Audrey pressed close to the steamy glass window and suddenly noticed a little girl huddled in the corner. She was wearing thin clothes, already covered with a layer of white snowflakes, and tightly clutching a basket woven from rattan, though it was unclear what was inside.
Noticing Audrey's gaze, Leyton glanced out the window and casually asked, "Do you want to help her?"
Audrey snapped back to reality. The sight of the little girl made her inexplicably sad, and she asked in a lowered voice, "Is she also part of the story? This seems like a somewhat sad story?"
"Yes." Leyton nodded lightly in response.
Klein, sitting across the dining table, also noticed the commotion. His gaze followed Leyton and Audrey's line of sight out the window, where he saw the little girl huddled in the corner.
He asked with a strange expression, "The Little Match Girl? How do I interact with her? Help her light a match, or give her food?"
Leyton shook his head, not directly answering the question:
"You need to explore this yourselves. Perhaps with your help, the little girl successfully meets her grandmother, or perhaps, with your help, everyone in the town meets her grandmother."
"Is this the Little Nuclear Bomb Girl?" Klein's mouth twitched. He found it absurd, but he also felt that Leyton was truly capable of doing such a thing.
He was about to ask something else when he saw Leyton suddenly stand up and say, "Others have arrived. I'll go to the square to guide them. You can explore freely, leave or stay in this town. I wish you a pleasant experience."
As soon as he finished speaking, Leyton's figure instantly melted into "light" composed of complex and pure knowledge, surging and leaving the place.
"What do we do next?"
Audrey looked at The World, dressed as a Magician. Whether it was his familiarity with this story he had just shown or his identity as a great adventurer, he was undoubtedly the most experienced among the three.
"Let's go out and see." Klein replied thoughtfully.
He then stood up from his chair, took a piece of toasted bread from the dining table, and walked out of the restaurant.
Audrey immediately followed. Leonard reluctantly got up. He really didn't want to stay in the heavy snow wearing thin clothes. Without the Beyonder's physical fitness, that kind of weather outside could truly freeze someone to death.
As soon as they reached the restaurant entrance, the three were stopped by a waiter who told them they could only take the food out of the restaurant after paying.
Klein expressionlessly carried the plate with the toasted bread back to his seat. Audrey, who was behind him, was embarrassed, while Leonard was stifling a laugh.
After suppressing his laughter, Leonard asked, "What now? Go directly out to find that little girl?"
Klein shook his head and said, "What we should be thinking about now is how to get out of this restaurant, unless you have money to pay for these foods."
"I don't even know what the currency of this World is."
Leonard shrugged, but still reached into his thin clothes, trying to find some gold coins or other items that could be used to pay for the meal.
Audrey helplessly looked at her luxurious evening gown, which didn't even have a pocket.
"I never thought I'd be forced to stay in a restaurant one day because I couldn't afford the meal. This is truly a wonderful experience..." she thought. As her thoughts drifted, she looked at Klein, dressed as a Magician, and asked with some uncertainty, "Mr. World, you are a Magician now. You should have some gold coins as magic props, right?"
Klein nodded heavily and said, "Yes, but they cannot be used. Just like the 'Wandering Poet's' harp, they are part of my identity and cannot be discarded or used for transactions."
"Are we going to dine and dash?"
Leonard and Klein looked at each other in disbelief. Even though this was not the true World, his moral standards would not allow him to do such a thing, especially with acquaintances nearby.
The three remained silent for a moment, looking at each other, when Klein suddenly looked at Leonard and said, "There's another way: find Zoroast. He can most likely perceive some of your situation."
Leonard silently answered Klein with his eyes: Do you think this is reliable?
While the few of them were tangled, a rabbit dressed as a postman, carrying a satchel and riding a bicycle with two extra tires, directly entered the restaurant by passing through the wall.
Under the curious and puzzled gazes of Klein and the other two, it pulled out several gold coins from its satchel. The front of the coins were engraved with an eye surrounded by Stars, and the back had different numbers of carrot patterns. It handed them to the three of them, saying at the same time, "These are your initial funds, the three of you. I'm very sorry, I'm not very familiar with the routes of the fairy tale world yet, so I'm a bit late."
As soon as it finished speaking, the postman rabbit rode its perfectly sized bicycle and left the restaurant by passing through the wall.
Klein and the other two looked at each other, unsure where to begin complaining.
When they paid and took the food from the restaurant to the alley outside the glass window, the little girl who had been huddled in the corner was already gone.
"This…" Audrey was stunned for a moment, her gaze quickly searching the street.
Soon, she saw the little girl in front of a cake shop's floor-to-ceiling window. She was gazing blankly at the cakes in the display, constantly swallowing saliva.
"She's over there."
As she spoke, Audrey stepped forward, and the little girl's figure suddenly shattered, turning into a faint yellow flame that was extinguished by the wind and snow.
When she came to her senses, Audrey saw a burnt matchstick appear in her hand at some point.
She turned her head in a panic to look at The World and Star behind her, finding them looking at her in confusion.
Klein noticed the burnt matchstick that had appeared in Audrey's hand and recalled a Mystical Reenactment that Leyton had used before. He then said, "You just fell into an illusion, or rather, we all fell into an illusion. This is very similar to a Mystical Reenactment that a Mysticologist can master. I've seen Mr. Tower use it before."
"Mystical Reenactment? If she has such powerful matches, why is she still starving?"
Audrey expressed her incomprehension at the behavior of this match-selling girl.
Klein shook his head and guessed, "Perhaps it's to follow the original storyline."
After a two-second pause, he added, "I suspect that the true and effective knowledge Mr. Tower mentioned refers to this kind of knowledge that can draw power to complete Mystical Reenactment. If we want to acquire this knowledge, we will inevitably be affected by the power contained within the knowledge itself."
"It seems that just finding her won't be an easy task."
Leonard pouted and sighed. Suddenly, a clear ringing of bells came from a distance in the snowy sky.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!~
As the bells grew closer, the three saw several reindeer pulling a red sleigh passing through the sky. On the sleigh was a chubby old man with white hair and a beard, dressed in a large red outfit, and wearing a red pointed hat with a small white ball hanging from it.
He carried a huge red cloth parcel on his back, filled with gift boxes of various sizes. Many red gift boxes were also piled on his sleigh, so many that they seemed as if they would fall off at any moment.
"Santa Claus?" Klein whispered incredulously.
He thought of the story of Santa Claus, and then extended his hands towards the sleigh passing through the sky. Since it belonged to Mystical Reenactment, perhaps even adults could receive gifts.
In his line of sight, a red gift box really fell down, heading towards them, and landing in the hands of Miss Justice, who was also mimicking him by extending her right hand.
Klein blinked, somewhat unable to comprehend. Is this reasonable? Everyone is an adult. Is the Snow Queen nobler than the Magician?
After grumbling to himself for a while, Klein reluctantly accepted the fact that he was treated differently by Santa Claus. He looked curiously at the gift box in Miss Justice's hand.
Audrey looked at the heavy gift box in her hand, somewhat bewildered, and said, "What is this? Is it for me? Or did it fall from the sleigh, erm, reindeer carriage?"
"Since it landed in your hand, it should be for you. Let's see what gift is inside." Klein calmly replied.
Audrey nodded, tearing off the ribbon that adorned the gift box. A slip of paper fell out with the ribbon, on which was a line of Loen words:
To the most noble Snow Queen, Merry Christmas!
"What kind of holiday is Christmas?"
Audrey asked curiously, then opened the gift box, revealing a sleigh model inside.
Audrey took the model in her hand and praised it from the bottom of her heart, "What an exquisite model, completely comparable to the works of those masters."
Klein stared at the model, which consisted of three reindeer and a sleigh. After a moment of thought, he suggested to Audrey, "Try using the magic of this identity. Since it's a gift from Santa Claus to the Snow Queen, it shouldn't be too bad. Perhaps it's a special item."
"I'll try."
Audrey nodded, holding the model in both hands, trying to concentrate and mobilize the Snow Queen's magic in the same way she would use a Beyonder ability.
A thin layer of frost quickly covered the surface of the model. It suddenly became heavy, falling from Audrey's hands, and expanding the moment it touched the snow, transforming into a real sleigh.
"How amazing." Audrey exclaimed. She could feel a faint connection between herself and this sleigh.
Leonard looked at the sleigh that had suddenly turned into a real object in front of him and said incredulously, "Was that Santa Claus a powerful Artisan? Any gift he gives is a Mystical Item."