Mystery: Lucky One

Leonard watched Alice disappear in front of him, not caring that he was still outside. He opened his mouth and asked the air around him:
"Old man, do you understand what she means?"

The slightly weak old voice just now replied slowly:

"have no idea.

"However, you'd better stay away from this 'new saint' of your church."

Unfortunately, Leonard failed to detect the abnormality in Paul's tone. He asked doubtfully:

"why?"

Pales did not speak for a while, choosing his words carefully, because Leonard did not seem to realize the deep meaning of his words - although this was normal.

So when Leonard was impatient and wanted to ask a second time, Pales spoke with a slightly fearful tone:

"That Highness... no, that His Majesty.

"It doesn't look like this is the first time He has said, 'The night and the fool are my followers.'"

There was too much information contained in these few sentences. Not to mention that the Extraordinary World tacitly accepted that "Your Highness" was a respectful title for angels, nor did it mention where "Your Majesty" came from. After all, the word "He" could already explain some problems. What Leonard cared about was Pallez's attitude.

There were not many beings that could make the old man living in him show fear. Before this, Leonard always thought that only the true God could make Pales respect him.

Leonard then became nervous and subconsciously stepped back from the door before cautiously shouting a second time:

"...Old man?"

Pales then slowly began to explain what he had just said:

“… Considering that no divine punishment has been imposed so far, this at least proves one thing.

"Let's not talk about the Fool whose background neither you nor I know. At least from your goddess' point of view, there are only three possibilities for this matter."

"Which three?" Leonard asked hastily.

Pales replied:

"The first possibility is that this thing is true, or at least it was true.

"The second possibility is that there is a third great being who is looking after Him. That great being cares about Him very much and is also very powerful, so powerful that even the Fool and your goddess combined cannot defeat Him.

"The third possibility is that neither the Fool nor your goddess combined can defeat Him.

“However, if we are a little unrealistic, there might be a fourth possibility. For example, “He” has a very good relationship with the Fool and your goddess, or he is simply the incarnation of one of them…”

Leonard remained silent.

Each of these possibilities was more outrageous than the other, and he had no idea which one to believe, but he finally understood why Pales called Alice "Your Majesty" and why Pales had that attitude.

——He is either a true God walking on earth, or a favored one that a great being is unwilling to lose.

He...

Leonard took one last look at the closed door, clenched his fists tightly, then slowly released them, and said in an emotionless voice:
"I need to go back to Tingen City."

……

It was already evening when Klein talked to Alice about this.

As soon as Alice walked down the stairs and jumped off the last step, Klein waved his hand to signal her to come over.

Without anyone else, the bronze table was no longer visible above the gray fog—otherwise, even if he sat in the chair closest to Klein, it would still be too far away.

For Alice, she actually has another choice which is to sit on the table, but Mr. Fool does not want to do that. He is afraid that when Miss Fate gets angry, there will be no table to hit and she will jump down and hit him.

Therefore, when they were the only two of them above the gray fog, they would often sit on a single sofa facing each other, with a table slightly higher than the coffee table in the middle - the height of the coffee table was not very convenient for taking pictures.

Today is no exception.

But Mr. Fool was very anxious today. He asked hurriedly before Alice sat down:

"What's going on? What do you mean your identity has been exposed?"

He actually heard Alice's prayer at dinner time, but that scene was not suitable for going above the gray fog to check the news - usually, when Alice notified him in this way, the matter was either not urgent, or...

From Alice's point of view, this might be a surprise?

For example, the fact that his identity was revealed might be a surprise to Alice—the kind of surprise that would shock others but bring her joy.

Alice remembered what had happened from Klein's words. She said slowly while looking at the seats:
"Don't worry, it's not a big deal. I think the other thing I encountered was much bigger than this...

"I just drew a 'Star' card for Leonard!"

Oh, this is it...

This was something he had been mentally prepared for. After hearing this, Klein felt relieved and just confirmed again:

"Are you sure that this is the only thing that means your identity has been exposed? You didn't say anything else?"

“Of course not!” Facing Mr. Fool’s untrusting look, Ellie slammed her hand on the table without hesitation, “Am I that kind of person?”

Klein's eyes became even more suspicious.

Alice opened her eyes wide. Her genuine anger put Klein at ease. He asked another question:

"What else did you encounter?"

Alice then remembered another thing she had forgotten. She had never intended to hide it from Klein, so she immediately said mysteriously:

"I met a new 'traveler'."

Klein turned his head sharply and stared at Alice.

Seeing that her words had brought about the same shocking result as expected, Alice was delighted and smiled with her lips curved:
“Besides, let me tell you, you actually know this person.

“And they are not some dead, history-book-like figure – our new compatriots are alive and well, even active.”

Alice's description gradually made Klein confused. He pondered for a long time and gave the most likely answer among all the impossible answers:
"...Leonard?"

"No," Ellie denied it mercilessly, "But Leonard also knows him." Klein's eyes turned into complete confusion.

Alice said that when they both knew this person, he still had a lot of choices. After all, they had known each other for so long.

But Alice said that Leonard also knew this person, and Klein was very confused - after all, before his "death", he and Leonard had always been ordinary colleagues.

In fact, their personal relationship can be described as zero.

This also meant that their social circles didn't overlap much, and they were basically all stable within one range. Klein thought for a long time but couldn't figure out who that person was, so he looked up at Alice and asked with a frown:
"So who is it?"

The mystery was almost solved, and Alice revealed the answer with a smile:

"Yes... goddess~"

"......?" Klein looked at Alice with a look of shock and horror.

It is undeniable that there was not a single lie in Alice's words. The goddess did meet this condition perfectly - he, Alice and Leonard all knew the goddess.

But the goddess is a character that will never appear in the options.

It took him a while to accept this answer. He took a breath and asked Alice:
"Then the goddess noticed you because...?"

Alice knew what Klein wanted to ask. She shook her head and denied the question:
"It's not because we are all 'time travelers'... or rather, it's not just because we are all 'time travelers'."

Klein was slightly stunned, and Alice raised her eyes and reminded him:
"From the Second Age to now, the Goddess has lived for at least thousands of years, but He has only lived for a few short decades as a human, not even a fraction of a human life.

"How much do you think those decades of memories can create in His long life?
"Besides... you can't use the mentality of a mortal to speculate on the gods."

Klein calmed down after hearing Alice's words. He tried to remove the filter of his hometown that he had left on the goddess, and still looked at the goddess with the same mentality as before.

The little "Sun" would copy down a lot of Silver City's history during every Tarot meeting. Through that history, Klein realized that the goddess was most likely the Doom Wolf in history, born in the Second Age.

To this day, the goddess has no idea how many years she has lived.

The fact that they were born from the same civilization could win them some basic favor from the goddess, but it might not really influence the goddess' decision.

After realizing this, Klein gradually relaxed and asked Alice:
"How did you find out about this?"

Alice was easily distracted by the new question. She shook her head and explained:

"The goddess told me!"

Klein glanced at Alice, but didn't show any of the expressions she expected—his expression remained unchanged.

He had long understood Alice's style of doing things, and knew that when she half-said something and hid the other half, it was purely to bluff people, and cooperating with her would only make her go further.

Sure enough, Alice soon became bored with his lack of response, pouted her lips, and began to explain the whole story.

The information given in this way was much more complete than her disjointed blurts, and Klein was able to hear the entire story.

Of course, this didn't help at all. He soon discovered that it was full of Alice's far-fetched guesses and inferences - she seemed to have just had this idea, then kept thinking about it, asked a question casually at some point, and then happened to get an answer.

This process cannot be replicated.

It wasn't too surprising. Klein glanced at Alice with mixed feelings and found that Alice didn't take it to heart at all. She immediately asked with great interest:
"Will I be able to see Leonard at my next Tarot Club?"

Klein answered this question tactfully: "He needs to recite the Fool's Honorable Name first."

I think there are not many people in this world who would recite the honorific name of a great and unfamiliar being - Alice cannot be considered a human being.

Even Alice would not rashly recite a name she had never heard of. She would at least look up the information before reciting it.

This reason convinced Alice, and she sat down with a pout, muttering:
"If I had known, I would have forced him to finish reading your name... and also read my name... and so on."

Alice's voice suddenly paused. She seemed to have remembered something. She raised her head little by little, looked at Klein with a slightly hesitant look, and asked:
"My honorific name...?"

Alice finally remembered what she had forgotten after coming out of the "God-Forsaken Land" - Will Auceptin was about to be born.

What can a Honorable Name do? Of course, nothing can be done. Whether it is based on Alice's knowledge of mysticism or Klein's knowledge of mysticism, the Honorable Name can only do one thing - that is to help Will Auceptin find Alice.

It's no big deal, but Alice now has something on her body - "0-34".

In the prophecy of death in "0-34", everything remained as Alice saw in the revelation. She reached the top of the "destiny" path and was finally swallowed up.

However, since the three "Mercury Snake" extraordinary characteristics of the "Destiny" path all have their own masters, the top that Alice can reach is actually only "Prophet".

And "0-34" comes from the extraordinary characteristics of a "prophet".

So, based on Alice's experience, the final development of this matter may be like this:

First, at some unexpected moment, she would accidentally swallow the extraordinary characteristics of the "Prophet".

Will Auceptin will probably get a revelation about this moment, and He will prepare in advance. Alice believes that He must have a way to temporarily restore the strength of Sequence 1. He can do it when He is promoted, which is His weakest state.

The honorific name from Will Auceptin just provided a means of positioning... So, does she need to keep her new honorific name a secret?
This thought flashed through Alice's mind, and she put it aside, deciding to leave the question to Klein, to the great Mr. Fool, later.

All in all, Alice realized that if she followed the above idea, she would face a decisive battle with Will Auceptin one day without warning, which was obviously not what she wanted.

But, in that case, the winner would most likely not be Will Auceptin...

Alice let out a slow breath, knowing full well what was going on.

Just as "Sun" Derrick asked at the time, she didn't see the scene of her return at all, because was it her who returned... No, maybe it really was her.

That could be an existence that is both her and not her.

Alice shuddered with a look of disgust, then said to Klein seriously:
"Klein, I have two tasks for you."

She was rarely so serious and formal. After realizing that she was not pretending, Klein also sat up straight.

Alice exhaled again and said carefully:

"The first thing... help me keep an eye on Will Auceptin's condition. Tell me immediately when He is born... uh, wait a minute."

Alice seemed to have suddenly remembered something. She looked at Klein hesitantly and asked:

"Will He attack you?" (End of this chapter)