Girl in the Box: Please tell me why I was reincarnated as a mimic monster!

“Miss Senno,” the guard asked, “what just happened? What was that loud bang?”

"Ahem," Senno coughed awkwardly twice, "It's nothing. The loud noise was because these documents were too heavy, and I didn't hold them properly and accidentally dropped them on the table."

"Oh, is that so?" The guard nodded. "Thank you for your hard work. Please take a rest. If you need anything, just call us. We'll be waiting outside the door."

"Well, thank you."

Having dismissed the two guards with a reason that even she found somewhat laughable, Senno sighed in the empty office, then rearranged the documents on her desk and placed them aside. With that, the document-organizing work was finished. Utterly bored, she walked to the window and gazed at the now largely lifeless city.

The fact that the portals were set up in the inn has not yet been made public, as it could cause unrest and disrupt the innkeeper Kanina's daily life. Considering these issues, Alice abandoned the idea of ​​using these portals to relocate some residential areas to the safer Akihabara. Therefore, these portals are currently only used for transporting supplies and people from Akihabara.

If Li Hening or the Demon King hadn't been there, the outcome would probably have been different.

The thought filled Senno with dread. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if any one of the three were missing. She had witnessed the overwhelming fighting power of the elves that night. They had risked their lives and spared no effort in the Sangu Workshop to save many people, and that was only because they were lucky that the elves didn't continue their pursuit.

The situation would be very different if the elves hadn't lost their advantage, according to Senno.

However, Senno didn't quite understand why the elves had retreated. Elves possessed the ability to survive; if they were immortal, why would they retreat?

The answers to these questions will soon be provided to her.

bump!

The office door was rudely flung open, and walked in the person Senno had just been talking about, Alice. However, Alice had clearly come alone. Where was the Demon King? Senno was too lazy to think about such things and didn't intend to concern himself with the Demon King's situation.

“Welcome back, Miss Alice.” Senno bowed respectfully.

"Yes, I'm back," Alice greeted her.

After closing the door, Alice went straight to her desk, sat down, took out a map of the city, and unfolded it on the table.

“Senno,” Elise asked, “have you investigated the demographic distribution of the survivors?”

“Yes, I’ve investigated,” Senno said. “There are more survivors in the West and North districts because the elves invaded from the East Gate, so the damage there is the most severe. In the South district, most people have been corrupted by the sudden crystal attack…”

“I see… I understand.” Alice began drawing on the precious map without hesitation. “Hmm… that makes it roughly clear. Senno, do you know where the people living in the South and East districts are now?”

“I know.” Senno nodded.

“Alright.” Alice put away the map. “Come with me. We’ll go see those people.”

"learn."

After Senno helped Alice pack her things, the two left the office together and headed to the back garden.

On the way, Senno asked, "Miss Alice, how did things go?"

"Huh? Oh, I forgot to tell you..." Alice stuck out her tongue. "Sorry, I was just focused on getting things done as quickly as possible and didn't explain to you."

“I don’t care, please go ahead.” Senno didn’t mind.

“Well, there’s something we might have misunderstood…” Alice wore a complicated expression, then began to recount to Senno what had happened in the duchy as they walked. After listening, Senno understood why his master had that expression.

“Ugh…” Senno said with mixed feelings, “That Demon King actually did such a thing during this time… Oh my god…”

Last night, the Demon King apparently went straight to the Elf's stronghold, the Crystal Forest, to cause trouble. There were only four of them, including three girls—meaning everyone except him was female. It's unbelievable that he could do such a thing. Even worse, not only did he do it, he also managed to abduct a high-ranking elf. It's beyond words.

But that's not the main point. The real point is the truth about the elves. Not only Senno, but even Elise is finding it hard to believe. If Yan hadn't spoken to her in person, she wouldn't have been able to believe it.

"Are there still ghosts in the country...?"

Senno's murmur was precisely what both of them were most concerned about. If what the elf said was true, then it proved that ghosts still existed within the New Kingdom. Just thinking about it sent chills down their spines. The special forces known as "Ghosts" were arguably the most powerful assassination force in the world; they had all sorts of methods to kill.

As the original activity site of these madmen, the New Kingdom can be said to be a place with a large number of ghosts after the war. There are countless ghosts here, but the New Kingdom's power is not enough to fight against them in the dark. So, how dangerous is their situation?

Perhaps, right now, there's a ghost behind them.

Both of them glanced behind each other instinctively, and only relaxed when they realized no one was following them. If this city were truly filled with ghosts, it wouldn't be something to laugh about; it would only send chills down your spine.

“Ha...we seem to be getting a little paranoid…” Alice said with a wry smile.

“I will protect Miss Alice,” Senno said confidently.

"Alright, alright, stop talking." Alice interrupted her. "I'd rather you protect yourself than protect me. Come on, it's alright, at least for now."

Alice said she didn't intend to talk about the topic any further because too many people had already sacrificed their lives in the past few days, but it wasn't enough to numb people to the point of having no thoughts about death. The desire to live still needs to be there; it's a human instinct.

“By the way,” Elise said as they walked, “if we were to set up a portal, where do you think would be the best place to do it?”

"A portal?" Senno thought for a moment. "What kind of portal?"

“It’s not clear yet,” Elise said, “but broadly speaking, there shouldn’t be any problems. The point is, we need to make this portal operate as efficiently as possible…”

"It's a bit blurry..." Senno gave an awkward smile. "The question Miss Ellisde asked me earlier, was it actually about choosing a location for the portal?"

“Hmm,” Alice nodded, “There are fewer people in the city now, and our city is basically full. It’s probably difficult to make room for a teleportation portal. So I was thinking, maybe we should consider abandoning the buildings that are not in use?”

“Hmm…” Senno thought for a moment, then suddenly tapped his hand, as if he had just realized something.

“Senno?” Elise looked at her in confusion.

“Well…” Senno said, “Speaking of unused buildings…aren’t there a whole bunch of them here?”

"?"

Alice's gaze followed the direction Senno was pointing to, where the church stood out even more prominently than the palace in the city.

The church, Seric's accomplice, has ceased to exist due to public outcry. Its buildings and territory have been reclaimed and temporarily isolated. In short, the area is usually idle, making it an ideal location for a teleportation portal. However, it seems the church's contents haven't been properly organized and moved elsewhere yet.

“Hmm…that is indeed a good option…” Alice took it into consideration.

"I'm relieved to hear you say that."

"who!?"

"Hehe, don't be nervous, you guys."

A silver light flashed in front of the two, and Li and Ning appeared before them immediately. To show their safety, they raised their hands in surrender, although Ning was unwilling to do so.

“It’s you guys…” Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes, it’s us, of course.” Li tilted his head. “Besides us, who else could suddenly appear in front of you like this?”

"Yes, I guess... ghosts and stuff... wait, this isn't the time to talk about that." Alice stopped the conversation and asked, "Have you dealt with the portal on the duchy's side yet?"

“Yes, that’s right,” Ri nodded. “Thanks to Toning, the work is progressing quite quickly. And now Akihabara is still under my jurisdiction, so I can do whatever I want in Akihabara. Ah, of course, I mean the Akihabara that used to be in the principality.”

"I see, that way it can indeed be resolved quickly..." Alice understood. "Speaking of which, what you meant earlier was..."

“Oh… I haven’t explained yet…” Li explained, “We have already set up the teleportation portals in the duchy and the labyrinth. We’re here now to resolve the teleportation portal issue as soon as possible, and then Xuanze and I will head to the Demon Realm as quickly as possible.”

"So fast?!" Alice and Senno exclaimed in unison.

"Well, it's just that preparing the materials for the door takes quite a bit of time," Li said casually. "Actually, adding the magic doesn't take much time at all. By the way, we can tear down that church, right?"

"Uh……"

Because things were developing so fast, before Alice could even make any preparations after returning, they had already completed the setup of the portals between the duchy and the kingdom. If it was because the labyrinth was familiar with the setup and therefore the portals didn't take long, Alice would have believed it. But could the setup of the duchy be done so quickly as well?

Ning keenly sensed Alice's confusion and reluctantly brought Li back to the point.

“I’m sorry, I’ve told you a whole bunch of things in one go,” Ning said apologetically. “Let me just give you a brief overview. The design of the teleportation portal we set up in the duchy and the labyrinth is the same. This teleportation portal has a rather special design, so it requires a very large open space. Before we came here, we were thinking about which places in the kingdom would be suitable for setting up the teleportation portal, and we all came up with the same idea.”

“I see…” Elise nodded. “I understand the general idea… However, considering that there are still some valuable things in the church, we can’t destroy this building immediately…”

“We have a way to handle that,” Ning smiled. “Besides, I don’t intend to let something this expensive go to waste. We’ll just lower its height a bit. We can use spatial magic to store things within the church, and we’ll hand them over to you once you’ve found a suitable place. Is that alright?”

“That would be perfect…” Alice said with a wry smile. “How could we possibly refuse? It’s just that we feel a little bad leaving all these things to you to handle…”

"It's alright, that's not a problem. Li, could you please go and tidy up the church's things?"

"Oh...I understand."

In the afternoon, the church of the New Kingdom was destroyed by magic. The towering white tower was cut in half, but no one was injured. There, a circular platform and a large number of magic iron blocks appeared, just like the original site of Akihabara in the Principality.

Chapter 22 Kanina's Night Talk

"Waaaah... what's wrong with the church?"

"I don't know. I saw it explode here in the afternoon, and that's how it turned out."

"It's so scary..."

"What the hell is that thing...? Did the church have anything like that before?"

"There are still guards over there... Be careful, don't get too close, it might be the work of ghosts."

"Fool, this doesn't seem like something a ghost would do," Lisa thought to herself, her head covering veil.

With such a commotion at the church, it was impossible for no one to know. As a major symbol of the Old Kingdom, the residents were naturally concerned about its condition, but most of them came to watch out of curiosity. Seeing that the towering white tower had become its current height, everyone seemed to have seen something extraordinary, and they discussed it animatedly.

Many people attributed the commotion to the ghosts, but as far as Lisa knew, she was the only ghost still alive in the kingdom. She didn't know where the other ghosts were, but she was certain they weren't in the kingdom. Gathering this information was easy for her, so she could confidently say it wasn't the ghosts' doing.

First of all, the ghosts are not interested in these kinds of things. They prefer to torment other people rather than destroy things. So, they would not do something as boring as destroying the church's white tower unless there was a particularly good reason for it. At most, it would be done accidentally while tormenting someone.

That's strange... what exactly happened?

Lisa couldn't understand it. Ever since the kingdom was attacked by the elves, it had done so many incomprehensible things. She was starting to wonder if Alice had lost her mind. This incident was probably the work of the forces of the new kingdom. Did they think that blowing up the church would summon the ghosts? That was ridiculous.

Lisa, of course, wouldn't follow such an idiotic line of thinking. There must be some reason for doing this; she didn't think that the shrewd young girl, Alice, would blow up a church that had cost so much money, manpower, and resources to build for no reason. She racked her brains for a while but couldn't come up with any reliable guesses, so she decided to investigate other wonders.

"Really..." Lisa sighed helplessly, "If only I hadn't killed that nobleman... Now it's even difficult to get any information about the palace... By the way, where did those people come from...?"

In the past two days, the number of residents, which had decreased significantly due to the elf attacks, has suddenly begun to rise again, which is rather strange. Moreover, the city's defenses have become much stronger, and the number of people deployed for defense has certainly increased, but the question remains: where did these people come from?

"I have no choice but to... investigate this..."

Beneath the veil, her red lips curved into a seductive smile. The dancer vanished into the shadows, disappearing without a trace, unnoticed by anyone.

"This is way too fast..."

Alice stared in disbelief at the completed "teleportation portal." That was the theory, but it didn't look like a portal at all; it was just a huge circular platform without even the shape of a door. It should actually be a teleportation array, right? Come to think of it, they didn't seem to have done anything special. They just took out a lot of large blocks of magic iron and threw them in various corners.

As for the purpose of these magic iron blocks and this circular platform, only Li and Ning probably know. However, the two are currently heading towards the inn to find Demon King Xuanze and travel directly to the Demon Realm that very night. This teleportation portal is temporarily placed here. According to Li, the portal is complete, and the magic power supply issue has been resolved. All that remains is to wait for the gate to the Demon Realm to be set up and activated.

"That was incredibly fast..." Senno exclaimed in disbelief, "I didn't even see what Ning did..."

“They seem to have engraved something on those magic irons…” Elise thought for a moment and said, “That’s beyond our control. After all, as far as I know, she’s probably the only one in the world who can use this kind of magic.”

They didn't consider the possibility that the magic iron blocks might be a trap, because they trusted Li and Ning completely. They were people who could completely trust each other and entrust their backs to each other for protection, so there was no need for any doubts or extra thoughts.

Meanwhile, Li and Ning had just returned to their hotel.

"Oh? You're back?"

Upon seeing the two enter, the shop owner, Kanina, who was behind the counter as usual, greeted them.

"Yes, we're back." Li waved and asked, "Where's Xuanze?"

"Oh...you mean that little boy with black hair?" Kanina thought for a moment and said, "Well, he's on the first floor. Just turn right after you walk into the corridor, and it's the first room. I saw he was pretty sleepy, so I gave him a room to sleep in. Speaking of which, when are you planning to restore those doors on the second floor for me? I still have business to do."

"Sorry, please wait for us for one more day, just one more day." Li smiled awkwardly. "We've come here to find him so we can go to the Demon Realm together. Once all this is taken care of, we can restore the door."

"Hey..." Kanina rested her face on the counter. "Speaking of which, where have you been these past few days? I didn't see you guys yesterday..."

"Uh... I went to the principality and then went back to Akihabara..."

"Wow, that's incredibly fast..." Kanina exclaimed in surprise. "How did you guys do that? It's not that I don't believe it, it's just a little hard to believe..."

That distance, from the New Kingdom all the way to the Duchy, then back to Akihabara, and finally back to the New Kingdom, all in less than two days—such speed of movement is rare in this world, or perhaps it no longer exists. Even knowing they have convenient things like teleportation portals, it couldn't possibly be that fast.

“Yes, these two days were worth it,” Ning said. “We spent two days setting up the portals for the Duchy, the New Kingdom, and the Labyrinth. After that, we can shorten these two days to half a day.”

“That’s really impressive…” Kanina nodded. “You guys are really amazing… It feels like I’ve witnessed a miracle. Ah, sorry, I guess I’ve wasted your time? Hurry up, that person should be in the room, don’t waste any more time.”

"No, thank you for your patronage these past few days."

"Yes, yes, as long as you remember to give the money honestly."

Kanina watched as the two rushed into the room, carried away the boy named Xuanze without a word, and then disappeared from her shop.

"Oh, shopkeeper, do you have any good wine? Two glasses, please!"

"Okay! As long as you have enough money, you can drink as much as you want!"

Kanina responded by taking out a wine glass, pouring wine into it, and handing it to her customer before returning to the counter to observe the packed restaurant. This was a scene that should have been impossible; after those two finished their business, they probably wouldn't see it anymore. The drastic decrease in residents had made the already sluggish inn even more deserted.

This time, it was because of these two that so many people were staying here temporarily. Thinking that business probably wouldn't be this good in the future, Kanina sighed helplessly. There would likely be a significant decrease in the number of hotels in the future, and her own hotel would probably have to close down. She hadn't thought about what to do after that.

Just as she was still negatively thinking about these things, another guest walked in. She quickly perked up and prepared to greet the guest, but when she saw the guest's appearance, her enthusiasm vanished instantly.

"Please give me a cup of dwarven fire wine."

The guest sported a signature blue spiky hairstyle, a feature so obvious it required no further explanation.

“Sonic…” Kanina said patiently, “I don’t want to repeat myself, it’s a waste of time, and as you can see, I have a lot of customers right now, I don’t have time to argue with you and give you instructions.”

“No,” Sonic said shamelessly, “Miss Kanina, I’m just a guest today.”