Mystery: Lucky One

Anthony faithfully conveyed Alice's reminder, including the part about Will Auceptin. After coming out of the office, Leonard greeted others as usual and then walked towards the bathroom.

After closing the bathroom door, he relaxed and asked anxiously:

"Old man, what should I do?"

With Alice's repeated disruptions and the appearance of Dwayne Dantes, Leonard already knew Pales' identity and the relationship between "He" and Amon, but he was still more accustomed to calling Pales "old man".

Pales himself was more accustomed to this name. He didn't correct it, but said in a tone that Leonard couldn't hear the emotion in:
"She really is capable of getting into trouble."

Leonard smiled awkwardly.

After a pause, Pales continued:

“Don’t worry too much.

"On the one hand, according to your archbishop's description, Amon has just become 'pregnant' with a 'mercury snake', and His current focus should still be on the illegitimate daughter of that 'mercury snake' and your goddess.

“On the other hand, you are currently in Backlund, and Amon does not have the courage to do anything in Backlund.

"However, for safety reasons, you'd better find a way to leave Backlund and go to a safer place, such as Winter County where the Tranquility Church is located..."

……

Alice woke up with a start early Monday morning.

Klein...?
She frowned, and the connection between Klein and her was cut off, which frightened Alice so much that she suddenly woke up and sat up suddenly in bed.

Immediately afterwards, boundless sleepiness enveloped her, and Alice felt that a force was dragging her into a dream. After a slight struggle, she realized that this was the power of the goddess and quickly gave up resistance.

A deep black swallowed her up, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw a Gothic palace that seemed to blend in with the surrounding darkness. It had exquisite details and light colors, yet was still gorgeous.

Alice lowered her head. Around her were clusters of night-blooming herbs and dormant flowers. They stood quietly in the darkness, expressing their welcome.

She tilted her head, raised her foot and stepped over, passing through the clusters of flowers and entering the palace.

At the deepest part of the hall, the "Goddess of Night" sat on an ancient high-back chair, still wearing the layered yet simple black dress.

The bright dots on the long skirt reflect the brilliance on the palace dome, walls and columns, creating a quiet and dreamy starry sky.

The "Goddess of the Night", whose face seemed to be covered with layers of gauze, slowly stood up, walked down the stairs, and came in front of Alice.

Alice looked up at Him and asked impatiently:
"Is Klein there with you?"

This was exactly what she had just thought of—Klein should have already entered the Chanis Gate by now.

"Yes." The voice of the "Goddess of Night" sounded gently, like a quiet serenade.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief and left Klein aside. She looked at the rare “Goddess of Night” and began to ask questions:

"Goddess, I remember you are also from that era, right?"

The Night Goddess nodded and then asked her:

"Is there anything you want to ask?"

Alice replied quickly:
"Yes... I want to ask you if you have ever heard of a book called "Lord of Mysteries"."

She wanted to verify whether she was the only exception among these "time travelers".

"No." The "Goddess of Night" answered without hesitation.

Alice then asked:

"What about Adam? Or rather, the Creator of the City of Silver, the one you worked with before, does He know?"

"I don't know," the "Goddess of Night" replied without any emotion, "Maybe you should ask Her yourself."

Ah, the goddess doesn't know... Alice blinked and looked at the goddess whose emotions remained unexplained. After two seconds of silence, she asked:

"Is Archbishop Anthony sleeping?"

As soon as she said this, Alice inexplicably felt that the shadow of the goddess in front of her became a little more solid.

She blinked, and the indifferent gaze of the "Goddess of Night" fell on her. Alice sensed a weight from the gaze, and she subconsciously clenched her fists.

The "Goddess of Night" didn't care about her changes at all, and a voice without any changes sounded:

"The sleep needs of saints are far less than those of normal people. They can sleep for several days at a time."

I know that! Why don't you answer me directly... Alice stared and asked persistently, "So Archbishop Anthony is sleeping?"

The shadow in front of him was silent for two seconds, and then, a calm voice sounded:

"For Nightmare, entering other people's dreams is also a rest."

Alice blinked her eyes and suddenly realized:

"So, the demigods in the church really don't sleep and work 007 every day?"

The vocabulary in the second half of the sentence seemed a little trendy, and the "Goddess of Night" repeated: "007?"

Alice blinked and stared at the "Goddess of Night" for two seconds. She realized that there might be a generation gap between them, so she explained:
"It means going to work at 0:0 every day and leaving get off work at 7: the next day, working days a week."

The projection of the "Goddess of Night" was silent for a long time, so long that Alice almost thought the dream was about to end before she spoke:

“…I remember that the church didn’t have such a rule.”

"I know," Alice nodded convincedly, "They are doing it voluntarily - just like when I was in school, I volunteered every time I had extra classes during the holidays!"

The projection of the "Goddess of Night" stopped talking and just looked at Alice.

This didn't look like a happy expression. Alice became nervous and hastily changed the subject:
"By the way...how old were you before? What did you do?"

This is a good question. The projection of the "Goddess of Night" slowly answered:

"I can't understand Russell's diary."

Can't understand Roselle's diary? The goddess is not Chinese!

Alice's eyes widened.

As if she had noticed that her questions were becoming more and more nonsense, the "Goddess of Night" did not wait for her to come up with the next question. She just said coldly: "If you have nothing else to do, go and solve the problems with Will Auceptin and Amon."

Alice suddenly felt guilty. She glanced at the shadow in front of her and remembered the flowers that went straight through her when she stepped on them. She gave up the idea of ​​going forward, stood up straight, put her hands behind her back, lowered her head and shouted:

"goddess……"

The voice she spoke was no longer as lively as before, with a sense of depression. However, the "Goddess of Night" did not seem to care. She just glanced at her and ended the dream.

Alice sat up from the bed again, looked around, blinked, and remembered that the goddess asked her to ask Adam directly for the answer. She opened her mouth to try it, but then she thought of another way.

...Did the creator of Silver City leave any written records? Diaries or notes?

Alice hesitated for two seconds and realized that this was not entirely the other way around, because if anyone had the notes left by the creator of Silver City, it would only be Adam and Amon.

Apparently, Alice didn't want to see Amon... No, wait.

...Did the goddess ask me to resolve the issue between Will Auceptin and Amon?

Alice gritted her teeth, having no idea how to solve this problem.

She was not worried that Amon would turn to help Will Auceptin, or in other words, even if Amon stood on Will Auceptin's side, he would not be able to help Will Auceptin become a god.

On the one hand, she was the one chosen by the Key of Light. Whether it was Will Auceptin or Ouroboros, their hopes of becoming gods were slim. The time they stayed in Sequence 1 was the best evidence.

After learning the truth behind the adjacent pathways, Alice realized that Amon had nothing to do with the "Destiny" pathway, and that he normally wouldn't bother with other "Destiny" pathways.

The reason why she is special, or what is most attractive about her to Amon, is actually the "Wheel of Fortune" ritual - this may be the simplest and most difficult ritual among the 22 paths.

On the other hand, Alice thought that if past friendships were not taken into consideration, for now, among her, Will Auceptin, and Ouroboros who was suspected to have been eliminated, her personality was definitely the one that best matched Amon's aesthetics.

But this did not prevent Alice from not knowing how to solve the matter. After all, she did not understand why Amon was willing to help her and "steal" Will Auceptin.

She didn't believe that Amon was really doing this for their friendship, or that he was planning to pay her properly - judging from Amon's past behavior, he would not be willing to make a good deal if he could get something by cheating her.

For example, the news about Leonard.

Alice also had no idea what Will Auceptin had exchanged with Amon, or how comprehensive their alliance was. God knows, she hadn't thought about these troubles at all when she wrote the letter to bring Amon here.

Alice couldn't figure out a solution for a while, so she lay in bed for a long time and finally decided to get up and have breakfast.

There hadn't been any explosive news about Backlund recently, and the excitement wasn't even as great as the gossip about Klein in the entertainment section. Alice finished browsing it without much interest, and hadn't even finished a Dixie pie yet.

She finished her pie while daydreaming. When she was about to go out with a cup of sweet iced tea in her arms, grayish-white mist suddenly appeared. At the same time, Klein's excited voice rang out:

"I'm back!!!"

Alice opened her eyes wide, took a big sip of sweet ice tea, then put it down and headed above the gray fog.

She walked down the stairs and saw the familiar palace in front of her. Klein was sitting on the Fool's chair, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

Seeing her coming, Klein waved at her to come over and said to her:

"I got the potion formula of the 'Trickster'!
"You can never imagine who I met and what I went through!"

"What?" Alice walked over and asked, "The connection between me and you was suddenly cut off. I woke up and wanted to look for you, but then the goddess appeared..."

This was an explanation for her lack of reaction, of course, Alice guessed that even if she did react it would be useless, after all, the goddess was already a true god.

Klein showed a hint of surprise, then shook his head and said:

"I know you probably can't contact me... I tried to enter Sefirah Castle, but failed.

"It's like the cheats were suddenly banned... So this is really related to the goddess?"

Alice was slightly startled, then she opened her eyes wide after realizing it belatedly:

"Can the goddess cut off the connection between you and Sefirah Castle?!"

"Why are you so surprised?" Klein asked puzzledly.

Alice took a breath. Suddenly, she had a lot to say to Klein, but she didn't know how to say it.

To Klein, the news that the goddess could block the connection between him and Sefirah Castle seemed a little exaggerated, but not too far-fetched.

After all, Klein didn't know about the existence of the Pillars and the Old Ones.

But for Alice, things were not like that. Ever since she learned about the nine source elements and the news about the Old Ones and the Pillars, Alice regarded Klein, who was closely connected to the Source Castle, as the "Lord of Mysteries" to a certain extent - she thought Klein's status was so high.

But now it seems that this is not the case. Otherwise, a goddess with the status of a true god would not be able to cut off the connection between Klein and Sefirah Castle.

As for the possibility that the goddess had actually been promoted to the Old One, Alice had never considered it at all - the remaining seven source essences were still sealed in the Western Continent!
Moreover, Alice soon realized another more dangerous possibility. She frowned and asked Klein:
"Tell me, if the goddess can block the connection between you and Sefirah Castle, can Amon steal that connection?"

Klein was slightly startled.

The more Alice thought about it, the more she realized the seriousness of the matter. Amon was not like them. He belonged to one of the three paths of the "Lord of Mysteries", and it was a "wrong" path - this was too dangerous.

She took a breath, and the goddess' words finally took hold.

Alice closed her eyes and put the matter aside for the moment. She asked Klein, "What is the potion formula?"

“I was just about to tell you.” Klein handed over the paper.

Alice took the paper and looked up the potion formula of the "Trickster":

“Sequence 4: Trickster.

“Main materials: the main eye of the evil trickster, the real soul of the spirit world plunderer.

“Supplementary materials: 200 ml of the blood of the evil spirit, 30 grams of the dust of the spirit world plunderer, 10 grams of the bark of the red birch, a piece of golden grapevine, and a finger-sized homemade lemon peel mask.

"Ascension Ceremony: Relying mainly on one's own strength and planning, in front of many spectators, directing a grand drama to murder a demigod or an equivalent supernatural being, and then taking a magic potion at the end of the drama."

As she expected, she didn't recognize the monster above, and she didn't care much about it. Instead, she focused her attention on the ceremony.

The promotion ceremony of the "Weird Mage" does not have the metaphysical flavor like the "Destiny" path. It is still clear, but the emphasis is on performance.

But Alice was very concerned about one thing, so she looked up and asked:

"Are you sure it's not called a circus?" (End of chapter)