2-2

39 Mr. Star

After taking a long sip of sweet iced tea, Alice successfully put the incident aside and remembered Mr. Dwayne Dantes, who claimed to be from Dixie.

"I wonder if Klein will hold a party…" she muttered.

The few times she attended banquets in Backlund had made Alice define banquets that were supposed to be used for socializing as "an occasion to eat free ice cream." As for the impact this would have on Mr. Dwayne Dantès... she had never considered it at all.

After taking another sip of her sweet iced tea, Alice started walking home.

By the time she returned to her home after stopping and starting many times, the journey that was originally only half an hour had been delayed to nearly two hours.

So Alice met Leonard, who had been waiting for a long time, at the door of her house.

Logically speaking, Alice's purpose in leaving the address was not to let Leonard come and wait, she just wanted to leave an address where she could send letters - I have to mention here that according to the police's feedback, the house had been re-rented by the landlord, and all the letters from when Alice was away were taken away.

As for the new tenant...it was of course Miss Selwyn Muggeridge, whom I had only met once, if that was still her name.

Back to the topic, when Alice saw Leonard waiting at the door from afar, she realized that her words at that time might have caused some misunderstanding.

It was already evening, time to get off work. Mr. Leonard Mitchell had a particularly eye-catching face. During this period of time, Alice had seen quite a few girls passing by and peeking at this gentleman.

——God knows how long he has been waiting here.

Alice shook her head, pulled up the hood of her robe, adjusted the monocle on her right eye, and walked to stand in front of Leonard.

When those anxious and eager green eyes fell on her, Alice thought she would hear something, like a question, or concern - there must be something.

But she heard nothing.

Leonard was very quiet, a rare silence. He looked at Alice and said nothing.

Alice opened her mouth, but again no words came out.

That's great, it seems that he has at least matured a lot... Alice thought so, but she couldn't feel relieved.

Because she realized that this was not the idea she had in the past - not only her old friends had changed, but also herself.

She already looked down on other people, even those she had known in the past.

So in the end, Alice just sighed softly, looked up at the sky, and said in a soft and ethereal voice:

"Long time no see, Leonard."

At the same time, she added in her mind:

"Goodbye, Leonard."

It was not until this time that Alice finally woke up and realized that no matter what the relationship between her and the "mortals" was in the past, at least now, they were two species.

Even she herself had that kind of arrogance and disdain for a long time, and it wasn't even developed after she left Tingen City - at the very beginning, she was arrogant because of her "luck".

In a way, she has never actually considered herself the same as other people, but she has always been asking others to do the same, but when others do this, they cannot make her unhappy...

...What a bad idea.

When Alice realized her true state of mind, she instinctively frowned.

If someone treated me like this, I would hate Him from the bottom of my heart... Alice sighed, glanced at Leonard, and suppressed the mumbling on the tip of her tongue.

…I'll go talk to Miss Justice some other day.

In the midst of his complicated thoughts, not much time actually passed. After Leonard stared at her for more than ten seconds, he asked nonchalantly,

"Should I still call you Alice?"

This was a test of her attitude, and Alice understood it, but she glanced at Leonard and inexplicably felt that something was wrong.

——She always felt that if Leonard hadn't been concerned about her being a girl, he would have grabbed her and asked her a bunch of questions without even thinking about it.

For example, whether Klein is still alive.

Alice had even thought about how to make it up - her hand had already touched the tarot cards in her pocket, ready to take them out and let Leonard draw a card.

Yes, she was ready to leave the job of explanation to Klein himself, the great Mr. Fool.

But things had come to this point. Alice thought for a moment, then smiled socially and said to Leonard:

"Of course, at least until now, you can still call me that.

"However, perhaps in the near future, this name will become a taboo that cannot be spoken out loud, and become… well, it shouldn't be a secret, the name of the night will be a secret.

"Shouting my name will probably bring bad luck or something, right?

" "Oh no, if I shout in Loenese, it shouldn't have any effect, right? I guess I should shout in a language that can leverage the power of nature, such as ancient Hermes, Dragon Language, Elven Language, etc...."

In front of the red-gloved man, Alice called him the disrespectful name "Night".

She has always been like this, calling the goddess "goddess" in front of the goddess, and calling the night in front of other people; in the Church of Night, she is the goddess's favorite, and outside the Church of Night, the night is her favorite.

If Alice felt a little guilty at first, after knowing that the goddess would probably look at her from time to time, she felt more at ease doing so - because the goddess didn't seem to intend to care.

But her words revealed more than just this one name.

The true name of the true God carries two pieces of information: power and the existence of Sequence 0. This is no secret to Leonard, who has an ancient archangel hidden in his body.

Therefore, he understood the hint in Alice's words.

God is so awesome...

Leonard looked at Alice with horror in his eyes. He had a lot of questions in his heart. At this moment, it seemed inappropriate for him to say anything.

Alice didn't plan to let him speak. She took out the tarot cards she had been planning for a long time. After unfolding the cards, Alice realized a problem.

"Wait a moment," she said calmly to Leonard.

Next, Alice calmly spread out the tarot cards in her hand, picked out the twenty-two main cards from the middle, and then stuffed the remaining fifty-six cards back into her pocket. She shuffled the twenty-two main cards, turned the cards back to Leonard, and unfolded them in her hand again, saying to Leonard:

"Pick one."

This calm and flustered moment instantly destroyed the temperament just now. Leonard was stunned for a moment, and an inexplicable sense of familiarity arose in his heart. For a moment, Leonard felt that the Alice in front of him seemed to be the same Alice in Tingen City.

But this was impossible. He had matured a lot after all. He was in a daze for just a moment before he came to his senses and reached out for the deck of tarot cards.

She didn't cheat like Klein did - Klein once described how he made others draw the cards they wanted.

Since our great Mr. Fool has never dealt Tarot cards offline and has always dealt them online, the twenty-two main cards he materialized could all be the same card.

I'm not like Klein who needs to cheat... Alice muttered to herself as she increased the probability of Leonard drawing the "Star" card.

She watched Leonard reach for the tarot cards, then quickly pulled the entire deck back. Seeing Leonard's bewildered expression, she pursed her lips and asked,

"I say, the old gentleman from the Zoroast family.

"There's no need to test me on this matter, right?

"Or do you thieves and liars just like to provoke others?

"After all, your opponent, the most powerful thief in the world, was brought up by the top 'provocateur'~"

No one spoke. Leonard, who was sandwiched between the two of them, clearly felt the oppression of the mythical creature and realized that he might have been involved in a struggle that he shouldn't have been involved in.

That was not all. When Alice saw the probability of the "Lovers" card increased and the probability of the "Star" card decreased, she was really angry. So she used the skill she had just learned not long ago to elevate her spirituality and glared at Pales Zoroast through the unique vision of an angel.

The glance was harmless, but it was apparently enough as a deterrent, and when Alice took out the tarot cards again, the probability had returned to what she needed.

"Take one." She said to Leonard again.

Leonard didn't dare to move until an old voice that was faintly weak rang out:

"Take one."

He breathed a sigh of relief for some reason, reached out and pulled out a card from the twenty-two cards, and turned it over - it was, as expected, the "Star" card.

Alice immediately closed the tarot cards in her hand, put them back in her pocket, and smiled at Leonard,

"Welcome, Mr. Star."

"If you have any questions, just say the Fool's Honored Name.

"I think you should know what the Fool's honorific name is, right?"

Leonard certainly knew what the Fool's honorific name was, but Alice's identity and her words seemed to reveal something. He looked at Alice with some uncertainty and said hesitantly:

"The Fool? You… no, you and the Fool, and the Goddess…?"

Alice immediately crossed her hands, made a refusal gesture, and said firmly:

"I'm not responsible for answering questions for newcomers!

"If you really want to ask, then just... just...

"Well, let's just assume that Dark Night and Fool are both my followers!"

Alice raised her chin and said something natural that was terrifying to the red glove, then turned around nonchalantly and prepared to push the door and go home.

When her hand was on the door handle, she suddenly stopped moving, turned around as if she remembered something, and walked back to Leonard in two or three steps. She took the "Star" card from Leonard's hand and put it in her pocket.

Next, Alice prepared to leave for the second time as if nothing had happened.

Leonard didn't react until this moment. He didn't care about the "Star" card that was drawn. He asked Alice, who was about to leave, a question he had wanted to ask for a long time:

"Brill Rose is you too, right?"

This was a question he had carefully thought about and prepared, because it was Miss Briar Rose who told him that the protagonist of the era would push open the coffin lid.

He came in a hurry and did not have the time or the memory to check Briar Rose's file for the second time. In the last file he checked, Briar Rose's identity had not yet been linked to Alice Kingsley - at that time, Alice Kingsley was still dead.

Therefore, Leonard only knew that there was something wrong with this lady, and when Alice reported the address belonging to Briar Rose, he realized this possibility.

Leonard wanted to confirm this, because based on his impression of Alice - if those impressions were credible, then Alice would not casually reveal her identity, she would only reveal the identities of others to trick them.

For example, trick Klein who also crawled out of the grave.

Of course, this is based on the premise that they still keep in touch and have a good relationship.

Alice didn't think too much about it. To her, Briar Rose's identity was almost an open secret. As for Klein's secret - since the goddess was watching her, it was easy to judge whether this secret that was not revealed above the gray fog could be told.

After all, under the hidden authority, secrets that cannot be told really cannot be told.

Alice admitted the incident without any code, and even emphasized it to Leonard:

"It's me.

"What's wrong? Do you want to go back and see... whether the protagonist of the era has pushed open the grave and climbed out?"

This was almost a clear indication. Leonard clenched his fist and was about to say something, but Alice left without hesitation.

She closed the door and returned to the room. Then she put on a bright smile, walked to the sofa with steady but quick steps, sat down, and prayed with curved lips:

"The fool who does not belong to this era,

"The mysterious ruler above the gray fog,

"The Yellow and Black King of Good Luck,

"Great Fool...your secret has been exposed."

The tone was brisk but mixed with unconcealable excitement. After finishing the prayer, Alice opened her eyes again, leaned back on the sofa, and took out the twenty-two cards again.

The reason why Alice snatched the "Star" card back from Leonard at the last minute was nothing else but because - not to mention that no one in the world sells a single Tarot card, they are sold in packs. Even if there were, Alice didn't want to spend money to buy it.

Thinking of this, Alice put away her excitement and sighed heavily:

"I really envy him at times like this...

"Although he did have to cheat to get people to draw the cards he wanted, but…

"He ruined a deck of tarot cards without letting anyone draw a card!" (End of this chapter)

40 Possibility

Watching Alice disappear in front of him, Leonard didn't care that he was still outside. He opened his mouth and asked the air around him:

"Old man, do you understand what she means?"

The slightly weak old voice just now replied slowly:

"have no idea.

"However, you'd better stay away from this 'new saint' of your church."

Unfortunately, Leonard failed to detect the abnormality in Paul's tone. He asked doubtfully:

"Why?"

Pales didn't speak for a while, choosing his words because Leonard didn't seem to realize the deep meaning of his words - although this was normal.

So when Leonard was about to ask a second time, Pales spoke with a slightly fearful tone:

"That Highness... no, that His Majesty.

"It doesn't look like this is the first time He has said, 'The night and the fool are my followers.'"

There was too much information contained in these few sentences. Not to mention that the Extraordinary World assumed that "Your Highness" was a respectful title for angels, nor did it mention where "Your Majesty" came from. After all, the word "He" could explain some problems. What Leonard cared about was Pallez's attitude.

There were not many beings that could make the old man living in him show fear. Before this, Leonard always thought that only the true God could make Pales respect him.

Leonard then became nervous and subconsciously stepped back from the door before cautiously shouting a second time:

"...Old man?"

Pales then began to explain what he had just said slowly and methodically:

"…Considering that no divine punishment has been imposed so far, this at least proves one thing.

"Let's not talk about the Fool whose background neither you nor I know. At least from your goddess' point of view, there are only three possibilities for this matter."

"Which three?" Leonard asked hastily.

Pales replied:

"The first possibility is that this thing is true, or at least it was true.

"The second possibility is that there is a third great being who is looking after Him. That great being cares about Him very much and is also very powerful, so powerful that even the Fool and your goddess combined cannot defeat Him.

"The third possibility is that neither the Fool nor your goddess combined can defeat Him.

"However, if we are a little unrealistic, there might be a fourth possibility. For example, "He" has a very good relationship with the Fool and your goddess, or he is simply the incarnation of one of them…"

Leonard remained silent.

Each of these possibilities was more outrageous than the other, and he had no idea which one to believe, but he finally understood why Pales called Alice "Your Majesty" and why Pales had that attitude.

——He is either a true God walking on earth, or a favored one that a great being is unwilling to lose.

He...

Leonard took one last look at the closed door, clenched his fists tightly, then slowly released them, and said in an emotionless voice,

"I need to go back to Tingen City."

…

It was already evening when Klein talked to Alice about this.

As soon as Alice walked down the stairs and jumped off the last step, Klein waved his hand to signal her to come over.

Without anyone else, the bronze table was no longer visible above the gray fog—otherwise, even if he sat in the chair closest to Klein, it would still be too far away.

For Alice, she actually has another choice which is to sit on the table, but Mr. Fool does not want to do that. He is afraid that when Miss Fate gets angry, there will be no table to hit and she will jump down and hit him.

Therefore, when they were the only two of them above the gray fog, they would often sit on a single sofa facing each other, with a table slightly higher than the coffee table in the middle - the height of the coffee table was not very convenient for taking pictures.

Today is no exception.

But Mr. Fool was very anxious today. He asked hurriedly before Alice sat down:

"What's going on? What do you mean your identity has been exposed?"

He actually heard Alice's prayer at dinner time, but that scene was not suitable for going above the gray fog to check the news - usually, when Alice notified him in this way, the matter was either not urgent, or...

From Alice's point of view, this might be a surprise?

For example, the fact that his identity was revealed might be a surprise to Alice—the kind of surprise that would shock others but bring her joy.

Alice remembered what had happened from Klein's words. She said slowly as she sat down,

"Don't worry, it's not a big deal. I think the other thing I encountered was much bigger than this...

"I just drew a 'Star' card for Leonard!"

Oh, this is it...

This was something he had been mentally prepared for. After hearing this, Klein felt relieved and just confirmed again:

"Are you sure that this is the only thing that means your identity has been exposed? You didn't say anything else?"

"Of course not!" Facing Mr. Fool's untrusting look, Ellie slammed her hand on the table without hesitation, "Am I that kind of person?"

Klein's eyes became even more suspicious.

Alice opened her eyes wide. Her genuine anger put Klein at ease. He asked another question:

"What else did you encounter?"

Alice then remembered another thing she had forgotten. She had never intended to hide it from Klein, so she immediately said mysteriously:

"I met a new 'traveler'."

Klein turned his head sharply and stared at Alice.

Seeing that her words had brought the same shocking result as expected, Alice became happy, and she smiled with her lips curved:

"Besides, let me tell you, you actually know this person.

"And they are not some dead, history-book-like figure – our new compatriots are alive and well, even active."

Alice's description gradually made Klein confused. He pondered for a long time and gave the most likely answer among all the impossible answers:

"...Leonard?"

"No," Ellie denied it mercilessly, "but Leonard also knows him."

Klein's eyes now turned into one of complete confusion.

Alice said that when they both knew this person, he still had a lot of choices. After all, they had known each other for so long.

But Alice said that Leonard also knew this person, and Klein was very confused - after all, before his "death", he and Leonard had always been ordinary colleagues.

In fact, their personal relationship can be described as zero.

This also resulted in their social circles not having much overlap, and they were basically all stable within one range. Klein thought for a long time but couldn't figure out who it was, so he looked up at Alice and asked with a frown,

"So who is it?"

The mystery was almost solved, and Alice revealed the answer with a smile:

"Yes... goddess~"

"...?" Klein looked at Alice with a look of shock and horror.

It is undeniable that there was not a single lie in Alice's words. The goddess did meet this condition perfectly - he, Alice and Leonard all knew the goddess.

But the goddess is a character that will never appear in the options.

It took him a while to accept this answer. He took a breath and asked Alice:

"Then the goddess noticed you because...?"

Alice knew what Klein wanted to ask. She shook her head and denied the question:

"It's not because we are all 'travelers'... or rather, it's not just because we are all 'travelers'."

Klein was slightly stunned, and Alice raised her eyes and reminded him,

"From the Second Era to now, the goddess has lived for at least thousands of years, but He has only lived for a few short decades as a human, not even a fraction of a lifetime.

"How much do you think those decades of memories can create in His long life?

"Besides... you can't use the mentality of a mortal to speculate on the gods."

Klein calmed down after hearing Alice's words. He tried to remove the filter of his hometown that he had left on the goddess, and still looked at the goddess with the same mentality as before.

The little "Sun" would copy down a lot of Silver City's history during every Tarot meeting. Through that history, Klein realized that the goddess was most likely the Doom Wolf in history, born in the Second Age.

To this day, the goddess has no idea how many years she has lived.

The fact that they were born from the same civilization could win them some basic favor from the goddess, but it might not really influence the goddess' decision.

After realizing this, Klein gradually relaxed and asked Alice,

"How did you find out about this?"

Alice was easily distracted by the new question. She shook her head and explained:

"The goddess told me!"

Klein glanced at Alice, but didn't show any of the expressions she expected—his expression remained unchanged.

He had long understood Alice's style of doing things, and knew that when she half-said something and hid the other half, it was purely to bluff people, and cooperating with her would only make her become more aggressive.

Sure enough, Alice soon became bored with his lack of response, pouted her lips, and began to explain the whole story.

The information given in this way was much more complete than her sporadic blurting out, and Klein was able to hear the whole picture.

Of course, this didn't help at all. He soon discovered that it was full of Alice's far-fetched guesses and inferences - she seemed to have just had this idea, then kept thinking about it, asked a question casually at some point, and then happened to get an answer.

This process cannot be replicated.

It wasn't too surprising. Klein glanced at Alice with mixed feelings and found that Alice didn't take it to heart at all. She immediately asked with great interest,

"Will I be able to see Leonard at the next Tarot Club?"

Klein answered this question tactfully: "He needs to recite the Fool's Honorable Name first."

I think there are not many people in this world who would recite the name of a great and unfamiliar being - Alice cannot be considered a human being.

Even Alice would not rashly recite a name she had never heard of. She would at least look up the information before reciting it.

This reason convinced Alice. She pouted and sat down, muttering,

"If I had known, I would have forced him to finish reading your name... and read my name as well... and so on."

Alice's voice suddenly paused. She seemed to have remembered something. She raised her head little by little, looked at Klein with a slightly hesitant look and asked,

"My honorable name...?"

Alice finally remembered what she had forgotten after coming out of the "God-Forsaken Land" - Will Auceptin was about to be born.

What can a Honorable Name do? Of course, nothing can be done. Whether it is based on Alice's knowledge of mysticism or Klein's knowledge of mysticism, the Honorable Name can only do one thing - that is to help Will Auceptin find Alice.

It's no big deal, but Alice now has something on her body - "0-34".

In the prophecy of death in "0-34", everything remained as Alice saw in the revelation. She reached the top of the "destiny" path and was finally swallowed up.

However, since the three "Mercury Snake" extraordinary characteristics of the "Destiny" path all have their own masters, the top that Alice can reach is actually only "Prophet".

And "0-34" comes from the extraordinary characteristics of a "prophet".

So, based on Alice's experience, the final development of this matter may be like this:

First, at some unexpected moment, she would accidentally swallow the extraordinary characteristics of the "Prophet".

Will Auceptin will probably get a revelation about this moment, and He will prepare in advance. Alice believes that He must have a way to temporarily restore the strength of Sequence 1. He can do it when He is promoted, which is His weakest state.

The honorific name from Will Auceptin just provided a means of positioning... So, did she need to keep her new honorific name a secret?

This thought flashed through Alice's mind, and she put it aside, deciding to leave the question to Klein, to the great Mr. Fool.

All in all, Alice realized that if she followed the above idea, she would face a decisive battle with Will Auceptin one day unexpectedly, which was obviously not what she wanted.

But, in that case, the winner would most likely not be Will Auceptin...

Alice let out a slow breath, knowing full well what was going on.

Just as "Sun" Derrick asked at the time, she didn't see the scene of her return at all, because was it her who returned... No, maybe it really was her.

That could be an existence that is both her and not her.

Alice shuddered with a look of disgust, then said to Klein seriously,

"Klein, I have two tasks for you."

She was rarely so serious and formal. After realizing that she was not pretending, Klein also sat up straight.

Alice exhaled again and said carefully:

"The first thing... help me keep an eye on Will Auceptin's condition. Tell me immediately when He is born... uh, wait a minute."

Alice seemed to have suddenly remembered something. She looked at Klein hesitantly and asked:

"Will He attack you?" (End of this chapter)