4-2

Food

Anthony's heart, which had just been at ease, was lifted up again. He raised his head and looked at Alice with burning eyes.

Alice was very familiar with this look. Whenever she said something wrong, Klein would stare at her with this look, and at that time she would usually...

Alice put her hand over her mouth.

This action did not ease Anthony's frown, but made it even tighter.

Alice realized from his expression that she was not trusted here. This was normal. She had known for a long time that even Klein would not entrust important matters to her alone.

Everyone seemed to be on guard against her suddenly getting into trouble.

Alice sighed and tried to reason with them:

"I know you don't believe me, and that's normal. After all, you've never seen me complete a task alone.

"Perhaps, you could try to assign less important tasks to me?"

She stared at Archbishop Anthony, who, after thinking for a while, gave an answer that Alice definitely didn't want:

"Perhaps, you want to try to clean the church? I think, as long as you are in the church, the news in the confessional should not be hidden from you - you should be looking for more clues, not the confession itself, right?"

Alice took a breath and asked seriously, "Do you mind if I use 'Restart' to sweep the floor?"

Anthony looked at her with a slightly confused look. Alice reacted and realized that Anthony might not know what "restart" was, so she explained:

"This is the ability of Sequence 1 of the Destiny Pathway."

"...It's better not to do this." Anthony tried to persuade the young lady who treated power as a toy.

Alice stared at Anthony and wanted to say something else. Suddenly, the environment in the room became cold. Alice and Anthony looked at the table together as if they were sensing something. A letter quietly appeared on the table.

After just one glance, Anthony looked away, raised his eyes and said to her, "Your letter."

…

In the room where only one person was, Bernadette put away the letter in her hand, frowned slightly, and whispered:

"Mr. Door..."

Unlike the other members of the Tarot Club who were confused by this title, Bernadette knew the origin of the title "Mr. Door" and even the origin of Mr. "Door".

She knew that this was Abraham's ancestor, a being who was once extremely close to the true God, perhaps just like Miss Fate...

Bernadette recalled Alice's appearance in her mind again. Her disrespect for the gods when she first met them had been successfully explained. It was obvious that this young lady had been a being extremely close to a god in the past.

Not only that, her relationship with the Goddess of Night is probably extraordinary...

Thinking of the new saint in the Church of Night, Bernadette had a strange expression on her face.

If only she were really just a saint...

In her early years, Bernadette once obtained a "0" level seal of the "Destiny" path. It came from the extraordinary characteristics of the "Prophet" and looked like a bloodshot eyeball.

When she was trying to make a deal with Alice in a half-conscious state, she had thought about using the seal as a bargaining chip - but that thing was actually difficult to use in her hands.

After all, she herself is a "master of prophecy".

By the way, is there any difference between the prophecy of a "prophet" and that of a "master prophet"? If it is just clearer and more accurate, it doesn't seem to be in line with the status of a Sequence 2?

This is not just her doubt, it is the doubt of everyone who knows or does not know the ability of a "prophet" - a Sequence 2, can he only watch?

As she was thinking, the surroundings suddenly shook violently. This was not surprising, because she was on a boat, and strong winds and waves were common.

Bernadette was about to go out to check the situation when suddenly, the sound of something falling to the ground was heard.

"Pah."

She turned her head towards the source of the sound and saw a desperate, bloodshot eye looking at her.

…

Alice opened the letter that suddenly appeared.

This letter seemed to give Anthony an excuse, and he did not hesitate to suggest that Alice go first to check whether the letter mentioned anything important - in short, to order her to leave.

Of course, this was Alice's idea, and Archbishop Anthony did not admit it. He even said without hesitation that Alice could check the letters in the church, and if there was nothing wrong, they could continue to talk about what they had just done.

So Alice really opened the letter right there.

This strange way of sending a letter was obviously from Bernadette. Alice unfolded the letter to read the contents:

『

Dear Miss Destiny:

I am sorry for taking the liberty of writing this letter to you. This is a letter asking for help.

I once got a seal by chance. It came from the extraordinary characteristics of the "Prophet" - I should have mentioned it to you.

I call it the "Eye of the Prophet". It looks like a bloodshot red eyeball. When you look into it, you can see one to six random futures, one of which must be your own death.

Before I last met you in the Sea of ​​Ruins, I opened its seal to inspect it, but night fell before I could reseal it.

Later, I was unable to reseal it for various reasons, and as long as I didn't look it in the eye, there would be no danger, so I gradually forgot about it...

Until today, I looked it in the eyes by accident, and I only saw one future in it.

After that, I always felt like something was watching me, even when I left the room and tried to hide myself - there was always something watching me.

I am willing to pay you to solve this matter. It will be a gift that you are willing to come for. You can propose the reward separately.

Sincerely, Bernadette

May 9, 1350

』

Alice refolded the letter.

In other words, as long as I'm willing to go, I'll have a gift regardless of whether the problem is solved or not... And if she tells Klein, Klein will definitely not let her die.

After all, judging from the diaries handed in at the previous two Tarot Clubs, the important parts of Roselle's diary were probably in her hands.

At least I have to get the diary...

Alice exhaled and looked at Anthony. After two seconds of silence at his gentle smile, she said calmly,

"I have something to take care of."

Anthony smiled and nodded. Alice inexplicably felt like grinding her teeth. Although this might have nothing to do with Anthony, she still glared at Anthony fiercely and then disappeared on the spot.

Then, she reappeared at the same place.

Alice spoke blankly under Anthony's doubtful gaze:

"She didn't seem to give me the address..."

She suddenly stopped talking as if she had sensed something, the letter paper in her hand floated up, and she quickly folded it into a rabbit. Then, the rabbit came to life and became a small white rabbit.

Alice watched the white rabbit jump off her hand, growing bigger and bigger in the process, and by the time it landed on the ground, it was the size of a normal rabbit.

As they watched in amazement, the White Rabbit rushed to Anthony's desk and disappeared in front of it.

Alice saw that a hole had appeared at some point where the white rabbit had disappeared. The hole seemed to have some kind of attractive magic. Alice wanted to jump in and take a look. She raised her head hesitantly, and Anthony nodded at her and said:

"It's amazing magic."

Alice was relieved by this compliment, and she went towards the hole, and fell in just as the rabbit did.

This was a long and winding passage. Alice felt like she had been in it for a long time. From the occasional flickering light and shadows at the beginning to the darkness later, she even saw exposed stones and mushrooms on the walls, as well as a lot of moss.

She felt as if she was falling somewhere very deep, so deep that Alice wanted to sleep on the way down so that she would reach her destination when she woke up.

The bad news was that before she could do so, she suddenly felt something solid under her butt and she seemed to have fallen to the ground. Alice raised her head, normal light and shadow emerged, and she saw a slightly dim room.

She sat on the ground and looked around blankly, then saw Bernadette looking at her with a slightly hesitant expression.

Meeting her gaze, Bernadette called out somewhat uncertainly:

"...Miss Destiny?"

Alice inexplicably read a trace of regret from it. She got up from the ground with a strange expression and asked:

"Do you want me to just take the gift and leave?"

"...No, it's not," Bernadette denied without hesitation, and pointed to the table, "That's your gift... Please be careful not to look at it."

Alice then looked at the table, where there was a covered plate.

After two seconds of silence, she turned to Bernadette and asked:

"If I remember correctly, you seemed to say... that thing looked like a bloodshot eyeball?"

Alice pinched her brows.

he

The first time she heard about this seal, she found out that it was not with Bernadette, but with Cattleya - that is to say, this seal had actually been in Bernadette's hands for quite a long time.

At this moment, Alice no longer thought about why this sealed object had been fine before but suddenly broke down now, nor did she wonder why Bernadette would think of asking her for help - the answer was obvious, it was directed at her.

This is the second "Prophet" seal she has obtained.

No, actually, including the unknown "Cassandra", there are already three... So why did Bernadette use the dinner plate to pretend to have an eyeball?

She looked at Bernadette carefully to make sure she was not really out of control.

"There is no other suitable container..." Bernadette tried to explain.

Alice was silent for a moment, then clapped her hands from the bottom of her heart and exclaimed,

"Very good."

Bernadette couldn't tell for a moment whether Alice was praising or sarcastically criticizing her. As she was choosing her words, Alice had already walked forward and reached out to lift the lid of the plate.

As expected, the bloodshot red eyeball looked into her eyes, and so Alice also saw a future.

This future was longer than the one drawn in "0-34". Alice saw the dream again. She still saw herself climbing to the top of the tall tower alone on the disordered stairs. Finally, she looked up and saw the giant white snake above her head.

The giant snake opened its blood-red mouth and swallowed her up - this "future" that Alice had seen many times was no longer enough to arouse her emotions.

She closed the lid expressionlessly, picked up the plate and turned back to ask,

"Is there anything looking at you now?"

"No more…" Bernadette shook her head.

"I'll talk about the reward when I think about it." Alice said this, then reappeared in front of Anthony and put the plate on his desk.

Anthony looked up at her in surprise.

Alice didn't have time to pay attention to him. She was feeling the gaze falling on her, a gaze coming from fate - judging from Bernadette's answer, this eye seemed to be able to look at only one person at a time.

This is normal, after all, it only has one eyeball... Alice's mouth twitched, and after confirming that the sight couldn't find her at all, she turned her attention back to Anthony:

"I'm going to put another seal from the Prophet's Beyonder characteristic behind the Chanis Gate."

After a pause, she ignored Anthony's surprised look and added:

"I know you are going to report it, and I want to tell you that it is best to mention it when you report it. I may place many more seals with the Beyonder characteristic of 'Prophet' in the future.

"I don't know exactly how many there are. I suspect that unless I swallow this thing on the plate right now, I may have to take all the 'Prophet' seals."

This scene was shocking and puzzling. Anthony pondered for a moment, looked at the plate and asked:

"The one inside is the second 'Prophet' seal."

Alice nodded.

So Anthony then asked: "What about the precautions for preservation?"

"Just be careful not to let anyone look it in the eye," Alice shook her head. "If something like this really happens accidentally, let me come over and take a look."

It was a very reasonable answer, so Anthony nodded and said to her, "I'll let you know after I finish reporting it."

So Alice took the plate back home. After thinking for a moment, she put the plate on the coffee table, and found a pair of knife and fork, placing them on both sides of the plate.

This was certainly not for the purpose of sealing. In fact, she just thought it was strange to have a plate without a knife and fork. After all, there was even "food" on the plate.

At least it was "food" in a sense to her.

After doing all this, Alice sighed, and after washing up, she lay down on the bed in the bedroom. She closed her eyes, but within two seconds, she opened her eyes again and sat up.

"I haven't had my dinner!" Alice cried, jumping out of bed, putting on her clothes, and going back into the living room.

The dinner plate was still neatly placed on the coffee table, with the knives and forks placed on the left and right, as if inviting her, the owner, to come and eat.

Alice swallowed hard twice, then ran out of the room without looking back, leaving the "food" alone. (End of this chapter)

Chapter 50 Supplementary Materials

The continuous "urging" finally gave Alice a rare sense of urgency. Although she turned a blind eye to the "Eye of Prophecy", Alice did seriously consider her own promotion.

Before the question could be answered, Alice succeeded in falling asleep.

When the early morning sun woke her up, Alice felt a sense of confusion, and it took her a while to realize that it was the next morning.

After breakfast, Alice began to continue thinking about the problem she had not finished last night.

Archbishop Anthony told her that the Sequence 4 "No Dark Ones" of the "Sun" pathway could separate the Beyonder characteristics of the low-sequence from the high-sequence Beyonder. Alice believed that this was a manifestation of the authority of purification, and they were likely to be able to purify pollution.

This was one way she planned to gain the Chaos Walker Extraordinary trait, although she didn't actually plan it.

Last night, Alice thought that she might have another way. With such a large "School of Life", there couldn't be no "Chaos Walker", right?

As for those people who might be innocent... well, that was something Klein would mind. Alice only knew Will Ausetin's men.

"However, it's time to get the issue of auxiliary materials underway, and the progress of the role-playing..." Alice paused in her muttering.

The "Eye of Prophecy" made Alice realize that these "Prophet" seals sent to her were likely to have more than just the function of providing extraordinary properties. In fact, if the method was appropriate, it seemed to help her digest the potion.

When she was at Bernadette's place, she hadn't realized this yet. Although there was some feedback, it was not obvious enough. If the next "Prophet" seal was sent to her in such a harmful way...

Alice kept this in mind.

But, then again, including "Cassandra", this is already the third one, right? Why haven't I seen a living "prophet"...

...They can't all be dead, right?

Alice thought of the honorific name of "Cassandra" again. Although "Cassandra" did not seem to be alive, this was a seal that could communicate after all, and the other party knew her...

...I'll go find that book?

Alice paused for a moment, and suddenly she recalled an image in her memory - a donkey running non-stop because of a carrot hanging in front of it.

"…" Alice pursed her lips.

Even though she was reluctant to compare herself to a donkey, Alice had to admit that in this respect, she was indeed like a donkey with a carrot hanging from its end.

The first carrot was memory. In her memory, there was a world that was almost completely different from the present, and a sentence that was inexplicable but seemed to have a deeper meaning, but she could not remember her past, so she became curious about her own memories and intended to find people related to that world, or something else.

The second carrot is the past. She gradually realized that she had woken up in this world before and even left traces. She tried to figure out what she had done before, but this carrot didn't seem attractive enough. Her motivation was not that strong...

Then, the third carrot appeared - perhaps it was hatred, perhaps it was unwillingness, Alice was not sure how to define this emotion. In short, she absolutely did not want the "Key of Light" to win the bet, even though she had no idea what the "Key of Light" was betting on.

No, it doesn't matter what He's betting on, as long as we break the bet…we can lose together.

But I still kind of want to win.

Alice let out a breath and returned to thinking about the issue of supplementary materials.

——After all, the worst that could happen to the main material was to kill a saint.

Perhaps due to considerations of the style of Sequence 3, the supplementary materials for "Chaos Walker" were not as easy to understand as before. Although there was only one thing, Alice still didn't understand what it was.

"All the fragments of a shattered prophecy."

...?

You see, it's really hard to understand.

In fact, Alice felt that she could understand a little bit of the combination ritual - you see, the prophecy was broken, and it was reasonable to collect the fragments and piece together a new one, right?

In principle, it was very clear, but the problem was...

How do you collect this kind of stuff?

It's not even as easy to understand as the supplementary materials of "The Prophet", which are extremely concise and to the point - "the water of the long river of destiny".

Although Alice still couldn't figure out how to get this thing.

Alice sighed without much hope and murmured softly:

"I really hope that the auxiliary materials of other paths are of this style... This way I won't be the only one suffering, and I can still laugh at Klein when he reaches Sequence 3... Although judging from the ritual, this is probably a very path-style material.

"Well, since killing a Beyonder can extract Beyonder characteristics, why can't we go a step further and take auxiliary materials directly from the Beyonder? In that case…"

Alice licked her lips, lowered her head, slowly stretched out her hands, and hesitantly muttered to herself:

"...Is human flesh delicious?"

She stared at her hands and forearms for more than ten seconds, then Alice raised her head and looked around. After realizing that there could be no one here except the ones she couldn't see, she slowly raised her arm and opened her mouth to bite it.

The bite was merciless, and she quickly loosened her arm in pain, revealing teeth marks covered with saliva.

"Hiss, it hurts..." Alice took a breath, blinked at the teeth marks on her arm, and everything went back to the time before she bit her arm.

Looking at her arms that had regained their smoothness, Alice whispered to herself,

"Well... theoretically speaking, angels are no longer human. After all, they are complete mythical creatures. Strictly speaking, my current race should actually be the 'Mercury Snake'...

"I want to try whether human flesh tastes good. I should ask others, for example..."

Alice touched her chin and suddenly had a good idea. She closed her eyes, folded her hands on her chest, and chanted in ancient Hermetic language:

"The fool who does not belong to this era,

"The mysterious ruler above the gray fog,

"The Yellow and Black King of Good Luck,

"Well, Klein, can you let me take a bite?

"I want to know if human flesh tastes good..."

If it tastes good, I can put... uh, wait, something doesn't seem right.

Alice stopped praying, and after a long while, she slapped her head in a trance and said to herself,

"No, I haven't confirmed whether the flesh and blood of Beyonders can be eaten as supplementary ingredients!"

This is the core of the problem.

Alice shook her head, lowered her head and began to think about who she should ask to confirm this issue.

First of all, Alice thought that Klein must not know about this, otherwise he would definitely talk to her about it in horror - this was definitely not in line with Klein's values.

The second face she remembered was Anthony, who was smiling gently. Apart from the fact that she often had to go through the formalities, this gentleman was very patient with her. Although from Klein's occasional angry performance and Amon's gnashing of teeth, Alice thought he was forced.

It was like he was forced to work 24 hours a day.

Oh no, he still needs to eat. That day should be less than 24 hours, and it is not certain that he does not need to sleep. He did not say it explicitly... However, the food requirement of a saint has actually decreased a lot...

"It's a good thing I wasn't born an 'insomniac'..." Alice muttered softly and drew a crimson moon symbol on her chest.

However, asking Archbishop Anthony didn't seem feasible. Alice knew very well that most people would be horrified by her question, unless...

..."Aurora Society"?

Alice blinked and remembered Ouroboros.

"But if I were to ask Ouroboros, if He would really answer, I wouldn't need to ask this at all. I could just ask how to collect the auxiliary materials…" Alice muttered to herself, "I might as well ask Amon… Uh, this does seem like a good idea."

——Amon would definitely not show any horror at her intention to eat humans.

No, He would even encourage me, but I must never ask Him...

Not to mention whether the answer she got from Amon was true or false, even if it was true, Alice felt that Amon would trick her.

Moreover, Amon would try to trick me out of information... Really, why can't Amon sit down and talk to me? Why must he trick me... Forget it, that wouldn't be the incarnation of fraud.

Alice sighed and gave up this unrealistic delusion.

She sighed sadly, and then cheered up because she remembered that there was actually another person associated with Amon's name.

"Adam?" she shouted into the air, "Are you watching? Regardless of whether you were there before, you must be here now. I have a question for you - can the flesh and blood of Beyonders be used as an auxiliary material for potions?"

The room was quiet and no one paid any attention to her, just like every time before.

"Why don't you seem worried at all that I might really try to eat someone..." Alice sat up straight and decided to be a little shameless.

Don't get me wrong, she wasn't going to continue questioning Adam, she just thought of someone who didn't mind if he was scared by her.

Yes, it was Bernadette who had asked her for help yesterday.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt that Bernadette was a suitable choice. As a demigod of the "Voyeur" path and with a father who had once been the "Emperor of Knowledge", Bernadette's knowledge of the occult was unquestionable.

As for her image in front of Bernadette...haha, does she still have an image in front of Bernadette?

Alice shook her head and muttered,

"It feels worse than my image in the Tarot Club..."

To this day, Alice has some understanding of her image in the Tarot Club.

The members of the Tarot Club feared her more than they respected her. In the early days, they were even outright terrified of her. At that time, in their impression, she was an evil god who did whatever she wanted - although she was indeed one.

Alice did not deny this. She had a clear self-awareness of this. Even now, Alice did not think that she could be classified into the lawful good camp, but the members of the Tarot Club seemed to have changed their views on her to some extent - mainly starting with "The Sun" Derrick.

Little "sun"...

Alice sighed, thinking back to the tragic conditions in Silver City and Moon City.

...Even at that point, they would rather eat monster meat than try the corpses of their compatriots.

Alice vaguely realized that cannibalism itself probably carried some bad implications.

Although the memory of those ten years of school life might be an illusory dream, that dream did bring her many things, such as the story of cannibalism in the history textbook.

That is... the humanity that disappears in the face of disaster.

Alice cautiously gave up the idea of ​​trying to eat human flesh and blood. She knew that this would be much more dangerous for herself than for others. The fact that she could naturally have such an idea was telling.

However, it is still necessary to ask Bernadette...

Alice was writing an inquiry letter in the study. At this moment, she no longer had any thoughts of trying to eat a human being in her mind. She just wanted to satisfy her curiosity.

When it came to choosing a messenger, Ellie chose Bernadette, the strange messenger, without hesitation. On the one hand, Gaga didn't know Bernadette, and on the other hand...

When she signed the contract with the bird, her purpose was no longer to let the bird deliver messages.

Otherwise, she should at least ask about the bird's speed and safety or something...

Bernadette's reply came faster than expected, and Alice received the reply that evening.

She opened the envelope, and just as she expected, Bernadette knew about this matter—she gave an affirmative answer, telling her in the letter that the bodies of Beyonders could indeed serve as auxiliary materials in a certain sense.

In other words, the Beyonder itself is equivalent to a low-end version of a magic potion.

But Bernadette didn't know what her mentality was. In short, the letter was written on a whole page, and the part answering the questions only took up a small paragraph at the beginning. For most of the rest of the content, Bernadette was persuading her not to eat human beings.

Good, it seems this is indeed a serious issue.

Alice put the letter away again, sighed helplessly, stared at the ground and murmured:

"Should I really ask Ouroboros how to get the auxiliary materials?

"I can't ask Will Ausetin... Oh, my honorable name!"

Alice sat up in shock from her dying illness, and suddenly remembered this thing that she and Mr. Fool had forgotten again.

She sat up straight, and just at that moment received Mr. Fool's reply about whether she could bite him:

"If you're just curious about the taste of human flesh, I can actually tell you...

"I have read some information about this before. Human flesh is sour and not tasty at all. I don't recommend you to try it.

"You could eat something that tastes better and has more nutritional value, right?"

(End of this chapter)