My relationship with 'mother'?"
Alice wouldn't misinterpret that.
"This shouldn't be referring to my mother in a biological sense, right?"
She frowned slightly, then quickly relaxed.
"I have absolutely no connection with the 'mother' you're talking about."
No matter how many hidden dangers exist in the life realm of this world, they are irrelevant to her, a complete outsider.
It wasn't her fault.
So the answer to this question is unnecessary to consider.
Krestai seemed to want to ask something more, but when she spoke again, her tone was different.
"The second thing, Your Excellency... Is Your Excellency's real name 'Chik'?"
Chik? Who is that...
After silently memorizing the pronunciation, Alice crossed her hands, just enough to cover her lips, and a smile flowed from her eyes.
"If I answer yes, will that change your goddess's current friendly attitude? Or will it make her feel relieved? But unfortunately, I must say—no, that's not my name."
After this round of questioning, the chosen one remained silent for a long, long time in front of her smile.
"Hmm, although I sense you have a third thing to say, since you don't know how to bring it up, how about I take the initiative to ask?"
Krestai knew the other wasn't seeking her opinion, so she waited for confirmation of the goddess's tacit approval before nodding:
"Go ahead."
"Then, the first thing, I—"
With a slightly mischievous glint in her eye, mimicking the phrasing of a chosen one, Alice was about to utter the question she had already considered asking the deity, but suddenly stopped herself. She
couldn't ask… she couldn't mention this question, or its underlying nature, to any deity, otherwise, otherwise, there would be extremely terrible consequences!
She trusted the danger she sensed.
No matter the reason, no matter how peaceful the goddess of night was now, even willing to send her favorite messenger to contact her, the meaning behind this question… or rather, from her perspective, asking such a question was inherently unreasonable and dangerous!
What danger could be more troublesome than incurring the hostility of a true god? To be resisted by all the true gods of this world?
That would be too… um…
The young female magician refused to imagine such a scene, and changed her words in a flash.
"My name is Alice, just Alice. You can call me by that name, especially you, Kreste Cecima, don't call me 'Your Excellency' anymore."
The chosen one, addressed by his full name, was not surprised that he knew the goddess was watching. In fact, it could be said that the "Goddess's Sword" was merely a tool serving as a bridge between the two beings, and should not be subject to his personal will.
However, he… this "girl," who seemed to be a spirit avatar of an unknown being, deliberately emphasized the issue of how he addressed him.
Kreste's first reaction was not surprise, but panic.
It was as if he had seen some non-human being don a human-like skin, striving to learn and imitate various human behaviors. He realized once again that the other party was a different kind of being, similar in appearance but completely different in nature.
Fortunately, he quickly moved on from the topic, and spoke with an inscrutable smile.
"Next is the second thing... Well, please forgive me for not being able to describe the whole problem directly. Please listen to a short introduction first."
Upon hearing this, Krestai did not show any obvious reaction, but he still unconsciously leaned forward slightly, adopting a posture of listening attentively.
But just as he thought he was about to hear a backstory filled with madness or chaos, the other party instead
sang in a melodious, almost chanting tone: "Ruler of the End and Nothingness;
Cradle and Destiny of Endless Fate Beyond the Stars;
You are the Root of Evil, the Source of Demons, the Eternal Calamity..."
"Hmm, don't be too tense. Isn't this the title I used in Rune?" Alice lowered her clasped hands, tapped her fingers lightly on the table twice, and smiled, gesturing for the suddenly changed chosen one to calm down. "Anyway, the second thing is to confirm how much the Goddess and the Church of the Night understand about the meaning behind this title and the believers who worship and follow Him."
"..."
The chosen one remained silent for even longer than before.
It seemed that only after the goddess symbolizing the night gave an answer did Kresta finally stop looking so tense, as if he might jump up from the stone bench at any moment to grab the holy sword, and his stern expression softened slightly.
"Regarding Your Excellency... your second point, besides your name, what else do you know? For example, how His followers address this being?"
"If I knew these things, I wouldn't have asked." Alice sighed silently, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "It seems I can only try harder myself to find these madmen who've lost their minds."
Suppressing the urge to press for her reasons, Krestai exhaled softly, following the divine oracle given by the goddess moments before, and reorganized her words:
"Whatever your decision, whatever kind of person you're looking for, you should go to a wider place. Tingen is just a small stage; perhaps you can cast your gaze elsewhere, instead of letting such a small town limit your vision..."
"The third thing you originally intended to say was that I should leave this city?" Alice rested her chin on her hand, her expression still lacking in tension, but her gaze sharpened.
The chosen one was somewhat surprised and stunned for a moment, then gave a slow reply.
"...This is your understanding. I am merely offering advice, not making a request. You can take your time to consider it."
Leaving Tingen...the advice of the Goddess of Night...
Alice sensed that this was a rather kind attitude, but although she had originally planned to leave and explore other cities, this suggestion made her reluctant to leave immediately.
First, she hadn't decided where to go next; second, the contingency plans she had made with those witches hadn't yet yielded results; and third, there were those unresolved personal matters...
Because of her silence, Krestai, perhaps thinking of something or receiving a follow-up to the oracle from the goddess, maintained a stiff expression as if he had been brewing his emotions for a long time, and finally spoke in a heavy tone:
"If you haven't decided on a specific destination for the time being, you can...you can...me—"
"I can temporarily travel around the Kingdom of Rune with you and be under your supervision?" Alice casually made up a suggestion, but found that this lean and wiry man immediately clenched his teeth, looking as if he was prepared to make a sacrifice.
"...Hmm, your goddess should know what changes happen to people who spend a lot of time with me, right? Yet you still arranged for you to 'keep an eye on' me?"
Wouldn't that be practically a gift from the goddess to her?
Something felt off... How could anyone betray their own chosen one like that?Alice shook her head and stood up, casually brushing off any dust that might have settled on her robe.
"Let's forget about it. I've already decided on the next steps. If there's nothing else, may I go back now?"
Silently watching the "girl's" calm demeanor, as if nothing had happened, Krestai let out a soft breath, his hands, which had been clenched into fists unconsciously, loosened their grip, and the back of his shirt was soaked with cold sweat.
"You have already answered the three questions mentioned in the goddess's oracle. Now, it's my personal request.
Would you be willing to return those two sealed artifacts belonging to the church?"
Seeing her thoughtful expression, Krestai briefly described the characteristics of the two lost sealed artifacts, and then said, "...the very two items that the Connors Nightwalker team used on you."
"Ah, you mean those..."
Alice nodded in sudden realization, then smiled.
"I refuse."
In the next instant, all colors vanished without warning from her body, which was illuminated by the faint white light, leaving only monotonous black and white on the image that seemed to have suddenly lost its thickness.
Just like turning from a three-dimensional entity back into a two-dimensional image, the paper-thin Alice quickly turned into countless cracked shards of broken glass, scattering all over the ground.
Kresta Cecima was even stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized: the being claiming to be Alice had, at some point, replaced her original self with a mirror image, following him deep into the Charis Gate beneath the church; now that the being intended to leave, it withdrew the portion of consciousness attached to the mirror image and vanished without a trace…
Why did he have this indescribable feeling, like… like a child caught doing something wrong by their parents, running away decisively…
Trying to shake off the strange imaginings in his mind, the Chosen One sat silently in the desolate darkness for a while, then rose to clean up the mirror shards left by Alice, only to find something unusual about the ground where the shards were scattered.
He crouched down and tentatively touched one of the shards, instantly feeling a bone-chilling coldness creeping up his fingertips.
"A mirror made of ice…"
…
No matter how much the "Goddess's Sword" suspected and speculated about the relationship between Alice and the Primordial Witch at this moment, it was no longer relevant to the young sorceress far away beneath the Church of St. Serena.
Alice opened her eyes in the mirror world.
Rubbing her slightly sore and numb legs, she stood up from her seated position, her mind still racing with the three things the Goddess of Night had asked her to confirm through the Chosen One.
Ultimately, all the questions and contradictions centered on three age-old philosophical questions:
Who is she? Where is she? What is she doing?
Who is she—unrelated to "Mother," and not a being of "Chik."
Where is she—this was something the Goddess of Night hadn't asked, but she had almost let slip.
Indeed, the first question she intended to ask the Goddess of Night was absolutely closely related to some fundamental aspect of this world, so much so that even her attempt to explore this point could arouse suspicion, making the goddess doubt that she was born from this world.
Alice's initial thought was actually quite simple.
The extraordinary beings belonging to the Church of the True God—the Night Watchers, the Punishers, the Mechanical Heart members… from what she had observed, they were generally not comparable to the witches she had met.
The benchmark here refers to age and the speed of advancement of extraordinary abilities.
To put it simply, Beatrice took her first "Assassin's Potion" at seventeen, advanced to "Instigator" that same year, became a Sequence 7 "Witch" at eighteen, and is now a "Pleasure Witch" ready to advance at any time—and she's only twenty this year. Triss, too, reached Sequence 7 at eighteen or nineteen… On the other hand,
consider the Night Watchers.
Klein, for now, claims he only became an Extraordinary a few weeks ago; Mr. Leonard, at twenty-five or twenty-six, is still only Sequence 8; their "Nightmare" captain is even more pitiful, still unable to advance to Sequence 6 in his thirties.
The Punishers and the Mechanical Hearts aren't much better off, many still only at Sequence 8 or 9 at an advanced age.
Is it a matter of personnel quality?
It doesn't seem to be due to such a simple reason.
Differences in personal experience?
Admittedly, Beatrice's assassin life is extremely dangerous and exciting, but the Extraordinary members of the Church of the Righteous God are certainly not hothouse flowers; there shouldn't be such a significant difference.
The answer must be the "playing method" mentioned in Beatrice's memory.
The witches don't care about revealing the "playing method" to lower-ranking members, but clearly this skill seems to be taboo within the Church of the True God.
This is what Alice wanted to ask the Goddess of Night, but ultimately abandoned the idea due to a premonition of danger.
—Although she didn't know the reason, in the Goddess's understanding, she shouldn't ask such a question; in fact, she should know the reason behind it.
Helpless, Alice could only drag the process to the end.
What was she going to do?
Her question to the Goddess was also an answer to the third question the Goddess hadn't yet asked through the chosen ones.
She only cared about the "Ruler of End and Nothingness" and His followers, and didn't intend to interfere in anything else; the Goddess's answer was that her target wasn't Tingen City.
Thus, the pleasant question-and-answer session ended, and Alice vaguely gleaned some information from the Goddess's attitude.
Getting involved with "Mother" would be terrible, and being involved with "Chik" was probably not a good thing either.
This world is quite complex. Even a righteous god had to bring her into the realm covered by their authority before agreeing to this conversation. It's unclear what they were wary of.
Alice finished organizing her evening's gains, stretched her body from sitting for so long, and prepared to leave the Mirror World.
The moment she opened the fragment gate, she suddenly felt a strange sensation of being watched. Turning to look in that direction, she lost sight of the source of the feeling.
After a three-second pause, Alice abandoned her plan to follow.
She didn't sense any malice in that gaze; it was probably just some spirit that had drifted near the mirror space, ignorant and unknowing, no different from a small animal.
Otherwise, she would have been disturbed when she was half-asleep in the Mirror World.
Although Alice didn't really care.
No longer considering the watcher, she shook her head, passed through the fragmented light barrier, and stepped back into reality.
Long after the girl's departure, the otherworldly power that had held this mirrored space gradually faded. Countless fragments dimmed, losing their former brightness and clarity, and the illusory space returned to chaos.
A pair of silver eyes slowly opened, gazing calmly and indifferently at the spot where she had once sat quietly.
...
"This key, I wonder how much longer it will last..."
Holding the small brass key in her hand, Alice recalled the scene two weeks ago when Klein, under the expectant gazes of Melissa and Benson, awkwardly handed it to her, and couldn't help but smile.
Thinking this, she opened the door of the house along the street, trying to enter quietly before closing it again. Turning around, she saw the living room light was on, and a small black head resting on a support made of hands, pecking at the ground with extreme sleepiness.
As if awakened by the sound of her returning home, Melissa, sitting at the dining table, suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the girl in the entryway.
"Miss Alice, that's wonderful! I was worried you wouldn't be back tonight…"
She paused briefly, her eyes catching a glimpse of the clock's hands pointing close to midnight. Suddenly, she was at a loss for words to answer the bright-eyed brown girl before her.
Finally, Alice sighed silently to herself, her face revealing genuine helplessness and tenderness.
"Staying up all night isn't good, Melissa. You should go and rest, or you'll be late for school tomorrow morning."