Alice's sword went flying, and a man swiftly pinned her down.
To leave her almost no room to struggle, he locked her in his arms in a position that looked uncomfortably intimate.
If she couldn't attack with her hands or feet, then she would use this instead.
Baring her teeth, Alice viciously sank them into his arm and tore at his flesh.
Damn it! If he hadn't possessed immortality and simply endured all her attacks through sheer brute force, she never would have been subdued so easily. It was practically cheating!
"You despicable bastard! You'd better not let us get back up!"
Realizing there was no longer any way to escape having her memories altered, Alice could only spit out those murderous words.
By then, Cardinal—the other Highest Minister—had already pressed a finger against Alice's forehead, causing her thoughts to grow hazy.
"What's wrong, Cardinal?"
Cardinal suddenly appeared unable to continue, as though the procedure had failed. Kain frowned at her.
"Her subconscious resistance is still extremely strong. If I force her memories open under these conditions, I could damage her Fluctlight," Cardinal explained.
They had already told Alice the truth, but parts of her memory were still missing. Worse, the sudden upheaval seemed to have agitated her even further, convincing her that Kain and Administrator were cut from the same cloth.
Because certain memories had been removed, Alice genuinely regarded them as enemies.
It was like taking an article and deliberately deleting a few paragraphs and words. The meaning conveyed by the remaining text would completely change, becoming a distortion created by taking everything out of context.
An originally positive article could be turned into something filled with malice.
That was precisely what had been done to Alice. Her memories had been selectively removed rather than rewritten.
After all, fabricated memories were still fake. Administrator could easily discover them. It was much safer to extract and seal away certain memories instead.
Those carefully selected fragments created a false narrative through omission. Then, by "accidentally" allowing Alice—whose crucial memories had already been removed—to overhear their supposed evil plan, they gave her a genuine reason to betray them. That way, Administrator would believe Alice's defection was real rather than an act.
Based on Cardinal's understanding of Administrator, she believed the woman was unlikely to tamper with Alice's memories again after that. However, there had never been an absolute guarantee.
By accepting this mission, Alice had effectively placed her life on a tightrope.
"In that case, Cardinal, bring her sister Selka here."
Kain issued the command in a deliberately "cold" voice.
"Understood."
Now in possession of full administrator privileges, Cardinal immediately located Selka and teleported her over.
"What are you planning to do?"
Alice had regained full consciousness. The moment she saw the girl of about twelve who bore a strong resemblance to her, her face turned ashen.
"What am I planning? Asuna, give Alice's little sister a proper welcome."
"Of course."
Asuna smiled faintly, walked over, and whispered something into Selka's ear. She then led the girl behind Kain.
With Alice restrained in her current position, she couldn't turn her head far enough to see what was happening behind him.
As for how they intended to treat Selka in order to force Alice's cooperation, Kain had already explained the plan to Asuna through the Hyperdimensional Channel.
"Mmmph… Mmmmmmph!"
Alice's expression grew uglier and more furious when she heard those sounds coming from behind her.
Selka was clearly being tortured. Her mouth must have been gagged, leaving her able to produce only those muffled cries.
Worse, the noises grew more frantic by the second, as though she could barely breathe.
"Stop! Let Selka go! I'll cooperate!"
Alice had no choice but to surrender. Her eyes were bloodshot as she glared at the bastard in front of her.
She bit down on her already bleeding lip once more before reluctantly chanting:
"System Call: Remove Core Protection."
The Sacred Art would unlock the defenses surrounding her mind, exposing it completely to Cardinal and allowing the girl to manipulate it however she pleased.
Alice's consciousness began to fade, almost as though she were slowly falling asleep.
She didn't want this.
She didn't want to fall asleep.
When she woke up again, she might no longer be herself.
Huh?
What was this?
Alice stared around in confusion. Hadn't she been at the top of the Axiom Church's tower, where those people were prying into her mind and preparing to alter her memories?
Why had closing her eyes and opening them again brought her to a field?
"Big Sister!"
The childish voice made her turn around. A five- or six-year-old girl who strongly resembled Selka stood nearby.
"What is it, Selka?"
The answer slipped instinctively from Alice's lips.
Then she remembered. This really was Selka—only a much younger Selka.
Examining herself more closely, Alice realized that she had also become younger. She was now only eleven or twelve years old.
The scene changed in the blink of an eye.
Alice found herself glaring furiously at a silver-haired woman—the Highest Minister of the Axiom Church. Administrator was forcibly opening her memories and extracting them.
Alice wanted to resist, but she was powerless. All she could do was feel her memories of her family disappearing little by little.
No!
She didn't want to forget Selka.
She didn't want to forget everyone!
"Selka!"
"Huh? Big Sister, I'm right here."
She heard Selka calling to her. Her sister was nearby—but where?
The already hazy scene abruptly plunged into darkness, sending Alice into an even greater panic.
Then a crack opened in the darkness.
Alice opened her eyes and found herself staring at a face that left her utterly stunned.
"Selka?"
"Yes, it's me. Please calm down, Big Sister. Asuna wasn't torturing me. She only had me bite down on a piece of cloth while she tickled me."
What?
So those muffled screams Alice had mistaken for cries of torture had actually been caused by that?
"Big Sister, is it already over? Was all of that really part of Kain's plan?"
"I… I…"
Alice faltered, her head still spinning.
Once the dizziness subsided, her expression gradually became complicated. When she looked toward one particular person, guilt filled her eyes.
She rose to her feet.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kain."
Alice bent forward in a full ninety-degree bow.
She now remembered everything: her memories of her family, along with the portions that had been removed as part of the plan against Administrator.
That made her feel even guiltier about the violence she had committed.
During her resistance, she had carved hundreds of wounds into Kain with her sword. Afterward, she had even bitten into his flesh and torn it apart. Her actions had been appalling.
Even if he was immortal, that didn't mean he couldn't feel pain.
Moreover, to save this world, Kain had endured suffering far beyond anything she could imagine.
Cardinal had told her all of this while restoring her memories.
Several days' worth of injuries had been reflected back onto his physical body in the real world, with all that pain erupting within the span of only a few minutes. Such agony could easily have killed an ordinary person.
"There's no need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."
"But I…"
"You really don't need to apologize, Alice. No one blames you for any of this. If it hadn't been for you, eliminating Administrator wouldn't have gone nearly this smoothly."
Asuna also tried to reassure her. Then, hoping to draw Alice away from her guilt, she held out a hand.
"Today is Christmas in our world, and Christmas Eve isn't over yet. Would you like to come to the real world and celebrate Christmas with us?"
Of course, inviting Alice to attend an in-person gathering in the real world raised one important question: she would need a physical body.
Fortunately, Miss A2 had already prepared one for her.
In truth, they didn't need to manufacture a body entirely from scratch.
A2's world had many android bodies in a wide variety of builds, along with plenty of spare units. They already had one that matched Alice's physique, so all that remained was to alter its facial features. That wouldn't take much time.
Asuna also had an artificial body of her own. After A2 finished adjusting it and integrated the technology with this world's virtual-reality systems, Asuna would be able to control the android body through her brain waves, much like logging into a virtual world.
That way, whenever something was beyond the limits of her fragile biological body, she could connect to the android body instead—one powerful enough to wield strength far beyond human limits.
She could even reproduce her combat abilities from the virtual world in reality through that artificial body.
(End of Chapter)
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