Mystery: Lucky One

The good news is that what Alice was worried about did not happen. Archbishop Anthony calmly responded to her words: "Of course."

Alice gave Anthony a questioning look.

She didn't think she was very good at lying, although that was partly because she often didn't try hard to cover up, like just now.

But Anthony seemed to have always been like this. He would never have any doubts about any of his actions, or even if he had, he would never ask about it.

Is it to... "keep a secret"?
Alice looked at Anthony thoughtfully, only to see him stand up and open the bookcase behind him.

There were densely packed books inside. Alice glanced at the side of the book cover. The time and place were neatly marked on it. Information such as extraordinary people and extraordinary events were placed in different categories, and of course there were also various versions of the Bible.

This looks like a filing cabinet...

Alice looked away dizzily. Anthony took out a holy book, put it on the table, and said to Alice:
"This is a sample of the latest edition of the Codex, and of course it cannot be taken away from here.

"But from your description...it seems like what you need can be taken away?"

Actually, it’s not that necessary… Alice glanced at the holy book.

She really didn't have much need to take the holy book away. After all, she had plenty of ways to recall what she had read. It was just that she really didn't listen during the class.

But Alice still asked, "Well...is there?"

——As a follower of the goddess, it is too outrageous that you don’t even have a holy book at home!
With this thought in mind, Alice cast her eager eyes towards Archbishop Anthony.

As if he had noticed her gaze, Archbishop Anthony spoke gently:
"The bishop of the church will preach the scriptures to the believers. If you need it, you can buy a copy after the preaching."

Purchase...Alice continued to look at Archbishop Anthony with that earnest gaze.

Is she short of money?

Thinking of Alice's concern about salary, Anthony had a flash of doubt in his mind, and he continued:

"...Of course, generally speaking, as a saint of the church, if you want, you can go and get a holy book."

"Great!" Alice laughed happily. "Then I'm going?"

"...Well," Archbishop Anthony put aside his doubts and nodded, "Regarding the digestion of the potion, you can come to me again when you are ready."

Alice was so happy that she left Anthony's office in high spirits - not even remembering to hide her presence.

This was a bad thing. It was not the first time that she appeared in the basement of St. Samuel's Church with her original face, but today, there was an acquaintance of hers in the basement of St. Samuel's Church.

To be precise, there was an acquaintance of Alice Kingsley, the night watchman in Tingen City.

——Leonard Mitchell, the protagonist of the era.

Alice realized this when she saw that striking face. To be honest, it was not too surprising. She knew that Leonard was now a Red Glove, and Soest, whom she had just met, was the captain of a certain Red Glove team.

But she wasn't sure how she should react.

Honestly speaking, Alice was actually a little afraid of seeing old acquaintances. The captain's "Your Excellency" reminded her that everything had changed and her relationship with others could never go back to the way it was before.

Leonard was obviously shocked when facing his former teammate who had returned from the dead. He suddenly remembered the reminder from several months ago:
"You know, the protagonist of the era will never die. Even if he dies, he will push open the grave and crawl out~"

...Could it be that the protagonist of this era is really someone else?
Looking at Alice who had come back to life, an unsettling thought came into Leonard's mind.

He didn't speak for a while, and Alice's eyes were fixed on him. She didn't move for a while. Soster noticed this scene and suddenly laughed:

"I almost forgot. I remember from the information that you two were teammates before. You should know each other, right?"

This shattered Leonard's last bit of hope. He realized that the girl standing in front of him was not a girl who looked like his old friend, nor was she changed by a magical item, but a real old friend.

Alice glanced at Soest and realized that this man knew her, or had seen her information before.

...or maybe it's incidental.

Alice glanced at Leonard and thought it was normal for Soest to get information about his team members.

Besides, even if this hadn't happened, she seemed to be very famous among the Night Watchers...the kind of famous that was worth watching.

While Alice was thinking, Soest had already introduced himself:
"You don't know this person yet?

"This is the church's new saint, Her Excellency Alice Kingsley. If you look up her information, you will find..."

After showing a mysterious smile, Sost extended his tone and introduced to the other people in the hall:

"This Excellency died in the Evil God's Offspring incident in Tingen City more than half a year ago."

Soest's tone was exaggerated and boastful, because he judged from Archbishop Anthony's open attitude and Alice's spontaneous walk out that this was something that did not need to be concealed.

The possibility that Alice-sama had forgotten to hide had never occurred to him.

Of course, even if he thought of it, Soest would not take it seriously. After all - how could Archbishop Anthony not stop Lady Alice!

Even if Archbishop Anthony really didn't stop Alice, he couldn't stop him from talking, right? Since Archbishop Anthony's attitude was so clear, he could definitely talk!
There is nothing wrong with this idea in terms of conclusion.

Such an introduction naturally attracted a lot of shocked and astonished looks. Among the many looks, those belonging to Leonard and a former lover of an unnamed angel on him were not so conspicuous.

Alice naturally followed the gazes and withdrew her gaze. She tilted her head, forced a tentative smile, raised her hand and waved it twice, greeting everyone:

"……Hi?

"How are you?"

She looked around hesitantly. Those Nighthawks and Red Gloves who had seen her or not looked at each other. Leonard was the first to speak:

"haven't seen you for a long time.

"Your Mightiness."

The tone was no longer casual as before, but rather formal. Alice realized that Leonard's mood was definitely not good - this could actually be seen from the way he addressed him.

This was the second time Alice received the word "Your Excellency" from an old friend.

She suddenly began to hate this name, but the good news was that she didn't need to hide her displeasure because of her status and position, so she looked at Leonard unhappily and blocked everyone who was about to speak with the same unhappy look. Then, after taking a holy book from the ground part of the church, Alice left the church.

After she left, Leonard did not hide anything. He stood up and said:
"Sorry... I think I might need to be alone for a while."

No one was surprised by this. When Leonard suddenly saw his former teammate who had come back to life and discovered that the other party had become a saint, his reaction could be described as calm. He easily got some alone time.

He walked into an office alone and closed the door without setting up the spiritual barrier. Firstly, he was impatient and secondly, he didn't need to worry about this for what he was going to do next.

In the empty secret room, under the Holy Emblem of Night, Leonard's impatient voice rang out:

"Old man, what did you find?"

After a moment of silence, an old voice that only Leonard could hear sounded:

"You're becoming more and more rude."

After a brief pause, the old voice continued:
"There's nothing wrong with her."

"Hmm?" Leonard was surprised for a moment, but soon relaxed. "That's right. If she had a problem, she wouldn't be here... She should at least be behind the Chanis Gate."

He was even in the mood for a joke.

The owner of the old voice didn't seem to find the joke funny, and added slowly:

"Do not.

"That's the biggest problem."

Leonard was stunned.

Then, the voice said, mockingly and remindingly:

"The little girl was originally an ordinary person. After a 'lucky person' accidentally fell and died in front of her, she swallowed the Beyonder characteristic by mistake and became an Beyonder without any harm. The price she paid was just the loss of all her memories...

"After that, I remained at the 'lucky one' for three years without any sign of promotion until I died unexpectedly...

“More than half a year later, she suddenly appeared again, and claimed to be a saint—is she really just a saint?
"The last person I saw who liked to wear a monocle in his right eye was..."

The voice paused, and did not continue the topic, but turned the page and said:
"Of course, the most important thing is that I didn't notice anything wrong with her before I had the idea of ​​stealing her destiny!"

Leonard was a little confused by this series of words. It took him a while to figure out the logic behind it. He caught the last sentence and asked:

"Steal her destiny?"

The voice paused longer this time, and said with a guilty tone:
"I originally just wanted to borrow some good luck from her... just a little bit, it won't hurt her, and I will pay it back later."

"That is to say..." Leonard thought carefully, "There is a problem with her fate, but this problem has been hidden?"

The old voice agreed, so Leonard asked again:

"Old man, do you know who hid it?"

As soon as the words left their mouths, they both fell silent, because the answer seemed obvious - at least to one of them.

Leonard did not speak or move for a long time. After an unknown amount of time had passed, he slowly exhaled, looked up at the Holy Emblem of Night, and devoutly drew a crimson moon pattern on his chest.

"Praise the goddess," he said.

On the other side, Alice returned home with the newly acquired Holy Scripture.

As she said, she was not familiar with the scriptures of the Church of Evernight. If she were asked to preach, she probably wouldn't be able to recite the complete doctrine. The part she was most familiar with was the name of the goddess.

She really didn't pay much attention in class.

The Holy Scriptures of the Church of Night have many parts, the main part is called "Apocalypse of Night", which tells the story of the birth of the world and the origin of the goddess, as well as a large number of myths and legends of the goddess.

Of course, there are things like doctrines hidden in it, but that is not what Alice is looking for. She didn't even read the chapters recording the saints and angels. After all, that was too far away from her purpose.

What Alice is looking for is the poetry in "Apocalypse of the Night".

In Alice's unclear memory of the Holy Scriptures, "Apocalypse of Night" recorded a large number of poems, which is why Alice did not judge that the "Midnight Poets" could not write poetry because of Leonard.

Leonard may just be a special case among the "Midnight Poets".

But after carefully re-reading the poems in "Apocalypse of the Night", Alice's answer became uncertain again.

Of course, she didn't know every poem, because although "Apocalypse of the Night" also used modern poetry, most of them were English poems, and the meanings after translation were very different. Relying on the translated poems in her memory, Alice would not be sure even if she occasionally came across them.

But compared to other literary genres, poetry, especially translated poetry, has a unique and easily identifiable feature - rhyme and meaning.

Poetry that uses vague and concise words to express multiple meanings can seem a little strange when it lacks the corresponding cultural context.

Plus, some of the poems don’t rhyme...which is actually not enough to serve as evidence.

These groundless speculations can only prove that the goddess is a bad poet like Leonard. Moreover, not all the poems in the scriptures were written by the goddess.

Who knows which “talented” Pope it is?
Alice closed the bible with a sad face, and sighed while holding her chin:

"Goddess...are you a time traveler?
"If you are, can you make this holy book disappear?"

She threw the bible on the table without any hope, looked at it with a bitter face, and then sat up straight.

——In front of her, the holy book disappeared bit by bit as if it was being erased by an eraser.

Alice looked at the place where the holy book disappeared, blinked twice in confusion, then stretched out her hand hesitantly, trying to touch the place where the holy book was just now.

There was nothing there.

Alice slowly withdrew her hand, looked at her white palm absentmindedly, then looked at the empty table. After a long while, she tentatively called out:

"……goddess?"

Her voice drifted in the air as usual, disappearing in the empty room. No one responded, as if no one was watching this place. (End of this chapter)