Wonderland had been home to the outlaws and the insane; however, it still had rules.
First, don"t p.i.s.s off anyone stronger than you. Second, you couldn"t commit any crimes in the neutral zone. Third, the trash from the slums would be left to rot in their own territory.
However, like the rules of any world, there were always exceptions.
The Caucus race. It was a race to kill or be killed in the streets of the slums. The winner among the tens of partic.i.p.ants who took part in the compet.i.tion would become the slums" leader.
Heart, looking down at the street, was sitting on top of the roof with his feet dangerously dangling. He had been nervously watching the roads in antic.i.p.ation of his favorite event, the Caucus race.
A shadow hidden in the darkness fidgeted like a bug. Heart smiled widely with his long red lips.
Growling, Heart said, "I"m looking forward to this."
Heart"s senses became aroused as his pheromone-filled voice wafted through the air. The prost.i.tutes he had called to enjoy during his climax were cheering and squirming. Just then, from the rooftop, someone could be seen through the door. His face was sickly pale. His lips moved beneath his black mask. "When do we start?"
Casually, Heart retorted, "You acted like you weren"t interested. I"m surprised you came out, White Rabbit."
While walking toward Heart, White Rabbit snorted and replied, "When?"
Upon seeing the enormous rectangular sword slung diagonally across White Rabbit"s back, Heart"s minions stopped him. White Rabbit shrugged and said, "Can you calm your minions down? I"m a neutral party."
"Is the rabbit barking?" Heart asked haughtily.
"Such a way with words," White Rabbit said, rolling his eyes.
White Rabbit raised his elbows, mumbling. As he buried his face into his arms, White"s hair fell onto the handrails. His childlike behavior suited him; he was small, thin, and young-looking.
"So, when are we starting?" asked White Rabbit again.
"Soon… Hmm?" Heart said while locking his gaze on a single point.
Someone was walking toward them. Someone who was wearing a black suit and had white hair. Heart nudged White Rabbit"s arm with his shoe. White Rabbit angrily lifted his head.
"Sh*t. What?" White Rabbit asked in annoyance.
"You"ll regret it if you don"t see this," said Heart.
Still annoyed, White Rabbit asked, "What could it possibly be…? Huh?"
White Rabbit squinted in the direction of where Heart"s shoe was pointing. White Rabbit saw white-blonde hair and a black suit; attached was a colossal sword unsuitable for someone with such a small and thin stature. The frame was a bit different, but a person who was remarkably similar to White Rabbit was standing there. With a neatly pressed suit and a walk full of hope, White Rabbit could sense that this was an outsider of Wonderland.
Progressively losing his composure, White Rabbit asked, "Since when did we have something like that? Have you seen that person before?"
"Stop acting like a bunny. Are you afraid of losing your ident.i.ty?" Heart asked.
Now angry, White Rabbit yelled, "Have you seen that person before?!"
"I haven"t," Heart replied calmly.
There was nothing that happened in Wonderland without Heart being the first to know about it. If Heart hadn"t seen the person before, then there was a 100-percent chance that the person was a newcomer.
White Rabbit growled under his mask and said, "I"m killing that."
"Let"s put our fate in the rest of the race," said SoYoon.
Heart laughed out loud, stuck his arms out, and bowed mockingly at the reaction towards the newcomer. White Rabbit, however, yelled, "Get off me!" in response.
Heart turned his head and spoke to the newcomer. "Hey, blondie."
1. Wonderland (Parts 5-8)
Mere feet away from the edge of the Wonderland billboard, SoYoon stopped and looked up at it. The sign reminded her of an amus.e.m.e.nt park, with such an impactful presence. Just a few more steps until entering Wonderland.
SoYoon moved slowly toward it. One step, two steps, three steps. And on the fourth step, she breathed the Wonderland air in deeply.
Ah, I am now free.
Overjoyed, she didn"t recognize the gloomy atmosphere of the place. Thinking that she should find an empty house, she shuffled forward, humming a soothing tune.
"Hey, blondie."
At the research facility, SoYoon was called by various nicknames other than her name, such as, "Hey, you," or, "Number 137." "Blondie" was another nickname she had heard before.
She looked up to where she sensed people watching her. Atop a three-story building, a man stood on the roof—red hair muddled by the darkness, and a handsome face. He wore an indigo suit with a deep red handkerchief and an open-collared s.h.i.+rt, uninhibited by a necktie. With such limited information, SoYoon was unable to decipher this man"s ident.i.ty.
"Yeah, you. Newbie."
The man sid sliding his hand through his tousled hair. Even from this small action, she could feel his overflowing energy and innate aura of violence. This action is how she was able to decipher his ident.i.ty.
Heart. Wonderland"s strongest fighter and the man who would end up falling in love with Alice.
In Wonderland, Heart was described as being in his mid-twenties, but the man in front of her looked a bit younger than that.
As expected, this current time period was before the story began. SoYoon felt a bit relieved. Next to him was another character from the novel, White Rabbit. SoYoon could feel White Rabbit"s resentment toward her.
"Tonight is the Caucus Race. We were preparing a sideshow to prelude its start. White Rabbit, here, has chosen you as his target. Lucky for you, Newbie."
Caucus Race. The term may have been mentioned in Wonderland"s inspiration, Alice in Wonderland, but in the actual novel Wonderland, such a term never came up.
As if reading her mind, Heart explained, "The playing field is this smelly street and the buildings surrounding it. You will diligently scurry around like a rat trying to hide… And in under an hour, kill this guy. If you succeed, I will let you compete in the actual race."
Truthfully, even as Heart said this, he did not have a trace of expectation on SoYoon succeeding. There were many who entered Wonderland to escape the law, but the majority of them couldn"t last a month without losing their lives. SoYoon looked so frail that he doubted she could lift anything heavier than a spoon. Thus, she wouldn"t be able to last a day here. Yes, he was certain of it.
Heart laughed at himself from 10 minutes prior, thinking he must have been blind.
It was a moonless night. The few stars that lit the sky twinkled as two swords clashed against each other. Black clothes melted into the darkness, and all that could be seen were the two white, floating heads and the silver from the swords. Then the scent of blood.
White Rabbit fell at SoYoon"s feet. With the two knives, she stabbed both his hands into the ground, trapping him. White Rabbit, like a true Wonderland resident, tried to move even as he screamed in pain, but the knives would not budge.
"No way! Hey! Who the heck are you?! Answer me, b*tch! Hey! F*ck! Stop right there!"
Feeling threatened, White Rabbit cussed. His mask fell away, and the face underneath was childlike. SoYoon ignored him and moved. He was unable to get away, yet he kept flailing about, so she walked over toward his legs.
"Hey! Ack!"
In two swift strokes, White Rabbit lost both his legs. His body spasmed in a pool of blood.
SoYoon looked up at Heart. As Heart"s eyes locked with hers, he leaned his body forward. The face that appeared suddenly out of the blue was covered in shadow, but SoYoon thought she knew what his expression was like.
"Why? Do you not have the guts to finish him off?"
At Heart"s words, White Rabbit, who was splayed out and missing his legs, looked up hopefully. SoYoon stepped onto White Rabbit"s back. Beneath her heels, White Rabbit flinched. SoYoon put strength into her heels and broke his ribs.
"No."
Even as the streets echoed with agonizing screams, Heart did not miss SoYoon"s answer. Her voice was a calm alto that melted into the night air.
Heart smacked his lips. I want to hear more of that voice.
He threw out a question he had no interest in hearing the answer to. "Then why won"t you kill him?"
At Heart"s words, White Rabbit shouted indecencies. Through blue lips frothing with spit and blood, he sputtered out a noise. It wasn"t a loud noise, but it still annoyed him because SoYoon"s lips moved also.
"You."
Heart listened more intently.
"Look like the type of person who would like to decapitate him."
With Heart"s maniacal laughter as the soundtrack, his sword sliced through the night air. Blood flooded the streets, and a white-haired head rolled across the ground.
"Correct!" Heart exclaimed.
SoYoon walked into the alley with ease.
"Bravo! That was a phenomenal prelude! Did everyone see that? Okay, then shall we start the real race. All partic.i.p.ants… Huh?"
Heart suddenly realized that in the 10 minutes that he had been talking excitedly, the rest of the partic.i.p.ants had scuttled into the darkness out of sight. He had poured so much of his attention into the prelude that he didn"t realize the partic.i.p.ants had run away. Well, after seeing such an intense prelude, it was no surprise that they had all gotten scared and fled.
"All the partic.i.p.ants ran away, so I guess the winner of the Caucus Race is you, blondie. So, how do you feel?"
SoYoon lifted the sword that White Rabbit had used. It looked like a Chinese chef"s knife and was so huge that when she held it up, it was able to cover her entire body. She placed the sword in its sheath and slung it over her back.
"I want to replace White Rabbit."
White Rabbit. This was the name of the white-haired, red-eyed, sickly pale-skinned character. Nickname: Undertaker. Gender: male. Age: unknown. He was supposed to relay clues about Alice"s parents" death but sometimes confused her with lies for his own amus.e.m.e.nt. If SoYoon were to replace him, she would be able to move the story along better than the White Rabbit in the original story. She could save Alice from the trouble she faced due to his lies and make the story unravel to its end more quickly. That was her motive.
Heart laughed heartily, clutching his sides, and granted her request without hesitation.