Mystery: Lucky One

"She's a shameless creature," Alice answered without hesitation. "She has a very special feather pen, which is good at making up rumors. She often peeks into things, then uses the feather pen to change them beyond all recognition, and then writes them into articles and publishes them..."

"Are you familiar with her?" Leonard asked.

"No," Alice shook her head, "I don't know her. I've only heard of her name."

Leonard nodded thoughtfully and continued:
"The old man said He wants to find this Rita Skeeter. Do you have any clues?"

Alice was silent for a moment before she spoke: "She is a witch, and before that, she was a woman."

——She dared to guarantee that she was telling the truth, but it was none of her business what Pales understood.

For example, now, Leonard asked curiously: "She was a woman before this? In other words, she was not raised by a man... This is not common."

Alice smiled and said without answering:
“I think Amon knows your identity with the help of this comic book.

"After reading this comic, Amon has been calling the one in you...

"An old flame."

"Ah?" Leonard opened his mouth wide. "Wait, what does this mean? Why did Amon start to care about...care about...old man after reading this comic? Do you really have a story?"

“…You should be thankful that Pales has no physical body,” Alice rolled her eyes, “otherwise, after hearing what you said, he would definitely hit you on the head like Klein hit me on the head.”

"So there is no such part..." Leonard suddenly realized.

Pales finally couldn't bear to listen any longer, and he spoke up to stop Leonard:

"Hurry up and get down to business."

Leonard heard this and quickly asked, "By the way, you said Amon wrote you a letter, where is that letter?"

Alice handed over Amon's letter and began to talk incessantly:
"I think only the first paragraph is relevant to you. Also, if you're really curious about the old lover, just read this comic... Well, judging from the question just now, I guess Pales should have understood it, so you can ask him, although I don't think he would want to talk about this..."

"Really?" Leonard asked without hesitation, "Old man, what did you see? Since you and Amon didn't actually have a relationship, why does He still call you his ex-lover?"

Alice's mouth twitched when she heard this question. She slipped away without hesitation before Leonard could react, leaving time for him and Pales.

—I hope Pales doesn’t kill him.

In fact, Pales did not take any action. He just said leisurely after Alice disappeared:

"hehe……

"If I remember correctly, sample books are only sent to the author of the book. If he can get a sample book, even if he is not the author, he must have a close relationship with the author...

"He described it in such detail. Is He confident that I won't be able to find the author of this comic? Strange, female 'witches' are not common..."

"So," Leonard interrupted, "old man, why on earth did Amon call you his old lover? And what about this letter? Did you see anything?"

……

After escaping from Pales, Alice returned home and recalled the scene she saw when she returned from the "God-forsaken Land" last time. After a moment of silence, she entered St. Samuel's Church again and issued a commission to the "Night Watchmen" to pay the rent on her behalf.

After doing this, she packed her luggage (there was actually nothing to bring) and then went to find Klein.

They enjoyed a sumptuous dinner, and then, in the dead of night, Mr. Dwayne Dantes got up from his bed, changed his clothes, and knocked on Alice's door.

He had already put the necessary things in Sefirah Castle in advance, so naturally he didn't have anything in his hands now.

Klein grabbed his two secret dolls and followed Alice into the spirit world. When they got close to the sea, they stopped together. Alice's spirit body expanded, enveloping Klein and his two secret dolls, and they appeared in the center of the sea.

——This was the recall method that Klein used in "Groselle's Journey". Alice realized at that time that spirits might not necessarily have to use their hands to capture people.

Of course, this is not the point. Klein summoned a passenger ship from history and lifted himself, his two secret dolls, and Alice, who was splashing happily in the sea, up. He asked Alice politely:
"Can you explain why we are in the water?"

"I should ask you this, Mr. Adventurer," Alice glanced at Klein, who still retained the image of Dwayne Dantes, and reminded him, "I thought that as a mature adventurer, you should be able to remind me of this."

“…So you haven’t thought about it at all!” Klein’s eyes widened.

Alice blinked twice innocently and changed the subject:

"It should be evening soon... Look, it's getting dark!"

As she spoke, the golden sunlight disappeared and the night spread. Klein had to give up arguing with her and quickly fell asleep with the help of meditation.

He was not unfamiliar with the dream of the ruins of the war of gods. When he walked to the huge rock that seemed like a landmark, Alice was already standing there. After seeing him, Alice smiled at him and then took a few steps forward.

In Klein's horrified eyes, Alice's expression suddenly became extremely pious. Like a true believer, she loudly recited in ancient Hermetic language:
"O Lord, the Creator of all things,

"You are the omniscient and omnipotent..."

"You are the source of all greatness, the beginning and the end,"

"You are the God of Gods, you are the ruler of the vast star world!"

Then, the original scene reappeared, and the sea of ​​clouds separating the two peaks instantly boiled and parted to the left and right, revealing a dark gap with no visible bottom.

Klein watched in amazement as the projection of the Giant King's Court opposite him suddenly absorbed all the dusk light, allowing it to rush forward and fill the deep gap.

He looked at the orange-red road of light between the two peaks and in the misty sea of ​​clouds, and asked Alice nervously:

"You've converted?"

Alice turned her head and told him in a pious and solemn tone:
"I am Ouroboros, the angel of destiny under the Lord's throne."

“…If you have the guts, say this in front of the True Creator.” Klein rolled his eyes at her.

"It's not like I haven't told you before..." Alice curled her lips and walked forward, "And I just prayed... You don't think He can't see it, do you?"

Klein's body froze for a moment, and he looked at Alice in astonishment.

Long before she left, Alice had given him the glowing robe. After Klein transformed the robe into Gehrman Sparrow's suit, he found that the glowing suit was too damaging to his image, so he simply turned it into the wizard's robe in his memory.

So at this moment, the clothes Alice was wearing were actually... the school uniform she had conjured up.

Alice turned to Klein and shrugged. She did not lie, because the True Creator's gaze did fall on her after the prayer, but the difference was that this time the True Creator seemed relatively sober. He did not curse, but he did not speak either. He just watched quietly.

She walked towards the cliff, and Klein had no choice but to follow with the secret doll. When they reached the end, Alice looked at the abyss below, turned her head and said to Klein with deep affection:

"Jack, you jump, I jump!"

Klein kicked her down.

Alice screamed and fell down. Klein stood there expressionlessly. After the screaming lasted for half a minute, he placed one hand on the edge of the cliff. Alice shouted at him from below:

"You are so heartless, pull me up quickly, otherwise I won't help you down!"

Klein took over Alice's steps and reached out to pull Alice up.

They finally landed safely on the road. When they reached the end of the road and were about to push open the door, Alice suddenly turned around as if she had thought of something and asked:
"By the way, do you want to change your face?"

After Klein pondered for two seconds, his face melted away on the spot, and the wizard's robe on his body also made slight adjustments as his face changed. When it was finally finalized, his facial features were ordinary and featureless, and he was wearing a black robe with a hood.

Behind him, his two secret dolls also became ordinary. Klein stretched out a hand and introduced himself again with a smile:

"Merlin Hermes."

"Why did you have to choose such a popular name?" Alice asked instead of taking the hand.

“I…” Klein wanted to explain that this was more convenient, but Alice didn’t seem to need his answer and pushed open the door to the “Forsaken Land of the Gods.”

After experiencing the dizziness and tearing sensation for the second time, the first thing Alice heard was Klein's voice:
“This place… is so magical.”

Alice stood there without saying anything. She gave Klein some time to appreciate the scenery. After waiting for more than ten seconds, she asked:
“Where are you going now?
"I...well, let me take a look...

"The places I can take you to directly should be Silver City and the Afternoon Town Camp..."

Klein hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said:

"I don't plan to go to Silver City right now. Before coming here, I asked Little Sun for some mushroom mycelium as our food source... I plan to walk around the God-Forsaken Land first and get familiar with the environment.

"Next, I plan to go to the 'Moon City' you mentioned and the area near the fog, and look for other city-states in the 'Forsaken Land of Gods' on the way. If I don't encounter the 'Wish Wolf' on the way, then after doing all this, I will try to find the 'Wish Wolf'..."

Alice nodded thoughtfully, rubbed her ears, and then asked, "What about you? Do you have any ideas?"

Klein held his breath for a moment. He knew who Alice was talking to. Even though he had divined with several true gods, Klein could not understand the way Alice chatted with the true gods.

——After all, if he tells fortunes, he will suffer backlash.

The True Creator did not respond, so Alice gave up this formal respect and told Klein:
"Then go on your own."

“?” Klein opened his eyes wide.

"I'm going to go to the Silver City to take a look," Alice smiled. "I'm the angel of destiny under the Lord's throne. Now that I'm here, how can I not go and see the Lord's devout believers here!"

"..." Klein didn't say anything. He took a few steps back and tried to distance himself from Alice.

This is redundant because the "True Creator" seems to accept this level of offense, at least the relatively sober Him seems to accept it. Of course, it may also be because this is not the first time, and He was forced to accept it last time.

Alice looked at Klein's retreating movements, and said with a "tsk" sound:
"Okay, anyway...

"You need me for something?"

She raised her hand, waved it gently after Klein nodded, and then disappeared from Klein's sight.

Looking at the place where she disappeared, Klein sighed, and then began to explore the "God-Forsaken Land" alone.

Like Alice, he quickly discovered that the spiritual world was forbidden here. Remembering the solution Alice had given, Klein hesitated for a moment and then asked boldly:

"...Are you looking at me?"

He also received no response.

The failed attempt made Klein sigh and give up the idea of ​​asking the "True Creator" - after all, according to Alice, the correct way to ask was to follow the gaze of the "True Creator" and step into the sanctuary.

Of course, Klein didn't have this plan. He walked inward and decided to get out of the ocean first and then find a way forward.

……

After leaving Klein alone with the two secret dolls, Alice did not go to Silver City as before, but approached the Afternoon Town camp first.

After cleaning up Afternoon Town, Silver City set up a camp here as a place to rest. Alice looked from afar and found that the scene here was very different from the last time, mainly in terms of food.

Compared to the roasted monster meat and black grass cakes she saw last time, the food in the town camp in the afternoon was obviously much better this time. Alice smelled the aroma of toasted bread and milk.

She blinked, raised a smile in the dark, looked at the monster in the dark, and murmured:

“Maybe I should ask Klein for some mycelium…”

She shook her head and walked towards the afternoon town campsite that was right in front of her. It was dinner time, and a group of children were sitting together, grilling something.

She walked out of the darkness and approached the halo of light formed by the bonfire over there. The crowd became alert in an instant, and a lady a little further away from the crowd instantly tensed up.

She was wearing a black robe embroidered with many mysterious purple patterns, and her silver-gray hair was thick but slightly curly.

Her face was smooth and fair, her eyebrows and eyes were majestic and beautiful, and she looked to be in her early thirties. Her pair of light grey eyes seemed to be able to see through the soul.

Alice frowned and looked at the only demigod on the field, and whispered tentatively:
"Lovia?"

The woman slowly stood up and walked forward in silence. She looked down at Alice and asked the same question:

"Miss Destiny?" (End of this chapter)