I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 118: Side Story) Alice’s Depression

“It’s quiet again today.”

Saturday evening.

For some reason, I was feeling really bored.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending time with Alice a lot lately.

What used # Nоvеlight # to be a familiar sense of loneliness had now become a little unfamiliar.

Today, Eun-jung, Soo-ho, and Kyung-min were all busy.

This kind of thing happened pretty often—come to think of it, way too often.

But if Alice wasn’t busy, then it was a day I could have her all to myself.

With a bit of anticipation, I tapped on the mirror.

Knock knock.

“Let’s hang out~”

Just like one of those spirit-summoning rituals you see online, I spoke to the mirror—and the surface rippled, connecting me to Alice.

“Oh my, bored again?”

“Hehehe... If you’re not busy, let’s hang out. Or even just talking like this makes me happy.”

Just seeing Alice’s face made me feel good.

Because she’s pretty!

She used to have red eyes before, but those mysterious, deep blue ones now calm and soothe my heart.

At my request, Alice stroked her chin, like a habit.

She seemed to be thinking, What should we do for fun today?

“Hmmm... Then want to come visit the Organization today?”

An unexpected suggestion from Alice.

The Organization!

The group that, from the shadows of society, manages and controls all occult phenomena—a protector of humanity.

I’d only heard about it from Alice, but it always made my heart race with excitement.

They erase your memory, supposedly... That’s scary, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

“The Organization? You mean that huge occult group? Is that really okay?”

“Fufufu... It’s a secretive organization, but aren’t they kind to children? Honestly, I feel like I wouldn’t get in trouble no matter what I do at this point.”

“It’s kind of a bad thing... but it should be fine if we don’t get caught, right?”

“Honestly, I don’t even care if we do get caught.”

Going to such a secret and official place just out of curiosity, as a kid, definitely felt sinful in a way.

But... I still wanted to go.

Alice, sensing what I wanted, connected the mirror to where she was.

“Come on in.”

Without hesitation, I jumped through the mirror.

And before me appeared a room full of carefully chosen and cute things.

Even the bed and floor were covered in soft and fluffy stuff!

“So this is Alice’s containment room... It’s super cute.”

“It’s not really my taste. Carol stuffed all this in here without asking.”

“What kind of person is she? I think you mentioned her once before.”

Carol... I’d heard of her from Alice.

And also from Jack-o'-Lantern Uncle.

I wonder what kind of person she is.

Maybe I’d like to meet her someday.

Just seeing this room made it clear how much she cared for Alice.

“She’s someone who’s suspiciously obsessed with how cute I am.

An adult who’s old enough to know better but still clings to me like a spoiled brat.

You better not grow up to be like her, okay?”

“I can’t?”

“...I’ll let it slide sometimes.”

As a token gesture, Alice created a clone of herself and left it in the containment room.

Clone Alice waved her hand and told me to have fun.

Alice and I exited the room using the mirror portal and walked down the hallway.

The security cameras seemed to be working fine, so it looked like they were just letting us be.

That made us feel even bolder.

“This is the cafeteria.”

The delicious smell stopped us in our tracks.

Growl... Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

Unable to resist, I peeked inside the cafeteria.

People in suits and special gear were visible.

Most of them were wearing black.

It felt like I’d stepped into a country made of darkness.

“It looks surprisingly normal... Wait, no—it looks really delicious!”

It was a buffet setup, and there were a ton of food options.

If you combined all the types of school lunches I’ve ever seen, it might barely match what was laid out now!

“If the Organization were a company, it’d be like a mega-megacorp, right? They go through a lot, so of course they deserve good food.”

“It looks so good...”

“Then just eat it.”

“But... do I deserve it? That food is a reward for the people who work hard.”

If they’re the ones handling dangerous tasks, then of course they deserve it.

To me, that's less about money and more about welfare.

If you have to be on high alert while working, then you should get to fully relax when you're not.

Eating delicious food is probably part of that relaxation—so is it really okay for me to join in?

“Come on, we did so much! It’ll be fine. And eating at a place that protects people isn’t a crime, right?”

...Maybe?

Honestly, the Dominator we fought was insanely powerful, wasn’t it?

Even if Alice handled almost everything, just one meal should be okay, right?

Objectively speaking, she had a point.

“...You might be right!”

So, we went into the cafeteria, and Alice boldly approached one of the adults nearby.

“Feed us!”

Apparently, to get a tray here, you needed an ID or a card showing you were part of the Organization.

I wondered, Isn’t everyone here already part of the Organization?, but since you never know, I just accepted it.

Anyway, that’s why she was demanding they scan their card for us.

The man we grabbed looked flustered and was about to activate the small communicator in his pocket.

“Don’t even think about checking with Carol to see if this is allowed.

How could you betray me like that?

I’ve helped you all so much until now.

Even if you reported me, I wouldn’t get punished much—but if they make me do some annoying hands-up routine or something, I’ll be pissed.”

“N-No, if I pretend I don’t know Alice, I’m the one who gets a pay cut...”

“By that logic, everyone here is an accomplice.”

As I glanced around, everyone who had been staring at us quickly turned their heads away.

“...Ahem.”

So they’d all been helped by Alice too.

Everyone was pretending not to know anything—even though they did.

In that kind of environment, I felt even bolder. Ahem.

This is an officially sanctioned dinner from a secret organization!

“...Thank you very much!”

We grabbed two trays, and Alice and I filled them with the food we wanted.

“Tonight’s dinner: macho-man food—pork cutlet and spicy stir-fried pork! Plus chocolate cake!”

“I got omurice, udon, and... this exotic-looking mystery dish I can’t name!”

We each took a bite of our chosen dishes.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

It’s soft! The sauce, the omelet on the omurice—everything was incredibly soft.

I took it from the pre-prepared section, but it was as soft as if it had just been made. How was that even possible?

While eating contentedly, someone suddenly patted me on the head.

“Ah! James, sir!”

“Good to see you. And Alice... you’re getting bolder by the day.”

“So what? Maybe it just means you and I are finally getting used to each other.”

“Well, if there’s no punishment, then rules don’t mean much, do they?”

“Fufufu... you think so too, huh?”

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

James and Alice were still perfectly in sync.

Relaxed... maybe because they both disliked complicated things.

James’s tray only had bread and soup. Pretty modest.

“Aren’t you teaching her bad habits?”

Following behind him, Sister Maria arrived too.

I’d heard she left the Church and officially transferred to the Organization—seems she’s doing well.

Apparently she liked sweets, because instead of a meal, she just got a single ice cream cone.

“Did Red Riding Hood not come?”

“She hesitated, saying going out without permission is bad. Very much like her, I guess? Though when it came to hanging out with Alice, she didn’t hesitate at all.”

“That’s true. From her perspective, spending time with a friend probably doesn’t count as a bad deed. Ufufu...”

We sat together and chatted over our meal.

I really liked this—this warm, relaxed moment of exchanging stories.

When we were nearly finished eating, James stood up first.

As if he already knew what we’d be up to next, he patted my head and said:

“Just make sure you don’t mess with anything too dangerous.”

“Okay!”

“Got it! Wait—why are you patting my head too?!”

A little while later—

We were sneaking into another containment room.

Why? Because we were curious!

Alice’s anomalies were interesting, but sometimes I wanted to see something different.

Alice pulled out a list she’d taken from somewhere and showed it to me.

“Whoa... These are all the anomalies in containment? There’s so many! But hey, what’s the actual difference between these anomalies and demons? I’m always wondering about that.”

It was a topic I’d brought up before, with Alice and with others too, but it always ended in vague conclusions.

It probably would this time too.

Alice answered my question like this:

“Well... maybe the difference is whether they break the rules or not?”

“So demons and angels don’t break the rules? Who decides that?”

If we’re talking about supernatural powers, then from a human perspective, angels and demons are all anomalies anyway.

“All I can say is, ‘That’s how it is for me.’”

Anyway, we connected the mirror to the containment room and peeked inside.

There was a strange object made of little square blocks, like Tetris pieces.

It kept shifting its shape constantly.

“Looks like it’ll blow up when it turns into a long straight line.”

“There should be a related document somewhere... Found it. It was in a locked drawer. Since it’s a lower-tier anomaly, the security level is low too.”

According to the file, it really would explode if placed near square-shaped buildings—just like in Tetris.

Seriously, what don’t they have in this place?

I chuckled without thinking, but the file also listed names of people killed in the explosions, and my laughter quickly died.

“...Ahem! Let’s check out another one?”

Alice quickly led me to another containment room.

Inside, there was a jellyfish of mysterious, beautiful colors, gently floating like in an aquarium.

“So pretty...”

“Looks like it causes hallucinations.”

It had an anomalous trait, but wasn’t particularly dangerous.

So we could watch it comfortably.

After zoning out for a while, we moved on to the next room.

“There’s a person in here?”

What we saw was a man dressed like a chef—he stared at us through the mirror with a lifeless, mannequin-like gaze.

“Don’t look too long. That’s a chef who cooks people. So gross. Maybe I should just wipe him out.”

He looked human, but clearly wasn’t.

I didn’t bother opening the file that contained photos of the food this creature cooked.

I could already guess the kinds of horrible things he’d done.

Looking at that monster, I shouted:

“Rot in there for the rest of your life!”

And it glared at me with chilling eyes.

Alice, clearly displeased, gave it a warning.

“Eyes down. Or do you want to disappear without anyone even noticing?”

And the creature lowered its gaze!

Feeling a bit more satisfied, we moved on.

It felt like being at an exhibition.

Looking at them like modern art installations somehow made it more enjoyable and less disturbing.

“Alice, you’re having fun too, right? I hope this moment lasts forever.”

“I feel the same. But when it gets late, you have to sleep, you know?”

Looks like more time had passed than I realized.

My legs were starting to ache, but my heart was still yelling that it wanted to keep playing.

Still, I didn’t want to trouble Alice, so I held myself back and asked if we could peek into just one more containment room.

Alice smiled softly and said yes.

“Alright. One last time.”

The final room had a girl sleeping peacefully.

She looked so calm in her sleep that I couldn’t tell what was anomalous about her.

But then I noticed small toy ponies floating in circles around her—like moons orbiting a planet.

“Let’s see... Skipping the identification code... Nickname: Sister’s Toy.”

The file said this:

After falling into a coma from a car accident, toy ponies began floating around the girl at some point.

The toys would attempt to repel any person deemed a threat to her.

One theory suggested the girl was subconsciously controlling the ponies from her coma, but analysis showed no connection.

However, the toys originally belonged to the girl’s older sister—who died instantly in the accident.

Researchers speculate that the sister’s soul might have taken residence in the toy ponies.

But no soul has ever been detected, so it remains a mystery.

Researcher ■■■ commented: “Perhaps will and soul are two different things.”

“It’s a sad accident... but so touching.

To leave behind a will strong enough to protect her little sister, even in death...”

“Yeah... it really is.”

“Personally, I think the fact that her soul wasn’t detected means she didn’t resist death—she went on to the afterlife properly. She protected her sister and didn’t go against death. So in a way, it’s a perfect ending.”

I shared my thoughts, hoping Alice would agree.

But Alice said nothing.

She just kept silently staring at the sleeping girl.

“...Alice?”

“Mm? Huh? Why... am I crying...”

Alice was crying.

And I couldn’t bring myself to ask, Why?

Because the tears Alice shed hurt my heart, too much to speak.

“Ahaha... I must’ve gotten sentimental without realizing. How embarrassing. It’s nothing—don’t worry about it!”

“Alice...”

“I might be able to fix her coma. I’ll be back in a bit!”

Alice wiped her tears and immediately stepped into the containment room to begin treatment.

I watched her go... lost in thought.

Alice... what is it you truly wish for...?