Mystery: Lucky One

"Yes." someone answered.

Alice didn't look at the scene on the ground. The scene of brains spurting out did not match her aesthetic taste. She had no interest in appreciating it. As for what Selwyn knew...

Alice tilted her head and stretched out her hand as if she had a premonition. A book with a dark blue cover appeared in her hand at the right time. She gently opened it and a line of silver words appeared silently:
"Do you want to know what happened, Your Highness?"

Alice didn't say anything. She stared coldly at the book in her hand for two seconds, then raised her hand to close the book and walked upstairs.

The book seemed unwilling to be ignored. It opened again, revealing new words:
"It's safe up there now. You can leave the exploration work to others."

Alice stopped and frowned at the book in her hands.

She remembered Selwyn's words before he died, lowered her head with a strange expression, frowned and asked:

"...You won't tell me that you are my believer, right?"

Cassandra denied it without hesitation: "Of course not."

Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and the strange feeling in her heart faded a little. Just as she was about to take a step forward, a new line of text appeared behind her:
"I am a sacrifice, Your Highness."

...?
The expression on Alice's face froze little by little.

The Nighthawks seemed to have sensed that something was wrong. In the silence, someone asked:
"Sir, this book...?"

Alice was silent for two seconds, then looked upstairs. After confirming that it was safe, she closed her eyes and said:

"The upstairs is safe. You can go up and investigate. As for this book..."

Alice paused for a moment, looked down at the book in her hand, and asked:
"What should I call you? 'Cassandra'?"

The words on the page disappeared, and after a moment, a new line of silver words appeared:

"He called me 'The Book of Answers.'"

He...

Alice's eyebrows jumped, she closed the book again, turned her head and said to the others:
"The 'Book of Answers' comes from a 'Prophet's' Beyonder characteristic - that is, Sequence 2 level. The effect... well, I don't know, but what is clear is that it has a certain degree of predictive ability, has extremely high activity and even intelligence, and can communicate. In addition...

"It can move, can carry its owner with it, and, it seems to...

"Choosing a protagonist?"

When Alice mentioned this, she subconsciously glanced at the "Cassandra" lying on her hand. After finding that she was motionless, she raised her head and continued:

“I don’t know the specifics, I’m just talking about the ‘protagonists’ I know…they have two things in common.

"One is that life will undergo a great change because of its existence, which may be good or bad, and the other is...

“They had a lot of trust in the book — an abnormal amount of trust.”

After saying this, Alice let out a breath and asked them:

"Hmm... if I want to report, these should be enough, right?"

No one spoke. They looked at each other. After exchanging glances, one of them asked in a deep voice:

"What are you going to do with it, sir?"

Alice frowned at him. He seemed to realize that his tone was wrong and explained:
“That’s right, sir.

"According to convention, after discovering a '0' grade sealed object, we should first report it to the Holy Temple. Moreover, '0' grade sealed objects are very dangerous..."

Alice understood.

"I'm not bewitched," she interrupted directly, "I don't think the goddess would watch me be bewitched either."

After thinking about it, she decided to bring up the goddess. This woman was indeed more credible than herself, and the others felt more at ease. Seeing this, Alice disappeared without hesitation, holding the book.

After placing "Cassandra" on the desk, Alice also sat down in front of the desk. Without stretching out her hand, she leaned back in the chair and looked at "Cassandra" without saying a word.

Cassandra was not going to compete with her in patience. The pages of her book opened by themselves, and silver words appeared on them:
"You don't believe me."

"Isn't this as it should be?" Alice asked in surprise, "I believe you are the one who is weird, right? I don't want to be like your two previous masters."

"Then you can crush me," Cassandra answered without hesitation, "Crush me and let me regain my Beyonder characteristics. Then I will be safe."

"?" Alice's eyebrows jumped and she looked at it with a questioning look.

As if sensing something, Cassandra said calmly:

"The truth of this statement should be verifiable to you."

……It really is.

Alice knew this clearly. When Klein was looking for a way to remove the contamination of the True Creator, he chose this method - as long as the Beyonder characteristics were crushed and re-condensed, the contamination would be excluded.

This can also make "Cassandra", a magical item, completely lose consciousness, killing two birds with one stone.

As for whether she can crush it... isn't there a goddess?
There was nothing wrong with this proposal from beginning to end. It seemed like the proposal was made after truly considering Alice's perspective and providing her with the most reassuring and feasible suggestion - but therein lay the problem.

"Well," Alice tapped the table, deciding to ask a more meaningful question, "what does Selwyn mean by that?"

"I don't know," Cassandra said frankly, "I'm not Selwyn, I don't understand her thoughts, but I guess she did that because I told her the truth."

"What truth?" Alice frowned.

New silver words slowly appeared on Cassandra:

"I didn't tell her before that the potion needs to be digested and that Beyonders may lose control. At the same time, I told her that as long as she is promoted to Sequence 4 Iron-Blooded Knight, she will turn back into a male..."

Alice felt as if she was falling into an icy cave.

She realized without thinking too much what kind of impact this would have. Selwyn would definitely try his best to advance, even before the potion was fully digested...

"By the way," Cassandra added, "I didn't tell her about the existence of the potion formula. I just guided her to find the extraordinary properties..."

Alice took a deep breath and murmured softly, "I kind of understand why she's like that..."

Thinking of Selwyn's almost crazy look, Alice was no longer surprised. She thought that anyone who had experienced such a thing and then suddenly learned the truth would not be able to accept it. Moreover, she might have thought that she was the one and only love, and "Cassandra" was her golden finger...

Thinking of this possibility, Alice's mouth twitched for a moment, and then asked: "Why did she say she burned you?"

"It was a dream," Cassandra replied. "Given her condition, it's only natural for her to confuse dreams with reality... isn't it?"

Alice didn't say anything, she agreed with this statement. Judging from Selwyn's behavior before jumping off the building, this was indeed a normal thing.

After sorting out the cause and effect of the matter, Alice let out a breath, then raised her eyebrows and asked:

"It can't be a coincidence that she survived into the present, right?"

"Of course," Cassandra continued, "she is destined to die in front of you and in your hands... just like me."

Alice's pain shrank for a moment, and she thought of Selwyn's word "believer" again, and thought of "Cassandra" saying that she was a sacrifice, so she asked in a cold voice:
"What's the meaning?
"Is she a sacrifice like you?"

"How does she deserve it?" "Cassandra" asked without hesitation.

...?
It really seems like a fanatic...

Alice took a breath, held down the table and asked, "Do you know me?"

All the words on the page disappeared, and after more than ten seconds, new silver words appeared:

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“You can say I know him, or you can say I don’t know him.

"I know you in the past. At that time, you... no, they were like two people.

"And now... I know you're not the worse one, but you don't seem to be the other one either...

"But it seems that they are all you."

Alice paused.

She felt as if she understood what "Cassandra" said, which was something she had always guessed about in the past.

——The person who appeared in front of others at that time might not be one person, but two people. One was extremely gullible and could be fooled by Will Auceptin, while the other... would fool others with that gullible face.

If He has a face.

This speculation has never been confirmed, and she hasn't even encountered many clues. On the one hand, she didn't take the initiative to look for it, and on the other hand, her past traces seemed to be unknown to the public.

If "Cassandra" is telling the truth, this is undoubtedly strong evidence, and it is also consistent with Alice's self-perception - relatively speaking, she may be more inclined to be the one who is easier to deceive, but at this point, she is no longer a simple person.

Just as Song Shu said to her in her dream, they are inseparable. Alice has actually realized long ago that it is meaningless to worry about who she is. She is the Alice of the present, the sum of everything in the past.

They or They together make up who she is today. They are all her and none of them are her.

In other words, she is nobody.

Well, in modern times, this should be called sacred cutting... No, maybe it can be said in a more philosophical way, the me in the past is not the me now...

Thoughts turned through my mind, then fed back into reality and turned into a long sigh.

Alice turned her attention back to Cassandra. She did not try to determine whether Cassandra's words were true or false. She wanted to ask the question before making a decision.

Moreover, even if it is a lie, it is not completely worthless.

Alice shook her head and continued:

"Why did Selwyn say you are my believer, and why..."

She paused, then frowned and asked with a strange expression:
"Why do you say you are a sacrifice?"

Cassandra asked back:

"You haven't found the ceremony to be promoted to 'Prophet' yet, right?"

If she had a face, Alice thought, Cassandra would now be smiling like a Riddler, for she usually had a similar expression when she spoke.

Alice had to admit that her promotion ceremony to "Prophet" was indeed still unsettled. In fact, she didn't even understand the meaning of that sentence!
——Take the potion when the torrents of fate converge.

This is a ritual that is comparable to the Riddler's and Sequence 0's rituals.

No, that can’t be said. In fact, the ritual of Sequence 0 is very straightforward. It’s just about the right opportunity. Although the right opportunity is a bit difficult to find, this is different. This is really incomprehensible...

Alice's expression twisted for a moment. She looked down at "Cassandra" and gritted her teeth and said:
"Why, do you have a solution?"

"I am a 'prophet'," 'Cassandra' replied, "In all stories, there is a 'prophet' - the 'prophet' is the intersection."

Alice was startled for a moment, and suddenly had a bad feeling. She stared at "Cassandra" and as expected, a new line of text appeared on it:
"Fates intersect here with me... Kill me and use me as the material for your potion to advance to 'Prophet'. You will become the new intersection and the new 'Prophet'.

"Before I met you, I had already accumulated enough stories for you..."

A chill rose from the bottom of her heart, and Alice finally understood why "Cassandra" had no objection to her killing it - just as it said, it was a sacrifice, and sacrifices must die.

This is it is a wish.

Alice wanted to tell herself that these words might be false, and that it might be deceiving her just like it had deceived its previous owners, but...

Is there any point in this lie?

Alice couldn't figure it out, because the biggest point of this lie seemed to be to destroy the book and turn it into a Beyonder again, which would not do "Cassandra" any good - unless she was really a fanatic.

...But there's no need for my fanatic to lie to me like this, right?

Could it be that it doesn’t believe in me…?
Alice felt like her brain was a ball of paste. She turned it over and over in her mind, trying her best to stir the paste and regain consciousness.

But this was doomed to fail. The mess in her head became more and more tangled. In a daze, Alice dug out from her memory the name that had been left by "Cassandra" several times, crushed it all together and stuffed it into the mess.

……Eh?

Alice suddenly had an idea and took out the crushed powder again and pieced it together bit by bit. She stared at Cassandra intently and said in a low voice:

"What does that honorific name mean?"

The open book lay quietly on the table, and the occasional breeze did not stir the pages. It was not until Alice asked a question that silver words slowly emerged from the blank parchment pages:
"You finally ask me this question, Your Highness."

Alice's eyebrows jumped suddenly, and she stared at "Cassandra" intently, waiting for new words to appear on it. (End of this chapter)