Alice’s Another Kingdom skill gave her the ability to create a small world of her own that perfectly adhered to her desires. It seemed for now that Hanakawa had achieved some level of safety.
“Well...I am most grateful for your assistance,” he said, “and would be even more so if you could do something about that Demon Lord’s army...”
“How shameless can you be?” Alice replied. “I saved your life. Be glad I did that much for you.”
“I suppose so! Above all, thank you, Alice!”
“Besides, I don’t even know if I’d be able to beat them. Why is Shirou on their side anyway?”
“Is he an acquaintance of yours?” he asked.
“He’s a Sage, so of course he is. That Demon Lord must have some power that lets him control Sages.”
“But if you were to draw him into this world...”
“I can’t force people to come here,” Alice said.
“Was I not brought here rather forcibly?” Hanakawa asked.
“Yeah, that was a bit of a trick. I made a door on the ground below you. You falling through it counted as you choosing to go through of your own free will.”
A door was created, opened, and the moment someone was through, it disappeared. She could trick someone who wasn’t paying attention into entering her kingdom like that, but someone who was alert could simply avoid the door.
“If you had left the door there, might he not have entered of his own accord? You are invincible within Another Kingdom, as I recall.” Since Hanakawa had suddenly fallen into the door, it would only be natural that his opponent would chase him through. From their exchange up until that point, he couldn’t imagine the Demon Lord letting him try to escape.
“I used to think that,” Alice replied. “I’m...not so confident anymore.” Apparently her experience against the Omega Blade had scarred her somewhat.
“So then, what am I to do next?” Hanakawa asked.
“No idea. By the way, you can’t stay here. This is my princess paradise. It’s supposed to be filled with hot guys, not ugly nerds like you. Though if you really beg, maybe I can give you a hut in the rotting village on the edge of the kingdom.”
“Are we not being perhaps a bit overly discourteous here?!” But Hanakawa had no room to argue. Everything in this world went according to Alice’s whims.
Alice went quiet for a time, so Hanakawa decided to do likewise rather than dig his hole any deeper by trying to speak.
“Van’s made a claim on you.”
“Can you not come up with some sort of excuse for me?!” Despite losing according to the rules he had agreed to, Hanakawa had fled the game rather than face the consequences. It only made sense that the guy running it would complain.
“He’s saying he wants me to send you back.”
“Wait, wait, wait! There is nothing there for me but death!”
“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that. Your party already lost, so the Demon Lord’s party has moved on to round three.”
“Huh? How did that happen?”
“No clue.” Alice pointed at a nearby wall, where a door suddenly appeared. It was all but an instruction to leave. “That Friendship Counter thing was a power given by the Great Sage, so I can’t just ignore it, but I still have my position of Sage to take into account.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Beside her throne, a number of knights in full plate armor appeared. Lifting their spears, they slowly started approaching Hanakawa.
“U-Umm! I seem to remember you only being able to create doors on the outside leading into Another Kingdom!”
“Van has a similar power, so if we work together, we can figure it out.”
Hanakawa was slowly pushed towards the door by the oncoming wall of knights.
“Urgh...fine! I will leave, then!”
The door opened, and Hanakawa stepped through.
The next moment, he was floating in the air. Naturally, this was followed by a quick fall and a sudden stop as he hit the ground. Though it hadn’t hurt much, the sudden change in the direction of gravity left him a little confused.
“Oh! Hanakawa! So you were okay!”
Looking up, he saw Carol and Ryouko standing above him.
“Where are we?” he asked. Looking around, he saw they were at the edge of a lake, the same place they encountered the Demon Lord’s army.
“We were thrown out of the battle channel,” Ryouko said. “It looks the same to me, though.”
“How did the rock paper scissors match go?” he asked.
“We gave up right after you left,” Carol replied offhandedly.
“Huh? If that was an option, why did we not do it from the start?”
“You’re the one who suddenly challenged them to rock paper scissors.”
“I suppose that is true...but what are we supposed to do now?”
“Half of the teams move on to the next round, so technically we might still have a chance, right?” Ryouko suggested.
“I see. Since we lost the first encounter, we were returned to the matching room. There were thirty-two parties in round two, correct? That would mean sixteen parties may move on. Perhaps we still have a chance.”
As a battle royale tournament, losing once didn’t mean instant elimination. They still had a chance to get back in the game. However, most other parties were no doubt already engaged. They didn’t have time to lounge around and wait if they wanted another shot at moving on.
“No time to waste, then!” Carole exclaimed.
With no real plan, Hanakawa felt nothing but unease about their prospects.