The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 341 Boss Quan (22) - Qiana's Reminiscence 「A world where everything had collapsed, leaving only a white blankness behind. There, I opened my eyes.」 「There was nothing in the sky. No matter how I looked around, all that existed was a white, vast expanse of land stretching on endlessly.」 「Even when I tried to think about who I was, nothing came to mind.」 「Even when I thought about where this was, or why I was in a place like this, there was nothing I could figure out.」 「Only a vague sense of acceptance existed.」 「That this was my ending, and that I should simply accept it.」 "Ah, no! That's giving up way too fast! How about living a little more positively?" 「At that moment, a new voice arose in the world where nothing had existed.」 「When I glanced back without thinking, a woman was already there, looking at me with a beaming smile.」 「She was a beautiful person. A lively person. The kind of person who made you feel energized just by looking at her.」 「I asked her who she was.」 "Hmm, an involuntary perpetrator? The one responsible for insulting the deceased? A victim of identity theft?" 「It was something I couldn't make sense of at all.」 「As if she'd read my mind, the woman smiled brightly.」 "Haha, well, you don't need to worry about it too much. I'm someone who's about to disappear anyway. Someone who has to disappear, too." 「As if to prove her own words, the woman's body was slowly crumbling into white powder.」 「She must have known it herself, yet she walked forward as if it were nothing, beckoning for me to follow.」 「Unable to understand anything, I began to follow after her in a daze.」 "I wanted to say thank you. If it hadn't been for you, this world would surely have met an irreversible end." "My precious friends, colleagues, family. And even my past self." "I would have ended up sealing, with my own hands, a future that made all of them miserable." "Thank you for stopping that future. I really wanted to tell you that." 「I couldn't fully understand her words.」 「I had neither the memories nor the knowledge needed to understand, not as I was now.」 「But as if that alone was enough, she smiled brightly.」 "It's alright. You'll definitely remember it all." "Now, all you need to do is cross beyond this door." 「Where the woman pointed, a door had appeared, though I couldn't say when.」 「The door was tattered all over as if it might collapse at any moment, but the instant the woman touched it, it briefly regained a sound appearance.」 「In exchange, the woman's body became so cracked and tattered that there was no turning back, yet with a face that showed no concern at all, she grabbed my hand and pushed me through the door.」 「From behind me, I heard her final parting words.」 "Please, be happy." *** 「The place where I opened my eyes anew was, just as before, a white space.」 「But somehow, the sense of it being incomplete and crumbling, like the place before, seemed to have lessened.」 "That was a foolish act." 「Someone spoke to me.」 「Judging by appearance alone, it was the figure of a man nearing middle age.」 「But somehow I felt that this was far from the other's true nature.」 「Sure enough, in the next moment, the figure had changed into a woman of a similar age.」 「The moment after that, into an old man with a hollow impression, and the moment after that, into a child with bright, sparkling eyes.」 「A shapeless lump of flesh, endlessly transforming, changing, engaged in Mimicry.」 "The parent's hatred is directed at humans. Not at us. If you simply hadn't done what you did, we could have become the eternal victor, the protagonist upon the stage." 「At a glance it sounded like a scolding, a reproach, but no anger or resentment could be felt in the other's voice.」 「It was filled only with the bewilderment of someone looking upon a choice utterly impossible to understand.」 "The other was merely a Clone. To begin with, it wasn't a being of this world, and it approached you from the very start with a clear purpose." "That was successful. The other achieved its purpose, and now the parent's absoluteness has been broken." "But you? Your sense of self, your memories, all of it has collapsed. Your life will soon end too. You've gained nothing. Only loss fills it all." 「There is no efficiency. There is no profit. And so it cannot be understood, the other said.」 「Perhaps the other's words weren't wrong.」 「But somehow, I felt no regret.」 "Why? How can you assert that when you don't even have your memories?" 「Because not a single thing you've said has moved my heart.」 「A protagonist's life blessed by a god means nothing to me. I have no interest in such a thing.」 「The fact that I was used doesn't matter either. Because that doesn't make the emotions and experiences I felt disappear.」 "You speak of experience when you don't even have memories?" 「For a moment, I was at a loss for words.」 「Not because I thought what I felt was wrong, but because I didn't know how to explain it.」 「But somehow, the other didn't press the point any further.」 「It merely muttered to itself, as if it had come to accept something.」 "But it's probably that irrational part that let you win against me." "You, who acted of your own will, however irrational and inefficient it may seem, against me, who merely acted according to given conditions, a given purpose, a given hatred." 「The other reached out a hand and took hold of me.」 「The more something flowed into me through that grasped hand, the more I felt my once-hazy self grow clear.」 「Conversely, the other's form grew hazier, smaller, and faded away.」 「Before vanishing entirely, the other, now a part of me, spoke its last words.」 "Now, you are Queen." *** 「When I closed my eyes and opened them again, a white landscape came into view once more.」 「The overall atmosphere wasn't much different. Except, there was a staircase so long its end couldn't be seen.」 「At the foot of that staircase, "he" was there.」 「A suit worn as comfortably as everyday clothes. A long coat. Black sunglasses. A lit cigarette in his mouth.」 「Seeing him sitting comfortably on a step of the staircase, I felt, without meaning to, a sense of gladness.」 「Because, though not yet complete, my memories were slowly in the process of returning.」 「As I approached to greet him, his gaze flicked briefly toward me.」 "You sure made me wait a long time. Did you oversleep or something?" 「...Actually, I found myself feeling not so glad after all.」 「There was no way I could feel gladness toward a person who said something like that at a moment that should have called for a moving reunion.」 「When I said curtly that I'd never asked him to come meet me, he let out a short chuckle.」 "Never mind that, let's just get going. We've got a long way to go." 「Without even checking whether I was following, he started climbing the stairs first.」 「I watched him with a sullen look for a moment, then followed him up the stairs.」 "At the end there, why did you do that?" 「Without turning back, he asked.」 「What he meant was clear.」 「Why I had struck down Queen with the Anomaly Slayer's weapon. Why I had done something tantamount to suicide. That was likely what he was asking.」 「I hesitated for a moment, then asked back mischievously.」 「What would he say if I told him I'd sacrificed myself in his place because I didn't want him to die.」 "Then I can only call that foolish." 「The answer that came back was an extremely curt one.」 "The me here is nothing but a clone anyway." "No, even among clones, my situation is unusual in a lot of ways." "If other clones are close to a role played by an actor, then I'm a state where only the role remains, and the actor hasn't even come to play it." 「A role is nothing but fiction.」 「Just because a role dies within a story doesn't mean the actor dies.」 「And so, for him, and for those in a similar position to him, one's own life is lighter than anything else.」 「Ordinary people die when they die, but an actor doesn't die just because a role does. It's laughable to even compare the two.」 「And so, staking my life for his sake was a foolish act, he said.」 「I thought about it for a moment, then answered.」 「To cut the bullshit already.」 "What?" 「I am an anomaly.」 「I am a monster, made by a god who hated fiction, illusion, and baseless rumor, born in a world where such things become reality.」 「The fear humans harbor is my blood, despair is my bone, hatred is my flesh, malice is my skin.」 「But that doesn't mean I am only that and nothing more.」 "……." 「The words I speak now are my own.」 「The feelings I hold toward you are my own.」 「If he thinks lightly of himself for no reason other than being a role, then that means thinking lightly of my very existence too.」 「You're saying that treating a clone, something that can be made as many times as one likes, as equal to a real, one-time-only life is a problem of morality and ethics?」 「Not my concern. Please don't demand such things of a wicked anomaly.」 "...Ha, haha! Hahahahaha!" 「He laughed. So merrily that I began to worry he might stagger and fall off the side of the stairs.」 "Good, that's a piece of logic I quite like. Ha, this isn't the kind of thing I'm supposed to bring up, really." 「He pulled a cigarette pack from his coat and handed me the last one left inside.」 "My True Body? Or the future me? Well, the wording doesn't really matter. Anyway, that guy might come to regret it if he heard this— but eh, who cares. Causing trouble and leaving someone else to deal with the aftermath is one of humanity's specialties too, after all." "Hey, Miss Creature. Rookie. No, Qiana. If you want to get 'me' back, find the True Body. And give that to him." 「When I carefully took it from him, he turned around just like that and began walking down the stairs, in the direction opposite from me.」 「As if to say that this was as far as he himself could go.」 「With a light tap, he patted my shoulder and walked away.」 「Without thinking, I tried to turn and look back, but a rough palm stopped me.」 "Don't you know the myth of Orpheus? You're not supposed to look back at a time like this. That's the cliché." 「I looked up the stairs. I saw an exit, not the achromatic white, but filled with a myriad of colored light.」 「And then I realized. The meaning of why he was here.」 「I was about to make a scene, but upon checking the cigarette in my hand, I held it back.」 「He had promised there would be a next time. For now, I decided to let it go at that.」 "Employment contract terminated. As for renewal, well, let's give it a shot if the chance comes around." 「With a body and soul finally made whole, I answered.」 "Next time, I'll become the boss and hire you. You evil boss." "As long as you pay me a good price for it, I'll consider it."