Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Is this why I care about this vampire? Because she bears the marks of another person?

[But she has clearly slept in the stone coffin for thousands of years, a fact proven by numerous traces found within the Youkong Tomb. And if that's the case...]

[...Could it be that I actually lived in the same era as her, but I've lost all my memories?]

She reached out a finger, wanting to touch the cheek of the sleeping vampire girl before her. But her finger stopped abruptly just before it touched the skin—she didn't know why she was doing it, nor why she had stopped there. She should be emotionless, yet here she was acting with a hesitation that only a normal person would have. And this made her… feel unlike herself.

But what should the real me be like? Perhaps the me I am now is a genuine fallacy, and my true nature has yet to be revealed?

Her outstretched finger hovered in the air, just a hair's breadth away, a millimeter's difference. And in her eyes, the sleeping vampire girl shed her original form; her slightly dark hair turned pale purple, her well-proportioned chest rose and fell more dramatically, and her once pale skin gradually became rosy. And a familiar name lingered in her mind, struggling and trembling, almost bursting forth!

What is that name?

—The blizzard outside the window was violently pounding the ground, and the clouds above were surging and churning.

What is that name?

—The stars shone ever brighter, as if sharp, sword-like objects were vying for position behind them, trying to escape. Even the empty stars seemed to sway slightly, as if about to break free from their constraints!

What is that name?

—A familiar syllable rolled in the girl's throat, and it was about to break free!

“P…”

The next moment, everything came to an abrupt halt.

Alice pressed her lips to hers, slowly and deliberately pulling herself away from Serana's bedside. The illusion of the purple-haired, unknown woman faded away as she left, revealing once more the image of a black-haired, snow-skinned vampire princess. The many changes happening outside the house also came to an abrupt halt.

She decided to go outside to calm down because she found her heart was pounding wildly.

Chapter 61 Alice's Parade

Alice left the inn at 5:30 a.m. The snow was still falling heavily and rapidly, and not a single ray of light fell from the sky. She floated lightly onto the streets of Morningstar City, her gaze piercing through the snow curtain, but she did not observe a single living creature on the streets.

Everyone was asleep, and all the animals were hidden in their burrows. She amplified her senses again before she could perceive the slow heartbeats of the creatures, large and small, in the houses along the street and underground.

Ah, in this world, there are still quite a few living people.

Alice thought to herself that, for some reason, in that brief moment, the strange idea had flashed through her mind that the entire world was an illusion and nothingness, and only she herself was real. Everything around her seemed to have been instantly separated to an infinitely distant beyond the heavens, and all colors and things were nothingness.

The thought came quickly and went just as fast. When she sensed the heartbeats of living beings in Morningstar City, she banished the idea from her mind, as if it had never existed in the first place. With the end of this thought, she found herself unknowingly leaving the neighborhood she had been in and arriving at another unfamiliar street covered in heavy snow.

It was still pitch black all around, and the only sound was the soft rustling of falling snow. She quickly compared the distance in her mind and realized she was about five kilometers away from the inn she had started at. Only a few seconds or tens of seconds had passed, yet she had already crossed most of the city, walking from one end to the other.

—Are you going back? —Aren't you going back?

Alice's thoughts continued to race, ultimately arriving at a moderate conclusion: 'Going back is fine, but not going back is also acceptable.' No one knew how many days this massive blizzard would last. And even if the snow stopped, if the vampire princess didn't want to leave, then she and Alice would have to remain there.

Because Morningstar City in Skyrim Province isn't large; even including the scattered settlements on the outer edges of the city, it's only a circular city with a diameter of less than four kilometers. This distance is negligible for the powerful beings within Morningstar City—a mere few steps away, a tiny gap that can be heard with a tilt of the ear. And in her perception, there were at least four beings of this level in this city.

Alice herself was one, and the vampire princess who was now lying in bed, learning to sleep like a mortal at night, was also one. And the remaining two, the man and woman who had looked at her from afar in the Void Tomb not long ago, were two more.

Leaving aside the two remaining strange creatures, Alice knew very well that even through blizzards and gales, the vampire princess could find her trace throughout the entire city in seconds if she so desired. Just as she could sense the princess's undisguised vampire aura across most of the city by simply concentrating her attention.

She can find herself anytime, just as she can find him anytime. If she wants to leave, she can leave anytime. But if she wants to stay, then standing in any corner of this city is not much different from standing at her door or sitting by her bedside.

Since they're all the same, then naturally there's nothing wrong with it. Having realized this, Alice temporarily abandoned her plan to return directly to the inn. Instead, she continued to wander around outside.

My heartbeat has gradually slowed down, and the clock now points to 5:35. The empty streets are still filled with the blizzard, with no pedestrians in sight. Only the faint breathing and heartbeats coming from the houses on both sides prove that this is not a dead zone.

How strange, these streets, this city. Despite the impending war on the outskirts, the threat of monsters in the suburbs, and the overwhelming influx of refugees, there are no soldiers patrolling the streets, no frozen refugees in the corners. No spellcasters have emerged to stem the blizzard, and no monsters have ventured out to hunt in the snow.

Everything around her was quiet, peaceful, and serene, as gentle and slow as her own heartbeat. Yet, she felt nothing unusual about it.

No, it's not that she didn't notice. It's that she simply didn't care about these slight differences. Because such trivial matters were of no value to her. They weren't worth her attention at all.

But what in this world is worth my attention? What should I do? Should I change anything?

Alice tilted her head slightly, pondering for a moment before stopping. Her only anomaly was her excessive focus on the vampire princess, and the sight of one or two unidentified illusions about her. But now, it seemed unnecessary to verify this suspicion.

"What if I kill her?" Alice randomly chose a street and stepped forward. Her mind, which had just stopped functioning, began to wander again. A bold idea surfaced in her mind, only to be quickly rejected by her.

She can't die yet; I must complete the task she entrusted to me. I must return her to her home.

[—Then I'll kill her after sending her home. Wiping out her entire family is also an option, depending on the situation.] New thoughts replaced old ones, and then even newer thoughts replaced those that had already become old.

No, she might make other requests. And a dead person can't make any more requests.

"But why should I agree to her request? Why should I consider a request she hasn't even made yet?"

Because the black tea she brewed was quite delicious, even though I don't particularly like it, I figured it wouldn't hurt to drink a little more.

[——……]

【………】

Her thoughts and footsteps came to an abrupt halt. When she stopped, Alice realized she had unknowingly crossed several blocks. The time was now 5:40. And the surroundings remained utterly silent. In those brief five minutes, Alice had conjured up hundreds of ideas for killing the vampire princess, only to have them rejected one by one by hundreds of reasons that surfaced in her mind. These reasons, while initially somewhat plausible, became increasingly chaotic and nonsensical as they progressed.

This can only prove one thing, demonstrate one fact.

"I don't want to kill her, or even hurt her. I don't want to cause any harm to that woman who calls herself Serana Valhatch, but whose true nature might be a red-haired demon or a purple-haired scholar. At the same time, I want to indulge her, satisfying her every whim and demand without feeling impatient."

But why do I have such thoughts?

Alice once again questioned her inner self, but this time, she found no answer from the depths of her mind. Her heart continued to beat steadily, without sudden throbbing or heaviness. All she found was a profound silence and emptiness, as deep as the night.

No one could give her an answer, not even herself. She subconsciously looked up at the sky, where countless stars still twinkled silently above the blizzard-stricken clouds.

It was still dark.

She noticed that she was now not far from the two figures who had been following her ever since she left the Void Tomb. And then, a new thought silently surfaced in her mind.

Should I try to contact that man and woman? They've been following me for half a month, having countless opportunities to get close, yet they always keep their distance. They must want something from me, so why are they holding back?

Once her thoughts began, they were hard to calm. She considered it; directly communicating with the other party before determining whether they were friendly or hostile wasn't a good decision. Taking a more covert approach might be a better approach.

But their lives are on the same level as mine, and there might be spellcasters there. Perhaps my every move on this street is being watched. And to pass by discreetly, I might need to prepare some disguise.

As she pondered, the soul of a dragon named Minimenir, which she had slain in Whiterun when she was a Dragonborn, was ripped from her body—a pain that would be like having flesh and bone ripped out for an ordinary person or a common supernatural being, but to her it was as easy as a gentle breeze—no, she had no concept of pain, not even pain on the level of her soul.

A form identical to hers, except for a slight golden-red hue at the ends of her hair, was swiftly sculpted. She hesitated, then a thought of rejection, welling up from the depths of her soul, of rejecting the idea of ​​dividing herself into two equal parts, stopped her—in the end, she did not endow this clone with intelligence or the ability to think, but rather allowed it to exist as a mere puppet. Then, the moment this puppet appeared, her own presence diminished to nothingness.

"FEIMZIGRON"—this whisper escaped her throat. The dragon's roar, unique to this world, instantly concealed her presence and form. As she vanished into the blizzard, her puppet, used to draw attention, also disappeared in another direction.

—It is 5:45 now, and the surroundings are still shrouded in darkness, with only the blizzard raging.

....................................

"That girl didn't come; she left in another direction." — At 5:45 AM, in a private mansion in Morningstar City, a man who had found a new employer a few days earlier, watched the continuous blizzard outside the window and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

“That guy…that woman, she’s definitely not the Alice I know. Definitely not.” Zheng Zha said in a low voice, his emotions complex and dominated by confusion. “But I can sense that she has some kind of connection with the Alice I know…no, she has some kind of extremely ‘close’ connection with this whole world. And it’s definitely not as simple as the ‘Dragonborn’ identity we see on the surface.”

Zheng Zha tilted his head and looked at his companion. As expected, all he saw was a vast expanse of books and scrolls filling his field of vision.

"You're emphasizing something we verified at least ten days ago. Zheng Zha, do you expect me to give you an acknowledgment so you can keep rambling on with me?" Xilin's voice came from behind the scroll, her tone full of disdain and impatience. "If you have the leisure for this, why don't you go and collect the entire 'Song of Return'? Or, if that's not possible, you can just find somewhere to enjoy some literary work that might appeal to you, like 'The Energetic Argonian Maid.' I remember you just found Volume Four not long ago?"

Zheng Zha pursed his lips.

"Sorry, I'm not interested in tails or anything like that, and I'm even less interested in reptiles. If you want to see, look all you want. I'm not—"

“I don’t mean anything!” Sirin’s voice suddenly rose four octaves.

“…It’s nothing.” Zheng Zha shook his head, wisely choosing not to argue with women at work. He casually found a place to sit down. Then he picked up a book and glanced at it—

Damn! It's "The Energetic Argonian Maid - Volume 4"!

Zheng Zha's face darkened. He was about to crush the erotic book when he suddenly realized it was a cursed spellbook. Crushing it might actually summon a lizard maid to perform a dramatic scene with her tail wagging. His expression turned from gloomy to dark, but he gently placed the spellbook back in its original position.

A sneer came from deep within the book, but Zheng pretended not to hear it.

He looked around, his eyes taking in vast arrays of documents, both new and old, scrolls, clay tablets, and wooden blocks. A multitude of documents from various races and eras were gathered here. This was precisely the work he and Sirin had been doing for the past two weeks.

Half a month ago, in that tomb called Youkong, after learning about Zhao Yingkong from him, Xilin immediately changed. She suddenly went from a 'spectator' to a 'good partner of the Zhongzhou team'. Initially, she planned to directly contact Alice or simply tear the timeline back to the Youling world. However, the former was rejected after a brief observation before contact, and the latter was simply impossible due to her incomplete recovery from injuries.

From that moment on, Sirin began collecting information and intelligence about this world. From astronomy to geography, encompassing history, mythology, and customs, she devoured every book she could find. In less than half a month, the amount of knowledge in her mind reached an indescribable level. All scrolls that didn't contain any magical power were either destroyed or stored after reading them. The knowledge containing magical power, however, was piled up here, accumulating enough to fill the entire mansion.

Sometimes Zheng Zha even suspected that Xilin, like Alice, was involved in information gathering. But then he thought that almost all the spellcasters and sages he knew placed great importance on information collection. Thus, his doubts dissipated. Although his mind wasn't the sharpest, he considered his judgment of people to be quite accurate. In the time he'd spent with Xilin, he was basically certain that she was a trustworthy partner. And since she was trustworthy, certain details didn't need to be overly concerned.

Since he couldn't understand the wise men's actions anyway, he just needed to find a place and obediently eat bananas. He'd wait until the wise men had figured it out and then tell him 'where are the people, how many to cut down.' Of course, he'd occasionally jump around to demonstrate his personal will and sense of presence. But in reality, he'd long since given up on thinking.

Yes, just like now.

Zheng Zha, chin in hand, leisurely surveyed his surroundings, which consisted of nothing but arcane and magical books. He used his senses to monitor the entire city while munching on a fresh banana he'd somehow acquired. He could clearly sense that the dragonborn Alice he'd marked had returned to her inn and, as she had for many days before, remained motionless in one place.

That's good. If the other party doesn't move, he doesn't need to either. He just needs to wait quietly for his partner to make a result—even though he has no idea what Sirin is researching. But he feels that there should be results soon.

He, Zheng, has always been very confident in his intuition.

Chapter 62: Alice's Decryption

Unlike Zheng Zha, Miss Xilin has never had any confidence in her intuition. Although it seems that things are turning around now, and she is no longer like before, where everything she does fails and she only encounters bad luck—she still needs to be cautious.

Half a month ago, she obtained information about the reincarnator Zhao Yingkong from Zheng Zha. Through subsequent indirect inquiries, she immediately confirmed that Zhao Yingkong was indeed the sister Zhao Zhuikong, the sister-obsessed brother, constantly boasted about, and also the sister of the main personality. Undoubtedly, if Zhao Yingkong hadn't returned to the fourth stage and hadn't awakened the main personality, then that sister-obsessed brother would most likely have done the foolish thing of forcing his sister to attain enlightenment. However, when all these conditions were not met, the situation would take a completely different turn.

—The times haven't changed. Zhao Zhuikong, driven to despair by his sister's sudden disappearance, joined the cycle of reincarnation. This means Zhao Yingkong's life as a reincarnator must be in the same era as Zhao Zhuikong's. The main god might arrange some time discrepancies, but it certainly won't be too late.

—Zhao Yingkong seems to have found a way to suppress the darkness in her heart. Therefore, there's a high probability that Zhao Zhuikong, that sister-obsessed guy, will join the Zhongzhou team, and the Zhongzhou team happens to have the transfer items. This 'high probability' has become 'absolutely certain'. Furthermore, the East America team, being a mere shell, essentially only has herself and Zhao Zhuikong as its fighting force. If he wants to jump ship, there's no reason for her not to.

After piecing together the conditions, the final conclusion was that he couldn't bear to watch this show anymore. Joining the Zhongzhou team was an inevitable decision, and since he had decided to join this reincarnation team, he had to make contributions and gain the recognition of the team members—the former was simple, and building a good relationship with the captain was also easy, but apart from the silly and cute captain Zheng Zha, the opinions of the wise men were also crucial.

Alice, Alice Margotrovid... Was everything here a setup by you?

Sitting amidst what is literally a mountain of books, Xilin pondered for a moment, looking at the conclusion she had reached based on all the information she had gathered over the past two weeks. In the end, she hesitated, unsure of what to do.

Half a month ago, upon learning of Zhao Yingkong's situation, she used some of her trump cards, forcibly activating the hound avatar she had possessed and controlled as a lackey of the Lord of Time. This was the rule-based authority that should have been acquired only after gathering the Light of the Mind—she herself couldn't return, so she attempted to use this hard-won authority to directly break through this barrier of the timeline and travel to the future, to the Central Plains team on the chessboard of the gods in Disbod. She thought this would be easy, after all, Ismir's avatar was severely injured, and there shouldn't be any enemy in this river of time capable of contending with her. However, events unfolded in ways she never expected.

She failed; her hounds were unable to travel down the flow of time to the future. Even with her powers, even without any obstacles on her journey, her mission still ended in failure.

The reason for her failure is unknown, perhaps beyond her comprehension. Her hounds wandered through the gaps in time, even impacting the timeline itself in a self-destructive manner, causing a spacetime tremor that could be felt by inhabitants beyond this world. She was also unable to return her will to the future.

—She was unaware that her actions had provoked Zhao Zhuikong, who was located on the other side of the Tree of Life.

The girl sighed inwardly.

When things are beyond our control, we can only settle for second best. Past painful lessons have taught Miss Celine that she is no longer as stubborn as she was many years ago. Realizing she cannot travel along the timeline to the future, she recalled her badly damaged hound and turned her attention to the world closer to her.

This world, this continent, this star called Nirn, and this continent called Tamriel. Over the past fifteen days, she had gathered enough information with her pack of half-crippled hounds. Some were important, some were ordinary, but one piece of information stood out particularly.

Ismir refers to the Northern Dragon, and in the mythology of this world, it refers to the Dragonborn mentioned in the songs circulating on the continent. And the current Dragonborn is none other than the girl named Alice, whom they have been paying close attention to!

Alice is the strategist of the Zhongzhou team. From Zheng Zha's description, she possesses unimaginable wisdom and strength that is probably even slightly greater than his own. Although she doesn't hold the captain's position, this young lady's influence within the Zhongzhou team may, in some ways, surpass that of Zheng Zha.

So, is this current situation part of her scheme...? Everything we did before was just infighting among ourselves. We were simply used as pawns by others?

She pressed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

If Ismir is Alice, then what foolish things were the dragon spirits and their adversaries doing all this time while they were fighting on the land of Disbod? And does accompanying Zheng Zha through time travel to this era mean that the two of them were tricked and turned around to break the schemes set up by their companions?