There's a new set of tea cakes on the table... or rather, did food or something exist in Alice's house... no, well, it does exist. I always had the image of hunger........wait a minute?　
　No, even if eating is your thing, he's a mess....

...So where was I?
I've just come out of an evil god.
''Oh, it was. That evil god, the master of the villains called it the 'Great Evil God of Despair', but that evil god didn't have any kind of will. It just destroyed the world, that's all.
....

　It's not that it has any intentions........it seems to be a kind of disaster-like existence that works only for the purpose of destroying the world from the moment it appears.

As soon as that evil god appeared, he wrapped the hearts of all the people in the world in darkness and lured them to despair, well, he was an existence that couldn't even stand up to the wind of a lusty boss that attacked them mentally. I'm coming with physics.
I know it's quick and disingenuous, but to wrap the hearts of the world in darkness is amazing...
Yes, I guess so. Well, it's OK if you can imagine the magic of death spreading around the world, like Isis-san's magical power of death. Well, in terms of ability, Isis-san is many times stronger than me, but.......

　I see, a true mental attack. If Isis-san's death magic power is something that forces the other party to fear death, then the evil god's is like forcing all the humans in the world to feel feelings of despair.......hmmm. If you just listen to the story, it's really outrageous.

''In fact, it was pretty bad... it wasn't just my mind, but also my vision was blacked out, and I felt like I was drifting in the darkness with nothing... If it went on like that, the minds of all the humans in the world would have died.
"....how could such a monster...
'The human mind isn't that simple, like when you're given despair and it instantly turns to despair, is it?　 That's why ... it was an opportunity.
....

　The joking look on her face up to that point changed to a serious expression, and Alice began to speak.
　It felt as if she was implicitly telling me that this is where the important content comes in.

'The little wishes in the hearts of people around the world, the certain hope for the future... I spun all of those thoughts with the power of Hecaton Cale and took them into my own body. To defeat the Great Evil God of Despair, to protect the people I care about I spun the world.
....
The bottom line is that I won. I defeated the evil gods and defended the world and some have called me the 'Hero of Hope'.
Alice.

　Why is that?　Happy ending.......... Alice, who gathered all the world's hopes against the evil gods who wanted to envelop the world in despair, was victorious.
　It was supposed to be a great ending to the story, but why does Alice have such a gloomy expression on her face?

...and happily ever after, the world is at peace and it would have been nice if it had ended.

　As if to answer my question, Alice gives a self-mocking smile.

''........I noticed something unusual right away. No matter how many days I didn't eat, no matter how many days I didn't sleep..............................I found myself not tired at all.
Huh?
My body couldn't withstand the immense amount of energy that spun the hopes of the world... so I guess that's why... my body evolved. .........no, it had transformed. "A monster that is more than an evil god...
....

　Alice, who was supposed to be the hero who defeated the evil gods, before she knew it, she became a monster that surpassed the evil gods.......I see. That's why you said 'ex-human'.......I'm sure that's when Alice exceeded her limits as a human being.
　In a world where there was no other species but human, she became an existence that was completely outside the framework.

''Well, that doesn't mean I was persecuted or anything. I mean, I actually couldn't. At that time I was no longer an opponent even if all the people in the world were united.
So.........
'Yes. But my partner my best friend laughed at my distress, 'You're just getting a little bit of power beyond human understanding, you think you're a god, silly. He treated me with respect, not just for the sake of it, but also for his sister and other friends. My sister and the rest of my friends did too. They laughed at me like it was natural that no matter what I became, I was still me.

　
　

''But my despair........was from here.
...What?

　


Wha.........ah.....
'Yes. Now, just as you imagined, Kite, while all the precious people I loved with all my heart and soul were getting old I was the only one who was going to be like this for a long, long time.
....

　Now I finally understand. What the despair Alice had been experiencing was....
　The story told up to this point is the story of the girl who was called a hero, who 'defended what was important to her'....

My mother died, then my father, then my father... The cruel passage of time took away the people I cared about, one by one. I experienced the death of my loved ones over and over again. When my sister, the most important person in the world, died in her old age, worrying about me I cried so much that my tears dried up.
....

　How much grief was it ... how much grief was it?　The people who fought and defended against the ridiculous existence of the evil gods... how much Alice's heart was to see them die....

"...I thought I was ... 'invincible'. As long as there are people who want to protect me on my back, my heart will never be broken. That I could go as far as I wanted, that I could be strong, that I could defeat even the most powerful opponents... and it was true.
....
"As long as I had the people I cared about, my heart just never once dropped to its knees... but when I lost them my heart was laughably aching... ...shattered into pieces.

　I don't know what to say. I know what it's like to be left alone, and I know a little bit about that.
　When I lost my parents and was left alone, I felt a great sense of emptiness, and I'm sure Alice did too.

　At the same time, the question I had been wondering about was answered.
　Because, surely, she has experienced so much solitude........

... When someone dear to you dies, there is a cold, dark hole left in your heart where that person should have been until now. That hole may get smaller, but it will never disappear... it will always, always be a hole in your heart.
Alice.
'I couldn't bear the thought of being left alone. I didn't have the confidence to carry everyone's death on my shoulders so I knew that if I lost everyone I cared about I wouldn't be able to live with it.
Huh?

　The sad voice, the eyes with tears in them.................Alice's words are not an exaggeration.
　But if that's the case, why is Alice in front of me now?　Did something happen to change your mind?

' ... and the last one left was my best friend. It's amazing. 'You don't want to leave me alone,' and that thought alone kept me alive for a lot longer than the others... but even then, the sky was the limit.
....
The future where I, who was left alone, would mourn and take my own life my best friend must have sensed this. That's why my best friend put a curse on me at the moment of my death.
...a curse?
'Yes. Gentle and painful............still haunts me. The irresistible curse of 'my best friend's last wish'... I still remember the conversation I had with my best friend vividly.

　Slowly as she chewed on each word, painfully as she lamented her tragic fate, Alice began to speak quietly as she spoke the last remaining words of her memories of her best friend.

　Dear Mom, Dad - Alice's past, the content that continued to torment her, was finally revealed. And at the same time, it was also an answer to Alice's fury that felt uncomfortable. At that time, Alice's anger might have been - maybe it was a lament.