Chapter 173: Before Everything Happened
"I really," Klein said through gritted teeth, trying to calm himself down, "Alice, the next time you say something like that, can you give me a heads-up?"
Alice blinked and nodded solemnly, "I'll try."
"...It's a miracle that only three angels have tried to kill you so far," Klein commented, echoing Amon's sentiment.
Alice blinked again and analyzed seriously, "Maybe just one? Adam obviously didn't want to kill me, right? As for Amon... uh, I don't think Amon intended to kill me either. He might just want to..."
"Play with me?" she suggested.
Klein pondered for a moment and then asked soulfully, "Are you a toy?"
Alice hesitated, "Not entirely, I think. When he saw those things, he must have been somewhat... uh, shocked."
"What things?" Klein asked, puzzled.
Alice was silent for a moment before replying sincerely, "Nothing at all."
"Alice," Klein frowned, "are you hiding something important from me?"
"Absolutely not," Alice swore, "I just think you'd hit me if you knew..."
"...Now I'm really worried," Klein said weakly, looking at Alice.
Alice's eyes flickered, "Ahem, let's talk about something else. I think I saw Triss."
"Hmm?" Klein's attention was indeed diverted, "What happened?"
"I don't know," Alice shrugged, "I didn't dare to look, you know."
Klein was taken aback, recalling Alice's attitude when she first saw him, and didn't pursue the matter further.
Seeing that Klein had nothing more to say, Alice slapped the table and put on a serious face, "Detective James Holmes, I have a commission for you."
Klein was silent for a moment at the title, then gave up correcting Alice and asked, "What commission? Is there money involved?"
Alice looked at Klein with a betrayed expression.
"...If you don't want to pay, just say so. Don't look at me like that," Klein said, covering his face in pain.
"Alright," Alice toned down a bit, "If I want to go to the East District, what should I prepare?"
Klein pondered for two seconds before asking, "Why do you suddenly want to go to the East District?"
Alice thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"...What's the lie?" Klein couldn't suppress his curiosity.
Alice mimicked the pose of the Thinker statue, resting her naturally curved right hand on her chin and lowering her head, adopting a solemn expression. She initially wanted to place her elbow on her knee like the statue but, seeing the table, she gave up and placed her elbow on the table instead, saying, "It's the revelation of destiny."
Klein was silent for a moment before asking, "Are all high school students like you now?"
Alice looked up at him in confusion.
Klein opened his mouth but eventually gave up on the previous topic and asked, "What's the truth then?"
Alice lowered her head, maintaining her previous pose, and fell into deep thought.
"What are you doing?" Klein asked, confused by Alice's statue-like silence.
"Ah," Alice blinked twice and looked up, "I'm thinking."
"Ah?" Klein was bewildered, "What did you think of?"
Alice blinked and said, "Nothing at all. Maybe I just want to go."
...
Audrey sat alone in the study, feeling complicated.
The girl beside Prince Edessak might be a witch... How should she tell the others this news?
She pressed the piano keys irritably, producing a harsh sound.
The sound made Audrey quickly withdraw her hand and look towards the door. Sure enough, after a while, Susie poked her head in and asked, "Audrey, are you really okay?"
Audrey opened her mouth, intending to make an excuse, but suddenly, she saw the boundless gray fog and a praying figure.
Then, a voice entered her ears:
"Great Fool, my investigation has yielded results. The woman Prince Edessak is in love with is Triss, a 'witch' of the Witch Sect. She has now been promoted to 'Pleasure Witch' and renamed Triss Chick by the higher-ups..."
Audrey instantly recalled Miss Destiny's recent speculation and realized that the Fool had confirmed it.
No, I must warn my father... But how should I do it, and what excuse should I use...
Audrey tried to control her expression and gaze, not wanting to reveal anything in front of Susie, while thinking about what to do.
At that moment, she saw the Fool sitting leisurely at the head of the bronze table and heard him say in a slightly teasing tone, "Chick, hey, that's the true name of the 'Primordial Witch'..."
Audrey felt her head buzz, and then she heard Susie's worried voice, "What's wrong, Audrey?"
Without Susie's reminder, Audrey knew her face must look terrible. She stood up abruptly and said to Susie, "I suddenly remembered something important."
...
Back in the real world, after confirming that everything around him was still normal, Klein breathed a sigh of relief.
Before heading to Prince Edessak's Red Rose Manor, he had leaked the information that the prince might be harboring a witch.
His goal wasn't to have the official Beyonders capture anyone but to make the secret known so that killing him to silence him would be pointless.
—Of course, he also had to prevent the other party from getting angry and killing him if the plan failed.
But given the current situation, it was unclear if the other party was angry, but they were probably too busy to deal with him.
...
Alice was disguising herself according to Detective James Holmes' suggestions.
First, she needed to remove "Matilda"—otherwise, she feared she would be robbed.
Klein suggested she change clothes in a cheap hotel in the East District, but...
Alice looked at herself in the mirror, frowning slightly.
She seemed to be in a growth spurt, having grown two or three centimeters in just a few months. Her face, which still had some baby fat, now had a bit of a youthful look.
She no longer had the impatience to grow up overnight from a few months ago but had become a bit calmer—not that she didn't desire it, but she had learned to wait, even if it was forced.
She could no longer be called a child but a half-grown girl.