Chapter 137: The Corpse
St. Samuel's Church is usually very peaceful. Alice, as usual, stepped into St. Samuel's Church to pray. Apart from waking up late, the only difference today was the monocle on her right eye.
She wondered if anyone in the church could recognize Amon's monocle...
Alice suddenly thought of this question. She looked around the church, but everyone was busy with their own affairs, and no one seemed to notice her monocle.
Disappointed, Alice lowered her head and tried to appear more devout.
It always felt like coming to church was just like checking in daily... Ah, what are you thinking!
After praying with a facade of piety but a distracted mind, Alice stood up and walked back absentmindedly.
She subconsciously followed the familiar streets until she saw that the original stalls had been replaced by new vendors, and then she stopped.
She watched silently for a while, then quietly turned away, unable to help but think of Will Onsetin, who was still in his mother's womb when she met him that day.
...I wonder how the coachman from that day is doing?
This question flashed through her mind. After pondering for a moment, Alice boarded a carriage.
—If she was too lazy to find the coachman's current location, it would be easier to infer the situation from a fellow traveler.
So Alice asked this question: "What would you do if your carriage suddenly went out of control..."
Through the carriage, Alice couldn't see the coachman's expression, but she felt the carriage shake slightly, followed by the coachman's voice: "Don't joke like that, ma'am, it's not funny at all."
"This is not a joke," Alice said seriously. "I'm just curious... If this happened, what would you do?"
"I would die," the coachman answered without hesitation.
"But even if the carriage goes out of control, it doesn't mean you will definitely die..." Alice replied, puzzled, with a frown.
"Ma'am, may I ask what you do for a living?" the coachman asked.
"I..." Alice hesitated to find the right words, "I'm collecting material."
"Just as I thought," the coachman seemed to chuckle, but his tone was more reflective, "You must come from a privileged family and have never worried about making a living."
"Why do you think that?" Alice asked, confused.
"Because I'm just driving for someone else," the coachman sighed. "Not only do I have to share my earnings with the owner of the carriage, but if the carriage is damaged, I have to pay for it."
Alice was slightly taken aback, realizing she had never considered this issue before. Something seemed to be on the verge of revelation: "Why don't you buy your own carriage?"
Almost as soon as she spoke, Alice regretted it. She realized that someone struggling to make ends meet couldn't possibly have spare money to buy a carriage.
Alice hurriedly tried to amend her words: "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, I meant..."
"You're here," the coachman stopped the carriage, avoiding the previous question.
Alice quietly got off the carriage, watched the coachman leave, and after a while, tried to draw a smile on her face. After several failed attempts, she gave up and returned home with pursed lips.
When Klein described the lives of the poor through the identity of "The World," Alice was shocked and moved, but she didn't really take it to heart.
To her, it was like an amazing story, a world she had never heard of. She listened, felt moved, and then it was over.
Maybe she would throw a few coins into the donation box when she had spare money, but her slight kindness towards the poor was not even comparable to her care for stray cats and dogs.
Of course, this was only if the stray cats and dogs met her aesthetic standards.
—She didn't care whether the other party was pitiful or how they lived.
So, she could thoughtlessly drag the innocent ice cream vendor and the coachman into her struggle with Will Onsetin...
"The fairest thing about fate is that it is unfair to everyone..."
Alice murmured the words she once said to Charlie King. She felt she should remember something, but her mind was blank except for a sharp pain.
Alice's emotions didn't last long before a gray mist appeared in front of her.
"West District, Green Cemetery."
Klein left only this simple message. Alice blinked in confusion, not understanding Klein's intention, but she decided to go and see.
There was a birch forest on the outskirts of Green Cemetery, where carriages were not allowed. Alice walked into the woods, covering her mouth and nose with her hand, regretting not wearing a mask.
She approached a seemingly intact birch tree, wiped the bark with her right hand, and instantly, her palm turned gray-white.
—The birch bark had turned into gray-white dust that she wiped off.
Alice looked into the depths of the forest, seeing a patch of gray-white soil under each birch tree, and fell into contemplation.
So, what is here?
After pondering for a moment, Alice picked up a stick from the ground, stood it upright, and let go without using any divination ability.
She walked in the direction the stick fell.
After walking about ten meters, Alice picked up another stick and continued in the direction it fell.
—Leave everything to fate.
Alice followed the direction the sticks fell, sometimes taking detours, sometimes retracing her steps, but she kept walking until the last stick.
—When she let go, she accidentally used a bit of force, and the stick stood upright in the soil.
Alice looked up. The birch tree had a ring of bark peeled off its trunk, indicating it had been through a lot.
Alice looked down at the upright stick, pondered for a moment, and tried to use dream divination to see what was there.
From the sky down, first was the birch crown.
Passing through the sparse branches and leaves, along the snow-white trunk, skipping the lower half with almost all the bark peeled off, then the soil.
Alice felt she could smell the earthy scent, hear the rustling of insects in the soil, and...
A strange and nauseating smell made Alice alert.
Passing through the soil, deep in the earth, Alice saw a... no, a highly decomposed child's corpse.
His skin had merged with the soil, and the tree roots were eager to pass through him, turning him into their growth nutrients.
In this bizarre perspective, Alice could even see insects crawling through his body, entering and exiting through his mouth and nose.
Waking from the dream, Alice clutched the tree trunk, retching violently.