Mystery: Lucky One

Klein was stunned for a moment. It was difficult for him to describe his feelings at the time. He said with some emotion:

"Happy New Year, Alice... Well, I'm telling you at this time that you don't need to wake up just to say a holiday greeting. Doesn't that make me look very low in EQ?"

"No," Alice answered calmly, "because that's not what I woke up for.... Damn it, I can't sleep!"

"..." Klein stopped talking.

Alice paused for a few seconds before realizing something was wrong. She coughed and said, "Ahem. However, I am sending you my blessing at this time on purpose..."

Klein still didn't say anything, and Alice didn't mind. She stretched out her voice and shouted:
"Just smile, Mr. Fool~ Don't you want to hear why I can't sleep? This is big news~"

Klein said quietly:

"To be honest, when I heard you say that, my first reaction was that it was definitely not a good thing, but...

"I remember you mentioned repeatedly before... the replacement of the throne of God, was it recently?"

As he spoke, Klein's voice became deeper and deeper, and his expression became more solemn. Alice sighed and said:
"Yeah... it felt like there was a huge clock going off and on, and I was getting closer and closer to it... it was so loud."

"...You can sometimes make people lose their illusions about power," Klein commented on her. "So, can you feel the specific time and situation now?"

“In fact, I could feel it a long time ago, but…” Alice sighed faintly, “I dare not say it, Mr. Fool.”

She paused, then smiled again:

"Why don't you consider asking the goddess? Hmm, should I stop calling her that now... Never mind, whatever.

"Anyway, you should have guessed who this is related to, right? Why don't you just ask the person involved? In this matter, I am at best just a witness.

"Well, speaking of which, fate should be a witness to many things...hiss, doesn't that mean I will know a lot of secrets? I won't be silenced, right?"

"...It should be difficult to silence a true god, right?" Klein hesitated. "Besides, I feel like you're very good at escaping and... offering your loyalty."

“:) Actually, you don’t have to be so tactful.” Alice said calmly.

Klein was stunned for a moment. He opened his eyes wide and said, “No, wait, why can you send emoticons???”

"Because..." Alice said in a long tone, "Shouldn't you know? The message transmitted to the believers is like a compressed information package containing text, sound, and images - just like every time you broadcast the prayer picture."

“But, but…” Klein wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say.

Of course he knew what Alice said, but Alice always sent him voice messages - oh no, wait, maybe she really added subtitles... To be precise, it was not text, but a piece of information that people could understand instantly, or in other words, that piece of information was the main content, and she just added the audio...

After thinking it through, Klein sighed with mixed feelings and said, "You...you really like being a human."

——After all, this way of conveying information is indeed much more efficient than speaking.

...No, she actually just stuffed the voice into the compressed package!

Klein shook his head and then asked, "Do you need me to do anything?"

Alice jumped for joy. She said bluntly, “Since you brought it up… Mr. Fool, please buy two more ice creams. I don’t want the historical projection.”

Klein was stunned for a moment. He frowned and said, "It's okay to buy it...but how can I feed it to you?"

"Just eat it," Alice blinked. "You are my 'mother' now. After you eat it, I can taste it too. However, I may need to trouble you to eat more. After all, it is not as good as eating it directly..."

Under Alice's command, Klein changed his appearance. Then, facing the strange looks from others, he left with a handful of ice cream.

Accompanied by Alice, Klein continued to digest the potion. He did not stay in Backlund, but spent most of his time near the front line, where more wishes could be harvested. Most of the news about Backlund came from the Tarot Club.

From the increasingly depressed mood of "Justice" Audrey and the concerns that "Magician" Fors and "Judgment" Xio could not hide, they all knew that even for Backlund, the situation was getting worse.

The wealth of the wealthy Dwayne Dantes has been handed over by Klein to Audrey for use in a charitable foundation, so there is not much Klein can do to help.

As for Alice, he asked Klein to give the "Staff of Life" to Silver City, who was mixing with the rebels, in her name. After all, she couldn't use it anyway, and Klein... Klein had historical projections to use.

By the end of January, Klein had almost finished digesting the potion and had collected all the specialties from the spirit world, but the atmosphere of war was becoming more and more serious. At this time, Alice, who had not spoken to Klein for a long time, suddenly asked:

"Do you want to see Adam become a god?"

“……?” Klein felt a little confused.

So Alice chuckled and replied, "It should be about time. Do you want to visit Adam's church?"

This suggestion was indeed absurd, but Klein couldn't help but ask:
“Did Adam have a church?”

"Of course," Ellie said without hesitation, "Well, just ask Him and tell Him that you want to go and see..."

"...I feel like you're asking me to die," Klein rejected Alice's proposal without hesitation, "I haven't lived enough!"

Alice sighed with regret, then smiled meaningfully and said, "Adam won't kill you."

"Why?" Klein asked subconsciously.

"Because He has no other choice," Alice said calmly, "Antigonus has gone mad, Amon... although the situation is unclear, he is definitely out of the game, Mr. 'Gate' is having a child with the Fallen Mother Goddess, and apart from you, only Zaratul looks good."

After a pause, she continued:

"But if you choose Zaratul, He will have to deal with a lot of troubles, including the 'Source Castle' on you, the goddess who bet on you, and me... Well, if the goddess sees that the situation is not good, she may not help you."

"What about you?" Klein asked half-jokingly and half-seriously.

“Well,” Alice laughed, “Of course I will help you… Mr. Fool, and even if I help others, do you think anyone would believe me? Do they dare to believe me?”

After two seconds of silence, Klein said tactfully, "Actually, I'm a little scared too..."

He paused, then changed the subject as if he was afraid of angering Alice: "Since you said Adam is going to become a god, does that mean that the replacement of the god's position is approaching?" "Well..." Alice responded in a low voice, "But I still can't tell you the details... I'm worried that if I tell you, something bad will happen."

Klein nodded in understanding, not intending to ask any more questions. He knew that if Alice could say it, she would definitely say it out loud.

Sure enough, after waiting for a few more days, Klein finally heard Alice's impatient voice:
"alright!!!
"I can finally speak!"

“What?” Klein’s heart skipped a beat and he asked hurriedly, “Is it…”

Alice lowered her voice and replied, "The God of War... has fallen!"

There was joy in her tone. This expected event still seemed to bring her joy, but Klein was just shocked.

Even though he had already guessed this outcome, it still took him some time to come to his senses, and then he tentatively asked:
"What happened that made you afraid to even speak before?"

Alice hummed softly and said:

"Well... this has to start from the City of Silver.

"Before leaving Silver City, I chatted with the Chief and asked him about the origin of the Black Face Grass and why they wanted to kill their blood relatives...

"The Chief told me that this is a sealed object held by the City of Silver, called 'Gift of the Earth', and this sealed object is...

"The body of 'Mother Earth' Omybella."

“?” Klein gasped, “‘Earth Mother Goddess’ Omibella… If I remember correctly, she is the mother of the God of War Badhair?”

"That's right," Alice confirmed.

"In other words, someone replaced the God of War's mother?" Klein gradually understood what happened. "Is this what you didn't dare to say before?"

"That's right." Alice continued to affirm.

Klein exhaled and said thoughtfully:

"With the cover-up and Adam, it is possible to hide it from the God of War, but...

"Who is the person who replaced Omibella?"

Alice couldn't help laughing.

“Pfft, pfft hahahahahahaha, you don’t know, I want to laugh when I mention this, pfft hahahaha! You, you still remember Emlyn? He really, he made me laugh to death, hahahaha!”

“What does this have to do with Emlyn…” Klein frowned subconsciously, and then a guess quickly popped up in his mind, “…Lilith?”

"You guessed it right!" Alice replied with a smile on her face, "Lilith, the founder of the blood race, replaced the Earth Mother Omibella and has kept it a secret until now, until..."

"Until the war between gods broke out, and He dealt a fatal blow to the god of war Badheir." Klein added the ending of the story.

"Yes," Alice put away her smile and sighed, "Now, after knowing this, do you still want to be an enemy of the goddess for the sake of war?"

Klein paused abruptly. He wanted to say something, but at this moment, all his excuses seemed powerless because he knew why Alice said that.

——After knowing the truth of the whole matter, he just felt a chill on his back and had no intention of being hostile to the goddess.

He didn't have enough courage, no, or...

While his safety could not be guaranteed, he also did not see enough benefits.

Klein fell silent, feeling powerless from the bottom of his heart. This was far more powerless than when he faced Adam's preparations and the Backlund smog. Because back then, he could explain it as his lack of strength, but now, he can only face the real him under the mask.

He suddenly laughed with a hint of self-mockery and said, "I originally thought I was a good person, but now that I think about it...it seems that in certain situations, I am not as good as I thought."

He subconsciously recalled his past self, and he realized that this was not a change, because he had always been like this. In the past, when his life was threatened, he had betrayed Ian.

Alice sighed softly and said:
“It’s different, Klein.

"I...well, let's put it this way, you already know the truth about the end of the world, right?"

Klein nodded, and Alice smiled and said:
"But those Outer Gods only want Essence, and perhaps the Beyonder characteristics and uniqueness of Sequence 1... And Klein, you already know what you will face if you continue to advance. Will you give up on further advancement and let Zaratul become the 'Lord of Mysteries'?"

"...I don't know Zaratul," Klein shook his head, "I don't know what he will do after becoming the Lord of Mysteries...According to what you said, there is no one who can suppress the Lord of Mysteries, right?"

"Look," Alice laughed, "When it comes to things of this level, you can still be considered a good person... After all, you don't think that you chose this just to become a pillar and gain more power, right?"

“But you…” Klein subconsciously wanted to refute.

"I won't," Ellie interrupted him without hesitation, "If I have a choice, I don't care what kind of person my successor is - anyway, I'm not the only one dying, someone will naturally rush forward."

After a pause of a few seconds, Alice said with some emotion:

"Sometimes I really think you are... Oh, you really are. I don't need to do anything good. As long as I don't do bad things, such as deliberately playing tricks on humans, you will think I am a good person, but you yourself...

“It’s just an idea. To put it bluntly, the thing hasn’t happened yet. When you really see something similar happening in front of you, how do you know that you won’t save it or take care of it?

“Sometimes, the impact of just hearing and imagining something is completely different from seeing it actually happen in front of you, and…

"Klein, if you really want to assassinate the goddess for this kind of thing, I will think that you really have no sense of the overall situation... Well, or do you plan to question me?"

Klein was speechless and said, "What position do I have to question this?"

He took a breath and then continued:
"I know the goddess can't... I also know this is inevitable. This is a necessary sacrifice. In the final analysis, it's either the Loen people or the Feysac people who will die. I also know how stupid it is to question at this time. I just..."

He closed his eyes, sighed, and said in a distant voice: "...I just can't accept myself like this."

"Moral cleanliness." Alice commented. (End of this chapter)