brain is more rotten than garbage, please don't hit me I'll do anything I swear so so? I have to say I'm sorry. Until they forgive me. But see, there was one person who said I wasn't bad. So I'm not scared anymore. You promised, remember? You said that I was your daughter. That's right. There was someone who told me stories. Someone who stroked my hair. But now there isn't. Father died. Father was killed. Father asked me for something. Please, daughter, carry out my dream for me. I know. I know, you know? I know that really and truly, Father hated everything. He thought everything hurt, and everything was awful, and everything was horrible, and everything was scary. It's okay. Only I know. And I know that Father put up with it anyway. He endured for such a very long time. So it's all right. It's all right, right? There was someone who loved me. There was someone who stroked my hair. There was someone who forgave me. He was the first person in all the world who did that. And this is what he wanted. This is what I want. So, please, everyone, let's all please die together. There was a place, and in that place, there was a peerless sinner. She tortured the entire population of her fiefdom and killed them. In the end, her sins reached even the nobles. Everyone cast stones at her. They resented, hated, and despised her. Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth! A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth! It made complete sense. No matter how many good deeds she racked up, it meant nothing to the dead. No day would ever come where her sins would be washed clean. But there was a boy who told her he loved her, and a simple beastman who called her his beloved captain. They didn't call the Torture Princess "the Torture Princess." To them, the Torture Princess was just Elisabeth. And now both of them were gone. In the grander scheme of things, it meant nothing. That was all that the story had to it. Elisabeth slowly sat up. Her body was in pretty rough shape. Due to the venom, her body was corroded all over. Her skin was covered in open wounds, and her black hair lay in uneven tatters. All of her usual beauty had been marred with injuries. Furthermore, her mana reserves were greatly diminished. Fortunately, she had enough left to support her demon meat-infused body, but that was all. Compared to the mana she normally had at her disposal, she was all but running on empty. It was almost like that time in the Capital, right after she'd finished defeating the three merged demons. This time, though, things were different. This time, there were people she knew among the fallen. Over half of the people who'd looked up to her had perished. However, that wasn't for the Torture Princess to lament. She had no right to value some of the dead more than others. Knowing that, she allowed herself one small utterance. "Ha, some heartless killer I turned out to be. I couldn't even kill the one who needed killing on my own." After a few moments of silence, Elisabeth spat out the chunk of flesh lodged in her throat. During her flight, she had accidentally bit the inside of her mouth. She silently looked at the sky. The Sand Queen was dead. Off in the distance, Elisabeth could hear the white deer and colossal hawk wailing. Both of them had survived. However, it was unclear whether or not they would recover from their wounds. The beastfolk joined their lament. They had enough sorrow to go around. Then Elisabeth heard her name. "Captain Elisabeth!" "Are you all right, Cap...tain?" It was her surviving men. The four haggard beastfolk rushed over to her, but when they saw the state she was in, her subordinates went silent. They exchanged glances with each other. When they spoke next, it was all at once, and with renewed passion. """We won, Captain Elisabeth!""" "We did it... We did it! With this, those we lost will have their reward. Hold your head high, ma'am. We fought, and we won. Surely this is an occasion for joy." Their voices rang with enthusiasm, but Elisabeth could tell. The things they were saying weren't coming from the heart. They were just trying to cheer her up. It made her wonderâ€”up until then, had she ever been in as sorry a state as she was at the moment? And at the same time, there was something she was painfully aware of. The dead receive no reward. Once someone died, that was it for them. Absolute as that truth was, though, Elisabeth didn't give voice to it. There were things the dead had accomplished, and that fact was just as irrefutable. Denying that aspect of it would do nothing to change what had happened. Also, Elisabeth wasn't nearly so tactless as to shut down her subordinates when they were going out of their way to try to encourage her. And even if she was, there was no time She looked straight forward and brought up a different topic altogether. "The Three Kings should still be able to serve as shields... You lot, take the beastfolk and demi-human survivors and have the Kings give you cover as you flee. Go now, and don't tarry." "What? Captain, what's going on? Using the Three Kings of the Forest as shields... What are you talking about?" "If the attacks come, they're the only ones who'll be able to protect you! Enough questions, just go!" Elisabeth shouted. Her flustered subordinates sprang into action, following her orders and passing the message along to what remained of the army. The four of them were skilled professionals. They would be able to get the survivors to safety. Instead of watching them go, Elisabeth glared at the ground. There was a rose blooming atop itâ€”a peculiar little flower interspersed with azure and crimson petals both. Clear droplets sat atop it like little tears. Then the petals all fell off, as though the flower had used up the last of its strength. The bits of azure and crimson rose drifted slowly toward the ground, then melted away before they could land. Elisabeth knew. Like it or not, she understood exactly what it meant. It meant the Saint was dead. The Torture Princess's crimson eyes darkened, and she let out a low murmur. "Despair is on the move." Her voice rang with ridicule, as though mocking herself for expecting anything more of the world. Deep in an abyss at the World's End, the Saint died by Alice's hand. However, the Saint's quick defeat hadn't been caused by her own strength running out. There was a different reason behind it. Now, after the fact, Elisabeth realized what that was. The Sand Queen was a corpse, and corpses couldn't feel pain. But feel it or not, the wounds inflicted on her flesh were converted into pain anyway. And all of it, along with all the pain she inflicted on others, was transmitted right on over to Alice, and it had caused Alice's power to grow tremendously. Not only was the Sand Queen a powerful weapon, she had also served as a trap. By fighting her, Elisabeth and the others had been all but strangling the Saint themselves. Still, there was no other way. The three races had no strength to spare. If they hadn't dealt with the Sand Queen, the blow she would have dealt them would have been lethal. Furthermore, Alice was always going to show up sooner or later, and there was no way they could've taken on her and the Sand Queen at the same time. Even as things actually played out, there was a good chance they would've lost if not for Randgrof and Lute. However... ...the fact remains that a person died because of what we did. That tragic woman hadn't even given them her name. Had better options been available to them? There was no way of knowing. Elisabeth shook her head. She gave her fingers a harsh snapâ€”in part to clear her mindâ€”and drew Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal from the air once more. She thrust its blade into the ground to help herself rise to her feet. Then she heard a new pair of voices calling her from behind. "Madam Elisabeth!" "You're in an even worse state than I expected. Don't you go keeling over on me now, girl." Izabella and Jeanne rushed over to her. Their Waltz was a technique designed for fighting in close quarters, so they would have been poorly matched against the flesh blob. Upon determining that, Elisabeth had chosen not to call on their aid during the battle. Now that she looked at them, though, she noticed that both of their mana reserves were a bit lower than she'd expected. On top of that, they were both splattered with blood. It begged the questionâ€”why? Izabella was quick to explain. "A couple of the saints hit their limits during that last bombardment. We immediately teleported them out and gave them emergency treatment, but their conditions are still critical. Jeanne and I gave them blood and mana transfusions, and that was enough to get them stable, but still... But then! Just now there was a rose!" "Ah, I see... You got one, too, then," Elisabeth replied to Izabella's puzzled outburst. By the sound of it, a rose had sprouted at her location, too. The Saint must have wanted to inform Izabella of her death as well. Elisabeth brushed her shredded black hair back off her shoulder. Her finger grazed the bit of white bone peeking out from her jaw. Still looking like death on two legs, she closed her eyes. She thought back over all the stories Alice had told her up until then. As she ruminated on the scattered bits and pieces she knew about the Wonderland tale, she realized something. Our game with the Queen is over. Now the protagonistâ€”Aliceâ€”will make her return. Alice knew exactly how the Sand Queen fought, and she probably knew exactly where she was, too. There was no doubt in Elisabeth's mind that Alice would make her way to the same spot, destroying towns and villages on her way like she was skipping stones. Alice was pure and innocent, and she'd been fixated on Elisabeth for some time now. There was no reason to assume that had changed. In short, she was going to show up at any moment. Knowing that, Elisabeth did something very unlike her and opened her mouth up wide. Her voice rang beautiful and sonorous as she recited the poem she'd since memorized. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." There was something that couldn't be put back together. Something broken that was coming their way. To. Fro. Chitter. Chatter. There were voices. Throngs of people sobbing and screaming and trembling. Someone was loudly screaming. Their voice rang with terror. Someone else lamented the incoming calamity, their tone that of a person dashing through a field with deranged abandon and laughing their head off. "It's the end of days all over again." And there, in that place that seemed halfway between a nightmare and reality, a young girl appeared. She spoke with a voice like an angel's. "Come now, let's be good girls and sing a song. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" That mysterious monster, surely, had to be Alice herself. Sara Yuuki had become Alice, and now she was the Jabberwock. Right as the observation began tickling Elisabeth's brain, Alice landed and did a little twirl. She stopped singing and faced Elisabeth. The white rabbit-ear-like ribbons attached to her oversized hat swayed