Mystery: Lucky One

Huh?
After being stared at for so long, the feeling of being stared at suddenly disappeared from her body, and Alice felt a strong sense of discomfort. She turned around and looked at the door of the sanctuary. After hesitating for a moment, she slowly raised her leg and seriously considered the possibility of giving it a kick.

...Will I get beaten?
How strange, why did He suddenly stop looking...

Alice stood at the door of the sanctuary in distress, thinking about how to draw the attention of the "True Creator" back without angering Him.

……

Inside the sanctuary, after Alice left, Ouroboros returned to the corridor full of murals. After a moment of silence, he walked through the murals he had just left behind and appeared in a hall painted with countless murals.

In the center of the hall stood a long dark red table, surrounded by high-backed chairs with intricate patterns.

Ouroboros walked over and sat on the chair that should have belonged to him. Then, around the hall, on the stone pillars that stood but did not support the dome, red flames were ignited one after another, illuminating the surroundings with extraordinary brightness.

Whispers gradually began to sound, growing louder and louder. Around the dark red long table, blurry and illusory figures suddenly rose up and sat on different high-backed chairs. There were eleven of them in total.

When all the figures gathered, on the two empty high-back chairs at the top, the one on the left outlined a black-winged figure in a black robe, and the one on the right outlined a female figure that seemed to be shrouded in mist.

Then, a voice from the past sounded:

"...We are redeeming ourselves and maintaining the balance of this world...

"Division and deviation are undoubtedly the most basic order...

“…This is also His idea…”

“…It is undeniable that we all have our dark thoughts and desires, but this is perfectly normal…

"...death and blood will be inevitable, we will..."

The voice suddenly stopped at this moment. After more than ten seconds, it sounded again amid the loud whispers, firmly and unquestionably:

"We named it 'Redemption Rose'." Note ①

The scene ends here, and then begins to repeat. Ouroboros is sitting in his seat, not paying attention to anything here, but one "revelation" after another is reproduced before Him.

That "prophet" has a secret, and He should go and find that secret...

It is still the "prophet" who became the "mercury serpent"...what is his secret?

He should chase that "mercury snake"...

The "Mercury Snake" was in a very bad state. There was no need for him to care about it, as he couldn't catch it anyway...

His condition has recovered a little, go catch up with Him...

The condition is very bad, no need to care...

The status has been restored...

Over the course of thousands of years, similar revelations occurred more than once, until - the last revelation.

The girl who appeared out of nowhere climbed up the tower step by step. A giant scaleless white snake was waiting at the top of the tower. He watched this scene quietly until a certain moment when he felt that he should show this dream to the girl.

So He did it.

So...where did she come from at the beginning of the dream?
Ouroboros sat silently in front of the long table. After a few seconds, he stood up silently and walked back into the painting.

……

Outside the sanctuary, Alice, who had not received a response from Mr. Fool, finally figured out the answer.

"Did you and the goddess come up with the name 'Redemption Rose' together?" She asked, looking up. "It sounds terrible... It has a taste of late-stage chuunibyou. I really don't know what kind of mentality you had when you came up with this name..."

Alice shook her head in disgust, but found that no one still paid any attention to her.

...?
After giving the Sanctuary a vicious look, Alice returned to the camp in Afternoon Town.

It didn’t take long to fly from the top of the mountain to the ground, but when Alice landed, she received a piece of news that made her very sad:

"What, Leo Master is gone?!"

The chief nodded.

“When did it happen?” Alice opened her eyes wide.

"As soon as you left, he became transparent where he was, and then..." the chief described the scene.

There is no doubt that this is exactly the "journey" that Alice has been dreaming of.

Leo Master demonstrated through his actions that in the "God-forsaken Land", with the permission of the true Creator, it is indeed possible to reconnect to the spiritual world.

The only problem is, now he's gone.

Alice gritted her teeth and was about to say something when a gray mist enveloped her eyes and Klein's familiar voice rang out:

"Prepare for the ceremony."

...?
Alice was stunned for a moment, and began to wonder whether Klein had really prepared the food, table, and tableware according to her request, or was he planning to play a trick on her.

Klein shouldn't be like this... Alice pondered for a moment, glanced at the food in Silver City, silently retracted her gaze, and said to the Chief in a serious manner:
“I’m going out to relax.

“Hopefully you’ll have what I need by the time I get back… or at least the team will have left.

"Wish ya'll good luck."

After saying this, Alice wanted to turn around and leave, but after a few steps she stepped back, took out a deck of tarot cards and handed them to the chief.

"You can take this with you when you're looking for something for me... If there's any left, you can use it later," Alice said, as she took out a pen and paper. "If you're in danger, you can recite my honorific name... Uh, wait a minute."

Alice suddenly remembered that although she had learned Giant language as quickly as if she had loaded a language module, she could only speak and listen.

She did not recognize the words of Giant.

"I'm sorry," Alice put the paper and pen back and tried to keep a serious expression, "I can't read."

"?" The Chief looked at Alice blankly, as if he had heard of such a thing for the first time.

Alice covered her face with her hands and tried to explain the truth about her illiteracy: "I just don't know your characters. I actually know the characters outside... I know a little bit."

——Know the Runic language, the Hermetic language, and the Ancient Hermetic language.

The chief looked at Alice carefully and tried to organize his words. Alice really couldn't stand that look, so she asked before the chief spoke:
"Can I just say my honorific name?"

The chief thought about it and nodded.

So, Ai Li read out her own honorific name without hesitation, and then left.

"The eternally innocent child..." After Alice left, the chief repeated Alice's honorable name, seeming to be thinking about something.

This description undoubtedly formed a perfect echo with Alice's personality. The Chief immediately figured out some of the key points that he had not figured out before. Of course, most of the doubts were still unresolved, such as...

How did she live to this age? As for the last two sentences, they did not surprise the Chief. After all, they were just two sentences about authority, and Alice calling herself Miss Destiny explained the problem to some extent.

……

After hearing Alice's prayer above the gray fog, Klein felt a sense of calm, as if "it's finally here."

As early as when Alice stepped into the "God-Forsaken Land", he had thought about what Alice would eat - she would not give up eating, but according to the description of the little "Sun", there seemed to be no food in the "God-Forsaken Land" that Alice would eat.

Of course, it is possible that she might try the black grass and monster flesh on a whim. Klein even suspected that Alice would try the ones that were not decontaminated.

After all, fate is a cyclical thing, so it shouldn't be a big deal if you just take a bite.

During the more than one day when Alice did not ask him for food, Klein had been thinking about how Alice solved her three meals a day.

Since there was nothing to do right now, Klein prepared tableware and food for Alice without any struggle, but he did not prepare a table and chairs according to her request - he couldn't spoil her too much.

……

After telling the chief her honorific name, Alice left the camp in Afternoon Town.

She planned to perform the ceremony some time after leaving the camp in the afternoon town.

Alice walked forward in the darkness for a while, until the light in the town camp grew dim in the afternoon. Then she set up the ceremony right there, in front of the monsters staring at her hungrily in the darkness, and waited for Klein's response.

Alice took out a plate of grilled fish and a plate of bacon from the ceremonial passage. In addition, she also got a piece of bread with jam, an empty plate and a pair of knife and fork.

Afterwards, the ritual passage was automatically closed.

Alice looked at the plates spread out on the ground, hesitated for two seconds, and then murmured:

"I...sit on the floor and eat?"

This seemed to be the only way. After hesitating for two seconds, Alice lifted the hem of her robe and sat on the ground, grabbing the bread and grilled fish and starting to eat.

This unprecedented experience was, in a sense, quite unique to Alice, but no matter what, Alice still decided to take revenge on Mr. Fool.

After finishing the meal, she closed her eyes and recited as excitedly as possible:
"The fool who does not belong to this era,
"The mysterious master above the gray fog,

"The king of yellow and black who controls good luck,

"I ask for your attention,

"I ask your hearing.

"Mr. Fool, come quickly. I want to show you what I found in the 'Forsaken Land of the Gods'!"

……

What did she find in the "Forsaken Land of God"? What did she find? Her tone was very excited. Could it be something extraordinary...

Above the gray fog, Klein agreed to Alice's ritual request out of curiosity.

On the other side, after getting Klein's consent, Alice couldn't wait to set up the ceremony and stuffed all the food left into the passage.

Above the gray fog, Klein expressionlessly took out a plate of fish bones, a plate of half-remaining bacon, a plate of bread crumbs dipped in jam, and a set of used knives and forks from the sacrificial passage.

“Alice!” Klein cursed through gritted teeth, then leaned weakly back on the high-backed chair.

He shook his head and asked with self-doubt: "I really...why did I have such expectations for her?"

After a pause, he muttered again:
"In fact, if this wasn't her leftovers, but she found it somewhere, it would be a remarkable discovery indeed... Oh, forget it, I'd better not make excuses for her."

Klein closed his eyes and swore that he would never believe a word Alice said again.

No, why not just believe half of what she said? Sometimes what she said is still valuable... Never mind, why not just believe it? She actually didn't cheat me on anything big, she just likes to play a little...

Klein pinched his brows with a headache and sighed.

……

On the other side, Alice completed the ceremony, cleaned up the scene quickly, and then ran away.

In the darkness of the "God-forsaken Land", the ever-emitting light of "Apollo" brought Alice absolute safety, but also made her particularly conspicuous.

After running for who knows how long, Alice finally realized the danger of this robe - when facing a being stronger than her, she might become a sitting duck.

She stopped where she was, and stared motionlessly at a figure carrying an animal-skin lantern approaching from a distance.

The figure was wearing a black wizard robe and a pointed hat on his head. As the figure approached, Alice could see the light reflected from the monocle in his right eye.

——Amon.

"Long time no see," He smiled, holding a lantern and standing in front of Alice, "Little Alice."

Alice stood there stiffly, motionless, staring at Amon as he walked up to her.

Amon walked around her with the animal-skin lantern as if he was examining some rare exhibit, and then he sighed:

"I was originally thinking about how to trick you into coming here, but I didn't expect... you would actually come here on your own?

"Why, you can't even blink when you see me, little Alice?"

Alice was silent for a few seconds, then asked a question expressionlessly that she always asked everyone she met:

"Do you have a way to move quickly in the 'Forsaken Land of the Gods'?"

"Yes," Amon replied with a smile, "Are you going anywhere?"

“…” Alice said nothing, staring at Him expressionlessly.

Amon chuckled and said to Alice:

“Well… Miss Destiny.

"We can play by your rules - I take you where you want to go, and you tell me one thing."

"What?" Alice looked at Him with a frown.

Amon raised his hand lightly, and an exquisite book appeared in His hand. He handed it to Alice. Alice hesitated for two seconds and reached out to take the book.

This is a beautifully printed comic book with a man and a woman on the cover, obviously a nobleman and a dashing woman in police uniform.

There were black feathers under the nobleman's feet, and a few scattered in the air. Alice recognized that they were crow feathers.

The woman in police uniform was holding a book in her hand. Alice knew that it must be a collection of poems. The woman in police uniform actually loved writing poems in private, but she couldn't write.

Because she remembered the title of the book.

Poetry in the Shadow of Crows: The intertwined melody of love and lies. (End of this chapter)