Mystery: Lucky One

"No, that's not right." Alice pinched the mouse's ear with a finger, "Actually, there's something about you that I'm very interested in."

"What?" Flora asked subconsciously.

"Your Beyonder characteristic," Alice stretched out her hand and smoothed the mouse's fur, "This fur feels really bad... Hey, why don't you look scared at all?"

"Don't be ridiculous..." Flora glanced at Alice, seeming to find her words a little funny. "For an angel in good condition, killing me is just a matter of thought."

The news about this Miss Destiny was spreading like wildfire, and Flora had actually heard a lot about it.

He claimed that he had swallowed a "0" level seal by mistake. According to rumors, his personality was more like that of a child who was ignorant of the world. Most of those who knew more about the High Sequence suspected that he was actually a "0" level seal that had been integrated with human nature.

In other words, it might be more like He was swallowed by the Seal.

Just now, He claimed that He awakened in the Second Age, which matched some of the information - He was suspected to have a close relationship with the Goddess of Night.

In addition, He has a close relationship with the adventurer Gehrman Sparrow who has just become famous. They are suspected to belong to the same faction. Some people even speculated in the early days whether He and Gehrman Sparrow had some kind of sexual relationship. As for now...

Most people feel that Hermann's role is more like a nanny.

Of course, this was only a private rumor, and no one dared to voice these speculations in person, so these things naturally could not be verified. The only thing Flora could be sure of was that this was a genuine angel - the kind that could hold power as a toy.

Therefore, Flora did not think that Alice was sincere when she said that she wanted to kill her, because it would not take much effort for such an angel, and she did not have a protector in her current situation.

But Alice raised her eyes and slowly gave another answer:
“You’re right… but I think that for a gift like yours, maybe it’s better to give a living one?

"And I haven't decided who to give it to yet... Amon or the ancestor of the Zoroast family, which one do you like better?"

"......?" Flora froze in place. She looked at Alice, hoping to figure out if it was a joke.

But every word Alice said didn't sound like a joke, and this one was no exception. Flora could only show her fear in Alice's sincere questioning. She smiled reluctantly:
"You, you have to be kidding, right...?"

"It seems like you don't like it..." Alice frowned, "But I don't know the ancestors of your Jacob family, so I can't send you to your ancestors, right?"

Flora's expression gradually became dull. Seeing her expression like this, Alice shook her head and laughed again:

"Well, I haven't decided whether to tell the truth or not - I'm not even sure whether to tell the church or not.

"After all, I just don't want my dear friend to appear at a noble banquet one day."

Well, come to think of it, if he did that, Klein would be exposed to Amon...

After realizing this, Alice suddenly became alert. Her original hostility towards Hazel and Flora was simply because she didn't want Amon to suddenly appear near her, but now it changed to not wanting Amon to discover Klein's whereabouts.

Alice cares about the latter much more than the former. After all, Amon will not really kill her for the time being, but he will never show mercy to Klein.

She stared at the dark brown mouse, successfully making Flora, who was hiding in the mouse's body, sense the breath of danger. She thought about what Alice had just said.

She didn't ask who Alice was referring to as her best friend, because the tone of her voice when she mentioned her best friend sounded as if she wanted to cut the other person into pieces - it sounded more like she was talking to an enemy.

However, Flora was sure that it must be an angel from the "Thief" path. Knowing this was enough for Flora. She promised:
"My student has a manor on the outskirts of Backlund. I will ask her to send me there."

This is not safe enough, only killing her is safe enough, but, well...

Alice was rarely kind-hearted. She thought of Hazel who had just left and thought that this might cause a great psychological trauma to Hazel. It would be better to stay away from it, kill it, and then disguise herself as the mouse and run away...

Well, she just felt it was troublesome to explain to Hazel, but killing Hazel directly would bring more trouble.

As for passing Flora's message to the church... well, that seems to be an idea, I'll think about it later...

Alice nodded with satisfaction, and smiled at the mouse who had relaxed a lot because of her attitude:

"Ok."

She did not remind Flora of the possibility of being discovered in the suburbs, and stood up and opened the door. Hazel, who was guarding the door, was startled by the sudden sound of the door opening. She looked up and saw Alice, and said hurriedly:
"I'm waiting here for the teacher to call me!"

Puzzled...Alice glanced at her and turned to go downstairs.

At the staircase on the first floor, Alice met the second person who was guarding her. Winfred was standing not far from the staircase. When he saw her coming down, he smiled at her insincerely:
“Oh, you’re finally back… I thought you weren’t going to come down.

"You must have had a great chat with Miss Hazel, right? Unlike me, I have no idea what you like to hear and only say things you are too lazy to care about."

I don't understand... Alice looked up at her and said:

"You and Hazel must have a lot to talk about."

"?" Winfred looked upstairs in confusion, then looked back at Alice.

Alice ignored Winfred. She glanced at Klein who was enjoying his food, shook her head, and turned to walk towards the entrance of the hall.

The dance was still in the middle of the night, and it would be extremely impolite to leave the host's house at this time. However, strolling in the garden was not considered excessive.

Although she had never attended a proper dance, Alice could at least understand this point. She stepped into the garden and took a slow walk around.

Walking among the flowers, Alice looked around and finally found a flower with many petals.

Alice reached out her hand and plucked the flower, then she plucked off the petals one by one as she walked, throwing them away while murmuring:

"Kill Flora, tell Amon, tell Pales, tell the church..."

Yes, she is counting the petals.

Alice certainly didn't intend to get any results from this sort of thing, she was just trying to think through the process.

She did not try to predict the future, but after having encountered Adam in a prophetic dream, Alice clearly realized that it would be difficult for her to make accurate predictions about Amon, and she could not tell where something might go wrong.

This was bad, and Alice didn't want to make such a dangerous attempt, so she just threw a petal for fun.

But Winfred was like a lingering ghost. After pausing for a moment, he followed her out of the hall and found her counting petals in the garden.

"What are you doing?" The girl snatched the flower away without any hesitation. Alice's thoughts were interrupted, and she frowned and looked at Winfred with a cold look in her eyes.

The message of danger emanated from her. Winfred was obviously not a fool. She realized the source of the danger at this moment and said through gritted teeth:
"I, we, we are not friends?"

Her voice trembled slightly, and there was an inexplicable grievance in her fear. Alice looked at her for a long time before she remembered that when they first met, Winfred did ask her if they could be considered friends.

Her answer at the time was "yes".

As for now...

The irritability that turned into tears long ago surged up again. Alice rudely snatched the flower that had just been snatched away by Winfred, then crushed the petals of the flower in front of her and threw them to the ground mercilessly.

The broken petals were scattered all over the ground, and only the broken stamens were left of the flowers. Winfred looked at the flowers on the ground, raised his head with a sense of feeling, and asked in a daze:
"Is this what you're going to do to our friendship?"

Friendship? When did we ever have friendship... Alice glanced at Winfred, raised a cruel smile and asked:

"You can crush this flower like this, right?"

Winfred nodded.

"Well," Alice turned her head to look at her, "will you make friends with this flower?"

Winfred was stunned for a moment. Alice didn't wait for her answer and smiled casually:
"You won't - no one would be friends with something that they can easily crush and kill."

Having said this, she stepped past Winfred and walked towards the hall again.

She had only taken a few steps when a trembling but firm voice sounded behind her:
"I can."

Alice turned her head and Winfred still had his back to her. Alice saw Winfred bending down and seemed to pick up something from the ground. Then she turned around and Alice saw that she was holding the broken body of the flower in her hand.

"I will," she said again, her voice no longer trembling.

Alice looked into her eyes; her expression was firm. Looking into those rare black eyes, Alice thought of Evelyn and the captain again after a long time.

Actually, I can do it too... She sighed and lowered her eyes. Under Winfred's gaze, their figures moved forward, backward, and rotated, and finally returned to their original state like the torn flowers.

Winfred lowered his head blankly and looked at the flower in his hand which was still not intact.

Alice reached out and picked up the flower again, smiling at Winfred:

"But, Hua won't believe it."

Alice threw the flower back onto the ground while saying this.

The half-remaining flower rolled weakly on the ground and fell to Winfred's feet. Winfred stared at the flower and whispered:
“…But I will believe it.”

Alice paused.

She thought of Evelyn who had drawn a line between herself and her at the first opportunity, and the captain who had called her "Your Excellency". Finally, Alice just sighed and said softly:
“That’s a shame…it would have been better if I had known you first.

"Because I won't be friends with flowers anymore."

Having said this, she took a step forward for the second time and walked past Winfred without hesitation.

Behind her, Winfred did not look back until the not-so-heavy footsteps disappeared from her ears. Then she raised her leg and stepped on the flower, rolling over it again and again as if venting her anger, until the flower was completely stomped into the soil.

Alice didn't pay attention to all this. As she said, she no longer had the delusion of making friends with mortals because she had realized that equality was the basis of friendship.

Alice returned to the dance hall. Judging from the musicians and the flow of people on the dance floor, the dance was still some time away from ending. Alice thought about it and sat at the table to continue being a food bucket.

It was not until the end of the dance that Alice left with the crowd. She was neither the first nor the last person.

However, after leaving Congressman Macht's house, Alice did not go home immediately. Instead, she appeared in Mr. Fool's bedroom and sent a message to Mr. Fool, asking him to come over quickly.

So, Dwayne Dantes returned home from the dance, cleaned up, went back to the bedroom, closed the door, and looked at Alice who was sitting calmly beside the bed and asked:

"...Don't you think it's weird to sit on the bed of a stranger of the opposite sex?"

Alice raised her eyes and replied lazily:
“First of all, I don’t think we two are strangers.

“Secondly, if you wish, I can be of the same sex as you in my next life.

"Finally, I think there is no need to be so calculating between mother and daughter."

"?" Klein looked at Alice with a questioning look.

Just as he was about to speak, Alice raised her hand to interrupt him and warned him solemnly:

"Stay away from Hazel."

She had indeed discovered that there was something wrong with Hazel... Realizing this, Klein stopped dwelling on what had just happened and walked up to her and asked:
"what's the situation?"

Alice waved her hand, motioning for Klein to sit down with her. Then she half-leaned on the headboard and replied slowly:

“Hmm…let me think about where to start telling you.

"First, Hazel has a Thief's Extraordinary Item on her, and she herself is also a Sequence 9 Thief.

"Then, there is a demigod of the 'thief' pathway in Hazel's family. She claims to be a descendant of Jacob's family. She is currently in a weak state and has to parasitize in the body of a mouse.

“That demigod said her name was Flora Jacob, and she came to Backlund to look for a treasure of the Jacob family.

"At the moment...if I'm not mistaken, it's mainly Hazel who's searching, and she seems to go to the sewer every night.

"They don't know the exact location of the treasure, so they rely on the ability of the 'thief' to find the treasure. In addition, Flora promised me that she would let Hazel send her to a manor in the suburbs.

"However, I still feel that this is not safe enough. I am worried that Amon will come to me through her, and then Amon may find you..." (End of this chapter)