Chapter 114: The Forbidden Name
Alice continued reading Roselle's diary, which maintained an extremely low information density. From the first few paragraphs, she gleaned no information other than his real name being Huang Tao.
"...But that doesn't seem very useful!" Alice thought with a complex expression as she read on. She did manage to obtain another piece of marginally useful information: Roselle's transmigration was due to a mysterious silver medal.
This appeared to be the extent of the information. Unaware that Klein was currently fighting Amon's avatar, and that the real Amon had already learned of her existence from the Little Sun, Alice destroyed the diary and decided to go out for an ice cream to calm herself down.
...
In the underground of Saint Samuel Cathedral, Archbishop Saint Anthony emerged wearing a black robe with red trim. Lost in thought, he ignored those greeting him and made his way to the ground floor. He leaned against a chair and began to pray quietly.
After a while, he opened his eyes, gazed towards the cathedral doors, let out a sigh, and returned underground.
...
"Alice Kingsley?" In her dream, when the man in bishop's robes called out this name, Alice's pupils suddenly constricted, betraying obvious shock and fear.
"As expected," the man continued before she could adjust her expression, "someone has reported to the Church of the Night that you are still alive."
Alice opened her mouth, unsure of how to react normally—her spirituality told her that the person before her was a demigod.
"Did you know about this?" the man asked gently.
Alice's mood relaxed slightly, and she shook her head.
"The person who reported you is named Charlie King," the man said pensively. "Do you know him?"
Alice immediately realized this was the source of her unease, Charlie King's final act of retaliation before death. However, she hesitated, unsure whether she should tell the man that she was hunting Charlie King.
The man waited quietly for her answer. Observing his patient and gentle demeanor, Alice suddenly realized he likely knew she could remain lucid in dreams.
...Why? Her ability to stay lucid in dreams should be due to the Goddess's favor... which means, this is the Goddess's command?
Alice relaxed at once. She nodded and said, "I'm hunting him."
"I see." The man before her nodded, then informed Alice of Charlie King's location.
Alice was momentarily unsure what expression to wear in response to this.
The man seemed to have come only to notify her, and left her dream without waiting for her reaction.
Waking from the dream, Alice rubbed her brow. She got out of bed barefoot and went to the bedroom window. Drawing back the curtains, she gazed at the not-quite-full moon casting light into the room, lost in thought.
Only when the night breeze made her shiver did she snap out of it. She hurried back to put on shoes and drape a coat over herself. Looking at the moon outside the window, she clasped her hands to her chest and began to pray quietly.
...
Awakened from his dream by the sound of prayer, Klein grumbled as he ascended to the gray fog, skillfully pulling Alice up as well.
Before Klein could ask if she was ill, Alice preemptively said, "I saw a saint from the church in my dream."
Klein's expression immediately turned serious.
Well, even though the real reason was that I couldn't sleep, as long as there's important business he won't blame me...
Alice blinked twice without a hint of guilt and said, "The saint told me Charlie King and the Church of the Night reported my existence, then gave me Charlie King's location."
"?" Klein felt his brain wasn't quite keeping up. After careful consideration, he tentatively asked, "The Goddess?"
Alice shrugged.
So, with the simple thought that he was already awake anyway, Klein asked, "So are you going to find Charlie King now?"
"I'm not crazy," Alice rolled her eyes.
"?" Klein began to feel something was off. "Then why did you wake me up?"
"Uh..." Alice's gaze wavered for a moment before she quickly became righteous, "I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to see if you were asleep."
"?" At this moment, Klein deeply regretted that he couldn't flip the table in the gray fog.
He looked at Alice, who was blinking innocently, with a headache. After admonishing himself several times not to argue with a minor, he asked, "About Amon... do you remember anything else?"
Alice furrowed her brow and thought hard, those jumbled images resurfacing in her mind. Her expression involuntarily froze.
Noticing Alice's change in expression, Klein quickly asked, "What's wrong? Did you remember something? Why that face?"
Alice opened her mouth as if to speak but hesitated, looking at Klein and wondering if she'd get hit for asking if he liked men.
...Even if it's just a pure physical relationship, it would be weird to ask!
Klein looked at her in confusion.
The words turned over in Alice's mouth several times without being spoken. Finally, Alice gritted her teeth and changed the subject:
"Shen... I had a friend before, her name was Song Shu. She read a book where you and Amon... were both characters.
"Everything about Amon and you, she told me..."
A chilling feeling spread through Klein's heart. Klein had no doubt that if he weren't in the gray fog at this moment, his clothes would be soaked with cold sweat.
After a long while, he asked dryly, "Do you remember anything else? Like the name of the book and its main plot, setting, and so on?"
Name, plot, setting... Alice frowned as she tried to recall this information, or rather, to search for memories related to "Song Shu".
A scream from her spirituality stopped Alice from probing further.
"Tsk," Alice drew in a sharp breath. Under Klein's concerned gaze, she raised a hand to her forehead. When her spirituality calmed a bit, she explained, "Don't worry... it's a spiritual warning."
Klein suddenly felt that perhaps having too high spirituality wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Alice frowned in deep thought. She had been warned once during the day when trying to recall Klein's identity, and now at night she was warned again when recalling the book's title, plot, and setting—just how dangerous was this book?!
So, which part was dangerous? The plot? The setting? Surely it couldn't be... ouch.
The risk-taking Alice received another warning. After rubbing her temples, she looked up at Klein with a strange expression and said, "The title of that book seems to represent some kind of forbidden knowledge?"