Chapter 97: Harvest
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;
The Mysterious Ruler above the gray fog;
The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck."
After Bernadette disappeared, Alice relaxed her stiff body, closed her eyes, and began praying to Klein.
A deep red light enveloped her. When she opened her eyes, she had appeared in the space above the gray fog.
In reality, Alice's body sat motionless on the sofa.
In the silent darkness, Bernadette's figure reappeared. She stared at Alice for a moment, then draped a blanket over her on the sofa before vanishing into the darkness again.
...
Above the gray fog, Klein had just deciphered the incantation for the "Blasphemy Card" - "Bernadette" in ancient Feysac. Upon receiving news that Alice had arrived home, he casually pulled her up.
"Look," Klein pushed the unsealed "Blasphemy Card" in front of Alice.
Alice picked up the card, which had once been disguised as a bookmark. At first glance, she saw the transformed Emperor Roselle.
He sat on an ancient stone throne, wearing a black crown inlaid with various gems. He wore jet-black armor covered by a cloak of the same color, holding a scepter in his hand, his eyes gazing coldly ahead.
In the upper left corner, a line of text explained the sequence of this card: "Sequence 0: Black Emperor!"
Alice reached out and flipped through the "Blasphemy Card" like a miniature book. A new page appeared, showing Emperor Roselle in a new form wearing a white hood. The annotation beside it read "Sequence 9: Lawyer".
*So many low-sequence potion names are just job titles...* Alice silently mused, looking at the description of the Lawyer.
"Skilled at discovering and exploiting loopholes in rules and opponents' weaknesses, possessing excellent eloquence and logical reasoning."
Without examining the potion formula that could only be sold for now, Alice turned to the next page. She fell into deep thought as she looked at the drastically different image of Emperor Roselle and "Sequence 8: Barbarian" that appeared before her eyes.
"Huh?"
"Problems that cannot be solved by law must be resolved by force..." Alice read out this line of text with complex emotions.
Alice looked up at Klein's expression. Clearly, Klein's feelings about this sequence name were also quite ambivalent. After pondering for a while, Alice commented, "I think Circus Leader would be better."
Klein's smile instantly disappeared.
Alice blinked, looking at Emperor Roselle on the Black Emperor card. After tapping the table twice, she asked, "What do you think Emperor Roselle looks like as a 'Witch' and 'Pleasure Witch'?"
Thus, they both developed a strong curiosity about the unseen Witch cards.
Alice flipped through the subsequent pages one by one. After browsing through different versions of Emperor Roselle's portraits, she nodded thoughtfully and said, "So, starting from Sequence 5, extraordinary individuals need rituals to advance?"
"That's right," Klein nodded.
Pushing the card back to Klein, Alice leaned back in her chair and asked, "Shall we sell the 'Barbarian' formula to that person at the Brave Bar?"
"Sure," Klein readily agreed, "First, let's calculate how much I should pay 'Justice' for her help in probing..."
"..." After a moment of silence, Alice said, "Then let's talk about how I just met Bernadette..."
"Huh?" Klein's eyes became confused, "She caught up with you?"
"No," Alice shook her head, "She went directly to my home to wait for me."
"Has she left?" Klein asked, recalling Bernadette's sudden appearance in the exhibition hall.
"I prayed to you after I saw her disappear..." Alice's tone became increasingly hesitant as she observed Klein's expression, "What's wrong?"
Klein pondered as he described his encounter in the exhibition hall to Alice. Finally, he asked, "Why don't you go back and check?"
After returning to reality, Alice blinked twice and moved her body. The blanket slid off her.
Looking at the blanket mysteriously covering her, Alice's body stiffened. After surveying the living room, she took out a coin and silently thought, "This blanket was put on me by Bernadette," then tossed it.
Seeing the king's face on the coin in her hand, Alice suddenly felt a deep fear.
Fortunately, it was Bernadette who suddenly appeared, and fortunately, she had no malicious intent. Otherwise...
Alice closed her eyes briefly, silently thought "There's someone else in this room," and tossed the coin again.
"Phew..." Alice sighed in relief when she saw the number side, leaning back on the sofa.
Returning to the space above the gray fog, Alice sighed and said, "Bernadette was already gone when I went back."
"...So she did watch you come up here?" Klein frowned.
"Mm..." Alice also frowned, "She told me earlier that she wanted to find the 'Fool's' believers..."
Klein quickly understood Bernadette's intention, then couldn't help but sigh in relief, smiling, "But I don't have any believers at all."
Alice shrugged and changed the subject: "Alright, let's continue our previous discussion... How much do you plan to pay 'Justice' as a reward?"
"3000 pounds," the Fool replied generously.
Alice gave a thumbs up to the generous Mr. Fool, then asked, "Do you have that much money?"
"She still owes me 5000 pounds..." Klein answered softly.
"You mean she owes Mr. Azik, right?" Alice mercilessly exposed.
"But I can't possibly give the money to Mr. Azik right now," Klein said righteously, "Why not use it to improve myself first, right?"
"...Fine," Alice replied, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Theoretically, since you took the risk of entering the exhibition hall to steal the 'Blasphemy Card', I should probably contribute more money..."
"Do you have that much money?" Klein threw the question back at Alice.
"No, I don't," Alice answered matter-of-factly.
"..." Klein looked at Alice with exasperation before continuing, "There's no need... If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have known there was a demigod in the exhibition hall, and she wouldn't have given up chasing me to wait for you instead... In fact, the risk you took wasn't any less than mine."
After saying this, Klein hesitated for a moment before asking, "You didn't reveal my identity, did you?"
"If I had revealed it, she wouldn't have hidden and waited for me to contact you..." Alice quipped before continuing, "But even 1500 pounds is more than I can afford right now..."
"It's alright, I don't mind if you owe me for now," Klein said with great trust.