Alice blinked twice and counted off with her fingers to show him:
"'Mother Tree of Desire,' me, 'The Fool,' and then…"
She paused for a moment, stretched out a finger and tapped her chest four times, drawing the symbol of a Crimson Moon.
Counting like this, it really did seem like four… Wait, when did I become a favored one of the Goddess?
Klein suddenly reacted and asked suspiciously:
"When did I become a favored one of the Goddess?"
Alice lowered her head and seriously pondered for a moment, then touched her chin and asked:
"Which Goddess are you referring to?"
Klein raised "Creeping Hunger" once more.
Alice stared at "Creeping Hunger" and thought for a few seconds, licked her lips and asked:
"If I now let 'Creeping Hunger' revert to the state before it was full…"
"I don't mind feeding it with you." Klein replied expressionlessly.
Tears instantly welled up in Alice's eyes.
"Stop pretending," Klein couldn't be bothered with her, bent down and picked up the gray-white light cluster on the ground that looked like a brain.
"Hmm… Sequence 8's Beyonder characteristic?"
"It can't even be exchanged for a set of auxiliary materials," Alice pouted,
"High Sequence… money really is just a number."
After a pause, Alice murmured again:
"You reminded me, I haven't finished drawing my comic…"
She silently disappeared while murmuring to herself.
Klein was deeply shocked by Alice's dedication. Though his question still hadn't been answered, he didn't try to call Alice out again. Instead, with a snap of his fingers, he burned the fragments of clothing on the ground.
He sat back behind the desk, watching all the traces disappear in the flames, and then pulled the rope, causing the bell outside the door to ring.
Lueran lifted the "Sealing" and walked in, instinctively scanning every corner of the room.
The disappearance of Follett Ken didn't cause any reaction from him. He quietly accepted Klein's orders and went off to arrange the arrests targeting the Celestial Sect and the Rose School.
…
After using the excuse of injuries to cancel all arrangements for the next two days, Klein finally had time to follow up on Alice's previous question:
"So, when exactly did I become a favored one of the Goddess?"
Alice was holding a lively lobster by its tail. As she reached out and tore off its two claws, she casually said:
"We all crawled out of the same graveyard. We even lived next door to each other. The Goddess couldn't have seen only one of us, right~?"
Klein looked at the dying lobster, hesitated to speak. Alice noticed his gaze and silently reattached the claws.
The words Klein had prepared were swallowed back. His expression suddenly became serious as he frowned and asked Alice:
"Alice, you wouldn't do something like that to humans one day, right?"
Alice's hand on the lobster's whiskers suddenly paused. The lobster's claws took the opportunity to clamp her finger. Although it didn't even leave a red mark, Alice frowned at once and angrily threw the lobster to the floor.
"Alice." Klein's tone grew heavy.
He hadn't asked this question on a whim—it was just that Alice's way of looking at humans, most of the time, was no different from now.
Alice bit her lip, stared at the dead lobster on the ground and said:
"You can't ask me to regard humans as the same kind… That's very unrealistic."
"So, will you do it or not?" Klein didn't follow up on her words.
The room suddenly fell into silence. Klein didn't speak first, so after several minutes passed, Alice's voice finally came:
"I don't know… maybe, sometimes I will, sometimes I won't."
After a pause, she looked up with a slightly hesitant tone and said:
"Actually, compared to before, the times I don't seem to be increasing."
Klein was slightly stunned.
At this moment, Alice turned her head. Seeing the lost look in Alice's expression, he hesitated for two seconds and couldn't help but say:
"How about… you just scold me instead?"
"…Are you sick or something!" Alice fulfilled his wish without hesitation.
Klein looked at the reanimated expression on Alice's face and laughed:
"See, now that feels right."
Alice gave him a mock fierce glare.
Even though Alice's previous words clearly weren't the truth, Klein gave up on pursuing the matter of how exactly he became a favored one of the Goddess, and instead asked:
"Alice, there's actually something I've never asked you. I wonder if you still remember.
"The Saint Foran… what happened with it?"
This was a belated judgment. Alice's actions instantly froze. She lowered her head and glanced with the corner of her eyes toward the window and the door, hoping someone would come in or something would happen outside.
She succeeded—a figure in a tuxedo appeared at the window. He had black hair and blue eyes, the corners of his mouth slightly downturned, and carried that detestable aura from Alice's memory.
It was Admiral Amyrius.
Alice, as if seeing a family member, quickly ran over to open the window for Admiral Amyrius, then said with teary eyes:
"General, you're finally back. I missed you so much!"
Admiral Amyrius nearly fell down.
Klein ground his teeth, walked over and grabbed Alice by the collar, ignoring her pitiful gaze, pulling her aside.
Then, he looked at the clearly startled Admiral Amyrius and asked:
"…Admiral, how about you come in first?"
—Although Alice was unreliable most of the time, Klein had full trust in her spiritual intuition.
Admiral Amyrius silently entered the room through the window. At this moment, in this situation, he completely lost the desire to test Alice and Gehrman Sparrow, and directly asked:
"Has anything happened in the past few days?"
Before Alice could open her mouth, Klein reached out and tugged on her oversized school uniform, successfully shutting her up.
Admiral Amyrius clearly noticed this. His authoritative gaze fell on Klein. Klein resisted the pressure and selected the lightest matter to report:
"Your secretary made a mistake and was injured."
"Hm? And?" Admiral Admiral Amyrius nodded deeply and reservedly.
Klein tried not to avert his gaze, looked straight at him and said:
"Your younger brother was removed from the governor's post. The new governor has already taken office.
"Your Miss Cynthia mutated into a monster and was purified by me.
"Some of your guard members and servants were partially infected and are currently being treated…"
Alice watched Admiral Amyrius's expression grow increasingly uncontrollable, slowly turning into bewilderment, and delivered the final blow:
"General, I think… I want to have a child with you…"
(End of chapter)