Chapter 12: "I Forgot."
Alice finally made her way to the underground market.
After covering her nose to pass through the Dragon Bar and entering through a secret door, they traversed several rooms before arriving at the legendary underground market.
Here, people set up stalls, inquired about prices, and wove through the crowd searching for items of interest.
Alice followed Leonard with great interest, listening as he explained the rules of this place.
"All earnings must give a twentieth to Svein; he's the owner of the Dragon Bar and the former captain of the Punisher Squad. Moreover, if you don't have enough money, you can borrow from Svein, but…"
He paused, and Alice naturally picked up on the implication: "Does he also lend at high interest rates?"
"Obviously," Leonard agreed with Alice's statement.
Alice was about to say something about the stalls when she suddenly stopped. She heard a faint whisper and instinctively turned her head to see a pale, raggedly dressed young man in the corner, staring at her absentmindedly, with dried blood in his eyes.
Alice's thoughts stirred; perhaps this was the unfortunate creature. She halted and turned towards the young man.
His gaze was vacant, but it followed Alice as she moved, until she stood right in front of him.
Alice examined him; he seemed to have had his attention stolen by something, gazing at her as if through her, at some other presence. Alice had no doubt that without a reminder, he could stand there until he turned into a statue.
"What did you see?" Alice asked softly, looking into his eyes that seemed to fall on her and yet not.
"…I forgot." The young man's voice was slow and gentle, as if afraid to disturb something, his gaze still fixed on Alice, but she had an inexplicable feeling—he wasn't looking at her.
"Why did you forget?" Alice continued to inquire patiently, sensing that he must have seen some crucial information on her, but she couldn't look at herself—mirrors don't count.
"…" The man remained silent for a long time, until Alice was about to lose patience and consider leaving to look elsewhere, that she heard his voice, "Because of chaos."
Because of chaos? What did that mean? Alice wanted to ask more, but the man had already averted his gaze, his expression vacant but his steps firm as he walked away, leaving Alice standing there, watching him until he disappeared from sight, never looking back.
Monster. Alice took the word seriously for the first time, or rather, the path, the sequence. She began to hesitate whether to find a transcendent of the same path to examine herself.
"If I want to find a transcendent of the monster path, where should I go?" Alice turned to Leonard, who might know.
"The School of Life, only they have the origin of this path," Leonard answered with a frown, "Are you thinking…?"
"I want to know what they can see on me." Alice dropped the emotionless remark, then casually browsed the various stalls.
The School of Life… Alice slowly recalled information about this secretive organization.
This clandestine organization emerged at the beginning of this era, its exact origins unclear, primarily passed down through master-apprentice lineage. Their specific theories and beliefs were rarely shared externally; Alice only knew they divided the world into three layers: the world of absolute reason, also known as the world of absolute truth; the spiritual world; the material world. Alice remembered that this organization had once had a prophet. Prophet… the name made Alice think of the monster's abilities, and considering the seemingly unrelated three sequences, she suddenly realized something: "Generally, would a path have sequences with unrelated abilities?"
"Generally, the abilities of sequences within the same path are progressive," Leonard replied, "However, Captain Daly once speculated that besides the regular progressive sequences, there might be a sequence with a certain ability that combines at a certain sequence."
"…Sequence four?" Alice naturally thought of sequence four, the starting point of the high sequences, where the essence of life begins to change.
Leonard nodded.
Alice thoughtfully remembered this and then asked him, "Don't you have anything else to do?"
"…I was just here yesterday." His implication was clear.
So Alice said nothing more, just stood there and stared at Leonard, as if playing a game of who can stare bigger, until Leonard could no longer bear it: "…Go browse by yourself for a while."
Watching Leonard leave the area, Alice began to wander the underground market alone.
Alice stopped in front of a stall selling amulets. Even the weakest effective amulet was conspicuous in her spiritual sense in this underground market filled with fakes.
Alice crouched down and picked out two faintly glowing amulets—the only two lucky ones with the correct incantations etched.
"Do you want to buy them, miss?" The stall owner perked up at the prospect of business, "If you buy both, I can give you a discount, just…"
"No," Alice interrupted the stall owner, then picked up another beautifully crafted silver amulet amidst his confused gaze, "I want this one."
The stall owner resumed his joyful customer-facing smile: "Ah, this one… I crafted it carefully, it…"
"It's utterly useless," Alice calmly cut him off.
"Then why do you want to buy it?" The stall owner's eyes were full of the question, "Are you here to cause trouble?"
"Um… because it's pretty," Alice replied without hesitation, "Give me a price, but not as an amulet."
The stall owner looked at Alice for a moment, realizing that she might not just be a mysticism enthusiast; she had a certain understanding of mysticism—she might even be a transcendent.
"3 Sule." This realization calmed the stall owner considerably, and he chose not to price it as an amulet but as a silver ornament, of course, leaving room for bargaining, but…
Alice had no intention of bargaining and paid the money directly, then left the stall.
(End of Chapter)