The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 340 Boss Quan (21) - Diary, Extra. Qiana checked the state of her own body. The check didn't take very long. Because it was bad enough to tell at a glance. Well, that was only natural, if anything. She had pierced her own heart with her own hand. As if that weren't enough, she had generated blades inside her body and slashed herself all over. Thanks to that, she'd managed to drive Queen out, but the aftereffects were also immense. It was only thanks to having skimmed off a bit of the fragment's share in the process of driving Queen out that she could still stand like this; otherwise, it might have been impossible. Quan, standing beside her, likewise didn't look to be in good shape either. Wounds covered his body everywhere, and blood dripped steadily down beneath his feet. His well-worn coat had more ruined patches than intact ones, and even the sunglasses that by now felt like part of his face had cracked. In contrast, what about their opponent? Queen, who'd had a portion of her fragments taken by Qiana, but who still held close to a majority share of them. Enforcement Unit agents, born from granting immortality through Queen's cells to talents who were already at the peak of humanity's elite. What's more, since this was inside the Management Bureau itself, even home advantage lay with the enemy. A situation so disadvantageous it was almost enough to make her laugh bitterly. But why was it? 'Somehow, I don't feel like we're going to lose.' Together with Quan. Fighting alongside this boss who was so exasperatingly strong, so shameless, more monstrous than any anomaly. Just that alone was enough for Qiana to shake off all her anxiety and worry. Perhaps displeased by the smile that had slipped out unbidden, it was Queen who moved first. "Kill them all." Tat! The agents, receiving Queen's order, all began to move at once. Blunt weapons, blades, curses, bullets — each carrying its own murderous intent, aimed at taking their lives. Qiana didn't respond to their attacks. It wasn't that she had given up. She simply judged that there was no need to respond. And Quan was a man who answered that kind of trust from his subordinate. Click! Two gun barrels turned toward the front. Ratatatatat!! A barrage that was hard to believe came from pulling the trigger just once each — closer, really, to a machine gun's continuous fire. What was even more frightening was that, despite firing so indiscriminately, every single bullet struck exactly where it was aimed. Agents pierced through in places close to fatal — eyes, throat, heart. For a human, it would have been certain instant death, but for these agents, it was nothing more than a minor injury that made their bodies go slack for just a moment. "─Would you mind not imitating anomalies, when you're just human?" And the anomaly among anomalies would not permit humans to imitate that kind of immortality. Each of Qiana's fingers transformed, as if the blade of a scalpel had been stretched out long. Slice! Her finger-blades pierced through near the agents' hearts. The agents' immortality came from Queen's cells. If so, there was no reason Qiana, who likewise had Queen as her origin, couldn't absorb it. Thud! Splat! The agents who had always gotten back up like a roly-poly toy no matter how fatal the wound, finally fell into eternal rest this time. There was no room to spare for any feelings of mourning over it. Because Queen's attack, her entire right arm transformed into a giant demon's grasping hand, came crashing down on Qiana. Booooom! The Sealed Vault, built sturdily enough to withstand ordinary attacks without so much as a scratch, let out a scream. Qiana dodged the attack by a hair's breadth, but couldn't stop the spikes that sprouted from Queen's right arm from stabbing at her like an awl. Ratatat! Quan's bullets knocked away the spikes of Queen that had tried to pierce through Qiana's entire body. But this too was only for a moment. To face Queen, who possessed near-limitless transformation abilities, this enclosed space was far, far too cramped. Quan shouted. "Up!!" Qiana immediately understood what Quan meant. When she turned her five fingers into long blades and slashed at the ceiling, the ceiling made of thick metal and rock was sliced apart like tofu. The falling debris dropped onto Queen's head, and Quan and Qiana used it as a foothold to move up to the next floor. Queen swatted away the debris pouring down on her head as if it were nothing and tried to grab them, but Quan's gun barrels breathed fire once more. Then, in that gap, Qiana sliced the ceiling again, opening a path to the next floor. Shooting, slicing, leaping upward — over and over, several times. Finally emerging not underground but onto the surface — and a large open clearing at that — the ordinary Management Bureau agents, thrown into confusion by the sudden turn of events, also began responding in full force. Blaring sirens. Armed forces gathering. And, in the opposite direction, figures who looked like researchers in white coats fleeing the other way. They tried to shout some kind of warning at Quan and Qiana, but it never properly came out. Right after the two of them emerged onto the surface. With a terrifying force that seemed as if it would plow up the very earth itself, the marble floor of the main building's central plaza burst upward as if exploding. Kaboooom─!! A massive pit of dust erupted as the reinforced concrete was torn apart like a ragged old rag. In the thing that newly revealed itself from within, almost nothing remained of the appearance from when it had once been called "Director." An exterior armor with a dark red, strangely lustrous sheen reminiscent of a crustacean. Along both sides of the spine on its back grew six pairs of wings that seemed to be nothing but bare bone frames without any membrane, and at the tips of those wings were awl-like organs reminiscent of a scorpion's tail or a wasp's stinger. Beneath the armor, muscle fibers writhed as if compressed dozens, even hundreds of times over from a tiger or gorilla, and its lower body was a mix of horse and rabbit. "...O-open fire!! Fire!!" Perhaps even the Management Bureau's Security Unit agents, who had been through every hardship imaginable, felt an instinctive sense of crisis at that sight. Before any proper warning or grasp of the situation, an overwhelming hail of gunfire was unleashed at Queen. While hundreds, thousands of rounds poured down on Queen, Qiana felt a question rise in her. 'Why show herself in a form like that, now of all times?' To those who didn't know the clear circumstances, their opponent was the Management Bureau's Director, and Quan and Qiana were criminals fleeing after trying to steal a fragment. What's more, this was right in the very heart of the Management Bureau. If so, wouldn't it have been far more efficient, both for using her subordinates as a shield and tactically as well, to use her authority as Director and order the agents to fight the two of them? But that question didn't last very long. Fwip! As if unfurling wings that had been folded away, the six pairs of bony wings that had sprouted on Queen's back cracked through the air like whips. The awl-like tips of the wings tore through the air and pierced straight through the torsos of the Security Unit agents who had been frantically pouring on gunfire, and instantly, the victims' bodies shriveled up like mummies. No, beyond just shriveling, their very bodies melted down into a viscous, sludge-like liquid and were absorbed directly into Queen's wings. The wounds that had appeared on Queen's body healed visibly fast, and the sense of oppressive pressure she radiated grew even thicker. Only then could Qiana grasp Queen's intent. Superiority in numbers, social justification — none of that mattered in the slightest. Once Quan was dead and Qiana absorbed, Queen — no, the Dreaming God behind Queen — would win regardless. If that was the case, there was no longer any need for something like the Management Bureau. No, rather, getting rid of it was the better option. A body of knowledge holding the know-how and strength to fight anomalies would only be an obstacle to the world the god desired. On top of that, if she tried a war of attrition, there was the risk that Qiana would cut down the agents and devour them to recover her strength. So she would devour them herself first. That way, it was a gain in combat strength, and left fewer future troubles behind. It was thoroughly efficient. "I don't like it." And so, to Qiana, it was viscerally, sickeningly repulsive. It was repulsive that Queen had calculated, as if it were only natural, that if Qiana were driven into a corner, she wouldn't hesitate to resort to cannibalism. Even though she'd mingled with them half as a means of deception, the image of the Management Bureau agents — most of whom were, at heart, decent people — rose in her mind, and that made it repulsive. She had never met the woman herself, but it was repulsive that Queen had draped herself in the corpse of a woman who had been the Anomaly Slayer's friend, someone more decent than anyone, and was defiling her dignity. But feelings alone don't change the world. As if Qiana's feelings didn't matter at all, the battle situation grew steadily more unfavorable. No matter how many attacks were unleashed around her, Queen shrugged them off with overwhelming regeneration and defense; conversely, every time Queen struck back, someone died, and even when they managed to pile up damage and fatigue on her somehow, Queen recovered her strength again by absorbing the corpses. At least Quan was keeping up a truly terrifying level of struggle, but Qiana could see with her own eyes that his movements, too, were gradually slowing. Quan's complexion was pale, and the blood that had been flowing since earlier had, at some point, nearly stopped. Not because the wound had healed, but because there was no more blood left to shed. It wasn't that Quan was weak. Nor was it that the Management Bureau was weak. It was simply that Queen was too strong. As if the creator of the world had set the being called Queen as the protagonist of this world. Qiana bit her lip, as if impatient. It was right then that something came rolling and bumped against her feet. "...Huh?" At a glance, it looked like an ordinary baseball bat. But it was far too heavy to be for sports use, its center of balance was strange, and above all, its surface was covered in all sorts of decorations, a singular item that looked as though some high school girl had decorated it herself. Qiana knew what it was. Of course she couldn't not know. Because this very weapon was the symbol of the one who had once killed her in the past. Beside the baseball bat lay a single diary, placed neatly as if it were part of a matching set. As if drawn by something, Qiana opened the diary. The diary, which should ordinarily have repelled anomalous beings, let her peek at its contents obediently, as if to say it would make an exception just this once. The first page that opened was filled with blank space, but soon words began to be written there in real time. --- --- --- 『Queen』 The anomaly among anomalies. The Queen of Anomalies. Extremely versatile and powerful body transformation. Regenerative ability and combat power beyond common sense, derived from that foundation. A Mimicry ability that devours others and reproduces their appearance, personality, and abilities. This alone would be more than powerful enough, but as I see it, this anomaly's true horror lies elsewhere. It's this: that this anomaly was designed from the very start to be a "victor." Queen does not lose. Nor does she disappear. Because the god of this world favors Queen above all. And as long as Queen remains sound, the god cannot be defeated either. A word game like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first. That's precisely why she's an anomaly. But there is an exception. Queen is a victor. If so, then one who takes Queen as their origin should also be a victor. Someone born from Queen, existing as an anomaly, who would nonetheless fight, in the end, on the side of humans. Only someone like that could resolve this contradiction. P.S. ─Is there someone you'd want to stand beside even at the cost of your own life? --- --- --- The book's pages became entirely covered over. The metal baseball bat trembled, as if awaiting her choice. Without the slightest hesitation, Qiana gripped the bat's handle. Its sheer weight drew out a hollow, bitter laugh. "Where in the world is there a high school girl who swings something like this." Her body felt heavy. Her senses felt dull. It couldn't be helped. This baseball bat was something whose very existence was close to a natural enemy of anomalies, a weapon that had once "slain" her, even if it had ended in a draw. If touching something like that bare-handed produced no side effects at all, that would be the strange thing. The bat trembled, conveying its will. Deny yourself as an anomaly. Declare that you will live as a human. Only then could its full power be unleashed. "Don't make me laugh." Qiana refused it in an instant. One-Eyed are One-Eyed. What meaning would there be in denying one's own identity and forcing herself to live as a Two-Eyed? The bat's trembling stopped. As if to say it didn't like it but would let it slide for now, the heaviness in her body vanished as well. Qiana charged forward. Perhaps his sunglasses had fallen off during the fight — for once, Quan's bare face was visible, his eyes wide as he seemed to be saying something. Curling up the corner of her mouth, Qiana swung the baseball bat at Queen. Thwack! The armor that had stayed intact even against bullets shattered instantly from what should have been an unremarkable blow. In tandem with it, Qiana felt as though something inside her, too, had broken along with it. Qiana didn't stop. Queen's will came through to her. Asking what Qiana could possibly gain by doing this, telling her to stop this foolishness even now. Qiana didn't stop. It wasn't as if she didn't know it was a foolish act. Throwing away the undoubted fortune of being the protagonist of a world blessed by its creator, to do something like this — what else could it be but foolishness? Qiana didn't stop. There were her colleagues at the office. There was the rookie she herself had saved. There were the acquaintances she'd come to know at the Management Bureau. And more than anything. There was her boss. Qiana didn't stop. If asked whether their meeting had been a good one, it had, without question, been the worst. If asked whether he'd treated her kindly, all she could say was, well, who knows. But he had never denied her. He never told her it was a problem that she wasn't human, nor that it was something that needed to be "fixed." That much was enough. The remains of what had once been Queen scattered into dust. The one who had once been called Qiana stopped moving. And never moved again.