Mystery: Lucky One

"Eh?" Alice looked at him with a puzzled look, "Why... Oh, you have a clue to the potion formula?"

“Antigonus’s notes are in St. Samuel’s Church,” Klein reminded her.

Alice knew this, of course. She just frowned and realized something. She asked hesitantly:
"You're going to... steal the notes?"

Klein nodded.

"Do you still remember..." Alice's expression gradually became strange, "In a sense, I am a member of the church... or the goddess's."

“Hmm… this…” Klein looked at Alice and fell into deep thought. Obviously, he had not considered the possibility that Alice would report him.

Although I can't report it, I should be able to use it to threaten him... However, if it's a goddess, I don't need to report him for planning to steal my notes...?
Alice looked at Klein, half supporting her chin with her hand. Suddenly, she had a good idea. She said to Klein with sparkling eyes:
"Tell me, can I ask the goddess for a bishop or something..."

"?" Klein looked at her in surprise.

Alice blinked, and the sudden thought gradually became clear in her mind:

"No, the goddess probably won't trust me at such a high position... Nighthawk or Red Glove? Or reveal that I'm an angel of the Church of Evernight - anyway, I've been exposed.

"In this case, if you make me unhappy, I will...I will stop you!"

“…You don’t have to go to church and be an angel.” Klein reminded him tactfully.

"But," Alice raised her chin, "In this way, I can explore the underground of St. Samuel's Church - I can also remove a piece of the seal inside and give it to you... Uh, wait, your confidentiality level is not high enough?"

Alice suddenly remembered a crucial question.

No, why did you have to consider my confidentiality level when helping me steal Antigonus' notes...If I could see the notes in a normal way, would I still need to steal them?
Alice's words made Klein even more confused. He thought about it and asked politely:
"What level of confidentiality do you think the wanted criminal has?"

If something like resurrection from the dead is discovered, without the endorsement of the goddess, he will definitely be a wanted criminal.

Alice lowered her head. She realized the error in her thinking and made a new suggestion:
“Then I have another good idea.

"You can write me as your new identity... uh, lover doesn't seem appropriate. Others might think you're a little too perverted. Maybe... daughter?"

After all, if he didn't intend to let me in, I would have to find a way to get in myself or try to bribe the Nighthawks... In short, I would have to contact the church, which means my identity couldn't be problematic...

Although filling in "I" in the relationship column would definitely cause serious problems, the church probably wouldn't investigate after seeing this, right...?
……Maybe?

Alice lowered her head in deep thought.

Even if you don't look like a minor, people would probably look at me strangely if I said you were my lover. And if I wrote you were a daughter, people would think there was a serious problem with my family education. Most importantly, you appeared next to German Sparrow... I shouldn't have written you in the relationship column!

Klein pinched his brows and tried to understand Alice's thoughts: "Will this do me any good?"

“Oh,” Alice blinked, “As long as you write “I” in the relationship box, the church won’t worry about whether there is a problem with your identity—because there must be a big problem.”

“……?” Klein stared at her.

Alice shrank her neck and tried to defend herself: "This way they probably won't investigate you... At least they won't suspect you of wanting to steal something from the church basement? Because I can just take it..."

This statement is correct - it was correct before Alice stole the donation box from the Church of the Lord of Storms and sent the money to the Church of Night.

As for now... Klein glanced at Alice and shook his head.

"What do you mean!" Alice slammed the table.

“Alice,” Klein ignored her anger and called out to her, “I sometimes really wonder… Does the goddess not care about you at all?”

Alice blinked and waited for him to finish.

Klein glanced at her and continued:

“It seemed like I took care of you for a while when we were in Tingen City… but I didn’t really take care of you?

"Backlund... Actually, it can't be said that he completely ignored you, it's just..."

Klein chose his words carefully.

Alice began to think along the lines of what Klein said.

It’s not that the goddess completely ignored her, but it seems that she would not take the initiative to interfere in her affairs, unless... unless she is about to die?
No, not entirely, but it seems that the goddess only appears in some key occasions...

Alice stroked her chin, recalling what Archbishop Anthony had said to her.

Should I make my own decisions about my own affairs? Come to think of it, I was also alone in that tower. Should this be what my past self said? I don’t know what I said at that time.

Alice shook her calves, looked at Klein, and said in a serious tone:

"The goddess does not want to interfere with my destiny."

Unfortunately, her acting is problematic most of the time - mainly because she doesn't put her heart into it most of the time.

Klein easily saw that Alice was acting. He did not expose her, but simply brought up another topic:
"I remember you were collecting ingredients for your Sequence 4 potion?"

Alice nodded.

Klein asked hesitantly:
"I remember you've been collecting for a long time, right? You wouldn't have gathered all the materials by the time I reached Sequence 4, would you?"

“…No,” Alice closed her eyes. “A few days ago, I saw the ingredients for the potion that would allow me to advance directly to Sequence 3… No, not really, but anyway, someone wanted to give me a Sealed Artifact. That Sealed Artifact is made up of the Beyonder characteristics of the ‘Doomsday Mage’ and the ‘Chaos Walker’—these are the names of my Sequence 4 and Sequence 3 potions, respectively.”

Klein looked at her in surprise, but then he couldn't help but feel envious.

Oh, how nice...

"But," Alice interrupted her admiration, "I ran away when I heard the news."

"Why?" Klein asked in surprise.

After asking this question, he paused, as if he remembered something and asked:
“Are you worried that this is arranged? Even if this is the case, you can take the Beyonder Characteristics first and continue to collect the remaining main materials…”

"Then after I collected the main materials, I accidentally swallowed the seal." Alice said expressionlessly.

She was not speaking nonsense. This incident really happened. At that time, she collected auxiliary materials for the "Winner" potion because she did not want to directly consume the Beyonder characteristics. Unfortunately, the materials she collected were not used. Of course, this decision was not without problems. After listening to Alice's words, Klein tactfully reminded her:

"...Will similar situations not occur if you don't want it?"

Alice retorted, "At least, I think I should be able to hold on until I get the ingredients for the Sequence 4 potion. Sequence 3... I'll talk about Sequence 3 when the time comes."

We’ll talk about it when the time comes… This answer is indeed very consistent with her style.

Klein, who no longer envied Alice's luck, couldn't help but begin to envy Alice's good attitude.

Alas, if I had her good attitude, I wouldn't have thought of volunteering just for the sake of acting, I wouldn't have...

He paused and his expression became subtle. Obviously, the more than two months of cleaning toilets were not a good memory.

Alice didn't know what Klein was thinking. After realizing that he didn't seem to have anything to say, Alice waved goodbye to him:
"I'm going back to continue my journey. If you don't see me at the Tarot Club next week, or if I don't reply to your message in the meantime... then I either ran into Amon or was too busy on the way.

“In short, there will definitely not be the same kind of problems as before. After all, there was no problem with the fog... If you really want to worry, at least wait until I return to the God War Ruins...

"...Will I fall into the sea when I leave the 'God-Forsaken Land'?"

This... doesn't seem impossible...

The two of them stared at each other above the gray fog at this question, and finally Alice made a grand closing speech:

"It doesn't matter. I don't even know how to get out. We'll talk about it later!"

She made the decision, and the matter ended there. They each returned to the real world. Alice opened her eyes and tried to sit up from the ground, but suddenly she felt something was wrong.

The spirit jumped, and Alice looked around following the spirit's warning, and finally landed on an extra coffin.

...Why does this coffin look familiar?

Alice blinked, walked forward, and after carefully examining the coffin, a familiar scene came to her mind - she seemed to have lain in a coffin similar to this one.

Shall I lie down in it again?

Alice was stunned for a moment and looked around, but couldn't find the figure that might be Amon. She frowned and looked at the coffin in front of her again.

"Hey, come out," Alice stretched out her hand and knocked on the coffin. "You're not really going to lie down in it and try to show me how a corpse sits up... Then at least don't suddenly turn into a coffin. It won't scare people at all..."

Her mumbling did not receive the expected response, and no one paid any attention to her, as if the coffin was really left for her to lie in.

"......?" Alice hesitated for two seconds, kicked the coffin hard, then turned and ran.

Soon, she stopped subconsciously, and a bony hand grabbed her ankle almost at the same time - the good news was that at least she didn't fall.

If, under normal circumstances, a person walking alone in the dark found a coffin, and was suddenly grabbed by the ankle by such a hand after leaving a certain range of the coffin, it would be a horror story.

And if this incident is linked to Amon...it would be an even better horror story.

"Let go," Alice said calmly, "I can't turn around like this."

The hand made of joints obediently loosened her ankle, making a series of "clicking" sounds.

Seeing this, Alice ran away, then stepped on a monster's limb that came out of nowhere and fell to the ground.

“Hahahaha,” a loud laugh and the sound of bones rubbing against each other could be heard from behind. “Could the path of ‘Destiny’ also be so unlucky?”

Normally not, but considering how often I run into you, maybe I shouldn't run...

Alice got up from the ground expressionlessly, turned around and walked back to the coffin, then squatted down and reached out to break the bones on the skull frame in anger.

——Lying in the coffin was a bare skeleton.

Unexpectedly, the skeleton was not strong, and she broke off a bone without much effort. What was even more surprising was that she seemed to have broken off some key part, and the bones scattered all over the ground, and the skull fell on the stacked bones.

Alice looked down at the bone in her hand with a confused look on her face.

She spread out her palms, and the dry bones began to wriggle in her palms, turning into two entangled time worms, crawling and wriggling, bringing a slightly itchy sensation.

“?” Alice threw the bug back in horror. “Are you sick?”

However, the two wriggling time worms acted as a signal. They fell on the piled bones and turned the bones and skulls on the ground into scattered time worms.

Those insects were slender all over, some were fat, some were thin, and each one had twelve segments.

They entangled and squirmed with each other, they were densely packed and crawled in and out, they slowly gathered from a scattered pile, getting higher and higher, weaving into a complete person from bottom to top.

The man was wearing a black classical robe, a pointed hat, and a monocle over his right eye.

He bent down, stretched out a hand towards Alice who was sitting on the ground, and said with a non-apologetically smile:

"I'm so sorry...Is my gift scaring you?"

"What kind of person would call that a present?" cried Alice angrily.

She glared at Amon fiercely, put her hand on him with a vigilant look, and asked with doubt:

"…Your hands won't suddenly turn into bugs, right?"

"Is that all you're worried about?" Amon looked at her half in surprise and half in amusement, exerting a little strength and watching her stand up. "So... you guys on the 'Destiny' path can also be unlucky enough to fall down?"

“It’s hard to say,” Alice withdrew her hand. “Maybe the true God we passed by could be choked to death by his own saliva… Who knows?”

“Clap, clap, clap,” Amon clapped his hands in admiration. “This is fate as expected.”

Alice glanced at Him and did not continue the topic. Instead, she took the initiative to speak:

“Anyway… let’s talk about what happened before.

"Why are you curious about who the protagonist of that comic is?" (End of this chapter)