother had asked if she had someone to help her do that. When Alice answered that she had a servant who could be ordered to do anything, the woman had given a strained little smile and asked her a question: “Do you love that person?”

Then the mother had said this to Alice as well:

“If you’re going to make children, you should choose the person you’d most like to eat your meals with as your partner.”

“I don’t understand the ‘love’ bit, but…I gave it some thought, too.”

At that point, Alice faltered, but then she continued:

“…I thought, well, if I had to pick someone to eat with, you’d probably be best, Oz.”

As she spoke, she blushed slightly.

Oh—

At the sight of that expression, something clicked inside Oz. It was the same expression Alice had had in the room earlier, when he’d asked her if she really knew what making a child meant.

Possibly in an attempt to hide her embarrassment, Alice’s expression grew a bit irritated.

“That’s not all. The lady said something uncalled for, too. She said if my partner didn’t want to, I mustn’t force him. She said children I made that way wouldn’t make food taste better at all. She said it was okay to ‘request’ that you do it, but—What a total nuisance!”

I see. Everything made sense to Oz now. That was why Alice had uncharacteristically phrased it in the form of a request.

This cleared up all the mysteries.

Oz’s lips moved: Was that what it was? He was actually smiling, faintly.

Oh, man…

He felt like an idiot for worrying about it seriously. It was hopelessly ridiculous. He was going to laugh. He couldn’t possibly not laugh. “Heh-heh-heh…” His head was still down, and Oz’s shoulders were shaking. Flustered, Gilbert asked, “Wh-what is it?!”

Oz didn’t respond.

Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man…

His internal voice held a mixture of amazement and disgust, and it didn’t continue past “Oh, man.” And then, abruptly, Oz tossed the white cat aside and leapt to his feet.

Then he made a great proclamation:

“Well, okay! Let’s do it, Alice! Let’s make our kid!”

“Eeeeeeeeeeh?!” Gilbert was horribly disturbed.

Alice romped around ecstatically. “Yes, let’s, let’s!”

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you saying, Oz?! Calm down!”

Gilbert had gone white as a sheet. He tried to stop Oz, but Oz ignored him. Waving his hands around, he cried:

“While we’re at it, let’s make lots! If just one makes things taste many times better, I bet several of them will make things taste dozens of times better, Alice! It’ll be fine! Gil will help us take care of them, right, Gil?! Okay, why don’t we go all out and make ten or so?! Hah hah haaaaaaah!!”

“Oz…… Did something snap……?!” Gilbert was panicking.

“Dozens of times! That’s amazing, Oz!”

As Alice looked jubilant, Oz punched a fist up into the sky.

With a brilliant, slightly hysterical smile, he yelled:

“We’ll have the biggest family in the world!!”

Oh, but… Oz thought.

He was sure the vision that rose in his mind was impossible. There he was, and there was Alice, and Gilbert, surrounded by lots of children. How lively and fun would that be? The idea was so funny that Oz laughed, and soon he couldn’t stop laughing.

He laughed so hard he cried.

If that came true, it would be so very warm and happy.

Probably so much so that he’d cry, just the way he was crying now.

……Afterward.

Of course, Oz got an endless lecture from Gilbert and took back his proclamation.

This put Alice out of sorts, and he ended up having to treat her to a mountain of gourmet meat dishes.

And then….

Alice seemed satisfied that delicious things were delicious, whether there were children around or not.

~ Fin ~