《The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death》


 Chapter 1: Jungle Trekking With Alice

    Chapter 1: Jungle Trekking With Alice


    Transmigration had long since be amon trope in literature. In modern society, almost every young person who had dabbled in web novels would''vee into contact with transmigration novels at one point. Some people would even imagine themselves crossing to another world or another timeline to satisfy their hearts'' desire.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s case was a little more advanced. Not only had she read plenty of transmigration novels, but she even personally got transmigrated. However, she did not get hit by a truck because she was trying to save a little girl or an olddy crossing the road. She also didn''t get stabbed while helping someone stop a thief. Instead, it happened in the blink of an eye. Literally.


    After closing and opening her eyes while walking on the street, Alice suddenly found that her surrounding environment had changed. From standing in the middle of a metropolis surrounded by tall buildings made out of steel and concrete, she suddenly found herself standing in the middle of a dense and lush forest. Moreover, looking at how tall and massive the surrounding trees were, she probably wasn''t in some grove. Instead, it looked like she was standing in a primitive forest that had never seen the signs of human tempering.


    In reality, her real name wasn''t Alice. However, after getting transported to this lush forest, she quickly noticed that her eye height had be inexplicably lowered. Hence, she made use of the nearby creek and verified that her appearance was no longer the same as before she had transmigrated. Instead, she was now a slightly shorter girl with blonde hair. If judging by appearances, she obviously looked like a westerner.


    Moreover, she was the type of girl that matched the impression of what Asians had of western girls. Even the clothes she wore were a white-and-blue dress. Lastly, she found a pendant hanging from her neck, and crookedly engraved on the pendant were the letters A-L-I-C-E.


    This was how Alice gave herself a new name. She didn''t really have a choice in this matter. While she wanted to keep her original name, the problem was that she was evidently no longer an Asian. Wouldn''t it seem strange referring to herself and having others refer to her using a Chinese name? It might be fine if she had transmigrated to another world, but what if she had simply transmigrated to the Middle Ages or a nearby timeline? If she came across some westerners at that time and continued using Chinese, those people would probably capture her for questioning. Hence, to avoid such an ident from happening, she decided to call herself Alice.


    However, this worry of hers was quickly resolved. Why? Because she had basically verified that she was no longer on Earth.


    Alice began feeling hungry along with the passing of time. Hence, while she felt that her current body was slightly weaker than her original body, she had no choice but to begin foraging the forest for edible fruits. Afterward, she encountered creatures that definitely did not exist on Earth.


    For example, a lion with the horns of a bull and a snake with the wings of a bat. Evidently, there was no way she could win a fight against these creatures. Nevertheless, these things still allowed her to verify that she had indeed arrived at another world.


    Sometimeter, when Alice was about to hunt a rabbit with a fox''s tail, she grabbed a few sharp stones as a weapon. As soon as she grabbed these stones, something simr to a system inexplicably appeared in her mind. However, Alice found it hard to call it a "system" as it only had one function: to allow Alice to appraise the "weapons" in her hand and grant her these weapons'' corresponding effects.


    [Weapon: Sedimentary Rock That Can Be Found Anywhere]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Meanwhile, through relying on her effort, luck, and the one point of Strength she acquired from the rock, Alice eventually seeded in smashing a rabbit to death. Afterward, she spent almost her entire evening trying to light a fire, cooking the rabbit, and eating it. Although there were no readily avable seasonings out in the wild, she had, at the very least, found a way to barely survive.


    Alice did not know if people would appear in this primitive forest. She didn''t even know if humans were living in this alien world. If there weren''t any, then she would probably have no choice but to spend the rest of her life in this primitive forest Of course, this would be thest option she would choose. Before abandoning hope, she would continue doing her best to walk to the forest''s edge.


    Meanwhile, it was currently already the seventh day since Alice had transmigrated. After not seeing any other human for an entire week, Alice had already started to feel that she had no hope of ever leaving this forest. After all, Alice was without apass or any survival items. Her ability to survive in the wilderness was terrible as well.


    Although Alice had watched some survival programs before, she had evidently been watching them for entertainment. Now that she had encountered such a survival situation, she could hardly remember any of the tips mentioned in those programs. The only thing she could remember was how to read a tree''s growth ring. However, she was currently nothing but a helpless little girl right now. How could she possibly chop down a tree muchrger than herself to study its growth rings?


    "Am I really going to spend the rest of my life in this ce"


    At night, Alice sullenly sat on a clearing she had opened up for herself. The virgin forest floor was covered in leaves, and even a slight mistake could lead to a forest fire. So, Allice would always be extra careful whenever she started a fire. After going through these past seven days, Alice had gradually gotten the hang of lighting fires, so she managed to light one up today quickly.


    As a fortunate side note, while her dress''s fabric might seem thin, it was surprisingly warm. Hence, coupled with the campfires she made, Alice was able to avoid catching a cold. Even so, maintaining her current lifestyle wasn''t a solution. After trekking through the forest for a week, the dress had already suffered minor damage. If she still failed to find the forest''s exit, she might have to mimic savages and use animal furs to make clothes.


    Leaning her back against an icy, giant tree, Alice gradually dozed off. She had been trekking uneven terrain for seven consecutive days. She had also hardly gotten any sleep during this period. If this had happened before she transmigrated, it would''ve been an unbelievable feat. However, she had now started to despair a little. After failing to find the forest''s exit for so many days, she even began to wonder if there were any humans on this.


    However, after closing her eyes for a while, Alice started to feel that something was amiss. The sound of footsteps had gradually started entering her ears.


    Because Alice had cleared the area for a campfire, there was a thickyer of fallen leaves and branches surrounding the clearing. Hence, the footsteps of anyone stepping on thisyer of leaves and branches would also be magnified.


    After noticing the movement, Alice hurriedly opened her eyes. Then, her body shuddered.


    Before she knew it, five ck wolves had appeared in her surroundings and were currently slowly approaching her from multiple directions. It was apparent that these wolves had set their sights on her meat.


    Alice broke out in cold sweat in this situation, her back quickly bing drenched. She might''ve sessfully killed some animals previously by relying on the stones she picked up on the ground, but those were all small animals. She had not grown arrogant to the point where she thought she could dispatch five ck wolves.


    <em>How long have these things been targeting me already?</em>


    Alice was feeling a little depressed. Other protagonists would usually have their danger sensitivity set to MAX as soon as they transmigrated. They could hear movement even from several kilometers away. Even if animals targeted them, they would immediately get the feeling of "something is following me." However, Alice was different. She didn''t even know how long these five ck wolves had been targeting her already. If it wasn''t for the wolves stepping on the piled-up leaves and branches, she might''ve noticed the wolves only after they had taken a bite out of her.


    However, Alice did not wish to wait for death to im her, either. The five wolves seemingly had no intentions of pouncing on her immediately. Instead, they were slowly tightening the encirclement. Hence, Alice quickly looked around for something that she could use as a weapon. If she got lucky, she <em>might </em>be able to find something that wasn''t "Garbage." In that case, she <em>might </em>be able to break out of the wolves'' encirclement.


    Alice had been gradually figuring out the role of her "system" these past few days. To her dismay, the system didn''t possess anything like an exchange interface or stat interface. The system only had one function: the ability to evaluate whether the items in Alice''s hand were a weapon. If the system deemed an object to be a weapon, it would give the weapon a quality rating and corresponding abilities. Afterward, Alice would gain the weapon''s abilities and stat bonuses.


    Moreover, the system''s appraisal standards were quite strange. Under normal circumstances, stones and branches were categorized as "Garbage," and the effects they provided were minor things like "Strength +1" and "Speed +1." However, at one time, Alice picked up something named "Tree Branch Dyed With a Wolf King''s Spit." The item''s quality was "Not Bad," and its effect was "Strength +2." Hence, from then onward, Alice came to understand one thing.


    The quality of a weapon was not equivalent to the value of public perception. Although some things might be considered rubbish by the average person, the system might consider it a good weapon, thus providing Alice with unexpectedly better effects.


    Therefore, Alice''s only hope in this situation was to find something that looked like trash but <em>might </em>possibly be evaluated as a high-level weapon by the system.

 Chapter 2: Wolf: Im Also Dumbfounded

    Chapter 2: Wolf: I''m Also Dumbfounded


    Unfortunately for Alice, reality was often crueler than dreams. One''s actions were also often the cause of one''s demise.


    Alice had previously removed the fallen leaves and branches in the area to avoid creating a forest fire. She had even tossed away all nearby stones to ensure she had afortable time sitting and sleeping. Hence, apart from the burning pile of leaves and branches, there was nothing else avable in the clearing. There was also no way Alice could grab any of those burning things with her bare hands and use them as weapons. So, in a sense, Alice was indeed in a desperate situation right now.


    <em>What should I do</em>


    Alice was panicking a little. For someone who had lived her entire life in modern society, she was incapable of thinking calmly in this life-threatening situation. It was already impressive that she could restrain her fear and suppress the urge to run away immediately.


    Out of desperation, Alice tried hugging the big tree beside her. She wanted to see if the "system" in her brain would showpassion, deem the towering giant as a weapon, and provide her with a boost ofbat power. Unfortunately, the tree was something Alice couldn''t even pick up with her hands, so the system naturally wouldn''t recognize it as a weapon. Alice also couldn''t control the system and have it recognize anything as a weapon. Hence, she was truly out of options right now.


    Left with no better options, Alice began preparing to escape as she looked at the approaching ck wolves. She had no intentions of trying her luck in a brawl against five ck wolves. So long as she fled out of their encirclement, she would be able to pick something up and use it as a weapon. If she got lucky, she might pick up a godly weapon like a "Tree Branch Dyed With a Dragon''s Spit" and kill these wolves in one fell swoop. While the likelihood of something like that happening was minuscule, it was better than standing here and waiting for death to im her.


    After thinking up to this point, Alice stopped hesitating. Immediately, she turned around and fled. Meanwhile, not having expected their prey to suddenly run away, the five ck wolves were momentarily stunned. Then, they snapped out of their daze and promptly began giving chase.


    The ck wolves were swift, and they looked like mini motorcycles as they chased after Alice. In merely the blink of an eye, the ck wolves had already caught up to Alice. When Alice turned around and saw the wolves right on her back, she was given quite the huge fright. Then, she hurriedly bent down and picked up a tree branch.


    [Weapon: Por Branch That Can Be Found Anywhere]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Speed +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    To some extent, it could also be seen that Alice''s original parameters were awful. Even a measly +1 to Speed had allowed her to run much faster than normal. From the difference, Alice guessed that her Speed did not exceed three points.


    Unfortunately, despite the increase in her running speed, the ck wolves were still gaining on her. It was evident that the +1 Speed was insufficient. With no better options, Alice had no choice but to continue zigzagging around the forest while repeatedly recing the tree branch in her right hand.


    Through numerous testings, Alice found that this strange ability of hers only triggered when she was holding a weapon in her right hand. It also wasn''t possible to simultaneously activate the effects of multiple items. Unless the items could be judged as a whole, then only one of them would be regarded as a weapon. Hence, it was meaningless to hold onto a bunch of branches.


    At this point, Alice could only hope to pick up an extraordinary tree branch. Unfortunately, it would seem that her luck had run out. Even though she had already switched through numerous branches by now, all of them were identified as Por Branches That can be Found Anywhere, and none of them could help her escape from the ck wolves behind her.


    s, it was tough for humans to win a race against wolves. Not to mention, Alice''s body was that of a little girl''s, whereas wolves were creatures capable of running at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour for 20 kilometers consecutively. Moreover, as this was an alien world, there was no saying whether these ck wolves could run for how long.


    In no time at all, Alice slipped and fell to the ground due to running out of stamina. The five ck wolves also surrounded Alice once more. Moreover, this time, the ck wolves stood very close to Alice, leaving her with almost no gaps to escape from.


    <em>It''s over</em>


    Alice felt that her doom had arrived as she looked at the five approaching wolves. Soon, thergest of the five wolves pounced on Alice, and Alice subconsciously rolled on the ground and barely avoided its ferocious maw. Even so, the wolf still tore through Alice''s dress with its ws, leaving behind three bloody gashes that extended from Alice''s thigh up to her waist. The wolf''s ws also cut through the strap of Alice''s panties, causing it to fall to the ground.


    "Sss It hurts."


    Alice clenched her teeth. Although she found it embarrassing to have her skirt and underwear torn, there were only five wolves who were utterly ignorant of human culture present. Hence, she naturally did not need to care about her dignity. Hurriedly, Alice reached down to the ground and began fumbling for a tree branch. Even if it was a long shot, she wanted to put up a final struggle using that one-point increase to Speed.


    However, as the surrounding area was quite dark and Alice''s hand was trembling, she didn''t manage to grab onto a tree branch that could normally be found anywhere on the ground. Instead, her right hand picked up her torn panties.


    This was an incredibly embarrassing situation. Even though Alice knew she was in a perilous situation right now, she still couldn''t help but blush. However, before Alice could rece her underwear with a tree branch, something unexpected happened.


    At that moment, Alice saw a dazzling white light radiating from her right hand. As if her entire arm had transformed into a shbang, it instantly illuminated the surrounding area, making it look as bright as day.


    The dazzling light also gave the surrounding wolves a scare, causing them to back away a few steps. However, Alice was in no mood to care about the wolves. After all, she could sense a terrifying energy filling her body. Not only could she feel a massive increase in her physical strength, but her body had also be much lighter. In addition, Alice could also feel an inexplicable energy flowing within her body, and this energy drastically improved the rity of her five senses.


    Subsequently, Alice quickly understood the origin of this power. This was because the message the "system" conveyed had finally appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Mind +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Purification de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that permanently liberates the target''s soul)]


    Alice was dumbfounded.

 Chapter 3: A Great Life, A Shameful Death

    Chapter 3: A Great Life, A Shameful Death


    Silence fell over the scene for a while as Alice stopped breathing and the five ck wolves stopped growling. Of the six living beings present, all six were looking at the blinding light emanating from Alice''s right hand. They didn''t even blink even though the light hurt their eyes.


    Despite having inferior thought processes to humans, the ck wolves could still feel that something was amiss when they looked at this supernatural phenomenon. Hence, they chose to stop hunting their prey.


    "..."


    After a moment, Alice subconsciously loosened her right hand, allowing the soft, white fabric to slip out of her fingers. Simultaneously, the energy that gave Alice the feeling of invincibility vanished from her body, making it seem as if everything that had happened just now was nothing but an illusion. Upon sensing this change, Alice hurriedly reached out and grabbed the underwear that had yet to fall to the ground. Then, sure enough, the moment her hand held onto the holy fabric, a blinding light radiated from her hand, and the feeling of invincibility returned once more.


    "...Fuck."


    Alice sighed in exasperation. In the past few days, she had already verified that her ability''s judgment toward the quality of "weapons" was unrted to the object''s actual value. However, she never expected that the system would recognize the panties that she had been wearing all this time to be an Artifact. To further prove this fact, she had actually gained the stated effects after holding the panties in her hand. Now, she felt like she could shatter a small mountain with her bare fist. Moreover, this probably wasn''t a hallucination. Her mind that had been enhanced to an exaggerated extent was telling her that she really could smash a mountain into pieces.


    However, along with the improvements, Alice also realized a very troublesome matter. So long as she picked up her underwear with her right hand, it would release a dazzling, white light that would cause even holy knights to kneel before her.


    After putting more thought into the matter, Alice also quickly dismissed her thought of "I''ll be invincible so long as I keep on holding my panties." After all, if she were to constantly hold onto her panties, she wouldn''t be able to live a normal life with a blinding light constantly radiating from her right hand.


    However, Alice didn''t have much time to think about her future. Although the ck wolves had initially flinched and shrank back because of the strange lighting from Alice''s right hand, they began growing restless again after realizing that the light didn''t pose any substantial threat to them.


    Alice''s boosted mental power also allowed her to perceive the five wolves'' movements. Now, she could even discern and predict the wolves'' movements with her eyes closed. This experience made Alice feel both happy and frustrated. After all, she was only capable of exerting this superhuman power if she was holding an underwear in her right hand.


    It might be fine to do so out in the wilderness, but what if there was human civilization in this world? She couldn''t possibly hold onto an underwear forever and live while radiating holy light from her right hand, right? While there was also the option of going to a church and pretending to be a holy being, what if, one day, other people found out that the sacred light originated from a pair of soft panties? If that happened, she would probably suffer a bona fide social death.


    "Growl!"


    After being ignored for so long, the ck wolf that was the first to attack Alice finally lost its patience and lunged at Alice once more. Although the strange lighting from Alice''s right hand confused the wolf, seeing that the light had not caused them any harm until now, it quickly treated the light as something simr to the light from the sun. Adding on to the fact that Alice had shown no capability to fight back thus far, the ck wolf did not take Alice seriously at all. Hence, it lunged at Alice and tried to take a bite out of her neck, just like how it would normally do when hunting other prey.


    "Shut up!!!"


    Alice was still in the midst of figuring out how she could live a normal life in human society while holding onto a pair of panties. When the wolf''s growl interrupted her thoughts, she immediately grew angry and threw a punch at the lunging wolf. As this was the first time Alice had wielded such power, amidst her rage, she had tried to use as much power as possible. She even subconsciously activated the "Artifact"''s inherent skill "Purification de."


    The next moment, the white panties transformed into innumerable particles of lights. Then, under Alice''s horrified gaze, the particles of light gathered to form a gigantic de that smashed down at the lunging wolf!


    After losing her panties, Alice immediately reverted into the powerless little girl she had been before. Even so, "Purification de" did not disappear. The gigantic de of light continued expanding until it dyed everything in front of Alice in white, sacred light.


    Amidst the white light, Alice vaguely saw the remaining four wolves vanishing out of existence. They didn''t even have time to let out a yelp before they got vaporized. Simultaneously, the holy light shattered the innumerable trees in front of Alice. However, probably because Alice mainly targeted the ck wolves, the trees did not suffer as tragic of a fate as the wolves. They were merely shattered into countless wood chips.


    The ck wolves had truly died a tragic death. Fortunately, apart from Alice, nobody would ever know a pair of panties had killed them.


    The holy light lingered for several minutes before it gradually faded away. Even though Alice had kept her eyes shut during this whole ordeal, she still felt as if she was close to going blind. The light had been so ring that she couldn''t keep it outpletely even after covering her eyes with her hands. Alice felt that if there were humans living in this forest, then they would''ve definitely seen this light.


    After sensing that the light in front of her had faded away, Alice gradually moved her hands away and opened her stinging eyes. Then, when Alice''s eyes finally adjusted to the now-dim environment, she found that she could see the distant horizon.


    If Alice were to describe her current situation, she felt akin to standing in a Sahara Desert made out of wood chips. As far as her eyes could see, there was nothing obstructing her line of sight.


    "Sss Is this an Artifact''s power?"


    Alice gasped. She couldn''t help but get goosebumps looking at the sight before her. The aftermath of the attack was much more exaggerated than she had anticipated. She also couldn''t help but worry that she might have identally razed a human vige to the ground.


    However, Alice currently didn''t have the leeway to worry for others. After all, her previous attack had essentially vaporized the forest in front of her. In other words, if she continued heading forward, she would be entering a world of wood chips, and it was unlikely she would find any food in such a world. Hence, the only option she had now was to turn back.


    Despite Purification de sounding like a holy skill, the destructive power it showed made it look more like a super-physical skill instead. Moreover, the skill had very urately used Alice as a dividing line, leveling everything in front of her while leaving the forest behind her intact.


    If there were indeed humans living outside this forest, they would''ve definitely seen the appearance of that miniature sun just now. In that case, they would most likely send someone to investigate. Hence, what Alice needed to do now was to stay in this area, foraging for food in the preserved portion of the forest while waiting for the human investigators.


    <em>Let''s wait for a month.</em> Alice mentally set a deadline for herself. <em>If no humanse to investigate this ce after a month, thenI am probably the only human in this world. Either that or human civilization is too far from this ce, so far that I cannot reach it.</em>


    In reality, if Alice still had her panties, she might still have the possibility of finding a human settlement by relying on the 5,000 points of Speed and Constitution it provided. It was a pity, Alice did not expect that the active skill would destroy her panties upon activation. Had she known that the active skill was a one-off thing, she would''ve definitely restrained her strength. Unfortunately, it was toote for regrets. Now, she could only hope that someone would find her.


    ------


    Other novels I trante on Hosted Novel:After Being Bent By Reader (ABBR)(GL)<strong>Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God (Side Stories)</strong><strong>Miss Cousin is Always Busy (MCAB)</strong><strong>(Yuri, Quick Transmigration)</strong>

 Chapter 4: Gathering, Tattered Forest Friends Association

    Chapter 4: Gathering, Tattered Forest Friends Association


    After Alice returned to the preserved part of the forest, she spent almost no effort to capture several rabbits. However, it wasn''t as if her physique had leveled up after undergoing the panties baptism just now. In reality, after separating from her underwear, Alice''s physique was no different than before.


    Instead, what happened was that Purification de''s blinding light had literally blinded the rabbits lingering around the preserved forest''s edge. And once these rabbits began running around in a panic, several of them crashed headfirst into trees and fainted. Hence, it became a lot easier for Alice to capture these rabbits, and she managed to gather enough rations for the next few days in no time.


    Moreover, Alice no longer had any trouble looking for kindling to start fires with. After Purification de had destroyed arge part of the forest, Alice now had ess to what was essentially a lifetime''s supply of wood chips.


    As a side note, now that Alice had used her panties to vaporize the forest, she only had her dress to cover up her lower half. Moreover, as one of the wolves had damaged her dress just now, the fabric covered hardly anything. Taking into ount that Purification de''s effects might draw other people to this ce, Alice decided to skin two rabbits and use their pelts to make herself a simple pair of underwear.


    Unfortunately, while her makeshift underwear indeed had the function of one, appearance-wise, it was nothing but a piece of rag. Hence, her ability did not recognize it as an Artifact. The system didn''t even recognize it as a pair of underwear. Instead, it wasbeled as a "Crudely Processed Pelt" and rated as "Garbage." It also only provided an effect of "Constitution +1." Alice suffered a severe mental blow from this oue. After all, she had initially been delighted with her handicraft.


    <em>Items of the same category seem to provide simr effects.</em>


    Alice had gradually noticed a pattern for weapon abilities. Almost all of the tree branches she picked up provided a boost to Speed, whereas stones provided a boost to Strength, and fur provided a boost to Constitution. If she picked up items of a simr type to use as a weapon, she would be granted simr effects.


    Going by this pattern, then possibly all of the panties that entered her right hand would turn into Artifacts. Although this sounded incredibly strange, she now had a trump card she could rely on at the very least. The only problem was that Alice currently did not have a second pair of panties to verify this theory. After all, the system refused to recognize her handcrafted panties as actual panties.


    <em>More importantly, do the people of this world even wear panties?</em>


    This was another thing Alice was worried about. ording to the descriptions she often saw in transmigration novels, the civilizations found in alien worlds filled with magic typically resemble medieval Europe. And while novels generally described these worlds to be beautiful, it was a fact that the Middle Ages was a sloppy part of Europe''s history. Many of the hygiene practices the people of this era adopted would be seen as questionable at best in the eyes of modern people.


    If this world truly was stuck in the Middle Ages, panties might not exist in this world. In that case, Alice would have to go the extra mile and invent panties herself.


    When Alice thought about how she had potentially transformed the only pair of panties in this world into light, she couldn''t help but find her previous actions a little extravagant.


    While holding such worries and anxiety in her mind, Alice lived at the edge of the preserved forest for the next several days. Because everything Alice had on her body had been exchanged with her current attire when she transmigrated, she didn''t have any methods to kill time. She couldn''t y the single-yer games on her phone. The only thing she could do was pick up rubbish in the forest every day, a.k.a. picking up all sorts of Garbage-quality "weapons."


    Surprisingly, Alice''s actions weren''tpletely futile as she had picked up a few items that were not "Garbage."


    Of these non-Garbage weapons, one of them was a "Milu Rabbit With Some Mana," a brethren of the fox-tailed rabbits that Alice had been eating for the past several days. After knocking this thing unconscious, Alice could wield it and use it as a weapon. The rabbit had a "Not Bad" quality, and its effects were "Strength +2, Speed +2." It was significantly better than an ordinary stone. Hence, Alice was now raising a Milu Rabbit. She had tied the rabbit to a tree with a vine, and she would knock it unconscious and use it as a weapon whenever she went out hunting.


    After repeatedly being knocked unconscious for the past few days, the Milu Rabbit, unfortunately, did not improve its resistance to blunt force trauma. Instead, all the karate chops to the head had seemingly knocked a few screws loose from its head. Now, whenever the rabbit saw Alice approaching, it would tacitly ram its head into a tree and faint, saving Alice the effort to knock it unconscious.


    Apart from the Milu Rabbit, Alice had also picked up strange items such as "Sparse Iron Ore That was Brought to the Ground by an Earthquake," "Por Branch Bathed in Holy Light," and "Baptized Sedimentary Rock." All of these items had the "Not Bad" quality. As for higher quality weapons, Alice had yet to encounter any thus far. Although Alice had found many identical copies of these items, she still chose to keep all of the "Not Bad" items in her temporary campsite as a collection because of her gamer mindset.


    Meanwhile, collecting these strange items became one of the few pleasures Alice had now.


    Fortunately, Alice''s patience wasn''t meaningless. On a certain day, after Alice returned from picking up trash in the forest, she found a person standing in the small campsite she had settled in for the past few days. Her heart jumped when she realized this fact, and her frustration of not seeing humans for half a month vanished instantly. She subconsciously wanted to call out to the party, but she seemingly remembered something and quickly shut her mouth. Then, she hurriedly hid behind arge tree, poked her head out, and quietly observed the figure standing in her campsite.


    The other party was rtively short, and they seemed to be roughly the same height as Alice. They had long, silvery-white hair, so Alice guessed that the other party was a girl. However, because the other party had covered her body with a big cloak, Alice couldn''t say for sure whether she really was female. The other party also wore a mini wizard''s hat on her head, which probably meant she was a magician.


    Because Alice had previously gained 5,000 points of Mana from the Soft White Underwear, it was safe to say that magic existed in this world. Hence, it wasn''t strange for a magician to appear. However, what worried Alice now was whether the other party was friend or foe.


    Although Alice had yearned for human contact when there were no other humans around before, she still couldn''t help but be worried now that she had seen another person. Looking at the wizard''s hat, Alice became even more confident that this world''s civilization should have a setting simr to medieval Europe. The fact that magic existed also proved that this world contained supernatural abilities. So, it definitely wouldn''t be strange for this world''s inhabitants to operate based on thew of the jungle.


    What if the other party wasn''t a good person? Now that she no longer had any panties to make use of, how should she fight with the other party?


    While Alice was pondering how she should initiate contact with the other party, the suspected female suddenly executed a new action. After looking around at the somewhat crude campsite, she reached into a cloak and pulled out a...mobile phone? Alice guessed that it was probably a phone. To be precise, it was a ss te with a very smooth surface.


    Afterward, under Alice''s stunned gaze, the other party held up the suspected mobile phone, swiped a finger across it a few times, and seemingly started taking pictures of Alice''s campsite. shes of light had even appeared from the ss te, and Alice could vaguely hear the sound of a camera shutter.


    <em>...Isn''t this the Middle Ages? Why is it a little different from what I imagined?</em>


    ------


    Other novels I trante on Hosted Novel:After Being Bent By Reader (ABBR)(GL)<strong>Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God (Side Stories)</strong><strong>Miss Cousin is Always Busy (MCAB)</strong><strong>(Yuri, Quick Transmigration)</strong>

 Chapter 5: Save the Milu Rabbit

    Chapter 5: Save the Milu Rabbit


    Alice hid behind a tree and carefully observed the suspected magician, a suspected female wielding a suspected mobile phone in her hand and suspected of taking pictures of Alice''s campsite.


    Then, after watching the suspicious target for a while, Alice saw the other party tapping her finger on the mobile phone-like device, put it up to her ear, and started speaking into it. Seeing up to this point, Alice determined that the ss te was a mobile phone. The object might not be called a mobile phone in this world, but it definitely had functions simr to that of a mobile phone. It might be a magical creation unique to this world.


    Alice quietly watched as the other party finished her phone call at her campsite. Then, she saw the magician girl walking up to the Milu Rabbit tied to a nearby tree, crouched down, and teased the bunny a little. To Alice''s surprise, that Milu Rabbit behaved quite normally when she wasn''t around.


    However, even after the magician girl stopped ying with the rabbit, the fellow still showed no intentions of leaving. Instead, she sat down on a stool Alice had crudely made out of wood. Seeing this, Alice judged that the other party nned to wait for her, the campsite''s owner, to return.


    After thinking about it, Alice eventually decided to go out and meet this person. After all, this could potentially be her only opportunity to leave this forest. If she refused to show herself and missed this opportunity, she didn''t know when it would be the next time she met another human again. Although Alice suspected the other party to be a magician, the magician was at least alone. Even if a conflict arose, she should still have a fighting chance.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn''t help but miss her panties. She wouldn''t have had to concern herself with such worries if she still had her panties in hand.


    After making up her mind, Alice walked out of her cover and finally got a clear look at the person sitting at her campsite. Just like Alice had thought, the other party was indeed a girl. Moreover, the girl didn''t seem to be very old.


    Meanwhile, the magician girl also noticed Alice walking out from behind the tree. In response to Alice''s appearance, the girl hurriedly stood up, extended a hand to the pouch tied around her waist, waved her hand above it, and summoned a long staff out of thin air. Then, she wielded the staff in her hand and solemnly faced Alice.


    <em>Sure enough, you can''t say you''ve traveled to another world until you''ve seen a spatial tool.</em>


    This was the first thought that came to Alice''s mind the moment she saw the magician girl pulling out a staff that was as tall as she was out of a small pouch. However, as Alice wasn''t certain of the other party''s attitude toward her, she did not approach the girl after leaving her cover. Instead, she entered a staring contest with the silver-haired girl, neither of them saying anything for a long time.


    Through this interaction, it could be seen that both parties were quite wary of each other.


    Alice''s wariness toward the silver-haired girl was because this was the first time she had seen another human in this world. She had zero knowledge about the human culture in this world, so she didn''t know whether she could properly interact with the person in front of her.


    As for the silver-haired girl, the reason for her wariness was simple. From her perspective, Alice''s facial appearance was so pristine that it wouldn''t be an exaggeration to call her a princess. Yet, this princess currently wore a tattered blue-white dress. Through the tears in the dress, the silver-haired girl could also faintly see that Alice was wearing something that could hardly be considered underwear. In addition, Alice also held a menacing, fist-sized rock in her hand. Overall, the silver-haired girl found this sight incredibly strange, so she couldn''t help but act with caution.


    However, staying silent wasn''t a long-term solution. So, after staring at each other for some time, Alice took a step forward and opened her mouth to break this awkward silence.


    <em>Bang!</em>


    Unfortunately, Alice was one step toote. Before she could utter any words from her mouth, the Milu Rabbit that had been behaving normally in the campsite until now suddenly turned around and rammed its head against the tree it was leashed to. Then, it fainted on the spot


    After banging its head for several days, the "Milu Rabbit With Some Mana" had already learned how it should ram its head to produce the loudest sound and lose consciousness in the most direct manner. Hence, its collision with the tree just now made a considerably loud sound, and this sound had caused Alice to swallow back her words. Along with the rabbit losing consciousness, the originally solemn atmosphere had also turned awkward. After all, neither Alice nor the silver-haired girl had expected for the rabbit to suddenly ram its head against a tree.


    Meanwhile, when Alice saw this scene, she couldn''t help but feel frustrated. The Milu Rabbit''s reaction had been growing increasingly exaggerated as the days passed. She had only taken one step closer to the rabbit this time, yet it had chosen to knock itself unconscious immediately. Next time, it would probably ram itself against a tree as soon as it saw Alice. At this rate, the Milu Rabbit was going to ram itself to death one day, and catching another live rabbit wasn''t going to be easy. And in the case of dead Milu Rabbits, the system would judge their quality as Garbage when used as a weapon.


    "<em>Cough, cough</em>"


    Eventually, it was the silver-haired girl who broke the awkward silence. While the Milu Rabbit ramming itself against a tree had indeed surprised her, the strange scene had also allowed her to rx a bit. Afterward, the silver-haired girl also noticed that while Alice''s appearance might seem peculiar, she didn''t sense any manaing from the other party. Alice''s limbs also didn''t seem to have undergone any physical training before. In other words, Alice was a civilian, and there should be no need for her to be wary of Alice. Hence, the silver-haired girl said, "Hello, I''m Zuona, an apprentice magician. I came to Gryffin Forest in search of a potion ingredient. Are you perhaps...lost in this forest?"


    Alice''s current appearance indeed looked out of ce, so it was normal for others to regard her as a disaster victim. Not to mention, Alice was indeed a disaster victim in a certain sense. Though, her disaster involved getting transported from Earth to this world.


    "Something like that," Alice awkwardly replied while scratching her head. She was currently hoping for this girl named Zauna to bring her out of the forest, so she went along with the other party''s words and admitted that she was lost in the woods.


    Meanwhile, after hearing Alice''s answer, the girl named Zauna finally rxed and let her body crumple back onto the stool.


    However, Zauna had evidently overestimated the stool''s quality. With Alice''s craftsmanship, it was already a miracle that the chair could support a person''s weight without breaking apart. Now that Zauna had sat down with such force, the stool was evidently overwhelmed as it cracked and broke apart. Then, Zauna found her buttocks nting into the ground.


    The scene grew awkward again as Zauna wore a bright blush on her face while Alice tried to hold back a smile. Then, Alice stepped forward and helped pull Zauna off of the ground. Fortunately, after this minor incident, the atmosphere between the two eased up a lot.


    "Don''t tell me you made this stool yourself? Did youe into Gryffin Forest without bringing anything?"


    Zauna felt a little depressed as she looked at the broken pieces of the stool she previously sat on. She also couldn''t help but rub her aching butt. Then, she turned to look at Alice with an incredulous look on her face.


    Zauna had previously noticed that the simple campsite had nothing brought in from outside the forest. The camp only had a bed made out of leaves and wood chips, some burn marks left behind by a campfire, and a leashed Milu Rabbit that probably had a few screws loose in its head. Apart from these things, the only other objects Zauna found were a pile of stones and branches neatlyid aside for no apparent reason. "It''s a miracle that you were able to survive in the forest depths for so long."


    "...Forest depths?"


    Alice was stunned. She couldn''t believe that after walking for so long, she remained stuck in the depths of the forest. Just how massive was this forest?


    "That''s right. We are standing in the depths of Gryffin Forest. Ahead of us is the Lajal Mountain Range, the border separating the Gryffin Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom. It''s almost impossible for humans to cross that mountain range without relying on magic and tools," Zauna said as she pointed in the direction Alice had been advancing, which was also the part of the forest Purification de had vaporized before.


    After listening to Zauna''s words, Alice immediately felt a little depressed. It turned out that she had been walking <em>deeper </em>into the forest throughout this past half a month. It was no wonder that she failed to see any people throughout the journey.

 Chapter 6: Alice Refuses to Die Unarmed

    Chapter 6: Alice Refuses to Die Unarmed


    The forest Alice currently resided in was called the Gryffin Forest. It was a virgin forest located at the edge of the Gryffin Kingdom. As the forestcked any unique resources and was infested by beasts, the Gryffin Kingdom did not set the forest as a remation target. Instead, the kingdom left it as a ce for warriors and magicians to harvestmon materials. Hence, under normal circumstances, the Gryffin Forest generally did not have human inhabitants. And although there would asionally be people entering the woods to search for materials, they tended not to travel too deep into the forest.


    Meanwhile, not only did Alice appear in the depths of the Gryffin Forest, but she had also continued to travel deeper into the forest. This naturally made it impossible for her to encounter other humans. If Zauna hadn''t been searching for a material that could only be found in the depths of the forest, Alice would''ve probably had to stay much longer in the forest.


    Looking at this situation, Alice didn''t know whether to consider herself lucky or unlucky. Nevertheless, she managed to hit the brakes in time and did not continue going deeper into the forest. Otherwise, she would be making her way to the mountain range serving as the Gryffin Kingdom''s national border. And with Alice''s physique, she definitely wouldn''t be capable of crossing the mountain range.


    "But something strange seems to have happened in the forest depths. If you walk a little further ahead from your camp, you''ll see that a whole section of the forest there is destroyed. The ground there is also covered in wood chips. It looked as if a dragon had slept and rolled around there," Zauna exined the strange scene she saw while showing Alice the way back to human civilization. Then, she asked, "Since you''ve been living here for some time now, do you have any ideas what happened?"


    <em>How the heck would I know?</em> Alice innocently shook her head, pretending not to know anything about the devastated forest.


    Alice had originally thought people living nearby would see Purification de''s blinding light. However, she didn''t think that there would be a mountain range further ahead. So, it was probably safe to assume that nobody saw the strange phenomenon. Since that was the case, Alice did not need to reveal information on this matter. After all, there was no way she could exin Purification de''s origins. She couldn''t possibly say that she identally destroyed a section of the Gryffin Forest after trying to hit a ck wolf with her panties, right?


    "That''s fair, I guess. After all, you look like the youngdy of a noble family. It''s already tough for you to survive out here for so long, so I doubt you can understand these strange phenomena," Zauna said, shaking her head and sighing.


    During their trek back to civilization, Alice had lied to Zauna, saying that she had lost her memories. Combined with the fact that her dress was made using high-quality fabric, Zauna was led to assume that Alice came from a noble or wealthy family. Hence, Zauna now treated Alice as an ojousama who had lost her memories.


    Although the memory-loss excuse was somethingmonly used in transmigration novels, Alice had to acknowledge its effectiveness. This was especially true when unscientific things like magic existed in this world. It wasn''t strange for people to suffer from insanity due to magic. So, memory loss became an urrence people readily epted.


    "But I still don''t understand why you''re taking this garbage with you," Zauna said while pointing at therge bag Alice was carrying on her back.


    The bag was made using the Milu Rabbit pelts Alice had harvested, and it carried the various stones and tree branches she had gathered. This situation confused Zauna as she couldn''t understand why someone who appeared like a wealthy youngdy would have the hobby of picking up garbage.


    "This isn''t garbage," Alice refuted, sending a re at Zauna.


    Alice naturally didn''t have a hobby of collecting Garbage-rated weapons. Instead, the bag she carried contained weapons that were given the "Not Bad" quality. As to why Alice decided to bring these items with her, it was because she felt that they mighte in handy one day. After all, Alice currently had nothing else to defend herself with. She naturally had to hold onto these weapons to give herself a sense of safety.


    As a side note, Alice had also brought the pitiful Milu Rabbit with her, and it was currently tied to a vine hanging off of her back. However, as the previous concussion it suffered seemed quite severe, it remained unconscious even until now.


    "...Hold for a second."


    Just when Alice thought about how she should exin her bag of weapons, Zauna suddenly stopped walking and extended a hand to block Alice''s path. Then, a slight frown formed on her face as she scrutinized the forest ahead. Unlike Alice, Zauna was a magician. Her mental power far surpassed Alice, so she quickly noticed the air of dangering from the forest ahead.


    "Something''s there."


    "Huh?"


    Alice was stunned. However, considering that she had practically nobat power right now, she obediently listened to Zauna and stopped advancing. Then, she followed Zauna''s line of sight and looked ahead.


    Although Alice failed to see or sense anything, as more time passed by, the targets Zauna observed finally lost their patience as they slowly emerged from behind severalrge trees. At this time, Alice finally realized that more ck wolves had set their sights on them.


    "Boria Wolves. They''re the locals of this forest," Zauna said with a frown. Then, she moved her gaze toward the leader of this pack of wolves.


    The pack leader was significantlyrger than itspanions, and its mane had a faint metallic luster. Even Alice, someone who understood nothing about magic, could tell that this wolf leader was on an entirely different levelpared to the ck wolves that had hunted her before. Meanwhile, Zauna''s subsequent words also proved this point.


    "That''s probably a wolf king. It might even be capable of using magic. I''m afraid this will be a little troublesome."


    <em>Wolf king?</em>


    Alice suddenly remembered that she had picked up something named "Branch Dyed With a Wolf King''s Spit." The "Wolf King" in the name probably referred to the wolf king in front of them. However, even after finding out that the wolf king might be capable of magic, Alice didn''t feel too concerned. After all, Zauna was a magician. The wolf king shouldn''t pose too much of a danger to them.


    As soon as Alice had such thoughts, the wolf king suddenly lunged at them and opened its maw. Then, arge fireball flew out of its mouth and flew in their direction.


    Zauna quickly reacted to the wolf king''s actions. By the time the wolf king had lunged at them, she had already pulled out her magic staff from her waist pouch. Then, by the time the wolf king had summoned its fireball, Zauna had executed a horizontal swing at the wolf king with her staff.


    For a moment, Alice thought Zauna was using her staff as a mace to smash the wolf king''s head. However, Alice quickly dismissed her thoughts when she saw a light-blue magic circle appearing in front of Zauna. Then, the magic circle transformed into a curtain of water, blocking the oing fireball. Although the fireball had vaporized nearly half of the water curtain, it eventually faded without causing any harm to Zauna and Alice.


    Alice broke out in cold sweat at this sight. It was fortunate she hadn''t encountered this wolf king by herself after defeating the first pack of ck wolves. Otherwise, without her panties, the wolf king could''ve cooked her to perfection with just one fireball.


    <em>Even so, this situation doesn''t look good</em> Alice thought as she watched Zauna shing against the wolf king.


    After a few exchanges, Alice found that Zauna had been telling the truthZauna was merely an apprentice magician. The magic she could use was by no means strong, and most of them were defense-oriented magic. While Zauna could stop the wolf king''s magic attacks with her own magic, the wolf king wasn''t limited to just magic. Therge canine was also capable of physical attacks. While using its magic to distract Zauna, it would also circle past Zauna''s defenses and try to attack the apprentice magician with its fangs and ws. Hence, in no time at all, Zauna started showing signs of faltering.


    Another fireball struck Zauna''s water curtain. However, after taking on several fireballs, the water curtain had already lost most of its defensive capabilities. Hence, the wolf king''s fireball smashed through the water curtain without dissipating and exploded on Zauna''s body. The resulting explosion sent Zauna''s petite body flying across the air andnding headfirst into the ground, the impact causing her to lose consciousness immediately. The fireball had also burnt many parts of Zauna''s cloak and robe, and she looked to be in a rtively miserable state.


    Alice had not expected the fight to finish so quickly and in Zauna''s loss, so she couldn''t help but be bewildered by this situation.


    After dealing with Zauna, the wolf king quickly shifted its sights onto Alice. With the wolf king''s attention on her, Alice was sure she had no way out of this situation now. And although she carried arge pile of "weapons" on her back, she did not even need to try to know that none of those weapons would be useless against the wolf king before her. After all, even her strongest weapon was nothing but an unconscious Milu Rabbit


    "Hmm?"


    Upon thinking of the unconscious Milu Rabbit, Alice suddenly came to a realization.


    <em>Since the system considers the Milu Rabbit as a weapon so long as it is unconscious, then</em>


    Alice stiffly turned around and looked toward the unconscious Zauna.


    TL Notes:


    I will be using Japanese weeb terms such as ojousama and pantsu from time to time.

 Chapter 7: Immortal Bear (Kuma Pantsu Banzai!)

    Chapter 7: Immortal Bear (Kuma Pantsu Banzai!)


    Indeed. Since the unconscious Milu Rabbit could be used as a weapon, it should also be possible to use the unconscious Zauna as a weapon. Although it would hurt (Zauna) to swing and hit things using Zauna, it would be a much better alternative than to let the wolf king roast and eat them. Moreover, in the off chance that Zauna''s effect provided Alice with several dozen points in Speed, Alice wouldn''t even have to fight the wolf king. She could just run away with Zauna in hand.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice hurriedly lunged at Zauna''s unconscious body before the wolf king managed to recover its mana andunch another round of attacks. Then, she held up Zauna''s legs with both hands. Although Alice didn''t seem like she was wielding a weapon while holding onto Zauna''s legs, it did not matter. So long as her right hand was holding onto the target object, it didn''t matter if she wielded the item with both hands; the system would still treat the object as a weapon. This was something Alice had verified through her tests.


    Then, as expected, the moment Alice held up Zauna''s legs, she felt power flowing into her body. Simultaneously, information about the weapon she wielded also appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Mana Depleted Zauna]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1, Speed +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    "You''re even worse than a Milu Rabbit!!!"


    Alice got a headache looking at Zauna''s statistics. The unconscious Milu Rabbit had an effect of Strength +2 and Speed +2. Its quality was also rated as "Not Bad." Yet, despite being significantlyrger in size and an apprentice magician to boot, Zauna only provided a boost of Strength +1 and Speed +1. She was even rated as "Garbage," a rating simr to stones and tree branches that could be found anywhere. This was simply terrible.


    Of course, there was also a possibility that this poor performance resulted from Zauna''s mana deficiency, as indicated by her prefix. Inparison, the Milu Rabbit''s prefix was "With Some Mana." If Alice could replenish Zauna''s mana, the oue should be slightly better.


    However, Alice had more pressing concerns to deal with right now. While the wolf king might not have recovered all of its mana, it was already capable of executing another round of attacks. It was also more than capable of dealing with Alice.


    Alice already noticed the wolf king looking at her with its crimson eyes, seemingly ready tounch an attack. This situation left her with no other choice. Looking at this situation, she seemingly only had one path to take.


    "If you guys already have phones, then you must have invented panties as well!"


    Yelling out in desperation, Alice extended her right hand into Zauna''s magic robe and felt up Zauna''s lower body. Then, Alice sighed in relief. As she had predicted, Zauna was indeed wearing a pair of underwear under her robe. It also showed that this world''s civilization did not take a strange turn in its development. Otherwise, it would''ve been very strange for a civilization that had already invented mobile phones to not have invented underwear.


    However, now wasn''t the time to ponder over these matters. After using a little strength, Alice managed to pull the underwear down Zauna''s legs.


    Fortunately, Zauna wasn''t wearing tights. Otherwise, removing the underwear would''ve been a little troublesome. Though, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if tights were considered Artifacts as well.


    While thinking about nonsense in her mind, Alice sessfully pulled the underwear out of Zauna''s robe. The instant the bear-printed panties left Zauna''s legs, it released a blinding white light.


    <em>Sure enough, it''s just like before. All panties are considered Artifacts.</em>


    Alice shed a tear at this sight, though it wasn''t out of happiness. Out of the many novels she had read, no matter how embarrassing a trump card a character had, it was at least something they could afford to reveal to others. Yet, her trump card was panties. So long as this matter was revealed, she would most likely suffer a social death in the truest sense of the term.


    Simr to the time Alice fought with the ck wolves from before, the intense light that suddenly radiated from Alice''s right hand had also frightened the wolf king, causing it to stumble several steps back. Then, the wolf king took on a wary stance and faced Alice. This situation also allowed Alice to spend some time learning about the abilities of this new set of panties.


    [Weapon: Soft Bear Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +7000, Speed +3000, Mind +3000, Control +7000, Mana +3000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Gaia''s Power (Active Skill. Upon use, releases the power of mountains to permanently suppress the opponent''s soul.)]


    <em>Do the effects and additional effects change ording to the panties'' design?</em>


    By now, Alice had already epted the fact that her trump card was throwing panties at her enemies. In any case, the only conscious human present right now was herself. If she had to fight using panties, so be it. There was no longer anything to be afraid of.


    After the previous lesson, though, Alice did not intend to use the Soft Bear Underwear''s active skill. Instead, she nned to rely on the massive stat boost to beat the living daylights out of the wolf king. That way, she could return the panties to Zauna without thetter ever finding out that it was gone. It was a perfect n.


    "Awoo~!"


    Simr to the ck wolves Alice previously fought, after the wolf king sensed that the dazzling light didn''t bring it any substantial harm, it immediately opened its mouth andunched a fireball at Alice, leaving Alice with no time to react at all. Meanwhile, just like the wolf king expected, its fireballnded squarely on Alice''s body, covering her in mes.


    However, just as the wolf king was about to step forward and take a bite out of its presumably roasted prey, Alice lightly shook her body, shaking off the scattered mes from her body. Let alone being injured, Alice didn''t even receive any damage to her clothing. The Soft Bear Underwear''s Mana Cancetion allowed her to be immune to offensive magic. Hence, the mes created using the wolf king''s mana did nothing but heat the surrounding air around Alice.


    <em>Phew. I think I emphasize with a certain baldy''s feelings now, </em>Alice thought. With a pair of panties in hand, she could be absolutely fine even if she stood still and received the attacks her enemies hurled at her.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s carefreeposure seemingly frightened the wolf king, causing it to freeze up. Seeing this, Alice couldn''t help but feel delighted. Although it was embarrassing to have to hold a pair of panties in her hand to gain this kind of power, if it was for emergencies, Alice felt that it wouldn''t be too terrible of an idea to buy a few pairs of panties and carry them around in her pockets. When the situation necessitated it, she could gain instant invulnerability by reaching into her pockets and holding onto a pair of panties. The only problem was the blinding light her right hand radiated.


    The shorings of this blinding light also quickly manifested themselves. The light was so bright that it prated Zauna''s eyelids and irritated her eyes, causing her to gradually regain consciousness. Then, her eyebrows fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes. However, as she remained dazed, she did not immediately notice that a certain someone had already stripped her of her underwear. Instead, after opening her eyes, the first thing that came to her mind was the girl she brought along with her.


    "Alice?! Are you still here?!"


    Alice was currently throwing a punch at the wolf king with her right hand. With 7,000 points in Control, Alice was confident she could limit her strength and kill the wolf king without obliterating its corpse. She nned to use the wolf king''s corpse as a weapon. After all, if even a wolf king''s spit could level up a tree branch, its corpse should be even more powerful.


    However, because of Zauna''s sudden shout, Alice subconsciously used a little more strength than she intended. If a person suddenly had someone yelling for them while they were chopping vegetables, they would subconsciously put a little more force into their actions. This, in turn, would lead to them messing up their chopping motion and possibly even cut their finger. Meanwhile, Alice''s situation was a little moreplicated because her subconscious use of strength led to her...activating Gaia''s Power.

 Chapter 8: The Demon King is Gone, So Whats The Hero For?

    Chapter 8: The Demon King is Gone, So What''s The Hero For?


    <em>It''s over.</em>


    The instant the panties vanished from her hand, Alice immediately had a sinking feeling. The panties she lost this time didn''t belong to her, but Zauna instead. Now that she had activated Gaia''s Power, Zauna''s bear panties would probably vanish without a trace, just like her white panties.


    Unfortunately, the skill activation would not stop just because Alice wished for it. Hence, Alice could only awkwardly watch as the bear panties transformed into a streak of golden light that shot into the sky. Then, the beam transformed into a huge curtain of light that descended from the sky and shrouded the forest in front of Alice, crushing innumerable trees into pieces.


    Alongside the trees, the curtain of light had also crushed the wolf king standing in front of Alice into a pancake. Moreover, the light curtain appeared to have mass as no blood stters had urred. The curtain had simply ttened and killed the wolf king on the spot.


    Alice felt a little heartache at this sight. Now that the wolf king''s corpse had been turned into such a state, there was no way she could use it as a weapon. This was a huge loss. After all, even as a corpse, the wolf king should be a much better weaponpared to the Milu Rabbit.


    However,pared to Alice, Zauna had apletely different perspective of this situation. She had just regained consciousness and had yet to notice that her panties were no longer attached to her body. And because she had yet to recover her stamina and mana, so she had to struggle to even sit up. Meanwhile, as soon as she sat up and lifted her head, the first thing she saw was the spectacr scene before hera gigantic curtain of light had ttened the entire forest in front of her, and even the wolf king that had been hunting them had been turned into a sheet of paper. Meanwhile, Alice, who stood before this curtain of light, had an unexpectedly holy appearance.


    "<em>Gulp,</em>" Zauna anxiously swallowed her saliva as she suddenly realized somethingthe forest located some distance away from Alice''s previous campsite had simrly been destroyed and ttened.


    Initially, Zauna had not linked the strange phenomenon with Alice. However, after seeing this sight in front of her, Zauna was almost certain that the disappearance of the forest was Alice''s doing. Moreover, this majestic power definitely wasn''t something an ordinary magician was capable of. Rather, this power was already on the level of Gods.


    If Alice could hear Zauna''s thoughts right now, she would agree with the apprentice magician on a certain level. After all, the skill she activated was named Gaia''s Power. Meanwhile, Gaia referred to Mother Goddess. So, it wasn''t wrong to say that the curtain of light was the power of a God. Only, the price to use Gaia''s Power was a little steep, requiring the sacrifice of a pair of bear panties.


    However, Gaia''s Power''s effect still hadn''t ended. After the golden light crushed everything in front of Alice, the silhouette of a gigantic mountain gradually phased into reality, just like how water vapor gradually condensed into water. Eventually, a corporeal, gigantic mountain had reced the destroyed forest.


    The Gryffin Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom originally already had the Laja Mountain Range separating them. Now, Alice had given the two kingdoms another mountain.


    At this point, Zauna had already be thoroughly dumbfounded. In this current age, most magicians belonged to the research faction, and these magicians mainly studied ways to incorporate magic into a variety of daily life products. Magicians that were proficient atbat only existed in small numbers. However, even the principal of the Magic Academy, the strongest magician she knew of, was incapable of ttening arge section of the Gryffin Forest and creating a mountain out of thin air.


    Alice was also a little dazed as she didn''t think that the curtain of light would transform into an entire mountain. Moreover, as she happened to serve as the boundary for the light curtain, the spot she stood at had be the foot of the mountain after this mountain appeared. So, she could tell that the mountain was very much real and very much massive. This realization, in turn, filled her withplicated feelings.


    However, Alice quickly shook her head and cleared her mind of useless thoughts. Disregarding the aftermath of using Gaia''s Power, the skill had, at the very least, removed the wolf king''s threat. Then, Alice turned around and looked toward Zauna, which caused the apprentice magician to subconsciously shudder.


    Previously, Zauna had still been treating Alice as an ordinary human. However, if she still maintained her line of thought after seeing what just happened, she definitely needed to get her head checked.


    "Are you alright, Zauna?" Alice approached Zauna and offered her a hand.


    When Zauna looked at Alice''s petite and untrained arm, she couldn''t help but hesitate. However, she eventually chose to grab Alice''s hand and let the other party pull her up. Although her body felt sore all over, she didn''t sustain any serious injuries. The worst injuries she suffered were some minor burns, and these could be easily resolved by visiting the church for healing. She also had medical insurance, so the healing fee wouldn''t cost her a lot of money. Compared to her injuries, Zauna was more curious about Alice''s true identity.


    "Alice, could you be the Hero?"


    Following this question, Zauna and Alice stared at each other in silence for a while. Alice remained silent because she didn''t know how she should exin the matter of her stripping Zauna of her bear panties, while Zauna remained silent because she had focused all her attention on Alice''s true identity. It was also because of her concentration that she still hadn''t noticed the breezy feeling of her lower body.


    After hesitating for a moment, Zauna voiced her conjectures to Alice, saying, "The power you used is simr to the power granted by the Gods. I recall legends saying that Heroes are individuals who have received the blessing of the Gods and are capable ofmunicating with Gods."


    "Hero?" Alice was stunned. She also felt that she had found the reason why she had transmigrated to this world. In the transmigration novels she had read, there were many instances of Earthlings being summoned to save another world. If that was the case, it would make sense why she had suddenly appeared in this world. Then, she asked, "Could there be a Demon King in this world?"


    The way Alice phrased her question sounded strange, making it seem like she wasn''t an inhabitant of this world. However, considering that Alice was an "amnesiac," Zauna didn''t delve too deeply into the matter. Instead, she shook her head and answered, "Demon Kings exist, but thest Demon King already died three hundred years ago."


    <em>Then, what''s the point even if I am the Hero?!</em>


    Alice wanted to yell out her retort but eventually held back from doing so. In reality, she, too, felt that she wasn''t a Hero. After all, ording to Zauna, a Hero was someone capable ofmunicating with Gods. However, Alice had already lived in this world for half a month, yet she hadn''t even heard a peep from any God. The two mind-blowing skills she had used thus far also originated from her ability, and they had nothing to do with Gods.


    So, Alice shook her head and said, "In that case, I shouldn''t be the Hero. I don''t recall talking with any God before."


    "Is that so?" Zauna looked at Alice suspiciously. If Alice wasn''t a Hero, how would she exin the miraculous phenomenon just now? However, although Zauna wanted to keep on questioning Alice, she felt that it would be rude to do so since the two of them weren''t well-acquainted with each other. So, she held back her curiosity and helplessly said, "Alright, then. If you say so. Anyway, let''s head back to the city first. If you really are the Hero, the people from the church should be able to tell."


    After saying so, Zauna turned around and prepared to resume escorting Alice out of the Gryffin Forest.


    Meanwhile, Alice sighed in relief when she saw that Zauna did not n to continue asking her about Gaia''s Power. The fact that Zauna didn''t continue prying into the matter despite her curiosity also showed that she was a person capable of considering the feelings of others.


    However, before Alice could finish her sigh, Zauna suddenly stopped walking and reached out to feel the bottom part of her robe.


    "...Where''s my underwear?"


    Alice''s body stiffened, not daring to say even a word.

 Chapter 9: Could I Really Be The Hero?

    Chapter 9: Could I Really Be The Hero?


    Even until the end, Zauna failed to figure out where her panties had disappeared to. After all, by the time Zauna woke up, she had already missed the scene of Alice holding her underwear. Instead, what Zauna saw was Alice holding up her right hand and calling down a golden curtain of light from the sky. No matter how Zauna thought about it, there was no way she could link Alice''s holy appearance with that of an underwear thief. It was even more impossible for her to figure out that her bear panties were the origin of the divine light curtain and humongous mountain.


    Not to mention, Alice had also provided a theory to the disappearance of Zauna''s panties, saying that the wolf king''s fireball might have burnt it previously. Although Zauna couldn''t understand how the wolf king''s fireball managed to burn her panties while leaving the lower half of her robe intact, this was also the only usible reason she could think of right now. Hence, Zauna decided not to continue looking into this matter. Instead, she focused on bearing the airy feeling while leading Alice back to human civilization.


    Fortunately, there was no one else here except Alice, so Zauna didn''t have to worry about more people noticing herck of underwear. As for Alice''s identity, although Alice herself insisted that she had lost her memories, Zauna still believed that the blonde girl was someone rted to the Hero. Even if Alice wasn''t the Hero, she must be something like the Hero''spanion. Otherwise, there would be no exnation for how that divine phenomenon came to being.


    "Even if I am the Hero, there''s no Demon King right now, so wouldn''t me being a Hero be pointless?" Alice said.


    Currently, Alice and Zauna were standing on a spacious stone road that ran through the Gryffin Forest. They had arrived at this road thanks to the guidance of an alchemy program on Zauna''s phone. Although rarely anybody used this road, Zauna could still use her mobile phone to call for a car to pick them up. Seeing all of these things, Alice had to admit that this world was not in the Middle Ages like she had expected.


    Meanwhile, the two of them were currently having a chat while waiting for the ride service Zauna called.


    "No, the Hero coexists with the Demon King. If the Gods have chosen a Hero, that means a Demon King will awaken," Zauna said as she looked at Alice the Amnesiac with a solemn expression.


    "We still don''t know who the Demon King of this era is, but ording to what I learned in history ss, every Demon King that awakens will first pretend to be an ordinary individual and umte their strength in secret. Only after the Demon King is unable to hide their strength will they reveal themself. Meanwhile, the Hero is an existence that would often only appear after the Demon King of that era cannot hide their strength for much longer. So, Alice, if you are the Hero, it won''t be long before the Demon King reveals themself. You need to bear the responsibility of defeating the Demon King!"


    "But I don''t want to fight the Demon King at all"


    Alice got goosebumps when she heard Zauna''s words. The more she listened to the apprentice magician, the more she felt that she was the Hero in question. Although she hadn''t spoken to any Gods thus far, there was no question that she had been transported to this world. Moreover, she had even gained an inexplicable ability that allowed her to turn any object she wielded into a weapon. This ability might very well be a gift from the Gods Zauna mentioned. If that was the case, there was a high possibility that she could be the Hero.


    "Why? If you be the Hero, you''ll get to enjoy boundless glory." Zauna couldn''t help but be puzzled by Alice''sint. "There are many people who wish to be the Hero but can''t. The Hero theme is also almost always found in the most popr knight novels found online. Though, the titles of recent novels have started deviating into a new direction."


    <em>Is this really another world?</em>


    Whenever Alice heard these familiar termsing out of Zauna''s mouth, she couldn''t help but ask herself such a question. If she hadn''t watched the magic showdown between Zauna and the wolf king, she would''ve probably thought that she was still on Earth.


    Nevertheless, Alice was unable to emphasize with the people that were wishing to be Heroes at all. Rather than take on incredible risks to fight the Demon King and be praised as a legend by the people, Alice wanted to just survive and find a way back to her world instead. This difference in opinion was probably a result of the two worlds'' differing education methods, and this world''s education most likely ced great importance on things like glory and whatnot.


    While Alice could indeed pull an Unlimited Panties Works and toss out Artifact-level skills as if she wereunching fireworks, her enemy was the Demon King. There was no telling how powerful a Demon King was exactly. On the off chance her panties couldn''t deal substantial damage to the Demon King, she would be doomed once she ran out of panties. With her single-digit stats, the Demon King could probably kill her with a sneeze.


    "Regardless, even if you don''t want to be the Hero, I should still take you to the church. The church should have a way to test whether you are the Hero or not," Zauna said. Then, she caught sight of something appearing at the end of the road and said, "I think our ride is here, Alice."


    Alice quickly followed Zauna''s line of sight when she heard thetter''s words. Then, sure enough, she spotted a white, streamlined vehicle quickly driving up to them from the end of the road. And judging by the car''s aerodynamic shape, it was evident that the people of this world still researched science despite the existence of magic. Only, rather than fossil fuel, the cars of this world operated on mana.


    Although Alice had practically no mana in her body right now, after her two brief experiences of having her body filled to the brim with mana, she could tell that the approaching vehicle was driven by mana. And realizing this fact, Alice concluded that the technological standard of this world was not the slightest bit inferior to Earth. In fact, because of the existence of an additional energy source known as mana, some aspects of this world''s technology might be even more advanced than Earth''s technology.


    Alice couldn''t help but feel a little frustrated by this situation. Of the novels she previously read, the Earthlings who had transmigrated to another world would generally look at the alien world from the perspective of an urban resident visiting a rural area. Yet, her situation was the exact opposite. She felt like a country bumpkin visiting a big city in this world.


    From the conversation she had with Zauna, Alice also learned that this world''s human history went as far back as tens of thousands of years ago. Although the interference of the demons and beastkin had obstructed the development of human civilization to a certain extent, humans had still managed to prosper nevertheless.


    Hence, it was unlikely for Alice to rely on her knowledge from Earth to live a wealthy life in this world. The only thing worth celebrating was that she wouldn''t have to be worried about boredom, unlike other transmigrators. After all, mobile phones andputers existed in this world.

 Chapter 10: Why Is Everything Garbage?

    Chapter 10: Why Is Everything Garbage?


    The closest city to Gryffin Forest was called Mana. While driving down the t road, it didn''t take long for the mana-powered sedan to transport Alice and Zauna to the city gate.


    The city gate and the surrounding walls truly gave off the ir of a different world. There were gorgeous reliefs and magic patterns engraved on the white city wall, and two massive dragon sculptures stood on both sides of the city gate. The entrance of Mana City looked majestic from both near and afar. Honestly, Alice would''ve found the entire thing awe-inspiring if it weren''t for the surveince cameras located on the edges of the city gate...


    Now, rather than a city found in an alien world, Alice felt like she was visiting a film set instead


    "This is Mana City. Although it is located on the Gryffin Kingdom''s fringe, the Laja Mountain Range separates us from the Ymir Kingdom, so hardly any people from the Ymir Kingdom visit this ce. That''s why this ce is no different than any other city in the Gryffin Kingdom."


    After getting off the car, Zauna paid for the fare by scanning the driver''s QR code using her phone. While doing so, she also provided a brief exnation of Mana City to Alice.


    Meanwhile, if Alice were to be honest, apart from the architectural style and clothing retaining the style of medieval Europe, she didn''t get the feeling of being in a different world. From the conversation she had with Zauna in the car, she found that most of the things avable on Earth could also be found in this world. To Alice''s surprise, this world even had its own version of a nuclear bomb. Upon this discovery, Alice truly couldn''t fathom how powerful the Demon King could be if it could still threaten this world''s civilization despite the existence of such strategic weapons.


    "Let''s go. I''ll take you to Mana City''s church," Zauna said after paying the driver. Then, she started making her way toward the city gate.


    Hearing this, Alice immediately followed after the apprentice magician. However, she still felt a little uneasy from the stares she received from the people around her. Apart from some guards wearing armor engraved with magic patterns, people who looked like mercenaries could also be seen leaving the city gate and making their way to Gryffin Forest. Meanwhile, almost every one of these mercenaries would turn to look at her when they walked past her.


    However, there was no helping this situation as Alice''s current appearance was a little strange. Alice looked very much like a youngdy from a wealthy family if one judged solely by appearances. Her limbs looked like they had never undergone any physical training, and her skin looked as white as snow. At a nce, she looked like she had lived in a family with good conditions. Yet, the blue-and-white dress Alice wore was currently in tatters, which greatly contrasted her physical appearance.


    Fortunately, the mercenaries didn''t behave too rudely as they went along their respective businesses after taking a curious nce.


    "Everything will be fine once you go to the church and change your clothes. The church has an obligation to help the masses, so you won''t have to worry that the people in the church will trouble you."


    Zauna also noticed the stares Alice was receiving, so she provided the blonde girl with someforting words. Then, she led Alice into Mana City.


    Fortunately, when the two passed through the gate, the guards there only nced at Alice before letting them through. Looking at their reactions, Alice guessed that no major wars had taken ce in this world in recent times. Otherwise, there was no way the guards would let someone dressed so strangely as she was to enter the city.


    After crossing the city gate, what entered Alice''s eyes was a broad street with tall buildings lining both its sides. Alice had been correct in her prediction. Although most of the buildings here still retained the architecture style found in medieval Europe, the buildings here were significantly taller than those found in the Middle Ages.


    Cars could also be seen driving on the spacious road, and there were sidewalks and street lights on both sides of the road. However, Alice noticed that mana powered these street lights rather than electricity.


    <em>It seems this world uses mana in ce of some of the energy sources typically used on Earth. I guess this can also be regarded as this world''s unique feature.</em>


    Zauna appeared familiar with Mana City as they arrived in front of a magnificent church after making a few twists and turns. From what Alice had heard from Zauna, the church of this world seemed to have a good reputation. Apart from functioning as a ce of belief, the church seemed to also serve as an orphanage. It was also probably because of this fact that Zauna showed a lot of respect when mentioning the church.


    "Wait by the entrance for a second. I''ll go in and notify the people inside," Zauna said before leaving Alice in the church''s courtyard and entering the building by herself.


    Aliceplied with Zauna''s words and obediently waited in the courtyard. There were no other people in the courtyard presently, probably because today was not a day of prayer. As a result, the church looked a bit empty and deserted. However, the church courtyard wasn''t entirely without its own allure as there was a highly conspicuous golden sword inserted into a metal tform. Having nothing better to do, Alice decided to approach the sword and inspect it.


    The sword gave off an inexplicable sense of coercion, and it looked extraordinary at first nce. After approaching the sword, Alice took a look at the metal tform housing the sword. From what little knowledge she had, she judged that the tform should be made out of iron. Meanwhile, in front of this iron tform sat a sign with the following sentence written on it<em>Only the Hero can pull out this sword. All visitors are wee to try.</em>


    Footprints covered thewn in front of the iron tform. From this sight, Alice could tell that many hopeful people must''vee and tried to draw the sword every day. However, seeing that the sword remained inserted in the iron tform, it was evident that the chosen Hero had yet to appear.


    Suddenly, Alice recalled Zauna''s confident assumption that she was the Hero. If the apprentice magician was right, Alice decided that she might as well try and see if she could draw the sword. If she were honest, though, she still hoped that she wouldn''t be the Hero. After all, if she became the Hero with her enthusiasm orck thereof, then the humans of this world would have a bleak future if the Demon King appeared.


    Alice did not reach for the sword with her right hand. Instead, she grasped the golden sword''s hilt with her left hand and tried drawing the sword with all of her strength. However, as expected, the sword remained deeply embedded in the metal tform. It didn''t budge by even a millimeter after all the force Alice had exerted.


    Alice couldn''t tell whether she was happy or disappointed by this oue. However, if what was written on the sign was true, it was already certain that she was not the Hero. Also, the mana flowing within the golden sword was so abundant that it managed to surprise even a magic dolt like herself. So, Alice estimated that the sword probably had some special sealing ability that prevented anyone but the chosen Hero from drawing it out of the iron tform.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice grew a little curious. What kind of rating would appear if she were to use her ability on this Hero''s Sword?


    After looking around and making sure that she was alone, Alice pondered for a moment. Eventually, though, she sumbed to her curiosity and grasped the golden sword''s hilt with her right hand. Immediately afterward, Alice''s ability activated, and the system conveyed the weapon''s information to her mind.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Enheria]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Alice was stunned by the statistics revealed. Subsequently, she felt the boundless mana within "Enheria" vanishingpletely. Then, just like the system stated, the Hero''s Sword had be bona fide garbage. Now, the sword was nothing but a piece of scrap metal stuck inside a metal tform.


    "Fuck."


    Alice''s hand shook, and she effortlessly drew Enheria out of the metal tform. Evidently, since Alice''s right hand had turned this sword into garbage, it had now lost its special ability to determine which individuals were qualified to draw it.


    This scene frightened Alice, and she hurriedly tried to insert the sword back into the metal tform in a panic. However, before she could return the sword to its home, Zauna walked out of the church''s entrance.


    "Alice! Let me introduce you. This person here is"


    Before Zauna could finish her words, her face stiffened as her eyesnded on the Hero''s Sword in Alice''s hands.

 Chapter 11: Times Have Changed, Alice

    Chapter 11: Times Have Changed, Alice


    Zauna was stunned. The old man following Zauna was also stunned.


    Looking at the bewildered faces of the two people in front of her, Alice immediately understood what was going through their minds. After all, the sign had already stated that "Only the Hero can pull out this sword." Not to mention, looking at all the footprints in front of the metal tform, there were probably many people who would try to pull out the sword every day but failed to do so. This only served to further increase the sign''s reliability. Meanwhile, now that Alice had turned the sword into garbage with her right hand and drew it out of the tform, Zauna and the old man must be thinking that she was the Hero.


    "W-Wait! Let me exin!"


    Alice panicked when she thought of the possibility that she might be forced to fight the Demon King. After all, she felt that the way she drew the Hero''s Sword was no different than cheating.


    Previously, when Alice tried drawing the sword using her left hand, the sealing magic in the sword was still effective against her. This proved that the sword didn''t recognize her as the Hero. The only reason she managed to draw the sword now was that her right hand had turned it into actual garbage, which also removed the mana and sealing magic within the sword.


    While speaking, Alice hurriedly tried to insert the Hero''s Sword back to the metal tform. Before Zauna and that white-robed elder managed to react, the sword had already returned to the empty slot in the tform, perfectly filling it in. Then, as soon as Alice released her grip over the sword, boundless mana instantly returned to the sword. Simultaneously, the sword''s sealing magic also started functioning once more.


    Alice breathed out a sigh of relief at this sight. Now, all she needed to do was say that this was an ident. If Zauna and the old man insisted that she try to draw the sword again, she would use her left hand to draw it.


    After returning the Hero''s Sword to its metallic home, Alice turned around to look at Zauna and the old man. However, just as Alice was about to open her mouth to say something, she suddenly felt something moving behind her. It was also at this time that she remembered that she had been carrying an unconscious Milu Rabbit on her back.


    Before Alice could take any actions, the Milu Rabbit struggled free from its loose bindings and hopped down from Alice''s back. When the Milu Rabbit looked up and saw Alice, it immediately revealed a horrified expression and ran head-first into the Hero''s Sword nearby. Thenit lost consciousness once more.


    <em>Goddammit, what is this awkward situation</em>


    The words Alice had initially thought of saying disappeared from her head along with the Milu Rabbit''s actions. She also couldn''t help but curse at the rabbit''s impable timing. After all, this was already the second time the Milu Rabbit had interrupted her attempt to speak to other people with its illogical actions.


    Afterward, Alice hurriedly crouched down and picked up the unconscious rabbit. Then, she stuffed it into her leather sack that was filled with "weapons."


    While Alice was busy stuffing the Milu Rabbit into her handcrafted sack, the white-robed elder finally came back to his senses. Then, at a speed that an old man shouldn''t be capable of, the white-robed elder ran up to Alice, knelt on one knee, lowered his head, and piously said, "L-Lord Hero, you''ve finally appeared!"


    "No, you''re mistaken. I''m not the Hero." Alice hurriedly shook her head. Then, she pointed at the Hero''s Sword and exined, "I wasn''t the one who pulled out the sword. By the time I saw it, it was already lying on the ground. So, I thought of picking it up and inserting it back in. If you don''t believe me, I can try drawing it out. It definitely won''te out."


    "Huh?"


    Zauna frowned a little when she heard Alice''s exnation, trying to recall the state of the Hero''s Sword when she brought Alice to the church. However, as she frequently saw the Hero''s Sword when visiting the church, she didn''t pay much attention to it when walking past it this time. So, she couldn''t be sure if the sword had already been drawn when she arrived at the church.


    "Is that so?"


    The white-robed elder looked at Alice suspiciously. Though, he believed Alice''s words to a certain extent. After all, almost everyone in this world felt that it was an honor to be a Hero. Even knight novels constantly described the strength and glory of the Hero. So, the old man found it hard to imagine anyone refusing to be the Hero.


    Afterward, the white-robed elder stood up from his kneeling position and observed Alice for a moment. Then, he walked up to the Hero''s Sword, reached out to the sword''s hilt, and tried drawing it. And sure enough, the Hero''s Sword did not budge, just like all the times he tried drawing it before.


    "Then, youngdy, you are called Alice, right?"


    After verifying that the Hero''s Sword''s seal was still in ce, the old man turned to Alice and opened a path for her. To Alice''s surprise, even though she had just denied being the Hero, the old man still treated her politely. He didn''t suddenly turn disrespectful like the clergymen described in novels.


    "Please try drawing the sword again. If you can''t get it out, it might mean that the Hero hade here before but left after pulling out the sword," the white-robed elder said.


    Alice nodded in response and stepped forward. Then, she grabbed the sword''s hilt with her left hand and pulled on it. The white-robed elder could also see that Alice''s left hand was indeed exerting force to draw the sword. Unfortunately, the Hero''s Sword still did not budge.


    Seeing this, the white-robed elder sighed in disappointment. Then, he said, "Alright, then. I''m sorry to have troubled you, Miss Alice. I have verified that you are not the Hero What a pity. It would seem that the Hero has already visited the church and pulled out the sword but, for some reason, chose not to tell us."


    However, although the old man believed Alice''s words, Zauna still felt that something was amiss. After all, she had previously witnessed Alice summoning an entire mountain just to kill a wolf king. Now, the Hero''s Sword had even been conveniently drawn and left in front of Alice. No matter how Zauna looked at it, this didn''t seem like a simple coincidence.


    However, since Alice refused to acknowledge herself as the Hero, Zauna had no way to force the issue. Not to mention, Alice had indeed proven that she was incapable of drawing the Hero''s Sword. It was fortunate for Alice that Zauna and the old man weren''t familiar with her and failed to notice that she had tried drawing the sword with her left hand. And even if they did notice it, they would never have thought that there would be a difference between Alice''s right hand and left hand.


    Hence, Alice managed to deceive them for the moment.


    Just when Alice was about to sigh in relief thinking that she wouldn''t have to carry the Hero''s title and be forced to fight against the Demon King, the white-robed elder suddenly added, "But no matter. Our church just upgraded to a new high-definition surveince system recently. We''ll know who the Hero is once we look at the surveince footage."

 Chapter 12: Alices Sun Fist is Always Functioning

    Chapter 12: Alice''s Sun Fist is Always Functioning


    "Then, Lord Hero, please rest here for the time being. I will notify His Majesty the King about you."


    Alice was given a room to rest in the church. Evidently, because of the presence of a surveince system, there was no way Alice could hide the fact that she was the one who drew the Hero''s Sword. Though, after giving the matter some thought, Alice found this situation to be reasonable. After all, this world had developed its magical technology to the extent that even mobile phones existed. So, how could the people of this world not have invented a surveince system yet?


    Fortunately, the white-robed elder, who was also the head priest of this church, showed a considerable degree of respect for the "Hero" Alice. Hence, he didn''t hesitate at all to give Alice the best room avable in the church. He also dared not disturb Alice for too long as he made himself scarce. Before the old man left, though, he said, "Lord Hero, I can see that you are quite humble and do not wish to announce your presence to the world, but the appearance of a Hero will inspire the people. So, I still hope that you can consider telling the world about your existence..."


    "Let''s talk about this in the future."


    Alice frustratedly sat down on a chair in the room while secretly cursing at her curiosity. None of this would''ve happened if she did not try touching the Hero''s Sword with her right hand. Now that her actions were caught on camera, she couldn''t avoid bing the Hero even if she wanted to. After all, the people of this world firmly believed that the Hero coexisted with the Demon King. If she adamantly refused to take on the duties of the Hero, the people of this world would probably panic.


    However, while Alice had epted her fate of bing the Hero, she still hoped to keep her identity secret for the time being. At most, she wouldpromise with letting the higher-ups of society announce the birth of a Hero to the public. That way, she could get rid of her identity as the Hero once the Demon King remained a no-show for some time.


    Though, when Alice looked at the situation from a different perspective, getting recognized as the Hero wouldn''t be all that bad. After all, if the Demon King remained non-existent, she would get to enjoy the benefits of being a Hero without having to carry out a Hero''s duties.


    "Alright, then. I will ry this matter to His Majesty."


    Seeing Alice''s stubbornness, the head priest Kasandora let out a helpless sigh and took his leave, leaving only Alice and Zauna in the room.


    The room deserved to be called the church''s best avable room as it was very spacious. There was also an object resembling aputer set up on a work desk. However,pared to theputers found on Earth, theputer in question had a somewhat different shape. Theputer''s disy looked like a polished gemstone b. If it weren''t for the casing surrounding the polished b, Alice wouldn''t have recognized it to be aputer at all.


    "How does it feel to be the Hero?"


    After Father Kasandora left, Zauna looked at Alice with a smile. Unlike an old fossil like Father Kasandora, the young Zauna was much more open-minded. Rather than feeling awe and reverence toward the legendary existence known as the Hero, she felt more curious instead.


    Alice did not wish for Zauna to grow afraid of her because of her identity as the Hero, either. So, she felt relieved to see hardly any change to Zauna''s tone. Then, in response to Zauna''s question, Aliceined, "Not that good. I already said I''m not the Hero. You know as well as I do that I don''t have anybat power. What if the Demon King really appears? I probably won''tst more than a hit."


    <em>You don''t have anybat power?</em>


    The wolf king''s tragic end surfaced in Zauna''s mind, causing her to subconsciously shudder. If Alice considered having the ability to summon a huge mountain to crush her enemies as not having anybat power, then probably only the Demon King, who was rumored to have the ability to move mountains and fill oceans, could be considered an opponent for her.


    "ording to records, all Heroes start weak. However, once they start training, they would gradually gain strength far surpassing ordinary humans. If you exclude your ability to create a mountain out of thin air, then you are indeed quite weak right now But it doesn''t matter. Since you are the Hero, you can definitely be strong quickly."


    After taking a seat on the bed, Zauna looked at Alice and continued exining, "The Demon King and Hero will always appear together in the same era. Since you are verified to be the Hero, this shows that the Demon King will soon appear as well. However, before the Demon King reaches maturity, nobody can tell where the Demon King is hiding. The Demon King might even be hiding among humans.


    "Once the Demon King matures and can no longer keep themself concealed, they will take over the demon army andunch an attack on humans. So, you will have to stay alert and grow up quickly. If you lose out to the Demon King in terms of growth, things might be troublesome."


    "I know. That''s why I don''t want to be the Hero."


    Alice felt miserable. Her thoughts were different from the people of this world. The people of this world regarded bing the Hero as an honorable thing, and should they be selected to be the Hero, they would naturally do their best to train and prepare to defeat the Demon King. Hence, most of this world''s past Heroes had sessfully defeated their Demon King counterparts.


    However, Alice was different. She came from Earth and did not receive any cultural education rted to Heroes. She did not have any desire to be a Hero. Hence, getting her to desperately train to defeat the Demon King was a tall order.


    "By the way, based on your statement, does that mean the Demon King might originate from human society? If that''s the case, can the demons ept a human as the Demon King?" Alice curiously asked.


    "Once the Demon King''s Power chooses the next Demon King, the chosen person will have their body modified. Strictly speaking, such a person would no longer be considered a part of the human race."


    Zauna was rtively knowledgeable on this topic. After all,puters and mobile phones existed in this world. The human society here could be regarded as having entered the era of information explosion already. Hence, one could easily find information on the Demon King online. Not to mention, Zauna also attended history lessons at school since history was apulsory subject. Only an illiterate like Alice would need to be educated on such poprized knowledge.


    "Moreover, the humans the Demon King''s Power chooses all possess unresolvable resentment towards humans. Hence, they can quite easily incorporate themselves into the demon race and initiate aggression against human civilization. Although we have taboo bombs capable of razing entire cities in our current era, the utilization of these weapons will simrly lead to the destruction of human civilization. Even if these weapons could do damage to the Demon King, they shouldn''t be used unless absolutely necessary."


    Listening to Zauna''s description, Alice guessed that the so-called "taboo bombs" were probably equivalent to Earth''s nuclear bombs. Once used, they would causerge-scale destruction to human cities and civilization. Using these weapons would only lead to mutual destruction. Moreover, Zauna seemingly deemed that the taboo bombs were only at the level of "could do damage to the Demon King" instead of "could kill the Demon King." This revtion worried Alice, and she couldn''t help but lose confidence in her ability to defeat the Demon King by throwing away her shame and panties.


    After all, these were weapons capable of causing devastating damage to human civilization they were talking about here. Yet, Zauna spoke as if taboo bombs couldn''t necessarily kill the Demon King. If that was the case, would Alice''s panties be of any use?


    After this revtion, Alice also realized why this world, despite having developed to such an extent, still feared the Demon King''s birth so greatly. And if the Demon King''s offensive capabilities were anywhere close to their defensive capabilities, then Demon King was basically a walking nuke that could be infinitely reused.


    "Don''t worry. To ensure you develop smoothly into a Hero capable of fighting the Demon King, not only our Gryffin Kingdom, but every kingdom in the world will do their best to help you grow," Zauna said after seeing through Alice''s worries. "Also, after you defeat the Demon King, you will be regarded as the world''s savior. At that time, nobledies from all over the world will flock to you. Oh, but since you''re a female Hero, you might not be too interested in this."


    "But I can''t bring myself to be happy at all," Aliceined.


    No matter how much Zauna described the benefits of being the Hero, Alice only found the position of Hero to be a burden. This was especially true when she thought about how her trump card was panties. Once she started serving as the Hero, everyone in the world would pay close attention to her every action. If the public were to find out that her ultimate move was to convert panties into all sorts of powerful abilities one day, then that day would be her death in society.


    "Regardless, I don''t mind you people announcing that a Hero has appeared, but make sure not to expose my identity."


    Currently, Alice was more inclined to believe that the Demon King would not show up. After all, she knew better than anyone that she wasn''t the real Hero. If she really was the legendary "Hero chosen by God," then she should''ve been able to draw the Hero''s Sword even with her left hand. However, the fact was that she could only draw the sword with her right hand. Hence, there was a high possibility that the true Hero hadn''t appeared at all. Then, the Demon King naturally wouldn''t appear, either.


    "Well, don''t overthink it for now. Go take a bath first and change your clothes," Zauna said, unable to help herself from chuckling when she saw Alice''s pondering look. Alice''s appearance was roughly that of a 16-year-old girl. Rather than making her appear serious, her pensive look made her seem cuter instead. This was also why Zauna didn''t feel any pressure even after finding out that Alice was the Hero.


    After saying so, Zauna turned around and removed her backpack. Then, she rummaged through the bag, pulled out a pair of panties and a bra, and tossed them to Alice. "You can wear my underwear for now. I''ll also bring you a nun''s garb for you in a moment. I don''t think you can continue wearing that dress of yours anymore."


    "Huh? Oh, alright"


    When Alice heard Zauna''s words, she didn''t think much about them and simply reached out to receive the underwear Zauna offered her.


    [Weapon: Soft Blue-Striped Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +5000, Speed +7000, Mind +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Wind''s Protection (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the wind element is maxed, and you gain the flight ability);


    Spirit of the Sky (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a storm that shreds your opponent''s soul.)]


    The next moment, brilliant light flooded the room. Even the passersby across the screen had their eyes blinded by the holy light radiating from the second floor of the Gryffin Church.

 Chapter 13: My Otherworld Cant Possibly Be So Advanced!

    Chapter 13: My Otherworld Can''t Possibly Be So Advanced!


    Although Alice had transmigrated to another world, the level of technology and the speed of information dissemination in this world was no different from that of Earth. Hence, the minor incident that took ce in the church quickly became known by all.


    It all began with a passerby capturing the holy light radiating out of one of the church''s second-floor windows. Afterward, the photos taken were uploaded onto the inte of this world and shared with a broad audience. Subsequently, someone deduced the church in the image to be the Gryffin Church based on the clues shown. Then, other people quickly discovered that the Hero''s Sword inserted in the metal tform outside the church had disappeared. After linking these clues together, theizens of this world came to the conclusion that...


    The Hero had appeared!


    In less than a day, practically the entire world had found out about this matter. Apart from the Gryffin Kingdom, even the people from other kingdoms had found out about this matter. Hence, on the second day after Alice arrived at the Gryffin Church and after she had learned how to use this world''s version of theputer, the first thing she saw after browsing the inte for this world''s news was the headline of "The Hero has Appeared."


    Initially, Alice didn''t think that this headline was talking about herself. After all, the fact that she had be this world''s Hero still hadn''t settled in her mind. In addition, shecked understanding regarding the information dissemination speed of this world. Hence, she was immediately dumbfounded when she clicked into the news article.


    Based on the fact that holy light had leaked out from the church''s second floor and the fact that the Hero''s Sword was missing, it wasn''t hard to deduce that the Hero currently resided in the Gryffin Church''s second floor. This also exined why Alice had heard a lot ofmotion from the church''s first floor when she woke up early in the morning. Themotion was probably a result of the people here to catch a glimpse of the Hero.


    Fortunately, Alice had not gone downstairs yet today since Father Kasandora had personally delivered her breakfast and a bunch of daily necessities. Looking back at it now, the head priest must''ve known that she wouldn''t want to be disturbed by the crowd downstairs.


    <em>It''s over I''ve been under the misconception that this world is simr to the otherworlds mentioned in isekai novels. Looking at things now, I''ll have to change that immediately.</em>


    Alice held her head in pain. If this world followed the Middle Ages temte, then information wouldn''t have spread so quickly. However, she had evidently forgotten that apart from architectural styles and some cultural education, this world was practically identical to modern Earth. Like Earth, this world had mobile phones andputers. It simrly had an inte that allowed people of all regions tomunicate with each other. With all these avable facilities, it wouldn''t be strange for news of the Hero''s appearance to spread rapidly.


    Most importantly, Alice had forgotten that her right hand would shine whenever she grabbed onto a pair of panties. Hence, she had identally epted the panties Zauna offered without thought, leading to the problem at hand.


    Alice couldn''t help but feel frustrated by this situation. If possible, she didn''t wish for her right hand to shine whenever it came into contact with panties, either. At this rate, wouldn''t that mean holy light would envelop her whenever she was changing her underwear?


    Alice wasn''t a magical girl. Thest thing she wanted was to attract the attention of others with such shy effects. What she hoped for the most right now was for the entire world to forget that the Hero had ever appeared so that she could live her life in peace. Unfortunately, that obviously wasn''t possible. So, she could only hope that at least her name and appearance would remain a secret to the public.


    "Alice!"


    While Alice was looking through the hotly discussed topic disyed on theputer, the door to her room suddenly opened, and in came Zauna shouting her name. Then, when Zauna saw the image disyed on theputer, she said, "Oh, so you already found out. You''re the protagonist of the inte''s hottest topic right now."


    "I don''t want to be discussed like this at all," Alice said while scratching her golden locks. It had taken her nearly two hoursst night to clean out the dirt and grime she had umted from the past half a month. Then, after she came out of the bath and looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn''t help but admit that she indeed looked like the youngdy of a wealthy family. This appearance would probably help a lot in concealing her identity as the Hero. After all, nobody would suspect a young girl like herself to be the legendary Hero. "Speaking of which, won''t the demons find out about me as well?"


    "That won''t happen. The human realm''s inte and the demon realm''s inte are mutually exclusive. This is because the inte is built using mana, and there is a barrier that separates the human and demon realms'' mana," Zauna exined, shaking her head. "But it is also possible for some demons to mix into human society and then physically ry information back to the demon realm I think the possibility of this happening is high. It might even be possible that news of the Hero''s appearance has already spread on the demon realm''s inte."


    "This is the worst possible situation," Alice said, frowning.


    While Alice was trying toe up with a n to avoid getting her identity exposed to the public, Zauna suggested, "Since you''re so worried about getting discovered, how about you register a LINK?"


    After saying so, Zauna handed Alice her phone. Meanwhile, disyed on the phone''s screen was a social application simr to Twitter and Weibo.


    From what Alice could see, Zauna was unexpectedly popr on this social tform called LINK. Though, it wasn''t too surprising since Zauna was a beautiful youngdy. However, Zauna had already stopped updating her LINK for the past three days because of Alice''s matter, and some of her fans had even started wondering where she had disappeared to.


    "It''s this thing. LINK is a social software, and LINK users typically publish information about themselves through this software and share it with others," Zauna exined. "Now that you are the hottest topic on the inte, my suggestion is that you register a LINK ount as the Hero and have the kingdom authenticate your ount. Then, you can share your activities as the Hero through this ount since there''s no risk for your identity to be exposed on the inte. If you''re really worried that your real identity will get out, you can even make some misleading posts. For example, if you are going to the border to fight invading demons today, you can post on your LINK saying that you''ll be going to train in the Gryffin Forest instead."


    "Good idea!"


    Alice''s eyes glowed in excitement. Zauna''s proposal was indeed excellent. If she described herself on the inte as a macho man, then nobody would think that the Hero was actually a blonde girl in her teens.


    "Hehe, I have quite the good brain." Zauna chuckled when she heard Alice agreeing to her suggestion. Then, she took out a brand-new mobile phone from her pocket and gave it to Alice, saying, "I originally bought this phone as a spare, but I''ve never gotten around to using it. So, you can have it instead. I''ll just ask the Gryffin Kingdom for reimbursementter on. Although you''ve said you don''t want to be the Hero, having the identity of the Hero will bring you many conveniences."


    "If you put it that way, bing the Hero isn''t all that bad, I guess," Alice murmured. If she wasn''t required to fight the Demon King, then taking on the position of Hero would only bring her benefits and no harm. This was probably another factor contributing to the desires of this world''s people to be the Hero. Apart from glory, one would also get to enter the upper echelons of society the instant they became the Hero.


    While having such thoughts in her mind, Alice epted the phone Zauna offered. Then, the instant she grabbed onto the phone with her right hand, the phone''s information appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Lilyphone 7+]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Mind +2, Control +2, Mana +5]


    [Additional Effect: Mana Network (Passive Skill. You can ess the inte using this phone.)]


    Fortunately, the system evaluated the phone''s quality as Not Bad. If her right hand had deemed this phone as garbage, she might not be able to use mobile phones in this world.

 Chapter 14: Is it Time to Name the Milu Rabbit?

    Chapter 14: Is it Time to Name the Milu Rabbit?


    Never had Alice expected that she would get transported to another world and be forcibly recognized as the world''s Hero. What was even more unexpected was that her first activity after bing the Hero would be...making a post on social media. Fortunately, LINK''s features were simr to that of Weibo''s, so Alice didn''t have much trouble maneuvering around the social media tform.


    Also, thanks to Father Kasandora''s report and the surveince footage of Alice drawing the Hero''s Sword, Alice only had to wait a few hours for the Gryffin Kingdom to verify her LINK ount as the Hero''s LINK ount. When Alice saw the "V" character appearing beside her ount name, she couldn''t help but suspect that she wasn''t living in another world at all. After all, the sense of dj vu was immense. She even suspected that this world might be housing other transmigrators from Earth and that these transmigrators had brought some of Earth''s technology to this world.


    However, when Alice asked Zauna about the Heroes of past generations, she found out that every one of them have had their life story recorded from a young age. They were different from her, someone who had suddenly appeared out of thin air in the Gryffin Forest. Hence, Alice could only assume that some of these past Heroes were transmigrators who only had their souls transported.


    "Although you say you''ve lost your memory, you seem quite familiar with using LINK."


    Because the church''s first floor was still crowded with people seeking to gain information on the Hero, Alice and Zauna could only stay on the second floor and y with their phones. Then, when Zauna saw the first post Alice made on Link, she raised an eyebrow and said, "A tiger''s back, a bear''s waist, a beautiful face, and beautiful eyes... Why is your self-introduction so weird? I know you want to prevent people from associating you with the Hero, but does such a person even exist?"


    "That''s the point. I''m trying to create an image that''s almost impossible to find. Doing so will make it convenient for me to hide my whereabouts," Alice said, curling her lips.


    The first LINK post Alice made was a self-introduction. In the post, she described herself as a man with strong muscles and a pretty and delicate face. Although the description sounded strange, this made it even more unlikely for people to associate the Hero with Alice.


    In addition, Alice had received a message carrying good news from Father Kasandora just now. Apparently, the king had expressed his understanding of her thoughts and was willing to only disclose information of the Hero''s general appearance while concealing Alice''s true identity. The king had also agreed to help resolve any surveince cameras that might''ve captured Alice and Zauna''s arrival at the church yesterday. With this, Alice would be able to train herself with peace of mind.


    Of course, Alice wouldn''t be doing any actual training. After all, she knew better than anyone that the real Hero did not exist. Hence, there wouldn''t be a Demon King appearing, either. Now, all she needed to do was live an easy life while relying on the Hero''s title and also look into information rting to transmigrators.


    On Earth, matters of transmigration only existed in novels, manga, and anime. However, in this world where magic existed, transmigration might be something doable.


    "It sure is great to be the Hero. Your follower count has already surpassed mine," Zauna enviously said as she looked at her phone''s screen.


    In just five minutes after Alice''s ount had gained the kingdom''s verification, the ount''s follower count had skyrocketed to an absurd number. Let alone Zauna, even Alice herself was bbergasted. Through this development, Alice also realized that she had underestimated the feelings of adoration this world''s people held toward the Hero.


    "But you need to be extra careful from now on, Alice," Zauna suddenly said. "Once the demons find out that the Hero has appeared, they are bound to find trouble with you."


    "Wait, what did you say?" Alice, who was already determined to mooch off her identity as the Hero, shuddered when she heard Zauna''s words. Then, she hurriedly looked at Zauna and asked, "Aren''t we in the human realm? Can the demons take action against me here?"


    "Demons are actually quite simr to humans when ites to appearances. Their bodies and souls just tend to be darker than that of humans. They also have organs unique to demons. However, if demons are intent on hiding these traits, it''s not impossible to do so," Zauna patiently exined after hearing Alice''s question. "The history books mention this as well. Most Heroes in the past have faced assassination attempts by the demons, though every one of them has safely survived these encounters. They even utilized these opportunities to improve theirbat capabilities. So, I don''t think you need to worry too much, Alice."


    <em>No, I''m very worried.</em>


    "You are the Hero blessed by Gods. You can even emit holy light at will. Holy light is incredibly lethal to demons." Zauna still wasn''t aware that Alice was a fraud who relied on panties to exhibit Artifact-level strength. Hence, Zauna had always treated Alice as a "Hero who is easy to get along with." Not to mention, the fact that Alice could emit holy light from her right hand at any time served to further affirm Zauna''s belief that Alice was someone favored by Gods. "Don''t worry. If the demons daree to pick a fight with you, you can easily deal with them."


    Alice could only put on an awkward smile when faced with Zauna''s unconditional trust. The "holy light" Zauna mentioned wasn''t a holy light at all. It was merely her right hand transforming into a super-powerful shlight; it wasn''t lethal at all. Apart from exposing her location and announcing to the enemy that she would be using a powerful skill, the blinding light didn''t have any positive effects. If possible, Alice would''ve preferred to lose her right hand''s glowing effect entirely.


    "It would be great if things were so simple," Alice said, sighing before turning to look at the door. Then, as soon as she did so, she noticed something strange. Thest time she left the room and came back, she remembered very clearly that she had closed the door behind her. Yet, now, the door had been opened, and there was a small gap between the door and the doorframe. Moreover, she could also see a faint reflection through the gap. It was evident that something resembling a camera was currently observing her through the gap.


    <em>Is it a demon?</em>


    Alice immediately thought of Zauna''s previous words and stood up from her seat. Meanwhile, the supposed demon behind the door also noticed Alice''s actions, so the demon stored the suspected camera away and fled immediately.


    Seeing this, Alice naturally couldn''t just stand still and do nothing. If she allowed this demon to ry her information back to the demon world, there would be no peaceful days awaiting her in the future.


    Anger red up from her heart when Alice thought of this point. Immediately, she tossed aside her mobile phone and reached for the unconscious Milu Rabbit under the table.


    [Weapon: Milu Rabbit With Some Mana]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Strength +2, Speed +2]


    [Additional Effect: Pration (Passive Skill. The head''s destructive power against obstacles is greatly improved.)]


    It was probably because it had hit one too many trees, but the Milu Rabbit had gained an additional effect. This came as a pleasant surprise when Alice inspected it with her right hand this morning. Moreover, Alice had also tested the Milu Rabbit and verified that the "Pration" skill was very useful. So long as she used the Milu Rabbit''s head as the surface of impact, she could smash through even walls. The only downside to this was that the Milu Rabbit would remain unconscious for a while longer.


    "Go!"


    While holding onto the Milu Rabbit''s ears, Alice made a huge arc with her right hand before releasing the rabbit toward the wall beside the door. Then, like an arrow released from a bow, the Milu Rabbit shot across the room, smashed through the wall, and urately struck the escaping figure outside the room.


    The escaping figure probably didn''t expect a Milu Rabbit to smash through the wall, so they got hit right in the stomach. Fortunately, the Milu Rabbit had already exhausted most of its prating power when it broke through the wall. So, it didn''t carry much force when it struck the escaping figure. Otherwise, a bloody scene would have ensued.


    Even so, the person struck by the Milu Rabbit''s head still copsed to the ground and moaned in pain while holding their stomach.

 Chapter 15: These Demons Arent Following Routine

    Chapter 15: These Demons Aren''t Following Routine


    "Is everything okay?" Alice anxiously asked when she saw Zauna returning to the room.


    "It''s okay. The people downstairs are still moring to see the Hero. Their voices are much louder than the sound of the wall being smashed through just now, so nobody noticed themotion on the second floor," Zauna answered, shaking her head. "Don''t worry. Our current society is one of human rights. Father Kasandora and the nuns are enough to hold back those people. No matter how much those people want to get first-hand information on the Hero, they wouldn''t dare take any rough actions. If they did, the King wouldn''t spare them."


    "Trespassing through brute force is no good, but what if someone secretly snuck into the church?" Alice asked as she turned to the bound girl behind her.


    The girl in question had ck hair and wore ck clothing, and she was none other than the person who secretly captured photos of Alice and Zauna through the door gap. After Alice struck her in the abdomen using the Milu Rabbit, the girl had lost her mobilitypletely. Although the girl had recovered to a certain extent now, Alice had already tied the girl up using a rope. Meanwhile, the girl still wasn''t strong enough to forcibly snap the rope binding her, so she could only sit on the floor and wait for Alice and Zauna to deal with her.


    "It seems this fellow took many pictures. There''s even a voice recording of our conversation," Zauna said as she looked through the phone that the ck-haired girl dropped. It was fortunate that Alice had noticed the girl''s peeping in time. Otherwise, Alice''s identity as the Hero would''ve been exposed. "Although I''ve heard about cases of thieves switching careers to be paparazzi recently...I didn''t think we would meet one so soon."


    The ck-d girl revealed an embarrassed expression when she heard Zauna''s words. Evidently, Zauna had hit the mark, and the ck-d girl should be a former thief turned paparazzi.


    Of course, this trend of switching professions to be paparazzi had only started recently. So, it exined why a novice like Alice managed to discover the ck-d girl, who had worked as a professional thief previously. This was because the ck-d girl hadn''t adapted to the work of the paparazzi yet.


    Thieves typically left the crime scene after stealing the valuables there; they wouldn''t remain at the crime scene for long periods to take photos and videos. Since the ck-d girl didn''t have the relevant experience, even an amateur like Alice was bound to notice the reflectioning off of the camera lens after a long time.


    "Out with it. Which mediapany sent you?"


    Zauna naturally wouldn''t be friendly when dealing with peeping toms. This was especially true since the ck-d girl had captured her face in the photos as well. "I''ll tell you now that the person you''ve provoked this time isn''t someone ordinary. It doesn''t matter which mediapany is backing you. None of them will be able to protect you, so you best confess everything now. If we have to force it out of you, you''ll be facing much greater consequences."


    The ck-d girl''splexion instantly turned white. At this time, basically the entire human race knew who was living on the Gryffin Church''s second floor. Now that Zauna had spoken in such a serious manner, how could the ck-d girl not know who she had just photographed? After hesitating for a moment, she nced at Zauna, then turned to look at Alice, then finally turned to look at the unconscious Milu Rabbit on the floor. Then, she weakly asked, "Can you enlighten me before you kill me? Which one of you three...is the Hero?"


    Zauna suddenly felt as if her IQ was insulted. Then, ring at the ck-d girl, she said, "Are you kidding me? Why must we tell you which one of us is the Hero?!"


    "No... I''m just curious..." the ck-d girl hurriedly said and put on a fawning smile.


    Looking at the ck-d girl''s current behavior, Alice judged that the thief profession indeed suited the other party. Not only was her acting as nimble as her movements, but she also had a slick tongue. Only, the words the ck-d girl said next didn''t sound very pleasant to Alice''s ears.


    "Based on the mana I can feeling off of your body, I can tell that you are only at the apprentice standard," the ck-d girl said as she looked at Zauna. Then, she turned to Alice and continued, "But this blonde youngdy here doesn''t have even an ounce of mana in her. She is no different than an ordinary person. Even that rabbit on the floor has more mana than her, so..."


    <em>Am I </em>that <em>weak?</em>


    For the first time sinceing to this world, Alice realized that her strength in this world wasn''t evenparable to that of a Milu Rabbit without a weapon in her right hand. This revtion dealt a huge mental blow to Alice. It was no wonder why the ck-d girl said "which one of you three" when asking them about the Hero. It turned out that she included the Milu Rabbit into her consideration as well.


    "Hmph. How can the average person see through Alice''s strength?"


    Zauna was a little peeved. After all, she knew of Alice''s "strength." Hence, when the ck-d girl spoke about Alice in such a way, she immediately refuted the girl out of anger. However, as soon as Zauna finished speaking, she immediately realized her blunder.


    "I see, so she''s called Alice? Does this mean she is the Hero?"


    Sure enough, the ck-d girl quickly caught on to Zauna''s slip-up, and she turned to look at Alice with glowing eyes.


    Zauna knew that the ck-d girl had tricked her based on the other party''s reaction. The ck-d girl had deliberately belittled her and Alice to incite her, causing her to reveal the Hero''s identity. Now, not only did she expose Alice''s identity as the Hero, but she had even revealed Alice''s name.


    "No wonder. Although I can''t feel any manaing from you, the strength you used to throw that rabbit indeed surpasses the level of ordinary humans," the ck-d girl said as she looked at Alice.


    Alice subconsciously looked at the Milu Rabbit on the floor when she heard the ck-d girl''sment. Although the other party wasn''t aware of it, Alice''s strength when throwing the Milu Rabbit only exceeded ordinary humans by a small margin. After all, the Milu Rabbit only provided an effect of Strength +2. What allowed the Milu Rabbit to prate the wall was the additional effect "Pration."


    However, Alice naturally did not need to tell these things to the ck-d girl. Instead, she did her best to maintain a serious expression while looking at the ck-d girl. Though, due to Alice''s youthful appearance, her actions ended up making her look like a child pretending to be an adult instead.


    "So what if you know I am the Hero? I''m afraid you won''t have the chance to spread this information," Alice said.


    "Indeed. If you hand me to the guards, I''ll be escorted straight to the capital since this matter concerns the Hero," the ck-d girl said, chuckling. Judging by her carefree behavior, she didn''t seem afraid to be handed over to the city guards at all. Instead, she looked at Alice and said, "But I have information that could be useful to the Hero. It''s about the ns the demons have for the Hero. If you let me go, I will share this information with you."


    <em>So this is why she dares toe sneak pictures of the Hero. It seems she came prepared.</em>


    Alice frowned when she heard the ck-d girl''s offer. Truthfully, Alice would prefer to avoid any possibilities of her identity getting exposed. However, after putting more thought over the matter, she felt that it might be better to hear about the ns the demon race had for her.


    The average Hero might not be afraid of the demon race sending pawns to deal with them, but Alice was not the average Hero. She was as weak as a baby chick without panties. So, it''d be better to take some countermeasures in advance.


    "Say it, then. If your information is indeed useful, I will let you go," Alice said. Then, she added, "But you''re still not allowed to reveal my information to others."


    "No problem. I trust in Lord Hero''s words."


    Although the ck-d girl didn''t seem to revere the Hero''s existence, like most people in this world, she still believed in the Hero''s character. After all, the Hero was someone chosen by the Gods. Hence, the ck-d girl didn''t hesitate to trust in Alice''s promise and revealed the information she promised to Alice.


    "The demons seem to have learned from their past experiences of fighting against the Hero. The Heroes of past generations have always relied on fighting low-level demons to achieve steady and rapid growth. Hence, the demons no longer intend to send pawns to attack the Hero this time. Instead...the demons seem prepared to send their Four Heavenly Kings to assassinate the Hero."


    Alice''s legs trembled with fright and almost fell off her chair when she heard the ck-d girl''s words.

 Chapter 16: Theres a Mole

    Chapter 16: There''s a Mole


    After searching the ck-d girl''s body and making sure that she didn''t hide any other recording device on her body, Alice and Zauna released the girl''s bindings. Of course, they kept the phone that contained the photos and voice recordings the girl secretly took. That way, even if the ck-d girl went out and announced to the world that "the Hero is a blonde little girl," it was unlikely for anyone to believe her.


    However,pared to the ck-d girl''s matter, Alice was more concerned over the information the girl mentioned. If it were true, then she would be in a world of trouble soon. The demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings... Although novels usually described such characters as joke characters, Alice dared not bet her life on this world''s Four Heavenly Kings being clowns with no realbat effectiveness.


    "Demons and humans are different. The kings of the human realm are experts in governing a country, and they are selected after undergoing various tests and observations. The kings of the demon realm, on the other hand, rely on overwhelming strength to gain their position," Zauna worriedly said. Although she knew that Alice could exhibit godlike strength at a moment''s notice, Alice looked no different than a harmless little girl during normal times.


    "Meanwhile, the demon''s four kings are called the Four Heavenly Kings. They possess incredible strength, and they will only ever submit to the Demon King. There were even instances of Demon Kings being incapable of suppressing the Four Heavenly Kings in the past. If they intend to assassinate you..."


    After hearing Zauna''s exnation, Alice celebrated the fact that she had kept her identity hidden. At least now, the Four Heavenly Kings would have to waste a lot of time finding out who the real Hero was. They might even foolishly search for a man with a tiger''s back, a bear''s waist, and a pretty face. So long as no idents happened, there should be no way the Four Heavenly Kings would find her. Although the ck-d girl was a potential danger, the Four Heavenly Kings would treat her words as nothing but gossip without any substantive evidence such as photos and voice recordings.


    Meanwhile, the best way to defeat gossip was to spread more gossip. If news that "the Hero was a little girl" started spreading among the public, all Alice needed to do was bring it up with the Gryffin Kingdom''s King. At that time, many other types of false rumors regarding the Hero would spread, such as the Hero being a weak old man, the Hero being a cripple with no legs, or the Hero being a Milu Rabbit. With so many different rumors spreading around, even if a factual rumor were to be mixed in, it would remain nothing more than a rumor. Hence, Alice would still be able to sit back and rx.


    "But, Alice, even if you are safe for the time being, if the demons fail to find the Hero''s whereabouts after a long time, I''m afraid they will increase the number of spies they send into the human realm," Zauna said, bringing up another worrying point. "If we let this situation fester, it may increase the friction between the human realm and the demon realm.


    "Many demons have originally been thinking of invading the human realm already. The only reason why they haven''t done so yet is because they aren''t confident in winning. Hence, they''ve chosen to wait for the Demon King to appear. However, if arge number of demons infiltrate the human realm, I''m afraid the friction between the two realms will escte before the Demon King even appears."


    "Indeed. If humans and demons are as simr in appearance as you said and arge number of demons infiltrate the human realm, conflict will arise sooner orter even if the Demon King doesn''t appear."


    Alice also felt a little distressed. Currently, she had no clue if the Demon King had awakened yet or not. If she wasn''t the true Hero, it also meant that the Demon King wouldn''t appear. However, the demons and other humans didn''t know this. They would think that since the Hero had appeared, the Demon King''s birth was also inevitable. This belief would, in turn, increase the demons'' confidence and raise the possibility of war between the human realm and the demon world.


    "It would be great if we could find out about the demon world''s situation..." Alice murmured.


    While saying so, Alice logged into her LINK once more to advise others not to recklessly start a war. The Hero''s identity still held significant importance in the human world. She would receive the VVIP treatment should she decide to visit or stay in any of the human kingdoms. Alice also had the feeling that she had be something akin to a national idol. Hence, she felt that if she were to give such advice using her identity as the Hero, she could more or less dy the inevitable war.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but be a little confused when she tried logging into LINK since the application took much longer to load this time. When she looked up this world''s inte before, she found that radio waves like WIFI didn''t connect the inte of this world. Instead, the inte was awork constructed using mana of a specific frequency. Meanwhile, devices like mobile phones were tuned to connect to this specific frequency of mana.


    For these reasons, one could gain ess to this world''s inte so long as one was in a ce with mana. And as mana was something present almost everywhere, it wasn''t an exaggeration to say that one had inte ess in every corner of the world.


    Of course, it was still possible for a device to lose inte ess. For example, someone could suck away or disrupt the mana surrounding a mobile phone. However, such actions required a person to have a very high degree of control over mana. It was equivalent to having a person manufacture nano-level materials using their bare hands.


    Frowning at this situation, Alice turned to Zauna and asked, "Zauna, is yourwork ess okay?"


    Logically speaking, as long as mana existed around her, she shouldn''t face any speed issues when essing the inte. Moreover, her phone was practically brand new. It shouldn''t have any malfunctions. So, why was her connection speed so slow?


    "It''s fine for me. Can you not ess the inte?" Zauna said after skeptically checking her phone''s inte ess. After verifying that her connection speed remained fast, she walked up to Alice and looked at thetter''s phone.


    To Zauna''s surprise, Alice''s phone currently disyed LINK''s loading screen. It was quite a rare sight for the people of this world. She never thought that not only would Alice get such a loading screen, but the screen had even remained there for such a long time.


    "How strange."


    As soon as Zauna said so, the loading screen on Alice''s phone disappeared and recing it was a user interface resembling LINK''s.


    Alice sighed in relief when she saw the interface. However, upon taking a closer look, she immediately felt a chill crawling down her spine. What appeared on her phone wasn''t LINK''s interface. Instead, it was apletely different social media tform with a user interface resembling that of LINK.


    However, what frightened Alice wasn''t the simrity of this other social media tform''s interface. What shocked her instead was the post that got rmended to her homepage.


    "The Hero is currently in the Gryffin Church''s second floor. Anyone wanna assassinate him?"


    If a person made such a statement in the human world, they would probably have their post censored and receive a thorough background check from the government immediately. However, ording to the post''s timestamp, the post had remained live for many minutes already. The post had even received a ton of replies.


    "Is the information reliable? If it is, I''ll set out immediately."


    "Since the Hero has already appeared, His Majesty the Demon King should be awakening soon as well, right?"


    "Aren''t the Four Heavenly Kings already preparing to take action? I think I''ll wait for the good news instead."


    Alice immediately came to a realization. What she had connected to wasn''t the human world''s inte but the demon world''s inte instead.


    When Alice held her phone in her right hand, the system had granted it an additional effect called Mana Network with the description of "You can ess the inte using this phone." However, evidently, the "inte" referred to here wasn''t just limited to the human world''s inte. This also exined why it took so long for her to connect to "LINK" before. Not only was she far away from the demon world, but there was also a barrier separating the human world''s and the demon world''s mana. Hence, it was only natural that herwork speed was sluggish.

 Chapter 17: "Heros Privilege"

    Chapter 17: "Hero''s Privilege"


    "Is thatthe demon realm''s LINKS?" Zauna also noticed the image disyed on Alice''s phone, and she couldn''t help but be surprised. "Why can you ess the demon realm''s inte, Alice?"


    "This Maybe it''s the Hero''s privilege?" Alice drylyughed, unsure of how she should exin the situation. However, she knew that her crude excuse wouldn''t fool anyone for long, so she quickly changed the topic and asked, "Is the demon realm''s social media tform called LINK as well?"


    "No, the demon realm''s version is called LINKS with an ''S'' at the end. It''s a copy of the human realm''s LINK," Zauna said, shaking her head. "Although we cannot ess the demon realm''s inte from the human realm, we still receive information on the demon realm from time to time.


    "Apparently, a demon that had mingled in the human realm for some time had copied the human realm''s LINK and made a simr software in the demon realm. There''s no way the human realm would wage war over a small matter like this, either, so the demon realm''s LINKS remains operational until this day. However, this is also my first time seeing what the demon realm''s LINKS looks like."


    "...This feels like dj vu." Alice found Zauna''s description a little familiar. It resembled what a certain big-eyedpany on Earth did to a certain bluebird. However, she was still a little confused by this situation. "Even so...the application I opened is LINK''s. Why would it connect to the demon realm''s LINKS? Even if these two programs are simr, there should be some differences between them, right?"


    "I heard that the demon who copied LINK also stole some of LINK''s coding. So, the base programming of the demon realm''s LINKS is essentially the same as LINK. Maybe that''s why you can connect to LINKS," Zauna exined, widening Alice''s horizons. "There are spections that if you bring a mobile phone from the human realm to the demon realm, you can use LINK''s application to connect to the demon realm''s LINKS."


    Simply put, the demon realm''s LINKS was not only a copy of the human realm''s LINK in terms of design, but it even shared the same coding. The demon who copied LINK couldn''t even be bothered to think up a new name and simply added an ''S'' at the end.


    "But this doesn''t seem like a bad thing at all," Alice said as she suddenly thought of an idea. Then, she asked, "Zauna, is the crowd still downstairs?"


    "It should be, but there should be far fewer people than before. The noise is much softer," Zauna said after listening to the noiseing from the first floor.


    Father Kasandora had adamantly refused to let anyone upstairs, so those who were here to see the Hero would naturally disperse after failing to achieve their goal for a long time. Though, there were bound to be a few persistent people. Hence, Zauna could still hear some noiseing from the first floor.


    "That''s good, then. Let''s first find a way to escape before we continue our conversation," Alice said, smiling. Then, she looked at Zauna''s magic robe and pondered for a moment before saying, "Zauna, take off your robe."


    "...?"


    "We have the right to find out information about the Hero."


    On the Gryffin Church''s first floor, over two dozen people stood protesting before Father Kasandora and tried to meet the Hero of legends. Though judging by the professional cameras they held, these people were unlikely to be ordinary civilians, but reporters instead.


    However, Father Kasandora wasn''t a pushover. He quietly watched as the reporters made a fuss. Only after these people quietened did he start to speak, saying, "Prove that you''re not a spy for the demons first, then."


    "I"


    The reporter leading the protest fell silent. Indeed, if a spy was mixed in among them, then exact information on the Hero would get leaked to the demon race. And if that happened, the kingdom would take in every one of the reporters standing before Father Kasandora now for questioning. However, the reporters were also reluctant to leave empty-handed, so they continued pestering Father Kasandora, hoping to get even a small scoop.


    While the reporters were confronting Father Kasandora, a translucent silhouette slowly walked along the walls of the church''s main hall, arrived at the entrance, and stepped out into the courtyard. Although many people upied the main hall, as everyone''s attention was on Father Kasandora, nobody noticed that a translucent silhouette had secretly left the church.


    After the transparent silhouette reached a corner of the courtyard, the sound of cloth being removed appeared, and Alice''s and Zauna''s figures suddenly appeared out of thin air. Meanwhile, held in Alice''s hand was the baggy magic robe Zauna previously wore.


    [Weapon: Magic Robe Brimming With Mana]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Mind +10, Control +10, Mana +50]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Defense (Passive Skill. Reduces the offensive magic damage you receive by 5%);


    Mana Concealment (Active Skill. Conceals the appearance and aura of the weapon and its user for three minutes.) ]


    <em>Sure enough, when something filled with mana is turned into a weapon, its quality and effects will improve, </em>Alice thought to herself as she looked at the gray magic robe that was gradually losing its transparency.


    In reality, Alice had already guessed such a possibility when she used the Milu Rabbit and Zauna as weapons. In both instances, their system-generated names had the word ''Mana'' written in their prefixes. The only reason she hadn''t made a definite conclusion before this was because of the Hero''s Sword. Even though she could sense the boundless mana flowing within the Hero''s Sword, the weapon would instantly turn into garbage the moment her right hand touched it.


    "What was that ability just now?" Zauna, who was unaware of Alice''s ability, was very surprised by the ability her robe disyed. Although she knew that her robe carried weak concealment magic, it definitely wasn''t as powerful as the concealment magic it had just disyed. "Alice, what did you do just now? How did my robe suddenly turn invisible?"


    "The Hero''s privilege, maybe?"


    Alice now understood that she could chalk up anything she couldn''t exin to the Hero''s privilege. The most recent record of the Hero dated back several hundred years ago, with older records dating back thousands of years ago. Even the original inhabitants of this world didn''t know everything there was to know about the Hero. Hence, if Alice said that her abilities resulted from the Hero''s privilege, then it was the Hero''s privilege. Others would have to ept it even if they didn''t believe the excuse.


    "Regardless, now that we''ve escaped out of the church, let''s go back to the Gryffin Forest," Alice stated.


    "What for?" Zauna asked.


    Alice had yet to tell Zauna of her n, so Zauna still didn''t know why they had to sneak out of the church.


    "We''ll go to the Gryffin Forest and stab this sword there," Alice said as she pointed at the scabbard she carried on her back. "Then, we''ll post a LINK and tell both the human realm and the demon realm that the Hero is currently in the Gryffin Forest instead of the church."


    The garbageHero''s Sword sheathed in the scabbard was the proof of the Hero. So long as she brought it to the Gryffin Forest and posted a LINK with it, then everyone in the world would know that the Hero was currently in the Gryffin Forest. Once that was done, she could waltz her way back into the church without having to conceal herself. After all, nobody would think that a blonde little girl with barely any mana in her body would be the Hero.


    "I see. That is indeed a good idea." Zauna nodded in realization. Then, she looked at the Milu Rabbit hanging off of Alice''s waist in confusion and asked, "But is there a need to bring this rabbit along?"


    "This rabbit keeps ramming itself unconscious as soon as it wakes up and sees me. I''m worried it would ram itself to death one day, so I''m thinking of setting it free in the forest," Alice exined as she nced at the Milu Rabbit.


    TL Notes:


    [1]The "big-eyedpany" in this chapter refers to Sina Weibo, which is basically a copy of Twitter in China.

 Chapter 18: Hero BOT

    Chapter 18: Hero BOT


    "That will do."


    After inserting the Hero''s Sword into the soft ground, Alice held up her phone and took a picture of it.


    As a side note, the sword''s sealing magic continued working even after it was drawn from the special metal tform, so Alice could only wield the sword with her right hand. Otherwise, she would experience a strong sense of difort.


    Zauna had also given wielding the Hero''s Sword a try before, but she soon became drowsy and had to return the weapon to Alice.


    Judging by this oue, it was safe to say that the Hero''s Sword could recognize the Hero. It was also because of this realization that Alice had brought the Hero''s Sword to the Gryffin Forest for a photoshoot. So long as she photographed the sword together with the surrounding forest, she could trick others into believing that the Hero was in the Gryffin Forest.


    To ensure they covered their tracks, Alice and Zauna only rode a taxi up to the Gryffin Forest''s edge before continuing into the forest on foot. Then, after finding a remote corner, Alice took a photo of the Hero''s Sword inserted into the dirt ground and surrounded by tall trees. No matter how advanced this world''s technology was, there was no way the people here would set up surveince cameras in a remote ce such as the Gryffin Forest, right?


    The likelihood of someone looking into the people traveling into the Gryffin Forest was also very low. Although the appearance of the Hero had indeed caused quite amotion in the human realm recently, everyone still needed to continue with their lives. Hence, there were still plenty of mercenaries and magicians entering and leaving the Gryffin Forest at this time. And even if someone went to the trouble of looking into the people entering the Gryffin Forest, there was no way they would ce their suspicion on an apprentice magician and an ordinary girl.


    "Beginning my training to defeat the Demon King as soon as possible."


    Alice posted a LINK with straightforward content using her Hero''s ount. Apart from the photo of the Hero''s Sword inserted into the ground, the post only had a short sentence. Alice even included her current location in the post to make it more believable.


    After sending out the LINK and diverting the public''s attention, Alice drew the Hero''s Sword from the ground and returned it to its unassuming scabbard. Then, she fled the forest together with Zauna.


    There was a possibility that people roaming the forest would check their LINK when they were bored. If they realized that the Hero was also in the Gryffin Forest, they might gather to search for the location where Alice took the photo. Hence, Alice and Zauna couldn''t loiter around.


    After running a certain distance away from their original location, Alice and Zauna found an open space to sit down and rest for a while. In the meantime, Alice took out her phone and, with a thought, loaded the demon realm''s LINKS.


    Indeed. Alice intended on making a status post for the demon realm as well. Previously, she had already used a LINK guest ount to take a screenshot of her Hero ount''s post. She intended to share this screenshot on LINKS, providing misinformation to the demons eager to assassinate the Hero. If the demons truly intended on assassinating the Hero, they would go to the Gryffin Forest instead of the Gryffin Church.


    The Gryffin Forest was massive. Although Alice had vaporized a sizable chunk of the forest through the use of Purification de and Gaia''s Power, it would still take the demons a long time tob through the remaining forest.


    <em>But what ID should I use on LINKS?</em>


    Alice had named herself "Hero of the New Era" on LINK. It was an ID that had no frills and got straight to the point. Although the ID sounded cringe, it didn''t matter since she would only be using it to spread misinformation. Everyone couldin about it for all she cared.


    However, it was a different story for her LINKS ID. After all, she didn''t have the benefits provided by her Hero status in the demon realm. If she used a strange ID, others might not even click on her post, let alone read it. This, in turn, would reduce the effectiveness of her misinformation.


    After thinking about it, Alice decided to name herself "Hero BOT" on LINKS. It was a rtively straightforward and nice-sounding name. The ount would essentially be a bot that specialized in conveying information on the human realm. There was no way the demons could resist checking out her posts.


    After creating her ount, Alice promptly uploaded her LINK screenshot onto LINKS, pairing it with the words "The Hero is in Gryffin Forest. Act quickly if you want to assassinate him."


    Then, just like Alice anticipated, her post caused an uproar in the demon realm''s LINKS in no time at all.


    Initially, not many people paid attention to the post. The number ofments and "relinks" the post received were few and far between as well. However, it didn''t take long before some demons noticed the screenshot''s authenticity. Once that happened, the number ofments and relinks instantly skyrocketed.


    "Huh? Someone brought over the Hero''s information?"


    "The Hero posted his LINK only a minute ago. This is piping hot news! Bro, rmend us your bypass software as well!"


    "I''ll pay big money if you just tell me your bypass software''s name."


    The demons'' reactions were too realistic. When Alice saw that most of thements were asking her for a bypass software instead of talking about the Hero''s whereabouts, she didn''t know whether tough or cry. It appeared that the separation of the human and demon realms'' inte had stirred the desire of many people to check out what each other''s inte looked like and obtain some information from each other.


    Of course, Alice couldn''t provide the demons with an answer since her "bypass software" was her right hand.


    However, Alice still acquired some valuable information through thements.


    "How could anyone create a bypass software in the demon realm''s environment? You got it from the human realm, didn''t you? But I heard that the human realm imposes heavy restrictions on bypass software. Aren''t you afraid of getting discovered by the human kingdoms by posting such fresh information?"


    Alice caressed her chin and fell into thought when she read the abovement. If what thement said was true, then almost all bypass software originated from the human realm. Moreover, the human kingdoms had ced heavy restrictions on bypass software by the looks of it.


    Unlike Alice, who could directly ess the demon realm''s inte by virtue of her strange ability, if someone from the human realm wished to ess the demon realm''s inte, they would have to bypass the realm barrier. To do so, they would have to meddle with the mana making up the barrier. Meanwhile, such interference was easily traceable if discovered. Hence, even if the people of this world had the ability to bypass the realm barrier, they would have to do so carefully.


    <em>I see. That thief She must''ve gotten her information through bypassing the barrier and essing the demon realm''s inte.</em>


    The first time Alice visited LINKS, she saw a rmended post on her homepage talking about the Four Heavenly Kings taking action. Since the matter was no longer a secret in the demon realm, the thief-turned-paparazzi girl must''ve gotten the information through reading this post. However, as Alice had caught the thief girl, thetter had no choice but to reveal this information in exchange for her freedom. In doing so, she also revealed the fact that she had the means to bypass the realm barrier.


    However, Alice wasn''t particrly surprised that the thief girl had ess to such means. After all, nine out of ten thieves that one met on the road would receive life sentences should they be brought in for sentencing. Hence, it was normal for such people to do things that the average civilian dared not do.


    <em>But the things I can learn through the demon realm''s inte are ultimately limited</em>. <em>It seems I''ll have to bring back that thief if I want to know more about the demon realm.</em>

 Chapter 19: In the End, The Milu Rabbit Still Didnt Receive a Name

    Chapter 19: In the End, The Milu Rabbit Still Didn''t Receive a Name


    After spreading misinformation on both the human and demon realms'' social media tforms, Alice temporarily split up with Zauna.


    Zauna went back to the Gryffin Church under Alice''s behest to notify Father Kasandora that Alice had slipped out of the church. After all, even though Father Kasandora had somewhat forced the position of Hero onto Alice, he had provided ample care toward Alice the "Hero." Meanwhile, he would most likely fall into a panic if he suddenly discovered that Alice and Zauna had suddenly vanished from the second floor. Hence, Alice decided to have Zauna head back to notify Father Kasandora to avoid worrying the old priest.


    There was also no need to worry about the possibility of the reporters crowding the church suspecting that Zauna might be rted to the Hero. Nobody had noticed Alice and Zauna leaving the church. So, even if Zauna returned to the church now without concealing herself, nobody would think that she had been staying together with the Hero on the church''s second floor around an hour ago.


    As for Alice, she intended on familiarizing herself with Mana City and then seek out the thief-turned-paparazzi girl. It wouldn''t be difficult to find the girl, either, since Alice had the girl''s phone in her possession. There were some clues inside that could help her locate the other party.


    After Zauna left, Alice found a remote corner in the Gryffin Forest and put down the Milu Rabbit hanging from her waist. Afterward, she visited a nearby stream, filled the cup she got from Zauna with water, and stood some distance away from the rabbit. Then, she aimed and sshed the cup of water onto the rabbit.


    Alice''s actions were a necessity. Whenever the Milu Rabbit regained consciousness, so long as Alice was anywhere near it, it would immediately find a suitable object to ram itself into unconsciousness. Hence, to prevent the little fellow from repeating this action, Alice had no choice but to wake it up from a distance.


    Meanwhile, the Milu Rabbit''s eyes snapped open and stood up when the cold river fell on its body. Then, it raised its furry paws and scratched its neck, seemingly surprised by the fact that there was no rope tied to itself. Afterward, it noticed Alice looking at itself from a distance.


    Fortunately, probably because Alice was sufficiently far away, the Milu Rabbit did not ram itself against the nearest tree. Instead, it stared at Alice in confusion, wondering why the girl was staying so far away from itself.


    ording to the information Alice found on the inte, Milu Rabbits weren''t intelligent magical beasts. Instead, it was only an animal species unique to this world. Hence, after seeing that the Milu Rabbit in front of her had regained consciousness, she didn''t try tomunicate with it verbally. Instead, she waved goodbye at it, physically expressing to the Milu Rabbit that it was already free.


    However, the Milu Rabbit''s reaction was the exact opposite of Alice''s expectations. After seeing Alice waving at it, the rabbit didn''t leave. Instead, it tentatively took a few steps toward Alice before stopping.


    <em>Did this rabbit knock itself silly? </em>Alice wondered in surprise. Then, she took several steps back, only to see the Milu Rabbit taking a few steps toward herself again.


    <em>Does it not want to leave?</em>


    The Milu Rabbit remained stationary even after Alice repeatedly gestured that it was free. At this point, Alice was certain that the Milu Rabbit didn''t wish to leave. This was probably because it had already gotten used to staying by her side, even if 23 out of the 24 hours of its days were spent unconscious.


    <em>What the heck</em>


    Alice sighed. Then, she crouched down and beckoned at the Milu Rabbit with her hand. And even though she felt that it was silly to speak to an animal without intelligence, she still subconsciously opened her mouth and said, "Come here if you don''t want to leave."


    When the Milu Rabbit heard Alice''s words, it shook its head and decisively...rammed its head against the nearest tree, knocking itself unconscious in a clean and tidy fashion.


    <em>...Does it want to go with me? Or does it not want me to get close to it?</em>


    Alice let out a frustrated sigh as she wondered what was going through the Milu Rabbit''s mind. However, since the little fellow had already knocked itself unconscious, if she left it alone, the Boria Wolves of this forest would probably turn it into a snack in no time. So, Alice had no choice but to retrieve the Milu Rabbit and hang it around her waist like a pendant. When necessary, it could also serve as a convenient weapon for Alice.


    It was fortunate that the Milu Rabbit would only gain the Pration ability when Alice used it as a weapon. At most, its head was slightly sturdier than the average Milu Rabbit. Otherwise, the objects around Alice would probably be in danger of destruction since the Milu Rabbit repeated its cycle of waking up and fainting more than a dozen times a day.


    Now that Alice had achieved her goal of diverting the public''s attention, she guessed that many people, both humans and demons, would be flooding the Gryffin Forest. However, none of this was Alice''s concern anymore. What she needed to do next was pretend to be an ordinary civilian and leave the Gryffin Forest.


    After tying the Milu Rabbit around her waist, Alice straightened her wrinkled dress. The dress she currently wore was something a nun had bought for her this morning. Its design resembled the blue-white dress she wore when she transmigrated to this world, though its quality was slightly inferior. So, it could be considered the civilian version of her old dress. Alice naturally wouldn''t be picky about such a trivial matter. The dress made her look less likely to be the Hero in every respect at the very least, which perfectly suited her intentions.


    Now, what Alice needed to do next was familiarize herself with Mana City''syout and look for the thief girl. Since the thief girl could bypass the realm barrier, she must have other information on the demon realm that others did not know. Now that the demons have already set their sights on the "Hero," Alice urgently needed more information on the demon race. Hence, even though she had previously agreed to let the thief girl go, she had no choice but to recapture the girl now.


    "Let''s see... This fellow''s identity is..."


    While walking out of the Gryffin Forest, Alice unlocked the phone she seized from the thief girl. This phone was the girl''s personal phone as it stored many of her personal information. It was also for this reason why Alice and Zauna had agreed to let the thief girl go. After all, how could an amateur journalist who used her personal phone to take pictures and voice recordings possibly have any other evidence pertaining to Alice''s identity?


    In no time at all, Alice found some useful information inside the phone. For example, the phone simrly had the LINK application installed. Moreover, when Alice opened the app, she was immediately greeted by the thief girl''s profile homepage and ount ID. And to Alice''s surprise, she even found the identity verification checkmark conspicuously located beside the thief girl''s ID. Meanwhile, the thief girl''s verified identity was...


    "A Level 2 Certified Mercenary in the Mercenary Union and a Special Reporter from Twilight Daily..."


    Alice nodded in realization. She now had a rough idea of how she should locate this wanted person.

 Chapter 20: Fishing

    Chapter 20: Fishing


    Although Mana City was a border city in the Gryffin Kingdom and didn''t have any local specialties to speak of, the many nts and animals found in the Gryffin Forest were materials necessary for magical constructs. Hence, the city was a popr location for merchants and mercenaries. It wasn''t a deste city like Alice initially imagined it to be.


    After Alice arrived back in Mana City, the first thing she did was locate Mana City''s Mercenary Union. Like the many fantasy otherworlds depicted in novels, this world also had a guild-like existence for mercenaries. In this world, the need to process the bodies of arge number of magical creatures and special creatures into usable materials led to the creation of the Mercenary Union. Moreover, the Mercenary Union in this world was a surprisingly popr ce. Even apprentice magicians who were still studying in school would often apply to be mercenaries and earn some pocket money.


    However, despite the Mercenary Union having many members, only a small number of high-ranking mercenaries could fight against truly powerful monsters. The majority of mercenaries were just slightly better than the hunters found on Earth. These mercenaries didn''t have incredible individual powers. Instead, they relied on magic weapons to hunt magical creatures and wild animals. If apprentice magicians like Zauna came across magical creatures rivaling the Boria Wolf King, they would suffer defeat in just a few exchanges.


    The phone Zauna gave Alice had a GPS. The GPS of this world functioned by detecting a special type of mana imbued into crystals. This special mana carried information with it. So, when a phone''s GPS picked up this mana, it would disy the info the mana carried. Meanwhile, almost every shop in the city housed these location crystals. So, by relying on her phone''s GPS, Alice arrived at Mana City''s Mercenary Union in no time.


    The Mercenary Union was a lively and surprisingly luxurious establishment. When Alice entered the building, she felt as if she had walked into abor market. Inside the stadium-sized hall, there were numerous counters situated along the edges and arge crowd of people loitering around in the middle. At a nce, Alice noted that apart from mercenaries, there were many merchants and civilians present as well. These people were probably here tomission a job.


    Based on what Alice found out on the inte, most of the mercenaries in the Mercenary Union were Level 1 Certified Mercenaries. They were the types of mercenaries that relied on magic items to hunt magical creatures, and these people tended to be apprentice magicians or people with average strength.


    Meanwhile, the ck-d thief girl, who was a Level 2 Certified Mercenary, was slightly stronger. Although it was still a little far-fetched for her to hunt magical beasts by herself, she could still protect herself against a magical beast should she identallye across one. Moreover, Level 2 mercenaries generally had special skills that made them stand out from the many Level 1 mercenaries and allowed them toplete tasks ordinary people couldn''t.


    Although the poption of Level 2 mercenaries was still significant in the Mercenary Union, it was still smaller than the poption of Level 1 mercenaries. Moreover, Alice was looking for a thief, and this condition allowed her to further narrow her search. Not to mention, Alice currently had an effective method to locate the thief girl.


    The phone Alice confiscated from the thief girl was thetter''s personal phone, and it definitely wasn''t a negligible loss for the thief girl. The thief profession might have been lucrative in the past, but that was no longer the case now. Magic surveince systems existed in the current age. Unlike the surveince systems on Earth, the surveince systems here weren''t just capable of capturing images and sound. They could also capture a person''s mana signature. This function severely reduced the opportunities thieves could act.


    Not to mention, the various kingdoms had already enacted an borate justice system in the current era. So long as a thief got caught, they would face dire consequences. Hence, although the thief profession still existed in the current age, most thieves no longer relied on their skills to steal. Many of them had even switched careers. The thief-turned-paparazzi girl Alice encountered was one such example. Unfortunately for the thief girl, her career change wasn''t very sessful as she had gotten caught by Alice and Zauna on her very first job.


    As to why Alice concluded that the thief girl had only switched careers recently, it was because the thief girl had been using her phone to take photos. The girl was obviously an amateur. Meanwhile, the fact that the thief girl had switched careers meant that her career as a thief wasn''t promising. Now that the girl had even gotten her phone confiscated, she must be anxious to recoup her losses.


    Taking advantage of this fact, Alice connected to the Mercenary Union''s in-house application and submitted amission through the app''smission tform. Meanwhile, themission''s content was "Investigate the specifics of the Gryffin Forest''s Boria Wolf King," and the task requirements were "Must have thief-rted skills and knowledge, plus identity and knowledge rted to the media industry."


    Thismission was tailored for the thief girl. Alice refused to believe that the girl wouldn''t take the bait.


    Moreover, Alice wasn''t particrly worried even if the thief girl didn''t take the bait. ording to Zauna, there would only be one Boria Wolf King in the Gryffin Forest at all times. Now that Alice had killed the Boria Wolf King, it would probably take several years before the next one appeared.


    In other words, even if other people epted Alice''smission, they wouldn''t be able to find any data on the Boria Wolf King. This meant that Alice wouldn''t have to pay anymission fees.


    Shortly after Alice submitted hermission, an inconspicuous piece of information appeared at the corner of one of the many LCD screens situated in the middle of the hall. This meant that the Mercenary Union had already approved of Alice''smission.


    However, even though huge LCD screens were disying the avablemissions in the middle of the hall, not many people paid attention to them. The disys were too big, and there were too manymissions listed. It would be akin to torturing one''s eyes if one tried to look for amission through these disys.


    Instead of relying on these disys, most of the mercenaries present would browse themission tform for jobs using their phones. The Mercenary Union''s application even had search and filter functions to help mercenaries quickly locatemissions that suited them. Then, once a person found their desiredmission, they could go up to one of the many counters in the hall and go through the necessary procedures.


    But this fitted Alice''s needs perfectly. Now that the thief girl no longer had a phone, she would probably have to rely on theserge LCDs to find amission.


    Alice quickly located hermission. Although hermission looked inconspicuous, it didn''t matter. Themissions disyed on each screen were categorized. Meanwhile, the screen that disyed Alice''smission listed only thief-rtedmissions. Hence, if the thief girl wanted to pick up amission, she would have to visit this screen.


    After finding herself a chair to sit on, Alice began waiting for her awaited fish to take the bait. Unfortunately, her appearance,bined with the unconscious rabbit hanging off of her waist, served to attract a lot of attention to her. Quite a few kind-hearted mercenaries even asked if she had lost her way. However, Alice simply shook her head in response to these questions and continued waiting for her target to appear.


    Fortunately, Alice didn''t have to wait very long.


    Probably because the thief girl was in urgent need of money, Alice only had to wait a few dozen minutes before she found her target. And just like Alice expected, the thief girl had appeared in front of the screen disying thief-rtedmissions. Moreover, to Alice''s surprise, the girl had appeared before the screen without her notice.


    For thieves, it was almostpulsory to have the ability to conceal themselves in dense crowds. By the time Alice noticed the thief girl, thetter had already been standing in front of the screen for some time. This situation came as a surprise to Alice. It would seem that luck had indeed yed a role in her catching the thief girl back in the church. If it weren''t for the reflection of the lensing through the door gap, it would''ve been almost impossible for her to notice the thief girl with her ordinary constitution.


    Regardless, now that her target had appeared, Alice no longer had to remain in ce. After jumping off the chair, she promptly walked up to the thief girl and poked thetter''s back.


    There was no helping it. Alice was too short, and her body looked no different than that of a middle school student. In contrast, the thief girl was considerably tall despite her youthful appearance. Alice would have to stand on her toes and outstretch her arm if she wanted to tap the thief girl''s shoulder. Since that would look embarrassing, Alice opted to poke the thief girl''s back instead.


    "Who is it?!" The thief girl instantly grew alert and turned around, only to find nobody behind her. Then, when she looked down and discovered Alice''s figure standing behind her, her expression immediately stiffened. "He"


    "Shh"


    When Alice saw that the thief girl was about to say the word "Hero," she hurriedly gestured for the girl to keep quiet and even stepped on the other party''s foot. Then, after forcing the thief girl to swallow back her words, Alice said, "Follow me. Let''s talk outside."


    Seeing that Alice wasn''t giving her any chance to refute, the thief girl hesitated for a moment before helplessly following Alice out of the Mercenary Union.

 Chapter 21: If There Is No Demon King, I Will Create One for You

    Chapter 21: If There Is No Demon King, I Will Create One for You


    "This is my home."


    The Gryffin Church still served as Alice''s residence in Mana City for the time being. Meanwhile, many people still had their attention on the church. So, to avoid bringing unnecessary suspicion onto herself, Alice asked to hold their conversation in the thief girl''s house instead. The thief girl naturally dared not refuse Alice''s request since she knew that Alice was the Hero and that nothing good woulde out of opposing the Hero.


    Although Alice didn''t look or feel like the Hero, the thief girl had witnessed Alice sending a Milu Rabbit smashing through a wall. Such a feat wasn''t something an ordinary human could aplish. Hence, even though the thief girl still couldn''t sense any manaing from Alice, she dared not act recklessly and obediently led Alice to her unremarkable home.


    Alice didn''t mind the modesty of the house at all. After all, she had originally been amoner before transmigrating to this world. Instead, after entering the house, Alice found herself a seat and watched as the thief girl tentatively took the seat opposite her. Then, Alice began the conversation by asking, "What is your name?"


    "My name is Rosa. I''m 19 years old, and I''m a thief," the thief girl named Rosa formally introduced herself, a hint of anxiety on her face. Rosa had initially thought that the Hero would spare her after she had contributed valuable information. She didn''t think that the Hero would use a tailoredmission to bait her into revealing herself.


    Faced with such a situation, Rosa would be lying if she said she wasn''t nervous. After all, the Hero was the final line of defense against the Demon King. All five human kingdoms treated the Hero as an honored guest. Should one offend the Hero, one would be offending all five human kingdoms simultaneously.


    Previously, Rosa had thought that because the Hero had only appeared recently, the Hero shouldn''t have much strength. So, it was unlikely that she would be discovered even if she secretly took photos of the Hero. Never did she expect her camera lens to give her presence away.


    "How did you know that the Four Heavenly Kings were nning on assassinating me?"


    Although Alice didn''t want to admit that she was the Hero, she had to acknowledge that the Hero''s identity could provide her a lot more initiative whenmunicating with others. Hence, Alice was no longer against the idea ofmunicating with others as the Hero. At the very least, Rosa was now behaving honestly in front of the "Hero."


    "As far as I know, this information doesn''t seem to be circting in the human realm."


    "Actually, the entire demon realm already knows of this information... News about holy light appearing on the Gryffin Church''s second floor has already reached the demon realmst night. Based on this information, the demons guessed that the Hero must''ve appeared," Rosa exined. Then, she tentatively looked at Alice before she continued, "Afterward, someone discovered that the Hero''s Sword had disappeared from the Gryffin Church''s courtyard this morning, solidifying this conjecture. By noon today, the entire demon realm already knows that the Hero is born.


    "Then, in less than an hour, the King of the demon realm''s Fear Kingdom, who is also the Heavenly King of Fire, announced that he would personally hunt down the Hero. After his announcement, the other Heavenly Kings also made simr announcements, and I just happened to have used my bypass software at the time and saw these announcements..."


    "..."


    Alice sighed when she heard Rosa''s words. If this kind of thing happened on Earth, she would rate the Four Heavenly Kings as capable politicians and treat their announcements only as a means of winning public opinion. She wouldn''t think that they had any intentions of taking action.


    However, it was a different story for the demon realm. The demon realm was a ce where the strong preyed on the weak, and the four kings of the demon realm had risen to their position through relying on strength. If these barbaric kings dered their intent to take action, then there was a high possibility that they would act on their words.


    "But it doesn''t matter. Even though the Four Heavenly Kings aren''t following routine, haven''t you anticipated their actions already?" Rosa said. After seeing Alice remaining silent for a while, Rosa hurriedly started licking Alice''s boots. "Just look at the current situation. Everyone currently thinks that you are a muscr male warrior with a delicate face. Nobody has guessed that the Hero''s actual appearance is that of a harmless little girl. They couldn''t even find their target even if they wanted to assassinate the Hero."


    Alice could swear to the heavens that this hadn''t been her initial intention. At the time, she had only wanted to avoid others disturbing her and escape from the Hero''s duties. She didn''t think that she would end up diverting the Four Heavenly Kings'' assassination plot as well.


    <em>But this is only a temporary solution</em>


    Alice frowned. Although she could indeed continuously mislead others by relying on the Hero''s LINK ount, it wasn''t a long-term solution. The demons were bound to lose their patience sooner orter. Once that happened, nobody could guarantee that the demons would sit still and do nothing. In that case, she would be a sinner that sparked conflict between the humans and the demons.


    Fortunately, there was a simple solution to resolve this conflict. The only reason why the demons were frantically thinking of attacking the Hero now was because theycked a target to focus their attention on. In the current state where the Hero had appeared while the Demon King remained absent, it was only natural for the demons to panic. However, if the demons found signs of the Demon King appearing, they might start searching for the Demon King, just like how the humans were currently searching for the Hero.


    At that time, the human side would be frantically searching for the Hero, while the demon side would be frantically searching for the Demon King. Both sides would be too busy to meddle in each other''s affairs, and peace would remain between the two realms.


    However, the problem was that Alice wasn''t the Hero at all. She was a counterfeit who could only use the Hero''s Sword by turning the legendary weapon into garbage. No matter how one looked at it, there was no way she could be the real Hero. Then, since the real Hero hadn''t appeared, the real Demon King naturally wouldn''t appear, either. And so long as the demons failed to acquire information on the Demon King, they would continue trying to assassinate the Hero.


    In that case, there was only one solution to this problem.


    <em>If you don''t have a Demon King, then I''ll make you a Demon King!</em>


    <em>But how did I get treated as the Hero in the first ce</em>


    Alice scratched her head as she tried to recall what led to her being publicly recognized as the Hero. From what she could tell, two points stood out from the rest. The first point would have to be the holy light blunder. The second point would be the Hero''s Sword, which was akin to the Hero''s identification card. In that case, if Alice wished to create a fictional Demon King for the demon realm, she could also replicate these two points.


    With these thoughts in mind, Alice turned to Rosa and asked, "Do you know of anything that could serve as credentials for the Demon King?"


    "Credentials for the Demon King?"


    Alice''s strange question stunned Rosa. However, as luck would have it, Rosa did have an answer to Alice''s question. "I don''t know if this counts, but there is a ck crystal situated inside the abandoned Demon King City. The ck crystal emits severe mana radiation that kills all life in its vicinity. It is said that the crystal is something thest generation''s Demon King had left behind. Although the demons have constantly been thinking of reiming and developing that piece ofnd, they couldn''t do so because there was nothing they could do about that crystal. ording to rumors, only someone with power on the level of the Demon King could deal with that crystal."


    "Okay, this is it!" Alice eximed, pping her thigh as she made her decision.


    Wasn''t it just a shitty crystal? If it was anything like the Hero''s Sword, it would turn into garbage as soon as her right hand touched it. And even if the crystal didn''t turn into garbage, she should have no problems destroying the crystal with a few pairs of panties.


    Since Alice now knew that there was something that could authenticate the Demon King''s identity, there was only one thing she needed to do, and that was


    "Do you have any ck panties here? Give me a few pairs."


    "...??"

 Chapter 22: How Can It Be Considered Stealing When It Is Related to the Hero?

    Chapter 22: How Can It Be Considered Stealing When It Is Rted to the Hero?


    [Weapon: Soft ck Lace Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +3000, Speed +3000, Mind +7000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Destruction Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can crumble the target''s soul.)]


    <em>As I thought, even though the system recognizes all panties as Artifacts, the panties'' effects and additional effects are dependent on their styles,</em> Alice thought to herself as she looked at the bundle of swaying mist wrapped around her right hand. Then, when she loosened her right hand and let the ckce panties she held fall to the ground, the ck mist wrapped around her hand also gradually vanished.


    In terms of special effects, the ck mist was simr to the holy light generated when Alice held white panties in her right hand. Both had an excellent bluffing effect. At the very least, when Alice saw the ck mist spreading out from her right hand, she felt that it should be something a Demon King would emit. Moreover, if she hadn''t released thece panties, the ck mist would''ve continued spreading until it reached the street outside.


    Of course, it went without saying that Alice did not conduct her experiment with the ck panties inside Rosa''s house. Instead, Alice had Rosa take out all of her ck panties from the closet and bag them.


    Fortunately, when Alice grabbed the pouch holding three pairs of ck underwear, her right hand didn''t recognize the bundle as an Artifact. Instead, the system had evaluated it as a Garbage-quality weapon. To be precise, the system only recognized the pouch as a weapon; it did not recognize the panties stored inside the pouch. This oue also proved that she could not stack the quality and level of weapons. And even if she directly held several pairs of panties in her right hand, the most likely oue would be that the system only treated one of them as a weapon.


    Initially, Alice had thought to sequestrate Rosa''s other colored panties apart from the white ones. She wanted to test out the effects of different colored panties, such as blue, red, green, etc. Unfortunately, despite being a thief, Rosa owned mostly white panties. Even the ck panties she owned numbered only three, of which Alice had looted all three of them.


    Correction. Perhaps that couldn''t be considered looting. After all, how could the Hero''s actions be considered looting? As a resident of the human realm, Rosa should feel honored that she could contribute to defeating the Demon King.


    However, recalling the strange expression Rosa gave her when she left, Alice guessed that the fact that "the Hero is a panty-loving pervert" must''ve given the thief girl a great shock. Rosa had shown hardly any concern even when someone had just taken three pairs of underwear from her.


    Of course, Alice wasn''t afraid that Rosa would expose this matter to the public. If Rosa dared to speak up, Alice only needed to submit a LINK as the Hero to make the girl understand the consequences of running her mouth.


    Meanwhile, after leaving Rosa''s house with three pairs of Rosa''s panties, Alice hid in a small deserted alley in Mana City. Then, after making sure that there were no surveince cameras in the vicinity, she began experimenting with the ckce panties she held before.


    There was no helping it. The magic technology of this world had already instilled deep-seated fear into Alice. Typically, when novels brought up magic technology, most referred to magic-operated weapons and flying ships. Never had Alice seen a novel describing an otherworld filled with magic having substitutes for phones,puters, and even nuclear bombs. The fact that Alice got caught drawing the Hero''s Sword by the church''s surveince cameras would forever remain her biggest trauma in this world.


    <em>It would be great if the special effects didn''t exist</em> Alice thought as she crouched down, picked up thece panties, and swiftly stuffed it into the pouch tied around her waist. When she saw the ck mist that had appeared during the brief moment her right hand touched thece panties, she couldn''t help but feel frustrated.<em> I wonder if the special effects of transparent panties would be transparent as well? Though, I don''t even know if this world has transparent panties</em>


    After packing up, Alice left the alley and made her way back to the Gryffin Church. She had already decided on a few goals in her heart. So long as she could achieve these goals, she should have ample time to study the magic and technology of this world. Then, she could find out if there were any means simr to otherworld summonings or otherworld teleportations and find a way back home.


    However, what she needed to do now was notify Father Kasandora and Zauna of her ns. After all, only a few people in this world knew of her identity as the Hero. Moreover, she had already promised Father Kasandora to meet the kings of the five human kingdoms and get acquainted with them. The old priest''s request was reasonable since these kingdoms were actively helping Alice safeguard her identity. The least she could do in return was meet them.


    Though, one concern Alice had was that the kings would find it hard to believe that a little girl like herself could be the Hero. In that case, they might ask her to put on the rumored holy light show, and things would get awkward quickly. After all, she couldn''t possibly take off her panties right in front of the kings, right? Even if she kept an extra pair of panties in her pocket, no matter how intense the "holy light" was, there was a high possibility that the kings would notice the panties in her hand. And once the kings realized that the lighting from her right hand originated from a pair of panties, what awaited Alice would be her social death.


    While pondering how she should deal with the human kings, Alice arrived before the Gryffin Church''s entrance. When she pushed apart therge wooden doors, she found that her diversion had indeed seeded. When she left the church with Zauna before, there had been over a dozen people pestering Father Kasandora on the first floor. Now, there were less than a handful of people "interrogating" Father Kasandora.


    "Miss Alice, you''re back."


    Father Kasandora loudly greeted Alice when he saw hering in through the main entrance. Seeing that he wasn''t surprised to see hering in from outside the church, Alice guessed that Zauna had already told him about her little adventure. In addition, Father Kasandora had also wisely avoided behaving too politely toward Alice in front of the reporters.


    <em>It looks like Father Kasandora is quite the actor, </em>Alice inwardly praised. She then nodded in response to the elderly priest''s greeting. Truthfully, Alice had a very favorable impression of this old priest who had sheltered her in the church. If it wasn''t for the fact that it was this same old man who had forced her to be the Hero, Alice would''ve given him a perfect score for his customer service.


    However, it was a different story for the reporters who were <em>still </em>pestering Father Kasandora. Alice didn''t have any patience when dealing with these people.


    Unfortunately, Alice couldn''t punch these reporters in the gut, either. If she exhibited strength beyond what an ordinary girl like herself should possess, they might suspect her identity. Alice knew full well about the paparazzis'' bad habits. For the sake of attracting attention and increasing sales, they wouldn''t mind casting suspicion on even the most absurd of matters.


    Hence, after giving the matter some thought, Alice released the Milu Rabbit hanging on her waist and set it down on the floor. Then, she nudged it using the tip of her foot, trying to wake it.


    The Milu Rabbit quickly regained consciousness and stood itself up. Then, when it turned its head around and saw Alice, it reacted just like Alice expectedit immediately turned its head away and dashed forward, trying to use the object in front of it to knock itself unconscious. Meanwhile, Alice had previously oriented the Milu Rabbit so that its head faced the reporters pestering Father Kasandora.


    <em>Bang!</em>


    In the blink of an eye, the Milu Rabbit sent one of the reporters falling forward. Although the Milu Rabbit didn''t possess the Pration effect because Alice wasn''t using it as a weapon, it had already trained its "headbutt arts" to a point where it could dent evenrge trees.


    The reporter that got struck might have attended somepulsory courses for magic and physicalbat, thereby granting him a slightly better physique than ordinary people. However, his physique still wasn''t that much stronger than the average person. Hence, when the Milu Rabbit rammed its head into his butt, the reporter got knocked half a meter forward and fell to the ground groaning in pain.


    Unfortunately for the Milu Rabbit, it seemed that it had been <em>too </em>sessful in its training, and the reporter''s keister was too soft to satisfy its needs. Even though the Milu Rabbit had sent the reporter flying, it remained conscious. Thus, after shaking the mild dizziness out of its head, the Milu Rabbit set its sight onto the other frightened reporters.


    "Tsk, tsk, serves you right."


    Alice sat down on one of the benches in the hall and watched as the reporters desperately tried to flee from the rampaging Milu Rabbit.

 Chapter 23: You Don’t Categorize Magicians by Rank?

    Chapter 23: You Don��t Categorize Magicians by Rank?


    After chasing away the reporters pestering Father Kasandora, Alice returned to her room on the second floor. As soon as she entered the room, she found Zauna sitting in front of theputer. Then, when Zauna noticed Alice''s return, she greeted Alice, saying, "Wee back. How was it? Did you find that thief? Did you get any useful information from her?"


    "A little bit." Alice nodded. Then, when she walked over to Zauna and saw that the other party seemed to be selecting school courses, she asked, "This is...a course selection interface? Are you starting school soon?"


    "That''s right. The new term starts in five days. There are limited spaces for each course, and I major in water magic and minor in wind magic, so I need to secure myself a seat as soon as possible," Zauna said, nodding. Then, she sighed and exined, "The wind department''s teacher is a good person. He doesn''t take attendance for his sses, so many people take the wind course even though they aren''t even wind magicians. It''s a real headache."


    It seemed that no matter the world, so long as schools existed, truants would exist as well. However, after giving the matter some thought, Alice found this situation to be reasonable. After all, thest Demon King had died over 300 years ago. In other words, the humans of this world had enjoyed over 300 years of peace. Even though the conflict between the human and demon realms still existed, no wars had erupted during this period. Hence, students of the new generation wouldn''t have the sense of urgency their predecessors had.


    For students of the current generation, studying at the Magic Academy was probably only a means to help them secure a job more easily. Most of them probably didn''t even care about improving their proficiency in magic. Inparison, Zauna could be considered a more self-disciplined student. She wasn''t simply seeking to graduate from the academy. Instead, she was working hard to improve her magic standard.


    Then, when Alice recalled the content of the web novels she had read in the past and the ranking system the Mercenary Union utilized, she couldn''t help but ask, "By the way, do you guys have a rating system for magicians?"


    "A rating system? There is one, but I think it might be different from the one you''re referring to," Zauna said, nodding. "If you want to categorize magicians by rank, then they''ll probably be separated into University Students, Masters, and Doctors.


    "Don''t give me that look. I know you probably want to ask if there is a categorization for strength, but we really don''t have anything like that. It''s been over three hundred years since a major war between humans and demons had taken ce. Almost all magicians belong to the research faction in the current era, and only a few belong to thebat faction."


    "Alright, then. Things really are different from what I imagined," Alice said, letting out a helpless sigh before sitting down on the chair beside Zauna. "But seeing as you''ll be starting school soon, it seems you won''t be able to go to the demon realm with me"


    "The demon realm?! What are you going there for?!" Zauna was surprised when she heard Alice''s words. Then, turning to look at Alice, she hurriedly said, "Don''t forget that you''re the Hero! You haven''t even grown up yet! If you go to the demon realm and get discovered, the demons will swarm you! Although the demons have be more civilized in recent years, they still worship strength at their core. They won''t be as friendly as humans."


    "It doesn''t matter. There''s no way they can tell that I''m the Hero, right?" Alice said, chuckling as she pointed at herself. She had already fooled the demon realm''sizens by spreading misinformation using her Hero BOT ount. Based on what she saw on LINKS, many people were already discussing how they should sneak their way to the Gryffin Forest. Nobody even thought of the possibility that the Hero would sneak into the demon realm. "Also, I''m going there with a n. If this n seeds, it''ll guarantee that the demons will stop harassing me for a certain period."


    Of course, Alice wouldn''t be informing Zauna of her n for the time being. After all, she was going to the demon realm to impersonate the Demon King. Although Alice felt that Zauna was a kind person, they had only known each other for three days. It was best if she acted carefully.


    "Well, you''re the Hero. You have the final say."


    Seeing that her words had failed to dissuade Alice, Zauna decided to let Alice do what she wanted. Moreover, after pondering the matter, she found that Alice didn''t have anything to worry about. After all, despite how harmless the blonde girl looked, she could instantly evaporate arge chunk of the Gryffin Forest so long as she was willing to. Since Alice possessed such strength, she was unlikely to encounter any dangerous situations in the demon world.


    "But do you have a way to get to the demon realm? The human realm''s exit is heavily guarded. The kings won''t agree to let you visit the demon realm even if you''re the Hero."


    Alice had only be the Hero recently. ording to historical records, that was when Heroes were at their weakest. It was also for this reason that the demons often only sent weaklings to assassinate the Hero. Though, these demons always ended up bing experience points for the Hero. The human kings naturally understood this principle, so they wouldn''t recklessly allow a weak Hero to visit the demon realm.


    "It''s okay. I already found a way," Alice said, chuckling. "It''s the thief that snuck a photo of us this afternoon. She''s called Rosa, and she seems to be doing pretty well in Mana City''s circle of thieves. She told me that there would be a merchant convoy leaving Mana City in three days. The convoy might look like your typical merchant convoy on the surface, but it is actually a smuggling team that travels between the human and demon realms. I''ll be able to leave if I follow them."


    "A smuggling team..." Zauna''s mouth twitched. She never thought that Alice would think of following a group of smugglers to the demon realm. Though, after pondering over the matter, she found that this seemed to be the only other way Alice could travel to the demon realm. "Is that thief reliable? Are you sure she won''t trick you?"


    "Don''t worry. She won''t dare to lie to me," Alice confidently stated. Even if Rosa ended up tricking her, she wasn''t afraid of any danger. After all, she currently had several disposable Artifacts in her possession. If the smugglers had any untoward thoughts against her, a pair of panties was all she needed to obliterate them.


    "What a pity. I really want to go with you and take a look at the demon realm in person. The impression I have of the demon realm so far is mostly based on rumors on the inte," Zauna said enviously. However, she knew her limits. With the strength she currently possessed, so long as she blew her cover in the demon world, she would be dead in less than a minute. Hence, she gave up on the idea of skipping school and apanying Alice to the demon world. Even so, this matter had solidified her thoughts on taking the path ofbat in the future. Otherwise, once Alice became a full-fledged Hero, she might not even be qualified to serve as a follower.


    If Alice knew of Zauna''s thoughts, she would tell her friend not to overthink things. After all, there was no way her strength would grow. Only by pretending to be the Hero in the human realm and the Demon King in the demon realm and putting checks and bnces on both sides could she live afortable life.

 Chapter 24: Change of Clothes

    Chapter 24: Change of Clothes


    Originally, Alice was scheduled to meet the human kings before she went to the demon realm. However, that n suddenly got pushed back.


    The reason for the dy was simplethe king of the Ymir Kingdom, which was the Gryffin Kingdom''s neighbor, had suddenly died from a heart attack. As a result, the Ymir Kingdom had fallen into chaos. Meanwhile, after discussing it among themselves, the kings of the four other kingdoms decided to postpone the meeting until the Ymir Kingdom crowned its new king and stabilized its internal affairs.


    However, even though the meeting got postponed, Father Kasandora had still sent a photo of Alice to the four kings. As for the Ymir Kingdom''s share, it would have to wait until the kingdom crowned its new king. After all, now that the Ymir Kingdom was in chaos, there was a high chance that Alice''s photo would get leaked to the public. This was a risk Father Kasandora couldn''t take.


    Since her meeting with the human kings got postponed, Alice ended up wasting away on the church''s second floor for a few days. During this time, she browsed the inte to enhance her knowledge of this world. She also spent some time looking at this world''s novels and movies.


    Based on her findings, Alice found that the culture of this world was a little old-fashionedpared to the level of technology avable. If it wasn''t because of the Hero and Demon King problem bugging her, Alice might''ve taken on the job of a giarist instead. She could probably live a rtively wealthy life here by copying Earth''s literary works.


    Apart from research, Alice had used her "New Generation''s Hero" to post her made-up training log on LINK daily. After doing so, she would then take a screenshot of her LINK and post it on her LINKS using her "Hero BOT" ount. And because of her speedy information transfer, she had quickly gained a huge following on LINKS. She had also received a verification mark on LINKS thatbeled her ount as a "Famous Hero Media" plus many private messages from demons.


    Of course, as more than 90% of the private messages Alice received were requests for her bypass software, she ended up blocking all private messages. In any case, all she needed was for the demons to trust that the information Hero BOT provided was true. Though, that was indeed the case in a certain sense. After all, Hero BOT was merely rying the information the Hero personally provided. The only problem was that the information the Hero provided might not be true.


    This was the nature of the inte. So long as a piece of information had a verified source, its credibility would increase substantially in the eyes ofizens. As for whether the information itself was true or false, not many people cared about that.


    Three dayster, Rosa messaged Alice mentioning the smuggling team''s meeting point and that she hadpleted all of the necessary arrangements for Alice. The smuggling team would be sending Alice to the demon realm''s Windy Kingdom, which was also the kingdom that housed the Demon King City that Rosa previously mentioned.


    Alice was delighted with Rosa''s arrangement. Not only did the thief girl help restock her arsenal of weapons, but the other party had also provided her a means of traveling to the demon realm. For these reasons, Alice decided to stop fussing over the matter of Rosa secretly photographing her before. Not to mention, Rosa had indeed adhered to their agreement and kept her mouth shut on Alice''s identity.


    The smuggling team''s meeting point was an ordinary shop in Mana City. Following the GPS coordinates Rosa sent her, Alice quickly located the shop and saw that several small trucks were already parked in front of the establishment.


    Looking up, Alice found that the trucks were loaded with raw materials needed for certain magical creations. Based on Rosa''s information, Alice also knew that these materials were unique to the human realm and could fetch an exorbitant price if sold in the demon realm. It was also because of the potential profits that people were willing to take the risk to smuggle these things to the demon realm.


    "Are you the person Rosa mentioned?"


    The shopkeeper was a tall and burly middle-aged man who had a simple and honest appearance. However, when the shopkeeper heard Alice mentioning Rosa''s name, the simple smile on his face disappeared, and he began scrutinizing Alice with a sharp look. Then, after failing to find anything out of the ordinary about Alice, the man frowned and said, "Why is it an ordinary little girl... Are you sure you want to go to the demon realm? I''m sure Rosa already told you, right? We won''t be taking the normal route. The trip is going to be dangerous."


    The shopkeeper''s reaction was well within reason. After all, Alice''s young appearance and attire made it difficult for anyone to take her seriously. While the girl''s blue-white dress wouldn''t pose much of a problem since the people of this era had already transitioned from using horses to using cars for transportation, the unconscious Milu Rabbit tied to the girl''s waist was simply strange. If it wasn''t for the faint trace of mana he senseding from the rabbit, he would''ve thought that it was a doll instead of a living creature. Most importantly, anyone who had experienced even a little bit ofbat training could tell that Alice''s limbs were weak and flimsy and that her body held almost no mana.


    <em>Is Rosa alright? Why does she want to smuggle such a weak youngdy to the demon realm? Does she have some kind of grudge against the girl?</em>


    The burly shopkeeper couldn''t help but frown. Smuggling was already illegal, to begin with. If he caused the death of someone as well, he would be in serious trouble. Not to mention, Alice looked very much like the youngdy of a wealthy or noble family. If she died during the journey, both he and his teammates would probably have their faces stuck to a wanted poster the next day.


    However, as the shopkeeper owed Rosa a favor, he couldn''t go back on his word now. After all, credibility was vital for smugglers. Hence, even though he felt that Rosa''s job was risky, he still chose to bite the bullet. "Since I already promised Rosa, I won''t drive you away just because you are a little girl. However, you must be mentally prepared."


    Then, after taking a moment topose himself, the shopkeeper looked at Alice and sternly said, "We will be checking your luggage before we leave to prevent anything that might expose our tracks... Don''t worry; I won''t be doing the inspection. A woman will be doing it instead, so you don''t have to worry about any personal items being seen."


    After saying so, the shopkeeper took a look at the backpack Alice carried. Then, he looked at the Milu Rabbit and the pouch Alice carried around her waist and skeptically asked, "Why don''t you put your pouch into your backpack? What are you keeping inside?"


    The pouch carried Alice''s Artifacts, and Alice had tied it around her waist to allow her easy ess to the weapons. For the sake of her dignity, there was no way Alice could reveal the pouch''s contents to the shopkeeper. However, considering that someone would be checking the pouchter anyway, Alice hesitated for a moment before truthfully saying, "It''s my change of clothes."


    After saying so, Alice felt that her words didn''t sound sufficiently stern, so she repeated, "It''s a change of clothes."


    The shopkeeper failed to understand why Alice needed to repeat her words in a different manner.

 Chapter 25: Isnt This Otherworld a Little Too Realistic?

    Chapter 25: Isn''t This Otherworld a Little Too Realistic?


    Under normal circumstances, whether it was in Earth''s manga and anime or this world''s Hero novels, so long as the Hero apanied a merchant convoy, then the convoy was bound toe under attack by bandits or magic beasts. Then, when the convoy had difficulty repelling the attacks, the protagonist would step forward and show off their power, eventuallypleting the journey without any casualties.


    However, Alice had evidently been overthinking things.


    Contrary to Alice''s expectations, Mana City''s public security was anything but poor. Although Mana City was located near the Gryffin Kingdom''s edge, highways linking cities and kingdoms already existed in this era. Hence, the smuggling trip felt no different than a long-distance bus ride for Alice. Apart from other vehicles, the merchant convoy did not encounter any other obstacles on the road.


    After all, this was a highway they were talking about. Every vehicle driving on the highway moved at high speeds. How dumb would a bandit have to be to try and stop a fast-moving car? Unless the bandits had trained their physical bodies to a frightening extent, they would end up either dead or seriously injured if a fast-moving car struck them.


    <em>No wonder Zauna said not to worry about bandits. All of this era''s bandits are probably unemployed already...</em>


    Alice had previously asked Zauna whether she would meet bandits or the likes on her journey to the demon realm. In response, Zauna had mercilesslyughed at her question. Now, though, Alice finally understood why Zauna hadughed at her. It seemed that she had subconsciously viewed this world using the standard of the Middle Ages once again.


    <em>I''ll have to put more effort into integrating into this world.</em>


    Of course, if they continued driving normally on this highway, they would only end up arriving at another city. They wouldn''t be smuggling anything if that was the case. Hence, shortly after leaving Mana City, Alice, seated in the passenger seat of the leading truck, saw the truck being driven out of the highway and onto a small trail.


    A dense forest hid the trail. If one didn''t look carefully, one would have difficulty noticing that there was actually a muddy road here for cars to drive on.


    However, this hidden road was truly narrow. Even though the convoy''s trucks were small in size, they could barely fit on this road. If not for the experienced truck drivers, the convoy would''ve had its journey halted the moment it tried to drive onto this narrow road. It was also probably because of how narrow and discreet this road was that the authorities had yet to discover it.


    "There''s a great distance separating the human and demon realms. If we rely only on cars, it''ll take us at least half a month to reach our destination. Moreover, there will be soldiers obstructing the way as well." Probably noticing Alice curiously looking out of the window, the driver, who was also the middle-aged shopkeeper, took the initiative to provide Alice with some information. "So, we can''t drive our way to the demon realm. Instead, we''ll be using a magic array we''ve secretly constructed on this forest trail. The magic array will teleport us to a forest in the demon realm, and that forest is located within the borders of the Windy Kingdom."


    "I see." Alice nodded. She had finally heard a termmonly found in isekai novels. <em>Teleportation arrays, huh? This will be my first time seeing one. Not only does this world have technology resembling Earth''s technology, but it even has the support of unscientific magic. This world''s growth potential is much more exaggerated than that of Earth''s.</em>


    It was a pity that the many conflicts between humans and demons had dyed the development of this world. Currently, Alice felt that this world was only on par with Earth when it came to technological standards.


    After making several twists and turns in the forest, the convoy arrived at a clearing and stopped. Then, Alice followed the middle-aged shopkeeper out of the truck. Apart from them, several more people had alighted from the five other trucks carrying goods. Among these people, one of them held a magic book in his hand. Under everyone''s attention, this man walked to the center of the clearing.


    Looking at this sight, Alice guessed that the man was the magician responsible for activating the teleportation array. However, unlike Zauna, this man wasn''t wearing a magician''s robe or the iconic pointed hat. Instead, he wore an ordinary pair of jeans matched with a in T-shirt. If not for the man''s chanting causing the mana in the air to stir, Alice would''ve thought that he was just a porter holding a book.


    "It''s best if you try to conceal your identity as much as possible when you''re in our line of work. Andrew is just your average wage earner in the eyes of others. Nobody would think that he has actually graduated from the Michelle Royal School of Magic with high honors," the middle-aged shopkeeper exined, knowing that Alice must be growing curious again.


    "But even high-achieving students who graduated from Michelle can only start working from the bottom once they enter society. Andrew isn''t willing to settle for that pitiful sry, which is why he joined us," a young man standing behind Alice said. The man wore light armor resembling that of a knight, and he smiled as he continued, "Although smuggling is illegal, it is a fast way of making money. It''s been over three hundred years since there has been any major conflict between the human and demon realms. Smuggling a few inconsequential items across the border won''t be considered treason.


    "Though, I don''t know for how long this situation will continue. With the recent news of the Hero appearing, and in Mana City nheless...things might be restless again. At that time, the government might regte smuggling more strictly."


    "That''s right. Every day that passes is one less day we get to smuggle," the middle-aged shopkeeper said, sighing and shaking his head. After lighting himself a cigarette and looking at the gradually forming magic array, he walked back to his truck and took out a bag. Then, he took something out of the bag and handed it to Alice, saying, "Here, put this on once we reach the demon realm."


    "Huh? This is..."


    When Alice received the item and saw it, she couldn''t help but look at the shopkeeper strangely.


    [Weapon: Demon Horn Headband for Added Appeal]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Mana +5]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    "Don''t give me that look. This thing''s original purpose might not be suitable for children, but you will have to put it on if you want to enter the demon realm."


    "Don''t give me that look. This thing''s original purpose might not be suitable for children, but you will have to put it on if you want to enter the demon realm," the shopkeeper quickly exined himself when he noticed Alice''s strange look. "Demons have some organs that humans don''t have, such as demon horns, bat-like wings, and pointy tails. Although they can hide these things and pretend to be human, they don''t normally hide these organs in the demon realm. We will stand out if we enter the demon realm without any disguises."


    The shopkeeper''s words were reasonable. After mentally struggling for a while, Alice eventually put the inappropriate headband onto her head. Of course, the moment her right hand parted with the headband, she had also lost the effect of Mana +5. Any item that wasn''t held in her right hand would not be considered a weapon.

 Chapter 26: The Sky in the Demon Realm Is Black…?

    Chapter 26: The Sky in the Demon Realm Is ck��?


    "So, this is the demon realm?" After stepping out of the teleportation array, Alice scanned her surroundings before looking up at the dim sky. Then, she curiously asked, "Is the demon realm''s sky always so dark?"


    Alice remembered that whenever the literary works she read brought up the living ce of demons, they would always describe it as a gloomy ce. Meanwhile, Alice''s current surroundings fit this description perfectly. Not only was the sky here dark, but even the trees here had a twisted shape.


    Unfortunately, what the shopkeeper said next instantly shattered Alice''s imagination.


    "No, the demon realm is located on the other side of the, so it is currently nighttime here. Have you heard of time differences before?" the shopkeeper said, giving Alice a strange look. Simultaneously, Alice''s question had also further solidified his impression of Alice being "a wealthy youngdy who knows nothing about the world." Then, he continued, "Sunlight shines on the demon realm as well. Although the sunlight here isparatively weaker due to the heavy pollution here, the demon realm isn''t always dark as it is now."


    "I-Is that so..." Alice looked away in embarrassment. After taking a moment to think, she realized that the shopkeeper''s words made sense. Although the trees here looked a little twisted, if the demon realm didn''t receive even a speck of sunlight, then no tree could grow here. "You say that the demon realm is heavily polluted. Is the demon realm engaged in heavy industry?"


    "No, the demon realm is innately polluted. Since the dawn of this, polluted mana has shrouded half of the globe. This polluted mana affects the transfer of sunlight, which subsequently affects the growth of the creatures here. The demon race is one of the races that came to being after evolving in this environment."


    The middle-aged shopkeeper happily introduced the demon realm''s situation to Alice as doing so gave him an inexplicable sense of satisfaction. It was akin to an adult pridefully showing off his knowledge in front of a child.


    "The demons are a bizarre race. They strongly advocate the worship of strength, and their four kingdoms are helmed by their strongest members. Although the demons have also developed technology, they copied most of their technology from humans. You can say that they are one big copycat nation."


    Alice found the term copycat nation to be very authentic. Indeed, if the demon realm was filled with a bunch of musclebrains who only thought of improving themselves, its technological development definitely wouldn''t be anything worth mentioning. Meanwhile, an easy way out of this problem for the demons would be to copy their neighbors.


    "Their kings are chosen based on strength? Is such a system even reliable?"


    Rather than the demons'' technology, Alice was more curious to know how the demon realm''s kingdoms could even function under such a barbaric governing system. A kingdom couldn''t operate on strength alone. No matter how much the demons advocated strength, they couldn''t possibly allow a reckless person to rule their countries.


    "The demon realm has a different governing system. As you know, the demons worshipped the strong and prey on the weak. However, in the same way they worshipped the strong, they will also rely on the strong. Hence, demons who are inherently weak will do their best to try to rely on strong demons," the shopkeeper said, chuckling. "If you are a demon, and you find out from a young age that you can''t improve your strength no matter how hard you try, what will you do to try to attach yourself to a strong demon?"


    "I''ll probably try my best to learn various knowledge to make myself more valuable." Alice roughly understood what the shopkeeper was trying to say. Sighing, she continued, "So, does that mean the demon race''s kings have a lot of weak but intelligent counselors helping them make development rmendations?"


    "Yes. Just like the symbiotic rtionship between nts and animals, the demon race''s kings and their subjects are also an alternative form of symbiosis." The shopkeeper nodded, seemingly satisfied with Alice''sprehension. "Just like the human realm, the demon realm has been developing for a long time as well. Although they ended up creating a barbaric system, it is a surprisingly bnced form of governance.


    "While there have been instances where intellectuals tried to seize power, shortly after they rose to power, powerful demons would immediately kill them and steal their ce. This is because the demons worship strength. They will not allow someone weaker to boss them around."


    The shopkeeper''s description of the demon realm was an eye-opener for Alice. She never thought that the demons could develop a feasible political system based on their barbaric natures. Although she still found this method of governing strange, the demons'' innate strength allowed this system to operate stably.


    "Oh? Did Ie at a bad time?"


    While Alice was admiring the demons'' political system, a frivolous male voice came from behind her. Turning around, Alice found herself looking at a tall and slender man with pale skin walking out of the woods. However, this man wasn''t a human, evidenced by the fact that he had a conspicuous pair of bat wings tucked behind his back. This man was a demon.


    However, this demon appeared to be acquainted with the middle-aged shopkeeper as thetterughed and stepped forward to greet him. Then, when the two started discussing matters rting to smuggling, Alice realized that this demon was probably the middle-man responsible for distributing the smuggled goods in the demon realm. The demon''s participation also made sense since it would make the smuggling process more convenient.


    After a short while, the two concluded their talks. Then, the demon approached Alice and scanned her, a subtle smile forming on his face as he said, "Do you n on traveling independently, little friend? You should know that the demon realm is a very dangerous ce."


    <em>Little friend</em>


    Alice''s eyelids twitched at the demon''s form of address. However, considering her current height, it was indeed easy for others to mistake her for a child. Toozy to correct the other party, Alice simply nodded in response.


    "Very well. I won''t stop you since you''ve made up your mind. Anyway, even if you meet with an ident, I doubt your family wille all the way to the demon realm to find trouble," the demon said, nodding.


    Then, the demon took out a business card from his breast pocket and handed it to Alice, saying, "But since our convoy was responsible for bringing you here, we are naturally obliged to bring you back to the human realm. When you are done with your task here,e to Prandtl City. There is a Shacks Supermarket branch there, and I am the branch manager. You cane to me directly, and I''ll be responsible for sending you back to the human realm. However, please don''t take too long as I might be promoted at any time. If by chance, I no longer work there, you might not be able to return to the human realm."


    "I got it."


    Alice took the business card and looked at it. The first line of words written on the card was "Branch Manager of Shacks Supermarket," followed by "Bifrons" underneath it. After memorizing the name and title, Alice put the card into her backpack. There was no point holding it in her hand since the system evaluated it as Garbage.


    "Then, I''ll be going now."


    After saying so, Alice turned around and left. Unlike when she first arrived in this world, she wasn''t afraid of getting lost in the woods now since she had her phone with her. Meanwhile, ording to Rosa, the forest she currently resided in was located within the Windy Kingdom''s borders. Next, all she needed to do was locate Demon King City and enact her n.


    <em>What an interesting little fellow.</em>


    Bifrons caressed his chin as he looked at Alice''s distancing back. As a member of the demon race that worshipped strength, Bifrons was incredibly sensitive toward the power of others. Meanwhile, the instant Alice took his business card, he had sensed Alice''s strength inexplicably increasing a little. However, her strength reverted to its original state when she stored the card in her backpack. Bifrons naturally wouldn''t think that his business card could enhance a person''s strength. So, the only other exnation for this situation was that...


    <em>Is she hiding her strength? Did she subconsciously reveal some of it when taking my business card? It seems she isn''t as ordinary as she makes herself out to be.</em>

 Chapter 27: Demon King Citys Past and Present

    Chapter 27: Demon King City''s Past and Present


    Demon King City was andmark in the demon realm. It was once home to two generations of Demon Kings, and the city was incredibly sturdy due to being reinforced by mana unique to Demon Kings. Even after being abandoned for over three hundred years, apart from some dust, the city remainedrgely the same as it was three centuries ago.


    The demon realm was constantly developing along with time. No matter how battle-hungry the demons were, they still needed a spiritual outlet. Hence, what the human realm had, the demon realm mostly had as well. Although Demon King City had been abandoned for the past three centuries, it wasn''t as if nobody had ever tried developing it.


    As the most well-known profession in the demon realm, the position of Demon King had a strong appeal in the demon realm. After the Demon Kings of previous generations grew their strength, they became existences akin to walking natural disasters. They couldn''t be killed even with taboo bombs. Although there were instances where the Four Heavenly Kings refused to obey the Demon King, it was also a fact that these disobedient Heavenly Kings had suffered tragic fates. Hence, the admiration the demons had for the Demon King was no less than the humans'' admiration for the Hero.


    Therefore, Demon King City, which was once home to two Demon Kings, would naturally enter the eyes of the demon realm''s businessmen. Many businessmen had tried to turn the city into a tourist spot. And while there was a possibility that the next Demon King to appear wouldy im over the city, by the time the new Demon King appeared, they would''ve made more than enough money. They could even turn the city over to the new Demon King to earn the Demon King''s favor. No matter how one looked at it, turning the city into a tourist spot was a sure profit business.


    However, when a group of businessmen finally managed to buy thend Demon King City sat on from the Windy Kingdom''s king, they discovered that they had been scammed.


    A huge ck crystal sat in the middle of Demon King City''s castle. Meanwhile, this crystal continuously exuded aggressive mana that enveloped the city and arge part of the city''s surroundings, and the mana destroyed all life within the polluted region. Not even a de of grass could survive within this polluted region.


    If someone stayed within the polluted region for more than ten minutes, they would start experiencing chest tightness, breathlessness, and severe loss of mana and vitality. The ck-hearted businessmen had even tossed a few weak demons into the polluted region as an experiment. However, theyter discovered that every one of these demons had died within half a day.


    Naturally, turning such a deadly ce into a tourist spot was out of the question. Even if the businessmen tried to hide this deadly detail and proceeded with the development, the public would find out the city''s abnormality in no time.


    However, there was no way the businessmen could seek trouble with one of the Four Heavenly Kings for a refund, either. They still weren''t tired of living. Hence, these businessmen could only ept the fact that one of the Four Heavenly Kings had conned them and put up amission with the demon realm''s Mercenary Union.


    Themission remained hanging on the Mercenary Union''s homepage to this day. Themission''s content included destroying the ck crystal at the center of Demon King City and eliminating the radioactive mana polluting the city. And as themission offered a hefty reward, many demons had triedpleting it. However, nobody had ever managed to do so.


    Eventually, Wintas, the Windy Kingdom''s king, gloatingly told everyone that he had long since tried destroying the ck crystal. However, even he couldn''t put a scratch on the crystal. Unless one had the Demon King''s Power, one couldn''t cause any damage to the ck crystal.


    Hence, Demon King City was abandoned yet again. In addition, the words "Extremely Dangerous" were used to mark the city in the demon realm''s GPS, warning all demons not to approach the area even if they didn''t value their lives. After all, there were much more pleasant ways tomit suicide. Dying by letting Demon King City''s radiated mana destroy one''s vitality was simply too tragic a way to die.


    "It''s not far, but the radiation zone is quiterge..."


    Alice had gained a general understanding of Demon King City''s situation after browsing through the demon realm''s inte. Just like Rosa stated, there was a radioactive crystal situated in the city''s center that even the Four Heavenly Kings could not destroy.


    However,pared to Rosa''s description, the demon realm''sizens had practically described the ck crystal as an urban legend. The ims they made were so exaggerated that Alice couldn''t help but doubt if she could destroy the crystal using her panties. Yet, she also couldn''t simply discount these ims as being boastful without having any counterims herself.


    "But even though it looks close, that''s only on the map... Walking there will still be unrealistic."


    After using her phone to check the distance between herself and Demon King City, Alice found that she would have to walk three days straight by foot to reach the city. Even a demon with wings would need to fly in a straight line for one whole day to reach there. Hence, if Alice wanted to travel to Demon King City, it''d be better if she took a taxi.


    Looking through the demon realm''s inte, Alice quickly found and downloaded a ride-hailing application. The application''s interface had a striking resemnce to the ride-hailing application Zauna previously used. It was evident that someone had stolen coding from the human realm again.


    After touching the fake demon horns on her head and making sure that it was firmly in ce, Alice published her requirements on the application. She set her current location as the starting point and Demon King City as her destination. Then, after submitting her requirements, Alice started waiting for someone to pick up her order.


    Simr to the human realm, the demon realm had roads constructed across its various forests. Alice quickly made her way to the road running through this forest by looking at her phone''s GPS. However, even after waiting for some time, Alice found that nobody was picking up her order.


    "I guess that''s normal. Demon King City is basically a forbidden zone in the demon realm. It''s only normal that nobody is willing to go there..."


    Alice frowned when she saw the unchanging interface disyed on her phone. Although she contemted walking to Demon King City, she quickly dismissed her thoughts. The city was too far away, and walking would take her three whole days. If she had been as ignorant as she had been when she first arrived at this otherworld, she might''ve bitten the bullet and walked the journey. However, now that she knew that this world had convenient transportation, there was no way she''d be willing to torture herself and walk for three days.


    Just when Alice was considering visiting the nearby city to buy a bicycle, the words "Order epted" suddenly appeared on her phone''s screen, surprising her. It turned out that someone was willing to make the trip to Demon King City. Immediately, she took a closer look at the app interface and found her driver''s name situated on the upper left corner of the screen.


    "Heris... So it''s a female driver."


    Alice couldn''t help but scratch her head in distress when she saw the disyed driver information. This was because she suddenly felt that her driver was somewhat unreliable.


    "Twenty years old... Is this fellow really alright?"

 Chapter 28: I’ll Turn Even God Into Garbage

    Chapter 28: I��ll Turn Even God Into Garbage


    Alice didn''t have to wait for long before a small car drove up to her along the road. Initially, Alice thought that whoever had taken up her order to journey to Demon King City would be a ruthless character. However, when she saw the approaching car''s appearance, she couldn''t help but revise her thoughts.


    The approaching car had a girlish appearance, and its shape resembled a Beetle from Earth. The car was painted light-blue in color, and it even had animal stickers covering it. If it wasn''t for the order confirmation disyed on her phone, Alice would''ve thought that this car and its owner might be visiting the forest for an outing.


    While Alice was in a daze, the blue Beetle smoothly stopped in front of her. The smuggling team had specifically chosen this forest as their drop-off point because of its rtively remote location. Hence, Alice was the only person standing by the road, and the car''s driver quickly determined her to be the client. Then, after the car came to a full stop, the driver''s door opened, and a young woman stepped out of the car and greeted Alice, "Hello~ Are you the customer who''s going to Demon King City?"


    Alice took a look at the courageous warrior who dared to take on the challenge of visiting the dangerous Demon King City. It went without saying that the driver was a demon. However, unlike Bifrons, this demoness demon didn''t have anything. Instead, she had a sleek, ck tail that ended in a heart-shaped tip. Fortunately for Alice, the fake demon horns she wore had seemingly fooled the demoness, the other party not suspecting her to be a human at all.


    Strictly speaking, apart from the strange organs they''ve grown to cope with the polluted environment, demons didn''t look all that different from humans. Based on this point, it might not be far-fetched to say that the humans and demons of this world had evolved from the same species during prehistoric times.


    "Yes, that''s me," Alice answered.


    Alice carried a backpack with her, so she looked very much like a traveler. Although her age was on the younger side, it shouldn''t be a problem. The sympathy demons held for the weak was entirely dependent on their mood. If they were in a good mood, they might not mind helping a weakling. If they were in a bad mood, though, they would utterly ignore weaklings.


    Hence, Alice wasn''t too worried that the demon in front of her would get nosy and start asking a bunch of questions. After all, her current image was the standard of a weak person. Unless she came across a lolicon demon, her existence would be as uninteresting as a rock on the roadside to demons.


    Unfortunately, Alice''s expectations were a little off when it came to the silver-haired demoness named Heris. The next moment, Heris''s eyes glowed in excitement as she reached out to pinch Alice''s cheeks. Then, she let out a squeal of joy as she said, "Wow, how cute! You look like a doll! Are you out here traveling by yourself? Where are your family members? Did they note with you?"


    "..."


    Alice had forgotten that while demons showed little sympathy for the weak, they also had considerably arbitrary personalities. Pinching a stranger''s cheeks out of the blue might be considered rude in human society, but it was normal in demon society. After all, this was an act of the strong bullying the weak in a certain sense. Not to mention, Heris wasn''t bullying Alice. She was merely pinching Alice''s cheeks and praising her. So, it naturally wasn''t something to make a fuss about.


    However, that didn''t mean Alice would just allow Heris to do whatever she wanted. After pping away the hands pinching her cheeks, Alice red at Heris and grumpily said, "That''s none of your business. You just need to take me to Demon King City."


    "Okay, okay, okay~ No problem~"


    Heris raised her hands in submission and giggled with a smile. Her silver hair paired with her slightly tanned skin gave her the look of a standard gyaru. However, the fact that Heris managed to get a tan in a ce that only received subdued sunlight showed that she was a talent in a certain sense.


    "At least tell me your name. You should''ve already seen my name on the app. My name is Heris, Heris Agarez. A university student. I asionally pick up some ride-sharing jobs to earn living expenses."


    "My name is Alice," Alice reluctantly replied. She could tell that if she refused to answer, the other party would probably continue pestering her until she did. However, she honestly didn''t know how to interact with this carefree gyaru, so she briefly satisfied the other party''s curiosity and got into the back seat of the carShe dared not sit in the passenger seat as Heris would certainly bug her incessantly. If she took the back seat, it would create a minor inconvenience for Heris tomunicate with her.


    "Alice, is it? That''s a good name. It sounds like you stepped out of a fairy tale," Heris said,ughing happily. After seeing Alice getting into the car, she quickly returned to the driver''s seat as well. Then, she added, "If it wasn''t for theck of wings on your back, I would''ve thought you were an angel."


    Alice was startled by Heris''sment. She even thought that Heris had seen through her disguise for a moment. However, she immediately rxed when she looked at the rear-view mirror and saw that the demoness was still wearing the same ignorant smile. However, when she recalled what Heris just said, she couldn''t help but grow curious and asked, "Do angels exist in this world?"


    "Huh? You don''t know?" Heris asked in a surprised tone. While skillfully handling the Beetle, she exined, "Angels are the subordinate of gods. When the Heroes and Demon Kings of past generations fought, angels would often appear to help keep the Four Heavenly Kings busy so that the Hero could focus on fighting the Demon King. Although angels aren''t anything good from the perspective of demons, angels are very beautiful creatures, ording to historical records. Meanwhile, Alice is as cute and beautiful as an angel."


    Alice found Heris''s exnation to be reasonable. From what she had learned about this world so far, Heroes were chosen by gods. And since gods existed, it wasn''t surprising for angels to exist as well.


    After thinking up to this point, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if her right hand''s ability had anything to do with this world''s gods. And if there wasn''t, she wondered if her right hand could turn gods into garbage... Though, if she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, she would first have to knock a god unconscious since her ability only worked on inanimate and unconscious objects. However, if she had the strength to knock a god unconscious, it wouldn''t really matter whether she could turn a god into garbage.


    After silence enveloped the car for a short moment, Heris''s mouth started growing restless again as she asked, "By the way, what do you n on doing at Demon King City, Alice? Don''t tell me you''re trying toplete thatmission pinned on the Mercenary Union''s homepage? Unless you have the legendary Demon King''s Power, you won''t be able to destroy that crystal. Even the Four Heavenly Kings can''t destroy it. It''s best if you don''t try, Alice."


    "That''s none of your business," Alice said, frowning. Heris''s incessant yapping was starting to give her a headache. ording to the ride-sharing app, it would take over half a day of continuous driving for them to reach Demon King City, and she couldn''t help but worry that Heris would be trying to talk to her throughout the entire trip.


    "Seeing as you don''t even know about the existence of angels, you probably don''t know how dangerous Demon King City is, right?" Heris suddenly said with a smile. "For example, did you bring anti-radiation magic stones?"


    Alice was suddenly rendered speechless. She indeed hadn''t brought along such an item. Of course, she also knew that the ck crystal in Demon King City emitted dangerous radiation. This was something everyone living in the demon realm knew about. Alice had also found information on this topic through the demon realm''s inte.


    However, Alice''s idea was that she would be fine so long as she held a pair of panties in her right hand. Even if the panties didn''t provide radiation nullification effects, the massive boost to Mana should be more than sufficient to repel any irradiated mana near her.


    "You didn''t, right?" Heris''s smile deepened. "But it''s fine. When I saw your order, I brought a few anti-radiation magic stones with me just in case. If you let me pinch your cheeks a few times afterward, I''ll give them to you, Alice."


    At this point, Alice finally understood that despite having the appearance of a gyaru, Heris was, in reality, just an ordinary girl who liked cute things. Meanwhile, her appearance just so happened to be in the demoness''s strike zone.

 Chapter 29: Teleportation Phenomenon Unique to Murder Mysteries

    Chapter 29: Teleportation Phenomenon Unique to Murder Mysteries


    The appearance of Demon King City was very much in line with Alice''s imagination.


    The city walls cked by the Demon King''s Power were tall and majestic, giving the city the appearance of a fortress. The irradiated mana leaking from the city dyed the surrounding area into a darkish brown, and not a single de of grass could be seen in the affected area. Simply put, the city gave off the feeling of "Do Not Approach."


    "Demon King City is just ahead. How about it? Do you still want to go there?"


    Typically, the drivers hailed using the ride-sharing application would leave once they dropped off their clients at the destination. This was especially true when the destination in question was a dangerous ce like Demon King City. However, Heris remained in ce as she watched Alice standing at the edge of the radiation zone. Then, revealing a yful smile, Heris said, "It still isn''t toote to turn back now. I can send you back for free so long as you let me hug you once."


    They had set off on their journey to Demon King City in the early morning, and it was evening now. Meanwhile, Heris had not rested her mouth even for a moment throughout this entire journey. Moreover, most of the things that came out of her mouth were words of harassment. Hence, Alice had already be ustomed to the demoness''s harassment, and she could ignore light harassment such as the teasing words Heris just said.


    After ignoring Heris, Alice took out the magic stones the demoness gave her. These magic stones were colored translucent cubes. Each of these cubes had engravings on two sides, with one side showing a QR code and the other side listing product information such as the date of manufacture and the expiration date...


    The method of use was simple. So long as one crushed the magic stones, the mana contained within them would automatically create a protective film that covered the user and protected the user from radiation. Of course, the film''s defensive properties were limited, protecting the user from radiation only to a certain extent.


    However, Alice didn''t mind this limitation. So long as she entered the city and got out of Heris''s sight, she could take out a pair of panties immediately. The mana in this world influenced each other. Once the amount of mana Alice radiated increased to a certain extent, the effects the irradiated mana would have on her would disappear. In fact, there should be many powerhouses among the demons who could also ignore the radiation in Demon King City. Only, none of them could destroy the ck crystal in the middle of the city.


    "Alright, then. It seems I won''t get to chat with you anymore today," Heris said, sighing when she saw that Alice had already squeezed and shattered an anti-radiation magic stone. Then, she waved her phone at Alice and smiled, saying, "Make sure to call me once youe out~"


    "I''ll think about it."


    Previously, inside the car, Alice could not withstand Heris''s incessant coaxing and pestering, so she ended up exchanging phone numbers with the demoness. However, Alice didn''t think it would be a huge problem since Heris wouldn''t be able to contact her anymore once she returned to the human realm. Inparison, she could contact Heris whenever she wanted by virtue of her right hand.


    As a side note, Alice had shattered the anti-radiation magic stone with her left hand. If she held the magic stone in her right hand, the item would be a Garbage-quality "Useless Stone" that didn''t provide any additional effects. Hence, only by shattering the magic stone with her left hand could she activate the protective film.


    An iron fence had been erected around Demon King City''s radiation zone. However, due to the city''s unique nature, nobody was stationed to guard it, so the iron fence was nothing but a decoration. Holding the unconscious Milu Rabbit by the ears, Alice relied on the Strength +2 bonus to hop over the fence. Then, she entered the radiation zone under Heris''s gaze.


    Sure enough, after crossing the fence, Alice immediately felt a sense of difort spreading through her body. Although the magic stone had allowed her to avoid experiencing the full effects of the irradiated mana, the irradiated mana still affected her body to a certain extent. Moreover, Alice could sense that the protective film covering her body was growing weaker by the second. After only a minute had gone by, the protective film was already showing signs of faltering.


    <em>Isn''t this magic stone a little too weak? No wonder why my right hand deemed it as a useless stone even though it has mana.</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but be dumbfounded by this situation. She had previously wondered why the magic stones were rated as Garbage even though they carried mana within them. Now, though, she realized that it was probably because the amount of mana they held couldn''t evenpete with the mana the Milu Rabbit held.


    Afterward, Alice turned around and looked behind her. When she saw she had already walked out of Heris''s sight, she took out the remaining magic stones in her pocket and crushed them against the Milu Rabbit''s body.


    Immediately, severalyers of protective film enveloped the Milu Rabbit. The magic stones were originally designed with the body of demons in mind. When used on a small animal like the Milu Rabbit, the protective films created were thicker and stronger than usual. Not to mention, Alice had used all eight of her remaining magic stones on the Milu Rabbit. This way, the Milu Rabbit shouldn''t have to worry about the irradiated mana affecting it for at least an hour.


    As for Alice herself, she inserted her hand into the small pouch hanging around her waist and took out a pair of ck panties. Immediately afterward, dark mist oozed out of Alice''s right hand and enveloped her entire right arm. Then, boundless mana gradually emerged from Alice''s body and stopped the irradiated mana from approaching Alice.


    [Weapon: Soft ck Lace Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +3000, Speed +3000, Mind +7000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Destruction Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can crumble the target''s soul.)]


    Just like Alice had expected, the massive boost to her mana pool had allowed her to be immune to the irradiated mana''s effects. The only problem Alice faced now was the ck mist that kept on oozing out of her right hand. At this rate, the ck mist would envelop the entire Demon King City within the hour.


    Although Alice wished to leave the mark of a Demon King here, she didn''t wish for others to find out that she was pretending to be the Demon King too quickly. Hence, she promptly started running for the castle situated in the middle of the city.


    Alice''s n was to shatter the ck crystal and leave a trace to tell the demons that the Demon King had once appeared here. Although the area around Demon King City was currently a no-man''snd, it was stillnd with an owner. The businessmen who bought this ce would asionally return to check the radiation levels from time to time. If these businessmen find out that someone had broken the ck crystal, they would definitely spread the news of the Demon King''s birth, letting everyone in the demon realm know about it.


    Once that happened, the demons would shift their attention into locating the Demon King, and Alice would be able to live a much safer life in the human realm as the Hero.


    With such thoughts in mind, Alice finally arrived at the entrance of Demon King City''s castle. Even though the gigantic doors at the entrance looked very heavy, Alice easily pushed them apart with her bare hands. Then, she was immediately greeted by the sight of a gigantic ck crystal situated in the middle of the main hall.


    ...and Heris standing in front of the crystal.

 Chapter 30: Pitiful Milu Rabbit

    Chapter 30: Pitiful Milu Rabbit


    Alice was given a fright. She clearly remembered that she hadn''t seen Heris during her run to the castle, so she never expected Heris to appear inside the castle ahead of her. Moreover, the demoness was even standing in front of the ck crystal.


    Subconsciously, Alice stuffed the ck panties in her hand back into her pouch. After all, she and Heris could already be considered acquaintances by now. It would hurt her image if the other party caught her holding onto a pair of panties. Although the ck mist gave off an oppressive feeling, the mist was also a little translucent. Hence, if Heris had good eyesight, it was still possible for her to see Alice holding onto a pair of panties in her hand.


    "You''re finally here, Alice."


    Heris, who stood with her back facing Alice, turned around, a subtle smile appearing on her face as her eyes locked onto Alice. Then, she focused her gaze on Alice''s right hand. Although Alice had already returned the ck panties into the pouch, the ck mist had yet to dissipatepletely; there were still some traces of it stuck to Alice''s hand. "Is that your Demon King''s Power? It is indeed outside of my expectations that you would be the Demon King."


    "Why are you here?" Alice frowned, her instincts telling her that something was amiss. Because of this feeling, she didn''tpletely retract her hand from the pouch. Instead, she left it hanging by the pouch''s mouth so that she could retrieve the panties inside at any time. "Didn''t you say you wouldn''t being with me?"


    "I suddenly thought of something, so I decided to follow you," Heris said, her voice sounding so calm that it unnerved Alice. After all, while they were in the car, Heris had continuously harassed her like a hoodlum. Yet, now, she was behaving so properly. This contrast in behavior caused Alice to feel uneasy. Then, Heris continued, "Speaking of which, since you are the new Demon King, Alice, have you heard about the previous generation''s Demon King?"


    "No. I looked it up on the inte, but there isn''t much information on the previous generation''s Demon King and Hero," Alice said, shaking her head. Alice hadn''t just been enduring Heris''s harassment during the drive here. She also did some research on the demon realm during this period. Naturally, she had searched for information on past Demon Kings as well.


    Unfortunately, information rted to Demon Kings was surprisingly scarce, and even the information on the most recent few Demon Kings could only be treated as legends and not facts. Hence, apart from knowing that the demon realm had seen the birth of over a dozen Demon Kings thus far, Alice didn''t manage to find any particrly useful information.


    "That''s right. Then, do you know why information on Demon Kings is so scarce?" Heris asked with a smile. Then, without waiting for Alice to answer, the demoness continued, "That''s because the candidates the Demon King''s Power chooses will always be an individual bearing hatred towards humans. These selected candidates would''ve experienced a life full of difficulties before they were selected. Hence, even after bing the Demon King, these people will not open their hearts to the demons. More often than not, Demon Kings would only treat the demon race as a tool.


    "Also, why, out of more than a dozen generations of Demon Kings, did only the Third Demon King ever seed in upying the human realm? That is because only the Third Demon King was the only Demon King to have ever sessfully befriended the Four Heavenly Kings and united the demon race."


    Her smile widening, Heris continued, "The pitiful demons must''ve never expected that the Demon Kings, whom they have ced all their hopes on to help them upy the human realm and better their lives, didn''t care about their wishes at all. Instead, they only ever wanted to gain overwhelming power and enjoy a life of luxury."


    "How do you know all these things?" Alice gradually reached into her pouch when she saw Heris''s smile, ready to take out a pair of panties andunch an attack at any time. "There is no way these things are recorded on the inte, right?"


    "Indeed. In that case, let me reintroduce myself first," Heris said, chuckling. Then, she slowly raised a hand and continued, "I am Heris Aregas, a member of the Fear Kingdom''s royal family and the daughter of the Heavenly King of Fire man. You should understand after hearing this, right?"


    As soon as Heris finished speaking, a silver streak of light suddenly shot out of her, instantly crossed the distance between her and Alice, and cut the string that tied Alice''s pouch. The resulting impact of the silver light had also sent the pouch flying far away, causing Alice to lose the opportunity to grab a pair of panties.


    "Did you think I wouldn''t notice you reaching for that pouch?" Heris asked with a scornful smile on her face. "That pouch should be holding something that lets you temporarily summon your Demon King''s Power, right? That exins a lot. After all, you should''ve only be the new Demon King recently; there''s no way you managed to control the Demon King''s Power so quickly. You must''ve found a tool that lets you temporarily wield the Demon King''s Power. In other words, so long as I get rid of that item in your pouch, you wouldn''t be able to put up any resistance."


    Alice frowned. Then, she turned around to look at the pouch and let out a silent sigh of relief. Fortunately, the pouch''s contents didn''t spill out when Heris sent the pouch flying, so she wouldn''t have to worry about the demoness seeing the embarrassing things inside just yet.


    "You must''ve used those magic stones I gave you when you came in, right?" Looking at Alice, Heris slowly said, "How pitiful of you to trust me so easily. I nted a hidden mechanism in those magic stones. So long as you used those magic stones, that hidden mechanism will nt a mana seed within you."


    After saying so, Heris raised her hand again before continuing, "I can sense that you''ve used up all of those magic stones already. In other words, the effects of these mana seeds will bepounded on your body! Now..."


    Letting her words trail off for a moment, Heris swung down her hand and passionatelymanded, "Let me see you crawl under this power!"


    Alice suddenly felt her body growing heavier. She felt as if someone had ced a few heavy objects on her body, causing her movements to be incredibly sluggish. Immediately, Alice understood that the mana seeds Heris mentioned functioned to increase the gravity acting on her body.


    However, before Alice could analyze the situation any further, the rope tying the Milu Rabbit to her waist suddenly snapped, and the Milu Rabbit fell to the floor like a heavy dumbbell. There was even a loud thud when the rabbit''s body hit the hard ground.


    "..."


    "..."


    The scene suddenly turned awkward. Heris couldn''t help but be stunned when she looked at the Milu Rabbit held down by her gravity magic. She never expected Alice to use nearly all of the magic stones she provided on the Milu Rabbit.

 Chapter 31: Life Is Full of Ups and Downs

    Chapter 31: Life Is Full of Ups and Downs


    "Youused all of the anti-radiation magic stones on a Milu Rabbit???"


    Heris''s voice was filled with a sense of disbelief. The Milu Rabbit was a creaturemonly found in both the human realm and the demon realm. It was a rtivelymon species among the mammaliangomorphs, and members of the species would typically hold small traces of mana in their bodies.


    However, as the amount was tiny, the Milu Rabbits couldn''t unleash their mana for offensive or defensive purposes. Instead, the only purpose their mana served was to make their meat more tender and delectable. It was also for this reason that people had even created farms specialized in raising Milu Rabbits. Hence, one could say that Milu Rabbits were staple foods for both humans and demons.


    Yet, Alice had wasted a bunch of magic stones just to protect one of these ubiquitous Milu Rabbits. Her actions were simply iprehensible. It was akin to a person giving their only hazmat suit to a chicken when entering a radiation zone.


    "I remember that you only used one magic stone on yourself when entering the radiation zone... Its effects should''ve long since disappeared before you reached here, so how can you still move here normally?"


    "Who knows? Maybe it''s the He That''s none of your business, isn''t it?" Alice said, shrugging. She had very nearly said that it was the "Hero''s privilege" out of habit. Fortunately, though, she managed to correct herself in time.


    The reason why Alice could move about normally in the radiation zone was naturally because she had been holding onto a pair of panties previously. The bonus of 7,000 points in her Control stat allowed her to effortlessly assimte her mana with the crumbling protective film''s mana and strengthen the protective film. Now, even though she was no longer holding any panties in her right hand, the protective film could still ensure her safety in the radiation zone for the next 10 to 15 days.


    "Forget it. I never expected this little trick to work against you, to begin with, since you are also a Demon King," Heris said, frowning as she stared at Alice with a look of impatience. Then, she waved her right hand, instantly summoning several magic arrays around the hall. Following this, severalrge crystals slowly emerged from these magic arrays. "Since you used the magic stones I gave you on the Milu Rabbit, I''ll use this method to imprison you instead."


    The next moment, Alice felt the invisible force pressing down on her body vanishing, probably because Heris had dismissed the gravity magic hidden in the magic stone''s mana. However, immediately afterward, an even stronger gravity magic took effect on her limbs and back, instantly overwhelming her body''s resistance and causing her to crumble onto the cold hard ground. The sudden impact against the floor caused Alice''s entire body to ache in pain, and even her chin had started bleeding.


    <em>Another magic rted to gravity?</em>


    Alice concluded that the demoness should be proficient at gravity magic. Whether it was the magic induced in the magic stones or the magic activated with the help of those crystals, both were rted to gravity. However, unlike the first gravity magic that acted on her entire body, the second one seemed to be acting on five parts of her body, specifically her four limbs and her back.


    Fortunately, Alice could still move her neck, albeit barely. Then, when she lifted her head and looked around, she found that there were five crystals situated around the hall, just as she expected. The number of crystals coincided with the number of gravity sources acting on her body.


    Going by this thought, there should be a high possibility that destroying these five crystals would remove the gravity magic acting on her body. The only problem now was that Alice couldn''t even move her limbs. Without a weapon in her right hand, her overall parameters were even worse than the average human.


    <em>I shouldn''t have put away the panties just now...</em>


    Alice once more realized that she was taking this world too lightly. However, this couldn''t be helped, either. She had only been living in this world for a short period, so she stillcked a thorough understanding of the dangers found in this world. After interacting with Heris for the past twelve hours, she inevitably let her guard down. Now that the pouch holding her arsenal of panties had been sent flying to a distance and her limbs were rendered immobile, let alone retrieving the pouch, she couldn''t even take off the panties she was wearing.


    Meanwhile, after making sure that she had immobilized Alice, Heris revealed a smile and said, "It seems you are still far from being able to normally use your Demon King''s Power. And here I thought you might be a hindrance to my ns, but it looks like I overestimated you."


    "You..." Struggling to keep her head raised, Alice looked at Heris and said, "You''re not Heris, right?"


    "Huh?" Alice''s words stunned Heris. However, when Heris looked at Alice''s expression, she found that the blonde girl didn''t seem to be trying to pull a fast one on her. It seemed that Alice truly believed that she wasn''t the real Heris. Frowning, Heris pondered for a moment before asking in a low voice, "How could you tell?"


    "How should I put it... Even though you im to be the daughter of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, making it seem reasonable for you to know about the information on the past Demon Kings, your exnation on the Demon Kings isn''t from the Four Heavenly Kings'' perspective."


    Looking at Heris, or more specifically, the person upying Heris''s body, Alice said, "Even if you are the daughter of one of the current Four Heavenly Kings, your understanding of Demon Kings should still be limited. Yet, you seem to understand Demon Kings very well. Not only did you speak of the Demon Kings'' opinion of the demon race from the Demon Kings'' perspective, but you are also knowledgeable regarding the Demon King''s Power.


    "If you are the daughter of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, then you should be exining things from the Four Heavenly Kings'' perspective instead. You should be expressing dislike toward the Demon Kings who don''t carry out their responsibilities. Yet, you speak from the Demon Kings'' perspective and express disdain toward the demon race... This conflicts with your identity."


    "..."


    Heris continued staring at Alice without saying a word.


    "Also, these magic crystals you summoned; you prepared them in advance, didn''t you? Even though the gravity magic they release is powerful, they are far from enough to imprison a Demon King. If the ''n'' you speak of is to imprison the next generation''s Demon King, then it is a terrible one," Alice said. Then, after a brief pause, Alice continued, "So, the target of your so-called n shouldn''t be me, right? My appearance must be aplete ident for you, and your real target shouldn''t be me, but Heris instead."


    "How perceptive of you. Although these are all conjectures, you, unfortunately, guessed right," "Heris" said, having no intention of making up excuses to counter Alice''s conjectures. To be precise, he didn''t find the need to do so since he didn''t think Alice could resist him.


    After saying so, Heris''s body limply copsed to the ground. Her eyes were closed as well, appearing to have lost consciousness. Then, the vague silhouette of a middle-aged man slowly formed on top of Heris.


    "This little fellow named Heris is indeed the daughter of one of the Four Heavenly Kings. I can look through her memories when I am attached to her body. But looking is, after all, different from assimtion. It is still a little too difficult for me to y the role of a woman," the man, who was in a soul-like state, said.


    Alice breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw this development. It was fortunate that Heris wasn''t her enemy. Although she was confident in her panties, it was still a little too exciting for her to get involved with the Four Heavenly Kings so shortly after arriving in the demon realm.


    "I am Grant Morax, the previous generation''s Demon King," the middle-aged man said with a twisted smile, interrupting Alice''s thoughts. "So, I am your senior, little fellow."


    "..."

 Chapter 32: The Reason Why Antagonists Are So Talkative

    Chapter 32: The Reason Why Antagonists Are So Talkative


    Grant, the previous generation''s Demon King, currently appeared to be in a state where only his soul existed. Although he had parted with Heris''s body, his feet remained inside Heris''s body.


    "You are right in that I did not expect this generation''s Demon King to have appeared alreadybut no matter. So long as I kill you, nobody will find out that the new Demon King has already appeared," Grant said.


    However, Alice didn''t show much reaction even when she heard that Grant intended to kill her. If the other party truly intended to kill her, he would''ve done so already. After all, she was currently pinned down by his powerful gravity magic and could put up no resistance whatsoever. Even an ordinary person could just walk up to her and choke her to death with their bare hands right now. Yet, Grant did not kill her.


    "You have nothing but your soul left, yet you are still thinking of making trouble?"


    "It is because I have nothing but my soul that I prepared all of these things," Grant said, grinning. As he spoke, the rity of his hazy body gradually increased. Now, it was even possible to see the expressions on his face. Then, pointing at the ck crystal behind him, Grant continued, "Who do you think left this radioactive crystal here? Of course, it is I, the previous generation''s Demon King.


    I created this crystal to drive away ordinary demons and house my soul. Then, once I attached my soul with the crystll I needed to do was wait for a worthy prey to appear."


    "You hid your soul inside that crystal?" Alice was stunned. "You mean Heris only got possessed because she approached Demon King City?"


    "That''s right. I already sensed your presence when you two were approaching the city. Although you two haven''t entered the radiation zone yet at the time, my possession ability extends far beyond the radiation zone. Hence, I had already upied this girl''s body long before you even realized it," Grant said, seemingly ted to exin these things to Alice.


    Then, Grant frowned and continued, "After possessing her body, I quickly read her memories and found out the purpose of your visit. Then, to prevent you from bing a hindrance, I nted gravity magic into those anti-radiation magic stones in preparation to contain you. But who knew you would use all those magic stones on a mere Milu Rabbit"


    Alice grew a little embarrassed when she heard Grant''s words. However, it didn''t matter even if she unintentionally foiled the former Demon King''s initial trap. Grant still ended up imprisoning her with even stronger gravity magic. Though, when Alice heard that Heris had only be possessed when they were approaching Demon King City, she couldn''t help but sigh in relief. After all, if Grant had possessed Heris''s body since the beginning, it would mean that an old man had been taking advantage of Alice all this time.


    "This little girl named Heris has the blood of one of the Four Heavenly Kings. She has a considerable reserve of mana in her body, and it just so happens that I can use it to restore my soul... As long as I restore my soul to a certain degree, it can start interfering with reality, and I will have more ways to recreate my body."


    Grant was like a talkaholic. He revealed his entire n even though Alice didn''t ask him about it. In this respect, he was more viinous than any of the viins described in the novels Alice had read.


    "Although I won''t regain the Demon King''s Power even if I recreate my body, it doesn''t matter. The foundations of my soul remain. So long as I fully restore my soul, I can return to my peak strength before I died. At that time, I will still have absolute dominance over the demon realm."


    Indeed. As a former Demon King, Grant undoubtedly had strength surpassing the Four Heavenly Kings when he was still alive. Even if he would have difficulty improving himself without the Demon King''s Power''s support, so long as he managed to restore his strength, he could still reign over the demon realm with an iron fist.


    However, Grant had also revealed another important piece of information.


    <em>He can start interfering with reality once he restores his soul to a certain degree? Does that mean he can''t interfere with reality right now?</em>


    After carefully thinking about it, Alice found that it was indeed the case. Grant had not personally cast any of the gravity magic he had used thus far. Instead, he relied on mediums such as the anti-radiation magic stones and the five crystals in the main hall.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice realized that Grant wasn''t leaving her alive because he didn''t wish to kill her immediately. Instead, he was doing so because hecked the means to kill her right now.


    "Why are you telling me all these?" Alice said before resting her chin on the ground. Her neck had started feeling a little sore after keeping her head up all this time. "Shouldn''t these ns be important secrets to you?"


    "I can''t help it. I have been staying in this ck crystal by myself for almost three hundred years now. I''m already dying of boredom."


    Upon hearing Alice''s words, Grant deeply sighed like a frustrated middle-aged office worker. Then, he beganining, "Do you know how much of a torture it is to be alone in a dark space for hundreds of years? I nearly went insane after all these years! I could get whatever I wanted when I was the Demon King, yet I had to stay stuck in this ce for three hundred years all by myself! Now that I finally have the chance to speak to someone, what''s wrong with talking a little?!"


    After saying so, Grant took a deep breath to calm himself. Then, he coldly looked at Alice and said, "Also, you''ll be dyingter anyway. So what if I tell you my ns now?"


    "That makes sense. It is true that I don''t have any means of resistance right now."


    After pondering for a moment, Alice finally understood why Grant was so talkative. It wasn''t because the former Demon King had a talkative personality, but rather because he had grown a little bored after being alone for a long time. So, he couldn''t wait to find topics to talk about. Since that was the case, Alice decided to go along with the flow and ask a few more questions. At the same time, she could also use this time to think of a solution for her current predicament.


    "You say that your soul has been residing in that ck crystal for three hundred years. Does that mean the previous generation''s Hero didn''t finish you offpletely?"


    "Hmph, the previous generation''s Hero was a little girl just like you. That girl didn''t have any means to destroy my soul, so she sealed me using the taboo War God''s Lock instead," Grant said with a contemptuous smile.


    "However, War God''s Lock is a spell targeted towards the flesh. So, when my physical body lost its vitality and died, the taboo''s effects also disappeared, and my soul gained its freedom. I have always been a prudent person as well. Before departing for my decisive battle with the Hero, I had already arranged these things in Demon King City should I ever lose the fight."


    "I see. So your soul didn''t get extinguished." Alice nodded. Then, she looked at the unconscious Heris, who currently wore a paleplexion, and said, "ording to your previous statement, Heris''s mana should be more than enough for you to resurrect yourself. I remember hearing that one of the Four Heavenly Kings previously visited this ce, so why didn''t you try to possess his body?"


    "A person with too much mana is no good, either. My soul is in a rtively weak state. If I tried to possess that guy''s body, it might backfire on me instead. So, I needed to wait for someone with a lot of mana, but not too much, just enough for me to restore my soul," Grant said.


    Looking down at Heris, Grant continued, "As a side note, you probably won''t be able to guess why this fellow would be willing toe all the way to Demon King City. Apparently, her household has a diviner, and this diviner divined that Demon King City would wee the birth of the Demon King today. But divination magicmost people just treat it as entertainment. So, nobody else in her household paid any attention to the divination. Only this little fellow believed it and came running to Demon King City to witness the Demon King''s birth."


    After saying so, Grant couldn''t help but chuckle.


    "But this divination might not be wrong, either. So long as I absorb this girl''s mana and restore my soul, a Demon King would indeed be born. Or maybe it''d be more appropriate to say that a Demon King would be resurrected?"


    "Tsk, going by that logic, if I get rid of you today, that divination would still be correct," Alice said. When she thought about how Grant had mistaken her as the new Demon King, she couldn''t help but voice a retort.


    "Yes. If you can get rid of me, you will be the next Demon King and fulfill this divination as well," Grant said. Then, he looked down at Alice and continued, "But do you have a way out of your current predicament?"

 Chapter 33: Outstanding Achievers Deserve a Name

    Chapter 33: Outstanding Achievers Deserve a Name


    Alice indeedcked the means to resist Grant for the time being, so she could only watch as the former Demon King absorbed Heris''s mana. Fortunately, Grant was only taking Heris''s mana instead of outright killing her. At worst, she would enter an exhausted state for a long period before making a full recovery.


    As Grant absorbed more of Heris''s mana, the rity of his soul also continued increasing. Eventually, Grant''s soul had even parted with Heris''s bodypletely and looked no different than a living person. Only, if one paid close attention, one could still see the objects located directly behind Grant''s soul. Right now, his soul looked like it had 90% opacity.


    "Phew... The child of one of the Four Heavenly King certainly has a lot of mana. In my current state, I should be able to interfere with reality to a certain extent."


    Grant''s soul hovered in the air, separated from Heris''s body. Unlike Bifrons and Heris, the two demons Alice had met thus far, Grant did not possess demon horns, bat wings, or a ck tail. Based on this fact, Zauna''s statement that Demon Kings originated from humans might be true.


    "I have no use for this fellow anymore, so I''ll return her to you," Grant said before kicking Heris''s body and sending her flying and falling right beside Alice. Just like Grant stated, his soul could now interfere with reality. "Although you two have only known each other for a short period, I''ll kill you two together to save you from a lonely death."


    The corners of Alice''s eyes twitched when she heard Grant''s words. Then, she nced at the demoness beside her.


    After having almost all of her mana drained, Heris now wore a paleplexion, cold sweat covering her face. Moreover, seeing as she remained unconscious even after getting kicked and hitting the ground, it was unlikely that she would regain consciousness anytime soon. And even if she did regain consciousness, she wouldn''t be of any threat to the former Demon King unless she rested for a few weeks and recovered her mana.


    "Although I can now touch objects, a soul is still a soul at the end of the day. That girl''s soul has merely patched up the deficiencies in my soul. It is still not enough for me to use my original strength."


    Grant floated toward Alice and Heris and circled them. However, he didn''t kill them immediately. Instead, he slowly floated back to the ck crystal hovering in the middle of the hall. Then, he pressed a hand onto the crystal and said, "Fortunately, I had prepared for this possibility. The mana this thing emits isn''t just radioactive. As this mana originally came from me, I can use it to supplement mycking power... Young Demon King named Alice, look forward to it. In another minute, you will die under the power of the previous generation''s Demon King!"


    Three hundred years of solitary confinement had evidently taken a toll on Grant''s mental state, seeing as he spoke like someone with eighth-grade syndrome. However, considering the culture of this world, Grant might not find his manner of speech strange at all. Even so, Alice sure as hell found it awkward.


    However, now was not the time to be embarrassed. If Alice didn''t think of a way out of this problem quickly, she might die by Grant''s hands. Judging by Grant''s past performances, he should be proficient at gravity magic. Hence, the killing move he prepared would most likely result in Alice being crushed into a meaty pancake, just like how Alice had previously crushed the Boria Wolf King.


    <em>Damn it, I still can''t move at all</em>


    Even when Grant''s soul was at its weakest state, Alice could not break free from the gravity magic holding down her limbs. Now that Grant had restored a significant portion of his soul, Alice naturally had an even lower chance of breaking free from the gravity magic. Hence, she couldn''t help but grow anxious.


    <em>Huh?</em>


    Suddenly, Alice felt something rubbing against her right hand. Turning around, she found that the Milu Rabbit had awakened and wobbled its way to her hand. Even though Grant''s gravity magic had previously sent it plunging to the ground, the Milu Rabbit had long since limatized itself with blunt force trauma. Hence, the minor dizziness it suffered from colliding with the ground didn''t affect it too significantly.


    Meanwhile, when Alice met eyes with the Milu Rabbit, thetter had reacted like usualits hair stood on end, and it immediately turned around and searched for the nearest object to knock itself unconscious again. However, Alice reacted even quicker and grabbed the Milu Rabbit''s long, bushy tail before it could run away.


    At this time, Alice felt a little fortunate that she had chosen to capture a Milu Rabbit, a type of rabbit with a fox''s tail, instead of a normal rabbit that had a short tail. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have been able to catch the rabbit now.


    Even after having its tail caught, the Milu Rabbit still frantically tried to run and find something to bump its head with. Ignoring the Milu Rabbit, Alice lifted her head and looked at Grant.


    Currently, Grant had his back facing Alice. As he was in the midst of absorbing the ck crystal''s mana, he waspletely unaware of the fact that there was a Milu Rabbit frantically trying to run away from Alice. Even if he did notice it though, he would probably see it as nothing more than a meaningless struggle from Alice.


    <em>Fortunately, Grant dismissed his magic after realizing I used most of the magic stones on the Milu Rabbit. Otherwise, the Milu Rabbit would''ve been immobilized right now as well, </em>Alice thought, letting out a silent sigh of relief. Then, she looked at the magic crystals located to her right and pondered. Seeing<em> as these crystals are situated in inconspicuous locations, they shouldn''t be as tough as the radioactive crystal in the center. They might even be very fragile.</em>


    Although Alice''s n carried hints of gambling, she had no choice but to take a gamble right now. The Milu Rabbit''s head could already shatter a thick tree trunk. If her conjecture was correct and these magic crystals sealing her limbs were indeed fragile, then the Milu Rabbit might just be able to smash them.


    <em>The crystal facing my right hand should be responsible for imprisoning my right hand.</em>


    There were five magic crystals in the hall imprisoning her, so Alice chose the one that was most likely to be sealing her right hand. Then, after redirecting the Milu Rabbit toward the crystal in question, she released the Milu Rabbit''s tail and shouted, "Go, Milu Rabbit! I choose you!"


    Immediately after Alice released the Milu rabbit''s tail, the Milu Rabbit charged forward at flying speeds. At this moment, there was nothing but the magic crystal in the Milu Rabbit''s eyes. There was also only one thought in its mind, and that was to ruthlessly ram its head into the ck object in front of it and cleanly lose consciousness.


    <em>Bang!!!</em>


    A crisp sound echoed throughout the castle hall, awakening Grant from his focus. Immediately, he turned toward the source of the sound and found an unconscious Milu Rabbit lying in a corner of the hall with a happy face on its face.


    Meanwhile, situated beside the unconscious Milu Rabbit was one of the five magic crystals Grant had used as a medium to perform gravity magic. At this time, though, visible cracks had formed on the crystal''s surface. Then, a momentter, the entire crystal shattered and scattered all over the floor.

 Chapter 34: A Counterattack That Should Have Been Awesome

    Chapter 34: A Counterattack That Should Have Been Awesome


    "You?!"


    Grant became furious when he saw that the Milu Rabbit had destroyed one of the magic crystals. Immediately, he started walking toward the Milu Rabbit. However, as soon as he took his first step, he seemingly realized something and stopped. Then, he turned to look at Alice.


    Meanwhile, just like Alice had expected, the ck crystal facing her right hand was responsible for casting the gravity magic suppressing her right hand. Meanwhile, as soon as the Milu Rabbit shattered the crystal, Alice could feel the restraints on her hand disappearing. When Alice found that she could lift her right hand again, she revealed a satisfied smile.


    "You seem to be very happy?" Grant narrowed his eyes as he intently stared at Alice''s face, a dangerous expression on his face. He looked like a great white shark that was going to tear its prey to shreds in the next moment. "You merely regained movement in your right hand. Do you honestly think you can defeat me with just one hand?"


    After saying so, Grant lifted his right hand and turned it into the shape of a w. Immediately afterward, ck mist slowly seeped out of his hand, the mist giving off an evil feeling.


    Upon seeing this ck mist, Alice finally understood why Grant would immediately assume her to be the new Demon King when he previously saw the ck mist oozing out of her right hand. Grant had not been merely making a blind guess. Instead, it was because he could exhibit a simr effect when casting magic as a Demon King.


    "Although I haven''t fully absorbed the mana in the crystal, no matter. Without the Demon King''s Power''s support, you feel no different from that Milu Rabbit over there. I can easily turn you into meat paste."


    Grant''s gaze sharpened as he leisurely exined his thoughts. Despite having already decided to take action, he still chose to run his mouth for a moment.


    Seeing this, Alice couldn''t help but pity the former Demon King. The centuries of solitary confinement had truly taken a toll on his mind. However, this situation suited Alice perfectly. The greater Grant''s desire to talk to others, the more chances Alice would have to take action. Then, looking at the ck mist surrounding Grant''s right hand, Alice said, "Although I can only move my right hand...it is more than enough!"


    After saying so, Alice extended her right hand to her back and grabbed her panties. This situation couldn''t be helped. The pouch holding her stockpile of ck panties had been sent flying to a distance. Meanwhile, apart from her right hand, Alice still couldn''t move the rest of her limbs. So, the only "weapon" she could put her hopes on was the panties she wore.


    However, Alice quickly faced an awkward problemshe couldn''t take off her panties. Currently, gravity magic pinned down her entire body against the floor. She also couldn''t move either of her legs. Unless she could extend the length of her arm to the point where she could reach her feet without bending her body, there was no way she could remove her panties.


    Moreover, without the enhancement of a weapon, Alice''s strength was even weaker than the average adult. So, she couldn''t just rip the panties off of her body, either.


    At this point, Alice was feeling a little regretful. After this incident, she swore to buy low-quality panties that she could rip apart even with her meager strength. That way, she could avoid facing such an awkward situation again in the future.


    "...What are you doing?"


    Grant couldn''t help but be puzzled by the situation in front of him. Faced with his gravity magic that could crush her into a human pancake, the action Alice chose to take was to extend her hand under her skirt. This situation was strange no matter how Grant looked at it, and he couldn''t help but freeze for a moment.


    "<em>Cough, cough.</em> Sorry, sorry. A little ident urred."


    Alice was frustrated by this situation as well. After all, she had just ruined what should''ve originally been an awesome counterattack. While counterattacking with a pair of panties was anything but awesome, if one could ignore the fact that her weapon was a pair of panties, the scene should still be a sight to behold.


    Nevertheless, now that Alice couldn''t ce her hopes on her panties, she had no choice but to set her sights on the unconscious Heris. Taking advantage of Grant''s astonishment, Alice extended her hand to Heris and grabbed the demoness''s leg. Immediately afterward, the system evaluation for Heris appeared in Alice''s mind.


    [Weapon: Half-dead Heris]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Speed +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Heris''s effects were even worse than the Mana Depleted Zauna''s effects and the Por Branch That Can Be Found Anywhere''s effects. However, Alice had more or less expected this oue. After all, Grant had already drained most of Heris''s mana.


    However, Alice''s aim wasn''t to utilize the unconscious Heris as a weapon. Immediately, Alice held onto Heris''s leg and dragged the demoness toward herself, making it so that her hand could reach the panties under Heris''s skirt.


    "Thank goodness you''re wearing a skirt, Heris."


    "Enough! I don''t know what shenanigans you''re trying to pull, but I''ve already grown tired of your strange behavior!" Grant bellowed. He finally lost his temper when he saw Alice reaching into Heris''s skirt.


    Following this, Grant raised his right hand, and his mana started radiating outwards. Even though he currently couldn''t exhibit the power he had when he was at his peak, the foundation he had built for himself as a Demon King remained. Hence, the magic he cast this time would no longer be limited to just restricting Alice''s movements.


    "Perish under the power of gra"


    However, before Grant could release his magic, an intense white light suddenly appeared from Alice and Heris''s direction, the light interrupting Grant''s spellcasting. Following this, Alice''s frustrated voice rang out from the blinding white light:


    "You''re a sexy demoness, for heaven''s sake. Why the hell are you wearing such in white underwear... Whatever. Purification de."


    The next moment, Grant''splexion quickly changed when he saw a torrent of light flooding toward him as if the heavens had just doled out divine punishment on him. What horrified Grant even more was that he could sense that this magic wasn''t solely aimed toward physical objects. Instead, it was also capable of causing tremendous damage to souls. When bathed in this holy light, Grant could feel his soul being burnt. His soul that had escaped the hands of the previous generation''s Hero was currently disintegrating bit by bit.


    "What...is this ability?! This isn''t something a Demon King should possess!"


    At this moment, Grant finally realized a problem, and that was the fact that he had unterally deemed Alice to be the new Demon King. He had also ignorantly assumed that Alice was incapable of activating the Demon King''s Power. Hence, she was of no threat toward himself.


    However, Grant now realized that the blonde girl before him wasn''t the Demon King at all. After all, he had never heard of any Demon King being able to use holy magic. Moreover, the magic Alice had cast wasn''t just any ordinary holy magic. Instead, its power was already on the level of taboos.


    Typically, there were only two ways for the average magician to cast a taboo. The first method was to detonate a taboo bomb, while the second method was to gather many magicians and make plenty of preparations beforehand. Only after carrying out preparations for ten to fifteen days would these magicians be able to cast a taboo.


    Yet, now, Alice had effortlessly cast a taboo without any preparations whatsoever. This was something Grant did not expect.


    However, while Grant was indeed surprised by Alice''s ability to cast a taboo on demand, this wasn''t the first time Grant had seen someone carrying out such a feat. After all, when he was at his peak, he could simrly cast taboos in such an effortless manner.


    Indeed. If a person could cast a taboo so quickly and effortlessly, then this person must be a Demon King or Hero at their peak.


    "You''re the Hero?!"


    While bathed in the torrent of light, Grant desperately tried to release the mana he had previously absorbed to counteract the holy magic. It was no exaggeration to say that the predicament he currently faced was even more perilous than the final battle he had fought against the previous generation''s Hero. After all, the previous generation''s Hero could only destroy his physical body and not his soul. However, if he lost this battle, there would be noing back for him anymore.


    "Impossible. Even if you''re the Hero, there is no way you managed to grow so quickly So long as I survive this move"


    Grant was certain that Alice couldn''t cast taboos consecutively. Even if Alice was this generation''s Hero, she should''ve only be the Hero recently. Hence, she shouldn''t be able to cast more than one taboo. So long as he could survive this move, he would have a chance to make aeback.

 Chapter 35: Next Time for Sure (Referring to Giving a Name to the Milu Rabbit)

    Chapter 35: Next Time for Sure (Referring to Giving a Name to the Milu Rabbit)


    The Purification de that had vaporized arge chunk of the Gryffin Forest had failed to instantly destroy Grant. It should be known that Grant was still in a soul state. Moreover, his soul hadn''t even fully recovered its strength. Yet, he still managed to withstand Purification de''s power. Alice couldn''t help but admit that the former Demon King was indeed powerful. Even his soul was a lot stronger than the Boria Wolf King.


    Moreover, apart from Grant, the castle remained intact as well. This was probably because two generations of Demon Kings had strengthened Demon King City, and these Demon Kings had strengthened the city with the knowledge that Heroes and Demon Kings were existences capable of freelyunching taboos.


    "Bastard! My resurrection is just in front of me! How can I die in such a ce?!"


    Grant could sense that his soul was quickly dissipating. If the burning of his soul could be seen with the naked eye, then his soul would be frantically releasing smoke right now.


    Fortunately, although Purification de was a taboo-level spell, it had its limits. It couldn''t remain in effect forever. Amidst Grant''s desperate struggles, Purification de''s light gradually dimmed. Just when Grant''s soul was on the brink of disappearing, the light vanishedpletely, and the castle''s interior reverted to its original state.


    "Hah Hah I''m not dead I''m still alive"


    Grant repeatedly gasped for air. Although his soul didn''t need to breathe, the exhaustion and overdrawn feeling he experienced made him instinctively pant. Purification de''s power was much stronger than he expected. The damage the magic did to his soul was especially severe. When he looked down at his body now, he found that his body had be transparent and blurry again.


    Frowning, Grant thought to himself, <em>Dammit, I spent too much power resisting that spell No matter. I can still interfere with reality, at the very least. I won''t have to rest inside that damned crystal for another few centuries.</em>


    After inspecting his body''s condition, Grant looked up and red at Alice, only to be stunned by what he saw. Before he realized it, Alice had already freed herself from his gravity magic. Now, not only had she stood up already, but she had also picked up the pouch holding unknown objects from the ground.


    "Yo, you survived?"


    Alice waved at Grant, an evil smile appearing on her face as she looked at the former Demon King''s stunned expression.


    "You How did you"


    Grant subconsciously gulped. Then, realizing the crux of the problem, he hurriedly looked around the hall and found that Alice''s Purification de had indeed destroyed the magic crystals sealing Alice''s movements.


    Although Demon King City had indeed been strengthened to a point where it could withstand taboos, the same could not be said for the magic crystals Grant had used as mediums. If even a Milu Rabbit could shatter the magic crystals with its forehead, how could Purification de''s power not destroy them?


    "I initially expected that move to be sufficient to deal with a Demon King. It seems I am still too young. I didn''t think that even a former Demon King''s soul can withstand a Purification de. I''ll have to stock up on a few more weapons in the future."


    Alice sighed. Then, under Grant''s horrified gaze, she slowly reached into her pouch with her right hand and grabbed a pair of ck underwear?


    [Weapon: Soft ck Striped Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Mind +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic);


    Blood Abyss (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a sea of mana that can devour the target''s soul.)]


    As soon as Alice retrieved the ck panties from the pouch, ck mist immediately started leaking out of her right hand. Frightening mana also radiated from Alice''s body, causing Grant to shudder. The mana Alice currently radiated already rivaled what he possessed when he was still at his peak and possessed the Demon King''s Power. Moreover


    "What are you?! This power No, you''re neither the Demon King nor the Hero!!!"


    Grant''s mind was in a mess. No matter how hard he racked his mind, he couldn''t discern Alice''s identity. The move Alice had previously used was a taboo that only the Hero should be capable of using. Yet, as soon as Alice had finished using Purification de, she now started radiating something that resembled the Demon King''s Power.


    However, regardless of whether Alice was the Hero or the Demon King, there was one thing that Grant had figured out at the very least, and that was


    "I see So your poweres from underwear?"


    At this time, Grant finally understood why Alice had previously reached into her skirt. He also understood why she would reach into Heris''s skirt immediately afterward. It turned out that only when she was holding onto panties could she exhibit power rivaling Heroes and Demon Kings who were at their peak.


    Unfortunately, although Grant had figured out the source of Alice''s power, this revtion only created more question marks in his mind.


    "Congrattions, you hit the mark. You can pass with a peace of mind now," Alice kindlyforted Grant''s soul. Then, she activated the ck panties'' skill.


    It couldn''t be helped. Although Alice housed immense mana in her body, she hadn''t learned any spells yet. Her current situation was akin to owning a warehouse of ammunition but not having any guns to use this ammunition. Hence, she had no choice but to utilize the skill that came with the panties.


    Instantly, the ck striped panties flew out of Alice''s hand and transformed into blood-red mana that rained down on Grant''s soul like a waterfall. Grant had already been severely weakened by Purification de previously, so he couldn''t put up any resistance against Alice''s Blood Abyss. He could only watch as the blood-red mana devoured his soul.


    "Phew. That should do it."


    Alice could finally breathe out a sigh of relief.


    Apart from destroying Grant''s soul, the blood-red mana had also cracked the walls that were previously impervious to Purification de''s mana. It would seem that even a building strengthened by two Demon Kings was incapable of enduring the attacks of two consecutive taboos.


    Fortunately, the power of both taboos was perfectly isted to Alice''s front. Everything behind Alice did not suffer any damage from the powerful magic. Hence, the unconscious Milu Rabbit and Heris did not be coteral damage.


    "You''ve made a huge contribution this time, Milu Rabbit." Without waiting for the blood-red mana to dissipate, Alice turned around and approached the Milu Rabbit. Then, picking it up and scratching its chin, Alice continued, "Speaking of which, it''d be inappropriate to keep calling you Milu Rabbit. How about giving you a name?"


    After pondering for a moment, names such as "Pekora" and "Amiya" appeared in Alice''s mind. However, she eventually decided not to rush in naming the Milu Rabbit. Instead, she felt that it''d be better to take care of more crucial matters right now.


    "A radioactive crystal, huh? So long as I destroy this thing, I think everyone should believe that a new Demon King is born."


    After cing the unconscious Milu Rabbit beside Heris, Alice approached the ck crystal situated in the center of the hall. Despite having endured the power of Purification de and Blood Abyss, the crystal remained intact. Hence, Alice could only hope that her right hand could work its magic like it did on the Hero''s Sword.

 Chapter 36: Superhuman Alice

    Chapter 36: Superhuman Alice


    Alice tentatively reached for a protrusion on the radioactive crystal. Fortunately, although the crystal wasrge, it wasn''t to the point that her system refused to acknowledge it as a weapon. As evidence, the crystal''s weapon information appeared in Alice''s mind.


    [Weapon: Radioactive Soul Stone - Grant Specific]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Strength +500, Mind +1000, Control +1000, Mana +1000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Radiation (Passive Skill. Release arge radioactive mana field with the weapon as the center);


    Soul Attachment (Active Skill. You can attach your soul to this weapon);


    Demon King''s Protection (Passive Skill. Opponents weaker than the user cannot destroy or move this weapon.)]


    <em>It isn''t Garbage?</em>


    Alice was surprised. This was her first time seeing a weapon rated as Epic. Before this, the weapon ranks she had seen were Garbage, Not Bad, Fine, and Artifact. Simply put, the weapons she had seen were either overwhelmingly powerful or incredibly underwhelming.


    Moreover, this Epic-rated crystal was probably the only weapon whose appearance and setting fit its rank.


    <em>But this is problematic How am I supposed to destroy this thing now that it isn''t Garbage?</em> Alice frowned when she sensed the boost in power she received from the crystal. <em>Moreover, this additional effect I see. This "Demon King''s Protection" is responsible for keeping this crystal intact until now. Anyone weaker than Grant wouldn''t be able to destroy or move it with this buff in ce. Grant must''ve also been at his peak when he strengthened this crystal, so someone must be at the level of a Demon King at the very least to destroy this thing.</em>


    After making this discovery, Alice realized that the Windy Kingdom''s king might not have been spouting nonsense after all. He might have known about the Demon King''s Protection buff, hence he had said that only someone with the strength of a Demon King could destroy this ck crystal.


    <em>Wait. If you think about it normally, the "user" mentioned in the Demon King''s Protection''s description should indeed be Grant. </em>Alice started carefully pondering whether there was a loophole she could exploit in the additional effect''s description.


    Then, inspiration struck her as she thought, <em>But because of my right hand, the crystal''s user should now change to me. Also, the description explicitly states that opponents that were "weaker" than the user could not destroy the crystal. So, the skill should be useless against someone equal in strength to me. And going by that logic, the skill should be useless against me, right?</em>


    With these thoughts in mind, Alice immediately tried lifting the crystal. While the crystal was indeed heavy, Alice had received a bonus of 500 Strength from it. Hence, it didn''t take much effort for her to lift the entire thing.


    <em>Sure enough, it works!</em>


    Joy immediately appeared on Alice''s face. Originally, Grant had been designated as the Radioactive Soul Crystal''s user. However, because of her right hand''s ability, she had forcibly reced Grant as the crystal''s user. Hence, Alice naturally gained the ability to move the crystal freely.


    Of course, if Alice released her grip over the crystal, the designated user would switch back to Grant. However, that no longer mattered. Alice never intended on leaving the crystal here. Instead, she wanted to destroy it.


    It also wasn''t feasible for Alice to carry such arge crystal with her. Moreover, none of its additional effects served any use to Alice. Seeing that she stood to gain no benefit from keeping the crystal, she might as well destroy it and use its destruction to tell the demon realm that a new Demon King had appeared.


    <em>Regardless, this is a big discovery. If I encounter any items with effects simr to Soul Attachment in the future, I can NTR it with my right hand.</em>


    While harboring such thoughts in her mind, Alice raised her left hand, closed it into a fist, and punched the crystal with all 500 points of Strength she received from her right hand''s ability.


    Demon King''s Protection was only effective against opponents weaker than the user. In other words, the skill only took effect against individuals weaker than Alice. However, since Alice couldn''t possibly be weaker than herself, the skill naturally wouldn''t take effect against her.


    Sure enough, the moment Alice''s fist made contact with the human-sized crystal, dense cracks began appearing all over the crystal. Even the information in Alice''s mind had changed.


    [Weapon: Cracked Radioactive Soul Stone - Grant Specific]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Strength +300, Mind +500, Control +500, Mana +500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Radiation (Passive Skill. Release a radioactive mana field with the weapon as the center);


    Demon King''s Protection (Passive Skill. Opponents weaker than the user cannot destroy or move this weapon.)]


    The word "Cracked" was prefixed to the weapon''s name, and even the weapon''s quality had degraded. Although Alice couldn''t tell if the crystal''s quality had dropped by only one rank or more, the effects were roughly halved. Now, Alice had started struggling to keep the huge crystal raised. In addition, the Soul Attachment skill was nowhere to be seen, possibly because the cracked crystal could no longer house a soul.


    After seeing this change, Alice decisively mmed her fist into the ck crystal once more. This time, the giant crystal shattered into countless ck fragments that scattered all over the floor. Meanwhile, when Alice picked up one of the small fragments from the floor, her system promptly told her the current function of the crystal fragments.


    [Weapon: ck Crystal Fragment With Some Mana]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Speed +2, Mana +2]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    <em>That settles it, I guess.</em>


    Alice sighed in relief and took a few steps back. Then, she pulled out her phone and snapped some pictures of the shattered fragments. She nned to register a new LINKS ount while iming herself as the new Demon King and use these pictures to prove her im. She also wasn''t worried that the demons would doubt the validity of her im.


    To the demons, the birth of a Demon King meant that another opportunity to invade the human realm had arrived. The demon realm''s inhabitants had long since sought to obtain the human realm''s excellent living environment. Meanwhile, so long as they could gain the help of a Demon King, the sess rate of their invasion would increase dramatically.


    It was also because of this reason that the demons would only ever invade the human realm after they had weed the birth of a new Demon King. In response, the human realm would have its Hero resist the demon realm''s Demon King. In a certain sense, the existence of the Hero and Demon King was the main factor that transformed what could''ve been an endless war between the human and demon realms into a war that only urred once every few hundred years.


    <em>Speaking of which, what name should I use this time? Also, should I make another ount in the human realm as well?</em>


    While looking at the picture she took, Alice pondered how she should disseminate them to the public. However, she was quickly dragged out of her thoughts as she heard movementing from behind her.


    Turning around, Alice discovered that at some point, Heris had sat up and was currently looking at her while trembling. And judging by the conscious look on the demoness''s face, it was evident that Heris had woken up for quite some time now. Moreover, seeing that Heris was trembling while looking at herthe demoness had most likely witnessed her destroying the radioactive crystal that had troubled the demon realm for the past three centuries.

 Chapter 37: Heris Never Forgets Her Priorities

    Chapter 37: Heris Never Forgets Her Priorities


    Heris shuddered even harder when Alice''s gaze fell on her, probably shocked by the previous sight of Alice destroying the radioactive crystal in two punches.


    The radioactive crystal in Demon King City was something known by everyone in the demon realm. Apart from turning the group of businessmen who had bought Demon King City into aughingstock, the crystal had also left the impression of being indestructible in everyone''s minds. Yet, now, Alice had casually lifted the crystal and shattered it with two punches.


    The sight was no less shocking than seeing a little girl pick up the Statue of Liberty with one hand and then smashing it into rubble in two punches. Simply put, it was a very, very shocking sight.


    However, there was one good thing about this otherworld, and that was the fact that while such a scene was indeed astonishing, it wasn''t at the level of being unimaginable. Moreover, although the demon realm''s inhabitants recognized that the radioactive crystal was indestructible, they also knew that this condition wasn''t all-epassing. To be precise, since the former Demon King had left this crystal behind, it stood to reason that the next generation''s Demon King should have a way of dealing with it. In other words, since Alice had just dealt with the crystal, it meant that...


    "L-Lord Demon King?"


    Heris gulped as she looked at Alice''s petite body, an invisible pressure pressing down on her. Although her senses currently told her that Alice was no different than an ordinary peasant girl, she had personally witnessed Alice destroying the radioactive crystal just now.


    Moreover, along with the crystal''s destruction, the ufortable feeling Heris experienced due to the radiation had gradually dissipated. This proved that Alice didn''t shatter a fake crystal, but the real deal that had been sitting in Demon King City for the past three centuries instead.


    Meanwhile, Alice clenched her fists as she looked at the trembling demoness, her mind thinking of a proper response for this situation. Alice felt quite the sense of dj vu from the current situation. A simr situation had also happened when she first met Zauna. First, she was seen vaporizing the Boria Wolf King. Then, she was seen pulling out the Hero''s Sword at the Gryffin Church. The first scene caused Zauna to feel that Alice was strong, while the second scene caused Zauna to mistake Alice for the Hero.


    Meanwhile, the current situation was merely thebination of those two scenarios. While identally letting Heris witness her strength, Alice had also caused Heris to mistake her as the Demon King. At this time, it probably wouldn''t matter even if she said that she wasn''t the Demon King. Not to mention, she didn''t need to do so.


    Alice had originally intended to continue keeping her identity a secret to avoid letting others discover that she was taking on the position of Hero and Demon King simultaneously. However, after giving the matter some more thought, she realized that she had nothing to be afraid of. After all, her Hero image in the human realm was that of a tall and muscr man. There was no way anyone would link that fake appearance to her real appearance.


    Moreover, Alice could also employ a simr move in the demon realm. She could just pretend to be a Demon King whose appearance waspletely different from her own. Meanwhile, Heris just happened to be the perfect person to help her disseminate this fake information.


    ording to Grant, while Heris might seem like a mature and sexydy, she was, in reality, a naive child who believed in prophecies. It would be easy to fool such a child.


    Thus, with such thoughts in mind, Alice faked a cough and said, "Indeed, I am the new Demon King... I don''t know if you remember what happened before, but the former Demon King''s soul possessed your body just now."


    "I got possessed?" Heris was momentarily stunned. Then, realization dawned upon her as she said, "Ah, I remember! I faintly heard someone telling me to rx my body while I was driving just now, so I rxed, and then...I don''t remember what happened next."


    "..."


    Alice was at a loss for words. She couldn''t believe how gullible Heris was. It was no wonder why Grant had such an easy time possessing the demoness''s body.


    However, this was good news for Alice. At the very least, it showed that Heris was easy to trick. Hence, she looked at Heris and said, "It''s good that you know. Also, I just destroyed his soul and shattered the radioactive crystal guing thisnd However, I still haven''t fully developed the Demon King''s Power in my body, and I can''t use it all the time. So, to prevent the Hero from finding me, I need you to keep my appearance a secret for now. Can you do that?"


    "No problem, Lord Demon King. I know how to differentiate between priorities." Heris nodded obediently. Although she was gullible, it only meant that shecked precautions. It didn''t mean that she was an idiot. "Basically, we only need to let the humans know that the Demon King has appeared and that their Hero shouldn''t behave too arrogantly. However, we shouldn''t let them know about the Demon King''s appearance to avoid them sending assassins after you. Then, only after you have fully adapted to the Demon King''s Power will weunch an invasion into the human realm. Is that right, Lord Demon King?"


    "Something like that." Alice nodded. Then, she curiously asked, "Do you hope to wage war with the human realm too?"


    Since Alice would be ying as the Demon King, she naturally had to express her views on the human realm. Hence, she had deliberately added the word "too" in her sentence.


    Meanwhile, Heris didn''t suspect a thing as she nodded and said, "That''s right. The demon realm''s environment is too terrible, and the air here is dirty. You have only arrived at the demon realm recently, so you might not be aware, but there are even people selling air from the human realm on the inte"


    Alice nodded. After listening to Heris''sint, she understood why the demon realm''s inhabitants were so adamant about waging war with the human realm. Simply put, they were doing so because of the demon realm''s harsh environment. Due to the demon realm''s environmental circumstances, living conditions here were bad. Theck of sunlight and clean air had even caused the trees here to be twisted.


    Although the demons had already adapted to life in the demon realm after living here for a long time, it didn''t mean that they didn''t wish for a better living environment. For example, a poor person might have been eating coarse grains and light meals since childhood, but that didn''t mean that this person didn''t wish to eat delicacies. The human realm''s environment was simply too much of a temptation for the demons. Hence, the demons would eagerly wage war with the human realm whenever a new Demon King appeared.


    Unfortunately, none of the past Demon Kings were anything good. They didn''t care about leading the demons to invade the human realm. Most of them only sought to use their power to enjoy life. Grant was one such example. The reason why he sought to resurrect himself was just so that he could enjoy reigning over others. He had no ns of attacking the human realm whatsoever.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that the Demon King''s Power only chose people harboring deep hatred toward humans as its target, the past Demon Kings might not have even bothered waging wars at all. Instead, they would only greedily enjoy themselves in the demon realm.


    However, ording to Grant, there seemed to have been instances where a Demon King had sessfully invaded the human realm in the past. It was also for this reason that the demon realm''s inhabitants did not give up on hope even after multiple generations of Demon Kings had met with consecutive failures. This strong belief in the Demon King also showed how much the demons desired a good environment.


    <em>In other words, the best solution to avoid the possibility of war is to solve the demon realm''s problematic environment? </em>Alice scratched her head, feeling that her thoughts had deviated slightly. <em>But is there really a solution to the demon realm''s polluted environment?</em>


    "I have a presumptuous request, Lord Demon King."


    While Alice was pondering how she should handle the rtionship between the human realm and demon realm, Heris''s voice suddenly brought her out of her thoughts. Looking at the demoness''s hopeful eyes, Alice nodded and said, "Speak. What is it?"


    Alice guessed that Heris was probably thinking of bringing her to meet her family or something along those lines. Alice had no intention of refusing such a request, either. Simr to why she had agreed to meet the human realm''s kings, meeting the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings should ease their worries a little.


    As to whether someone would leak information on the Hero''s and Demon King''s true identity, Alice wasn''t particrly worried about that. Unless the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings and the human realm''s kings were spies, the risk of such a leak happening would be almost non-existence.


    "Since you don''t intend to reveal your identity as the Demon King yet" Looking at Alice, Heris embarrassingly said, "Can I take this chance to hug you?"

 Chapter 38: Familiar Scene

    Chapter 38: Familiar Scene


    "What do you n on doing next, Alice?"


    Heris revealed a satisfied smile after finally getting her wish fulfilled. Then, she followed Alice out of Demon King City.


    Although Alice had already destroyed the radioactive crystal, she did not intend on moving into the city. After all, she only needed the Demon King''s identity. If she wanted to enjoy the treatment of a Demon King, she would need to possess a Demon King''s strength and uphold a Demon King''s responsibilities.


    Obviously, Alice did not possess the strength of an actual Demon King, and neither did she want to lead the demon realm into invading the human realm. On the contrary, she was currently thinking of ways to dy the potential war between the human and demon realms and, if possible, figure out a solution to resolve the conflict between the two realms.


    For example, she could improve the demon realm''s environment.


    The pollution in the demon realm was caused by polluted mana rather than industrialization. Hence, nting more trees naturally couldn''t be used as a solution. However, Alice figured that since this world''s inhabitants had figured out how to utilize mana, it should also be possible toe up with a way to purify polluted mana.


    Of course, Alice couldn''t mention this idea of hers to Heris right now. Heris was someone with the standard demon mind. She was filled with thoughts of having Alice lead the demons into attacking the human realm. Hence, in response to Heris''s question, Alice gave a very standard answer, saying, "I cannot use my strength whenever I want right now, so I still need to continue training. Only after I can fully utilize the Demon King''s Power will I go duel the Hero. Before that, I intend to conceal my identity to avoid human assassins and certain overly enthusiastic demons."


    With the demons'' personality, there were bound to be a few troublemakers who woulde to pick a fight with the newly-born Demon King in the name of determining whether this new Demon King was worthy of leading the demon race. Alice felt that part of the reason past Demon Kings didn''t like the demon race very much was because of these early troublemakers souring their impression of the demon race.


    "You''re right. Although you are indeed powerful, if the humans know your appearance and send assassins after you, things will indeed be troublesome."


    Heris nodded in agreement with Alice''s thoughts, the demoness''s response causing Alice to suspect that the demoness would believe whatever she said right now. After all, although Heris had a mature and sexy appearance on the outside, she had an innocent personality. That wasn''t to say that Heris was dumb. On the contrary, the demoness was more than capable of analyzing situations with a logical mind. It was just that she had a poor judgment of people, so she easily believed what others said.


    Take Grant possessing Heris''s body, for example. The gravity crystals Grant prepared in the castle''s main hall were probably intended for restraining disobedient possession targets. Yet, Grant didn''t even have to use those crystals to possess Heris. He only needed to whisper a few words into Heris''s mind to get the demoness to obediently give her body to him.


    "By the way, Heris, you''re the daughter of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, right?" While fiddling with her phone and following Heris to the car, Alice suddenly remembered Heris''s identity. Then, she looked up at Heris and waved her phone at the demoness, asking, "Can you have your parent validate my LINKS ount?"


    "Huh? It''s possible, but if you want to have him validate you as the Demon King, I''m afraid things won''t be that simple." Heris initially nodded to Alice''s question but quickly revealed a troubled expression. "The Demon King is the demon realm''s hope of invading the human realm, after all. Nobody is willing to see someone impersonate the Demon King. I might have seen you destroying that radioactive crystal, but if my father doesn''t personally witness your strength, you might have to"


    "I might have to meet with your father, right?" Alice said,pleting Heris''s sentence for her.


    This was a reasonable response. Unlike humans, demons were a race that worshipped strength. They wouldn''t easily believe someone to be the Demon King just because this person destroyed a radioactive crystal. To be recognized as the Demon King, you would need to have strength rivaling the Four Heavenly Kings at minimum. Otherwise, even if you truly were the Demon King, the Four Heavenly Kings would not submit to you.


    Fortunately, Alice had long since mentally prepared herself for such a possibility. In any case, she wasn''t in a hurry to return to the human realm. So, she could afford to spend some time visiting Heris''s father, man Aregas.


    "Sure. Bring me to meet your father, then."


    Alice spoke in a calm voice. She didn''t show the anxiety the average person would typically have when they were about to meet one of the Four Heavenly Kings. This reaction made Alice look even more like a Demon King in Heris''s eyes. However, in no time at all, Heris couldn''t help herself from pinching Alice''s cheeks.


    It couldn''t be helped. Alice''s petite body and princess-like appearance matched Heris''s tastes too well. If Heris was slightly more perverted, she might''ve even locked up Alice and turned the girl into her pet.


    "No problem. My father will be very happy if he finds out that a new Demon King is born. He has already had it with the demon realm''s environment," Heris said. Only after seeing Alice ring at her did she reluctantly release Alice''s cheeks. Then, pretending to be serious, she continued, "Ever since he went to investigate the human realm''s situation a few years ago, he would sigh andin about the demon realm''s polluted mana every day."


    Alice expressed her understanding. To most of the inhabitants of this world, absorbing mana had already be an instinctive action simr to breathing. Meanwhile, absorbing polluted mana was no different than inhaling polluted air. Suffice to say, it wasn''t a pleasant experience.


    It might not be a huge issue if a person had been inhaling polluted air their entire life. However, if this person were to one day experience fresh air, would they be willing to continue inhaling polluted air?


    The answer would be no.


    "But the journey from the Windy Kingdom to the Fear Kingdom will be a little long. We might be on the road for the entire day and night Let''s buy some food in the nearby city before we set off," Heris said as she opened the door to the driver''s seat.


    Then, after getting into the Beetle, Heris looked at Alice, who had gotten into the back of the car, and continued, "Although others say that the Four Heavenly Kings are scary, my father is a friendly person. So long as he recognizes you as the Demon King, he will certainly show his full support for you Hmm? Something doesn''t feel right?"


    Heris hadn''t felt anything wrong when she was walking before. However, when she sat down, she noticed a breezy feeling on her butt. Then, when she touched her butt through her skirt, she subconsciously eximed, "Where''s my underwear?"


    Alice stiffened, not daring to say a word.

 Chapter 39: Unfortunate Milu Rabbit

    Chapter 39: Unfortunate Milu Rabbit


    After buying some food from the nearby city, Alice and Heris began making their way to the Fear Kingdom. Although the demon realm''s development was slightly behind the human realm''s, it wasn''t inferior by arge margin. All the transportation essentials were present, and roads linked all of the cities and kingdoms here together. Hence, it only took one whole day to drive from the Windy Kingdom to the Fear Kingdom.


    Although driving for 24 hours might seem unbelievable in the average person''s eyes, it wasn''t a problem for Heris. The demoness was capable of using magic that energized her mind and body, ensuring that she didn''t feel the slightest bit exhausted even if she stayed awake for an entire day. ording to Heris, all schools taught simple magic like this. Hence, whether it was in the human realm or demon realm, everyone who had graduated through official channels would know such magic. This energizing magic was also one of the mostmonly used magic among the working ss.


    The mana required to use this magic wasn''t a problem for Heris, either. Although Grant had indeed drained her dry of mana before, she easily remedied this problem by pulling out a few crystal bottles containing liquified mana and chugging them down like a sports drink.


    "Maybe I should start learning about magic as well?" Alice asked while she ate some snacks unique to the demon realm in the back seat. "Currently, when I''m not using underwhen I''m not using the Demon King''s Power, my body contains hardly any mana. I also don''t know how to use standard magic. I can''t possibly attack with everything I''ve got whenever I meet an enemy in the future, right?"


    "A person at your age should indeed be attending school, Alice."


    Normally, talking while driving was dangerous since the driver could get distracted and cause a car ident. However, they were currently driving on a rtively remote road, and they rarely came across another car, so the chances of a car ident happening were very small.


    Moreover, because of her magic, Heris was currently brimming with energy. She wouldn''t slip up even if she multitasked in her current state. Hence, she dared to talk to Alice while driving.


    "When you lifted the radioactive crystal in Demon King City, I could sense the powerful magical aura your body radiated. If you can properly release that mana, I believe casting taboos by yourself shouldn''t be a problem. Though, I guess that''s to be expected of the Demon King''s Power."


    <em>Casting taboos by myself, is it</em>


    Alice remembered that she had received a bonus of 1000 points in her Mana stat when she picked up the radioactive crystal. If what Heris said was true, then 1000 points of Mana was already enough to let someone cast a taboo all by themselves. Meanwhile, when she was wielding panties in her right hand, Grant had judged her to have the strength of a Demon King or Hero at their peak. In other words, having 5000 points of Mana allowed one to cast taboos like child''s y.


    Of course, it was also necessary to take into ount a person''s mana recovery speed. If Heroes and Demon Kings were indeed capable of casting taboos as if they were breathing, then their mana recovery speed should be at a frightening level. It might not even be an exaggeration to call them infinite mana generators.


    <em>If it is possible to resolve the conflict between the human and demon realms, then it wouldn''t be bad to have future Heroes and Demon Kings serve as a power nt. </em>Alice had already started constructing a beautiful future in her mind. <em>That way, this world''s civilization would gain an evolutionary leap once every few hundred years.</em>


    "What are you thinking about, Alice?" Heris asked after seeing Alice bing unresponsive for some time. Then, after seeing Alice snapping out of her daze, Heris continued, "What do you think about going to school? If you go to school, you can also avoid others finding out that you are the Demon King. I''ve heard many things about past Demon Kings from my father that aren''t avable on the inte, but I don''t think I''ve heard about any Demon King attending school before."


    <em>That''s only because your world''s cultural development hasn''t developed sufficiently yet. In my world, let alone going to school, Demon Kings are even working at McDonald''s, </em>Alice thought to herself while rolling her eyes.


    The technology of this world might be advanced, but its cultural development was still behind that of Earth''s. Moreover, due to the constant conflict between the human and demon realms, neither the human kingdoms nor the demon kingdoms pushed for cultural development. Instead, everyone focused on preparing for potential conflicts.


    <em>But going to school, is it</em>


    Alice found Heris''s suggestion to be interesting. She had already decided to learn magic. Meanwhile, the fastest way to do so would naturally be to experience this otherworld''s standard education. This world''s human and demon civilizations had already been developing for over ten thousand years, so they must''vee up with an adequate education program already. Rather than fumbling in the dark by herself, it would be more efficient if she attended school.


    However, which school to attend was something she needed to properly consider. After all, she was both the Demon King and the Hero. She also didn''t have a doppelganger ability. Hence, she needed to prioritize one side.


    <em>Ugh, let''s think about it after meeting with Heris''s father.</em>


    Alice stopped thinking and held up her phone. Then, she connected to the human realm''s LINK and established a new ount. The validation of her Demon King ount on the demon realm''s LINKS would have to wait until she met Heris''s father. In the meantime, Alice decided to send the demon realm''s information back to the human realm.


    <em>Um Should I name the ount Demon King BOT? </em>Alice wondered. However, she quickly dismissed her idea. After all, her Demon King ount on LINKS hadn''t even been created yet, so the demon realm''s inte shouldn''t have any information on the Demon King. An awkward situation would ensue if her Demon King BOT ount posted factual information ahead of the actual Demon King''s ount.


    <em>I''ll set up an independent media ount instead. Like the Twilight Daily Rosa is working for, I can also set up an independent mediapany specializing in distributing first-hand information about the Demon King, </em>Alice thought. Afterward, she typed out the words "Demon King Daily" on the ount creation interface. However, she didn''t confirm the name right away. She realized that she wouldn''t be publishing information on the Demon King every day, so such a name wasn''t appropriate.


    So, Alice quickly changed her ount''s name to "Demon King Times." However, after giving the matter some more thought, she felt that using the words "Demon King" in the name wouldn''t be too appropriate. The name "Demon King Times" also sounded a little tacky.


    Although the name urately got the point across, there wasn''t a need to be so straightforward. Just like Twilight Daily, the name of a mediapany didn''t necessarily have to be consistent with the content it published.


    While Alice was racking her brain for a better name, she suddenly sensed something moving around her waist. Looking down, she realized that the Milu Rabbit that had its ears tied to her waist had woken up. However, as they were in Heris''s car, Alice naturally couldn''t allow the Milu Rabbit to ram itself against something and knock itself unconscious. If the Milu Rabbit did that, Heris''s car would probably break.


    Quickly, Alice retrieved a biscuit-like snack unique to the demon realm and stuffed it into the Milu Rabbit''s mouth. Then, she watched as the Milu Rabbit began chewing on the biscuit.


    The only times the Milu Rabbit would remain conscious for more than a few minutes was when it was eating. Apart from its mealtime that totalled around one hour, it would remain unconscious for the remaining 23 hours of the day.


    After the Milu Rabbit finished eating the snack, it began looking for something to knock itself unconscious. Before it could do so, though, Alice grabbed a ck crystal shard out of her pocket and mmed her fist into the Milu Rabbit''s head.


    Then, the Milu Rabbit skillfully lost consciousness.


    <em>...Let''s name the ount Milu Times.</em>


    After ncing at the unconscious Milu Rabbit, Alice returned her gaze to her phone and confirmed the name she would be using for her independent media ount.

 Chapter 40: Old Marketing Account

    Chapter 40: Old Marketing ount


    ["Something like this actually happened in the deserted Demon King City!" byizen: My Mother Is Shocked]


    "...What is this?"


    In the heart of the royal pce located in Teli City, the Fear Kingdom''s prosperous capital, Davis, one of the king''s advisers, let out a puzzled voice as he looked at the article''s title disyed on the tablet in his hand.


    Although such a title was a rare sight, looking at the written words, Davis felt that the article shouldn''t contain any noteworthy news. The article''s author probably only made such an eye-catching title to earn the clicks of bored people.


    Under normal circumstances, Davis wouldn''t have bothered reading such an article. However, the tablet he currently held was something man Agaras, the current Fear Kingdom''s king and the Heavenly King of Fire, had passed to him. Hence, even if Davis felt that the article wasn''t anything noteworthy, he still had to ask why man wanted to show him such a thing.


    "Just read it."


    However, the tall and bearded man did not provide any exnations in response to his favorite adviser. Instead, he had Davis read the article disyed on the tablet.


    Although Davis felt a little frustrated by this situation, he had no choice but to read the article he had deemed a waste of time. He couldn''t help it since he was only man''s adviser. Although man treated him well, if he angered the Heavenly King of Fire, even a minor punishment in the king''s eyes would put Davis through hell.


    After all, the reason why Davis was willing to support man was that heckedbat power. Moreover, as he had fully devoted himself to being an aide, hisbat power was far below the average of demons of his age. The corporal punishment man doled out might not be much to the average demon, but such punishment would probably put Davis at the brink of death.


    Thus, Davis began earnestly reading the article. The start of the article was just like he expectedfilled with useless words meant to attract attention. It was a summary of what was nowmon knowledge about Demon King City. However, the quality of the writing was surprisingly good. The author had introduced Demon King City''s history in a unique and intriguing manner, so Davis didn''t grow bored even though he already knew about the content.


    However, when Davis reached the article''stter half, his expression gradually grew serious. Thetter half of the article talked about matters rting to Grant Morax, the former Demon King. Apart from the information that everyone could find on the publicwork, the article also revealed information that even Davis had never known about.


    For example, the reason why even the Four Heavenly Kings could not destroy the radioactive crystal in the middle of Demon King City was because the Demon King''s magic protected it. Because of this, anyone weaker than that of the Demon King could not destroy the crystal. Moreover, the article also stated that the previous generation''s Hero didn''t actually kill Grant Morax. Instead, the Hero only imprisoned his physical body using the War God''s Lock. Thus, Grant Morax''s soul managed to escape and hide within the radioactive crystal!


    "...Could this be a fabrication?"


    Davis found the article''s content to be both reasonable and dubious. After all, he was the retainer of one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Yet, how could the author of this article know about information that even he did not know? Moreover, the author had even revealed information about the former Demon King in such a tant manner. Was this author not afraid that Grant Morax''s soul woulde to seek trouble with him afterward?


    After all, if things were as written in the article, Grant Morax definitely wasn''t hiding in the radioactive crystal for fun. Instead, the former Demon King must be looking to resurrect himself.


    Thinking up to this point, Davis started feeling a little passionate. If the former Demon King could resurrect himself, he might be able to lead the demon race into invading the human realm. In that case, maybe the fact that Grant Morax was still alive wasn''t bad news after all? Ever since news of the new Hero appearing in the human realm appeared, Davis had long since felt uneasy about the demon realm''s future.


    However, when Davis continued scrolling down and reached the article''s final section, his calmposure finally cracked. Even his hands had trembled, causing him to nearly drop man''s crystal tablet.


    The article''s final section no longer talked about the radioactive crystal or Grant Morax. Instead, there was only a picture there.


    The image showed the main hall of Demon King City''s castle. However, the ck crystal that had remained standing in the middle of the hall for the past 300 years was nowhere to be seen. Instead, taking its ce was a bunch of crystal shards of varying sizes.


    "This" Davis fell silent for a long moment. Then, he looked toward man and solemnly asked, "Could this be edited?"


    "No. This article was initially posted around two hours ago by a LINKS user going by ''Milu Times.'' However, I know you''re not one to browse social media, so I called you here to take a look at it," man said in a calm voice. Although his bulky and muscr appearance made him look like a rash person, those who knew him would know that he was the calmest out of the Four Heavenly Kings.


    "Things have already blown up on LINKS. Everyone knows that even Wintas failed to deal with that crystal. In other words, the only person who should be capable of destroying that crystal should be the Demon King. If what''s stated in this article is true, then this conjecture can be further solidified," man said.


    Retrieving his tablet from Davis''s hands, man continued, "You don''t need to concern yourself over the photo''s validity, either. Countless people have already gone to verify it for us. You can find people taking photos of Demon King City all over LINKS right now. It is a fact that the ck crystal in Demon King City has been destroyed. The radiation in the city has also disappeared."


    "I see It seems my intelligence gathering has fallen behind." Davis felt his head aching. He was someone who disliked browsing LINKS. However, if the user "Milu Times" continued publishing new information on LINKS in the future, then he would have to start paying more attention to the social media tform from now on lest he fell behind again. "But this also means thatthe new Demon King has appeared, right?"


    "Indeed. Since the human realm''s Hero has already appeared, it is only natural that the Demon King on our side appears as well," man said as he nodded and smiled. The appearance of the new Demon King signified that the demon realm could begin a new invasion of the human realm. Ever since he visited the human realm a few years ago, he had already be fed up with the demon realm''s polluted mana. He couldn''t wait to invade and take over the human realm. "So, Davis, visit the military and tell them to start preparing. Our Fear Kingdom must secure the first strike this?"


    Before man could finish his sentence, his phone on the table started ringing. After ncing at it and seeing the word "Heris" disyed on the screen, he picked it up and answered the call without minding Davis''s presence. He even set the call to hands-free mode.


    This was man''s habit. If there were no outsiders in the room, he would typically answer his calls in hands-free mode. ording to him, conversing in this manner made it feel more like he was talking to another person.


    Davis had also long since gotten used to man''s actions, so he didn''t feel anything about this situation. Davis also knew that Heris was man''s daughter. He even knew that Heris had listened to and believed the words of an unreliable diviner a few days ago and eagerly left for Demon King City to witness the birth of the new Demon King


    Hm?

 Chapter 41: Diviner: ???

    Chapter 41: Diviner: ???


    man didn''t continue his conversation with his daughter for very long, the entire callsting only two or three minutes. Heris mainly talked about her present situation and told man that she should arrive home around morning the next day. After saying so, she hung up the call and left man and Davis nkly looking at each other.


    When Davis remembered the goal of Heris''s outing just now, he had mostly realized the crux of the problem already. Hence, although he wore a serious expression, he wasn''t too surprised by the information Heris conveyed.


    man''s reaction, though, was much more exaggerated. After cing his phone on the table, he fell into a daze for quite some time beforeing back to his senses.


    "Did Heris just say that she''s bringing the new Demon King back to meet us?"


    "...If our ears didn''t go bad at the same time, that is indeed the case." Davis naturally ced more considerations on the matter than man. After all, it was his job as man''s adviser. "Going by her words, the new Demon King is still a cute child that has yet to grow up. And although the new Demon King has yet to gain full control over the Demon King''s Power, she can still exhibit the power of a fully matured Demon King under certain conditions."


    "A Demon King that has yet to mature, huh? That''s new. I don''t think any of the past Demon Kings have appeared as a child, right?" man massaged his eyebrows. Although he was one of the strongest demons in the demon realm, hecked foresight when it came to dealing with matters outside of fighting. However, ascking as his brain was, even he could foresee what would happen should details regarding the new Demon King spread. "An underaged Demon King I can already imagine how the demon realm would react once this news gets out."


    Davis could naturally figure out what would happen as well. ording to historical records, almost all Demon Kings would only reveal themselves after they had reached maturity ande to lead the demon realm. Yet, even then, there were still many demons who rebelled against these Demon Kings simply because they didn''t wish to have a human lead them.


    Out of the many rebellions recorded in history, the most severe one involved three out of the Four Heavenly Kings banded together and rebelled. Though, the only reason the rebellion had reached such an unprecedented level was because the Demon King at the time had only focused on enjoying luxuries in the demon realm instead of carrying out his responsibility. Under normal circumstances, the Four Heavenly Kings wouldn''t recklessly rebel against the Demon King. After all, the stronger a person was, the better they understood how frightening the Demon King was.


    The demons who typically discussed rebelling against the Demon King were mostly lower-ss demons, and these demons were nothing but frogs under a well when it came to knowledge about the Demon King. Such demons were of no threat at all. Let alone the Demon King, even the Four Heavenly Kings could take care of these troublemakers without much effort.


    "However, this is a good opportunity." After pondering for a moment, Davis said, "Young Miss Heris loves cute things. Since she is calling the new Demon King ''cute,'' it shows that the young miss is quite fond of the new Demon King. Meanwhile, seeing as the new Demon King is willing to follow Heris back, the two of them might have already formed a good rtionship. We can capitalize on this rtionship."


    "Indeed. Forming a good rtionship with the Demon King is of utmost importance. That is an existence capable ofunching taboos as if they were drinking water, after all," man said,ughing.


    To demons, relying on the strong was something normal for them. Although the Four Heavenly Kings might have their pride, their pride would only act up when the other party acted like a prick. If this new Demon King wasn''t a violent orzy bastard, then the Four Heavenly Kings would be more than willing to protect her and let her lead the demon race into invading the human realm.


    However, afterughing for a moment, man fell silent again, seemingly pondering something. Then, he looked at Davis and asked, "Say, Davis, do you think Heris and that new Demon King can be...mates?"


    "Mates?!" man''s words frightened Davis. Then, scratching his head, Davis said, "But ording to the young miss, the new Demon King should be female, right?"


    "Who says females can''t be mates with other females?! Those are human values you are talking about! What does that have to do with demons?!" man said with a displeased expression. Then, as if someone had opened the floodgates, he began ranting, "The human realm''s culture has been influencing the demon race too much recently. The youngsters these days are reading so many hero novels that they''re close to defecting to the humans already! Although there is worth in referencing human values, taking them for granted is uneptable! At this rate, can demons even be considered demons anymore?!"


    "Y-You''re right"


    Davis wiped the sweat from his forehead. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the phenomenon that man mentioned. Recently, someone had indeed been introducing arge number of cultural works such as novels, movies, andics from the human realm to the demon realm. This situation had seemingly opened up a new world for the demon race.


    However, this situation couldn''t be helped. As a race that worshipped strength over all else, the demon race''s development in technology and culture was inferior to that of the human race. Thus, to avoid falling behind, the demons have copied many of the humans'' technology and cultural works.


    Currently, the many hero novels circting in the demon realm worried many demons belonging to the older generation. They feared that when war with the human realm began, the younger demons brainwashed by human culture might not join the battlefield.


    "Cultural invasion, huh. However, with the demon realm''s nature that prioritized strength, even if we wish to correct this problem, it wouldn''t be an easy task to aplish," Davis muttered. He could see the situation for what it was. He knew that this was a way the humans used to spread their soft power. Greedy smugglers might be part of the reason why all those hero novels could reach the demon realm, but arger part of the reason was because the human rulers were d to see it happening.


    Although Davis hoped that demons could develop their own unique culture and spread it to the human realm, the demon realm''s problematic environment prevented that from happening. Because of the environment, inhabitants of the demon realm were either focused on improving their strength or learning knowledge regarding management to attach themselves to strong individuals. Even if some demons had the potential to be great authors and artists, these individuals would typically die before they could aplish anything.


    "That is why we do not need to adhere to these human values at all. The demons who do so are an embarrassment to the demon race," man said, snorting. "So, do you think it''s possible between Heris and the new Demon King?"


    "We haven''t even met the new Demon King yet, so how would I know?" Davis said, unsure of whether tough or cry. "We can only decide on this matter after we meet the Demon King. Before that, I feel that there is a need to take control of another fellow."


    "Another fellow Ah, I get it. You''re talking about that diviner, right?" man didn''t get what Davis was trying to say initially. However, after seeing the gaze Davis sent him, he quickly realized who Davis was talking about. "Indeed. Since he can foretell the new Demon King''s birth, it shows that he might be the real deal Who is that diviner, by the way?"


    "It''s one of the second prince''s, His Highness Tver''s butlers. Although he calls himself a diviner, he mainly manages His Highness''s daily affairs, and divination is only a daily homework he does for his female colleagues," Davis knew that his muscle-brain king wouldn''t remember such details, so he gave a summary regarding the diviner''s situation. Then, when he saw the skeptical look man gave him, Davis added, "Divination has be quite the popr activity among the demon realm''s female circle recently. It seems they rely on it to decide their daily activities I have always found it to be mere superstition, but this time


    "I used to think that divination was an unreliable superstition as well." man nodded in agreement. Then, his expression became serious as he said, "Go; call that diviner here and entertain him well. I want to have a good chat with him before Heris returns with the new Demon King.

 Chapter 42: Au Revoir Diviner

    Chapter 42: Au Revoir Diviner


    The Fear Kingdom''s capital was a considerablyrge city. Meanwhile, Heris''s father, man Agaras, lived in the manor located at the very center of the city as the Fear Kingdom''s king.


    After being on the road for one whole day, Heris and Alice finally arrived at their destination. Although Alice felt a little stiff after riding in a car for such a long period, since she didn''t know how to drive, she got to rest in the car when needed. Thus, she didn''t feel particrly tired after the long journey. Heris, on the other hand, worried Alice. After all, the demoness hadn''t gotten a wink of sleep throughout the entire drive. Even if she had magic to assist her, stressing her body for such a long time shouldn''t be healthy.


    "Don''t worry. Many capitalists have invested a ton of money into researching and improving this magic because of its poprity in various fields," Heris gave a spirited reply when she heard Alice''s worries. "At this point, this magic has almost no side effects. So long as you spend some time making up for sleep afterward, the magic is practically harmless to the body."


    Alice drylyughed. Indeed, if magic that could improve a person''s work efficiency existed, capitalists would certainly love it and make itpulsory for all of their employees to learn. Thus, they would naturally be willing to invest in the research of this magic. So long as they could guarantee that this magic didn''t have any serious side effects, they could request their employees to work overtime using this magic with a clear conscience.


    After parking the car inside the manor, Heris brought Alice to thergest mansion located inside the manor. Judging by appearances alone, Alice felt that this mansion was much morefortable to live in than Demon King City''s castle. Though, that was to be expected since Demon King City had been shrouded in radiation for the past 300 years. No matter how great the environment there used to be, the city had long since transformed into deadnd.


    After following Heris into the mansion, Alice immediately found a man in a suit standing inside the first-floor hall. The man had long silver hair, a tall and slender body, and a heart-shaped tail behind him. The man appeared to have been waiting here for some time now as he immediately bowed as soon as he saw Heris and Alice.


    "Wee back, Young Miss. Lord man is already expecting you."


    "Davis? What brings you here today? Aren''t you usually by my dad''s side handling those troublesome affairs?"


    After hearing Heris calling out to the man, Alice roughly understood the other party''s identity. Although the man named Davis looked like a butler, he wasn''t an actual butler. Instead, he should be something like a minister that handled stately matters for Heris''s father, the Heavenly King of Fire.


    "Because there is something more important for me to take care of today," Davis said with a light smile. After answering Heris''s question, he shifted his gaze onto Alice and asked, "Is this Lady Alice? The new Demon King."


    The important matter Davis spoke of probably referred to weing Alice, the new "Demon King." After all, the birth of the Demon King was undoubtedly one of the most important matters in the demon realm.


    "That''s right; this is Alice, the new Demon King! She''s very cute, right?!"


    Before Alice could make a response, Heris had already gotten ahead of her and answered on her behalf. Then, Heris pulled Alice to her front and started kneading Alice''s face from behind. The happy expression Heris made looked as if her pet dog had received praise.


    Originally, Alice had prepared herself to act a little majestic to avoid having her fake identity exposed. Yet, thanks to Heris''s actions, she now had no majesty to speak of. With her n ruined, Alice sighed and resigned herself to fate.


    "Y-Yes, she is quite cute"


    Davis felt his heart stopping for a moment when he saw Heris squeezing and pinching Alice''s face. After all, this was a Demon King they were talking about. However, when Davis saw Alice''sck of reaction even after being toyed in such a manner, he couldn''t help but recall man''s previous suggestion. Looking at the current situation, marriage between Heris and Alice might bepossible?


    As for Alice''s worries that Davis would suspect her identity as the Demon King, that did not happen at all. Although Davis could indeed sense that Alice''s body didn''t hold much strength, Heris had already stated on the phone that Alice still couldn''t control the Demon King''s Power perfectly. Thus, Davis could understand the current situation.


    Not to mention, even if Alice''s identity was to be brought to suspicion, that was something for man to do. As a weak civil official, Davis had no right to question the identity of a Demon King, an existence that stood at the apex of the demon race. He''d be stupid or tired of living if he did that.


    "In any case, let me bring you to Lord man first."


    When Davis saw that Alice started to feel ufortable from Heris''s kneading, he decided to change the topic to stop Heris''s actions. Then, he turned around and led the way upstairs.


    Seeing this, Heris let go of Alice''s reddened cheeks and led Alice upstairs by the hand. Meanwhile, Alice had no choice but to go along with the demoness''s whims. After all, her current setting was that of a Demon King who was incapable of perfectly manipting the Demon King''s Power. Since that was the case, it didn''t matter even if she acted weak for the moment. Although there was no majesty to speak of in this situation, so long as she disyed her strengthter on, she should be able to silence any dissidents.


    <em>I wonder if this will work</em> Alice wondered as she looked at the glove on her right hand. It was something she bought when she shopped for snacks with Heris. Her idea when buying the glove was simplewhen she needed to put on a show of strength, all she needed to do was stuff a pair of panties into the glove and squeeze it. Then, she would be able to use the panties'' strength without suffering social death.


    Of course, should Alice start fighting someone, whether she used her right hand''s mana or used her panties'' active skill to fight, the ordinary glove would be shredded, and she would run the risk of exposing her panties. However, that was a problem that Alice had to worry about only if she was asked to participate in actualbat. If she only needed to disy her power, there shouldn''t be any problems.


    "Hm?" When Heris followed Davis into man''s office and saw two teacups on the office desk, she turned to Davis and asked, "Why are there two cups here? Did someonee here before us?"


    "Yes. It''s His Highness Tver''s butler." Davis nodded, not bothering to hide this fact from Heris.


    "You mean that diviner?" Heris quickly realized who Davis was talking about. It was precisely because of this diviner''s divination that she got to witness the birth of the new Demon King in person. Thus, the trust she had for this diviner had increased even further. "Where is he now?"


    "Growing potatoes on the frontier."

 Chapter 43: Demon Kings Power

    Chapter 43: Demon King''s Power


    man was in a bad mood.


    Originally, man thought he had found himself a bona fide diviner. However, it turned out that this "diviner" was nothing but a swindling womanizer. When man thought about how such a rotten bastard had been living within his manor for the past few months, he couldn''t help but feel annoyed.


    Fortunately, although the quack diviner had pretty good looks, he did not fit thebel of "cute." Thus, Heris did not fall for his charms and was only curious about his divination abilities.


    Under man''s pressure, the quack diviner quickly admitted that he had been relying on his fake divinations to woo several of the manor''s maids. So, as punishment, man assigned the swindler to the coldest region in the demon realm to grow potatoes for the rest of his life.


    Although man had his mood ruined by the fake diviner, he instantly felt his heart healed when he saw that Heris, his most beloved daughter, had returned home. Moreover, Heris had also brought with her a person who could potentially influence the status quo between the human and demon realmsthe new generation''s Demon King. Thus, even if man was in a bad mood, he couldn''t reveal it right now.


    "You''re back, Heris?"


    man smiled when he saw Heris entering the room. Then, like how Davis previously reacted, man immediately shifted his gaze toward the petite figure standing beside Heris and revealed aplicated expression.


    It couldn''t be helped. Alice''s appearance made it difficult for anyone to believe that she was the Demon King. After all, Alice''s blonde hair and white-blue dress made her look very much like a youngdy originating from a noble house in the human realm. Even if man had already heard from Heris that this cute girl was the new Demon King, he still had difficulty believing it.


    "So, this person isthe new Demon King?"


    man had a headache as he looked at Alice''s small frame. He was feeling much more perplexed than he was dealing with the stammering diviner just now.


    Initially, when man heard from Heris that she had witnessed Alice shattering the radioactive crystal and was certain that Alice was the new Demon King, he had already decided to believe Heris''s judgment even if the other party was a little girl who looked nothing like a Demon King. However, now that he saw Alice in person, he found himself doubting his daughter''s judgment.


    Alice''s appearance differed far too much from the Demon Kings mentioned in historical records. Not to mention, man couldn''t sense any strength hidden within Alice''s body.


    Originally, when Heris said that Alice couldn''t unleash the Demon King''s Power, man thought what her daughter meant was that Alice couldn''t properly use the Demon King''s Power within her body. Yet, now, it didn''t seem as if Alice couldn''t use the Demon King''s Power. Instead, it looked as if the Demon King''s Power didn''t even exist within her body.


    "Yeah. She''s cute, right?"


    Heris didn''t notice the subtle look on man''s face. Instead, she introduced Alice to her father just like she did to Davisshe pulled Alice to her front and introduced Alice just like she was introducing a pet. Seeing this scene further increased the uncertainty in man''s heart. After all, that was the Demon King they were talking about. How could the Demon King let her daughter toy with her like a pet?


    If Alice was indeed the Demon King, man would naturally be happy that her daughter shared such a close rtionship with the new Demon King. However, the question now was whether Alice really was the Demon King or not.


    Based on the demon race''s characteristics, it was possible for a strong individual to ept and converse with a weaker individual. However, most of the past Demon Kings were not friendly people. Seeing that Alice''s behavior contrasted significantly with the behavior of past Demon Kings, man felt the need to verify Alice''s identity.


    "Heris, you should be tired after the long trip, right?" man asked.


    At this time, Alice had also noticed the strangeness in man''s expression, and she probably knew what was going through the Heavenly King of Fire''s mind. Alice wasn''t an oblivious fellow like Heris, so she quickly understood that man was trying to validate her identity. Hence, she looked to Heris and said, "You should go rest first. I''ll have a chat with your father in the meantime."


    "That Okay, then."


    After hesitating for a moment, Heris agreed with Alice''s suggestion. Although she wanted to remain with Alice, the energizing magic''s effects were running out soon. So, she needed to start making up for herck of sleep.


    Not to mention, although Heris was a little slow on the uptake, she wasn''t an idiot. She knew that a serious conversation between the Demon King and one of the Four Heavenly Kings would involve important secrets. Thus, after taking a look at Alice, Heris reluctantly left the room together with Davis.


    "Have a seat. Let''s have a proper chat between the two of us," man courteously said.


    Unlike what Alice expected, man did not behave irritably like she thought he would. Although his wheat-colored skin and bulky body gave him the appearance of someone who had muscles for brains, he was a surprisingly calm person in reality.


    After seeing Alice taking a seat across from him, man picked up the pot of tea on the table, grabbed a new cup from his desk drawer, and started pouring a cup of tea for Alice. Then, he ced the tea before Alice and said, "Don''t worry. It hasn''t been long since I boiled this pot of tea."


    "..."


    Alice did not respond. She didn''t pick up the hot cup of tea, either. Instead, she looked at man and waited for him to start talking business.


    "It seems you understand my intentions as well, so let me get straight to the point." Looking at the tea on the table, man paused for a moment before saying, "I, man Agaras, am a rather amiable demon. So long as someone has a useful ability and can tell me about it, I am willing to offer them a good job suited for them. Moreover, unlike the other three lunatics, I am much better at listening to others. Thus, most of my subordinates trust in me as well However, what I cannot tolerate is for others to lie to me about their abilities. Do you get me?"


    Alice came to a realization. She recalled Heris mentioning that she had gone to Demon King City because of a diviner''s words. She also recalled Davis saying that this diviner had been sent to work at the border. Combining these two points with what man just said, she deduced that the diviner in question wasn''t the real deal but a chatan who had just gotten lucky instead. Meanwhile, man had probably found out about the diviner''s lie after calling the diviner to meet him. Then, out of anger, man sent the fake diviner to work at the border.


    "So, you wish to see if I am the real Demon King."


    Alice nodded. She found this situationpletely reasonable. man was one of the Four Heavenly Kings, after all. There was no way he could tolerate being under someone who he didn''t even know was the real Demon King or not. This matter was made worse by her appearance that looked nothing like a Demon King.


    However, this situation was good news to Alice. After all, if nobody believed that she was the Demon King even after she confessed it herself, so long as she kept her mouth shut, it was even less likely that anyone would think that she was the Demon King-cum-Hero.


    "Yes. I heard from Alice that you don''t have perfect control over the Demon King''s Power However, honestly speaking, I can''t feel an ounce of power inside your body. Even your mana is ridiculously scarce. It''s as if you don''t have mana at all," man said, narrowing his eyes. "So, it''s only reasonable that I''m doubtful, right? Lord Demon King?"


    "Indeed, that is the case. How do you want me to prove myself, then?"


    "Since Heris says that you can only use the Demon King''s Power at certain times, we''ll conduct a test once you feel like you can use the Demon King''s Power," man said. Then, tapping a finger against the table, he continued, "You cane to find me whenever you feel like you''re ready. If you are the Demon King, I will naturally be willing to take responsibility for my suspicion over you. I will serve as your pawn and be the first to lead the invasion into the human realm. But if you are not the Demon King"


    "I understand."


    Alice didn''t ask what would happen if she wasn''t the Demon King. It definitely wouldn''t be anything good, in any case.


    However, Alice had nothing to fear. She currently had two pairs of ck panties in her pouch still. In other words, she could use the "Demon King''s Power" two more times. They were already more than enough to prove her identity to man.


    "Let''s do the test now, then. I feel that I can use the Demon King''s Power right now."

 Chapter 44: You Asked For This

    Chapter 44: You Asked For This


    man naturally wasn''t so dumb as to verify Alice''s Demon King''s Power in his house. After all, the demon realm had already witnessed the might of over a dozen Demon Kings, so everyone already possessed a general understanding of the Demon King''s Power. For example, with the Demon King''s Power, a Demon King could unleash taboos as if they were drinking water.


    Based on this point alone, man dared not conduct livebat with a suspected Demon King within his home. It might be fine if Alice wasn''t the Demon King and was simply someone with strength rivaling the Four Heavenly Kings. If that was the case, man was confident he could keep his house intact. However, he would be rendered helpless if Alice was the Demon King. If Aliceunched a taboo within his home, he would have to begin preparations for rebuilding it.


    "We''ll conduct the test here," man said.


    For precaution''s sake, man had brought Alice to a secret underground bunker located a short distance from his manor. However, it couldn''t really be considered a secret bunker since the entrance was tantly situated on a street in Teli City.


    "This bunker has been strengthened by multiple generations of Four Heavenly Kings and Demon Kings. It is more than capable of withstanding the power of taboos, and it is prepared as a shelter for when the human realm invades us. If it is in here, you can even use taboos without having to worry about damaging anything."


    As man provided Alice with an introduction to the bunker, he slowly raised his left hand and summoned a small me in his palm. Then, as if the me was some kind of ignition, many more thumb-sized mes started appearing around man''s body.


    In the blink of an eye, an armor of mes had appeared around man''s muscr body. The high temperature of the mes had even distorted the surrounding air, so a normal person like Alice quickly found herself sweating from the heat.


    Looking at theyer of mes protecting man, Alice had to admit that the Four Heavenly Kings were indeed powerful existences. Even though man wasn''t executing an attack, Alice had already found herself struggling for breath.


    At this time, even the Milu Rabbit tied to Alice''s waist had woken up and was currently struggling to break free from its restraint. Though, by the time Alice and man were done with their battle, Alice would probably have to take the rabbit to a veterinarian since it might have suffered heatstroke.


    "By the way, you should''ve noticed that my horns are fake, right?" Alice suddenly asked as she quietly extended her right hand into her pouch. Then, she added, "I noticed that you''ve been looking at the top of my head from time to time."


    "That''s right. Your horns might be able to fool ordinary demons, but any high-ranking demon can tell that they are fake," man said, nodding. After taking a nce at the right hand Alice had extended into her pouch, he continued exining, "Demon Kings are humans who have transformed into demons, so they might not understand much about the characteristics of demons from the get-go. The horns, wings, and tails of demons aren''t there just for decoration. Instead, they are organs necessary for demons to survive in the demon realm. They are the fruits of evolution meant to help demons filter the demon realm''s polluted mana."


    "They''re organs for filtering polluted mana?" Alice was a little surprised. This was the first time she had heard about such a thing. Although she had read some information on the demon realm through the demon realm''s inte, she did not conduct thorough research into the demon realm''s biology. "I see. Does that mean you noticed that my horns are fake because they contain no mana whatsoever?"


    "Yes. That stic product might be good for role-ying in the human realm, but in the demon realm, it is only enough to fool weak demons who are insensitive toward mana," man said,ughing. Then, he refocused his gaze on Alice and said, "Come, show me your evidence of being the Demon King. If I find that you aren''t a demon, I have no choice but to deem you a human spy. At that time, I cannot guarantee what will happen to you."


    "You won''t get that opportunity."


    Alice chuckled. Then, she agilely picked out a pair of panties from her pouch, bent her fingers, and stuffed the panties into the glove she wore. She had previously cut a slit in her glove, so she managed to hide the panties into the glove without trouble.


    Originally, the weapon information disyed in Alice''s mind was as followed:


    [Weapon: Slightly Damaged Fabric Glove]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    However, the weapon information immediately changed after Alice stuffed the ck panties into the glove and clenched her fist.


    [Weapon: Soft ck Lace Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +3000, Speed +3000, Mind +7000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Destruction Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can crumble the target''s soul.)]


    In an instant, ck mist started oozing from Alice''s right hand, and an ocean of mana began filling Alice''s petite body. Although Alice''s transformation wasn''t as apparent as the phenomenon man''s me armor created, man''s expression drastically changed when he sensed Alice''s change.


    As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, man had naturally noticed the indescribablyrge amount of mana that had suddenly appeared within Alice. Meanwhile, this mana had instantly transformed Alice from a powerless human into an existence that made even man feel threatened.


    Originally, man had still been specting whether Alice had used some kind of tool to temporarily elevate her strength and fool Heris into believing that she was the Demon King. Now, though, he had thrown those thoughts out the window and earnestly believed that Alice was the new Demon King.


    What a joke. If someone managed to invent a tool that could allow a normal person to instantly gain strength surpassing that of the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings, this person would''ve ruled the world already.


    Now, man was starting to regret his decision. Had he known that Alice''s transformation would be so obvious after she made use of the Demon King''s Power, there wouldn''t be a need to conduct abat test in this anti-magic bunker. Alice would only need to exhibit her boundless mana to convince him that she was the Demon King.


    ording to historical records, the ck mist that was currently oozing out of Alice''s right hand matched the characteristics of past Demon Kings when they utilized the Demon King''s Power. If Alice went all-out right now, the anti-magic bunker might not copse entirely, but it would definitely need many costly repairs.


    man was the Fear Kingdom''s king. To avoid putting unnecessary strain on the kingdom''s finances, he immediately decided to stop the battle. However, just as man was about to open his mouth and speak out, a white silhouette suddenly charged in his direction and crashed into his face with a bang.


    The white silhouette naturally belonged to the Milu Rabbit.


    After waking up, the Milu Rabbit quickly struggled free from the rope tying its ears to Alice''s waist. Then, after running around for a while, the Milu Rabbit found that apart from Alice, the only other person standing in this empty bunker was man.


    Thus, the Milu Rabbit clicked A(ttack) and swiftly typed "GG" in chat.


    As the Heavenly King of Fire, man naturally possessed a frightening physique. The Milu Rabbit didn''t have the qualifications to move man''s face even after headbutting him with all of its strength and passing out. However, because of the Milu Rabbit''s unexpected interruption, man''s mind nked for a moment, and the words he wanted to say failed toe out of his mouth.


    Moreover, as if the Milu Rabbit''s headbutt was a signal, Alice immediatelyunched her attack as soon as she heard the sound of the impact.


    "Destruction Grip!"


    "I..."


    man wore a bitter expression on his face as he watched the gigantic ck hand mercilessly descending toward him.

 Chapter 45: Flamans Image Ruined

    Chapter 45: man''s Image Ruined


    If the average person received Destruction Grip head-on, their most likely oue would be instant death. Even the soul of Grant, the previous generation''s Demon King, had his soul extinguished by this move.


    However, man wasn''t a normal person. Since he dared to have Alice use a taboo against him, this showed that he wasn''t worried about getting killed by a taboo.


    As proof of man''s confidence, when Alice''s Destruction Grip ruthlessly mped down on his body, it did not crush his body or soul. The attack only inflicted some pain onto the Heavenly King of Fire.


    Meanwhile, from Alice''s perspective, when the gigantic ck hand made contact with man, she saw man''s me armor re up and resist the ck hand. The terrifying heat the mes radiated even distorted the ck hand a little.


    Fortunately, man''s efforts to resist were not in vain. Just when the me armor protecting his body was dissipating, Alice''s Destruction Grip also started fading out of existence. When both the fiery armor and gigantic ck hand vanished without a trace, man weakly knelt onto the ground, his face covered in sweat as he panted for air.


    <em>What a scary power There''s no mistaking it. This level of destructiveness is on par with taboos, </em>man thought in trepidation as he looked down at his body. Although his clothing remained intact, he could sense that many of his organs had shifted positions because of Alice''s terrifying attack. Most of the mana he previously had was nowhere to be seen as well. Had his mana reserves been a little smaller, he wouldn''t have ousted Alice''s attack, and his body and soul would have probably been crushed instantly.


    Since man became one of the Four Heavenly Kings, it had been a long time since he had encountered anyone making him experience the feeling of death. Before this mock battle, he was still skeptical of Alice''s identity as the Demon King. Now, though, he was fully convinced of Alice''s identity.


    After all, even the Four Heavenly Kings were incapable of utilizing taboos as effortlessly as Alice did. Only a Demon King or Hero could aplish such a feat. However, there was no way a Hero could use Destruction Grip, a move carrying the characteristics of the Demon King.


    Not to mention, man knew that the human realm''s Hero was a man with a muscr body and a pretty face. Such a description did not fit Alice at all.


    "It''s my loss It seems I was mistaken in my suspicion of you before. You should be this generation''s Demon King," man said, a frown forming on his face as he stood up. Because of his injuries, he had difficulty even walking up to Alice. Then, after arriving in front of Alice, he looked down at the girl whose height only reached his waist and said, "However, Heris is right. You are too weak before you make use of the Demon King''s Power. The Four Heavenly Kings might not take action against you, but there are bound to be some ignorant demons who woulde to find trouble with you. So, you''ll have to train more and take control of the Demon King''s Power as soon as possible."


    Alice looked up at man and awkwardlyughed. Take control of the Demon King''s Power? What Demon King''s Power? She had merely utilized the additional effect of a pair of panties. She would be fine so long as she had a sufficient number of panties. No amount of training would grant her better control over the power of panties.


    Regardless, Alice was relieved that man no longer doubted her identity. He didn''t show any intentions of killing her to get rid of a potential threat to his influence, either. That was probably to be expected since the Four Heavenly Kings were still thinking of relying on the Demon King to snatch the human realm''s territories. If they killed the Demon King at this time, they would have nobody to deal with the human realm''s Hero.


    Of course, Alice couldn''t discount the possibility that some of the Four Heavenly Kings might provoke her due to their arrogance. Though, that possibility was low since history had proven that such individuals usually faced a tragic end.


    "Let''s head back first before we discuss further details. I can feel that my internal injuries are quite serious, so I''ll need to receive treatment first," man said. Although he still had many things to discuss with the new Demon King, he had already started feeling unwell after saying a few words. He might not die if he continued dying his treatment, but he''ll suffer from seque.


    Right now, man could more or less understand why the historical records stated that the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings and the human race''s Sages could only ever y supporting roles in the fights between Demon Kings and Heroes. The Demon King and Hero''s ability to freely cast taboos was simply too powerful. Even if the Four Heavenly Kings and Sages participated in the fight, they would die in no more than a few exchanges.


    "Alright, let''s head back, then."


    Alice nodded. Honestly speaking, she stillcked understanding of this otherworld. Fortunately, now that she had proven her identity, she should be able to acquire more information from man. Not to mention, since it was a known fact that Demon Kings used to be humans, it would be very normal for her tock knowledge regarding the demon realm. Thus, this was probably the best opportunity for her to learn about this otherworld.


    After picking up the unconscious Milu Rabbit from the ground and tying its ears to her waist again, Alice followed the limping Heavenly King to the bunker''s exit.


    "By the way, if all Demon Kingse from humans, how are they supposed to live in the demon realm''s polluted environment without the unique organs of demons?"


    Alice suddenly recalled Grant''s appearance. Although Grant''s soul had been in an ethereal state the entire time, she could still tell that he did not have any horns, wings, or tail.


    "Of course, it is by relying on the Demon King''s Power. Although the Demon King doesn''t have any filtration organs, the Demon King''s Power can work as a substitute for them," man answered as he arrived in front of the bunker doors. Then, he pushed apart the heavy doors and walked out.


    Six soldiers stood on guard by the bunker''s entrance, looking majestic in their ck armor engraved with magic patterns. Alice had already noticed these soldiers when she first arrived here with man. However, she didn''t think that they would remain stationary like statues even after hearing all themotioning from the bunker. She had to admit that these soldiers possessed excellent professional ethics.


    Unfortunately, no matter how professional these six soldiers were, their expressions still subtly changed when they saw man and Alice exiting the bunker.


    man Agaras, the Heavenly King of Fire, had brought a blonde girl who was clearly underaged into a deserted bunker. Then, considerably loud noises and man''s shouting had spread out of the bunker. By the time man had left the bunker with Alice, man''s legs had gone limp, and his clothes had be wrinkled. Meanwhile, Alice had been sorting her dress (tying the Milu Rabbit to her waist) when she walked out of the bunker.


    B-Beast!!


    Without man''s notice, the six soldiers'' gaze when they looked at him had changed. Although demons were indeed a race that worshipped strength, they still had a sense of honor. For man to do <em>that </em>kind of thing to an underaged girl like Alice


    Immediately after man and Alice left, one of the soldiers looked around for a moment before pulling out his phone from his armor. Then, he logged into LINKS.

 Chapter 46: Everyone Has Been Misled

    Chapter 46: Everyone Has Been Misled


    <strong><em>"Hundred-Year-Old King Abducts Young Girl Into Vacant Bunker. Moral Degenerate?"</em></strong>


    The next day, a photo of man and Alice leaving the bunker together circted all over the inte. Combined with the efforts of independent media, the image quickly made headlines in the demon realm.


    In the photo, man''s clothes could be seen in a messy state. His face was also pale, and his legs looked weak. One could tell at a nce that he had been hollowed out. Meanwhile, walking beside him was a petite figure that had been heavily censored to protect her identity.


    When man found this photo on the inte, although he felt fortunate that the photo''s uploader had the decency to hide Alice''s identity, he still couldn''t help but explode into a flying rage. On the one hand, he was mad that this photo had sullied his reputation. On the other hand, he was mad that someone in the demon realm had the gall to secretly take a photo of him and spread it.


    Under normal circumstances, man would''ve justughed and thought nothing of this matter. After all, he was the most friendly and reasonable person out of the Four Heavenly Kings. However, now that Alice was captured in the image as well, in the off chance that her identity as the new Demon King got exposed, it could potentially lead to dire consequences.


    Just like how the demons had sent assassins after the human realm''s Hero, now that the new Demon King had appeared, the human realm would simrly grow alert. To man, Alice was his only hope of taking over the human realm. Although the image circting on the inte had been heavily censored, and Alice herself looked nothing like a Demon King, he could not afford even the slightest oversight.


    "Davis! Find out who took this photo!" manmanded as he angrily mmed his palm onto his desk. "This person must be among those six guards on duty that day if they can take this picture! Find him!"


    "No problem." Davis naturally knew that the rumors spreading on the inte were nothing but lies meant to attract attention. Although man was one of the Four Heavenly Kings, he wasn''t the type to abuse his power. Not to mention, Alice wasn''t somebody man would dare to mess around with. "Once I find the culprit, should Iexecute him?"


    "No need. At least the guy has the brains to censor out the Demon King. With such heavy censorship, there shouldn''t be anyone who can get any useful information out of the picture," man said as he leaned back against hisfy chair. Then, after letting out a dispirited grunt, he continued, "Once you find him, have him nt potatoes!"


    "Understood. I''ll get it done afterward."


    Davis nodded. The sensibility man had just shown was one of the main reasons why Davis had chosen to subordinate himself under man. man waspletely different from Ellu Shax, the Acura Kingdom''s ruling queen and the Heavenly King of Water. From the rumors Davis heard, Ellu Shax would turn her retainers into puppets whenever she was in a bad mood and mess with them for several months. By the time those retainers returned to their original forms, their mental state would''ve long since crumbled.


    When thinking about the Heavenly King of Water, Davis suddenly remembered that he had something important to report to man, so he said, "By the way, Lord man, the other rulers have sent in a notice stating that they hope to pay you a visit and discuss matters about the newly-appeared Demon King."


    "Heh Those bastards must''ve caught wind of some information."


    man sneered. He naturally knew that the three other Heavenly Kings wouldn''t be so bored as to visit him. He was willing to bet that they had caught wind of some information and found out that the new Demon King might be staying at his ce. Thus, they were using the excuse of visiting him to meet the new Demon King.


    "This can''t be helped. There''s no hiding the fact that the Young Miss visited Demon King City two days ago. Although it is unlikely for them to know that the Young Miss has brought Lady Alice back with her, if they link the Young Miss''s abrupt trip with what had happened in Demon King City, they would probably suspect that the Young Miss had acquired some crucial information during her trip," Davis exined as he pushed against his sses. "So, should I refuse their request?"


    "...What''s your opinion on this matter?" man helplessly asked as he massaged his aching temples.


    "I rmend that we do not refuse their request as doing so will only further arouse their suspicion. It is no longer a secret that the new Demon King has appeared. Suppose we refuse to share even the slightest bit of information. In that case, it could potentially create the misunderstanding that we hold bad thoughts toward the Demon King," Davis stated his opinion without hesitation.


    "Also, I think that even if we are to conceal Lady Alice''s existence to the entire demon race, we should stille clean with the other Heavenly Kings and have them cooperate with us in keeping Lady Alice''s identity a secret. If we choose to keep this secret to ourselves, we will only cause the other Heavenly Kings to stand against us. In that case, Lady Alice''s identity might get exposed to the public amidst the other Heavenly Kings'' attempts to investigate the new Demon King''s identity."


    "It seems that is the only thing we can do." man nodded in agreement with Davis''s words. Then, he looked toward the doors of his office and asked, "What do you think, Lady Alice?"


    "I got discovered?" The doors parted, and Alice walked in with Heris while scratching her head in embarrassment. "I thought I hid pretty well."


    "Hahaha! While I might not be able to withstand even an attack from you when you are using the Demon King''s Power, your mana, physique, and concealment technique are far too weak when you are in your normal state." manughed in a carefree manner. "Well, what do you think of our arrangement, Lady Alice? Going by our ns, you might have to meet the other Heavenly Kings in person. After all, if I unterally keep your information secret, it might result in an internal feud between the Four Heavenly Kings. You shouldn''t wish to see such an oue, right?"


    <em>I guess what wille hase.</em> Alice inwardly sighed. Beforeing to the demon realm, she was originally scheduled to meet the rulers of the human realm as well. However, she never thought that she would meet with the demon realm''s rulers first, even before meeting the human realm''s rulers. "I don''t have any opinions."


    "That''s great, then. With the other Heavenly Kings'' help, we can be certain that the human realm and most of the demon realm wouldn''t find out about your true identity. Also, I have already verified your LINKS ount as requested. From now on, you can use your LINKS to publish fake information about your whereabouts to mislead those foolish humans" man said with a smirk. "...Heh. I doubt they''d ever think that we are posting fake information on the Demon King. In contrast, they''re giving us information on the Hero for free."


    Alice was momentarily rendered speechless by this situation. The demons and humans both believed that only their side posted fake information while the other was posting real information. Never did they suspect that the other side was posting fake information as well Although this development was in line with her ns, she still couldn''t help but find this situation to be awkward.

 Chapter 47: Enemy Boss Is a Spy, Ally Boss Is Also a Spy

    Chapter 47: Enemy Boss Is a Spy, Ally Boss Is Also a Spy


    "Alice! Terrible news!"


    Zauna''s voice came through the phone. Even though Alice did not set the call to speaker mode, Zauna''s voice still reached every corner of her bedroom. Fortunately, apart from Alice and the unconscious Milu Rabbit, nobody else was present in the room right now.


    "The Demon King has appeared! Did you hear about it on your side?!"


    "Ahh Of course I heard of it. I''m in the demon realm right now, after all," Alice said while holding her phone with her left hand and using her right hand to manipte the crystalline device that resembled a crystalline mouse. Then, while looking at theputer in front of her, Alice continued, "Since the Hero has already appeared, isn''t it normal for the Demon King to appear also?"


    "That being said You shouldn''t underestimate the Demon King''s Power. A LINK ount going by the name ''Milu Times'' has posted details regarding the Demon King''s birth. It seems the Demon King this time is considerably powerful," Zauna said worriedly. Although was confident in the strength of Alice the "Hero," looking at the description written by Milu Times, the new Demon King seemed like a tough opponent.


    "That Demon King managed to destroy something that even the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings failed to break. I think you should be more careful, Alice. You mustn''t let the Demon King find out about your identity."


    "Rx. The Demon King won''t find out about my identity." Alice said as she reached for a bag of snacks with her right hand. Then, after stuffing a biscuit into her mouth, she vaguely said, "Setting the Demon King aside, how are thingsing along on your side, Zauna? Have you started sses yet?"


    "What do you mean by ''setting aside the Demon King'' Do you think that my sses are more important than the Demon King?"


    Zauna couldn''t help but be frustrated at Alice''s nonchnt attitude toward the Demon King. She had been worried sick over Alice when she first found out about the new Demon King''s birth, yet the person she was worried about didn''t feel anxious one little bit.


    "I already reported in at the school this morning, and I''ll officially start attending sses tomorrow... By the way, Alice, do you want toe to school, too? Although you seem to have received power from God, you still don''t know anything about basic magic, right?"


    "School, huh"


    Alice fell into thought. This wasn''t the first time Zauna had brought up this suggestion. However, Alice had never made up her mind about attending school.


    Thinking about it now, even if she were to attend school, Alice would definitely choose to go to a human school. After all, ording to man, the reason why demons could utilize the demon realm''s polluted mana to cast magic was because of the unique filtration organs they possessed. As for Demon Kings, they could make use of the Demon King''s Power as a recement for the filtration organs, so they wouldn''t have any trouble integrating into the demon realm.


    However, it was a different story for Alice. She didn''t have the Demon King''s Power at all. So, if she were to attend school in the demon realm, filtering and manipting the demon realm''s polluted mana would be a huge problem.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice said to Zauna, "That works. Zauna, help me ask what kind of procedures I need to go through to get enrolled. I think it''d be better if I learned more about magic. I can''t always use my ultimate move for everything, after all."


    "No problem. Leave it to me," Zauna said, a hint of joy in her voice. She was happy that she would get to attend school together with Alice.


    Although Alice was still clueless about magic, that wasn''t a problem. Zauna was only an apprentice magician herself. She had started officially learning about magic only recently, and she could only use some simple magic. Even if Alice transferred partway through the semester, she should catch up to the sybus very quickly. Not to mention, as the Hero, Alice should possess frightening talent when it came to learning magic.


    "Has the human realm taken any major actions after learning about the Demon King''s birth?" Alice asked as she stared at the screen before her. "Didn''t the demons say that they wanted to send assassins after learning about the Hero? Does the human realm have thoughts of assassinating the Demon King as well?"


    "I don''t think so Everyone is confident in the Hero''s strength," Zauna said, her answer surprising Alice a little. Alice had initially expected the human realm to send assassins after the Demon King, just like the demon realm had done so for the Hero.


    Then, Zauna exined, "Only one Demon King has sessfully invaded the human realm in the past, after all. Moreover, once that Demon King passed away, humans quickly recaptured their stolen territory. As for the other Demon Kings, every one of them fell to the Hero without fail. So, everyone is confident that the Hero will win this time as well, and nobody thinks that there is a need to assassinate the Demon King."


    After pondering over Zauna''s words, Alice found that Zauna''s words were indeed reasonable. The fact that the demons were so eagerly trying to assassinate the Hero after learning about the Hero''s birth could be seen as a form of distrust toward the Demon King. This distrust was also perfectly justified since only one Demon King had ever managed to defeat the Hero out of the dozen or so Demon Kings that had existed. This situation led the demons to believe that the Demon King was inferior to the Hero under normal circumstances. Thus, it was only logical that they disposed of the threat known as the Hero first.


    Humans, on the other hand, were different. Only one Hero had ever met with failure out of the many Heroes that had appeared in the human realm. So, it was only natural that humans were confident in the Hero and saw no need to send assassins after the Demon King. Of course, it was also possible that the human kings might have sent their subordinates to locate the new Demon King and assassinate the Demon king if possible. It was just that such information might not be avable to the general popce.


    "Thankfully, Milu Times not only revealed information about the Demon King''s birth, but it also provided a general description of the Demon King. It seems the new Demon King has registered a LINKS ount and provided information about herself," Zauna said. "Anyway, if youe across a red-haired woman with brown skin and a good figure, make sure to stay away from her. That person might very well be the new Demon King."


    Alice was momentarily rendered speechless when she heard Zauna''s warning. She was bbergasted by how gullible the humans and demons of this world were. How could they so easily trust something others said?


    The so-called red-haired woman with brown skin and a good figure was naturally the fake image Alice had created for herself to fool others. Moreover, different from the Hero''s LINK ount, Alice had even posted a few photos of "herself" on her Demon King''s LINKS ount to verify her im.


    Of course, the images Alice posted weren''t those of a real person. Instead, they were photoshopped images of Heris. Heris''s zing-red hair was darkened in the photos, her body proportions were exaggerated, and her facial features were made more flirtatious. Although Heris was used as the base model, after the modifications were made, it was almost impossible to see any semnce between the "Demon King" and Heris.


    Alice had heard that the photoshopped images were made by the demon realm''s best photoshop artist. After the artistpleted themission, Ellu Shax, the Heavenly King of Water, had turned the artist into her toy. Although Ellu did not kill the artist, Alice guessed that the artist would only regain his freedom after Ellu was done toying with him until he lost his memories.


    Regarding this situation, Alice could only mourn in silence for the artist. He would get to keep his life, at the very least. It shouldn''t be a problem if he lost some of his memories, right? However, through this incident, Alice could tell that her decision to get all of the Four Heavenly Kings to help her conceal her identity was the right call. With this, she would''ve fooled the rulers of the human and demon realms.


    What she needed to do next was to try her best to find a solution to the demon realm''s pollution problem. Either that or find a way to transmigrate back to her world. The first option would remove the cause for war between the human and demon realms, while the second option allowed her to flee from any potential wars.


    <em>There''s still a long way to go</em>


    Alice sighed. After ending her call with Zauna, she looked at herputer and saw that the game she downloaded from the inte had finished installing. Then, she double-clicked the game''suncher.

 Chapter 48: Alice the Noob

    Chapter 48: Alice the Noob


    Thanks for getting me killed, noob.


    Alice grew a little embarrassed as she looked at the chatbox on the bottom-left corner of her screen. The game she downloaded was an MMORPG. It was a standard MMO that involved killing monsters, leveling up, and raiding dungeons. Logically, such a game shouldn''t require much skill to y; everything should be fine so long as she spent some money.


    However, Alice had forgotten one little detail: that was the fact that this game was being operated in the demon realm. In other words, the game was catered toward demons. Meanwhile, demons were a race that worshipped strength. Even weak civilianscking talent had undergone harsh training since they were children, thus granting them physiques far surpassing ordinary humans.


    In contrast, Alice was nothing but an ordinary human girl. With her inferior reaction speed, reflexes, and hand-eye coordination, she couldn''t even execute moves that demons considered basic. Sometimes, when fighting bosses in the game, she wouldn''t even notice an attack wasing at her until it had hit her in the face.


    The current situation was one such example. Alice had joined a party to raid a dungeon. Originally, the character she controlled should be responsible for tanking hits from the dungeon boss. Yet, when the boss attacked, Alice had failed to activate her skill in time, which resulted in her and one other teammate getting vaporized.


    <em>There''s no way I can continue ying this</em>


    Just like Alice expected, as soon as the rest of the party defeated the boss andpleted the dungeon, the party leader immediately removed her from the party.


    Alice had gotten a lot of benefits thanks to her identity in the Demon King. One such example was the small fortune man had transferred into the e-wallet ount she had made recently. Meanwhile, thanks to this money, Alice splurged like a tycoon in the MMORPG she downloaded, which, in turn, allowed her to secure a party easily. Unfortunately, despite the powerful items she bought, her performance wasn''t even half that of the average yer.


    Alice couldn''t help but sigh at this situation. Without utilizing the power of panties, her body''s parameters were no different from an ordinary human girl''s. She naturally couldn''tpete against demons, who possessed far superior physical performance than her.


    Of course, if Alice intended to take a game seriously, she could also consider tying a pair of panties around her right hand. However, the problem was the special effects that came with the power of panties. She would have to deal with holy light blinding her eyes or ck mist flooding her room throughout her entire gaming session, and that definitely wouldn''t be afortable experience. Also, in the off chance that someone entered her room while she was gaming and saw the panties tied around her hand, that would instantly lead to her social death.


    <em>But</em>


    Alice pursed her lips as she looked at her game character disyed on the monitor. There was nothing more upsetting to a gamer than being called a "noob" by other yers.


    After hesitating for a moment, Alice slowly reached for the pouch tied to her waist with her right hand.


    "Lord Demon King, the other Heavenly Kings have arrived already and are currently waiting for you in the conference room."


    Suddenly, knocking sounds followed by Davis''s voice came from the door, causing Alice to instantly retract the fingers that had already slid into her pouch.


    "I''ming!" Alice shouted. Then, she stood up and grabbed a ck glove from the side of her table. This glove was a different one from before. The previous one she wore had already been obliterated out of existence when she used Destruction Grip against man.


    <em>Let''s hope man can convince them that I am the Demon King My reserve is running low already.</em>


    Alice prayed as she sighed. Including the one she wore, she currently had five pairs of panties on her person. However, only one of them was ck. She also couldn''t find it within herself to ask for ck panties from Heris. After all, Heris hadn''t done anything bad to her thus far, unlike Rosa. On the contrary, the demoness had treated her quite well since they met until now.


    Of course, Alice had also tried buying new panties to use as weapons. However, after the panties she ordered online had arrived, she found that her right hand did not recognize them as Artifacts. Instead, they were only deemed as "Cloth With No Value." This development shattered Alice''s thoughts of buying arge stockpile of panties.


    Based on this oue, Alice estimated that panties that had never been worn would have no value. Only after a pair of panties had been worn could it exhibit its true value and gain recognition from her right hand.


    Amidst her silentmentation, Alice reached for the Milu Rabbit tied to her waist. Only after sensing its presence did she feel more at ease.


    Afterward, Alice made her way to the door and opened it. Then, she nodded to Davis and followed him to the conference room.


    Several days had already gone by since Alice had her mock battle with man. During these past few days, the three other Heavenly Kings had passed their work to their respective subordinates and traveled to the Fear Kingdom to meet with the so-called Demon King that man mentioned.


    With man''s testimony, Davis behaved much more humbly and carefully in front of Alice now. Unless necessary, he dared not speak with Alice at all for fear of offending the new Demon King. Thus, the trip to the conference room progressed in silence.


    When the two eventually arrived in front of the conference room, Davis opened the doors for Alice. Then, the sight of four demons sitting in the spacious conference room immediately entered Alice''s eyes.


    Two people sat on each side of the long conference table. At this time, even Heris, man''s beloved daughter and someone who shared a close rtionship with Alice, did not qualify to enter this conference room.


    "You''re here, Lord Demon King," man greeted Alice with a smile. Then, when he scanned the room''s three other upants and saw the strange expressions they made, his smile grew even wider. Hah! I guess I''m not the only one surprised by the new Demon King''s appearance!


    Afterward, man quickly introduced Alice to the three other Heavenly Kings, saying, "This youngdy here is Alice, the new Demon King. She destroyed the radioactive crystal the previous Demon King left behind and erased the previous Demon King''s soul with her own hands."


    While the three other Heavenly Kings were scrutinizing her appearance, Alice also used the opportunity to observe them. A few days ago, man had already shown her the three other Heavenly Kings'' pictures and gave her a brief introduction of them. Thus, she quickly recognized who the people in the room were.


    Seated beside man was Wintas Varak, the Windy Kingdom''s ruling king and the Heavenly King of Wind. Wintas had the appearance of a feminine man, which was theplete opposite of man. He also had a paleplexion, a slender figure, and long white hair. If judging solely by appearances, one wouldn''t be able to tell that he was actually one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Rather than a powerful fighter, he looked more like a tactician who acted behind the scenes.


    Seated across from man were two female demons. Of the two, one was a woman with short dark-blue hair, an attractive body, and a look of interest on her face. This woman was Ellu Shax, the Acura Kingdom''s ruling queen and the Heavenly King of Water. From the rumors Alice found online, Ellu Shax was a sadist through and through.


    Lastly, the person sitting next to Ellu was a young girl with long light-brown hair. The girl was seemingly immersed in her own thoughts as she wore an absent-minded look on her face. Meanwhile, this girl was none other than Aird Mishal, the Terra Kingdom''s ruling queen and the Heavenly King of Earth.


    Without holding onto a pair of panties in her right hand, Alice was no different than a normal person. Hence, when subjected to the scrutinizing gazes of three Heavenly Kings, she couldn''t help but feel pressured.


    Fortunately, even though demons worshipped strength above all else, the demons had already developed their civilization for thousands of years. At this point, they were no longer the barbaric race that started fights for no good reason. Thus, although Wintas, Ellu, and Aird had many questions regarding Alice''s identity, they did not do anything out of line toward her.

 Chapter 49: It’s Not That We Don’t Believe You, We Just Want to Broaden Our Horizons

    Chapter 49: It��s Not That We Don��t Believe You, We Just Want to Broaden Our Horizons


    The conference room fell silent for a long while.


    Alice the new "Demon King" naturally sat in the seat of honor. Meanwhile, out of the Four Heavenly Kings seated on both sides of the table, only man did not look at her with a strange gaze.


    However, this was an understandable situation. After all, Alice''s did not give off even a hint of mana right now. Rather than an almighty Demon King, she felt more like a helpless sheep standing in the middle of a pack of wolves instead. Although man had already used his experience to attest to Alice''s identity and strength, Wintas, Ellu, and Aird found it truly hard to believe man''s words.


    "Are you sure she is the Demon King, man?"


    The first to speak was the Windy Kingdom''s King Wintas. Out of the Four Heavenly Kings, he was the most eager to find out the new Demon King''s identity. After all, Demon King City was situated within his territory. Yet, despite such a huge incident happening in Demon King City, he had not received any information on it. He had only found out about the appearance of the new Demon King after the LINKS user named Milu Times had shared it on the inte. Thus, he was put into a very awkward situation.


    Then, Wintas continued, "Although I don''t wish to question the Demon King''s authenticity, shedoesn''t feel like a Demon King at all"


    "You should know me very well. I might tell a few lies when discussing national matters as a king, but I will never joke around when I am speaking as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, especially when it is a matter that involves the Demon King."


    man did not get angry even when Wintas questioned him. Instead, he smiled and said, "Didn''t I bring you three to the bunker beforeing to the conference room? The dense mana lingering there can''t possibly be fake, right? Unless, of course, you think that I have too much time on my hands and decided to detonate a taboo bomb in there. Not to mention, my country doesn''t have any dark-attributed taboo bombs, either."


    man''s words caused the other Heavenly Kings to fall silent.


    What man said was true. Although they did doubt the authenticity of ma''s words initially, the dark-attributed mana that lingered in the anti-magic bunker they visited just now was more than enough to prove that a dark-attributed taboo had been used in there. Meanwhile, although man could cast a taboo by himself, he was the Heavenly King of Fire. The taboos he could cast were all fire-attributed.


    They could also dismiss the possibility of man detonating a taboo bomb in the bunker. Dark-attributed magicians were inherently rare, and few existed even in the demon realm. Meanwhile, man would need to gather dozens of dark-attributed magicians at the master level to create a taboo bomb of the darkness attribute.


    As Heavenly Kings, Wintas, Ellu, and Aird knew that aplishing such a feat was impossible. One wouldn''t find that many dark magicians even if one searched the entire demon realm, let alone dark magicians at the master level. Thus, the only possible exnation was that the new Demon King had cast a taboo inside the bunker.


    "Alright. I can somewhat ept your exnation," Aird, the Heavenly King of Earth sitting to Alice''s left, tly said. "However, I still wish to witness the Demon King''s Power with my own eyes to verify the uracy of this information. Since Lord Demon King can disy the Demon King''s Power to you, man, I believe it wouldn''t be a problem if she showed it to us as well, right?"


    "I agree. I, too, am curious to see the Demon King''s Power," Ellu said with an evil smile. "The Demon King''s Power will be the core of our invasion of the human world, after all. It''d be best if we verify its authenticity. If Little Alice really is the new Demon King, I will naturally be more than happy to be her pawn and fight on the frontlines for her."


    After saying so, Ellu licked her lips seductively as she looked at Alice. And even though Alice had already heard about Ellu''s personality from man, she still couldn''t help but shudder when subjected to Ellu''s gaze.


    Apart from specializing in their respective fields of elemental magic, the Four Heavenly Kings were also adept at non-elemental magic. Take Grant, the previous generation''s Demon King whom Alice had in before. The gravity magic he used was considered special magic that didn''t fall under the elemental magic category.


    Meanwhile, aside from water magic, Ellu Shax was also adept at puppet magic. Moreover, it wasn''t the average puppet magic that allowed its user to manipte puppets. Instead, Ellu could sealing weak individuals or souls into puppets and messing with them through this method. Then, only after grinding down their consciousness to nothing would she release the trapped individuals.


    Simply put, Ellu Shax was an extremely sick person. Thus, it was only natural for Alice to break out in cold sweat when Ellu looked at her in such a way.


    Fortunately, since there was a possibility that Alice might be the new Demon King, Ellu maintained a considerable degree of respect before her. This respect was also the only thing keeping Ellu''s desire to torture Alice in check.


    "This is a good suggestion. If we can experience the Demon King''s Power, we will also have an easier time nning our invasion to the human realm," Wintas said with a shady smile. However, his smile didn''t seem like it was directed toward Alice specifically, seeing as man and the others appeared used to Wintas''s behavior.


    Then, Wintas continued, "I was initially skeptical when you told us that the new Demon King''s appearance is very deceptive and that we should work together to conceal her identity, man. After all, no matter how much a Demon King tries to disguise themself, there was no way they could hide their demonic nature. However, if Little Alice here really is the new Demon KingI think that''s possible."


    ording to what Alice heard from man, Wintas was the only Heavenly King proficient in both fighting and strategizing. Thus, it was normal for him toe up with such a n in a short time.


    Meanwhile, all Demon Kings bore some kind of hatred toward the human race. Combined with the Demon King''s Power''s influence, every Demon King that had ever existed hated the human race down to their very bones. Even if a Demon King tried to hide among humans, others could instantly tell something was wrong. Thus, none of the past Demon Kings had ever tried to hide among humans.


    However, Alice was different. With her appearance, even if she were to walk among a crowd of humans, others would only think of her as a cute girl. Nobody would ever think that she was the Demon King. Thus, if Alice truly was the Demon King and they sent her to operate undercover in the human realm, they would be able to catch the human realm with its pants down.


    "If she really is the Demon King, we will have many more options we can take," Wintas said, his shady smile giving Alice goosebumps. "I''m growing a little eager But, man, is what you said about Little Alice not having full control over the Demon King''s Power true? If that''s the case, when can she use it again? I want to verify the Demon King''s identity so that I can start making the invasion ns as soon as possible."


    "You''re still the same as always, Wintas," Ellu said, shaking her head. "But I agree. When I think of capturing the human realm''s prosperous territory, I, too, want to start the invasion as soon as possible I''ve had enough of the shitty environment here. The resources we''re getting through smugglers are also insufficient for our economy to keep up with the humans"


    The demon realm''s polluted environment had rendered many resources unusable. Thus, the demon realm needed to import resources from the human realm. However, as the human realm produced just as many resources as it consumed, none of the human kingdoms were willing to export resources to the demon realm. They even imposedws to prevent the export of resources. And although smugglers would bring resources with them, the amount they brought was negligible. Meanwhile, theck of resources was also one of the main causes of conflict between the human and demon realms.


    When the focus of the meeting gradually shifted into a grievance meeting between the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings, Alice couldn''t help but smile bitterly.

 Chapter 50: There Are Always People Looking to Harm the Alliance

    Chapter 50: There Are Always People Looking to Harm the Alliance


    [Weapon: Soft ck Hipster Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +4000, Constitution +4000, Speed +6000, Mind +6000, Control +4000, Mana +6000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Dark Soul (Passive Skill. Resurrect at the nearest fire source upon death);


    Evil Burst (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a spiritual st that crushes your opponent''s soul.)]


    Since the other three Heavenly Kings wanted a disy of Alice''s "Demon King''s Power," Alice naturally had to use thest pair of ck panties she hadmandeered from Rosa.


    Simr to how man prepared himself a few days ago, the three other Heavenly Kings also covered their bodies with their strongest defensive magic as they prepared themselves to receive Alice''s attack.


    Wintas, the Heavenly King of Wind, enveloped himself in a cyclone.


    Ellu, the Heavenly King of Water, hid in a torrent of water.


    Aird, the Heavenly King of Earth, covered herself in armor made out of pitch-ck rock.


    Alice was moved when she saw how seriously the three Heavenly Kings were behaving. Then, she used Evil Burst without hesitation, shattering their defenses instantly and knocking them unconscious.


    There was nothing Alice could do about this oue. She had no idea what active skill her panties would offer. Although every one of the panties she previously used provided active skills that dealt damage to the soul, they still had very obvious physical effects. However, Evil Burst was different. The skill dealt purely spiritual damage.


    "Ahahahaha"


    manughed as if he had just won the lottery when he saw Alice''s attack ttening the other Heavenly Kings. Although the Four Heavenly Kings shared the same goal of invading the human realm, they weren''t a close-knit bunch during normal times. They would frequently butt heads when it came to international affairs. Thus, man couldn''t help but grow delighted when he saw Alice effortlessly knocking Wintas, Ellu, and Aird unconscious.


    Not to mention, those three bastards had ridiculed him when he told them that Alice had one-shotted him previously. They mocked him for being so weak that he couldn''t withstand even one move from the Demon King. However, now that everyone had experienced being one-shotted by Alice, nobody could make fun of each other.


    Moreover, although Alice had indeed one-shotted him, he had remained standing after taking her attack. He had only depleted his mana and suffered some internal injuries. He fared much better than the unconscious trio.


    As man was in a good mood, he took on the responsibility of carrying the three unconscious Heavenly Kings back. After stacking the three bodies on his shoulders, he left the anti-magic bunker together with Alice.


    Indeed. The ce they conducted their test in was the same anti-magic bunker from before. The only difference was that the guards stationed outside had been reced with a new batch.


    "They''ll probably suffer a huge mental blow after getting defeated in one movebut no matter. At the very least, you have now proven your identity as the Demon King to them," man said to Alice.


    Under the gazes of the trembling guards, man, Alice, and the unconscious trio left the anti-magic bunker. None of the guards dared to ask or even think about what had taken ce inside the bunker. The fate of the previous guards stationed here had already taught them what would happen should they didn''t mind their own business.


    "We''ll begin discussing our invasion ns once they''re awake. Before that, feel free to do whatever you want. Contact Heris if you need help with anything."


    After returning to the manor, man left these words to Alice before handing the three unconscious Heavenly Kings to his subordinates and running off to find Davis. Judging by how eager man was to discuss the invasion n on the human realm, it would seem that he was truly fed up with the demon realm''s polluted environment.


    Alice was weak without her panties, and she couldn''t really tell whether the mana around her was polluted. Thus, she didn''t really care about the quality of the mana surrounding her. However, it was a different story for the demons. The polluted mana in the demon realm''s air had long since be an obsession for them. Hence, it was understandable for man to be so excited about invading the human realm.


    However, this situation put Alice in an awkward position. Although it should take the demons several months or a year to develop a proper war strategy, looking at how eager man and the others were, they definitely wouldn''t drag on the nning phase for too long. Meanwhile, trying to solve the conflict between the human and demon realms within such a short period was a truly challenging task for Alice.


    <em>Should I focus on finding a way back home? Or should I focus on finding a solution to the demon realm''s environment?</em>


    Alice wasn''tpletely without a n. Currently, she had two options ahead of her. The first option was to find a way back to Earth. Based on the information she found on the inte, she had verified that nar teleportation magic existed in this world. However, it was incrediblyplex and wasn''t something that could be achieved within a short time. Even so, if she researched this topic, there was a real possibility that she could find a way back home.


    The second option was to fix the environment. Depending on the human realm''s level of technology, Alice might not even need to lift a finger to aplish this task. After all,pared to the demon realm, the human realm was much more superior when researching magical technologies. It was possible that the human realm already had a solution to the demon realm''s polluted environment.


    If that was the case, one might ask why the human realm wasn''t sharing this technology with the demon realm. After all, doing so would resolve the main factor driving the demon realm to invade the human realm. Thus, wouldn''t it be in the human realm''s best interests to share its technology with the demon realm?


    The answer was simple. Due to the enmity umted between the human and demon realms over the years, the two realms hardly evermunicated. So, the human realm''s inhabitants might not even know why the demon realm was trying to invade the human realm.


    Meanwhile, if the human realm truly possessed the relevant technology, it might help resolve the conflict between the human and demon realms. At that time, Alice would have more time to research nar teleportation magic. She might even be able to get other people to help her research this magic.


    While Alice was searching the inte for rted information, someone suddenly knocked on her room''s door. Then, a woman''s indifferent voice came through the door, asking, "Lord Demon King, are you in?"


    Alice was momentarily stunned when she heard this voice. Then, she quickly recognized the voice''s ownerAird Mishal, the Heavenly King of Earth.


    It had only been around ten minutes since Alice returned to her room. She didn''t think that Aird would be awake so soon after receiving a taboo-level mental attack. If a normal person received such an attack, they would probably enter aa on the spot.


    "I''m here."


    Although the Four Heavenly Kings now recognized Alice as the Demon King, Alice did not immediately put herself into the role. After all, the identity of Demon King sounded evil no matter how she looked at it. Thus, she responded to Aird as any normal person would. Then, she jumped off her chair and ran up to the door to open it.


    "What''s the mat"


    Before Alice could finish her sentence, a translucent chain made of mana shot through the door''s gap and pierced through her right hand.

 Chapter 51: Commentator Boss

    Chapter 51: Commentator Boss


    Alice almost screamed when she felt the intense paining from her right hand. Fortunately, after her experience in Demon King City, she no longer reacted like a fool in such sudden situations. Immediately, she realized that she had been attacked, so she quickly reached under her skirt for her panties.


    There was no helping this. Alice had only swiped three ck panties from Rosa, and she had already used up all three of them. So, two days ago, she had started preparing a new batch of ck panties by means of buying some unworn ck panties and wearing them.


    While this action sounded shameful, it was the only way Alice could acquire more ck panties to use as weapons. ording to Alice''s research, an unworn pair of panties needed to be worn for around four to five hours for her right hand to consider it an Artifact. Meanwhile, the ck panties Alice currently wore were one that she had put on since this morning. Now that it was already in the afternoon, it should''ve gained qualifications to be an Artifact already.


    However, when Alice tried stretching her right hand under her skirt, she found that the translucent chain that had prated her right hand was exuding some kind of power that froze her right hand in ce. No matter how much she tried, her right hand refused to move and awkwardly remained raised in the air.


    "Don''t try to use your right hand, Lord Demon King. It cannot move by even an inch right now."


    While Alice struggled to move her right hand, the door fully opened, revealing the person standing outside. Sure enough, the person outside the room was Aird Mishal, the Heavenly King of Earth.


    After opening the door, the girl with long brown hair and an indifferent look on her face walked into the room. There was also a small golden magic circle hovering beside the girl, and the magic chain that had prated Alice''s hand originated from none other than this magic circle.


    "Aird? What is the meaning of this?" Alice panicked a little when faced with this situation. However, she also knew that there was no point in shouting for help right now. Since Aird dared to attack her in the manor that housed all four Heavenly Kings, it must mean that she hade prepared. "Why are you attacking me now? If I recall correctly, you had also beenining about the demon realm''s situation in the conference room just now. Even if my presence threatens your position, shouldn''t you attack me after we have conquered the human realm?"


    Whether in the real world or fictional worlds, there were countless examples of infighting urring in a group before the group defeated theirmon enemy. Alice suspected that Aird was going down such a route as well, so she tried to see if she could persuade the other party to step back.


    "It seems you are quite clear-headed. I thought you would''ve shouted for help," Aird calmlymented. "I''ve even gone through the trouble of cing a barrier that sealed the sound of this area specifically for such a situation But it seems you already understood that I would make such preparations in advance."


    After praising Alice for her wisdom, Aird continued, "However, there is no use trying to persuade me. I am not disposing of you because I am worried that you would threaten my authority. Although I feel guilty about having to kill a little girl like you, this situation cannot be helped."


    "At least let me die knowing why. I deserve at least this much, right?" Alice hurriedly said, trying to acquire some information in the hopes of finding a chance to recover from this situation.


    However, Aird simply sneered and shook her head, saying, "I do not have the habit of exining my actions to dead people. For the sake of reducing my sense of guilt, I ask that you die sooner."


    <em>How can the time of my death influence your sense of guilt?!</em> Alice inwardlyined when she saw Aird lifting her hand.


    However, before she could say anything, arge golden magic circle had appeared in front of Aird''s right hand. Then, mana continuously flowed out of the magic circle and seeped into Alice''s body, causing Alice to feel her body growing heavier and heavier. Moreover, Aird''s magic was different from Grant''s gravity magic. Instead of directly influencing Alice''s weight, Aird''s magic sucked the strength out of Alice''s body, thereby making Alice feel that her body was growing heavier.


    "Although I cannot tell you my reason for doing this, I can tell you about the magic I''m using," Aird said when she saw Alice''s pleading look. "You should know that apart from their respective elemental magic, the Four Heavenly Kings will also practice non-elemental magic, right? Well, the non-elemental magic I practice is sealing magic."


    "Seal...ing?"


    Alice could feel her strength rapidly leaving her body. At this point, even speaking became a difficult task. However, seeing how long Aird''s sealing magic took to seal a harmless girl like herself, Alice guessed that the magic probably sealed its target''s strength in proportions. Possibly, this magic would take as much time to seal an ordinary girl as it would take to seal a Heavenly King.


    "That''s right. Whether it is the sound-sealing barrier, the Engraving of the Moon that is sapping away your strength, or the simplified War God''s Lock that is sealing your right hand, all of them are products of my research into sealing magic."


    Although Aird''s voice was already growing vague in her ears, Alice could still barely make out what Aird was saying.


    "Theplete War God''s Lock will produce tens of thousands of sealing chains to bind its targets, but since I am only trying to seal your right hand, just one chain is enough. After all, only your right hand should be capable of using the Demon King''s Power, right?"


    <em>You noticed even this?</em>


    The corners of Alice''s eyes twitched. Although she very much wanted to speak with her mouth, her body had grown so weak that she had already lost her ability to speak. Originally, she thought that nobody would notice her right hand''s peculiarity. However, it would seem that she had been too optimistic in her judgment.


    "Surprised?" Aird asked when she saw Alice''s reaction. Although her face remained expressionless, one could still hear a faint sense of delight in her voice. "It''s very obvious, honestly. When you use the Demon King''s Power, the ck mist that results from it only circles around your right hand. The other kings have no intentions of harming you, so they won''t care where your Demon King''s Power originates from or whether you have a weakness."


    <em>In other words, you have been thinking of harming me since we first met?</em>


    Originally, Alice had been wondering whether her identity as the Hero had gotten exposed, thus resulting in Airdunching a preemptive strike against her. However, after listening to Aird''s exnation, it would seem that even until now, Aird still believed that the power she used was the Demon King''s Power. In other words, Aird acknowledged that she was the Demon King. Yet, she still decided to act against the Demon King. This situation made Alice very depressed.


    "Although I feel very sorry, I cannot allow the existence of a Demon King," Aird said as she crouched down to look at Alice. At this time, Alice had already crumbled to the ground and couldn''t even open her eyes. Then, Aird continued, "As to why I am sealing you instead of outright killing you, it is because I worry that the Demon King''s Power would find a new host immediately after your death If I seal you, though, I should be able to guarantee that a new Demon King won''t appear for the next several hundred years."


    By now, Alice could hardly hear what Aird was saying. However, when she thought about getting sealed in this ce, she couldn''t help but feel unreconciled. So, she decided to put up one final struggle.


    Before today, all of the weapons Alice had held with her right hand possessed a physical form without a doubt. However, in the current situation, she had no choice but to try if she could use a mana construct as a weapon.


    Fortunately, although the War God''s Lock had frozen Alice''s right hand in ce, causing it to hover awkwardly in mid-air, the simplified taboo did not restrict the movements of the hand itself. In other words, Alice could still move her right hand''s fingers.


    Immediately, Alice used thest of her strength to close her right hand and grab the translucent chain that had perforated it.

 Chapter 52: Stop Relying on Panties to Solve Everything

    Chapter 52: Stop Relying on Panties to Solve Everything


    "With this, the current generation''s Demon King is no different than dead."


    Aird let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Alice had stopped moving. Then, she stood up and started considering how she should exin the situation to the other kings. The new Demon King suddenly going missing wasn''t a trivial matter. The other Heavenly Kings would definitely get to the bottom of this incident. Of course, Aird wasn''tpletely without solutions to this problem. Not to mention, even if the other Heavenly Kings did find out that she was the culprit of this incident, she was confident she could escape with her life intact.


    However, as soon as Aird stood up, she immediately noticed that something was amiss. The "War God''s Lock" that had prated Alice''s right hand was a construct made out of Aird''s mana. So, logically, Aird should be able to sense the chain''s existence. Yet, the moment she stood up, the chain''s existence had vanished from her perception.


    <em>What''s going on?</em>


    Aird frowned and looked at Alice''s right hand that was held up in midair. Even now, the War God''s Lock remained in Alice''s hand. The mana used to form the translucent chain had not dissipated. However, as this was her first time using the simplified War God''s Lock, she wasn''t sure if the sudden disappearance of its presence should be part of the magic''s characteristic. Eventually, Aird concluded as such and turned around to leave.


    However, the instant Aird turned around, she felt dangering from behind her. Immediately, her instincts kicked in, and she tried to jump aside to evade the dangerous feeling approaching her from behind.


    Unfortunately, the "person" who attacked Aird this time was none other than the War God''s Lock she just used.


    "What?!"


    The next moment, Aird felt a familiar mana ruthlessly prating her right hand. Then, a sealing power spread across her right hand, keeping it frozen in space and sealing the flow of mana within it.


    "This isthe War God''s Lock?


    Finally realizing the problem''s severity, Aird quickly turned around to look at Alice. Sure enough, Alice had already stood up from the ground at this time, and the seals ced on her body had started dissipating.


    Aird had ced two different seals on Alice. The first one was the simplified War God''s Lock, and its function was to seal Alice''s right hand, preventing her from using the Demon King''s Power. Although the number of chains the spell summoned had been reduced to just one, the spell''s quality was still on the level of taboos.


    The second seal Aird ced was called Engraving of the Moon. Although it was only an ordinary sealing spell and not a taboo, it was more than enough to deal with Alice in her normal state. The spell could sap all of the strength from Alice''s body and put her in aatose state, preventing her from moving and growing for the rest of her life.


    "You How are you fine?!"


    Aird''splexion paled. She had not expected such a situation to happen even after her two seals had taken effect on Alice.


    Breaking free from Engraving of the Moon''s sealing effect was a simple task. One could struggle out of the seal so long as one had sufficient mana within one''s body. However, Alice was someone who didn''t have an ounce of mana in her body. There should be no way Alice could struggle out of the magic unless arge amount of mana had spontaneously appeared within her body.


    However, such a situation went againstmon sense. Nobody should be capable of conjuring enough mana to break free from Engraving of the Moon in a situation where they originally had no mana in their body. Such a situation was akin to filling a driedke with water to full capacity in the blink of an eye. No matter how big the valve used was, there was no way one could aplish such a feat.


    The only possibility Aird could think of that could exin this phenomenon that defiedmon sense was that Alice had made use of the Demon King''s Power. If it was the Demon King''s Power, it might be capable of aplishing such a feat.


    However, it was precisely because Aird knew that something like this might happen that she had used the War God''s Lock to seal Alice''s right hand, preventing it from generating any mana.


    Yet, even after Aird had done all this, Alice had still managed to regain her freedom. Moreover, not only did Alice manage to counter the War God''s Lock''s sealing effect, but she had also managed to conjure up arge amount of mana from somewhere to break free from the Engraving of the Moon.


    "The reason why I''m fine is thanks to you, actually."


    Alice breathed out a sigh of relief after feeling strength returning to her. Then, she looked at her right hand with a strange gaze. Even when the simplified War God''s Lock had sealed her right hand, the moment her right hand grabbed onto the translucent chain, it had instantly robbed Aird of her ownership over the chain.


    [Weapon: Sturdy War God''s Lock - Simplified Version]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Mind +700, Control +700, Mana +700]


    [Additional Effect:


    War God''s Imprisonment (Active Skill. Imprison the target prated by the chain, keeping the target in ce and sealing the target''s source of power. The size of the affected area depends on the user''s mana.)]


    Fortunately for Alice, even though the chain was made up of mana, it was still possible to hold onto it physically. Thus, the moment Alice grabbed onto the chain, the chain immediately became Alice''s weapon. At the same time, the chain also supplied Alice with arge amount of mana, allowing her to break free from Aird''s Engraving of the Moon.


    In other words, had Aird not noticed the peculiarity with Alice''s right hand and only used the Engraving of the Moon against Alice, Alice''s tale in this world might have reallye to an end today.


    "What is this nonsense How can the War God''s Lock"


    Aird tried to move her right hand. However, to her horror, the War God''s Lock had indeed sealed her right hand. In other words, the ownership of the chain which she had used her mana to create had indeed been stolen by her opponent. Never had she heard of such a feat was possible. If Alice really was capable of stealing other people''s magic and using it as her own, was there anybody in this world capable of defeating her?


    Meanwhile, Alice was staring at Aird as she pondered what she should do next. She had originally nned to subjugate Aird after sealing her, but the problem was that the "Sturdy War God''s Lock - Simplified Version" only boosted Alice''s Mind, Control, and Mana. It didn''t give Alice any bonuses in Strength.


    And although Alice currently had arge amount of mana flowing within her body, shecked the means to properly utilize it. While she might be able to crudely use this mana to break free from Aird''s Engraving of the Moon, she couldn''t fight Aird using it. In other words, she still wasn''t a threat to Aird in her present state.


    <em>SoI still have to use my panties?</em>


    Alice looked down at her skirt with a headache. She felt that it''d be best if she started learning about magic as soon as possible.

 Chapter 53: Stop Giving Me Weapons

    Chapter 53: Stop Giving Me Weapons


    "Dammit If I let a bastard like you continue existing"


    While Alice was pondering whether she should use her panties or not, Aird didn''t remain idle. Although the War God''s Lock had indeed sealed her right hand, Aird was different from Alice. Even without her right hand, she was still one of the Four Heavenly Kings.


    Thus, Aird closed her left hand''s index and middle fingers. Then, she pointed her left hand at Alice and made an upward flicking motion.


    Immediately, arge stone spike burst out from the ground. Even though they were on the second floor, Aird had managed to forcibly summon a huge stone spike that was as thick as a century-old tree from the ground. Moreover, judging by the magic patterns that densely covered the stone spike''s surface, this stone construct didn''t seem like an ordinary stone spike, either. If this stone construct hit her, Alice did not doubt that it could kill her instantly. After all, the War God''s Lock did not provide her any bonuses in Strength. Her physical body was still no different from that of an ordinary human girl.


    Fortunately, the War God''s Lock had given Alice 700 points in Mind. So, the instant Aird cast her magic, Alice had already noticed what was going on and crudely released all of the mana within her body.


    There was no helping this situation. Alice didn''t know any magic. She was like an ammunition warehouse filled with gunpowder and bullets butcked any suitable firearms to utilize them. Hence, Alice''s only solution was to ignite the gunpowder in her storage and call it a day.


    Subsequently, as Alice released all 700 points of Mana she had received from the War God''s Lock, a mana shockwave burst out from her body and pushed the rising stone spike out of its original trajectory.


    <em>How close</em>


    Alice stumbled a few steps backward. When she saw the massive stone spike in front of her, she couldn''t help but breathe out a sigh of relief. The room she currently upied was the secondrgest room in man''s manor. It wasrger than even a normal apartment. Even so, the stone spike Aird summoned had upied nearly half of the room. The tip of the spike had even pierced through the ceiling.


    If Alice hadn''t released all of her mana just now, this stone spike might have already pierced through her body. Combined with the unknown effects of the stone spike''s magic patterns, Alice doubted that she would have any chance of making aeback.


    "You actually released your mana in such a direct manner It seems man was right. You don''t know how to use any magic, do you? The taboo you used to knock us unconscious before should only be an ability that came with the Demon King''s Power, right?"


    Aird tried moving her right hand and found that she could move it around again. War God''s Lock''s area of effect depended on the user''s mana. Now that Alice had expended all of her mana, it meant that the War God''s Lock that was under her control had begun to lose effect.


    "I initially thought I could settle with just sealing you, but now it seems it''d be better if I just killed you instead," Aird said.


    Alice''s appearance had originally stimted thepassion in Aird''s heart. Thus, Aird had chosen to seal Alice before the girl grew up. However, the abilities Alice had disyed hadpletely surpassed Aird''s expectations. Even until now, Aird still hadn''t figured out how Alice had managed to steal control over her War God''s Lock.


    If Alice already possessed such strange abilities before she matured as the Demon King, she would only be even more dangerous once she grew up. Thus, Aird suppressed herpassion and prepared herself to kill Alice right here and now.


    Subsequently, Aird flicked her left hand at Alice once more, her action causing the massive stone spike to agilely maneuver around like a snake and aim its tip at Alice.


    "Now that you are out of mana, die!"


    As soon as Aird finished speaking, the stone spike shot straight toward Alice. In Aird''s opinion, now that Alice had run out of mana, the girl should have no way of resisting the stone spike.


    "I might not know any magic, but aren''t you gifting me one right now?"


    Alice chuckled and shook her right hand, throwing away the War God''s Lock she held. Meanwhile, at the same time as the War God''s Lock parted with Alice''s right hand, the seal on Aird''s right hand was also lifted.


    Then, amidst Aird''s surprise, Alice stretched out both of her hands and tried to grab the oing stone spike!


    With Alice''s current strength, stopping such a massive stone spike wasn''t a wise attempt. If everything proceeded normally, the magic patterns would repulse Alice''s hands, and the stone spike would prate her body and tear it to shreds.


    However, the instant Alice''s hands made contact with the stone spike, something outside Aird''s expectations happened. Instead of repulsing Alice''s hands and tearing Alice''s body to shreds, the stone spike abruptly halted the moment it came into contact with Alice''s hands. Simultaneously, Aird also sensed that she had lost control over the stone spike.


    [Weapon: Gaia''s Spear]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Strength +1000, Control +500, Mana +500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Earth Destruction (Active Skill. Lock onto a target with your mana and pierce them, instantly destroying the target''s body);


    Mother Earth (Passive Skill. Your affinity with earth-attributed mana is increased to MAX. Your defense is also improved significantly);


    Earthshaker (Passive Skill. Objects thate into contact with Gaia''s Spear will suffer vibration damage.)]


    "So this magic is called Gaia''s Spear."


    Under Aird''s shocked gaze, Alice pulled out the stone spike named "Gaia''s Spear" from the ground and gave it a few swings, her actions damaging the ceiling and walls around her.


    "Not bad. It''s the same quality as the War God''s Lock. Don''t tell me it''s a taboo No, that War God''s Lock is a simplified version, so this Gaia''s Spear should be weaker than a taboo"


    "You What did you do?"


    Aird was on the brink of suffering a mental copse. She couldn''t understand why or how Alice could unravel the spells she used. First, it was her simplified version of the War God''s Lock. Now, Alice had stolen even her Gaia''s Spear. Moreover, Alice had even lifted Gaia''s Spear out of the ground and swung it around as if it were a primitive stone club. The old schrs researching magic would probably have a stroke if they saw Alice handling Gaia''s Spear in such a manner.


    "Probably the Demon King''s privilege?"


    Alice nodded and answered as such to Aird.

 Chapter 54: Home Run

    Chapter 54: Home Run


    "I''ve never heard of any Demon King having such privilege before."


    Aird''splexion darkened when she saw Alice swinging the Gaia''s Spear like a club. What should''ve been long-range magic that could prate and destroy her enemy''s body was now being used as a melee weapon by her enemy.


    "...Could this be the second type of magic you received from the Demon King''s Power? Magic that allows you to take control of other people''s magic?"


    "Don''t try to goad me," Alice said as she waved the Gaia''s Spear around threateningly. Then, she gently ced the stone spike on the ground, only to see the floor cracking under the stone spike''s immense weight. However, considering that man shouldn''tck money, she felt that it wouldn''t be a problem even if this room got destroyed.


    Meanwhile, in response to Aird''s confusion, Alice shrugged and said, "If you must have an answer, all I can say is that even I''m not sure what kind of magic this is. Also, it is truly unfortunate for you to be the Heavenly King of Earth. If any of the other Heavenly Kings tried to assassinate me, I might not even have the ability to retaliate."


    The biggest precondition for Alice to turn an object into a weapon was that the object must be something she could touch with her right hand. As luck would have it, out of the four elements of magic, earth magic was the only type of magic that Alice could touch. If Aird had used fire or wind magic instead, Alice definitely wouldn''t have anything physical to grab onto. And while it was also possible to touch water, considering the properties of liquid, Alice wasn''t sure if her right hand could grab onto water magic and consider it a weapon.


    Aird naturally wouldn''t know about the limitations of Alice''s ability. The ability of Alice''s right hand had already exceeded the confines of her understanding. Thus, even after hearing Alice''s exnation, Aird still failed toprehend the meaning Alice tried to convey. She simply thought that Alice was looking down on her earth magic and felt humiliated because of it.


    "Stop joking with me What do you mean by <em>unfortunate</em>? I haven''t lost yet!" Aird bellowed angrily, her calm expression finally crumbling. Immediately, she waved her right hand and summoned a dozen stone pirs around Alice, trapping the blonde girl. "So what if you stole my Gaia''s Spear?! These Oriad Pirs can mitigate physical damage to thergest extent!"


    "Shouldn''t you know best what kind of effects your Gaia''s Spear has?"


    Alice''s voice came out from the prison formed by the Oriad Pirs. Then, under Aird''s desperate gaze, the gigantic Gaia''s Spear smashed into the Oriad Pirs, breaking them apart.


    "...Sure enough, you didn''t simply pull the Gaia''s Spear from the ground. Even the magic''s effects are still preserved," Aird said in a somewhat hoarse voice. Even if she had already fallen into despair, as the Heavenly King of Earth, she still managed to see that Alice didn''t break the Oriad Pirs simply by relying on brute force. Instead, the Gaia''s Spear''s Earthshaker ability had also yed a role in shattering the pirs. "How did you aplish this? This is illogical"


    "I also wish to know how I did it," Alice said as she walked out of the ruins of the Oriad Pirs. Then, resting the gigantic Gaia''s Spear on her shoulder, she walked up to Aird and asked, "You should be able to use taboos by yourself as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, right? Aren''t you going to use one?"


    "Hah, I might be capable of casting taboos by myself, but that''s under the precondition that I''ve prepared beforehand. Although the War God''s Lock is a taboo, the simplified version isn''t asplex as the original. Even a postgraduate magician can cast it with a little bit of research," Aird said, shaking her head. When she saw Alice arriving in front of her, a hint of ruthlessness suddenly shed across her eyes. Then, as if trying to put up a final struggle, she raised her right hand slightly and muttered, "Engraving of Ti"


    However, before Aird could finish her words, her world suddenly darkened as Alice smashed her body with the Gaia''s Spear. Alice''s 1000 points of Strength and the Gaia''s Spear''s toughness instantly scattered the mana Aird tried to conjure and sent Aird''s body flying through the door and out of the room.


    Originally, Alice thought that with the amount of power she used, Aird''s body should''ve flown a lot further. However, after reaching the corridor outside the room, Aird''s body seemingly collided with an invisible wall and came to an abrupt halt. Then, while coughing up a mouthful of blood, Aird''s body fell to the floor.


    After thinking it over, Alice quickly realized the invisible wall''s identityit should be the sealing barrier Aird previously spoke of. It was also because of this barrier that all themotion they made in the room had failed to alert man and the others.


    "Are you alright?" Alice asked out of kindness when she walked up to the door and saw Aird coughing up blood in the corridor. Although she wanted to walk out of the room to check on Aird, the Gaia''s Spear was too huge for her to take out of the room. She also couldn''t afford to let go of the Gaia''s Spear since she would instantly be a weakling if she did so. Thus, she could only awkwardly stand by the door with the Gaia''s Spear in hand and voice her humanitarian concern for Aird.


    "S-Stop with the nonsense. If you want to kill me, just do it."


    Aird had been reduced to a miserable state after receiving Alice''s attack. Although she indeed possessed incredible defensive prowess as the Heavenly King of Earth, she still couldn''t afford to receive a direct hit from such a powerful attack.


    Not to mention, the Gaia''s Spear had the Earthshaker ability. If any of the other three Heavenly Kings were to receive Alice''s attack, the powerful impact and vibrations would''ve turned into meat paste already. Inparison, Aird still got to keep her body in one piece. Although she was covered in blood right now, it wasn''t at the level of requiring mosaic censorship.


    Of course, Aird had heard Alice''s concern. However, after living in the demon realm for so many years, she had also taken on the ruthless personality of demons. Thus, she remained unfazed in the face of Alice''s concern. Instead, she prepared herself for death and showed no intention of pleading for mercy at all.


    Alice couldn''t help but be troubled by Aird''s unyielding behavior. In reality, Alice wanted to spare Aird. After all, Aird was one of the demon realm''s four rulers. If she killed Aird and news of it reached the human realm, the human realm''s inhabitants might start to have needless ideas. Meanwhile, thest thing Alice wanted to see was war between the two realms erupting so soon.


    ording to Alice''s original n, if Aird could sincerely show remorse, she could''ve used the opportunity to spare Aird. Unfortunately, Aird showed no intention ofpromising. If she spared Aird in such a situation, Aird might be a ticking time bomb that could blow up in her face at any moment.


    Letting out a sigh, Alice gripped the Gaia''s Spear with both hands and mentally prepared herself to destroy the doorway and turn Aird into meat paste. There was nothing she could do about this situation. Although Alice didn''t wish to break the bnce between the two realms so soon, she would only be putting herself in danger if she kept Aird alive. Thus, despite her reluctance, Alice had no choice but to kill Aird.


    Aird also noticed the change in Alice''s mentality, so she closed her eyes and prepared herself for death.

 Chapter 55: Aird Is Dumbfounded

    Chapter 55: Aird Is Dumbfounded


    Alice naturally never killed a person before. After all, she had only transmigrated to this world for a few days. Her mentality had yet to limatize to a point where she could kill people without batting an eye.


    Previously, Alice could extinguish Grant''s soul with rtive ease because it was in a blurry and translucent state; it didn''t give off the feeling that it was a living person. However, it was a different story for Aird; she was a living, breathing person. Moreover, even though Aird was a demon, if Alice ignored the bat-like wings on Aird''s back, Aird would look no different from a human.


    <em>How troublesome</em>


    Alice hesitated as she kept the Gaia''s Spear raised above Aird''s head. This was going to be her first time killing someone, after all. She needed to make some mental preparations beforehand. She felt that it''d be too cold-blooded of her if she simply smashed Aird into meat paste and called it a day.


    However, Alice''s hesitant behavior only served to increase the stress Aird experienced. After all, there was no way anyone could rx when there was a massive stone club hovering above their heads.


    Aird''s heartbeat gradually elerated, and her resolve to die waned when faced with this stressful situation. She also couldn''t help but wonder if Alice was deliberately putting her in this stressful situation to force information out of her.


    Just when Aird was about to suffocate from anxiety, Alice finally showed signs of movement. However, she didn''t smash the Gaia''s Spear down on Aird''s head. Instead, she set her gaze onto Aird''s wings. Then, in a surprised tone, she asked, "Your wings What''s the matter with them?"


    "Huh?"


    Aird was momentarily surprised by Alice''s question. Then, when she turned to look at the wings on her back, her expression instantly changed. Without her realizing it, the Gaia''s Spear''s Earthshaker ability had caused her wings to rupture and expose a massive wound.


    However, what caused Aird''s expression to change wasn''t the injury she suffered.


    Instead, it was the dense magic circuitsposed of crystals that the wound had exposed. Currently, there was even mana leaking out of these damaged magic circuits.


    "...It seems I still got found out in the end."


    Aird grew silent for a moment. If this situation had taken ce at the very beginning, she would''ve chosen tomit suicide to keep her secret. However, after being put through Alice''s mental torture, her willpower had already weakened significantly. So, after witnessing this scene, like a deted balloon, she revealed a bitter smile and said, "That''s right. I''m not a demon."


    ???


    Alice''s eyes widened in shock as she looked at Aird, her mind failing to process the situation. Then, she heard Aird continuing:


    "Originally, I thought I could kill you while you were still weak. However, it would seem that staying undercover in the demon realm for over two decades has reduced my ability to think calmly"


    Alice felt that she was in over her head as she listened to Aird''s confession. Initially, she had jokingly thought that so long as the humans and demons did not nt spies into each other''s kingdoms, the possibility of her identity getting exposed should be zero. Yet, it turned out that the humans <em>did </em>nt a spy in the demon realm. Moreover, this spy had secured herself a position as one of the Four Heavenly Kings.


    However, after thinking it over, Alice found this situation to be somewhat reasonable. Unlike in the human realm, one didn''t need to have a knack for politics to be a ruler in the demon realm. A person could be one of the Four Heavenly Kings so long as they had sufficient strength. The other demons wouldn''t doubt this person''s identity. On the contrary, they would do their best to assist this person in bing a Heavenly King. In a certain sense, the demon realm''s political system was very vulnerable to infiltration.


    However, someone who had the strength to be a Heavenly King in the demon realm should also be able to secure themselves a high position in the human realm. Typically, there wouldn''t be anyone who would willingly work as a spy in the demon realm because of the terrible environment here. The fact that Aird was willing to go undercover in the demon realm also showed that she was sincerely concerned for the human realm.


    This also exined why Aird had eventually lost her calm and tried to assassinate Alice. If Aird was truly concerned for the human realm''s future, she naturally wouldn''t be willing to let go of the opportunity to kill the Demon King while thetter was still as weak as an ordinary human girl.


    Looking at the magic circuits exposed on Aird''s wings, Alice guessed that these wings should be simr to the fake horns she previously wore. However, unlike her horns, which functioned solely as a decoration, Aird''s wings should be a magic tool that replicated the mana-filtering properties of the demon race''s unique organs. Apart from serving as a disguise, this magic tool probably allowed Aird to cultivate her mana pool even while living in the demon realm''s polluted environment.


    "So you were actually human"


    Alice sighed and gently lowered the Gaia''s Spear. If the other party was a real demon, she would definitely have to take a life today. However, since the other party was human, there was no need for her to do so. After all, this meant that there was still room for negotiation between them.


    "...What are you trying to do?"


    Aird subconsciously frowned when she saw that Alice had set the Gaia''s Spear aside and showed no signs of wanting to attack her. Then, she shuffled backward on her knees and cautiously looked at Alice. Even if she was already heavily injured andcked anybat power whatsoever, she still subconsciously got into a defensive posture.


    "Ah How should I put it" Alice awkwardly said as she scratched her face. Then, she put on a serious expression and revealed her "true identity" to Aird, saying, "Actually, I am the Hero."


    "..."


    Although Aird didn''t say anything, Alice could still tell what the other party''s disgusted expression was trying to sayWho the fuck are you trying to fool?


    "I guess I can''t prove anything with my mouth alone Give me a second."


    After pondering for a moment, Alice let go of the Gaia''s Spear and ran back into the room. Now that Aird''s wings had already been damaged, she could no longer utilize the demon realm''s mana, which also meant that she could no longer put up any resistance. Thus, Alice had no more need for such a clumsy stone club.


    Under Aird''s confused gaze, Aird ran to a corner of the room and dug out her pouch from the rubble. Then, she pulled out a glove, wore it on her right hand, and inserted both hands into the pouch. After fumbling in the pouch for some time, Alice eventually felt satisfied with her work and withdrew her hands from the pouch.


    The next moment, Aird saw a resplendent holy light radiating from Alice''s right hand. The light looked so sacred that even the priests and nuns of the church would think that God had just manifested before them.


    Thus, Aird had begun to question the meaning of life.

 Chapter 56: Alice Is Also Dumbfounded

    Chapter 56: Alice Is Also Dumbfounded


    While Aird wasn''t paying attention, Alice quickly removed the pair of white panties inside her glove and stuffed it back into the pouch. Then, she walked up to the door and looked at Aird''s dumbfounded expression, asking, "Well? I wasn''t lying to you, right?"


    At this moment, Aird looked at Alice as if she had just seen a ghost. She also couldn''t help but feel that her brain wascking.


    Logically, if Alice could release such an exaggerated holy light, she should be the Hero. After all, both the darkness attribute and the light attribute were incredibly rare magical attributes. Even if one searched through the human and demon realms, one wouldn''t find more than a thousand people with an affinity for either one of these rare attributes. And although people with these magical affinities typically carried great responsibility, their responsibilitiesid in research rather thanbat. This was because the use of these rare attributes held more significance in ces other thanbat.


    Take the light bulb that wasmonly used in the current era, for example. The light bulb was an object capable of harnessing the light-attributed mana in the environment and using it to produce light. It was also something that a human researcher with the light attribute had invented around a thousand years ago. The invention of the light bulb had allowed the human and demon realms to ovee the darkness at night, and this invention could be regarded as an achievement of boundless merit. Meanwhile, because wielders of the light and dark attributes were focused on research, they generally had very littlebat power.


    Moreover, the exaggerated radiance Alice produced just now definitely wasn''t something the average light magician could produce. Even if she was one of the rarer light magicians with great talent, it shouldn''t be possible for her to produce that kind of light by herself. Unless, of course, she was the Hero.


    However, Aird also found it hard to believe that Alice was the Hero. After all, she, together with Wintas and Ellu, had personally experienced Alice''s dark-attributed mind magic. The magic had ovee their defenses and knocked them unconscious. It had also proven that Alice indeed possessed the strength and magical affinity of a Demon King. Thus, Aird had chosen to assassinate Alice without hesitation.


    "I-If you''re the Hero, how did you manage to use dark magic just now?" Aird asked in a slightly trembling voice. The shock she currently felt was much greater than when she saw Alice waving her precious Gaia''s Spear like a stone club. "There is no way normal people can use such powerful dark magic. The magic you used is already on the level of taboos! Only the Demon King can aplish such a feat!"


    "That It might sound weird for me to say it, but there is, in fact, a reason for that." Alice quickly thought up an excuse after hearing Aird''s question. Then, she looked at Aird and earnestly said, "Have you forgotten? Apart from their main affinities, Heroes and Demon Kings also possess a second magical affinity. As the Hero, apart from the light attribute, the other attribute I have an affinity for just so happens to be the dark attribute."


    What nonsense?!


    Aird honestly wished to shout these words at Alice. However, the words got stuck in her throat before they could reach her mouth. After all, even though reason told her that Alice''s words were nonsense, it was also a fact that Alice was capable of using both dark and light magic.


    Although Aird wanted to believe that the sacred light from before was merely Alice holding a bright light bulb in her right hand, the boundless mana that appeared alongside the sacred light prevented her from doing so. Not to mention, that kind of untainted mana wasn''t something that one could find in the polluted demon realm. Instead, it was mana that belonged only to the human realm. In other words, the light that radiated from Alice''s right hand was indeed the product of mana used by an actual human.


    "I Let me think for a moment" Aird held her head in pain. Right now, the headache she suffered was much worse than when Alice had hit her with the Gaia''s Spear. She felt as if her head could explode at any moment. "You did use a dark-attributed taboo in front of me previously But the intensity of that sacred light you released just now also far exceeds what the average light magician is capable of releasing"


    After struggling for a while, Aird seemingly thought of something as she suddenly lifted her head and looked at Alice. Then, she asked, "Wait!! How do I know that you''re not a Demon King who just so happened to have the light attribute as their second affinity?!"


    Indeed. If what Alice said about her being a "Hero whose second affinity was dark magic" was true, it should also be possible that Alice might be a "Demon King whose second affinity was light magic."


    "Uh, that is true," Alice muttered while caressing her chin. However, just when she was trying to think of an excuse, she suddenly remembered something.


    Immediately, under Aird''s gaze, Alice ran back into the room, dug through the pouch she left on the ground, and pulled out a small box.


    The box was roughly the size of a chopstick box. The moment Alice opened it, a faint glow emerged from within. Then, Alice flipped over the box and shook it, causing an item muchrger than the box itself to fall out. Meanwhile, Aird instantly recognized this item the moment sheid eyes on it.


    The Hero''s Sword Enheria!!!


    "That''sthe Hero''s Sword?!"


    Even the tone Aird spoke in had changed when she looked at the Hero''s Sword that Alice had haphazardly thrown to the ground like garbage. Meanwhile, when looking at the Hero''s Sword, Aird suddenly remembered the information that had spread in the demon realm some time ago. The information stated that the human realm''s Hero had already drawn the Hero''s Sword Enheria from the Gryffin Church and was currently training with it in the Gryffin Forest.


    Initially, Aird had wondered why the current Hero would reveal "his" whereabouts to the public. After all, "he" would be risking his life by doing so. However, if Alice was the Hero, it made sense why the new Hero would publicly reveal "his" whereaboutsit was for the sake of misleading others and secretly infiltrating the demon world.


    "See? I can use this sword normally," Alice said as she picked up the Hero''s Sword from the ground with her right hand. Unfortunately, her right hand still designated the weapon as "Garbage" that only provided a bonus of Strength +1.


    Then, Alice continued, "My original goal in visiting the demon realm was to look for information on the Demon King. While doing so, I inadvertently discovered that my second affinity just so happens to be dark magic. So, I came up with the idea of impersonating the new Demon King to infiltrate the demon realm''s upper ranks.


    "Even if the real Demon King appearster on, I can confront him using my fake identity and create internal strife in the demon realm. That way, the demon realm wouldn''t have any spare energy to invade the human realm. While there is a risk of someone seeing through my disguise, the chances of that happening should be small. I am the Hero, after all. With the mana I have, I can effortlessly cast dark-attributed taboos just like the Demon King. Nobody will ever think that I am the Hero, either."


    "A-Amazing"


    After hearing Alice''s reasoning, Aird revealed an expression of reverence as she looked at the blonde girl before her. If one listened to Alice''s words from an outsider''s perspective, one would find a lot of problems with Alice''s excuse. However, Airdcked information on Alice. The only thing she knew about Alice was that thetter was capable of casting dark-attributed taboos while also having an affinity for light magic. Moreover, Alice had also proved that she was capable of wielding the Hero''s Sword. Thus, Aird couldn''t help but treat Alice''s nonsense as the truth.


    However, as a final confirmation, Aird still chose to ask Alice, "That Can you let me try wielding the Hero''s Sword? I heard that only the Hero could wield the Hero''s Sword, and anyone else who tries to wield it will be knocked unconscious. If I can verify that this Hero''s Sword is real, I will believe your previous words."


    Aird still had a lot of mana stored within her body. Although her injuries prevented her from using it, it could still serve as a passive defense against hostile magic. If Alice''s Hero''s Sword was a fake and only carried a normal sleeping spell, Aird was confident she could remain conscious. However, if this sword could knock her unconscious, then it must be the real Hero''s Sword. After all, only the power of a Hero or Demon King could overwhelm a Heavenly King''s magical defenses.


    "Of course."


    Alice knew that the Hero''s Sword in her hand was the real deal, so she didn''t reject Aird''s request. Immediately, she passed the sword to Aird.


    Meanwhile, the instant Aird grabbed onto the sword''s hilt, her expression instantly changed as she sensed the sword draining her mana like a hungry beast.


    "What"


    Before Aird could say anything, the Hero''s Sword had sucked thest of her mana out of her body. Then, her vision darkened as she lost consciousness.


    However,pared to Aird, Alice was the one who was truly shocked right now. The instant Aird had her mana depleted and lost consciousness, the sword named Enheria suddenly released a burst of blinding light!


    "...Are you kidding me?"


    Alice subconsciously gulped as she looked at the Hero''s Sword hovering in front of her and felt the warm sacred light that radiated from it. Then, cold sweat appeared on her forehead as she turned to look at the unconscious Aird.


    <em>This scene </em>Alice realized that she had seemingly stumbled across something unbelievable.

 Chapter 57: Real Hero and Fake Hero

    Chapter 57: Real Hero and Fake Hero


    The sound istion barrier Aird cast was considerably reliable. It did not disappear even after Aird had fainted. Thus, even until now, man and the others still weren''t aware that something big had urred in Alice''s room.


    However, it was rather fortunate that they remained ignorant. After discovering that something was fishy about Aird''s identity, Alice hoped that man and the others wouldn''t notice themotion that had taken ce in her room.


    After cleaning the bloodstains outside, Alice dragged Aird''s body into the room. Although most of her room was in tatters right now due to the Gaia''s Spear, there were still some ces that remained intact. One example was her bed. The Gaia''s Spear had only crushed half of her bed; the remaining half still looked fine. Thus, Alice still had a ce to rest Aird''s unconscious body.


    However, when Alice tried to carry Aird onto the bed, aplicated expression immediately appeared on her face. The reason for this was simple. Alice naturally had to use both hands when carrying Aird onto the bed. Meanwhile, now that Aird was unconscious, Alice''s right hand would naturally consider Aird''s unconscious body as a weapon, just like it did when Alice grabbed onto Zauna''s unconscious body.


    Thus, Alice could now see her right hand''s evaluation of Aird.


    [Weapon: Mana Depleted Hero - Aird]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +10000, Mana +10000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Awakened Hero (Passive Skill. Drastically reduces the consumption of stamina and mana when using a weapon blessed by God. Recovery speed of stamina and mana is greatly increased);


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies.)]


    Previously, Alice guessed that Aird might be the real Hero after seeing the light show the Hero''s Sword put on. Now that her right hand''s evaluation also stated that Aird was the Hero, then Aird must be the Hero.


    <em>This isn''t good news</em>


    Alice grabbed the only chair in the room that wasn''t destroyed and sat on it. Then, she looked at the unconscious Aird, a somber expression appearing on her face.


    The only reason Alice had dared to pretend to be the Hero and Demon King was that she thought that the current generation''s Hero and Demon King had yet to appear. However, Aird''s existence proved that her assumptions were mistaken.


    Along with this revtion, Alice also understood why Aird would be so righteous as to infiltrate the demon realm and remain undercover for so many years. If any normal person possessed strength of Aird''s caliber, they definitely wouldn''t abandon the privileges and authority they could enjoy in the human realm ande to the demon realm to work as a spy.


    However, it was a different story if Aird was the Hero. The Hero was an existence who wholeheartedly moved for the sake of humanity. Thus, even if the task of infiltrating the demon realm was unrewarding, it wouldn''t be strange for Aird to take on the task without hesitation. In fact, Aird had gone beyond conducting just simple infiltration. She had climbed to the very top of the demon realm''s socialdder and became one of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings, bing humanity''s strongest chess piece hidden among the demons.


    No matter how Alice thought about it, the human Hero being one of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings was simply ridiculous. It also exined why even after Alice had posed herself as the Hero, the real Hero did not step out to expose her. If Alice didn''t happen to let Aird touch the Hero''s Sword, nobody in this lifetime would ever realize that Aird was the Hero. Not even Aird herself.


    However, apart from Aird''s identity as the Hero, one other thing troubled and angered Alice.


    [Weapon: Unnamed Hero''s Sword]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Even though the Hero''s Sword''s name had changed after absorbing all of Aird''s mana, the weapon''s effects remained unchanged when Alice tried wielding the sword with her right hand. The quality was still designated as "Garbage," the weapon''s effect was still Strength +1, and the additional effect entry remained empty. The only difference was that the sword had gone from being named "Enheria" to bing unnamed.


    Alice guessed that only the Hero had the qualifications to name the sword. At the very least, when she said, "From now onwards, your name is Durex," the sword''s name did not change.


    <em>Does it need to have the Hero give it a name for it to exhibit its effects?</em>


    With no luck at naming the Hero''s Sword, Alice stored the weapon back into the little chopstick box from before. Simr to the small pouch Zauna had pulled out her magic staff from, this chopstick box was also a spatial tool meant to store weapons. Such spatial storages were rtively cheap since mercenaries often used them. So, Alice had bought one specifically to store the Hero''s Sword. Of course, Alice made sure to buy the cheapest variety. It was important to be frugal, after all.


    <em>Wait, maybe it''s just like what everyone said, and that only the Hero can use the Hero''s Sword?</em>


    Alice fell into thought as she looked at the chopstick box in her hand.


    <em>Maybe the reason why my right hand designated the Hero''s Sword as Garbage is that the sword really is no different than garbage in my hands, and only in the Hero''s hands can it reveal its true powers It makes sense if that''s the case. And since my right hand turned the Hero''s Sword into Garbage, it must have removed the sword''s inherent effects such as "Cannot be drawn by anyone other than the Hero" and "Anyone other than the Hero will lose consciousness when wielding this sword" as well.</em>


    <em>It seems the only thing I can use this sword for is to prove my identity as the Hero.</em>


    Alice sighed and kept the chopstick box into her pouch. Although she now knew why her right hand would designate the Hero''s Sword as garbage, this discovery was useless to her. She still couldn''t utilize the Hero''s Sword''s true powers. Currently, Aird was probably the only person capable of doing so.


    Speaking of Aird, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if Aird had seen the sacred radiance the Hero''s Sword had released just now. If Aird saw it, would she realize that she was the Hero and Alice was nothing but a fake?


    Holding such worries in mind, Alice sat by the bed and quietly waited for Aird to regain consciousness.


    Fortunately, Aird had only lost consciousness because of mana depletion. With her constitution as one of the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings, or more specifically her constitution as the Hero, she quickly recovered her mana and regained consciousness.


    After groggily opening her eyes and sitting up on the bed, Aird first looked around in confusion. Then, when she saw the mess in the room and Alice looking at her with a somber expression, she immediately snapped out of her daze.


    "L-Lord Hero!"


    "..."


    Alice inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Judging by Aird''s reaction, it didn''t seem like she saw the holy light the Hero''s Sword radiated. In other words, Aird was assuming that the Hero''s Sword had caused her to lose consciousness because she wasn''t qualified to wield it.


    Although Alice felt a little guilty, she had no choice but to keep quiet about Aird''s identity for now. If Alice told Aird about her identity as the true Hero right now, Alice would only be putting herself into an awkward position. At that time, Aird would probably assume Alice to be the Demon King, and the fight scene from before would once again repeat itself.


    Not to mention, Aird clearly held a lot of hostilities toward the Demon King. If she were to find out that she was the Hero, the conflict between the human realm and demon realm might escte immediately. This was not an oue Alice wished to see.


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> It''s great that you know now. The Hero''s Sword isn''t something that anyone can use," Alice said in embarrassment. It felt incredibly awkward for her to pretend as the Hero in front of the real Hero.


    "Yes! I understand!" Aird earnestly answered, a look of reverence on her face.


    Alice felt her guilt growing when she saw Aird''s serious behavior.

 Chapter 58: Just Do Whatever You Want

    Chapter 58: Just Do Whatever You Want


    "This What have you been doing here?"


    A few hours had already passed when man and the others noticed that something had happened in Alice''s room. Prior to this, they had been discussing their ns on making use of Alice''s unassuming appearance to their advantage. Only after it was time for dinner did they end their discussions.


    Afterward, when man came to invite Alice for dinner, he immediately saw the miserable state the ce was in. Not only was the floor outside the room cracked, but even the carpet covering the corridor was stained with blood. The door to Alice''s room had also disappeared, and recing it was a bunch of wood chips scattered across the floor. Meanwhile, looking into the room, he could see that the room was an absolute mess, and even half of the bed was missing.


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> Aird and I were researching magic in the room," Alice lied. She definitely couldn''t hide the fact that Aird had visited her room. So long as man did a little investigation, he would immediately realize that Aird had been absent from her own room for quite some time. Thus, Alice naturally had to include Aird in her excuse. "But the magic''s power was a little stronger than we expected, hence the state of the room."


    Aird was now in the same camp as Alice. Not only were they both humans, but they were also spies in the demon realm. One was a human ying the role of one of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings, and one was a human ying the role of the Demon King. Alice couldn''t help but pray for the demons when she thought about this situation.


    "Researching magic?" man wore a confused look as he walked up to the doorway. Then, he found that Alice''s room was in a much more terrible state than he initially thought. Almost nothing in the room remained intact. "This feels a little familiar Is this Aird''s Gaia''s Spear?"


    As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, man was somewhat familiar with Aird''s magic. Although Aird''s Gaia''s Spear couldn''t be considered a taboo, it was still a powerful spell that Aird could cast swiftly. Hence, it was extremely useful in battle. Meanwhile, looking at how most of the objects in the room were in pieces and sensing the dense earth-attributed mana in the air, man could tell that Aird had indeed caused a ruckus here before.


    However, man quickly frowned as he sensed another type of mana than earth-attributed mana. Although it wasn''t a lot


    Under Alice''s gaze, man suddenly extended his right hand and drew aplicated magic pattern in the air. Then, once he was done drawing what seemed like a mathematical equation, sparkles of light started appearing in the room one after another.


    "This is the ''Mana Detection'' spell, Lord Demon King. It isn''t aplicated spell, and anyone who has attended university will know how to use it. If you are interested in it, you''ll get to learn it once you start attending sses," man exined when he noticed Alice''s curious gaze. "This magic can detect and illuminate the remnant mana in the air. It can also determine the mana attributes and density within a certain area. Although it offers no offensive or defensive capabilities, it is incredibly useful in battle and academic research. So, it is considered a must-learn spell in university."


    After listening to man''s exnation, Alice noticed that almost all of the sparkles of light that had appeared around the room gave off a light-yellow glow. By the looks of it, these light-yellow sparkles should represent earth-attributed mana, and it should be the mana leftover from Aird''s Gaia''s Spear and Oriad Pirs. Apart from these light-yellow sparkles, there were also some silvery-gray sparkles in the room. After thinking it over, Alice felt that these particles might have originated from Aird''s sealing magic.


    Initially, Alice had watched these mana sparkles appear with a curious smile on her face. However, a momentter, she could no longer bring herself to smile. This was because man had waved his hand and isted a few white mana sparkles.


    "Light attribute." man''s expression grew serious as he looked at the sparkles he had isted. Although these sparkles looked inconspicuous when mixed among the light-yellow and silvery-gray sparkles, man could still acutely tell that these white and dazzling sparkles were light-attributed mana. "Although it isn''t a lot, why is light-attributed mana here Could there be a spy here?"


    Alice shuddered when she heard man''sment. She immediately realized where this light-attributed mana came from.


    Alice was sure she wasn''t the source of this light-attributed mana. After all, she had not cast any light magic during this entire time. And even though she had briefly held onto a pair of white panties with her right hand, the sacred light her panties radiated didn''t contain any mana. There was also no possibility of any mana leaking out of her body with how high her Control stat was at the time.


    This left only one exnation for the light-attributed mana in the roomAird''s awakening as the Hero. When Aird held onto the Hero''s Sword, the weapon had absorbed all of her mana and converted it into light-attributed mana. Then, a portion of this mana must''ve leaked out and got detected by man''s spell.


    Although the human realm would asionally see the birth of people with either light or dark affinities, it was a different story for the demon realm. With the demon realm''s polluted environment, it was absolutely impossible for any demons born here to gain an affinity for light magic. Thus, upon seeing light-attributed mana in Alice''s room, man''s first reaction was to assume that a human had snuck into his manor.


    Personally, man felt that he had taken adequate defensive measures in his manor. While these defensive measures weren''t enough to stop anyone inside the manor from causing havoc, it should be nigh-impossible for a human to sneak into his manor without his knowing. Thus, rather than assume that "a human had snuck into his home," man felt that the possibility of "a human pretending to be a demon had entered his home" happening was higher.


    Alice anxiously gulped when she noticed man''s worsening expression, her mind overclocking as she tried to think of an excuse. After all, she had just stated that she and Aird had been researching magic in the room. Yet, the next moment, man had found traces of light-attributed mana in the room. If she couldn''t give a reasonable excuse, her time as the Demon King would be over.


    When Alice was churning her brain for an excuse, an indifferent voice appeared from behind man, asking, "Are you wondering how light-attributed mana appeared in this room, man?"


    man turned around upon hearing this question. Alice also followed man''s gaze and found that Aird had, at some point, changed into a new set of clothes and repaired the artificial demonic wings on her back. Just like Alice first met her, Aird walked into the room with an indifferent expression.


    When Alice looked at Aird''s calm that was borderline unnerving, she found it difficult to imagine that this woman was the same person as the woman who had been reverentially looking at her some time ago.


    "That''s right. Do you have any leads?" man asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Aird. Of course, he wasn''t suspecting Aird to be the culprit. Although Aird had only be a Heavenly King in recent years and her rise to power was incredibly fast, the unsympathetic way she handled her subordinates was the standard for demons. Thus, after interacting with Aird for some time, he and the other Heavenly Kings did not suspect that Aird was a human.


    "This is the new n I was about to tell the rest of you. When I was researching magic with Lord Demon King, we made a shocking discovery," Aird said as she walked up to Alice''s side. Then, like a salesperson one typically saw on televisionmercials, she pointed a hand at Alice and spoke as if she were introducing a product, "Lord Demon King''s second magic is something we have never seen in any of the past Demon Kingslight magic!"


    At this point, Alice no longer had any clue as to what expression she should make to express the confusion in her heart.

 Chapter 59: Triple Agent

    Chapter 59: Triple Agent


    "What does everyone think about this?"


    Although the afternoon meeting had ended only a short while ago, the fact that Alice''s second affinity was light magic was too shocking to overlook. Thus, even before dinner began, man convened the other Heavenly Kings and Alice in the conference room and asked this question.


    "The fact that Lord Demon King''s second affinity is light magic is unprecedented throughout history To be precise, never has our world seen anyone with affinities for both light and dark magic. This alone is unbelievable already."


    If a person wanted to have even a chance of gaining affinity for light magic, they would have to be born in an environment with ordinary mana. As for dark magic, it was the exact opposite. A person would need to be born in an environment with polluted mana to have a chance of gaining an affinity for light magic.


    In other words, under normal circumstances, people with light affinity could only appear in the human realm, whereas people with dark affinity could only appear in the demon realm. Theoretically, it should be impossible for any single person to have affinities for both attributes.


    Of course, that was only when one considered the normal ways of acquiring light and dark affinities. Apart from the aforementioned ways, there were other methods to acquire these two affinitiesbe chosen by God as the Hero or be the Demon King''s Power''s host. Through these two methods, a person could acquire light and dark affinities, regardless of their original affinities.


    Aird was one such example. Originally, Aird was only proficient at earth-attributed magic and sealing magic. However, aftering into contact with the Hero''s Sword, she had also gained an affinity for light magic. As evidence, when Alice had been moving Aird''s unconscious body, the information her right hand provided included a passive skill named Blessing of Light. The only thing stopping Aird from using light magic now was her ignorance toward the new affinity she had acquired.


    "It isn''t exactly impossible, though. After all, Lord Demon King was originally human. She might have had the potential to use light magic all along while she was in the human realm. It''s just that nobody ever noticed this potential," Wintas said after some thought. "Afterward, the Demon King''s Power selected her, and she acquired the ability to use dark magic. However, her ability to use light magic did not disappear. Thus, Lady Alice became the first-ever Demon King to have affinities for light and dark magic simultaneously."


    When the others around the conference table heard Wintas''s hypothesis, they nodded their heads in agreement. None of them doubted Alice''s identity as the Demon King, either. After all, they had already witnessed the "Demon King''s Power" in action before. Not to mention, it was a fact that Alice was originally a human. So, it wasn''t too unbelievable for her to have an affinity for light magic.


    Meanwhile, when Alice saw how easily everyone epted this nonsense, she couldn''t help but hold her forehead and sigh. While she did hear that demons were more brawn than brains, she couldn''t believe that they had epted this situation without casting any doubt over it at all. With these blockheads ruling the demon realm, Alice truly worried for the demon realm''s future.


    However, after giving it more thought, Alice felt that this oue was due to the preconceived notions man and the others had. They had based their assumptions around the condition that "Alice was the Demon King," so it was only natural that they did not doubt Alice''s identity as the Demon King. If Alice hadn''t revealed the Hero''s Sword to Aird, Aird wouldn''t have doubted Alice''s identity as the Demon King, either. Instead, she would still be trying to assassinate Alice even now.


    "If that''s the case, we might be able to use this to our advantage," Ellu, the Heavenly King of Water, said with a sinister smile. "Haven''t we already agreed to keep Lord Demon King''s identity a secret to prevent assassination attempts on her? In that case, we might as well send her to the human realm. I doubt the humans would ever think that the Demon King they''re desperately looking for has already infiltrated their ranks, right?"


    <em>Actually, the Hero you are desperately looking for has already infiltrated the demon realm.</em>


    Alice had the urge to say the words in her mind. However, she knew that she would be doomed if she did it, so she had no choice but to hold back her urges and quietly listen to the Four Heavenly Kings'' awkward strategizing.


    "Send Lord Demon King to the human realm? Wouldn''t it be too dangerous?" man frowned and nced at Alice. Although he knew that Alice had the strength to wipe the floor with the Four Heavenly Kings, he trusted in Alice''s words. Thus, he still believed that Alice couldn''t freely call forth the Demon King''s Power. "Lady Alice is too weak without making use of the Demon King''s Power. What should she do if shees into trouble in the human realm?"


    "The human realm is different from the demon realm. Humans don''t fight for status using strength alone. Out of the five human kings, only the Langir Kingdom''s king has passable strength. The rest are mere weaklings who can''t even protect themselves," Ellu exined. "Not only will the humans'' social system not oppress the weak, but there are even regtions that exist to protect the weak. So, even if Lord Demon King infiltrates the human realm, so long as she doesn''t deliberately find trouble, she should be safe. She might even be safer there than here."


    "Yes, there are indeed such regtions in the human realm. By looking at the hero novels that have recently found their way into the demon realm, we can also see what kind of values humans have. It is also because of these novels that our younger generation has started to take care of the weak recently," Wintas said while nodding. "Moreover, if Lord Demon King infiltrates the human realm, she can even enter a magic academy to study. Not only would she get to learn magical knowledge normally, but she could also acquire information on the human realm, killing two birds with one stone."


    "It''s a pity that the humans'' Hero has already appeared. Moreover, he is even a man with a muscr body. Otherwise, with Lord Demon King''s light affinity, we might even be able to have her impersonate the Hero," man added. He, too, understood the value of Ellu''s n, so he readily agreed with it. "No matter. People with light affinity are still highly valued as researchers in the human realm. So long as Lord Demon King exhibits her mana while learning magic there, she will immediately gain the attention of the human kings and enter the upper ranks of human society."


    "We will have the humans protect and nurture Lord Demon King. When we officially wage war against the human realm, the humans will definitely have very interesting," Ellu said, her smile growing even more sinister. "Moreover, Lord Demon King looks harmless no matter how you look at her. There is no way anyone would link her with the Demon King."


    <em>That''s true. Though it is also true that nobody has ever linked me with the Hero, </em>Alice thought.


    "What do you think, Aird?"


    After enthusiasticallying up with such a n, man turned his attention to the only Heavenly King who hadn''t spoken this entire time. However, Aird was usually indifferent and disliked speaking, so man and the others didn''t find anything strange with Aird''s silence. Instead, they only sought her opinion after they had concluded their discussions.


    Meanwhile, after Aird the spy-cum-Hero, who had infiltrated the ranks of the Four Heavenly Kings, took a look at the three other Heavenly Kings, she slowly nodded and said, "It''s good."


    <em>"Good" my ass!</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but feel miserable when she heard Aird positively evaluate the other Heavenly Kings'' ns. After infiltrating the demon realm as a human spy, she was now being sent by the demon realm to infiltrate the human realm as a demon spy

 Chapter 60: Shocking! Lord Demon King Sneaks Into One of the Heavenly Demon Kings’ Room To…

    Chapter 60: Shocking! Lord Demon King Sneaks Into One of the Heavenly Demon Kings�� Room To��


    After the enthusiastic discussion between the Four Heavenly Kings, Alice''s following actions were determined.


    Using Wintas''s connections, Alice would travel to the human realm with the help of a smuggling team. Wintas would also prepare a new identity for Alice in the human realm, with the new identity being a lost orphan in the Ymir Kingdom. With this identity, Alice would have a much easier time integrating into human society.


    Afterward, taking advantage of the human realm''s attitude toward weaklings, Alice would obtain the welfare of human society and gain a smooth entry into one of the humans'' magic academies. Then, she would inadvertently reveal her affinity for light magic and immediately attract the attention of human society''s upper echelon.


    Following that, Alice would take advantage of the human realm''s resources and continuously learn all sorts of magic to strengthen herself. While doing so, she would also steal the humans'' top secrets. Then, once Alice matured and could take full control over the Demon King''s Power, she would return to the demon realm and raise the banner of war against the human realm!


    As for the possibility of Alice defecting to the human realm, that wasn''t something the Four Heavenly Kings were worried about. Since the Demon King''s Power had chosen Alice as its host, it proved that Alice bore deep hatred toward humans. Thus, it was almost impossible for her to side with humans.


    <em>Well, at least this solves the problem of my missing identity</em>


    Inside the new room man had arranged for her, Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry when she looked at the identification card that hade from an orphanage in the human realm. There was a problem that had constantly been guing her before, and that was herck of identity in this world. After all, she had appeared out of nowhere in this world.


    Previously, when Alice had drawn the Hero''s Sword from its metal pedestal and gained the identity of the Hero, she had lied to Zauna and Father Kasandora, saying that she had amnesia. Thus, neither of them had bothered to look into Alice''s origins.


    However, the situation with Alice''sck of identity couldn''t continue forever. Once she met with the human kings, the kings were bound to look into her origins. Although they wouldn''t be carrying out their investigation with ill intent, they would still be careful in their actions. If Alice stillcked a reasonable origin at that time, the human kings were bound to grow wary of her.


    Now, though, all was well since the Four Heavenly Kings had taken the initiative to give her the identity of an orphan.


    ording to the backstory the Wintas had made up, Alice would be an orphan originating from a countryside orphanage from the Ymir Kingdom. One day, she disappeared after leaving to help someone with some farm work. The next time someone saw her, she had already appeared in the Gryffin Kingdom''s Gryffin Forest. Moreover, she had even lost her memories.


    It was the perfect identity for Alice. Although the Four Heavenly Kings had simply chosen the identity of an amnesiac orphan for convenience''s sake, it fit seamlessly with Alice''s experiences in the human realm.


    As to whether the Four Heavenly Kings would grow suspicious of Alice once they heard about her subsequent experiences in the human realm, that wasn''t something Alice was concerned about. The human side would do their best to cover Alice''s tracks as the Hero. Thus, Alice''s identity in the human realm would forever remain as an orphan, and nobody would ever question it.


    Thanks to the human and demon realms doing their best to keep Alice''s identity a secret from each other, Alice''s identity and origins in this world were gradually being perfected.


    The time Wintas had arranged for Alice to travel to the human realm was tomorrow afternoon. In other words, tonight was thest night Alice would be spending in the demon realm. Although she had only been in the demon realm for a few days, the things that had happened in the past few days were soul-stirring.


    Not only did Alice extinguish the previous Demon King''s soul, but she had also fought a life-threatening battle with Aird and even discovered that Aird was the true Hero.


    Originally, Alice thought she could live an easy life after disguising herself as the Hero and Demon King. Now, though, she felt that the situation was getting slightly out of hand. After all, her n was based on the precondition that the current era''s Hero and Demon King had yet to appear.


    However, now that the true Hero had already appeared, it meant that the true Demon King was already on their way. Either the current generation''s Demon King had yet to awaken, or the Demon King''s Power''s selected host had yet to realize they were the Demon King. Another possibility was that the true Demon King had already realized their identity and decided to secretly observe Alice for now.


    "What a headache" Alice muttered as she massaged her forehead. She also couldn''t help but miss her life on Earth.


    Alice wasn''t an orphan on Earth. Both her parents were alive and healthy as well. When she first transmigrated to this world, her curiosity had suppressed the anxiety within her. However, now that the novelty of transmigrating to another world was fading, she started to miss her life back on Earth.


    Although this world''s technological standards and culture resembled that of Earth, Alice still found herself feeling a little out of ce in this world.


    Wearing a set of white pajamas, Alice sat on herfy bed and browsed LINK and LINKS using her phone. While doing so, she also paid attention to the clock disyed on the top-right corner of the screen.


    Sometimeter, midnight arrived.


    Upon seeing her phone''s clock disying the numbers 00:00, Alice jumped off the bed and walked up to the door barefooted. Then, she carefully opened the door and checked the corridor outside.


    The corridor was empty and void of people.


    After living in man''s manor for the past few days, Alice had already grasped the work and rest routines of the manor''s residents. Although the existence of mobile phones andputers had created many night owls, the Four Heavenly Kings typically did not stay upte.


    Based on Alice''s observation during the past few days, man''s manor would be deathly silent after midnight. Only when Alice needed to use the toilet would there be a little noise in the manor.


    Located diagonally across Alice''s room was Aird''s room. Meanwhile, looking at theck of lighting through the gap underneath the door, Aird should''ve gone to bed already.


    Alice chose not to put on any footwear to avoid making any sound as she crept up to Aird''s room. Then, she gently opened the door and walked inside.


    Theyout of the guest rooms was simr. Alice had already memorized the location of the beds in these guest rooms a few days ago, so she safely reached Aird''s bed even without the lights on.


    Aird''s eyes were currently shut, and her expression was as indifferent as always. At the very least, Alice couldn''t tell if Aird''s current expression was any different than the expression she wore when she was awake.


    Based on the rhythmic breathing, Alice felt that Aird must be sound asleep. Although Alice was a little surprised that Aird didn''t wake up to her arrival, she felt that it was a normal reaction after giving it more thought. With how weak she was in her normal state, she couldn''t even pose a threat to Aird even in her sleep. Thus, there was no reason why Aird would wake up to her presence. If the Four Heavenly Kings could be awakened by creatures that were of no threat to them whatsoever, they would probably have to remove every living creature from their houses to get a good night''s sleep.


    As to why Alice infiltrated Aird''s room in the dead of night, it naturally wasn''t to conduct a night attack. Instead, she had a much more important thing to do.


    While carefully observing Aird''s countenance, Alice stretched out her right hand and gently ced it on Aird''s hand. Then, Aird''s weapon information immediately appeared in Alice''s mind.


    [Weapon: Newly Awakened Hero - Aird]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +10000, Constitution +10000, Speed +10000, Mind +10000, Control +10000, Mana +10000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Awakened Hero (Passive Skill. Drastically reduces the consumption of stamina and mana when using a weapon blessed by God. Recovery speed of stamina and mana is greatly increased);


    Fearless Will (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic. Individuals or objects that try to apply mental magic on you will suffer a bacsh);


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies.)]


    <em>Law This should be the tier that''s above Artifact.</em>


    Alice inwardly sighed when she saw her right hand''s evaluation of Aird. She had previously thought that "Artifact" was the highest rank. However, it would seem that her assumption was wrong. This situation also made sense since her Artifact ranked panties only allowed her to cast one taboo. In contrast, the Hero and Demon King were existences capable of flinging taboos at each other as if they were one-dor cupcakes. Thus, it was only reasonable that the Hero and Demon King were one rank higher than her panties.


    Moreover, what made Alice even more envious was that Aird didn''t give off a light show when she held her with her right hand. It would be wonderful if her panties could learn this trait from Aird.


    After muttering someints in her mind, Alice closed her eyes and began praying with sincerity.


    Yes. Alice had already set her sights on the Word of God skill the first time she had checked out Aird''s weapon statistics, and now was the time she enacted her ns. She wanted to see if she could contact this world''s God through Aird''s Word of God skill.

 Chapter 61: God Being a Little Girl Is Already a Classic

    Chapter 61: God Being a Little Girl Is Already a ssic


    ording to the standard trope of transmigration novels, a novel protagonist should''ve met God even before being transmigrated.


    Depending on God''s kindness, they would evenfort the protagonist and reveal crucial information about the otherworld and the protagonist''s cheat skill. Only after doing so would God let the protagonist transmigrate to the otherworld. They wouldn''t simply let the protagonist transmigrate without knowing anything.


    However, unlike those novel protagonists, not only did Alice get transmigrated to this otherworld without knowing anything, but she even had to take action herself to meet with this world''s God. This situation was different from the various transmigration novels she had read in the past.


    While inwardlyining about her situation, Alice closed her eyes and began praying. Although Alice had been an atheist back on Earth, now that she had experienced transmigration, she couldn''t care less about staying firm as an atheist. All she wanted to do right now was to return to her original world.


    Fortunately, Alice''s prayers were quickly answered as she suddenly felt light-headed. Then, when she opened her eyes again, she found that her consciousness had arrived at a white world.


    Alice felt like she was experiencing a lucid dream. Although she had never experienced a lucid dream herself, if lucid dreams truly existed, they would probably resemble her current situation.


    However, it would seem that she didn''t have control over this dream. Even when she tried to think of a bunch of nonsense, the white space did not change ording to her thoughts. Instead, as she recovered from her light-headedness, the white space gradually disappeared like passing clouds and revealed the scenery they concealed.


    When Alice first arrived at this ce, all she could see was white. Now, she could gradually see other things in this space. For example, the gaming console that was ced on the ground...


    ?


    Alice subconsciously rubbed her eyes, thinking that she might''ve made a mistake. However, even after her eyes regained their rity, the object on the ground still looked like a gaming console, no matter how she looked at it. Moreover, it wasn''t a magical construct. Instead, it was a Nintendo Switch from Earth.


    After hesitating for a moment, Alice took a tentative step forward to get a closer look at the console. Although her body was currently in an ethereal state, it would seem that she retained her freedom of movement in this space.


    When Alice walked up to the Nintendo Switch and reached out to it, she found that she could indeed touch it and that it wasn''t an illusion. This situation made Alice frown.


    Initially, Alice had wondered whether the God of this world had been the criminal responsible for abducting her from Earth. However, now that even a Nintendo Switch from Earth had appeared in this ce, Alice was willing to bet that she had hit the mark with her previous conjecture.


    <em>But where is this God?</em>


    After mentallybeling this world''s God as a criminal, Alice looked around in confusion. Then, as her consciousness became clearer and clearer, the number of things she could see also increased. An example would be the white-haired loli snoring on the floor.


    "......"


    Alice massaged her aching temples as she looked at the loli in front of her. She didn''t know when it started, but right before she transmigrated, it had already be a standard for transmigration novels to designate their Gods as little girls. Meanwhile, it would seem that this otherworld she had transmigrated to had also taken on this setting.


    While Alice didn''t dislike little girls, Gods, in her mind, should be wizened and amiable old men as that would make it much easier for them to hold a conversation. If God was a little girl, who knew what kind of unreasonable things this God would say? This was a God they were talking about, after all. If such an entity decided to throw a tantrum, the consequences would be dire.


    However, even though she didn''t like this situation one little bit, Alice had no choice but to bite the bullet and walk up to the sleeping loli.


    "Hey, wake up. Don''t sleep on the floor."


    "You''re not my mother..." Like a normal person, the white-haired loli muttered some words of dissatisfaction as she pushed Alice''s foot away, turned away, and returned to sleep. However, the loli quickly noticed that something was amiss. Immediately, she sat up and turned to look at Alice, eximing, "Huh?! Why is a human here?!"


    "I''ve been here for some time now..." Alice sighed when she saw how unreliable the white-haired loli behaved, the sense of awe she originally had toward this world''s God dissipatingpletely. Then, she looked down at the girl, who was even smaller than herself, and asked, "Are you this world''s God?"


    "Yes, I am." The white-haired loli nodded. Then, she seemingly recognized Alice as she smacked her head and eximed, "Ah! I remember now! You''re Alice! The one that came from Earth!"


    "So you do know that I came from Earth."


    At this point, Alice''s consciousness had fully recovered already. The white fog that obscured her vision before had also vanished without a trace, so she could now see the structure of the space she was in. Rather than some heavenly ce, it felt more like she was standing in an ordinary room that was only slightlyrger than Rosa''s shabby house. Alice found it hard to imagine that this was the ce God lived in. She also wondered if Father Kasandora would give up on his religion if he found out about this.


    "Of course. Anyone foreigner who crosses the world barrier cannot escape my notice," the white-haired loli said, giggling. Then, she stood up, ran to a corner of the room, and pulled out a dust-covered chair for Alice. Then, with a light tap of her finger, the dust covering the chair vanished without a trace. "Sit down, and let''s talk. It''s been a long time since I''ve had anyone visit. Even though I''ve told the new Hero toe to chat with me, she never visits for some reason"


    "You''ve talked to Aird before?" Alice curiously asked after taking a seat.


    "That''s right. I used to talk to her in her sleep. I told her that so long as she empties her mind and prays, she cane to my ce to y." The white-haired loli nodded as she sat down on the ground. Then, in a grumbling tone, she continued, "I even prepared all these games for her. But not once has she visited me before."


    Hearing the white-haired loli''s words, Alice couldn''t help but pity the other party.


    "Aird seemingly touched the Hero''s Sword and awakened the Hero''s power today, so I even rushed to cast a buff on her that protects her from mental magic. I wonder if she noticed it yet?" the white-haired loli said, sighing. Although her appearance was that of an immature little girl, her manner of speech resembled that of a frustrated middle-aged worker.


    As for the buff the white-haired loli mentioned, while Alice couldn''t say the same for Aird, she could confidently say that she had noticed it already. Specifically, it should be the "Fearless Will" skill that had appeared in Aird''s additional effect section.

 Chapter 62: Actually, God Knows Everything

    Chapter 62: Actually, God Knows Everything


    Although the way the conversation yed out was different from her expectations, Alice got to speak with God at the very least.


    "Since you know that I came from another world, do you have a way to send me back?"


    After understanding that the white-haired loli in front of her was the God responsible for choosing and blessing Heroes, Alice immediately voiced the biggest question in her mind. Although she had previouslye up with a few ns to ensure that she could live a peaceful life in this otherworld, if she could return to Earth, she wouldn''t have to go through the hassle of enacting her ns.


    Not to mention, now that the real Hero had appeared already, the real Demon King should appear shortly afterward. These two individuals were the protagonists of this world. An outsider like Alice shouldn''t intervene in their matters.


    "Although I want to help you, I''m afraid I cannot do that" the white-haired loli said, shaking her head. Then, when she saw the look of disappointment on Alice''s face, she exined, "This world is currently in a delicately sealed state. While I might hold a certain degree of authority as this world''s God, I cannot transfer people out of this world."


    "But you clearly have things from Earth here," Alice said as she pointed at the items scattered around the room. Whether it was the Nintendo Switch or ystation 4, both were items that originated from Earth. Thus, this proved that the white-haired loli had a way of extending her hands to Earth. "Could there be a huge difference between bringing things over from Earth and sending things back to Earth?"


    "There used to be no difference in the past. However, the situation is different now." Hearing Alice''s question, the white-haired loli earnestly exined, "I just mentioned that this world is in a delicately sealed state, right? The world wasn''t always like this in the past. Around the time when the first few Heroes and Demon Kings fought, I could still freely transfer people and objects to and from Earth. However, things started changing around the Seventh Demon King."


    "The Seventh Demon King Did something happen to the Demon King''s Power?" Alice asked. She noticed the emphasis the white-haired loli had ced on her sentence.


    "At the time, I still wasn''t aware as to how the Demon King''s Power came to be. However, ever since it started changing its behavior, I realized its origins," the white-haired loli said, slowly divulging this world''s essence to Alice. "The Demon King''s Power is something born from the resistance of this world''s inhabitants tows of nature. It holds the greatest malice toward this world, and it exists purely for the sake of destruction. Meanwhile, this power is continuously growing along with the world''s development."


    "It is growing along with the world''s development?"


    Alice pondered over the white-haired loli''s words. Immediately, she realized that the creation of culture must''ve led to the birth of the Demon King''s Power. In the distant past, people might have been willing to follow thews of nature because of the awe and respect they held toward nature. However, as the living inhabitants of this world developed their culture, they gradually stopped respecting nature and even tried to break itsws. This, in turn, had led to the birth and growth of the Demon King''s Power.


    "Ordinary humans and demons have yet to notice that the Demon King''s Power is currently growing stronger and stronger. They unterally assume that the Demon King''s Power is weak because they see that Heroes are constantly defeating Demon Kings," the white-haired loli said, shaking her head dejectedly. "They fail to realize the true essence of the Demon King''s Power. The Demon King''s Power exists to destroy this world''sws. The world barrier that previously allowed two-way transfers has be a one-way passage because of its actions. It is also why I cannot send you out of this world."


    "In other wordsI need to get rid of the Demon King''s Power to return home?"


    Alice suddenly felt nauseous. She had originally nned to stall the war between the human and demon realms by pretending to be the Hero and Demon King. Then, she would use the peace she earned to research spatial magic and find a way back to Earth. Now, however, it would seem that her n was doomed to fail. After all, the world barrier was already incapable of letting her leave this world. If even the God in front of her couldn''t do anything about the world barrier, Alice doubted that she could do any better.


    "Yes. Moreover, it isn''t as simple as defeating the Demon King. If you want the world barrier to recover, you need to uproot the Demon King''s Power," the white-haired loli said. "After realizing this point, I have strengthened the power I granted to the Heroes and gave them hints through the Word of God. I told them that they mustn''t stop at just defeating the Demon King and that what''s more important was for them to extinguish the Demon King''s Power. Unfortunately, they failed to take the hint and would always retreat after defeating the Demon King. to make matters worse, the Demon King''s Power is also very cunning. It is entirely focused on destroying the world''sws, never bothering to increase the Demon King''s strength."


    "Which is why apart from the Seventh Demon King, not one of the subsequent Demon Kings managed to invade the human realm sessfully," Alice said, finally understanding why the past Demon Kings had such tragic results. It was because God had strengthened the Hero''s abilities, while the Demon King''s Power was focused on destroying the world''sws and cked off on strengthening the Demon King. Looking at it this way, the Demon Kings were being treated like literal tools. However, Alice also quickly realized a problem in the white-haired loli''s words.


    "But what does this have to do with me? I am not the Hero."


    "You might not be the Hero, but you have something on you that lets you break thews of nature," the white-haired loli said as she looked at Alice with a serious expression. "Although I don''t know what that thing is, I believe you should know it very well While the Demon King''s Power might be capable of restructuring this world''sws, the Demon King''s Power, to put it bluntly, is merely a product of this world''sws. Meanwhile, the power you wield is something that can break the Demon King''s Power!"


    <em>Something that can break thews of nature?</em>


    Alice was momentarily stunned. Then, she subconsciously looked at her right hand. If she had to name something she owned that could break thews of nature, the only thing she could think of was her mysterious right hand.


    <em>The ability to turn the Hero''s Sword into garbage and panties into artifacts should be going against thews of nature, right? But ording to her words, it seems she doesn''t know that my right hand is the origin of this ability?</em>


    At this time, the white-haired loli also followed Alice''s gaze and looked at Alice''s empty right hand with a suspicious gaze. However, she quickly stopped paying attention to this minor detail and earnestly continued, "So, for the sake of our world and your return to Earth, please help us! I will also do my best to help you in taking on the Demon King''s Power!"


    "Even if you say that" Alice scratched her head. However, she also realized that if she wanted to return to her original world, she had no choice but to help this white-haired loli. "What kind of help can you give me?"


    "I can help you continue pretending to be the Hero. With God on your side, it is even less likely that others will suspect you."


    "<em>Cough, cough.</em>"


    Alice couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed after having her deeds called out. It turned out that God knew she was pretending to be the Hero all along.

 Chapter 63: Kami no Pantsu (神のパンツ)

    Chapter 63: Kami no Pantsu (��Υѥ��)


    "The Hero''s existence is an emergencyw that I created after noticing the existence of the Demon King''s Power."


    In God''s room, where God had taken on the form of a white-haired loli, God was currently ying Mario Kart with Alice while exining the secrets of this world to Alice. She skillfully manipted the Nintendo Switch controller in her hands while focusing her eyes on the massive OLED TV in the room.


    "Law? So, the Hero has already be part of this world''s natural cycle?" Although Alice was ying alongside this unreliable God, she ced most of her attention on their conversation. Meanwhile, her cement in the game constantly remained at second...tost. "Just like how all life will one day die, apples will fall to the ground, and one plus one equals two?"


    "I see you''re a reader of Index as well. Yes, you''re correct. Those can be consideredws," God said as she sent an approving nce at Alice. Just like her appearance, this God liked ying games and readingics and novels. She did not look like a serious God at all. "With the neww I created, the Hero''s existence in this world has be something natural as you have stated, and the Hero exists to oppose the Demon King''s Power."


    Alice nodded. She roughly understood why her right hand had evaluated Aird''s weapon quality as "Law" now. It was probably because the "weapon" had already touched upon thews of this world.


    However, items that she could wield as weapons and be rated as "Law" were probably incredibly rare in this world. She guessed that the Hero and Demon King were probably the only weapons she could wield as "Law" weapons.


    "Since thew where "The Hero is the Demon King''s Power''s nemesis" exists, before the Demon King''s Power is thoroughly eradicated, the Hero will never cease to exist. Of course, only people with firm and kind hearts and people who are willing to protect others as the Hero can be my chosen Hero," God said while racing past the finish line and securing first ce.


    Then, God continued, "However, the Hero chosen this time is a littleout of the norm, so to speak. I didn''t think that she would infiltrate the demon realm to be a spy. Because of that, she never got the chance to touch the Hero''s Sword, which, in turn, means that she never got the chance to awaken the Hero''s power within her. If you hadn''t brought the Hero''s Sword to the demon realm with you, who knows when Aird would''ve awakened."


    "Maybe this is fate."


    When Alice recalled how she identally awakened the true Hero, she couldn''t help butugh.


    "Don''t bring up fate. It''s too superstitious." As the biggest superstition, God couldn''t help but click her tongue when she heard Alice''s words. "Even Gods cannot control fate. If I knew how this world''s fate would y out, I would''ve stopped this world''s inhabitants from having nonsensical thoughts every day and removed all possibility for the Demon King''s Power toe into being."


    Alice nodded in agreement. If God could take control of fate, the Loli Goddess in front of her could''ve had a way to prevent the Demon King''s Power from appearing altogether. Unfortunately, it would seem that even Godscked the power to control fate. However, Alice felt that this was a good thing. She did not hope for her fate to be set the moment she was born. An unknown fate would mean more possibilities. It would also give her more hope to work hard.


    "Aird is too stubborn. She refuses to respond no matter what I say to her. If I wasn''t directly transmitting my voice into her brain, I would''ve thought that she was deaf," God said, a gleeful smile appearing on her face when she saw Alice''s race caring in second tost. Her originally resentful voice also became much more joyful as she continued, "But no matter. Since she can''t hear my voice and doesn''t realize that she is the Hero, I will have you take on the Hero''s responsibilities in the meantime!"


    "Is that really fine?"


    Alice revealed a bitter smile when she heard the Loli Goddess''s words, not feeling particrly confident at taking on the task of being the Hero. After all, she knew better than anyone about her own strength. Although she could deceive people with her panties, she couldn''t do it forever. If she had to grab a pair of panties whenever she entered a fight, she would get exposed sooner orter. Before she could return to Earth, she would have to stay in this world for a very long time. So, it''d be terrible if she suffered a social death.


    "Don''t worry. I created your body, so your talent in magic and physicalbat isn''t any weaker than the real Hero. So long as you start learning and training earnestly, you won''t have to rely on panties to cast taboos in the future," God said as she patted her t chest.


    However, when Alice heard the Loli Goddess mentioning her strange ability, she couldn''t help but want to dig a hole for herself. The other party was a God, after all. Even though the Loli Goddess didn''t know the source of Alice''s power, she had already discovered that Alice needed panties to exercise that power.


    "Wait, did you just say that you created my body?" Although Alice felt embarrassed, she quickly noticed the crucial point in the Loli Goddess''s words. "What about my original body?"


    "Of course I destroyedW-Wait! Don''t pinch my face!!!" Before God could finish her words, Alice had already ruthlessly grabbed her cheeks and pulled on them. Although it didn''t hurt since she was a God, it was still an ufortable experience. "Your body suffered irreparable damage when it crossed the world barrier! If I didn''t make a new body for you, your original body wouldn''t havested more than a month!"


    "Is that so?"


    Alice looked at the Loli Goddess skeptically. After listening to the Loli Goddess''s words, she realized that while the other party might look like a grade-schooler, the Loli Goddess was a bona fide God. The Loli Goddess must be a loli baba who has lived for countless years. Her age might even be in the hundreds of millions or more.


    "I''m telling the truth. You can check the history books if you don''t believe me. If you look carefully, you''ll notice that many of this world''s modern creations have unknown origins," God said in a dissatisfied tone as she massaged her face. "There are many conspiracy theories on the inte saying that the inventors of these items have offended capitalists and got secretly dealt with. In reality, these investors are transmigrated Earthlings like you. However, these people would always sumb to the damage their bodies suffered when crossing the world barrier and pass away shortly after creating the design of a certain item."


    <em>Alright, then. It seems this Loli Goddess did save me.</em>


    Alice nodded, epting the Loli Goddess''s reasoning. She also finally understood why this world had so many things inmon with Earth. Even though this world''s magical technology had received ample development, she could still see many things that resembled the appearance and functionality of the electronic products found on Earth. She had originally found the uncanny resemnce strange, but the Loli Goddess''s exnation immediately resolved her confusion.


    "Anyway, I''ll give you the right to use the Hero''s Sword. From now on, you can also use the Hero''s Sword in a true sense," God said as she red at Alice. Then, she snorted and continued, "Apart from that, you can also take one thing from this room. Don''t underestimate the things here. As I am a God, any one of the items I use can be regarded as a divine artifact."


    "Is that so?"


    Raising an eyebrow skeptically, Alice looked at the Nintendo Switch controller in her hands. The weapon information her right hand gave her contradicted the Loli Goddess''s words.


    [Weapon: Nintendo Switch Pro Controller]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Control +5]


    [Additional Effect: Game Console (Passive Skill. You can execute basic controls to the connected Nintendo Switch console.)]


    "That''s different. That''s something I bought from Earth," God said, blushing when she noticed where Alice was looking at. Then, she hurriedly corrected herself and said, "Other than the Switch Oh, you can''t pick me, either. I cannot freely roam about the mortal world. It will make a mess of the world''sws. Apart from items from Earth and myself, you can pick anything in this room."


    Hearing the Loli Goddess''s words, Alice began looking around the room. However, she felt that there wasn''t anything here she could use as a weapon. After all, it''d be strange if she brought out a sofa to fight. It''d be a strange sight no matter how she looked at it. Rather than a sofa, she''d rather fight with a pair of panties. In the case of the panties, she could at least hide them using a glove. Since that was the case


    After taking another look around and failing to find any easy-to-use weapons, Alice felt that she only had one option remaining.


    "...W-What are you trying to do?"


    God quickly noticed the gaze Alice directed to the lower half of her body and subconsciously shifted away on the sofa.

 Chapter 64: Heros Swords Humiliation

    Chapter 64: Hero''s Sword''s Humiliation


    With God''s panties in hand, Alice got kicked back to reality by the embarrassed and furious white-haired loli.


    Alice didn''t see what the Loli Goddess did exactly. All she knew was that her world had started spinning rapidly when the Loli Goddess kicked her. Then, when the world stopped spinning, she found that her consciousness had already returned to Aird''s room, her right hand still holding onto Aird''s wrist. Moreover, bundled in her left hand was the Loli Goddess''s warm panties. Fortunately, she had held the panties with her left hand. Otherwise, holy light would be flooding Aird''s room right now.


    <em>But Aird really sleeps like a rock</em>


    After letting go of Aird, Alice felt her mana and strength vanishing instantly. Her razor-sharp perception also gradually disappeared. However, although Alice had returned to bing a helpless little girl again, she was no longer worried about her future since she now knew that her body possessed potential rivaling the Hero.


    The only thing that concerned Alice now was how much of a heavy sleeper Aird was. She couldn''t help but suspect that Aird might be totally unaware of all dangers around her once she fell asleep. Moreover, thinking back on it now, if the Loli Goddess had beenmunicating with Aird in her sleep all this time, Aird might not have heard any of the Loli Goddess''s hints at all. It would also exin why Aird remained ignorant of her identity as the Hero.


    Aird was probably the first Hero to not hear God''s voice because of how excellent her sleep quality was.


    However, Alice considered this a positive situation. At the very least, Aird''s unresponsiveness allowed Alice tomunicate with God without interruption. Had Aird woken up, Alice''s right hand would stop considering Aird as a weapon, and the Word of God ability would also stop working. At that time, not only would Alice have her conversation with God halted abruptly, but she would also have to exin to Aird why she had snuck into her room in the middle of the night.


    <em>Anyway, God''s panties don''t look any different from normal panties.</em>


    When Alice looked at the panties in her left hand, she felt that it looked no different from the white panties she wore when she first transmigrated to this world. She even suspected that the panties she wore at the time were actually God''s panties, which would also exin their simrities.


    Of course, even if Alice wanted to check for any differences, she couldn''t do so now. It''d be safer if she only checked it after she had returned to the human realm. While the Four Heavenly Kings had been tricked into believing that she had light affinity, it was a different story for other demons. For the moment, it would be best if only a few people knew about her light affinity. Otherwise, the risk of her identity as the Hero getting exposed would increase.


    <em>But the demons sure are pitiful. They think that the Demon King''s Power is helping them conquer the human realm, but, in reality, all it is doing is destroying this world''sws.</em>


    Alice hade across many demons during her stay at man''s manor. Meanwhile, contrary to her expectations, the demons'' society was surprisingly peaceful.


    While the demon realm might be a ce where the strong preyed on the weak, most demons were merely ordinary people with slightly greater tendencies for violence. Weak demons could still live normal lives if they attached themselves to strong demons, while strong demons would treat their subordinates fairly to ensure that their subordinates worked efficiently. Overall, the demons'' society was fairly bnced.


    While demon society might seem strange in the eyes of humans, inhabitants of the demon realm found nothing wrong with it. Apart from the people here constantlyining about the terrible living environment, the demon realm was not much different from the human realm. It wasn''t a barbaric ce at all.


    Hence, if possible, Alice still hoped to find a solution to the demon realm''s pollution. Even if doing so wouldn''t remove all conflicts between the human and demon realms, it would remove the main cause of war at the very least.


    <em>There is also the Demon King''s Power I wonder where it is currently?</em>


    While pondering over this question, Alice walked back to her room and retrieved the Hero''s Sword from her pouch. ording to the Loli Goddess, she had already received the right to use the Hero''s Sword. In other words, her right hand should no longer consider the Hero''s Sword to be useless scrap metal.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Unnamed]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Alice was stunned. She could see that the Hero''s Sword had changed. Apart from its name, its quality had also gone from being Garbage to Law. In other words, the Hero''s Sword now had a rating befitting of its status.


    <em>But why is its effect still Strength +1? The additional effect section is also empty. Did that Loli Goddess trick me?</em>


    Alice swung the Hero''s Sword a few times. Then, when she felt that it was no different from when its quality was Garbage, confusion immediately filled her mind. Logically, after a weapon''s quality had changed, its effects should change as well.


    "Or is there some special requirement I need to meet to use the Hero''s Sword''s power Ha!"


    After mumbling a few words to herself, Alice kicked the Hero''s Sword and let out a shout. She wanted to test and see if the Hero''s Sword was voice-controlled.


    As soon as Alice shouted, the Hero''s Sword immediately changed, and a torrent of power poured into Alice''s body through the sword''s hilt.


    <em>Hm? It''s actually voice-controlled?</em>


    Alice skeptically looked at the Hero''s Sword. Then, her right hand updated the information it projected into her mind.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Ha]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +8000, Speed +8000, Mind +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul.)]


    Alice''s heart thumped when she saw the change to the Hero''s Sword''s name.

 Chapter 65: Awkward Reunion

    Chapter 65: Awkward Reunion


    "Alice, you must be careful once you go over to the humans'' side. Make sure you don''t get kidnapped by baddies. Even the hero novels brought over from the humans'' side frequently bring up evildoers. This just goes to show that there are plenty of evildoers even in the human realm."


    In the afternoon the next day, after Alice had lunch in man''s manor, she prepared to set off on her journey back to the human realm. Before she could leave, though, like a mother seeing off her daughter, Heris embraced her and kept on prattling about various things that she should pay attention to in the human realm.


    Alice hadn''t gotten much sleepst night because of the blunder she made. Her failure to find a way to change the Hero''s Sword''s name only served to distract her mind even further. So, she did not resist Heris''s embrace or bbering and simply listened to the demoness''s warnings in a daze.


    Meanwhile, the Four Heavenly Kings mentally struggled on whether they should smile at this scene. On the one hand, they felt conflicted about letting Heris treat Alice, the Demon King, in such a frivolous manner. On the other hand, they felt that Alice''s appearance indeed resembled a life-sized doll and that there was nothing strange about letting Heris hug Alice.


    Not to mention, Heris was man''s daughter. If she could maintain a close rtionship with Alice, it would be good news for the demon realm. As the Four Heavenly Kings, they knew a lot more about the demon realm''s history than most demons.


    ording to what they know, the only Demon King to have ever seeded in invading the human realm wasn''t a bloodthirsty barbarian like what most people would assume. Instead, the Seventh Demon King had an amiable personality. It was also thanks to his friendliness that he managed to unite the demons and execute a sessful invasion into the human realm. Thus, Alice''s eptance of Heris''s behavior was good news for them.


    "I think that''s enough for now, Young Miss. Lady Alice might miss the caravan if you keep dying her," Davis suddenly said. Even if he knew that his words would earn him Heris''s dissatisfaction afterward, he had no choice but to do so. After all, he was man''s close aide. Since man wasn''t willing to offend his daughter, Davis had no choice but to y the role of the viin. "It''s not like Lady Alice would be leaving forever. Also, if you really wish to see Lady Alice, you can just hide your tail and pay Lady Alice a visit in the human realm."


    Demons could hide their unique filtration organs if they wanted to. If Heris hid her tail, she would have no problems blending in with humans. Only, the risk of her getting exposed would increase the longer she stayed in the human realm.


    "You''re so long-winded, Davis," Heris said as she rolled her eyes at Davis. Then, she reluctantly let go of Alice and continued, "Since that''s the case, I won''t pester you any longer, Alice. However, make sure to message me once you reach the human realm, Alice! I won''t be able to sleep well, otherwise!"


    "I got it, I got it."


    Alice was rather helpless against Heris''s clingy personality. However, her petite appearance was probably to me as well. After all, this body that God had created for her was indeed very cute. It was so cute that Alice would often find herself sighing ruefully when she looked at herself in the mirror.


    "Safe travels."


    Aird, who stood among the other Heavenly Kings, also waved goodbye at Alice. Although her action didn''t seem out of ce, Alice understood the meaning Aird was trying to convey. Early this morning, Alice had held a secret conversation with Aird. They talked about what she should do after returning to the human realm. Thus, Aird''s "safe travels" should be a signal to remind Alice of their discussion.


    "No problem. I''ll be careful," Alice said as she smiled at Aird. Then, she picked up the backpack the Four Heavenly Kings prepared for her and followed Davis out of the manor.


    man and the other Heavenly Kings naturally couldn''t see Alice off to the human realm. If they did so, it would attract unwanted attention to Alice. Thus, they decided to let Davis take on the responsibility of sending Alice to the meet-up point with the smuggling caravan.


    "Uu I keep getting the feeling that Alice and Lady Aird are hiding something from us" Heris said as she turned to look at Aird in dissatisfaction. Even though she was the one who found Alice first, Alice had ended up spending these past few days with the Four Heavenly Kings instead. Now that she saw Alice smiling at Aird as well, she couldn''t help but grow displeased.


    "You must be overthinking it. Lady Alice and I are innocent," Aird said with a dead-pan expression, making it impossible for others to see through her thoughts. Even if Heris suspected her rtionship with Alice, the young demoness could do nothing about it. After all, she had made sure not to leave any evidence of her secret discussions with Alice.


    "I guess it''s a good thing that Lady Alice is this generation''s Demon King. At the very least, she is different from most of the past Demon Kings whose priorities are to drown themselves in pleasure and luxury," man said as soon as the doors closed. "When I heard Heris saying that she was returning with the new Demon King, I have already mentally prepared myself to lose this manor. But looking at things now, she might really be able to help the demon realm out of its predicament."


    "Had she been the type of Demon King who only knew how to enjoy pleasures and luxuries, I would''ve killed her myself even if it meant risking my life," Ellu said. Her personality did not allow her to submit to someone for no good reason. It didn''t matter even if the other party was the Demon King. "However, it seems that this generation''s Demon King suits my taste. If she can maintain her current personality, I wouldn''t mind letting her lead me."


    "You two sure haveplicated thoughts. My only thought is that the new Demon King''s appearance is deceiving and that it should allow her to move around easily in the human realm," Wintas said, shaking his head. "I have already given you Lord Demon King''s contact method. If you have anything you wish to tell her in the future, just give her a call. However, make sure you only contact her for important matters to avoid exposing her identity Anyway, now that my work here is done, it''s about time I return to my country."


    "Likewise."


    Aird nodded and gave a curt response.


    Alice and Davis naturally weren''t aware of the conversation the Four Heavenly Kings had in man''s manor. After a short drive, Davis and Alice arrived at the meet-up location. The meet-up location was located in a small grove outside the Fear Kingdom''s Teli City. Moreover, to Alice''s surprise, she met someone familiar at the meet-up pointthe middle-aged shopkeeper responsible for smuggling her into the demon realm.


    Afterward, Alice and the middle-aged shopkeeper stared at each other in stunned silence, neither of them expecting to meet each other here.


    "Since we have already arrived at our destination, I will be taking my leave first, Lady Alice," Davis said. Although he noticed Alice staring at the caravan leader in silence, he didn''t think much of it. He simply assumed that Alice wasn''t used to speaking with strangers. So, after dropping off Alice at the meet-up point, he promptly took his leave.


    As for the possibility of Aliceing into danger?


    What a joke. That was the Demon King they were talking about. Even man was incapable of withstanding a hit from Alice. Meanwhile, even the strongest magician in this caravan was merely at the level of a university graduate. Even getting a doctorate would be a challenge for this magician, let alone picking a fight with the Demon King.


    After Davis left, the middle-aged shopkeeper nervously gulped as he looked at the little girl he had smuggled into the demon realm a few days ago. Then, he asked, "W-Who are you exactly?"


    Originally, the middle-aged shopkeeper thought Alice was merely a wealthy youngdy from the human realm. After all, Rosa had willingly used the favor he owed her to ask him to smuggle Alice into the demon realm. No matter how he looked at it, Alice should possess a high status in the human realm.


    However, looking at things now, it would seem that Alice didn''t just possess a high status in the demon realm.


    The middle-aged shopkeeper recognized the person who had dropped Alice off.


    Davis, personal adviser to the Fear Kingdom''s King man. He was a demon with great authority in the Fear Kingdom, and even the other Heavenly Kings dared not casuallyy their hands on him. After all, to do so would be to provoke the Heavenly King of Fire.


    Yet, such a person had served as a driver for Alice. Moreover, he had done so with a respectful attitude. This situation stirred the middle-aged shopkeeper''s thoughts.


    Of course, no matter how the middle-aged shopkeeper racked his mind, there was no way he would ever link Alice to the Demon King. After all, the Demon King''s "selfie" had already spread all over the demon realm''s inte. Whether it was in terms of age, figure, skin tone, or hair color, Alice and the "Demon King'''' were vastly different from each other. Moreover, the middle-aged shopkeeper had never thought of the possibility that this generation''s Demon King might be concealing their identity. Thus, it was only natural that he failed to guess the truth.


    "I advise you not to pry too deeply," Alice said, sighing. She felt that it''d be best if she stopped the shopkeeper before his thoughts strayed too far.


    First, she had been smuggled into the demon realm while hiding her identity as the Hero. Now, she was being smuggled back into the human while hiding her identity as the Demon King. Although the entire tripsted for only several days, she couldn''t help but feel mentally exhausted.


    After thinking about what she had experienced the past few days, Alice decided to get a proper rest once she returned to the human realm. Then, she would research a way to change the Hero''s Sword''s name. If she left the Hero''s Sword''s name as it was, she felt that it''d be both embarrassing and rude when she introduced it to others in the future.

 Chapter 66: Heros Sword: Im Okay Now

    Chapter 66: Hero''s Sword: I''m Okay Now


    "I''m finally back."


    Inside a room on the Gryffin Church''s second floor, Aliceid on her bed and fiddled with her phone as she let out a rueful sigh.


    Although she had received excellent treatment over at the demon realm, she still felt morefortable being in the human realm.


    After all, being regarded as the Demon King by the Four Heavenly Kings also meant that she would be receiving the Four Heavenly Kings'' hopes of invading the human realm. The pressure of carrying such hopes was immense. Inparison, the expectations the human realm ced on her were much lower. Unless the Demon King personally invaded the human realm, she didn''t really have to do anything special. She could ck off as much as she wanted.


    After informing Heris of her safe arrival through using her ability to connect with the demon realm''s inte, Alice quickly found her next target through the human realm''s intethe March Royal School of Magic. Although it had a strange name, it was the best university in the Gryffin Kingdom. The university was situated in the distant Holl City, the Gryffin Kingdom''s capital, which was also the ce where the Gryffin King resided.


    From what Alice heard, Zauna had already taken care of the necessary enrollment procedures for her. Coincidentally, Alice also needed to visit Holl City to visit the king. It had been quite a few days since she first became the Hero. Yet, she still hadn''t met any of the human kings. So, it was necessary for her to at least meet with one of them.


    Originally, Alice had been rather worried about meeting the human kings. After all, apart from the ability to wield the Hero''s Sword, she didn''t have any other means to prove her identity.


    However, the situation had changed. Now that she had gained the qualifications to use the Hero''s Sword, the weapon would no longer be garbage in her hands. Instead, it would be a Law-rank weapon. With the bonus stats she received from the weapon, the Four Heavenly Kings couldn''t beat her even if they worked together.


    Of course, Alice couldn''t walk around with the Hero''s Sword all the time, either. She would attract too much attention to herself and risk her identity as the Hero getting exposed otherwise. If that happened, those with malicious intentions would simply need to wait for a time when she wasn''t holding the Hero''s Sword to assassinate her.


    <em>While the sword is good, I can''t exactly use it whenever I want.</em>


    Alice sighed as she looked at the small box storing the Hero''s Sword. Although the small box was a spatial item, it had significant limitations. Moreover, when she held it with her right hand, it was only regarded as a weapon with a "Not Bad" quality. It did not give her the ability to use spatial magic.


    Apart from her inability to use the Hero''s Sword whenever she wanted, another thing that concerned Alice was the Hero''s Sword''s name. Because of her mistake, the Hero''s Sword''s name was now "Hey."


    If there came a time when she had to fight against a trash-talking opponent, and the other party introduced their weapon as "Frostpain," while she responded by pointing at the Hero''s Sword she wielded and introduced:


    "This is Hey, the Hero''s Sword that is going to y you!"


    The mood would be ruined instantly.


    <em>Why doesn''t this Hero''s Sworde with a beginner''s manual</em>


    Alice sighed again. She had already tried saying a bunch ofmands to try and change the Hero''s Sword''s name, but none of them had seeded. So, it was safe to assume that the Hero''s Sword''s name could only be changed once when it switched owners. Fortunately, Alice still had a way to salvage this situation.


    Since the program was hard-coded, all she needed to do was find the programmer.


    Hey No. The Hero''s Sword also had the Word of God ability. This meant that the Hero''s Sword also acted like a phone that allowed Alice to contact God.


    Having made up her mind, Alice retrieved the Hero''s Sword out of its container and gripped its hilt with her right hand. Then, she closed her eyes and began praying sincerely. She sincerely wished to change the Hero''s Sword''s name, so her prayers should be regarded as sincere.


    Very quickly, Alice found her consciousness blurring momentarily. When her consciousness recovered, she found that the soft bed she sat on had changed into a wooden floor. Then, when she opened her eyes, she found that her consciousness had returned to God''s room.


    As for the white-haired Loli Goddess, she was snoring on the ground, just like when Alice first visited this ce.


    <em>Does she have narcolepsy or something? </em>Alice scratched her head as she looked at the sleeping Goddess. Then, she crouched down and pinched the loli''s cheek while saying, "Hey, wake up. I have something to ask you."


    "W-Who is it?!" The Loli Goddess woke up in a daze and swatted away the hand that was pinching her cheek. Then, when she looked up and saw Alice crouching beside her, she asked, "Why are you back? Didn''t you juste overst night?"


    "That I came across a little problem," Alice said with an awkward smile. She also felt that it was inappropriate for her to disturb God for such a small problem. "You should be able to tell the Hero''s Sword''s situation, right? I identally gave it the wrong name. Can you help me reset it?"


    "You gave it the wrong name?" The Loli Goddess looked at Alice skeptically. Then, she suddenly thought of something as she said, "Oh, right. You weren''t the one who awakened the Hero''s Sword. You must not have known that the Hero''s Sword can only be used after acquiring a ''true name,'' so you must''ve identally given it a strange name, right?"


    <em>You should''ve said something earlier if you knew that.</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but find the Loli Goddess to be even more unreliable now.


    "Although it isn''t a big issue, there is a limit to how many times I can reset the Hero''s Sword. It will self-destruct once it reaches 20 resets, so I can only give you one chance to rename it," the Loli Goddess said, not noticing the strange gaze Alice was giving her. Then, she closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again and saying, "Done. You can rename your Hero''s Sword once you return. Remember: This is the only chance you''ll get. I won''t help you if you mess up again."


    "No problem." Alice made an OK sign when she heard the Loli Goddess''s words. Now that she understood the rule to name the Hero''s Sword, if she messed up the naming again, she could only chalk it up as the Hero''s Sword''s fate and ept it. "By the way, can I take another souvenir with me?"


    "Scram!"


    The Loli Goddess''s face turned beet red, and she sent Alice back with a kick once more.


    Upon getting kicked, Alice experienced a moment of weightlessness before she found herself back in her room, feeling as if she had just woken up from a dream. She also noticed that the powerful bonuses she received from the Hero''s Sword had disappeared. Although the Hero''s Sword retained its Law quality, its other abilities had temporarily disappeared. Thus, Alice had now reverted to being a helpless little girl.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Unnamed]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Alice breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw the Hero''s Sword''s stats. From the history books she read, she inferred that people typically referred to the Hero''s Sword by its true name. It was both a Law-grade weapon and the Hero''s lifelongpanion, after all. It was only right to show it some respect and call it by its given name.


    Thus, Alice would be socially ruined if her Hero''s Sword got stuck with the name "Hey."


    Raising the Hero''s Sword, Alice fell into thought as she pondered what name she should give it.


    Alice wasn''t illiterate on Earth. On the contrary, apart from Chinese, she also knew a few foreignnguages. Meanwhile, ording to the introduction on the Hero that she read on the human realm''s inte, the Hero''s Sword''s previous name, "Enheria," was an adage that originated from the previous Hero''s hometown, and its meaning was "courage." Using this as an example, Alice decided that she could also use anguage from Earth to name the Hero''s Sword.


    Although Alice wanted to name the Hero''s Sword using Chinese, this world''snguage was simr to Chinese. So, it''d feel awkward andzy if she directly named the sword "Courage." Thus, after thinking it over, she made up her mind.


    "Okay!" Alice opened her eyes and earnestly looked at the Hero''s Sword she held with both hands. "I''ve decided! Your name will be ''Khrabrost!''"


    Khrabrost, the pronunciation for the word "courage" in Russian. The instant Alice decided on this name, she felt boundless power flooding into her body from the Hero''s Sword. This time, she even felt a sense of warmth spreading throughout her body.


    <em>Sure enough, the Hero''s Sword must like this name.</em>


    With such a thought in her mind, Alice checked the Hero''s Sword''s weapon information again.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Okay]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +8000, Speed +8000, Mind +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul.)]


    <em>Goddammit! Can this Hero''s Sword be a little more intelligent?!</em>

 Chapter 67: Even if You Think You Are the Best, There Is Always Someone Better

    Chapter 67: Even if You Think You Are the Best, There Is Always Someone Better


    "Lord Hero."


    Although several days had passed since theyst met, Father Kasandora was as spirited as he was before. Ever since the Milu Rabbit chased the reporters away, Father Kasandora no longer received any interview requests. Only the asional reporter would appear and ask a few questions about the Hero. Meanwhile, during such instances, Father Kasandora would always answer their questions without revealing any crucial information about Alice.


    "Thank you for your hard work, Father Kasandora," Alice said, nodding at Father Kasandora as she made her way down from the second floor. Although she somewhat resented Father Kasandora as he was the main perpetrator that led to her bing the Hero, she couldn''t deny that he was an excellent and dutiful priest, and she respected him for that.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but wonder how Father Kasandora would react if he found out what kind of person the God he worshipped actually was. Alice dared to bet that the Loli Goddess was sleeping again right now. Perhaps for someone so long-lived like the Loli Goddess, sleep was the best way to pass the time, just like how it was for dragons.


    Dragons existed in this world, albeit in extremely small numbers. They lived in the remote Dragon Mountain Range. Nobody would approach the mountain range normally, and images of the mountain range circted on the inte were mostly taken by magic satellites.


    Meanwhile, as long-lived creatures, Dragons spent most of their time asleep. Their slumber couldst for dozens or even hundreds of years.


    "It''s not hard at all. It is my honor to serve the Hero chosen by God," Father Kasandora formally said. "Are you heading out now, Lord Hero?"


    "Ah, yes. I have some business to take care of," Alice said, nodding while smoothing out her long blonde hair.


    Alice intended to visit Rosa. As a former thief, Rosa should know many things about Holl City, especially information not avable on the inte. Since Alice would be heading to Holl City soon, she felt that it''d be best if she gathered some information on the city to prepare for any emergencies.


    "In that case, please be careful while you are outside. You are the only one capable of stopping the Demon King should the demonsunch an invasion on the human realm, so your existence is very important to humans, Lord Hero," Father Kasandora said, sighing worriedly. While Alice might have drawn the Hero''s Sword, he was aware that she had yet to officially begin her training as the Hero. So, she couldn''t be considered strong by any means.


    However, despite his worries, Father Kasandora did not stop Alice from going out. While Mana City might be a border city, it was still under the Gryffin Kingdom''s governance, so the city''s crime rate was very low. So long as Alice did not deliberately visit the dangerous parts of the city, she shouldn''te into any danger.


    "Oh, I nearly forgot. Lord Hero, before you leave, do you mind registering the name of your Hero''s Sword?" Father Kasandora suddenly asked just when Alice was about to walk out the church''s front door. "I thought you might not have named the Hero''s Sword yet before, so I never asked you about it, but you should have already named it by now, right?"


    Alice''s body stiffened when she heard her greatest fear arriving. She had just been thinking about how she could avoid revealing the Hero''s Sword''s name as much as possible, yet Father Kasandora had immediately brought up this topic.


    "That... Must I say it?"


    "The Hero''s Sword''s true name will be converted into its strength. The more people who know of its true name, the stronger the Hero''s Sword would be," Father Kasandora exined, thinking that Alice might not have known about the Hero''s Sword''s legends. "This is the advice left behind by the Heroes of past generations. We can help you spread the Hero''s Sword''s true name if you register it with us. This is for your future''s sake, Lord Hero."


    "..."


    Alice wanted to say that it wasn''t necessary, but when she saw the hopeful expression on Father Kasandora''s face, she couldn''t bear to refuse the old priest. So, after letting out a resigned sigh, she said, "Okay."


    "Mhm." Father Kasandora nodded. Then, he looked at Alice and waited for her to tell him the Hero''s Sword''s true name. However, after waiting for a while and noticing that Alice was staring at him, he couldn''t help but be a little stunned. Then, he touched his wrinkled face and asked, "Is there something on my face, Lord Hero?"


    "No, there''s nothing on it, but I have already told you the Hero''s Sword''s name," Alice said. When she saw Father Kasandora''s actions, she could probably guess what was on his mind. The old priest''s reaction was also within her expectations. Then, after letting out a mental sigh, she repeated, "What I mean is that the Hero''s Sword''s name is Okay."


    "...That truly is a...unique name." As calm of a person as Father Kasandora was, even he couldn''t help but be a little dumbfounded when he heard Alice''s words. Then, after taking a moment to process this unexpected revtion, he said, "But it is quite the simple name. At the very least, it sounds much better than Hero Miller''s Hero''s Sword..."


    "There''s something worse than this name?" Alice immediately grew interested when she heard Father Kasandora''s words. Then, she looked at the old priest and eagerly asked, "Who is Hero Miller? And what is the name of his Hero''s Sword?"


    "Hero Miller, huh... He is the Eighth Hero who existed roughly three thousand years ago. As for the name of his Hero''s Sword, it is..." Father Kasandora hesitated to continue speaking, an awkward expression on his face. Then, after hesitating for a moment, he took a deep breath and said, "What the Fuck."


    "..."


    When Alice heard Father Kasandora''s answer, she could roughly imagine what had happened three thousand years ago. Normally, the Hero would receive instructions on using the Hero''s Sword upon awakening the weapon. Only during special cases like Aird''s and Alice''s cases would that fail to happen.


    In Aird''s case, she was heavily injured when she awakened the Hero''s Sword. So, she immediately fainted after awakening the Hero''s Sword and failed to receive the usage instructions.


    In Alice''s case, she wasn''t the one to awaken the Hero''s Sword, so she did not receive the instructions on how to use it. Instead, she had to learn the instructions from the Loli Goddess.


    As for the pitiful Hero named Miller, he had probably failed to read the instructions that had appeared in his mind in time and got surprised by the sudden flood of light-attributed mana released by the awakened Hero''s Sword that he subconsciously shouted, "what the fuck." Then, what happened next was the Hero''s Sword registering his words as its new name.


    "As this name might set a bad example for youths, it is omitted in history textbooks. When mentioning Hero Miller, textbooks will never mention the name of his Hero''s Sword," Father Kasandora said, shaking his head helplessly. "So, while your Hero''s Sword''s name might be a little unique, it is at least safe to be recorded in textbooks."


    <em>In other words, I am going to be publicly executed even in textbooks?</em> Alice palmed her face. She could already imagine what expressions people in the future would make once they saw the name of her Hero''s Sword printed in textbooks.

 Chapter 68: Receiving Free Things Makes Me Happy

    Chapter 68: Receiving Free Things Makes Me Happy


    Alice had originally been in a good mood when she got ready to leave the church. However, by the time she walked out of the church, her mood had already fallen to the opposite end of the spectrum.


    What Alice feared most had still ended up happening. Previously, the reason why she had agonized over the Hero''s Sword''s name and even gone out of her way to pester God for help was precisely because she worried that the Hero''s Sword''s name would be publicized. Then, once the entire world found out about the Hero''s Sword''s name, they would realize how lousy this generation''s Hero was.


    Although there was an even unluckier bloke named Miller, Alice still couldn''t bring herself to feel happy. When she thought about how schools would pose ridiculous questions such as "Please analyze Hero Alice''s psychological state when she named her Hero''s Sword ''Okay'' (9 marks)" in the future, she felt that she was bound to be ridiculed and hated by students.


    The previous generation''s Hero''s "Enheria" was at least an adage that conveyed the meaning of courage. So, it clearly expressed the previous Hero''s psychological state when she named her Hero''s Sword. However, what the hell did "Okay" convey? How was anyone supposed to analyze anything from it?


    While Alice had the option to give a random name to Father Kasandora just now instead of telling the truth, she dared not do so. This was because the HEro''s Sword was a Law-grade weapon. In other words, its true name was simr to the Hero''s existenceaw. After learning about the significance ofws from the Loli Goddess, Alice dared not fool around regarding matters involvingws.


    Had she reported a false name to Father Kasandora, not only would she be hampering the Hero''s Sword''s growth, but she might even cause the Demon King''s Power to grow stronger.


    Thus, carrying unhappy feelings, Alice followed her memories and quickly arrived in front of Rosa''s home. As a working paparazzi and former thief with the ability to bypass the realm barrier, Rosa should have ess to ssified information that most people weren''t aware of.


    Previously, when Alice had searched the inte for information on the Gryffin Kingdom''s capital, the result she ended up with was merely a bunch of ttery and praise about the city''s governance. She did not learn anything important about the city or the kingdom''s ruler, Chris Hatter.


    Compared to the useless essays on the inte, Alice felt that it''d be more reliable to ask Rosa about the positives and negatives of Holl City and the Gryffin King.


    However, when Alice arrived in front of Rosa''s house, she found a rtively new piece of paper pasted on the door. Meanwhile, the words "House For Sale" followed by a housing agent''s contact number were clearly written on the paper.


    Evidently, Rosa had fled.


    While Alice didn''t know whether Rosa''s relocation was rted to her, she was willing to bet that it was. After all, who wouldn''t feel afraid of being targeted by a Hero-cum-panty thief? Moreover, Rosa had even avoided leaving her own contact number on the paper and instead chose to leave an intermediary''s number. With Rosa''s cautiousness as a thief, Alice guessed that she wouldn''t get any useful results even if she called the intermediary and asked for Rosa''s contact.


    "She actually fled?"


    Alice''s lips curled upwards, a wicked feeling appearing in her heart. She had no desire to look for a new thief to abuse. After all, she had a lot of fun interacting with Rosa. Moreover, not only did Rosa help her with a bunch of things, but the thief girl was also good at keeping secrets, as proven by the fact that her identity as the Hero remained unleaked even until now.


    If Alice were to find a new thief to coborate with, she would have to put her identity at risk again. Thus, to ensure that her identity remained secret, Alice decided that it''d be best if she looked for Rosa again. She also had an idea on how she could locate the missing thief.


    For the average person, trying to look for a person in a big city like Mana City while only knowing the person''s name and appearance was an incredibly difficult feat. Not to mention, there was also the possibility that Rosa had already fled Mana City.


    However, Alice wasn''t your average joe. The idea she came up with wasn''t anything normal, either.


    After leaving Rosa''s ce, Alice made her way to Mana City''s biggest department store.


    While this world''s architecture might be stuck in Earth''s Middle Ages, the standard of its construction engineering was not. Tall buildings and skyscrapers existed in this world. The department store Alice visited, for example, was a 16-story-tall building. Even on Earth, it was a department store of considerable size.


    Because of the Milu Rabbit tied to her waist, Alice attracted a lot of attention when she walked around in the department store. However, Alice had long since adapted to such situations, and she could now ignore the gazes of surrounding people. In any case, the worst that could happen was for these people to upload her photos onto LINK. There was no risk of her identity getting exposed.


    Through the use of mana esctors, Alice quickly arrived on the department store''s tenth floor, which was also the floor specializing in selling magical contraptions. After arriving on the floor, she made her way to a store selling navigation devices. Then, after attracting the shop employee''s strange gaze, Alice pointed at a GPS navigator in a disy cab and said, "I want to look at this unit."


    "Uh, okay."


    The shop employee took a moment to react. After all, Alice looked like a 14-year-old girl no matter how he looked at her. His first thought when seeing her was to assume that she was a child who had gotten separated from her parents, and his second thought was to wonder whether he should take her to the department store''s Lost Child Center. Never did he expect to hear her asking to check out a GPS navigator.


    However, even though the shop employee felt that a child like Alice wouldn''t know anything about GPS navigators, he still carried out his duties, took out the selected unit from the cab, and handed it over to Alice.


    Meanwhile, under the employee''s gaze, Alice received the small device and held it in her right hand. Immediately afterward, the device''s weapon information appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Brilliant Navigator Model LB-002]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Agility +2, Control +5]


    [Additional Effect: Advanced Navigation (Active Skill. When activated, disys the map of the targeted area.)]


    <em>It only disys a map</em>


    Alice frowned. Just like what she expected, although the functions of these magical contraptions might seem unchanged on the surface, they actually had loopholes she could take advantage of. Take her phone''s additional effect, which allowed her to ess the inte, for example. Because the Mana Network skill''s description did not limit the scope of the term "inte," it allowed her to connect to even the demon realm''s inte.


    This was also the case for this navigator. The Advanced Navigation skill stated that it could disy the map of a targeted area. In other words, it could disy the map of any area in the world. Even if it was a ce this navigation unit''s satellite system did not cover, it did not matter.


    However, the Advanced Navigation skill''s function was useless to Alice. What she needed to find was a person, not a map. Thus, she ced the GPS navigator back on the cab and asked the employee, "IS there a unit that can pinpoint the location of a person?"


    "You mean a navigator with the positioning function?" Initially, the shop employee thought that Alice was merely a lost child. However, looking at it now, it would seem that Alice was indeed a customer. So, the shop employee retracted his thoughts of taking Alice to the Lost Child Center and began earnestly promoting the navigators the shop sold. After looking around for a moment, he took out a slightlyrger navigator from a different cab and handed it to Alice, saying, "This unit has the positioning function. Feel free to take a look."


    Alice epted the navigator. Then, before she even turned it on, her right hand disyed the navigator''s information in her mind.


    [Weapon: Brilliant Navigator Model XB-005]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Agility +5, Control +8]


    [Additional Effect:


    Advanced Navigation (Active Skill. When activated, disys the map of the targeted area);


    Advanced Positioning (Active Skill. When activated, disys the precise position of the searched target.)]


    <em>Good. It does have a positioning function. Moreover, its description is rather vague, so I should be able to use it to find Rosa.</em>


    After seeing that this bigger navigator could locate Rosa''s position, Alice had initially thought of using it to search for Rosa''s location in the name of a "test" and leave without buying the navigator. That way, she wouldn''t have to waste money unnecessarily. However, after considering that she might have a use for the navigator''s functions in the future and that Rosa might move around, Alice eventually decided to buy it.


    "How much is it?"


    "It is nine silver and fifteen cents."


    "Hm?"


    Alice raised an eyebrow when she heard the employee''s words. Then, when she saw the unnatural look on the employee''s face, she immediately understood what was going onthe employee must''ve decided to fleece her after seeing that she looked young and gullible.


    Alice hadn''te to buy a GPS navigator without prior research. During the taxi ride to the department store, she had looked up the inte for GPS navigator prices. Meanwhile, based on what she found, GPS navigators typically sold for around four silver. The price of 9.15 silver was more than double the average already.


    "Why is it so expensive? The quality of this thing doesn''t look like it''s worth that much," Alice said as she waved the GPS navigator in her hand. The device was roughly the size of a Nintendo Switch Controller. It didn''t look very big even in Alice''s small hand. "I feel like my Milu Rabbit can break it easily."


    "Stop joking around, little girl," the ship employee said,ughing.


    He might not be a mercenary, but he still knew about Milu Rabbits. Milu Rabbits might be different from normal rabbits in that they had mana, but the amount of mana they had was so scant that it was negligible. Thus, there weren''t any real differences in strength between a Milu Rabbit and a normal rabbit.


    Meanwhile, Brilliant Navigator was a big brand known for manufacturing heavy-duty GPS navigators. The brand''s navigators could even survive being thrown on the ground by an adult, let alone a Milu Rabbit bumping into it.


    "If your Milu Rabbit can break this device, I''ll give you a unit for free," the shop employee jokingly said with a smile.


    Hearing the employee''s words, Alice also smiled a brilliant smile.

 Chapter 69: Im Coming To You

    Chapter 69: I''m Coming To You


    With the GPS navigator, which she had won for free from the crying salesperson, in hand, Alice left the department store with a satisfied smile on her face.


    Although the salesperson initially wanted to renege on his bet, he quickly caved after Alice threatened to call the shop''s manager. If the manager heard that he tried to trick a little girl, he wouldn''t be losing only the money for two GPS navigators. He would even lose his job.


    Between losing a little money and his job, the salesperson naturally chose to keep his job. Thus, Alice had sessfully connedearned a brand new Brilliant Navigator Model XB-005 thanks to the Milu Rabbit.


    "Beautifully done, Milu Rabbit," Alice said as she tied the unconscious Milu Rabbit back to her waist. A measly GPS navigator naturally couldn''t withstand the Milu Rabbit''s headbutt. It also wasn''t enough to give the Milu Rabbit the fix it sought after, either. So, after destroying the GPS navigator, the Milu Rabbit had proceeded to crack one of the department store''s walls before it fainted in satisfaction. "I''ll make sure to name you next time."


    After futilely appeasing the unconscious Milu Rabbit and arriving at the department store''s entrance, Alice activated the navigator''s ability using her right hand. Although the navigator''s two skillsAdvanced Navigation and Advanced Positioningmight seem like navigation functions, after the navigator became Alice''s weapons, these two skills did far more than just navigate directions.


    <em>Sure enough, it works.</em>


    Alice nodded in satisfaction when she saw the coordinates and map that had appeared on the navigator''s screen after she had entered "Rosa" into the navigator''s search bar. She definitely wouldn''t have gotten such a result had she tried to search such a vague search criteria using a normal GPS navigator. She hadn''t ced much hope on her theory seeding initially, so she was pleasantly surprised to see her theory hitting the mark.


    <em>It''s as if my right hand had altered thews of the navigator''s functions.</em>


    In reality, Alice had suspected more than once that her right hand might be the Demon King''s Power. However, looking at it now, that didn''t seem to be the case. While her right hand''s ability might have altered this world''sws, such as turning panties into Artifacts, it did not destroy the world''sws, unlike the Demon King''s Power. Rather than destruction, it looked more as if her right hand wascreatingws?


    Take Alice''s idea of searching for Rosa using a GPS navigator, for example. It was originally an incredibly vague concept. Yet, Alice''s right hand had forcibly implemented her idea and made it possible for her to search for Rosa using a GPS navigator. It was as if the world itself was helping Alice search for Rosa. The fact that her right hand''s ability was capable of such a feat meant that it was already touching upon thews of this world.


    However, Alice was still ignorant about many things in this world, and there were still many theories she needed to verify. Thus, she quickly threw this matter to the back of her head and focused on her primary goal.


    <em>Rosa''s locationisn''t very far from here. That''s good. This means she is still in Mana City. I wouldn''t know where to find her if she had already left the city.</em>


    When Alice saw the disyed map and coordinates, she quickly recognized Rosa''s current location. It was a standard residential district, and she could probably reach there in 20 minutes by car.


    Mana City''s Pigeon Bar had a uniqueyout that separated it from other bars in the city. There were no individual tables for guests to sit around in the bar. There were no private rooms, either. Instead, bar counters lined the establishment''s walls, and many bartenders stood behind these counters, ready to serve drinks to guests at any time.


    Currently, Rosa was the only woman drinking in the bar, her beautiful figure and exquisite face causing many eyes to turn to her. Yet, despite this situation, nobody dared to approach her and strike up a conversation.


    There was no helping this situation. The mercenary badge hung on Rosa''s belt was a huge deterrence for the men in the bar. Everyone living in Mana City would know what a mercenary represented. Mercenaries were people with genuinebat power andbat experience. Mercenaries were also individuals supported by the various human kingdoms. If average joes like themselves rashly provoked a mercenary, not only would they receive a beating, but they might even get sued for harassment.


    Moreover, it was still early in the afternoon, so the few customers in the bar were still sober and could see that Rosa was evidently in a bad mood. So, nobody was dumb enough to try their luck with her.


    As to why Rosa was in a bar at such an early hour, it was because she was trying to drink her sorrows away. There was no helping it. She had caught the Hero''s attention, after all. She also knew very well how troublesome it was to have the Hero''s attention.


    The reason why Rosa became a thief in the first ce was that she liked to maintain a low profile and lead a secretive and peaceful lifestyle. However, she never expected that she would offend people all around after bing a thief. Left with no other choice, she had to give away most of the money she earned as a thief to get out of trouble. Afterward, she had chosen to change careers and be a reporter, thinking that she could maintain a peaceful lifestyle with such a job.


    However, she never thought that the first task she received would be to investigate the Hero. Moreover, she had gotten caught and targeted by the Hero.


    "It''s been a while since I''ve seen you depressed like this. What happened? Is something troubling you?"


    The bartender manning the counter in front of Rosa was a woman with her hair tied into a ponytail. When the bartender saw Rosa, a regr of hers, drinking alcohol somberly by herself, she knew that the other party must''vee across some trouble.


    "Feel free to vent yourints if you have any."


    "A female pervert has recently set her eyes on me."


    Although Rosa was feeling a little drunk, she was aware that she couldn''t get herself thoroughly drunk at this time. She was currently being pestered by the Hero right now. She would be in real trouble if she got fully drunk and bbered about the Hero to others. However, while she couldn''t reveal everything about the Hero, that didn''t mean she couldn''t indirectlyin about the Hero.


    "Not only did that person barge into my home while taking advantage of her identity, but she even stole three of my underwear!"


    "...Your trouble is indeed a little unique." The female bartender was a little stunned. As someone who worked in a bar, she had listened to the troubles of many people before. However, this was the first time she was hearing an encounter like Rosa''s. "You should go to the police, then. Trespassing on private property and theft are punishable crimes. Even if the stolen goods'' value isn''t high, it should still be enough to get that person locked up for some time."


    "It''s useless. You have no idea how terrifying her identity is," Rosa said, shaking her head. Then, she downed the rest of the red wine in her ss into her mouth. Although she heard that people often liked to drink beer when they were drinking to drown their sorrows away, she didn''t really like the taste of beer. So, she used wine as a recement instead. "You might not believe me, but it wouldn''t work even if I brought this matter up to the king, let alone the police. The king might even exile me from the country for reporting that person."


    "I am indeed having a hard time believing you" the female bartender said with a bitter smile. What kind of identity would this so-called pervert need to have to deter even the king from taking action? Could the other party be the Hero, maybe?


    However, that evidently wasn''t possible. After all, the pervert harassing Rosa was a female. Meanwhile, the Hero was a tall and robust man. There was a drastic difference between the two.


    "Anyway, nobody can help me with this problem," Rosa said and sighed. Then, she shook her head to clear her thoughts and said, "Give me another ss."


    "I might not be able to help you, but not all problems need to be solved. Rather than agonize over a solution, you can try to shift your attention onto something else to take your mind off your worries," the female bartender said, smiling as she refilled Rosa''s empty ss with wine. "Take the cute little girl standing behind you, for example. Just looking at her smile heals my soul. You can take this as an example and try to distract yourself by looking at some cute objects as well."


    "Cute little girl?"


    The bartender''s words made Rosa think of Alice. Honestly, if it weren''t for Alice''s identity and the trouble Alice brought to her, Rosa would indeed consider Alice to be a very cute girl as well. Unfortunately, Alice''s cute appearance was nothing but a cover to hide the perverted Hero within her.


    "Where is the cute little girl you speak of? Why would a little girle here?"


    While saying so, Rosa turned to look behind her. However, as soon as sheid eyes on the "cute little girl," her soul nearly left her body.


    "Yo. It''s been a few days since west met, Rosa," Alice said with a friendly smile. Then, after climbing onto the barstool next to Rosa''s, she asked, "You two were talking about a female pervert just now?"


    "..."


    Rosa suddenly felt her life bing dark and gray.

 Chapter 70: You Cant Avoid Trouble

    Chapter 70: You Can''t Avoid Trouble


    "This is my home."


    "What familiar words these are."


    This was the second time Rosa was forced to bring Alice to her house, so she felt very stressed. The person following her was the Hero, after all. Moreover, she even knew an unspeakable secret about the Hero. Unfortunately, she couldn''t use this secret to threaten Alice at all.


    This was the Hero they were talking about, after all. Rosa didn''t even need to think about what consequences would await her should she try to threaten the Hero. At that time, not only would she fail to gain any benefits from Alice, but she might even get exiled to the border. From the rumors she heard, the border was the ce where the human and demon realms met. Meanwhile, anyone who got exiled there would be forced to grow potatoes in the freezingnd there for the rest of their lives.


    "Why did youe looking for me again?" Rosa asked as she dejectedly sat down on the new chair she had bought. "If you only want underwear, you could buy plenty as the Hero."


    After thinking it over, Rosa added, "If you are only looking for worn female underwear, it should be easy for you to get them as well."


    "What kind of person do you take me for?" Alice felt a little exasperated as she looked at Rosa. Did this fellow think she was here to steal her panties again? "I''m here to ask you about something."


    "Ask me about something?"


    Rosa was momentarily stunned. Then, she quickly realized that Alice hade here this time for her previous identity as a thief. After all, the thief profession was something that required one to travel around many ces. So, any capable thief should have arge informationwork. Personally, Rosa felt that she had been a rtively sessful thief since she managed to get involved with even a demon realm smuggling team. Thus, she didn''t find it strange that Alice wasing to her for information.


    "That''s right. I''ll be heading to Holl City in a few days. I''ll also be meeting with the Gryffin King," Alice said, not bothering to conceal her tracks. It wasn''t a worthwhile secret, anyway. Anyone with a little brain would know that the Hero would have to meet with the human kings sooner orter. "So, I''m here to ask you about the Gryffin King. What kind of person is Chris Hatter?"


    "You could''ve easily found this information on the inte," Rosa said, feeling a little confused. Did Alice deliberately seek her out just to ask about such a small matter?


    "I know that thetest political news and Chris Hatter''s political experience are published on the inte, but what I want to know is the criticisms people hold toward him. I can''t find any usefulments on the inte," Alice said, shaking her head. The information she sought wasn''t the formal information published on the inte. Instead, she wanted to know what the Gryffin Kingdom''s citizens thought of their king. It would be even better if Rosa knew some unspeakable secrets about the Gryffin King. "Have you heard anything about Chris Hatter when you were still active as a thief? I''m talking about things that can''t be searched on the inte."


    "Chris Hatter, huh Now that you mention it, everything on the inte about him is indeed filled with flowery praises. However, it is also a fact that he has managed the Gryffin Kingdom very well," Rosa said after thinking over Alice''s question. "At the very least, he has shown no signs of corruption on paper. Although there are rumors saying that he had used dirty tactics whenpeting for the position of king, these are only guesses. Nobody knows what dirty tactics he used exactly. There is no way such information will remain circting on the inte, either."


    "On paper?" Alice noticed the emphasis on Rosa''s words, so she quickly asked, "What about in practice?"


    "In practice...Chris Hatter might have some mental problems."


    After hesitating for a moment, Rosa obediently confessed what she knew to Alice.


    Perhaps those with extraordinary courage might dare to use Alice''s secret to threaten her, but Rosa wasn''t one of those people. She was only a person who sought to live a peaceful life, and threatening a Hero was a little too stimting for her. Thus, not only did she not dare to threaten Alice, but she even behaved as if Alice was threatening her. If an outsider were to look at this situation, they might even think that Alice had gotten ahold of Rosa''s secret and used it as ckmail.


    "Mental problems?"


    Alice was a little surprised. This was not something she expected to hear. Based on her research, the Gryffin Kingdom looked to be well managed. Thementsizens had for Chris Hatter were mostly positive as well. Had Chris Hatter''s rule been terrible, there was no way the kingdom could suppress theizens'' negativements even if it wanted to. There were bound to be some sarcasticments slipping past the kingdom''s censorship. However, the fact that Alice failed to find even suchments showed that the Gryffin Kingdom''s citizens acknowledged Chris Hatter as their king.


    Yet, Rosa was now saying that this king had mental problems?


    "It is only a guess, but yes. Chris Hatter has previouslymissioned the kingdom''s thieves to search for magicians talented in mental magic. He has also hired many mental magic professors to help him," Rosa said, nodding. She felt that this wasn''t a secret worth hiding. After all, almost everyone operating in the kingdom''s circle of thieves knew about this matter. Only, the kingdom''s thieves wouldn''t share this information with the public, so one wouldn''t be able to find any rted information on the inte. "Initially, we simply thought that Chris Hatter was researching mental magic. However,ter on, some of us noticed that almost all of the mental magicians that have entered the pce would be dismissed in a state of mental breakdown."


    "If they were merely doing research, there''s no way they would end up in such a state, right?"


    After hearing Rosa''s words, Alice felt that her decision to seek out Rosa was correct. If she had simply believed in thements she saw on the inte, she would''ve never found out about such a secret.


    "Mhm. While the thief profession might not be upright, many of us value loyalty. After seeing the mental magicians ending up in such a state, the thieves that introduced these magicians to the pce naturally investigated the cause," Rosa continued. "After investigating and asking around, they found that the reason why these magicians had suffered a mental breakdown was because the thing they were asked to research was Chris Hatter''s mind."


    "Chris Hatter hired people to research his own mind? That''s interesting."


    This was akin to asking someone to perform brain surgery on yourself. By letting a bunch of mental magicians study his mind, Chris Hatter was basically opening up his mind to these magicians and letting them inspect and research it. These magicians might even have free ess to his memories. This was an incredibly risky action. If even one of these magicians had ill intentions, Chris Hatter might suffer irreparable damage to his mind and possibly be a vegetable.


    These things were consideredmon knowledge in this world. Alice had also read up on these topics when she was browsing the inte before. However, in the articles she read, such procedures were typically only used on patients verified to have mental illnesses. She never thought that Chris Hatter would actually hire so many mental magicians to carry out such a procedure on himself.


    "Which is why we think that Chris Hatter''s mind might have a huge problem," Rosa said. "However, at the end of the day, these are merely guesses. Thus far, Chris Hatter has not shown any mental abnormality in public. His management of the kingdom is also thorough and positive. So, you should just treat this as a rumor and don''t take it too seriously."


    Alice caressed her chin, a meaningful look appearing on her face.


    "I already told you everything I know," Rosa said, shrugging when she saw Alice''s pondering look. "If you wish to learn more, you''ll have to ask the thieves or magicians directly rted to this matter."


    "Alright, then. Thanks."


    Alice nodded in satisfaction. She hadn''t originally nned to receive such useful information when she came to find Rosa. She merely wanted to hear what opinions a thief like Rosa had toward the Gryffin King. So, it was a pleasant surprise that she got to hear such a juicy piece of information.


    However, despite her satisfaction, Alice did not forget to replenish her ammunition stockpile, asking:


    "By the way, you brought your underwear over when you moved houses, right?"

 Chapter 71: Everybody Looks Like the Demon King

    Chapter 71: Everybody Looks Like the Demon King


    Mana City was a border city in the Gryffin Kingdom. Meanwhile, Holl City was the kingdom''s capital, and it was situated in the center of the kingdom. Thus, the two cities were considerably far apart, and Alice needed to take the train if she wanted to reach the royal capital within a reasonable time.


    The railway train was a concept brought up by a middle-aged man roughly 300 years ago. Unfortunately, this middle-aged man passed away shortly after inventing the railway train.


    Evidently, the middle-aged man was one of the other transmigrators the Loli Goddess had spoken about. However, unlike Alice, the middle-aged man was an unlucky bloke who did not have a special ability like Alice and failed to catch the Loli Goddess''s attention. Thus, shortly after transmigrating to this world, the middle-aged man died due to the hidden injuries he suffered.


    Because the railway train''s inventor was a transmigrator from Earth, the railway train of this world was mostly simr to the trains found on Earth. The only difference to speak of would be the power source. Instead of relying on electricity to move, the trains here relied on mana.


    <em>Although I am starting to get used to it already, seeing a train in this world of magic still feels kind of strange</em>


    With a backpack on her back and a rolling luggage in her hand, Alice boarded the white train headed for Holl City. When she saw the train''s sleek and modern design, though, she couldn''t help but voice aint in her mind. In her mind, a world of magic should be filled with old and antique designs. So, when she saw both old and modern designs coexisting in this world, she couldn''t help but find it a little strange.


    Shaking her head, Alice dismissed the useless thoughts in her head and continued pulling her luggage into the train.


    Fortunately, as this world''s magicians would sometimes bring along existences like magical familiars with them, the train did not prohibit passengers from bringing pets onto the train. Thus, Alice had no trouble bringing the Milu Rabbit with her. She wouldn''t have to worry about the Milu Rabbit causing a scene, either. After all, apart from eating and defecating, the Milu Rabbit spent most of its time unconscious.


    Each car had nine rows of seats, with each row having two seats on the left, two seats on the right, and an aisle running down the middle. It was ayout Alice was familiar with, so she quickly located her seatit was the leftmost window seat in the second row of the car.


    After cing her luggage in the designatedpartment, Alice sat down and rested the Milu Rabbit on herp. If not for the Milu Rabbit''s chest expanding and contracting as it breathed, anyone would''ve assumed that it was a doll instead of a living animal.


    Alice''s arrival did not attract the attention of the other passengers. Although some people nced at her because of her cute appearance, they didn''t ce much heed on her. They simply treated her as a wealthy youngdy on an outing by herself. The Gryffin Kingdom had good public security and a low crime rate, so seeing wealthy youngdies travel without bodyguards wasn''t strange.


    Alice had boarded the train early, so the car was rtively quiet when she first arrived. However, as time passed and the number of passengers in the car increased, the car became a little noisy.


    Having anticipated this, Alice took out the earphones in her bag and plugged the headphone jack into her phone. Although the railway train relied on mana to move, the nature of the mana it used was different from that of the mana used by mobile phones. Thus, there was no need to worry about interference between the two objects.


    This was a much more convenient feature than the airnes in Alice''s memory.


    When Alice was plugging her headphone into her phone, someone walked up to her. The seat beside her was still vacant, so upon noticing that someone was approaching, Alice stopped her hands and looked up at the figure standing beside her.


    Standing beside Alice was a girl dressed in a maid costume. The girl had long silver hair that stretched down to her waist and a pair of crimson eyes that seemingly contained no emotions. Judging by the girl''s sickly pale skin, she was probably someone who rarely got in the sun.


    With just a nce, Alice got the feeling that this supposed maid was not the friendly type of person.


    <em>I didn''t think someone like this would sit next to me... It does feel pretty good sitting next to a block of ice like her in the hot summer, though.</em>


    Alice inwardly sighed. Although she hadn''t nned to talk to other passengers on this trip, she still couldn''t help but feel a little awkward when sitting beside such an icy-cold maid.


    As for the silver-haired maid, she simply took a nce at Alice before retracting her gaze. Her only luggage was an ordinary carry bag, so after stuffing it under her seat, she sat down and stared at the seat in front of her with an indifferent expression. In Alice''s opinion, the maid''s expression was even more frightening than Aird''s.


    Although Aird also constantly wore an indifferent expression, she still gave off an approachable feeling at the very least. However, in the case of this silver-haired maid, Alice felt that anything she said to the other party would simply be ignored. Thus, she dismissed all thoughts of striking up a conversation with the maid.


    <em>But a maid, huh? I don''t think I''ve seen any in Mana City before.</em>


    Despite having decided not to talk to the maid, Alice still couldn''t help herself from sneaking a few nces at the other party. As Mana City was a border city, there were hardly any nobles living there. Thus, maids were a rare sight in the city as well. This was the first time Alice had seen an orthodox maid sinceing to this world.


    Alice had to admit that the silver-haired maid was extremely beautiful. However, she couldn''t help but wonder if it was alright for a maid to serve people with such a cold expression.


    <em>I''ll probably freeze to death if I have to live with such an expressionless maid every day.</em>


    While having such nonsensical thoughts in her mind, Alice sighed onest time before she removed her attention from the silver-haired maid. They were only travelers heading in the same direction. They would no longer see each other again once they arrived in Holl City.


    After putting on her earphones, Alice opened up this world''s music streaming application and yed some local songs. She had yet to familiarize herself with this world''s culture, she wasn''t worried that this world''s music wouldn''t suit her taste. After all, due to the influence of the many transmigrators in the past, many of this world''s cultures resembled the modern cultures found back on Earth.


    Meanwhile, after the silver-haired maid noticed Alice putting on her earphones and closing her eyes, she turned to look at the Milu Rabbit resting on Alice''sp, a confused expression appearing on her face. This was the first time she had seen someone carry a cooking ingredient on their person.

 Chapter 72: The Demon Realm Is Empty While the Demon King Is in the Human Realm

    Chapter 72: The Demon Realm Is Empty While the Demon King Is in the Human Realm


    The train traveled half a day before it arrived in Holl City in the middle of the night.


    Alice had fallen asleep with her earphones on partway through the journey, so she failed to hear the announcement announcing the train''s arrival at its destination. Fortunately, she managed to wake up when she sensed someone patting her shoulder.


    When Alice opened her dreary eyes and saw the words disyed on the screen at the front of the car, she hurriedly rubbed her eyes and pped herself on the cheeks. After her consciousness fully recovered, she noticed that the silver-haired maid had long since vanished from the seat beside her. However, when she recalled the pat on her shoulder that had woken her up just now, she felt that it should be the maid who had woken her up on her way out.


    <em>It seems she''s not as unapproachable as she looks.</em>


    After chiding herself not to judge a book by its cover, Alice got up from her seat. The other passengers in the car had mostly left already. So, after grabbing her luggage, Alice promptly exited the train with the Milu Rabbit hanging off her waist once more.


    ording to Father Kasandora, there would be someone picking her up once she arrived at Holl City''s train station, and all she needed to do was exit the train station once she arrived.


    Although Alice''s identity as the Hero would typically warrant a grand weing, taking into ount Alice''s intent on hiding her identity until she fully matured, Chris Hatter dared not wee Alice in too grand of a fashion. Needless to say, he dared not wee Alice in person, either. Instead, he decided to only send one of his subordinates to wee her.


    Alice wasn''t a person of extravagance back on Earth, so she didn''t care about receiving a grand weing. She was satisfied so long as someone came to pick her up. Thus, after exiting the train station, she began searching for her ride in the za outside.


    Although it was in the middle of the night right now, the za was brightly lit, so Alice had no trouble finding her targeta figure holding up arge wooden sign with the words "Miss Alice" written on it. Without hesitation, Alice started making her way to this figure.


    However, to Alice''s surprise, after walking closer to the person holding the sign, she found that the other party was actually the silver-haired maid who had sat beside her on the train.


    "...???"


    The silver-haired maid grew a little confused when she saw Alice approaching her. After hesitating for a moment, she lowered her sign and crouched down to the same eye level as Alice and asked, "Is something the matter?"


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> That"


    Alice grew a little embarrassed when she saw that the other party had failed to realize that she was "Alice." However, she found that this was a somewhat reasonable oue. After all, she looked like an ignorant wealthy youngdy. She looked considerably young. Moreover, judging by the maid''s reaction, Alice assumed that the Gryffin King had not informed the maid of her appearance and simply told the maid to escort someone going by the name of "Alice" at the train station.


    With theck of information, the maid had probably assumed that the "Alice" she was tasked with escorting was an adult woman. After all, this "Alice" was someone the Gryffin King had personally tasked her with escorting. It was only natural to assume that this "Alice" was someone important. Meanwhile, no matter how she looked at it, there was no way a girl who looked to be around 14 years old could be of any importance to the king.


    "I''m Alice."


    "Huh?" The silver-haired maid was momentarily stunned. Then, she switched her gaze between her wooden sign and Alice several times. After seeing that Alice didn''t seem to be joking, the maid fell into thought for a moment before saying, "Please give me a moment."


    After saying so, the silver-haired maid turned around, pulled a phone out of her uniform''s pocket, and dialed a number. It didn''t take a genius to figure out that she was probably calling to verify whether the "Alice" she was tasked with escorting was a blonde little girl.


    Alice didn''t mind this action. Instead, she pulled out her phone and logged into the Hero''s official LINK ount, and posted a photo she had taken beforehand. The photo was taken in Mana City''s suburbs, and she attached with the photo were the words:


    "Finished my training in the Gryffin Forest and just arrived back in Mana City."


    Along with this post, Alice guessed that many of the demons, who had snuck into the human realm to assassinate the Hero, would be sneaking into Mana City for the foreseeable future. However, while Mana City might be a border city, it was still a human territory. So, the most the demons could do was conduct some investigation in secret before withdrawing without aplishing anything.


    "I have verified your identity, Lady Alice."


    After Alice uploaded the misleading post onto LINK, the silver-haired maid also verified that her escort target was indeed a blonde little girl. So, she turned back to Alice and said, "I am Luna Cecilia, the maid whom His Majesty the King has sent to receive you. I will be responsible for your daily life in Hall City from now onward."


    <em>So she''s the person sent to take care of me</em>


    Alice scratched her head awkwardly when she looked at the expressionless maid in front of her. She couldn''t help but suspect that the king might have sent Luna to her because he couldn''t bear the air-conditioning effect Luna exhibited 24/7.


    "Please follow me. I will bring you to meet with His Majesty."


    Luna did not notice the strange expression on Alice''s face. To be precise, she might have noticed it but chose not to pay attention to it. Instead, after she finished speaking to Alice, she turned around and began walking away.


    <em>Is this maid not going to help me with my luggage? </em>Alice mentally voiced an exasperatedint as she quickly followed Luna.


    After following Luna out of the station za, Alice found herself arriving at the street. Then, she watched as Luna walked up to a ck luxury sedan, opened the door to the back seat, and said, "Please get in the car, Lady Alice."


    "No need to refer to me using ''Lady.'' It feels strange being called that. Just call me Alice."


    Alice felt a little ufortable when she heard Luna addressing her with honorifics. She still wasn''t used to others addressing her using such a respectful title, especially when her name connected with the title. Rather than "Lady Alice," she''d rather go with Father Kasandora''s "Lord Hero" instead. After all, she didn''t think that she was the Hero, so when others referred to her as "Lord Hero," it felt like they were talking about another person. However, as Luna currently did not know of her identity as the Hero, Alice''s only option was to have Luna drop the honorifics.


    Fortunately, Luna wasn''t the stubborn type of maid typically mentioned in novels. She readily epted Alice''s request and said, "I understand, Alice."


    Alice nodded in satisfaction. Then, she climbed into the back seat of the car, her right hand gripping the door as support. However, just as she was about to put her foot into the car, an information window appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Cami B50 Sedan - ck Edition That Is Tainted by the Demon Kings Power]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Agility +20, Control +20]


    [Additional Effect:


    Veteran Driver (Passive Skill. Prevents the driver from ever causing a car ident);


    Demon King''s Gaze (Passive Skill. The wielder of the Demon King''s Power can see everything happening inside the weapon.)]


    "..."


    Alice''s body paused momentarily. Then, she entered the car as if nothing had just happened.

 Chapter 73: It Doesn’t Count as Social Death if Only One Person Knows

    Chapter 73: It Doesn��t Count as Social Death if Only One Person Knows


    The situation was slightly more troublesome than Alice initially anticipated. She knew that the new Demon King must''ve awakened already since Aird, the new Hero, had already appeared. However, what she did not expect was for the new Demon King to have mingled their way into human society already.


    Moreover, what troubled Alice even more was that this ck sedan had already been tainted by the Demon King''s Power, bing a monitoring device for the Demon King. This meant that the Demon King would be able to see every action she made in the car.


    With a scrutinizing gaze, Alice looked toward Luna, sitting in the driver''s seat in front. The silver-haired maid had taken on the task of being the driver, and she skillfully drove the car out of the car park and onto the main road.


    Luna had naturally be one of Alice''s suspects. Though, to be honest, Alice doubted Luna was the Demon King.


    Luna was a maid the king had sent to pick Alice up. However, for the sake of maintaining Alice''s identity as the Hero a secret, the king did not tell Luna about Alice''s true identity. Thus, if Luna was the Demon King, there should be no reason why she needed to specifically monitor an ordinary little girl like Alice.


    Of course, there was also the possibility that Luna might be an extremely cautious Demon King. She might also be curious why King Hatter had personally requested her to escort a little girl. Thus, she had imbued this car with some of her tainted mana, using it to closely monitor Alice''s actions in the car.


    Apart from Luna, the person Alice was most suspicious of was naturally Chris Hatter, the Gryffin Kingdom''s king. After all, he was one of the few people in the world who knew about her identity as the Hero.


    <em>Please don''t let it be the case. The Hero infiltrating the demon realm and mingling her way into the position of one of the Four Heavenly Kings is already ridiculous enough. If the Demon King manages to mingle his way into the position of a king in the human realm as well</em>


    Alice inwardly sighed as she sincerely hoped that her guesswork was incorrect. Otherwise, she would be in an incredibly awkward position. After all, the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings currently acknowledged her as the Demon King and had no idea that Chris Hatter might be the true Demon King.


    If Alice were to kill Chris Hatter in such a situation, the likely thing to happen was that nobody could prove that Hatter was the Demon King, which also meant that she would have a difficult time justifying her killing of the Gryffin King. If she wanted to avoid this predicament, she would need to have Chris Hatter reveal himself to be the Demon King in front of everyone beforehand or take out evidence showing that Chris Hatter was the Demon King.


    <em>Hah Why did I have to get transmigrated to such a civilized world? How great would it be if this world was actually civilized on the surface but barbaric on the inside? Why couldn''t the fight between the Hero and Demon King be as straightforward as described in otherworld novels? </em>Alice inwardlymented.


    "By the way, Luna, how much do you know about the king?" Alice asked. Since both Luna and King Hatter were currently suspected to be the Demon King, Alice felt that she might as well ask Luna of her opinion on King Hatter. It didn''t matter whether Luna''s opinions were true or false. It was fine so long as she could get some information for her to make a breakthrough. "What kind of person is King Hatter?"


    Luna fell into thought for a moment when she heard Alice''s questions. Just when Alice thought that Luna might not wish to express her thoughts, the silver-haired maid slowly opened her mouth and said, "King Hatterhas actually been suffering from illness all this time."


    "Suffering from an illness?"


    Alice was stunned. Immediately, she thought of the information she had heard of Rosa. Combined with the words Luna just said, could Chris Hatter''s mental problem be rted to a type of illness?


    "Although King Hatter behaves normally when he is in front of civilians, almost everyone working in the pce knows that he frequently suffers from headaches, dizziness, and hysteria," Luna said, her eyes fixated on the road and her voice void of emotions as she described King Hatter''s strange symptoms. "The king has said that only the Hero can resolve his troubles. So, when news of the Hero appearing reached the pce, the king became incredibly happy and eagerly thought of inviting the Hero for a meeting. However, exactly when they will meet is something I do not know. Most people working in the pce haven''t even heard of the king sending an invitation to the Hero."


    <em>Of course nobody would hear of it. After all, he has long since extended his invitations to the Hero. Moreover, that "Hero" is sitting right behind you.</em>


    Alice felt a little awkward when she heard Luna''s words. For the sake of concealing her identity as the Hero, King Hatter naturally wouldn''t let others know about the Hero''s tracks.


    <em>But what does Hatter mean by "only the Hero can solve his troubles"?</em>


    If Hatter was the Demon King, killing the Hero would be the only thing that could appease his heart. In a sense, it would solve his troubles as well. However, Alice felt that the situation wasn''t as simple as it seemed. After all, if Hatter was the Demon King, why was he experiencing headaches, dizziness, and hysteria? With how powerful the Demon King was, Hatter should be immune to most, if not all, illnesses. The Demon King''s Power shouldn''t have such side effects, either.


    Moreover, Alice dared not guarantee that Luna''s words were entirely true. There was also the possibility that Luna was trying to deceive her into believing that Hatter was the Demon King. Should she reveal any unnatural reactions upon discovering Hatter''s identity, Luna could use those reactions as a reason to assume that she was the Hero.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to ask the Loli Goddess exactly how the Demon King''s Power manifests itself in its hosts.</em>


    Alice gently caressed the pouch tied to her waist with her right hand. Apart from panties, the small box holding the Hero''s Sword also rested inside the pouch. Meanwhile, through the Hero''s Sword, Alice could directly ask God about matters rting to the Demon King''s Power.


    The Loli Goddess had relied on Heroes tobat the Demon King''s Power for more than ten thousand years now. So, nobody would be more knowledgeable about the Demon King''s Power than the seemingly unreliable Loli Goddess.


    "We''ve arrived."


    While Alice was immersed in her thoughts, Luna safely drove the ck sedan to their destinationthe pce located in the heart of the city. The pce could also be regarded as the heart of the Gryffin Kingdom''s government operations.


    After snapping out of her daze, Alice opened the door beside her and stepped out of the car.


    Initially, Alice had been rather worried the Demon King might try to assassinate her on her way to the pce. The other party could monitor her every action in the car, after all. However, it would seem that the other party didn''t wish to take action so soon. Thus, the drive to the pce was very peaceful, so peaceful that Alice felt a little unnerved by it.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s anxiety was also clearly reflected onto her limbs. After her right foot got out of the car and nted itself on the ground, her left foot quickly followed suit. However, instead of nting itself on the ground, her left foot had stepped onto her right foot instead.


    The consequences of having one''s left foot stepping on one''s right foot went without saying. Immediately, Alice stumbled out of the car and fell onto the floor. Alice''s impact with the ground was so strong that the Milu Rabbit''s ears and Alice''s pouch had slipped out of the rope tying them to Alice''s waist. Then, both the Milu Rabbit and pouch ended up flying and crashing into the ground a few meters away from Alice.


    "Are you alright, Alice?"


    When Luna got out of the car and saw that Alice had fallen to the ground, she hurriedly walked over and helped Alice retrieve the Milu Rabbit and the small pouch that had fallen aside. However, when Luna picked up the pouch, her body stiffened momentarily.


    To give herself easy ess to the pouch''s contents, Alice made sure to keep the pouch''s drawstring loosely tied. Thus, when Luna picked up the pouch, she naturally saw the pouch''s contentsseveral pairs of neatly-folded panties.


    However, this wasn''t the most important point. The crucial point was that a few of these panties clearly shouldn''t be worn by a girl of Alice''s age.


    After seeing Rosa''s "lucky" underwear collection, Luna''s indifferent expression finally cracked a little. Then, after silently looking at Alice, who had stood up from the ground, for a moment, Luna said the following in a strange tone:


    "...It seems you are quite mature, Alice."

 Chapter 74: The Kings Job Is A Karmic Blessing

    Chapter 74: The King''s Job Is A Karmic Blessing


    <em>It''s over</em>


    Alice covered her face as she followed Luna into the pce. She never thought she would be so nervous as to stumble when getting out of the car. Worse yet, Luna had picked up the pouch she dropped and saw the panties she snatched from Rosa.


    Fortunately, Luna did not link Alice with the Hero because of this incident. She also didn''t know the true purpose of those panties. She simply treated Alice as a strange little girl whose hobby was to carry a bag of panties around with her.


    To allow herself to retrieve a pair of panties at a moment''s notice, Alice had deliberately tied the pouch''s drawstring loosely. The drawstring woulde loose so long as she inserted her fingers into the opening. However, this decision had ended up backfiring on Alice because the pouch''s drawing had loosened from its impact with the ground.


    <em>Should I continue keeping the drawstring loose? Or should I tighten it a little to prevent today''s ident from happening again? </em>Alice mentally agonized over this conundrum.


    However, Alice still had official matters to take care of despite her agony, so she did not stop following Luna.


    From the outside, the pce resembled a castle one would typically find in the Middle Ages. However, after entering the building, Alice found that the interior was no different than that of modern-day government office buildings.


    As Alice and Luna had arrived at Hall City in the middle of the night, even though the pce hallways were brightly lit, the offices lining the hallways were pitch-ck. Evidently, most of the pce''s staff had already retired for the day.


    "Was it the king''s intention to assign you as my maid, Luna?" Alice asked, deciding to strike up a conversation with the silver-haired maid. The awkward silence as they walked through the empty hallways made Alice feel somewhat ufortable. "Have you been working by the king''s side before getting assigned to me?"


    "The king was indeed the one who assigned me to your side. However, I did not work as the king''s personal maid before this," Luna said, her voice and expression remaining as indifferent as usual. "I might be wearing a maid outfit, but my actual job is to do investigation work in the intelligence agency. I was previously investigating a missing case in Mana City. However, I got recalled before I could find anything."


    "I see." Alice nodded. She finally understood why Luna had taken the same train as her from Mana City to Hall City. However, Luna''s exnation also brought up another question in Alice''s mind, so she asked, "Since you''re working for the intelligence department, why are you wearing a maid outfit? You even took on the king''s assignment to work as a maid."


    "Because it is my hobby."


    Luna''s reply was simple and concise that it had rendered Alice speechless. After all, there was no way she could criticize other people''s hobbies, especially not when Luna was under the impression that her hobby was to carry a bag of panties around with her.


    "We''ve arrived."


    While Alice had fallen into another round of agonizing whether she should further tighten her pouch''s drawstring, Luna suddenly stopped in front of the first floor''s innermost office. Meanwhile,beled on top of the office''s doors were the words "King''s Office." Unlike the other pitch-ck offices, light could be seening through the gaps of the King''s Office''s doors. Evidently, even though it was already midnight, the king had yet to get off work.


    By the looks of this situation, Alice guessed that being the king of a human kingdom might not necessarily be a good thing. At the very least, it definitely wasn''t as rxing of a job as being a king in the demon realm.


    Although the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings were also kings, they had relied on strength to attain their position. Apart from giving their approval on important national affairs, the Four Heavenly Kings would typically offload their work onto the countless intelligent but weak demons subordinated under them.


    Inparison, the kings of the human kingdoms had attained their position through political achievements. If they wished to retain their position of power, they would have to show the people that they were worthy of the position. Thus, the human kings must have a lot of work on their te.


    Seeing that the lights in the King''s Office were still on even though it was already midnight, Alice judged that Chris Hatter must still have a lot of unfinished work. It was also probably the reason why he had chosen to meet her in the pce. Otherwise, if it was only for the sake of verifying her identity as the Hero, Chris Hatter could''ve simply chosen to meet her in his house.


    "Lady Alice has arrived, Your Majesty."


    While Alice pondered the differences between the human and demon realms, Luna knocked on the door and notified the king of their arrival. A tired but surprisingly young voice of a man came through the doors:


    "She''s here? Have here in, then."


    Alice had heard this voice on the inte before. It was none other than the Gryffin Kingdom''s king, Chris Hatter''s, voice.


    "Understood."


    Luna promptly extended her hands and opened the office doors. Then, she took a step back and made way for Alice. King Hatter''s words did not include permission for her to enter. So, since she was currently taking on a maid''s duty, she naturally wouldn''t enter the office.


    After taking a nce at Luna, Alice stepped into the office. Then, she closed the doors on her way in. However, the instant her right hand came into contact with one of the office doors, a block of information immediately appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Custom-made Manawood Door]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Strength +5, Control +5]


    [Additional Effect: Soundproof Barrier (Passive Skill. The door has been processed using special mana and is capable of stopping all vibrations transmitted through the air to achieve sound instion.)]


    "..."


    Alice''s gaze stopped on the closed doors for a moment before she turned around to look at Chris Hatter. However, she didn''t get to see the Gryffin King immediately as a mountain of documents separated them. Only after the king had carefully pushed the documents to the sides of his desk did Alice get to see Chris Hatter''s appearance.


    Meanwhile, just like the information Alice found on the inte, Chris Hatter was a rtively young-looking man. At first nce, he looked to be a young man in his twenties. However, his actual age was already in the forties. Hisyered blonde hair also gave him an energetic look, which led to him having many fangirls on the inte.


    However, unlike the pictures Alice had seen on the inte, the Chris Hatter in front of her had a significantly palerplexion. His eyes were also void of spirit, looking like he was incredibly weak. The difference was so stark that Alice had a difficult time connecting the person before her with the spiritedd she saw on the inte.


    "You''re finally here, Lord Hero." The moment Alice stepped into the room, Chris immediately recognized her as the person in the photo Father Kasandora had sent him. After letting out a sigh of relief, he said, "This room has been soundproofed, so you don''t need to worry about getting eavesdropped here. We can freely discuss matters that cannot be made known to others."


    Matters that could not be made known to others naturally referred to matters rting to the Hero.


    Alice had seen the information on the doors, so she readily nodded to Chris Hatter''s words. Then, looking at the king''s paleplexion, she asked in confusion, "I heard from Luna that you are troubled by illness. Looking at you now, you indeed don''t look as energetic as your pictures floating on the inte."


    "Troubled by illness I guess you can say that. At least for me, this is definitely an incurable heart disease," Chris said, letting out a long sigh.


    Then, under Alice''s shocked gaze, he extended his right hand, and dark mist began seeping out of his hand. The dark mist wasn''t some special effect as Alice could sense the incredibly dense dark mana it carried.


    "This isn''t my power. My main affinity is wind, while my supporting magic is mind magic. As for this intense dark mana of unknown origins..." In a troubled voice, Chris slowly said, "I''m sure you can guess where ites even if I don''t say it, right, Lord Hero?"

 Chapter 75: Troubling the Loli Goddess Again

    Chapter 75: Troubling the Loli Goddess Again


    <em>Are you holding onto ck panties as well?</em>


    To be honest, when Alice saw the ck mist swirling around the king''s hand, the first thought that came to her mind was panty-rted. Fortunately, this strange thought only appeared in her mind for a moment before disappearing, and she had not spoken her mind. Otherwise, the king would probably think that she suffered from mental problems as well.


    "Intense dark mana of unknown origins... I see. So, you suspect that this is the Demon King''s Power?"


    When Alice looked at the ck mist enveloping Chris''s hand, she could sense the astonishing mana it carried. She had to admit that this truly resembled the characteristic of the Demon King''s Power. Setting aside how difficult it was for someone in the human realm to gain an affinity for dark mana, even if someone managed to get such an affinity, it shouldn''t be possible for them to cultivate their dark mana to such an intensity.


    Just the mass of dark mana concentrated into the bit of ck mist surrounding Chris''s hand had already surpassed the intensity of mana the average magician could obtain in their lifetime. Although there were special methods in this world to transnt mana from one person to another, there was a significant difference between transnted mana and the mana circting around Chris''s hand.


    "I don''t want this to be the Demon King''s Power, but based on the current situation, that seems to be the case," Chris said with a bitter smile. He had no desire to acquire the Demon King''s Power whatsoever. "I don''t know why the Demon King''s Power would attach itself onto me, either."


    Unlike the demons, humans did not uphold the principle of "might was right." As one of the human realm''s kings, Chris had no desire to pursue ultimate strength. Thus, rather than being a boon, the Demon King''s Power had ended up bing a huge burden to him.


    "Do you hold some sort of resentment toward humans?" Alice asked after giving the matter some thought. ording to historical records, past Demon Kings were chosen because of their resentment toward humanity. "Maybe you resent your people for overworking you?"


    "I would''ve just resigned if I found the job too tiresome. Why would I resent the people instead?" Chris didn''t know whether tough or cry when he heard Alice''s question. At the same time, he came to realize that while Alice might be the Hero, she was still a little girl at the end of the day. Her thought process was still a little too naive.


    "Going by historical records, the candidates the Demon King''s Power selects tend to have suffered injustice during childhood and bear hatred to their surrounding people. Moreover, these people would also need to suffer sessive setbackster in life and develop a severe antisocial personality. Lastly, they would need to evolve their hatred into the desire to take revenge on the entire human race. Only after fulfilling all these conditions would the Demon King''s Power select them as a Demon King candidate," Chris exined.


    "That sounds quite professional" Alice blinked in surprise as she listened to Chris''s exnation.


    "It is very rare for anyone to develop such a severe antisocial personality and intense hatred for humanity, which is why it could take between several hundred years to over a thousand years for a new Demon King to appear. It should be even more difficult for a Demon King candidate to appear in today''s society," Chris said as he looked at the ck mist enveloping his right hand. The next moment, dozens of white magic circles appeared around his hand and suppressed the ck mist, forcing the dark mana back into his hand.


    "If that''s the case, it is indeed unlikely for the Demon King''s Power to choose you as a candidate."


    Alice caressed her chin as she looked at the magic circles surrounding Chris''s right hand. These magic circles proved that the human realm indeed possessed individuals talented in light magic. These light-attributed magic circles had managed to suppress even the Demon King''s Power, after all.


    However, judging by how many magic circles were used to suppress the Demon King''s Power, these light magicians didn''t seem to have very powerful light mana. If the Hero''s light mana was equated to the sun, these light magicians'' light mana would be equivalent to small candle mes.


    "Although I don''t know why the Demon King''s Power would suddenly attach itself onto me, I have no desire to keep it. Thus, I can only ce my hopes on the Hero," Chris said. After exining the situation concerning the Demon King''s Power, he moved his gaze onto Alice and continued, "Not only does the Hero have the strength to contend against the Demon King''s Power, but the Hero should also have the ability to converse with God, right? So, I hope that you can ask God if there is a way to remove the Demon King''s Power from my body, Lord Hero."


    In reality, there was an easy solution to remove the Demon King''s Power from its host, which was to kill the host. Even if its host only suffered a physical death, the Demon King''s Power would immediately leave its host. However, Chris had no desire to die at such a young age. So, he had no choice but to ce his hopes on Alice, the new Hero.


    "Alright, I''ll help you ask about it. However, my advice is that you don''t ce too much hope on that fellow," Alice said as she massaged her aching temples. When she thought about asking for help from that unreliable Loli Goddess, she couldn''t help but think that Chris had a dark future ahead of him. After all, the Loli Goddess didn''t have a way of dealing with the Demon King''s Power, either. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have sought Alice''s help.


    However, before asking the Loli Goddess, Alice had another question she wanted to ask.


    "By the way, I heard from another source of information that you have sought the help of many mind magicians and that these magicians would leave the pce with mental breakdowns. Is that true?"


    "Yes, there is indeed such a case." Chris nodded. "This is also rted to the Demon King''s Power. The reason why I am in such a hurry to invite you here is that I can feel the Demon King''s Power constantly trying to corrupt my mind."


    "The Demon King''s Power is corrupting your mind?" Alice was a little surprised. She hadn''t heard about the Demon King''s Power possessing such an ability. The Loli Goddess never mentioned such a thing, either. "Can you tell me in detail?"


    "That won''t be a problem. It''ll help for you to have more information when you converse with Godter, anyway," Chris said, nodding. "I previously mentioned that my supporting magic is mind magic, right? While I might not have gotten my doctorate on mind magic, I am still at the graduate level. So, I have a better understanding in this aspect than the average person."


    Alice grew a little embarrassed when she heard Chris''s words. She had merely been an ordinary student with average test scores before she transmigrated. Meanwhile, even after she transmigrated, the standard of her intelligence didn''t get any better. On the contrary, it had gotten even worse as she became someone with zero knowledge of magic in this world of magic. Yet, despite being a magical dunce, she had gotten to meet the highest authorities of this world, such as the Four Heavenly Kings and the Gryffin Kingdom''s kings.


    "I didn''t think much of it when I first acquired the Demon King''s Power. I felt that so long as I didn''t use it, it would''ve essentially meant that I had sealed the Demon King''s Power. Looking at it from this perspective, the Demon King''s Power attaching itself onto me is a good thing for humanity," Chris said. Then, he sighed and continued, "However, I quickly realized my mistake when I noticed that the Demon King''s Power was corroding my mind. If I equate a person''s mind as ake, the Demon King''s Power would be equivalent to a highly concentrated poison. After attaching itself onto me, the Demon King''s Power began invading my mind and modifying it, causing me to have violent bouts from time to time."


    Speaking up to this point, Chris shook his head and revealed a dejected expression. Then, he continued, "Although I would do my best to keep myself calm whenever I visit public ces, I have found that the effects of my mind magic are growing weaker and weaker recently. Sometimes, I would even lose myself while handling diplomatic affairs. By now, most of the people in the pce already know that my condition is unstable. Thus, I have sought the help of many mind magic experts to see if they can help with my problem."


    "I see. So they were here to diagnose you," Alice said, nodding. Then, she continued asking, "Does this mean their mental breakdown is a result of the Demon King''s Power''s corruption?"


    "No. Every person''s mind is different and cannot be melded together. No matter how much my mind changes, it is theoretically impossible for it to affect the mind of others," Chris said, flexing his knowledge as a professional in mind magic. "As an example, if my mind is equated to ake, the mind magicians who came to treat me would be swimmers trying to swim in this mentalke. Meanwhile, the Demon King''s Power would be an external force causing this mentalke to grow turbulent."


    Alice nodded to express her understanding.


    "If a weak swimmer tries to swim in this turbulentke, they would drown in it. If a powerful swimmeres in, they, too, might have a risk of drowning," Chris said, a hint of fear shing across his eyes as he looked at his right hand. As an expert in the field of mind magic, he had a much better understanding of how terrifying the Demon King''s Power was than most people.


    "However, the problem is that none of the magicians I invited have entered my mind. I merely had them inspect the outermost surface of my mind. Yet, they still suffered a mental breakdown. It''s as if a group of healthy swimmers had drowned to death just by looking at a pool from a distance! This is theoretically impossible!"


    <em>Your example sounds like a ghost story</em> Alice inwardlyined. However, while Chris''s example was a little strange, Alice still understood his point. Basically, what the king was trying to say was that, in theory, the mind magicians shouldn''t have suffered any side effects since they were only probing the surface of his mind.


    It was akin to a doctor having his bones broken for no reason after conducting an X-ray scan on a patient with broken bones. It was extremely unscientific. Yet, the Demon King''s Power had achieved this feat; it had corrupted the minds of the mind magicians, who had tried to diagnose Chris''s situation, even when they did note into contact with Chris''s mind.


    "It indeed sounds unbelievable. I think I''d better ask God thane to conclusions by myself," Alice said, scratching her head. She stillcked understanding of the Demon King''s Power, so she had no choice but to consult the Loli Goddess over this matter.


    "It''d be wonderful if you could help me," Chris said. He felt relieved to hear that Alice was indeed capable of conversing with God. Moreover, if Alice could truly help him take care of the Demon King''s Power, he could be almost certain that Alice was the Hero. "However, it''s veryte already. While this problem is rtively urgent, it isn''t something that can be solved overnight. Please get some rest for now. I have already had Luna arrange for your lodgings."


    Alice agreed with Chris''s suggestion after thinking it through. The Demon King''s Power definitely wasn''t something she could take care of immediately after asking the Loli Goddess about it. Since that was the case, she might as well head to her lodgings first before asking the Loli Goddess and making a decision.


    Not to mention, Alice couldn''t blindly trust Chris''s words. She had no idea what kind of thoughts the king had in his mind. She needed to discuss her following actions with the Loli Goddess first.

 Chapter 76: I’m Not Trying to Brag, but I’m Also Quite Skilled at Boasting

    Chapter 76: I��m Not Trying to Brag, but I��m Also Quite Skilled at Boasting


    "I will take you to your lodgings now."


    Luna, who had been on standby outside the office, immediately knew what she needed to do next as soon as she saw Alice exiting the office. Without even waiting for Alice to speak up, she had already taken the initiative to lead the way for Alice.


    Alice was a little stunned by this rapid development. Then, when she saw that Luna had already moved some distance away from her, she hurriedly followed after the maid.


    Alice would be studying magic in the March Royal School of Magic for the foreseeable future, so she couldn''t stay in a temporary lodging such as a hotel. Thus, Chris had specifically prepared a house for her. It was also for this reason that he had dispatched a maid to serve Alice.


    "His Majesty has been in a bad mood recently."


    To Alice''s surprise, Luna had actually taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with her as they walked.


    "Everyone in the pce knows that His Majesty has been facing mental problems recently, so everyone is worried about him. However, after hearing that you wereing today, he seemed to be in a very happy mood, Alice."


    <em>That''s probably because he thinks I''m the only one who can save him, </em>Alice mentally replied.


    Alice could sympathize with Chris''s mood. ording to historical records, the only time the Demon King''s Power would leave the Demon King''s body was after the Demon King had died. Thus, having the Demon King''s Power attached to him was no different than carrying a fatal disease. Meanwhile, the Hero, who was capable of conversing with God, had be his only hope for surviving this fatal disease.


    If God had a solution, everything would be happy. If God didn''t have a solution, Chris''s only fate would be death.


    "Actually, there was also a period when His Majesty was in a good mood previously," Luna added after arriving before the ck sedan parked on the street outside the pce. Then, after opening the door for Alice, she continued, "That was when His Majesty first learned of Lord Hero''s appearance. The smile on His Majesty''s face was visibly brighter around that time Going by that logic, does this mean your real identity is the Hero, Alice?"


    Alice''s heart clenched when she heard Luna''s words. She didn''t expect Luna to notice such a clue through Chris''s behavior. Moreover, her logic was hard to refute. After all, anyone would naturally link Alice with the Hero if they saw the two instances where Chris behaved unnaturally joyful.


    Fortunately, Alice had mastered the art of staying calm during her stay in the demon realm. So, in response to Luna''s guesswork, she simply chuckled and said, "Does it look like I am the Hero to you? I recall that the Hero should be a muscr man."


    "Indeed. Your appearance does differ from the Hero''s significantly," Luna nodded in agreement after taking a look at Alice, her calm reaction making it difficult for Alice to judge whether she was happy or dissatisfied. "But why would His Majesty be so concerned about you then, Alice? Could His Majesty''s sexual prefe"


    "I think we''re getting a little off-topic," Alice quickly interrupted, her mouth twitching a little as she looked at Luna. The more she interacted with the silver-haired maid, the more she discovered that Luna''s frigidness was only limited to her outward appearance. On the inside, the maid had a much more colorful imagination and personality. "The reason why the king grew excited after meeting me is becauseis because I am a mind magician."[1]


    "A mind magician?"


    At this time, Alice had already gotten into the back seat while Luna had gotten into the driver''s seat. Then, while starting the engine, Luna asked a question in a suspicious tone, the skepticism in her voice clearly transmitted to Alice.


    "You do know that geniuses exist in this world, right?" Alice said as she let out an awkward cough. Although she wasn''t an actual mind magician, she had no choice but to boast a little to make up an excuse for her meeting with Hatter. "I might be young, but I have already made considerable aplishments in the field of mind magic. When His Majesty was out searching for mind magicians to help him, he contacted me as well, which is why I havee to visit him."


    "I see." Luna nodded, seemingly believing Alice''s excuse. "However, you must be careful, Alice. Every one of the mind magicians who had tried to treat His Majesty has ended up suffering mental breakdowns. If you n to treat His Majesty, you mighte into danger as well."


    Upon hearing Luna''s reminder, Alice thought back to the words Chris previously said to her. ording to Chris, those mind magicians had merely conducted a simple probe on his mind, yet they had still suffered mental damage. While she hadn''t inspected Chris''s mind, she had still met him face to face. So, she couldn''t help but worry if she mighte into simr danger as those mind magicians.


    After thinking it over, Alice decided that it''d be best to take some countermeasures once she reached her lodgings. It''d be terrible if the Demon King''s Power had alsounched a mental attack on her. After all, she was essentially defenseless against mental attacks in her current state.


    Meanwhile, noticing Alice''s silence, Luna stopped speaking as well. Thus, the rest of the drive continued in silence.


    The lodging Chris prepared was a luxurious mansion located close to the pce. Not only was the mansion situated in the Gryffin Kingdom''s capital city, but it was even built close to the pce. With Alice''s general understanding of housing value, the price of this mansion was definitely astronomical. The fact that Chris was willing to let Alice stay in such a mansion showed just how much he valued her.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but grow a little worried over this situation. After all, people were bound to grow suspicious of her identity if Chris tantly gave her such an excellent house.


    "This is the master bedroom. Of course, if you have any unique hobbies, you can sleep in the basement as well. As a dutiful maid, I won''t be bothered by the master''s choices."


    After showing Alice to the mansion''s master bedroom and seeing Alice walk into the room, Luna politely bowed and pointed at a magically-operated switch located by the soft and spacious bed, saying, "I will be in the maid''s quarter downstairs. If you have any need for me, press that magical bell, and I wille over immediately."


    Alice nodded to express her understanding. Then, she watched as Luna stepped back respectfully. Despite having a frigid appearance and a tendency to say strange things from time to time, Luna was undeniably a proper maid.


    TL Notes:


    [1]mind magician:


    (17th November 2021)


    I have made the following changes to past chapters:


    Spirit (stat) -> Mind


    spiritual magic -> mind magic


    spiritual breakdown -> mental breakdown


    spiritual magician -> mind magician

 Chapter 77: Morning, Maid, Gigantic Club

    Chapter 77: Morning, Maid, Gigantic Club


    After seeing Luna leave, the first thing Alice did was to give everything in the room a touch with her right hand. Of course, she wasn''t doing so because she had suddenly developed a hobby for sexually harassing inanimate objects. Instead, she was trying to check if the Demon King''s Power had tainted anything in the room. If the Demon King''s Power had tainted something in the room, it would mean that Alice would have her every action monitored by the Demon King.


    However, to Alice''s surprise, there were no traces of the Demon King''s Power in the room.


    <em>Could Chris really be a good guy?</em>


    Chris was the Demon King''s Power''s host. If he held malicious intent toward Alice, he would definitely wiretap this room to ensure that he had constant surveince of Alice''s actions.


    Yet, Alice had failed to find anything tainted by the Demon King''s Power in her room. In other words, Chris might not hold any malicious intent toward her after all.


    <em>Forget it. I should still be careful even if I''m not being watched.</em>


    After thinking it over, Alice felt that she should still limit her actions even if she didn''t find anything tainted by the Demon King''s Power. Of course, she would still take the necessary measures to ensure her safety.


    Having made up her mind, Alice took out the small box storing the Hero''s Sword from her bag and opened it. Immediately, the dazzling Hero''s Sword fell out of the box and hit the ground, the sword seemingly trying toin about the injustice it had suffered through its ungraceful fall.


    Not only did it receive a terrible name, but it was even being kept in the cheapest of spatial weapon storages. If the Hero''s Sword had its own conscious thought, the first thing it would do would be to cut Alice.


    Unfortunately, the Hero''s Sword did not possess its own consciousness. So, it could only suck it up and ept the fact that its name was "Okay."


    Alice picked up the Hero''s Sword, not worried that Chris might be spying on her. Chris already knew that she was the Hero, in any case. So, there was no need to hide the Hero''s Sword.


    After holding the Hero''s Sword in her hand, Alice muttered a short prayer in her mind and quickly noticed a change to the Hero''s Sword''s weapon information.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Okay]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +8000, Speed +8000, Mind +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul);


    Fearless Will (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic. Individuals or objects that try to apply mental magic on you will suffer a bacsh)]


    <em>It actually worked</em>


    Alice was a little surprised when she sensed the Hero''s Sword''s change. She did not expect the unreliable Loli Goddess to respond so quickly and add the buff to the Hero''s Sword already.


    The Fearless Will buff was something Alice had previously seen on Aird. When she thought about how she could resist the Demon King''s Power''s mental attacks before, the first thought that came to Alice''s mind was this buff. So, she relied on the Word of God skill and prayed to the unreliable God for this buff.


    Regardless, with the presence of this buff, so long as she wielded the Hero''s Sword, she wouldn''t have to worry about the Demon King''s Power''s mental attacks.


    However, Alice quickly discovered a problemLuna.


    Although Luna was currently working as Alice''s maid, her actual job lied with the intelligence agency. Even if Luna currently showed herself to be apetent maid, nobody could tell whether she would do something inappropriate for a maid, such as arbitrarily barging into Alice''s room to wake her up


    Alice felt that the possibility of Luna doing such a thing was high.


    <em>I need to find something to wrap it</em>


    With such thoughts in mind, Alice approached therge wardrobe and opened it. Then, after digging through it for a moment, she found a bedsheet and used it to wrap around the Hero''s Sword, transforming the Hero''s Sword into arge bundle of cloth. Apart from camouging the Hero''s Sword, the bedsheet also served to bind the sword with Alice''s right hand, which would prevent the sword from slipping out of Alice''s hand when she fell asleep.


    Although the end result of Alice''s work looked a little ufortable, the bedsheet''s fabric was soft andfortable, so Alice didn''t feel any difort whatsoever. The only problem with this setup was that her body''s movements would be more restricted when she slept. However, this was a small price to pay for protecting herself from the Demon King''s Power.


    After disguising the Hero''s Sword, Alice sat on the bed and let out a yawn. Although she wanted to ask God about the Demon King''s Power right now, she was too tired to do so. Thus, after giving it some thought, she decided to wait until the next day before dealing with the king''s problem.


    Perhaps it was because of her ufortable rest on the train, or perhaps it was because of this luxurious andfy bed, but Alice quickly fell asleep after her head hit the pillow. However, partway through her slumber, Alice suddenly shuddered as she felt an inexplicable sense of danger, the dangerous feeling suffocating her.


    Alice''s Mind and Control stats had received an 8,000-point bonus thanks to the Hero''s Sword, so any danger she perceived in her current state was undoubtedly real. Thus, upon sensing the danger, she instantly woke up, opened her eyes, and looked toward the source of the dangerous feeling.


    Alice was naturally in a sleeping position when she opened her eyes. Meanwhile, the not-so-obvious morning glowing through the window told her that it should only be five or six o''clock in the morning right now. Yet, despite this early hour, her maid, Luna, had already barged into her room...


    ...and was currently sitting on her body while wielding a gigantic spiked club that was shrouded by curling ck mist with both hands.

 Chapter 78: Gap Moe

    Chapter 78: Gap Moe


    How erotic of a scene would it be if a person woke up early in the morning to find a beautiful maid appearing in their room and sitting on them with her legs spread out?


    It would''ve been even better if this maid wasn''t holding a gigantic spiked club in her hands.


    In the world Alice came from, there existed a term called "gap moe" that was used to describe the feelings of affection one experienced when one witnesses a person or character behaving in a way that contradicts their usual behavior, appearance, or personality.


    However, rather than finding herself filled with feelings of affection, Alice was filled with horror when she saw thebination of spiked club+washboard maid.


    The instant Alice saw Luna on top of her, every cell in her body warned her to run away immediately. Her powerful Mind stat also allowed her to instantly predict the trajectory of Luna''s spiked club ande up with several optimal escape paths.


    Theoretically, the physical fitness and toughness Alice had received thanks to her 8000 points in Strength should''ve rendered her immune to even the cold weapons used by the kingdom''s most elite fighters. However, the spiked club Luna wielded evidently wasn''t an ordinary cold weapon. Thus, Alice dared not test whether her head could tank a hit from Luna''s spiked club. Not to mention, the instant Luna swung down her club, Alice could the legs mping her body down loosening their grip on her slightly.


    Taking advantage of this opportunity, Alice quickly retracted her legs and pushed against the bed using her left hand. Then, like a loosened arrow, her body shot off the bed andnded on the floor, sessfully avoiding her fate of having her face smashed in by Luna''s club.


    Meanwhile, Luna''s club did not stop just because its target had moved out of its way. Instead, it mmed into Alice''s bed with a loud boom. Then, it proceeded to smash the huge bed in half and hit the floor unabated.


    The moment the spiked club hit the floor, terrifying cracks instantly spread from the point of impact and covered the entire room. Even the ceiling was not spared from the attack.


    "Fucking hell"


    Alice subconsciously cursed when she saw this devastating scene. With just one attack, Luna had pushed this room to the brink of copse. The destructive power of Luna''s attack far exceeded her imagination.


    After tentatively standing up from the cracked floor, Alice frowned when she looked at Luna, who had already gotten off of the bed at this point. After all, the ck mist circting Luna''s spiked club looked suspiciously simr to the Demon King''s Power Chris summoned in his handst night.


    "Why did you attack me, Luna?"


    "Yes, why did I attack you, Alice?" Luna responded with a question of her own. "When you first told me that you were a mind magician, I didn''t actually believe you. Now, though, I think I''m starting to believe your words, Alice."


    "What do you mean?" Alice asked as she nced at the Hero''s Swordas she nced at the bed sheet wrapped around the Hero''s Sword in her right hand, wondering if she should remove the bed sheet in this situation.


    However, after hesitating for a moment, Alice decided against doing so. Nothing would change even if she removed the bed sheet, anyway. Even if she kept the Hero''s Sword concealed, she would still receive the weapon''s 8000-point bonus to all stats. Not to mention, removing the bed sheet would mean exposing her identity as the Hero. So, she decided it''d be better to observe the situation and find out Luna''s motive in attacking her first.


    "I cannot let you resolve King Hatter''s mental disorder," Luna said, shaking her head. Even in this situation, her expression and voice remained as indifferent as always. "Had you not resisted, you could''ve been sent away with your life, just like the other mind magicians, Alice. Unfortunately, it seems that you are too strong of a mind magician for my petty tricks to work on you, so I have no choice but to personally im your life."


    Alice was slightly stunned when she heard Luna''s words. Then, she snapped out of her daze and asked in a low voice, "Soyou were behind the mental breakdowns those mind magicians suffered?"


    Everything made sense now. Alice finally understood why the mind magicians, who had treated Chris, would suffer mental breakdowns even though they had only probed the surface of Chris''s mind. Rather than the Demon King''s Power inside Chris''s body, Luna''s meddling was the cause of their mental breakdowns instead.


    "Chris isn''t the Demon King at all. Instead, the Demon King''s Power that is influencing his mind is merely bait, right?" After linking the clues together, Alice quickly deduced the sequence of events that had actually taken ce. "You ced a portion of your dark mana inside Chris''s body, causing him to mistakenly assume that the Demon King''s Power had chosen him as its new host while simultaneously using this mana to corrode his mind, forcing him to seek help No, that''s not entirely correct. You messed up all of the mind magicians he sought help from, so those mind magicians shouldn''t be the targets you are trying to lure."


    Luna remained motionless, seemingly intending to listen to Alice''s deduction.


    "The person you are trying to lure is the Hero, right?"


    If the target Luna was trying to seek out wasn''t those ordinary mind magicians, there could only be one conclusionthe Hero. Apart from mind magicians, the only person in the world capable of resolving the "Demon King''s Power" inside Chris''s body was the Hero.


    "Which was why you brought up the Hero more than once during our conversation," Alice said, concluding her deduction.


    "That''s right. I am indeed looking for the Hero," Luna acknowledged in a calm voice. Judging by how calmly she reacted to Alice seeing through her ns, it was evident that she had no intentions of keeping Alice alive. Dead people did not speak, after all.


    When Alice noticed Luna getting ready for round two, she anxiously tightened her grip over the Hero''s Sword. Thankfully, Luna had yet to discover her identity as the Hero and merely treated her as a powerful mind magician. Otherwise, the silver-haired maid would''ve attacked with everything she got. In the event that happened, Alice wasn''t confident she could cope with the maid''s attacks. After all, even if she had all of her stats boosted by 8000 points, she stillcked any knowledge on magic and swordsmanship. Her actual power inbat definitely couldn''t match Luna''s.


    Meanwhile, Luna''s identity was already self-evident at this point. Not only was Luna capable of cing such powerful dark mana inside the Gryffin King''s body to use as bait, but she also housed an even more powerful dark mana inside her body.


    Simply put, Luna Cecilia was this generation''s Demon King.

 Chapter 79: Have You Ever Considered the Mansion’s Feelings?

    Chapter 79: Have You Ever Considered the Mansion��s Feelings?


    <em>Is this really alright? I''ve only transmigrated for a short time, yet I''ve already uncovered the identities of the Hero and Demon King.</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but voice aint in her mind as she looked at the silver-haired maid before her. It had only been around two weeks since she arrived in this world, yet the situations she had encountered were things that even the natives of this world would find unbelievable. Not only did Alice pretend to be the Hero and Demon King during these past two weeks, but she had even uncovered the real Hero and Demon King.


    Though, unlike Aird, Luna seemed to be already aware of her identity as the Demon King. She was even capable of skillfully manipting the Demon King''s Power already.


    Fortunately, judging by the hint of cautiousness in Luna''s eyes, it would seem that the silver-haired maid had awakened as the Demon King only recently. Had Luna already reached maturity as the Demon King, she probably wouldn''t have batted an eye even if Alice was immune to her mental attack and managed to dodge her sneak attack.


    Meanwhile, going by the fact that Chris had only started having mental problems around a year ago, Alice deduced that it should have only been a year since Luna had gained the ability to use the Demon King''s Power in actualbat. Although one year''s worth of training had allowed her to skillfully manipte the Demon King''s Power, she was still incapable of using it to its fullest potential.


    However, there was still a limit to being cautious. After seeing no action from Alice for some time, Luna quickly understood that Alice did not intend on taking the initiative to attack her. Although therge bundle of cloth wrapped around the blonde girl''s right hand looked very suspicious, Luna did not intend on waiting any longer.


    Immediately, Luna raised her spiked club and dashed forward. Then, she swung the gigantic weapon at Alice, her hands never hesitating for even a moment even though her target was a cute little girl. Just the wind pressure created by the spiked club was already enough to cause the surrounding cracked walls to tremble.


    Alice had no intentions of tanking the spiked club for the moment. Her strengthened mind told her that even with 8000 points in Strength, her body still wasn''t strong enough to take on a direct attack from the Demon King''s Power. Thus, when Alice saw Luna lunging forward and swinging the spiked club down toward her head, she immediately kicked against the floor and dodged backward. Meanwhile, thanks to the 8000 Speed the Hero''s Sword provided, Alice was able to dodge Luna''s devastating attack once again.


    It was fortunate that Alice had chosen to evade Luna''s attack as the silver-haired maid''s attack this time was much stronger than before. As soon as the spiked club impacted the floor, the entire room thoroughly cracked and crumbled apart.


    <em>She destroyed the room</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but be shocked when she experienced a sudden sense of weightlessness. She couldn''t believe that Luna had destroyed the room with just two simple attacks. Moreover, the destruction wasn''t limited to just the mansion''s master bedroom. When Alice looked down and past her feet, she saw that cracks also covered the first-floor living room.


    Luna''s second attack didn''t just destroy the bedroom. It had also caused cracks to spread throughout the entire mansion.


    If Alice wasn''t mistaken in her judgment, the entire mansion would probably crumble into ruins should it receive another attack from Luna.


    Before the room''s shattered fragments could even fall to the first floor, Luna had already readied herself tounch her third attack. Dark mana flooding out of her body, she kicked against a piece of falling debris under her feet and propelled herself toward Alice. Her movements were so fast that she had already arrived before Alice and swung her spiked club before the debris from the shattered ceiling could even fall to her elevation.


    Alice currently couldn''t move about as freely as she did before because of the shattered floor. Although she wanted to mimic Luna''s actions and propel herself away from Luna''s attack using the falling debris, Luna''s spiked club was already in front of her, so she had no time to do so. Thus, she had no choice but to raise her right hand and take the hit with the concealed Hero''s Sword.


    The instant the gigantic spiked club collided with the Hero''s Sword, the shockwave of the impact instantly obliterated the flimsy bedsheet covering the Hero''s Sword, exposing the weapon it previously concealed. Fortunately for Alice, the force of the impact had also sent her shooting down to the first floor like a cannonball. By the time gravity had pulled Luna down to the first floor, the debris from the first floor''s ceiling had also reached the ground and buried Alice alive.


    Thus, even though Luna caught a brief glimpse of the Hero''s Sword, she had yet to realize the sword''s identity. She only saw that Alice had blocked her attack using a sword.


    Meanwhile, just like Alice expected, Luna''s third attack had thoroughly shattered the entire mansion. Even though Luna''s third attack didn''tnd directly on the mansion, the resulting stwave was more than enough to push the mansion''s cracked foundations past their limits.


    However, despite having destroyed the mansion, Luna did not let her guard down. Rather, it was precisely because she had destroyed the mansion that she did not let down her guard. After all, this meant that her attack did notnd on Alice''s body. Had her attacknded on Alice''s body, Alice''s body would''ve absorbed the brunt of the attack''s power, and the resulting shockwave wouldn''t have been strong enough to shatter the entire mansion. The fact that her attack had shattered the mansion meant that Alice had redirected all of the attack''s power to the mansion, which also meant that Alice should be virtually unharmed right now.


    As debris from the second floor started raining down, Luna shrouded herself in dark mana, using it to push away any debris that might hit her. When all of the falling debris settled on the ground, only the spot where Luna stood was free of debris.


    Meanwhile, Luna kept her gaze fixated on one part of the ruins throughout this entire time, her eyes never moving away from that spot.


    "How ruthless of you. You just ruined a perfectly good mansion."


    After being on the receiving end of Luna''s gaze for a while, Alice knew that the silver-haired maid had already seen through her attempt to hide. So, she gave up her cover and pushed away the debris pressing down on her body. At the same time, she couldn''t help but feel exasperated by Luna''s strength.


    It had only been a year since Luna had started to put the Demon King''s Power into actual use, yet she was already capable of exhibiting such power. If Luna was given a decade to familiarize herself with the Demon King''s Power, wouldn''t that mean she could destroy the entirety of Holl City with one swing of her spiked club?


    It was no wonder why people described Heroes and Demon Kings as walking taboo bombs.

 Chapter 80: True Name Liberated

    Chapter 80: True Name Liberated


    "How tenacious of you to survive even that."


    A hint of seriousness gradually appeared on Luna''s calm expression when she saw Alice climbing out of the rubble. This was the first time her attacks had met with sessive failures ever since she acquired the Demon King''s Power.


    "My desire to live is particrly strong, so it is only natural that I am tenacious," Alice said as she tightened her grip over the Hero''s Sword.


    Currently, the Hero''s Sword was already covered with dust and dirt, so it had be difficult for others to discern its identity. This was also why Alice had dared to reveal herself to Luna.


    Although Luna had only beenunching blunt attacks with her spiked club thus far, Alice was certain that the silver-haired maid was capable of attacking with magic as well. She was working as an intelligence agent for the kingdom''s intelligence department, after all. Such a risky job definitely required one to have the means to defend oneself.


    Meanwhile, so long as Luna was under the misconception that Alice was merely a mind magician and not the Hero, there was a high chance that she would continue underestimating Alice and hold back her power.


    "You are definitely not an ordinary mind magician. Seeing as the king trusts you so much, you might even have some means to stabilize his mind," Luna said as she nced at the dirt-covered longsword in Alice''s right hand. Although she found the sword somewhat familiar, she didn''t put too much thought into it. Instead, she continued revealing her malice toward Alice.


    Luna''s n was to worsen King Hatter''s mental condition using the Demon King''s Power to a point where he had no choice but to ask the Hero for help. If King Hatter managed to stabilize his condition before that, the Hero might not show himself.


    Meanwhile, although the dark mana Luna nted in King Hatter was powerful, it wasn''t omnipotent. If Alice really did possess the power to strengthen King Hatter''s mind to a point where he could resist the Demon King''s Power''s influence, it would ruin her n.


    "I cannot let you live for the sake of my n," Luna coldly said as she raised the spiked club in her right hand.


    Immediately, under Alice''s gaze, dark mist started enveloping the gigantic spiked club. Then, the spiked club began rapidly shrinking in size and changing in shape until it eventually transformed into a pitch-ck longsword.


    "I see... That weapon is made of mana..."


    Thanks to her strengthened mind, Alice quickly perceived the true nature of Luna''s weapon. The weapon in Luna''s hand wasn''t a physical object at all. Instead, it was a constructposed of incredibly dense and pure dark mana. It was something akin to Aird''s War God''s Lock.


    This also exined why the spiked club did not suffer even the slightest deformation after shattering the entire mansion. The weapon had retained its shape not because it was made of superior materials. Instead, it was because it was made of mana. Even if the weapon got damaged during Luna''s attacks, the maid could quickly mend the gaps by pouring more mana into the weapon.


    "Since wide area destruction seems to have no effect on you, I''ll go with this weapon instead," Luna tlymented. Her spiked club had destroyed the entire mansion already, yet Alice remainedpletely unharmed. She''d be an idiot to continue using the spiked club after all that. Thus, she decided to mimic Alice and transform her weapon into a longsword as well. "This area is reserved as a mansion district for nobles. Not many people visit this ce normally, so I have more than enough time to slowly deal with you."


    "In that case, I''d better end the fight as soon as possible," Alice said. She never intended to wait for reinforcements. Luna was the Demon King, after all. She doubted that there was anyone in the kingdom capable of beating the silver-haired maid.


    "Oh? Are you finally ready to retaliate?" Luna raised her eyebrows in slight surprise, her feet stopping their advance. She had never seen Alice take the initiative to attack, so she immediately heightened her vignce when she heard Alice''s words. "Are you going to use your mind magic against me?"


    Alice naturally wouldn''t be attacking Luna with mind magic. Firstly, the Demon King should have a simr buff as the Hero''s Fearless Will, which helped to negate mental attacks. Secondly, Alice suspected that Luna''s secondary magic was mind magic, which was what allowed the silver-haired maid to twist Chris''s mind.


    Most importantly, Alice didn''t know any mind magic...


    <em>Holy Cross sh.</em>


    After taking a deep breath, Alice called out the name of a skill in her mind. Since she didn''t know any magic, the only way she could fight was to rely on her weapon''s active skill.


    Holy Cross sh''s skill description was "releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul." It sounded like a powerful skill, simr to the skills that appeared on the panties Alice used. However, unlike those panties, the Hero''s Sword wouldn''t disappear after Alice activated its active skill.


    In this regard, the Hero''s Sword was much stronger than the panties. The only troublesome aspect was that it wasn''t as convenient to bring around as panties.


    Meanwhile, as soon as Alice used Holy Cross sh, a torrent of light mana flooded out of the Hero''s Sword, shaking off all the dust and dirt covering the weapon. Fortunately, before Luna could get a good look at the Hero''s Sword''s true appearance, intense light shrouded Alice''s body and hid the Hero''s Sword again.


    However, Luna didn''t care what Alice''s sword looked like as she had much more pressing matters to deal with.


    As someone working for the kingdom''s intelligence department, Luna had ess to information on many of the kingdom''s light magicians. She had even seen quite a few of them in action. However, even if shebined every one of these light magicians, they wouldn''t have light mana as dense as what Alice currently emitted.


    However, Luna didn''t have any more time to think as Alice''s attack had already materialized.


    Going bymon sense, one would shout out the name of their attack when using a powerful move to increase one''s morale. However, Alice was a transmigrated individual, and she hadn''t adapted to this world''s strangebat culture yet, so she had no intentions of shouting out her attack''s name. Instead, after mentally activating Holy Cross sh in her mind, she promptly tried to release the torrent of light mana at Luna.


    However, just when the concentrated light mana was about to separate from the Hero''s Sword, Alice suddenly felt apelling force spreading from her heart and to her mouth. Then, her mouth began opening against her will...


    <em>Wait!! Don''t tell me this skill forces me to say its name when activated?!</em>


    Alice grew flustered when she realized what was going on. However, she didn''t panic too much over the situation. Although shouting "Holy Cross sh" out loud sounded a little childish, it shouldn''t look too strange considering this world''s cultural norms.


    While Alice was having such thoughts in her mind, her mouth moved under thepulsion of the mysterious force. Then, in a deafening tone, she shouted:


    "Okay!!!"


    <em>Fuck! It''s not the skill''s name, but the weapon''s true name instead?!</em>


    Amidst Luna''s bewilderment, a gigantic cross made out of light mmed into her. The silver-haired maid remained in a daze even until the attacknded on her, probably because she was wondering why Alice had shouted "Okay" all of a sudden.

 Chapter 81: Stupid Tradition

    Chapter 81: Stupid Tradition


    The cross made of blinding light instantly devoured Luna''s body and brightly illuminated the surrounding area, making it seem as if it were daytime right now. With how intense the light was, people outside the mansion district should notice it as well. So, it probably wouldn''t be long before someone came to check up on the situation here.


    <em>To think I would have to yell out the Hero''s Sword''s true name to use its skill</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but be exasperated when she recalled what had just happened. She had seen characters in manga and novels shouting out the names of their weapons beforeunching their ultimate moves, so she could somewhat understand why the Hero''s Sword had such a requirement as well. However, unlike a certain blonde girl''s weapon, Alice''s weapon didn''t have a cool name like "Excalibur."


    Fortunately, the Hero''s Sword''s strange name of Okay wasn''t without its benefits. When Luna heard Alice abruptly shouting "Okay," she was momentarily caught off guard and ended up eating Alice''s Holy Cross sh straight to the face. Alice could also rte to Luna''s reaction. Any normal person would definitely be surprised if the opponent they fought suddenly shouted "Okay" just as they were about tounch an attack.


    <em>It really makes you wonder how that Hero named Miller managed to cope with such a restriction... His fights must''ve been terrible, right?</em>


    When Alice thought of the unlucky Hero who had named his Hero''s Sword "What the Fuck," she suddenly felt that she was no longer the most miserable Hero in history. Then, afterforting herself in such a manner, she returned her focus to the dissipating light in front of her.


    <em>Can she survive after taking such an attack straight to the face?</em>


    The Holy Cross sh was undoubtedly a skill only the Hero could use. Its destructive power was already on the level of taboos. However, unlike taboo bombs that would cause wide-area destruction once detonated, the Holy Cross sh''s destructive power was much more controlled. Thus, even though the Holy Cross sh possessed taboo-level destructive power, the damage it dealt to the target''s surroundings was minimal.


    After Alice waited for some seconds, the dazzling light eventually faded, and the faint morning glowing from the distant horizon became the only source of light in the area again. Meanwhile, Alice also quickly located Luna''s figure among the rubble.


    "What was that attack? The intensity of that light mana..." Luna muttered as she picked herself up from the ground. Even with the Demon King''s Power strengthening her, she had still suffered a certain degree of damage after eating the Holy Cross sh in the face.


    However,pared to the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings, the damage Luna received after tanking a taboo was insignificant. Apart from a trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead and her vanished maid uniform, it didn''t seem like she had suffered any other injuries.


    "How are you rted to the Hero?" Luna asked as she looked at Alice with a solemn gaze.


    Alice was stunned when she heard Luna''s words. She thought that Luna had already figured out that she was the Hero. However, it would seem that the silver-haired maid was too preconceived in her belief that Alice was merely a character of unknown origins and that the Hero was "a man with a tiger''s back, a bear''s waist, and a pretty face." Thus, she had neglected the possibility that Alice might be the Hero.


    However, this was good news for Alice. Although Luna was unlikely to hold back after seeing her use such a powerful attack, Alice felt that it would be best if she could continue keeping her identity a secret. She still wasn''t confident in ying Luna, the Demon King, yet, after all. So, the longer she could keep her identity a secret, the better.


    "Although I don''t know what kind of rtionship you share with the Hero, since you are capable of using such powerful light mana, you must be someone the Hero trusts very much," Luna unterally confirmed her conjecture after seeing Alice remain silent. Since she could split a portion of the Demon King''s Power and ce it within King Hatter''s body, it only stood to reason that the Hero could also ce a portion of the Hero''s Power into other people. "The Hero should show himself if I capture you alive."


    "How much hatred do you have for the Hero..."


    Alice felt her head aching when she heard Luna''s words. Although she knew that the Demon King and the Hero stood on opposing sides to each other, she couldn''t help but feel troubled to see Luna being so fixated on finding her. Their encounter on the train was the first time they had met each other, so how could Luna have developed so much hatred for her already?


    "You wouldn''t understand," Luna coldly said as she looked at Alice. Then, she slowly lifted both hands while saying, "I originally nned to save this move for the Hero, but since capturing you will allow me to lure out the Hero...let''s try it on you first."


    "What?"


    Alice blinked in confusion. However, before she could react, she suddenly felt the Hero''s Sword in her right hand growing heavier. Moreover, the immense light mana stored within the Hero''s Sword had even started to deplete rapidly.


    However, what unnerved Alice the most was the weapon information disyed in her mind. At the same time as the Hero''s Sword''s light mana was being depleted, the weapon''s stats also started changing.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Okay]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +6000, Constitution +6000, Speed +6000, Mind +6000, Control +6000, Mana +6000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul.)]


    Not only did the stat bonuses decrease from 8000 points to 6000 points, but even the Fearless Will skill had disappeared. Moreover, Alice could feel that the mana in the Hero''s Sword was growing weaker and weaker with each passing second. In other words, the Hero''s Sword might continue to grow weaker.


    "The Demon King''s Power and Hero''s Power are opposing powers. By constructing a barrier using the Demon King''s Power, I can seal the Hero''s Power," Luna calmly exined when she saw the look of confusion on Alice''s face. "Although I do not know how you managed to get the Hero to share his power with you, the power within you is undoubtedly the Hero''s Power. Since it is only an external power, you won''t be able to resist the power of my seal."


    At this point, Alice also realized the severity of the situation. If the Hero''s Sword continued losing its light mana, it would eventually turn into garbage again.


    "Since that''s the case..."


    Enduring her embarrassment, Alice decided to activate the Hero''s Sword''s Holy Cross sh again. However, as soon as she tried to activate the skill, she received a feedback message that made her nearly lose her mind.


    [3 minutes and 40 seconds until skill cooldown is over.]


    <em>Write it in the description if there''s a cooldown!!! What kind of shitty game is this?!?! </em>Alice scratched her long golden hair in agony. However, she quickly remembered that apart from the Hero''s Sword, she had another source of power she could rely on.


    Although this alternative was somewhat embarrassing, between her dignity and her life, Alice still preferred to keep her life.

 Chapter 82: Disarming You

    Chapter 82: Disarming You


    "Finally!"


    After stamping his approval on a document rted to inte culture management, Chris stretched his body and yawned. As the king with the highest approval rating in the Gryffin Kingdom''s history, Chris might look glorious on the surface, but the burden he had to shoulder behind the scenes was not something that most people could imagine.


    This situation was made worse by the "Demon King''s Power" inside his body. Recently, it was growing more and more restless, constantly trying to corrupt his mind and making him mentally unstable. As a result, he would sometimes make some wrong decisions, and it would take a lot of work to make up for these mistakester, which, in turn, distressed him even further.


    "It''s already half-past five? Hah..."


    Chris massaged his temples after ncing at the wall clock in the office. Although he felt frustrated by his busy work schedule, there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn''t shrug off his work to the ministers helping him even if he wanted to since many important documents needed his approval. This was also why he was still working even when everyone in the pce had already gone home. He could only rejoice that he had no work scheduled for tomorrow.


    However, not all was bad news. Firstly, the Hero had finally appeared. Moreover, ording to the Hero''s close friend, the Hero was even nning to receive education in Holl City''s March Royal School of Magic.


    Chris was naturally ted by this wonderful news. Nothing could be better than having a Hero living in his country''s capital city. He could already foresee that Holl City''s economy would take off in the next few years. Countlesspanies would fight desperately to establish their businesses in the city that the Hero resided in.


    For this reason, Chris had even personally helped Alice handle her admission into the Royal Academy. The day Alice finished her education and no longer needed to conceal her identity would be the day when Holl City greeted its most rapid phase of development in history.


    Apart from that, the Hero''s appearance also meant that he would, perhaps, finally have a solution to the Demon King''s Power residing in his body. Although there had not been any precedents of the Demon King being forcibly stripped of the Demon King''s Power, all of the past Demon Kings were filled with thoughts of invasion. There was no way any of them would be willing to part with the Demon King''s Power.


    However, Chris was different from these past Demon Kings. The Demon King''s Power was nothing but a hassle to him. Meanwhile, he felt that if he could receive God''s help, he might be able to remove the Demon King''s Power in his body and survive the process.


    Standing up from his seat, Chris stretched his body again. Then, he walked up to the nearby window and opened it.


    Despite their simr titles, the kings of the human and demon realms were vastly different from each other. The demon realm''s harsh environment had caused the demons to take on a natural instinct of judging a person''s sess or failure based on strength. As a result, their kings were also chosen based on strength.


    In contrast, humans chose their kings based on whether their kings possessed the wisdom to lead the people to a prosperous life. Meanwhile, Chris felt that he had done a good job in this regard.


    Just look outside the window. Shrouded in the dazzling white light in the distance, the kingdom for which he had been striving for was bing more and more...prosperous...


    <em>Huh?</em>


    Amidst his emotional moment, Chris suddenly noticed that something was amiss. Hurriedly, he took two steps back and nced at the wall clock5:30. There was no mistaking it. It was currently 5:30 in the morning. Although he had stayed upte dealing with documents, his mind was still clear. Moreover, his experience as a mind magician also told him that the Demon King''s Power within his body wasn''t influencing his mind right now, so it was unlikely that he was hallucinating right now.


    However, if it was only 5:30 in the morning, there should only be a glimmer of sunrise on the horizon. So, why was there such a blinding white light in the distance?


    "Isn''t that where the Hero is staying?!"


    Chris''s expression grew uglier and uglier as he took a closer look at the location of the second sun. He naturally knew where Alice lived since he was responsible for arranging her living quarters. Meanwhile, that blinding white light originated from none other than the mansion district Alice resided in. After connecting this situation with Alice''s identity as the Hero, Chris could roughly guess where that dazzling radiance had originated from.


    The Hero was attacked in the capital of his kingdom? Could this situation be any more preposterous? The other four kings would definitelyugh at him without mercy if they were to find out about this. Then, they would extend an invitation to Alice to move to their respective kingdoms.


    He absolutely could not allow such a thing to happen!


    The drowsiness in his mind vanishingpletely, Chris hurriedly walked up to his desk, picked up the phone, and dialed a number:


    "Hello? Catherine? Take your guards and head to the Gem District immediately! Go there and protect a blonde little girl named Alice at all costs!"


    Although Chris wasn''t strong inbat, as the country''s king, he naturally had powerful warriors at his service. And while he didn''t think that the soldiers under hismand could be of significant help to the Hero in battle, they could at least y a supportive role and deal with the aftermath of the battle.


    On the other side, Alice naturally did not know that Chris had already discovered the Holy Cross sh''s radiance and had dispatched troops to help her. Right now, she was busy thinking about how she couldunch a counterattack on Luna.


    Alice did not know where Luna''s seal had originated from. She did not find any magic circles on the ground, nor did she find any obvious sealing tools nearby. ording to Luna''s statement, this seal was something she had prepared long ago, so it was only natural that she wouldn''t let Alice break it easily.


    Since breaking the seal was impossible, all Alice needed to do was circumvent it.


    The Hero''s Sword wasn''t Alice''s only weapon. Since Luna didn''t allow Alice to use the Hero''s Sword, the silver-haired maid only had herself to me for forcing Alice''s hand.


    After stabbing the Hero''s Sword into the ground to hide its appearance from Luna, Alice removed her right hand from the hilt and reached under her nightdressit couldn''t be helped. Her pouch holding her weapon arsenal had already been buried in the ruins. So, if she wanted tounch a counterattack using panties, she had no choice but to use the pair she wore.


    Alice also realized how careless she had been because of this situation. Originally, she thought that since she had tied the Hero''s Sword to her right hand, she should be able to deal with most problems by relying on the huge stat bonuses and the active skill Holy Cross sh. Thus, she had left the pouch holding her stockpile of panties on the bedside table, which, in turn, caused the pouch to be buried in the rubble because of Luna''s spiked club.


    <em>I must never let my ammunition depot leave me in the future.</em>


    After admonishing herself, Alice touched her butt and made an awkward discoveryshe wasn''t wearing any panties under her dress.


    It would seem that she had kicked off her panties when she was asleep--as embarrassing and unbelievable as it might sound, this wasn''t the first time something like this had happened. Alice had experienced such a situation several times, even before she had transmigrated. She would sometimes find that she had kicked her pajama trousers and panties off her body and onto the floor when waking up. Most people probably wouldn''t be capable of such a feat in their sleep.


    Meanwhile, due to the intense fight she had with Luna just now, Alice had actually failed to realize that she had been goingmando all this time.


    <em>Goddammit, why now of all times... Am I really going to bite the dust here?</em>


    With such thoughts in her mind, Alice looked at Luna standing some distance away from her. Then, she suddenly made a huge discovery.


    Apart from her Hero''s Sword, buried ammunition depot, and vanished panties, was there really no other weapon she could use on this battlefield?


    No, there was. Alice had already discovered the only weapon that could help her make aeback in this situation. Although acquiring this weapon might be a challenge, she had no choice but to risk it for the biscuit.


    Alice''s Holy Cross sh had previously shredded Luna''s maid uniform, so the silver-haired maid no longer had anything to show for her temporary profession. Fortunately, though, she wasn''t entirely naked.


    On Luna''s body, there remained a slightly nted ckce bra, half of a white sleeve, a pair of tattered ck stockings...


    ...and a pair of ckce panties in Luna''s absolute territory.


    TL Notes:


    -26th November 2021


    I made some changes to Chapter 81:


    (Original) Apart from a trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead, it didn''t seem like she had suffered any other injuries. Even the maid uniform she wore was virtually undamaged.


    Changed to:


    (Edited) Apart from a trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead and her vanished maid uniform, it didn''t seem like she had suffered any other injuries.


    This was a trantion mistake.

 Chapter 83: Sequestering Your Panties

    Chapter 83: Sequestering Your Panties


    Although Alice didn''t want to take the risk of stripping the enemy''s panties, with the situation as it was right now, her only choice was to rely on this method if she wanted to subdue Luna.


    After all, Luna didn''t receive any substantial damage even after taking a Holy Cross sh to the face. Now that the skill was on cooldown, if Alice still chose to rely on the Hero''s Sword, her only means of counterattacking would be to execute regr attacks. Setting aside whether she could evennd a hit on Luna with her non-existent swordsmanship, she wasn''t sure if the weakened Hero''s Sword could cut through Luna''s defenses even if she didnd a hit.


    Regardless, now that Alice had decided to sequestrate Luna''s panties for her own use, she would need to figure out a way to approach the silver-haired maid. This was a rtively dangerous action for her current self.


    On the one hand, the stat bonuses the Hero''s Sword provided had already fallen to 5000 points. That was significantly lesspared to what it originally provided. So, while Alice might be able to keep up with Luna in terms of reaction speed and movement speed right now, she wasn''t confident if she could perfectly avoid or deflect Luna''s attacks like before.


    On the other hand, Alice had too few means of attacking right now. Once she started running for Luna, she would be nothing but a moving target for Luna. Meanwhile, this was a problem that she could only remedy after studying in the March Royal School of Magic.


    <em>On that topic, if I get rid of Luna here, doesn''t that remove the need for me to study at the Royal Academy?</em>


    While having such optimistic thoughts in her mind, Alice drew the Hero''s Sword out of the ground. Fortunately, ayer of dirt had now covered the Hero''s Sword because of her previous actions. So, Luna still did not recognize the sword''s identity.


    Alice sighed in relief when she felt her stats increasing once more. Then, she pointed the tip of the sword at Luna.


    Meanwhile, Luna had grown more cautious after eating a Holy Cross sh to the face. Instead of subduing Alice by force, she started biding her time as she waited for her seal to thoroughly iste Alice from the Hero''s Power.


    However, Alice naturally wouldn''t sit still and wait for her death. Immediately, she set her posture and charged straight at Luna.


    With 5000 points in Strength and Speed, Alice arrived in front of Luna almost in the blink of an eye. Then, she swung the Hero''s Sword straight at her opponent''s body.


    Since Alice had never undergone any systemic training, her swordsmanship standard naturally wasn''t anything praiseworthy. However, her immense strength allowed her to have a firm grip over the Hero''s Sword, preventing her from making a rookie mistake such as letting her sword fly out of her hands.


    "I expected as much."


    No sane person would sit still and do nothing while their enemy sealed their power. Thus, Luna had long since expected Alice to attack her and prepared herself to respond appropriately.


    Even after seeing the sword that was making its way to her waist, Luna did not retreat. Instead, she swiftly moved the ck sword in her hand downwards, using it to meet with Alice''s sword. Meanwhile, the instant the ck sword made contact with the Hero''s Sword, a metallic sound echoed throughout the area.


    Although the impact force had pushed Luna back a certain distance, the ck sword had still sessfully stopped the Hero''s Sword in its path. Now, even if Alice had pushed the Hero''s Sword to Luna''s body, the sword wouldn''t be able to cut through Luna''s skin.


    "That doesn''t look like an ordinary sword..."


    Luna narrowed her eyes as she looked at her ck sword. Thereat the point where the ck sword had intercepted Alice''s dirt-covered sworda small cut could be seen.


    The ck sword was constructed from the Demon King''s Power, so its toughness practically rivaled the Demon King''s Power. Even the weaponsbeled as Artifacts in the human and demon realms wouldn''t necessarily be able to damage the ck sword. Yet, Alice''s sword had managed to aplish this feat.


    Before Luna could have more time to think, Alice immediately swung her sword upwards, aiming directly at Luna''s neck.


    However, Luna''s frosty expression remained unchanged even after seeing that Alice''s sword was already close to reaching her throat. Calmly, she raised her ck sword upward, blocking Alice''s weapon with deadly precision once more.


    "It seems my conjecture is correct. Your speed and strength have weakened significantly."


    Luna could tell that Alice was already starting to have trouble keeping up with her. Previously, when she destroyed the mansion while attacking Alice, Alice had been able to escape or deflect her attacks with great precision. In terms of speed, the two of them were almost evenly matched. Now, though, Alice''s speed had visibly dropped as she could even block such a close-range attack from Alice with little effort.


    Meanwhile, Alice naturally knew that Luna was right. At this point, the stat bonuses the Hero''s Sword provided had already fallen to just 4000 points. Although it was still a scary amount for normal humans, it was no longer enough for her to keep up with Luna in battle.


    Without waiting for Alice to make any further moves, Luna pushed Alice''s sword away and willed her ck sword to change its form, the weapon separating into several ck des that appeared to be connected by a thin thread of dark mana. Then, under Alice''s horrified gaze, the ck des stabbed into her abdomen from various tricky angles.


    "Ugh"


    Alice groaned in pain and took a step back. Then, she knelt on the ground and held her bleeding abdomen. Only now did she realize that Luna''s sword wasn''t an ordinary sword. Instead, it was a whip sword capable of expanding its de and transforming it into an agile whip. Unfortunately, this discovery came a little toote since the des of the whip had already embedded themselves into her body.


    "Don''t worry; I won''t kill you. I will only immobilize you to prevent you from struggling," Luna said as she looked at Alice gasping in pain on the ground. "My goal is to lure out the Hero. Nothing will happen to you so long as you obediently listen to me."


    "Is that so?" At this point, cold sweat had already covered Alice''s pale face. However, while covering her bleeding abdomen with her left hand, Alice looked up at Luna and suddenly revealed a stiff smile, saying, "I''m afraid you won''t get that chance, Demon King."


    "What?"


    Luna was momentarily stunned. Then, Luna saw Alice extending her right hand out from her back, the hand holding onto a familiar pair of ck panties.

 Chapter 84: Maou no Pantsu (魔王のパンツ)

    Chapter 84: Maou no Pantsu (ħ���Υѥ��)


    "That''smy underwear?"


    Luna was briefly stunned when she saw the panties in Alice''s hand. Then, she hurriedly looked down at her lower body and found that her panties had indeed gone missing.


    Alice''s attack just now wasn''t as simple as it seemed. She was fully aware that the stat bonuses the Hero''s Sword presently provided were not enough for her to cause any substantial damage to Luna. So, despite her attacks looking like they were meant to kill Luna, they were merely meant as a distraction.


    Take the upward sh Alice executed against Luna''s neck, for example. That attack was meant to have Luna shift all of her attention onto her neck. If Luna''s attention was focused on her neck, she would be less likely to notice what was happening to her lower body. Meanwhile, taking advantage of this situation, Alice had swiftly torn off the flimsy piece of fabric from Luna''s body.


    Unlike the time Alice faced Grant''s soul, she currently wielded the Hero''s Sword in her right hand. Even though the Hero''s Sword had been weakened significantly due to Luna''s seal, it still provided Alice 4000 points in Strength. So, tearing off a pair of panties was no trouble for her at all.


    Meanwhile, before Luna could make sense of why Alice had stripped her of her panties even at such a crucial time, Alice clenched her right hand and tightly gripped onto the pair of ckce panties.


    Afterward, turbulent dark mana burst out from Alice''s right hand like water gushing out of a broken dam. Then, the dark mana transformed into a thick ck mist that flooded the area.


    "What?!"


    Luna was having a difficult time keeping calm right now. Even as the Demon King, her heart couldn''t help but start beating violently when faced with such immense dark mana at such close distance. After all, the vastness of that dark mana surpassed even that of the dark mana within her.


    <em>What''s going on? Aren''t I the Demon King? Why does she suddenly have more dark mana than me?</em>


    Luna suddenly felt that she didn''t have enough brainpower to process this situation. As the Demon King''s Power''s host, she had never seen someone with stronger dark mana than herself.


    However, Alice did not pay attention to Luna''s confusion. Honestly, she was simrly shocked by the volume and concentration of dark mana that had burst out of her right hand. Even though she had used various types of panties previously, she had never experienced such a huge reaction before.


    In the past, when Alice had wielded Rosa''s ckce underwear, even though she had indeed witnessed dark mana spewing out of her hand in the form of ck mist, the rate at which the ck mist formed was significantly slower. Now, though, the ck mist had spewed out of her hand like juice from a crushed tomato. Arge volume of ck mist had appeared instantaneously, shrouding the area around the panties.


    Meanwhile, only after all of this had happened did Alice''s right hand ry the weapon information to her mind.


    [Weapon: ck Lace Underwear Tainted by the Demon Kings Power]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +7000, Speed +7000, Mind +11000, Control +11000, Mana +11000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic andw magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks andw-type attacks);


    Demon King''s Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can erase the target''s soul.)]


    <em>So there''s such an effect from having something tainted by the Demon King''s Power</em>


    Although Alice was surprised to see a pair of Law-grade panties, she quickly epted the situation. It was an item tainted by the Demon King''s Power, after all. When she first transmigrated, she had seen tree branches and stones having their quality elevated after being dyed by the Wolf King''s spit. During her stay at Mana City''s church, she had also heard stories about items having their quality elevated after being bathed in holy light.


    In that case, it should be reasonable that an Artifact would have its rank elevated to Law after getting tainted by something as strong as the Demon King''s Powerprobably?


    Although Alice still had manyints in her mind, she knew that now wasn''t the time to have such inconsequential thoughts. Although Luna was currently shocked by the dark mana flooding out of her right hand, Luna would probably get over her shock quickly if she stayed idle for too long.


    Unfortunately, even though the ck panties provided much greater stats than the weakened Hero''s Sword, it still didn''t change the fact that Alice had no knowledge of magic or martial arts. So, her only form of attack was still to make use of the panties'' active skill.


    Alice remembered that when she used Rosa''s ckce panties previously, the active skill''s name was Destruction Grip, and the skill was described to release a hand of darkness that crumbled the target''s soul. Meanwhile, Luna''s panties actually had a simr but evolved version of the skill. Now, the skill was named Demon King''s Grip, and the skill was described to release a hand of darkness that erased the target''s soul.


    Of course, Alice understood that this simply meant that the skill dealt greater damage to souls. It didn''t mean that it could crumble or erase the target''s soul with 100% certainty. At the very least, Destruction Grip had failed to achieve its described effect when Alice had used it against Grant''s soul.


    Thus, even though Alice was holding onto a pair of Law-grade panties, she dared not treat Luna lightly at all. After several thoughts shed across her mind, Alice swung the ck panties gripped in her right hand in Luna''s direction without hesitation.


    Meanwhile, although Luna was a little confused by the situation, when she noticed Alice swinging her right fist in her direction, she immediately responded by swinging her ck sword at Alice''s right hand. In a situation where both parties had equal strength, a fist should lose out against a sword.


    However, a frown appeared on Luna''s face immediately afterward.


    Contrary to Luna''s expectations, her sword did not cut Alice''s fist in two. Instead, during the instant her sword was about to cut through Alice''s fist, a gigantic palm made out of mana had appeared and devoured her sword instead. Meanwhile, the moment the gigantic palm enveloped her sword, Luna could feel corrosive dark mana dposing her sword.


    Moreover, there was also an oppressive forceing from the gigantic palm that pushed Luna back. Yet, despite this situation, Luna couldn''t take the initiative to step back or move out of the way because she could feel the immense power contained within the gigantic palm. Should she stop fighting back this power for even a moment, the dark mana making up the gigantic palm would devour her immediately.


    As the wielder of the Demon King''s Power, Luna knew very well what would happen should she let herself be consumed by so much dark mana. Best case scenario, she would faint and lose herbat power. Worst case scenario, the dark mana would kill her on the spot.

 Chapter 85: God: Stay Away From Me!!!

    Chapter 85: God: Stay Away From Me!!!


    Manipting the Demon King''s Power, Luna poured all of the mana in her body into her hands, desperately resisting the gigantic hand before her.


    The collision of the two powers created shockwaves that sent the surrounding gravel flying away, clearing out an open space in the mansion ruins. Alice also vaguely saw the unconscious Milu Rabbit taking flight. Although the Milu Rabbit looked a little dirty because of the dust and dirt stuck to its fur, Alice didn''t spot any injuries on it, so she couldn''t be bothered to pick it up right now.


    Meanwhile, after Alice activated the Demon King''s Grip, the ckce panties in her right hand had also disappeared, resulting in her reverting into a helpless little girl. Had she not grabbed onto the Hero''s Sword in time, she might''ve been blown away by the shockwaves as well.


    Even so, Alice still couldn''t intervene in the situation taking ce in front of her. She could only watch as the gigantic palm continuously advanced toward Luna while Luna desperately tried to stall the palm''s advance with her petite body and delicate hands.


    Although Alice couldn''t see Luna''s current state with her eyes due to the giant palm''s obstruction, she could tell that Luna was being continuously weakened based on the Hero''s Sword''s weapon information.


    The seal ced on the Hero''s Sword was Luna''s creation. So long as Luna''s power was weakened, the seal on the Hero''s Sword would weaken as well. Meanwhile, ording to the weapon information Alice received, the Hero''s Sword''s stat bonuses had already recovered to 6000. Although it was still a little short from making a full recovery, the weakening of the seal proved that Luna wasn''t doing so well against the giant palm.


    Just like Alice thought, Luna was indeed in a terrible state right now. Despite being the Demon King''s Power''s wielder, she was being suppressed by even stronger dark mana. This feeling was akin to one rising to the position of the world''s richest person, only to have someone else buying out one''spany with even more money.


    Moreover, Luna finally realized where this absurdly powerful dark mana originated from. If her guess was correct, it should''vee from her ckce panties.


    Although Luna had yet to figure out why Alice could gain such immense dark mana after holding onto a pair of ck panties, she was certain that Alice had only gained this mana the moment she gripped onto the panties. So, she had no choice but to make such an inference.


    <em>This won''t do... I still can''t stop it...</em>


    Luna was still young, after all. She hadn''t even reached 20 years old yet. So, even though she had acquired the Demon King''s Power, she didn''t have a lot of time to train with it. The fact that she only managed to nt a portion of the Demon King''s Power in King Hatter''s body a year ago could also prove that she had only learned how to make use of the Demon King''s Power a year ago.


    Unfortunately, although it could already be considered amazing that she managed to umte such a huge amount of power in only a year, it still wasn''t enough to contend against Alice''s panties. Very quickly, Luna could feel her hands getting eroded gradually, her body losing all of its ability to stop the gigantic palm''s advance.


    Meanwhile, seemingly noticing that Luna had lost the ability to resist, the gigantic palm wrapped its fingers around Luna and squeezed tightly. Then, it ruthlessly smashed Luna against the ground before exploding like a popped balloon, the burst of dark mana that resulted from the explosion corroding Luna''s power and sending Luna flying and crashing into the distance.


    <em>It seems panties triumph again.</em>


    Alice felt a littleplicated over her victory. It was strange to defeat her enemies using panties no matter how she looked at it.


    However, Alice didn''t dwell on this matter for too long since she needed to verify whether Luna was still alive. That was the Demon King, after all. If she let Luna escape, the silver-haired maid would only pose a problem to her in the future.


    At this point, the Hero''s Sword had also fully recovered. Although the stat bonuses the Hero''s Sword provided were no match for Law-grade panties, at least it wasn''t a one-time use item.


    <em>Should I use panties to tie my hair next time? They''re not easily noticeable, and I can use them at crucial moments.</em>


    While walking toward Luna with the Hero''s Sword in hand, Alice began summarizing the problems exposed in this battleIt wasn''t scary to have a problem. What was scary was not having a solution for a problem.


    This fight with Luna made Alice realize that storing all of her panties in a pouch was incredibly risky. She would essentially lose all of her trump cards if she lost the pouch, after all. Should she meet an opponent who guarded their panties well or did not wear panties at all in the future, she wouldn''t be able to replicate the solution she used today.


    Although Luna was sent flying quite a distance, Alice quickly arrived beside Luna thanks to the speed boost the Hero''s Sword provided. She even picked up the Milu Rabbit on her way. Though, since there wasn''t anywhere she could hang the Milu Rabbit on her nightdress, she had no choice but to leave it by her feet for now.


    Looking down at Luna, Alice quickly noticed that the silver-haired maid was still alive. Although Luna had lost consciousness and injuries covered her body, she still showed faint signs of breathing.


    Moreover, with her enhanced senses, Alice keenly noticed that the wounds on Luna''s body were gradually healing. This should be the Demon King''s Power in Luna''s body taking effect.


    <em>Although it pains me to kill a girl, it is a pity that you are the Demon King. There really is no reason for me to keep you alive.</em>


    Alice tightened her grip around the Hero''s Sword''s hilt, her eyes fixated on Luna''s slowly recovering body. Although Heroes and Demon Kings were still bound by thews of this world, their existences already transcended the understanding of this world''s mortal civilizations. If she let Luna be, none of the civilizations in this world would be able to deal with her. So, even though Alice felt ufortable about killing Luna, she had no choice but to harden her heart and do it.


    <em>Let''s use Holy Cross</em>


    [2 minutes and 12 seconds until skill cooldown is over.]


    "..."


    Alice suddenly realized that even though the fight just now was intense, felt like it hadsted for years, and even spanned across four chapters, all of the moves they exchanged werepleted in an instant due to their incredibly high stats. So, in reality, very little time had passed, and the Holy Cross sh''s cooldown had yet to finish.


    <em>Let''s just use a normal attack since that''s the case.</em>


    With such a thought in mind, Alice hovered the Hero''s Sword above Luna''s heart and plunged it straight down without hesitation. She nned to stop Luna''s heart using the Hero''s Sword.


    Alice''s n went rtively well, the Hero''s Sword sessfully stabbing into Luna''s heart. However, Alice quickly discovered that even after getting stabbed, Luna''s heart continued beating rhythmically, behaving as if it waspletely unaffected by the presence of a foreign object. Even Luna''s breathing remained faint but steady like before.


    <em>...Sure enough, it won''t be easy to kill a Demon King.</em>


    Alice frowned. She had more or less expected such a situation to happen. ording to historical records, the previous generation''s Hero had to seal Demon King Grant using the War God''s Lock for 50 years before Grant''s physical body died.


    Meanwhile, Alice knew very well just how powerful the War God''s Lock was. Even a weakened version of the taboo had pushed her to the brink of death. Yet, a Demon King''s physical body would only die after getting sealed by the full version for 50 years. If a Demon King''s body had such toughness, it was entirely normal for a Demon King to be immune to physical attacks.


    Thus, if Alice wanted to kill Luna, she would need to use some special means such as the Hero''s Power.


    However, the problem now was that Alice still didn''t know how to use the Hero''s Power. While the Hero''s Sword should carry the Hero''s Power, Alice had never undergone any training to properly use it. If not for her right hand''s unique ability, she wouldn''t have the stats needed to stand her ground against Luna today.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to use panties again.</em>


    Alice scratched her head as she came to this conclusion. Luna''s body was gradually healing even now, so there was no saying if she would regain consciousness before Holy Cross sh''s cooldown finished. So, to ensure that Luna didn''t make aeback or escape, Alice needed to find another way to kill Luna as soon as possible.


    Meanwhile, the only method Alice could think of right now was to use a pair of light-attributed panties. However, her ammunition stockpile was currently buried under the ruins, and it''d be impossible to locate it within two minutes. Then, was there any other way she could acquire panties immediately?


    <em>Wait, there is one.</em>


    Seemingly having thought of something, Alice gripped the Hero''s Sword''s hilt and closed her eyes. Then, she began using the Hero''s Sword''s other skill.


    Word of God.

 Chapter 86: Kami no Pantsu 2.0

    Chapter 86: Kami no Pantsu 2.0


    Probably because being God was a very boring job, but whenever Alice visited the Loli Goddess''s room using Word of God, she would always find the Loli Goddess snoring on the ground. Moreover, the Loli Goddess''s sleeping posture was bold and unrestrained, her petite body sprawled across the ground.


    This time was no exception.


    When Alice felt her consciousness switching locations, she opened her eyes and immediately found the familiar white-haired loli sprawled across the ground. The only difference was that the Loli Goddess had fallen asleep with an NS game console in her hand this time. It would seem that she had fallen asleep while ying a game.


    However, Alice wasn''t interested in chatting with the Loli Goddess right now. There was still a Demon King outside waiting for her to kill. So, without wasting any time on words, Alice promptly pounced onto the Loli Goddess, her left hand spreading the Loli Goddess''s legs while her right hand reached into the Loli Goddess''s skirt and grabbed the panties underneath.


    "...What?! Wait! What are you doing?!?!"


    Alice''s rough actions naturally alerted the Loli Goddess. Immediately, the Loli Goddess opened her eyes. Then, when she saw her left leg being lifted and felt her panties being pulled down by someone, she naturally started to panic.


    "It''s me! I need your panties right now! It''s urgent! I''ll give you an exnationter!"


    The Loli Goddess was probably still in a partially unconscious state because her resistance wasn''t particrly fierce. Thanks to this situation, Alice sessfullymandeered the Loli Goddess''s panties. Then, sure enough, a dazzling holy light instantly flooded the entire room, the light''s brightness being much more intense than what Alice was typically used to.


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear Blessed by God]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +10000, Constitution +10000, Speed +10000, Mind +10000, Control +10000, Mana +10000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic andw magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks andw-type attacks);


    Holy de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that erases the target''s soul)]


    Simr to panties tainted by the ck Lace Underwear Tainted by the Demon Kings Power, the Soft White Underwear Blessed by God was also recognized as a Law-grade weapon. With this weapon, Alice should have no trouble finishing off Luna.


    "What are you doing suddenly barging into my room and stripping off my underwear?!"


    Just as Alice was about to leave to finish Luna, the Loli Goddess''s embarrassed and angry voice entered her ears. Then, Alice found that the dazzling holy light that filled the room had suddenly disappeared, allowing her to see things properly again.


    "Isn''t your ability a little too strange?! How can you turn underwear into artifacts?!"


    "Ahem, I want to know that as well." Alice awkwardly coughed. Holding back her embarrassment, she quickly exined, "I''ve already met the new Demon King and severely injured her, but I don''t have any ways of finishing her off. So, I had no choice but toe and borrow a weapon from you."


    "...A Demon King getting killed by underwear. I can''t think of a more tragic death than that," the Loli Goddess said, a resigned look appearing on her face. However, she finally understood why Alice was in such a hurry. She was well aware of the Demon King''s Power''s abilities. If Alice didn''t finish off the Demon King as soon as possible, the Demon King''s Power would probably heal the Demon King back to full health in no time. "Since you''re dealing with the Demon King, I''ll let today''s matter slide. But you do remember what I told you before, right? You can''t solve the root of the problem if you kill only the Demon King."


    Alice nodded. She naturally remembered what the Loli Goddess told her before. Once the Demon King died, the Demon King''s Power would abandon its host and find a new potential host to attach itself to. So, killing Luna didn''t mean that she would instantly resolve the root of all evil known as the Demon King''s Power.


    However, while that might be the case, Alice couldn''t possibly leave the Demon King alive. After all, the Demon King bore endless resentment toward humans. If she kept Luna alive, the silver-haired maid would be a huge danger to this world''s stability.


    "Since you are in such a hurry, move along, then." Seeing the anxious look on Alice''s face, the Loli Goddess decided to stop wasting Alice''s time. Though, before Alice left, the Loli Goddess sighed and said, "But make sure to visit my room tonight. I have matters to tell you."


    The Loli Goddess''s words sounded a little subtle.


    After taking a long look at the Loli Goddess, Alice nodded. However, before she left, she suddenly thought of something as she asked, "By the way, I''ve met you several times already, but I still don''t know how I should address you. Do you have a name?"


    After all was said and done, the Loli Goddess was the God of this world. Alice couldn''t help but feel bad for constantly referring to God as "Loli Goddess" in her mind.


    "Gods do not have names. Moreover, only Heroes of past generations and a few devout believers had conversed with me before. These people would typically only refer to me as God, so I do not have a name," the Loli Goddess said, shaking her head. "Of course, I know you otherworlders don''t hold much belief for this world''s God, so it might be awkward for you to refer to me as God... But it is a fact that I don''t have a name you can use."


    Speaking up to this point, the Loli Goddess seemingly thought of something as she looked at the NS console in her left hand. Then, a sh of inspiration hit her as she said, "Oh, right. My ID in Super Mario Maker 2 is Ero Mangaka. If you must call me by a name..."


    "...I think I''ll just call you God."


    Alice wiped the cold sweat on her forehead. She felt that this visit to God''s room had further solidified her opinion that the Loli Goddess was an unreliable God.


    However, this visit also allowed her to understand one thingIf she was in urgent need of panties in the future, so long as the Hero''s Sword was around, she coulde and strip a pair off of the Loli Goddess. This was undoubtedly a great convenience.


    At the same time as Alice came to such a conclusion, the Loli Goddess involuntarily shuddered, feeling as if she was being stared at by something dirty. However, before she could find the source, Alice had already disappeared out of her perception.


    When Alice opened her eyes again, a pair of white panties had also appeared in her hand. Moreover, without God''s help in eliminating the holy light, as soon as Alice''s consciousness returned to her body, a burst of white light exploded from her right hand, brightly illuminating the surrounding area.


    With God''s panties in her right hand, Alice looked down at the silver-haired maid before her, subconsciously letting out a rueful sigh.


    <em>It would''ve been great if you were simply a normal maid.</em>


    Just as Alice was about to activate the white panties'' active skill, Luna''s lips moved slightly before her eyes slowly opened. In the end, Luna had still regained consciousness before Alice could deal the final blow.


    Unfortunately for Luna, even though she had regained consciousness, her injuries prevented her from moving her body. So, the only thing she could do now was to stare at Alice, who wielded holy light in her right hand, and the Hero''s Sword inserted in her chest.


    At this time, the dust covering the Hero''s Sword had already been blown away by the shockwave from before, so its true appearance was avable for all to see.

 Chapter 87: Not Sparing Even the Demon King

    Chapter 87: Not Sparing Even the Demon King


    Lucia Cecilia had a very unfortunate childhood.


    Despite her human appearance, Lucia Cecilia had demon blood coursing through her veins and a pair of incredibly short horns hidden underneath her long silver hair. It was also thanks to her hair that others couldn''t see through her identity easily.


    However, when Luna was young, and her hair had yet to grow out, she had failed to hide her little horns. As a result, she was the subject of bullying during her childhood.


    Luna had never seen her parents before. She was abandoned on the streets of Holl City as an infant, and an old noblewoman had picked her up and raised her. Despite the obvious horns on Luna''s infant head, the old woman still treated her like her own child.


    Although Luna had experienced an unhappy childhood, she grew up to be a kind child thanks to her "Grandma" treating her with love and care. She also used her experience of getting bullied as motivation to focus on her studies.


    Apart from studying magic, Luna''s only other interest was to read Hero novels. During those years, Hero novels followed the standard trope of the Hero defeating the Demon King with hispanions and bringing peace back to thend. At the time, the Hero was probably the existence that Luna looked up to the most.


    Of course, Luna did not think that she could be the Hero. She was a demon, after all. Instead, she hoped that she could one day apany the Hero on his journey to defeat the Demon King, whether it be in the form of arade-in-arms, a lover, or a maid.


    Meanwhile, because of this little hope, Luna had learned many household skills since she was young. She continuously developed her skills in cooking, cleaning, etc. In addition, as she grew up, the other noble children also stopped bullying her as much as before. People would grow up, after all. Once those noble children received proper education, they gradually realized that bullying a mixed-blooded child wouldn''t benefit them. Hence, they quickly lost interest in doing so.


    As a result, Luna''s life gradually shifted back onto the right path. That was until she was 10 years old and her grandma had passed away. The noblewoman didn''t have any direct descendants, so she left most of her inheritance to Luna. However, the noblewoman''s rtives naturally weren''t willing to see such a huge fortune fall into the hands of an adopted child.


    Meanwhile, dealing with a child with no connections or backing couldn''t be easier for these rtives. After pulling some strings, these rtives quickly snatched all of the noblewoman''s inheritance. As for Luna, the adopted child, she was naturally kicked out of the house.


    Despite being 10 years old, Luna had already developed a rtively mature mind. Even so, there was a limit to her maturity. Thus, the immature part of her mind hated those greedy rtives, while the mature part of her mind started thinking about how she could get revenge on the inferiority of humans.


    Meanwhile, her hatred for being bullied and subjected to human greed, as well as her hatred for her weakness, eventually caught the attention of the Demon King''s Power. Hence, at the young age of 10, Luna had already be the host for the Demon King''s Power, acquiring the potential and abilities of a Demon King.


    However, Luna did not immediately expose herself after acquiring this newfound strength. She knew full well what kind of infamy the Demon King''s existence possessed in the human realm. Thus, sheid low and picked up some simple jobs while frantically umting knowledge in various fields.


    The Demon King had limitless potential. In merely a few years, Luna had already developed her strength to an exaggerated extent. Even though she had yet to officially start training on utilizing the Demon King''s Power''s dark mana, she already possessed strength that far exceeded what any mortal possessed.


    After developing her strength to a satisfactory level, Luna applied for a job in the pce and sessfully joined the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department that directly answered the Gryffin King. Moreover, due to her exceptional maid skills, she would often be tasked with surveince and protection of important individuals. As a result, she quickly rose through the ranks and climbed her way to an influential position.


    Relying on this position, Luna effortlessly pushed the greedy rtives who snatched her inheritance into a bottomless abyss. After all, these people were capable of stealing even from a child. There was no way they''d be capable of any good deeds. Luna merely needed to expose some of the many crimes they hadmitted to receiving either life sentences or the death penalty. Nobody could say that she was misusing her power, either.


    However, after dealing with the greedy rtives, Luna fell into confusion. Her initial goal in honing herself was to make her grandma proud by seeding her grandma''s businesses and increasing the family wealth. However, now that her grandma had passed away and those wastrels had squandered the family wealth, she suddenly found herself without a goal.


    Thus, Luna started searching through her memories and realized that she still had one life goalto stand by the Hero''s side.


    After dreaming about her bad memories during her shorta, Luna woke up to an aching body. Then, when she opened her eyes, she gradually remembered her present situationshe had seemingly been defeated by someone she suspected to be the Hero''spanion.


    Despite being the Demon King, Luna had suffered defeat at the hands of someone other than the Hero. Initially, she had found it hard to ept such a reality. However, that all changed when she finally saw the true appearance of the sword stabbed in her chest.


    "This isthe Hero''s Sword?"


    Luna instantly recognized the human realm''s fabled sword. The magic patterns engraved on the sword were a gift from God, and humans could not imitate it even if they tried. Because of this, the Hero''s Sword was easily recognizable, and it was almost impossible to create a realistic replica of it.


    After seeing the Hero''s Sword, Luna also realized how Alice had managed to leave a cut on the ck sword she had conjured using the Demon King''s Power before. As the Hero''s weapon, the Hero''s Sword carried the Hero''s Power. Meanwhile, just like how the Demon King''s Power had a restrictive effect on the Hero''s Power, the Hero''s Power naturally had a restrictive effect on the Demon King''s Power as well.


    "I see. You''ve been lying to me all this time, haven''t you?" Luna softly sighed, her reaction not particrly excited. Though, if one paid close attention, one would notice an inexplicable sense of joy in her voice. "You''re Lord Hero, aren''t you?"


    "?"


    Alice, who was about to activate Holy de, was immediately stunned when she heard Luna''s faint voice. She wasn''t surprised that Luna had figured out her identity. The Hero''s Sword had already been exposed, after all. However, what was up with the way Luna referred to her?


    <em>Lord Hero? What kind of Demon King would refer to the Hero as "Lord Hero?"</em>


    While Alice pondered over Luna''s words, a bone-chilling feeling suddenly spread across her entire body. Immediately afterward, she saw a thick ck substance emerging from Luna''s body. Then, under Alice''s horrified gaze, the mud-like substance gathered into a fist-sized ck ball that hovered in front of her.


    "This is?"


    Alice was momentarily at a loss on what to do as she stared at the ck sphere before her. She wondered whether she should release the Holy de that had already materialized in her hand.


    However, very quickly, a familiar voice suddenly exploded in Alice''s mindit was the Loli Goddess''s voice, and she sounded both anxious and excited as she hurriedly shouted:


    "Alice! That ball is the Demon King''s Power''s true form! Destroy it!!!"

 Chapter 88: God Has Given Up On Recovering

    Chapter 88: God Has Given Up On Recovering


    Hearing the Loli Goddess''s words, Alice immediately understood why the other party sounded excitedthis was probably the first time the Loli Goddess had seen the Demon King''s Power detach itself from the Demon King and appear in front of the Hero in its true form.


    "Generally speaking, Demon Kings grow stronger by assimting themselves with the Demon King''s Power. Once a Demon King dies, the Demon King''s Power would detach itself from its host and umte its strength for a few hundred years. Then, it would attach itself onto a new host that it has taken a fancy on. Meanwhile, the new Demon King''s training method would be to assimte with the Demon King''s Power''s umted strength," the Loli Goddess quickly exined the principle behind the Demon King''s Power to Alice, afraid that the Demon King''s Power would run away if she was even a little slower in her exnation.


    "This maid called Luna is still very young, so her assimtion rate with the Demon King''s Power is still low. Moreover, it would seem that she has suddenly lost her hatred toward humanity for some inexplicable reason, which is why the Demon King''s Power has detached itself from her!"


    "Something like that is possible?"


    Alice immediately understood what had just transpired. Although she didn''t know why Luna would suddenly lose her hatred for humans or why she hated humans so much, to begin with, there was at least one thing that she understoodthe target she needed to deal with had changed from Luna to the ck sphere in front of her.


    In that case, there was no longer any need to save the white panties she had acquired from God.


    Immediately, Alice clenched her right hand into a fist and swung it down hard at the ck sphere. Then, the white panties in her hand transformed into a golden de of light that ruthlessly cut at the Demon King''s Power.


    "Holy de!!!"


    Look! The name of this move was much more decent! If possible, Alice really hoped that she could avoid using the Hero''s Sword in the future. Shouting "Okay" in the middle of an intense battle was simply too strange.


    The Law-level attacknded on the Demon King''s Power without fail. Then, when Holy de''s residual power flew into the distance, it cleanly cut through the mansion district''s green belt, shattering countless trees from the waist up. The skill''s power was evident at a nce.


    However, Alice quickly noticed that Holy de had caused no damage to the ck sphere whatsoever. Though, she didn''t find this oue too surprising since, ording to the Loli Goddess, the ck sphere in front of her was the strength the Demon King''s Power had umted for the past few hundred years. Seeing that Luna was already so powerful after absorbing only a small portion of this strength, it was only reasonable for the ck sphere to be many times stronger and sturdier than Luna.


    Meanwhile, as a Law-grade weapon, the Soft White Underwear Blessed by God shouldn''t be any much stronger than the Hero''s Sword, which was also recognized as a Law-grade weapon. Since the Hero''s Sword''s Holy Cross sh was incapable of killing Luna in one hit, there was no way Holy de could destroy the Demon King''s Power, which was significantly sturdier than Luna.


    Moreover, even if Holy de did damage the Demon King''s Power, the damage was probably insignificant as Alice couldn''t see any visible changes to the ck sphere.


    "It didn''t work! We can''t even break through the enemy''s armor!" Alice eximed when she looked at the intact sphere before her. This was the first time she had seen somethinging out unscathed after receiving an attack from a Law-grade weapon.


    "You did damage to it. It''s just that the effect isn''t significant. Even past Heroes and Demon Kings would need to exchange taboos for several days and nights to determine a winner once they reached maturity, so it''s naturally impossible for you to destroy the Demon King''s Power in one move," the Loli Goddess said, her voice sounding a little somber. This was the first time she had seen the Demon King''s Power appearing in its true form. If they let it get away now, there was no saying when they would get such an opportunity again.


    "Has the Hero''s Sword finished cooling down yet?!"


    "Let me see"


    Alice pulled out the Hero''s Sword stuck in Luna''s chest, her action causing Luna to groan in pain. By the looks of it, having a sword pulled out of one''s body must hurt a lot. However, Alice didn''t have any leeway to care about Luna right now as she immediately raised the Hero''s Sword and started recklessly swinging it at the Demon King''s Power.


    Naturally, Alice''s actions were futile. Ordinary physical attacks couldn''t even be considered a scratch to the Demon King''s Power.


    <em>Sure enough, I have no choice but to use a skill.</em>


    Alice felt a little frustrated. If possible, she didn''t wish to rely on her weapon skills to achieve victory every time. However, the problem now was that her current opponent wasn''t an existence she could topple just by relying on raw stats.


    "In that case, eat my Holy Cross shOkay!!!"


    Immediately, Alice swung her sword and sent a dazzling golden cross crashing into the ck sphere in front of her. This time, since her weapon did not vanish out of existence, her high Mind stat allowed her to perceive what was happening in front of her. Meanwhile, the moment the golden crossnded on the ck sphere, she noticed the edges of the ck sphere wobbled violently like liquid for a moment before reverting to its spherical shape once more.


    <em>My attacks do have an effect, but the effect is just too weak.</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but frown after seeing this situation. Previously, she thought nothing could match her in this world so long as she relied on the power of panties. However, it would seem that she had been a little naive to think that she could defeat the Demon King''s Power or a fully matured Demon King with only one or two pairs of panties. Judging by the current situation, she would need at least several hundred pairs of panties to even stand a chance against such opponents.


    At this time, the Demon King''s Power hovering above Luna seemed to have finally realized that Luna no longer held any resentment for humanity as it started flying into the sky. It was probably leaving to search for the next Demon King candidate to attach itself to.


    ording to the Loli Goddess, the Demon King''s Power hadn''t expended much of the strength it had umted during these past few hundred years. So, theoretically, if the Demon King''s Power escaped today, a new Demon King candidate should be selected in no time.


    At this time, Alice also realized that Chris''s previous statement about "the Demon King''s Power selecting only a Demon King once every few hundred years due to ack of suitable candidates" was incorrect. Theck of humans bearing hatred for humanity wasn''t the reason why a new Demon King would only appear once every few centuries. Instead, it was simply because the Demon King''s Power was busy umting its strength during these periods.


    "It''s running away. What should we do, White Hair?"


    "Who are you calling ''White Hair?!''" the Loli Goddess shouted in anger and annoyance. However, she knew that now wasn''t the time to argue with Alice. Immediately, she shouted, "Catch!"


    As soon as the Loli Goddess finished speaking, Alice suddenly felt something appearing in her left hand. Then, looking down, she found that a pair of light-pink striped panties had appeared in her left hand before she knew it.


    "I have a whole drawer of panties! I don''t care even if I have to use up all of my panties today! Just smash it! Smash it down!!!" the Loli Goddess shouted like a nouveau riche who treated panties as currency.

 Chapter 89: Is Such A Weapon Really Fine?

    Chapter 89: Is Such A Weapon Really Fine?


    <em>I hope they''ll make it in time, </em>Chris inwardly prayed as he looked at the distant mansion district through his office window.


    However, even though Chris had already told Catherine, the captain of the kingdom''s Royal Guards, to head over there as soon as possible, he wasn''t confident she could be of any use. ording to historical records, when the Hero and Demon King fought, almost nobody could intervene in their fight.


    Although Catherine already possessed brilliant strength and leadership capabilities despite being only in her twenties, if the opponent she faced was the Hero


    Just when Chris was worried about Alice''s situation, he suddenly had an inexplicable urge to vomit. Specifically, he felt as if something was trying to escape his body.


    "..."


    Chris''splexion turned pale. Although he didn''t know why he suddenly got the urge to vomit, it was already toote for him to run to the toilet. Leaning down, he subconsciously opened his mouth and puked.


    However, to Chris''s horror, what came out of his mouth wasn''t disgusting digested products. Instead, it was a ck mass that had a muddy consistency.


    <em>What is this?!</em>


    After spitting this ck mass out of his mouth, Chris stumbled back in shock and horror. However, before he could figure out what had just happened, the ck sludge-like mass suddenly shot into the air and smashed through the window. Then, it flew straight toward the Gem Mansion District.


    <em>Could it be</em>


    Chris was a little stunned when he saw where the ck mass was flying toward. Then, he looked down at his right hand and quickly checked his mind using mind magic.


    Sure enough, his originally distorted mental state was gradually recovering.


    It should be known that he had previously tried many times to return his mind to a normal state. However, all of the methods he used were ineffective. Yet, now, after vomiting that ck sludge out of his body, his mind had started returning to normal.


    After thinking for a moment, Chris''s expression turned ugly as he realized what was going on.


    <em>The Demon King''s Power Could it be that the Demon King''s Power didn''t choose me and that someone had forcibly nted it within me instead?</em>


    After figuring out this point, Chris couldn''t help but look toward the distance. He finally understood why Alice the Hero would need to release such a burst of power. After all, if her opponent was merely a mortal, she could probably win the fight even if she simply relied on brute strength. She would not need to use a powerful move that could light up a section of the city.


    However, it was a different story if Alice''s opponent was the Demon King.


    <em>Sure enough, only the Hero can solve my problem.</em>


    Chris sighed ruefully when he sensed that his mental state had made a full recovery.


    [Weapon: Pink-Striped Underwear Blessed by God]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +12000, Constitution +12000, Speed +12000, Mind +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic andw magic);


    Blessed Mind (Passive Skill. Your proficiency with mind magic is increased to MAX. You also gain the ability to read minds);


    Soul Strike (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a mental st that erases the target''s soul.)]


    "Since you said so"


    The Loli Goddess''s actions indeed caught Alice by surprise. However, since the Loli Goddess was willing to supply her with panties, Alice naturally had to try and see if she could drop the Demon King''s Power.


    Honestly, although the Loli Goddess was willing to supply her with a drawer of panties, Alice still felt that her chances of seeding were slim. After all, the Demon King''s Power differed from the Demon King. It had no reason to fight her to the death.


    More precisely, the Demon King''s Power had no intentions of fighting her at all. After all, it was already in the midst of flying away right now.


    "Soul Strike!"


    Probably because of her anxiety, Alice had disregarded her embarrassment and shouted the name of the pink panties'' skill. Though, her reputation was a low price to pay if she could destroy the Demon King''s Power.


    Immediately after Alice activated Soul Strike, an invisible force spread out from her body. Although Soul Strike was a mental attack, it was so powerful that it even possessed obvious physical properties.


    Meanwhile, since the Soul Strike''s priority target was the Demon King''s Power, the invisible force moved straight toward the ck sphere in the air. Then, when the invisible force collided with the ck sphere, Alice saw the ck sphere wobble violently like a water balloon.


    Unfortunately, Soul Strike''s destructive power was still far from enough to destroy the Demon King''s Power. Perhaps, just like the Loli Goddess mentioned, it would take several days of consecutive bombardment using taboos to destroy the Demon King''s Power.


    To make matters worse, after getting hit by Soul Strike, the Demon King''s Power had ramped up its flying speed, seemingly bing even more intent on leaving this ce.


    Seeing this, Alice gritted her teeth and shouted at the Loli Goddess through her mind:


    "White Hair, do you have any underwear with blue stripes?!"


    "Stop calling me White Hair!"


    The Loli Goddess''s exasperated voice echoed in Alice''s mind. However, despite the Loli Goddess''s angry retort, Alice quickly felt something appearing in her left hand. Then, looking down, she found that it was indeed a pair of blue-striped panties.


    "Why did you specify blue stripes? Is there any significance?" the Loli Goddess asked after handing over the panties. Although she knew that Alice was capable of releasing taboos using panties, she wasn''t aware of the exact abilities of Alice''s right hand.


    "Although I still think our chances are slim, I have no choice but to try this," Alice replied helplessly as she ced the blue-striped panties into her right hand.


    She chose blue-striped panties because she had previously touched blue-striped panties when she was at the Gryffin Church, so she knew what kind of effects blue-striped panties would give her.


    It was also that incident that got her exposed as the "Hero."


    [Weapon: Blue-Striped Underwear Blessed by God]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +10000, Speed +12000, Mind +10000, Control +10000, Mana +10000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Wind''s Protection (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the wind element is maxed, and you gain the flight ability);


    Heaven''s Spirit (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a storm that erases your opponent''s soul.)]

 Chapter 90: Oh, No

    Chapter 90: Oh, No


    As Alice thought, panties of simr design shared simr additional effects. The additional effects of Law-grade panties were merely upgraded versions of their Artifact-grade counterparts.


    Thus, God''s blue-striped panties had given the ability Alice had sought after.


    "Here Ie!"


    After tightening her grip over the blue-striped panties, Alice kicked the ground and propelled herself upward. Then, she flew straight toward the Demon King''s Power.


    The passive skill named Wind''s Protection granted Alice the ability to fly. It was also the reason Alice had asked for blue-striped panties. After all, now that the Demon King''s Power had already flown into the air, she would need to be able to fly if she wanted to get close to it.


    The Demon King''s Power''s flight speed wasn''t particrly quick. So, Alice quickly caught up to it. Then, she switched the striped panties to her left hand and reached for the Demon King''s Power before she started falling.


    However, immediately after Alice caught the Demon King''s Power with her right hand, the Demon King''s Power started struggling madly. Now that Alice had reverted to being an ordinary little girl, it took only an instant for the Demon King''s power to break free from her grasp.


    <em>Sure enough, it seems my right hand is incapable of controlling anything that is conscious and puts up a struggle.</em>


    Alice had more or less expected such an oue. It was also why she did not reach out to grab the Demon King''s Power as soon as she saw it.


    The Demon King''s Power would only choose people with deep hatred toward humans as its host. Alice evidently did not fit this criterion, so the Demon King''s Power would definitely struggle when Alice grabbed onto it.


    After getting shaken off, Alice quickly moved the blue-striped panties back into her right hand and gradually descended back to the ground. Then, as she watched the Demon King''s Power fly off into the distance, she sighed and said, "White Hair, I don''t think I can stop it."


    "Dammit. It was such a good opportunity" the Loli Goddess said in frustration. Even though the Demon King''s Power''s true form was right before her eyes, she had no way of taking it down. "s You encountered it too early. Things wouldn''t be so troublesome had you encountered it after you have fully matured."


    Alice also felt helpless over the situation. Indeed, if she was capable of tossing out taboos as if she were breathing, she could keep on following the Demon King''s Power and bombard it with taboos until she destroyed it. However, the problem now was that Alice had to hold onto a pair of blue-striped panties just to maintain her flight ability. This meant that she wouldn''t have any leeway to attack with other panties.


    "Nevermind. Although we didn''t take care of the Demon King''s Power this time, this incident has given us new insight," the Loli Goddess said. Although she was frustrated over the situation, she did not vent her anger on Alice. After all, she knew that Alice had only transmigrated to this world for around half a month. It wasn''t Alice''s fault that she couldn''t destroy the Demon King''s Power.


    "What insight?" Alice asked, confused.


    "If people possessed by the Demon King''s Power can let go of their hatred toward humanity, it is possible to force the Demon King''s Power out of their body," the Loli Goddess answered. "So, when you meet the next Demon King, you can try to make the other party let go of their hatred and force the Demon King''s Power to reveal itself."


    Alice kept getting a feeling of dj vu. Her situation was just like the start of The World Only *** Knows.


    "Anyway, we didn''te out empty-handed this time, right?" the Loli Goddess said in an attempt tofort Alice. "I have high hopes for you, so good luck, Alice. Though, to prevent such a situation from happening again, I suggest that you start learning about magic. Information on taboos isn''t considered confidential in this world, so you can find documents on taboos even in the libraries of magic academies. It''s just that most people are incapable of understanding these documents. However, with your aptitude, learning taboos will be very easy."


    "So, I still need to study?" Alice sulked. However, she could sense that the Loli Goddess had already cut offmunications with her, so she didn''t bother waiting for an answer. Then, when she thought about how she might have to spend a long period studying subsequently, she couldn''t help but have a headache.


    However, Alice had a more pressing matter to take care of right now. Hurriedly, she ran up to Luna and started inspecting the silver-haired maid''s body.


    Fortunately, although the Demon King''s Power had left Luna''s body, the strength Luna had gained from the Demon King''s Power remained. Thus, even after getting stabbed, her heart did not die. On the contrary, it was slowly mending itself over time.


    In other words, even though Luna had already lost the potential to grow into a full-fledged Demon King, the strength she currently had already granted enoughbat power to triumph over most creatures in this world.


    <em>Having said that, I haven''t returned this striped panty to White Hair yet</em> Alice thought as she looked at the panties in her right hand. Just when she was about to keep it away for future use, blinding lights suddenly came from all directions, startling her.


    Upon taking a closer look, Alice found that the lights actually came from rows of headlights. It would seem that while she was busy inspecting Luna''s wounds, several dozen cars had encircled the area.


    Moreover, these cars didn''t look like ordinary sedans. Instead, they were military vehicles with hulking bodies and armored exteriors.


    Before Alice could make sense of what was going on, the doors of these cars opened, and countless warriors d in light armor quickly rushed out of these cars. Then, they turned their backs toward the ruins of what was once a mansion, seemingly guarding the perimeter.


    Afterward, a woman d in silver armor exited the leading vehicle and walked over to Alice in a swift and elegant gait. Then, just when the woman had arrived in front of Alice and was about to say something, she couldn''t help but be surprised by the scene she saw.


    In front of her was a blonde little girl dressed in a nightgown. The little girl held a pair of blue-striped panties that radiated holy light in her right hand as she awkwardly stood among the ruins. There were signs of damage on the little girl''s nightgown, and through the gaps in the nightgown, she could see that the little girl wasn''t wearing anything underneath.


    Meanwhile, lying on the ground beside the little girl was Luna Cecilia in all her naked glory, the intelligence agent wearing her usual deadpan expression as she stared at the sky. Although there was a visible stab wound on Luna''s chest, the rhythmic movement of her chest showed that she was still alive.


    "???"


    The Royal Guard Captain named Catherine found herselfcking in brainpower as she looked at the strange scene before her.


    TL Notes:


    [1]Alice kept getting a feeling of dj vu. Her situation was just like the start of The World Only *** Knows: This is probably a "The World Only God Knows" reference, but it''s been a long time since I watched this anime, so I don''t really get the reference.

 Chapter 91: Maybe This Is the Hero

    Chapter 91: Maybe This Is the Hero


    The reason why the female warrior named Catherine could be the captain of the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guard naturally wasn''t because she relied on her connections. Instead, she had relied on her extraordinary strength.


    Since childhood, she had shown outstanding talent,bining magic and swordy to create her own way of fighting. Even in her teens, she had already be the strongestbatant in the entire Gryffin Kingdom. The kingdom''s citizens evenbeled her the strongest human after the Hero.


    Of course, Catherine knew that this reference was unlikely to be true. The other human kingdoms must have their respective powerhouses in their armies. But even so, her desire to grow stronger and her failure to find a worthy opponent had always made her wonder how strong the Hero of legends was.


    ording to the information in history books, nobody could intervene in a battle between the Hero and the Demon King. In other words, even with the extraordinary strength she possessed now, she might be nothing but an insignificant ant in front of the Hero.


    Today, though, Catherine''s view of the Hero was destined to crumble.


    "What did you say, Your Majesty?!"


    Standing outside the hospital ward housing Alice, Catherine subconsciously shouted at the phone in astonishment. Then, after noticing a few royal guards casting questioning gazes at her, she hastily lowered her voice and asked in an incredulous voice, "<em>That</em> Miss Alice is the Hero???"


    It wasn''t an exaggeration to say that the whole of humanity had ced their attention on the Hero''s existence. In only a matter of days, the Hero''s LINK ount had already be the most followed LINK ount in the world, far surpassing even the follower count of celebrities.


    Catherine was naturally one of those many followers. Moreover, she had innocently believed that the content posted on the Hero''s LINK ount and thought that the Hero was a tall and muscr manwhich would fit Catherine''s impression of a powerhouse.


    Yet, now, the king was telling her that the unassuming little girl she protected was none other than the legendary Hero?


    "Are you joking with me, Your Majesty" Catherine''s mouth twitched subconsciously, her reaction indicating how unsettled she felt right now. "Miss Alice lookspletely different from the description posted on the Hero''s LINK ount."


    "That is a camouge used to protect the Hero from the demons'' assassination attempts. As you can see, Alice has yet to grow up, so it is necessary for her to use a fake identity to protect herself," Chris said, his answer sounding so reasonable that Catherine couldn''t find any faults with it. "The reason why past Heroes did not hide their identity is because the demons have always sent small fries to assassinate them. However, I''m sure you know what kind of reaction the demon realm had after the Hero appeared this time, right?"


    "..."


    Catherine was momentarily rendered speechless. Indeed, there were rumors circting in the demon realm that even the Four Heavenly Kings were nning to take action personally. The Hero had only appeared for a few days, so there was no way the Hero could''ve developed any significant strength in such a short time. If the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings conducted the assassination, the probability of sess would be rtively high.


    "If it was before, I wouldn''t have been able to produce any evidence that she is the Hero. Now, though, the evidence should be readily avable," Chris said. "You should know that I''ve been suffering from mental problems recently, right? This problem has now been resolved by the Hero."


    "How could that prove that she is the Hero?" Catherine asked as she scratched her light-blonde ponytail.


    "Since the problem is already resolved, I''ll just give it to you straight. The thing affecting my mind before was actually the Demon King''s Power," Chris said, not intending on keeping the matter about the Demon King''s Power a secret from his Royal Guard Captain. "I don''t know when it happened, but someone nted a portion of the Demon King''s Power within my body and used it to twist my mind. However, just now, the Demon King''s Power had left my body and flew to the Hero''s side Since you were at the scene, you should have an idea of what happened, right?"


    Catherine fell silent. She naturally wasn''t a fool since she could rise to the position of Captain of the Royal Guards. After connecting Chris''s words with the scene of destruction surrounding Alice, Catherine quickly imagined the scene of the Hero and the Demon King shing in her mind.


    "Although the Hero seems to have a way of unleashing the power of a full-fledged Hero temporarily, it is ultimately impossible for her to maintain that power for long periods. So, before she grows up, we need to keep her identity a secret as much as possible, understand?" Chris warned. "I am on my way to the hospital right now. You must make sure to look after the Hero properly. Do not act rashly with her."


    After saying so, Chris hung up the phone before Catherine could say the words stuck in her through. In reality, Catherine had wanted to report to Chris regarding the bizarre scene involving Alice and Luna she saw previously. However, since the king was already on his way here, she decided to wait until then to make her report.


    "Lady Catherine."


    After seeing Catherine lowering her phone, the male warrior d in ck armor, who had arrived sometime during Catherine''s phone call and patiently waited for the call to end, handed two bottles to Catherine and said, "This is all of the mana we collected from the scene using the mana detector."


    "Is that so"


    Catherine put her phone into a pocket in her armor and received the two bottles. Then, upon inspecting the two bottles, her expression immediately turned serious. Although she had already more or less expected this situation after her call with the king, after she inspected the contents of the two bottles, she couldn''t help but grow a little nervous.


    The two ss bottles were roughly the size of a 500ml water bottle. Of the two transparent bottles, one of them held enough residue light mana to use as a shbang, while the other held dark mana so thick that she couldn''t see through the bottle.


    Ayman might not know the implication of these bottles, but Catherine knew exactly what they represented.


    Catherine was aware that Chris would sometimes ask a dozen or so light magic researchers to engrave strange seals on his body, and those researchers would almost always exhaust all of their light mana by the time they were done. Meanwhile, if she were to use a mana detector in the office after these researcherspleted their work, the amount of residue light mana she could collect wouldn''t exceed the size of a fingernail.


    It should be known that that was the residue light mana produced through exhausting the mana of a dozen light magicians. Yet, the residue mana they collected at the scene where they found Alice and Luna was already enough to fill two entire bottles. One would probably need to release several light and dark taboos to achieve such a result.


    At this point, Catherine was almost certain that Alice was the Hero. Moreover, there was a high chance that Alice''s opponent was the Demon King. That would exin why an entire mansion had been brought to ruins and why there was such an exaggerated amount of residue light and dark mana at the scene.


    Only, this revtion further confused Catherine. How could a battle between the Hero and the Demon King result in Luna bing naked and Alice taking off her panties?

 Chapter 92: Maid +1

    Chapter 92: Maid +1


    Although Alice didn''t get injured, she was still admitted into a high-ss ward to get some rest. After all, when Catherine arrived at the scene, she found Alice to be in a haggard state.


    Luna, on the other hand, was sent straight to the operating room. Although Catherine found it astonishing that Luna''s heart was recovering even after getting pierced, she decided it''d be best for Luna to have her wound stitched to avoid any unforeseen idents.


    Though, probably because Luna usually behaved like a normal person in the intelligence department, neither Catherine nor any of the other royal guards who knew Luna felt that the silver-haired maid hobbyist was actually the culprit of the bottle of residue dark mana. Naturally, they never suspected that Luna was the Demon King, who had fought with the Hero, either.


    After knocking on the ward''s door and getting a response, Catherine opened the door and entered the ward. Then, she found Alice slumped in a chair, looking like she was in a bad mood.


    After all, how could she not be in a bad mood? The sight of her holding onto a pair of panties that radiated holy light had been seen. Moreover, it wasn''t just one person that saw her, but a group instead.


    Back then, the headlights of numerous cars had brightly illuminated her, spotlighting her to the several dozen stern-looking warriors. Just thinking about the scene back then caused Alice''s heart to crumble. If she hadn''t been training her mental tolerance recently, she would''ve probably used the blue-striped panties'' "Heaven''s Spirit" on the spot.


    "That Lord Hero?"


    Previously, Catherine could still behave normally when she was in front of Alice. However, after knowing that Alice was the Hero, Catherine couldn''t help but act more cautiously. After all, Alice was clearly in a bad mood right now.


    "......I''m here."


    Alice looked up at Catherine, depression coloring her face. It would seem that the Royal Guard Captain before her had already found out about her identity from Chris.


    However, Alice wasn''t too worried about her identity getting exposed since Catherine didn''t seem like the type of person to gossip. Not to mention, "royal guard" sounded like it was an army working directly under the Gryffin Kingdom''s king. So, Catherine should obey Chris''s orders and wouldn''t recklessly share such crucial information with others...probably?


    "I just learned about your identity from His Majesty. To be honest, I didn''t expect you to look like this" Catherine said with an awkward expression on her face. "You know, the description of your appearance you posted on LINK is a little too different from your actual appearance, so it''s hard for people to rte you to each other."


    "That''s the effect I want. Chris should''ve told you the reason already, right? Although I can asionally exert the strength of a Hero, I can''t use it consistently," Alice said as she awkwardly looked at the hospital bed next to her. The blue-striped panties she acquired from the Loli Goddess were currently spread out on top of it. "Which is why I have to hide my identity."


    "Mhm, I can understand. His Majesty has also told me about your enrollment into the March Royal School of Magic, so you can leave the necessary arrangements to me," Catherine said, nodding. Then, she started hesitating to ask Alice about her battle with the Demon King. After all, she had previously evaluated the Hero to be the strongest in the world. So, it was only natural that she wanted to learn more about such an extraordinary human.


    Not to mention, when Catherine thought back to the strange scene involving Alice and Luna, her curiosity was further piqued. Just what kind of battle would result in such a situation?


    Eventually, Catherine failed to hold back her curiosity as she asked, "Lord Hero, although it is a bit presumptuous, I wish to know what happened during your battle with the person suspected to be the Demon King. The Demon King is a scourge to humanity, after all, so we want to know as many details about the Demon King as possible."


    Alice covered her face when she heard Catherine''s question.


    Even before Catherine had entered the room, Alice had already been pondering how she should exin herself. After all, Catherine had seen her holding onto a pair of panties while standing in front of Luna''s naked body. No matter how one looked at this situation, it didn''t seem like the aftermath of a battle. A normal battle, that is.


    While Alice was trying to think of a usible exnation, the ward''s door opened again.


    When Alice and Catherine turned to look at the door, they found that the new arrival was Luna.


    At this time, Luna was wearing a hospital gown with a bloodstain on the chest area. Evidently, she hade running here without even waiting for the wound in her heart to heal.


    "Luna Cecilia?" Catherine frowned when she saw Luna''s appearance. In a confused voice, she asked, "Shouldn''t you be in the operating room? Even if your regenerative ability is a bit strange, the puncture in your heart is severe. You should at least get it stitched before running about."


    However, Luna did not respond to Catherine''s words. Instead, she walked up to Alice''s side and looked at Alice in silence.


    ?


    Alice was a little confused by Luna''s behavior. Logically, this Demon Kingformer Demon King should''ve already set aside her hatred for humanity, which was why the Demon King''s Power had left her body. So, Luna shouldn''t hold any more grudges toward her, the Hero, right?


    "I am still talking to Miss Alice, Miss Luna. Please leave this ce for now," Catherine said, her expression sinking slightly when she saw that Luna didn''t seem ready to leave.


    Although Catherine was a girl, she was the captain of the royal guard. She possessedbat power and aura far beyond that of normal people. So, as soon as she stopped restraining her aura, even the air in the room had grown a little tense.


    Alice was merely an ordinary girl right now, so she felt intimidated when she sensed Catherine''s aura. Luna, however, remainedpletely unaffected.


    Although Luna no longer had the Demon King''s Power, the strength she developed thanks to the Demon King''s Power did not disappear. Meanwhile, even though Catherine possessed extraordinary strength, her strength was only considered extraordinary among the average human and demon. She was still a far cry from matching Luna.


    "You probably don''t want others to know about those things, right, Alice?" Luna suddenly said to Alice. "I can help you out of this problem."


    "Huh?"


    "Nani?"


    Catherine and Alice were both stunned.

 Chapter 93: I Was Going To Loudly Rebuke Her

    Chapter 93: I Was Going To Loudly Rebuke Her


    While Alice was worried about her panty-holding incident resulting in her social death, someone suddenly told her that she could help her solve her troubles in this regard.


    Would Alice reject the offer? Of course not. So long as Luna''s method didn''t involve killing off all witnesses, Alice was more than willing to let Luna help her deal with her problem.


    However, despite Alice telling Luna not to murder anyone, Luna''s actions were still a little beyond Alice''s expectations.


    "Will this really make her forget about that scene?" Alice asked as she looked at Catherine, whom Luna had knocked unconscious.


    Catherine was potentially the strongest fighter the Gryffin Kingdom had to offer. Yet, faced against Alice the Fake Hero and Luna the Former Demon King''s plotting, Catherine didn''t even manage to draw her sword before she got knocked unconscious by Luna with a club. Of course, it wasn''t a spiked club but a blunt club instead. Had Luna used a spiked club, she would''ve probably done more than just knock Catherine unconscious. So, Luna had avoided creating any spikes when forming her club.


    "Knocking her unconscious is only one part of the process."


    For some inexplicable reason, after Luna found out that Alice was the Hero, she became very obedient all of a sudden. It was like she had truly settled into the role of being Alice''s maid. Meanwhile, in response to Alice''s question, Luna exined, "My secondary magic is mind magic. I have developed it to a very high level thanks to the Demon King''s Power, so altering a small part of a person''s memories isn''t a problem for me."


    "Is that so I see." Alice nodded to show understanding as she crouched down to check on the unconscious Catherine. Indeed, Luna had managed to nt the Demon King''s Power in Chris''s body and use it to influence Chris''s mind. This proved that Luna should have significant attainments in the field of mind magic. So, it was understandable that her secondary magic was mind magic. "By the way, don''t alter her memories first."


    "?"


    Although Luna was puzzled, she still retracted her hands from Catherine''s head.


    As to why Alice had Luna hold her actions temporarily, it was because she wanted to see what Catherine''s standard was at. After all, ording to the person herself, it would seem that Catherine was the strongest warrior in the Gryffin Kingdom. In that case, her weapon quality should be considerably high.


    [Weapon: Mana Rich Catherine]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Strength +500, Speed +500, Control +500, Mana +500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Hundred Refinement Sword (Passive Skill. Maxed proficiency in swordsmanship. Destructive power when using a sword is doubled);


    Magic Sword (Passive Skill. You can imbue mana into your sword, letting it deal additional magic damage);


    Manliness (Passive Skill. Greatly reduces attraction to men.)]


    "How pitiful."


    Alice released Catherine''s hand and looked at the royal guard captain with pitying eyes.


    Honestly, Catherine was a stunningly beautiful woman. Moreover, because of her mastery over swordsmanship, she gave off a heroic aura that one would rarely see on females. Overall, she should be the ideal spouse for most men.


    Unfortunately, perhaps because Catherine was too strong, she had gained the additional effect of Manliness. With this passive skill in ce, Catherine would probably have a hard time finding a boyfriend in the future.


    Seeing that Alice was seemingly done with whatever she was going, Luna ced her hands on the sides of Catherine''s head. Then, ck mist flowed out of her palms and flowed into Catherine''s head, the sight causing Alice to feel ufortable in the head.


    If anyone were to see this ck mist entering their head, they would probably feel incredibly ufortable. At this time, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if knocking Catherine unconscious was a necessary part of Luna''s solution or it was merely to prevent Catherine from putting up a struggle.


    "It seems that scene upies a considerably significant ce in her memories," Luna exined while modifying Catherine''s memories. "It''s probably because she had only seen that impactful scene not long ago Especially under the focus of all those headlights, that scene gives off the feeling of a world-famous painting."


    "Please stop talking."


    Alice covered her face unpleasantly. Though, she didn''t find it strange that Catherine would remember that scene so vividly. Any normal person would be shocked by such a scene, so it was normal for the memory of that scene to remain fresh in Catherine''s mind.


    This was also why Alice nned to have Luna modify the memories of the other royal guards as well. Otherwise, should any one of these people fail to keep their mouths shut and share this matter with others, her death in society would be all but guaranteed.


    "But I can only do this one at a time. So, if you want to remove the memories of the other people, we''ll need to knock them unconscious as well," Luna said as she retracted her hands from Catherine''s head, the entire memory modification processsting less than a minute.


    By the looks of it, it was rtively easy for Luna to remove a segment of a person''s memories. Only, several dozen people had seen Alice holding onto a pair of panties. When Alice thought about how many people she would need to knock unconscious, her head started to ache.


    "All of those people should be standing guard in the corridor outside, right?" After giving the matter some thought, Alice asked, "Do you have a way to silently knock all of them unconscious?"


    "It''s a little difficult. The manifestation of dark mana is rather noticeable," Luna said. "However, I brought this with me."


    After saying so, Luna took out a pair of pink-striped panties from her hospital gown''s pocket and handed it to Alice.


    "..."


    Alice fell silent when she saw the pink-striped panties in Luna''s hand. She naturally remembered the effects of this category of panties. She had previously received one from the Loli Goddess, after all. Ignoring the passive skills that could be found on most panties, its active skill was "Soul Strike."


    Soul Strike''s ability was rather simple. When activated, it released a mental st that would crumble the minds of those hit by it. Of course, Alice could tune down the skill''s power, making it so that it would only knock her targets unconscious instead of turning them into vegetables.


    It was also normal for Luna to know about the abilities of pink-striped panties. Alice had previously used a pair of pink-striped panties when attacking the Demon King''s Power, and Luna had spectated the entire scene as shey on the ground.


    Rather than the fact that Luna had figured out her ability, Alice was more concerned about where Luna had acquired this pink-striped underwear.


    "This thing?" When Luna heard Alice''s question, she tilted her head and said, "It belongs to a nurse in the operating room. I thought it mighte in handy, so I stripped all of the female nurses'' underwear beforeing here."


    After saying so, Luna earnestly pulled out several pairs of panties of varying colors and designs.


    Seeing this, Alice didn''t know whether she shouldugh or cry. She also didn''t know whether she should praise Luna or rebuke her.

 Chapter 94: Getting Attacked After Working Overnight, The King Is Really Pitiful

    Chapter 94: Getting Attacked After Working Overnight, The King Is Really Pitiful


    As the morning sun shined its rays onto thend, Holl City, the capital of the Gryffin Kingdom, also woke up from its slumber.


    Around 5 a.m., a blinding white light that could be seen even from a distance had appeared in the city''s most luxurious mansion district. However, as most people had yet to wake up at this hour, not many people had actually noticed it. As for the few who did notice the light, they failed to understand the meaning behind this light.


    As a result, by the time the city''s reporters learned of the incident and came running to the source of the light, they failed to gather any useful information. The only thing that greeted them was a ruined mansion. Even therge volume of residue light and dark mana had already been collected and taken away by the royal guards. The peculiarity surrounding this incident would probably get it passed down and exaggerated until it eventually became something like an urban legend.


    However, this was none of Alice''s concerns. She, who was now in cahoots with the former Demon King, was in the midst of carrying out inhumane brainwashing on the royal guards present in the hospital.


    "This person ns to disobey orders and anonymously report what happened earlier this morning to the local newspaper in exchange for money," Luna said as she crouched beside a male royal guard, her hands ced on his temples.


    The pink-striped panties Luna brought for Alice didn''t belong to the Loli Goddess, so it was only an Artifact-grade weapon. The active skill had also changed from "Soul Strike" to "Mental Strike." Even so, a taboo-level mental attack was already far beyond what any of these royal guards could withstand. So, when Alice activated Mental Strike, the royal guards, doctors, nurses, and patients on this floor immediately lost consciousness.


    Of course, Alice made sure to have Luna verify that there was no ongoing surgery beforehand to avoid harming other people.


    "Good, I''ll note it down," Alice said, gnashing her teeth as she wrote down the male royal guard''s name in a notepad she had swiped from a doctor''s office. She naturally needed to teach a lesson to dishonest people. "Does he have any secrets he doesn''t want others to know?"


    "He is having an affair. He used his identity as a royal guard to hook up with two high school girls from the March Royal Academy of Magic," Luna answered, revealing the royal guard''s secrets without hesitation. "He has a phone that he uses specifically for contacting those two high schoolers hidden in his wardrobe. The screen unlock code is 7289."


    "Good. I''ll tell this to his wifeter on."


    By the time Alice finished writing down some basic information about this royal guard, she had also reached the end of the notepad. In total, seven people harbored dishonest thoughts. Most of them did not think that what happened at dawn was a state secret, so they nned to spread the word for profit one way or another.


    For these people who didn''t know how to respect other people''s privacy, Alice would teach them a beautiful lesson.


    "That''s thest one, right?"


    After working continuously for around half an hour, Alice and Luna had finally checked all of the people on this floor and ensured they didn''t let anybody slip past them. Meanwhile, following Alice''s instructions, Luna reced the strange scene they saw with a scene where both of them were clothed. Naturally, the detail where Alice was holding onto a pair of panties was removed. This, in turn, created a much more normal scene.


    "Yes, this is thest one," Luna answered as she stood up and looked at Alice. Although her voice sounded indifferent, there were hints of cuteness hidden in it. "Is there anything else you want me to do?"


    "Well Actually, there is."


    While scratching the back of her head, Alice asked the question that had been guing her all this time:


    "Why did you suddenly be so obedient? Don''t you hate me for hurting you like that?"


    "I am Alice''s maid, so whatever you do to me is proper," Luna said as she bowed to Alice. Although her current attire was a hospital gown, she still gave off a very professional maid aura. "So, I naturally wouldn''t question your actions."


    <em>Bullshit. That''s not what you said when you held that spiked club against me.</em>


    Luna''s exnation didn''t exin anything at all. On the contrary, Alice had grown even more confused after listening to it.


    However, Alice noticed a clue after thinking about the situation more carefully. Luna''s change in behavior had taken ce immediately after the maid had found out that she was the Hero. Moreover, when Luna noticed that her weapon was the Hero''s Sword, the maid had even respectfully referred to her as "Lord Hero."


    Most importantly, after Luna uttered that title, the Demon King''s Power had immediately escaped out of her body. It was as if Luna had dropped all of her hatred for humanity after learning that Alice was the Hero.


    <em>Whatever. I guess this is fine as well</em>


    Alice sighed as she came to this conclusion. Although she had initially thought that it would be great if Luna was nothing but an ordinary maid, she didn''t think that her thoughts would suddenlye true.


    While her identity as the Hero seemed to have yed an important role in Luna''s attitude change, Alice felt that it wasn''t a bad thing if it meant that she could use this opportunity to have Luna right her ways. Not to mention, Luna hadn''t done any major wrongdoings during her short term as the Demon Kingprobably.


    After all, Luna had managed to be a crucial member of the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department. If she had a record ofmitting heinous crimes, the intelligence department would''ve known about them, and the Gryffin Kingdom wouldn''t have dared to make use of her.


    Just when Alice was thinking of asking why Luna held such a respectful attitude toward the Hero, hurried footsteps suddenly came from the staircase.


    Immediately, Alice narrowed her eyes and looked at the staircase. When she had knocked out the people on this floor, she had already guessed that people from other floors mighte here. So, she had long since thought up of an appropriate countermeasure:


    "Luna!"


    "Understood."


    Luna immediately understood Alice''s intentions and materialized arge club in her hand. Then, she made her way to the staircase''s entrance, ready to strike at a moment''s notice.


    Then, the instant a figure of a person appeared at the staircase entrance, Luna immediately raised her club and smashed down, ensuring that she would knock the other party unconscious with one hit.


    <em>Bang!</em>


    The sound of a long ck stick hitting a person''s head echoed throughout the corridor, which was quickly followed by a cacophony of shrieks:


    "Your Majesty?! What happened, Your Majesty?!"


    "Assassin! There''s an assassin!!!"

 Chapter 95: History Repeats

    Chapter 95: History Repeats


    "At this rate, we''re going to have to ughter the entire hospital"


    Alice felt mentally tired when she looked at the unconscious people on the ground. In addition to the people she had previously knocked out using the Mental Strike skill, the Gryffin King Chris Hatter and three stern-looking middle-aged men had also joined the ranks of unconscious people lying on the ground.


    However, these four people weren''t the only new additions. Two doctors upstairs who had heard themotion hade running down and got knocked unconscious by Luna as well. Fortunately, these two doctors didn''t have any important duties to attend to, so none of the other doctors upstairs came down to find them. Hence, Alice simply left them by the staircase.


    "Should I wake them up?" Luna asked as she stood beside Alice, behaving as if she would go along with Alice''s decision and showing no initiative whatsoever. However, probably because she noticed the look of distress on Alice''s face, she also suggested, "We can just say that you were experimenting with the Hero''s abilities."


    "I guess that''s our only option"


    After thinking for a moment, Alice found that there was no other reason she could use to exin why the people on an entire floor had been knocked unconscious. The most reasonable solution would be to use her identity as the Hero as cover. Nobody could exin the Hero''s abilities, in any case. So, everything would be fine so long as she pushed all the me to this identity.


    Although Alice had been joking when she mentioned the "Hero''s privilege" to Zauna, in this world where the Hero was considered part of the naturalw, it wasn''t an exaggeration to say that the Hero could do whatever they wanted.


    Luna nodded to Alice''s words. Then, she walked up to King Hatter, helped him onto a bench in the corridor, grabbed his head, and violently shook it.


    Just when Alice wondered if Luna''s actions would give Chris a concussion, Luna let go of Chris''s head. Then, miraculously, Chris started waking up.


    "Hm? Where am I"


    "Good morning, Your Majesty," Luna said. She stuck to her maid routine despite wearing a hospital gown and politely bowed to Chris. As the other people on this floor were still unconscious, she did not have to worry about her words as she said, "Lord Hero was experimenting with mind magic previously and identally knocked everyone on this floor unconscious."


    "Is Is that so?" Chris had just woken up, and his mind was still in a blur, so he subconsciously epted Luna''s exnation. "I was wondering why I felt dizzy as soon as I came up to this floor Whatever. I''ll just treat it as a short nap. I''ve been working overtime until this morning. I haven''t even had time to go home and sleep."


    Seeing that Chris remained rtively conscious even after working until now, Alice guessed that this pitiful king must''ve used the energizing magic she previously saw Heris using. However, the energizing magic merely suppressed one''s exhaustion temporarily. The magic did notst forever, and neither did it erase one''s fatigue. So, one would still have to catch up on their sleep afterward.


    "These three fellows copsed as well? Whatever, let them continue sleeping." When Chris looked at the three middle-aged men who were copsed on the ground nearby, he hesitated for a moment before deciding that there was no need to wake them up immediately. Then, he looked at Alice and said, "I came here to ask about the details of the situation Where''s Catherine?"


    "She fainted inside," Alice truthfully said as she pointed at the high-ss hospital ward beside her.


    "...Alright, then. Catherine might be strong, but I guess it is normal even for her to fall in the face of the Hero''s abilities," Chris said, shaking his head. Although Catherine was knocked unconscious, the fact that Alice could so effortlessly knock Catherine unconscious proved that she possessed strength far surpassing Catherine. So, it was almost certain that Alice was the Hero.


    Of course, never would Chris imagine that Alice the "Hero" wasn''t the one who knocked Catherine unconscious. Instead, it was Luna the "Demon King" who did it.


    However, Luna obviously wouldn''t expose her identity like a fool. Alice didn''t intend to have Luna reveal her secret to Crhis, either, deciding to let Chris misunderstand that the Demon King was someone else instead.


    "Then, if my guess is correct You should''ve fought with the Demon King, right, Lord Hero?"


    Chris, Luna, and Alice were the only people conscious on this floor. Moreover, Luna evidently knew about Alice''s identity as the Hero already. So, Chris didn''t have to watch his words when he spoke.


    "The explosion of holy light that came from the direction of your mansion earlier this morning should''ve been your power, right?"


    <em>You might be talking about the power of panties.</em>


    Alice thought so in her heart. However, her mouth still provided a very standard answer as she said, "Yes. It is a skill called Holy Cross sh. The Hero''s Sword is required to use it."


    After Alice finished speaking, though, she suddenly thought of something and asked, "By the way, did you hear about it through Catherine''s report? How did you figure out that I was battling with the Demon King? It can''t just be because you saw the lighting out of my hand, right?"


    "It''s because the Demon King''s Power in my body has been drawn out," Chris said, smiling when he heard Alice''s question. "The portion of the Demon King''s Power that had originally been inhabiting my body and twisting my mind started putting up a struggle and escaped during your battle. Then, it flew in your direction. This situation could only mean that you were embroiled in a heated battle with the Demon King, and the Demon King had no choice but to recall the rest of the Demon King''s Power. Did I guess correctly?"


    <em>No, you''re overthinking things. The Demon King''s Power was simply changing hosts, so it recovered the portion of its power that its original host had separated from it.</em>


    Although Alice knew the truth, there was no way she could reveal it. Otherwise, Luna would probably be in for a lot of trouble. Now that the Demon King''s Power no longer acknowledged Luna, it showed that Luna had already lost her hatred for humanity. It would be terrible if the suspicion of the people around her triggered her hatred for humanity again.


    "I guess you can say that" Alice drylyughed. "But the Demon King used a special means to cover his appearance. I didn''t get to see what he looked like even until the end. So, I''m guessing that he will continue hiding in the human realm and wait for an opportune moment to strike."


    It was normal for Demon Kings to hide in the human realm as they developed their strength, so Alice felt that there shouldn''t be any problems in her reasoning. After all, nobody else was aware of her battle with Luna apart from the Loli Goddess. The likelihood of her lie getting seen through should be small.


    "Ah, that won''t be a problem," Chris said, waving his hand when he heard Alice''s concerns. Then, he smiled and said, "That area has many surveince cameras. Although the cameras in the direct vicinity of your fight might have been destroyed, the cameras further away should have captured the Demon King when he was escaping, so finding him shouldn''t be a problem."

 Chapter 96: As a Recommended Student, I Can Be as Willful as I Want

    Chapter 96: As a Rmended Student, I Can Be as Willful as I Want


    Fortunately or unfortunately, Chris''s idea of using the surveince cameras to uncover the Demon King''s true identity ended up being a bust.


    While there were indeed many surveince cameras set up in the mansion district, every one of these cameras operated using mana. Meanwhile, during Alice''s battle with Luna, the two of them had, on more than one asion, attacked using mana far surpassing the limits of humans. This, in turn, overloaded the mana circuits in these cameras and caused them to malfunction.


    This didn''t mean that these surveince cameras were easily susceptible to mana interference. In reality, after generations of improvements, most modern magical machinery could mitigate mana interference to arge extent. It was just like how modern electronic devices on Earth wouldn''t short circuit simply because some random maic field appeared near them.


    However, the mana Alice and Luna unleashed was simply too powerful. It was akin to unleashing an EMP st right next to an electronic device. Under such circumstances, it would take a miracle and a half for the electronic device to survive.


    Hence, when Chris contacted the necessary personnel to check the mansion district''s surveince cameras, he only received broken images. Meanwhile, the nearest functioning camera was already a significant distance away from the mansion district. There was no way it could capture anything from such a great distance.


    When Alice learned of this news, she couldn''t help but sigh in relief. While she wasn''t afraid of the Demon King''s Power getting captured on camera, she worried that Luna might get dragged into a chain of unfortunate events. However, it would seem that Luna should be able to keep her identity hidden for the moment.


    "Here, Alice."


    Although Alice''s body was in perfect condition, she had still chosen to remain in the hospital for observation for two days at Chris''s behest. As for Luna, even though she was the one to have received a fatal wound, she had already resumed her maid duties while in her hospital gown and was currently peeling fruits beside Alice''s sickbed.


    "Thanks."


    Alice cautiously epted the lilyfruit that looked like an apple but tasted like a pineapple. Although Alice roughly understood why Luna had undergone such an abrupt change in attitude, she still found it awkward to receive such respectful treatment from Luna.


    "By the way, what happened to the mind magicians that suffered a mental breakdown because of you? Have they recovered yet?" Alice asked, suddenly thinking of this matter when she looked at Luna''s hospital gown.


    For the sake of preventing Chris''s mental problem from being solved, Luna had attacked every magician that tried to treat him. However, unlike Alice, those mind magicians did not have any immunity against mental interference. In that case, what had be of those mind magicians?


    "They''ll be fine after a period of rest. My goal was to prevent them from treating King Hatter''s mental problem, so I only distorted their minds and put them into a state of chaos," Luna answered. She had studied in the field of mind magic, so she understood this topic very well. "If those mind magicians are really capable of what they say, they should be able to regte their minds and make a full recovery within two months. Of course, if they are shams, I cannot promise that they will recover. They might fall into an uncontroble hallucination for a very long period."


    <em>How ruthless.</em>


    Alice sighed when she saw Luna calmly describe the conditions of those mind magicians. However, before she could say anything, the ward''s door opened from the outside, and Catherine, who wore a gloomy expression, walked in with heavy steps. Because of Luna''s actions, Catherine had not only forgotten the scene of Alice holding onto a pair of panties, but she had also forgotten how she had lost unconsciousness.


    For a warrior who relied on strength to climb to the position of royal guard captain, this situation could be considered a humiliation. Hence, as soon as she woke up in the hospital ward next door, she immediately put on her armor and returned to her duties.


    "I''m sorry. I can''t remember what happened just now. I just lost consciousness all of a sudden Maybe it''s because I''ve exhausted myself from training the recruits recently. I''ve failed to do my job."


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. We are in the capital, so even demons would have difficulty sneaking into here, right? So, it doesn''t matter even if you rest for a while," Alice said, awkwardly smiling as she waved her hand. She and Luna were the cause of Catherine''s loss of consciousness, so there was no way she would dare to have any opinions. "By the way, Chris told me that you''ll be handling my enrolment into the March Royal School of Magic?"


    "Yes. His Majesty has put significant importance on this matter because it concerns Lord Hero, so he has left it to the royal guards," Catherine said, retracting her guilt after hearing Alice''s words. Then, she sternly continued, "However, His Majesty hopes that you can consider an alternative option, that is to study in the Gryffin Kingdom''s military school."


    "Military school?" Alice grew a little curious upon hearing this.


    "Yes. The military school also holds various books on taboos, so it is suitable for you to study there. In addition, you can also learn swordsmanship there," Catherine said as she looked at Alice with a fiery gaze. Obviously, she, too, hoped that Alice would enter the military school. "Of course, the March Royal School of Magic also has its advantages. As a magic academy, it has conducted much more in-depth research into magic. Moreover, although the previous generation''s Hero, Lady Andrina,es from the Ymir Kingdom, she has also been an exchange student in March in the past. It was also when she attended a field trip hosted by the academy that she drew the Hero''s Sword."


    "So there was such a thing as well"


    This was the first time Alice had heard of such a detail. However, when she heard that the previous generation''s Hero had also studied in the March Royal School of Magic, she immediately grew interested in the academy. This was because she remembered the words Grant, the previous Demon King, had said to her when she defeated him with the power of panties.


    Grant had said that the previous Hero, Andrina, had used the War God''s Lock to seal his physical body. Then, only after struggling against the War God''s Lock for several dozen years did the lifeforce of his body vanishpletely.


    However, whether it was the inte, the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings, or King Hatter and the others, none of them seemed to be aware that the previous Demon King''s soul hadn''t been extinguished.


    Though, this situation was somewhat understandable as in front of the Demon King and Hero, even individuals as powerful as the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings were no different than normal people. So, as "normal people," it wasn''t strange that they didn''t know that Grant''s soul was still alive.


    But what about the Hero? Did the Hero named Andrina really not know that Grant''s soul still lived?


    Alice felt there should be more to this situation than meets the eye. Although Grant might have looked weak because he lost to a pair of panties, that was because his soul was in a tattered state. Yet, even in such a weakened state, Grant''s soul had managed to survive a taboo-level attack from her panties, requiring the use of a second pair of panties to exterminate him. Through this, one could easily imagine how powerful Grant was at his peak. Unlike Luna, Grant had undoubtedly digested all of the strength the Demon King''s Power had to offer.


    Meanwhile, as Grant''s opponent, the Hero Andrina must know that Grant had only died a physical death and that their battle had yet to end. So, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if the Hero Andrina had left behind some kind of countermeasure for Grant''s possible resurrection.


    "I think I''ll go to the March Royal School of Magic," Alice said. Although the military school sounded like a good option as well, the improvements it could provide to her were limited.


    What Alice needed to do now was to learn more about the Demon King and Hero. So,pared to the military school, visiting the magic academy, which the previous generation''s Hero had previously studied in for a period, would have a higher chance of providing her with the clues she wanted.

 Chapter 97: I Confess, You’re the Hero

    Chapter 97: I Confess, You��re the Hero


    After nightfall, Alice kicked Luna out of her ward.


    Although Luna had said something about it being a maid''s duty to sleep with her master, Alice had chased Luna out of the room without hesitation. After all, even until now, she still hadn''t made sense as to why Luna had changed her attitude so quickly.


    Alice''s previous experience of waking up to the sight of a gigantic spiked club was plenty traumatic, and she had no desire to relive that experience for a second time. Even though Luna no longer had the Demon King''s Power and looked like she had moved away from the path of evil, Alice felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.


    Moreover, Alice had something she needed to do tonight, so she couldn''t afford to let others disturb her.


    After sending out everyone in the hospital ward, Aliceid down on her bed and waited for some time. Then, after making sure that nobody would suddenlye in and disturb her, Alice climbed out of bed and reached for the weapon container ced on the bedside table.


    When Alice opened the small wooden box, the Hero''s Sword promptly popped out of it. Then, after grabbing the Hero''s Sword with her right hand, Alice activated the Word of God skill, closed her eyes, and started praying sincerely.


    In Alice''s opinion, the most troublesome aspect about the Word of God skill would be the part where she needed to pray. Even though the Loli Goddess could freely contact her and speak into her mind, she needed to go through such a troublesome process when she wished to meet with the Loli Goddess.


    As an atheist before she transmigrated, Alice found it very tedious to pray with a sincere heart. So, when Alice activated the Word of God skill, what she muttered in her mind sounded more like a wish than a sincere prayer.


    For example, the content of Alice''s prayer this time was "Please give me more panties."


    Simr to when Alice "prayed" previously, her prayer this time had sessfully triggered the Word of God skill. Immediately afterward, her consciousness separated from her body and arrived at the Loli Goddess''s room. However, before Alice could open her eyes, she heard the Loli Goddess''s angry yelling:


    "What the hell are you praying for?!?!?!"


    "Huh? You''re not asleep today?"


    Alice was a little surprised as she opened her eyes. This was the first time the Loli Goddess was awake when she visited.


    However, it made sense when Alice thought about it. After she had stripped the Loli Goddess of her panties this morning to deal with Luna, the Loli Goddess had told her to visit her room tonight for a discussion. So, it''d be rude for the Loli Goddess to be sleeping after she had made an appointment.


    "I stayed awake because I have something to discuss with you tonight."


    Sure enough, it was just like Alice thought. If it wasn''t for the appointment with her, the Loli Goddess would probably be sleeping again right about now.


    "But tonight''s discussion isn''t limited to just you. I still need to call another person here."


    "Another person?"


    Alice was a little surprised. Based on the historical records she read, only the Hero should have the privilege of speaking with God.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice quickly realized the identity of the other person the Loli Goddess mentioned.


    "That''s right. I''m going to call Aird here today!" The Loli Goddess had an urge to gnash her teeth when she spoke about Aird. After all, for some inexplicable reason, this new Hero named Aird had been ignoring her voice all this time. "That bastard''s mind is a little too well-guarded when she is awake, so I have no choice but to summon her when she is asleep. However, even after she lets her guard down, my summons still fails for some inexplicable reason."


    "It shows that she''s a good sleeper," Alice said, nodding. Honestly, she was rather envious of Aird. She was someone who could only rx in a familiar environment. So, her sleep quality after she transmigrated hadn''t been very good. It would be wonderful if she could sleep as well as Aird did.


    "But no matter. I''ve thought of another way to summon her now." The Loli Goddess had long since guessed that her failure to summon Aird was rted to Aird''s sleep quality, so she didn''t refute Alice''s conjecture. Instead, she pointed at Alice and said, "Tonight, you will be the one to summon Aird!"


    "Huh? Me?" Alice pointed at herself in surprise. "I can summon Aird as well?"


    "You can, so long as you are in this room. I will connect the sound of this room with Aird''s mind. So, all you need to do is call out to her, and she will hear your voice," the Loli Goddess said. Then, in a frustrated voice, she continued, "If that bastard''s mind wasn''t so well-guarded when she is awake, I could''ve simply contacted her when she is awake. However, based on my observation, it seems like she isn''t guarded against you at all. So, she should hear your voice if you call out to her!"


    Hearing the Loli Goddess''s rant, Alice didn''t find it strange that Aird had put up such a tight mental guard. After all, she was a human spy who had infiltrated herself into the ranks of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings. It was only natural that she maintained an exaggerated level of wariness against everyone around her, which, in turn, also prevented God''s voice from reaching her. In Aird''s current wary state, even if God''s voice reached her mind, it was unlikely that she would trust in God''s words.


    Meanwhile, the only loophole in Aird''s guard was Alice. The Hero was humanity''s spiritual pir. So, when Alice revealed herself as the "Hero" to Aird, it was as if Aird had found an outlet for all of the stress she had umted, and she dropped all of her wariness around Alice.


    "But why are you calling her here? Are you going to tell her the truth about the Hero?"


    Alice could understand the Loli Goddess''s frustrations regarding Aird. However, the only reason she could think of for the Loli Goddess to invite Aird for a discussion was that the topic of discussion concerned the Hero.


    "Of course. Don''t tell me you n on continuing this fake Hero act until the end?"


    The Loli Goddess looked at Alice in surprise. Although Alice had gained the ability to the Hero''s Sword thanks to her help, Alice still wasn''t the Hero after all was said and done. Alice''s body did not hold the Hero''s Power she created, either. So, even though the growth potential of Alice''s body was simr to the Hero''s, there was still a difference in the essence of their strength.


    The Hero''s Power and Demon King''s Power were like acid and alkali. They countered and neutralized each other. Meanwhile, although Alice''s body had the potential to grow into an existence as strong as the Hero, her strength would not carry the properties of the Hero''s Power. In other words, she could neither suppress the Demon King''s Power nor get suppressed by the Demon King''s Power.


    While the Loli Goddess had indeed ced her hopes on the mysterious power inhabiting Alice''s right hand to extinguish the Demon King''s Power, she couldn''t possibly have Alice do all the work by herself, right?


    "I''ll call Aird here, tell her about the Demon King''s Power, and have her help you extinguish the Demon King''s Power," the Loli Goddess said. "I never told the past Heroes about the truth surrounding the Demon King''s Power because I have never found a way to force the Demon King''s Power to reveal itself. But now that I know how to do so, I can tell the truth to Aird."


    "After all that talk, you still want me to work for you," Alice couldn''t help but interject. "You best hope that the hatred of the next person the Demon King''s Power inhabits can be easily resolved. If it''s too difficult, I cannot promise that I can force it out."


    "Hey, able people should work more. Not to mention, once you get rid of the Demon King''s Power and return the world''sws to their natural order, I will be able to send you back to your original world," the Loli Goddess said, grinning. "Although your body has changed significantly, once you return to Earth with your strength, you''ll be able to live whatever kind of life you want. Isn''t that a good enough reward for working hard for?"


    "Perhaps," Alice said, shaking her head. "Anyway, let''s call Aird here first."

 Chapter 98: Don’t Be Frightened by What I Have to Say

    Chapter 98: Don��t Be Frightened by What I Have to Say


    ording to the Loli Goddess, Aird was currently in her room fiddling with her phone on the bed.


    Aird''s behavior was a stark contrast to Chris and, presumably, the other human kings. Because of their heavy workload, the human kings had to frequently work overtime. In contrast, the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings had their subordinates do the bulk of their work. All they needed to do was give their approval on important matters.


    <em>I wonder how Chris will react if he learns of the Four Heavenly Kings'' situation? Will he die from envy?</em>


    When Alice recalled the sight of Chris working well past midnight in the pce, she couldn''t help but pity him. Although he wielded great authority as the Gryffin King, his workload was ridiculously massive. It was no wonder why Chris had such a good reputation in the country. It also exined why nobody was trying to usurp his position


    <em>Being a human king really isn''t easy. You''d have to go in prepared to die from overwork. It is a miracle that Chris managed to maintain such a young appearance.</em>


    After thinking of a bunch of nonsense in her head, Alice noticed the Loli Goddess nodding to her, indicating for her to start calling out to Aird.


    "Aird? Aird? Can you hear me?"


    "Lord Hero?!"


    Sure enough, Aird responded as soon as Alice called out to her. There was not the slightest dy at all. Meanwhile, judging by her surprised tone, she probably didn''t think that Alice''s voice would suddenly appear in her mind.


    However, when the Loli Goddess saw this scene, her expression instantly turned ugly. She was probably fuming over the fact that her chosen Hero refused to respond to her calls no matter what.


    She was God, for God''s sake. Every Hero in the past had behaved respectfully in front of her. Yet, this generation''s Hero not only ignored her, but she even had to deal with Alice, the fake Hero who kept thinking about stealing her panties


    Could this world get any worse?


    "Cough, cough. It''s me," Alice awkwardly said. After all, she knew that the Loli Goddess would tell Aird the truth in a moment, which also meant that her identity as the fake Hero would be exposed. Thus, she couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed when she heard Aird calling her "Lord Hero."


    "How did you send your voice into my head, Lord Hero?" After getting over her surprise, Aird quickly posed the question on her mind. After all, Alice had already returned to the human realm as far as she knew. "Are you experimenting with a new ability?"


    "No, the Hero doesn''t have such an ability Probably," Alice said with hesitance in her voice. After she considered the fact that the previous Demon King had managed to keep himself alive inside a crystal for centuries, there was no saying if one of the Heroes and Demon Kings in the past could transmit their voice across thousands of kilometers. "I am speaking to you this time using God''s ability."


    "God?" Aird was momentarily stunned. Then, realization dawned upon her as she said, "I see. Is it the God that has granted you the Hero''s Power? How amazing. As expected of Lord Hero."


    <em>Please stop talking. The more you worship me now, the more embarrassed I will feel in a moment.</em>


    Alice covered her face gloomily. The reason why Aird was speaking in such a respectful tone now was that she still thought of Alice as the Hero.


    Faced with this situation, Alice dared not imagine what kind of reaction Aird would have once she found out that she was the real Hero instead.


    "Anyway, God has something to say to you this time, so rx your guard in a moment. Don''t be too tense and let God carry your consciousness over," Alice said. Although she felt very awkward right now, she needed to go through with what she discussed with the Loli Goddess. "It is very important."


    "Are you also there right now, Lord Hero?" Aird asked. "Alright, I will try to loosen my mind."


    "Sure enough, it''s effective," the Loli Goddess said with a helpless sigh. Even though she was the God, who was widely believed in this world, yet the influence of her words couldn''t evenpare to a little girl from another world. This situation caused her pride as God to be severely damaged.


    It was fortunate that she was a kind God. Otherwise, she might''ve kicked Alice out of her room in a fit of rage.


    Meanwhile, as soon as the Loli Goddess transported Aird''s consciousness to her room, numerous specks of white light appeared in an empty area of the room. Then, under Alice''s observation, the specks of light gradually took on colors before eventually transforming into Aird''s figure. This was also the first time Alice saw a person''s consciousness brought to the Loli Goddess''s room from a third person''s perspective.


    Aird quickly opened her eyes and was surprised to see the modest room around her. Then, she spotted Alice, who stood in front of her, and excitedly called out, "Lord Hero! Long time no see!"


    "It''s only been a few days"


    Alice revealed a bitter smile. Even after counting the time she spent resting in the Gryffin Church after returning from the demon realm and the series of incidents involving Luna, Alice had only been separated from Aird for four or five days.


    "It''s because I missed you, Lord Hero," Aird said with a smile. Then, she looked toward the white-haired loli, who was even shorter than Alice, and eximed, "Is this Lord God?"


    "That''s right! It''s me!" the Loli Goddess said, snorting. Then, looking at Aird with her arms crossed, the Loli Goddess continued, "I finally managed to call on you, Aird! I''ve called out to you more than a dozen times, yet not once did you respond to me!"


    "? Did you?" This was the first time Aird had heard about God calling out to her. Then, she curiously asked, "Why would you call out to me? I''m not the Hero."


    "No, you <em>are </em>the Hero!" the Loli Goddess said in a sonorous and forceful voice. She had long since wanted to say these words to Aird and have her quickly go and activate the Hero''s Sword instead of wasting her time in the demon realm.


    "Please don''t joke around, Lord God. Isn''t Lady Alice the Hero?" Aird said as she pointed at Alice. Then, she fervently shook her head and continued, "I am merely a human from the Vulcan Kingdom working as a spy in the demon realm."


    "She is a fake Hero. The reason why she can use the Hero''s Sword is because I granted her the rights to use it," the Loli Goddess said as she pointed at Alice. Then, with a hint of annoyance in her voice, she continued, "Meanwhile, you are the true Hero. Didn''t you feel your mana getting sucked away when you touched the Hero''s Sword before? That is because the Hero''s Sword needed your mana to create the seed of the Hero''s Power and nt it in your body!"


    "Lord God, you can just tell it to me straight if you are just trying to get me to help Lady Alice. If it is something that concerns Lady Alice, then it is something that concerns the entire human race. I won''t refuse such a request," Aird said earnestly as she looked at the Loli Goddess. "You don''t need to trick me with such a lie to persuade me."


    "I"


    Out of the many years she worked as a God, this was the first time the Loli Goddess was experiencing what it felt like to have a mental breakdown.

 Chapter 99: Is It Really Alright to Have Such a Protagonist?

    Chapter 99: Is It Really Alright to Have Such a Protagonist?


    The Loli Goddess might be God, but the amount of influence she held over this world was growing increasingly smaller.


    When the world was still a deste ce, she established rules andid the foundation for this world''s stability.


    After the birth of living creatures in this world, she set the evolution and ecology of these creatures, slowly guiding them down a long and gradual path of evolution.


    Then, after the emergence of sentient races in this world, she gave these sentient creatures, which had evolved into existences much like herself, the fire of civilization, allowing them to develop their own culture and prosperous civilization. However, as thews of this world gradually stabilized, she also started to have increasing difficulty in creating newws for this world. This was because each new rule created would mean inserting a new part into an already stable structure, which could potentially lead to the copse of the entire system.


    Moreover, as sentient civilizations became more and more prosperous, people''s faith in God and the naturalws also became more and more diluted. Rather than ce their trust in God and naturalws, things they could not see, they chose to ce their faith in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and mana.


    At that point, she could no longer freely interfere with the minds of sentient creatures such as humans, demons, elves, orcs, etc. They already possessed a will of their own.


    Having said all that, there was only one conclusion to be gained out of this.


    "If I couldn''t recklessly interfere with sentient minds, I would''ve changed your goddamned memories already!"


    A Certain Loli Goddess


    After spending half an hour trying to convince Aird was the Hero and failing miserably, the Loli Goddess harbored such a vicious thought in her mind as she finally gave up on persuading Aird. She finally understood that Aird was simply an impossible nut to crack. Once Aird had made up her mind on something, anything others said to her would be deemed a lie. Hence, no matter what the Loli Goddess said, Aird simply took it as God telling a friendly lie to convince her to be Alice''s support.


    <em>Friendly lie my ass! You''re the Hero! The Hero!!! Why won''t you believe in God''s word?!?!</em>


    For the first time in her life, the Loli Goddess felt it was a mistake to construct such a sturdy structure for this world''sws. Specifically, she should''ve left a backdoor in the system to make it so that she could more conveniently insert newws.


    Although it was still possible to insert a neww into this world so long as she wanted to, just like how she turned the Hero''s existence into a naturalw of this world, doing so would take too much time.


    Ever since Earth had invented a bunch of interesting games these past dozen years or so, the Loli Goddess no longer had the motivation she did 10,000 years ago. Rather than waste her time and energy creating a neww, she preferred ying games instead. Not to mention, even if she did create a neww to fix Aird''s stubbornness, there was no guarantee that Aird could take care of the Demon King''s Power.


    So, the Loli Goddess had given up. If Aird wanted to recognize Alice as the Hero, so be it. They would most likely need to rely on the mysterious power inhabiting Alice''s right hand in the end, anyway. Thinking of it this way, it was true that the Hero would only be ying a supporting role in this matter.


    "Alright, Alice is the Hero," the Loli Goddess said as she slumped to the ground, a lifeless expression on her face. Having a Hero refusing to believe in God''s words was a truly headache-inducing experience. "The reason why I called you here is because we have found a way to thoroughly extinguish the Demon King''s Power. However, I feel that one Hero might not be enough, so I decided to find another person to help deal with the Demon King."


    "Could that person be me?" Aird''s calm expression finally broke as she asked in surprise, "Will I be fighting by Lord Hero''s side? But I am still working as a spy in the demon realm"


    "It''s fine to continue your spy duties. We have already found the true Demon King and forced the Demon King''s Power out of her. So, the Demon King''s Power should be looking for a new host right now," Alice exined. "In other words, that new Demon King might be heading towards the demon realm. If you continue your infiltration work in the demon realm, it''ll help us get information more easily."


    Normally, the Demon King would head to the demon realm once they had the means to do so. Luna did not do so solely because of her desire to meet with the Hero.


    However, it might be different for the next Demon King candidate. If the next Demon King didn''t possess a strange line of thought like Luna, he or she might head to the demon realm and try to gain influence there. Meanwhile, Aird''s role as a spy woulde into y if that happened.


    "I see. If someone calling themself the Demon King appears in demon realm, I will notify you right away so that you can learn of his movements," Aird said, nodding. "Also, the other Heavenly Kings have already acknowledged Lady Alice as the Hero, so I can use this to our advantage and trick the other Heavenly Kings into thinking that the self-proimed Demon King is a fake. We will even attack him together and imprison him if the situation allows for it."


    "...I guess you can do that."


    Alice couldn''t help but be amazed by how far Aird had thought over this matter. Her initial goal was only to have Aird ry information about the new Demon King. She never thought to have the other Heavenly Kings capture the real Demon King.


    However, while this idea might sound a little ridiculous, the chances of sess were high. This was because new candidates chosen by the Demon King''s Power would need some time to grow strong. ording to the discussion Alice had with Luna, she knew that the Demon King''s Power had chosen Luna as a candidate around eight years ago. In other words, it had taken Luna eight years to acquire the strength to surpass mortal standards.


    Suppose the new Demon King candidate was an impatient person and this person chose to head to the demon realm shortly after acquiring the Demon King''s Power. In that case, the Four Heavenly Kings working together should have no problem capturing him.


    After all, not everyone could unleash taboos using panties like Alice. Even with the Demon King''s Power''s help, it''d be tough for the new Demon King to cast a taboo without a few years of training.


    "It''s good that you understand. You can head back first," the Loli Goddess said. After informing Aird about the circumstances surrounding the Demon King''s Power, she no longer had the patience to continue speaking to Aird. Just looking at Aird gave her a headache right now. "In short, you now have simr authority as the Hero. Not only do you have the Hero''s Power within your body, but you can also wield the Hero''s Sword. If you are interested, you can figure out a way to collect research materials on light-attributed taboos to study."


    As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Aird should have no trouble collecting information on light-attributed taboos. She could simply leave it to her subordinates. Moreover, because of the demon realm''s culture of the strong preying on the weak, none of Aird''s subordinates would question her motives.


    Not to mention, the demons were currently under the impression that the Hero was a robust man. Nobody would rte Aird''s research on light-attributed taboos to the Hero.


    "Understood. I will do my best to adapt to this strength so that I can be of help to Lady Alice," Aird said, nodding. Then, after taking onest look at Alice and the Loli Goddess, her body quickly faded and disappeared from the room.


    "As expected of the real Hero. She actually managed to figure out how to leave this room by herself," Alice said, sighing ruefully when she saw Aird disappearing. When Alice first came to the Loli Goddess''s room, she didn''t know how she could leave the room. Only after the Loli Goddess had kicked her out twice did she familiarize herself with the feeling of departure and learn how to exit the room on her own initiative.


    "I created your body to have the growth potential of a Hero. However, your mind originally belonged to that of an ordinary human. Even if it has been strengthened by virtue of your new body, it is still far from that of a true Hero," the Loli Goddess said as she looked at Alice. Then, she suggested, "If you n to study at a magic academy, it is best if you study mind magic first. With your current body''s potential, you should be able to learn it very quickly."


    "So that''s the case. I understand."


    Alice nodded to express her understanding.


    "It''s good that you understand So, why aren''t you leaving yet?" the Loli Goddess said as she looked at Alice in confusion. Logically, Alice should also be able to leave by herself. Yet, the blonde little girl remained standing in front of her. "Do you want me to send you away?"


    "No. It''s just that Didn''t you hear my prayer just now?" Alice asked as she scratched her head and let out an awkwardugh. "You, too, know that I lost my stockpile during my fight with Luna. Sosince you have a drawer of underwear, how about sponsoring me a few pairs?"


    "Get out!"

 Chapter 100: Dark Forces Enter The Stage

    Chapter 100: Dark Forces Enter The Stage


    "So, this is the magic academy''s student ID?"


    The next day, Alice received the letter of admission and student card for the March Royal School of Magic from Catherine. Catherine had also acquired an admission pass for Luna while she was at it.


    The March Royal School of Magic. Just looking at the magic academy''s name would let one know that those capable of entering it were either geniuses or nobles. Thus, it wasn''t strange for students to take their maids or butlers to school with them, and obtaining an admission pass for Luna wasn''t a difficult task.


    However, what surprised Alice was that the student ID she received was custom-made. The card was made out of light-blue crystal, and magically engraved on it were Alice''s name, year of admission, photo, and the academy''s name.


    "Yes. sses officially begin next Monday, which is the day after tomorrow."


    Catherine was still d in armor like yesterday. As captain of the royal guards, she would almost always wear her armor while on duty. Through this, it could be seen that Catherine treated her job very seriously.


    It was fortunate that Luna had wiped out Catherine''s memory. Otherwise, if the other party remembered that she had been knocked unconscious by a maid, in one hit no less, she would probably start doubting her life.


    "The day after tomorrow? But I recall that my friend already started attending sses a few days ago?" Alice was a little surprised to hear Catherine''s words. Although she hadn''t met Zauna for some days now, they had kept in touch with each other through an online messaging application. Zauna had even sent her a message this morning that included a photo of her visiting the academy''s library.


    "The March Royal School of Magic opens its doors one week before the official start of sses. So, some students would start attending school one week ahead of time," Catherine exined. "There are typically two types of students attending the magic academy. The first type is students with great potential. These students would usually start attending school as soon as it opens to prepare for their uing sses. They are good students who are trying to change their fate through studying."


    "I see. It seems Zauna is surprisingly one of those good students," Alicemented, chuckling. Now that she thought back about it, Zauna could indeed be considered a student with great potential, considering that she could already skillfully cast spells after attending only one semester of sses.


    Through browsing the inte, Alice learned that magic academies in this world would typically only teachbat magic starting from high school. Meanwhile, students would learn only theories at grade school and middle school.


    Zauna was currently an apprentice magician in her freshman year of high school. The fact that she managed to cast a fireball against the Boria Wolf King could already be considered an amazing feat.


    "What about the other type of students?"


    Although Alice had already learned why Zauna had attended school early, she still decided to ask Catherine about the second type of student.


    "The other type relies on money or connections to get into the magic academy," Catherine said, seeing no need to hide this information from Alice considering Alice''s identity as the Hero. "These students are typically children from noble households here to receive academic qualifications and inherit their family businesses after they graduate. The academic qualification is solely there to prevent people from questioning their capabilities."


    Indeed,pared to an uneducated heir, it was much better to have an heir with a shiny education. At the very least, that would reduce the criticism others would have, even if everyone was fully aware that the heir''s certificates were bought using money.


    "Since education is nothing but a means of saving face for them, these students would usually only return to school at the appointed time. Of course, we can''t rule out the noble children who really intend to improve their knowledge of magic. It''s just that such cases are an extreme minority," Catherine continued. "Most noble children don''t have any thoughts of furthering their studies in magic, only wishing to inherit their family businesses However, as they have been nurtured as sessors by their respective families, while they might not be capable in the field of magic, they are still quite capable in the field of business."


    "Alright, I think I get the general gist of it," Alice said after listening to Catherine''s exnation. She more or less understood the circumstances surrounding the March Royal School of Magic''s students now. "Looking at it this way, I''m looking very much like those noble children since sses are starting the day after tomorrow."


    "Your position is different, so you naturally cannot be grouped with them, Lord Hero," Catherine said. As the Gryffin King''s direct subordinate, she naturally knew many things that others did not. For example, she knew that Alice wasn''t attending the March Royal School of Magic to learn basic magic. Instead, Alice''s goal was the taboos recorded in the magic academy''s library.


    "Oh, before I forget, I have taken the liberty ofing up with a fake identity for you since you cannot afford to let your identity as the Hero get leaked before you reach maturity," Catherine said, suddenly changing the topic. "I have also informed the academy''s dean and teachers about this fake identity of yours while I was handling your enrollment procedures."


    "Fake identity?" Alice was stunned. "What identity?"


    "King Hatter''s illegitimate daughter," Catherine stated without batting an eye. "I believe you wouldn''t wish to meet with inconveniences and annoyances during your time in the academy. Since you also wish to hide your identity as the Hero, this was the only identity I could think of that could afford you with the greatest authority."


    "...In other words, in the eyes of others, I am the head honcho of the academy''s noble children?" Alice''s mouth twitched when she heard Catherine''s words. She never thought that she would suddenly be the leader of the academy''s dark and evil forces all of a sudden. "Does Chris know about this?"


    "You cannot be considered a noble. Your current identity is that of royalty, or more specifically, the princess," Catherine said without a shred of hesitation. "Also, His Majesty isn''t aware of this matter as of yet. However, I will inform him of itter. His Majesty''s order was for me to do my best to ensure that Lord Hero''s stay in the magic academy remains free of unnecessary interruptions, so I believe he will understand."


    Alice fell silent when she heard Catherine''s words. She also couldn''t help but wonder what kind of reaction Chris would make when he found out about this matter. He most likely did not expect that his onemand to Catherine would result in him acquiring an illegitimate daughter.


    Heavens forbid, Chris had remained single well into his forties for the sake of the country. Now, though, Alice''s identity as his illegitimate daughter would thoroughly ruin his innocent image. Yet, Chris couldn''t even get angry at Catherine for this matter because Catherine had perfectly executed hismand. In a sense, it was his fault for not specifying his orders.


    <em>The position of king really demands high resilience.</em>

 Chapter 101: It’s True, I Am That Illegitimate Daughter

    Chapter 101: It��s True, I Am That Illegitimate Daughter


    The illegitimate daughter of His Majesty Chris Hatter, King of Gryffin Kingdom, was going to attend the March Royal School of Magic as a transfer student!


    There were no secrets that couldst forever. Not to mention, for the sake of preventing Alice from meeting with any unnecessary bullying or harassment at school, Catherine did not instruct the magic academy''s dean and teachers to keep this matter a secret.


    Hence, although the dean and teachers had held themselves back initially, it didn''t take long before some of them started spreading the secret. They probably thought that since so many people were in on the secret, they wouldn''t be found out even if they were to spread it. Thus, on the same day as Catherine told them the secret, the matter of the king''s illegitimate daughter had also spread across the entire magic academy.


    Naturally, after so many people had found out about the matter, it didn''t take long before information got leaked onto the inte. Meanwhile, whenizens learned that King Hatter, who had always maintained a good reputation and didn''t even have a queen, had suddenly gained an illegitimate daughter, the human realm''s inte quickly exploded into an uproar. After all, gossiping about the private life of public figures was something everyone liked doing.


    Alice also had the fortune of witnessing this grand gossip fest the human realm''sizens hosted. Though, she did feel a little weird joining in on the fun, seeing as she was the gossip''s cause and all.


    Apart from information about her fake identity, Alice found that one of the teachers had even leaked her photo that was on her letter of admission. So, her appearance quickly spread across the inte. The good news was that nobody had suspected her of being the Hero or Demon King, just like she had previously expected. The bad news was that her cute appearance matched the word "princess" perfectly, so it took almost no convincing for the inte to recognize her as the Gryffin Kingdom''s "princess"...


    What baffled Alice even more was that some busybodies had used her image to dig through her history. Thenthey found the fake orphan identity the demons had created for her


    Thanks to this,izens had filled the gaps in Alice''s history and even posted their deduction online in the form of a story:


    "Chris Hatter had fallen in love with a blonde girl when he was young. The handsome Hatter and the beautiful girl (presumed ording to Alice''s appearance) fell in love with each other and did even the most intimate things together.


    However, due to Hatter''s career, his family forced him to separate from the girl. Although Hatter had refused to part with the girl, the kind girl decided to leave in secret for the sake of her lover''s future. Depressed by this, Hatter vowed never to marry.


    What Hatter did not know was that the blonde girl was pregnant with his flesh and blood. To avoid interfering with Hatter''s career, the girl gave birth alone in a remote countryside. However, the conditions in the remote countryside were too backward, so the poor girl''s body rapidly deteriorated after giving birth.


    Knowing that her remaining time was short, the girl tearfully ced the young Alice at the doorsteps of an orphanage. Then, she chose to pass away quietly in an unknown location, all by herself. As for Alice, she was taken in by the orphanage.


    Later, with the passage of time, Hatter inadvertently came across Alice and found her resembling her missing lover a lot. Then, after learning of Alice''s situation from the orphanage and guessing who Alice''s mother was, the saddened Hatter brought Alice back and decided to pour all of his love for this beloved daughter of his. Hence, when Alice enrolled into the March Royal School of Magic, Hatter had warned the academy''s dean and teachers so that Alice wouldn''t suffer any bullying from her schoolmates.


    (The above story is purely spection.)"


    "This"


    Alice was rendered speechless when she finished reading the made-up story. She never thought that the fake identity the Four Heavenly Kings came up for her woulde into y like this. Even Catherine probably never expected such a development to ur.


    However, Alice nonchntly shared the LINK post using her Hero''s LINK ount a momentter.


    It was just a fake identity, in any case. Alice didn''t think much of it.


    Not to mention, while it might seem like Alice had gained a father in the eyes of outsiders, Chris definitely wouldn''t dare to treat himself as Alice''s father. Alice was the "Hero," after all. He would be humanity''s sinner if he got on Alice''s bad side after getting cocky.


    While Alice was browsing LINK on her hospital bed with great enthusiasm, she suddenly received a message from Zauna. The content of the message was also the same as she surmised:


    "Alice, how did you be the king''s illegitimate daughter?!"


    Zauna naturally knew of Alice''s origins. After all, Zauna was the first person Alice had met aftering to this world. Alice had even lied, saying that she had lost her memories and couldn''t remember who she was back then.


    Thus, Zauna must''ve been suspicious when she first saw the news of Alice being King Hatter''s illegitimate daughter. However, when she saw that the orphanage theizens uncovered was located in a vige near the Gryffin Forest, she had probably lost confidence and wondered if Alice really was King Hatter''s illegitimate daughter and that she had suffered amnesia after getting lost in the Gryffin Forest.


    With a yful smile on her face, "The rumors on the inte are true. I am Chris''s illegitimate daughter."


    "Thenshould I start calling you ''Your Highness'' when I meet you now?" Zauna replied, ending her message with a weary emoji.


    "You didn''t react so nervously when you found out that I was the Hero, so why are you getting nervous after finding out that I am a princess?"


    Alice couldn''t help but find her friend''s reaction funny. Not only did Zauna not get nervous after finding out that she was the Hero, but the other party had even continued calling her "Alice."


    "I was also nervous back then, okay? It took me a few days before I got used to it," Zauna replied, her message conveying her dissatisfied tone. "Moreover, how can a Hero and a princess be the same thing? Heroes typically don''t concern themselves with the affairs of ordinary people, while the actions of a princess have a direct impact on the lives of ordinary people."


    Reading Zauna''s reply, Alice felt that her friend''s reasoning made sense. It was just like how farmers living in the countryside didn''t care about Chris''s personal affairs. After all, Chris''s personal affairs wouldn''t have any impact on their daily lives. However, these farmers would definitely be concerned about their vige chief''s affairs. This was because the vige chief''s every action would more or less impact their lives.


    "Alright, don''t get too hung up over it. The princess thing is a lie. It''s a cover to help me avoid harassment and annoying situations in the academy." After giving the matter some thought, Alice decided that it was best that she told Zauna the truth. "You know that many noble children are attending the academy, right? These people are bound to get into conflict with students from normal families at some point. Meanwhile, a certain someone worried that I would get involved in those hassles, so she came up with this fake identity for me to use as a deterrence."


    "I see." Realization dawned upon Alice. However, her following words dumbfounded Alice a little. "But I''m afraid that person has made a well-intentioned mistake. You might not know this since you haven''te to school yet, but almost every noble student has been told to return to school today by their respective families because of you. This is probably the first time since the academy''s inception that so many noble students havee to school before the official start of sses."


    It was Saturday today, and sses would only officially begin on Monday. Going by their habit, the noble sons and daughters should be rxing at home right about now and only return to the academy on Monday. Yet, almost all of these noble sons and daughters had returned to the academy today at the behest of their respective families.


    <em>Why didn''t I think of it Harassment doesn''t necessarily need toe from a hostile party. It could alsoe from someone trying to curry favor</em>


    Alice palmed her face when she realized this fatal w. While having an influential and powerful identity could help her avoid getting targeted for no good reason, it could also lead to her facing the harassment of noble students trying to curry favor with royalty.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to behave less friendly in the academy and hope that these people will leave me alone.</em>

 Chapter 102: I Understood Nothing Whatsoever

    Chapter 102: I Understood Nothing Whatsoever


    Alice stayed in the hospital for two days before getting discharged. Aside from the minor incident where she and Luna knocked out a bunch of people, nothing else special happened throughout her hospital stay.


    Honestly, the fact that she had met the real Hero, met the real Demon King, and driven Demon King''s Power out of the Demon King''s body within a span of ten days was already plenty incredible. If anything simr happened during her stay in the hospital, she would have to start wondering if something was making her body attractive to the Hero and Demon King.


    Today was the March Royal School of Magic''s official admission day. So, Alice got up early and let Luna help her get dressed.


    Alice had to admit that Luna''s work efficiency as a maid was excellent. The former Demon King had seamlessly integrated herself into the identity of a maid. Everything a maid could do, Luna could do. Luna also yed a vital role in keeping Alice''s hospital ward as clean as when she was admitted into it.


    "Do you want to try a new hairstyle, Alice?" Luna asked whilebing Alice''s long blonde hair.


    The amenities provided in the high-ss ward were naturally much more luxurious than that of ordinary wards. There was even a dressing table prepared in the room.


    "Change hairstyles?"


    Alice froze for a moment when she heard Luna''s proposal. Then, she suddenly remembered her previous dilemma of not being able to find her panties when fighting with Luna. Specifically, she thought back to the idea she came up with at the time.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice jumped down from the chair, ran to the bed, and pulled out a small cloth pouch from under the pillow. Then, she ran back to the dresser chair, sat down, and handed the pouch to Luna:


    "See if you can use this to tie my hair into twintails."


    "What''s this? A hair tie?"


    Luna''s expression was calm, but her tone had a touch of confusion in it as she took the pouch from Alice and opened itrevealing the five panties neatly folded inside the pouch.


    These were all panties Alice had snatched from the Loli Goddess''s drawer when she visited the Loli Goddess the other day. Moreover, after secretly testing the panties, she found that these were all worn panties. In other words, they could be used as weapons. Hence, she had carefully stored them away under her pillow.


    So long as a pair of panties had been worn for a certain amount of time, it wouldn''t matter even if it had been washed. Alice''s right hand would still deem it a weapon of mass destruction rather than just a piece of cloth. It was also precisely because these panties were clean that Alice had dared to make such a suggestion.


    Luna fell silent when she looked at the pouch of panties in her hands. She could understand why Alice wanted to use panties as hair ties. After all, she had watched Alice transforming panties into taboos tounch at the Demon King''s Power that night.


    However, Luna never expected Alice to dare carry out such a bold move.


    These were panties they were talking about. While they might look like ordinary hair ties so long as she tied them properly, there was still the risk of them unraveling in a public space. If others were to find out that Alice was using panties as hair ties, it would spell instant social death for her.


    "What''s wrong? Can''t do it?" Alice turned around and asked after hearing no response from Luna. "If it''s no good, just forget about it, then."


    "No problem!" Luna immediately replied in affirmation when she heard Alice''s words. At the same time, she couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. It couldn''t be helped. She was Alice''s maid. Since Alice had already made such a request, she naturally had to follow it.


    Luna''s wish since young was to stand by the Hero''s side. After discovering that Alice was the Hero, her resistance toward Alice had vanished almostpletely. Now, she would do almost anything Alice asked of her. After all, the Hero was her only spiritual pir in life right now.


    The five pairs of panties in the pouch were of varying colors. After thinking for a moment, Luna chose a pair of yellow-striped panties and a pair of pure white panties. The color of these two panties matched Alice''s hair, so their true identity wouldn''t be easily discovered.


    Next, Luna carefully helped Alice tie her hair into twintails using these two panties. She also tried to make them as inconspicuous as possible.


    "It looks good."


    Alice shook her head in satisfaction when she looked at her figure in the dressing mirror, her two long ponytails swaying from side to side. This new hairstyle had further enhanced her cuteness. Though, the downside was that she looked even younger. Now, it was even less likely that anyone would find her to be a deterrence. However, she did not need to use her identity as the Hero right now, so it didn''t really matter even if her appearance didn''t deter people. The most important thing now was to make herself look as harmless as possible. Only after she had learned the taboo spells in the magic academy''s library should she start considering other things.


    "But then again, why is there so much information on taboo spells stored in the academy''s library?" Alice curiously asked while she sorted out her luggage by the bed. "Those are taboos, after all. Even if normal people can''t understand them, it still doesn''t make sense to put such sensitive information in a public ce."


    "Taboos are just a means of research. Even if one cannot cast them, the many principles used in the formation of a taboo spell can still provide one a lot of help in the study of magic," Luna said. She had learned about many things during her time in the kingdom''s intelligence department, so she had no trouble answering Alice''s questions.


    "Take the rtively well-known Inferno, for example. It is a fire-attributed taboo invented by several researchers roughly two centuries ago. Although the average magician is incapable of casting this taboo, the principle behind this spell has provided theoretical support for the invention of many magic creations."


    Upon hearing the example Luna gave, realization quickly dawned upon Alice.


    "The stove we normally use is actually an extremely simplified and miniaturized Inferno. There are also the power nts that the various countries and races use nowadays. These power nts are essentially a mechanical simtion of a mini Inferno."


    "The way you put it makes me a little interested in this taboo. Does March''s library have records on Inferno?" Alice asked. However, before Luna could answer, Alice continued, "In other words, these taboos are ced in the library mainly to let others reference the theoretical knowledge inside, right?"


    "Yes. The significance of these taboos is more for reference than actual use. Even with the help of machines, normal people would have a hard time casting most taboos. It is simply impossible to cast aplete taboo with the mana and skills of a single individual. Even if one attempts to cast a taboo without the help of machines, it would require plenty of preparation and the joint effort of many magicians," Luna said, nodding.


    "Of course, some gifted people can also rely on their innate talent and understanding to learn or develop taboos that they could use. Even so, every cast of a taboo would ce a huge burden on their bodies. Take the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings and the warrior named Catherine, for example. I believe that they can cast taboos by themselves, but they will most likely copse from exhaustion after doing so."


    "Yet, the Demon King and Hero are capable of casting taboos effortlessly. It''s no wonder why nobody can ever intervene in a fight between the Hero and Demon King."


    After packing her school bag and suitcase, Alice nodded and turned around. "Very good. I am starting to understand everything now. Let''s go, Luna."

 Chapter 103: The Heros Sword is Misbehaving Again

    Chapter 103: The Hero''s Sword is Misbehaving Again


    The March Royal School of Magic was quite some distance outside Holl City. So, even though Alice and Luna had set off for the magic academy in the morning, it was already noon when they reached it.


    As a well-known academy for nobles, the March Royal School of Magic upied a huge plot ofnd almost the size of a town, and it held facilities to teach students from grade school to university.


    It made sense when Alice thought about it. Since noble families were sending their children here to have them "ted in gold," bribes in the name of sponsorship would be involved. Meanwhile, since the academy had received so much funding, it was only natural that the academy would be such a luxurious ce.


    Of course, the March Royal School of Magic didn''t just look exquisite on the surface. The academy''s teaching faculty and research results were also the best in the Gryffin Kingdom. Even the previous generation''s Hero hade here to study. It was also why despite being a school for nobility, countless ordinary students still wished to join the academy.


    Taking advantage of this renown, the March Royal School of Magic would charge exorbitant fees from nobles and offer schrships to excellent students, creating a positive cycle that ensured the academy with a constant influx of both funding and talent.


    "It sure looks imposing."


    When Alice got out of the car, the first thing that entered her sight was the March Royal School of Magic''s huge and gorgeous school gate. The next thing she noticed was the fence extending from the gate and covering the entire town-sized campus. Every iron bar used to form this fence had magic patterns engraved on them, and these magic patterns functioned to prevent those with malicious intent from harming the academy''s students.


    There was also a huge device that functioned like a detector hovering above the academy entrance, scanning the direction of the gate. Anyone who entered the academy without a student ID or entrance pass would get caught immediately.


    At first nce, anyone who arrived in front of the March Royal School of Magic''s entrance would get the feeling that the magic academy was extremely wealthy. After all, it wasn''t cheap to engrave iron bars with defensive magic patterns. Magic patterns thate with offensive capabilities were even more expensive. Yet, the March Academy[1] engraved every iron bar surrounding the massive school campus with such magic patterns. The expenditure involved was far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.


    "Many noble students are attending the academy, after all. Without these security measures in ce, the consequences would be dire if someone plotted an attack against the academy."


    After parking the car, Luna also stepped down from the driver''s seat. Since she had already left the hospital, she had naturally changed into a brand new maid outfit again, looking the same as when Alice first met her. Unlike when they first met, though, Luna was now Alice''s maid.


    "The entrance is surprisingly deserted. If it was in the past, there should be many noble children arriving at the academy right about now," Lunamented as she looked around the entrance.


    "That''s because they are already inside waiting for me," Alice said, massaging her temples. Just thinking about what awaited her gave her a headache.


    Originally, Alice had nned to start researching taboos as soon as she arrived at the academy. However, when she considered that many noble students were most likely going to annoy her for some time, she felt that she might have to dy her ns. Only after getting rid of those nobles could she do her things with peace of mind.


    Fortunately, because of theck of people at the academy''s entrance, Alice''s arrival did not cause an uproar.


    Alice''s new identity was currently the most trending topic on the inte. Not only was she the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, but she even had an incredibly cute appearance befitting of that identity. If she chose to be an idol instead of a Hero, she would probably be swimming in money in no time.


    Alice even found that some people had started writing romance novels involving the Hero and the princess when browsing the inte. It was an incredibly strange experience seeing these novels


    "We should report to the dean''s office first before anyone notices you," Luna said as she helped Alice with her luggage. "If someone notices that you''ve arrived, it will most definitely lead to a huge uproar Those nobles have never managed to find a good way to get in His Majesty''s favor and acquire political information from him. Your appearance is like a breakthrough for them, so those nobles will definitely flock to you like sharks that have smelled blood."


    "Okay, let''s go and report in to the dean, then."


    Alice nodded in agreement. Through her adventures on the inte these past two days, she knew how big of amotion she had caused in the kingdom. So, she dared not spend too much time standing out in the open and quickly followed Luna to the school gate.


    Though, curiously enough, Alice hadn''t seen Chris again after Catherine had arranged her fake identity as Chris''s illegitimate daughter for her. She couldn''t help but wonder what kind of mood Chris was currently in.


    While spitefully guessing Chris''s mental state, Alice quickly walked past the school gate. Alice''s student ID and Luna''s admission pass were engraved with magic patterns containing a specific type of mana. So, the two of them sessfully walked past the detection device suspended above the school gate.


    Much like outside the gate, the area beyond the gate was also void of people. It was noon, so everyone was either having lunch or resting somewhere. Thus, the huge za Alice arrived in after walking past the gate looked a little bleak.


    When Luna was about to continue leading the way, Alice suddenly stopped, extended a hand into her pocket, and pulled out her phone.


    "Huh?"


    Alice was stunned when she looked at her phone. However, it wasn''t because something had changed with her phone. On the contrary, it was because her phone was motionless that she was surprised.


    The reason why Alice had stopped walking was because she felt something on her body vibrating. She had initially thought it was her phone, but that didn''t seem to be the case after seeing no iing calls or texts. There were no app notifications, either. The phone was in the same state as when shest checked it before getting out of the car.


    Moreover, even after taking out her phone, Alice could still feel something vibrating on her body. After focusing more on sensing the vibrations, she discovered that the vibrations came from the small pouch tied to her waist.


    Besides the three pairs of panties Alice had swiped from the Loli Goddess, the only other thing the pouch stored was the weapon storage holding the Hero''s Sword.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice quickly untied the pouch from her waist and opened it. Then, she stretched her hand into the pouch and retrieved the small weapon storage. Sure enough, the vibrations originated from the weapon storage. Even after Alice took it out, the small wooden box continued vibrating incessantly in her hand like a phone set to vibrate.


    However, the weapon storage itself was merely a cheap storage unit. Apart from having a tiny bit of spatial magic, nothing else was special about it. The mana it carried was so weak that it couldn''t vibrate even if a mana surge happened nearby.


    So, the vibrations shouldn''te from the weapon storage itself but the item stored inside it instead.


    Alice frowned when she realized this point. Then, after looking around and making sure that nobody was around, she opened the weapon storage. Immediately afterward, the Hero''s Sword radiating golden light flew out from the storage box and hovered in front of Alice.


    TL Notes:


    [1]I will be using "March Academy" to refer to the "March Royal School of Magic" outside of official settings since "March Royal School of Magic" is a mouthful.

 Chapter 104: Anyway, Let’s Touch It With My Right Hand First

    Chapter 104: Anyway, Let��s Touch It With My Right Hand First


    Normally, the Hero''s Sword would look no different from an ordinary sword. The only thing that differentiated it from ordinary swords was the magic patterns engraved by God. These magic patterns could not be imitated no matter how much one tried, allowing others to instantly recognize that the Hero''s Sword was not a forgery.


    In other words, under normal circumstances, the Hero''s Sword wouldn''t suddenly start flying on its own ord, nor would it give off a golden glow. There must be some special reason that had caused the Hero''s Sword to suddenly gain such a function.


    Although Alice didn''t know why the Hero''s Sword had suddenly started behaving like this, she knew that she would know what had caused these changes so long as she checked it out with her right hand. So, without hesitation, Alice reached out for the glowing Hero''s Sword''s hilt with her right hand.


    Fortunately, while the Hero''s Sword might have suddenly started moving on its own, Alice still had the right to use the sword. So, the Hero''s Sword did not try to break free from her grip and allowed her right hand to recognize it as a weapon like normal. Subsequently, the Hero''s Sword''s information also appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Okay]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +8000, Speed +8000, Mind +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul);


    Fearless Will (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic. Individuals or objects that try to apply mental magic on you will suffer a bacsh);


    Hero''s Call (Passive Skill. The Hero''s Sword can hear the Hero''s call and answer it.)]


    Sure enough, an extra skill had appeared at the bottom of the description. Only, looking at this skill confused Alice a little. What did it mean by answering the Hero''s call?


    However, Alice quickly understood what it meant since after she had wielded the Hero''s Sword, she, too, had gained the passive effects of the Hero''s Call skill. In other words, Alice could also hear the "Hero" calling the Hero''s Sword, as evidenced by the soft female voice currently echoing in her head:


    "Enheria, bring your master to me."


    <em>Enheria?</em>


    Alice was momentarily stunned. Then, she quickly realized that it was the Hero''s Sword''s previous name. After messing up the Hero''s Sword''s name twice in a row, Alice had almost forgotten that the sword was originally called Enheria.


    Evidently, someone was calling out to the Hero''s Sword right now. Moreover, this person must not know that Alice had acquired the "Hero''s Call" skill and could also hear her call.


    <em>Since the Hero''s Call skill only works with the Hero, doesn''t this mean that the person currently calling out to the Hero''s Sword is a real Hero?</em>


    Alice frowned. Aird should be the current generation''s Hero. Not only did Alice verify this with her right hand, but even the Loli Goddess, the God of this world, had personally acknowledged that she had appointed Aird as this generation''s Hero.


    However, although the voice that just rang in her head wasn''t very loud, Alice was sure that it wasn''t Aird''s voice. Moreover, Aird should be in the demon realm right now, so she wouldn''t have any reason to call out to the Hero''s Sword.


    Alice had a faint guess of who the other party was now. So, she calmed her heart and spread out her senses.


    Going by the skill''s description, she shouldn''t be limited to just hearing the Hero''s summons. She should also be able to give a response.


    Sure enough, shortly after Alice spread out her senses, she could vaguely perceive the direction of the person calling out to the Hero''s Sword. Then, she turned to Luna, who stood beside her, and said:


    "Someone''s calling out to the Hero''s Sword. I n to meet her. Do you want toe with me?"


    As a former Demon King, Luna was an existence that had drawn upon some of the Demon King''s Power''s strength. She was already qualified to participate in the fight between the Hero and the Demon King. If it came down to a fight, even the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings wouldn''tst more than a few moves against her. Of course, Aird the Hero was an exception.


    "It is naturally my duty to follow you as your maid," Luna said, nodding. "Moreover, you stillck any conventional means ofbat, right, Alice? You can only rely on casting taboos once a fight ensues. I can help solve your problems during such predicaments."


    "That''s true."


    Alice had no words to refute Luna. It was true that shecked conventional means ofbat right now. Once a fight began, she would have to use her panties to cast taboos. However, that would create a hugemotion, and she honestly didn''t wish to cause a huge scene on her first day of school.


    "Let''s go before people start showing up, then."


    Fortunately, it was currently lunchtime, so there was nobody by the school gate, so Alice could boldly run about with the Hero''s Sword in her hand. Moreover, even if they came across the asional passersby, she could simply have Luna erase their memories. Unless she caused a massivemotion to a point where Luna couldn''t handle the situation, she wasn''t all that worried about people finding out her identity.


    With the Hero''s Sword in hand, Alice led Luna to the woods on the campus.


    With how massive the academy campus was, it was only normal for it to have some natural vegetation to beautify the scenery. In fact, the woods ounted for a considerable part of the campus. There were even many magical creatures raised in the forest. During the short time Alice had entered the forest, she had encountered many small animals roaming the woond already. She even spotted Milu Rabbits.


    However, unlike the unconscious Milu Rabbit hanging off Alice''s waist, these wild Milu Rabbits weren''t very smart apparently. They even dared to hiss and bare their teeth against Alice.


    Soon, Alice located the source of the voicea small clearing in the middle of the forest. The circr clearing looked unnatural in this lush forest. Moreover, a small stone monument was erected in the middle of this clearing. At a nce, anyone could tell that this stone monument wasn''t normal.


    However, many people should have visited this ce frequently, judging by the footprints decorating the clearing. And judging by the fact that the monument still stood here, the students and instructors who visited this ce must not have noticed anything special about it.


    But Alice was different. Although she, too, couldn''t see anything special about the monument, she could see something else.


    Under Luna''s gaze that said "I knew it," Alice inserted the Hero''s Sword into the ground and walked up to the small monument. Then, she crouched down and touched it with her right hand.

 Chapter 105: Speechless.jpg

    Chapter 105: Speechless.jpg


    If Alice couldn''t understand something, all she needed to do was touch it with her right hand. So long as it isn''t an object that could put up a struggle, her right hand would deem it a weapon and provide her with the corresponding effects.


    [Weapon: Soul Gathering Tablet - Kristine Specific]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Strength +300, Mind +500, Control +500, Mana +500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Soul Attachment (Active Skill. You can attach your soul to this weapon);


    Soul Shockwave (Active Skill. Launch a spiritual attack using your soul. The strength of the attack depends on the strength of the user''s soul.)]


    <em>This skill looks familiar</em>


    Alice was a little surprised when she learned of the small monument''s abilities. She had seen the skill called "Soul Attachment" before, and it was even on the Radioactive Soul Stone she had smashed with her bare fists.


    The Radioactive Soul Stone had been home to the previous generation''s Demon King''s soul. So, ording to this stone tablet''s name, it should be home to the soul of "Kristine," right?


    Although Alice didn''t know who Kristine was, since this person was using a Legendary-grade stone tablet to house her soul, she must be someone strong. After all, this Soul Gathering Tablet was only one grade lower than the Radioactive Soul Stone used to house Grant''s soul.


    As Alice had left the Hero''s Sword behind her, she no longer had ess to the Hero''s Call skill. So, logically, it shouldn''t be possible for her to continue hearing the voice calling out to the Hero''s Stone.


    However, as Alice was holding onto this stone tablet deeply embedded into the ground, she gained "ownership" over the table. So, Alice managed to hear the person inside the tablet nheless when the other party spoke:


    "Enheria seems to have arrived I can feel it, but why is it still so far away I need it toe closer"


    The voice sounded just like the previous voice that had called out to the Hero''s Sword. Although the voice sounded nervous, Alice found it quite pleasant to the ears.


    Meanwhile, after hearing what the voice said, Alice couldn''t help but turn to look at the Hero''s Sword inserted into the ground some distance behind her. She had stabbed the sword into the ground before entering the clearing by herself. Judging by this situation, the soul attached to this Soul Gathering Tablet must be hoping to get closer to the Hero''s Sword.


    <em>How troublesome.</em>


    After uttering aint in her mind, Alice removed her right hand from the stone tablet and walked back to the Hero''s Sword. Then, she drew the Hero''s Sword from the ground, returned to the tablet, and stabbed the sword into the ground before the tablet.


    "This should be enough, right?"


    Although it looked a little strange to be talking to empty space, Alice was aware that a person''s soul inhabited the tablet in front of her. So, her words were directed to the person inside the tablet.


    A momentter, the tablet started emitting a golden glow that enveloped the entire clearing. Immediately afterward, a hazy figure emerged from the tablet.


    However, as the golden glow gradually faded, the blurry figure became clearer and clearer. When the golden glow vanishedpletely, Alice saw that the person in front of her looked no different than an ordinary person. Though, if one stared very closely, one would notice that this person''s body was still a little see-through.


    Her long light-blue hair seemingly swaying with the wind, the girl who looked rtively young opened her eyes. Then, the girl looked toward Alice and greeted, "Hello, new Hero."


    The girl was seemingly pretending to look stern. Unfortunately, the girl failed to realize that Alice had overheard all of her nervous mutterings inside the tablet.


    "Hello there, Kristine," Alice said, chuckling. By now, she already had a faint idea who this person in front of her was. "You must be the previous generation''s Hero, right?"


    "Huh? You know my name?" Kristine froze, the serious expression she put on crumbling in an instant. Then, she panicked a little as she asked, "Could it be that my real name has been leaked? It can''t be, right/"


    "Don''t worry. Nobody else knows your real name. I only came to know of it because of special circumstances," Alice reassured with a smile. She failed to recognize Kristine at the first moment because this Hero had used a fake name while she was still in active service.


    There was also a good reason for Kristine to use a fake name. Unlike Alice, Kristine was a native of this world, which meant that her family also lived in this world. Had she used her real name to conduct her Hero activities, some demons might track down her family members and strike at them to get revenge on Kristine. Hence, for her family''s safety, Kristine chose to use a fake name throughout her time as Hero.


    "Is that so? That''s great Although my family members should''ve passed away already after such a long time, I should still have some blood rtives around."


    Kristine sighed in relief when she heard her "junior''s" words. Although it had been over three centuries since her time as the Hero, there was no saying that some long-lived demons mighte to take revenge on her surviving blood rtives.


    "You called out to the Hero''s Sword just now, right?" Removing the Hero''s Sword from the ground, Alice looked at Kristine and asked, "Do you have some business with it?"


    "The Hero''s Sword is closely rted to the Hero. By calling it, I was actually calling for you toe over," Kristine said while taking a nce at Luna, who stood a short distance behind Alice. Seeing that Alice did not intend on telling Luna to move away, she simply said, "The reason why I called you over is that I have something I need you to deal with. The previous generation''s Demon King, Grant Morax, is most likely still alive.


    "That bastard is very cunning. I initially thought that he only had gravity magic as his secondary magic, but during our final battle, I sensed that he could also use soul magic!


    "Just like my present self, I''m guessing that Grant has also attached his soul to a medium somewhere, so"


    Kristine revealed all of the information she knew about the previous generation''s Demon King with a serious expression. Then, she looked at Alice solemnly and said, "Before Grant revives, we have to get rid of him first! Otherwise, once he revives and returns to full strength, you''ll have to face not just one, but two Demon Kings!"


    Seeing the serious and distressed expression on Kristine''s face, Alice couldn''t help but wonder whether she should tell her the truth.


    After all, she had already killed Grant with a pair of panties

 Chapter 106: No Need to Talk About Morality With Him

    Chapter 106: No Need to Talk About Morality With Him


    "What?! You dealt with Grant already?!"


    Kristine''s information was already long outdated. So, after waiting for her "senior" to finish, Alice chose to inform the other party that she had already defeated Grant. Then, as expected, Kristine was greatly taken aback by the news.


    "Has the current Hero already grown so strong?" Kristine muttered to herself in disbelief.


    However, Kristine couldn''t be med for being surprised. After all, she was the Hero who had fought with Grant, so she knew how challenging an opponent the Demon King was. Even after imprisoning his physical body, she dared not let down her guard at all.


    However, Kristine never expected that as soon as she spoke about the possibility of Grant being still alive, she would learn that the new Hero before her had already defeated him.


    "He was surviving in the form of a soul, after all. He was incredibly weak when I met him. Although he managed to recover some of his strength by absorbing a demon''s mana, he didn''t make a full recovery, so it wasn''t too difficult to beat him."


    Alice was too embarrassed to say that she had defeated Grant using a pair of panties. Even if Kristine wasn''t an enemy, it was best if few people knew about her strange ability.


    "Is that so I guess that makes sense. After leaving his physical body, his soul should''ve lost all of its mana, so he''d have to rely on external mana or tools to use magic. Unless he has already reconstructed his physical body, he wouldn''t be a threat to a Hero," Kristine muttered as realization dawned upon her. Then, she sighed and said, "In that case, I don''t have any more lingering attachments in this world. I had originally prepared myself to stay here for several thousand years, but I didn''t think I would hear such good news in just three hundred years."


    There were five human kingdoms in the human realm. Hence, the Hero wouldn''t necessarily appear in the Gryffin Kingdom, nor would the Hero necessarily study in the March Royal School of Magic. Hence, from the very beginning, Kristine had prepared herself to wait here for a long, long time until a Hero visited the magic academy.


    "Actually, doesn''t your soul look pretty much intact? Since that''s the case, why don''t you find a way to recreate a physical body and live again?" Alice hurriedly said when she saw that Kristine was preparing to move on to the afterlife. "You are a Hero, aren''t you? If you recreate a body and help us, wouldn''t we have two Heroes in this generation?"


    If Grant had sessfully recreated his body, it would mean that this generation''s Hero would have to deal with two Demon Kings. Likewise, if Kristine could get resurrected, wouldn''t that mean the human realm would gain another Hero? The opponent Alice needed to deal with wasn''t the Demon King, but the Demon King''s Power, the root of all Demon Kings, instead. Hence, she could never have too muchbat power on her side.


    Not to mention, Kristine looked like a gullible person. Alice felt that it''d be a pity not to trick her.


    "Wouldn''t thisbe inappropriate?"


    Kristine hesitated. She had to admit that Alice''s proposal was very tempting.


    Simr to Grant, Kristine had lived miserably these past three centuries. After all, having nobody to talk to for so many years was an incredibly agonizing experience.


    Of course, Kristine''s situation was slightly better than Grant''s. The Radioactive Soul Stone Grant inhabited had caused everyone to distance themselves from Demon King City, so he had essentially spent the past three centuries without meeting a single person. The Soul Gathering Tablet Kristine inhabited, on the other hand, evidently didn''t have such a problem judging by the footprints that covered this forest clearing. Many students should have passed by this area frequently. Hence, Kristine''s sanity hadn''t been pushed as far as Grant''s yet.


    Meanwhile, after learning that Alice had defeated Grant, Kristine''s first thought was that she could finally be relieved of her duty and let her soul dissipate from this world. However, she started changing her mind after hearing Alice''s words.


    Living a new life sounded like a good idea. While a normal person''s soul would have certainly disappeared after three hundred years, even if it was preserved using special means, the souls of Heroes and Demon Kings were different. The strength of their souls far surpassed that of ordinary people. Thus, even after three centuries had passed, it was still entirely possible for them to recreate their bodies and live properly again.


    However, recreating a physical body wasn''t an easy task. Hence, Kristine was still a little worried about Alice''s suggestion.


    "My soul doesn''t have any mana in its current state. Moreover, my magical affinities are light magic and psychokinesis. Unlike Grant, I can''t use gravity magic to influence mana So, even if I wanted to, I don''t have a way of recreating my body."


    <em>So Grant had relied on gravity magic to absorb mana? This is the first time I''m hearing about this. </em>Alice understood Kristine''s concerns, so she said, "You can rest assured on this matter. All you need to do is tell me how to recreate your body, and I will figure out a solution. You should be able to trust in me, right?"


    "Of course. Anyone the Hero''s Sword chooses must have a soul of high purity," Kristine said, smiling and nodding when she heard Alice''s words.


    However, when a certain maid standing behind Alice heard Kristine''s words, she couldn''t help but look at Alice skeptically. Although Luna wasn''t thinking of betraying Alice, could someone who used panties as weapons really have a pure soul?


    "The method to reconstruct a body isn''t particrly challenging. All you need to do is find an alchemist with at least a master''s degree and use the elven race''s Seed of Nature as a medium to refine a prototype body that can amodate a soul. Then, my soul will be able to move into the body." Kristine readily revealed the method of resurrection she knew of after reaching an agreement with Alice. "It might be difficult for the average person to fulfill these conditions, but it should be rtively easy for the Hero."


    Alice was aware of the alchemist profession. Alchemy was a somewhat special branch of study in this world where magic existed. Although alchemy also involved mana, research on alchemy was mainly rted to the transmutation of elements. Many modern magical creations couldn''t have existed without the help of alchemy.


    Meanwhile, the elven race was a race that lived in a forest connecting the human and demon realms. Like the elves Alice had read about before transmigrating, the elves here were long-lived creatures with stunning appearances. They were also very adept at utilizing the magical elements avable in nature.


    In the modern era, the percentage of magicians that studied alchemy was incredibly small. Alchemists with a master''s degree were even rarer. Meanwhile, the elves'' Seed of Nature was a precious seed that could improve the mana content of an area after nting it into the ground. It, too, was an incredibly raremodity.


    Under normal circumstances, it would indeed be very difficult to fulfill these two conditions. However, that was only true for normal people. It was a different story for the Hero.


    The various human kingdoms shared good diplomatic rtions with the elves. If the Hero were to ask the elves for a Seed of Nature, the elves were more than likely to agree to the request.


    After all, once the human and demon realms went to war, the elves, who lived in the boundary of the two realms, would be affected to a certain extent. Meanwhile,pared to the Demon King, an existence born of hatred, the elves were naturally more inclined to get in the Hero''s favor.


    Of course, if Grant had used the demon realm''s influence to exert pressure on the elves, he could probably obtain a Seed of Nature as well. However, Alice had already defeated Grant with a pair of panties, so she could be considered to have helped the elves get rid of a hidden problem. Probably.

 Chapter 107: Her Highness Alice Likes to Cosplay?

    Chapter 107: Her Highness Alice Likes to Cosy?


    "Greetings, Your Highness."


    Inside the March Royal School of Magic''s Dean''s Office, the elderly dean seated behind the desk voiced his greetings as he looked at Alice, who sat across him, and the maid who stood beside her.


    "I was given quite the fright when I heard that King Hatter''s daughter would be attending our school." the old dean said merrily.


    "Her Highness Alice has only recently found out about her status, so some of her behaviors might not match noble etiquette. Please understand that, Dean," Luna replied on Alice''s behalf.


    As Alice didn''t know how she should behave like a princess, Luna did most of the talking for her. Meanwhile, as an intelligence agent and an all-around maid, Luna had no problem helping Alice cope with the conversation attempts of other people. At the very least, she could do it much better than Alice.


    "As Her Highness''s maid, I will also do my best to help her integrate into academy life as quickly as possible."


    "Haha! You don''t have to mind those things. This school doesn''t just have nobles. There are plenty ofmoner students as well," the old dean said, chuckling. What he said was also the truth. There were plenty ofmoner students attending the March Royal School of Magic. Though, he had left out the minor detail of these students being incredibly talented and capable. "However, forgive me for asking this, Your Highness, but what is the thing hanging off your waist and the thing you are carrying on your back"


    The dean had wanted to ask these questions when he firstid eyes on Alice. However, only now did he find the opportunity to do so.


    There was no problem with Alice''s attire at first nce. She had already changed into the college''s uniforma white magic robeso she looked very much like the magicians one could find all around the school campus. However, what <em>was </em>a problem was the unconscious Milu Rabbit hanging off of Alice''s waist. If he wasn''t an aplished researcher in mana, he wouldn''t have noticed the faint trace of mana within the Milu Rabbit, and he would''ve probably assumed that the Milu Rabbit was simply a doll.


    In addition, there was also a small stone tablet tied to Alice''s back with a rope. The old dean recognized this stone tablet. It was the stone tablet situated in a small clearing inside the small forest near the academy''s entrance.


    Although the old dean wasn''t aware of the tablet''s exact origins, ever since he took over as the March Royal School of Magic''s dean, the stone tablet had already existed in that small clearing. Meanwhile, the students treated that clearing as a sacred confession ground, so the tablet had be a witness to countless confessions.


    There were naturally people who had ideas about the stone tablet in the past. After all, the stone tablet had remained unchanged even after sitting in that clearing for so many years. It was bound to have some special and valuable properties. However, nobody had ever seeded in digging it upthat was until Alice came.


    "Oh, this? It''s my pet," Alice said with a smile as she petted the unconscious Milu Rabbit''s head.


    Who would carry their pets around in an unconscious state and hanging by their ears no lesswas what the old dean wanted to say. However, he refrained from doing so out of his fear for Alice''s identity. Although he was the March Royal School of Magic''s dean, he still worked under the kingdom''s education department. King Hatter could easily have him out of work tomorrow with a single order. So, the old dean suppressed his desire to voice his thoughts.


    "As for the tablet on my back, I''ll put it away after I return to my dormitory. I won''t carry it around with me all the time," Alice said as she turned around to look at the tablet on her back. She naturally had to take the Soul Gathering Tablet holding Kristine''s soul with her. After all, she couldn''t possibly leave Kristine by herself at that clearing until she helped Kristine reconstruct her body, right?


    No, my point isn''t whether you will carry the tablet around all the time, but why you dug it up in the first ce?


    The old dean had many questions he wanted to ask, but he eventually converted them into a heavy sigh. After all, while he did find Alice''s behavior strange, the princess at least seemed like an amicable personprobably?


    Although most noble students were well-mannered, there were bound to be exceptions. Meanwhile, these exceptions would typically treat him with disregard while relying on the fact that their parents held a high official position. It was especially true for noble students who had lost their sibling rivalries at home. These students would typically behave like little tyrants at school to vent their anger and frustration. The worst part was that the old dean couldn''t do anything about these disrespectful troublemakers.


    The princess was much better inparison.


    "I have already prepared your dormitory for you, Your Highness. Following Catherine''s request, I have also arranged for the student named Zauna to share a room with you," the old dean said, wisely choosing to ignore the Milu Rabbit and stone tablet. "Zauna has excellent grades. Seeing as you are friends with her, you can ask her for help if you encounter any problems in your studies, Your Highness."


    "Are you well acquainted with Catherine, Dean?" Alice asked. She was a little curious to hear the old dean referring to the royal guard captain directly by her name.


    "That''s right. Catherine also studied in March in the past. However, after studying magic here, she went on to integrate magic into swordsmanship, creating techniques that are more suitable forbat than research, so she didn''t remain in the academy as a teacher," the old dean said, chuckling.


    Although most magicians in this era tended to focus more on technical research than actualbat ability, there was no doubt thatbat ability was also very useful. Whether one joined the army or the royal guards, both required strongbat capabilities to perform their duties.


    "Eh... So Catherine also graduated from here."


    Alice was a little surprised. When Catherine previously invited her to military school, she thought that Catherine had graduated from there. She didn''t think that the woman was a graduate of the March Royal School of Magic instead.


    "The curriculum in March is rtively rxing. I believe you should know the reason well, Your Highness," the old dean said, smiling as he looked at Alice.


    In response, Alice nodded knowingly. Many noble students were attending the academy solely to pass the time, so the academy''s curriculum naturally couldn''t be too stressful.


    "However, apart from the required courses, we offer many elective courses. Once you are done choosing your major and minor magic courses, you are free to choose whatever elective course you wish to learn."


    The elective courses were prepared specially for themoner students. Unlike the noble students who were here to pass the time, everymoner student attending the March Royal School of Magic was someone looking to improve their standing in society. So, they would naturally take their studies more seriously and try to increase their knowledge as much as possible.


    However, the academy''s loose curriculum was good news for Alice. It meant that she could spend more time researching taboos in the library.


    "Are there any conditions to read the books in the library?" Alice asked after thinking over her goal of attending the magic academy. "Specifically, books on the more specialized subjects such as documents on taboos. Are there any borrowing conditions for them?"


    <em>It seems Her Highness is serious about studying?</em> The old dean was a little surprised when she heard Alice''s question. He originally thought that "Princess" Alice was here to pass the time, simr to the other nobles. He didn''t think she would ask about the library of all ces.


    Of course, if it meant having one less problem child to worry about, the old dean was naturally more than happy to answer Alice''s question:


    "If it''s the library, you can borrow any book so long as you apply for a library card using your student ID. There are no specific restrictions in ce. As for books on taboos... Other than a few teachers, nobody bothers to read them, so feel free to read and borrow them at your leisure."


    "That''s great."


    Alice nodded in satisfaction. If hardly anybody borrowed those books, it meant that it was unlikely for anyone to notice her when she was borrowing those books.

 Chapter 108: How Did This End up Turning Into a Fight(修羅場 Shuraba)?

    Chapter 108: How Did This End up Turning Into a Fight(���_�� Shuraba)?


    After locating her room and opening the door, Alice immediately saw Zauna fiddling with her phone on the bed.


    Meanwhile, when Zauna heard the sound of the door opening and saw that it was Alice, she immediately revealed a look of joy and jumped out of bed. Then, she pounced forward and hugged Alice:


    "Alice, you''re finally here! Long time no see!"


    "Hasn''t it only been a few days?"


    Alice smiled helplessly. It hadn''t even been a month since she arrived in this world. Yet, Zauna always behaved as if she hadn''t seen her in a long time whenever they met. Alice was having a little difficulty adapting to the other party''s enthusiasm. However, after thinking it over, Alice guessed that it might be because of the cute and lovable face the Loli Goddess had created for her.


    Regardless, Alice found that the March Royal School of Magic''s dormitory was surprisingly spacious. Rather than a dormitory, it looked more like a standard apartment. Formoner students, having the privilege to stay in such a spacious room was already a luxury.


    Moreover, this wasn''t even the most luxurious dormitory avable on the academy campus. The academy had prepared independent housing units such as condos and bungalows to cater to the delicate nobility. Although it cost extra to stay in these amodations, the expenditure was no trouble for noble students.


    Alice had to admit that the academy was quite skilled at making money. The academy offered plenty of luxury services that allowed the noble students to splurge their money.


    In reality, Luna had also asked Alice whether she wanted to rent an independent housing unit. After all, Alice''s current identity was the princess, so all expenditures she incurred in the academy would naturallye out of Chris''s pockets.


    Although being king was tiring work, Chris had nock of money or authority. Renting a luxury condo or bungalow for Alice wouldn''t even put a dent in his wallet.


    However, Alice rejected the suggestion after taking her roommate Zauna into ount. Not to mention, Alice herself wasn''t someone who liked to spend money.


    "Huh? This is?"


    After hugging Alice for some time, Zauna finally noticed Luna, who had brought Alice''s luggage into the room. Then, when she saw the maid uniform Luna wore, she asked, "Is this the maid the king arranged for you?"


    "Yes. Her name is Luna. Luna Cecilia," Alice introduced. Then she exined, "Luna also knows about my identity as the Hero, so you don''t need to hide discussions on this topic from her."


    "Uu So she knows you''re the Hero too?"


    Zauna''s expression looked a little upset when she looked at Luna, her current thoughts something along the lines of "I was the first to learn of Alice''s secret" and "Why are more and more people finding out about this secret?"


    Although Zauna wasn''t trying to monopolize Alice, she still couldn''t help but feel wronged. It was like having arge group of people suddenly visit the secluded shop that only she knew about previously. The sense of mystery had suddenly disappeared.


    "Hello, Miss Zauna. I am Luna, Alice''s maid," Luna greeted Zauna with a bow, her calm behavior making it seem like she didn''t notice the unhappy expression on Luna''s face. "I will be responsible for Alice''s diet and other aspects of life in the future. You can also talk to me if you need any help."


    In Zauna''s ears, Luna''s words were akin to a deration of ownership over Alice. Subconsciously, she tightened her arms around Alice and looked at Luna with a hint of dissatisfaction on her face, saying, "Are you really Alice''s maid? Shouldn''t a maid refer to their master using honorifics? Not to mention, Alice is even the princess."


    After this bit, even a person with dull senses could tell that Zauna was jealous. Noticing this, Alice couldn''t help but smile bitterly.


    "It was Alice who told me not to use honorifics," Luna said, her expression remaining indifferent. Her behavior made it impossible for others to see what was on her mind. "I have also heard about Miss Zauna before. It seems you have helped Alice a lot in the past. For this, I am very grateful to you."


    <em>What do you mean "helped Alice a lot in the past?" Are you saying that I won''t help her in the future?</em>


    Zauna felt that something was amiss when she heard Luna''s words. Although Luna remained expressionless on the surface, her words contained a hidden reprisal in reality.


    "You keep giving me a strange feeling," Zauna said as she pursed her lips. Although she didn''t hold any grudge toward Luna, Luna''s attempt to im ownership over Alice using speech made her feel the need to fight back. "Don''t tell me you''re actually a demon trying to assassinate the Hero"


    "Yes, I am a human-demon half-breed," Luna openly admitted to Zauna''s usations, catching Zauna off guard.


    Although Zauna had never met a half-breed with human and demon blood before, she could roughly guess what kind of treatment such a half-breed would receive in a human kingdom. So, she immediately felt guilty for her words after learning that Luna was a half-breed. However, just when she was about to apologize to Luna, she heard Luna saying:


    "Moreover, my other identity is that of the Demon King, so I have indeed tried to assassinate Alice previously. However, Alice defeated me and forced the Demon King''s Power out of my body. I also recognized her identity as the Hero, so I decided to apany Alice as her maid."


    "...Alice, is she a little delusional?"


    Luna''s words dumbfounded Zauna. Originally, Zauna had considered apologizing to Luna for bringing up the other party''s race. However, she never expected the other party to spout a bunch of unrealistic-sounding stories. Meanwhile, after hearing these delusional words, she couldn''t help but wonder if Luna had been lying when she said that she was a demon half-breed.


    Alice was also rendered speechless by Luna''s words, her mouth twitching slightly.


    "Just kidding. I''m just an ordinary maid," Luna indifferently added after noticing the strange expression on Alice''s face. "However, I am confident I won''t lose to the Demon King when ites to strength."


    "Alright, I understand."


    Zauna held her forehead, realization dawning upon her. It turned out that this maid was gued with eighth-grade syndrome. Because of the Hero and Demon King culture in this world, many people with eighth-grade syndrome existed. It was especiallymon among children. Many young children would often pretend to be the Hero when ying around with their peers.


    Of course, there were also some serious cases where the people with eighth-grade syndrome would take on a misanthropic behavior and pretend to be the Demon King. Meanwhile, Zauna hadbeled Luna as one of these people.


    "Anyway, I guess it''s fine so long as you''re just a maid However, even if you are a maid, your understanding of the academy must be limited," Zauna said while massaging her temples. After getting confused by Luna''s words, Zauna''s hostilities toward the maid quickly receded. Then, she looked at Alice and asked, "Alice, since you came to this academy, you must be here to study the taboos in the library, right?"


    Alice nodded. She came to this academy precisely to learn about taboos. After all, her main opponent was the Demon King''s Power. She would need to use taboos at the very minimum to even damage the Demon King''s Power. However, she couldn''t possibly rely on panties as her only form of offense. So, before finding the Demon King''s Power''s whereabouts, it was necessary to learn a few taboos.


    "Leave this to me. I''ll guide you through the process of getting a library card," Zauna said, taking the initiative to take on this responsibility. Then, she added, "But the first semester is already over. We''ll be going on a school trip shortly after the start of the second semester. If you are going to learn about taboos, you should borrow a few books in advance to read during the trip."


    "School trip?" Alice was a little stunned when she heard these words.


    "A school trip, huh? How nostalgic," Kristine''s voice came from the tablet on Alice''s back. However, thanks to Kristine''s psychokinesis, only Alice managed to hear her voice. "I went to Mana City on my first school trip. It was there that I drew the Hero''s Sword and received the identity of the Hero from God."

 Chapter 109: A Moment of Silence for the Demon King

    Chapter 109: A Moment of Silence for the Demon King


    Sacred Confession Grounds desecrated! Mystic Tablet missing!


    <em>So such titles exist even in this world?</em>


    After following Zauna''s instructions, Alice had sessfully registered an ount on the March Academy''s online forum.


    Meanwhile, when Alice saw the peculiar title in the forum''s chat section, she guessed that someone must''ve noticed that the stone tablet in the forest clearing had disappeared.


    However, the stone tablet didn''t have much of a use. Most people only treated the clearing as a ce to confess their love simply because the stone tablet was a rather iconic monument. In reality, the stone tablet didn''t have a function that increased the sess rate of one''s love confession. It was merely a Soul Gathering Tablet.


    Because of this, when Alice snuck into the forum post, she didn''t see anyone panicking or getting angry because of the stone tablet''s disappearance. Everyone simply felt surprised to learn that the stone tablet had vanished. After all, the stone tablet was known for being an immovable object. Many people have previously spected that it was deeply rooted into the ground and that it would take a person with extraordinary strength to pull it out.


    <em>It is true that no normal person can do it. I only managed to pull it out after relying on the Hero''s Sword.</em> Alice nodded in acknowledgment as she read thements in the post. Although the stone tablet didn''t have a property that made it impossible to pull out from the ground, it was buried tightly into the ground. It had almost be one with thend, and Alice had to rely on the stat bonuses the Hero''s Sword provided to pull it out.


    Afterward, Alice quickly found another post that caught her attention after browsing the forum.


    Where do you want to go for the school trip? The Elven Forest? Dragon Valley?


    When Alice saw this title, she turned toward Zauna, who was surfing the web on her PC, and asked, "School trip? Can we choose where we want to go for our field trip?"


    They had originally nned to head to the library to register a library card for Alice. However, Luna was still helping Alice tidy up her bed and personal belongings. So, Alice and Zauna decided to wait until Luna was done before heading out.


    "The school trip? It hadn''t been optional, initially. Under normal circumstances, first-year students would visit Mana City for their second-semester school trip." After hearing Alice''s question, Zauna turned around and smiled, saying, "There are two reasons for visiting Mana City. The first reason is to experience hunting magical creatures in the Gryffin Forest and obtain magic ingredients. The second reason is to let everyone observe and experience the Hero''s Sword."


    "The Hero''s Sword" When Alice heard Zauna''s words, she promptly understood why this year''s school trip was different. "Does that mean the school trip''s destination is being changed because I''ve already drawn the Hero''s Sword?"


    "The Hero''s Sword is the main goal of the school trip, after all. Although Mana City is a small city located at the kingdom''s border, it is where the first-generation Hero fought with the first-generation Demon King. It is a ce that holds significant meaning," Zauna exined. "You remember the Lajal Mountain Range that separates the Gryffin Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom, right? Legend has it that the first-generation Hero created that mountain range. Some people are even specting that the first-generation Demon King''s corpse is buried under that mountain range."


    "There was such a legend?" Alice scratched her head. Although she had learned many things through the inte, she knew very little about things such as legends. "So, is that why the Hero''s Sword is inserted in a small city like Mana City?"


    "That''s right. It is tomemorate the first-generation Hero. The first-generation Hero was also responsible for constructing the Gryffin Church. Thus, Heroes of every generation would always return the Hero''s Sword to the Gryffin Church''s when they retire," Zauna patiently exined. "Although Mana City isn''t a prosperous city, because of the Hero''s Sword''s presence, many people would still travel to Mana City to attempt to pull out the Hero''s Sword. Of course, most of these people are going there to take photos."


    "Ah, I get that," Alice said, expressing her agreement. Whether it was on Earth or in this world, there were bound to be people who liked to take photos of icondmarks. Evidently, this world''s Hero''s Sword couldn''t escape such a fate, either.


    "Everyone is well aware that it is the academy''s tradition to visit Mana City to try and pull out the Hero''s Sword and listen to the legends of past Heroes. So, now that you''ve already drawn the Hero''s Sword, everyone knows that there is no point in visiting Mana City," Zauna said with a wry smile. She doubted that anyone in the academy would guess that the Hero who pulled out the Hero''s Sword was currently on campus grounds. "So, everyone is guessing where the school trip''s new destination will be. Some people even guessed that we would be visiting Dragon Valley."


    "Is Dragon Valley a bad ce?"


    When Alice tried to recall the information she read about dragons on the inte, she found that they weren''t as bad as those described in the novels she read before transmigrating. Besides having an arrogant and aloof behavior, as well as a fondness for shiny things, they weren''t hard to get along with. At the very least, they wouldn''t actively and maliciously attack humans.


    "Bad is an understatement. There''s no point in visiting the Dragon Valley at all," Zauna said, shaking her head. "Dragons are a bunch of extremely long-lived creations. Many of the dragons that had existed since the first-generation Hero''s era are still alive even now. In a valley that has no entertainment options whatsoever, what do you think they would do to pass the time?"


    "Sleep, probably," Alice said, inadvertently thinking of the Loli Goddess when she gave her answer. Even with games to keep her entertained, the Loli Goddess would still spend most of her time sleeping. Seeing as the dragons didn''t even have an entertainment option, they would probably sleep even more than the Loli Goddess.


    "That''s right. Dragons spend most of their time sleeping in their homes. If you visit the Dragon Valley, you''d only be greeted by a barren sight. You wouldn''t even see animals around that region since no animal can survive and reproduce when in the presence of dragons long-term," Zauna said, sighing. "Of course, if you really want to see a dragon, there is always the option of barging into their homes. The houses of dragons are no different than caves, after all. However, the consequences of barging into private property go without saying If we identally wake up a dragon, it''ll basically spell our doom. Dragons are capable of mancan manipteir to empower their attacks. Although the destructive power of their attacks doesn''t reach the level of taboos, it''s not far off, either."


    "They sound powerful." Letting out a sigh, Alice asked, "Can we drag them in to deal with the Demon King?"


    "Stop trying to get everyone you meet to help you in dealing with the Demon King," Kristine''s exasperated voice buzzed in Alice''s mind.

 Chapter 110: Just Because I Took an Extra Look at You in the Crowd

    Chapter 110: Just Because I Took an Extra Look at You in the Crowd


    After Luna helped tidy Alice''s bed and unpacked Alice''s belongings, Zauna led the two of them to the library. After all, Alice''s primary purpose in attending the magic academy was to look at the taboos inside the academy''s library, so a library card was necessary.


    In reality, the theory behind taboo spells wasn''t particrlyplicated. One could even describe some parts as easy to understand.


    The reason why most people were incapable of casting taboos was because of the frightening requirements toward the user''s mana and control. The average person simply couldn''t fulfill these requirements by themselves.


    While there was the option of working as a group, the casting conditions would also grow inplexity if multiple people tried to cast a taboo together. Moreover, the growth inplexity was exponential, and many auxiliary magic materials would be necessary to facilitate the process.


    It was also challenging to turn a taboo spell into a taboo bomb. A country would need very high industry standards to construct a taboo bomb since precision devices were required to process the necessary magic patterns and mana. Moreover, even after a country fulfilled all of these conditions, it would still take a very long time to produce a taboo bomb.


    In other words, without sufficient national power supporting them, a person couldn''t produce a taboo bomb even if they knew the method to do so.


    Hence, while books on taboo spells were freely avable for everyone to read, they were only helpful for theoretical reference. After all, nobody could cast any of these taboos at all. It was just like how people on Earth couldn''t build an atomic bomb by themselves even if they understood the theory of rtivity.


    Of course, the Hero and the Demon King were exceptions. The mana and control they possessed had already exceeded the realm of ordinary people. Not only could they single-handedly process mana that would typically require the joint effort of several dozen people and precision instruments, but they also possessed bottomless mana reserves that allowed them to cast taboos freely.


    Although Alice wasn''t the Hero, she had the physique and growth potential of a Hero, ording to the Loli Goddess, the creator of the Hero''s Power. She was only missing the special properties of the Hero''s Power. In that case, she should also have the potential to learn and cast taboos by herself.


    "A lot of people are looking this way," Alicemented. Previously, when she had made her way to the dormitory with Luna, they hadn''te across many people since most people in the academy were either having lunch or resting. Now that lunchtime was over, the number of pedestrians had also increased. Naturally, the number of people who noticed Alice increased as well.


    Moreover, because the faculty had previously leaked Alice''s student information, everyone in the academy already knew what Alice looked like. Not to mention, Alice stood out like a sore thumb since her short height made her look like a middle schooler that had gotten lost in the academy''s high-school section. Hence, many people had turned to look at Alice as she made her way to the library.


    "You are the princess, after all. It''s been many years since His Majesty has risen to the throne, yet he still doesn''t have a wife or children. Meanwhile, other countries already have enough princes and princesses to form a football team," Zauna said, giggling. "Now that we''ve suddenly gained a princess, everyone naturally can''t help but look at you."


    "Let''s hope this sense of novelty will pass quickly."


    Alice wasn''t fond of being stared at by everyone she crossed paths with, so she could only hope that everyone would quickly get over their sense of novelty and stop paying attention to her.


    "Don''t worry. Just like how idols will get forgotten because they stop releasing new works, so long as you don''t do any earth-shattering feats, everyone will gradually stop paying attention to you," Zauna said infort. Then, she pointed at the massive building in front of them and said, "That''s the March Academy''s library. You can say that it is the biggest library in Holl City. It is also open to people outside of the academy, and it even holds original magic texts from more than ten thousand years ago."


    "How big"


    Alice was surprised when she looked up and saw the hulking building in front of her. In reality, she had already seen the roof of this building since she left the distant dormitory. Only, she didn''t think that this building would be the library.


    Now that she was looking at the library up close, she felt it should be at least thirty stories high. With such a huge size, the library should store a massive collection of books. It also exined why people regarded this library as the biggest in Holl City.


    "...But magic texts from more than ten thousand years ago? Is there anything special about them?"


    "Nope. Those magic texts aren''t even recorded on paper but animal bones, bamboo pieces, stone tablets, and fur instead. Paper hasn''t been invented back then, after all," Zauna said, shaking her head. "Honestly, I''ve read those ancient texts before, but many of the words written in them are different from the words used in modern times. Even after I tranted a few of them, I found that the magic principles recorded are crude and rudimentary. They are far less concise and advanced than modern magic."


    This was only natural. Human civilization in this world had already been developing for over ten thousand years. Humans from ten thousand years ago would be no different from cavemen in modern humans'' eyes. It was only natural that the magic principles recorded back then would be considered crude in modern times.


    "But many people think that ancient magic is mysterious and must have something that makes it stand out from modern magic," Zauna said, shrugging helplessly. "Yet, when I had those people tell me what''s so extraordinary about ancient magic, they couldn''t say a thing."


    "People from ancient times ce more importance on mystery and ir, after all. People will always be interested in things that cannot be exined," Alice said. Such situations weremon even back on Earth, so she could more or less understand the thought process of the people Zauna spoke of.


    While Alice chatted with Zauna, the group of three quickly arrived before the library.


    As soon as they opened the front door, what greeted them was a gush of cooling air. The March Academy''s library had a very spacious lobby. There were three reception counters located in the three directions directly opposite the door, and these counters functioned to process the lending and return of books. Currently, all three counters had people lining up in front of them. Through this, one could tell that many people came here to study.


    The people in the lobby quickly noticed Alice''s arrival. However, because the library''s management prohibited visitors from making loud noises, everyone limited their conversations to whispers. Though, there was no questioning that everyone was talking about Alice.


    After receiving all those gazes on her way here, Alice had already be somewhat immune to the stares of others. So, after scanning the spacious and clean lobby, she whispered to Zauna, asking:


    "Say, there are over 30 floors here. Which floor holds the taboos?"


    "The taboos aren''t put together in a single ce. They are ced ording to their properties and attributes. For example, fire-attributed taboos are usually at the end of the section for fire-attributed spell books," Zauna replied, simrly lowering her voice. "Each floor has a specializedputer that you can use to check the cement of books, so you don''t have to worry about finding the books you want."


    This part was simr to the libraries Alice had visited before she transmigrated, so she quickly understood how the academy''s library worked.


    "Come, let''s go get you a library card," Zauna said as she took Alice''s hand and pulled her to a counter with a significantly shorter line.


    Seeing this, Luna also followed after the two.


    While letting Zauna lead her by the hand, Alice suddenly noticed a piercing gazending on her back, the gaze making her feel inexplicably ufortable.


    Alice wasn''t holding onto panties or the Hero''s Sword right now, so her perception was feeble at best. Yet, despite this being the case, she still felt ufortable. This was more than enough to prove the seriousness of this ufortable feeling.


    Turning around, Alice quickly noticed the source of this diforta girl standing by the first-floor elevator. The girl looked about the same age as Zauna, so she should also be a student from the high-school section.


    Somewhat simr to Alice, the girl had blonde hair tied into a side ponytail. The girl''s blood-red pupils also stood out against her pale skin. Meanwhile, even after noticing Alice turning to look at her, the girl kept on staring at Alice with a smile on her face.

 Chapter 111: Luna Expresses Confusion

    Chapter 111: Luna Expresses Confusion


    The process of registering a library card was swift. In only a few minutes, Alice received a in-looking library card that looked somewhat simr to her student ID.


    After acquiring her library card, Alice looked in the direction of the blonde girl with crimson eyes again. However, it would seem that the girl had left as she was no longer standing in the elevator lobby.


    Alice couldn''t help but frown at this sight. The other party''s gaze was so tant just now that even her weak perception had managed to sense it. It was obvious that the other party was trying to attract her attention. However, as she was waiting in line just now, she chose not to approach the girl first. Yet, after she was done registering her library card, the other party had disappeared. This situation puzzled Alice.


    "What''s wrong? Is something over there?" Zauna asked as she followed Alice''s line of sight. However, she saw only a row of magic elevators and nothing else.


    "It''s nothing."


    Alice shook her head. Although she didn''t know what the blonde girl was trying to do, the other party didn''t look like she held any malicious intent toward her since she couldn''t feel any killing intent from the other party''s gaze.


    While killing intent might seem like a vague and mysterious thing, thanks to Grant, Aird, and Luna, Alice had experienced what it felt like to have someone wanting to kill her more than once. Meanwhile, she had failed to sense the same feeling from the blonde girl just now.


    "By the way, is there anyone in the school with blonde hair, crimson eyes, and a side ponytail?"


    Although Alice didn''t n on finding the other party right now, she still tried to ask Zauna to see if she knew of the blonde girl.


    "That''s too vague of a description Though, I don''t think I know of anyone who matches that description," Zauna said, shaking her head after giving the matter some thought. There were plenty of people with blonde hair in the March Academy. People with crimson eyes were rtivelymon, too. In this world, one could find people with all sorts of hair and eye colors. As for the hairstyle, that could be changed at any time, so it didn''t have any value as a reference.


    Alice nodded after hearing Zauna''s answer. The March Academy hosted students from middle school to university. There were also many students in every grade. Zauna was only a high school freshman, so there was no way she would recognize everyone in the academy.


    In fact, Alice would''ve found it strange if Zauna could identify the blonde girl just by listening to her description of the other party.


    "Nevermind. Let''s go borrow some books first."


    After failing to figure out why the other party had tried to attract her attention, Alice shook her head and stopped thinking about the blonde girl. Not to mention, there was a high possibility that the other party was simply a noble trying to get close to the "princess."


    It also made sense now that Alice thought about it that way. If it weren''t for the library prohibiting noisemaking, many people would''ve tried to strike a conversation with her already. Even now, she could still see quite a few students fighting the urge to approach her. These students were probably the nobles of this academy.


    However, adhering to her previous n, Alice simply sent these nobles a nce before walking to the elevator with Zauna, ignoring thempletely.


    Alice was well aware that the more polite and friendly she behaved, the more likely these nobles would flock to her. However, if she pretended to be aloof, these people would start to consider whether rashly approaching the "princess" would diminish her goodwill toward them, and many of them would probably back away for fear of that happening.


    Thankfully, Alice''s performance had achieved excellent results. After seeing Alice ignoring them, the nobles who showed signs of wanting to approach her promptly shrunk back. Even when Alice, Zauna, and Luna walked into the elevator, nobody dared to enter into the same elevator with them.


    "Wow, you looked just like Luna just now, Alice!" As soon as the elevator door closed, Zauna immediately broke into a smile and pinched Alice''s cheeks. "That indifferent expression shocked even me. As expected of the Hero Wait, no, I mean, Your Highness."


    Luna, who had been following Alice all this time, was a little stunned when she suddenly became coteral damage. Then, she rubbed her cheeks in confusion, failing to understand why Zauna would use her expression as an example.


    "It''s not to that extent, right?" Alice helplessly pushed Zauna''s hands away and massaged her reddened cheeks. "Also, they will only stay away if I act coldly. I don''t want to be disturbed by a group of people when I''m learning taboos, after all."


    "That''s true. But before learning taboos, I think you should start by learning the basics of magic first," Zauna said as she pressed the button for the 10th floor. Then, she continued, "Although taboos aren''tplicated, they still make use of the basic operating principles of mana. It''s just like running. Even if it isn''t difficult to run, you still need to know how to stand up and walk with your legs first before you can run."


    "That''s true."


    Alice sighed. She had to admit that Zauna was right. The biggest problem she faced nowpared to the majority of the people in this world was that she didn''t have even the most rudimentary foundation in magic.


    The people of this world had been learning magic theories since grade school. Yet, Alice didn''t have any knowledge in this area whatsoever.


    However, ording to Zauna, these magic theories were very simple, and anyone without a mental disability could learn them quickly.


    "Here we are. All books starting from the 10th floor are rted to magic one way or another," Zauna exined to Alice in a whisper after the elevator doors opened. "I''ll go and find some books on magic fundamentals. If you''re interested, you can use theputers there to check for books you might want."


    After saying so, Zauna pointed at a row ofputers nearby. There were 20puters by the looks of it, and currently, ten of them were upied.


    Zauna also seemed to know where the books on magic fundamentals were located since she dove straight into the rows of bookshelves without using theputers.


    Besides the innumerable bookshelves, there were also plenty of tables and chairs on this floor, many of which were upied by students and people who looked like they had already graduated from university. Just like Zauna previously mentioned, the academy''s library was also open to outsiders.


    "The March Royal Academy, huh? How nostalgic. It still looks a lot like it did three hundred years ago. But there also seems to be a lot of modern equipment. Are those rectangr things calledputers?" Kristine said. Thanks to her psychokinesis, only Alice managed to hear her voice. "I had to flip through a thick record book when I wanted to find a book here in the past, but now they''ve been reced byputers."


    "It''s been three hundred years, after all."


    Alice could empathize with Kristine''s feelings. Computers were also a rtively modern invention on Earth. There might have been the prototype of aputer back in Kristine''s era, but it definitely wasn''t as capable as it was now.


    "I guess you''re right. There''s no usementing over the past. You came here to learn taboos, right?" Smiling, Kristine said, "In that case, let me rmend a book to you. Even in this library, it can be ssified as a top-secret book."

 Chapter 112: Outdated Hero Kristine

    Chapter 112: Outdated Hero Kristine


    "There is indeed no book called <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> here."


    Following Kristine''s words, Alice searched for the book Kristine mentioned using the library''s management system. However, the result she got was that such a book did not exist.


    Although there were many books on psychokinesis, with most of them being gathered on the 13th floor, none had the title of "Psychokinesis Transcendence."


    "I told you, right? This book is hidden very deeply in this library. When I attended sses here, the library''s book catalog didn''t have it recorded, either," Kristine said with a hint of smugness. "Listen to me. You are free to learn about other taboos, but you must first learn about Psychokinesis Transcendence. I promise it''ll save you a lot of effort down the line."


    "Does this magic have some special function?"


    Although Alice didn''t know what purpose Psychokinesis Transcendence served, seeing as Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero, strongly rmended it, she couldn''t help but grow interested in it.


    In the meantime, Luna wore an expressionless face as she watched Alice mumbling to herself in front of theputer. She was naturally aware that Alice was talking with the stone tablet and that the stone tablet was home to the previous generation''s Hero''s soul.


    However, to avoid attracting too much attention, Alice had stored the stone tablet in a weapon storage box she had acquired from Zauna. This, in turn, created the current scene where Alice looked like she was muttering to herself, which then resulted in her attracting strange gazes from the people around her.


    Seeing this, Luna couldn''t help but sigh. Then, she helplessly walked up to Alice and leaned her ear close to Alice. This way, it would at least look like the princess was talking to her maid.


    Sure enough, when the surrounding people saw this scene, they quickly stopped paying attention to Alice. Luna also got to hear the question Alice posed previouslyDoes this magic have some special function?


    "The magic recorded in this book is also a taboo. However, its origins are somewhat special, with its inventor being a Demon King," Kristine said in a voice that only Alice could hear. Thus, Luna could only wait for Alice to paraphrase Kristine''s words afterward to learn the answer. "The Third Demon King, Clyde Vap, invented Psychokinesis Transcendence and wrote the book for it. After the Hero of that time acquired the book, he stored it in a hidden location in this library."


    "The Third Demon King If I recall correctly, he''s the only Demon King who has ever managed to upy the human realm?"


    Out of the many Demon Kings that had existed, only one Demon King had ever seeded in taking over the human realm. Moreover, he was also the Demon King with the best reputation in the human realm. Hence, Alice remembered him well.


    "He''s the creator of this taboo?"


    "Indeed. Clyde is the only Demon King to have ever upied the human realm. The Hero of that time was no match for Clyde. Even so, the Hero still managed to acquire some things from Clyde, of which includes this taboo," Kristine said, sighing. "Although Clyde is a Demon King and bears hatred toward the human race, he isn''t evil by nature. He is merely someone who has suffered severe psychological trauma. If you set aside his hatred for humanity, you can consider him a good guy. In fact, after taking over the human realm and exacting his revenge, he didn''tmit any meaningless massacres. Even the Hero of that era has referred to Clyde as a knight who has gone astray."


    "The Third Hero and the Third Demon King Their era dates back to thousands of years ago, right? Did this library already exist back then?" Alice asked. The more she listened to Kristine''s tale, the more she found it to be unbelievable. "From what I found on Wikipedia, this library should have only been built around 500 years ago."


    "Wikipedia? Is that something like an encyclopedia? There is such information recorded there?" Kristine muttered in confusion. She had nevere in touch with the inte, so she couldn''t understand why the thing known as Wikipedia would record the construction date of the March Royal Library. Even so, she was still able to answer Alice''s question as she said, "That''s right. This library didn''t exist during the Third Hero and the Third Demon King''s era. However, the space underneath the library used to be the magic workshop of one of the Third Hero''spanions."


    "...You mean that this taboo is hidden underneath the library?"


    Realization dawned upon Alice. It made sense if this library was coincidentally built on top of the Hero''spanion''s magic workshop. Meanwhile, Kristine must''ve discovered the magic workshop by chance, which then led to her discovering the book on Psychokinesis Transcendence. As to why the book was in the magic workshop, the Third Hero must''ve entrusted it to hispanion for research purposes.


    "But the elevator doesn''t have a button for the basement floor. It seems we''ll have to find some other way to go down there," Alice said after giving the matter some thought. Then, she asked, "What makes that book so special that you aremending it so strongly?"


    "Psychokinesis Transcendence isn''t your average taboo. It involves principles beyond that of ordinary taboo," Kristine said with a light smile. Then, she earnestly asked, "Have you ever heard of the ''Law'' concept?"


    "I have."


    "You''ve never heard of it, right? After all, this thing is Huh?"


    Just when Kristine was about to show off her knowledge to her junior, she suddenly realized that Alice''s answer was seemingly different from what she expected.


    "I said I have heard of it before," Alice said in amusement. "All the elements that make up the world, all the theorems, and everything that we take for granted are thews of this world. Things such as all life will die one day, apples will fall to the ground, and one plus one equals two are further examples."


    Alice recited the examples she previously brought up in her conversation with the Loli Goddess. Of course, since Alice knew that the Loli Goddess could bring things over from Earth, she knew that the Loli Goddess had stolen this line from a novel titled <em>A Certain Magical Index</em>. However, Kristine evidently didn''t know about this.


    "You really do know about it That''s right. The examples you spoke of can be consideredws."


    "Seeing as you are bringing upws all of a sudden, does this mean Psychokinesis Transcendence has already touched upon the world''sws?"


    Alice didn''t ce too much focus on describingws. She was more interested in the words Kristine previously said. Currently, the existences she knew of that were directly rted to the world''sws were the Demon King, the Hero, the Demon King''s Power, and God''s blessings. Even the Law-grade panties she hade across thus far could only exist because they had either been tainted by the Demon King or blessed by God.


    If Psychokinesis Transcendence turned out to be a taboo that had already reached the Law grade, this would be an amazing discovery.


    "That''s right. The contents written in that book are extremely profound. Even with the Hero''s talent, I only managed to scratch at the surface of that book," Kristine said. Although she was caught off guard by Alice''s knowledge of worldws, she quickly snapped out of her daze after hearing Alice''s question. "Apart from the taboo''s operating principles, the book also records some notes written by the Demon King Clyde and the Hero Anthony. The general gist of the notes is that Clyde has already seen through the world''sws and realized the true identity of the Demon King''s Power."


    After pausing for a moment, Kristine continued in a somewhat frustrated tone, "Unfortunately, the notes only state that the Demon King''s Power is a threat to this world. It did not borate further on the topic."


    Alice was a little bbergasted after hearing Kristine''s words. Originally, she thought that the various Heroes and Demon Kings would forever assume that they were only fighting for the sake of the human and demon realms. She thought they would never realize that the Hero was a countermeasure that God hade up with to resist the Demon King''s Power.


    However, looking at things now, it would seem that she had underestimated these Heroes and Demon Kings. At the very least, she had underestimated the Third Demon King, Clyde Vap. In reality, Clyde Vap had already realized the Demon King''s Power''s threat to this world. Meanwhile, the book titled Psychokinesis Transcendence might very well possess the means the Third Demon King had developed to deal with the Demon King''s Power.

 Chapter 113: Dont Rashly Meet a Netizen

    Chapter 113: Don''t Rashly Meet a Netizen


    "Huh? The way to the basement?" After handing Alice the foundational books on magic to Alice, Zauna couldn''t help but be surprised by Alice''s question. "Did this library have a basement? I''ve never heard of it before."


    Alice wasn''t particrly surprised when she heard Zauna''s answer. After all, Zauna was only an ordinary student. It had also only been half a year since she entered the high school section.


    When Alice was browsing the forum before, she had seen many people posting help requests saying that they had gotten lost. It should be known that the academy was currently in its second semester, so apart from Alice, there shouldn''t be any new students enrolling in the academy. Hence, the people asking for help were most likely people who had already been studying in the academy for at least half a year.


    If students could still get lost after studying in the academy for half a year, one could easily imagine how massive the academy campus was. So, it''d be amazing already if Zauna could memorize all of the publicly avable facilities on this massive academy campus in one semester. Hoping for her to know about secret locations such as the library''s underground magic workshop was asking too much of her.


    "That''s right. There''s a taboo that I want stored in the basement of this library." Alice didn''t have anything she needed to hide from Zauna. After all, Zauna was the first person she met aftering to this world. The other party had also helped her out a lot. "But I don''t know how to go down there for the moment."


    Originally, Alice had thought that Kristine should know how to go to the basement. However, Kristine''s answer rendered her speechlessthis library had long since been renovated, so it was significantly different from what Kristine remembered it to be. The spiral staircase that led underground was also switched out for the current elevators.


    "Underground, huh I''m not too sure about this. The library''s elevators don''t have a button that leads underground. I''ve never seen any staircase leading down, either," Zauna said, scratching her head. She thought she had already memorized most of the facilities on the campus. She didn''t think there were still secret facilities that she wasn''t aware of. "But how did you know that the library has a basement?"


    "It''s the Hero''s privilege," Alice said, chuckling. Then, when she saw Zauna''s puffed-up face, she exined, "Actually, the previous generation''s Hero''s soul told me about it. She says that there is a record of a powerful taboo stored in the library''s basement, so I wanted to go get it."


    "It seems you have a lot of trust in this child, huh?" Kristine''s voice rang softly in Alice''s ears. "But this child is quite talented indeed. She can be yourrade if properly cultivated. Although she still won''t be able to stand up to the Demon King, she should be able to help you hold back the Four Heavenly Kings."


    "That''s a high evaluation."


    Alice was a little surprised when she heard Kristine''s evaluation of Zauna. One shouldn''t underestimate the Four Heavenly Kings just because they were no match for the Hero and the Demon King. If one excluded those two exceptions, the Four Heavenly Kings stood at the apex of strength in the demon realm. So, it was already plenty amazing that Kristine felt that Zauna could exchange blows with the Four Heavenly Kings in the future.


    "My psychokinesis magic has many uses. If I scan a person with it, I can get a rough estimate of their talent," Kristine said proudly. Although her soul didn''t have any mana, she could still use simply psychokinesis magic by relying on the mana inside the Soul Gathering Tablet. "While I''m on the topic, your maid seems a little strange."


    <em>It''d be strange if she wasn''t strange, </em>Alice inwardly retorted. Luna was a maid who had absorbed a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s strength. If it came down to a fight, the Four Heavenly Kings would be fortunate if they couldst more than a few moves against her.


    "The previous generation''s Hero''s soul?"


    Zauna couldn''t help but look at Alice skeptically. She kept getting the feeling that Alice was messing with her. However, after hesitating for a moment, she eventually chose to give up on prying deeper into the matter. She had personally witnessed Alice''s birth as the Hero, so she felt that whatever Alice was up to wouldn''t be a bad thing.


    After all, God would only choose people with a firm and noble soul to be the Hero. There was no way God would make a mistake.


    "Although it is true that I don''t know about the library''s basement, I think I know someone who would know," Zauna said after giving the matter some thought. "There is someone who goes by the ID of Academy Know-It-All on the forum. He knows a lot about this academy, and he has yet to encounter a question he couldn''t answer. Maybe we can ask him about the basement?"


    "This name sounds like a marketing ID" Alicemented. However, she did have an impression of this ID. Previously, when she was browsing the academy''s forum, she would asionallye across a user named Academy Know-It-All, and this user was almost always answering someone''s question. By the looks of it, this person seemed to truly know everything there was to know about the academy. However, she still couldn''t help but find this user shady.


    Regardless, seeing as Zauna had already made such a suggestion, Alice decided to give this person a try. Immediately, she pulled out her phone and searched for Academy Know-It-All''s ount on the forum. Then, she privately messaged the other party. After all, this wasn''t a matter she could ask in a public thread. If Academy Know-It-All knew the answer and replied to her thread, many people would end up seeing it. If that happened, the basement would probably be flooded with people by the time she visited it.


    "Are you really asking this person?" Luna asked in a dubious tone as she leaned in to look at Alice''s phone. She felt that it was reckless to ce their hopes on a stranger on the inte.


    "We might as well try. We don''t have any other leads, after all."


    Sitting in the corner of the 13th floor, Alice idly stared at her phone''s screen as she waited for a reply. Honestly, though, she didn''t put too much hope on getting an answer. However, just when she was about to read one of the books Zauna brought her, her phone suddenly vibrated.


    <em>Did this Academy Know-It-All really reply?</em>


    Alice quickly picked up her phone and checked her message window. Then, she was stunned by the answer she saw. Her question to Academy Know-It-All was, "Do you know about the room in the library''s basement?" She had avoided mentioning any details about the room to see if this Academy Know-It-All truly knew about it. However, the other party''s answer had ended up surprising her a little.


    "I do. It''s a magic workshop left behind by a Hero''spanion long ago."


    "This personknows quite a lot."


    Alice felt surprised and a little wary. She was surprised that the other party knew so much. It was unlikely that the other party was someone who had lived for hundreds of years like Kristine. In that case, the other party should know the new way of entering the magic workshop. However, Alice also couldn''t help but grow wary precisely because of this situation. If the other party knew about the magic workshop, could he have read the <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> there already?


    Meanwhile, Luna, who stood behind Alice, blinked in surprise when she saw the message disyed on Alice''s phone. She didn''t expect the other party to know of this matter, either.


    "Do you know how to enter the magic workshop, then?" Alice replied in such a way after thinking over the situation.


    Previously, Alice had only casually asked about the underground room, yet the other party had replied with the room''s specific information. By the looks of it, he had treated her question as a sort of test for him. Since that was the case, Alice decided to send the other party another question in a simr tone. If she got lucky, she could secure the information she needed without having to pay anything.


    "Trying to get information for free?"


    Unfortunately, the other party had instantly seen through Alice''s shameless attempt as soon as she sent her message. Fortunately, Alice wasn''t very thin-skinned. Although she blushed a little after getting called out, she powered through and replied:


    "How much do you want?"


    Zauna also sat beside Alice. So, she huddled closer to spy on Alice''s conversation with Academy Know-It-All. Then, when she saw Alice''s reply, she couldn''t help butment:


    "You sound very much like a wealthy upstart, Alice."


    However, it couldn''t be helped. It was a fact that Alice wasn''tcking money right now. Although Chris looked to be in a miserable situation, he was still the king. The amount of wealth he possessed was astronomical. If Alice wanted to, she was entirely capable of bing a homebody.


    "I''m not interested in money."


    Unfortunately, the other party''s reply quickly dashed Alice''s thoughts. Then, the other party''s subsequent message caused Zauna''s and Luna''s faces to darken:


    "I know how to get to the library''s underground workshop, but I want to meet with you alone."

 Chapter 114: As Expected

    Chapter 114: As Expected


    "What to do?" Zauna asked worriedly as she looked at Alice.


    As for Luna, although she did not speak, the gaze she cast to Alice was simrly filled with doubt.


    "What else can I do but meet this person alone?" Alice said carefreely. Since she transmigrated to this world, the only secrets she had to hide were her identity as the Hero and the Demon King. She hadn''t done any scandalous things that other people could use to threaten her. So, it wouldn''t hurt her even if she met this person.


    At worst, Alice''s fake identity as the princess would get found out. After all, Chris''s reputation as the king had always been excellent. If someone had the determination to sieve through Chris''s history, they could certainly find the ws in Alice''s identity.


    "Don''t worry. Do you two really think I''ll get into any danger?" Alice asked, chuckling when she saw the worried looks on Zauna''s and Luna''s faces. Then, she subconsciously touched the "hair ties" used to tie her double ponytails and continued, "I might look weak normally, but if ites down to a fight, I should be able to deal with it unless the Demon Kinges."


    The possibility that the other party was the Demon King was also extremely low. After all, Luna had assimted with a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s strength. The Demon King''s Power would need to umte its strength for some time before it would start finding a new host.


    The reason why Alice had chosen to study taboos in the March Royal School of Magic was also to use this brief reprieve to increase her strength so that she wouldn''t have to rely on panties to fight all the time.


    "That''s true."


    Zauna felt that Alice''s words made sense. Alice was someone who had summoned an entire mountain to crush the Boria Wolf King. Even if she could use it only once in a while, it was already more than enough to deal with most enemies she faced. Alice should have nothing to worry about unless the matured Demon King came.


    However, when Zauna recalled the additional mountain that had appeared in the Gryffin Forest, a different worry appeared in her mind as she said, "But make sure you don''t summon a mountain in the academy."


    "Don''t worry. I know how far I should go."


    Alice smiled awkwardly. She, too, remembered the mountain she summoned to tten the Boria Wolf King. However, Zauna''s worries were unfounded this time since Alice had already inspected the skills of her two hair ties.


    Of the two, the one on her left ponytail was a single target spell, while the one on her right ponytail was an AOE attack. All she needed to do was choose which taboo to use depending on the situation.


    Moreover, Alice technically wouldn''t be meeting with Academy Know-It-All by herself. After all, the stone tablet she carried inside her second weapon storage box housed Kristine''s soul.


    Meanwhile, after deciding to meet Academy Know-It-All, Alice quickly replied to the other party''s message:


    "No problem. Where should we meet? Do we meet up now?"


    "I''m on the library''s 27th floor, inside the small cubicle next to shelf D10. You can meet me here."


    Academy Know-It-All replied almost immediately, giving Alice the feeling that the other party was waiting for her reply. However, what surprised her was that the other party was also in the library. Could it be such a coincidence?


    "I''ll be going now," Alice said to Zauna and Luna before leaving.


    Meanwhile, Zauna and Luna could only nod and watch as Alice walked to the elevator lobby.


    The library''s elevators were simr to Earth''s elevators. Alice guessed that another unfortunate transmigrator must''ve "invented" it before passing away.


    After the elevator arrived on the 27th floor, Alice stepped out of the metal box and scanned the floor. Unlike the 10th floor, the 27th floor was surprisingly packed with people. Not only were most of the tables and chairs upied, but even the tenputers used for searching books were fully upied.


    Feeling a little surprised, Alice took a look at a random bookshelf. Then, realization dawned upon herthis entire floor was reserved for novels andics. It was no wonder why there were so many students here.


    Fortunately, the library enforced silence, so most people were immersed in their own worlds right now, earnestly reading theics or novels in their hands. They did not notice Aliceing out of the elevator at all.


    Of course, if Alice overstayed her wee, it was very likely that someone would notice her. So, she quickly looked through the bookshelves and located bookshelf D10.


    Shelf D10 was simrly packed withic books. Meanwhile, located at the end of the bookshelf was a small cubicle. Seeing this, Alice guessed that Academy Know-It-All must be an avid fan ofics. The other party had most likely been reading aic here when he received Alice''s message.


    After pondering for a moment, Alice gently knocked on the cubicle''s door, making sure not to make too much noise and draw attention to herself.


    "Are you here?" a crisp female voice came from inside the cubicle. Then, the cubicle door opened slightly, and a head popped out through the gap. "Good. It seems you really came alone."


    Alice froze for a moment when she saw the other party''s face. Then, realization dawned upon her:


    "So it''s you."


    Alice was previously confused as to why this Academy Know-It-All seemed to know that she was in the library from the very beginning. It turned out that it was because the other party had already seen her when she entered the library.


    "Hehe, surprised?" the blonde girl with red eyes, who had attracted Alice''s attention in the library''s lobby, said with a sly smile. Then, she retracted her head back into the cubicle and opened the door a little more, saying, "Come on in. You wanted to know how to get to the underground workshop, right? I have the answer you want here."

 Chapter 115: Everyone I Interact With Is a Spy

    Chapter 115: Everyone I Interact With Is a Spy


    The cubicle behind the bookshelf was neither toorge nor too small. At the very least, it had no trouble amodating two people sitting face to face. The cubicle also had a small table and two chairs, so it would seem that the cubicle was specially prepared for people who wished to read in an enclosed space.


    "So, is there a reason why you wanted to meet with me alone?"


    After taking a seat on one of the chairs, Alice looked at the blonde girl with a ponytail sitting across her. She wasn''t particrly worried about anything happening to her. Whether in terms of identity or strength, she was certain she had an absolute advantage over the other party.


    Before the Demon King''s Power chose its new Demon King candidate, Alice was confident that the two pairs of panties tied on her head could cope with the vast majority of problems that required strength.


    "It''s nothing important. However, before we get into business, let me introduce myself a little first," the blonde girl with crimson pupils said, smiling as she looked at Alice. She looked like she had a lively personality.


    As the inside of the cubicle was an enclosed space, there was no need to worry that their voices would leak out of the room. So, the two of them spoke to each other at normal volumes.


    "My name is Frosette Shax. I am also the March Academy''s Academy Know-It-All, the person you are searching for," Frosette said. Then, she retracted her smile, stood up from her seat, and gently bowed to Alice, her actions causing Alice to blush a little. After doing all that, Frosette said, "Lord Demon King."


    At this point, Alice started growing a little unnerved. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn''t have reacted so anxiously if someone were to call her "Lord Demon King" in this enclosed space.


    However, the problem now was that Alice was carrying Kristine''s soul on her. The other party was a bona fide Hero. If Kristine heard Frosette''s greeting, Alice would have to think of a way to exin why Frosette would refer to her as the Demon King.


    "If you are worried about the soul you carry, you can rest assured, Lord Demon King." Noticing the flustered expression on Alice''s face, Frosette quickly exined, "I have set up a sealing barrier in this room that seals all magic tools. So, the soul inside the magic tool you carry cannot hear our conversation."


    "...You can sense that I am carrying a tool that houses a soul?"


    Alice calmed down a little after hearing Frosette''s exnation and sensing no malice from the other party. However, she also couldn''t help but be surprised by the other party''s abilities. Frosette''s perception must be amazing if she could discover Kristine''s soul inside the Soul Gathering Tablet.


    "It is part of the barrier''s characteristics. I have spent a lot of time and energy creating this barrier, and it can seal the abilities of most magic tools below the Artifact rank. Hence, the instant you came in, I immediately sensed the barrier activating and sealing the perception of a soul," Frosette exined with a lively smile. "But that soul sure is powerful. Even though it doesn''t have even an ounce of mana, my barrier still nearly failed to contain it. If I am to give the soul a rank, it should be at the Artifact rank at the very least."


    (TL/N: Soul Gathering Tablet is Legendary rank)


    <em>No, the Hero is a Law-grade weapon.</em>


    Although Alice had a strong urge to refute Frosette''s words, she eventually held it back. At the same time, Alice also felt fortunate that Frosette''s barrier could only seal magic tools under the Artifact rank. It meant that she could still make use of her panties. Though, it made sense after she thought about it. Her panties were Artifacts capable of unleashing taboo-level attacks. If Frosette''s barrier had already reached the level of sealing taboos, she could already be a Heavenly King in the demon realm.


    "Then, what exactly is your identity?"


    Since Frosette knew of her identity as the Demon King, Alice could more or less guess the other party''s identity. However, she couldn''t help but be curious why Frosette would enter the March Royal School of Magic and make herself known as Academy Know-It-All.


    "I''m sure you already have an idea, Lord Demon King," Frosette said, softly chuckling as a long tail slowly raised from behind her. Evidently, this was a special organ unique to the demon race. It was an integral organ that allowed demons to live in the demon realm''s polluted environment. "I am a spy working inside the March Royal School of Magic, and my job is to gather intelligence here."


    "So you really were a demon." Alice sighed. She honestly didn''t expect a demon spy inside the March Academy. "But why are you working as a spy in the March Academy? There doesn''t seem to be any significant meaning."


    "Of course there is meaning in it, Lord Demon King." Frosette understood that Alicecked understanding over national affairs, so she wagged her finger and exined, "There are five human countries in the human realm, and each has its own top-tier magic academy. Meanwhile, if we are to talk about where most of each country''s taboos are stored, it would undoubtedly be in the libraries of these top-tier magic academies."


    "Books on taboos?" After hearing Frosette''s exnation, Alice more or less knew what the other party was going to say next, so she said, "I see. If the Hero has appeared, he will most likely be sent to the ce with the most taboos to study them, and these top-tier magic academies are the most likely locations where the Hero will be sent."


    "That''s right. The Gryffin Kingdom''s March Royal School of Magic, the Ymir Kingdom''s Kilub Magic Academy, the Vulcan Kingdom''s Maple Royal Academy, the Milt Kingdom''s Tir Military Academy, and the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower, all five magic academies have spies from the demon realm operating in them," Frosette said, hiding no information from the "Demon King" before her. "Moreover, every one of these spies has thorough knowledge over their respective academies, and they are on a constant lookout for the Hero."


    Alice''s mouth twitched when she heard Frosette''s words. She didn''t think that the demon realm''s spies would''ve infiltrated the top-tier magic academies of all human kingdoms. It would seem that she had given the demons far less credit than they deserved and that the human realm wasn''t the only one to have sent spies.


    "Lady Alice is the hope of the demon race. Moreover, judging by thements of the Four Heavenly Kings, it would seem everyone believes that the demon race has a high chance of upying the human realm under Lady Alice''s leadership," Frosette continued speaking after seeing Alice remaining silent. "So, for the sake of your growth, please feel free to contact me should you need any help in this academy, Lady Alice. I have already gathered most of the avable information in this academy during my year and a half here. I will be your perfect information source."


    "Did you say you heardments about me from the Four Heavenly Kings?" Alice was stunned when she heard the minor detail in Frosette''s words. "Have the Four Heavenly Kings already announced my information to the public?"


    "Out of all the spies in the human realm, I am probably the only one who knows of your identity," Frosette said, shaking her head. Then, revealing a sly smile, she said, "It is because I am the daughter of Ellu Shax, the Heavenly King of Water. My mother has shared some of your information with me, so I was able to recognize you quickly, Lady Alice."


    At this time, Alice finally realized why Frosette''s surname sounded a little familiar. It turned out that Frosette shared the same surname as the Heavenly King of Water.


    TL Notes:


    There was a "Langir Kingdom" mentioned in Chapter 59. It would seem that the author has forgotten about it and reced it with another name. However, I''m not sure whether the Langir Kingdom refers to the Milt Kingdom or the Rhine Kingdom for now, so I will leave the Langir Kingdom unedited in Chapter 59.

 Chapter 116: This Kid Really Is Gullible

    Chapter 116: This Kid Really Is Gullible


    "The Third Demon King, Clyde Vap, has left a deep mark on the demon realm''s history. He is the only Demon King who has ever seeded in leading the demon realm to upy the human realm. Even though it has been thousands of years since he passed, there are still many documents that allow us to know about him in detail," Frosette said while looking through the pile of books on the table. "He once invented a taboo called Psychokinesis Transcendence, and he regarded it as magic that had surpassed its era by thousands of years at the time. Eventually, the book recording the taboo''s information was left in the human world and hidden away by the Hero at the time. This event was also recorded."


    <em>Magic that''s thousands of years ahead of its time</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but sigh ruefully when she heard Frosette''s words. She didn''t think that the Demon King named Clyde Vap was boasting when he made his im about the taboo he invented. This was because thousands of years had already passed since his era, yet nobody had managed to create a Law-grade taboo even until now. If there was, Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero, would''ve certainly known about it.


    "I think he might be wrong in his im. Although I cannot cast taboos by myself, I have inspected the contents of that book, and many of the theories inside are beyond my understanding," Frosette said in frustration. Although her talent wasn''tparable to the Hero and the Demon King, she was still a considerably strong individual in this world. After all, she could construct a barrier that sealed all magic tools underneath the Artifact rank. This was more than enough to prove her capabilities. "So, I am guessing that only the Demon King and the Hero can learn that taboo Found it!"


    After digging through the pile of books for some time, Frosette finally found the book she wanted<em>The Incredible Secrets of the World</em>. Then, she opened the book and retrieved an ancient-looking key hidden within it.


    "Is this the key to the magic workshop?" Alice guessed when she saw the key Frosette took out of the book.


    "That''s right. It''s a key with special magic applied to it. But the encryption magic from thousands of years ago was a little too crude, so I cracked it with ease, and it is now just an ordinary key," Frosette said in a delighted tone. While some ancient magic, such as Demon King Clyde''s Psychokinesis Transcendence, has wonderful designs, most are just in simple and crude when viewed in today''s light. So, cracking them isn''t hard."


    "So there is a key Where is the entrance, then?" Alice nodded to express her understanding before asking the question she wanted to ask the most. "There''s no button for a basement floor in the elevators. I heard that the stairwell that used to lead underground has been reced by the current elevator well."


    "That''s right. Under normal circumstances, it is indeed impossible to reach the underground workshop. However, I''ve left a backdoor to reach it," Frosette said as she handed the old key to Alice. "On the library''s sixth floor, on bookshelf B13, there is a popr science book titled <em>The Generality of Dark Attribute Mana</em>. I''ve drawn a magic array on page 16. So long as you inject a bit of dark-attributed mana into it, the magic array will activate and teleport you and the people you want to take with you to the magic workshop''s entrance."


    "Dark mana?" Alice was momentarily stunned. "If it needs dark mana to activate, how did you get in?"


    "Of course, it is because I also possess dark mana," Frosette said with a smile. Then, she lifted her right hand and summoned a small bundle of dark mist in her palm. "However, as my talent with it isn''t very high, I can only exercise a small amount of dark mana at a time. So, I chose to prioritize practicing water magic and sealing magic instead."


    Alice came to a realization. It would seem that Frosette was one of the few demons who had an affinity for dark mana. However, she didn''t focus on developing her dark magic and only used it as a backup because of herck of talent. For example, the teleportation array she left in the book she mentioned could only be activated using dark mana. Since there were no humans in the human realm capable of using dark mana, she didn''t even have to worry about the magic array getting discovered.


    <em>But I don''t have an affinity for dark mana</em>


    After bidding Frosette goodbye and exiting the cubicle, Alice quickly realized a troublesome problem: she didn''t actually have an affinity for dark mana.


    While Alice could use dark mana if necessary, the problem was that she would have to activate the teleportation array while in the presence of Zauna and Kristine. Meanwhile, the dark mist that would appear due to holding onto a pair of ck panties was something she couldn''t hide. At that time, she would have to think of a way to exin the situation to the two of them.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to trouble Luna with this matter, </em>Alice thought, sighing. The Demon King''s Power had attached itself to Luna before, so Luna naturally had an affinity for dark mana. And even if Kristine asked about Luna''s ability to use dark mana, Alice could use the excuse of Luna being a human-demon half-breed.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn''t help but envy Luna''s half-breed status a little. If her identity hadn''t been fixed already, she would''ve hoped to obtain a half-breed status as well.


    "Huh? What happened just now?"


    Shortly after Alice left the cubicle, Kristine''s dazed voice entered her ears.


    "Why do I feel a little dizzy? Also, why did you leave the cubicle as soon as you went in?"


    "You probably got used to daydreaming during these past three hundred years, so you might have subconsciously dozed off just now," Alice gave a random excuse. Kristine couldn''t have sensed anything inside the cubicle just now, so it was unlikely that she would see through her lie.


    "Is that so I guess that''s possible. It seems I still haven''t fully recovered from my muddleheaded state," Kristine said, seemingly believing in Alice''s excuse. Then, she sighed and continued, "I think I''ll have to talk with you more often in the future. Otherwise, it''d be terrible if I keep dozing off once I reconstruct my body."


    <em>Sure enough, this kid really is gullible.</em>

 Chapter 117: Psychokinesis Transcendence Get☆Daze

    Chapter 117: Psychokinesis Transcendence Get��Daze


    "Found it. It''s this book."


    After meeting up with Luna and Zauna on the 10th floor, Alice quickly made her way to the sixth floor and visited bookshelf B13. Then, she found the book titled <em>The Generality of Dark Attribute Mana</em> and took it out.


    "So there really are books on dark mana here," Alicemented, finding it a little strange that a library in the human realm would have a book on dark mana.


    "Although people with light and dark affinities are incredibly rare, they still exist. So, it is only natural for there to be books on light and dark mana. Only, they are much rarer than books on the four main elements," Zauna exined. "It is especially true for books on dark mana. Since it is impossible for anyone born in the human realm to have an affinity for dark mana, books on dark mana are even rarer than books on light mana. I didn''t think that Academy Know-It-All would hide the backdoor to the magic workshop here"


    "It is precisely because it is nigh-impossible for humans to have an affinity for dark mana that this person had hidden the backdoor here," Luna followed up with an indifferent expression. "Nobody would evene to check out this book under normal circumstances, much less inject dark mana into it. This would drastically reduce the chances of others discovering the passage to the underground workshop."


    "But it sure is a coincidence for Academy Know-It-All to make it so that the magic array can only be activated using dark mana," Zauna said, nodding as she watched Alice flip through the book in search of the teleportation array. "It just so happens that we have Luna with us. If it were anyone else standing in our ce, they wouldn''t have been able to enter the magic workshop even if they found the backdoor."


    <em>It isn''t a coincidence. The condition of using dark mana was prepared specifically for me, the "Demon King."</em>


    Alice awkwardly smiled when she heard Zauna''s words. Although she knew the reason why Frosette had set it so that only dark mana could activate the teleportation array, she couldn''t reveal the reason. After all, it would be of no benefit to her to reveal that she was the Demon King.


    "The 16th page''s magic array Is it this one?"


    When Alice arrived on the 16th page, she saw that the page talked about a basic dark magic called "Blindness." There was even a sample of the spell''s magic array drawn on the page. However, upon closer inspection, Alice noticed signs of tampering on the sample image. Evidently, this sample image wasn''t the magic array for Blindness. Instead, it was a teleportation magic array Frosette had left behind.


    <em>How smart of her to rece a sample magic array with a new and practical magic array, </em>Alice inwardly thought when she noticed the tampering. The average person wouldn''t possibly think that a usable magic array would be hidden here without receiving any hints. Afterward, Alice passed the book to Luna and said, "Luna, try to inject dark mana into this magic array."


    "Alright."


    Luna epted the book and took a quick look at the introductory text and the magic array on the page. Immediately, she understood the thought process of the person who had concealed this magic array here. Then, she nodded and started injecting dark mana into this magic array.


    Immediately, dark light flooded out of the page. Then, with Luna as the center, a moderately-sized teleportation array appeared on the ground.


    Seeing this, Alice and Zauna hurriedly stepped into the teleportation array. Then, when Luna increased the mana she injected into the magic array, the three of them instantly disappeared from the sixth floor.


    Fortunately, the library''s sixth floor stored mainly books on scientific studies. Hence, not many people were on this floor. Bookshelf B13 was also located in a secluded area, so nobody had noticed Alice''s group of three suddenly vanishing.


    After the teleportation array activated, Alice and the others found their surrounding environment changing instantly. The numerous bookshelves that originally surrounded them were nowhere to be seen, and taking their ce was a dark and narrow corridor.


    The corridor was connected to a stairway, and several magicmps giving off dim lighting were hung along the walls of the pathway.


    "Is this where the magic workshop is located?"


    Zauna felt that it was too dark here, so she raised her hand and cast the Illumination spell, brightening up the surroundings significantly. At first nce, Illumination seemed like a light-attributed spell. In reality, though, the spell achieved its effects by igniting mana. Thus, anyone with mana could use the spell, and Zauna naturally was no exception.


    "It seems it''s ahead," Luna said as she looked to the other end of the corridor. Of the two ends of this corridor, one end was connected to a stairway, which was probably the original way to reach the magic workshop. Meanwhile, the corridor''s other end was connected to a wooden door with an inconspicuous keyhole.


    "Let''s head over and take a look. There shouldn''t be any dangers here," Alice said as she approached the wooden door with the old key she received from Frosette. Then, she inserted the key into the inconspicuous keyhole and unlocked the door. Although the wooden door looked like it could be kicked open with force, since she had received the key from Frosette, she might as well use it.


    Not to mention, this was a magic workshop they were dealing with. There was no saying whether it was booby-trapped. So, opening the door with the key would reduce the risk ofing into danger.


    After pushing the door open, Alice was immediately greeted by an extremely stuffy odour. Although the smell couldn''t be considered repulsive, it still made her feel ufortable. The odour smelled very much like decaying wood.


    "It seems it''s been a while since anyone has visited this ce I bet this ce smelled even worse when Academy Know-It-All visited it," Zauna said as she hurriedly pinched her nose, finding the odour very unpleasant. However, she quickly took her mind off of the smell as she curiously scanned the magic workshop.


    After all, this ce was the workshop of one of the Third Hero''spanions. Although most ancient magic was considered obsolete nowadays, there was still some unique magic that existed back then. If this workshop happened to hold the books for such unique magic, she could take inspiration from them and hopefully put them to use in modern applications.


    Meanwhile, Luna remained unfazed even when subjected to the smell of rotten wood. She simply stood near the door as she watched Alice approach the biggest table in the workshop.


    "Psychokinesis Transcendence This should be the book, right?"


    When Alice picked up the book resting on the table, she instantly saw the words "Psychokinesis Transcendence" on the cover. Although a thickyer of dust covered the book, there were a few obvious handprints on the cover. Frosette should''ve left these handprints behind when she visited this workshop.


    However, even after noticing this, Alice wasn''t worried that Frosette might have swapped the real book with a fake. After all, Kristine, who had studied the taboo recorded in this book in the past, could help her verify the book''s validity.

 Chapter 118: Practical Gamer Alice

    Chapter 118: Practical Gamer Alice


    Alice had yet to read the books Zauna got for her, so her knowledge of magic was still very shallow. The little knowledge she possessed came from sensing the movement of mana in her body when she previously cast taboos using panties.


    Basically, it could be understood that Alice was a person who had already yed a few rounds of a game without even reading the rules of the game. While she couldn''t recite the rules of the game, she still had an inkling of how the game worked.


    Unfortunately, the things recorded in <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> were simply tooplicated for Alice to understand right now. Even after reading the book''s content, she didn''t know how she should go about casting the taboo. Having her learn something asplex as a taboo while having such a shallow foundation in magic knowledge was essentially saying "multiplication was the simplification of multiple additions" to someone who didn''t even know how to do additions. There was no way she could sessfully cast the taboo.


    Even so, Alice still managed to get a rough understanding of the book''s concept.


    Just like Kristine stated previously, the essence of Psychokinesis Transcendence was to delve into the microscopic world using psychokinesis and analyze the fundamental elements of this world. Then, using this knowledge, one could specifically manipte the elements one wanted.


    Looking at things from a small scale, Psychokinesis Transcendence allowed the user to have greater control over their mana, which would, in turn, allow them to learn magic much more quickly and manipte mana much more easily.


    On arger scale, Psychokinesis Transcendence allowed the user to understand the principles of the microscopic world, thereby understanding the world''s essence. Then, ultimately, one could glimpse into the ws" of this world. Thest part wasn''t just a random hypothesis, either. On thest page of the book, the taboo''s inventor, the Third Demon King Clyde Vap, had written down a note stating that he had already perceived the existence ofws.


    However, the note only ended with Clyde stating that he was attempting to analyze the Demon King''s Powerws. There were no further records after this. Though, even without any subsequent notes, Alice had a hunch that Clyde had failed. After all, the Demon King''s Power was still perfectly fine while Clyde was nowhere to be found.


    "What an amazing Demon King."


    Even from a human''s perspective, Alice couldn''t help but admit that Clyde Vap was an amazing individual. Not only did the Third Demon King have the best reputation out of all Demon Kings, but he even possessed such extraordinary abilities. In reality, parts of the content written in <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> ovepped with the quantum mechanics Alice knew of.


    Moreover, unlike quantum mechanics, the theories in <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> had already been put into practice, seeing as Clyde had sessfullye into contact withws. The only unfortunate part was that Clyde had disappeared all of a sudden during his era, and nobody knew what had happened to him.


    If the Third Demon King was still alive, Alice would very much want to meet and chat with him. After all, ording to his notes, Clyde had already noticed that the Demon King''s Power had an entirely different agenda than what most people thought. Contrary to popr belief, the Demon King wasn''t the one controlling the Demon King''s Power. In reality, the Demon King''s Power was the one using the Demon King.


    This was also why Clyde had chosen to investigate thews surrounding the Demon King''s Power. He wanted to know how the Demon King''s Power came into existence and why it existed. Afterward There was no more afterward.


    "While we might be standing in opposite positions, I can''t help but admit that Clyde Vap is a genius," Kristine said, sighing ruefully. "It isn''t without reason that he was the only Demon King who managed to upy the human realm. Even after thousands of years, the concepts in this magic book still far surpass modern concepts. Let alone the Third Hero, even I wouldn''t be confident in winning against the Third Demon King."


    Alice fell silent as she picked up the magic book with her right hand. Then, the book''s weapon information appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Magic Book - Psychokinesis Transcendence]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mind +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    It was only an ordinary book that recorded the principles of a taboo spell. The book itself didn''t have any special effects, so it was understandable for it to be regarded as garbage.


    However, this also showed that the book hadn''t been tampered with using magic. It was truly nothing but an ordinary book.


    "I spent several days studying in this room just to learn the basics of this taboo. With my talent as the Hero, this is already a very long learning period," Kristine added after noticing Alice''s silence. "I only ever managed to use Psychokinesis Transcendence to strengthen my psychokinesis. I didn''t manage to touch upon the realm ofws as stated in Clyde''s notes. You haven''t even learned the basics of magic yet, and you probably won''t be able to understand the book''s contents for the moment, so you should take the book away for now."


    "I guess you''re right. I can take my time learning it during the school trip," Alice said, nodding. God had created her body, so her talent for learning was not the slightest bit inferior to the Hero. She guessed that by the time the school trip began, she would''ve already mastered the basics of magic.


    "Alice! Alice! Come and take a look at this!"


    After Alice picked up <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em>, Zauna''s voice came from a corner of the workshop.


    Following the voice, Alice found Zauna standing in front of a small workbench and looking at a small knife on the workbench. Simr to <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em>, the knife''s surface was coated in ayer of dust.


    "What''s this knife?" Alice curiously asked as she walked over to Zauna.


    "I don''t know, but this knife seems strange," Zauna said as she looked at Alice. Then, she exined, "When I tried picking it up before, I immediately felt a little drowsy It was the same feeling I got when I touched the Hero''s Sword."


    "Like the Hero''s Sword?"


    Alice was stunned. Then, she turned to Luna, who was also standing in front of the workbench.


    Noticing Alice''s questioning gaze, Luna nodded and said, "I tried it as well. What Zauna said is true."


    <em>It works on Luna as well? This is interesting,</em> Alice thought as she caressed her chin. She remembered the Loli Goddess stating that there was only one Hero''s Sword, and this Hero''s Sword was sitting inside the weapon storage box she carried. So, the knife sitting on the workbench couldn''t be the Hero''s Sword that God created.


    However, apart from the Hero''s Sword, what other item could possibly affect Luna? Luna was someone who had absorbed a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s strength, after all.


    Alice couldn''t help but grow curious. Meanwhile, acting on her curiosity, she raised her right hand and picked up the gorgeous-looking and dusty little knife.


    TL Notes:


    Psychokinesis Transcendence (without italics) refers to the taboo spell.


    <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence </em>refers to the book.

 Chapter 119: Stable Garbage

    Chapter 119: Stable Garbage


    [Weapon: Imitation Hero''s Sword -Unnamed]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    It was a familiar panel that made Alice recall the time when she first drew the Hero''s Sword.


    However, what surprised Alice was that her right hand had evaluated the knife as an imitation of the Hero''s Sword. Although the knife was small and unassuming, its name alone showed that it was something amazing.


    Alice knew that the Hero''s Sword was a Law-grade weapon. It was also precisely because it was a Law-grade weapon that anyone who failed to gain its recognition would suffer a bacsh if they tried to wield it.


    Evidently, the fact that Luna and Zauna had felt drowsy after picking up the knife showed that it wasn''t actually a Garbage-quality weapon. Instead, the knife had sessfully replicated thews surrounding the Hero''s Sword, and only people recognized by it could wield it.


    "I saw this knife when I came here as well, but I didn''t pay much attention to it, thinking that it was merely a fruit knife left behind by someone," Kristine''s unreliable voice entered Alice''s ears. "Is there something wrong with this knife?"


    "This knifeis an imitation of the Hero''s Sword. In other words, only those who had gained the creator''s recognition can pick up this knife. Without the creator''s recognition, you''ll suffer the same side effects as when you are picking up the Hero''s Sword," Alice said, deciding to share her discovery. "I''m guessing that this is a product Clyde made when he was exploring thews This guy really is something."


    "Clyde? The only Demon King who managed to upy the human realm?" Zauna was surprised when she heard Alice mentioning Clyde''s name. As the only Demon King to have ever conquered the human realm, Clyde held significant fame in both the demon and human realms. Moreover, his fame in the human realm wasn''t infamy, surprisingly. "You''re saying that he made this knife? Also, what do you mean byws? Is it the legal kind?"


    "No, thews I am talking about refer to the essence of this world. They are the theorems people take for granted. An example ofws is the Hero''s and Demon King''s existences. Laws are things that only God can create," Alice said before letting out a rueful sigh. Then, she returned the knife onto the workbench and continued, "My goal ining here is this <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em>, and it is simrly one of Clyde Vap''s creations. It is a taboo that has touched upon thews of this world."


    "...There was such a taboo in existence?"


    Zauna gasped when she heard Alice''s words. Out of the three people and one soul in this room, she was the only normal person. As for the others, one was a transmigrator whose body was created by God, one was a former Demon King who had expelled the Demon King''s Power from her body, and one was the soul of a former Hero.


    "Yes, there is. It is an amazing taboo that can be of great use. Even if I fail to understand this taboopletely, just learning the basic mana maniption methods involved will save me a lot of time when learning other spells," Alice said as she waved the magic book in her hand in front of Zauna. Then, she asked, "Do you want to try learning it? If you manage to learn it, other spells will be avable at your fingertips."


    "I''ll pass. I know my standards," Zauna said, shaking her head. Since Psychokinesis Transcendence was a taboo, it definitely wasn''t something the average person could learn. As an ordinary mortal, Zauna knew her limits. "But since this knife is an imitation of the Hero''s Sword, are you not going to take it away?"


    "No, there''s no point in taking it away Although this knife was created based on thews surrounding the Hero''s Sword, it doesn''t have the power of a Hero''s Sword. It might only have thew that prevents others from using it without permission," Alice said, shaking her head. "Moreover, Clyde has most likely died already. Without his recognition, nobody can use this knife."


    <em>But didn''t you just pick it up without a problem? </em>Zauna very much wanted to ask this question when she looked at Alice but eventually chose to keep quiet. At the same time, she also couldn''t help but wonder, <em>Could Alice be someone the Third Demon King recognizes?</em>


    <em>Or maybe the Third Demon King had a specific type of person in mind when he created this knife, and Alice just so happens to match the criteria?</em>


    <em>Could the Third Demon King be a lolicon?</em>


    Ignorant of the fact that Clyde''s image had plummeted in Zauna''s mind, Alice kept <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> away and asked Zauna:


    "I''m just here for this book, so I''m done here. Did you make any other discoveries, Zauna?"


    "No. The magician who owned this workshop probably took away most of the things here when they left, so there isn''t anything noteworthy left here." After hearing Alice''s words, Zauna temporarily set aside her malicious spection of the Third Demon King and shook her head, saying, "As to why the owner left behind this knife and that magic book I have no idea."


    "Indeed. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge of magic should know the importance of <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em>. Yet, the owner of this magic workshop left the book here while taking away everything else from this ce," Luna, who had been exploring the magic workshop together with Zauna previously, stated. "This seems a bit out of the ordinary."


    "It is indeed strange. However, there should be no mistaking the authenticity of this book."


    Alice also expressed her confusion in regards to this situation. Everything of value had already been removed from the magic workshop. The only things left were <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> and an Imitation Hero''s Sword suspected to be the Third Demon King''s creation. This was indeed a bizarre situation.


    However, it was a fact that the <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence</em> here was authentic. Kristine, the former Hero, could attest to that. Kristine had sessfully mastered a portion of Psychokinesis Transcendence, so she could easily verify that the book''s content was real.


    "Clyde Vap, huh"


    After exiting the magic workshop, Alice looked back and felt that the Third Demon King wasn''t as simple as everyone thought.


    Not only did Clyde invent a Law-grade taboo, but he even discovered the truth about the Demon King''s Power. It was no exaggeration to say that Clyde was the most extraordinary Demon King out of all Demon Kings that had existed thus far. Most importantly, there was no clear indication that Clyde had died ording to historical records. Instead, he had suddenly vanished from the world one day, and humans quickly reimed the territory he conquered.


    For now, Alice''s initial spection was that Clyde might have suffered a bacsh through his attempts at investigating the Demon King''s Power. However, she still couldn''t help but wonder if that really was the case.


    When the Demon King''s Power was expelled from Luna''s body, it had indeed lingered around Luna for quite some time. However, it had only done so to verify whether Luna had indeed dropped her hatred for humanity. Meanwhile, after verifying that Luna was no longer suitable to be its host, the Demon King''s Power had promptly left without doing anything to Luna.


    So, did Clyde Vap really die to the Demon King''s Power?

 Chapter 120: Elves Arent Geniuses

    Chapter 120: Elves Aren''t Geniuses


    The matter of Alice taking out a book involving the world''sws didn''t attract anyone''s attention.


    There was hardly anybody visiting the sixth floor, anyway. The library''s surveince cameras were also concentrated around the floor''s entrances, hallways, and reading areas since it''d be a financial waste to set up a camera for every bookshelf.


    Hence, other than Frosette, nobody else should know that Alice''s group had disappeared from the sixth floor for a few minutes.


    Meanwhile, after taking the elevator back to the first floor and getting the several books on the basics of magic processed, Alice left the library together with Zauna and Luna. As for the <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence </em>in her bag, she naturally didn''t have to get it processed since it didn''t have the library''s magic inscription.


    To prevent people from stealing books, every book in the library had been inscribed with a magic inscription. Although the inscription wasn''t very strong, it was veryplex. If one didn''t know how to unravel magic inscriptions, their only way of removing it was brute force.


    However, the library had a good grasp of this point. Those without the strength wouldn''t be able to forcibly break the inscriptions, while those with the strength to break the inscriptions wouldn''tck the money these books were worth.


    Thus, when Alice and the others left the library, they didn''t trigger any rms. Naturally, nobody came to check whether they carried any unprocessed books in their bags, either.


    "Tomorrow will be the opening ceremony and the official start of sses."


    Many people had also turned their gazes toward Alice on the way back. However, probably because news of her cold attitude had already spread across the forums, nobody tried to approach her. Thus, Zauna didn''t have to act reserved, and she could freely strike up a conversation with Alice.


    "Did the dean tell you which ss you are assigned to?"


    "He says I was assigned to Year 1''s ss C04," Alice said after recalling her conversation with the dean. ording to her previous research, every high school year had several dozen sses, a testament to the number of students attending the March Academy. Meanwhile, these sses were categorized into Groups A, B, and C, and each group had upwards of ten sses.


    sses in Group A were mainly catered to nobles, so most of the students in these sses weren''t hard workers.


    Of course, that wasn''t to say all nobles in Group A were good-for-nothings. A portion of these nobles might be rejects who were faulting their wealth and influence to cover for their deficiencies, but they were only a minority. Most of the nobles attending the academy were focused on inheriting their family businesses. Hence, other than learning some general knowledge of magic, these nobles didn''t care to learn more about magic.


    Meanwhile, Group B was a special group that mainly catered to students with special talents such as light affinity. Either that or students who researched magic. Simply put, Group B was more focused on research, and the students here were mostly bookworms that were weak in actualbat.


    Group C was the more bnced of the three groups. It also housed most of the academy''s top students.


    Although Group C''s students were equally talented in magic as Group B''s students, they weren''tplete bookworms like Group B''s students. They were students who focused on both academic studies and actualbat. While Group C''s students might not be as smart as Group B''s students, they were more all-rounded and would have many more career options once they graduated.


    Originally, Alice should''ve been assigned to Group A or Group B with her status as the princess and her affinity for light magic. However, Catherine was well-versed with the human heart, and she had specifically asked the dean to assign Alice to the same ss as Zauna.


    Thus, Alice wasn''t surprised when she learned that she was assigned to ss C04, Zauna''s ss.


    "You''re actually in the same ss with me? As expected of Your Highness. Even the dean dares not disobey you," Zauna smiled when she heard Alice''s answer. The moment she learned that Alice was staying in the same dormitory with her, she had already vaguely guessed that Alice would get assigned to the same ss as her as well. Meanwhile, Alice''s answer had verified her conjecture. "How wonderful, my princess."


    After saying so, Zauna even pinched Alice''s cheeks.


    "But those nobles will probably be depressed. They''ve all gathered in Group A''s sses," Luna, who was walking beside Alice, added expressionlessly. She didn''t have any good feelings for those noble students. After all, she was bullied by nobles during her childhood. "They''ll have far fewer opportunities to curry favor with Alice."


    "Let them be depressed. Although currying favor with Alice would indeed get their family a lot of help in their career, that isn''t because of Alice''s identity as a princess."


    Zauna might not be from a noble family, but she still understood that if a noble household managed to get into the good graces of the Hero, the household would receive a long period of stability and possibility prosperity. However, Zauna also knew that Alice wasn''t easily susceptible to temptation.


    Alice might look like she operated with a goal normally, but Zauna could never tell what that goal was exactly. While it was reasonable to believe that Alice''s goal was to y the Demon King, Zauna had a feeling that Alice''s goaly beyond that. Although she still hadn''t figured out what that goal was, she was certain that it wasn''t something the nobles could help her with.


    "By the way, I heard that there are international students in this academy." When they arrived at their dormitory building''s entrance, Alice suddenly thought of this matter and curiously asked Zauna about it. "Does our ss have any international students? Tell me in advance so that I can be mentally prepared."


    Alice had heard about students from other countries attending the March Academy. Kristine, the former Hero, was the best example. She might have studied in the March Royal School of Magic, but she wasn''t from the Gryffin Kingdom. Instead, she came from the Ymir Kingdom.


    "Yes, there are a few," Zauna said, nodding. "Two are from the Ymir Kingdom, three are from the Milt Kingdom, and one is kind of a special case."


    After keeping Alice in suspense for a moment, Zauna smiled and said:


    "Thest one is an elf from the Elven Forest."


    "An elf?" Alice was a little surprised when she heard this. Then, while pulling out the key to their room and unlocking the door, she curiously asked, "Do elves even need toe to our academy? Aren''t elves natural-born magicians?"


    "While it is true that elves are born with the ability to manipte ambient mana, it isn''t urate to say that they are natural-born magicians." Smiling, Zauna exined, "You should know that elves have a very long life span. However, the price of this long lifespan is that they are actuallymagical dunces."


    "???"


    This answer was a stark contrast from Alice''s perception of elves, and she was so surprised that even her hand opening the door had stopped.


    "If elves are magical geniuses, wouldn''t all of them be on the level of the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings if they trained for hundreds or thousands of years?" Zauna continued exining. "The reality is that elves only have subpar talent in magic. Although they have an easier time manipting ambient mana, the amount of mana they can store in their body and their sensitivity toward magic forms are pitifully low. They need to undergo long periods of training just to reach the average human standard."


    Seeing that Alice''s hand had stopped on the door handle, Zauna stepped forward, squeezed Alice''s hand, and pushed down, opening the door to their dormitory. Then, she continued, "So, if you go to the Elven Forest and see some young elves manipting magic skillfully, don''t forget that these elves have already lived for hundreds of years. They have spent centuries training their magic just to get on the same level as human magicians."


    "So that''s how it is."


    Alice revealed a bitter smile. However, she felt that it made sense after thinking it over. If elves possessed great talent in magic on top of being born with excellent mana sensitivity and a long lifespan, elves would be a terrifying force in this world.


    The demons might be a barbaric race that valued strength above alle lse, but even their strongest fighters were only limited to the Four Heavenly Kings. Inparison, if the elves were talented in magic, they''d have several dozen or hundred Heavenly Kings after a few centuries. If the elves had that kind of strength, they could sweep through the human and demon realms without facing any resistance.


    "However, while their talent on average might not be anything to write home about, there will still be the asional elf born with great talent for magic. The international student in our ss is one example. Her talent for magic is excellent even by human standards," Zauna said, smiling as she looked at Alice. "You''ll get to meet her tomorrow, so don''t be surprised at that time."

 Chapter 121: Werent Elves Supposed to Live in Seclusion?

    Chapter 121: Weren''t Elves Supposed to Live in Seclusion?


    Zauna was right. On the next day, when sses officially began, Alice couldn''t help but be surprised when she saw the elven student.


    Seemingly noticing Alice''s stare, the elf turned around and looked up at Alice. Then, in a dissatisfied tone, the elf asked, "What are you looking at? Never seen a young elf before?"


    "As a matter of fact, yes" Alice said as she lowered her head to look at the elf. Appearance-wise, the elf was muchsmaller than she imagined. The elf looked like a seven- or eight-year-old girl mingling among high schoolers from a human''s perspective, and it looked very much like this elf was a grade-schooler who had lost their way.


    Alice originally thought that her small frame already looked strange among high schoolers. She didn''t think that she would see an even smaller high schooler. If Zauna was telling the truth when she said that this elf was more talented in magic than the average human, it meant that this loli elf should still be in her teens.


    So, after Alice thought it over, it made sense that this elf was so tiny.


    The two of them were currently standing inside the academy''s spacious gymnasium attending the opening ceremony. Meanwhile, due to their height, both of them stood at the very front of ss C04.


    Of course, because ss C04 wasn''t situated at the very front of the hall, Alice wasn''t worried that her conversation with this loli elf would get noticed by the person speaking on the stage.


    "What is your name?" After looking around and seeing no teachers nearby, Alice lowered her head and curiously looked at the loli elf standing in front of her. "Did youe to the Gryffin Kingdom by yourself?"


    "Is this really your first time seeing an elf?" the loli elf with long green hair asked as she turned around to look at Alice. Ever since the advent of the inte, elves have stopped living in istion as much as before. Many elves would frequently travel to the human realm. Thus, Alice should havee across a few logically.


    Even if Alice had somehow nevere across an elf in her life, she should''ve seen pictures of elves on the inte. So, there should be no reason why she would react so excitedly to see an elf.


    However, despite being confused by Alice''s reactions, the loli elf still answered Alice''s question, saying, "I''m Lalu Grist. As you can see, I am an elf, and I am 17 years old this year."


    Seeing that Alice was seemingly about to introduce herself, Lalu quickly added:


    "I know you. You''re Alice Ceres, King Hatter''s illegitimate daughter Although you were born out of wedlock, King Hatter had never married or shared intimate rtionships with anyone else, so you are now officially considered the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess."[1]


    Alice was a little stunned when she heard Lalu''s words. It turned out that after treating her as Hatter''s illegitimate daughter, everyone had also attached Hatter''s surname to her.


    "But I''m not from the Gryffin Kingdom, so don''t expect me to pander to you like everyone else," Lalu said, snorting as she gave Alice a side-long nce. It looked like she looked down on the people trying to curry favor with Alice. Though, this prideful behavior very much matched Alice''s impression of elves.


    "It''s fine. I don''t really like people pandering to me, anyway," Alice said, smiling. She wasn''t interested in the people trying to get close to her, either. After all, her goal wasn''t to join the ranks of nobility by attending the March Academy. Instead, she was trying to increase her chances of victory against the Demon King''s Power. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, the loli elf before her might just be able to help her with this problem. "By the way, does your Elven Forest allow entry to humans?"


    "Do you really not know anything?" Lalu couldn''t help but look at Alice strangely. "I previously saw people online saying that you lived a hard life in a remote vige. By the looks of it, those rumors are true Did the ce you lived in before not have ess to the inte?"


    Alice awkwardlyughed and scratched her head when she heard Lalu''s question. Although she had previously researched the human and demon realms, her focus was on humans and demons. She didn''t ce much attention on other races, such as elves and beastkin. She was only aware that such races existed in this world and nothing more.


    "The Elven Forest has long since allowed outsiders to visit, but you need to buy a ticket to get in," Lalu said. Then, under Alice''s puzzled gaze, Lalu exined, "The Elven Forest has been opened for tourism long ago, and it is a rtively famous tourist spot nowadays. You can buy tickets to get in online. I think we will be visiting the forest for this year''s school trip as well Of course, if you want to tour the forest on your own time, you can talk to me about it. I know some tour guides who can give you a discount."


    "..."


    Alice was so shocked that she was rendered speechless. This situation was vastly different from what she expected.


    However, this couldn''t be considered bad news for Alice. At the very least, it meant that elves were currently taking the initiative to interact with other races. Unlike the elves Alice had read in novels, the elves of this world were not so unreasonable.


    "Then, is your race''s Seed of Nature for sale?"


    After learning that the elves had developed their tourism industry, Alice immediately thought about acquiring the most important material needed to reconstruct a body for Kristhe Seed of Nature. ording to what she heard, the Seeds of Nature were akin to national treasures for the elves, and it was incredibly hard to acquire one. However, since the elves weren''t as secluded as she thought, they might be open to selling the Seed of Nature.


    "You want a Seed of Nature?"


    Lalu couldn''t help but look at Alice in surprise. She didn''t think that the Gryffin Princess would be interested in acquiring the elven race''s Seed of Nature.


    The Seeds of Nature were regarded like holy relics by elves. Situated in the middle of the elven forest was a divine tree nted by God, and the Seeds of Nature were the seeds of the fruits produced by this divine tree. On average, the divine tree would only produce a handful of fruits every century.


    "What do you want the Seed of Nature for? There aren''t many people in your family tree, and I don''t think anyone in the Gryffin King''s family is seriously ill or suffering from a curse."


    Although Lalu didn''t understand why Alice would want a Seed of Nature, considering the other party''s status, she decided it''d be best to provide a proper answer to avoid souring the diplomatic rtionship between them the elves the Gryffin Kingdom. Thus, she said, "With your status as the Gryffin Kingdom''s royalty, I think you should be able to get one if you ask."


    When Lalu finished speaking, Alice heard Kristine sighing in relief.


    TL Notes:


    [1]King Hatter: I made a huge mistake in tranting the Gryffin King''s name. Apparently, it isn''t Chris Hatter, but Hatter Ceres instead I''ve made the necessary changes to the previous chapters already. [1st-February-2022]

 Chapter 122: Were You the One Who Lured the Hero Here?

    Chapter 122: Were You the One Who Lured the Hero Here?


    Since enrolling, Alice had been attending sses for two weeks already, and she had gradually started to adapt to the life of studying at the March Academy.


    Originally, Alice had been a little worried that the nobles woulde to bug her. However, things turned out much better than she expected. Because sses in Groups A and C were located far apart, most noble students didn''t even have the opportunity toe and harass Alice.


    After all, sses in Group A consisted of students who weren''t focused on magical studies. In contrast, sses in Group C consisted of students focused on their magical studies and practicalbat. Even if some nobles skipped ss toe and find Alice, they would only be greeted by the shut doors of ss C04.


    These nobles probably thought that Her Highness Alice would be simr to them and wouldn''t take her studies seriously. Unfortunately, the princess was serious about studying magic, so these nobles received the cold shoulder.


    Alice didn''t have to worry about nobles approaching her outside of ss, either. After all, her maid Luna wasn''t a decoration. Whenever nobles tried to invade Alice''s personal space, even after she had politely refused their attempts to strike up a conversation, Luna would throw both the nobles and their servants and bodyguards back to wherever they came from. These nobles wouldn''t dare to get angry, either, due to Alice''s identity as the princess. In the end, these nobles could only walk away gloomily and cease their thoughts of getting close to Alice.


    Contrasting the nobles, themoner students got along quite well with Alice. After realizing that the princess wasn''t as hard to get along with as the rumors made her out to be, they gradually plucked up the courage to talk to her. Some would often ask her questions about magic even. As a result of these interactions, Alice became a familiar face among the various sses in Group C.


    It couldn''t be helped. Alice''s dainty face was simply too likable. Thus, she had a much easier time racking up favorability points when interacting with others.


    Meanwhile, Alice did not let down Zauna''s expectations, either. Just like the Loli Goddess had said, Alice''s talent for learning magic wasparable to the Hero and the Demon King. On the first few days of sses, Alice had been the one asking other students for help on her magical studies. However, Alice quickly caught up to her ssmates'' progress, and she had even started learning higher grade studies already.


    <em>It''d be great if I had such a brain before I transmigrated.</em>


    This was the first time Alice had experienced what it felt like to be a genius, and she found the experience wonderful. Of course, she didn''t forget her main goal in attending the March Academy. After umting enough basic knowledge on magic, she promptly started trying her hand at learning taboos.


    Contrary to popr belief, the underlying principles of taboos weren''t particrlyplicated. The factors limiting their use were their high requirement toward mana volume and mana control. The average person simply didn''t have the mana required to cast a taboo by themselves. And even if a person injected a huge amount of mana into their body at the risk of crippling themselves, they wouldn''t have the necessary control required to precisely manipte all that mana toplete a taboo''splex magic form.


    However, that wasn''t the case for the Hero. Although Alice wasn''t the Hero, she had talent rivaling the Hero. After studying and training for many hours these past two weeks, Alice had already cultivated a respectable amount of mana in her body. Her control toward mana had also be a lot more proficient.


    Thinking of it this way, Alice was quite grateful to the Loli Goddess for creating a new body for her. If she had remained with her original body, even if she managed to survive the hidden injuries she suffered when transmigrating, there was no saying whether her body could cultivate mana in this world.


    "What book are you reading?"


    It was currently recess, yet Alice remained in her seat reading a book that clearly wasn''t part of the curriculum. So, Lalu, Alice''s deskmate, naturally grew curious and leaned over to check out the book Alice was reading.


    After two weeks of interaction, the loli elf had already grown quite familiar with Alice. As a result, she no longer behaved in the same elegant and lofty manner when she first met Alice. Now, apart from the asional arrogant moments, Lalu behaved mostly like a very enthusiastic kid, taking on the role of the liveliest student in ss C04.


    Honestly, Alice had a hard time believing that this lively loli was actually an elf.


    "Divide the mana in a ratio of 1:2:5:7, disperse the mana particles with a volume of 10 and arrange them into the shape of a satellite, prepare a weight roughly the mass of 59 seas of consciousness, then proceed with a uniform motion of roughly 10 kilometers per hour..."


    Lalu frowned in confusion when she read the contents of Alice''s book. She had no trouble understanding the book''s content. The book''s content was so easy that anyone with even a little bit of magic knowledge could understand it. Rather than the book''s content, what puzzled her was whether mortals could aplish the precise conditions mentioned in the book.


    Holding such thoughts, Lalu moved Alice''s hand away and lifted the book''s cover to take a look. Although her action was somewhat rude, she knew that Alice wouldn''t get angry over such a small matter. Meanwhile, after lifting the cover, Lalu also got to see this book''s title:


    <em>Gxy Made of mes  Casting and Principle Analysis of "Burning Star"</em>


    "Isn''t this a taboo spell?!"


    Lalu instantly recognized the spell named Burning Star for what it was. Of course, that wasn''t because she had read about this taboo spell before. Instead, it was because the cover of this book wasbeled with the word "Taboo."


    "I know that you''ve been making significant progress in your studies, but isn''t it a little crazy that you''re reading up on taboos already?" Lalu asked. While books on taboo weren''t considered dangerous objects since the average person couldn''t cast a taboo by themselves, she couldn''t understand why Alice would be holding onto a book for a taboo during ss.


    "I''m just reading about its underlying principles. I''m not actually trying to learn it," Alice said, chuckling. Nobody could guess that she was actually the Hero, anyway, so it wouldn''t matter even if she openly studied taboos. At most, people would assume that she was reading it as a reference book. "Setting this aside, have you asked about the matter I asked you before?"


    "You mean the Seed of Nature? I did ask about it, but the patriarch and elders haven''t given me an answer yet. They''re probably still discussing it," Lalu said, shaking her head. "Although the elves share friendly rtions with the Gryffin Kingdom, the Seed of Nature is incredibly precious and has many uses. We typically split one Seed of Nature for multiple uses, yet you are asking for an entire seed, so it is quite a troubling request. If not for your status as royalty, the patriarch and the elders would''ve long since rejected the request already."


    "Is that so"


    Alice nodded to express her understanding. In reality, she had thought about using her identity as the Hero to request for a Seed of Nature. If it was the Hero''s request, the elves should be more willing to hand one over.


    After all, once the Demon King began waging war, the human and demon realms wouldn''t be the only ones embroiled in war. The Elven Forest, the various beastkin tribes, and other small tribal races would also get dragged into the war. As a race seeking to live in peace, the elves would naturally support the Hero.


    If it was when Alice had first transmigrated to this world, she would''ve probably revealed her identity to the elves without hesitation. However, Alice dared not casually do so right now.


    It couldn''t be helped. After seeing how many spies were operating in both the human and demon realms, Alice dared not guarantee that there wouldn''t be any spies operating in the Elven Forest. If she revealed her identity to the elves, there was a high chance that it would get exposed to the public immediately.


    "But not all hope is lost." Noticing the look of disappointment on Alice''s face, Lalu leaned closer and whispered into Alice''s ear, "I heard that the school trip''s destination this time is most likely the Elven Forest. Once we reach the forest, I can take you to meet with the patriarch and elders, and you can talk it out with them."

 Chapter 123: Q: How to Master a Bunch of Taboos in Two Days? (Urgent)

    Chapter 123: Q: How to Master a Bunch of Taboos in Two Days? (Urgent)


    Just like Lalu mentioned, the school trip this year was set to be at the Elven Forest. Since the Hero''s Sword had already been drawn, there wasn''t much meaning in visiting Mana City any longer. Thus, it was natural that the school trip''s destination changed.


    Meanwhile, the Elven Forest where elves lived was a good alternative destination. Although one could find many pictures and videos of the Elven Forest online, few people had actually visited the forest in person before. This was because apart from the exorbitant entrance fee, the Elven Forest was also located at the human realm''s border. Depending on one''s starting point, one might even need to make use of teleportation arrays to reach the forest.


    The nobles in ss Group A had more or less visited the Elven Forest before. After all, their families did notck the money to travel. However, students in ss Groups B and C might not have visited the forest before. Thus, the academy decided to set the school trip''s destination at the Elven Forest. Many people also weed this change.


    Of course, there were also a few fearless fellows on the academy''s forums voicing their disappointment that the high schooler''s school trip this time wasn''t set at the Dragon Mountain Range.


    In the afternoon, Lalu headed to Alice and Zauna''s dormitory, as usual, to have lunch with them. The room Alice and Zauna lived in was very spacious, and it even had its own kitchen. So, they would typically head back during lunch break to enjoy Luna''s home-cooked meal.


    Meanwhile, after receiving Alice and Zauna''s invitation, Lalu was more than delighted to join them for lunch. This was because Luna''s cooking was truly delicious. As an elf who was used to eating nd foods, Lalu got quite the taste shock when she first tasted Luna''s cooking.


    Oftentimes, elves would have difficulty epting human food due to the huge disparity in taste. However, Lalu was only 17 years old, so she was still at an age where she could ept new things easily. As a result, she quickly became infatuated with human food.


    "The Elven Forest has a high admission price to ensure that the forest''s peacefulness isn''t disturbed by too many tourists." During lunch, Lalu took the opportunity to brush up Alice and Zauna''s knowledge about the Elven Forest. "The main reason the forest is open to tourism is to prevent elves from getting isted and stagnating. However, it''d be counterproductive if the forest''s tranquility gets undermined as a result. The older generation of elves wouldn''t want to see that happening at all."


    "That is understandable. My family has considered visiting the Elven Forest in the past, but we decided against it after seeing the exorbitant admission price and how far it is," Zauna said, nodding. As someone from an ordinary family, she knew that the Elven Forest''s admission price was indeed very expensive for the average household. "But the academy is footing the bill this time, so it doesn''t matter. There is also no way this academycks money."


    The amount of money the March Academy had received from nobles over the years was beyond imagination. So, it wouldn''t have any trouble paying for a tour to the Elven Forest for several hundred people.


    "By the way, do you elves have any special taboos?"


    Rather than the admission price, Alice was more concerned about something else. Ever since she learned that they would be visiting the Elven Forest, the first thought that came to her mind was whether the taboos the elves owned were any different from the taboos avable in the human realm.


    The elves might not have much talent for magic, but it was undeniable that they possessed vastly superior sensitivity to mana. Adding on their long lifespans, it wasn''t impossible for some elves to invent taboos that none of the other races possessed.


    The school trip''s date was set at one month after sses resumed. In other words, Alice had already spent close to a month studying in the March Academy. During this one month, not only did she catch up and surpass the academic progress of most students in the academy, but she had also started learning how to cast taboos.


    The feeling of being a genius was extraordinary. When Alice was still an ordinary person in the past, she would find studying a pain since she could never tell if she had made any significant progress even after studying a book for an entire day.


    However, after studying for a month as a genius, she realized just how wonderful it was to be a genius. She could sense herself improving with every book she studied. Thus, she gained even more motivation to continue studying.


    In the aspect of taboos, Alice was currently researching Psychokinesis Transcendence while simultaneously studying two other taboos named "Burning Star" and "Wicked Wind."


    In the eyes of others, studying three taboo spells simultaneously was something only a lunatic would do. However, this was Kristine''s suggestion. ording to her, studying three or more taboos simultaneously wasn''t a problem for the Hero.


    Although Alice was initially skeptical about Kristine''s suggestion, after trying it out, she realized that not only did learning three taboos not affect her learning speed at the slightest, but doing so had even allowed her to save some time. This was because some of the principles used in these taboos were simr, so she didn''t have to invest more time into learning these same principles.


    Hence, Alice was currently in a state of hunger for learning more taboos. Meanwhile, after verifying that she would be visiting the Elven Forest for her school trip, she immediately set her sights on the elves'' taboos.


    "Aren''t you a little too interested in taboos? Aren''t those things only useful as references?" Lalu asked in confusion.


    Because Alice had constantly been updating her Hero LINK ount with fake information during this period, Lalu had not once suspected that Alice might be the Hero. She merely thought that Alice was a strange student whose hobby was studying taboos.


    Meanwhile, after seeing the hopeful look Alice gave her, Lalu snorted lightly and revealed a helpless expression as she said, "Alright, alright. Since you''re so curious We do have some unique taboos. With our long lifespans, so long as someone with extraordinary talent appears, they''d have plenty of time to research and develop their magic. So, it isn''t strange to see these people creating new and unique taboos."


    Lalu was a prime example of an elf with extraordinary talent. Although her talent could only be considered slightly above average by human standards, paired with her lifespan of at least several centuries, there was a high chance that she could grow to a point where she could cast taboos by herself in the future.


    Meanwhile, Lalu wasn''t a unique entity among her race. There were definitely many more elves simr to her that had appeared in the past, and it''d bepletely normal for these elves to create a taboo or two during their lifetimes. Only, due to the closed nature of elves, most of these taboos had never been spread out of the Elven Forest.


    "Can you get your hands on those taboos? I want to look at them," Alice said as she put her hands together and begged Lalu. "Just a look, alright?"


    "Of course I can." Lalu was a little powerless against Alice''s pleading gesture. As a prideful elf, seeing Alice making a request of her in such a cute manner stirred her heart, and she couldn''t help but fake a few coughs to hide her embarrassment. "I am a well-known genius among our race, after all. If I request to read our race''s taboos, the elders should ept my request."


    Before Alice could express her gratitude, Lalu suddenly put on a stern expression and continued, "But you cannot take the books away. So, you''ll probably only have as long as the school tripsts to study them."


    "No problem. Piece of cake," Alice said, patting her non-existent bust. Then, she looked at Zauna and curiously asked, "By the way, how long will our school tripst?"


    "Two days," Zauna, who knew about Alice''s true goal, answered awkwardly.

 Chapter 124: Demon Realms Puppet

    Chapter 124: Demon Realm''s Puppet


    "Extend the field trip''s duration?"


    Inside the dean''s office, the old dean revealed a shocked expression when he heard Alice''s request. He couldn''t understand why Alice would suddenly make such a request.


    "This While I''m not trying to reject your request, I''m afraid I am powerless to do anything about this, Your Highness."


    "Why? Extending the trip by a few days shouldn''t be a problem, right?"


    Alice didn''t get angry after getting her request rejected. After all, she wasn''t some pampered princess. She was simply having difficulty understanding why the dean had rejected her request. From how she looked at it, extending the field trip''s duration simply meant spending a few more days in the Elven Forest. It shouldn''t impact sses too much.


    "I believe it won''t hurt for students to have fun for a few more days, right?"


    The March Academy''s students were either extraordinary talents in magic or nobles who didn''t care about magic. Hence, extending the field trip by a few days shouldn''t affect their academic performance. After all, talented students could quickly catch up to the curriculum if they only fell behind by a few days. As for the nobles, skipping a few days of sseswas something they typically did, anyway.


    Ever since learning from Zauna that they would be visiting the Elven Forest for only two days, Alice had panicked a little. Although she indeed possessed an amazing talent for learning, she wasn''t omnipotent.


    No matter how strong her talent was, there was no way she could finish learning a taboo in just two days. Not to mention, the elves most likely had more than one unique taboo in their possession. After all, the elves'' history dated back to tens of thousands of years. There were bound to be many talented elves born throughout this long period, so the number of unique taboos the elves have umted should number at least ten.


    Although Alice wasn''t trying to be greedy, she felt that it was imperative she learned as many taboos as possible. After all, nobody could say for sure whether the Demon King''s Power would fight back when it was close to destruction. Meanwhile, as an existence meant to destroy the world''sws, the Demon King''s Power should have plenty of ways to retaliate.


    For the sake of dealing with the Demon King''s Power, Alice naturally had to learn as many taboos as possible. The variety of the taboos she learned also needed to berge so that she could have more options to deal with the Demon King''s Power.


    "Yes, I know that. The academy''s sses are rtivelyx, and elective courses are based on the individual''s choices. It wouldn''t be a problem if we only rest for a few more days," the old dean said. Then, revealing a helpless smile, he continued, "But the problem is that we are visiting the Elven Forest this time, Your Highness. You might not know it, but the elves are an incredibly prideful race. Although they have started to interact with the outside world more in recent years, they still do not wee outsiders to stay in the Elven Forest for long periods."


    Prideful race?


    Alice recalled her interactions with Lalu in the past month, and she couldn''t sense any of the so-called "elven pride"ing from the loli elf. Or rather, Alice couldn''t help but get the feeling of a tsundere when she looked at the prideful expressions Lalu made. For example, whenever she asked Lalu for something, the loli elf would first give an arrogant response before agreeing to whatever request she made the next moment.


    Alice simply couldn''t see any sort of elven prideing from Lalu.


    "Oh, right, I recall there being an elven student in your ss, Your Highness." When the dean saw the strange look on Alice''s face, he quickly recalled that Alice was in the same ss as Lalu, the only elf studying in the March Academy. He also understood why Alice had reacted to his words in such a way, so he said, "But you shouldn''t think that all elves are like her, Your Highness."


    "I understand." Alice nodded. Although she couldn''t imagine what Lalu would look like behaving truly arrogant, she could still understand what the old dean was trying to convey.


    While Lalu might be an elf, she was still only a 17-year-old girl. Her adaptability would certainly be stronger than older elves. Hence, it was normal for her to limatize with human society after living in the human realm.


    However, it was a different story for other elves. Even if most elves looked young, anyone who looked like they were in their teens or older had most likely lived for dozens or hundreds of years. Their ideologies had long since solidified. Even if the elven race''s policy had started changing to one that favored having good rtions with the outside world, it wasn''t easy to change beliefs they had adhered to for decades and centuries.


    "Is there no other way?" Alice asked, scratching her head as she looked at the old dean expectantly. She hoped that the dean could help her out on this matter.


    "There really is no solution to this problem. Our academy has already contacted the Elven Forest and discussed the school trip with them half a month ago. If we abruptly change our terms now, it''ll probably earn the Elven Forest''s dissatisfaction. At that time, we might not even be able to hold our school trip," the old dean said, shaking his head helplessly. Although he was the March Academy''s dean and possessed significant authority in the Gryffin Kingdom''s education system, hecked power when it came to diplomatic rtions with the Elven Forest.


    Alice didn''t expect to face such a hurdle in her request, so she couldn''t help but feel a little frustrated. She also realized that while her identity as the Gryffin Princess was useful in the Gryffin Kingdom, itcked sway when it came to matters concerning other countries and races.


    Of course, Alice had an even more powerful identity she could use, and that was her identity as the Hero. Other than the dragon race and demon race, this identity was useful against most other races in this world.


    After all, once the Demon King began waging war, the demon race wouldn''t hesitate to attack every other race except the dragon race. In this situation, the Hero, the only existence capable of standing up to the Demon King, was the only hope for the various races to beat back the demon race. Thus, it was only natural that other races would try to provide as much support to the Hero as possible.


    However, while the Hero''s identity was useful, Alice dared not use it casually right now, not aftering across so many spies in both the human and demon realms. Currently, not even Lalu was aware of Alice''s other identity.


    In the end, Alice left the dean''s office with Luna in disappointment. She also started to think of a way to learn multiple taboos in just two days. Since she couldn''t change the school trip''s duration, her only other option was to learn the elves'' taboos as quickly as possible.


    "Alice, since you can''t persuade the elves'' side, why not try tackling this situation from outside the academy?" Luna suggested when she saw the tangled look on Alice''s face. "For example, how about getting His Majesty to negotiate with the elves? His Majesty knows of your identity as the Hero. If you make the request, he will definitely try to fulfill it to the best of his abilities."


    "This involves the elven race''s personality. I think it wouldn''t matter even if Hatter negotiates with them Not to mention, isn''t it excessive to have a king personally negotiate with the elves just to extend a field trip? Doing so would definitely cause the elves to grow suspicious," Alice said, shaking her head. She definitely couldn''t let Hatter negotiate with the elves. However, Luna''s suggestion of thinking outside the academy did expand Alice''s range of thought. If she couldn''t find a solution through the academy, why not tackle the problem from another angle?


    Since holding diplomatic negotiations to extend the school trip was excessive and ineffective, was there any other way to force the elves to keep the March Academy''s students in the forest a little longer?


    Suddenly, Alice realized that she might be able to put her identity as the Demon King to use.

 Chapter 125: Alice’s Goal Is to Win an Oscar

    Chapter 125: Alice��s Goal Is to Win an Oscar


    "You want a Seed of Nature?"


    When man learned that Alice wanted a Seed of Nature from the Elven Forest, he didn''t hesitate for even a moment as he said, "No problem! Leave this matter to us!"


    "Will there be a problem? I believe the elves ce quite a lot of importance on the Seeds of Nature, right?"


    Alice was currently conversing with man on the phone. Of course, since she was talking with one of the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings, she had naturally made sure to store the Soul Gathering Tablet housing Kristine''s soul into a separate room before doing so.


    "I doubt we have a good rtionship with the elves, right?"


    "It is quite bad Past Demon Kings have never avoided involving other races in their war, so we aren''t very weed. Out of all the races in this world, only the dragon race treats us without discrimination."


    man smiled bitterly when he talked about the demon race''s rtionship with other races. While he might have risen to his position of Heavenly King by relying on his strength, he was still a sovereign. Meanwhile, throughout his rule, he had suffered a lot of hardships because of the grudges the demon race had sowed in the past.


    "But it isn''t impossible for us to fulfill your request, Lord Demon King. If you want a Seed of Nature, we will get it for you even if it means snatching it by force!"


    Alice fell silent when she heard man talk about the demon race''s hardships. She had previously wondered why the demons, whose individual prowess surpassed that of humans, would need to wait for the Demon King to appear to wage war against the human realm. Now, she realized that the demon race''s opponent wasn''t just the human race. Because of the actions of past Demon Kings, the other races had also be enemies with the demon race. If the demon race were to wage war against the human race, it would have to simultaneously fight multiple races. No matter how strong demons were individually, there was no way they could afford to go up against multiple races simultaneously.


    Thus, the Demon King, an existence equivalent to a walking nuclear arsenal, had be a crucial factor for the demon race to wage war against the human realm. So long as the Demon King or the Hero was removed from the equation, the side that won would be able to clean up the remaining problems without any pressure. There was no mortal army capable of stopping the advance of the Demon King or the Hero.


    Meanwhile, noticing the worry on Alice''s face, manughed and said, "Don''t worry. The demon race''s reputation has never been good. It wouldn''t matter even if we added one more stain to it. Everything is fine so long as we can help you, Lord Demon King."


    Alice couldn''t help but feel a little guilty when she heard man''s words. Previously, she had never thought that the demon race had such a terrible reputation among the other races.


    "Okay. I will also be watching from the side this time. If youe into any trouble, I will step forward to help," Alice said after giving the matter some thought. "Do you know about the March Academy? The high school section will be visiting the Elven Forest for its school trip, so coordinate your operation with the school trip."


    "I see. So you will be going on the field trip as well, Lord Demon King?"


    The matter of Alice bing the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess naturally couldn''t escape the ears of the Four Heavenly Kings. However, they did not suspect Alice to be the Hero. They simply thought that Alice had employed some means to secure herself the position of a princess.


    "No problem. We will time our operation with your school trip."


    After ending her call with man, Alice breathed out a deep sigh. She wasn''t lying when she said she nned to help the demons. Although she had expected man to agree with helping her acquire a Seed of Nature, the other party''s determination had exceeded her expectations. Her initial n was simply to have man put pressure on the elves so that the March Academy''s students would be forced to stay in the Elven Forest for a longer duration. She never intended for the demons to acquire a Seed of Nature, be it by negotiations or force.


    The demon race''s reputation was already plenty terrible. Although having the demons put pressure on the elves would indeed worsen the demon race''s reputation, the severity of the situation would change significantly depending on whether the demons actually acquired a Seed of Nature.


    Hence, Alice panicked a little when she heard man''s decisive response to snatch a Seed of Nature by force. After realizing the demon race''s terrible reputation, she really couldn''t bring herself to let the demon race bear even too much me. Instead, she decided to shift the me onto the "Demon King."


    Once the demons besieged the Elven Forest, Alice nned to perform a double act, having Luna roley as the Demon King while she roleyed as the Hero. On the one hand, she could utilize the Hero''s identity to harvest the elves'' gratitude. On the other hand, she could utilize the Demon King''s identity to harvest the demons'' gratitude.


    At that time, with the demons, elves, and humans serving as witnesses, the Hero and Demon King would fight each other to a standstill. Then, after the demons failed to acquire a Seed of Nature, the Demon King would withdraw from the Elven Forest with the demon army. That way, everyone would know that the Demon King was the one trying to obtain the Seed of Nature, and the demons were merely showing their loyalty by following the Demon King''s orders.


    <em>There shouldn''t be a problem with this setting Although the Demon King''s Power has long since left Luna''s body, Luna still possesses powerful dark mana in her body, so she should have no problems roleying the Demon King, </em>Alice thought as she caressed her chin. Then, she looked down at her disappointing figure and agonizingly thought, <em>With Luna''s height and figure, she can disguise herself as the tall and sexy Demon Queen so long as she puts on a cloak. But how am I supposed to disguise myself as the tall and muscr male Hero</em>


    This was the most troublesome aspect of Alice''s current ns. Thus far, in order to prevent others from linking the Hero to herself, she had deliberately created a fake image for herself on LINK, describing herself as a muscr man with a pretty face.


    The misinformation was indeed effective, and nobody had ever suspected that she was the Hero unless they had seen her using the Hero''s Sword or were introduced to her by an insider. Nobody had suspected her, even when she had openly studied taboos.


    Unfortunately, the downside of this misinformation was that she had a much more difficult time taking advantage of her identity as the Hero. It might be fine if she had a simr figure to the fake image she created. She could simply wear a cloak to cover her appearance if that were the case. However, because there was a significant difference between her actual figure and her fake figure, she couldn''t cover things up just by wearing a cloak.


    <em>There should be some types of magic that allow the user to change their appearances, right?</em>


    After thinking it over, Alice decided to visit the library and see if there were any spells she could use to alter her appearance.


    With the omnipotence of magic, there shouldn''t be anything it couldn''t aplish. The only limiting factor it had was the user''s imagination. Thus, Alice felt that she should be able to find some sort of disguise magic that she could use to alter her appearance. The only problem was that learning this disguise magic wouldn''t be as easy as described in mangas and novels. The magic might even have huge ws.


    However, Alice had no better options right now. She''d rather settle for a wed product than nothing at all. And if she couldn''t find such magic, she would have to further modify her ns.


    TL Notes:


    [1]Demon Queen: I will be using Demon Queen when the context calls for it, but very rarely. I will still be using Demon King most of the time.


    I have been using Demon King() only thus far because I thought it was a stylistic choice the author made, but the author used one instance of Demon Queen() in this chapter. If I were to directly trante , it''d be "female Demon King." That looks kind of awkward, so I will be using "Demon Queen" during such instances.

 Chapter 126: I Am Iron Man

    Chapter 126: I Am Iron Man


    <em>Sure enough, it isn''t that simple</em>


    Inside the library, Alice had sessfully found the magic she was looking for. Disguise magic indeed existed in this world. Unfortunately, simr to her expectations, this type of magic was more or less wed.


    Take the <em>Elemental Skin Transformation</em> magic book she was currently holding, for example. While users could rely on this spell to alter their facial appearances, it was also limited to just that. It couldn''t be used to modify a person''s body. In addition, while using this spell, the user''s mana would be put into a state of suspended animation, and they would be prevented from using other spells while Elemental Skin Transformation was active. Otherwise, the spell would lose effect, and the user''s facial appearance would revert to its original state.


    With such limitations, Elemental Skin Transformation naturally couldn''t meet Alice''s requirements. Moreover, Elemental Skin Transformation''s w wasn''t unique. Most of the other disguise magic she found faced simr problems. And even if there was a spell capable of altering the user''s body, the modifications made would cause irreversible damage. There was no way Alice would be willing to incur such a loss for a mere act.


    Alice couldn''t help but gnash her teeth in this situation. Just when she needed magic''s unscientific properties the most, this same magic had started talking to her about human biology.


    "If you are trying to disguise yourself as the muscr Hero, why not consider other methods, Alice?"


    As Alice''s maid, Luna had naturally followed Alice to the library. Moreover, Alice had already told Luna about her double act, and Luna had unconditionally agreed to it. Meanwhile, seeing that Alice was troubled over how she could disguise herself as a muscr man, Luna decided to offer her suggestion.


    "What method?"


    Alice turned to Luna curiously. Although she had already started to adapt to this world''s society, it was a fact that she had only transmigrated to this world for a little over a month. There would undoubtedly be a difference in thought processes between her and the locals of this world. Thus, Luna might be able toe up with a suggestion that she had never thought of.


    "How about having the dwarves construct a suit of power armor that mimics the shape of a muscr man?"


    Seeing the look of interest on Alice''s face, Luna promptly voiced her idea. The various countries had recently made a breakthrough in magic-powered armor, a.k.a. power armor. Although the finished product looked more like a blocky golem than an actual human, the Gryffin Kingdom''s dwarves should be capable of manufacturing a power armor that vividly resembled an actual human.


    "...What?" Alice was confused. At this point, Alice had already gotten used to hearing strange names ever sinceing to this foreign world. However, when she heard the words "power armor"ing out of Luna''s mouth, she couldn''t help but wonder if she had transmigrated into the future instead of transmigrating to a different world. "Power armor?"


    "It is a newbat weapon developed in recent decades. It was developed sometime after someone proposed manufacturing a suit of armor that possessedbat capabilities. However, research in this field is top secret, so there are no records of it in history books, and information on the topic is incredibly rare even on the inte," Luna said.


    After taking a look at their surroundings and making sure that nobody else was present, Luna lowered her voice and continued, "I learned of this research when I was working with the intelligence department. ording to recent reports, thetest model has already been tested forbat readiness. So long as we get the dwarves to construct a power armor that has a human appearance, you can resolve the problem with your body."


    Alice''s body was incredibly petite, and she looked very much like a grade-schooler than a high schooler. Moreover, her limbs had little to no muscle. With her tiny figure, even if a suit of power armor was shrunk down to the size of a normal muscr human, Alice should be able to ride in it without any problems.


    "How is the tolerance of thatpower armor you speak of?" Alice asked. She wasn''t just trying to disguise herself as a muscr man. She also needed to wear that disguise into battle. Although she would only be putting on a y with Luna, she still needed to dish out a few taboos for show. Otherwise, the fight would look too fake. "Can it withstand taboos?"


    "The power armor doesn''t hinder its user''s mana output, so you should have no problem casting taboos with it," Luna answered. "But I''m afraid taking hits from taboos will be impossible. Although the power armor uses state-of-the-art technology, it is still just an enhanced suit of armor at the end of the day. It will disintegrate if it gets hit by a taboo."


    "...I should be able toe up with a solution for withstanding taboos. For example, I can learn defensive-type taboos."


    After thinking for a moment, Alice felt that taking hits wasn''t a problem.


    Spells weren''t categorized as taboos simply because they possessed great destructive power. Instead, the main factor when deciding whether a spell was taboo was the spell''splexity, difficulty of use, and practicality. Hence, while taboo spells were powerful, not all taboos were nuclear bombs. There were also taboos focused on utility and defensive purposes.


    There was still more than a week before the school trip began. If Alice worked hard, she should have no problem mastering a defensive taboo.


    However, the problem now was whether this one week was enough for the dwarves to construct a power armor in the shape of a muscr man. After all, the power armor sounded like incredibly advanced technology, and it didn''t seem like it was something that could be modified easily.


    "You can rest assured on this point." When Luna heard Alice''s concerns, she exined, "Manufacturing the power armor is a simple task with dwarven technology. The only reason the power armor isn''t being mass-produced yet is due to the exorbitant material cost, and the dwarves are still looking for recement materials to lower the manufacturing cost to a reasonable level."


    "Is that so?" Alice sighed in relief when she heard Luna''s words. Although constructing a personalized power armor would cost a lot of money, money was the least of her worries right now. "Then, can you contact the dwarves and put in an order for me?"


    The dwarves did not form a country outside the human realm. Instead, most of them had attached themselves to the various countries, making a living by selling their craft. Meanwhile, the dwarves'' mechanical and forging skills were things every country required. Thus, including the Gryffin Kingdom, every human kingdom had a group of dwarves working as an integral part of their weapons development department.


    In other words, so long as Alice put in a request with Hatter, she should be able to get the Gryffin Kingdom''s dwarves to make her a suit of power armor.


    "I can, but I don''t think it will be wise to do so through His Majesty," Luna said. "His Majesty is receiving a lot of attention from the public recently because of your matter, Alice. So, if His Majesty suddenly makes such a request of the dwarves, it might end up attracting unwanted attention."


    "Hatter sure is pitiful."


    Alice couldn''t help but express sympathy for Hatter when she heard Luna''s exnation. Although Catherine had indeed helped Alice perfectly cover up her identity as the Hero, the price for that was Hatter receiving a lot of trouble. If Alice wasn''t the Hero, Hatter would have probably exploded from anger.


    <em>But doesn''t this mean I can''t contact the dwarves through Hatter?</em>


    Alice was put in a bind. If she couldn''t get Hatter to help her, who could she seek help from?


    Frosette? As the March Academy''s Academy-Know-It-All and Ellu Shax''s daughter, Frosette should have connections to the demon realm''s dwarves. However, if she were to wear this power armor to fight the "Demon King," that was no different from announcing that she was the Hero to the demon realm.


    <em>Other than Frosette, who else has a lot of connections?</em>


    After thinking for a moment, Alice suddenly thought of another person.


    Indeed. Who could be more well-connected than a thief when it came to connections? Thieves might not be working on the legal side of thew, but due to the nature of their work, they had to involve themselves with many people from various industries.


    Hence, if Alice didn''t wish to contact the dwarves through Hatter, her next best bet would be to utilize a thief''s connections to do so.


    The matter of money wouldn''t be a problem, either. The public might be paying close attention to Hatter''s political orders, but hardly anybody would take notice if the princess went on a money-spending spree.

 Chapter 127: Classic Déjà Vu

    Chapter 127: ssic D��j�� Vu


    Simr to Mana City''s Pigeon Bar, Holl City''s cker''s Bar had a uniqueyout different from other bars in the city. There were no private rooms or individual tables avable in the bar. Instead, bar counters lined the establishment''s walls, and many bartenders stood behind these counters, ready to serve drinks to guests at any time.


    Currently, Rosa was the only woman drinking in the bar, her beautiful figure and exquisite face causing many eyes to turn to her. Yet, despite this situation, nobody dared to approach her and strike up a conversation.


    There was no helping this situation. The mercenary badge hung on Rosa''s belt was a huge deterrence for the average men in the bar. Holl City might be a peaceful city, but everyone here still knew that mercenaries were people with genuinebat power andbat experience. Mercenaries were also individuals supported by the various human kingdoms. If average joes like themselves rashly provoked a mercenary, not only would they receive a beating, but they might even get sued for harassment.


    "As expected of a bar in the capital. Even the alcohol here is a bit more expensive than Mana City," Rosa muttered a smallint as she sipped on the cocktail in her hand. She also couldn''t help but feel frustrated. Because of Alice, she had lost the paparazzi gig she had previously found. If she hadn''t saved up a sizable sum during her time as a thief, she''d probably have difficulty maintaining her hobby of enjoying alcohol.


    "Did youe from Mana City?" The bartender manning the counter before Rosa was a tall female bartender. After hearing Rosa''sint, the bartender smiled and asked, "I heard that the Hero drew the Hero''s Sword in Mana City some time ago. Did you meet the Hero over there?"


    "The Hero, huh?" Rosa took a mouthful of the cocktail. Even though what she was drinking wasn''t some cheap liquor, a bitter taste filled her mouth and throat when she drank it. "Don''t mention the Hero. I didn''t flee to Holl City to discuss the Hero."


    Rosa didn''t dare to say that the Hero was responsible for forcing her into such a state. After all, the Hero was akin to a celebrity everywhere. Moreover, the Hero was humanity''s hope to fend off the demons'' invasion. If she bad-mouthed the Hero publicly and news of it got out, she wouldn''t be able to continue living in the human realm.


    "What forced a Level 2 mercenary like yourself to flee to Holl City? If you have something you want toin about, you can say it to me," the bartender said, smiling. She paid no mind to Rosa''s refusal to talk about the Hero. "You can think of it as a way to get repeat customers for the bar. I wee all my customers to share their troubles with me."


    "Ha"


    Rosa sighed and wondered if she should say what she was struggling with. This was because this scene gave her a feeling of familiarity. Specifically, when she had visited Mana City''s Pigeon Bar a month ago and spilled her troubles to her bartender friend, Alice had caught her doing so red-handed.


    Although Alice didn''t make things difficult for her back then and simply asked for some information and liberated a few pairs of panties from her possession, Rosa still received a lot of mental stress because of the incident. Because of this mental stress, Rosa had decisively resigned from her job in Mana City and moved to Holl City.


    As a Level 2 Certified Mercenary, Rosa had a rtively easy time finding a new job in the capital. Moreover, thanks to thework of contacts she formed during her time as a thief, she thrived even in the capital.


    "Fine. I''ll tell you about what happened to me as a way to celebrate my new life after getting away from that person." After emptying her ss and gently mming it onto the counter, Rosa looked at the bartender, a slightly drunk look on her face as she said, "I, got targeted by a female pervert with a powerful background in Mana City."


    "A A female pervert?" The bartender was slightly surprised by Rosa''s revtion. "What did she do to you?"


    "It''s not a particrly big deal. Although I call her a pervert, she is quite restrained in her behavior," Rosa said, shaking her head. "The only thing she did was steal my underwear. Twice! Twice she did that! In total, I think she stole over a dozen pairs But other than that, she never did anything excessive. Adding on the fact that she has a powerful background, I never dared to report this small incident to the police"


    "Does that pervert have a horrid appearance?" the bartender asked curiously when she saw Rosa''s agonizing expression.


    "No, she is incredibly cute and beautiful. The average person wouldn''t think that she is a pervert when looking at her," Rosa said. When she recalled Alice''s appearance, she grew even more upset. "If you were to put me and her together and say that one of us is a pervert, most people would think that I am the pervert instead."


    "It must''ve been a terrible experience for you," the bartender said, sighing ruefully. Although she couldn''t empathize with Rosa''s feelings, she still chose tofort Rosa, saying, "But since the other party hasn''t done anything excessive to you, it isn''t all too bad. Isn''t it just a few pairs of underwear? Honestly, if I were in your shoes, and the other party really is cute, rather than get upset, I might even be happy because I get to form a good rtionship with her."


    "That can only mean that you and I have different personalities," Rosa said, curling her lips. "No matter how cute the other party is, I will only feel upset to have those kinds of things done to me."


    "Well, look on the bright side. Since you can''t do anything about the other party, and the other party hasn''t really done any physical harm to you, why not turn hostility into friendship? Who knows? You might be able to make use of the other party''s identity and background to help you in your life," the bartender said as she passed the new cocktail she had just made to Rosa. Then, she smiled and continued, "Take the little girl behind you, for example. If that girl is a pervert, I''d dly let her harass me."


    "The little girl behind me?"


    Rosa had a feeling of dj vu when she heard these words. However, before she could follow the bartender''s line of sight and look back, she felt the stool under her buttocks getting kicked. Then, losing her bnce, she fell to the ground with the stool.


    "<em>Hiss </em>Ouch, ouch ouch Ah, why did you kick my stool?!"


    Rosa hurriedly stood up from the ground and covered her buttocks. It was fortunate that she had a good physique, so it only hurt a little when she fell to the floor, and she didn''t sustain any injuries. Even so, she still couldn''t help but get angry as she turned to look at the person who kicked her stool.


    However, as soon as Rosa finished voicing her question, herplexion paled, and her mouth hesitated to continue speaking as she looked at the familiar figure before her.


    "Yo, Rosa."


    After picking up the Milu Rabbit that knocked over Rosa''s stool and smashing her fist into its head, Alice looked at the trembling Rosa and revealed a kind smile.


    "Haven''t seen you for over a month."

 Chapter 128: What Will Come Has Come

    Chapter 128: What Will Come Has Come


    "This is my home."


    "This is the third time I have heard you say these words."


    Alice was brought to Rosa''s rented house once more. Rosa still lived in a very unassuming home, even in the prosperous capital. This third house looked very simr to the two houses in Mana City, and even the furnishings were mostly simr.


    With a cramped look on her face, Rosa brought a chair over for Alice. Then, she found herself another chair, sat facing Alice, and asked in a depressing voice, "Why did youe to Holl City? Don''t tell me you chased me all the way here?"


    "This is honestly a coincidence. I didn''t think you were also at Holl City," Alice said, shrugging.


    Initially, when Alice took out the navigator to search for Rosa, she thought that the other party was still at Mana City, and she nned to get Father Kasandora to contact Rosa on her behalf. However, the navigator showed that Rosa was also in Holl City, to her surprise. Moreover, it just so happened that the other party was in a bar located only a few streets away from the March Academy. So, Alice had promptly left to find Rosa, not even bothering to bring Luna with her.


    "To hell with this coincidence" Rosa wanted to cry. Her expression when she looked at Alice was akin to a sheep waiting to enter the ughterhouse. "What are you here for this time? I only bought a few pairs of underwear recently, so I really can''t give you any more."


    "What kind of person do you take me for?" Alice looked at Rosa in discontent. She had only asked for Rosa''s panties twice thus far. Did the other party have to get so hung up over such a small matter? "I came here to ask you about the dwarves. Do you know any dwarves from the Gryffin Kingdom Nevermind. It doesn''t have to be the Gryffin Kingdom. Do you know any dwarven artisans?"


    "Dwarves?" Rosa''s expression changed when she heard Alice''s question. "Are you going after dwarven underwear as well?"


    "Can you stop talking about underwear?"


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry in this situation. It would seem that Rosa was still brooding over the matter of the stolen panties. However, after thinking it over, Alice felt that Rosa''s reaction was more or less normal. After all, she had practically emptied Rosa''s closet of panties the second time she visited Rosa''s house. This was probably a memorable moment that Rosa would never forget.


    "What do you want with the dwarves, then?" Rosa asked curiously. She also breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that Alice wasn''t aiming for her panties this time. "If you want to order custom weapons or defensive equipment, there are plenty of weapon and armor stores in the city that can fulfill your request. Some of these stores are even run by dwarves."


    "No, what I''m looking to make isn''t something you can find in regr stores. Moreover, it isn''t a task that just one or two dwarves canplete," Alice said, shaking her head. Then, she asked, "Have you heard of power armor before?"


    After thinking it over, Alice decided that it was fine to tell Rosa about her true goal. After all, Rosa wouldn''t dare to reveal her secrets even if the other party knew about them.


    "Power armor? I heard a little about it before."


    Sure enough, just like Alice expected, Rosa had learned about many things during her time as a thief.


    "A senior thief of mine talked about it when we were drinking. If I recall correctly, it is a topic many countries are researching, and it is a piece of specialized warfare equipment thatbines offensive and defensive capabilities," Rosa narrated. Then, she looked at Alice in surprise as she asked, "Are you trying to get them to construct you a power armor?"


    "Yes. I need one built in the shape of a tall and muscr man," Alice said. Then, she waved her hands around like a little girl begging for a toy as she said, "I also need it to have the best mana conductivity. I heard that there has been a breakthrough in power armor technology recently and that thetest model can achieve perfect synchronization with the user''s mana output."


    Rosa knew Alice''s true identity, so she instantly knew what Alice wanted a power armor for after hearing Alice''s description. It was evident that Alice needed the power armor to recreate the fictional Hero she had described to the public.


    Moreover, after thinking it over, Rosa felt that Alice''s n was feasible. This was because the power armor was a new weapon developed only in the past decade. It had never even been put to use on the battlefield before. So, nobody would think that the Hero would be using a suit of power armor as a disguise.


    "Why don''t you just ask for standard enclosed armor instead?" Rosa asked curiously. "It should be much easier to replicate the appearance of a man if you are using only a normal suit of armor."


    "Ordinary armor can''t conduct mana," Alice said, shrugging helplessly. "If it can''t conduct mana, it''s going to blow apart as soon as I cast magic in it."


    "I guess you''re right. In that case, power armor is indeed the only thing that can meet your demands," Rosa said, nodding. "If you are looking for dwarven artisans, I can help you get in touch with some, but they''re not from the Gryffin Kingdom. They belong to the Ymir Kingdom''s Dwarven Technical Unit. I once helped the unit''s captain. If I talk to them, I should be able to get them to make a suit of power armor for you."


    "That''s great!" Alice said, pping her thigh. "Money isn''t a problem. I will entrust this matter to you."


    "Leave it to me."


    Rosa smiled, finding her conversation with Alice this time quite pleasant. After all, she was only responsible for helping Alice contact the Ymir Kingdom''s Dwarven Technical Unit. It wasn''t a difficult task toplete. Moreover, just like the female bartender previously said, this was a way to form a good rtionship with the Hero.


    "Oh, by the way"


    Just when Rosa thought that her conversation with Alice was about to conclude sessfully, Alice spoke again, "You should''ve worn quite a few pairs of underwear this month, right? Give me a few pairs."


    Rosa''s originally happy face instantly crumbled.

 Chapter 129: The Scapegoat Has Been Decided

    Chapter 129: The Scapegoat Has Been Decided


    Three days had passed since Alice had Rosa put in an order with the Ymir Kingdom''s Dwarven Technical Unit.


    Rosa''s connections did not disappoint Alice, and the thief girl had sessfully contacted the Dwarven Technical Unit''s leader and told them about Alice''s order.


    Moreover, because the development of power armor had achieved a pleasant breakthrough, and the various countries had already started preparing to put the power armor into use, the power armor was no longer regarded as top secret. Thus, constructing a strangely customized power armor wasn''t against nationalws, and the unit leader readily agreed to Alice''s request after considering his friendship with Rosa.


    However, this situation also made Alice realize that Rosa must''ve been someone extraordinary during her time as a thief. After all, a Level 2 Certified Mercenary wasn''t a very high position in the Mercenary Union. Yet, Rosa seemingly possessed connections with people from various lines of work, nationality, and race. Because of this, Alice couldn''t help but start considering whether she should ask Rosa for help more frequently in the future.


    Anyway, the Ymir Kingdom''s dwarves could manufacture the power armor with rtive ease, just like Luna said so previously. ording to them, they should finish Alice''s order in just four days. If not for Alice''s request to attach simted skin and flesh to the armor, they could''ve reduced that time by one day.


    After factoring in the time needed to transport the armor from the Ymir Kingdom to the Gryffin Kingdom, Alice should be able to see her power armor arriving in five or six days. If that was the case, she might not have any time to familiarize herself with the armor before she had to leave for her school trip.


    However, Alice wasn''t particrly concerned about this. It didn''t matter even if she wasn''t familiar with the armor''s controls since she wouldn''t be making anyplex maneuvers with it. All she needed to do was stand still and trade taboos with Luna. Nobody would suspect that the tall and muscr Hero was actually an inflexible suit of armor.


    Meanwhile, Alice hadn''t beenpletely idle during these past three days. After all, the power armor had a big w in its defensive capabilities. It might be able to handle normal spells, but it''d break instantly if hit by a taboo.


    Hence, Alice had temporarily halted her study of Psychokinesis Transcendence, Burning Star, and Wicked Wind and focused on studying the defensive taboo named "Enochian Pyramid."


    The principles of this taboo were simrly very simple. However, the arrangement of mana needed to be incredibly precise. Every bit of mana must be arranged ording to the written form to form a near-perfect pyramid structure to ensure that the taboo wouldn''t copse. Of course, while it was difficult for others to learn the taboo, Alice still managed to master it after studying overtime.


    "Enochian Pyramid."


    Alice wielded the Hero''s Sword like a wand and gently nudged it against the ground. Then, a huge amount of mana poured out from the tip of the Hero''s Sword, the mana spreading out into a triangr shape on the ground before rising to a translucent pyramid that enveloped Alicepletely.


    Although Alice''s mana pool had grown rapidly recently, it still wasn''t enough for her to cast a taboo without aid. Hence, Alice still needed to hold onto the Hero''s Sword in her right hand when casting taboos.


    After Alice had finished erecting the pyramid barrier, Luna, who stood outside the barrier, lifted her foot that was immobilizing the struggling Milu Rabbit. Then, as soon as it regained its freedom, the Milu Rabbit enthusiastically volunteered to be Alice''s first experiment, charging straight toward Alice, crashing into the Enochian Pyramid, and fainting happily.


    Seeing this, Luna stepped forward to pick up the Milu Rabbit and let it rest under a nearby tree. Then, she walked up to Alice and looked at the Enochian Pyramid, asking, "Should I give it a test?"


    "Go ahead. We need to know what kind of taboos it can withstand. Otherwise, it''d be awkward if it cracks in battle and the residual power of your taboo destroys the power armor," Alice said, nodding. It was definitely necessary for Luna to test the Enochian Pyramid. While Luna might have lost the Demon King''s Power, she still possessed strength far surpassing the demon race''s Four Heavenly Kings.


    Meanwhile, as a mass-produced weapon of war, the power armor had limited defensive capabilities. It was still a question of whether it could withstand the residual power of a taboo spell. So, Alice needed to first test the Enochian Pyramid''s defensive capabilities and see how many attacks it could endure.


    "Here Ie," Luna said, nodding. She obeyed Alice''s orders unconditionally. So, as soon as she received Alice''s permission, she lifted her hand and released a frightening amount of dark-attributed mana without hesitation.


    The two were currently conducting their experiments in the March Academy''s rear mountains. Other than the asional top student who came here to collect research materials, nobody woulde here normally. It was especially true for the nobles in ss Group A. They definitely wouldn''te here and risk dirtying their clothes.


    Even so, to ensure that nobody woulde and interfere with their experiments, Alice chose toe here while sses were still in session.


    Meanwhile, as an excellent employee of the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, Luna naturally came into contact with and learned many taboos. However, due to the Demon King''s Power''s influence, all of the taboos she cast would always turn into a dark-attributed spell. Hence, as soon as Luna started casting a taboo, dark mist immediately radiated from her hand, which was a sign of the Demon King.


    Under Luna''s control, a spinning ck sphere descended from the sky and smashed into Alice''s Enochian Pyramid. The ck sphere''s terrifying destructive power rapidly ate away at the Enochian Pyramid''s mana, looking like it was trying to forcibly deconstruct the defensive taboo. Moreover, the sphere was gradually expanding its area of effect as time passed, and all trees enveloped in its power were twisted into nothingness.


    The destructive power of this taboo was so immense that the Four Heavenly Kings would probably have their bodies twisted beyond recognition even if they tried to defend against the taboo together. Yet, despite the ck sphere''s power, the Enochian Pyramid held strong, proving that it was a rather effective defensive taboo.


    "Be careful. Don''t let the Milu Rabbit get hit," Alice hurriedly reminded when she noticed the ck sphere''s power expanding without stopping.


    In response, Luna nodded and clenched her right hand, causing the ck sphere to shrink and concentrate into an incredibly powerful ball of mana. Then, she retracted this mana back into her body.


    "The attack I used has moderate destructive power among taboos. It seems this Enochian Pyramid is quite strong."


    "The pyramid is the shape for stability, after all. The inventor of this taboo must''ve developed it based on this principle," Alice said as she retracted her Enochian Pyramid. After this experiment, she concluded that it shouldn''t be a problem for her to fight Luna using the Enochian Prism.


    "But why are you trying to clean the demons'' reputation, Alice?" Luna suddenly asked. Although she wasn''t trying to go against Alice''s decision, she couldn''t help but be curious.


    "The demons actually have it quite hard in life. Many of them aren''t bad people. They were only forced to invade others because of the demon realm''s harsh environment andck of resources," Alice said as she picked up the Milu Rabbit and tied its ears to her waist. "You should''ve heard of the Third Demon King''s era, right? After conquering the human realm, the demons didn''t massacre the humans. The demons merely forced the humans back and upied arge portion of theirnd. Frankly, they are just forced by their circumstances."


    Seeing that Luna was still looking at her in confusion, Alice continued, "Although the demons have tried seeking other solutions to their environment and resource problem, they face a few problems in doing so. Firstly, the human realm''s resource production is only enough to meet the human realm''s demands. Even if the demons want to procure resources through trade, they have no option to do so.


    "Secondly, the demon realm''s harsh environment has caused the demons to yearn for a normal living environment. The demons might have evolved unique organs to help them survive in the harsh environment, but their fleshy bodies remainrgely the same as humans. They will still find it ufortable to live in the demon realm''s environment."


    While taking the path back to the academy with Luna, Alice shook her head helplessly and said, "That''s why the best solution I havee up with is to figure out a way to eradicate the demon realm''s pollution from its roots and let the demon realm have the same environment as the human realm. That way, one of the main causes of war would disappear."


    "But the demon race''s reputation will remain a big problem, right?" Luna said, subconsciously touching the small and indiscernible horns on her hand. As a human-demon half-breed, Luna had experienced first-hand the malice humans held for the demons.


    "Although the demons were forced by their circumstances, it is an inescapable fact that they have waged war against most of the other races in this world. Even if the demon realm''s pollution problem is solved in the future, the demons will still have to atone for what their people have done in the past," Alice said, nodding. "However, by getting rid of the main cause of war, the demons would be able to interact with the other races normally, at the very least Of course, we still need to shift most of the me to someone."


    "You mean to shift the me to the Demon King''s Power?" When asking this question, Luna couldn''t help but chuckle a little. "You are really cunning, Alice."


    "How can that be called cunning? If it weren''t for the Demon King''s Power turning humans with great malice toward the human race into the Demon King, the demons would''ve never seen any hope in invading the human realm, and they might never have waged any wars against the world," Alice said, shrugging. "So, there is no problem in making the Demon King''s Power the scapegoat."

 Chapter 130: Dont Mislead Children

    Chapter 130: Don''t Mislead Children


    "Someone recently discovered arge plot of destroyednd in the rear mountains. The most severe area doesn''t even have anything remaining. Currently, the academy suspects that it is the work of grave robbers." While having lunch one day, Zauna suddenly brought up this topic to Alice. "The academy''s senior management have grown restless because of this matter, but as there were no cameras installed in the rear mountains, they couldn''t find any records of the perpetrators Do you have any clues about this matter, Alice?"


    "How would I know?"


    Alice nearly choked on her food when she heard Zauna''s question. Fortunately, she avoided the fate of choking to death and simply got away with two light coughs. Then, she used her swallowing action to hide her embarrassment.


    Of course, Alice naturally knew who was responsible for the damage done to the rear mountains. It was the result of the experiments she and Luna conducted.


    Although Alice had only used a defensive taboo and Luna had only used an offensive taboo that was moderately powerful, the result of the two taboos shing had still caused significant damage to the rear mountains. So, it was inevitable that the academy noticed the damage.


    Fortunately, Alice and Luna had already figured out the Enochian Pyramid''s tolerances during these past few days, so they no longer needed to conduct any more experiments in the rear mountains. Even if the academy''s staffid in wait at the rear mountains, they wouldn''t be able to catch Alice and Luna in the act now.


    The school trip would begin in two days. Meanwhile, ording to Rosa, the power armor should arrive at the March Academy today.


    Following Alice''s request, the power armor was delivered inside a weapon storage box that operated using space magic. Moreover, to prevent outsiders from opening the box and discovering its content, a special locking mechanism was also implemented on the box, making it so that it could be opened using a specific method.


    However, the power armor arriving today meant that Alice would only have tomorrow to familiarize herself with it. Though, it shouldn''t be much of a problem since Alice only needed it to stand in ce and cast taboos.


    "By the way, I have some not-so-good news to tell you, Alice," Lalu, who joined Alice and Zauna for lunch as usual, suddenly said as she looked at Alice with an awkward expression. "I don''t think I can get you our race''s taboos anymore."


    "What? Why?"


    Alice''s heart sank when she heard Lalu''s words. For the sake of prolonging the school trip, she had already tasked the demons to exert pressure on the elves, and the demon army was even prepared to cross into the elven border tomorrow. Yet, now, Lalu was suddenly telling her that she couldn''t get her the elves'' taboos?


    "This should''ve been a secret originally, but one of my friends in the Elven Forest managed to catch wind of it," Lalu said. She was honestly quite embarrassed over this situation. After all, she had originally promised Alice that she would let her read the elves'' taboos. The Elven Forest''s leadership had even given their permission already. Yet, now, the Elven Forest''s side was going back on its promise. So, she didn''t hesitate to share the secret she learned with Alice, saying, "It seems to be rted to the Demon King."


    "The Demon King?" Alice''s expression changed a little when she heard this answer. <em>Don''t tell me the demons have already started putting pressure on the elves? But that''s not right. I explicitly told man to only take action after the school trip began. With man''s and Davis''s personalities, they wouldn''t do something so rash.</em>


    Fortunately, Lalu''s subsequent answer relieved Alice of her concerns.


    "You know that the sh between the Hero and the Demon King is, in reality, a sh between taboos, right?" With a solemn expression, Lalu said, "But not all taboos are the same, and some possess countering effects against each other. So, for the sake of increasing their chances of victory, the Hero and the Demon King would typically try to learn as many types of taboos as they can. The previous generation''s Hero has made the mistake of not doing this. She failed to learn any taboos that targeted the soul, so she was forced with no choice but to imprison the Demon King''s physical body with the War God''s Lock until he died."


    "Ahaha Does everyone know about this now?"


    Kristine''s awkward voice suddenly entered Alice''s ears. She had always treated this as a part of her embarrassing history. However, she didn''t expect even the general popce to learn about her shorings. This left her feeling quite embarrassed.


    Not to mention, the consequences of Kristine''sziness were far more severe than Lalu described. Most people had assumed that the previous generation''s Demon King was no longer of this world after the War God''s Lock had worn down his physical body. Only Kristine, Alice, and a small number of people knew that Demon King Grant''s soul had remained alive all these years. If not for Alice erasing his soul some time ago, Grant would remain a potential threat to the world in the future.


    "Compared to the several human countries, the Elven Forest is far too weak. So, the Elven Forest has adopted a self-istion policy and avoided contact with the outside world. Even after establishing friendly diplomatic rtions with the human kingdoms, the Elven Forest still avoids getting too close to others," Lalu said, sighing. As a young elf studying in the human realm, she couldn''t help but express her helplessness and frustration toward the older elves'' stubbornness and conservativeness. "So, to make sure that our race''s taboos don''t get leaked to the Demon King, the Elven Forest has decided to seal all of our taboos and prevent anyone from learning them."


    "Not even elves are allowed?" Zauna asked curiously. If elves were allowed to read the taboos, they could have Lalu write down a copy for Alice. With Lalu''s personality, she shouldn''t mind doing such a thing, either. After all, while Lalu might not be aware of Alice''s identity as the Hero, Alice didn''t look like she could be the Demon King, either.


    "Only the elders and the patriarch can look at them right now After all, they can''t be sure if any elves in the Elven Forest have defected to the demons," Lalu said depressingly. However, she could also understand why the Elven Forest''s leadership had made such a decision. The elven poption was vastly smaller than the human race and the demon race. So, imposing this restriction was the only way the elves could ensure that their strongest weapons were notpromised. "I''m very sorry, Alice. Even though I already made a promise to you"


    Alice could see the guilt on Lalu''s face, so she didn''t try to me the loli elf. Instead, after thinking for a moment, she asked, "Do you know where the elves'' taboos are stored, then, Lalu?"


    "That''s easy. They''re most likely stored in the Elven Forest''s Nature Shrine."


    The Elven Forest wasn''t veryrge, and the elven poption was quite small. So, apart from a few top secrets, all elves living in the Elven Forest knew everything there was to know about the Elven Forest. However, as soon as Lalu answered Alice''s question, she quickly realized something and asked, "Alice, don''t tell me you''re trying to"


    "<em>Cough, cough. </em>I can''t help it. My desire for knowledge is too great. The more they don''t want me to see something, the more I want to see it," Alice said. Then, she looked Lalu in the eye and tentatively asked, "So, I n to sneak into the sealed location to check out the taboos Lalu, are you willing to help me?"


    Lalu was shocked to the point of bing speechless when she heard Alice''s idea. Logically, as an elf, she shouldn''t allow others to sneak into the elven race''s Nature Shrine and read the books sealed there. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she grew excited at the thought of doing so

 Chapter 131: True Heros Privilege

    Chapter 131: True Hero''s Privilege


    On that same evening, the package from the Ymir Kingdom arrived at the March Academy on time, and Luna retrieved it from the academy''s parcel holding room for Alice.


    "Thepression on this thing sure is amazing," Alice eximed as she looked at the fingernail-sized pendant in her hand. She couldn''t help but acknowledge the craftsmanship of the dwarves. Even the weapon storage box they made had such exquisite quality, and it looked no different than a normal pendant at first nce. In terms of aesthetics, it was leagues ahead of the humble storage box Alice used to store the Hero''s Sword.


    Naturally, the object stored inside the pendant was Alice''s customized power armor. So long as she injected mana into the pendant in a specific way, the pendant would release the item stored within it.


    After receiving this pendant, Alice promptly left the campus with Luna for the evening. The academy didn''t have a strict curfew, and students could enter and leave the academy at any time. This was also why Alice could leave the academy to search for Rosa previously.


    After leaving the campus with Luna, Alice searched for a ce to test her new power armor. They had already made a mess of the academy''s rear mountains and alerted the academy''s staff, so it wasn''t safe to conduct their experiments on campus anymore.


    Fortunately, this world''s technological development was highly dependent on the resource known as mana, and many magical constructs also required the organs and body parts of magical creatures. Thus, this world''s civilization ced significant importance on maintaining the natural environment. To prove this point, one could find many lush forests surrounding even Holl City, the Gryffin Kingdom''s prosperous capital, these forests serving as valuable resource generators and a training ground for mercenaries.


    Meanwhile, Alice and Luna didn''t have to go very far before finding a deserted forest. Then, after making sure that no lustful males and females were carrying out reproductive acts nearby, they promptly started preparing to test the power armor made by the Ymir Kingdom''s Dwarven Technical Unit.


    The power armor was by no means cheap, costing most of Alice''s allowance this month to build. Although Hatter was put under immense pressure because he had suddenly gained a Hero Daughter, he didn''t skimp on giving her an allowance. Alice estimated that the monthly allowance she received was even more exaggerated than the noble students studying in the March Academy.


    Yet, even then, she still had over half of her allowance for the power armor. It was no wonder the power armor had not been put into mass production yet. If a country were to mass-produce such expensive weaponry during peacetime, the country must be overflowing with money.


    Currently, Alice had worn the pendant holding the power armor on her neck. The pendant was quite beautiful, so Alice decided to just wear it like a normal pendant.


    Meanwhile, after finding a suitable spot to conduct their experiments, Alice grabbed the pendant with her right hand and injected varying attributes of mana into the ne in a specific pattern as if she were entering a passcode. As soon as Alice finished, the pendant suddenly started giving off a soft glow, and a pile ofplex mechanical parts appeared before her. Then, under Luna''s gaze, these mechanical parts started covering Alice''s body and assembled themselves.


    Although Alice couldn''t observe the process from a third-person''s perspective, she could still feel what was going on, and she couldn''t help but find this process simr to how Iron Man suited up.


    The suit of power armor covered in simted skin was assembled in no time at all, and Alice immediately felt as if her five senses were tied together with the power armor. It didn''t feel like she had just donned a suit of armor.


    "It feels nice."


    When Alice tried moving her body, she found that the power armor moved rtively with her movements. Although there was still some slight stiffness and dys, it wasn''t too big of a concern. Moreover, when Alice looked down at her "hands," she found herself looking at a man''s wide and muscr hands. It didn''t look like she was wearing armor at all.


    "Apart from some slight stiffness, I can''t see any major issues," Luna said as she took out the headgear she had prepared.


    Alice did not ask the dwarves to construct a helmet for her power armor. Instead, she had Luna craft a realistic headgear that had the facial appearance of a pretty boy.


    Luna had previously worked for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, so she was rather skilled in the art of disguise. If people on Earth could turn a young girl into an old man using makeup, crafting a realistic disguise naturally wouldn''t be a problem in a world where magic existed.


    "How do I look?" Alice asked after Luan was done adjusting the headgear for her. Although her face felt ufortable when wearing the headgear, she decided to bear with it considering she only needed it to exchange a few taboos with Luna.


    "It''s not a bad disguise. I don''t think anybody will notice it," Luna said, nodding in approval. Even with her experience working with the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, she had to admit that Alice''s disguise was believable.


    "That''s good, then." Alice nodded in satisfaction. Although she couldn''t make any expressions with her "pretty face," it worked in her favor to create the image of a cool Hero. "The mana conductivity is great as well. There''s almost no difference in mana outputpared to my usual state. Casting taboos with this thing shouldn''t be a problem."


    After verifying the power armor''s usability, Alice injected some mana to shut it off. Then, under her maniption, the power armor quickly disassembled itself into innumerable parts that flowed back into the pendant on Alice''s neck. With this power armor, she could have the Hero and the Demon King appear in the same location at the same time and have them engage in an exchange of taboos.


    On the one hand, this y would serve to dismiss any possibilities of people thinking that Hero and the Demon King were actually the same personthough nobody had yet to make such a conjecture even until now. On the other hand, this y would let everyone witness exactly how powerful the Hero and the Demon King were inbat, which would, in turn, increase the authority these two identities held.


    Nowadays, while many people still revered the Hero and feared the Demon King, a significant portion of the world''s poption had already started to doubt the strength of these two extraordinary existences. After all, it had already been three centuries since anybody had seen a sh between the Hero and the Demon King, and the inte still didn''t exist back then. So, there existed only text records of fights between the Hero and the Demon King, and many people couldn''t help but wonder if these records were urate descriptions or exaggerations.


    However, once she and Lunaunched a few taboos at each other, everyone woulde to understand the might of the Hero and the Demon King.


    This was the first time Alice was doing something so sneaky in her life, so she couldn''t help but look forward to the school trip the day after tomorrow. Moreover, once she arrived in the Elven Forest, she would even be relying on a certain elven spy to sneak into the elves'' Nature Shrine and read their taboos. Just thinking about doing all these things excited her.


    Alice didn''t feel particrly guilty for what she was about to do, either. After all, what she would be doing wouldn''t cause any actual harm to the elves. Moreover, so long as she was careful, the elves might never even realize that someone had snuck into their Nature Shrine.


    Not to mention, wasn''t it normal for the Hero to snoop around in others'' houses and sequester their belongings in the name of justice?

 Chapter 132: Even More Exciting Than a Game

    Chapter 132: Even More Exciting Than a Game


    The school trip started as scheduled. Although the destination had changed from Mana City to the Elven Forest, most students were happy with this arrangement. After all, while Mana City was far from Holl City, it was still only half a day away by train. Hence, most of the academy''s students had already visited Mana City and checked out the Hero''s Sword at the Gryffin Church in their private time.


    Inparison, the Elven Forest was a ce that most students hadn''t visited before. This was because the Elven Forest was not only situated outside the human realm, but outsiders also needed to pay a steep price to enter the forest.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s ssmates belonged to this group of students. Her ssmates weren''t nobles. Instead, most of them were studentsing from ordinary families. So, the bus they rode on was incredibly lively as they traveled to the Elven Forest.


    Although Alice did not join her chattering ssmates'' discussions, she, too, looked forward to visiting the Elven Forest. There might be photos of the Elven Forest shared on the inte, but there was still a sense of novelty to be had from visiting the ce in person.


    Of course, there was one exception to this lively atmosphere on this bus, and that was Lalu.


    While everyone else around was having a feverish discussion over the Elven Forest, Lalu wore a bored expression as she yed with her phone in her seat.


    Lalu couldn''t be med for behaving as such. After all, she had spent 17 years of her life in the Elven Forest. Yet, just when she had finally gained the opportunity to experience somece other than the Elven Forest, the school trip brought her straight back to the environment she had long since grown tired of seeing. Faced with such a situation, it was no wonder she couldn''t bring herself to feel excited.


    To make matters worse, the elves'' living ce consisted mainly of trees because of their race''s tradition of living with nature. It might be a novel sight to look at for humans who had been living in a modern environment their entire life, but for someone who had lived in this "natural" environment for 17 years of her life, Lalu found the Elven Forest nothing but boring.


    "Don''t people usually feel homesick after leaving home for half a year?" Alice asked when she looked back from her seat and noticed the bored look on her little friend''s face.


    "That might be true for humans, but I''m an elf. I have a long life ahead of me. There''s no need for me to feel homesick after leaving home for just half a year," Lalu answered in a frustrating tone. "Also, you''ll realize just how boring of a ce the Elven Forest is once you stay there for a few days. The experience might feel novel at the beginning, but you''ll quickly realize that there isn''t actually anything to do there, and you''ll be hiding in your room ying with your phone in no time."


    "It''s fine. The Elven Forest might not be an interesting sight for you, but isn''t there an even more exciting activity waiting for you?" Alice said as she winked at Lalu.


    Lalu instantly understood Alice''s words, and she couldn''t help but smile in excitement when she recalled what they were going to do once they reached the Elven Forest.


    Naturally, the exciting activity Alice mentioned referred to their secret adventure to sneak into the Nature Shrine and the taboos stored there. The elves maintained an extremely conservative tradition, so this was the first time Lalu would be doing something that went against the tribe''s decision. Naturally, she couldn''t help but grow excited at conducting such an immoral act.


    If it was an elf who had lived for decades or centuries, even if this elf became friends with Alice, they definitely wouldn''t be willing to help Alice pull such a stunt.


    However, Lalu was different. She was only 17 years old this year, and she had even spent half a year studying in the human realm. She hade across many cultures and values that differed from those of the elven race. Hence, she was naturally much more flexible than the older elves.


    Not to mention, the stunt they would be pulling wouldn''t harm anyone. They were merely going to sneak a peek at the elven race''s taboos. So long as they didn''t spread the information they learned, they wouldn''t be causing harm to anybody.


    "While I know what you two are talking about, can you not speak so ambiguously?" Zauna, who sat beside Lalu, couldn''t help but blush a little when she heard Alice and Lalu''s conversation. "By the way, Alice, is two daysreally enough?"


    Unlike Lalu, Zauna knew that Alice wasn''t just going there to browse the fundamental principles used in the elves'' taboos. Instead, she was going there to learn and master those taboos.


    The process of learning how to use a taboo required one to have the original book with them. It''d be meaningless even if one took pictures of the book''s content.


    Authentic magic books typically carried the mana forms and operation methods for the spells they recorded. With howplex taboos were, it''d be incredibly difficult for one to analyze the operations of a taboo solely by reading textual descriptions of the spell.


    Hence, if Alice wished to learn the elves'' taboos, she would have to do so in the short span of two days. However, no matter how talented the Hero was, Zauna didn''t think that it''d be possible for Alice to learn over a dozen taboos in just two days.


    "You can rest assured of this. I have already found a solution," Alice said, giving Zauna a thumbs up.


    "Why do I get the feeling that you''re up to no good"


    Zauna couldn''t help but roll her eyes at Alice. Although her friend had spoken casually, her instincts told her that Alice was probably going to pull a big stunt. After all, once Alice went crazy, there was nothing she wouldn''t dare to do. A good example of this would be when Alice smuggled herself into the demon realm even before reaching maturity as a Hero. This was already a feat that went beyond being courageous. Meanwhile, with such a precedent, Zauna did not doubt that Alice would hesitate to do something big so that she could learn the elves'' taboos.


    While Alice and the others were conversing, the bus also drove into a tunnel. However, this wasn''t an ordinary tunnel, but a tunnel with a teleportation function instead.


    Because the distance between Holl City and the Elven Forest was far too great, the Gryffin Kingdom had constructed this tunnel with a teleportation function to connect their two countries. However, because it cost a lot of money to use this teleportation tunnel, the average person wouldn''t normally experience using it. Only wealthy organizations such as the March Royal School of Magic could afford such an expense.


    "We''re here." When the bus pulled out of the tunnel, and the sunlight reappeared in everyone''s eyes, Lalu looked out at the giant trees outside the bus and sighed, saying, "Wee to the Elven Forest."

 Chapter 133: I Believe Nobody Wants This Fruit

    Chapter 133: I Believe Nobody Wants This Fruit


    The elves'' territory wasn''t veryrge. The reason for that was the elves'' small poption and their resistance toward outsiders staying in the Elven Forest for long periods. Hence, even though most of the elven race lived together, their territory could never be regarded as a country.


    Meanwhile, inside the forest where the elves lived, the most eye-catching sight would probably have to be the towering tree standing in the middle of the forest. The tree was so tall that it had already reached the clouds in the sky. Yet, despite its exaggerated height, its trunk wasn''t particrly thick. At most, it was several times wider than the average tree. Because of the tree''s strange proportions, most people who saw it couldn''t help but worry if it would snap and fall one day.


    "That''s the Tree of Nature Although its name sounds rathermon, it is the only tree that produces the Seeds of Nature," Lalu introduced as she followed Alice off the bus. "However, the fruits this tree bears are somewhat peculiar. As soon as they are removed from their branches, their flesh would evaporate into thin air, leaving behind only the seeds inside."


    "So, does that mean you elves still don''t know what the fruit could be used for even until now?" Alice curiously asked as she turned to look at Lalu. "Did you guys try taking a bite of the fruit without removing them from their branches? So long as the fruit remains connected to a branch, the flesh shouldn''t disappear, right?"


    "Someone has tried it before, but the fruit is incredibly hard, and it is inedible without processing it," Lalu exined. This information wasn''t avable on the inte, but as someone who had lived in the Elven Forest for most of her life, she naturally knew about the matters surrounding the Tree of Nature and Seeds of Nature. "Also, the Tree of Nature is too tall, so flight magic is necessary to even reach the fruits. We also don''t have any means to conduct research at such a high altitude."


    "Actually, that should be doable. Modern flight contraptions are very advanced already. Many countries already possess the technology to produce flying contraptions that can reach and hover at high altitudes steadily," Alice said. When conversing with the Ymir Kingdom''s dwarves previously, she had also learned some undisclosed information that wasn''t considered confidential from them. "If you elves are willing to work together with other countries, I believe there should be a way to study those fruits in high altitude."


    "Unfortunately, those stubborn old bastards won''t agree to such a partnership," Lalu said, clicking her tongue. As a young elf who had alreadye into contact with human culture, she couldn''t help but be rendered speechless whenever she thought about the stubbornness of the older elves. She simply couldn''t understand why the older elves insisted on isting themselves from the world. In the current era of rapid development, their elven race should be working together with their neighbors to improve themselves instead of sticking to their old ways while their neighbors left them in the dust.


    Not to mention, there had never been any serious conflict between elves and humans. Even during the era where very existed, not many humans had bothered traveling to the distant Elven Forest to capture elves. So, logically, the rtionship between elves and humans should be good. At the very least, there shouldn''t be any problems if they conducted joint research together on the Tree of Nature.


    There was no need to worry that the humans would use the research results to develop powerful magical technology to harm the elves. With modern human weaponry, the humans could easily erase the entire Elven Forest if they intended to harm the elven race. There''d be no need to go through the trouble of researching new magic to threaten the elves.


    Hence, the older elves'' wariness against humans was superfluous. In Lalu''s opinion, the most likely reason the older elves were still refusing to cooperate was because of their incredibly stubborn nature. They would rather have no research results than share some of the research results in exchange for foreign help.


    "Is that so"


    Alice nodded, not feeling particrly surprised to hear Lalu''s words. Arge part of why she managed to befriend Lalu so easily was because the loli elf was young. Moreover, Lalu had studied in the human realm for some time already, so she could adapt to new things much more easily. If she tried to befriend an elf who had spent their entire lives living in the Elven Forest, she probably wouldn''t achieve sess very easily.


    While Alice and Lalu were talking, the other students also got off the bus one after another. Since the first batch of students that left the academy only consisted of students from ss Group C, there were only a dozen or so buses parked outside the Elven Forest right now. As for students in ss Groups A and B, they would arriveter.


    "Alright, everyone gather here. We''ll be entering the Elven Forest soon."


    The ss teacher for ss C04 was an amiable middle-aged woman named Emma. Although rumors say that she had great aplishments in magic, she had only ever performed simple spells in ss. Nobody had ever seen her userge-scale spells. Since she was ss C04''s ss teacher, she was naturally responsible for ss C04''s students on this school trip.


    After hearing Emma calling for them to gather, Alice, Lalu, and the rest of ss C04 quickly formed a line behind ss C03''s students. Then, once everyone was lined up, they started walking into the Elven Forest.


    This would be the first time most of ss Group C''s students were visiting the Elven Forest, so the line was rtively noisy with discussions about the Elven Forest''s beautiful and natural environment. For people who had spent their entire lives living in a bustling city, the Elven Forest''s environment was indeed a rare sight. Moreover, unlike the Gryffin Forest''s vegetation, the Elven Forest''s vegetation consisted mostly of magical nts, so they looked much greener and more magnificent than the average nt.


    Meanwhile, when Lalu heard the exmationsing from the students around her, she couldn''t help but sigh and muttered, "It''s a pity we''ll only be staying here for two days. If we stay a few more days, everyone wille to learn just how wonderful Holl City ispared to the Elven Forest. There are no bars, inte cafes, arcades, or restaurants here. Even the food here tastes incredibly nd."


    "Who knows? Maybe they''ll get the opportunity to experience it?" Alice said, snickering when she heard Lalu''s words.


    "So you really n on making trouble, do you?" When Zauna, who walked behind Alice, heard Alice''s words, she reached past Alice''s shoulders and pinched Alice''s cheeks. "You better not make us suffer too miserably. Otherwise, don''t me me for ratting you out."


    "Don''t worry, don''t worry. It won''t be too miserable," Alice said, her words sounding slurred because of her pinched face. "We''ll just be staying in the Elven Forest for a few more days."

 Chapter 134: Am I Going to Meet Every Past Hero at This Rate?

    Chapter 134: Am I Going to Meet Every Past Hero at This Rate?


    "Wee to the Elven Forest."


    At the entrance of the elven vige, a very mature-looking female elf weed the group from the March Academy with a formal smile on her face. One couldn''t see any sort of dissatisfaction toward tourists on her face at all.


    Of course, Alice still noticed that the four young elven guards standing on either side of the entrance were looking at the March Academy''s students with indifferent and wary eyes.


    "The person receiving us is Elder Nina. Among the elders, she is the best when ites to gauging a person''s mood and facial expressions, which is why she is normally tasked with handling diplomatic work and receiving guests," Lalu introduced as she leaned into Alice''s ear. "You noticed, right? Other than Elder Nina, the other elves here are behaving either indifferently or warily toward our group This is just how elves are, so don''t mind it too much."


    When Alice heard Lalu''s words, she realized that the loli elf must be worried that she might get a bad impression of the elves because of this situation, which might, in turn, affect their rtionship. After rubbing the loli elf on the head, Alice lowered her body slightly to match Lalu''s height and said, "Don''t worry. I already mentally prepared myself beforeing here."


    Other than Alice, none of the other students noticed the four elven guards'' indifference and wariness. After all, unlike Alice, they didn''te here with a deeper motive. They came here solely to sightsee and have fun. So, they naturally wouldn''t pay as much attention to their surroundings.


    Subsequently, Alice and the others entered the elven vige under Elder Nina''s lead.


    "Huh?"


    The instant Alice stepped past the vige gates, a female guard standing on the gate''s right side frowned and turned toward Alice''s direction. Because of their heights, Alice and Lalu were positioned at the front of ss C04, so the female guard instantly noticed Alice.


    "What''s wrong, Filia?"


    The other female guard standing beside the Elf named Filia noticed the change in her partner''s expression, so she followed Filia''s gaze and found herself looking at Alice and Lalu as well.


    However, unlike Filia, this other guard didn''t pay attention to Alice. Instead, her eyes focused on Lalu.


    "Oh? Isn''t that Little Lalu? Ah, I think I remember now. She''s studying in the human realm''s March Royal School of Magic. That''s the academy visiting our vige this time, so I guess it''s normal for her to appear here," the other female elf said with a look of realization.


    However, Filia did not respond to her partner''s words. Instead, she watched as Alice walked into the elven vige. Then, once Alice disappeared out of her sight, she couldn''t help but look at the silver ring on her right pinky and wonder, <em>Was I mistaken? Or is it</em>


    Alice, who had already entered the elven vige, naturally wasn''t aware that one of the female guards at the entrance had taken notice of her. Simr to the other students, she looked around the vige with curious eyes.


    The elven vige was very different from the viges and cities found in the human realm. Instead of concrete, the buildings here were made out of magically modified trees. The elves had transformed the inside of the trees here into a livable space, and it was quite a unique sight.


    It was especially amazing when one considered that the elves had modified these trees without harming them. All of the trees-turned-buildings here retained their lifeforce.


    "Alice, look over there."


    While Alice was admiring the elven vige''s unique architecture, Lulu suddenly poked her waist and pointed at a distant tree. Or, more specifically, the wooden door on the tree''s trunk.


    "That treehouse has a teleportation array set up in it. It''s the only way to enter the Nature Shrine."


    "It''s inside there?"


    Alice was a little taken aback. This was because the treehouse in question looked no different than any other. It simply had a door leading to the inside of the massive tree trunk. She found it hard to believe that it was the only path leading to the Nature Shrine.


    "Why does it look sonormal?"


    "It''s because it is normal that outsiders won''t be able to find the Nature Shrine easily without an elf''s guidance," Lalu said, chuckling. "Moreover, even if an outsider managed to learn of it through hearsay, they still won''t be able to activate the teleportation array without an elf''s help. That''s why the vige thinks the Nature Shrine is safe and did not bother stationing any guards there."


    "You elves are really"


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry when she heard Lalu''s exnation. Although there was a saying that the most dangerous location was sometimes also the safest ce, wasn''t it a little too arrogant for the elves to take zero safety measures? Although only elves knew how to activate the teleportation array, were they not afraid that there might be a traitor among them?


    However, Alice felt that the elves'' decision wasn''t madepletely out of arrogance after thinking it through. After all, the Nature Shrine wasn''t exactly a special ce. It was merely a ce for the elves to worship God. Alice wouldn''t even have paid it a second nce if the vige leadership didn''t decide to store the taboo magic books inside the Nature Shrine this time.


    While walking past the Nature Shrine''s entrance, Alice noticed a stone pir with seemingly no purpose erected beside the treehouse. The stone pir stood out like a sore thumb, and Alice couldn''t help but grow curious and ask, "What''s that stone pir? Is it used to indicate the Nature Shrine''s location?"


    "That stone pir, huh?" Even without looking back, Lalu already knew what stone pir Alice was talking about. So, she said, "It''s not a marker. That stone pir is something a Hero left behind."


    <em>Another Hero? </em>Alice was stunned. She didn''t think she woulde across another item rted to Heroes so soon. "Why would a Hero''s belonging be in the elven vige?"


    "Did you forget? One of the past Heroes was an elf," Lalu said as she looked at Alice in confusion, not expecting Alice to ask such a question. "That stone pir is something that Elven Hero left behind."


    "...The Seventh Hero, right?" After Lalu refreshed her memory, Alice quickly recalled the information she had learned about the past Heroes. Unlike the natives of this world who had grown up listening to stories about the Heroes, Alice had only transmigrated to this world for a little over a month. So, it was normal for her not to remember such details. "So, that''s the stone pir he left behind?"


    The Seventh Hero was considered the most unique Hero out of all Heroes. This was because he wasn''t a human but an elf instead. Moreover, he had only be the Hero long after the Demon King had appeared, and he could be considered the tardiest Hero in history.


    At the time, the demon realm''s war had already swept across the human realm and Elven Forest. Even the several surrounding tribes of various races had gotten involved in the war. However, even though humans, elves, and the other races had banded together to resist the demons'' invasion, their armies were nothing but paper in front of the demon army led by the Demon King. They simply couldn''t put up an adequate defense without the Hero''s assistance.


    Meanwhile, the Elven Hero had appeared in this situation. So, although the Hero didn''te from the human race, he still helped the various races fight against the demon race and defeated the Demon King.


    However, because the Hero had too little time to grow, he died shortly after defeating the Demon King because of over-exhaustion.


    Alice didn''t expect the Elven Hero to actually leave behind an unknown stone pir in the elven vige.

 Chapter 135: Nothing is True

    Chapter 135: Nothing is True


    The student dormitories in the March Academy were two-person rooms. The rooms were incredibly spacious, and they were considered a luxury for the average student.


    However, students naturally couldn''t enjoy the same luxuries in the Elven Forest. Due to the exorbitant entrance fee, the number of people visiting the Elven Forest was very low. As a result, the elven vige didn''t bother preparing many guest rooms for tourists. Moreover, the rooms the vige prepared were meant to amodate four people, which was rarely seen even among modern-day hotels in the human realm. The elven vige looked more like dormitories than the March Academy''s student dormitories.


    Since the "dormitories" here were four-person rooms, Alice, Zauna, Lalu, and Alice''s maid Luna were naturally assigned to the same room.


    The March Academy was veryx when it came to assigning rooms. The academy didn''t force students to share rooms based on their student IDs. If a group of friends sought to share a room, they could apply with their ss teachers.


    The school trip''s schedule was also arranged simrly to the normal ss schedule. Other than the few hours students needed to gather to conduct group activities, students were free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day. After all, mobilemunication in this world relied on mana, not cellr connection. There was no need to worry that a student would run to a ce that couldn''t be reached by phone.


    "The tour of the Tree of Nature starts at 4 PM today, and it is only 9 AM right now." After dropping off her luggage, Lalu looked at her phone for the time. Then, she looked toward Alice and asked, "If we include lunchtime, we still have seven hours of free time. What do you guys n on doing?"


    Although Lalu was asking in a casual tone, Alice could see Lalu''s true thoughts in the loli elf''s sparkling eyes:


    Wanna go to the Nature Shrine?


    It would seem that for the 17-year-old elf, the thought of going against her elders'' old-fashioned education filled her with excitement.


    "Aren''t you a little too rebellious?" Zauna asked in exasperation. She was aware of Alice and Lalu''s ns, so when she saw the eager look on the loli elf''s face, she couldn''t help but be rendered speechless.


    Zauna had already known Lalu for more than half a year, unlike Alice. However, during this half a year, she had never seen the loli elf making such an excited expression before.


    On the first day they started their freshman year, Lalu behaved simrly to the average elf. She maintained an aloof attitude and behaved seemingly restrained toward everything. Only after the others in the ss had taught her things that couldn''t be found in the Elven Forest did Lalu start to brighten up a bit. Eventually, she even became a very approachable person.


    However, Lalu''s current behavior could no longer be considered "approachable." Instead, she behaved ecstatically like a child visiting the amusement park for the first time. Seeing this, Zauna couldn''t help but admit that Alice the Hero was much more capable of causing mischiefpared to ordinary students like herself.


    "It seems you''re very eager," Alice said with a helpless smile. However, seeing as Lalu was already growing impatient, Alice pondered for a moment before saying, "Alright, then. Let''s go and take a look at the Nature Shrine right away."


    After saying so, Alice turned to Zauna and Luna, asking, "Do you two want to join?"


    "I''ll pass. There won''t be any escape for me if I get caught," Zauna said, shaking her head. She wasn''t the Hero, unlike Alice. If they got caught, Alice might be able to get away if she revealed her identity, but the same couldn''t be said for her. She was merely an ordinary student. If she got caught, even if the elves chose to let her go, she would probably still be expelled if the academy learned of her actions.


    "I''ll also pass," Luna said, shaking her head as well. Alice was going to the Nature Shrine to learn taboos, and there was nothing she could help in this regard. She couldn''t possibly help Alice experiment with taboos inside the Nature Shrine, either. "I''ll stay here and prepare lunch for everyone."


    "That''s wonderful! You guys have no idea how terribly nd elven food tastes!" Lalu said, raising her arms in celebration when she heard Luna''s words.


    "Is it <em>that </em>terrible? What do elves normally eat?" Zauna curiously asked. Although she had heard that elves ate very lightly, she didn''t think Lalu would evaluate them so terribly.


    "Our ingredients are basically just fruits and vegetables turned into sds but without any dressings, spices, salt, or even sugar. The taste ispletely natural. It might be fine to eat like that for a few meals, but not even the churches would eat like that for every meal," Lalu said with a disgusted look on her face. "Honestly, I''ve considered bringing back some food from the human realm to let those stubborn old fogies know what real food is I really have no idea how I managed to get used to eating like that for the past 17 years."


    "Some elven habits might not seem very good for someone used to living in the human realm, but since they have already made it a habit to eat that way, there''s no need to force them to change," Alice said as she patted Lalu on the head. "Let''s go. I''m curious to see what the Nature Shrine looks like."


    "Okay," Lalu said, clicking her tongue as she stopped talking about elven food. However, after experiencing human food for over half a year, she honestly couldn''t understand how other elves could stand eating such nd foods for decades and centuries.


    Meanwhile, Alice took out a baggy magic robe from her luggage before leaving the room. Then, she gripped a corner of the robe with her right hand, turning it into a weapon.


    [Weapon: Magic Robe Brimming With Mana]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Mind +10, Control +10, Mana +50]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Defense (Passive Skill. Reduces the offensive magic damage you receive by 5%);


    Mana Concealment (Active Skill. Conceals the appearance and aura of the weapon and its user for three minutes.) ]


    When Alice first became the Hero, she had relied on this same robe to sneak out of the Gryffin Church. The robe was something the March Academy prepared for its students, and it had the basic function of concealing the user''s magic aura. However, under the effects of Alice''s right hand, the robe had gained the added function of invisibility.


    Meanwhile, the reason why Alice took out this robe was simple. The March Academy''s students had just arrived in the elven vige, and they had a full seven hours of free time. So, there should be plenty of people walking around the vige right now. If Alice and Lalu were to approach the entrance to the Nature Shrine right now, they''d be exposing their intentions immediately.


    Meanwhile, because Alice and Lalu were much shorter than the average high schooler, the standard magic robe was more than enough to fit the two of them. Then, after the two of them put on the baggy robe, Alice activated Mana Concealment, the skill''s activation causing the two of them to instantly vanish from Zauna''s and Luna''s vision.


    "The invisibility onlysts three minutes," Alice said to Lalu inside the robe.


    "Let''s move quickly, then."

 Chapter 136: No Witnesses

    Chapter 136: No Witnesses


    Thanks to the magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill, Alice and Lalu snuck past even their teachers and the mana-sensitive elves without being noticed. The only thing they needed to pay attention to was to avoid bumping into people on their way. After all, the robe only hid their appearances and presences. They could still get discovered if they bumped into others.


    Even so, Lalu was still very impressed by the ability Alice had disyed. She had never seen anyone capable of concealing their appearance and mana so thoroughly. On their way to the Nature Shrine, they had evene across an elven elder who was rather powerful. However, when they walked past this elder, he did not notice them at all.


    In response to Lalu''s exmations, Alice simply gave the excuse that she had read a lot of books and learned a thing or two. Lalu also bought into the excuse without growing suspicious. After all, Alice had behaved like a genius in magic in the academy. Moreover, she would even research taboos during her free time. Her thirst for knowledge was truly insatiable, which also exined why she would try to sneak a peek at the elven race''s taboos.


    Thus, it waspletely normal for Alice to sessfully learn and master such a powerful spell.


    A short timeter, Alice and Lalu arrived at their destination withouting across any problems.


    Just like Alice expected, many students were wandering around the vige right now. However, as the treehouse that housed the Nature Shrine''s teleportation array looked inconspicuous, rarely would anybody turn their heads to look at it. This made it convenient for Alice and Lalu to sneak into it.


    While approaching the house''s door, Alice thought of touching the stone pir beside it with her right hand. After all, it was something the Seventh Hero left behind.


    However, Alice quickly dismissed her thoughts. The magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill was the only thing keeping her and Lalu concealed right now. If she tried to touch the stone pir with her right hand, she would have to first release her grip over the robe.


    She hade here to study the elves'' taboos, not to investigate the stone pir''s function. She shouldn''t be putting the cart before the horse right now. Not to mention, she could simplye back to this ce and openly touch the stone pir afterward. So long as she wasn''t trying to sneak into the Nature Shrine, the elves shouldn''t have a problem with her. Thus, there was no need to find trouble for herself at this time.


    Although Alice and Lalu had already moved as quickly as they could to reach the Nature Shrine, they only had around a dozen seconds before Mana Concealment ran out by the time they reached the tree house''s entrance. So, after making sure that nobody was looking in their direction, Alice promptly reached for the wooden door''s handle and opened a gap that was just enough for a person to squeeze through. Then, she and Lalu swiftly entered the house before closing the door on their way in.


    Unfortunately, even though Alice had already been careful, the brief period where the wooden door remained open allowed some of the mana inside the house to leak out. Meanwhile, this bit of mana had just so happened to attract someone''s attention.


    "Hm?"


    While walking through the vige, Filia suddenly stopped and turned toward the treehouse housing the Nature Shrine''s teleportation array. Under normal circumstances, the entrance to that tree house would remain closed. However, she could clearly feel the unique mana of the tree house''s teleportation array just now. This meant that the door had been opened, even if it was just for a brief moment.


    Filia had just applied for a short leave from her guard post to ask about the golden-haired little girl who had caught her attention just now. However, before she could find one of the March Academy''s teachers, she came across such a strange situation.


    <em>What should I do? Should I go ask about that girl first? Or should I investigate the Nature Shrine''s entrance? </em>Filia pinched and twisted a lock of her long, light-green hair as she pondered what to do.


    In the brief moment Filia was in thought, she had attracted the attention of many students. Although elves already possessed outstanding appearances by human standards, Filia was on a whole other level. Even Alice, who had her body crafted by God, was slightly inferior to Filia when it came to appearances.


    Meanwhile, after pondering for a moment, Filia decided to take a look at the treehouse. Her goal in investigating the blonde girl was a private matter. On the other hand, the Nature Shrine was something that involved the entire Elven Forest. Thetter was evidently more important right now.


    Holding such thoughts, Filia began making her way to the treehouse. Then, after briefly looking at the stone pir with a look of nostalgia, she opened the wooden door and entered the treehouse.


    Although the wandering students were curious to find out why the "young" elf had entered that ordinary-looking house, they wouldn''t create trouble simply because of their curiosity. So, they quickly dispersed and went on their way.


    Meanwhile, after entering the treehouse, Filia quickly inspected the ce for abnormalities.


    There was a light fragrance scattered around the empty treehouse. This was the fragrance radiated by the giant tree that the treehouse was built in. Meanwhile, unlike the other treehouses in the vige, this treehouse had nothing but arge magic circle drawn on its floor.


    <em>Mana Detection, </em>Filia recited the name of an entry-level spell in her mind. Immediately, faint light radiated from her hands and covered every corner of the house. Then, once the faint light faded, light-green specks of light hovered around the room.


    These specks of light were indicators of residue mana, and they proved that the teleportation array had only been activated recently.


    Filia''s expression instantly darkened upon making this discovery. She had not heard about the vige allowing anyone entry into the Nature Shrine recently. Evidently, someone had snuck into this ce and activated the teleportation array.


    After making this discovery, Filia walked to the teleportation array''s center, closed her eyes, and injected some mana into it. She wanted to see for herself who was so bold as to sneak into the Nature Shrine. Even if the other party were human students who had identally snuck in here, she still nned on giving these children about etiquette. They needed to know that they couldn''t simply barge into other people''s homes.


    Subsequently, after the teleportation array activated, Filia felt her surrounding environment rapidly changing. As she had lived for a long time already, she had long since gotten used to the feeling of teleportation magic. So, she didn''t feel any difort when using the teleportation array.


    Once the teleportation wasplete, and she felt that she had already arrived inside the Nature Shrine, Filia promptly opened her eyes to catch the infiltrator.


    However, before Filia could get a good look at the ce, she heard the sound of a sonic booming from above her. Then, apanied by a sharp paining from the back of her head, Filia didn''t even have time to let out a groan before she lost consciousness.


    "Is this alright, Alice?" Lalu asked with trepidation when she saw Alice using the Milu Rabbit she carried around on her waist to knock Filia unconscious. "This is Captain Filia, one of the vige''s guard captains Isn''t it a little too much to knock her unconscious?"


    "So she''s a guard captain? No wonder her head felt so hard," Alicemented, the focus of her attention seeming a little strangepared to Lalu''s. Then, she tied the unconscious Milu Rabbit back to her waist and nodded, saying, "In my hands, my Milu Rabbit can even break trees. I was initially worried that I might have used too much force, but since you say that she''s a guard captain, she should be quite strong. So, I think the force I used was just right."

 Chapter 137: Are You Sure We Are Talking About the Same Person

    Chapter 137: Are You Sure We Are Talking About the Same Person


    Filia''s appearance had undoubtedly messed up Alice and Lalu''s ns. After all, they had no idea when Filia would regain consciousness. If they chose to stay here to read the taboos, they would certainly get into trouble once Filia woke up.


    They couldn''t just toss Filia out of the Nature Shrine, either. Once Filia regained consciousness, she would definitely recall that she had lost consciousness after entering the Nature Shrine and bring others with her to inspect the Nature Shrine next time. So, if they let Filia go, they couldn''t stay in the Nature Shrine anymore.


    Moreover, they also couldn''t take the taboo books out of the Nature Shrine. Once Filia regained consciousness and came back here with other elves, they would definitely check to see if anything was missing here. Once they noticed that the taboo books were missing, they would most certainlyunch a search throughout the entire vige.


    Fortunately, Alice and Lalu didn''t get seen by Filia. When they noticed that the teleportation array had activated again shortly after they arrived, they quickly circled to the back of the teleportation array. Then, the moment Filia appeared, Alice had knocked the living daylights out of her using the Milu Rabbit. Hence, if Alice and Lalu secretly left the Nature Shrine now and pretended as if nothing had happened, it was unlikely that anyone would suspect them.


    However, Alice felt a little reluctant to just give up now that the taboo books were already in front of her eyes. Moreover, the March Academy had no records of the elves'' unique taboos.


    For a moment, Alice couldn''t help but have the urge to silence the witness Of course, she wouldn''t actually do that since it''d be too cruel to kill an innocent person.


    "Lalu." After looking at Filia''s unconscious body and pondering for a while, Alice suddenly turned to Lalu and asked, "Would anyone notice if an elf goes missing for a few days?"


    "What are you trying to do?!"


    Even if Lalu was open to new things, she couldn''t help but be shocked by Alice''s question. If she didn''t know any better, she would think that Alice was prepared to kill Filia to silence her.


    "I''m thinking of keeping her asleep for a few days," Alice said, looking at Lalu with a confused look. She didn''t know why the loli elf would show such a big reaction. Then, crouching down and poking Filia''s unconscious body, Alice exined, "So long as she remains asleep for a few days, she won''t leave to tell on us If she''s really as strong as you say, she shouldn''t starve to death even if she doesn''t eat for a few days, right?"


    "Elves are the precious children of nature. So, we actually have the ability to conduct photosynthesis. Even if we don''t eat, most of us can survive for a very long time," Lalu answered, blushing a little when she realized she had misunderstood Alice. She also sighed in relief when she realized that Alice''s thoughts weren''t as exaggerated as she assumed. If Alice was merely nning on having Filia sleep for a few days, there shouldn''t be much of a problem.


    After a slight pause, Lalu continued, "But Filia is a guard captain. She is incredibly strong, and I heard she could even cast taboos without help You might have taken her by surprise and knocked her out just now, but I don''t think it''ll be possible to keep her unconscious for several days."


    "You don''t have to worry about this. I have my ways," Alice said, smiling. She might not have learned any spells that could put people to sleep, but one of the panties shemandeered from Rosa just so happened to have such an ability. "So, tell me. If this elfFilia, right? If she goes missing for a few days, would anyone notice?"


    "There aren''t many elves in the vige, so if anyone goes missing for a few days, someone is bound to notice. Not to mention, Filia is a guard captain. Her position in the vige is equal to the elders," Lalu said, aplicated look on her face as she looked at Filia''s unconscious body. Although she felt like a traitor to her race for helping Alice, she couldn''t get enough of the excitement she received from doing so. "But there are many precedents of Filia going missing. If any other elf goes missing, the others in the vige would most definitely worry andunch a search. However, if it is Filia, I don''t think the vige will search for her."


    Noticing the confused look Alice was giving her, Lalu quickly exined, "Filia''s strength is well-proven. The Seventh Hero was her boyfriend, and Filia had fought alongside him during the war. She had even managed to hold her ground against the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings. So, everyone in the vige knows that Filia is unlikely to be in any mortal danger unless her opponent is the Demon King."


    Upon hearing Lalu''s exnation, Alice couldn''t help but look down at the unconscious Filia. Then, she looked at Lalu, her eyes seemingly asking: Are you sure we are talking about the same person?


    "Cough, cough. This situation is different. The teleportation array causes the user''s soul to lose bnce. Unless the user has readied themselves forbat, they will be utterly defenseless during teleportation," Lalu exined after recalling how easily Alice had knocked Filia unconscious. "Filia must''ve thought that we weren''t dangerous individuals, so she didn''t bother putting up her guard when teleporting."


    "In short, this person is very strong, so the other elves won''t worry that she woulde into any danger even if she leaves the vige, right?" Although Alice found it hard to believe that someone capable of fighting against the Four Heavenly Kings could get knocked out by a Milu Rabbit, Alice chose to believe in Lalu''s words. "Also, did you say that she has suddenly gone missing in the past as well?"


    "That''s right. The first time it happened was around ten years ago. I was still a child at that time," Lalu said, chuckling when she remembered the past. "Everyone in the vige panicked when Filia disappeared at that time. In the end, she came back by herself a few dayster and said: I noticed something resembling the Demon King''s aura nearby. However, as the Demon King had never appeared, everyone didn''t pay too much attention to her words."


    "She must be incredibly perceptive," Alicemented, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead when she heard Lalu''s words. She felt that the reason Filia had suddenly gone missing ten years ago was most likely because the Demon King''s Power had chosen Luna as its new candidate. However, Filia had most likely only noticed the Demon King''s Power returning and did not notice that it was staying inside Luna''s body.


    "That''s right. So, ever since that incident, everyone understood that Filia would suddenly leave the vige from time to time. She would also always return a few dayster, so the others in the vige don''t worry much when she disappears," Lalu said. "Anyway, how are you going to keep Filia unconscious for a few days, Alice? I don''t think the average spell and potion will work on her."


    "Well I have my ways," Alice said, chuckling. "But I need to keep this method a secret, so would you mind turning around, Lalu? I''ll tell you once I''m done."


    "Is it that big of a secret?" Although Lalu couldn''t understand why Alice wasn''t willing to let her see the process, she had no choice but to listen to Alice''s arrangements since she was on the same boat with Alice now. "Alright, then. But you better make it quick."


    After saying so, Lalu turned around and stopped looking at Alice.


    After seeing that Lalu was looking away, Alice untied the ammunition pouch she had restocked a few days ago.


    <em>Ordinary magic might not work on herbut taboos should work, right?</em>

 Chapter 138

    Chapter 138


    [Weapon: ck C-string]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +3000, Mind +3000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic);


    Curse of Delusion (Active Skill. Upon use, inflicts a curse on the target''s soul, putting the target to sleep on a soul level.)]


    This was one of the panties Alice had appropriated from Rosa. Although Alice was surprised to find that Rosa owned something as daring as a C-string, she didn''t hesitate to add it to her panty arsenal.


    Of course, after restocking her pouch, Alice had naturally found somewhere secluded to test her new weapons and found out about their respective abilities. Meanwhile, when she was thinking of a way to keep Filia asleep for several days, she immediately recalled the C-string''s Curse of Delusion.


    Inflicting a soul curse on Filia sounded like it would do a lot of harm to the elf, which it indeed would. However, after many experiments, Alice could now manipte the power of the spells she cast. Thus, so long as she lowered the taboo''s output to a point where it would only put Filia to sleep and do nothing more, it shouldn''t do too much harm to the elf''s body.


    Meanwhile, after Alice held the small C-string in her right hand, ck mist quickly started seeping out from the hand. At the same time, dark mana began filling Alice''s body.


    Unlike with the Hero''s Sword, Alice didn''t need to shout out any names when using panties. So, with her mouth shut, Alice promptly activated the ck C-string''s Curse of Delusion against Filia.


    Immediately, the C-string transformed into a ball of ck energy that escaped Alice''s hand. Then, this energy ball flew toward the unconscious Filia and entered her heart through her chest.


    The moment the curse entered Filia''s body, Filia''s previously furrowed brows gradually loosened.


    If Lalu had seen this scene, she would probably suspect that Alice was the Demon King or something simr. Fortunately, although elves were sensitive toward mana, Lalu had never seen or perceived dark mana before. Thus, even if she noticed that Alice had suddenly released arge burst of mana, the most she could tell was that Alice had used a powerful spell.


    Anyway, the curse would cause Filia to lose herself in a dream, and so long as Alice didn''t remove the curse, Filia would remain in her dream until her physical body died. However, Alice had set it so that the curse would unravel itself a weekter. Although going a week without food would put Filia in a weakened state, she wouldn''t be in any threat of dying.


    A week should also be enough for Alice to memorize all of the elves'' unique taboos. Unlike with the Enochian Pyramid, Alice wouldn''t have to master the elves'' unique taboos. All she needed to do was memorize the taboos'' theories and mana operation methods. Then, she could return to the human realm and master the taboos at her leisure.


    If it was only memorizing taboos, Alice should have no problem memorizing two taboos a day. Meanwhile, after checking the Nature Shrine''s magic books with Lalu, they found that there were a total of 11 unique taboos here. In that case, a week should be roughly enough for her. It also wouldn''t create any significant problems if she only had the demon army surround the Elven Forest for a week.


    "Alright, you can turn around now," Alice said to the loli elf after nting the Curse of Delusion on the oneesan elf.


    "What did you do just now, Alice? I sensed powerful mana just now." Lalu couldn''t help but look at Alice in confusion after turning around. Although she had followed Alice''s instructions and didn''t sneak a peek just now, her sensitive senses still allowed her to perceive the changes to the mana in the room. "That manadoesn''t feel like something a normal person could possess."


    Although elves possessed underwhelming talentpared to the other races, elves were long-lived. Most adults in the elven vige had already lived for several hundred years, and there were even two elders in the vige who were already over a thousand years old. While they might have grown at a much slower pacepared to those from other races, the strength they had umted over all these years was still significant. They could easily beat the top powerhouses of most other races when it came to individual prowess.


    Even so, Lalu still felt that the mana Alice released just now was a little strongerpared to the elven elders she had seen in action thus far.


    "This I''ll tell you sometimeter," Alice said as she ced a finger on her lips.


    Some weeks ago, Alice had snuck into the dorms of many students with the help of the magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill. She had done so to inspect everyone using her right hand and ensure they didn''t possess any special identities. If they did have a special identity, it would show in their weapon names.


    Meanwhile, Lalu''s weapon name came up as "Genius Elf Brimming With Mana - Lalu." The name showed that the loli elf didn''t possess any special identities. Thus, Alice decided that once the time was right, there shouldn''t be any problems if she shared her identity with Lalu.


    For now, though, Alice decided to observe the loli elf for a little longer and make sure that there wasn''t anything strange with her usual behavior.


    "You''re so secretive, Alice. I didn''t expect you to have another identity other than the Gryffin Princes," Lalu said, sighing.


    However, despite many conjectures appearing in the loli elf''s mind, the possibility that Alice might be the Hero or the Demon King never came up. After all, the image of the muscr and pretty-faced Hero and oneesan Demon King had already been solidified in the minds of everyone who used the inte.

 Chapter 139: Naming Is an Unavoidable Hurdle in Life

    Chapter 139: Naming Is an Unavoidable Hurdle in Life


    Learning taboos was indeed a challenging task. However, thanks to her extraordinary talent, Alice still managed to learn one out of the eleven unique taboos inside the Nature Shrine to an entry-level within half a day.


    Meanwhile, so long as Alice could guarantee that she could cast the taboo, even if it was just barely, she could slowly improve her mastery over the taboo after she left the Elven Forest. Hence, instead of investing more time into mastering the taboo, Alice promptly moved her focus to the other taboos.


    <em>Speaking of which, what time is it now?</em>


    When Alice pulled out her phone and saw that it was already noon, she realized she needed to go back and have lunch. So, she hurriedly set aside the book in her hand and made her way to the one-way teleportation array meant to transport users out of the Nature Shrine.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but turn to look at the unconscious elven guard captain after taking a few steps. ording to Lalu, Filia should be incredibly strong. Her great talent and the long life she had lived had allowed her to stand toe-to-toe against the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings during the Seventh Hero''s era.


    It should be known that the Seventh Hero''s era dated back over a thousand years. After such a long time had passed, Filia''s strength should have made significant improvements, right? Maybe even man and the other Heavenly Kings would have difficulty beating her now.


    So, if an elf of such caliber was turned into a weapon, what kind of weapon rating would Filia receive?


    Out of curiosity, Alice walked up to Filia and ced her right hand on one of Filia''s legs. Since Alice had already put Filia to sleep, the elf naturally couldn''t put up any form of resistance. So, Alice''s right hand recognized the sleeping elf as a weapon that could be wielded and promptly ryed the weapon''s information to Alice.


    [Weapon: Mana Rich Elven Knight - Filia]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Mind +1200, Control +1200, Mana +1500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Hundred Refinement Sword (Passive Skill. Your swordsmanship proficiency is maxed. Destructive power when using a sword is doubled);


    Nature''s Blessing (Passive Skill. You can create nutrition for your body through absorbing natural light. Your perception toward mana is increased significantly);


    Hero''s Gaze (Passive Skill. You receive the attention of the Hero''s remnant soul. Minor increase in luck.)]


    <em>So she''s stronger than Catherine?</em>


    Alice was a little surprised. Originally, she thought that Filia should be roughly as strong as Catherine. However, it would seem that Filia was much stronger than Catherine.


    However, it made sense after Alice thought about it. Even if Filia wasn''t as talented as Catherine, the elf had lived for over a thousand years. The strength she had umted over the years was more than enough to put her above the geniuses of the other races. Moreover, Filia still looked very young, so Alice guessed that the elf should have no problems living past two thousand.


    Unfortunately, despite having lived for so long, Filia was still no match for the cheat-like existences known as the Hero and the Demon King. Alice still remembered that even when Aird had just awakened as the Hero, she was already considered an Artifact-grade weapon, and her stats were all in the five-digit range. Aird was on apletely different level whenpared to Filia.


    However, rather than Filia''s numerical stats, Alice was more concerned about one of Filia''s passive skills.


    <em>Hero''s Gaze? What does it mean by the Hero''s remnant soul?</em>


    When Alice saw this skill, the first thing that came to her mind was Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero who had survived until now in the form of a soul. However, after putting more thought into the matter, Alice felt that the remnant soul mentioned here should be different from Kristine''s intact soul. Moreover, why did the skill say that she was receiving the Hero''s attention? Could there be a Hero''s remnant soul here?


    After all, this ce was the Nature Shrine. So, it was entirely possible for a remnant soul to exist here.


    Immediately, Alice let go of Filia''s leg and started touching every movable object in the room with her right hand. She didn''t spare even the items that looked like offerings on the table.


    However, even after molesting every object in the room, Alice didn''t find anything special. Most of the objects she touched either received a Garbage or Fine rating. Out of all of these items, the best one would be the staff inserted on the ground in the middle of the room.


    [Weapon: Primal Elven Staff - I''ve Decided]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Mind +1000, Control +1000, Mana +2000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Nature''s Blessing (Passive Skill. You can create nutrition for your body through absorbing natural light. Your perception toward mana is increased significantly);


    Forest''s Love (Passive Skill. The power of your mana is doubled when you are in a forest. Your enemies will receive the Forest''s Curse when they are in a forest.)]


    When Alice saw the staff''s name, she guessed that the naming of all weapons in this world had to be done on the spot. Meanwhile, the first person to have wielded this staff probably wasn''t aware of this rule and ended up speaking unnecessarily, which resulted in this staff gaining such a silly name.


    However, this Elven Staff had an edge over the Hero''s Sword in that it wasn''t a Law-grade weapon. In other words, its name wasn''t a part of the world''sws. So, the users of this staff wouldn''t have to yell out its true name when using it. They could even advertise a false name to others.


    In fact, there was a high possibility that nobody was aware that this staff''s true name was "I''ve Decided."


    Regardless, the Elven Staff was currently held in ce in the center of the hall by many green crystals. When Alice casually tried to draw the staff and found that it refused to budge, she guessed that the elves didn''t intend on releasing the weapon for now.


    Alice had also tried to touch the pile of green crystals, and the result she got was very simple.


    [Weapon: na Crystal Appreciated by the Elves]


    [Quality: Trash]


    [Effect: Mana +2]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Seeing that the green crystals had received a Garbage rating, Alice guessed they were only good as a paperweight. She could probably draw the staff from the crystals with some physical persuasion if she wanted to.


    However, Alice didn''t have any use for the staff for now. Not to mention, there was no saying if there was an rm set up on this staff. It''d be terrible if she alerted the entire elven vige after drawing this staff.


    <em>Looking at the additional effects, this staff doesn''t seem like it is carrying the Hero''s soul, either.</em>


    Alice frowned as she carefully scrutinized her surroundings. However, she was certain that she had already physically vited every object in the room. Yet, she still hadn''t found out where the Hero''s remnant soul was hiding.


    <em>That leaves me with only one possibility.</em>


    After thinking so, Alice looked down at the unconscious elf on the floor, her mind concluding that one of Filia''s possessions must be hiding the Hero''s remnant soul.

 Chapter 140: It Is People Like You Who Give Heroes a Bad Name

    Chapter 140: It Is People Like You Who Give Heroes a Bad Name


    As its name suggested, a remnant soul was only one part of aplete soul. Although a remnant soul would retain theplete soul''s personality and emotions, it would only hold a portion of theplete soul''s abilities and memories.


    There were many spells rted to remnant souls. However, as it was incredibly cruel to tear a person''s soul into pieces, most of these spells had been lost in time. In modern times, only books on magical knowledge would mention these spells from time to time.


    Of course, just because such spells no longer existed didn''t mean that they didn''t exist in the past. Meanwhile, the Seventh Hero''s era dated back over a thousand years ago. So, the Elven Hero might have possessed a magic that allowed him to segment his soul to create a remnant soul.


    Alice could also guess why the Seventh Hero had done such a painful thing to himself. It should be something simr to what one would see in some romance novels. The Elven Hero must''ve known that he couldn''t live for much longer, so he separated one part of his soul and attached it to a certain object, using this remnant soul to protect his girlfriend in his ce.


    Meanwhile, even after a Hero had died, he would still be one part of the world''sws. So, Filia, who received the Seventh Hero''s gaze, would receive blessings from the world to a certain degree, allowing her to avoid minor misfortunes and live her life peacefully.


    Of course, in front of Alice, the harbinger of disasters created by God, the minor luck the Seventh Hero''s remnant soul provided was practically negligible.


    Filia didn''t carry many things on her. Other than her clothes, the only other objects she had on her were:


    A very in hairpin.


    A silver ring.


    An inconspicuous longsword.


    Based on Alice''s previous spection, she naturally set her sights on the ring on Filia''s right pinky first. After all, when one talked about items rted to lovers, it would have to be rings, right?


    Although Alice felt that removing a person''s ring was rather rude, she still felt it necessary. Firstly, she wanted to talk to the Seventh Hero about the Demon King''s Power. Secondly, she wanted to ask the Seventh Hero to think about the big picture and not mind her action of knocking Filia unconscious.


    After all, a remnant soul might have lost a lot of its abilities and memories, but it functioned mainly the same as aplete soul. It could still perceive things happening in the outside world and analyze them.


    In other words, the Seventh Hero''s remnant soul had seen the entire process of Alice knocking Filia unconscious. If Alice didn''t think of a way to keep his mouth shut, Filia might find out that she was the one who knocked her unconscious after waking up.


    So, after muttering a soft apology, Alice reached out for the silver ring and removed it from Filia''s right pinky. Then, she gripped it in her right hand.


    No matter how small an object was, so long as Alice could wield it in her right hand, her right hand would recognize it as a weapon. Naturally, this silver ring was no exception.


    [Weapon: Hero Abels Custom-Made Silver Ring]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mana +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Alice was stunned. The ring''s weapon information was a <em>tad </em>bit different from what she imagined. Although an object housing a remnant soul definitely wouldn''t be as high-quality as Kristine''s Soul Gathering Tablet and Grant''s Radioactive Soul Stone, how could it be rated as Garbage?


    Moreover, the ring didn''t have any additional effects. In other words, this ring was truly nothing more than an ordinary silver ring, and it did not house a remnant soul. Thus, it didn''t have any use inbat, and her right hand had judged the ring as garbage.


    <em>This doesn''t make sense. Could it be that the remnant soul is hiding in Filia''s body and not in her possessions? </em>Alice frowned as she put back the silver ring on Filia''s right pinky, confusion coloring her face. <em>But that shouldn''t be the case. If the remnant soul is hiding in Filia''s body, it should''ve been shown in her weapon description.</em>


    The description of the Hero''s Gaze skill had clearly indicated that Filia was receiving the Hero''s attention. It did not state that the Hero''s remnant soul was inhabiting her body. In that case, this remnant soul must be attached to an external object on the elf''s body.


    After pondering for a moment, Alice reached out for Filia''s hairpin, gently removed it from the elf''s light-green hair, and held it in her right hand.


    [Weapon: Normal Wooden Hairpin]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mind +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    All were equal under Alice''s right hand. It didn''t matter whether an object was made of silver or wood. The object was garbage if it didn''t serve any practical purpose. Meanwhile, the wooden hairpin evidently did not house a remnant soul, either.


    Of course, there was also the possibility that the Hero named Abel had found some way to attach his soul to materials that couldn''t house souls originally. So, he didn''t require special items such as the Soul Gathering Tablet and Radioactive Soul Stone to house his remnant soul.


    However, so long as the Seventh Hero had hidden his soul inside an object, Alice believed that her right hand could find it.


    After returning Filia''s hairpin to its original position, Alice removed the longsword hanging by Filia''s side and unsheathed it from its scabbard. Then, she inspected both items with her right hand.


    [Weapon: Elven Guard Captain''s Longsword]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Strength +30, Control +30]


    [Additional Effect:


    Sword Edge (Passive Skill. Your swordsmanship proficiency is increased by 5%, and destructive power when using a sword is increased by 5%);


    Wind sh (Active Skill. Execute a sh with a tearing ability using the longsword and wind mana.)]


    The longsword''s stats were rather normal, and it looked like it was a mass-produced item. Seeing that it was of a simr quality to the magic robes the March Academy distributed to all of its students, it could be seen that the elves weren''t particrly wealthy. After all, this was the guard captain''s weapon they were talking about.


    [Weapon: Slightly Old Iron Scabbard]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    The scabbard was even more useless.


    This situation put Alice in a bind. These were all the items Alice could find on Filia, yet none of them housed the remnant soul she sought. In that case, where else could the remnant soul be hiding?


    While Alice was scratching her head, realization suddenly dawned upon her. Other than Filia''s ring, hairpin, sword, and scabbard, there were still other things that could be considered external items.


    <em>But there''s no way he would hide there of all ces, right?</em>


    Although doubtful, Alice still decided to verify her conjecture, removed Filia''s heavy armor, and touched every individual piece one after another.


    However, simr to the sword, every piece of armor was rated Fine, and none of them housed a remnant soul.


    Next, Alice skillfully liberated Filia of her panties, her skillfulness making it seem as if she had done it hundreds and thousands of times before. However, that wasn''t the case at all. She had only be so skilled at stripping the panties of others because several of the times she had done so was when she was in a life or death situation. Thus, her brain hadmitted those situations to memory, and she was able to achieve such skillful proficiency in the art of panty stripping.


    Meanwhile, after Alice wielded the white panties in her right hand, the underwear''s weapon information promptly appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Mind +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Purification de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that permanently liberates the target''s soul);


    Hero''s Remnant Soul (Passive Skill. This weapon that houses a Hero''s remnant soul will bring you courage in battle, giving you a small increase in your Mind stat and luck.)]

 Chapter 141: Shivering Anger

    Chapter 141: Shivering Anger


    "..."


    It was certainly outside of Alice''s expectations that the Hero Abel''s remnant soul would be lodging in Filia''s panties.


    Logically, those chosen by God to be the Hero were individuals with pure souls, such as Aird and Kristine. In Aird''s case, she had sacrificed a significant portion of her life to infiltrate the demon realm and climb up the ranks there to be a Heavenly King. In Kristine''s case, she had chosen to bind her soul with a stone tablet and endure loneliness for several hundred years so that she could warn future generations about Demon King Grant''s soul. Both Aird and Kristine were perfect examples of righteous people.


    Of course, Alice was an exception since she couldn''t be considered a Hero technically. Instead, she was a transmigrator who had relied on her right hand''s strange power to inadvertently gain God''s help and receive the identity of a Hero.


    Hence, Alice had always felt that she was the only Hero in history capable ofying their hands on another person''s panties without remorse.


    However, it would seem that Alice was mistaken. It would also seem that the Loli Goddess had been asleep when she chose the Seventh Hero. Either that, or the Seventh Demon King''s invasion had pressured the Loli Goddess into choosing a Hero quickly, and she ended up mistakenly selecting an Elven Hero with a panty fetish.


    "Are you still going to hide?" Alice asked in a threatening tone, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the white panty in her hand. "I''ve already found you. Otherwise, why do you think I would strip off her underwear?"


    Alice naturally wouldn''t speak politely to a bastard capable of hiding in his girlfriend''s panties. Although Alice had stripped, snatched, and confiscated many pairs of panties herself, she had only used those panties as weapons. However, the Seventh Hero had ced a remnant of his soul into his girlfriend''s panty and had her wear it Even Alice had difficulty epting this situation.


    However, the panty in Alice''s hand remained motionless. It would seem that the Seventh Hero intended to continue ying dead.


    "I know you''re inside. You don''t have to keep on hiding." Alice frowned as she looked at the white panty. Then, she continued, "I''m going to burn this panty if you don''te out. You might disappear once you lose your medium."


    Unfortunately, the white panty remained motionless. It would seem that the Seventh Hero would rather get burnt to death thane out and face social death.


    "Are you sure you''re noting out?"


    A dangerous glint shed in Alice''s eyes. The Seventh Hero must be thinking that shecked the means to do anything against him. Thus, after pondering for a moment, Alice reached into her panty-filled pouch with her left hand, pulled out a small storage box, and opened it.


    Subsequently, a loud thud echoed throughout the room as the Hero''s Sword fell out of the weapon storage and hit the wooden floor.


    "You should recognize the Hero''s Sword, right? You should understand what it means since it is in my hands now, right?"


    Currently, apart from Alice and the unconscious Filia, Hero Abel''s remnant soul was the only other person in this room. Hence, Alice wasn''t worried about pulling out the Hero''s Sword.


    "As a Hero, I simrly possess the potential to learn arge number of taboos. If I learn a taboo capable of drawing out remnant souls There will be no room for negotiations when that timees."


    Finally, the remnant soul in the white panty seemingly realized the severity of the situation after seeing the Hero''s Sword. It might be fine if Alice were to simply burn the panty. At the very least, nobody would know that the Seventh Hero''s remnant soul was hiding in a pair of panties.


    However, if Alice drew out <em>his </em>soul from the panty, no amount of words would be enough to defend <em>his </em>actions. Meanwhile, suffering social death was not something <em>he </em>wanted to experience after death.


    Subsequently, an invisible ripple of power spread from the white panty. Then, the translucent figure of a bitterly smiling elf floated out of the panty. However, because the soul inhabiting the panty wasn''t aplete soul, the elf''s figure was incredibly small, only slightly bigger than Alice''s palm.


    "Sorry. It''s kind of hard for me to face anyone under such circumstances," the Elven Hero Abel said to Alice with a helpless expression. "I thought it would be fine if I simply yed dead, but I didn''t think you would also be a Hero It seems I have no choice but to talk with you."


    "Mhm." Alice originally didn''t possess much goodwill toward the Elven Hero. However, when the other party appeared before her, she quickly noticed something was amiss. Then, after taking a closer look at Abel''s figure, Alice revealed a slightly strange expression as she asked, "You''re a woman?"


    "Hm? Were you not aware of it?" Abel was also stunned. She thought that Alice would''ve known that she was a female elf. "Although I''m not aware of the current gender ratio among Heroes the ratio between male and female was equal for the six Heroes before me. So, it shouldn''t be strange to see a female Hero, right? Not to mention, aren''t you a female Hero as well?"


    Indeed, the number of female Heroes that existed in the past was not small. Although Alice had read about many male Heroes in history books, all of the Heroes Alice had met in person thus far seemed to befemale Heroes.


    Whether it was the current Hero Aird, the previous generation''s Hero Kristine, or the Elven Hero Abel, all three were female.


    "But that''s not right. I heard that you''re this fellow''s boyfriend," Alice said as she looked toward Filia.


    There was no doubt that Abel was a female elf. The female features on her remnant soul were rather obvious. Apart from her feminine facial features, the protrusions on her chest could also prove her gender.


    However, ording to what Alice heard from Lalu, the Elven Hero should be Filia''s boyfriend.


    "<em>Cough</em>. I indeed share a boyfriend and girlfriend rtionship with Filia. That''s because of the atmosphere at the time You get me, right? Homosexual rtionships were frowned upon. It is especially so in a rigid race like the elven race," Abel said with an embarrassed expression. However, seeing that Alice was a human and that so many years had passed since her era, she felt it might be fine to talk about such a tricky topic now. "Hence, I dated Filia using a male identity While we couldn''t fool everyone, it would at least stop some people from pointing their fingers at us."


    Abel''s exnation made sense. People who lived over a thousand years ago would most likely have difficulty epting homosexual rtionships. It wasn''t until the inte appeared and opened up people''s thoughts that people around the world became more open toward such rtionships.


    Originally, had Abel been a man, Alice would''ve criticized <em>him </em>for hiding <em>his </em>remnant soul inside <em>his </em>girlfriend''s underwear. After all, <em>he </em>would be a perverted old bastard if <em>he </em>could stoop to such low heights.


    However, after learning that Abel was a woman, Alice''s disgust towards the Elven Hero''s actions lightened significantly. After all, Abel was an elven woman herself. If she was truly interested in women, she didn''t have to go out of her way to nt her remnant soul inside her girlfriend''s panties.


    "Then, why is your soul inside here?" Alice asked as she lifted the white panty. "I thought you would''ve hid in the ring."

 Chapter 142: Please Spare the Heros Sword

    Chapter 142: Please Spare the Hero''s Sword


    "There''s a reason for this."


    Abel looked incredibly embarrassed when speaking of this topic. She, too, knew that it didn''t look good for her to be hiding her remnant soul in her girlfriend''s panties. Then, she asked, "You are aware of how I became a Hero, right?"


    Alice nodded. She naturally knew about the Seventh Hero''s history. After all, she was currently pretending to be a Hero, so she naturally had to look into the history of past Heroes to use as reference.


    Meanwhile, the Seventh Hero''s designation fell into the ssic category of "being entrusted with an important duty during a critical moment."


    At the time, the Demon King and his army were already fast approaching the Elven Forest, intending to upy the forest and open a clear path leading to the human realm. Although the elves and humans had dispatched their armies to resist the Demon King''s army together, their armies were powerless against the Demon King.


    Meanwhile, Abel had be the Hero under such circumstances. As the Demon King had already reached maturity when she became the Hero, she didn''t have much time to enrich herself with knowledge. As a result, she had to constantly gamble with her life to fight and dy the Demon King''s advance while learning all sorts of taboos.


    Fortunately, the Seventh Demon King was a cowardly person, and he was always reluctant to let himself get hurt when fighting Abel. Because of this, Abel, despite bing the Hero for only a short period, was able to repeatedly push the Demon King back. In the final battle, she had even seeded in killing the Demon King.


    However, Abel had also died soon after killing the Demon King because she had exhausted all of her life force during her many fights with the Demon King.


    Honestly, if Alice didn''t catch Abel hiding in her girlfriend''s panties, she would''ve considered Abel to be the ideal Herobrave, decisive, and selfless.


    "In that case, you should also know that Heroes of every generation typically wouldn''t use their real names after bing the Hero, but a fictitious name instead. In fact, these fictitious names would often be their real names in the end," Abel said. "The reason they do so is because they are afraid that the demons would trace their names after the war and retaliate against them by harming their loved ones. After all, the life expectancy of demons is almost twice that of humans. No matter how powerful Heroes are, there is no way they can protect their offspring forever."


    Indeed, most Heroes recorded in history books weren''t actually using their real names. This was a preventive measure taken to avoid retaliation from the demons. Moreover, as time passed, people would forget the fact that the Heroes they knew were actually using pseudonyms, and they would eventually celebrate these Heroes'' false names as real. Take Kristine, for example. After so many years of using her fake name, Kristine had probably forgotten the name she used before she became a Hero already.


    "But what does this have to do with you leaving your remnant soul in underwear?"


    Although Alice had heard of Heroes using pseudonyms, she couldn''t understand what that had to do with Abel hiding her remnant soul inside her girlfriend''s underwear. Thus, she still looked at Abel with wary eyes.


    "As you know, my situation was rather special. When I became the Hero, the Demon King''s army had already begun its invasion of the Elven Forest," Abel said with a bitter smile. "I had to fight as soon as I awakened as the Hero, so I didn''t have time toe up with a fake name for myself. As a result, my real information quickly reached the demons, so they knew who was closest to me and who they should go after if they wanted to retaliate against me."


    "I see"


    Realization dawned on Alice. Then, she looked down at the unconscious elf on the floor.


    Elves did not reproduce like the average mammal. Instead, they were born from an altar inside a tree hole of the Tree of Nature. However, the birth rate was incredibly low, which was why the elven poption was pathetically small.


    Because of this, elves didn''t really have parents, and Abel''s rtivescould be said to be the entire elven race. However, it evidently wasn''t practical for the demons to annihte the elven race just to retaliate against Abel.


    Thus, if the demons were to try and take revenge against Abel, the object of their revenge would have to be Abel''s lover, Filia.


    "When I concluded my final battle with the Demon King, I could feel that my body was already near the brink of copse. After barely driving the rest of the demon army away, I realized that I might not make it back home," Abel said, sighing ruefully. "But if I died just like that, Filia would definitely face the demons'' assassination in the future Although Filia is by no means weak, it is still tough for her to be on guard against assassination attempts all the time. If the demons chose to assassinate Filia during her sleep, there is a high chance they would seed."


    "So, you chose to attach your soul onto an object on Filia''s body to protect her?" Looking at Abel curiously, Alice asked, "Why her panties, then? Wouldn''t her ring be better? Also, there''s one big problem Almost two thousand years have passed since your era. Don''t tell me she has never changed her panties even once this entire time?"


    "Since you''ve alreadye here to read the elven taboos, I guess it doesn''t matter even if I tell it to you now." Smiling, Abel said, "Among those taboos, you will find a rather unique taboo called Aspect Separation. Its function is to attach an object, or even a concept, to another ''concept.''"


    "I don''t get it."


    Alice shook her head. Although she had finished learning the basic knowledge of magic already, she still didn''t understand many profound magic terms. For the sake of understanding the taboo magic books she read, she had even downloaded an app called "Magic Dictionary" and used it to interpret key terms in the books she read.


    "You look rather young, so I guess it''s normal that you don''t understand. Based on human standards, you''ll learn about these things in your postgraduate studies," Abel said, nodding in understanding. "I''ll give you an example, then. Take my remnant soul, for example. I used a special magic to separate it from my main soul and transformed it into an object. Then, I attached my remnant soul to a ''concept.'' By doing so, my ''remnant soul'' and that ''concept'' would forever be tied together."


    Seeing that Alice still wore a confused look on her face, Abel exined in greater depth:


    "For example, if the ''concept'' I chose is a ''fan,'' then after I attached my remnant soul with the ''fan,'' all fans in the world would be host to my remnant soul in the future. Then, my remnant soul will be able to look around through all the fans that exist in the world. Do you get it now?"


    "I get it. In other words, so long as I try to influence a ''concept,'' all objects in this world that match this specific ''concept'' will be simrly influenced, right?" Alice asked as she looked at Abel. Then, realization suddenly hit her as she eximed, "Isn''t this taboo a little too powerful? If I chose to attach my soul to the ''nt'' concept, doesn''t that mean my soul can appear in every nt that exists in this world?"


    "That is possible, in theory. However, it is simply impossible to aplish such a thing in reality," Abel said, chuckling. "There are limits to what a taboo can aplish. In theory, it is possible to attach things to broad concepts such as nts, creatures, and rocks. However, the problem is that even us Heroes don''t have the mana required to fuel such feats."


    "I guess that makes sense. This taboo would be ridiculously powerful if it could influence such widespread concepts," Alice said after giving the matter some thought. "In that case, does that mean the concept you chose is ''the underwear Filia is wearing?''"


    Smiling awkwardly, Abel said, "I didn''t have a better choice. Firstly, ''the underwear Filia is wearing'' is a very small concept, and the mana I had was just barely enough to influence it. Secondly, I needed to attach myself to something Filia will constantly carry on her person to ensure she is safe at all times."


    Alice felt that Abel''s words made sense. If she had to point out something that a person would almost always carry on their person under normal circumstancesit would probably have to be their underwear. The only time when a person would have their underwear removed was when they were bathing.


    Of course, Filia''s ring would''ve also worked in this situation. However, Abel had probably been worried that Filia might store the ring away for the sake of "preserving Abel''s gift."


    "Wait, did you say that other than objects, you can also attach ''concepts'' to ''concepts?''"


    At this point, Alice had already understood that Abel didn''t attach her remnant soul to her girlfriend''s panties for the sake of satisfying her perverse desires. However, after listening to Abel''s exnation, she couldn''t help but grow curious about Aspect Separation''s effects.


    After moving Filia''s panties to her left hand and picking up the Hero''s Sword with her right hand, Alice curiously asked, "If I use Aspect Separation to attach the ''underwear'' concept to the Hero''s Sword, does it mean that the Hero''s Sword will be considered underwear in the future?"


    "???" (Insert Confused Nick Young.jpg)


    Abel was momentarily rendered speechless by Alice''s question. Then, after snapping out of her daze, she took a second to formte her thoughts before she replied in a somewhat confused tone, "T-Theoreticallythat is correct."

 Chapter 143: Stop Talking About the Heros Sword and Panties

    Chapter 143: Stop Talking About the Hero''s Sword and Panties


    After some more discussion with Abel, Alice roughly understood the abilities of the taboo known as Aspect Separation.


    In general, "concepts" could be categorized into big and small concepts. Examples of big concepts would be "nts" and "rocks." These concepts had a wide scope, and no normal person could use these concepts as targets for Aspect Separation. Even Heroes and Demon Kingscked the mana to do so.


    Meanwhile, examples of small concepts would be "Hero''s Sword" and "the underwear Filia is wearing." These concepts would typically point to only one object. Fortunately, while the mana required to use these concepts as targets for Aspect Separation would still be beyond the amount most people possessed, it was still within the capabilities of Heroes and Demon Kings.


    However, there was still a limit to Aspect Separation''s abilities, and there was a possibility that its effects might be broken. For example, should Filia suddenly gain some strange fetish and decide to wear 18 pairs of panties one day, her actions would instantly expand the scope of the "the underwear Filia is wearing" concept. When that happened, there was a high chance that Abel''s Aspect Separation would lose effect, and her soul would be expelled out of Filia''s panties.


    However, Filia evidently never did such a strange thing, so Abel''s soul remained safe and sound inside Filia''s panties even until now.


    "Don''t tell me you really intend on turning the Hero''s Sword into underwear?"


    After finishing her discussion with Alice, Abel noticed that Alice was still looking at the Hero''s Sword with a pondering look on her face, so she couldn''t help but grow worried. Although there were many instances of past Heroes opting not to use the Hero''s Sword after awakening as the Hero, it was still too absurd of a notion to attach the concept of "panties" onto the Hero''s Sword. While doing so wouldn''t actually turn the Hero''s Sword into a pair of panties, it would still cause others to think of panties whenever they saw the Hero''s Sword in the future.


    This was the power of attaching a "concept" to another "concept." On the other hand, Abel''s Aspect Separation was considered attaching an "object" to a "concept," so it wouldn''t have the effect of causing others to think of the Elven Hero whenever they saw Filia''s panties. However, if Alice really went through with her idea, there would be severe consequences.


    "Don''t worry. I was just joking," Alice said, chuckling. She naturally wouldn''t turn the Hero''s Sword into panties. After all, the Hero''s Sword was a Law-grade weapon. It provided much stronger bonuses than the average panties when wielded in her right hand. If she turned the Hero''s Sword''s concept into panties, there was a likely possibility that its stat bonuses might decrease.


    Not to mention, if she really added the "panties" concept to the Hero''s Sword, could she even bear to continue using it to fight in the future? After all, everyone would feel as if she were fighting with a pair of panties whenever she wielded the Hero''s Sword in the futurejust thinking about such a possibility gave her goosebumps.


    Just when Abel was feeling relieved, Alice suddenly asked, "What if I attach the Hero''s Sword''s concept to panties?"


    Meanwhile, when Abel heard Alice''s question, the only thought that came to her mind was whether she had made the right decision to exin Aspect Separation''s details to Alice. Why was this new Hero constantly thinking of messing with the Hero''s Sword?


    Although Abel no longer had all of her memories and abilities since she was only a remnant soul right now, her thoughts remained unchanged. So, she could still tell that this situation was abnormal.


    "You can give panties the Hero''s Sword''s concept, but there''s no point in doing so," Abel said, sighing. Then, she looked at Alice and wholeheartedly advised, "Simply imparting a concept to an object wouldn''t change the object''s abilities or appearance. Moreover, while others would think of the Hero''s Sword whenever they see panties, the ''panties'' concept would remain the dominant concept for panties. Aspect Separation will only attach one concept to another, not rece it."


    "That''s true."


    Alice nodded. In reality, what she wanted to know was whether imparting the "Hero''s Sword" concept onto an object would trick her right hand into thinking that said object was the Hero''s Sword. For example, if she attached the "Hero''s Sword" concept to the "the rock Alice is holding" concept, she might be able to gain the Hero''s Sword''s stat bonuses even if she was merely holding a simple rock.


    Although the likelihood of sess was low, Alice felt that she could give it a try afterward. After all, what if she seeded?


    "Anyway, now you should know why my remnant soul is in Filia''s underwear, right?" Abel asked in a tired voice. She had to repeatedly talk about panties in order to exin to Alice that she wasn''t a pervert. She had talked about panties so much that she could feel her face burning up.


    Abel was an elf from nearly two thousand years ago. The inte did not exist yet during that era. She had also never lived in the human realm like Lalu. So, her thoughts were naturally conservative. If she wasn''t afraid that Alice would spread her embarrassing actions to others, she wouldn''t have been willing to discuss such a shameful topic with Alice.


    "I understand." Alice nodded, more or less understanding Abel''s thought process. "In that case, I won''t tell others about you hiding in Filia''s underwear. But in exchange, you can''t tell Filia or anyone else that I snuck into the Nature Shrine, either."


    "That won''t be a problem. I am also a Hero, so I know the importance of learning arge number of taboos for a Hero," Abel said, readily agreeing to Alice''s request. "But why did you have to sneak into this ce? So long as you reveal your identity as the Hero to the vige council, they should be more than willing to let you learn the taboos here. The elven vige will also get involved if the demons decide to invade the human realm, so there''s no way the council will ignore your request."


    "That''s because the demons have grown smarter," Alice said, shrugging. "The reason past Heroes dared to expose their identities is because the demons have always underestimated the undeveloped Hero and would only send ordinary demons to assassinate the Hero. By the time the demons notice the severity of the problem, the Hero would''ve already grown up."

 Chapter 144: Perhaps This is the Hero

    Chapter 144: Perhaps This is the Hero


    "That was indeed the case All of the Heroes before me had indeed honed their skills through fighting off the assassins the demons sent after them, and only my case was a little special," Abel said, expressing her understanding. "What about now?"


    "Now, the demons have realized that they need to take even the undeveloped Hero seriously. So, two days after I drew the Hero''s sword, the demon realm was already prepared to send the Four Heavenly Kings after me," Alice said. Then, after seeing the look of confusion on Abel''s face changing into one of realization, she continued, "Get it now? Before I develop my mana pool and repertoire of taboos sufficiently, I cannot recklessly expose my identity as the Hero."


    "I see. If that''s the case, I can understand why you would take such covert actions," Abel said in realization. As someone who got selected to be the Hero at a critical moment, she had to fight the demons before she had time to develop herself fully. Thus, she was well aware that should the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings target an undeveloped Hero, there was a high chance that they would seed.


    Had the Demon King she faced back then not been a coward and kept missing out on excellent opportunities, the demon army might have killed her before she managed to grow.


    "Since that is the case, let me help you learn these taboos, then," Abel said, patting herself on the chest and volunteering herself to help after learning of Alice''s situation. "I might have lost some of my memories after bing a remnant soul, but I still remember the seven taboos unique to my race."


    <em>Seven? </em>Alice was momentarily stunned. Then, she looked at the magic books scattered across the floor and asked, "But there are eleven here?"


    "Eleven?" Abel was also stunned. Then, after looking at the books on the floor, she quickly came to a realization and said, "I see. They must''ve developed four more after I died It doesn''t matter. I can still help you learn seven of them at the very least."


    "But I can''t stay here all the time. I am here on a school trip with others from my magic academy," Alice said. "So, if you want to help me learn these taboos, you might have to follow me."


    "That naturally won''t be a problem," Abel said without hesitation. However, as soon as she finished speaking, she quickly realized a problem. She was a remnant soul attached to Filia''s panties. Currently, the pair of panties she was attached to had just been removed from Filia''s body, so it still retained the concept of "the underwear Filia is wearing." However, if Alice took this pair of panties away, it would quickly detach itself from that concept. When that happened, her remnant soul would no longer be able to remain attached to the panties.


    "Get it now? You can''t leave Filia''s underwear," Alice said as she put the pair of white panties back on Filia''s bottom. Then, she looked at Abel''s remnant soul hovering above Filia''s bottom and continued, "But it''s fine. I''ll be spending most of my time studying taboos here the next few days, so you just need to teach me during these times."


    "I guess that''s our only choice."


    Abel couldn''t help but get the feeling that Alice sounded like she was gloating when she said the words: "You can''t leave Filia''s underwear." However, as she didn''t have any evidence, she could do nothing about it.


    "By the way, I get the feeling that you don''t feel particrly surprised to see a former Hero''s remnant soul," Abel said, voicing one of the questions that had been guing her for some time now.


    "That''s because I met another Hero''s soul some time ago. I even brought her with me," Alice said, chuckling when she saw Abel''s confused look. Honestly, though, she wasn''t surprised even when she saw Kristine''s soul. The only time she was truly surprised to see a soul was when she came across Grant''s soul. "I''ll bring her here tomorrow so you two can have a chat."


    "You sure know a lot of Heroes," Abelmented. "You might be the only human to have met so many Heroes before. The average human lifespan isn''t enough to let a human meet two consecutive generations'' of Heroes. The likelihood of meeting a Hero''s soul is also close to zero."


    "My case is a little special."


    In reality, Alice wanted to tell Abel that she had also met with two Demon Kings. Moreover, she had even defeated one and turned the other into her maid. However, it would only cause misunderstandings and raise questions unnecessarily, so she decided to keep her mouth shut on this matter.


    "You finally decided toe back?" Zauna said in a huff when she saw Alice returning to their room. It was one in the afternoon already, which was one hour past the time they agreed to have lunch together. "The food''s all cold already."


    "Sorry, sorry. I came across an unexpected situation," Alice said as she put her hands together and made an apologetic action. Then, she quickly took a seat at the dining table and began stuffing herself with the food Luna made, her behavior making her look nothing like a dignified princess.


    "What happened?" Lalu asked in a surprised tone when she heard Alice''s words. At the same time, an inexplicable feeling of excitement and regret appeared within her. She was excited that something unexpected had happened and regretful that she wasn''t present when this unexpected situation happened. "Did Filia wake up?"


    "No. I said she would sleep for a week, so she won''t wake up before that time is up."


    Alice was incredibly confident in the effects of the taboo she cast. Even Abel''s remnant soul wouldn''t be able to remove those effects for Filia. After all, a remnant soul didn''t have a source of mana. Moreover, a remnant soul''s abilities were much more limited than aplete soul. So, even if Abel had a mana source, she would probably be helpless against the Curse of Delusion.


    Meanwhile, after hearing Lalu''s question, Alice wondered whether she should tell Zauna and Lalu about Abel''s matter. However, after thinking it over, she felt that there wasn''t any specific need to hide the existence of Abel''s remnant soul. Thus, she said, "But I did find the Seventh Hero''s remnant soul on Filia''s body and talked with her for a while."


    Zauna spat out some of the soup she had just drunk when she heard Alice''s words. Then, after hurriedly wiping her mouth and swallowing the rest of the soup in her mouth, she looked at Alice and asked, "What did you say?! The Seventh Hero''s remnant soul? Are you talking about the Elven Hero Abel?"


    "Yes, it''s her." Alice nodded. "She''s a surprisingly nice person. She even agreed to teach me the elves'' taboos. Anyway, with her help, I should be able to learn the elves'' taboos much more quickly."


    "You really have an interesting life," Zauna said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Staying by Alice''s side felt like being inside a story. She could always hear unbelievable things when she was with Alice.


    Perhaps this was what it meant to be a Hero.


    In the past, whenever Zauna heard stories about the Hero, she would always find that the Heroes lived unrealistic lives. However, after befriending an actual Hero, she realized that these unrealistic situations might be nothing more than a daily urrence for the Hero.

 Chapter 145: The Elves Standpoint

    Chapter 145: The Elves'' Standpoint


    While everything on Alice''s side was progressing smoothly, things weren''t going as well on the elven council''s side. Currently, the elven elders were in distress, and the cause of it was Alice.


    "A message came from the demons," the patriarch, an elderly elf sitting at the head of the meeting room, said with a long face. Then, after sweeping a nce across the six elven elders sitting around the meeting table, he continued, "They want a Seed of Nature from us."


    As the patriarch had expected, as soon as he made his announcement, a cacophony of noise ensued in the meeting room. Although there were only seven elves in the room, their heated debate made the room sound like a noisy marketce.


    However, despite the noise, the patriarch could still make out the thoughts of the six elders. Basically, all six elders were unanimously against the demons'' demand, which was an expected oue.


    The demons had been continuously waging war against the human realm since over ten thousand years ago. Meanwhile, other than the dragon race that lived in the distant Dragon Mountain Range, the demons had involved every other race in their war against the human realm.


    It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that the demon race was responsible for every major conflict that had urred in this world during the past ten thousand years. So, there was no way the elves would be willing to offer the demons one of their national treasures.


    "But the problem is thatthe demons seem unusually insistent on getting the Seed of Nature this time," Patriarch Elway said after seeing the elders'' heated discussion calming down. "It seems they''ve expected us to refuse their demand, so they stated that if we refuse toply, the demon army will surround the Elven Forest tomorrow"


    Unlike before, the elders no longer made any noise when they heard Patriarch Elway''s words this time. Instead, all of them fell silent unanimously.


    Everyone present was aware of how powerful the demon army was. This wasn''t simply knowledge they had derived through analytical data. Instead, it was knowledge they had gained through personal experience. After all, everyone present was either over a thousand years old or close to reaching a thousand years old, and every one of them had experienced at least three demon invasions so far. Three of them even belonged to the same generation as the Seventh Hero.


    So, they were fully aware of what the demon army was capable of. Even if they excluded the Demon King and Hero, the elves only had Fithalia capable of matching the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings.


    In other words, so long as the demon army had two Heavenly Kings, the elves would face a one-sided massacre.


    "Then It seems our only option is to give it to them?" an elder asked.


    Although it sounded cowardly, this was their only way to avoid a massacre. After all, they couldn''t possibly let their race get ughtered simply because they refused to part with a Seed of Nature, right?


    "The demons have learned a lot from human civilization, so they are no longer a purely barbaric race like before. I believe they should be sending their army only as a threat rather than to start an actual war," Elway said, trying to be optimistic. However, he let out a helpless sigh the next moment and continued, "But even if that is the case, we don''t know what the demons will do if we refuse to give them the Seed of Nature."


    After determining that their only way out of this situation was to make concessions, an elven elder asked, "How many Seeds of Nature do we have left, Patriarch?"


    "We only have three left. It should be a few more decades before the next batch of seeds is ready," Elway answered.


    "A few decades, huh Not very long, then."


    The elders'' mood brightened up a little. If they only had to wait for a few decades to acquire more Seeds of Nature, it wouldn''t hurt to give one away.


    "Then Should we give one away?" another elder suggested.


    "But Lalu previously contacted us saying that the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess also needs a Seed of Nature," Elway said, bringing forth another problem. "I had initially considered agreeing to her request, but if we agree to both the princess''s and the demons'' requests, we''ll only have one Seed of Nature for our use."


    The Seed of Nature was an important resource crucial in assisting talented elves in cultivating their mana and improving the Elven Forest''s environment. It was also essential in mana-based research.


    If they had two Seeds of Nature, the seeds shouldst them until the next fruiting season. However, if they only had one seed at their disposal, they would most likely exhaust it long before the next batch of seeds was ready. If that happened, the development of elves would fall into a period of stagnation.


    "This isindeed a problem."


    This problem also stumped the elders. Although the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess might not seem as big a threat as the entire demon race, the elves shared friendly rtions with the various human kingdoms. Moreover, while the elves treated the Seeds of Nature as national treasures, they weren''t items that couldn''t be given away.


    If there had never been any precedent of the elves giving away any of their Seeds of Nature, they could naturally refuse the Gryffin Princess''s request without worrying about any repercussions. However, the problem was that there had indeed been precedences where the elves had given away Seeds of Nature as signs of friendship. So, if the elves refused the Gryffin Princess''s request now, there was a high possibility that this situation would develop into a diplomatic crisis.


    Times have changed. Although the elves were still conservative in their thoughts, they had gradually begun to conform to the changing times and consider friendly rtions with other races and nations.


    "Why don''t we tell the truth to the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess and have her stop the demons for us?" an elder suggested. "The demons might dare to threaten us, but they would probably hesitate if their opponent bes the Gryffin Kingdom. That way, we''ll only have to give a seed to the princess."


    "If you so tantly use the Gryffin Kingdom as cannon fodder, you might as well reject their request directly," another elder said, refuting the suggestion immediately. "If we follow your suggestion, we''d be making enemies out of the Gryffin Kingdom and the demons simultaneously."


    "In that case, we''ll pick out two Seeds of Nature and give one to the demons and one to the Gryffin Princess," Patriarch Elway said after seeing that the elders had nothing more to say. "Although it is unlikely we canst until the next fruiting season with only one seed, we have no choice but to use it sparingly. At worst, we''ll just face a decade or two of stagnated development. We can also consider introducing human technology into the vige to fill this period of stagnation."


    "Agreed."

 Chapter 146: Bullying Honest People

    Chapter 146: Bullying Honest People


    "What did you say? The elves agreed to give us a Seed of Nature???"


    On the same night the elven council made the decision to give the demons a Seed of Nature, Alice received a call from Heris reporting to her about the elves'' decision. However, the information Heris conveyed was obviously very different from what Alice expected.


    Originally, Alice thought that with the enmity the elves held toward the demons, there was no way the elves would agree to the demons'' demand for a Seed of Nature. Meanwhile, the demon army could surround the Elven Forest without attracting anyone''s suspicion so long as the elves refused to hand over the Seed of Nature. Alice could also utilize this opportunity to spend a few more days in the elven vige and learn all of the elves'' unique taboos.


    Afterward, all she needed to do to resolve this conflict between the demons and elves was to have the "Demon King" take action and publicly express that she was the one seeking to acquire a Seed of Nature. In that case, the "Demon King" would be the focus of this conflict. While the demons would still end up attracting some hatred from the elves, the "Demon King" would be shouldering the brunt of the elves'' hatred.


    But What Alice did not expect was for the elves to willingly hand over a Seed of Nature What was up with this situation?


    "We''re not sure about this situation, either. We, too, thought that the elves would refuse our demands initially."


    Heris was also confused by this situation. She knew that the elves were a stubborn bunch. Moreover, due to the history between the elves and the demons, the elves had a very terrible opinion of the demons. So, logically, the elves should have outright refused the demons'' absurd demand for a Seed of Nature.


    However, while the elven patriarch had indeed refused to cooperate initially, after Heris gave him a cursory warning, the other party quickly wimped out. After holding a meeting for around half an hour, the elven patriarch had responded to Heris, saying that the elves were willing to give a Seed of Nature to the demons.


    Honestly, even man and the other Heavenly Kings were dumbfounded by this oue, let alone Heris and Alice. They even suspected that the elven patriarch and elders might have been hit with some kind of curse that lowered their intelligence.


    <em>This isdifficult</em>


    Alice, who currently stood in a remote grove, scratched her head. Because it was alreadyte at night, the disciplined elves had mostly returned to their homes already. So, no other people were present in this part of the forest. It was also for this reason that Alice had chosen to answer Heris''s call here.


    <em>Although we can forcibly send the army still, doing so will unnecessarily create a bad image for the demons. The elves'' hatred for the demons will also worsen. Moreover, the elves might also realize that the demons might only be using the Seed of Nature as a cover for a greater purpose.</em>


    Although it was unlikely that the elves would figure out the demons were only surrounding the Elven Forest to prolong the March Academy''s field trip, it would still create the misunderstanding that the demons might be plotting a grand scheme. This, in turn, would also worsen the demons'' image and create unnecessary fear.


    After pondering for a moment, Alice asked Heris through the phone, "Did you state the quantity when you were asking for the Seed of Nature?"


    "Huh?" Heris was momentarily stunned when she heard Alice''s words. Then, after pondering for a moment, she answered, "I didn''t. The Seed of Nature''s importance to the elves goes without saying, so even if they were to give it away, they would only give one away. There has never been a precedent where the elves have given multiple Seeds of Nature to one particr country, so I didn''t specify the quantity. But they should be giving us one seed only."


    "That settles it, then." Alice nodded despite Heris not being able to see her actions. "Tell the elven patriarch that the demons have received his sincerity and that you''ll be sending people to retrieve four Seeds of Nature from the elves tomorrow."


    Heris never thought that someone could be so shameless. However, after thinking about it, Alice was going to be the Demon King. Meanwhile, none of the past Demon Kings were good people. Moreover,pared to the heinous actions of the past Demon Kings, Alice''s shameless action was insignificant. "I understand But what if they really decide to give us four seeds?"


    "Don''t worry. That won''t be possible," Alice said, chuckling. Outsiders might not know how many Seeds of Nature the elves currently had, but Alice had a loli insider revealing all of the elves'' secrets to her. So, she knew that the elves only had three Seeds of Nature right now. The elves couldn''t hand over four seeds even if they wanted.


    Of course, if the elves had a fourth Seed of Nature hidden and decided to hand it over as well, Alice had no choice but to admit defeat and figure out another way to learn the elves'' taboos in the future.


    <em>It''s a pity the power armor is too clunky. Otherwise, I could''ve just shown up in it and asked to read the elves'' taboos directly.</em>


    After hanging up the call, Alice touched the pendant on her neck and sighed. Although the power armor could help her disguise as the Hero, it could, at most, let her cast taboos while standing in ce. So long as she interacted with others at a close distance, others would easily notice the stiffness of the power armor''s movements and grow suspicious.


    Although Alice felt a little guilty for messing with the elves like this, the elves wouldn''t suffer any actual losses at the end of it all. After all, once the "Hero" and the "Demon King" intervened, this conflict would end with the demons leaving empty-handed.


    If the elves failed to notice anything strange, they might even thank her for "saving" them.


    After putting her phone away, Alice decided to return to her room. However, before leaving, she pulled out a pair of ck panties from her pocket and held it in her right hand. Then, using the mana the panties provided, she cast Mind Search.


    Mind Search was a simple spell she heard recently learned in school. When cast, the spell would scan for all living creatures within a specific area, the search radius dependant on the user''s Mana and Mind stats. Alice had also used this spell on this deserted grove before answering Heris''s call.


    Meanwhile, with her significantly boosted Mana and Mind stats, Alice could effortlessly envelop the entire Elven Forest with her Mind Search, let alone a small part of it. She could even see the Milu Rabbit burrows underground.


    However, unlike when she first visited this deserted grove, Alice received a different result when she used Mind Search this time.

 Chapter 147: Milu Rabbit Going on a Rampage

    Chapter 147: Milu Rabbit Going on a Rampage


    Alice had also used Mind Search when she arrived at this grove. However, as she was in a hurry to answer Heris''s call at the time, she only did a cursory scan to make sure that there were no people or listening devices nearby.


    Meanwhile, after ending her call with Heris, Alice focused on using her Mind Search this time. So, she had managed to obtain slightly different results this time.


    The Elven Forest was massive. The elven vige might be situated inside the forest, but it upied only a small part of the central region. The rest of the forest was upied by various species of magical creatures.


    Meanwhile, when Alice expanded her Mind Search underground, she found a family of Milu Rabbits living beneath her. Moreover, probably because they shared simr traits as rabbits, these Milu Rabbits had created awork of burrows that led to various parts of the forest.


    However, Alice wasn''t here to admire theplexity of the rabbit warren. ording to her Mind Search''s feedback, she found an interesting object inside the warren.


    Unfortunately, Mind Search was only a simple spell with a detection function. It didn''t have an observation function, so the only information she acquired was that this peculiarity was a small, oval object capable of producing mana.


    <em>Did the Milu Rabbits pick it up and bring it back to their warren by ident?</em>


    Because Alice had a Milu Rabbit as a pet, she had gone out of her way to research the habits of Milu Rabbits online. However, none of the information she found mentioned that one could find such a peculiar object in the warren of Milu Rabbits. So, Alice suspected that the object was something these wild Milu Rabbits had picked up from the outside world.


    However, the burrows leading to the warren were very small, and they definitely couldn''t fit a human. So, after giving the matter some thought, Alice untied the Milu Rabbit hanging off her waist.


    She was going to use Milu Rabbit to fight Milu Rabbits!


    After approaching the nearest burrow, Alice gave the unconscious Milu Rabbit a few taps on its head, waking it up.


    Meanwhile, after the unconscious Milu Rabbit regained consciousness, it quickly noticed that Alice was crouching down and looking at it. Startled by this situation, it promptly tried to find something to knock itself unconscious with.


    However, Alice had already expected this to happen, so when she crouched down, she had also put her right foot on the Milu Rabbit''s long, bushy tail, preventing it from running away.


    "My dear Milu Rabbit, I need you to find something for me."


    After saying so, Alice extended her right hand and used mana to draw a palm-sized oval-shaped object. She also tried to mimic the object''s mana fluctuations as much as possible.


    Although there would undoubtedly be differences between her drawing and the object inside the warren, it was fine so long as she could convey her point to the Milu Rabbit. After all, no other objects in the warren resembled her mana drawing.


    <em>Speaking of which, having anguage barrier is indeed very troublesome. I wonder if the Milu Rabbit understands what I''m saying?</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but sigh when she looked at the Milu Rabbit that was still struggling to run away. Although she had drawn a replica of the object using mana, she wasn''t sure if the Milu Rabbit could understand what she was trying to get it to do.


    It would''ve been great if she knew how to speak thenguage of the Milu Rabbits. In that case, it would be much easier for her to convey her thoughts to her Milu Rabbit. Unfortunately, talking with beasts was still a challenging topic for this world, and nobody had yet to invent a spell that allowed people to converse with beasts.


    Although there existed a beast tamer upation, the beasts these beast tamers tamed typically possessed high intelligence, and they could more or less understand human words. Either that or these beast tamers would use specific mana fluctuations tomand beasts.


    Unfortunately, Milu Rabbits were creatures with pitifully small brains. They were anything but intelligent. While they could still be trained to follow simple mana fluctuations, that required a long training period, and Alice didn''t have the spare time to do that.


    "Whatever. Let''s hope you don''t disappoint me," Alice said as she rubbed the struggling Milu Rabbit''s head. Then, she added, "I''ll give you a name if you bring back what I want."


    After saying so, Alice removed her foot that was stepping on the Milu Rabbit''s tail. Then, when the Milu Rabbit sensed that it was free, it promptly charged into the burrow located directly before it.


    Meanwhile, Alice cast another Mind Search and followed her Milu Rabbit''s tracks. Although the Milu Rabbit was undoubtedly searching for something to knock itself unconscious right now, the burrows were built using soft soil. So, the Milu Rabbit couldn''t knock itself unconscious using the burrow walls even if it wanted to.


    Failing to find any hard objects, the Milu Rabbit started to grow anxious. After running about in the interconnecting burrows for some time, it eventually reached the warren and came across the object Alice wanted it to bring out.


    After arriving inside the warren, the Milu Rabbit also took notice of the object in question. The object looked somewhat simr to the drawing Alice had shown it previously, so it couldn''t help but stop and hesitate for a moment as it looked at the object. Eventually, though, it chose to pick up the object with its mouth and ran into another burrow.


    During its journey across thework of burrows, Alice''s Milu Rabbit came across others of its kind. However, there was a fundamental difference between Alice''s Milu Rabbit and the wild Milu Rabbits. Compared to Alice''s Milu Rabbit, the wild ones had much weaker heads. So, Alice''s Milu Rabbits easily knocked the wild Milu Rabbits unconscious without losing consciousness itself.


    With its desires unfulfilled, Alice''s Milu Rabbit continued rampaging around the burrows until it finally charged out of an exit. Then, it charged headfirst into arge tree, creating dense cracks on the tree trunk before finally losing consciousness with a peaceful expression on its face.

 Chapter 148: Just a Touch

    Chapter 148: Just a Touch


    "Beautifully done." Alice walked up to the unconscious Milu Rabbit and picked it up by the ears. Then, after tying it back to her waist, she said, "I promise I''ll name you next time."


    After saying so, Alice shifted her attention to the object the Milu Rabbit brought back. Simr to her initial expectations, the object was oval-shaped and roughly the size of her palm. It also had a pitted surface, and it looked very much like a huge walnut.


    Although the object didn''t look like anything special, Alice could feel that this walnut-like thing was producing mana, simr to how nts produced oxygen through photosynthesis. No matter how she looked at it, this was a very strange walnut. However, even if she couldn''t discern its identity and origins, she would know everything after giving it just a touch with her right hand.


    Gently, Alice pried the walnut out of the Milu Rabbit''s mouth. Although this walnut had been taken out from a rabbit warren, no dirt stained it. It didn''t even have a strange smell. On the contrary, it radiated a subtle fragrance.


    [Weapon: Seed of Nature]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Mind +1000, Control +1000, Mana +1000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Nature''s Glow (Passive Skill. You can create mana by absorbing carbon dioxide. Your lung capacity is greatly increased);


    Nature''s Benediction (Passive Skill. You can create the nutrition your body needs by absorbing natural light. Your ability to sense mana is greatly increased);


    Forest''s Affection (Passive Skill. Your mana capacity is doubled when you are in a forest. Your enemies will be subjected to the Forest''s Ancestral Curse when present in a forest.)]


    <em>So this is the Seed of Nature?</em>


    Initially, Alice had wanted to crack this walnut-like object open to see what was inside. However, she didn''t expect this seemingly unattractive thing was actually a Seed of Nature, an item the elves treated as a national treasure.


    <em>But why would a Seed of Nature appear in the Milu Rabbits'' warren?</em> Alice wondered while scratching her head. Then, she quickly concluded that the elves must''ve identally misced a Seed of Nature at some point, and these wild Milu Rabbits had picked it up and brought it back to their warren.


    Although the Seed of Nature had many uses, the Milu Rabbits, with their tiny brains, evidently didn''t know how to make use of it. Hence, this Seed of Nature had remained in the Milu Rabbits'' warren in its original state until Alice discovered it and had her unnamed Milu Rabbit retrieve it for her.


    <em>It doesn''t seem as special as I thought.</em>


    Alice fell into thought as she looked at the Seed of Nature in her hand. In her opinion, the Seed of Nature''s additional effects didn''t seem particrly exceptional.


    However, Alice quickly shook her head and dismissed her thoughts. The Seed of Nature might not have mind-blowing abilities, but it could serve as excellent research material. By researching its abilities, one could potentially derive new magic forms and principles that could aid in the development of technology.


    Not to mention, other than having a high research value, the Seed of Nature might also have a vital role in special processes. One example Alice could think of would be the reconstruction of Kristine''s body. That was the main reason Alice had sought to acquire a Seed of Nature in the first ce.


    <em>Well, whatever. There''s no point mulling over this unexpected windfall.</em>


    Originally, Alice had still been worried that the elves might not agree to her request to give her a Seed of Nature. However, it didn''t matter even if the elves refused her request now. She already had everything she needed to reconstruct Kristine''s body. All she needed to do now was return to the Gryffin Kingdom and get Hatter to find her an alchemist.


    Alchemists were regarded as high-end technical personnel in every human kingdom. They specialized in the research and development of new magic technology. Normally, it''d be incredibly difficult to get the help of a skilled alchemist, but it should be a piece of cake for the Gryffin King.


    Initially, Alice had nned to return to her room and rest for the night after ending her call with Heris. After all, the demons would be surrounding the Elven Forest tomorrow.


    However, after obtaining a Seed of Nature and seeing its properties, Alice couldn''t help but have the urge to check out the situation atop the Tree of Nature. After all, ording to Lalu''s statement, the Seeds of Nature didn''t appear in the form of seeds directly. Instead, it was found inside the fruit that grew on the Tree of Nature.


    Only those fruits would disappear the moment they leave the branches of the Tree of Nature, leaving only the Seeds of Nature behind. Thus, even until now, the elves have not figured out the role those fruits yed. They simply treated it as if the fruits never existed.


    Since the demons would be surrounding the Elven Forest tomorrow, the elves were bound to tighten security around the vige. At that time, Alice would no longer have an opportunity to snoop around the elven vige at night undetected.


    In that case, she might as well take advantage of the elves'' lowered guard and satisfy her urges now.


    After stuffing the Seed of Nature into her pouch and filling it to the brim, Alice made her way back to the elven vige. Although the elves would notice that there was something in Alice''s pouch capable of producing mana if they used Mind Search on her, it was an incredibly rude gesture to use Mind Search on someone without their permission. The act of doing so was as rude as stripping someone''s panties without permission. Hence, the likelihood of the elves using Mind Search on Alice was low, which was why Alice dared to bring the Seed of Nature back with her.


    Moreover, it was already veryte at night, and the disciplined elves had long since gone home to sleep. Other than the two guards on duty outside the elven vige''s entrance, no other people were walking around in the vige. Even the March Academy''s students had retired to their rooms since there wasn''t anything interesting to do in the elven vige at night.


    Meanwhile, after sneaking back into the vige, Alice stopped by the towering Tree of Nature that stood in the middle of the vige.


    <em>The Tree of Nature''s fruits cannot be harvested before they ripen. Otherwise, both the fruit and the seed will disappear, </em>Alice thought as she recalled Lalu''s words. <em>But it should be fine if I only touch the fruit with my right hand without plucking it, right?</em>

 Chapter 149: Tasty Alice

    Chapter 149: Tasty Alice


    Flight was a rtively simple spell that only required a small amount of affinity for wind mana. Hence, Alice had naturally learned it during this period.


    After all, the ability to fly could be incredibly useful in many ces. Alice no longerckedbat methods now, so other than the times when she was busy learning taboos, she would spend the rest of her time learning support magic.


    However, the Gryffin Kingdom ced restrictions on magic such as Flight, and many ces had mana rms that would go off when residents used Flight. Otherwise, it would create a lot of disturbances if everyone was flying about in the air.


    Of course, the restrictions were only effective in the Gryffin Kingdom''s cities. The elven vige obviously didn''t have such restrictions in ce.


    Firstly, the elven poption was rather small, so it wouldn''t create a chaotic situation even if every elf decided to use Flight simultaneously.


    Secondly, thews the elves followed remainedrgely unchanged over the years due to the elves'' resistance toward change. So, no newws against flight magic were implemented, and Alice could use Flight without worrying about triggering any rms. There also wouldn''t be any policeing over to warn her.


    Meanwhile, after reaching a high altitude, Alice cast Temperature Regtion and Oxygen Production to maintain her body temperature and satisfy her breathing requirements. She had also extended a hand into her pouch and randomly pulled out a pair of white panties to give her a boost to her mana pool.


    Although Alice possessed simr talents as the Hero, she had only started learning magic for a month. So, while the size of her mana pool might have surpassed most high schoolers her age, the difference wasn''t significant.


    Meanwhile, Flight was a spell that consumed a lot of mana to maintain, probably because it had to fight against gravity. Hence, by the time Alice reached the clouds, her mana pool was already close to depleting, and she had no choice but to refill it.


    Although the burst of white light that came from the panties was quite blinding, Alice had already flown quite some distance from the ground. So, the light wouldn''t attract any attention from the elven vige. Meanwhile, the addition of several thousand points in her Mana stat instantly flooded Alice''s body with a frightening amount of mana. With this much mana, Alice could fly for several days without rest.


    The Tree of Nature was incrediblyrge. While the size of its tree trunk might seem small in proportion to its towering height, the tree trunk still upied half of the elven vige. So, Alice had to fly around the treetop for some time before she finally found a fruit that still looked green and unripe.


    The fruit grew on an incrediblyrge tree branch. How big exactly was this branch? When Alicended on the branch, she could nt both her feet down and stand steadily on it.


    One could say that the thickness of this branch was roughly simr to the tree trunk of the averagerge tree. Alice wouldn''t have to worry about breaking it at all when she stood on it.


    Meanwhile, growing on thisrge tree branch was a green and spherical fruit. The fruit wasn''t particrlyrgepared to the branch it grew on, and it was roughly the size of an average watermelon in Alice''s memories.


    <em>So, this is the Tree of Nature''s fruit? For such arge tree, its fruit is surprisingly small. I thought the fruit would be at least as big as a person, </em>Alice thought as she crouched down to look at the green fruit. She had originally wanted to sit down on the branch, but the presence of clouds had caused the branch''s surface to be a little wet. So, between straining her leg muscles and getting her panties wet, she chose the former.


    Afterward, Alice tapped the fruit with her knuckles and found it was rather solid, just like Lalu mentioned. Although she couldn''t tell how hard it was exactly, judging by the feedback she got through her knuckles, it''d probably be impossible for the average person to bite into it.


    <em>Let''s see what abilities you have.</em>


    Although Alice was tempted to pluck the fruit and see how it disappeared out of thin air, the Seed of Nature was an important treasure for the elves. After picking up a free Seed of Nature and having the demons threaten the elves, Alice already felt plenty guilty to the elves. God would probably punish her if she carried out any more injustice against the elves.


    Or maybe not, since God was on her side.


    Afterward, Alice reached out and held the watermelon-sized fruit with both hands. Although she didn''t pluck the fruit from the branch, it didn''t matter. So long as it didn''t resist and she could hold it with both hands, her right hand would still recognize the fruit as a weapon.


    Sure enough, the fruit''s weapon information promptly appeared in Alice''s mind.


    [Weapon: Fruit of God]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Mind +3000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    God''s Appreciation (Passive Skill. You are a delicacy approved by God. Your body will be very tasty);


    God''s Reach (Passive Skill. You will be transported to the cab in God''s space the instant you separate from the Tree of Nature''s branch);


    Natural Cultivation (Passive. Cultivate a Seed of Nature in your body in a cycle of one thousand years);


    Nature''s Praise (Active Skill. Designate up to five targets and heal them back to their best condition within thest year. Targets who have already received Nature''s Praise once cannot receive it a second time.)]


    With her right hand still in contact with the Fruit of God, Alice face-palmed herself with her left hand. She had previously wondered why this fruit would vanish as soon as it left its branch and leave behind only its seed. It turned out that it was simply because the Loli Goddess wanted to eat it. If that were the case, then everything made sense. A God indeed had the power to make something vanish without the elves'' notice.


    Of course, other than being delicious, the Fruit of God also had a rather special ability called "Nature''s Praise." It was an active skill that allowed the user''s targets to recover to their best condition within the past year.


    Although every person could only receive Nature''s Praise once in their life, it was still an incredibly powerful recovery skill. Judging by the skill''s description, one could even help a person with a fatal injury achieve a full recovery.


    Unfortunately, despite having lived beside the Tree of Nature for more than ten thousand years, the elves never got the chance to research the Fruit of God''s abilities since the Loli Goddess had snatched everything away. Moreover, God evidently didn''t need a recovery skill such as Nature''s Praise, so Alice guessed that the Loli Goddess had taken these fruits away solely for the sake of eating them.


    <em>God''s Appreciation Does this mean my body has also be tasty now?</em>


    Looking at the passive skill named God''s Appreciation, Alice hesitated for a moment before she licked her arm. Then, she discovered thatgoddamn she was tasty.


    <em>But if this fruit is disappearing simply because God likes it</em>


    After discovering that the fruit''s disappearance was God''s doing and recalling that she couldmunicate with God, Alice couldn''t help but fall into thought.


    <em>There might be some leftover fruits in the Loli Goddess''s room?</em>

 Chapter 150: Indifferent God

    Chapter 150: Indifferent God


    After verifying the reason for the fruit''s disappearance and satisfying her curiosity, Alice let go of the fruit.


    Alice only needed the Seed of Nature to reconstruct Kristine''s body. Since she had already picked one up from the forest, she naturally didn''t need to acquire any more. Even if she had extras, she wouldn''t know what to do with them. She couldn''t possibly sell them, right? She didn''tck money due to her current identity, anyway. Not to mention, it would still be a long time before the fruit ripened, so even if she plucked it now, there wouldn''t be a Seed of Nature inside.


    <em>It''s 1 AM already.</em>


    When Alice pulled out her phone to look at the time, she noticed that it was veryte already. The school had activities nned for the morning, and it seemed that they would be learning how to better perceive mana from the elves and climbing the Tree of Nature.


    However, due to the March Academy''s style of operation, students could opt-out from participating in the activities the school arranged during the school trip. Meanwhile, Alice wasn''t interested in learning how to better perceive mana or climb the Tree of Nature. After all, her body already possessed excellent sensitivity toward mana, and she had just flown to the top of the Tree of Nature. So, rather than participating in the activities, she could simply use that time to sleep in her room.


    Since that was the case, she might as well use the current opportunity to take care of everything she needed to do.


    Opening the pouch stuffed with panties, Alice pulled out the small weapon storage that contained the Hero''s Sword. Honestly, after receiving the pendant-shaped weapon storage from the dwarves, Alice couldn''t help but realize once again how cheap and shabby this small storage box was. If the Hero''s Sword could think for itself, it would probably despair at having such a terrible house.


    However, Alice naturally wouldn''t consider the Hero''s Sword''s feelings. After opening the weapon storage, she quickly grabbed the Hero''s Sword before it could fall and hit the Tree of Nature. Then, gripping the sword with her right hand, she activated Word of God.


    It was necessary to activate the Word of God skill to enter God''s space. So, whenever Alice wanted tomunicate with God, she needed to take out the Hero''s Sword. This was a great inconvenience, and Alice couldn''t help but wonder if the Loli Goddess could give her the Word of God skill directly.


    As this wasn''t the first time Alice had used Word of God, she quickly overcame the dizzy experience of having her consciousness brought to a different space and found herself appearing inside the Loli Goddess''s small and inconspicuous room.


    However, to Alice''s surprise, the Loli Goddess wasn''t snoring on the ground this time. Instead, she was leisurely reading aic book on the floor.


    Meanwhile, seemingly noticing another presence in the room, the Loli Goddess looked up from her book. Then, when she saw that it was Alice, she curled her lips and said, "It''s you again? How often are you going to barge into my ce?"


    After experiencing Alice''s obsession with panties, the Loli Goddess knew that Alice might barge into her room at any time. So, she had decided not to sleep altogether and be prepared to defend herself at all times. Otherwise, if this pervert came while she was asleep, she might wake up to find her panty drawer empty.


    "It''s not that often. It''s been a month already," Alice said as she walked up to the Loli Goddess and sat on the floor beside her. Then, after ncing at theic book on the floor, she noticed that the Loli Goddess was reading <em>Narto</em>. The series had already ended by the time she transmigrated, so she guessed that the Loli Goddess must be reading the fillers. "I came to ask you a question."


    "You want to ask about the Fruit of God, right? I felt someone touching one of the Tree of Nature''s fruits just now," the Loli Goddess said. She could already tell what Alice wanted to ask even before Alice stated her question. Then, while giving Alice a grumpy re, she said, "Not a chance. That''s the fruit I like the most. I won''t give it to you."


    "Must you care about it so much?"


    Alice couldn''t help but be confused when she heard the Loli Goddess''s response. She couldn''t understand why the Loli Goddess would be so obsessed over the Fruit of God. Of course, she understood that the fruit must be delicious since it was something even God acknowledged. However, it also had other more important uses.


    "I''m mainly here to talk about the Fruit of God''s other functions. It can help heal people back to their peak condition. This will be incredibly useful to the elves."


    "What does that have to do with me?" the Loli Goddess said with a snort, her behavior making it seem like she didn''t care about the elves'' existence whatsoever. "I nted the Tree of Nature precisely for its fruits. I don''t mind if the elves take the leftover seeds, but the fruits are one of the few pleasures I have in my long life."


    When Alice heard that the Loli Goddess was the one who nted the Tree of Nature, she realized that it was the Loli Goddess''s right to do whatever she wanted with the Fruits of God.


    "I might treat you very well, but there are some things I have to make clear to you." Noticing the confusion on Alice''s face, the Loli Goddess sat up from the floor and looked Alice in the eye. Then, in a serious tone, she said, "You might think I am too indifferent to the elves by not wanting to give the fruit to them, but I have to tell you that this is how Gods have to treat their worlds. A God must not carry any personal emotions for the world they governed."


    "Is it that serious?" Alice also started taking this matter seriously after seeing the Loli Goddess''s serious expression. "But you don''t usually look as unfriendly."


    "That''s only when I am dealing with you. Firstly, your soul doesn''t belong to my world. Secondly, I am relying on you to get rid of the Demon King''s Power. So, I can naturally treat you more favorably," the Loli Goddess said while wagging two fingers in the air. "If a God gets emotional about their world, every one of their actions might create a problem in the world''sws.


    "For example, let''s say that you''ve coded a program. Then, once the program is in operation, you start to find certain lines of code irksome, so you delete those codes with disregard. Your actions might not cause any problems in the short term, but it could lead to potentially devastating results in the long term."


    "Why are you having me help you get rid of the Demon King''s Power, then?"


    Alice understood the point the Loli Goddess was trying to get across. However, when she thought about the Loli Goddess getting her to help deal with the Demon King''s Power, she couldn''t help but ask a follow-up question.


    "The Demon King''s Power is different. It might be a product of this world, but it has already transcended the world and begun destroying the rules of the whole world. So, I have a reason to intervene and prevent this world from being destroyed," the Loli Goddess said, shaking her head. "On the other hand, the continued existence of the elves and all other lifeforms has nothing to do with me. All I need to do is make sure that this world doesn''t be a deste wastnd. Even if a war that wipes out half of the global poption happens tomorrow, I won''t interfere with it in the slightest."


    After saying so, the Loli Goddess made her way to the wardrobe behind her and pulled out a green fruit from it. The fruit was none other than a Fruit of God, but this one was muchrger than the one Alice saw on the Tree of Nature.


    "I am aware of the Fruit of God''s abilities. I am also aware that the elves could''ve avoided a lot of unnecessary casualties if I had not taken these fruits away. However, while it might sound cold for me to put it like this, even if the elves go extinct, it has nothing to do with me. This is because they are nothing more than insignificant parts of this, and their disappearance will not affect this world''s continued existence," the Loli Goddess added.


    "I understand."


    Alice let out a deep sigh. Previously, she had always thought that the Loli Goddess didn''t behave like a god. Now, she understood why that was the case. It wasn''t because the Loli Goddess didn''t behave like a god. Instead, it was because the Loli Goddess would only take on the indifference of a god when dealing with her own world.


    In the past tens of thousands of years, the only interference the Loli Goddess had made to the world was the creation of the Hero. Even then, she had only interfered because the Demon King''s Power was already in the midst of destroying the world''sws and affecting the world''s continued existence. Had the Demon King''s Power not touched upon the world''sws and only created Demon Kings and waged wars, the Loli Goddess might not have bothered interfering at all.


    The only fortunate news for Alice was that the Loli Goddess would behave like a normal person when dealing with her. In fact, the Loli Goddess behaved quite like a child in front of her, which, in turn, allowed her to behave informally around the Loli Goddess.

 Chapter 151: How Tasty

    Chapter 151: How Tasty


    "Wait. You say that you won''t interfere with this world''s development, but is it alright if I do it?" Alice asked. Although the Loli Goddess was a bit insensitive in dealing with her world, when Alice recalled the scene where she was ying console games with the Loli Goddess, she really couldn''t take the other party seriously. So, she didn''t give up on helping the elves and quickly thought of another solution. "If I satisfy your appetite, will you give up on the Fruit of God?"


    After all was said and done, the reason the Loli Goddess had taken the Fruit of God away was solely for the fruit''s taste. She wasn''t interested in its healing properties whatsoever.


    In other words, if Alice could figure out a way to satisfy the Loli Goddess''s appetite, wouldn''t that mean she could get the Loli Goddess to give up on the fruit and leave them to the elves?


    "Oh? Are you trying to make a deal with me?"


    The Loli Goddess grew a little interested when she heard Alice''s words. While she might be cold when dealing with her world, outside of that, her personality and thinking remained the same as an ordinary little girl.


    "But do you have a way to satisfy my appetite? If you''re talking about Earth''s delicacies, I''m afraid that you''ll have to be disappointed. You can''t satisfy me with them," the Loli Goddess said.


    Alice wasn''t surprised to hear the Loli Goddess''s words. The world barrier might be preventing her from traveling back to Earth, but that wasn''t the case for the Loli Goddess. The Loli Goddess could travel to and from Earth freely, even with the damaged world barrier. She could even bring Earth''s gaming consoles back to her world. So, it was only natural that the Loli Goddess could also procure Earth''s delicacies.


    Not to mention, Alice had previously tasted her arm when she was holding the Fruit of God previously. Even with just a lick, she could feel her soul shuddering in delight. In other words, the Fruit of God was no longer a simple delicacy. Instead, it was food that had already touched upon the realm of souls. Thus, she could confidently say that even Earth''s cuisine was far from beingparable.


    "I''m not sure if it''ll work, but I have to give it a try at the very least," Alice said, chuckling. Then, she picked up an apple from the nearby coffee table.


    "That''s just a normal apple. It won''t be delicious no matter what you do to it," the Loli Goddess said. Although she couldn''t figure out what Alice was trying to do, she still decided to give the blonde girl a kind reminder. The apple Alice held was only an ordinary apple, and it was something she had swiped from Earth. After all, the Fruit of God was something that ripened only once every few hundred years, and she couldn''t possibly go on a hunger strike for such a long time. So, she would still consume normal fruits from time to time.


    "No, it might be incredibly delicious in a moment."


    After saying so, Alice stuffed the apple in her left hand into the confused Loli Goddess''s hands. Then, she ced her right hand on the Fruit of God the Loli Goddess had taken out of her cab and cast one of the taboos she had just learnedAspect Separation.


    Indeed, Alice intended on attaching the "God''s Appreciation" concept to the "apple in God''s hand" concept.


    Immediately, Alice could feel all of the mana within her draining rapidly. However, she couldn''t help but frown as she noticed that her mana was still far from enough toplete her spell. She didn''t think that the "God''s Appreciation" concept would consume so much of her mana.


    Just when her mana pool was about to dry out, Alice hurriedly tugged one of her "hair ties" off and gripped it in her right hand. However, even with the huge boost to her mana pool, she had just barely managed toplete her Aspect Separation before her mana got depleted again.


    <em>It seems concepts associated with God cannot be trifled with.</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but shudder when she sensed her nearly empty mana pool. That was several thousand points'' worth of mana. Yet, she had spent nearly all of it just toplete such a specific Aspect Separation. The "God''s Appreciation" concept must be incredibly powerful for it to consume so much mana.


    "Are you done?" the Loli Goddess asked in confusion when she saw the dazed look on Alice''s face. Then, she tentatively took a bite out of the apple Alice had stuffed into her hands. "Hm?! This taste?"


    "How is it? It should taste the same as the Fruit of God, right?" Alice asked. When she saw the look of surprise on the Loli Goddess''s face, she knew that her n had more or less seeded. "I used Aspect Separation to attach the Fruit of God''s taste to the apple in your hand. In the future, all apples that you hold with your hand should taste like this."


    "Aspect Separation? I see. Do you mean the taboo the elves developed? I didn''t think it could be used like this," the Loli Goddess said, a look of satisfaction on her face as she took another bite out of the apple. "Leave it to you toe up with such a solution. If all of the apples that enter my hand will taste like this in the future, I can indeed go without the Fruit of God."


    Alice breathed out a sigh of relief when she heard the Loli Goddess''s words. She was d that her idea worked. She also didn''t think that the taboo she had just learned woulde into y so soon. With this, the elves could keep the Fruit of God and research its healing properties to improve this world''s medical industry.


    "If you knew about aspect Separation, did you never try to use it to attach the Fruit of God''s taste to something?" Alice asked when she recalled how the Loli Goddess talked about Aspect Separation.


    "Gods do not learn magic. There is no point in doing so," the Loli Goddess said, shaking her head. "If I intended on harming this world, I can flip the world upside down with just a thought and bury all existing civilizations in the ground. I can also do whatever taboos can do usingws. However, using Aspect Separation for such a purpose is something that has never crossed my mind."


    Alice nodded in understanding when she heard the Loli Goddess''s words. The Loli Goddess had created this world, and she had absolute control over the world''sws. If they excluded the Demon King''s Power and thews the Demon King''s Power had destroyed, the Loli Goddess was essentially omnipotent in this world.


    However, unless it was something rted to the Demon King''s Power, the Loli Goddess would not use her abilities in this world.


    "I''ve canceled the Fruit of God''s automatic collection effect. They won''t disappear when plucked in the future, so you can do whatever you want with them," the Loli Goddess said as she licked the remaining apple juice on her fingers. She looked nothing like an indifferent God whatsoever. "They should also take much less time to ripen now. Originally, they should take several hundred years to ripen since I wanted to concentrate its vor But if I dismiss the vor, the growth cycle should shorten."


    <em>So that''s why those fruits take several centuries to ripen? </em>Alice thought. "How long will they take to ripen now?"


    "Around two years?" the Loli Goddess said nonchntly. "If you return now, the fruit on the tree should ripen in a few days. You can tell the elves to harvest them when the timees."


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry when she heard the Loli Goddess''s words. The growth cycle of the Fruit of God had shortened from several hundred years to just two short years simply by skipping the vor concentration phase. This meant that the Loli Goddess had artificially prolonged the growth cycle by over a hundred times just to concentrate the fruit''s vor


    Regardless, this was good news. The elves shouldn''t mind the Fruit of God''s subdued taste. It was fine so long as they could retain the fruit''s healing abilities.


    However, how she should ry this information to the elves was a problem. After all, she couldn''t possibly go to the elven patriarch and tell them about the changes to the Fruit of God. Even if she was the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, it didn''t make sense for her to know such information. And if her words turned out to be true, the elves would definitely suspect her identity.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to ry this information as the Hero.</em>


    After thinking it over, Alice made her decision. So long as there was something she couldn''t exin, all she needed to do was push it onto the Hero.

 Chapter 152: Alices Confusing Behavior

    Chapter 152: Alice''s Confusing Behavior


    The next morning, the activities the school arranged proceeded as nned. However, Alice had opted out of the activities and spent the entire morning sleepingfortably in her room. She had spent a long time talking to God yesterday. They had even yed a few console games from Earth afterward. So, she was in dire need to catch up on sleep.


    Simr to Alice, many other students had also opted out of participating in the activities. Most of these students were nobles from ss Group A. While the Elven Forest''s entrance fee was an exorbitant expenditure for the averagemoner, it was only a minor expenditure for nobles. So, most of the nobles attending the March Academy had already visited the Elven Forest before and no longer found the ce interesting.


    However, it was a different story for the students from ss Group B and ss Group C. Most of them were still brimming with interest toward the Elven Forest, so they were more than willing to take part in the activities the school arranged. Hence, students like Alice, who had opted out from these activities, were rare cases among ss Group B and ss Group C.


    Of course, with Alice''s current status, none of the teachers would say anything even if she chose not to participate in the school''s activities. They simply assumed that the princess had visited the Elven Forest in the past.


    After sleeping until noon, Alice opened her eyes and saw Lalu, who had already returned from the school activities,ing out of the bathroom. Currently, Lalu was drying her hair while looking at the door worriedly.


    "What''s wrong, Lalu?"


    In reality, Alice could more or less guess what had happened when she saw Lalu''s expression. However, to avoid suspicion, she still chose to ask Lalu the obvious after jumping out of bed.


    "Something seems to have happened The entire vige is under martialw right now. Moreover, the elders havemunicated with our teachers, telling them that we might have to stay a little longer in the vige."


    Judging by Lalu''s expression, Alice guessed that the loli elf wasn''t aware of the exact details of the situation. The elven council must not have told the March Academy why they wanted the academy to extend its school trip.


    The council''s decision also made sense. After all, this was a matter between the demons and the elves. There was no need to involve humans in this matter. If humans got involved, it might create diplomatic problems between the elves and the humans. The elves weren''t fools. Unless absolutely necessary, they definitely wouldn''t take the initiative to get the human realm involved in this dispute.


    Meanwhile, because Lalu was unaware that the demons were currently surrounding the Elven Forest, she couldn''t help but worry about why the elders would suddenly put the vige under martialw. Though, she wasn''t overly worried because she felt that the reason might simply be that some wild beast tribe was attacking the vige.


    Compared to Lalu, the other March Academy students weren''t worried or frightened by this situation. Instead, they simply discussed the elves'' situation curiously, wholly ignorant of the fact that the demons had already surrounded them. One example of these students would be Zauna. She behaved calmly as normal as she yed with her phone at the coffee table. She wasn''t showing any signs of anxiety because of the elves'' sudden martialw.


    However, Alice felt that this wasn''t a bad situation. After all, she had never intended for the demons to attack the elven vige. She was merely having the demons keep the elves on high alert for a few days and prevent anyone from leaving the Elven Forest. If the March Academy''s students remained ignorant, the vige could avoid unnecessary panic.


    The elves, on the other hand, might have to remain afraid for a few days. For this, Alice could only apologize to the elves from the bottom of her heart. If it wasn''t because of all the spies she had encountered, she wouldn''t have been so worried about revealing her Hero identity to others. On the bright side, Alice had already secured the rights to the Fruit of God for the elves, so this could be considered a sort ofpensation to the elves.


    After getting dressed, Alice walked up to the balcony and looked outside. Then, she noticed that the situation outside was just like Lalu described. The elves walking on the streets outside all wore stern expressions on their faces, making it seem like a storm wasing.


    <em>It seems I should finish learning those taboos as quickly as possible. With Abel''s help, I should be able to shorten my learning period.</em>


    Alice felt that her improved talent for studying must''ve affected her attitude toward studying. After all, when she thought about learning more taboos, a sense of yearning and delight filled her body. Before transmigrating to this world, she had never been so motivated to study before.


    "By the way, do you remember what I told you about the fruit that grows on top of the Tree of Nature, Alice?" Lalu suddenly asked after walking up to the balcony as well. "I''m talking about the fruit that disappears and leaves beside a Seed of Nature after getting plucked."


    Alice froze a little upon hearing Lalu''s question. Then, she asked, "I do. What about it?"


    "Didn''t the academy organize a climbing activity to the Tree of Nature''s top this morning? Although I wasn''t interested in it, I followed the tour and noticed a very strange phenomenon," Lalu said as she looked at Alice. Then, in a whisper, she said, "There are five fruits growing on top of the Tree of Nature right now. Meanwhile, ording to previous estimates, these fruits should take at least another 40 years to ripen. However, when we climbed to the top today, we found that the fruits were growing abnormally fast."


    "Oh? How fast?"


    Realization dawned upon Alice. This should be the result of the Loli Goddess removing the vor concentration cycle from the Fruit of God''s growth cycle. As a result, the growth cycle had shortened drastically, and they managed to achieve rapid growth in just one night.


    "I''m acquainted with the tour guide, so I asked her about it. She told me that if the fruits continue growing at this rate, they should ripen in a few days," Lalu said with a hint of joy on her face. "This means that in a few days, the vige will have a new batch of Seeds of Nature. If that''s true, you shouldn''t have any problems getting the Seed of Nature you asked for before."


    "Is that so?" Alice smiled. In reality, though, she didn''t really need the elves to give her a Seed of Nature anymore.


    "We can give you four Seeds of Nature if you really want them."


    At the edge of the Elven Forest, the Elven Patriarch Elway stood facing the demon army with a confident expression. Evidently, he had also learned about the situation surrounding the Tree of Nature''s fruits.


    "However, you''ll have to wait a few days. We can give you four Seeds of Nature in a few more days. Also We''ll also need you to sign a peace agreement to ensure that the demons will not attack the elves for no reason."


    The person responsible for handling negotiations on the demon''s side this time was Davis, Alice''s acquaintance and man''s close aide. Originally, he had intended on dragging this situation out following Alice''s instructions. However, he didn''t think that the elven patriarch, who had still been negotiating with him tentatively this morning, would suddenly agree to his demand for four Seeds of Nature a few hourster. Moreover, the elven patriarch looked very confident when he agreed to this absurd demand.


    This situation put Davis in an awkward situation. After all, he remembered Alice saying that the elves absolutely could not produce four Seeds of Nature. So, what was with this situation?

 Chapter 153: No Matter How Great You Describe It to Be, It Is Still a Fruit Pit

    Chapter 153: No Matter How Great You Describe It to Be, It Is Still a Fruit Pit


    The demons had gone from asking for a Seed of Nature to four Seeds of Nature. It was a scummy y on words by the demons, and it had caused great dissatisfaction among the elves.


    However, the elves were a serious race, so while they might have gotten angry at the demons, they felt they were also at fault for hastily agreeing to the demons'' demands without rifying the conditions.


    Now that they had agreed on four Seeds of Nature, though, the demons could no longer employ any more of their word games. If they did, they would be tantly raising prices, and it''d lower the demons'' reputation even further.


    After such a long period of development, the demons were no longer the same barbaric race they were thousands of years ago. They had already developed their own civilization and culture. So, even the demons would have to care for their reputation during times of peace.


    "In that case, we will await your good news."


    In the end, Davis did not dare to casually change the number of seeds he demanded again. This was because his orders were to dy the negotiations with the elves for as long as possible and wait for Alice to take care of her own affairs beforeing back for the final negotiations with the elves.


    If he rashly demanded more Seeds of Nature now, he might thoroughly anger the elves and start a direct confrontation between the demons and the elves. This would be going against Alice''s request, so Davis decided to end his talks with the elven patriarch on a peaceful note.


    However, upon returning to the demon army''s base camp, Davis''s calm expression immediately turned into a nervous one as he hurriedly pulled out his phone and called Alice.


    He needed to ask Alice what they needed to do next if the elves were truly capable of taking out four Seeds of Nature within the next few days. Although the elves looked very reluctant to part with their Seeds of Nature, they were most likely willing to hand them over to avoid the bloodshed of their people.


    "That''s enough. It''ll still take them a few more days to hand over the seeds, so just continue negotiating with them normally during this period."


    Alice was in the middle of studying in the Nature Shrine when Davis called her. After hearing Davis''s report, she promptly made the decision to have him buy time.


    The elves might not know how many days exactly the Fruits of God would need to ripen, but Alice knew it. She had already learned from the Loli Goddess that the fruits would need roughly a week to ripen. That was more than enough time for her to learn all of the elf''s unique taboos to an entry-level.


    Thus, all Alice needed Davis to do now was to buy time and avoid creating any direct conflicts with the elves. Once the time was right, she would have Luna appear before the demons and the elves as the Demon King. Then, she would make her appearance as the Hero and fight off the Demon King.


    "Who were you talking to?" Abel asked as she hovered above Filia''s bodyor rather above Filia''s pantiesand looked at the piece of metal Alice held in her hand. As she had been attached to Filia''s panties throughout all these years, she knew that this piece of metal was called a cell phone, an invention of modern times.


    "Just a friend."


    Alice naturally couldn''t tell Abel that she was talking to an adviser to one of the demons'' Heavenly Kings. Although the enmity between the elves and the demons had faded over time, Abel was someone with a vendetta against the demons. After all, the demons were directly rted to her death. Other Heroes might lose their hatred for the demons after they defeated the Demon King, but Abel definitely wasn''t one of these Heroes.


    The only way Abel could let go of her hatred was if the memories her remnant soul lost just so happened to be her memories about the demons. However, the possibility of this being the case was low, and Alice wasn''t willing to gamble on this small chance.


    "Continue with your studies, then. Although I can understand your reluctance to reveal your identity, it still isn''t appropriate for you to stay here for long periods," Abel said, sighing. She had lived for a very, very long time already. So, different from young elves like Lalu, she still possessed a conservative mindset.


    If possible, Abel hoped that Alice could reveal her identity and study the elves'' taboos openly. However, she also understood the danger Alice faced, so she didn''t try to force the issue.


    "By the way, I suddenly thought of something."


    Alice was originally going to resume her studies, but after hearing Abel''s words just now, she suddenly thought of another matter: the Seed of Nature''s uses.


    Alice had always been curious about what uses the elves had for the Seed of Nature. However, she had refrained from asking anyone about it since this was one of the elves'' national secrets. Although the elves had given away some seeds in the past, very few people could actually get their hands on one. So, not everyone knew what uses the seeds had.


    One of the few people who should know about the Seed of Nature''s purpose should be alchemists working for the various human kingdoms. After all, alchemists were individuals who came into contact with all sorts of strange materials. While they might not have personallye into contact with a Seed of Nature before, they should have learned about it through records.


    However, if Alice were to name someone who she could reach right now and should know about the Seed of Nature''s purpose, it would definitely have to be Filia and Abel. These two people held important positions among the elven race, so they should be qualified to learn the Seed of Nature''s secrets.


    Since Filia still needed to sleep for a few more days, Abel naturally became the only person Alice could pose her questions to.


    "Do you know what the Seed of Nature is used for?" Alice asked curiously as she lifted her head to look at Abel''s floating soal. "I heard that it could be used to reconstruct bodies for souls. Is it true?"


    "The Seed of Nature, is it? Yes, it''s true. The Seed of Naturees from the Tree of Nature nted by God. It possesses a special ability to produce mana, so it can be used to rece the mana source of living creatures."


    Although Abel didn''t know why Alice was suddenly asking about the Seed of Nature, she didn''t bother hiding this information since Alice was the Hero.


    "A highly skilled alchemist might be able to construct a physical body that can house aplete soul, but without the Seed of Nature, the body created wouldn''t have the ability to produce mana."


    After pausing for a moment, Abel continued:


    "A body that cannot produce mana will be unable to house a soul that originates externally. This is because souls that have once upied a body can only remain in existence when preserved using a special type of magic. If such a soul enters a body without mana, the magic preserving the soul would be canceled, and the soul will dissipate immediately."


    <em>So that''s why a Seed of Nature is needed.</em>


    Alice nodded her head in realization. She now understood why Kristine stated that a Seed of Nature was essential for reconstructing her body.

 Chapter 154: The Hero Is in Your Village

    Chapter 154: The Hero Is in Your Vige


    "Have we still not found Filia?"


    Two days had passed since the negotiations with the demons. While looking at the elders in the conference room with a serious expression, Patriarch Elway posed the question he had been seeking an answer to during these past two days.


    Unfortunately, the several elders in the room shook their heads in response, expressing their failure to locate Filia. Although they had already tasked people with searching for Filia throughout the vige and the Elven Forest, none of them had found any traces of Filia.


    Of course, while they might have searched the vige and its surroundings already, the only ce they didn''t search was the Nature Shrine. After all, there was nothing special in the Nature Shrine, and Filia had no reason whatsoever to stay there for several days. This was also a point Alice had considered, which was why she dared to study the elves'' taboos inside the Nature Shrine. In addition, the Nature Shrine was a rtively unpopr secret location for the elves, so nobody would visit it under normal circumstances.


    "Ha To think she would disappear during the time we need her the most I''m going to have to lecture her about this when she gets back," Patriarch Elway said, sighing. The demons might not have initiated an attack on the Elven Forest thus far, but there was no doubt that they would feel safer if they could have Filia by their side. "Is there any movement from the demon''s side?"


    "Not at all. They are really just waiting for us to hand over the Seeds of Nature. None of the demon soldiers has set foot into the forest," an elder said, shaking his head with a confused expression on his face. He couldn''t understand why the demon army would behave so peacefully. "Some of our youngsters have even started chatting with the demon soldiers Moreover, by the looks of it, they seem to be chatting quite happily."


    "Nonsense! Those are demons we are talking about!"


    Patriarch Elway nearly exploded in anger when he heard this. Elves had always been extremely conservative, so they didn''t like interacting with other races. It was especially true for the demon race. The only times they would interact with the demon race was when the Demon King initiated a war against the elven race. Naturally, because of this, Patriarch Elway''s impression of the demons was that they were a crazy, cruel, and aggressive race.


    Hence, his first response to hearing the elves'' younger generation interacting with the demons'' soldiers was to grow anxious and angry.


    "Have those youngsters return to the vige immediately! Nobody should leave the vige these few days without a good reason!"


    After issuing a series of warnings, Patriarch Elway frowned and looked at the elder sitting beside him.


    "Has the demon army really made no movements these days? Did they make any rude demands?"


    "It''s true. They''ve made no movements these past few days. It seems they are only here for the four Seeds of Nature," the elder responsible formunicating with the demon army answered. He had already lived for 2,000 years, and he had witnessed the demons invading the human realm and involving the other races in their war multiple times. He had even participated in these wars. So, simr to Patriarch Elway, he did not hold any good feelings for the demons, and he felt that the demons were war machines born for nothing but war.


    However, the demons'' actions this time had truly confused him. Based on his interactions with the demon army, he found that the demons weren''t as umunicative as he thought, and he couldn''t help but wonder if the demons were asking for the Seed of Nature for an actual purpose.


    Because the elves had weed the human realm''s "inte," they now knew that the demon realm''s harsh environment was the main cause for the demons initiating war. They also knew that this harsh environment was the cause of the demons'' irritable and aggressive behavior. In that case, could the demons be seeking the Seed of Nature because it could be used to improve their environment?


    However, while he could understand why the demons had initiated these wars, it wasn''t so easy to change the impressions he had of the demons. Not to mention, no matter how normally the demons behaved right now, there was no changing the fact that they were the culprits of the many world wars that had taken ce in the past.


    Simr to the elder, Patriarch Elway also understood the cause of the demons'' actions. However, he didn''t think that it would be possible for the elves and the demons to reconcile.


    The elves were only handing the four Seeds of Nature to the demons this time to ensure the peace and stability of the Elven Forest. In other words, they were only handing them over because of the demons'' coercion. No matter how peacefully the demons behaved now, this situation would inevitably be another reason for contention between the demons and the elves. If given the opportunity in the future, the elves would definitely try to reim this debt.


    "It would be great if the Hero was here."


    Patriarch Elway suddenly recalled the only Hero that had evere from the elves. Although that Hero had sacrificed "himself" in battle, "he" had also left asting impression on the elves. So, now that the demon army was surrounding the Elven Forest once more, Patriarch Elway couldn''t help but wonder where the newest Hero was right now.


    "<em>Achoo</em>" Alice suddenly sneezed while she was studying taboos in the Nature Shrine. Then, while rubbing her itching nose, she said, "I might have caught a cold."


    "Heroes will not be troubled by minor illnesses like these. As existences blessed by God, not only are we immune to minor illnesses, but we also get to experience rtively good luck in life," Abel the serious elf said, promptly correcting her junior when she heard thetter''s mumblings. "This is also why I attached my remnant soul to Filia. Even as a remnant soul, I can still help her avoid a lot of trouble."


    "It''s just a casual remark," Alice said, curling her lips. She might be wearing the identity of the Hero, but she wasn''t actually a Hero. Instead, she was only someone with talent rivaling Heroes. So, she wasn''t exactly sure if the Loli Goddess had given her immunity to illnesses when creating her body. That was a question she''d have to ask the Loli Goddess the next time she visited the other party.


    Amidst their casual conversation, a dark-green crystal suddenly formed in the palm of Alice''s left hand. The crystal was cube-shaped, and it was filled with earth-attributed mana.


    "So you''ve learned Forest Crystallization as well. However, your mana is stillcking, so you can only create a crystal of that size. The dark-green coloration also shows that your mastery over the spell is poor, so there are a lot of impurities mixed in," Abel said. She was not at all surprised that Alice had learned another taboo in less than a day. She was a Hero, too, so she understood that this was a normal learning speed for a Hero. "Once your mana pool and proficiency improves, you''ll be able to create a huge light-green crystal that can be used to trap enemies."


    "So it''s a sealing spell" Alice nodded. Then, after closing her left hand and crushing the dark-green crystal, she asked, "How does this taboopare with the War God''s Lock?"


    "It''s inappropriate topare them with each other. They each achieve different goals. The War God''s Lock is a spell that focuses on keeping the target''s physical body in a state of false death and elerating the target''s loss of vitality. Hence, it is considered a fatal seal," Abel exined, sharing her wealth of knowledge with Alice. "The Forest Crystallization, on the other hand, isn''t a fatal seal. Instead, the earth mana inside the crystal nullifies the imprisoned target''s strength and breaks down the target''s willpower. Hence, it is a good spell to use for torturing or breaking a target''s willpower."


    "I see. I get it now," Alice said, breathing out a sigh of relief. Then, she looked at the other books on the floor and continued, "With that out of the way, this leaves us with only five taboos left. You''ve never learned any of these taboos before, right?"


    "Yes. I''ve never seen any of these taboos before, so they should be new spells developed after my passing," Abel said, nodding as she looked at the five books on the floor. "I won''t be able to share any knowledge or experience on these taboos, so good luck."

 Chapter 155: All Actors in Place

    Chapter 155: All Actors in ce


    To the elves'' surprise, the demon army had remained outside the Elven Forest for an entire week. Not a single demon had crossed the border during this period, their behavior making it seem as if they were truly waiting for the Tree of Nature''s fruits to ripen and collect the four Seeds of Nature they demanded.


    Originally, many elves thought that the demons were bound to show some excessive behavior. After all, this was how the demons typically behaved in the past wars, so it was inevitable that the elves would stereotype the demons as such.


    However, thanks to this one week of quiet confrontation, many young elves, who had never experienced war, got the chance to talk to some of the demon soldiers. After all, the environment in the elven vige was simply too boring and depressing.


    It might have been fine if they were born during ancient times, but now that the elven vige was connected to the human realm''s inte, many young elves got to see how different and interesting the outside world was. Hence, they couldn''t help but grow confused about why their race was living such a secluded, conservative, and boring lifestyle.


    Meanwhile, this confusion eventually developed into subtle rebellious attitudes, and many young elves had initiated contact with the demons despite the patriarch''s prohibition. This, in turn, allowed them to understand some of the demon realm''s situation.


    For example, apart from the demon realm having an environment far worse than the human realm, many aspects of the demon realm were already simr to those found in the human realm. Right now, the biggest difference separating human and demon society was the demon society''s worship of strength.


    In addition, the young elves also found out that many demons were ignorant of why the Four Heavenly Kings were suddenly demanding the elves'' Seeds of Nature. Most of the demons in the demon army had simplye to the Elven Forest because of orders from their superiors.


    Of course, unlike the young elves who tirelessly engaged inmunication with simrly young demon soldiers, the elven patriarch and elders weren''t having as joyful a time during this past week. Instead, they had spent this past week mired by questions and headaches.


    Patriarch Elway and the elders had personally experienced what kind of role the demons had yed in history. So long as the demons remained deployed outside the Elven Forest, the pressure on them would remain. Although the situation hadn''t devolved into a frontal confrontation yet, they still had a hard time tolerating this situation.


    To make matters worse, the vige''s youngsters were constantly seeking out the demons for conversation every day, ignoring any prohibitions they had set. If not for the fact that these youngsters were ignorant of the elven race''s top secrets, Patriarch Elway would''ve suspected that these youngsters had already bbered all of their race''s secrets to the demons.


    Of course, the interactions the young elves shared with the demons weren''tpletely unproductive. Although most of the information they brought back was of no importance, Patriarch Elway and the elders still managed to find out that the sudden demand for the Seed of Nature came from the demons'' upper echelons. Not even themander of the demon army knew why they were demanding the elves'' Seeds of Nature.


    In that case, could the order to acquire the Seeds of Nature havee from the Four Heavenly Kings, or perhaps even someone higher?


    When Patriarch Elway thought of this possibility, he felt as if his brain was about to explode. On the off chance that this order came from the Demon King, this situation would be a big problem.


    However, before Patriarch Elway''s thoughts could run wild, someone suddenly opened his office door without even knocking.


    Patriarch Elway frowned at this sight. However, just as he was about to reprimand the other party for their rude arrival, the words that came out of the soldier''s mouth caused Patriarch Elway''s expression to change:


    "Lord Patriarch! The Demon King has appeared!"


    <em>Speak of the devil</em>


    Patriarch Elway sighed deeply. He had already upied the position of patriarch for 500 years, and he had personally witnessed the fight between Demon King Grant and Hero Kristine 300 years ago. He never thought he would get another opportunity to witness a Demon King as the elves'' patriarch.


    Originally, Patriarch Elway had been rather nervous about such a situation taking ce. However, now that he was faced with this situation, he felt inexplicably calm.


    "Let''s go, then. Let''s meet this Demon King," Patriarch Elway calmly said as he stood up from his seat. Then, he left his office and made his way to the demon army''s base camp.


    This time, Patriarch Elway finally realized somethingthe elves had always been on the passive side in regards to the war with the demons. Or, more specifically, the elves had always been the ones receiving a one-sided beating.


    After considering this fact, Patriarch Elway felt that it might be time to bring forward the agenda of introducing human technology into the Elven Forest. Simrly, they might have to stop isting themselves from the world and begin inviting human nations to conduct partnered research on the Seed of Nature. In doing so, the elves might also be able to get on board the train of rapid development.


    While Patriarch Elway was making his way to the frontlines, the elven warriors dared not act rashly. As they stood near the Elven Forest''s edge, they carefully observed the cloaked figure standing at the front of the demon army. Although this person''s face was hidden, her tall figure and the dense dark mana she radiated were clear indicators of her identity.


    The Demon King!


    Naturally, this cloaked "Demon King" was Luna in disguise. While her body was more in line with the fake identity Alice hade up with, her face and hair were different. Hence, she had worn a cloak capable of concealing her face and upper body to hide these features. She had also released her extraordinary dark mana to avoid unnecessary suspicion.


    Currently, standing behind Luna was Davis. When Davis saw Luna''s cloaked figure, he naturally assumed the other party to be Alice. Although he didn''t know how "Alice" had managed to alter her body to such an extent, there was no way to fake the majestic dark mana that radiated from her body. That kind of dark mana was something only the Demon King could possess. Even all of the demon realm''s dark magiciansbined couldn''t necessarily generate so much dark mana.


    "Where are the Seeds of Nature?"


    After making her appearance, Luna followed Alice''s instructions and posed this question to Davis. The demons were here for the Seeds of Nature on the surface, so there was no problem for Luna to ask such a question, either.


    "The elves are still preparing them. They say the seeds should be ready tomorrow."


    Although Davis didn''t know what "Alice" had in store for the Seeds of Nature, he still promptly answered her question.


    "Useless!" Luna coldly snorted. Although she could not modify her appearance, modifying her voice was a simple task. So long as she applied pressure on her throat using mana, she could change her voice, making it sound strange and low. Thus, she was not afraid of letting others hear her voice. "There''s not enough time! Have the elves hand over the seeds immediately!"


    When the elven warriors heard Luna''s harsh voice, they couldn''t help but look at Davis sympathetically. They had learned many things about the demons recently, so they knew that all of the demons here were merely carrying out orders from their superiors. None of them even know why they were trying to obtain the Seeds of Nature.


    However, evidently, Davis''s loyalty not only failed to earn him apliment, but he even received a cold rebuke from the Demon King. At this time, even the elves, who valued etiquette highly, couldn''t help but feel that the Demon King''s behavior was excessive.


    Of course, some people had also keenly noticed the key points in the Demon King''s words.


    Not enough time? What could be so urgent for the Demon King to be in such a hurry?

 Chapter 156: The Woes of Speculations

    Chapter 156: The Woes of Spections


    In reality, there was no need to wonder what was causing the Demon King to feel distressed. Everyone was aware that only one thing, or, more specifically, one person, could cause the Demon King to grow anxious.


    Hence, when Davis heard "Alice''s" words, his expression changed immediately.


    Initially, Davis thought their n to acquire the Seeds of Nature would proceed without fail now that the Demon King was here. However, it would seem that he had been too optimistic to assume that <em>that </em>person wouldn''t appear.


    Sure enough, a moment after Luna finished speaking, a burst of powerful mana exploded in the sky, causing everyone to instinctively lift their heads and look up.


    The next moment, a tall and muscr man descended from the sky, the man holding the easily-recognizable Hero''s Sword in his right hand as hended on the ground. The instant the man''s feet touched the ground, everyone could even feel the ground beneath them trembling.


    Before today, neither the demons in the demon army nor the elven warriors from the elven vige had seen this man before. Yet, the moment these people saw this muscr man with a pretty face, they instinctively recognized this man''s identity.


    "Hero."


    Luna spoke in a somber voice, the singr word she said validating everyone''s thoughts.


    In reality, Luna didn''t have particrly good acting skills. However, the cloak she wore hid her expressionless face, and she had also used mana to distort her voice. Thus, nobody noticed any problems in her acting whatsoever.


    "Are you sure you want to start a war with me now?" Luna asked as scripted.


    "I don''t have a problem with that. Neither of us is fully developed, anyway, right?"


    Alice had naturally learned how to alter her voice with mana from Luna. Thus, rather than sounding like the little girl she was, she now sounded like a man speaking in a deep and resonant voice. Although speaking this way also required her to put pressure on her throat, which was a rtively ufortable thing to do, she only had to keep this up for around a dozen minutes, so she decided to bear with the difort.


    "If you leave the Elven Forest with your army now, we can dy our fight till a different time," Alice said in a magnanimous tone.


    "Don''t even think about it. I must get the Seeds of Nature today no matter what," Luna said, following the script they had previously agreed on.


    Alice had found these lines exaggerated and embarrassing when they initially held their discussions. However, she had no choice but to go through with this awkward dialogue since it was somewhat of a tradition to the people of this world.


    "It seems we failed to reach an ord, then," Alice said and chuckled in a deep voice.


    Alice currently had her back facing the elves. She also stood rtively far from the demon army. So, nobody had noticed that the Hero''s "body" hadn''t actually moved at the slightest afternding on the ground. There wasn''t even any sign of the Hero breathing.


    After all, this "body" was only a modified suit of power armor. It naturally couldn''t breathe like a normal person. Fortunately, nobody had noticed this point as everyone was focused on the dialogue between the Hero and the Demon King.


    When Davis looked at the Hero standing between the demons and the elves, his expression darkened a little. Then, he moved closer to Luna and softly asked, "Did you perhaps notice that the Hero was in the Elven Forest previously, Lord Demon King? Is that why you had us wait for several days?"


    In Davis''s opinion, the reason "Alice" had asked the demon army to distract the elves for several days was most likely because she had discovered that the Hero was coincidentally present in the Elven Forest. Hence, she must''ve decided to wait for a few days in hopes that the Hero would leave without noticing what was happening outside the Elven Forest.


    Unfortunately, not only did the Hero not leave, but it would seem that he had also discovered that the Demon King was up to something. Hence, "Alice" had decided to stop hiding ande out to personally handle talks with the elves while also dealing with the Hero at the same time.


    Luna naturally did not answer Davis''s questions. After all, Davis was not part of the script she discussed with Alice, and she had no idea how she should answer the other party, so she might as well not answer at all.


    "It seems the Demon King doesn''t have a very good rtionship with the demons."


    The elven warriors also saw the interaction between Davis and Luna. Although they couldn''t hear what Davis had said, they could still see that Davis had said something to the Demon King, but the Demon King hadpletely ignored Davis.


    During the stalemate these past few days, the elves had more or less interacted with the demons in the demon army. Thus, they knew that all of the demons here were simply following orders and that they held no ill will toward the elves. In fact, Davis''s stern and earnest personality had improved the impression they had of demons.


    Hence, when the elves saw the Demon King giving Davis the cold shoulder, they couldn''t help but pity Davis a little.


    "That is only natural. All Demon Kings originate from humans who bear deep resentment toward humanity. They aren''t born from actual demons. So, it usually takes some time before a Demon King starts getting along with the demons."


    The response to the elven warriors'' mutterings came from behind them. When these elven warriors turned around in surprise, they saw that their patriarch had arrived on the battlefield.


    After walking up to the elven warriors, Patriarch Elway looked at Alice''s "tall and robust" back and sighed, saying, "I didn''t think the Hero would also appear But neither the Hero nor the Demon King should have fully matured yet. I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing?"


    There had never been a precedent in history where the Hero and the Demon King would fight before one or both of them had developed to their full potential. This was because past Demon Kings preferred to hide until they were fully grown. However, it would seem that the Demon King of this generation had decided to take a different approach. Not only did this Demon King take the initiative to expose herself before maturing, but she had even run into the Hero.


    "Should we help the Hero, Patriarch?" a female warrior asked Patriarch Elway as she looked at the Hero and the Demon King staring off at each other.


    "We can''t. Even if the Hero and the Demon King aren''t fully developed, a fight between them is not something we can recklessly interfere in," Patriarch Elway said, shaking his head. It might be a different story if Filia was here. With her strength, she might be of help to the Hero. Unfortunately, Filia had disappeared somewhere without anybody knowing her whereabouts.


    Subsequently, silence enveloped the battlefield for some time. As neither the Hero nor the Demon King opened their mouths to speak, the demons and the elves dared not make a sound, either.


    Eventually, though, Luna, the pretend Demon King, broke this silence.


    "Die."


    A calm and cold voice came out of Luna''s mouth.


    Immediately afterward, a torrent of pitch-ck mana flooded out of Luna''s body and formed two gigantic hands. Although these hands looked like simple mana constructs, every demon and elf present on the battlefield could feel the pure destructive power contained within these hands. If they were the ones facing these gigantic hands, just a squeeze from these hands would turn them into meat patties.

 Chapter 157: Acting Competition

    Chapter 157: Acting Competition


    The pitch-ck hands ruthlessly smashed down in the Hero''s direction. Just the presence of the dark mana used to construct this pair of hands had caused many people on the battlefield to grow sluggish.


    Through past experiences and research, it was found that dark mana possessed a corrosive ability that resembled a curse. Meanwhile, those affected by this ability would face difficulty operating their physical body and mana.


    However, what everyone currently experienced was nothing more than the residual power of the Demon King''s attack. Yet, this residual power was already enough to difort them. This showed just how extraordinary the Demon King''s attack was. Although the attack the Demon King just used didn''t match the descriptions of any recorded taboos, there was no doubt that the spell was already on the level of taboos.


    With this one move, Luna had instantly convinced the demons and the elves that she was undoubtedly the Demon King. Meanwhile, not one to be beaten, Alice let out a soft grunt and tapped the ground with the Hero''s Sword.


    Immediately, three bright dotsposed of light mana emerged from the tip of the Hero''s Sword and scattered around Alice. Then, the three dots connected to form a triangle that enveloped Alice within it.


    Subsequently, the triangle rose into the air and cast down a curtain of light that protected Alice''s "body" from Luna''s attack. Even when the pitch-ck hands smashed into the curtain of light, the most it managed to do was cause the barrier to shake a little. The barrier showed no signs of breaking whatsoever.


    "It''s the Enochian Prism." Patriarch Elway, one of the oldest elves on the battlefield, took on the task of exining the fight. Unlike Luna''s spell, the taboo Alice just used wasn''t something new, so Patriarch Elway quickly recognized it. "It''s a taboo developed by a schr from the Rhine Kingdom several thousand years ago, and it is one of the few taboos with defensive capabilities."


    "A defensive taboo?" Since Luna was ying the role of a Demon King, she naturally had to y it fittingly. After seeing Alice blocking her attack with the Enochian Prism, she mockingly asked, "What? After all that talk, you only dare to use a defensive taboo?"


    "I just want to avoid causing coteral damage to the Elven Forest," Alice said as a follow-up to Luna''s words. Then, she lifted the Hero''s Sword with the power armor''s right hand.


    Following Alice''s request, the Ymir Kingdom''s Dwarven Technical Unit had created an opening in the power armor''s right palm. The opening was meant to allow Alice''s right hand to make physical contact with the Hero''s Sword.


    Because of this design, Alice could simrly take advantage of the Hero''s Sword''s stat bonuses. In other words, she could also use the Hero''s Sword''s active skill:


    "Okay!!!"


    Upon activating Holy Cross sh, Alice''s body swiftly executed one vertical sh and one horizontal sh, sending a cross of holy light flying toward Luna. The light mana used to form the cross was so powerful that it caused a deep groove to form on the ground as it flew toward Luna. At this moment, though, the light the cross emitted was so dazzling that most of the elves and demons on the battlefield could only see a bright light filling their vision and nothing else.


    "It''s useless!"


    Luna''s voice rang through the air. Looking up, Alice saw that Luna had jumped into the air and dodged the oing holy cross. At the same time, Luna had also used her mana to push the demon soldiers behind her aside, just barely keeping them out of Alice''s Holy Cross sh''s AOE.


    Subsequently, without waiting for the holy cross to fade out of existence, Luna gathered dark mana in her hands and used it to form arge scythe. Then, she ruthlessly swung the scythe at Alice''s Enochian Prism.


    Immediately, a crack formed on the light barrier protecting Alice. Although the Enochian Prism was a powerful taboo, there was still a limit to its defensive capabilities, and it evidentlycked the power to block a second attack from Luna.


    Seeing that Luna had moved on to the next phase of their act, Alice tightened her grip around the Hero''s Sword. Then, as soon as her Enochian Prism shattered, she swung the Hero''s Sword to block Luna''s scythe.


    When light and dark mana, two opposing attributes, shed, the reaction they created was much more intense than any other attribute pairings. Immediately, with Alice and Luna as the center, a storm of power spread across the battlefield.


    "Retreat! This isn''t a fight we can interfere in!"


    Patriarch Elway hurriedly pulled out a staff from a weapon storage hidden under his long sleeves and summoned wind mana to pull back the elves that were sent flying. Then, he hastily retreated from the frontlines with everyone. Even though it was merely a sh of two weapons, the resulting shockwave was not the slightest bit weaker than a collision between two taboos. This situation renewed Patriarch Elway''s recognition of the Hero and the Demon King.


    Unlike the elves'' side, things on the demons'' side were a little better. The demon soldiers were all geared in heavy armor, so the shockwave did not send any of them flying. Even so, Davis still hurriedlymanded everyone to pull away from the battlefield to avoid getting hit by any more shockwaves.


    While the elves and the demons were pulling away, Luna did not stop her attacks against Alice.


    Dark Sunburst!


    A heavy female voice came out from under the cloak. Then, a pitch-ck sphere suddenly formed at the intersection between the Hero''s Sword and therge scythe and shot straight toward Alice.


    Thanks to the massive boost to her Mind stat, Alice instantly determined that the ck sphere was apressed ball of a massive amount of dark mana, and she couldn''t help but be startled by this attack. Although they had nned parts of their fight, theck of training space prevented them from coordinating their entire fight. So, this second phase of their act was also known as the improvisation phase, and Alice did not expect Luna to use such an attack. Meanwhile, based on her perception, she could tell that while Luna''s attack wasn''t strong enough to injure her, it was definitely more than enough to destroy her power armor.


    After realizing this point, Alice promptly pushed Luna''s scythe away with the Hero''s Sword and leaped backward, avoiding the ck sphere Luna had sent flying to her chest. Then, without Alice to receive it, the ck sphere ended up flying toward the distant grasnd.


    A momentter, apanied by arge mushroom cloud, a deafening explosion spread across the entire forest. The sound was so loud that the elves and demons on the battlefield couldn''t help but cover their ears.


    Meanwhile, looking from afar, the grasnd beneath the pitch-ck mushroom cloud had been turned into a total wastnd. Some of the dirt from the grasnd had even flown to Alice''s and Luna''s feet.


    Fortunately, Luna had not directed this attack toward the Elven Forest. Instead, she had directed it toward a prairie outside the forest. Otherwise, this attack would''ve decimated a huge chunk of the forest.


    Regardless, since Luna had already shown her might as the Demon King, Alice naturally had to respond in kind.


    Lifting the Hero''s Sword high into the air, Alice gathered crimson mana from her surroundings and concentrated it into the Hero''s Sword''s tip. Then, she used this mana to form a fiery orbited by a dozen fiery moons. The heat radiated by these fiery celestial bodies was so intense that even the elves and the demons, who had long since retreated into the distance, could feel it.


    "Burning Star!!"

 Chapter 158: Taboo Gallery

    Chapter 158: Taboo Gallery


    Alice was a considerably ruthless person. Although she and Luna were currently fighting outside the Elven Forest, the outside of the forest consisted of a wide expanse of grasnd.


    Luna''s Dark Sunburst might possess great destructive power, but it was a spellposed of dark mana. Hence, apart from destroying and corrupting the terrain caught within the st radius, it didn''t do any further damage. On the other hand, Alice''s Burning Star was a spell fueled by fire mana. If not handled properly, it could very well cause a fire that engulfed the entire prairie.


    Of course, Alice didn''t cast this taboo without considering the consequences. Out of the several taboos she had learned during her time studying in the March Academy, she had also learned a water-type taboo in addition to Burning Star. Thus, so long as she followed up Burning Star with the water-type taboo afterward, she could ensure that the grasnd did not turn into and of fire.


    Burning Star was one of the more ssical taboos, and its principles were used in many different spells and technology. Hence, Patriarch Elway instantly recognized it, and his expression changed when he saw the fiery star forming on the tip of the Hero''s Sword. Immediately afterward, he swung his staff and pushed all of the elven warriors behind him to the ground while shouting:


    "Get down!"


    The next moment, a terrifying heatwave spread across the entire battlefield. The heat was so intense that the elves that got pushed to the ground felt as if their hair had caught on fire. Had Patriarch Elway not pushed the elven warriors to the ground just now, many elves would''ve probably lost consciousness from the st of the


    On the other side, the demon soldiers fared rtively well against the heatwave. The armor they wore was magically enhanced, so other than a little sweat, they remainedrgely unaffected by the intense heat.


    The Burning Star Alice conjured didn''t have a humongous size despite its name. Instead, its size was only simr to that of a Fruit of God. However, the instant it hit Luna, it instantly began expanding into a gigantic fireball, forming a miniature sun that enveloped Luna and burned everything around it.


    While Burning Star might seem like an AOE attack, it was, in reality, a single-target offensive taboo. After expanding to a certain size, the miniature sun stopped expanding and concentrated all its mes within a small area. Even then, though, the intense heat the miniature sun radiated to the surroundings still caused the surrounding grasnd to catch fire.


    Just when everyone thought that the Demon King had sumbed to this attack, a gigantic de made of dark mana suddenly pierced through the top of the miniature sun. Then, the de cut downward, bisecting the miniature sun and causing it to explode. Meanwhile, after the tsunami of mes scattered across the surrounding grasnd, Luna''s figure appeared in ce of the miniature sun.


    Luna''s cloak was magically enhanced. When receiving Alice''s Burning Star before, she had even paid extra care to prevent the cloak from getting damaged. However, despite her precautionary steps, Burning Star''s intense heat still scorched the edges of the cloak a little. Fortunately, though, it still kept Luna''s face hidden from others.


    "Fountain of Uys!"


    Luna cutting apart the Burning Star was something Alice had expected. So, she did not pause her actions and promptly cast the water-type taboo she learned against Luna.


    Immediately, a huge spring of water appeared in the sky and released a huge water column that crashed down onto Luna. Then, the water began defying gravity as it flowed upward, bringing Luna into the sky with it.


    When cast, Fountain of Uys would create a special river that flowed down from the sky to envelope the user''s target and sweep the target into the air. Then, the water mana in the river would nullify any attempts the target made to escape and keep the target trapped in the air until they grew physically exhausted from trying to keep themselves from drowning. In general, Fountain of Uys was a taboo that focused on control. However, it could also be used to wear out the trapped target.


    In addition to keeping Luna suspended in the air, Fountain of Uys also scattered water all over the ce, extinguishing the burning prairie beneath it. Moreover, due to the unique properties of mana water, the burnt grasnd even began recovering its past prestige.


    Normally, an ordinary person would''ve long died after receiving multiple offensive taboos with their bodies. However, Luna was no ordinary person.


    Suddenly, a ck shadow appeared within the torrent of water trapping Luna. Then, this shadow rapidly expanded into a pitch-ck dragon that tore apart the Fountain of Uys.


    "Dragon?!"


    When the demon soldiers saw the ck dragon in the sky, they couldn''t help but shudder in fear.


    Dragons were a significant threat in this world. In addition to having extraordinary strong bodies, almost every dragon could freely cast spells with iparable destructive power once they reached adulthood. Even if their spells didn''t reach the level of taboos, they weren''t far from it, either.


    Oftentimes, one could see novels depicting the Hero defeating evil dragons. This was because dragons were publicly acknowledged as the strongest existences in this world after the Hero and the Demon King.


    "It''s not a real dragon. It''s Dragon''s Shadow, a taboo that replicates a dragon''s appearance using mana," Davis exined to the young demon soldiers around him as he looked at the ck dragon in the sky. "However, this isn''t a simple imitation using mana. Instead, this taboo relies on a special means to trick the world into granting the user the strength of a dragon."


    Meanwhile, after Luna used Dragon''s Shadow to replicate a ck dragon, she concentrated all of the dragon''s power. Then, she detonated it, creating a powerful explosion that instantly tore apart the Fountain of Uys. The explosion was so powerful that it had already surpassed the might a Hero or Demon King could exhibit.


    In exchange for this brief explosive power, though, the ck dragon also began disintegrating, leaving behind only a small trace of dark mana in the air. While this seemed like a useful way to make use of a dragon''s power, if not for this near-suicidal method of attack, even a dragon wouldn''t be able to break free from the Fountain of Uys''s bindings.


    However, although Luna had sessfully broken free from the Fountain of Uys, everyone could also see that the Demon King was at a disadvantage in this battle. After all, the Demon King had been the only one getting hit by attacks this entire time, and she looked much worse for wear than the Hero.

 Chapter 159: Nerve-Racking Exhibition(ism)

    Chapter 159: Nerve-Racking Exhibition(ism)


    <em>Is this dragon also part of a taboo?</em>


    Alice had never seen Luna using Dragon''s Shadow before, but it didn''t stop her from thinking that it looked very cool. At a nce, it looked very much as if Luna had just summoned a dragon to fight for her. Moreover, this wasn''t some mana construct shaped like a dragon. Instead, it also possessed the full strength of an actual dragon.


    As far as Alice knew, such a taboo did not exist in the March Academy''s library. However, she wasn''t particrly surprised to see Luna knowing such a taboo since thetter used to work for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department. Luna must''ve learned many taboos during her time with the intelligence department.


    Although Luna was only capable of using dark mana due to the modifications the Demon King''s Power had made to her body, it did not stop her from learning spells of other attributes. It was just that these spells would be modified into dark-type versions when Luna used them. Meanwhile, the Dragon''s Shadow she just used was one of these examples.


    Regardless, after the taboo exhibition had progressed up to this point, it was already obvious that the Demon King was at a disadvantage. Based on the worried looks on the demons'' faces, it was clear that they could see this point as well.


    However, both Davis and the demon soldiers were fully aware that the Demon King had appearedter than the Hero. So, this disadvantage was only the result of the Hero having more time to develop. Meanwhile, the more time the Hero and the Demon King had to develop, the smaller the gap in strength between them would be. Thus, Davis and the demon soldiers did not despair at this defeat. Instead, they had readied themselves to take action at any moment.


    At this point, their only option was to either retreat or charge forward and fight against the Hero and the elves. The Demon King was the only hope for the demon race to acquire a better living environment, so there was no way they could abandon the Demon King here.


    Meanwhile, after tearing apart Alice''s Fountain of Uys with her Dragon''s Shadow, Luna still did not show any signs of retreating. Although she was feeling a little drained now, she still hadn''t reached a point where she needed to retreat. Not to mention, if she retreated after just this much, it would make it seem as if the Demon King was a coward.


    Although there existed incredibly cowardly Demon Kings in the past, Alice was the holder of the Demon King''s identity this generation. As a dutiful maid, Luna would not allow herself to create a cowardly image for her master.


    Hence, after breaking free from the Fountain of Uys, Luna promptlyunched another attack. With a swing of her right hand, she gathered a huge mass of dark mana in front of her. Then, shepressed this mana into a solid, crystalline pir.


    "Soul Suppression Pir!" Luna shouted and sent the crystal pir smashing toward Alice.


    When Alice saw the gigantic pir shooting toward her like a missile, her eyebrows twitched a little as she couldn''t help but wonder if Luna had forgotten about her power armor. She didn''t have the Enochian Prism protecting her right now. If she couldn''t mitigate the power of this attack sufficiently, her power armor would definitely cease to exist.


    Of course, Alice could also understand Luna''s thoughts. Her maid must''ve thought that it would seem too fake if she retreated after suffering such a small loss and that she needed to show that she was "going all out."


    <em>But don''t you think you''re going too all-out?!</em>


    To make matters worse, Alice had already depleted most of the mana the Hero''s Sword had provided her. The 8,000-point bonus the Hero''s Sword provided to her Mana state might seem like a lot, but that bonus provided only enough mana for a few taboos.


    The reason Heroes couldunch taboos as if they were worth nothing was because of their frightening mana recovery speed. To put it into perspective, assume that a Hero had a 10,000-point mana capacity and that it cost 4,000 points of mana to cast a taboo. Logically, a Hero would lose the ability to cast taboos after two casts. However, that wasn''t the case at all in reality. This was because the mana recovery speed a Hero possessed was so astonishing that they could recover the 4,000 points of mana they expended after taking only a few breaths.


    Unfortunately, although Alice''s body currently had the growth potential of a Hero, she hadn''t fully developed this potential yet. So, her mana recovery speed still hadn''t reached a point where it could let her cast taboos continuously. Meanwhile, the 8,000 points of Mana the Hero''s Sword provided only changed the upper limit of her mana pool. It did not affect her mana recovery speed at all. Thus, she no longer had the mana required to cast any more taboos.


    <em>Thank goodness I came prepared.</em>


    After letting out a soft grunt, Alice injected a small strand of mana into her power armor, causing the opening in her right hand to close. This, in turn, severed Alice''s contact with the Hero''s Sword. After doing so, Alice retrieved a pair of panties from a small opening inside a smallpartment located inside the power armor''s right hand.


    This smallpartment was also something Alice had asked the dwarves to add to the power armor during manufacturing. Meanwhile, Alice had used thispartment to store a pair of panties for a rainy day. When necessary, she could simply close the opening in the power armor''s right palm, retrieve the panties in thepartment, and gain the power of panties.


    Moreover, Alice wouldn''t have to worry about the holy light the panties radiated, either. This was becausethe power armor''s interior was a closed space!


    Even if holy light was shing inside the power armor, nobody on the outside would notice it. Naturally, nobody would know that the Hero was actually holding a pair of panties in her right hand, either!


    Although Alice had switched her weapon from the Hero''s Sword to a pair of panties, her mana pool remained empty. Due to her ability''s restrictions, she could only employ the trick of topping up her mana reserves once every battle. However, this wasn''t a problem. Other than providing stat bonuses, all panties also came attached with an active skill.


    Meanwhile, these active skills did not cost Alice any mana.


    [Weapon: Soft Light-Yellow Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Mind +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana''s Friend (Passive Skill. The mana you require to cast spells is halved);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Steel''s Sublimation (Active Skill. Upon use, unleashes a steel de that severs the target''s soul.)]


    "Steel''s Sublimation!"


    When Alice used the active skill, the panties in her right hand instantly disappeared and transformed into a torrent of mana that poured out of the power armor. Then, this mana transformed into a steel de that gave off a cold sheen.


    The steel de had an ordinary appearance, and it looked nowhere near as magnificent as the gigantic pir Luna summoned. However, Alice could feel the destructive power this steel de carried within it.


    The next moment, the steel de transformed into a silver streak of light that moved straight for the base of the Soul Suppressing Pir. Then, as if it were cutting through a block of tofu, the steel de effortlessly prated the gigantic crystalline pir.


    As soon as the steel de cut into the crystal pir, it promptly began unleashing wave after wave of earth mana, causing the pir to explode and shatter into countless fragments. After neutralizing the dark mana used to form the Soul Suppressing Pir, the remnant earth mana continued to ravage the surrounding area, leaving countless gashes on the ground. However, because of Alice''s control, the earth mana did not injure any elves or demons.


    "This is going to be thest attack, Demon King!"


    Alice reopened the opening in the power armor''s right hand and gripped the Hero''s Sword directly once more. Although the Hero''s Sword did not provide her with any additional mana or mana recovery, the boost it provided to her Strength, Speed, and Mind stats were still very useful.

 Chapter 160: God Asked Me to Pass Along a Message to You

    Chapter 160: God Asked Me to Pass Along a Message to You


    Alice''s words were like a signal, and Luna promptly understood it.


    The battle had already gone on for long enough, and her performance had long since shown that the "Demon King" was at a disadvantage. She had been the only one getting hit by taboos throughout this entire fight, and none of her attacks managed to touch the Hero. At this time, even a fool could tell that she wasn''t a match for the Hero.


    Had Luna escaped before, others would have suspected that the Demon King was a coward. It would also affect Alice''s image among the Four Heavenly Kings. However, now that the Hero had stated that "he" would end the fight with thisst move, it meant that he would be going all-out in thisst attack. If Luna escaped now, it wouldn''t be because she was cowardly. Instead, it''d be because she was conserving her life to fight another day.


    After letting out a cold snort, Luna promptly descended onto the ground and transformed into a cloud of dark fog that enveloped Davis and the demon soldiers. Then, after the fog disappeared, Alice and the elves noticed that the army of several thousand demon soldiers had disappeared along with the mist.


    "She escaped?" Alice muttered, stating the obvious.


    After seeing Luna disappearing, Alice lowered the Hero''s Sword in her right hand and secretly sighed in relief. The act they had put on should be more than enough to trick everyone. After all, while their fight might have been an act, the taboos they used were the real deal. In the battle before, both the demons and the elves only dared to watch as the two of them exchanged taboos with each other. It was unlikely that anyone would notice that she and Luna were acting in such a situation.


    Over on the demon''s side, Luna followed Alice''s instructions and simply left without a word after retreating with Davis and the demon army. That''d remove the possibility of Davis noticing that the person under the cloak wasn''t actually Alice.


    Alice had also thought up a good excuse for Luna''s abrupt departure. She would simply message Davis afterward and say that she had exhausted too much of her mana and that she would call Davis after she recovered. It was apletely reasonable excuse since people who exhausted her mana would typically lose consciousness on the spot.


    Over on Alice''s side, things were also rtively fine. Although she had expended a lot of mana, it wasn''t to a point where her mana pool had hit rock bottom. She had mostly been spending the bonus mana she received during the initial boost, and she had hardly used any of her own mana. Thus, even after putting down the Hero''s Sword, she didn''t have to worry about losing consciousness from mana exhaustion.


    To put it into perspective, assume that Alice''s original mana pool was at 500/500, the bonus mana she received from the Hero''s Sword was 8000/8000, and the total mana she expended during the fight was 7800 points. She might have expended a lot of mana, but she had only been spending the bonus mana the entire time, reducing the bonus mana to just 200/8000. She hadn''t actually touched her own mana. So, even if she let go of the Hero''s Sword and lost the bonus mana, her own 500 points of mana wouldn''t disappear.


    "Lord Hero."


    When Patriarch Elway saw that the Demon King had already left with the demon army, he anxiously walked up to Alice. Although he had lived a very long time and seen many Heroes before, he hadn''t actually interacted with any Heroes other than the Elven Hero Abel. Thus, he couldn''t help but feel a little stressed when conversing with the Hero of this generation.


    "I am Elway, the current Elven Patriarch. Thank you for repelling the demons for the elves I really can''t thank you enough for this."


    "Don''t worry about it. Elves and humans have always shared a good rtionship, so doing this much is nothing," Alice said in a low male voice. Although speaking like this was incredibly ufortable, she didn''t have to keep it up for very long, fortunately.


    Patriarch Elway nodded in response to Alice''s words, his anxiety fading a little when he realized that this new Hero was easy to talk to. Then, he said, "There should still be some demons based around the forest. Lord Hero, should we take action against them?"


    "That won''t be necessary. The main part of the army has already left. The other branches should receive the order to retreat soon, so there''s no need to ughter them to thest man. Not to mention, the Demon King remains the crux of the problem," Alice said, shaking her head. She naturally wouldn''t go out of her way to kill a bunch of normal demon soldiers. "Isn''t that how wars worked in the past? All we need to do is defeat the Demon King. There''s no need toy our hands on normal people. The demons have nevermitted massacre after upying ournds, either, right?"


    "That is true. It seems I have be a little too radical," Patriarch Elway said, sighing. He felt that what the Hero said was correct. It''d be meaningless to ughter the ordinary demons. They''d simply be spilling blood for the sake of spilling blood.


    Although the enmity between the elven race and the demon race couldn''t be resolved easily, he had heard many of the younger elves'' opinions on the demon army. The soldiers in the demon army were just as stern and disciplined as the elven warriors. They were not at all barbaric or cruel like the elves thought in the past. The only problem was that they had a leader hellbent on waging war against the world.


    "The demons surrounded the Elven Forest this time to acquire four Seeds of Nature." After a moment of silence, Patriarch Elway opened up about the crux of the problem this time. "If you need them, we will dly offer the four seeds to you, Lord Hero. However, you might need to wait for a day to get all four seeds. The Tree of Nature''s fruits have seemingly begun to grow faster, and they should be ready for harvest by tomorrow."


    "Hm? Do you not need them anymore?" Alice asked as she turned to look at the elven patriarch curiously. The other party had stood quite some distance away from her, probably out of respect, so she didn''t need to worry that Patriarch Elway would notice that her body was actually just a suit of power armor.


    "We do. Our race has constantly researched the Seed of Nature''s mana production capabilities to develop our technology. Butour race is simply too weak," Patriarch Elway said, sighing. "Our original n was to reduce contact with the outside world as much as possible to maintain a stable living environment. However, thistest situation has given us a wake-up call. We will simply weaken ourselves even further if we continue to iste ourselves. So, after discussions, we have decided to introduce human technology into the Elven Forest. Hence, we no longer have to rely on the Seed of Nature as much as before."


    "That''s a good thing." Alice chuckled. Then, under the elven patriarch''s gaze, she shook her head and said, "But I don''t need the Seeds of Nature. Give them to those who need them. Actually, it wasn''t a coincidence that I appeared in the Elven Forest. I came here to pass a message to your race. It just so happens that I came across the Demon King, so I decided to exchange a few moves with her."


    "Something to tell us?"


    Patriarch Elway was a little stunned. He was certain this was his first time meeting this Hero, so he couldn''t figure out what the other party had to say to the elven race.


    "That''s right. God asked me to pass along a message to you." After secretly learning the elves'' taboos, Alice naturally had to leave something behind. "The fruits growing on the Tree of Nature are called the Fruits of God. They used to disappear for some reason after getting plucked, right? That won''t happen now. God has decided to leave those fruits for you, so you can try researching them alongside the Seeds of Nature."

 Chapter 161: I Shouldn’t Have Recklessly Decided on My Appearance

    Chapter 161: I Shouldn��t Have Recklessly Decided on My Appearance


    The muscr Hero did not leave his name behind, nor did he ept the elves'' offer to stay a few days in the elven vige. He simply walked across the grasnd and toward the distant horizon, leaving the elves with the sight of his mountainous back.


    Alice naturally wouldn''t ept the elves'' invitation. She still wasn''t adapted to moving in the power armor. The only reason she didn''t get seen through just now was because she had mostly stood still throughout her entire fight with Luna, thus hiding her stiff movements from everyone. If she epted the elves'' offer to enter the vige, it''d mean that she would have to interact with the elves at a close distance. In that case, it was almost certain that she would expose her secret.


    Thus, while subjected to the elven patriarch''s disappointed expression, Alice had rejected the other party''s offer and promptly walked into the distance. Then, as soon as she moved out of the elves'' sight, she promptly retracted her power armor and used Flight to fly back to the elven vige. With the March Academy''s magic robebined with her right hand''s ability, Alice flew back into the Elven Forest and returned to her room undetected.


    By the time Alice had returned, news of the demon army surrounding the Elven Forest and the Hero''s subsequent appearance had already spread throughout the entire vige, causing a hugemotion. On the one hand, the elves could finally rx their tense nerves. On the other hand, the March Academy''s students expressed their regret in missing the fight between the Hero and the Demon King.


    Everyone from the March Academy had remained ignorant of what was going on outside the Elven Forest during this past week. The elves had previously told them that there was danger outside and that they shouldn''t run around recklessly. Meanwhile, taking this warning at face value, the March Academy''s instructors and students remained in the vige and never bothered to check what was going on outside the Elven Forest.


    Because of this, the March Academy''s students and instructors missed the opportunity to watch the Hero in action, and many people expressed their great disappointment. After all, the Hero''s poprity among the human race surpassed even that of celebrities. Even if everyone knew that it was dangerous to spectate a fight between the Hero and the Demon King, there were bound to be some people who''d be willing to take the risk to spectate the fight.


    "You''re back?" Zauna was one of the few people who knew Alice''s real identity. So, when she saw Alice entering the room, she revealed a sly smile and asked, "How was the Hero''s fight? Was it exciting?"


    "Huh? Did you go and watch the Hero''s fight, Alice?" Lalu, on the other hand, was ignorant of Alice''s real identity. So, when she heard Zauna''s words, her first reaction was to assume that Alice had snuck out to watch the fight between the Hero and the Demon King. "How sly of you! Why didn''t you bring me with you? I wanted to watch it, too!"


    "How would I know the Hero would appear? I was just curious what was going on outside the Elven Forest, so I went outside to look around," Alice said, giving Lalu the excuse she had prepared beforehand. "I didn''t expect the Hero to appear nearby as soon as I arrived. I also didn''t expect him to start a fight with the Demon King. Overall, the fight was daunting but predictable."


    The "daunting but predictable" part was Alice''s answer to Zauna''s question. Of course, Lalu didn''t notice the underlying meaning of those words, and she simply sighed regretfully and said, "That''s for sure. The Hero has only ever lost once in history. There is no way the Demon King can win against the Hero. It''s a pity I didn''t get to see the Hero''s heroic appearance."


    "There is nothing heroic about his appearance. The contrast between that face and body of his is simply too much."


    Although the target of discussion was herself, Alice still couldn''t help but grumble a little. Looking back at things now, she somewhat regretted her decision to give herself the image of a muscr man with a pretty face. It would''ve been perfectly fine to just describe herself as a muscr man. She was simply asking for more trouble by giving herself such a contrasting appearance.


    When she was talking with the elven patriarch, she had noticed several elves secretly taking photos of herself. She guessed that it wouldn''t be long before her appearance appeared in the various races'' media and news outlets. Many people would also probably be stunned by the sight of her muscr body and pretty face.


    After receiving an answer to her question, Zauna nodded in satisfaction and curiously looked behind Alice. However, she failed to see Luna, so she asked, "Where did Luna go? She seems to have also left for quite some time already."


    "I had her gather some things from me around the vige," Alice answered ambiguously. "She''ll be backter."


    Although Alice''s exnation sounded incredibly unreliable, Zauna and Lalu still took her answer at face value. In Zauna''s case, she thought that Luna must be helping Alice follow up on the Hero''s battle. In Lalu''s case, she thought that Alice had tasked Luna with gathering some information on the elves. After all, Alice was the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. It was necessary for her to understand more about the elves so that their two nations would have a better chance at forming an alliance in the future.


    Meanwhile, Alice wasn''t particrly worried that Luna would be in any danger. While Luna might seem like she had received many hits during their fight, Alice was certain that Luna had recovered from her injuries almost immediately after she received them. After all, even if Luna no longer had the Demon King''s Power, she had still hosted the Demon King''s Power in her body for many years. Even if she didn''t have a Demon King''s full strength, she should still have half of it.


    Hence, rather than worrying about Luna''s safety, Alice was more worried about where Luna had teleported Davis and the demon army. It''d be both terrible and interesting if she teleported them to a certain part of the human realm.


    "Although the elves have already lifted the martialw, the sky is already getting dark. I''m guessing that we''ll only return to school tomorrow," Zauna said as she walked out to the balcony and looked at the lively scene outside.


    The elves originally behaved aloofly. However, probably because they were finally liberated from a week-long stressful situation, many of them were behaving excitedly right now, and some were also interacting with the March Academy''s students. Though, every one of them was talking about the Hero without exception.


    After this incident of the Hero saving the elven vige, the elven patriarch shouldn''t face too much resistance when he proposed his idea of introducing human technology into the elven vigeter on.


    "Since we''re leaving tomorrow, I better go and take care of my final bit of business here now," Alice said as she got ready to leave again.


    Lalu originally wanted to ask what Alice was going to do. However, after seeing Alice putting on the magic robe again, she promptly understood what Alice was trying to do. She also remembered that a certain someone had remained unconscious inside the Nature Shrine for the past week.

 Chapter 162: Saving Abel

    Chapter 162: Saving Abel


    After entering the Nature Shrine, Alice promptly saw Filia''s unconscious body on the floor and Abel''s remnant soul hovering above Filia''s panties.


    Although Abel could only stare into space while Alice was away, there was not the slightest hint of irritation on her face. After all, she had already spent over a thousand years living without anybody noticing her existence. The feeling of being alone was nothing new to her.


    However, probably because her remnant soul had very little strength left, Abel did not notice Alice entering the Nature Shrine at all. Only after Alice had removed her magic robe and exposed her body and aura did Abel realize that Alice had returned.


    "You''re back?" Abel smiled as she looked at Alice. Although this young Hero behaved very strangely and unreliably most of the time, the girl was very serious about studying. Thus, Abel still had a rtively good impression of Alice. "Did you finish taking care of your business outside?"


    "Huh? Do you know what happened outside?"


    Alice was momentarily stunned when she heard Abel''s question. It sounded like Abel knew what had taken ce outside. However, logically, Abel should not be able to separate from Filia''s panties, so it shouldn''t have been possible for her to know what took ce outside the Nature Shrine.


    "Did you forget the pir outside the Nature Shrine?" Abel asked, chuckling when she saw the look of surprise on Alice''s face. When Alice effortlessly exposed her presence in Filia''s panties, she thought that Alice had already seen through all of her secrets. However, looking at it now, that didn''t seem to be the case. "I left that pir there. Through it, I can sense some of the things taking ce within the vige. Although I can only get a general sense of what is going on, I can still sense themotion going on in the vige these past few days."


    "I see." Alice originally found it confusing why Abel would leave a stone pir outside the Nature Shrine. Although she had previously thought of checking it out with her right hand, she had forgotten to do so due to her busy schedule.


    "Although I couldn''t get a clear picture of the situation, it should be rted to the Demon King, right?" Abel asked, a curious expression appearing on her face as she looked at Alice. After her era, Demon Kings of subsequent eras had simrly dragged the elven race into their wars. However, these Demon Kings were defeated before they got anywhere near the Elven Forest. So, she couldn''t help but grow interested when she heard that the Demon King of this generation had appeared in the Elven Forest. "How did it go?"


    "I''m still here, so how do you think it went?" Alice said, shrugging. She knew that there was no point in lying at this time. Since Abel could listen in on the conversations happening within the vige, she would learn of this situation sooner orter. "Like myself, the Demon King has yet to reach her full potential. So, she retreated after exchanging a few taboos with me."


    "I guess that sounds about right. All of the past Demon Kings have been cunning fellows. They won''t take the initiative to start a war until they have grown sufficiently strong. Thetest Demon King is likely to be the same. It is unlikely she will fight you to the death before she fully develops," Abel said, her voice carrying hints of dissatisfaction toward the various Demon Kings'' behavior. "But you should still be careful. Now that the Demon King knows that you''re not fully developed, she might use the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings as cannon fodder to exhaust you and kill you."


    "Times have changed. The demon realm is no longer a ce where might ispletely right. If the Demon King dares treat the Four Heavenly Kings as cannon fodder, the Four Heavenly Kings will be the first ones to rebel," Alice said. She knew that Abel still had a rtively ancient mentality, so she decided to exin a little about the demon realm''s situation to the elf. Of course, she didn''t hope to change the other party''s mind with just a few words. "But while it is unlikely that the Four Demon Kings will be willing to be cannon fodder, there is still a chance that they might try to assassinate me. Hence, I am trying my best to conceal my identity."


    "I guess you''re right. I can now understand why you insist on sneaking into the Nature Shrine. Although I trust my fellow elves, it is better to be safe than sorry," Abel said, sighing.


    Abel was fully aware of how conservative the elves were. It was also why she chose to as a male when she announced her rtionship with Filia. Even though many elves knew about her actual gender, they pretended not to know about it since the information of "a female Hero dating a female elf" was a little too stimting for the people back then.


    Meanwhile, Abel felt that it was highly unlikely for traitors to appear among such a conservative race. However, after all was said and done, she was still an elf, so she understood that it would sound biased and unconvincing for her to make such a statement. Thus, she could understand why Alice insisted on hiding her identity from the elves.


    After all, Alice wasn''t an elf. It was only natural for her to be wary of the elves.


    "But even if you are going to hide your identity, couldn''t you have chosen a better appearance?" Abel suddenly asked. "From what I heard around the vige, everyone seems to be saying that the Hero has the body of an ox but the face of an elf. I can''t even begin to imagine what your disguise looks like."


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> I did it to minimize the likelihood of others linking me with the Hero," Alice said, faking a cough. Although the Hero''s appearance was indeed a little strange, it worked wonders in preventing others from linking the Hero to her. After all, nobody could possibly imagine that the muscr Hero was actually a little girl on the inside.


    "I guess that''s fair. If I didn''t know any better, I would''ve also had difficulty linking such a description with your current appearance," Abel said, chuckling. Then, after going silent for a moment, she continued, "But now that you''ve finished learning the elves'' taboos and dealt with the Demon King''s matter, that meansyou''re about to leave, right?"


    Alice nodded in response, feeling a little sad that she was about to part with Abel. She had spent most of the past week staying in the Nature Shrine with the Elven Hero. It was also thanks to Abel''s teachings that she could learn all of the elves'' unique taboos within a week. Otherwise, she would''ve needed to stay a few more days in the elven vige. Now that it was time to say goodbye, she couldn''t help but feel a little sad.


    "By the way, have you ever thought of creating a body for yourself using the Seed of Nature, Abel?" Alice asked.


    "That''s not possible," Abel said, shaking her head. "While it is true that the Seed of Nature can be used as a medium to recreate a person''s body, the precondition is that the person creating the body must have sufficient knowledge about the body''sposition.


    "However, not only do elves have a small poption, but we also have incredibly long lifespans. As a result, there are incredibly few elf corpses avable for alchemists to research, and the bodyposition of elves remainsrgely a mystery until this day. Hence, it is impossible to recreate an elf''s body with alchemy.


    "Also, even if I am willing to live using a human''s body, I can''t do so. You do remember what I told you before, right? A remnant soul is different from aplete soul. Even if my remnant soul enters an empty body, it will scatter because of its ipatibility with the body. Hence, it is no longer possible for my remnant soul to continue living in a body."


    Alice couldn''t help but feel a little frustrated when she heard Abel''s exnation. The soul had always remained a challenging topic in the field of magic. Simply developing the magic required to fragment a soul already required profound knowledge about souls. Meanwhile, magic to repair a remnant soul and return it to a state ofpletion was simply unheard of.


    The Loli Goddess might be capable of aplishing this feat, but the Loli Goddess had already made it clear that she wouldn''t interfere in the matters of this world unless it is something directly rted to the Demon King''s Power. Although Alice could use the excuse of "Abel could be of help in dealing with the Demon King''s Power" to convince the Loli Goddess, it was unlikely that the Loli Goddess would buy such an excuse.

 Chapter 163: Saving Them as They Come

    Chapter 163: Saving Them as They Come


    On the same night the Hero repelled the Demon King, the elves made an exception and allowed the March Academy''s students to observe the Fruit of God''s ripening process.


    The Fruit of God would release incredibly dense mana when they ripened, and this mana was an excellent "fertilizer" for magicians. Under normal circumstances, only elves were allowed to experience this ripening process.


    However, probably because the Human Hero had helped the elves, or probably because the elves had indeed decided to change their diplomatic strategy, the elves had extended an invitation to the March Academy''s students to experience this moment as well.


    For the overly-isted elven race, this might be the sign of a good beginning. In addition to gaining the Fruit of God as new research material, the Seed of Nature''s production had also been elerated. The elves were also getting ready to wee the humans'' magic technology. Everything was developing in a good direction.


    Zauna and Lalu naturally participated in the impromptu tour. Practically all students from ss Groups B and C had gone to the Tree of Nature. Meanwhile, other than the students from ss Group A, Alice was probably the only other student who had chosen not to head to the Tree of Nature.


    The mana the Fruits of God released the instant they ripened might be a good supplement to the other students, but it was hardly any use for Alice with her extraordinary talent. Hence, Alice naturally did not need to attend the tour. Her decision wouldn''t attract any attention or suspicion from the teachers, either. After all, Alice''s public identity was that of the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. Hence, it was entirely reasonable for her to show no interest in developing her magical prowess. The teachers didn''t have any qualifications to advise her, either, so they simply let her stay in her room.


    Meanwhile, using this chance where Lalu and Zauna were away, Alice released the Soul Gathering Tablet housing Kristine''s soul from its storage box. She felt that she needed to discuss the recent developments with Kristine.


    "You found another Hero''s soul?"


    Sure enough, when Kristine heard Alice describing her encounter with Abel''s remnant soul, her first reaction was one of great surprise.


    "Oh, wait, it''s a remnant soul But there isn''t much difference between a remnant soul and aplete soul other than some missing memories and strength."


    "That''s right. It''s the soul of Abel, the only Elven Hero in history," Alice said, nodding as she looked at Kristine''s soul that was hovering above the Soul Gathering Tablet. Then, she smiled and continued, "I might be the only human to have met so many Heroes before."


    "Probably. You are a Hero as well, after all. If you include me and that Abel, you''vee across three Heroes already," Kristine said, curling her lips.


    In reality, though, what Kristine said was only partially urate. Alice had indeede across three Heroes thus far, but Alice herself wasn''t one of them. After all, Alice wasn''t an actual Hero. Instead, it was Aird, the Hero disguising herself as one of the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings.


    "How strange. Normally, not many people would leave their souls behind. Yet, you just so happen toe across these few people," Kristine muttered.


    Indeed, Alice had alreadye across quite a few objects with souls attached to them. For example, the previous generation''s Demon King Grant, the previous generation''s Hero Kristine, and the Seventh Hero Abel. Every one of these individuals was an existence recorded in history books.


    "Wouldn''t you technically achieve immortality if you attach your soul to a medium?" Alice asked as she looked at Kristine curiously. "Setting aside some limitations to movement, you''d still retain your ability to think. On the off chance youe across someone willing to reconstruct a body for you, wouldn''t you get a second chance at life? Why wouldn''t more people leave their souls behind?"


    "There have indeed been many instances of people researching ways to leave their souls behind in history. Many people should''ve seeded as well. In fact, when I was still alive, materials that were durable and capable of housing souls were quite popr," Kristine exined upon hearing Alice''s confusion. "However, everyone quickly realized a problemstoring one''s soul in an object isn''t necessarily a good thing. Souls would retain the appearance they had when they were drawn out of their bodies. Meanwhile, most people would typically only draw out their souls when they were old and dying."


    "I see. Being old is an unbearable thing for most people. Yet, after attaching their soul to a medium, they would have to continue enduring this weakness for however long their soul continues to exist. That is indeed unbearable," Alice said, nodding. She quickly understood the problem Kristine mentioned. It might seem like a wonderful thing to preserve one''s soul, but it wasn''t necessarily a good thing in reality. "Moreover, a person who left their soul behind would have to watch as the people they were familiar with pass away one after another. That must be a great torment."


    "Yes. The Seed of Nature isn''t something most people can get their hands on. Even if a person wants to construct a new body and live a second time, the average person doesn''t have the ability to secure a Seed of Nature and a high-level alchemist," Kristine said, sighing. "Without the means to procure a new body, a person would have to live a restricted life as a soul and remain trapped in a single ce for dozens or hundreds of years or possibly even longer. Faced with such a situation, most souls would choose to end their misery. This is also why despite the poprity of soul housing during my era, you don''t see many souls around in your era."


    Alice nodded in understanding. She finally understood why Kristine was so surprised to see hering across so many souls within such a short period.


    "Then, why does your soul look so young? Did you draw out your soul when you were young?" Alice asked in confusion.


    "It is a characteristic of Heroes. We will remain in our prime until we die. Hence, our soul will never age," Kristine exined. She knew that Alice hadn''t reached her prime yet, so the girl wouldn''t know about this characteristic of Heroes. "But I still experience loneliness. If I didn''t know that Grant might still be alive, I might not have been able to endure these three centuries'' worth of loneliness, which is why I''m surprised to hear that the Elven Hero''s soul is still around. How did that Abel endure for so long?"


    "She''s an elf. Her concept of time is different from ours," Alice said, shaking her head. Then, she smiled as she continued, "The average person might not be able to bear seeing their loved ones die from old age, but that problem doesn''t exist for the elves. The minimum lifespan of elves starts from a thousand years. Abel is currently attached to her girlfriend''s undan object her girlfriend carries around and personally protecting her girlfriend, so she naturally wouldn''t choose to end her life."


    "I guess that''s the benefit of belonging to a long-lived race," Kristine said, sighing once more. Then, she looked at Alice and asked, "So, what do you n to do? Are you going to revive her as well?"


    "ActuallyI do have such ns," Alice said, scratching her head awkwardly. She couldn''t help but feel as if her behavior of resurrecting Heroes one after another was a little strange. However, every additional Hero she resurrected would also mean a greater chance for her to defeat the Demon King''s Power.


    "That''s going to be a challenge, then. I''ve never heard of any magic capable of restoring a remnant soul into aplete soul," Kristine said in a perplexed tone. "In addition, it is unknown whether there exists an alchemist capable of constructing an elven body."


    "I''ll still give it a try. At worst, I''ll just have to give up," Alice said, shaking her head. Although she wanted to do her best to help Abel, she couldn''t make something out of nothing. If she couldn''t find a way to restore Abel''s remnant soul or an alchemist capable of constructing an elven body, she wouldn''t be able to help Abel even if she wanted to.

 Chapter 164: Getting Recognized Again

    Chapter 164: Getting Recognized Again


    Late into the night, Alice climbed into her bed and got herselffy and ready for bed.


    She had been incredibly busy throughout her entire visit to the Elven Forest. She had been studying taboos non-stop for the entire week. She even had to put on an act with Luna in front of the elves and demons. However, while her week had been jam-packed with things to do, she had to admit that it was also a very fulfilling week.


    Fortunately, other than giving the elves a few scares and knocking Filia unconscious for a few days, nobody else got hurt in the process. Moreover, Alice had also won the rights to the Fruits of God for the elves aspensation. This would bring significant benefits to the elven race as a whole. These benefits were more than enough to make up for the elves'' experience these past few days.


    Regardless, Alice had now finished everything she had set forth to do in the Elven Forest. So, she could finally sleep in peace tonight without worrying about waking up to elves surrounding her with weapons in hand. She could also avoid shouldering the crime of trespassing in the elven vige. Without these worries guing her mind, Alice quickly fell asleep after lying down on her bed.


    Alice had drunk a warm cup of milk and done 20 minutes of gentle stretching before bed. If nothing untoward happened, she should be able to sleep until the sun rose the next morning, and her exhaustion and stress would disappear when she woke up.


    However, just when Alice was about to enter dreand, her bed shook slightly, causing a slight frown to form on her peaceful face.


    The elves were incredibly sensitive toward mana. If an earthquake was about to happen, the elves would''ve definitely alerted the March Academy''s students and teachers beforehand. They would''ve done so even if it was only a minor earthquake.


    However, Alice didn''t recall the elves mentioning anything about an earthquake. In other words, the shaking of her bed just now wasn''t caused by an earthquake.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice frowned and opened her eyes. Then, she came face to face with a bright yet stern pair of eyes looking at her.


    Alice was initially frightened when she saw this pair of eyes. However, she quickly calmed down and concentrated her mana to her eyes, strengthening them and giving herself night vision capabilities. Then, she finally saw the owner of these eyesFilia.


    Alice remembered that the Curse of Delusion she cast on Filia shouldst a week. After a quick mental calction, she realized that Filia should wake up around tonight. Seeing the gleaming look in Filia''s eyes, Alice could tell that the elf didn''te to find her immediately after waking up. Otherwise, the elf would be incredibly weak right now due to not having eaten anything for a week. After all, photosynthesis could only provide her with a limited amount of nutrition. Not to mention, Alice could also smell an apple scenting from the corners of Filia''s mouth, so the other party probably ate some fruits beforeing here.


    "That Can you let me get up first before we talk?" Alice asked in a whisper as she looked at Filia''s posture.


    Currently, Filia had positioned herself above Alice like a tiger, their noses very close to touching each other. The elf might be trying to put pressure on her using this posture, but Alice didn''t feel much pressure from it at all. She might have grown alert if she didn''t know about Filia''s identity. However, since she knew that Filia was Abel''s girlfriend, she naturally had no reason to be nervous.


    Abel had attached herself to Filia''s panties for over a thousand years. If Filia was a spy, Abel would''ve long since noticed it. Since Abel didn''t mention anything about Filia being a spy, it meant that Filia was trustworthy. So, Alice had no reason to be afraid of Filia.


    Meanwhile, after ring at Alice for a while longer and seeing that Alice didn''t seem frightened by her, Filia helplessly sat up. Then, she watched as Alice climbed off the bed and reached for a shirt in the nearby wardrobe.


    "Should we go out and talk?" Alice asked. She wasn''t the only person sleeping in this room. Luna, Lalu, and Zauna were here as well. Only, Lalu and Zauna were fast asleep, so they didn''t notice that an extra person had appeared in the room.


    As for Luna While Filia wasn''t noticing, Alice nced over to Luna and saw Luna''s right hand poking out of her nket and giving her a thumbs-up.


    Luna was technically a Demon King, so it was only natural that she had noticed Filia''s intrusion with her powerful perception. However, she had probably refrained from taking immediate action because she didn''t sense any malice from the elf. Otherwise, Filia would probably already be three feet deep underground by now.


    Filia didn''t seem like she had noticed that Luna was awake. After looking at Alice''s weak and gentle appearance in confusion for a moment, she nodded to Alice''s question.


    After getting off Alice''s bed, Filia quietly walked to the door, opened it, and walked out. She didn''t make even the slightest sound in the process, so it was no wonder Lalu and Zauna remained oblivious of her intrusion.


    However, Alice still felt that she needed to train herself more. After all, Luna had easily noticed Filia''s intrusion, whereas she had only noticed the elf after the other party had climbed onto her bed.


    Meanwhile, after covering her camisole with her shirt, Alice also walked out of the room. Then, she saw Filia standing in the corridor outside, waiting for her.


    Filia did not start their conversation in the corridor. Instead, she led Alice to the hotel''s rooftop, though it''d be more appropriate to call it a treetop rather than a rooftop. After all, the hotel was built into a towering tree, so the hotel''s roof was naturally the tree''s canopy. Meanwhile, to allow people to walk around the canopy, the elves had strengthened the leaves and branches here.


    After arriving at the canopy, Filia finally decided to speak her mind. While looking at Alice''s petite body, she hesitantly asked:


    "What is your name?"


    "Alice," Alice answered truthfully. However, when she considered her current identity, she quickly added, "Alice Ceres, the current Gryffin King''s daughter."


    Although Alice found it strange to bear the family name of Ceres, it was Hatter''s surname. Since she was taking on the identity of Hatter''s illegitimate daughter right now, she naturally had to attach this surname to her name.


    "So it''s you. You''re the princess who was asking for a Seed of Nature," Filia eximed, quickly recalling the matter of the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess asking the elves for a Seed of Nature. Though, she honestly didn''t expect the little girl before her to be <em>that </em>princess.


    Moreover, Filia also knew that the elven council had seemingly agreed to this princess''s request. Although she was very surprised to learn that her people had be more open after she woke up, she supported this change. She was of the opinion that the elves would only get left behind if they kept isting themselves from the world.


    However, despite knowing that this girl before her was the Gryffin Princess, Filia still felt that she should ask the question that had been guing her since a week ago:


    "I came to find you because I wanted to ask you something. Are youthe Hero?"

 Chapter 165: Elven Heros Secret

    Chapter 165: Elven Hero''s Secret


    Despite her efforts to hide her identity as the "Hero," Alice found that others frequently uncovered her identity through inexplicable methods.


    Fortunately,pared to how Aird and Luna uncovered her identity, Filia''s case was much more peaceful. At the very least, Filia didn''t try to attack her from the very onset. Instead, the elf snuck into her room and asked her about her identity.


    "How did you find out?" Alice asked, indirectly answering Filia''s question. Filia sounded rtively confident when she posed her question, so Alice didn''t see it necessary to continue hiding her identity. "This should be your first time meeting me, right?"


    Alice wasn''t aware that Filia had already taken notice of her when she entered the elven vige with her schoolmates. She had also knocked Filia unconscious before thetter could catch a glimpse of her in the Nature Shrine. Hence, in her opinion, this should be Filia''s first time seeing her.


    "Mhm You''re not from the vige, so it''s normal for you not to know about me. In that case, let me introduce myself," Filia said, understanding Alice''s confusion. She might be rtively well-known in the elven vige, but it wasn''t strange for a human from outside the vige to not know about her. It was especially true considering this human was only a little girl. "I''m Filia, the Seventh Hero''s girlfriend. My specialty is mana perception."


    "Mana perception? Isn''t this a trait that all elves possess?"


    Alice couldn''t help but be confused by Filia''s words. She knew that elves were perceptive toward mana. However, that didn''t exin how Filia managed to see through her identity. After all, if Filia could see through her identity as the Hero by relying on this trait, every other elf in the vige would''ve probably noticed that she was the Hero by now. However, that clearly wasn''t the case.


    "That is indeed a trait of our elven race. However, what elves are sensitive to is natural mana. In other words, mana that wanders in the air after being born and hasn''t been processed," Filia exined. "However, my case is a little different. Besides being sensitive toward natural mana, I can also urately perceive other people''s mana. Meanwhile, I would usually take note of unique mana signatures so that I could locate them should I need to in the future."


    "Unique mana signatures" After hearing up to this point, Alice suddenly thought about something Lalu had mentioned. Specifically, the thing about Filia asionally leaving the Elven Forest because she "sensed the Demon King''s aura." Everything made sense after listening to Filia''s exnation. "For example, the Demon King''s Power?"


    "The Demon King''s Power is a special case. Although it sounds like a type of mana, I cannot perceive it. However, I can perceive the dark mana the Demon King''s Power generates, and I have an incredibly deep impression of it," Filia said. Then, she silently looked at Alice for a moment before asking, "You get what I mean, right?"


    Alice instantly understood what Filia was trying to say. It would seem that Luna wasn''t the only one who noticed Filia''s presence. Apparently, Filia had simrly taken notice of Luna. Or, more specifically, Filia had taken notice of the exceptional dark mana inside Luna''s body. Every bit of dark mana in Luna''s body came from the Demon King''s Power. So, since Filia said she had a deep impression of the dark mana the Demon King''s Power generated, she must''ve noticed the peculiarity with Luna''s mana.


    Fortunately, it didn''t seem that Filia intended to pursue this matter. Although she had noticed that the dark mana in Luna''s body came from the Demon King''s Power, she must''ve also noticed that this dark mana wasn''t showing signs of continuous growth.


    If Luna was truly a Demon King, the Demon King''s Power would continuously develop her dark mana, allowing her to achieve frightening growth. However, Filia failed to detect this frightening growth in Luna. It was as if the Demon King''s Power had just poured arge amount of dark mana into Luna and left after doing so. Although Filia didn''t know what had happened to cause this, the Demon King''s Power evidently wasn''t inside Luna''s body.


    Hence, Filia simply treated Luna as someone who hade to obtain arge amount of dark mana because of a fortuitous opportunity. She didn''t deem Luna as the Demon King. If she did, she would''ve taken action against Luna the moment she saw the other party. After all, her hatred for Demon Kings was considerable.


    Of course, if it came down to a fight, Filia definitely wouldn''t be a match for Luna.


    "I already noticed the unique mana signature on you the moment you entered the vige. Those mana fluctuations are not something I will ever forget in my life," Filia said. In reality, there was another reason Filia didn''t take action against Luna, and that was because Luna was Alice''s maid. Meanwhile, Alice carried something on her that could prove her identity. "You have the Hero''s Sword on you, right?"


    Although Alice had put the Hero''s Sword into a weapon storage box, the storage box was of the lowest quality. Hence, it was inevitable that it let some mana leak out. Meanwhile, Filia must''ve taken notice of this leaked mana.


    "Yes, I do have the Hero''s Sword on me."


    Alice sighed in relief. Fortunately, Heroes didn''t have something like a "Hero''s Power" that distinguished them from others. Although most people would refer to the Hero''s strength as the "Hero''s Power," it was merely a fancy way of saying "a buttload of light mana." It wasn''t an actual power source like the Demon King''s Power. Thus, Filia couldn''t tell that Alice wasn''t actually the Hero.


    Otherwise, her fake identity granted by God would be exposed, and who knew what Abel, who was hiding in Filia''s panties, would think of this revtion?


    "But to think you remember even the Hero''s Sword''s mana signature"


    Although Alice understood how Filia had seen through her identity now, she was still a little surprised by this situation. After all, it didn''t seem like it was necessary for Filia to memorize the Hero''s Sword''s mana signature. It didn''t seem like Filia was the type of person who was interested in the Heroes of past generations, either.


    "That''s because my boyfriend isn''t good with swords," Filia exined. "Abel was designated as the Hero amidst the Demon King''s invasion. Unlike the other Heroes, he didn''t have a lot of time to train his magic and swordsmanship. Hence, he chose to give up on the sword and focused solely on magic to fight the Demon King Because of this, he used our race''s Primal Elven Staff exclusively as his weapon, and he would often leave the Hero''s Sword all over the ce."


    "So, you memorized the Hero''s Sword''s mana signature to help him find the Hero''s Sword whenever he misced it?"


    After saying so, Alice couldn''t help but look at Filia''s lower body strangely. She didn''t think that Abel was such a reckless fellow.

 Chapter 166: Abel’s Social Life Is Over if I Say It Out

    Chapter 166: Abel��s Social Life Is Over if I Say It Out


    When Filia noticed Alice looking at a somewhat inappropriate location, she subconsciously looked down and scrutinized her skirt. However, she failed to find any problems, so she couldn''t help but wonder why Alice was looking at her skirt with such a strange gaze.


    "What are you looking at? Is there something wrong with my attire?" Filia asked.


    Because of Alice''s appearance, Filia never suspected that Alice would be having thoughts about her panties. She merely thought that there was something wrong with her attire.


    "No, it''s nothing," Alice said, shaking her head. She had previously promised Abel not to tell Filia about her hiding in Filia''s panties. So, she quickly changed the subject by saying, "As you''ve guessed, I am the Hero of this generation."


    "Sure enough. It''s surprising, though. I didn''t think this generation''s Hero would be the princess of a human kingdom," Filia said with a smile. Then, wearing an amused look on her face, she continued, "There have been many novels online pairing the Hero and princess together recently. I bet nobody would think that the two were actually the same person."


    <em>Actually, the real Hero is one of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings</em> Alice inwardly retorted.


    "Anyway, it''s a relief that you''re the Hero. I''ve been rather worried because of the special power inside your maid, which is why I came to verify your identity," Filia said, failing to notice the strange look on Alice''s face. Then, she continued, "Since she is now working by your side, I believe you must''ve used some method to reform her. I hope you can lead her well and prevent her from taking the wrong path again."


    <em>Actually, I don''t even know how I reformed her</em> All I did was reveal my identity as the Hero, and she immediately got reformed


    Alice felt that she was retorting to every sentence Filia was saying. Unfortunately, despite her urges to verbalize her retorts, she couldn''t allow others to learn about these secrets. Hence, she had no choice but to keep herints to herself.


    "Other than that, I came here for another reason," Filia said as she looked at Alice. Then, she opened the small pouch tied to her waist and pulled out a long wooden staff from it. "I wanted to give this to you."


    "This is"


    Alice was momentarily stunned when she saw the staff Filia took out. However, it wasn''t because the staff looked odd or anything. Instead, it was because she had seen this staff before.


    "This is the staff Abel used in the past. It''s the Primal Elven Staff, and Abel named it ''Katina.'' It stands for ''unfulfilled wish'' in the ancientnguage of the elves," Filia said, introducing the staff Alice had previously seen in the Nature Shrine. Then, she pushed the staff into Alice''s hands and continued, "This staff has been ced in the vige''s Nature Shrine, and nobody has used it for the past thousand years."


    "This Isn''t this your boyfriend''s staff? Is it alright to give it to me?" Alice asked, revealing an awkward expression as she looked at the Primal Elven Staff. Although Filia mentioned that Abel had named this weapon "Katina," Alice knew that the staff''s actual name was "I''ve Decided."


    [Weapon: Primal Elven Staff - I''ve Decided]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Mind +1000, Control +1000, Mana +2000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Nature''s Blessing (Passive Skill. You can create nutrition for your body through absorbing natural light. Your perception toward mana is increased significantly);


    Forest''s Love (Passive Skill. The power of your mana is doubled when you are in a forest. Your enemies will receive the Forest''s Curse when they are in a forest.)]


    Alice could easily guess what had taken ce back then. After receiving the Primal Elven Staff, Abel was most likely very happy and shouted something along the lines of: "I''ve decided! This staff will henceforth be called ''Katina!''"


    Fortunately, the staff was only an Epic-grade weapon instead of a Law-grade weapon. Hence, it didn''t have the same limitations as the Hero''s Sword, and its user didn''t have to shout out its true name and make it known to others to wield its full power.


    "It''s fine. Abel would''ve liked you to have this staff as well," Filia said, a hint of nostalgia appearing on her face as she recalled Abel''s gant appearance. While Abel might be a woman in reality, her handsome and heroic appearance when she fought the Demon King to death was still deeply engraved in Filia''s mind. "You are a Hero as well, after all. Thest thing Abel would want is to see this staff collect dust in the Nature Shrine."


    <em>Wait, no,dy, don''t go arbitrarily making decisions now. Your girlfriend''s soul is still in your panties, and she''s listening to our conversation right this instant. How about we ask for her opinion on this matter first?</em>


    Alice felt very troubled by this situation. She might have been moved and epted the staff if Abel was truly dead. After all, while the Primal Elven Staff wasn''t the most powerful of weapons, receiving it from Filia, Abel''s lover, was akin to receiving the spiritual legacy of the Seventh Hero. This was a situation that could be recorded in history books and shared with future generations.


    However, the problem lies in Alice knowing that Abel wasn''t truly dead. Instead, the Seventh Hero''s soul was residing in Filia''s panties.


    Moreover, Alice had even studied under Abel in the Nature Shrine for the past week. Had Abel intended to give the Primal Elven Staff to her, the elf would''ve said something about it this past week. Yet, the fact of the matter was that Abel had not mentioned the Primal Elven Staff even once this entire week.


    Of course, Alice felt that Abel was unlikely to mind giving the Primal Elven Staff to her. After all, Abel had taught her with a great dedication this past week. She could see that Abel was earnestly treating her like a senior would to her junior. Seeing how dedicated and sincere Abel was in her actions, Alice felt that Abel was unlikely to mind giving away a weapon that she no longer had any use for.


    Unfortunately, the thought of passing on the Primal Elven Staff must''ve slipped Abel''s mind. Hence, the current awkward situation where Filia was handing the Primal Elven Staff instead.


    This situation was akin to a student appearing empty-handed when they were saying goodbye to a teacher they were close with during a graduation ceremony, only for the student''s parents to show upter with a parting gift. In such a situation, the student would seem incredibly rude and ungrateful.


    The situation Abel faced was something simr. Alice could even imagine the sight of the elf saying: "It''s not that I didn''t want to give you this staff. I just forgot about it." However, if Abel spoke up now, Filia would quickly realize that Abel''s voice wasing from her panties, and the wonderful persona Abel had maintained for nearly two thousand years would crumble instantly.


    Hence, Abel had no choice but to stay silent right now.


    "What''s wrong?" When Filia noticed Alice looking at the Primal Elven Staff, simr to how she looked at the lower half of her body previously, she couldn''t help but ask, "Is something wrong?"


    "No Nothing"

 Chapter 167: This Gives off Perry Expedition Vibes

    Chapter 167: This Gives off Perry Expedition Vibes


    "Did you not sleep wellst night?"


    The next morning, Lalu couldn''t help but grow curious when she saw Alice yawning sleepily after taking a seat at the dining table. Alice had been sleeping like a baby throughout this past week, and she had always woken up refreshed and energized. So, it was strange to see Alice looking like she didn''t sleep well on thest day of their school trip.


    "Mhm. I was thinking about some things, so I ended up sleeping a littlete, but it''s nothing serious," Alice said as she rubbed her eyes and took a bite of a youtiao.


    The food culture in this world was very odd. Essentially, it was a mix of Chinese and Western cuisine. There were even strange fusions of the two different cuisines, and one example of this strange fusion was the "steak roujiamo." Rather than putting minced or chopped meat, they used an entire steak to make the roujiamo.


    Alice guessed that this must be the doing of some pitiful, short-lived transmigrator. However, not much information was recorded on this world''s food culture. Even though she had found information on some short-lived chefs in history, she couldn''t tell if these people were transmigrators or not.


    "She must''ve been thinking about some elf," Luna coldly said while looking away from Alice. She might not have chosen to interrupt Alice and Filia''s conversationst night, but she still felt peeved at Alice for having a midnight chat with an unfamiliar elf.


    After all, Luna had determined to dedicate her life to the Hero and remain by the Hero''s side. Although she was still a maid right now, she couldn''t help but feel as if someone had just jumped the queue in front of her when she saw an unfamiliar elf being so close to Alice.


    "Should I cast an Energize on you?" Luna asked as she looked at Alice.


    "Ah, that Nevermind" Alice drylyughed.


    Energize was the spell Heris had previously used to drive for an entire day and night. The spell could keep a person in peak condition for an extra 12 hours, and the target of the spell wouldn''t feel sleepy in the slightest throughout this period. However, after these 12 hours had passed, the target would have to sleep for an additional 12 hours or risk dying from exhaustion.


    Although certain capitalists had already improved and optimized this spell to an exaggerated extent, it would still leave a small degree of damage to one''s mind. It might not be a problem to use it one or two times, but the damage would umte with use. Hence, it''d be best to avoid using it altogether.


    "We''ll be returning at 10 o''clock. Many people have beenining about the elves'' food this past week," Zauna said, smiling as she took a bite of Luna''s c biscuit. "Thankfully, we have Luna to cook for us."


    Most of the students attending the school trip this time were from ss Groups B and C, while only a few students from ss Group A had chosen to participate in the school trip. These few students were mainly nobles who were still trying to get into Alice''s good graces. Because of this situation, few students on this school trip had maids attending to them like Alice did, and most of the other students had no choice but to suffer through the elves'' excruciatingly nd food for the past week.


    "But while they might beining about the food, they''re still getting along quite well with the elves," Alice said as she listened to the noise outside the window.


    The March Academy''s students weren''t the only ones making this noise. Some of the vige''s young elves were also contributing to this noise. The stress they previously faced because of the demons had sparked the interests of younger elves toward the outside world. As a result, these young elves had started to take more initiative in talking with the March Academy''s students.


    Alice could even hear some boys shouting "pass the ball" outside the window. The March Academy''s students were probably teaching the young elves some ball sports. Once the human students left, Alice estimated that these young elves would grow more epting of foreign cultures.


    Meanwhile, the elven patriarch and elders also seemed to have tacitly approved of this cultural exchange, as no elves hade to stop the human students and the young elves from ying around.


    "Speaking of which, Alice, the patriarch asked me to tell you to meet him in his office before you leave the vige," Lalu suddenly said while sipping on her hot milk. "I think he has something to talk to you about."


    "The elven patriarch wants to see me?"


    Alice was stunned when she heard Lalu''s words, and her first reaction was to wonder if the elven patriarch had seen through her identity as the Hero. Meanwhile, her second reaction was to wonder if Filia had told the elven patriarch about her secret.


    However, after giving the matter some thought, Alice felt that this was unlikely to be the case. Alice had talked about a lot of things with Filiast night. Naturally, she had also told the elf that she was trying to hide her identity and why she was doing so. In response, Filia had patted her chest and promised to keep her identity a secret.


    Filia was the Seventh Hero''s girlfriend, so it was unlikely that she would go against a promise she made to a Hero. Hence, Alice felt that the elven patriarch was unlikely to know about her identity as the Hero.


    "Could it be"


    "These are the elven race''s Seeds of Nature, Your Highness."


    Inside the elven patriarch''s office, Patriarch Elway ced two Seeds of Nature in front of Alice. Of course, he wasn''t intending on giving both seeds to Alice.


    "Of these two seeds, one was harvested from a Fruit of God just yesterday, while the other is a seed that we''ve preserved for several centuries Please pick one to take back, Your Highness."


    Sure enough, just like Alice had expected, the elven patriarch had called her here to give her a Seed of Nature. After the Fruits of God''s ripening period had been shortened drastically, the elves had also be much more lenient about giving away the Seeds of Nature."


    "I''ll choose this one, then," Alice said, smiling as she picked the recently harvested seed. After all, she already had a Seed of Nature that had been preserved for a very long time sitting inside her suitcase. Although she wasn''t sure if there was a difference between a fresh and an old seed, she decided that it wouldn''t hurt to have both options avable.


    "Very well. The Seed of Nature doesn''t require any special means to preserve. Although it can produce mana, its interior is sealed very well. So long as you do not use powerful magic to break it, it shouldn''t be damaged easily," Patriarch Elway said as he kept the other Seed of Nature. Then, he continued, "Actually, by giving away this Seed of Nature, we hope that Your Highness can help our vige establish friendly rtions with the Gryffin Kingdom."


    "Hmm?" Alice was a little surprised. She originally thought that the elven patriarch would use this Seed of Nature in exchange for a favor in the future. However, it seemed that the elven patriarch didn''t n on saving this favor for future use. "You mean?"


    "When the demons were asking us for the Seeds of Nature, we considered the possibility that our research would stagnate if we hand over the seeds. As a countermeasure to this problem, we decided to introduce human technology to the vige," Patriarch Elway said with a serious expression.


    "Now, although the Seed of Nature''s production has increased, and the vige won''t experience any development gaps anymore, we realize that we still won''t be able to keep up with the times if we rely solely on the Seed of Nature''s research. So, we still intend on introducing human technology to the vige, and we hope that Your Highness can convey the elven race''s sincerity to King Hatter."


    Alice quickly understood the elven patriarch''s aim. Naturally, she was more than happy to oblige, so she smiled and said, "That won''t be a problem."


    Magic items were not a rare resource, and the human realm was more than capable of meeting the demands of the small elven poption. Meanwhile, not only would this exchange help improve the elven race''s overall strength, but it would also help the economy of the human countries.


    It was a win-win situation for both sides. So long as Hatter''s brain was functioning normally, he definitely wouldn''t refuse the chance to trade with the elves.


    This was also a way the elves could use to improve their strength. After facing the threat of the demons this time, the elves had realized that they could no longer maintain their peaceful lives by simply isting themselves without improving their strength.


    It would seem that Alice''s actions this time had inadvertently opened the doors isting the elven race from the rest of the world.


    TL Notes:


    [1]Perry Expedition:


    (Copied from Wikipedia)


    The Perry Expedition (Japanese: , kurofune raik, "Arrival of the ck Ships") was a diplomatic and military expedition during 1853-54 to the Tokugawa Shogunate involving two separate voyages by warships of the United States Navy. The goals of this expedition included exploration, surveying, and the establishment of diplomatic rtions and negotiation of trade agreements with various nations of the region; opening contact with the government of Japan was considered a top priority of the expedition, and was one of the key reasons for its inception.


    The expedition wasmanded by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, under orders from President Mird Fillmore. Perrys primary goal was to force an end to Japans 220-year-old policy of istion and to open Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. The Perry Expedition led directly to the establishment of diplomatic rtions between Japan and the western Great Powers, and eventually to the copse of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor. Following the expedition, Japan''s burgeoning trade routes with the world led to the cultural trend of Japonisme, in which aspects of Japanese culture influenced art in Europe and America.

 Chapter 168: Please Welcome the Next Victim

    Chapter 168: Please Wee the Next Victim


    After returning to Hall City, Alice returned to her quiet routine.


    Although Lalu expressed her confusion toward Alice''s decision to read taboos with no practical value, Alice said that it was her hobby of reading about the principles of taboos. Thus, Lalu didn''t say anything about the matter.


    At this point, Alice had already gained the reputation of a genius magician in the March Royal School of Magic. Even the students of other sses have heard about her reputation. So, Lalu simply assumed that Alice''s behavior was one of the entricities of geniuses. After all, even some of the students from ss Group B had started initiating conversations with Alice, and it seemed that they were getting along very well.


    ss Group C''s students were mostly bnced magical talents, while ss Group B''s students were focused on research or those with special talents. Compared to ss Group C''s students, ss Group B''s students studied the principles of taboos much more thoroughly. Hence, when these students heard that the princess was also interested in taboo research, they quickly got acquainted with Alice.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s unorthodox behavior created an awkward situation for the nobles of ss Group A. Ever since the princess entered the March Academy, the nobles had brushed up on their manners and political knowledge in preparation to mingle with her.


    However, since Alice entered the March Academy until now, the students of ss Group A hadn''t exchanged more than three sentences with Alice. In contrast, the students of ss Groups B and C had grown very familiar with Alice. Whenever Alice met the students of ss Groups B and C on campus, she would even greet them with a smile. Yet, the students of ss Group A could only receive the princess''s cold gaze and her maid''s brutal fists.


    Of course, some nobles had also tried less than scrupulous methods to approach Alice. These nobles were people who their respective families had already abandoned. Unless they could prove their worth to their respective families, they would be cast out of their families with nothing to their name once they graduated from the March Academy. Hence, these nobles had thought of using violence to coerce Alice into submission.


    However, the consequences of their actions werebest left unmentioned. Those students would most likely be spending the rest of their lives in the mental hospital.


    In any case, Alice''s academy life remained mostly uneventful. With the opportunity to interact with the research students of ss Group B, Alice managed to elerate her taboo learning progress slightly. A month after returning to the March Academy, Alice had not only improved her mastery over the elves'' eleven taboos, but she had also managed to learn five new taboos. Overall, it was a rather pleasant result.


    Alice had also made good progress on her research of Psychokinesis Transcendence. Thanks to the knowledge she learned from Psychokinesis Transcendence, she also had a much easier time understanding other taboos. Should her proficiency in Psychokinesis Transcendence improve in the future, her ability to learn other taboos should also improve.


    However, Alice''s time in the March Academy wasn''tpletely devoid of problems. There was one thing that distressed her a little: theck of variety in the March Academy''s taboo collection. While the March Academy''s library housed many taboos, most of them were offensive spells, few were defensive spells, and even fewer were sealing spells. As for the other spell categories, there were no taboos for them whatsoever.


    The problem with thisck of variety also existed among the taboos Alice learned from the elves. Of the elves'' eleven taboos, seven were offensive spells, three were defensive spells, and only one was a sealing spell. Simr to the March Academy''s taboos, the elves'' taboos were only limited to these three spell categories.


    While theck of defensive and sealing taboos was a problem, theplete absence of taboos for the other spell categories was an even bigger problem. ording to Alice''s knowledge, the "Dragon''s Shadow" Luna used didn''t belong to any of the three aforementioned categories. Dragon''s Shadow was a special taboo capable of fooling the world and stealing the strength of a race. Unfortunately, the March Academy''s library did not possess any information on Dragon''s Shadow.


    Other than Dragon''s Shadow, many other types of taboo also existed in this world, such as gravity- and soul-rted taboos. However, Alice did not find any of these taboos in the library. This situation put Alice in a bind.


    The reason Alice was frantically learning taboos was so that she would have more options when fighting the Demon King''s Power. If her opponent used a fire-type taboo, she would counter with a water-type taboo. If her opponent tried to run away, she would use a gravity-type taboo to control the other party. If her opponent tried to use an attack that couldn''t be countered, she would use a sealing taboo to interrupt the other party''s spellcasting.


    She''d be putting the cart before the horse by simply increasing the size of her taboo repertoire without increasing its variation. So what if she learned a hundred fire-type offensive taboos? They would be rendered useless so long as her opponent possessed one water-type taboo.


    <em>I''ll have to find a way to scourge the rest of the world.</em>


    Alice was feeling a little torn. She was aware that the March Academy wasn''t hiding any taboos from her and that the taboos in the library were everything the academy had collected over the years. Hence, she couldn''t help but shift her attention to other ces.


    After all was said and done, the March Royal School of Magic was a ce of education. Hence, the taboos the academy collected prioritized practicality above all else. Take the "Burning Star" taboo, for example. While the taboo had great offensive capabilities when cast as is, the main reason it was included in the March Academy''s library was because its principles were proven useful to society through the invention of the magic stove.


    On the other hand, Dragon''s Shadow was a taboo that functioned to trick the world and grant the user the strength of the dragon race. Even if one learned Dragon''s Shadow''s underlying principles, it was unlikely that one could put these principles to use in civilian or military technology. One would only be able to maximize the taboo''s effects by casting it as is.


    <em>The various countries'' intelligence departments, military academy, and the inventory of other races</em>


    Alice sat before her desk inside her dormitory as she wondered which location she should infiltrate next. Firstly, she could exclude the human realm''s other magic academies from her list. There was a high chance that these academies would be simr to the March Academy in that they collected only a small variety of taboos. Thus, there''d be no real value in visiting them.


    On the other hand, the various kingdoms'' intelligence departments would be one of her priority targets. If Luna could learn a taboo like "Dragon''s Shadow" from the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, it meant that the various kingdoms'' intelligence departments should have more of such special taboos in their collection. For the time being, Alice shouldn''t have any trouble gaining ess to the taboo archives of the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department with her identity as the princess and Luna''s past affiliation with the department.


    In the case of military academies, Alice shouldn''t have any problems gaining ess to the Gryffin Kingdom''s military academy, either. After all, Catherine, the captain of the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guards, had previously invited her to the military academy. Moreover, Catherine was aware of Alice''s identity as the Hero.


    Meanwhile, as an academy focused onbat, the military academy might not have as big of a taboo collection as the March Academy, but most of the taboos it possessed should be useful in actualbat. However, whether the military academy possessed taboos outside of the offensive, defensive, and sealing categories or not was still unknown.


    Aside from the various human kingdoms'' intelligence departments and military academies, Alice also had the option of learning the taboos of other races. Aside from humans, demons, and elves, there existed many other races in this world, such as beastkins and dwarves. Moreover, unlike the elves, these races often conducted cultural exchanges with other races, so the development of their taboos should be slightly superior to the elves. They also had much bigger poptions than the elves.


    Other than these ces, there was still one more special location Alice felt that she needed to visit.


    <em>The Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower</em>


    Alice frowned when she looked at the information disyed on herputer. The Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower was simrly regarded as a magic academy. However, it was different from the other magic academies found in the human realm.


    The Rhine Kingdom''s royal family had constructed the Royal Magic Tower, and it was considered the most unique existence out of all the magic academies that existed in the various human kingdoms. The royal family had done an excellent job keeping the tower''s information confidential, and even in the current day of information technology, very little information could be found on the Royal Magic Tower on the inte. Even Alice had only learned of the Royal Magic Tower''s uniqueness by asking Frosette, the March Academy''s "Academy Know-It-All."


    Frosette had previously mentioned that the demons had nted spies in the five human kingdoms'' best magic academies. In other words, the demons should have a spy in the Royal Magic Tower. This led Alice to wonder if she should rely on the demons to infiltrate the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower.


    While Alice was considering how she should expand theprehensiveness of her taboo repertoire, her phone suddenly rang and interrupted her thoughts.


    After looking at the caller ID, Alice was momentarily stunned to learn that it was Hatter calling her.


    TL Notes:


    (21st-March-2022)


    I''ve changed the "Langir Kingdom" in Chapter 59 to "Rhine Kingdom."

 Chapter 169: Finally Meeting the Other Kings

    Chapter 169: Finally Meeting the Other Kings


    "Long time no see, Lord Hero."


    Hatter''s familiar voice came through the phone, and he sounded like he was in a pretty good state. He no longer sounded tired like when Alice first met him. It would seem that he had mostly recovered from the aftereffects of having the Demon King''s Power influencing his mental state.


    "Is it convenient for us to talk now?" Hatter asked.


    "I''m alone right now, so just say whatever you have to say," Alice said after looking around her room. She was by herself in her room since Zauna and Lalu had gone to attend their elective sses, while Luna had returned some books to the library.


    "Alright. Do you still remember the matter we discussed a few months ago? The thing about holding a meeting with the other kingdoms'' kings," Hatter asked. "We had to postpone it because of an unexpected incident."


    Upon being reminded by Hatter, Alice quickly remembered that she had indeed been invited to meet the human realm''s kings a few days after she became the Hero. The meeting was meant to get her acquainted with the rulers of the human realm and prove to these rulers that she was indeed the Hero.


    However, the Ymir Kingdom''s king had suddenly died from a heart attack at the time, and the entire Ymir Kingdom had fallen into chaos as a result. To avoid leaking the Hero''s information to the demons, they had no choice but to postpone the meeting until the Ymir Kingdom managed to choose its new king.


    Alice had done some research on the Ymir Kingdom. Meanwhile, she found that the person who ended up inheriting the throne appeared to be thete king''s son. In other words, the Ymir Kingdom''s prince.


    The prince was a middle-aged man named Celt. He had a majestic appearance, and public opinion of him in the Ymir Kingdom was rtively good. Although he seemed to have a little dark history when he was young, he had be much more mature now.


    The session ceremony waspleted about a week ago. When Alice was browsing LINK a few days ago, she had seen the words "session ceremony" appearing on the trending list, but she didn''t pay much attention to it at the time.


    Although a week had passed since the session ceremony, the Ymir Kingdom had experienced chaos for over a month after thete king died. Thus, after taking the throne, King Celt needed to spend time managing his country''s internal affairs, and only now did he have time to attend the meeting between kings.


    "Although the other kings have already seen your picture, we didn''t send your picture to the Ymir Kingdom because of its rather chaotic situation before," Hatter said, a smile forming on his face when he talked about this matter. "So, the new king still doesn''t know what the Hero actually looks like. I wonder if he''ll be shocked to see you at the meeting?"


    "You have really poor taste in jokes" Alice said. Then, she chuckled as she asked, "By the way, since the other kings have already seen my photo, they should''ve found out that the Hero is your ''daughter,'' right? Did they not say anything about it to you?"


    "<em>Cough</em> This identity was prepared to give you a more convenient time in the March Academy, so, of course, I told those kings the truth," Hatter said, his voice turning a little strange when he talked about this matter. He honestly did not expect Catherine to go as far as to arrange Alice as his illegitimate daughter.


    "So, when will we meet?" Alice asked after she was done messing with Hatter. "I still need to apply for leave from my teacher."


    "You''re the country''s princess. Even if you don''t ask for leave, who would dare criticize you for skipping ss?" Hatter said, chuckling. "The meeting is scheduled for a weekter. I''ll have Luna escort you back to the pce once it''s time. Speaking of Luna, she feels different recently. She''s no longer as cold and reticent as before. Do you have any idea what happened?"


    "How would I know? Maybe it''s because she likes following me around?" Alice responded nonchntly.


    Alice naturally knew what had happened for Luna to undergo such a change. Luna hid nothing in front of Alice, and she would answer whatever questions Alice asked. Thus, Alice already knew the full story about Luna''s past.


    Of course, Alice wouldn''t tell anyone about Luna''s past. She had no idea how others would treat Luna once they knew her history. After all, that was the Demon King they were talking about. Even if the Demon King''s Power had already left Luna''s body, the fact that it had once inhabited her body proved that she used to harbor deep resentment toward the human race.


    Alice had personally witnessed the Demon King''s Power leaving Luna''s body, so she naturally believed that Luna''s hatred for humanity had subsided. However, those who hadn''t seen this happening with their own eyes would think that Luna was only hiding her hatred to fool those around her.


    Hence, if others learned that Luna used to be the Demon King, the way her surroundings treated her would be incredibly negative.


    "Well, whatever the case may be, this is a good change. Luna is incredibly capable. Not only is she strong inbat, but she is also skilled in intelligence gathering. Feel free to ask her for help if you encounter any problems," Hatter said, not bothering to look too deeply into the matter. A person''s personality could change for many reasons, so Alice wouldn''t necessarily know what had caused Luna''s change. "By the way, I heard you fought against the Demon King in the Elven Forestst month?"


    "You''re only asking that now?"


    Aliceughed helplessly. Half a month ago, which was also half a month after she left the Elven Forest, news of the battle between the Hero and the Demon King had already made the headlines in various ces. Naturally, this piece of news had also upied the trending list of the human realm''s LINK and the demon realm''s LINKS.


    Moreover, some elves had secretly taken pictures and videos of the battle, so the Hero''s grandiose figure had also officially appeared in everyone''s view for the first time. Nobody doubted that this person was the Hero, either, since his description matched what was written on the Hero''s official LINK ount.


    In addition, the videos the elves took also allowed everyone to realize just how powerful the Hero and the Demon King were. Whether it was the Hero''s Burning Sun or the Demon King''s Dragon''s Shadow, both had left everyone in awe. At the same time, everyone also understood that not just anybody could interfere in the battle between these two transcendental existences.


    Yet, despite the hugemotion, Hatter had never called Alice once to inquire about the fight. For a time, Alice even thought that Hatter might have drowned to death in the ocean of documents in his office.


    "That''s because I knew you won," Hatter said,ughing and expressing his confidence in the Hero. "But how did you manage to disguise yourself to look exactly like your fake description? It looks so realistic"


    "Well Let''s keep this a secret for now. You''ll find out in the future," Alice said, chuckling. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"


    "That''s it for now. We''ll save our conversation for when we meet next week," Hatter said. "See you next week, Lord Hero."

 Chapter 170: Furry Tribe (Not)

    Chapter 170: Furry Tribe (Not)


    "Wee, Lord Demon King."


    After much deliberation, Alice had decided to meet with Frosette again. However, their meeting wasn''t taking ce in a cramped cubicle in the library this time. After learning that the March Academy''s "Academy Know-It-All" was Frosette, Alice chose to meet Frosette directly in her dormitory.


    Frosette was a year two student in the March Academy''s high school division, and she belonged to ss C01. Hence, her dormitory building was just next to Alice''s dormitory building.


    After Alice contacted Frosette, she quickly found Frosette''s room ording to the instructions she was given. Then, she opened the door and entered the room.


    Frosette''s room looked rather inpared to Alice and Zauna''s room. Unlike Zauna, who had decorated the room with all sorts of ornaments and small objects, Frosette didn''t bother decorating her room. Moreover, what surprised Alice was that there was only one bed in Frosette''s room.


    "As you know, it''ll be problematic if my true identity gets exposed, so I can''t have other people staying with me," Frosette exined after noticing Alice looking at her bed in surprise. "So, I discussed it with my roommate and paid her to move out."


    "So that''s how it is."


    Alice nodded, expressing her understanding. Frosette was a spy for the demon race, so she naturally needed tomunicate with the demon realm frequently. If someone else lived with her, there was a high risk that she''d get exposed.


    "So, what is you want from me, Lord Demon King? I will do my best to assist you so long as it is within my capabilities," Frosette said as she moved over a chair for Alice. Then, she sat on her bed and casually said, "By the way, I heard that you fought against the Hero some time ago, Lord Demon King. Although it is unfortunate that you lostit doesn''t matter. After all, the Hero awakened a little sooner than you. In time, I''m sure you''ll be able to overtake the Hero, Lord Demon King!"


    With how widespread that piece of news had be, it was only natural that Frosette had learned about the fight. It was also only natural for Frosette to assume that the Demon King in that fight was Alice in disguise.


    "Let''s set that matter aside for some other time," Alice said, massaging her temples.


    This matter was too much of a headache for Alice to talk about right now. After all, she was technically both the Hero and the Demon King. She had just finished talking with Hatter as the Hero, yet here she was, talking to Frosette as the Demon King a momentter. She felt that she was going to develop a split personality soon if she kept on talking about the fight from different perspectives.


    Not to mention, Alice had visited Frosette because she had something to ask the other party:


    "Since you said that the demons have nted spies in the five human kingdoms'' best magic academies, that means you have a spy in the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower as well, right?"


    The Rhine Royal Magic Tower operated under strict regtions, so not much information about the tower was avable to the public. The only thing most people knew was that the tower housed a wealth of knowledge.


    Moreover, the Royal Magic Tower''s research on unique magic was second to none, and it was one of the main contributors to the various unique spells avable in the world. One example would be the Energize spell. Although thetest version of the Energize spell was developed thanks to the joint effort of countless capitalists, the prototype version of the spell had originated from the Royal Magic Tower.


    After discovering this fact, Alice felt that the Rhine Royal Magic Tower might possess many taboos that other magic academies did not possess. If her conjecture was correct, she could try to acquire the Royal Magic Tower''s taboos by putting in a request with the Rhine Kingdom''s king.


    However, before doing so, she wanted to first make sure that there indeed existed strange and unique taboos inside the Royal Magic Tower. Hence, she had chosen to seek out Frosette.


    "We do have an agent in the Royal Magic Tower. However, because of the tower''s strict regtions, it''s a little tough for him to ry messages out of the tower. He can only do so at fixed intervals," Frosette said, nodding. "Typically, he can only send reports out of the tower during Friday nights. If you need any information for him, it''s best if you tell me now, Lord Demon King. I''ll ask him about it when he sends in his weekly report tomorrow."


    It was Thursday today, which meant that the spy would be sending in his weekly report tomorrow night.


    In reality, Alice could''ve simply used her identity as the Hero to ask for this information from the Rhine Kingdom''s king. She doubted that the Rhine King would refuse. However, if she went with that route, she''d have to wait until she met with the Rhine King, state her request to him at that time, and wait for some time before she could acquire the information she wanted. The entire process would take too much time, and Alice didn''t have the patience to wait for so long.


    "Have him check what taboos are in the Royal Magic Tower for me."


    Alice was currently speaking to Frosette as the Demon King, so there was no problem for her to give orders to Frosette. Not to mention, the demon race revered strength. After watching the video of the "Demon King" casting taboos, Frosette naturally wouldn''t be resistant toward carrying out Alice''smands.


    "I see. Do you n on learning the Royal Magic Tower''s taboos as well, Lord Demon King?" Frosette quickly understood Alice''s aim. The Demon King and the Hero would grow stronger with time. Meanwhile, if they could learn a greater variety of taboos during this period, it''d give them an additional edge over each other when they fought in the future. "That won''t be a problem. I''ll pass on your message to the agent''s handlerter and have the agent send over the Royal Magic Tower''s taboo catalog tomorrow."


    "Besides the Royal Magic Tower, do you know of any other ces that house rare and unique taboos?" Alice asked as she watched Frosette jotting down her orders into a notepad. "Preferably taboos that are different from those stored in the March Academy."


    "The taboos the various magic academies store are typically meant for researching and developing magic technology, so the taboos they collect are indeedcking in diversification. But if we are talking about ces holding the most unique taboos" After pondering for a moment, Frosette said, "It''d have to be the beastkin tribes, I suppose?"


    "The beastkin tribes?"


    Alice was momentarily stunned. She naturally knew about the existence of beastkin. She would also asionallye across beastkin in the March Academy. She had even talked with some of these beastkin students a few days ago.


    The beastkin were essentially humanoid versions of their beast counterparts. However, it''d be wrong to assume that all beastkin looked like beasts walking on two feet.


    The beastkin shared a good rtionship with the humans, so interracial marriages happened frequently. As a result, the purity of the beastkin''s bloodline had thinned out to varying extents over the years. Meanwhile, depending on the purity of their bloodline, their appearances would also differ.


    The purer a beastkin''s bloodline, the more they would look like a beast walking upright on two feet. For example, there was a male foxkin with a rtively pure bloodline in ss B02. When Alice first saw the boy, the first thought that came to her mind was that the other party was a fox wearing clothes and walking on two legs. Though, upon closer look, she found that his face somewhat resembled a human''s face. It was just that his entire body was covered in fur. However, because his fur was soft and pleasant to the touch, he was rtively popr among the girls of his ss.


    Conversely, the thinner a beastkin''s bloodline, the more human they would look. Take the female catkin in ss C06, the ss next to Alice''s, for example. Other than having a cat tail and a pair of cat ears, the girl looked no different than a human. She didn''t have any fur covering her body like the foxkin boy in ss B02. If Alice didn''t know any better, she would''ve thought that the girl was cosying.


    "The beastkin will have different characteristics depending on their races. For example, the foxkin''s charm, the catkin''s agility, etc. Because of this difference, the beastkin had also developed varying taboos that allowed them to take advantage of their different characteristics," Frosette exined. "The operating principles of these taboos are mostly based on the beastkin''s characteristics, so they don''t have much use in technology development. However, some of these taboos can also be used by humans and demons. So, if you wish to learn about unique taboos, your best bet would be the beastkin tribes, Lord Demon King."


    "Is it really okay to use those taboos?"


    Alice felt a little torn when she heard Frosette''s answer. Although the beastkin shared simr cultures to humans because of their good rtionship with humans, it was still a fact that the beastkin had different body structures than humans. What if there were side effects for a human to use the beastkin''s taboos?


    "Will I end up growing extra ears or a tail?"


    "That I''m not too sure"


    Frosette was only making a suggestion. She honestly didn''t know what would happen if humans and demons tried using the beastkin''s taboos.

 Chapter 171: Is Kemonomimi Not Good?

    Chapter 171: Is Kemonomimi Not Good?


    Frosette didn''t know much about the beastkins'' taboos. Although she was the March Academy''s Academy Know-It-All, her knowledge wasrgely limited to the March academy. The beastkins'' taboo was obviously beyond the scope of her duties.


    Meanwhile, after failing to obtain more information from Frosette, Alice turned to Luna, a staff member of the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department.


    "The beastkins'' taboos? Are you trying to learn them, Alice?" Luna was a little stunned when Alice asked her this question. However, she quickly snapped out of her daze and answered, "I know some information on the beastkins'' taboos, but I do not have the necessary magic books with me if you wish to learn them."


    The relevant magic book was required to learn a taboo. It was tough to teach someone a taboo through oralmunication alone. So, even though Luna possessed some beastkin taboos in her repertoire, she wouldn''t be able to teach them to Alice. While she could make a copy of the magic books she read in the past, it would take her half a year just to produce an authentic copy of one magic book.


    "I''ll figure out a way to learn them afterward if I want to. Right now, I just want to know the characteristics and side effects of the beastkins'' taboos," Alice said, shaking her head. If she wanted to learn the beastkins'' taboos, she could simply do so using her identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess.


    Unlike the elves, the beastkins did not iste themselves from the world. They also shared a good rtionship with the humans, and interracial marriages and cultural exchanges often happened between beastkins and humans. Hence, even without revealing her identity as the Hero, Alice should be able to gain ess to the beastkins'' taboos using her identity as the Gryffin Princess. At the very least, her chances of getting permission from the beastkins would be much higher than the elves.


    "If we talk about the many beastkin races individually, they don''t really have many taboos. For example, as far as I know, the bearkins only have one taboo called ''Wild Liberation,'' which functions to maximize their physical body''s strength. The inventor of this taboo once shattered a mountain top with a punch because of this taboo. While under the taboo''s effects, his physique wasparable to that of dragons," Luna said. If it were only information on the beastkin taboos, she had plenty of information she could share with Alice. "Of course, if we are talking about beastkins as a whole The number of taboos the beastkins possess is rather considerable."


    There were many different races among the beastkins, and they lived in tribes scattered across the world. Every human kingdom within the human realm had autonomous regions within them for beastkins. There were also some beastkin tribes living on the border between countries, and some were even living in the demon realm. If they added all of the beastkins'' taboos together, the total number would be significant.


    Alice nodded after hearing Luna''s exnation. Then, she asked the questions she wanted answers to the most, "Can humans or demons use the beastkins'' taboos? If I use the beastkins'' taboos, will I suffer any side effects? Have there been any Heroes who had learned the beastkins'' taboos in the past?"


    "I''m not too sure about these topics," Luna said, shaking her head. She might have learned many things while working for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, but the beastkins'' taboos involved the beastkins'' secrets. The intelligence department wouldn''t pry too deeply into these secrets unless absolutely necessary to avoid creating diplomatic disputes. As a result, Luna''s knowledge of beastkin taboos was rather limited.


    "Let me answer this question for you."


    Luna might not know the answers to Alice''s question, but Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero, did. Since Alice and Luna were the only people in the room right now, Kristine didn''t choose to restrict her voice to only Alice when she spoke up from her tablet this time.


    Although Alice had already requested for a skilled alchemist from Hatter, and Hatter had also agreed to her request, the Gryffin Kingdom was in the midst of conducting an important research topic. Thus, Kristine still needed to stay in the Soul Gathering Tablet for the time being.


    "Humans and demons can also use the beastkins'' taboos. I''m not sure if you know it, but Grant is an example of a Demon King who has learned beastkin taboos."


    "Oh? Grant has learned beastkin taboos?"


    Alice was a little surprised. This was the first time she was learning about this matter. After all, when she fought against Grant, the other party used only gravity magic to fight her. It was also fortunate that Grant''s soul couldn''t cast any taboos. Otherwise, Alice couldn''t have defeated him with only a few pairs of panties.


    "Yes. There are some beastkin tribes living in the demon realm. These beastkins are mostly those who revere strength, so Grant managed to learn some beastkin taboos from them," Kristine exined. "Before bing a Demon King, Grant used to be a human as well. Even after bing a Demon King, his body''s structure remained the same as humans. The only difference was that he had the Demon King''s Power acting as a filtration organ for him. In other words, if he can use beastkin taboos, so can you."


    "When Grant used the beastkin taboos, did he undergo any changes?" Alice asked curiously.


    "He did. When I fought with Grant, he used a taboo called Wolf''s Aura that sharpened his movements and senses to a terrifying degree. While Wolf''s Breath was active, I couldn''tnd any of my attacks on him. He could always perceive and dodge my attacks in a strange way. So, I had no choice but to go on the defensive and endure until the taboo''s effect ran out," Kristine exined. Then, she finally gave Alice the answer she was looking for, "During the taboo''s duration, I saw Grant growing out an extra pair of ears, a tail, and fur that clearly belonged to the wolfkins. These additional features are probably the taboo''s side effects."


    "So there really are side effects."


    Alice sighed when she heard Kristine''s exnation. The beastkins'' taboos were indeed special in that they functioned as support spells that maximized certain characteristics of the user. However, if someone from another race tried to use a specific beastkin race''s taboos, it would seem that they would gain certain features of the beastkin race the taboos were designed for.


    Fortunately, the side effects weren''tpletely uneptable since they would disappear once the taboo''s duration ended. If it meant that she could add a few more support-type taboos to her taboo collection, Alice felt that bing a kemonomimi for a few minutes wasn''t a bad tradeoff.


    The Demon King''s Power was a trickier opponent than the Demon King. If Alice wanted to defeat the Demon King''s Power, she''d have to be more thorough in her preparations.

 Chapter 172: The Royal Magic Tower Sure is Distinguished

    Chapter 172: The Royal Magic Tower Sure is Distinguished


    As promised, Frosette handed the Royal Magic Tower''s taboo catalog to Alice the next night. The catalog also came with some additional information on the Royal Magic Tower.


    After reading through the taboo catalog, Alice found that the Royal Magic Tower was indeed different from the typical magic academy. Unlike the March Royal School of Magic, the Royal Magic Tower''s focus wasn''t on research. The selection of taboos it collected was also strange and varied.


    There was even a ratherunique taboo named "Pleasure Amplification." The taboo''s effects were exactly as its name suggested. When cast, the taboo would use mana to stimte <em>certain </em>parts of the target''s body, heightening the target''s sensitivity in those areas. Aside from physical stimtion, the taboo would also provide emotional stimtion in a <em>specific </em>area.


    In other words, this taboo was essentially a recement of products that induced physical pleasure and X-pills. While this taboo''s effects seemed rather useless, theplexity of the taboo''s mana operations and requirement for precision control was so far beyond the standard spell that it got put into the category of taboo.


    After reading the taboo''s description, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if the inventor of this taboo had misinterpreted the meaning of "taboo" when he developed this taboo


    At the same time, though, the presence of such a <em>cultured </em>taboo also proved that the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower was indeed different from the other magic academies. Alice couldn''t help but acknowledge that the Royal Magic Tower was truly daring to put such a taboo in its library. Was it not afraid of misleading its students?


    However, aside from such excessively offbeat taboos, Alice had also found a few taboos that interested her in the catalog.


    For example, the "Dragon''s Shadow" taboo Luna had used previously was also present within the Royal Magic Tower''s collection. Alice had even found a taboo named "Demon King''s Shadow," which was developed based on Dragon''s Shadow.


    Every taboo listed in the catalog came with a summarized description of its effects, and the Demon King''s Shadow taboo was no exception. Simr to Dragon''s Shadow, Demon King''s Shadow allowed the user to mimic the Tenth Demon King Fogallo Fold''s shadow. In turn, the user would gain arge amount of dark mana.


    Of course, the developer of this taboo had never managed to activate it sessfully. In reality, most inventors of tabooscked the ability to use the taboos they developed. They had only verified the feasibility of their taboos through strict calctions and formic simtions. It was simr to how the people of Earth had verified the existence of objects several light-years away even without seeing these objects in person.


    Of course, gifted people capable of casting the taboos would also appear in this world from time to time.


    "Demon King''s Shadow If it''s developed based on the principles of Dragon''s Shadow, does this mean that this taboo can create a replica of a Demon King that is capable of fooling the world?"


    Alice was a little bbergasted when she saw this taboo. She couldn''t help but be in awe of the bravery and lunacy of the researchers who developed this taboo. Any normal person would never be able toe up with the idea of creating a "Demon King" to trick the world.


    Moreover, even more astonishing was that this spell had been registered as a taboo. In other words, many other schrs had researched this taboo and verified that it really was capable of aplishing the desired effects.


    Meanwhile, seeing as the Demon King this taboo replicated was the Tenth Demon King, the person who developed this taboo must''ve seen the Tenth Demon King in person before.


    "Damn, I''m getting a little interested."


    Although Alice knew that replicating a Demon King capable of deceiving the world wasn''t necessarily a good thing, she couldn''t restrain her curiosity. Even if she wasn''t going to use it, she still wanted to read about the principles of this taboo.


    Initially, part of the reason Alice had worked hard in learning taboos was that magic was new to her, while another part of the reason was that she liked the satisfying feeling she got from studying as a genius. Thanks to her improved talent, she could quickly understand the knowledge she studied and put it to use.


    However, Alice also developed a deep interest in taboos themselves as time passed. At this point, even Lalu would frequently joke about her drive to study and say that she behaved more like the nerds in ss Group B than an all-rounder in ss Group C.


    Aside from these interesting taboos, Alice had also found quite a few taboos that didn''t belong to the general categories of offensive, defensive, and sealing taboos. For example, there was this taboo called "Gravity Restitution." ording to the introduction, this was a taboo capable of rewriting the gravity values in the targeted area, and it was somewhat simr to the spells Grant had used previously.


    The more time Alice spent reading the Royal Magic Tower''s taboo catalog, the stronger her interest grew. She was resolved to ask the Rhine King to let her learn these taboos when she met the other party next week.


    However, sometimeter, Alice noticed that the booklet Frosette handed to her didn''t just include the Royal Magic Tower''s taboo catalog. There was also plenty of other information recorded at the back.


    That''s right Today was supposed to be the day that the spy in the Royal Magic Tower exchanged information with Frosette. The addition of the taboo catalog was only incidental. Everything else here should be the information Frosette required.


    Alice quickly came to a realization. Although it was unfriendly for the humans and demons to spy on each other, Alice did not try to stop their actions. After all, so long as the Hero and the Demon King did not initiate a fight, the chances of the human and demon realms going to war were zero.


    Hence, the humans and demons could spy on each other as much as they wanted. Everything was fine so long as they didn''t discover the true identity of the Hero and the Demon King.


    Although Alice wasn''t particrly interested in learning the information the demons had collected on the humans, she still took a quick look. However, when she reached a certain part of the weekly report, she saw something that made her frown. Specifically, the demon spy working inside the Royal Magic Tower had written the following sentence in his report:


    <em>Prince Etoria has brought up that suggestion again. Should we report this to the Four Heavenly Kings and Lord Demon King?</em>


    "Prince Etoria?"


    Alice pondered for a moment and realized that she didn''t seem to recognize this person. Hence, she opened up herputer and typed in the words "Prince Etoria" into her search engine.


    Immediately, several search results appeared on the webpage, and the topmost result linked to Prince Etoria''s Magipedia page. After clicking into the page, Alice was immediately attracted to one particr section:


    "Etoria, the Rhine Kingdom''s second prince. The prince with the highest potential to inherit the throne" Alice narrowed her eyes at these words. "What suggestion did he make to the demons?"

 Chapter 173: Etoria in Danger

    Chapter 173: Etoria in Danger


    Prince Etoria was the Rhine Kingdom''s second prince. Because the eldest prince had given up the idea of inheriting the throne long ago, the second prince was the most promising sessor candidate. Moreover, based on online evaluations, Prince Etoria did not disappoint the people''s expectations. Not only was he an exceptional talent in the field of magic, but he also had excellent leadership capabilities. When he was young, he had even offered his father, the current Rhine King, some useful suggestions.


    If Alice took the online evaluations at face value, Prince Etoria didn''t seem like a bad person at all. On the contrary, he was both wless inside and outside.


    Yet, despite having everything in his life going his way, Prince Etoria was trying to seek partnership with the demons?


    Holding such doubts in her mind, Alice came to find Frosette again and voiced her confusion.


    "You mean Prince Etoria? He is indeed seeking partnership with us," Frosette said. Alice was the Demon King, so Frosette did not hesitate to reveal what she knew after hearing Alice''s question. "We were originally nning on conveying this message to the Four Heavenly Kings and then let the Four Heavenly Kings report this matter to you, Lord Demon King."


    "What''s the content of the partnership?" Alice asked with a frown, a bad feeling surfacing in her mind. Going by conventional thinking, there was an 80% chance that Prince Etoria was seeking partnership with the demons to


    "Once the demon realm initiates war with the human realm, he is willing to side with us and help us conquer the human realm," Frosette answered.


    Sure enough, Frosette had validated Alice''s conjecture.


    "In exchange, he wants us to help him secure the position of Rhine King and stay out of the Rhine Kingdom''s territory once we conquer the human realm."


    "What a standard act of a traitor Even the content of his suggestion is so mundane. Can''t hee up with something new?" Alice uttered aint. Then, she asked, "Is he so confident that we''ll keep our promise? Is he not afraid that we''ll upy the Rhine Kingdom after conquering the human realm?"


    "I''m not sure where he obtained the information, but he found out that you, Lord Demon King, are sensible and well-spoken like the Third Demon King. So, he is willing to bet on his chances," Frosette said, summarizing the conversation she and the other demon spies had with Prince Etoria. "In addition, Etoria has been continuously training his abilities. He probably believes that since we revere strength, so long as he is strong himself, he will also have the right to speak among us."


    "He sure has a lot of ideas" Alice muttered while massaging her forehead. However, she had to admit that Etoria''s idea wasn''tpletely impossible. After all, it was a fact that the demon race revered the strong. Even the Hero was respected to a certain degree among the demon race. Though, no matter how much the demons respected the Hero, it did not change the fact that they stood on opposite sides. So, the demons would still try to kill the Hero if given the opportunity.


    However, while Etoria was doing his best to prevent the demons from going back on their word, Alice couldn''t help but be curious about the demons'' response to this situation.


    "What about our side? What if Etoria goes back on his word after inheriting the throne?"


    "Etoria has also given a solution for this problem," Frosette answered with a smile. "He will deliberately leave some evidence proving his collusion with us. If he goes back on his promise after bing king, we can publicize this information and instantly turn him from a king to a traitor."


    "What a bold move If he really does that, won''t he be living under our threat for the rest of his life?" Alice said, shaking her head in confusion. "Moreover, if we only avoid upying the Rhine Kingdom after conquering the human realm, won''t others suspect that he is a traitor?"


    "Etoria is very skilled at politics, and he has used his political influence to enlist the help of one of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal magicians. That magician is even capable of casting taboos by himself. Of the taboos the magician knows, there is one called Residue Elimination, and it can erase all recorded evidence after a certain period," Frosette exined. "In other words, the magician can erase all text, image, and video evidence Etoria gives us after a certain period. With that magician''s current abilities, he can make the evidence disappear as soon as one year after casting Residue Elimination."


    "In other words, once we receive evidence of Etoria''s betrayal, we can only use it to control him for one year. After one year, all of the evidence will disappear," Alice said, nodding. That was one more strange taboo she had learned about. "Within this one year, he will help us conquer the human realm. Then, once we conquer the human realm, we will lose the evidence of his betrayal. Meanwhile, once we conquer the human realm, even if we leave the Rhine Kingdom alone, it will be no threat to us. At that time, should we choose to go back on our word, we won''t even need any evidence of his betrayal to break the Rhine Kingdom''s internal stability."


    "That is the general gist of the situation," Frosette said. "Meanwhile, should we choose to honor our word and leave the Rhine Kingdom alone, Etoria has also thought of a way to avoid attracting suspicion to himself. His n is for us to send an army to attack the Rhine Kingdom. Then, he will resist us using the many powerhouses he has gathered under him, creating the illusion that he is doing his best to put up a fight. Not only will this erase any suspicion directed toward him, but he can also use this opportunity to raise his reputation."


    "He wants to put up an act?" Alice couldn''t help but chuckle when she heard about Etoria''s n. However, she suddenly recalled the act she had put on outside the Elven Forest, and she realized that she didn''t seem to have any qualifications to make fun of Etoria''s idea. "But I still don''t quite understand. With Etoria''s current status and reputation in the Rhine Kingdom, he is almost certain to be the next king. Why would he ask us for help?"


    "This is something I''m not too sure about. Etoria has never borated on this part, and we have never bothered to ask," Frosette said, shaking her head. Then, she looked at Alice and asked, "What are your thoughts on this matter, Lord Demon King? Should we agree to Etoria''s partnership proposal?"


    "Etoria"


    After pondering for a moment, Alice recalled that the Conference of Kings would be held next week. ording to Hatter, the various kings would always bring their sessors to the conference with them to develop their political awareness.


    In other words, if nothing unexpected happened, Etoria should also appear in the Conference of Kings next week.


    "Tell him that we are still considering his suggestion and have him wait patiently," Alice said after giving the matter some thought. Then, with her lips curling up slightly, she said, "I need to investigate this situation personally."

 Chapter 174: Catkin Girl Ciel

    Chapter 174: Catkin Girl Ciel


    Alice decided to wait until the Conference of Kings before she made a decision on Etoria''s matter. She felt that it was necessary to get up close and learn what kind of person Etoria really was before she decided how she would deal with him.


    Should the need arise, Alice wasn''t worried that she couldn''t deal with Etoria, either. Regardless of the circumstances, Alice wasn''t just the humans'' Hero right now. She was also the demons'' Demon King. She took on the two most important roles in the war between the human and demon realms. So, if she intended to take care of Etoria, the prince would have no power to resist her whatsoever.


    Aside from learning about Etoria, Alice also needed to figure out what had happened in the Rhine Kingdom. Why would Etoria, the person who was almost certain to inherit the throne, find the need to collude with the demons to inherit the position of king? There was clearly something strange about this situation.


    However, these were all questions saved for next week. For now, Alice shifted her focus to the other group that she had prioritized in her nthe beastkins.


    Setting aside the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower, the only other ces Alice could gain ess to unique taboos reliably were the various human kingdoms'' intelligence departments and beastkin tribes.


    Alice had no intentions of choosing between these two options. She was going to go for everything. In the case of the intelligence department''s taboo collection, Alice should be able to acquire it so long as she talked with Hatter. However, Alice would have to personally take the field regarding the beastkin tribes'' taboos.


    While there might be some beastkin tribes living in autonomous regions inside the various human kingdoms, they were not humans. Thus, Hatter couldn''t justmand the beastkin tribes to hand over their taboos. This might lead to him getting denounced for racial discrimination.


    Hence, if Alice wanted to learn the beastkin tribes'' taboos without putting others in a bind, she would have to contact the various beastkin tribes and form a good rtionship with them.


    Fortunately, the rtionship between humans and beastkins had always been good. Unlike the elves, who only had Lalu to represent their race in the March Academy, plenty of beastkin students were studying in the academy. Some sses even had multiple beastkin students.


    However, Alice''s ss was slightly special. Probably because of Lalu''s presence, no beastkins were assigned to Alice''s ss. So, if Alice wanted to form good rtions with the beastkins, she''d have to visit other sses.


    Alice was rather popr among ss Groups B and C, and everyone in these ss groups was rather weing of the friendly princess. Hence, Alice had a very easy time visiting the beastkin students in the various sses. Meanwhile, after spending two days going around the various sses, she found out how many beastkin students attended the March Royal School of Magic.


    <em>One hundred and thirty This might seem like a small numberpared to the academy''s total student poption, but considering that the beastkins have schools in their own tribes, having over a hundred beastkin students in a human school is already a lot,</em> Alice thought to herself as she looked at the handbook she was holding.


    Recorded on the handbook was the information Alice got from visiting the various sses these past two days. She had even included the sses in ss Group A in her visits. However, as most of the students in ss Group A were nobles, there was not a single beastkin there.


    Wait, no. That wasn''tpletely urate. Most of the nobles in ss Group A had attendants, and several students had beastkins as their attendants. Moreover, almost all of these beastkin attendants were foxkins. It didn''t take a genius to figure out that these students must''ve been charmed by the beauty of the foxkins.


    Of course, there was also an exception. One of the female nobles had a rabbitkin maid. When Alice visited the female noble''s ssroom, the rabbitkin maid had given her a disgruntled re. Initially, Alice was quite confused by this situation, unaware of how she had managed to offend this rabbitkin whom she was meeting for the first time. However, a momentter, she realized that it was the unconscious Milu Rabbit tied to her waist that had earned her the rabbitkin maid''s dissatisfaction.


    Setting this small hup aside, Alice had Luna help her filter through the 130 beastkin students, and they eventually decided on the best person for their first target.


    ss B10''s catkin girlCiel.


    "That''s Ciel, right?"


    While peeking through ss B10''s door, Alice quickly found her target. Although Ciel had been absent from ss B10 when Alice was conducting her reconnaissance mission previously, that did not prevent her from identifying Ciel. After all, the other party was the only catkin girl in ss B10.


    It was currently the afternoon recess, and Ciel was talking with one of her female ssmates. Alice couldn''t hear what the two were talking about as they were far from the door. However, the cat ears above Ciel''s head were rather conspicuous, and the ears would twitch from time to time as Ciel spoke.


    Ciel was your typical beastkin with a diluted bloodline. After more than ten thousand years of interracial marriage, many beastkin bloodlines had already been diluted significantly. In the case of such beastkins, they lookedrgely simr to humans. The only differences between them and humans were the presence of their unique beastkin characteristics such as ears, tail, ws, etc.


    Ciel was also one such beastkin. Aside from having a pair of ck cat ears on top of her head and a ck cat tail swaying behind her, she looked no different from the other students in the ssroom. The only other difference Alice noted was that Ciel gave off the impression of a cat whenever the catkin girl smiled.


    However, while Alice might be acquainted with several of ss B10''s students, she had never shared any interactions with Ciel before. Meanwhile, the reason Luna had chosen Ciel as Alice''s first target was simple. Ciel was a very friendly person, and she was quite popr in the March Academy.


    For some reason, though, Ciel never tried to approach Alice. Logically, an outgoing person like Ciel would''ve taken the initiative to approach Alice, the princess known to be an amiable person. Yet, the catkin girl had done the exact opposite and treated Alice as if she were air.


    Although Luna didn''t know why Ciel was ignoring Alice, based on the testimony of others, Ciel was unlikely to mind making new friends. Thus, Luna had rmended Alice to try approaching Ciel as her first target.


    "Huh? Alice?"


    Although Alice observed Ciel from the door, she did not enter the ssroom. Even so, a boy sitting near the door still noticed her. The boy had spoken with Alice before, so he took the initiative to approach her.


    "Do you have some business in our ss? Did youe across another problem in your studies?"


    Alice had frantically tried to cram magic knowledge into her brain since half a month ago. So, she would often seek the geniuses of the various sses for help with her studies. Meanwhile, a boy in ss B10 had ranked within the top 10 of their year in the most recent written exam, so he also became a target of one of Alice''s previous visitations. Thus, now that Alice had appeared in ss B10 again, the boy who spotted her couldn''t help but ask such a question.


    "No, I''m here to find Ciel," Alice said with a smile.


    Alice wasn''t an actual princess with a princess disease, so she acted naturally even when dealing with students outside of ss Group A. This was why many students had a favorable opinion of her. Not only did she have a beautiful appearance, great talent, and noble status, but she also treated everyone kindly. Never would she put herself in a high position when talking to others.


    "Ciel?" The boy froze for a moment. Then, he nodded, turned his head in Ciel''s direction, and shouted, "Ciel! Alice is looking for you!!!"


    Instantly, the eyes of the entire ss turned toward Alice. This included the catkin girl named Ciel.

 Chapter 175: Strange Catkin

    Chapter 175: Strange Catkin


    As a catkin, Ciel had the cat ears and cat tail typical of a catkin. In addition, she also had an above-average face and long ck hair that flowed smoothly down her back. No matter how Alice looked at Ciel, the other party was undoubtedly a beautiful girl.


    Upon closer observation, Alice also noticed that Ciel''s lips and slit pupils gave the catkin the feeling of a big cat. It was no wonder she was so popr in school. After all, who didn''t like cats? Even Alice couldn''t help but have the urge to rub Ciel''s head.


    Unfortunately, Ciel, who had followed Alice to the roof of the teaching block, did not show Alice the same kind of friendliness she showed to other people. On the contrary, she silently red at Alice after arriving on the roof, keeping it up for several minutes straight.


    Unlike the school buildings Alice had read about in novels, the teaching block''s roof wasn''t freely essible. A magic lock had been ced on the door leading to the roof, and one wouldn''t be able to open it even if one knew the Lockpick spellOf course, a magic lock was no trouble to Alice at all.


    Because the roof wasn''t a ce students could normally visit, it was the perfect ce for Alice to have a conversation with Ciel. After all, Alice was trying to learn the catkin tribe''s taboos, so she might have to reveal some information that''d be inappropriate for others to find out.


    To get to the roof, Alice had used Aspect Separation to attach the concept of a "normal lock" to the door''s magic lock. Then, she used a simple Lockpick spell to open the door.


    Ciel was rtively surprised when she saw Alice effortlessly opening the magic lock that had stumped countless students in the past. However, after entering the roof, she promptly resumed looking at Alice with a disgruntled expression.


    Alice had no idea why Ciel looked at her with such a hostile look. However, considering she was trying to ask the other party for a favor, she quickly reflected on her past actions to see if she had wronged the catkin.


    <em>Did I offend her or her friends in some way?</em>


    That shouldn''t be the case. Alice maintained a rtively good interpersonal rtionship with the people in the March Academy. The only ones she could recall offending were some of the rude nobles from ss Group A. Even then, she would only treat them poorly if they tried to approach her using force.


    However, ording to Alice''s information, Ciel didn''t seem to have any connections with the nobles of ss Group A. So, these nobles shouldn''t be the cause for Ciel''s behavior.


    <em>Am I carrying something that''s upsetting to her?</em>


    Alice looked down and evaluated her attire. Everything about her attire was normal. The academy did not enforce the rule that students needed to wear the allocated magic robe, so Alice was currently wearing the blue and white dress that she normally wore. However, this dress couldn''t possibly be an ufortable sight to the catkins, right?


    If Alice had to bring up something strange about her attire, it''d probably have to be the two objects tied to her waist.


    Of these two objects, one was the unconscious Milu Rabbit. If Ciel was a rabbitkin, Alice would''ve understood the reason for Ciel''s dissatisfaction. However, Ciel was a catkin. Alice had also never heard about Ciel sharing a close rtionship with any rabbitkins.


    The other object was the pouch filled with panties. When looking at this pouch, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if Ciel had managed to sniff them out.


    A cat''s sense of smell was far superior to a human''s. Even though Ciel''s bloodline was very diluted, she still retained many characteristics of a cat. If she noticed that Alice was carrying a pouch full of panties and treated Alice as a pervert, it would indeed make sense for her to hold such an attitude toward Alice.


    Moreover, if Ciel could really sniff out the panties in Alice''s pouch, wouldn''t that also mean that she had noticed the two pairs of panties Alice had used to tie up her hair?


    Alice''s expression changed a little when she realized this possibility. Immediately, she began considering whether she should give up on Ciel and grant the catkin a physically induced amnesia.


    However, before Alice could enact the n she had formted in her mind, Ciel finally decided to speak up. Moreover, her voice contained an obvious trace of annoyance that contrasted with her usual character:


    "Do you have business with me, Your <em>Royal </em>Highness?"


    "Huh?"


    Alice couldn''t help but be a little stunned. Originally, she had been confused about why Ciel seemed dissatisfied with her. However, after hearing Ciel''s strange voice, she suddenly understood what was going on.


    Could the catkin''s poor opinion of her be due to her identity as the princess?


    "ThatI do have something I need your help with," Alice said after faking a light cough. Although she didn''t know why Ciel seemed to be hostile toward her identity as the princess, since Ciel was willing to speak to her, there was still room for negotiation. "I wish to visit your catkin tribe. May I know if you can introduce me to your tribe?"


    "Ha?" Ciel frowned. Then, she looked at Alice and asked, "Why do you want to visit our tribe? There shouldn''t be any connection between you and the beastkin tribes, right?"


    While not many people knew of Alice''s true origins, the tragic story of Hatter that was circting on the inte had be widely popr among the masses. Hatter did not step forward to rify the situation, either, so most people believed that the story was true and that Alice had been "living in a vige her entire life" before she was discovered. If that really were the case, it should be unlikely that she had any interactions with the beastkins.


    "The catkins are part of the Gryffin Kingdom, after all. The king feels that it is necessary to strengthen the catkins'' sense of belonging to the Gryffin Kingdom. So, I wish to visit the catkins to express the sincerity of the Gryffin Kingdom''s royal family," Alice said, giving Ciel the excuse she had prepared beforehand. She wasn''t worried that others would try to verify this excuse with Hatter, either. If anyone brought this up to him, Hatter would definitely do his best to cooperate with her, the Hero. "May I know if you can help me with this, Ciel?"


    "Notachance"


    As Alice expected, the catkin had promptly rejected her request.


    "If you want to visit our tribe, just do so. Why do you need me to pass on your message? With your status as royalty, there''d be plenty of catkins willing to pass on your words for you," Ciel said as she looked at Alice unhappily.


    "You seem to have a very bad opinion of me, Ciel," Alice said as she scratched her face awkwardly. Then, using Ciel''s refusal as an opportunity, Alice decided to ask the question that had been puzzling her this entire time: "Can I ask what I did wrong?"


    "You''ve done nothing wrong. After all, you are <em>the </em>princess," Ciel said, nudging her mouth. "You''re so popr in the academy, so how would I dare say you''ve done anything wrong?"


    Although Ciel had only been expressing her dissatisfaction toward Alice with her words, Alice still managed to discern the cause of Ciel''s dissatisfaction. Looking at the catkin, Alice asked in an uncertain voice:


    "Do you perhaps think thatI''ve stolen your limelight?"

 Chapter 176: This Is Just a Subconscious Reaction

    Chapter 176: This Is Just a Subconscious Reaction


    When Alice thought about the information Luna had gathered on Ciel, one thing that stood out was that the catkin girl was incredibly fond of befriending others. Moreover, unlike Alice, who passively made friends, Ciel would often be the one taking the initiative.


    Hence, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if the reason Ciel disliked her was rted to this matter. Perhaps Ciel was upset over the fact that Alice was making friends without having to put in much effort while she had to bend her back backward to make so many friends.


    "...So you noticed it." After getting her thoughts seen through, Ciel did not bother hiding her jealousy anymore. Instead, she red at Alice and confessed, "That''s right! I hate you! Why do I have to work so hard to befriend others while you get to receive everyone''s attention just by sitting in your ssroom and doing nothing?!"


    Hearing Ciel''s confession, Alice realized that the catkin girl hadn''t ignored her existencepletely. Otherwise, the catkin girl wouldn''t have known that she rarely interacted with others in ss. Typically, she would only ever initiate contact with others when she needed help with her studies. In doing so, though, she would also cause others to develop a good impression of her.


    However, Alice wasn''t deliberately trying to get others to like her. Most of her attention was focused on improving herbat power. Her goal was to take care of the Demon King''s Power and return to her own world as soon as possible.


    "This It was never my intention to do so."


    Alice wasn''t deliberately trying to behave humbly to create a favorable impression on others. Others might see her as the princess, but Alice did not forget that she was merely an ordinary person from Earth. So, she naturally wouldn''t act like she was some lofty existence. Unfortunately, those unaware of the situation ended up taking her normal behavior as her having a humble personality. As a result, she became widely popr among nobles andmoners in the March Academy.


    "If I were in your position, I would''ve definitely done much better than you!"


    Ciel didn''t know what she should say when she saw Alice''s innocent expression. She might want to obtain the attention of others, but that didn''t mean she hated Alice down to the bone. She simply found their circumstances unfair. Thus, she ended up shouting those words out of desperation.


    However, upon hearing these words, Alice couldn''t help but refute:


    "I don''t think that''s necessarily possible."


    "Meow?" Ciel was momentarily stunned when she heard Alice''s words. "Why?"


    "The reason everyone wants to approach me is that despite my royal status, I don''t behave like I am anything special."


    Alice was well aware that aside from ss Group A''s nobles, the students from ss Groups B and C were keen on talking to her because of her behavior that contrasted with other nobles.


    "The reason ss Group C''s students approach me is that they don''t feel the pressure they normally experience when talking to other nobles. Meanwhile, the reason ss Group B''s students approach me is because of my great interest in researching magic despite being the princess," Alice earnestly said. "As for the bunch from ss Group A, while it is true that they are approaching me because of my identity, I doubt you''ll want to have any interactions with those people, either, right?"


    Ciel''s face quickly turned bright red. Although she wanted to refute Alice, she couldn''t think of anything to say.


    Going by Alice''s reasoning, even if Ciel gained the identity of a princess, it was unlikely that she could be as popr as Alice was right now. Ciel was from ss B10, so she knew full well what kind of personalities the bookworms of ss Group B possessed. Unless one was using knowledge as a conversation topic, one would face great difficulty holding a conversation with them.


    "So, there''s no real need for you to hold such hostilities toward me. We can still have a proper conversation," Alice said as she looked at Ciel with a sincere expression. After reasoning with Ciel to such an extent, she felt that the catkin girl should have calmed down. "So, about the catkin tribe''s matter"


    "Sophistry! Who would want to pass on your words?!" Ciel immediately burst into a rage when she heard Alice bringing up this matter again, her hair standing on end. "I''ll never help you with anything in this lifetime!"


    "Is there a need to react like this?" After seeing Ciel''s reaction, Alice finally realized how much of a provocation her rational analysis was. Revealing an embarrassed smile, Alice scratched her head and asked, "Should I apologize?"


    "Save your apologies for yourself, you bastard!"


    The more Ciel looked at Alice''s face, the more she found it displeasing. Cats were originally an unreasonable race. After hearing Alice''s words, Ciel felt her anger skyrocketing. Then, she raised her palm and swung it at Alice''s head in an attempt to vent her emotions.


    It wasmon for arguments between girls to turn physical. However, Ciel wasn''t a ruthless person. She only wished to express her dissatisfaction with Alice, so she didn''t put a lot of strength into her hand.


    However, Ciel probably didn''t expect that the little girl before her wasn''t some frail princess. The instant Ciel lifted her hand and swung it, Alice had promptly made a response.


    Alice might not have fully developed as a Hero yet, but her extraordinary development speed had allowed her to gain strength and speed far surpassing people her age. At a speed beyond Ciel''s perception, Alice untied the Milu Rabbit from her waist and swung it at Ciel''s head, the Milu Rabbit hitting the catkin before thetter could even react to the situation.


    "Meow?!"


    After letting out a strange and unexpected cry, Ciel copsed to the ground and lost consciousness.

 Chapter 177: Unexpected Development

    Chapter 177: Unexpected Development


    When Ciel regained consciousness, she found that her hands and feet were tied up. Moreover, she was in a dark room that gave off a damp feeling, as if it were an underground cave. As a catkin, Ciel couldn''t help but find this situation incredibly ufortable.


    However, rather than the ufortable environment, Ciel was more concerned about where she had been brought to. By the looks of it, the dark room was rtively empty. Apart from a few desks that looked like workbenches, chairs, and empty shelves, she couldn''t spot any other furniture in the room.


    Currently, Alice was seated before one of these desks and relying on a dim magic light to read a book. Meanwhile, standing behind her was the silver-haired maid Luna.


    Upon seeing Alice, Ciel quickly recalled why she had lost consciousness in the first ce. It was because Alice had struck her with a Milu Rabbit. Thus, it stood to reason that Alice was also the one who brought her to this dark room.


    "What do you want?! Let me go!!!"


    After realizing Alice to be the culprit, Ciel promptly began yelling and screaming at Alice.


    Part of why Ciel yelled was to instill a sense of deterrence into Alice, and another reason was to dampen the fear she felt. After all, she had been brought to a dark and isted room by an unfamiliar person. Anyone would feel afraid if subjected to such a situation. Ciel would''ve probably been frightened to tears if Alice weren''t a girl.


    "Huh? You''re finally awake?" When Alice heard Ciel''s yelling, she quickly realized that the catkin had woken up. Then, after closing her book, she began massaging the corners of her eyes while approaching Ciel andining, "You have no idea how terrible the magic light here is. My eyes have started to hurt after doing all that reading in this dark ce."


    "Don''t be reading a book here, then!!!" Ciel subconsciously retorted when she heard Alice''sint. However, she quickly remembered her current situation and hurriedly shouted, "Where is this ce?! Why did you bring me here?!"


    "Don''t make it sound like this is some underground dungeon. While this ce might be underground, it is the magic workshop of one of the Third Hero''spanions," Alice exined, smiling as she crouched down to look at the tightly bound catkin. "So, the magic light here is a product of nearly ten thousand years ago. Its effectiveness is significantly inferior to the magic incandescentmps we use nowadays."


    "The workshop of a Hero''spanion Why did you bring me here, then?"


    Beastkins revered the Hero as much as humans did, so Ciel couldn''t help but be a little stunned when she heard Alice''s words. However, this situation also served to further her confusion. Why would Alice bring her to this ce?


    "Because nobody else knows about this ce. You''re bound to scream for help once you wake up, but I don''t know any sound istion magic, and neither does Luna. So, we had no choice but to bring you here to avoid attracting attention," Alice said, shrugging.


    Although Alice had already answered her question, Ciel only grew even more insecure after hearing it. After all, why would Alice be afraid of attracting attention? Could it be


    "D-Don''te near me, pervert!"


    "Do I really look like a pervert?" Alice couldn''t help but scratch her head at Ciel''s usation. What she was going to talk to Ciel next was rted to her identity as the Hero, so she definitely couldn''t risk letting others overhear their conversation.


    "If you don''t rify what you n on doing next, you would indeed look like a pervert," Luna, who stood behind Alice, honestly voiced her thoughts. Luna was aware that Alice intended on telling Ciel that she was the Hero, so she naturally wouldn''t think that Alice was a pervert. However, it''d be a different story for those unaware of the situation.


    Currently, Alice was slowly walking up to Ciel, a frail catkin girl who had all four of her limbs tied up. If one looked at this situation from an outsider''s perspective, Alice would look like a criminal no matter how one looked at it. If the police saw this, they''d promptly arrest Alice first and ask questionster.


    "This is troubling. I can''t have a proper conversation with you if you keep behaving this way."


    Alice had also noticed that her behavior was a little inappropriate. However, it couldn''t be helped. If she didn''t restrain Ciel, the catkin would definitely try to escape once she regained consciousness. Meanwhile, if she didn''t bring Ciel to this isted workshop, the catkin would definitely yell for help as soon as she woke up and attract the attention of others. Hence, Alice had no choice but to tie Ciel up and toss her in this underground room.


    Seeing that Ciel was still trying to struggle out of her restraints, Alice pondered for a moment. Then, seemingly getting an idea, Alice walked up to Ciel and raised her hand.


    <em>Smack.</em>


    "Meow~"


    Apanied by a mild paining from the side of her head, Ciel let out a cry that resembled the sound cats made when they were in heat. Then, she quickly realized how strange her cry sounded, so she hurriedly mped her mouth shut and looked at Alice with a flustered expression on her face.


    When Luna saw this scene, she couldn''t help but be stunned for a moment. Just now


    "I thought my ears were ying tricks on me on the roof just now, but it seems that isn''t the case," Alice said, narrowing her eyes. Then, she used the book she held to smack Ciel''s head again.


    Ciel''s body shuddered at the physical impact, and a blush formed on her face. Even though Alice''s strike was supposed to hurt, she couldn''t help but shudder as a sense of pleasure spread across her mind and body. Meanwhile, Ciel couldn''t help but grow even more panicked upon realizing this.


    Since she was young, Ciel had been the center of attention, so she had naturally experienced such a situation before. After arriving at the March Academy, she had also taken the initiative to befriend others, just as she did in the past. Even if there were people who disliked her overly friendly behavior, none of these people had even badmouthed her before, let alone getting physical with her.


    Hence, this was the first time Ciel was experiencing such a conflicting situation. This was a situation she had never experienced before, even when she identally hurt herself in the past. It would seem that she would only experience such stimtion when others were treating her badly.


    "Have you calmed down?" Alice sighed in relief when she saw that Ciel had stopped struggling. "You called me a pervert, but aren''t you the one who''s the pervert?"


    "Meow" Ciel let out a weak cry, the blush on her face growing even deeper.

 Chapter 178: So, Hero = Fetish?

    Chapter 178: So, Hero = Fetish?


    "...???"


    Ciel initially thought she had heard wrongly when Alice revealed she was the Hero. However, when she saw the Hero''s Sword in Alice''s right hand, she could tell it was the real deal.


    "...You are this generation''s Hero?"


    Alice nodded. She had already made the necessary preparations to reveal the truth to Ciel. With a powerful mind magician like Luna here, it was a simple task to inspect the memories of Ciel, a high school magician, and verify that she wasn''t a spy. Hence, after the catkin had calmed down sufficiently, Alice promptly took out the Hero''s Sword and revealed her identity.


    Originally, Alice had also thought about using the same method in the elven vige. However, she eventually decided against doing so. Whether it was her request for a Seed of Nature or permission to study the elves'' taboos, both required the permission of the elven patriarch and the several elven elders. Unless Luna went around subduing and inspecting the memories of the entire elven council, Alice wouldn''t dare to reveal her identity as the Hero to the elves.


    "But isn''t the Hero a tall and muscr man? Images of the fight between the Hero and the Demon King in the Elven Forest are all over the inte."


    Ciel still found this situation a little incredulous. As a high school student, Ciel was already an entry-level magician. So, she could tell that the divine runes engraved on Alice''s Hero''s Sword were the real deal. These runes couldn''t be replicated by mortals no matter what, so there was no doubt that Alice''s Hero''s Sword was genuine. Even so, she still found it hard to believe that the Hero she admired was a perverted loli who would kidnap girls and bring them to a small and dark room This was just too much for her heart to ept


    Alice chuckled when she heard Ciel''s words. Then, she gripped the pendant on her neck and injected some mana into it. Immediately afterward, numerous pieces of metal flew out of the pendant and attached themselves to Alice, the metal piecesbining to form the appearance of a tall and robust man with tanned skin.


    "There you have it."


    Ciel was thoroughly dumbfounded. She was still just a high school student, so she naturally didn''t know about the existence of power armor, a piece of magic technology that had yet to be publicized and put into actualbat. Even so, when she saw Alice taking on an appearance simr to the images and videos of the Hero she saw online, she understood that Alice was most likely the Hero.


    "So, the reason I want to visit the catkin tribe is to study your taboos. I doubt this will cause any harm to your tribe, right?" Alice asked after retracting her power armor. Although the dwarves had done a great job making the power armor easy to use, Alice still found it awkward to operate since it wasn''t her actual body. "Of course, I won''t ask you to just let me read your taboos for nothing. If your tribe has any requests, you can bring them up with me. I''ll get Hatter to satisfy your requests."


    The catkins were only one of the many races among the beastkins. The catkins weren''t as strong as the elves, and they didn''t possess anything special like the Elven Forest''s Tree of Nature. So, there was no way Alice could get the Loli Goddess to grant the catkins a privilege as great as the Fruit of God.


    However, of the several catkin tribes that existed in this world, most of them resided within the Gryffin Kingdom''s Beastkin Autonomous Regions. So, the catkins shared an inextricable rtionship with the Gryffin Kingdom, and theyplied with the Gryffin Kingdom''sws to a certain degree. In exchange, they also received the Gryffin Kingdom''s financial support.


    Hence, Alice could help the catkin tribes acquire certain benefits from the Gryffin Kingdom in exchange for the chance to study the catkins'' taboos. This was a win-win situation for both parties.


    "So your identity as the kingdom''s princess is only a cover?" Aftering to terms with Alice''s true identity, Ciel quickly realized that the matter of Alice being King Hatter''s illegitimate daughter was most likely a cover used to hide Alice''s true identity. However, at the same time as Ciel made this discovery, feelings of sorrow overwhelmed her as she muttered, "I can''t believe the Hero I respected is actually a pervert This is too much"


    "Others can say this of me, but you''re the only one who''s not qualified to do so," Alice said, curling her lips as she looked at Ciel''s sorrowful expression. Then, she stepped on Ciel''s waist and continued, "We are both perverts, so stop acting cold."


    "Meow~"


    The paining from her waist and her reason told Ciel that she needed to endure it. However, she still ended up moaning out of instinct.


    "Well? What is your answer?" Although Alice felt that her behavior was somewhat inappropriate, Ciel didn''t seem like she was willing to have a proper conversation with her even after learning about her identity. So, she decided that she might as well get physical with the catkin. It also seemed that the Ciel would only behave a little more obediently in such a situation. "Are you willing to convey my message to your tribe''s leader?"


    "II understand, so please remove your foot," Ciel pleaded in a coquettish voice. However, when she sensed Alice''s foot, which was deeply embedded into her waist, retracting some of its strength, she couldn''t help but say, "On second thoughtplease continue stepping on me ."


    When Luna saw this scene, she couldn''t help but cover her face. She truly couldn''t bear to continue watching this scene.


    Fortunately, Ciel had finally agreed to help Alice. With this, Alice would get to learn new taboos, the catkins would receive benefits from the Gryffin Kingdom in exchange for sharing knowledge on taboos that most people couldn''t even use, and the Gryffin Kingdom would get the honor of helping the Hero in exchange for some negligible resources. It was a wonderful situation where all three parties involved benefited.


    In reality, there was also a fourth party that had benefited from this situation. Ciel had discovered her hidden fetish thanks to Alice''s actions. However, with Ciel''s unyielding attitude, so long as Alice removed her foot, the catkin would most likely deny having such a fetish.


    "You You bastard! Just you wait! I''ll definitely get my revenge on you in the future!"


    Just like Luna anticipated, as soon as Alice removed her foot, Ciel promptly began yelling out of anger and embarrassment.


    "Yes, yes, yes. Once you finish the job I gave you, you are free to do whatever you want to me," Alice said as she untied the ropes tying Ciel''s hands and feet. "But you best think it through first. You won''t have anybody to satisfy your fetish anymore if you offend me. You know my secret, so I won''t leak your secret to others. However, if you share your <em>interest </em>with others, there''s no guarantee whether they will keep it a secret for you."


    Ciel''s expression stiffened when she heard Alice''s words. What Alice said was correct. Although she now knew that she had a strange fetish, she couldn''t casually share it with others. This was also the case for Alice''s identity as the Hero. Since they both knew each other''s secrets, they could use these secrets as leverage against each other. However, it was a different story for other people.

 Chapter 179: Prince Etoria Getting Targeted Even Before Making an Appearance

    Chapter 179: Prince Etoria Getting Targeted Even Before Making an Appearance


    Although Ciel looked reluctant to help Alice, she still obediently did as she was told. She absolutely could not afford to let Alice expose her fetish to others.


    It might be an inconvenience for Alice if she had her identity as the Hero exposed, but not only would this revtion not harm Alice''s reputation, but it would make her receive even more attention instead. She only had to shoulder the danger of getting assassinated by the demons. Moreover, if Alice really got assassinated, it definitely wouldn''t be a good thing for Ciel.


    On the other hand, if Ciel had her fetish exposed, it would be instant social death for her. The effort she had put into befriending others would instantly go down the drain, and everyone around her would start looking at her strangely. Even if everyone did not openly look down on her, they would still try to distance themselves from her.


    Faced with such a disadvantageous situation, Ciel had no choice but to follow Alice''s instructions. Though, while Ciel might not wish to admit it, the feeling of getting forced to do Alice''s bidding was also quitestimting.


    Meanwhile, after getting Ciel to pass on her message, Alice returned to ss with Luna. Even after Ciel sent the message home, it would still take some time before the catkins could give Alice a reply. After all, the catkins would need to carefully consider what benefits they would ask from the Gryffin Kingdom in exchange for letting the princess study their taboos. If they replied too quickly, it''d also make them seem desperate. That, in turn, might put them in a disadvantageous position during negotiations. So, even aftering up with an answer, they''d have to wait for an appropriate amount of time before responding.


    The catkins were not fools. Alice might have told Ciel that the catkins could make whatever demands they wanted so long as they didn''t go too far. Still, the benefits that could be exchanged using the privilege to study the catkins'' taboos would undoubtedly be limited. If the catkins made an absurd demand, they might end up earning the Gryffin King''s displeasure. Hence, based on Alice''s estimates, the catkins would take at least a week before they gave her a reply.


    However, Alice wasn''t in a hurry. She had asked about the Demon King''s Power when shest visited the Loli Goddess. Meanwhile, the answer she got was that the Demon King''s Power still hadn''t found a new host.


    If even Filia could sense the Demon King''s Power''s presence, there was no way the Loli Goddess could not do the same. The instant the Demon King''s Power attached itself to a new host and began modifying the host''s body, the Loli Goddess would be able to perceive the aura it released.


    Although the Loli Goddess couldn''t locate the Demon King''s Power with pinpoint uracy, she could still narrow the range down to the scale of a city. Meanwhile, since the Loli Goddess had yet to sense the Demon King''s Power''s presence, it meant that the Demon King''s Power was still storing up its strength. Hence, Alice still had plenty of time to strengthen herself.


    While waiting for the catkins to give her a reply, Alice resumed studying and waiting for the Conference of Kings to begin.


    The Conference of Kings wouldn''t be held inside a specific country''s pce. Instead, it would take ce in a secret location, as per tradition.


    There had been one instance where the demons hadunched an aerial bombardment when the Conference of Kings was held in a pce. Although the Hero of that time had been present at the conference and helped neutralize the taboo bomb used, the incident still sounded the rm bells of the human kings. Hence, after this incident, the Conference of Kings would always be held in a randomly selected location outside the various kingdoms'' pces.


    Meanwhile, ever since the Conference of Kings started being held in unknown locations, aerial bombardments on pces had also stopped happening. After all, the demons'' goal was merely to eliminate the humans'' leaders in one fell swoop. Since they couldn''t aplish this goal anymore, there''d be no point inunching taboo bombs at pces anymore. The only thing they would aplish through doing so was creating civilian casualties.


    If the demons began massacring harmless civilians, things would quickly devolve into a situation where the humans and demonsunched taboo bombs at each other''s civilian poption. Then, things would end with both sides causing irreparable damage to each other''snds and civilian poption.


    What the demons wanted was the humans'' living environment, and what the humans wanted was to protect their territory. If they ended up devastating each other''snds, they''d simply end up in a lose-lose situation. Hence, both sides had tacitly agreed not to recklessly use taboo bombs. At the very least, they wouldn''t use these weapons of mass destruction on harmless civilians.


    "Where is the meeting being held?" Alice asked as she got into Luna''s ck sedan for the first time in a long while. However, unlike before, Alice did not see the skill "Demon King''s Gaze" when she held the car''s handle with her right hand. Luna had probably felt that it was no longer necessary to conduct suchrge-scale surveince now that she had already found the Hero.


    "It''s in one of the conference rooms of Ramit Magic Network Co.''s office building," Luna answered. As an intelligence officer and Alice''s personal maid, escort, and driver, Luna naturally had the authority to know about the Conference of Kings'' venue. Otherwise, she''d have no way to transport Alice there. "King Hatter has used a third party''s name to borrow one of the conference rooms there. So, besides the kings and a few people involved, nobody else knows that the Conference of Kings is being held there. The demons wouldn''t know about it, either."


    <em>That''s hard to say.</em>


    Alice inwardly sighed. ording to her knowledge, the Rhine Kingdom''s Second Prince Etoria had already shown his intentions to coborate with the demons.


    Originally, Alice thought she could let her guard down during the Conference of Kings. Now, though, because of Etoria''s suspected traitorous intentions, Alice couldn''t help but distrust even the kings. She also had to be even more careful in revealing her identity.


    Although Luna could dive into a person''s thoughts and memories without the person realizing anything, theplexity of this ability was already on the level of taboos. Hence, Luna could, at most, use it against one person at a time. She also couldn''t use it too many times in a row, so it was unlikely that she could inspect everyone at the conference.


    Fortunately, Alice had a clearly suspicious target. Right now, all she wanted to know was why Etoria felt that he couldn''t inherit the Rhine Kingdom''s throne.


    "Do you know about Prince Etoria, Luna?"


    After looking out the back seat''s window and pondering for some time, Alice decided to ask Luna about Prince Etoria.


    "I do. He''s the Rhine Kingdom''s second prince and the most likely person to be the next king," Luna said, nodding. "What''s wrong? Did he harass you? Do you need me to send him to the mental hospital for the rest of his life?"


    "...That won''t be necessary," Alice said, feeling a little speechless. She felt that her maid''s jealousy was worsening as the number of people she(Alice) came into contact with increased. It had gotten so bad that Luna was trying to use violence against anyone who tried to approach her(Alice) now. "I just need you to check his memories afterward. You should be able to dig out some important information."


    "Is that so? I understand."

 Chapter 180: Human Kings

    Chapter 180: Human Kings


    Holl City was a big city. Although Ramit Magic Network''spany headquarters was situated within the capital, it was located quite far from the pce. Going from the pce to theworkpany''s headquarters would take at least 30 minutes by car.


    This was already a significant distance. Even if the demons bombarded the pce with taboo bombs, the bombs wouldn''t cause any harm to the kings. They''d only harm the civilians in the area.


    After leaving the March Academy, Luna drove for close to an hour before finally reaching the district Ramit Magic Network''s headquarters was located inGeek District, Holl City''s high-tech industrial zone.


    Alice had heard about this district before. It was the most prosperous area in the Gryffin Kingdom when it came towork technology. Manywork giants had their headquarters situated here. Meanwhile, Ramit Magic Network Company was one of these giants, and it operated arge number of online games that scourged the money of many youths.


    At least as far as Alice knew, most of the games her ssmates yed originated from Ramit. The game in which Alice previously got cursed for being a noob was also one of Ramit''s products.


    However, ever since Alice had immersed herself in taboos, she hadpletely stopped ying games.


    Following the Conference of Kings'' request, Alice put on a straw hat before exiting the car. The straw hat was meant to cover parts of her face. Combined with her short stature, most people would only see the top of the hat when they looked down at her. So, this would drastically reduce the risk of her appearance getting seen by others.


    Alice was currently widely known as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. It wasn''t a secret that the human kings would bring along several family members whenever they participated in the Conference of Kings. If the demons found out that Alice hade to Ramit Magic Network''s headquarters, they might be able to deduce that a Conference of Kings was currently being held here.


    Although it was unlikely that the demons would partially indiscriminatelyunch taboo bombs without concrete evidence, it was better to be safe than sorry. Hence, Alice was told to conceal her appearance as much as possible.


    Alice and Luna''s arrival did not attract any attention from thepany staff. After all, it wasn''t strange for such a bigpany to have visitors every day.


    Moreover, Hatter had only borrowed one of the conference rooms here. He did not request Ramit to cease its headquarters'' operations for a day. Hence, on the surface, nobody would be able to guess that Ramit''s headquarters was being used as a gathering ce for the various human kings.


    After taking the elevator to the tenth floor and walking out of the elevator, Alice and Luna were immediately greeted by the sight of an empty hallway and a warning sign that said: "Maintenance underway. Entry is strictly prohibited."


    In addition, thanks to their sensitivity to mana, they also noticed traces of mana on the sign. Evidently, some sort of surveince magic had been cast on the sign. If any unrted personnel did try to enter the area, they would probably be chased away immediately.


    Alice and Luna walked past this sign and entered the hallway. Then, they quickly found the biggest conference room in thispany building.


    "Yo, Catherine," Alice greeted, removing her straw hat when she saw that it was Catherine guarding the door. Although the other party had indeed been a little excessive when preparing a false identity for her, Alice had to admit that this false identity had brought her many benefits. Smiling, she continued, "Long time no see."


    "Long time no see, Lord Hero," Catherine responded to Alice respectfully. "The kings are inside waiting already."


    "Huh? I''m thest to arrive?"


    Alice felt a little embarrassed when she heard Catherine''s words. She had Luna drive her here immediately after washing up. Originally, she thought she would have arrived early. She didn''t think she would arrivest.


    However, after thinking it over, she felt this was a reasonable situation. Unlike the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings, the human kings were model workers, and it wasmon for them to stay upte working. So, it was very reasonable for them to hurry their way to this conference early in the morning.


    No matter how big the conference room was, the space inside was still limited. After taking a step into the room, Alice was able to see the whole situation inside the room at a nce.


    There was a long rectangr conference table situated in the middle of the room. The seat of honor, which was the seat on the shortest side of the table, remained unupied. The kings shared equal statuses, so everyone was sitting on the sides of the conference table instead.


    Hatter was seated on the Gryffin Kingdom''s side, and standing behind him were two male guards. The guards gave off a powerful presence. Based on Alice''s prediction, the two should only be slightly weaker than Catherine, so they should be more than adequate to deal with most situations.


    Seated on the Vulcan Kingdom''s side was a woman. From what Alice gathered on the inte, the woman''s name was Abby Motley, and she was the queen regnant of the Vulcan Kingdom. However,pared to Hatter, Queen Abby had evidently paid less attention to her body''s maintenance. Her body was slightly chubby, and it was obvious that she wasn''t someone who exercised frequently.


    Standing behind Abby were simrly two guards. Aside from the two guards, a smiling young man was standing beside Abby. Alice had simrly found information on this young man on the inte. His name was Carl Motley, and he was the eldest prince of the Vulcan Kingdom. He was also the first in the line of session, and he was quite well-received by the public.


    Sitting on the Milt Kingdom''s side was an old man with white hair and a white beard. The old man''s name was Vincent Ted.


    However, Vincent was different from the average old man. While he might have some wrinkles on his face, his body was extraordinarily muscr. His muscles were so dense and massive that they stretched out the royal garbs he wore. If not for his white hair and beard and the wrinkles on his face, nobody would be able to tell that he was an old man.


    Although Vincent also had two guards standing behind him, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if these guards could survive even a punch from their king with their flimsy bodies.


    In addition to the two guards, a middle-aged man and a young girl were also standing beside Vincent. The middle-aged man wore a stern look on his face. His name was Cole Ted, and he was Vincent''s son. As for the girl, she was Vincent''s granddaughter and Cole''s daughter, Sarah Ted. Simr to Carl Motley, Sarah was also rather popr on the inte.


    The Rhine Kingdom''s king was a middle-aged man with a shadowy expression. The Rhine King''s name was Haydn Doyle. In addition to his two escorts, one other person stood by Haydn''s side. This person was also the man Alice was looking to investigateEtoria Doyle.


    The Conference of Kings was a crucial meeting. Yet, Haydn had brought his second son instead of bringing his eldest son. In a sense, he was saying that his second son would be the most likely person to inherit the throne after him.


    Yet, despite this situation, Etoria still hoped to gain the demons'' help to im the throne. This situation confused Alice, and she couldn''t help but wonder if something was going on in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family.


    Lastly, the Ymir Kingdom. Because the Ymir Kingdom''s old king had suddenly died of a heart attack some time ago, the current king was a middle-aged man who got appointed only recently, and his name was Celtic Malthus.


    Standing behind Celtic were simrly two guards. Meanwhile, standing beside him was a young girl. However, unlike the other royal family members present, Alice did not recall seeing this girl''s information on the inte.


    Generally speaking, the human kings and their most likely sessors would have their detailed information shared on the inte. Even Alice was no exception after she became Hatter''s "illegitimate daughter." However, Alice did not see any information on the girl standing beside Celtic even when she looked up information on the various royal families on her way here.


    When Alice researched the Ymir Kingdom''s royal family, most of the information she found was rted to the old king, followed by Celtic Malthus. As for Celtic''s children and so on, none of that information was avable on the inte. The only thing the public knew of was that Celtic had a wife. Nobody knew whether he had a child or not.


    Meanwhile, seemingly noticing Alice''s gaze, the ck-haired girl standing beside Celtic froze for a moment. Then, she cast a smile at Alice.

 Chapter 181: Guess How Many Spies There Are in This Room

    Chapter 181: Guess How Many Spies There Are in This Room


    The kings were discussing other matters when Alice and Luna entered. The Conference of Kings wasn''t a scheduled event, so aside from holding this conference to meet the Hero, the kings also used this opportunity to discuss some international affairs.


    Before Alice and Luna arrived, the kings were in the midst of discussing tariffs between their respective countries. As soon as the conference room''s doors opened and Alice walked in, the kings promptly halted their discussions, and everyone in the room turned to look at the two unexpected guests.


    Meanwhile, after seeing Alice, four out of the five kings exchanged nces with each other and tacitly agreed to postpone their discussions forter. This was because, aside from the new Ymir King, the four other kings knew that the protagonist of today''s conference had arrived.


    As for the poor King Celtic, he had no idea why the other kings had simultaneously stopped speaking. However, since his peers had stopped talking, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut as well.


    It couldn''t be helped. King Celtic was a newly appointed king. Even though he had already begun learning how to handle national affairs long before he had seeded the throne, he was still a greenhorn in the eyes of the other kings. If he wanted to gain the other kings'' respect, he would have to first show his capability in managing his country.


    Aside from the kings, the guards and royal family members present also looked toward Alice. Unlike the kings, though, the others did not recognize Alice as the Hero but the Gryffin Princess instead.


    Alice''s identity as the Gryffin Princess was one of the current trending topics on the inte. Her origins were shrouded in a veil of mystery, and the only information avable on her was that she used to live in an orphanage in the countryside. However, as the orphanage was located in a remote location, the information people managed to collect on her was incredibly limited, and many people couldn''t help but be curious about her.


    "I''m sorry I''mte. I thought I came here quite early already, but it turns out that I wasn''t," Alice said, scratching her head. She thought that everyone was looking at her because she had arrived thetest out of everyone, so she felt that it was best if she apologized.


    However, many people in the room couldn''t help but find it odd when they saw Alice''s behavior. Alice did not behave like a princess at all. While she might not be too well versed in noble etiquette since she had lived in the countryside for a long time, the Conference of Kings was a serious asion that involved the kings and royalty of all five human kingdoms. So, for her to bete and behave in such a carefree manner was incredibly rude. Wasn''t she thinking a little too highly of herself?


    Alice was only a princess. In terms of status, she was only above the guards in this room, while everyone else was either her equal or superior.


    "It''s fine. The conference this time was held because of you, anyway," the Milt Kingdom''s King Vincent said, a friendly smile appearing on his wizened face. His behavior toward Alice was surprisingly good despite herte arrival and carefree behavior.


    It wasn''t strange for Vincent to behave like this, either. After all, Alice was the Hero. She was the strongest shield and spear the human realm had to go against the Demon King and the demon realm''s invasion. He naturally couldn''t afford to snub her.


    Meanwhile, as soon as Vincent finished speaking, the expressions of many people in the room quickly changed. Although they weren''t aware of Alice''s true identity, they knew why the Conference of Kings was being held this timeto meet and talk with the current Hero and verify the Hero''s existence.


    Thus, by saying that the conference this time was being held because of Alice, King Vincent was essentially saying that Alice was the Hero.


    "Well, then. I presume King Celtic and everyone else who has followed my fellow kings here should still be unaware of Alice''s true identity, right?" Hatter chuckled when he saw the astonished expressions of Celtic and the various royal family members. "As you know, her name is Alice. Her identity to the public is that of my illegitimate daughter, but her real identity is the Hero who will fight against the Demon King."


    When Hatter finished speaking, the conference room fell silent momentarily. The Ymir Kingdom''s King Celtic had looked at Alice for a long while before his stiffened expression loosened up slightly. As the only king not to have seen the Hero''s photo, he waspletely unaware of Alice''s true identity. So, when he previously saw Alice''s carefree behavior, he had, in reality, wanted to educate this carefree princess on Hatter''s behalf and have her pay more attention to her etiquette. Fortunately, he had made the correct move to keep his mouth shut.


    It was publicly recognized that the Hero was of greater importance than a king. After all, if a country lost its ruler, it could simply elect a new one. However, if the human realm lost its Hero, the Demon King could single-handedly tten the human realm. At that time, it wouldn''t matter even if the human realm''s rulers stayed alive.


    Meanwhile, Alice had also noticed the change in everyone''s expressions. Although she wasn''t an expert at reading facial expressions, she still noticed some clues when she paid close attention.


    For example, the change in Prince Etoria''s expression was quite significant when he heard about her identity. Although Alice couldn''t tell what this change represented, it still showed that there were fluctuations in his heart.


    <em>Ha How I wish I could read facial expressions like the protagonists in novels </em>Alice inwardlymented.


    However, while Alice might not have the ability to read facial expressions, her maid, in addition to being a powerful dark magician, was also a powerful mind magician. With Luna''s abilities, she could easily read a young prince''s mind without attracting anyone''s attention. Even a mind magician like Hatter wouldn''t notice it.


    After the silence in the room continued for a while, Alice walked over to the Gryffin Kingdom''s side and sat beside Hatter. Meanwhile, Luna stood beside Alice and ced her gaze on Prince Etoria. Then, she secretly began casting her mind magic to invade Prince Etoria''s mind.


    If Etoria was a normal person, Luna could even brainwash him into her puppet without anyone in this room being the wiser. Unfortunately, anyone who had receivedpulsory education in this world would have more or less refined their mana. So, aside from those who had not received a formal education, everyone else in this world couldn''t be considered a normal person. Naturally, this was also the case for Prince Etoria.


    "Well, let''s set the tariff issue aside for now and get to the main topic of this conference."


    After Alice took her seat, the first to speak up was the Rhine Kingdom''s King Haydn. Although this middle-aged man with a shadowy expression had tried his best to squeeze out a smile, Alice felt that he was better off sticking with his shadowy expression. He looked much more handsome that way.


    "Regarding the matter of Lord Hero Although Hatter has previously shared photos with us already, we still wish to verify Lord Hero''s power with our own eyes,"


    In other words, take out the Hero''s Sword and show us that you can wield it.


    The Hero''s Sword was one of the naturalws of this world. The idea that only the Hero could wield the Hero''s Sword had already been deeply rooted in everyone''s minds. Thus, so long as Alice could wield the Hero''s Sword normally, it would resolve most of everyone''s suspicions.

 Chapter 182: The Heros Sword Can Finally Stand Tall Soon

    Chapter 182: The Hero''s Sword Can Finally Stand Tall Soon


    When Alice pulled out the inferior weapon box she bought from a random street stall, the expressions of everyone in the room immediately turned odd.


    The Hero''s Sword was a normal-sized longsword, so it''d be inconvenient to carry out as it was. Hence, it wasn''t unusual for Alice to keep it inside a weapon box.


    However, no matter how they looked at it, the dark green and cubical box with a stic buckle was a weapon box of inferior quality that one could purchase from a street stall for a few copper coins. It was something only mercenaries would buy and use when they were looking for disposable weapon boxes to hold their supplies temporarily. It was the kind of weapon box that would be thrown away after being used once.


    The weapon box''s appearance wasn''t a disguise like everyone assumed, either. This was because as soon as Alice opened the weapon box, the Hero''s Sword had immediately fallen out of the box and hit the ground, making a series of nging noises that echoed throughout the room.


    It should be known that even a slightly better weapon box would keep the weapon suspended in the air using mana after releasing it. Either that, or it would gently lower it to the ground in a fixed manner. Even better weapon boxes could release the weapon to a fixed position on the user''s body. The pendant holding Alice''s power armor was one example of such a weapon box.


    This meant that Alice had indeed stored the Hero''s Sword in a weapon box of inferior quality.


    Exactly how inferior was it?


    The instant Alice opened the weapon box, the chaotic spatial mana that leaked out was already close to hitting everyone''s faces. This meant that the spatial mana within this weapon box was already infinitely close to copsing, and the weapon box might very well break after a few more uses.


    If not for the Hero''s Sword''s sturdiness, it would''ve been riddled with holes after being surrounded by such chaotic spatial mana for such a long time.


    "<em>Cough</em> Lord Hero, I''ll get you a new weapon box once we head back, so please stop using that one."


    When Hatter felt the looks everyone was giving him, he couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed. He truly did not know that Alice was keeping the Hero''s Sword in a weapon box of super-inferior quality. Thanks to this situation, everyone probably thought that he was a cheap bastard who wasn''t even willing to give the Hero''s Sword a proper weapon box.


    Alice looked at Hatter in confusion, failing to understand why he would suddenly suggest getting her a new weapon box. Spatial magic was a university subject, so Alice had yet toe into contact with space-rted taboos. Because of this, Alice was unaware of what kind of horrendous state her weapon box was in already.


    But since Hatter had offered it, Alice had no reason to refuse. So, she nodded to his offer and bent down to pick up the fallen Hero''s Sword.


    The runes on the Hero''s Sword engraved by God shone with a faint glow. Although everyone present recognized the runes on the sword, they couldn''t replicate these runes no matter what. Even replicating these runes in their minds was impossible. This was irond proof that this sword was indeed the Hero''s Sword.


    Alice didn''t seem to have any trouble wielding the Hero''s Sword, either. So, it was almost certain that she was indeed the Hero.


    "So she really is the Hero" the Ymir Kingdom''s King Celtic muttered, a hint of envy in his voice. In reality, he hoped that the Hero of this generation would appear in his country.


    The post-war recovery period would follow once the war between the human and demon realms ended. Meanwhile, the country the Hero was present in would undoubtedly recover the quickest. The country''s national strength would also improve the fastest.


    Celtic had just taken over the position of the Ymir Kingdom''s king. If he had the Hero''s help, he''d have a significantly easier time stabilizing his rule and developing his country. Unfortunately, this situation was not meant to be.


    "It seems this settles the question of whether Lord Hero is the real deal. But this means that the matter of the Demon King''s birth is also true," the Vulcan Kingdom''s Queen Abby said, sighing as she sank her plump body into her chair. "I had hoped the fight between the Hero and the Demon King was merely an act the elves had put on for us."


    <em>It was indeed an act, but it wasn''t an act put on by the elves, </em>Alice mentally retorted. However, based on Abby''s words, it would seem that the human rulers had indeed noticed that the fight between the Hero and the Demon King looked a little strange. For example, the Hero did not move a single step throughout the fight.


    However, the taboos Alice and Luna used were the real deal. The various human kingdoms must''ve sent people over to the Elven Forest to inspect the residual mana on the battlefield, so they must know that multiple taboos had been used there before. Combined with the fact that Alice had just proven her identity as the Hero, there should be enough evidence for the human kings to dismiss their previous suspicion.


    Regardless, the fact that the Hero existed meant that the Demon King also existed, and this definitely wasn''t good news for the human realm.


    The Demon King was an existence bearing deep resentment toward the human race, and there was no hope for reconciliation. Even the Third Demon King, who seemed the most normal out of the bunch, had only spared the human race after upying most of the human realm.


    Hence, immediately after validating Alice''s identity, the various rulers present promptly made up their minds to avoid offending Alice no matter what. Although the Heroes of past generations all possessed a pure soul, they could still feel happiness, anger, grief, and joy just like any normal person. So, they''d be in big trouble if they offended the Hero.


    In addition to behaving carefully around Alice, the several rulers present also started having other ideas.


    "May I know if you have any interests or hobbies, Lord Hero?" the Rhine Kingdom''s King Haydn asked as he looked at Alice. He had also retracted his shadowy expression and revealed a not-so-appealing smile. "If you have time, please do visit the Rhine Kingdom. I will have son Etoria act as your guide."


    Having a country''s prince and the most promising heir to the throne act as one''s guide was considered incredibly good treatment. Etoria also beamed a warm smile at Alice upon hearing his father''s words.


    If Alice were a normal girl, she would''ve most likely sumbed to Etoria''s handsome looks and warm smile in the blink of an eye. However, Alice was not a normal person. Not to mention, Etoria''s name was still on Alice''s ck list, so she naturally showed little reaction to his smile.


    However, Alice had also realized what the Rhine King was trying to dothis gloomy king was trying to y the marriage card after realizing that the Hero didn''te from his country.


    Alice immediately got goosebumps when this thought came into her mind. Due to her identity before she transmigrated, she had no desire to get married to a man whatsoever. So, King Haydn''s idea was destined to fail.


    Meanwhile, Luna, who stood beside Alice, also realized King Haydn''s aim. Immediately, she narrowed her eyes and began looking at King Haydn and Prince Etoria with an increasingly hostile gaze.

 Chapter 183: Is It Wrong to Be a Lolicon?!

    Chapter 183: Is It Wrong to Be a Lolicon?!


    The direction of the Conference of Kings gradually became skewed as the various kings began discussing Alice''s interests. Evidently, these kings all wished to win over the Hero, so they were eagerly trying to learn about Alice''s interests.


    However, Alice had no idea how she should answer these people. Should she say that she was interested in panties? She obviously couldn''t say that. As for other things that she was interested in, the only thing she could think of right now was taboos.


    However, even if Alice answered taboos and the various kings were willing to share their respective country''s taboo collections with her, Alice wouldn''t dare ept the offer. After all, doing so would mean owing a favor to these human kings. Should these human kings ask her for help in the future, her decision would be more or less influenced by the favor she owed them.


    So, if possible, Alice wished to study taboos secretly or through a direct exchange of benefits. For example, when she secretly studied the elves'' taboos, she had helped the elves secure the rights to the Fruit of God in return. There was also the case where she used a portion of the rights and interests within the Gryffin Kingdom to exchange for the right to read the catkins'' taboos.


    Alice was currently a citizen of the Gryffin Kingdom on the surface, so she wasn''t worried about owing Hatter a favor. After all, the benefits the Gryffin Kingdom could reap from having the Hero staying in it were already more than enough to repay whatever favors she owed Hatter. However, if she owed the other human kingdoms a favor, they would probably work her like a horse to get the most out of the favor she owed them.


    After enduring the verbal bombardment of the human kings for some time, Alice finally had enough. After leaving behind an "I''m going out for some air," she promptly fled out of the room. Although this seemed a bit rude of her, she really couldn''t help it. The feeling of being questioned by the human kings was even worse than being questioned by rtives when she returned to her hometown for the New Year.


    However, none of the human kings thought Alice was rude for leaving so abruptly. This was because they realized that their behavior just now was indeed a little too aggressive.


    Anyone would find it difficult to speak when asked for their preferences by a group of people. Not to mention, while Alice might be the Hero, she was still only a little girl.


    After a moment of silence, Hatter faked a light cough and said, "Let''s continue discussing the issue of tariffs."


    Along with Hatter''s reminder, the conference finally got back on track. However, rather than discussing war ns, the human kings continued discussing the diplomatic rtionships they shared.


    The human kings were different from the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings. Almost every Hero had won against their Demon King counterparts in the past, so the human kings were not concerned about whether Alice could defeat the Demon King of this generation. Instead, their concern was how they could reap the most benefits from the Hero.


    In contrast, due to the past Demon Kings'' miserable losing streak, the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings were focused almost entirely on whether their invasion of the human realm could seed. So, when they met Alice, their first reaction was to gather and discuss their invasion ns of the human realm.


    "Huh? Why did youe out so soon, Lord Hero?" When Catherine saw Aliceing out of the conference room, she couldn''t help but grow curious. "Has the conference ended already? The conference sure ended quickly this time. They would always take a long time to finish in past conferences."


    "No. Only the talks about me came to an end. I don''t quite understand the diplomatic rtions between countries, so I came out to get some air," Alice said, exining herself with an awkward smile. Then, she walked down the corridor with Luna, arrived at the balcony of this floor, and breathed out a sigh of relief.


    The floor was currently closed off for the Conference of Kings, so apart from the people in the conference room and Catherine, who stood guard outside the conference room, nobody else was on this floor. Meanwhile, the balcony was far away from Catherine, so Alice wouldn''t have to worry about Catherine eavesdropping on her conversation with Luna.


    "Well? Did you find out anything?" Alice asked in a lowered voice as she looked at Luna. "Are there any not-so-good ideas in Etoria''s memories?"


    "Yes." Alice nodded without hesitation. Then, she exined, "That guy is a lolicon. He is keeping a dwarven university student outside of anyone''s knowledge. In addition, he also had some dirty thoughts when he saw you."


    "Who asked you to look into this matter?"


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry when she heard Luna''s answer. In reality, she had also noticed that Etoria was looking at her strangely when she was in the room. However, she didn''t understand what Etoria''s gaze meant at the time. She never thought that the person who had such a good reputation on the inte would be a huge pervert in secret. Sure enough, she couldn''t trust whatever information she saw on the inte unterally.


    However, what Alice wanted to know wasn''t Etoria''s fetishes. Alice also had a feeling that Luna was bringing up this matter because she was dissatisfied with King Haydn''s attempt at matchmaking her with Etoria. Hence, Luna had brought this matter up with her to crush any possibility of her getting together with Etoria.


    "It''s impossible between me and that guy. What I want to know is his thoughts on the demons and if any problems have urred to threaten his session of the throne."


    Going by the information the demon spy in the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower sent, Etoria had taken the initiative to contact the demons and try to obtain the demons'' support to secure the throne. This situation showed that Prince Etoria had the intent to betray humanity. It also showed that his session to the throne wasn''t as smooth as the public thought it to be.


    However, after pondering in silence for a moment, Luna helplessly said, "None."


    "Huh?"


    Alice was momentarily stunned by Luna''s answer.


    "There is no evidence in Etoria''s memories or thoughts showing that he has had any contact with the demons."


    Luna''s answer surprised Alice. She didn''t suspect that Luna was lying to her, either. After all, based on Luna''s previous behavior, it was unlikely she would try to cover for this bastard who "had dirty thoughts about Alice."


    Meanwhile, seeing the look of surprise and confusion on Alice''s face, Luna further borated, "He isn''t aware that there are demon spies inside the Royal Magic Tower, nor has he ever had any substantial contact with any demons. Also, in his knowledge, nothing is threatening his session to the throne."


    This situation put Alice in a bind. She was astonished to learn that Etoria didn''t have any memories of his contact with demons.


    Luna could be considered a half-Demon King. If she focused on reading a person''s memories, even a powerful mind magician couldn''t hide their memories from her. The only way Etoria could hide his memories from Luna was if he had used the Demon King''s Power to do so.


    However, that evidently wasn''t possible. Even if Etoria happened to be the Demon King''s Power''s new host, there was no way he could grow as strong as Luna in such a short time. Not to mention, the Loli Goddess hadn''t mentioned anything about the Demon King''s Power finding a new host already. Hence, there was only one scenario Alice could think of to exin this situation.


    "The one who contacted the demons wasn''t Etoria, but someone else."


    While massaging her temples, Alice let out a deep sigh and muttered, "What a nuisance these bastards are."


    TL Notes:


    However, what Alice wanted to know wasn''t Etoria''s fetishes. Alice also had a feeling that Luna was voicing this matter because of her(Luna) dissatisfaction with King Haydn''s attempt at matchmaking her with Etoria. Hence, Luna had brought this matter up with her to crush any possibility of her(Alice) getting together with Etoria.

 Chapter 184: Alchemist Secured

    Chapter 184: Alchemist Secured


    Alice got an answer to her confusion after listening to Luna''s report. Just as she surmised, Etoria did not have any motives to betray his kingdom or the human realm. Even now, he still believed that his session to the throne was secure, so he naturally wouldn''t need others to help him be king.


    This must mean that Etoria wasn''t the person who contacted the demon spy in the Royal Magic Tower, but someone who was trying to create trouble using Etoria''s name instead.


    However, another question cropped up after Alice came to this realization. Wasn''t it a little too silly to try and create trouble using Etoria''s name?


    Even if the demons agreed to the request, once they began their partnership with Etoria, they would quickly realize that Etoria''s session wasn''t under any threat whatsoever. They would also discover that Etoria was utterly ignorant of "his" partnership with them.


    In that case, the demons would quickly realize that Etoria wasn''t the person who sought partnership with them and that they had been tricked. Meanwhile, unless the demons got blinded by their rage of being yed for fools and took their anger out on Etoria, it was unlikely for Etoria to suffer any damage.


    There was also no way the mastermind behind this scheme would dare reveal themselves to smear Etoria''s reputation using this scheme as an excuse. So long as this mastermind did such a thing, the demons would immediately know who had tricked them. At that time, the mastermind would definitely suffer the wrath of the demons.


    Even if the mastermind was simply doing all of this to mess with the demons, they shouldn''t have chosen to use Etoria''s name as their cover. Instead, they should''ve used the eldest prince or the princess. In the former''s case, he had long since given up on his session rights, and even the Rhine King had given up on getting his eldest son to seed him already. In thetter''s case, she hardly had any presence in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights.


    While it was still unlikely for the eldest prince and the princess to collude with the demons,pared to Etoria, they would still have more motive to seek the demons'' help than Etoria. This, in turn, would reduce the likelihood of the demons noticing that something was suspicious.


    Alice wasn''t sure if there was a reason the mastermind had chosen to use Etoria as their cover or if the mastermind had simply failed to ount for this point. However, judging by the current situation, the culprit should have an inextricable connection with the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family. So, the mastermind was likely one of the Rhine Kingdom''s administrative members.


    The Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince, princess, ministers, king, and even Etoria himself Every one of these people was a suspect. The only difference was that they carried varying levels of suspicion.


    Honestly, Alice didn''t wish to involve herself too much with the power struggles happening inside the Rhine Kingdom. However, as this matter involved the demons, and Alice was currently bearing the title of Demon King, she felt a need to help the demons take care of this trouble and avoid being used as cannon fodder.


    She could also increase her reputation among the demons if she asionally helped them take care of such menial matters, further solidifying her position as the Demon King. Then, once the Demon King''s Power chose a new host, the demons might very well help her apprehend that "imposter."


    "We might startle the mastermind if we rashly investigate this matter, so it''s better if we lure the snake away from its hole."


    After pondering for a moment, Alice came up with a n. She would first have the demons agree to the other party''s request. However, the demons wouldn''t be offering their assistance immediately. Instead, they would wait until the other party grew impatient. That way, it would be a lot easier to expose the other party''s identity.


    While Alice was thinking about what she should do to get the mastermind to take the initiative to expose themselves, Luna suddenly walked up to her side and whispered, "Someone''s approaching, Alice."


    Alice wasn''t wielding any weapons right now, so her perception naturally wasn''t as strong as Luna''s. Upon hearing Luna''s words, Alice hurriedly shut her mouth and turned to the balcony''s entrance.


    Sure enough, a momentter, someone had walked onto the balcony.


    It was the ck-haired girl from the Ymir Kingdom, the one who stood beside King Celtic in the conference room.


    Unlike the other heirs brought to the conference, Alice had not found any information rting to this ck-haired girl on the inte. To ensure that she didn''t slip up during the conference, Alice had even scoured the inte for information on the various kingdoms'' royalty on her way to the conference. However, none of her search results included information on this ck-haired girl.


    "Hello, Lord Hero," the ck-haired girl greeted with a smile after seeing Alice. "I also came out to get some fresh air. The topics being discussed inside are a little too much for me to understand."


    Alice couldn''t help but be stunned again upon hearing the ck-haired girl''s words. Logically, any royal family member brought to the Conference of Kings would have a high chance of bing the sessor of their respective kingdoms in the future. Meanwhile, these people were typically cultivated to inherit the throne from a young age. So, there was no way they wouldn''t understand the kings'' discussions.


    "Is it alright for you toe out here? Won''t Celtic have a problem with this?"


    "He won''t. My identity isn''t worth his concern," the ck-haired girl said, shaking her head. "My identity is simr to your cover identity, Lord Hero. I am King Celtic''s illegitimate daughter, so he doesn''t pay much attention to me."


    Alice was at a loss for words. Indeed, Celtic wasn''t a bachelor like Hatter. It was publicly known that he had a wife. Although Celtic had never officially stated that he had any children with his wife, he most likely did, judging by the ck-haired girl''s words. Meanwhile, since he had a sessor, he naturally wouldn''t need to consider the feelings of a measly illegitimate daughter.


    "I was quite happy when I heard another person like myself would attend the conference. I didn''t think it would be the Hero," the ck-haired girl said, blinking her eyes innocently as she looked at Alice. "Although the situation turned out different from what I expected, meeting the rumored Hero makes up for it. If it weren''t for the Conference of Kings this time, I would''ve never gotten the chance to personally meet the Hero and talk to her."


    "Cough, cough. Sorry to disappoint you," Alice awkwardly said. Then, she extended a hand to the ck-haired girl and casually said, "Well, let me introduce myself. I''m Alice, and I''m temporarily serving as the Hero."


    "Temporarily?" The ck-haired girl was a little confused by Alice''s choice of words. However, she still reached out to shake Alice''s hand and said, "I''m Lacey Malthus, the new Ymir King''s illegitimate daughter. I guess you can say that I''m an unremarkable princess."


    <em>Lacey, is it? </em>Alice nodded,mitting this name to memory. Now that she had gotten the ck-haired girl''s name without any initiative on her part, she could avoid any awkward situations where she would need to call out the other party''s name in the future.


    "Actually, I followed you out here because I have something I wish to ask you, Lord Hero," Lacey said as she looked at Alice. "Are you perhaps carrying something that produces mana? I can feel that mana is constantly being produced around you. Although it isn''t a lot, the mana fluctuations are quite obvious."


    After a short pause, Lacey added, "It feels simr to the Seed of Nature."

 Chapter 185: I See. I Completely Understand Now (I Don’t Understand It at All)

    Chapter 185: I See. I Completely Understand Now (I Don��t Understand It at All)


    The fact that Alice had a Seed of Nature in her possession wasn''t a secret to the various human kingdoms'' kings.


    Although the elves had fallen behind times in terms of culture, economy, and technology due to their self-istion, their superior mana sensitivity and technology developed through the Seed of Nature still made them a priority partnership target for the various human kingdoms.


    Hence, the various human kings would naturally keep an eye on the Elven Forest''s movements. Meanwhile, the various kingdoms'' intelligence departments had naturally found out about the matter of the elves giving Alice a Seed of Nature.


    However, Lacey was only an illegitimate daughter with no chance of seeding to the throne. The fact that Celtic had allowed Lacey to leave the conference ahead of time also showed how little importance he ced on her. So, it made sense that she wasn''t informed of this piece of information.


    "How did you know?"


    Since Lacey didn''t seem to have obtained any information from Celtic, it meant that she had relied on her own abilities to detect the Seed of Nature''s presence.


    This situation piqued Alice''s curiosity. Alice had only managed to detect the Seed of Nature''s presence after casting Mind Search while wielding the Hero''s Sword. Even then, she only managed to detect the Seed of Nature''s location and shape. Had she not tasked her Milu Rabbit to retrieve it out of curiosity, she would never have known that the object sitting inside the rabbit warren was a Seed of Nature.


    Yet, Lacey had managed to discern that Alice was carrying an object capable of creating mana just by perceiving the faint mana fluctuations around Alice. In addition, she had also guessed that this object was a Seed of Nature. This was an extraordinary ability.


    "The Seed of Nature''s characteristics are written in one of the alchemy textbooks I read, so I theorized that it might be a Seed of Nature," Lacey exined with an embarrassed smile. "There are incredibly few things in this world capable of producing such pure mana. Aside from the Seed of Nature, the only thing thates close is the treasure of the treants. However, the treant''s treasure is unique in this world. It cannot be mass-produced like the Seed of Nature, so"


    "Are you studying alchemy?"


    When Alice heard Lacey''s answer, the first thought that came to her was whether she could trick this child into reconstructing Kristine''s body.


    Of course, Alice wasn''t so crazy that she had to enlist the help of a young girl. It was simply because the Gryffin Kingdom couldn''t afford to lend her any of its senior alchemists.


    Although Hatter was already doing his best to help her in this regard, there was only so much he could do as the king. The modern-day kings of the human realm didn''t wield absolute power over their kingdoms. They needed to take responsibility for their kingdoms. If Hatter did things that would undermine the Gryffin Kingdom''s interests simply to fulfill his selfish desires, there was a high chance that he would get overthrown and reced.


    Currently, most of the Gryffin Kingdom''s skilled alchemists were involved in a big project. As these alchemists were responsible for every step of this project, they couldn''t afford to leave their stations. If even one of them was removed from the project, the entire project would have to be put on pause until this alchemist returned or was reced. This would result in significant losses for the Gryffin Kingdom.


    However, Alice felt that it was silly to ask for Lacey''s help after thinking it over. With how young Lacey was, it was unlikely that she would have the skills of a senior alchemist. While there was nock of geniuses in this world, the chances ofing across one in such a ce were still very slim.


    "That''s right. It''s the Seed of Nature."


    Although Alice felt that Lacey was unlikely to have the skills of a senior alchemist, she still decided to answer the girl''s question. While saying so, she opened the pouch by her waist to retrieve the Seed of Nature and show it to Lacey.


    "It''s something that I got from the elves."


    However, Alice immediately froze after opening the pouch and extending her hand inside. When she touched the pouch''s contents, she suddenly recalled that the pouch didn''t just contain the Seed of Nature.


    Or, more specifically, the pouch''s main purpose was never to hold the Seed of Nature. Alice had merely kept the Seed of Nature there for convenience''s sake. Meanwhile, aside from a small Seed of Nature and a small weapon box, the pouch was filled to the brim with panties!


    Lacey didn''t see what was inside the pouch hanging by Alice''s waist. However, she couldn''t help but grow curious when she saw Alice freezing all of a sudden, so she stepped forward and asked, "What''s wrong?"


    "N-Nothing It''s nothing"


    Alice felt several drops of sweat rolling down her forehead as she hurriedly pulled on her pouch''s drawstring. While she could retrieve the Seed of Nature from the pouch, the Seed of Nature was slightly smaller than even the weapon box. Moreover, it was oval-shaped, so it couldn''t sit on top of her panties like the weapon box. Instead, it had submerged itself into the small pile of panties.


    If Alice were to pull the Seed of Nature out of the pouch, she would most likely pull a few pairs of panties with it. At that time, how was she supposed to exin to Lacey that she was carrying a bunch of panties around with her?


    When subjected to Lacey''s confused gaze, Alice hurriedly changed the topic and said, "By the way, I heard that the Seed of Nature could be used to construct a human body, right? Is there such knowledge in alchemy?"


    Alice made it very obvious that she was trying to change the subject. However, although Lacey felt confused by this, she didn''t try to pry into the matter. Instead, she nodded and answered, "That''s right. The Seed of Nature does have such a use. The topic of high-fidelity biological forgery already involves the knowledge tested in the senior alchemist''s test. It just so happens to be a topic I''ve been studying recently. Unfortunately, those who haven''t passed the intermediate alchemist''s test can''t apply for a Seed of Nature replica to experiment on, so my research on this topic hase to a standstill."


    Upon hearing Lacey''s words, Alice blinked her eyes in surprise and asked, "Do you mean you are currently capable of forging a human body already?"


    "I only have theoretical knowledge of the process I''d need to first be an intermediate alchemist and acquire a Seed of Nature replica before putting this knowledge into practice. However, because I am a self-studied alchemist, my school doesn''t support me to participate in the intermediate alchemist''s test." When talking about her specialty, Lacey couldn''t help but feel a little happy. "That is why I have a keener sense for the Seed of Nature. I guess you can call it an obsession"


    Alice grew hesitant when she heard Lacey''s answer. Unable to make up her mind, she looked toward Luna, her expression conveying the message: "What should we do? Should we let her give it a try?"


    Luna, a well-established intelligence officer and mind magician, instantly understood Alice''s message. Then, she responded with an expression that conveyed the message: "We don''t have many Seeds of Nature, so it''s best not to take the risk."


    Unfortunately, Alice was aplete novice when it came to reading expressions. So, she thoroughly misinterpreted Luna''s response.

 Chapter 186: Kidnapping Scene

    Chapter 186: Kidnapping Scene


    "Is this the Seed of Nature?"


    Lacey couldn''t help but gasp when she saw the Seed of Nature Alice had handed to her. Unlike when she perceived it through Alice''s pouch, she could now feel the pure and natural mana the Seed of Nature was generating directly with her skin. Meanwhile, just being in direct contact with this mana had smoothened her breaths significantly.


    This was also one of the reasons why the Seed of Nature was valuable as research material. The Seed of Nature''s mana generation method was incrediblyplex. If one tried topile all of the forms used, one could fill multiple books that would typically be enough to record the average taboo. Meanwhile, every one of these forms could be used to develop new theories and contribute to the development of modern magic. It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to refer to the Seed of Nature as God''s miracle. Though, it was a fact that God had nted the Tree of Nature, so it wasn''t wrong to call it God''s miracle, either.


    In the meantime, when Luna saw Alice failing to get her point, she couldn''t help but feel a little frustrated. However, she didn''t have any intentions of refuting Alice, either. She was only Alice''s maid, so she didn''t wish to interfere in Alice''s decisions too much.


    Not to mention, Alice had two Seeds of Nature, so it wouldn''t hurt to let Lacey try reconstructing a body for Kristine. On the off chance Lacey seeded, they wouldn''t have to wait until the Gryffin Kingdom''s alchemist team was done with their project.


    Even if Kristine did acquire a new body, she couldn''t regain her full strength immediately. She''d need some time to adapt and train her body first. Meanwhile, the sooner she received her new body, the sooner she could recover her strength and be ready to help out with any unexpected situations.


    "What do you want me to do with this Seed of Nature, Lord Hero?" Lacey curiously asked after she was done marveling at the Seed of Nature. She naturally knew that Alice must have her own intentions if she was willing to give her something as important as the Seed of Nature.


    The Seed of Nature had many uses. Aside from forging a body, it could also be used to regenerate severed limbs, restore broken nerves, and repair mana meridians. It could be said to be a jack-of-all-trades. Not to mention, this was the real Seed of Nature, not an imitation issued by the Alchemy Association. It should be capable of far more than what she knew of.


    "I need you to help me forge a body using this Seed of Nature," Alice said. Then, she nodded at Luna, signaling her to pass Kristine''s photo to Lacey. "Follow the appearance in this photo and create a body that can operate mana normally."


    "Let me see"


    Lacey nodded. Reconstructing a body wasn''t a major undertaking, and there had been quite a few precedents of people doing so. These people were typically those who had suffered irreparable injuries to their limbs, organs, or both. So, the solution they used was to create a copy of their physical body using the replica Seeds of Nature. Then, they would rece their damaged organs and limbs using the copy''s.


    Thus, Lacey had subconsciously assumed that Alice was also seeking to conduct a simr procedure. The only difference was that Alice wanted organs and limbs capable of manipting mana, and this was where the genuine Seed of Nature came into y.


    It was also inevitable for Lacey to have such an assumption. Although everyone was aware that a genuine Seed of Nature could be used to create a body capable of housing a soul, not a single soul in existence had managed tost until their new body was created. So, this procedure existed only in theory even until now, and it was only natural that Lacey didn''t think of such a possibility.


    However, when Lacey saw the woman with light-blue hair in the photo, she couldn''t help but get a familiar feeling.


    "This person is?"


    "Kristine, the Twelfth Well, the previous generation''s Hero."


    Alice didn''t bother hiding this information from Lacey since the girl already knew that she was the Hero. Moreover, Kristine''s photos could be found in history books and various other reading materials. So, there was no point in hiding this information.


    "Her soul has yet to dissipate, and I am preparing to bring her back to life to help me deal with the Demon King."


    Specifically, Alice wanted Kristine''s help with the Demon King''s Power, an opponent much tougher than the Demon King. However, Alice still did not intend on sharing the truth about the Demon King''s Power with others. Even if she was going to do so, she would only tell people capable ofing into contact with the truth of the world, such as Kristine, Aird, and Luna.


    Originally, Alice had thought about altering the appearance of Kristine''s new body to make it easier for Kristine to conceal her identity. After all, Kristine''s face was rather recognizable.


    However, Kristine had promptly shot down Alice''s suggestion. If a body looked too different from a soul, it would negatively impact thepatibility between the two. Hence, it was best if the new body created resembled her original body as much as possible.


    "T-The previous generation''s Hero?!"


    Lacey eximed, her hand holding the photo trembling a little. She didn''t expect that not only was Alice trying to resurrect someone, but that someone was even Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero


    "This Is this really fine to leave this to me?"


    Originally, Lacey had only felt a little nervous when Alice asked her to construct a body for her. However, after learning Alice''s true goal, her anxiety instantly shot through the roof.


    "It''s fine. Just go ahead and give it a try."


    Alice had one more Seed of Nature kept in her room, so she wasn''t particrly worried that Lacey would mess up. In addition, she wanted to use this opportunity to form a connection with a potential alchemy genius.


    Lacey had never received much attention from Celtic because of her status as an illegitimate daughter. As a result, nobody had ever noticed her talent in alchemy until today. So, this was a good opportunity for Alice to make Lacey owe her a debt of gratitude. Then, once Lacey developed her talent, Alice would no longer have to worry about owing others a favor whenever she needed the services of a master alchemist in the future.


    "If you fail, you can just be my maid like Luna to repay your debt," Alice joked.

 Chapter 187: This Little Girl Has a Bright Future

    Chapter 187: This Little Girl Has a Bright Future


    Although the Conference of Kings this time was held because of Alice, most of the conference was unrted to Alice.


    There was no helping this situation. The demons had yet to move against the human realm thus far. If they referred to historical records, the demons would typically start conducting small-scale invasions on the human border after the Demon King''s birth to test the human realm''s desire to fight back and the Hero''s reaction.


    However, the demon realm was behaving uncharacteristically this time. Even though the Demon King had appeared already, the demons showed no signs of taking action. The only act of aggression the demons had conducted thus far was to surround the Elven Forest with an army and demand the elves'' Seeds of Nature. Even then, the situation had ended without an actual fight between the demons and the elves.


    Since the demons weren''t moving, there was nothing for the human kings to discuss. After all, humans were the defenders in their rtionship with the demons, not the aggressor. They had no interest in upying the demon realm''s harsh environment. If they rashly attacked the demon realm, they would simply open themselves up for an attack.


    Thus, after verifying Alice''s identity as the Hero and discussing some diplomacy and trivial matters between kingdoms, the kings decided to conclude the Conference of Kings this time.


    However, before the kings left, Celtic heard a piece of surprising news from Alice.


    "Hm? You want to go to Lord Hero''s side for some time, Lacey?"


    Celtic looked at his daughter, standing beside Alice, in surprise, a sense of oddity in his voice.


    It was fortunate that Alice was a girl. Had Alice been a boy, Celtic would''ve suspected whether the Hero was trying to replicate the casting couch with his daughter.


    Recently, Hero novels in the human realm had begun taking an evil turn. Morally perfect Heroes could no longer satisfy the audience. Some novels had even taken to writing adult novels centered around the Hero. Meanwhile, seeing Lacey and Alice standing next to each other reminded Celtic of a scenesomeone else had read in an adult novel.


    However, Celtic''s thoughts did not shift toward those strange scenarios since Alice was a girl. If Alice''s gender was switched, Celtic''s face would probably be as dark as coal.


    Celtic wasn''tpletely devoid of feelings toward Lacey, his illegitimate daughter, unlike Alice''s assumptions. It was just that the attention he showed her was significantly lesspared to his biological son.


    Celtic was curious to know which part about Lacey had managed to catch Alice''s attention. However, he couldn''t afford to ask about it. If he were to ask Lacey something along the lines of "What is the Hero seeing in you," he''d appear incredibly indifferent. After all, how could he not know about his own daughter''s specialty?


    Even though this was indeed the case, he still needed to keep up appearances, especially when he was in the presence of the other kings. Thus, holding back his curiosity, he pretended to be calm and nodded to Lacey, saying:


    "Go ahead. Make sure not to bring shame to the Ymir Kingdom''s royal family."


    Celtic spoke as if he knew about Lacey''s talent. If Alice hadn''t learned about Lacey''s situation from the girl herself, she would''ve most likely bought into Celtic''s act.


    After today''s conference, Alice learned that every one of the human kings was more or less capable of lying through their teeth. It was probably also the case for Hatter. Only, Hatter didn''t have any opportunities to do so in front of her.


    After all, Hatter didn''t have a wife.


    Before the other kings left, they said many things to Alice. In summary, they implored Alice to visit their respective countries when she had free time and assured her that they would provide her with the best hospitality.


    The Hero''s favor held great significance. Once the demons invaded the human realm, the country with the best rtionship with the Hero would most likely receive the Hero''s help the earliest.


    Something to note was that when King Haydn extended his invitation to Alice, Prince Etoria''s eyes remained glued on Alice''s body the entire time. Meanwhile, Alice, who had already heard from Luna that Etoria was a lolicon, couldn''t help but feel ufortable receiving his gaze.


    If not for Luna verifying that Etoria had never done anything bad such as abducting girls against their will and that he was only a little entric in his sexual fetish, Alice would''ve probably let Luna send this prince to the mental hospital to recuperate for a few days.


    After the other kings left, the only ones remaining in the conference room were Hatter''s and Alice''s party.


    "What do you think of the other kings?" Hatter asked as he looked at Alice with a smile. Although he had just experienced an intense diplomatic discussion, he looked as leisurely as usual, evidence that he had already grown used to such high-intensity diplomatic affairs. "They might not be the best inbat, but they are the best of the best when ites to government affairs."


    "I guess so I don''t really know much about stuff like this," Alice said, sighing. She truly disliked attending such events. However, since the other kings had already left, she could finally ask the question that had been guing her this entire time. "Has there been any abnormalities with the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family recently?"


    "Abnormalities with the Rhine Kingdom?" Hatter was a little stunned by Alice''s question. Then, he shook his head and said, "I''m not too sure about that. The intelligence department might have learned something, but they typically won''t notify me about it unless it is something important. If you want to know about the Rhine Kingdom''s state of affairs, I can have the intelligence department send a report to you."


    Luna used to work at the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department. However, it had already been several months since she started working as Alice''s maid, so it was natural that she didn''t know the intelligence department''s recent findings.


    Since Hatter had offered to share the intelligence department''s findings, Alice held back the urge to investigate the situation herself. Although she had learned many taboos recently, none of these taboos could help her collect information. Hence, rather than waste time fumbling in the dark, it would be better if she left this job to the professionals.


    In the meantime, Alice could focus on helping Kristine recover her body. Now that she had obtained the Seed of Nature and tricked a budding alchemist into her service, she had met all the conditions to construct a new body for Kristine.


    When Alice looked toward Lacey, she found the girl staring at Luna with a serious expression.


    "What are you looking at Luna for?" Alice asked in confusion. She was certain Lacey and Luna had never interacted with each other before, so she couldn''t understand why Lacey was staring at Luna so intently right now.


    "I''m studying the actions and behavior of a maid," Lacey answered honestly.


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 Chapter 188: Why Does It Seem Like Things Are Going to Get Out of Hand?

    Chapter 188: Why Does It Seem Like Things Are Going to Get Out of Hand?


    Alice rented a house for Lacey in the March Academy''s "noble''s dormitory" and found a set of advanced alchemy textbooks for her.


    Lacey was mostly self-taught in alchemy, so she wasn''t particrly well-known in the Ymir Kingdom''s Kilub Royal School of Magic. King Celtic and the old king had never publicized Lacey''s identity, either, so nobody in Kilub Academy actually knew that Lacey was the current Ymir King''s illegitimate daughter. After all, unlike Hatter, Celtic was someone with a wife and a son. If it was made known that he had an illegitimate daughter, it would definitely tarnish his reputation.


    For this reason, Lacey didn''t have much authority within Kilub Academy, and she could only progress her studies ording to the academy''s sybus. If she wanted to study more advanced alchemy materials, she would have to do it without the academy''s assistance.


    Meanwhile, it was also because Lacey''s alchemy knowledge was self-taught for the most part that she never had much confidence in her own skills. As a result, even aftering to the March Academy with Alice, she didn''t set out to construct Kristine''s body immediately. Instead, she began revising her theoretical knowledge to avoid any unexpected idents.


    Alice also expressed her understanding of Lacey''s need to revise. Hence, she had rented a house in the noble''s dormitory for Lacey. Although the houses in the noble''s dormitory cost a lot more money to rent than the rooms in the normal dormitory, Alice was the Gryffin Kingdom''s "princess." This much money wasn''t a problem for her.


    Lacey didn''t spend too much time revising. Three days after arriving at the March Academy, she informed Alice that she was ready, and Alice brought Kristine to Lacey''s house.


    After entering the house, Alice noticed that Lacey had done some remodeling in the living room. Specifically, she had moved all of the furniture that originally decorated the living room into the storage room, opening up arge vacant area. Then, she had drawn variousplicated alchemy arrays on the floor. At the very least, they wereplicated enough that Alice could not understand any of them.


    In reality, there were many simrities between basic alchemy arrays and some magic arrays. So, if the alchemy arrays Lacey had drawn were on a basic level, Alice could more or less understand their purposes. However, evidently, theplexity of the alchemy arrays drawn on the living room floor had already exceeded Alice''s realm of understanding.


    "Will this child be responsible for creating my body?" Kristine asked as she flew out of the Soul Gathering Tablet in Alice''s hand and looked at Lacey. Currently, the only people in this house were Alice, Luna, and Lacey. All three of these people knew about her soul''s existence, so there was no need for her to hide her presence. "Hello, nice to meet you. I am Kristine."


    "H-Hello, Lord Hero," Lacey greeted, her eyes darting between Alice and Kristine.


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    Lacey was in the midst of sorting through some alchemy materials when Alice''s group arrived. When she saw Kristine''s soul flying out of the Soul Gathering Tablet, she couldn''t help but grow nervous. After all, she was meeting two generations of Heroes simultaneously. Not even the present human kings and human kings of past generations have had such a privilege before.


    "We won''t know who you''re talking to if you use that manner of address," Alice said, chuckling when she heard Lacey''s greeting. While it wasn''t particrly difficult to tell who Lacey was talking to, it would still create a little confusion if Lacey kept addressing her and Kristine as "Lord Hero" when both of them were in the same room. "Just call me by my name in the future since I still need to keep my identity a secret right now."


    "Understood, Lady Alice," Lacey said, attaching an honorific to Alice''s name. Although she knew that Alice was a friendly person, she still couldn''t help but act a little reserved around Alice. It was especially so considering she was about to create a body for the previous generation''s Hero. "Then, please give me the Soul Gathering Tablet."


    "Should I excuse myself?" Alice asked after handing Kristine''s Soul Gathering Tablet to Lacey.


    "Yes, if possible. Please wait in the bedroom, Lady Alice," Lacey said, her nervous expression getting reced by a serious one as she got into her work mode. "If other people are present during the construction process, it might cause the soul''s fluctuations to deviate a little and affect itspatibility with the constructed body."


    "Got it. I''ll be waiting for your good news," Alice said, nodding. Then, she entered the nearby bedroom. The bedroom''s environment was no different than a standard room avable in the normal dormitory. Lacey had only brought some simple items when she moved in, so the bedroom furniture was the standard furniture the academy provided.


    After making herselffortable on the bed, Alice looked at Luna, who stood beside the bed, and asked, "Luna, did you feel anything special when the Demon King''s Power possessed your body?"


    Alice already knew why Luna was so obsessed with the Hero. However, she still didn''t know much about Luna''s experience after the Demon King''s Power chose her as its host. Hence, she decided to use this opportunity to satisfy her curiosity and increase her understanding of the Demon King''s Power. After all, once Kristine got her new body, they would have to formally consider how they should deal with the Demon King''s Power.


    Before Luna could offer an answer, Alice and Luna suddenly sensed a huge amount of mana appearing outside the door. Evidently, Lacey had already begun constructing Kristine''s body. Although Alice was interested to learn about this alchemy process, she held back her urges to take a peek to avoid creating any unwanted problems.


    "I felt sick for a few days. My body would burn up to the point where my consciousness started to blur. In addition, my skin had turned purple, looking as if all the capiries in my body had burst apart," Luna answered. "That should be the process of the Demon King''s Power modifying my body. I felt like I could die at any moment throughout that period. My body only began to recover a few dayster. Even then, it still hurt a lot."


    "Those sound like rare symptoms. Maybe we can locate the new Demon King based on these reactions in the future," Alice said with a thoughtful look. If the Demon King''s Power would cause its host to exhibit such obvious reactions when it modified its host''s body, they could use this knowledge to locate the new Demon King.


    The Loli Goddess would learn of the Demon King''s Power''s general location when it attached itself to a new host. Once they had this information, they could quickly locate the new Demon King so long as they searched for someone suffering from a high fever and showing purple skin in the targeted area.


    While Alice and Luna were talking, the state of the mana outside underwent a continuous change. Upon noticing this, Alice couldn''t help but marvel at this process''splexity. At the same time, she also realized that Lacey must have a very high level of control over mana.


    Roughly half an hourter, the mana outside gradually dissipated. A momentter, Lacey''s somewhat conflicted voice came through the door:


    "You cane out now, Lady Alice."

 Chapter 189: Not a Loss

    Chapter 189: Not a Loss


    Although Alice wasn''t a psychologist and couldn''t infer the emotions of others through their voices, the oddity in Lacey''s voice was very obvious. This situation led Alice to think that an ident had urred during the body construction process, and she couldn''t help but grow worried.


    Previously, Alice had learned from Lacey that there were, in fact, two sessful instances of people reconstructing a body for themselves using the Seed of Nature. However, there was also one instance of failure.


    Alice understood that the procedure wouldn''t necessarily seed with so few precedents to use as reference. Hence, she had told Lacey not to put too much of a psychological burden on herself and that it was fine even if she failed and wasted a Seed of Nature. Lacey had also promised Alice that she wouldn''t feel down even if she failed.


    Hence, when Alice heard the strangeness in Lacey''s voice, he couldn''t help but worry if something had happened to Kristine''s soul. While she didn''t mind wasting a Seed of Nature, it''d be troublesome if the failed attempt had damaged Kristine''s soul.


    The instant these thoughts appeared in her head, Alice hurriedly opened the door and walked out of the room.


    Currently, the alchemy arrays engraved on the living room floor using magic mercury had already lost all their mana and turned into puddles of ordinary mercury. Meanwhile, Lacey stood by thergest mercury puddle in the center of the living room, and sat in the middle of the puddle were the fragmented remains of Kristine''s Soul Gathering Tablet


    "Lacey! Where''s Kristine?!"


    Alice hurriedly walked up to Lacey and asked in an anxious tone. She had just taken a look at the living room, and she had failed to locate Kristine''s presence anywhere.


    It should be known that Kristine was currently a soul. Without a proper medium to attach herself to, there was a high chance that her soul might dissipate. Although Kristine had previously shown intentions of ascending to heaven after learning that Alice had defeated Grant, there was a significant difference between taking the initiative to ascend to heaven and getting one''s soul forcibly dissipated.


    The experience of having one''s soul forcibly dissipated definitely wouldn''t be pleasant. Alice would definitely be filled with regret if Kristine''s soul had to suffer through such an unpleasant experience because of her willfulness.


    "Lady Kristine is fine. In fact, I''ve constructed her body already," Lacey said, snapping out of her daze after hearing Alice''s question. She could also tell what Alice was worried about, so she quickly offered an answer to reassure Alice. "It''s just thatthe result is not quite like I imagined."


    "The result is different from what you imagined?" Alice sighed in relief when she learned that Kristine was fine. However, she also couldn''t help but be confused by Lacey''s answer. "What''s different?"


    "Wouldn''t you know if you see for yourself?"


    A somewhat peeved and childish voice suddenly came from a corner of the living room. When Alice turned toward the voice, she found herself looking at a little girl who had just walked out of the bathroom. The girl was really small, and she looked practically the same age as Alice.


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    Alice''s appearance and height were basically at the standard of a 13-year-old girl. Since the Loli Goddess had never told Alice the exact age of her body, Alice had arbitrarily decided that her body was 13 years old.


    Meanwhile, the girl who just walked out of the bathroom also looked about 13 years old. Although the other party''s body had shrunk a lot, Alice still quickly recognized the other party''s identity after seeing the other party''s long light-blue hair and familiar facial features.


    "Kristine???" Alice''s eyes widened as she looked at the blue-haired loli wearing a big, loose T-shirt. "How did you be like this?"


    "How should I know? Shouldn''t you be asking the alchemist you brought instead?" Kristine said gloomily. Although she was d that she now had a physical body to move around in again, she failed to understand why she had ended up with such a childlike appearance. So, while speaking to Alice, she turned to Lacey, hoping to get an answer.


    "Actually, I''m not quite sure of the exact reason, either. I was certain I carried out every step of the procedure correctly," Lacey said frustratedly. "But I think it might be rted to the Seed of Nature."


    "Rted to the Seed of Nature?" Alice was stunned when she heard Lacey''s conjecture. "Is there something wrong with the Seed of Nature? That shouldn''t be the case. This is something the elven patriarch handed me personally, and I''ve always kept it inside my pantthe pouch I carry. Nobody else has touched it before."


    "I''m not saying that there is anything wrong with the Seed of Nature In reality, there has always been spection circting in the alchemymunity regarding the Seed of Nature, which is the ''mana sediment'' theory," Lacey said, offering her thoughts on the matter. However, considering that Alice and Lacey wereymen when it came to alchemy, she tried to exin her thoughts using the simplest terms. "Simply put, the Seed of Nature begins producing mana once it matures, but it doesn''t release all of the mana it generates."


    "You mean to say that" Kristine, who stood by Alice''s side, seemingly thought of something after hearing Lacey''s words.


    "That''s right. A small part of the generated mana will settle inside the Seed of Nature. Meanwhile, the older a Seed of Nature, the more sediment mana it will contain," Lacey said. "However, This has always been a theory that has never been verified. After all, the elves are the ones mostly researching the Seed of Nature. There is very little information the human kingdoms'' alchemists possess on the Seed of Nature. Meanwhile, the central argument of this theory is that many of a Seed of Nature''s functions are tied to the sediment mana it holds."


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    Alice''s mouth twitched as realization dawned on her. The Seed of Nature she gave Lacey was part of the batch that ripened only recently. As for the one that had remained hidden in the Elven Forest for who knows how many years, Alice had kept it inside her pouch.


    Of course, Alice didn''t decide to give Lacey the newer seed because of personal greed. After all, she didn''t even know about the Seed of Nature''s mana sediment previously. She simply thought that the newer Seed of Nature would produce better results. Hence, she had given that one to Lacey.


    Unfortunately, the mana sediment theory was true, and the new Seed of Nature contained hardly any sediment mana. Hence, the body produced using it had shrunk significantly, and Kristine became a loli.

 Chapter 190: Prodigious Understanding

    Chapter 190: Prodigious Understanding


    "What should we do? Should we create a new body for you?"


    After everyone had calmed down, Alice sat on the living room sofa and looked at Kristine, who sat on the sofa across from her.


    "I have another Seed of Nature with me that''s older I really didn''t expect the new Seed of Nature to create such a problem"


    "Forget it. The human soul will suffer a certain degree of damage when drawn out of its body. A Hero''s soul might be sturdier, but it still can''t withstand repeated damage. If my current soul is drawn out again, there''s a high chance it would end up as a remnant soul," Kristine said, rejecting Alice''s suggestion. "Moreover, while this body is indeed younger, its performance won''t be any different. You should know first-hand that age isn''t a limitation for Heroes, right?"


    <em>Not at all. I''m not even a Hero, </em>Alice inwardlyined. However, whether it was Kristine, Luna, or Lacey, everyone currently believed that she was the Hero. The only person who knew about her true identity was the Loli Goddess. Thus, Alice had no choice but to hold back her awkwardness and nod, saying, "That''s right. Age isn''t a limit to a Hero''s growth."


    "Although my current body is no longer that of a Hero, the seed of my strength is engraved in my soul. Given enough time, I can eventually recover my peak strength," Kristine said, smiling as she worked her wrists. She found the long-lost feeling of having a body veryfortable, so she didn''t mind even if her body was a lot younger than her original body. "Although I won''t be able to continue growing once I reach my peak strength, it should be more than enough to help you deal with the Demon King."


    Kristine was still unaware of Alice''s true goal in resurrecting her, so she only assumed that their opponent would be the Demon King of this generation. However, Alice didn''t bother rifying this misunderstanding. Although the Loli Goddess had said that the mysterious power hidden within her right hand would be crucial in defeating the Demon King''s Power, Alice still had no idea how she should use this power to do so.


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    Meanwhile, with Kristine''s addition to the team, the Demon King of this generation would no longer be a threat to Alice in directbat. And even if the new Demon King showed up, there was still Aird, the Hero working as a spy among the demons. If the new Demon King dared to seek help from the demons, the Four Heavenly Kings would probably apprehend this "impersonator" and bring him to Alice.


    In any case, while the construction of Kristine''s body ended with an unexpected twist, everything still turned out alright in the end. Kristine had no qualms with her new body, either. After all, she had already lingered in this world as a soul for more than three hundred years. Now that she had gained a new physical body, even if it was a somewhat young body, she was still more than satisfied.


    After making sure that things were alright on Kristine''s side, Alice turned to Lacey to tell her that she hadpleted hermission and that she coulde find her whenever she needed help in the future. However, before Alice could speak her thoughts, she paused when she saw Lacey talking to Luna.


    "Alice." Luna perceptively noticed Alice looking in her direction. So, she promptly turned to Alice and shared the conversation she just had with Lacey, saying, "Miss Lacey just asked me about a maid''s duties."


    "Ha?"


    Alice''s first reaction was to be stunned and confused by Luna''s words. Then, she quickly realized what Luna was talking about.


    Previously, when Alice discussed the construction of a physical body with Lacey during the Conference of Kings, she had offhandedly joked that should Lacey fail the procedure, the girl would have to work as her maid aspensation. By the looks of things, Lacey had taken the joke seriously. Moreover, it would seem that the girl had thought that she had failed her job because she had created a body that didn''t match Kristine''s age.


    "Wait, Lacey, I never said you failed your job," Alice said while pinching the bridge of her nose. "You''ve already constructed the body Kristine needs. Moreover, Kristine has also said that she is satisfied with this body and that it won''t affect the recovery of her strength. So, there''s no need for you toply with that joking agreement I said before."


    After saying so, Alice winked at Kristine, signaling the other party to y along with her. Lacey might not be a certified senior alchemist, but she had the skill of one already. The girl would be considered a national-level talent in any kingdom. If Lacey became her maid, wouldn''t her career as an alchemist be ruined?


    Unfortunately, Alice failed to realize that simr to herself, Kristine didn''t possess in-depth knowledge on mind magic. Even the mind-type taboos she learned were mainly offensive taboos. Thus, Kristine didn''t have much skill when it came to analyzing expressions.


    In other words, Kristine had failed to understand the meaning behind Alice''s wink.


    Unfortunately, Kristine was in a good mood because she had just obtained a new body. Meanwhile, as a result of her good mood, she didn''t bother second-guessing her interpretation of Alice''s wink. Instead, she winked back at Alice to express her understanding. Then, she turned to Luna and said, "Although there is indeed nothing wrong with this bodyit will still affect mybat performance to a certain extent. For example, my shorter limbs will affect my judgment of distance when I am wielding a sword. Many of thebat instincts I''ve developed will also be a problem. So, overall, I think it should be considered a failure."


    "Indeed. I understand." Lacey nodded as she looked at Kristine seriously. Then, she turned to Alice and confidently said, "I promise to be a good maid by your side, Lady Alice."


    <em>Fuck! You didn''t get me at all, did you?!</em>


    Alice''s mouth twitched in exasperation. She finally realized that Kristine was simr to herselfa person who didn''t know how to read the expressions of others. It was a mistake for her to signal Kristine with her wink.


    Meanwhile, Luna''s expression turned scarily dark when she heard the conclusion of this conversation. She didn''t expect for someone to try to contest for the position of Alice''s maid.


    Unlike Luna, Kristine nodded in satisfaction when she heard Lacey''s deration to be a maid. Then, she looked toward Alice with upturned brows.


    This time, even Alice could interpret the meaning behind Kristine''s expression. It was probably something along the lines of: "I did a good job, didn''t I?"


    It took Alice a lot of self-persuasion to stop herself from throwing a pair of panties at Kristine''s face.

 Chapter 192: How Many Daughters Do You Have?

    Chapter 192: How Many Daughters Do You Have?


    King Hatter has found another illegitimate daughter!


    Unsurprisingly, this piece of news caused another uproar on the inte. For a time,izens all over the human realm were discussing this matter.


    However, unlikest time,izens'' discussions weren''t centered around the new princess this time. Instead, everyone discussed how many rtionship debts Hatter had gotten himself into during his younger days, how many absurd feats of his remained uncovered, andhow many more undiscovered illegitimate daughters he still had


    "I knew it"


    Hatter wore a bitter look on his face when he read the trending topics on the inte. After arranging for Kristine''s identification, he had been busy with the mountain of documents on his table, and only now did he have some time to take a look at LINK. Meanwhile, just like he expected, almost everyone on the inte was discussing his private life.


    Fortunately, Hatter had always been a good king. So, most people talked about him in a joking and teasing manner, and few people actually spoke ill of him. However, it was still an inescapable fact that he had left an amorous impression in the minds of theseizens.


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    How long would it take to changeizens'' perception of a forever virgin into that of a womanizer? So long as you bring Alice home with you, one month was more than enough.


    However, Hatter didn''t agonize over this matter for too long, choosing to think on the bright side instead. Since mostizens'' attention was directed to him, it meant that few people were paying attention to Kristine. As evidence, even though photos of Kristine''s current appearance were already shared on the inte, nobody had noticed that Kristine shared an uncanny resemnce to the previous generation''s Hero.


    Of course, the distraction only yed a part in preventing others from recognizing Kristine. Another part of the reason was theck of photos of Hero Kristine''s childhood appearance. Unless there was a distinct feature that made Hero Kristine''s face very recognizable, few people would think that Princess Kristine was actually Hero Kristine. Fortunately, although Kristine was indeed a beautiful girl, nothing about her stood out a lot. So, it was rather tough for anyone to link her current appearance with the previous generation''s Hero.


    In addition, Kristine''s name had also been changed. Currently, the name printed on her identification card was Kryst. Although only one syble was removed from her name, it was still more than enough to prevent others from linking her with Kristine.


    Unlike Alice, though, Kristine did not choose to attend the March Academy.


    The main reason Alice attended the March Academy was due to hercking knowledge of magic and her need to study taboos. However, Kristine had long since mastered magic, and her collection of taboos was also more than enough to deal with a Demon King. Thus, she naturally didn''t need to waste time at an academy like Alice.


    The only thing Kristine probably needed to learn were taboos capable of damaging the soul. If she hadn''t cked off on this aspect, Grant could''ve never survived for so long as a soul.


    Hence, rather than attend the March Academy, Kristine was more interested in learning about the new technologies avable in the world. Although the inte had already existed three hundred years ago, it was still stuck in an experimental phase back then, so it was never made publicly avable. Meanwhile, it was only made public a few years after Kristine''s death. As a result, Kristine had never gotten the opportunity to experience the inte and the wonders it brought.


    "Your Majesty!"


    While Hatter was pondering over Kristine''s matter in silence, Catherine suddenly barged into his office in a hurry. Moreover, judging by herbored breaths, she must''ve run here at top speed.


    "Lady Kristine threw Baron Guh''s son into the city moat!"


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    Hatter covered his face in agony when he heard Catherine''s report. Kristine might not need to enter an academy due to her profound understanding of magic, but this decision had led to many people setting their sights on her.


    Alice had created the image of a magic genius for herself because of her actions in the March Academy. As a result, not many noble children dared try anything funny with her. After all, Alice had the strength to send them straight to the hospital.


    However, Kristine, the new "princess," did not possess such fame. She also didn''t have a violent maid like Luna protecting her. Hence, some of the more anxious noble children who had failed to gain any benefits from Alice shifted their sights over to Kristine.


    Meanwhile, the results were as expected. From yesterday afternoon until this afternoon, Kristine had already thrown two noble children into the city moat, hospitalized three noble children, and hung five noble children on a tree in the city park, her actions causing the parents of these children to submit a bunch ofints to Catherine.


    Although the noble children were partly at fault in this situation, Kristine''s retaliation was also a little too severe. For example, one of the noble children she had tossed into the moatst night didn''t know how to swim. His proficiency in water magic was also terrible. As a result, he had nearly drowned to death.


    "They won''t dare to rebel for real, so just loosen the inspections on some of their applications. That should be enough to appease them," Hatter said, sighing. "Also, tell those people to keep their children in check. They can try to befriend Kryst, but if they get bullied because they pester her incessantly, I won''t be hearing any more of theirints. Don''t think that I''ll keeppromising."


    "Okay." Catherine nodded, expressing her understanding.


    Indeed, if they didn''t give those nobles a warning, they might very well use the excuse of "our children have been bullied by Kryst" to keep asking for privileges from Hatter. Thus, a warning was necessary.


    "By the way, what is Lady Alice up to right now, Catherine?" Hatter asked. Previously, he would ask Catherine about Alice''s development every day. However, he had nearly forgotten about Alice thanks to all the trouble Kristine had caused today and yesterday.


    "Lady Alice found a new pet," Catherine earnestly answered when she recalled the report she received from the intelligence department.


    "?"


    Hatter looked at Catherine in confusion.

 Chapter 191: Poor King

    Chapter 191: Poor King


    If they looked at things from a different perspective, it wasn''t exactly a bad thing for Kristine to be a child.


    Kristine''s images recorded in history books showed that she was a girl at around 18. Thus, everyone''s impression of the Hero Kristine was also stuck to that age and appearance.


    However, Kristine had be a 13-year-old child now. Although her facial features had an uncanny resemnce to the 18-year-old Kristine, those ignorant of the truth were unlikely to link the child-like Kristine with the Hero Kristine.


    In that case, they wouldn''t have to try to conceal Kristine''s identity. After all, who could possibly imagine that this little girl with light-blue hair was actually the Hero from over three hundred years ago?


    There had also never been a precedent where a Hero had been resurrected in the past 10,000-plus years. So long as they did not deliberately bring up the topic of Kristine being the Hero, it was unlikely that anyone could see through Kristine''s true identity.


    However, while Kristine''s true identity was no longer a concern, her current identity, orck thereof, was still a problem. It''d be very strange and inconvenient for a child to not have any identification in this current day and age.


    Technology had already reached a very advanced level in the current world, and many interesting facilities hade into existence. Kristine was most likely eager to try out these things. There was also the risk that someone might investigate herck of identification and figure something out. Hence, she needed to possess a legal identity.


    Meanwhile, when it came to forging a wless identity for Kristine, who else could do a better job than our model king Hatter Ceres?


    "That''s the gist of the situation."


    Catherine wore a helpless expression on her face as she brought the two lolis, Alice and Kristine, to Hatter''s office and exined the situation to him.


    Meanwhile, after learning that Alice had resurrected the previous generation''s Hero, Hatter had reacted simrly to Catherine, his expression bing inexplicably strange. After all, this was the previous generation''s Hero they were talking about. Not only did she get resurrected, but she had even be a child


    When Catherine saw Hatter''s strange expression, she could deeply empathize with him. Previously, when Alice came to look for her and told her about this matter, she had thought that Alice was joking with her.


    However, when Alice brought over Kristine, Catherine could no longer bring herself tough. The mini Kristine shared an uncanny resemnce to the Hero Kristine. If the girl with light-blue hair continued growing up, she would certainly look like the Hero Kristine recorded in history books.


    As an icing on the cake, Alice had passed the Hero''s Sword to Kristine, and Kristine managed to wield the longsword that was as long as she was tall. Kristine had even performed a masterful sword dance with the Hero''s Sword. Although Kristine''s new body no longer had the blessing of God, her soul remained the same. Thus, she retained the right to use the Hero''s Sword.


    "I didn''t expect that even the former Hero would get resurrected"


    Hatter massaged his temples as he let this situation sink into his mind. Resurrection was something that had only been carried out in the distant past. Moreover, those resurrections weren''t true resurrections. Instead, it was a means of turning people into living corpses and using them against one''s enemy.


    Research had been conducted on souls a long time ago, and this research concluded that a person''s soul would dissipate and vanishpletely once their physical body died. Hence, unless a person had preserved their soul using special magic, it''d be impossible to resurrect them after death.


    Meanwhile, to resurrect a Hero, not only would there need to be a Hero who had preserved their soul after death, but someone would also have to know of the existence and whereabouts of this Hero''s soul. Meanwhile, as far as Hatter was aware, no records stated that Hero Kristine had preserved her soul.


    However, it would seem that Alice had inadvertently stumbled upon Kristine''s soul.


    Hatter was aware that Alice had sought a Seed of Nature from the elves. He also remembered Alice asking him for a senior alchemist some time ago. Although he had been confused by her actions initially, it would seem that she had been doing all these things to resurrect the former Hero. Her efforts weren''t in vain, either, seeing as Kristine was currently standing in his office and wielding the Hero''s Sword.


    But why a child?


    "So, you need help creating a new identity for Lady Kristine, right?" Hatter quickly deduced the purpose of Alice''s visit. Simr to the problem Alice faced previously, Kristinecked a suitable identification. Hence, to facilitate Kristine''s future movements, they hade to him for an identity. "What do you think, Catherine?"


    Hatter had already grown used to consulting Catherine for help. In addition to having greatbat power, Catherine also had a good head on her shoulders. So, Hatter would often seek Catherine''s advice on both military matters and non-military matters.


    Unfortunately, Hatter had made a severe mistake asking Catherine for advice this time.


    "I think we can use the same arrangement we used for Lady Alice." Catherine, as always, brought up a bad idea. At the very least, it was a bad idea for Hatter. Then, she turned to Kristine and asked, "Lady Kristine must be curious to learn about the changes that had taken ce during the past three hundred years, right?"


    Kristine nodded when she heard Catherine''s question. She had heard about many novelties during her time eavesdropping on conversations through the Soul Gathering Tablet. However, her understanding of these topics was lopsided. If possible, she would certainly wish to experience these novelties in person.


    "Providing Lady Kristine with an identity of high status will ensure that she wouldn''t face any troubles during her exploration of the modern era," Catherine said, her voice bing more confident after seeing Kristine nodding. "So, Your Majesty, please arrange the identity of an illegitimate daughter for Lady Kristine as well."


    <em>Where is my say in this?!</em>


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    Hatter scratched his head in frustration when he heard Catherine''s conclusion. Indeed, if he dered Kristine as one of his illegitimate daughters, she would simrly gain the identity of a princess like Alice. If others wished to cause trouble for Kristine, they''d have to consider whether they could afford to go against him, the Gryffin King.


    But If he made such a deration, how would the nation see him?


    There was a stark difference between Alice''s and Kristine''s hair color, so he couldn''t say that they were twins even if he wanted to. So, if he were to dere Kristine as his illegitimate daughter, he''d have to start mourning over his reputation.

 Chapter 193: This Cat is Hopeless

    Chapter 193: This Cat is Hopeless


    When talking about Alice''s pet, the first thing that came to Hatter''s mind was the Milu Rabbit Alice always carried around her waist.


    Initially, Hatter had suspected Alice of animal abuse when the reports he received mentioned the Milu Rabbit remaining unconscious for long periods. Worried that this would attract the attention of animal protection agencies, he informed the intelligence department to keep a closer eye on Alice''s interactions with her Milu Rabbit.


    However, he quickly dismissed his worries after learning that Alice''s Milu Rabbit would strangely try to knock itself unconscious after waking up. Obviously, there was something wrong with this Milu Rabbit''s head, and Alice had nothing to do with it staying unconscious all the time.


    On the contrary, rather than abusing the Milu Rabbit, Alice was actually keeping it safe. After all, if this Milu Rabbit were to knock itself unconscious out in the wild, it would definitely be the meal of some beast sooner orter.


    Because of this strange Milu Rabbit, Alice had also developed a name for herself. When one mentioned Alice''s pet, one would immediately think of this Milu Rabbit.


    However, outside most people''s knowledge, Alice had gotten herself a new pet recently. This new pet was incredibly strange and unfathomable. Few people knew about this pet''s existence even in the March Academy. At most, only a few people had noticed some clues.


    Of course, with the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department''s high work efficiency, they quickly discovered the identity of Alice''s new pet and reported it to Catherine, the king''s Royal Guard Captain. Then, Catherine subsequently reported this finding to Hatter.


    ...


    Setting aside Hatter''s reaction after learning of this information, over on at the March Academy, Alice was currently having a friendly interaction with her new pet.


    "Have you passed on my message?"


    Alice was currently sitting on a vaulting box inside the gym warehouse as she asked Ciel about the negotiation process with the catkin tribes. While doing so, she had her left leg crossed over her right leg, and her right foot rested on Ciel''s face.


    Alice honestly felt a little frustrated by this situation. Although she had indeed felt a sense of ecstasy when she bullied Ciel previously, she quickly discovered thatpared to her sadistic tendencies, Ciel''s masochistic tendencies grew at a much quicker rate.


    After only a little over a week, Ciel had already undergone a frightening transformation. Although she maintained her smiling face when conversing with others, she would wear only two expressions when she was with Alice in private: a cold expression to express her disdain toward Alice and a euphoric expression when Alice was stepping on her.


    To make matters worse, unless Alice was stepping on Ciel, the catkin would thoroughly refuse to have a proper conversation with her. So, even though it looked incredibly strange, Alice had no choice but to do so if she wanted to have a proper conversation with Ciel.


    "I...I''ve passed it on already," Ciel said with an enraptured expression as her face was pressed against the soft exercise mat. After saying so, she rubbed her face against Alice''s white stockings.


    The white stockings were something Ciel had requested thest time Alice had stepped on her. Seeing that the catkin was helping her out, Alice decided to oblige Ciel''s request.


    Meanwhile, through this request, it could be seen that Ciel''s fetish was indeed growing more and more exaggerated. It had already gotten so bad that her reputation would fall into ruins should others learn of her fetish.


    "What did your tribesmen say? It''s already been a week, so they should have an answer already, right?" Alice asked as she switched to stepping on Ciel''s face with her left foot. Despite Ciel''s strange fetish, the catkin could still be considered one of the top beauties in the March Academy. Ciel had also done very well at maintaining her beauty, her skin looking smooth and lustrous. So, stepping on Ciel''s face was both physically and mentally satisfying.


    "The patriarch says he''ll give me an answer tomorrow," Ciel said, her body trembling a little when she felt Alice''s foot grinding against her face. Of course, judging by the expression on her face, it was obvious that she wasn''t trembling out of fear but excitement instead.


    Meanwhile, Alice removed her foot after getting the answer she wanted, leaving Ciel panting and bathing in the psychological aftertaste of pleasure.


    "Tomorrow, huh I guess that''s fine," Alice muttered with a pondering look.


    With the excellent conditions she offered, there was no reason for the catkin tribes to refuse her request. Meanwhile, so long as the catkin tribes epted her offer, she would be able to visit them and read their taboo collection.


    Alice wasn''t particrly worried that the catkin tribes might threaten her, either.


    On the one hand, the catkins shared a good rtionship with the humans. As It was especially true considering the catkins had set up home within the Gryffin Kingdom''s borders and allowed their children to study in the Gryffin Kingdom''s academies. So, there should be no reason for the catkins to take action against Alice, the Gryffin Princess.


    On the other hand, Alice was no pushover. She might have trouble going up against the beastkins as a whole by herself, but the catkins were only one of the many races among the various beastkins. Alice could easily st them to the afterlife with a taboo if they dared try anything funny.


    "By the way, I heard that the beastkins'' totems are excellent materials for alchemy," Alice said, recalling another matter when she looked at Ciel''s degenerate face. After constructing Kristine''s body, Lacey started studying under Luna to be a qualified maid. Meanwhile, through the conversations she shared with Lacey during these past two days, Alice had learned about some of the rarer alchemy materials in this world.


    Of the materials Lacey mentioned, the beastkins'' totems were one of these materials. The beastkins'' totems would gain special properties after being worshiped by the beastkins over a long period, and these special properties made these totems excellent materials for alchemy. Meanwhile, Alice wondered if she could swindle a totem from the catkins.


    "Y-You''ve even set your sights on our totems?!"


    Ciel instantly shot up from the ground when she heard Alice aiming at her tribe''s totems. Although there was still an unnatural blush on her face, it was obvious that she had already snapped out of her masochistic state. She had also started speaking to Alice in a rude tone.


    "Impossible! The totems are our tribe''s religion! There''s no way we''ll let you use them for alchemy!"


    "It''s already the modern era. Why are you still being so superstitious?" Alice said, curling her lips in dissatisfaction as she sent a kick at Ciel''s buttocks.


    In reality, Alice had considered letting Luna bully Ciel on her behalf. Unfortunately, Ciel had seemingly imprinted on Alice. When Luna was the one delivering the physical abuse, it would only provoke an intense resistance from Ciel, the catkin refusing to be obedient no matter what.


    "Ah~" Ciel moaned and capitted instantly. "I''m sorry"


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 Chapter 194: Totem: Im in Danger

    Chapter 194: Totem: I''m in Danger


    Most beastkins in this world had their own religion. However, the target of their religion wasn''t God but the totems of their respective tribes instead. Rather than calling it a religion, it might be more appropriate to call the totems spiritual supports.


    Meanwhile, after being worshiped by the beastkins for a long time, these totems had also developed special properties. For example, the catkins'' totem would increase their wielders'' agility and flexibility as well as improve their wielders'' mana conductivity.


    Of course, each catkin tribe only had one chief totem. The chief totem also had a massive size, preventing it from easily being carried away. Hence, when alchemists spoke about using the beastkins'' totems for alchemy, they referred to the smaller auxiliary totems ced around the chief totem.


    Although these auxiliary totems weren''t as powerful as the chief totem, they still possessed a portion of the chief totem''s strength. So, this made them excellent alchemy materials. The only problem was that even the auxiliary totems were incredibly rare.


    Typically, these auxiliary totems would only be awarded to the most excellent geniuses among the beastkins, and outsiders would rarely be able to get their hands on one. Because of this, in most alchemy textbooks, the beastkins'' totems were described to be as rare as the elves'' Seed of Nature.


    "That''s about it for the beastkins'' totems," Lacey said, concluding her exnation on the different types of totems avable. Then, she looked at Alice, who sat on the sofa across from her, and Cielwho was serving as Alice''s footrest, with a strange expression and continued, "Even if the beastkins'' totems aren''t turned into magic tools, they can still provide an excellent effect when wielded as they are."


    "I see. The auxiliary totems, huh"


    Alice nodded to express her understanding. Before learning about the different types of totems avable, she was surprised to hear that the beastkins'' totems were verified as excellent alchemy materials. After all, totems were the beastkins'' spiritual pir. There should be no way the beastkins would agree to give others their spiritual pir, let alone let others use it for alchemy.


    However, it made a little sense if they were talking about the beastkins'' auxiliary totems. Although auxiliary totems were only awarded to the elites among the beastkins, it wasn''t exactly impossible for some to flow into the hands of outsiders due to various circumstances. Then, these outsiders must''ve either sold these totems to curious alchemists or been curious alchemists themselves.


    "If it''s the chief totem, it can definitely be turned into an amazing magic tool. After all, it is a totem that has been passed down for thousands of years. It might even be possible to create an Artifact with the chief totem," Lacey said, doing her best to ignore the moaning catkin under Alice''s feet. "But no beastkin tribe will give their chief totem away unless the tribe has faced ruin or destruction."


    "I have no intentions of targeting the beastkins'' chief totems. I''m no demon," Alice said, shrugging.


    Alice honestly wasn''t interested in the beastkins'' chief totems. So what if they could be turned into Artifacts? She''d instantly have an Artifact ready to use if she stripped Ciel''s panties. Her interest in the beastkins'' auxiliary totems was solely due to her curiosity.


    "Ciel, you''re considered an elite in your tribe, right?" Alice asked as she put a little more strength into the heels of her feet. If Ciel was considered an elite in her tribe, she might be able to get her hands on an auxiliary totem through Ciel and satisfy her curiosity.


    "Yes, I guess you can say that But I can only get my hands on a totem after I graduate," Ciel obediently answered while gasping for air. "H-Harder, please"


    Alice helplessly shook her head when she heard Ciel''s request. It was only when she was mistreating the catkin like she was doing now would the other party obediently answer her questions. Otherwise, the catkin would only respond to her with a contemptuous gaze.


    Alice also couldn''t help but wonder what kind of reaction the patriarch of Ciel''s tribe would have when he learned that their "elite" was behaving in such a manner. Would he get a heart attack?


    After lifting her right foot and stomping Ciel onto the floor, Alice looked toward Lacey, who was doing her best not to look down, and asked, "If we manage to secure an auxiliary totem from the catkins, what can we make with it?"


    "Mostly agility-enhancing tools. The effects can be quite significant if processed properly," Lacey said with a blush on her face. When she saw the blissful expression Ciel made when being stepped on by Alice and thought about how she would be Alice''s maid in the future, a thought suddenly came to her mind, and her face grew even redder. Even so, she still tried to keep calm as much as possible as she answered Alice''s question.


    "Is that all?"


    Alice originally thought the catkins'' auxiliary totems could be used to produce something novel. However, when she heard that they could only be used to produce agility-enhancing tools, her interest in the auxiliary totems plummeted. After all, could any of these agility-enhancing tools provide as significant of a boost as the Hero''s Sword or panties?


    While Alice was considering what other things she could ask from the catkins aside from taboos, the front door of Lacey''s apartment suddenly opened. Then, a blue-haired loli stomped into the room angrily.


    Simr to Lacey, Kristine wasn''t a student of the March Academy, so she couldn''t stay in the academy''s dormitory for long periods. Instead, she stayed in the same apartment Alice had rented for Lacey off-campus.


    After angrily stomping into the apartment, Kristine''s first thought was to vent herints to Alice and Lacey. However, before she could do so, her eyes were drawn to the panting and blushing catkin under Alice''s feet, and the words she originally prepared to say ended up stuck in her mouth.


    "What''s wrong, Lady Kristine? What made you so angry?" Lacey asked.


    Lacey had more or less adapted to this strange situation already. So, when she saw the shocked look on Kristine''s face, she took the initiative to speak up and help Kristine out of this awkward predicament.


    "Uh It''s nothing important. It''s just another blind bastard pestering me incessantly. But I''ve already stuck him into the ground to let him cool down," Kristine answered. Her anger had subsided significantly due to the shock Ciel had given her, so she merely gave a summary of the cause of her anger. After saying so, Kristine moved over to Alice. Then, while looking at the catkin under Alice''s feet, she asked Alice in a confused tone, "What are you doing? Did she offend you or something?"


    Most of Kristine''s knowledge of society was still stuck in the past. Meanwhile, people with fetishes like Ciel were incredibly rare during Kristine''s era. Even if such people existed, they would definitely keep their fetishes a secret from others. Hence, when Kristine saw Ciel, her first thought was to assume that the catkin had angered Alice somehow.


    "This I''ll exin it to youter," Alice said. She felt that "masochism" might be too stimting of a topic for someone whose thoughts were still stuck three hundred years into the past. So, it was best if she exined it when nobody else was around. "By the way, Kristine, what do you know about the beastkins? Specifically, the catkins. I''m nning to visit the catkins in a few days."


    "The catkins?" Kristine looked down at the squirming Ciel when she heard Alice''s question. Then, she said, "If we are talking about the beastkinsit would have to be their totems, right? I recall one of the beastkin tribes'' totems seem to have the ability to locate the Demon King."


    "???"


    Alice was stunned. Why hadn''t she heard of such a wonderful item before? Or, more specifically, if such a useful item truly existed, why hadn''t anybody mentioned it to her before? In a situation where nobody knew where the Demon King was hiding, shouldn''t such an important piece of information be shared with her, the Hero?


    TL Notes:


    I''m not sure if the "apartment()" mentioned in this chapter is the "house()" mentioned in Chapter 188.


    In Chapter 188, the first paragraph mentions that Alice had rented a house for Lacey in the March Academy''s "noble''s dormitory." Yet, in this chapter, it is mentioned that Lacey and Kristine aren''t allowed to stay in the academy''s dormitory.


    This is a contradictory point if we assume the noble''s dormitory is located on campus, so there are two possible scenarios:


    We are Hosted Nov3l, find us on g00gle.


    1) The noble''s dormitory is located off-campus. (It was never mentioned whether the noble''s dormitory is on-campus or off-campus. It was only mentioned that the nobles have much better living arrangements since they are paying more money.)


    2) Alice had initially rented a house for Lacey on campus when Lacey was working on Kristine''s body. With Alice''s identity as the Gryffin Princess, she could''ve probably gotten the academy to bend the rules for her. However, after Lacey constructed Kristine''s body, Alice no longer had to keep Lacey under close supervision, so she rented an apartment off-campus for her to avoid troubling the academy.


    Find the original at h*sted novel.

 Chapter 195: Well, Isnt This a Coincidence?

    Chapter 195: Well, Isn''t This a Coincidence?


    The next day, Ciel returned to talking normally with her close friends in ss.


    Although Ciel was a top-notch beauty in the March Academy, thanks to her excellent social skills, she did not get alienated by the other girls in her ss. On the contrary, she was friendly with all of her female ssmates.


    While Ciel and her friends were discussing whether they should head to the nearby shopping district for a stroll after school, Alice''s voice suddenly came from the ssroom door:


    "Ciel! Come here for a moment!"


    Ciel subconsciously shuddered when she heard Alice''s voice, a faint blush forming on her face. However, she quickly calmed down and patted herself on the face, reminding herself not to have dirty thoughts.


    After getting ordered around and stepped on by Alice for the past week, Ciel had developed a reaction where her body would feel electrified whenever she heard amand from Alice. This definitely wasn''t a good sign.


    Aside from being agile, catkins had anothermon characteristicarrogance. Although Ciel normally behaved like a friendly and modest person, arrogance was engraved deep into her bones. Meanwhile, this arrogance prohibited her from being inferior to others. This was also why she had reacted with such dissatisfaction when she met Alice for the first time.


    Even though Alice hadn''t done anything wrong to warrant her dissatisfaction, her arrogance still prevented her from acknowledging Alice. Unfortunately, even that arrogance had lost to her fetish in the end.


    "You seem to be getting along very well with Her Highness Alice recently, Ciel." While Ciel was mulling over how she could break free from Alice''s control, the girl next to her said to her enviously, "How nice. Both you and Her Highness Alice are incredibly popr in the academy."


    "What are you saying? You girls have your strong points as well. I am merely popr by virtue of my race," Ciel said as she suppressed her anger toward Alice. However, she was starting to have trouble maintaining her smile, so she quickly jumped out of her seat and said, "I''ll go see what Alice wants. We''ll continue our talk afterward."


    After saying so, Ciel quickly walked out of the ssroom. Then, as soon as she entered the corridor, she saw that in addition to Alice, three more people were also standing with Alice.


    After ncing at the three people next to Alice, Ciel recognized all three of them. They were Zauna, Lalu, and Luna. Due to her wariness toward her potential rival, Ciel had previously looked into Alice''s closest friends. So, even though this was her first time meeting Zauna and Lalu in person, she immediately recognized the two when she saw them.


    In the case of Zauna, the girl was above average when it came to appearances, and she was rtively skilled in magic. However, the March Academy was a ce where geniuses roamed, so Zauna''s skill in magic wasn''t particrly amazing. As for Lalu, she was an international student from the Elven Forest, and the young elf seemed to be curious about everything in the human realm. She also had a rtively innocent personality, so she was easily influenced by others.


    Ciel couldn''t help but snort unhappily when she saw Zauna and Lalu. She was an elite among her tribe, so she felt a sense of superiority over Zauna and Lalu since neither had any outstanding qualities. Yet, Alice had chosen to befriend these two unremarkable people. Knowing this, Ciel couldn''t help but feel dissatisfied with this for some inexplicable reason.


    "Is there something you need from an ordinary beastkin like myself, Your Highness?" Ciel asked in a sarcastic tone.


    "What''s gotten into you again?" Alice couldn''t help but grow confused when she heard Ciel''s tone. However, she didn''t bother dwelling on the matter. After looking around and ensuring that the few people in the corridor weren''t paying attention to them, Alice pointed at Zauna and Lalu, asking, "These two here are Zauna and Lalu. What do you think? Do you feel anything from them?"


    "No."


    Ciel clicked her tongue. She was aware that Alice was implicitly asking her "do you get the urge to be stepped on by them?" Unfortunately. She didn''t seem to get such urges when it came to other people.


    Just like how chicks imprint on the first creature they see, Ciel had also seemingly imprinted on Alice, the first person to have developed her fetish. Although Ciel was d that her masochistic tendencies wouldn''t act up with just anybody, she also felt frustrated because this prevented her from escaping Alice''s control.


    "Still no good?" Alice sighed when she heard Ciel''s response. However, she didn''t feel too disappointed by this situation. On the contrary, this made Ciel even more trustworthy. After all, if Ciel couldn''t find anybody to rece her, the catkin would have to follow hermands obediently. Otherwise, Ciel would no longer have anyone to satisfy her fetish. "Nevermind, then. By the way, how is the rtionship between catkins and dogkins?"


    "The dogkins?"


    Ciel''s expression instantly darkened when she heard Alice''s question. Based on this reaction, Alice could roughly guess what Ciel thought of the dogkins.


    Sure enough, Ciel immediately began an angry rant:


    "Keep those dirty and rude dogs far away from me. Those dogs don''t even know table manners when ites to eating. They''re the perfect example of a failed evolution. They are an embarrassment to all beastkins."


    "There''s an ongoing feud between the catkins and dogkins," Zauna whispered into Alice''s ears while Ciel was ranting about the dogkins. "Although things have calmed down a little now, the two races still can''t see eye to eye with each othereven though their tribes live very close to each other"


    Meanwhile, Alice couldn''t help but grow a little disappointed when she heard Zauna''s exnation. Initially, she had thought she could get Ciel to help her contact the dogkins. However, if there was an ongoing feud between the catkins and dogkins, it was unlikely that she could get Ciel to help her with this matter.


    As to why Alice was looking to contact the dogkins, it was because of the totems Kristine mentioned, the one that was capable of tracking down the Demon King. Said totems were owned by none other than the dogkin tribes.


    This novel is _hosted_ by hosted novel.


    The dogkins had always prided themselves on their keen search capabilities. As a result, their totems had also gained a tracking ability. So long as one injected the target''s mana or aura, the dogkins'' totems could seek out other existences with simr mana and aura.


    This was also why nobody had mentioned this information to Alice before. If they wanted to track down the Demon King using the dogkins'' totems, they would need to inject a sample of the Demon King''s mana or aura. Otherwise, the totems would be incapable of locating the Demon King.


    However, the Demon King was a unique existence. If they wanted to use the dogkins'' totems to track down the Demon King, they''d need to get a sample of the Demon King''s mana or aura, which was a problem since they didn''t know the Demon King''s whereabouts.


    This was also a predicament Heroes of past generations had faced. During Kristine''s generation, Kristine had simrly thought of using the dogkins'' totems to track down the Demon King. Unfortunately, she had faced a simr problem, and the idea was eventually shelved.


    However, unlike the Heroes of past generations, Alice just so happened to have the solution to this problemLuna.


    The mana flowing within Luna''s body was a product of the Demon King''s Power. Hence, it could be used with the dogkins'' totems to track down the Demon King.


    _ Support us at hosted novel _


    If everything went smoothly, Alice might even be able to locate the Demon King''s Power, which was currently umting its strength, using this method and destroy it.

 Chapter 196: Lets Go For a New Prey

    Chapter 196: Let''s Go For a New Prey


    "No dogkins are attending the academy?"


    Alice felt her head aching when she looked through the roster for beastkin students Luna had handed to her.


    Many beastkin students attended the March Academy. The beastkins had long since limatized themselves with human culture, so they weren''t against sending their elites to attend human academies. As evidence, catkins, foxkins, cowkins, rabbitkins, etc., could be seen listed in the student roster Alice held. There was even one international student from the crocodilekins, a beastkin race with a very small poption. Yet, for some reason, the dogkins, which were one of the more popted races among beastkins, did not have even a single student attending the March Academy.


    Of course, that wasn''t to say that the dogkins were dissatisfied with human academies. At the very least, ording to Alice''s knowledge, several dogkins students had graduated from the March Academyst year. So, Alice was just unlucky that no new dogkin students had enrolled in the March Academy these past three years.


    However, this wasn''t good news for Alice. After all, this meant that it would be much more troublesome for her to borrow the dogkins'' chief totem.


    Although the dogkins auxiliary totems also had the search function, they could only be used to search for simple items. If she wanted to search for something on the level of the Demon King''s Power, she needed to use the dogkins'' chief totem.


    However, while most beastkins had already adapted to human culture, it didn''t mean that they had fully integrated with human society. So, beastkins still ced great importance over their chief totems, and even human kings couldn''t touch the beastkins'' chief totems. Moreover, some of the energy umted within the chief totem would be consumed whenever it was used.


    If Alice contacted the dogkins with her identity as the princess, she might be able to borrow one of their auxiliary totems for her own use. However, she definitely couldn''t persuade them to lend her their chief totem. Alice also dared not recklessly get Hatter to help her with this matter. If handled poorly, it might lead to Hatter''s actions being judged as racial discrimination.


    This problem exists in every world


    Alice sighed as she closed the student roster. Personally, she preferred to avoid troubling Hatter as much as possible. After all, Hatter had already provided her with plenty of help. He also looked like he was constantly overworked. So, Alice truly couldn''t bear to keep on squeezing Hatter for all he was worth.


    Although part of the reason Hatter was helping Alice was so that he could bring more development opportunities for the Gryffin Kingdom in the future, Alice could also see that Hatter was earnestly trying to assist her. After all, the man had gone as far as to forsake his reputation as a pure virgin and shoulder the name of a womanizer to help her.


    <em>But if I don''t get Hatter''s help, how am I supposed to borrow the dogkins'' chief totem?</em>


    Alice felt a little conflicted over this situation. Although she could replicate the n she used with the elves and secretly use the dogkins'' chief totem, there were two problems with this n.


    Firstly, the cost. When Alice secretly learned the elves'' taboos, it didn''t cause any actual harm to the elves. If she handled things correctly, the elves wouldn''t even notice that someone had secretly studied their taboos before. So, Alice had gone ahead with her n without a guilty conscience at the time.


    However, the dogkins'' chief totem would lose some of its umted energy with every use. This was a special energy that was umted through the dogkins'' faith, so it would take a long time to replenish the lost energy. Hence, every use of the chief totem would cause the dogkins to incur a substantial loss.


    Secondly, the chief totem''s activation method. Alice wasn''t a beastkin, so she wasn''t particrly knowledgeable about the beastkin totems. Although some of a totem''s basic functions could be essed just by having the totem near one''s body, its special abilities required a specific activation method. Meanwhile, Alice had no clue what the activation method for the dogkins'' chief totem was.


    Although Alice had tried asking Ciel for the activation method, Ciel answered that every beastkin tribe''s totems had different activation methods. So, the activation method for the catkins'' totems couldn''t necessarily be used for the dogkins'' totems. In other words, even if Alice coulde up with suitablepensation for the dogkins and secretly gain ess to the dogkins'' chief totem, she wouldn''t be able to use the chief totem.


    However, Alice was also reluctant to give up so easily. After all, this was currently the only known method she could use to locate the Demon King''s Power.


    Since there were no dogkins in the academy, Alice currentlycked the means to initiate contact with the dogkin tribes. Although she could approach a dogkin tribe directly and initiate contact with the tribe''s leader, such directmunication wouldn''t be as effective as getting a dogkin to help hermunicate her intent.


    For example, if Alice had personally gone up to the elven patriarch and asked him for a Seed of Nature, the elven patriarch would''ve most likely rejected her request on the spot. However, the effect would be different if she had Lalu, who was also an elve, make the request on her behalf.


    The only problem now was where Alice should go to find dogkins. The March Academy obviously wasn''t a viable option. Alice had even asked Frosette, the self-proimed "Academy Know-It-All," and verified that there were indeed no dogkins in the academy. Even the nobles in ss Group A did not have any dogkin attendants serving them.


    In that case, did she have any acquaintances who would possess a range of contacts so wide that they might be acquainted with the dogkins?


    "Who is it?"


    Upon hearing the sound of urgent knockinging from the door, Rosa, who was in her pajamas right now, rubbed her sleepy eyes and yawned as she climbed out of bed.


    After arriving in Hall City, Rosa had found herself a job as an assistant for a private investigator. As a former thief, Rosa was incredibly skilled at concealment, so this was a rtively suitable job for her. She had also received only positive responses from her customers thus far, so she was very satisfied with her current job.


    Meanwhile, she had been busy helping a noblewoman investigate her cheating husbandst night, and she had to follow her target throughout the entire night. Hence, she was still sleepy even though it was already afternoon.


    After walking to the door, Rosa looked through the cat''s eye to see who was looking for her. However, she failed to see anybody at the door. Then, just when she thought that the other party had already left, knocking sounds starteding from the door again.


    <em>What the I can''t see anybody outside the door, so why can I still hear knocking? Am I being haunted?</em>


    Rosa frowned when she thought of this possibility. Immediately, she retrieved a magic stone from the nearby cab. There was some light mana stored in the magic stone, and it was incredibly potent against the undead. If the other party was an undead, all she needed to do was crush this magic stone, and the other party was bound to suffer.


    While holding such precautions in mind, Rosa opened the door. Then, she promptly realized why she couldn''t see the other party through the cat''s eye.


    This was because the cat''s eye''s height had already exceeded the other party''s height!


    "Yo, Rosa." Standing outside the door, Alice greeted Rosa with a smile. "Long time no see."


    "L-Long time no see"


    This novel is _hosted_ by hosted novel.


    At this moment, Rosa thought that it might be better if she had met an undead.

 Chapter 197: How to Make Your Sheep Obedient

    Chapter 197: How to Make Your Sheep Obedient


    "The dogkins? You''re going toy your hands on the dogkins this time?"


    Rosa breathed a sigh of relief after learning that Alice wasn''t here for her panties. However, when she heard Alice asking her whether she had any connections with the dogkins, she couldn''t help but be surprised.


    "First, it was the dwarves. Afterward, it was the elves. Now, it''s the dogkins?"


    Speaking up to this point, Rosa suddenly shuddered as a crazy thought appeared in her mind.


    "Don''t tell me you''re going to have me find the dragons next? I really, really do not know any dragons."


    "Aren''t you thinking a little too far ahead? Also, even if I decide to meet with the dragons, I wouldn''te to you to help me with that," Alice said, rolling her eyes. She was naturally aware of how unfriendly the dragons were. Even among the people she knew, none had any connections with the dragons. Kristine, a former Hero, might have had contact with the dragons before, but it was unlikely that she shared any close ties with them.


    However, Alice didn''t have any reason to meet the dragons right now. Not to mention, the dragons relied on their innate physical qualities and talent for their strength, so hardly any of them had the potential to develop taboos. Because of this, Alice felt that it was unlikely she would have any chances toe into contact with the dragons.


    "If it''s the dogkins you are looking to contact, I''m sorry to say that I don''t have any acquaintances among them. I only have a few acquaintances among the beastkins, and they are mostly foxkins and harpies," Rosa said, unable to recall having any close contacts among the dogkins. There were a few dogkins she had exchanged greetings with before, but that was about all the interactions they shared. Evidently, it wouldn''t be appropriate to ask them for help.


    "The foxkins and harpies, huh I didn''t think you would really have acquaintances among beastkins."


    Alice''s mouth twitched a little when she heard Rosa''s answer. She had onlye to seek out Rosa as ast resort. After all, the thief girl had truly given her the impression of being omnipotent. First, it was getting her smuggled to the demon realm. Next, it was helping her get in touch with a group of dwarves. Alice honestly didn''t think that Rosa would have dealings with the beastkins in the past as well.


    Unfortunately, Alice had no intentions of contacting the foxkins and harpies for the moment.


    Firstly, the foxkins were a race characterized by their charm. This characteristic was so ingrained into their DNA that even their mana carried enchanting properties. Because of this, their totems tended toward hypnotic abilities. However, these hypnotic abilities had limited effects on people with powerful mana.


    As for the harpies, they were a race with wings for arms and ws for hands. They possessed the ability to fly, and they had a strong affinity for wind mana. Harpies were also known as birdkins. However, because "birdkin"[1] didn''t sound very good, they used their tribalnguage to homogenize the name of "birdkin" to "harpy."


    "Why do you want to meet with the dogkins?" Rosa asked somewhat curiously. She was one of the few people who knew about Alice''s identity as the Hero. So, she couldn''t help but wonder why the Hero was going out of her way to get in touch with the dogkins.


    "The dogkins'' chief totem has a tracking ability, so I''m thinking of borrowing their totem," Alice said, not bothering to withhold this information from Rosa. Rosa was one of the few people she knew she could trust. After all, if Rosa were a spy, her identity as the Hero would''ve long since been exposed. Yet, her identity still remained a secret from most people even until now. This meant that Rosa had kept to her promise and did not reveal her identity.


    Since that was the case, Alice had no reason to keep this matter a secret from Rosa. Not to mention, by sharing her goals with Rosa, the thief girl might be more motivated to help her.


    "The dogkins'' totem? Indeed, their totem does have a tracking ability. However, that tracking ability requires the target''s mana or aura as a primer, so it is quite limited in its capabilities," Rosa said, nodding in understanding. However, she quickly realized something as she looked at Alice with widened eyes. "Wait, don''t tell me you''re"


    Alice was the Hero. Apart from the Demon King, what else could warrant her to seek out the tracking ability of the dogkins'' chief totem?


    "That''s right. I''m trying to track down the Demon King''s location."


    Although Alice''s true goal was to track down the Demon King''s Power, Alice preferred to keep Luna''s matter a secret as much as possible. She couldn''t let others know that the Demon King''s Power had yet to attach itself to a new Demon King. So, she could only say that she was looking to track down the Demon King using the dogkins'' chief totem.


    "That is indeed an important matter" Rosa nodded and sighed. "But why don''t you reveal your identity to the dogkins? If the dogkins know that you are the Hero, they will be more than willing to help you.''


    "Because there''s a risk of exposing myself. The beastkins might have integrated into human society, but it still doesn''t change that they aren''t humans. In addition, unlike the elves, the beastkins have never given birth to a Hero Moreover, a portion of beastkins still live in the demon realm. Nobody can say for certain that the beastkins of both realms are keeping in touch with each other," Alice said, shaking her head.


    Although Alice was no longer afraid of assassinations with her current strength, having her identity exposed would still bring her a lot of trouble. Particrly, if someone perceptive managed to discover that she was taking on the role of the Hero and the Demon King simultaneously, she would instantly be public enemy number one in both the human realm and the demon realm. Thus, she still needed to keep her identity a secret.


    "Indeed. The wolfkins live in the demon realm, and they seem to be rtives of the dogkins," Rosa said, nodding in understanding. Then, she continued, "But even if you manage to get your hands on the dogkins'' chief totem without exposing your identity, what about the primer? If you''re looking to track down the Demon King, you will need the Demon King''s mana or aura."


    This was also why Heroes of past generations had either never considered or given up on the idea of using the dogkins'' totem to track down the Demon King.


    There were only two ways to acquire the Demon King''s mana. The first way was to bring the dogkins'' chief totem to the Demon King and have him personally inject his mana into the totem. The second way was to have the Demon King inject his mana into a magic crystal, then have the magic crystal delivered to the Hero.


    For obvious reasons, neither of these two methods was feasible. If the Hero could aplish either of these two methods, what use would the Hero have for the dogkins'' chief totem?


    Aside from these two methods, one other method was theoretically feasible, and that was to use "Mana Detection" at a location the Demon King had fought in and collect the remnant mana in the air. However, the mana collected through Mana Detection would typically have natural mana mixed in. This would mess with the mana sample''s purity and render it useless as a primer.


    "I have my ways," Alice said, giving Rosa a vague answer. She naturally couldn''t say that her maid was a former Demon King.


    "I understand." Rosa nodded. She did not try to pry any further into the matter. Instead, she pulled out her phone and said, "I have a thief friend who is friendly with many beastkins. Everyone in the thieving industry would usually go to her when they needed help with amission rted to beastkins. I''ll try asking her."


    TL Notes:


    [1]birdkin: Birdkin in Chinese is (Nio rnz). The  in  is an inte ngmonly used to criticize someone for being a dick. (An annoying person with personality problems.)

 Chapter 198

    Chapter 198


    Even though Rosa had already washed her hands of thievery, she still retained the connections she had during her active days as a thief.


    In this world, the thief profession was akin to the mercenary profession. However, the range of the jobs they took on was much more varied. So long as the pay was right, they were willing to work as bodyguards, assassins, private investigators, and even spies. Essentially, thieves took on jobs that the average person would rarelye into contact with. Because of this, thieves were very well-connected.


    Although some of these connections couldn''t be brought to light under normal circumstances, so long as discussions were being held under the table, these connections could be very useful.


    Very quickly, Rosa finished talking with her acquaintance on the phone. Although Alice could only hear Rosa''s voice due to the phone''s volume being set to very low, she could still tell that discussions didn''t go very well based on Rosa''s manner of speaking.


    Sure enough, after Rosa hung up the call, a small frown immediately formed on her face. If she could reveal to her friend that it was the Hero making this request, her talk with her friend would have definitely gone very smoothly. However, one should never overestimate the trustworthiness of a thief.


    Thieves might be reliable when it came topleting the jobsmissioned to them, but their ability to keep a secret couldn''t be considered reliable in any way. Situations where thieves revealed their employer''s identity, whether it be identally or deliberately, urred frequently. Because of this, almost everyone would use a false identity when doing business with a thief.


    "Did negotiations not go well?" Alice could naturally see the troubled look on Rosa''s face. So, she asked, "Did the other party make a troublesome request? You can tell me if that''s the case. My identity on the surface is that of a princess, so I might just be able to get her what she needs."


    "Negotiations have indeed failed, but what she wants isn''t something a princess can give her," Rosa said, shaking her head. "Actually, I''ve previously heard rumors about it already It seems that one of her family members has had a terrible curse cast on them, and the curse cannot be dispelled using normal means. So, She is now searching around for people who can help dispel this curse."


    "Could her request be"


    Alice raised an eyebrow, seemingly understanding the problem at hand.


    "Yes. Because of her desperate situation, she only has one condition for everyone seeking her help, and that is to lift her family member''s curse," Rosa said with a wry smile. "As long as you can help her lift that curse, she will help you back to the best of her abilities. So..."


    "What kind of curse is it? Has anyone looked into it yet?" Alice asked while rubbing her chin. Based on Rosa''s im, the other party seemed to be the first person most people in the thieving industry would find whenever they needed help with amission rted to the beastkins. This meant that the other party was quite reputable among the beastkins. So, if possible, Alice would like to get the other party''s help.


    "Let me see... I remember that someone has looked into the curse. However, I''ve already retired from thieving when all of this took ce, so I didn''t pay much attention to it..."


    After saying so, Rosa held up her phone again and began searching for the relevant information. A short momentter, she said:


    This novel is _hosted_ by h0sted n0v3l.


    "I found it. It seems this matter has already spread across the entire circle of thieves. The person suffering from the curse is her mother, and it is caused by the taboo ''Sunset Bug Erosion.'' Those cursed would gradually transform into the Sunset Bug both physically and mentally. Once the transformation isplete, the person will never be able to change back into a human."


    "A taboo? Did this person offend someone powerful?"


    Alice''s mouth twitched a little when she heard Rosa''s words. Other than the Hero and the Demon King, the only other individuals Alice could think of that were capable of casting a taboo by themselves were the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings and the leaders of the human kingdoms'' royal guards.


    Of course, there were also some strong individuals that were capable of using taboos by themselves but disliked holding important positions that came with great responsibilities. However, no matter how much such individuals disliked wielding authority, so long as they had the ability to cast taboos without relying on outside help, they typically wouldn''t be nobodies.


    After all, it was unlikely that a person wielding such strength would be willing to live as a beggar. Even if they disliked shouldering the responsibilities that came with great authority, these people should be doing very well financially and socially.


    "I don''t know. Actually, while searching for a solution to her mother''s curse, that person is also searching for the culprit responsible for casting the curse on her mother. She is also willing to exchange a favor for the culprit''s identity," Rosa said, shaking her head. "So, do you n to give it a try?"


    "I might have learned how to use taboos, but I''m clueless when ites to lifting curses," Alice said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are there any known solutions to the Sunset Bug Erosion? If I learn the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo, will I be able to lift the curse?"


    "I''m afraid that won''t be possible. When ites to curses of this sort, only the person responsible for casting the curse can remove it using the method you mentioned," Rosa said, dashing Alice''s hopes. "In reality, the reason this curse got recognized so quickly is because Sunset Bug Erosion is a rtively famous taboo. Its magical binding principles have been used to develop the magic lock technology."


    "The Sunset Bug is a species of beetle that only emerges from hiding at sunset. ording to research, this behavior is because the Sunset Bug finds the wavelength of the natural mana at sunset morefortable. Aside from sunset, the Sunset Bug would typically hide underground the rest of the day," Rosa exined. She knew that Alice''s knowledge was limited to mainly taboos, so she took the initiative to share information rting to the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo to Alice. "That person''s mother is currently using a type of nt called the Sunset Grass to suppress the curse. Otherwise, her mother would''vepleted her transformation into a Sunset Bug within a day."


    As its name suggested, the Sunset Grass was a type of nt that could replicate the wavelengths of natural mana at sunset. However, while it could be used to suppress the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo''s effects, it wasn''t a permanent solution.


    "Do you know where I can get my hands on the magic book for the Sunset Bug Erosion?" Alice asked after giving the matter some thought. "As you know, I have the ability to quickly learn taboos. Since we don''t have any viable solutions right now, I might as well study this taboo and try to reverse its effects."


    The principles of taboos were simr to mathematical forms. Simr to how the equation of 1+1=2 could be reversed into 2-1=1, so long as she could reverse the principles, she would be able to reverse the taboo''s function and lift the curse.


    This wouldn''t be the first time someone had tried reversing the function of a taboo, either. The theory for doing so was even mentioned in high school textbooks. For example, the Fireball spell could be reversed to extinguish a Fireball spell instantly.


    However, reversing a spell''s form was incredibly difficult, and typically nobody would waste their time just to extinguish a fireball. Hence, the topic was only mentioned at a minimal level in high school textbooks.


    Needless to say, even fewer people would bother reversing the function of taboos. After all, very few people could cast taboos by themselves, and even these people would typically have difficulty aplishing this feat. So, wouldn''t it be even more challenging for these people to reverse a taboo?


    However, Alice was different. Alice could cast taboos with ease. Even if the difficulty of reversing a taboo was slightly higher than the difficulty of learning a taboo, it still wasn''t an impossible feat for her.


    Rosa also realized this point. So, upon hearing Alice''s suggestion, her eyes glowed with excitement.


    "If it''s the taboo''s magic books, she should have already acquired it when trying to lift her mother''s curse. So, if you want to check out the book, we can just ask her for it directly."


    After saying so, Rosa promptly held up her phone and dialed a number.

 Chapter 199: Is It Time to Guess Who’s the Demon King Again?

    Chapter 199: Is It Time to Guess Who��s the Demon King Again?


    The thief acquaintance Rosa mentioned was called Elodie Silvias. The person''s name sounded very much like it belonged to a noble. In reality, the person was indeed a noble on the surface. Specifically, she was the daughter of the Gryffin Kingdom''s Minister of Land.


    Of course, only a few people in the thieving industry knew about her real identity. After all, the thief profession was an unscrupulous one. So long as her real identity got exposed, her pleasant days woulde to an end.


    ording to Rosa, she was friends with Elodie. She was also one of the few people who knew Elodie''s real identity. Although Elodie''s identity couldn''t be shared with other thieves, there should be no problem sharing it with Alice. After all, whether it was the Hero or the princess, both of Alice''s identities were above Elodie''s. Alice did not stand to gain anything from leaking Elodie''s identity. Thus, Rosa doubted Elodie would mind letting Alice learn about her real identity.


    "But if the Minister of Land''s wife got cursed by a taboo-level curse, many people should have heard about it, right?" Alice asked as she followed Rosa to a vi and watched Rosa knocking on the vi''s door. "If someone with ill intentions noticed that Elodie''s mother and a certain thief''s mother are afflicted with the same curse, they should be able to quickly notice the link."


    "Which is why news of Elodie''s mother being cursed is temporarily being suppressed," Rosa said. "The minister has already requested King Hatter for help privately. The king has also taken this matter seriously and sent many magic researchers to diagnose and cure Elodie''s mother. However, none of them managed to produce any useful results So, Elodie had no choice but to ce her hopes on her thief connections."


    It was true that the Minister of Land had the authority necessary to call on all of the talents within the country that were capable of lifting the Sunset Bug Erosion''s curse. However, if it were the Minister of Land making the request, those operating on the shady side of society would be excluded.


    Some powerful magicians were forced to operate underground because of their past criminal offenses. Naturally, none of these people would dare to ept amission issued by the country. But what if one of these people just so happened to have a way to lift the Sunset Bug Erosion''s curse? Wouldn''t it be terrible if the minister''s family missed out on such a person?


    So, to ensure that they could reach every talent avable in the Gryffin Kingdom, the Minister of Land and his daughter decided to abandon issuing amission through the kingdom. Instead, they chose to make a private request with the king while issuing amission to the kingdom''s underground society. With Elodie''s connections in the thieving industry, it shouldn''t be difficult for news of hermission to spread across the entire underground society.


    Unfortunately, few people were capable of casting taboos, to begin with, let alone those capable of resolving taboo-level curses. Even individuals like the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings and Catherine, the Captain of the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guards, were helpless in this regard. Thus, the matter had been dragged on until now, and it was nearly two weeks since Elodie''s mother had been cursed.


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    The Sunset Grass''s suppressive effects were limited. If a solution couldn''t be found in the next three days, Elodie''s mother would lose her humanity and turn into an insect.


    "I''ming."


    Elodie had given the servants at home a temporary leave to prevent information about her mother''s predicament from spreading. Because of this, Elodie and her mother were the only ones staying in therge vi right now, and Elodie even had to get the door herself.


    After the vi''srge door opened, a blonde girl with an exhausted face appeared in front of Alice and Rosa. Judging by the girl''s face, it was obvious that she hadn''t gotten much rest these past few days.


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    Elodie was very well-connected in the thieving industry. Because of this, she received many responses to hermission. Unfortunately, most of these responses were merely people trying their luck. Some of the solutions these people provided might be novel and ingenious, but none of them managed to lift the curse. As a result, all these people did was exhaust Elodie even more.


    "Is this the person you said might be able to help me, Rosa?" Elodie asked, a slight frown forming on her tired face when she looked at the little girl standing next to Rosa. "Why does she look a little familiar"


    "It seems you must be really tired," Rosa said with a helpless smile. Then, she pointed at Alice and introduced, "This person here is the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, so, of course, she looks familiar."


    "Ah, Your Highness I apologize. My mind truly isn''t in the best of states right now, so I couldn''t recognize you right away." When Elodie finally recognized Alice, she hurriedly executed an aristocratic salute. However, judging by how deformed her salute was, it was evident she was very tired right now. "Do you perhaps have a way to remove the Sunset Bug Erosion, Your Highness?"


    "You might not be aware of it, but Alice is a genius in magic. Even though she is still attending sses in the March Academy''s high school section, she is already at a level where she can learn taboos," Rosa said, revealing some of Alice''s strength to reassure Elodie. Of course, she neglected to mention how easily and quickly Alice could master a taboo. After all, this was a ring point that could link Alice with the Hero. "Moreover, unlike others, Alice has conducted in-depth research into the principles of taboos. So, I thought that she might be able to reverse-derive the Sunset Bug Erosion''s principles and lift the curse on Auntie."


    "Reverse derivation That''s right, that is indeed possible!"


    Elodie''s eyes glowed with newfound hope. If she were to ask someone like Catherine to conduct a reverse derivation on the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo, she''d only be setting herself up for failure. After all, Catherine was only talented when it came tobat. While Catherine might have the ability to cast taboos by herself, she wascking when it came to researching the fundamental principles of taboo. So, asking Catherine to reverse-derive a taboo was no different than giving her an impossible task.


    However, it was a different story for Alice. It was rtively well-known among the Gryffin Kingdom''s aristocratic circle that Alice was a genius when it came to studying and researching magic. If Alice had the ability to learn taboos, there was a high chance that she could reverse derive the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo and lift the curse cast by it.


    Thinking up to this point, Elodie hurriedly weed Alice and Rosa into her home and said:


    "Please follow me. I''ll take you two to my mother. I also found a copy of the Sunset Bug Erosion a few days ago, so you can use it for reference."


    When Rosa saw Elodie readily epting her excuse, she could tell that her friend was already at her wit''s end. If any normal person were to hear that Alice was already capable of learning taboos at such a young age, their first reaction should be to express doubt. Yet, Elodie had immediately believed it. Their friendship might have yed a part in Elodie''s trust in her, but it also showed that Elodie was already out of options.


    Elodie''s mother was staying in a room on the second floor. When Alice and Rosa followed Elodie to the staircase, they noticed that the corridor and living room they passed by on the first floor were covered in a thinyer of dust. Evidently, it had already been quite some days since anyone had cleaned up the ce.


    Meanwhile, the instant Alice arrived on the second floor, her senses promptly picked up on a familiar aura, and she couldn''t help but turn toward the origin of this aura.


    The aura came from an inconspicuous room, and it just so happened to be the room Elodie was leading them to. This meant that Elodie''s mother was most likely lying in that room.


    But Alice could clearly tell that the auraing from that room belonged to a Demon King

 Chapter 200: Please Stay Dead

    Chapter 200: Please Stay Dead


    Alice hadn''t revealed her identity as the Hero to Elodie, so the other party only treated her as a princess with an extraordinary talent for magic. Hence, even though she had sensed that the auraing from Elodie''s mother''s room belonged to the Demon King, she kept quiet about it since it wasn''t convenient for her to reveal it.


    Sure enough, after entering the inconspicuous room, Alice promptly saw a woman lying on top of arge bed. Even from the door, Alice could tell that Elodie and the woman shared very simr appearances, with thetter''s face giving off a more mature and charming feeling.


    However, their simrities were only limited to the face. This was because, with the exception of her face, the rest of the woman''s body had already taken on an inhuman form. Specifically, the woman''s limbs and torso were covered entirely in a glossy ck carapace. Although the woman''s body still retained the basic human structure, it was obvious that her condition was extremely severe. The woman would definitely turn into a giant bug if she wasn''t given the necessary treatment soon.


    Honestly, Alice found it hard to ept the sight before her. Not everyone liked bugs. In her case, she had an innate aversion toward ck and glossy insects. So, thebination of human face+insect carapace very nearly deterred her from entering the room.


    "As you can see My mother is already in such a state."


    Elodie was aware that her mother''s current appearance was horrific, so when she saw Alice briefly hesitating to enter the room, she didn''t find anything wrong with the princess''s reaction. Instead, she pointed at a bottle on the bedside table and said:


    "The Sunset Grass''s effects are growing weaker and weaker. During the first few days, the Sunset Grass was able to slow the conversion rate dramatically. However, as time passed, the conversion rate gradually increased."


    Elodie sighed after saying so. Then, she picked up the book beside the bottle of Sunset Grass, handed it to Alice, and continued in a sorrowful tone:


    "What you see now happened only within thest two days. Before that, aside from her skin taking on a darker tone, there weren''t any significant changes ording to thest group of magic researchers who had diagnosed her, she can only persist until the day after tomorrow."


    "The day after tomorrow, huh"


    Alice epted the book Elodie offered her and gave it a look. The book''s cover only had the words "Sunset Bug Erosion" printed on it. Judging by how simple the cover looked, this book should only be a copy of the original. However, this wasn''t a surprising situation. Most developers of taboos would typically choose to keep the original print for themselves. It was already amazing that Elodie had managed to get her hands on an authentic copy.


    "Before getting cursed, did your mothere into contact with anybody or visited anywhere?"


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    When Alice opened the book and saw the book''s preface, she quickly determined that the principles used for this taboo weren''t significantly moreplicated than the other taboos she had studied thus far. Meanwhile, this discovery filled her with assurance.


    Even so, Alice was still a little concerned about the person who had cursed Elodie''s mother. After focusing her senses on Elodie''s mother, she had verified that the woman indeed carried obvious traces of the Demon King''s mana in her body.


    Yet, Alice couldn''t feel the Demon King''s Power in Elodie. This meant that Elodie wasn''t the Demon King''s Power''s new host. In that case, the person who had cast the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo on Elodie''s mother might very well be the new Demon King.


    However, Alice was also certain that the Demon King''s Power hadn''t found a new host yet. Otherwise, Fithalia of the Elven Forest and the Loli Goddess would have noticed it and promptly contacted her to inform her of this important piece of information. Since neither of these two people had contacted her, it meant that the Demon King''s Power had yet to attach itself to a new host.


    Of course, there was also the possibility that the Loli Goddess and Fithalia had failed to detect the new Demon King''s birth. However, even if that were the case, it still shouldn''t be possible for the new Demon King to grow strong enough to learn and cast a taboo in such a short period.


    Unlike Alice, orthodox Heroes and Demon Kings couldn''t gain strength from panties. After being chosen by God and the Demon King''s Power, the Hero and the Demon King would need to convert the Hero''s Power and the Demon King''s Power into their own strength, and this process required a lot of time. This was why even after the new Hero and the new Demon King were chosen, a full-scale war between the human and demon realms would only ur several yearster.


    If Luna had taken several years to grow to a point where she could freely cast taboos, there was no way the new Demon King could grow to a point where they could cast taboos in only a few weeks or months.


    "Others have also asked this question. My mother hadn''t been anywhere before she was cursed. She was binge-watching a TV drama at the time, so she hadn''t stepped out of the house for three days straight," Elodie said, shaking her head. She had repeated this answer many times before. "She hasn''t had any contact with outsiders, either. Aside from my family members, the only ones who entered the house were the servants. However, we''ve already checked all of our servants, and none of them has the ability to cast a taboo."


    Alice frowned when she heard Elodie''s answer. By the looks of it, the person who had cursed Elodie''s mother wasn''t someone close to her. Then, a thought suddenly came to her mind as she asked, "Have you brought any foreign items into the house recently? For example, strange artworks and the like."


    Since no outsiders hade into close contact with Elodie''s mother when she was cursed, and the caster wasn''t a family member or a servant, could it be possible that the caster wasn''t a person?


    Maybe the culprit wasa Demon King''s soul hiding in a certain object?


    To date, Alice had already encountered the souls of one Demon King and two Heroes. So, there was no reason to discount the possibility of another Demon King storing their soul in a certain object. It was especially true considering she could sense the Demon King''s mana attached to Elodie''s mother. If a Demon King''s soul was responsible for the curse on Elodie''s mother, everything made perfect sense.


    "I''m not too sure about this I wasn''t home at the time, and I only rushed back after hearing that my mother was cursed," Elodie said, shaking her head. "So, this is a question only my mother has an answer to Moreover, logically, the only thing capable of storing something asplicated as a taboo is a taboo bomb."


    "Is that so Nevermind, then. Forget I ever mentioned that."


    Alice could sense the Demon King''s mana attached to Elodie''s mother, so she was naturally certain that someone had brought an object hiding a Demon King''s soul into the house. However, Elodie wasn''t aware of this matter, so her natural reaction was to assume that Alice was asking if someone had brought in an object that contained a taboo.


    However, since Alice couldn''t rify this misunderstanding with Elodie, she decided to change the topic and see if she could lift the curse on Elodie''s mother. Not to mention, Elodie''s mother didn''t have much time left, so saving her took priority over locating the Demon King''s soul.


    "Anyway, let''s see if I can unravel this taboo."


    After saying so, Alice took a seat on a chair and started reading the <em>Sunset Bug Erosion</em> in her hands.


    TL Notes:


    Fyi, taboo names that are italicized usually mean that it is referring to the book.


    e.g.,


    Sunset Bug Erosion (taboo)


    <em>Sunset Bug Erosion</em> (taboo''s magic book)


    The italicized version might sometimes be used for emphasis.


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 Chapter 201: Darwins Influence Doesnt Reach the Otherworld

    Chapter 201: Darwin''s Influence Doesn''t Reach the Otherworld


    The Sunset Bug Erosion was quite the unique taboo. The researcher who developed the taboo discovered that while the creature known as the Sunset Bug had a strange habit of only emerging from the ground during sunset, it had many strong points.


    For example, the carapace of Sunset Bugs could withstand the weight of several adult humans, and their sharp horns could easily pierce through rocks. The taboo''s developer even discovered traces of mana circting within the bodies of Sunset Bugs.


    If Sunset Bugs weren''tcking in intelligence, they would have definitely been considered magical creatures. They might even be capable of casting magic. In the event of that happening, the Sunset Bugs would''ve been slightly stronger than even Milu Rabbits. After all, the only use Milu Rabbits had for their mana was to make their meat more tender.


    Meanwhile, because of these discoveries, the researcher began developing magic based on the Sunset Bug. The researcher''s goal was to develop magic that could replicate the Sunset Bug''s features on the target''s body, creating a carapace that could be used defensively and horns that could be used offensively.


    If everything went smoothly, this spell could have been adopted for military use and greatly bolstered thebat capabilities of individual soldiers. So, after the researcher proposed his idea to the Ymir Kingdom two hundred years ago, the Ymir Kingdom strongly supported his research.


    Unfortunately, the oue of the research deviated significantly from the researcher''s ideals. After finalizing the spell he created, the researcher discovered that his spell was doing more than just replicating temporary features of the Sunset Bug on the human body. The spell had also converted the target''s human cells into Sunset Bug cells.


    After investigating this unexpected deviation, the researcher and his associates learned a feature about the Sunset Bug that had never been discoveredthe Sunset Bug''s cells would exhibit strong erosive properties once they were supplied with sufficient mana.


    Normally, even if the Sunset Bug''s cells received enough mana to trigger their erosive properties, the cells would be harmless since they would be contained within the Sunset Bug''s body. However, it was an entirely different story when the Sunset Bug''s cells were connected with the human body. As soon as the Sunset Bug''s cells received sufficient mana, they would promptly start to erode the human body and convert it into a humanoid Sunset Bug. Eventually, the Sunset Bug''s cells would transform even the human brain into that of a Sunset Bug.


    Needless to say, research on the spell was promptly halted. There was no way the Ymir Kingdom would allow its soldiers to use such a spell and be turned into giant Sunset Bugs. In addition, due to the spell''s stringent requirement toward mana volume and mana control, it wasbeled as a curse-type taboo and passed down as such to future generations.


    Overall, Sunset Bug Erosion''s principles weren''t particrlyplicated. Even so, it wasn''t a spell that could be cast by a single person. Following the spell''s original design, the spell would require abination of arge number of magicians and specialized equipment to grant a human the traits of a Sunset Bug. When these requirements were put onto the individual, the Sunset Bug Erosion was undoubtedly at the level of taboos.


    <em>The tricky part is the body cell conversion</em>


    Alice felt her head aching a little when she read the forms recorded in the magic book. The only part she foundplicated in the book was the cell conversion process. If this segment was brought to Earth, it would probably cause Darwin and many other biologists to jump out of their graves in anger.


    As someone who had spent nearly two decades living on Earth, Alice would have to cast aside the concepts she had learned on Earth to research and understand this section of the book, which was a rtivelyplicated task. Fortunately, Alice wasn''t a biologist major before she transmigrated, so it wasn''t too challenging to change her concepts.


    "Can you do it?" Elodie anxiously asked after watching Alice research the magic book for some time.


    "It should be doable I''ll try to reverse its function by today. I might not be able to master this taboo in a day, but reversing it shouldn''t require too high of a mastery," Alice said, nodding. After taking a look through the magic book, she already understood the difficulty of the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo. Meanwhile, based on her past experience of learning taboos, she felt that she should be able to reverse it sessfully by today.


    "That''s great." Elodie patted her chest and sighed in relief. "If you can lift the curse on my mother, I''ll do anything you want afterward."


    The Loli Goddess weed an unexpected guest in her room today. However, while the other party was an unexpected guest, she was also someone the Loli Goddess was familiar with.


    "Huh?" The Loli Goddess, who was busy ying a golf game on her PS4, was momentarily stunned when she sensed someone appearing behind her. However, when she turned around and saw who it was, she revealed a smile and said, "Ha So it''s you, Kristine."


    Indeed. The person who had visited the Loli Goddess''s room was none other than Kristine, the previous generation''s Hero. As someone she had personally chosen to be the Hero, the Loli Goddess naturally remembered Kristine.


    Meanwhile, once a Hero was ordained by God, the Hero''s Power they received wouldn''t arbitrarily disappear like the Demon King''s Power. So, Kristine could still converse with the Loli Goddess using the Word of God ability.


    "Long time no see, Lord God."


    Although Kristine was now in a child''s body, she dared not behave like an actual child in front of God. Immediately, she knelt before the Loli Goddess and earnestly responded to the Loli Goddess''s gaze.


    "You don''t have to be so serious. Times have changed. The main reason I always wore a cold look in the past was because I was too bored at the time, so I couldn''t be bothered to make any expressions," the Loli Goddess said as she set her remote controller aside. Then, she turned around and faced Kristine, saying, "But I am in a very good mood now since there is plenty of entertainment avable. Also, why did you be a child?"


    "This Long story short, I noticed that Grant''s soul remained alive just when I was near my death bed, so I chose to preserve my soul in a tablet, wait for an opportunity to meet with the Hero of a future generation, and have her eliminate Grant once and for all," Kristine said, briefly summarizing the reason she was still alive. "However, the present Hero had already extinguished Grant''s soul by the time she met me. She also asked me to help her deal with the present Demon King. Unfortunately, a minor ident urred when she was creating a new body for me, so I ended up in my current childlike state."


    "The present Hero Ahh, you mean Alice?"


    When the Loli Goddess heard Kristine mentioning the present Hero, the first person that came to her mind was Aird, the Hero disguising herself as one of the demon realm''s Four Heavenly Kings. However, she quickly dismissed the possibility of Aird being the one responsible for resurrecting Kristine. After all, Aird still wasn''t aware that she was the Hero. Or, more specifically, she refused to acknowledge that she was the Hero. So, it was unlikely that Aird would introduce herself as the current generation''s Hero to Kristine. In that case, the "present Hero" Kristine mentioned would have to be Alice.


    "I see, so that''s why that fellow tried to secure the rights to the Fruits of God for the elves."


    "Lord God, while Alice might have mentioned that her goal in resurrecting me is to get my help in dealing with the new Demon King, I can''t help but get the feeling that something is amiss," Kristine said with a frown. Then, after taking a deep breath, she voiced the question that had been guing her this entire time:


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    "Is Alice only trying to deal with the Demon King? Or, could she be going up against a foe even stronger than the Demon King?"


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 Chapter 202

    Chapter 202


    Rosa and Alice were currently left alone in the vi with Elodie''s mother. After ensuring that Alice had everything she needed, Elodie left the vi to meet with other people. Alice wasn''t the only person willing to help treat her mother, so Elodie still needed to meet with those willing to help. Of course, unlike when she was dealing with Rosa and Alice, she wouldn''t be exposing her true identity to those people. So, before leaving, she had put on a cloak that hid her facepletely.


    Meanwhile, five hours had already passed since Alice began studying the Sunset Bug Erosion. It was still morning when Alice and Rosa arrived at the vi. Now, it was already afternoon. Alice didn''t feel particrly bored since she was focused on researching the taboo, but Rosa had nothing better to do than y with her phone to pass the time.


    Fortunately, this boring atmosphere didn''t continue for too long. After another half an hour or so had passed, Rosa noticed Alice closing the magic book in her hands and setting it aside on the table. However, before Rosa could open her mouth to ask about Alice''s progress, she saw Alice lifting her hand and gathering mana in it. Then, under Roa''s horrified gaze, a ck carapace started growing around Alice''s hand and forming a de-like shape.


    The ck carapace enveloping Alice''s hand resembled the carapace covering Elodie''s mother''s body. However, unlike the carapace on Elodie''s mother, the carapace on Alice''s hand did not try to erode Alice''s body. On the contrary, Alice seemed to haveplete control over the carapace as she continuously manipted it to change shape.


    Eventually, after Alice grew tired of ying with the carapace, she dismissed the spell, and the ck carapace faded out of existence.


    "Is thatthe Sunset Bug Erosion?"


    Rosa''s eyes widened in shock as she looked at Alice''s tender and delicate hand. She found it hard to believe that this hand was covered in caparace that could easily shatter boulders just a moment ago. Seeing that the carapace was muchrger and thicker than the Sunset Bug, it must also be stronger than the Sunset Bug''s carapace.


    "Yes, this is the taboo''s initial form." Alice nodded. However, a momentter, she shook her head and sighed, saying, "I have to admit that the person who came up with this taboo''s design is a very imaginative researcher. It''s a pity that he failed to ount for the Sunset Bug''s cells."


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    Alice could freely manipte the taboo without having her body eroded because God had personally created her body. The life rating of her body was far superior to the Sunset Bug. So, the Sunset Bug''s cells naturally couldn''t erode her body.


    However, even if the taboo posed no threat to Alice, it wasn''t particrly useful for her. After all, if she were to engage in a full-blown fight with someone, wouldn''t attacking with ranged taboos be a much better option? Also, who''d be willing to melee someone fully d in an insect''s carapace?


    Of course, the taboo wasn''tpletely useless. For example, Alice could conceal her identity if she covered her entire body in the Sunset Bug''s carapace. Though, it would probably be quite traumatizing for some people to see a human-sized Sunset Bug.


    "Anyway, I think I can reverse the taboo now," Alice said. Although she couldn''t say that she was proficient in the Sunset Bug Erosion yet, she only needed to get the basics down to reverse the taboo''s effects.


    It was simr to solving a math equation. It didn''t matter whether a person spent one minute or one hour solving the equation. It was fine so long as the answer reached was correct.


    <em>But this mana</em>


    Alice walked up to Elodie''s mother and injected some of her mana into the woman''s body. Then, a somewhat stern expression appeared on her face when she sensed the mana used to fuel the Sunset Bug Erosion. Her senses weren''t mistaken. This mana definitely belonged to a Demon King. It was mana that the Demon King''s Power had transformed.


    Alice had engaged in three intense fights since transmigrating to this world. Among them, two were with Grant and Luna. So, she had a deep impression of the Demon King''s mana, and there was no way she would mistake it for something else.


    The person who had cursed Elodie''s mother with the Sunset Bug Taboo was undoubtedly a Demon King. However, considering that the Demon King''s Power was still hiding somewhere recovering its strength, Alice determined that she was dealing with a former Demon King who had left behind their soul.


    It was true that out of the twelve generations of Demon Kings that had existed in history, most of them had both their bodies and souls destroyed by the Hero using magic. However, there were also a few special outliers, such as the previous generation''s Demon King.


    While harboring such thoughts in her mind, Alice prated deep into the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo''s core with her mana and began neutralizing the remnant Demon King''s mana inside Elodie''s mother''s body. Then, she began trying to revert the changes made to the woman''s body cells.


    Find the original at h*sted novel.


    So long as Alice cast aside the general knowledge she had learned before transmigrating, it was rtively easy for her to reverse the principles of such taboos with her current learning capabilities. So, she quickly found a solution to the problem Elodie''s mother faced. All she needed to do was take apart the woman''s cells and reconstruct them. While this sounded like aplicated process, it was still within the realm of feasibility with her current abilities.


    The only concern Alice had right now was hercking mana. While reversing a taboo''s effects only cost a small fraction of what it did to cast the taboo, it still wasn''t a measly amount. To make matters worse, the person who cast the taboo had seemingly prepared a countermeasure for when someone tried to reverse the taboo''s effects.


    When Alice was about to begin treating the converted cells, something within Elodie''s mother''s body began sucking away her mana.


    Alice''s expression instantly changed when she noticed this situation. She felt as if her mana was being drawn into arge mechanical shredder.


    Although Alice had no idea where this suction power hade from, she knew that shecked the strength to break free from this suction power with her current mana. Thus, she needed to rely on external aid to increase the volume of her mana pool.


    While holding Elodie''s mother''s hand with her left hand, Alice lifted her right hand and tried to reach for one of her "hair ties." However, when her hand touched the "hair tie," she quickly realized a problem.


    To prevent others from noticing that Alice''s hair ties were actually panties, Luna had ced special care when tying Alice''s hair. Thus, the panties were bound very tightly around Alice''s hair.


    If Alice had ess to both her hands, she could''ve easily undid the hair ties in several seconds. However, she neither had ess to both of her hands nor several seconds to waste right now.


    Thus, Alice had no choice but to settle for a pair of panties that she could easily strip off.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice set her sights on Elodie''s mother.

 Chapter 203

    Chapter 203


    The ck carapace covered only Elodie''s mother''s limbs and chest area. Everything below the chest area remained unaffected. So, the woman was still wearing her panties. Knowing this, Alice swiftly and skillfully liberated the woman of her panties.


    It couldn''t be helped. Alice hadn''t expected to encounter such an urgent situation. Not only did this foreign power prevent her from severing her connection with it, but it also threatened to drain her mana dry in a matter of seconds.


    [Weapon: ck Sexy Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +3000, Speed +5000, Mind +7000, Control +7000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mental Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by mind magic);


    Friend of the Abyss (Passive Skill. Your affinity with dark-attributed mana is increased to MAX. You also be immune to curses);


    Void Deterrence (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a spiritual st that puts the target''s soul into chaos.)]


    As soon as Alice gripped Elodie''s mother''s panties in her right hand, arge volume of mana flooded her body. At the same time, she also regained control over her mana.


    However, simply breaking free from the suction power wasn''t enough. The foreign power remained within Elodie''s mother''s body. If Alice wanted to revert the changes done to Elodie''s mother''s cells, she''d inevitably have to sh against this foreign power. Otherwise, this strange suction power would continuously absorb her mana and interfere with her work.


    We are Hosted Nov3l, find us on g00gle.


    <em>Although I don''t know what you are, unfortunately for you, I know a spell that can uncover your operating principles!</em>


    Alice gritted her teeth as she focused on manipting her mana. Even with the massive mana pool she currently possessed, the strange suction power within Elodie''s mother was still capable of influencing her mana. This meant that this suction power should be a product of a taboo-level spell. However, none of the taboos she had read about thus far possessed such an effect.


    Alice wasn''t particrly surprised by this situation, though. The person who had cursed Elodie''s mother should be a past Demon King. The other party should have existed hundreds or thousands of years ago. Because things such as the inte andputers had yet to be invented during that period, many taboos developed were never properly stored and passed down to future generations.


    However, Alice didn''t have to know about the taboo her opponent had used. This was because she possessed a taboo capable of analyzing all magic.


    <em>Psychokinesis Transcendence!</em>


    Immediately, Alice created countless psychokic threads using her mana and sent these threads into Elodie''s mother''s body. Then, she willed these threads to prate deep into the strange suction power and analyze it. Although the suction power had devoured some of her mana during the analysis process, she still managed to gain a certain degree of understanding of the spell she was going up against.


    In general, the suction power originated from a ball of pitch-ck mana. Meanwhile, this ball of mana was left within Elodie''s mother''s body for the specific purpose of preventing others from deciphering the Sunset Bug Erosion and reversing its effects.


    If someone were to inject mana into Elodie''s mother''s body to inspect her cells and revert them to their original form, the action would immediately trigger the taboo stored within the ball of mana. Meanwhile, once triggered, the stored taboo would create a vortex that devoured all foreign mana inside Elodie''s mother''s body. If the person inspecting Elodie''s mother wasn''t strong enough, the vortex would drag out even their soul, devour it, and convert it into nourishment for the taboo.


    The taboo used here didn''t belong to any of the main attributes, so it should be special magic simr to Grant''s gravity magic. Upon making this discovery, Alice couldn''t help but wonder what kind of hatred the caster bore toward Elodie''s mother to go to such great lengths to torment her and prevent anyone from saving her.


    <em>But even though this spell has the abilities of a taboo, its strength isn''t up to standard, </em>Alice thought to herself. She couldn''t help but chuckle when she realized the weakness of this taboo.


    There was nothing wrong with the taboo itself. Alice was certain that if she were to cast this taboo while wielding a pair of panties or the Hero''s Sword, even existences on the level of the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings and Catherine would have their mana drained and their souls damaged.


    The problem was that the caster of this taboo wasn''t casting it in person. Instead, this person had set up a trigger mechanism within Elodie''s mother''s body using a fixed amount of mana. Meanwhile, this mana was nowhere near enough to let the taboo operate at its full potential.


    This situation was simr to when Aird had used the simplified version of the War God''s Lock. Although Aird''s simplified version had the qualities and function of theplete version, itcked theplete version''s strength. Hence, it was much easier to deal with than theplete version.


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    In this situation, the simplest way to counter the taboo hidden within Elodie''s mother was to flood it with mana and overload it. Once the taboo was overloaded, it would naturally copse.


    However, Alice couldn''t use such a brute force solution. She had no idea how much mana she needed to overload the vortex, and she still needed to conserve some mana to treat Elodie''s mother.


    In addition, even if the spell Alice was dealing with here wasn''t aplete taboo, it was still a powerful spell. The massive amount of mana it would release when it copsed wasn''t something the average person could endure, and Elodie''s mother might suffer catastrophic internal damage.


    Hence, Alice had no choice but to rely on Psychokinesis Transcendence to prate the vortex and destroy the vortex''s structure from within, rendering it useless.


    Taboos were likeplex machinery. They might be able to function at varying levels of power, but most of their processes were intricately tied to each other. Hence, after Alice randomly destroyed a few links, the mana vortex quickly stalled and simply remained inside Elodie''s mother''s body without doing anything.


    It would also be a simple task to get rid of the foreign mana that remained in Elodie''s mother. Once Elodie''s mother recovered her health, her body would automatically absorb this foreign mana and use it as nutrition for her body. The only problem was that the amount of foreign mana inside Elodie''s mother was massive. Elodie''s mother would probably experience overnutrition for a certain period.


    Simr to how a malnourished person would suffer from protein poisoning from overeating, the massive amount of mana would probably cause Elodie''s mother to feel ufortable for some time. However, this couldn''t be helped since Alice had no other way to remove this foreign mana from Elodie''s mother.


    <em>That should do it.</em>


    After carefully destroying the mana vortex and ensuring that it could no longer continue operating, Alice sighed in relief. Then, she resumed reversing the Sunset Bug Erosion''s effects with her remaining mana.


    Meanwhile, Rosa wore a stunned expression on her face as she looked at Alice. No obvious changes had urred on the surface just now, and the room remained as calm as always. However, as a veteran thief, Rosa had very powerful senses.


    When Alice was shing with the foreign mana inside Elodie''s mother, Rosa could vividly tell that a pure battle of mana was taking ce in a ce she couldn''t see just now. Meanwhile, by the looks of it, Alice had emerged victorious.


    As evidence of Alice''s victory, the sh of mana had calmed down, and the ck carapace covering Elodie''s mother had begun showing signs of softening.

 Chapter 204: Panties Arent Whats Important

    Chapter 204: Panties Aren''t What''s Important


    The sh of mana might not have caused any damage to the room, but Rosa was certain that Alice''s mana had engaged in a violent conflict inside Elodie''s mother''s body just now. Not only did she feel the mana fluctuations resulting from the sh, but she also saw ck mist erupting from Alice''s hand during the sh. Meanwhile, Rosa guessed that the ck mist was most likely the mana used to fuel the curse guing Elodie''s mother.


    After all, Alice was the Hero. There was no way her mana would look so dark and gloomy. So, Rosa concluded that the dark mana came from the taboo that Alice had suppressed.


    The only part that confused Rosa was Alice''s action of stripping Elodie''s mother''s panties. While Rosa was aware that Alice had a strange obsession with panties, was it necessary to satisfy her fetish in this crucial time and ce? How obsessed with panties was she that she found the need to strip her patient of her panties?


    <em>Maybe it''s to give herself a psychological boost</em>was the conclusion Rosa reached.


    No matter how much Rosa racked her mind, there was no way she would ever imagine that Alice could increase her strength by wielding panties. That was simply too far-fetched of an idea.


    While Rosa wasing up with a suitable exnation for Alice''s actions, Alice was also putting on the finishing touches of her treatment. Although she wasn''t particrly skilled at transforming body cells, she still managed to restore Elodie''s mother to her original appearance.


    Currently, the only sign showing that Elodie''s mother had been cursed was theyer of dead skin covering her body. This dead skin was the softened carapace that had previously grown on the woman''s body. Now that Alice had reversed the Sunset Bug Erosion''s effects, this dead skin should fall off naturally in a few days, and it wouldn''t have any effect on Elodie''s mother at all.


    Compared to the dead skin, what Elodie''s mother needed to pay more attention to was probably the somewhat massive amount of foreign mana inside her body. The woman would probably have to suffer for a few days before her body could fully digest such arge amount of mana.


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    However, once Elodie''s mother fully digested this foreign mana, the volume of her mana pool should increase a little, and her physical fitness should be much better than before, which would be helpful to her in making a swift recovery.


    "Did you seed?"


    Rosa hurriedly walked over to look at Elodie''s mother''s condition when she saw Alice letting go of the woman''s hand. Then, she found that the woman had indeed recovered from the curse.


    Although there was still ayer of dead skin covering Elodie''s mother''s body, at least she wasn''t covered in ck carapace anymore. Her breathing had also be much more normal, and herplexion had started turning into a rosy red.


    "She should be fine after resting for a few days," Alice said and nodded, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead. She might not have moved her body throughout the entire treatment, she had exhausted her mind quite significantly.


    While reversing the effects of the Sunset Bug Erosion, Alice was constantly using Psychokic Transcendence to assist her. Meanwhile, just like Kristine had mentioned, Psychokic Transcendence was much moreplex than the average taboo.


    Even while having her Mind and Control boosted by a pair of panties, Alice still found it somewhat challenging to operate the taboo. Afterpleting the treatment, her mind feltpletely drained.


    However, thanks to Psychokic Transcendence, Alice had also made an interesting discovery. While repairing Elodie''s mother''s cells, she found that the woman''s cells were inexplicablypatible with the mana used to cast the Sunset Bug Erosion.


    This was an incredibly strange situation. After all, the mana in question came from a Demon King. Yet, Elodie''s mother''s cells werepatible with a Demon King''s mana


    This might also be why this unknown Demon King had chosen to curse Elodie''s mother.


    Seeing that Elodie''s mother remained unconscious, Alice turned to Rosa and asked, "What''s Elodie''s mother''s name, Rosa? Her full name."


    "Huh? Elodie''s mother''s name?" Rosa was momentarily caught off guard by Alice''s question. Then, she answered, "Her name is Marion Silvias. She used to be a national singer during her younger days, but she retired after marrying the country''s Minister of Land."


    Rosa let out a sigh after saying so. Then, after taking a look at the door and ensuring that Elodie hadn''t returned yet, she quietly told Alice some secret information:


    "The marriage between Miss Marion and the minister is actually political. Marion''s father is one of King Hatter''s close aides. Everyone calls him Minister Ford, and he is a chubby man who wears a monocle."


    Alice quickly recalled the person Rosa referred to as Minister Ford upon hearing Rosa''s words. Of course, she didn''t remember him because she was directly acquainted with him. Instead, she remembered that when she had been administered into the hospital with Luna, Hatter had visited her with three people in tow. Meanwhile, one of those people just so happened to be wearing a monocle.


    <em>But a political marriage, huh</em>


    Upon learning about Elodie''s parents'' circumstances, Alice realized that the woman named Marion might not share too deep of a rtionship with her husband. It also exined why the Minister of Land had not shown up even once throughout her entire time here.


    It should be noted that Alice had been studying the Sunset Bug Erosion in this room from morning to afternoon. Even if the minister was busy, he should at least take some time to visit his wife during his lunch break, right? Yet, he did not do so.


    "Silvias"Alice muttered with a frown. She got the feeling that this name sounded familiar. Coupled with Marion''s cells'' strangepatibility with the Demon King''s mana, Alice couldn''t help but harbor a bold guess.


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    Immediately, Alice pulled out her phone and searched for information on past Demon Kings on the inte. Then, she quickly found what she was looking for.


    The Ninth Demon King, Andusia. While she was still human, she went by the name of Silvias.


    It wasn''t umon for people of this world to use the names of their ancestors as their surnames. The fact that Marion''s surname had never attracted any attention was probably because many people shared the same surname in this world. In addition, those chosen by the Demon King''s Power would typically cast away their old names after bing a Demon King.


    However, Alice was certain that Marion''s family should be the descendants of Andusia. This would exin why Marion''s cells were highlypatible with the Demon King''s mana used to cast the Sunset Bug Erosion.


    Needless to say, the culprit responsible for Marion being cursed should also be the Ninth Demon King. Now, the only question was how the other party had managed to curse Marion.


    While Alice was pondering how she should locate the hiding Demon King, the unconscious woman on the bed suddenly let out a soft moan before slowly opening her eyes.


    Marion quickly recovered her cognitive abilities after the Sunset Bug Erosion''s effects were reversed. Meanwhile, after regaining consciousness, Marion struggled slightly to sit up on the bed and turned to look at Alice and Rosa, the only other people present in the room.


    Then, under the two girls'' gaze, Marion dazedly touched the lower half of her body while saying her first words after waking up:


    "Where did my underwear go?"

 Chapter 205: You Have Very Dangerous Thoughts, Madam

    Chapter 205: You Have Very Dangerous Thoughts, Madam


    When Marion asked for the whereabouts of her panties, Rosa clearly saw Alice stuffing the pair of ck sexy underwear into the pouch hanging by her waist. Then, aftermitting such a tant crime, Alice behaved as if nothing had just happened as she calmly said to Marion:


    "You were under the curse of the Sunset Bug Erosion previously, Madam. Your entire body was covered in a ck carapace, so you could not wear any clothes."


    Despite bearing witness to Alice''s shameless act, Rosa chose to stay silent when she saw Marion nodding and trusting in Alice''s words.


    Historical records might have shown that Heroes were selfless people willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the human realm, but that didn''t mean they were void of desire. Although Rosa didn''t know why Alice''s desires were so different from past Heroes, it was a fact that Alice was busily running about trying to defeat the Demon King. Since Marion did not try to probe further into the matter, Rosa didn''t feel the need to expose Alice, eithernot that she had the courage to do so.


    Regardless, Rosa couldn''t help but be surprised by Marion''sck of caution. Even though this matter concerned her underwear, the woman had easily believed the words of someone she had never met before. Maybe the fact that she woke uppletely naked had also yed a role in convincing her to trust Alice''s excuse so easily.


    While Rosa was lost in her own thoughts, Alice had quickly brought Marion up to speed. Then, Alice began asking Marion a series of questions pertaining to her being cursed.


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    Probably because of Alice''s appearance and the fact that Alice was her savior, Marion didn''t hesitate to share everything she knew with Alice, either.


    "Have Ie into contact with anything new at home before getting cursed?" Marion put on a pondering look when she heard Alice''s question. Then, a momentter, she answered, "I don''t think so. I happened to be binging a new drama series at the time, and I never left home throughout that entire period. Nothing new has been brought into the house, either. The only thing that could possiblye from the outside around that time would probably befood, I guess."


    "Food?" Alice fell into thought. Marion''s ount of the past was simr to what Elodie had told her previously. If both of them were telling the truth, the only way the culprit could strike at Marion would be through her food. However, there was no way a Demon King would attach their soul to food. Setting aside whether there existed any food that could house a soul, would any Demon King dare to attach themselves to food? Were they not afraid that they might get eaten?


    "Take care of Marion for me, Rosa." After pondering for a moment, Alice beckoned at Rosa and had the thief girl take care of Marion. Then, she stood up from her chair and said, "If Marion shows any strange symptoms, call me on my phone."


    After saying so, Alice swiftly left the room without waiting for Rosa to respond. Seeing this, Rosa let out a helpless sigh, walked over to Marion''s side, and sat on the chair Alice previously sat on.


    "Long time no see, Little Rosa."


    Marion was acquainted with Rosa. She was also aware Rosa was one of her daughter''s thief acquaintances. However, because Rosa had retired from the thieving industry for some time now, the interactions between Rosa and Elodie had reduced significantly. As a result, it had been a while since Marion had seen Rosa.


    "That girl just now should be Her Highness, right?"


    News of Alice had long since spread across the entire Gryffin Kingdom even before Marion had been cursed with the Sunset Bug Erosion. So, Marion naturally recognized Alice.


    "That''s right. She''s a magic genius," Rosa said, giving Marion the excuse she previously gave to Elodie. It was necessary to keep Alice''s identity as the Hero a secret. After all, Marion was Elodie''s mother, and Elodie was a thief. Meanwhile, Rosa was well aware of how foolish it would be to trust a thief to keep a secret. The eagerness of her co-workers to expose the secrets of others was also the reason Rosa had chosen to retire from the thieving industry. She simply couldn''t bring herself to ept such behavior.


    "Indeed. She must be an extraordinary genius if she can lift the curse on me," Marion said, nodding with a satisfied smile on her face. However, a momentter, she revealed a somewhat perplexed expression as she asked, "But why is that child so obsessed with underwear?"


    "Huh?"


    Marion''s words stunned Rosa, her mind failing to keep up with the sudden change in topic.


    "My mind might have been in a daze just now, but I still caught Little Alice stuffing my underwear into her pouch through the corner of my eyes," Marion said worriedly. Yet, there was also an explicable hint of satisfaction in her voice. "Oh It''s not good to have such hobbies at such a young age."


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    Suddenly, Rosa felt that she might be the only normal person in this house.


    After leaving the room, Alice promptly began searching for items that could potentially house a Demon King''s soul.


    Marion might have said that she had been cooped up at home for several days before she got cursed, but Alice remembered that there were servants working in this house. Although those servants were on leave right now, they might have brought in items from the outside when they were still on duty.


    There was arge room meant for servants located on the third floor of this house. However, Alice did not make her way to the servants'' quarters even though that was the most likely ce for servants to store their belongings.


    After all, if the item housing the Demon King''s soul was kept in the servants'' quarters, there was no way Marion woulde into contact with it unless the woman had a hobby of visiting the servants'' room. It was also highly unlikely for the servants to put their belongings inside Marion''s room.


    So, if the object housing the Demon King''s soul was inside this house, it should be located somewhere which everyone was likely to ess, such as the living room and kitchen. These were ces that were likely to hold items brought in by servants from the outside and essed by Marion.


    <em>Speaking of which, if a fight breaks out here, wouldn''t this house be destroyed?</em>


    When Alice walked into the living room, she suddenly recalled her first fight with Luna. Back then, even though neither of them used any wide-range taboos, they still ended up turning an entire vi district into ruins. If she were to drag out a Demon King''s soul this time, a repeat of that incident might very well ur.


    Unlike Grant, the Demon King this time had already recovered to a point where they could cast the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo on Marion on top of preparing a simplified taboo hidden within Marion''s body. This meant that the other party''s soul had already recovered a certain portion of its strength and was more than capable of putting up a good fight.


    However, Alice quickly shook these concerns out of her head. Rather than worry about the consequences, it was more important that she located the Demon King''s soul first. Immediately, she took a deep breath and cast Psychokinesis Transcendence, using the psychokic threads to analyze every magic tool in the living room.


    Lightsnormal. It only carried the little bit of mana supplied by the house''s mana wiring, so it couldn''t house a soul.


    Televisionnormal. Although it carried much more mana than the lights, its chaotic mana made it unsuitable to house a soul.ts


    Aside from these ordinary household items, Alice noticed that a few decorations also carried mana. Thus, she simrly analyzed these items with her psychokic threads. Then, while she was probing into a magic item that looked like a figurineshe finally found a clue.

 Chapter 206: Figurine Demon King Andusia

    Chapter 206: Figurine Demon King Andusia


    The reason Alice considered the object before her a figurine rather than a statue was due to its small size. It was also very detailed and shaped like a girl. Although Alice hadn''t read much of this world''s novels, manga, and anime, she still recognized who the figurine was modeled aftershe was the main heroine of a certain anime.


    The anime in question was seemingly very popr, and it was practically considered a national-level animation. Alice had also seen many emojis in the heroine''s design on LINK. Hence, even though Alice had never watched the anime or even heard of its name before, she still recognized the character the figurine was modeled after.


    Normally, one would only use such figurines as a memento. Aside from viewing purposes, it should serve no other function. Yet, when Alice inspected it with Psychokinesis Transcendence, she found the presence of a considerable amount of mana within this figurine.


    This was an intriguing situation. After all, there was only one scenario for an item such as a figurine to house manait was being used as a medium to cast magic. However, even if that were the case, there should still be mana flowing out of this figurine. Yet, that did not happen with this figurine. All of its mana was thoroughly isted within it.


    Alice was almost certain that there was something suspicious with this figurine. Although there were a few other decorations in the living room that carried residual mana, ording to the feedback Alice got from Psychokic Transcendence, this residual mana basically existed only on the surface of these decorations. Their situations were worlds apart from the figurine''s situation.


    Immediately, Alice walked over to the figurine. The figurine was ced in a wine cab in the living room, along with a few bottles of red wine and several other figurines. Judging by the state of the figurine, it should have been ced there not long ago.


    Considering that Marion was capable of staying home for several consecutive days just to binge a drama, the married woman probably had an introverted personality. Although her appearance and body were full of mature charm, her mind remained a little childish. So, it wasn''t impossible for such a person toe to the living room to admire her figurine collection.


    Opening the wine cab, Alice raised her hand and took out the figurine. Alice remembered that the name of the character this figurine was modeled after was called Hikari, a magical girl. This was something Alice had learned while reading the discussions of others on LINK.


    The Hikari figurine remained motionless even after being held by Alice. It was as if it really was an ordinary figurine and nothing more. If Alice hadn''t detected mana inside the figurine with Psychokinesis Transcendence, she might have very well been deceived by it.


    "I''ve found you. Stop pretending."


    Alice narrowed her eyes and looked at the figurine in her right hand. She had to admit that the mana inside the figurine was well-hidden. If she had used a simple Mind Search spell instead of Psychokinesis Transcendence, she wouldn''t have noticed anything abnormal with the figurine.


    However, even after Alice spoke, no movement came from the figurine. The person hiding in the figurine probably thought that Alice was trying to trick her, so she chose to remain silent.


    Alice let out a snort when she saw this situation. Then, she began exerting force with her right hand. She also poured some mana into her right hand, granting her significantly greater physical strength. In only an instant, cracks began appearing on the figurine.


    Although it wasn''t good to destroy other people''s belongings, Alice was helping Marion avoid future troubles. Since Alice had already promised Elodie to help her mother in exchange for her help with the dogkins, she naturally had to provide good after-sales service. Otherwise, it probably wouldn''t be long before Marion got hit with another Sunset Bug Erosion. At the time, Elodie would probablye to ask her for help again. How much of a hassle would that be?


    Even if Alice had guessed wrongly and ended up destroying nothing more than a figurine, Marion was unlikely to say anything about it. A figurine like this might be a limited edition, but it definitely wasn''t something out of reach for someone of Marion''s status.


    Fortunately, Alice was right in her guess. Just when the figurine was about to shatter under Alice''s crushing grip, the person hiding inside the figurine finally couldn''t bear it any longer.


    "You bastard!"


    The figurine''s expression changed under Alice''s gaze. The originally carved face suddenly started behaving like a real person''s face, and it was capable of disying various emotions. Meanwhile, along with the figurine cursing at Alice, a strong electric current suddenly erupted from the figurine, numbing Alice''s right hand and causing her to let go of the figurine.


    Alice frowned and took a step back in this situation. Then, when she saw the figurine, which was supposed to have no joints, moving like a real miniature person, she couldn''t help but be serious.


    Things were developing differently from how she had imagined. Originally, she thought this figurine had been transformed into a magic item that could hold souls, just like the Radioactive Soul Stone and Soul Gathering Tablet.


    However, judging by the current situation, that didn''t seem to be the case. The Radioactive Soul Stone and Soul Gathering Tablet might be able to amodate souls, but the souls kept within them couldn''t move about freely. At most, they could only hover above their containers. The souls could not influence the Radioactive Soul Stone''s and Soul Gathering Tablet''s movements, either.


    However, the figurine before Alice looked like it wasn''t just a simple soul-storage device. Not only could it be manipted to act as a second body for the soul stored, but the soul could even cast magic with it!


    Meanwhile, after the figurine escaped Alice''s clutches, she jumped into the air and relied on mana to hover before Alice. Then, looking at Alice with a stern expression, she asked, "How did you find me? Even a high-level Truth Search shouldn''t be able to detect me."


    The figurine was designed after the character Hikari, a magical girl who fought against evil. So, when the figurine was questioning her, Alice couldn''t help but feel as if she was the viin in this situation.


    After suppressing the strange thought in her mind, Alice stared at the figurine and said, "That''s not something you need to know. Youmust be Andusia, right? Or do you prefer I call you Silvias?"


    "Oh? You''ve even figured out my identity already?" Andusia frowned. "Silvias That''s a name I haven''t heard in a long time I see. So you''re the bastard who undid the Sunset Bug Erosion on Marion, right?"


    Andusia''s words were akin to an acknowledgment of her identity. Just like Alice had expected, Marion''s curse was rted to the Ninth Demon King, an antique that had existed several thousand years ago.


    Andusia was the one who had used the Sunset Bug Erosion on Marion. So, when Alice reversed the Sunset Bug Erosion''s effects just now, Andusia had also felt her taboo losing its effect. Only, she did not suspect Alice to be responsible for reversing her taboo right away due to Alice''s young age.


    However, things were different now. Since Alice had discovered her presence inside the figurine, it meant that the girl wasn''t some ordinary little girl. So, Andusia naturally deemed Alice as the person responsible for undoing her Sunset Bug Erosion.

 Chapter 207: Villa Demolishing Specialist

    Chapter 207: Vi Demolishing Specialist


    Alice did not answer. However, her following actions were already enough to give Andusia the best answer to her question.


    Shortly after Andusia finished asking her question, Alice could be seen reaching into the pouch hanging by her waist, pulling out a gorgeous weapon box, and opening the box''s lock with a flick of her finger. Then, followed by a burst of space-distorting power, an exquisite longsword emerged from the weapon box and floated by Alice''s side.


    Subsequently, under Andusia''s surprised and angry expression, Alice gripped the sword''s hilt with her right hand. Then, a frightening amount of mana instantly burst from Alice''s body, the overflowing mana pushing the surrounding furniture away and creating a small clearing in the living room.


    "Hero''s SwordLight," Andusia said, gnashing her teeth as she spoke out the name of the Hero''s Sword during her era.


    It would seem that the Ninth Hero had named their Hero''s Sword "Light." It was a simple but pleasant name. At the very least, it was much better than the names of "Okay" and "What the Fuck" that Alice and the pitiful Eighth Hero Miller had given to their Hero''s Sword.


    This wasn''t so surprising, though. After all, when the person chosen by God to be the Hero first wielded the Hero''s Sword, the procedure to name the Hero''s Sword would be conveyed to them immediately. Alice and the Eighth Hero were outliers because Alice wasn''t actually a Hero, while the Eighth Hero had identally named the Hero''s Sword due to his surprise.


    "I see. You are the Hero of this generation. So that''s why you managed to undo my taboo." At this point, Andusia realized that it was no longer possible to reach amon ground with Alice. With a fierce look on her face, she asked, "Looking at your age, you are, at most, thirteen or fourteen years old, right?"


    "Probably. What''s the problem?"


    Alice became a lot more confident now after experiencing the feeling of having all of her stats boosted significantly. So, not only did she rx her tensed body a little, but she even spoke in a more carefree manner.


    "Both Heroes and Demon Kings require time to train. Since you are so young, you probably haven''t done much growing up yet, right?" Andusia said with a sneer. Despite having the appearance of a warrior of justice, the words that came out of her mouth sounded like they belonged to a viin. "Then, let this be the end of your career as a Hero! You bastard!!!"


    As Andusia''s voice fell, a terrifying electric current escaped from the figurine and transformed into a huge lightning spear that shot straight in Alice''s direction!


    Alice promptly recognized the identity of Andusia''s attack. It was a taboo with the lightning attribute, which was derived from the wind attribute, and the taboo''s name was "Thunder God''s Punishment." There was a record of the taboo in the March Academy''s library. Apparently, several of the taboo''s forms were being used in electric-powered mana nts to supply mana to countless household magic tools.


    However, Andusia evidentlycked the ability to cast theplete version of the taboo. Not only was the auxiliary lightning grid that was supposed to surround the lightning spear nowhere to be seen, but the lightning spear''s destructive power had also been reduced from arge-area bombardment to a pinpoint attack.


    Judging by the lightning spear''s condition, Alice guessed that Andusia had only recovered enough strength to just barely be able to cast taboos. After all, Andusia had already proven that she could castplete versions of taboos by casting theplete Sunset Bug Erosion on Marion. Yet, here she was, using only a simplified version of Thunder God''s Punishment. This meant that she needed some time to castplete taboos and couldn''t use them in the heat of battle.


    Unlike Andusia, Alice didn''t bother with any battle cries. Instead, she silently cast the taboo "Wind''s Memory," relying on the power of wind to divert the mana making up the lightning spear. Then, the lightning spear directed at Alice''s chest could be seen changing trajectory and harmlessly brushing past Alice''s body.


    Subsequently, apanied by a deafening explosion, the lightning spear transformed into a thick column of electricity and sted a huge hole in the wall behind Alice. Even the vi shook quite a bit under the lightning spear''s destructive power. Naturally, the already messy living room was turned into an even bigger mess.


    After the shaking settled, Alice could hear the sound of a twisting doorknobing from upstairs, coupled with Rosa''s shouting voice. However, Alice had already sealed the door to Marion''s room shut with psychokinesis before she came downstairs. Otherwise, if Rosa and Marion were to appear downstairs at this time, there was a high possibility that they might be Andusia''s hostages.


    Fortunately, Andusia did not show any heed to the noiseing from upstairs. Instead, she focused her gaze on Alice, a frown forming on her face when she saw the little girl effortlessly using Wind''s Memory to divert her mana.


    Originally, Andusia thought that Alice was a Hero who had yet to be fully developed. However, it would seem that she had underestimated her opponent a little too much. Even if Alice had yet to fully mature as a Hero, her current strength could not be underestimated.


    "I didn''t think you would already possess such strength. It seems I have underestimated you."


    After saying so, Andusia raised her hand and summoned a ball of shadows. As soon as Andusia did so, Alice could feel the mana in the air growing restless and starting to gather in the palm of Andusia''s hand.


    Seeing this, Alice quickly understood how Andusia could castplete taboos even without a real bodyit was because she had developed her gravitational magic to the extremes. Andusia''s gravitational magic was so powerful that she could even gather the mana in the air.


    "Do you think I''ll just stand here and let you gather your mana?" Alice naturally wouldn''t stand still like a fool and watch as Andusia gathered mana. Immediately, she raised the Hero''s Sword and swung it in Andusia''s direction while shouting, "Okay!!!"


    <em>Dammit! Why must executing Holy Cross sh be so embarrassing every time!</em>


    Amidst Alice''s depressed mood, a crossposed of two rays of light shed straight at Andusia, the attack causing Andusia''s expression to change a little.


    Andusia naturally recognized this movie. It was the "Holy Cross sh" that almost every Hero of past generations could learn through the Hero''s Sword. It was an incredibly powerful move. Back when she was fighting against the Ninth Hero, whenever the other party shouted "Light," this cross-sh would follow.


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    Hurriedly, Andusia concentrated the mana she had gathered thus far before spreading it across her body. Then, she shouted:


    "Dragon''s Shadow!!!"


    A ck dragonposed of dense mana appeared and destroyed the entire vi in the blink of an eye. Then, the ck dragon spread its massive wings and used them to stop the oing Holy Cross sh.

 Chapter 208: Suffering a Loss Due to Materials

    Chapter 208: Suffering a Loss Due to Materials


    With this, it didn''t even matter if Alice had sealed Marion''s bedroom with psychokinesis. Andusia''s dragon form had caused the entire vi to burst into smithereens. So, the room that Rosa and Marion were in had simrly been destroyed.


    Fortunately, Rosa''s skills as a thief did not grow rusty even after her retirement. So, the instantrge cracks started appearing on the walls of the room, she promptly grabbed Marion and fled through one of the cracks. Had Rosa been a moment slower, both she and Marion would have been crushed into meat paste under Andusia''s titanic dragon form.


    Meanwhile, after escaping from the destroyed house andnding in a clearing outside the vi, Rosa looked back to the vi to see what had happened exactly.


    "Dragon''s Shadow" Rosa muttered when she saw the massive ck dragon that was fighting back against a holy crossposed of light mana.


    A sessful thief needed to possess a wide range of knowledge. Although the information she had ess to paledpared to an entire kingdom''s intelligence department, she still recognized the taboo known as Dragon''s Shadow. When used, Dragon''s Shadow created a phantom of a dragon that could fool the world and grant the taboo''s user the strength of a true dragon.


    Yet, despite having the frightening strength of a true dragon, the ck dragon before her was currently letting out an agonizing cry as it tried to fend off the cross sh. A momentter, the cross sh had even cut through the ck dragon''s wings like tofu, severing the wings from the dragon''s body.


    Although the cross sh had disappeared after severing the ck dragon''s wings, the cross sh''s light mana continued purifying both the ck dragon''s wings and body. However, just when it seemed like the fight was over, the ck dragon''s body suddenly began expanding like a balloon, its size nearly doubling in the blink of an eye.


    Rosa''s expression instantly changed when she saw this. Immediately, she turned around and embraced Marion. Then, she began concentrating all of her mana on her back.


    <em>Boom!!</em>


    Along with a terrifying explosion that sounded from the vi''s ruins, Rosa felt a torrent of mana scorching her back. At the same time as this scorching mana was rapidly depleting Rosa''s mana reserves, it also sent Rosa and Marion flying and crashing into the ground several dozen meters away.


    Fortunately, the ck dragon''s self-destruction attack was primarily aimed at Alice. Hence, the torrent of scorching mana was only the residue of the explosion. Even so, Rosa had still expended all of her mana just to defend against it, so it could be seen just how powerful the ck dragon''s self-destruct was.


    At this point, there were no intact vis in the vi district anymore. Although the vis here had been reinforced with magic, there was no way the civilian-level defensive magic cast on these vis could withstand an explosion caused by a taboo-level self-destruction.


    For vis located far away from the explosion''s epicenter, they only had a few of their walls torn down by the explosion''s shockwaves, revealing the shocked residents inside. For vis located close to the epicenter, they were demolished entirely, and the residents inside were probably buried alive. The disaster relief team would definitely have a lot of work to doter.


    Fortunately, unlike Rosa, these buried residents did not experience the explosion''s shockwaves in an open area. They had the magically-reinforced walls of their houses to act as a buffer for them. So, unless they were very unlucky and got hit in the head by falling debris, these buried residents should be fine and alive. At most, they would have suffered a few scrapes and bruises.


    Alice, the first victim of the explosion, naturally wasn''t feeling very well right now, either. She did not expect Andusia to suddenly self-detonate her Dragon''s Shadow. So, she had no choice but to hastily erect an Enochian Prism to defend herself.


    As it was a hastily erected Enochian Prism, its defensive properties weren''t as strong as one that was cast normally. As a result, the barrier had shattered after blocking the brunt of the explosion, leaving Alice defenseless against the explosion''s shockwaves. Fortunately, apart from suffering a few burns, Alice didn''t suffer any other injuries.


    However, Alice didn''t have time to tend to her burns. Psychokinesis Transcendence allowed her to pinpoint Andusia''s location amidst the dust clouds raised by the explosion, so she promptly gathered mana in her hand and cast Forest Crystallization at the Demon King.


    Immediately, a massive amount of mana gathered around Andusia''s position and created a dark-green crystal that encapsted her. Then, the natural mana inside the crystal condensed into a solid state to form bindings that restrained Andusia''s miniature body, robbing her of her movements.


    "Tsk. The elves'' taboo?"


    Andusia''s expression turned a little ugly. She didn''t think that Alice could pinpoint her location even within such a dense cloud of dust. This meant that Alice had already developed her mental prowess to a considerable extent, which was outside her expectations. She thought that Alice was merely a Hero that had yet to develop any significant strength. However, it would seem that she had severely underestimated the little girl.


    Andusia also recognized the "Forest Crystallization" Alice had used as one of the elves'' taboos. However, while the taboo had powerful restrictive abilities, it wasn''t infallible.


    Alice had also quickly noticed something wrong after restraining Andusia. While Forest Crystallization had indeed restrained Andusia sessfully, it didn''t stop her from using mana. After having her mobility robbed, Andusia opened her mouth and spat out a sphereposed of ck mist. Immediately afterward, with the sphere as the center, a powerful gravitational force appeared and tried to absorb the dark-green crystal into the ck sphere.


    <em>Isn''t this gravity magic a little too much of a cheat?</em>


    Alice grew a little frustrated because of this situation. She felt that Andusia''s gravity magic was too absurd to be able to attract even the mana of a taboo. It was no wonder why, apart from learning one of the standard elemental magic, Demon Kings would also try to train in a special type of magic for their secondary magic.


    To make matters worse, while the giant crystal created by Forest Crystallization could restrain the target trapped within it, the crystal also prevented people on the outside from harming the trapped target. Hence, Alice had no way to interrupt the miniature ck hole Andusia had created inside the crystal unless she canceled Forest Crystallization. However, Alice would be ying right into Andusia''s hands if she did that.


    Alice had used Forest Crystallization so that she could capture Andusia alive and get some information out of the other party. However, it would seem that the other party wouldn''t be letting herself get captured obediently.


    Since physical attacks can''t reach her from the outside, I''ll just use magic, Alice thought to herself with a frown. Although she couldn''t physically attack Andusia through the crystal, she could still influence the crystal''s interior with magic. Aftering to this conclusion, Alice promptly raised the Hero''s Sword in her right hand, using it as a staff as she cast another taboo:


    Hubert''s Tree!


    Immediately, trees began rampantly growing out from the ground around the dark-green crystalthis was the effect of the taboo "Hubert''s Tree." When cast, Hubert''s Tree would expedite the growth of trees in a certain area and manipte these trees to restrict one''s enemy. Moreover, these trees carried a frightening amount of mana meant for restraining purposes. So, the average person who got trapped by the taboo wouldn''t be able to break free from it.


    "Hubert''s Tree? What are you using this spell for?"


    Andusia also recognized the taboo Alice just used, and she couldn''t help butugh coldly at the young Hero''s futile attempt. However, just as Andusia was about to ridicule Alice for her foolishness, she suddenly noticed something was amiss.


    The miniature ck hole before Andusia suddenly started to destabilize. Then, under Andusia''s shocked gaze, the ck hole disintegrated into mana and scattered to the surroundings.


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    <em>What''s going on?</em>


    Andusia was momentarily stunned, her mind failing toprehend how Alice had managed to disrupt her spell. However, her surprisested only for a moment as she quickly realized that the ck hole''s copse wasn''t caused by Alice directly. Instead, it was a result of her losing control over her mana.


    Upon realizing this, Andusia''s expression quickly changed as she looked downsure enough, there were thick tree branches rapidly growing out of her petite figurine body.


    Hubert''s Tree''s effect was to expedite the growth of trees in the affected area. Meanwhile, the material used to craft her figurine body just so happened to be wood!


    After realizing this point, Andusia finally understood why Alice had used Hubert''s Tree. The young Hero had done so to cause tree branches brimming with mana to grow on her figurine body. This, in turn, would disrupt the flow of mana within her body and cause her to lose control of her mana.


    Unfortunately, by the time Andusia had realized this point, countless tree branches were already growing out of her body. Meanwhile, with Alice''s mana mixed with hers, Andusia couldn''t cast any magic whatsoever.

 Chapter 209: The Process of Making a Mobile Figurine

    Chapter 209: The Process of Making a Mobile Figurine


    TL Notes:


    Changing "Forest Crystallization" to "Forest Crystal."


    Currently, the inside of the cubicle, dark-green crystal was packed to the brim with tree branches. Meanwhile, every one of these tree branches originated from the figurine located in the crystal''s center. It was without question a very strange sight.


    The fact that her body was made out of wood had be Andusia''s biggest downfall. This made it possible for taboos that could influence nts to affect her body directly. Meanwhile, because of Alice''s Forest Crystal and Hubert''s Tree, Andusia was now robbed of both her physical and magical capabilities. The only thing she could do was watch as Alice moved closer and closer to her.


    "Capturing you really is a troublesome process. It took only a short moment for you to turn this entire vi district into ruins," Alice said, voicing herints as she walked up to the Forest Crystal. Then, as she looked at Andusia''s immobilized body through the translucent crystal, she smiled and continued, "Thankfully, all of the vis here have received basic magic reinforcements. There would have been severe casualties if this were a normal residential area."


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    "Hmph. Who cares if there are casualties? Humans are not worth protecting," Andusia said, snorting when she heard Alice''s words. "Do you think you are making this world more peaceful by protecting these humans? Stop joking. Humans are beyond salvation. The only thing they are good at is capturing and enving other races. Humans are many times better at evildoing than even Demon Kings."


    The fact that the Demon Kings harbored malice toward humans was something Alice knew. However, not all Demon Kings had the same reason for hating humans. Meanwhile, by the looks of it, Andusia''s reason for hating humans was most likely rted to the very system humans employed in the distant past.


    However, very had long since be a thing of the past. Many years ago, humans had already abolished its very policy and made the appropriate reparations to the various races. The various races had also graduallye to forgive the humans'' actions over the past thousand years. Although there were still some beastkins working as maids or butlers for humans, they were all working under normal employment.


    Of course, Alice did not n to preach about freedom and equality to Andusia right now. She doubted that the Ninth Demon King would be convinced by words alone. Rather than wasting time with words, she figured it''d be better if she allowed Andusia to personally experience the changes that had taken ce in the human realm instead. Before letting Andusia explore the new world, though, she''d have to figure out a way to seal Andusia''s strength.


    Moreover, if Alice could seal Andusia''s strength, it''d be easier for her to pry some information regarding the Demon King''s Power out of the party. Compared to a half-baked Demon King like Luna, Andusia definitely had a much deeper understanding of the Demon King''s Power.


    However, if there was no possibility of having a proper conversation with Andusia, Alice wouldn''t go easy on the other party, either.


    "But I really didn''t expect your figurine body to be capable of movement," Alice said as she scrutinized Andusia''s miniature body. Then, teasingly, she continued, "Don''t tell me you''re interested in this character? If Hikari''s fans online find out that there''s a mobile version of Hikari''s figurine, they''ll definitely be very interested to see you."


    "Do you think I want to look like <em>this</em>?" Andusia red at Alice. "Do you know what kind of material my body is sculpted from?"


    Although Andusia wore a disgruntled look on her face, it looked like she was still open tomunication. Seeing this, Alice breathed out a soft sigh of relief.


    "What material? Isn''t it just normal wood?" Alice asked out of curiosity. Andusia was in a conscious state of mind when Alice picked up the other party''s figurine body. So, she couldn''t inspect the other party''s information with her right hand. It was also why she was certain there was something wrong with the figurine.


    "Normal woodis it? Do you really think that?" Andusia gnashed her teeth, an indignant expression on her face. "Listen well! My body is made out of ''Living Wood''! It is the treant race''s treasure! It is a special type of nt that can house souls, and it can be used to birth powerful treants!"


    Treants were a unique race incapable of reproduction. Instead, treants were born from dead wood that could serve as spirit mediums. Once such wood was left alone long enough, a sapling would grow from it. Then, the sapling would gradually grow into a treant, a creature that looked very simr to humans.


    Simr to elves, treants possessed a strong affinity for natural mana. However, unlike the elves, treants did not have long lifespans. In exchange, though, their talent for magic was much greater than both elves and humans.


    Treants typically lived in primeval forests, and nobody has discovered the location of their settlement even until now. It was only possible to receive news about the treants through wandering humans or the treants living in the demon realm.


    "When I started shing with the Hero, I quickly realized that the bastard is stronger than me, and I might be defeated. So, I wisely hid my soul in a piece of Living Wood before that happened," Andusia said with a chuckle, feeling no shame of her desertion. "With the power of my soul nourishing the Living Wood, it would have taken only two thousand years before a treant would grow from it. Once that happened, my soul would take over the treant''s body."


    Simr to Grant, Andusia must have had a few screws in her head loosened after spending so many years in solitude, as she did not hesitate to share her scheme with Alice. It would also seem that Andusia realized that it was unlikely she could secure a Seed of Nature for herself, so she had switched to using a different method of reviving herself.


    "If everything went smoothly, I would have resurrected in this world as a treant in a few hundred years from now. The Hero would have long died by then, and there''d be nothing the humans can do to stop me." After speaking up to this point, Andusia''s expression suddenly changed. Then, while gnashing her teeth, she begrudgingly said, "But! But!!! A group of imbeciles treated my Living Wood as a piece of normal wood and dug it up!!! Moreover, they even carved it into this despicable form!!!!"


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    Alice finally understood why Andusia, a Demon King who had existed a couple thousand years ago, would be attached to the figurine of a magical girl. She also couldn''t help but pity the other party a little.

 Chapter 210: Does Selling Figurines Constitute Human Trafficking?

    Chapter 210: Does Selling Figurines Constitute Human Trafficking?


    Demon Kings all started out as humans. Meanwhile, the reason the Demon King''s Power had chosen these humans as its medium to maximize its destruction of the world''sws was because they harbored deep resentment toward the human race.


    However, no human would resent the entire human race on a whim. Typically, those chosen to be a Demon King were people who had grown disappointed in the human race during their time as humans.


    This was the case for both Luna and Andusia. Meanwhile, going by the conversation she had with Andusia, Alice could roughly guess that the reason for Andusia''s fall was rted to the very system that had existed during her era.


    Fortunately, this wasn''t a problem that couldn''t be rectified. This was because humans had simrly realized how backward and foolish the very system was and abolished it long ago. So, Alice quickly started thinking of solutions to get Andusia to let go of her hatred. That way, she could have an easier time obtaining information on the Demon King''s Power from the other party. The information she acquired would also be much more reliable.


    Of course, if Andusia refused to change her ways, Alice would have no choice but to get rid of her just like she did with Grant. After all, Andusia was a Demon King. If she refused to let go of her hatred, she''d be a ticking timebomb for the human race that could explode at any moment.


    "What are you trying to do?"


    Andusia didn''t know what was going on in Alice''s mind. So, when she saw Alice canceling the Forest Crystal''s effects, she couldn''t help but have a bad feeling.


    Currently, Andusia was thoroughly prevented from moving and using magic due to the many tree branches growing out of her body. So, even without the Forest Crystal binding her movements, she still didn''t have any way to resist Alice.


    However, when Andusia saw Alice extending a hand to her, her mind immediately thought of a possible scenario. Then, she sneered at Alice and said, "I see. You''re nning to enve me as well, aren''t you? I knew it. Humans haven''t changed one little bit all these years. Even the Hero is bullying the weak now."


    Alice couldn''t help but sigh in frustration when she heard Andusia''s paranoid words. However, she now understood why Andusia hated very so much. Human ve traders must have harmed Andusia in the past. Hence, in addition to harboring hatred for humans, she also saw every human as a ve trader.


    However, even after understanding the cause of Andusia''s hatred, Alice did not try to argue and put sense into the other party. She understood that nothing she said would get through to Andusia right now. So, rather than waste her energy on words, she might as well put Andusia under control, carry the other party around with her, and let her see what human society had be after all these years.


    Meanwhile, after cing her left hand on Andusia, Alice injected mana deep into the figurine and quickly located Andusia''s core, the object responsible for storing Andusia''s soul and mana. In other words, so long as Alice sealed this core, Andusia would lose ess to her mana. At that time, Andusia would be nothing more than a figurine capable of moving, and she''d have no way of causing any serious trouble.


    "Wait, don''t tell me you''re?" Andusia''s expression quickly changed when she noticed Alice''s mana discovering the position of her core. Then, in a flustered tone, she said, "W-Wait! I think we can renegotiate! I can tell you whatever information you want to know! I have plenty of information on the demon realm!"


    <em>What a coincidence. I also know plenty about the demon realm. Moreover, if I really want to know something, the Four Heavenly Kings will dly bring the information to me. It''s also going to be the most up-to-date information rather than outdated information from a couple of thousand years ago.</em>


    Alice remained indifferent to Andusia''s pleading. Immediately, she injected more mana into Andusia''s body and constructed a Forest Crystal around Andusia''s mana core, thoroughly isting the mana core from Andusia''s body.


    If Andusia still had ess to her mana right now, Alice naturally couldn''t have constructed a Forest Crystal around Andusia''s mana core. Unfortunately, Andusia currently couldn''t control her mana, so Alice could do whatever she wanted to her body.


    "Y-You despicable Hero" Andusia cursed in a vexed tone. Even when she saw Alice canceling the effects of Hubert''s Tree, which, in turn, caused the tree branches on her body to wither and disintegrate in only a few seconds, not even the slightest hint of joy appeared on her face.


    Andusia could feel that there was a Forest Crystal imprisoning her mana core, isting it from her control. Unless Alice removed the Forest Crystal, she''d have no way to ess her mana.


    "Do you understand your situation now?"


    Alice picked up Andusia from the ground with a smile and held the Ninth Demon King in her hand. Although she could feel that Andusia was desperately trying to break free from her hand, Andusia''s strength was weaker than a child''s now that she couldn''t ess her mana. So, there was no way she could break free.


    "You despicable Hero! Remove this Forest Crystal and fight me head-on if you dare!" Andusia yelled angrily. After realizing that she couldn''t break free from Alice''s grasp, she switched to stimting Alice with words. "It''s unlike the Hero to use such shameful means!"


    "Hey, I only captured you after beating you head-on. Don''t me me for being weak," Alice said, chuckling.


    Although Alice had only managed to beat Andusia so easily because she had taken advantage of Andusia''s circumstances, this could be considered the fruit of her effort in learning so many taboos. It was also Andusia''s fault for not considering her weaknesses and making the necessary defensive preparations. So, Alice didn''t think that there was anything hical with her strategy.


    "Anyway, just act as an obedient figurine for the time being. If you don''t stay obedient, I might consider selling you," Alice said with a mischievous expression. "I''ll have you know that your current appearance is that of a heroine of a popr anime. I believe many people will be interested in buying you."


    Andusia instantly lost the courage to speak after hearing Alice''s words, her previous arrogant expression being reced with a fearful expression. Then, in ast-ditch effort to defy Alice, she shouted:


    "I knew it! You <em>are </em>a human trafficker!!"

 Chapter 211: How to Traumatize a Figurine

    Chapter 211: How to Traumatize a Figurine


    After the situation over at Alice''s side calmed down, Rosa and Marion finally dared to approach her.


    Currently, beneath Alice''s feet were the ruins of Marion''s vi. However, despite seeing the state of her house, Marion didn''t seem particrly perturbed by it. After all, she was a rtively wealthy person. While it might hurt her bank ount a little to lose a vi, it wasn''t to a point where she would agonize over the loss.


    Rather than her vi, Marion was more interested in what had just happened. While looking at Alice with glittering eyes, she asked, "Alice, that ck dragon just nowwas Dragon''s Shadow, right? Were you fighting with the Demon King just now?"


    "That''s right. I was fighting with the Demon King just now, so I ended up turning your house into this state. Sorry," Alice apologized. She also couldn''t help but sigh, knowing that there was no way she could gloss over this incident.


    The ck dragon created by Andusia''s Dragon''s Shadow had caused a hugemotion, and many people in the neighborhood had already seen its form. Anyone who knew a little about the Dragon''s Shadow taboo would know that the fact that the dragon created was colored ck meant that the dragon wasposed entirely of dark mana. Meanwhile, the Demon King was the only person in this world capable of utilizing such arge amount of dark mana.


    Since Marion evidently knew about Dragon''s Shadow, Alice felt that it''d be pointless to try and trick the woman. So, she gave an affirmative response to the woman''s question and kept the Hero''s Sword wielded in her right hand:


    "As you can see, I am the Hero. I suspected that the person who cursed you was the Demon King, so I searched your house for clues and actually found her hiding here. Although we fought, I ended up letting her get away."


    "Please help Alice keep her identity a secret, Miss Marion. If the demons discover her real identity, they might send assassins after her," Rosa said. Although Alice was standing before them in her real appearance, Rosa believed that Alice must have used her disguise when fighting the Demon King. So, she thought that the demons and Demon King still weren''t aware of Alice''s true identity.


    "I see. So Little Alice is the Hero," Marion said, retracting the muddled expression she wore previously. She was aware of the importance of this matter, so she nodded and earnestly said, "I understand. I promise not to spread your true identity, Little Alice."


    Although Marion still sounded a little unreliable, Alice had no choice but to trust that the woman understood the severity of the situation for now. She also believed that Hatter would most likely invite Marion to talk about this matterter. In addition, seeing that Andusia had taken action against Marion without hesitation despite Marion being her descendant, it should more or less prove that Marion didn''t have any connections with the demons.


    "Others might being over here soon. Remember not to reveal my identity as the Hero," Alice said. She was still wielding the Hero''s Sword in her right hand, so her enhanced senses allowed her to sense that people were approaching from a distance. These should be the vi district''s residents who had sessfully escaped from their ruined houses. So, she hurriedly stored the Hero''s Sword away and reminded Rosa and Marion, "Just tell them that a fight between the Hero and the Demon King took ce here. If they ask for details, just tell them that we didn''t get a clear look."


    There was no need to worry that Andusia might make a fuss, either. Before Rosa and Marion had even approached her, Alice had stuffed Andusia''s mouth with a cloth she found amidst the ruins and shoved the Demon King into her pouch.


    As for the Milu Rabbit hanging on the other side of Alice''s waist, although it had woken up because of the fight, Alice had knocked it unconscious again with a smash from her fist.


    After the disaster relief team conducted a cursory investigation of the situation, the matter was concluded, and the cause of the disturbance was deemed to be a fight between the Hero and the Demon King. The Gryffin Kingdom''s government would also be paying for all damages caused by the fight. It had already been several hundred years since arge-scale war had taken ce between the humans and demons. So, the various human kingdoms had their national treasuries filled to the brim right now, and this meager loss was nothing to the Gryffin Kingdom.


    Meanwhile, just like Alice had anticipated, Hatter had invited Marion over for a private talk, and the content of their discussion was naturally about Alice''s identity.


    Alice felt that when it came to being a king, Hatter was quite the reliable fellow. He was always there to clean up the mess she made.


    However, after this incident, Alice felt that she should try to limit the destruction she caused as much as possible. She also wondered if there existed a spell that could be used to limit the destruction she and her opponent caused to her surroundings.


    After all, even single-target taboos were typically strong enough to impact an entire residential district. If, one day, she encountered an enemy that decided to use taboos with arge AOE, their fight would most likely destroy an entire city.


    However, this was something that couldn''t be aplished within the short term. Alice wasn''t even sure if there existed a spell capable of reducing the destruction caused by a bombardment of taboos. She could only try her best to search for such a taboo.


    Rather than focusing her attention on finding such a spell, Alice felt that she should prioritize dealing with the Ninth Demon King, who was stuffed inside her pouch right now. Hence, after helping the disaster relief team led by Catherine rescue all of the trapped residents, Alice gave Catherine the excuse, "I think I can still feel the Demon King''s presence," and quickly left the vi district.


    Now that Alice had healed Marion, she had fulfilled her promise to Elodie. In that case, she could have Elodie help her contact the dogkins and see if she could borrow their chief totem to search for the Demon King''s Power.


    Initially, Alice had nned to have Luna create a mana crystal and store her mana inside the crystal. Then, she could use Luna''s mana as a medium to search for the Demon King''s Power. After all, most beastkins were against outsiders visiting their tribal grounds, so Alice wasn''t sure if she could bring Luna with her. On the off chance that the dogkins allowed only one person to enter,


    However, Alice had a much better option now. Even if the dogkins didn''t allow her to bring someone with her into their tribal grounds, they couldn''t possibly stop her from bringing a figurine, right?


    This novel is _hosted_ by hosted novel.


    This novel is _hosted_ by hosted novel.


    After separating from the disaster relief team, Alice didn''t return to the March Academy immediately. Instead, she rented a room in a nearby hotel.


    Alice might have sealed Andusia''s mana already, but there was no saying whether the Demon King had any hidden cards prepared. On the off chance that Andusia could use these hidden cards even without having ess to her mana, it''d be terrible if she used them inside the academy. Themotion caused might put Alice at risk of having her identity exposed. Hence, Alice decided to hold a proper conversation with Andusia outside first.


    After opening her pouch, Alice pulled Andusia, who currently wore a pale expression, out of the small pile of panties. Then, she removed the cloth gagging the Demon King''s mouth.


    Meanwhile, after having her gag removed, Andusia promptly yelled out in a panic, "You pervert! What are you trying to do to me?! Stay away from me!"


    Andusia had her impression of Alice changedpletely when she realized that the young Hero was carrying a pouch full of panties around with her. To make matters worse, since she was buried amidst the pile of panties, even if she didn''t want to, she still managed to sniff out a factthese panties didn''t seem toe from just one person.


    This discovery led to Andusia raising Alice''s threat level to a whole new level. Now, she didn''t even dare to speak harsh words to Alice, only daring to howl powerlessly at the perverse Hero.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but scratch her head in confusion when faced with Andusia''s words. She couldn''t understand why Andusia was having such an intense reaction.

 Chapter 212: Mental Torture

    Chapter 212: Mental Torture


    Although Alice didn''t know why Andusia''s fear of her had suddenly grown deeper, it wasn''t exactly a bad thing. After all, she was trying to get information on the Demon King''s Power out of Andusia. If Andusia feared her, it would make interrogating the Ninth Demon King much easier.


    "I''m going to ask you a few simple questions. If you can answer them, I might consider returning some of your freedom to you," Alice said as she set Andusia''s miniature body on the hotel room''s desk. Then, she sat on the chair and stared straight into Andusia''s eyes as she continued, "If you refuse to be obedient, I''m going to put you up for disy inside a disy cab."


    "Screw you, you perverted Hero! I won''t answer any of your questions!" Andusia yelled rebelliously. After being set on the table, she promptly curled up her body warily. No matter how she looked at it, there was no way a decent person would carry around so many panties from different women on their person. Meanwhile, since Alice was such a huge pervert, there was no saying whether this perverse Hero would also set her sights on a figurine.


    Alice''s mouth twitched a little as she tried her best to ignore Andusia''s remarks. Then, she grabbed Andusia''s curled-up body with her right hand and asked, "During your time as the Demon King, did you notice anything strange with the Demon King''s Power? Like, say, did it show any signs of self-consciousness, instincts, or something of the sort?"


    Alice had simrly asked this question to Luna before. However, Luna''s answer rendered Alice speechless. Apparently, Luna had focused all her attention on searching for the Hero that she never bothered to inspect the Demon King''s Power dwelling within her. Moreover, she was also busy working part-time as an intelligence agent for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department. So, she didn''t really have any spare effort to think about or research the Demon King''s Power.


    However, Andusia was different. Simr to past Demon Kings, Andusia had sought out the demons and became the demons'' leader shortly after obtaining the Demon King''s Power. Apart from the war, Andusia didn''t have to think about anything else. Thus, she should have had plenty of time to research the Demon King''s Power inside her.


    Unfortunately, Andusia stayed true to her words and refused to answer Alice''s question. She behaved as if she''d rather die than enlighten the young pervert before her.


    "You''re making things different for me," Alice said, frowning as she lifted Andusia''s little body to her eye level. "Hmph. You should be grateful that the person who found you decided to turn you into a human-shaped figurine. Otherwise, if you had gotten turned into a coffin instead, we''ll see how you can move."


    "So what if I''m shaped like a human? Do you think I like this appearance?" Andusia retorted. So long as she wasn''t providing Alice with any useful information, she was still willing to open her mouth. Meanwhile, when she heard Alice talking about her figurine body, she couldn''t help but be infuriated. "It''s all this body''s fault that I can''t even remember what I used to look like! Even when I look in the mirror, all I see is this statue''s appearance!"


    Indeed, Andusia had remained inside a block of wood for a couple of thousand years. Then, after being dug up, she was forcibly given her current appearance and stuck with it for several dozen years. It''d be strange if she could still remember her initial appearance.


    In reality, Kristine had almost suffered a simr fate after staying inside the Soul Gathering Tablet for several hundred years. If she hadn''t appeared in her soul form to talk with Alice and inspected herself using the little mana she had left, she probably wouldn''t have remembered what she looked like.


    "Isn''t that good? Your current appearance belongs to a character of a national-level anime," Alice said, chuckling. She found it quite amusing that the Ninth Demon King, an existence that once threatened the entire human realm, was now sulking in her hand in the form of Magical Girl Hikari. "You look quite cute."


    "I am a Demon King! I am an existence that brings disaster to humans! How dare you call me cute?!" Andusia fumed as she red at Alice. "Just you wait! I''ll let you experience this humiliation as well one day!"


    "It seems you have quite the high self-esteem as a Demon King."


    While conversing with Andusia, Alice inspected Andusia''s body several times using Psychokic Transcendence. However, probably because she had sealed Andusia''s mana core, Andusia didn''t notice any of her probings at all. Meanwhile, based on her inspection, she verified that there was indeed only one mana core inside Andusia''s body, and it was used to store Andusia''s soul and mana. However, after the mana core was sealed, Andusia couldn''t use even the slightest bit of her mana.


    Honestly, if Alice wanted to, she could even iste Andusia''s soul inside her mana core, making it so that Andusia couldn''t move her figurine body. However, if she did that, she wouldn''t be able to get any information out of Andusia''s mouth.


    "Wait. Are you saying that if you see your current appearance, you''ll think you are looking at yourself?" After ensuring that Andusia didn''t have any way of escaping her clutches, Alice suddenly recalled the words Andusia previously said. Then, she narrowed her eyes and said, "I see. So you''ve forgotten your past appearance, and your mind is subconsciously assuming that your current appearance is your true appearance"


    "What What are you trying to do?"


    Andusia suddenly had a bad feeling as she looked at Alice''s expression.


    After verifying that Andusia wasn''t a threat, Alice no longer had any concerns about bringing the Demon King back with her to the March Academy. When Alice arrived back in her dorm, it just so happened that Zauna was attending one of her elective sses, and Luna was helping Alice gather some information from the intelligence department. So, nobody was in the dorm.


    Afterward, she took a seat in front of herputer with Andusia in her hand and searched for the national-level anime<em>Magical Girl Hikari</em>.


    "Magical Girl  Hikarievil will never triumph!"


    "Ahhhhhhhhhh"


    Overall, it was a very standard magical girl anime. Since magic existed in this world, the "magic" used in the show was much more creative. Although the show was mainly targeted toward children, Alice still enjoyed watching it.


    However, it was a different story for Andusia. Of the two voices that sounded out just now, the former was Hikari''s deration of justice in the anime, while thetter was Andusia''s scream of agony.


    "Stop making me watch this!!!!!!!" Andusia screamed.


    Unfortunately, Alice had pinched Andusia''s hands with her fingers, so Andusia couldn''t cover her eyes even if she wanted to. She could only watch as the girl shown on Alice''sputer did all sorts of childish actions. To make matters worse, her brain had superimposed herself with the Hikari on the screen, making herself think that she was the one doing those actions.


    She, Andusia, was the Ninth Demon King. She had once led the demon army to invade the human realm, destroying numerous human settlements and upying arge portion of the human realm. Whenever the ve traders saw her, they would cry while running for their lives. It was no exaggeration to say that she was a natural disaster for the human race.


    At least, that should have been the case


    "Cannon of Love, kira ~"


    "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!"

 Chapter 213: You Didn’t Expect That, Did You, Andusia?

    Chapter 213: You Didn��t Expect That, Did You, Andusia?


    When Zauna returned to the dorm, she found Alice sitting in front of theputer, immersed in watching Magical Girl Hikari. There was also an exquisitely crafted figurine of Hikari ced in front of theputer. However, she noticed that the figurine''s expression looked a little strange.


    "Why did you suddenly decide to watch Magical Girl Hikari, Alice?" Zauna curiously asked as she walked up to Alice. Magical Girl Hikari was a very popr anime. The anime had even received a remake recently. So, Zauna naturally knew of it.


    In fact, Zauna had even watched the original version of the anime during her childhood since it was often broadcast on various TV channels. She had even bought some of Magical Girl Hikari''s toys. So, when she saw Alice watching the anime, she couldn''t help but be a little surprised.


    However, it wasn''t all that surprising after Zauna thought about it a little more. After all, the first time she found Alice was inside the Gryffin Forest. Although Zauna didn''t know what kind of identity Alice had before appearing inside the Gryffin Forest, it was likely that Alice had lived an isted life judging by how surprised she reacted when she saw her using magic.


    Thus, it stood to reason that Alice had never watched Magical Girl Hikari before and that she would find such an old anime interesting, so much so that she had even bought a figurine.


    Seeing that Alice was absorbed in the show, Zauna softly chuckled and chose not to disturb Alice''s enjoyment. Instead, she went to her own desk to arrange her textbooks before leaving to attend another elective ss.


    Unlike thezy nobles in ss Group A, most of the students in ss Groups B and C were desperately trying to enrich themselves with knowledge during their time in the March Academy. Zauna was no exception, and she had filled as many elective sses as she could into her timetable.


    Compared to Zauna, Alice was much less enthusiastic about attending elective sses. For example, she only had one elective ss she needed to attend today. She could even skip it if she wanted to. After all, not only did she have her identity as the princess, but she also held the reputation of being a magic genius in the academy. So, her teachers were much more lenient toward her.


    However, this meant more suffering for Andusia. By the time the fourth episode of Magical Girl Hikari was being yed, Andusia had stopped talkingpletely, wearing a pale expression as she watched the Hikari on the screen make all sorts of girly poses and use the magic of love to purify her twisted enemies. Naturally, her mind also continued superimposing herself onto the anime character, making her believe that she was the one making all those poses.


    Originally, Andusia thought it wouldn''t matter even if she had a figurine for a body. She believed that so long as she had sufficient strength to carry out her original n, she could still return to the demon realm and secure great authority there with her strength.


    However, Andusia no longer carried such hope anymore. This was because she realized that the demons might have also watched the show known as Magical Girl Hikari.


    In that case, if she ran to the demon realm while wearing such an appearance, could she umte any prestige there?


    Impossible.


    If her superior were to have such an appearance, she would probably have a hard time developing any feelings of respect for her superior as well. After all, how could she develop any respect when her mind would automatically recall the words "Cannon of Love" whenever she saw her superior waving her hand?


    Eventually, Andusia spent six hours watching all 18 episodes of Magical Girl Hikari with Alice.


    "Hey, are you alright?" Alice asked worriedly as she poked Andusia''s unmoving body. If it weren''t for the fact that the Forest Crystal allowed Alice to sense that Andusia''s mana core was still intact, she would have thought that Andusia had died already.


    However, that didn''t remove the possibility that Andusia might havemitted mental suicide. Moreover, with Andusia''s abilities as a former Demon King, there was a real possibility that she might have a method tomit suicide as a soul even without using mana.


    Find the original at h*sted novel.


    "S-Screw you, you bastard" Andusia cursed in a weak tone.


    Fortunately for Alice, it didn''t seem like Andusia had chosen to end her suffering once and for all. However, judging by her voice, it would seem that her mind had received quite a lot of torture, and even her speaking voice sounded a little hoarse now.


    Find the original at *hosted* novel.


    Continuously watching six hours of Magical Girl Hikari was akin to suffering six hours of continuous torture for Andusia. Fortunately, the series ended after the final boss was defeated in the 18th episode.


    "Although it was an excruciating experience, I haven''t acknowledged defeat yet, you bastard Hero," Andusia said. Even though her voice sounded much weaker than before, she still held on to her rebelliousness. She even revealed a not-so-pretty smile as she looked at Alice contemptuously. "I''ve finished watching all 18 episodes. It might have been incredibly unpleasant, but I still persevered until the end. Even if you make me watch the series again, it won''t have any more effect on me."


    "What are you talking about?" Alice chuckled when she heard Andusia''s words. Then, she moved her mouse cursor, opened a new webpage on herputer, and pointed at the images disyed on the screen, saying, "Take a closer look."


    Andusia was a little confused by Alice''s words. However, when she turned to look at the screen, her face instantly paled.


    This was because disyed on the screen were the words "Magical Girl Hikari - Season 2." Moreover, when she lowered her gaze, she saw that, apart from Season 2, there was also a Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, etc. There were even movie versions


    Andusia was an old fossil from a couple of thousand years ago. After being dug out of the ground, she also didn''t get many opportunities to listen in on the conversation of others like Kristine. So, shecked understanding of modern terms such as "movie version." However, the meaning of "Season 2" was very easy to understand.


    "Season 2 has 24 episodes. It seems it has much more content than Season 1. Since it gotbeled a national-level anime, there''s no way it will have only one season," Alice said, chuckling as she looked at Andusia. "How about it? Do you want to continue watching?"


    "I-I''ll talk"


    Andusia finally caved. For a Demon King with high self-esteem like herself, watching 24 more new episodes of Magical Girl Hikari was worse than death.


    Hence, Andusia chose to surrender. She knew that there was no way she could escape from Alice''s clutches right now. Rather than continue suffering this mental torture, it''d be better if she told Alice the information she wanted to know.

 Chapter 214: Times Have Changed, Andusia

    Chapter 214: Times Have Changed, Andusia


    Today was quite a fulfilling day for Alice.


    First, Alice visited Rosa early in the morning and learned about Elodie''s situation. Then, she visited Elodie''s house and spent several hours trying to lift the curse on Elodie''s mother, onlypleting the treatment in the afternoon. Afterward, she had found Andusia, the Ninth Demon King, hiding as a figurine in Marion''s living room, fought against Andusia, and eventually captured Andusia. Finally, after arriving back in her dorm in the evening, she had spent four hours watching Magical Girl Hikari with Andusia until it waste at night.


    Of course, today was a day of disasters for Andusia. Just when the curse she had ced on Marion was about to ripen, it had gotten destroyed by Alice. Then, she got beaten in a fight, captured, and forced to endure a four-hour-long mental torture.


    Now, Andusia''s only hope was to satisfy Alice''s curiosity as soon as possible and pray that the perverse Hero would stop forcing her to watch Magical Girl Hikari. For a Demon King with high self-esteem like herself, just the thought of herself doing all those silly poses made her feel like dying.


    "Living Wood can take over low-intelligence creatures? It had such an effect?"


    After Andusia was finally willing to cooperate, the first question Alice asked was why Andusia had chosen to use a ruthless taboo like the Sunset Bug Erosion on Marion. This question had gued her the entire day now. However, after hearing Andusia''s answer, Alice couldn''t help but be a little surprised.


    ording to Andusia, Living Wood wasn''t just capable of housing souls and birthing treants. It still had several other functions, and one of those functions was to invade low-intelligence creatures and take over their bodies.


    In other words, the reason Andusia had cursed Marion, her own descendant, was so that she could turn Marion into a dumb Sunset Bug. Then, she would utilize the Living Wood''s invasive properties to erase Marion''s consciousness and upy Marion''s body with her soul.


    Andusia had also long since researched the way to undo the Sunset Bug Erosion''s effects. So, after upying Marion''s body, Andusia would reverse the taboo''s effects andplete her resurrection in Marion''s body.


    The reason Andusia chose Marion as her target was also simple. Marion was her descendant, so they were rted by blood. This meant that once she took over Marion''s body, she would have a much easier time adapting to her new body.


    "How ruthless of you to strike at even your own descendant," Alicemented as she looked at Andusia with narrowed eyes. She had to admit that Andusia was truly a Demon King. Not only was she ruthless toward the human race, but she was also ruthless toward her own blood-rted descendants.


    It should be known that the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo would twist the target''s soul into the soul of a Sunset Bug during its final phase. If Andusia sessfully carried out her n, Marion would have to suffer the taboo''s torture even with her soul. So, it was truly vicious of Andusia to take such action against Marion.


    "I have no need for descendants that choose to mingle with humans," Andusia said, sneering. She showed not the slightest bit of guilt even after hearing Alice''s evaluation of her actions. "Also, I am merely replicating normal human behavior. Humans are vile creatures who show no mercy to those weaker than them. From how I look at it, demons are much better than humans. At the very least, they only use strength to steal resources from others. On the other hand, humans use authority to persecute the weak."


    "Don''t you think you are too biased against humans?" Alice sighed helplessly. Then, she pointed at theputer before her and said, "The Magical Girl Hikari you watched just now is an animation work produced in the past few decades. Didn''t you notice some of the ideas promoted in the show?"


    Magical Girl Hikari didn''t be a national-level animation simply due to luck. Although it was a children''s anime on the surface, it conveyed many of the production crew''s ideas deep inside.


    One example would be in episode seven. There was a scene in the episode that depicted people eliminating the hatred between them by sitting down and holding a rational discussion. The scene also secretly degraded some of the old ss systems that were considered rigid in modern times. Children watching the show might not notice these underlying concepts, but Alice was certain that Andusia could notice them with her past experiences.


    "Can you stop bringing up that animation?"


    Andusia couldn''t help but shudder out of reflex when she heard the words "Magical Girl Hikari." Even herplexion had paled a little. However, she also couldn''t help but grow silent and ponder over Alice''s words.


    Just like Alice surmised, Andusia had indeed noticed many of the concepts the anime''s producers were secretly trying to convey. Meanwhile, these concepts werepletely different from the human concepts she remembered.


    A couple of thousand years ago, very still prevailed, and humans didn''t even bother making it a secret that they condoned the act of enving others. Andusia still remembered the vile and ugly faces of those humans even until this day. At the time, humans were evenparing the ves they owned with each other, and they treated the persecution of ves for granted. Hardly anybody would ever showpassion toward ves, either.


    Yet, now, even though the producers of Magical Girl Hikari had clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with very, the show had still managed to be a national-level animation work.


    This showed that the humans of this era were vastly different from the humans a couple of thousand years ago. After all, if someone dared to express such ideals during her era, that person would definitely be ridiculed by others. Angry ve owners might even oppress them.


    "Take some time to think about it," Alice said when she saw Andusia falling into thought.


    Alice had originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but she felt that it''d be best if she didn''t interrupt Andusia''s thoughts. Instead, she put the Demon King on her bookshelf and returned her focus to herputer to continue watching Magical Girl Hikari. The anime might have a clich plot, but it was surprisingly interesting. It was indeed deserving of being regarded as a national-level animation.


    "I''m back~"


    "Pardon the intrusion~!"


    Just when Alice had started ying Season 2''s first episode, the door to the dorm suddenly opened. Then, Zauna''s voice came in, followed by Lalu''s voice.


    Zauna and Alice lived in the same dorm, so it was natural that she''d return to the room. As for Lalu, Alice didn''t even need to think to know why the loli elf was here. Immediately, she smiled at Lalu and jokingly said, "Here to scrounge a free meal again? Aren''t you worried you''ll grow fat if you keeping to our ce for supper?"


    "It''s Luna''s cooking''s fault for being so tasty," Lalu said, licking her lips. "Also, don''t you worry. We elves get most of our nutrients from photosynthesis, so our bodies hardly ever absorb nutrients from our food. We''ll only be satisfying our appetites even if we eat a lot, so we won''t get fat."


    "How enviable," Zauna said in an envious tone. However, she quickly switched to a mischievous tone as she said, "Unfortunately for you, Luna isn''t in the dorm today!!!"


    "What?!"


    Lalu''s wail promptly spread throughout the entire room.


    Meanwhile, sitting on Alice''s bookshelf, Andusia remained silent as she watched Alice, Zauna, and Lalu''s merrymaking. She recalled that the elves were also one of the races badly persecuted by humans during her era. Although the two races had signed a peace treaty, humans still captured and sold elves as ves in secret regardless.


    The elves would frequently conduct census activities and find that many of their people had gone missing. Meanwhile, it didn''t take a genius to figure out who was secretly targeting them. So, Andusia remembered that the elves always wore cold expressions when dealing with humans. Some of the more extreme elves would even try to assassinate the humans they came across.


    Yet, Lalu now faced Alice and Zauna while wearing a smile free of impurities. If it were a couple of thousand years ago, no elf would show such a smile to humans.


    We are hosted novel, find us on google.


    After a while, Andusia let out a long sigh.


    We are Hosted Nov3l, find us on g00gle.

 Chapter 215: The Mouth Lies, But the Body is Honest

    Chapter 215: The Mouth Lies, But the Body is Honest


    Lalu''s supper ns eventually fell through because Luna only returned the next morning. As a former intelligence agent and the present Hero''s maid, Luna wielded significant authority in the Gryffin Kingdom''s government system. Hence, aside from national secrets, she could help Alice ess almost any information in the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department''s archieves.


    Of course, even if Alice wanted to learn about a national secret, she could simply learn it directly through Hatter. However, Alice wasn''t interested in the internal affairs of the various human kingdoms. It was both troublesome and unnecessary for her to meddle in these matters. Even though the various human countries would often butt heads due to national interests, they maintained a rtively peaceful rtionship with each other in general. It had already been a long time since any human kingdom had taken military action against another kingdom.


    The information Alice had tasked Luna to gather for her this time was naturally rted to the beastkin totems'' effects. Compared to learning about them through word of mouth, it was much more reliable to learn this information through the intelligence collected by the kingdom''s intelligence department.


    Learning more urate and specific information about the beastkins'' totems would also prevent any mistakes when she used them. The beastkins'' chief totems would permanently lose some of their umted energy when used. So, Alice preferred to avoid wasting this energy as much as possible.


    In addition to the beastkins'' totems, Luna also helped Alice bring back a few taboo books. Among them included the book for Dragon''s Shadow, which Alice had been drooling over for a long time, and a few otherbat-type taboos. Most of the taboos the intelligence department kept in its collection were special taboos. For example, there was a taboo called Eye of Bansso that granted the user super-wide surveince and perception abilities.


    Although most people couldn''t learn these taboos, the intelligence department''s staff members had used the principles of these taboos to develop simple spells that would be useful for information gathering. Of course, some taboos were also kept for various other reasons. One example would be Dragon''s Shadow, but Alice honestly couldn''t figure out why the intelligence department''s staff had decided to keep such a taboo.


    Alice had two elective sses to attend today, and both were during the morning session. So, after finishing breakfast, Alice briefly looked through the six taboo books Luna brought back for her, she stuffed the books into her bag and prepared to set off for the teaching block.


    Zauna had one more elective ss to attend than Alice in the morning. So, she had left the dorm earlier than Alice, leaving only Alice and Lunaas well as Andusia, in the room.


    "Well, what do you n on doing, Andusia?"


    Alice still didn''t know whether Andusia had decided to let go of her hatred afterst night. Andusia''s hatred for humanity was the real deal. So, even though humans had already phased out very from their society, there was no saying whether Andusia would continue hating modern humans.


    If Andusia refused to mend her ways, Alice would have no choice but to take a more hard-handed approach. Even if Andusia had valid reasons for hating humans, it was an undeniable fact that she had brought a cruel war onto this world. This sin was more than enough for Alice to kill her without remorse.


    Andusia did not answer. She simply looked at Alice coldly through the bookcase''s ss panel. However, she was no longer bickering with Alice like she did yesterday. This showed that she had more or less changed her opinion of this era''s humans.


    "Refusing to speak? So be it. But I still have ss to attend today, so you''ll have toe with me," Alice said, shrugging. Andusia''s attitude showed that there was still room for negotiations at the very least. There also wasn''t any more need to force Andusia to continue watching Magical Girl Hikarieven though Alice felt that it was a rtively enjoyable show. "Also, don''t think I didn''t notice you trying to escape while we were asleep."


    Andusia stiffened a little when she heard Alice''s words. Then, finally willing to open her mouth, she said in an indescribably embarrassed tone, "How did you find out? I was certain I was very carefulst night."


    Andusia currently had a very small body, so the noise she made was naturally very small. There was also a nearly-enclosed bookcase separating them. So, logically, Alice and Luna shouldn''t have noticed her attempt to escape.


    Unfortunately, Andusia had her mana sealed inside Alice''s Forest Crystal. So, the physical strength she had ess to was simr to her body sizepitifully small. She was so weak that she couldn''t even open the bookcase door. So, after trying and failing throughout the night, she eventually gave up, sat down, and continued ying her role as a figurine.


    "Hmph."


    Alice narrowed her eyes and pointed at the surveince camera across the bookcase. After waking up this morning, she checked the surveince footage and saw how Andusia had tried to and failed to escape from the bookcase.


    When Alice had first arrived in this world, she had suffered miserably at the hands of this abominable piece of technology. So, after seeing that someone else was suffering a simr fate, she couldn''t help but feel delighted.


    After opening the ss door, Alice grabbed Andusia out of the bookcase and stuffed her into her school bag[1]. Then, looking at Andusia sticking half of her body out of the bag in dissatisfaction, Alice smiled and said, "Watching Magical Girl Hikari won''t be enough to let you experience what modern human society is like, so I''ll take you outside to look around."


    "You I told you to stop mentioning that animation," Andusia grumbled, herplexion turning pale at the mere mention of Magical Girl Hikari. However, she quickly shifted her attention to Luna, a somewhat serious expression appearing as she said to Alice, "But this maid who''s following you Are you sure you know her identity?"


    "Of course. She''s a former host to the Demon King''s Power, just like you," Alice said, grinning. She knew that Andusia must have sensed the familiar mana flowing inside Luna. "However, the Demon King''s Power left her body before she could absorb it fully, which is why I am asking you for more information on the Demon King''s Power."


    "Hmph. How are you so sure I''ll answer your question?" Andusia said rebelliously.


    Although her attitude had softened significantly, her mouth remained unforgiving. "Just you wait. Once I recover my strength, I''ll be sure to return the humiliation you''ve made me suffer in full."


    "Are you going to force me to watch anime?" Alice chuckled as she walked out of the dorm with Andusia sticking out of her school bag and Luna by her side.


    What Alice needed to consider next was the dogkins'' problem and whether Elodie could help her with this problem. Although Elodie had said that she could help her with most matters rting to the beastkins, getting the dogkins to let outsiders use their chief totem was a tall order. So, Alice wasn''t sure if Elodie could really help her with this matter.


    TL Notes:


    [1]school bag: I couldn''t find a better term, but this is referring to the school bag you see used by high schoolers in Japanese anime.


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 Chapter 216: Andusias Expression Sharpens

    Chapter 216: Andusia''s Expression Sharpens


    Andusia''s impression of the humans of this era had indeed changed to a certain extent.


    One of the reasons that had caused this change was Magical Girl Hikari''s content. As a national-level animation, it evidently did not rely on a little girl fighting to attract such widespread poprity. The animation''s director had also conveyed a certain degree of their ideas throughout the show. One of the anime''s episodes had clearly expressed resistance and aversion to the oppression of others.


    Seeing as the animation achieved such widespread poprity despite conveying such values, it meant that the humans of this era also agreed with these values. It also meant that the humans of this era were no longer the same as the humans of Andusia''s era. At the very least, modern humans no longer practiced the act of enving others.


    Another reason was the sights Andusia had seen around Alice''s academy campus. If it were during her era, it would be amon sight to see humans walking around with their ves. One could also often see ve owners educating their ves in public.


    However, based on her observation thus far, Andusia found that almost everyone in the March Royal School of Magic was equal. She had even seen beastkin students interacting with human students merrily. Although she had also seen several noble students walking around with servants, judging by those servants'' bright and beautiful clothing, normal body shapes, and expressions, it did not seem like they were being subjected to any torture or abuse. Instead, it seemed like they were merely doing a normal job.


    This situation made Andusia wonder whether she needed to keep holding onto her hatred. The reason she hated humans, to begin with, was because of the humans'' very system. The reason she became a Demon King was also entirely because of one of her ve friends.


    However, the part she hated the most about humans had almost ceased to exist in the current era. Humans, beastkins, elves, and various other races were coexisting peacefully, and there was hardly any sign of hostility between them.


    In that case, even if she managed to resurrect herself, would there be any meaning in taking revenge against humans? If very had truly ceased to exist in this era, wouldn''t she merely be attacking humans for the sake of venting the unhappiness within her? In that case, how would she be any different from the ve owners she detested the most?


    Back when she was still the Demon King, she would feel proud of herself even when she waged war against humans. This was because she felt that she was punishing humans full of sin. However, now that the sins she perceived had disappeared already, it didn''t seem like she had any more reason to continue oppressing humans.


    "Wow! How is this figurine made? How is it so detailed?"


    Andusia was currently sitting on Alice''s desk with an expressionless face, her figurine body put on disy for the surrounding students. One of the female students who shared rather close ties with Alice had even walked up to Andusia and poked at the former Demon King.


    "Wow! It''s a movable figurine! It''s so realistic! How did they even make the joints? It''s moving exactly like a living person!"


    Indeed, the news of a movable Hikari figurine had quickly attracted many students from both Alice''s ss and other sses toe and observe Andusia.


    Even though many of these students weren''t otakus, Magical Girl Hikari had left a deep impression on them during their childhood years. Magical Girl Hikari was simr to Earth''s "Pokemon" and "Sailor Moon." Even if they were no longer watching the anime now, they would definitely remember it still.


    Meanwhile, one of Living Wood''s special properties was that its wooden texture would change to resemble that of a living creature when a soul inhabited it. Hence, Andusia''s body felt no different than a human to the touch. This astonished many people, and everyone couldn''t help but admire the benefits of being royalty. Everyone was of the opinion that Alice must have used her connections as the princess to acquire this rare and remarkable figurine.


    Fortunately, everyone was only surprised and amazed by Andusia''s existence. Nobody had humored the possibility that this figurine was a real person or that this person was the Ninth Demon King. Hence, once Alice was done attending her morning sses, nobody continued torturing Andusia with their curiosity.


    "Is it finally over?" Andusia was put back into Alice''s school bag once Alice was done with her morning elective sses. Meanwhile, after noticing that no more people wereing to pester her, sheined in a tired voice, "This has been such a tiring morning. I don''t think I''ve felt so tired even after sleeping inside the Living Wood for a couple of thousand years."


    "Doesn''t this prove that the humans of this era are very affectionate?" Alice said, smiling. She was very happy to see Andusia suffering. "So, how are your considerationsing along?"


    Andusia fell silent again at the mention of this topic. Honestly, she was a little confused right now due to ack of goals. Even if she told Alice the information she wanted to know, what should she do next? Return to the demon realm to continue being the Demon King?


    That obviously wasn''t possible.


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    Andusia was fully aware of what was going on in the demons'' headsinvading the human realm and upying the human realm''s beautiful living environment, territory, and resources. It sounded terrible, but she knew they were doing it for a good reason. After all, the demon realm''s living environment was truly a mess. When Andusia first moved to the demon realm, it had taken her several years before she managed to adapt to the environment there. In reality, one of the reasons she invaded the human realmter on was to improve her living conditions.


    But now, she didn''t seem to have a reason to lead the demons into attacking the humans. This was because she was currently in the human realm already. Moreover, humans had also entered an era of peace with the various races. If she waged war with the human realm once more, it would undoubtedly destroy this peaceful life.


    The ve friend who became the trigger for Andusia''s transformation was a beastkin. Thest thing she wanted was to see the beastkins losing their homes because of war.


    Alice had also noticed Andusia''s confusion. This was undoubtedly a good sign. So, she chose not to continue her questioning and left Andusia to her thoughts. Instead, she went ahead to take care of other matters.


    Yesterday morning, Ciel had said that her chieftain would give her an answer today. So, Alice and Ciel had agreed to meet in the storage room of the high school section''s gym today. The storage room was typically locked at noon, and only Alice could unlock it easily with magic. So, holding their conversation here would ensure that they wouldn''t be disturbed.


    When Alice arrived outside the storage room, she saw that Ciel was already waiting for her by the door. The catkin wore an annoyed look on her face, seemingly upset to meet with Alice. This was also the usual attitude Ciel took with Alice. If an outsider were to look at this situation, they would likely think that Ciel and Alice shared a very poor rtionship.


    "What took you so long?" Ciel asked as she looked at Alice in dissatisfaction. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she let out a light huff and continued, "Do you know how long I''ve been waiting here? You really know how to waste my time."


    "Yes, yes, yes. I apologize. I got held up because something interesting caused my ssmates to surround me," Alice said, smiling. Then, she used Psychokinesis Transcendence and Lockpick to unlock theplex magic lock put on the storage room''s doors and entered the room with Ciel.


    The storage room was very dark and cluttered with training equipment. There were also some magic tools lying around, all of which were prepared for those training to be magic swordsmen.


    Alice casually sat on a vaulting box and set her school bag aside. Then, she lifted her foot and stretched it out toward Ciel.


    When Ciel saw this, a sullen look briefly shed across her face. However, her resistance quickly crumbled as she reluctantly walked to Alice''s side. Then, she knelt on the ground and began rubbing her face against Alice''s foot that were d in white silken stockings.


    Meanwhile, when Andusia poked her body out of the bag and saw this scene, her expression sharpened immediately.

 Chapter 217: Worldview Restructured

    Chapter 217: Worldview Restructured


    Andusia felt betrayed. Alice had told her that humans of this era no longer practiced very. She had also seen for herself the peaceful interactions between beastkins and humans.


    Just a moment ago, Andusia had even been thinking of abandoning her hatred and epting the changes of this era. Yet, before she could thoroughly resolve herself, Alice had shown her a scene of her trampling on a catkin.


    Having another person like one''s foot was undoubtedly insulting behavior. It was an order only a ve owner would give to their ves. After all, would any normal person take the initiative to lick another person''s foot? Definitely not. There was no way such a strange person would exist in this world. Hence, this catkin must be being forced to kneel and lick Alice''s foot!


    "You bastard! What are you doing?!"


    Andusia very much wished she could send a taboo sting at Alice''s face right now. Unfortunately, the Forest Crystal sealing her mana core prevented her from realizing her thoughts. Even so, she absolutely wouldn''t just stand aside and watch as a beastkin got humiliated like a ve.


    Immediately, Andusia jumped out of Alice''s school bag while furiously shouting at Alice, "How can you be keeping a ve in secret?! How can you betray all those people who trust you like this?!"


    When Alice was making her way to ss in the morning, Andusia had seen many beastkins behaving respectfully to Alice. So, it could be seen that Alice''s image in their hearts was quite good. Yet, a person respected by beastkins was secretly keeping a beastkin ve. How could this be forgivable?


    Meanwhile, when Ciel saw a figurine suddenly jumping out of Alice''s bag and yelling, she couldn''t help but be slightly frightened and subconsciously shrink her neck.


    Alice was also surprised by Andusia''s sudden entrance into her interaction with Ciel. She had honestly forgotten that Andusia was still in her bag for a moment. It would also seem that Andusia had mistaken her interaction with the perverted catkin as an interaction between ve owner and ve.


    Of course, Alice could exin her way out of this situation. However, after looking at Andusia, Alice didn''t choose to exin herself immediately. This was because she knew that Andusia wouldn''t trust her words even if she gave the other party an exnation. So, she decided to take direct action to provide Andusia with concrete evidence.


    Thud.


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    Alice stepped on Ciel''s face and poked the catkin''s cheek with her toes. It looked like an extremely insulting action, and Andusia felt mes igniting in her eyes when she saw this scene. However, before Andusia could voice her indignance, Ciel''s subconscious cry stopped her in her tracks.


    "Ahn~?"


    Ciel''s moan had nothing to do with pain at all. On the contrary, it sounded like Ciel was being poked in her G-spot. It sounded like she was a cat in heat.


    "..." Andusia froze on the spot, her mouth opening and closing several times. However, not once did she manage to utter the words of anger and criticism she had prepared for Alice. Instead, she turned to look at the blushing catkin while speaking through her teeth to Alice, "What is this situation?"


    "As you can see, she isn''t a ve. It''s her fetish to be treated like this," Alice said, shrugging. Sure enough, it was much more convincing to let Andusia see the evidence with her own eyes. Then, pointing at the trembling catkin under her feet, she said, "If I don''t do this, she''ll refuse to talk to me properly. I''m sure you''ve seen her behavior outside the door just now."


    Indeed. When Andusia saw the annoyed look Ciel had given Alice at the entrance, she knew that it''d be difficult for Alice to have a proper conversation with Ciel. Initially, Andusia thought there might be some conflict between Ciel and Alice. However, looking at things now, that didn''t seem to be the case.


    "Bing a ve isn''t a bad idea" Ciel subconsciously retorted when she overheard the conversation between Alice and Andusia. Then, when Alice gagged her mouth with her foot, she promptly shut her mouth with a satisfied smile.


    Andusia felt her worldview being challenged when she heard Ciel''s words. This was the first time she had heard anyone saying that they were willing to be a ve. While looking at Ciel with trembling eyes, Andusia asked Alice, "But But why haven''t I heard of such a thing before?"


    "That''s normal. I''m sure people of your era are much more conservative when ites to the topic of fetishes," Alice said, nodding. Then, while moving her foot from Ciel''s mouth to Ciel''s body and feeling the catkin''s soft body, Alice exined, "Just think about it. If you had such a strange hobby during your era, would you publicize it?"


    "Absolutely not."


    Andusia quickly understood Alice''s point. There might have been a few people with such perverted fetishes during her era, but those perverts absolutely would not dare to tell others about their fetishes. So, it was normal for her not to hear about it.


    Of course, such people should be incredibly few in numbers. Most people definitely wouldn''t be willing to be a ve to others. However, Ciel just so happened to be one of these minorities, and the actions Alice took with Ciel were merely a means to have a proper conversation with the catkin.


    Seeing that Andusia still needed time to digest this astonishing information, Alice asked Ciel, "So, what is your chieftain''s answer?"


    "The chieftain has agreed to your request, but on a few conditions," Ciel answered while breathing heavily. After finishing her words, she even licked the sole of Alice''s foot, causing Alice to subconsciously shudder. When Alice felt the wet sensationing through her stockings, she couldn''t help but wonder whether she should throw her white stockings away once she returned to her room. Then, Ciel added, "You can read our taboos so long as you agree to those conditions."


    "Tell the conditions to Luna, and she''ll take care of them," Alice said. She wasn''t familiar with the national-level negotiations of this world since they would often involve things rted to the magic industry. Meanwhile, the magic industry was a knowledge blind spot for Alice.


    However, Alice doubted that the catkins'' demands would be anything absurd. After all, they lived within the Gryffin Kingdom''s borders. Thest thing they wanted to do was provoke the Gryffin Kingdom.


    While having such thoughts in her mind, Alice put more strength into stepping on Ciel. Ciel seemed to have lost some enthusiasm for being stepped on recently. If she wanted to continue having normal conversations with Ciel, she might have toe up with something new.


    <em>Maybe I should bring some rope next time? Or maybe I can learn magic that can substitute for ropes? Maybe I should try parlor tricks like Water Binding and Wood Vine?</em>


    When Alice heard Ciel moaning under her feet, she could sense a depressing aura enveloping Andusia.

 Chapter 218: Andusia: ???

    Chapter 218: Andusia: ???


    Alice decided to pass all responsibility for negotiating conditions with the catkins to Luna and Hatter. If nothing unexpected happened, she should be able to visit Ciel''s tribe in a few days and study their taboos. Although catkins didn''t have many unique taboos in their possession, it was better than nothing. There was no saying whether she would have a use for them in the future.


    It was just like the elves'' taboos. Even though the elves didn''t have as many taboos collected as the March Academy, the elves'' taboos still came in handy for Alice. For example, if Alice hadn''t learned the elves'' "Hubert''s Tree" taboo, she would have needed to expend much more effort to capture Andusia.


    Speaking of Andusia, she was still in a daze after learning about Ciel''s perverse and shameless behavior. Even after Alice had brought her back to the dorm, Andusia remained silent.


    Alice understood what kind of mood Andusia was in. The main reason the Ninth Demon King had targeted humans all those years ago was to retaliate against the humans and erase the existence of the humans'' very system. Yet, a couple of thousand yearster, even though humans had already gotten rid of the very system, someone was actively looking to be treated like a ve. It was only natural that Andusia would have difficultying to terms with reality.


    Of course, that wasn''t the whole reason why Andusia was shocked. Alice didn''t know that the reason Andusia hated the very system so much was because of one of her beastkin friends. So, when Andusia saw that Ciel, a catkin, was the one carrying out such behavior, the magnitude of the shock she felt increased exponentially. If Alice knew about this matter, she would probably have a better understanding of why Andusia was so shocked by this situation.


    The March Academy''s ss schedule had four ss slots in the morning and three in the afternoon. Alice had attended sses from slots 1 to 3 in the morning, while Zauna had attended sses on slots 1, 3, and 4. Hence, when Alice returned to the dorm, Zauna was still stuck in the teaching block.


    Meanwhile, Luna had left to convey the catkins'' demands to Hatter, so Alice was the only person in the dorm.


    Mhm There was also a figurine, but this figurine was currently sitting silently on Alice''s desk while trying to sort out the jumbled thoughts in her head.


    Alice had originally wanted to ask Andusia about the Demon King''s Power. However, seeing as the other party was still fighting a tough mental battle, she decided not to disturb Andusia for now.


    Since the catkins were conducting negotiations with Hatter and Luna right now, and Alice had already asked Rosa to convey what she needed from the dogkins to Elodie, all that was left was the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower. However, since Alice still hadn''t found a breakthrough point for the Royal Magic Tower, she decided not to consider it for now.


    So, by the looks of it, Alice didn''t seem to have anything she could do.


    After ensuring that there wasn''t anything she needed to do, Alice turned on herputer and searched for Magical Girl Hikari''s Season 2, Episode 1. The anime was quite interesting, and Alice had a slight urge to continue watching the show after finishing Season 1.


    However, as soon as Alice opened her web browser, she saw a message window pop up from her instant messaging software. The instant messaging software used in this world resembled those found on Earth, so Alice guessed that it was probably developed by some unlucky transmigrator from Earth.


    Blonde Twintails: Hey, you there?


    Blonde Twintails 2: No. Scram.


    The person with the ID of "Blonde Twintails" was a well-known anime blogger on LINK. Alice hade across this person half a month ago while browsing LINK with her sub-ount. Although she hadn''t watched any of this world''s animation works yet at the time, watching anime was one of her hobbies back on Earth. So, she decided to follow the user and acquired the other party''s chat group ID.


    Afterward, Alice took the opportunity to register an ount on the instant messaging software called "WW" and joined Blonde Twintails'' chat group. Apart from lurking in the background, she would also chat with the people in this group from time to time.


    Meanwhile, because Alice would often use strange and novel terms different from this world''s anime lingo, the user "Blonde Twintails" quickly became conversation buddies with Alice. As Alice had also been arranging her hair into twintails at the time, she decided to give herself the ID of "Blonde Twintails 2." However, even though she had gotten along well with the people in the group, nobody knew that she was actually ayman when it came to this world''s anime culture. Even until now, the only anime she had watched in this world was the first season of Magical Girl Hikari.


    Blonde Twintails: Hmph. Is there a need to be so heartless? It''s not like I''m showing you advertisements.


    The other party wasn''t actually angry. After all, it wasmon for acquaintances on the inte to greet and talk to each other in a more boorish manner. In fact, Blonde Twintails would also frequently talk to Alice without caring about manners. Though, Alice would often wonder what kind of expression Blonde Twintails would make when the other party discovered that she was the Hero.


    Blonde Twintails 2: What business do you have, then? Other than advertisements.


    Alice replied. Although the other party''s ID was Blonde Twintails, Alice wasn''t exactly sure whether the other party was actually someone with blonde twintails. Simr to the situation on Earth, everyone was shrouded in ayer of anonymity on the inte, and nobody could really tell who they were talking to unless they employed less than scrupulous means.


    Blonde Twintails: There''s going to be aic convention here in the Rhine Kingdom. Do you want toe? I''ll treat you to a meal.


    Alice was stunned by the other party''s words. She had been troubled by the fact that shecked a breakthrough point to get in touch with the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower just a moment ago. She didn''t think she woulde across a potential breakthrough point so soon.


    Blonde Twintails 2: Are you studying in the Royal Magic Tower?


    Alice remembered that Blonde Twintails had subtly mentioned that she was studying in her country''s best magic academy during a conversation in the group. Judging by the message Blonde Twintails just sent, it would seem that the other party was a citizen of the Rhine Kingdom. Meanwhile, when one talked about the best magic academy in the Rhine Kingdom, it would definitely have to be the Royal Magic Tower.


    Blonde Twintails: That''s right. What''s the matter? Interested in me? I''ll have you know that most of the people who tried toy their hands on me have all met with terrible fates.


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    Blonde Twintails 2: I''ll pass. I''m not interested in crossdressing men.


    Alice responded with a cheeky reply. However, after receiving the other party''s invitation, she couldn''t help but have the urge to have an offline meeting with Blonde Twintails. Based on Blonde Twintails'' interactions with the chat group''s other members, Alice was certain that the other party was a rtively friendly and reasonable person. It would also seem that Blonde Twintails had treated many people to meals, so the other party should be a generous person.


    If Alice negotiated with Blonde Twintails, the other party might just agree to take her into the Royal Magic Tower to look around.


    Although Alice could easily gain ess to the Royal Magic Tower so long as she put in a request as the Hero, the Rhine Kingdom would be paying attention to her every move if she did that. There''d be no way she could conduct a proper investigation in that case.


    Moreover, the person impersonating Prince Etoria tomunicate with the demons might be lurking among the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family and nobles. If she tried to visit the Royal Magic Tower in the name of the Hero, there was a real possibility that her identity would get leaked to the demons.


    Blonde Twintails 2: Where''s the convention being held?


    After sending this message, Alice recalled her previous behavior had seemed a little indifferent. Yet, now, she was showing interest in attending the event. To avoid giving herself the image of a tsundere, she quickly sent a follow-up message.


    Blonde Twintails 2: I have an extremely rare and unusual figurine that you will definitely be interested in.

 Chapter 219: Demon Kings Power Q&A

    Chapter 219: Demon King''s Power Q&A


    The Rhine Kingdom''sic convention would begin half a monthter, so Alice simply needed to take care of all of her matters within this period. Half a month should also be more than enough for her to study the catkins'' taboos and use the dogkins'' chief totem to search for the Demon King''s Power. Then, once she was done dealing with these matters, she would head to the Rhine Kingdom with Andusia, participate in theic convention, and try to persuade Blonde Twintails to take her on a tour of the Royal Magic Tower.


    If Alice managed to get into the Royal Magic Tower, she could then find an opportunity to investigate who was impersonating Prince Etoria tomunicate with the demons. This was something she needed to find out. After all, if the impersonator could casually ask the demons to interfere in the internal affairs of a human kingdom, it meant that this person was a downright traitor to the human realm. If she left this problem alone, there was no saying when it would blow up in her face.


    In addition to standing in as the Hero, Alice also had to deal with the Demon King''s Power and figure out a way to resolve the cause of the demon realm''s pollution. She didn''t have a lot of time to waste on other matters. So, it was best if she got rid of the malignant tumors that would bring chaos to this world as soon as possible.


    Meanwhile, Andusia, who still hadn''t realized that Alice was going to show her off as a unique figurine to others, finally decided to speak up after remaining silent for a long time:


    "Didn''t you want to ask me something? Ask away."


    "Oh? Finally decided to speak up?"


    Alice looked at Andusia in surprise. She didn''t think that the first thing Andusia said after turning taciturn for so long would be to agree to answer her questions. Considering how old Andusia was, Alice also thought that it would take Andusia much longer to change her mindset originally. However, by the looks of it, Andusia was quite open to change.


    "I''ll start asking, then. My questions are mainly centered around the Demon King''s Power," Alice said as she let go of the mouse, herputer''s screen stopping on the purchase interface for the train ticket to the Rhine Kingdom. Then, she looked toward Andusia and asked, "How long did it take you to fully convert the Demon King''s Power into your own strength back then?"


    The process of a Demon King converting the Demon King''s Power into their own strength involved a considerable amount of time and training. In Luna''s case, she didn''t even manage to fully convert the Demon King''s Power into her own strength despite working on it for several years. Meanwhile, it was also because Luna hadn''t fully converted the Demon King''s Power that the Loli Goddess had said that the Demon King''s Power wouldn''t need to recuperate for long before it could search for a new candidate.


    With the Demon King''s Power''s recovery speed, getting from 0% to 1% was the part that took the longest. Inparison, getting from 50% to 100% was a much easier process. So, while Luna might have exhausted a significant portion of the Demon King''s Power''s energy already, the Demon King''s Power shouldn''t take very long to make a full recovery.


    "Eleven years. It took me eleven years of training before I fully grasped the Demon King''s Power," Andusia answered truthfully. "It was around my fifth year of training that I went to the demon realm and proved my identity to the Four Heavenly Kings of that time. By then, I already had enough strength to suppress the Four Heavenly Kings, so I didn''t have to continue hiding in the human realm."


    Before umting sufficient strength, Demon Kings would typically hide among humans. After all, without sufficient strength, the Four Heavenly Kings wouldn''t easily acknowledge a Demon King''s identity. It was simr to how Alice had to give man and the others a beating before they were willing to acknowledge her.


    "After you fully converted the Demon King''s Power into your strength, did the Demon King''s Power continue residing in your body?" Alice asked after pondering over Andusia''s words for a moment. "Or did the Demon King''s Power leave your body after you drained all of its energy?"


    "No, the Demon King''s Power only left my body when I died," Andusia said, shaking her head. "I moved my soul into the block of Living Wood I prepared just before I died. While doing so, I sensed that in addition to my soul, something else had left my body simultaneously. It felt like a source of energy, so that should be the Demon King''s Power. Before I removed my soul, though, the Demon King''s Power remained in my body even after losing all of its energy."


    Simr to the recorded rumor, the Demon King''s Power would only leave when its host died. It would seem that this rumor wasn''t merely guesswork. Someone might have heard about this little detail from some Demon King. Then, this person must have shared this information with others, which led to the creation of the rumor that "the Demon King''s Power would leave the Demon King at death."


    "Did you feel that the Demon King''s Power might have its own consciousness?" Alice asked another question after pondering some time. "Just like how the Demon King''s Power would choose a suitable candidate to inhabit and leave its host after death, did you ever notice the Demon King''s Power showing signs of conscious movement?"


    "As it so happens, yes," Andusia said, giving Alice the answer she had wanted to hear all this time. "I would sometimes feel the Demon King''s Power growing restless within me. It is especially noticeable when Ie across the Hero. It''s as if it is encouraging me to fight the Hero."


    "How did you react, then?" Alice curiously asked.


    "I didn''t think much about it back then. If not for your questions today, I would have never thought those restless reactions were a manifestation of the Demon King''s Power''s consciousness," Andusia said, giving Alice a grumpy re. "I didn''t exactly get along well with the Hero of the time, either. So, even without the Demon King''s Power encouraging me, I would still choose to fight that Hero."


    After saying so, Andusia added:


    "Of course, I actually found the Hero of that time quite pitiful. She probably never realized how repulsive the humans she was trying to protect were. The kings of that era hid all of humanity''s dark sides from her and treated her no more than a sharp de for their personal use."


    "That''s how politics has always worked. But things have be a lot better than your era," Alice said with a helpless smile.


    Human society in Andusia''s era was still rather dark and barbaric. So, it wasn''t strange that the human kings of that time would take advantage of the Hero like Andusia mentioned. While Alice couldn''t say for certain that every human king in this era was a good ruler, they were still significantly better than the human kings of Andusia''s era. At the very least, none of them thought of abusing Alice.


    Luna was a Half-Demon King-level mind magician. If any of the human kings had harbored bad thoughts toward Alice during the Conference of Kings, Luna could have unmasked them immediately. However, seeing as Luna didn''t notice anything, it meant that none of the human kings harbored any ill intentions toward Alice.


    "Anyway, now that you''ve mentioned it, I''m starting to recall quite a few instances where the Demon King''s Power has shown conscious movement. One of these instances, in particr, was quite strange," Andusia suddenly said. "You know about the Gryffin Forest located on the Gryffin Kingdom''s border, right?"


    <em>More than just knowing about it, that was my starting point after I transmigrated here, </em>Alice mentally retorted before nodding to Andusia''s question.


    "I once passed by that ce and felt the Demon King''s Power stirring within me," Andusia said while rummaging through her memories. "It felt as ifthe Demon King''s Power was being controlled by something. It tried to escape from my body, but I forcibly suppressed it."

 Chapter 220: Andusias Melancholy

    Chapter 220: Andusia''s Mncholy


    Andusia didn''t know anything more about the Demon King''s Power.


    After all was said and done, Andusia had merely yed host to the Demon King''s Power. While she might have known more about the Demon King''s Power than Luna, she still wasn''t particrly knowledgeable about it.


    Fortunately, Alice had managed to verify that the Demon King''s Power was a conscious existence. Moreover, this consciousness wouldn''t disappear even after the Demon King''s Power had lost all of its energy. Even after bing an empty shell, the Demon King''s Power would retain its consciousness and secretly encourage the Demon King to carry out certain actions.


    There was also no doubt that the Demon King''s Power''s goal was to send the world into chaos so that it could destroy the world''sws and eventually erode the entire world.


    <em>How troublesome My stress levels go up whenever I think about how I am shouldering this world''s fate</em>


    After waking up the next morning, Alice climbed out of bed, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and went to the bathroom to wash up. Then, while inwardlyining about the responsibilities she had to shoulder, she walked to her desk, grabbed the figurine sleeping on her desk, and stuffed it into her bag.


    Although Alice felt a lot of pressure, when she thought about how she was working to save an entire world, she quickly stoppedining about all the work she needed to do.


    "What are you doing?!" After being abruptly stuffed into Alice''s bag, Andusia poked half of her body out of the bag and red at Alice angrily. Then, in a dissatisfied tone, sheined, "Do you know how hard it is to fall asleep in this body?! Don''t go disturbing me like that!"


    Andusia often suffered from insomnia because of her current body. Her body was made of wood, so it didn''t carry out any physiological activities. Her soul didn''t require any sleep, either. These two factorsbined meant that her mind didn''t see any need for sleep. However, while going without sleep might not harm her in the slightest, she would always feel that something was missing from her life whenever she skipped out on sleep.


    So, throughout the years Andusia had spent as a figurine, she had developed a resting method to rece sleep. She even started gaining the ability to experience dreams recently. Meanwhile,st night happened to be one of the nights where she managed to experience a dream. Yet, not long after she started dreaming, Alice had abruptly woken her up, so, of course, she would get angry.


    "We''re visiting the catkins today," Alice said softly. Zauna was still asleep, and she didn''t have any sses this morning. So, Alice naturally wanted to let her friend get some proper rest. Meanwhile, after giving Andusia a brief exnation, Alice opened her wardrobe and began changing her clothes. "Negotiations with the dogkins seem to have concluded as well. So, once I finish studying the catkins'' taboos, I''m thinking about heading straight for the dogkins'' ce."


    Alice had already mentioned these matters to Andusiast night. Luna and Hatter had already finished negotiations with the catkins, and the catkins have already agreed to let Alice study their taboos.


    Elodie had also concluded talks with the dogkins. Although Alice didn''t know how Elodie had managed to convince the dogkins, it was a fact that the dogkins had agreed to let Alice use their chief totem. However, the dogkins only allowed Alice to approach their chief totem and nobody else. So, Alice decided to travel without Luna today.


    Originally, Alice had nned to get Luna to prepare a magic crystal with her mana in it to use with the dogkins'' chief totem. However, since Andusia had already be obedient yesterday, there wouldn''t be a need to do so anymore. Andusia''s mana would work just as well as Luna''s mana as a medium to search for the Demon King''s Power.


    "Ah, right... You mentioned it yesterday..." Andusia mumbled as she recalled the conversation she had with Alicest night. "You''re much crazier than all of the Heroes I know. I''ve never seen any Hero trying to get rid of the Demon King''s Power directly."


    Alice might not have explicitly stated that she was targeting the Demon King''s Power, but her intentions were obvious based on their conversationst night. Alice also didn''t bother hiding her intentions from Andusia. After all, Andusia''s mana core was still within Alice''s control. There was no way Andusia could escape out of Alice''s palm.


    "Nobody has ever bothered considering the Demon King''s Power''s origins. It''s as if the Demon King''s Power''s existence is a part of this world, and getting rid of it is no different than trying to get rid of the concept of ''1+1=2,''" Andusia said, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Alice. Then, she asked, "Are you sure you have a way to get rid of the Demon King''s Power?"


    Alice might be trying to get rid of the Demon King''s Power, but the Demon King''s Power was practically an illusory existence. Even until now, nobody had ever seen the Demon King''s Power''s physical manifestation. It was just like how nobody could see or touch the concept of "1+1=2." So, in Andusia''s opinion, Alice''s n to get rid of the Demon King''s Power was unbelievable.


    "How would I know if I don''t try?" Alice said while tying her hair with two panties. Then, under Andusia''s perplexed gaze, Alice picked up her travel backpack and carried it on her back.


    Unlike most people, Alice didn''t think it was impossible to get rid of the Demon King''s Power. After all, she had personally seen the Demon King''s Power manifest as a ck sphere. If the Demon King''s Power was in that state, it should be possible to physically destroy it.


    After ensuring that she had packed everything she needed, Alice quietly left the dorm. Originally, she had wanted to invite Zauna and Lalu on this trip. Unfortunately, the dogkins only allowed one person to visit them. So, Alice had no choice but to go alone.


    As for Andusia, she was a figurine. It was unlikely that anyone would realize that she was an actual person.


    "You''rete!"


    Ciel had been waiting downstairs of the dormitory for quite some time. When she saw Alice walking out of the dormitory, she promptly called out to Alice with a dissatisfied expression on her face.


    "Didn''t I tell you toe earlier?!"


    The catkins thought that Ciel shared a good rtionship with Alice, so they passed the responsibility of guiding Alice to their settlement to Ciel. As for Ciel, nobody but herself knew whether she was truly dissatisfied with this arrangement or she was just unable to speak truthfully.


    "Yes, yes, yes. Sorry for beingte," Alice said, smiling before sending a powerful smack at Ciel''s buttocks.


    Find the original at h*sted novel.


    Immediately, Ciel shuddered, and her mouth stopped speaking rudely. The cause of the blush on her face had also changed from anger to excitement.


    At this time, Andusia had climbed out of Alice''s backpack and sat on Alice''s shoulder. Then, when she saw the shameless expression Ciel was making, she couldn''t help but cover her face and shield her eyes. She did not wage war with the humans and liberate the beastkins from very a couple of thousand years ago to see this


    Alice had also felt Andusia climbing onto her shoulder. However, Alice decided not to say anything about it, seeing as Andusia didn''t do anything else and acted like nothing more than a decoration. Instead, she squeezed Ciel''s ck cat tail and smiled, saying, "Let''s go. Take me to the catkins."


    "O-Okay" Ciel responded in a coquettish tone.


    Fortunately, they had agreed to meet at a sufficiently early hour. Otherwise, Ciel''s behavior would have definitely been seen by others.

 Chapter 221: Catkin Town Elkite

    Chapter 221: Catkin Town Elkite


    The catkins'' settlement was situated in a remote location quite far from Holl City. However, beastkins were considered a rtively special group among the human kingdoms, including the Gryffin Kingdom. Thus, the Gryffin Kingdom had set up teleportation arrays in the various beastkin settlements located within its borders, allowing for ease of travel to these beastkins'' settlements.


    There was a teleportation hub in Holl City that allowed teleportation to the various beastkin settlements. However, as teleportation was quite costly, trains were still the primary mode of transportation for most people. Only during emergencies or special asions would people choose to travel via teleportation.


    The teleportation hub was built in the heart of Holl City. After leaving the March Academy, Ciel and Alice quickly reached the teleportation hub. Although Alice had heard of the teleportation hub before, this was the first time she was visiting this ce.


    Few people used the teleportation hub''s services, so the building saw fewer upgrades over time. As a result, unlike the other buildings in Holl City, the teleportation hub didn''t give off a modern feeling. Instead, the building gave off an antique feeling both inside and outside. It was especially true for the building''s interior. The walls and stairs were made entirely out of wood, and walking into the building gave Alice the feeling of being in a fantasy world for the first time.


    There were no employees in the teleportation hub, and everything was essentially self-service. Meanwhile, unlike Alice, Ciel had already visited the teleportation hub many times before, so she was very familiar with this ce. After walking up to theputer in the middle of the lobby and manipting the interface on it for a moment, she quickly returned to Alice with two small crystal tes in hand. Then, she handed one of the tes to Alice:


    "Hold onto it properly. The teleportation array won''t work on you if you''re not holding onto this teter."


    Alice epted the te from Ciel and looked at it. There were several magic runes engraved on the crystal te. There were also texts written inside the te using mana, the texts indicating the te''s ID and destination.


    The name "Elkite Municipality" was written in the destination section. That should be the name of the catkins'' settlement.


    Afterward, Alice followed Ciel to a room on the third floor. All of the rooms she passed by on the way here had a sign with the name of a ce written on it. However, even though Alice had already memorized the names of the various human kingdoms and the well-known cities in these kingdoms, she found that she knew none of the names she saw in the building.


    Alice guessed that the names written on these rooms all belonged to beastkin settlements. Hence, their names looked so unfamiliar to her.


    Ciel brought Alice straight to the room with the word "Elkite" written on it. Then, after Ciel opened the door, Alice saw that the room only had the bare essentials. Apart from arge teleportation array in the middle of the room, the only other objects in the room were a bunch of ordinary-looking equipment and a vending machine.


    "It looks like a waiting room," Alice muttered. When she looked at the teleportation array, she suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Andusia, who was ying dead on her shoulder. Then, she asked in a quiet voice, "Say, will you also get teleported with me, Andusia?"


    ording to Ciel''s exnation, the teleportation array would not affect those without a corresponding crystal te. Meanwhile, Andusia''s current figurine body might be made out of wood, but there was a bona fide soul housed within it. If the teleportation array determined passengers based on their souls, Andusia might get left behind when Alice got teleported.


    Andusia was rendered speechless when she heard Alice''s concern. However, she didn''t make any big reactions since Ciel was in front of them. Although there was that small incident gym storage room, Ciel still wasn''t aware she was a living being. It would also be troublesome to exin things to the catkin, so Andusia kept her voice down as she whispered into Alice''s ear, "Put the te on me."


    Alice did as told and put the crystal te on Andusia''s body. She also undid the Forest Crystal in Andusia''s body.


    Alice was mostly certain that Andusia had already given up on her hatred against humanity, so it didn''t matter even if she returned Andusia her power. She could also prevent Andusia''s weak body from breaking should any idents ur.


    Meanwhile, Andusia smiled when she sensed her power being liberated. Then, she injected her mana into the crystal te and circted it around the te for a bit before retracting it.


    "That should do it," Andusia said as she passed the tablet back to Alice.


    To prevent magicians from using the teleportation array without paying, it was only natural that the Gryffin Kingdom would set up some precautionary measures to prevent others from modifying the crystal tablets. Unfortunately, the security measure implemented wascking against a full-fledged Demon King like Andusia. As a result, she easily deciphered the security spell and gave herself the authority to use the teleportation array.


    The kingdom might have considered that the security spell couldn''t stop individuals on the level of the Hero and the Demon King. However, the kingdom probably never thought that a Demon King would actually try to hitch a free ride.


    After Ciel tapped her finger on the crystal panel next to the teleportation array a few times, Alice saw the teleportation array lighting up and felt mana filling the room. Then, apanied by a vibration of the crystal tablet in her hand, her body suddenly experienced a sense of weightlessness.


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    A few secondster, Alice felt the sense of weightlessness disappear. At the same time, the glow the teleportation array gave off dimmed and disappeared. Although Alice saw no change to the room''s interior, Ciel had walked out of the teleportation array and opened the door.


    Outside the room wasn''t the teleportation hub Alice remembered. Instead, it was a spacious street with wooden houses lining it. There were also people walking on the street outside, and every one of these people had a pair of cat ears and a cat tail growing out of their bodies.


    Aside from catkins like Ciel, who looked mostly like humans, Alice also spotted some catkins with fur covering their bodies. Rather than humans, these catkins looked likerge bipedal cats.


    "This is Elkite, a settlement for catkins," Ciel said, nodding in satisfaction when she saw the surprised look on Alice''s face. "Let''s go. I''ll take you to meet with the chieftain."


    Alice nodded. Then, she followed Ciel while looking around curiously. The catkins on the street had also noticed Alice walking out of the teleportation house and directed simrly curious gazes at her.


    "The catkins, huh How nostalgic" Andusia muttered softly on Alice''s shoulder. "I used to have a friend who was a catkin. Unfortunately"

 Chapter 222: There Is Something Wrong With You Catkins

    Chapter 222: There Is Something Wrong With You Catkins


    The catkins'' chieftain wasn''t an old man like Alice expected. On the contrary, the catkins'' chieftain was a beautiful mature woman.


    It wasn''t umon to see countries and tribes have women as leaders. The Vulcan Kingdom''s Queen Abbey Motley, the Acura Kingdom''s Queen Ellu Shax, and the Terra Kingdom''s Queen Aird Mishal were a few examples.


    "Greetings, Your Highness. It is an honor to meet you. I''ve heard a lot about you."


    The catkins'' chieftain was named Johanna, and she was simr to Ciel in that the only features that separated her from a normal human were her cat ears, cat tail, and the paw pads on her palms.


    Johanna wore a smile throughout her entire interaction with Alice. When she saw Alice entering her office, she even stepped away from her seat and took the initiative to shake hands with Alice. Her attitude overall was very friendly.


    Johanna''s behavior was obvious if one thought about it. In exchange for letting Alice read the catkins'' taboos, which nobody could use normally, the catkins would receive a series of policy benefits from the Gryffin Kingdom. No matter how one looked at it, this transaction greatly favored the catkins.


    As the catkins'' chieftain, Johanna would naturally behave very weing toward Alice, the princess who had helped earn these benefits for the catkins.


    "Ah, hello."


    Alice didn''t expect the catkins'' chieftain to greet her so enthusiastically. So, when she saw Johanna extending a hand to her, she hurriedly held it and shook it.


    Although the catkins'' settlement was rtively remote, Alice still managed to see a few humans walking in the small town. The catkins'' attire was also no different from modern human attire. She did not see anyone walking around in ethnic clothing. So, after realizing the catkins'' situation, Alice didn''t feel too much pressure when greeting Johanna.


    However, the moment Alice held Johanna''s hand with her right hand, an information panel that normally shouldn''t have appeared in such a situation suddenly appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Mana Rich Johanna]


    [Quality: Excellent]


    [Effect: Constitution +100, Speed +100, Control +100, Mana +100]


    [Additional Effect:


    Cat''s Wildness (Passive Skill. You gain cat-like agility, and your reaction speed bes more sensitive.)]


    Alice was momentarily stunned. Then, she took a moment to read the information that had appeared in her mind and verified that her right hand had indeed deemed Johanna a weapon.


    During this period, Alice had already gotten so used to these information panels appearing in her mind that she had started ignoring them subconsciously. After all, the things she typically touched with her right hand didn''t have any special uses or value.


    For example, when Alice was using the teleportation array, she was holding the crystal tablet with her right hand, which allowed her to see the tablet''s weapon information. However, the tablet was merely judged as a "Fine" item. It also had only one ability that went by the name of "Teleportation Lock." So, Alice swiftly ignored it after giving it a nce.


    However, the fact that Johanna was deemed a weapon was very strange.


    Of course, this wasn''t the first time Alice had seen a living creature being judged as a weapon. The Milu Rabbit hanging by her waist was the perfect example. It was the perfect tool to crack walnuts. However, the problem now was that her right hand was judging Johanna, a living and conscious person, as a weapon. This was very strange.


    ording to Alice''s past experiments and spections, when an object possessed conscious resistance, her right hand wouldn''t be able to turn this object into a weapon. Even Zauna, someone who trusted Alice wholeheartedly, couldn''t be judged as a weapon due to her body''s instinctive resistance. Sowhy was her right hand''s ability working on the catkins'' chieftain all of a sudden?


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> Your Highness?"


    While Alice was wondering if something had gone wrong with her right hand, Johanna lightly coughed twice with an unnatural blush forming on her face, seemingly trying to remind Alice that their handshake was going on for a little too long.


    Johanna''s voice quickly brought Alice back to reality. In this process, Alice subconsciously applied some force with her right hand and squeezed Johanna''s hand. However, not only did Johanna not put up a struggle, but the blush on her face had grown even deeper.


    <em>My goodness.</em>


    Alice finally understood what was going on. She realized that Johanna might have masochistic tendencies just like Ciel. Hence, when facing her, the catkins'' chieftain suddenly forgot the concept of resistance and became extremely submissive.


    After all, any normal person would grow angry if a stranger was to persistently hold their hand for such a long time. However, Johanna neither got angry nor tried to break free from Alice''s hand. On the contrary, a misleading blush had even appeared on her face.


    Meanwhile, due to Johanna''sck of resistance, Alice''s right hand had judged her as a usable weapon.


    "Sorry, sorry. I suddenly thought of something just now, so" Alice apologized, a strange expression appearing on her face as she let go of Johanna''s hand.


    "It''s fine."


    Johanna''s voice was quite soft. Alice found it hard to imagine that a woman like Johanna was the catkins'' chieftain. For a moment, Alice even suspected that the entire catkin race might have masochistic tendencies. Hence, they were letting such a delicate woman manage them.


    Beastkins would typically stay in their tribe, and only a small portion would live in human society. Johanna was most likely part of the former, so it wasn''t strange that nobody had discovered Johanna''s fetish until now. Even Johanna herself seemed surprised by the strange feeling she had just experienced.


    "We store our taboos in our archives. I''ve already told the archivist about your visit, so if you want to read them, you can have Ciel bring you to the archives," Johanna said, her voice sounding a little flustered. She had originally nned to have a longer conversation with the Gryffin Princess, but she wasn''t in the mood to talk after that strange incident. "Well, that''s it from me."


    "Alright, then. Thank you, Matriarch Johanna."


    Alice nodded and nced at Johanna thoughtfully. Then, she exited the Chieftain''s Office with Ciel, leaving behind the blushing Johanna alone in the room.


    However, Alice still couldn''t be certain about her conjecture. Could a person really be judged as a weapon so long as they were sincerely obedient to her?


    Harboring such a thought in her mind, Alice reached out and grabbed Ciel''s tail after exiting the office.


    "Meow?!" Ciel shuddered, her whole body softening. Then, she red at Alice and questioned, "W-What are you doing? There are peopleing and going here..."


    While there were indeed catkinsing and going from the administrative building from time to time, nobody was on the second floor right now. Hence, Alice had dared to squeeze Ciel''s tail.


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    Meanwhile, as soon as Alice squeezed Ciel''s tail with her right hand, an information panel promptly appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Ciel in Heat]


    [Quality: Excellent]


    [Effect: Constitution +50, Speed +50, Control +50, Mana +60]


    [Additional Effect:


    Cat''s Wildness (Passive Skill. You gain cat-like agility, and your reaction speed bes more sensitive.)]


    <em>Sure enough. It seems that my right hand will deem even a conscious person as a weapon so long as they are sincerely submissive to me.</em>


    As for the strange suffix in Ciel''s name Alice decided to ignore it.


    Find the original at *hosted* novel.


    ------


    Other novels I trante on Hosted Novel:After Being Bent By Reader (ABBR)(GL)<strong>Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God (Side Stories)</strong><strong>Miss Cousin is Always Busy (MCAB)</strong><strong>(Yuri, Quick Transmigration)</strong>

 Chapter 223: Slight Difference in Understanding

    Chapter 223: ''Slight'' Difference in Understanding


    The catkins'' archive wasn''t a particrlyrge building. Its height was simr to a normal house, and it only had three floors in total. There was also a pair of cat ears situated on the roof, giving the simple building a cute appearance.


    As a side note, many of Elkite''s buildings had a pair of cat ears decorating them. This could be considered an architectural style unique to the catkins. ording to Ciel, if one came across such a building in other ces, there was a high likelihood that a catkin owned it.


    After taking a moment to admire the cute architectural design, Alice pushed open the doors to the building. Rather than calling it an archive, it''d be more urate to call the building a library. The building stored a massive number of books of many varieties. Basically, these were all of the documents the catkins had passed down throughout the generations.


    Of course, not all books here were written by catkins. Some were also bought from humans to use as reference.


    The archive''s manager was a cute youngdy. When Alice saw the girl, she smiled and took the initiative to shake hands with the other party. Meanwhile, just like Alice expected, the girl obediently shook hands with her. Moreover, she also got to see the other party''s weapon information.


    Unlike Ciel and Johanna, this archivist was only a normal person. So, her stats were rtively normal, ranging between twenty to thirty points. Regardless, the fact that Alice could see the girl''s stats made her wonder whether her conjecture might be right. Could all catkins possibly be masochists?


    Logically, that shouldn''t be the case. If all catkins were masochists, their unique fetish should have been discovered by others in their tribe''s ten thousand years of history.


    It was especially true, considering very had once existed in this world. If the catkins really had such a predisposition, they definitely couldn''t have hidden it from those ve owners. Meanwhile, once those ve owners learned about this trait, they would absolutely let everyone know about it. Yetnothing like this had happened during the era of very. This was strange no matter how Alice looked at it.


    Perhaps there was another reason for this situation? Maybe something about her separated her from others, and this difference was why the catkins were so obedient to her?


    While Alice wondered which part of her was making the catkins behave so obediently around her, Ciel tugged at her arm and brought her back to her senses. Then, turning around, Alice was met with the sight of Ciel''s displeased face.


    Meanwhile, after seeing Alice looking toward her, Ciel puffed up her cheeks and strangely said, "Why are you staring at her for so long? You''re making her feel awkward."


    Alice quickly realized that she had been staring forward while she was immersed in her thoughts, and it just so happened that the archive''s manager was standing before her. Meanwhile, the other party seemingly felt embarrassed from being stared at for so long as her face had be bright red. Even the root of the girl''s brown cat ears had turned a little red.


    After smiling at the manager awkwardly, Alice let Ciel pull her away to the archive''s second floor.


    A few people were reading on the archive''s first floor, but nobody was on the second floor. At the very least, Alice couldn''t see anybody within her field of view. This probably meant that the books stored on the second floor weren''t of particr interest to the catkins. For example, books on taboos.


    "The taboos are over here," Ciel said, still wearing a disgruntled expression on her face.


    Alice couldn''t help but be a little confused by Ciel''s behavior. Although Ciel would normally wear a dissatisfied expression, Alice felt that the catkin was behaving a little more irritable than usual.


    However, Alice wasn''t in the mood to care about Ciel right now. Instead, she set her sights on the bookshelf that Ciel pointed to. The bookshelf Ciel pointed to wasn''t packed with books like the other bookshelves on the second floor. The entire threeyer bookshelf only contained three books, and all three were ced on the topyer.


    Evidently, these three books were the catkins'' unique taboos. Alice''s eyes shined when she saw the three books, and she promptly retrieved them and took a look at their names.


    [Wind Hunter]


    [Panther''s Weapons]


    [Sixth Sense]


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    Just the names alone gave the taboos a wild feeling. Although there was a taboo clearly meant for pantherkins mixed in here, considering that pantherkins and catkins were close rtives, it wasn''t strange to see one of the pantherkin''s taboos here. As to why there weren''t any taboos from other feline beastkins such as tigerkins, this might be a problem that concerned the rtionship between the various beastkin races, so Alice didn''t dare to ask too much about it.


    When Ciel saw that Alice had started reading without giving her a second nce, the annoyance on her face worsened. After letting out a grumpy snort, she took a seat on a nearby chair and red at Alice. It was as if she was trying to see how long it would take for Alice to notice her bad mood.


    However, while Alice might not have noticed Ciel''s expression, Andusia, who sat on Alice''s shoulder, did. Meanwhile, seeing that Ciel was obviously in a very unhappy mood, Andusia couldn''t help but let out a helpless sigh. Then, while doing her best to maintain her posture, she pinched Alice''s shoulder with her fingers.


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    "Hm?"


    Alice felt Andusia''s actions just after she had opened the cover of <em>Wind Hunter</em>, and she couldn''t help but give the former Demon King a confused look. However, to avoid exposing Andusia''s existence, Alice didn''t voice her confusion. Instead, she simply asked what the other party wanted with her eyes.


    Andusia was different from an inexperienced youth like Alice. She was more than capable of reading the expressions of others, so she instantly picked up on the confusion in Alice''s eyes. So, she turned her head slightly and motioned for Alice to look back.


    Alice was still confused by what was going on, but she obediently followed Andusia''s instructions and looked back. Then, she found herself looking at a grumpy catkin sitting on a chair.


    "Catkins might not be a race susceptible to loneliness, but once they identify a person they are close with, they will be very concerned about the other party''s attention," Andusia said in a helpless tone. Fortunately, Alice had already undone the Forest Crystal sealing Andusia''s mana. So, Andusia couldmunicate with Alice by directly transmitting her voice into Alice''s ears. "She thinks you are giving her the cold shoulder."


    Alice''s current behavior reminded Andusia of her younger self. Her catkin friend would often grow sullen whenever she didn''t pay attention to her. However, her friend would brighten up immediately so long as she patted her friend on the head and said a few words offort.


    Thus, what Andusia was trying to convey to Alice was simplego andfort Ciel. It''d be best if Alice could pat Ciel on the head as well. That way, the catkin girl would recover very quickly.


    Realization dawned on Alice. Immediately, she walked up to Ciel and stepped on her stomach.

 Chapter 224: People Start to Reminisce Once They Grow Old

    Chapter 224: People Start to Reminisce Once They Grow Old


    Although the process was vastly different from Andusia''s expectations, there were no differences in the results. At the very least, Ciel was no longer sulking. The only problem was that the sight of her blushing while panting softly on the chair could easily create a misunderstanding.


    After "pacifying" Ciel, Alice resumed reading the <em>Wind Hunter</em> in front of her. After all, this was her goal in visiting the catkins'' settlement. Moreover, from what she gathered through reading the taboo books'' introduction just now, she found that all three taboos had unexpectedly useful effects. So, she needed to learn all three of them.


    Ciel knew about Alice''s identity as the Hero. So, since she had already gotten the attention she wanted, she naturally wouldn''t continue disturbing Alice''s studies. After telling Alice the location of her house in a tsundere manner, Ciel left the archive building.


    Although there were hostels specifically prepared for guests in Elkite, Ciel still invited Alice to stay over at her house throughout her visit. Though, the way she extended her invitation remained stubborn as usual, saying something along the lines of "I''m just worried that you''re not used to living in a hostel." Alice had found the catkin''s invitation quite funny at the time.


    Maybe all catkins were like this? Alice wasn''t sure. However, based on her experience interacting with catkins thus far, she found that catkins were rather amiable people. Ciel could also be regarded as a friendly person so long as she wasn''t dealing with Alice.


    After Ciel left, Andusia could finally rx a bit. There was no one else on the archive building''s second floor, so she didn''t have to continue pretending to be a figurine.


    "That girl has really grown attached to you. You''ve thoroughly tamed her into a domestic cat," Andusia said as she hopped off Alice''s shoulder. Then, she sat down on the table and looked at Alice with a slightly frustrated look on her face.


    Andusia had seen Alice''s interactions with Johanna and the archivist just now. She didn''t think these catkins would behave so obediently in front of Alice.


    As far as Andusia could remember, the catkin ves were all incredibly disobedient toward ve owners. There would constantly be news of catkin ves scratching off their owners'' faces circting around human society. Because of this, the first thing most ve owners would do after buying a catkin ve was to trim their ve''s nails and bind their hands tightly.


    However, neither Johanna nor the archivist had shown any resistance in front of Alice. This situation puzzled Andusia very much.


    "Isn''t that good? Honestly, I quite like small animals," Alice replied, smiling as she read the<em> Wind Hunter</em> in her hands. However, she didn''t know what catkins were like a couple of thousand years ago, so she thought that all catkins had obedient personalities.


    "You say you like small animals?"


    When Andusia heard Alice''s words, she warily nced at the unconscious Milu Rabbit hanging off the side of Alice''s waist. She had seen Alice knocking the Milu Rabbit unconscious several times now. No matter how she looked at it, Alice didn''t seem like a person who liked small animals.


    However, Andusia wasn''t about to tell Alice about the catkins'' behavior during her era, either, since that wasn''t a good memory for catkins. Since the catkins of modern times liked Alice so much, Andusia decided to just let them do what they wanted. Everything was fine so long as the catkins were satisfied.


    After their conversation ended, Alice began immersing herself in the book before her. Wind Chaser was a taboo that involved the physical body and wind mana. It was a spell used mainly for tracking purposes. However, because the spell ced a high requirement on the coordination between the body and wind mana, it was categorized as a taboo.


    Of course, the fact that Wind Chaser could be categorized as a taboo also showed that the spell had outstanding effects. After all, a spell wouldn''t be considered a taboo simply because it had high usage requirements.


    However, while Alice was upied with her studies, Andusia quickly found herself growing bored after watching Alice study for some time.


    Andusia had basically given up her thoughts of getting revenge against humans already, so she no longer had any goals to look forward to achieving in life. She didn''t have any need to learn new taboos, either. Moreover, she had already spent so many years idling inside the block of Living Wood. Now that she finally had a chance to see what the world had be, how could she possibly bear to continue doing nothing and enduring boredom?


    "Hey, Alice, I''m going out for a walk by myself, okay?"


    Andusia tried to call out to Alice twice, but Alice was too immersed in her studies to respond. However, Andusia didn''t find this situation strange. She had studied taboos herself before, so she knew that one would need to focus all of one''s attention when studying a taboo.


    Of course, Andusia also knew how to interrupt Alice if necessary. However, after thinking it over, she felt that there wasn''t a need to do so. She could use mana now, in any case. So, she could easily avoid others'' attention while walking outside.


    Hence, rather than interrupt Alice''s studies, Andusia stood up, skipped and hopped a few times in her miniature body, and quickly arrived at the nearest window. Then, she pushed the window, which was gigantic to her, open with little effort.


    "Elkite hasn''t changed much even after all these years"


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    Looking out the window, Andusia saw the architecturalyout of the nearby streets and found that it wasn''t all that different from the small town in her memories. Apart from the buildings taking on a modernized appearance, the only significant difference she noticed was the catkins'' lifestyle. Specifically, the catkins in Elkite behaved much more carefreely now.


    During her era, beastkins were put in a bad situation where they were at constant risk of being captured by humans. Catkins were no exception. As a result, catkins lived in constant fear that humans would one day locate Elkite. The catkins of that time would probably find it very hard to believe that there woulde a day when they could coexist with humans peacefully.


    At this time, Andusia suddenly thought of her catkin friend. Her friend had always hoped to get the various races to ept and understand each other. Unfortunately, her friend got betrayed by human nobles and died a miserable death in a dungeon. This also became the source of Andusia''s hatred for humans.


    Perhaps Elkite''s current situation was the picture her friend had always wanted to see.


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    "I wonder what has be of her home now?"


    Andusia reminisced for a while. Then, when she turned around and saw that Alice was still immersed in her studies, she curled her lips a little before casting a small concealment spell on herself. Then, she jumped out of the window without a second thought.


    Since she had followed Alice to Elkite, she naturally had to visit her old friend''s house and see what had be of it.


    In reality, she still held a little hope in her heart. Since her family in the human realm managed to continue existing until this day, there might be a chance that her catkin friend''s blood was still circting in Elkite.


    TL Notes:


    It was previously mentioned that the catkins have several tribes in the Gryffin Kingdom, but judging by this chapter, I think the author must have forgotten about that and just started writing under the assumption that there is only one big catkin tribe. I''m not certain, though, since I haven''t read that far ahead.

 Chapter 225: Fate Works in Strange Ways

    Chapter 225: Fate Works in Strange Ways


    Andusia recalled that her catkin friend had left behind children before she died.


    Elkite wasn''t a big town, and its poption was rtively small. So, the people living here didn''t move houses frequently like those living in big cities. Most catkin families would typically stay in the same home even after thousands of years had passed.


    Andusia didn''t have anything productive to do during all those years she spent in the Living Wood. So, whenever she was bored out of her mind, she would think back to and memorize the decades of memories she had made when she was alive. Because of this, her memories of when she was alive remained fresh in her mind, and that included the location of her friend''s house.


    Since Elkite was very well hidden, it wasn''t until the humans had abolished very and made amends with the various beastkin races that its location was revealed. Hence, Elkite had never suffered any attacks throughout all these years, and the town''syout remained mostly the same as Andusia remembered.


    This situation made it very easy for Andusia to search for the location in her memories. Meanwhile, as soon as she arrived within the vicinity of the location, she quickly recognized her friend''s house.


    Obviously, there were some differences between the house before her and the house in her memories. It was evident that the house''s owners had given it some upgrades as the originally two-story house had been converted into a three-story house. However, the two small cat ear-shaped attics on the roof were colored ck, just like Andusia remembered.


    The cat ears that decorated the buildings in Elkite weren''t just decorations. Instead, they also functioned as triangr lofts. Meanwhile, as per tradition, catkins would paint these lofts in the color of their family''s hair color. So, the ck cat ears on the house before Andusia meant that the family staying in it mainly had ck hair.


    As Andusia recalled, her catkin friend had a pair of ck cat ears and a ck cat tail. So, seeing the color of the house''s cat ears further raised Andusia''s hopes that the people living in this house were her friend''s descendants.


    Of course, Andusia couldn''t just waltz up to the house and knock on the door in her current form. Otherwise, with the catkins'' disposition to tease small animals, the house''s current owners might chase her around like a toy.


    There was also the option of increasing her body size with magic. Since Living Wood would disy the characteristics of a living creature when it had a soul inhabiting it, if she expanded her body''s size with magic, the average person wouldn''t notice that she was actually a gigantified figurine.


    However, while catkins might have reconciled with humans and were getting along quite well with humans, Elkite was still a semi-closed town. The town might allow outsiders to enter it, but that was under the precondition that these outsiders had permission. Meanwhile, Andusia had entered the town without any official paperwork. So long as she was discovered, the catkins would definitely treat her as a hostile intruder.


    <em>Whatever I''m only here to see whether the people living here are her descendants. I don''t have to talk to them to do so.</em>


    After hesitating for a while, Andusia revealed a helpless smile and gave up on taking the direct approach. Instead, she decided to take advantage of her small frame to sneak into the house and investigate.


    Catkins were a race that attached great importance to family. So, they would keep detailed records about their family in their home. It was possible to find records of even ancestors from thousands of years ago.


    If the family living in this house turned out to be the descendants of her friend, Andusia decided that she would ask Alice to ensure the peace and stability of her friend''s descendants. In exchange, she would help Alice with whatever she could.


    The main reason Andusia had be a Demon King was because of her catkin friend. So, the importance of her friend in her heart went without saying. If she could ensure that her friend''s descendants lived a peaceful life, she wouldn''t mind cooperating with Alice.


    While keeping herself concealed using magic, Andusia flew to the house''s second floor and easily breached it through an open window.


    <em>This looks like a girl''s room.</em>


    After looking around for a moment, Andusia quickly concluded that, even though the room''s decorations were different from the conventional decorations during her era, the room she had entered belonged to a youngdy. There were also quite a few textbooks on the desk.


    Aside from this detail, Andusia also keenly noticed a few strands of cat hair on the floor. Catkins shed their hair quite often. This was something Andusia was well aware of since her friend hadined about it on more than one asion.


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    <em>ck hair It seems the catkins living here are indeed ck cats.</em>


    Andusia nodded in satisfaction after verifying this point. Then, she walked to the door, opened it, and boldly walked out of the bedroom.


    There was no one else in the second-floor corridor. However, Andusia could hear some bits of conversationing from the first floor. Although she didn''t use wind magic to deliberately eavesdrop on the conversation, she could still faintly hear words such as "friend ising over" and "make something delicious."


    It would seem that this family would be having a friend overter.


    Andusia didn''t continue eavesdropping. Instead, she made her way straight to the third floor and found thedders leading up to the two cat-ear attics.


    Catkins would typically keep their genealogy and things they normally didn''t use in their attics. After searching the two attics, Andusia found this family''s genealogy in the second attic.


    After setting up a small barrier on the attic''s entrance, Andusia began looking through this genealogy. The genealogy wasn''t written on a piece of old parchment or tree bark handed down thousands of years ago. Instead, it was rewritten into a new book. Even so, the content was notcking whatsoever.


    ording to the index on the first page, this genealogy started around 5,000 years ago. It was also around that era that catkins had taken on the habit of writing genealogies. Catkins of earlier eras didn''t have such a habit, so their names naturally weren''t recorded.


    After flipping through around a dozen pages, Andusia finally found the name she was looking for.


    "Jill Maelor" Andusia sighed when she saw the familiar name. While caressing this name with her little hand, she muttered, "I can''t believe it is actually you."


    A couple of thousand years ago, Andusia hade to know a catkin in a human kingdom. In an era where it wasmon for catkins to be captured and enved, the catkin known as Jill Maelor had visited the various human kingdoms, hoping that she could convince the various human kings to let humans and catkins progress together. In addition, she had also raised the hidden dangers of very and the conflicts that it might bring about in the future.


    As a human and the daughter of a nobleman, Andusia was deeply persuaded by Jill''s words. She also decided to stand on the same front as Jill and help convince others to the catkin''s cause. Meanwhile, because ve riots would often ur during that period, their ideology received unexpectedly strong support.


    Unfortunately, Jill was eventually betrayed and died tragically at the hands of vers. Andusia had also be a Demon King because of this and embarked on the road of drowning the human realm in the mes of war.


    <em>See? Jill was right. very is so dangerous that it managed to bring about the birth of a Demon King, </em>Andusia thought sarcastically. After such a long time had passed, she had long since learned to look at her past self and humans of the past with a yful attitude.


    Shaking her head, Andusia stopped her reminiscence and turned to thest page that wasn''t empty. Seeing as her friend had been such a strong and intelligent catkin, she believed that her friend''s descendants should be just as brilliant as her friend was.


    Holding such a belief in her mind, Andusia cast her gaze toward thest and most recent name recorded in the genealogy in the hopes of seeing her friend through this name.


    Ciel Maelor.

 Chapter 226: All Cats Are Tsunderes

    Chapter 226: All Cats Are Tsunderes


    "What''s the matter? Why do you look dead inside?"


    Alice decided to pay Ciel a visit at her home when noon arrived. Then, when she put her book down, she found herself Andusia sitting on the table with a burnt-out look on her face. The gloomy expression Andusia wore made it seem like she had just been hit with bad news.


    This situation puzzled Alice a little. When she started reading, Andusia looked no different than usual. Yet, after the morning passed and she put her book down, Andusia had turned into this state.


    Alice had been deeply immersed in her studies, so she didn''t notice what Andusia had done throughout the morning. So, she naturally didn''t know why Andusia had be like this.


    Andusia didn''t bother answering Alice''s question. Instead, she looked at Alice with a strange gaze before sighing deeply. Then, she hopped onto Alice''s shoulder, sat down, and resumed acting like a figurine.


    It couldn''t be helped. Andusia thought that her friend''s descendants would have a strong character just like her friend. Yet, the most recent addition to the genealogy of her friend''s family turned out to be Ciel, a catkin who would get sexually aroused from being stepped on by Alice.


    Andusia didn''t know whether tough or cry at this discovery. She also didn''t know how Jill would react if she realized that her newest descendant was a person who liked being stepped on.


    Thinking up to this point, Andusia felt a little fortunate that Jill did not leave a soul behind and had no chances of getting resurrected. Otherwise, she would probably get a heart attack if she found out about this situation.


    Seeing that Andusia didn''t seem to want to share her troubles, Alice didn''t try to pry further into the matter. Instead, she left the archive with Andusia. Before leaving, though, she gave the archivist a rub on the head. Seeing the girl blush reminded her of the feeling of petting a cat.


    Following the route Ciel provided, Alice reached Ciel''s house after a short walk through Elkite. The house was none other than the one Andusia had snuck into previously.


    Andusia inwardly sighed when she saw the house before her. When she heard Ciel mentioning the way to her house to Alice previously, she had found the route somewhat familiar. It turned out that this was because Ciel was describing the way to Jill''s house.


    Due to Elkite''s closed nature, only catkins were permitted to settle down here. As a result, the town never saw anyrge-scale real estate development, and the town''syout had hardly changed even after thousands of years had passed. If Andusia had to point out a difference, it would probably have to be the new buildings added to the outskirts of Elkite.


    Alice walked up to Ciel''s house, knocked on the door, and heard the sound of footstepsing from the other side in no time at all. Then, the door opened, and Ciel''s figure appeared in front of Alice.


    "You''re finally here. What took you so long?" Ciel asked in her usual annoyed tone. However, the fact that she came running to the door as soon as Alice knocked showed that she had actually been constantly paying attention to the door.


    "Yes, yes, yes. My bad, my bad. But you know how studying taboos is like. I have to take my time reading to make sure I don''t miss any details," Alice said. She had already found a way to deal with Ciel''s tsundere attribute, and that was to go along with whatever the catkin said. Anyway, it wasn''t like Ciel had any malicious intent. "But you sure came quickly."


    "Catkins have keen hearing. Don''t get me wrong," Ciel said with a blush. Then, she promptly turned around and ran inside, leaving behind these words: "The food is ready. Hurry up ande in."


    Alice shook her head helplessly at the catkin''s inability to be truthful. Then, after changing into the in-door slippers provided, she followed after Ciel and found herself stepping into the dining room.


    When Alice entered the dining room, what entered her sight was Ciel already seated at the dining table and a female catkin bringing out dishes from the kitchen. The female catkin looked like a mature version of Ciel, so she should be Ciel''s mother.


    "You must be Alice, right? Wee, wee," Ciel''s mother said, greeting Alice with a smile. Then, after setting the dishes in her hands on the table, she continued, "I''m Ciel''s mother. This is the first time Ciel has brought a human friend home. Don''t be polite and just treat this ce as your home."


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    "Thank you, Auntie," Alice thanked Ciel''s mother. Then, she couldn''t help but be a little surprised when she saw the plethora of dishes on the table. It looked like they were having a buffet than a normal meal. No matter how she looked at it, there was no way they could finish all this food with so few people.


    When Ciel saw Alice looking at the food on the table with a strange expression, she hurriedly said, "This is how catkins normally eat."


    "Is that so... It seems catkins live quite a good life..."


    Although Alice doubted that catkins would eat suchvish meals every day, this might be rted to the catkins'' tradition of weing guests. So, Alice didn''t probe too deeply into the matter and simply took Ciel''s words at face value as she sat down next to Ciel.


    Andusia, however, was rendered speechless by this situation. She shared many interactions with catkins thousands of years ago, but she had never heard of the catkins having any habits or tradition of preparing a buffet for only a few people. In addition, when she snuck into this house in the morning, she had heard Ciel mentioning to her mother that her friend would be visiting. Ciel had obviously asked her mother to prepare all these dishes for Alice.


    Afterward, Alice saw Ciel''s mother returning to the kitchen to bring out more dishes. Although she felt that there was already more than enough food on the table, she didn''t try to stop the other party. Instead, she turned to Ciel and asked, "By the way, what about your father?"


    "He''s working for the government in Holl City, so he rarelyes home," Ciel exined. "The reason I went to study at the March Academy is alsorgely because my father works in Holl City. He can look after me while I''m there."


    Alice nodded, finally understanding why Ciel was studying at the March Royal School of Magic.


    "You should look after this child more in the future, Alice, since she already regards you as one of the closest people to her," Andusia said, magically transmitting her voice into Alice''s ears. "It should be easy for you with your identity as the Hero. You don''t need to do anything special. Just let others know that you have a good rtionship with her, and nobody will dare to attack her."


    Due to Alice''s identity as the Hero, the people closely acquainted with her had received a protective umbre that ensured their lives progressed as smoothly and safely as possible. Alice might not realize the importance of this protective umbre, but Andusia knew it very well.


    Modern human society might be much more peaceful than human society thousands of years ago, but Andusia believed darkness still existed. In fact, she believed that the size of this darkness had not reduced in the slightest even after all these years. Instead, it had merely hidden from the surface. Meanwhile, Alice''s identity as the Hero could bring her and those close to her protection from this hidden darkness.


    "Why are you suddenly showing so much care for Ciel?" Alice asked in a whispering tone.


    "That... It''splicated."


    Andusia felt that for the sake of her friend''s reputation, it was best if she left out the fact that the descendant of her friend, who used to fight for the abolishment of very, was actually a perverted masochist...

 Chapter 227: Lacey and Kristine

    Chapter 227: Lacey and Kristine


    The door opened, and Kristine entered the house, holding a massive cloth sack in her arms.


    "You''re back, Lady Kristine?"


    When Lacey heard the sounding from the living room, she hurriedly walked out of her bedroom and found herself looking at Kristine holding a cloth sack half as big as her loli body was tall. Because of the bag''srge size, Kristine needed to keep her arms partially raised while holding it. Meanwhile, judging by the gloomy expression on Kristine''s face, it was obvious she was very dissatisfied with thisedic posture.


    Unfortunately, there was nothing Kristine could do to solve her height problem. The soul wasn''t something that could be moved from container to container casually. Now that her soul had already adapted to this new body, if she tried to separate her soul from this body, her soul would most likely end up in a fragmented state.


    Kristine wasn''t so desperate as to damage her soul just to get a taller body, so she had no choice but to ept her current body.


    "That''s right; I''m back. I brought some important things back," Kristine said as she ced the giant cloth sack on the floor. Then, sheid back on the sofa and massaged her shoulders. "Alice sure has it easy, getting to travel the world and visit the catkins'' town. I don''t think I''ve ever visited the catkins'' town before. Though, I did visit the foxkins'' town a few times."


    "Lady Alice is doing so to study taboos and prepare for her fight with the Demon King," Lacey answered with a smile.


    Lacey did not return to the Ymir Kingdom immediately after she finished constructing Kristine''s body. Or, more specifically, the Ymir Kingdom''s King Celtic probably wouldn''t agree to let her go back even if she wanted to. After all, he was hoping that Lacey could establish a good rtionship with Alice the Hero and, if possible, drag Alice over to the Ymir Kingdom.


    Although it sounded cold of Celtic to treat his daughter as a tool to befriend the Hero, Lacey was only an illegitimate daughter in the Ymir Kingdom''s royal family. Meanwhile, unlike the Gryffin Kingdom, the Ymir Kingdom''s royal family had legitimate heirs. So, it was normal for the Ymir King not to prioritize Lacey. Lacey herself had also long grown used to this situation.


    Honestly, rather than returning to the Ymir Kingdom, Lacey preferred to stay in the Gryffin Kingdom more. At the very least, Kristine and Alice treated her as an equal, unlike the Ymir Kingdom''s royalty and nobles, who would constantly look at her contemptuously.


    "Her fight with the Demon King? Hmph. If she really was just aiming to fight the Demon King, I wouldn''t have had to make this trip," Kristine said, snorting when she heard Lacey''s attempt to justify Alice''s actions. However, despite her dissatisfied tone, it still didn''t change the fact that she was actively helping Alice. "Alice''s ambitions are muchrger than that. Simply taking care of the Demon King isn''t enough to satisfy her."


    Kristine had alreadymunicated with God using the "Word of God." She had also sessfully learned from the Loli Goddess about Alice''s mission. Different from herself and other past Heroes, Alice had a much more arduous mission.


    Eliminate the Demon King''s Power and erase the Demon King from its source.


    Kristine was taken aback when she learned this piece of information from God. This was because the Demon King''s Power was something that had existed in this world since the beginning of recorded history. Every race in this world had long since treated the Demon King''s Power''s existence as a natural part of this world, just like the concept of "1+1=2." So, hearing that Alice was trying to eliminate the Demon King''s Power was akin to hearing about Alice trying to eliminate the concept of "1+1=2." No matter how Kristine looked at it, this was simply an unbelievable situation.


    However, Kristine could also tell that God wasn''t joking with her from the other party''s expression. Alice''s mission was indeed to permanently remove the Demon King''s Power from this world.


    As a Hero, Kristine naturally trusted in God''s words. Not to mention, eliminating the Demon King''s Power wasn''t a bad idea, either. At the very least, no more Demon Kings would appear to threaten the world''s peace in the future.


    However, Kristine also quickly noticed a problem with this n.


    The reason demons and humans were only waging wars with each other once every several hundred years was because they viewed the Demon King and Hero as a crucial part of their war. Hence, before these two individuals appeared, neither side would act recklessly.


    However, what if the Demon King''s Power disappeared and the demons realized that no more Demon Kings would appear in the future? Would they dismiss their thoughts of invading the human realm?


    Kristine knew full well how terrible the demon realm''s environment was. As someone who grew up surrounded by the human realm''s pristine mana, she would feel very ufortable whenever she headed into the demon realm and experienced its polluted mana.


    The demons had already lived in this terrible environment for over ten thousand years. Meanwhile, right next to the demon realm with a vastly cleaner environment Could the demons resist the temptation of this cleaner environment? Definitely not.


    It wasn''t just the demons. If the human and demon realms'' environments were switched, Kristine felt that humans would also have the urge to invade the demon realm.


    Hence, if the Demon King''s Power disappeared, the most likely scenario was that war would instantly break out between the two realms.


    When Kristine voiced this concern to God, the Loli Goddess replied with the idea that Alice hade up with, and that was to resolve the demon realm''s pollution problem. So long as they could resolve the demon realm''s pollution, the demons would no longer need to invade the human realm.


    This was indeed a good permanent solution. It also sounded quite easy to aplish. Honestly, it was such a simple idea that one would assume that someone had thought about it long ago. Unfortunately, the history of this world was rife with wars between the various races. So, no one would ever think about matters from each other''s perspective. Only an otherworlder like Alice would think of solving the enemy''s problem.


    Perhaps this was a situation where the bystander sees things more clearly than the yer. Although Kristine didn''t know about Alice''s identity as an otherworlder, she had to admit that this was a solution she had never thought of. Moreover, if this idea could be realized, it would thoroughly erase the reason for war between the human and demon realms.


    "These jars are?"


    When Lacey helped Kristine unpack therge cloth sack, she found that the sack held a bunch of seemingly empty ss jars. However, after taking a closer look, she found that these jars weren''t exactly empty. Instead, it contained some type of faintly colored gas.


    "What''s this gas?" Lacey asked out of curiosity.


    "Have you never been to the demon realm before, Lacey?" Kristine asked, smirking when she saw the clueless look on Lacey''s face. Then, she picked up one of the jars and said, "Inside this jar is air from the demon realm."


    "What? The demon realm''s air?" Lacey was given a fright when she heard Kristine''s answer. However, she quickly calmed down since she realized that while this air came from the demon realm, it was still nothing but air. So, there was no reason to be worried. "Why does the demon realm''s air look purplish?"


    "The demon realm''s air is simr to our human realm. It is filled with mana that we normally use to train our magic. However, the demon realm''s mana is heavily polluted, which has caused it to take on a purple hue. Of course, you won''t normally notice this due to the demon realm''s dusky environment," Kristine said, swaying the jar in her hand. "The reason I brought air from the demon realm back is also simple. Research it with me, Lacey, and see if there is any possibility of purifying it."


    "Huh? Me?"


    Kristine''s words stunned Lacey, and she subconsciously pointed at herself. Her voice also didn''t sound very confident when she spoke.


    "Don''t belittle yourself so much. You''re a genius with the abilities of a senior alchemist. You also haven''te into contact with standardized alchemist work much, so you might be able to offer some constructivements," Kristine said as she stood up from the sofa and looked at Lacey. "The senior alchemists under the employment of the various kingdoms are often involved with precise andrge-scale alchemy work that has stringent requirements, so their thinking has be extremely rigid. You, on the other hand, have hardlye into contact with such formic studies and work. So, your research might yield something a little different."


    After saying so, Kristine picked up her sack and pushed Lacey into the study.


    "Come on,e on,e on. This is for world peace, so don''tin."

 Chapter 228: The Tale of Ciel’s Social Death

    Chapter 228: The Tale of Ciel��s Social Death


    Most beastkin taboos were developed to enhance the characteristics of their respective races. This was also the case for the catkins'' Wind Hunter taboo.


    Wind Hunter enhanced the user''s sense of hearing, smell, and vision to the extremes. It also sharpened and strengthened the user''s ws, increased the user''s bite strength, and improved the agility of the user''s limbs to an extraordinary extent. Simply put, it was a taboo that turned the user into a powerful hunter.


    Although most people hade to equate cats with household pets, it didn''t change the fact that cats were natural hunters. Even small cats would have a habit of hunting creatures smaller than themselves. Meanwhile, Wind Hunter enhanced a cat''s abilities to the extreme, and it was a taboo developed by a catkin thousands of years ago.


    Wind Hunter''s use wasn''t limited to just catkins. Other races could also use the taboo and enjoy the full extent of its effects. The only problem was that other races would suffer rtively harmless side effects. At the very least, Alice still found these side effects eptable.


    Standing in the backyard of Ciel''s house, Alice closed her eyes and moved the mana in her body. Alice wasn''t wielding the Hero''s Sword or a pair of panties right now, so she naturally couldn''t fully exhibit the power of Wind Hunter.


    However, that wasn''t important. Even if she used significantly less mana, so long as she managed to unleash even a small portion of the taboo''s power, she would have sessfully learned the taboo. When she needed to put the taboo to actual use in the future, she could simply wield the Hero''s Sword or a pair of panties.


    As Alice manipted her mana to modify her body ording to the description in Wind Hunter, she gradually felt her senses sharpening.


    With her original strength, Alice could already sense the movement of even a de of grass nearby her. Now, she managed to hear even a conversation that was taking ce far away. Moreover, based on the changes in the airflow around her, she determined that this conversation was taking ce between two female catkins standing at the door of the house across the street from Ciel''s house. Setting aside the distance, there was an entire house separating them. Yet, she could still hear the two housewives'' conversation as if they were speaking next to her.


    "My senses have really been improved to a significant extent. My nails seem to have grown longer and sharper," Alice muttered as she opened her eyes and looked at her fingernails. In addition to bing longer, thinner, and sharper, they also had mana coursing through them. She did not doubt that if she were to w at someone''s head with these nails, her nails would slice through the person''s head like a piece of tofu.


    Unfortunately, since the nails were a part of her body, even when Alice grabbed her left hand''s fingernails with her right hand, her right hand did not recognize them as weapons. So, she couldn''t determine how much destructive power her new ws possessed.


    In addition to her fingernails, the taboo''s other side effects had also started to show.


    "Wow, you really grew a pair of ears and a tail."


    Ciel, who was sitting on a chair in the backyard, grew a little excited when she saw Alice growing out a pair of cat ears and a cat tail. Though, whether Ciel was excited because she found Alice''s current appearance interesting or because Alice started to look more like her was something only Ciel herself would know.


    Afterward, Ciel got out of her seat and walked over to Alice. Then, she gently pinched Alice''s cat ears, her action causing Alice to shudder slightly. This showed that the cat ears Alice grew were rather sensitive.


    "It''s a pity they''re blonde. Maybe it''s because your hair is blonde," Ciel muttered in disappointment.


    After Ciel was done pinching Alice''s cat ears, she curiously looked at Alice''s temples and found that Alice''s human ears remained there. This piqued her curiosity as she asked, "Doesn''t this mean you have four ears now? Don''t you feel awkward?"


    Catkins only had cat ears on top of their heads. They didn''t have human ears on the side of their heads. However, Alice retained her human ears even after growing out a pair of cat ears due to Wind Hunter''s side effects. So, Ciel found this situation very strange.


    "It feels like I''m listening to a stereo, but it''s not a problem," Alice helplessly said as she lifted her hand and tried touching the cat ears on her head.


    Wind Hunter had indeed enhanced her sense of hearing. However, all of that enhanced hearing power was concentrated on her cat ears. Thinking about it now, it was most likely because this hearing enhancement only worked on cat ears that this taboo had grown her a pair of cat ears.


    Alice had ced Andusia on the backyard table, so Andusia also got to see the sight of Alice growing out a pair of cat ears and a cat tail. However, unlike Ciel, Andusia remained rtively calm when she saw the side effects of Wind Hunter since, she, too, had learned and used the taboo before.


    "All in all, this taboo is quite useful. It will be especially handy when I''m fighting in narrow andplex terrain," Alice said. When she noticed Ciel reaching for her tail, she quickly canceled the taboo, keeping her cat ears and tail away. Then, she pped away Ciel''s disobedient hand.


    "Mhm... You''re right."


    Ciel let out a soft moan, a blush appearing on her face as she retracted her hand.


    Ciel''s mother was a rtively ordinary catkin. At the very least, she felt that she was quite ordinary. Or, maybe she was a little more fortunate than other housewives since her daughter was a high achiever.


    The March Royal School of Magic might not seem impressive for Alice since she had managed to enroll in the academy after saying only a few words to Catherine. However, for most people, the March Academy was the most prestigious academy in the Gryffin Kingdom, and its entry requirement was just as great. Hence, the fact that Ciel had managed to get into the academy proved that she was incredibly talented.


    Because of Ciel''s aplishment, everyone in Elkite would always sing praises of her intelligence whenever they talked about her. In addition, Ciel maintained a good interpersonal rtionship with the people in town, so everyone earnestly hoped and believed that she would be an outstanding person in the future.


    Ciel''s mother thought so, too, so she was very happy to see Ciel bring a friend from the academy home. After all, this showed that Ciel was doing well among humans and wasn''t being bullied or ignored. It was especially true when this friend was the Gryffin Princess, who had been a trending topic in the kingdom recently. This discovery made Ciel''s mother feel very happy.


    Ciel''s mother had previously seen Ciel and Alice going into the backyard. Although she didn''t know what they were up to, she guessed that they should be chatting since there was a table and some chairs in the backyard to rest in.


    So, Ciel''s mother decided to prepare some cold fruit juices and send them over to the two girls. Although there was a parasol in the backyard, it wouldn''t hurt to have a cold drink on this warm summer day.


    With such thoughts in mind, Ciel''s mother prepped two sses of fruit juices and brought them to the backyard. Then...the smile on her face froze when she saw the daughter she was so proud of huddled around Alice''s feet, rubbing her face against Alice''s white stockings while wearing a euphoric expression.

 Chapter 229: Who Doesnt Like Free Stuff?

    Chapter 229: Who Doesn''t Like Free Stuff?


    Alice sat in the corner of the living room as she watched Ciel kneeling on the floor while facing her mother''s angry gaze.


    Ciel''s mother did not direct her anger toward Alice. After all, she had noticed that Alice hadn''t done anything out of the ordinary in the backyard just now. Instead, the person she was angry at was her precious daughter. When she saw Ciel rubbing her face against Alice''s feet while looking like she was in euphoria, she very nearly had a heart attack.


    However, although Ciel''s mother didn''t put any me on Alice, Alice still felt as if she was sitting on pins and needles as she sat in the living room. After all, Alice had very nearly stepped on Ciel when Ciel''s mother came into the backyard. Had Ciel''s mother appeared even a littleter, the woman would have been exposed to the sight of Alice stepping on Ciel.


    "What''s the matter with you, Ciel?" Ciel''s mother asked in a dark voice, the amiable tone she previously used with Alice nowhere to be seen. Then, while ring at her trembling daughter, Ciel''s mother demanded, "Exin to me why you did such a shameless thing."


    Judging by Ciel''s polished movements just now, it was obvious that this wasn''t the first time she had done such a thing to Alice''s feet. Meanwhile, this realization sent chills down Ciel''s mother''s spine. It was fortunate that her daughter had been doing such a shameless act in the backyard and was discovered by her in time. If Ciel were to do such a thing outside and got caught by others, her life would be thoroughly ruined.


    "That... It''s because..." Ciel was sweating profusely. She never thought her mother would catch her in the act. After struggling mentally for a moment, she weakly answered, "It''s because I''m in heat..."


    Beastkins would also go into heat at certain intervals of the year, but it wasn''t as bad as wild beasts. At most, beastkins would be more interested in carrying out explicit activities during this period. However, beastkin parents would typically teach their children how to cope with their heat cycles.


    Ciel''s mother naturally knew about heat cycles, so when she heard Ciel''s excuse, she only hesitated for a moment before deciding to trust her daughter. It was true that if a beastkin failed to handle their heat cycle properly, the consequences would be extremely bad. Meanwhile, hearing that Ciel was handling her heat period in such a manner, Ciel''s mother couldn''t help but wonder where she had failed in Ciel''s education to let her daughter pick up such a strange fetish.


    "Your heat cycle, is it That makes sense. You are at the age where you should start experiencing heat cycles," Ciel''s mother said as she stared into her daughter''s eyes. Then, after maintaining her stare until Ciel started growing unnerved, Ciel''s mother sighed and said helplessly, "But you should know how to differentiate between right and wrong even if you are in heat. I''m not saying that you can''t like feet, but you should only carry out those acts with your partner. Being in heat doesn''t give you the excuse to do those things to your friends."


    <em>It looks like beastkins are quite open in this regard</em> Alice thought when she heard Ciel''s mother''s words. Unless there was something different with this world''s human culture, she doubted that a normal human parent would discuss their daughter''s fetishes in front of an outsider.


    Alice also noticed that Ciel''s mother had seemingly misunderstood Ciel''s actions for her daughter having only a foot fetish. It didn''t seem like the woman had noticed that her daughter was only fascinated with Alice''s feet because she was hoping for Alice to step on her and physically abuse her. Of course, Alice didn''t n on clearing up this misunderstanding.


    "I''m sorry, Your Highness. I''m afraid I can''t let Ciel apany you this afternoon," Ciel''s mother said as she sent Alice an apologetic gaze. Then, she grabbed her dazed daughter by the cor and dragged the girl toward the second floor, leaving Alice with the following: "I have to thoroughly correct Ciel''s thinking this afternoon, so please take this time to stroll around Elkite."


    After watching Ciel''s mother drag Ciel up to the second floor, Alice looked toward Andusia, who sat on the coffee table in front of her. Then, the two of them exchanged a bitterugh.


    Although Alice pitied Ciel a little, she didn''t n to stick up for Ciel. Things would be much worse if she rified the situation with Ciel''s mother. It''d be terrible if news got out that the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess turned out to be a sadist. Alice could easily imagine some of the desperate nobles in the March Academy asking her to whip them or something of the sort just to get her attention. Just thinking about such a scenario gave her the shivers.


    After muttering a silent prayer for Ciel''s wellbeing, Alice grabbed Andusia from the table and ced the other party on her shoulder. Although having Andusia on her shoulder would cause her to attract a lot more attention out on the streets, there was nothing Alice could do about it. If she ced Andusia in her bag, Andusia would definitelyin and protest against it.


    However, Alice also couldn''t help but feel as if she was a human shelf. First, there was the unconscious Milu Rabbit tied to the left side of her waist. Then, there was the sack of panties tied to the right side of her waist. Now, she had to keep a figurine sitting on her left shoulder.


    "Since Ciel is getting educated by her mother, I guess I''ll go back to reading in the archive."


    Alice had originally nned to spend the afternoon with Ciel. However, since Ciel''s mother had spoiled their fun, the only thing Alice had left to do was to resume her taboo studies.


    "If you don''t want to study, perhaps you can do something else," Andusia suddenly said when Alice was about to head for the door. "Are you interested in a treasure hunt?"


    "A treasure hunt?" Alice turned to Andusia in confusion. Curiously, she asked, "What treasure are we talking about?"


    "After bing a full-fledged Demon King, I made a weapon for my friend''s descendants to protect them. It should still be in this town," Andusia said after pondering in silence for a moment. "Since beastkins and humans have already made peace with each other, that weapon has finished serving its purpose. Rather than let it rot, we might as well take it back. Who knows? Maybe it can be of help to you?"


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    "That weapon you speak of, is it powerful?"


    Alice was a little curious. There''d be no reason for Andusia to mention it if it was only a normal weapon. After all, a Demon King''s weapon was different from the Hero''s Sword. It wasn''t created by God, but by the Demon King who owned it instead.


    While a Demon King''s weapon might be significantly stronger than most weapons in this world, it was unlikely to be useful for Alice since she had the Hero''s Sword. Andusia most likely knew about this as well, so the fact that she still chose to bring up this weapon meant that there should be something special about it.


    "I know what you''re thinking. You must think that my weapon is uselesspared to the Hero''s Sword, right?" Andusia sneered as she looked at Alice. "In that case, I''ll have you know that I created that weapon using a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence I stole."

 Chapter 230: No Need to Mind Me

    Chapter 230: No Need to Mind Me


    The Demon King''s Power was honestly quite a pitiful existence. Not only was God targetting it, but even the Demon Kings that it was using as tools were trying to get a slice of its meat for their own purposes.


    However, considering that the Demon King''s Power was inherently an evildoer, it was only natural for it to receive such treatment. Not to mention, Demon Kings were individuals seeking to take revenge on humans, and their hatred for humans originated from the bottom of their hearts. They weren''t randomly targeting humans for no reason or some childish reason.


    Simply put, all Demon Kings had matured mentalities, and it was only normal for them to be wary and take advantage of the Demon King''s Power, something that was of unknown origins.


    "Actually, almost all Demon Kings in the past have taken action against the Demon King''s Power''s essence. I am only one of many," Andusia exined while guiding Alice toward the weapon she left with her friend''s descendants. "Didn''t you ask me whether the Demon King''s Power possesses a consciousness previously? After I discovered this point, I started scraping off some of the Demon King''s Power''s essence to prepare for a rainy day."


    "So, you actually hid some information from me before, didn''t you?" Alice asked as she turned to look at Andusia with a threatening gaze. Just like she expected, Andusia hadn''t been entirely truthful with her previously. She had previously felt that the information she obtained from Andusia after torturing the other party with Magical Girl Hikari was iplete. It turned out that she was right since Andusia had never mentioned that she hadid her hands on the Demon King''s Power.


    "You never asked if I hadid my hands on the Demon King''s Power. You only asked if I noticed whether it was self-conscious. I answered truthfully, didn''t I?" Andusia replied with a dryugh. Although Alice was no longer isting her mana core with the Forest Crystal, Alice''s mana remained in her body. If Alice wanted to, she could reconstruct the Forest Crystal with just a thought.


    Hence, when facing Alice, Andusia still dared not behave too arrogantly. However, it was also a fact that Alice had failed to ask whether she had taken action against the Demon King''s Power previously.


    "Also, aren''t I telling you about it now? This makes up for it, right?"


    "Hmph" Alice snorted.


    Although Alice didn''t know why Andusia would suddenly share this information with her, she could sense that Andusia had be much more honest than before. As evidence, Andusia was now taking the initiative to share a bunch of information unconditionally. It was as if something had made Andusia rx her guard around her.


    Although Alice didn''t know why Andusia had be so obedient all of a sudden, she decided not to look further into this matter. After all, this wasn''t a bad situation.


    "The first Demon King to target the Demon King''s Power also happens to be the First Demon King Varak. He should also be the strongest out of all Demon Kings in history. I don''t know why he''s so powerful, but in short, he is a little stronger than the other Demon Kings," Andusia said. "After sealing a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence, Varak turned it into a gem. Nobody knows where the gem is at right, but many demons are trying to find it and obtain a portion of Varak''s strength... Turn right at the intersection ahead."


    "The First Demon King, huh?"


    Alice nodded. Andusia might not know why the First Demon King was a little stronger than Demon Kings of subsequent generations, but Alice could more or less guess the reason. It was most likely because the world''s order was at its most chaotic state during the First Demon King''s era.


    The Demon King''s Power sourced its strength from people''s desire to destroy the world''sws. Meanwhile, theck of order ten thousand years ago created the most conducive environment for the birth of people who held naturalws in contempt and yearned for destruction. This situation allowed the Demon King''s Power''s strength to reach its peak.


    However, as civilization progressed, the various creatures living on this world began establishing their ownws and order. As a result, the Demon King''s Power could no longer umte as much strength as it did when it created the First Demon King.


    "If I remember correctly, the First Demon King should be sealed inside the Lajal Mountain Range, right?"


    The Lajal Mountain Range was located outside the Gryffin Forest, which also served as a part of the Gryffin Kingdom''s border. Meanwhile, the Ymir Kingdom sat on the other side of the mountain range. ording to historical records, the Lajal Mountain Range was a product of a taboo used by the First Hero, and the mountain range was used to suppress the First Demon King''s physical body and soul until death imed him.


    Of course, "until death imed him" was merely an expression written in history books. Considering how tenacious the souls of Demon Kings were, Alice had a good reason to believe that the First Demon King wasn''t thoroughly dead. Perhaps his soul might be alive inside a medium even now.


    "Yes, all history books say that, so it should be true," Andusia said, nodding. She had simrly read about the First Hero imprisoning the First Demon King under the Lajal Mountain Range when she was still human. "Unfortunately, civilization ten thousand years ago was still in a rtively primitive state, and the technology to preserve information was poor. So, most of the taboos developed during the First Demon King and First Hero''s era have already been lost to time."


    Speaking of the Lajal Mountain Range, Alice suddenly remembered the taboo "Gaia''s Power" she had previously cast using Zauna''s bear panties. The taboo had allowed her to spontaneously create a giant mountain and crush the Boria Wolf King under it. Thinking about it now, Gaia''s Power''s effect was simr to the taboo the First Hero had used. Maybe the First Hero had also used Gaia''s Power to suppress the First Demon King?


    "We''re here."


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    Most catkins were currently resting at home since it was lunchtime, so hardly any people were out walking on the streets. Because of this, Alice and Andusia arrived at their destination without anybody noticing their conversation.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but grab Andusia off of her shoulder upon arriving at their destination. Then, while looking at the ce in front of her, Alice''s mouth twitched as she asked, "Are you sure this is the ce?"


    "That''s right. I''m sure it''s here. I created the weapon, so I can urately sense where it is," Andusia said, nodding. Then, as if she did not notice the tangled look on Alice''s face, she pointed at the gravestone ahead and further specified, "It''s inside there."


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    Indeed. The ce Andusia had led Alice to was none other than a grave. Moreover, by the looks of it, the weapon she made for her friend''s descendants had been buried with her friend.


    "This weapon has already touched upon the world''sws. Once it recognizes a family, it will protect the family. So, even if this weapon is buried here, it can ensure that the family I appointed will not suffer any major tragedies," Andusia exined. "No need to mind me. Dig away."

 Chapter 231: Naming Victim

    Chapter 231: Naming Victim


    Alice wiggled her fingers a little as she looked at the old gravestone before her. In the end, she failed to muster the courage to dig up the grave.


    This was a grave they were talking about. Would a normal person dig up another person''s grave just to acquire a weapon? Not to mention, this weapon wasn''t even an indispensable item for Alice. While Andusia might have constructed it using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, there was little research Alice could do on it even if she got her hands on it.


    After all, the Demon King''s Power was one of this world''sws. Alice''s abilities still hadn''t reached a point where she could analyzews. Although she had already learned Psychokinesis Transcendence, a taboo that was theoretically capable of analyzingws, her mastery over the taboo was only at the surface level right now. She still had a long way to go before she could fully master the taboo. In that case, did she really need to be a grave robber?


    "This isn''t even your grave, so why are you telling me not to mind you?" Aliceined as she looked at the figurine sitting on her shoulder. "This is someone else''s grave. If anyone is to give permission to rob it, it should be the grave''s owner or the owner''s descendants."


    "This grave''s owner and I are like sisters. You can rest assured that my words can represent her will," Andusia said as she looked at the gravestone before her. She didn''t know who this gravestone belonged to originally. However, she now knew who it belonged to after looking at the name engraved on it. "Also, you don''t have to worry about the ownering to find you. Her soul has...long since disappeared. I am certain of that."


    Andusia was naturally certain of this. This was because this grave belonged to her best friend, the brave and righteous catkin named Jill Maelor. After bing the Demon King, Andusia had invested a lot of effort into searching for Jill''s soul. She had hoped that Jill''s soul had yet to vanish after death. She could have found a way to resurrect Jill even if she was only a remnant soul.


    Unfortunately, Andusia''s efforts were in vain. Without the help of soul preservation magic, any creature''s soul would vanish out of existence shortly after death. Meanwhile, by the time Andusia had be the Demon King, a long time had already passed since Jill''s death.


    "Like sisters I think I understand who this grave belongs to," Alice said in realization. She knew that Andusia used to have a ve friend with whom she was close since Andusia had previously told her about it. Meanwhile, it appeared that this friend was also why Andusia hated humans so much. "But I didn''t think your friend was actually a catkin"


    While saying so, Alice looked at the name engraved in cursive letters on the gravestone. Although the gravestone had be a little mottled, the grave owner''s name was still clearly visible, possibly because the gravestone was strengthened by magic.


    "Jill Maelor This surname sounds familiar."


    Ciel''s surname was Maelor. However, Alice had never called Ciel by her surname, so even though she found the surname Maelor familiar, she didn''t link it with Ciel immediately.


    This just went to show how strange Alice''s and Ciel''s encounter with each other was. They had entered an SM rtionship shortly after meeting. They had skipped so many steps in their friendship that Alice didn''t even have a deep impression of Ciel''s surname.


    "Isn''t it just your imagination? Anyway, the weapon should have been buried with her," Andusia said, swiftly redirecting Alice''s attention.


    Honestly, Andusia didn''t mind Alice discovering that Ciel was Jill''s descendant. Although Jill''s reputation would most likely take a huge dip, it wouldn''t cause anyone any actual harm. On the contrary, once Alice learned of the whole situation, Andusia could get Alice to care for Ciel and her family. In exchange, Andusia would obediently cooperate with Alice.


    "Although I really want to use this opportunity to learn more about the Demon King''s Power, digging up someone else''s grave is still too much for me..." Alice said, shaking her head. Although Andusia had already given her permission to desecrate her friend''s grave, Alice still chose to abandon the idea.


    On the one hand, robbing someone''s grave posed too much of a psychological hurdle for her. On the other hand, the descendants of this grave''s owner should still be living in Elkite. If she were to dig up this person''s grave, what if her descendants found outter?


    The Demon King''s Power hadn''t even found a new host yet. She still had plenty of time to develop a countermeasure for the Demon King''s Power. If worse came to worst, she could resurrect every Hero and Demon King who wasn''t thoroughly dead yet. She refused to believe that she couldn''t find someone who had a solution to the Demon King''s Power.


    Not to mention, Andusia had said that practically every Demon King in history hadid their hands on the Demon King''s Power. In that case, there should be more than one weapon made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. Even if she didn''t acquire the one in this grave, she could still search for others.


    "You could just fill this grave again after you dig it up. Nobody will notice it," Andusia said frustratedly. She didn''t know why Alice would be so insistent on such a strange detail.


    However, since Alice refused to rob Jill''s grave, there was nothing Andusia could do about it. She couldn''t possibly force Alice into doing it, right? So, after pondering for a moment, Andusia added:


    "Actually, there''s one other way to retrieve the weapon. Weapons that have touched upon the world''sws have a true name. You can awaken my weapon and establish a link with it if you call out to its true name."


    After pausing for a moment, Andusia continued:


    "Once you establish a link with the weapon, you can summon it to your side using a simple Summon spell. It''s simr to how you can summon your Hero''s Sword from a distance. That means you can obtain my weapon without digging up the grave. How about it?"


    <em>What? I can summon the Hero''s Sword from a distance?</em>


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    Alice grew a little awkward when she heard Andusia''s words. She never knew that the Hero''s Sword had such a feature. After all, she wasn''t an actual Hero, so she didn''t receive the instruction manual for the Hero''s Sword when she first wielded it like Aird.


    "If you knew about this method, why couldn''t you have mentioned it earlier?" Of course, even though Alice was hearing about this feature for the first time, it didn''t stop her fromining to Andusia. Since it was possible to retrieve the weapon without desecrating someone else''s grave, why didn''t Andusia tell her about this method sooner? "What''s that weapon''s name?"


    Andusia fell silent when she heard Alice''s question. Then, she said in a gloomy voice, ""This Is Wrong.""


    Alice failed to react to Andusia''s answer right away as she asked, "What did you say?"


    "I said, this weapon''s name is called "This Is Wrong!"" Andusia shouted out of frustration. Then, worried that Alice would misunderstand her for having a terrible naming sense, she quickly added, "I didn''te up with this name! It was just that the weapon came out looking slightly different from how I imagined it, soso I blurted out the words "this is wrong"...and the weapon recorded these words as its name"


    Alice suddenly understood why Andusia''s first suggestion was for her to be a grave robber rather than to summon the weapon using its true name.

 Chapter 232: Special Weapon(♀)

    Chapter 232: Special Weapon(��)


    Alice did not try to connect with Andusia''s weapon right away. Instead, she walked around the cemetery and scanned the vicinity using Mind Search first, ensuring nobody else was nearby.


    Maybe because Elkite was a rtively peaceful town, Alice failed to find anybody in the graveyard. There wasn''t even a gravekeeper to ensure the cemetery''s security.


    This situation relieved Alice. If someone else was nearby, she definitely wouldn''t dare to shout "This Is Wrong" in this cemetery. She might be simply calling out the name of Andusia''s weapon, but others didn''t know that. If they heard her shouting this line of words that seemingly made no sense in the middle of a cemetery, they would most likely treat her as a girl with mental problems.


    Meanwhile, the reason Andusia had given her weapon such a strange name was simple. Unlike the Hero''s Sword, the weapon Andusia created didn''te with an instruction manual. So, she didn''t know that Law-grade weapons would take the first words they heard after being created as their name. Hence, when she saw her weaponing out looking different from what she imagined, she must have shouted "this is wrong" out of frustration and without realizing that her weapon would treat these words as its name.


    Andusia might have thought of recasting the weapon. However, recasting a Law-grade weapon evidently wasn''t an easy task, seeing as Andusia didn''t do so.


    While gleefully imagining Andusia''s flustered expression when she realized her blunder, Alice shouted the name of Andusia''s weapon, "This Is Wrong!"


    Just like Andusia stated, Alice could feel a mysterious connection forming between her and something in this cemetery after calling out the weapon''s name. It was as if the other party was responding to her call.


    Of course, that wasn''t to say that this weapon would respond to anyone saying the words "this is wrong." Unless someone was consciously calling out to it, the weapon wouldn''t offer a response even if someone identally called out its name. Otherwise, Alice''s Hero''s Sword "Okay" would probably have to respond to hundreds of millions of calls each day.


    After feeling a link forming between herself and "This Is Wrong," Alice turned to Andusia and asked:


    "I can feel a link forming between me and your weapon. What should I do next?"


    "...Don''t tell me you don''t even know how to use the most basic Summon spell?"


    Andusia frowned as she looked at Alice. She couldn''t help but feel that Alice was a little unreliable as a Hero. She also worried that she might be making a mistake relying on Alice to protect her friend''s descendants.


    Summon was one of the most basic spells in existence. Simr to the Illumination spell, Summon belonged was a basic among basic spells.


    Regardless, Andusia still chose to teach Alice about Summon.


    ...


    "So this is Summon..."


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry when Andusia finished her exnation on Summon.


    Different from her assumptions, Summon wasn''t a powerful spell that could move objects via teleportation or spatial repositioning. Instead, it was a spell with a very simple operating principleto summon, or, more specifically, grab the target item using mana.


    For example, if she were to use Summon on the Hero''s Sword, it would simply take to the air and fly into her hand.


    The spell was so simple that, with her current mastery over mana, she could master it in only a few minutes. To put the spell''s simplicity into perspective, learning how to cast Summon was akin to learning how to do basic addition and subtraction. In fact, ording to Andusia, Summon was one of the first basic spells taught to children in grade school.


    As to why Alice didn''t know about such a simple spell, it was because she had never attended grade school in this world. There was no way high school textbooks would record such a basic spell, either. So, Alice ended up in a situation where she didn''t know basic spells like Summon despite being able to cast taboos already.


    Of course, after listening to Andusia''s exnation, Alice quickly learned how to cast Summon. Then, she tried the spell on a fallen tree branch nearby.


    Sure enough, under the influence of her extremely high-quality mana, the tree branch flew into her hand in the blink of an eye.


    [Weapon: Cypress Branch Stained With Death Energy]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Speed +2]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    "This really is ''Summon'' alright"


    Alice smiled helplessly as she realized how simple of a spell Summon was. The word "summon" used to name this spell carried the meaning of "call for." It didn''t refer to the teleportation of a target object from one ce to another.


    After verifying the usability of Summon, Alice raised her hand at the grave before her. Then, using the connection between her and the weapon inside the grave as a guide, she cast Summon once more.


    Immediately, a small tear opened up in the grave before her. Then, a ck shadow broke out from the dirt andnded in Alice''s hand.


    Alice frowned when she saw the dirt covering the weapon. Immediately, she cast a Clean spell, clear water pouring out from her right hand and washing away the dirt that covered her hand and the weapon. Then, a stream of warm air circled around Alice''s right hand, drying it.


    Clean was a simplebination spell that involved water magic and wind magic. She had learned handy spells like Clean in ss. Because it was moreplex than Summon, it was also mentioned in high school courses.


    After Clean had removed the dirt covering the weapon, Alice immediately felt the weapon''s information appearing in her mind. At the same time, she could feel a surge of mana filling her body, the volume of the mana allowing her to instantly determine that the weapon she held was at the Law-grade.


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    However, Alice didn''t bother looking at the weapon information in her mind right away. Instead, a grin appeared on her face as she looked toward the weapon in her right hand. She wanted to see why Andusia would think that this weapon was a mistake.


    Meanwhile, the instant Alice saw the weapon in her right hand, she promptly understood why Andusia would shout out the words "this is wrong" immediately after creating this weapon.


    The weapon in her hand was avender-colored stick with a bumpy surface and a rounded and smooth top. No matter how she looked at it, this didn''t seem like a proper weapon

 Chapter 233: Whod Dare Walk Around With This Thing?

    Chapter 233: Who''d Dare Walk Around With This Thing?


    It was fortunate that nobody else was in the cemetery. Otherwise, Alice felt that she would suffer instant social death if she were seen holding this <em>thing </em>in her hand.


    "Are you telling me that this <em>thing </em>is your weapon?" Alice asked with gritted teeth as she turned to look at Andusia. Although she had never used such a thing in her life, the inte existed in this world and on Earth. So, she had naturally seen this thing before.


    "<em>Cough, cough.</em> I admit that it looks a lot like an item a woman would use in private. However, in reality, it is a terribly misshapen club," Andusia said awkwardly.


    Andusia naturally knew that her creation looked strange. However, it was a fact that this weapon was something forged using the Demon King''s Power and surpassed weapons at the Artifact grade. Hence, thinking Alice might have a use for it, she decided to inform Alice about the weapon''s existence.


    Alice was also aware of this point. If Andusia had really found her creation embarrassing, she could simply keep quiet about it. Since Andusia had chosen to reveal this weapon''s existence regardless of the consequences to her reputation, it meant that she truly believed that this weapon could be useful to Alice.


    However, the problem was that Alice was the one holding the weapon right now. Andusia might be feeling humiliated now, but the one to get humiliated afterward would be Alice.


    "Do all of you Demon Kings like to use clubs?" Alice uttered a powerlessint. The memory of waking up to see Luna riding on top of her while wielding a massive spiked club was still fresh in her mind even now. "But you sure are a forging genius to be able to turn a club into this...thing."


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    "It wasn''t my choice. I originally wanted to make arge spiked club. However, I realized halfway through that the Demon King''s Power''s essence I extracted wasn''t enough to support the creation of such arge weapon," Andusia said, trying to clear her name. "So, I had no other choice but to reduce the size of the club and its spikes. However, I identally went a little too far, and the club ended up as this small stick with bumps on it..."


    "And you still had the gall to give this deformed club to your close friend''s descendants? Did they not treat you as a pervert?"


    Alice swung the stick a few times, finding that, despite the weapon''s somewhat bad...no, terrible shape, it felt surprisingly sturdy. It definitely wasn''t a lightweight product made using stic.


    "Your friend''s descendants are really something as well to bury this thing with your friend. I bet they must have also thought that this thing looked too strange to keep at home, so they just decided to treat it as a burial item."


    Whileining about Andusia''s strange weapon, Alice also took a moment to inspect the weapon information disyed in her mind.


    [Weapon: Iplete Demon King''s Power - This Is Wrong]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Mind +5000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Silent Soul (Passive Skill. Your soul will not be disturbed in any way. Any magic that tries to target your soul will be countered);


    Curse of Darkness (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the dark element is maxed, and you will deal additional damage to holy-attributed enemies);


    Earthshaking Strike (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a dark-attributed ground-based attack, sinking your opponent''s soul into the ground forever.)]


    Since the entire weapon was made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, her right hand simply named it "Iplete Demon King''s Power." As for the name "This Is Wrong" that came after that, it was naturally the name Andusia had mistakenly given to the weapon.


    After seeing the weapon''s appearance, Alice could fully empathize with Andusia. Anyone would probably feel embarrassed and angry if their fiendish spiked club ended up as a female masturbation product.


    "But the shape of this weapon is still too much..."


    Alice might have understood how this weapon ended up with its shape and name, but she really couldn''t bring herself to meet with others while holding this stick in her hand.


    If she were to get caught using panties as a weapon, she would understandably suffer social death immediately. However, if others merely caught her carrying a sack of panties, she could still lie her way out of the situation, saying that they were her spares. Although people would still look at her strangely for carrying so many spare panties, it wasn''t the end of the world.


    However, it was apletely different story for this stick. Just getting caught carrying this thing around in public would result in her social death, let alone wielding it as a weapon. After all, there was no way any normal person would carry a sex toy around in public.


    Whether it was Alice''s identity as the Hero or the Gryffin Princess, both were hot gossip topics for people. If she got seen carrying this stick in public, news of it would instantly spread across the entire human realm. Hence, she absolutely could not let others see her carrying it.


    "Is there a way to recast this thing?" Alice asked while using Mind Search to scan the surroundings again. Then, after ensuring that nobody was nearby or approaching the cemetery, she continued, "So long as this thing retains this appearance, I will never be able to have peace of mind. I''ll have to live in constant fear of someone catching me with this thing in hand."


    "It is possible to recast it. I also thought of recasting it and giving it a new appearance initially. However, before I could put my n into practice, the war officially began," Andusia said, shrugging. "You must know that only one Demon King has ever seeded in conquering the human realm while everyone else failed. I couldn''t guarantee whether I could return alive, so I had no choice but to suck it up and give this thing to my friend''s descendants."


    "You must have been under a lot of pressure when you handed this thing to them," Alice said,ughing at Andusia. "How do I recast it, then? Do I need to get the help of the dwarves? Since this thing is forged from the Demon King''s Power''s essence, I doubt it can be recast using normal methods."


    "Naturally. The dwarves'' forging skills might be amazing, but even the best among them can barely create an Artifact by chance. It''s impossible for them to safely recast a weapon above the Artifact rank. Their mes won''t even be able to melt this weapon, let alone recasting it," Andusia said proudly. "You''d need to use the power of numerous taboos to recast it. So, aside from us Demon Kings and Heroes, nobody else can do it."


    The human and demon realms might have some powerful individuals capable of casting taboos, but these people would run out of mana after one or two casts. Meanwhile, Andusia had mentioned that her weapon required numerous taboos to recast. So, this was indeed a job that only Heroes and Demon Kings could aplish.


    "Which taboos are needed?" Alice asked as she stuffed the stick into her strategic pouch. Thankfully, there were sufficient panties inside the pouch to bury the stickpletely. So, it wasn''t possible to see the stick''s shape from outside the pouch.


    However, the stick was somewhat long, and it barely fit inside the pouch. So, Alice couldn''t help but consider whether she should switch to a bigger pouch afterward.


    "Many of those taboos were left behind by my predecessors, and they were specially designed to target the Demon King''s Power. So, there is no way you will find them in the human realm," Andusia said, shaking her head. "Typically, you''ll find the books for those taboos hidden in the residence of the previous generation''s Demon King. So, you''ll have to head to the demon realm and visit the previous generation''s Demon King''s residence."


    Learning a taboo required the assistance of the taboo''s magic book. Hence, Andusia couldn''t pass on the taboos to Alice even if she knew them. Alice would have to search for those books if she wanted to learn those taboos.


    "This is troublesome..."


    Alice scratched her head. Grant was the previous generation''s Demon King, and Alice naturally knew where his residence was. It was none other than the abandoned Demon King City. However, Alice didn''t find any taboo books when she previously visited the castle in the city. This must mean that there was a hidden room inside the castle.


    Although it was troublesome, Alice still decided to visit the demon realm. After all, Andusia had already said that those taboos were created specifically to target the Demon King''s Power. In other words, these taboos could potentially be used to destroy the Demon King''s Power.


    It also made sense that the Demon Kings were the ones to have developed a countermeasure to the Demon King''s Power. They had spent the most time with the Demon King''s Power, so it was only natural that they were very familiar with it.


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 Chapter 234: Secret Getting Exposed Yet Again

    Chapter 234: Secret Getting Exposed Yet Again


    The catkins only had three unique taboos in their collection, significantly less than the elves'' collection. Under the condition that she only needed to achieve entry-level mastery, Alice only took two and a half days to finish her study session.


    Ciel might have been given a long lecture by her mother, but it didn''t seem like her mother had noticed her true fetish. On the contrary, her mother had even given her some additional funds, saying that if she had difficulty holding back her urges, she could use the money to buy a few pairs of stockings to sate her desires.


    Alice was stunned when she heard about this matter from Ciel. Although she knew that beastkins were quite open about their heat periods, she didn''t think Ciel''s mother would help fund her daughter''s fetish.


    Of course, that was only because Ciel''s mother was under the wrong assumption that Ciel had a foot fetish. If Ciel''s mother were to find out that her daughter was actually a masochist, Ciel probably wouldn''t get away so easily. After all,pared to having a foot fetish, being a masochist came with the risk of getting injured.


    However, Alice didn''t n on telling Ciel''s mother the truth. If she were to talk to Ciel like a normal person, she''d have no way to hold a proper conversation with the other party. Only by putting pressure (in a physical sense) on Ciel could she talk to the catkin properly. If Ciel''s mother ended up fixing Ciel''s fetish, how was she supposed to converse with Ciel in the future?


    In any case, Ciel''s masochistic tendencies would only react toward her. So long as this condition remained true, Alice was confident she could prevent Ciel from receiving any injuries.


    "Are you leaving?"


    Two and a half days was neither a short period nor a long period. After learning the catkins'' three taboos to an entry-level, Alice nned to set off once more. However, when Ciel saw Alice packing her luggage, she couldn''t help but feel a little disheartened.


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    After packing her belongings into her small luggage, Alice turned to look at Ciel, who stood by the guest room''s entrance, and smiled, asking, "That''s right. Can''t bear to part with me?"


    "W-Who would want to be with you?!" Ciel vehemently denied Alice''s allegation, reacting like an excited cat. "You only stayed in my house for two days! Don''t think so highly of yourself! I still haven''t forgotten about you stealing my limelight at the academy!"


    "Is that so?" Alice walked to Ciel''s side, raised her hand, and grabbed Ciel''s tail. Then, she gave it a moderate squeeze, causing the catkin''s body to soften immediately. "Your true thoughts?""


    "I''m a li-little reluctant" Ciel replied obediently as she looked at Alice with misty eyes.


    This was why Alice chose not to tell Ciel''s mother about the truth. If Ciel''s special fetish got corrected, Alice would have had a much more difficult time conversing with Ciel. Their conversations would most likely be riddles, and she''d have to constantly guess what was actually going through Ciel''s mind.


    Inparison, their current method ofmunication was much simpler. All Alice needed to do was apply some force to get Ciel to speak the truth obediently.


    "I''ll be heading off, then. Tell your mother I said goodbye," Alice said as she picked up her luggage and walked out of the guest room. Ciel''s mother was currently out for work, so Alice could only get Ciel to pass on her words. "We''ll meet back at school."


    "Okay," Ciel replied softly as she watched Alice''s departing back.


    "You want to visit the dogkins now?"


    Alice quickly messaged Elodie using her phone after arriving back in Holl City''s teleportation hub. Elodie was responsible for negotiating with the dogkins, so Alice naturally needed to find Elodie now that she was going to visit the dogkins.


    Meanwhile, Elodie did not disappoint Alice''s expectations, either. After hearing that Alice wanted to visit the dogkins now, she had Alice stay on hold for a moment and left to do something. Then, a few minutester, Elodie''s voice came through the phone once more:


    "No problem. I just inquired, and the dogkins aren''t busy with anything, so you can visit them immediately. I already registered your information for you, so all you need to do is head to the chieftain''s office after arriving. He will bring you to their chief totem."


    "Is that so? Thanks."


    Alice was relieved by Elodie''s work efficiency. It was also to be expected of a thief rmended by Rosa. It would seem that Elodie was truly well connected among the beastkins.


    "It''s nothing. I still have to thank you for lifting the curse on my mother. As expected of a magic genius rmended by Rosa," Elodie said, giggling. "Also, my mother seems to be very interested in you. Do you have some time toe to our home for a meal once you are done with your business? My father also wishes to meet the talented princess."


    <em>Marion wants to meet me?</em>


    Speaking of Marion, Alice immediately felt her head starting to ache. After taking care of matters over at Marion''s house, Rosa had told her that Marion had caught her in the act of secretly stashing Marion''s panties away. However, Marion didn''t seem to have spread this information, so Alice couldn''t help but wonder what the woman was nning.


    "Okay. I''ll drop by once I am done with things on my end."


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    Although Alice found it quite embarrassing to have someone catch her stealing panties, she had no choice but to agree to Elodie''s invitation to ensure that Marion didn''t reveal her secret.


    "Mhm. I''ll look forward to it," Elodie said in a happy mood. "I''ll stop disturbing you. Although I don''t know what you are trying to search for using the dogkins'' chief totem, I hope you can find what you are looking for. Goodbye~"


    After saying so, Elodie disconnected the call, leaving Alice sighing in the teleportation hub.

 Chapter 235: Dogkins Search Engine

    Chapter 235: Dogkins'' Search Engine


    Compared to the catkins, the dogkins had slightly stricter personalities.


    Alice was heading to the dogkins'' settlement Midog by herself this time. Of course, Andusia remained seated on her shoulder like usual, but the dogkins were unlikely to notice that she was an actual person.


    The process of teleporting to Midog was simr to when she teleported to Elkite. After finding the teleportation roombeled with the "Midog" sign, Alice entered the room and activated the teleportation array via the provided interface.


    Compared to when she teleported to Elkite, Alice experienced a much more nauseating feeling when she teleported to Midog. She deduced that this was because Midog was farther away from Holl City than Elkite. After all, the side effects of teleportation typically became more prominent the greater the distance traveled.


    After the teleportation ended, Alice appeared in Midog''s teleportation house. It wasn''t much different from Elkite''s teleportation house. If she had to point out something different, it would be the presence of a vending machine in Midog''s teleportation house. After taking a quick look, Alice found that the vending machine was selling various bone-vored carbonated drinks.


    Admittedly, Alice found these drinks quite novel since she had never seen any shops in Holl City selling such vors. Even so, she wasn''t the least bit interested in tasting these drinks.


    After stepping out of the teleportation house, Alice found herself looking at a rtively retro town. Unlike the catkins in Elkite, most of the dogkins she could see wore a serious look on their faces.


    Several dogkins walking on the street noticed Alice when she walked out of the teleportation house. Simr to Elkite''s catkins, these dogkins revealed surprised expressions when they saw a human walking out of the teleportation house. It would seem that none of them expected to see a human here.


    A few dogkins seemingly recognized Alice, the surprise on their faces looking much more prominent. Midog was a municipality located within the Gryffin Kingdom. No matter how little attention these dogkins paid to the news, they were bound to learn about important pieces of information, such as the Gryffin Kingdom''s new princess(es). Hence, it was normal for some dogkins to recognize Alice.


    Aside from the pedestrians, Alice noticed a few dogkins dressed in police uniforms. When these officers saw Alice, they took out a booklet from their pockets and flipped through it for a moment. Then, they resumed their patrol of the town, leaving Alice to her own devices.


    When Alice saw this, she was once again reassured of Elodie''s work efficiency. With this, she should be able to walk around Midog without being harassed byw enforcement.


    "But the dogkins sure have strict personalities. They''repletely different from the catkins," Alice muttered as she walked through the streets of Midog.


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    She hade across quite a few dogkins merrily chatting with each other. Even so, the overall atmosphere in Midog was nowhere near as carefree as the atmosphere in Elkite. The catkins gave off a rxed feeling even while they were at work, whereas the dogkins looked extremely serious when they were working. Even the shopkeepers of the shops she passed by wore serious looks on their faces.


    "Every beastkin race has different characteristics, so this is normal. You''ll get used to it soon enough," Andusia said while stiffly maintaining her sitting posture on Alice''s shoulder. Naturally, she had transmitted her voice directly into Alice''s ears. "At the very least, the situation here is much better than the beastkins living over at the demon realm. Take the wolfkins living in the demon realm, for example. When you walk into their settlement, every one of them will look at you as if you are food."


    Any beastkin race capable of living in the demon realm was a race that worshiped strength without exception. Hence, it was normal for the demon realm''s wolfkins to show such behavior.


    Of course, the situation Andusia described was the wolfkins'' settlement thousands of years ago. Now that the current demon realm had established its own order, the situation over there wasn''t as chaotic as before. Hence, it was unlikely that the behavior of the demon realm''s wolfkins was as excessive as Andusia described anymore.


    Alice followed the street signs and reached Midog''s administrative building unhindered. Then, she found the dogkins'' chieftain in one of the offices in the building.


    The dogkins'' chieftain was simrly a serious dogkin. Appearance-wise, he was a male dogkin with gray canine ears on his head.


    "Greetings, Your Highness Alice. I''ve heard much about you," the dogkins'' chieftain said as he looked at Alice seriously. "I have already been informed of the purpose of your visit by Shadow. Although I do not know how you managed to convince Shadow to help you, since we have already promised to help her, we will not go back on our word."


    <em>Shadow?</em>


    Alice was momentarily stunned. Then, she quickly realized that "Shadow" was most likely Elodie''s alias in the thieving industry. It also made sense that Elodie would use an alias. If she were to operate as a thief using her real name, it probably wouldn''t take more than a few days for her identity to get exposed.


    Alice only had the fortune of knowing Elodie''s real identity because she had Rosa paving the way for her. Otherwise, if she were to contact Elodie through the thief circle, she would most likely only get to interact with an unknown thief going by the alias of "Shadow."


    "I will lead you to our chief totem," the dogkins'' chieftain said as he stood up from his seat. Then, he led Alice to the administrative building''s third floor. "The chief totem doesn''t have a lot of energy umted, so we can only allow you to use it up to three times. Please understand."


    <em>They''re actually giving me three uses?</em>


    Alice originally thought she could only use the dogkins'' chief totem once. She didn''t think she would get three uses. This was far outside of her expectations. However, Alice only needed the chief totem to search for the Demon King''s Power, so it was unlikely that she would need the two extra uses.


    After arriving on the third floor, the dogkins'' chieftain stopped in front of a room. Then, he ced both hands on the room''s door and injected a continuous stream of mana into it.


    "He''s unlocking the door," Andusia exined, conveying her voice directly into Alice''s ears. "I can sense at least twentyplex magic locks set up around this room, so it''s going to take some time to unlock all of them."


    Magic locks, huh


    Against the average person, these 20-plus magic locks would definitely serve as a huge obstacle. Moreover, with how many locks there were in ce, even a person who knew thebination to unlock these locks would need some time to unlock all of them.


    However, supposed Alice needed to force her way into the room. In that case, she could easily get past these magic locks by giving them the concept of "ordinary lock" using Aspect Separation followed by a simple Lockpick spell.


    "Okay, sorry for the long wait." After working on the door for a few minutes, the dogkins'' chieftain removed his hands from the door and wiped the sweat on his forehead. Then, he nodded to Alice, opened the door, and stepped aside, saying, "Please enter. I believe you have already been informed of the chief totem''s usage method, right?"


    "Yes. Thank you for the hard work."


    Alice nodded and entered the room, closing the door behind her. Meanwhile, the dogkins'' chieftain stood guard by the door. Although this might make it seem that he didn''t trust Alice, it was his duty to inspect the chief totem''s condition. Hence, once Alice was done using it, he needed to check how many times Alice had used the chief totem.


    Alice didn''t mind that the dogkins'' chieftain was standing guard outside the room. The inside of the room was perfectly isted from the outside world, so she didn''t have to worry that anything she did inside would be noticed outside.


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    "Andusia, you know what to do, right?"


    "Yes, yes. I get it, I get it."


    Andusia rolled her eyes at Alice. Now that they were in this isted room, she naturally didn''t have to continue speaking to Alice using magic. Although using such magic was as easy as eating and drinking for her, it still expended some of her energy.


    After taking a look at the unremarkable cuboid canine totem sitting in the middle of the room, Andusia jumped off Alice''s shoulder andnded on the totem. Then, she sat cross-legged on the totem.


    The dogkins'' chief totem was only as wide as an adult man''s arm. However, Andusia was only a small figurine, so she had no trouble sitting on it.


    "I heard that the dogkins'' chief totem can search for the location of anything so long as it has a medium. Let''s check if that im is true," Andusia said, chuckling. Then, she injected some of her mana into the totem.

 Chapter 236: Spring up All Over the Place

    Chapter 236: Spring up All Over the ce


    The dogkins'' chief totem gave off a faint glow when Andusia injected her mana into it, the glow growing brighter and brighter as if the totem was charging its power.


    After the intensity of the glow increased to a certain point, a streak of light escaped from the totem andnded on Alice''s body. As the chief totem''s mana spread across her body, she could feel the presence of multiple auras located at varying distances from her.


    These auras belonged to none other than the target Alice was searching for. Alice was certain of this because of these multiple auras, one came from Andusia, and another came from I Was Wrong, which was stored inside the pouch hanging by her waist.


    "It actually worked"


    Honestly, Alice had been skeptical about the dogkins'' chief totem being able to locate the Demon King''s Power. After all, the Demon King''s Power was an existence that was tied to thews of this world. Even if the dogkins'' chief totem was powerful, it wouldn''t necessarily be able to work on the Demon King''s Power.


    However, when the chief totem conveyed its search results to her, Alice quickly realized that she had been oveplicating matters. Unlike what she expected, the dogkins'' totem didn''t need to influence the Demon King''s Power to search for it. Instead, it conducted its search for the Demon King''s Power simply by relying on the mana and aura of the medium it was provided. This search method was so simple and effective that Alice suspected that the dogkins'' chief totem could even search for items rted to God.


    "But there are currently 17 detectable auras"


    This oue rendered Alice a little speechless. She didn''t think that there would be so many things rted to the Demon King''s Power remaining in this world. In addition to Andusia and I Was Wrong, there were actually 15 other items carrying the Demon King''s Power''s aura in this world.


    Although the mana from the dogkins'' chief totem could help Alice perceive the general location of even the farthest aura, it didn''t give her an urate location. Hence, Alice hurriedly pulled out the map, which she had prepared beforehand, from her backpack and spread it across the table in the room.


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    <em>There''s one aura about 709 kilometers southeast of here... It''s in Holl City, so this aura should belong to Luna.</em>


    Alice quickly approximated the location of one of the auras she felt and marked it on the map. However, when she saw the marker pointing to Holl City, she quickly realized that this aura belonged to Luna.


    Luna''s strength was a product of the Demon King''s Power, just like Andusia. So, it was normal that the dogkins'' chief totem could find her.


    Anyway, Alice could only sense one aura in Holl City''s vicinity. This meant that the Demon King''s Power had indeed left Holl City after separating from Luna.


    <em>Aside from Andusia, I Was Wrong, and Luna, there is one more aura within the Gryffin Kingdom,</em> Alice thought to herself as she circled another location on the map. Then, she closed her eyes, focused her senses, and continued circling other locations on the map.


    <em>Four in the Gryffin Kingdom, one in the Ymir Kingdom, two in the Vulcan Kingdom, one in the Rhine Kingdomnone in the Milt Kingdom,</em> Alice thought while caressing her chin and looking at the map.


    While the Gryffin Kingdom might house the most instances of the Demon King''s Power''s aura, three of those auras were closely tied to her, so Alice could simply ignore them. Moreover, Alice knew that these 17 auras she detected didn''t represent all of the individuals and objects that carried the Demon King''s Power''s aura.


    If a former Demon King''s soul remained in this world, the soul would only radiate mana if it had found a suitable body or a medium like the Living Wood. In other words, the dogkins'' chief totem could only detect the presence of items made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, former Demon Kings who had found a suitable medium or body for their souls, and the Demon King''s Power. It couldn''t detect former Demon Kings whose souls did not carry any mana. For example, even if Grant were still alive, the dogkins'' chief totem wouldn''t have detected his presence.


    Regardless, since there were only eight presences in the human realm, the remaining nine presences were in the demon realm.


    This wasn''t particrly strange since these presences belonged to items left behind by Demon Kings. It waspletely understandable for some of these items to remain in the demon realm. However, the problem now was that Alice didn''t have a map of the demon realm on her. So, she couldn''t figure out the exact location of these presences.


    The mana the chief totem granted her couldn''tst forever. In fact, Alice could feel her perception of the auras growing weaker by the second. At this rate, it would take only an hour before these auras vanished from her perception.


    However, Alice wasn''t an inflexible fool. She quickly thought of a solution as she grabbed her phone with her right hand. Then, using the phone''s additional ability granted by her right hand, she gained ess to the demon realm''s inte.


    <em>Mobile phones really are a wonderful invention.</em>


    While praising the invention of mobile phones, Alice downloaded a map application via the demon realm''s inte. Although she couldn''t get an intuitive view of the demon realm''s map since she couldn''t spread it out like a physical map, she could still more or less use it to locate the nine other presences.


    Quickly, Alice recorded the locations of the nine presences on her phone. These presences were most likely items created using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. So, Alice felt that there was a need for her to collect them all.


    After Alice recorded the locations, she began cross-referencing the locations in her mind with the locations marked on the maps.


    She couldn''t afford any mistakes. ording to the Demon King''s Power''s past options, it would typically choose its host from the human realm. Hence, one of the five remaining locations in the human realm might very well be the Demon King''s Power''s hiding ce.


    However, once Alice began her cross-referencing, she couldn''t help but frown as she discovered a problemtwo of the auras she previously marked on the map of the human realm had moved.


    <em>The auras in the Ymir Kingdom and the Rhine Kingdom have clearly changed locations.</em>


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    Alice thought, furrowing her brows. She had used Psychokinesis Transcendence to assist her when marking the presences to increase her uracy. While she still couldn''t pinpoint these presences, she could narrow her search radius to within the size of a city. So, she could tell that the auras in the Ymir Kingdom and the Rhine Kingdom had moved. Moreover, they had moved at least half a city away from their previous location.


    This was half a city they were talking about. It had only been several minutes since she marked the locations of those presences. This meant that the "Demon King''s Power" in these two locations was moving at high speeds, and there were only two exnations for this situation.


    The first possibility was that these two auras belonged to items left behind by former Demon Kings, and someone was currently carrying them and moving around at high speeds. Either that or they were moving in a vehicle.


    The second possibility was that these auras belonged to resurrected or partially resurrected Demon Kings like Andusia, and these Demon Kings were currently hiding in the human realm doing who knows what. Out of these two possibilities, the second one was definitely bad news.

 Chapter 237: This Is Art

    Chapter 237: This Is Art


    "The nature of these pollutants is strange. Rather than call it a pollutant, it''d be more urate to call it a natural substance with unfavorable properties."


    This was the conclusion Lacey hade to after researching the demon realm''s air for some time. Based on her findings, the mana in the demon realm''s air couldn''t actually be considered polluted since the "pollutants" weren''t a result of external factors. Instead, these "pollutants" were an inherent part of the demon realm''s environment. So, one could say that the demon realm''s mana was in its natural state.


    "A natural substance with unfavorable properties?" Kristine muttered as she looked at the empty jars on the floor. She had brought thirty jars of air back from the demon realm, and they had used over twenty jars already. Fortunately, Lacey indeed had the qualifications of a senior alchemist as her research had already yielded some results. "Can you give me a simpler exnation? I don''t know much about alchemy, so I don''t really understand what you mean."


    "For example, if you squeeze the air in the human realm, you''ll squeeze out ''water'' which we can drink directly. However, if you were to squeeze the demon realm''s air, you''ll get a mixture of ''oil'' and ''water,'' with oil being the pollutants and water being mana. If you try to drink this mixture, it''s only natural that you''ll feel ufortable," Lacey exined after pondering for a moment. "But the problem now is that the demon realm can only produce this oil-water mixture. The ''oil''ponent wasn''t artificially added. Instead, it is an inherent part of the demon realm''s environment."


    "I see. So, the demons'' special organs are filters that filter the ''oil'' out of this mixture so that their bodies can use normal ''water,''" Kristine said, nodding. She had a much easier time understanding Lacey''s words after the girl equated mana with water and the pollutants with oil. "Then, is there a way to get rid of this ''oil''?"


    "It is possible, but this solution will be no different than transforming the demons'' special organs into a type of magic. It can only help the demons extract normal mana out of the air. It cannot resolve the source of the mana pollution," Lacey said, sighing. "It''s akin to creating gas masks to ensure that we can inhale non-toxic air in an environment that is filled with toxic air. While the toxins in the air are no longer a threat to us, they are still all around us."


    "This is troublesome That exins why the demons have never thought of solving their pollution problem. Even if they do know about the cause, there''s nothing they can actually do about it," Kristine said, suddenly realizing why the demons would rather fight a war with an overwhelmingly high chance of defeat than try to solve their pollution problem. The demons definitely had their own talented alchemists, so they must have realized that the demon realm''s pollution was an inherent part of nature, and there was no practical solution to it.


    "It''s unfortunate, but there really is no solution to this problem. No matter how capable alchemists are, there is nothing we can do to resist thews of nature," Lacey said, shrugging to express her inability.


    "Laws of nature Right! Laws!"


    Kristine suddenly realized something after hearing Lacey''s words. Since the demon realm''s pollution was of natural causes, didn''t this mean that the pollution was part of the world''sws?


    There must be a w" that was causing the demon realm''s environment to end up in such a horrible state. So, if they could erase or modify thisw, they might be able to resolve the cause of the demon realm''s harsh environment.


    The reason the demon realm''s inhabitants had never thought of this point was most likely because none of them knew about ws." Of course, the Demon Kings should know about the existence ofws, but there was no way they would waste their time fixing the demon realm''s environment. All they cared about was living a life of luxury and exacting their revenge against humans.


    "This is interesting. If the demon realm''s mana pollution is rted tows, I can try solving it," Kristine said, chuckling under Lacey''s confused gaze. Then, she grabbed one of the jars that still contained air from the demon realm and opened it, releasing the air into the room.


    When the light purple air hovered out of the jar, Kristine narrowed her eyes and cast Psychokinesis Transcendence.


    Kristine had recovered a good portion of her strength already. Although she was still some distance from recovering to her peak, she already had enough strength to cast taboos without external help.


    Meanwhile, Kristine''s Psychokinesis Transcendence was much more refined than Alice''s. After all, she was a veteran Hero. Hence, the psychokic threads she created quickly prated the purple air and analyzed the "polluted" mana in it.


    Sure enough, Kristine quickly discovered that the polluted mana was a mixture of twoponents. From a microscopic point of view, there werevender particles attached to the surface of every mana particle. Meanwhile, thesevender particles were most likely derived from thew that was causing the demon realm''s mana to be generated in a polluted state.


    "...But why does it feel like I''ve seen thesevender particles before?" Kristine muttered with her eyes narrowed. While she still couldn''t influencews with her Psychokinesis Transcendence, her psychokinesis threads could analyze and influence everything beneathws. Thus, she tentatively tried to separate some of thevender particles from the polluted mana particles.


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    However, Kristine''s expression changed the next moment. The reaction of thesevender particles was much more intense than she expected. It was as if thesevender particles came with maic properties. As soon as she pried them apart from the mana particles with her psychokic threads, they immediately began exerting a powerful pulling force on their surroundings.


    However, this pulling force did not randomly attract everything in its range. Instead, it only targeted mana. Seeing this, Kristine instantly understood the severity of the situation as she promptly dismissed her Psychokinesis Transcendence, turned around, and lunged at Lacey, pushing the ignorant girl to the floor.


    <em>Boom!</em>


    An explosion urred just like Kristine expected. This was an inevitable oue since concentrating so much mana into a single spot would naturally lead to a mana overflow. Fortunately, Lacey had previously exhausted a significant portion of the room''s mana while conducting her experiments. So, the mana density in the room was rtively low, and the explosion resulting from the mana overflow wasn''t as severe as it could have been.


    Even so, the explosion had still demolished the room''s door and walls. The explosion had also sent Kristine and Lacey flying through the demolished walls andnding in the living room.


    "Cough, cough I didn''t think thosevender particles would be so unstable"


    Kristine had an extraordinarily tough physique, so such a small explosion couldn''t even leave any injuries on her body. At most, it had shredded her clothes and choked her with smoke.


    When Kristine looked at the girl under her, she saw that Lacey still didn''t seem to realize what had happened as she wore a dazed expression on her face. Just when Kristine thought of offering an exnation, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.


    "What are you twodoing?"


    Alice''s mouth twitched when she saw Kristine, as naked as the day she was born, pressing Lacey to the floor in the living room. If not for the destroyed bedroom behind them, she would have most likely thought that the two were conducting some sort of special y.

 Chapter 238: Is This A Shuraba(修羅場)?

    Chapter 238: Is This A Shuraba(���_��)?


    "Cough, cough. Anyway, that''s the gist of the situation."


    After awkwardly putting on a new set of clothes, Kristine sat on the living room sofa and exined to Alice how she and Lacey had demolished a bedroom and why they were in such apromising position just now.


    Although Alice didn''t intend to me her, Kristine still felt a little embarrassed over this situation. After all, Alice was the one who prepared this amodation for Lacey. In a certain sense, Alice was Lacey''s guardian. So, she felt there was a need to exin to Alice why she had Lacey pressed under her while she was butt naked.


    "Alright, then. If you put it like that, I guess I can understand why you were in such a position" Alice said, feeling a little helpless as she looked at Kristine''s embarrassed expression.


    Going by Kristine''s words, Kristine and Lacey were apparently researching the origins of the demon realm''s pollution. However, partway through their experiments, Kristine had identally triggered the "pollutants''" dependency on mana, causing arge amount of mana to be concentrated in a single location. This, in turn, resulted in a mana overflow, which subsequently led to a mana explosion. Then, this explosion caused the two to end up in thatpromising state and position.


    To validate her words, Kristine had even cast Mana Detection to show Alice the mana leftover from the explosion. Then, when Alice scanned the residue mana using Psychokinesis Transcendence, she found that it was indeed leftover mana from a mana explosion.


    After a mana explosion urred, the leftover mana would be incredibly unstable. This point was mentioned in high school textbooks. However, as mana particles were incredibly small, observing them normally required the use of magic instruments. However, Alice and Kristine could rece this process by using Psychokinesis Transcendence.


    While Kristine was clearing her name to Alice, Lacey had left the house to contact the relevant repair workers. There were water pipes and other things running through the walls of her room, so they couldn''t haphazardly patch things up with magic. They needed to rely on the professionals to do the repairs.


    In other words, Alice and Kristine were the only people in the house right now, and there was no need for Kristine to mind her words.


    Knowing this, after exining her circumstances to Alice, Kristine promptly turned to look at the figurine sitting on Alice''s shoulder. Althoughputers and anime didn''t exist during her era, she had researched the many novel things that existed in this modern era. Hence, she knew that the figurine was something people of this era liked quite a lot.


    However, the fact that Alice was carrying a popr figurine on her shoulder wasn''t what caught Kristine''s attention. Instead, it was


    "By the way, Alice, this <em>thing </em>on your shoulder Could it be a Demon King?"


    "You''re the one who''s a thing, you little brat!" Andusia said in a rebellious tone, sneering as she stopped acting like a lifeless figurine. Then, while looking at Kristine with her arms crossed in front of her chest, she continued, "I am the Ninth Demon King, Andusia! Even if I look like this now, I still have more than enough strength to beat you like the brat you are!"


    Kristine was a Hero, while Andusia was a Demon King. Both of them had ample knowledge about the power of Heroes and Demon Kings. Hence, the moment Alice walked into the house with Andusia, Kristine and Andusia promptly noticed the power inside each other''s bodies.


    It was just that Lacey was still present at the time, so Andusia had chosen not to keep quiet. Kristine had also opted against pointing out Andusia''s identity when she saw the other party staying silent. However, now that Lacey was gone, they naturally wouldn''t continue ignoring each other''s presence.


    "Beat me? Stop embarrassing yourself, Demon King," Kristine said coldly as she looked at Andusia. Although Andusia''s body was a petite figurine, Kristine could sense that Andusia had long since recovered her strength and that she might very well possess the strength she had during her heyday. Even so, Kristine wasn''t afraid of Andusia in the slightest as she said, "I can sense that your body is made of wood. I have plenty of ways to deal with you."


    Just like how Alice had managed to suppress Andusia using Hubert''s Tree, Kristine also knew of spells that could take advantage of Andusia''s weakness. So, she didn''t fear Andusia even though the other party might have recovered her full strength already.


    Meanwhile, Andusia immediately grew furious when she heard Kristine''s words. She naturally knew about her body''s fatal weakness. It was also why she had targeted Marion even though her current body could already wield the strength she had when she was alive.


    After all was said and done, Living Wood was still wood. There were plenty of ways others could take advantage of this fact.


    "Alright, alright. That''s enough of you two. Andusia is indeed a Demon King. However, she has already let go of her hatred of humans," Alice said, quickly cating both sides to prevent a fight from breaking out. "Also, you should know what my true goal is, Kristine. If we want to deal with the Demon King''s Power, Andusia''s understanding of the Demon King''s Power is indispensable."


    Unfortunately, Alice underestimated thepetitiveness of Andusia and Kristine. Or, more specifically, rarely would Heroes and Demon Kings have weak personalities since both were individuals who needed to stand on the frontlines of war. So, as soon as Alice finished speaking, Andusia immediately started provoking Kristine:


    "Hear that? I am much more important to Alice than you!"


    Moreover, Andusia''s provocation was no longer rted tobat. Instead, she had shifted the topic onto Alice.


    "What use can a Demon King have to Alice? You''re nothing but a tool," Kristine said with a scoff, trying to y it cool. However, try as she might, it was obvious that Andusia''s provocation had gotten to her because a momentter, she gnashed her teeth as she shouted, "Alice and I are Heroes! I can offer her more help than you! I am more important to Alice!"


    "..."


    Alice experienced a huge migraine as she listened to the childish squabble between Andusia and Kristine. The two might have stoppedparing who among them was stronger, but the topic of their argument had switched to her. Moreover, judging by the flow of the situation, Alice could already guess what was going to happen next.


    ""Alice! Tell us! Which one of us is more important?!""


    Sure enough, things yed out just like Alice expected. After failing to reach a satisfying conclusion, Andusia and Kristine had thrown the decision onto Alice.


    Having a loli and a fairy-like figurine asking her which of them was more important might sound like a wonderful experience, but the problem was that one was a Hero while the other was a Demon King. Moreover, both were more or less capable of unleashing the strength they had during their prime. This situation put a mountainous pressure on Alice.


    "Both of you are important to me. After all, one of you can teach me how to fight as a Hero, while the other can provide me with information on the Demon King''s Power. Both of you are indispensable."


    After struggling for a moment, Alice eventually settled on a neutral answer. Although this answer wouldn''t satisfy the two bickering children, it was enough to appease them at the very least.


    "Hmph"


    Andusia snorted. However, she didn''t continue arguing with Kristine, just as Alice expected. Instead, she sat down on Alice''s shoulder and moved closer to Alice''s face. She also made sure to give Kristine a provocative look.


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 Chapter 239: Group Tour?

    Chapter 239: Group Tour?


    After returning from the catkins'' and dogkins'' settlements, Alice quickly decided on her next actions.


    There was still half a month until theic convention in the Rhine Kingdom. There were plenty of things Alice could do during this half a month. For example, she could visit the demon realm.


    The reason Alice had decided to visit the demon realm was also very simple. Firstly, she was going to follow Andusia''s instructions and visit the residence of the previous generation''s Demon King. Essentially, she would be going to Demon King Castle to see if Grant had collected the taboos left behind by past Demon Kings.


    The taboos developed by these past Demon Kings could help Alice in recasting "I Was Wrong," which would, in turn, allow her to research and use it without having to suffer social death.


    Secondly, there were nine items carrying the Demon King''s Power''s aura in the demon realm. Among them, one was located in Demon King Castle. Demon King Castle had been strengthened by two Demon Kings using the Demon King''s Power. Hence, it was normal for it to have the Demon King''s Power''s mana signature. However, even if she set the castle aside, there were still eight more items carrying the Demon King''s Power''s aura in the demon realm.


    Alice was thinking of picking up one or two of these items while visiting the demon realm. Going by her estimates, most of these eight mana signatures should belong to tools created using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, like Andusia''s I Was Wrong. So, they should more or less be useful to her.


    Thirdly, Alice was the current generation''s Demon King on paper. Even if she wasn''t actually the Demon King, she still needed to keep up appearances in front of the demons. Meanwhile, it''d be strange for the Demon King not to return to the demon realm for a visit after leaving for such a long time.


    Thus, Alice decided it was best to visit the demon realm to avoid creating any unnecessary suspicions. She could also use this opportunity to visit the Four Heavenly Kings and Heris, the first friend she made after arriving in the demon realm.


    Lastly, she could research the source of the demon realm''s pollution. Although her mastery over Psychokinesis Transcendence hadn''t reached a level where she could analyzews in-depth, it wouldn''t hurt to try. Even if she failed toe up with any results, she could simply try again once her mastery over Psychokinesis Transcendence improved in the future.


    "Huh? Are you taking leave again?" It hadn''t been long since Alice had returned to the academy. Yet, she was already asking for leave again. This situation caused Zauna, Alice''s roommate, to feel slightly upset. Hence, while ying with Andusia, Zauna pouted andined, "It seems you''re getting busier and busier recently, huh, Alice?"


    "I can''t help it. I am the Hero, after all It''s normal for me to be a little busy. But I won''t be busy for too long. Things should calm down in a month or soprobably," Alice said, giving Zauna a rough estimate of how long it would take her toplete her current ns.


    ording to Alice''s current ns, she would spend the next two weeks or so in the demon realm. Then, once she returned, she would head for theic convention in the Rhine Kingdom, get "Blonde Twintails" to sneak her into the Royal Magic Tower, and investigate who was using Prince Etoria''s name to contact the demons.


    By her estimates, the trip to the Rhine Kingdom should alsost for around two weeks. So,bined with her trip to the demon realm, she should be away from the March Academy for around a month. Once she had dealt with these matters, she should be able to return to the March Academy and focus on studying magic and researching the demon realm''s mana.


    Of course, these were only her ns. Alice was well aware that ns often couldn''t keep up with changes. It was entirely possible for her toe across an unexpected situation that would lead to her extending the duration of her operation this time. Hence, Alice dared not make any promises.


    "A month, is it I guess that''s okay. Lalu has constantly beenining about not seeing you recently," Zauna said, nodding. She understood Alice''s current situation. As the Hero, Alice must be running around to prepare for her confrontation with the Demon King. Even so, there were still some things she felt that she should say as Alice''s friend. "Lalu also wants me to tell you not to forget about your promise to her."


    <em>My promise to Lalu? </em>Alice was briefly stunned. However, she quickly recalled her promise to bring Lalu on exciting adventures in the future. Of course,


    With the elves'' strict lifestyles, Lalu must''ve been subjected to a lot of restrictions when she was living in the elven vige. So, it was normal for her to develop some rebelliousness. In reality, if it wasn''t for her trip to the demon realm potentially involving dangerous situations, Alice would have considered taking Lalu to the demon realm.


    After all, with the elves'' less-than-friendly rtionship with the demons, the elven vige must have prohibited all elves from setting foot into the demon realm. If Alice brought Lalu to the demon realm, it should be enough to satisfy the loli elf''s curious heart.


    <em>Uh Should I have the Four Heavenly Kings look after her for me?</em>


    Alice originally did not intend to take Lalu to the demon realm. However, after this thought surfaced in her mind, she suddenly felt that it might not be too much of a problem to do so after all.


    <em>But if I have the Four Heavenly Kings protect Lalu, my identity as the Demon King might get exposed</em>


    However, Alice quickly thought of a solution to this problem. If having the Four Heavenly Kings protect Lalu would result in her identity as the Demon King getting exposed, all she needed to do was have them disguise themselves. Not much information was avable on the Four Heavenly Kings. Even on the inte, the only information avable on the Four Heavenly Kings were their genders and general description. There wasn''t even a picture of their faces circting on the inte.


    Although the upper echelons of the elven vige most likely knew what the Four Heavenly Kings looked like, Lalu wasn''t part of the elven vige''s upper echelons. Hence, it was unlikely for Lalu to know what the Four Heavenly Kings looked like. So long as the Four Heavenly Kings disguised themselves, Lalu''s safety shouldn''t be a problem even if Alice was absent from her side.


    After all, the Four Heavenly Kings'' strength went without saying. They were the strongest demons after the Demon King. In fact, there was even a Hero mixed in among the Four Heavenly Kings of this generation. Alice would be very speechless if Lalu still came into an ident with such a security detail protecting her.


    <em>But since I''m bringing Lalu with me, should I drag Zauna along as well?</em>


    "By the way, Zauna Are you interested in visiting the demon realm with me?"


    "Huh? The demon realm?"


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    Alice''s words stunned Zauna, her hands subconsciously pulling Andusia''s arms apart and causing Andusia to nearly break her silence. Although such a gentle tug wasn''t enough to cause Andusia any physical pain, it was still ufortable to be subjected to such treatment.


    At this time, Luna, who was cleaning the dormitory with a broom, paused her actions and looked at Andusia pitifully. As someone who also used to be the Demon King''s Power''s host, Luna suddenly felt that she had met with a much more fortunate fate.

 Chapter 240: Andusia Dumbfounded

    Chapter 240: Andusia Dumbfounded


    It wasn''t actually much of a problem to bring Zauna and Lalu to the demon realm. Although Alice might have to travel separately from them for a few days, Zauna and Lalu were unlikely toe into any harm with the Four Heavenly Kings protecting them.


    Since that was the case, there was no reason for Alice not to bring Zauna and Lalu with her to the demon realm. This would be a very valuable trip for them since most people in the human realm wouldn''t ever get the opportunity to visit the demon realm. For this reason, many people in the human realm held great interest in the demon realm.


    Meanwhile, after Alice asked Zauna and Lalu for their opinions, the two promptly agreed to go on the trip. Although they were a little disappointed when Alice told them that they would be moving separately for a few days since she had some personal matters to deal with, their curiosity about the demon realm quickly triumphed over their disappointment.


    Not to mention, Alice had promised them their safety in the demon realm. ording to Alice, she had developed a spywork of her own in the demon realm, and her spy friends held considerable authority in the demon realm. Hence, unless the Demon King came to attack them, the two of them wouldn''t be in any danger in the demon realm.


    Out of the two, Lalu''s reaction to Alice''s invitation was the most intense. When Alice left Lalu''s room, the loli elf''s face looked flushed and satisfied. She looked the same as Ciel did when Alice stepped on the catkin.


    <em>I still need to notify man and the others.</em>


    After returning to her room, Alice found that Zauna had left to attend another ss. Zauna might not have as much talent as Heroes and Demon Kings when it came to magic, but she was in no way inferior when it came to working hard.


    The number of elective sses Zauna took was significantly greater than the average student. Aside from the weekends, her ss schedule on other days would only have one or two time slots open.


    In reality, another reason Alice had decided to bring Zauna to the demon realm this time was to let her friend rx a little. It was also fortunate that the ce they were visiting was the demon realm. If it were an ordinary vacation, Zauna might have refused to go on the trip.


    Now that Zauna had left for ss, Alice, Luna, and Andusia were the only ones left in the room. So, Alice naturally did not need to worry about her identity as the "Demon King" getting exposed. After taking a seat on her bed, she held her phone in her right hand, connected to the demon realm''s inte, and called man.


    But to Alice''s surprise, when the call connected, the voice that came through the phone wasn''t man''s rough voice. Instead, it was a familiar voice that carried hints of joy and surprise:


    "Lord Demon King?! Is it you?! It''s been so long since I''ve heard from you!"


    The person on the other side of the phone was Heris, man''s daughter. She was also Alice''s guide in the demon realm and the first person who learned of Alice''s "Demon Lord" identity.


    "Heris? It''s been a while. How have you been recently?"


    Alice started chit-chatting with Heris like a normal person. While doing so, she nced at Andusia, whom she had ced on her desk, and saw that the other party had indeed heard the "Lord Demon King" greeting that came through the phone. As evidence, Andusia was currently looking at Alice with widened eyes, her face vividly expressing her confusion on how this generation''s Hero had suddenly be a Demon King.


    Luna had simrly overheard Heris''s greeting. However, there wasn''t any change to her expression even when she heard Heris addressing Alice as "Lord Demon King." From the many asions where Luna helped tie Alice''s hair, she had already learned that Alice could ess a tremendous amount of dark mana when wielding ck panties. Even so, she did not suspect Alice''s identity as the Hero.


    After all, Luna had been hosting the real Demon King''s Power inside her body when she first came across Alice. So, there was no way Alice could be the real Demon King. Not to mention, Alice could also wield the Hero''s Sword. Hence, Alice could only be the Hero and nothing else.


    Hence, when the person on the other side of the phone referred to Alice as "Lord Demon King," Luna didn''t really care about it. Although she should have been this generation''s Demon King, since she had already be Alice''s exclusive maid, it was part of her duty to let Alice use this identity of hers.


    "Life''s been very dull," Heris said, sighing. "But Father told me to wait patiently. He says that you must be searching for an opportunity to change the fate of our race."


    If it were up to man and the others, they definitely wouldn''t dare to voice suchints to Alice. However, it was a different story for Heris. Although she treated Alice as the Demon King, she didn''t pay too much attention to this status. Hence, she used a very friendly and natural tone when speaking to Alice.


    Meanwhile, Alice helplessly chuckled when she heard Heris''s words. She was indeed searching for an opportunity to change the demons'' situation. However, the opportunity she was searching for was most likely different from the opportunity man had in mind.


    However, the difference in their goals wasn''t too big of a problem. If she could take care of the strangew causing the demon realm''s pollution, man and most of the other demons would most likely change their opinion on war.


    Strength might be worshiped in demon society, but demons also valued family and friendship very much. Unless it was for a justifiable cause, the demons wouldn''t hope to see their friends and family get injured or die in an unnecessary war.


    "An opportunity wille in the near future, so don''t worry," Alice said, using this as an excuse to appease Heris. Then, she continued, "By the way, I recently made some human and elven friends in the human realm, and I''m thinking of taking them on a trip to the demon realm. However, I can''t let them know that I am the Demon King."


    "Human and elven friends?" Heris was briefly stunned. Then, she continued in a dissatisfied tone, "Fine. You are a princess in the human realm, after all. I guess it''s necessary for you to make a few friends"


    Alice didn''t really understand what Heris was bothered about.


    "So, you want us to conceal our identities and help look after those friends of yours? Did I get that right, Lord Demon King?"


    Heris''s voice continueding through the phone. Although Alice could faintly hear the sound of Heris hitting her chest, the sound was rtively subdued since Heris was quite well-endowed. If it were Alice patting her chest, the sound would have been loud and clear.


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    "That won''t be a problem. I''ll tell my father about it."


    "I''ll have to trouble you with it, then. I''ll being over as well," Alice said. Then, a helpless smile appeared on her face when she heard Heris shrieking in excitement. "Anyway, I''ll see you in a few days, Heris."

 Chapter 241: Hopefully, Andusia Will Be Fine

    Chapter 241: Hopefully, Andusia Will Be Fine


    Thest time Alice traveled to the demon realm was through a smuggling team introduced to her by Rosa. She had to rely on the teleportation array the smuggling team had secretly constructed to reach the demon realm.


    Of course, it went without saying that a secretly-built teleportation array connected to the demon realm was illegal. It was especially so considering the teleportation array''srge teleportation capacity. No matter which human kingdom one was caughtmitting such a crime, one would be sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison. Depending on the crime''s severity, one might even be given a life sentence or a death sentence.


    If Alice reported the smuggling team to the authorities, every member of the team would be found guilty without question. Knowing this, Alice couldn''t help but wonder how the pitiful middle-aged man from the smuggling team would react after learning that he had smuggled the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess to the demon realm. The man had probably trembled in fear for some time, worried sick that the princess might turn him over to the authorities.


    Of course, Alice wasn''t so mean that she would do such a thing. No matter the circumstances, it was a fact that the other party had helped her out. In addition, she was well aware of the demon realm''s current situation. The demon realm needed to rely on smugglers to acquire resources from the human realm. Without smugglers, the demon realm would only be pushed into a more desperate situation, and that was thest thing Alice needed right now.


    However, Alice didn''t rely on a smuggling caravan to travel to the demon realm this time. It went without saying that the various human kingdoms had secretly built their own teleportation arrays that led to the demon realm. So, Alice could simply borrow the Gryffin Kingdom''s teleportation array.


    Naturally, whether it was a private or official teleportation array that led to the demon realm, there was no way it could be established in a popted area.


    On the one hand, the demons would easily discover the teleportation array. On the other hand, constructing a teleportation array required the joint effort of many magicians. It went without saying that there was no way arge group of magicians could just waltz into a demon city and establish a teleportation array in the city without raising any suspicions. So, teleportation arrays were typically constructed in remote locations in the demon realm.


    Of course, if it was possible, both humans and demons would want nothing more than to establish a teleportation array in the middle of the enemy''s pce. However, that evidently wasn''t possible.


    When Alice shared her thoughts about visiting the demon realm with Hatter, Hatter immediately agreed to let her use the Gryffin Kingdom''s teleportation array. He had even asked if she wanted to bring Catherine with her.


    Alice wasn''t particrly surprised by Hatter''s cooperation. After all, Hatter wasn''t aware that one of her other identities was that of the Demon King. In his opinion, she was most likely visiting the demon realm to do Hero things such as investigate the enemies.


    However, Alice didn''t ept Hatter''s offer to take Catherine. Zauna and Lalu were still young and inexperienced, so it wouldn''t be too hard to fool them. However, Catherine was an old bird. With Catherine''s experience working as the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guard Captain, there was a great chance that she might notice something.


    Meanwhile, after setting the teleportation date to tomorrow, Alice had Zauna apply for leave from the academy for her. In the meantime, she sat in the dorm chatting with "Blonde Twintails" online.


    "Can you let me see what the figurine you previously mentioned looks like?"


    Whenever Alice engaged in a conversation with Blonde Twintails, the topic of their conversation would typically rte to anime andics without exception. Her conversations with Blonde Twintails were also one of the few times she could escape from her responsibilities of being the Hero and the Demon King and talk about topics that interested her. Although this world''s anime culture was significantly different from the anime culture on Earth, it interested her nheless.


    Find the original at Hosted Novel.


    "Have you watched Magical Girl Hikari before?" Alice gleefully typed out these words and sent the message through WW, the instant messaging software she used.


    "It''s a national-level ssic, so of course I''ve watched it. There was even a remake recently. Although they''ve changed the artwork and added some new content, I still think it''s good," Blonde Twintails replied in under three seconds, her typing speed akin to a machine gun. "Don''t tell me you''re talking about a Hikari figurine?"


    Seeing the other party''s question, Alice got an urge to show off her figurine. So, with a small grin on her face, she grabbed her phone and picked up Andusia, who was sitting on her desk ying with a miniature phone.


    "What do you want?" Andusia asked in dissatisfaction tone.


    The miniature phone was something she had gone through great pains to shrink down to a usable size for her. Shrink was a veryplex but flexible spell. If an amateur magician were to cast the spell on a phone, they would destroy the phone''s internalponents and end up with a miniature phone that couldn''t be used normally.


    Andusia possessed profound control over mana, so she naturally wouldn''t make such a rookie mistake. Instead, she managed to urately shrink everyponent within the phone to the correct size, ending up with a miniaturized phone that could function normally. However, even with her masterful control, it had still taken her the entire morning toplete the shrinking process.


    Meanwhile, for an ancient Demon King who had nevere into contact with modern technology, gaining ess to a mobile phone and the inte had opened the doors to a whole new world for Andusia. So, it was only natural that she would be upset when Alice interrupted her enjoyment.


    However, there was no way Alice would be polite with Andusia.


    "Stopining. Come, make a pose and let me take a picture."


    Although Andusia didn''t understand what Alice was trying to do, considering that Alice was the one who had bought her phone for her and Alice still had control over her mana, she had no choice but to reluctantly set aside her phone and put on a natural pose.


    "This poseis from three thousand years ago, right?" Alice couldn''t help butin. Although there was nothing wrong with Andusia''s pose, it looked simple and unpretentious. So, after doing a quick search on herputer, Alice opened a poster of Magical Girl Hikari, pointed at it, andmanded Andusia, "Do this pose."


    "Stop showing me this abomination!!!"


    Andusia wailed. Then, she turned around, faced her back to theputer in grief and indignation, and reluctantly raised her wand, a set piece that came with her figurine body. This wand-raising action was also the pose Hikari would make when transforming into a magical girl. However, from Alice''s point of view, this pose looked like Andusia was trying to transform into Ultraman


    Immediately, Alice took a picture of Andusia, transferred it to herputer, and sent it to Blonde Twintails, only to receive the other party''s reply almost immediately afterward.


    "So it really is Hikari. It''s also a very well-made model. This seems to be made by AC Company, right? I remember that they made a figurine of Hikari in the past. It''s just that the posture on this one looks different."


    Blonde Twintails instantly recognized the manufacturer of Andusia''s body...or, more urately, this Hikari figurine. It was to be expected of an anime expert.


    "But even if this is a limited edition figurine, it''s not so rare that it can surprise me and the others."

 Chapter 242: Dirty Transaction

    Chapter 242: Dirty Transaction


    "Is that so?"


    Alice chuckled when she read Blonde Twintails'' response. Then, she made Andusia make eighteen other poses, took pictures of every one of them, and sent the pictures to Blonde Twintails. Sure enough, the other party was promptly shocked when she saw the pictures.


    "Why are there so many different poses? This isn''t right. I don''t recall AC Company making so many different poses. They''d be called out for attempting a cash grab if they made so many variations."


    The shock in Blonde Twintails'' reply was conveyed very clearly, and Alice couldn''t help but feel a sense of satisfaction from seeing this.


    "Wait, don''t tell me it''smovable?"


    However, it would seem that Blonde Twintails was very intelligent as she quickly guessed the answer. Meanwhile, after receiving a reply of affirmation from Alice, Blonde Twintails promptly sent a message full of envy to Alice:


    "I knew it But AC Company has never announced the sale of a movable Hikari figurine before! Could it be an internal collector''s edition? And it''s so finely made, too! Even the fingers are movable! This is the first time I''ve seen a figurine with such flexible fingers! That''s not a recement hand, right?"


    Of course it wasn''t. Andusia''s body was made out of a block of Living Wood that housed a soul. Its flexibility was no different from a real body. It was naturally superior to the stiff figurines that were avable on the market.


    "No. 2! Can you sell this figurine to me?!"


    Blonde Twintails evidently had her interests piqued as after staying silent for a moment, she had promptly requested to purchase Andusia.


    "Any price is fine! I can afford it! Please sell this figurine to me!"


    Alice couldn''t help butugh when she saw the other party''s reply. Alice also couldn''t help but wonder how Andusia would react when she learned that someone was asking to buy her.


    However, Andusia had thoroughly refused to look at theputer ever since Alice had shown her the Magical Girl Hikari poster. So, she failed to realize that a transaction involving her body was taking ce on theputer right now.


    "That''s not happening. This isn''t something I can sell. It''s incredibly valuable," Alice replied earnestly.


    Alice naturally couldn''t agree to Blonde Twintails'' request. After all, this was a Demon King they were talking about. Though, the other party might be even more interested in buying Andusia if she learned about Andusia''s true identity.


    After all, the minds of anime otakus usually worked in strange ways. Demon Kings might sound like scary existences to the average person, but an otaku might find Demon Kings to be very cool instead. Not to mention, if given a chance to buy a small and cute Demon King, who wouldn''t want to buy one?


    Regardless, Alice definitely wouldn''t sell Andusia since she still had many uses for the Demon King. Whether it was the information orbat assistance Andusia could offer, both were not things one could buy with money.


    "Can''t you consider it? I will do anything!"


    However, Blonde Twintails refused to give up and continued begging Alice. It could be seen that this veteran otaku truly desired a perfect figurine like Andusia.


    <em>Wait. A mary transaction might not be worthwhile, but what if I ask for something else?</em>


    Alice originally nned to continue refusing Blonde Twintails'' request. However, when her fingers touched the keyboard, a sudden thought came to her mind.


    Hadn''t she been trying to think of a reason to convince Blonde Twintails to take her into the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower? Wasn''t this a good opportunity to do so?


    It was obvious that Blonde Twintails was already hooked by Andusia. If Alice were to tell the other party about her desire to enter the Royal Magic Tower, the other party might just agree to her request.


    Upon thinking of this point, Alice promptly decided to act on her thoughts:


    "If I give you this figurine, can you take me to visit the Royal Magic Tower during theic convention?"


    "Huh? The Royal Magic Tower? Are you interested in the Royal Magic Tower?" Blonde Twintails seemingly possessed no resistance toward Andusia as she replied almost instantly to Alice''s question. "But entry into the Royal Magic Tower has always been restricted. Outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering the tower. Last time, a food delivery man tried to force his way into the tower, and he nearly got himself thrown into prison for it."


    <em>Security is much tighter than I thought, Alice thought to herself.</em>


    Alice had known that the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower wasn''t as essible as the other kingdom''s top magic academies. Even so, she still couldn''t help but be surprised to learn that entry into the Royal Magic Tower was so strict.


    "But if you really want to sneak in and look around, it''s not exactly impossible.


    Just when Alice thought that she might need to change her n, Blonde Twintails suddenly sent such a message to her.


    "Don''t leave me hanging. Do you have a way to get me in?"


    Alice replied helplessly. By the looks of things, she could only rely on Blonde Twintails if she wanted to get into the Royal Magic Tower without attracting the Rhine Kingdom''s attention.


    "I have some connections with the Rhine Kingdom''s thieves. I can get them to forge a student ID for you that can trick the Royal Magic Tower''s security barrier for some time," Blonde Twintails replied. "You''ll be able to freely enter and leave the Royal Magic Tower during the fake ID''s effective period. However, you must remember to leave the tower before the fake ID loses effect. Otherwise, you''ll get caught by the security barrier immediately. The Royal Magic Tower''s importance is simr to a restricted military area, so you''ll be sent to prison if you get caught trespassing."


    "But doesn''t the tower allow its students and faculty to enter and leave freely? There''s no way the tower can keep any secrets with such an arrangement."


    Alice was a little confused by the Rhine Kingdom''s behavior. If the Royal Magic Tower held secrets so important that it was being treated like a restricted military area, why would the Rhine Kingdom allow the tower''s students and faculty to enter and leave the tower so freely? With such an arrangement in ce, any secrets the tower held would be leaked sooner orter.


    "No idea. That''s how it is written in the Rhine Kingdom''sw," Blonde Twintails said. She, too, found the Rhine Kingdom''s treatment of the Royal Magic Tower very strange. Unfortunately, this wasn''t something she was privy to. "Anyway, that''s the best I can do for you. What do you think?"


    "What''s the price?"


    Alice felt that Blonde Twintails'' suggestion was workable so long as the fake ID''s lifespan wasn''t only a few hours but a few days instead. If she had a few days, she should be able to find out the culprit impersonating Prince Etoria. If she couldn''t find the culprit, it meant that the other party had hidden quite well. In that case, she''d have no choice but to think of another way to find the culprit.


    "The price is to sell that rare Hikari figure to me!" Blonde Twintails said, not giving up on her desire toward Andusia. "Forging an ID and trespassing in a restricted military area is a grave crime. I am taking a huge risk by helping you, so asking for a figurine isn''t too much, right?"


    "But my figurine wouldn''t want to leave with you."


    Alice chuckled when she sent this message.


    "If your figurine has a will of her own, she will definitely be willing to follow me! I cherish all of my figurines dearly!" Blonde Twintails proimed confidently, not realizing that Alice was digging a hole for her. "If your figurine is dissatisfied and leaves on her own, I absolutely will notin about it!"


    Of course, there was no way a figurine could have a will of its own. There might be magic that made use of puppets in this world, but such magic wasn''t so advanced that it could grant an inanimate object self-awareness. Hence, Blonde Twintails never thought of the possibility that Alice''s "figurine" was, in reality, a block of Living Wood that had a Demon King''s soul stuffed in it.


    "If you put it like that, I have no choice but to agree."


    Alice looked at Blonde Twintails'' innocent message on the screen with pity while patting the clueless Andusia on the head.


    <em>Maybe I should tell Andusia how to get back to the Gryffin Kingdom once we are in the Rhine Kingdom? </em>Alice thought to herself. That way, Andusia could return to her side quickly after getting sold. After all, Andusia was doing her a huge favor, in a certain sense. It''d be cruel to let her find her own way back on top of selling her to an anime otaku.

 Chapter 243: Double Agent Alice

    Chapter 243: Double Agent Alice


    With the help of the Gryffin Kingdom''s teleportation array, Alice and Co arrived at the demon realm smoothly and safely. Throughout the entire process, Hatter had not asked Alice why she was going to the demon realm even once, his behavior showing that he ced considerable trust in Alice.


    "So, this is the demon realm?" Zauna muttered as she walked out of the teleportation array with Alice. To hide the fact that she was human, she had worn a pair of light-red horns on her head, giving her the appearance of a demon. "Everything looks normal at first nce, but you can really feel the polluted mana in the air. I''m having trouble getting used to it."


    "Arge part of why the demons have been eyeing the human realm''s territory is because of this polluted mana. So, it''s normal that you''ll find it unpleasant," Luna said. She might have spent her entire life living in the human world, but she had learned many things about the demon realm while working for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department.


    "If you put it like that, the demons are truly pitiful. I''m suddenly feeling a little sympathetic to them," Lalu said, her disguise being a small, red tail attached to her hip.


    Out of their group of four, Lalu found it most difficult to adapt to the demon realm''s mana because she had lived in the Elven Forest''s clean environment since she was young. So, the demon realm''s polluted mana made her feel incredibly ufortable. However, because of this situation, Lalu''s hatred toward demons, which had been carved into the bones of all elves, had lessened significantly.


    "By the way, why is it so dark here? Is it going to rain?" Zauna asked as she looked up at the sky. Even though she couldn''t see any clouds, the sky still looked dusky.


    "This is considered a bright and sunny day in the demon realm. It won''t get any brighter than this," Alice said while messaging her GPS coordinates to Heris. Then, after putting her phone away, she exined to Zauna and Lalu, "The pollution here affects visibility. Although the visibility problem isn''t too severe, it still causes the demon realm''s sky to take on a gray tone."


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    "Is there no way to fix this pollution?" Zauna asked. When she thought about how demons had grown up in such a dark and polluted environment, she couldn''t help but pity the demons a little. Demons who had never left the demon realm might not find this environment too big of a problem, but it must be torture for those who had visited the human realm before. After experiencing the human realm''s clean air and mana, returning to the demon realm must be a very unpleasant experience for these people.


    This was indeed the case in reality. A good example of such demons would be the Four Heavenly Kings. Every one of them had visited the human realm before. Meanwhile, after experiencing the human realm''s environment, all of them, except the human spy Aird, sought to conquer the human realm as soon as possible. In fact, they were already showing great restraint by enduring the demon realm''s environment for so many years, even after experiencing the human realm''s environment.


    Of course, while the demon realm''s mana pollution was terrible, it wasn''t so big of a problem that it made touring the demon realm for a few days impossible. The experience was just like entering a big city after living in an unpolluted forest for a long time. Although the transition would be somewhat unpleasant, it wouldn''t take long for one to get used to the change.


    After their conversation continued for some time, Alice sensed the approach of a familiar source of mana. Thanks to the talented body the Loli Goddess had created for her, Alice''s strength had already reached an exaggerated level. Zauna and Lalu might not have noticed it, but Alice could clearly sense Heris''s mana approaching their location rapidly.


    Luna and Andusia, who was sitting on Alice''s shoulder, had simrly noticed Heris''s approach. However, they didn''t know the owner of this mana, so they could only tell that someone was moving closer to them.


    "Alice"


    Sure enough, the familiar light-blue car that resembled a Beetle from Earth quickly appeared in Alice''s view. Moreover, Alice had noticed that the animal stickers decorating the car had increased. She could also hear Heris shouting out her name from a distance.


    If the others didn''t know any better, they''d think that Alice had ordered a food delivery.


    After the light-blue car stopped in front of Alice and the others, Heris jumped out of the car and lunged at Alice. Then, while picking Alice up like a child, Heris happily said, "Long time no see, Alice!!!"


    Heris was in a very happy mood. Previously, her old man, man, had constantly reminded her to behave politely in front of Alice and respectfully address Alice as "Lord Demon King." This situation frustrated Heris a lot.


    However, now that Alice was trying to hide her identity as the Demon King in front of her human friends, Heris had a valid reason to call Alice by her name. She didn''t need to hold herself back and behave politely around Alice, either. This meant she could knead Alice''s petite face to her heart''s content, something she thought she would never get the chance to do again previously. So, how could she not be happy?


    "Cough, cough. This is Heris. We will be staying at her house throughout our trip," Alice said to herpanions, her words sounding muffled due to Heris kneading her face. "Her family is quite influential in the demon realm, so you don''t need to worry about your safety. So long as you don''t run around making trouble, nobody wille to provoke you."


    <em>p.</em>


    Eventually, Alice lost her patience and pped away Heris''s hands. She felt that her face would deform if she allowed the demoness to continue with her actions any longer. Initially, her voice only sounded a little blurry when she spoke. However, Heris''s kneading had gotten so overboard that Alice''s voice started sounding garbled.


    Meanwhile, Zauna and Lalu couldn''t help but be surprised by Heris''s intimate actions. They didn''t think that Alice had made such a close friend in the demon realm.


    Of course, Zauna and Lalu weren''t aware that Heris was mainly behaving this way because she was a lolicon and a natural-born socializer. In their opinions, they believed that Heris was a friend Alice had made in the demon realm and that the demoness not only held great interest in humans but also didn''t hold any malice toward humans. So, Heris made the perfect tour guide for them.


    As a side note, Heris didn''t know about Zauna''s and Lalu''s identities, either. Not that they had any, to begin with. At most, they could be considered the Hero''spanions. Though, one of them still wasn''t aware that Alice was the Hero.


    Anyway, in the introduction Alice offered to Heris, Zauna and Lalu were merely friends she had made in the human realm. Meanwhile, the reason she had invited the two over to the demon realm was to "lower their guard against demons" so that she could "pry more information out of them."


    Simply put, both sides got dragged together by Alice without knowing much about each other''s situation. There was no possibility of Alice''s identity as a double agent getting exposed, either. After all, both sides were intent on keeping Alice''s identity a secret from each other. There was no way they would reveal anything important to each other.

 Chapter 244: Shocked Flaman

    Chapter 244: Shocked man


    "Hahaha! Wee! Wee! LoAlice''s friends! Treat this ce like your own home!"


    man was the same friendly and muscr uncle as the first time Alice had met the other party a few months ago. Although he gave a frightening first impression, he was actually a very amiable person.


    Meanwhile, man did not show any dissatisfaction toward the friends Alice brought, even though they came from races hostile to the demon race.


    Frankly speaking, demons didn''t harbor any feelings of hatred toward humans, elves, and the other races living in the human realm. They were merely forced to fight by their circumstances. Hence, instead of treating Alice''s friends with hostility, man warmly weed them.


    Meanwhile, Luna recognized man as the Heavenly King of Fire at first nce. After all, she worked for the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department. While not much information on the Four Heavenly Kings was avable on the inte, their images were avable in the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department''s archives.


    Alice had told Luna about her ns in the demon realm beforehand, so Luna knew that man believed that Alice was the Demon King. Thus, man''s enthusiastic treatment was understandable.


    However, Zauna and Lalu didn''t know about this fact. So, they assumed that man was a wealthy and friendly demon uncle. Although they had been worried about staying in a demon''s home initially, after interacting with Heris and man for some time, they quickly realized that demons weren''t as savage as rumors made them out to be.


    Demons might be a race that valued strength, but that was only one of the ways demons approached life. They didn''t live to fight, and neither did they need to fight to live. Aside from special circumstances, no demon would fight all day for no reason. Of course, the demons'' entertainment might involve more fighting than humans, but it wasn''t anything that involved bloodshed.


    "We''ll be in your care during this trip," Zauna politely greeted man. When she saw how friendly man and Heris were, she was finally able to let go of the worry in her heart. She also revised her opinion of the demons. At the very least, man and Heris behaved nothing like the savage demons described in novels. They didn''t even harbor any deep-seated resentment toward humans.


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    "Isn''t it about time you let go of me?" Alice asked Heris in a helpless tone. The demoness had been holding her like a teddy bear since they had gotten out of the car until now.


    "This is a rare opportunity, after all. I might not get to be so intimate with you the next time I see you," Herisined as she reluctantly let Alice down on the ground. While retracting her hands, she also took the opportunity to pinch Alice''s cheeks. She could only treat Alice like this right now because Alice was trying to hide her identity as the Demon King from Zauna and Lalu. However, there was no saying whether she would get such an opportunity again the next time she met with Alice.


    Meanwhile, after Zauna and Lalu were done exchanging greetings with man, Heris brought them to the guest room. Luna also followed them to unpack Alice''s luggage. As for Alice, she remained in the front hall.


    After Heris brought the others away from the hall, man walked up to Alice and bowed slightly.


    "Wee back, Lord Demon King."


    "You don''t have to act so respectfully. I''m not quite used to such treatment," Alice said with a helpless smile. "Anyway, the main reason I returned to the demon realm this time is to visit Demon King Castle. Speaking of which, how is Demon King Castle right now? Please tell me you guys didn''t demolish it."


    "Of course not. Demon King Castle has been strengthened by two Demon Kings. We can''t demolish it even if we wanted to," man said, shrugging. The Four Heavenly Kings might have the strength to reach the feet of Demon Kings, but there was still a gigantic gap between them. So, unless they uprooted the entire Demon King Castle, there was no way they could get rid of it.


    "That''s good. But did those businessmen turn it into a tourist spot?"


    Alice chuckled when she recalled the information she had previously found on the demon realm''s inte.


    ording to what was avable on the inte, a group of businessmen had bought thend that Demon King Castle sat on in an attempt to modify it into a tourist spot. Although those businessmen were forced to abandon their ns because of the Radioactive Soul Stone in the city, now that she had already destroyed the Radioactive Soul Stone, there was no saying whether those businessmen would pop up again.


    "You can rest assured on this matter. Wintas has already bought thend back by force," man said,ughing when he heard Alice''s question. "After all, the new Demon King has already appeared, so there''s no saying whether Demon King Castle mighte in useful in the future. Those businessmen can say nothing about Wintas''s actions, either, unless they can dethrone him and be the Windy Kingdom''s new king."


    The demon realm''s political system was very straightforward. So long as an individual had enough strength, they could challenge the Four Heavenly Kings. If they managed to defeat any of the Heavenly Kings, they''d be able to take over the Heavenly King''s position and authority.


    However, those businessmen clearlycked the strength to beat Wintas. Hence, they could onlyply and sulk in a corner when Wintas demanded to buy back Demon King Castle''s territory from them.


    "By the way, Lord Demon King, about the puppet on your shoulder"


    After updating Alice on Demon King Castle''s situation, man couldn''t help but turn to look at the figurine sitting on Alice''s shoulder.


    man wasn''t an ordinary demon. While he might not be able to win against Heroes and Demon Kings, as the Heavenly King of Fire, his strength still ranked at the pinnacle in both the demon realm and the human realm. Although Andusia had remained motionless this entire time and behaved no differently from a normal figurine, man still noticed something strange with Andusia. Specifically, he could sense the dangerous power contained within her small body.


    Of course, man wasn''t an anime otaku, so he naturally didn''t recognize Andusia''s appearance as the protagonist of the human realm''s national-level animation "Magical Girl Hikari."


    "You mean Andusia?"


    Alice chuckled as she turned to look at Andusia. After thinking it over, she felt that it wouldn''t matter even if she revealed Andusia''s identity as a former Demon King to man. After all, they were currently in the demon realm, and man was one of the Four Heavenly Kings.


    In fact, if man were to find out that she had a former Demon King following her, her identity as the current generation''s Demon King would be even more credible. There was no way man would ever think that Andusia, a former Demon King, would cooperate with a human, least of all a Hero, right?


    With such thoughts in mind, Alice shrugged her shoulders, shaking Andusia''s body a little as she asked:


    "Andusia, how about offering the current Heavenly King of Fire a greeting?"


    "Hmph. I guess he''s a little stronger than Igneel," Andusia said as she looked at man arrogantly. She instantly knew what Alice was trying to y at when she heard Alice''s words. Although she was very surprised to learn that Alice had the identity of a Demon King in the demon realm, since she had already agreed to cooperate with Alice, she naturally wouldn''t expose Alice at this time. "But he''s still weak."


    "...??" man was visibly surprised to see Andusia suddenly moving and speaking. After opening and closing his mouth a few times, he turned toward Alice and asked, "C-Could this person be?"


    man already had an inkling of an answer in his heart when he heard Alice calling out to the puppet on her shoulder. After all, the puppet''s name was one that he was very familiar with. However, he still found this situation too unbelievable, so he still wanted to get confirmation from Alice''s mouth.


    "It''s as you''ve guessed. This person here is Andusia, the Ninth Demon King," Alice said, smiling as she grabbed Andusia off her shoulder. Then, after sitting Andusia in the palm of her hand, she continued, "She might have shrunk down a lot, but she is, by no means, weak."

 Chapter 245: Demons in Hot Water

    Chapter 245: Demons in Hot Water


    Simr to the human kingdoms, the demon kingdoms also had teleportation arrays that allowed quick travel between important locations in the demon realm. So, teleportation between the Fear Kingdom and the Windy Kingdom was possible.


    Alice only brought Andusia with her when she left for Demon King Castle. She didn''t bring Zauna, Lalu, and Luna with her since this was something that concerned Demon Kings. Otherwise, if Zauna and Lalu identally discovered her identity as the Demon King, she''d need to wrack her minding up with an excuse to fool them. She also wasn''t fully confident she could fool them sessfully.


    Zauna and Lalu also understood that Alice hade to the demon realm for business. Only, Zauna assumed that Alice''s business was rted to her identity as the Hero, while Lalu assumed that Alice''s business was rted to her identity as the princess. Hence, although both of them were wrong in their assumptions, neither of them whined about following Alice. Instead, they followed Heris in touring the demon realm''s cities.


    Luna, on the other hand, knew about Alice''s Demon King identity, so Alice could bring Luna with her if she wanted to. However, despite knowing that man would send some powerful guards to escort Zauna and Lalu, Alice still couldn''t help but worry for their safety. She''d feel much more assured if Luna was by their side. Meanwhile, as Alice''s maid, Luna naturally did not refuse Alice''s request.


    When Alice was ready to set off for Demon King Castle, man had initially thought of sending some guards to apany Alice. However, after thinking it over, he felt that if Alice and Andusia came into a situation that even they found dangerous, any guards he sent would be useless to them. So, he eventually shelved this idea.


    After visiting the teleportation hub in Teli City, Alice and Andusia found the roombeled "Plit City" and used the teleportation array inside.


    Plit City was just your average city. It was neither the Windy Kingdom''s capital nor a city with historical significance. Out of the Windy Kingdom''s 29 cities, Plit City was only average regarding its economic and cultural situation.


    If one had to point out something special about Plit City, it would have to be its close proximity to Demon King Castle. Specifically, Demon King Castle was located in a forest outside Plit City.


    Previously, when Alice and Heris had left Demon King Castle, they had stopped by Plit City to buy some snacks before they made their way to the Fear Kingdom. Hence, Plit City was also a resupply point for people wishing to visit Demon King Castle.


    "Are you also going to visit Demon King Castle, missy?"


    It was already noon when Alice arrived at Plit City, so she decided to get some food before traveling to Demon King Castle. When she entered the restaurant she chose randomly, the shopkeeper warmly greeted her and instantly deduced her ns when he saw the backpack Alice carried.


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    "That''s right."


    Alice nodded, responding to the shopkeeper''s question with a friendly smile. She wasn''t fond of behaving coldly to others. The only reason she treated the March Academy''s nobles coldly was because of their impure motives in approaching her. However, this shopkeeper did not know about any of her identities. He was only treating her like he would with any customer, so there was no need for her to put on a cold and arrogant attitude.


    "I knew it. Ever since the new Demon King destroyed the Radioactive Soul Stone over a month ago, many people have been trying to visit Demon King Castle," the middle-aged uncle with bat wings on his back said, nodding with an "as expected" expression. "There is also a popr rumor going around saying that Demon King Castle might be housing the treasures of past Demon Kings and that you''ll be able to learn the abilities of past Demon Kings if you manage to find their treasures."


    Alice couldn''t help but chuckle a little when she heard the shopkeeper''s words. In reality, the ims made in the rumor weren''t wrong. Since Grant had lived in Demon King Castle, he must have stored the taboo magic books he had collected somewhere in the castle. Some, if not all, of those taboo books, shoulde from Demon Kings of past generations. So, if one managed to find Grant''s taboo collection, it wouldn''t be wrong to say that one would obtain the abilities of past Demon Kings.


    The problem was that Grant evidently wouldn''t keep his taboo collection out in the open. He must have kept it hidden deeply. Moreover, it was likely to be a ce that one couldn''t reach without triggering some kind of mechanism. For example, the entrance to Grant''s taboo collection might need arge amount of mana to open.


    However, even if someone managed to find Grant''s taboo collection, it was unlikely they could gain the so-called "abilities of past Demon Kings." After all, few people had the talent to learn taboos, and even fewer had the necessary strength to cast taboos.


    Of course, it was a different story if Grant had weapons made from the Demon King''s Power''s essence in his collection. Even ordinary people could wield these weapons. While an ordinary person might not be able to unleash the full strength of these weapons, they would still gain a massive boost to theirbat power.


    "Hmph."


    The sound of Andusia''s contemptuous snort appeared in Alice''s ears. Evidently, she, too, knew that the treasure hunters in Demon King Castle were fated to end up empty-handed.


    After her short conversation with the shopkeeper, Alice ced her order and got her food a few minutester. Unfortunately, since she was in the demon realm, the quality of the food she was served was rather worrying.


    This wasn''t a problem with the chef''s skills. It was mainly because most of the ingredients in the demon realm were negatively affected by the polluted environment. The food served in the Four Heavenly Kings'' abodes might be fine since they used the finest ingredients avable in the demon realm. However, ordinary demons evidently wouldn''t get to enjoy those high-quality ingredients.


    "The longer I stay in the demon realm, the more I can understand why demons yearn for the human realm''s environment" Alice said, setting down her cutlery after taking only a few bites of her food. Although the food tasted good, the texture made it unptable. It felt like she was eating seasoned cotton wool.


    It went without saying that the human realm''s currency couldn''t be used in the demon realm. However, Alice had the demon realm''s payment applications installed on her phone. man had also transferred a lot of money into her ount. So, she had no problems settling the bill.


    After paying the bill, Alice got ready to head for Demon King Castle and search for Grant''s taboo collection. It was imperative that she get her hands on the past Demon Kings'' taboos since they were developed specifically to target the Demon King''s Power''s essence.


    If she could learn these taboos, she might have an easier time dealing with the Demon King''s Power in the future.

 Chapter 246: Golden Spirit

    Chapter 246: Golden Spirit


    "This is the full view of Demon King Castle! For those interested, make sure to subscribe, and we''ll explore the castle again next time to see if we missed out on any locations!"


    Outside the castle, Alice could see a girl, who looked like a live streamer, standing by the castle''s entrance while holding up her mobile phone. The girl also spoke in a very modern speech. If it weren''t for therge castle behind the girl, Alice would have thought that she had been transported back to Earth.


    In addition to the pink-haired female live streamer, many other people were sightseeing around Demon King Castle. This showed that many people were interested in exploring the castle that used to be home to two Demon Kings.


    In the past, due to the Radioactive Soul Stone''s presence, nobody could enter the castle without being exposed to deadly levels of radiation. One wouldn''t be safe from the radiation even if they had an anti-radiation magic stone. Hence, nobody had dared to visit Demon King Castle.


    However, now that the radiation was removed, those originally interested in Demon King Castle had flocked to the castle.


    Moreover, Alice could see that quite a few other people were doing the same thing as the pink-haired streamer. Only, they didn''t make as much noise as the pink-haired girl. Even so, with how many of them there were, they still caused the castle''s surroundings to be quite noisy.


    Out of the many live streamers present, Alice noticed one wearing a magic robe casting magic at the castle''s walls, proving to his audience the sturdiness of Demon King Castle and why even the Four Heavenly Kings had failed to demolish the castle.


    "How chaotic..."


    Alice felt her head aching a little when she saw the situation outside Demon King Castle. She had forgotten just how much of an attraction Demon King Castle held toward demons. To make matters worse, after Wintas had bought back Demon King Castle''s territory, he did not task anyone to guard the castle. Hence, Demon King Castle had now be something akin to a carnival. There were even quick-witted merchants setting up stalls outside of the castle.


    While it was nice to see that Demon King Castle was no longer deserted, this situation also meant that Alice would face a lot more trouble if she wanted to find Grant''s hidden room inside the castle.


    Alice''s arrival didn''t cause much disturbance since she had put on arge cloak to conceal her appearance. The cloak''s hood also covered her face. So, from others'' perspectives, Alice was merely a well-covered midget. Nobody would bother to wonder about her purpose in visiting Demon King Castle.


    Had Alicee here without a cloak, there was a high chance that someone would recognize her. After all, the average person in the demon realm might be ignorant of the ongoings in the human realm, but there were bound to be curious people who''d bypass the barrier separating the two realms and learn about Alice''s appearance and identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. If such a person were present in Demon King Castle, they would definitely recognize her.


    "To think they would use so much mana to reinforce their house... Did the past two Demon Kings have nothing better to do?"


    Andusia was hiding under Alice''s hood, her body sticking to Alice''s face as she looked at therge castle. As a Demon King herself, she could naturally sense therge amount of dark mana stored within the castle.


    However, this was also why Andusia found this situation even more exasperating. As far as she knew, all of her predecessors had spent their mana strengthening their weapons or creating mechanisms to fight the Hero. Not one of them had bothered wasting their mana strengthening their house.


    "Every Demon King became a Demon King for different reasons. You can''t expect every Demon King to be wishing to abolish very all day, every day, right?" Alice said, chuckling. Then, she walked past the castle''s entrance.


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    Due to therge number of tourists here, Alice''s strange appearance did not catch anybody''s attention. Those around her merely treated her as a tourist who didn''t like to reveal her face. After all, her short stature really made it difficult for anyone to raise their guard against her.


    Upon walking into the main hall, Alice saw many people taking pictures of the spot where the Radioactive Soul Stone used to sit. As for the Radioactive Soul Stone''s fragments, they were nowhere to be seen. Evidently, some tourists had taken the liberty of doing some spring cleaning inside the castle.


    In fact, every piece of furniture and decoration in the hall was gone. The only thing left in the hall was the pedestal that was used to hold the Radioactive Soul Stone. Of course, the reason the pedestal was still here wasn''t because the tourists had deemed it sacrilegious to take it away or something. Instead, it was because the pedestal was connected to the castle. Hence, it was also strengthened by the castle''s mana, and nobody could move it from its position unless they had the strength to overpower two Demon Kings'' worth of mana.


    "Hm...?" Alice suddenly noticed something when she looked at the small pedestal. Then, while lowering her voice, she asked Andusia, "Do you think Grant''s secret room is hidden under that pedestal?"


    "Wouldn''t you know if you checked? Don''t you have that taboo that gives you a irvoyance ability? What was it called again? Psychokinesis Transcendence?"


    Andusia wasn''t familiar with the Demon King named Grant, so there was no way she would know whether he had hidden his secret room under the pedestal. It was also difficult to search the castle with Mind Search since this simple spell would have difficulty prating the castle''s defenses. However, it was a different story for Psychokinesis Transcendence since it was a taboo capable of analyzing even worldws.


    "Demons worship strength, so most of them are capable warriors or magicians. I''ll attract a lot of attention if I use Psychokinesis Transcendence at full power," Alice exined. Then, she looked toward the staircase in the distance and saw quite a few people going up to anding down from the second floor.


    Alice felt that the likelihood of Grant''s secret room being upstairs was low. After all, if Grant were to construct his secret room upstairs, the room would have to be very small and cramped to avoid raising suspicion. However, Demon Kings were tyrannical individuals. Alice found it hard to imagine that Grant would be willing to keep his things inside a cramped secret room. Hence, rather than construct a cramped secret room upstairs, Alice felt that Grant was more likely to construct a spacious secret room underground.


    "Why are you being so timid? Even if Grant''s secret room turns out to be under the pedestal, you can''t possibly sneak inside without anyone''s notice, right?"


    Andusia was rendered a little speechless by Alice''s behavior. She could understand that Alice was trying to avoid exposing her identity as the Hero and the Demon King. However, if Alice refused to reveal even a little bit of her strength, she''d have no chance of entering the secret room.


    "I guess you''re right," Alice said, sighing. Andusia was right. Judging by the demons'' reaction, Demon King Castle would likely remain a popr tourist spot for months. If she refused to use even an ounce of her strength here, who knew when she''d find an opportunity to sneak into Grant''s secret room?


    Thus, Alice decided that so long as she kept her identity as the Hero and the Demon King hidden, it wouldn''t matter even if she revealed some strength. With the demons'' nature, they were unlikely to investigate her if they realized that they couldn''t afford to offend her.


    "But even if I verify that the secret room is beneath the pedestal, how am I supposed to sneak inside?" Alice asked. "I can''t let others know that I am the Demon King yet, so I can''t just ask everyone to vacate the area. Do I wait until nighttime to sneak in?"


    However, Alice couldn''t help but be skeptical of this idea. Judging by the demons'' enthusiasm, she doubted that the people in the castle would reduce by much, even at night.


    "Isn''t that simple? Just knock everyone unconscious, and you''ll be able to enter the secret room without anybody''s notice."


    After all was said and done, Andusia was still a Demon King. Alice might have the beginnings of a Demon King, employing small tricks to achieve her goals, but she was still inexperiencedpared to a full-fledged brute like Andusia.

 Chapter 247: Nobody Knows That She Has Snuck In

    Chapter 247: Nobody Knows That She Has Snuck In


    Andusia''s suggestion was indeed viable. With Alice''s current abilities that surpassed the Four Heavenly Kings and humans like Catherine, she could knock the people in the hall unconscious with ease. Unless there was a full-fledged Hero or Demon King among these people, there was no way Alice could lose to any of the people here.


    "Butit''s going to be difficult to knock the people here unconscious without alerting other people," Alice muttered as she turned to look at her surroundings. Currently, the castle''s main hall, second floor, third floor, and outside were filled with people, many among them taking photos and video recordings with their phones. Some of them were even live streaming. So, it wasn''t an exaggeration to say that every inch of Demon King Castle was under surveince.


    At this point, Alice was no longer the greenhorn that she was when she first transmigrated to this world. Back then, she did not understand anything about this world and simply assumed it to be the same as the medieval worldsmonly described in fantasy novels. As a result, she had suffered the education of surveince cameras twice.


    Now that Alice thoroughly understood the capabilities of cameras, she naturally wouldn''t forget to include the tourists'' phones in her consideration. While it might be easy for her to knock these tourists unconscious, in doing so, she would also be exposing herself to these tourists'' phones.


    "Is there a taboo that can destroy all nearby phones?"


    After pondering for some time anding up with nothing, Alice turned to Andusia for help.


    "Do you think phones existed in my era? Didn''t this contraption get invented only a few decades ago?" Andusia rolled her eyes at Alice. She felt that Alice was clutching at straws. The concept of phones didn''t even exist during her era, so naturally, a taboo meant to target phones wouldn''t exist. "Do these phones run on mana?"


    "That''s right. They rely on mana for power and to connect to the inte," Alice answered. Although she didn''t know why Andusia would suddenly ask such a question, she still answered her obediently. Fortunately, while she might still be learning about this world, she knew a lot more about this world''s modern era than an old antique like Andusia.


    Alice had also studied the phone''s principles on the inte before. Although electricity was also used as a power source in this world, most devices, such as mobile phones, used natural and unpolluted mana as their power source. This was because the usage of mana could reduce the number ofponents a device would need to function.


    In addition, mana could be used for many other purposes than just powering devices. For example, it could be used as a medium to connect to the inte.


    "That makes things simple. Although I don''t really understand the structure of phones, they''ll stop functioning so long as they lose all of their mana, right?" Andusia said as she pped her hands. However, because of how close she was to Alice''s face, the sudden p had given Alice a small fright. "If that''s the case, I have a solution. One of the taboos I know can wipe out all of the mana in the area when used. If you use that taboo, it''ll basically solve your phone problem, right?"


    If a mobile phone lost all of its mana, it would indeed lose the ability to continue functioning. However, the problem was that every demon here had a certain degree of strength. They definitely had mana in their bodies. So, they were more than capable of recharging their phones on the spot.


    This was also one of the conveniences mobile phones in this world had that mobile phones on Earth did not. So long as mobile phone users had mana in their bodies, they were essentially a walking power bank for their phones. Even if their phones lost ess to the ambient mana, users could simply recharge their phones with their mana.


    However, when Alice voiced this problem to Andusia, Andusia rolled her eyes and said, "Are you dumb? When I say that the taboo will wipe out all mana in the area, that includes the mana inside everyone''s bodies. Those with average strength would even lose consciousness on the spot. As for those with tougher constitutions, they might be able to resist fainting, but they''ll be powerless without any mana. All you need to do is knock them unconscious with a punch."


    "Is that so?" Alice scratched her head in embarrassment. It was fortunate that she had her hood on, so nobody had managed to notice the blush on her face. "Alright, then. I''ll leave it to you."


    Andusia let out a soft snort at Alice''s words. Then, she narrowed her eyes as she worked the mana in her body. Originally, the mana inside Andusia was like water inside a storage tank, calm and unnoticeable by the people around her. Now, though, her mana had turned into raging waves.


    Immediately, everyone close to Alice had turned their attention to her. Evidently, all of them could sense the frightening mana fluctuationsing from Alice''s location.


    However, it didn''t matter even if these people noticed the mana fluctuations. When Andusia opened her eyes again, an invisible ripple spread across the entire castle and its surroundings. Then, the demons casting confused gazes at Alice suddenly felt as if they had been deprived of all of their energy, their bodies going limp and copsing one after another.


    In addition, all of the phones within the coverage of Andusia''s taboo went dark instantly, bing nothing more than glorified metal bricks.


    Of course, Andusia''s taboo didn''t actually break everyone''s phones. So long as these phones were charged with mana, they would resume normal functionality again. Though, it was a different story for phones that were dropped on the floor without any cushioning. Such phones might end up with some issues even after they were charged.


    "W-Whatis going on?"


    "My mana suddenly dried up"


    Chaos ensued both inside and outside Demon King Castle. Most of the people affected by Andusia''s taboo instantly lost consciousness after having all of the mana in their bodies removed. As for those who managed to hang on due to their stronger constitutions, they cried out in panic as theyy on the floor.


    Unlike the people outside the castle and those on the castle''s second and third floors, those in the main hall knew who exactly was the cause of this situation. While lying on the floor, they struggled to look up at Alice, the only person still standing in the hall, and the origin of the powerful mana fluctuations from just now.


    "Sorry. I have some business to do here, so I''ll need you all to take a short nap," Alice said apologetically. However, as she had used mana to put pressure on her throat, her voice sounded quite strange to the people in the hall.

 Chapter 248: The Fish That Got Away

    Chapter 248: The Fish That Got Away


    Knocking everyone in the hall unconscious turned out to be a more troublesome task than Alice had initially anticipated. This was because she needed to verify whether these people were actually unconscious or not. Then, she would need to ensure that whoever remained conscious became unconscious.


    However, this was too tedious of a task, and someone could potentially fool her with their acting. So, Alice took a different approach to this problem, casting Waterball on everyone in the hall to wake them up before knocking them unconscious with a hit to the head. She would only consider a person truly unconscious after she had sent them off to slumbend with her fist. Everyone else was ying dead in her eyes.


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    When the conscious people in the hall saw Alice''s "cruel" methods, they quickly abandoned their resistance. Originally, some of these people had thought of fooling Alice by pretending to be unconscious. Then, they would see what the cloaked midget was up to.


    However, when they saw Alice nearly breaking the foot of a person, who continued pretending to be conscious after being soaked by Alice''s Waterball, the others in the hall dared not continue acting. From how they looked at it, Alice was willing to do anything to wake a person. Had the unlucky fellow, who had tried to continue ying dead, not cried out in pain, Alice might have broken his foot for real.


    Thanks to everyone''s cooperativeness, Alice got to offer her slumber package to everyone in the hall much sooner than expected. Although she had to employ some physical persuasion with a few customers, it was a sacrifice she was willing to make to ensure her customers received her services without any dys.


    "That takes care of everyone here," Alice said as she scanned the main hall. As for the people outside the castle and on the castle''s second and third floors, she didn''t bother to extend her services to them. Even if some of those people remained awake, they couldn''t see what was happening in the main hall.


    Of course, Alice hadpletely forgotten that she could have simply used her right hand to verify whether a person was truly unconscious or just pretending to be unconscious. After all, unless a person had a specific type of fetish, their body would subconsciously resist her right hand''s ability so long as they were awake.


    Ignorant of the blunder she had just made, Alice walked to the short pedestal that used to hold the Radioactive Soul Stone and analyzed its internal structure using Psychokinesis Transcendence. Then, she found that the pedestal was indeed <em>not </em>an ordinary object. Specifically, it had anti-inspection magic cast on it to prevent others from analyzing it.


    However, Psychokinesis Transcendence was no ordinary magic, so Alice easily bypassed the pedestal''s anti-inspection magic.


    <em>But is it really beneath this thing?</em>


    Through Psychokinesis Transcendence''s analysis and exploration, Alice quickly found a narrow passage under the pedestal. Then, following this passage, she found that it was connected to a huge underground space.


    Evidently, this underground space was a secret room in Demon King Castle. Meanwhile, this secret room belonged to either Grant or the Demon King preceding Grant. Whichever the case it was, it was still worth the effort to check it out.


    <em>This spell that istes mana is quite interesting. But it doesn''t seem capable of blocking taboo-level spells.</em>


    Alice walked up to the pedestal and crouched down before it. Afterward, she extended a hand to the pedestal and felt around for a moment, quickly finding a hidden mechanism. With a single click, she caused a cover of some sort on top of the pedestal to loosen. Then, she removed this cover to reveal a small magic array.


    Unfortunately, while Alice managed to locate the hidden mechanisms in the pedestal using Psychokinesis Transcendence, her mastery over the taboo wasn''t high enough that she could analyze anything and everything. Specifically, analyzing physical objects was easy, but analyzing spells was difficult, and analyzing magic arrays was even more difficult.


    However, Alice couldn''t be bothered to waste too much time on this small magic array. Instead, she opted to impart the "Fireball Magic Array" concept onto this magic array using Aspect Separation. Then, she effortlessly unraveled this magic array.


    Once Alice unraveled the magic array, she could feel the whole pedestaling loose. So, she stood up and kicked the pedestal.


    Sure enough, the pedestal smoothly moved aside as if it had wheels attached to it, revealing a staircase underneath it.


    "Got it."


    Alice chuckled softly. Then, she stepped onto the staircase and returned the pedestal to its original position on her way in. Even if someone woke up afterward, they wouldn''t know that there was a secret entrance here.


    However, after Alice entered the secret passage, a figure suddenly started moving in the hall. Evidently, Alice did not have the chance to catch this scene.


    "Ouch, it hurts Who is that person? How did a little guy like that drain everyone''s mana in an instant?"


    Surprisingly, the person who moved was the pink-haired female streamer Alice had encountered outside the castle''s entrance. After sitting up, the girl massaged the back of her neck, which was also the spot Alice had struck just now. While the other demons had fallen unconscious after getting struck once by Alice, this pink-haired girl was an exception.


    Of course, that wasn''t to say that the pink-haired girl possessed great strength that allowed her to resist Andusia''s magic and Alice''s physical abuse. In fact, she was part of the group that fell unconscious as soon as Andusia''s spell took effect. Only, due to the self-defense tool she carried around because of her special identity, she managed to regain consciousness much sooner than everyone else. Although her self-defense tool had lost most of its functionality after its mana was drained by Andusia, the little defensive capabilities it retained allowed her to avoid staying unconscious for too long.


    Meanwhile, when the pink-haired girl regained consciousness, it just so happened that she saw Alice opening and walking into the secret passage.


    "My phone"


    Due to her self-defense tool, the pink-haired girl retained a bare minimum of mana in her body. So, she still managed to get herself to stand up from the ground. Then, after standing up, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, the phone''s screen lighting up when she pushed the power button.


    The girl''s phone was different from the average person''s phone in that it was a military-grade phone. Aside from mana, her phone also operated on other sources of energy. So, once her phone lost ess to mana, it automatically began running on its backup batteries.


    Unfortunately, even though the girl''s phone could continue operating normally, it couldn''t connect to the inte since all of the mana in the area was gone. So, when she checked her streaming application, the message "No connection to the inte. Live broadcast has been disconnected."


    "Dammit. Who is that bastard"


    The pink-haired girl gnashed her teeth as she uttered aint. Then, she looked toward the pedestal that had returned to its original position and stumbled her way to it. Unfortunately, the pedestal refused to budge when she tried pushing it.


    "I remember that person touching this ce"


    The girl frowned and mimicked Alice''s actions and groped around the pedestal. She quickly found a small indent and exerted some force on it, causing a metal cover on top of the pedestal toe loose. Then, she removed the metal cover to reveal a magic array.


    Originally, the girl thought that this magic array would be the biggest hurdle preventing her from opening the secret passage. However, after she inspected this magic array for a moment, her expression turned a little strange.


    The magic array having aplicated appearance was something she could understand. After all, beneath the pedestal might be where the rumored Demon King''s treasure was hidden. It was only natural for the magic array meant to keep this treasure locked away to beplicated.


    However, the conclusion she got from researching this magic array wasstrange, to say the least. Despite theplexity of its design, the magic array''s ultimate purpose was actuallyto create a fireball?


    When the girl tried to unravel this magic array like she would unravel a Fireball Magic Array, the result she got rendered her utterly speechless. It turned out that thisplicated magic array really was just a glorified Fireball Magic Array. It wasn''t even made to be more difficult to unravel than your average Fireball Magic Array


    "What the hell Is this even the way to the Demon King''s secret room? Why is it locked behind a Fireball Magic Array?"


    The pink-haired girl couldn''t help herself from uttering aint as she pushed the pedestal away. Then, when she looked at the staircase leading underground, she hesitated for a moment before going inside.

 Chapter 249: True Infiltration

    Chapter 249: True Infiltration


    Demon King Castle used to be the territory of two generations of Demon Kings. Hence, there was a chance that this secret room might not belong to Grant. If that was the case, Grant might have emptied the room and moved everything to his own secret room located somewhere else in the castle.


    However, when Alice walked down the staircase and arrived inside the secret underground room, she was greeted by many magic materials and books. She even saw a rat that had died of starvation in the corner of the room, its corpse mummified.


    This secret room had Grant''s magic lock keeping it sealed, so the rat naturally couldn''t leave the room. Judging by its appearance, Alice guessed it to be a Doulu Rat, a creature often used asb rats in this world. Grant must have been conducting magic experiments in this room, so he had kept a Doulu Rat here.


    "This ce should be Grant''s secret room. If it belonged to the Demon King before Grant, Grant should have ransacked this ce already," Alice said to Andusia. Since there was nobody else in this secret room, Alice did not lower her voice when speaking to Andusia. "Of course, it is also possible that Grant had simply reused his predecessor''s ce after finding it."


    "Let''s search around, then. The taboos developed by past Demon Kings are of great use to any Demon King, so it''s unlikely that Grant would ce it at a random ce. Those taboos must be stored somewhere inside this room," Andusia said, speaking normally this time. Although the task of transmitting her voice directly into Alice''s ears was neitherplex nor costly mana-wise, she found it morefortable to speak normally. "The taboos I''ve developed should also be here."


    "You Demon Kings are really a rebellious bunch. It''s a wonder why the Demon King''s Power didn''t kill you all for targeting its essence" Alice said, chuckling. Then, she set her sights on therge bookshelf in the room.


    "The Demon King''s Power might be self-conscious, but it doesn''t seem to mind us taking some of its essence," Andusia exined. "The feeling I got was that it didn''t seem to think that the little amount of energy we stole from it would affect it in any way That''s also the case in reality. I''ve made several weapons using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, yet I''ve never noticed any changes to the Demon King''s Power. It''s as if I''m taking a cup of water out of the ocean."


    "Is that so? I thought Demon Kings are bing weaker with each passing generation because you guys have been shearing it time and again. So, that''s not actually the case?"


    After searching the entire bookshelf and failing to find a single taboo, Alice walked up to the experiment table and began flipping through the stack of research notes there.


    "Then, why would you say that the First Demon King is stronger than all Demon Kings that came afterward?"


    "To say that Demon Kings are bing weaker isn''t exactly true. It''s just that the First Demon King is overwhelmingly strong. Demon Kings of subsequent generations should be equal in strength," Andusia corrected. "As to why I say that the First Demon King is stronger than all other Demon Kingsit''s because of the thing that fellow has left behind. It is still functioning to this day. So, I am certain that the First Demon King is much stronger than other Demon Kings. At the very least, if it were up to me, there''s no way I can create such a longsting item."


    "Something that the First Demon King left behind is still functioning even now?" Alice was a little confused by Andusia''s words. "What thing? Where is it now?"


    "It''s a contraption that influences the entire demon realm. It''s buried underground in a vige in the ndy Kingdom. Oh, wait, it should be called the Acura Kingdom right now," Andusia said. "I''m not too sure what that contraption is for. Although I tried to research it, the contraption''splexity is absurd. It also contains a frightening amount of mana. I can even sense it forming a cycle with naturally-generated mana. If my hunch is correct, that contraption can most likely operate endlessly. I have never heard of such a mana storage method before, and I think that only the First Demon King is capable of creating such a contraption."


    Alice stopped her search when she heard Andusia''s words, a frown forming on her face.


    <em>A magic tool capable of influencing the entire demon realm?</em>


    A bold conjecture appeared in Alice''s mind. However, it was only a guess right now. She would still need to visit the Acura Kingdom to validate her guess.


    While Alice was about to ask Andusia for the magic tool''s exact location, a sound suddenly came from the secret room''s entrance.


    <em>Ka-chak.</em>


    It was the sound of a camera shutter opening and closing.


    The sound wasn''t all too loud, but in this quiet room, it immediately attracted Alice''s and Andusia''s attention.


    Alice''s eyelids twitched when she heard this sound, and she promptly turned to the room''s entrance. Then, she found herself looking at a pink-haired girl wearing a flustered look on her face. The girl was holding her phone in her hand, and the phone''s camera lens was aimed in Alice''s direction. Evidently, the pink-haired girl had forgotten to mute her phone''s shutter sound.


    "What''s going on? Why is someone still awake?" Andusia was a little surprised by this situation, but she didn''t panic. After all, since this pink-haired girl had already exposed her tracks, there was no way the girl could escape. The one who should be panicking right now should be the pink-haired girl instead. "Alice, did that person just take a photo?"


    "Yes," Alice answered, curtly resolving the old antique''s ignorance of mobile phones. "But to think we failed to notice her until now It seems we were too engaged in our conversation."


    Alice didn''t know whether tough or cry over this situation. She didn''t think that neither she nor Andusia would fail to notice someone sneaking up to the secret room''s entrance. It''d be a huge embarrassment if news of this situation got out.


    However, simr to Andusia, Alice did not panic. Since the pink-haired girl had already exposed herself, there was no way she would let the girl get away.


    "Be good ande over here, little fellow. You should be thankful that Alice isn''t some bloodthirsty killer. If you don''t resist, we might consider leaving you with your life," Andusia said to the flustered girl as she climbed out from under the hood and stood on Alice''s shoulder. "Otherwise, I cannot promise we''ll even leave you with an intact corpse."

 Chapter 250: Silence the Witness?

    Chapter 250: Silence the Witness?


    "Kamia Bifrons" Alice frowned when she saw the basic information disyed on the pink-haired girl''s identification card. "Why do I feel like I''ve seen this name before"


    "That''s normal. Humans and demons would often have simr surnames for various reasons. It also isn''t rare to see people with the same name. You might have met someone with a simr name as this girl in the past," Andusia said, sitting on Kamia''s shoulder while instructing the trembling demoness to operate her phone and shamelessly inspecting the girl''s privacy.


    Alice nced at Andusia but chose not to respond. Andusia did not know that Alice had only been living in this world for several months, so the number of people she had met here was by no means many.


    Of course, Alice also acknowledged that Andusia might be right, and one of the students she met in the March Academy might have a simr name as Kamia. Hence, she had felt a sense of familiarity from seeing the name.


    "Alice, what does ''Live Stream'' mean?" Andusia asked, her attention caught by something interesting in Kamia''s phone. "Quite a few things in this girl''s phone are rted to this ''Live Stream'' thing."


    "It means that she is publishing the photographs she takes to the inte in real-time for others to see and interact... That is to say, if not for theck of mana in the area, the photograph she took of us might have been shared on the inte. She could have even broadcast our conversation live," Alice exined as she nced at the panicking Kamia. Although she still had her hood on, she did not bother disguising her voice. After all, Kamia had already heard Andusia calling her ''Alice.'' There was no need to continue hiding her voice.


    After grabbing a nearby metal stool, Alice sat in front of Kamia and looked at the demoness kneeling on the ground. Then, while doing her best to sound indifferent, Alice asked, "How much did you hear? Don''t try to lie. We can tell through your expressions."


    This was naturally a lie. Alice had no idea how to read expressions whatsoever. At most, she could tell that a person was happy when they were smiling and sad when crying. However, that did not hinder her from tricking Kamia.


    Unfortunately, the situation was as Alice feared. Kamia had overheard her entire conversation with Andusia. The girl had even heard them talking about past Demon Kings and the Demon King''s Power in a seemingly belittling manner. As a result, their image in Kamia''s heart was elevated infinitely.


    Adding on to the demons'' nature of obeying the strong, Kamia answered Alice truthfully despite the feeling perplexed over the situation:


    "F-From when you first started speaking"


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    <em>This truly is the worst</em>


    Alice felt her head hurting a little when she heard Kamia''s answer. If Kamia had truly overheard everything she had talked about with Andusia, the demoness could most likely guess their identities.


    "In that case, you should know who we are now, right?"


    Alice decided to verify her thoughts directly. In any case, Kamia was unlikely to have the courage to lie to her right now. Although she couldn''t actually read Kamia''s thoughts through the girl''s expressions, she could tell that Kamia was very scared, judging by the girl''s trembling body.


    "I-I think so" Kamia stuttered nervously. Then, she looked toward the figurine sitting on her shoulder and continued, "This p-person here is the Ninth Demon King Andusia, right?"


    "That''s right! I am Andusia! A Demon King who brings despair to humans!" Andusia said, nodding in satisfaction. Kamia''s reaction should be the normal reaction a person should have when meeting a Demon King. Alice''s response of hurling a taboo in her face was simply wrong.


    "Don''t interrupt."


    Alice sent Andusia a warning nce, causing Andusia to shut up immediately. It couldn''t be helped. The Forest Crystal''s mana was still in her body. Alice could turn her into a powerless figurine with just a thought. So, she couldn''t afford to go against Alice right now.


    "A-As for y-you Could you be the newest Demon King, right?" Kamia asked in an uncertain tone as she turned to Alice. "But your name is Alice It''s the same name as the humans'' Gryffin Princess."


    "Hmph. I see I still got discovered."


    Alice frowned. She had originally hoped that Kamia might not be up to date on the human realm''s matters and wouldn''t notice what the name of "Alice" represented. Unfortunately, it would seem that the other party was aware that "Alice" was the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess.


    Although Kamia still wasn''t certain if "new Demon King = human kingdom''s princess," just the fact that she was harboring such a guess meant that there existed a risk for Alice''s identity to get exposed.


    "It seems you are quite the perceptive fellow, aren''t you?" Alice jokingly said as she removed her hood, revealing her blonde twintails and pristine appearance that rivaled elves. Both of these features were exactly the same as the image of the human princess in Kamia''s mind.


    However, Kamia did not feel joyful when she saw Alice removing her hood. Instead, her face instantly paled. This was because she knew that Alice''s action wasn''t a gesture of friendliness and sincerity. Instead, it was most likely because Alice was prepared to "silence the witness."


    After all, they weren''t familiar with each other, and the best way to prevent someone from revealing a secret was to kill them. Meanwhile, Alice naturally didn''t need to hide her secret from someone who was about to die.


    "Oh? Are you taking action?" Andusia grew excited when she saw Alice''s action. She might behave obediently in front of Alice, but she was still a Demon King. The blood of countless lives stained her hands, so she wasn''t against silencing people with death in the slightest. "What do you have in mind? How about letting me handle the girl? I can even extract her soul out of her body."


    "Can you not be so violent?" Alice clicked her tongue when she heard Andusia''s suggestion. Then, she reached out to Kamia with both hands and pressed the trembling demoness''s temples, saying, "Stay still. It''ll be over before you know it."

 Chapter 251: Basic Operation

    Chapter 251: Basic Operation


    Alice naturally wouldn''t kill Kamia to silence her. Although Alice wouldn''t mind eliminating evildoers standing in her way, Kamia didn''t seem like she was an evildoer or anything of the sort. Moreover, Alice had other means to prevent Kamia from leaking her secret.


    "Ugh It''s a little moreplex than I thought."


    Alice frowned as she received the information feedback from the mana in her hands. At the same time, Kamia, whose head Alice was holding, revealed a dazed look on her face, looking like her soul had just left her body.


    Some time ago, Alice had basically learned every taboo avable in the March Academy''s library to an entry-level. Hence, she had started setting her sights on taboos outside of the general offensive, defensive, and sealing categories.


    As it just so happened, Alice had a maid who was also a master in mind magic. Hence, Alice had naturally asked Luna for a few books on mind-attributed taboos to study.


    Initially, Luna had tried to dissuade Alice from learning about mind taboos by telling her that mind taboos required their users to have in-depth theoretical knowledge of mind magic to use. Otherwise, even if Alice managed to learn those taboos, she wouldn''t be able to use them to their fullest potential. However, sticking to her idea of "learn first, masterter," Alice continuously pestered Luna over the matter.


    Eventually, Luna caved to Alice''s pleading and gave Alice the mind taboo books in her collection. Meanwhile, Alice had promptly digested these mind taboos, though she never actually got to put any of those taboos to use until now.


    The taboo Alice had just used on Kamia was a mind-attributed taboo called Consciousness Transformation. The main function of this taboo was to manipte the target''s memory, and the taboo was incredibly capable in this regard. This was also the taboo Luna had used when she altered the memories of Catherine, Hatter, and the others at the hospital.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s n was to mimic Luna and use Consciousness Transformation to erase, or perhaps alter, Kamia''s memories. If she could sessfully alter Kamia''s memories, not only could she conceal her identity, but she could also herself an extra helper. Even if Kamia''s skillset turned out to be useless, the demoness could still serve as a panty supplier.


    Unfortunately, Alice had overestimated her abilities and underestimated theplexity of mind taboos. Upon using Consciousness Transformation on Kamia, Alice quickly understood why Luna had repeatedly advised her to increase her knowledge of mind magic before learning mind taboos.


    This was because Alice discovered that the memories read by Consciousness Transformation were disyed to her in a garbled form.


    There was obviously a special technique to read this garbled information. Unfortunately, Alice hadn''t taken Luna''s advice to heart and neglected her studies on mind magic. As a result, Alice now felt as if she was looking at a video file that she had opened using Notepad. The content disyed before her looked like a series of codes that looked like nonsense to her, and she had no idea which memories these codes represented. She also didn''t know how to modify these memories.


    "Andusia, do you know mind magic?"


    Alice turned to Andusia, who had returned to sitting on her shoulder. Due to Consciousness Transformation''s design, once she used the taboo and invaded her target''s consciousness with her own consciousness, she had to make some changes before retracting her consciousness. Hence, she had no way of backing out of the current situation without doing something.


    ording to Luna, this w was left behind by the taboo''s developer intentionally. As to why the developer would do such a thing on purpose, nobody knew. Anyway, Alice needed to make some alterations to Kamia''s memories before she could retract her consciousness.


    "Not at all. I know a few defensive taboos that can defend against mind magic. Still, nothing rted to mind magic directly," Andusia said, shaking her head as she looked at Alice somewhat gleefully. "You should have just listened to me and disposed of the girl directly. If you extract her soul as well, you''d have no need to worry about anyone learning about your secret. Why bother wasting energy using mind magic on her? Also, by the looks of things, you''re still an amateur in mind magic."


    In reality, Alice couldn''t even be considered an "amateur" in mind magic. All she had done thus far was learning how to cast a mind-attributed taboo. She had never touched any theoretical knowledge on mind magic, much less learned how to read other people''s memories.


    "How troublesome."


    Alice was feeling a little regretful. She should have never acted so recklessly. However, since she had no way of altering Kamia''s memories, she might as well erase some of the demoness''s memories and withdraw out of the other party''s mind.


    While such a reckless action might cause Kamia to suffer some confusion and irrecoverable damage to her memories, Alice had no other choice. If she didn''t do this, Kamia might leak the information about this secret room and her identity. If Alice chose not to erase Kamia''s memories, the only other alternative she could take was to follow Andusia''s suggestion and kill Kamia.


    After making up her mind, Alice chose to erase the most recent segment of Kamia''s memories. Although Alice wasn''t certain if the most recent entry of the garbled code represented Kamia''s most recent memories, she could only assume it as such for now.


    After erasing Kamia''s memories, Alice pondered for a moment before constructing some fake memories in her own mind. Then, she extracted these false memories, converted them into code, and haphazardly inserted the code into Kamia''s mind. While her reckless actions would more or less create problems, this was the best she could do for the time being.


    "Are you done?" Andusia asked, a look of interest appearing on her face when she saw Alice letting go of Kamia''s head. This was the first time she had seen someone trying to alter another person''s memories without mastering mind magic first. Not to mention, the spell Alice had used was at the taboo-level. Was Alice not afraid of frying Kamia''s brain?


    However, after thinking it over, Andusia found that it wouldn''t be a problem even if Alice did fry Kamia''s brain. That was also one way of ensuring Kamia would never reveal Alice''s secrets.


    "I''m done. I just don''t know what kind of effects my efforts will yield," Alice said as she looked at Kamia''s dazed expression. By the looks of it, the other party''s memories were still in a chaotic state. However, Alice wasn''t in a hurry, so she sat back on her stool and waited for Kamia to recover.


    A few minutester, Kamia''s eyes gradually regained their light. Her expression also stopped looking dull, and her stiff body had shown signs of movement. This was a sign that her chaotic memories were gradually sorting out themselves.


    Afterward, Kamia shifted her gaze onto Alice. Then, under Alice''s nervous gaze, Kamia opened her mouth and said:


    "Mama?"

 Chapter 252: Ill Fate

    Chapter 252: Ill Fate


    Sitting on Alice''s shoulder, Andusia looked at the girl following closely behind Alice. Then, wearing a strange expression, she asked, "Alice, tell me the truth. Did you do it on purpose?"


    "I I really didn''t do it on purpose"


    Alice didn''t know whether she shouldugh or cry. Currently, Kamia was like a child desperate for their parents'' affection as she followed closely behind Alice. The girl refused to move away from Alice, her behavior looking like a mama''s girl. However, the problem was that Alice wasn''t Kamia''s mother. This situation resulted from Alice''s failed maniption of Kamia''s memories.


    Looking at this situation, Alice guessed that she must have identally mistook the order of Kamia''s memory code. She thought that the code at the very bottom represented Kamia''s most recent memories. However, it turned out that she had gotten thingspletely wrong. The memories Alice had reced were Kamia''s earliest memories rather than Kamia''s most recent memories.


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    As for whether Kamia''s memories began right after she was born or when she was still in her mother''s womb, that wasn''t important. What was important was that Alice had reced this segment of memories with the memory of "ce absolute trust in Alice and will not refuse Alice''s requests." Afterward, Kamia''s brain must have tried to sort out the sudden change in Kamia''s memories, and its efforts ended up causing Kamia to treat Alice like her mother.


    Moreover, when Alice tried to ask whether Kamia still remembered her real mother, the demoness''s answer left Alice feeling very helpless.


    "Mama Cheshire has passed away already, so I only have Mama Alice now."


    When Kamia mentioned the name "Chesire," a hint of sadness appeared on her face. Her reaction made it safe to assume that she still remembered her real mother. However, because Kamia''s real mother had passed away already, Kamia had put all of her feelings toward her mother onto Alice and firmly believed that Alice was her mother. Kamia also didn''t doubt that Alice was also her mother due to the memory modifications made by Alice.


    "Oh my, oh my. I didn''t think mind magic could produce such a strange yet wonderful result," Andusia said with an undisguised smile. Despite her expansive knowledge and experiences, this was the first time she had seen or heard about such a situation. "Well, Alice, how do you n on dealing with your daughter?"


    "Stop talking. My head hurts," Alice said while covering her face.


    Even though Alice and Andusia openly discussed whether Kamia should go or stay, the person in question did not show any dissatisfaction. Instead, she simply held onto the edge of Alice''s cloak, looking very reluctant to part with Alice.


    This reaction showed that the false memories Alice nted were doing their job. Only, this effect was established on the basis of Alice bing Kamia''s mother, and this situation troubled Alice. Although Kamia''s real mother had passed away already, the demoness should still have other family members.


    After all, Kamia didn''t look very old. She looked like she should still be in school. Yet, not only did her phone look new, but it even came with an alternative power source. This showed that Kamia came from a rather affluent family. In fact, her family probably possessed a certain degree of influence in the demon realm considering she owned a phone outside the average person''s reach.


    "Kamia, who else is in your family? What about your father?" Alice asked. After giving the matter some thought, she decided to ask about Kamia''s family situation for now.


    "Papa has also passed away already. Only me and Big Brother are left in our family now," Kamia answered without hesitation.


    Kamia''s behavior was so trusting that Alice couldn''t help but wonder what had happened to Kamia''s memories exactly. After all, wouldn''t a normal person grow suspicious of a "mother" who didn''t know anything about her "family''s" situation?


    "Big Brother Gel is a trusted aide of Lady Ellu. He is helping Lady Ellu run Shax Supermarket, a business she owns. He has also helped develop Shax Supermarket into the biggest supermarket chain in the demon realm."


    "Ellu Ah, it''s her."


    Alice nodded. She didn''t think that Kamia''s elder brother was actually working for Ellu Shax, the Heavenly King of Water. Moreover, it would seem that Ellu Shax highly valued Kamia''s elder brother, which would exin why Kamia was in possession of a phone with an alternative power source. It would also seem that the person named Gel was quite concerned about his younger sister.


    Also, it might sound rude, but Alice felt a little relieved when she heard that Kamia''s father had passed away already. At the very least, she wouldn''t have to worry about getting a husband added to her life.


    "But why does Shax Supermarket sound so familiar"


    Alice frowned. Since transmigrating to this world, she had only spent a few days in the demon realm. Moreover, she had spent most of that time cooped up in man''s house. So, it was normal for her not to know about the demon realm''s biggest supermarket chain. Yet, when she heard Kamia mentioning the Shax Supermarket, she couldn''t help but find the name familiar.


    Of course, Alice knew that part of that familiarity was because Shax Supermarket was named after Ellu''s surname. However, she felt that she had heard of the supermarket even before hearing Ellu''s name.


    (When you are done with your task here,e to Prandtl City. There is a Shax Supermarket branch there, and I am the branch manager. You cane to me directly, and I''ll be responsible for sending you back to the human realm)


    "Crap! I remember now!"


    Alice pped her head when she finally realized why she found the name "Shax Supermarket" familiar. The first time she visited the demon realm, she hade here via a smuggling convoy introduced by Rosa. The smugglers'' contact in the demon realm was a male demon with a paleplexion. Meanwhile, this male demon was also the first demon Alice had met in this world.


    At the time, the demon had told Alice that should she need to return to the human realm, she could seek him out to do so. He had even given her his name card, and his surname was written on the name cardBifrons.


    Upon remembering this little detail, Alice finally realized why she had found Kamia''s full name so familiar. It was because Kamia''s surname was also Bifrons.


    Previously, after getting the Four Heavenly Kings to recognize her as the Demon King, Alice no longer needed to rely on Gel Bifrons to send her back to the human realm. She also thought that she would not have any more dealings with the man. She never thought that she would identally turn Gel''s younger sister into her daughter.


    "Kamia, listen well. You must not call me Mama in front of others, alright?" Alice said as she grabbed Kamia''s shoulders and looked seriously into the demoness''s eyes. "This is very important, so you must remember it. Do you hear me?"


    "Mhm, I''ll go along with your arrangements, Mama."


    Although Kamia didn''t understand why Alice would make such a request, she still agreed to it earnestly.

 Chapter 253: Should I Meet My Son?

    Chapter 253: Should I Meet My Son?


    After scanning the room with Psychokic Transcendence and failing to find any taboos, Alice grew a little impatient. Hence, she started spreading her psychic powers into the walls, hoping to find some sort of hiddenpartment.


    Unfortunately, Alice quickly frowned again as she opened her eyes and looked toward Andusia in confusion, asking:


    "I didn''t find any hiddenpartments or doors even with Psychokic Transcendence, so there shouldn''t be any more secret rooms nearby. Could it be possible that Grant kept his taboo collection in a different location?"


    "That shouldn''t be the case. If this ce really did belong to that Grant fellow, his taboo collection should be kept here," Andusia said, simrly confused by this situation. Then, she looked down at the experiment table she was sitting on and continued, "The experiment table here shows that he had conducted his magic experiments here. In that case, it stands to reason that he would keep the taboo books he''d used here. Otherwise, he''d have to head to a different location to retrieve his books whenever he wanted to experiment on taboos. He''d also have to return those books once done with his experiments. Who''d want to do something as tedious as that?"


    What Andusia said made sense. From a normal person''s perspective, since Grant had ced his experiment table here, it stood to reason that he should have also ced his taboo books here. There was even arge bookshelf holding magic books and experiment logs here.


    Only, Alice failed to find a single book on taboos even after looking through all of the books on the bookshelf. She had even flipped through the contents of the books to make sure that the covers weren''t just a disguise. Unfortunately, none of the spells recorded in these books were taboos. They were merely strange spells with very little practical uses. When Alice was reading about these spells, she couldn''t help but wonder if Grant had developed these spells or if he was using them to aid him in his experiments.


    "But it''s unlikely for Psychokinesis Transcendence to be wrong. I''ve inspected every wall in this room with my psychic power, but I didn''t find any secretpartments," Alice said, sitting on the chair helplessly. The chairs in this room seemed to be some sort of experimental product as well. They felt like a soft sofa despite their metallic appearance.


    While Alice and Andusia were immersed in silence, Kamia, who stood nearby, suddenly spoke up:


    "Mama, could the books be stored in a spatial pocket?"


    "Huh?" Alice was stunned when she heard Kamia''s words. Turning to the demoness, she asked, "What did you say? A spatial pocket?"


    "Mhm. If this room''s owner created a spatial pocket here and stored his things inside, your magic won''t be able to detect them since they are in an entirely different space," Kamia exined. "Going by your words, the owner of this room should be the previous generation''s Demon King, right? If he is trying to hide something as important as taboos, there is a high chance that he might be hiding them in a spatial pocket."


    "But Grant''s secondary magic is gravity magic. It doesn''t have anything to do with space," Alice said with a frown. Then, she turned to Andusia for help.


    However, Andusia simply shrugged and said, "What are you looking at me for? I don''t know any spatial magic. Spatial magic has always been a rare magic type. Its rarity isparable to dark magic and light magic. Those with dark or light magic affinities are considered rare talents in both the demon and human realms."


    <em>Are dark and light affinitiesvery rare?</em>


    Alice scratched her head. Her impression of dark and light affinities being rare was warped after encountering so many Demon Kings and Heroes, so she hadpletely forgotten that these two affinities were, in reality, exceedingly rare in the world.


    It made sense, though. If these two affinities weren''t exceedingly rare, she wouldn''t have been deemed as the Hero just because she could use powerful light magic back then.


    "Anyway, you seem quite familiar with spatial magic, little fellow. With how rare spatial magic is, the average person wouldn''t necessarilye up with the possibility of a spatial pocket on their first guess." After speaking to Alice, Andusia turned her attention to Kamia. Fortunately, while Kamia''s perception of reality might have turned a little strange because of Alice''s meddling, her memories in themon sense department didn''t seem to have any problems. "Don''t tell me you know spatial magic?"


    "Yes, I do know a little" Kamia said while scratching her head in embarrassment. She was behaving a little timider now that she was in front of her "mother." She looked nothing like the female streamer who had been speaking loudly to her online audience outside Demon King Castle. "But my mastery over spatial magic is still crude. The most I can do is use Transfer to conduct short-distance spatial shifts. I still can''t create or open spatial pockets."


    "So you do know spatial magic," Alice eximed, not expecting to encounter another one of these so-called "rare talents" here. "But Grant doesn''t know spatial magic, so how can he create a spatial pocket here?"


    "Grant''s a Demon King. Demon Kings don''t need to do everything by themselves. He can simply call one of his subordinates who can use spatial magic to create a spatial pocket here and transfer ownership over it to him," Andusia exined. "Of course, he probably disposed of that subordinate afterward to keep the spatial pocket''s existence secret, which is normal procedure for Demon Kings."


    "Then, do you know any powerful spatial magicians who can break open spatial pockets, Kamia?" Alice asked as she ignored Andusia''s malicious supplementary exnation and returned her attention to Kamia. "It''s best if they have a proven track record."


    "It shouldn''t be too difficult to find someone like that. Hidden pockets are generally tied to the magician responsible for opening them and the users who had received permission from the magician. If both the creator and the users are dead, the hidden pocket''s security will weaken drastically, making it very easy to open," Kamia said. She might not have the strength to create or open a hidden pocket, but she had studied spatial magic. So, she knew about the details surrounding spatial pockets. "Big Brother should have no trouble opening the spatial pocket here. Big Brother is a spatial magician like myself, and he is also the one who taught me spatial magic."


    "Your big brother, huh"


    Alice''s head ached a little when she heard Kamia''s suggestion. She had met Kamia''s elder brother, Gel Bifrons, before. Moreover, judging by the rare phone Kamia''s elder brother had given to her, it could be seen that Gel treated his little sister preciously.


    If Gel were to find out that his little sister had suddenly gained a new mother, the resulting scene would probably be quite chaotic.

 Chapter 254: High-Performance Siscon

    Chapter 254: High-Performance Siscon


    The reason Alice had expended so much effort to visit Demon King Castle was to search for taboos developed by past Demon Kings. Now that she hadn''t found even a single taboo, she naturally wasn''t willing to return empty-handed.


    Since they still had plenty of time, Alice decided to just call Kamia''s elder brother over to see if there really was a spatial pocket hidden somewhere in this room. It wouldn''t hurt to try, anyway.


    As for the matter of Kamia addressing her as "Mama," Alice simply needed to have Kamia not call her that in front of Gel and keep the entire thing a secret from Gel. Although Alice''s use of Consciousness Transformation had caused Kamia''s memories to be a slight mess, the fake memories Alice had nted into the demoness had still taken effect to a certain extent.


    For example, Kamia was now very obedient to Alice. It was to the point where the girl would try to fulfill every one of Alice''s requests, including keeping secrets from her elder brother. This situation made Alice feel like she was some sort of viin.


    "But I have no way of contacting my brother right now," Kamia said after ncing at her phone. "The mana in this area has been drained, so I can''t connect to the inte."


    The way magic devicesmunicated with the inte was by interacting with mana signal towers set up around the world. However, this interaction required mana to serve as a medium of information transfer. If a device was in an area that had no mana, long-distancemunication would naturally be impossible.


    "That''s simple. I''ve been researching the inte''s structure recently. It isn''t actually asplicated as it seems," Andusia said as she jumped off the experiment table andnded on Kamia''s shoulder. Then, she reached out for Kamia''s phone with her hand and injected some of her mana into the device.


    A momentter, Kamia found that her device had sessfully connected to the inte. Even her live broadcasting application had restarted, giving her a small fright. Alice had previously reminded her that others must not learn of their whereabouts, so she hurriedly closed the application.


    "I might not know what''s actually running the inte, but connecting to the inte is a simple task that only involves sending mana signals to the nearest signal tower. I''ve even experimented with this theory previously, and all it takes is a simple trick," Andusia said gleefully. "Simply grant your phone with the mana transmission function and have it transmit its mana signals to an area that has mana. Then, it''ll have ess to the inte."


    "Isn''t that already a new type of magic?" Alice asked, feeling a little surprised. She also realized that, despite how unreliable Andusia typically looked, the other party was still a well-experienced Demon King. It had only been a few days since Andusia had gotten her first experience of the inte. Yet, she had not only researched the properties of the inte, but she had also developed a small spell based on these properties.


    "I guess you can say that, but it''s a very crude spell that I can''t even be bothered to name. It''s just a parlor trick," Andusia said, shrugging. Then, she flew to the secret room''s entrance and said, "Anyway, call whoever you need. In the meantime, I''ll go upstairs and see if anyone has woken up. If there are, I''ll knock them out again to avoid unnecessary troubles."


    Alice quietly mourned the fate of the people upstairs for a moment when she heard what Andusia nned to do. However, she did not stop Andusia since she simrly wished to avoid creating any more trouble. It was especially true after her mishap with Kamia. Fortunately, demons had stronger physiques than humans, so it shouldn''t matter too much, even if they suffered another round of physical persuasion.


    If even a Milu Rabbit could get used to experiencing concussions, there was no reason why the demons could not do the same.


    "Hello? Big Brother?"


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    On the other side, Kamia had dialed her elder brother''s number. However, Alice didn''t bother eavesdropping on the call, confident that Kamia woulde up with an effective reason to persuade her elder brother toe over. Instead, Alice focused her attention on the experiment logs kept on the bookshelf.


    Honestly, Alice was feeling a little upset to see Andusia develop a new spell in such a short time, even if the person herself only considered it to be a parlor trick. After all, these Demon Kings were seemingly developing spells left and right like it was some sort of child''s y, while she hadn''t developed anything thus far. This situation made her seem very weak.


    Of course, Alice was aware that she hadn''t grown to her full potential, unlike Andusia and the other past Demon Kings. She could only match a full-fledged Demon King in strength because of her cheat-ability to use panties as weapons of mass destruction. However, as a person bearing the titles of Hero and Demon King simultaneously, she still couldn''t help but feel ashamed that she hadn''t developed anything. Hence, she decided to read Grant''s research logs and see if she could gain any inspiration from them.


    However, Alice quickly abandoned her idea after doing a little reading. Her body, which was created and modified by God, might have the talent and physique of Heroes and Demon Kings, but she was still an otherworlder at the end of the day. Her knowledge of this world was still very muchcking, and the umtion of hermon sense wasn''t even at the level of the average person.


    Alice felt that if she wanted to develop a taboo that she could call her own, she would still need to do more studying. The taboos developed by past Heroes and Demon Kings mostly had a strong personal color. Even if she wanted to use them as a reference, there was a limit to how much she could refer to. Most of the development process would still depend on her knowledge and ideas.


    Even with enough control over mana and talent for magic, developing spells still isn''t a simple task... Alice thought to herself, sighing as she returned the research log in her hand back to the bookshelf.


    The taboo magic books found in the March Academy''s libraries were written using concisenguage for the convenience of reference and research. This made it rtively easy for Alice to learn them. However, research logs were typically written for personal use. So long as the person writing the log could understand it, it didn''t matter whatnguage the person used.


    Meanwhile, Grant''s research logs appeared no different than scribbles in Alice''s eyes. Even though she could understand the individual words and sentences written in the log, the sentencesbined made very little sense since they weren''t written in a fixed order. The notes in the log could go from talking about one matter to another, then to a third unrted matter in three consecutive sentences.


    So, after trying and failing to understand Grant''s notes, Alice gave up on using them as a reference and shifted her attention back to Kamia. Moreover, she had done so just in time as the demoness just so happened to have ended her call.


    "How did it go? Did your brother agree toe?" Alice asked. However, when she saw the relieved look on Kamia''s face, she knew that the girl had most likely seeded. So, instead of waiting for an answer, she continued, "How did you get your brother toe over?"


    Alice was honestly a little curious about how Kamia had persuaded her elder brother to go out of his way to visit Demon King Castle. After all, ording to Kamia, Gel was helping Ellu manage the biggest supermarket chain in the demon realm. So, he should be quite the busy man. Even if Kamia was his little sister, it should still be difficult for her to get him to drop his work ande visit her at such sudden notice.


    "I told Big Brother that I found a boyfriend," Kamia said proudly. "When he heard it, he immediately asked where I was and said that he woulde to find me in person."

 Chapter 255: You Didnt Expect This, Did You?

    Chapter 255: You Didn''t Expect This, Did You?


    Kamia was right. Her elder brother Gel was indeed very efficient. After learning that his little sister was in Demon King Castle, he had rushed over immediately.


    For an aplished spatial magician, Gel could travel across long distances swiftly and easily. Spatial magic allowed him to use Spatial Leap, achieving high-speed movement resembling the effect of teleportation arrays.


    Coincidentally, Gel also happened to be doing some work in a branch shop in the Windy Kingdom. Otherwise, he''d have difficulty traveling across countries with his current abilities. However, if it was only crossing one or two cities, he could still barely manage it if he gritted his teeth.


    However, when Gel arrived in Demon King Castle, the first person who entered his eyes wasn''t Alice or Kamia, who were currently inside Grant''s secret room. Instead, the first person he saw was Andusia, who was currently busy knocking people unconscious outside the castle.


    "Hm?"


    After the mishap with Kamia, Andusia had learned from her mistake and kept her senses heightened even when she was working. Meanwhile, with her perception as a Demon King, she could spread her senses to cover the entire castle and its surroundings. This allowed her to sense the changes inside the entire mana vacuum area.


    Hence, when Gel entered the area with his body brimming with mana, Andusia promptly noticed his arrival. Moreover, based on the degree of instability of Gel''s mana, Andusia could tell that the other party was seemingly in a hurry. This allowed her to quickly guess Gel''s identity.


    "That should be Kamia''s elder brother, Gel Bifrons, right?" Andusia muttered with a raised eyebrow.


    Andusia had grown a little curious when she learned about Kamia''s elder brother. Spatial magicians might be rare, but it was still possible to find quite a few if she searched the entirety of the human and demon realms. However, a spatial magician capable of bing the close aide of one of the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings was a different story. A spatial magician would need to be quite powerful to gain a Heavenly King''s trust, and spatial magicians of such caliber were usually exceedingly rare.


    Moreover, Andusia could tell that Gel had indeede by himself. He had nobody else around him, and neither did he use any modes of transport. It appeared that he had relied entirely on his spatial magic to travel to Demon King Castle.


    Mobilizing the mana in her body, Andusia instantly disappeared from her location and reappeared in front of Gel. However, unlike Gel, Andusia did not move via teleportation. She had simply used mana to execute high-speed movements. Only, in the eyes of a person with average strength, Andusia''s rapid movement was probably no different than instantaneous teleportation.


    Meanwhile, after Gel arrived outside Demon King Castle, his first response was to frown and think about what was going on. Originally, he had been startled into rushing to Demon King Castle because his little sister had suddenly told him that she had found a boyfriend. However, after he had hurried over to Demon King Castle, he found that something was wrong with the castle.


    This was because the outside of the castle was decorated with the bodies of unconscious people. Some of these people were still holding onto their phones and cameras, indicating that they were tourists visiting the castle. Moreover, after briefly scanning the area with his senses, Gel was certain that all of these demons were already unconscious.


    On top of that, Gel also noticed that the entire area around Demon King Castle was devoid of mana. As an exceptional magician, Gel could naturally sense the state of the mana in this area. He also knew that this wasn''t a phenomenon that the average person could cause, so he couldn''t help but wonder if he had been tricked.


    Could it be that his little sister wasn''t here, and someone simply tricked him intoing here?


    However, out of all the possibilities Gel had thought of, not once had he suspected that his little sister might have tricked him.


    Gel trusted in his friendship with his little sister. Moreover, his little sister was a high-achieving mind magician. The average mind magician would have great difficulty manipting her movements. There would also be no reason for mind magicians on the level of the Four Heavenly Kings to target her.


    Of course, Gel could have never imagined that his little sister had actually been influenced by a taboo-level mind spell.


    When Gel was hesitating whether he should call Kamia to ask about the situation, a small figure suddenly appeared before him. Immediately, he tensed up and took a step back.


    Gel initially thought that someone had used spatial magic to teleport in front of him. However, he couldn''t help but second-guess himself when he failed to sense any spatial fluctuations. Then, after taking a closer look, he realized that the figure in front of him was actually a hand-made model. Unfortunately, as Gel wasn''t someone who liked watching anime, he didn''t recognize the identity of this figurine.


    Moreover, to Gel''s surprise, this figurine behaved no differently from a real person. He could even see the lifelike expressions on the figurine''s face, and the other party was seemingly looking at him with an interested expression.


    "Gel Bifrons, right?" Andusia asked as she scrutinized thenky man before her. "You must be here to meet your little sister, right?"


    "That''s right. Who are you?"


    Although Gel didn''t have any evidence, he suspected that he might have identally gotten himself involved in a serious matter. At the very least, he had never seen a figurine capable of such lifelike movements and housing such arge amount of mana.


    Gel had seen magicians who would fight using puppets before. However, none of those puppet magicians could produce a self-aware puppet. After all, the topic of souls was a tricky matter. Even extracting a soul from a body was an incredibly challenging task, let alone creating a soul out of nothing. So, he had a hard time figuring out what was going on with the figurine in front of him.


    However, no matter how this figurine was created, the person responsible for creating it definitely wasn''t an ordinary individual.


    "Your sister is here. Come with me," Andusia said, gesturing for Gel to follow her. Although she was curious to learn more about the spatial magician before her, Alice''s matter came first.


    Meanwhile, Gel hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow Andusia. Although he didn''t know what kind of situation his little sister was in right now, if his little sister really was here, he definitely needed to go in and take a look.


    Even if everything turned out to be a ruse and his little sister wasn''t actually here, he was confident he could escape with his spatial magic.


    Gel had previously visited Demon King Castle some time ago. However, he had left after failing to make any noteworthy discoveries.


    After entering the castle''s main hall, Gel saw Andusia flying to the pedestal, which used to hold the Radioactive Soul Stone, and injecting some mana into it. Then, he watched as Andusia moved the pedestal aside to reveal a hidden passage.


    Gel''s eyelids twitched involuntarily when he saw this. He wasn''t aware that a passage was hidden in the middle of the castle''s main hall.


    Ever since the new Demon King destroyed the Radioactive Soul Stone, many people have visited Demon King Castle, including the Four Heavenly Kings. However, none of those people had noticed a hidden passage here. This situation further convinced Gel that the person behind Andusia wasn''t an ordinary individual.


    "Come. Your sister is down here," Andusia said before stepping into the passage.


    Gel quietly looked at the dark passage for a moment. However, he didn''t hesitate for long before following Andusia into the passage.


    After walking down a flight of stairs, the two arrived in front of the entrance to the secret room. When Andusia opened the doors to the room, Gel got to see the whole picture inside the room.


    The secret room underneath the castle''s main hall looked like a magic workshop. There was arge bookshelf on one side of the room and some tables and chairs on the other side. There was also arge experiment table situated in the middle of the room.


    In addition, there were also a bunch of magic tools piled up in the corner of the room. When Gel spread his senses to those magic tools, he could feel that every one of these tools contained arge amount of mana. Although they weren''t at the level of Artifacts, they should still be excellent magic tools. Yet, these supposedly excellent magic tools were casually piled up in the corner like garbage.


    After ncing at the magic tools, Gel noticed that aside from Andusia, two other people were in the room. Among them, one was his little sister Kamia. Based on the familiar mana he could sense from her, he was certain that the other party wasn''t someone disguising as his little sister.


    As for the other person, the other party should logically be the "boyfriend" that Kamia had mentioned. While making his way to Demon King Castle, Gel had originally been prepared to teach the despicable bastard who had dared to seduce his little sister a good lesson.


    However, after seeing the other party''s appearance, Gel couldn''t help but be stunned.

 Chapter 256: Chaotic Scene

    Chapter 256: Chaotic Scene


    Apart from the Four Heavenly Kings, very few people actually knew about Alice''s identity as the Demon King. While Gel might be the Heavenly King of Water''s close aide, he wasn''t made aware of the Demon King''s real identity and appearance. He only knew that the Demon King''s image shared on the inte was fake.


    However, Alice''s face was one that Gel recognized. He had met her when he was receiving a periodic shipment from a smuggling convoy. At the time, he merely thought Alice to be an ordinary youngdy from a noble house who was here to sightsee in the demon realm. He thought that she would return crying in only a few days.


    Unfortunately, Gel never got the chance to meet Alice againter on. Even so, he didn''t really put the matter to heart. While he might not hold any deep hatred toward humans, he wasn''t the type of person who''d care about weak humans.


    The next time Gel saw a picture of Alice was when she was officially announced as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. As the supervisor of the demon realm''s biggest supermarket chain and the Acura Kingdom''s smuggling operations in the human realm, Gel naturally had to pay attention to the ongoings in the human realm. So, when pictures of the new Gryffin Princess started circting in the human realm, Gel had naturally seen them.


    At the time, Gel had been quite shocked to learn that the little girl who had followed a smuggling convoy to the demon realm turned out to be a princess in the human realm. However, thinking that he might never have any dealings with Alice in the future, he didn''t put too much thought into it.


    Never did Gel think that he would meet with Alice again so soon. Moreover, their meeting this time had shocked him to an unprecedented extent.


    "Kamia, don''t tell me this person isyour boyfriend?"


    At this time, Gel no longer gave off the calm and mysterious feeling he did when Alice first met him. Instead, he wore a dumbfounded expression on his face while gripping his chest with his hand, his appearance making it seem as if he had just heard a devastating piece of news.


    "D-Do you know who you''re standing next to?"


    There was a reason why Gel was so shocked right now. Ever since their parents died, Gel had taken responsibility for providing for their family. In a society where strength mattered the most, climbing to the upper ranks of society was an incredibly challenging task for a pair of young siblings.


    Fortunately, Gel was not only a rare magic talent, but he even had the spatial affinity, an affinity even rarer than the dark affinity. Thanks to thebination of a rare magic talent and rare magic affinity, he had received the attention of Ellu Shax, the Heavenly King of Water. This, in turn, allowed him to receive a lot of support and achieve rapid growth in his strength. At the same time, his position in the Acura Kingdom also soared.


    In his current state, Gel could already provide his little sister a life far that was far above the average living standards. He had always been proud of this and felt that he had sessfully paved a smooth future for his little sister.


    But But How did his little sister turn into a lesbian without his knowing? Not only that, but why did she have to refer to an underaged girl as her boyfriend? Moreover, of all the girls his little sister could have chosen, why did it have to be a princess from the human realm?


    Andusia had left the room after helping Kamia connect to the inte, so she didn''t hear the excuse Kamia had used to convince Gel toe to Demon King Castle. Even so, when she heard Gel''s words, she could more or less guess how Kamia had managed to get her elder brother to hurry over.


    For a pair of siblings who had depended on each other for most of their lives, it was only natural for the older brother to grow worried when he learned that his younger sister had gotten herself a boyfriend out of the blue.


    Hence, Gel must have rushed over to Demon King Castle to see which bastard had managed to seduce his younger sister. Yet, now, he discovered that not only was his younger sister''s "boyfriend" actually a girl, but the other party was also seemingly an underaged girl. It was no wonder he was stupefied.


    "That Let me exin," Alice said, not knowing whether tough or cry in this situation. She could more or less understand what kind of emotions Gel was experiencing right now, so she quickly stepped forward to try and clear up the situation. Considering that the other party was Ellu''s right-hand man and that he looked like a big brother who cared for his little sister, Alice felt that it should be fine to tell him about her identity as the Demon King. So long as Kamia remained on her side, the chances of Gel betraying her were virtually zero.


    However, before Alice could exin, Andusia suddenly gave Kamia a push on the back, causing Kamia to stumble into Alice. Then, after seeing the two girls embracing each other, Andusia said to Gel:


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    "What era do you think we are in? What''s wrong with two girls being in a romantic rtionship? Can you stop being so old-fashioned, Gel Bifrons? Since when did demons start to have such a restrictive mentality?"


    "Andusia!" Alice bellowed at Andusia before gently pushing Kamia off of her. Kamia was slightly taller than her, so their posture just now didn''t actually look like they were embracing each other. Instead, it''d be more urate to say that Kamia had been embracing Alice. "Are you alright?"


    "I-I''m fine" Kamia answered with a slight blush on her face. She had also originally intended to exin the situation to Gel and tell him that the excuse she gave her was only a lie to get him toe here. However, when she looked up and saw that Gel had fallen into thought after hearing Andusia''s words, she didn''t know whether she should continue speaking up in this situation.


    After the room fell into silence for some time, Gel suddenly sighed deeply and said in a sullen tone:


    "You are right. Since this is a decision Kamia made, I should support it as her older brother."


    "Wait! You don''t need to support it!"


    Alice immediately grew flustered when she heard Gel''s response. She couldn''t believe that thisnky man would be so easy to convince


    "I get it. I know you two will strive to walk down this path even without my support," Gel said, nodding when he heard Alice''s words, thoroughly failing to realize the misunderstanding that had taken ce just now. Then, with an understanding look on his face, he said to Alice, "Don''t worry. I won''t stop you two from being together. Kamia is my only sister, and I will support whatever choice she makes."


    <em>You don''t understand anything at all!!!</em>


    Alice scratched her head out of frustration. She felt that she needed to quickly exin the whole situation before things got any more out of hand. However, just as she was about to open her mouth, someone else spoke up before her again.


    Kamia was the one who spoke this time. Moreover, the words that came out of her mouth were even more mind-blowing than Andusia''s words:


    "Then, will you be willing to call Alice ''Mama'' as well, Big Brother?"


    "???"


    Gel, who had originallye to understand and support his younger sister''s decision, widened his eyes as an even greater confusion overtook his mind.

 Chapter 257: The Demon Kings Task

    Chapter 257: The Demon King''s Task


    Because of Kamia''s slip-up, Alice had no choice but to acknowledge her "rtionship" with Kamia now.


    The reason for this was simple. Kamia had already addressed Alice with the ambiguous nickname of "Mama." If Alice were in a rtionship with Kamia, Gel could more or less interpret this nickname as a special y between Alice and Kamia.


    Recently, it had be a trend on the inte for people to address young girls as their mothers. Although Gel wasn''t an avid inte user, he had to go onto the inte frequently to gather information due to his job. Hence, he had seen the various people and trends present on the inte. He had also seen quite a number ofizens addressing young girls as their mothers. Because of this, he assumed that Kamia had been influenced by these people.


    If Alice were to deny being in a rtionship with Kamia at this time and exin the situation, Gel might end up suspecting that she had tampered with her little sister''s mind. After all, no matter how one looked at it, there was no way a normal person would address a younger girl, who they had only met recently, as "Mama."


    They couldn''t pretend that they had known each other for a long time, either. From what Alice had gathered through talking to Kamia while waiting for Gel to arrive, Kamia might be a live streamer, but her easy-going personality was only limited to the inte. When it came to the real world, she was quite a socially awkward person.


    As Kamia''s elder brother, Gel would naturally know Kamia''s personality. So, if he learned that Alice and Kamia weren''t actually in a rtionship and that they had only met for the first time today, he would definitely suspect that Alice had done something to Kamia. Otherwise, there''d be no exining why Kamia would call a little girl she was meeting for the first time as "Mama."


    "I won''t meddle in whatever fetishes you have since you are already grown up and have the right to your own interests So long as you don''t do anything that will cause harm to yourself and others, I will support you," Gel said. After mentally struggling with himself for a while, he eventually came to terms with his little sister''s situation. At the end of the day, his affection for his little sister triumphed over everything. "But you two can keep this nickname to yourselves. I won''t be participating in this matter."


    Alice quickly directed a warning nce at Kamia. Kamia also knew that she had subconsciously misspoke, so she simply kept quiet in response to Gel''s lecture to avoid creating more trouble.


    Unfortunately, the damage was already done. Gel''s misunderstanding of Alice and Kamia being in a rtionship was solidified, and Alice had no idea when or how she could resolve this misunderstanding in the future.


    Gel was Ellu Shax''s right-hand man. In other words, he could learn about Alice''s identity as the Demon King from Ellu at any time. When that happened, he would most likely think that his little sister had managed to get herself into a rtionship with the Demon King, and it would be even more troublesome to resolve the misunderstanding. After all, the Demon King''s every action had many implications.


    "By the way, is it alright to leave her like that?" Gel asked as he turned to the corner of the room.


    Currently, Andusia was being strung up upside down with a vine, herplexion deathly pale and looking like she would faint at any moment. When Gel first arrived outside Demon King Castle, he could still sense a powerful source of mana inside Andusia''s miniature body. Now, though, all of that mana had seemingly disappeared.


    "Ignore her. She won''t die," Alice said, coldly snorting as she looked at Andusia. Arge part of Gel''s misunderstanding over the situation was because of Andusia fanning the mes.


    Hence, Alice sealed Andusia''s mana with the Forest Crystal and strung her upside down as punishment. However, since Andusia''s body was made from Living Wood, she didn''t actually have any internal organs. So, even if she was hung upside down, there''d be no need to worry that she might go into shock because blood had rushed into her brain. At most, it would cause her to feel a little ufortable.


    Alice felt that this was a lesson she needed to teach Andusia. Otherwise, this old fossil would constantly be causing trouble for her.


    Since Alice had already said so, Gel suppressed his curiosity despite his desire to learn more about the talking figurine. Instead, he shifted his attention to Alice and started talking about business:


    "So, you want me to help you check if any spatial pockets are hidden in this room, right?"


    "That''s right. I''m sure you can guess it, but this ce is the secret room of Grant, the previous generation''s Demon King, and I am trying to find some of the books he had kept hidden away," Alice said, nodding.


    Alice considered Gel one of her people now. Since Kamia was now treating her as her mother, while Gel was treating her as Kamia''s lover, Alice felt that Gel could already be regarded as trustworthy, albeit just barely. Hence, she did not mind sharing the details of her n with Gel.


    "However, I couldn''t find any useful books on the bookshelf here, so we suspect that he might have opened a spatial pocket in this room and stored his important belongings inside."


    "The former Demon King... Spatial magicians might be rare, but if it''s a Demon King, he can indeed find one to do his bidding whenever he wants," Gel said, nodding. Then, he looked at Alice curiously and continued, "Although I''m curious why a human like you would want to find a Demon King''s hidden book collection, I won''t pry into the matter seeing as you are my sister-inw."


    Alice chuckled awkwardly when she heard Gel''s reasoning. She couldn''t help but find this new identity strangely awkward.


    "The spatial density in this room is indeed abnormal. The likelihood that someone has created a spatial pocket here is high."


    Just like how mind magicians had their own professional knowledge to read a person''s memories code, spatial magicians also had their own professional knowledge that allowed them to inspect the spatial density of an area. Then, with this information, they could calcte whether an area had been affected by spatial magic.


    Gel was a spatial magician who had managed to be a Heavenly King''s right-hand man, so his talent and abilities went without saying. After walking two circles around the room, he had already finished calcting the room''s spatial density.


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    Afterward, he took out a small notebook and a pen from his pocket before scribbling for around five minutes. Although Alice had tried to sneak a peek, when she found that she understood none of the forms Gel had written in his notebook, she quickly abandoned her idea and stood aside with Kamia.


    "Yes, there should be a spatial pocket in this room," Gel concluded. Thankfully, there was limited space in this secret room. The room was also located underground and surrounded by rocks and dirt. This, in turn, reduced the area in which he needed to ount for in his calctions. Hence, he was able to reach a conclusion very quickly. "It should be here."


    After saying so, Gel pointed at the space directly above the experiment table.

 Chapter 258: For Whom Who Is Able to Know, They Will Know What It Is

    Chapter 258: For Whom Who Is Able to Know, They Will Know What It Is


    "Let me confirm it again, just in case. Are you certain that Demon King Grant has died?"


    Following Alice''s request, Gel was about to open the spatial pocket hidden in this secret room after locating it. However, Gel didn''t really wish to do so since this went against the tacit understanding between spatial magicians. After all, if spatial magicians were to casually locate and pry open the spatial pockets created by other spatial magicians without permission, it would drastically reduce the privacy of spatial pockets. This, in turn, would reduce the value of spatial pockets and spatial magicians.


    Hence, unless absolutely necessary, spatial magicians would typically be reluctant to touch the spatial pockets of others.


    Meanwhile, if Gel were to open the spatial pocket in this room, not only would he be going against this tacit understanding, but he might even end up getting targeted by the spatial magician responsible for creating this spatial pocket.


    Honestly, Gel wanted nothing more than to ignore Alice''s request. After all, not only would he be breaking the unspoken rule among spatial magicians by helping Alice, but he would also be helping the person responsible for warping his little sister''s sexual orientation and stealing his little sister away from him. Not to mention, even if Alice was a princess in the human realm, her influence could not reach the demon realm, so he''d have no need to worry that her influence could affect him.


    Unfortunately, Gel had zero resistance to his little sister Kamia. It was especially true when his little sister looked at him with a pleading gaze. Hence, despite his reluctance, he had no choice but to agree to Alice''s request and open the spatial pocket in this secret room. He also didn''t really have to worry about others learning that he had broken the unspoken rule among spatial magicians since, apart from the people in this room, everyone else in Demon King Castle was knocked unconscious already.


    As for the question regarding Demon King Grant''s death, that was something Gel had asked as a passing question. If the individuals tied to a spatial pocket remained alive, others who tried to open it by force would fail and suffer a bacsh.


    However, the time when Demon King Grant ruled the demon realm was several hundred years ago. While demons might have longer lifespans than humans, the difference wasn''t massive. The average demon could only live for a little over a hundred years. It was a far crypared to the lifespans of elves and dragons, races capable of living for thousands of years.


    Hence, in Gel''s mind, Grant was most likely dead already.


    "Ah, you don''t have to worry about that. Grant is definitely dead," Alice said, waving her hand casually. She wasn''t particrly surprised that Gel would ask if Grant was still alive. After all, there were rumors floating around that the First Demon King still lived to this day and was only being suppressed under the Lajal Mountain Range. Gel must have heard of this rumor and wondered if this was also the case for Grant. "I saw him die with my own eyes. Even his soul has been obliterated."


    Gel''s hands trembled, and his eyelids twitched.


    He had asked his question purely out of formality. He had never once thought that Grant, a Demon King from several hundred years ago, could still be alive. However, the information Alice revealed in her sentence seemed to state otherwise.


    What did she mean by "I saw him die with my own eyes"? No matter how he looked at it, Alice didn''t seem like she belonged to the same era as Demon King Grant. Moreover, she had even mentioned seeing Grant''s soul getting obliterated?


    If the average person heard Alice''s words, they would probably assume that Alice was only a child pretending to be some powerful and ancient being. Gel had also seen many of such children during his time managing the Shax Supermarket Chain. These children would often speak about unrealistic fantasies in rather convincing ways, making it seem as if they really believed they were such existences.


    However, Alice was different from those children. Alice couldn''t be considered your average civilian. At the very least, the fact that Alice had managed to find this secret room was more than enough to prove that she wasn''t ordinary.


    Could the average person locate the secret room left behind by the previous generation''s Demon King? Could the average person deplete all of the mana around Demon King Castle and knock hundreds, if not thousands, of people unconscious? Could the average person render a lifelike puppet carrying a massive amount of mana powerless in the blink of an eye?


    At the very least, Gel didn''t think he was capable of any of these feats. Hence, he felt that the nonchnt words that came out of Alice''s mouth might actually be true. Alice might have really witnessed the death of the previous generation''s Demon King and was about to rob his hidden collection...


    In that case, was Alice really just the princess of a human kingdom?


    Although Gel had many questions he wanted to ask, he wouldn''t foolishly ask them now. Instead, he decided it''d be best to consult his superior, Ellu Shax, on this matter. Perhaps the Heavenly King of Water might know something that he didn''t.


    Afterward, Gel stretched out his hands to the space above the experiment table and poured out the mana in his body. Then, using this mana, he formed a magic array that radiated a golden glow.


    Normally, the construction of a magic array wouldn''t be so obvious. However, because Andusia had drained all of the mana in the castle, Gel''s mana and the magic array he created became much more evident to the naked eye.


    Subsequently, Gel activated the magic array, which, in turn, caused the space above the experiment table to distort. At first nce, it looked like Gel had just cast a fire-type spell to heat the air above the table. Meanwhile, after this phenomenon continued for a short moment, a small ck crack slowly opened in space.


    This crack in space was a spatial pocket created in this room. It was a separate space tied to this room''s space, and it normally could not be essed without permission from the space''s owner(s). Only after all the people who held ownership over this separate space had passed away could other spatial magicians try to break into it.


    "So this is a spatial pocket, huh... It''s so empty inside. There''s also no mana here," Alice muttered as she poked her head into the spatial crack out of curiosity.


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    There wasn''t much space inside the spatial pocket. It was roughly the size of a wardrobe. Moreover, there wasn''t even the slightest bit of mana inside this separate space. Apart from storing items, Alice couldn''t see any other purposes for this spatial pocket.


    Fortunately, Kamia''s assumptions were correct. There were indeed books stored inside this spatial pocket. These books might seem ordinary at first nce, but that was only because of theck of mana inside this separate space. Alice could tell that as soon as these magic books were brought into a ce with mana, they would quickly be powerful taboo magic books.


    Meanwhile, there were over twenty such books inside the spatial pocket. These should be the taboos developed by past Demon Kings that Grant had collected.


    All of these taboos could most likely take effect against the Demon King''s Power. This made them incredibly rare and useful taboos, so it exined why Grant would keep them here.


    However, Alice didn''t bother reading the books immediately. Instead, she moved the books out of the spatial pocket and onto the experiment table. Then, she turned to Gel and said:


    "You''ve been a great help."


    "It''s nothing. After all, it''s a request from Kamia''s...boyfriend."


    Although Gel had more or lesse to terms with this situation already, he still found it awkward to refer to Alice. It was especially so when he saw Alice having to climb up the experiment table to reach the spatial pocket...


    Immediately, Gel thought of changing the subject, so he picked up one of the books Alice had ced on the experiment table and opened the cover. Then, while ncing at the first page, he muttered:


    "What are these books for you to put so much effort into finding them?"


    [Abby''s high school grades were not ideal. However, after all was said and done, he still managed to get himself admitted to a private college near Ka City...]

 Chapter 259: Fear Dominated by the College Entrance Exam

    Chapter 259: Fear Dominated by the College Entrance Exam


    Gel''s mouth twitched as he nced at Alice, who was still rummaging in the spatial pocket. Although he knew that Alice wasn''t an ordinary person, he still couldn''t help but treat her as a child because of her appearance. Hence, he felt it wasn''t suitable for Alice to read books like the one he was currently holding.


    The content of the book he currently held was... How should he put it... It was a novel that wasn''t suitable for children. The novel had existed a long time ago, and almost every adult in the current demon realm had most likely read it once before. Though, the novel probably wasn''t as old three hundred years ago, so maybe that was why such a book was inside Grant''s spatial pocket?


    Gel''s mood was a littleplicated. After turning a few pages, he found that this novel was indeed the same one in his memories. So, he hurriedly set the book aside and turned to the other two dozen or so books on the table. Then, he picked one out and opened it to take a look.


    [How to make an exquisite tiramisu? Step 1: Add 40 grams of granted sugar into two egg yolks heated in a warm water bath. Stir until the granted sugar is melted. Then, pour in 30 grams of milk and beat until the custard thickens. Step 2...]


    Upon turning to the first page, Gel immediately found himself looking at a baking recipe. Moreover, this was a recipe he was familiar with.


    Some time ago, Kamia had thought of broadcasting herself baking desserts, but she didn''t know what she should make. So, she had asked Gel toe up with an idea for her. Although Gel knew nothing about desserts at the time, to not disappoint his little sister, he had spent several days reading numerous books rted to desserts. Meanwhile, this tiramisu recipe was something he hade across in one of the dessert books he had read.


    Upon seeing this recipe, Gel immediately realized that something was wrong. It was obvious that the content he saw wasn''t this book''s actual content. Instead, it was the content of a book he had previously read, and his memory of it was being used to cover up this book''s true content.


    Otherwise, there''d be no exining why Grant, a Demon King who had lived several hundred years ago, would have a cookbook that had only been written in the past decade or so in his spatial pocket.


    "That should be everything. I don''t see anything else here," Alice muttered as she withdrew from the spatial pocket.


    While Gel was inspecting the books on the table, Alice had also finished emptying the spatial pocket. Apart from the two dozen or so taboo books, the only thing she found inside the spatial pocket was an ordinary-looking wooden stick.


    The wooden stick was simr to the sticks used by teachers when they were giving lectures. It didn''t look like anything special. It looked so unassuming that Alice suspected it might be a twig that had fallen into the spatial pocket when Grant was storing his books.


    Even so, Alice chose to keep the wooden stick. Although her right hand showed that the stick was indeed nothing special, just like its appearance, it might be a powerful and well-concealed tool. Hence, she decided to take her time studying it once she returned home. Even if it turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary wooden stick, it wouldn''t hurt to be cautious.


    After emptying the spatial pocket, Alice sat cross-legged on the experiment table, picked up one of the books beside her, and opened it. For some reason, Grant refused to write anything on the cover of these taboo books, so she had to inspect the books one by one to know what they were actually about.


    However, when Alice saw the content on the book''s first page, her expression changed instantly. This was because recorded inside this book was content that shouldn''t exist in this world.


    <em>2018 Chongqing College Entrance Examination Paper Questions</em>


    Unlike Gel, who needed to read two books to realize that there was a problem, Alice instantly realized that a spell was affecting what she saw when she saw the title written on the first page. Specifically, the spell was causing her to see memories of the books she had read in the past rather than the book''s actual content.


    Gel was a native of this world. He had grown up reading the books of this world, so it was normal for him not to realize that there was a problem with the books here right away. However, Alice came from Earth, and many of the books in her memories also originated from Earth. So, when a book from Earth appeared in Grant''s collection, she promptly realized something was up.


    <em>This cautious fellow He even added ayer of protection to the books themselves </em>Alice thought to herself in exasperation. However, this wasn''t exactly bad news. At the very least, the fact that these books were protected by a spell on top of being kept inside a spatial pocket showed just how much Grant valued them.


    Meanwhile, Gel couldn''t help but wonder what kind of content Alice had seen when he saw the exasperated look on her face. His curiosity toward Alice herself also increased.


    Personally, Gel felt that he had a rather astute mind. Yet, he still needed to inspect two books before realizing something was wrong. So, how did Alice determine that there was a problem with the books after looking at only one book?


    The only exnation Gel coulde up with for this situation was that Alice could say with absolute certainty that the book in her memories couldn''t appear in Grant''s collection. Hence, she could instantly determine something was amiss with the book she held.


    "Andusia, can you see what''s written in this book?" Alice asked as she opened the book in her hands and showed it to Andusia, who was still hanging in the corner of the room. Even though she had realized that Grant had done something to the books, she couldn''t determine what spell he had used on the books due to her limited knowledge. So, she decided to turn to Andusia for help.


    "This book?" Andusia muttered with a paleplexion. Then, in a confused tone, she continued, "Demon Terrain Documentary? Why would that Grant guy have such a book in his collection?"


    Evidently, the content of the book Alice held had changed into the content of the book titled "Demon Terrain Documentary" when Andusia read it. Meanwhile, simr to Alice, Andusia also quickly realized something was wrong with the book.


    "Wait, that''s not right. The content of this book is too strange Some sort of spell should have been cast on this book to trick my mind and eyes into seeing things in my memories. This book''s actual content should be different."


    "Do you have a way to lift this spell?" Alice asked, nodding in agreement with Andusia. She felt she made the right decision to ask Andusia for help. Compared to an amateur magician like herself, an old witch like Andusia, who had immersed herself in magic studies for multiple decades, was much more suited to handle such a challenge.


    "I can, butcan you let me down first?" Andusia asked as she looked at Alice helplessly.

 Chapter 260: Alice, Representative of Slave Masters

    Chapter 260: Alice, Representative of ve Masters


    Spells with longsting effects could be separated into two types.


    The first type relied on mana lingering in the surrounding environment to function. An example of this type of longsting spell would be the inte. The inte was a massive spell cast bybining the power of several countries. However, since there wasn''t even a possibility for an individual to cast the spell by themselves, it wasn''t considered a taboo. Meanwhile, the inte relied on mana in the air to keep itself functioning constantly.


    The second type of longsting spells functioned without relying on the mana in their surrounding environment. Instead, they operated based on a preconstructed magic array that carried its own mana. Even if the mana around the spell was depleted, the spell could continue functioning normally.


    Evidently, the spell Grant had cast on his books belonged to the second type.


    "I''ve never seen this spell before. Was it developed after my death?" Andusia muttered with a frown on her face.


    After Alice had let her down and removed the Forest Crystal sealing her mana, Andusia had promptly started inspecting the books on the table. Unfortunately, although she was much more knowledgeable about magic than an amateur like Alice, she had simrly failed to identify the spell cast on the books here. She could only tell that this spell was affecting her perception, causing her to see texts in her memories rather than the actual texts recorded in the book.


    "So, does that mean there''s no solution to this?" Alice scratched her head in frustration when she heard Andusia''s evaluation. She had already gotten rid of Grant''s soul. It had also been several hundred years since Grant''s era, so most of Grant''s acquaintances should be dead by now. If this was a spell Grant had developed, it was very unlikely that she could find someone who knew of this spell.


    "There is a solution. Although I''ve never seen this spell before, it is quite a crude spell, judging by its mana structure. That Grant fellow must have intended this spell to only ward off nosy weaklings. I don''t think he was trying to make it difficult for the next Demon King to read these books," Andusia said, shaking her head. Then, tracing her finger across one of the pages and seeing the remnant mana appearing briefly on the page, she added, "There are traces of rushed work all over this spell. If your aim is simply to undo this spell, it is doable. It''s just that the process will be boorish."


    When Gel looked at how nonchntly Alice and Andusia talked about the previous generation''s Demon King, he felt that he must be listening in on some amazing secret. He did not feel happy about this situation in the slightest. On the contrary, he was very frightened by this situation. Did they forget that he was still in the room? Should they be letting a stranger hear the things they were talking about? Gel was afraid that Alice might decide to permanently silence him the next moment.


    Gel also worried greatly about Kamia. Kamia might have said that Alice was her "boyfriend," but he highly doubted that this rtionship would keep her safe from a dangerous existence like Alice. However, when he turned to look at Kamia, he found thathis little sister was earnestly looking at Alice, seemingly unaffected by the astonishing discussion between Alice and Andusia.


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    Based on his understanding of his little sister, Gel knew that Kamia wasn''t listening to Alice and Andusia''s conversation at all. Instead, the focused expression she wore was the face she typically made when her mind had wandered off. He knew this since he often received calls from Kamia''s teachers about her daydreaming in ss.


    "Spells that are deliberately designed to leave mana traces will typically have very obvious weak points. So long as you target these weak points with mana, you''ll be able to undo the spell," Andusia said, paying no heed to Gel''s nervous expression. For Demon Kings like herself, the opinions of other demons were of no concern to her. "This book is quite flimsy, butlet me see."


    While saying so, Andusia touched the cover of the book before her with her tiny hands. However, because her body was smaller than even the book itself, she had to move her entire body to physically inspect it.


    Shortly afterward, Andusia verified the exact location of the spell. It was located at a point situated on the lower half of the book''s cover. Meanwhile, simr to Andusia''s deduction, despite the spell''s crude design, itsplexity was still beyond the average person''s understanding. Theoretically, it should be considered a taboo-level spell.


    "So, it''s going to take a lot of mana to undo it, right?" Alice nodded after hearing Andusia''s conclusion. Then, she nudged Andusia''s shoulder with a finger and said, "You do it, Andusia."


    "Huh? Me?"


    Andusia was briefly stunned. She thought she would only be responsible for finding the spell''s weak point while Alice would handle the rest.


    "Obviously. You know full well that I can only cast weakened versions of taboos with my mana," Alice said with a huff. She refused to believe that Andusia didn''t notice her small mana pool. While her mana pool might bergepared to the average person, it still wasn''t at the level where she could cast aplete taboo.


    Upon hearing Alice''s response, Andusia quickly realized her mistake. She indeed knew that Alice''s mana pool was significantly smallerpared to full-fledged Heroes and Demon Kings. She had simply forgotten about it after being pushed around by Alice for so long. Meanwhile, with Alice''s current mana pool, it was impossible for her to cast aplete taboo. This also meant that Alice didn''t have mana to break the spell Grant had cast on the books.


    After realizing that she couldn''t avoid being squeezed by Alice, Andusia sighed gloomily and put her hands on the spell''s weak point. Then, she began injecting her mana into it.


    At the same time, Andusia couldn''t help but feel perplexed. Even though humans and demons had already abolished their very system, why did it feel like she was Alice''s ve?

 Chapter 261: Milu Rabbit: I Get That Feeling

    Chapter 261: Milu Rabbit: I Get That Feeling


    Shortly after Andusia began injecting her mana into the spell''s weak point, the book''s surface shattered like ss. This phenomenon was even apanied by the faint sound of ss shattering.


    "That should do it," Andusia said as she stepped away from the book.


    Hearing this, Alice walked up to the book and opened it. Sure enough, the content she saw this time wasn''t the headache-inducing college entrance examination questions. Instead, she saw paragraphs of text exining a spellcasting process in great detail. Moreover, all of these texts were handwritten, and the faded ink showed that a long time had passed since these texts were written.


    This wasn''t a surprising situation. These taboo books were written by Demon Kings of past generations. This meant they could be anywhere from several hundred to ten thousand years old. Even if these books were protected by magic, they would inevitably suffer some wear and tear.


    "This taboo isAspect Separation?"


    After Alice carefully read the processes described in the book, a strange expression appeared on her face. This was because the recorded processes were nearly identical to the spellcasting process of Aspect Separation, one of the taboos she had learned from the elves.


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    "Aspect Separation? Ah, right, there was something like that. If I''m not mistaken, I think the Fourth Demon King was the one who developed it? I believe he stole some of the Demon King''s Power''s essence using this taboo. However, what he used that stolen essence for is something I''m not too sure about since it was never passed down properly," Andusia answered while undoing the seal on the other books.


    "Other races have tried to learn this taboo afterward, but I''ve never heard of anybody capable of mastering it to the Fourth Demon King''s extent. Maybe it''s because he just happened to be talented in that regard. There is also the fact that he''s the taboo''s developer."


    When talking about the Fireball spell, people could confidently say that modern magicians were much more proficient at casting it than the spell''s original developer. This was because the Fireball spell had been modified and redefined countless times over the years. Compared to the original version of Fireball, the spell''s modern version could exhibit significantly greater power while using a much smaller amount of mana. It was also much easier to manipte than the original version.


    However, it was a different story for taboos.


    Taboos weren''t toys. Not everyone could learn how to use taboos. In fact, even if one added up every individual capable of single-handedly casting taboos in the past ten thousand years, the number wouldn''t exceed one thousand. Not to mention, even if an individual had the aptitude to learn and use taboos, it didn''t necessarily mean they coulde into contact with every taboo in existence.


    Hence, taboos naturally couldn''t be as poprized as a simple spell like Fireball, which, in turn, meant they wouldn''t receive continuous improvements like the Fireball Spell. As a result, it was amon sight to see future generations being less proficient at a taboo than the taboo''s developer.


    Regardless, even after learning that the book in her hand was meant for the taboo Aspect Separation, Alice did not n to cast it aside. On the contrary, she held up the book personally penned by the Fourth Demon King and began studying it earnestly, eager to discover the differences between the original copy and the elves'' copy.


    "This kid really is"


    Andusia shook her head and sighed in exasperation when she saw Alice immersing herself in her studies. Despite how young Alice looked, the way she treated magic reminded Andusia of the magic researchers she had met in the past.


    However, Andusia didn''t try to interrupt Alice''s studies. Instead, after undoing the seal on the remaining books, she beckoned to Kamia and Gel with her hand before flying out of the secret room.


    Gel knew Andusia wanted to say something to them but didn''t want to disturb Alice. It just so happened that he simrly had many questions he wanted to ask Andusia. So, he followed Andusia out of the room without hesitation.


    Gel also wasn''t worried that Andusia would try to dispose of him. After all, with the frightening mana Andusia possessed, if the other party truly intended to harm him, he would be powerless to resist. Since Andusia hadn''t taken action even until now, it should mean that she didn''t harbor malicious intent toward him.


    Kamia, on the other hand, turned to look at Alice after seeing Andusia beckoning to her. Because she had lost her mother from a young age, she felt an inexplicable sense of reliance toward Alice, the "Mama" she had inexplicably appeared in her life.


    However, when Kamia saw her elder brother following Andusia out of the room, she hesitated for a moment before eventually leaving the room. After all, there was nothing she could do to help Alice by staying here. On the contrary, she might even disturb Alice''s studies if she were to identally make some noise.


    Because Kamia had taken her time leaving the secret room, Gel and Andusia had already returned to the castle''s main hall before her. However, when Kamia arrived in the main hall, the scene that greeted her was a little outside of her expectations. Specifically, she saw her elder brother Gel inspecting the unconscious people in the hall with Andusia. Then, whenever they came across someone conscious, they would promptly give them the gift of unconsciousness.


    Moreover, Gel and Andusia worked with great efficiency. During the short moment where Kamia stared in shock, she already saw her elder knocking two people unconscious.


    Demons were a race that worshiped strength. In the demon realm, strength was the best reason one could have in almost every situation. Meanwhile, Gel''s strength was outstanding even among the entire demon race. So, he didn''t have any problems with striking these weaker demons. When he saw Kamia walking out of the secret passage, he even shouted:


    "Kamia! Stop standing there and help us!"


    There was nothing Gel could do about this situation. He had many questions he wanted to ask Andusia, such as how Alice had managed to find Demon King Grant''s secret room, why Alice and Andusia could speak so casually about past Demon Kings, why they could seemingly learn taboos, and whyAndusia''s name was identical to the Ninth Demon King''s name.


    However, Andusia had said that these were all secrets. Although she didn''t mind sharing these secrets with him, they needed to ensure that nobody else could hear their conversation.


    For the sake of satisfying his curiosity, Gel had no choice but to help Andusia inspect the unconscious people in the hall and ensure that they really were unconscious.


    Although Kamia was having difficulty processing this situation, since it was a request from the elder brother she dearly loved and respected, she subconsciously stepped forward to help.

 Chapter 262: Short-Sighted Demon King

    Chapter 262: Short-Sighted Demon King


    Alice had no idea what Andusia had taken Gel and Kamia out to do. Currently, she was wholly immersed in studying the book written by the Fourth Demon King.


    While reading through the book, Alice came across many notes left behind by past owners. Take the current page Alice was on, for example. From what she could tell, there were notes from at least five different people.


    Funnily enough, Alice found that these past Demon Kings had seemingly treated this important book as a message board. The "conversation" on this page even involved a small argument.


    [The original author mentioned using non-attributed mana to cast this taboo here. However, after experimentation, I found that casting this taboo using mind-attributed mana will yield a much better effect. I rmend everyone who learns this taboo to try learning mind magic. Then, use mind-attributed mana to cast this taboo.]


    [Fuck you! Don''t listen to this bastard''s nonsense! I''m a mind magician, and I tried infusing mind-attributed mana into this taboo! Not only did the taboo not work, but it will even release a strange mental st! I ended up turning the Heavenly King of Wind into an idiot, and the other Heavenly Kings are looking at me with hostility now!]


    [Some people in my era have researched the differences between ancient and modern magic. I think the difference in eras has created a misunderstanding here. Several thousand years ago, the psychokinesis and mind attributes had yet to be separated. So, the firstment should be referring to using psychokinesis-attributed mana to cast this taboo.]


    Although some of thementers in this book had refuted their senior Demon Kings'' remarks, those seniors definitely couldn''t see these responses since they were most likely dead already. However, these remarks could be used by future Demon Kings as suggestions and advice. Despite all the viinous things they had done, it would seem that these Demon Kings still cared about their juniors.


    It made sense when Alice thought about it. All Demon Kings were people who resented the human race deeply, so they probably found a sense of camaraderie in thismon sentiment.


    Of course, the main reason why these Demon Kings had shown such care toward the younger generation was most likely because their juniors couldn''t threaten them. However, if there was a possibility that they mighte into conflict with their juniors, these Demon Kings definitely wouldn''t behave so politely.


    Take Grant, for example. When he realized that Alice might be the new Demon King and she was standing in his way of reiming his rule over the demon realm, he tried to kill her without hesitation. Only, he had ended up getting killed instead.


    <em>At least there is something valuable inside... But psychokic-attributed mana, is it?</em>


    Alice closed <em>Aspect Separation</em> as she thought about thements she had read. She had learned Aspect Separation previously, so she didn''t need an entire day to reach an entry-level in the spell this time.


    Meanwhile, when casting different spells, mana would exhibit different properties based on the spell. However, if the spellcaster desired it, they could deliberately manipte their mana so that it would take on other properties.


    There were even some spells that were specifically designed to activate using mana of different or opposing properties. For example, "Receding me" was a fire-type spell that required the use of water-type mana to achieve its desired effects.


    Hence, Alice didn''t find it particrly strange to see someone suggest using psychokic-type mana to cast Aspect Separation.


    However, Alice didn''t n to verify the validity of this rmendation right now. Although Aspect Separation required far less mana to activatepared to some destructive-type taboos, it was still a taboo nheless. With Alice''s current strength, she could only cast it a few times without making use of her panties. So, it was best she conserved her mana.


    <em>Speaking of which, this book feels a little strange.</em>


    After setting aside <em>Aspect Separation</em>, Alice picked up another book. She didn''t choose this book randomly. She chose it because some inexplicable power tempted her to do so.


    Although Alice felt this should be the effect of some kind of spell, she didn''t worry too much about it. She might not know how to read memories, but she still knew a few mind-type taboos. If she simply needed to cause destruction in the aspect of mind magic, she was confident she could aplish it.


    To put it bluntly, Alice was different from ordinary people. If an ordinary person came under the influence of mind magic, they were unlikely to have any means of escaping. However, if Alice found that she was trapped by mind magic, she had multiple ways to do so. She even had a sure-fire way to break free from any mind magic affecting her.


    Word of God.


    Alice could use this ability to move her consciousness directly to God''s room. This was already a Law-grade ability, so even a mind-type taboo couldn''t stop her from activating it.


    With so many solutions to fall back on, Alice naturally wasn''t afraid of the strange allure this book had on her. So, she opened the book and read the summary written on the first page.


    Spiritual Realm.


    Alice narrowed her eyes. After looking at the taboo''s name and introduction, she quickly understood what it was about. Simply put, this was a taboo that could capture all souls within a certain range and imprison them inside a spiritual space.


    The spell''s user could torture the souls dragged into the spiritual space. The user could also use the spiritual space to temper their soul. Moreover, depending on the mana used, the environment inside the spiritual space would also yield different effects.


    If a soul suffered severe damage inside the spiritual space, the damage would also reflect on their physical body to a certain extent. Overall, it was a rtively lethal mind-type taboo.


    <em>So, this is a Spiritual Realm?</em> Alice thought to herself as she lowered the book in her hands. Or, more specifically, she lowered her now-empty hands as the book she held had disappeared before she knew it. Then, she surveyed her current location with narrowed eyes.


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    At this moment, she was no longer inside the secret room under Demon King Castle. Instead, she had appeared inside a dark void.


    It went without saying that a "Spiritual Realm" was sealed inside the taboo book. Meanwhile, after Alice opened the book, the owner of this Spiritual Realm dragged her soul here.


    Alice guessed that a Demon King must have attached their soul, together with a Spiritual Realm, to the book. This Demon King must have also set an activation condition for their Spiritual Realm. Then, when a person who met the conditions opened the book, the taboo would activate and drag their soul into this Spiritual Realm.


    <em>But when I held the book with my right hand, it showed that the book was Garbage.</em>


    Alice frowned. If the taboo book was a tool capable of housing souls, it shouldn''t have received a "Garbage" evaluation. After all, both the Radioactive Soul Stone and Soul Gathering Tablet had received rtively high evaluations. So, if the taboo book could house souls, why did it receive such a low evaluation?


    Before Alice could figure out this problem, the owner of this Spiritual Realm spoke up:


    "So someone who meets my conditions has finally appeared?"


    It was a woman''s voice. Evidently, Alice had hit the mark with her guess. A Demon King''s soul was indeed hiding in the Spiritual Realm taboo book. Moreover, the other party had set some conditions that she just so happened to fulfill. Hence, when she opened the taboo book, this Demon King''s Spiritual Realm activated.


    Alice still retained her five senses in this dark space. However, she knew that these senses were fake since she didn''t enter this space with her physical body. These were merely simted senses created by the Spiritual Realm. Even so, thanks to these simted senses, she could see what was happening around her.


    Very quickly, Alice found the owner of the female voice. Simr to Alice, this female Demon King''s soul was also naked as she hovered in this Spiritual Realm. The woman also had long golden hair as Alice did. Unlike Alice, though, the woman had quite the tall figure.


    Upon seeing the woman, Alice couldn''t help but grow confused. If she wasn''t mistaken, she should be the person who had met the woman''s conditions. In that case, why did the woman have her back facing her?


    Holding such doubts in her mind, Alice carefully observed the woman.


    "Why aren''t you speaking?" the blonde Demon King asked with her arms folded across her chest. Then, while looking at the soul before her, she sneered and continued, "Logically, a person capable of finding a Demon King''s taboo shouldn''t be a weakling, right? Hmph. Even your soul is in such a pitiful state. I find it hard to imagine how weak your actual person is to have such a small and pitiful soul."


    Alice covered her face, rendered speechless by the situation ying out before her. She finally realized what the problem was.


    It appeared that this blonde Demon King didn''t have very good eyesight. After all, the "small and pitiful" soul before her wasn''t actually Alice''s soul. Instead, it was the soul of the Milu Rabbit who got dragged into the Spiritual Realm together with Alice.

 Chapter 263: The Pitiful Demon King Still Doesn’t Know Whats Coming

    Chapter 263: The Pitiful Demon King Still Doesn��t Know What''s Coming


    The characteristics of the taboo Spiritual Realm were stated on the book''s first page. Once activated, the taboo would drag all souls within a certain range into the spellcaster''s Spiritual Realm. Hence, it went without saying that the Milu Rabbit, hanging off Alice''s waist, would also get dragged into the Spiritual Realm with Alice.


    As for why this blond Demon King would have such poor eyesight in her own Spiritual Realm Under normal circumstances, a person''s soul would share the same characteristics with their physical body.


    Meanwhile, unlike God, the Demon King''s Power wasn''t so generous as to grant Demon Kings a perfect body and soul. At most, it would help its chosen Demon King candidates remain at their peak throughout their lifetime. Hence, any physical deficiencies that Demon Kings suffered from would remain even after they were chosen by the Demon King''s Power.


    In other words, this blond Demon King most likely suffered from myopia when she was alive. Unfortunately, a soul had no way of replicating external objects such as spectacles, so the blond Demon King had no way of correcting her vision. Moreover, considering that the environment in this Spiritual Realm was so dark, this Demon King might also be suffering from night blindness.


    Although Alice had researched and memorized the names of every past Demon King, information on these Demon Kings'' appearances was few and far between. There were some photos of Grant since the camera had already been invented several hundred years ago, but older Demon Kings weren''t as fortunate. At most, they only had portraits of themselves painted.


    However, simr to the portraits of historical figures found back on Earth, the portraits of these Demon Kings were drawn in strange and varying styles. Some of the better portraits might have a human appearance, but some were evidently painted by human artists with hostile intent, the Demon Kings in these portraits not having even a human form.


    Unfortunately, even though times had changed and humans now knew that all Demon Kings used to be humans, no proper portraits of these Demon Kings had been passed down. Hence, even after seeing this blond Demon King, Alice couldn''t tell which Demon King the other party was.


    Originally, Alice had wanted to call out to this blond Demon King, telling the other party that she was standing behind her. After all, watching the other party talk to a Milu Rabbit that didn''t know the humannguage was pretty awkward. It also made the other party look like an idiot.


    However, when Alice considered the fact that the blond Demon King had dragged her into this Spiritual Realm without her consent, she hesitated for a moment before deciding to stay quiet and observe the situation. She wanted to find out why this myopic Demon King was nning. Then, she would decide how she would deal with this Demon King''s soul.


    Alice did not have anypassion for Demon Kings. She had spared Andusia mainly because the other party had provided her with plenty of useful information about Demon Kings. For example, the matter of Demon Kings having secret rooms was something she didn''t know about before meeting Andusia.


    However, Alice did not need two information providers. Currently, she felt that aside from the First Demon King, who was vastly stronger than the other Demon Kings, the other Demon Kings were somewhatuseless.


    Hence, if this blond Demon King intended to harm her, Alice didn''t mind getting rid of the other party. It wouldn''t be difficult to do so, either. Unlike Andusia, this blond Demon King''s soul wasn''t attached to a special material like Living Wood. If Alice wanted to get rid of this blond Demon King, all she needed to do was use Word of God to leave this Spiritual Realm, reach for a pair of panties, and grant this Demon King the same fate as a certain junior of hers.


    While holding such thoughts in her mind, Alice quietly watched the blond woman threaten the confused Milu Rabbit''s soul.


    "Are you still not going to speak? Or are you too afraid to speak? Don''t tell me your soul is <em>this </em>weak? I''ve already held back my presence as much as possible."


    The blond Demon King had already spent several minutes talking to the Milu Rabbit, continuously trying to learn about the outside world''s current state through the Milu Rabbit.


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    Different from Kristine, who had ced her soul''s container in a public space in the March Academy, this blond Demon King had hidden her soul inside the Spiritual Realm taboo book. Meanwhile, every Demon King that had gotten their hands on this book would typically keep it in their secret room. So, she had no opportunities to get in touch with the outside world''s matters. She also had no idea how the outside world had be already.


    After trying and failing to get any information out of the Milu Rabbit for several minutes, the blond Demon King finally lost her patience. After giving the Milu Rabbit an angry re, she threatened, "Listen, little guy, if you can tell me what I want to know, I can show mercy and let your soul dissipate naturally. However, if you refuse toply, I will forcibly upy your body, and your soul will suffer an agonizing experience."


    Upon hearing this threat, Alice instantly figured out this blond Demon King''s goal. It would seem that the other party was trying to take over her body.


    It made sense when Alice thought about it. Every former Demon King she had met thus far had tried to take over someone''s body. First, there was Grant, who tried to forcibly upy Heris''s body. Then, there was Andusia, who tried to take over her descendant''s body. Now, this blond Demon King, whose name she did not know, was trying to take over her body.


    "Your body has unparalleled talent. If fully developed, you might even gain strength rivaling the First Demon King. Leaving such an excellent body to someone with a weak soul like you is a waste, so let me foster it in your ce!"


    The blond Demon King sneered as she looked at the Milu Rabbit''s soul. Then, her soul began emitting strange fluctuations. By the looks of it, she was casting some sort of spell to seize the Milu Rabbit''s body.


    Meanwhile, the Milu Rabbit had seemingly noticed something wrong as its soul began trembling with even greater intensity. Unfortunately, as it was only a rabbit, it couldn''t say a word despite its fears.


    Alice caressed her chin when she heard the blond Demon King''s words, realizing why the other party had targeted her body. Her extraordinary talent seemed to have stirred the other party''s desire. It was also more than likely that the activation condition for the blond Demon King''s Spiritual Realm was for someone with terrifying talent but hadn''t epted the Hero''s Power or the Demon King''s Power to touch the taboo book.


    As luck would have it, Alice had neither the Hero''s nor Demon King''s Power in her body. However, because God had crafted her body, it possessed talent rivaling Heroes and Demon Kings. These factorsbined allowed her to satisfy this Demon King''s conditions and sessfully activate the other party''s Spiritual Realm.


    <em>Then, should I interfere?</em>


    Alice felt a little perplexed when she saw that this blond Demon King was about to snatch the Milu Rabbit''s body.

 Chapter 264: Youve Changed, Milu Rabbit

    Chapter 264: You''ve Changed, Milu Rabbit


    It went without saying that Alice would save the Milu Rabbit.


    Alice might typically use the Milu Rabbit to smash things, but it was the firstpanion she had made after transmigrating to this world. It had also stayed with her this entire time, so she had already grown quite attached to it. Honestly, she might even feel a little unustomed without the Milu Rabbit tied to her waist.


    Moreover, while this blonde Demon King might not be able to unleash any strength after upying the Milu Rabbit''s body, the woman was someone who harbored malicious intent toward Alice. She was Alice''s enemy.


    On one side, there was the Milu Rabbit that had apanied Alice for a long time. On the other side, there was a stranger Alice had never met. It was obvious which side Alice''s scale would lean toward. Not to mention, Alice already had Andusia to provide her with information on the Demon Kings. So, this blonde Demon King didn''t even have the value of being an information provider.


    However, even though Alice had already decided to save the Milu Rabbit, it still wasn''t the right time for her to make a move.


    While learning Consciousness Transformation from Luna, Alice had also learned some basic knowledge regarding spirit magic. For example, the best time to interrupt a spirit magician from casting a spell was when they had thoroughly spread out their spirit and reached the peak of their mana channeling. If she struck at that time, not only would she interrupt the spellcasting, but she could also maximize the damage she caused to the other party''s spirit.


    After Alice floated her spirit up to the blonde Demon King''s back, she suppressed her presence and observed the situation. Meanwhile, the other party was so focused on casting her spirit magic on the Milu Rabbit that she had failed to notice that there was another presence behind her.


    Meanwhile, under the influence of the blonde Demon King''s magic, the Milu Rabbit''s spirit also began to weaken. Seeing this situation caused Alice to feel a little guilty.


    Personally, Alice wanted nothing more than to take action right now. However, if she were to act now, she might fail to interrupt the blonde Demon King''s spellcastingpletely. If that happened, her actions would only do the Milu Rabbit more harm than good. Hence, she had no choice but to continue resisting her desire to act and wait for the best time to act.


    Fortunately, Alice didn''t have to wait very long as she soon felt the blonde Demon King''s spiritual fluctuations had peaked and started showing signs of contracting. The other party appeared to be in an even greater hurry than she was.


    It made sense when Alice thought about it. The other party had waited for at least a thousand years toe across a body that met her requirements. It''d be strange if she wasn''t in a hurry.


    After letting out a silent chuckle, Alice promptly cast the only spirit spell she had learned from LunaConsciousness Transformation.


    It was fortunate that Luna had realized that Alice didn''t have the patience to learn about spirit magic thoroughly. Hence, she had taught Alice the Consciousness Transformation taboo, a spell that could be used for a variety of purposes. Aside from modifying someone''s memories, the taboo could also be used tounch a spiritual st.


    Although Alice didn''t have enough mana to cast a perfect Consciousness Transformation, it didn''t really matter since the blonde Demon King was only a soul right now. The other party didn''t have any mana flowing within her soul, and the mana she used to steal the Milu Rabbit''s body was the little bit of mana sealed within her Spiritual Realm.


    Without knowing that Alice was behind her, the blonde Demon King invested practically all of the mana remaining in her Spiritual Realm to steal the Milu Rabbit''s body. She did not reserve any mana to protect herself from an ambush from behind. Hence, Alice''s spiritual st hadnded squarely on the blonde Demon King''s unprotected soul.


    "What?!"


    The blonde Demon King let out an astonished cry when she sensed the spiritual st hitting her soul. Unfortunately, her soul had no means of defense right now, so it quickly destabilized under Alice''s gaze. In addition, her spread-out spirit shuddered and deted like a punctured balloon, the mana she gathered flowing outwards frantically and sending Alice''s and the Milu Rabbit''s spirits flying.


    A momentter, the blonde Demon King''s Spiritual Realm also destabilized. Then, Alice only heard a shrill cry from the Demon King''s soul before her vision darkened, and she found her spirit back in her body in the outside world.


    At this time, the <em>Spiritual Realm</em> taboo book Alice previously held was already lying on the floor. By the looks of it, her hands had let go of the book after her spirit was dragged into the blonde Demon King''s Spiritual Realm.


    <em>Right, the Milu Rabbit.</em>


    After sensing that the Spiritual Realm hidden in the book was on the brink of copse, Alice quickly turned her attention to the Milu Rabbit. Immediately, she untied the Milu Rabbit from her waist and put it on the experiment table. Then, she gave it a few hard taps on the head to try and wake it up.


    The toughness of the Milu Rabbit''s cranium had already been developed to a significant extent. Alice could also perfectly control her strength after all the training she had done. So, even though she possessed physical strength much greater than the average person, she could ensure that she woke up the Milu Rabbit without hurting it.


    Meanwhile, Alice''s decision to use physical force was the right move as the Milu Rabbit quickly regained consciousness after only a few taps. Only, to Alice''s surprise, the Milu Rabbit didn''t try to knock itself unconscious after opening its eyes and seeing her. On the contrary, it had approached her and rubbed its head against her hand.


    Alice was stunned by this situation. She grew a little worried, thinking that the blonde Demon King''s actions had damaged the Milu Rabbit''s brain. After all, unlike Living Wood, the Milu Rabbit''s body could not adapt its characteristics to match the soul that inhabited it. There was no way the Milu Rabbit''s simple mind could endure theplex thinking ability of a human. Hence, Alice worried that the Milu Rabbit''s brain might be damaged.


    Fortunately, while it might seem like the Milu Rabbit had suffered some brain damage, it wasn''t to the point where it became a vegetable. Moreover, aside from the Milu Rabbit''s looking a little unstable, Alice failed to find any obvious injuries to its spirit.


    "But it feels a little strange to see you not try to ram yourself unconscious," Alice muttered as she lifted the Milu Rabbit and looked it in the eye. "Or has that Demon King possessed your body already?"

 Chapter 265: Villainous Alice

    Chapter 265: Viinous Alice


    Verifying whether the blonde Demon King had taken over the Milu Rabbit''s body was a rtively easy task. As mentioned previously, Consciousness Transformation was a taboo with various uses. Although the taboo didn''t stand out in any particr field like other spirit taboos, it was superior because it was an all-rounder.


    For example, the taboo could be used to inspect an individual''s memories.


    Of course, when it came to reading memories, one might recall that Alice didn''t know how to read memory codes. Even if she managed to retrieve the Milu Rabbit''s memory code with Consciousness Transformation, she wouldn''t be able to understand any of it. In that case, how could she determine whether the memory code she was reading belonged to the Milu Rabbit or the blonde Demon King?


    Fortunately, this wasn''t a huge problem. Alice might not understand memory codes, butshe could simply look at the memory code''s length.


    Meanwhile, the length of the memory code Alice retrieved from the Milu Rabbit''s brain was only one-twentieth of the memory code she had retrieved from Kamia''s brain previously. Going by Kamia''s age, the Milu Rabbit should only have around one year''s worth of memories in its brain.


    After considering that the Milu Rabbit''s small brain was incapable of storing memories and processing thoughts asplex as humans, this memory code should only represent one or two years'' worth of memories. This more or less matched the Milu Rabbit''s age. So, the Milu Rabbit''s soul was evidently residing in its body. Its body was not taken over by that blonde Demon King.


    Alice breathed a sigh of relief when she verified this point. Though, there was one point that confused her a little, and that was the fact that the memories the Milu Rabbit had generated in thest few minutes were evidently much moreplex than its earlier memories. It felt like she was reading a human''s memories when she looked at thistest segment of code. This meant that the Milu Rabbit''s thoughts were just asplex as that of a human now.


    Alice couldn''t tell if this was a misconception or if something had really changed in the Milu Rabbit''s brain. Logically, the Milu Rabbit''s small brain should have difficulty supporting suchplex thoughts. However, Alice didn''t put too much thought into this matter as she retracted Consciousness Transformation''s effects.


    Originally, Alice had wanted to give the Milu Rabbit a knockout punch and tie it to her waist again. However, considering that the Milu Rabbit''s spirit might have suffered some negative effects from the experience just now, Alice dared not forcibly knock it unconscious. So, she decided to simply let it sit on the experiment table and take it to a veterinarian for an inspection afterward.


    Meanwhile, after setting the Milu Rabbit aside, Alice bent down and picked up the taboo book she dropped. Then, she gripped it with her right hand.


    [Weapon: Magic Book - Spiritual Realm]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Spirit +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    It was the same information Alice saw when she previously held the book. By now, Alice''s brain could already automatically filter out the information panels of items rated as "Garbage." Hence, when she picked up the book previously, she didn''t notice anything special about it.


    However, Alice felt that her right hand''s evaluation of the book didn''t make sense. Any item capable of housing a soul shouldn''t be ordinary. If this book''s weapon quality really was "Garbage," it shouldn''t be capable of housing a soul. Not to mention, it didn''t have skills like "Soul Attachment" found on the Soul Gathering Tablet and Radioactive Soul Stone.


    "Could it be"


    Alice frowned as an idea came to her mind. Immediately, she put the book on the table and started inspecting every individual page with her right hand. Since she wasn''t trying to learn "Spiritual Realm" right away, she turned the pages swiftly. Then, finally, when she reached the 19th page, a different information panel appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Soul Mark Scroll]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Strength +700, Spirit +800, Control +1000, Mana +1000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Spell Storage (Active Skill. Can be used to store one spell rted to souls. An activation condition for this spell can also be set);


    Soul Attachment (Active Skill. You can attach your soul to this weapon);


    Spiritual Realm (Active Skill. This spell is stored using the "Spell Storage" skill''s effect. This spell will activate when a person with extremely high mana tenacity opens the book in which the Soul Mark Scroll is hidden. Upon activation, this spell will drag all souls within 10 meters into a Spiritual Realm.)]


    Sure enough, she concealed the scroll housing her soul and the Spiritual Realm spell as one of the pages in this taboo book.


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    Alice chuckled when she verified her hypothesis. This situation was simr to when she held her pouch of panties with her right hand. Even if the pouch carried a bunch of "Artifact" rated panties, her right hand would only consider the pouch as "Garbage." So, even if the "Epic" rated Soul Mark Scroll was mped inside the Spiritual Realm taboo book, her right hand''s evaluation of the book would not change. She would need to hold the Soul Mark Scroll directly to see its information.


    Afterward, Alice pulled the page out of the book and pinched it with her right hand. Because she was now holding an Epic-grade weapon, she could feel power coursing within her body.


    "Hey, Demon King inside, are you still noting out?"


    It might sound like Alice was prepared to talk to the blonde Demon King, but she didn''t actually have any intentions of sparing the other party.


    The reason Alice had spared Andusia previously was because she was in urgent need of information on Demon Kings and the Demon King''s Power. There was also the fact that she could control Andusia easily due to Andusia''s body being made of Living Wood. Afterward, she learned about why Andusia hated humans and felt she could rectify this problem. Hence, Alice had kept Andusia around.


    However, it was a different story for this blonde Demon King. Alice didn''t need a second source of information on Demon Kings. She also didn''t wish to risk keeping a Demon King whose soul she had no confidence in suppressing.


    Hence, Alice decided that she would first try to squeeze any useful information from the other party. Then, she would get rid of the other party.


    After Alice finished speaking, she could feel the sheet of paper in her hand shivering slightly. There was no wind blowing in this secret room, so this was obviously the blonde Demon King''s reaction after hearing Alice''s words.


    "It seems you are prepared to die without saying a word?"


    Alice narrowed her eyes and gripped the Soul Mark Scroll''s other edge with her left hand. Then, she tugged on both edges gently.


    The Soul Mark Scroll might be capable of housing a soul, but it didn''t change the fact that it was made of paper. While it might be much sturdier than ordinary paper, its toughness was only on par with parchment made from tanned animal skin.


    With only such a degree of toughness, Alice could rip this paper apart easily. She refused to believe that this paper could continue housing souls once it was torn in half.

 Chapter 266: The Bane of Myopia

    Chapter 266: The Bane of Myopia


    Alice quickly realized that her threat this time was effective as she could feel a wave of mana fluctuationsing from the sheet of paper in her hands. She could also see a faint illusory figure appearing above the paper. By the looks of this situation, it would seem that the blonde Demon King was about to show herself and talk to her.


    However, the instant Alice subconsciously loosened her grip over the paper''s edges, the blonde Demon King immediately grew disobedient, the Soul Mark Scroll seemingly tugged out of Alice''s hands by an invisible hand. Then, the paper rapidly folded itself into the shape of a paper crane and hovered outside of Alice''s reach.


    "What?! You!"


    Alice was shocked. She didn''t think the Demon King would fake her emergence to trick her into lowering her guard. Moreover, by the looks of things, it would seem that the other party had realized that Alice had no intentions of sparing her.


    It made sense when Alice thought about it. Spirit magicians were incredibly observant of other people''s expressions and moods, so they should also have a good grasp of other people''s mental activities.


    "Do you think you can escape?!"


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    Alice red at the paper crane in the air and raised her right hand. Then, she began gathering a frightening amount of mana. Although shecked the mana to sustain aplete taboo in her current state, the weakened taboo she used was still much stronger than the average spell.


    Subsequently, a miniature rotating star made of mes appeared in Alice''s right hand. This was the product of "Burning Star," a taboo she had learned from the March Academy''s library.


    Battles between Heroes and Demon Kings were mainly about using taboos that best countered each other. Now that the blonde Demon King''s soul was attached to a paper crane, it went without saying that the best way to counter the other party was by using a fire-type taboo. So long as Alice could burn the paper crane, she would thoroughly extinguish the other party''s soul.


    When the blonde Demon King saw the Burning Star in Alice''s hand, the paper crane she inhabited pped its wings and generated a small gust of wind using mana. Then, before Alice could toss the Burning Star in her hand, the wind-type mana the paper crane generated merged with the Burning Star.


    <em>This is?</em>


    Alice was stunned. She originally thought that the blonde Demon King was trying to extinguish her Burning Star with the gust of wind. However, upon further inspection, she realized that the mana the other party released wasn''t particrly strong. At the very least, it definitely wasn''t enough to extinguish her fire-type taboo.


    On the contrary, Alice could see and feel her Burning Star doubling in size and power when it merged with the blonde Demon King''s wind-type mana. In its current state, it was already close to rivaling the power of aplete Burning Star.


    The Soul Mark Scroll stored a "Spiritual Realm" taboo, and this taboo could be used to store a rtively significant amount of mana. It was also because of this stored mana that the blonde Demon King had the capital to steal other people''s bodies. However, after the blonde Demon King''s failed attempt at possessing the Milu Rabbit''s body, there should only be very little mana left in the Soul Mark Scroll.


    Yet, rather than use this mana to escape, the blonde Demon King had used it to strengthen Alice''s Burning Star


    Alice was confused by this situation. She didn''t know what the other party was ying at.


    However, it didn''t take long for Alice to realize the problem. This was because she suddenly started to have difficulty breathing. When piping hot air flowed into her nostrils, she immediately became aware of the other party''s n.


    Burning Star was a fire-type taboo, so the mes it generated were many times stronger than the average fire-type spell. Because of this, Burning Star also burned oxygen at a much more exaggerated rate.


    This normally wouldn''t be a problem if Burning Star was cast outdoors. Casting it indoors wouldn''t be too big of a problem if adequate venttion was provided. However, Alice was currently in an underground room. Moreover, Andusia had also closed the secret room''s entrance in the main hall when she had left previously. This resulted in the room having a limited amount of oxygen.


    Under normal circumstances, the oxygen in the room should be enough for Alice and the Milu Rabbit to stay here for an entire day. In fact, even if Alice had cast a weakened version of Burning Star, the oxygen in the room shouldn''t run out immediately. At the very least, Alice should have had enough time to incinerate the paper crane before the room ran out of oxygen.


    Meanwhile, the blonde Demon King evidently knew this point. Hence, she had used what little mana she had left to strengthen Alice''s Burning Star. This, in turn, caused the oxygen levels in the room to plummet and Alice to suffocate.


    <em>To think she cane up with such a n in this situation</em>


    At this moment, Alice suddenly realized that herbat experience was vastly inferior to a real Demon King. Even though her opponent had already made use of their surrounding environment, she had failed to realize what was going on until she had started to suffocate.


    Fortunately, it wasn''t toote to rectify this problem. Because Alice was the one who had activated the magic array in the pedestal used to hide the secret room, she still retained control over the pedestal. Since the secret room was running out of oxygen, all she needed to do was let more oxygen enter the room.


    Immediately, Alice manipted the pedestal''s magic array with her mana, causing it to move aside. The instant this happened, the fresh air in the main hall began flowing into the passage leading to the secret room. Although this air wouldn''t reach the secret room and return the room''s oxygen level to normal right away, Alice no longer had to worry about suffocating and losing consciousness at the very least.


    However, the paper crane had also promptly noticed the change in the room''s airflow. Or, more specifically, this was what she had aimed for all along. Hence, upon sensing this change, the paper crane promptly flew into the passage connected to the secret room, its speed so fast that Alice suspected that the other party might have used some sort of eleration spell.


    "You think you can escape?"


    Alice naturally wouldn''t let the blonde Demon King get away. Gritting her teeth, she tossed the Burning Star in her hand at the escaping paper crane, the flight speed of the ball of scorching mes much faster than its target.


    However, just when Alice''s Burning Star was about to reach the paper crane, thetter did something that shocked Alice. Specifically, the paper crane had suddenly turned around and cast a spell, which even elementary school students knew, at the Burning Star.


    Mana Bncing.


    It was a simple spell with a simple effect. When cast, Mana Bncing would try to disperse and bnce the mana in an area as much as possible. Elementary school students generally used it to assist them in sensing the concentration of mana in the air and learning how to condense mana.


    While Mana Bncing''s effects sounded powerful, the spell couldn''t normally be used inbat due to its limited abilities. This was because it couldn''t perfectly disperse the mana of a spell due to the presence of ambient mana in the environment. It would, at most, lower the concentration of mana in the spell to match the concentration in the surrounding environment. Moreover, that was after factoring in the dispersed mana merging with the ambient mana.


    The effects of Mana Bncing were even more useless against taboos. With how much mana the average taboo carried and how limited Mana Bncing''s range was, the mana concentration in the area of the targeted taboo would skyrocket far beyond normal levels. This, in turn, meant that the targeted taboo would retain a significant portion of its power.


    However, the problem now was that Andusia had drained all of the mana within a several hundred-meter radius of Demon King Castle.


    When one ced arge ice cube into warm water, the ice cube might not melt by much even after several seconds have passed. However, if an ice cube was ced into moltenva, it would evaporate until not even a drop of water was left in only a matter of seconds.


    Currently, Alice''s "Burning Star" taboo was thatrge ice cube, while a normal mana environment was like warm water. As for the current environment in Demon King Castleit was no different thanva to Alice''s Burning Star. Under Mana Bncing''s effects, all of the manaposing Burning Star was instantly dispersed into the surrounding space.


    Taking advantage of the environment devoid of mana, the blonde Demon King had used a spell, which even children knew how to use, to deconstruct a taboo.


    Alice felt a chill crawl down her spine when she saw this scene. She realized that she had severely underestimated the capabilities of a full-fledged Demon King. When Demon Kings and Heroes fought, they constantly searched for each other''s weaknesses while dishing out and enduring a hail of taboos. It went without saying that they would need an astonishing degree of awareness over their battles to aplish such a feat.


    In her current state, Alice was nowhere near replicating such a feat. She felt that if she faced the blonde Demon King at the other party''s peak, she would most likely die without knowing how she got killed.


    Of course, with herck of mana, the blonde Demon King didn''t have any intentions of butting heads with Alice right now. After baiting Alice to open the way out and dispersing Alice''s Burning Star, the paper crane housing the blonde Demon King''s soul promptly flew toward the other end of the passage at breakneck speeds.


    Thenthe paper crane crashed head first into a nearby wall.

 Chapter 267: Necessary Action

    Chapter 267: Necessary Action


    It was beyond Alice''s expectations for the blonde Demon King to be so frighteningly skilled inbat. The other party took only an instant to figure out her attack''s weaknesses, take advantage of it, and subsequently dismantle it. She would have certainly suffered a thorough defeat today if not for the blonde Demon King''s poor eyesight.


    The blonde Demon King''s soul was currently inhabiting the Soul Mark scroll that had been folded into a paper crane. When the paper crane crashed into the wall, it had be crumpled and fell to the ground powerlessly, giving off quite the miserable appearance.


    Just like Alice had previously suspected, the Soul Mark Scroll might be more practical than the Radioactive Soul Stone and Soul Gathering Tablet in that it could store a spell in addition to a soul. Still, it was much less sturdy than the other two soul containers. Its toughness was only on par with parchment made from animal skins, so it went without saying that it would wrinkle after crashing into a wall at such great speeds.


    It would also seem that the blonde Demon King had grown a little dizzy from the crash as the paper crane didn''t immediately take flight once more after falling to the ground. Alice naturally wouldn''t let go of this chance, so she hurriedly lifted her hand and cast a Forest Crystal, enveloping the paper crane in a light-green barrier.


    Alice sighed. Despite sessfully capturing the tricky Demon King, Alice couldn''t bring herself to be happy. She realized that her effortless sesses with Grant and Andusia had caused her to grow arrogant and underestimate Demon Kings.


    However, this blonde Demon King had given Alice a rude awakening today. Even without ess to much mana, the blonde Demon King had managed to turn her Burning Star against her. Afterward, the other party had even dismantled her Burning Star with nothing more than an elementary spell, thoroughly taking advantage of their surrounding environment.


    The reason Alice could defeat Grant and Andusia so easily before was due to their special circumstances. The former severely underestimated Alice, so he got killed by Alice''s panties. Thetter had an exploitable weakness because of her body. Moreover, Andusia''s n at the time was to steal her descendant''s body, so she had not prepared any preventive measures for attacks targeting her figurine body''s weaknesses.


    However, the blonde Demon King was different. As soon as her possession spell was interrupted, she promptly realized she was dealing with a tough opponent. Hence, she had used all of her strength to escape. There was also the fact that Alice didn''t have any spells specialized in manipting paper.


    Fortunately, the blonde Demon King eventually suffered at the hands of her myopia.


    Shortly afterward, the blonde Demon King recovered from her dizziness and saw the green barrier surrounding her. Although the paper crane couldn''t make any expressions, Alice could tell that the blonde Demon King was panicking just by looking at the paper crane frantically flying around inside the Forest Crystal.


    Without the help of panties or the Hero''s Sword, Alice could only cast weakened taboos with her current mana. It was also the same for this Forest Crystal. If she were to use this weakened Forest Crystal against a Demon King in their prime, the Demon King could shatter the Forest Crystal with ease.


    However, the blonde Demon King had already used up most of the mana stored in the Soul Mark Scroll. So, even if the Forest Crystal imprisoning her was only a weakened version, she still couldn''t break out of it. There was nothing her wealth ofbat experience could do to help her in this situation, either.


    After watching the paper crane struggling for a moment, Alice gradually directed the Forest Crystal''s mana into the paper crane to thoroughly seal whatever mana was left in the Soul Mark Scroll. Once the Forest Crystal formed inside the Soul Mark Scroll, the paper crane stopped movingpletely. Meanwhile, learning from her previous mistake, Alice gripped the paper crane tightly, afraid that the other party was only pretending to be incapable of movement.


    However, Alice''s concerns were unnecessary as the blonde Demon King wasn''t putting on an act this time. After Alice''s Forest Crystal sealed all of the mana inside the Soul Mark Scroll, the blonde Demon King could no longer use any mana to manipte the Soul Mark Scroll. Hence, the scroll was no different than a piece of parchment that was incapable of moving.


    "So, how should I deal with you?"


    Alice narrowed her eyes, a dangerous expression forming on her face as she looked at the paper crane in her hand. Unlike Andusia, whose target had been Marion at the time, the blonde Demon King''s goal had been to take over Alice''s body from the very onset. Although the other party had mistakenly targeted the Milu Rabbit, it still didn''t change the fact that the other party was a threat to her life. This situation dismissed any thoughts Alice had of holding a proper conversation with the blonde Demon King.


    After all, who knew whether this sneaky fellow would try to pull something again during their conversation?


    "It seems it''d be better to just burn you," Alice said coldly. "Don''t say that I never gave you a chance. I might have chosen to spare you had you decided to talk to me properly before. However, I truly do not dare to keep you alive after how much of a danger you''ve shown yourself to be."


    "Who are you?"


    Now that the Forest Crystal had sealed her mana, the blonde Demon King was finally willing to talk. Unfortunately, this blonde Demon King felt too cunning to Alice, so Alice couldn''t really bring herself to trust the blonde Demon King like she trusted Andusia.

 Chapter 268: Demon King -1

    Chapter 268: Demon King -1


    "That''s none of your business." Alice snorted. "You tried to run when faced with my Burning Star just now, so that means this Soul Mark Scroll is weak to fire, right?"


    "You can''t do it. Although I don''t recognize the sealing spell you''ve used, its sealing effect works both ways."


    The blonde Demon King''s voice came out of the paper crane. Even Alice, with herck of knowledge in reading expressions, could hear the panic in the blonde Demon King''s voice, so she could easily imagine how anxious the other party was.


    In addition, going by the blonde Demon King''s words, Alice deduced that the other party was a Demon King from a long time ago. At the very least, the blonde Demon King should be much older than Andusia. After all, Andusia had managed to recognize the Forest Crystal taboo at first nce, but this Demon King failed to recognize it.


    Forest Crystal was one of the elves'' trademark taboos. Logically, no Demon King should fail to recognize it. If there was such a Demon King, there''d be only one exnation for such a situationthe time this Demon King had been active was before the elves had developed the Forest Crystal taboo.


    However, despite not recognizing Forest Crystal, the blonde Demon King still managed to interpret its effectssealing. Moreover, just like the blonde Demon King mentioned, the Forest Crystal''s sealing effects weren''t unidirectional but bidirectional.


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    The Forest Crystal might prevent the paper crane''s mana from flowing out, but it also prevented any outside mana from flowing inside. In other words, depending on the user''s decision, the Forest Crystal could be used as either a sealing or defensive spell. If Alice wanted to destroy the Soul Mark Scroll, she would have to dismiss the Forest Crystal.


    Yet, if Alice dismissed the Forest Crystal, it would mean that the blonde Demon King would get to use her little remaining mana to make another escape attempt. Alice dared not guarantee that she could stop the blonde Demon King from escaping again. After all, the other party had already shown that she possessed vastly superiorbat experience.


    However, this didn''t mean that Alice wasn''t without a solution.


    "Is that so? Did you forget that the Soul Mark Scroll can be used to store a spell?" Alice sneered. When she saw that the blonde Demon King remained stubborn, she decided to exin her discovery to the other party: "In other words, so long as I store a fire spell and set a simple activation condition, even if I don''t dismiss my Forest Crystal, I can still have that fire spell activate on the Soul Mark Scroll."


    The paper crane visibly shuddered, proving that Alice was right in her guessshe could bypass the Forest Crystal''s effects and store a spell in the Soul Mark Scroll. This was because Forest Crystal wouldn''t recognize the action as an attack, so it wouldn''t try to block it.


    "But the Soul Mark Scroll can only seal one spell at any time," the blonde Demon King said. Despite her anxious tone, she still forced herself to keep calm. She needed to instill the idea that there was no solution to this problem into Alice''s mind. That way, she would have the initiative when negotiating terms with Aliceter on. "The spell currently recorded in the scroll is my ''Spiritual Realm.'' You cannot overwrite this spell without my permission."


    "Is that so?"


    Alice could tell what the blonde Demon King was trying to y at. Unfortunately, she no longer intended to negotiate with the other party. Rather than keep such a dangerous fellow around, it''d be much better if she just got rid of her.


    If any other person were standing in Alice''s ce, they would indeed have to get the blonde Demon King to remove her recorded spell in the Soul Mark Scroll first before they could record a new spell. Unfortunately, Alice was different.


    When an item became a "weapon" in Alice''s right hand, any special ability it had would unconditionally fall into Alice''s control. It didn''t matter, even if Alice wasn''t the original owner. It was just like how Alice had managed to turn Grant''s Radioactive Soul Stone into her weapon. This Soul Mark Scroll was no exception.


    Since Alice was holding the Soul Mark Scroll with her right hand, the scroll''s "Spell Storage" active skill was already under her control. In other words, she was the one to decide whether the Soul Mark Scroll would keep or remove its current recorded spell and record a new spell.


    "What did you do?!" A panicked cry came from the paper crane the next moment. "You removed my ''Spiritual Realm''?!"


    "I already said I would use the Soul Mark Scroll''s ability to get rid of you, so I naturally have a way to remove the ''Spiritual Realm'' you''ve sealed in it."


    Since Alice had already decided to dispose of the blonde Demon King, she did not hesitate to rece the "Spiritual Realm" taboo sealed in the Soul Mark Scroll with a spell of her own


    However, Alice didn''t really have much mana left in her right now, either. She had already cast several taboos since entering Demon King Castle until now. Even if these taboos were all weakened versions of the original and consumed significantly less mana than their original counterparts, they still cost more mana than the average spell to cast. Alice also hadn''t developed her mana pool to its full potential yet, so she was running a little short on mana now.


    But there wasn''t a rule stating that she had to store a taboo-level spell, right?


    "I originally wanted to store a ''Burning Star'' and let you die a somewhat dignified death, but it''s a pity that I don''t have enough mana to cast another Burning Star," Alice said with an evil grin. Then, she began sealing a new spell into the paper crane in her hand. "So, let''s just settle with a Fireball. It''s just paper, anyway. Any type of fire will work wonders against it, right? You don''t have to feel too bad about it, either. Just think of it as a Burning Star that''s hundreds of thousands of times weaker."


    "Wait! I think we can negotiate!"


    The blonde Demon King''s panicked shout came from the paper crane. She could already sense fire-attributed mana flowing into the Soul Mark Scroll, so it was obvious that Alice had made good on her promise and stuffed a Fireball into the scroll. This situation made her feel incredibly vexed. Even if she were to die, it would be much better to die under a taboo than a measly Fireball spell.


    All Demon Kings had their own pride. It was simr to how Andusia would feel ufortable watching Magical Girl Hikari. Meanwhile, this blonde Demon King was no exception.


    "I can tell you whatever you want to know! So What?!"


    Before the blonde Demon King could finish speaking, the paper crane had suddenly ignited into mes.


    "I''m not interested in talking with you. You are much more dangerous than Andusia," Alice said as she tossed the burning paper crane. Just like she thought, a Fireball was more than capable of setting the Soul Mark Scroll aze.


    "I was actuallyby a Fireball"


    The blonde Demon King''s unreconciled voice came from the charred and burning paper crane. It would seem that she felt incredibly frustrated from having her life ended by a simple Fireball. Unfortunately, it was her fault for storing her soul inside a piece of paper. Had she stored her soul inside something like the Radioactive Soul Stone or Soul Gathering Tablet, Alice would have had to resort to much more powerful means to get rid of her.


    Soon, the mes subsided, leaving behind a small pile of ashes. Even though the Soul Mark Scroll used to house a Demon King''s soul, it burned no differently than an ordinary piece of paper.


    "Ah, I forgot to ask for her name."


    Alice scratched her head awkwardly as she looked at the remnants of the Soul Mark Scroll. Only now did she remember that she still hadn''t gotten the other party''s name.

 Chapter 269: Even a Rabbit Can Have a Bright Future

    Chapter 269: Even a Rabbit Can Have a Bright Future


    Alice looked at the ashes of the burnt Soul Mark Scroll for a moment. Then, she crouched down and grabbed a pinch of it with her right hand.


    She was a little curious as to whether these ashes would carry any special abilities. After all, the fragments of the Radioactive Soul Stone she previously shattered had retained some of the soul stone''s strength, each fragment being given a "Not Bad" rating. So, perhaps the ashes of the Soul Mark Scroll might also retain some of the original scroll''s effects.


    [Weapon: Soul Mark Scroll Ashes With Scant Amount of Soul Energy (Small)]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Spirit +10, Mana +10]


    [Additional Effect:


    Soul Remnants (Passive Skill. Remnants of a Demon King''s soul. Can be used to improve the quality of a soul to a certain extent.)]


    <em>It really does have an effect. It even received a "Fine" rating. That''s already on par with the academy''s magic robe,</em> Alice thought as she looked at the ashes pinched between her fingers. The ashes felt much more textured than she expected. They didn''t disintegrate and stick to her fingers like the ashes of normal paper. That was probably because the Soul Mark Scroll was much sturdier than ordinary paper.


    Afterward, Alice carefully scraped off the ashes on her hand and reunited them with theirpanions on the ground.


    If this was when Alice had just transmigrated to this world recently, she would have most likely felt that these ashes were useless. She might have even stepped on them and sent them scattering all over the ce.


    Now, though, Alice had a different view on these ashes.


    Personally, Alice couldn''t really think of a situation where the Soul Mark Scroll''s ashes mighte into use for her. However, the story might change if these ashes were in the hands of an alchemist. Hence, Alice intended to bring these ashes back and hand them to Lacey. Perhaps the young and talented alchemist might find some use for these ashes.


    It didn''t really hurt to try, anyway. The blonde Demon King''s soul was most certainly eliminated. Hence, her soul''s remnants were attached to the Soul Mark Scroll''s ashes, allowing the ashes to gain a special ability. Thinking back now, Alice felt that had she destroyed the Radioactive Soul Stone when Grant''s soul was inside it, the soul stone''s fragments might have also gained a simr additional effect.


    While Alice was thinking of finding a random notebook to tear off a nk page and turn it into a paper bag, the Milu Rabbit suddenly jumped off the experiment table. Then, it ran up to Alice and started sniffing the Soul Mark Scroll''s ashes.


    "Hm?"


    Alice grew a little curious when she saw the Milu Rabbit''s actions. Then, when she saw the Milu Rabbit turning to look at her after sniffing the ashes, even if she was bad at reading expressions, she instantly understood what kind of intentions it was trying to convey. "Youwant these Soul Mark Scroll ashes?"


    Although Alice didn''t know why, she felt that the Milu Rabbit had be a little smarter. Unfortunately, it would seem that the Milu Rabbit still couldn''t understandplex humannguage. So, the Milu Rabbit simply tilted its head when it heard Alice''s question.


    Alice chuckled helplessly when she saw this response. She nearly thought the Milu Rabbit had be sentient for a moment. Even so, the Milu Rabbit''s current behavior was indeed quite different from before. So, Alice rubbed the Milu Rabbit''s head with her right hand and inspected the information panel that had popped up in her mind.


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    [Weapon: Spiritually Sluggish Milu Rabbit]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Strength +3, Speed +3]


    [Additional Effect: Pration (Passive Skill. The head''s destructive power against obstacles is greatly improved.)]


    Nothing had changed. This was also why Alice could be certain that the blonde Demon King hadn''t possessed the Milu Rabbit''s body. If the blonde Demon King did possess the Milu Rabbit''s body, the information shown here shouldn''t be so monotonous.


    After thinking it over, Alice felt it wouldn''t be a problem to let the Milu Rabbit have the Soul Mark Scroll''s ashes. There was only a small amount of ashes here. Even if she brought everything back to Lacey, she doubted that Lacey could produce any significant research results.


    Although Alice wasn''t an alchemist, she knew that alchemy was a field of study that involved many experiments and data umtion. Without these things, alchemists couldn''t produce any useful results. It was just like how alchemists could construct a working human body using the Seed of Nature but couldn''t do the same for an elven body. It was because alchemistscked elven corpses to research.


    Meanwhile, it was obvious that the small pile of Soul Mark Scroll ashes here wasn''t enough to conduct a useful study. The ashes would most likely be expended before any useful results were produced.


    Since that was the case, she might as well give these ashes to the Milu Rabbit. At the very least, the Milu Rabbit had very clearly noticed something special about the ashes since it was trying to acquire them. Considering that the blonde Demon King had previously tried to invade the Milu Rabbit''s body and spirit, maybe eating the ashes that carried the remnants of the blonde Demon King''s soul might help its spirit recover?


    "Since you want them, you can have them," Alice said, smiling. Her Milu Rabbit was probably the only Milu Rabbit in the world who''d get the opportunity to eat the remnants of a Demon King''s soul.


    Meanwhile, the Milu Rabbit seemingly understood Alice''s words this time as it promptly began nibbling on the ashes after taking another look at Alice.


    <em>Will it be even smarter after eating these ashes? </em>Alice wondered as she watched the Milu Rabbit eating the ashes and recalled the obvious change in the Milu Rabbit''s behavior.


    However, despite the change in the Milu Rabbit''s intelligence, its obedience to Alice did not change. This fact was made clear after Alice had managed to obtain the Milu Rabbit''s weapon information even after it had regained consciousness. This proved that the Milu Rabbit didn''t harbor any sense of resistance toward her even when it was awake.


    The only problem was that the Milu Rabbit was no longer seeking to knock itself unconscious after seeing Alice. This made Alice wonder whether the Milu Rabbit''s "Pration" ability would have any more opportunities to improve.


    <em>Should I help it raise the hardness of its head?</em>


    Alice fell into contemtion as she looked at the Milu Rabbit''s head.

 Chapter 270: Are You Moving House?

    Chapter 270: Are You Moving House?


    Andusia and the others, who were in the castle''s main hall, naturally didn''t know that Alice had disposed of a Demon King''s soul in the secret room.


    In reality, only a few minutes had passed from when the blonde Demon King, whose name Alice did not know, had abducted Alice into her Spiritual Realm until Alice had incinerated the Soul Mark Scroll together with the Demon King''s soul.


    Moreover, most of that time was spent with the blonde Demon King rambling to the Milu Rabbit inside the Spiritual Realm. The time Alice had spent actually fighting the blonde Demon King was only around a minute. The mana fluctuations resulting from the fight had appeared and disappeared so quickly that even if Andusia had noticed them, she would probably assume that Alice was only messing around with a new taboo she learned.


    Alice crouched down as she watched the Milu Rabbit nibble away at the Soul Mark Scroll ashes bit by bit. It didn''t take a genius to figure out that these ashes wouldn''t taste good. Yet, the Milu Rabbit''s instincts still told it to eat them. Alice guessed this was most likely caused by a hiddenplication caused by the blonde Demon King''s failed attempt at upying the Milu Rabbit''s body.


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    "You really ate everything"


    Alice sighed when she saw that no ash was left on the floor. Then, she picked up the Milu Rabbit and inspected its weapon information again with her right hand. She wanted to see if any changes had urred after the Milu Rabbit had consumed all those Soul Mark Scroll ashes.


    [Weapon: Slumbering Milu Rabbit]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Strength +3, Speed +3, Spirit +3]


    [Additional Effect:


    Pration (Passive Skill. The head''s destructive power against obstacles is greatly improved);


    Spirit Awakening (Passive Skill. Greatly increases spiritual talent and sensitivity.)]


    <em>Aside from a new passive skill, it doesn''t seem like there are any significant changes,</em> Alice thought, caressing the Milu Rabbit''s fur while trying to sense the changes in her own spirit. Because her right hand was in contact with the Milu Rabbit, she, too, got to enjoy the benefits of the Milu Rabbit''s new passive skill. So, she could sense that her spirit had be much better than before. Even manipting her psychokic power had be easier.


    Unfortunately, this change was of no use to Alice. After all, the Milu Rabbit''s evaluation remained at "Not Bad," which was only one grade higher than "Garbage." Her right hand wasn''t even recognizing the Milu Rabbit as "Fine." So, it was obvious that Spirit Awakening''s effects would be very limited. In fact, she might achieve better results if she just drank a big cup of coffee.


    After letting out a helpless chuckle, Alice tied the unconscious Milu Rabbit back to her waist. Originally, she had been wondering where she should put the Milu Rabbit now that it was no longer ramming itself unconscious as soon as it saw her. However, it would seem that she wouldn''t have to concern herself with this problem for the time being now that the Milu Rabbit had fallen asleep after consuming the Soul Mark Scroll ashes.


    Alice wasn''t worried that the Milu Rabbit might encounter any problems after consuming the Soul Mark Scroll ashes that carried remnants of a Demon King''s soul. If there was a problem, it should have been stated in the Milu Rabbit''s weapon information in the form of suffixes such as "Mana Depleted" or "Spiritually Sluggish." Since the Milu Rabbit''s current suffix was "Slumbering," it shouldn''t be gued by any concerning problems.


    "Well, then I better verify that there are no problems with the other taboo books."


    After tying the Milu Rabbit''s ears to her waist, Alice returned her focus to the taboo books on the experiment tables. However, she was no longer in the mood to study after the incident with the blonde Demon King. So, she decided to pack everything up and read them at ater time.


    However, before taking these books away, Alice felt that she should first check whether these books had any more surprises in store for her. Since the blonde demon King could house her soul inside nothing more than a piece of paper, there was no saying whether any other Demon Kings had done the same.


    Subsequently, Alice took a seat in front of the table and began checking every individual page of these taboo books with her right hand. Although it was a tedious process, it was necessary to prevent another incident like the one with the blonde Demon King from happening.


    However, it would seem that the blonde Demon King was the only one to have had the idea of hiding her soul inside the page of a book. Even after Alice spent quite some time inspecting every page of the two dozen or so taboo books, she failed to find anything simr to the Soul Mark Scroll hidden within these books.


    The only thing Alice found was a coin that was caught between the pages of a taboo book called <em>Void Matter Mimicry</em>. However, she didn''t get any useful information even when she held the coin with her right hand.


    [Weapon: Torres Royal Coin]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mana +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    It looked like this coin was the currency used by a certain royal family. However, Alice had never heard of any royal family going by the surname of Torres. Considering that this coin was left behind by one of the past Demon Kings, the Torres Royal Family must have existed long ago and had, at some point, disappeared into the tides of time.


    As to why the coin was caught inside the <em>Void Matter Mimicry</em> book, Alice guessed that whoever owned the coin must have dropped it in by ident. Either that or the owner was using the coin as a bookmark. So, Alice didn''t put too much thought into the matter and returned the coin to its original position.


    The Torres Royal Coin was simr to the small tree branch that Alice previously found in Grant''s spatial pocket. Her right hand had evaluated both items as "Garbage." But since both of them hade out of the spatial pocket, she decided to bring them with her. However, she honestly didn''t think either of these items was special.


    "That should be everything," Alice said to herself as she stacked thest book she could find on top of arge piece of cloth she found in the room.


    Since Grant, the owner of this room, was dead already, Alice naturally didn''t n to leave anything behind, taking even the confusing research notes she could not understand. Not to mention, Grant had unexpectedly dabbled his hands in alchemy. Some of his notes might be of help to Lacey, so there was no reason why Alice would leave them behind.


    Some magic stones were also scattered on the corner of the experiment table. When Alice inspected them with her right hand, she found that most of them were used by Grant to store special spells. Although none were taboos, most of these spells had practical functions such as teleportation and mana replenishment. So, Alice had naturallyid im to them as well.


    "Alice, we''re done with our discussion. Have you finished"


    Andusia had finally shared some of Alice''s information with Kamia and Gel, such as Alice''s goal ining here and her identity as the Demon King. Of course, she made sure to omit information rted to Alice''s identity as the Hero. Then, she returned to the secret room to check on Alice once she was done with that.


    However, as soon as Andusia entered the secret room, she was greeted by the sight of Alice looting everything she could in the room. Aside fromrge items such as the cabs and research table, the secret room no longer had any small objects.

 Chapter 271: Might as Well, Since We Are Already Here

    Chapter 271: Might as Well, Since We Are Already Here


    "Did you have to ransack the entire ce?"


    Andusia didn''t know whether tough or cry when she saw the emptied room. Of course, she didn''t think that there was anything wrong with Alice''s actions since she had simrly done such a thing when she was invading the human realm as the Demon King. Specifically, she had ransacked the houses of ve owners.


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    Not to mention, Alice was supposedly the Demon King of this era. So, it was a matter of course for her to inherit the legacy of the previous generation''s Demon King.


    "Might as well, since we are already here," Alice said, shrugging as she picked up the cloth sack full of items. Although thebined weight of all these items might be a huge burden to the average person, it was nothing to Alice. "Sorry for the trouble, Gel."


    "It''s fine. It is my honor to be of help to you, Lord Demon King," Gel said, shaking his head with an awkward smile. He had already learned about Alice''s identity as the Demon King from Andusia, so he couldn''t help but haveplicated feelings when facing Alice.


    Although Gel had known that the new Demon King had already appeared and met with the Four Heavenly Kings, the new Demon King''s identity was never made known to the public for certain reasons. Thus, even as the Heavenly King of Water''s close aide, Gel only knew that the photos of the Demon King spread online were fake. He didn''t know what the Demon King actually looked like.


    Of course, Gel was someone who had managed to be Ellu Shax''s right-hand man, so he naturally had a good head on his shoulders. Even if Ellu didn''t tell him the reason, he could more or less guess why the Demon King chose to hide her identity. It was most likely because the new Demon King had yet to mature in strength, and she might face assassinations from the humans if her identity were exposed.


    However, Gel did not expect the new Demon King to work as a spy in the human realm. Moreover, through some unknown means, the new Demon King had managed to be a princess in the Gryffin Kingdom. To top it all off, this new Demon King had subsequently returned to the demon realm and seduced his little sister


    These developments were so outrageous that even fantasy novels wouldn''t dare to adopt such a plot.


    In addition to feeling bewildered, Gel also felt relieved to learn about Alice''s identity. Originally, he was worried that his little sister might suffer through hardships because she was having a rtionship with a human girl. However, it would seem that his worries were unnecessary as his little sister had apparently found herself quite the amazing partner.


    Alice naturally wasn''t aware of what was going on in Gel''s mind. Instead, she turned to look at Andusia curiously and asked:


    "Did you tell them?"


    Alice knew that Andusia had taken Kamia and Gel out to have a discussion just now, but she didn''t know what exactly Andusia had told them. She was alright with Andusia sharing some of her secrets with Kamia and Gel since Gel, as the Heavenly King of Water''s right-hand man, would learn about these secrets sooner orter. However, she also had some secrets rted to the human realm she couldn''t afford to share.


    "That''s right. I told them about your ''Demon King'' identity and that you came here in search of the previous Demon King''s legacy," Andusia said as she turned to Alice. After saying so, she used mana to convey her subsequent words directly into Alice''s ears, "Of course, I didn''t tell them about your identity as the Hero and that your true goal is to deal with the Demon King''s Power. I doubt these are secrets you can freely tell to demons."


    It went without saying that Alice couldn''t share her identity as the Hero with demons. As for her goal of targeting the Demon King''s Power, it might not be as problematic of a secret to share with demons, but she felt that it still wasn''t the right time to share it. After all, the demons were still hoping for the Demon King to help them upy a better environment.


    Before Alice was confident in fixing the demon realm''s environment, it was best if she kept her goal a secret from the demons. Otherwise, the demon realm would go into chaos even without any intervention from the human realm. Only after a viable method of fixing the demon realm''s environment had been discovered would the demons be willing to abandon their thoughts of invading the human realm.


    Compared to Gel, Kamia didn''t react much toward the revtion of Alice''s identity. She behaved the same way around Alice as she did before. After all, Alice was her second mother in her mind. No matter what other identities Alice had, Alice''s identity as her "mother" would always take the highest priority.


    "By the way, did you do something other than ransacking this ce?" Andusia suddenly asked after flying around in the room for a moment. "I felt a taboo''s mana fluctuationsing from this ce just now. After returning, I noticed that the ambient mana here has also recovered a little What did you do?"


    "Ah, that''s because I found a Demon King''s soul hiding in one of the taboo books just now." Speaking of this matter, Alice decided that she might as well talk about her previous encounter. She could also use Andusia''s knowledge to determine the blonde Demon King''s identity. "The other party was a blonde woman adept at spirit magic, and she had stored her soul inside a Soul Mark Scroll. She dragged me into her Spiritual Realm when I opened the book and tried to possess my body."


    "A blonde woman adept at spirit magic?" Andusia fell into thought with a frown on her face. "That should be the Eighth Demon King, Miriya Hampa, the Demon King before me. I recall that she was a spirit magician. She is also a blonde, ording to historical records... But you say that she dragged you into her Spiritual Realm?"


    "That''s right. I just so happened to have fulfilled the activation conditions she had set for her Spiritual Realm," Alice said, nodding. "But she has terrible eyesight. My Milu Rabbit''s soul also got dragged into her Spiritual Realm, and she ended up mistaking its soul for my soul. When she tried to possess my Milu Rabbit''s body, Iunched a surprise attack on her soul and damaged it."


    "I see. Yes, that fellow should have poor eyesight. Basically, all portraits of her passed down in the demon realm show her wearing sses for vision correction," Andusia said, realization dawning on her. "But why did the air here suddenly recover so much mana?"


    "That woman tried to escape after eating my attack. She folded the Soul Mark Scroll into a paper crane and flew out. So, I attacked her with a Burning Star," Alice said. Then, scratching her head in frustration, she continued, "But that woman dispersed my Burning Star with a simple Mana Bncing. Fortunately, she probably got distracted because of the attack, andbined with her poor vision, she ended up crashing into a wall. Then, I quickly burned her to death."


    "I see. So, the mana in the air is a result of your taboo getting dispersed by Mana Bncing," Andusia said, an expression of schadenfreude appearing on her face when she heard Alice''s words. "Indeed. If it were up to me, I, too, would use Mana Bncing to disperse your taboo in such a mana-deprived environment. Then, I''d smack you in the face with a taboo before your mana recovers."


    "Hmph. Says the Demon King, who I subdued in only a few moves."


    Out of frustration, Alice grabbed Andusia''s body out of the air and began nudging her tiny head with her knuckles. Then, once Andusia started seeing stars in her eyes, Alice put the figurine on her shoulder and returned her gaze to Gel.


    At this time, Gel didn''t even dare to breathe loudly. He had heard the entire conversation between Alice and Andusia, so he couldn''t help but grow anxious.


    However, seeing as Alice had talked about eliminating a Demon King''s soul so casually, it shouldn''t be an important secret, right? Alice wouldn''t eliminate him over such a small matter, right? ...Right?

 Chapter 272: A Grown Girl Can’t Be Kept at Home

    Chapter 272: A Grown Girl Can��t Be Kept at Home


    Fortunately, what Gel worried about did not happen in the end. Alice and Andusia truly didn''t seem to take the death of a Demon King seriously. They also showed no intentions of silencing him and his little sister.


    It made sense after Gel thought over it a little. If a former Demon King had died, so be it. Even if the soul of a past Demon King remained in this world, it wouldn''t be of any help to the current demon realm. After all, the only way to construct a fully functional body was to use the elves'' Seed of Nature. However, as facts had previously shown, obtaining a Seed of Nature from the elves was easier said than done.


    What''s more, the former Demon King in question had even intended to seize the body of the current Demon King.


    Aside from civil strife, the only other result a conflict between two Demon Kings would bring was the weakening of the current Demon King''s strength. It went without saying that this would be terrible for the demon realm. If the Four Heavenly Kings were to learn of this matter, they would definitely choose to ce their support with the current Demon King.


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    All four Heavenly Kings have been looking forward to the current Demon King upying the human realm''s favorable environment. If a former Demon King''s soul were to try to butt in on this process and render the current Demon King incapable of going up against the Hero, the Four Heavenly Kings would definitely be the first ones to stand up against this situation.


    Thinking up to this point, Gel could understand why Alice and Andusia could discuss the elimination of a former Demon King''s soul so casually in front of him. This was because they understood that even if he brought this matter up to the Four Heavenly Kings, the Four Heavenly Kings would think nothing of it.


    However,pared to Alice eliminating a Demon King''s soul, or two if they included Grant, what gave Gel a bigger headache right now was his little sister Kamia.


    "Can you not stay in the demon realm, Mama?"


    At this point, Kamia had already learned about Alice''s goal ining to the demon realm from Andusia and Alice''s surface identity as a human princess from Gel. Hence, now that Alice had already aplished her goal of visiting the demon realm, it was only a matter of time before she returned to the human realm. Meanwhile, after reaching this conclusion, Kamia couldn''t help but tug at the hem of Alice''s clothes and speak to Alice in a clinging tone.


    The sight of a high schooler tugging at the clothes of a loli, who looked like she was an elementary student, and calling thetter "Mama" was strange no matter how Gel looked at it. It was especially so when the high schooler in question was his little sister. He simply could not fathom how these two girls had ended up adopting such a y.


    If it were before, Gel might have used her status as Kamia''s elder brother and Alice''s "brother-inw" to say a few words to them. However, after learning that Alice was the Demon King, Gel didn''t know whether he should poke his nose into the two girls'' rather unique y.


    If he chose to turn a blind eye on the matter... The y between his little sister and Alice was incredibly rare. On the off chance that they got seen by others, they would definitely receive strange looks from others.


    Yet, if he chose to interfere in the matter... He was only the right-hand man of the Heavenly King of Water. He didn''t really have the qualifications to decide what kind of y or fetish the Demon King decided to adopt.


    "That''s right. You know what my current identity is. If I spend too much time in the demon realm, people in the human realm might notice something," Alice said as she gave Kamia, who had crouched down to match her height, a pat on the head.


    Although Alice found it strange and frustrating, she had no choice but to y the role of Kamia''s mother. After all, it was her fault that Kamia''s memories were a mess.


    Though, this wasn''t necessarily a bad situation for Kamia. Kamia had lost her mother from a young age, so Alice''s appearance had allowed her to experience the motherly love she had missed out on during her childhood. Of course, this situation also came at the cost of Gel''s mental suffering, so Alice hoped the man could stay strong for his little sister.


    "Then, I want to go to the human realm with Mama," Kamia said after hearing that Alice had to return to the human realm no matter what. It had been a long time since she had experienced motherly love. Now that a new mother had appeared in her memories, she naturally wanted nothing more than to spend more time with this new mother of hers.


    This situation frightened Gel. Although demons had many ways to hide their unique organs should they wish to visit the human realm, no disguise could hold up forever. The longer a demon stayed in the human realm, the more likely they were to get exposed.


    Not to mention, Alice was currently the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess on paper. Alice herself might not be aware of it, but there were undoubtedly many people ensuring her safety in secret. Meanwhile, there was no telling whether one of these people might have a tool that could allow them to discern demons in disguise. If Kamia were to follow Alice to the human realm, it probably wouldn''t take more than a few days for her to get found out.


    Of course, what Gel did not know was that Alice possessed another identity in the Gryffin Kingdom--the Hero. So, contrary to Gel''s expectations, Hatter had never bothered assigning any bodyguards for Alice. After all, even Catherine, the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guard Captain, dared not say that she could beat Alice in a fight. In that case, what was the point of assigning a bodyguard for Alice?


    As a side note, Hatter had assigned some bodyguards to Kristine, though not because he worried someone might bully the former Hero. Instead, the bodyguards were there to deal with the aftermath of Kristine bullying others, such as appeasing the noble families whose children Kristine had pummeled into submission.


    After experiencing the havoc brought by Kristine, Hatter also learned that it wasn''t necessarily a good thing to have two Heroes in a country. Alice was fine since she had never caused any major incidents outside of those rted to the Demon King. At most, she had left the impression of a cold and blunt princess on the various nobles. Kristine, on the other hand, was a huge problem. By now, she had practically blessed the children of almost every noble household in Holl City with a beating already.


    "Stop it, Kamia. I''m sure you don''t want to bring trouble to Alice, right?"


    Gel felt that now was the time when he should step in as an elder brother. While he could not afford to offend Alice, it was a different story when dealing with his little sister.


    Gel might spoil his sister, but he still knew how to set his priorities straight. If he continued to indulge his little sister''s willfulness in this matter, Kamia might very quickly end up in danger.


    "But once Mama returns to the human realm, it''ll be difficult for me to see her again."


    Kamia felt a little aggrieved. After finally gaining a new mother, she had to separate from her new mother so soon. Moreover, she had no idea when they could meet again in the future. This situation made her feel very despondent.


    Of course, Kamia wasn''t trying to throw a tantrum and insist that she would follow Alice no matter what. She was simply voicing her feelings to Gel.


    Gel wasn''t aware that Kamia truly regarded Alice as her mother. When he saw Kamia''s clinging behavior, he simply thought that her behavior resulted from her deep love for her "boyfriend." This, in turn, gave him an even bigger headache.


    "If you insist on meeting her... You can do so through the inte."


    Normally, the human realm''s and demon realm''s inte weren''t connected due to the realm barrier separating the two realms'' mana. However, there were ways to bypass the realm barrier. Meanwhile, it went without saying that the Four Heavenly Kings, their close confidants, and the people in the human realm''s upper echelons had ess to some of these methods.


    As Ellu Shax''s right-hand man, Gel naturally could connect to the human realm''s inte as well. In fact, he would frequently use it since he needed to manage the Acura Kingdom''s trade and smuggling activities and keep himself updated on the human realm''s situation. So, if he wanted to, he could most certainly let Kamia connect to the human realm''s inte and chat online with Alice.

 Chapter 273: Handyman Gel

    Chapter 273: Handyman Gel


    "How should we deal with these unconscious people?" Alice muttered as she looked around the main hall.


    After Gel had sessfully appeased Kamia, the group left the secret room and faced another problem as they returned to the main hall filled with unconscious people.


    Aside from the main hall, there were also people on the castle''s outside and upper floors. In addition, unlike the people in the main hall, Andusia didn''t bother to knock those outside and on the upper floors unconscious again. So, those people should have more or less regained consciousness already. The only reason none of these people hade to the main hall was because they were still incredibly weak after having all of their mana drained by Andusia.


    Currently, the only ce in the castle that had recovered some mana was the secret room, which resulted from the blonde Demon King named Miliya using Mana Bncing on Alice''s Burning Star. Everywhere else in and around the castle remained devoid of mana.


    However, Alice believed that it wouldn''t be long before people from outside the mana-depleted area woulde to check on the castle.


    After all, when Andusia drained the mana in the area, many people had been using their phones to either hold calls or host live broadcasts. When the mana in the area disappeared, these calls and live broadcasts had naturallye to an abrupt halt. This, in turn, was bound to attract attention.


    "Have Gel take care of it. Isn''t he the Heavenly King of Water''s right-hand man? He should have some authority in the demon realm, right?" Andusia nonchntly said as she sat on Alice''s shoulder. "Just say that a failed taboo experiment caused this situation. With the Four Heavenly Kings'' authority, it''s unlikely that anyone would have any problems about it."


    Gel''s eyes twitched when he heard Andusia''s words. When it came to authority among demons, who could possibly have greater authority than Alice and Andusia? Setting aside Andusia, Alice was the current generation''s Demon King. Moreover, her identity was even known by the Four Heavenly Kings. So, if they were to bring up the topic of authority, shouldn''t Alice have an easier time taking care of this problem?


    However, Gel quickly came up with an exnation for this situation. It had only been several months since the new Demon King had appeared. On top of that, Alice was currently ying the role of the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. So, Gel concluded that Alice might not be aware of some of the demon realm''s customs. Hence, she had left this task to him. After all, he was most certainly more familiar with handling matters in the demon realm than she was.


    Regardless of whether others believed this exnation, Gel believed it. In fact, he refused to ept any other exnation. Otherwise, it''d be a big hit to his pride if he admitted himself to be nothing more than a handyman.


    "Whatever you do, just make sure to keep my identity hidden, Gel. This shouldn''t be difficult for you, right?" Alice asked while she crouched down next to an unconscious man. Then, while touching the unconscious man''s head with her right hand, she continued, "These people are already unconscious, anyway. I also covered myself with a cloak when I arrived here, so nobody should know who was responsible for this situation. All you need to do is do some follow-up for this incident."


    [Weapon: Mana-Deprived Londio]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Strength +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    The man Alice chose to inspect had the best physique out of everyone in the hall. Since the strongest-looking demon was still unconscious, the other people in the hall should simrly be unconscious.


    Although one couldn''t always judge a person''s strength by appearances since there would always be exceptions like Alice and Andusia, Alice felt that there shouldn''t be such exceptions in the hall. If there were, she should have noticed when she was previously knocking these people unconscious.


    "Let''s leave, then."


    After handling the arrangements of future affairs, Alice was ready to part ways with Kamia and Gel. Although Kamia remained reluctant to part with Alice, Gel had already promised that he would help her maintain frequent contact with Alice. So, Kamia had no choice but to hold back her reluctance and bid Alice farewell.


    Kamia had grown up with her elder brother. So, she knew very well that throwing a tantrum wouldn''t help her. The best choice she could make at this time was to be obedient.


    Since Gel needed to take care of the follow-up matters in Demon King Castle, Kamia and Gel remained in the castle as they watched Alice and Andusia leave.


    "It seems you really love your boyfriend, huh? Since when did you two even start seeing each other?" Gel suddenly asked when he turned to Kamia and saw that his little sister''s gaze remained focused in the direction Alice had left.


    Honestly, Gel couldn''t help but feel depressed over this situation. Despite being Kamia''s elder brother, he had failed to notice when his little sister had found herself a partner. Moreover, not only was the other party a little girl, but she was even the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess <em>and </em>current Demon King...


    Even until now, Gel still hadn''t thoroughly wrapped his mind around Kamia''s partner''s bewildering identities. He also didn''t know whether he should admonish his little sister. After all, what could he even say to his little sister? Should he tell her to consider the other party''s identity before entering a rtionship? However, no words coulde out of his mouth when he recalled that Kamia''s "boyfriend" was the Demon King.


    The Demon King was the hope of the entire demon race. If even a Demon King wasn''t worthy of dating Kamia, nobody else would be worthy.


    "It''s a secret."


    Kamia stuck her tongue out at Gel, refusing to tell anything more to her elder brother. She had made a promise to Alice, after all. Although her elder brother had believed the "boyfriend" excuse she had used to bait him here, Alice had said to use this misunderstanding as a cover for their mother-daughter rtionship for the time being. So, Kamia would naturally go along with Alice''s wishes.


    "Fine, whatever. A grown girl can''t be kept at home... Since you''ve already made up your mind, I won''t interfere too much in your rtionship. All I ask is for you to keep yourself safe," Gel said, scratching his head in frustration.


    Gel truthfully found it displeasing that Kamia had found herself a partner without his knowledge, the feeling simr to a father having the daughter he had raised for years getting stolen away. However, since the other party was the Demon King and didn''t seem to mean any harm to his little sister, he decided not to interfere in Kamia''s rtionship.


    Not to mention, Alice didn''t need to take advantage of Kamia. Based on what he heard from Ellu Shax, Gel learned that Alice held a rtively good position in the hearts of the Four Heavenly Kings, all four acknowledging her identity.


    This meant that Alice''s status as the Demon King should be rtively stable. So, she should have no need to target the Four Heavenly Kings'' henchmen to further her ambitions, and her rtionship with Kamia might truly be a sincere one.


    After breathing a sigh, Gel extended a hand to Kamia and said, "Kamia, lend me your phone. I''m going to give Lady Ellu a call."


    Gel decided to call Ellu and inform her of what had happened at Demon King Castle. However, as the area was still devoid of mana, his phone couldn''t connect to the inte. So, he had no choice but to borrow Kamia''s phone, which Andusia had previously modified to be able to connect to the inte.


    However, as soon as he extended his hand, Gel suddenly noticed something and hurriedly looked behind him.


    "What''s wrong, Big Brother?" Kamia asked as she curiously followed Gel''s gaze.


    However, aside from the castle''s main hall and the unconscious people scattered across the hall, nothing else was behind Gel. The entrance to the secret room had also been returned to its original position. Moreover, Alice had also used Aspect Separation to return the magic array''s concept to its original. So, others seeking to enter the secret room would have much greater difficulty now.


    "It''s nothing. I just felt like something had just run past me very quickly," Gel said, frowning. However, even after carefully inspecting the area with his senses, he still failed to find anything. "Maybe I was mistaken. I''ve been hung up over a strange order ced by someone from the human realm recently... Some person named Kris ced an order through the smuggling caravan for many bottles of demon realm air, and I can''t figure out what the other party is trying to do with that air."

 Chapter 274: Main Protagonist: Surveillance Camera

    Chapter 274: Main Protagonist: Surveince Camera


    "Alice! We visited the Obsidian Tower today, and it''s super tall! I don''t think there is such a tall building even in the human realm!"


    It was already evening when Alice returned to man''s mansion. Zauna, Lalu, and Luna had also returned from their outing with Heris. Meanwhile, upon seeing Alice, Lalu promptly went up to her and started sharing her experience today with a jubnt expression on her face.


    Alice could understand Lalu''s excitement. The loli elf had spent most of her life living in the Elven Forest, so even attending school in the human realm and seeing the various facilities there was a new and exciting experience for her. Naturally, visiting one of the demon realm''s icondmarks was an experience worth getting ecstatic over.


    Although Alice had never visited the Obsidian Tower before, she had researched plenty about the demon realm so that she could fit into the role of "Demon King." Hence, she knew that the Obsidian Tower was a famousndmark in the Fear Kingdom.


    ording to the information she found, the Obsidian Tower was something built thousands of years ago. However, despite its name, the tower wasn''t actually colored ck. It wasn''t even made of obsidian. Instead, it was constructed using translucent magic crystals.


    However, due to the sensitivity of magic crystals toward mana, it didn''t take long for the demon realm''s environment to pollute the "magic crystal" tower, turning it ck. Meanwhile, after thousands of years of contamination, the tower had be so dark that it couldn''t even reflect light anymore. Eventually, the Obsidian Tower came into being, and it was now one of the most popr scenic spots in the demon realm. It also wasn''t something one could find in the human realm.


    On top of having spent most of her life living in the untainted Elven Forest, Lalu was also a child when put in the perspective of the long-lived elves. So, it wasn''t strange to see her holding great curiosity toward a construct that was a byproduct of mana pollution.


    Of course, Lalu didn''t really like others calling her a child. She also disliked others talking about her height.


    "The Obsidian Tower is indeed a spectacle. I doubt that the human realm can produce such a bewilderingly dark construct. Even if we deliberately contaminate magic crystals with polluted mana, it''ll be difficult to reproduce something like the Obsidian Tower in a short period," Zauna said, agreeing with Lalu''s sentiments. She was simrly surprised when she visited the Obsidian Tower today. The experience was a true eye-opener for her. "I couldn''t get any reflection even when I tried using Illumination. The tower devoured all light that hit it. And because of theck of reflected light, the tower looks just like a t surface."


    When Alice saw her two friends'' reactions, she felt that Heris had done a good job as a tour guide today. It would seem that Heris was aware that there were many simrities between the human and demon realms. Hence she had deliberately chosen to bring Lalu and Zauna to a scenic spot that couldn''t be found in the human realm.


    As for her maid Luna, she looked very calm, as if she wasn''t interested in the Obsidian Tower at all. However, Alice noticed that Luna''s expression would change from time to time. These changes were especially noticeable when Lalu and Zauna talked about the Obsidian Tower. Although Alice wasn''t skilled at reading faces, she could tell that Luna was quite concerned about the Obsidian Tower.


    It wasn''t strange for Luna to behave this way. By now, Luna had already gotten over her bad childhood experience. So, it was normal for her to start to take an interest in new and strange things. However, she probably avoided participating in the discussions due to her position as Alice''s maid.


    <em>I''ll have to try and get Luna to be more initiative in the future</em> Alice thought while rubbing her chin. In reality, Lalu and Zauna had long since started to treat Luna as their friend. Only Luna was keeping a distance from them because of her identity.


    "Alice."


    While Lalu was eagerly telling Alice about the ces she had visited today, a gruff voice called out to Alice. Immediately, Lalu stopped chattering and looked behind Alice. Alice also followed the voice and looked behind her.


    man had appeared behind Alice before she knew it. For the sake of keeping Alice''s identity secret, man did not address Alice with honorifics. However, as this was in line with his eclectic personality, he didn''t find it awkward to address Alice in such an informal manner.


    Unfortunately, despite man''s attempt at being amiable, Lalu still couldn''t help but feel nervous when standing in his presence. Anxiety would fill her whenever she stood near man''s hulking body. Even though she was aware that man was Alice''s acquaintance in the demon realm, her body would still subconsciously tense up when she stood near him. This situation was akin to ordinary civiliansing across a veteran soldier.


    The fact that man had a scruffy beard and fierce facial features didn''t make things any better for Lalu. With her childlike personality, it was normal for her to be afraid of fierce-looking people like man. Inparison, although Zauna also behaved a little tense around man, her reaction wasn''t as severe as Lalu''s.


    After giving the loli elf a pat on the head, Alice turned around and followed man to his study. man had pointed in the study''s direction when she turned to look at him, so it was obvious that he had something he wanted to say to her.


    ...


    Lalu breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Alice and man entering the study at the end of the hallway. Then, she turned to Heris and curiously asked, "How did Alice meet your father? Your father seems to be taking good care of Alice.


    "They don''t seem like people from the same walk of life."


    "This... It''s a long story, but the general gist is that Alice got to know my father through me," Heris said, offering Lalu a vague answer. After all, she couldn''t possibly say that her father was one of the Four Heavenly Kings and Alice was the Demon King, so her father was essentially Alice''s subordinate. Of course, she wasn''t lying, either, when she said she was responsible for introducing her father to Alice.


    How Heris had deluded Lalu and Zauna was outside of Alice''s knowledge. After following man into his study, Alice couldn''t help but wonder what the other party wanted to talk to her about.


    man did not waste time with pleasantries. Of course, that didn''t mean he did not respect Alice. On the contrary, he respected Alice very much as not only was she a powerful Demon King, but she had even managed to find her way into the upper ranks of human society so quickly.


    Regardless, after bringing Alice into his study, man led her to his desk and turned hisputer''s screen to Alice. Then, he said, "Please look at this, Lord Demon King."


    "This is?"


    When Alice saw what was disyed on the monitor, she could quickly tell it was real-time surveince footage of the mansion''s courtyard. However, she couldn''t notice anything special about it.


    "Isn''t this your courtyard?"


    "Yes." man nodded. Then, he said, "Please look closely at the bushes, Lord Demon King."


    Hearing this, Alice took a closer look at the bushes disyed on the screen. Due to the demon realm''s sky having a slightly darker tone than the human realm''s sky, it looked like a faint shadow was cast over the entire demon realm. Hence, Alice had previously failed to notice that there was actually a person hiding in the courtyard''s bushes.


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 Chapter 275: Wrong Way

    Chapter 275: Wrong Way


    "This person is?"


    Alice was confused when she saw the person hiding in the bushes. Due to the dusky sky and the fact that the other party had only revealed half of the back of their head, Alice couldn''t even tell the other party''s gender.


    Although the other party had long ck hair, there was now barring men from growing out their hair. So, Alice couldn''t arbitrarily think that the other party was female simply because they had long hair.


    However, what confused Alice wasn''t the person''s gender. Instead, she was confused as to why man had asked her toe and see this person captured in the mansion''s surveince footage.


    Alice couldn''t see the other party''s face, so she naturally couldn''t tell whether she knew the other party. Moreover, she didn''t have many acquaintances in the demon realm. She also couldn''t think of any of her acquaintances who would appear in man''s house, much less hide in the mansion''s bushes.


    "This person followed you back, Lord Demon King," man exined when he saw the confusion on Alice''s face. "A few minutes after you returned, this person snuck past the patrols and infiltrated the rear courtyard after punching a hole into the courtyard walls."


    After saying so, man switched to another surveince footage, showing Alice where the intruder had broken in from. From this second surveince camera''s angle, Alice could see arge hole in the courtyard''s wall. It looked like something had crashed through the wall from the outside.


    man felt very frustrated by this situation. After all, someone had just punched a hole into his home''s perimeter wall, and repairing it would cost money. Although he wasn''t short of money due to his position as a Heavenly King, it still felt upsetting to encounter such a situation.


    Hence, man had asked Alice toe and see if she recognized this intruder. If she didn''t, he would let this intruder learn what it meant for the strong to eat the weak.


    "I don''t recognize this person. To begin with, I don''t know many people in the demon realm, and those with ck hair are even fewer," Alice said, shaking her head. However, even though she didn''t recognize the intruder, for caution''s sake, she said, "Maybe we should capture this person first and find out their intentions."


    "Okay, I''ll go and catch this intruder myself," man said.


    Normally, man would have tasked his subordinates with capturing the intruder since he had manybat personnel under him. However, the incident this time had upset him, so he decided to make a move himself.


    man was a Heavenly King. Aside from the three other Heavenly Kings and the Demon King, there was basically nobody he couldn''t apprehend in the demon realm. So, he confidently opened the study''s window and jumped out of the room.


    <em>He''s as vigorous as always</em>


    Alice shook her head and sighed helplessly when she saw man jumping out of the window. Then, she walked up to the desk and sat in man''s chair, surfing the web with man''sputer while waiting for man to return with the intruder. Simr to man''s opinion of himself, Alice also thought it should be a piece of cake for man to apprehend the intruder with his strength.


    However, things turned out different from Alice''s and man''s expectations.


    Originally, Alice thought it wouldn''t take more than a minute or two for man to return with the intruder. Yet, man had only returned to the room around ten minutester. Moreover, he was clearly out of breath when he walked in through the study''s doors.


    During these past ten minutes, Alice had heard explosions of varying intensitiesing from outside. This showed that the fight was anything but simple. However, the fight ended just when Alice wondered if she should go out and take a look.


    "This woman is much stronger than I thought. I even had to call my guards to make sure she didn''t get away," man said while breathing heavily. Then, he swung his right hand, haphazardly tossing a tightly bound woman onto the floor in front of him. "Moreover, I get the feeling that this woman hasn''t used all of her strength. Whenever she uses magic, it feels like something is limiting her. If it weren''t for those restrictions"


    This person must be quite extraordinary for you to describe her as such."


    Alice''s expression turned serious when she heard man''s evaluation of the woman. After all, ording to what man said previously, she was most likely the reason the woman had snuck into the mansion''s courtyard. Meanwhile, having a demon with strength rivaling a Heavenly King target her was not good news for Alice.


    Alice walked up to the woman, who was tightly bound by mana ropes. Then, she crouched down, grabbed the woman''s chin, and tried to turn her face toward her. She wanted to see what the person, who had given man trouble, looked like.


    However, when Alice took action, she failed to notice one thingthe woman''s body had fallen right-side-up on the ground when man threw her.


    Meanwhile, when Alice grabbed the woman''s chin and tried to turn her face toward her, she doubted that the woman''s neck could turn 180 degrees. So, what Alice expected to happen was for the woman to twist and turn her body, making it so that her body was lying prone on the ground.


    However, what Alice did not expect was for the woman to stubbornly refuse to turn her body. The woman persistently kept her back on the ground as Alice tried to twist her chin until eventually


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    <em>Crack.</em>


    Under Alice''s and man''s horror, the woman''s neck made a 180-degree turn, her chin going from pointing away from Alice to pointing at Alice


    Alice''s and man''s expressions stiffened as they turned to look at each other. Neither of them had expected this woman to be so stubborn that she would rather have her neck snapped instead of turning her body.


    Alice was especially surprised by this situation since she didn''t recall using much force. With the amount of force she applied to her hand, even if the woman refused to move her body, it still shouldn''t be enough to snap a person''s neck.


    While Alice and man were silently considering how they should deal with this corpse, the woman with the twisted neck suddenly opened her mouth and asked:


    "Are you the one with the coin?"

 Chapter 276: Unbreakable Woman

    Chapter 276: Unbreakable Woman


    A person who had their neck twisted had actually started speaking normally...


    Moreover, judging by the voice that came out of the person''s mouth, it didn''t seem like their twisted neck was impeding their speech in any way.


    Even man, who was a Heavenly King, and Alice, who had experienced transmigration, couldn''t help but be given a scare by this sudden development.


    However, there were many extraordinary situations in this world, so man quickly calmed down after his initial shock. Then, he carefully inspected the bound woman before hesitantly asking, "You Are you perhaps an undead created by a necromancer?"


    "Undead?"


    Alice was stunned, her mind subconsciously recalling the various zombie films she had watched on Earth. However, she quickly realized that the undead in this world should be different from the living dead depicted in those movies.


    The undead in this world was a special type of creature made by necromancers using corpses or living creatures. If one were to get into the specifics, the undead couldn''t even be considered a creature. This was because the undead was physiologically dead.


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    The undead''s souls had also separated from their bodies, the two bing separate entities rather than just one entity. However, due to necromancy, their souls were forcibly tethered to their bodies, and they continued moving in this world in a special state where their souls took on the dominant role while their bodies became subordinate to their souls.


    In this special state, while the undead could still move their bodies like a living person, their senses would be dulled, and their emotions would be rigid. In severe cases, they would even lose their ability to hold cognitive thoughts, thoroughly bing a puppet to the necromancer that created them.


    Moreover, there was a rtively subtle feature regarding necromancy, that was, when using it on a corpse, if the corpse had just died not long ago, it was possible to extract the soul of the deceased from the surrounding soul fluctuations and stuff the deceased''s soul back into their corpse. This could also be considered a kind of resurrection in a sense.


    Though, Alice doubted that many people would want to get resurrected in such a manner.


    "But necromancers have gone extinct thousands of years ago. Moreover, they were made extinct deliberately," Alice said, frowning as she looked at the undead woman with the twisted neck. "Could the necromancers'' legacy have been passed down secretly?"


    "Impossible," man said, shaking his head as he denied Alice''s conjecture. "If we are talking about society thousands of years ago, the necromancers might be able to pass down their legacy without anyone knowing since information dissemination and transportation in that era were under-developed.


    "However, times have changed already. If a necromancer were to appear in the modern era, even the slightest sign of their appearance would quickly reach the ears of whichever country they appeared in."


    Necromancers might possess strange magic, but they were not known for their concealment ability. When it came to concealment, they might not even match the average thief. So, there was no way they could hide their tracks from the human and demon realm''s powerful countries in an era where information technology was widespread.


    "Hey, I''m talking to you," the undead woman said to Alice in a dissatisfied tone. When she saw Alice and man ignoring her and starting a discussion on her origins and necromancers, she couldn''t help but grow upset. "I asked if you have the coin."


    "Coin?"


    This world had long since transitioned into an era of mobile payment. Even though the average person would still carry some money on them, it was usually paper currency, and few would carry coins on them. Hence, it didn''t take long for Alice to figure out what the undead woman was talking about.


    Alice reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin with her right hand. This was the Torres Royal Coin she had found in the <em>Void Matter Mimicry</em> book. Although she had previously returned the coin to its original position in the book, the coin had fallen out when she was packing the <em>Void Matter Mimicry</em> book with the others. Since the coin was a small item, she put it into her pocket instead of returning it to the book again.


    "Are you talking about this coin?" Alice asked as she held the coin in front of the undead woman.


    [Weapon: Torres Royal Coin]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mana +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    The coin''s weapon information remained the same as when Alice first inspected it in the secret room. The coin had no special abilities, so Alice found it surprising that it had actually managed to attract an undead.


    During ancient times, necromancy was considered a wicked act since it involved defiling the corpses of others. As a result, necromancers eventually disappeared under the anger of countless people. Likewise, the undead that these necromancers created had also disappeared.


    Of course, along with the development of magic technology, the act of studying corpses was no longer considered evil. Nowadays, many people even willingly contribute their corpses to further the advances of magic research. Even so, necromancers did not reappear. Instead, recing them were alchemists, who researched corpses in a much more detailed and systematic approach.


    "Yes, that''s the one! The Torrest Royal Coin!" The undead woman''s eyes lit up when she saw the coin pinched between Alice''s fingers. Hurriedly, she said, "Untie me. I''ve found my target already."


    "Your target is this coin?" Alice asked as she looked at the undead woman. "Will you attack us if we untie you?"


    "No, no, I will only attack my enemies. I won''t recklessly attack those with no grievances or enmity against me. The fighting outside just now was only because this big oath attacked me first. I was only passively defending myself," the undead woman said while looking at man warily. "If you untie me, I will tell you why I am looking for this coin."


    "Your cognitive abilities seem very normal," Alice said, surprised by the undead woman''s lucidity. The average undead should have weak thinking ability, with some only moving on instinct. Yet, this undead woman behaved no differently from a normal person. "But I remember that the undead are not allowed to lie, right?"


    Undead were special creatures whose souls were merely tethered to their bodies. When a normal person lied, their souls would have obvious fluctuations. However, since their souls and bodies were perfectly integrated into one entity, these fluctuations could only be sensed by spiritual magicians.


    The souls of the undead would simrly fluctuate when they lied. However, because their souls were only forcibly tethered to their bodies, these soul fluctuations could easily break the tether between the soul and the body, turning them into true corpses.


    "Which is why everything I''ve said is the truth!"


    Seeing that Alice knew some of the undead''s characteristics, the undead woman hurriedly nodded to Alice''s question. However, because her neck was twisted 180 degrees, the creaking sound her neck made when she nodded sounded quite horrifying.

 Chapter 277: Flaman Needs to Renovate Again

    Chapter 277: man Needs to Renovate Again


    "What should we do, Lord Demon King?"


    man felt a little conflicted as he looked at Alice. Although there were many historical records detailing the characteristics of necromancers and the undead, they were a profession and a race that had supposedly gone extinct thousands of years ago. Hence, nobody could say for certain that the recorded information was urate. On the off chance the undead could lie, they''d fall right into the undead girl''s ploy.


    He had personally fought the undead girl just now, so he knew that she was strong. At the very least, she had more than enough strength to contest for a Heavenly King''s position. If they couldn''t keep her under control, it''d be very easy for problems to ur.


    This novel is avable on Hosted Novel.


    "Release her. It just happens that I have many questions I want to ask her."


    After thinking it over for a while, Alice eventually decided to release the undead girl from her restraints. Initially, she worried that this undead might be another Demon King. However, going by man''s description, the undead girl should be far from matching a Demon King in strength.


    Moreover, the undead girl appeared to be only interested in the Torres Royal Coin. This situation caused Alice to suspect that the undead girl might be the creation of a past Demon King, and the Torres Royal Coin in her hand was the medium used to control the undead girl. If that was the case, didn''t that mean she had just picked up a capablebatant for free?


    Although man still couldn''t get over his worries, considering that Alice had the strength to overwhelm all four Heavenly Kings simultaneously, he doubted that the undead girl could aplish anything in front of Alice even if she did turn out to be lying. Hence, after hesitating for a moment, man went along with Alice''s wishes and untied the mana rope binding the undead girl.


    The rope used to tie the undead girl was something man had custom-made to restrain powerful individuals. Even a Heavenly King would have difficulty using their mana when bound by this rope.


    However, when man retrieved the mana rope, he noticed visible signs of snapping. This discovery astonished him. After all, he was certain that this rope had prevented the undead girl from using any spells. This could only mean that the undead girl possessed frightening physical strength.


    If he were to throw this undead girl and a powerful magician into an anti-magic field, the undead girl could probably tear the magician to shreds in the blink of an eye. After all, not every magician had the time or talent to develop their mana and physical body simultaneously like the Hero and Demon King.


    "Ah, I''m finally free. That feels much better."


    The undead girl made afortable moan when the mana ropes binding her were removed. Then, she sat up on the floor, grabbed her face with her hands, and twisted, haphazardly snapping her neck back into position. If not for the clear cracking sounds that appeared along with the undead girl''s actions, Alice would have thought that the woman''s head wasn''t actually connected to her neck.


    "Are you this generation''s Demon King? You look pretty strange," the undead girl said, turning to look at Alice after exercising her neck a little. "You''repletely different from past Demon Kings. You feel more like a human princess than a Demon King."


    It wasn''t strange for the undead girl to have such a sentiment. Hero novels were poprized ages ago. Meanwhile, these novels typically involved a princess with blonde hair and a cute face. Alice matched this description perfectly, so it was no wonder the undead girl would think as such.


    "Sorry for looking like a princess," Alice said, rolling her eyes at the undead girl. However, she didn''t reveal the fact that she was indeed a human princess to the other party. After all, she still didn''t fully understand the undead girl. It''d be foolish of her to reveal factual information about herself in this situation.


    As for her identity as the Demon King, Alice didn''t mind revealing it to the undead girl. After all, man''s respectful behavior toward her made it incredibly obvious. The undead girl had also shown herself to possess the cognitive abilities of a normal person. So, having fought man, the undead girl should more or less be able to guess that he was a Heavenly King or someone as strong as a Heavenly King. In that case, she should also be able to guess Alice''s identity.


    "What is your name?" Alice asked as she took a seat on a chair and looked at the undead girl''s deathly-pale face. "What does this Torres Royal Coin have to do with you? Why did you chase after me for this coin? Answering these questions is one of the conditions for releasing you. You weren''t lying, were you?"


    "The undead cannot lie, so rest assured," the undead girl said, having no intention of going back on her promise. "I do not have a name. I don''t like conventional names, either, so those Demon Kings all call me Little Death. As for this Torrest Royal Coin, it is the medium that my creators, the Torres Royal Family, use to control my movement. The Torreses prepare a coin for every undead they create. Each of these coins carries the aura of their corresponding undead, making it easy for the undead to locate their corresponding coin.


    "I see. So you''re an undead created by the Torres family."


    Alice nodded to express her understanding. She also realized how the undead girl called Little Death managed to track her all the way to man''s house without her notice. It turned out that the Torres Royal Coin she picked up carried Little Death''s aura. However, because it was only a trace of Little Death''s aura, the coin''s weapon information did not reveal any special information.


    "Wait, when you say those Demon Kings all call you Little Deathdo you mean that you''ve met many Demon Kings before?" Alice asked, taking note of the important information Little Death had just casually revealed.


    "That''s right. When the Torreses created me, the primarymand they gave me was to follow the orders of the Demon King holding the Torres Royal Coin," Little Death said, nodding. "But they never limited the condition to any specific Demon King. In addition, after the first Demon King that I served died, the Demon King after him inherited his coin. Like so, I was passed down from generation to generation I think I''ve probably met every Demon King that has appeared after that."


    Alice suddenly thought of Andusia when she heard Little Death''s words, deciding to ask if Andusia knew Little Death afterward. She had left Andusia in her bedroom after returning to the mansion, so the Ninth Demon King wasn''t with her right now. "You say that you will follow the orders of the Demon King holding the Torres Royal Coin. Does that mean you will also follow my orders now?"


    "In theory, yes." Little Death nodded. "But"


    Alice felt something amiss when she heard Little Death trailing her words, her danger senses sounding rm bells in her mind. Immediately, she stamped her left foot on the ground and summoned an Enochian Prism before her.


    As soon as Alice''s Enochian Prism took shape, dark mana poured out of Little Death, the dark mana corroding everything it came into contact with. In the blink of an eye, what used to be man''s study had transformed into a balcony.


    Fortunately, Alice remained unscathed since she had erected an Enochian Prism in time. However, because the Enochian Prism she used was a weakened version, it had reached the end of its lifespan after fending off the tide of dark mana.


    After releasing a dark spell of considerable power at Alice, Little Death stretched her bodyzily and looked at Alice, who was forced to hover in the air after the flooring beneath her was corroded away. Then, Little Death finished her sentence, saying:


    "But I must first verify whether you are a Demon King."

 Chapter 278: Pitiful Flaman

    Chapter 278: Pitiful man


    "Hm?"


    Andusia, ying with her miniaturized phone in Alice''s bedroom, looked up in confusion when she sensed the fluctuations of powerful dark manaing from upstairs. This was the home of the Heavenly King of Fire, so how could such powerful mana fluctuations be appearing here?


    The first thought that came to Andusia''s mind was that Alice might be experimenting with another taboo.


    However, Andusia quickly realized that something was amiss as this dark mana was different from the dark mana Alice usually used. If she were to describe Alice''s dark mana as normal, the dark mana she currently sensed felt like it carried a hint of death. It didn''t feel like mana a living person could unleash.


    The average person might have difficulty noticing this difference, but Andusia was a Demon King. She had developed her spirit and control over mana to an extraordinary extent. So, she could notice things that the average person couldn''t.


    <em>Speaking of which, I found the Torres Royal Coin hidden inside one of the previous generation Demon King''s taboo books. I also left the coin in one of those taboo books when I set off on myst expedition.</em> Andusia fell into contemtion while caressing her chin.<em> If every Demon King after me also did the same thing, and since Alice had packed all of their taboo books today, she should have found the Torres Royal Coin as well I see. So, that undead called Little Death hase to find her.</em>


    Like Alice had assumed, Andusia knew about Little Death''s existence. Only, since she didn''t know where Grant, the previous generation''s Demon King, would keep the Torres Royal Coin, she didn''t bother to mention Little Death''s existence to Alice. However, it would seem that the Demon Kings after her had made it a tradition to keep the Torres Royal Coin in one of their taboo books, and Alice happened to stumble into the coin.


    Andusia naturally wasn''t the only one who noticed the frightening mana fluctuationsing from the mansion''s third floor. Although the others couldn''t urately sense that the mana was of the dark element and carried hints of death, the sheer intensity of the mana fluctuations still attracted many people to the third floor.


    Following the origin of the mana fluctuations, Luna, Zauna, Lalu, Heris, Davis, and several other mansion staff hastily barged into the study after arriving on the third floor. Then, what entered their eyes was the view outside the mansion and a ruined half of the study.


    When man, who stood in the remaining half of the study with a frustrated look on his face, saw the crowd that had barged into the room, he grumpily looked at Davis, his close aide, and said:


    "Davis! What are you still standing there for? Quickly call someone to fix this room!"


    "Understood."


    Although Davis didn''t know what had happened here, he could tell that man was in a bad mood. So, he wisely avoided poking the ho''s nest and simply followed man''s orders. Then, he quickly withdrew from the room, bringing the other servants with him.


    Heris didn''t have as many reservations as Davis. After walking up to the edge of the ruined study and looking at the view outside for a moment, she asked, "Dad, where''s Alice?"


    Heris remembered that her father had brought Alice away to discuss something with her. Yet, for some reason, this discussion had ended with half of the study disappearing. Alice was also nowhere in sight.


    Of course, Heris didn''t think that her father would try to do any harm to Alice. Or, more specifically, her father couldn''t even if he wanted to. Moreover, her father didn''t have any injuries on him. It didn''t seem like he had taken any action against Alice.


    "She should be back in a moment. Don''t worry; she should be fine," man said as he massaged his temples. He didn''t think that the undead he brought back would be a tool used by past Demon Kings. He also didn''t expect this tool to have such a troublesome taming requirement. Fortunately, Alice and the undead named Little Death had realized they would demolish the mansion if they were to fight here, so they quickly brought their fight to a distant location after their initial exchange.


    Meanwhile, as soon as man finished speaking, a frightening thunder came from the distance. Through the study-turned-balcony, everyone could see that dark clouds had covered the sky outside, and numerous lightning bolts bombarded the distant forest.


    A taboo capable of bringing about such a powerful effect was obviously at the level of taboos. Despite what he just said, man couldn''t help but start to worry upon seeing this taboo. Of course, he didn''t think even for a second that Alice or Little Death would be in any life-threatening danger. After all, one was a Demon King while the other was an undead who could survive even if her body was blown apart. Rather than those two, what man worried about was his country''s forest.


    The rain of lightning bolts had covered nearly the entirety of the distant forest. man worried that the lightning would cause a huge forest fire or, worse yet, turn the entire forest into charcoal.


    The power of taboos was incredibly exaggerated. Some of the strongest wide-area taboos could turn even an entire city into ruins. So, man didn''t think that it would be strange even if the distant forest would disappear under the might of a wide-area taboo.


    "Hopefully, the losses can be minimized" man muttered, his voice devoid of confidence.


    Meanwhile, over at the forest, Alice''s fight with Little Death started to get a little out of hand. Alice originally thought Little Death was only at the Four Heavenly Kings'' standard. However, after actually fighting Little Death, she found that the undead girl''sbat power far exceeded that, and she had no choice but to resort to stronger attacks.


    Fortunately, man''s worst fears didn''te to fruition.


    The lightning storm man and the others saw just now was the product of "Baptism of Lightning," a taboo Alice had learned in the March Academy. The taboo would gather clouds from arge area and create a lightning field when cast. However, despite how over the top the rain of lightning bolts looked, the lightning bolts weren''t descending onto the forest randomly. Instead, they bombarded the same location under Alice''s maniption.


    "You are very strong. You indeed have a Demon King''s strength if you can use taboos so easily," Little Death, who was at the center of the lightning bombardment, said casually. Even though the numerous lightning bolts were striking at her one after another, most of them were stopped by the strange lights shing around her. Although a few still managed to strike her, she didn''t sustain any severe injuries due to the characteristics of the undead. She could even speak even after being struck by multiple lightning bolts.


    "Butif it''s only this much, it still isn''t enough to prove that you''re the Demon King!"


    After Little Death finished saying so, the lights around her suddenly exploded, causing the remaining lightning bolts to veer away from her. Then, she swung her right hand in Alice''s direction, sending a dark torrent smashing toward Alice.


    <em>It''s taboo-level mana, but the way she uses it is extremely crude.</em>


    When Alice saw this attack, she quickly understood that even though Little Death had the mana necessary to cast taboos, it didn''t seem like the undead girl could control this mana to a precise level. The other party could only use the most rudimentary method of unleashing this mana.

 Chapter 279: You Cannot Stop The Power of Panties

    Chapter 279: You Cannot Stop The Power of Panties


    Aside from Little Death''s inability to exert precise control over her mana, Alice also noticed a little detail that might justify man''s evaluation of the undead girl to be as strong as he was.


    Whenever Alice got close to Little Death, she noticed that the undead girl''s mana output would see a clear increase. Conversely, when she distanced herself from Little Death, the undead girl would reduce her attack frequency, go on the defensive, and try to get close to her. This behavior might make sense if Little Death was a close-quarters magic warrior, but the undead girl was obviously a magician capable of using long-range attacks.


    So, Alice quickly realized that Little Death''s behavior might have something to do with the Torres Royal Coin she carried on her. Perhaps Little Death''s strength would only see an increase when she was within a certain range of the coin. Meanwhile, once she was outside this range, her strength would fall to a certain extent.


    This would exin why man felt as if Little Death''s strength was being restricted when he fought her. This was because that was indeed the case. If Little Death was outside a certain range of the Torres Royal Coin, her mana pool would fall to the level of the Four Heavenly Kings.


    Little Death must know about this restriction as well. She must also know that with her restricted mana, none of the weakened taboos she cast could actually do any harm to Alice, a "Demon King" capable of casting taboos freely. Hence, when she was far from Alice, she decided to stop attacking and defend herself while trying to get closer to Alice, only attacking when her mana had recovered.


    Meanwhile, Little Death''s inability to manipte mana at a precise level was probably her only weakness.


    It made sense, though. If Little Death could skillfully control mana on top of having such a frightening mana pool, she''d essentially be a second Demon King. If that were the case, the demons would have had a strength advantage over the humans, and there was no way the demons'' past attempts at invading the human realm would have failed so miserably.


    In addition, Alice also noticed that Little Death was quite a cautious person. After all, even though she had already proven her ability to cast taboos, the undead girl still did not stop attacking her. This showed that Little Death still held her identity as the Demon King in suspect.


    <em>In that case</em>


    Alice narrowed her eyes and made a decision. After using an Enochian Prism to block the oing tide of dark mana, she promptly dashed forward in Little Death''s direction.


    "Hm?"


    Little Death was stunned. She didn''t think Alice would take the initiative to get close to herbut this was exactly what she wanted. She had used up too much of her mana with that previous attack. Now that Alice was taking the initiative to approach her, it meant that she''d gain more ess to the mana in her body.


    If Little Death''s body was described as a mana reservoir, then the Torres Royal Coin was a valve switch that controlled this reservoir. Meanwhile, the closer Little Death was to the Torres Royal Coin, the bigger the reservoir''s opening would be. Hence, Alice''s decision to approach Little Death had given Little Death a chance to achieve victory.


    <em>A Demon King should have realized this problem already.</em>


    Little Death softly chuckled to herself. When she saw Alice approaching her, she couldn''t help but feel disappointed. When Demon Kings fought, they would add all the factors that could be considered in their battle. In Little Death''s opinion, a qualified Demon King should have already noticed the connection between her and the Torres Royal Coin by now and used this feature to defeat her at a distance. This was also the method many Demon Kings had used to defeat her.


    However, judging by Alice''s actions, it didn''t seem that she had noticed this point. This situation caused Little Death to sigh inwardly. Although she still hadn''t recognized Alice to be a Demon King, Alice had left a good impression on her during their short interaction just now. Unfortunately...


    Seeing that Alice was close to reaching her, Little Death raised her right hand and readied herself to unleash a powerful mana shockwave to defeat Alice. If she released all of the huge amounts of mana stored within her body, even a Demon King would get seriously injured at such a close distance.


    However, Little Death''s expression quickly changed as soon as she raised her right hand. This was because she suddenly noticed that even though Alice was already close to reaching her, she still couldn''t ess most of the mana in her body. Her mana was like a pool of stagnant water that refused to respond to her will.


    <em>Could it be</em>


    Little Death quickly looked behind Alice. Sure enough, her sharp vision spotted the Torres Royal Coin sitting on the ground in the distance.


    Little Death realized that she had been tricked. Alice had long since realized the connection between her and the Torres Royal Coin, so the little girl had secretly dropped the coin on the ground while she wasn''t paying attention. Then, Alice had taken the initiative to approach her, causing her to mistakenly assume that she could make use of more of her mana. However, in reality, the Torres Royal Coin did not move any closer to her, so the mana she could ess remained in an exhausted state.


    Meanwhile, when Alice saw Little Death raising her hand without releasing any mana, she knew that her conjecture was correct. The undead girl indeed possessed a unique connection to the Torres Royal Coin. Although the Torres Royal Coin looked no different than an ordinary coin, it must have some hidden mechanism that allowed it to serve as a limiter for Little Death.


    <em>Since normal taboos aren''t enough to convince you, I''ll use something more befitting of a Demon King.</em>


    Alice softly chuckled and reached for her right ponytail with her right hand. Then, she retrieved the ck hair tie used to tie her hairat least, that was what Little Death saw. However, what Little Death didn''t know was that this ck "hair tie" wasn''t some ordinary hair tie.


    [Weapon: Soft ck Caged Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +7000, Speed +3000, Spirit +3000, Control +3000, Mana +3000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Spiritual Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by spirit magic);


    Frenzied Screech (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a dark sound wave that can shatter the target''s soul.)]


    If Enochian Prism and Baptism of Lightning weren''t enough to prove that she was the Demon King, a dark-type taboo should be enough to do the trick.


    In addition, Alice found that the taboos her panties carried were incredibly rare. At the very least, she still hadn''t seen any of the taboos attached to her panties recorded in any magic book. So, a dark-type panty taboo should be enough to convince Little Death of her identity.


    <em>Frenzied Screech!</em>


    As soon as Alice activated the Skill attached to the ck panties, a terrifying sound wave spread from her right hand, the sound wave spreading across the entire forest in the blink of an eye.


    Subsequently, countless leaves still attached to tree branches shattered and fell to the ground. The trees in the forest also looked like they had just been subjected to a thousand cuts. Even the dirt ground was split apart as if it had just been plowed, though the fragments of the falling leaves quickly covered up this plowed surface.


    As for Little Death, who had received the sound attack directly, she met an even more miserable fate. In only an instant, Little Death''s body was torn into bloodless pieces of flesh that flew everywhere.


    Alice couldn''t help but be stunned when she saw this oue. She didn''t think Little Death would receive her attack without putting up even the slightest form of defense. After all, Little Death had previously blocked her Baptism of Lightning with that strange glow, which was clearly the product of a defensive spell. So, Alice had expected Little Death to use a simr method to block her taboo this time.

 Chapter 280: Why Are You Sweating?

    Chapter 280: Why Are You Sweating?


    "What the"


    Alice was visibly shocked that she had just torn Little Death to shreds. She had originally thought Little Death would use some sort of defensive spell against her Frenzied Screech, so she didn''t bother weakening it deliberately. Meanwhile, once a panty taboo was cast, it would no longer be under Alice''s control. So, even when Alice noticed that Little Death did not try to defend herself, it was toote for her to do anything.


    Taboos that came attached to panties were incredibly powerful. Moreover, most of them could cause exaggerated levels of destruction. So, it was already fortunate that Little Death''s body was only ripped to pieces instead of being turned into minced meat after suffering the full brunt of Alice''s Frenzied Screech.


    Even so, Alice didn''t think Little Death could survive the attack. The undead might be sturdier than other races, but Alice doubted that even an undead could survive having their body torn to shreds.


    Frenzied Screech''s effectsted for a minute. After one minute passed, the ear-piercing sound waves gradually dissipated. Although the powerful sound waves had turned the forest into a mess, they didn''t leave behind any pollutants. So, the forest should recover given enough time.


    If Alice were to point out an advantage wide-area taboo had over nuclear bombs, it would probably have to be their "green" nature. They wouldn''t leave behind any harmful pollutants that would gue the affected area for multiple generations.


    There also wouldn''t be any need to worry that the demon realm''s polluted environment might prevent this forest from recovering. The demon realm''s environment might be polluted, but it didn''t prevent living things from growing. In the case of nts, the pollutants in the air only caused them to develop in a somewhat strange manner.


    After the sound waves dissipatedpletely, Alice scanned the surroundings and felt the beginnings of a migraine. This was because fallen leaves and upheaved dirt covered the entire forest. Finding Little Death''s remnants in this situation would be incredibly difficult.


    Fortunately, it didn''t take long before Alice found a part of Little Death''s body nearby. Moreover, it just so happened to be the undead girl''s head.


    Although the sight of half a head sticking out of a pile of leaves and dirt was quite frightening, Alice suppressed her uneasiness and walked over to the severed head. Then, she picked up Little Death''s head and asked, "Umm Still alive?"


    This novel is avable on Hosted Novel.


    The undead were soul-based creatures, so even if their physical body was separated into several pieces, they wouldn''t actually be considered dead. After all, their physical body had originally been a "corpse." Even so, Alice couldn''t be certain if Little Death was still alive now that the undead girl was left with nothing but a severed head. Part of the head''s jaw was even missing.


    "Ah, I''m still alive. Don''t worry."


    However, just when Alice was thinking of abandoning hope, the severed head suddenly started speaking. This unexpected development had caught Alice off guard, and she very nearly threw the head away.


    "I just feel a little dizzy from eating a dark-type sound attack at such close range. <em>Hiss</em> I can still feel my ears ringing."


    "So you can experience ear-ringing?"


    Alice originally thought an undead''s five senses would work differently from normal people. She thought that Little Death might be simting her senses with magic, just like she did with her voice. However, judging by Little Death''s words, it would seem that the undead girl could actually hear through her ears.


    "Are youalright?" Alice asked hesitantly as she looked at the severed head in her hands. After all was said and done, Little Death was an undead with cognitive abilities and rtively goodbat power. If there was a way she could help Little Death recover, she would naturally do her best to help the other party.


    "I''m fine. The only problem is that only my head is left," Little Death said with a stiff expression. Due to her missing body, the flow of mana within her had be a little stagnant. As a magically created existence, she was having a somewhat difficult time adapting to this situation. "But it''ll be simple for me to recover. Just prepare tons of fresh meat for me."


    "Only fresh meat?" Alice was stunned. Then, she curiously asked, "Do you not need anything else? For example, the Seed of Nature."


    Alice still had a Seed of Nature in her possession. If Little Death needed it, Alice didn''t mind giving it to her. After all, Little Death had already proven her strength. The undead girl might not be able to utilize the massive amounts of mana within her body to a precise extent and cast taboos, but even releasing that mana in a brute force manner would grant herbat power surpassing the Four Heavenly Kings.


    "The Seed of Nature? The one that the elves have?" Little Death asked, taking a moment to remember what the Seed of Nature was. Then, she shook her head slightly. However, her head-shaking felt more like a brief vibration to Alice due to herck of a neck. "I don''t need that. An undead''s body must remain in a deceased state. The body created using a Seed of Nature is brimming with life, so an undead''s soul can''t enter it."


    "Is that so?" Alice nodded, expressing her understanding. "How should the meat be processed? Do I need to use it to make a body for you?"


    "No need for such trouble. All you need to do is feed fresh meat to me," Little Death said before revealing her sharp teeth. Then, she continued, "Thankfully, my head is still here, so I can still eat meat. The missing parts of my body will grow back so long as I consume enough meat."


    "What a simple and crude way of handling things" Alice''s mouth twitched a little. "What would happen if the part that went missing was the head?"


    "In that case, all you need to do is supply me with enough mana. But it''s going to take a lot of mana. Even if you are a Demon King, you won''t be able to fill me uppletely in one go. It''ll probably take you quite a few rounds," Little Death exined. "You could use that method if you really wanted to, but I think it''s just a waste of time and energy. It''ll be much more efficient if you just had someone bring me enough fresh meat. After all, you are the Demon King. You have the entire demon realm at your service."


    "So you finally recognize me as the Demon King?" Alice said, ring at Little Death''s severed head. "Was it really necessary for you to pick a fight with me?"


    "Ahahaha. Well, I was doing it out of precaution since I came across a scammer in the past," Little Death said, not minding Alice''s dissatisfaction in the slightest. Instead, she exined, "Which generation was it I don''t really remember. Anyway, there was this one Demon King I came across in the past. He lost the Torres Royal Coin to the Hero during one of their shes. Then, that Hero somehow managed to acquire information on me and even found me. Then, that Hero pretended to be a Demon King and made me do his biddings.


    "I didn''t think too much about it at the time and simply followed him. However, sometimeter, I noticed that even though that guy could use taboos, he hadn''t used dark-type taboos even once before. Afterward, Iunched a sneak attack on him and forced him to use light-type taboos. Then, I realized that I''ve been had."


    Little Death paused for a moment. Then, she earnestly said, "So, to avoid getting tricked by the Hero again, I decided to always check if the Demon Kings that Ie across can use dark-type taboos What''s wrong? Why are you sweating?"

 Chapter 281: The Milu Rabbits Life is Also a Life

    Chapter 281: The Milu Rabbit''s Life is Also a Life


    "So, this is an undead?" Zauna asked as she looked at the severed head that Alice had ced on the dining table. Although she was a little scared of it, her curiosity quickly overwhelmed her fear.


    It was also fortunate that the undead did not have blood flowing in their bodies, theck of blood making Little Death''s severed head look more like a talking puppet head rather than an actual severed head. This served to reduce the fear Zauna felt.


    "Hello, little girl," Little Death greeted Zauna when she saw the other party looking at her curiously. "You can call me Little Death. I will be helping the D I will be helping Alice for the foreseeable future."


    Before bringing Little Death back, Alice had naturally warned the undead girl not to reveal her identity as the Demon King. Meanwhile, although Little Death didn''t know why Alice was reluctant to reveal herself as the Demon King, she still readilyplied with Alice''s request. And because the undead could not lie, Alice felt relieved when she heard that Little Death was willing to cooperate.


    As a side note, Alice had recovered the Torres Royal Coin from the leaves and dirt that covered the forest, thanks to Little Death''s help. The coin was connected to the undead girl through some means, so Little Death could easily locate the coin.


    Anyway,pared to Zauna, Lalu was much less courageous. So, she was terrified when she came across Little Death''s severed head. At this moment, the loli elf had holed herself up inside her room and refused toe out no matter what. From this situation, it would seem that while the loli elf might hold great curiosity toward the world outside the Elven Forest, she still couldn''t handle psychologically impactful things.


    "Fresh meat is here!" Little Death suddenly cried out.


    A momentter, arge cart was pushed into the dining room, the cart carrying piles of meat from various animals. Upon seeing this cart, Alice''s eyes were immediately drawn to a pile of Milu Rabbit meat. It was fortunate that the Milu Rabbit hanging off her waist was still unconscious. Otherwise, she didn''t know whether this gruesome sight might traumatize her Milu Rabbit.


    The person pushing the cart was Luna. As Alice''s maid, she would naturally be the one to carry out Alice''s orders. Meanwhile, following Luna was Heris. It wasn''t an easy task to acquire so much meat on such short notice. So, it was necessary to pull some strings.


    "Is this enough?" Luna asked as she looked at the severed head ced on the dining table, her gaze not at all kind. After all, this undead girl was seemingly trying to vie for the position of Alice''s maid as well. This situation upset her greatly. First, there was Lacey. Now, there was Little Death. Since when did the position of maid be such a hotly contested position?


    Little Death didn''t mind Luna''s hostile gaze. Instead, she wobbled her head in a failed attempt to nod and said, "It''s enough! Thank you!"


    Little Death was quite polite for an undead. She didn''t behave like the walking corpses recorded in history books. Her thought process and speech made her feel much more like a human or demon than an undead. This situation made Alice wonder how the Torres Royal Family had managed to create an undead like Little Death.


    However, considering that Little Death was the only powerful undead capable of serving the various Demon Kings, Little Death was most likely an exception that the Torres Royal Family had created identally. Otherwise, there''d be no reason why the Torres Royal Family wouldn''t create hundreds of undead like Little Death and take over the world. Even the Hero would fall if they had to face dozens or hundreds of Four Heavenly King-levelbatants simultaneously.


    Regardless, because Little Death was nothing more than a head right now, she didn''t have a way to eat by herself. So, Alice had no choice but to feed the undead girl.


    Meanwhile, Little Death''s manner of eating was incredibly simple and crude, just like her ability to manipte mana. As soon as Alice put an entire skinned Milu Rabbit near her mouth, she swiftly devoured the entire thing.


    Subsequently, Alice saw ayer of muscles grow underneath Little Death''s head. Then, once the muscles grow to their intended shape, ayer of deathly pale skin grows on top of them. It would seem that Little Death had directly assimted with the Milu Rabbit meat she had swallowed and turned it into a part of her body, the efficiency of the process stunning Alice.


    Of course, the conversion rate wasn''t perfect. Even after consuming an entire Milu Rabbit, Little Death had only recovered half of her neck. Had the conversion process been perfect, Little Death should have regenerated her entire neck. So, it would seem that a lot of meat was lost during the conversion process.


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    "By the way, this maid of yours is quite something. I have never seen someone who isn''t a Demon King have such an exaggerated amount of dark mana," Little Death softly whispered to Alice while chewing on arge piece of Kaier beef. "She''s a human-demon half-breed, right? Honestly, I sometimes think she is more of a Demon King than you, who will only release an explosive amount of dark mana when casting a dark-type taboo."


    <em>I know, right? </em>Alice mentally replied, drylyughing at Little Death''sment.


    Luna was someone who had experienced the Demon King''s Power''s modification. All of Luna''s mana had been converted into pure dark mana. So, even when Luna wasn''t using magic, anyone with a sufficiently powerful spirit would notice therge amount of dark mana dwelling within Luna.


    Alice''s mana, on the other hand, remained attributeless normally. Only when she was casting a taboo would her mana transform to the corresponding attribute. If not for Frenzied Screech unleashing an extraordinary amount of dark mana, Little Death might still suspect Alice''s identity as the Demon King even now.


    <em>Thankfully, I had a pair of ck panties on hand. I should stock up on a few more pairs the next time I visit Rosa''s ce, </em>Alice thought.


    "I''ll feed her, Alice."


    When Luna saw Alice holding a hushed conversation with Little Death on top of feeding the undead, her irritation skyrocketed. So, she walked up to Alice and took the initiative to take over the job of feeding Little Death.


    Alice didn''t object to Luna''s suggestion. Little Death had only regrown her neck after eating severalrge pieces of meat. At this rate, it would take over an hour before Little Death would make a full recovery, and it would be quite tedious to do nothing but hand-feed an undead for over an hour.


    "Oh? You''re going to feed me?"


    A look of interest appeared on Little Death''s face when she saw Luna taking away the Doka Bird meat in Alice''s hand. It looked like she had something she wanted to say to Luna. However, as soon as Little Death opened her mouth, Luna stuffed the entire Doka Bird into Little Death''s mouth


    <em>Someone''s in a bad mood, </em>Alice nonchntly thought when she saw Luna force-feeding the undead girl. Then, she cast Little Death a sympathetic gaze, wholly unaware that she was the cause of Luna''s bad mood.

 Chapter 282: A House Full of Demon Kings

    Chapter 282: A House Full of Demon Kings


    Alice didn''t know what kind of hatred Luna had for Little Death. All she knew was that Luna had done her best to stuff as much meat into Little Death as possible when feeding the undead girl. Oftentimes, she would stuff a big piece of meat into Little Death''s mouth before Little Death was even done swallowing.


    Going by Little Death''s ount, it felt as if Luna wasn''t treating Little Death as an undead but rather a meat grinder instead. If Little Death hadn''t desperately chewed and swallowed, her mouth might have burst apart from all the meat Luna had stuffed into it.


    Regardless, after Little Death recovered her body, Alice brought the undead girl to her room. Although there were many rooms in man''s mansion, the rooms weren''t designed as dormitories. Or, more specifically, they were only designed to cater to one or two upants. So, Alice and Luna shared a room while Zauna and Lalu stayed in another room.


    Meanwhile, inside her room, Alice could talk to Little Death without having to worry about revealing any problematic secrets to Zauna and Lalu. While she did n on revealing these secrets to her two friends in the future, now wasn''t the time yet. If possible, she would prefer to keep her apprentice magician friend and young and innocent elven friend in the dark for the time being.


    "You want to learn necromancy? Are you serious?" After following Alice back to her bedroom and hearing Alice''s wish to learn necromancy, Little Death couldn''t help but look at Alice with a confused gaze. "Necromancy was considered heretical even all the way back during my era, and necromancers were hated by all. Every Demon King I''ve followed would never dare reveal that I''m an undead to others. Are you sure you want to learn it?"


    Necromancy involved the desecration of corpses. It was quite normal for it to be hated so much. However, Little Death obviously didn''t know about the changes that had taken ce in the modern era.


    Alchemy had already be a field strongly supported by the various nations in the modern era, and the study of corpses was no longer an uneptable topic. After all, the development of alchemy had made the development of magic potions much more efficient and cheaper. This was a situation that benefited the country and the people. Because of the significant benefits alchemy had brought to society, many people were even willing to donate their corpses after death to assist in the development of alchemy.


    Necromancers and necromancy had simply appeared in the wrong era. If they existed in the modern era, they might be able to further promote alchemists'' understanding of the human body.


    "Of course, I''m not trying to learn everything there is to know about necromancy," Alice said, chuckling. "I''m just trying to learn the taboos of necromancy. Necromancy used to exist at a considerable scale in the past, and it only started to decline after necromancers got hunted to extinction. So, there should have been a few necromantic taboos, right?"


    Necromancers might have gone extinct already, but they used to operate at quite arge scale several thousand years ago. Moreover, necromancers specialized in magic, so there was no way they hadn''t developed any taboos.


    "You want to learn necromantic taboos? While they do indeed exist, you should also know that learning taboos require the assistance of the corresponding magic books." Looking at Alice, Little Death said helplessly, "A taboo magic book might not offer any special effects, but it is like a bridge. Trying to learn a taboo without a magic book is akin to walking on a tightrope; it''s very easy forplications to ur. Although I shouldn''t refuse the Demon King''s request, it is also my duty to ensure the Demon King''s safety. So, I''m afraid I cannot teach you necromantic taboos."


    "Ignore her. This girl will try to learn any taboo shees across," Andusia, who was sitting on a table in the room, said to Little Death, poking fun at Alice. "She even tried to learn a spirit taboo and altered someone''s memories without knowing anything about the fundamentals of spirit magic. Can you believe it? In the end, she made a mess of the other person''s memories, and that person now recognizes this girl as her mother."


    "Oh? There was such an incident?" Little Death eximed in amazement. Despite being an undead, Little Death was very rich in emotions. She seemed even more expressive than Luna, who constantly wore an indifferent look on her face. Then, Little Death turned to Alice and said, "That isn''t good. Although a Demon King should try to learn as many taboos as possible, it is counterintuitive if you learn taboos without learning the necessary fundamentals first. You won''t be able to maximize the effectiveness of the taboos you learn."


    "I know, I know. Can you two stop lecturing me like my mother?" Aliceined as she sat on her bed and scratched her golden hair. "So I can''t learn necromantic taboos without magic books... But necromantic magic books should have long disappeared. Unless they have been properly preserved, they would have already turned into dust after all these years."


    "By the way, are you really Andusia?" Little Death suddenly asked as she turned to Andusia. Although she had heard from Alice that Andusia''s soul inhabited the little person sitting on the table, the figurine''s appearance simply differed from Andusia''s original appearance by too much. So, she couldn''t help but try to seek further verification. "You don''t look anything like Andusia."


    "I already said it wasn''t my wish to look like this!" Andusia bellowed. She couldn''t help but recall <em>Magical Girl Hikari</em> at the mention of her appearance. Then, once she recalled the show, her mind would inadvertently remember the embarrassing poses the character Hikari made. "Even now, I''ll still get goosebumps and feel disgusted whenever I remember this matter."


    "Speaking of which, thest Demon King you followed should have been several hundred years ago, right, Little Death? In that case, you shouldn''t have watched <em>Magical Girl Hikari </em>yet, right?" A yful thought suddenly came to Alice''s mind when she saw Andusia''s agonized expression. Then, she brought her phone over to Little Death, connected to the human realm''s inte, and opened a website that hosted <em>Magical Girl Hikar</em>i episodes. "You''ll know why Andusia is so mad once you finish watching this."


    "Stopppppppppppp!!!!!!!"


    With the exception of Luna, most other Demon Kings would develop an Andusia''s scream echoed throughout the room. Then, she lunged at Alice''s phone without hesitation. After all was said and done, Little Death used to be her subordinate in the past. If Alice let Little Death watch <em>Magical Girl Hikari</em>, any dignity she had left would disappear.


    "Lady Alice, Lady Andusia, and you, undead, can you please keep your voices down?" While Andusia was yelling out her lungs, Luna suddenly opened the bedroom door from outside and entered. "I can hear your voices even in the corridor. I don''t think you would wish for others to overhear your conversation, right?"


    ""S-Sorry""


    For some inexplicable reason, Alice and Andusia subconsciously apologized when faced with Luna''s stern expression.


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    Little Death, on the other hand, did not apologize. Instead, her attention was focused on one particr part of Luna''s words:


    "Why did it turn into ''undead'' for me?! Even if you don''t call me Lady Little Death, can''t you call me by my name?!"


    "That ''name'' of yours isn''t even an actual name. It''s a nickname at best," Luna retorted as she very naturally sat down beside Alice, upying the seat next to Alice. Then, while staring at Little Death, she continued, "Also, I am Lady Alice''s name. No one else is qualified to order me."


    Despite her body being as cold as a lifeless corpse, Little Death involuntarily shuddered when subjected to Luna''s icy gaze. In the end, Little Death caved to the pressure and helplessly muttered, "I got it"


    Subsequently, when Little Death saw Luna starting to lecture Alice to stop bringing strange people back home, she walked over to Andusia and quietly asked, "...Has Lady Alice picked up many strange people in the past? Also, why does that maid feel even scarier than Lady Alice? If I didn''t know any better, I''d think she is the Demon King instead."


    "That Actually, it''s not a problem even if you think of her as a Demon King," Andusia said. She had naturally noticed the peculiarity about Luna long ago and guessed that Luna was also a Demon King. Although she didn''t know how Alice and Luna became the Demon King at the same time and even expelled the Demon King''s Power from their bodies, she didn''t bother putting too much thought into this matter. "As for the matter of bringing strange people home She has brought home quite a few"


    After saying so, Andusia couldn''t help but wonder what kind of expression Little Death would make if she learned that Alice had even brought back the previous generation''s Hero.

 Chapter 283: Team of Villains

    Chapter 283: Team of Viins


    <strong>Supernatural Event? Demon King Castle Mana Depletion Incident.</strong>


    <strong>Demon King Suspected to Have Appeared and Knocked 296 People Unconscious.</strong>


    <strong>Desperate Daily Reporters Exclusive Report. A Deep Dive Into the Demon King Castle''s Large-Scale Comatose Incident.</strong>


    The day after Alice returned from Demon King Castle, the demon realm''s various media entities caught wind of what had happened at Demon King Castle as she expected. After all, the incident involved nearly 300 people getting knocked unconscious and the depletion of mana in the castle''s surrounding area. It was natural that this matter would cause a hugemotion in the demon realm.


    Meanwhile, the various media outlets quickly turned to specte that this incident was either the Demon King''s deliberate doing or the oue of a failed experiment conducted by the Demon King. There were also other spections, but most of them had something to do with the Demon King one way or another.


    <em>The demon realm''s mass media are quite good at making guesses.</em>


    Alice was a little surprised that the demon realm''s mass media would assume that the Demon King was rted to this incident. However, when she thought about it from a different perspective, she felt that these media outlets would probably make simr spections to garner attention even if the Demon King wasn''t actually involved in the incident.


    After all, ever since the "Demon King" had appeared several months ago, the only time this new Demon King had made a public appearance was during her confrontation with the Hero outside the Elven Forest. Since nobody knew the exact cause of the incident this time, the various media outlets would definitely try to drag the Demon King into this matter and ride the Demon King''s wave of poprity.


    "Is this an invention of this era? What did you call this machine again? Aputer?"


    Little Death didn''t sleepst night since the undead didn''t require sleep. However, she didn''t really feel bored doing nothing because of a unique daydreaming method she had developed. There was usually a gap of several hundred years between the birth and death of Demon Kings. Meanwhile, this daydreaming method was something she hade up with to cope with the boredom of having to wait out this gap.


    So, while Alice was asleepst night, Little Death used this daydreaming method and simply sat in the corner of the room the entire night. Only after Alice had woken up and washed up did Little Death leave her corner.


    "Yes. There''s another device called the mobile phone that is a simplified version of theputer. I''ll have man get you one afterward. Since you''ve woken up in this era, you should adapt to the customs of this era as well," Alice said, nodding.


    After interacting with Little Death yesterday, Alice came to understand that despite Little Death behaving nothing like an undead, the undead girl was indeed incredibly loyal and respectful to her, the "Demon King" in possession of the Torres Royal Coin. She felt that Little Death waspletely trustworthy while she maintained her "Demon King" identity.


    However, Alice''s current problem was that she couldn''t reveal her "Hero" identity to Little Death. After all, while Little Death might be obedient to the Demon King''smand, would the undead girl remain obedient if this Demon King also happened to be the Hero? Or, more specifically, would Little Death doubt her identity as the Demon King?


    Although Alice couldn''t reach a conclusive answer, she didn''t try to probe Little Death on this matter, either. Rather than taking such a risk, Alice decided to simply let Little Death move around her only when she was operating as the Demon King. After all, she didn''t require Little Death''s help carrying out her Hero duties.


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    "Your two friends are going to visit the Windy Kingdom''s tourist attractions with that Heris girl today. Are you not going with them?" Andusia said after waking up and jumping onto Alice''s shoulder. "Those two are humans, after all. Can you really feel relieved letting them wander the demon realm?"


    "Heris is with them, so nothing will happen. She is the daughter of a Heavenly King. Even if they visit the Windy Kingdom, Wintas will help man take care of them," Alice said, shaking her head. Although she wanted to go with Zauna and Lalu, she had more important matters she needed to deal with. "I''m going to the Terra Kingdom today."


    "The Terra Kingdom Ah, the Heavenly King of Earth''s territory?"


    Andusia had already learned about the modern era''s geopolitical situation through the inte. Overall, aside from the people sitting at the top, the only things that changed were the various countries'' names. So, Andusia quickly realized that Alice was talking about the Heavenly King of Earth''s territory when she mentioned the Terra Kingdom.


    Of course, aside from Alice, nobody else knew that Aird, the Heavenly King of Earth, was the real Hero, not even Aird herself.


    "What are you going to the Heavenly King of Earth''s territory for?" Little Death asked curiously as she poked her head out from behind Alice''s other shoulder. Then, she rested her head on Alice''s shoulder while looking at the map disyed on theputer.


    Little Death didn''t know what Alice''s end goal was. She also didn''t know that Alice and Andusia had already used the dogkins'' chief totem to search for items carrying a trace of the Demon King''s Power''s aura.


    "It''s to eliminate the Demon King''s Power."


    The person who answered Little Death wasn''t Alice or Andusia but Luna, who had walked up to the trio from behind, instead. Luna was one of the few people that Alice trusted wholeheartedly. She was also a strongbatant on top of that. So, Alice would naturally inform Luna of her end goal.


    Originally, Alice had hoped that Luna could go to the Demon King Castle with her. She had only had Luna follow Zauna and Lalu for a day because she worried that something unexpected might happen.


    However, Alice was now certain that the Four Heavenly Kings'' influence wasn''t just for show. Even after Heris had dragged Zauna and Lalu around for the entirety of yesterday, nothing had happened. So, Alice could now have Luna move with her without worrying about Zauna and Lalu''s safety.


    "Eliminate the Demon King''s Power?!" Luna''s answer gave little Death a fright. Then, Little Death switched her gaze between Alice and Andusia a few times before turning to Luna and asking, "L-Literally?"


    "That''s right. Literally. We are going to erase the Demon King''s Power from this world and halt the birth of Demon Kings and Heroes once and for all," Andusia said as she crossed her legs and looked at Little Death with interest. "So, Little Death, will you act with us?"


    While Andusia spoke, both Andusia and Luna were also preparing themselves to act. Should Little Death express even the slightest bit of disapproval, they would take action and obliterate Little Death right here and now.


    The average person might find it challenging to kill an undead since an undead could be resurrected so long as their soul remained. However, destroying an undead''s body and soul was a piece of cake for two Demon Kings.


    "How crazy... You''re actually thinking of erasing the Demon King''s Power..." Little Death eximed in amazement. Then, without even the slightest hint of hesitation, she said, "Of course you have to include me in such an exciting proposition!"


    The only restriction Little Death had to abide by was themand to follow the orders of the Demon King holding the Torres Royal Coin. In other words, before Alice died, Little Death only had to obey Alice''s orders and nothing more.


    As for the Demon King''s Power? What does it have to do with her?

 Chapter 284: Astonishingly Amazing Naming Sense

    Chapter 284: Astonishingly Amazing Naming Sense


    The Terra Kingdom was a somewhat peculiar country.


    This was divided into two realms at its equator. On one side of the equator was the human realm, a ce with an environment simr to Earth''s. On the other side was the demon realm''s polluted environment.


    The demon realm was further split into four countries. Among them, three were located on the same continent. Nearly half of this continent also happened to be situated in the human realm, so this continent became the main ce for people to travel between the two realms.


    Unfortunately, the Terra Kingdom was not one of the three kingdoms based on this continent. Instead, it was established on another independent continent. Moreover, this other continent was covered in precipitous mountains. It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that the Terra Kingdom was a country built on mountains.


    ording to the demon realm''s history books, this mountainous continent was rich in earth-type mana. Hence, it had always been the Heavenly King of Earth''s territory. However, asmunication across the sea used to be very inconvenient in the past, the Heavenly King of Earth''s kingdom had also always been the least developed country out of the four demon kingdoms.


    It wasn''t until recently--after the inte was established and the cost of teleportation arrays was optimized--that it became much easier for the Terra Kingdom to import and export various materials. Due to these improvements, the Heavenly King of Earth''s territory could finally catch up to the other Heavenly Kings'' territories. Meanwhile, the Terra Kingdom was the first Kingdom of Earth to enjoy these benefits.


    It was a pity that these demons probably never dreamed that Aird, the first Heavenly King of Earth to have brought significant growth to the Kingdom of Earth, would be not only a human spy but also the Hero.


    "So, this is the Terra Kingdom? It really is a country built on mountains," Alice eximed as she looked around with an expression of interest.


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    After making use of the Fear Kingdom''s teleportation array, Alice and her party safely arrived at the Terra Kingdom. Meanwhile, because Alice had chosen to teleport to a teleportation array situated in a remote location of the kingdom, her group found themselves appearing on top of an incredibly tall mountain when they appeared in the Terra Kingdom.


    Looking around the mountaintop, Alice could see an endless mountain range that extended far beyond the horizon. She also spotted cities situated between these mountains. However, despite the mountain she stood on being incredibly tall, it still wasn''t tall enough to let Alice get a full view of the entire Terra Kingdom. So, Alice only managed to spot two cities. Cities located farther away were outside her vision.


    "This ce has hardly changed from thousands of years ago."


    Different from an inexperienced sapling like Alice, Andusia had long since seen the entirety of the demon realm thousands of years ago. Although traveling across the ocean was a troublesome affair back then, she still needed to do so since she was the Demon King at the time. So, the Kingdom of Earth''s mountainous territory was nothing new to her.


    "It''s just a bunch of mountains. There are a few taboos that can create mountains artificially. Although replicating this entire continent will be quite the chore, it is still entirely doable," Little Deathmented nonchntly.


    Little Death had followed many Demon Kings throughout her undeath, so she had simrly visited the Kingdom of Earth many times in the past. Hence, she didn''t find the sight before her all too spectacr. Compared to these mountains, the mobile phone Alice had given her this morning was much more attractive.


    As for Luna, she didn''t say a word. Although this was also her first time seeing such an expansive mountain range and cities built between mountains, it wasn''t in her character to be interested in such matters. Not to mention, she had currently focused all of her attention on serving Alice, so she naturally wouldn''t yell like an excited child.


    "...You guys are making me look like a hillbilly." When Alice saw that none of her three travelpanions had resonated with her amazement, she couldn''t help but feel a little discouraged. Then, after sighing, she opened up the map software she previously used to record the locations of the Demon King''s Power''s aura signatures. "Let''s see. The mountain we are on now is the Terra Kingdom''s Rumble City''s Rumble Rumble Mountain... What kind of terrible name is this?"


    "Ah, I know that name. I personally approved it," Andusia suddenly said. "If I remember correctly, a rather severe earthquake took ce here at the time, destroying the neighboring towns and cities. The earthquake even created this humongous mountain. To ensure that future generations did not forget that disastrous earthquake, the survivors decided to give this mountain and the rebuilt towns and cities memorable names."


    After saying so, Andusia chuckled a little before she continued:


    "After a round of voting, the city where this mountain was located was named Rumble City, and the mountain was named Rumble Rumble Mountain. If you''re interested, there''s a town at the foot of the mountain called Rumble Rumble Rumble Town. There should also be an earthquake museum in the town."


    "You demons are really interesting..."


    Alice didn''t know how she shouldment on the personalities of demons. Even though they were dealing with a natural disaster, it didn''t seem like they treated this natural disaster seriously at all.


    "Nevermind the Rumble Rumble Rumble Town. Our destination isn''t that far away from Rumble City. It''s Rumble City''s nearby...Bang Bang City... Does the Terra Kingdom have no cities with normal names?"


    "It''s the custom of this continent. You just need to get used to it," Andusia consoled. "So one of the Demon King''s Power''s aura signatures is in Bang Bang City, huh... I wonder if it''s a tool or a person? If it''s a tool, it should be a weapon or a defensive tool created using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. But if it''s a person..."


    "It shouldn''t be a person. Seventeen objects in this world carry the remnants of the Demon King''s Power''s aura, and only two are moving. So, these two objects should either be a person or an item that a person is carrying," Alice said, shaking her head. "Let''s set off. Rumble City should have a mode of transport to Bang Bang City. We''ll get something to eat in Rumble City first before we head for Bang Bang City."


    "You say you are here for official business, but you''re still moving like you''re sightseeing..." Little Deathmented while fiddling with her phone. "As a side note, I finally know how I got caught so easily at the mansion''s courtyard. I didn''t think the people of this generation woulde up with an invention like the surveince camera."


    "It''s the same for me. When I was first dug out of the ground and turned into this shape, I didn''t know about the existence of surveince cameras. I thought I could sneak away while nobody was noticing. I got treated as a haunted figurine and sold in a warehouse clearance..." Andusia said, sighing. "s, times have changed."


    Like so, Alice''s group of four chatted as they descended Rumble Rumble Mountain. If one wasn''t aware of their identities, one would think they were only an ordinary group of girls traveling together.

 Chapter 285: Unexpected Destination

    Chapter 285: Unexpected Destination


    There were no direct teleportation routes linking Rumble City and Bang Bang City since the two cities were quite close to each other. If one traveled by car, it would only take an hour to go from Rumble City to Bang Bang City. Hence, it was unnecessary to waste therge amount of manpower and materials required to construct aplex teleportation array. As a result, Alice''s group had no choice but to travel to Bang Bang City by car.


    In reality, they could have easily avoided this hassle and traveled to Bang Bang much more quickly by using taboos that drastically elerated their agility or allowed them to fly. However, everyone tacitly avoided suggesting these methods. This was because Alice seemed quite interested in this form of ordinary travel, a look of enthusiasm on her face as she walked around the streets of Rumble City and bought snacks left and right. Although the demon realm''s food had strange appearances, it tasted good, so Alice felt satisfied eating it.


    When Luna saw Alice enjoying herself, she naturally wouldn''t try to ruin Alice''s fun. Andusia and Little Death had also noticed this. Although they didn''t know why Alice, a Demon King acknowledged by the Four Heavenly Kings, would be interested in an ordinary city like Rumble City, they, too, decided to go along with Alice''s whims.


    Although Little Death couldn''t tell lies as an undead, she wasn''t required to take the initiative to make suggestions. Not to mention, traveling a little slower wouldn''t jeopardize Alice''s safety.


    As to why Alice was taking her time traveling, it wasn''t because she was a country bumpkin who had never seen a city before. Instead, it was because the Terra Kingdom''s unique terrain reminded her of a city called Chongqing back on Earth. Of course,pared to the terrain around Chongqing, the Terra Kingdom''s terrain was many times more exaggerated. While walking down the streets of Rumble City, Alice would asionallye across high walls that extended into the clouds. Yet, at the top of these walls was tnd.


    Aside from nostalgia, Alice was also interested in the various delicacies unique to the Terra Kingdom and the strange sights in the demon realm, such as the strange trees nted along the streets. All of these things piqued her interest, so she decided that she might as well enjoy herself while making her way to the destination.


    She wasn''t in a rush for time, anyway. It was still morning, and it would only take around an hour to reach Bang Bang City by car. Thus, they could afford to take their time.


    Meanwhile, seemingly affected by Alice''s leisurely mood, Luna, Andusia, and Little Death also gradually got into the mood of sightseeing. Then, to their surprise, they discovered that there were quite a few things that managed to pique their interests.


    "Hey, can you not eat raw meat in public? What would you do if others took notice?" Andusia said, a look of disgust on her face as she looked at Little Death.


    Currently, Little Death was holding several skewers of Coulter beef in her hands and taking bites out of them as she walked. While it wasn''t against any rules to eating in public, the problem was that the Coulter beef skewers Little Death held were uncooked. The undead girl was eating the skewers raw. If others noticed this point, they''d definitely grow suspicious of Little Death.


    Little Death didn''t try to argue with Andusia. Instead, she quickly tore through the raw meat with her saw-like teeth and swallowed them into her stomach, skipping the chewing process entirely.


    When Alice bought these meat skewers for Little Death, she had told the shopkeeper that she would bring them home and cook themter herself. The shopkeeper didn''t suspect a thing and simply sold Alice a few uncooked skewers. Though, he probably never imagined that one of the girls walking alongside Alice was an undead who ate raw meat.


    "Don''t worry, nobody will notice. Who would care to check whether the skewer someone else is eating is cooked?" Little Death said as she licked the bit of meat juice that stained her lips. Although raw meat was much tougher than cooked meat, her teeth had no trouble tearing it apart. "Rather than me, you''re the one who should be more careful. Since when have you seen a talking figurine sitting on a person''s shoulder? You''re even carrying such a gloomy piece of clothing in your hands."


    "How is this gloomy? Is this not cool?" Andusia red at Little Death before looking at the doll costume in her hands. She had gotten Alice to buy this doll costume for her from a magic doll shop. It was a dark dress that gave off a very strong <em>chuunibyou </em>feeling.


    When Alice bought the costume for Andusia, she was honestly surprised that Andusia had such a side to her. However, after giving the matter some thought, she felt that it wasn''t exactly urate that Andusia suffered from eighth-grader syndrome. After all, Andusia was a bona fide Demon King, not a pretend Demon King. Moreover, Andusia had suffered through a real traumatic experience in the past, and her hatred for humanity couldn''t be any more real.


    Aside from Little Death and Andusia, Luna had also found something to her liking. Only, in Alice''s opinion, this item did not match Luna''s character at all.


    "Haven''t you taken enough photographs, Luna?" Alice asked as she turned to look at Luna, who walked next to her with a camera in hand.


    Luna was currently holding a high-resolution camera that she had just bought. The resolution of this magic contraption was naturally higher than that of a mobile phone, and Luna had immediately fallen in love with it after testing it in the shop.


    However, after purchasing the camera, Luna had not stopped taking pictures of Alice and the others. This situation caused Alice to feel a little helpless.


    Regardless, everyone in the group found something that satisfied them on this trip, so it was, fortunately, a worthwhile trip. Of course, Alice didn''t forget the main purpose of this trip. Even as everyone was enjoying themselves, they still arrived at Bang Bang City in the afternoon and reached the location Alice had marked on her phone''s map application.


    "Say, are you sure this is the ce?" Andusia couldn''t help but ask when they reached the marked location. "Did you maybe make a mistake when marking the location previously?"


    If even Andusia, who was right next to Alice when she marked the locations of the Demon King''s Power''s aura signatures previously, was skeptical about the uracy of Alice''s marker, it went without saying that Luna and Little Death would be even more skeptical. Although Luna and Little Death regarded Alice as their master and wouldn''t refute Alice''s words, the expression in their eyes said it all.


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    Was this marker really correct?


    In reality, let alone Andusia and the others, even Alice herself couldn''t help but wonder if she had marked the wrong location previously. After all, who could have imagined that their destination was an open-air fountain?


    That was to say, the object that carried a trace of the Demon King''s Power''s aura was most likely at the bottom of this fountain.


    This was, in fact, the reality of the situation.


    Nobody in their group was an ordinary person. They were all either Demon Kings or individuals who had shared close ties with Demon Kings. So, despite their initial skepticism, as soon as they spread out their senses, they quickly sensed that there was indeed an object radiating powerful dark mana at the bottom of the fountain.


    It also wasn''t strange that nobody had noticed this item until now. This was because the open-air fountain in question was a mana fountain. Aside from spraying water, the fountain also radiated small amounts of mana, allowing people standing near it to experience a mentally and physically soothing sensation. Meanwhile, because of this mana, those who weren''t sensitive to dark mana wouldn''t notice the item at the fountain''s bottom or that some dark mana was mixed in the fountain''s mana.


    Dark mana was harmful to most living creatures. Fortunately, the mana that the mana fountain diffused carried a healing effect. So, it mitigated the damaging effects of the small amounts of dark mana mixed in. However, at the same time, the mana fountain''s healing properties were also weakened significantly.


    The problem now was that their goal was at the bottom of this open-air fountain. Moreover, it was even embedded into the fountain. If they wanted to retrieve it, they''d have to jump into the fountain and retrieve it directly. However, they were currently in a public park. They couldn''t possibly jump into the fountain in front of so many people, right?"


    "What should we do?"


    Alice sat on a bench by the fountain while Luna sat on her left, Little Death sat on her right, and Andusia sat on her shoulder. Then, all four of them fell into contemtion.


    "How about knocking everyone here unconscious?" Andusia was the first to put forward a suggestion. "Just like yesterday at Demon King Castle, I''ll drain the mana in this area, cutting off allmunication devices and knocking all passersby unconscious."


    "This ce isn''t Demon King Castle. The castle was never developed because it used to be gued by deadly radiation. However, this park is covered in surveince cameras. Our appearances were captured the moment we stepped into this ce. If we pull a simr stunt, we''ll be exposed in no time," Alice said, sighing. "Although I can get the Four Heavenly Kings to suppress this information, doing so will cause many people to learn of my identity. The risks are just too high."

 Chapter 286: Convincing Act

    Chapter 286: Convincing Act


    "There is a way."


    After everyone pondered in silence for a second time, the first person to speak up was Luna. As Alice''s maid, Luna felt she should always remain silent until her master needed her services. So, now that Alice needed help, Luna would naturally choose to speak up.


    "What way?" Andusia, sitting on Alice''s shoulder, asked as she poked her head out of Alice''s golden hair and looked at Luna curiously. She was curious to know what kind of suggestion Alice''s taciturn maid had to say.


    "With our size, we will definitely attract attention if we were to jump into the fountain. The park''s surveince cameras will likely catch us in the act as well," Luna said as she looked at Andusia. "However, if someone of sufficiently small size jumps in, others will only think that we have identally dropped a certain object into the fountain. In that case, even if the cameras capture this scene, nobody will bother to check the surveince records."


    "That makes sense. If a sufficiently small person falls into the fountain, passersby will most likely think that we simply dropped something into the fountain and are unlikely to care," Andusia said, nodding in agreement. However, she quickly realized that out of their group of four, she was the only person whose body was small enough to let others think she was an item. "Wait! Wait! Don''t tell me you''re talking about me?!"


    "It''s up to you now, Andusia. No matter how you look at it, your current appearance is that of a figurine. So, all we need to do is pretend to drop you into the fountain by ident," Alice earnestly said as she turned to look at Andusia. "Once you retrieve the item underwater, we''ll pretend to grab you out of the water. It''s a perfect n."


    "Perfect my ass! Don''t forget that my body is made of Living Wood! Living Wood might have mimicked the body my soul represents, but its wooden properties remain," Andusia said, hurriedly making up an excuse to evade this "responsibility." "The fact that your Hubert''s Tree managed to affect me says it all. If I fall into the water, my body will most likely absorb water and be heavier. I don''t even know if I can float back up at that time!"


    "Use magic. There are plenty of ways you can use toe back up. Just think of it as sacrificing your body once for Alice," Little Death said, interrupting Andusia''s attempt at evading responsibility. "Moreover, Alice has already bought you the things you wanted, so the least you could do is help her in return."


    Andusia fell silent after hearing Little Death''s words, a mental struggle beginning in her mind. What Little Death said was true. Water might seep into her body, but she could easily get out of the water if she used magic. She would simply feel a little ufortable from having water enter her body.


    Moreover, there wasn''t any point for her in refusing. After all, Alice''s Forest Crystal''s mana remained in her body. If Alice decided to be ruthless, the girl could seal her mana and toss her into the water, and there''d be nothing she could do about it. At that time, she''d have to experience the humiliation of being thrown like an object on top of experiencing the difort of having water soak her wooden body.


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    However, Andusia''s silent contemtion turned into silent acknowledgment in Little Death''s eyes. So, Little Death promptly reached out and grabbed Andusia from Alice''s shoulders.


    "Wait, what are you?!"


    Andusia cried out in surprise. Although she wanted to yell for Little Death to stop, the undead girl''s actions were too swift. Before Andusia could even finish her sentence, Little Death had already thrown her into the fountain.


    "Oh my! My hand slipped!" Little Death cried out in an exaggerated manner. However, although her behavior caused some curious passersby to turn to her, nobody really cared about what she just did. They simply thought this girl with a terribleplexion had deliberately thrown something into the fountain.


    Just like Luna said previously, if a normal-sized person were to jump into the fountain, they would definitely attract a lot of attention. However, hardly anybody would care if it was only a small object falling into the fountain.


    <em>That damned undead! I used to be her superior, yet this is how she treats me Just you wait, you shitty undead! I''m definitely going to let you have it once I get out!</em>


    Andusia inwardly cursed at Little Death as she felt her body gradually bing heavier and heavier. The undead girl perfectly represented the quote "forgetting one''s old love after obtaining new love." The undead girl used to be rather obedient when she followed her. She never thought the other party would dare to treat her so rudely now.


    <em>Fuck it. Whatever. I shouldn''t lower myself to an undead''s level. Let''s just focus on finding that item.</em>


    Andusia snorted. Since she was already underwater, there was no way she could leave without doing anything. So, despite feeling displeased by Little Death''s actions, she still chose to suppress her displeasure and sank to the bottom of the fountain in search of Alice''s target.


    At the fountain''s spout, there was a device used to output mana. Because of this device, the water sprayed out by the fountain carried some minor healing properties. Meanwhile, since this healing mana didn''te from the water itself, this made the dark-attributed mana fluctuations radiated by a certain item were very obvious to Andusia.


    <em>But there sure are a lot of things in the water. It seems quite a few people have identally dropped their belongings here.</em>


    While propelling herself to the source of dark mana fluctuations using mana, Andusia spotted many items such as mobile phones, soaked books, rings, wallets, etc. All of these items looked huge to her because of her small size. However, as none of these items were special, she didn''t pay them any attention.


    Soon, Andusia found her targeta dagger whose de waspletely inserted into the fountain''s brick foundation. Andusia was incredibly familiar with the dark mana fluctuations the dagger radiated, so she could instantly tell that the dagger was a weapon made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence.


    <em>Tsk. This thing looks quite normal.</em>


    Although the dagger''s de was inserted into the brick, judging by the hilt, its appearance shouldn''t be anything out of the ordinary. So, in terms of appearance, it was vastly better than her misshapen "This Is Wrong."

 Chapter 287: Andusia Is a Tsun

    Chapter 287: Andusia Is a Tsun


    Andusia swam up to the dagger''s hilt and grabbed it with her pitifully small hands. However, even though her current body was tiny, she was still a former Demon King. She had also recovered most of her strength already, so removing a dagger that was stuck in a brick naturally wasn''t a problem for her. She could easily aplish it by applying a little force.


    Or, at least, that was what Andusia believed


    <em>Huh?</em>


    Unexpectedly, the dagger refused to budge even after Andusia tried to pull it out of the fountain''s brick foundation. This was quite an astonishing situation.


    It should be known that Andusia was a Demon King. Unlike the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings, Catherine the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guard Captain, and Filia the Elven Hero''s partner, Andusia didn''t have to rely on mana to have great physical strength. This was because Heroes and Demon Kings developed their mana and physique simultaneously. Even if Heroes and Demon Kings didn''t deliberately train their physique, their physique would still grow to levels far beyond ordinary people.


    In her current state, Andusia could even shatter an entire mountain with her bare fists if she used her full strength. Although she had used only a small portion of her strength to pull the dagger, it still didn''t make sense that she would fail to pull it out.


    <em>Interesting. Did someone ce a restriction on it?</em>


    Andusia naturally wouldn''t think that the dagger was only tightly inserted into the fountain. There was definitely some kind of magical restriction ced on the dagger, making it so that the weapon couldn''t be pulled out by just anyone. More specifically, a Demon King most likely ced this restriction to prevent those weaker than them from drawing the dagger.


    Although Andusia had already recovered most of the strength she had during her peak, she couldn''t make a full recovery due to the limitations of her current body. Hence, she couldn''t ignore this restriction and draw the dagger from the ground.


    <em>Dammit. This body really is troublesome.</em>


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    After trying and failing to pull out the dagger for some time, Andusia couldn''t help but curse her current body. The main reason she had tried to steal her descendant''s body previously was precisely because of her current body''s limitations. Not only could it be taken advantage of by nt-based magic easily, but it also couldn''t replicate a real body perfectly. Hence, it would limit her strength to a certain extent.


    However, Andusia also knew that Alice wouldn''t simply let her take over another person''s body. Not to mention, her hatred for humans had lessened significantly already. So, although she found her current body''s limitations depressing, she no longer thought of stealing another person''s body to fix her problem.


    <em>This thing should have a Demon King''s Protection cast on it. Moreover, the condition set should be to prevent others from drawing the dagger out of the ground.</em>


    As a former Demon King, Andusia naturally knew about the Demon King''s Protection. It was an ability unique to Demon Kings. Although other restriction-type spells could achieve a simr effect, the effects of these spells would weaken with time. However, the Demon King''s Protection did not have such a problem.


    Regardless, since Andusia couldn''t draw the dagger, she had no choice but to inform Alice of this matter and see if the other party had any solutions. Although Andusia was aware that Alice''s strength still hadn''t reached the level of a full-fledged Demon King, the girl seemed to have some kind of special power. So, she felt that maybe that special power mighte in handy in this situation.


    "I found the target, Alice. It''s a dagger stuck at the bottom of the fountain," Andusia said to Alice, transmitting her voice directly into the girl''s ears using mana. "But there seems to be a Demon King''s Protection cast on the dagger. I can''t pull it out with my current strength."


    <em>Demon King''s Protection?</em>


    When Alice heard Andusia''s words, she couldn''t help but recall Grant''s Radioactive Soul Stone. That stone also had an ability called "Demon King''s Protection" attached to it. Meanwhile, the ability''s description was "Opponents weaker than the user cannot destroy or move this weapon."


    Back then, Alice naturally didn''t have the strength necessary to bypass this restriction. However, because her right hand had forcibly changed the Radioactive Soul Stone''s "user" to her, following the form of "I am not weaker than myself," Alice became able to do whatever she wanted with the Radioactive Soul Stone.


    In other words, Alice should be able to pull off a simr feat with the dagger stuck at the bottom of the fountain if she were to grab the dagger with her right hand.


    However, the problem now was how she should enter the fountain. She couldn''t possibly jump into the fountain in broad daylight, right?


    Alice had constantly been trying to maintain a low profile to avoid blowing her cover. It might be fine if she did something attention-grabbing in the human realm since she could use her identity as the princess as a shield. However, if she were to attract attention in the demon realm, people might look into her identity and dig up some crucial information, such as her close ties with the Four Heavenly Kings. She also did not doubt the various media outlets'' investigative capabilities.


    Afterward, Alice told Luna and Little Death about the dagger''s situation, and the two also fell into silent contemtion. The park wasn''t a private ce, so they didn''t have the authority to casually kick people out of the premises. Even if they chose to kick people out regardless, the surveince cameras would catch them in the act, and Alice would still run the risk of exposing herself.


    "How about going invisible? Don''t you have that magic robe that lets you turn invisible?" Luna suggested.


    "Going invisible doesn''t mean I stop existing. I will still make sshes if I jump into the water. Moreover, it''ll be even more frightening if a pocket of air shaped like a person suddenly appears in the fountain," Alice said, shooting down Luna''s suggestion.


    "How about we create some chaos? My bodily fluids carry an undead virus. So long as I bite someone to death, I can turn them into undead. We''ll create an undead crisis here and take advantage of the chaos," Little Death said, voicing the n she devised using her dead brain.


    "That''s not necessary," Alice said, wiping the sweat on her forehead. She didn''t know that Little Death could convert others into undead by biting them. Though, based on Little Death''s words, it would seem that she could only convert people after biting them to death. As to what would happen to those who didn''t get bitten to death...Alice had no idea.


    However, Little Death''s suggestion also served as a useful reference. Not the undead crisis part, but the creating chaos part. If it was only creating a little bit of chaos, Alice could aplish it easily.

 Chapter 288: Lets Start By Making a Fake Demon King

    Chapter 288: Let''s Start By Making a Fake Demon King


    "Luluna''s Magical Doll."


    While standing in a grove in the park, Luna cast a spell going by the name of Luluna''s Magical Doll, drawing out a portion of her mana to create a dark human figure. The human figure''s outline was the same as Luna''s. The only difference was that this human figure was entirely ck and had no facial features.


    "I remember this spell. Isn''t this a taboo created by a puppeteer? Although the taboo can be used to create a puppet matching the appearance of the caster''s soul, the puppet does not have any facial features, so it can''t be used as a recement," Little Death said, quickly recognizing the taboo Luna had used. She had followed multiple Demon Kings over the years, so she had an expansive knowledge of spells and taboos. "But for the created body to be pitch-ck like this Your maid seriously feels more like a Demon King than you do, Alice. Even the taboos she uses are converted to the dark attribute."


    <em>That''s because she is a Demon King,</em> Alice inwardly replied as she let out an awkward chuckle. The Demon King''s Power had converted all of Luna''s mana into the dark attribute. Hence, almost every spell Luna cast would carry the properties of dark mana.


    Of course, that didn''t mean Demon Kings were incapable of using other attributes. After some training and adaptation, Demon Kings could also cast spells and taboos of other attributes. It was just that Luna had yet to begin training in other attributes. After all, she was only 18 years old this year. Generally, by the time a Demon King had fully limatized themselves with dark mana and started training in other attributes, they''d be around 30 years old already.


    "It doesn''t matter even if the doll looks like this. Nobody will see its appearance so long as we cover it up," Luna said as she took out a cloak from her backpack. This was the same cloak she had used in the Elven Forest when she was confronting Alice while "pretending" to be the Demon King.


    After putting the cloak on the doll, the doll''sck of facial features and its pitch-ck body were mostly hidden from others. Although the doll''s legs remained exposed, letting others see them wasn''t a big problem.


    Many spells would cause a change to the caster''s body when used. So, even if others took notice of the doll''s pitch-ck legs, they would probably assume that the doll was casting some kind of spell.


    "Now it looks rtively simr to the ''Demon King'' who had previously appeared in the Elven Forest," Alicemented, nodding in satisfaction after scrutinizing the cloaked doll. Once they had this "Demon King" run out and create some chaos, she''d be able to pretend to fall into the fountain in a panic. Although it would look somewhat awkward, her current appearance was only that of a little girl around thirteen or fourteen. Nobody would suspect her panicked reaction.


    In reality, if all Alice wanted was to avoid catching the attention of others, she also had the option of visiting the park at night. However, the park''s surveince cameras remained a problem. The cameras would spot her diving into the fountain. Although it was unlikely that anybody would bother looking through the surveince footage when nothing had happened in the park, there was still the possibility of someone doing so. If that happened, there''d be a risk of her getting exposed.


    Moreover, Alice didn''t wish to waste time waiting. She still needed to visit multiple locations and retrieve the items carrying the Demon King''s Power''s mana signature in the next few days. If she needed to wait until nighttime to retrieve the dagger in the fountain, it would mean that she''d have to prolong their stay in Bang Bang City until tomorrow.


    After creating the fake Demon King, Alice and the others walked out of the grove and sat back on the park bench near the fountain as if nothing had happened. Of course, to prevent anyone from noticing the fake Demon King appearing from the grove they had just walked out of, Alice had asked Luna to have the fake Demon King move to walk around the grove for a moment before leaving it from a different location.


    "Are you done yet?" Andusia''s depressed voice was transmitted into Alice''s ears. "My body absorbs water. If I stay here for too long, I will have to stay under the sun for a long time to get dry."


    "Your body really is troublesome." Alice couldn''t help but sympathize with Andusia. Although Andusia''s body felt no different from a real person''s body to the touch, it still retained some wooden characteristics. If not for Andusia having mana, her body might even rot after soaking in water for too long. "We''ll be ready soon."


    The fake Demon King naturally couldn''t reveal itself and cause trouble as soon as Alice''s group had left the grove. If it did, others might link the fake Demon King to Alice''s group, defeating the purpose of going through all this trouble.


    After waiting a while, Alice felt enough time had passed for the fake Demon King toe out and start causing amotion. However, before getting Luna to control the fake Demon King, Alice turned to Little Death and asked, "By the way, what are you going to do once I jump into the fountain? Luna will have to stay outside to control the doll, but what about you? Will you jump into the fountain with me?"


    "I cannot lie as an undead. If I am too nervous when I jump into the fountain, I might identally reveal our n," Little Death said, shaking her head. Then, she earnestly said to Alice, "Something like this had happened in the past. One of the Demon Kings I used to serve had me steal information from the humans. However, when I was fighting someone in the human realm, I got a little too nervous and subconsciously blurted out the entire n. I ended up causing the Demon King to lose the war and get killed."


    "Holy crap, so you yed such an important role in history?"


    Alice''s eyes twitched when she heard Little Death''s tale. Almost every Demon King''s death was recorded in history books. Alice had also read about those deaths while learning about this world''s history. However, she had never heard of Little Death being mentioned in any history book, much less her involvement in a Demon King''s defeat and death. Though, that was probably because the archivists of that era didn''t know that an undead had indirectly contributed to the Demon King''s death.


    "Wait, you say that you can''t lie, but you clearly said your ''hand slipped'' when you threw Andusia into the water just now." Alice grew confused when she suddenly recalled Little Death''s realistic act just now. "Isn''t that a lie?"


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    "Of course not." Smiling, Little Death waved her hand and said, "That''s because I really did slip my handintentionally."

 Chapter 289: Dispersing the Bystanders

    Chapter 289: Dispersing the Bystanders


    Under Luna''s control, the cloaked "Demon King" walked out of the grove and immediately attracted the attention of many people.


    The fight between the Demon King and Hero outside the Elven Forest had long since been spread across the inte. By now, almost every demon in the demon realm had watched the videos of the fight and saw the Demon King''s attire at the time. So, now that someone wearing the same cloak as the Demon King had appeared in the park, it was only natural that they would turn to look at this person, curious to learn what this person was trying to do.


    However, nobodoy regarded this cloaked "Demon King" as the Demon King who had appeared outside the Elven Forest. This was because ever since videos of the fight went online, cloaks of simr design had be incredibly popr in the demon realm. Many people had bought these cloaks and walked around in public cosying as the Demon King.


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    In addition, this cloaked "Demon King" had covered her entire face with the cloak''s hood. So, everyone simply thought that this was another cosyer cosying as the Demon King.


    Of course, Alice and the girls didn''t think they could fool others with appearances alone. So, at Alice''s signal, Luna manipted the doll and used it as a medium to cast another tabooDragon''s Shadow.


    Immediately, pitch-ck mana gushed out from the doll''s cloak. Then, under the watchful eyes of the park''s bystanders, the ck mana transformed into a ck dragon with a jagged exterior. At the same time, a terrifying aura spread from the ck dragon, instantly causing the chirping birds in the park to fall silent, none daring to make even a squeak.


    Although the general public knew about the existence of taboo-level spells, the extent of their knowledge of taboos was only limited to the taboos whose operating principles were applied to household appliances. For example, the stove was an invention based on the principle of "Burning Star." Most people had never actually seen a taboo-level spell in person.


    Meanwhile, the taboo used to create the ck dragon was something everyone in the park recognized almost instantly. This was because the Demon King had previously used this taboo in her fight with the Hero outside the Elven Forest. People on the inte had also quickly identified the taboo and its details, so many people knew that Dragon''s Shadow was a taboo that could create a perfect replica of a dragon.


    Humans and demons shared a simrity in that most of them rarely had any opportunities to meet with people of other races. It was especially so for dragons, who would rarely ever leave the Dragon Mountain Range. Hence, after learning about Dragon''s Shadow, manyizens in the demon realm voiced their hopes and desire to see the Demon King cast this taboo in person at least once in their lives.


    However, when the bystanders in the park experienced the ck dragon''s presence, they realized that a dragon''s aura truly wasn''t something the average person could withstand. Just standing in this ck dragon''s presence had nearly caused their hearts to stop beating and their blood flow to slow down.


    Emotions of fear and panic instantly spread in everyone''s hearts. At this time, they finally understood how silly the keyboard warriors on the inte were to ridicule the elves for behaving so timidly in front of the Demon King and Hero. While standing in the ck dragon''s presence, even standing straight had be a luxury for them. The fact that the elven and demon soldiers could still move normally and take up a defensive formation while subjected to such an overwhelming presence was already an incredible feat.


    The ck dragon pped its massive wings and slowlynded in the park. Although the dragon had tried to control the speed and force of itsnding with its wings, the moment its huge feet made contact with the ground, everyone in the park could still feel the ground beneath them shaking for a moment.


    Meanwhile, this vibration was seemingly thest straw that broke the camel''s back, causing everyone''s fear and panic to reach a tipping point as they promptly turned around and fled. Even those who had thought of getting a closer look at the Demon King and her Dragon''s Shadow had changed their minds and ran away.


    It wasn''t that they loathed the Demon King. After all, the Demon King was their only hope of conquering the human realm. However, the problem was that the Demon King was clearly in a bad mood right now. This was evidenced by the malice overflowing from the ck dragon''s eyes as it scanned the park afternding on the ground.


    When subjected to this malicious gaze, even a fool would realize that the Demon King was most likely trying to eliminate someone or something in the park. Hence, the Demon King had cast a taboo as soon as she appeared. The fact that the Demon King didn''t start attacking her target right away to give them time to flee the area was already enough mercy shown on her part.


    When Alice saw the people in the park starting to flee, she naturally turned around and pretended to flee as well. Then, she pretended to trip in a panic and fall head first into the fountain.


    Meanwhile, Luna and Little Death did not follow Alice into the fountain since neither of them could offer any substantial help in solving the Demon King''s Protection. So, it was enough for Alice alone to enter the water. Moreover, Alice didn''t have Luna use Dragon''s Shadow simply to scare away the bystanders and create an opportunity for her to jump into the water.


    Although unlikely, weapons made using the Demon King''s Power''s presence might leave some traces when drawn. If someone came to inspect the fountain afterward, they might notice these traces. So, Alice decided to have Luna erase the fountain entirely after she had drawn the dagger, eliminating the possibility of anyone finding any tracespletely.


    "You really know how to take your sweet time," Andusiained when she saw Alice finally jumping into the fountain. "I can feel that my body has more than doubled in weight already."


    "Sorry, sorry. I needed toe up with a suitable reason," Alice said with an embarrassed smile. Although she had hardly ever gone diving before she transmigrated, she had the help of mana in this world. So, she could breathe and normally see even underwater.


    After swimming to Andusia''s location, Alice looked at the hilt at the bottom of the fountain and nodded her head. Now that she was this close to the weapon, she could feel that there was indeed arge amount of dark mana within it. Although she didn''t know how this dagger had ended up stuck here, she didn''t care about its origins so long as she could acquire it.


    Under Andusia''s gaze, Alice extended her right hand and took hold of the exposed hilt.

 Chapter 290: Its So Short

    Chapter 290: It''s So Short


    As always, the moment Alice''s right hand gripped the dagger''s hilt, the dagger''s weapon information promptly appeared in her mind, allowing her to learn about the dagger''s name and some of its basic abilities.


    [Weapon: Fragmented Demon King''s Power - It''s So Short]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +7000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Spirit +5000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Silent Soul (Passive Skill. Your soul will be immune to all forms of interference. Anyone who attempts to forcibly break into your soul will receive a bacsh);


    Curse of Darkness (Passive Skill, Your affinity with dark-attributed mana is increased to MAX. You deal additional damage to holy-type enemies);


    Chaos General (Active Skill. Summon anywhere between 1 to 50 Dark Guards to fight for you. The Dark Guards'' abilityes from the mana source the user has sealed in the weapon);


    Demon King''s Protection (Passive Skill. Opponents weaker than the user cannot destroy or move this weapon.)]


    "Ha?"


    Alice was stunned when she saw the information that appeared in her mind.


    On the one hand, Alice wondered why this dagger was given a name as strange as "It''s So Short." She got a very bad feeling from seeing this name because it was simr to Andusia''s "This Is Wrong."


    On the other hand, Alice was amazed by the dagger''s additional effects. Not much needed to be said about "Demon King''s Protection." It was the same skill found on Grant''s Radioactive Soul Stone, and it functioned to prevent others from stealing the weapon.


    As for "Chaos General," this was a rather interesting skill. It would seem that she could call forth summons known as "Dark Guards" with the dagger. Moreover, these Dark Guards'' abilities corresponded to the mana source sealed within the dagger. In other words, if she were to seal some of Luna''s mana into the dagger, she could summon a Dark Guard with Luna''s abilities.


    Of course, this was only spection on Alice''s part. Whether the Chaos General skill actually worked this way was something she would only know after experimenting with it. However, she doubted that the dagger could copy the abilities of just anybody. Otherwise, if a Demon King were to seal their own mana into the dagger, wouldn''t it mean that the Demon King could summon a copy of themself to help them in battle?


    Hence, Alice didn''t have much hope of sealing Andusia''s and Luna''s mana into the dagger. Though, it would probably work on individuals like the Four Heavenly Kings.


    Even so, Chaos General was already a considerably powerful ability. It was also an incredibly useful ability for Alice since she still didn''t wish to reveal her secret identity to others. From now onward, she could summon the Dark Guards to carry out tasks on her behalf.


    However, Alice quickly dismissed the thoughts in her mind as now wasn''t the time to think about such matters. Luna''s shadow dragon was still waiting for her to leave the fountain. If the shadow dragon kept eyeing the fountain without doing anything, it would easily attract the attention of others.


    "Let''s go, Andusia!"


    Alice grabbed Andusia with her left hand and tucked the other party into her cor. Then, she nted both feet on the bottom of the fountain, tightened her grip over the weapon called "It''s So Short," and jumped,unching herself out of the fountain.


    Luna, who had been waiting outside for quite some time now, was relieved to see Alice jumping out of the fountain. Then, after extending her arms and catching Alice, like a maid fleeing for her life with the youngdy she served, Luna ran out of the park with Little Death running alongside her. While doing so, Luna also controlled the shadow dragon to carry out the final phase of the n.


    Upon receiving Luna''s instructions, the shadow dragon promptly opened its maw to gather arge amount of dark mana. Then, after creating a dense ball of dark mana, the shadow dragon spat it in the fountain''s direction, the dark mana instantly disintegrating the man-made structure and erasing its existence from the park.


    In the blink of an eye, therge fountain that upied the center of the public park disappeared, and a huge crater took its ce. Now, even if others came to investigate the missing fountain afterward, all they''d find would be arge amount of residual dark mana left behind by the shadow dragon''s attack. Nobody would realize that Alice had retrieved a weapon made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence from this ce.


    As for why the Demon King would suddenly appear in Bang Bang City''s public park and destroy the park''s central fountain, Alice decided to leave it to this world''sizens toe up with a reason. Theizens of this world were very imaginative. In fact, theck of clues might even stirizens to start an enthusiastic discussion.


    "Phew That was quite an exciting experience," Little Death eximed with a rxed expression after running into a deserted alleyway.


    Alice''s group had already run quite some distance from the park, so they shouldn''t arouse any suspicion even if they stopped running. If Alice wasn''t concerned over the park''s surveince cameras catching them, she would have had Luna and Little Death stop running as soon as they were out of the park.


    "I''ve canceled my Dragon''s Shadow already. I''ve also dismissed my magical doll after moving it to a location without cameras," Luna said as she put Alice down. Then, she grabbed a towel from her backpack and began wiping Alice''s drenched body.


    "That''s good. It''s also quite fun to mess around like this once in a while," Alice said, smiling. This was probably the most rambunctious thing she had done since transmigrating to this world, and she couldn''t help but admit that she had a good time. She didn''t feel the least bit anxious throughout this process. "Anyway, we got what we came for."


    While saying so, Alice raised the weapon named "It''s So Short." Because Luna had caught her and fled with her in a princess carry after she jumped out of the fountain, Alice didn''t get a chance to see what the weapon looked like until now.


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    However, Alice''s expression stiffened immediately after seeing the weapon''s appearance. Luna and Little Death also revealed strange expressions after seeing the weapon in Alice''s hand.


    This was because aside from the somewhat gorgeous hilt, the rest of the dagger was anything but. More specifically, the part where the dagger''s de should have been was taken up by a small bulge instead


    Moreover, it wasn''t enough that the "de" was incredibly short. Worse yet, this "de" wasn''t even t or sharp like a de should be. Instead, it was a conical bulge with a smooth tip. Rather than a dagger, this thing looked more like a butt plug stuck to a dagger''s hilt instead...

 Chapter 291: No Demon King Is Reliable

    Chapter 291: No Demon King Is Reliable


    "Puhahaha So this is what the de looks like?!"


    Andusia had originally been worried that if this dagger had a normal appearance, it might cause her "This Is Wrong" to look even worse. However, after seeing that "It''s So Short" had an even moreughable appearance, she happilyughed at it in ridicule.


    Of course, Andusia wasn''t ridiculing Alice, but It''s So Short''s creator instead. Although she didn''t know which Demon King made this joke of a dagger, the weapon served to prove that the dildo she made wasn''t the worst. At the very least, This Is Wrong and It''s So Short were tied when it came to appearances.


    "Stopughing. Yourughter is making my head hurt," Alice said as she sat on her bed and looked at the "dagger" shaped like a butt plug.


    It was no wonder the weapon was named "It''s So Short." Whoever made this weapon had probably started making it from the hilt without realizing they didn''t have enough material to work with. As a result, they ended up with an incredibly short de. Moreover, they must have also messed up when shaping the de, causing it to turn into this unusual shape.


    Alice, Luna, Little Death, and Andusia were currently in a hotel room they rented to research the weapon they had just acquired. Although Alice didn''t want to waste money, the dagger simply wasn''t suitable to be shown in public. The weapon''s "Chaos General" ability was also unsuitable to use outside. So, to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings, Alice had no choice but to rent a hotel room.


    "But it''s true that this weapon''s shape makes it unsuitable to be shown to others," Little Death said as she looked at the butt-plug-dagger in Alice''s hand. She didn''t have the pleasure sensors of a normal person as an undead, so she had never tried toys like butt plugs before. However, she was an old monster that had lived for thousands of years, so she could still recognize a butt plug when she saw one.


    As for Luna, she didn''t show any superfluous expressions right now. However, judging from the subtle change in her expression when she first saw the dagger in the alleyway, she must know what a butt plug was. It made sense since they were in the inte era. People of this era could learn about all sorts of knowledge by browsing the inte.


    "There is no way I will ever use this thing in public. But the ability thates with it is quite useful, so I''m going to give it a test," Alice said, nodding. With how the dagger looked, there was no way she could bring herself to take it out in front of others. Fortunately, the active skill that came with it didn''t require her to use it in activebat. Whenever she needed additional hands, she could simply use the Chaos General ability in a ce void of people.


    Inparison, Andusia''s dildo-club was in a rtively awkward situation. Its active skill "Earthshaking Strike" could be used to start a devastating earthquake, so it was an offensive taboo that was considerably useful in battle. However, its strange shape made it so Alice would never dare to use it in front of others, so the skill was essentially useless.


    "By the way, do any of you know who made this weapon?" Alice asked before testing the dagger''s ability.


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    "I have no idea. The Demon Kings before me might have talked about stealing a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence in their notes, but none of them have mentioned what the weapons they made looked like specifically," Andusia said, shrugging. Alice''s question was already touching on an area outside of her knowledge. "Didn''t you gather the notes in Grant''s secret room? Some of those notes are records of major events written by past Demon Kings, and almost every Demon King has mentioned stealing the Demon King''s Power''s essence to make weapons."


    The more Alice listened to Andusia, the more she felt something was wrong. If the average person were to create an incredibly powerful weapon, shouldn''t they try their best to show it off?


    Take the high-end yers in online games, for example. After they''ve worked hard to create a godly item that others couldn''t replicate, it stood to reason that they would use this weapon to fight and let the world know of the weapon''s name. Yet, none of the past Demon Kings had done so.


    Alice knew Andusia didn''t dare to do so because This Is Wrong simply wasn''t something that could be shown to others. Whether it was the club''s name or shape, Andusia''s reputation would be ruined if either got out. So, it was only natural that Andusia would try to hide her weapon''s existence. But what about the other Demon Kings?


    Alice involuntarily shuddered when she thought up to this point. Then, while looking at the butt-plug-dagger in her hand, a bold idea suddenly came to her mindCould there be something wrong with <em>all </em>the weapons made by these Demon Kings?


    In reality, this wasn''t a far-fetched idea. Most, if not all, Demon Kings were not professional cksmiths. However, it was also obvious that they couldn''t get others to smith a weapon for them using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. So, even with poor technique, the Demon Kings had no choice but to take on the task of forging a weapon for themselves.


    Perhaps some Demon Kings have thought of training their cksmithing skills before smithing their weapons. However, a Demon King''s growth period was usually packed with taboo studies. Moreover, by the time they reached full maturity and could steal a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence, they would have already been engulfed in an endless war. So, they didn''t have time to learn cksmithing at all.


    Combined with the half-baked cksmithing technology avable in the past, it was understandable that the past Demon Kings had ended up with unusual finished products.


    "Don''t look at me. There''s no way I''d know about such things," Little Death hurriedly said and waved her hands when she saw Alice turning to look at her. Then, she exined, "None of those Demon Kings have treated me like a real person, so there''s no way they would tell me what they were normally up to. Moreover, even if they did share their actions with me, there''s no way they would tell me that they''ve made something as embarrassing as a butt plug."


    This made sense. Thinking about it from another perspective, if Alice were to craft a weapon like this dagger, she wouldn''t tell it to even her closest friends or family. Not to mention, most, if not all, of the past Demon Kings had only ever treated Little Death as a tool. Alice was probably the only one to treat the undead as a person and a friend. Though, it was questionable whether she could really be considered a Demon King.


    "Nevermind, then. It''s not particrly important even if we don''t know who made it," Alice said, scratching her head. "Anyway, there should still be some mana sealed inside this weapon. Let me see what kind of Dark Guard can be summoned with this mana."

 Chapter 292: Little White Mice Andusia

    Chapter 292: Little White Mice Andusia


    When wielding It''s So Short, Alice received a bonus of 5000 Spirit and 7000 Control. This drastically increased her mana sensitivity, so she could clearly tell that mana of four different people were sealed within the dagger.


    In other words, Alice could summon four different Dark Guards using Chaos General. Meanwhile, the abilities of these Dark Guards woulde from the people from whom the four mana sources originated. Alice guessed that these mana sources came from people thousands of years ago. Moreover, they should be quite powerful individuals since a Demon King had deemed it necessary to store a trace of their mana.


    "Let''s see who''s mana is sealed in this thing," Alice said as she pointed the dagger at an open area and activated the Chaos General skill. Immediately afterward, ck mist began to seep out of the dagger''s "de," the sight adding a touch of evilness to the weapon. If one could ignore the dagger''s questionable shape, the weapon would indeed look quite domineering.


    Under Alice''s control, the ck mist that had seeped out of the dagger slowly condensed into four figures in the center of the room. Alice could sense that she had absolute control over these four figures. She could have them do whatever she wanted and retract them whenever she wanted.


    "Are these the Demon Guards you mentioned? They look simr to the doll created with Luluna''s Magical Doll," Andusiamented as she hopped from Alice''s shoulder to one of the ck figure''s shoulders. Then, she looked at the ck figure and saw that it was in the form of a woman with a tall and lean body. The woman had a rtively inconspicuous facial appearance. If not for her blessed proportions, one would quickly lose sight of her once she mixed into a crowd.


    When Andusia saw the woman''s well-endowed chest, she couldn''t help but pat her own t chest angrily. Magical Girl Hikari was a show mainly targeted toward kids, so Hikari''s character design was made to be childlike and safe for work. Since Andusia''s current body was made to imitate Hikari, it went without saying that her chest was as t as a board, just like Hikari''s. This situation upset her greatly. After all, although her body before she died wasn''t particrly well-endowed, at least her breasts weren''t non-existent.


    "They might look roughly the same, but these Dark Guards are capable of simple cognitive thinking. They can also operate independently if I give them enough mana. They''re much better than the doll created using Luluna''s Magical Doll," Alice exined as she sensed the connection between her and the four Dark Guards. "Also, Luluna''s Magical Doll can only create a copy of the user. The doll''s strength is alsopletely dependent on how much mana the user supplies it. Inparison, Chaos General only requires a trace of mana to create a perfect copy of the mana''s owner. The Dark Guards summoned also won''t automatically disappear so long as the dagger has a mana supply to work with."


    "In other words, you just got yourself four more gofers, right?" Andusia nodded. Then, she jumped off the infuriating female body, flew back to Alice''s shoulder, sat down, and said, "Two males and two females. The mana the weapon''s creator stored is evenly split."


    Of the four Dark Guards, two were males, one tall and one short.


    In the case of the tall male, he was a tauren warrior with a burly stature and horns on his head. It was obvious that he was a beastkin, and he should be a member of the tauren tribe. As far as Alice knew, some beastkin tribes lived in the demon realm, and the tauren tribe was one of them. Meanwhile, this male tauren should be the strongest tauren of his time.


    As for the short male, he had a delicate face and a thin and flimsy body. He wore a white mage''s hat and robe, and a demon tail was growing out of his back, a sign that he was of the demon race. Alice could also feel a vast amount of mana in the short man''s body. Although the man''s mana pool wasn''t at the level of the Four Heavenly Kings, he wasn''t that much worse, either.


    As for the two females, simr to the males, one was tall while the other was short. Among them, the short one was a loli with shortvender hair and a pair of demon horns growing out of her head. However, despite her short stature, the loli demon carried a massive hammer on her back.


    In the case of the tall female, who was also the female figure whose shoulder Andusia had previously jumped onto, she had an inconspicuous face but an exaggerated figure. She had a pair of demon wings growing out of her back. Alice knew this blessed woman was a magician ording to the information she received through her connection with the other party. However, the busty demoness didn''t have outstanding mana. Instead, she wielded a rtively special kind of magic.


    Divination. The busty demoness could calcte the fate of her targets through various predictions and apply a random buff or debuff to her targets ording to the direction of their fates. Although there was a factor of uncertainty in this magic, if luck was on the woman''s side, she could achieve terrifying effects with her magic.


    If it was when Alice had just transmigrated to this world, she might have believed in the authenticity and reliability of this so-called divination magic. However, Alice had already learned about this world''s creation and talked with this world''s God. She knew that fate was something that even Loli Goddess could not control. So, the so-called divination magic was most likely a cover, and the busty demoness''s real ability was most likely to give random buffs and debuffs to people.


    Alice guessed that the busty demoness must have been worried that others wouldn''t take her seriously after learning about the randomness of her magic. So, the demoness must have lied and added a "diviner" title for herself, chalking the randomness of her buffs and debuffs up to fate. Moreover, the busty demoness''s bluff must have worked as she not only received the attention of the Demon King at that time, but said Demon King had even stored a portion of her mana into this dagger.


    Alice couldn''t help but feel that these past Demon Kings could sometimes be very shrewd. For example, the short-sighted woman who Alice had fought previously had really given her a fright. However, some of them could also be very unreliable, such as Andusia.


    "Why are you looking at me?"


    Unaware that Alice was inwardly ndering her, Andusia looked down at herself when she noticed the strange look Alice was giving her. However, she couldn''t help but grow confused when she failed to notice anything wrong with herself.


    "It''s nothing. Come here."


    After thinking it over, Alice decided not to tell Andusia what she was thinking just now. Instead, she waved for Andusia toe to her.


    Although Andusia was still puzzled, she still obediently responded to Alice''s beckoning, jumping off of Alice''s shoulder andnding in Alice''s palm. Of course, even though Andusia had already be very obedient, her obedience still wasn''t at the Milu Rabbit''s level. So, even when shended in Alice''s right hand, Alice would not receive her weapon information.


    However, this wasn''t important. Alice didn''t have Andusia jump into her hand so that she could check the other party''s information.


    The next moment, under Alice''s control, the busty demoness pointed her hand at Andusia. Then, the demonessunched a small st of mana at Andusia, the mana st hitting Andusia before she could even react.

 Chapter 293: Dumbfounded

    Chapter 293: Dumbfounded


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> What was that for?!" Andusia red at Alice. Although the spell from the buff-type magician wasn''t strong enough to cause her any damage, getting hit by a spell without any preparation still gave her quite the fright.


    "I''m trying to see how this fellow''s ability works. She can grant special statuses to her targets," Alice said, bluntlying clean about her actions. She responded so confidently that even Andusia couldn''t help but wonder if she was overreacting. "How do you feel? The special statuses granted are random, so you''ll have to feel it yourself."


    "A random status... Why would that Demon King take such an unreliable person as a Dark Guard?" Andusia wondered.


    Andusia wasn''t the user of It''s So Short. So, unlike Alice, Andusia didn''t get to learn about the busty demoness''s background and didn''t know that this Dark Guard had pretended to be a diviner to give her unreliable ability a better look. Andusia only knew that the busty demoness could give random buffs and debuffs to people, so it was natural that she would be confused.


    It was also understandable for the Demon King, who had taken in the busty demoness as their subordinate, to be fooled by thetter''s bluff. Alice had learned from God that fate couldn''t be controlled, so she naturally knew that diviners were nothing but conmen. However, others did not know about this, so it wasn''t surprising for a Demon King to ce heavy importance on a diviner capable of predicting the future and reading people''s fate.


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    man was also a good example. He, too, used to have a diviner working under him, though said diviner was now nting potatoes at the border. Regardless, this showed how much hope and fear the people of this world held toward fate. So, it was no surprise that a Demon King would seal an unremarkable diviner''s mana into their weapon.


    Of course, even though the busty demoness was lying about her divination abilities, her ability to give people random buffs and debuffs was still quite interesting. This was most likely an exclusive type of magic that the busty demoness had developed for herself, and other people might not necessarily be able to learn it. It was somewhat simr to the Magic Swordsmanship Catherine had developed for herself. Catherine even became the captain of the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guards thanks to this Magic Swordsmanship.


    "I don''t feel any different. My strength and speed are the same as before. The Forest Crystal''s mana you left inside me is also intact," Andusia said after moving her body a little. Then, with a frown, she asked, "Did she really add a special status to me?"


    "It should have taken effect already. I''ve never seen this woman''s ability failing before. She can always give her targets a special status." The person who answered Andusia wasn''t Alice but Little Death instead. "But I always thought that this woman was a diviner. I didn''t think she was only an ordinary magician that can only give random statuses to people."


    "Huh? Do you know her?" Alice was stunned by Little Death''s words. Judging by Little Death''s tone, the undead girl seemed to know this "diviner." "Have you seen her before?"


    "I have. I even worked with her in the past I didn''t know which Demon King made this strange weapon initially, but after seeing these four fellows, I think I know who made it," Little Death said with a meaningful smile. Although none of the past Demon Kings had told them about the weapons they made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, she recognized the four individuals sealed in the butt plug. So, she could naturally guess who was the weapon''s creator. "If I''m not mistaken, the creator of this weapon should be the Eighth Demon King, Miriya Hampar."


    <em>It was you?!</em>


    The image of the short-sighted Demon King instantly surfaced in Alice''s mind. She would never forget the Demon King who had mistaken the Milu Rabbit''s soul for her soul. Unfortunately, as the blonde Demon King was overly cunning, Alice could not think of any reason to show mercy to the other party.


    Alice didn''t think that Miriya Hampar would be the creator of this short butt-plug dagger. Though, after thinking it over, maybe it wasn''t surprising that Miriya had created this strange dagger. After all, only someone with such a severe case of myopia as Miriya could possibly create such a weapon. Perhaps the heat generated during the smithing process had fogged up her sses, preventing her from seeing the weapon''s appearance.


    "As for why you can''t feel the effects of the woman''s magic, that''s not surprising. Under normal circumstances, the statuses she gives are quite ordinary. In her words, this means that ''you won''t encounter any major events in recent time,''" Little Death said in a mature tone, imitating the way the "diviner" she remembered spoke. "Although you can''t feel the effects of the applied status now, the status''s effect might show itself in an inconspicuous way afterward. Just pay more attention, and you''ll notice it."


    After a slight pause, Little Death continued:


    "Of course, if she increases her mana output, she can produce statuses that are quite obvious. Whenever she gives someone a rtively obvious status, I can always feel her using a significantlyrger amount of mana. There should be a connection between these differences."


    "In other words, when this woman is doing divination, she will use a small amount of mana to give her customers inconspicuous statuses. But she will use arge amount of mana during big battles or major events to give others instant status effects, is that right?" Alice was feeling a little speechless after hearing Little Death''s exnation. "She really is a conman."


    "Ultimately, it is magic that relies heavily on luck. Honestly, I don''t think it''s useful. If not for the psychologicalfort her divinations give, nobody will pay attention to her," Andusia said, quickly piecing the puzzle together after hearing Alice''s and Little Death''s words.


    Even without receiving any information from the "dagger" as Alice did, Andusia concluded that the busty demoness had most likely pretended to be a diviner to add importance to her ability to give random status buffs and debuffs to people. Moreover, it would seem that the Eighth Demon King had fallen for her bluff.


    "But Miriya really is bold to rely on this woman''s magic. Aren''t the statuses random? What if she gets a terrible negative status in the midst of battle? Wouldn''t she be asking to die?" Andusia added.


    "You''re absolutely right. That''s exactly how Miriya died," Little Death said, nodding. "When she started to get pushed back in her fight with the Hero, she had this woman use her magic on her and the Hero as ast-ditch attempt. In the end, she received a ''vomit'' negative status, while the Hero received a ''double strength'' status."


    Andusia was dumbfounded. She never thought there''d be a Demon King who''d do such a stupid thing.


    Alice was also greatly shocked by this revtion. Up until this moment, Alice''s impression of Miriya was that of a crafty Demon King with extraordinarybat instincts. Hence, thest thing she expected Miriya to do was to make such a stupid decision in her fight against the Hero.

 Chapter 294: I Was Once Taught a Lesson by Alice in Extreme Rage

    Chapter 294: I Was Once Taught a Lesson by Alice in Extreme Rage


    "It''s normal that you don''t understand since that woman''s mind works differently from the average person" When Little Death saw the dumbfounded expressions on Alice''s and Andusia''s faces, she casually shrugged and said, "Miriya probably has the worst gambling addiction out of all the Demon Kings I have served. This is also why she chose to believe this self-proimed diviner''s superstitious ims about fate."


    Indeed, if Miriya Hampar had a severe gambling addiction, it wouldn''t be strange for her to trust in superstitious things such as fate. It also wouldn''t be strange for Miriya to put her trust in a support magician whose magic was entirely reliant on luck.


    "I didn''t think that woman would be a gambling addict" Alice nodded to express her understanding. Although she didn''t notice any signs of Miriya being a gambling addict when she fought the other party, since this im came from Little Death, there was an 80% chance it was true. Then, Alice turned back to the busty demoness and said, "In other words, so long as I increase her mana output, she can attach a stronger status to her targets?"


    "Wait, what are you trying to do?!" Andusia yelled in panic. When she heard Alice''s words, her instincts immediately told her something was amiss.


    Unfortunately, before Andusia could get away from Alice''s hand, the busty demoness waved her hand and cast her magic on Andusia once more.


    The busty demoness had cast the spell without chanting any incantations or gathering her mana,pleting the entire process with just a thought. Honestly, her spellcasting efficiency was already on par with the spellcasting efficiency of Heroes and Demons. Of course, for this busty demoness, her proficiency was most likely limited to only her trademark status magic.


    "You bastard! Why do you keep using me for your experiments?! Couldn''t you try it on yourself?!" Andusia bellowed angrily at Alice, coughing a few times after being sted in the face by a significantlyrger ball of mana. "Rather than experiment on me, wouldn''t you get a more intuitive feel of the status effect if you experimented on yourself?!"


    "But what if I get unlucky and receive the ''vomiting'' status? I''d end up dirtying this room," Alice responded with a righteous attitude. "On the other hand, your body might have simted the five senses of a normal person, but you don''t have any functioning organs to speak of. So, even if you do get hit with a negative status like ''vomiting,'' you won''t have to worry about experiencing difort or making a mess."


    "...You might be right, but it''s still annoying for me."


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    When Andusia heard Alice''s exnation and how confidently the girl offered the exnation, she couldn''t help but find herself agreeing with Alice. After all, it was a fact that her insides were made out of wood, so any negative status she suffered would have very little impact on her. Even so, she still found it ufortable to be treated like a little white mouse.


    If Alice had received a system that allowed her to inspect others'' favorability of her, Andusia''s favorability of her would have definitely reduced by ten just now.


    "Well? Do you feel any noticeable changes?" Alice asked with a smile after sessfully appeasing Andusia. "Did your physical strength increase? Or do you feel like vomiting? Although you don''t have internal organs, you should still be able to feel the sensation of wanting to puke, right?"


    "If you''re talking about changes, I did feel my mana pool inexplicably expanding just now." A frown formed on Andusia''s face as she tried to sense the changes in her body. Then, she skeptically said, "But that boost in mana quickly disappeared while we were talking. Overall, the increase isn''t significant. I might never have noticed if I wasn''t paying close attention to my body''s condition."


    It would seem that despite herints, Andusia had still obediently cooperated with Alice and paid close attention to the changes in her body, even while she was ranting at Alice.


    "If arge amount of mana was used, the resulting status wouldn''t be something as simple as a ''minor increase in mana,''" Little Death said. "Maybe it''s a status like ''mana increases along with anger.'' I''ve seen this status before. At one instance where the demon realm''s army was getting pushed back by the human army, Miriya had this self-proimed diviner make a divination for her in a fit of rage and received this status."


    "Oh? There is such a status?" Alice was a little surprised. "How much did Miriya''s strength increase at the time?"


    "Miriya was furious at the time because of the loss. After receiving this status, she charged into the human realm''s army and tried to leverage the huge boost in her mana to get rid of the Hero once and for all," Little Death said. Then, she shrugged and continued, "Unfortunately, the Hero wasn''t with the army that day, so the human army ended up suffering Miriya''s wrath and annihted. Moreover, as she was still mad that she didn''t get to kill the Hero, her mana pool grew evenrger by the time she returned to the demon realm. If I''m not mistaken, that statussted for around four or five hours."


    "Oho?" Andusia was pleasantly surprised by Little Death''s exnation. Then, she looked at Alice smugly and said, "Hear that, Alice? You best treat me well right now. Otherwise, if I get angry"


    "Ho? So what if you get angry?" Alice smiled coldly. Then, she activated the Forest Crystal''s mana residing in Andusia''s body, instantly forming an illusory barrier around Andusia''s mana core and partially isting it.


    Immediately, Andusia''s confidence deted, and she began radiating a depressing aura. It couldn''t be helped. Alice was currently in control of her mana core, so she couldn''t get angry even if Alice taught her a lesson.


    "Alright, I understand what this fellow''s ability does now," Alice said, nodding as she looked at the busty demoness. Then, she raised her hand and returned all four Dark Guards into the dagger.


    Although Alice hadn''t tested the other three Dark Guards yet, she already knew what their abilities were through the information feedback she received from the dagger. The three other Dark Guards might be strong, but their abilities weren''t anything unique like the busty demoness.


    The loli demoness equipped with a massive sledgehammer was a standard meleebatant. She had a special ability that allowed her to go berserker, increasing her destructive power several times. She could even suppress a Heavenly King for a short period. She was a meleebatant through and through.


    The short, pretty boy demon was a genius magician. He was highly proficient in many attributes and even had a few taboos in his repertoire. Although he couldn''t freely cast taboos like Demon Kings and Heroes, his ability to cast taboos without any external aid could achieve wondrous results during a crucial moment.


    As for the tall tauren warrior, he was the shining star of the tauren tribe. He could also use the taboos unique to the tauren tribe. Moreover, his entire body was akin to a collection of frightening weapons. It was especially true for his horns. His horns could pierce through Legendary-rated equipment easily, and they could even hold their ground against Artifact-rated weapons.


    For these reasons, Miriya had stored a strand of these three individuals'' mana to create Dark Guards with.

 Chapter 295: Your Body Cant Lie Either?

    Chapter 295: Your Body Can''t Lie Either?


    It was already midnight by the time Alice''s group returned to man''s mansion.


    The trip this time was different from the visit to Demon King Castle. Demon King Castle was situated in a remote location that had nothing interesting to see. Hence, at the time, they had quickly dealt with their business at the castle and returned immediately afterward. However, the Terra Kingdom''s sceneries and culture were quite interesting to Alice and the others, so aside from dealing with official business, they had also spent some time having fun.


    Little Death and Andusia were still learning about the changes that had taken ce in the modern era. So, even though they had visited the Terra Kingdom many times in the past, they were still brimming with interest in the kingdom. As for Alice, she had never properly explored the demon realm ever since she transmigrated to this world. Hence, she, too, explored the Terra Kingdom enthusiastically.


    Out of their group of four, Luna was probably the most familiar with the current Terra Kingdom. After all, as a former member of the Gryffin Kingdom''s intelligence department, Luna had the opportunity to learn about the situation of the demon realm''s various countries. However, as Alice''s maid, Luna naturally wouldn''t spoil her master''s fun. So, she had tagged along with Alice and the others as they toured the Terra Kingdom. While she was at it, she also used her newly-bought high-definition camera to take pictures of many interesting sights.


    "What have you all been up to? Why are you only back now?" When Zauna saw Alice''s group returning to the mansion, she walked up to them and scrutinized their outfits curiously. "You even changed clothes?"


    "The ones we wore this morning are here," Alice said, chuckling helplessly as she lifted the bag she held in her right hand. The bag held the clothes they wore when they left the mansion this morning. However, these clothes were all soaking wet. With the demon realm''s constantly gloomy weather, it was unlikely that these clothes could fully dry by today, so they decided that they might as well buy some new clothes and change into them.


    Andusia had received her wish and changed into the chuunibyou doll dress she had Alice buy for her previously. Andusia was only an ordinary figurine as far as Zauna and the others knew, so she wouldn''t attract any strange gazes no matter what clothing she wore. Hence, she could dress to her heart''s desire.


    Luna had also changed into a new maid uniform. The one she previously wore got soaked when she was princess-carrying Alice out of the park. However, despite it being a maid uniform she bought in Bang Bang City, aside from some unnoticeable differences, it lookedrgely the same as the one she previously wore.


    "You even got your clothes wet? What did you guys do?" Lalu asked as she took the bag in Alice''s hand and peeked into it. Then, after seeing the wet clothes inside, she looked at Alice and continued, "I don''t think it rained in the Terra Kingdom today."


    "That Long story short, I identally fell into a pond," Alice said, scratching her head. She naturally couldn''t tell Lalu that she had caused some trouble while using her "Demon King" identity. This was a secret she intended to keep from Lalu and Zauna for the time being.


    Meanwhile, when Heris, who knew about Alice''s identity, saw Alice trying to avoid talking about the activities she did today, she took the initiative to change the topic, saying, "In that case, quickly go and wash up. I''ll inform the servants to prepare the bath."


    "I will help with the preparations," Luna said when she heard Heris''s suggestion. Then, she bowed to the people here before taking her leave. As Alice''s maid, she naturally had to help with preparing Alice''s bath.


    <em>Luna''s still restraining herself,</em> Alice thought, sighing helplessly as she looked at Luna''s departing back. Although she had tried to get Luna to rx and stop putting so much emphasis on her identity as a maid during today''s trip, it would seem that her efforts had yielded little to no effect.


    Luna had been incredibly obsessed with the Hero in the past. As a result, after she let go of her hatred toward humanity, she turned to devote her entire existence to Alice the "Hero." This situation put a heavy burden on Alice.


    While Alice felt that Luna serving her wholeheartedly was much better than the alternative of Luna trying to destroy humanity, letting this situation continue long-term definitely wouldn''t lead to a good oue for Luna. After all, she knew that once she dealt with the Demon King''s Power and this world''sws returned to normal, God could return her to her homeworld.


    But what would happen to Luna after she left?


    If Luna retained her obsession until the end, Alice didn''t even dare to imagine what would be of Luna after she left.


    Hence, Alice decided that she needed to correct Luna''s somewhat twisted obsession.


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    Of course, fixing Luna''s obsession was easier said than done. The best solution Alice could currently think of was to have Luna switch her obsession to something else, and the best scenario would be if Luna could "live for herself." However, this was a rtively challenging task, and it wasn''t something that could be aplished within a short time.


    While holding such thoughts in her mind, Alice arrived at the bathroom of man''s mansion. Simr to the image she had of a nobleperson''s bathroom, the bathroom of man''s mansion was huge. The bath itself looked more like a swimming pool than anything else. Though, it was much shallower than a swimming pool, allowing people to sitfortably in it without drowning.


    When Alice arrived, Luna had already prepared all the toiletries. She had also changed out of her maid uniform and wrapped a bath towel around herself, ready to serve Alice at any time.


    Alice felt a little helpless when she saw this. Luna had always been meticulous in serving her, whether it was in bathing, cooking, or cleaning. From an outsider''s perspective, Luna was indeed a perfect maid.


    Little Death had followed Alice into the bath. Although the undead did not have bodily secretions, they could still get dirty from dust. Hence, she naturally needed to wash up as well.


    Of course, although Little Death might be an undead, due to her race''s characteristics, aside from herck of vitality, she wasrgely the same as a living person. Her body wouldn''t rot with time. Hence, there was no worry that she might contaminate the bath water with germsmonly found on dposing corpses.


    Alice had also brought Andusia and the Milu Rabbit with her. After Alice had stepped into the pool, Andusia had hopped off Alice''s shoulder and began leisurely swimming in the pool. As for the Milu Rabbit, Alice left it at the pool''s edge, deciding to give the Milu Rabbit''s fur a good scrubbing once she was done cleaning herself.


    "Pleasee here, Lady Alice. I will wash your body for you."


    As soon as Alice set the Milu Rabbit aside, she heard Luna''s voiceing from behind her. When she turned around, she saw Luna calmly beckoning at her, a faint trace of eagerness in her eyes. Meanwhile, ced next to Luna were all sorts of toiletries.


    "How many times have I told you to stop treating me like a child?"


    Alice was rendered a little speechless. She had a feeling that Luna was treating her like a little kid when it came to taking baths. Of course, despite what she said, Alice still obediently walked over to Luna and sat on the small stool Luna had prepared for her.


    Alice couldn''t help it. Luna''s technique was incrediblyfortable. It felt like she was getting afortable massage whenever Luna helped her bathe. Hence, although she would oftenin about Luna''s insistence on being her maid, she would always sumb to Luna''s persistence regarding baths.

 Chapter 296: Forgetful

    Chapter 296: Forgetful


    Due to Luna''s insistence to serve Alice by herself, Alice, Little Death, Luna, and Andusia were the only people currently in the spacious bathroom. Of course, there was also the unconscious Milu Rabbit, whom Alice had set aside after washing. Meanwhile, because nobody else was in the bathroom, Alice didn''t have to worry about taking out things that she didn''t want others to see.


    "Did you have to bring these two things into the bathroom?" After floating over to and stopping in front of Alice, Andusia looked at the two items Alice was holdingThis Is Wrong and It''s So Shortwith a somewhat strange expression. Despite their awkward names, both of these items were weapons with incredible origins.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t matter even if they were powerful weapons made using a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence. This was because both of them had severe problems with their appearances; one looked like a dildo while the other looked like an anal plug. With how these weapons looked, neither could be brought into public and shown to others.


    If someone were to walk into the bathroom now and saw several naked girls plus the dildo and butt plug in Alice''s hands, a misunderstanding would ur with 100% certainty.


    "I don''t have anything better to do while bathing anyway, so I might as well research these two items At the end of the day, they are weapons made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. Although they look awkward, they have a great sense of mystery," Alice exined. Then, she used Psychokinesis Transcendence to analyze the two weapons.


    Unfortunately, Alice''s current mana pool still wasn''t enough to cast theplete version of Psychokinesis Transcendence. Her proficiency in the taboo was also at an entry-level only. As a result, she couldn''t utilize the taboo''s analytical ability to its full potential, and her attempt to analyze the two weapons ended with no noteworthy results.


    "You''re only wasting your time. Do you think none of us tried to research the Demon King''s Power''s essence after extracting it?" Andusia nonchntly said as she propelled herself out of the water with mana andnded on Alice''s shoulder. Then, after taking a seat in her usual spot, she continued, "None of the analysis we conducted over the Demon King''s Power''s essence yielded any useful information. All we know is that it is different from the mana we know. Actually, it can''t even be considered as a type of mana."


    "What does the essence look like when extracted? Is it a solid? A liquid? Or a gas? Or is it some ethereal substance like mana?" When Alice recalled that Andusia was one of the former Demon Kings who hadid their hands on the Demon King''s Power''s essence, she curiously asked, "If it''s not a solid, how did you turn it into a weapon?"


    "The Demon King''s Power is simr to mana in that both are substances that cannot be seen or touched under normal circumstances. However, when the Demon King''s Power''s essence is forcibly extracted from a Demon King''s body, it will transform into a ck substance that''s a mix of gas and liquid It''s somewhat simr to water vapor, but not quite the same," Andusia answered without hesitation. "If you leave this vapor-like substance on its own for a bit, it will turn into a rtively tough solid. I used this solid to forge my weapon. If my guess is correct, the other Demon Kings should have used the same process."


    When Alice heard Andusia''s answer, she nced at Luna and nodded her head. Andusia''s description of the Demon King''s Power''s essence matched the behavior of the Demon King''s Power when it had left Luna''s body. After leaving Luna''s body, the Demon King''s Power had taken on the form of a ck solid sphere.


    In other words, if the Demon King''s Power hadn''t found a new host yet, it would be roaming the world in the form of a ck solid Unfortunately, the range was too massive. Trying to find the Demon King''s Power through this vague characteristic would be akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.


    Alice also wasn''t particrly hopeful that the true Demon King''s Power would be among the items identified by the dogkins'' chief totem. After all, this was the Demon King''s Power they were talking about. Its value would degrade significantly if it could be found so easily.


    "All in all, the Demon King''s Power is capable of granting others tremendous strength. However, the Demon King''s Power on its own is strangely weak, and you can easily cut off a piece of its essence so long as you know the way to do so," Andusia said, shrugging. "Based on my predecessors'' notes, the taboos they developed to steal from the Demon King''s Power aren''t particrly profound. Yet, all of these taboos had worked on the Demon King''s Power without fail. The process is so easy that it makes you wonder if the Demon King''s Power is deliberately letting us steal its essence."


    "It''s doing this on purpose?" Alice frowned. There was indeed the possibility of such a thing happening. After all, it was a fact that the Demon King''s Power was self-conscious. She had proven this when she grabbed the Demon King''s Power with her right hand after it had left Luna''s body. Since her right hand''s ability didn''t work, it meant that the Demon King''s Power had a clear sense of resistance. Not to mention, as soon as Luna had abandoned her hatred toward humanity, the Demon King''s Power had promptly noticed it and left Luna''s body.


    Those reactions and actions clearly weren''t mechanical operations. Instead, the Demon King''s Power had carried out those actions with its own judgment.


    "If you wish to deal with the Demon King''s Power, the first step you need to take is to create a taboo of your own and use it to drag the Demon King''s Power out of its host," Andusia advised Alice while thetter got out of the pool and made her way to the changing room. "None of the past Demon Kings have tried to draw the Demon King''s Power in its entirety out of their bodies. Most of them have only thought of extracting a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence. However, your ambitions are much greater, so you''ll probably have to put more effort into developing your taboo."


    "...Indeed, I might have to put more consideration into this aspect."


    Alice nodded. Although her initial n was to persuade the new Demon King to let go of their hatred to force out the Demon King''s Power, after thinking it over, she felt that this was too unreliable of a n. After all, the new Demon King wouldn''t necessarily be as open to conversation as Luna. Thus, it was necessary to develop a taboo that could thoroughly extract the Demon King''s Power from its new host.


    This was where the taboos developed by past Demon Kings mighte in handy for Alice.


    "By the way, Alice, you should really learn how to be independent. At the very least, you should learn to put on your underwear by yourself," Andusia abruptly said, interrupting Alice''s line of thought.


    When Andusia saw Luna walking over to Alice with a pair of panties stretched out in her hands, it was obvious that the silver-haired maid was trying to help her blonde master put on her panties. So, Andusia did not hesitate to take advantage of this opportunity to make fun of Alice.


    Alice curled her lips at Andusia''sughter. Then, she extended a hand to Luna, indicating to Luna to hand the panties to her.


    Luna was briefly stunned by this gesture. Then, she looked behind Alice and saw that Little Death had already put on her clothes and left the bathroom ahead of everyone. In other words, Little Death would not notice what would happen next in this ce.


    Thinking up to this point, Luna handed Alice the pair of white panties. Meanwhile, Alice grabbed the panties with her right hand and promptly raised them to her shoulder, holding them right in front of Andusia''s eyes.


    The next moment, blinding light exploded in the changing room.


    "Ahhhhhhhh"

 Chapter 297: Hatter: Please Spare Me

    Chapter 297: Hatter: Please Spare Me


    ording to the information Alice got from the dogkins'' chief totem, there were nine objects in the demon realm that carried the Demon King''s Power''s aura. Among them, one was the weapon named "It''s So Short" that Alice had retrieved yesterday.


    As for what the remaining eight objects were, Alice did not know. However, she didn''t n to seek out those items for the time being.


    On the one hand, Zauna and Lalu had already spent enough time having fun in the demon realm, so it was about time for them to go back. In that case, it was only natural that Alice had to follow them back as well. On the other hand, there was no way the Demon King''s Power would be in the demon realm.


    The Demon King''s Power would only select humans harboring great hatred toward humanity to convert into a Demon King. Hence, even if one of the objects the dogkins'' chief totem located was the Demon King''s Power, there was no way it would be one of the eight remaining objects in the demon realm.


    Moreover, even if Alice retrieved the eight other objects in the demon realm, they''d be of little use to her.


    Currently, Alice already had two weapons made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. She had also obtained the taboos past Demon Kings had developed to steal the Demon King''s Power''s essence from Demon King Castle. Hence, what she should be doing next would be to develop her own taboo that she could use against the Demon King''s Power instead of finding a bunch of items that wouldn''t be of much use to her.


    "Are you going back already, Alice? We''ve barely spent any time together these past few days," Heris said unhappily as she tightly embraced Alice. Alice had been busy running around the demon realm these past few days, so Heris had very few opportunities to interact with Alice, their interactions limited mainly to the early mornings andte evenings.


    "I''m sorry. I promise I''ll make more time the next time I visit," Alice apologized as she let the demoness y with her hair. At this point, she couldn''t help but wonder if her appearance matched Heris''s appetite a little too much. After all, Heris would always cuddle her like a pet and ruffle her hair whenever they met, ruining the hair Luna had painstakinglybed.


    However, Alice also knew that she had spent hardly any time with Heris throughout her visit, so she had never said anything about Heris''s actions, simply letting the demoness do whatever she wanted. Of course, in exchange, she would always notice Luna ring at them from nearby. Though, whether Luna was doing so out of envy or wariness toward Heris was something only Luna herself knew.


    All in all, Alice had achieved her goal of visiting the demon realm this time. She had sessfully brought back arge number of taboos belonging to past Demon Kings and also acquired another weapon made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. As luck would have it, this weapon also came with a pretty good skill. With this skill, Alice wouldn''t have to personally take action when dealing with somewhat tricky matters.


    The next thing Alice needed to deal with after returning to the human realm would be to uncover the mole impersonating the Rhine Kingdom''s Second Prince Etoria in the Royal Magic Tower.


    One of Alice''s goals was to prevent humans and demons from going to war with each other. Hence, she absolutely could not allow anyone to incite conflict between the two races.


    Although the conflict between humans and demons had already been very strained, both sides were at least avoiding any frontal confrontations with each other for the time being. However, if a demon was found to be interfering in the affairs of a human kingdom''s royal family, there was a high chance it would be the spark necessary to ignite the mes of war.


    At that time, an all-out war might break out between humans and demons regardless of the Hero''s and Demon King''s involvement. If such a war broke out, the rtionship between humans and demons would thoroughly devolve into an irreconcble state.


    Currently, Alice could still use excuses such as "the demon realm''s polluted environment" and "the Demon King''s influence" to exin the demons'' invasive behavior. Meanwhile, once she took care of the demon realm''s pollution and the Demon King''s Power, she could simply let time gradually resolve the problem between the two races.


    However, if the demons were suspected of having nted spies to interfere with the internal affairs of human royalty, this would no longer be a problem that could be pushed onto the Demon King. At that time, the entire demon race would have to shoulder this me.


    Thus, there was no way Alice could tolerate this mole''s existence.


    Fortunately, thanks to her "rare figurine" named Andusia, Alice managed to find a way to sneak into the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower. Now, all she hoped was that her inte buddy "Blonde Twintails" could fulfill her promise.


    "So, you mean to say that you want me to arrange a normal identity for this undead?" Hatter asked, feeling the onset of a headache as he looked at the girl with the deathly paleplexion standing next to Alice. "You have given me a very challenging task, Lady Alice."


    The first thing Alice did after returning to the human realm was to seek out Hatter and get him to arrange a normal identity for Little Death. It went without saying that Little Death didn''t have any identification in the human realm. However, in the current modern era, where telmunication and identification systems have be incredibly developed, it''d be very difficult for a person to move about without a proof of identity.


    Meanwhile, after learning about Little Death from Alice, Hatter couldn''t help but be a little surprised. It should be known that the undead had long since disappeared in the wheel of history along with the necromancers. Modern alchemy had also reced the art of necromancy, so it was almost impossible to find any undead in this world.


    Although past Demon Kings had summoned Little Death to their side, none of them had ever assigned Little Death to the frontlines. Instead, they took advantage of herck of a living presence to conduct assassinations. Hence, Little Death''s existence was never recorded in history books.


    "The characteristics of the undead are too obvious. Her deathly paleplexion andck of blood flowing through her skin will make her stand out a lot. If others get closer to her, they''ll even notice that shecks body heat and a beating heart" Hatter said to Alice in a helpless tone. "Everyone might have be more epting of the undead since it''s been thousands of years since thest undead was seen, but it is also because no undead has appeared all these years that it will be difficult to exin her origins. Or perhaps you cane up with a suitable identity for her?"


    Indeed, because there had been no sightings of the undead for thousands of years, people of modern times were no longer as scared of the undead as they used to be in the past. Moreover, with the advent of the inte, people have grown more epting of many things. Recently, one could even find Hero novels with "deviant" plots. So, a mere undead was nothing special.


    However, the problem was that Alice did not have an excuse for Little Death''s origins. Once others learn that Little Death was an undead, they would most definitely ask how she came into being. In that case, how should Alice answer these people? Should she say that she was studying necromancy? That evidently wouldn''t be possible since she didn''t know even the slightest bit about necromancy.


    Moreover, even if Alice used necromancy as a cover, Little Death''s origins would still be a problem. After all, the undead did not simply appear out of the blue. Every undead had their own identity when they were still alive. If Alice said that Little Death was an undead she created, she''d still have toe up with a fake identity for Little Death.


    Although it was unlikely that anybody would bother looking into Little Death''s identity, there was no saying whether there''d be people with nothing better to do.


    "An identity for Little Death when she was still alive? How about"


    After thinking for a moment, Alice suddenly lifted her head and looked at Hatter.


    "No! Absolutely not!"


    Hatter was scared out of his wits when he saw Alice looking at him. Having two illegitimate daughters, who were clearly born from different mothers, had already caused his reputation to take a hit. Fortunately, his contributions to the country were clear for all to see, so nobody had pursued too deeply into his supposed phndering.


    However, it was an entirely different story for him to have an undead daughter. What was he supposed to say? That even corpses were within his strike zone?

 Chapter 298: So Long As You Accept This Setting…

    Chapter 298: So Long As You ept This Setting��


    Eventually, Hatter still managed to resolve the problem with Little Death''sck of identification. After much deliberation, he gave her the identity of a severe anemia patient, which would serve as an excuse for her seemingly bloodless skin. It had been thousands of years since anyonest saw a real undead, so it was unlikely that anyone would suspect Little Death to be an undead so long as she said she suffered from a severe case of anemia.


    As for theck of a beating heart, it was honestly quite a big problem. The average civilian might not be able to notice Little Death''sck of a heartbeat, but it would be a different story if she was dealing with professional magicians. Whether it be research magicians orbat magicians, both were sensitive to their surrounding circumstances. It was especially true when they were in a quiet research environment. If they were put in the same room as Little Death, there was a high chance they would notice Little Death''s peculiarity.


    However, Hatter was the Gryffin Kingdom''s king. So long as he wanted, he could find a solution to most problems. So, in the afternoon after Alice had returned to the Gryffin Kingdom, Hatter had sent someone to deliver her a magic device.


    "A portable mana pacemaker I see. So, this thing can be used to mimic a beating heart?"


    Alice didn''t know whether she shouldugh or cry when she looked at the chest pad-like object after reading the instruction manual for it. Of course, this object wasn''t actually a chest pad meant to artificially enhance a person''s chest size. Instead, it was a portable pacemaker made to assist patients with heart problems. The device used mana to stimte the heart, causing it to contract.


    In other words, so long as Little Death had this device, she could stimte her motionless heart into action. Of course, her heart beating wouldn''t do anything for her. After all, Little Death didn''t have any blood in her body. Rather than blood, mana filled her veins and arteries instead, and this mana was used to prevent her body from deteriorating.


    However, adding this artificial heartbeat would reduce the chances of Little Death getting exposed as an undead. Although the people of the modern era no longer thought much about the undead, the undead was a race that involved a lot of problems. If possible, Alice would prefer to avoid letting others know that one of herpanions was an undead.


    "How do you feel?"


    After returning to her dormitory, Alice handed the pad-shaped pacemaker to Little Death. Alice had decided to have Little Death stay in her and Zauna''s room for the time being. The March Academy''s dormitory rules were quitex due to the many nobles studying here, so it wasn''t a problem for her to have guests stay in her room. Her room was also big enough to add an additional bed for Little Death.


    "It feels strange It''s been thousands of years since Ist experienced what it felt like to have a heartbeat, so it feels a little ufortable."


    After slipping the pacemaker into her bra, Little Death put on her shirt and walked around the room. However, her movements looked a little awkward, probably because she still hadn''t gotten used to having her heart beating. Fortunately, it didn''t take long for her to get used to this change and her movements to return to normal. After all, it was only her heart that had started to beat. Other than that, the pacemaker didn''t have any other effect on her body.


    "By the way, what made you decide to follow Alice, Little Death?" Zauna, who sat on her own bed, asked curiously as she looked at the undead girl walking around the room.


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    Previously, Zauna had been given quite the fright when Alice had returned to man''s mansion while holding a severed head. However, after learning about Little Death''s identity, she quickly adapted to the situation and calmed down. Even so, she still couldn''t help but grow curious about why Little Death had decided to follow Alice to the human realm. After all, history books had never described the undead in a good light. Yet, Little Death had chosen to follow and obey Alice the Hero. This was a very confusing situation.


    "Because I''m curious about the Hero''s deeds," Little Death frankly answered.


    Before returning to the human realm, Alice had told Little Death that she was "pretending" to be the Hero in the human realm. As Little Death was now taking all of Alice''s words at face value, she did not doubt Alice''s excuse and epted this setting without hesitation.


    To Little Death, it didn''t matter what other identities Alice had. It was fine so long as Alice had the "Demon King" identity. She was honestly quite fond of being around Alice. At the very least, Alice wasn''t treating her like a minion to be ordered around like the other Demon Kings. She would naturally choose to remain by Alice''s side if she had a choice. As for other factors, such as Alice''s "Hero" identity, none of them mattered.


    Although Little Death''s answer was crude and straightforward, Zauna quickly bought into it.


    Based on her conversations with Heris in the past two days, Zauna had learned that the human realm''s Hero novels were secretly being smuggled into the demon realm and sessfully influenced part of the demon realm''s culture. Hence, it wasn''t particrly strange to see an inhabitant of the demon realm take an interest in the Hero.


    <em>Tsk</em>


    Because Zauna was present, Andusia had no choice but to resume roleying as a figurine. So, when she saw that Little Death managed to get Zauna to ept her identity so quickly, she couldn''t help but mentally click her tongue in annoyance. However, it couldn''t be helped. Compared to an undead, a Demon King''s threat was magnitudes greater. An ordinary person like Zauna might be able to ept an undead, but there was no way she could ept a Demon King.


    After seeing this situation, Andusia started thinking if she shoulde up with a fake identity for herself, such as an elf who had been turned into a figurine Otherwise, she''d have to remain motionless whenever Zauna was in the room. This was an incredibly frustrating situation. It was especially true after she had received a sympathetic gaze from Little Death when thetter noticed her predicament.


    <em>This damned undead! I''m a Demon King, so why must I receive sympathy from my former subordinate?!</em>


    Andusia''s pride as a Demon King continued doing exemry work even today.

 Chapter 299: Another Demon King Suffers Social Death

    Chapter 299: Another Demon King Suffers Social Death


    "I''ve brought the item you asked us to find, Lady Alice."


    One early morning, Alice received a visit from Catherine in her dormitory, thetter holding a box protected by several magic locks.


    It had been several days since Alice had returned from the demon realm, and only a week was left until theic convention in the Rhine Kingdom began. Aside from preparing for her trip, Alice had nothing better to do during this period. So, to not waste time, she decided to use her authority as the Hero.


    Specifically, Alice had Catherine, the Royal Guard Captain, visit one of the locations she marked previously and retrieve the object that carried a trace of the Demon King''s Power''s aura. As this object was situated within the Gryffin Kingdom''s borders, Catherine should be able to retrieve it without causing amotion as Alice did in Bang Bang City.


    Of course, Catherine and the people she decided to enlist for the task naturally couldn''t locate the object as efficiently as Alice could since theycked the ability to sense the Demon King''s Power''s aura. As a result, even with numerous people searching for the item, it still took them several days to find it. Moreover, judging by the Demon King''s Power''s aura radiating from the box Catherine carried, it was evident that they had found the object Alice was looking for.


    "You found it already? That''s a lot quicker than I expected."


    Alice hurriedly got out of bed. She initially thought it would take over a month for Catherine and her people, who couldn''t sense the Demon King''s Power, to locate the target object. She wouldn''t even be surprised if they failed to find it. What she didn''t expect was for them to find it in only a few days.


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    "It is our duty to assist the Hero. You are our only hope against the Demon King, after all," Catherine said, strict as always. She dared not overstep her boundaries when it came to dealing with Alice. "But this item... How should I say it... I''m not exactly sure if it''s the item you are looking for. After all, it looks just like"


    Speaking up to this point, a rare blush appeared on Catherine''s face. Evidently, whatever was inside the box was enough to cause even someone as strict as Catherine to feel embarrassed.


    Alice''s heart thumped when she saw Catherine''s expression. As soon as she saw this reaction, she became 80% certain that the item inside the box was another sex toy-shaped weapon made by a Demon King


    "<em>Cough, cough. </em>The thing inside might have a strange appearance, but it has a significant origin," Alice said. To avoid giving Catherine a strange impression of herself, she decided that it was necessary to give Catherine an exnation. So, while undoing the magic locks ced on the box in Catherine''s hands, she said, "You should know that Demon Kings gain their strength from the Demon King''s Power, right?"


    "Yes, I know."


    Catherine''s eyes glowed with excitement when she heard Alice''s words, realizing that the Hero was seemingly about to reveal some important information on Demon Kings. Heroes of past generations were all capable of conversing with God. So, Heroes would often receive information rted to the Demon King and Demon King''s Power, which would then be shared with and passed down by people of the past.


    Hence, upon realizing that Alice was seemingly about to share some secrets rted to the Demon Kings with her, Catherine promptly raised her spirits and focused her mind, intending to memorize every word Alice said. After all, this information might allow humans to learn more about Demon Kings.


    "The Demon King''s Power might have created the Demon Kings, but none of these Demon Kings are actually willing to be the Demon King''s Power''s puppet. So, after they achieved their peak strength, they would start to target the Demon King''s Power within their bodies," Alice said as she opened the box, revealing an item tightly wrapped in a piece of magic cloth. "Moreover, almost every Demon King has sessfully stolen a part of the Demon King''s Power''s essence."


    "I see. That is true. ording to historical records, every past Demon King is known to have extreme pride. Even the overly-cautious Seventh Demon King will never tolerate insults directed to him," Catherine said, nodding in agreement. Alice''s description of the past Demon Kings matched the description mentioned in historical records. Meanwhile, with how prideful these Demon Kings were, there was no way they''d be willing to be someone''s pawn. "Then, what happens after they steal a portion of the Demon King''s Power''s essence?"


    "They might have stolen some of the Demon King''s Power''s essence, but the Demon King''s Power will only be effective toward individuals it has acknowledged. So, even if the stolen essence is imnted into another person''s body, nothing will happen," Alice continued her exnation as she struggled to take apart the thick magic cloth. "Hence, these Demon Kings decided to turn this stolen essence into tools that could boost theirbat capabilities."


    "I see. So you''re saying that these Demon Kings will use the tools they created with the Demon King''s Power''s essence and wear them?" Catherine''s expression suddenly turned strange when she heard Alice''s exnation. "Thencould the item stored in this box be one of these tools?"


    "That''s right. That is indeed the case," Alice said, nodding as she finally managed to untangle the chaotically tangled cloth and take out the weapon stored inside.


    Sure enough, her guess was on the mark. This time, the weapon was probably meant to be akin to a barbed whip. However, the Demon King responsible for making it had obviously failed to gauge the amount of essence they were supposed to use for each section of the whip. As a result, the whip came out much shorter than intended. In addition, the Demon King must have also messed up big time during the shaping process, so much so that the supposedly barbed sections of the whip had turned into spheres of irregr sizes


    In the sex toy industry, this item would be called anal beads.

 Chapter 300: Angry Historian

    Chapter 300: Angry Historian


    "What? Demon Kings will stuff anal beads in their bodies when fighting against Heroes?"


    Inside the pce''s archive, the old historian responsible for recording important events of modern times couldn''t help but grow confused when he heard the "important information" Catherine had shared with him.


    "What is this sted nonsense you are talking about?"


    The old man couldn''t be med for cursing. As the kingdom''s historian, it was his duty to record important events that took ce around the world, and this recorded information would be passed down to future generations. Meanwhile, matters rting to the Hero and Demon King were naturally treated with the highest priority.


    In reality, the old historian considered himself rather fortunate that he got to witness the birth of the Hero and Demon King before he retired. At the very least, this meant that when future generations tried to learn about Heroes and Demon Kings, they would see the record he had left behind.


    But what did Catherine just tell him? She said Demon Kings would stuff anal beads into their bodies when battling? Not even fantasy novels would dare to adopt such a setting for their characters. How could Catherine have the decency to report such a nonsensical piece of information to him, the kingdom''s historian? Moreover, the woman had even told him this information with a serious expression.


    Although Catherine held great authority as the Gryffin Kingdom''s Royal Guard Captain, the old historian did not fear her. This was because he was King Hatter''s teacher. Even Catherine would have to consider the consequences when choosing to trouble him.


    A historian''s responsibility was to make urate and truthful records of history. Even if he was a human, he would never be biased when recording matters rting to the Hero and Demon King. Hence, even if Catherine wished to abuse her authority to smear the name of Demon Kings, he absolutely would not allow it.


    "I''m telling the truth. It might sound unbelievable, but the fact is that reality is even more unbelievable than we thought it to be," Catherine said.


    Catherine could empathize with the old historian''s current mood. If she hadn''t heard this information directly from Alice, she would have simrly found it hard to imagine that Demon Kings would take such inconceivable actions. In fact, she had only believed the anal beads were a weapon made by a Demon King after Alice had forced a strand of highly concentrated dark mana out of them.


    "Perhaps my words won''t be convincing enough for you, but this is a fact stated by Lord Hero. Moreover, I have seen Lord Hero forcing some dark mana out of the weapon with my own eyes, and my senses tell me that those anal beads are an extraordinary weapon," Catherine said as she pulled out her phone. Then, after setting her phone down on the table before the old historian, she tapped on the screen a few times and yed a voice recording of her conversation with Alice. Specifically, it was a recording of Alice giving her an exnation of the anal beads.


    Of course, Catherine had made sure to ask Alice whether she could share this recording with the kingdom''s historian before actually doing so. Meanwhile, Alice had agreed after giving the matter some thought. After all, her goal was to put an end to the history of Demon Kings. If she managed to seed, this might be thest time this world would see the Hero and Demon King. In that case, it wouldn''t really matter even if the information on the Demon Kings'' weapons were shared with the public.


    However, Alice probably never expected Catherine to misunderstand her exnation to such a great extent.


    "It''s actually an ount from Lord Hero If that''s the case, the credibility of this information is very high."


    The old historian''s expression gradually turned serious as he listened to the yback of the voice recording. Due to his position, he had the privilege of learning Alice''s true identity. He could also tell it was Alice''s voice in the recording and that the information on the Demon King''s weapons came directly from Alice.


    The Demon King''s Power, tools made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, Demon Kings who refused to be puppets Every piece of information Alice mentioned caused the old historian to shudder in excitement. None of these matters had ever been mentioned in official historical documents, so it was evident that the Demon Kings of past generations had put a lot of effort into hiding the secret behind their weapons.


    Meanwhile, he was about to be the person responsible for recording these secrets.


    "It seems I have misunderstood you, Catherine. I apologize. This is indeed a very important piece of history that no one has ever recorded," the old historian apologized to Catherine. Then, he promptly began recording the secrets he had just learned into hisputer.


    Seeing as these secrets hade out of Alice''s mouth directly, and Catherine had even personally verified that the anal beads contained dark mana, it was almost certain that this information was factual.


    Of course, this information could not be shared with the public for the time being. That would have to wait until the sh between the Hero and Demon King ended. At most, this information would be circted among the various kingdoms'' upper echelons to let them understand more about Demon Kings.


    In only a few days, the upper echelons of the various human kingdoms came to learn about the ability of Demon Kings to steal the Demon King''s Power''s essence to turn into weapons and the absurdities surrounding these weapons.


    "Demon Kings can steal the Demon King''s Power''s essence to turn it into tools? Way to go, Demon Kings."


    In the Rhine Kingdom''s capital, a blonde girl revealed an excited expression when she read the report she had just received. However, when she read thest part of the document, her expression instantly twisted as she eximed:


    "What?! Demon Kings will turn the Demon King''s Power''s essence into tools such as anal beads and stuff them into their bodies to gain additional abilities during battle? Which retard wrote this?!"


    Even though the blonde girl came from the Rhine Kingdom, a human kingdom that was supposed to hold a hostile stance against the Demon King, she still couldn''t help but get angry when reading the tantly nderous report on Demon Kings.


    "What? This information came from the Gryffin Kingdom? And it even came directly from the Hero?"


    After angrily throwing the report on the floor, the blonde girl quickly went on herputer and contacted her family. However, when she questioned the report''s origins, the answer she got was that this report came directly from the current Hero.


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    Although the blonde girl liked the cool and prideful feeling Demon Kings radiated, she didn''t harbor any ill will toward Heroes who protected the human realm. She also knew that the people chosen by God to be Heroes all possessed pristine souls and would not casually tell lies. So, she knew there was a high chance that this new information on Demon Kings was true.


    Even so, the blonde girl found it truly hard to ept that the Demon Kings she admired would do such a nasty thing.


    While the blonde girl was having a headache, the phone on her desk suddenly rang. Seeing an opportunity to distract her agonizing mind, the girl quickly grabbed her phone, answered the call, and put her phone to her ear.


    "Hello? You''ve finished forging the Royal Magic Tower''s student identification? Good. Pass it to me at the usual ce."

 Chapter 301: Clash of Attributes

    Chapter 301: sh of Attributes


    "You don''t look very happy," Alicemented as she looked at Andusia.


    "How would you feel if you found out that someone had not only sold you away as a toy but has even asked you to return home by yourself afterward?" Andusia responded in a huff.


    Alice and Andusia were currently in the city of Icarus, the Rhine Kingdom''s capital. Theic convention that Alice was told about by her inte friend Blonde Twintails would be held in Icarus City. Moreover, the convention would start tomorrow. So, Alice had traveled to Icarus one day in advance to meet up with Blonde Twintails beforehand.


    Unlike the Gryffin Kingdom, which focused on developing its technological industries, the Rhine Kingdom focused more on developing its cultural industries. In the Gryffin Kingdom''s Holl City, one could find the most advanced technology parks and the headquarters of various technologypanies. In the Rhine Kingdom''s Icarus City, one could find various art museums,rge bookstores, and film sites.


    The anime industry was also developing quite well in the human realm. Theic convention Blonde Twintails mentioned was arge-scale event held in Icarus City every year, and it was very well received. As evidence, when Alice arrived at the stadium that would y host to theic convention tomorrow, she saw many youths walking around the stadium. It was obvious that these youths were scouting out the area and nning their routes for tomorrow.


    Meanwhile, when Alice saw the huge "30th Icarus City Anime and Game Convention" banner above the stadium, she couldn''t help but get a strange feeling. After all, even though the stadium was designed using medieval architecture, the building was surrounded by technology and culture that could only be found in the modern era. Fortunately, Alice had already started to get used to this confusing fusion.


    "An anime and game convention? Modern humans sure know how to have fun."


    Andusia mentally curled her lips as she looked at the distant banner. On the surface, though, she remained motionless and pretended to be nothing more than a figurine. She noticed many people on the street staring at her curiously. If she made any movements now, there was a high chance these people would notice.


    Although Alice had already put on a big sun hat to conceal her face from others and avoid attracting attention, her efforts were rendered useless because Andusia was sitting on her shoulder. After all, Andusia''s current appearance was that of the protagonist of a national-level anime.


    In reality, Andusia had thought of having a professional woodworker alter her appearance to a different one. However, despite how much she disliked her current appearance, she eventually decided to shelve this idea. Her current body was already very small. She''d definitely have to lose some Living Wood if she wanted a new appearance. By her estimates, she''d end up with a body only half the size of Alice''s palm.


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    As a Demon King with strong self-esteem, Andusia was already having great difficulty epting the small size of her current body. Thest thing she wanted was for her body to be even smaller.


    "The meeting ce is...Baroque Cafe."


    Alice looked at her phone and read the message from Blonde Twintails. The message informed Alice of their meeting ce, and the location Blonde Twintails had chosen was the Baroque Cafe near the stadium. After walking around for a while, Alice eventually found her destination.


    Baroque Cafe wasn''t a small shop. Instead, it was arge coffee chain covering all five human kingdoms. Alice had previously seen a Baroque Cafe in Holl City, so she was familiar with the brand.


    After finding her destination, Alice walked into the shop. Since Baroque Cafe was a coffee chain, it naturally wouldn''t be a high-end cafe. It was more or less simr to the Starbucks in Alice''s memory.


    Initially, Alice was worried that she couldn''t find Blonde Twintails in the busy cafe. However, she quickly dismissed her worries when she saw a girl in the corner of the shop standing up and waving at her.


    Alice was a little surprised when she saw Blonde Twintails. This was because the other party was actually a girl with blonde twintails. At first nce, the other party looked like an erged version of herself.


    Beforeing here, Alice had always thought that Blonde Twintails was only a person with a fetish for blonde twintails and might be a man in reality. Never did she think the nickname "Blonde Twintails" would be a description of the other party''s hairstyle.


    "Hello, hello. I''m Blonde Twintails," the girl with blonde twintails introduced herself with a smile after Alice walked over to her table.


    Like Alice, the blonde girl also wore a surprised look. It was obvious that the blonde girl did not expect Alice to be a girl, much less have blonde twintails.


    "You must be No. 2, right? I didn''t think you''d really have blonde twintails..."


    "I''m also quite surprised. I thought ''blonde twintails'' was your fetish."


    Alice looked around after taking a seat at the table. Then, after ensuring that nobody was paying attention to their table, she removed her hat and moved Andusia to the table. Evidently, Blonde Twintails must have recognized her through Andusia.


    "Haha! That''s not surprising. Nobody can tell who they''re actually talking to on the inte," Blonde Twintails said, chuckling. However, when she finally got to see Alice''s face, her expression froze as she asked, "Wait, aren''t you...the Gryffin Princess?"


    "ShhAnd yes, that''s me."


    Alice naturally didn''t n on concealing her appearance from Blonde Twintails. After all, she needed the other party to forge a student ID for her. If she refused to let Blonde Twintails see her face, how was the other party supposed to provide her with aplete student ID?


    "It''s really you... This scares me quite a bit. Why do you want to sneak into the Royal Magic Tower with a forged ID?" Blonde Twintails'' eyes widened when she heard Alice''s answer. She didn''t think that the like-minded friend she met online would actually be the popr Gryffin Princess who had suddenly appeared two months ago. "With your status, couldn''t you easily get into the Royal Magic Tower so long as you asked? I doubt the Rhine Kingdom will refuse such a simple request."


    <em>Not only would they not refuse me, but they''ll even wee me with open arms, </em>Alice mentally retorted.


    Alice naturally knew that the Rhine King would dly let her enter the Royal Magic Tower should she ask him. After all, she wasn''t just the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess but also the Hero of this era.


    However, it was precisely because she was the Hero that she didn''t want to let the Rhine King know about her visit to the Royal Magic Tower. Otherwise, her every action in the tower would be put under close observation.


    TL Notes:


    The "Attributes" in the chapter title "sh of Attributes" is a reference to the novel/anime OreTwi (Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu / Gonna be the Twin-Tail!!). There is something called a "twintail attribute" in the series.

 Chapter 302: Great Swindler Alice

    Chapter 302: Great Swindler Alice


    "This is the forged ID you asked for," Blonde Twintails said as she took out a crystal card from her bag and handed it to Alice.


    The crystal card looked simr to the March Royal School of Magic''s student ID, but the Royal Magic Tower''s ID was made with a light-purple crystal instead. Moreover, the magic runes and texts engraved on the card were different.


    The words "Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower Entry and Exit Card" were written in bold. Moreover, Alice could feel the presence of mana in every one of these engraved words. Evidently, these words were engraved using special magic, and the average person would find it impossible to make a forgery of this card. So, Blonde Twintails was most likely telling the truth when she said she would get the Rhine Kingdom''s thieves to forge an ID.


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    Written in the middle of the card was the student information. However, to Alice''s confusion, although the ss and course sections were filled in for her, the name, gender, and photo sections were left nk.


    "I didn''t know your name and appearance before, so I decided to just leave them nk and let you fill them once I met up with you," Blonde Twintails exined when she noticed Alice''s gaze stopping on the student ID''s nk spaces. Then, she pulled out a square box from her bag and handed it to Alice, saying, "Insert the ID inside, then enter your personal information ordingly bypiling text into mana."


    Compiling text into mana was amonly used technique hundreds of years ago. The technique was called managraph, and it was one of the main methods of information transmission adopted by the people of this world back then. It was somewhat simr to the outdated telegraph in Alice''s memory.


    However, managraphs eventually became obsolete with the advent of the inte. Although the technique of converting text to mana still received improvements afterward, it never managed to regain its poprity in society. Now, the technique would typically only be used by students to pass messages to each other in ss.


    Unlike the students on Earth, the students of this world would not use paper strips when trying to pass messages to each other in ss. Instead, they would convert their words into mana and pass this mana to the person they were trying to talk to. Alice had seen this method used quite a few times when attending sses in the March Academy.


    Although there was also the option of using phones, the risk of being caught was incredibly high. This was because a phone would generate weak mana fluctuations when unlocked. It would be very easy for teachers to notice these mana fluctuations in ssrooms with calm mana. As a result, exchanging managrams became the main method for students to hold secret conversations in ss.


    Alice couldn''t help but reevaluate her opinion of Blonde Twintails and the thieves the other party employed to forge the student ID. With how much importance the Rhine Kingdom had ced on the Royal Magic Tower, it went without saying that the tower would have a very strict and thorough verification system for its student IDs.


    Although Alice still hadn''t verified the validity of the forged ID, if it was usable, it meant that Blonde Twintails and her thief associates had a way of inputting information into the Royal Magic Tower''s verification system. So, the forged ID was actually no different than a real ID.


    "Done."


    Through the strange little box, Alice engraved her name, gender, and photo of herself on the student ID. Of course, she wouldn''t be so dumb as to use her real information. Although the photo on the student ID was an actual image of herself, she had changed her name to "Kryst."


    Indeed, Alice had chosen to use the pseudonym Kristine had gone by after getting resurrected. Kryst wasn''t exactly a rare name, so nobody would suspect her to be the Gryffin Kingdom''s Second Princess. Alice also wasn''t worried that others would recognize her appearance. After all, who would be so bored to inspect the student photos on the Royal Magic Tower''s database?


    The Royal Magic Tower''s verification system didn''t have the ability to think for itself, either. It would only verify whether Alice''s appearance matched the photo on her student ID. So long as the two matched, Alice would be allowed into the tower. The system wouldn''t automatically report her to the tower''s higher-ups just because she had a face that looked like the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess.


    So long as nobody had the sudden urge to inspect the Royal Magic Tower''s database of student photos, Alice would be safe to wander around inside the tower. Even if someone eventually discovered her, she would probably be done with her task in the tower and have long since disappeared. The Rhine Kingdom''s royal family was also unlikely to make trouble for her at that time.


    "Kryst?" After taking a look at Alice''s student ID, Blonde Twintails looked at Alice curiously and asked, "Are you going in with your actual appearance? Weren''t you trying to sneak into the Royal Magic Tower without others finding out? You''ll get recognized easily if you don''t disguise yourself."


    "I just need to trick the tower''s verification system. As for others recognizing me, I can just wear a hat. The Royal Magic Tower doesn''t prohibit people from wearing hats inside, right?"


    Alice shrugged. She would have chosen to disguise herself if she had an effective disguise spell at her disposal. Unfortunately, disguise magic wasn''t particrly well-developed in this world. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have needed to get a suit of power armor made to disguise herself as a muscr Hero.


    "I guess you''re right. So long as you don''t reveal yourself or break any rules in the tower, usually, nobody would bother looking through your student file," Blonde Twintails said, nodding. Then, she returned the ID to Alice and looked toward Andusia, saying, "I''ve helped you get the ID you wanted, so as promised, this Hikari figurine is now mine, right? I''ve been eyeing this figurine for a long time now. I''ve never seen such a fine movable figurine before."


    Blonde Twintails had been ncing at Andusia repeatedly since Alice had put the figurine on the table. Now that she got to observe Andusia at such a close distance, she could see just how extraordinary of a figurine Andusia was. Every part of Andusia''s body was finely crafted to the point where it looked like real flesh. Even Andusia''s eyshes looked like they were made with real hair, a stark contrast to the strips of ymonly found on figurines. Seeing how realistic and lifelike Andusia looked, Blonde Twintails couldn''t help but feel that the figurine before her was a living being.


    "Of course. But before that, shouldn''t we verify if this ID can be used?" Alice said, chuckling as she raised the student ID in her right hand with two fingers.


    "Tsk, you''re really cautious," Blonde Twintails clicked her tongue. However, she didn''t voice any objections since Alice''s wish to verify the forged ID''s effectiveness waspletely reasonable. Subsequently, she stood up from her seat and said, "In that case, I''ll guide you to the Royal Magic Tower so you can verify this student ID''s authenticity."

 Chapter 303: Youre Considering Explosions Already?

    Chapter 303: You''re Considering Explosions Already?


    The Royal Magic Tower, as the name suggested, was a huge tower situated in the middle of the Rhine Kingdom''s capital, Icarus. Meanwhile, surrounding the tower was a magic town that was simrly located within Icarus City, and students of the Royal Magic Tower would typically spend their free time seeking entertainment in this magic town.


    "While it might be called the Royal Magic Tower, the magic town surrounding the tower is also included within the Royal Magic Tower''s domain," Blonde Twintails exined.


    Unlike the Royal Magic Tower itself, the magic town surrounding the tower was free for outsiders to visit. While using her sun hat to conceal half of her face, Alice followed Blonde Twintails into the magic town and came across many people who weren''t students or teachers of the Royal Magic Tower.


    Of course, most of these people were still magicians, and their goal in visiting the magic town was to sell some magic products to the students and teachers of the Royal Magic Tower. Because of this situation, with the Royal Magic Tower as the center, this magic town had be thergest magic market in the Rhine Kingdom.


    While strolling through the streets of the magic town, Alice noticed that the air here was brimming with mana. She was initially surprised by this situation, but she quickly understood why this was the case.


    Like most liquids and gasses, the concept of diffusion was also applied to mana. Because of this, mana would naturally seep out of magicians and magic items over time. However, while magicians could prevent their mana from scattering to the surroundings, most magic items did note with such functionality. Meanwhile, seeing how magic items were being traded all over the town, it wasn''t hard to imagine how the town''s environment had be so rich in mana.


    "How does it feel? Did you get intimidated by the rich mana environment here?"


    Blonde Twintails was a member of the Rhine Kingdom, so she couldn''t help but feel a sense of pride when she talked about this mana town. She was aware that while other kingdoms had magic academies that rivaled the Royal Magic Tower, none of them had developed their magic academies to a point where it had be a gathering ce for magicians.


    "This is quite intimidating indeed." Alice nodded in agreement. However, her thoughts were evidently different from Blonde Twintails''. When she noticed the ambient mana in the town was concentrated to a point where it had almost achieved condensation, she couldn''t help but frown and ask, "If someone decides to detonate the mana in this town, the wrestling power should be on par with a taboo, right? Aren''t you guys worried about this possible danger at all?"


    "Why do you have such dangerous thoughts in that small head of yours?" Blonde Twintails'' mouth twitched when she heard Alice''s words. She didn''t think that not only would Alice not be surprised by the mana environment here, but the girl would even bring up such a dangerous topic. After letting out a huff, Blonde Twintails stopped her feet and pointed to the distance, saying, "We have naturally considered this possibility. Look at the top of the tower."


    Alice followed Blonde Twintails'' finger and looked at the huge magic gem slowly rotating above the Royal Magic Tower. The magic gem was surrounded by arge magic array, and the magic array was constantly emitting gentle mana fluctuations.


    "That''s the magic crystal made by the Third Hero. There is a taboo sealed in this magic crystal to detect dangerous mana fluctuations and neutralize any source of mana within its range. The magic crystal won''t do anything if you use ordinary spells and magic tools since neither of those things is enough to detonate the town''s mana. However, if someone tries to detonate the mana here as you said, they''d have to utilize a taboo-level spell at the very least. In that case, the magic crystal will immediately discover the offender''s actions and neutralize their mana," Blonde Twintails said. Then, she continued guiding Alice to the Royal Magic Tower, adding, "And if someone manages to ovee the magic crystal''s neutralizing effect and detonate the town''s mana? The power of the resulting explosion will definitely be at the level of taboos."


    <em>That crystal can neutralize even taboo-level mana fluctuations?</em>


    Alice took a moment to process Blonde Twintails'' words before understanding. It would seem that the magic crystal atop the Royal Magic Tower was made to prohibit the activation of taboos in the tower''s vicinity.


    However, this wasn''t a concern to Alice since she stillcked the mana to castplete versions of taboos. And should she cast taboos while wielding a pair of panties or the Hero''s Sword, she was confident that she could disregard the magic crystal''s neutralizing effect.


    She also highly doubted the magic crystal could neutralize all taboos. If this magic crystal could aplish such a feat, Heroes of past generations would have used it to thoroughly restrict the mana usage of the Demon Kings they faced.


    "By the way, I''ve been wondering since just now, but you don''t seem to be an ordinary civilian," Alice suddenly said as she looked at the blonde girl walking in front of her. "At the very least, I don''t think the average civilian would have the means to forge a functioning student ID for the Royal Magic Tower"


    "So you do want to know my identity?" Blonde Twintails stopped walking when she heard Alice trying to probe her identity indirectly. "And here I thought you had no interest in my identity whatsoever. I''ve been waiting for you to ask me about my identity the entire time in the cafe, yet not once did you ask about it."


    Aliceughed awkwardly. Her mind had been filled with how she should sneak into the Royal Magic Tower previously, so she didn''t think to ask about Blonde Twintails'' identity. She only thought to do so now after suddenly realizing that Blonde Twintails seemed capable of doing things outside the average person''s means.


    "Since you''ve asked, I''ll tell you." After patting her barren chest, Blonde Twintails said, "My name is Lilith Doyle, and I am currently studying in the Royal Magic Tower as an ordinary apprentice magician."


    "An ordinary apprentice magician?" Alice couldn''t help but look at Blonde Twintails strangely when she heard the other party''s answer. After all, she recognized the surname ''Doyle,'' and it was none other than the Rhine King''s surname. "Are you part of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family?"


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    "So it seems you''re notpletely ignorant," Lilith said, waving her fist at Alice and lightly humming when she heard Alice''s question. "But while I might be royalty, I don''t have any session rights. I am nothing but a decoration kept at home Even though I''ve put so much work into learning how to manage the country, it''s a pity my father can never appreciate my efforts."


    Lilith sighed after she finished speaking. Then, she shook her head and continued:


    "Whatever. Let''s not talk about such a depressing subject. Anyway, while I might be the Rhine Kingdom''s princess, my status is far inferior to yours. You are a legitimate sessor to the Gryffin Kingdom''s throne, while I am only a princess with no real power."


    Alice smiled awkwardly in response to Lilith''s grumbling, not knowing what she should say in this situation. She couldn''t possibly say that she wasn''t actually Hatter''s daughter but the Hero instead, right? Though, based on this conversation, Alice noticed that Lilith didn''t know about her identity as the Hero. This meant that the Rhine Kingdom''s King Haydn hadn''t informed Lilith about the matter regarding the Hero''s identity.


    So, it would seem that Lilith Doyle wasn''t given much importance by her father after all.

 Chapter 304: Royal Magic Towers History

    Chapter 304: Royal Magic Tower''s History


    The magic town was quiterge. Walking from the town''s entrance to the Royal Magic Tower in the town''s center took a few minutes. Yet, despite this distance, when Alice was standing at the town''s entrance previously, she could clearly see the magic crystal atop the Royal Magic Tower.


    Meanwhile, after arriving at the bottom of the Royal Magic Tower, Alice couldn''t see what was at the top of the tower even when she looked up. Moreover, when she looked at the tower from afar, the tower clearly had a cylindrical shape. Yet, looking at the tower up close, she couldn''t even see the tower''s arc. It was as if the tower''s exterior was a t surface.


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    "Massive, right? Most people would be shocked when they see the Royal Magic Tower up close for the first time," Lilith said, chuckling when she noticed Alice looking up at the tower with her mouth agape. Although Lilith wasn''t given much priority despite being a member of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family, she still couldn''t help but feel a sense of pride when she saw another country''s princess shocked by one of her country''sndmarks. "Actually, the Royal Magic Tower wasn''t this big initially. When it was first constructed, it was roughly the same size as the average magic tower you see nowadays."


    Constructing magic towers was a tradition of the Rhine Kingdom''s magicians. The kingdom''s magicians would construct themselves a tower and store all of the fruits of their research in their towers. They would also teach their students in these towers. However, the average magic tower was only slightlyrger than the standard lighthouse. Their sizes were nowhere near as exaggerated as the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower.


    "You mean to say that the Royal Magic Tower waster modified into its current form?" Alice curiously asked as she followed Lilith to the Royal Magic Tower''s entrance. This information wasn''t avable on the inte, so this was her first time hearing about it. "What did this tower look like initially?"


    "The Royal Magic Tower was initially constructed by Mi Doyle, a magician belonging to the royal family, roughly three thousand years ago. He used to be active as the Hero''s assistant, garnered great fame, and became known as a Sage. Mi''s poprity eventually caused his magic tower to also be extraordinarily popr, and countless magicians would visit his tower to seek his tutge."


    Lilith answered without trying to hide anything. This information might not be avable to the public, but it was widely avable among nobles. As for why Alice wasn''t aware of this information, Lilith simply thought that the rumors about Alice floating on the inte were true. If Alice was indeed Hatter''s illegitimate daughter who was only discovered recently, it wasn''t strange for the girl not to know about the Royal Magic Tower''s history.


    "Even so, it shouldn''t have been expanded to such an extent, right?" Alice continued asking. "The current Royal Magic Tower has already be quite the scary size The tower should have over a hundred floors already, right? I doubt civilization thousands of years ago was anywhere near advanced enough to produce such a massive structure. And even if Mi had many students, I doubt he''d need a tower of <em>this </em>size."


    "That''s right. The problem is that Mi is a very charismatic magician. Almost all of his students would choose to remain in his magic tower to help him after they''ve graduated. Moreover, Mi''s students would also teach <em>their </em>students in Mi''s magic tower," Lilith said, chuckling softly. Mi was a member of the Doyle family, so her voice carried a hint of pride when she spoke about her ancestor. "Before Mi passed away, multiple generations of magicians were already studying and working in the tower. Most of these magicians are geniuses, and they gradually turned Mi''s magic tower into the most famous sanctuary for magic in the Rhine Kingdom."


    "I see. So it''s mainly because of Mi''s charisma?"


    Alice nodded in understanding. She also couldn''t help but wonder what kind of person Mi was to be able to attract so many magicians to study and work under him.


    "By the time Mi passed away, his magic tower had already undergone over two dozen expansions. Although it was still much smaller than the current Royal Magic Tower, it had already reached a scale that no other magic tower had ever achieved," Lilith exined as she led Alice into the Royal Magic Tower''s entrance. Then, upon reaching the checkpoint, she pulled out her student ID as she continued, "After Mi passed, the royal family took over the tower''s management. However, instead of abandoning the tower, the royal family permitted Mi''s students to continue teaching in the tower. The royal family even helped them recruit talented students from all over the country."


    "The king of that time must have been very wise," Alice eximed. The king of that time must have realized the importance of education and the potential Mi''s magic tower had in developing the Rhine Kingdom''s education system. Hence, he had taken advantage of the opportunity to turn Mi''s magic tower into a ce for higher magic education.


    "Indeed. If we look at it from the modern era''s perspective, the king of that time had indeed made a very wise decision. From then on, the Royal Magic Tower has only grown bigger and bigger, reaching its current scale after thousands of years of development," Lilith said as she waved her ID at one of the magic devices at the checkpoint, which, in turn, caused the doors before her to slide open. "Because the tower''s expansions took ce from inside to outside, the further out you go in the Royal Magic Tower, the newer the tower''s sections would be. In contrast, the deeper you go into the tower, the older the sections will be. Mi''s original magic tower is even preserved at the centermost part of the tower. You can go and take a look if you are interested."


    "I''ll definitely go and have a look," Alice replied with a smile. Then, she followed Lilith''s example, pulling out her fake student ID and gently waving it in front of a different scanner. Then, the doors before her opened up as well. It would seem that the forged ID Lilith made for her was usable. With this, unless someone decided to conduct an impromptu inspection of the server''s student database, she should have no problems exploring the Royal Magic Tower.


    Of course, Alice did not forget that the fake ID only had a limited effective period. This was probably because the counterfeit technology used to produce the fake student ID couldn''t create a perfect article.


    This wasn''t particrly surprising since the Rhine Kingdom treated the Royal Magic Tower as if it were a restricted military base. The Rhine Kingdom must have used some extremely advanced technology on the student IDs to prevent counterfeiting, so it wasn''t strange that the fake ID had ws. In fact, it was already plenty amazing that Lilith and her thief associates had managed to forge a working ID.


    "Well? No problems, right?" Lilith turned around and smiled when she saw Alice had also crossed the checkpoint. Of course, she wouldn''t be so foolish as to say something like, "Your ID works, right?" which would be a dead giveaway that something was wrong with Alice''s ID. "You can sell your figurine to me now, right?"


    Alice could feel Andusia shuddering briefly on her shoulder when Lilith asked her question. It would seem that Andusia was starting to worry about the future that would await her once she entered Lilith''s hands.

 Chapter 305: Nonsensical Fabrication

    Chapter 305: Nonsensical Fabrication


    Lilith eventually had her wish fulfilled as Alice made good on her promise and handed her the super rare Magical Girl Hikari figurine. Alice also refused Lilith''s offer of marypensation, giving thetter the excuse of "this student ID is very important to me."


    This situation touched Lilith. Although this was her first time meeting Alice in person, Alice''s generosity and kindness to others made her think "as expected of someone who grew up in the countryside." Alice did not show the overbearing attitude generally found in nobles. On the contrary, she was a very amicable person.


    Because of this, although Lilith eventually followed Alice''s request and epted the figurine without paying any money, she still patted her disappointing chest and vowed to Alice: "I still have some authority in the Rhine Kingdom. If someone tries to make trouble for you,e to me."


    Essentially, Lilith was trying to say, "You look like a gullible person. I worry that you''ll be tricked, so I''ll protect you while you''re in the Rhine Kingdom." When Andusia heard Lilith''s words, she couldn''t help but inwardly sneer. This was a perfect example of information asymmetry. Lilith might think that Alice was giving her(Andusia) to her for free, but little did Lilith know that she was the gullible one in this transaction.


    Throughout her interactions with Alice, Andusia learned that Alice wasn''t a bad person deep down, and most of her actions were done with good intentions in the big picture. However, Alice could also be much more devious than the average person if such behavior was necessary to aplish some of her goals.


    As for why Alice had refused to take Lilith''s money, Andusia guessed that Alice must be feeling guilty over conning a fake student ID out of Lilith and felt it''d be inhuman of her to take Lilith''s money on top of that.


    Simply put, Lilith was still too young, even if she was royalty. She still wasn''t aware of the evil in humans. At this point, Andusia couldn''t help but wonder how Lilith would react once she disappeared. Would the girl realize that Alice had tricked her? Or would the girl think that she had identally misced her?


    "This figurine is really well made. Every part of it feels like a real human body. There are no doll joints to give it an artificial feeling. I can''t even begin to imagine how this thing was made."


    The first thing Lilith did after receiving Andusia was to fondle Andusia''s body, her actions nearly causing Andusia''s break her act. Then, she mimicked Alice and ced Andusia on her shoulder, only to be surprised when she saw Andusia sitting steadily on her shoulder. She could feel that so long as she didn''t make anyrge movements, Andusia wouldn''t fall off her shoulder.


    If not for the fact that shrinking magic for living creatures did not exist in this world, Lilith would have most likely suspected that Alice had given her a miniaturized person. Of course, Lilith also didn''t think of the possibility that Andusia might be made using the rare Living Wood. With how young Lilith was, she might not even know about the existence of Living Wood.


    "By the way, since you are the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, you should have heard about thetest information circting among the various royal families, right? I''m talking about the one about Demon Kings," Lilith, who was in a good mood after receiving the rare "figurine" she had been longing for, suddenly asked. "If I''m not mistaken, this information should have originated from your side Yes, the Hero is in the Gryffin Kingdom, so your side must have been the first to receive this information."


    "Information about the Demon Kings?"


    Alice was originally prepared to follow Lilith''s suggestion to tour the humongous Royal Magic Tower from inside to outside. Then, only after familiarizing herself with the tower''syout would she seek out the demon spy lurking in the tower. However, Lilith''s words caused her to pause her footsteps.


    <em>The Gryffin Kingdom received new information rting to the Demon Kings? Why haven''t I heard about it before?</em>


    Alice was the Hero. In theory, if the Gryffin Kingdom were to uncover new information about the Demon Kings, Catherine should have immediately informed her about it. However, before Alice had left for the Rhine Kingdom, not once did Catherine reveal any such information to her.


    "You don''t know?"


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    Lilith couldn''t help but look at Alice suspiciously. However, it didn''t seem like Alice was faking her expression, so the younger girl most likely didn''t know about this new information.


    After giving the matter some thought, Lilith concluded that this might be because Alice had only be a princess not long ago, and King Hatter still hadn''t decided to have Alice take over managing the kingdom''s affairs. Hence, Alice wasn''t kept up to date with ssified information.


    However, the new information on Demon Kings wasn''t something highly ssified. Not to mention, Alice was a member of the Gryffin Kingdom''s royalty. She naturally had the qualifications to learn about this information. So, after suppressing her voice, Lilith said, "It''s about how Demon Kings would stuff anal beads in their bodies when fighting against Heroes. This information came directly from the Hero, so its credibility is very high."


    Alice was dumbfounded. What kind of retarded information was this? Moreover, this information came directly from the Hero? Since when did she say such a thing? Or could it havee from Kristine?


    However, Alice quickly denied herst thought. Kristine had been busy researching how to purify the demon realm''s polluted mana with Lacey recently, so she shouldn''t have had any contact with Hatter or anyone else. Moreover, even if Kristine did make contact with Hatter or Catherine and told them about this highly imusible information, Alice should have heard about it.


    Andusia, who sat on Lilith''s shoulder, naturally heard what Lilith said to Alice, her expression crumbling instantly. However, she quickly suppressed her shock and rage and reverted to her usual expression, doing her best to make herself look like a normal figurine. After all, they were currently in the Royal Magic Tower''s main lobby. Many people wereing and going here, and it''d be bad if someone noticed the change in her expression.


    Fortunately, Andusia was fully aware of Alice''s recent actions and knew that Alice had never said such drivel to anybody, so she didn''t grow displeased with Alice. Instead, she quickly worked her brain to figure out how such a retarded information would appear in the informationwork of the human kingdoms'' royalty.


    Very quickly, both Alice and Andusia thought of the most likely cause of this nonsensical information.


    A misunderstanding.


    Alice quickly recalled Catherine''s question: "So you''re saying that these Demon Kings will use the tools they created with the Demon King''s Power''s essence and wear them?" Her mind was partially focused on untangling the cloth that bound the anal beads at the time, so she had agreed to Catherine''s question without thinking too deeply about it. However, now that she retraced her memories, she found that the way Catherine had worded her question was somewhat strange. Specifically, the "wear them" part


    Alice wasn''t aware that the weapon Catherine brought to her was in the shape of anal beads at the time. Moreover, what Alice had tried to convey to Catherine at the time was that Demon Kings would carry the tools, which they''ve made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence, on their persons when fighting their Hero counterparts. However, it would seem that her absentminded response had led to Catherine misunderstanding that all Demon Kings would shape the stolen Demon King''s Power''s essence into anal beads and "wear" them.


    This was a very awkward situation. Immediately, Alice made a mental note to herself to clear up this misunderstanding with Catherine as soon as she returned to the Gryffin Kingdom. Otherwise, the reputation of all Demon Kings would be taking a hit. Although Alice didn''t care about the reputation of Demon Kings, that evidently wasn''t the case for Andusia. If she didn''t take care of this matter properly, Andusia would probably fight her to the death.


    Not to mention, Alice was also bearing the identity of a Demon King currently. If this information reached the demon realm, she, too, would have her reputation ruined.

 Chapter 306: It Has Already Taken on Andusia’s Shape

    Chapter 306: It Has Already Taken on Andusia��s Shape


    <em>How surprising. The Royal Magic Tower has its own internalwork.</em>


    After taking a seat in the Royal Magic Tower''s centermost library, Alice tried to ess the inte with her phone and found that the tower had awork that was exclusively for internal use.


    Moreover, the tower''s internalwork seemed to have a specialyer of security added to it. Any content downloaded from it would be automatically deleted from the user''s device so long as it was brought out of the tower. Although Alice had no idea how this security feature worked, it would more or less prevent people from spreading the Royal Magic Tower''s information to the outside world.


    While this wouldn''t stop people who were resolved to steal information from the Royal Magic Tower, it did, in a way, show how much importance the Rhine Kingdom had ced on the Royal Magic Tower. So, any would-be thieves would have to first consider whether they could evade the Rhine Kingdom''s inspection and endure the Rhine Kingdom''s harsh judgment, should they be caught.


    Of course, the Rhine Kingdom wasn''t foolish to the point where it would put absolute faith in such a loose security system or its ability to discover and apprehend people who have stolen information from the Royal Magic Tower. As evidence, after Alice browsed around the Royal Magic Tower''swork for a while, she didn''te across anything that looked like it would be considered a state secret.


    In reality, most state secrets wouldn''t even be kept on the inte or servers many people could ess. Instead, the main method the various kingdoms used to store highly confidential information was by engraving encrypted magic patterns onto durable magic stones. This was also the method used by the various kingdoms'' historians to pass down important parts of history. Not only could this method ensure that information could be securely passed down for thousands of years, but it could also prevent others from stealing the stored information easily.


    <em>But as I expected, the taboos kept herepletely differ from the March Academy''s practical taboos. </em>After downloading a library app from the internalwork, Alice browsed the library''s catalog and found that most of the taboos kept here were different from the March Academy''s taboo collection. Overall, it was worth investing time in learning the Royal Magic Tower''s taboos. "It seems we''ll have to spend a few days here, Andusia."


    As soon as Alice finished speaking, she suddenly realized that Andusia was no longer sitting on her shoulder. Because Lilith was worried that Andusia might fall off her shoulder and break apart, she promptly parted ways with Alice after getting her hands on Andusia, saying that she was going home to prepare a figurine cab specifically for Andusia.


    Essentially, Lilith was trying to say that she was going to y with her newly-acquired figurine for today, so she couldn''t continue keeping Alicepany for today, and she would only meet up with Alice again during tomorrow''sic convention.


    <em>So that''s why the side of my left ear suddenly feels so much more silent,</em> Alice thought and sighed as she raised her right hand to massage her left shoulder.


    Because of her frequent interactions with Andusia, Alice had already grown used to consulting Andusia whenever she encountered problems. Even if she didn''t face any problems, she would still chat with Andusia from time to time. Now that Andusia was gone, Alice couldn''t help but feel a little strange. After all, it had already been quite some time since she had truly moved around alone.


    Since Alice was sneaking into the Royal Magic Tower this time, she naturally had to maintain a low profile. So, aside from Andusia, Alice didn''t bring anyone else to the Rhine Kingdom with her.


    Luna had also voiced her wish to follow Alice, but having more people involved in this infiltration would obviously increase the risk of being caught. Not to mention, Lilith had only promised Alice to prepare one counterfeit ID. Alice also wasn''t certain whether Lilith could prepare more. So, she had no choice but to refuse Luna''s request toe with her.


    Although Alice felt a little unustomed to this situation, she knew she would return to her original world once she took care of the Demon King''s Power. So, even if she was unustomed to this lonely feeling, she had to work hard to get used to it again. She shouldn''t get used to Andusia''s presence on her shoulder.


    <em>Speaking of which, it''s already been close to two weeks since the Milu Rabbit fell unconscious It hasn''t even woken up to eat or poop. I wonder when it will regain consciousness?</em>


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    When thinking about Andusia, Alice suddenly remembered that she still had an unconscious Milu Rabbit tied to her waist. To avoid exposing her identity, Alice specially wore a loose doubleyer dress and hid the Milu Rabbit between the twoyers. Although others could still see the Milu Rabbit''s outline if they looked carefully, nobody would stare at her skirt under normal circumstances.


    Anyway, ever since the Milu Rabbit had eaten the ashes of the burnt Soul Mark Scroll around half a month ago, it had fallen unconscious and remained unconscious until this day. Although Alice had taken the Milu Rabbit to a veterinarian for a check-up during this period, the analysis she got from the vet was: "Everything is normal physiologically. You can even say it is very healthy, judging by how much harder its skull ispared to the average Milu Rabbit. Maybe there is something wrong with its spirit." It was a rather pointless analysis.


    While nobody was paying attention, Alice secretly lifted the outeryer of her twoyer dress and snuck a look at the Milu Rabbit.


    Sure enough, the Milu Rabbit was still sleeping soundly. Although it hadn''t eaten anything for half a month, it was still surprisingly healthy.


    Alice couldn''t tell what was keeping the Milu Rabbit alive and healthy. The only exnation she could think of was that the Soul Mark Scroll''s ashes contained some energy, and this energy was being used to offset the energy the Milu Rabbit consumed while it was unconscious.


    Regardless, after verifying that the Milu Rabbit was safe as always, Alice began scouring the Royal Magic Tower''s internalwork for the information she wanted.


    Alice''s main goal in visiting the Royal Magic Tower was to uncover the culprit impersonating Second Prince Etoria and trying to drag the demons into the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs. In that case, she would first have to seek out the demon spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower. Although Alice didn''t know what kind of identity the spy was going by in the tower, if her guess wasn''t wrong, the spy should be operating under an identity simr to the one Frosette used in the March Academy.


    Fortunately, Alice''s guess was correct, and she found her target in no time.


    <em>Magic Tower Know-It-All These people really have no creativity </em>Alice couldn''t help but chuckle when she looked at the name she found on the "Mi Forum," a dedicated forum in the Royal Magic Tower''s internalwork.


    Alice was 99% certain that this "Magic Tower Know-It-All" was the demon spy, mainly because this nickname was essentially the same as the one Frosette had used in the March Academy. Moreover, considering the information gathering abilities of these demon spies, she felt that it was reasonable for them to act as information brokers.


    Fortunately, this Magic Tower Know-It-All had left his contact method and his usual ce of operation. So, after making a record of these things, Alice decided to go and meet with this person.

 Chapter 307: Genius Businessman

    Chapter 307: Genius Businessman


    Although not having Andusia by her side meant Alice had one less person to give ideas to her, Alice wasn''t particrly worried since this situation was only temporary. With Andusia''s strength, it''d be a piece of cake for the other party to escape and return to her side. After all, Andusia possessed the strength of a fully-developed Demon King.


    Unless Lilith coulde up with a figurine cab made with the Demon King''s Power''s essence, Alice honestly couldn''t think of a way the Rhine Princess could use to prevent Andusia from escaping.


    Of course, Alice had also considered the possibility of Andusia enjoying her new life so much that she might not return to her side. However, Alice felt that the possibility of that happening was incredibly slim.


    After all was said and done, Andusia was a Demon King. Yet, Andusia was merely a figurine modeled after the character Magical Girl Hikari. If Andusia didn''t want to get found out, she''d have to stay still and y the role of a figurine constantly. This meant that she couldn''t y with her phone, walk around, or even talk.


    Alice did not think that Andusia would be happy living such a life. Although Andusia also had the option of revealing her identity to Lilith, that was also a very unlikely possibility. After all, Lilith was the princess of a human kingdom. Andusia would only be asking for trouble if she told Lilith she was a former Demon King. At most, Andusia could only lie and say she was Magical Girl Hikari.


    But would Andusia be willing to act like Hikari and make all those childish poses that Hikari made in the Magical Girl Hikari anime series?


    Alice could already imagine the dissatisfied and reluctant expression Andusia would make at such a thought.


    Hence, Alice was confident that Andusia would escape from Lilith and return to her side in the near future. Although she was a little unustomed to not having a chattering figurine sitting on her shoulder, she didn''t worry about it too much. She simply treated it as an adaptation phase for when she eventually returned to her homeworld.


    The Royal Magic Tower had undergone numerous expansions over the past several thousand years. Hence, it looked nothing like its original appearance now. The current Royal Magic Tower''s scale far exceeded any building in Alice''s memory. Iffort wasn''t taken into ount, one could probably fit half the poption of a big city into the tower. If not for the existence of magic in this world, such a structure absolutely could not remain standing.


    However, it was also because of the Royal Magic Tower''s humongous size that even though the tower yed host to most of the Rhine Kingdom''s talented youths and many foreign transfer students, the tower remained spacious. This situation was also in Alice''s favor as it reduced the risk of her getting exposed.


    ording to the information Alice found on the Mi Forum, the method of contacting "Magic Tower Know-It-All" was different from the March Academy''s "Academy Know-It-All." Frosette, or Academy Know-It-All, typically conducted her business via the March Academy''s public forum and private messaging system. On the other hand, Magic Tower Know-It-All conducted his business at a fixed location in the tower. So, those seeking his services had to visit this designated location.


    "Floor 12, Sector B7..."


    Following the directions she found on the forum, Alice quickly arrived at her destination. Because the Royal Magic Tower had undergone numerous expansions over the years, its interior had long since reached an exaggerated scale. Meanwhile, Floor 12, Sector B7 referred to one of the many sectors of the tower.


    "Floor 12" naturally referred to the Royal Magic Tower''s 12th floor. Meanwhile, each floor was divided into Zones A to K, 11 zones in total. Zone A referred to the innermost part of the tower, while Zone K referred to the outermost part. Each of these zones was further subdivided into multiple sectors, and Sector B7 referred to the seventh sector of the tower''s second innermost ring.


    Because the Royal Magic Tower was expanded from the inside out, the deeper one traversed into the tower, the more ancient the tower would be. Zone A essentially covered the original Mi Magic Tower, while Zone covered the area added during the tower''s first expansion.


    It went without saying that the deeper the zone, the greater its importance. The fact that this Magic Tower Know-It-All could upy a ce in Zone B showed that he had quite a lot of authority in the Royal Magic Tower. So, one could say this person had done an excellent job as a demon spy.


    However, when Alice finally located Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room on Floor 12, Sector B7, her expression turned a little ugly. This was because of the long line of people waiting outside the room.


    At this time, the entire hallway outside the room was practically stuffed to the brim with people. Even then, none of these people waiting in line showed any signs of impatience. On the contrary, they excitedly discussed what questions they would ask afterward with the people around them.


    This situation rendered Alice a little speechless. Looking at how many people were waiting in line, even if each person only spent one minute asking their questions and getting their answers, she''d still have to wait several hours before she could get her turn. However, judging by the enthusiastic looks of these people, could they really finish asking their questions in one minute?


    "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?" Alice asked as she patted the back of a boy standing at the back of the line. Due to their height difference, Alice couldn''t reach the boy''s shoulder, so she had no choice but to pat him on the back. After seeing the boy turn around in confusion, Alice asked, "Are all of these people here to consult ''Magic Tower Know-It-All?''"


    The reason Alice chose to ask this boy wasn''t just because he was standing at the back of the line. It was also because the boy looked somewhat introverted and easy to talk to. At the very least, it seemed like he was the kind of person who would answer any questions a girl asked him.


    Meanwhile, after the introverted boy looked at Alice, he cautiously answered, "That''s right. Are you a freshman? Magic Tower Know-It-All knows almost everything there is to know about the Royal Magic Tower''s history andtest developments. He even knows about the circumstances of every student. So long as your question is rted to the Royal Magic Tower, he can answer almost all of your questions. So, everyone likes to consult him when theye across problems."


    "Does he not charge money for his consultations?" Alice asked out of curiosity. However, she could already guess the answer even before the boy answered her question. After all, the long line of people waiting here already said it all.


    If Magic Tower Know-It-All was charging money for his consultations, there''d be no way so many people woulde and seek his services. At the very least, the average student would be deterred by this "paywall." As for noble students, while they probably wouldn''t bat an eye at paying some money to have their questions answered, most of the hundreds of people here didn''t look like they were nobles.


    Of course, the average student would probably be willing to pay for a consultation if they had very important questions to ask. However, Alice had previously heard a inly-dressed girl telling her friend about how she was going to ask about the likes and dislikes of a certain male ssmate... This was obviously beyond the scope of whatmoner students were willing to spend money on.


    "Consultations are free," the introverted boy said, shaking his head. "But you will be asked to watch a 30-second advertisement before the consultation. Once you finish watching it, you can ask questions for free."


    <em>Fuck. So that''s how this works?</em>


    Alice held her head in pain as she realized what kind of scheme this Magic Tower Know-It-All was running. If Magic Tower Know-It-All charged money for his consultations, it would undoubtedly reduce his customer base. Hence, he had opted for a "free" consultation model where he''d require his customers to watch advertisements in exchange for his services. In doing so, not only could he increase his customer base, but he could also earn money through his sponsors.


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    However, this also meant that in addition to the time they spent on their consultation, every person that entered Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room would have to spend an additional 30 seconds watching advertisements

 Chapter 308: Spirit Magic Truly Is Useful

    Chapter 308: Spirit Magic Truly Is Useful


    There were simply too many people waiting in line. If Alice were to y by the rules, she''d have to stand in line for at least several hours. Knowing this, Alice beganing up with a n that would allow her to quickly cut the queue and converse with Magic Tower Know-It-All.


    Of course, a short conversation wouldn''t be enough for her to gain much useful information from Magic Tower Know-It-All. If she wanted to learn about the situation between the demons and the Rhine Kingdom''s royalty in detail, she might have to spend several hours talking and exchanging information with Magic Tower Know-It-All.


    However, Alice felt that it would be inappropriate if she were to take up several hours of Magic Tower Know-It-All''s time and let such a long line of people wait outside. Doing so would also attract unnecessary attention to herself.


    Hence, Alice decided that she would find a way to get into Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room and identify herself to the other party. Then, once Magic Tower Know-It-All was done with his work, he could contact her, and they could take their time discussing the culprit impersonating Prince Etoria.


    As for how Alice was going to sneak into Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room without anybody noticing, that was a problem she needed to spend some time considering. This wasn''t a problem she could easily resolve just by using her magic robe''s Mana Concealment ability.


    As mentioned previously, the corridor outside Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room was crowded with people. It was so crowded that students and teachers passing this corridor had to squeeze their way through. So, even if Alice went invisible, she would most likely be discovered immediately if she tried to cut the queue and sneak into Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room.


    At this moment, Alice couldn''t help but wish Andusia was by her side. With her small body, Andusia could easily sneak past the crowd undetected so long as she concealed herself with magic. Unfortunately, Andusia was currently busy ying the role of a figurine at Lilith''s ce.


    <em>Speaking of which, I don''t have to enter the room in person, right? My aim is just to send a message to the person in the room and have him contact me once he is done with his business here,</em> Alice thought to herself as she left the crowded corridor and walked into the neighboring corridor.


    Floor 12''s Sector B7 didn''t only have one corridor. However, aside from the one connected to Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room, the other corridors in the sector were sparsely popted. Meanwhile, after walking into the neighboring corridor, Alice looked toward a girl standing at the front of the long line.


    There was a stairwell situated between the crowded corridor and the corridor Alice currently stood in. However, the two corridors weren''t far apart from each other. Alice''s psychic energy had also received significant improvements thanks to Psychokinesis Transcendence. Hence, she could spread her psychic energy all the way to the neighboring corridor.


    Originally, Alice had nned on getting someone at the front of the queue to pass on a message for her. However, when she approached the people at the front, she learned that Magic Tower Know-It-All had one rule that all customers had to abide byevery person was only allowed one question after entering the room. Moreover, even small talk would be considered a question. Because of this, nobody was willing to help Alice pass on her message. It was especially true considering they were strangers.


    Alice felt that should Magic Tower Know-It-All learn about her identity, he would definitely make an exception to the messenger and permit the messenger to ask a few more questions out of respect for her. However, Alice couldn''t tell these innocent students that she was the Demon King.


    <em>Although I feel a little sorry for you, I have no choice but to get you to help me. I promise I''llpensate you if I get the chance in the future.</em>


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    While inwardly muttering an apology, Alice manipted her psychic energy to envelope the girl standing at the forefront of the queue. Psychic energy was very versatile. Aside from being a formless existence, it also had very good mana conductivity.


    In other words, many spells that required physical contact to take effect could be triggered at a distance with the help of psychic energy.


    "Hm?"


    The girl at the front of the line was originally enthusiastically talking to her friend behind her about what she was going to askter. However, she suddenly paused when she felt something was pressing on her temples.


    However, before the girl could figure out what was touching her, a strange mana flowed into her head through her temples, causing her to take on a dazed expression.


    This was the work of Consciousness Transformation, the spirit taboo Alice had previously used on Kamia. However, as Alice didn''t have the mana to castplete taboos, she could only cast a weakened version of Consciousness Transformation right now. Even so, it was enough to take effect against an apprentice magician.


    "What''s wrong?" the girl''s friend asked worriedly upon noticing the girl''s sudden loss of expression. "Let''s go to the infirmary if you''re feeling unwell. We cane back here some other day."


    "No, I just suddenly remembered something, that''s all," the girl said, shaking her head. She naturally declined her friend''s suggestion since there was nothing wrong with her body. She only froze for a moment because she had suddenly thought of something she needed to do afterward. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she couldn''t figure out what exactly she needed to do. However, whatever it was she needed to do, she decided to leave it forter. She had already waited in line for a long time, so there was no way she would leave now that her turn wasing next.


    Soon, the door of the activity room in front of the girl opened, and a boy walked out of it. Seeing this, the girl''s eyes brightened, and she hurriedly entered the room to ask the question she had prepared beforehand. Unfortunately, because of the memory Alice had nted into her mind, she would only be conveying Alice''s message after she entered the room.


    Alice sighed in relief when she saw the girl walking into the room. Consciousness Transformation was a taboo-level spell, so the instructions she nted in the girl''s mind should take effect without fail. However, as Alice still didn''t know how to read memory codes, she couldn''t see what Magic Tower Know-It-All''s reaction was after hearing her message. Though, this situation further increased Alice''s resolve to study this topic afterward.


    After all, the ability to read a person''s memories was considerably useful. If she didn''t learn how to read memories, Consciousness Transformation would be reduced to a spell that could only allow her to nt memories. This was a considerable waste.


    Sometimeter, Alice saw the girl walking out of the room with a confused expression. By the looks of things, the girl was having difficulty remembering what she had just said in the room. However, the girl should have also realized that she had asked a question different from the one she had prepared.


    <em>Well, then. The next step will be to wait for that person to contact me.</em>


    Alice nodded in satisfaction before leaving the area. Once Magic Tower Know-It-All was done with his business, he should take the initiative to contact her. After all, the Demon King sat at the top of the demons'' social hierarchy. As a demon spy, Magic Tower Know-It-All definitely wouldn''t dare to ignore the Demon King''s summons.

 Chapter 309: Classic Mess-Up

    Chapter 309: ssic Mess-Up


    Things turned out differently from what Alice imagined.


    ording to her n, Magic Tower Know-It-All should have tried to contact her in a hurry after finishing his consulting work for the day and fearfully expressed his respect to the Demon King.


    Such groveling behavior might sound exaggerated, but this was normal for the demons who worshiped strength above all else. In fact, even the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings would act likeckeys when dealing with the Demon King. After all, the Demon King was not only a symbol of strength but also the demons'' hope of conquering the human realm.


    Regardless, it had already been five hours since Alice had initiated contact with Magic Tower Know-It-All. During this time, she had practically wandered around all 236 floors of the Royal Magic Tower. Although she didn''t enter every individual room, she had already familiarized herself with the tower''s generalyout and memorized the locations of important ces such as the library, gymnasium, andboratories.


    Magic Tower Know-It-All conducted his operations in the tower under the name of a social club. Hence, the Royal Magic Tower''s authorities did not prohibit Magic Tower Know-It-All''s activities. They only required him to keep his waiting line limited to the corridor outside his assigned club room. This was also why the neighboring corridors were sparsely popted.


    ording to the school rules Alice found while wandering around inside the Royal Magic Tower, social clubs were required to halt their activities by six in the evening regardless of when they started their activities.


    Thinking of this, Alice took a seat in the library and pulled out her phone7 PM.


    One full hour had passed since clubs were required to stop their activities. Although she had received several calls and messages during this period, all of them were from her schoolmates in the March Academy. None of these people were the person she was waiting for.


    <em>Strange Logically, club activities should have long ended already. Could the academy''s side have given him special privileges to operate beyond the time limit? </em>Alice wondered. Though, she didn''t think that this was a likely scenario.


    The Royal Magic Tower was under the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family''s control. The royal family had its own intelligence department, so there was no way it would rely on Magic Tower Know-It-All to acquire information. This meant it was highly unlikely for the royal family to grant special privileges to Magic Tower Know-It-All.


    However, despite the unlikely possibility, Alice still decided to revisit Magic Tower Know-It-All''s club room and check whether he was done with his consultation activities. If Magic Tower Know-It-All refused to contact her even after his activities were done, something must have gone wrong.


    The worst-case scenario would be that Magic Tower Know-It-All wasn''t a demon. Or, he could be a demon spy who had turned traitorous and taken refuge in the Rhine Kingdom. This was a big problem since Alice had contacted the demon spy as the Demon King.


    <em>I''ve been careless. I totally forgot about such a possibility.</em>


    In hindsight, Alice realized how reckless she had been. For example, to make it convenient for the other party to contact her, she even gave Magic Tower Know-It-All her contact number. Needless to say, this was an incredibly stupid move. After all, if the other party met up with her without her knowing that he had already be a turncoat, wouldn''t she be announcing that Alice the Gryffin Princess was the Demon King? Although Alice had realized this problem before it was toote, it still didn''t remove the possibility of the other party investigating her phone number and linking it back to her.


    Unfortunately, there was no use crying over spilled milk. If there really was a problem with Magic Tower Know-It-All, the academy''s authorities should have started taking action to search the entire Royal Magic Tower for the Demon King''s tracks already.


    No, they <em>have </em>taken action already.


    While wandering around inside the Royal Magic Tower previously, Alice hade across many corridors filled with residue mana of various attributes. She had also seen a few people probing around the tower''s rooms and corridors with their mana. She hadn''t put too much thought over these findings previously, but now that she thought about it, the mana residue must have been caused by those people, and those people must have been searching for traces of dark mana within the tower.


    When Alice eventually arrived back outside Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room, her heart thumped. This was because the originally crowded corridor had be empty now. Evidently, Magic Tower Know-It-All had long since concluded his activities for the day.


    Yet, Magic Tower Know-It-All did not contact her even after all this time. Combining this with the people probing around the tower, Alice quickly understood that the Royal Magic Tower''s authorities were already aware of her presence. Or, more specifically, they were already aware that the Demon King was loitering within the Royal Magic Tower.


    As for why the tower''s authorities hadn''t tried to call her and pinpoint her location, she had no idea. If she were on the Royal Magic Tower''s side, the first idea she would havee up with to locate the Demon King would be to call the Demon King''s number and trace the flow of mana. By doing so, she could immediately pinpoint the Demon King''s location.


    <em>Although I don''t know why they haven''t tried to call me, they should have encountered a problem that prevents them from doing so.</em>


    Themunication magic stone embedded in Alice''s phone was one she had bought from a random phone store after arriving in the Rhine Kingdom, and the magic stone functioned simrly to the SIM cards on Earth.


    Alice currently owned three phone numbers, and she switched between them depending on the asion:


    For the demon realm;


    For her use as the Gryffin Princess in the human realm;


    For her use as the Demon King in the human realm.


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    The third number was the one she had bought after arriving in the Rhine Kingdom.


    Although Alice had failed to consider the possibility that "Magic Tower Know-It-All'''' might not be on her side, it was fortunate that she didn''t worsen the situation by giving the wrong phone number to the other party. Otherwise, the Rhine Kingdom would probably quickly realize that the Demon King''s phone number coincided with the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess''s phone number.


    <em>Calm down. The Demon King''s presence in the tower should have gotten out already, so there''s no point debating that. If I were on the authorities'' side, how would I go about investigating this matter?</em>


    Alice returned to the library once again and closely observed the people around her. Most of the people in the library were apprentice magicians, and there were only two faculty members hastily walking around the library with documents in their hands.


    By the looks of things, it didn''t seem like these people realized that the Demon King had infiltrated the Royal Magic Tower. It also didn''t seem like the tower''s authorities realized that she was the Demon King. Otherwise, there should have been many powerful magicians secretly observing her. Since there were none, she still had hopes of salvaging the situation. It was also crucial that she avoided exposing herself any more than she already had and tried to erase all traces of the "Demon King" in the tower.


    After thinking it over, Alice felt that if the Rhine Kingdom were to really investigate the Demon King, aside from the phone number she had left with Magic Tower Know-It-All, the only other way the kingdom could achieve a breakthrough was through the girl who had acted as an intermediary between her and Magic Tower Know-It-All.


    Alice truly didn''t think that her actions would bring such big trouble to the girl, and she couldn''t help but feel sorry for the other party. Fortunately, some of her psychic energy remained on the girl, so Alice could still track down the other party.


    <em>Thankfully, I brought one of the dogkins'' auxiliary totems with me.</em>


    Alice sighed in relief as she pulled out a small totem from her pouch. The totem had the carving of a dog''s head at the top, and it was an auxiliary totem belonging to the dogkins. Although this auxiliary totem''s search function wasn''t as powerful as the dogkins'' chief totem, it could still aplish basic tracking with a very limited search radius.


    However, this ability was more than enough for Alice''s use. She was currently inside the Royal Magic Tower, and the girl she was looking for was the only person carrying remnants of her psychic energy. Hence, as soon as Alice injected some of her psychic energy into the auxiliary totem, she promptly received a general direction from the totem.


    <em>Northeast Upstairs, huh</em>


    Alice lifted her head and looked in the direction where the totem pointed. The auxiliary totem couldn''t provide urate coordinates like the chief totem, so Alice could only conduct her search following this vague direction.

 Chapter 310: Classic Shooting Oneself in The Foot

    Chapter 310: ssic Shooting Oneself in The Foot


    <em>The 46th floor I didn''t think she''d be on such a high floor.</em>


    After taking the mana elevator up one floor after another, Alice finally sensed that she was on the same elevation as the remnant of her psychic energy when she arrived on the 46th floor. So, the girl Alice manipted should be on the 46th floor. Now, what Alice needed to do next would be to search this floor.


    The innermost part of the Royal Magic Tower''s 46th floor was Zone D. Zone A, which was also the original Mi Magic Tower, only existed up until the 20th floor, whereas Zone B only existed until the 30th floor, and Zone C until the 40th floor. Zone D only came into existence when the 41st to 50th floors were added during the tower''s third expansion.


    The 46th floor housed mainlyboratories. Alice walked in the direction her senses led her, passing by manyboratories on her way. Every one of theseboratories wasbeled, though they were given basic names such as Lab 1, Lab 2, Fire Attribute Magic Research Room 1, and so on.


    The asional person Alice passed by on this floor also looked much more mature than the students she met elsewhere. Most of these people should be students from the Royal Magic Tower''s university department. They wore white magic cloaks and could typically be seen holding research materials or documents in their hands.


    When these university students saw Alice, they naturally wondered why Alice, who clearly looked like a middle schooler, would appear on this floor. However, they didn''t think much about it and simply assumed she was here to find an acquaintance.


    Alice didn''t mind these people''s gazes. She wasn''t worried they would suspect her to be an intruder. There was a barrier that enveloped the entire Royal Magic Tower, and this barrier would immediately sound the rm if it detected someone entering the premises without a valid ID. So, since she didn''t trigger the rm, these university students wouldn''t suspect her even if they were confused about why she had appeared on this floor. Instead, they woulde up with their own exnation for her presence here and leave her be.


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    <em>It should be this room</em>


    After tracking down her remnant psychic energy, Alice found herself standing before a room on Floor 46''s Sector E7. The sign hanging on the room''s door wrote "Spirit Magic Research Room 6." By the looks of things, the Royal Magic Tower''s authorities should have realized that she had manipted the girl using spirit magic.


    The good news was that the authorities must have realized that the girl wasn''t the mastermind of this incident and was only a victim. So, they were unlikely to trouble the girl too much. Otherwise, Alice would feel very guilty if the girl got into big trouble because of her actions.


    However, even though Alice had found her target, she didn''t have any way of observing the situation inside the room. Although there were spells that could be used to eavesdrop on others, she hadn''t learned any such spell yet. Moreover, the room seemed to have incredible soundproofing as Alice couldn''t hear anything even after she stuck her ear to the door.


    It should be known that her sense of hearing had long since surpassed the average person''s hearing. Yet, she couldn''t hear the slightest sounding through the door. It was as if the door could prevent even air particles from vibrating.


    Magic in this world allowed people to aplish many unreasonable things. At least, these things were unreasonable in Alice''s opinion. So, Alice wasn''t exactly surprised toe across such a high standard of sound istion.


    Meanwhile, inside the room that Alice had failed to pry any information from, aside from the girl who had the misfortune of being chosen as Alice''s messenger, there were two other people in the room. Among these two, one of them was even someone Alice was acquainted with. This person was none other than Prince Etoria, the Rhine Kingdom''s Second Prince, whom Alice had met during the Conference of Kings.


    The appearance of the Demon King wasn''t a trifling matter, so the Rhine Kingdom naturally had to dispatch someone of suitable authority to investigate this matter. Meanwhile, Prince Etoria just so happened to be the official chosen for the task this time.


    Of course, Etoria wasn''t given this responsibility solely because King Haydn wanted to improve his second son''s resume. While that was indeed one of the factors for Etoria being chosen, it was also a fact that Etoria possessed the strength and wisdom to lead this investigation.


    "Yes, there''s no mistaking it This kind of sophisticated mana structure This child should have been the victim of a spirit-type taboo."


    Aside from Etoria and the girl, the third person in the room was an old man dressed in white robes. This old man was the master spirit magician Etoria had brought to inspect the girl''s spirit.


    After learning that a female student had passed on a message to the Royal Magic Tower''s "Magic Tower Know-It-All" saying that the Demon King was in the tower, Etoria promptly investigated this female student''s background. However, after finding nothing suspicious about the girl''s family background and daily behavior, he quickly realized that someone might have manipted the girl using spirit magic. Hence, before setting off for the Royal Magic Tower, he had brought the royal family''s master spirit magician with him to inspect the female student''s spirit.


    Sure enough, things turned out just like he expected. Someone had used spirit magic to manipte the girl to pass on a message for them. Moreoverit was even a spirit-type taboo.


    Spirit taboos were not spells that one could master easily. Even the white-robed old man, who was a master spirit magician working for the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family, had to expend tremendous effort to cast a spirit taboo. Moreover, his spirit would be drained after doing so, and he would need to rest for several days before making a full recovery.


    However, the person who had manipted this female student evidently did not suffer from spiritual exhaustion even after casting a spirit taboo. Otherwise, this person would have been found copsed somewhere in the Royal Magic Tower already. This also meant that the person who had manipted the female student might very well be the Demon King.


    "The taboo used should be ''Consciousness Transformation.'' It is a very useful and versatile taboo, and it can aplish almost any type of spirit- and memory-rted maniption," the master spirit magician added after seeing Etoria remaining silent. "Should we block ess to the Royal Magic Tower, Your Highness? The Demon King might not have noticed our arrival yet and should still be in the tower."


    "...What can we do even if we iste the tower? If the Demon King notices what we''ve done, she might try to force a breakthrough. What should we do when that happens?" Etoria said, sighing. He wasn''t a fool. He could see the big picture very clearly. "Don''t forget that the Demon King is an existence capable of casually flinging taboos. The Royal Magic Tower might have the Third Hero''s magic stone, but nobody can say if the magic stone can restrict a rampaging Demon King."


    After pausing for a moment, Etoria looked toward the elderly magician and continued:


    "And should the magic stone fail to restrict the Demon King, do you know what consequences would result? Not only will we fail to capture the Demon King, but the Royal Magic Tower might even suffer irreparable damage."


    "But Logically, shouldn''t the Demon King still be in a developing stage at this time? Maybe she still doesn''t have the strength to ignore the magic stone''s restrictions?" the elderly magician said after some thought. He agreed with Etoria''s words to a certain extent. If their opponent was a full-fledged Demon King, it was highly doubtful that the Third Hero''s magic stone could restrict the Demon King. In that case, they would only be digging a hole for themselves should they forcibly restrict ess in and out of the Royal Magic Tower. "If it''s a developing Demon King, I think we still have a chance of capturing her."


    However, after hearing the elderly magician''s words, Etoria shook his head and said, "You should have also read about the historical records on Demon Kings, right? Every Demon King will have their body and mana modified when they start to inherit the Demon King''s Power. Because of this, all the spells they use will be forcibly converted to the dark attribute. Only after a Demon King has grown to a certain extent can they break free from this limitation and learn how to use other attributes.


    "So, do you understand now? You''ve just inspected the girl, right? Was the taboo used on this girl of the dark attribute?"


    "No." The old man finally understood Etoria''s point. At the same time, he couldn''t help but sigh in admiration of Etoria''s insight and acknowledge that Etoria was indeed worthy of being the Rhine Kingdom''s sessor. "The Consciousness Transformation used on this girl isn''t fueled by dark mana. In other wordsthe new Demon King should have grown to a point where she is no longer restricted to only dark mana."


    "...And there is nothing we can do against such a Demon King. Only the Hero can go against her," Etoria said. Then, grunting lightly, he continued, "Let''s go and contact the Hero."

 Chapter 311: Nice Guy Etoria

    Chapter 311: Nice Guy Etoria


    Although Alice didn''t know what was happening inside the room, she couldn''t simply leave since the girl was still inside. She was the reason the girl was in this mess in the first ce. So, she felt responsible for ensuring the girl''s safety.


    After pondering for a moment, Alice took out the magic robe that Lilith had prepared for her. This robe was the standard uniform for the Royal Magic Tower''s students. Although it differed from the March Academy''s magic robe, its functionality was mostly the same. At the very least, when Alice held the robe with her right hand, the weapon information she received was identical.


    [Weapon: Magic Robe Brimming With Mana]


    [Quality: Fine]


    [Effect: Spirit +10, Control +10, Mana +50]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Defense (Passive Skill. Reduces the offensive magic damage you receive by 5%);


    Mana Concealment (Active Skill. Conceals the appearance and aura of the weapon and its user for three minutes.) ]


    <em>Although I''m worried about the situation inside, I can''t just barge in like this.</em>


    Alice stood by the door and concealed herself with the robe''s Mana Concealment skill. She decided that she would wait for the people inside to be done with their business before deciding on her next step.


    The people responsible for overseeing this incident''s investigation shouldn''t be so foolish as to think that the female student was the Demon King''s right-hand man or something of the sort. After all, Alice had never considered the possibility of failure when she carried out her n. So, she had never bothered to erase the residue mana she left behind after using Consciousness Transformation. So long as the people investigating this matter weren''t totally ipetent, they should have noticed that the female student had been manipted by spirit magic.


    As for whether these people would notice the remnant mind power on the girl, that was something dependent on fate. Although Psychokinesis Transcendence''s psychic energy was quite special, a psychic expert could still find some clues if they tried.


    However, Alice doubted that the Rhine Kingdom would mobilize a psychic expert unless they could foresee the future and find out that someone had used psychic energy to indirectly cast a spirit taboo on the female student.


    Just when Alice was about to grow impatient from waiting, the research room''s door finally opened. Then, two people walked out of the room one after another. Among them, the second person to exit was an old man with the aura of a capable magician. The old man even held a magic book in his hand. As for the person walking at the front, he was Prince Etoria, someone Alice had met at the Conference of Kings.


    <em>It''s actually him.</em>


    Alice quickly stepped away from the door to avoid colliding with the two people. Then, she quietly observed Etoria, the prince regarded as the best sessor to the Rhine Kingdom''s throne.


    However, Etoria probably wasn''t aware that someone in the Royal Magic Tower was currently impersonating him to initiate contact with a demon spy operating in the tower and have the demons intervene in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights.


    "Then, I''ll tell Father and have him contact the Hero. Before the Hero arrives, do not restrict ess to the Royal Magic Tower no matter what. We cannot afford to provoke the Demon King. But do make sure to increase surveince on the peopleing and going from the tower. Understood?" Etoria wasn''t aware that an invisible person was currently standing right next to him. So, after walking out of the room and seeing nobody in the corridor, he issued instructions to the old magician behind him without worrying about being overheard. "As for the girl, try to appease her. She is only a victim in this matter, so don''t make things too difficult for her. On second thought, make sure topensate her adequately. She is why we learned about the Demon King''s presence."


    <em>Huh? He''s a surprisingly nice guy.</em>


    Alice was a little surprised. After reading his mind, Luna''s evaluation of Etoria was abysmal. Yet, judging by his current actions, Etoria didn''t seem like a bad person at all.


    Of course, Etoria''s actions weren''t exactly strange, either. The female student in question was innocent, so there was no reason Etoria would make trouble for her. Moreover, anyone capable of bing a student in the Royal Magic Tower would be an apprentice magician with above-average talent. Etoria would be a fool to make enemies with these students.


    However, after hearing Etoria''s instructions, Alice couldn''t help but find this situation a little awkward. It would seem that the conclusion they reached in their discussion was to get the Hero to resolve this problem.


    Of course, this wasn''t a bad decision. The Demon King was a frightening existence that few could match. It was especially true for a Demon King who had already achieved a certain degree of growth. If a battle involving the Demon King were to break out in the Royal Magic Tower, it goes without saying that the tower would suffer catastrophic damage.


    The magic crystal sitting atop the Royal Magic Tower might be able to restrict most destructive spells, but it was still only a Hero''s creation. It was highly unlikely it could stop a Demon King''s rampage, even if said Demon King was only partially developed.


    Hence, the smart move to make in this situation would be to get the Hero''s help. Even if a fight broke out, the Hero could limit the destruction the Demon King caused, reducing casualties and damages to a minimum. There was also the possibility that the Demon King might withdraw without a fight after seeing the Hero making an appearance.


    After all, there was a precedent of the Hero repelling the Demon King outside the Elven Forest. During that battle, the Hero had chased the Demon King away while ensuring the Elven Forest''s safety. So, Etoria must have a lot of confidence in the Hero after that battle.


    After seeing Etoria leave, Alice quietly stood next to the elderly magician, who was waiting for the female student to regain consciousness. Although she felt a little exasperated by this turn of events, it was fortunate that Etoria did not know her contact information. Otherwise, things would be very interesting if he were to call her number in the room.


    The research room''s door and walls might have been soundproofed, but mobile phones would exhibit rtively obvious mana responses when receiving a call.


    <em>At least I managed to verify that the girl is alright. I also learned about Etoria''s next action, so it''s not a total waste of time.</em>


    After observing the elderly magician for a while and ensuring that he wouldn''t harm the female student, Alice quickly left the vicinity. After all, it probably wouldn''t be long before King Haydn contacted her.


    Before that happened, she needed to figure out how she should handle his request. As the Hero, there was no way she could refuse to help with a matter involving the Demon King. Yet, she couldn''t duplicate herself. So, it would seem that she would have to get Luna toe over and put on another act with her.


    <em>There is also that demon spy</em> I thought the spy would be working under the name of Magic Tower Know-It-All, but it doesn''t seem to be the case <em>Alice sighed and massaged her aching temples. This Rhine Kingdom really knows how to cause trouble</em>

 Chapter 312: Thankfully, They Don’t Know I Can’t Read Memories

    Chapter 312: Thankfully, They Don��t Know I Can��t Read Memories


    Through the use of Aspect Separation, Alice snuck into a nearby research room. If she didn''t guess wrongly, the Rhine Kingdom''s King Haydn should be calling her soon. She naturally couldn''t answer his call in the corridor since others could easily overhear their conversation. So, she decided to "borrow" a research room since these rooms had excellent soundproofing.


    Sure enough, it was just like Alice expected. Shortly after Alice entered the research room, her phone rang, and the caller ID was "Haydn Doyle." Alice had previously exchanged contact information with the human kings (Queen Abby of the Vulcan Kingdom included) during the Conference of Kings, so she already had Haydn''s number in her contacts list.


    Fortunately, she didn''t exchange numbers with the princes and princesses who had followed their parents to the conference. Otherwise, Etoria might have contacted her directly just now. With how alert Etoria was then, he would have most likely noticed the weak mana fluctuations from Alice''s phone.


    While inwardly celebrating that she didn''t exchange contact information with the various princes and princesses, Alice answered Haydn''s call. Because she needed to pretend she was still in the Gryffin Kingdom, she feigned ignorance and asked:


    "Hello? King Haydn? Did something happen?"


    Alice spoke in a very casual manner. However, because of Alice''s status as the Hero, Haydn dared not assume bureaucratic airs with Alice, and he could only respond with augh:


    "Haha. Can I not contact you for no reason, Lord Hero?Is what I would like to say, but I really have something I need to ask you for help, Lord Hero."


    When Alice heard Haydn''sugh, the image of Haydn''s gloomy face wearing a forced smile appeared in her mind.


    "Oh? What is it?"


    Although Alice already knew why Haydn had called her, she pretended not to know anything. She might not be a good actor, but it was convincing enough that she wouldn''t attract suspicion to herself. Moreover, Haydn had never thought of suspecting Alice, so he naturally didn''t notice the slight hint of unnaturalness in Alice''s tone.


    "It seems the Demon King has appeared in our Royal Magic Tower," Haydn said without beating around the bush. "She has manipted one of the tower''s students with a spirit-type taboo to initiate contact with an information broker going by the moniker of ''Magic Tower Know-It-All.'' It would seem that the Demon King is trying to recruit him, but he did not fall for the Demon King''s temptations and reported this matter to us immediately."


    "Huh?"


    Alice let out a somewhat surprised voice. This wasn''t an act. She was surprised to learn that Haydn seemingly knew "Magic Tower Know-It-All''s" real identity.


    This situation piqued Alice''s curiosity. If Haydn knew about Magic Tower Know-It-All''s real identity, it might mean that this information broker wasn''t actually the demon spy Alice was looking for but a human instead.


    "Surprising, right? We were simrly surprised when we learned about this. However, seeing as the other party can so effortlessly cast a taboo on a student, we have great reason to suspect that this is the Demon King''s work," Haydn said. Of course, he naturally wouldn''t know that what surprised Alice wasn''t the news of the Demon King appearing in the Royal Magic Tower. Subsequently, he continued in a slightly somber tone, "We originally nned to call the Demon King''s phone number or restrict ess to the Royal Magic Tower, but we decided against doing so when we considered the possibility of provoking the Demon King ahead of time. It will also alert the Demon King that we are aware of her presence."


    "Why didn''t you guys have that ''Magic Tower Know-It-All'' pretend to agree to the Demon King''s invitation and contact her first to keep her distracted?" Alice curiously asked. Had "Magic Tower Know-It-All" arranged to meet with her before she realized her blunder, she would never have suspected a thing.


    "We did consider this point, but the Demon King is capable of casting spirit taboos," Haydn said. "The reason the Demon King is seeking to recruit ''Know-It-All'' is most likely because he holds important information about the Royal Magic Tower. If we let him get near the Demon King, there is the risk that the Demon King wouldn''t bother to have a proper conversation with him and would simply break his spirit with a spirit taboo before forcibly reading his memories."


    Haydn paused for a moment. Then, in a helpless tone, he continued:


    "If that happened, not only would the Demon King receive the information she wants, but she will also learn about our n to use ''Magic Tower Know-It-All'' to trap her."


    <em>No, I''m not that ruthless. I wouldn''t break a person''s spirit just to read their memories. How much of a grudge must I have to do such a thing?</em>


    Alice very much wanted to say that she would never do such a cruel thing. However, considering her current stance, she naturally couldn''t say such words to Haydn. Moreover, unlike what Haydn assumed, Alice the "Demon King" might know how to use spirit taboos, but she didn''t have a single clue when it came to reading a person''splex memory code. Though, nobody would believe her even if she did admit this fact. After all, reading memory codes was one of the most basic things when it came to learning spirit magic. It didn''t make sense that a person who knew how to cast spirit taboos didn''t know how to read memory codes.


    "Which is why we have no way of dealing with the Demon King and can only seek your help, Lord Hero. You''ve beaten the Demon King before, so I''m sure the other party will restrain herself a little once she learns that you''ve arrived," Haydn said, sighing.


    The Demon King was why the various human kings treated the Hero so respectfully. The Demon King was akin to a walking taboo bomb that could infiltrate any country at will. Aside from the Hero, who could possibly stop such an existence?


    It was fortunate that the current Demon King wasn''t a bloodthirsty maniac. Haydn recalled that there were two Demon Kings with utterly unreasonable behavior. When those two Demon Kings invaded the human realm, they did not care what would happen to the human territories they seized. They ruthlessly bombarded the various human kingdoms with taboos, reducing countless cities into rubble and scorched earth.


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    Although the Heroes of those eras had eventually defeated those two Demon Kings, the ruinednds remained uninhabitable for a long time asrge amounts of dark mana had corroded thends and air. At the time, even the demons cursed those two Demon Kings since thends they conquered were even worse than those they had in the demon realm.


    Fortunately, the current Demon King wasn''t like those two lunatics. Otherwise, taboos would probably be flying all over the Rhine Kingdom right about now.

 Chapter 313: Awkward Miscommunication.

    Chapter 313: Awkward Mimunication.


    "Alright. I''ll be waiting for your good news, then."


    After a short discussion, it was agreed that Alice would head to the Rhine Kingdom to deal with the matter regarding the Demon King. Then, Haydn ended the call in satisfaction.


    Meanwhile, Alice sighed in relief when the call ended since the worst-case scenario did not happen. Out of the various scenarios she thought of, the worst would be if Haydn suggested receiving her in person and insisting on joining her in search of the Demon King. She would definitely have her work cut out if that happened.


    Fortunately, it would seem that Haydn cherished his life quite well. After all, he looked like he still had many years left to live. Moreover, unlike Hatter, Haydn wasn''t without a family. In such a situation, it was only natural that he wouldn''t wish to get involved in a fight between the Hero and the Demon King. Although Haydn possessed a certain degree ofbat capabilities, he''d still be blown into smithereens if he got caught up in an exchange of taboos.


    Haydn had also agreed to Alice''s request to secretly enter the Rhine Kingdom and investigate the Demon King. After all, it would be in his favor if Alice could chase the Demon King out of the Rhine Kingdom without startling his people.


    This, in turn, meant that Alice wouldn''t have to call Luna toe over to put on an act with her. All she needed to do was find some deserted ce tounch a few light- and dark-attributed taboos, creating the false image of a battle taking ce between the Hero and the Demon King. Then, she would tell Haydn that she had chased the Demon King away and call it a day.


    <em>But I should still be more careful. I''ve taken things for granted too much before and never considered other possibilities aftering up with a n I can''t continue acting this way in the future.</em>


    Alice sighed after putting her phone away. Although she had managed to cover things up this time, it was best if she didn''t make any more of such mistakes in the future. Had she been a little more careful this time and verified Magic Tower Know-It-All''s identity before contacting the other party, she would have never needed to go through all this trouble.


    In fact, she could have easily aplished this by spreading her psychic power into Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room and checking if he had any demonic organs hidden on his body. Although the demons possessed various means to hide their unique organs, Alice could easily bypass these camouges with Psychokinesis Transcendence.


    <em>It''s also fortunate their fear of the Demon King is preventing them from taking any aggressive actions. This means that I won''t have to worry about my actions in the tower getting exposed.</em>


    After checking the corridor''s situation with her mana and verifying that nobody was outside, Alice walked out of the research room.


    <em>Although security in the tower will probably increase during this period, it''s unlikely they''ll suspect me since I don''t have any dark mana. Even if they do suspect me, they won''t find anything.</em>


    God might have created Alice''s body, but Alice''s magic affinity was the same as an ordinary person''s. She had no particr affinities, and her light and dark mana came entirely from panties. So, even if others suspected her and tried to probe her mana, they wouldn''t find any dark mana in her body.


    On the contrary, if the authorities were to secretly inspect Alice''s mana, it would absolve Alice of any suspicion.


    Anyway, Alice could now rule out the possibility of Magic Tower Know-It-All being the demon spy. After all, if the other party was a demon, it was highly unlikely that he would leak the Demon King''s information to the Rhine Kingdom''s authorities. Unless, of course, the demon spy was a turncoat.


    <em>It seems I''m going to have to give Frosette a call.</em>


    Whether the demon spy was a turncoat or someone else, Alice could easily verify this by contacting Frosette. As someone who was also a demon spy, Frosette should know the identity of the demon spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower.


    Alice had Frosette''s contact information. After returning to the Royal Magic Tower''s library and finding herself a seat, Alice pulled out her phone and sent Frosette a message.


    The reason Alice had visited the library was because many students were fiddling with their phones orptops here. Since most, if not all, of these students, were using the inte with their mobile devices, the library was a mess of mana fluctuations. If she used her phone here, she could minimize the risk of the authorities taking notice of her. Although it was unlikely someone would suspect her even if she used her phone in a deserted location, it wouldn''t hurt to be careful.


    "Frosette, you should have information on the Royal Magic Tower''s spy, right? Can you send it to me? I need it."


    Frosette had most likely set Alice''s number as a priority because it didn''t take more than a minute before Alice received a reply from Frosette:


    "Are you currently in the Royal Magic Tower, Lord Demon King? That ce has strict security, so sneaking should have been quite difficult. As expected of you, Lord Demon King. I noticed you had applied for leave a few days ago, so I was wondering where you were going. I didn''t think you would head to the Rhine Kingdom."


    Frosette''s message conveyed a clear sense of excitement and enthusiasm. However, Alice didn''t mind it. After making small talk with Frosette, Alice quickly received the information she wanted.


    <em>Mador A female spy, huh Oh? A psychic magician? How interesting.</em> Alice read the information she received, her interest slightly piqued. Then, after reading the general information on the female demon named Mador, Alice looked at the picture of Mador that Frosette had sent.


    <em>Um?</em>


    When Alice saw Mador''s picture, a strange expression appeared on her face. However, this wasn''t because Mador looked ugly or unique. Instead, it was because she knew this face.


    After all, the girl in the picture was none other than the female student Alice had previously manipted to be her messenger.

 Chapter 314: Demon King Running Errands

    Chapter 314: Demon King Running Errands


    Although Alice had inadvertently brought trouble to the person she was looking for, she had also helped clear Mador of suspicion in a certain sense.


    The Rhine Kingdom had most likely thought of the possibility of the demons nting a spy in their kingdom. After all, the various human kingdoms had nted their own spies in the demon realm. Among them, one had even made it into the position of a Heavenly King. So, it wouldn''t be strange for the demons to do the same. However, even if the Rhine Kingdom''s authorities realized that there might be a spy in their midst, they probably wouldn''t suspect that the female student manipted by the Demon King would be the spy the demons have nted in the Royal Magic Tower.


    Alice had to admit that the female demon named Mador had concealed herself well. At the very least, when Alice watched Mador chatting merrily with her friends, the other party looked very much like your average student. Not once did Alice stop to think that Mador might be the demon spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower.


    Moreover, Frosette had previously told Alice that the demon spies operating in the various magic academies would know everything there was to know about the academies they infiltrated. This caused Alice to subconsciously exclude the people queuing up outside Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room. After all, why would a demon spy, who knew everything there was to know about the Royal Magic Tower, seek consultation with "Magic Tower Know-It-All"?!


    Anyway, Mador''s information came from Frosette, Alice should have no problems finding the demon spy this time. Moreover, it was highly unlikely that Mador had defected to the Rhine Kingdom. Otherwise, Etoria, the Rhine Kingdom''s sessor, should have recognized Mador. Yet, his behavior showed otherwise.


    After Alice returned to the research room where the old magician and Mador upied, she found the room empty. By the looks of it, Mador must have regained consciousness and was sent away by the old magician during the time she was consulting Frosette in the library.


    <em>How troublesome I should have asked Frosette to give me Mador''s number.</em>


    Alice frowned. The information Frosette sent her was very detailed. Not only did it go into Mador''s origins, but it also talked about the identity Mador used to work undercover in the human realm. It even mentioned the location of Mador''s dormitory and the sses she attended in the Royal Magic Tower. The only thing it did not mention was Mador''s contact information.


    However, Alice couldn''t be bothered to contact Frosette again. Since she knew where Mador was staying, she decided she might as well pay the demon spy a personal visit. As for the possibility of Mador being in a ssroom, that was highly unlikely.


    Evening sses should have ended already, so it was unlikely that Mador had gone to ss after regaining consciousness. Moreover, Mador had her spirit influenced by a spirit taboo today. Although Alice had only used Consciousness Transformation to give Mador some simple instructions, that should have still caused Mador''s spirit to grow somewhat unstable. So, Alice guessed that the old magician had probably sent Mador back to her dormitory after the girl had regained consciousness.


    Mador''s dormitory was situated on Floor 51''s Sector G12. The entirety of Floor 51''s Zone G was reserved for dormitories. When Alice entered this zone, she saw arge sign that said: "No Boys Allowed." Evidently, this ce was the girls'' dormitory.


    The Royal Magic Tower handled its management much more strictly than the March Academy. One''s status did not matter here. So long as one studied in the Royal Magic Tower, one would have to stay in the tower''s dormitories regardless of whether one was a noble or amoner. Although Alice didn''t know why the Royal Magic Tower was so strict even in this regard, she felt that the tower''s authorities must have their reasons.


    Although Alice''s chest was barren and the upper half of her face was covered by the sun hat she wore, it was still possible for others to tell that she was a girl by her delicate limbs and the exposed lower half of her face. So, when the middle-aged woman standing guard at the dormitory''s entrance saw Alice, she let Alice pass without a word.


    After sessfully entering the girls'' dormitory, Alice saw many lightly dressed girls walking around in the corridor she was in. The girls here were much more open than the girls at the March Academy''s dormitory, and Alice couldn''t help but blush a little at this sight.


    However, Alice quickly suppressed her shyness and located Mador''s dormitory. Then, she knocked on the door and waited.


    A momentter, the door opened. However, it wasn''t Mador who had answered the door but a slightly chubby girl instead.


    The Royal Magic Tower''s dormitories housed four upants each. So, it wasn''t strange for Mador to have roommates. After looking up at the chubby girl, Alice asked:


    "Excuse me, but is Mador home?"


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    "Hm? Mador?" The chubby girl looked at Alice curiously, wondering why a middle-schooler was looking for her roommate. However, she didn''t try to pry into the matter. Quickly, she turned around and shouted into the room, "Mador! A little girl is looking for you!"


    <em>Little girl</em>


    Alice''s mouth twitched when she heard how the chubby girl described her. However, she didn''t try to argue with the other party. After all, her current appearance was indeed that of a little girl. It was just that she felt a little irked at being called as such. Such a situation would have never happened if she were in the March Academy since everyone there recognized her and knew about her identity as the princess. Moreover, it didn''t help that she was currently covering part of her face with a hat. If someone were to look at her now and judge her solely by her figure, she would indeed look like a little girl.


    "Huh? Who''s looking for me?"


    Very quickly, Mador walked out of the room and looked at Alice curiously. It was obvious Mador did not recognize Alice. Although Alice had previously seen Mador outside Magic Tower Know-It-All''s room, it was only a one-sided meeting. Mador evidently did not notice Alice back then.


    Alice did not state the purpose of her visit directly. After all, the chubby girl was still standing next to Mador. There were also quite a few people in the corridor looking at her curiously. She naturally couldn''t reveal that she was the Demon King in this situation. Fortunately, it wasn''t difficult to express the purpose of her visit to Mador.


    Subsequently, Alice extended her right hand to her forehead and traced a pattern with her finger. Although Mador was initially confused by this action, realization quickly dawned upon her, and her expression changed a little.


    Alice had outlined the shape of her horn on her forehead. Meanwhile, Mador''s demonic organ just so happened to be a pair of horns that grew from her forehead.


    "Let''s talk somewhere else," Mador suggested. Although she couldn''t figure out Alice''s identity, since Alice did not expose her identity as a demon in front of all these people, it meant that they still had room for negotiations. Hence, she had made such a suggestion.


    Not all spies from the demon realm had a Heavenly King as their parent. Mador didn''t know the Demon King''s true appearance, so it was normal for her not to recognize Alice.

 Chapter 315: Contradictory Proof

    Chapter 315: Contradictory Proof


    "Let''s talk here. The surveince here is broken. It might seem to be working properly, but it will only rey the same footage over and over again It''s been like this for several months already, but the guys in the surveince room haven''t even noticed it until now," Mador said.


    After changing into a more reserved set of clothes, Mador led Alice out of the dormitory area and to Floor 50''s Sector G5. Then, as soon as she verified that nobody else was around, she promptly changed her way of speaking.


    If before Mador spoke like an ordinary outgoing girl, then now her voice became much more mature and serious. If Alice hadn''t seen Mador''s previous behavior, she would have had difficulty imagining her as the same outgoing girl she had seen in the dormitory area.


    However, this wasn''t a particrly surprising sight. There was no way an immature person could be tasked with working as an undercover agent. Moreover, while Mador might not be the Royal Magic Tower''s Magic Tower Know-It-All, it was obvious that she still knew plenty about the Royal Magic Tower. For example, she knew that something had gone wrong with the surveince system in this area. Alice doubted that even Magic Tower Know-It-All knew about this problem. Otherwise, the Royal Magic Tower''s authorities would have been notified about it, and they would have gotten it fixed rather than leave it in a broken state for several months.


    In addition, Alice noticed that this area seemed to be undergoing renovations as the doors of the ssrooms here were all wide open. Meanwhile, looking through these doors, she could see tables and chairs piled up in a corner. There were also some chairs and tables ced haphazardly out in the corridor. It was obvious that few people would visit this ce normally. Combined with the broken surveince system, this was indeed a good ce to hold a secret conversation.


    "So, how did you learn about my identity? Who are you?" Mador asked as she looked at Alice, a grave expression appearing on her face. The fact that Alice knew where and what her demonic organs were showed that Alice didn''t simply suspect that she might be a demon. Had that been the case, she would have already moved to eliminate Alice.


    However, seeing as Alice knew about the horns she had kept hidden, it proved that Alice had already been observing her for quite some time and gained a certain degree of understanding of her. So, rather than act rashly, she decided she would first see what the other party was trying to do before deciding on her next move.


    "You don''t have a parent for a Heavenly King like Frosette, so I guess it makes sense you don''t know me," Alice said, nodding as she reached her own conclusion after seeing Mador''s response. Since the surveince here was broken, she did not need to continue hiding her appearance. So, she removed her sun hat and looked at Mador, saying, "Let me introduce myself. I am Alice. On the surface, I am a princess of the Gryffin Kingdom, but my other identity is this generation''s Demon King."


    Although Alice had one other identity she hadn''t revealed, she naturally wouldn''t tell Mador, a demon, that she was the Hero.


    Meanwhile, Mador was evidently shocked by Alice''s revtion. She had already recognized Alice as the Gryffin Princess when Alice removed her hat. After all, Alice''s face had caused quite a sensation on the human realm''s inte some time ago. As a spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower, Mador had naturally seen pictures of Alice.


    Originally, Mador thought that since a member of the Gryffin Kingdom''s royalty had discovered her identity, she would probably be forced to fight for her life soon. However, before she could gather her strength, Alice''s words had stupefied her.


    As an intelligence agent tasked with working undercover in the human realm, Mador had received strict training before she was dispatched on her mission. So, logically, no matter what situation she encountered, she would never have her actions interrupted by feelings of surprise. Even if she did reveal a dumbfounded behavior, it would most likely be an act. However, the shock she just experienced wasn''t an act. Instead, her brain had truly froze for a moment.


    It couldn''t be helped. The Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice was one of only two people who had a chance of inheriting the Gryffin Kingdom. Yet, such a person was the Demon King? No matter how Mador thought about this, she couldn''t help but find it incredulous.


    "I know you''re having a hard time epting this, but I can prove myself," Alice said. She knew that words alone couldn''t prove anything. Although Mador could verify her identity by asking Frosette, she had a much more efficient method of convincing the demon spy. "Turn around for a moment. I''ll show you some proof."


    Mador still found Alice''s revtion strange. However, for some reason, despite her usual cautious personality, she still turned around obediently. She was probably reacting this way because she still hadn''t fully recovered from the impact of Alice''s words. Combined with Alice''s deceptive appearance, Mador subconsciously loosened her guard around Alice.


    When Alice saw Mador turning away, she quickly reached into her pouch to grab a pair of ck panties. The area they were in was poorly illuminated, probably because of the renovations that were taking ce here. Moreover, ck mist would envelop her hand whenever she held a pair of ck panties in her right hand. So, Alice wasn''t worried that Mador would see her holding panties in her hand. Meanwhile, the tremendous amount of dark mana the ck panties granted her should be enough to validate her im of being the Demon King.


    However, possibly because Alice acted in too much of a hurry, the panties Alice pulled out of the pouch with her right hand weren''t ck. Instead, it was a pair of pure white panties


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Spirit +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Spiritual Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by spirit magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Purification de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that permanently liberates the target''s soul)]


    Alice''s heart thumped when the weapon information appeared in her mind. Although she had promptly let go of the white panties, she was a step toote as her right hand had briefly released a radiant glow that brightly illuminated the entire corridor.


    Mador''s heart likewise began thumping maniacally. She wasn''t blind. She might have had her back facing Alice, but she could still see the blinding light and tremendous amount of mana that briefly appeared behind her just now.


    Mador might have nevere into contact with light mana, so she didn''t know what light mana felt. However, when she linked the tremendous amount of mana she felt with the blinding light she saw, a thought that caused her anxiety to spike appeared in her mind.

 Chapter 316: It’s All a Misunderstanding

    Chapter 316: It��s All a Misunderstanding


    Thebination of blinding light and a tremendous amount of mana instantly caused Mador to think of one person. This person was naturally the enemy of the demon racethe Hero.


    The proliferation of the human realm''s Hero novels in the demon realm in recent times allowed many demons to learn more about the culture surrounding the Hero. Some young demons have even made reading Hero novels into a hobby.


    However, most demons still couldn''t bring themselves to like the Hero. After all, the Hero was the existence standing in the demons'' way from acquiring a better living environment. Even though they knew that reason wasn''t on their side, nobody would care about that when the problem involved their living environment.


    Although Alice''s appearance waspletely different from the Hero''s appearance shared on the inte, there was no way to fake this tremendous amount of light mana. So, Mador guessed that Alice must have used some method to falsify her appearance into that of a muscr man with a beautiful face.


    Mador''s body began to tremble when she guessed Alice might be the Hero. She wouldn''t have been so afraid if she had merely learned that Alice was the Hero. However, the problem was that this "Hero" knew about her identity as a demon. This was a severe problem.


    If a demon spy working undercover in a human kingdom got discovered by the Hero, Mador didn''t even dare to imagine what would happen. Although Heroes historically had good reputations and were people with clean souls chosen by God, the problem was that this reputation was rtive.


    For the humans that were receiving the Hero''s protection, they would naturally view the Hero as a perfect and excellent existence. However, it was a different story for the demons. Although the Hero wouldn''t ughter innocent demons, the Hero would never show mercy toward demons that would threaten the human realm''s peace.


    In that case, would the Hero spare her, a demon spy who had infiltrated the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower, which was treated just as important as a military base?


    Mador felt that the answer would be a definitive no. As a spy working undercover in the Royal Magic Tower, her job was to collect all information avable in the tower and wait for the Hero''s potential arrival. After all, the Hero needed to learn various taboos in preparation for his inevitable fight with the Demon King. Meanwhile, the human kingdoms'' best magic academies would naturally be the Hero''s first pick.


    However, Mador never imagined that the Hero would actually appear in the Royal Magic Tower, much less expose her real identity shortly after arriving. Moreover, the Hero had even exposed her in person. This development put her in a very difficult situation.


    Although Mador didn''t know why the Hero didn''t choose to expose her in front of others, that wasn''t important. What was more important for her to do now would be to resist. If she didn''t resist, it was highly likely that she wouldn''t live to see tomorrow.


    Mador knew that she definitely wouldn''t be a match for the Hero. So, she never thought of fighting the Hero at all. Instead, only one thought came to her mindescape! Only if she could sessfully escape the Royal Magic Tower would anything else matter. Meanwhile, to aplish this, she would first need to use an attack to draw the Hero''s attention.


    "A small problem came up just now. I''ll show you the proof right away"


    Alice still wasn''t aware of the thoughts Mador had gone through in her mind as she was busy looking into her pouch in search of a pair of ck panties. However, before she could grab the panties out of the pouch, a gust of wind rushed at her, causing her hair to flutter.


    "Hm?"


    Alice''s eyes narrowed, her senses telling her that something was amiss. Although her current body''s parameters hadn''t reached a level where she could rival full-fledged Heroes and Demon Kings yet, she had still reached a level where she could cast weakened versions of taboos already. Hence, she possessed senses and reactions far superior to the average person.


    Meanwhile, the instant she felt the wind blowing against her hair, she swiftly tapped her feet against the ground and constructed a translucent golden prism around her.


    This barrier was the product of none other than Enochian Prism, the multi-purpose defensive taboo Alice had learned.


    The next moment, an invisible power struck the golden barrier, causing it to tremble for a moment. However, the invisible power didn''t cause the barrier''s glow to darken even in the slightest, let alone crack it. Evidently, the invisible attack didn''t carry enough power to break Alice''s weakened version of Enochian Prism.


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    "A psychic attack? What a crude way of using psychic power."


    Alice quickly realized what she had just been attacked with. She was very familiar with the invisible power that had struck her barrier. It was none other than psychic power, a product ofbining mana with spirit. However,pared to the psychic power Alice cultivated using Psychokinesis Transcendence, Mador''s psychic power was much cruder. Mador had done a very poor job bncing the amount of mana and spirit she used.


    It wasn''t surprising, though. Psychokinesis Transcendence was a taboo that had extremely precise andplex usage requirements. It wasn''t something the average person could learn. So, the psychic power nurtured with it would naturally be superior to the average psychic power.


    Anyway, back to Mador. It wasn''t outside Mador''s expectations that Alice woulde out of her attack unscathed. After crudely sending a st of psychic power at Alice, Mador promptly ran in the other direction of the corridor.


    With Mador''s understanding of the Royal Magic Tower''syout, Alice was certain that so long as she let Mador out of her sight for even a moment, she would have no more opportunities to find the demoness again. Hence, she naturally couldn''t let Mador escape.


    Mador didn''t know what action Alice would take. After frantically running for a short moment, she turned her gaze to a vent at the end of the corridor. Her immediate goal was to flee into this vent. Once she got into the vent system, she could easily travel to any part of the Royal Magic Tower. Even escaping out of the Royal Magic Tower wouldn''t be out of the question.


    Although escaping via the vents was somewhat embarrassing, Mador couldn''t care less about her image right now. The Hero had already learned of her identity as a demon. The Royal Magic Tower''s authorities might also know about it already. So, she naturally couldn''t swagger her way out of the Royal Magic Tower.


    However, just as Mador was about to reach the vent, a strong gust of wind came down on her from above. Then, under her panicked gaze, an invisible power smashed into the floor in front of her, separating her from the vent.


    Although Mador didn''t see what had just smashed into the floor before her, therge w print that had formed on the shattered floor told her everything she needed to know.


    <em>Dragon''s Shadow</em>


    Thanks to her wealth of knowledge, Mador quickly realized what spell Alice had just used to stop her advance, and she couldn''t help but gulp anxiously and look up in disbelief. Although she couldn''t see what was above her, her experience as a psychic magician allowed her to quickly discern that there was an invisible dragonposed of psychic power directly above her.


    <em>A Dragon''s Shadow activated with psychic power Such a thing is actually possible?</em>

 Chapter 317: I Cant Breathe

    Chapter 317: I Can''t Breathe


    Generally speaking, while psychic power had a broad range of uses, because it involved the magician''s spirit, psychic power was vastly different from mana. So, in the eyes of the average psychic magician, the action of recing mana with psychic power to activate a spell was infeasible.


    However, Alice''s psychic power was different. Her iparably psychic power could theoretically prate the world''sws. So, it was naturally capable of aplishing feats outside the imaginations of psychic magicians like Mador.


    If one were to describe spirit and mana as two types of powder, then the average magician''s psychic power was the product of mixing these two types of powder with water. Although thebined product could still be considered psychic power, it would be crude and nowhere near as fine as powder.


    Alice''s psychic power, on the other hand, was created using a special method thatbined the two types of powder without the use of water. This method would not only lead to the mixing of the two types of powder, but it would also allow the two types of powder to retain their exquisiteness. Because of this, the resulting psychic power could be used in ce of mana to activate spells. In addition, doing so would cause the activated spell to take on the properties of psychic power.


    Of course, Alice naturally didn''t activate Dragon''s Shadow with psychic power because she had nothing better to do. She had done so because Mador had run too quickly. Moreover, she guessed that Mador had used some kind of spell to boost her speed. By the time she reacted to the situation, Mador was already close to reaching the vent ahead.


    Had Alice activated Dragon''s Shadow using mana, the process would require her to release her mana out of her body, transform it into a dragon, and have the Dragon''s Shadow fly after Mador. If she did that, Mador would have long since disappeared into the vent before her Dragon''s Shadow could reach the demoness. Hence, Alice decided to use psychic power to construct her Dragon''s Shadow. After all, psychic power had the property of being able to separate from the user''s body.


    So, Alice tossed her psychic power to Mador''s side and activated Dragon''s Shadow. With this, she could ensure that the Dragon''s Shadow would appear next to Mador immediately after it took form. Then, it could use itsrge body to stop Mador''s advance.


    It was fortunate that the Royal Magic Tower''s corridors were incredibly spacious. The ceilings as well were sufficiently high. So, after Alice restricted her Dragon''s Shadow''s size as much as possible, she managed to avoid destroying the corridor here. However, judging by themotion her Dragon''s Shadow''s stomp had caused, Alice guessed that other people in the tower had already noticed themotion.


    Although Dragon''s Shadow was a taboo, it wasn''t specialized for mass destruction. The magic stone at the top of the Royal Magic Tower would only restrict spells with great destructive properties. Hence, the magic stone did not activate against Dragon''s Shadow. It was simr to how Alice could operate her Consciousness Transformation normally just now.


    Of course, if Alice were to have her Dragon''s Shadow self-detonate, it could absolutely cause mass destruction. At that time, the magic stone would activate.


    However, Alice did not need to take such drastic action. She didn''t use Dragon''s Shadow to kill Mador but to block the demoness''s escape route instead. While she was at it, she could also use Dragon''s Shadow to restrict Mador''s movement.


    Under Alice''s control, the invisible psychic power dragon pressed Mador to the ground with its other paw. However, Alice made sure to be as gentle as she could when doing so. Although she had downsized her Dragon''s Shadow, it was still a dragon, and a dragon''s physical strength was noughing matter. If she used too much strength, she might identally kill the demoness.


    Alice''s idea was simple. Her first priority would naturally be to exin the misunderstanding she had created for Mador. Meanwhile, the way she could do this was also very simple. All she needed to do was give Mador the same excuse she gave to the Four Heavenly Kings: that she was a human with light affinity selected by the Demon King''s Power to be the new Demon King. Hence, she became a Demon King with light and dark affinities.


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    Mador might find it hard to believe initially, but Alice was confident she could change Mador''s mind so long as she showed the demoness that she was capable of wielding both light and dark mana. After all, Demon Kings were former humans chosen by the Demon King''s Power, so although unlikely, it was theoretically possible for a Demon King to have an affinity for light magic. However, a Hero could not be a demon, so a Hero couldn''t have an affinity for dark magic.


    Meanwhile, someone with an affinity for both light and dark magic could only be a Demon King. This was also why the Four Heavenly Kings did not suspect that Alice might be the Hero even after learning that she had a light affinity.


    Unfortunately, although Alice''s n was to capture Mador first and then exin the misunderstanding to her, Alice''s actions took on apletely different meaning from Mador''s perspective.


    Mador had no idea that Alice was trying to rify the misunderstanding regarding her identity. In her opinion, she was a demon spy captured by the Hero. Even if this Hero wasn''t a bloodthirsty person, this Hero would definitely hand her over to the Rhine Kingdom''s authorities.


    When Mador thought of what kind of treatment she would receive should that happen, she felt that she might as well have the Hero kill her right here and now. After all, going by the past reputation of Heroes, it was highly unlikely that Alice would torture her. However, if it were the Rhine Kingdom''s king Anybody capable of bing a king in this day and age wouldn''t be a soft-hearted pushover. The Rhine King might be kind to his people, but he absolutely would not be lenient toward his enemies.


    When Mador thought about how the Rhine Kingdom would subject her to various inhumane tortures to get her to spill information on the demons, she struggled even harder to break free.


    Unfortunately, the thing holding her down was a dragon''s paw. Even if Alice''s current Dragon''s Shadow was slightly weaker than aplete Dragon''s Shadow, it still wasn''t something Mador could struggle out of. Even after using her psychic power to assist her, Mador had only managed to cause the Dragon''s Shadow''s paw to wobble slightly.


    "Honestly, can you stop being so excited? You''re making it look like I''m the bad guy here," Alice said, feeling a little frustrated when she saw Mador''s desperate struggle. The psychic power dragon''s paw was transparent, so Alice could see every movement Mador made. After sighing, Alice crouched down next to Mador and asked, "How do you feel? Do you have trouble breathing?"


    Mador looked at the little girl crouched next to her and chose to remain silent. It was true that Alice wasn''t a bad person. To humans, the bad guys were the demons trying to invade the human realm.


    However, as a demon, Mador knew that the actions of her race were necessary. If they didn''t seek betternd, the demons'' future would only grow worse as time passed. It was also because she knew this that she was resolved to fight the Hero to the death.


    Even so, Mador still couldn''t help but feel afraid. Anybody would feel afraid when they were going up against an opponent they knew they couldn''t defeat, and she was no exception. However, despite her fears, she had no intentions of betraying her race.


    "But it''s going to be a pain to bring you away if you keep struggling like this" Alice muttered under her breath. Although she could have her Dragon''s Shadow carry Mador with her, her Dragon''s Shadow was a massive creature. Even if it was currently invisible to the naked eye, it would still make a hugemotion when it walked down the tower''s corridors that barely fit its body. "For convenience''s sake, I''m going to have to ask you to have a nap."


    After saying so, Alice pulled out the unconscious Milu Rabbit from her doubleyered dress. Then, under Mador''s confused gaze, she smacked the demoness in the head with the Milu Rabbit''s cranium.

 Chapter 319: You Too?

    Chapter 319: You Too?


    "I apologize for my previous rudeness, Lord Demon King."


    After Alice untied Mador, thetter promptly knelt in front of Alice and expressed her apology. Although magic technology and culture in this world had already reached a very developed stage, some formalities from the feudal era remain even to this day.


    Mador did not suspect that Alice was deceiving her anymore. After all, the Demon King''s identity was of utmost importance. Even if she didn''t know about the Demon King''s true identity, Frosette, the daughter of the Heavenly King of Water, and the Four Heavenly Kings should know it, right?


    So long as Alice didn''t n to kill her or hand her over to the Rhine Kingdom immediately, Mador would have opportunities to contact Frosette or report this matter to the Four Heavenly Kings. Then, she could have the Four Heavenly Kings verify Alice''s identity.


    "It''s fine. It was my fault for using the wrong type of mana," Alice said, waving her hand in embarrassment. She was entirely at fault for causing the misunderstanding this time.


    After this incident, Alice found that she needed to separate her ck and white panties. Otherwise, if she created another simr misunderstanding in the future, she might not be able to salvage the situation as well as she did today.


    Spatial storages existed in this world. It was just like the weapon box she used to keep the Hero''s Sword and the pendant she used to keep the power armor. After reflecting on this situation, she felt she might prepare two spatial rings specifically for storing panties. That way, not only could she avoid making another blunder like today, but she could also transfer a pair of panties directly into her right hand with just a thought.


    "Then, the person who had me pass on a message for ''Magic Tower Know-It-All''..."


    Mador suddenly recalled the strange incident she had encountered today. Originally, she had apanied her ssmate to visit "Magic Tower Know-It-All" for a consultation. Yet, when she left Magic Tower Know-It-All''s office, she failed to remember what exactly she had said to the information broker.


    Afterward, she was called upon by a counselor and lost consciousness. After she regained consciousness, an old magician informed her that the Demon King had hypnotized her without her knowing and used her to pass on a message to "Magic Tower Know-It-All" to recruit him.


    Now that Mador thought about this series of strange events again, she had a creeping suspicion that these were all Alice''s doing.


    "Ahem. Frosette went by ''Academy Know-It-All'' in the March Academy, so I subconsciously assumed that ''Magic Tower Know-It-All'' is also a spy." Speaking of this matter, Alice couldn''t help but grow a little gloomy. She felt that she was taking things too much for granted. "After realizing my blunder, I contacted Frosette and asked her for information on the Royal Magic Tower''s spy. Then, I discovered that you, the person I controlled, turned out to be the spy I was looking for."


    Mador couldn''t help but look at Alice awkwardly after hearing the other party''s exnation. Wasn''t this Demon King a little too rash and unreliable? However, Alice''s words and behavior showed that she seemed to be truly acquainted with Frosette. This increased Alice''s credibility in Mador''s eyes.


    All five spies responsible for infiltrating the various human kingdoms'' best magic academies maintained frequent contact with each other. Meanwhile, it was a fact that Frosette was responsible for infiltrating the Gryffin Kingdom''s March Royal School of Magic. Moreover, Frosette was also the daughter of Ellu Shax, the Heavenly King of Water. Frosette definitely knew about the Demon King''s true identity. So, if even Frosette acknowledged Alice, Alice was most likely the new Demon King.


    <em>To think the new Demon King would be the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess</em> Mador was greatly surprised by this revtion.


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    "Anyway, I came this time mainly to learn more about a situation from you." Since Mador basically believed that she was the Demon King, Alice naturally had no more need to hide the purpose of her visit. Even if Mador still held some doubts in her heart, the demoness could simply ask Frosette and the Four Heavenly Kings afterward. "Frosette told me someone has contacted you asking for our intervention in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights."


    When Mador heard Alice mentioning this matter, thest shred of doubt in her heart vanishedpletely. This was because this matter was something known by only the five spies and the Four Heavenly Kings. The fact that Alice knew of this information meant that Frosette truly believed that Alice was the Demon King.


    Hence, Mador did not think of hiding this information and nodded. Then, she began to share all the information she knew:


    "That''s right. The other party seems to have discovered my real identity already. He has sent me multiple letters thus far. Although these letters are disguised as love letters on the surface, the letters'' content is basically a request for the demon race to partner with him to seize power in the Rhine Kingdom, and all of these letters are signed by Prince Etoria."


    "But Prince Etoria clearly doesn''t know about your true identity," Alice said, chuckling. Luna had previously pried into Etoria''s memories. Although Etoria possessed fetishes inappropriate for a prince, it was a fact that he didn''t have any memories of colluding with the demon race. "You might not know this, but the old magician who sent you back to your dorm is actually a highly skilled spirit magician. Moreover, he came to the tower with Prince Etoria."


    Mador came to a realization when she listened up to this point. If Etoria truly was the person trying to collude with the demon race, just now was the perfect opportunity for him to strike. So long as he had the old spirit magician nt some memories into her mind, he could easily manipte her to instigate a war between the demons and the humans. At that time, the demons would have to participate in the war even if they didn''t want to.


    "Not to mention, Etoria was and is currently still the most likely sessor to the throne. He has no reason to partner with us. So, the Etoria contacting you must be someone else," Alice said. "You''ve infiltrated the Rhine Kingdom for some time now. Do you have any ideas who might be doing this?"


    "...If we are talking about someone trying to involve the demon race in the Rhine Kingdom''s session, the most likely suspects would be the other sessors who have very little presence," Mador said after giving Alice''s question some thought. "For starters, there is the Eldest Prince Collins Doyle, who became obsessed with games and anime culture long ago. Then, there is the Third Prince Arcana Doyle, who is still attending middle school but has no character whatsoever. Lastly, there is Princess Lilith Doyle, who seemed to receive no importance from the king whatsoever."


    <em>So the Eldest Prince is an otaku. No wonder he isn''t interested in the throne.</em>


    Alice nodded, seemingly reaching an understanding.

 Chapter 321: Speaking of Thieves…

    Chapter 321: Speaking of Thieves��


    It was highly unlikely that Alice and Mador coulde up with an appropriate answer if they merely held a verbal discussion among themselves. After all, neither had a particrly good understanding of the Rhine Kingdom''s princes and princess. Hence, after roughly discussing their following ns, they parted ways.


    For the time being, Mador''s task was to return and retrieve the "love letters" she received from Alice. However, as those letters contained sensitive information, she had kept them in a hidden location that couldn''t be essed easily. So, she would need a few days before she could bring those letters to Alice.


    Of course, Alice doubted that Mador needed a few days to retrieve a bunch of letters. The demoness was probably using this as an excuse to give herself time to seek verification from Frosette and the Four Heavenly Kings regarding her identity as the Demon King. However, Alice wasn''t concerned about this point. Honestly, she found it a relief that Mador behaved so cautiously. At the very least, Mador''s behavior didn''t seem like she was a traitor.


    As for Alice''s next step of action, it was simpleinvestigate the circumstances surrounding the several princes and the princess. Although it looked like most of the work had fallen onto Alice''s shoulders, it couldn''t be helped.


    Mador had already established her interpersonal rtionship in the Royal Magic Tower. If she wanted to maintain the identity she had built for herself, she couldn''t act rashly. Not to mention, since the person trying to instigate the demons into meddling in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights had sent letters to Mador, it meant that someone apart from the royal family already knew about Mador''s identity as a demon spy.


    Although the letter''s sender didn''t seem interested in telling others about Mador, so long as Mador began investigating this matter, her actions would most likely reach the sender''s ears in no time. Meanwhile, as long as the sender realized their n had failed, nobody could say for certain what they would do. At that time, exposing Mador''s identity would be the least radical form of retaliation. If the sender was desperate, they might even strike at Mador directly to try and intensify the hatred between humans and demons.


    So, the responsibility of investigating the royal family members could only be left to Alice. After all, although Alice had sessfully acquired a fake student ID for the Royal Magic Tower by relying on Lilith, hardly anybody in the tower knew her. As a "transparent person," she wouldn''t have to worry about drawing unnecessary attention when acting.


    "Lilith, huh"


    Alice sighed. After seeing Mador leave the dark ssroom, Alice couldn''t help but recall the girl who went by the name of Blonde Twintails online and had brought her into the Royal Magic Tower today. Despite her reluctance to suspect Lilith, Alice felt that the Rhine Princess was the most suspicious out of the three suspects.


    Lilith was a very obvious otaku. The girl was willing to forge a fake ID for Alice just to acquire a rare figurine, so one could see her obsession with the anime culture. However, Alice still noticed Lilith revealing many suspicious points during their short interaction.


    On the one hand, Lilith hadined about not receiving any importance from her father during their conversation. She also mentioned that she learned about governance and politics when she was a child. Based on these two points, it would seem that she had, at one point in the past, prepared herself topete for and inherit the throne. Unfortunately, King Haydn, Lilith''s father, had long since decided to remove her from the line of session.


    After receiving such treatment, it would be entirely normal for Lilith to feel resentment. Meanwhile, anything could be possible if such resentment was allowed to fester. Alice wouldn''t dismiss her suspicion of Lilith just because the other party was a pretty girl. If Alice judged people solely based on appearances, she wouldn''t have killed the short-sighted Demon King.


    On the other hand, as a princess who the king didn''t value, Lilith might be wealthy, but she would most certainly be limited when it came to authority. Although Lilith could use her identity as the princess to prepare a Royal Magic Tower student ID for someone, her actions would definitely reach the ears of King Haydn and the other princes.


    <em>In that case, how did she prepare a student ID for me without Haydn''s and the princes'' notice?</em>


    Alice recalled Lilith saying she had a thief friend who was highly skilled at making fake IDs. This thief was skilled to the point that they managed to input false information into the Royal Magic Tower''s database. This clearly wasn''t a feat the average thief could aplish. Alice doubted even Rosa had a connection with such a skilled thief.


    So, other than the Rhine Princess, Lilith must have her own specialwork and forces that were helping her in the shadows.


    <em>Tsk. The more I think about it, the more suspicious she bes.</em>


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    Alice couldn''t help but shake her head. Although she couldn''t designate Lilith as the culprit yet based on these points alone, Lilith''s potential motives and hidden forces were already enough for Alice tobel her as suspicious.


    Coincidentally, Lilith had promised to show Alice around during tomorrow''sic convention. Alice felt she could use this opportunity to see what kind of person Lilith was. She could also have Mador contact her "admirer" via the contact method mentioned in the "love letters" and observe Lilith''s reaction. If Lilith showed a reaction, Alice''s suspicion of the girl would definitely increase.


    <em>I really don''t want to plot against people like this</em> Alice sighed. <em>Aside from observing Lilith, I should also try to learn more about her secret forces. If I''m not mistaken, her secret forces should be rted to thieves. And when speaking of thieves</em>


    Indeed. When speaking of thieves, Alice involuntarily thought of her panties suppRosa. Alice thought of Rosa.


    In the past, whenever Alice needed information that was rted to thieves one way or another, she would always find Rosa for help. Rosa might have retired as a thief already, but she had an unexpectedly widework of contacts during her time working as a thief. So far, it didn''t seem like there wasn''t anything that Rosa couldn''t do. She managed to secure even undisclosed technology such as power armor for Alice. It was as if Rosa was Doraemon.


    Although Alice subconsciously felt that even Rosa would have difficulty getting in touch with the thieves as skilled as the one working for Lilith, it wouldn''t hurt to ask.


    <em>Of course, I can''t forget about the Eldest Prince and Third Prince I also have to find a way to investigate them.</em>


    While pondering her next step of action, Alice left the dark room.

 Chapter 322: What’s In Front Is Hell

    Chapter 322: What��s In Front Is Hell


    Early the next day, Alice woke up to two legs and one arm spread across her body. These limbs did not belong to her but to the two nerdy female students sleeping next to her instead.


    The information she acquired through eavesdropping on the two girls'' conversation was urate. The two other upants of this dormitory did not returnst night. So, Alice easily secured herself a ce to sleep after inserting a segment of memory fragment into the two girls'' memories with Consciousness Transformation, the memory fragment causing the girls to subconsciously ignore her presence in the room.


    The memory fragment also worked wonders. Neither of the two female students had minded Alice''s presence in their room. When the dormitory manager came for an inspection, Alice simply hid in the bathroom and took a shower.


    The dormitory manager had already been informed that only two girls would be sleeping in this room tonight. So, when she saw two girls in the room, she left without suspecting anything. However, the manager probably never thought that not only were there no missing upants in this room but there was even one extra hiding in the bathroom.


    Unfortunately, it would seem that the effect of Consciousness Transformation had worked a little too well. It was to the point where the two girls had ignored Alice''s existencepletely.


    The four beds in this room were put together in a row. Because Alice did not exist in the two girls'' consciousness, they slept unrestrainedly at night, each of them upying two beds and sleeping in a spreadeagle position. Meanwhile, Alice, who slept between them, had the misfortune of sleeping with the two girls'' arms and legs spread across her body.


    <em>Sure enough, free lunches won''t taste very good. Whatever</em>


    Although Alice found it ufortable to wake up to two legs and an arm pressing down on her body, it was a fact that she had borrowed the two girls'' dormitory for a good night''s rest. Moreover, she wouldn''t have to experience this same situation again tomorrow. She only had to spend the night in the Royal Magic Tower because she had wasted too much time on Mador''s matter yesterday. So long as she made sure not to stay in the Royal Magic Tower past the curfew, she could rent a ce outside the tower.


    So long as she made sure not to stay in the Royal Magic Tower past the curfew, she could rent a ce outside the tower. Moreover, her student ID wasn''t tied to any dormitory. So, nobody would realize that Alice wasn''t actually staying in the Royal Magic Tower.


    After pushing aside the arm and legs on top of her, Alice got out of bed and quietly entered the bathroom. Then, she pulled out her toiletries from her backpack, washed herself up, and left the room. Throughout this entire process, the two female students remained sound asleep on their four beds.


    It was still early in the morning when Alice left the room. Although there were already signs of activity in the corridor, the dormitory area was still rtively quiet. Apart from a few diligent students, most students would probably need some more rest before they were ready to start their day.


    Since there was nobody in the corridor to see Alice leaving the room, there would be no possibility of anybody suspecting her. After leisurely walking out of the dormitory area, Alice took the mana elevator to the first floor and waltzed out of the Royal Magic Tower.


    Nobody would realize that Alice was the "Demon King" who the Rhine Kingdom was currently worrying about. Even if someone did take notice of her, they were unlikely to suspect her of being the Demon King, especially not after seeing her appearance.


    Because of her identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, Alice was rtively well known in the human realm. Should others take notice of her, they would only be surprised and wonder when the Gryffin Princess had entered the Royal Magic Tower. Nobody would suspect her of being the Demon King.


    The ginormous "Franken Convention Center" located in the heart of Icarus City was an incredibly famous venue. Cultural exhibitions of all kinds would often be held here. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that the convention center was in use all year round.


    Meanwhile, the event hosted here today was the "30th Icarus City Anime and Game Convention."


    When Alice arrived near the venue, she saw countless convention goers making their way into the convention center.


    Alice had watched some of this world''s anime recently. Although most anime in this world had rtively old-fashioned plots, in her opinion, thanks to the assistance of magic, the production standard was in no way inferior to the anime she had watched on Earth before she had transmigrated. The anime in this world was even superior to Earth''s anime in certain aspects, such as magic special effects.


    When Alice got closer to the convention center, she saw quite a few people cosying, creating a very vibrant scene. Originally, Alice would attract a lot of attention because of herrge sun hat. However, her appearance became inconspicuous when she stood among the various strangely-dressed cosyers.


    "Number Two! Over here! Over here!"


    When Alice approached the meeting point she had previously agreed on with Lilith, she quickly found Lilith. Lilith was obviously cosying today as she wore a costume that gave her the appearance of an angel. Although Alice didn''t know what character Lilith was cosying, the pair of white wings on Lilith''s back made her stand out a lot.


    Moreover, thanks to the power of magic, the wings were even moving along with Lilith''s movements, looking like they were a real pair of wings. It also didn''t look cumbersome to wear and move around in. When it came to cosying, this otherworld definitely had Earth beaten.


    Lilith did not use Alice''s name when she called out to Alice. Although "Alice" was a rtivelymon name, the name had received a lot more attention ever since Alice was announced as the Gryffin King''s illegitimate daughter and the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess. In addition, Alice''s appearance was also widely known in the human realm. So, if Lilith were to yell out Alice''s name and draw attention to Alice, others would quickly notice Alice.


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    "You sure are brave toe here dressed like this," Alicemented after walking up to Lilith and scrutinizing the other party''s costume.


    There wasn''t anything wrong with Lilith''s costume. It was quite the normal costume, and it wasn''t particrly revealing. The problem was that Lilith had hardly done anything to decorate her face. Even her hair was her original blonde hair. She had simply done away with her twintails and allowed her hair to cascade down her back like a waterfall.


    "I''m not like you. I''m not really famous in the Rhine Kingdom," Lilith said, shaking her head and sighing. Then, she pointed at her face and continued, "Also, I''ve put on some light makeup. Although it doesn''t change my appearance by much, it is unlikely that anybody will recognize me. Speaking of which, do you know which character I am cosying today?"


    Alice shook her head nkly, her response causing Lilith to roll her eyes in exasperation and say:


    "Didn''t I rmend the anime to you before? It''s called Legend of Angels, and it''s an excellent work. I''m cosying as one of the heroines. You should put more effort into catching up with these great works."


    Alice smiled awkwardly but didn''t say anything. She had been so busy recently that she didn''t really have time to watch anime recently. Alice also noticed that Lilith had seemingly transformed into the "Blonde Twintails" she knew online after arriving at the anime convention. The girl did not behave like she was the princess of a kingdom.


    Lilith did not get angry with Alice. Instead, she quickly picked up the bag next to her feet and held it up for Alice, smiling as she said, "I''ll forgive you this time, but make sure to watch itter. Anyway, I brought you a costume as well. It''s for the little sister of the character I''m cosying as. The little sister also has blonde hair, and her body is slightly smaller. I''ve long felt that you would be perfect for this role.


    "Don''t worry. I''ll put on some makeup for you so others won''t recognize you easily. Even if someone does recognize you, it would only happen on the inte a few dayster."


    "I-I''ll pass"


    Alice''s face twitched when she heard Lilith''s words. She had never cosyed before, even before she transmigrated. So, she subconsciously tried to refuse the costume Lilith offered her.


    However, before Alice could retreat, Lilith grabbed her shoulders and reached for her twintails, saying, "Rx, rx. I''ve nned out everything already. I''ll make sure you have an enjoyable time here."


    Alice''s heart sank when she saw Lilith reaching for her twintails. Hurriedly, she tried to stop the other party.

 Chapter 323: The Tale of The Nobilitys Social Death

    Chapter 323: The Tale of The Nobility''s Social Death


    TL Notes:


    Changes made to Chapter 315 (15th-August-2022):


    Original:


    The Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice was one of only two people who had a chance of inheriting the Gryffin Kingdom.


    Changed to:


    The Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice was potentially the only sessor to the Gryffin Kingdom.


    Since the Icarus City Anime and Game Convention was the grandest anime convention held in the Rhine Kingdom, the event host naturally prepared a ce for cosyers to change clothes. Specifically, dressing rooms were prepared all over the outside of the Franken Convention Center. Meanwhile, as an evil abuser of authority, Lilith had naturally gotten her hands on an exclusive dressing room.


    Currently, though, inside Lilith''s exclusive dressing room, Lilith, the room''s owner, was wearing a fawning smile as she looked at Alice.


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    "It was my bad, Alice. Don''t be mad" Lilith pleaded awkwardly as she looked at Alice sitting on a chair sulking. "Every noble would more or less have some kind of strange fetish, so you don''t have to be embarrassed about having one. You might not know this, but my second elder brother also has a strange fetish"


    Although Alice had already responded very quickly just now, because Lilith was holding onto her at the time, the other party could grab her twintails simply by lifting her hands. So, even though Alice had reacted quickly, she was still a beat toote to stop Lilith''s actions.


    By the time Alice caught Lilith''s hands, Lilith had already taken off one of the "hair ties" keeping her twintails in ce. Although the "hair ties" she used looked no different from an ordinary hair tie when it was all bundled up around her hair, as soon as it was removed, any person with discerning eyes could instantly tell what these "hair ties" really were.


    It was fortunate that not many pedestrians nearby were paying attention to Alice and Lilith at the time. After all, although they were beautiful girls, it would be incredibly rude to stare at two girls up close. As for pedestrians standing further away, even if they noticed Alice and Lilith messing around, they''d have difficulty discerning that the "hair tie" in Lilith''s hand was actually a pair of white panties.


    Afterward, it went without saying that Alice quickly snatched her panties back as quickly as she could. Then, she picked up her hat that had fallen to the ground, put it on, and walked to the dressing room Lilith previously mentioned in a huff.


    Of course, despite her current angry performance, Alice wasn''t actually angry. Instead, she only behaved angrily to hide her anxiety and divert Lilith''s attention. If she behaved angrily enough, Lilith might shift her concern away from the topic of "Alice''s hair ties are panties" to the topic of "Alice is angry."


    Sure enough, Alice''s idea worked. Lilith was more concerned about Alice being angry at her than Alice using panties as hair ties. It should be known that Alice was the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, while she was the Rhine Kingdom''s princess. If she ended up angering Alice in the Rhine Kingdom, it might be a diplomatic incident.


    Strictly speaking, Lilith felt that she was at fault in this situation. After all, she had rudelyid her hands on Alice''s twintails and exposed Alice''s fetish in public. Though, if Lilith were to be honest, while Alice''s fetish was quite strange, it wasn''t umon to see such strange fetishes among nobles. Compared to some fetishes Lilith had seen among the Rhine Kingdom''s nobility, Alice''s act of using panties as hair ties could even be considered tame. Alice''s fetish was so harmless that Lilith didn''t even think it was worth using it as ckmail material. After all, the only thing she could achieve by exposing this fetish to the public was to give Alice a social death.


    So, after a brief moment of surprise, Lilith quickly followed Alice and begged for Alice''s forgiveness like a fawningckey. One shouldn''t be fooled into thinking they were on equal footing simply because they were both princesses. In reality, there was a huge gap between the Gryffin Kingdom''s sole sessor and the Rhine Kingdom''s abandoned princess.


    Moreover, personally speaking, Lilith was quite fond of Alice, who looked simr to her and shared simr hobbies. If possible, she didn''t wish for Alice to hate her.


    However, Lilith''s concerns were unnecessary. Alice wasn''t actually angry at Lilith, much, much less hated her. She was only trying to gauge Lilith''s reaction. If Lilith was someone who couldn''t keep a secret, Alice wouldn''t mind using Consciousness Transformation on Lilith.


    Fortunately, Lilith seemed quite sincere in her apology, and it didn''t seem like she was the type of person who couldn''t keep a secret. For example, even though Lilith had hinted at Etoria having a strange fetish, she never actually revealed Etoria''s fetish. Of course, even without Lilith mentioning it, Alice already knew that Etoria had a lolicon fetish. She even knew that the prince was keeping a dwarven university student outside the pce.


    "Fine. I''ll forgive you," Alice said, sighing. She was never angry, to begin with. She was simply concerned that Lilith would expose this so-called fetish of hers. While she wasn''t concerned about facing social death as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, she absolutely couldn''t afford to do the same with her identity as the Hero and the Demon King since these identities concerned her future.


    "Great. That''s a relief."


    Lilith sighed in relief when she saw that Alice seemingly wasn''t as angry as she had imagined. However, she also noticed that Alice appeared very concerned about her reputation, so she made a mental note to carry Alice''s secret to the grave.


    Then, seemingly thinking of something, Lilith suddenly tapped her head and said to Alice:


    "By the way, you''ve never met my eldest brother, right, Alice?"


    Lilith''s eldest brother. In other words, the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest princeCollins Doyle. Alice had searched his information on the inte yesterday and found quite a lot of information on him, though most of it was information on his childhood. When he was young, Collins Doyle was a cute little boy, but King Haydn suddenly stopped attaching importance to him as he grew older. Because of that, Collins'' presence on the inte gradually faded, and there was very little information on him after he grew up.


    Nowadays, hardly anybody talked about Collins on the inte. There weren''t even photos of his current appearance, and the most recent image was one that was taken over a decade ago. Alice doubted that anybody would recognize Collins even if he were to appear in public right now.


    "As an apology, I''ll take you to meet my eldest brother. He is also attending the convention this time," Lilith said as she pulled Alice out of her chair. Then, she smiled and continued, "Actually, my eldest brother is a regr at this convention. But because he hasn''t shown himself to the public as the prince for a long time now, most of the people acquainted with him don''t actually know he is the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince."


    <em>Collins, is it</em>


    Although Alice was a little confused as to why Lilith was using "a meeting with Collins" as an apology, she naturally didn''t object to Lilith''s arrangement. She had just been agonizing over how she could get in touch with the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince, and here Lilith was offering her the solution. The best part was, all she needed to do was throw a small tantrum to receive this opportunity.


    Of course, it still didn''t change the fact that Alice found Lilith''s way of apologizing confusing. If she didn''t happen to be investigating the Rhine Kingdom''s princes, who could possibly feel the sincerity in Lilith''s apology?


    TL Notes:


    [1]the Gryffin Kingdom''s sole sessor: I''m not sure if the author forgot about Kristine/Kryst or if Lilith is assuming that Alice is the only one with session rights since Alice and Kryst are both Hatter''s "illegitimate daughters" and it didn''t make sense to give both illegitimate children session rights to the throne.

 Chapter 324: Otokonoko Group

    Chapter 324: Otokonoko Group


    Although the cultural development of this world hadn''t reached the level of Earth before Alice transmigrated, the existence of magic allowed the inhabitants of this world to aplish things that couldn''t be aplished with the technology avable on Earth. Hence, the culture of this world could still be considered to be thriving. At the very least, the liveliness of the anime convention here was not the least bit inferiorpared to the major anime conventions she had visited back on Earth.


    As the event today was a convention hosted to promote both anime and games, the convention center wasn''t solely reserved for anime content. More specifically, the first floor of the convention center was reserved for the various bigshots involved in the gaming industry. Thesergepanies set up grand and eye-catching booths to disy various new products and games. Alice even noticed some booths disying immersion-type game consoles made using special magic stones. When it came to the development of game consoles, this world definitely had Earth beaten.


    In reality,pared to anime-rted content, Alice was more interested in the gaming peripherals disyed on the first floor. It couldn''t be helped. Few anime and manga in this world had plots that could attract her interest. In contrast, gaming consoles that were leagues ahead of what was avable on Earth were much more interesting to her.


    Unfortunately, as Lilith''s eldest brother Collins was currently on the second floor, Alice had no choice but to put her ns to look around on hold for now.


    The convention''s second floor housed booths of smallerpanies. Unlike the booths on the first floor, the main focus of the second floor''s booths wasn''t technological products but rather games instead. As a result, Alice''s interest plummeted significantly.


    However, it was a different story for the natives of this world. The attraction these booths held was not the slightest bit inferior to the bigpanies showcasing game consoles. At the very least, the crowd surrounding these booths was not the least bit smaller than the crowd on the first floor.


    One thing worth mentioning was that Alice and Lilith had received many requests to take photos of them. Some of these people were even Lilith''s acquaintances, and they took advantage of this connection to ask Lilith and Alice to do a few poses for them. Although Alice felt a little diforted by these requests, she still mimicked Lilith and did a few simple poses.


    At this time, Alice suddenly understood why Andusia would freak out whenever she saw Magical Girl Hikari posing. She might not feel anything when seeing others do such embarrassing poses, but she found it truly embarrassing when she had to do these poses herself. She would always get the urge to dig a hole to hide herself after she was done posing for photos.


    Fortunately, Lilith had helped Alice put on some makeup before they left the dressing room. So, although others could still recognize Alice if they looked carefully, it should be a while before anyone actually recognized her. Most people would only think she looked simr to the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess at first nce.


    "Okay, okay, I get it. I''ll take you to meet my eldest brother now," Lilith said, raising her hands in surrender when she noticed that Alice''s patience was running thin.


    Despite Alice''s cute appearance, Lilith couldn''t help but feel an inexplicable sense of pressure when Alice red at her. It felt as if a powerful creature was staring at her. This was the first time she had experienced such a feeling.


    It should be known that Lilith was not weak at all. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that she was invincible among those the same age as her. Even her talented second elder brother Etoria wouldn''t necessarily be her match.


    After all, she was different from her second brother Etoria, who had his attention distracted by various government affairs, and her eldest brother Collins, who had focused his attention on games and other things. She had plenty of time on her hands, so she used that time to train her strength. Because of this, she could proudly say that her strength was absolute among those of the same age.


    Although Lilith didn''t understand why she would get goosebumps when receiving Alice''s re, she eventually caved to the pressure and stopped dragging Alice around to take photos. Afterward, even when she came across some acquaintances asking for photographs, she would politely refuse them and promise to let them do so next time. Then, she led Alice to a small booth on the second floor.


    When Alice looked at this booth, she noted that it belonged to a smallpany that wasn''t particrly well-known. The booth mainly disyed a new mobile game and a fewics. In addition to a few staff dressed in uniform showcasing their game to visitors, a receptionist was sitting on the booth''s front desk ying with her phone.


    "Yo, I came to see you."


    Lilith walked up to the receptionist and greeted the other party with a smile. However, her arrival didn''t get a positive response from the receptionist. Instead, the receptionist, who wore a ck and white gothic lolita dress, raised her eyelids and swept a nce at Lilith through her dark brown bangs. Then, she curled her lips and said in a disgusted tone:


    "Why are you here? Weren''t you uninterested in games?"


    "Am I not allowed to visit you just because I''m not interested in games?" Lilith said, smiling. Then, she pointed at Alice, who was curiously looking at the promotional video disyed on the booth. "Let me introduce a friend to you. You might not care about our family''s affairs, but you should still socialize a little, right?"


    "Socialize?" The receptionist frowned and looked at Alice, finding that Alice had also turned to look at him. "This isthe Gryffin Kingdom''s princess?"


    "You recognize her? Well, I guess that''s not surprising. She might have put on some makeup, but anyone who knows her should be able to recognize her easily," Lilith said, chuckling. Then, under Alice''s gaze, Lilith pointed at the "girl" sitting on the booth and continued, "So, Alice, this is my eldest brother, that is, the Rhine Kingdom''s Eldest Prince, Collins Doyle."


    "Hello, I''m Alice."


    Alice''s expression turned a little strange as she looked at the "girl" dressed in a gothic lolita dress. Although she already more or less knew what was going on when she saw Lilith striking up a conversation with the "girl," she didn''t think that the Rhine Kingdom''s Eldest Prince would be a crossdresser.


    Moreover, Collins had done an incredible job crossdressing himself. Not only did he look nothing like a man, but even his voice sounded very feminine. If it weren''t for Lilith''s introduction, Alice would have never guessed that this "girl" was actually a man, much less the Rhine Kingdom''s Eldest Prince.


    "Hello. I''ve heard about you. You caused quite themotion on the inte some time ago," Collins said as he picked up a pair of sses from the table and put them on. Then, he nodded indifferently and continued, "I didn''t think you would also be interested in anime culture. That''s good to hear."


    Alice had trouble keeping up with Collins'' words. Fortunately, Lilith quickly exined to her:


    "Few nobles like this sort of thing. So, it''s rare to find a kindred spirit among the nobility."


    After hearing this, Alice finally understood why Lilith would react so excitedly when they first met. It was most likely because very few nobles were interested in the anime culture. So, Lilith must have felt like she had found arade when she met her.

 Chapter 325: These Two Things Are Completely Irrelevant to Each Other

    Chapter 325: These Two Things Are Completely Irrelevant to Each Other


    "So, you were the one who gave that figurine to Lilith?" Collins asked as he looked at Alice in surprise. "Ever since Lilith got her hands on that figurine, she''s been sharing pictures of it everywhere and saying all sorts of good things about it. My LINK has been flooded with pictures of her figurine since yesterday"


    "Stopining and just admit that you''re jealous," Lilith said as she wrapped an arm around Alice, who sat next to her. Then, she looked at Collins and provocatively said, "But you can''t buy it even if you want to. That figurine is extremely rare and not for sale. I still don''t know which manufacturer made it. Although the design looks like it came from KG, this level of craftsmanship isn''t something KG can achieve."


    Find the original at Hosted Novel.


    Alice drylyughed when she heard Lilith''sment. In reality, Andusia''s body dide from the manufacturer going by the name of KG Company. However, the manufacturer themselves probably didn''t expect that they had used Living Wood for one of the figurines they sculpted.


    Living Wood was an extremely rare alchemy material. Even though it was mentioned in alchemy textbooks, it was so rare that most people would never get to see or touch one in their lifetime. Lilith most likely wasn''t an expert in alchemy, nor had she evere into contact with Living Wood. So, it was understandable that she couldn''t tell what material Andusia''s body was made from.


    Meanwhile, Alice couldn''t help but feel conflicted when she saw Lilith''s fondness toward Andusia. Originally, she had intended for Andusia to escape Lilith''s grasp after spending some time with the girl. After all, she wasn''t acquainted with Lilith, so she naturally wouldn''t feel burdened from doing such a thing.


    However, Alice now started to think that maybe she should offer Lilith somepensation. For example, she could get her hands on another block of Living Wood and stuff a soul fragment into it. Andusia had studied soul magic before and told Alice some general information regarding souls, and one of the things Alice learned was that the air that they breathed actually contained some soul fragments.


    The majority of these "ambient" soul fragments were the remnants of deceased people''s souls. Although they weren''t conscious, they still had themon characteristics of souls. If she stuffed some of these soul fragments into Living Wood and had it mimic the characteristics of a human body, she could potentially create a life-like figurine simr to Andusia. The only difference between this new figurine and Andusia would be that it wouldn''t be conscious.


    <em>Let''s find a block of Living Wood, have KG Company carve it into a Magical Girl Hikari figurine, and stuff some soul fragments into it The guilt will haunt me forever if I don''tpensate her somehow,</em> Alice thought to herself, sighing as she quietly watched Lilith happily showing off to Collins.


    This was the problem with forming too deep of a connection with others. These feelings of attachment would make her hesitate when it came time to make decisions. Had she never gotten to know Lilith so much, she might not have worried about what would happen if she tricked Lilith.


    "By the way, didn''t something big happen in the Royal Magic Tower yesterday?"I heard the Demon King snuck into the tower?" Collins suddenly asked.


    Although Collins, Lilith, and Alice were enthusiasts of anime culture, they were still members of the nobility. So, after their conversation went on for a bit, Collins eventually brought up thetest news that had caused a sensation among the Rhine Kingdom''s noble circles.


    "Yes. The matter was given to Second Brother to handle. It seems the old man is trying to increase his presence and reputation among the general public," Lilith said, pursing her lips in frustration. "I heard that the old man has contacted the Hero already, but they will handle this matter secretly to avoid alerting the Demon King. It''s going to be a big problem if the Demon King rampages in the middle of Icarus City."


    "In short, it''s none of our business. I''ll just stick to being azy shut-in," Collins said. Despite dressing like a gothic girl, his otaku temperament could be clearly felt. Then, he looked toward Alice and added, "Anyway, I''m currently working in this smallpany. If you need my help in the future, feel free to contact me directly."


    After exchanging contact information, Alice and Lilith left the booth. After all, Collins was in the middle of work. However, judging by the other staff members working at the booth, it didn''t seem like they knew their cross-dressing receptionist was actually the country''s eldest prince.


    "What do you think? My eldest brother didn''t disappoint you, right?" After walking some distance away, Lilith poked Alice''s shoulder and smiled. "He might not have shown himself in public for a long time, but he is still a well-known entric in the Rhine Kingdom''s noble circles."


    "He is quite odd indeed But he should be a good person seeing as he can show his interests so openly," Alice said, nodding and acknowledging Collins'' character. Of course, she would still investigate Collins regardless. Even if Collins was a crossdresser, it didn''t mean he was void of suspicion. Be it Lilith or Collins, Alice intended to conduct a thorough investigation on both of them.


    "Then, let''s act separately now. I noticed you were interested in the game consoles downstairs. In that case, go and enjoy yourself," Lilith said, smiling as she nudged Alice''s back. "In the meantime, I''ll meet with my friends for some business. Once you''ve had enough fun, call me if you need my help."


    Alice nodded, agreeing to Lilith''s suggestion. After receiving Alice''s confirmation, Lilith ran toward another booth, not forgetting to turn around and wave goodbye to Alice partway.


    <em>She behaves like a kid.</em>


    Alice chuckled helplessly. However, she did not let her guard down simply because Lilith behaved like an energetic child. If she believed that Lilith was a naive person simply because of the girl''s innocent behavior, she would be the naive one.


    After seeing Lilith off, Alice made her way to a nearby restroom. Then, she entered a stall, reached into her pouch, and pulled out an anal plug


    <em>When ites to collecting information, I definitely can''t do it in person. </em>After brieflymenting the dagger''s strange appearance, Alice activated the weapon''s skill. <em>So, let''s have the Dark Guards do it for me.</em>


    The next moment, ck mist poured out of the weapon in Alice''s hands and coalesced into two pitch-ck figures. One was a loli withvender hair wielding a giant hammer, while the other was a shota magician.

 Chapter 326: Handyman (Referring to Andusia)

    Chapter 326: Handyman (Referring to Andusia)


    The Dark Guards created by "Chaos General" held an advantage over Alice when conducting reconnaissance work in that they were tools. This wasn''t just a saying. The Dark Guards truly were tools. They didn''t have any physiological functions that normal people had, so their bodies wouldn''t have to move because they needed to breathe and whatnot.


    If one were to touch these Dark Guards'' bodies, one would find that these Dark Guards could literally stand still without moving. It''d be akin to touching an inanimate object. Even their mana would remain like a pool of stagnant water when they didn''t need to use it. This would reduce their chances of being noticed by the targets they stalked.


    However, not all was sunshine and rainbows with the Dark Guards. The Dark Guards also came with a set of problems of their own. For example, the Dark Guards would never take the initiative to speak. Although they possessed rtively good intelligence that allowed them to carry out simple orders independently, they wouldn''t speak up unless requested. Even then, they would only respond curtly to the questions they were asked. So, if Alice failed to ask the right questions, she might miss out on important information.


    <em>Thankfully, I prepared for this situation.</em>


    Alice had naturally considered this problem when she decided to use the Dark Guards for reconnaissance work in the future. Hence, she bought some tools to help resolve thismunication problem. So, after chuckling softly, she pulled out two small spherical cameras from her pouch.


    These spherical cameras were made to look like eyeballs. Of course, they couldn''t actually be used to rece a person''s eyeballs since they only possessed a standard camera function. However, this was enough for Alice''s purposes.


    Under Alice''s control, the two Dark Guards received her will and nodded. Then, both of their left eyes sunk into their eye sockets before eventually vanishing. Although the Dark Guards couldn''t freely change their appearance, Alice could still make minor modifications, such as removing an eyeball.


    After seeing the loli and shota indifferently take the eyeball cameras and stuff them into their empty left eye sockets, Alice nodded in satisfaction. With this, the eyeball cameras could record all the information the two Dark Guards gathered.


    "Go on. Make sure not to follow too closely. Just make sure you can capture the people they interact with on video," Alice said to the Dark Guards.


    Alice''s requirements weren''t much. She knew it would be too much to ask these two to obtain confidential information. So, all she needed them to do was to capture the people who interacted with Lilith and Collins on video. In doing so, she hoped she could predict their actions in the near future by looking at the people they interacted with.


    For example, if Lilith was caught interacting with a thief, it might be possible to investigate and identify the thief she interacted with through Rosa or the inte. Then, Alice could potentially uncover the organization the thief was associated with to acquire more information about Lilith.


    Although doing such a thing would make it seem like Alice did not trust Lilith, truth be toldthey weren''t so close to the point where they could ce their trust in each other.


    <em>While waiting for more information on Lilith and Collins to arrive, I''ll take care of the two other matters.</em>


    After seeing the loli and shota leave, Alice sighed and decided to take care of two other matters. She might look very free since she was at an anime convention, but she had many tasks she still needed to do in reality.


    Among them, one of the more pressing matters would be to find a suitable location and bombard it with light and dark taboos. This was to create the illusion that the Hero and the Demon King had fought. Meanwhile, the sooner she took care of this task, the better. This was because the longer she dragged things out, the more anxious the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family and nobility would be.


    After all, the Demon King was not only present in Icarus City, the Rhine Kingdom''s heart, but she was even hiding in Icarus City''s most important magic research facilitythe Royal Magic Tower.


    For the royalty and nobles who stayed near the Royal Magic Tower, this was akin to sleeping next to a ticking time bomb. If Alice didn''t resolve this problem quickly, nobody knew what these royals and nobles would do under pressure.


    The other matter Alice needed to deal with was to find a block of Living Wood. Although this wasn''t a particrly urgent task, Living Wood was a rare and crucial alchemy material. Even if she had time to spare, getting her hands on one wouldn''t be easy.


    To make things easier for herself, Alice decided that she would ask Andusia for help. After all, Andusia was the one who had stuffed her own soul into a block of Living Wood thousands of years ago. This meant that she had indeed gotten her hands on this rare alchemy material, so she might know some special means to obtain Living Wood.


    Aside from these two tasks, there was one other task Alice needed to deal with: investigating the Rhine Kingdom''s Third Prince, Arcana Doyle. Although the little fellow was still in elementary school and shouldn''t have the ability to cause trouble logically, Alice still felt that she should check him out to avoid any unexpected situations. However, as she still had no idea how she should even begin investigating Arcana, she decided to shelf this matter for now.


    <em>Then, let''s go and ask Andusia for now.</em>


    Alice had no idea how she should even begin investigating Arcana, so she decided to put this matter on hold for now. As for Lilith''s and Doyle''s information, that would have to wait until her Dark Guards returned. In the meantime, she decided she would first figure out how to get her hands on a block of Living Wood.


    Andusia was most likely being kept in Lilith''s house right now. Although the average person wouldn''t know where to find Lilith''s house, this was not a problem for Alice.


    [Weapon: Brilliant Navigator Model XB-005]


    [Quality: Not Bad]


    [Effect: Agility +5, Control +8]


    [Additional Effect:


    Advanced Navigation (Active Skill. When activated, disys the map of the targeted area);


    Advanced Positioning (Active Skill. When activated, disys the precise position of the searched target.)]


    Alice snickered as she pulled out the navigator she had cheatedearned via relying on the Milu Rabbit. Although this navigator couldn''t search the entire continent for presences like the dogkins'' chief totem, it was very useful in urately searching for people.

 Chapter 327: Alices Mission

    Chapter 327: Alice''s Mission


    <em>I thought Lilith was going to be living in a luxurious pce. I never thought she would be staying here.</em>


    While gripping the Royal Magic Tower''s magic robe with her right hand, Alice looked up at an inconspicuous residential building. This was the location the navigator had led her.


    This residential building wasn''t far from the Royal Magic Tower and the Franken Convention Center. More specifically, it was situated right in the middle of these two locations. With how close this residential building was to the Royal Magic Tower, it should logically be highly sought after by students. Unfortunately, as the Royal Magic Tower forbade its students from staying outside the tower, this residential building didn''t be rare and highly sought-after property.


    Of course, for Lilith, who could ignore the Royal Magic Tower''s rules, a residential building located in between the Franken Convention Center and the Royal Magic Tower was no different from prime real estate. Lilith might have other more luxurious residences that she would use to entertain guests from the nobility. However, since Lilith had put Andusia, her new favorite figurine, in her house in this inconspicuous residential building, she had obviously treated this ce as her main stronghold, whereas the importance of her other residences came afterward.


    Relying on the magic robe''s Mana Concealment Skill, Alice entered the residential building unhindered. As this was the residence of the Rhine Kingdom''s princess, Alice was willing to bet that some guards were keeping watch over this ce. Unfortunately, none of them had the ability to see through Alice''s concealment.


    The magic robe might only have a weapon rating of "Fine," and its Mana Concealment skill only had a duration of a few minutes, noints could be made about the skill''s effect. Only a person with incredibly high Spirit and Control stats could possibly detect Alice''s movements based on the change in the flow of air and mana around Alice.


    However, it was obvious that none of the guards stationed here had that kind of strength. So, Alice effortlessly walked up to Lilith''s home, found a window located in a blindspot, and snuck into the house.


    Alice did not need to continue concealing herself after entering the house. Even if Lilith stationed guards outside her residence, there was no way she would station guards in her house. Alice knew very well what an otaku would do during their alone time. Unless Lilith wanted to experience social death, there was no way she would allow others to see the situation inside her house.


    "Hmph. So you still haven''t forgotten about me?"


    As soon as Alice removed her robe, Andusia''s voice entered her ears. Turning to the voice, she found Andusia locked inside a square disy cab. The cab looked like it was made using a very high-grade magic stone, the faint traces of mana the cab exuded offering a fairly good preservation effect to the figurine it stored.


    If Andusia was a real figurine, she would probably be touched by how much care Lilith had shown her. Unfortunately, thest thing on Andusia''s mind was to be grateful to Lilith. After all, she was a Demon King, yet she was treated like a toy and kept in a disy cab. If not for Alice''s orders, Andusia would have long since smashed Lilith''s face with a st full of mana.


    "Endure it a little longer. This is to uncover the mole in the Rhine Kingdom," Alice said, chuckling as she walked up to the disy cab and opened it. Then, she retrieved Andusia from the cab and put the Demon King on her shoulder. Although it had only been a day since shest saw Andusia, she unexpectedly missed the tiny Demon King. "You know how serious the consequences could be if we don''t find that mole, right?"


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    Alice had naturally informed Andusia of her ns. So, Andusia knew that someone was currently impersonating the Rhine Kingdom''s second prince in an attempt to involve the demons in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights.


    If this matter wasn''t handled properly, it would deteriorate the rtionship between humans and demons. In reality, shes between humans and demons throughout the past several thousand years mainly revolved around the Hero and Demon. However, if the rtionship between the two races deteriorated any further, it would cause humans and demons to thoroughly hate each other.


    Once things escted to that point, the social order of humans and demons would copse to a certain extent. At that time, archaic systems such as very might reemerge in modern-day society. After all, should humans and demons wage war against each other because of hatred rather than to acquire a better living environment, it was almost certain both sides would turn their prisoners of war into ves.


    Andusia naturally wouldn''t want to see that happen. Hence, she held down her pride and obediently followed Alice''s arrangements.


    "Lilith''s room sure isnormal. You really can''t tell this is the house of a princess."


    After appeasing Andusia, Alice scanned Lilith''s room and found it looking different from her expectations. Lilith''s room looked quite in and messy. Honestly, it looked exactly like what an otaku''s room would look like.


    "This girl behaves just like a shut-in. She doesn''t behave like a princess at all But you aren''t really qualified to say that about her, either," Andusia said as she nced at Alice. Then, she suddenly gnashed her teeth as she continued, "Also, after that girl put me into that transparent box yesterday, she spent the whole night watching that <em>Magical Girl Hikari</em> show. I nearly died from the torturest night."


    "Hahaha"Alice couldn''t help butugh when she heard about Andusia''s experience. Even without being here in person, she could easily imagine Andusia''s humiliated expression. Lilith probably didn''t know that she had survived at the hands of an angry Demon Kingst night. "Aside from watching <em>Magical Girl Hikari</em>, did she do anything else?"


    "A woman d in ck visited her to pass on some important messages. One of the things I heard was something about the Demon King sneaking into the Royal Magic Tower." While saying so, Andusia couldn''t help but cast a strange gaze at Alice. "What did you do? How did you get discovered by the tower so quickly? Moreover, you even got caught as the Demon King."


    "<em>Ahem</em>. It''s a mistake on my part, but don''t worry. I''ve resolved the problem already."


    Alice faked a cough and hurriedly changed the topic. Then, under Andusia''s guidance, she grabbed the several pieces of paper on the desk in Lilith''s bedroom and read the recorded information.


    Just like Andusia said, these papers contained reports on the Rhine Kingdom''s important affairs. However, Lilith didn''t have an official part in any of these affairs since most of them were being handled by Prince Etoria and King Haydn. From these reports, it was obvious who would be the next king of the Rhine Kingdom. It was fortunate that Lilith and Collins were shut-ins andcked interest in authority. Otherwise, the two would have probably started a rebellion already with how much preferential treatment King Haydn showed to Etoria.


    "There isn''t much information on Lilith"


    Alice set down the report. None of the events in the report were of particr use to her. Rather than these reported events, what Alice was more interested in was the identity of the woman who had brought this report to Lilithst night. However, as there were no surveince cameras in Lilith''s house, she couldn''t get an image of the woman''s appearance.


    Alice didn''t bother to ask Andusia to describe the woman''s appearance, either. After all, there was no way she could track down the woman in question solely based on a verbal description. Rather than try to take on such an impossible task, she''d rather wait until her Dark Guards returned with more information.


    "There''s one more thing I want to ask you." Searching Lilith''s house for clues was only Alice''s secondary goal in infiltrating Lilith''s house. Now that Alice had achieved this secondary goal, it was time she took care of her main goal. "Do you know where I can get Living Wood?"

 Chapter 328: Goodbye Mommy

    Chapter 328: Goodbye Mommy


    "I''ll be going now. Be sure to take care of yourself."


    After Alice chatted with Andusia for some time, the cooldown of the magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill finally finished. So, she put on the robe and waved goodbye to Andusia.


    "Just go. Don''t act like you''re my mother," Andusia said as she looked at Alice in disgust. If anyone was to be the mother in their rtionship, she should be the one to take on the role instead. After all, Alice was always the oneing to her for help.


    However, despite Andusia''s reaction, she was quite happy to receive Alice''s concern in reality. It had been a long time since anyone had shown concern for her. Thest time anyone sincerely cared about her well-being was before she became a Demon King.


    Relying on Mana Concealment, Alice concealed her body and aura before sneaking out of the window she came in from. Then, she leisurely walked away from the residential building. After all, if she moved too quickly, she might disturb the airflow too much and possibly alert the guards on duty nearby.


    After leaving the residential building, Alice found an alleyway devoid of surveince before she removed her robe. Then, she walked out of the alley like nothing had just happened. Although Icarus City was the Rhine Kingdom''s capital, security in the city wasn''t so strict that every alleyway would be under surveince.


    Alice had already learned where she could acquire Living Wood from Andusia. However, because the procurement process might be troublesome, Alice had no choice but to set this matter aside. Only after she was done investigating the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family would she try to acquire a block of Living Wood.


    Indeed. Try.


    ording to Andusia, Living Wood could only be obtained from the treants. However, Living Wood was an extremely rare treasure even to the treants, so they typically wouldn''t give it away.


    Treants were a special race with a tiny poption. Rather than say they were animals, it''d be much more appropriate to consider them nts capable of independent movement. Because of this, treants propagated by growing saplings and hoping that these saplings could eventually grow into treants. Meanwhile, Living Wood was an excellent cultivation bed to nurture powerful treants.


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    If the treants gave away their Living Wood, it would reduce their chances of giving birth to powerful treants. Their low poption andck of strength had always been a concern for the treants. So, it was only natural that they would attach great importance to their Living Wood. Even if Alice asked the treants for Living Wood as the Hero, the treants wouldn''t necessarily agree.


    Alice had also asked Andusia how she managed to acquire Living Wood from the treants. Alice thought Andusia was acquainted with the treants since she had managed to get her hands on a block of Living Wood all those years ago.


    However, when Alice saw Andusia responding with an awkward smile, she understood what had happened The Ninth Demon King must have taken the treants'' Living Wood by force. In that case, if she were to bring up Andusia''s name to the treants, she would most likely be an enemy of the treants on the spot.


    Since relying on Andusia was out of the question, Alice had no choice but to figure out another solution. Unless absolutely necessary, Alice didn''t wish to give up on obtaining Living Wood. After all, Lilith looked like she liked Andusia very much. She would be traumatized if Andusia suddenly disappeared from her house one day.


    Alice knew how much otakus valued the things they liked. In Lilith''s mind, Andusia''s worth might even surpass the Rhine Kingdom''s throne.


    "Hmph. I''m being so nice to you, so you best hope you''re not the mastermind I''m looking for."


    Alice naturally didn''t forget that Lilith was still under suspicion. If Lilith really was the person impersonating Etoria to try and muddle the rtionship between humans and demons, Alice would not need to search for Living Wood anymore.


    While thinking of Lilith, Alice suddenly experienced a strange feeling. Although she wasn''t holding onto the anal plug-shaped dagger, the mana she used to activate Chaos General remained in her body. Meanwhile, the strange feeling she just experienced was feedback from this mana.


    The information the feedback conveyed was simplea Dark Guard had been killed! The Dark Guard wasn''t dismissed naturally. Instead, it had disappeared after suffering severe damage.


    Because the Dark Guards wereposed of dark mana, they wouldn''t die even after they received lethal injuries. So long as mana remained in the dagger, Alice could simply summon the destroyed Dark Guards again.


    However, it should be known that neither the sledgehammer-wielding loli nor shota magician was weak. Although they weren''t as strong as the Four Heavenly Kings, the fact that Miriya, the Eighth Demon King, found it worthwhile to keep them as part of her Dark Guards must mean that they were elites among the demons.


    The Dark Guards might not be able to unleash the strength they had during their peak due to theirck of soul and independent thought, but it still shouldn''t be possible for the average person to defeat them. It would take someone on Catherine''s level to defeat the Dark Guards easily.


    <em>The Dark Guard that got killed isthe one sent to observe Lilith.</em>


    After sensing the change in the mana within her, Alice quickly found out which Dark Guard had gotten killedthe sledgehammer-wielding loli. Upon realizing this, Alice no longer found it as surprising that someone had managed to defeat one of her Dark Guards.


    Before sending off the loli, Alice had instructed the loli to cast her sledgehammer aside. This was so that the loli could pretend to be an ordinary little girl while following Lilith. It also didn''t matter if the loli threw her sledgehammer away. The sledgehammer was simrly made of mana, so the loli could recover her weapon the next time Alice summoned her using Chaos General.


    Alice also guessed that whoever fought the loli should have experienced a tough battle. After all, Lilith was a princess with little authority. Although the person who defeated the loli Dark Guard hadmendable strength, they were unlikely to be on Catherine''s level.


    Fortunately, ording to the feedback Alice received, the loli Dark Guard didn''t die in vain. Both Dark Guards remembered Alice''s instructions. So, when the loli Dark Guard realized she was about to get defeated and had no chance of escaping, she secretly dug out the surveince camera in her left eye socket and tossed it to a hidden location. Only after doing so did she let her opponent defeat her.


    In other words, Alice could find out how the loli was discovered and who had defeated the loli so long as she retrieved the camera.


    <em>It seems the investigation on Lilith shoulde to a conclusion soon,</em> Alice thought to herself as she made her way toward the camera stained with the loli Dark Guard''s aura. So long as she retrieved the loli''s camera, she should have a general idea of how to conduct her investigation on Lilith. At that time, it wouldn''t take long for her to get the results she wanted. <em>I wonder if Collins'' side will notice the Dark Guard?</em>

 Chapter 329: This Is My Escape Route

    Chapter 329: This Is My Escape Route


    "Is it over, Kurse?"


    While Alice was making her way to the loli Dark Guard''s eye camera, Lilith stood in an underground car park near the Franken Convention Center with a frightened look. Meanwhile, standing before her and protecting her was a male warrior covered in wounds.


    The male warrior''s name was Kurse, and he was one of Lilith''s most important guards. Although his gender made it inconvenient for him to be next to her at all times, he would always ensure her safety from a nearby location. As for hisbat power, while he might not beparable to the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain, he wasn''t that far behind, either.


    Yet, despite having such extraordinary strength, Kurse still sustained many visible injuries in his fight this time. This situation surprised and frightened Lilith since it meant the enemy was considerably powerful.


    Moreover, while Lilith might still be a student, she wasn''t an ignorant amateur when it came tobat. Although she didn''t know why, she noticed the little girl, who had fought Kurse previously, wasn''t actually fighting with the intention to kill. The little girl deliberately ignored many opportunities she could have used to strike a severe blow to Kurse.


    In other words, Kurse had sustained such serious injuries whilst fighting an opponent that didn''t have any intentions to kill. Had the other party gotten serious, setting aside whether the little girl could kill Kurse, Kurse definitely wouldn''t be able to ensure Lilith''s safety while he fought. Meanwhile, so long as the other party used an attack that could cause widespread destruction, Lilith might not be able to walk out of this underground car park with her life.


    "It should be done, Your Highness," Kurse answered after gasping for air a few times. When he looked at the petite corpse before him, a sh of anxiety appeared in his eyes. The enemy''s strength hadpletely exceeded his expectations. He even felt a kind of pressure from the little girl that he had only ever felt from the kingdom''s royal guard captain.


    If not for the other party having no intentions to kill and focusing only on escaping, Kurse doubted he could have defeated her. However, it was precisely because Kurse understood that his strength was inferior to the other party that he dared not hold back during the fight, going as far as to inflict a fatal blow on the little girl as soon as he found an opportunity to do so.


    "I can''t believe such a small child possesses such extraordinary strength. It really makes you wonder whether she is even human."


    After Kurse verified that the enemy was dead, Lilith finally found the courage to walk up and observe the little girl on the ground. Then, she crouched down to inspect the other party''s appearance and wounds.


    The other party was a considerably cute little girl. The girl''s skin was ck as a whole, and the clothes she wore were dyed in ayer of ck. The girl''s unnaturally pitch-ck appearance made Lilith ufortable, and she instinctively felt that this ck color was a result of some force majeure left on this little girl''s body.


    There was a deep wound on the little girl''s chest that started from the shoulder and ended at the abdomen. This was the fatal wound Kurse had inflicted previously using "Lucas," a famous longsword in the Rhine Kingdom. Once injected with mana, it could cut through steel like a hot knife through butter, so it was unsurprising that the little girl''s body had failed to resist it.


    However, the strange thing was that the little girl did not bleed a drop of blood despite having such arge wound. It was as if she was a magical construct. Yet, this couldn''t be possible. At the very least, it was impossible, in Lilith''s opinion.


    The only humanoid magical constructs Lilith could think of were puppets. Meanwhile, the puppets of puppeteers could, at most, execute instinctive responses. For a puppet to execute precision movements, the puppeteer themself would have to be in control of the puppet. However, Lilith could see nobody else but herself, Kurse, and the little girl in the car park. Not to mention, the intelligence the little girl had shown during the battle wasn''t something that could be found on a puppet.


    "Could she be a kamikaze fighter sent by someone?" Kurse offered his opinion as he stood by Lilith. Although Lilith had withdrawn from the Rhine Kingdom''s line of session already, she was still an eyesore to some people. So, perhaps some of these people had tried to get rid of the princess?


    "If this little girl was here for my life, she wouldn''t have fought like that just now," Lilith said, shaking her head. Had the little girl fought intending to kill her, Kurse could have never protected her. "Rather than who sent her, what I''m more curious about is her goal. She clearly doesn''t have any intentions of fighting, yet she still engaged you in battle. Moreover, even though she has shown intentions of escaping, she did not try to escape with all her strength."


    This was the limitation of the Dark Guards'' intelligence; they were only capable of simple thoughts and required specific instructions. Because of Alice''sck of attention to detail, after the loli stalking Lilith got discovered, she fell into the dilemma of fight or flight. Ultimately, the loli failed to make a decision, and what ended up happening was the strange scene Lilith saw. Despite clearly having no intentions of fighting, the loli chose to fight Kurse halfheartedly instead of trying to escape with all of her strength.


    "Have you seen her before, Kurse?"


    After scrutinizing the Dark Guard''s face, Lilith frowned and turned to Kurse for help. As far as she could remember, she had never seen this little girl before. The little girl''s cute appearance and charred skin tone stood out very much. So, if she had seen the little girl in the past, there was no way she could have forgotten.


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    "No. I have never seen such a strong little girl before," Kurse said, shaking his head. He would have definitely remembered it if he had seen a little girl with such striking appearance and strength. After all, this little girl looked around the same age as his daughter, but his daughter was nowhere near as strong as this little girl. "But her strength is truly terrifying. She even used some kind of magic that instantly enhanced her physical strength by several times partway through the battle Honestly, I think that I only won because of luck this time. If she had a heavy weapon on her"


    Kurse couldn''t help but shudder when talking about the little girl''s frightening strength. The little girl''s strengthening magic activated instantly without showing any visible signs. Because of this, he got caught off guard and nearly suffered internal injuries when the little girl struck his chest with her enhanced strength. Had the little girl been carrying a heavy weapon such as a sledgehammer at the time, she could have easily turned him into meat paste.


    "Let''s have the thieves investigate her, then. I''ll take a picture of this girl and send it to Nia," Lilith said as she pulled out her phone and stood up. Then, while taking a picture of the little girl''s face. "Nia and the others should be able to uncover somehuh?"


    As soon as Lilith was done photographic the little girl, she suddenly noticed something strange. Like dry ice, the little girl''s solid body began to evaporate out of existence under the surprised gazes of Lilith and Kurse. In only seconds, the little girl''s body thoroughly disappeared from the car park.

 Chapter 330: Shocked Lilith

    Chapter 330: Shocked Lilith


    "Is it here?"


    Shortly after Lilith and her guard Kurse left the underground car park, a figure wearing a hooded robe suddenly appeared out of thin air in the middle of the empty car park. Then, the hood got removed, revealing Alice''s face.


    Currently, there was also a short and delicate figure standing next to Alice. If Lilith and Kurse were still here, they would immediately recognize this delicate figure. This was because this figure was none other than the strange and monstrously strong little girl Kurse had "killed" not long ago. This little girl''s face was probably one that Lilith and Kurse would not forget for a long time.


    However, the loli Dark Guard currently standing next to Alice obviously wasn''t the same one that Kurse had killed. The one that Kurse had killed had already disappeared after sustaining lethal injuries, while this one was a new Dark Guard Alice had just summoned.


    Of course, because both loli Dark Guards originated from the same mana source, they would naturally have the same appearance after being summoned. So, it technically wouldn''t be wrong to say that they were the same Dark Guard. As to why Alice had summoned the loli again, it was so that she could have the loli locate the presence that her previous self had left behind.


    After receiving Alice''smand, the loli Dark Guard circled the car park twice before crawling under a car. When she crawled out of the car a momentter, an extra spherical camera the size of an eyeball had appeared in her hand.


    This was the camera the loli Dark Guard had secretly dug out and tossed aside during her fight with Kurse.


    Alice had specifically instructed her Dark Guards to "not let the camera be discovered" before she sent them off. So, even though the loli Dark Guard had hesitated between "fight" and "flight," she did not hesitate to secretly cast the camera aside when she realized her defeat was inevitable.


    "Beautifully done."


    Alice rubbed the loli''s head after receiving the camera from her, to which the loli Dark Guard responded by revealing a satisfied expression. The Dark Guards would retain some of the instincts of the individuals they were modeled after. So, it would seem that the loli who the loli Dark Guard was modeled after liked receiving head rubs.


    Alice did not hurry to watch the footage captured by the spy camera in the car park. She nned to first take care of her residence problem. Since she was no longer tied down by the Royal Magic Tower''s curfew like yesterday, she naturally had to arrange a better amodation for herself. Money wasn''t a problem, either, since all three of her current identities were notcking in money.


    After verifying that there were no problems with the spy camera, Alice returned the loli Dark Guard into It''s So Short, put on her hood, and left the car park with Mana Concealment active.


    When Alice initially entered the underground car park, Alice had made sure to check for surveince cameras. Only after she had verified the absence of cameras did she dare remove her hood in the car park.


    However, while there might not be any cameras in the car park, quite a few were set up at the car park''s entrance. Hence, Alice still needed to conceal herself when leaving the car park.


    While Alice was busy taking care of her amodations, Lilith received a new report. Lilith naturally wasn''t aware that the loli Dark Guard had secretly recorded all her actions in and outside the convention center. However, she instinctively felt that the dark-skinned little girl wasn''t of ordinary origins.


    Lilith had always believed in her instincts. So, she had promptly sent the photos she took to her subordinates and had them investigate the little girl.


    Lilith might not have any session rights to the Rhine Kingdom, but she had secretly developed her own forces using her wealth and influence as a princess.


    While this secret force was inferior to the forces under the Rhine King and Prince Etoria''smand, it wasn''t weak by any means. When it came to the thieving industry, Lilith held even more influence than the several princes. So, Lilith''s secret force could naturally help her uncover plenty of information unknown to others.


    Under the efforts of this secret force, Lilith quickly received the information she wanted. The person who delivered the report was an inconspicuous woman. At first nce, the woman looked just like your average nanny. However, the instant the woman stepped into Lilith''s house, her movements immediately changed from leisurely to sharp.


    Thieves normally operated under two identities in society, and this nanny-looking woman was no exception. Although she was an ordinary employee of a nannypany on the surface, her main career was that of a thief. Moreover, she was a thief who worked mainly for Princess Lilith.


    "Is this the information I asked you to gather?" Lilith asked, a little surprised as she looked at the sealed envelope the nanny had handed her. It had only been around twenty minutes since she sent the photographs to her subordinates. In other words, her subordinates had used less than half an hour to find the information on her loli assant?


    "Yes. We found this information so quickly becauseit really wasn''t difficult to find it," the nanny-looking thief respectfully said as she knelt before Lilith. However, when she spoke of the report, a strange expression appeared on her face. "Honestly, we were quite surprised when we found this information Well, you''ll know once you read it."


    "It wasn''t difficult to find?"


    Lilith grew confused. She originally thought the monstrously powerful little girl would be a secret fighter nurtured by a hostile faction, and finding information on the girl would be very challenging. Yet, her subordinates had not only uncovered the information on the little girl in under half an hour, but they were even saying that this information wasn''t difficult to find


    Her curiosity piqued, Lilith opened the envelope in her hands, retrieved several sheets of paper from it, and quickly read through the report. When she was done reading the report, herplexion turned pale as if she had just seen a ghost.


    After all, ording to the report, her loli assant was a warrior from several thousand years ago. Specifically, the little girl was a genius warrior from the demon race who had grasped a special kind of berserk magic from a very young age. Meanwhile, because of this magic, this little girl performed outstandingly in the war between the demon and human realms. She even left her mark in history because of her remarkable performance.


    However, it would seem that the berserk magic she learned had a minor side effect in that it would destroy the genes of its users, putting aplete stop to the users'' growth in body and appearance. This was also why the appearance of this loli berserker remained as a little girl in the historical records of both humans and demons.


    Hence, when Lilith saw the loli berserker''s picture, which historians drew thousands of years ago, in the report, she immediately recognized the other party. Aside from the difference in skin color and the absence of a sledgehammer, the loli berserker depicted in the picture was exactly the same as the little girl that Kurse had killed less than an hour ago.


    In addition, ording to the report, the loli berserker should have a small pair of demon wings growing out of her back. However, because of her stunted growth, she couldn''t extend those wings and could only keep them retracted on her back. For this reason, Lilith and Kurse never noticed that their small assant was a demon throughout the entire time Kurse had fought with the little girl.


    "Why would a demon fromthousands of years ago appear in the Rhine Kingdom?"


    Lilith was afraid of ghosts. So, when she learned that the little girl Kurse had fought with just now was a relic from thousands of years ago, she immediately started to panic.

 Chapter 331: Rosa: Whos Friends With You?!

    Chapter 331: Rosa: Who''s Friends With You?!


    Through the help of big wads of cash, Alice sessfully rented an apartment near the magic town. She had rented the ce for several months. Although she doubted she would stay in the Rhine Kingdom for more than a month, the apartment owner required renters to rent for a minimum of three months.


    The reason Alice had chosen this apartment was that it was not only close to the magic town, but it was also located in an area with a low density of surveince cameras. While this might sound like the apartment was situated in an unsafe district, it was exactly what Alice wanted for her amodation. That way, she could reduce the risks of getting caught when she was up to no good.


    Hence, although Alice found it a little wasteful, she still chose to rent this apartment unit. Meanwhile, only after verifying that there were no hidden cameras in the apartment did she dare to inspect the spy camera''s footage using her newly boughtputer.


    "Kurse Information on this guy is quite easy to find."


    ording to the camera footage, aside from a bunch of individuals who were clearly otakus, the only other person Lilith had interacted with was this middle-aged man named Kurse. After Lilith had wandered the convention for around two hours, Kurse suddenly appeared next to Lilith and said something to her.


    Because the loli Dark Guard stood quite some distance from Lilith, the spy camera failed to capture what Kurse had said to Lilith. Even so, Alice still managed to find information on Kurse after conducting an image search on the inte.


    The information Alice found on the human realm''s inte was quite ordinary. It generally spoke about Kurse''s position and achievements in the Rhine Kingdom. There wasn''t even any mention of him working as Lilith''s guard.


    In contrast, the demon realm''s inte contained detailed information on Kurse. Not only did this information mention Kurse working as Lilith''s guard, but it even talked about his fighting style and some of the moves he often used. Moreover, after watching thetter half of the spy footage, Alice found that most of the information shared on the demon realm''s inte was urate.


    <em>I guess the ones who understand you the most are usually your enemies. Or maybe it''s because the demon realm wouldn''t deliberately censor information on humans, </em>Alice thought. However, Alice didn''t put too much attention on Kurse.


    Kurse might be on Lilith''s side, but it was obvious that he was only responsible for ensuring Lilith''s safety. It was unlikely he would meddle in information collection. Hence, there was no point in conducting further investigations into Kurse. While Alice wasn''t trying to belittle Kurse, when it came tobat power, ten Kurses tied together wouldn''t be enough to survive even one of her panties.


    Thetter half of the spy footage showed the fight between Kurse and the Dark Guard. At this point, Alice could more or less guess what Kurse had previously said to Lilith. He had probably informed Lilith about a loli stalking her for more than two hours. Although the Dark Guard looked harmless on the surface, Kurse, as Lilith''s guard, should have noticed the loli''s suspicious behavior.


    Meanwhile, after briefly trying to initiate contact with the Dark Guard and realizing there were no possibilities ofmunication, Kurse had promptly taken action to apprehend the Dark Guard for interrogation. However, the Dark Guard''s strength had exceeded Kurse''s expectations, and the two had fought for over ten minutes before an oue was decided.


    Although the fight ended in Kurse''s victory, Alice could tell that Kurse didn''t win because he possessed superior strength. Instead, it was because the Dark Guard was conflicted over whether she should fight or escape. During the fight''s climax, the Dark Guard even retracted her partially executed attack, which resulted in her suffering a fatal blow that nearly cut her body into two halves.


    From the spy camera''s first person''s perspective, Kurse looked considerably stunned by the fight''s oue. He looked greatly confused as to why the Dark Guard would suddenly cancel her attack. After all, because of this unexpected development, he had failed to control his strength properly and killed the Dark Guard with his attack, ruining his n to capture the Dark Guard for interrogation.


    Fortunately, the instant the Dark Guard got cut, she had used the opportunity where the mana of Kurse''s sword was glowing brightly to dig out the spy camera in her left eye socket and toss it under a car. This drastically reduced the possibility of Lilith and Kurser noticing the camera after the Dark Guard''s death. It was also fortunate that Lilith and Kurse did not inspect the Dark Guard''s eyes. Had they lifted the Dark Guard''s left eyelid, they would realize that her left eye socket was hollow.


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    Originally, Alice thought that this would be where the footage ended. However, be it intentionally or unintentionally, the lens of the spy camera the Dark Guard tossed just happened to be aimed in Lilith and Kurse''s direction aftering to a halt under the car. So, the camera captured some of Lilith''s and Kurse''s subsequent actions.


    Firstly, after Kurse verified the Dark Guard''s death, Lilith approached the Dark Guard and took a few pictures of the Dark Guard''s face with her phone. Subsequently, Lilith and Kurse were greatly shocked when the Dark Guard''s corpse suddenly disintegrated into mana and vanished from an area. Finallya new figure appeared by Lilith''s side.


    The new arrival was a woman. Although the camera only captured the woman''s profile, Alice could still tell that the woman had a bold presence. The woman looked to be in her early twenties, roughly the same age as Catherine. She was dressed in a short-sleeved top and a pair of hot pants. She looked like a gyaru at first nce, and she didn''t look like someone who should be messed with.


    However, through the footage, Alice saw Lilith showing the pictures she took to the gyaru before fiddling with her phone for a moment, looking like she was sending those pictures to the gyaru. So, Alice could quickly tell that this gyaru should be one of Lilith''s intelligence sources.


    <em>Her gyaru get-up No matter how I look at it, she doesn''t look like someone involved with the government.</em>


    It was highly unlikely that the gyaru was a government official like Kurse. At the very least, she shouldn''t be a government official on the surface. So, Alice didn''t have high hopes that an image search of the gyaru would yield any useful information. However, surprisingly, her image search didn''te uppletely empty.


    <strong>The Hot Girls on Icarus''s Night Market Street</strong>


    Evidently, the image search didn''t yield any information directly rted to the gyaru. Instead, Alice found several posts mentioning the hot girls frequently appearing in Icarus City''s Night Market Street. Moreover, because of the gyaru''s considerably outstanding appearance, many of her photos were shared on the inte.


    At this point, Alice could already tell the gyaru''s real identity. Seeing as this gyaru was operating under apletely different identity on the surface, there was a 90% chance that she was a thief working under Lilith. This gyaru might even be responsible for making Alice''s fake student ID.


    In other words, if Lilith had any malicious ideas she wished to carry out, she would definitely make use of these thieves first. So, Alice''s next course of action would be to investigate the gyaru and the gang of thieves behind her to see if Lilith had any abnormal behaviors recently.


    If Alice could verify that these thieves were not plotting anything against the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights, Lilith could be ruled out of her list of suspects.


    "But it''s not going to be easy to get into the thieving industry." After pondering for a moment, Alice nodded and said, "It seems I''m going to have to trouble an old friend."

 Chapter 332: Dont Carve Everything Into DNA

    Chapter 332: Don''t Carve Everything Into DNA


    The public transportation system in this world was simr to what was avable on Earth before Alice transmigrated. There were buses that traveled through the city, high-speed rail systems that traveled between cities, and magic airships that were simr to the airnes on Earth. This otherworld even had a form of transportation faster than airnesteleportation arrays.


    With the existence of teleportation arrays, traveling between cities and countries instantly would no longer be a problem. The efficiency of teleportation arrays was vastly superior to other modes of public transportation. The only downside of using teleportation arrays to travel was the expensive price tag that came with it.


    Of course, most people wouldn''t choose to travel via teleportation arrays under normal circumstances. After all, each use of a teleportation array would cost around the monthly ie of an average household. They would choose to travel via teleportation arrays only when they were in a hurry.


    However, the hefty cost of using teleportation arrays wasn''t a concern to Alice. Not only did she receive an allowance as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, but she also received sponsorship from Hatter and the other human kings as the Hero.


    For example, the Rhine Kingdom''s King Haydn transferred a huge sum of money into Alice''s bank ount shortly after asking Alice for help with the Demon King problem in the Royal Magic Tower. It was obvious that he hoped that Alice could resolve this problem as soon as possible. Meanwhile, just the amount of money King Haydn sent this time was enough for Alice to use the teleportation arrays around 100 times.


    Long story short, even though Alice was currently in the Rhine Kingdom, she could easily return to the Gryffin Kingdom in only a few minutes if she wanted to.


    While there were cheaper and simrly effective options for reaching Rosa, such as phone calls and social media, the matter this time was of significant importance. Alice felt that she needed tomunicate this matter to Rosa in person. So, after making up her mind to consult Rosa, Alice promptly visited Icarus City''s teleportation hub and teleported back to the Gryffin Kingdom.


    Alice still remembered where Rosa''s house was. So, after exiting Holl City''s teleportation hub, Alice quickly made her way to Rosa''s ce. However, upon arriving at her destination, Alice was surprised to find a "To Rent" notice pasted on the door.


    ording to the notice, the previous tenant had chosen to terminate her lease for personal reasons, so the house owner was currently looking for a new tenant. When Alice saw this notice, she got a sense of dj vu. This was the same situation as when Rosa had tried to run away from herst time.


    "What a disobedient little thief"


    Alice scratched her head, feeling somewhat speechless. It would seem that Rosa still hadn''t realized that it didn''t matter where she hid. Or perhaps Rosa felt that thest time Alice managed to find her was through the use of special tracking magic. If it were thetter case, Rosa had probably found some sort of tool that could protect her from tracking magic.


    Tracking magic existed in this world. One example would be the dogkins'' totems. Since tracking magic existed, it was only natural that there would be countermeasures developed for it. Only, these countermeasures wouldn''t be as widespread as other spells and tools since they only had a very niche use. Hence, it should be quite difficult for the average person to get their hands on them.


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    However, Rosa was a former thief. She had a wide range of connections. So, she might have gotten her hands on something that couldbat tracking magic. Hence, she dared to flee again and try to break away from Alice''s pestering.


    Unfortunately, Rosa would have never thought that the skills Alice used with the help of her right hand were much moreplex than magic.


    Canter City''s Goo Goo Bar had a uniqueyout that separated it from other bars in the city. There were no individual tables for guests to sit around in the bar. There were no private rooms, either. Instead, bar counters lined the establishment''s walls, and many bartenders stood behind these counters, ready to serve drinks to guests at any time.


    Rosa was currently the only female customer in the bar. She had a refined figure and exquisite face, and many of the other customers in the bar couldn''t help but look at her. However, despite the attention she received, nobody dared to approach her.


    It couldn''t be helped. The mercenary badge hung on Rosa''s belt acted as a huge deterrence. Although Canter City was a peaceful city located near the Gryffin Kingdom''s capital, everyone living here still knew what mercenaries represented


    Mercenaries were people with genuinebat power andbat experience. Mercenaries were also individuals supported by the various human kingdoms. If average joes like themselves rashly provoked a mercenary, they would receive a beating and might even get sued for harassment.


    "Ah. Even though Canter City isn''t a top-tier city, the alcohol here is not bad. It''sparable to the quality of the alcohol served in Holl City''s cker''s Bar." Rosa let out a satisfied sigh after emptying the cocktail ss in her hand, her sigh conveying hints of relief and confusion. "How strange I should have been in a good mood, but why do I feel like something is missing"


    "Is something troubling you, Miss?" the female bartender serving Rosa asked. She was in a happy mood because of Rosa''s praise regarding the alcohol she served, so she decided that she would try to share some of her customer''s burdens. "Why would you say that you ''should have been in a good mood?'' Listening to your words, you should have just arrived from the capital, right?"


    Canter City was one of the cities that neighbored Holl City. Although Canter City was situated near the capital, there wasn''t anything remarkable about it. The development of its various industries was only average by the kingdom''s standards. Logically, someone who had established a foothold in Holl City wouldn''t be interested in Canter City.


    "Ah, that''s right. I just came here from Holl City" Rosa shook her head and reached for the pendant hanging from her neck. Then, she said, "I got my friend to buy this for me. It can stop all sorts of tracking magic. It can even erase the positioning magic of GPSs. I''m using this to escape a kid constantly pestering me."


    "A kid? Could it be the spoiled brat of some family?" The female bartender smiled when she heard Rosa''s problem. "By the sound of it, it would seem that you''ve moved away from Holl City because you could no longer tolerate the kid''s antics. But I''m guessing you are now feeling lonely because you have separated from that kid?"


    "Spoiled brat Yes, I guess you can say that she is a spoiled brat. It''s just that she is much stronger and more destructive than your average spoiled brat," Rosa said, chuckling a little when she heard the bartender''s words. It was fortunate that the bartender didn''t know that the person she had just called a "spoiled brat" was the Hero. "And lonely? I doubt that. Thest thing I want to do is be anywhere near that kid. Otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble I''ll get dragged into next."


    When Rosa recalled Alice ttening an entire mansion district with just one move, she couldn''t help but shudder. If before she didn''t know about the Hero''s destructive capabilities, then after seeing that incident, she thoroughly understood what kind ofbat power the Hero possessed. If she were to receive one of the Hero''s attacks head-on, not even her ashes would remain.


    "Perhaps. However, it is also possible that you''ve gotten used to that person''s presence without realizing it," the female bartender said with a sagacious look. "You might think that you wish to break away from that child''s pestering, but in reality, you might have already gotten used to her antics. So, when you realize that she will not being to pester you in the future, you will subconsciously experience a feeling of loss."


    "Is that even possible?" Rosa frowned. She found it really hard to imagine that she would enjoy getting pestered by others. Not to mention, she had already lost so many pairs of panties because of Alice.


    "Familiarity can be a very scary thing. You might not necessarily like that child''s pestering, but her pestering has most likely been engraved into your DNA and be a habit for you."


    After saying so, the female bartender smiled as she passed a ss of orange juice to the seat next to Rosa:


    "Here''s the orange juice you ordered."


    "...What kind of person orders orange juice at a bar?"


    Rosa was originally wondering whether she had actually gotten used to Alice''s pestering. However, after hearing the bartender''s words, she couldn''t help but turn to look next to her in confusion. After all, she never noticed someone taking the seat next to her, much less ordering a ss of orange juice.


    However, the instant Rosa saw who sat next to her, her scalp went numb, her whole body shuddered, and her mouth mped shut.


    "Yo, Rosa."


    After taking a sip of her orange juice, Alice beamed a friendly smile at Rosa.

 Chapter 333: Can This Really Be Considered Hacking?

    Chapter 333: Can This Really Be Considered Hacking?


    "This is my home."


    "It feels like this phrase is quickly bing your mantra."


    By the time Rosa had brought Alice to her fourth home, the life in her face had vanishedpletely. The idea of "I might have already grown used to Alice''s presence" that the bartender had nted in her mind had simrly disappeared.


    What the bartender said was utter nonsense. After thinking it over, Rosa would rather she never meet Alice again. She honestly had no idea why God would choose Alice to be the Hero. Alice did not have the spirit of a Hero at all. No matter how Rosa thought about it, the cons of getting involved with Alice vastly outweigh the pros. After all, not only did she not reap any benefits from her connection with Alice, but she even had to worry about getting involved in the Hero''s affairs.


    Moreover, it was rumored that the Hero was a trouble ma as problems would crop up wherever the Hero went. Although Rosa didn''t think much of this rumor in the past, after she got involved with Alice, she finally understood how such a rumor regarding the Hero hade to be.


    "What business do you have with me this time?"


    Although Rosa felt upset that Alice hade to find her yet again, she dared not show her displeasure on her face. After all was said and done, the Hero remained the human realm''s only hope to defeat the Demon King. The Hero was the most important line of defense against the Demon King. Offending the Hero would not help her in any way. So, despite her reluctance, Rosa had no choice but to ask what kind of help Alice needed from her and hoped she could send this shameless Hero away as soon as possible.


    Rosa did not wish to have a life filled with thrills and excitement. She only wished for a peaceful life. It was why she had retired from her thief job in the first ce. She never thought that shortly after retiring as a thief, the connections she formed during her time working as a thief would result in the Hero visiting her time and again. At this point, she truly regretted her foolish decision to photograph the Hero. That operation was the beginning of all evil.


    "Don''t worry. It''s not anything major. I only need you to provide me with some information this time. You won''t get involved in any fights likest time."


    Alice naturally knew what Rosa was concerned about. After all, Rosa was only an ordinary thief. Although she had a somewhat extraordinary range of connections, she didn''t possess remarkable strength. So, it was understandable that Rosa wasn''t confident that she could survive a fight between the Hero and the Demon King. Hence, the first thing Alice did after entering Rosa''s home was to appease Rosa''s worries.


    After saying so, Alice pulled out her phone and swiped her finger across the screen a few times, pulling out a photo album containing photos of the gyaru-cum-thief. Then, she handed her phone to Rosa and said:


    "If I''m not mistaken, this person should be a thief. I need you to help me look for this person''s information. For example, what type of business she primarily picks up, which other thieves are working under her, and ces she has been to recently."


    "Do you take me for some omniscient thief? There''s no way I can find all this information for you. Every thief will do their best to keep their personal information a secret. The only reason I know Eliadi''s true identity is because she and I are close friends. I don''t know the true identity of every thief," Rosa said, her mouth twitching a little when she heard Alice''s request. However, despite what she said, she still took a look at the photos shown on Alice''s phone. Then, she continued, "This girl I don''t recognize her. But it''s simple if you want to get in touch with her."


    "Get in touch with her?" After thinking it over, Alice asked, "Can''t you ask your thief friends? Maybe one of them knows about this girl''s identity?"


    "Are you dumb? Thieves care a lot about their privacy. If the thieves in the industry learn that a thief is trying to investigate another thief''s identity, how do you think they will react?" Rosa rolled her eyes at Alice''s suggestion. "It is an unwritten rule that thieves should keep each other''s real identities a secret. Other thieves will treat me as an enemy if I actively break this rule. Once that happens, not only will we not get the information we want, but we will even have our information thoroughly investigated."


    Alice nodded in understanding. What Rosa said made sense. Thieves usually took on jobs that skirted thew, so it was only natural that they wouldn''t wish for others to know about their real identities. If a thief were to casually look into another thief''s identity, it would cause all thieves in the industry to lose their sense of security. This would have a huge impact on the thieving industry.


    So, if Alice and Rosa were to try to investigate the gyaru thief, they would be provoking all thieves who wished to keep their identities hidden. Although Alice would remainrgely unaffected by the bacsh of this situation since the thieves wouldn''t dare to take action against the Hero, Rosa would probably be in for a miserable time.


    "Although we cannot investigate this person''s identity directly, there are still ways to contact her," Rosa said as she returned the phone to Alice. "The Thieves Guild has its own inte that the founders established. Before the founders died, they destroyed the control hub for this inte, so the Thieves Guild''s inte has already be an absolutely privatework."


    "Oh? The Thieves Guild''s inte?"


    Alice was a little surprised. The inte of this otherworld was essentially awork formed using mana of a specific frequency. It might sound simple on paper, but the creation of the inte was a project that required a terrifying amount of manpower and resources.


    The five human kingdoms had tobine their strength to create the inte that existed in the human realm today. As for the demon realm, although the demons got to skip a significant portion of the inte''s research and development since they had stolen the fruits of the humans''bor, the four demon kingdoms still had to pool their manpower and resources together to create the demon realm''s inte.


    So, to hear that the Thieves Guild possessed an inte of its own was truly surprising. Moreover, going by Rosa''s wording, it didn''t seem like the Thieves Guild''s inte was a localizedwork with very limited coverage like the Royal Magic Tower''s internalwork. Instead, it sounded like it was awork that spanned across the human realm. If that were the case, the Thieves Guild should possess an incredible amount of influence and resources.


    After learning about the Thieves Guild''s inte, Alice couldn''t help but grow interested in it. Although she wasn''t interested in stealing the control of the Thieves Guild''s inte, she was interested in the spell used to construct it.


    There was no question that a spell that required the manpower and resources of several countries to establish would be a taboo among taboos. Even Heroes and Demon Kings would probably have difficulty casting such a spell on their own.


    Of course, it wouldn''t really matter even if Alice could cast this "inte" spell and create an inte of her own. Without massive organizations such as the human kingdoms, demon kingdoms, and Thieves Guild using it, the inte she created would only be a waste of resources. It was akin to renting a server but having nobody to use it. She would only be pointlessly wasting her energy and mana.


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    Rather than creating her own inte, what made Alice interested in the "inte" spell was the possibility of developing other magic with it. For example, maybe she could develop some sort of hacking magic?


    There might be hackers in this world, but their main method of hacking was through usingputer programs. They were no different from the hackers on Earth. Meanwhile, what Alice aimed to do was to carry out interference on the mana level.


    For example, while the typical hacker was invading a certainputer through data, Alice could directly control the flow of electric currents and data transmission of aputer through the inte. The two methods of hacking were onpletely different levels.


    It might be impossible for the average person to learn the taboo used to create the inte in its entirety, but Alice was different. Her body possessed talent gifted by God, so she might just be able to learn it. Meanwhile, if she could develop a taboo specialized for hacking, she could freely disable devices such as surveince cameras, phones, andputers and steal data from them.


    However, it would be some time before Alice could put this n into practice. For the time being, she didn''t have any spare time or energy to research suchplex magic. Maybe after she was done dealing with the Rhine Kingdom''s matter, she could ask Hatter whether she could research the inte taboo.


    "The Thieves Guild''s inte was created with a function that can help you reach specific thieves so long as you can provide their specific information. And because privacy on the Thieves Guild''s inte is absolute, many thieves would upload their private information onto it to facilitate job allocation," Rosa continued exining, unaware that her words had given Alice the idea ofying her hands on the inte. "So, all we need to do is upload this photo, and we can get in touch with her directly."


    "That''s a convenient function." Alice nodded in understanding. "Then, help me contact her. Since it''s inconvenient for you to investigate her through the inte, I''ll investigate her in person."

 Chapter 334: Now, Let’s Get Onto Real Business

    Chapter 334: Now, Let��s Get Onto Real Business


    "This is a customputer designed specifically to ess the Thieves Guild''s inte. There is also a custom phone, but I don''t own one," Rosa said as she brought Alice to her bedroom and pointed at one of the twoputers on her desk. "The Thieves Guild will often change the location of its headquarters, so thieves looking to use the Thieves Guild''s services will normally do so through the guild''s inte. Only important discussions and transactions will be held at the Thieves Guild''s headquarters."


    Alice nodded in understanding. At the same time, hearing that the Thieves Guild would frequently change its offline address reminded Alice of the websites-that-should-not-be-described she had seen back on Earth.


    However,paring the Thieves Guild to adult websites would probably offend Rosa, so Alice tacitly chose to keep this thought to herself.


    "The Thieves Guild''s inte can only be essed using these customputers and phones. Other devices won''t work," Rosa exined while turning on herputer. Then, under Alice''s gaze, she quickly connected to awork called "Network A" and opened a software called "Guild Function Integration." Evidently, this was the software developed by the Thieves Guild specifically to ess its private inte.


    The essence of this otherworld''s inte was a mana wavelength of a specific frequency. In theory, so long as one could get a device to emit a mana wavelength with the correct frequency, the device could connect to any inte in the world. However, the owners of an inte naturally wouldn''t want just anyone connecting to their inte. So, every inte in this world woulde equipped with a special mana lock.


    Hence, it was pointless to only have an inte''s mana frequency. Without the authentication of the mana lock, it would still be impossible to connect to the Thieves Guild''s inte. In other words, it was necessary to have the Thieves Guild''s custom devices to connect to the guild''s inte.


    This was also why the human and demon realms'' inte could not be connected to each other. Whenever the human realm''s inte detects mana originating from the demon realm, it would automatically cut off the connection. This was also true for the demon realm''s inte and why people in the human realm could not ess the demon realm''s inte.


    Of course, these hindrances were not a problem for Alice. The "Mana Network" skill she acquired from wielding a mobile phone with her right hand could ignore mana locks and allow her to ess any inte in the world.


    In the past, Alice did not know about the existence of the Thieves Guild''s inte. However, now that she knew about it, she could ess it from any phone as long as she was willing to.


    "The Thieves Guild''s software has a face recognition function that houses information on most thieves. However, since the control hub for the guild''s inte no longer exists, nobody can ess the inte''s database."


    After saying so, Rosa uploaded one of the photos of the gyaru thief Alice had sent to her. In no time at all, a form popped up on the screen. "Okay, it seems this girl has registered herself with the Thieves Guild''s inte. The guild''s software has already found her contact information for us."


    "Oh? How convenient."


    Alice leaned forward and looked at the form disyed on the screen curiously. They were essentially being asked to make an appointment with the gyaru thief, the form requiring them to fill in the details of themission, the meeting time, and the approximate remuneration.


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    It was obvious that, even though the Thieves Guild''s software had already found the gyaru thief''s contact information, it had no intentions of sharing this information with them directly. After all, the creators of the Thieves Guild''s inte knew thieves were reluctant to expose their identities. Hence, the software was designed to search for the user''s desired thief''s contact information and, at most, help the user make an appointment with their desired thief.


    "This is as far as I can help you. If a thief refuses to reveal their identity, the Thieves Guild''s inte will not share their information. It is only a tform that can help you establish contact with thieves," Rosa said, shrugging. "So, what is your n? Do you want to contact her? So long as you fill this form, the thief in question will get back to you within 24 hours and inform you whether she epts yourmission."


    "Contact her for me, then. I can''t think of any better way to contact her for the time being," Alice said, nodding her head and giving her consent after giving the matter some thought.


    Seeing this, Rosa ced her hands on the keyboard and asked:


    "What should I write in themission details? Don''t ask for something ridiculous such as help with ying a dragon. No thief will ept such a job... It''s best if youe up with a simplemission if you want to ensure she epts."


    "That''s true, but amission that''s overly simplistic will also make the other party grow suspicious. If that happened, she might refuse the job out of prudence," Alice said with a frown.


    Seeing as the gyaru was registered with the Thieves Guild, it meant that she was indeed a thief. However, it was highly probable that she was also working exclusively for Lilith, so such a person wouldn''t necessarily ept amission from a stranger.


    So, what kind ofmission could ensure that the gyaru thief took the bait?


    Alice quickly came up with an idea. Since the gyaru thief was most likely a thief working exclusively for Lilith, there was one kind ofmission that would definitely grab the gyaru thief''s attention:


    "Rosa, write "Investigate the Rhine Kingdom''s Princess Lilith Doyle" for themission."


    Rosa''s hands shuddered when she heard Alice''s words. Alice had never told her before that she was investigating the Rhine Kingdom''s princess. However, after hearing about who Alice was trying to investigate, Rosa could more or less guess why Alice was looking for this gyaru thief.


    Unfortunately, turning down a request from the Hero wasn''t an option for Rosa. So, despite her reluctance, she had no choice but to fill in Alice''smission and pray that the gyaru thief couldn''t track thismission back to her. After all, she highly doubted she could bear the retaliation of a princess.


    "Write ''Negotiable'' forpensation," Alice continued. If the average thief saw ''Negotiable'' in thepensation section, they would most likely turn down the job offer to avoid wasting their time. However, Alice was confident that the gyaru thief wouldn''t turn down themission. "Set the meeting venue at Icarus City''s Rosemary Bar and meeting time at 10:00 am the day after tomorrow."


    The Rosemary Bar was an establishment Alice had randomlye across while walking on the streets of Icarus City. She had never visited the bar, so there was no way for the gyaru thief to find out who she was by investigating this establishment.


    "What about visual indicators?" Rosa asked after obediently typing in Alice''s requirements. "To prevent disclosure of identity, the client will usually set a visual indicator to identify themselves. For example, you can say that you will be wearing a specific attire or holding a <em>Nakabia Poems</em>. This will make it easier for the thief to identify you. You can also ask the same of the thief."


    "Have her attend the meeting wearing twintails, then," Alice said. She already knew what the gyaru thief looked like, so visual indicators were unimportant for her. "Say that the client will also be wearing twintails."


    Lilith usually tied her hair into twintails. So, if themission''s client were to bring up twintails, the gyaru thief would be even more prone to ept themission. At the very least, she would definitely try to find out who was trying to investigate Lilith.


    "Alright...done. The other party should reply to you by tomorrow."


    Rosa sighed in relief once shepleted the form and submitted it. With this, she was finally done with Alice''s request.


    However, when Rosa recalled her past encounters with Alice, her body suddenly tensed up. If she were to go by her experience of dealing with Alice, once Alice was done with her official business, next up would be...


    "Mhm, mhm. Good job, Rosa." Alice nodded in satisfaction. Then, she patted Rosa''s shoulder and continued, "Then, I''ll need you to do me a small favor next."


    TL Notes:


    Porn is illegal in China, so it is necessary for porn sites to change their server locations every now and then.

 Chapter 335: Band-Aid

    Chapter 335: Band-Aid


    Fortunately, Rosa had prepared a backup n in the event that her magic pendant had failed to stop Alice from tracking down her whereabouts. Although it was a somewhat embarrassing solution, it was an effective method to ward off Alice''s shameless behavior.


    Since Alice would always steal a bunch of her panties whenever they met, Rosa came up with the perfect solution to stop losing themshe would stop wearing them altogether. More specifically, she would use something else to take the ce of panties. Meanwhile, the item she chose was something the average person would normally never use to cover their crotchband-aids.


    There was a significant difference between the medical industry in this otherworld and on Earth. Because of the existence of mana, most medical studies were done based on the magical properties of mana. Even so, some of the moremon medical items found on Earth were still invented in this otherworld. Moreover, these items were all enhanced using mana.


    One example of this would be the band-aids Rosa used. They were magically enhanced to have stronger healing properties and adhesiveness.


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    It was precisely because of the band-aids'' excellent adhesiveness that Rosa had tried to userge band-aids as a recement for panties. Moreover, after using these band-aids for some time, Rosa found that they worked pretty well as panties. Hence, she made the bold decision to rece all of her panties with band-aids.


    Of course, Rosa only intended to use this as a temporary solution. If Alice never showed up at her door again, Rosa would definitely have to change back to using normal panties. However, if Alice were to find her, the band-aids would dismiss any ideas Alice had about her panties.


    Unfortunately, Rosa had still underestimated the depths of Alice''s "perversion."


    [Weapon: L Brand Band-Aid]


    [Quality: Epic]


    [Effect: Strength +800, Spirit +800, Control +800, Mana +800]


    [Additional Effect:


    Reinforced Bones (Passive Skill. Reduces physical damage received by 80%);


    Spiritual Rampage (Passive Skill. People with a lower Spirit stat than you will have the spirit magic they use at you rendered ineffective);


    Holy Light''s Blessing (Active Skill. Releases a light that can heal the soul.)]


    <em>I see. Even though it isn''t a pair of panties, because it was used as panties, its evaluation also got elevated drastically? </em>Alice thought in amazement as she looked at the band-aid she had just stripped off of Rosa. She was surprised that it had received an "Epic" evaluation. Although it wasn''t rated as an "Artifact" like ordinary, worn panties, it was still on the same level as Grant''s Radioactive Soul Stone.


    While she was at it, Alice grabbed an unused band-aid from Rosa''s wardrobe and held it in her right hand. Meanwhile, the oue of the test was just as she expected.


    [Weapon: L Brand Band-Aid]


    [Quality: Garbage]


    [Effect: Mana +1]


    [Additional Effect: None]


    Evidently, a band-aid that was never worn as panties would only be an ordinary band-aid. As for the minor healing properties that the band-aid itself possessed, it was obvious that the band-aid carried so little mana that her right hand refused to acknowledge its existence. Hence, the unused band-aid was only rated as "Garbage" that did not possess any healing abilities.


    This situation renewed Alice''s knowledge of her right hand''s ability. At the same time, she also couldn''t help but be confused by this newfound knowledge. Just why was her right hand so infatuated with women''s underwear?


    In the past, Alice thought that her right hand would only give special treatment to actual panties. Now, though, it would seem that her right hand would give special treatment to anything that was being used as underwear by a woman.


    Alice also couldn''t help but wonder why her right hand had shown no reaction to the "panties" she had made using animal hide. Was her workmanship so poor that her right hand couldn''t bear to acknowledge it as panties?


    "Isn''t that enough? Stop staring at this thing," Rosa, who had just been stripped of her "panties," said as she looked at Alice in anger and shame. If it weren''t for the fact that she couldn''t beat Alice in a fight, she would have definitely fought to reim her panties.


    Alice sighed and put the freshly-stripped band-aid into her panty pouch. Although this thing wasn''t an Artifact, it was still an Epic-grade weapon that came with a healing skill.


    Most of the panties Alice had used as weapons thus far hade with offensive active skills of varying destructive capabilities. On the higher end was Purification de, a light taboo capable of destroying half of arge forest in the blink of an eye. On the lower end was Soul Strike, a spirit taboo that could destabilize the souls of all targets within a specific area.


    It was obvious that the band-aid came with a healing skill like Holy Light''s Blessing because of its inherent healing properties. Unfortunately, band-aids could not be reused as panties, so Rosa had thrown away all of her used band-aids. This meant that the only "usable" band-aid Alice could get her hands on was the one Rosa had been wearing until just now.


    "If you have any used band-aids in the future, can you please leave some for me?"


    Holy Light''s Blessing sounded like a very versatile healing ability. After all, the ability to heal the soul sounded very over the top. Hence, Alice thought that maybe she should keep a stockpile of it and use them like Senzu Beans[1]. Thus, she confronted Rosa with such a request. She even made sure to word her request politely.


    "Get out!!!"


    Unfortunately, Alice''s polite inquiry did not receive the treatment it deserved as Rosa drove Alice out of her house with a voice so angry that the roof had nearly flown off. It would seem that the feelings of shame and anger in her heart had already overwhelmed her fear of Alice''s status as the Hero.


    Seeing Rosa''s reaction, Alice obediently left Rosa''s house and abandoned her idea of stockpiling Rosa''s used band-aids. After her n had failed so miserably, Rosa would most likely return to using normal panties.


    <em>Nevermind. I already got myself a versatile healing ability, so it''s not a total loss, </em>Alice thought. She felt that "Holy Light''s Blessing" mighte in handy in the future. After all, she had never learned any healing spells since most healing taboos required the use ofrge-scale medical equipment. It was practically impossible for an individual to single-handedly cast a healing taboo.


    For example, some healing taboos required the assistance of a machine called a "mana transmitter." A mana transmitter functioned to convert mana into light with special dialysis capabilities and send this light into the patient''s body to conduct treatment. Meanwhile, the mana transmitter''s operating principles could not be replicated by the human body.


    Setting all else aside, just the mana transmitter''s first process of converting mana into special light particles was already outside of the abilities of humans to replicate with only their bodies and mana. This process required the use of a magic stone called "Trak." Unless Alice modified her body to mimic the properties of Trak, there was no way she could take the mana transmitter''s role.


    Moreover, that was only one of the many processes carried out in a mana transmitter. If Alice was hellbent on using healing taboos without the help of external equipment, she would have to stuff at least 20 different types of magic stones into her body, and there was no way she would ever do such a thing.


    Hence, being able to obtain a taboo-level, or pseudo-taboo-level since the band-aid was only an Epic-grade weapon, healing ability was considerably important to Alice.


    <em>Maybe I should ask Luna to stockpile some band-aids for me?</em>


    While wondering whether she should get others to help her just cause, Alice slowly made her way to the nearby bus stop. For the time being, she nned to return to the Rhine Kingdom and wait for the Thieves Guild''s reply.


    TL Notes:


    [1]Senzu Beans: mystical beans with immense rejuvenation properties in the Dragon Ball franchise.


    Wiki /wiki/Senzu_Bean

 Chapter 336: I, Collins, Only Desire a Peaceful Life

    Chapter 336: I, Collins, Only Desire a Peaceful Life


    As Alice expected, she received a reply from the Thieves Guild on the same night.


    Because Rosa had filled in Alice''s phone number in themission form''s contact information section, the reply was sent directly to Alice''s phone. This saved Alice the trouble of using one of the Thieves Guild''s custom devices to inspect the Thieves Guild''s reply.


    Of course, this wasn''t really a problem for Alice. Now that Alice had learned about the existence of the Thieves Guild''s inte, so long as she was wanted, she could ess it from any mobile phone. "Alice VPN" could ess even the demon realm''s inte, so it was only natural that it could ess the Thieves Guild''s inte.


    <em>She epted my meeting application without even bothering to negotiate prices with me. It seems she really wants to find out who is trying to investigate Lilith.</em>


    When Alice read the reply she received, she further reaffirmed her hunch that the gyaru thief was working for Lilith. After all, she hadn''t exactly been sincere when she filled in themission form. She had even written ''Negotiable'' in thepensation section, the part where thieves were most concerned. Yet, the other party had still agreed to meet her without trying to bargain with her.


    If the gyaru thief was only working for Lilith on amission basis without actually knowing about Lilith''s identity, it wouldn''t make sense for her to react so desperately. The fact that the gyaru thief had reacted in such a manner proved that she was working for Lilith, the Rhine Kingdom''s princess.


    Alice did not rush to give the gyaru thief a reply. Although she was indeed trying to investigate the Rhine Kingdom''s princess and several princes, so long as she, the "Demon King," did not offer a response, the person attempting to drag the demons into the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs could not seed in their goal.


    Laying on her bed in her rented apartment, Alice yed with her phone as she waited for her other Dark Guard to return. She had dispatched two Dark Guards when she visited the Franken Convention Center this morning: the sledgehammer loli and shota magician.


    Among them, the sledgehammer loli had gotten killed by Kurse, Lilith''s bodyguard. Fortunately, Alice had sessfully recovered the loli''s spy camera.


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    As for the shota magician, he had never suffered any attacks. He hadn''t been caught by anybody, either. From what Alice could perceive through her connection with the shota magician, thetter was able to safely observe the otokonoko prince the entire day at the convention center. Only after the spy camera was about to run out of battery did the shota magician choose to return to Alice''s side.


    Soon, Alice heard a knock on the door. When she opened the door with her psychic power, the shota magician entered the house and walked up to her. Then, under her gaze, the shota magician removed the spy camera from his left eye socket and ced it on the table. Then, he nodded to Alice before fading out of existence.


    Unlike the sledgehammer loli, the shota magician was able to safelyplete his task and return to the anadagger normally. Although Alice was d that she didn''t have to go through the trouble of recovering the shota magician''s spy camera, she also couldn''t help but be perplexed by this situation. Could the eldest prince not have any bodyguards protecting him?


    If Lilith''s bodyguard had managed to discover the sledgehammer loli''s actions, it didn''t make sense that Collins'' bodyguard would fail to notice the shota magician''s actions. Unless, of course, Collins did not have any bodyguards. However, Alice had difficulty believing this to be the case.


    Even if Collins had disappeared from the public eye for a long time already and most people had already forgotten what he even looked like, he was still the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince. Logically, he should still have a basic level of protection as a member of the royal family.


    However, when Alice started inspecting the camera footage, she immediately understood what had happened. The reason the shota magician had managed to carry out his mission unnoticed wasn''t that Collins did not have a single bodyguard around him. Instead, it was because Collins had too many bodyguards.


    The biggest difference separating Lilith and Collins was that Lilith had nurtured a group of loyal subordinates. Hence, Kurse, Lilith''s strongest bodyguard, knew about every bodyguard responsible for ensuring Lilith''s safety. So, when the sledgehammer loli, an unfamiliar face, kept following Lilith around the convention center, Kurse immediately took notice of this suspicious behavior.


    However, Collins had not nurtured his own forces as Lilith did. Either that or he chose not to invest his private forces into his protection. Hence, the bodyguards responsible for protecting Collins were all sent by the Rhine Kingdom''s government. Moreover, these bodyguards came in batches.


    Collins'' bodyguards would often appear in the footage. Moreover, the majority of them operated independently and did not recognize each other. In the footage, Alice could often see several muscr men appearing in the shota magician''s field of view. However, whenever these muscr men made eye contact, they would only look at each other briefly before looking away indifferently. It was obvious they did not know each other. Yet, at the same time, they were also aware that they were all bodyguards sent to protect Collins.


    Meanwhile, because of this peculiar arrangement, Collins'' bodyguards mistook the shota magician for one of their own. Although the shota magician didn''t really look the part of a bodyguard, he managed to avoid suspicion because of the magician''s robe he wore.


    This discovery left Alice at a loss for words. She never thought that Collins having too many bodyguards would actually y into her favor. Collins'' bodyguard probably wouldn''t have guessed that an enemy had snuck into their ranks.


    However, upon closer observation, Alice noticed that even though Collins'' bodyguards all maintained a considerable distance from Collins, they would quickly shorten this distance whenever they came across someone suspicious or if someone tried to approach Collins. So, even if an enemy were to sneak into the ranks of Collins'' bodyguards, they would quickly be swarmed by Collins'' actual bodyguards should they try to approach Collins.


    In fact, it would be even harder for an enemy to get close to Collins if they were to disguise themselves as one of Collins'' bodyguards. After all, none of Collins'' bodyguards would approach him unless they noticed suspicious activity. So, if one of these bodyguards were to approach Collins suddenly for no good reason, it would instantly attract the attention of the other bodyguards.


    Alice only required the shota magician to record Collins'' interactions with other people, so he naturally did not need to stay close to Collins. Because of this, the shota magician managed to observe Collins the entire day and safely return to Alice''s side.


    Watching up to this point, Alice took out a pair of panties from her pouch and held it in her right hand. Then, she sped up the rey. With the huge boost in Spirit and Control stats the panties provided, she could see everything clearly, even if the footage was sped up significantly.


    However, to Alice''s frustration, Collins behaved no different from an otaku throughout the day. After sitting at hispany''s booth the entire morning, he switched to wandering around the convention center in the afternoon. He even sang a song in a singingpetition held on the first floor and bought some doujinshis and figurines.


    It was no wonder the bodyguards captured in the footage would always wear numbed expressions. They had probably gotten used to Collins'' otaku lifestyle long ago.


    Fortunately, the Dark Guards summoned using Chaos General typically wouldn''t make any expressions. Because of this, the shota magician maintained an indifferent expression throughout his entire "work shift." Otherwise, Collins'' bodyguards might have grown suspicious of him.


    <em>I wonder if Collins is just very good at hiding his strength or if he really is just an otaku</em>


    Alice sighed. She honestly couldn''t decide whether Collins was suspicious or not. After all, his behavior in the footage was too normal. As the prince of a kingdom, such "normal" behavior was somewhat abnormal.


    But considering Collins'' past actions, his current behavior wasn''t exactly surprising. This was because Collins did not regard himself as a prince at all. He had dressed as a girl, participated in an anime convention that most nobles regarded as meaningless, worked as the receptionist for a small gamepany, and voluntarily relinquished his session rights to the throne.


    Under these premises, it was reasonable for him to conduct himself in a way unbefitting of a prince.


    Unable toe to a decisive conclusion, Alice decided to focus her attention on investigating Lilith''s forces. If Lilith was the most suspicious of the royal siblings, Alice could ignore Collins for the time being. However, if Lilith turned out to be clean, Alice would probably have to investigate Collins and the young Arcana further.

 Chapter 337: Lets Have A Proper Chat (Over Magic)

    Chapter 337: Let''s Have A Proper Chat (Over Magic)


    "OK"


    Inside a very ordinary student dormitory, a girl named Sylvia tied her long silver hair into twintails. Then, she stood in front of the room''s only dressing mirror and carefully looked herself up and down. After a while, she sighed, barely satisfied with her attire.


    "Oh? What''s gotten into you today, Sylvia? Are you trying to switch to the innocent route?"


    The beds in this dormitory were all bunk beds. The upper bunk was a normal bed, while the lower bunk was a desk. This dormitory had four bunk beds, and all four had owners. Aside from Sylvia, the other three upants of the room remained in bed as they didn''t usually wake up at such an early hour.


    However, the noise Sylvia made when getting dressed had woken them up, so they all poked their heads out of their beds and poked fun at Sylvia as they watched their roommate dressing up. All four residents of this dormitory were gyarus. So, when the others saw Sylvia suddenly dressing in such an upright manner, they couldn''t help but be surprised.


    "I have some proper business to deal with today, so I can''t wear my usual clothes," Sylvia responded grumpily. When she looked in the mirror and saw herself dressed decently, she couldn''t help but shake her head helplessly. She disliked dressing like this, but the client had asked her to head to the meeting venue wearing twintails. So, she had spent some time fixing her attire to match her hairstyle.


    Her mission today was of utmost importance, so to ensure that she met with her client, she had to tie her hair into twintails even if she was reluctant to do so. However, she also refused to leave home looking like a clown. So, to ensure that she had enough time to get dressed, she had no choice but to get up early and get ready in advance.


    Although the three other upants of this dormitory were gyarus like herself, she was different because she wasn''t just an ordinary student. Instead, she also worked as a thief. Moreover, she wasn''t just any ordinary thief but a thief working directly under Lilith Doyle, the Rhine Kingdom''s princess. She was even the leader of one of the thief gangs working under Lilith.


    In regards to Princess Lilith, Sylvia had always held considerable respect for the other party. As someone who had helped Lilith in many investigations, Sylvia got to learn about what kind of person Lilith was. Despite not having any session rights to the Rhine Kingdom, Lilith still constantly tried to eliminate the dangerous factors threatening the Rhine Kingdom.


    Throughout her career as a thief, Sylvia had helped Lilith investigate many evildoers trying to harm the Rhine Kingdom. Meanwhile, the target they were currently investigating was seemingly a big fish. This fish was so big that it was actually trying to involve the demons in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal session.


    Unfortunately, their opponent this time was surprisingly skilled at hiding. Even after the thieves under Lilith had worked hard for several months, they failed to obtain any useful information.


    Worse yet, it would seem that their investigations had alerted their opponent as someone had set their sights on Lilith. Specifically, someone hadmissioned the Thieves Guild to investigate Lilith. This situation instantly raised the rm bells in Sylvia''s head.


    Fortunately, themission to investigate Lilith coincidentally fell into Sylvia''s hands. Sylvia had also epted themission without hesitation. Of course, she wouldn''t actually reveal any of Lilith''s information to the client. She was simply trying to find out who was trying to investigate Lilith.


    <em>Come. Let me see who is trying to get at Her Highness</em>


    Normally, Sylvia looked and behaved like a misfit in the eyes of others. Her disposition to look down on weaklings also didn''t serve to help her image. However, Sylvia would never back down when it came to matters involving Lilith.


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    Although her appointment with the client was set during ss, Sylvia didn''t have any problems with it since skipping ss was amon urrence for her. Although she was a student, her school didn''t have strict rules like the Royal Magic Tower. The teachers in her school did not dare to meddle in her affairs.


    Icarus City''s Rosemary Bar wasn''t a well-known bar. Although Sylvia had spent most of yesterday looking into the bar''s regrs hoping to find some clues, she failed to find anything useful.


    After all, the Rosemary Bar was a venue Alice had chosen randomly. She had never visited the bar before, so it was natural that Sylvia''s investigation into the bar wouldn''t yield any useful results.


    Regardless, Sylvia entered the Rosemary Bar with a cautious mind.


    Currently, several middle-aged men were sitting in the bar drinking. When Sylvia entered the establishment, these men all turned to look at her simultaneously before quickly turning away timidly.


    Obviously, even though this group of depressed middle-aged men was interested in beautiful young girls, they knew Sylvia wasn''t someone they could casually mess around with. Although Sylvia was dressed conservatively right now, her makeup instantly gave her away as a gyaru.


    "Tsk."


    Sylvia clicked her tongue after ncing at these middle-aged men. She did not hold any good feelings for such weak individuals. It would also seem that none of these middle-aged men was the target she was looking for.


    Since the client wasn''t in the main hall, the other party should be in one of the bar''s private rooms. So, Sylvia approached the front desk, looked at the waitress standing behind the desk, and asked:


    "Is there a customer in one of your private rooms waiting for someone?"


    "Ah, yes, there is. Are you the person she is waiting for?" After the waitress recovered from her brief surprise, her gaze stopped on Sylvia''s twintails for a moment before she nodded to Sylvia''s question. "It seems you are. Please follow me, then. I will take you to her."


    When Sylvia saw the waitress''s reaction, she knew she had entered the right ce. The waitress had very clearly looked at her hairstyle just now. Meanwhile, the client of themission had designated twintails as the method of identification for them.


    Sylvia honestly found this request a little irksome. Of course, that wasn''t to say that she disliked this hairstyle. It was just that this hairstyle reminded her of Lilith, the person she respected. Seeing as the client was not only trying to investigate Lilith, Sylvia couldn''t help but think that the client had put in this request on purpose.


    <em>Just wait. I''m going to teach you a lesson once I meet you.</em>


    After following the waitress to the back of the establishment, Sylvia watched as the waitress opened the door to a room and entered it. Then, Sylvia entered the room and closed the door on her way in.


    However, after closing the door, Sylvia quickly noticed something was amiss. Specifically, the lights in the room were off, and it did not seem like anyone was in the room before she and the waitress entered it.


    "What''s going on? Did you bring me to the wrong room?"


    Sylvia frowned as she looked at the short figure before her, finding the quality of the bar''s staff wanting. Meanwhile, in response to her question, the waitress suddenly turned around and raised her head, revealing the blonde bangs under the waitress''s hat she wore. Immediately afterward, Sylvia felt arge amount of mana surging into her brain.


    Consciousness Transformation!

 Chapter 338: Bound

    Chapter 338: Bound


    Sylvia''s body instantly stiffened upon getting hit by Alice''s Consciousness Transformation. Although Sylvia had tried to resist the spirit taboo, her mind quickly went nk, and she became a puppet for Alice to manipte.


    If this were an adult novel, the following scene would most likely be unsafe for work. However, Alice didn''t have time to waste on such matters. After controlling Sylvia with Consciousness Transformation, Alice quickly locked the door to the room and turned on the lights.


    Now that the room was brightly illuminated, if Sylvia had retained her consciousness, she would have noticed that there were actually three upants in the room. Aside from Sylvia and Alice, there was a girl slightly taller than Alice lying unconscious on the floor, the girl having a freckled face and an ordinary appearance.


    This girl was the real waitress working for the Rosemary Bar. For the sake of her ns, Alice had visited the bar as soon as it opened for business, knocked this waitress unconscious, changed into the waitress''s uniform, and pretended to be the receptionist manning the front desk. It was also fortunate that the bartenders and the other staff members in the establishment weren''t very familiar with the receptionist. So, nobody suspected Alice to not be an employee of the bar.


    "Sorry for borrowing your clothes for a bit. Here''s some money aspensation," Alice said as she changed out of the waitress''s uniform and put it back on for the unconscious waitress. After doing so, she pulled out some bank notes and stuffed them into the waitress''s pocket.


    Previously, Alice had inspected the waitress''s wallet and ID out of curiosity when she was borrowing the other party''s uniform. From the little change left in the wallet, Alice could tell that the girl wasn''t doing very well financially. So, giving the girl some marypensation should be good enough. Not to mention, Alice had already helped to cover the girl''s shift for the past couple of hours, so nobody would realize that the girl hadn''t actually been working throughout this period.


    Afterward, Alice opened the door and moved the waitress out into the corridor. Then, she gently woke the girl and quickly snuck back into the room before the girl realized what was going on.


    The girl might grow confused about why she had fallen asleep in the corridor after waking up, but she shouldn''t realize it was Alice''s doing. After all, Alice had been quite careful when knocking the waitress unconscious, going as far as to conceal herself with her magic robe''s active skill and taking action when the waitress was alone by herself. So, it was unlikely that the waitress would guess that an invisible person had knocked her unconscious using a spirit taboo.


    "Alright, it''s our time next."


    After taking care of the waitress, Alice returned her focus to Sylvia, who remained standing in the room with a dazed expression. She also carefully nced at the ring on Sylvia''s left index finger. When she used Consciousness Transformation previously, she could feel a slight resistance to her mana, and this resistance came from this ring.


    It would seem that the ring should have the effect of blocking spirit magic. Moreover, it should be quite the potent effect considering it had managed to work on a spirit taboo like Consciousness Transformation, albeit briefly. If someone were to use a spirit spell beneath the taboo level against Sylvia, the ring should more or less block the spell.


    Unfortunately, the ring''s protection against spirit magic was still insufficient. Even though Alice felt slight resistance against her Consciousness Transformation, her mana swiftly broke through this resistance and invaded Sylvia''s mind.


    Anyway, if Alice knew how to read memories right now, what followed next would be simple. All she would need to do was read Sylvia''s memories, and she would know what tasks Sylvia had helped Lilith carry out recently. Then, through these tasks, she could judge whether Lilith was the culprit trying to ignite the mes of war between the human and demon realms.


    Unfortunately, Alice still did not know how to read memories. The memory code she acquired through Consciousness Transformation remained a wall of nonsense to her. This situation left Alice at a loss on what to do.


    Of course, Alice naturally thought of learning to read memory codes before taking action. However, the problem was that this was a time-consuming process.


    The average person would need to study for one or two years before reaching an entry-level in spirit magic. Meanwhile, only after reaching an entry-level could they start to learn how to decipher memory codes.


    Even if Alice''s body possessed talents granted by God, she would most likely require upwards of half a month before she could learn how to decipher memory codes. Although Alice wasn''tcking time, it was still a considerable amount of time, in her opinion. Hence, she abandoned the idea of learning spirit magic before taking action, leaving this matter for when she had nothing better to do. For the time being, she decided to use a more direct and violent interrogation method.


    "Sylvia Emerald. A student of the Ichu Vocational and Technical College"


    Alice found a student ID in Sylvia''s handbag and learned about the other identity Sylvia used in conjunction with her thief identity. As Lilith''s close aide, it should have been easy for Sylvia to get into the Royal Magic Tower. The fact that she didn''t do so and chose to attend a vocational college instead was probably because the Royal Magic Tower''s strict rules would be a hindrance to her irregrly-scheduled thief activities.


    However, as someone capable of thriving in the thief industry, Sylvia might not be as smart as the top students studying in the Royal Magic Tower, but she was definitely superior in practical experiences and abilities. So, Alice wouldn''t underestimate Sylvia simply because the other party wasn''t studying in the Rhine Kingdom''s best academy.


    <em>Let''s tie her up first, then find a way to get her to spill information,</em> Alice thought.


    Currently, aside from a white shoulder bag, the only thing Alice carried on her was the Milu Rabbit and her panty pouch. So, it was obvious that she didn''t have anything to tie Sylvia with. However, this wasn''t a problem that could trouble her.


    cing a hand on the wooden wall nearby, Alice cast Hubert''s Tree and created a long vine in the blink of an eye. Although it was overkill to use a taboo just to create a singr vine, Alice didn''t know any normal spells that could enable her to create a vine.


    After snapping the vine off the wall, Alice grabbed a chair, sat Sylvia on it, and tied the twintail gyaru to the chair using the vine. Hubert''s Tree was a taboo, so the vine created using the taboo was incredibly tough. Alice might not have had trouble snapping it off the wall, but Sylvia would most likely struggle to break it.


    Alice nodded in satisfaction after ensuring she had bound Sylvia''s limbs and torso. Then, she dismissed Consciousness Transformation.


    As soon as the spirit taboo was canceled, Sylvia gradually recovered her consciousness and quickly realized that she had been trickedthe waitress who guided her wasn''t an actual employee of the bar. Instead, it was someone disguising as a waitress to lower her guard. Then, this someone must have used spirit magic to put her under their control.


    Although Sylvia didn''t understand why her "Ring of Divine Wisdom" had failed to protect her from the other party''s spirit magic, there was no doubt that the person who controlled her was the enemy.

 Chapter 339: Pervert

    Chapter 339: Pervert


    Alice naturally wouldn''t appear before Sylvia in her real appearance. She currently needed to y the role of an interrogator. If she appeared in her real appearance, Sylvia would instantly recognize her, and her interrogation might not achieve its intended results.


    After all, the appearance of the Gryffin King''s illegitimate daughter had caused quite a sensation on the inte a few months ago. Anyone who had been on the inte and seen the news during that period would have seen Alice''s appearance. If Sylvia was an old woman who didn''t frequent the inte, Alice might not have bothered to disguise herself. However, Sylvia evidently wasn''t an old woman.


    On the contrary, Sylvia was not only a fashionable gyaru but also a well-informed thief. If Alice dared to interrogate Sylvia in her real appearance, Sylvia would definitely recognize her. To avoid the potential troubles that coulde with such a development, Alice put on therge magician''s hat she had bought from the magic town to cover most of her face, letting Sylvia see only her mouth. Only after doing so did Alice speak up:


    "Hello, Sylvia. Or should I say, Lilith''s subordinate?"


    "Who are you?"


    Lilith remained rtively calm. She did not panic simply because her hands and feet were bound. Instead, she calmly responded to Alice''s greeting while trying to free herself from her restraints. Of course, despite her actions, Sylvia didn''t think she could free herself. After all, Alice knew about her secret identity as a thief, so the other party had most likelye prepared to restrain her.


    Sure enough, when Sylvia tried to break her restraints, she promptly noticed that Alice didn''t use a normal rope to restrain her as the rope possessed incredible toughness. Moreover, Sylvia noticed that the rope wasn''t tough because it was magically treated. Instead, it was because the rope inherently possessed an exaggerated amount of mana. This, in turn, gave the rope toughness surpassing even ropes that were magically enhanced ropes.


    This discovery rendered Sylvia speechless. She couldn''t help but feel that she had been abducted by a prodigal. If a magically enhanced rope was equated to a hose thatpressed water to release it at high pressure without wasting too much water, then the rope used to tie her would be equivalent to a hose releasing all the water in the reservoir it was connected with to achieve high pressure.


    In terms of efficiency, the high-pressure hose would naturally be the superior of the two since it could achieve the greatest destruction using the least amount of water. However, if efficiency was to be disregarded, the hose that released all the water in the reservoir to achieve a high pressure could naturally achieve greater destruction than the high-pressure hose.


    Of course, Sylvia could have never guessed that the rope used to tie her was actually a vine created using the taboo "Hubert''s Tree." Hence, the mana it carried naturally exceeded the mana contained in the average magic rope.


    Meanwhile, Alice had naturally noticed Sylvia''s attempt to free herself. However, Alice was confident in the toughness of the vine she created, so she wasn''t worried Sylvia could break free from it.


    "Who I am is not important. What''s important is what you, or more specifically Lilith has been doing recently. I''m sure you would know about her actions, right?" Alice asked ambiguously, hoping to induce Sylvia to reveal some hints regarding Lilith''s recent ns.


    However, Sylvia was incredibly alert. Although she knew what Lilith was currently investigating, and she was even one of the people involved in this investigation, she wouldn''t casually reveal the subject of their investigation to someone she didn''t have any information on.


    "What Her Highness Lilith has been doing recently? What does that have to do with you?"


    Sylvia''s current n was simple. She had previously arranged a meeting with Lilith at 2 PM to make a regr report.


    Originally, Sylvia nned to uncover the identity of the person trying to investigate Lilith and report this matter to Lilith in the afternoon. Now, however, not only did she fail to identify the culprit, but she even got caught by the other party So, what Sylvia needed to do now was to buy time. So long as she could drag things out until 2 PM, Lilith would realize that she could no longer be contacted and search for her.


    Lilith was the Rhine Kingdom''s only princess. Although she wasn''t a sessor to the throne, she still had the authority and ability to conduct a wide-scale search for someone in the Rhine Kingdom. So, Sylvia did not think the person in front of her could escape Lilith''s search.


    "How tight-lipped you are."


    Alice chuckled. Sylvia''s personality was much more stable than she expected. However, she didn''t find this particrly surprising since Sylvia was a thief recruited by Lilith to collect important intelligence on her behalf. There was no way Sylvia would be easily flustered like normal girls her age. Otherwise, she would have long since exposed Lilith''s actions.


    However, after all was said and done, Sylvia was only at the age where she should be studying in school. She might be able to withstand ordinary interrogation for a long time, but Alice wasn''t the type of person who would y by the books.


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    With a smile on her face, Alice approached Sylvia and extended her hands under Sylvia''s confused gaze. Then, she grabbed Sylvia''s skirt.


    "Wait! What are you doing?!"


    Sure enough, Sylvia''s calm expression instantly crumbled in the face of Alice''s abrupt behavior, and she involuntarily cried out in a panicked voice.


    Originally, Sylvia thought she would only be subjected to a normal interrogation. After all, even though Alice had made her voice sound coarser using mana, the two small bulges on her chest gave it away that she was female.


    However, Sylvia never thought that her female interrogator would suddenly pull off her skirt. She instantly panicked in this situation, and the first thought that came to her mind was that she hade across a female pervert.


    Subsequently, under Sylvia''s flustered gaze, Alice cut the sides of her panties and removed them from her lower body.


    This development frightened Sylvia. This situation waspletely outside of her expectations. She never thought that the person in front of her would go from asking about Lilith''s information in one moment to stripping off her skirt and panties the next moment.


    Meanwhile, after looking at her newly acquired prize, Alice had to admit that Sylvia was indeed a gyaru to the core. Even though Sylvia had worn conservative clothes to their meeting, the panties she wore underneath those clothes were very bold.


    The ckce panties Alice currently held had even less fabric than the bold panties Rosa usually wore. Out of Rosa''s panty collection, only the few thongs in Rosa''s wardrobe and the band-aid Alice sequestered yesterday couldpete with Sylvia''sce panties.


    Alice had seen many panties before. So, it was incredible that Sylvia''s panties could receive such a high evaluation from her.


    However, Alice didn''t strip Sylvia''s panties just to bully her. On the one hand, she had done so to make Sylvia panic so that she could pry information out of Sylvia more easily. On the other hand, it was to show her identity to Sylvia through this pair of ck panties.


    [Weapon: Soft ck Lace Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +3000, Constitution +3000, Speed +3000, Spirit +7000, Control +7000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Cancetion (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by offensive magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Destruction Grip (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a hand of darkness that can crumble the target''s soul.)]


    Immediately, dark mana overflowed from Alice''s right hand and rapidly filled the isted room, causing the room to darken.


    Sylvia was originally panicking a little already after having her panties forcefully stripped from her. Upon seeing therge amount of dark mana and dark misting out of Alice''s right hand, her expression changed once again. Then, when she recalled the recent events that had taken ce in the Rhine Kingdom, she subconsciously blurted out the first thought that came to her mind:


    "You''re the Demon King?! You''re the one trying to investigate Her Highness Lilith?! Don''t tell me you''ve already decided to interfere in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs?!"

 Chapter 340: No Moles Here

    Chapter 340: No Moles Here


    Alice was right to guess Sylvia wasn''t as tough as she portrayed herself. At the very least, she wasn''t at the level where she could shrug off acts of perversion done to her.


    In addition, through Sylvia''s response, Alice learned that Sylvia didn''t harbor any good feelings toward the Demon King and the demons. Moreover, after learning about the matter of "the Demon King investigating Lilith," Sylvia panicked even more than when she had her panties stripped.


    Evidently, Lilith didn''t have any ongoing partnerships or ns to partner with the demons. Otherwise, Sylvia wouldn''t have shown such a panicked reaction. After all, if Lilith truly intended to join hands with the demons, news of the Demon King investigating Lilith should be an act of "betrayal" in Sylvia''s eyes.


    Yet, at the same time, Sylvia clearly knew that someone was trying to get the demons to intervene in the Rhine Kingdom''s session rights. She also determined that the appearance of the "Demon King" this time was the demons'' agreement to intervene in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs.


    Combining these two factors, it was most likely safe to assume that Lilith wasn''t the person impersonating Etoria to initiate contact with the demons. Even so, Lilith had already discovered that someone was trying to tempt the demons into interfering in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs. HenceLilith was also investigating the person impersonating Etoria.


    Of course, Alice couldn''t conclude that Lilith was innocent simply by relying on a few words from Sylvia. For all Alice knew, Sylvia could just be ying dumb with her. After all, the person tempting the demons into action was "Prince Etoria." So, to avoid exposing Lilith''s true identity, Sylvia might have chosen to y innocent.


    "Oh? Are you not the ones who asked for our help?"


    Alice still used mana to make her voice sound hoarse when speaking. Although Sylvia could clearly tell this was a magically processed voice, she didn''t care that it was a fake one. Instead, she focused all of her attention on the words said by the "Demon King."


    Meanwhile, the instant Sylvia heard Alice''s words, her expression rxed slightly. Although Alice wasn''t a master at reading facial expressions, she still noticed the change in Sylvia''s expression. Not to mention, Sylvia was quite anxious right now, so she didn''t do a very good job managing her facial expressions. Hence, even an amateur like Alice could tell the changes in Sylvia''s emotions.


    From what Alice could tell, Sylvia didn''t seem like she was pretending to be innocent. Rather, it would seem that Lilith really wasn''t the person trying to invite the demons. Had Lilith been the mastermind, Sylvia should have revealed a nervous and awkward expression the moment Alice "exposed" her rather than looking relieved.


    The fact that Sylvia felt relieved showed that she was d that the demons had yet to find the person trying to partner with them. Meanwhile, without help from people inside the Rhine Kingdom''s government, the demons would be incapable of executing arge-scale invasion of the Rhine Kingdom.


    However, after sighing in relief, Sylvia quickly revealed a furious expression and said, "Her Highness will never do such a thing! She will never betray the human race! You demons will never have your way!"


    In reality, Sylvia had briefly thought of admitting to Alice''s ims and pretending that Lilith was the person trying to collude with the demons. Then, they could use this misinformation to mislead the demons and dy, or possibly foil, the demons'' ns to invade the Rhine Kingdom.


    However, Sylvia dismissed this idea shortly after it appeared in her mind. Even if she acknowledged that Lilith was trying to ally with the demons, there was no way Lilith could provide the demons with any safe invasion routes. In that case, the demons would quickly grow suspicious of Lilith and realize that Lilith might not be the person trying to partner with them. Even if the demons didn''t realize they had contacted the wrong person, they would quickly seek other alternatives after realizing that Lilith wasn''t sincerely trying to partner with them. So, all in all, pretending that Lilith was trying to partner with the demons wouldn''t hinder the demons'' ns by much.


    In that case, Sylvia decided that she might as well outright deny Alice''s ims and make Lilith''s stance clear. Doing so would also create a tough image for Lilith.


    "How straightforward of you. Are you not afraid I will kill you?" Alice chuckled as she walked up to Sylvia and looked at the gyaru''s angry expression. "You are nothing more than an information source to me. Once I get the information I want out of you, how I deal with you entirely depends on my mood. Are you not worried that I will kill you if you speak against me like this?"


    "Go ahead and try, then! Let''s see how much information you can get out of my mouth!" Sylvia sneered. She had no intention of cowering in the slightest. "I don''t mind repeating myself! You demons will never have your way!"


    "How brave of you," Alicemented while caressing her chin.


    In reality, Alice already got the information she wanted. She had only captured Sylvia to find out whether Lilith was the culprit impersonating Etoria and initiating contact with the demons. However, by the looks of things, not only was Lilith not the culprit, but it would seem that the Rhine Princess was also actively investigating this matter.


    In other words, Alice and Lilith shared the same goalsboth wanted to prevent the demons from interfering in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs.


    Of course, Alice also noticed what Sylvia was trying to do. The gyaru thief was most likely behaving bravely because she thought the information she wielded was crucial to the "Demon King." Hence, she wasn''t worried she would be killed. Not immediately, at the very least.


    However, if all Sylvia could provide was information, it wouldn''t be enough to get her out of her current predicament.


    In other words, Sylvia''s current goal was to buy time. Once she bought enough time, someone woulde to find her. Although Sylvia must know that Lilith''s forces wouldn''t be enough to deal with the Demon King, she must also know that the Hero was on the way to the Rhine Kingdom. Hence, so long as she could buy enough time for the Hero to arrive, the "Demon King" before her would no longer be a threat.


    <em>Hah Nevermind. </em>Alice shook her head. Since she now knew that Sylvia was trying to buy time, she naturally wouldn''t allow the gyaru to do so. After looking at the ring on Sylvia''s hand, Alice softly chuckled and said, "You are wearing a ring on your left index finger I didn''t think a gyaru like you would still be single."


    "...Is it so strange for a gyaru to be single?!" Sylvia cried out angrily, her face blushing a little in embarrassment. "Also, what does this have to do with you!?"


    "Nothing. I''m just a little curious about this ring."


    When Alice first learned about Sylvia''s ring, she was a little curious as to why Sylvia would possess such a powerful defensive item. After all, the ring was capable of stopping spirit magic at the taboo level, albeit briefly.


    However, after thinking it over, Alice found that it made sense that Sylvia would have such an item. Sylvia must store a lot of information in her mind. If this information got leaked, it could cause serious problems to Lilith and the Rhine Kingdom. Hence, it made sense that Sylvia would be equipped with such a powerful defensive item.


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    Actually, now that Alice thought about it, Sylvia might have other equipment that could be used to boost herbat power. Only, Alice had knocked Sylvia out before thetter could use this equipment.


    "But this ring is useless against me," Alice softly said as she looked Sylvia in the eye. Then, before Sylvia could react to her words, she activated Consciousness Transformation and instantly turned the gyaru into her puppet once again.


    Of course, Alice wasn''t just trying to stop Sylvia from moving this time. Instead, she nned to erase some of Sylvia''s memories. Although Alice still didn''t know how to read memory codes, she didn''t need to understand a person''s memories to erase them.


    Previously, when Alice entered the room and used Consciousness Transformation on Lilith for the first time, she had taken a glimpse of Sylvia''s memory code. Although she couldn''t understand the code, it didn''t matter. She simply wanted to look at the end of Sylvia''s memory code and memorize that part.


    Meanwhile, all Alice needed to do now was erase the new memory codes that were added after that part. Once she did that, Sylvia would forget everything that had happened after entering the room. Although Alice had never revealed her face or real voice to Sylvia, her height and hair color might cause Lilith to suspect her. Hence, it was best if she erased Sylvia''s memories for precaution''s sake.

 Chapter 343: Hentai

    Chapter 343: Hentai


    <em>The magic robe''s presence concealment is great, but the duration leaves much to be desired. I should probably find a higher quality one and see if the duration will increase.</em>


    The magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill allowed Alice to hide her and the shota Dark Guard''s presencepletely. So, they were able to enter Collins''s office without any hindrances. Alice had also made sure to destroy all surveince cameras that were in operation.


    The game developmentpany had the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince backing it, so it was unlikely to be troubled by such a loss. ording to Alice''s investigations, although Collins had hidden his identity as royalty from his colleagues, he had used his identity to help the gamepany on many asions. So, it wouldn''t be wrong to say that thispany was backed by the eldest prince.


    After ensuring that she had destroyed all surveince cameras that could potentially capture her appearance, Alice removed the robe covering her and the shota Dark Guard. It was fortunate that both of them had small bodies, so the robe could cover both of them without a problem. Though, if a third person was added to the mix, the robe would have trouble fitting all of them.


    Thepany Collins worked for was called "Wiggle Wiggle Entertainment," a strange name for apany. Thepany''s office was located on the 25th floor of a tall office building in Icarus City. It was a rtively mediocrepany in Icarus City, a city with a fairly developed culture.


    Collins worked as only an ordinary employee in thispany. Alice found a seating chart disyed on the wall in the lobby and quickly located Collins''s seat andputer. Then, without hesitation, she took a seat and turned on Collins''sputer.


    As for the shota Dark Guard, Alice had put him on guard duty at the office''s entrance. If anyone were to enter the office at this time, the shota Dark Guard would immediately knock them out with spirit magic.


    The shota Dark Guard was a considerably all-rounded magician. He was knowledgeable in even rare magic types such as spirit, gravity, and soul magic. It was for this reason that Miriya, the Eighth Demon King, had chosen to keep him as one of her Dark Guards. After all, not only was the shota magician a powerful magician, but he could also be put to use on many asions.


    Collins''sputer was locked with a password, which came as no surprise to Alice. On the contrary, she grew even more interested to find out what was in Collins''sputer that the cross-dressing prince deemed necessary to put a password on it.


    It should be known that this was apanyputer. Normally, it should be more than enough to put a password on crucial files. Yet, Collins had even set a login password. This must mean that theputer held things that Collins didn''t wish for others to see.


    Although Alice wasn''t skilled in the ways of aputer hacker, she had a reliable brute force method to bypass theputer''s security measureAspect Separation. The advantage of Aspect Separation was that it targeted "concepts," not physical objects. In other words, she could set even target a virtual item''s concept with the taboo. The only downside was that it would cost more mana.


    After casting Aspect Separation, Alice changed the concept of "Collins''sputer''s passwords" to "123456," a simple six-digit password that gave her easy ess to Collins''sputer.


    Alice had to admit that Aspect Separation was incredibly useful for "cracking" locks. It didn''t matter whether the lock in question was a magic lock, a normal lock, or a password. With the help of Aspect Separation, she could immediately reduce even the toughest lock into one that even a child could open. In Alice''s hands, Aspect Separation had essentially be a universal key.


    <em>Let''s see what unspeakable things you are hiding.</em>


    After logging into Collins''sputer, Alice began searching through Collins''s folders one after another. She made sure to dive deep into every folder until she reached a dead end. After all, it was normal for items of great importance to be stored in the deepest parts of theputer. Collins spent arge part of his time on hispanyputer every day, so he must have left some crucial information on it. Meanwhile, Alice''s job was to find this information.


    Originally, Alice had prepared herself for a long fight. She had even bought an energy drink from a vending machine outside.


    However, things developed far more smoothly than Alice expected. Although Collins had indeed hidden the supposed "crucial information" in a deep location, Alice managed to find it in only a matter of seconds. The reason for this was simpleunder the "Recently Visited" section was a folder named "Secret." There was even a password on the folder.


    Despite knowing to hide his secret files underyers of folders, Collins hadpletely forgotten about the "Recently Visited" section. This situation left Alice at a loss for words.


    Regardless, because Alice had changed the concept of "Collins''sputer''s passwords" to "123456," the "Secret" folder''s password was also changed without exception. So, Alice got into the folder easily and immediately had her attention attracted to one particr file.


    Although there were many items in this "Secret" folder, only one file was ced at the bottom-right corner. This situation piqued Alice''s curiosity, so she clicked on the file to open it. Immediately afterward, a dense wall of texts appeared on the screen. However, with just a nce, Alice instantly found the key point of this document.


    <strong>Demon King''s Shadow</strong>


    <em>Demon King''s Shadow? If I remember correctly, isn''t this one of the taboos kept in the Royal Magic Tower''s library?</em>


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    Alice frowned. She had a faint impression of this taboo because she had seen it in the Royal Magic Tower''s taboo catalog that she had previously obtained from Frosette "Academy Know-It-All" Shax.


    From the name, it was obvious that this spell was in a simr category as Dragon''s Shadow, a spell used to trick thews of this world to grant the user the power of a dragon. In that case, Demon King''s Shadow should be a spell used to grant the user the power of a Demon King.


    As for which Demon King this spell was designed to mimic, it was Fugalo Ford, the Tenth Demon King. The creator of Demon King''s Shadow had used a trace of Fugalo Ford''s mana as the basis of development for the taboo. Hence, the only Demon King the taboo could summon was the Tenth Demon King.


    The document Alice opened was a record on strange events that had taken ce in the Rhine Kingdom recently. At the end of the document, Alice even saw a paragraph of text that was clearly added only a few days ago"The Demon King appeared in the Royal Magic Tower. Her purpose remains unclear, but she is suspected of trying to recruit Magic Tower Know-It-All."


    However, out of the many events mentioned, only one paragraph was highlighted in red and bolded. This showed that Collins ced significant importance on this particr event.


    <em>The Royal Magic Tower''s</em> Demon King''s Shadow<em> taboo book went missing.</em> Alice narrowed her eyes. <em>Tsk. This doesn''t seem like a minor problem.</em>


    If the taboo book for Demon King''s Shadow remained in the library, there wouldn''t be any problems. After all, on the one hand, everyone knew that Demon Kings weren''t nice people, so they wouldn''t casually summon a Demon King. On the other hand, practically nobody studying in the Royal Magic Tower had the ability to learn and use this taboo.


    However, the taboo book had gone missing. This represented an entirely different problem. Regardless of whether the thief could activate this taboo, the fact that the taboo book got stolen showed that someone was interested in this taboo.


    It naturally wasn''t good news that someone was interested in summoning a Demon King. To make matters worse, this particr person had even stolen the taboo book of Demon King''s Shadow. This most likely meant that the thief might have already made the necessary preparations to cast the taboo and possessed the ability to actually cast it.


    <em>Although this incident might seem unrted to the person impersonating Etoria, if I think about it carefully, this thief and the Etoria impersonator share themon trait of having an interest in the demons and the Demon King. </em>Alice scratched her hair at this thought. She felt as if she had caught onto an important clue, yet she still felt that she was missing something important. <em>Could they be the same person?</em>


    Alice dared note to any conclusions without any further information. So, she closed the document and focused her attention on the other items in the "Secret" folder.


    Meanwhile, after looking at the other files, Alice quickly understood why Collins had put a password on this folder. This was because 99.99% of this folder was made up of images and videos expressing the vigor of youth.

 Chapter 344: Office Escapes Disaster

    Chapter 344: Office Escapes Disaster


    After discovering the questionable content in the "Secret" folder, Alice failed to find anything else that was noteworthy even after spending over an hour searching through every folder on Collins''puter.


    Unfortunately, it would seem that aside from the document that recorded the Rhine Kingdom''s recent events, it didn''t seem like Collins had kept anything else that was important on his workputer. Moreover, Alice felt that the only reason Collins was keeping a record of these events was so that he could avoid getting himself implicated in them. It was highly unlikely that he was involved in any of them.


    After all, it was unrealistic to think that Collins was involved in every incident listed in the document. Take thetest entry in the record, for example. There was no way Collins could be involved in the Demon King''s appearance in the Royal Magic Tower. As the aforementioned Demon King, Alice knew this very well.


    <em>So, this document is, in reality, a record Collins has made as a reminder for himself to not get involved in the recorded events?</em>


    Alice massaged her aching temples. It would seem that the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince was much less interested in authority than she thought. If Collins was still interested in inheriting the throne, he would have behaved simrly to Etoria and tried his best to get involved in these incidents after they had taken ce. That way, he could attract more publicity to himself.


    Even if some of these incidents weren''t important enough to generate huge publicity, some publicity was better than none at all. Moreover, Collins could umte these small achievements to build up his resume. That way, should he inherit the throne in the future, his citizens wouldn''t have any reason to be dissatisfied with him.


    It should be known that there were many examples of uprisings in history. In fact, none of the current existing human kingdoms were over 100 years old.


    Because of the existence of magic, a kingdom''s ruler could not rx even if it held control over the army. This also prompted the various rulers to be concerned about the feelings of their citizens and deterred them from bing dictators.


    <em>If I judged Collins based solely on his workputer, he does look like an otaku who is trying to get away from political struggles</em> Alice thought as she shut down theputer. She also made sure to revert the passwords on Collins''puter to their original state using Aspect Separation. <em>But I''ll have to investigate his homeputer before I can be sure of what is going through his mind.</em>


    Although Collins spent a significant portion of his time with his workputer every day, it wasn''t as private as his homeputer. Hence, if Collins were to hide any secrets, he would most likely hide them on his homeputer. Hence, Alice did not drop her suspicion on Collins simply because his workputer was cleanmore or less.


    However, if Alice wanted to sneak into Collins'' home, she could only do so tomorrow. Collins would spend most of the day at hispany. So long as Alice waited until daytime, she would have a very easy time sneaking into Collins'' home.


    As for Collins'' bodyguards, they mainly focused on Collins'' safety. They didn''t pay much attention to Collins'' house, which was a stark difference from Lilith''s house.


    Meanwhile, once Alice snuck into Collins house and investigated hisputer, she should be able to conclude whether Collins was the mastermind or if he was just trying to be an ordinary working-ss citizen.


    Regardless of Collins'' aims, Alice couldn''t help but be a little concerned over the stolen <em>Demon King''s Shadow </em>book. Although she couldn''t be certain whether the thief was the same person as the Etoria impersonator, there was no doubt that the thief was also a dangerous individual.


    The fact that someone had stolen the taboo book showed that the other party most likely possessed a means of casting the taboo. It should be known that Demon King''s Shadow was a taboo capable of summoning a Demon King. Although the summoned Demon King might not be as powerful as a real Demon King or possess the intelligence of a Demon King, it would still be a troublesome enemy.


    <em>Let''s hope this matter isn''t too serious.</em>


    Alice shook her head and set her worries aside. Then, she walked to the door and waved at the shota magician. Because Dark Guards were made from dark mana, their bodies were pitch-ck. Without any lights turned on, Alice nearly failed to spot the shota magician.


    Originally, Alice''s n was to smash thispany''s office if she could verify that Collins was the person impersonating Etoria. On the one hand, she could use this as a warning to Collins. On the other hand, she could falsify a fight between the Hero and the Demon King. The Rhine Kingdom''s government wouldpensate any losses incurred because of the Hero and the Demon King anyway, so Alice wasn''t worried that thepanies and employees here would suffer any actual losses.


    However, now that Alice couldn''t verify whether Collins was the mastermind, she had no choice but to abandon her idea of making a mess of Collins''pany. Instead, she decided to find a deserted location, cast a few taboos, and call it a day.


    However, it was difficult to find a ce devoid of people in Icarus City. After all, Icarus City was the Rhine Kingdom''s capital and the center of culture. The Royal Magic Town and magic town that surrounded it was even a gathering ce for magicians. Because of all these factors, most of the hotels in the city were usually at full upancy. Trying to find a deserted area in such a busy city would be a huge challenge.


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    Of course, there were some business districts that were currently devoid of people since it waste at night right now. However, Alice didn''t wish to destroy other people''s property without a good reason. After all, even if the Rhine Kingdom would make reparations to all of the damages she caused, she would still be interfering with other people''s businesses.


    <em>I guess I have to go out of the city.</em>


    After wandering the streets of Icarus City for a bit, Alice found that with the exception of a few night markets, most ces had already closed shop for the day. However, as most of the buildings in this city were closely packed to each other, Alice failed to find anyrge and empty space where she could bombard with taboos.


    So, Alice had no choice but to take her bombardment out of the city where there would be plenty of uninhabitednd. The only problem was that Alice would have to travel to the suburbs by herself. Even with the help of speed-enhancing taboos, traveling across such a long distance was still very tiring.

 Chapter 345: Andusia Is Still Better

    Chapter 345: Andusia Is Still Better


    News of the Demon King getting chased away reached King Haydn''s office early the next morning. The Hero and the Demon King had a fierce encounter in a mountain range outside Icarus Cityst night. The scale of the battle was so massive that just the detected residual mana was enough to show how exaggerated the extent of that battle was.


    ording to the investigation and analysis of the Rhine Kingdom''s professionals, the area originally home to several small peaks had now transformed into a nd, and dense residual mana filled a radius of several dozen kilometers. The professionals analyzed this residual mana and estimated that more than ten taboos had bombarded the area.


    Moreover, this was not counting the support-type taboos that hardly leaked mana into the surrounding environment.


    In general, it was safe to assume this was a battle between the Hero and the Demon King. This was because nobody else could toss out taboos as casually as the Hero and the Demon King. Even peak existences like Catherine would be drained after casting one or two taboos.


    Most importantly, the residual mana at the scene contained obvious traces of light and dark mana. This was solid evidence that the Hero and the Demon King had fought in this ce.


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    After learning about this news, King Haydn personally called Alice and asked about this matter. Upon receiving Alice''s positive reply, King Haydn''s mood obviously brightened. Then, he ended the call after exchanging some light pleasantries with Alice. Before hanging up, he even mentioned that he would be providing some more funds for the Hero. Through this behavior, one could see just how worried he was about the Demon King''s presence in Icarus City.


    <em>For the Rhine Kingdom''s king to be worried to such an extent The Demon King''s reputation in the human realm sure is terrible</em> Alice thought as she put her phone down. She never thought it would bring King Haydn so much joy just to learn about the Demon King''s removal from the Rhine Kingdom. The other party had gone as far as to offer Alice additional remuneration. It should be known that when King Haydn had first contacted Alice for help, he had already sent her a sum of money.


    Although Alice knew that kings wouldn''t be short of money, the amount King Haydn had sent her was so much that it was starting to scare her a little. At the same time, this incident allowed her to realize just how terrible of a reputation the Demon King possessed in the human realm. Even though the "Demon King" hadn''t caused any particr trouble in the Rhine Kingdom thus far, it was still enough to frighten King Haydn to such an extent.


    However, Alice didn''t think too deeply into this matter. She simply shrugged it off as King Haydn having a timid personality. At the end of the day, she did manage to earn some more money, so her efforts weren''t a total loss. Although the identities she bore in this world meant that she would never be short of money, it still brought her joy to see the numbers in her bank ount increase.


    After putting her phone aside, Alice resumed drinking her coffee while waiting for her Dark Guard toe and report back to her. Although it was strange for someone with a child-like body like Alice to be drinking coffee at a coffee shop, nobody in the cafe paid any particr attention to her.


    A short momentter, the cafe''s door opened, and another person with a child-like figure walked into the shop. This second "child" wore a ck magician''s robe and a ck magician''s hat. The skin he revealed was also pitch-ck, so many of the cafe''s patrons couldn''t help but take a closer look at this "child."


    However, when the cafe''s patrons saw this "child" walking up to the only other "child" in the shop, they couldn''t help but find the sight amusing. In their eyes, these two children were most likely kids trying to experience "adult life."


    "Well? How many bodyguards are there?" Alice asked in a muted voice. No customers were sitting at the tables next to her, so she wasn''t worried that others would overhear their conversation.


    Collins''s house was situated in the apartment building directly opposite this cafe, and Alice had tasked the shota magician with the job of investigating how many bodyguards remained stationed around Collins''s house.


    Through this past week of observation, the shota magician had already be a familiar face among Collins''s bodyguards. In the eyes of Collins''s bodyguards, the shota magician was an extraordinarily dutiful "bodyguard" despite his young age. So, even those big and tough bodyguards hade to acknowledge him. Of course, what Collins''s bodyguards didn''t know was that the shota magician''s body was made entirely of mana. Hence, he did not need any rest.


    Anyway, because the shota magician had already be a familiar sight among Collins'' bodyguards, he had managed to quickly discern how many bodyguards were stationed around Collins''s house without attracting any suspicions. Although the majority of the bodyguards would follow Collins to hispany, a few would remain at Collins''s house as a precaution.


    "Three. Their abilities are average," the shota magician answered.


    The Dark Guards summoned using Chaos General were capable of speech. However, unless explicitly requested by Alice, they would never take the initiative to speak. As a result, the shota magician never spoke when he was on "duty" protecting Collins, which led to Collins''s bodyguards guessing that he was a mute.


    "Should I kill him?"


    The Dark Guards also possessed a certain degree of intelligence. Only, this intelligence sometimes did not work very well. Take the sledgehammer loli, for example. Her brain malfunctioned when she faced Kurse, and she failed to decide whether she should flee or fight. In the shota magician''s case, the idea he proposed was clearly a terrible one.


    "What''s the point of killing them? They''ve never offended us. If we kill them, it is only going to work against us and attract attention to us," Alice said as she looked at the shota magician helplessly. Originally, she thought that his brain might work better because she had kept him materialized and let him experience life these past few days.


    Unfortunately, it would seem that she had been hoping for too much. The Dark Guards she summoned didn''t seem to have the ability to learn. They couldn''t actually be considered artificial intelligence. At best, they could be equated to Siri; they could only make some simple responses and nothing more.


    At this time, Alice couldn''t help but think of Andusia. Although Andusia was unreliable at times, Alice could still consult her ns with Andusia in many cases. After realizing the difference between Andusia and the Dark Guards, Alice felt she should get her hands on some Living Wood and return Andusia to her side as soon as possible.


    "Just knock those three bodyguards unconscious. Do you know what abilities they have? And where are they located now?"


    Alice had mostly finished her coffee already. However, she didn''t order a cup for the shota magician. After all, the Dark Guards did not have any internal organs or digestive functions. Even if the shota magician drank a cup of coffee, it would only be kept in his stomach and poured out afterward.


    "One swordsman, one boxer, and one magician. The magician is an ordinary elemental magician specialized in fire magic," the shota magician answered indifferently. If the shota magician could express emotions, a look of disdain would have most likely appeared on his face when he spoke about the elemental magician. After all, the shota magician was an all-rounded magician with great strength. "One is by the window of the opposite building. Two are in the house next to the target''s house."


    "It doesn''t seem like they are adept at detection."


    Alice nodded. Since none of the three bodyguards were spirit magicians that possessed great perception, she felt that she wouldn''t even need to take any action against them. It was enough to sneak into Collins''s house with the help of her magic robe''s Mana Concealment.

 Chapter 346: Evil People Naturally Have Dirty Pictures

    Chapter 346: Evil People Naturally Have Dirty Pictures


    Since none of those bodyguards seemed to have any special perception capabilities, Alice only needed to conceal herself with her magic robe to sneak into Collins'' house undetected. Of course, she would instantly be caught if another bodyguard was hiding inside Collins'' house, but the possibility of that happening was practically zero.


    Most of the bodyguards protecting Collins were sent by nobles trying to get into the royal family''s good graces. If they had these bodyguards monitor Collins''s house directly, they''d be directly offending a prince who had already given up on inheriting the throne. There was no way the nobles would risk doing such a thing.


    In any case, Alice faced no troubles in sneaking into Collins''s house. With the help of Aspect Separation, she easily unlocked the door, opened a small gap, and snuck into the house when none of the bodyguards were paying attention.


    After Alice closed the door behind her, the door of the neighboring house opened. Then, a muscr man walked out of the house and looked at Collins''s house in confusion. He thought he had heard the faint sound of a door opening. Hence, he hade out to take a look.


    Unfortunately, the man was a step toote, so he didn''t manage to catch Alice sneaking into Collins''s house. However, the man didn''t pay too much attention to this matter since his employer had explicitly told him that his job was to only ensure Collins''s safety. As for Collins''s home So long as nobody came to make a mess of it, he couldn''t care less about it.


    In the eyes of nobles, Collins was no different than a nerd who didn''t care about national affairs. Hence, nobody would think that any valuable information would be stored in Collins''s home. At most, there''d be some anime merchandise lying around.


    As such, Alice effortlessly snuck into Collins''s house. Then, likest night, she had the shota magician stand guard by the door while she made her way to Collins''s bedroom.


    Collins had kept his bedroom rtively clean. His figurines, peripherals, and whatnot were ced neatly around his bedroom. On theputer desk was a drawing tablet, so it would seem that Collins could draw.


    The nobles had most likely seen the state of Collins''s bedroom before, which was probably why they had decided not to focus too much on keeping Collins''s house safe. After all, while the items in this bedroom were valuable to Collins, they were worthless to most nobles.


    Of course, if Collins possessed any important information, he would definitely store it on hisputer. Because most nobles were still stuck to olden ways and weren''t particrly tech savvy, they had most likely failed to consider this factor. Either that or Collins''sputer was protected by a password, so it had high security?


    Althoughputers in this otherworld functioned simrly to theputers on Earth and could be hacked using software, theputers here were much more secure. They couldn''t be hacked just by relying on software. Hackers must also pair software with hacker-specific spells to break into most modern-dayputers.


    Meanwhile, people who specialized in hackingputers generally had very limitedbat and concealment capabilities. So, three bodyguards should be enough to stop any would-be hackers trying to sneak into Collins''s housewas probably what went through the nobles'' minds.


    However, the nobles evidently did not know about Aspect Separation, a taboo that could alter the concept of its targets. Changing the password of aputer was as simple as child''s y for Aspect Separation.


    Of course, even if the nobles did know about Aspect Separation, they probably wouldn''t know how to defend against it. After all, this was a taboo they were talking about, spells that only a select few people in this world could cast.


    Moreover, aside from the Hero and the Demon King, learning how to use taboos was a long and arduous process for everyone else. Take people like Catherine and the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings, for example. They couldn''t just learn any taboo they wanted. Instead, the majority of the taboos in their repertoire were learned through numerousbat situations and long hours of study.


    Hence, it was understandable that the nobles did not prepare any countermeasures against taboos such as Aspect Separation. Not only did they not know about it, but they might not even have any ways to defend against it.


    Regardless, Alice repeated her actions in Collins''spany office and simrly changed his login password to "123456" using Aspect Separation, gaining ess to Collins''s personalputer in the blink of an eye. Although Alice felt like she was viting Collins''s privacy with her actions, she was doing so to uncover the culprit trying to muddy the rtionship between humans and demons. So, she hoped that Collins could understand her actions.


    But then again, Collins wouldn''t even know someone had snuck into his house and peeked at hisputer. So, it didn''t matter even if he couldn''t understand Alice''s actions.


    <em>Tsk. Why does it feel like the things I''ve been doing are getting worse and worse recently?</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but scratch her head when she realized that the number of morally incorrect things she had been doing recently was increasing. If her end goal wasn''t righteous, she would definitely bebeled a criminal. However, this thought only shed in her mind for a moment before she threw it out of her mind.


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    After opening Collins''sputer, Alice immediately noticed that the things on his personalputer matched his personality much more than his workputer. His desktop wallpaper was an image of a 2D character, and his desktop was covered in icons of games.


    With her experience of going through Collins''s workputer, Alice decided to check the "Recently Visited" section first. Then, sure enough, she found a folder named "Secret." It was the same situation as when she inspected Collins''s workputer.


    If Alice had to point out a difference, it would be that this folder was muchrger than the one on Collins''s workputer. After Alice entered the folder using the password "123456," the first thing that entered her eyes was a ton of image and video files. Immediately afterward, a slight blush formed on Alice''s face.


    Unlike the folder on Collins''s workputer, this folder was set to disy thumbnails. So, Alice could get a glimpse of what these image and video files contained through their thumbnails. Meanwhile, it was the same situation as with Collins''s workputer. These were all images and videos that could cause Collins''s to experience instant social death should they ever be made public.


    Because there might be a document with important information hidden in this folder, Alice had no choice but to look through these files.


    However, after looking through this folder and failing to find any document files, Alice couldn''t help but frown. Then, after pondering for a moment, she bit the bullet, opened these files, and inspected their content one after another...


    It couldn''t be helped. After all, Collins might very well have hidden information in the form of images and videos. This "Secret" folder was one of the few folders with passwords on Collins''sputer. So, if he kept any important information on hisputer, it must be hidden among the files in this folder.

 Chapter 347: You Have Strange Tastes, Pal

    Chapter 347: You Have Strange Tastes, Pal


    Alice was currently feeling very ufortable. This was because she had spent the past hour browsing the "Secret" folder''s contents and realizing it contained nothing but lewd images and videos.


    Because of her misjudgment, Alice had spent an entire hour looking at hentai in Collins''s house


    To make matters worse, Collins had an incredibly strange fetish. The majority of his hentai were cross-dresser x muscr man themed. Alice would often find herself getting the urge to throw Collins''sputer out the window while browsing Collins''s hentai collection.


    "..."


    Alice took a deep breath as she closed the "Secret" folder. Then, she massaged her eyes that had just experienced a bout of terrorism. Although she didn''t wish to judge other people''s fetishes, she personally couldn''t bring herself to have fond feelings for Collins''s fetish.


    Yet, despite her dislike, she had no choice but to patiently inspect these images and videos to avoid missing out on any clues. Even though she would only take quick glimpses of the images and fast-forward the videos, she still suffered a huge mental blow. At the same time, she couldn''t help but wonder if Collins truly had such a fetish or if he was only interested in observing hentai of such genre.


    Hopefully, it was only an interest that was limited to the inte. If Collins adopted this fetish in the real world, King Haydn would probably get the urge to make his eldest son disappear. After all, should this fetish get exposed, Collins wouldn''t be the only one to suffer social death. Instead, he would bring the entire royal family down with him.


    Of course, Alice also knew that she couldn''t me Collins for putting her through such torture. After all, Collins could have never expected that there''d be someone who would sneak into his home, hack into hisputer, and look at his hentai collection. If Collins knew something like this had happened, he would probably want to dig a hole for himself to hide.


    After verifying that the "Secret" folder wasn''t hiding any important information, Alice tried searching through the other folders on theputer. However, she eventually concluded that Collins''sputer was no different from the average male otaku''sputer. Aside from Collins''s hentai collection having a strange theme, nothing else was worthy of note.


    Alice couldn''t help but feel aggrieved when faced with this discovery. Yet, she had brought this injustice upon herself, so she couldn''t retaliate by making a mess of Collins''sputer. After taking another deep breath, she bitterly turned off Collins''sputer, reset the login password, sat still in the chair, and tried to forget the dirty images in her mind.


    If Luna were present, Alice would have probably asked her maid to erase all of the horrific things she had just seen. Unfortunately, Luna wasn''t here, so Alice had no choice but to deal with this tragedy by herself.


    <em>Whatever. Let''s just leave.</em>


    After grabbing the magic robe she had set aside, Alice walked out of the bedroom and looked at the shota magician, who had remained standing by the entrance this entire time. As Dark Guards didn''t have any excess emotions, the shota magician didn''t have anyints about Alice''smand.


    When Alice gestured at the shota magician, the other party quickly responded and approached her. Then, Alice wore the magic robe over the two of them, hid their presence using Mana Concealment, and left through the front door.


    Before leaving, Alice made sure to reattach the door''s lock with her handy LockpCorrection. She made sure to return the lock''s concept to its original state with Aspect Separation. Only after doing so did she leave. Unless someone suddenly got an urge to check for footprints and fingerprints in Collins''s house, nobody would realize that someone had invaded this house today.


    Collins naturally wouldn''t notice anything, either. Unless, of course, he had an urate grasp on where he had put his belongings. Otherwise, he wouldn''t notice that someone had been into his room.


    After Alice sessfully left Collins''s house, she found a deserted alley to remove the magic cloak from herself and the shota magician. However, she did not return to her rented apartment after doing so. Instead, she visited a nearby shop and ordered herself a drink and some snacks. She needed some refreshments to make her forget what she had seen just now.


    Alice felt that she was probably the first to have ever found out about Collins''s fetish. Judging by how many passwords he had kept his secret stash hidden behind, it was obvious he paid close attention to keeping his fetish a secret. Even the hentai collection on his workputer consisted mainly of vani hentai. It was only his homeputer that contained the strange kind of hentai. Unfortunately, no amount of security could stop Aspect Separation.


    While Alice wasmenting her traumatic experience, a pair of hands suddenly appeared behind Alice. Alice''s current Spirit stat had already reached an incredible level. So, the moment these hands approached her, she already sensed theming.


    However, Alice did not sense any hostile intenting from these hands, so she decided not to react and instead see what these hands were trying to do. Sure enough, Alice quickly found her vision robbed as the hands covered her eyes. Then, she heard a familiar voiceing from behind her:


    "Guess who I am?"


    No matter the world, there were bound to be people who preferred to y such childish games. Alice quickly discerned the person speaking to be Sylvia, the gyaru thief whose panties she had previously stolen.


    However, Alice and Sylvia evidently didn''t share any connections on the surface. So, if Alice were to say Sylvia''s name at this moment, she would probablye under suspicion immediately.


    "It''s Lilith, right?" Alice said. The only person who couldmand Lilith and know her was Lilith. Hence, Alice promptly guessed the identity of the culprit covering her eyes.


    "Huh? How did you guess it was me? I wasn''t the one who spoke." Lilith retracted her hands, surprised that Alice managed to guess her identity on the first try. "Is it my smell? But that''s not right. I''m using a different perfume from the past two times we met."


    "That''s a secret," Alice said, chuckling as she turned around. Then, sure enough, she found Lilith and Sylvia standing behind her. Alice also noticed Kurse standing amidst a nearby crowd, but the man had probably refrained from walking with Lilith and Sylvia as he would stick out like a sore thumb when standing next to the two young girls.


    "Fine, if you don''t want to say it," Lilith said with her cheeks puffed. Although she was a little dissatisfied by Alice''s refusal to satisfy her curiosity, her dissatisfaction was quickly washed away by her joy of seeing Alice.


    Alice sat at a round table that could seat four. Alice and the shota magician were sat facing each other, so Lilith took the seat on Alice''s left and asked, "What brings you to this ce today? You asked me for a student ID for the Royal Magic Tower, so I thought you''d spend these few days in the tower."


    "I''m only interested in some of the Royal Magic Tower''s structuralyout. I''m not here to stay cooped up in it," Alice said, shaking her head. Then, she looked at Sylvia, who sat on the chair to her right, and asked Lilith, "Who is this? Aren''t you going to introduce me?"


    "Ah, I nearly forgot." Lilith pped her head. Then, she pointed at Sylvia and said to Alice, "She''s Sylvia, my friend. The kind that has a very good rtionship with me. She might look like a gyaru, but she''s actually very innocent. She''s only ever had one boyfriend before. Even then, they broke up shortly after getting together."


    "You don''t have to mention such things, Your Highness," Sylvia said, her expression darkening a little. "Also, aren''t you worse off than me, Your Highness? You''ve never even had a boyfriend before."


    Although Sylvia addressed Lilith using honorifics, Alice could still tell that the gyaru thief shared an excellent rtionship with Lilith. Sylvia did not behave reservedly like a normal employee would around their employer.


    "I''m different. I''m a celibate, and I haven''t found any guy I like yet," Lilith said as she wagged a finger at Lilith. Then, she turned to the shota magician sitting on her other side and continued, "I''m sure I don''t have to introduce Alice. You should know her already, right, Sylvia? Then, Alice, who is this little boy?"


    After saying so, Lilith skeptically scrutinized the shota magician and continued:


    "By the way, this kind of skinlooks a little familiar."


    Alice''s heart thumped.

 Chapter 348: Nobles: Its Not Us, We Didnt Do It

    Chapter 348: Nobles: It''s Not Us, We Didn''t Do It


    How could they not be familiar? Just a week ago, Lilith had been attacked by a demon loli suspected to havee from thousands of years ago. Meanwhile, that loli had one particr trait: her pitch-ck skin. She had a simr skin tone as the shota sitting across Alice.


    "I only met him today. I saw that he looked quite pitiful, so I decided to treat him to food." Alice drylyughed as she hastily came up with an excuse to separate herself from the shota magician. The shota magician and the sledgehammer loli were Dark Guards made entirely from dark mana. Although they normally wouldn''t reveal any properties of having dark mana unless they used dark mana, their trait of having pitch-ck skin was unavoidable.


    "Treat him to food?" Lilith muttered as she looked at the table dubiously. Currently, there was a te of fried chicken and a half-finished cup of iced orange juice in front of Alice, while in front of the shota magician wasnothing.


    Alice became tongue-tied. The Dark Guards didn''t have a digestive function or the need to consume food, so Alice had only ordered a cold drink and some food for herself. She never thought that her hastily made-up excuse would get suspected by Lilith so quickly.


    However, Alice reacted quickly to this situation. When she noticed a waitress walking by her table with a te of food, she sent her psychic power into the waitress''s forehead and activated Consciousness Transformation through it.


    It was fortunate that Alice''s skill in magic had already reached an extraordinary level. So, she could instantlyplete this entire process without batting an eyelid. Meanwhile, using Consciousness Transformation, Alice added amand into the waitress''s memory code, having the other party bring the te of food to her table instead. Although Alice couldn''t alter memories, addingmands and memories to the beginning or end of a person''s memory code was still a simple task for her.


    The average person did not have the ability to resist taboo-level spells. So, the waitress briefly fell into a daze before halting her feet and turning toward Alice''s table. Then, she ced the te of food onto the table and said:


    "Here is your food. Enjoy."


    "See? It just arrived."


    Alice chuckled, cold sweat forming amidst her hair. Fortunately, a waitress happened to be walking by at this time. Otherwise, she had no idea how she should exin the w in her excuse.


    "I see. So you ordered this shop''s chicken meatballs? I heard that this shop uses magic to crush and knead chicken into meatballs on the spot, so it takes longer to make than the standard fried chicken," Lilith said, not doubting Alice''s ims. Although Lilith felt that the shota magician''s ck skin was a little familiar to the loli that attacked her a week ago, since Alice had only met the shota by chance today, she found no reason to cast suspicion over Alice.


    However, even though Lilithpletely failed to notice Alice''s actions, Sylvia did notice something. Unlike Lilith, a student with half-bakedbat capabilities, Sylvia was a professional thief. Even though her mana wasn''t as strong as a career magician''s, she possessed extraordinarybat senses and perception.


    Spirit spells had a particr trait: their mana wouldpletely prate the target''s brain. Unless one deliberately inspected the target, it''d be impossible to notice the mana of spirit spells. However, psychic power was different. Psychic power was a special kind of magic that turned a mixture of mana and spirit into a physical entity. In other words, psychic power could appear outside the body.


    Sylvia could vaguely sense some traces of magic activation around Alice. However, when she focused her senses, she found that what surrounded Alice was different magic activation residues. Instead, what she sensed felt more like pure mana.


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    The reason Sylvia had failed to recognize this pure mana as psychic power wasn''t because she didn''t know about psychic power. Instead, it was because Alice''s psychic power originated from the taboo "Psychokinesis Transcendence." Her psychic power was of greater purity than ordinary psychic power. She could even use it as mana. For example, she had previously used her psychic power to cast Dragon''s Shadow.


    Hence, when Sylvia noticed that the mana fluctuations around Alice were only ordinary mana and not the residues of a psychic-type spell''s activation, she quickly rxed. This situation was akin to someone thinking that there was cyanide in the air because they smelled almonds, but after careful observation, they found that someone was only eating almonds.


    Like so, Alice managed to escape suspicion from Lilith and Sylvia and sessfully severed any ties she had with the shota magician. Even if Lilith suspected that the shota magician was somehow rted to the loli Dark Guard, she wouldn''t direct her suspicion toward Alice.


    Meanwhile, under Alice''smand, which she had secretly sent using a strand of mana, the shota magician began eating the chicken meatballs before him. In reality, though, he was only stuffing the meatballs straight into his mouth, swallowing them whole, wrapping them up in mana to keep warm, and pretending to chew a few times. This way, Alice could retrieve the meatballs and eat them once she got home.


    "What is your name, little guy?" Sylvia asked as she looked at the shota who was currently "eating." Although Sylvia knew Lilith wanted to ask this question, she felt it would be better if she were the one doing the talking. She was much more experienced at interrogations than Lilith, so she knew which questions to ask to extract the most information. "Which school are you going to? Where are your parents?"


    Sylvia had previously helped Lilith investigate the demon loli, so she knew that this shota was suspicious. The boy''s pitch-ck skin was identical to the loli''s, so it was necessary to ask the boy a few questions.


    Under Alice''s hidden instructions, the shota magician lifted his head, looked at Sylvia, and calmly said, "I don''t have a name. I don''t have any family. I don''t attend any school. My current mission is to ensure Collins Doyle''s safety."


    Lilith''s and Sylvia''s expressions instantly changed when they heard the shota magician''s answer. They naturally knew about Collins''s bodyguard situation. All of those bodyguards were either sent by the king or nobles trying to get into the royal family''s good graces.


    Yet, it would seem that this shota magician was one of those bodyguards?


    In other words, if this shota magician was allies with the loli who had attacked Lilith previously, then the mastermind behind that attack was most likely a noble of the Rhine Kingdom.


    As for whether Collins could be the mastermind, Lilith did not consider this possibility even for a moment. Unlike Alice, Lilith had already interacted with Collins as siblings for well over a decade. She had conducted numerous investigations on Collins during this period, so she was certain that Collins was nothing more than a cross-dressing otaku. This was also why Lilith shared a good rtionship with Collins. Collins shared the same interests as her yet did not possess any ambitions. Had Collins been an ambitionist, Lilith would definitely keep her distance from him.


    Alice also noticed the change in Lilith''s and Sylvia''s expressions, and she couldn''t help but sigh in relief inwardly. Their reaction most likely meant that they had shifted their suspicion toward the Rhine Kingdom''s nobles.


    <em>I should be more careful when walking around with the Dark Guards in the future. Who knows when I''m going toe across an acquaintance again?</em>

 Chapter 349: He Is Still Just a Child

    Chapter 349: He Is Still Just a Child


    What Lilith and Sylvia would do afterward, Alice did not know. Perhaps they would investigate the shota magician''s identity, or perhaps they would turn their spearhead toward the nobles who had sent bodyguards to protect Collins. However, regardless of what they chose, it was unlikely that they would trouble Alice.


    Originally, the shota magician''s main task was to blend into Collins''s bodyguards and observe Collins. However, at this point, Alice was basically certain that Collins was cross-dressing otaku through and through and had no interest in bing the Rhine Kingdom''s next king.


    There were rumors on the inte talking about how the matter of the Rhine Kingdom''s eldest prince taking the initiative to hand over his session rights to the second prince was merely a conspiracy theory and that, in reality, the second prince had forced the eldest prince to say so. However, after Alice investigated Collins herself, she felt that there was a high possibility that Collins might have actually taken the initiative to give up his session rights to the second prince.


    King Haydn had probably realized that Collins had zero interest in inheriting the throne. Coupled with the fact that Collins was addicted to animation culture and had only the most superficial understanding of state affairs, King Haydn must have decided to fulfill Collins''s desire and make Etoria his heir instead.


    However, this discovery put Alice in a bind. She realized that she was close to running out of suspects. Even until now, she still hadn''t found a clue rting to the identity of the person impersonating Etoria and trying to collude with the demons.


    Lilith definitely wasn''t the culprit. Or rather, Lilith was also looking for the culprit trying to collude with the demons. Like Alice, Lilith was aware that should the demons intervene in the Rhine Kingdom''s political struggles, the bacsh of the demons'' actions being discovered would be catastrophic. It would no longer be just a battle between the Hero and the Demon King at that time. Instead, all humans and demons would be dragged into a war fueled by hatred.


    Collins also wasn''t the culprit. The guy''s head was filled with anime characters. Moreover, he had an incredibly strange fetish. Although he would asionally pay attention to the big events happening in the Rhine Kingdom, he would only take memo of these events. Even then, the memo he took wasn''t kept on his homeputer but on his workputer instead. He clearly didn''t take these big events seriously.


    Etoria evidently couldn''t be the culprit, either. Previously, Alice had already gotten Luna to inspect Collins''s memories during the Conference of Kings. Aside from having a lolicon fetish, Etoria was an intelligent heir that wouldn''t engage in superfluous matters.


    Luna''s spirit magic was also very trustworthy. After all, she was an individual with Demon King-level strength. The spirit magic she used at the time was even at the taboo-level. With Etoria''s strength, there was no way he could resist Luna''s spirit magic. Even if he had an item such as Sylvia''s Ring of Divine Wisdom protecting him, Luna''s magic could still tear through the item''s defenses as if it didn''t exist.


    In other words, the only suspect left on Alice''s list was the third prince, Arcana Doylea middle school student.


    A first-year middle school student at that.


    When Alice looked at the photo of Arcana in her hand, she simply couldn''t convince herself that a young child like Arcana could pull off a stunt so big that it could potentially jeopardize the peace between humans and demons.


    The photo was provided by Mador, who now wholeheartedly believed Alice to be the Demon King. As the demon spy working in the Royal Magic Tower, Mador could easily get her hands on the images and information of any individual in the Royal Magic Tower. Her information database was superior to even Magic Tower Know-It-All''s.


    Simr to the March Academy, the Royal Magic Tower also had a middle school department. Meanwhile, Third Prince Arcana was currently studying in the tower''s middle school department. However, students of the middle school department could only enter the Royal Magic Tower after they were in their third year. First- and second-year students had to attend sses at a magic center located in the magic town.


    Meanwhile, the picture in Alice''s hand was a photo of Arcana studying in the magic center. The photo had practically captured Arcana''s entire ssroom, and Alice couldn''t help but wonder how Mador had taken this photo without anyone noticing her, especially when the photo also showed two intimidating ck-d warriors standing at the corner of the ssroom.


    At first nce, Alice estimated that these two warriors should be close to Kurse''s level. It was also obvious that these two warriors were bodyguards sent by King Haydn to keep Arcana safe until he graduated middle school.


    As for whether these two guards would be Arcana''s subordinates after he graduated, that would depend on Arcana''s actions. ording to Mador, Lilith was in a simr situation as Arcana in middle school, and Kurse was tasked to protect her at the time. Meanwhile, when she graduated, she managed to convince Kurse to be her subordinate.


    Based on this development, it would seem that Lilith was quite a charismatic leader. Unfortunately, King Haydn had chosen to neglect her because she was born female. Alice honestly felt quite sympathetic to Lilith for having such an old-fashioned father.


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    <em>But the fact that he still hasn''t graduated from middle school should mean that he would have great difficulty developing his own forces, </em>Alice thought and sighed. ording to Mador, Arcana did not have any opportunities to develop his own forces. Even his bodyguards were sent by King Haydn. So, the boy shouldn''t have any opportunities to create trouble.


    Moreover, Arcana couldn''t even enter the Royal Magic Tower as a first-year middle schooler, let alone send invitation letters to Mador. Unless, of course, Arcana could evade the surveince of his two bodyguards, secretly develop his own forces, and sneak into the Royal Magic Tower to send letters to Mador


    However, could a 13-year-old child really aplish all these things?


    Although Alice felt that it was highly unlikely for Arcana to be the culprit, for precaution''s sake, she still decided to pay the young third prince a personal visit and observe his behavior in secret. After all, now that Lilith, Collins, and Etoria were ruled out from Alice''s list of suspects, Arcana was the only one left.


    <em>Icarus City''s Royal Magic Center opens from 7:00 to 24:00. It offers various services such as magic research and magic studies</em> Alice scrutinized the information Mador provided on the magic center. The magic center has a total of 10 floors. Floors 1 to 6 are for customers, while floors 7 to 10 are reserved for the Royal Magic Tower''s middle school department''s first- and second-year students.


    Alice had trouble understanding why first- and second-year middle school students had to study separately in a magic center instead of inside the Royal Magic Tower. However, after reading more of Mador''s report, she could more or less understand such an arrangement.


    There were mana control devices set up in every room in the magic center. While these devices wouldn''t affect someone withrge amounts of mana, they could prevent middle schoolers, who only had small amounts of mana and were inexperienced at using it, from losing control over their mana and ensuring their safety.


    By the time these middle schoolers underwent two years of studies in the Royal Magic Tower''s middle school department, they should be adequately familiar with using their mana. At that time, it would be safe for them to study in the Royal Magic Tower, which didn''t have any mana control devices in ce.


    <em>Those devices won''t work against people with sufficientlyrge mana pools?</em>


    Alice nodded. When she first read about the mana control devices, she had been worried about whether they would work on her. However, after reading the device''s description in Mador''s report, she realized that these devices were merely a safety precaution to help children with poor control over their mana. So, they would not affect her.


    After making sure that her magic wouldn''t be restricted inside the magic center, Alice got ready to observe Arcana. Her n was to sneak into Arcana''s ssroom and observe his behavior in ss. However, before that, she would need to figure out a way to prevent herself from getting detected.


    Her current magic robe definitely couldn''t work in this situation. Its short duration of three minutes wasn''t even enough tost her through one ss session. Preparing several magic robes wasn''t an option, either. Based on her past experiments, the cooldown of simr skills was shared. The cooldown wouldn''t disappear simply because she had switched to another magic robe.


    <em>It seems I''ll have to buy a better robe.</em>


    Alice had previously considered getting a magic robe of better quality to see whether the Mana Concealment skill''s duration would increase along with the robe''s quality. However, it would now seem that she had to put this n on her agenda.


    Alice was a rtively action-oriented person. Since she had decided to get a better robe, she did not hesitate a moment longer. Immediately, she stood up and got ready to leave her house and search for a shop that sold magic robes. In her opinion, the sooner she took care of this matter, the better.


    The longer she dragged out this situation, the more impatient the mastermind would be. Once the mastermind ran out of patience, nobody could say what the other party would do.

 Chapter 350: Alices Final Stalk

    Chapter 350: Alice''s Final Stalk


    [Weapon: Magic Robe Brimming With Mana]


    [Quality: Treasure]


    [Effect: Spirit +80, Control +80, Mana +100]


    [Additional Effect:


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    Mana Defense (Passive Skill. Reduces the offensive magic damage you receive by 25%);


    Mana Offense (Passive Skill. Increases your offensive magic damage by 10%);


    Mana Concealment (Active Skill. Conceals the appearance and aura of the weapon and its user for one hour.) ]


    <em>So there''s a "Treasure" rank above the "Fine" rank?</em>


    After spending some time looking through shops in the magic town, Alice finally found a magic robe that wasn''t rated as "Not Bad" or "Fine." This was also the first time Alice had seen the "Treasure" rank.


    Previously, Alice already suspected there might be another rank between "Fine" and "Legendary," considering the huge gap in stats. Now, her guess was verified as there apparently was a "Treasure" rank between Fine and Legendary.[1]


    She had mostly beening into contact with high-end weapons thus far, so even though she had seen many Artifact-, Epic-, and Legendary-grade weapons, she saw very little of everything else. This was partly due to her identity and frequent encounters with Heroes and Demon Kings of the past. In addition, tools at the Treasure grade were likely considered top-tier for the average person and were incredibly rare on the market. Hence, Alice had onlye across her first Treasure-grade weapon after living in this otherworld for several months.


    The Treasure-grade magic robe was disyed in the most conspicuous position in the shop. It could be seen from almost anywhere in the shop. It was also the first item Alice had approached and inspected after entering the shop. Meanwhile, the results of her inspection instantly attracted her attention.


    The bonus stats and Mana Defense and Mana Offense skills were useless to Alice since she could get significantly better stats and skills from her panties. What attracted her attention was the strengthened Mana Concealment skill. The enhanced version of this skill allowed her to stay concealed for one whole hour. Although it went without saying the skill''s cooldown would also increase, the one-hour duration was enough for her purposes.


    Alice''s n was to use this skill to observe Arcana from a close distance. Going by Mador''s information, each ss session held in the Royal Magic Center was 40 minutes long. So, the skill''s one-hour duration was enough tost her through an entire ss and plenty of time to spare to leave without anybody noticing.


    In exchange for this enhanced performance, this Treasure-grade magic robe also cost significantly more than a Fine-grade magic robe. It was a price that would break the bank of the average magician. It was no wonder the robe was disyed in the most conspicuous location.


    However, Alice obviously didn''t belong to the category of ordinary magicians. The thing shecked least right now was money. Although the magic robe was incredibly expensive, she could buy several with just the money King Haydn had sent her.


    After purchasing the robe, Alice promptly made her way to the Royal Magic Center. This would be the first time she had entered a magic center since arriving in this otherworld.


    Magic centers in this world were venues prepared specifically for magicians. They provided a ce for magicians to conduct their magic research. They also provided magicians with all sorts of magic apparatuses.


    In a sense, one could say that magic centers were the magician''s version of inte cafes. However, instead of paying to ess expensiveputers and the inte, magicians were paying to rent magic tools that they normally couldn''t afford or saw no reason to purchase. Of course, they would still have to pay up if they broke these tools.


    For most civilian magicians, it was incredibly worthwhile to pay just a small amount of money to gain ess to high-end magic apparatuses that they normally couldn''t get their hands on. As for why Alice had never visited a magic center before today, it was because she never saw any need to visit one.


    There were researchbs in the March Academy, and the magic apparatuses in thesebs weren''t inferior to those in magic centers. Alice could simply visit the academy''sbs if she needed to use any particr magic apparatuses.


    After entering the Royal Magic Center, Alice did not pay the magicians in the lobby any heed since none of them was her target. Currently, she still hadn''t put on her newly-bought cloak, exposing her white-blue dress for all to see. Though, she did wear a straw hat to cover most of her face.


    After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes, Alice saw the entrance opening and a group of children entering the building. It was currently 1:30 PM, and the first ss the Royal Magic Tower''s middle school students had in the afternoon began at 2:00 PM. So, it was right about time for the middle schoolers to show up in the Royal Magic Center.


    Alice watched as this first group of middle schoolers entered an elevator and rode it to the 7th floor. Just like Mador mentioned, the rooms on the Royal Magic Center''s 7th to 10th floors were reserved as ssrooms for the Royal Magic Tower''s first- and second-year middle schoolers.


    After Alice waited a bit longer, her target, Arcana Doyle, finally showed up. Unlike King Haydn''s gloomy appearance, Third Prince Arcana had a very lively appearance. Although two ck-d warriors followed some distance behind him, he could still engage in a passionate conversation with his fellow students walking next to him.


    It could be seen that Arcana was already considerably popr among his peers. His charm and charisma could help him establish his own forces in the future, but whether he had already secretly developed his own forces Alice would have to observe the boy more beforeing to a conclusion.


    A child mature enough to secretly develop his own forces would definitely have difficulty integrating into children his age. Alice''s goal was to observe Arcana in ss and spot any abnormal behavior.


    After finding a cramped and deserted corner, Alice put on her magic robe, grabbed the edge with her right hand, and activated Mana Concealment. Immediately, her figure vanished from the lobby.


    Alice quickly followed Arcana''s footsteps and entered the same elevator after going invisible. Then, she used psychic power to lift herself into the air to prevent people from noticing that there was an invisible person in the elevator.


    After the elevator reached the 7th floor, Arcana walked out of the elevator, nked by his two bodyguards. Seeing this, Alice lowered herself and walked out of the elevator with several other children. Then, she followed Arcana into a in-looking ssroom.


    The ssroom here was no different from any other ordinary ssroom. The only exception was the various magic apparatuses, which were clearly designed with young students in mind, set up on the ssroom''s desks. After scanning the ssroom with her eyes, Alice''s gaze eventually settled on a device set up on the wall by the window.


    <em>So this is the mana control device?</em>


    Alice approached the device while staying concealed. If she were to be honest, she was quite tempted to analyze this device using Psychokinesis Transcendence. If she could upgrade this device''s function of suppressing weak mana, it mighte in handy in the future.


    However, Alice was currently in stealth. She might expose herself if she messed around with this device. Instead of taking such a risk, she found an open window, sat on the windowsill, and began watching as the middle schoolers in the ssroom got ready for ss.


    TL Notes:


    [1]there might be another rank between "Fine" and "Legendary":


    I think the author forgot about the "Excellent" rank, which is the rank between Fine and Legendary. The "Excellent" rank has been given to Ciel and Johanna(catkin''s chieftain) in Chapter 222, and the stat numbers of an "Excellent" weapon match the stats of a "Treasure" weapon. "Excellent" weapons have only appeared in one chapter thus far, so the author probably forgot about this rating.


    Here is the list of weapon ranks:

 Chapter 351: After Eliminating All Which Is Impossible

    Chapter 351: After Eliminating All Which Is Impossible


    Originally, Alice thought that after failing to find anything suspicious about Lilith, Collins, and Etoria, she could see something different in Arcana. However, the fact of the matter was that Arcana was only an ordinary child who was slightly superior to his peers. An example of his superiority would be that he was much better at handling magic than his ssmates. Another example would be that he clearly knew how he should behave to win the hearts of his ssmates.


    Overall, if Arcana was put into a group of middle schoolers, he would indeed stand out among the group. However, that was about it.


    Arcana''s performance did not exceed the realm of middle schoolers. At the very least, the way the boy socialized with his ssmates looked considerably immature, in Alice''s opinion. Even the two bodyguards standing in the corner of the ssroom did not show any expressions in regard to Arcana''s behavior.


    Perhaps Arcana might grow more in another two years and reveal his full potential before entering high school. At that time, Arcana might be able to show enough worth to convince the two bodyguards that it wouldn''t be a loss to follow him. However, at the present time, Arcana''s performance definitely wasn''t enough to convince people to work for him.


    Of course, there was also the possibility that Arcana was only pretending to be only at the level of an ordinary middle school student. However, during her careful observation, Alice noticed that Arcana would sometimes make some low-level mistakes when conducting magic experiments. With Alice''s current attainment in magic, she could spot these mistakes at a nce.


    More importantly, after making these low-level mistakes, Arcana would carefully hide them. If Arcana possessed an extraordinary mind and was trying to create the image of an ordinary middle schooler for himself, he would have done the exact opposite instead in these situations. Rather than hide his mistakes, he should have revealed them to show that "he had yet to mature."


    However, Arcana did not do so. He had chosen to hide these small mistakes. Aside from Alice, there shouldn''t be anyone who could notice these mistakes. As for the two bodyguards, they stood facing Arcana''s back, so they wouldn''t have noticed Arcana''s blunders.


    Simply put, Arcana was only a child trying to create an image of excellence for himself. He didn''t have any deeper thoughts. Alice would rather believe that Collins had hidden some sort of secret code in his hentai collection than believe Arcana had secretly developed his own forces and uncovered the demon spy hiding in the Royal Magic Tower.


    After the ss session ended, Alice left the ssroom in disappointment.


    <em>But doesn''t this mean nobody in the royal family is suspicious?</em>


    After returning home, Alice sat on her bed and fell into an awkward predicament. Despite all her efforts, none of her suspects turned out to be the mastermind.


    Yet, it was a fact that the letters Mador received were serious. Not only did the sender request an alliance with the demons, but the other party had even marked a safe route that the demons could use to invade the human realm. Mador had also asked a few of her demon associates to verify the validity of this route and found that there were no ambushes prepared throughout the entire route.


    If the sender of those letters was willing to tell the demons how they could secretly invade the Rhine Kingdom with their army, suffice to say that the other party was serious about allying with the demons.


    In such a situation, Alice worried that should the demons keep refusing to give the other party a reply, the other party would grow impatient and do something irrational. Hence, Alice needed to uncover the other party as soon as possible.


    However, now that all of her clues had led to dead ends, how should she go about finding new leads? All three of her suspects appeared very much innocent, so she couldn''t possibly apprehend and interrogate them, right? How was she supposed to exin herself to King Haydn if she did that?


    Of course, if she was absolutely desperate for clues, there was one that could more or less serve as a clue.


    <em>Demon King''s Shadow The book for it got stolen some time ago. Moreover, the period of theft is very close to when Mador received the first letter from "Etoria."</em>


    Alice thought back to the document she found on Collins''s workputer. The document recorded the major events in the Rhine Kingdom in recent times, and the events were ordered by date. Meanwhile, the date the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book was stolen coincided with the time Mador received her first letter of alliance from "Etoria." This was too much of a coincidence, so Alice couldn''t help but think that the book thief might be rted to the mastermind.


    However, this was only a conjecture. She still couldn''t verify whether these two individuals were the same person simply based on time. But with no better leads to follow right now, Alice had no choice but to jump on it. If she could locate the thief who stole the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>, she might be able to apprehend the mastermind trying to instigate a war between humans and demons Even if she failed to capture the thief, she might stumble upon some new clues.


    After deciding on this new line of action, Alice promptly gave Mador a call. Although Mador wasn''t the Royal Magic Tower''s "Magic Tower Know-It-All," her intelligence-gathering capabilities were in no way inferior to Magic Tower Know-It-All. She was superior even.


    As for why Mador was superior, it was because she knew Magic Tower Know-It-All''s real identity, yet Magic Tower Know-It-All did not know Mador''s real identity. Otherwise, seeing as how Magic Tower Know-It-All had reported the Demon King''s whereabouts to the Rhine Kingdom, the other party would have long since reported Mador to the kingdom if he knew Mador was a spy for the demons.


    "Hello? Lord Demon King? Do you have business with me again today?" Mador''s voice came from the phone. After learning from Frosette and the Four Heavenly Kings that Alice was the real Demon King, her behavior toward Alice improved significantly. However, because of her personality, she didn''t behave fearfully around Alice. On the contrary, she even dared to joke around with Alice. "Weren''t you going to find the shota today?"


    "You should very well know what I went to see Arcana for," Alice said, feeling a little exasperated. She had asked Mador for a lot of information about Arcana this morning, so Mador had used this as an opportunity to tease her. "Anyway, Arcana is just an ordinary kid. He''s not the guy who sent you those letters So, I''m all out of leads now."


    Mador grew a little helpless when she heard Alice''s answer. "What should we do, then? That person seems determined to ally with us. He must have also learned about your appearance in the Rhine Kingdom as he sent me another letter recently asking if you are interested in the alliance."


    "It seems this person is definitely rted to the royal family in some capacity. The other party should be a heavyweight noble, at the very least. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have learned about this matter."


    News of the Demon King appearing in the Royal Magic Tower was only circted among the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family and a very small number of nobles. King Haydn''s intention was to wait for some time before letting the news media report this matter.


    Hence, anyone who could learn about this matter was definitely someone of great importance in the Rhine Kingdom''s government.


    Yet, Alice had already ruled out all of the royal family members as potential suspects. This left her in an awkward situation. It was fortunate that she had already found a new clue.


    "I''m calling you to ask about an incident that could be rted to that mastermind The Royal Magic Tower''s <em>Demon King''s Shadow </em>went missing a few months ago. You should have gathered some information rted to it, right?"


    "Huh? You know about this matter as well, Lord Demon King?" Mador eximed. "The Royal Magic Tower has kept this matter tightly under wraps, and not many people know about it. You shouldn''t have visited the Rhine Kingdom several months ago, right? How did you learn about this?"


    Alice naturally couldn''t tell Mador that she found this information from digging through Collins''s hentai collection. So, after faking a cough, she said:


    "You don''t have to care about that. Anywaytell me everything you know about this matter."

 Chapter 352: I Want to See Brian’s Forty-Eight Moves

    Chapter 352: I Want to See Brian��s Forty-Eight Moves


    "I don''t actually know much insider information about this matter because the fact was that so far, nobody knew when exactly the book was stolen," Mador said, her voice apanied by the soft sshing of water. "I doubt even the Rhine Kingdom''s king knows the exact time of theft."


    When Alice heard the sshing sound, she quickly determined that Mador was taking a bath. She had previously stayed in the Royal Magic Tower''s dormitory, so she knew that each dormitory room came with a bathroom with a bathtub in it.


    "Nobody knows the exact time of theft? Why?" Alice asked, feeling a little surprised by Mador''s answer. The events recorded in Collins''s memo were ordered chronologically. Every entry in the memo was also marked by date. So, Alice assumed that the dates in the memo were correct. "Didn''t it happen a few months ago?"


    "Wellto be precise, the Royal Magic Tower''s library staff only realized the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book had gone missing a few months ago," Mador said. Although she didn''t know how Alice hade to learn about an event that had taken ce in the Royal Magic Tower a few months ago, she still decided to exin the incident to Alice. "Roughly a few months ago, a graduate student wanted to write a magic thesis on "Deceiving the World." Hence, he sought to borrow <em>Dragon''s Shadow</em>, <em>Forest''s Shadow</em>, <em>Shadow of the Elements</em>, and <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> from the library."


    "There are so many variations of these deception-type spells?" Alice curiously asked. This was the first time she had heard about Forest''s Shadow and Shadow of the Elements. However, their names didn''t sound particrly powerful, so she wasn''t sure if they were also taboo-level spells like Dragon''s Shadow and Demon King''s Shadow. "What happened next?"


    "Then, a library staff helped him find these books, but they discovered that the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book on the shelf didn''t contain anything rted to the taboo," Mador said. Then, with a slight chuckle, she continued, "mped within the book''s cover was an adult education book called <em>Brian''s Forty-Eight Moves</em>. Someone had long since switched out the real taboo book."


    "I see. So, this matter was only discovered a few months ago, but the theft had urred at an even earlier date."


    Alice experienced an even bigger headache after learning more about this incident. With this, nobody would know when exactly the taboo book was stolen. It could be several months or several years. This would drastically increase the scope of her search.


    "But don''t worry. There is a fixed time range for when the book was stolen. Someone else had borrowed the book during January of this year, and the library staff had verified that the book was normal when it was checked out and returned," Mador exined. "Meanwhile, that graduate student tried to borrow the book in July, which was two months ago. So, the theft must have happened between January and July."


    Alice couldn''t help but find Mador''s answer a little funny. July just so happened to be the month she had transmigrated to this otherworld. So, it would seem that the book was stolen before she had transmigrated.


    "I recall the library has surveince cameras, right? Since they know the theft took ce between January and July, the authorities should be able to find some clues if they go through the surveince footage," Alice said. The theft of a taboo that could be used to summon a Demon King shouldn''t be considered a trivial matter. It would be illogical for the Rhine Kingdom''s authorities not to inspect the surveince footage.


    "Of course they''ve thought of that method. But the problem is that they didn''t get any useful information," Mador answered. " The library doesn''t have cameras keeping track of every little corner. Unfortunately, as <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> wasn''t a particrly popr book, it was kept in a ce outside of surveince."


    Mador''s answer rendered Alice speechless. This was a taboo they were talking about, yet the Royal Magic Tower didn''t deem it worthy of being put under surveince?


    However, after thinking it over, Alice found that such a course of action more or less made sense. After all, nobody would try to borrow a taboo book under normal circumstances. The only times taboo books would see themselves being desired was when someone was trying to reference the principles of certain taboos for research purposes. Because of this, a taboo book would only be borrowed once every few months. It didn''t help that rarely would anybody try to steal a taboo book.


    Combining these factors, it was only natural that the Royal Magic Tower deemed it unnecessary to waste resources on ensuring the security of taboo books. Only after someone had actually stolen a taboo book that the Royal Magic Tower realized a problema person who had decided to steal a taboo book most likely could cast it.


    Then, everyone realized just how much of a threat these taboo books could pose once they were stolen. So, the Royal Magic Tower now had specific surveince cameras aimed at the locations of taboo books. Unfortunately, the implementation of these countermeasures was toote, and <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> remained missing.


    "The police also tried checking the nearby cameras, but because foot traffic in these areas is high, it''s impossible to determine which person has gotten close to <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>." Mador couldn''t help but chuckle when she spoke up to this point. She wasn''t a citizen of the Rhine Kingdom, so if someone were to cause trouble using Demon King''s Shadow, she could simply flee to the demon realm. So, she naturally didn''t feel any psychological pressure even after learning about the taboo''s theft. "Hence, nobody knows when <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> went missing and who stole it."


    "No clues at all?"


    Alice frowned. Alice doubted she could do a better job investigating this matter than the Rhine Kingdom''s police. So, it wasn''t good news to hear that the police had failed to find any clues.


    "If we are talking about cluesthere is one. Moreover, this is a clue that only I know. Not even the Rhine Kingdom''s police know about this clue''s existence," Mador said when she heard Alice''s troubled voice. "Specifically, it is a children''s book called <em>Demon Wolf''s TrailCoyote Team''s Adventures</em>. The book was ced on the same shelf as the stolen <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>."


    "Why would a children''s book be in the Royal Magic Tower''s library? Also, why is it even ced next to a taboo book?" Alice asked, having difficulties processing Mador''s words.


    "It''s probably because the library''s books are sorted alphabetically," Mador exined. "But that''s not important. What''s important is the small magic item inside this book. It''s a toy that came with the book, and its function is to record nearby traces of mana."


    "Record nearby traces of mana?" Realization quickly dawned on Alice. "You mean"


    "That''s right. If my guess is correct, the thief should have used magic when stealing the book, so the toy ended up recording the thief''s mana," Mador said, smiling. "But because it is a toy for children, by the time I borrowed the storybook and took out the toy, most of the mana stored in it had dissipated already. So, I transferred the remaining mana into a magic crystal and have kept it with me since. Well? Do you need it, Lord Demon King?"

 Chapter 353: Rosa: Finally, It Isnt Me

    Chapter 353: Rosa: Finally, It Isn''t Me


    Did Alice need the thief''s mana? Of course she did. She had already gone to great lengths to uncover the person plotting to start a war between humans and demons. Now that she hade across a potential clue after hitting a dead end, she naturally wouldn''t let go of it.


    After discussing the matter with Mador, Alice got ready to visit the Royal Magic Tower. Although Alice could get Mador to deliver the magic crystal to her, she nned to visit the Royal Magic Tower''s library, so she might as well go to Mador to retrieve the crystal instead.


    Using her fake ID, Alice effortlessly entered the Royal Magic Tower once again. Over a week had passed since Lilith gave her this ID, yet the Royal Magic Tower still hadn''t realized it was fake. Alice had to admit that the thieves working under Lilith had done a great job. Either that or the Royal Magic Tower''s administrators were cking off. Either way, it was good news for Alice. After all, if her fake ID was discovered, she''d have a much more difficult time sneaking into the Royal Magic Tower.


    Very quickly, Alice arrived at Sector D7 of the Royal Magic Tower''s first floor. This was one of the model courtyards in the tower. Although the tower''s structure meant that this courtyard had a ceiling over it and was surrounded by walls on all sides, there was artificial sun and real vegetation here. As a result, the air was noticeably more refreshing here than in the other parts of the tower.


    The Royal Magic Tower''s administrators must have realized that the tower''s upants would grow depressed if they didn''t get to breathe fresh air once in a while. Hence, they had specially made several model courtyards over the tower. They had also done a very good job at implementing these model courtyards. Honestly, if it weren''t for the sun in the "sky" radiating obvious mana fluctuations, Alice would have thought she had just walked into an open area.


    Currently, though, the courtyard on Floor 1, Sector D7 was practically deserted. Even though there were many seats in therge courtyard, only one of these seats was upied. Meanwhile, this seat was upied by none other than Mador.


    "Lord Demon King, over here~" Mador quickly noticed Alice entering the courtyard and waved at her. When she saw Alice walking over to her, she reached into her backpack and pulled something out. Then, she offered this item to Alice and said, "This is the magic crystal I mentioned."


    "Thanks."


    Alice took the crystal from Mador''s hand and looked at it. The crystal wasn''t particrly big. It was roughly the same size as the charging cases of wireless earbuds she had seen before she transmigrated. Meanwhile, stored inside this blue translucent magic crystal was a trace of mana that had a fluorescent yellow hue.


    "This is a custom-made magic crystal. So long as it makes physical contact with something or someone, it will automatically check if the other party has mana identical to the mana stored within it," Mador exined. "If the crystales into contact with mana different from what is stored within it, it will turn blue. If the mana is simr, the crystal will turn golden."


    "I see. So this thing has an additional identification function."


    Alice nodded to express her understanding. However, even though this additional function seemed like it had made it a lot easier for her to find her target, that wasn''t really the case in reality. After all, there were far too many people in this world. She couldn''t possibly get every single person to touch this crystal.


    So, after pondering for a moment, Alice tentatively asked:


    "Other than this crystal, do you have any other clues? Many people havee and gone from the Royal Magic Tower these past several months, so it''s going to be like finding a needle in a haystack if I only have this trace of mana to go by."


    "Other clues, huh I think I have another one?" Mador said after giving Alice''s question some thought. "Truthfully, I''ve previously wondered why the thief would use magic when stealing the book. However, I found a somewhat unbelievable clue from the Rhine Kingdom''s police after looking into the matter."


    "You managed to get a clue from the police?"


    Alice started to feel that Mador''s intelligence-gathering capabilities were a little over the top. The police was a government organization in the Rhine Kingdom. The theft of a taboo book should be regarded as an important case, so there was no way the police would publicize information rted to the case. In that case, how did Mador get the police''s information?


    "Actually, it''s not that difficult to get some insider information, but let''s not talk about that for now," Mador said, shaking her head. Then, she continued, "After investigating the crime scene, the police found that almost all fingerprints, footprints, secretions, and other traces were erased from the crime scene. As for the traces that were found, they were left by people who had visited the crime scene after the theft."


    "Doesn''t that mean there aren''t any clues?"


    Alice was a little confused. If the thief had erased all fingerprints, footprints, and secretions from the crime scene, wouldn''t that make it even more difficult to identify the thief?


    "No, no, no. Theck of traces is, in itself, a clue, Lord Demon King. The thief might have done an incredible job cleaning up, but it also shows that the other party is a professional. The magic used in this situation is ''Traceless,'' a spell that typically only professional thieves coulde in touch with," Mador said, wagging a finger at Alice with a smug expression on her face. Then, she continued:


    "So, the criminal isn''t just an amateur thief looking to steal the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>, but a career thief instead. Actually, the police also came to this conclusion. Unfortunately, the thieving industry is an independent industry. Even the Rhine Kingdom''s government can''t extend its hands into this industry. So, even though the police had guessed that the perpetrator might be a veteran thief, they had no way to conduct a deeper investigation."


    Indeed. The Thieves Guild was a powerful independent force that worked in the shadows. So, it wouldn''t be easy for the Rhine Kingdom to intervene in the thieving industry.


    "To find a person in the thieving industry, you, of course, need another thief''s help. Although the Rhine Kingdom''s government is working with some thieves, these thieves have very limited connections in the thieving industry. Their hands cannot reach into the deeper parts of the industry. As a result, the Rhine Kingdom still hasn''t resolved this case even until now."


    Mador took on a contemptuous tone when speaking about the inability of the Rhine Kingdom''s government. Specifically, her contempt was targeted at the royal family. As the kingdom''s rulers, the royal family should have deep ties with all forces operating within the kingdom''s borders. Yet, the royal family had neglected the Thieves Guild. When she learned about this matter, she found it absolutely baffling.


    "So, if you wish to find the culprit, it''s best if you start your search from the Thieves Guild, Lord Demon King."


    "I see. So, I should start by finding someone with deep ties to the thieving industry?" Alice held her chin as she pondered over Mador''s suggestion. The first person that came to her mind was naturally Rosa. However, upon closer thought, Rosa might have a widework of connections in the thieving industry, but she wasn''t a citizen of the Rhine Kingdom. So, while Rosa''s connections mighte in handy in the Gryffin Kingdom, they wouldn''t necessarily work well in the Rhine Kingdom.


    Hence, Alice switched her attention to another personSylvia, the thief working under Lilith. After Kurse defeated the sledgehammer loli, Sylvia was the first person Lilith contacted to get help investigating the loli. Seeing as Lilith was willing to entrust such an important task to Sylvia, thetter should be considerably well-connected in the thieving industry. So, Sylvia might know some clues.


    Looking back now, Alice found that her efforts in investigating the royal siblings weren''t aplete waste of time. At the very least, she had learned about the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>''s theft from Collins and that Lilith''s thief subordinate Sylvia could help her find her target.


    Mhm Alice also found that Third Prince Arcana looked even more useless now. However, he was only a child, so it was understandable that he couldn''t be of any help.


    "It seems you already have an idea," Mador said when she saw the change in Alice''s expression. "I don''t have any contacts among the Rhine Kingdom''s thieves, so I cannot help you in this matter. I hope you don''t me me for this, Lord Demon King."


    "You don''t have any contacts among the Rhine Kingdom''s thieves?" Alice couldn''t help but look at Mador dubiously when she heard the demoness''s words. She had always assumed that Mador could get her hands on such much information because the demoness had deep ties in the thieving industry. "How did you manage to collect all this information, then? By yourself?"


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    "Well" Looking up at the false sky, Mador cheekily smiled and said, "It''s a secret."

 Chapter 354: Shocking Lilith For a Whole Year

    Chapter 354: Shocking Lilith For a Whole Year


    Alice did not push Mador for an answer since the demoness did not wish to divulge her method of information gathering. She wasn''t all too surprised that Mador did not rely on thieves to acquire her information. After all, there were many ways to collect intelligence.


    Take Frosette, for example. ording to what Alice heard from Frosette, the demoness relied on a unique taming magic for information gathering. Because of this taming magic, Frosette had eyes almost everywhere in the March Academy. She could even influence the actions of some beastkins for a short time with this magic.


    This was why Frosette had managed to discover the underground research room. She had controlled many of the Sun Rats in the academy with her taming magic, and these rats were very proficient at locating objects and digging holes. Thanks to these rats, Frosette had not only managed to discover the underground research room but also acquired the key to open it.


    Alice also had asked whether she could learn this taming magic, but the answer she got was that it might be impossible. This was because Frosette''s taming magic was a unique kind of magic she had developed for herself. It was just like the magic swordsmanship Catherine had developed specifically for herself. Both were unique magic developed for a specific individual.


    While it was for Alice to learn this unique magic, Frosette stillcked the theoretical knowledge to create aplete teaching n for her magic for the time being. So, if Alice wanted to learn Frosette''s magic, she''d have to wait until Frosette gained more theoretical knowledge.


    Over the long history of this world, many spells have failed to be passed down because their creatorscked the necessary education to writing their spells'' operating principles in aprehensible manner. However, the fact that Frosette could get into the March Royal School of Magic already showed that she had an excellent academic performance. If nothing unexpected happened, she should have enough theoretical knowledge to record her taming magic''s operating principles in a magic book.


    With Frosette as an example, Alice guessed that Mador should be a simr case in that she possessed a kind of unique magic. It wouldn''t be surprising if that were indeed the case, either. After all, if Mador didn''t possess some capabilities, the Four Heavenly Kings wouldn''t have entrusted her with the important task of conducting espionage in the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Magic Tower. Even Frosette had only gotten selected to infiltrate the human realm because of her taming magic. She didn''t get chosen simply because she was Ellu Shax''s daughter.


    After verifying that the book thief was a career thief and not an amateur, Alice proceeded to contact Lilith. Since Lilith was also investigating the person impersonating Etoria, the two of them shared a mutual goal.


    In that case, if Alice asked to borrow Lilith''s thieves to investigate the person who had stolen Demon King''s Shadow, Lilith was unlikely to refuse. Of course, the precondition for this to happen was that Lilith had to find Alice trustworthy.


    Although Lilith already considered Alice as a close friend and arade who shared simr hobbies with her, Alice remained a princess of a different country in her eyes. So, she would most definitely hesitate to help Alice when this help involved the Rhine Kingdom''s important affairs.


    Then, what should Alice do to gain Lilith''s trust?


    "What did you say? The Hero? You?" After taking a sip of orange juice, Lilith couldn''t help but look at Alice with a concerned gaze. "Is this some strange cosy activity, Alice? Even if it is, you should at least prepare a proper Hero''s attire I know a prop maker who can make a very realistic-looking Hero''s Sword. The only part he can''t replicate is the divine runes. Do you want me to introduce you to him?"


    The divine runes were the Hero''s Sword''s symbol, and they couldn''t be replicated by anyone in this world. Even memorizing these runes was impossible. It was why nobody had ever suspected the authenticity of Alice''s Hero''s Sword. However, even setting aside the divine runes, a prop maker would still have to be considerably skilled to perfectly replicate the Hero''s Sword''s intricate design.


    However, Alice wasn''t joking with Lilith right now. To ensure that Lilith didn''t hold back any of her forces when helping her, Alice decided that it would be best if she revealed her identity as the Hero. Lilith was part of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family anyway. Alice also felt that Lilith had a trustworthy personality. So, Alice felt it wouldn''t be a problem to let Lilith in on this secret.


    Of course, Alice also had to admit that this decision was partly a gamble. Although Alice felt that Lilith was trustworthy, in a situation where all of the Rhine Kingdom''s princes and princess were proven innocent, she still felt that Lilith was a little suspicious. If Lilith truly was the mastermind behind this whole affair, Alice could only count herself as unlucky.


    However, if Lilith truly was the mastermind, Alice''s action of revealing herself should deter Lilith from carrying out her ns for some time. This meant she would have more time to investigate this matter.


    Meanwhile, after Lilith finished speaking, she looked at Alice with a wide grin, hoping to see some sort of reaction from Alice, such as uttering aint. However, when she noticed Alice''s expression remaining unchanged, her jovial mood gradually turned serious as she asked:


    "Are you serious, Alice?"


    "You''ll have to ask your old man this question. Either him or your second brother Etoria."


    Alice knew it was unlikely she could convince Lilith with just her words alone. After all, people''s image of the current generation''s Hero was that of a muscr man with a pretty face instead of a little girl like her. So, rather than try to convince Lilith herself, she decided it would be better to enlist the help of others.


    Of course, Alice also had the option of pulling out the Hero''s Sword to validate her ims. However, they were currently in a cafe. Although they had asked for a private room, the vast amount of light mana that her right hand would release the moment it grabbed onto the Hero''s Sword would instantly attract the attention of others. So, it was best if she avoided this option.


    "Okay, I''ll ask my brother," Lilith said, nodding. Although she still held doubts about Alice''s ims, she decided to put her faith in Alice.


    Lilith also didn''t doubt why Aliceif she was indeed the Herohad appeared in the Rhine Kingdom. After all, she had heard about the Hero chasing the Demon King away two days ago. So, it was normal for the Hero to remain in the Rhine Kingdom temporarily after taking care of the Demon King.


    As for why Alice had seemingly arrived in the Rhine Kingdom even before King Haydn had contacted her about the Demon King''s appearance, Lilith guessed that it was because the Hero possessed the ability to detect the Demon King''s presence. Hence, Alice had made her way to the Rhine Kingdom. It would also exin why the Demon King had appeared in the Royal Magic Tower shortly after Alice arrived in the Rhine Kingdom.


    Originally, Lilith nned to ask her father about Alice''s identity. However, when she considered he might be busy, she decided to contact Etoria instead. She also didn''t have any concerns about Etoria feeding her lies. In her opinion, her second brother was the least suspicious person in the Rhine Kingdom since, whether it was her, Collins, or Arcana, none of them could possiblypete with him for the throne. All Etoria needed to do was to continue working hard as the Rhine Kingdom''s sessor and not mess up too badly.


    Subsequently, Lilith pulled out her phone and called Etoria in front of Alice. Meanwhile, Alice, who sat across from Lilith, could naturally hear what Lilith had said to Etoria. Basically, Lilith had gone straight to the point and asked Etoria about the Hero''s true identity. Then, she told him that the Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice was sitting right in front of her.


    Etoria had probably initially been hesitant about telling Lilith the truth. However, when he heard that the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess was sitting in front of Lilith, he knew that Alice had probably taken the initiative to reveal her identity to Lilith. So, he quickly made up his mind and told Lilith about the Hero''s identity.


    Lilith was aware that Etoria had attended thest Conference of Kings with their father and saw the Hero in person, so she naturally didn''t doubt his words. After ending the call with her second elder brother, Lilith couldn''t help but look at Alice strangely.


    "Hm? What''s wrong? Did Etoria not tell you about my identity?" Alice asked, growing confused when she saw Lilith looking at her strangely. She even touched her face to make sure there was nothing strange stuck to it.


    "No He already told me that you are indeed the Hero," Lilith said, sighing. She never thought Alice would be the Hero. This was a scenario she had never imagined, even in her dreams.


    As a Demon King fangirl, Lilith had a perplexing view regarding Heroes. She knew that she should respect Heroes as a human. However, because she found the existence of Demon Kings to be cool, she couldn''t bring herself to feel fondness for Heroes. So, she couldn''t help but feel a little troubled to learn that Alice was the current generation''s Hero. How was she supposed to treat Alice with such aplicated stance?


    However, Lilith quickly shook her head, threw this strange thought to the back of her mind, and came up with a simple solution.


    Since Lilith didn''t know how to treat Alice as the Hero, she would simply treat the little girl before her as "Alice" rather than the "Hero."

 Chapter 355: Hidden Demon King Fangirl

    Chapter 355: Hidden Demon King Fangirl


    "I see. So you suspect the thief who stole <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> is connected to the person impersonating my second brother?"


    Realization dawned on Lilith when she heard Alice''s request. She was a member of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family, so she would naturally be informed of an incident as important as the theft of a taboo book from the Royal Magic Tower''s library. However, before hearing Alice''s request, she never thought to link this theft with the person impersonating her second brother.


    "But why would you think that? Is it simply because the ''Demon King'' in <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> is rted to the demons?"


    "It''s mainly because I''m out of clues. Although these two sound thinly connected, it is the only avable lead that I can follow," Alice said. She was naturally aware that these two incidents shared hardly any connections with each other. However, she really had no idea how she should progress with her investigation, so any clue was better than nothing. "These are the only two noteworthy incidents rted to the demon realm that have happened recently. Moreover, neither case has been resolved thus far. So, my instincts are telling me that they might be rted."


    "Instincts, huh" Lilith muttered as she held her chin. Although she knew Alice was the Hero, she felt that it would be very awkward if she were to suddenly treat Alice like a Hero. So, there wasn''t any apparent change in her behavior around Alice. "I wouldn''t have believed you if it was before, but if we are talking about the Hero''s instincts, I guess it should be different? Those are instincts blessed by God, after all."


    <em>No, that so-called God''s blessing isn''t that incredible. Stop having such blind faith in it. Rather than call it a buff, it''s more so a verification code needed to use the Hero''s Sword.</em>


    Although Alice very much wished to speak her thoughts, considering that she was still using the Hero''s identity to deceive people, she wisely chose to bury these thoughts. It wasn''t a bad thing that Lilith believed in the so-called "Hero''s instincts," either. At the very least, it should be enough excuse to get Lilith to investigate the thief who stole <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>.


    Sure enough, Lilith subsequently nodded and agreed to Alice''s request. Moreover, since she now knew that Alice was the Hero, she no longer continued hiding some secrets from Alice:


    "Do you still remember Sylvia, the girl who was with me when west met? She''s actually one of the thieves working under me. Moreover, she is responsible for managing my other subordinate thieves. All thieves working in the Rhine Kingdom will have to more or less show her some respect."


    Alice already knew about this secret. She had even stripped Sylvia''s panties before. However, she pretended not to know Sylvia''s secret and simply nodded with a surprised look, pretending as if this was the first time she had heard of this information.


    It was fortunate Lilith wasn''t a psychology expert, spirit magician, or an acting major. So, even though Alice''s expression looked a little fake, Lilith failed to notice anything suspicious about it. After telling Alice about Sylvia, Lilith gave Sylvia a call with her phone and invited the other party to the cafe they were in.


    When Alice arrived at the cafe previously, she noticed Kurse standing in the corner of the shop. However, it didn''t seem like Lilith intended to introduce Kurse to her. Though, Alice didn''t find this all too surprising. She didn''t think this was a show of distrust, either. After all, if Lilith truly wished to stay guarded against Alice, she should know that there was no way Kurse could stop the Hero. The more likely reason Lilith did not introduce Kurse was because she didn''t wish their conversation to be interrupted.


    After all, Kurse didn''t look like he was fond of speaking. He looked more like a person proficient atbat than conversations. If he had joined their conversation, the atmosphere at the table would probably die out very quickly.


    "By the way, if you are the Hero, Alice, you should have fought the Demon King, right?"


    After having Sylvia make her way to the cafe, Lilith quickly returned her attention to Alice. Although she was curious as to how Alice could make herself look like a muscr man, considering that it might be an ability unique to the Hero, she decided not to ask this question. Instead, she started asking about the Demon King.


    Alice didn''t know that Lilith was a Demon King fangirl. She assumed Lilith had asked such a question because she worried the Demon King might invade the human realm. So, Alice didn''t try to hide any information and nodded, saying, "That''s right. I''ve fought her twice thus far. The first time was outside the Elven Forest, while the second time was a few days ago outside of Icarus City."


    Although both fights were mere acts put on by Alice, both fights involved the use of light- and dark-attributed taboos. The remnant mana left behind on the two battlefields was also enough to prove that the light and dark spells used were at the level of taboos. So, Lilith did not doubt Alice''s words in the slightest.


    "Then, in the short time you got to interact with her, what do you think of the Demon King? What kind of person is she? Is she really a tall beauty like in her photos shared on LINKS? Is she incredibly pridefulst past Demon Kings? She must have left some harsh words after losing to you twice in a row, right? Just like in anime."


    Alice wasn''t sure if she was hallucinating, but she felt Lilith''s expression had turned brighter as soon as the conversation switched toward the Demon King.


    "Mhm How should I say it She''s a little cold, but if we are talking about pride, I don''t think I can determine that," Alice vaguely answered. She couldn''t simply say that she was the demon realm''s "Demon King," so she decided to use Luna for her Demon King''s image. However, when it came to pride, Alice honestly couldn''t see Luna having any of it. After all, Luna had turned herself into a maid for the sake of following the Hero.


    Of course, Alice had also seen prideful Demon Kings before, such as Andusia. However, Andusia''s pride would usually only rear its ugly head at inappropriate times, such as when Alice forced her to watch Magical Girl Hikari. Such pride sounded a little silly, so Alice couldn''t bring herself to use Andusia as her Demon King model.


    "I guess that makes sense. Although the Hero and the Demon King are mortal enemies, I doubt you can get to know someone''s personality from only two battles," Lilith said, nodding to express her understanding. At the same time, her interest in the cold Demon King grew.


    At this point, Alice also started to notice something was amiss. Although Lilith appeared to be asking about information on the Demon King, the girl had shown no interest in the Demon King''s invasion progress or strength. Instead, Lilith behaved like a groupie, asking about inconsequential things such as the Demon King''s appearance and personality.


    However, a figure gasping for air suddenly barged into the room before Alice could think deeper into this matter. It was none other than Sylvia, who hade running as quickly as possible after receiving Lilith''s summons.

 Chapter 356: Its Not Easy Being a Thief

    Chapter 356: It''s Not Easy Being a Thief


    "Huh? Investigate the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>''s theft?"


    Lilith had informed Sylvia about the general gist of the situation after the other party took a seat at the table. However, Lilith decided to keep Alice''s identity as the Hero a secret from Sylvia for the time being.


    When Lilith had asked Etoria about Alice, Etoria initially tried to deny all connections between Alice and the Hero. This meant that Alice being the Hero was information that must be kept a secret for the time being. So, even if Sylvia was one of her most trusted aides, Lilith didn''t choose to tell Sylvia about Alice.


    Lilith was aware that the reason Alice was willing to share her identity as the Hero with her was because Alice trusted her. However, she''d be overstepping her boundaries if she nonchntly shared this secret with others. She wasn''t so dense and foolish that she''d make such a mistake.


    "Yes. ording to my investigations, the person who stole <em>Demon King''s Shadow </em>is most likely a thief. All fingerprints, footprints, and secretions at the crime scene were erased when the crime took ce. There are also some traces of special mana left behind at the scene, and I suspect the mana is from ''Traceless,'' a spell only thieves know how to use," Alice said, nodding. Then, she pulled out the magic crystal and put it on the table, saying, "Stored inside this crystal is the special mana I mentioned. So long as this crystales into direct contact with the owner of this special mana, its color will turn from blue to golden."


    "I see. So, you wish for me to inspect the Rhine Kingdom''s thieves and see if anyone has mana matching the mana stored inside this crystal," Sylvia said, understanding what Alice was trying to get her to do. Then, she turned to Lilith, and only after seeing Lilith nodding to her did she agree to take on Alice''smission. Although Sylvia didn''t know why Lilith would decide to help Alice on this matter, she would naturallyplete any orders Lilith had for her perfectly.


    When Alice saw the subtle interactions between Lilith and Sylvia, she couldn''t help but inwardly sigh as she thought of Luna. Although the rtionship between Lilith and Sylvia was simr to her rtionship with Luna on paper, Alice noticed that Lilith and Sylvia interacted with each other more like friends on equal footing than master and servant.


    Although Sylvia would still prioritize Lilith''s opinions, she didn''t behave like a servant who''d need her master''s permission to speak. Sylvia''s behavior around Lilith starkly contrasted with Luna''s behavior around Alice. Even now, Luna still stubbornly insisted on putting her position far beneath Alice''s, which frustrated Alice greatly.


    "But aren''t there many thieves in the Rhine Kingdom? Can you handle it, Sylvia?" Lilith curiously asked when she saw Sylvia putting the magic crystal away. She would rarely have any direct participation in matters rting to the thieving industry, so her understanding of the thieving industry was limited. "Not to mention, the culprit could have left the Rhine Kingdom already. Wouldn''t that make it even more difficult to find them?"


    "That won''t be a problem. I''ve narrowed the search range significantly after hearing that the culprit used Traceless," Sylvia said, chuckling when she heard Lilith''s question. "Although Traceless is a spell only thieves can get their hands on, very few thieves know how to use it in reality. After all, this is a spell normally only those seeking to do unscrupulous deeds would use."


    <em>Aren''t thieves supposed to be professionals at doing unscrupulous deeds?</em>


    Although Alice wished to speak her mind, she felt it would be inappropriate to say such a thing to Sylvia in this situation. After all, it''d be terrible if Sylvia got angry and refused to help her. So, Alice chose to keep silent and continue listening to Sylvia''s exnation.


    "The profession of thieves, as the name suggests, is mainly about stealing items and selling them. However, times are changing. The name of this profession was coined thousands of years ago. The inte did not exist in that era, and the management of the various countries was also very loose. So, this created an opportunity for thieves to act recklessly."


    Although Alice did not say anything, Sylvia noticed the change in Alice''s expression and understood what was going through Alice''s mind. So, she took the initiative to offer Alice an exnation.


    "But it is different in the modern era. The advent of the inte has made long-distance surveince a reality. The increased poprity of teleportation arrays and other modes of transportation have also made it easier for the various countries to manage every corner of their territory."


    After speaking up to this point, Sylvia took a moment to observe Alice''s reaction before continuing:


    "So, in such a situation, thieves can no longer act as recklessly as they could in the past. Aside from a few petty thieves, most thieves have used the skills they learned from their predecessors for other purposes. Intelligence gathering, ck market trading, and material excavation are a few examples. You can even say that stealing has be the least popr activity for thieves."


    We are Hosted Novel, find us on google.


    "I see. So, you''re saying that thieves who rely on stealing to make a living have already be a minority because of society''s current state. Adding on the condition of the thief has to know Tracelessyou can reduce the scope of your search significantly."


    Alice finally understood why Sylvia would think this task wouldn''t be a problem. At the same time, she couldn''t help but recall Rosa. Rosa had seemingly retired from being a thief and switched to bing a paparazzi because she felt there was no future for the thief profession.


    Regardless, so long as a thief had mingled in the thieving industry for one or two years, they''d be able to rely on their connections with other thieves to get in touch with all sorts of thieves. Meanwhile, thieves who knew how to use Traceless were few and far between. So, Sylvia''s investigations shouldn''t take long to produce results.


    When Sylvia saw that Alice seemed to get her point, she nodded in satisfaction. Then, in a slightly prideful tone, she continued, "Anyway, even if the culprit has left the Rhine Kingdom already, I can dig him out for you within a week."


    After saying so, Sylvia excused herself from the room and promptly left to carry out Alice''s request.


    "I told you, right? It was the right call to get Sylvia''s help on this matter," Lilith said, grinning as she looked at Alice. "By the way, I''ve already helped you to such an extent. Shouldn''t you be giving me somepensation?"


    The average person definitely wouldn''t dare to ask forpensation after helping the Hero. This wasn''t some Hero RPG where just about anyone would dare to give trivial tasks to the Hero. However, Lilith did not regard Alice as the Hero. Instead, she treated Alice no differently from before.


    "I don''t have any more figurines to give," Alice said, shrugging. The first thought she had when Lilith asked forpensation was that the Rhine Princess wanted another figurine like Andusia. At the same time, she also couldn''t help but wonder what expression Lilith would make if she learned that her cherished figurine was actually made from the treants'' precious Living Wood.


    "I don''t need any more figurines. I want something else forpensation," Lilith said, waving her hand. Then, in a slightly embarrassed tone, she asked, "The next time you fight the Demon King, can you bring me along?"


    Alice was stunned when she heard Lilith''s words. Then, she couldn''t help but look at Lilith strangely and wonder what was wrong with this girl. Whenever the Hero and the Demon King fought, bystanders would usually try to get as far away as possible from the battlefield. Yet, Lilith wanted to get closer to it?

 Chapter 357: Lilith Still Doesnt Know The Situations Severity

    Chapter 357: Lilith Still Doesn''t Know The Situation''s Severity


    Sylvia might have said the search for the culprit wouldn''t be a problem, but inspecting every thief in the Rhine Kingdom who had learned "Traceless" still wouldn''t be easy. Even if Sylvia held significant influence in the Thieves Guild, her influence wasn''t all-epassing.


    Many thieves might assist Sylvia when requested, but they weren''t Sylvia''s subordinates. They wouldn''t go to her like obedient dogs simply because Sylvia asked to meet them. In most cases, Sylvia would still have to visit these thieves in person.


    Handling the search in person wasn''t necessarily a bad thing, either, since Sylvia could conduct her search as secretly as possible. After all, she couldn''t simply tell her thief associates, "I suspect you might be the person who had stolen the Royal Magic Tower''s copy of Demon King''s Shadow sometime ago, so take this magic crystal and prove your innocence." She had to secretly get the suspected thieves to make physical contact with the magic crystal and observe the crystal''s changes orck thereof.


    All in all, even though Sylvia had great influence in the thiefmunity, it would still take her around one or two weeks before she could finish inspecting all of the thieves who had learned Traceless in the Rhine Kingdom. If she had to extend her search overseas, it might take her one or two months toplete Alice''s request.


    It was also fortunate that they had the condition of "thieves who had learned Traceless" to go by. Without this condition, it''d take a minimum of two years to check all the thieves operating in the five human kingdoms.


    However, Alice didn''t intend to sit still and do nothing during these one or two weeks. Although she had taken care of most of the things she needed to do for the moment, she still had one rtively important task: locate a piece of Living Wood to use as Andusia''s recement.


    Living Wood was the treant race''s treasure, and it was practically impossible for outsiders to get their hands on any. Because of this, Living Wood was regarded as one of the rarest materials in this world by alchemists, its rarity surpassing even the Seeds of Nature. The only reason Andusia had managed to get her hands on a block of Living Wood was because she had employed a time-tested tacticstealing by force.


    The birth of Living Wood was also a mystery, though it must be a very demanding process. Otherwise, the treants wouldn''t have treated it so preciously. The treants had guarded their Living Wood so preciously that one could only rarely find it being mentioned in alchemy books.


    Even Lilith, a golden spoon who had seen all sorts of strange and valuable treasures, had failed to think of Living Wood when she came into contact with Andusia. It could be seen that Living Wood was incredibly rare even to the various human kingdoms'' royalty.


    Of course, even if Lilith didn''t know about the existence of Living Wood, she should know about the treants. As for Alice, although she simrly bore the identity of a kingdom''s princess, this was an identity she had picked up only a few months ago. She had also only transmigrated to this world a few months ago. She remained ignorant of many local matters, so she decided to ask Lilith about the treants.


    "The treants? What are you looking for them for? Those guys are incredibly xenophobic. They''ll drive away any humans they see. They''ll even attack you if you try to stay in their territory for too long. Because of this, they have a terrible reputation among human mercenaries," Lilith said with a surprised look on her face.


    After their conversation in the cafe ended, the two of them returned to their respective homes. However, Lilith didn''t think Alice would call her so soon to ask about the treants out of the blue.


    "I doubt you''ll receive a good reception from the treants, even if you are the Hero. Unlike the elves, no Hero has ever appeared from the treants. So, even Heroes won''t receive special treatment from them."


    Alice couldn''t help but frown a little when she heard Lilith''s answer. She didn''t think Lilith''s evaluation of the treants would be so negative. It would seem that the treants had really left a bad impression on outsiders. At the same time, Alice more or less understood why Andusia would rob the treants instead of bargaining for one. The treants had most likely hurt her pride during negotiations.


    When Alice imagined Andusia angrily bombarding the treants with spells and flying away with a block of Living Wood amidst the treants'' angry bellows, she couldn''t help but get an inexplicable urge tough. Of course, the scene she imagined in her mind was definitely false. After all, the Andusia back then wasn''t the size of a figurine.


    However, even though Alice could guess and understand why Andusia had done what she did all those years ago, she didn''t agree with Andusia''s decision to rob the treants. It definitely wasn''t a good deed to steal someone''s treasure. Although Alice had simrly stolen the elves'' Seed of Nature, she had left many good things for the elves in return.


    "Do you know why the treants are so xenophobic?" Alice asked. Although she now knew the treants were unfriendly to other races, she needed a block of Living Wood to recover Andusia. Otherwise, she would be left with no choice but to scam Lilith. So, even if there were going to be challenges awaiting her, she still wanted to give it a try. "Logically, even if the treants are xenophobic, there should have been many people who had made contact with them over the years, right? Did these people get any information on the treants?"


    "Why are the treants xenophoic? I know that. Or, more specifically, it''s essentiallymon knowledge among mercenaries. One of my bodyguards used to be a mercenary, and I learned about the treants from him," Lilith said. "The treants haven''t always been xenophobic. On the contrary, they even shared friendly rtions with humans throughout history. Their rtionship with other races has only deteriorated in recent decades."


    "Recent decades?" Alice grew a little curious. If she went by Lilith''s words, her previous assumption of Andusia robbing the treants because the treants were xenophobic would be false. Instead, the treants had probably only said harsh words to Andusia because of the bad reputation of Demon Kings. "Did any major events happen in recent decades? How did the treants grow to be so dissatisfied with other races?"


    "Rather than one big event, it''d be more urate to say that this dissatisfaction was umted over countless minor events," Lilith said, her voice sounding a little helpless. "I''m sure you are aware of this, but the advent of the inte in recent decades has drastically improved the efficiency ofmunication and the sharing of knowledge across long distances. As a result, our civilization saw rapid growth. Meanwhile, apanying this growth is the creation of numerous factories and heavy industries."


    After listening up to this point, Alice quickly understood what Lilith was getting at. After all, a simr situation had taken ce back on Earth. The only difference was that Earth did not have a race like the treants. "So, you mean to say that the reason the rtionship between humans and treants had deteriorated so rapidly is because the development of human civilization resulted in the destruction of forests?"


    "That is basically the case. The treants are the children of nature. From the treants'' perspective, forests, trees, and nts are their kin, and what humans have done in recent decades was no different from massacring their kin. It''d be strange if the treants would treat us kindly after such a situation," Lilith said, sighing.


    "Honestly, if not because the treantsck the strength to beat humans, I bet they would have already plotted to take revenge on humans. But there''s no helping this situation. For the sake of civilization''s development, it is necessary to develop some forests. Not to mention, the five kingdoms have always conducted detailed analysis and nning before carrying out anyrge-scale deforestation. We''ve made sure that none of the forests we remove will affect the surrounding mana environment."


    Alice believed in Lilith''s ims. If the humans of this world had developed their civilization without any regard for consequences, the human realm''s environment would have be simr to Earth''s. However, in reality, forests still cover a significant part of the human realm. If the treants were to transmigrate to Earth, they would probably die on the spot after seeing the state of Earth''s forests.


    "Anyway, that basically sums up the treants'' situation. Unless you must get the treants'' help, I suggest you give up or consider other options," Lilith said.


    Of course, Lilith would have never imagined that if Alice were to really give up on the treants, the one to suffer a loss would be herself.

 Chapter 358: Andusias Melancholy

    Chapter 358: Andusia''s Mncholy


    Despite Lilith''s warning about the treants, Alice still decided to visit them and see if she could persuade them to give her a block of Living Wood.


    Although the treants'' Living Wood would rarely find their way into the hands of outsiders, the fact that it was mentioned in some alchemy books meant that some Living Wood had flowed out of the treants'' hands and ended up in the hands of some alchemists.


    Alice also doubted that these alchemists had acquired their Living Wood by force as Andusia did. There was no such thing as a taboo-level spell in alchemy, so it would be incredibly difficult for any alchemist to snatch a block of Living Wood from the treants by force. Instead, these alchemists had most likely persuaded the treants to part with some of their Living Wood using some method.


    <em>Ormaybe they threatened the treants?</em>


    This was also a possibility. After all, the treants were an intelligent race. Since they were intelligent, it meant they had weaknesses. If the alchemists threatened the treants using the treants'' weakness, it would also be possible for them to get their hands on some Living Wood.


    "If you must visit the treants, I can tell you the location of their settlement It''s in the Kalu Forest that''s located between the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom.," Lilith said. Although she didn''t know why Alice wanted to seek out the treants, considering Alice''s identity as the Hero, Lilith simply thought it was a secret rting to the Hero. "Some magic stones have been ced near the treants'' settlement to warn humans not to approach. If you go past the marked area, there is a possibility the treants will attack you. But with your strength...I doubt you need to be afraid of them."


    After returning home, Lilith asked Etoria why Alice needed to keep her identity a secret. The answer she got was so that the Hero could have some time to develop in safety. If Alice''s identity were to get exposed, many demons would definitelye to harass her.


    However, be that as it may, the residual mana collected from the "battlefield" outside Icarus City and the footage of the Hero and the Demon King fighting outside the Elven Forest proved that Alice''s strength had already reached a frightening extent.


    Although the treants were superior to humans inbat due to their powerful physical bodies and mana, they were still vastly inferior to Heroes. Not to mention, the treants had a tiny poption. If they were tied together, Alice could probably wipe out the entire treant race with one taboo.


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    "I''ll DM you the exact location via LINK. There are also some human soldiers guarding the area to prevent anyone from getting near and attacked by the treants. However, with your status, I doubt they''ll dare to stop you. They''ll probably let you through if you show your face to them," Lilith said, chuckling. Although Alice couldn''t expose her identity as the Hero, her identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess should be enough to persuade the guards to let her through.


    "But I rmend you bring a few people with you. Even if you are a princess, I don''t think those guards will dare to let you get near the treants'' settlement without any guards. After all, they''d be finished if you met with any idents inside."


    What Lilith said made sense. Although Alice could use her identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess as an entry pass, she would need to at least prove to the guards that she could keep herself safe before they would dare to let her through. Otherwise, if anything bad happened to her, they would definitely take the me.


    Between angering a princess and shouldering the responsibility of a princess''s death, it went without saying which option the guards would choose.


    "But I didn''t bring anyone here with me"


    Alice scratched her head awkwardly. She hade to the Rhine Kingdom to secretly conduct an investigation, so she naturally needed to reduce the risk of her getting noticed as much as possible. Hence, the only person she brought with her to the Rhine Kingdom was Andusia.


    "There''s no helping it, then. There is also the option of sneaking in," Lilith said gleefully. From how Alice spoke, Lilith could tell that even though Alice wanted to meet with the treants, it wasn''t to the extent that she had to meet them no matter what. Hence, Lilith reacted nonchntly to Alice''s plight. "Or, maybe you could ask my dad for some people? If you are the one asking, he''ll probably loan our royal guard captain to you without hesitation."


    The royal guard captains of the five human kingdoms were the epitome of strength in the human realm. They were existences capable of trading blows with the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings. Under normal circumstances, it was highly unlikely for any kingdom to loan their royal guard captain to someone else. However, if Alice was the one doing the asking, King Haydn might very well agree to loan her the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain.


    It wouldn''t be the first time a king had loaned their royal guard captain to Alice. Take Hatter, for example. Under Hatter''s order, Catherine had practically be Alice''s nanny already, helping Alice take care of all sorts of misceneous matters.


    "Sneak in, huh I''ll do that, then."


    However, Alice did not decide to borrow the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain. This was because Lilith''s joking response had given her an idea. Why was she even mulling over this problem in the first ce? So long as she turned her magic robe into a weapon with her right hand, she could use its Mana Concealment skill to conceal her presence and appearance. At that time, wouldn''t sneaking into the treants'' territory be a piece of cake?


    In reality, if Alice was willing to secure a block of Living Wood by any means necessary, she could simply steal it while staying invisible, and the treants would never know she was responsible for the theft. However, this would be different from when she secretly learned the elves'' taboos. Her act of learning the elves'' taboos wouldn''t cause the elves any actual losses, but if she stole a block of Living Wood, it would cause the treants to lose one of their treasures.


    Hence, Alice decided that she would sneak into the treants'' territory, learn about the treants'' present situation, and see if the treants had any requests. Then, she would satisfy their requests in exchange for a block of Living Wood.


    Aftering up with a general n, Alice nodded in satisfaction and thanked Lilith for her help. Then, she hung up the call, leaving Lilith with a stunned expression in her home.


    "Could she really be nning to sneak inside?"


    Lilith scratched her head. There might be invisibility spells in this world, but when these spells were activated, the user would have their movements limited. Hence, she couldn''t figure out how Alice nned to sneak into the treants'' territory without anybody noticing.


    Andusia, who was ced in the figurine cab by the desk, looked at Lilith''s confused expression and yawned out of boredom. She had naturally overheard the call between Alice and Lilith, so she knew that Alice should be preparing to get a block of Living Wood and carve it into her recement.


    This was good news. If Andusia were to be honest, she had gotten so bored that she had the thought of revealing her identity to Lilith. That way, she could move freely in Lilith''s house.


    However, Andusia eventually shelved this idea. Her real identity was that of a Demon King. If she were to reveal her identity to Lilith, the girl would probably be scared out of her wits. Then, Lilith would most likely report this matter to the Rhine Kingdom''s king. At that time, let alone gaining freedom of movement, she might even get Alice into trouble.


    <em>Hah... Hopefully, that kid can get the Living Wood soon.</em>


    Andusia, who felt like her body was about to rot, prayed.

 Chapter 359: Treants

    Chapter 359: Treants


    <em>So there really are soldiers stationed here.</em>


    After receiving the GPS coordinates of the treants'' settlement from Lilith, Alice quickly took a teleportation array to the Rhine Kingdom''s border. Then, she entered the Kalu Forest that connected the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom and found the treants'' settlement.


    However, surrounding her destination was a protective fence made using a special magic stone. Many soldiers also patrolled the perimeter of this fenced area. Based on her secret observation, Alice found that these soldiers were divided into two groups, and the way she divided them was based on the design differences of their weapons and armor.


    Evidently, some of these soldiers were from the Rhine Kingdom, while the other rest were from the Ymir Kingdom. The two kingdoms must have agreed to share the responsibility of keeping people out of the treants'' settlement.


    The soldiers of the two kingdoms looked like they got along quite well. They also didn''t look tense, which probably meant they didn''t expect to see anybat while on duty. It made sense, though, since they only needed to warn others to stay away from the fenced area.


    The treants should be aware that humans had set up a cordon outside their settlement. However, it didn''t seem like they had any intentions of provoking a fight and would only react aggressively if outsiders trespassed on their territory. With how small the treant poption was, it definitely wouldn''t end well for the treants if they provoked the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom. Although the treants had be hostile to other races, they still knew how to protect themselves.


    Alice had to thank the treants for ignoring the soldiers stationed outside their settlement. Because of theck of action, the soldiers had grownzy over time, making it much easier for Alice to execute her infiltration n.


    Although Alice could conceal her appearance and presence with her magic robe, her physical body remained in existence. If she were to try and climb across the magic fence, she would most likely trigger some sort of rm. To avoid such a situation, she would have to rely on psychic power to fly across the fence. So, had the soldiers been serious about their job, they would have noticed something was amiss with the flow of wind and mana around Alice.


    The existence of treants was somewhat simr to elves. Both races were the favored children of nature, possessing incredible mana sensitivity. The two races also had a small poption. However, there were also significant differences between the two races. Unlike elves, treants had very little resemnce to humans. This could be seen from how treants were born.


    Shortly after flying past the cordon, Alice quickly realized that she should be close to the treants'' settlement.


    <em>So, this is a treant?</em>


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    Alice curiously thought as she walked up to arge tree and scrutinized the protrusion on its trunk. It naturally wouldn''t have caught Alice''s attention if it were only an ordinary protrusion. The reason the protrusion caught Alice''s attention was because it was somewhat in the shape of a human face. Upon closer inspection, she could also see the vague outline of a torso and limbs growing out of the trunk.


    Evidently, this tree was a treant in its fetal stage. However, unlike human fetuses, treant fetuses did not grow up in a mother''s womb. Instead, they appeared from a grown tree and had to weather the elements from the moment they were "conceived." If they were unlucky, they might even die before they couldplete their fetal stage and enter their infancy stage.


    Treants originally had a low birthrate already. Adding the high possibility of death due to natural elements, it was no wonder the treants had such a small poption.


    Alice couldn''t help but find this situation perplexing. The treant race had existed for well over ten thousand years. Logically, they should have thought of trying to protect newly-conceived treants already. Yet, for some reason, they either chose not to do so or gave up on this idea after trying.


    <em>Unlike the elves and their half-baked photosynthesis, it seems the treants are fully capable of surviving on just sunlight.</em>


    Alice sighed. Although she couldn''t understand why the treants were letting their young fend for themselves, since there was a treant fetus here, the treant settlement shouldn''t be far away. Even if the treants didn''t find it necessary to protect their young, she doubted they would let their kin grow on a tree far away from their settlement.


    As Alice expected, after she continued walking for a few minutes, she came across the treants'' settlement. However,pared to the elves'' settlement which looked like an ordinary vige, the treants'' settlement was incredibly primitive. Apart from the treants, the only things Alice could see in the settlement were some simple chairs and tables. There weren''t even houses in the settlement.


    However, after thinking it over, Alice found that this scene made sense. Treants were made up mostly of wood. They had also grown up while facing nature''s various elements directly. So, an environment that looked harsh to humans might not be a problem for the treants. Apart from natural disasters such as typhoons and droughts, they should have no trouble surviving in such a natural environment.


    Meanwhile, near the tables and chairs were roughly a dozen or so treants. Although treants and elves were both the favored children of nature, Mother Nature had evidently been cking off when giving the treants faces. If Alice hadn''t seen these treants moving, she would have thought she was looking at a bunch of small trees nted in an open clearing.


    The treants had dry tree bark for skin and roots growing from their feet that they used to dig into the soil. Growing above their head was dark-green hair that resembled grass. At first nce, these treants looked very much like trees with strange human faces carved onto them.


    However, Alice couldn''t help but feel a little perplexed when she saw the treants. Originally, she thought that since the treants were the favored children of nature, they should be brimming with vitality. Yet, these dozen or so treants gave Alice a very terrible feeling. It felt as if these treants had all of their vitality sapped out of them. Not only did they not exude any mana, but it also felt like they were shrouded in an aura of death.


    This situation was strange, no matter how she looked at it.

 Chapter 360: Little Treant: Im in Danger

    Chapter 360: Little Treant: I''m in Danger


    Although Alice felt something was wrong with the treants'' present state, she didn''t go to them and ask about their condition. She still remembered Lilith telling her that the treants were no longer friendly with humans, and even revealing her identity as the Hero wouldn''t do her any good. If she were to reveal herself to the treants right now, the treants would probably group up and attack her immediately.


    Hence, Alice decided to investigate the situation herself for the time being. If the treants'' situation was as terrible as it seemed and it was caused by some troubling or external factors, she could maybe help them resolve this problem in exchange for a block of Living Wood.


    This reminded Alice of the Heroes in the games she had yed on Earth. In those games, her game character would y the role of a Hero and go about doing quests to get stronger while earning money. Of course, Heroes in this otherworld did not need to worry about money. All they needed to do was focus on getting strong. Nobody would dare to give silly tasks to the Hero, either.


    Regardless, although the treants wouldn''t take the initiative to give Alice a quest or clues, Alice decided to be patient.


    Meanwhile, after circling the treants'' settlement while staying invisible, Alice found that the settlement was considerably primitive. She was astonished that even after thousands of years of development, the treant civilization remained in such a rudimentary state. She felt that the treants'' respect for nature had already reached an obsessive degree. Their obsession was so bad that they found the existence of artificial objects nigh-uneptable.


    Even in the case of necessary creations such as tables and chairs, the treants would only use the simplest method to deal with it. They also refused to create shelters that could protect them from natural disasters, opting to use a nearby cave as a temporary shelter instead. If a modern human were to stay in the treants'' settlement for a few days, this person would probably go crazy from boredom.


    The treants'' obsession with nature also exined why the treants would be so hostile to humans. The treants naturally wouldn''t have positive feelings toward a civilization developed at the cost of nature''s destruction. The treants might have been able to empathize with and ept the human civilization of olden times, but modern human civilization was too much for them to understand with their stubborn minds. So, it was only natural for the rtionship between treants and humans to grow tense.


    <em>These treantssure move slowly.</em>


    After observing the treants'' settlement for a while, Alice observed the treants'' actions. Meanwhile, through her observation, she found that the treants moved incredibly slowly. Although their movements were agile, they would take long pauses between actions. During these pauses, they would remain motionless like a real tree.


    Alice estimated this to be one of the treants'' characteristics. However, she didn''t doubt that the treants would spring into action and surround her in no time should she reveal herself.


    Anyway, Alice still had over half an hour before Mana Concealment''s duration ended. After failing to find any clues in the settlement, she decided to switch her focus to the forest surrounding the settlement. She felt that something was wrong with this forest. Compared to the forest outside the two kingdoms'' cordon, the forest inside the cordon was enveloped by a strange aura that made the air slightly turbid. This was not the feeling air in a lush forest should have.


    In addition, this aura caused the mana in the area to be strange. When Alice tried to absorb this mana into her body, she found that it containedplex impurities and had difficulty separating them from the mana.


    Alice was familiar with the feeling she got from this forest''s air. Any demon brought to this ce would also find this air.


    Indeed. The air in this forest felt polluted, just like the air in the demon realm. The ambient mana''s weak corrosive properties felt especially simr. Meanwhile, unless a person had the unique organs the demons had developed to filter this corrosive mana, this person would be incapable of absorbing the mana here.


    Thinking about it this way, Alice quickly understood why the treants were in such a terrible state. For the treants who were used to relying on nature for survival, living amidst this turbid air must feel extremely ufortable.


    Hence, when Alice saw the treants, thetter looked like a bunch of dead trees. Logically, the dry and dead-looking bark she saw should only appear on treants close to reaching the end of their lifespans. Yet, every treant she saw in the settlement had this kind of bark. There was no way every of those treants were nearing the end of their lives, right?


    Alice wasn''t sure if the treants had noticed the bizarre situation taking ce in this part of the forest, but she decided she would find the source of this problem. If the source of this forest''s pollution was the same as the demon realm''s pollution source, she might be able to use it to locate the demon realm''s pollution source.


    The pollution in the demon realm had been going on for over ten thousand years, covering almost half the entire. It was unrealistic to try to find the pollution source in such arge area. However, the pollution here only covered the central area of the Kalu Forest. Alice guessed that the pollution''s limited coverage probably signified that it had only appeared recently. So, it should be much easier to find the source of the pollution.


    So long as she could figure out what was causing the pollution in this part of the forest, she would have a much easier time searching the demon realm.


    However, be that as it may, finding the pollution source wouldn''t be a walk in the park. The central part of the Kalu Forest was covered in trees, and everything looked the same to Alice. She couldn''t even tell if she was walking in circles while traversing this dense forest, let alone find the pollution source. Moreover, she didn''t have any clues to follow.


    Although she could potentially learn some useful information if she could have a proper conversation with the treants...she wouldn''t be feeling so troubled if she could have a proper conversation with the treants.


    While Alice was in distress, a small treant suddenly stood up from the group of treants situated in the central clearing. Then, this little treant walked in a particr direction and quickly disappeared among theyers of trees. When the other treants saw this, they only nced at the little treant briefly before resuming their inanimate state.


    The treants were a long-lived race with an average lifespan of a thousand years.


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    For long-lived races, sleeping was the mostmon activity they would do to pass the time. This was especially true for the treants since they had barely developed their civilization. Hence, without any special reasons, they would normally behave like actual trees, remaining motionless as they stayed rooted to the ground.


    Alice''s eyes lit up when she saw this situation. She didn''t think a solution to herck of information woulde so soon.


    The little treant that left the settlement didn''t look very old. Although the little treant''s exterior had dried up due to the pollution here, Alice could still see that he was a youth based on his size. Of course, this youthfulness was rtive to the treants. In reality, the little treant was probably several decades old already.


    However, none of these things were important. What was important was that this treant should know some information about the forest''s recent changes, such as when the pollution started appearing, or whether any abnormal events had happened in the forest recently. These were all important information to Alice.


    While figuring out what questions she should ask the treant, Alice quietly followed the other party.

 Chapter 361: Sylvia: I Know This Feeling

    Chapter 361: Sylvia: I Know This Feeling


    After following the little treant out of the settlement, Alice found the other party walking up to a smallke and soaking the roots growing out of his feet in the water. Seeing this, Alice quickly understood what the little treant had left the settlement to do.


    Looking back now, it had already been over a week since the Rhine Kingdom had seen any rainfall. While this wasn''t a problem to the Rhine Kingdom''s inhabitants since dams existed in this world, it was a different story for the treants who lived primitive lifestyles.


    A week without rain would cause thend to dry up to a certain extent. It was especially true for the clearing the treants used as their settlement. Without tall trees to shade the ground from the sun, the soil''s moisture would evaporate much quicker. In such a situation, the treants would naturally have to seek water sources outside their settlement when they needed to replenish the fluids in their body. Meanwhile, this smallke should be where the treants replenished their fluids.


    It was obvious the other treants knew about this smallke. Hence, when they saw the little treant leaving in theke''s direction, they only nced at him before returning to their slumber. Since the little treant was only leaving to get a "drink," there was no need to worry that he might get into trouble. Although there were wild beasts in this forest, these beasts did not have any interest in the treants.


    However, the treants evidently did not expect a human to cross the humans'' cordon outside and sneak into their settlement.


    Alice hid in a tree as she observed the little treant. However, she failed to see anything interesting as the little treant did nothing else after sitting by theke and soaking his feet in the water. Meanwhile, after soaking in the water for about ten minutes, the little treant stood up and began treading on the path back home.


    Alice knew that she couldn''t wait any longer. If she allowed the little treant to return to the settlement, she would lose her opportunity to question the other party. Hence, she promptly jumped out of the tree andnded in front of the little treant. Then, she used Consciousness Transformation against him.


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    Alice''s Mana Concealment was still in effect, so the little treant did not notice hernding before him. As a result, she managed to take control of the little treant without facing any resistance.


    The body structure of treants was different from humans. It was more simr to Andusia''s current physical condition. They did not have things like internal organs or a brain. They were essentially walking blocks of wood manipted by the souls inhabiting them.


    However, spirit magic affected the soul. So, even though the treants didn''t have a physical brain, they could still be affected by spirit magic. This allowed Alice to easily take control of the little treant with Consciousness Transformation, a spirit taboo. Unfortunately, all Alice could do was take control of the little treant''s body. She couldn''t read the little treant''s memories with her current mastery over spirit magic, orck thereof.


    <em>I really should get to learning how to read memories</em>


    Alice scratched her head. Thus far, she had alreadye across three instances where she could have made her life much easier if she knew how to read memories. If she could read the little treant''s memories, she might have been able to find some clues regarding the predicament the treants were currently facing.


    Unfortunately, she couldn''t do it right now. So, she could only employ the same method she had used against Sylvia on this little treant.


    However, fearing that the little treant might have some countermeasure against Hubert''s Tree, Alice chose a different method to restrain him.


    When the little treant woke up, ten minutes had already passed since Alice captured him. The moment the little treant woke up, he couldn''t help but be frightened by the sight before him.


    Currently, rings of mes surrounded his body. Although his body wasn''t in direct contact with the mes, the zing heat they radiated immediately allowed him to understand his current situation. So long as he dared to move his body, the mes would immediately ignite him.


    Due to the recent environmental changes in the forest, the treants'' bodies have be a little dry. So, they had be much more mmable than normal. Knowing this, the little treant dared not move his body in the slightest.


    Fortunately, treants did not need to breathe like humans. They could staypletely still if they wanted. So, the little treant didn''t have to worry that he would identally set himself aze.


    Afterward, the treant noticed a person in a magic robe sitting in front of him. However, he couldn''t tell the other party''s exact height because the other party was sitting on the ground. He couldn''t tell the other party''s appearance, either, since the loose magic robe concealed the other party''s entire body.


    Simply put, this robed person was an incredibly mysterious fellow. After observing the other party for a moment, the only information the little treant could gather was that the magic robe seemed to be of high quality.


    However, although treants would normally stay cooped up and behave no differently from trees in their settlement, that didn''t mean they were blockheads. Upon seeing his current predicament, the little treant immediately understood that someone had snuck into the treants'' territory and kidnapped him.


    When Alice saw the expression on the little treant''s face, she knew that he had already understood his current situation. This would make it much easier to ask for the information she wanted.


    "Hello, little treant. Don''t panic. As long as you don''t move, these mes won''t burn you," Alice said, using mana to put pressure on her throat and make her voice sound a little hoarse. Although this wasn''t enough to hide her obviously feminine voice, it was enough to mask her original voice. "I am going to ask you a few questions. So long as you can give me proper answers, I will let you go."


    The little treant''s expression grew a little confused when he heard Alice''s question. He failed to figure out what secrets his race had that would warrant such a situation. After pondering for a moment, he asked:


    "What do you want to know?"


    Unlike his dry exterior, the little treant''s voice was surprisingly attractive. If Alice had listened to this voice blindfolded, she might have assumed the other party was an ikemen.


    "Have your people noticed any changes to your living environment recently?" Alice asked as she gestured at her surroundings. "For example, the deteriorating air quality and the ambient mana bing contaminated."


    As soon as the little treant heard Alice''s question, a stern look appeared on his face. Then, he stared at Alice and made a low, questioning voice:


    "Is it you?!"


    Evidently, the treants had already noticed the changes that had taken ce in the Kalu Forest''s central region. This was good. This meant that Alice could use the excuse of "resolving the environmental changes" to negotiate with the treants. Otherwise, she would have to inform the treants of the dangers of these environmental changes herself, and doing so woulde with great risks.

 Chapter 362: Treants Don’t Seem Very Smart

    Chapter 362: Treants Don��t Seem Very Smart


    Although it was good that the treants knew about the forest''s pollution since this would save Alice the trouble of bargaining with them, Alice found it very displeasing to be mistaken as the culprit behind this pollution. So, even though she was going to erase the little treant''s memory of his kidnapping when she released him afterward, she still decided to clear up the misunderstanding. Though, because of her displeasure, her voice sounded a little cold as she said:


    "If I''m responsible for it, would I need to go out of my way to discuss it with you? What kind of bad guy would ask their victim how it felt to be victimized? Not even novels would dare to write such a scenario."


    As someone who lived a primitive lifestyle, the little treant naturally did not know what a "novel" was. However, the little treant still managed to understand Alice''s point. If Alice was the culprit behind the forest''s pollution, now that her n had gone smoothly, she didn''t have to kidnap him and ask if he had noticed the pollution.


    As treants rarely had contact with the outside world, the little treant had a rtively simple thought process. So, after hearing Alice''s words, the little treant immediately agreed with her exnation and nodded. He did not suspect that Alice might be ying an borate trick on him.


    "I guess you''re right."


    However, the little treant had seemingly forgotten that he was currently restrained by Alice''s rings of mes. So, when he nodded, his head immediately came into contact with the ring that covered his head.


    The mes Alice conjured were not ordinary mes. Instead, they were created using the taboo Burning Star, and Alice had twisted them into rings using psychic power. Hence, they carried incredible power, and just a slight touch was enough to ignite the little treant''s head and cause the little treant to scream in agony.


    Alice scratched her head when she saw the little treant''s actions. From what she heard from Lilith, she originally thought treants to be fierce individuals. However, after interacting with one, she couldn''t help but feel that something might be wrong with the treants'' IQ. Not only was the little treant not fierce, but he also seemed very gullible.


    Fortunately, Burning Star''s mes were made using Alice''s mana. So, Alice had absolute control over them. When she saw the little treant''s head igniting into mes, she hurriedly waved her hand and extinguished the mes.


    However, although Alice had managed to prevent the little treant from suffering any life-threatening damage, the other party''s head had evidently shrunk a little. There were also scorch marks on the exterior of the little treant''s head. It was fortunate that the treants'' bodies were made entirely of wood. If these mes were to make contact with an ordinary human''s head, just an instant would probably be enough to cause severe or lethal damage.


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    "T-Thank you"


    The little treant even thanked Alice after she extinguished the mes on his head. Seeing how innocent the little treant was, Alice couldn''t help but feel that she could try to sell him a p to the face, and he wouldn''t find anything offensive about it.


    However, it worked in Alice''s favor that the little treant was so gullible. It would make her life a lot easier when she asked him questions.


    Of course, Alice also felt that a part of why this little treant was so innocent probably had something to do with his young age. Compared to the treants who were still idling in the settlement, this little treant''s size was significantly smaller. Although this "little" treant was already the size of an average adult human, the other treants in the settlement were the size ofrge trees that were several meters tall. This stark difference in size most likely meant that the little treant was the youngest in the treant settlement, which was also why Alice had chosen him as her target.


    Because treants spent most of their lives cooped up in their settlement and isted from the rest of the world, even if the little treant had already lived for several decades, his mind was most likely still stuck in an immature state. This made him very easy to deceive.


    Of course, no matter how innocent the little treant was, Alice was still going to erase his memories of their meeting after she was done questioning him. Even if she could get the little treant to keep their meeting a secret, she wasn''t gullible enough to think he would keep such a promise. She couldn''t risk the little treant telling the big treants about their meeting, either.


    "If you want to thank me, don''t just do it in words. I''d rather you give me a more practical form of gratitude," Alice said.


    Although she felt evil for deceiving the little treant, she was only trying to get some information from the other party. As for the little treant''s burnt head, with the recovery abilities of the treants, it shouldn''t be long before he would make a full recovery.


    "Practical form of gratitude"


    The little treant subconsciously tried to search his body for something when he heard Alice''s words. Fortunately, Alice managed to restrict his movements with psychic power in time. Otherwise, the little treant would be burning his hands as well.


    Meanwhile, seemingly noticing his foolish behavior, an awkward expression formed on the little treant''s wrinkly face. Then, he said:


    "That I don''t have anything to give you."


    "Tell me about the recent events in the forest, then. Has anything out of the ordinary taken ce recently?" Alice asked. The little treant''s behavior had truly rendered her speechless, so she felt that it was best if she got to the main topic before anything else unexpected happened. "Have you noticed anything different or something that might have caused the forest''s air pollution?"


    "Recent events?" The little treant fell into thought. Then, a momentter, he said, "Apart from the air worseningtely, there is only one other special event I can think of. Roughly three months ago, a strange human intruded into our settlement."


    "A strange human?" Alice''s eyebrows lifted when she heard this. Three months ago was within the possible timeframe of the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>''s theft. So, the person who had trespassed into the treants'' territory might also have been the thief. "Do you remember any of that human''s characteristics? Or, more specifically, do you know what that human came here to do?"


    "Characteristics... I can''t describe it. All humans look the same to us," the little treant answered in embarrassment.


    Alice didn''t find anything strange with this answer. Although treants were sentient creatures, they were of an entirely different species from humans. So, it was normal for them to have trouble differentiating the appearance of humans. Naturally, the reverse was also true.


    However, while it might be hard for treants to differentiate the appearances of humans, they could still distinguish between heights. So, the little treant added:


    "If I have to state a characteristic, I''d say that that human is much taller than you. That human also looks quite skinny and doesn''t have a very good expression..."


    Unfortunately, this information wasn''t enough to let Alice identify the target. The little treant couldn''t even tell if the other party was male or female.


    "Then, do you know what that human came here to do?"


    Since she couldn''t determine the other party''s identity, Alice could only focus on other aspects. If the human in question was the culprit who had caused the forest''s pollution, Alice could use this opportunity to seek out the pollution''s source.


    There was a high chance this pollution source was rted to the one causing the demon realm''s pollution. This was a very important clue, so Alice naturally couldn''t let it get away.

 Chapter 363: Loli Collecting a Tree Branch

    Chapter 363: Loli Collecting a Tree Branch


    After getting the information she wanted from the little treant, Alice erased his memories from when she kidnapped him. Then, she let him go. Although the little treant''s burnt head andck of memory of how he got burnt would probably cause some confusion among the treants for some time, there was nothing Alice could do about it.


    Anyway, going by the little treant''s description, Alice quickly found the ce where the "strange human" had appeared three months ago. The location in question was near the towering tree at the centermost part of the Kalu Forest. The towering tree rose high into the sky and beyond the clouds, and it was the tallest tree in the entire Kalu Forest.


    The treants had a peculiar sense of belonging to this huge tree with a long history and massive size. So, when they found out a human had appeared in its vicinity three months ago, they anxiously conducted arge-scale search of the area, trying to locate that human and find out what he had done here.


    However, even after half a month of investigation, the treants failed to find that human. They also failed to learn what that human had done since they didn''t find any signs of destruction or anything out of the ordinary done by that human. Because of this, the treants eventually moved this matter to the back of their mind and continued with their lives.


    When Alice linked the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>''s theft several months ago with the sudden pollution of the Kalu Forest''s central region, she had reason to suspect that the strange human the little treant mentioned had left something behind during his short visit. Meanwhile, this "something" was the start of the forest''s pollution.


    Although the pollution was only limited to the central part of the Kalu Forest right now, it would undoubtedly spread and cover arger area with time, as evidenced by how the pollution had spread from the towering tree to the treant settlement. There was no way Alice could allow the human realm to be a polluted mess like the demon realm.


    While the human realm getting polluted would remove the reason for war between humans and demons, it would worsen the living conditions across the globe. What Alice sought to do was to improve the demons'' living environment, not to pollute the human realm as well. So, not only could finding the forest''s pollution source help her resolve the demon realm''s pollution, but it would also help her prevent the human realm from bing a second demon realm.


    Alice was also confident that if she could get her hands on whatever item was polluting the Kalu Forest, she could quickly find a solution to the demon realm''s pollution. After all, Kristine and Lacey were currently researching how they could purify the demon realm''s pollution. If they could get their hands on a simr pollution source to study, it shouldn''t be long before they could produce results.


    <em>But that person must have hidden the pollution source quite well if the treants had found nothing even after investigating for half a month. Moreover, the pollution source might not be a physical object but something like a magic array.</em>


    Alice failed to find anything out of the ordinary, even after circling and observing the towering tree for some time. This wasn''t surprising, though. If even the treants, who were incredibly sensitive to mana, had failed to notice any peculiarities, there was no way Alice could find anything. Hence, Alice didn''t intend to search for the pollution source with her senses.


    <em>Let''s hope this move will be useful. My mastery over it has risen somewhat from how frequently I''ve been using it recently, so I should be able to do a more detailed scan.</em>


    After finding a suitable position, Alice closed her eyes and activated Psychokinesis Transcendence. Immediately, with Alice as the center, a subtle ripple of psychic power spread and seeped into the surrounding air and mana.


    Under the influence of Psychokinesis Transcendence''s psychic power, Alice could perceive all the pollutants contaminating the air and mana in the area. When Alice spread her psychic power to cover arger area, she quickly noticed a clear distinction in pollution levels between different areas.


    The pollution in the demon realm essentially covered half the. Alice could only cover a limited range with her Psychokinesis Transcendence, and she was nowhere near strong enough to cover half the with her psychic power. Moreover, the demon realm''s pollution had been going on for thousands of years, so the diffusion of pollutants should have long since reached a near-equilibrium state. So, even if she analyzed the demon realm''s pollution levels, it''d be hard for her to find any obvious differences.


    However, the Kalu Forest''s pollution had only started recently. It also only covered a limited area. So, the difference in pollution levels in the polluted areas was very obvious to Alice.


    Generally speaking, if the pollution of an area was caused by one particr source, the closer one got to the source, the more severe the pollution would be. Hence, if Alice searched the most polluted area, she should be able to locate the pollution source''s whereabouts.


    Very quickly, Alice found the pollution source''s general location. However, unlike what she expected, the pollution source wasn''t buried underground or hidden inside a tree trunk. Instead, it was hidden directly above her. Or, more specifically, it was hidden at the top of the towering tree.


    Upon learning this information, Alice understood why the treants had failed to find the pollution source even after searching the towering tree''s vicinity for half a month. Unless the circumstances called for it, no treant would bother to investigate the top of the towering tree. Even Alice wouldn''t have thought that the pollution source would be hidden above her head if she hadn''t used Psychokinesis Transcendence to determine the varying pollution levels of the area.


    However, since she now knew the pollution source''s general location, finding it would be much simpler.


    Flying wasn''t a difficult task for the magicians of this world. Be it wind magic or psychic power, both could be used to achieve flight, to a certain degree, when cultivated to sufficiently high levels. Only, unlike airships, magicians couldn''t remain in flight for long periods of time.


    With the help of her psychic power, Aliceunched herself into the air and quickly arrived at the top of the towering tree after several mid-air jumps. Compared to the Elven Forest''s Tree of Nature, this towering tree was still much shorter, so reaching its canopy didn''t take much time or effort.


    Afternding on a thick and sturdy tree branch, Alice used Psychokinesis Transcendence once more to scan her surroundings. Eventually, she pinpointed the pollution source to one particr tree branch.


    The tree branch in question looked no different from the other branches. Although it was smaller than many of the other branches on this tree, it wasn''t the smallest. So, if one were to judge solely based on appearances, this tree branch would be considered normal. However, when Alice analyzed this branch using Psychokinesis Transcendence, the results were anything but normal.


    The pollution around this particr tree branch was the worst in the area. It was so bad that Alice felt ufortable just moving close to it. Meanwhile, Psychokinesis Transcendence''s analysis also verified that the pollution levels around this tree branch were indeed the highest in the area.


    It would seem that, through the use of some method, the strange human who had snuck into the treants'' territory had transformed the pollution source into the shape of a tree branch and nted it on this towering tree. That, or he had nted some sort of magic into this tree branch. Either way, there was no doubt that this tree branch was the source of the pollution.


    <em>Let''s see what you truly are.</em>


    Alice narrowed her eyes as she looked at the tree branch. Then, enduring her difort, she extended her hands and grabbed onto the tree branch that was about as thick as three of her fingers. Immediately afterward, she folded it and snapped it off the tree.

 Chapter 364: How a Real Demon King Makes Tools

    Chapter 364: How a Real Demon King Makes Tools


    Although the tree branch was connected to the tree using some special method, the connection wasn''t reinforced in any way. The only protective countermeasure put in ce also only came in the form of a small zap of electricity, and such a small amount of electricity wasn''t even enough to make Alice flinch. So, Alice managed to break off the branch easily.


    The person who had put the tree branch here was probably aware that humans normally wouldn''t intrude on the treants'' territory unless they had a good reason. So, that person didn''t bother putting any powerful protective measures in ce, choosing to only add a simple measure to keep birds from taking the tree branch away.


    "It doesn''t look like anything special. It feels no different than a normal tree branch even when I swing it."


    When Alice swung the tree branch with her left hand, she felt like a little girl ying with tree branches in the countryside. If it wasn''t because she could feel the obvious contaminants from the tree branch, she would have most likely suspected that she had found the wrong target.


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    It should be known that Alice''s current physique was by no means weak. While she might not have the essence of the Hero, a.k.a. the Hero''s Power, she had the talent of a Hero. So, the development of her magic and physique was on par with Heroes. Her body might look like a child''s, but her body''s toughness was most likely on par with human powerhouses like Catherine already.


    Yet, even then, Alice still felt an obvious difort from her left hand. She even had difficulty moving the mana in her left hand. This showed just how powerful the tree branch''s ability to pollute its surroundings was.


    After experimenting with the tree branch''s ability with her left hand, Alice switched to holding it in her right hand.


    [Weapon: Fragmented Demon King''s Power - Pollution Roulette]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +7000, Speed +5000, Mind +7000, Control +5000, Mana +7000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Forbidden Pollution (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by any spiritual attacks and curses. Curses that lower your spiritual power will be reflected to the caster);


    Indestructible Blood (Passive Skill. Gain a Demon King''s aura through the infection of a Demon King''s blood);


    Disguiser (Active Skill. Devour an object. The user or the weapon can be transformed into the devoured object''s size and appearance);


    Law Breaker - Mana (Passive Skill. Continuously release pollutants that will destroy thew concerning mana.)]


    Although Alice had long since expected the pollution source to be an extraordinary item, never did she think it would be a Law-grade weapon. Moreover, going by its name, it was an item created using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. It was an existence simr to "This Is Wrong" and "It''s So Short."


    But obviously, the Demon King who created this Pollution Roulette was much more reliable than Andusia and Miriya Hampar. At the very least, this Demon King had given their weapon a normal-sounding name, so normal that Alice couldn''t help but doubt whether the weapon''s original owner was a Demon King.


    At the same time, Alice couldn''t help but look forward to showing this weapon to Andusia. Andusia would probably die from embarrassment after seeing it. After all, even though she and this unknown Demon King had the same material to work with, the weapons they ended up creating were starkly different.


    Besides that, Alice now knew why this weapon would look like a tree branch. Out of the skills attached, there was a skill called "Disguiser," which could be used to disguise the user or the weapon itself at will. The only precondition was that the weapon would have to devour an object first, and the appearance of the disguise was limited to the devoured object.


    The person who had hidden the Pollution Roulette on top of this towering tree had most likely let the weapon devour one of the tree''s branches. Hence, the Pollution Roulette could hide so seamlessly among the other tree branches.


    After learning about the Pollution Roulette''s Disguiser skill, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if she should feed her power armor to it. That way, she could use Disguiser to disguise herself into a muscr man with a beautiful face without having to physically put on the power armor in the future, giving her a great deal of convenience.


    However, Alice didn''t n to put this idea into practice immediately. The Pollution Roulette''s "Law Breaker - Mana" skill was clearly the cause behind the Kalu Forest''s central region''s pollution. Meanwhile, this skill wasn''t an active skill but a passive skill that would continuously take effect instead. If she couldn''t get rid of this skill, she wouldn''t be able to carry the Pollution Roulette out in the open.


    <em>But this really is unexpected. To think that the essence of this ''pollution'' isn''t just simple environmental pollution, but destruction targeted toward thew concerning mana... This property is quite in line with the Demon King''s Power''s characteristics.</em>


    Originally, Alice was under the assumption that this pollution was rted to toxic gasses, in essence, and it would only cause damage to the mana it came into contact with. She also assumed that this pollution was so difficult to eliminate because the pollutants would embed themselves deeply into the mana particles they contaminate. However...what she didn''t expect was for this pollution to be destroying thew concerning mana and for the contamination of mana to be nothing more than a trivial side effect.


    It was no wonder she felt so greatly diforted when she held the tree branch in her left hand previously. She also understood why she couldn''t manipte the mana in her left hand. It was because the Pollution Roulette was interfering with thew concerning mana.


    As for the demonic organs the demons had evolved to have, they were most likely used to process the iplete mana to make them usable again. If the human realm''s mana was equated to normal files that could be read directly, the demon realm''s mana would be akin to fragmented files that needed additional processing, such as piecing them together, to read normally. Meanwhile, the demons'' unique organs were a type of file processor that could organize these fragmented files into readable files.


    But now that Alice hade to realize the nature of this pollution, she also understood that if she couldn''t eliminate the demon realm''s "pollution" problem, there woulde a day when mana would be destroyedpletely. At that time, the demon realm would lose all ess to the concept of mana, and that would no longer be a situation that could be handled just by growing some new organs.


    <em>At least now I know what the nature of this pollution is. This also means that there should be something simr to this Pollution Roulette hidden somewhere in the demon realm by some person over ten thousand years ago, and that item is directly responsible for causing the demon realm to end up in its current state.</em>


    Alice frowned when she reached this conclusion.


    <em>Could this person be...the First Demon King?</em>


    The more Alice thought about this possibility, the more usible she found it. Like all other Demon Kings, the First Demon King was chosen by the Demon King''s Power because of his hatred toward humanity. In other words, the First Demon King was a person intending to destroy the world. But obviously, there was no conflict between the human and demon realms at the time. Apart from living in different areas, the two races were almost indistinguishable from one another.


    In fact, the two realms'' inhabitants couldn''t even be considered two separate races. Instead, they were all humans.


    Hence, the target of the First Demon King''s hatred at the time was unlikely to be limited to just the human realm''s humans. Instead, his hatred also extended to the demon realm''s "demons." Meanwhile, because of this hatred, he had created a weapon that could pollute half the globe. Specifically, the demon realm.


    From that point onward, due to the deteriorating environment, the demon realm''s desire to invade and conquer the human realm grew. Meanwhile, the First Demon King took advantage of this situation to lead the demon realm''s humans to attack the human realm''s humans, sparking a war that involved the entire world.


    After that, the First Demon King was sealed by the First Hero, and the demon realm''s humans had no choice but to ept the fact of their defeat and continue living in the demon realm. Then, they gradually started to evolve organs that the human realm''s humans did not possess. Afterward, following the First Demon King''s title, the demon realm''s inhabitants named their home the "demon realm" and referred to themselves as "demons," thereby splitting thergest sentient race into two different races, each upying half of the world.


    Of course, these were all conjectures on Alice''s part. Most records rting to the First Demon King and First Hero had already been lost to time, so she couldn''t determine whether her conjectures were on the mark or not. Even so, she had indeed seen a record mentioning that "there was no distinction between humans and demons in the distant past," so there was a possibility that her conjectures might be true.


    <em>Anyway, let''s see what this Pollution Roulette actually looks like.</em>


    After sighing, Alice returned her attention to the tree branch in her hand. She currently had absolute authority over the Pollution Roulette, so not only was she immune to the "Law Breaker - Mana" skill''s pollution effects, but she could also cancel the "Disguiser" skill''s active effect.

 Chapter 365: The Heros Reputation Is Most Likely…

    Chapter 365: The Hero''s Reputation Is Most Likely��


    "I''m back."


    After being released by Alice, the little treant remained in a daze by theke for some time. Then, he hurriedly returned to the settlement and voiced his return so that the other treants didn''t think he had stumbled into theke and drowned.


    It wasn''t strange for a treant to take their time returning after getting a drink from theke, so the other treants in the settlement didn''t think much about the little treant''s slow return. However, when they nced at the returning little treant, they couldn''t help but be startled. This was because they noticed obvious burn marks on the little treant''s head.


    It wasn''t raining currently, so there shouldn''t be any risks of a lightning strike. Temperatures in the Kalu Forest''s central region were also moderate due to the lush foliage here. So, logically, it shouldn''t be possible for the little treant to catch fire.


    Upon seeing this unexpected sight, the other treants immediately tensed up and gathered around the little treant.


    "What happened with your head?" The person who spoke was the oldest treant in the settlement. The old treant had already lived for thousands of years, so unlike the younger treants, he remained rtively calm even after seeing the little treant''s burnt head. Then, in a low voice, he asked, "Did you encounter something while you were getting a drink?"


    "I don''t remember. I only remember drinking from theke. Then, just as I was about to leave, I lost consciousness," the little treant said in a depressing tone. Then, while touching his shrunken and burnt head, he continued, "My head was already like this when I regained my senses."


    "Could this have something to do with the human who came here a few months ago, Elder?" another treant who looked rtively ancient asked as he looked at the oldest treant. Although the treants had a tiny poption, seniority still existed among them. Meanwhile, they regarded the oldest treant as their elder. "Ever since that human appeared, the air and mana in the forest have also seemed to be polluted. Maybe that person is scheming against us."


    The treant elder fell into thought. Although the treants'' "facial features" were only wrinkles on tree bark, his current expression still clearly expressed his confusion and dilemma.


    Going by the current circumstances, it indeed seemed like someone was scheming against them. However, he simply couldn''t think of a good reason anybody would try to scheme against them. The only reason he could think of for anyone to target them was their Living Wood. However, Living Wood didn''t have many practical uses. Apart from letting their race nurture more talented descendants, the only other major purpose Living Wood could be used for was to house souls.


    However, there existed many tools that could be used to house souls. While Living Wood was one of the better ones, it definitely wasn''t the best. There were still many others superior to it in this regard.


    Even in terms of acquisition difficulty, it would be much easier to obtain those superior tools than it would be to acquire Living Wood from their race. So, he found it hard to imagine anyone would be willing to waste so much time and effort to acquire their race''s Living Wood.


    While the treant elder pondered the enemy''s goal, a person suddenly walked out of the nearby forest. The other party did not bother to hide their footsteps or presence, so the treants, sensitive to their surroundings, instantly noticed the other party''s arrival and looked at the other party simultaneously.


    The visitor was a muscr man of the human race. Just by looking at the other party''s robust back and waist, anybody could tell that the man''s body packed frightening strength. Yet, unlike what one would expect, the muscr man did not have a ferocious face. On the contrary, his face was delicate, so much so that others would assume he was a woman if they only got to see his face.


    Of course, all human faces looked more or less the same for the treants. Even so, the other party''s powerful body was still enough to make the treants realize they were dealing with a formidable opponent. Hence, even though the treants didn''t have any favorable feelings toward humans, they didn''t attack this human right away.


    "Who are you? Why have you appeared in our territory? Didn''t the human guards outside tell you that humans allowed entry into this ce?" the treant elder asked, his expression looking a little ugly as he stepped forward and looked at the human male.


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    Because the treants lived a primitive lifestyle, they naturally had no opportunities toe into contact with the inte. Rarely would they even read books. Hence, the treant elder naturally did not know what the human male''s muscr body and beautiful face represented.


    Then, the treant elder added:


    "Or...are you the one who injured Adams?"


    Adams referred to the little treant. However, when the little treant looked at the muscr human, a look of confusion appeared on his face. It was only natural that the little treant didn''t recognize the muscr human since he had never seen the other party before. Setting aside the fact that Alice had wiped the little treant''s memories of his kidnapping, even if Adams''s memories weren''t wiped, he still probably wouldn''t recognize the other party.


    Thest time Alice used her power armor was a few months ago in the Elven Forest. After hearing the treant elder''s questions, Alice, who had disguised herself as the brawny Hero once again, suppressed her voice with mana and responded in a muffled voice:


    "Rx. I hold no ill will towards treants. I am not the one who injured this little treant, either. In reality, this little guy got injured because he identally triggered a mechanism left by the person who intruded on this ce a few months ago."


    Alice naturally wouldn''t turn herself over to the treants. The damage the little treant suffered wasn''t a significant problem for a treant. It couldn''t even be considered a minor injury, as it wouldn''t affect his movement in the slightest. However, if she were to admit to her crimes, it would definitely earn her the treants'' dissatisfaction and make her life much harder. So, Alice chose to me the person who had nted the Pollution Roulette in the Kalu Forest.


    "A mechanism left behind by the person who came here a few months ago?" The treant elder was momentarily stunned when he heard Alice''s words. "So, are you saying the intruder has done something on our territory?"


    "Yes. In fact, it is for this reason I havee here today," Alice said. Upon hearing the treant elder taking the initiative to drop the topic, Alice naturally followed suit and moved on to the main topic. "I''m sure you must have noticed that the air and mana in the area have be polluted recently."


    Going by the little treant''s reaction when she interrogated him, it was evident that the treants had already noticed the change in their living environment.


    "Yes. We have indeed sensed the air and mana bing polluted recently. The pollution has also reduced our absorption efficiency of natural mana significantly, resulting in varying problems with our physical condition," the treant elder said, nodding. "But how can we be sure that you aren''t directing a one-man show? For all we know, you could have created this pollution to ckmail us."


    <em>How perceptive,</em> Alice thought as she looked at the treant elder. However, she didn''t find the other party''s perceptiveness all too surprising. After all, the treant elder must have lived for a very, very long time. If he didn''t even show this much vignce against a stranger, he''d have lived all those years for nothing.


    Fortunately, Alice had more or less expected the treants to show such suspicion toward her. She had also thought of an appropriate countermeasure. Immediately, with her power armor''srge hand, she unsheathed the longsword she carried on her back.


    At the same time, Alice opened a gap in the center of her power armor''s right hand. Then, she slipped her hand through the gap to hold the sword''s hilt. Immediately afterward, a blinding light burst from the longsword, and a tremendous amount of light mana instantly filled the area.


    The divine runes etched on the longsword were clearly visible. Although the treants did not know much about the modern era, there was no way they wouldn''t know about the Hero''s Sword, a weapon that had been passed down over ten thousand years ago.


    "I see... You''re the Hero."


    The treant elder''s expression changed slightly. Because of his bad impression of humans, he naturally didn''t hold much respect for the existence of Heroes. However, he knew that anyone capable of being chosen by God to be a Hero must have a noble soul. He also believed such a noble soul wouldn''t y dirty tricks on him.


    This wasn''t because he trusted humans. Instead, it was because he trusted in God and the legends surrounding Heroes. So, even though he didn''t have favorable feelings towards humans, he didn''t think the Hero would use dirty means to deceive him.

 Chapter 366: Isn’t It Normal for the Hero to Be Rewarded for Her Work?

    Chapter 366: Isn��t It Normal for the Hero to Be Rewarded for Her Work?


    "Are you saying this is where the cause of the pollution is?"


    Taking advantage of the Hero''s reputation, Alice brought the treants to the ce where she found the Pollution Rouletteunder the giant tree in the middle of the Kalu Forest. Then, she told the treants that the source of the pollution was here.


    Although the treants wouldn''t show much respect to Alice simply because she was the Hero, they were still willing to trust her, a "noble" soul chosen by God. Only, even after the treants circled the giant tree for some time, they failed to find anything wrong with it.


    The treants'' ability to sense natural products was superior to even the elves. It was especially true when the target in question was a nt. After all, they were essentially of the same species. Hence, the treants could clearly sense the state of the giant tree. However, apart from the air and mana surrounding the tree being polluted, the only thing that caught their attention about the tree was its weakened vitality. The tree didn''t even seem like it had caught any illnesses.


    Alice already knew that the treants wouldn''t be able to find any clues. So, she walked up to the tree, lightly tapped its trunk, and reverted the Aspect Separation she had used on the Pollution Roulette.


    Immediately, the treants experienced a feeling of incongruity. This was because they suddenly noticed a cor wrapped around the giant tree''s robust trunk. At a nce, it was obvious that this cor wasn''t meant to envelop something as huge as the giant tree''s trunk. However, the cor was extraordinarily flexible, stretching to a point where it could envelop the entire tree trunk.


    Meanwhile, the identity of this cor was none other than the Pollution Roulette. Originally, Alice thought that since Pollution Roulette had a rtively normal name, its appearance would also be normal. However, when she canceled the effects of "Disguiser," what appeared in her hand was yet another item that she couldn''t carry in public.


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    Initially, Alice thought it was a cor meant for pet animals. However, upon closer inspection, Alice found heart patterns engraved around the cor. No matter how she looked at it, the cor didn''t seem like it was a cor meant for pets. Instead, it looked more like an object to raise the intimacy between husband and wife... Although the cor''s appearance wasn''t as striking as "This Is Wrong" and "It''s So Short," it still wasn''t something Alice would dare to carry in public.


    However, upon testing the cor, Alice found that it was very flexible and could be pulled to incredible lengths. At this discovery, she tried to wrap the cor around the trunk of the giant tree and was surprised to learn that it was possible to do so.


    Hence, Alice took advantage of this situation and changed the Pollution Roulette''s concept into the "tree" concept using Aspect Separation. This was why the treants had failed to notice the Pollution Roulette, even when they were looking at it directly. When their senses perceived the Pollution Roulette, their minds would subconsciously assume it was part of the giant tree and ignore its existence.


    "I didn''t think the source of the recent pollution would be hidden right before our eyes. Moreover, we''ve utterly failed to notice it throughout this time. That person must have used some kind of magic to make us ignore this thing."


    When the treant elder suddenly noticed the cor''s existence, he quickly understood what had happened. Evidently, the person who had put this cor on the giant tree had cast some kind of magic to make others ignore the cor''s presence. This led to a situation where they had failed to notice the source of the forest''s recent pollution even though it was ced in such an open location.


    The treant elder grew furious at this realization, his face bing even more wrinkled than usual. Of course, he didn''t think this was a trick yed by Alice. Instead, he ced all of the me on the human who had snuck into their territory three months ago.


    However, it wasn''t exactly wrong to say that Alice had nothing to do with the Kalu Forest''s pollution. After all, she wasn''t the one who had brought the Pollution Roulette here. She had merely moved it to a more conspicuous position so that the treants would have an easier time finding it. She was merely using the opportunity of resolving the Pollution Roulette to ask for a block of Living Wood from the treants.


    If the Pollution Roulette was left to its own devices, it would bring catastrophic consequences to the treants. So, Alice felt that it wasn''t excessive for her to ask for a block of Living Wood in exchange for helping the treants. Moreover, although Living Wood was considered a treasure by the treants, it was by no means unique.


    Of course, some might say that Alice''s was unnecessarily borate, and she could have simply asked the treants for a block of Living Wood. However, considering the treants'' bad impression of humans, Alice felt that if she were to do that, the treants would most likely refuse her request. Rather than take such a risk, Alice decided she would employ a little trick to secure the Living Wood she came for. This would save her the time and effort she would potentially need to waste debating with the treants.


    "This thing exudes a very disturbing aura. Just getting close gives me a suffocating feeling. The mana in my body also bes incredibly sluggish. It seems there''s no mistaking it. This thing is the culprit of the recent pollution."


    After analyzing the Pollution Roulette for some time, the treant elder nodded to Alice and spoke to her in a much more amicable tone. As someone who had lived for thousands of years, he was naturally aware that while the Hero might be a human, the actions of humans destroying the environment to develop their civilization wasn''t something the Hero could stop. Not to mention, the Hero was currently helping them with this problem. So, his attitude toward Alice had naturally changed for the better.


    However, even though the Hero had helped them find the source of the pollution, the treants quickly fell into an awkward predicament. After hesitating for a moment, the treant elder asked Alice:


    "That... Hero, although we know that this thing is the cause of the pollution, how should we remove it?"


    The treant elder had naturally thought of resolving this issue without the Hero''s help. That way, their race could avoid owing the Hero a favor. However, upon experimenting, they found that the cor wrapped around the tree had no openings. It was as if the cor was put on the tree from top to bottom.


    Moreover, even though the cor was very flexible, it was also extremely tough. Even the treant elder, the strongest out of all the treants, failed to damage it in the slightest when he tried to attack it with mana.


    Meanwhile, Alice couldn''t help but sigh at the futility of the treants'' actions. The Pollution Roulette was a bonafide Law-grade weapon. Unlike the panties that were forcibly evaluated as "Artifacts" by her right hand, the Pollution Roulette''s actual abilities matched the rating it received. There was no way the treants would have the strength to destroy a Law-grade weapon.


    Hence, the treants'' inability to destroy the Pollution Roulette was within Alice''s expectations. After seeing the treant elder awkwardly asking her for help, Alice inwardly smiled before following her original n and saying in a gruff voice:


    "The nature of this thing is considerably serious. It feels simr to items found in the demon realm... If we want to take care of it, violence is unlikely to be the solution. Instead, the best solution would be to neutralize its effects."


    The reason Alice hinted that the cor might be an item from the demon realm was so that she would have a reason to intervene in the handling of the cor as the "Hero." As for the matter of "neutralizing" the cor...


    "This item is designed to destroy the mana in the air, causing the affected mana to be iplete. This is the source of the ''pollution.'' So, we need to find something with an opposing nature to neutralize this destructive property," Alice exined. Then, she turned to the treant elder and continued, "For example...something like Living Wood."


    Alice''s words stunned the treant elder. Although he had vaguely realized where the conversation was heading when Alice mentioned the essence of the pollution was the destruction of mana, he still couldn''t help but hesitate a little when Alice mentioned the use of Living Wood.

 Chapter 367: I Am Hikari, and Hikari Is Me

    Chapter 367: I Am Hikari, and Hikari Is Me


    Alice, the Hero, had already helped the treants solve a big problem by uncovering the source of the treant settlement''s pollution. Logically, it would only be a matter of course for the treants to bring out a block of Living Wood to take care of this problem. The treant elder was also well aware of the treants'' behavior toward humans.


    To put it bluntly, the Hero could have simply ignored the treants'' problem instead of going out of her way to help them. After all, their attitude toward humans honestly couldn''t be considered good. They remained distant even toward the Hero. So, the fact that the Hero was willing to help them solve their residence''s pollution problem could already be considered an act of repaying hostility with kindness. There was no reason whatsoever for the Hero to help them for free on top of that.


    Not to mention, Alice had requested the block of Living Wood to use to solve the source of pollution. So, they had even less reason to be stingy with their Living Wood. The Hero had already done them a huge favor by uncovering the pollution source anding up with a solution. They couldn''t possibly ask the Hero to help them think of an alternative solution that didn''t involve the use of Living Wood, right?


    Thinking up to this point, the treant elder sighed. Although he felt reluctant, he had no choice but to supply the Hero with a block of Living Wood to ensure the treants'' living environment remained undisturbed. While Living Mood might allow their race to give birth to future generations with better potential, it wouldn''t matter how talented their descendants were if their living environment was destroyed. It would also be difficult for them to find a new ce to stay.


    Originally, they had nned to use the Gryffin Forest outside the Gryffin Kingdom as a backup residence in case something happened to their residence in the Kalu Forest. However, ording to what they heard from the human guards stationed outside their settlement, nearly half of the Gryffin Forest had disappeared, and severalrge mountains took its ce. So, they had no alternative homes left.


    "Alright, then. Since you are willing to help us, it wouldn''t be right for us to ask for a foot after getting an inch. The least we can do is provide the materials."


    The treant elder let out another sigh. The birth of Living Wood was rare and random. The process of producing Living Wood was by nourishing trees under the aura of treants across long periods of time. In doing so, there was a tiny chance for the covered trees to give birth to an irregrly shaped block of Living Wood in their trunks or branches.


    Currently, there were only four blocks of Living Wood in their stockpile. So, losing even one was a huge loss. However, sacrificing a block of Living Wood could still be worthwhile if they could recover their normal living environment.


    "Here is the Living Wood."


    Under the treant elder''s instruction, a moderately-sized treant went to retrieve a block of Living Wood. The wooden block wasn''t particrlyrge. It was roughly the size of a mobile phone box only, and Alice couldn''t help but suspect that the treants had chosen the smallest block in their stockpile to give her. Fortunately, this block of Living Wood was enough to create another figurine with, so it didn''t matter even if the treants had given her their smallest block. Though, Alice couldn''t help but wonder how the treants would react if they learned that she was going to turn this block of Living Wood into a figurine.


    Although Alice was curious to see the treants'' reaction, she naturally wouldn''t create such trouble for herself. After receiving the Living Wood from the reluctant-looking treant with her left hand, Alice walked up to the Pollution Roulette and pressed the Living Wood against it. Then, she opened a gap in her power armor''s left palm and sneakily slipped it inside.


    From the treants'' perspective, it looked as if Alice had pressed the Living Wood into the Pollution Roulette. Although this feat could be replicated using spatial magic, the use of spatial magic would give off obvious mana fluctuations. However, since the treants didn''t detect any mana fluctuations, Alice managed to sneak a block of Living Wood without anyone being the wiser.


    After putting the Living Wood away, Alice pressed her right hand onto the Pollution Roulette and opened a gap in the power armor''s right palm, letting her real right hande into contact with the Law-grade weapon and regain control over it. Immediately afterward, she expanded the cor and had it fly up and beyond the giant tree. Then, the Pollution Roulette shrunk into a normal-sized cor and descended into Alice''s hand.


    "Do you need this?" Alice asked, smiling as she offered the Pollution Roulette to the treant elder.


    However, the treant elder knew his limits. He knew that he definitely couldn''t keep such a powerful source of pollution under control. So, he hurriedly took two steps back and frantically shook his head:


    "No, no. We can''t handle this thing, so please take it away, Hero."


    Alice had expected such an oue, so she wasn''t surprised by the treant elder''s reaction. After all, the Pollution Roulette might seem harmless for the moment after being "neutralized" by the Pollution Roulette, but it was still a pollution source in essence. Not only did the treants have no use for it, but they also had to worry that it might be active again in the future. There was no way they would dare to keep such a ticking time bomb.


    After nodding and putting the Pollution Roulette away, Alice said to the treant elder, "Since I have already taken care of matters here, I will be taking my leave. I suspect this tool is rted to the demon realm, so I need to head back to investigate further. If I manage to find any important information, I will also return to inform you."


    Alice had said these words to justify her visit to the treant settlement. Her words would imply that she had only visited the treant settlement because she had noticed an item rted to the demon realm. That way, the treants wouldn''t mull over "why the Hero would suddenly appear in the treants'' territory for no reason."


    The treant elder seemingly understood the point Alice was trying to get across. However, he still shook his head and said:


    "We are grateful that you are willing to help us to such an extent, but you don''t have to go out of your way to inform us of any information you find. We do not wish to participate in matters rting to humans and demons."


    It would seem that the treants truly had zero intentions of getting involved with matters outside their settlement. Although Alice had already guessed something like this would happen, she still couldn''t help but inwardly sigh when she heard the treant elder''s response.


    Based on the treants'' previous behavior, Alice could already tell that even though they were aware that a human had snuck into their territory and left a pollution source behind, they never had any intentions of pursuing the matter. In reality, if the treants decided to pursue the matter, the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom would have ced significant importance over it.


    After all, if this situation was mishandled, it could lead to the treants taking revenge on the humans. Even if the treants would eventually fall to the human armies, it would still create a big problem for the two kingdoms. So, the reasonable choice would be to help the treants search for the culprit responsible for the treant settlement''s pollution.


    However, the fact was that the treants had never mentioned this matter to the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom. Otherwise, this incident should have been recorded in Collins'' document.


    Alice shook her head helplessly. Since the treants did not wish to have any involvement with matters outside their settlement, Alice wouldn''t force them to do so. After bidding the treants goodbye, Alice left the settlement by herself. She suspected that the treant elder had already noticed the strangeness in her behavior. The treant elder might have also suspected that the Living Wood wasn''t essential in dealing with the Pollution Roulette. Yet, he never brought up his suspicion and simply had one of his people retrieve a block of Living Wood for her.


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    Honestly, Alice felt that the treants'' way of living would bring terrible consequences to them. Howevershe didn''t have the qualifications to dictate how they should live their lives.


    <em>Let''s just forget about this matter and find someone to carve this Living Wood into Andusia...wait, no, into a Hikari figurine.</em>


    After leaving the treant settlement, Alice dismissed her power armor and held the Living Wood in her left hand.


    <em>Andusia''s been wearing Hikari''s face for so long that I nearly mixed up Andusia and Hikari''s appearances.</em>

 Chapter 368: Nothing to Do

    Chapter 368: Nothing to Do


    With the help of her identity as the Gryffin Kingdom''s princess, Alice quickly got in touch with the figurinepany she wanted. Specifically, it was KG Company. Unlike most other figurine manufacturers that only used stic to manufacture their figurines, KG Company also produced a special line of wooden figurines. Although these figurines were only produced in small quantities due to cost, they were the best figurines in the world in terms of quality.


    Coincidentally, Andusia''s body was also produced by KG Company. Hence, Collins had initially assumed Alice had given Lilith a figurine from KG Company when he saw Andusia. However, because Andusia''s posture differed from all of the Hikari figurines KG Company had produced, he eventually dismissed this conjecture.


    Since KG Company was experienced in making wooden figurines, Alice naturally left the task of carving a new Hikari figurine to thepany. However, instead of handling this matter herself, she sent the Living Wood to Catherine via a teleportation delivery service and had Catherine take care of everything for her. After all, when it came to contactingpanies, Catherine was much more experienced than her.


    At this point, Alice was already close to forgetting that Catherine was the Gryffin Kingdom''s royal guard captain. However, she couldn''t be med for this. Catherine was simply too useful. There were hardly any tasks that could trouble the woman.


    Of course, Alice''s authority also yed a part in Catherine''s omnipotence. Although Catherine already possessed great authority as the kingdom''s royal guard captain, there was still a limit to her authority. However, her work efficiency had improved drastically because she could now use the excuse of "assisting the princess" as well.


    Meanwhile, ording to Catherine''s message, KG Company had already agreed to help Alice make the Hikari figurine. In addition, because it was a request from Catherine, KG Company had promised toplete the figurine within a week while ensuring the figurine''s quality was the best. KG Company also assured Catherine that they would prioritize the safety of the material Alice provided first and foremost.


    Thest part was actually a condition put in by Alice. After all, she only had one block of Living Wood. If it got damaged to the extent that there wasn''t enough material to make a figurine, there''d be no recements. There was no way she could trick the treants into giving her another block of Living Wood. Hence, she had told Catherine to give a reminder to KG Company to take their time and not make any mistakes.


    After outsourcing the figurine manufacturing work, Alice began researching the Pollution Roulette. However, after taking another look at the Pollution Roulette, she couldn''t help but admit that it was indeed an item made using the Demon King''s Power.


    Of course, she didn''t mean it in a good way.


    Despite its normal-sounding name, the Pollution Roulette had a rtively questionable appearance.


    In modern times, it had already be a trendy fashion for people to wear cors. When Alice searched the inte for Sylvia''s images, a few images showed Sylvia and several other gyarus walking together. Meanwhile, every one of them wore a well-designed cor on their neck. When Alice first saw those gyarus in these cors, she had to admit they looked pretty cool.


    However, unlike the cool cors the gyarus wore, the Pollution Roulette was a cor with several heart-shaped patterns decorating it. Their addition to the cor suddenly made it look much sexier. While this didn''t necessarily mean that the cor was meant to be used during bedroom activities, Alice felt that it was a bit too much for her to wear in public.


    <em>Also, this Law Breaker skill is quite troublesome Although I can suppress its destructive properties while holding the cor in my right hand, I can''t dismiss itpletely.</em>


    Alice frowned as she looked at the ck mist radiating from her right hand. When she held the Pollution Roulette in her right hand, she would gain absolute control over it. Hence, she had tried to control its "Law Breaker - Mana" skill.


    Unfortunately, this passive skill was seemingly part of the Pollution Roulette''s "baseline code." While she could influence the skill to minimize its range, she couldn''t dismiss itpletely. So, even now, she could still feel a little instability in her mana. It felt as if this skill could destroy her mana at any moment.


    The good news was that the ambient mana around her remained unaffected. It was only her mana that was affected. If the unsuppressed Law Breaker was working at 100% efficiency, then the current Law Breaker, in its suppressed state, was only working at 10% efficiency. However, this was also as far as Alice could weaken the skill.


    <em>Before I send it to Lacey and Kristine, I think I''ll make use of it onest time.</em>


    Originally, Alice had intended to deliver the Pollution Roulette back to the Gryffin Kingdom together with the Living Wood so that she could let Lacey and Kristine research it. The two had already reached a bottleneck in their research of the demon realm''s air and mana, so the Pollution Roulette might help them achieve a breakthrough.


    Lacey was a senior alchemist, albeit an uncertified one. She possessed an in-depth understanding of the properties of mana and various materials. As for Kristine, she had mastered Psychokinesis Transcendence to a level far higher than Alice had currently, so she could analyze the Pollution Roulette''s internal structure with much better rity. If the Pollution Roulette entered their hands, they could produce much better results than Alice if she researched it by herself.


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    However, Alice decided not to send the Pollution Roulette back for now. This was because she realized that since someone had gone through the trouble of nting the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory, they must have done so with a goal in mind. Moreover, the other party must have some means to keep track of the Pollution Roulette''s location. There was no way they would leave such an important itempletely unattended.


    Since that was the case, Alice decided to keep this thing by her side. For all she knew, the other party might quickly realize that the Pollution Roulette they had hidden in the Kalu Forest had switched locations and take the initiative to look for it. Alice was very interested to learn who had put the Pollution Roulette in the Kalu Forest. After all, this was an item made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence.


    By cing the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory, the other party was essentially trying to recreate the demon realm''s environment in that region. There was no way the other party was simply looking to take revenge on the treants, right? Alice had a hunch that she could uncover some very interesting information.


    However, after deciding on her next step of action, Alice quickly came across another problemthere was nothing for her to do. Not for the time being, at least.


    Currently, Alice had three immediate matters she needed to take care of:


    Recovering Andusia from the nefarious Lilith''s clutches.


    Finding the thief who stole the book Demon King''s Shadow.


    Uncovering the culprit responsible for nting the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory.


    For the first matter, there was nothing Alice could do but wait for KG Company toplete Andusia''s recement. For the second matter, Alice also could do nothing but wait for Sylvia to finish her investigations into the thieving industry. For the third matter, Alice, likewise, could only wait for the culprit to find her.


    All three matters required Alice to practice her patience. So, all of a sudden, Alice found herself with free time.


    <em>The figurine is going to take a week. Sylvia''s side will also take a week at a minimum. As for thest guy, who knows when he''lle knocking on my door</em>


    Alice scratched her head awkwardly. She didn''t think she would suddenly run out of things to do.


    Eventually, Alice sighed and stood up from her bed. Then, she walked to her desk, plopped her butt down on the chair, turned on herputer, andstarted ying an online game.


    There was no helping it. While ying games might seem like a waste of time, Alice truly couldn''t think of anything else to do. Although she wanted nothing more than to be done with the Rhine Kingdom''s troublesome affairs as soon as possible, the only thing she could do now was waste time while waiting for clues to arrive.


    <em>Hopefully, Sylvia''s side can bring me some good news Although my instincts tell me that the book thief is rted to the person trying to collude with the demons, it is, at the end of the day, only a conjecture.</em>


    When Alice saw her game''s login interface, the Pollution Roulette suddenly appeared in her mind again.


    <em>Speaking of which, the Pollution Roulette also has something to do with the Demon King... Could it also be rted to those two other matters?</em>

 Chapter 369: When Will Alice Start Learning How to Read Memories?

    Chapter 369: When Will Alice Start Learning How to Read Memories?


    "Alice! I just received news from Sylvia!"


    After Alice idled around in her home for three days, Lilith called her and brought her a surprising piece of news.


    "She found a thief whose mana matches perfectly with the mana in that crystal of yours. Moreover, that thief had indeed visited Icarus City several months ago."


    This situation surprised Alice. Originally, Alice thought the first party to bring her good news would be KG Company and that Sylvia would only be done with her investigation sometimeter. She didn''t think that Sylvia would produce results in only four days.


    Of course, this wasn''t exactly an impossible situation, either. Unlike manufacturing a figurine, Sylvia''s investigation was partly reliant on luck. If she was really lucky, the first person she investigated might even be the thief they were looking for. So, it wasn''t out of the question for Sylvia to find their target using only four days.


    It was also unlikely that Sylvia had found the wrong person. Identification based on mana fluctuations in this world worked roughly the same as identification via fingerprints back on Earth. Like fingerprints, it was highly unlikely for people to have simr mana fluctuations. So, the person Sylvia found was most likely the thief who stole the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>. Not to mention, the other party had visited Icarus City around the time the book was stolen.


    After ending her call with Lilith, Alice received a documented report from Lilith via LINK. The report was the information Sylvia had gathered after finding the target. However, the report didn''t only contain the target''s cover identity in the Thieves Guild. Sylvia had also dug out the target''s real identity.


    Although thieves typically kept their personal information well hidden, Lilith had many thieves working under her. So, uncovering the identity of a thief was a rtively easy task for her. It was especially so when the thief in question had a loose lip. ording to the report, the thief had the disposition to be talkative once he had a little alcohol.


    "Cat, a 32-year-old male, is your average programmer, and behaves humbly at work. The only bad habit he has is his fondness for alcohol. Moreover, he doesn''t hold his alcohol very well..."


    Alice looked at the photo disyed on herputer. The photo was of a neatly-shaven middle-aged man in a suit. This should be a photo taken for certification purposes. No matter how Alice looked at the photo, the other party was just your average middle-aged working ss. He did not look like someone who''d be working in the shadows as a thief.


    However, the report also showed plenty of evidence of his activities as a thief. Among them included some oveps between his normal business trips and thief activities. His bank ount would also see unidentified funds appearing in it frequently. All of these pointed to Cat being a very active thief.


    Most importantly, Sylvia found that several months ago, severalrge sums of money had entered Cat''s bank ount. Yet, when she tried to trace the origins of these funds, she was immediately met with a dead end. She couldn''t even see the exact amounts of the transfers themselves. She could only determine the total amount by subtracting the amount of money Cat had in his ount before and after the transfers.


    It was evident that whoever hired Cat to steal the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> had made use of their influence to erase all records of their fund transfers to prevent others from tracking them down. Moreover, this person should possess a great deal of influence in the Rhine Kingdom. After all, Sylvia had Lilith backing her. Yet, she still failed to find any clues about Cat''s employer.


    Because of these untraceable funds, Canlet''s suspicion of being the thief responsible for stealing the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> was infinitely increased. At this point, Sylvia was almost certain he was the thief they were looking for. Only, going by his actions, it didn''t seem like he had the book on him. Instead, he had probably already handed the book over to whoever had employed him to steal it.


    "We currently suspect this might be rted to some of the kingdom''s nobles. If these nobles are looking to overthrow my father and take the throne for themselves, it makes sense they would do all these things."


    The first few people toe under Lilith''s suspicion were the Rhine Kingdom''s nobles. No matter the world, human ambition would never stop. Meanwhile, if some of the Rhine Kingdom''s nobles were trying to overthrow the king, it''d make sense they would try to collude with the demons and steal a powerful taboo to strengthen theirbat power.


    When Alice heard Lilith''s conjecture, her first thought was to wonder if some nobles had truly banded together to take over the Rhine Kingdom. However, upon closer thought, she felt that something was amiss with this situation.


    The attempt to collude with the demons, the theft of the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>, and the cement of the Pollution Roulette. When Alice linked all three of these matters together, she couldn''t help but get the feeling that if the mastermind behind these events were the same person, rather than say that the other party''s goal was a coup, it felt more like the other party was aiming forthe demons?


    The other party had tried to lure the demons into the human realm, stole a taboo book that could create a Demon King, and set up a device capable of creating a polluted environment simr to that of the demon realm. No matter how Alice looked at it, most of these behaviors did not seem like something a person would do if they were only looking to overthrow the king. Instead, these behaviors had more to do with the demons and Demon Kings.


    <em>It''d be great if Andusia were here. I could have asked for her opinion on this matter,</em> Alice thought, scratching her head in frustration. As luck would have it, the next two days would be the weekend, so Lilith didn''t need to attend sses. With Lilith''s otaku personality, she would likely spend most of her weekend cooped up at home. So, Alice couldn''t sneak into Lilith''s house to talk to Andusia, either.


    Anyway, since Lilith suspected that it might be the nobles'' doing, Alice decided not to say anything about it. After all, Alice didn''t really have a good reason to refute Lilith''s conjecture. Not to mention, Lilith would be the one doing all of the investigating since this matter concerned the Rhine Kingdom''s nobles.


    "Can you apprehend that thief? I want to ask him a few questions in person," Alice asked. Since she had to wait a few more days before she could talk to Andusia about her suspicions, she decided to look for more clues for the time being.


    "You want to ask him questions? I''m afraid you''re not going to get a lot of useful information. Thieves mainly do business through the Thieves Guild, and rarely would they meet their employers face to face. They also won''t ask any questions that aren''t directly rted to theirmissions," Lilith said. "Moreover, there is a chance that he might reveal false information to fool us. So, asking him questions might end up negatively affecting our investigation."


    "You don''t have to worry about this. I have a way to make him speak the truth," Alice said, chuckling. She might not be able to read or urately modify memories, but she could nt instructions such as "do not lie for the next several minutes" into Cat''s memories.


    The human mind was like a program, while memories were encoded codes. Although Alice couldn''t understand any of these encoded codes, she could stuff unencoded codes directly into a person''s memory code, and the person''s mind would process these codes nheless.


    So, even if Alice didn''t know how to read memory codes or encode the codes she wrote, she could still rely on unencoded codes to achieve simple controls.

 Chapter 370: Yet, Its Useless

    Chapter 370: Yet, It''s Useless


    Lilith''s work efficiency was high, as expected. Even though she wasn''t an heir to the throne, she still wielded considerable authority in the Rhine Kingdom as the princess. Moreover, Cat, her target this time, was only an ordinary working-ss citizen on paper. So, when Lilith abused her authority and mobilized the police to apprehend him, there was nothing he could do to resist.


    Of course, if Cat was willing to go all out, he could utilize the skills he developed as a thief to escape from the police who had apprehended him. However, if he did that, his name would definitely be added to the Rhine Kingdom''s wanted list for the rest of his life. That wasn''t something he wanted, so he obediently let himself be arrested.


    It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from /37k7u89t.


    Before he was arrested, Cat had tried to find out what crimes he hadmitted from the officers. If he were to be honest, he truly didn''t know who he had offended. However, after being brought to Icarus City and seeing Sylvia, Lilith, and Alice walking into the interrogation room the next day, he quickly understood what led to his arrest.


    Although Cat didn''t recognize Sylvia, he recognized Lilith''s and Alice''s faces. It was a standard for active thieves to stay updated on popr information. With Lilith and Alice being the princesses of the Rhine Kingdom and the Gryffin Kingdom, Cat had naturally memorized their faces.


    For the Rhine Kingdom''s princess to look for him personally, it went without saying that he hadmitted a severe crime that even the royal family had to take it seriously. Meanwhile, if they were talking about a crime of such severity, the only thing that came to Cat''s mind was his theft of the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>.


    However, Cat was still a little confused. He was certain he had already performed Traceless at the crime scene. Even if the police realized that Traceless was used at the crime scene, it shouldn''t be enough for them to single him out as the culprit. After all, although most thieves had already abandoned the use of Traceless, there were still many thieves who knew how to use it.


    So, just how did the police determine that he was the culprit?


    Cat probably wouldn''t have ever thought that what exposed him was a toy hidden in a nearby children''s book. While Traceless could erase all residues left behind by people, it couldn''t erase the mana used to cast the it. It was simr to how an eraser was incapable of erasing any handwriting on itself.


    "You must be wondering how we found you, right?" Lilith asked as she sat on the chair opposite Cat and looked at the office worker, who was restrained by a pair of magic handcuffs. At first nce, Lilith honestly couldn''t tell she was looking at a thief.


    "Is it because of the taboo I stole?"


    Cat knew that he was already caught red-handed. Although a thief who would rat out their employers would have great difficulty finding any more work through the Thieves Guild, if he continued to resist, he might not be stepping out of this interrogation room today.


    While public opinion on Princess Lilith and Princess Alice was considerably positive, with someizens even shamelessly dering things such as "Alice is my wife," Cat wasn''t so foolish to believe they were as angelic as they were described to be. The two girls were members of their respective kingdoms'' royal families, after all. For people of such high standings, they absolutely wouldn''t be afraid of taking the lives of others.


    "It''s good that you know. Well, out with it, then. Who hired you to steal the book <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>? This is a taboo that can be used to summon a Demon King. Who gave you the courage to steal such a dangerous item?"


    Lilith mmed the table before her with her hand, making an imposing interrogation posture. From an outsider''s perspective, Lilith''s actions did not look intimidating in the slightest. On the contrary, it looked a little funny. However, Cat, who knew about Lilith''s identity and the crime he hadmitted, broke out in cold sweat when he saw Lilith''s actions.


    Even so, Cat did not open his mouth right away. Instead, he remained silent as he pondered whether he could use false information to deceive Lilith and Alice.


    Cat dared to do such a thing because he knew about the confidentiality of the Thieves Guild''s inte.


    Because the developers of the Thieves Guild''s inte had already died, there was no real administrator of thework. Meanwhile, thework was set to keep all of its information thoroughly sealed. Unless the two parties involved in amission chose to share the contents of themission with others, no third party would be able to see it.


    Hence, even if Cat provided Lilith and Alice with false information, he was confident that nobody could tell whether his words were true or false.


    "You bastard. Don''t tell me you''re thinking of making up information to deceive us?" Lilith was an astute person. Since she had managed to convince so many talented people to work for her, she naturally wasn''t just a simple otaku. So, when she saw Cat staying silent after hearing her question, she immediately realized what was going through the other party''s mind. "I guess it makes sense. After all, you epted themission through the Thieves Guild. Even if you give us false information, we won''t have any means to verify itis what you thought, right?"


    Cat''s heart convulsed several times. He indeed had such thoughts. Only, he didn''t think that Lilith would see through his thoughts so quickly. This further reaffirmed his notion that members of royalty couldn''t be underestimated.


    Of course, even though Lilith had guessed his thoughts, Cat doubted the Rhine Princess had any means of verifying his words. So, his n remained unchanged. Even if Lilith suspected his words, he would simply insist on the false information he provided. In such a situation, the only thing the princess could do was to release him. Unless, of course, the princess decided to abuse her authority and keep him detained regardless of whether he spoke or not.


    Of course, Cat had also considered telling the truth to protect himself. However, he was well aware that if he told the truth, the repercussions he would suffer afterward would be even worse than what Lilith could do to him. At that time, he might not even be able to keep his life, let alone continue operating in the thieving industry.


    "Hmph. Forget it. Even if you reveal false information, I don''t have any ways to verify it," Lilith said, frowning when she saw Cat''s expression. Then, she turned to Alice and continued, "Alice, you said you have a way to keep him from lying. Hurry up and make your move."


    <em>Keep me from lying?</em>


    Cat was stunned. The first things that came to his mind when he heard Lilith''s words were truth serums and spirit magic. Truth serums existed in this world, and they were a type of potion that carried properties of spirit magic. They were simr to high-level spirit magic. With the influence and authority of the royal family, it was indeed possible for Alice to get her hands on some.


    However, Cat did not panic. This was because he had long since prepared for such a situation. Specifically, he had embedded a bone that could protect him from spirit magic into his body. He had paid a lot of money to have a senior alchemist make this bone, and it could render him immune to most spirit spells. Its effects could rival even the expensive Ring of Divine Wisdom.


    So, if he was fed a truth serum or had a spirit spell cast on him, he could simply pretend that the truth serum or spirit spell had taken effect and say the false information he had prepared.


    Just when Cat thought he hade up with the perfect escape n, he suddenly noticed Alice looking at him. Then


    Cat didn''t know what happened next.

 Chapter 371: Sylvia: I Must Be Overthinking Things

    Chapter 371: Sylvia: I Must Be Overthinking Things


    "Is this spirit magic?"


    Lilith was a little surprised when she saw Cat''s expression suddenly turning dull. Afterward, she stood up, got closer to Cat, and waved her hand before the man''s eyes. Then, after failing to get a reaction, she balled up her hand, pulled back her fist, and swung a fierce punch at Cat''s face. However, just before her fist made contact with the thief''s face, she suddenly stopped.


    The average person would have long since shut their eyes out of instinct when faced with such a situation. However, Cat remained motionless, showing no intentions of closing his eyes even when Lilith had swung a fist at him. It was only after Lilith''s fist had stopped in front of his face for a moment did his eyes blink out of necessity.


    Alice had only used Consciousness Transformation to manipte Cat''s consciousness and stop him from putting up any resistance. She did not try to stop his physiological functions, such as blinking and breathing. After all, her goal wasn''t to kill him.


    Of course, Alice had also noticed that when she used Consciousness Transformation on Cat, her taboo had met with a little obstruction. It would seem that even though the police had searched and confiscated his personal belongings, Cat still had a tool hidden on him that functioned to protect him from spirit magic.


    Unfortunately, simr to Sylvia''s Ring of Divine Wisdom, such tools were only powerful enough to defend against spirit magic under the taboo level. So, Alice easily broke through the defenses of Cat''s tool and invaded Cat''s spirit, causing him to lose consciousness temporarily.


    After depriving Cat of his consciousness, Alice added the brute-forcemand of "You cannot lie for the next ten minutes" to the end of Cat''s memory code. She didn''t need to ask the thief many questions, so ten minutes were more than enough for her to get the information she wanted.


    Alice also didn''t n to nt amand such as "You cannot lie from now on." After all, Cat was only doing his job. Cat might have to do some jail time because of his theft of a taboo book, but he would be released from prison sooner orter. If he couldn''t lie for the rest of his life, he''d probably have no way of working as a thief anymore.


    After nting themand in Cat''s mind, Alice released her control over Cat''s consciousness. Immediately, Cat snapped out of his daze. Then, seemingly realizing he had been controlled using spirit magic just now, he revealed a horrified expression as he looked at Alice:


    "What did you do to me?"


    "Let''s give it a test." Alice did not answer Cat''s question. Instead, she looked at the thief and asked, "The police should have searched you when they arrested you. Logically, apart from your clothes, you shouldn''t have anything else on you. Yet, I could feel a clear resistance when I cast my magic on you just now Do you have a magic tool on you that can stop spirit magic? If so, what is it?"


    There was no way Cat would dare to tell the truth. He was well aware that there was no way to avoid a prison sentence now that he had been arrested. Meanwhile, if the authorities learned that there was a magic tool within his body, they''d definitely retrieve it before they sent him to prison.


    This meant that he would need to have a bone retrieved from his body, and that was not something Cat wished to experience. Anyway, the magic bone was designed with powerful concealment properties. So long as he refused to speak, there was no way the average police officer could find it.


    Unfortunately, despite Cat''s thoughts, the subsequent words that came out of his mouth clearly went against his wishes:


    "There''s a ''Scar Eating Bone'' I asked an alchemist to make for me in the middle phnx of my right hand. It can resist most spirit spells and curses. I had it imnted in me four years ago in Homier City, and it cost me roughly seven years of my sry. If I hadn''t been saving for my retirement fund, I would have probably gone bankrupt after getting this imnt."


    After saying so, Cat''splexion turned pale white. He had no idea what had just happened. He had originally thought to say that he didn''t have any magic tools on him. Yet, just as he was about to speak, a strong desire to speak the truth appeared within him. Then, he started bbering everything about his Scar Eating Bone.


    Cat was no fool. No fool couldst in the thieving industry for such a long time. So, he immediately realized that Alice had used spirit magic on him.


    When Sylvia saw Cat''s panicked look from the side, she fell into thought for a moment. For some reason, she had an inexplicable feeling that she had experienced a simr situation previously. Yet, when she looked back at her memories, she couldn''t remember ever encountering such a situation before.


    The Ring of Divine Wisdom she wore could protect her against most spirit spells. Moreover, she would rarely ever take it off her finger. As a result, she had never been affected by spirit magic since she acquired the ring.


    <em>I must be overthinking things.</em> Sylvia shook her head and tossed the strange thought out of her mind. Then, she looked at Alice and said, "Your Highness Alice, please hurry and get into the main topic. We have arrested him without any evidence, so it''s best if we get done with this situation as quickly as possible."


    While it was true they had a magic crystal that could point out that Cat was the person who stole <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em>, it wasn''t something that could be used as actual evidence. Hence, Lilith''s action of having the police arrest Cat was, in reality, an act of overstepping her authority.


    It might be fine if they only apprehended Cat for a short time. However, if things get dragged out, others might start to take notice. It''d be especially bad if the royal family''s political rivals learned about Lilith''s abuse of her authority. Hence, Sylvia had urged Alice to get onto business quickly.


    As for how they would deal with Cat afterward, it would be simple. Now that Cat was forced to speak the truth because of Alice, all they needed to do was get him to confess to his crimes. Then, they''d be able to convict him.


    "I''ll get straight to the point, then," Alice said, nodding. Then, she looked to Cat and asked, "Cat, while you might have conducted most of your transaction with your employer through the Thieves Guild''s inte, you should have met with your employer or their proxy to discuss the finer details of themission, right? In that case, tell us who you met during the discussion. Judging by your anxious look, you should know the other party''s identity, right? Moreover, they''re probably of high stature."


    "The other party is indeed in a very high position, so much so that I don''t dare to offend him in the slightest," Cat said, albeit reluctantly. Unfortunately, he still couldn''t suppress the urge to speak the truth despite his reluctance. "The person I met is Gunst Briankenthe Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain."

 Chapter 372: I Answer My Own Questions

    Chapter 372: I Answer My Own Questions


    "What? Did you say Gunst?!"


    The person most shocked by Cat''s answer was naturally Lilith. Alice was an outsider, so she didn''t have any close ties to the Rhine Kingdom''s important figures. However, Lilith was the Rhine Kingdom''s princess. When she learned that the mastermind was someone she was actually acquainted with, she would naturally be shocked.


    This would be akin to how Alice would feel if she learned that Catherine was a traitor to the Gryffin Kingdom. Actually, the shock and sense of betrayal Lilith experienced might be even more severe. After all, Alice had only known Catherine for a few months. However, Catherine, who had lived her entire life as the Rhine Kingdom''s princess, should have known Gunst, the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain, for a very long time. She might have even known him since childhood.


    Lilith wasn''t the only one shocked by this revtion, Sylvia, who stood beside Lilith, also revealed a look of disbelief. Judging by the two''s reactions, it would seem that neither had ever thought of the possibility that the person behind the Demon King''s Shadow''s theft could be the person named Gunst Brianken.


    "Why would Gunst do such a thing? His main focus is on magic swordsmanship, so he shouldn''t be able to practice a spell like Demon King''s Shadow... Most of the royal guards are also meleebatants who practice magic swordsmanship. So, even if he wants to give it to his subordinates to learn, he can''t find any suitable candidates," Sylvia said with a frown. Then, she looked to Lilith and continued, "Or maybe his goal in stealing the book isn''t to learn the taboo but as a token of sincerity instead? After all, a taboo that can be used to summon a Demon King should be of great interest to the demons."


    "The demons... That is indeed possible. If Gunst is the mastermind behind the book''s theft as well as the person trying to contact the demons and trying to usurp the throne, it makes sense he would try to use Demon King''s Shadow as a token of sincerity," Lilith said with her head lowered, looking like she experiencing a headache. "Moreover, Gunst also has the qualifications to usurp the throne. That guy is trusted by my father and wields considerable authority in the kingdom''s army. He might have even secretly taken control over the army and has long since prepared to start a rebellion."


    ording to Sylvia''s and Lilith''s statements, Alice gathered that they believed the royal guard captain named Gunst Brianken was mostly preparing to start a rebellion. Hence, he had stolen the Demon King''s Shadow book to give to the demons as a sign to show his sincerity in partnering with them.


    However, after pondering over the two''s theory for a moment, even though the theory sounded reasonable. Alice couldn''t help but feel that something was amiss.


    Using the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book as a sign of sincerity? From the perspective of humans, this would indeed look reasonable. But what if they looked at things from the demon''s perspective?


    Alice had spent some time in the demon realm as a "Demon King" and conversed with the Four Heavenly Kings. Hence, she was somewhat knowledgeable about the demon realm''s situation. Would the demons be interested in the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book? Alice felt that the possibility was very low.


    After all, since the taboo''s creation until now, nobody had ever managed to cast it sessfully. From what Alice had heard, Demon King''s Shadow''s principles were far moreplex than even Dragon''s Shadow. Moreover, she had also seen an interesting topic rting to the taboo''s thesis in Mador''s report.


    ording to the thesis, the taboo Demon King''s Shadow might be a kind of summoning magic that was designed to summon the shadow of the Tenth Demon King Fogallo Fold, but it could also be deconstructed and modified into a kind of possession magic.


    Using arge amount of demon mana as a medium, one could convert this taboo meant to "summon the Tenth Demon King''s shadow" into a taboo that "attaches the power of the Tenth Demon King to the caster." However, this modification was only mentioned as a possibility. No in-depth research was ever conducted on this matter.


    Anyway, Demon King''s Shadow might be a taboo that could summon a Demon King, but the summoned Demon King would only be a shell that didn''t actually possess thebat capabilities of a real Demon King. At most, it would have the physical parameters of a real Demon King. It was just like Dragon''s Shadow. Even though Dragon''s Shadow could be used to create a dragon, the dragon created would only possess the physical qualities of a real dragon. It couldn''t use draconic magic. Meanwhile, what use would the demons have for the shell of a Demon King?


    In a fight with the Hero, such a shell would probably be rendered useless after eating one or two taboos from the Hero. So, how much could the demons possibly yearn for such a taboo? Wouldn''t it be much better to learn the lessplex Dragon''s Shadow?


    <em>Then, does that mean this Gunst fellow has researched a way to modify Demon King''s Shadow into a possession-type taboo? </em>Alice thought with a frown. If Gunst Brianken wasn''t trying to use Demon King''s Shadow to summon a Demon King but to use it as a possession spell to gain the Demon King''s Shadow''s strength instead, things would be a little troublesome.


    Between a Demon King''s Shadow that was incapable of using magic and could only fight with its physical body and a royal guard captain who could use magic and had gained all of a Demon King''s Shadow''s strength and mana, thetter obviously posed a greater threat. In fact, it wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that thetter was a true Demon King. Meanwhile, this was a scenario Alice absolutely could not allow to happen.


    "But speaking of which, I don''t think Gunst has any authority to intervene in the banking system." While Alice wondered if Gunst had truly found a way to modify Demon King''s Shadow into a possession-type spell, Sylvia suddenly brought up a new problem. "Only the finance minister should have the authority to do such a thing Could Gunst have already won over the finance minister?"


    "That shouldn''t be the case There haven''t been any interactions between the finance minister and Gunst recently. I have always kept a close eye on the various nobles. If Gunst has had any close interactions with the finance ministers, I would have definitely been informed," Lilith said, shaking her head.


    Ever since she discovered that someone was trying to involve the demons in the Rhine Kingdom''s royal affairs, she had started surveilling the various important individuals in the kingdom. Although she couldn''t say that her surveince was perfect, her subordinates were at leastpetent enough to notice if their marks were showing suspicious activity, such as suddenly interacting closely with one another.


    "Hey, why did several transaction records from your bank ount get erased?" After hearing that Gunst and the finance minister hadn''t been in close contact, Sylvia threw a question to the pitiful Cat. "Did Gunst tell you what he did?"


    "I really don''t know anything about that," Cat said, shaking his head with a dejected look on his face. Alice''smand not to lie remained in his mind, so he truly didn''t know how his bank records were erased.


    Although Gunst wielded considerable authority in the military, he couldn''t interfere with the country''s financial aspects. Not to mention, Cat''s bank records were erased so cleanly that not even Lilith''s hackers and thieves could find any clues. This showed that someone of great authority had directly deleted the records from the source.


    The finance minister naturally had the authority to do such a thing. However, if the finance minister hadn''t had any close contact with Gunst, the likelihood of the two working together was very small. In that case, aside from Gunst, who else could get the finance minister to do such a thing? Or, who else had authority equal to or greater than the finance minister?


    Thinking up to this point, Alice suddenly realized a problem. She had seemingly gotten trapped in her previous misconception and subconsciously assumed that the mastermind''s goal was the Rhine Kingdom''s throne.


    However, based on her recent suspicions, the mastermind''s goal might not be the throne in reality. Instead, it looked more like the mastermind was targeting the demons. If she considered the condition needed to modify Demon King''s Shadow into possession magic


    In that case, the mastermind''s true goal was to acquire the Demon King''s strength through the Demon King''s Shadow taboo. Meanwhile, to achieve this goal, the mastermind would first need arge amount of demon mana.


    In the human realm, it was obviously impossible to find therge number of demons needed to modify the Demon King''s Shadow taboo. So, to rectify this problemthe mastermind had chosen to use the throne as bait to trick the demon spy. Then, under the guise of "partnering with the demons," the mastermind would be able to trick arge number of demons into the human realm. To make the partnership believable and ensure that his n seeded, the mastermind had even gone as far as to provide a safe route for the demons to enter the human realm


    If Alice thought about things this way, the Rhine Kingdom''s throne would no longer be the mastermind''s goal but bait instead. In that case, she could further expand her list of suspects and include people unlikely to try to usurp the throne. Then, after taking into ount factors such as the suspect having authority equal to or greater than the finance minister and having the authority tomand Gunst, the kingdom''s royal guard captain, to do his bidding There was only one person Alice could think of who matched these requirements.


    <em>King Haydn</em>


    Alice''s expression sank a little.

 Chapter 373: So, This Is a Thief?

    Chapter 373: So, This Is a Thief?


    Of course, if Alice followed her new theory that the mastermind''s goal wasn''t actually to usurp the throne, then King Haydn''s suspicion would shoot through the roof. However, Alice couldn''t simply say that King Haydn was the mastermind without concrete evidence, either. This was because she still had a few questions guing her.


    Firstly, what was King Haydn''s motive in obtaining the Demon King''s power? Unlike the demon realm, the human realm''s inhabitants did not choose their leaders based on strength. Instead, humans chose talented politicians to lead them. Meanwhile, King Haydn was undoubtedly a good king, and there didn''t seem to be a need for him to seek great strength.


    Secondly, why did King Haydn try to pollute the treants'' territory? If Alice was right in her guess, the mastermind behind the attempted collusion with the demons should also be the culprit behind the treant settlement''s pollution. In that case, what could King Haydn possibly gain from polluting the treants'' living environment?


    Lastly, did King Haydn ever consider the consequences of his actions? After all, if his actions were to get discovered, he would drag the entire Rhine Kingdom down with him. There was no way the other human kingdoms would allow such a traitorous kingdom to remain in the human realm.


    It was also because of these concerns that Alice didn''t bring up her suspicion of King Haydn to Lilith. King Haydn was currently the Rhine Kingdom''s king and Lilith''s father. If she voiced her suspicion, she might hurt Lilith''s feelings.


    Alice had a rather favorable impression of Lilith. The girl had done her best to help her with many things. So, Alice didn''t wish to sour Lilith''s rtionship with her father without concrete evidence.


    Sylvia and Lilith did not notice the changes in Alice''s expression. They also didn''t point their suspicion toward King Haydn like Alice. After all, they didn''t have as much information as Alice, and neither could they think from the demons'' perspective. So, after the two held a simple discussion, they set Gunst Brianken, the kingdom''s royal guard captain, as their new target.


    Alice did not disagree with this oue. She felt it would be a good idea to let Lilith investigate Gunst. If they looked deep enough, they might shift their investigation toward King Haydn. This would save Alice from bing the bringer of bad news.


    "Since we now know the mastermind, what should we do with this guy?" Lilith asked as she pointed at Cat. Although Alice never expressed her opinion throughout their discussion, since she never voiced any objections, Lilith took Alice''s silence as an acknowledgment of their decision to investigate Gunst. "Should we kill him?"


    Although many of Cat''s previous assumptions were incorrect, there was one thing he had assumed correctlyLilith, a member of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family, was not a soft-hearted person. If the situation called for it, she could be a ruthless person. Otherwise, someone as strong as Kurse wouldn''t have chosen to follow Lilith and work as her bodyguard. Thieves like Sylvia wouldn''t have agreed to serve a weak and indecisive princess, either.


    Not to mention, Cat wasn''t just someone who had stolen the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book. He had also heard about many things. Although thieves were known to keep their personal information tightly guarded, they had a very loose lip when it came to other information. Nobody could tell if Cat would share the information surrounding the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book and Gunst Brianken to the whole world as soon as they released him.


    While it wasn''t good to kill people, once Gunst''s actions got exposed, they would have a huge impact on the kingdom. It might even cause Gunst to start his rebellion ahead of time. If that happened, many lives would be lost. If she could stop such a tragedy, Lilith was prepared to carry out an unjust punishment on Cat.


    There was no helping it. Lilith couldn''t think of any other way to prevent Cat from leaking information. There was no way she could trust him to keep quiet, either. She was well aware of how thieves were. Sylvia, too, was well aware of this.


    It should be known that the thieves working under Lilith were put through multiple screenings before they were recruited. Even then, they still had to be checked frequently. So, an unsupervised thief like Cat was very unreliable.


    "No! Spare me! I was only working for someone else! I''m not the mastermind of this matter!" Cat was greatly frightened by Lilith''s words. Although he had long known that members of the royal family weren''t saints, he still couldn''t help but panic upon hearing that he was going to be killed. "I-I''ve already told you everything about my employer! Can''t you just spare me?!"


    "How do you intend on handling the information you just learned, then?" Sylvia casually asked as she sent Cat a nce.


    "I am naturally going to sell it to people interested in it. The Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain nning a rebellion is big news."


    Only five minutes had passed since Alice nted themand not to lie in Cat''s mind. So, even though Cat wanted to swear that he absolutely wouldn''t share this information with others, his true thoughts ended uping out of his mouth.


    Meanwhile, as soon as Cat finished speaking, despair colored his face. He knew that it was very unlikely he could get away this time. Even until now, he still couldn''t figure out why the Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice would know how to cast a spirit taboo.


    Spirit magicians were rtively rarepared to other types of magicians. As a result, the chances of a spirit magician capable of using spirit taboos appearing were very low, and one wouldn''t necessarily see such a great magician appearing once every several decades.


    Currently, out of all the known spirit magicians in the human realm, only one was capable of casting spirit taboos. However, he was an old man in his nies and served as the honorary director of a mental hospital in the Ymir Kingdom. No matter how Cat looked at it, there shouldn''t be any corrtions between that old man and Alice.


    "I knew it."


    Sylvia smiled. She herself was a thief, so she knew "wild" thieves who didn''t belong to any particr organization were very fond of selling information. It was especially true when this information was of great value and importance. She''d be a fool to believe that Cat could keep such an important secret.


    The only reason Cat didn''t dare reveal Gunst''s identity to Lilith previously was because he was afraid of death. However, evidently, Lilith''s deterrence wasn''t as powerful as Gunst''s. He also didn''t have to worry about suffering any consequences from the Thieves Guild so long as he didn''t reveal any information about Gunst''smission. Hence, Cat immediately started to have thoughts that he shouldn''t have after learning that Lilith was investigating a possible rebellion led by Gunst.

 Chapter 374: So, Lilith Is a Sensible Fangirl?

    Chapter 374: So, Lilith Is a Sensible Fangirl?


    How Lilith intended to deal with Cat was outside of Alice''s knowledge. Alice guessed that Cat''s fate would probably depend on Lilith''s mood. If Lilith was in a bad mood, she might just execute him and be done with him. If she was in a good mood, she might find a spirit magician to erase his memories and release him.


    Lilith was already made aware of the "Scar Eating Bone" hidden in Cat''s finger. So long as she had that bone removed, any capable spirit magician would have no trouble erasing Cat''s memories of today''s interrogation. In that case, Cat would only be missing out on a day''s work and lose a fingerbone, which was a much better oue than losing his life.


    However, going by Lilith''s current expression, it didn''t seem like she was in a good mood. It also wasn''t a surprise that she was in a bad mood. After all, she had just learned that her close acquaintance, the royal guard captain, was nning to overthrow her father. How could she be in a good mood after learning about such a thing?


    Of course, Alice had the option of telling Lilith that Gunst wasn''t actually nning a rebellion and he was moving ording to her father''s instructions all this time. Alice could also tell Lilith that the mastermind was her father in reality and that he was aiming for the Demon King''s strength. Hence, he used "snatching the throne" as bait to try and lure arge number of demons into the Rhine Kingdom.


    However, if Alice revealed all of these things, Lilith''s mood would probably worsen even more. At that time, a swift death would probably be the best oue Cat could hope for. Otherwise, who knew what kind of tortures Lilith would put him through?


    Hence, for Cat''s safety, Alice chose to keep her mouth shut.


    "Since this is an internal affair of the Rhine Kingdom, let me be the one to conduct the final investigation," Lilith said to Alice after seeing Cat dragged off by her subordinates, her expression looking somewhat ugly. It was obvious that this revtion had dealt a significant mental blow to her. "You are a citizen of the Gryffin Kingdom and the Hero, after all, Alice. It won''t be as convenient for you to investigate Gunst."


    <em>It is indeed an inconvenience. You have no idea how much trouble I had to go through to investigate you and your siblings. I had to do everything by myself.</em>


    Although Alice wanted to vent her frustration, she knew that should she reveal that she had investigated Lilith and her royal siblings, there was a high chance Lilith would explode in rage on the spot. So, Alice swallowed her frustration and nodded in agreement to Lilith''s arrangement.


    Of course, while Alice hoped Lilith would realize King Haydn''s involvement in this matter and investigate him, she didn''t n to pin all of her hopes on Lilith. She would still be investigating King Haydn herself in the meantime. After all, King Haydn was one of the most powerful people in the human realm. Even if Lilith were to investigate him, it was unlikely she coulde up with any useful information.


    "That''s it for now, then Let me be alone for a while."


    Lilith sighed and shook her head. She did not leave the interrogation room immediately. Instead, she remained seated in her chair with her head lowered.


    Alice wanted to say something when she saw Lilith''s dejected behavior, but she had no idea what she should say. Then, she noticed Sylvia, who sat in the corner of the room, waving at her and pointing at the door. Evidently, Sylvia had something she wanted to say to her outside.


    Seeing this, Alice nodded and stood up from her seat. Then, she quietly followed Sylvia out of the interrogation room and gently closed the door on her way out.


    "Lilith looks like she''s in a terrible mood. Is she close with that Gunst fellow?" Alice asked, finally daring to speak in her normal tone after ensuring the door behind her was closed.


    "Yes, they are quite close. Her Highness has always regarded Lord Gunst as her idol," Sylvia said, a hint of helplessness in her voice. "Her Highness has known Lord Gunst since she was a child. At the time, Lord Gunst was only a young 20-year-old and an ordinary member of the royal guards. Although he was much stronger than the average magician and magic warrior, he wasn''t particrly special among the royal guards.


    "Her Highness has had a great interest in magic and swordsmanship since young. As it so happened, Lord Gunst''s swordsmanship was one of the most elegant of the royal guards, so he instantly attracted Her Highness''s attention. As a result, Her Highness would often pester Lord Gunst to teach her magic and swordsmanship. Lord Gunst did not hide any of his trades, either. However, as Her Highness''s talent was only slightly better than the average person, she faced great difficulty in learning Lord Gunst''s abilities."


    After speaking up to this point, Sylvia revealed a helpless smile and continued, "Simply put, Lord Gunst is both a friend and a teacher to Her Highness. Her Highness has watched Lord Gunst go from being an ordinary soldier in the royal guards into bing the royal guard captain across a period of more than a decade. This is quite the legendary feat, and Her Highness was a witness to this legend''s birth. As a result, she has always regarded Lord Gunst as an idol and an elder brother."


    "So, Lilith is currently feeling down because she thinks the image of her idol has copsed?"


    After listening to this point, Alice could more or less understand why Lilith was behaving so dejectedly. She had regarded Gunst as a friend, a teacher, and an idol. Yet, she was suddenly told that such an important person in her life was nning to betray the kingdom and overthrow her father. Anybody would feel upset if they were put in Lilith''s shoeseven if Gunst wasn''t actually nning a rebellion in reality.


    "That''s right. Her Highness must be feeling very upset right now. To make matters worse, she even has to personally search for evidence of Lord Gunst''s betrayal," Sylvia said, feeling a little worry for Lilith. Fortunately, Lilith was a sensible fangirl who wouldn''t unconditionally defend her idol. Otherwise, Sylvia would be the one feeling sad and upset right now. Then, Sylvia looked at Alice and continued, "Your Highness, if you have a way, please help console Her Highness. Throughout this period, the only times I have seen Her Highness feeling happy are when she interacts with you."


    <em>Of course, she''ll be happy. It''s because I gave her a one-of-a-kind figurine.</em> Alice mentally rolled her eyes at Sylvia''sment. She also couldn''t help but feel a little troubled by Sylvia''s request. She naturally wanted to console Lilith. However, she had managed to make Lilith happy previously because she had given Andusia to her. So, how was she supposed to make Lilith happy this time? Give the girl another figurine? Wouldn''t that mean she''d have to get another block of Living Wood from the treants?


    The treant elder had already grown suspicious of her after she asked for a block of Living Wood previously. If she tried to ask for another one, the treants would immediately realize that they had been tricked, and it''d be terrible if she ended up angering them. After all, a quiet guy could do anything when cornered. Meanwhile, the treants were a group of quiet people.


    "I I''ll try to think of something."


    Although Alice knew there was no way she could get her hands on another figurine, she had no choice but to sigh and agree to Sylvia''s request. After all, she didn''t hope for Lilith to stay in such a state. Otherwise, Lilith would be even more shocked once she realized Gunst wasn''t nning a rebellion.

 Chapter 375: Everything Coming Together

    Chapter 375: Everything Coming Together


    How Alice was supposed to investigate King Haydn was a problem. ording to Alice''s understanding, King Haydn had delegated a significant portion of his authority to other people so that they could help him with his work. He was apletely different rulerpared to Hatter, who''d spend most of his time cooped up in the pce working.


    After sneaking into the Rhine Kingdom''s pce multiple times across several days, Alice concluded that King Haydn would only spend five hours working in the pce each day. His work hours were also random. Overall, he looked like he had a much easier time being king than Hatter.


    Of course, King Haydn''s actions also came with risks. The more people King Haydn delegated power to, the more likely it was for him to breed corruption in his government. After all, not everyone could behave selflessly when granted great power. This was why Hatter had chosen to directly involve himself in most, if not all, important governmental affairs. Though, in exchange for a corruption-free government, Hatter had to work himself to the bone.


    Fortunately, King Haydn wasn''t a fool. It would seem that he was aware that his action of delegating power to others would lead to the potential breeding of corruption, as he had made significant investments in strengthening his kingdom''s police force and intelligence department. Therefore, most officials who had gone corrupt would be quickly identified and arrested. The arrest of these officials would even be announced through news channels to assure the Rhine Kingdom''s citizens that their government was activelybating corruption.


    <em>Despite how much of a cker he is, it seems he is still a rtively good king. He doesn''t touch upon his personal affairs when he is working.</em>


    After investigating King Haydn for some time, Alice found that the other party would never talk about private matters when he was at work. While this was a praiseworthy work ethic for a king, his behavior made it highly unlikely for him to slip up and reveal any clues during work.


    Moreover, contrary to Alice''s initial assumption, Gunst had never shown up in King Haydn''s office during these past few days. This was incredibly strange, no matter how she looked at it. After all, the captain of the kingdom''s royal guards wielded great authority and responsibility. Logically, Gunst should havee to report to King Haydn at least once every one or two days. Yet, Gunst did not do so, which was a stark contrast to Catherine, who would visit Hatter''s office at least several times a day.


    After thinking about it, Alice felt that Gunst was most likely meeting King Haydn in private and outside the pce. Hence, he did not have to go through the trouble of visiting King Haydn in the pce.


    Hence, Alice eventually decided she would shift the focus of her investigation to King Haydn''s private life.


    <em>I should have changed the meeting time</em>


    Alice sighed in frustration as she looked at the box in her hands. Originally, after she was done observing King Haydn this morning, she had nned to follow his car and see where he would go after work. However, it just so happened that she had agreed to meet with KG Company''s representative today.


    KG Company hadpleted the figurine Alicemissioned yesterday and asked her when she would like it delivered to her. Alice didn''t think much about it at the time and simply said they shouldplete the handover at noon the next day. What Alice didn''t expect was for King Haydn to start work in the morning the next day and finish his work by noon.


    Hence, although Alice wished to continue her investigation on King Haydn, she had no choice but to dismiss this thought.


    However, Alice wasn''t worried King Haydn would do anything major when she wasn''t observing him. As the "Demon King," she had the final say in whether the demons would invade the human realm or not. So long as she kept her mouth shut, Mador, the demon spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower, wouldn''t agree to King Haydn''s alliance, and the demon army wouldn''t enter the human realm.


    Alice had originally been worried that the person trying to ally with the demons would take action against the throne ahead of time after failing to get a reply from the demons. However, she no longer had to be concerned about that problem anymore since she was all but certain that King Haydn was the mastermind, and his goal wasn''t actually the throne but the demons instead.


    Hence, even if Alice dragged things out a little bit, there was no risk in King Haydn carrying out his n in advance. After all, if there weren''t enough demons in the Rhine Kingdom, he''d have no way to collect the demon mana he needed to convert the Demon King''s Shadow taboo.


    Moreover, the sooner Alice recovered Andusia, the sooner she could obtain Andusia''s suggestions on some of the matters troubling her. Although Andusia was unreliable at times, her experience as a Demon King was the real deal. Andusia knew a lot more about magic than Alice did. Hence, in Alice''s mind, collecting the figurine from KG Company was equally as important as investigating King Haydn.


    Anyway, after meeting with KG Company''s representative in a toy store in Icarus City, Alice collected the figurine shemissioned and unboxed it immediately. Fortunately, KG Company kept to their promise and perfectly carved the block of Living Wood into a miniaturized version of Magical Girl Hikari. The figurine even came in the same pose as the pose Andusia maintained in front of Lilith.


    Now, all Alice had to do was insert a remnant human soul into the figurine, and it would gain the external characteristics of a human. Then, she could swap Andusia with this figurine without Lilith ever noticing that her precious figurine had gone missing.


    After returning the figurine to its box, Alice left the toy store and returned to her rented apartment. Her n was to put this figurine at home before heading to the Royal Magic Tower''s library to read about remnant souls.


    Although soul magic was considerably niche in this world, there were still some books on soul magic in the Royal Magic Tower. With Alice''s current talent for magic, she shouldn''t have any problems learning a spell that would allow her to extract a small portion of her soul.


    However, after walking for roughly ten minutes while immersed in her thoughts, Alice suddenly stopped walking. Before she realized it, the pedestrians around her had disappeared. The shops nearby were also closed and vacant. This was strange no matter how she looked at it. After all, it was currently noon, and her current location wasn''t a deserted area. It was also very close to the magic town. Logically, this ce should be bustling with people.


    It didn''t take Alice more than a moment to realize that someone had deliberately cleared this area. Moreover, whoever had done so was influential enough to force the owners of the nearby shops to stop doing business for the day and disperse the pedestrians in the area. Yet, whoever had cleared out, this area did not chase her away. It was as if they had cleared out this area for her specifically.


    Narrowing her eyes, Alice scrutinized her surroundings. She could roughly guess why someone had gone through the trouble of clearing this area. Although she had long since known that someone woulde looking for her because of <em>that</em>, she didn''t think the other party would appear so soon.


    Immediately, with her left hand holding onto the figurine box, Alice inserted her right hand into the pouch tied to her waist and pulled out a small ck cor. The cor was none other than the Pollution Roulette she had retrieved from the treants'' territory some time ago. At this point, Alice was certain that there was some kind of tracking magic ced on the Pollution Roulette, and this tracking magic had allowed the culprit behind the treant settlement''s pollution to find her.


    Theft is never good, try looking at /37k7u89t.


    Moreover, it would seem that the culprit behind the action still wasn''t aware of her identity. Otherwise, there was no way they''d attack her without trying to negotiate beforehand.


    However, it wasn''t surprising that the other party didn''t know Alice''s identity. Alice normally wore arge sun hat to hide her face and golden hair when going outside, so she only looked like an ordinary girl with short stature in the eyes of others. Very few people would look at her and think of Alice the Gryffin Princess, and even fewer would link her to Alice the Hero.


    <em>As they say, haste makes waste.</em>


    Seeing as the other party didn''t even bother to identify her before taking action, Alice could tell that the other party was in quite a hurry to retrieve the Pollution Roulette. Unfortunately, this urgency would also be their undoing.


    After tossing the Pollution Roulette into the air and catching it, Alice looked at the entrance of an alley to her right and said:


    "That person hiding over there. If you''re aiming for this Pollution Roulette, you cane out now."

 Chapter 376: Out of All the Martial Arts I Know… Take This! Sneak Attack!

    Chapter 376: Out of All the Martial Arts I Know�� Take This! Sneak Attack!


    Although Alice''s overall parameters were still a little ways off from reaching the level of fully-grown Heroes and Demon Kings, she could already rival Luna, who was superior to even the likes of Catherine and the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings. Naturally, her senses had also sharpened to an extraordinary level.


    Meanwhile, based on her senses, Alice noticed that she wasn''t actually alone on this street. Specifically, there was a man wearing a ck long-sleeved shirt standing by a nearby alley. The man appeared to have used some kind of concealment magic to hide himself, so she hadn''t noticed his presence right away. Only after she realized something was amiss and paid closer attention to her surroundings did she notice the hiding man.


    The other party was evidently surprised by Alice''s words. He probably didn''t expect Alice to notice him. Originally, he had thought that Alice was simply making a random guess to trick him, so he had thought of standing still and remaining concealed. However, when he saw Alice looking straight at him, he quickly understood that Alice wasn''t bluffing and she had indeed found him.


    Hence, even though it was different from his n, the man still chose to reveal himself. Originally, he had nned to ambush Alice when she was walking past him. If he attacked her at that time, the chances of failure were essentially zero. However, what his n didn''t ount for was for Alice to have such a monstrously powerful perception.


    Compared to the Mana Concealment skill Alice had ess to when she held a magic robe in her right hand, the concealment magic used by the ck-d man was evidently inferior. The moment the man moved, the slight mana fluctuations his movements created instantly caused his invisibility to lose effect, revealing his face to Alice.


    "Although it is a little different from the n, no matter"


    The man was not wearing any protective equipment, such as armor. Instead, he only wore a ck shirt and a pair of ck cks. Aftering out of concealment, the man looked at Alice with an indifferent expression on his somewhat handsome face and said, "While it pains me to kill a little girl, you only have yourself to me for touching something you shouldn''t touch."


    Even though this was the first time Alice had met this man, she had long since seen his pictures on the inte. This man was none other than Gunst Brianken, the Captain of the Rhine Kingdom''s Royal Guards. He was also the idol Lilith had admired since she was a child.


    Meanwhile, Gunst''s appearance also validated Alice''s previous conjecture about King Haydn being responsible for the treant settlement''s pollution. It would seem that King Haydn had finally realized that the Pollution Roulette had been moved and hurriedly located it through the tracking magic he had ced on it. Then, he mobilized Gunst to retrieve the Pollution Roulette and kill whoever had moved it.


    Based on what Gunst just said, he didn''t seem like a bloodthirsty person. It made sense, though, since he was able to be Lilith''s idol. If he didn''t have an upright temperament, there was no way Lilith woulde to admire him. Only, he was foolishly loyal to King Haydn and would carry out any order he received, no matter how unreasonable they might seem to be.


    After seeing Gunst, Alice took a moment to scan her surroundings with her senses and verified that apart from herself and Gunst, nobody else was in the vicinity. Although Gunst had most definitely mobilized his subordinates to disperse the pedestrians in the area, it would seem that he never nned to involve his subordinates in his ambush. However, Alice wasn''t surprised by Gunst''s decision since his subordinates would only hold him back.


    Gunst was a human strong enough to fight head-on with the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings. The average warrior wouldn''t be of any help to him. On the contrary, they might even be a burden to him if their opponent turned out to be a tough nut to crack. Hence, the wisest move would be for Gunst to carry out the ambush himself.


    However, Gunst probably never expected that his decision would work in Alice''s favor. After all, if there were no bystanders in the area, even if she exposed her identity, she wouldn''t have to worry about her identity reaching King Haydn''s ears. As for Gunst leaking her identity, she could simply silence him by erasing his memories with Consciousness Transformation after defeating him.


    Although Alice could also erase the memories of any bystanders nearby, having to erase the memories of many people was a troublesome task she would like to pass on. Not to mention, there was also the risk of her missing some bystanders.


    "Hand over the Pollution Roulette, and let me kill you. I will make it hurt as little as possible if you don''t struggle."


    Gunst did not bother saying things such as "I will spare you." As the captain of the royal guards, he was a stereotypical military man with a straightforward personality. Since King Haydn had ordered him to kill whoever had stolen the Pollution Roulette, he would carry out his orders perfectly. He also wouldn''t try to trick his opponent.


    "But if you struggle, I cannot promise you can die painlessly."


    <em>What an arrogant way of speaking.</em>


    Alice''s mouth twitched a little when she heard Gunst''s words. However, she could understand why the man was so confident. In a situation where the Hero and the Demon King did not appear, Gunst would be part of the strongestbatants in this world. Even if he went up against the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings, he likely could fight them to a draw.


    Of course, that was under the condition that there wasn''t an authentic Hero pretending to be a Heavenly King.


    "Although I''ve already verified some of my conjectures after seeing you, I doubt you''ll leave even if I say I don''t want to fight you, right?" Alice chuckled as she stretched the Pollution Roulette, showcasing its sticity. Then, she snapped the cor onto her left wrist and said, "Come, then. If you want this cor, you''ll first have to cut off my left hand. Otherwise...hey! A sneak attack?!"


    While Alice was talking, Gunst had almost instantaneously appeared in front of her and ruthlessly swung a glimmering longsword at her left hand, giving her no time to finish her words. Fortunately, Alice had reacted to the attack in time and executed a quick sidestep, dodging the attackpletely. Unfortunately, everything behind Alice wasn''t as lucky.


    When Gunst''s longsword brushed past Alice''s left shoulder, some of the energy concentrated in the sword oozed out and separated from the weapon in the form of a sword wave. Meanwhile, this sword wave instantly created a huge gash in the street behind Alice. The sword wave had even cut through some water pipes, causing water to gush out of the gash in the road.


    It was fortunate that most things in this world were powered by mana, while electricity was only used as a backup energy source. Otherwise, that attack would have caused the entire neighborhood to be out of power for a few days.


    <em>How can an upright person fight in such a dastardly way?</em> Alice was rendered a little speechless by Gunst''s actions. However, she didn''t stay idle after dodging Gunst''s first attack. Immediately, she summoned a green translucent crystal to trap Gunst. "I don''t wish to kill you, but to get you to be obedient, I''ll have you lose yourbat effectiveness first."


    "...Forest Crystal?" Gunst quickly recognized the green hexahedron trapping him, his expression turning serious. He never thought his opponent would be an existence capable of casting a bona fide taboo. "You''re an elf?"

 Chapter 377: Demolition Company Is Here

    Chapter 377: Demolition Company Is Here


    It wasn''t surprising for Gunst to think that Alice was an elf. After all, Forest Crystal was a taboo unique to the elves. It was also unrealistic to think that a race as isted as the elves would teach their taboos to other races.


    Although the elves had started to change their istionist behavior since the battle between the Hero and the Demon King outside the Elven Forest, these changes only started to ur two months ago. Even if the elves had started to take greater initiative in conducting diplomacy with the various human kingdoms and weing human technology into elven society, there was no way the elves had already opened up to a point where they were willing to share their taboos with others.


    It might be a different story if the other party in question was someone important such as the Hero or human royalty, but for everyone else? Hoping that the elves would share their taboos with them was nothing but a fantasy.


    Not to mention, every person had different talents. This meant that the taboos they could learn were also different. Take Catherine and Gunst, for example. As the royal guard captain of their respective kingdoms, they were required to have superb talent in meleebat. Hence, the taboos they learned and developed were mainly focused on cultivating their magic swordsmanship to the extremes.


    As for taboos developed by the elves, they had a very strong elven vor. Although it was theoretically possible for other races to learn elven taboos, the difficulty would be several times higher than normal.


    For these reasons, Gunst naturally assumed that Alice was an elf. Moreover, although Alice''s sun hat had covered more than half of her face, Gunst could still see her delicate mouth and chin. The beauty of these features was in line with the elves'' good looks.


    "Unfortunately, you''ve guessed wrongly. You wouldn''t have had such an assumption if you paid attention to my ears," Alice said as she turned her head slightly to show Gunst her normal human ears. She still had a rtively favorable impression of Gunst because of the upright-sounding words he said previously, so she didn''t ignore Gunst''s conjecture.


    "I guessed wrongly? No matter."


    Gunst frowned, finding it confusing as to how a human had managed to learn one of the elves'' taboos. However, he didn''t dwell on the matter for long as he focused his attention back on the Forest Crystal trapping him. Although Forest Crystal wasn''t a well-known taboo, he still knew about it since it was his job as the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain to analyze all possible threats that could be used against the kingdom. This naturally included the taboos of other countries and races.


    The Forest Crystal could not only create a crystalline hexahedron to trap its target, but it also possessed mana-sealing properties. In the short time he talked to Alice, Gunst could already feel the flow of mana in him growing sluggish. Right now, his mana felt like mud trying to pass through a pipe that was only meant to transfer clean water. If he allowed the Forest Crystal to continue taking effect on him, he was certain that his mana would freeze up and stop moving in less than a minute. Hence, he needed to figure out a way to destroy the Forest Crystal as soon as possible.


    Taking a small step back, Gunst gripped his longsword tightly and poured all the mana he could muster into the weapon''s de. As someone capable of casting taboos, Gunst naturally had ess to a huge mana pool. Even if he could no longer ess everything, the amount he had ess to was still significant. So, the fact that his longsword could withstand such arge amount of mana showed that it wasn''t an ordinary item. Moreover, instead of breaking from mana overload, the surface of the longsword''s de started radiating a blinding light.


    "Rainbow!"


    After letting out a soft shout, Gunst swung his longsword forward with all his might. Following his actions, sword waves instantly spread out from the longsword in all directions. Every one of these sword waves radiated blinding light of various colors. If one paid close attention, one would notice that all of these colors represented the colors of a rainbow.


    It was obvious that the move Gunst just used was part of his magic swordsmanship, and the attack already carried the power of taboos. After blocking a number of sword waves, Alice''s Forest Crystal quickly broke apart. Then, numerous other sword waves escaped from the shattered crystal and shredded the nearby street and buildings. Even the street next to the one Alice and Gunst were fighting on was not spared from destruction.


    If it weren''t for Alice''s Forest Crystal dampening Gunst''s attack to a certain extent, the attack could have most likely destroyed the entire neighborhood. The attack was undoubtedly at the level of an AOE taboo already.


    <em>Sure enough, he can use taboos.</em> Alice had previously heard from Hatter that Catherine was capable of using taboos. Although she had never seen Catherine using taboos in person, she doubted Hatter would lie to her. In that case, it stood to reason that Gunst, who was also the royal guard captain of his kingdom, could also use taboos. "This move is called Rainbow? What a simple name."


    "Moves meant forbat do not requireplicated names." After learning that Alice was also someone capable of using taboos, Gunst immediately started to take her seriously. So, even as he talked to Alice, he did not stop his movements for even a moment. Instead, he promptly filled his longsword with mana again and swung it at Alice. "Aurora!"


    When Alice saw Gunst swinging his weapon at her, her instincts immediately warned her of danger. So, almost at the same time as Gunst swung his de, Alice stamped her right foot on the ground and created a golden prism around herself.


    Unfortunately, Alice was still nothing more than a half-baked Hero-cum-Demon King right now. Even though the taboos she used were already nearing perfection, her body''scking mana caused her taboos to be slightly weaker than the original versions. This was also the case for the Enochian Prism she had used this time.


    The taboo named "Aurora" was simrly an attack that relied on Gunst''s longsword to release. Almost instantly, a white sword wave arrived before Alice, thebination of a sharp sword wave and Gunst''s immense mana allowing the white sword wave to instantly cut through Alice''s Enochian Prism andnd a direct hit on Alice.


    When the white sword wave struck Alice''s waist, Alice felt like she was about to be cut apart. Fortunately, Enochian Prism had dampened a significant portion of the white sword wave''s power. So, although the sword wave''s remaining power was powerful enough to injure Alice''s sturdy body, it wasn''t enough to cause significant damage.


    However, the buildings behind Alice weren''t as fortunate. Although most of Gunst''s sword wave was concentrated on Alice''s body, not all of itnded on Alice. Some of it got past her, and this led to the demolition of multiple buildings behind her. Alice could even hear the buildings crumbling one after another, sendingrge dust clouds into the air.


    This neighborhood would most likely be in ruins by the end of their battle, and King Haydn would definitely have to empty his pockets to rebuild this neighborhood.


    "Hiss It really hurts."


    The sword wave named "Aurora" was considerably concentrated. Even after making contact with its target, it did not randomly release its power. So, although the powerful sword wave struck Alice, only a cut appeared on the left side of her shirt. The rest of her shirt remained intact.


    However, the sword wave''s precision also meant that it had enough power to cut through Alice''s physical defenses and reach Alice''s internal organs. If it weren''t for Enochian Prism weakening the sword wave, Alice might have been bisected.


    "So, it''s Enochian Prism this time?" Gunst noticed the golden prism that had briefly appeared to stop his attack. He also recognized the prism''s identity. "However, it seems your Enochian Prism isn''t strong enough to stop my attack. You must be out ofbat power now, right?"

 Chapter 378: Its a Blessing to Suffer

    Chapter 378: It''s a Blessing to Suffer


    Alice didn''t just suffer a shallow cut to her waist. The cut had reached her internal organs, and blood was profusely pouring out of the wound. In fact, had the sword wave gone any deeper, it might have even bisected Alice.


    In such a situation, it was only natural for Gunst to think that Alice no longer had any strength to resist. After all, any normal person would suffer problems with their mana flow when their body was severely injured. The chances of Alice being able to continue casting taboos in her current state was minuscule. Even if she could cast a taboo, it would be a simplified version that wouldn''t be strong enough to stop any of Gunst''s attacks.


    "Tsk, don''t get so full of yourself. I was just a little careless," Alice said, clicking her tongue. Arge part of why she got injured was because of her carelessness.


    It was true that Gunst''s Rainbow and Aurora were powerful taboos. However, the power of these two taboos wasn''t focused on "destruction" but "sharpness" instead. Rather than say that they were taboos focused on mass destruction, they were taboos focused on cutting things.


    Take Rainbow''srge-scale attack, for example. If it were swapped with Alice''s Burning Star, this entire neighborhood would have been reduced to ashes. However, Gunst''s Rainbow had only left numerousrge cuts in the surrounding streets and buildings. A few of the closer buildings might have copsed because of these cuts, but the level of destruction caused by Gunst''s Rainbow was nowhere near the destruction Alice''s Burning Star could have caused.


    Meanwhile, it was hard for any defenses to be effective when going up against such a "sharp" taboo. What Alice should have done against Gunst''s Aurora was to evade the sword wave rather than rely on her defenses.


    Simply put, Alice was still toocking inbat experience. This weakness was highlighted once when she previously fought with the Eighth Demon King Miriya Hampar, and it was highlighted again in her current fight with Gunst.


    If Andusia were here, the moment she saw the cutting effect Gunst''s Rainbow disyed, she would have immediately realized that Gunst specialized in taboos with a "sharp" property. So, when Gunst used Aurora afterward, Andusia would have made the correct response, evading the attack rather than trying to block it with Enochian Prism.


    <em>I should probably learn more aboutbat from man or Catherine after I''m done with matters here</em>


    Alice finally decided to face her weakness after suffering another loss because of herck ofbat experience. While she might possess frightening power right now, she realized that it wasn''t infallible. On the contrary, it could be easily nullified or even used against her if she didn''t know how to wield it, even by opponents who were significantly weaker than her.


    In Miriya''s case, she was in a soul-like state and only had ess to a tiny bit of mana. Yet, she had still turned the tables on Alice and yed her like a fiddle. In Gunst''s case, although he had enough mana to cast taboos, there was a limit to his mana pool, and he couldn''t sustain such high-performancebat for long.


    If Alice''s current opponent was a real Demon King, she might have lost her life in less than three moves.


    "Hm?"


    With his sword poised to strike, Gunst readied himself to attack with another taboo. Although he had initially thought of attacking Alice without wasting any more mana, he changed his mind after seeing Aurora manage to only cut open Alice''s stomach. Aurora, when used at full power, could exhibit incredible cutting power. Yet, it had failed to cut through Alice''s waistpletely. If he were to execute an ordinary sh, the attack could, at most, cut through Alice''s skin.


    Hence, if he wanted to cut off Alice''s left hand and retrieve the Pollution Roulette wrapped around her wrist, he''d have to use a taboo.


    However, just when Gunst was about to pour mana into his longsword, he suddenly saw Alice reaching into the pouch hanging from her long skirt and pulling out a...bandage?


    This turn of events confused Gunst a little. It was true that Alice was injured, but the wound was by no means mendable with a bandage. Not to mention, Alice''s injuries should extend all the way to her internal organs. Without the help of healing magic that could only be used in conjunction with specialized medical equipment, it''d be impossible for Alice to recover from her injuries within a short period of time.


    So, what meaning was there for Alice to taking out a bandage in this situation? Moreover, the bandage in Alice''s hand didn''t look new but used instead. Gunst had excellent vision, so he could see moisture stains on the edges of the bandage.


    <em>Also, why would a bandage have moisture stains?</em>


    Before Gunst could figure out what was going on, the bandage in Alice''s right hand suddenly gave off a blinding white light. The light was so intense that Gunst''s eyes hurt just from looking at it. However, the light''s brightness was the least of Gunst''s concerns right now. This was because he could sense the light carrying frighteningly dense mana.


    The mana was so dense that it had reached a level where Gunst could no longer avoid it. Moreover, this mana did not exhibit any destructive properties. Instead, it radiated a calming power.


    Upon noticing this point, Gunst''s expression changed as he realized what Alice was trying to doAlice was most likely using some special means to heal herself!


    Although Gunst couldn''t figure out what exactly could help Alice heal such arge wound, he trusted his instincts. So, as soon as he realized Alice was trying to heal herself, he gathered his mana into his longsword and executed an attack:


    "Aurora."


    Another sword wave carrying a frightening amount of mana swept toward Alice. This time, none of the surrounding buildings got hit by Gunst''s sword wave since there were no buildings left to be hit. Every structure nearby had already copsed into a pile of rubble.


    At this point, Gunst was certain that even though Alice possessed superb physical qualities and was outstanding in all attributes, her speed hadn''t reached a level where she could evade Aurora. As its name suggested, Aurora carried the properties of light, so it was incredibly fast and hard to dodge.


    However, Gunst''s expression immediately sank when the dazzling sword wave passed through Alice''s location. This was because he noticed that his attack had failed to hit its mark and, contrary to his expectations, his opponent had actually dodged his Aurora.


    <em>How did she Where is she?</em>


    Gunst hurriedly poured more mana into his longsword and looked at his surroundings warily, readying himself to unleash "Rainbow" when Alice tried to get close to him. With Rainbow''s all-epassing attack pattern, nobody could get close to him without getting hit.


    However, before Gunst could finish injecting enough mana into his longsword, he suddenly felt a gust of wind hitting his face. Then, his vision darkened as he felt a furry paw grabbing onto his face.


    <em>Fuck!</em>


    Gunst quickly realized the severity of the situation and swung his sword forward, trying to cut at the paw''s owner. However, before his sword could hit anything, Gunst felt the paw''s owner jumping while using his face as a fulcrum. The other party''s jump was incredibly powerful, and the resulting weight and impact force caused Gunst to fall head-first on his back.


    <em>Dammit. Is it some kind of beast familiar?</em>


    Gunst gritted his teeth while attempting a retaliatory attack. However, the other party was surprisingly quick to react. Before Gunst could even move the longsword in his left hand, he felt a sharp w tearing through half of his left digits, nearly severing thempletely. Then, during the brief moment his left hand had stiffened from pain, he felt his longsword getting forcibly yanked out of his hand.


    Gunst bellowed angrily when he lost his weapon. Immediately, he tensed up the muscles in both his arms and fiercely pried away the paw holding onto his face, the paw leaving behind five deep gashes as it separated from his face.


    After throwing the opponent away, Gunst hurriedly jumped up from the ground and looked in front of him. Immediately, he realized that his opponent wasn''t some kind of beast familiar but Alice herself. Only, Alice currently had a much more different appearance than before, her limbs had turned into furry paws simr to those of felines, and a feline tail had grown out of her back. Two slits had also formed on her hat, and a pair of cat ears were protruding out of these slits.


    Wind Hunter, a taboo developed by the catkins. It was a taboo that could elevate the user''s speed, agility, and sensitivity toward presences. Alice had relied on this taboo to evade Gunst''s Aurora.


    "This isa beastkin taboo"


    Gunst was gasping for breath. He had to admit that he was caught off guard. He had been suppressed before he could even use his magic swordsmanship taboo just now, and his longsword was thrown away into the distance. His left fingers were also nearly severed, and several deep gashes decorated his face.


    At the same time as Gunst realized what kind of taboo Alice had used, he also couldn''t help but be confused as to how Alice had managed to learn how to use a beastkin taboo. Moreover, even though she had already suffered such a huge wound just now, that wound had all but disappeared by now. How exactly did Alice achieve these two things?

 Chapter 379: Touhou Players Rejoice

    Chapter 379: Touhou yers Rejoice


    Although Gunst couldn''t understand how Alice had managed to heal her wounded waist with only a bandage, he knew that he was at an incredible disadvantage now that Alice had seen through the properties of his taboos.


    Gunst had developed his own set of unique taboos based on numerous training and actualbat experiences. Meanwhile, his taboos had the characteristic of fusing sword waves with mana to unleash a power that could cut through almost anything. Even defensive-type taboos would have difficulty stopping his cuts. Hence, most people would suffer when they went up against him for the first time.


    There was no doubt that Alice had suffered a simr fate as these people initially. However, now that she had already recovered from her injuries and figured out the trick behind his taboos, she would know to evade his attacks using speed and agility rather than trying to defend against them.


    Gunst could see the characteristics of beastification in Alice, so he knew that Alice must have used a taboo made by the beastkins. After all, almost all taboos made by beastkins would cause its users to take on the traits of their race. Meanwhile, Alice''s cat ears and tails clearly indicated that she had used a taboo from the catkins.


    The agility of felines need not be mentioned. The catkins'' taboo had undoubtedly strengthened Alice''s speed and agility. Hence, even if Aurora was an attack with incredible speed, Alice still managed to evade it. Now, he would have a much harder timending attacks on Alice.


    To make matters worse, Gunst could already feel his mana pool running low. Although there were around 20 people capable of using taboos in the human realm, none were capable of freely using taboos like Heroes and Demon Kings.


    If the use of one taboo cost 100 points of mana, Heroes and Demon Kings would have a mana pool of 1,000 points. Combined with their ability to recover 100 points of mana every second, they could use taboos as easily as if they were drinking water. They couldn''t run out of mana even if they continuously cast taboos without rest.


    In Gunst''s case, his mana pool could only hold around 500 points of mana. While this was enough to let him cast a few taboos, he recovered only one or two mana points every second. This difference in recovery rate prevented him from casting numerous taboos in a row. In his current state, he''d run out of mana after using two more taboos.


    She''s also used multiple taboos consecutively, but why doesn''t she look tired in the slightest


    Gunst frowned when he saw Alice''s current state. Unlike himself, Alice wasn''t gasping for air or showing other signs of exhaustion. On the contrary, she looked quite rxed. Apart from the big tear in her shirt giving her a somewhat miserable look, she looked mostly fine.


    This scene surprised Gunst, so much that he couldn''t help but harbor the thought of "Could this person be the Hero or the Demon King?"


    Unfortunately, Gunst wasn''t among the guards who had apanied King Haydn to thest Conference of Kings. King Haydn also didn''t inform Gunst about the Hero''s true identity. As a result, Gunst''s image of the Hero and the Demon King remained on the level of a muscr man with a pretty face and a tall and slender onee-san. So, Gunst naturally wouldn''t connect the little girl before him to the Hero and the Demon King.


    This could be considered a blunder on King Haydn''s part. King Haydn never imagined the Hero would intervene in this matter. After all, the demon spy operating in the Royal Magic Tower was the biggest breakthrough point for his great undertaking. Even if someone were to intervene, it would have to be the Demon King, not the Hero. Hence, King Haydn never bothered to tell Gunst about the Hero''s true identity.


    Unless the Hero was in contact with the demon spy, there was no way the Hero would find out that "someone in the Rhine Kingdom is trying to ally with the demons" or notice King Haydn''s ns. This was also why King Haydn was so anxious to chase the Demon King out of the Rhine Kingdom. It was because he worried that the Demon King might interfere with his ns.


    Unfortunately, King Haydn probably wouldn''t have ever imagined that the Hero and the Demon King were actually the same person.


    Alice and Gunst stared off at each other for a moment, neither taking the initiative to strike. Eventually, though, Alice chose to break the silence.


    Alice was still in the Rhine Kingdom''s territory. King Haydn might send other people to help Gunst if she dragged on the fight for too long. Although not many people in the human realm could threaten her, there were still quite a few. She also wasn''t naive enough to think that the Rhine Kingdom only had one person who could use taboos.


    To avoid a situation where Gunst could work with his reinforcements to fight her, Alice naturally had to make the first move. Immediately, she kicked off the ground and began rapidly approaching Gunst in a zigzag pattern.


    With Wind Hunter''s effect, Alice''s current speed had already exceeded Gunst''s reaction speed. If Alice closed the distance in a straight line, Gunst could still defend himself or evenunch a counterattack. However, if Alice approached him in a zigzag pattern, Gunst wouldn''t be able to defend himself since he couldn''t even determine which direction Alice would attack him from.


    Gunst also realized Alice''s goal, and he couldn''t help but feel troubled. This was also the feeling most people experienced when going up against the Hero and the Demon King.


    Heroes and Demon Kings could learn arge number of taboos in a short period of time. Hence, a well-developed Hero or Demon King would almost always have a counter taboo for any situation they faced.


    For example, if they were going up against fire, they could counter it by using a water-type taboo. When they were going up against an attack that couldn''t be blocked, they could use a taboo that strengthened their speed to dodge the attack. When they were going up against opponents with powerful physical defenses, they could use a spirit taboo.


    Simply put, it was impossible for mortal humans to win against Heroes and Demon Kings in a contest of taboo repertoires.


    However, although Alice''s zigzag approach made it difficult for him to perceive her attack trajectory, Gunst did not give up. Instead, he tried his best to keep up with Alice''s movements and lifted his hands in a defensive stance.


    However, Alice suddenly disappeared from Gunst''s line of sight the next moment, this unexpected development catching Gunst off-guard. In this situation, Gunst''s first reaction was to hurriedly turn around and look behind him. Normally, when someone was trying tounch a sneak attack, they would do so from their target''s back. So, the moment Gunst lost sight of Alice, he made the most reasonable decision to defend against the most likely direction from which Alice would attack him.


    Butthere was nobody behind him.


    When Gunst still failed to see Alice''s figure, he quickly realized what was going on. It turned out that Alice didn''t move to his back. Instead, she had jumped into the air.


    Unfortunately, Gunst was toote to notice this, and before he could react, he felt a sharp wind brushing across his scalp. Then, five sharp ws wed through his scalp, pulling his head back and smashing it into the ground again.


    Immediately, a powerful shockwave spread from Alice and Gunst''s location, the shockwave creating numerous cracks in the sturdy street.


    "Ugh!"


    The average person''s head would have most likely cracked open like a watermelon after getting smashed so hard into the ground. However, Gunst wasn''t an ordinary person. As the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain, in addition to being able to use magic swordsmanship taboos, he also had frightening physical qualities. Even if his body wasn''t as tough as dragons, he should still be one of the toughest, if not the toughest, humans alive. Even the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings wouldn''t necessarily be tougher than him.


    Hence, even after suffering such a powerful impact, Gunst remained conscious. Meanwhile, sensing the wstching onto his head, he swiftly pulled out a small folding knife from his pocket.


    Alice had already thrown his longsword away just now, so the only weapon he currently had on him was a folding knife he normally carried around. However, it didn''t matter. The application of his magic swordsmanship wasn''t limited to longswords only. If need be, he could use his magic swordsmanship with even small ded objects such as a folding knife or a butter knife. Although his folding knife would most likely break after he executed a few taboos with it, it was enough for his purposes.


    Previously, Gunst had trouble keeping track of Alice''s position when she rapidly moved in a zigzag pattern. However, now that Alice was holding onto his head with her ws, he knew exactly where she was!


    "Rainbow!"


    The next moment, Gunst''s folding knife radiated a blinding brilliance. Then, with Gunst''s body as the center, numerous sword waves of various colors burst forth into the surroundings.


    The attack pattern of Rainbow was simr to the attack patterns of enemies in bullet hell games. The further one was from the enemy, the bigger the gap between the enemy''s attack projectiles would be. Conversely, the closer one was to the enemy, the tighter the gap would be. So, at such a close distance, no matter how agile Alice was, it was utterly impossible for her to escape from the seamless sword waves.

 Chapter 380: Nobody Understands My Panties

    Chapter 380: Nobody Understands My Panties


    Densely packed sword waves burst forth from Gunst''s body like the fragments of a fragmentation grenade, instantly worsening the cracks that covered the street. Even the rubbles of the copsed buildings nearby were further reduced in size.


    Compared to the fragments of a fragmentation grenade, Gunst''s sword waves were naturally much more frightening. They were infused with Gunst''s mana, which maximized their sharpness property, so they could cut through steel like a hot knife through butter. They could even cut through the defenses of a defensive taboo. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration at all to regard them as unstoppable.


    At such a close distance, Gunst felt that even if Alice used Enochian Prism again, some of his sword waves would still hit her. However, just when he thought he had sessfully killed the bastard pressing his head into the ground, he suddenly realized that reality had seemingly turned out different from his imagination. This was because the furry paw on his head remained firmlytched, and the force it applied on his head did not weaken in the slightest.


    <em>This How is this possible?</em>


    An expression of disbelief appeared on Gunst''s head. Logically, even a dragon would have suffered bone-deep wounds if they received Rainbow at point-nk range. Yet, he found that not only did Alice not suffer any damage from Rainbow, but her body didn''t even budge in the slightest! She had thoroughly ignored his sword waves that could theoretically cut even taboos!


    "I already know how troublesome your sword waves can be, so do you honestly think I would get close to you without any preparations?"


    Alice''s voice came from above Gunst. Immediately afterward, Gunst could feel additional force being applied to the ws digging into his scalp. Then, he felt Alice pulling him up before throwing him aside.


    Following this action, Gunst could feel a stream of mana flowing into his body. Then, this mana formed a green hexahedron around the source of his mana, isting him from what little mana he had left in his body.


    Forest Crystal. This taboo wasn''t limited to just creating barriers to restrict physical objects. It could also be used to restrict mana. Hence, like what she did to Andusia on their first encounter, Alice used Forest Crystal to seal Gunst''s ess to mana as well.


    If it was at the start of their battle, it would have been a challenge for Alice to use Forest Crystal to imprison Gunst''s mana source. However, now that Gunst had hardly any mana remaining,bined with the injuries weakening his mental state, Alice could seal his mana with little resistance.


    When Gunst sensed his mana bing no different than a pool of stagnant water, he knew he had lost. Although he didn''t know why Alice chose to seal his mana instead of ending his life with an offensive taboo to the head, it didn''t change the fact that he had lostthoroughly, at that.


    After letting his defeat sink into his mind, Gunst lifted his head to look at Alice. Because of the point-nk Rainbow, even though Alice''s body remained intact, her clothes were cut at numerous locations. This included her hat. Hence, Gunst could now see what Alice actually looked like.


    "You arethe Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice?"


    However, Gunst never thought that the girl who had beaten him ck and blue was actually one of the Gryffin Kingdom''s princesses. This revtion utterly dumbfounded him.


    Moreover, what confused Gunst, even more, was that Alice was currently hugging a Milu Rabbit and a box in her left arm, seemingly trying to protect them. Meanwhile, held in her right hand was a pair of white panties that radiated a dazzling sacred radiance.


    Alice, who was bathed in the holy light, looked like a holy being at first nce. However, Gunst''s mind came to a pause when he saw that the source of this holy light was a pair of white panties.


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Spirit +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Spiritual Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by spirit magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Purification de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that permanently liberates the target''s soul)]


    Indeed. The reason Alice could ignore Gunst''s Rainbow even though she had received it at point-nk range was because of the "Absolute Defense" skill that came attached with the white panties. As Gunst''s Rainbow was predominantly a sword wave, it was regarded as a physical attack, and Absolute Defense countered it perfectly. In the end, all Gunst''s attack did was leave a few red marks on Alice''s body.


    Fortunately, even though Alice''s clothes suffered numerous cuts from Gunst''s sword waves, they did not fall apart. Although the tattered clothes made Alice look like a beggar, they continued serving their purpose, preventing the exposure of Alice''s privates.


    Of course, as Absolute Defense only took effect on Alice''s physical body, Alice had quickly retrieved the Milu Rabbit from under her skirt before Gunst had finished executing his Rainbow. Then, she shielded the Milu Rabbit and the box holding the Hikari figurine in her embrace. Otherwise, the Milu Rabbit and the figurine would have definitely been shredded by the sword waves.


    When Alice saw the look of confusion on Gunst''s face, she could more or less guess his current mood. After all, therge amount of light mana pouring out of her right hand was a clear tell of her identity. Apart from the Hero, no other existence in this world could have so much light mana.


    In reality, though, what shocked Gunst the most was actually the panties in Alice''s right hand. No matter how he racked his mind, he simply couldn''t figure out the rtion between "a panty-wielding girl" and "the Hero."

 Chapter 381: Giving King Haydn a Fright

    Chapter 381: Giving King Haydn a Fright


    Alice sealed Gunst''s mana with Forest Crystal, Gunst was no different than a fish on a cutting board for Alice. Although Gunst''s physical body was still many times stronger than the average person''s, even without mana, that level of physical strength was no threat to Alice.


    While Alice''s physical body might still be inferior to even fully-grown Heroes and dragons, Gunst''s physical body was also significantly inferior to that of dragons. Hence, Alice managed to knock Gunst unconscious using just an uppercut.


    Under normal circumstances, Alice should have killed Gunst since he was essentially the right-hand man of the "evil mastermind." However, after thinking it over, Alice decided to keep him alive for the time being.


    She was still unsure if Gunst was foolishly loyal to King Haydn or the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family. If it turned out that Gunst''s loyaltiesy with the royal family rather than King Haydn as an individual, she might be able to put him to useter on.


    After learning that King Haydn might be up to some treacherous ns, Alice already regarded King Haydn as a dead man. So, after King Haydn''s death, someone naturally needed to inherit the throne. Otherwise, the kingdom would be plunged into civil unrest.


    If Gunst was loyal to the royal family, he coulde forward to help the new king quickly solidify his position and avoid any interference from the nobles.


    However, if Gunst''s foolish loyalty was limited to King Haydn only, Alice would have no choice but to dispose of him as well. King Haydn was a person attempting to obtain a Demon King''s power. He had even secretly contacted the demons to achieve his goals, and there was no telling what else he was willing to do. If Gunst remained foolishly loyal to King Haydn, he, too, might be a problem.


    <em>The fight this time caused quite amotion, so King Haydn should learn about the failure of Gunst''s operation soon.</em>


    After looking around, Alice saw that the ordinarymercial district had already been reduced to ruins. It looked like the area had been bombarded by high-level magic, and not a single two-story building could be seen standing. The streets were also covered in countless cracks and cuts, looking like they could split apart at any moment.


    Alice was certain that King Haydn would be able to recognize the damage done to thismercial district as damage caused by Gunst''s attacks. However, King Haydn would probably have to agonize for a while to figure out who exactly Gunst had fought against.


    After picking up the conscious Gunst, Alice hurried her way back home. Fortunately, the pedestrians in themercial district had already been evacuated beforehand. Even the surveince cameras in the area were destroyed during the fight. So, Alice wasn''t worried someone would see her on her way back.


    The house Alice rented wasn''t far from where she and Gunst fought. However, it was still several streets away. So, it did not get hit by any stray attacks. Moreover, it would seem that Gunst''s subordinates did not extend their evacuation work to her neighborhood. So, many people in the neighborhood seemed ready to head over and watch the fun after hearing the loudmotion the fight caused.


    Because of this situation, Alice had no choice but to use her magic robe''s "Mana Concealment" skill to turn herself and Gunst invisible. Only then did she manage to return to her rented apartment undetected. Meanwhile, as soon as she got home, she dropped Gunst to the floor and restrained him using a vine created with Hubert''s Tree.


    Next, Alice would have to figure out how she should determine Gunst''s loyalty. Although she could nt amand into Gunst''s memories to get him to tell the truth, just like she did with Cat the thief, she was skeptical that this method would work against someone as powerful as Gunst. He might even use this method to trick her.


    So, instead of trying to interrogate Gunst herself, Alice grabbed her phone to call Luna. She would have Luna inspect Gunst''s memories and determine where his loyaltiesy. If Gunst was loyal to the royal family and didn''t care which royal family member sat on the throne, Alice would spare his life.


    Of course, Alice was going to have Luna erase Gunst''s memories of their fight as well, particrly the part where he saw her wielding a pair of panties that radiated holy light. This memory must be erased no matter what. Otherwise, who knew if he would reveal this matter to others one day? Despite Gunst''s upright appearance, his ungentlemanly way of fighting made it difficult for Alice to trust him.


    However, before Alice could open her phone, the device suddenly started ringing, indicating that someone was calling her. Meanwhile, the caller ID disyed on the street was "Haydn Doyle."


    Alice raised her eyebrows at this development. She didn''t think King Haydn would contact her so soon. After all, King Haydn should only be learning about Gunst''s defeat and disappearance right about now.


    However, Alice didn''t think deeply into the matter and answered the call. Then, sure enough, as soon as the call connected, King Haydn''s urgent voice came through the phone:


    "Are you still in the Rhine Kingdom, Lord Hero?! Something happened here that might need your help!"


    Alice snorted a little when she heard King Haydn''s words. It might sound like King Haydn was asking for her help on the surface, but what he was actually doing was probing for her location to verify if she was responsible for defeating Gunst and abducting him.


    Find the original at bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.


    It made sense for King Haydn to turn his suspicion to Alice. After all, there shouldn''t be more than a handful of people in this world who could defeat Gunst in such a short time. Meanwhile, the Hero happened to be one of these people. Moreover, the Hero would also be the most troublesome opponent to deal with.


    If the person who had defeated Gunst was someone from another kingdom like Catherine, King Haydn could use diplomacy to force the other party to keep silent about his acts against the treants. And if the other party was the Demon King, King Haydn could figure out a way to work together with the Demon King.


    The only opponent King Haydn didn''t have a solution for was the Hero. The Hero was a noble person certified by God.


    If the Hero learned about his actions of polluting the treants'' territory, he would face much more serious problems than if anyone else were to learn about his acts. After all, the Hero did not need to care about the opinions of the various human kings. Unless the human kings no longer wanted the Hero against the Demon King, there was no way they would interfere with the Hero''s actions.


    Not to mention, King Haydn was in the wrong in this matter. If the other kings learned of his actions, they might even take the initiative to take care of him, let alone side with him.

 Chapter 382: Troubled Alice

    Chapter 382: Troubled Alice


    "I''m still here. Didn''t the Demon King show up here previously? So, I thought of staying around to investigate things and see if she left anything behind. I''m also using this opportunity to sightsee."


    Alice didn''t try to lie and say that she had left the Rhine Kingdom already. Instead, she truthfully told King Haydn her whereabouts while giving him a reasonable excuse.


    If it was a few days ago, King Haydn wouldn''t have cared, even if Alice had lied about her whereabouts. He wouldn''t go out of his way to verify her whereabouts, either. After all, he''d be offending the Hero if his actions got discovered.


    Now, however, King Haydn was very concerned about the Hero''s whereabouts. He also no longer cared about offending the Hero. After all, whether it was the pollution of the treant settlement, the attempted collusion with the demons, or his goal of stealing a Demon King''s power, any of these crimes was enough to warrant death.


    Hence, if Alice lied to him at this time, King Haydn would realize that she already knew about the deeds he had done once he saw through her lie.


    It also wouldn''t be difficult for King Haydn to determine Alice''s whereabouts. All portablemunication devices in this world had to connect to a specific inte frequency to achieve long-distancemunication. Meanwhile, authority over the human realm''s inte was in the hands of the various human kings. Because of this, King Haydn could easily determine Alice''s whereabouts by tracing their phone call.


    Meanwhile, should King Haydn discover that Alice had already learned about his deeds, there was no telling what he would do. Worst case scenario, King Haydn might decide to detonate all of the Rhine Kingdom''s taboo bombs to achieve mutual destruction after learning that his fate was sealed. If that happened, the entire Rhine Kingdom would be erased from the human realm.


    "Y-You''re still in the Rhine Kingdom?"


    King Haydn did not expect such an answer from Alice. Originally, he was 80% certain that Gunst was defeated by the Hero. Yet, Alice frankly told him she was still in the Rhine Kingdom. Moreover, judging by her tone, it didn''t seem like she was trying to denounce him. This situation stunned him a little.


    <em>What''s going on? Could Gunst''s disappearance be unrted to the Hero?</em>


    "That''s right. I''m still staying in the apartment I rented in the magic town."


    While saying so, Alice walked up to the window and opened it, letting King Haydn hear the creaking sound of the window being opened and themotion caused by her battle with Gunst just now.


    After indirectly hinting to King Haydn that she was still at home, Alice continued, "By the way, it seems a huge battle took ce a few blocks away just now. I can feel the residual mana all the way from my ce. I suspect someone has used taboos or taboo bombs, so I was just about to head out and investigate it. Are you not going to send some people to investigate this matter as well, King Haydn?


    <em>Why would I need to investigate it? My subordinates are the ones responsible for evacuating the area. They also reported back to me as soon as the battle ended.</em>


    King Haydn was feeling incredibly depressed right now. He naturally couldn''t voice his thoughts to Alice. Although Heroes chosen by God were known to have pure souls, they weren''t naive fools with one-track minds. Heroes were not beneath using crafty tricks to achieve their goals. So, King Haydn couldn''t tell if Alice was truly unrted to this matter or if she was just ying dumb with him.


    King Haydn was a ruthless person wielding great power. If Alice was any other person, he would have had her arrested regardless of whether he had any evidence of her suspicion. It didn''t matter even if Alice turned out to be innocent. Unfortunately, Alice wasn''t just any other person. She was the Hero, an opponent King Haydn couldn''t afford to provoke. So, King Haydn had no choice but to take it easy for the time being.


    <em>This is fine. If the Hero has truly determined my crimes, with how Heroes normally operated, she should have alreadye knocking on my door to question me. Since she hasn''te to find me, she shouldn''t have noticed those matters yet... Either that or she hasn''t found any evidence that can point to me.</em>


    After exchanging a few more words with Alice, King Haydn hung up the call with a gloomy face. Although Alice didn''t seem to have shown any hostility toward him and frankly told him that she was still in the Rhine Kingdom, he still couldn''t trust herpletely. At the very least, he would have to pay closer attention to Alice during this period.


    However, if what Alice said was the truth, and she truly didn''t have anything to do with Gunst''s kidnapping, who could possibly abduct Gunst? The Demon King? But shouldn''t the Hero have chased the Demon King away already? Or, could it be really like Alice had said, and the Demon King left some kind of hidden threat behind?


    Of course, no matter how much King Haydn racked his mind, he would never consider the possibility that the Hero and the Demon King were actually the same person. He would also never consider the possibility of the Hero and the Demon King working together. This was a situation that would only appear in fantasies. After all, there was no way God would allow their chosen one to coborate with the Demon King.


    <em>That guy should be having a huge headache right about now, right</em>


    Alice chuckled as she looked at her phone. If she were in King Haydn''s shoes, she would probably be mulling over whether the Hero was telling the truth right now. After all, the Hero wasn''t someone who could afford to casually take action against civilians. What if the Hero truly didn''t have anything to do with Gunst''s abduction? If she were to recklessly take action, wouldn''t she be voluntarily exposing her intentions to the Hero?


    Knowing about King Haydn''s concerns, Alice guessed that King Haydn would most likely try to observe her movements for some time before making a decision.


    In reality, Alice had thought of confronting King Haydn and eliminating him right away. However, if she chose to take such rash action, while she could indeed dispose of King Haydn, she would also be creating many future problems for herself.


    If she were to abruptly kill King Haydn without any valid evidence of his wrongdoings, she would create civil unrest in the Rhine Kingdom. At that time, the kingdom''s nobles would most likely take advantage of the situation to steal some of the royal family''s authority. To avoid such a situation, she needed to denounce King Haydn with valid evidence and have one of his children take over the position of king.


    At this point, it was no longer a question that King Haydn was trying to ally with the demons to steal a Demon King''s power. So long as she could find enough evidence, she could denounce him and have him abdicate the throne. However, the problem was that she had no substantive evidence of King Haydn''s wrongdoings.


    Even if she used Consciousness Transformation to make Gunst testify against King Haydn, she doubted Gunst''s words would be enough to convince the public. After all, spirit magic could be used to influence a person''s words and actions. So, in this world, the persuasiveness of human evidence was far less than that of physical evidence. It was especially so when the Hero was the one making Gunst give a testimony... After all, who didn''t know that the Hero was capable of using taboos? What if the Hero had manipted Gunst to give false testimony?


    Although everyone believed that the Hero was a noble person, even the noblest of people were susceptible to deception. What if someone had tricked the Hero into manipting Gunst?


    <em>Let''s hope Luna can get some useful information out of this guy''s memories</em> Alice thought as she looked toward the unconscious Gunst. Then, she held up her phone and dialed Luna''s number.


    Although Alice could use Consciousness Transformation to get Gunst to speak only the truth, it was pointless to do so since she didn''t know what questions she should be asking Gunst to get the evidence she wanted. Take aputer folder, for example. The evidence could be in the form of a video file, a music file, a document, or a program. If Alice didn''t even know the format of this evidence, how was she supposed to look for the thing she wanted?

 Chapter 383: Innocent Gunst

    Chapter 383: Innocent Gunst


    The next day, Lilith invited Alice out for another meeting, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was the following:


    "Gunst disappeared."


    Alice subconsciously tensed up when she heard Lilith''s words. However, she quickly rxed when she noticed the gloomy look on Lilith''s face, realizing that Lilith might not be aware she was behind Gunst''s disappearance.


    That was indeed the case. Lilith might have learned about Gunst''s disappearance, but she didn''t know Alice was behind the royal guard captain''s abduction.


    ording to Sylvia''s report, Gunst wasst seen in a neighborhood a few blocks away from the magic town. However, for some reason, King Haydn suddenly issued an order to evacuate and cordon off the neighborhood, so the thieves tasked to follow Gunst were forced to evacuate the area. Thenthat was it.


    Because Gunst''s subordinates had cordoned the neighborhood, Lilith''s thieves couldn''t sneak in to see what was going on inside. But judging by the dense residual mana flowing out of the neighborhood, it wasn''t hard to surmise that a battle of epic scale had taken ce inside.


    Originally, Lilith had wondered if Alice was the one who had fought Gunst. However, she quickly denied the thought. If Alice really did apprehend the mastermind, Lilith was certain Alice would inform her about it. But since Alice didn''t do so, Lilith felt that Alice wasn''t the person who had fought Gunst.


    Alice couldn''t help it. She likewise didn''t expect the mastermind to be King Haydn in reality. Hence, she didn''t tell Lilith about her n to apprehend Gunst to avoid alerting the enemy.


    After all, it was still highly unlikely for Lilith to think that her father was trying to collude with the demons. Alice felt that if she were to tell Lilith the truth, with how unprepared Lilith was against King Haydn right now, King Haydn might notice something was up if Lilith suddenly changed her behavior toward him. Hence, Alice nned to only tell Lilith the truth once she had collected sufficient evidence and was about to take action against King Haydn.


    Essentially, it was just like Lilith assumedif Alice did apprehend the real mastermind, Alice would tell her about it. Since Gunst was nothing more than a tool King Haydn used to carry out his plot, Alice didn''t see the need to inform Lilith about her actions.


    Fortunately, Luna had arrived in the Rhine Kingdom and was in Alice''s house checking Gunst''s memories, so, hopefully, it shouldn''t be long before Alice would find the evidence she needed to convict King Haydn. However, as neither Alice nor Luna knew what they should be looking for, Luna had no choice but to go through all of Gunst''s memories, starting from the most recent ones.


    Originally, Alice had nned to stay by Luna''s side until Luna found a clue. However, while Luna was looking through Gunst''s memories, Lilith contacted Alice, saying that she had something she wanted to tell her. Hence, here Alice was now, meeting with Lilith.


    "We can''t continue investigating Gunst now that he is missing, but from what we learned through looking at his past activities, it would seem that he has been actively visiting various ces starting several months ago."


    Lilith frowned. Although she was confused by Gunst''s disappearance, she couldn''t look deeper into the matter since her father had already taken over the investigation. So, she switched topics and started talking about Gunst''s activities in the past few months.


    "He is growing more and more suspicious in my eyes. A royal guard captain doesn''t have many duties, so there should be no reason for him to visit all these ces. His behavior is especially suspicious since he only started getting busy several months ago. He must be up to something."


    Indeed. As the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain, Gunst''s responsibilities should usually be limited to training and managing the kingdom''s army. Although a royal guard captain would have many more duties during times of war, the war between humans and demons had yet to begin, and the rtionship between the five human kingdoms was peaceful. So, the position of royal guard captain should be one with a rtively low workload right now.


    Take Catherine, for example. Despite being the Gryffin Kingdom''s royal guard captain, Catherine was free enough to help Alice handle all sorts of misceneous tasks. At this point, Catherine was already close to bing Alice''s butler. So, one could see just how much free time Catherine had on her hands.


    On the other hand, Gunst was often seen leaving the army and visiting various ces by himself, starting several months ago. He had even included a few forests in his itinerary. People who didn''t pay attention to Gunst naturally wouldn''t care why Gunst had suddenly started to be so active. However, from Lilith''s perspective, the sudden change in Gunst''s behavior was a big cause for suspicion. For all she knew, Gunst''s activities were preparations for usurping the throne.


    Alice smiled awkwardly when she heard Lilith''s words. She could more or less guess why Gunst was visiting various ces in the past several monthsit should be to find a suitable ce to nt the Pollution Roulette. However, Alice still hadn''t figured out why King Haydn would have Gunst ce the Pollution Roulette in the treant settlement. Perhaps she would learn the reason from Luna after she returned home.


    "By the way, Lilith, what do you think of your second brother''s abilities? Specifically, his ability as heir to the Rhine Kingdom''s throne," Alice suddenly asked. "If the kingdom was handed to him now, can he manage it properly?"


    "My second brother? If it''s him, he should do fine. In reality, he is already responsible for managing some of the kingdom''s affairs," Lilith answered after giving Alice''s question some thought. Although she didn''t know why Alice would suddenly ask about Etoria, she still gave Alice a truthful answer. "But he is still too young. He might have difficulties keeping his subordinates in check. Originally, I thought that Gunst should be able to help my second brother stabilize his position after he inherits the throne. But now"


    Just like I assumed, Gunst''s authority in the military can indeed help the new king stabilize his position. But that''s under the precondition that Gunst isn''t foolishly loyal to King Haydn Alice thought when she heard Lilith''s answer.


    "Why are you suddenly asking about my second brother? Don''t tell me you''re interested in him?" Lilith asked, a strange expression appearing on her face. "To tell you the truth, my second brother has a strange fetish. But if it''s you, Aliceyou might fit his tastes perfectly."


    "Are you asking for a beating?" Alice asked as she looked at Lilith indifferently, her response causing Lilith to shut her mouth.


    Thinking carefully, Alice realized that the Rhine Kingdom''s royal siblings more or less had some problems. The eldest prince was a cross-dresser, the eldest princess was an otaku, and the second prince was a lolicon. Although these hobbies weren''t a big problem, they made the siblings look strange...


    Out of the four royal siblings, the only one that appeared normal was the third prince. However, whether the youngest prince was actually normal or he had yet to realize his preferences due to his young age was up for debate.

 Chapter 384: Alice: Did I Mess Up Again?

    Chapter 384: Alice: Did I Mess Up Again?


    After parting ways with Lilith, Alice did not return home right away. Instead, she arrived near Lilith''s house while carrying a bag in her hand.


    When they switched to chit-chatting just now, Lilith had briefly asked about the bag''s contents. In response, Alice lied and said, "It''s underwear I just bought." Upon hearing that the bag held Alice''s private belongings, Lilith naturally dismissed any thoughts of looking into the bag.


    In reality, though, what the bag contained was a custom-made figurine box. The box was even enhanced by a simple gravity-stabilizing spell to ensure the figurine inside would always stay in ce and wouldn''t get damaged due to bumping or swaying. Although it definitely cost a lot to manufacture such a box, KG Company still gave one to Alice.


    Normally, such gravity magic would mainly be used on transportation tools. Even if the gravity magic used on the figurine box was a simplified version, adding it to a box was a considerably challenging feat. However, KG Company must have been worried about damaging the princess''s custom-made figurine, so they prepared this box to ensure its safety.


    Anyway, it should be obvious by now what Alice was trying to do. Indeed, she was trying to swap out Andusia with the new Hikari figurine she had KG Company make for her. From her conversation with Lilith, Alice learned that Lilith had other matters she needed to deal with after they parted ways and was unlikely to return home immediately. In addition, Alice also noticed that when they parted ways, Lilith did not leave in the direction of her house but in some other direction instead. So, knowing Lilith wasn''t home right now, Alice wanted to use this opportunity to recover Andusia.


    Like always, Alice concealed herself using her magic robe''s Mana Concealment and snuck into Lilith''s home using the same way she did previously. And sure enough, the only person in Lilith''s home was Andusia, who wore a bored expression as shey t on her back in a figurine cab in Lilith''s room.


    Although Andusia could freely move around while Lilith wasn''t home, she dared not do anything risky such as ying with Lilith''sputer. After all, one mistake could lead her to get discovered. So, she could only lie down in the cab and let her thoughts wander.


    Fortunately, Andusia had already grown used to such a situation during the past several thousand years she had spent in a soul-like state. So, a few weeks of boredom wasn''t enough to make her go crazy. Or, more specifically, it wasn''t enough to make her go crazy <em>again</em>.


    "Andusia? Are you awake?"


    Alice couldn''t help but get the urge tough when she saw Andusia''s lifeless expression through the ss cab. The poor Demon King was not only forced to live as a figurine, but she was also deprived of all forms of entertainment.


    "Oh. You''re here." Andusia sighed when she saw Alice. Then, she sat up in the cab, pushed open the ss door, and jumped out of it. Then, she looked at Alice and asked, "Did youe across another problem you need to ask me about?"


    "I''m not here to ask you questions. I''m here to bring you away," Alice said, chuckling. Then, she opened the bag in her hand and revealed a translucent figurine box. Meanwhile, suspended in the middle of the box was a figurine with the exact same appearance as Andusia. Or, more specifically, it was a figurine that looked exactly like the anime character Magical Girl Hikari. The figurine was even making the same pose as Andusia made in front of Lilith.


    However, anyone could easily tell that this Hikari figurine was made of wood. It was different from Andusia, whose skin felt like real human skin to the touch. If Alice were to use this figurine to take Andusia''s ce in its current state, Lilith would quickly notice that her precious figurine had been switched.


    "Is thisLiving Wood?"


    Andusia could naturally tell the "artificialness" of the figurine in the box. However, her senses also told her that this figurine was made of an extraordinary material. Then, she looked at Alice in surprise and said in amazement:


    "This is a surprise. How did you do it? I would assume that the rtionship between humans and treants has reached a freezing point with how developed human civilization has be already. How did you convince the treants to part with their Living Wood?"


    Andusia didn''t think Alice could sessfully acquire a block of Living Wood from the treants. After all, she had tried all sorts of ways to get a block from the treants in the past. It was only after she had run out of means that she resorted to using physical persuasion.


    However, Andusia was familiar with Alice''s personality, so she knew it was highly unlikely Alice would resort to robbing the treants like a bandit. Maybe the girl would resort to trickery to achieve her goal, but she definitely wouldn''t resort to using brute force, especially not against someone who hadn''t offended her.


    Hence, Andusia quickly reached a conclusion in her mind.


    "Did the treants offend you?"


    Alice might not rob the treants if they didn''t offend her, but it was a different story if they did offend her. After all, Alice was someone who wouldn''t mind using violence to achieve her goals. Take Miriya Hampar, for example. Alice had killed the Eighth Demon King without hesitation, showing no tender or protective feelings for the fairer sex.


    Not to mention, the treants were a bunch of literal blockheads. They did not match the beauty standards of humans and demons, so they didn''t even have the qualifications for Alice to show tender or protective feelings for them.


    "Can you not put me on the same level as you? I got the Living Wood through doing proper business with the treants," Alice said. She could naturally tell what Andusia was implying with her words. "After all is said and done, I am still the Hero. Isn''t it normal for me to ask forpensation for my work?"


    "Heh. The Hero, huh?" Andusia sneered at Alice mercilessly. "Apart from being able to use the Hero''s Sword normally, I can''t see any simrities between you and the other Heroes."


    "I''m not going to take you away if you keep speaking nonsense.''


    Alice''s mouth twitched a little at Andusia''sment. What Andusia said was true. She was very much different from a real Hero. After all, the real Hero of this generation was busy working as a spy in the demon realm for humanity''s future without the slightest bit of dissatisfaction.


    In contrast, the things Alice had been doing while bearing the title of Hero were ratherquestionable. If it wasn''t because she could wield the Hero''s Sword, an indicator she had received God''s recognition, it wouldn''t be strange even if the human realm''s inhabitants regarded her as the Demon King.


    "Anyway, help me prepare some fragmented souls," Alice said as she took out the Living Wood figurine from its box and ced it on the table next to Andusia. "But the only soul spell I know is one I learnedst minute in the Royal Magic Tower. Moreover, to save time, I didn''t choose a taboo-level one and opted for the simplest one instead."


    Although Alice possessed great talent, she still needed some time to learn a taboo. Not to mention, she would also need to take time to familiarize herself with the taboo. So, since she was short on time, she decided to learn the simplest soul spell she could find in the Royal Magic Tower''s library.


    "What spell did you learn?"


    Andusia didn''t mind that Alice didn''t learn a soul taboo. Living Wood might change its characteristics based on the soul inhabiting it, but it didn''t have any particr requirements for souls to inhabit it. Even if they haphazardly stuck in a bunch of fragmented souls, the Living Wood would automatically select the best characteristics to match the fragmented souls.


    "It''s a spell called Soul''s Return," Alice answered truthfully. After all, Andusia could be considered her senior. She had already realized herck of experience at Gunst''s ce, so if Andusia asked her something, she would just answer honestly. "It seems to be a spell the Royal Magic Tower teaches to second-year high school students. The spell allows the user to manipte an iplete soul and attach it to an object. It should work for our purposes, right?"


    "Soul''s Return What a coincidence. I have heard of this spell before," Andusia said, her mouth twitching a little. Then, looking at Alice with a gloomy expression, she continued, "Youlearned the spell without even bothering to read its introduction, right? Do you know what this spell is used for?"

 Chapter 385: Unexpected Harvest?

    Chapter 385: Unexpected Harvest?


    "Is there something wrong with Soul''s Return? I saw that it was recorded in one of the elective textbooks for second-year high school students, so it should be a popr spell," Alice said, scratching her head.


    Andusia was right to assume that Alice did not read the spell''s introduction. This was because Alice had skipped straight to studying the spell''s operating principles after opening the book. Meanwhile, based on what she gathered from reading the operating principles, she concluded that Soul''s Return could indeed be used to influence the remnant souls lingering in the air. Hence, she had learned it.


    In Alice''s opinion, any spell that could manipte the remnant souls lingering in the air should suffice for her purposes. After all, she was only out to collect a small amount of remnant souls to stuff into the Living Wood figurine and get it to have the skin characteristics of a human. She didn''t need precise control over souls to aplish this task.


    In addition, Soul''s Return wasn''t a particrlyplicated spell, which suited Alice''s needs perfectly since she didn''t have much time to invest in learning soul magic.


    "Elective textbooks They''re letting children learn such a thing?" Andusia scratched her head when she heard Alice''s words. Then, she took a deep breath and looked at Alice, saying, "Listen well. Soul''s Return might be an easy-to-learn spell, but it has very limited uses It can indeed do a simple search for remnant souls and manipte them, but the selection of remnant souls is extremely restricted."


    "The selection of remnant souls?" Andusia''s words stunned Alice. "What do you mean?"


    "Soul''s Return is designed specifically to target only remnant souls that have attached themselves to intelligent creatures. In other words, under normal circumstances, this spell can only collect remnant souls attached to a person for reasons such as ''yearning,''" Andusia exined.


    "For example, say that your grandfather is incredibly worried about you even on his deathbed. His ''yearning'' will cause a portion of his soul to stick to you even after his death. This remnant soul won''t cause you any harm. On the contrary, some strong people''s remnant souls can even bring blessings to their target of yearning. Anyway, that''s the gist of things."


    "So, you''re saying that Soul''s Return can only manipte such remnant souls?"


    Realization dawned on Alice. In other words, Soul''s Return could only be used to collect the remnant souls attached to a person for reasons such as yearning and was useless against remnant souls lingering in the air.


    "Yes. Also, while it is true that Soul''s Return can manipte the remnant souls attached to a person, the spell''s main purpose is actually to project images of those remnant souls," Andusia said, shrugging as she looked at Alice''s frustrated expression. "In other words, this spell is normally used to remember the deceased. For example, should a daye when you miss yourte grandfather, you can use this spell to collect yourte grandfather''s remnant soul, project his image, and pay homage to him... Needless to say, most people wouldn''t try to stuff the souls blessing them into a figurine."


    Indeed Only a cold-blooded person would be capable of stuffing their family members'' remnant souls into a figurine.


    <em>Not that I would have any of such remnant souls lingering around me,</em> Alice thought to herself. She was alone in this world. Although she did have deceased family members back on Earth, the souls of people on Earth were much weaker than those of people in this world. So, it was highly unlikely any remnant souls were attached to her right now.


    Although Alice also had the option of using Soul''s Return on someone else and using the remnant souls attached to that person to stuff into the Living Wood figurhat was far too inhumane of an action to do. She wasn''t crazy enough or desperate enough to do such a thing.


    "What should I do, then? How about you use one of your soul spells to collect a remnant soul, Andusia?"


    Alice felt rather helpless in this situation. Soul''s Return was the only soul spell she knew right now. Although she could ess a few soul taboos if she wielded the right type of panties, the active skills attached to those panties were either meant to suppress or purify souls.


    However, in Alice''s opinion, while she might be out of options, it was a different story for Andusia. As a veteran Demon King, Andusia had learned a bunch of taboos when she was alive, so she should know one or two soul taboos, right? In that case, she might as well get Andusia to help her with the Living Wood figurine.


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> While I do know some soul taboos, they either can''t be used in this situation or will create a hugemotion," Andusia said with an awkward expression on her face. "You should know that Demon Kings learn taboos for the express purpose of fighting. So, I didn''t bother learning taboos that didn''t have any use inbat


    "Most of the soul taboos I know use souls as ammunition for curses or attacks. I say most, but the two exceptions I have can''t be used in this situation, either. The first exception is a soul taboo meant to extract the user''s own soul to attach to a soul container. The second exception is a taboo called Soul Fortress. It is a taboo that can exert considerably powerful control over souls. However, if I use that, I''d be extracting the souls of every living individual in Icarus City"


    "..."


    Alice closed her eyes and sighed. Unfortunately, it would seem that she couldn''t rely on Andusia, either. After all, she couldn''t possibly have Andusia use that "Soul Fortress," right? The taboo might allow its user to control souls, but it was a taboo with a massive range. Even if Andusia did her best to limit the taboo''s range, there was a high possibility of an ident urring, and thest thing Alice wanted was to add more troubles to her te.


    "It seems I have no choice but to try this spell..."


    Although Alice felt rather helpless, she decided to try Soul''s Return. Immediately, mana spread from her body to the surroundings. Then, in no time, she sensed the presence of a few remnant souls in the room.


    "Indeed, I can''t control the remnant souls in the air..."


    Of course, that wasn''t to say that someone had died or gotten killed in this house recently. Most remnant souls that lingered in the air were incredibly fragmented and would wander around with time. Moreover, unless they were deliberately erased, these remnant souls wouldn''t disappear with them. So, after human civilization had existed for more than ten thousand years, remnant souls could be found almost everywhere in the air. Some of the remnant souls in the room might even belong to someone from thousands of years ago.


    The Living Wood didn''t have any requirements for a soul''spleteness. So long as the remnant soul belonged to a human, even if it was incredibly fragmented, it was enough to get the Living Wood to take on the skin characteristics of a human. Unfortunately, none of these remnant souls reacted when Alice tried to manipte them using Soul''s Return.


    However, just when Alice had thought of canceling her spell, she suddenly got a strange feeling. Although none of the remnant souls lingering in the surroundings reacted to her, she sensed that a soul somewhere had shown a little movement because of her Soul''s Return...

 Chapter 386: This Rabbit Is So Cute

    Chapter 386: This Rabbit Is So Cute


    "Huh?"


    Alice was a little surprised. She could feel that her Soul''s Return had indeed received a response from a remnant soul. However, wasn''t Soul''s Return supposed to only affect souls attached of targeted individuals?


    Alice was certain she didn''t have any remnant souls attached to her. Although she had made some close friends sinceing to this world, all her new friends were alive and healthy. So, there shouldn''t be any remnant souls attaching themselves to her because of "longing" feelings.


    As for Andusia, the likelihood of Soul''s Return receiving a response because of her was even lower. Andusia had already experienced a physical death thousands of years ago, and only her soul had survived until now. Andusia might have had many remnant souls attached to her because of feelings such as "hatred" when she was alive, but those remnant souls would have separated from her the moment her physical body died.


    As for the bodyguards keeping watch over Lilith''s house outside, there was no way Soul''s Return had received a reaction because of them. This was because Alice''s Soul''s Return only covered Lilith''s bedroom. It was why Alice could sense the presence of the remnant souls in the room.


    In that case, there was only one answer. With a perplexed look on her face, Alice retrieved the Milu Rabbit hidden under her skirt. Apart from herself and Andusia, the only other creature in this room that Alice could consider intelligent would be the Milu Rabbit that had followed alongside her since she first arrived in this world.


    The Milu Rabbit was still asleep even now. Ever since it ate the ashes of the burnt Soul Mark Scroll, it had fallen asleep and never regained consciousness. Originally, Alice thought this situation was because the Milu Rabbit needed some time to digest the soul power in those ashes. However, she now felt that her Milu Rabbit might never be able to regain consciousness


    Milu Rabbits might hold mana in their bodies, but this mana only allowed them to be slightly stronger than the average rabbit. In other words, it was a negligible upgrade. In reality, it could even be considered a downgrade since the addition of this mana made their flesh even more appealing and caused them to be raised for their meat. More than once, Alice hade across cookbooks focused on turning Milu Rabbits into various dishes.


    Meanwhile, seeing as Milu Rabbits could be raised as livestock, it was obvious that they weren''t very smart. This also meant that a Milu Rabbit''s small head was unlikely to withstand a Demon King''s soul power, even if the soul in question was already destroyed and reduced to fragments. This was most likely why Alice''s Milu Rabbit couldn''t regain consciousness even until now.


    Even if all of the Milu Rabbit''s physiological characteristics remained, an indicator that it was still a living creature, if it could never regain consciousness, it was essentially a vegetable... In reality, Alice had thought of getting Luna to inspect the Milu Rabbit''s brain once she was done with her matters in the Rhine Kingdom. However, she didn''t think that the Soul''s Return she used would react to the Milu Rabbit.


    Or, more specifically, the spell had reacted to a remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit?


    But wasn''t this situation a little too strange? To put it bluntly, her Milu Rabbit was just a rabbit. Who would possibly choose to bless or bear a grudge against a rabbit? Was it the blessing of another rabbit? Or was it hatred from a different kind of animal? Neither of these things made sense.


    Unintelligent creatures had pitifully weak souls. Logically, with how little energy these unintelligent creatures possessed, it shouldn''t even be possible for them to leave behind a remnant soul after their death.


    If the average human had 100 points of soul energy when they were alive, they would produce several remnant souls carrying one soul energy each after their deaths, and these remnant souls would attach to the people they had an obsession over. In the case of small animals, they would typically only have several points of soul energy when they were alive. That was nowhere near enough to generate a remnant soul after they passed away.


    So, how exactly did the Milu Rabbit get a remnant soul attached to it?


    Alice was confused by this situation. Fortunately, it wasn''t a confusion she couldn''t resolve. Although Soul''s Return was a spell with strict limitations, the spell wasn''t limited to just manipting the remnant souls that met its conditions. In addition to that, Soul''s Return could also project the images of these remnant souls.


    Since she couldn''t figure out the origin of the remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit, she could simply project the remnant soul''s image. Once she saw what the remnant soul looked like, everything would be clear.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice promptly separated the remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit through her Soul''s Return. Then, using her mana as a catalyst, she formed an image of the remnant soul. As soon as she did so, a somewhat translucent figure promptly appeared next to the Milu Rabbit.


    "Huh? This person is?"


    The remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit carried an unexpectedlyrge amount of soul energy. Even the projection Alice created of the person looked quite realistic. Regardless, when Alice saw the remnant soul''s projection, she immediately recognized the other party.


    "So it''s this person."


    The remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit was none other than Miriya Hampar, the blonde Demon King with a severe case of myopia. Thinking back now, Alice realized that since the Milu Rabbit had devoured Miriya''s soul fragments after the Demon King died, it was only natural that the Demon King''s remnant soul would get attached to the Milu Rabbit.


    Alice had to admit that the souls of Demon Kings were truly incredible. Only a small portion of Miriya''s soul energy should have remained after the container housing her soul got destroyed. Yet, this small portion of soul energy was still enough to create a remnant soul.


    If the average person''s soul contained 100 points of soul energy, Miriya''s soul, when she was alive, should have thousands, if not over ten thousand, points of soul energy. That was the only exnation Alice coulde up with. After all, from what her senses told her, Miriya''s remnant soul attached to the Milu Rabbit had roughly two points'' worth of soul energy. This meant that even after Miriya''s soul was destroyed along with the Soul Mark Scroll, her soul fragments contained in the ashes of the scroll still had hundreds of points worth of soul energy.


    "Oh? This must be Miriya, the Eighth Demon King, right? I''ve seen her portraits before," Andusia suddenly said. This was the first time she had seen Miriya Hampar''s true appearance. Although she knew Alice had eliminated Miriya''s soul, she wasn''t at the scene at the time, so she could only deduce Miriya''s identity based on Alice''s description of the other party.


    Meanwhile, after seeing the blonde Demon King''s remnant soul, Andusia quickly came to a realization and asked:


    "Don''t tell me you fed Miriya''s soul container to your Milu Rabbit? There is no way a creature like the Milu Rabbit has the brain and soul necessary to withstand a Demon King''s soul energy."


    "Miriya''s soul container was a piece of parchment called the Soul Mark Scroll, and I had already burnt it into ashes. I saw that the Milu Rabbit was interested in the ashes at the time, so I thought it could withstand her soul energy"


    Alice scratched her head awkwardly. She had admittedly been rather reckless with her decisions at the time.


    However, the fact that the Milu Rabbit didn''t die on the spot after ingesting a Demon King''s soul energy also showed how much soul energy Miriya had already lost at the time.


    Andusia was momentarily rendered speechless by Alice''s answer. Then, she said, "But it seems you are quite lucky. Not only did this Milu Rabbit not explode from the overabundance of soul energy, but it has even gradually digested some of this energy to improve its soul and intelligence But with the basic qualities of a Milu Rabbit, it''ll probably be several hundred years before it can regain consciousness."

 Chapter 387: Im Happy So Long as Someone Is Feeling Worse Than I Am

    Chapter 387: I''m Happy So Long as Someone Is Feeling Worse Than I Am


    Although Andusia said that the Milu Rabbit would need several hundred years before it could regain consciousness, after learning about the cause of the Milu Rabbit''satose state, the solution to the problem was already made clear to Alice. So long as she released the excess soul energy in the Milu Rabbit''s body, the Milu Rabbit would be able to wake up ahead of time.


    Although doing so would prevent the Milu Rabbit from absorbing Miriya''s remnant soul energypletely, it didn''t really matter whether the Milu Rabbit absorbed all of that soul energy. Just the amount it had absorbed during this period was already enough to strengthen its soul beyond the level of the average human.


    With such a powerful soul, the Milu Rabbit would gain the average human''s intelligence should it wake up now. It might even gain the ability to use magic. Although the Milu Rabbit''s soul and talent for magic might reach the level of the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings if it could absorb all of Miriya''s remnant soul energy, too much time was needed to do so. Alice did not n to stay in this world for several centuries. The Milu Rabbit would be left uncared for if she were to leave this world. If that were the case, the Milu Rabbit might not even survive more than a year, let alone several hundred years. So, Alice decided that she would wake up the Milu Rabbit ahead of time.


    Rather than worry about the potential strength and intelligence the Milu Rabbit would be missing out on, Alice was more concerned about something else. Specifically, what she should do about the Milu Rabbit''s name. Once the Milu Rabbit woke up, it would already have the intelligence of a normal human. In that case, it would unlikely be very upset if she continued postponing giving it a name.


    "It seems you''re prepared to expel the excess soul in the Milu Rabbit." Andusia quickly noticed what was going through Alice''s mind. After giving Alice a nce, Andusia frowned as she looked at the Milu Rabbit held by its ears in Alice''s hand and said, "Is there a need to go so far for a Milu Rabbit? It''s not easy to find a soul magician, especially one that can expel a Demon King''s soul energy."


    Any magician might be able to learn soul magic, but it shared a simr characteristic as all other types of magicit was easy to learn but difficult to master. Most magicians had an affinity for specific types of magic, and most magicians'' affinities were geared toward elemental magic, such as fire and water. Of course, light magic and dark magic were exceptions.


    As for special types of magic, such as gravity magic, spirit magic, and soul magic, that were not categorized under elemental magic, only a small number of people had an affinity for such magic. On top of that, non-elemental magic was typically more difficult to master than elemental magic. Combining these two factors, the chances of someone cultivating their mastery over non-elemental magic to a point where they could use taboos was incredibly slim.


    To give an example of how rare skillful non-elemental magicians were, there was only one spirit magician, who wasn''t a Hero or a Demon King, in the entire human realm capable of using spirit taboos.


    As luck would have it, the soul energy lingering in the Milu Rabbit''s body came from a Demon King. Even if it was only a Demon King''s remnant soul energy, it was still beyond the average person''s ability to control. A simple soul spell definitely wasn''t strong enough to expel this soul energy from the Milu Rabbit''s body. A soul spell that was either at the taboo level or close to it would be required.


    However, even if there existed a soul magician who could use soul taboos in this era, this magician would be one of their country''s top talents. They would most likely be tasked with gathering information and interrogating criminals. Even if Alice abused her authority as the Hero or the Demon King, it would take some time before the soul magician could be at her service.


    Of course, Alice also had the option of learning soul taboos herself. However, soul magic was simr to spirit magic in that its foundational knowledge was incredibly important. Unlike most elemental taboos, soul taboos could only exhibit a fraction of their true abilities if their usercked foundational knowledge of soul magic. If Alice were determined to help the Milu Rabbit, she would most likely have to spend a few months studying the basics of soul magic.


    For the average person, learning the basics of soul magic in only a few months'' time was an unbelievable feat. However, Heroes and Demon Kings were existences capable of learning several hundred elemental taboos in a span of a few months. In other words, spending months studying the basics of soul magic was a huge waste of time for Heroes and Demon Kings. Normally, only after a Hero or Demon King had already mastered a sufficientlyrge repertoire of elemental taboos would they start to learn non-elemental taboos.


    "Just so you know, the several soul taboos I learned don''t have any requirements for basic knowledge. So, although I know a few soul taboos, none of them can help you expel the excess soul energy in the Milu Rabbit. Don''t expect me to be able to learn anyplicated soul taboos in a few days, either. Of course, if you don''t mind me dragging the Milu Rabbit''s soul out as well, I can help you expel the excess soul energy," Andusia said, shrugging.


    "This Milu Rabbit means a lot to me, so don''t mess around with it," Alice said, rolling her eyes at Andusia. Her Milu Rabbit was the firstpanion she made aftering to this otherworld. Although she had essentially forced it to stay with her initially, seeing as the Milu Rabbit did not leave her when she gave it the chance to do so previously, it meant that their rtionship had already developed to a certain extent.


    Alice would feel very bad if she were to abandon the Milu Rabbit now. Hence, she had decided to get Hatter to help her once she was done with her tasks in the Rhine Kingdom.


    Even if a soul magician capable of using soul taboos did not exist in this world, Alice did not mind learning about soul magic. She possessed incredible talent now, so she could learn magic very quickly. Learning about new things also filled her with a sense of aplishment, so studying in her current body didn''t feel as boring as before she transmigrated.


    Although it was a waste to invest several months into studying soul magic, Alice honestly didn''t have anything better to do. After all, she had no leads to find the Demon King''s Power. In addition, ording to the Loli Goddess''s estimates, it should take around a year before the Demon King''s Power was ready to find its next Demon King candidate. So, taking a few months out to learn the basics of soul magic shouldn''t be a problem.


    "It seems you''ve made up your mind," Andusia said, nodding. Then, she looked at the Milu Rabbit in Alice''s hand and continued, "Although I don''t know why you are so attached to this Milu Rabbitwhatever. Before you set out to study soul magic, we can make use of Miriya''s remnant soul that''s attached to the Milu Rabbit."


    After saying so, Andusia revealed a gleeful expression. After all, once Miriya''s remnant soul was stuffed into the Living Wood figurine, she would no longer be the only Demon King to have their soul stuffed into a figurine.

 Chapter 388: How Many Years for Trespassing?

    Chapter 388: How Many Years for Trespassing?


    Setting aside the differences in mana, there weren''t any actual physical differences between Demon Kings and the average human. Although Demon King candidates would usually move to the demon realm shortly after the Demon King''s Power had chosen them, they didn''t need to grow unique organs to process the demon realm''s polluted mana like the demons did. Instead, they relied on the Demon King''s Power to handle this process.


    Hence, when Alice injected Miriya''s soul into the Living Wood figurine, the figurine''s surface instantly changed from a hard, wooden texture into a smooth, fleshy texture resembling real human skin. Now, this Living Wood figurine was essentially the same as Andusia. However, unlike Andusia, the remnant soul in the Living Wood figurine wasn''t self-conscious, so it couldn''t take independent action like Andusia.


    "Oh, Miriya, work hard in taking my ce as a figurine."


    After finally receiving liberation, Andusia couldn''t help butugh when she saw Alice putting the Living Wood figurine into the ss cab she previously upied. Although Miriya''s remnant soul no longer possessed a consciousness, it didn''t stop Andusia from making fun of her.


    Ignoring what others thought, Andusia was overjoyed that she finally wasn''t the only Demon King to have their soul stuffed in a figurine. Moreover, Miriya could be considered to have suffered a worse fate than her. So, knowing this, all of the dissatisfaction Andusia previously had with her figurine body vanished without a trace, and even her gait felt a lot lighter.


    "Why are you venting your frustrations out on a dead person?"


    Alice couldn''t help but roll her eyes at Andusia when she saw the other party''s antics. Then, she reached for Andusia, grabbed her, and put her on her shoulder.


    Honestly, Alice didn''t really understand why Demon Kings would have such a strong sense of pride, so much so that Andusia would feel a sense of superiority over an already-dead Demon King. This also showed just how much Andusia hated her current figurine body. Or, more specifically, Andusia hated the people who had turned the block of Living Wood her soul inhabited into a figurine.


    If it wasn''t for those people treating the Living Wood as an ordinary block of wood and carved it into the shape of Magical Girl Hikari, Andusia could have had the option of choosing her own appearance. Even if her soul needed to stay in the Living Wood, she could have carved it into a miniature version of her original self, at the very least. While it might not have been ideal, it was much better than taking on the appearance of the protagonist of a children''s anime.


    Moreover, because of her soul inhabiting a Hikari figurine, Andusia was already close to forgetting what she originally looked like. Now, whenever she spoke or thought about herself, the first image that would pop up in her mind was Magical Girl Hikari''s appearance. Whenever she saw images of Magical Girl Hikari, she would even subconsciously think of the image as a picture of herself


    Anyway, although Alice couldn''t understand Andusia''s thought process, since Andusia was so happy, she didn''t continue trying to spoil Andusia''s fun. Instead, she picked up the magic robe she had cast aside. She hadn''t used the magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill for more than half an hour. So, she could still use it for over half an hour, and she intended to use the remaining skill duration to leave Lilith''s house.


    However, as soon as Alice picked up her robe, her sharp senses quickly picked up sounding from the house''s front door. It sounded like a key being inserted into a keyhole. Although the sound was very soft, Alice''s senses had long since exceeded the realm of ordinary people, so she instantly noticed it.


    Lilith''s room faced the house''s front door. So long as Lilith opened the front door, she could immediately see the current state of her bedroom. To make matters worse, Alice didn''t close the bedroom door just now for fear of alerting Lilith that someone had trespassed into her home. However, Alice never thought that Lilith would return at this time.


    Although Lilith was aware that Alice was the Hero, what Alice was doing was trespassing on private property. If Lilith caught her in the act, her reputation would suffer a huge hit. Moreover, as Lilith had yet to cast any suspicions on King Haydn, this matter might very well get passed from Lilith''s mouth into King Haydn''s ears.


    Hence, Alice could not afford to let Lilith discover her no matter what.


    However, the front door was rtively cramped. Even if Alice concealed herself with the magic robe, she would have difficulty avoiding physical contact with Lilith when sneaking past Lilith and out of the front door. In addition, she wasn''t sure if the changes her body caused to the surrounding airflow would alert Lilith.


    <em>In any case, I should find a ce to hide first.</em>


    Left with no better option, Alice helplessly stuffed the Milu Rabbit under her skirt, grabbed Andusia with her left hand, and put on the magic robe with the help of her right hand. Immediately afterward, Alice vanished from the room. At the same time as Alice finished her series of movements, the front door also opened, and Lilith entered the house with a box of cake in her hand.


    After closing the door behind her and locking it, Lilith walked straight into her bedroom. At this point, Alice had already positioned herself in the corner of the room and stopped moving, so Lilith did not collide with her or notice anything strange. Then, after entering the room, Lilith closed the bedroom door under Alice''s helpless gaze.


    The situation was even worse now. If Alice wanted to leave the room now, she would have to open the bedroom door first. But if Alice opened the door, it would look like the door had opened by itself in Lilith''s eyes. This would definitely attract Lilith''s attention. And should Lilith reach for the door, she woulde into contact with Alice''s invisible body.


    Hence, Alice had no choice but to continue hiding in her corner of the room. Then, she watched as Lilith walked up to her figurine cab, took out Andusia''s recement, yed with it, and returned it to the cab a momentter. Evidently, Lilith did not notice that her figurine had been swapped. After all, there wasn''t any textural difference between Andusia and her recement. Both were also carved with the same appearance.


    Now, all Alice needed to do was wait for an opportunity to leave Lilith''s room without alerting Lilith.

 Chapter 389: Stop Scaring Lilith

    Chapter 389: Stop Scaring Lilith


    Lilith''s behavior in her bedroom was no different than that of ordinary female otakus. She ate the cake she had just bought while watching anime. asionally, she would also open up her phone''s messaging application to chat with other people. Simply put, she made herself veryfortable at home.


    Unfortunately for Alice, Lilith did not wear earphones or headphones when watching anime, opting to use a set of speakers instead. Had Lilith used earphones, Alice might have had an opportunity to sneak out of the room without Lilith noticing. However, with the current situation, Lilith would most likely be alerted if Alice were to sneak out of the room.


    "Hey, Andusia, do you have any way to get me out of here without touching anything in the room?"


    After spending a lot of time with Andusia, Alice had already learned how to transmit her voice directly to another person using mana. In reality, it wasn''t a particrly hard trick to pull off. So long as a person had enough control over mana, they could easily learn the technique. While it might be tough for the average person to fulfill this requirement, Alice''s Control stat had long since gone beyond the realm of ordinary people. So, she managed to learn this trick very quickly.


    Meanwhile, by using this voice transmission technique, Alice could ensure that she could talk to Andusia without Lilith''s notice.


    "How can there be such a convenient method... If I have to mention one, it would probably have to be spatial magic," Andusia answered helplessly. "But spatial magic is simr to healing magic in that both are a little tooplex. Like healing magic, spatial magic also requires the assistance of many magic materials to pull off. It''s impossible for one person to use spatial magic without any external help."


    This was why teleportation arrays could only be found in specialized buildings in towns and cities rather than in every individual household. The amount of materials needed to construct a teleportation array was so significant that it simply wasn''t feasible to build one in every household. Even if Andusia had learned how to use spatial taboos, she would need to carry a bunch of magic materials with her to construct a teleportation array on the spot.


    However, Andusia obviously wouldn''t have any interest in learning a taboo that required her to carry around a bunch of items with her. Such a taboo was useless to her. She''d be handicapping herself if she were to carry all these items on her while fighting against the Hero.


    Hence, Andusia honestly didn''t have a solution regarding Alice''s question, and she could do nothing but shrug her shoulders to express her inability.


    Seeing as even Andusia didn''t have a way to sneak out of the room quietly, Alice felt that her only way to leave unnoticed would be to create amotion to distract Lilith. Then, she would leave Lilith''s home while Lilith was distracted.


    However, this led Alice to another problemwhat kind ofmotion should she cause to distract Lilith? After all, Alice couldn''t leave the room right now, so it''d be unrealistic to try to create amotion outside to attract Lilith''s attention. If Alice wanted to cause amotion, she''d have to do it inside Lilith''s bedroom.


    But what could be done to attract Lilith''s attention? Moreover, themotion couldn''t be too small. At the very least, it''d need to be loud enough to cover the sound Alice made when she opened the bedroom door.


    <em>How troublesome</em>


    Alice sighed. She honestly didn''t think Lilith woulde home immediately after buying a piece of cake. However, after thinking it over, it made sense Lilith would take such a course of action. After all, it went without saying which option an otaku would choose if given a choice between window shopping and staying at home.


    Fortunately, it wasn''t difficult to cause amotion in the room; Alice had already thought of a way to do so. Wasn''t Lilith in the midst of investigating the loli Dark Guard before she switched to investigating Gunst? In that case, all Alice needed to do was summon the loli Dark Guard in this room.


    The only worry Alice had was that Lilith might be given a scare. After all, anybody would be scared if a person suddenly appeared in their room and out of thin air. Not to mention, this person was even supposedly an enemy.


    Of course, Alice also knew that since Lilith had alreadye home, it meant that Lilith''s bodyguardthe warrior named Kurseshould be on standby nearby. So long as Lilith came into danger, Kurse would immediately rush into the house to protect Lilith. While doing so, Kurse would definitely cause a hugemotion, so Alice could use the chaos to leave unnoticed.


    After nning her escape, Alice acted on her n without hesitation. Her invisibility would be running out soon. If she wasted any more time, her invisibility would disappear, and she would be caught red-handed sneaking into Lilith''s house.


    Seeing that Lilith currently had her attention focused on herputer monitor, Alice loosened her grip over her magic robe and temporarily dismissed her invisibility. Then, she pulled out the dagger named "It''s So Short" and swiftly activated the "Chaos General" skill, choosing to summon the sledgehammer loli.


    After doing so, Alice quickly grabbed her magic robe with her right hand and reactivated Mana Concealment, turning herself invisible again. Then, she had the sledgehammer loli boldly walked up behind Lilith and lifted her massive sledgehammer with both hands.


    At this time, Lilith finally noticed the danger approaching her from behind. Hurriedly, she turned around, only to see a dark-skinned loli threatening to tten her with a menacing sledgehammer.


    Goosebumps instantly rose all over Lilith''s body. However, rather than wonder how the dark-skinned loli, whom Kurse had killed previously, had appeared in her room, Lilith hurriedly dodged to a side and evaded the sledgehammer that was descending toward her.


    Even after missing its target, though, the sledgehammer did not stop its descent. Instead, it continued falling and hit Lilith''s chair, smashing the chair into countless pieces. Then, it hit the floor and smashed the wooden floor into countless pieces as well.


    Fortunately, Alice had instructed the sledgehammer loli to hold back. Hence the sledgehammer''s descent stopped once it hit the concrete underneath the wooden floor. Although the impact caused the house to shake a little, the concrete ground did not break apart. Had the sledgehammer loli used her full strength in that attack, the entire apartmentplex would have been demolished. Even if the building didn''t break apart, it would have suffered a fate simr to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


    Meanwhile, Lilith naturally realized that the sledgehammer loli was holding back. After all, she knew how powerful Kurse was and what kind of destruction he was capable of. Yet, even Kurse was put at a disadvantage when he tried to sh with the sledgehammer loli using brute strength.


    However, Lilith didn''t think too much about the matter. She simply assumed the sledgehammer loli''s n was to capture her rather than kill her. Fortunately for her, before the sledgehammer loli could take any further action, the bedroom door suddenly exploded and in came Kurse rushing to her rescue. Immediately afterward, Kurse swung the longsword in his hand at the sledgehammer loli.


    When Alice saw Kurse taking only seconds to react to Lilithing under attack ande to Lilith''s rescue, she had to admit that the man deserved his position as Lilith''s bodyguard. She was also right to guess that Kurse was on standby in a nearby house. Moreover, by the looks of things, the man had most likely charged straight through every door in his way toe to Lilith''s rescue as quickly as possible.


    Fortunately, Alice had chosen to hide in the corner of the room instead of behind the bedroom door. Otherwise, Kurse would have most definitely crashed into her. Although Alice wasn''t so weak that she would get sent flying by Kurse, the collision would let Kurse know that another person was concealed in Lilith''s bedroom.

 Chapter 390: Andusia Get☆Daze(ゲット☆だぜ)

    Chapter 390: Andusia Get��Daze(���åȡ����)


    Naturally, there was no way Kurse''s sword could hit Alice''s Dark Guard so easily. The Dark Guards summoned by It''s So Short were all talents carefully selected by thest Demon King that owned the weapon. Except for the busty demoness pretending to be a diviner, the three other Dark Guards were all powerhouses with superbbat capabilities.


    Upon sensing Kurse''s attack, the sledgehammer loli immediately lifted her sledgehammer with both hands and swung it, the blunt weapon meeting the oing longsword head-on.


    The terrifying strength carried by the sledgehammer instantly knocked Kurse''s longsword away. The sound waves that were generated from the collision even cracked the walls of the room and forced Lilith to cover her ears lest she wanted to go deaf.


    After his attack got blocked, Kurse frowned as he looked at the sledgehammer loli''s sledgehammer. The fact that the sound waves generated from their weapons colliding were strong enough to crack the room''s walls, it was obvious that the sledgehammer loli hadn''t been using her full strength when striking Lilith just now. It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that the sledgehammer loli had used less than one-tenth of her strength.


    Had the sledgehammer used her full strength when attacking Lilith, her missed attack definitely wouldn''t have stopped at just cracking the concrete floor underneath the wooden tiles. Based on his understanding of his own strength, Kurser was confident he could slice the entire apartment building apart like a block of tofu if he went all out. So, if sledgehammer loli, who was most likely stronger than him, attacked with all her strength, she could have easily demolished the entire building.


    Not to mention, the speed at which the sledgehammer loli swung her weapon would have also been faster had she been going all-out, which meant she would have most likely struck Lilith and killed her. So, the fact that the sledgehammer loli had held back so much of her strength most likely meant that she didn''t have any intentions of killing Lilith. In that case, why would the sledgehammer loli attack Lilith? Could it be to capture Lilith alive? But why?


    Thinking up to this point, Kurse suddenly remembered something Lilith had told him about two days ago. Combining that information with the investigation results they had acquired on the sledgehammer loli, a demon warrior who was supposedly active thousands of years ago, Kurse came to a realization.


    "Be careful, Your Highness! This person might be Gunst''s subordinate! Gunst must have allied with the demons already!" Kurse shouted.


    <em>What?</em>


    Alice, who was about to make her escape amidst the chaos, suddenly paused to look at Kurse in surprise. She didn''t think the Dark Guard she summoned to create amotion would lead to Gunst being used of allying with the demons.


    However, after thinking it over, Alice quickly understood how Kurse came to such a conclusion. If Gunst truly was secretly trying to ally with the demons to usurp the throne, it wouldn''t be outside the realm of possibilities for him to be able to order around a demon warrior. As luck would have it, the sledgehammer loli was a demon warrior from thousands of years ago.


    Adding on Lilith''s recent investigation of Gunst and Gunst''s sudden disappearance, Kurse must have been led to think that Gunst had already discovered Lilith''s actions. In response, Gunst had chosen to go into hiding while simultaneously sending a demon warrior to attack Lilith.


    As for why Gunst didn''t order his demon warrior to kill Lilith, it should be because Gunst knew of the consequences of killing a member of the royal family. Lilith''s murder would immediately shake the royal family and provoke an all-out investigation. If that happened, there was a chance his ns might get exposed. Hence, he decided to abduct Lilith and figure out a way to stop her from investigating him.


    Although these were all scenarios Alice hade up with, she felt that since Kurse could conclude that "the sledgehammer loli is Gunst''s subordinate," the man should be harboring simr thoughts in his mind.


    "That is indeed a possibility It seems we were right in the direction of our investigation," Lilith said after hiding behind Kurse with a shocked look. Then, in a serious tone, she continued, "If that''s the case, we have even more reason to make things difficult for him... Kurse, get rid of this girl!"


    It would seem that Gunst''s name would remain sullied for the foreseeable future. Perhaps Lilith would only learn of Gunst''s role in all of this after King Haydn''s actions were brought to light.


    As for the true identity of the sledgehammer loli''s superior, Lilith would most likely never learn about it.


    After seeing Lilith''s and Kurse''s responses to the sledgehammer loli''s abrupt appearance, Alice apologized to Lilith in her mind and got ready to leave. Although the chaos this time did not cause Lilith any injuries or actual damage to the apartmentplex, some renovation costs were unavoidable. Of course, the cost of renovating a room and fixing a few doors wouldn''t be a problem for Lilith.


    While Lilith and Kurse had a stare-off with the sledgehammer loli, Alice quietly opened the door Kurse had broken through and slipped out of the room.


    However, despite Alice''s attempt at being silent, Lilith still noticed the door behind her moving. Fortunately, even after she turned around and saw the open door, she didn''t think too much about it. She simply assumed that Kurse''s action of crashing through the door had broken the doorknob.


    Like so, Alice managed to slip out of Lilith''s room unnoticed. As for the damages caused to Lilith''s apartment, all of the me had already been pushed onto Gunst in Lilith''s mind.


    "I see you still like pushing the me onto others," Andusia said in a mocking tone.


    After Alice put some distance between herself and Lilith''s house, the duration of her magic robe''s Mana Concealment skill finally ran out. Now, it would enter a cooldown period before it could be used again. At this time, Andusia had also found herself back on Alice''s familiar shoulder.


    "Less yapping. I wouldn''t have had to go through all this trouble if it weren''t for you," Alice said, the corner of her eyes twitching a little when she heard Andusia''s ridiculingment. Everything she did this time was so that she could rescue Andusia from Lilith''s evil clutches.


    "Hey, it''s you who sold me. If you never sold me to that little fellow, you wouldn''t have needed to go through all this trouble in the first ce, right?" Andusia responded with a snort as she sat down on Alice''s shoulder and patted Alice on the cheek. After getting familiar with Alice, her actions have be less and less reserved. If it was when her mana was sealed, she would have never dared to take such an action against Alice.


    "In any case, I need your help with some of the encounters I''ve had recently," Alice said, sighing. While nobody around was paying attention to her, she slipped her right hand into her pouch and held onto It''s So Short''s hilt. Then, after canceling the Chaos General skill, she said, "I''vee across so many problemstely that I don''t even know what to do anymore."


    Whether it was the "Demon King''s Shadow" incident or the "Pollution Roulette" incident, Alice urgently needed Andusia''s advice on both matters.

 Chapter 391: So, This is The Protagonists Luck?

    Chapter 391: So, This is The Protagonist''s Luck?


    "I see. So this is also a weapon made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence." Andusia frowned as she looked at the cor Alice had ced before her, her annoyance clear as day. After all, no matter how she looked at it, this "Pollution Roulette" had clearly gone against the naming convention of weapons made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence.


    Why did this "Pollution Roulette" get to have such a cool name instead of something stupid like her "This Is Wrong" and Miriya''s "It''s So Short"?


    Moreover, the Pollution Roulette''s appearance was vastly better than her and Miriya''s weapons. Although the Pollution Roulette still wasn''t something that could be casually taken out in public, it could still be considered a cool essory based on some of the current street cultures.


    Not to mention, the Pollution Roulette had incredible sticity, so while it might be in the shape of a cor, it didn''t have to be worn on a person''s neck. It could also be worn as a bracelet on the wrist or ankle. In fact, if worn as a bracelet, the Pollution Roulette was highly unlikely to attract any strange stares from other people.


    "Alright, stop getting upset over such unimportant matters."


    Alice was rendered a little speechless by Andusia''s needless pride. She had already told Andusia about the discoveries she had made from her recent investigations. Originally, she thought she could use Andusia''s wealth of experience to get some advice. Yet, this old fossil kept getting distracted by the Pollution Roulette andparing it with the other weapons made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence.


    "Fine" Andusia was clearly still very upset by the Pollution Roulette. However, since Alice had asked her to focus on the topic at hand, she had no choice but to suppress her displeasure. Then, while caressing her chin, she said, "Honestly, after taking into ount the ''Demon King''s Shadow'' incident you mentioned, the reason that Haydn Doyle would put the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory is simple."


    "What''s the reason?" Alice hurriedly asked. Even now, she still hadn''t figured out why King Haydn would nt the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory. She had thought about the possibility of King Haydn trying to destroy the treants'' living environment, but she hadn''t heard of King Haydn having any grudges against the treants.


    "Haydn Doyle''s goal is to convert Demon King''s Shadow from a taboo that ''summons a Demon King''s phantom that acts on instincts'' into a taboo that ''has a Demon King''s phantom possesses the caster''s body so that the caster can gain the Demon King''s strength.'' But to achieve that, he needs arge amount of demon mana, right?" Andusia said slowly. "However, at present, there aren''t many demons in the Rhine Kingdom, so he cannot collect enough mana to fulfill his needs. Hence, Haydn Doyle is using the guise of an alliance to trick arge number of demons into the human realm."


    After saying so, Andusia sneered, seemingly feeling contempt for King Haydn''s ns.


    "In that case, the Pollution Roulette''s role in all this is simpleit is his backup n. He is trying to modify the treants'' living environment so that he can transform the treants and have them create the demon mana he needs."


    "He wants to have the treants create demon mana?" Alice grew puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"


    "Demon mana is, simply put, ''polluted mana'' that has been processed into usable mana. The name of ''demon mana'' might lead you to think that only demons can produce it with the help of their demonic organs, but the fact of the matter is that there are multiple races that can aplish this same process," Andusia exined.


    "Take the elves, for example. As the favored children of nature, they can easily adapt to various harsh environments such as the demon realm''s environment. While they might find it ufortable to stay in the demon realm, they can quickly adapt to the polluted environment with their powerful physiques. Their bodies will also automatically purify the ''polluted mana.'' Meanwhile, this purified mana would be, in essence, the same as demon mana."


    "I see. And since the treants are simrly the favored children of nature, they, too, can adapt to various harsh environmentsSo, Haydn''s goal is to modify the treants'' living environment, force the treants to adapt to the polluted mana, and harvest the mana purified by the treants."


    Alice came to a realization. It turned out that King Haydn had prepared two hands for his ns. If he failed to receive a positive answer from the demons, he would elerate the destruction of the treants'' living environment. In turn, the treants would have to adapt to the polluted environment and purify the polluted mana around them to survive.


    Meanwhile, the mana purified by the treants would essentially be the same as the mana processed by the demons'' demonic organs. So, King Haydn could use it to rece the demon mana he needed to realize his goals.


    By the looks of things, Alice had inadvertently foiled King Haydn''s backup n. It was no wonder King Haydn would be in such a hurry to have Gunst recover the Pollution Roulette after he realized it had been stolen. After all, the demons were refusing to give him a response all this time. Now that the Pollution Roulette was stolen, it meant that both of the hands he prepared had been severed. In such a situation, it''d be strange if he wasn''t in a hurry.


    "If Haydn doesn''t have a third hand prepared, he should be getting increasingly anxious right now."


    Alice narrowed her eyes. King Haydn should be feeling like an ant in a hot pan right now. After all, both of King Haydn''s ns were foiled, and Gunst had also gone missing. In such a situation, it shouldn''t be long before King Haydn slipped up and exposed himself.


    "I''m done on my side, Alice."


    While Alice was considering whether she should corner King Haydn even further, the door to the study suddenly opened. Then, Luna entered the room and walked up to her side.


    Luna had arrived in Icarus City this morning, and roughly five hours had gone by since then. Meanwhile, five hours were more than enough for her to take a look through Gunst''s memories in recent years. In fact, Luna should have a better grasp of Gunst''s memories than even Gunst himself.


    If Gunst were topete with Luna on who had a better understanding of his memories in recent years, Luna would most likely trample over Gunst.


    "I already said you don''t have to act so reservedly."


    Alice smiled helplessly. Although Luna was addressing her by name as per her request, Luna''s every action toward her remained very respectful. There was even a slight sense of alienation in Luna''s speech.


    Honestly, Alice preferred if her rtionship with Luna was more like Lilith''s rtionship with Sylvia. Sylvia might be Lilith''s subordinate, but she also regarded Lilith as a friend with whom she could go shopping and talk about mundane stuff. Alice hoped that Luna could one day be like Sylvia and stop being overly respectful toward her.


    "Then, tell us what you saw in Gunst''s memories."

 Chapter 392: Gunsts Luck is E

    Chapter 392: Gunst''s Luck is E


    Gunst was a person with a stubborn mind, an upright personality, and great flexibility in battle.


    A stubborn mind. This part of Gunst was mainly reflected in his perception of the world. He was an orphan taken in by the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family, so he was nurtured as a warrior for the Rhine Kingdom since he was a child, and he was staunchly loyal to the royal family. His loyalty did not change even after he had acquired a significant portion of the Rhine Kingdom''s military power.


    An upright personality. This part of Gunst was more easily seen. Although Gunst wasn''t a talkative person, he would often help people from poor families. He also spent money to build many orphanages and welfare homes around the country.


    However, one would be mistaken if one assumed Gunst was soft-hearted simply because of his phnthropic behavior. When dealing with people who vited thew, he would never go easy on them. He treated all criminals equally, regardless of whether they came from poor or wealthy backgrounds. For these reasons, Gunst had an excellent reputation among the people. It was also why Lilith had admired him greatly in the past.


    Great flexibility in battle. Alice had personally experienced this part of Gunst previously. Although Gunst had a stubborn perspective of the world and an upright personality, none of those were reflected in his actions when he fought for real. When fighting against a confirmed enemy, he would use any means avable to achieve victory, even if it meant resorting to unscrupulous tactics such as sneak attacks and attacking the lower half of his opponent''s body. ording to Luna''s findings, Gunst had even used a spiritual magic scroll when he fought against Alice.


    Unfortunately, Alice''s spirit was overly strong. Moreover, as luck would have it, Gunst had used the spiritual magic scroll in conjunction with his final "Rainbow."


    At the time, Alice was already holding a pair of white panties in her right hand. Meanwhile, the white panty just so happened to have a passive skill called Spiritual Abnormality, and the skill''s effect protected her from all spirit magic. Hence, the spirit spellunched by the magic scroll was utterly useless against Alice.


    When Alice listened to Luna retelling the battle, a somewhat awkward expression appeared on her face. She couldn''t help but think that Gunst was an incredibly unlucky fellow. Under normal circumstances, thebination of Rainbow, a physical-type offensive taboo, and a spiritual magic scroll should have been an ultimatebination that would allow Gunst to win against most opponents on his level. Yet, both of these attacks were perfectly countered by the white panty''s two passive skills(Spiritual Abnormality and Absolute Defense).


    If Luna hadn''t read Gunst''s memories, Alice wouldn''t have even known that Gunst had attacked her with a spirit spell. After all, Spiritual Abnormality''s effects were incredibly powerful. Unless a spirit taboo struck her, she wouldn''t feel anything.


    "However, doesn''t this also mean that Gunst''s loyalty doesn''t lie solely with Haydn but with the royal family instead?"


    Setting Gunst''s terrible luck aside, Alice noted that based on Luna''s exnation, while Gunst might be stupidly loyal, his loyalties didn''t lie with King Haydn specifically. Instead, he was loyal to the royal family. Only, since King Haydn currently wielded the greatest authority in the royal family, Gunst chose to obey King Haydn''s orders almost unconditionally.


    But that was about it. ording to Luna, Gunst was indeed responsible for nting the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory, and he had done so because it was an order from King Haydn. However, Gunst didn''t actually know the purpose and nature of the Pollution Roulette. He also didn''t know why King Haydn would give him such amand.


    Basically, Gunst had merely been carrying out themands he received like a perfect tool.


    "It seems that Haydn is also aware that Gunst''s blind loyalty isn''t targeted at him specifically but the entire royal family," Andusia said, ridiculing King Haydn''s cowardice. "But this also means that even if we eliminate Haydn afterward, so long as another member of the royal family inherits the throne, Gunst will be willing to assist the new ruler."


    "Based on Gunst''s memories, that is indeed the most likely scenario," Luna said, nodding when she saw Alice and Andusia turning to her. "He will only obey the orders of the royal family. So long as the kingdom''s ruler has the royal family''s blood coursing through their veins, he doesn''t care who ends up sitting on the throne."


    "In that case, we won''t have to worry about Gunst anymore," Alice said, sighing in relief. "Thinking about it now, Haydn must have promoted Gunst to the position of royal guard captain because he is worried his children might give Gunst an order that would be outside his control. But now that Gunst wields such great authority in the kingdom, I won''t have to worry so much about eliminating Haydn."


    "Is Gunst still nowhere to be found?"


    While Alice and the others were discussing King Haydn, King Haydn anxiously searched for Gunst''s whereabouts. At this point, he received at least five updates from the intelligence department daily. However, every update only gave him a disappointing answer. It was as if Gunst had suddenly ceased to exist, vanishingpletely.


    Even the tracking crystal that Gunst had left in his ce had lost its functionality. This tracking crystal could normally track Gunst''s location based on his mana, but when he tried to use the crystal now, it remained unresponsive, refusing to give him any information.


    What Haydn didn''t know was that Alice had sealed Gunst''s mana. At this point, Haydn was even wondering if Gunst had died already and his mana hadpletely dissipated. If that were the case, it would exin why the tracking crystal couldn''t locate Gunst.


    Honestly, Haydn hoped that Gunst was dead. That way, Gunst wouldn''t be able to reveal any of his secrets. Even if someone extracted Gunst''s remnant soul, a remnant soul that didn''t have a consciousness wouldn''t be able to provide much useful information.


    Meanwhile, the worst-case scenario would be that Gunst was still alive, and someone had imprisoned him in a ce where mana could not reach. In that case, if someone were to interrogate Gunst using spirit magic or a special form of torture and learn about themands Haydn had given to Gunst, Haydn would be in big trouble.


    "Lord Fogallo, you''ve really put me in a bind this time..." Haydn uttered aint as he looked at the small mirror in his hand. Meanwhile, the name he mentioned belonged to none other than the Tenth Demon King, Fogallo Fold. Fogallo Fold was also the Demon King whose phantom would be summoned by the taboo Demon King''s Shadow.


    If Haydn wanted to acquire Fogallo Fold''s strength instead of summoning a puppet incapable of thought, he would need to gather a sufficientlyrge amount of demon mana. However, it was an incredible challenge to aplish such a feat. After all, how would he find so many demons in the human realm?


    Although Haydn could get a bunch of demons as long as he went to the demon realm, he needed to set upplex devices to harvest the demons'' mana. Haydn had secretly had people construct these devices, but they were incrediblyrge and cumbersome, so transporting them would be very problematic. Moreover, if he brought these devices to the demon realm, the demons would definitely discover them. At that time, he would most likely get attacked by many powerful demons.


    Hence, Haydn needed a way to attract arge number of demons into the Rhine Kingdom. Either that or he needed to create an environment resembling that would allow him to produce demon mana. But now, both of these paths had been closed off from him.


    "I''ll need at least a hundred demons to meet my needs..." Haydn fell into thought as he looked at the mirror in his hand. The mirror that originally reflected his gloomy face was now disying a progress bar that kept track of the current amount of demon mana detected in the Rhine Kingdom. "But the demons have yet to respond to my request for an alliance even until now, and the number of demons in the kingdom isn''t even enough to meet one-tenth of myhuh?"

 Chapter 393: The Culprit Visits The Scene of The Crime

    Chapter 393: The Culprit Visits The Scene of The Crime


    Alice could feel that someone was watching her today. Her high Spirit stat allowed her to clearly sense the types of gazes directed toward her. Meanwhile, she noticed that many of the gazes she was receiving recently were observing her with deliberate intent.


    If Alice''s guess was correct, these gazes should being from King Haydn''s subordinates. After all, Alice was the Hero. Now that Haydn had learned that the Hero was still in his country, his guilty conscience naturally wouldn''t let him ignore the Hero''s presence and let the Hero roam freely outside his knowledge. It was especially so now that Gunst had gone missing. At this point, Haydn was most likely still suspicious of Alice''s involvement in Gunst''s disappearance.


    In the case of the average human, 99% of them would trust anything and everything the Hero said. This was because Heroes were saviors chosen by God. They were warriors with pure souls and the willingness to sacrifice their blood, tears, and sweat for the sake of humanity. A good example would be Aird, the true Hero who was <em>still </em>working undercover in the demon realm.


    However, Haydn was different. He wasn''t your average civilian. He was someone seeking to acquire a Demon King''s strength. It also went without saying that his goal in seeking this strength wasn''t to fight for humanity''s freedom. On the contrary, his actions put him directly against humanity. Hence, he wouldn''t ce absolute faith in the Hero''s words as most humans would.


    Not to mention, while the Hero might not lie to ordinary people under normal circumstances, it was a different story when the Hero was dealing with her enemy. What if Alice had already discovered his actions and lied to him after taking care of Gunst?


    In the eyes of a liar, everyone around him would naturally be a liar as well. Hence, it was understandable that Haydn would send people to keep track of Alice''s movements and see if he could find any clues that might reveal her to be the person who had defeated Gunst.


    However, the most Haydn could do now was monitor Alice''s daily activities and her rented apartment from a distance. He still didn''t dare to have his subordinates sneak into Alice''s house. After all, he wasn''t 100% certain that Alice had already caught onto his ns. If he had his subordinates sneak into Alice''s house and learned that everything was only a misunderstanding, he''d have needlessly provoked the Hero. Worse yet, he might even expose his ns to the Hero.


    While it was still bad to have people monitor Alice''s activities, there was still room for excuses and recovery, right?


    "Alice, should I eliminate those people for you?" Luna asked.


    Luna might not be as strong as aplete Demon King, but she was still stronger than the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings by arge margin. She was basically on the same level as Alice right now in terms of strength. She was even superior to Alice when it came to magical studies. So, while Luna might not be as strong inbat as Alice when thetter was fighting with panties, she could still sense whatever Alice could.


    Originally, Alice had nned to bring Luna to inspect the location where she fought Gunst two days ago. However, as soon as they left the house, they were immediately subjected to numerous gazes, and this displeased Luna. After all, this was one of the rare assions where Alice took the initiative to seek her help. This made her feel needed by the Hero. Yet, now, their outing was put under threat by all these unpleasant stalkers.


    Luna was so upset by this situation that even her expression had darkened significantly, and her voice had grown somber as she said:


    "I can ensure they die of natural causes. Nobody will notice that they''ve been attacked."


    Luna was a spirit magician. With the strength of a pseudo-Demon King, it''d be a piece of cake for her to mess around with the spirits of these stalkers without anyone being the wiser. Even if she outright killed them, those who inspected the corpses would only find that these people had died of natural causes. They wouldn''t find evidence that these people had been killed by spirit magic. Unless, of course, Haydn asked for help from the human realm''s only spirit magician capable of using spirit taboos.


    However, it didn''t really matter whether Haydn could find anything on his subordinates'' corpses. If all of the subordinates he sent to monitor Alice suddenly croaked, even if it was from natural causes, he''d have to be an utter fool to believe that these people had truly died from natural causes. So, Alice shook her head and said:


    "Ignore them. They''re only following Haydn''s orders. We only need to take care of Haydn. There''s no need to trouble these people."


    The people monitoring her were, simply put, innocent wage earners. If Haydn didn''t even dare to share his ns with Gunst, someone staunchly loyal to the royal family, there was no way he''d share his ns with other people. So, it was unlikely that any of these observers were truly aware of Haydn''s ns.


    Soon, Alice and Luna arrived at the scene where Alice fought Gunst the day before yesterday. The Rhine Kingdom''s military had already locked down the area and erected tall rock walls using magic around it. Unless one flew in the air, it''d be impossible to see what was going on inside the cordoned area from the outside.


    However, every kingdom in the human realm had very strict restrictions on flying in cities. From what Alice heard, it was because flying idents would often ur when flying in densely popted cities wasn''t properly regted. Moreover, these idents would usually lead to serious injuries and deaths.


    As one of the most important cities in the Rhine Kingdom, it went without saying that Icarus City would have a strict air ban. So, even though many people had gathered outside the rock enclosure, nobody dared to openly vite the air ban in front of the military.


    When Alice and Luna initially arrived at the scene, a soldier in light armor had intended to have them leave the area. However, when Alice lifted her hat and revealed her face, the soldier was briefly stunned before letting Alice and Luna enter the cordoned area.


    Beforeing here, Alice had naturally contacted Haydn through her phone and told him that he would be visiting the scene of the battle that took ce two days ago. As for the excuse Alice gave Haydn, it was something along the lines of: "I feel that there is something strange with the mana used in that battle. It feels like taboos were used, so I''m thinking of investigating the situation."


    It was a reasonable excuse, so Haydn had no way of refusing Alice''s request. It would also seem that Haydn had informed the soldiers here about her visit. Although these soldiers didn''t know about Alice''s identity as the Hero and were confused as to why the king would let the princess of a neighboring kingdom into the cordoned area, since Gunst, their direct superior, had gone missing, they had no choice but to listen to King Haydn''smands.


    After walking through a door in the wall, Alice saw that the battlefield looked the same as when she had left it. Haydn did not have people repair the damaged streets and buildings immediately. Instead, he chose to search for clues and find out the identity of the person who fought Gunst as well as...


    Searching for an incredibly important item from the battlefield.

 Chapter 394: I Have a Bad Feeling

    Chapter 394: I Have a Bad Feeling


    There were quite a number of people walking around the ruined street. However, unlike Alice and Luna, these people were dressed uniformly in light armor engraved with magic patterns. The light armor was the uniform for the Rhine Kingdom''s military, so it was evident that these were people sent by Haydn to investigate the battlefield.


    Alice wore a casual short-sleeved T-shirt and cks. She also wore a straw hat with a wide brim. As for Luna, she wore a standard maid uniform. When the two stepped into the walled area, they immediately attracted numerous weird looks. After all, the difference in attire was stark.


    Fortunately, everyone in the walled area seemed to know beforehand that the Gryffin Kingdom''s Princess Alice would be visiting, so nobody tried to stop Alice from entering. However, none of them tried to talk to Alice, either.


    It made sense the soldiers here would have such a reaction. In their eyes, Alice was the princess of a neighboring kingdom, and they belonged topletely different walks of life. After all, when talking about princesses, the first thing that came to most people''s minds would be the word "pampered." Even Lilith, who had shown herself to be a capable princess, wasn''t someone proficient inbat. So, it was only natural that the soldiers would automatically group Alice into this category.


    The fact that Alice had brought a maid with her to a ruined battlefield also didn''t help her image. No matter how the soldiers looked at it, it didn''t seem like Alice was someone they needed to pay attention to in this ce. Perhaps the Gryffin Princess had simply decided to see what an actual battlefield looked like on a whim.


    Meanwhile, Alice and Luna didn''t care about how the soldiers here looked at them. After walking down the ruined district for a bit, they quickly arrived at their previously determined destination.


    "It''s this ce."


    Alice looked around to make sure that nobody was paying attention to her side. Then, she nodded to Luna, indicating that they had arrived at their destination.


    The ce they arrived at was where Alice and Gunstst fought. It was at this ce that Gunst had released "Rainbow" in a half-kneeling posture.


    ording to Luna, Gunst also used a spiritual magic scroll when activating Rainbow in an attempt to interfere with Alice''s actions and prevent her from evading his Rainbow. Unfortunately for Gunst, Alice negated the spiritual magic scroll without even realizing it.


    The reason why Alice came here was simple. It was because Luna saw something interesting when looking through Gunst''s memories. Gunst wouldn''t have revealed this matter if subjected to a normal interrogation. Unfortunately, in front of Luna''s spirit taboo, it didn''t matter how tightly he kept his mouth shut.


    "It should be here."


    Luna nodded. Then, she circled around the vicinity, eventually stopping ten paces away from Alice. Afterward, she crouched down, effortlessly moved several huge chunks of debris out of the way, and picked up a key from among the rubble.


    The key, as a whole, was golden and looked expensive. However, it wasn''t just an ordinary gold key. Instead, it was an item Gunst used to receivemands from Haydn. ording to what Luna saw from Gunst''s memories, so long as one injected mana into the key using the right method, one could see the variousmands Haydn had stored in the key.


    Moreover, as luck would have it, the key recorded Haydn''smands for Gunst to ce the Pollution Roulette in the treants'' territory and hire a thief to steal the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book. In other words, this key held all the evidence Alice needed to denounce Haydn.


    It might seem foolish of Haydn to put the evidence of his wrongdoings in a single ce and let someone else take care of it, but he couldn''t be med for making such a silly mistake. Gunst stood at the pinnacle of this world when it came tobat power. He was also staunchly loyal to the royal family. So, Haydn never thought that any problems would ur if he let Gunst hold onto the key. The only factor he didn''t consider was the Hero defeating Gunst.


    However, when Gunst realized he was about to suffer defeat, he also tried to destroy the key. It was a pity that Alice had sealed his mana using Forest Crystal before he could do so.


    Gunst lost most of his strength when he lost ess to his mana. He had also exhausted most of his stamina by that time. So, no matter how much physical strength his body had, he couldn''t put any of it to use. Not to mention, the golden key was also reinforced by magic to prevent idental damage.


    So, before his inevitable defeat, Gunst tossed the golden key into the ruins and let the debris bury it. Meanwhile, the reason Haydn had gone through the trouble of cordoning the battlefield and sending so many people to search the ce was that he wanted to see if Gunst had left behind the key that held evidence of his wrongdoings.


    However, Haydn knew that with Gunst''s loyalty, the moment Gunst realized he couldn''t win against the enemy, he would immediately try to destroy the golden key. Hence, Haydn was only symbolically letting his subordinatese to search the battlefield. He probably never expected Alice to seal Gunst''s mana, preventing Gunst from destroying the key.


    Now, not only did the soldiers fail to find the key, but it had even fallen into Alice''s and Luna''s hands. Meanwhile, the evidence in this key would be more than enough to expose Haydn for his wrongdoings.


    The theft of the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> book and the deliberate pollution of the treants'' territory were crimes severe enough to give Haydn several death sentences. Not to mention, there was even the attempted collusion with the demons to obtain the Demon King''s strength. Every one of these crimes put Haydn directly against humanity. Even if Alice eliminated him now, her actions would be justified.


    "Yep, there''s no mistaking it. This key does hold Haydn''s instructions," Alice said. When she injected some mana into the golden key using the method Luna described, lines of text emerged from the key''s surface, and these texts described thest fewmands Haydn had given to Gunst.


    Apart from the taboo book''s theft and the treant territory''s pollution, the key also contained other instructions, such as establishingmunication with smuggling caravans for the demon realm. Simply put, this key held enough evidence for Alice to make Haydn disappear.


    "But I can''t help but have a bad feeling about this..."


    Although Alice had acquired evidence of Haydn''s recent crimes, she couldn''t help but feel a dangerous premonition for some inexplicable reason. It was as if she had ignored something that could potentially result in dire consequences.


    However, even after rummaging through her mind, Alice failed to figure out where the problemy. So, she had no choice but to suppress her bad premonition and get ready to leave this ce with Luna. Since she already had evidence of Haydn''s wrongdoings, she intended to tell Lilith the truth of this matter.

 Chapter 395: An Idiot

    Chapter 395: An Idiot


    Alice and Luna left the walled area with the golden key without arousing suspicion. They weren''t even stopped and searched by the soldiers when they were leaving.


    It couldn''t be helped. Haydn dared not tell the truth to these soldiers. He couldn''t possibly say that "this key holds a record of all my crimes, so you must find it no matter what," right? Unlike Gunst, the other soldiers in the Rhine Kingdom''s military weren''t loyal fools. On the off chance some of these soldiers harbored thoughts they shouldn''t have, everything would be over for Haydn.


    Hence, in the minds of these soldiers, the key they were searching for was, at most, the key to a room that was of great importance to the king. So, they didn''t think Alice, the neighboring kingdom''s princess, would be interested in such a key and simply let Alice and Luna leave without searching their bodies.


    Anyway, Alice finally had evidence to prove her previous assumptions about Haydn''s actions. There was no way for Haydn to disregard the evidence recorded in the key as nonsense, either. Mana was needed to make records in the key. Meanwhile, everymand in the key was created using Haydn''s mana. So, there was no way for him to deny his connection with the key.


    Of course, Alice didn''t n to expose Haydn''s wrongdoings personally. Instead, she decided to hand the key to Lilith and let the other party decide. After all was said and done, she was still an outsider in the Rhine Kingdom. So, it was best if she left the task of judging Haydn to a member of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family.


    As for why Alice had chosen to give the key to Lilith instead of Etoria, who was the current rightful heir to the Rhine Kingdom...it was naturally because Alice had a closer rtionship with Lilith. When it came to dealing with such an important task, it went without saying she would be more inclined to entrust it to a close acquaintance.


    Moreover, Alice had previously learned from Luna that Etoria was secretly a lolicon. Although Luna had also verified that Etoria had neverid his hands on underaged girls, Alice still preferred to avoid talking to him if possible. While Alice wasn''t usually one to discriminate against other people''s preferences, she was currently in the body of a loli. So, Etoria''s lolicon fetish was a preference Alice couldn''t help but discriminate against. She felt that if she were to stand near Etoria while knowing his preferences, she would probably get goosebumps all over her body.


    As for whether Lilith would choose to protect her father after learning about her father''s actions...Alice was confident Lilith would make the right decision.


    After all, Lilith was someone who chose to investigate Gunst, the idol she had revered for most of her life, after learning that Gunst was most likely trying to usurp the throne. Through this action, it could be seen that Lilith was a rather sensible person who wouldn''t let her emotions dominate her.


    Haydn might be Lilith''s father, but Lilith should be well aware that once her father''s crimes got out, it would result in disastrous consequences for the entire Rhine Kingdom. It would especially be so for the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family. So, it would be incredibly foolish to try to cover for her father.


    Even if Lilith chose to shield her father regardless of the consequences, Alice would still expose this matter to the public. So, Lilith should know what would be the correct move to make.


    "Deliver this to Lilith for me. As for what she decides to do with it, it''s up to her to choose."


    After leaving the ruined neighborhood, Alice returned to her rented apartment with Luna and verified Gunst''s situation again. Fortunately, Gunst was indeed worthy of being considered one of the strongestbatants in this world. Even with his mana sealed, he quickly recovered from his weakened state.


    Originally, Alice had been a little worried that Gunst might fail to recover with his mana sealed. However, by the looks of things, it would seem that her worries were unnecessary. Gunst''s resentful eyes and the new wounds that had appeared on his body, a result of struggling against his restraints, showed that he had already recovered both mentally and physically to a certain extent.


    Unfortunately, even though Gunst had recovered, without the help of his mana, he still wasn''t strong enough to break free from his restraints, which were made using the tree branches of the Hubert''s Tree taboo. An adult dragon might be able to break free from Hubert''s Tree''s branches without the assistance of mana, but Gunst''s physical body was still far from matching adult dragons.


    "What are you trying to do?"


    Gunst felt a little frustrated when he saw Alice strengthening his restraints with several more of those ridiculously tough tree branches. With this, any hopes he previously had of escaping were dashed. Although he already had an inkling previously, after seeing Alice casting Hubert''s Tree with his own eyes, he was now certain that the tree branches restraining him were a product of a taboo. There was no way he could break apart the product of a taboo using solely his physical strength.


    "What else do you think I can do? Or are you really ignorant of what your country''s king is doing?"


    Alice raised an eyebrow as she looked at Gunst. When she previously used the white panties to defeat Gunst, the dazzling sacred light and rich light mana should be enough for Gunst to guess her identity. After all, the Hero was the only existence in this world who could possess such arge amount of light mana.


    However, Alice did not mind making things even clearer for Gunst. Subsequently, she pulled out the new weapon box she received from Hatter out of her pocket and opened it, causing the Hero''s Sword stored inside to pop out. Then, she wielded the sword with her right hand and said:


    "You should recognize this sword, right?"


    "Sure enough, you are the Hero..." When Gunst saw the Hero''s Sword in Alice''s hand, he was finally able to validate his previous conjecture and immediately made the "correct" conclusion in his mind. "Are you taking action because His Majesty is in contact with the demons?"


    "Communicating with the demons is only the tip of the iceberg, right? There is also the theft of the <em>Demon King''s Shadow</em> taboo and the attempt at recreating the demon realm''s environment in the treants'' territory. And why exactly Haydn is doing all of these things...I''m sure you have an idea of what''s actually going on, right?"


    Alice couldn''t be bothered to speak in riddles with Gunst. Although Luna had already described what kind of person Gunst was, Alice felt that it''d be best if she personally verified Gunst''s personality again. So, she said, "I''ll say it straight. Haydn is, to all intents and purposes, doomed. If one of his children inherits his position, will you help them stabilize their position? Or will you disregard everything to take revenge on me?"


    Gunst was an upright but foolishly loyal person. He usually wouldn''t lie, but he wouldn''t mind lying for the sake of the person he was loyal to. However, it was also painfully obvious that Haydn''s crimes were already exposed, so there was no point for Gunst to lie. Nothing he said now would help cover up Haydn''s wrongdoings. So, after pondering in silence for a moment, Gunst said:


    "I''ll help stabilize the Rhine Kingdom first. Then, once I am certain the new ruler can manage the kingdom, I wille to take revenge on you."

 Chapter 396: Oh No

    Chapter 396: Oh No


    <em>So he still wants to take revenge on me</em>


    Alice couldn''t help but scratch her head at Gunst''s response. Honestly, Gunst''s overly straightforward character gave him quite an airheaded appearance. However, Alice also felt a little relieved when she heard Gunst''s answer since this meant the man wouldn''t be trying to take revenge on her immediately. Meanwhile, by the time Gunst was ready to take revenge, she would have probably left this world already. At that time, he wouldn''t even be able to find her, let alone exact revenge on her.


    Moreover, it wouldn''t matter even if Gunst did find her. While Gunst might be a frighteningly powerful individual in the eyes of the average person, he still wasn''t strong enough to beat her.


    "Good luck, then."


    After getting the answer she wanted, Alice no longer continued her conversation with Gunst. Instead, she tightened the restraints binding Gunst''s body, chuckled a little when she saw the pained expression he made, and left the study.


    Meanwhile, after seeing Alice''s behavior, Gunst could more or less guess that Alice had already acquired evidence of Haydn''s wrongdoings. When he linked Alice''s behavior with the maid who had previously cast spirit magic on him, he was certain that Alice had already seen all of the memories in his head. So, Alice should have also found out about the key holding a record of Haydn''smands and retrieved it from the ruins.


    Unfortunately, there was nothing Gunst could do about this situation. Alice had already sealed the strength he relied on the most, so all he could do now was pray that Haydn could survive against the Hero and figure out how he should help the kingdom''s new ruler stabilize their position after Haydn''s fall.


    ...


    Unaware of Gunst''s thoughts, Alice saw Luna resting on the living room sofa with her eyes closed after leaving the study.


    This situation surprised Alice a little. With Luna''s current strength, she should be able to stay energized the entire day with only one or two hours of sleep. It was unlikely Luna had been suffering from insomnia recently, either. This was because any capable spirit magician could instantly put themselves into a deep sleep. With Luna''s mastery over spirit magic, she could instantly fall asleep even on an active battlefield.


    Not to mention, Luna had always been very strict with herself when she was in front of Alice. So, never once had she done anything unbefitting of a maid in front of Alice. ording to Alice''s understanding of Luna, the other party should be cleaning up around the house right about now.


    After all, the first thing Luna did after arriving at Alice''s rented apartment was to help Alice inspect and organize Gunst''s memories. She never had any time to do the tasks. Only now did Luna find some free time for herself. And with the requirements Luna had put on herself, this would be the perfect time for her to carry out her duties as a maid.


    <em>Maybe she tired herself from using spirit magic all morning, </em>Alice guessed.


    Although Luna''s strength wasparable to Alice''s, she wasn''t a full-fledged Demon King. So, using a spirit taboo continuously for several hours should still be a taxing task for her mind and body. Honestly, even Alice doubted she could take on such a task without exhausting herself.


    So, in Alice''s opinion, Luna must have exhausted herself after using spirit magic for too long and chosen to fall asleep on the sofa, even if such behavior might make her look unceremonious in front of her master.


    "Seriously You should have at least slept on the bed"


    After muttering a smallint, Alice walked up to Luna and extended her hands to pick Luna up. Alice wasn''t worried that her actions would wake Luna, either. After interacting with Luna for the past several months, Alice knew that once Luna fell asleep, small movements weren''t enough to wake her up.


    However, as soon as Alice extended her hands to Luna, she immediately noticed something was amiss. Originally, she thought that Luna had simply exhausted her energy and chosen to enter a state of deep sleep. However, after getting close to Luna, Alice noticed that Luna wasn''t making the usual expression she made when sleeping.


    Normally, Luna would wear a peaceful expression when sleeping. Moreover, she would retain that peaceful expression throughout her slumber, and not once had Alice seen her sleeping maid''s expression changing. It also didn''t seem like Luna would dream in her sleep.


    Now, though, Luna wore an ufortable expression on her face. Herplexion also looked pale, and there were drops of cold sweat flowing down her forehead. No matter how Alice looked at this situation, it didn''t seem normal. At the very least, Alice had never seen Luna making such an ufortable expression.


    If it wasn''t for the fact that Demon Kings, even immature ones, were immune to viruses and temperature changes, Alice would have assumed that Luna had caught a cold. However, considering Luna''s strength, a big problem must have urred if she had turned into such a state.


    "Andusia!"


    In her panic, Alice shouted at one of the rooms in the apartment. Then, Andusia, holding a miniaturized phone, came flying out of the room with an annoyed expression on her face.


    "What happened? What made you so anxious?"


    After flying out of the room, Andusia arrived next to Alice and saw Aliceying Luna to rest on the couch. Naturally, she had already learned about Luna''s situation from Alice, so she couldn''t help but be surprised when she saw the pseudo-Demon King''s terrible state:


    "What happened to her?"


    "I don''t know, that''s why I called you," Alice said as she briefly nced at Andusia before turning back to look at Luna anxiously. "What''s going on with Luna? Have you seen such a situation before?"


    "No, I''ve never seen this before. I know what you''re thinking, but this isn''t standard for Demon Kings. I''ve never experienced this situation when I was the Demon King," Andusia said, frowning. Then, after carefully observing Luna''s expression, she suddenly thought of something as she said, "Wait, although I''ve never been in such a state, I have seen other people be in this state and make this ufortable expression."


    "Other people?"


    Andusia''s statement confused Alice.


    "You''ve also seen this state before, but you probably didn''t think of it right away since you haven''t seen it as often as I have," Andusia said, shaking her head. After saying so, she flew up to Luna in her small body, touched Luna''s face with her hand, and injected some mana into Luna. Then, after retracting her mana, she nodded and said, "There''s no mistaking it. Luna is currently experiencing a mana-deprived state. All of the mana in her body has been drained."


    "All of her mana has been drained?"


    Alice was stunned. Then, she quickly remembered where she had seen Luna''s expression beforethe demons in Demon King Castle. When Andusia had drained all mana in Demon King Castle''s vicinity, the demons who got their mana drained revealed ufortable expressions simr to Luna''s current expression. In other words, Luna was feeling ufortable because her bodycked mana.


    However, this realization only served to confuse Alice even more. The reason those ordinary demons would feel ufortable and fall unconscious after Andusia drained their mana was that their bodies created mana at an incredibly low rate. Their bodies might only produce one unit of mana every second, and they would need dozens of minutes before their bodies generated enough mana for them to wake up.


    However, Luna''s mana production rate was far beyond that of the average person. Even if she waspletely drained of her mana, she could recover everything in minutes.


    "Something is actively draining her mana, and it is doing a very good job at it. Any mana her body produces will get sucked away immediately," Andusia said, frowning. "But this is strange. We were also in the living room just now, but we never noticed any signs of magic being activated nearby. Even if we did fail to notice it, why is Luna the only one getting her mana drained while your mana and mine are fine? Is there a difference between our mana and Luna''s?"


    "Indeed there is..." Alice said, seemingly having thought of something. Then, her expression sank as she continued, "The dark mana in my body is a little special, and it will only appear under special circumstances. In your case, the property of your mana has changed since it is now being stored and processed by your Living Wood body. Only Luna''s mana is subjected to the Demon King''s Power''s conversion. In other words, she is the only one with demon mana..."


    Meanwhile, it didn''t take a genius to figure out who would be targeting demon mana at this time...

 Chapter 397: Plans Are Constantly Changing

    Chapter 397: ns Are Constantly Changing


    Despite knowing who was most likely responsible for Luna''s predicament, Alice and Andusia couldn''t help but be puzzled by this situation. This was because neither of them had noticed the activation of magic nearby. Meanwhile, the act of remotely draining a pseudo-Demon King''s mana was not something the average person could aplish. If ordinary people had the technology to aplish such a feat, the human realm wouldn''t have any need for the Hero. The Demon King wouldn''t be regarded as an unstoppable disaster, either.


    "That Haydn is only a human king. With his strength, there''s no way he can develop such a ridiculous spell... There''s also no doubt that this long-distance draining spell is at the taboo level," Andusia sternly said as she sat next to Luna''s head. If not for her body being made out of Living Wood, which caused a change to the properties of her mana, she would have most likely suffered the same predicament as Luna. "This taboo...might have even touched uponws."


    Taboos that involved thews of the world were incredibly rare. Out of the taboos Alice knew, Psychokinesis Transcendence, developed by the Third Demon King Clyde Vap, was the only taboo that touched uponws.


    If they were dealing with a Law-grade taboo here, it made sense Luna would get affected by it, especially when she wasn''t prepared against it.


    Meanwhile, the fact that Haydn had not only gotten his hands on the Pollution Roulette but also a suspected Law-grade taboo must most likely mean that he was connected with a former Demon King. Haydn might even have a Demon King''s soul by his side nning all these things for him


    More importantly, Haydn had most likely collected enough demon mana from Luna already.


    A Demon King''s mana pool was significantlyrger than the average human and demon. Even if Luna wasn''t a full-fledged Demon King, she still possessed a mana pool far greater than the average person. Although Alice didn''t know how much demon mana was needed to modify Demon King''s Shadow from a summoning-type taboo to a possession-type taboo, the amount of mana Luna had lost was most likely enough for Haydn to begin carrying out his ns.


    <em>I originally wanted to give the key to Lilith and have her deal with Haydn, butit doesn''t seem like I have any more time to waste,</em> Alice concluded. Although she didn''t know how much time Haydn needed toplete the possession process, she highly doubted it would take so long that she could afford to wait for Lilith to make a decision and start to take action.


    Moreover, Alice noticed that Luna''splexion was worsening as time passed. It was evident that whatever spell was draining Luna''s mana was still continuing to do so. It also seemed that Luna''s mana production was having difficulty keeping up with the drain rate.


    If Luna remained in this overdrawn state for a long time, it wouldn''t be long before her life force dried up. Should that happen, it went without saying Luna would die. So, Alice needed to find Haydn and interrupt his magic immediately.


    "Andusia, pass this key to Lilith and tell her how to use it. Then, tell her everything about Haydn''s actions. Also, have her contact her brothers. They need to get ready to deal with a kingdom without a king soon," Alice said as she handed the golden key recording Haydn''s crimes to Andusia. Then, after seeing Andusia embrace the key half her height, Alice continued, "I''m going to find Haydn now and interrupt whatever magic he is using."


    Haydn was a cautious person who didn''t even dare to share the details of his ns with Gunst. So, the core of the magic affecting Luna must be ced by his side. Moreover, it should most likely be set up in a ce he visited most often. So, finding Haydn should be very easy.


    "Are you going alone? I''m sure you have also figured it out, right? Since that human can get his hands on not just the Pollution Roulette but also a special taboo that can remotely drain a Demon King''s mana, he muste across a Demon King''s legacy or, worse yet, have a Demon King supporting him," Andusia said as she hugged onto the golden key.


    Andusia didn''t ask how she should inform Lilith about the key''s secrets using her figurine body. With her mana reserves, she had plenty of ways to do so without exposing herself. Rather than that, she was more concerned that Alice would face Haydn alone:


    "You are still far from being a match for a full-fledged Demon King. If that fellow really does have a Demon King supporting him, you might not be a match."


    Alice was naturally aware she wasn''t a match for a full-fledged Demon King. Miriya Hampar had already taught her during their fight in Demon King City.


    Alice''sbat experience was vastly inferior to a full-fledged Demon King. If Haydn truly did have a Demon King''s soul supporting him, Alice would definitely be put at a disadvantage if it came down to a fight.


    "Don''t worry. Even if I can''t win, I can still hold on for some time," Alice said. She naturally didn''t think she could beat a Demon King all by herself. However, she should have no trouble holding her ground for some time with her arsenal of panties. "Once you hand this thing to Lilith,e and help me right away. You should have a way to detect my location, right?"


    "You" Andusia sighed. However, she did not refute Alice''s arrangement since she knew Alice was doing so out of worry for Luna''s current state. Not daring to waste any more time, she raised her hand and conjured a crystal using her mana. Then, after handing the crystal to Alice, she said, "Hold onto it. I can use it to detect your location. I''lle and help you once I hand this key to that princess."


    "I''m counting on you."


    Alice nodded and epted the mana crystal. Then, she left the house in a hurry.

 Chapter 398: Press E to Sync

    Chapter 398: Press E to Sync


    There weren''t many ces that Haydn visited often, and were off-limits to the average person. If Alice had to name them, there''d probably be only two ces that would fit these criteria. The first would be Haydn''s office in the pce, while the second would be Haydn''s home.


    Fortunately, Alice had determined the whereabouts of these two locations when she was investigating Haydn previously.


    However, the problem was that Alice had never found any items rted to Demon Kings in Haydn''s home or office. She also didn''t find anything that could help Haydn cast taboos.


    The taboo Haydn used this time had most likely touched upon the world''sws already. A taboo of this caliber was something even Heroes and Demon Kings would have difficulty learning, so there was no way Haydn could activate this taboo by himself.


    If Haydn wished to use such a taboo, there were only two methods he could use to do so. Either Haydn had a Demon King''s soul helping him, or he used some special means to gather many magicians andbine their strength to activate this taboo.


    Most taboos could be activated with thebined efforts of many magicians, so it wasn''t out of the question for Haydn to rely on this method. However, considering that this was a Law-grade taboo they were talking about, Haydn would probably need a significant number of magicians to pull off this feat. Alice estimated that a hundred magicians or more would be needed.


    Evidently, Haydn''s office in the pce couldn''t fit such arge number of people.


    So, Alice intended to visit Haydn''s house first. If Haydn truly did rely on numbers to cast his taboo, only his house could possibly fit 100 magicians or more. As the Rhine Kingdom''s king, Haydn lived in arge manor that upied arge plot ofnd. It wasparable in size to the residence of man, one of the demons'' Four Heavenly Kings. So, it was more than big enough to amodate hundreds of people.


    Since Alice was in a hurry, she naturally chose to travel by flying. After leaving her apartment, she held onto her magic robe with her right hand and vanished from her apartment''s corridor. Then, she jumped out of one of the windows in the corridor and dragged herself into the air using her psychic power.


    In this situation, Alice had to thank the fact that the various human kingdoms had implemented flying restrictions in their towns and cities. Because of these restrictions, Alice didn''t have to worry about colliding with people or objects. Although some airships still flew across the city, these flying contraptions flew at high altitudes. So long as Alice stayed beneath the clouds, she shouldn''t be at risk of colliding with these airships.


    Haydn''s manor was situated on the edge of Icarus City. Of course, even though it wasn''t situated in the city center, it was only a 30-minute drive from the pce. Moreover, the area around the manor was just as developed as the city center.


    With the current standard of her psychic power, Alice needed only five minutes to propel herself from her apartment to Haydn''s manor. Although flying at such high speeds subjected her body to significant stress, Alice could easily handle the stress with her current physique.


    Originally, Alice thought that if her luck was bad, she might have to visit Haydn''s home and office to find the man. However, when she closed in on Haydn''s manor, she knew she hade to the right ce as she could feel arge amount of mana enveloping the mansion situated in the middle of the manor.


    The volume of mana surrounding the mansion was so significant that it had already condensed into a physical substance, making the entire mansion look as if it was shrouded in ck and purple mist. Moreover, the mist looked suspiciously simr to the special effects that would appear when Alice held a pair of ck panties in her right hand.


    After a quick look around, Alice failed to find anybody near the manor''s vicinity. By the looks of things, Haydn had evacuated the neighborhood beforehand to avoid attracting the attention of others.


    It made sense Haydn would take such a precaution. In the era of the inte, any scandalous information uploaded onto the inte would quickly find itself spread across the human realm. At that time, even if there was no evidence of Haydn colluding with the demons, the ck and purple mist surrounding his mansion would be more than enough to attract many people''s attention to him, and there was no guarantee such a situation wouldn''t affect his ns.


    <em>So it </em>is<em> you, Haydn.</em>


    Alice''s expression sank. This ck mist was amon characteristic of a Demon King''s mana. Upon seeing this ck mist, Alice was already certain that the mana enveloping Haydn''s mansion belonged to Luna. Moreover, even though Alice had no demon mana in her body, she could feel an inexplicable suction force drawing on her mana when she got near the mansion. This should be the effect of the special taboo draining Luna''s mana.


    It was a pity that the taboo didn''t have a physical presence. Otherwise, Alice could have grabbed ahold of it with her right hand and seen what kind of ability the taboo had.


    However, even though Alice already knew Haydn was doing something fishy here, she didn''t just outright bombard the ce with a Burning Star.


    Firstly, she knew Haydn must have prepared some defensive measures against taboo attacks. If she recklessly attacked the manor, not only would she fail to achieve anything, but she would even alert Haydn to her presence.


    Secondly, she wanted to check whether Haydn was relying on other magicians to activate his taboo and whether these magicians were helping him willingly. If those people were helping Haydn against their will, Alice wouldn''t mind saving them. After all, so long as she rescued even one of them, it should be enough to cause Haydn''s taboo to crumble.


    So, rather than recklessly attack the manor and increase the difficulty of saving Luna, Alice felt that she would be much better off sneaking into the manor and disrupting Haydn''s taboo before Haydn noticed her presence.


    Having made this decision, Alice chose to keep her Mana Concealment active as she descended toward the mansion situated in the middle of the manor. Then, she found a window, verified that nobody was inside the corridor, gently pushed the window apart, and snuck into the building.


    After entering the mansion, Alice immediately got a better grasp of the mana in the building. Under normal circumstances, people would have difficulty perceiving mana outside their bodies. Mana could normally only be detected when it had reached a sufficientlyrge mass or during the activation of a spell.


    Evidently, there was arge-scale spell being activated somewhere in the mansion. Hence, Alice could feel intense mana fluctuations filling every corner of therge mansion. Meanwhile, so long as Alice traced the origins of these mana fluctuations, she would be able to find the core of the spell being used.

 Chapter 399: Tag: Hypnosis

    Chapter 399: Tag: Hypnosis


    Without the Mana Concealment skill, Alice felt that she would have long since been discovered. After all, the fact that Haydn dared to carry out his n in his house must mean that he had implemented various measures to prevent others from spying or trespassing on his house.


    Unfortunately for Haydn, Mana Concealment''s ability wasn''t limited to turning Alice invisible. It also hid her presence. In other words, so long as Alice didn''t use any magic or separate her mana from her body, the presence of the mana in her body would remain hidden as well. In that case, no matter what surveince measures Haydn had implemented, he would be incapable of detecting Alice''s existence.


    Honestly, after having used Mana Concealment so frequently recently, Alice hade to realize just how useful her right hand''s ability could be. Before this, she mostly treated her right hand as a convenient means to gain an instant power boost via panties and inspect unknown items. Although she had been aware that her right hand could also grant items abilities that they normally shouldn''t have, she never really capitalized on this part of her right hand''s abilities.


    However, after seeing how useful Mana Concealment could be, Alice realized how much she was potentially missing out on. She felt that she should be touching more items with her right hand. Who knows? Maybe she could find another skill that was as useful as Mana Concealment.


    Anyway, Alice quickly located the source of the mana fluctuations. However, after arriving at the scene, the corners of her mouth twitched a little when she saw the sight before her.


    Firstly, she was right to assume that Haydn had indeed used the help of other magicians to activate his taboo.


    Secondly, different from her assumptions, Haydn didn''t bother to hide these magicians in a hidden room. Instead, the hundred or so magicians were gathered in the living room.


    It would seem that Haydn had realized the futility of hiding these magicians. After all, if someone managed to sneak into his house, the mana fluctuations that filled the building were enough to let even the average civilian know something was wrong. So, rather than waste time and energy constructing a secret room to hide all these magicians, he might as well put them in his living room.


    Alice carefully observed the magicians as she stood by the living room''s entrance. All of these magicians were seated on the floor with their eyes closed while the mana in their bodies was flowing in varying patterns. From what Alice could tell, each magician''s mana flow pattern was wed in some way. When these flow patterns were adopted individually, they would achieve nothing.


    However, when the varying mana flow patterns of these 100-plus magicians werebined, they would form aplete mana flow pattern that would result in the activation of a spell.


    From a programmer''s perspective, it was as if these magicians were separately inputting different lines of code for aplete program. By itself, each line of code could aplish nothing. However, whenbined, they would form aplete and functioning program.


    <em>But these magiciansfeel strange</em>


    Alice frowned. When she first saw these magicians sitting neatly on the living room floor, she thought these magicians were helping Haydn voluntarily. However, upon closer inspection, she noticed that although these magicians had their eyes closed, their expressions looked calm and sluggish, as if they were asleep. If it wasn''t because she could sense these magicians actively controlling their mana to flow in a set pattern, she would have believed they had fallen asleep.


    <em>Hypnosis?</em>


    This word shed in Alice''s mind.


    The spirit magic category could be subdivided into multiple subcategories, and hypnosis was one of these subcategories. Alice''s usage of Consciousness Transformation to bluntly ntmands into her target''s memories could be considered a form of hypnosis, but it was a crude way of hypnotizing people.


    Real hypnosis magic was much more effective at manipting a person''s thoughts and actions. A taboo-level hypnosis spell could even directly modify the characteristics of a person''s soul, and the modification would be much more ingrained than the changes made using Consciousness Transformation.


    Luna had previously mentioned hypnosis magic to Alice, so when Alice saw the dazed expression on these magicians, she knew Haydn, or more specifically, the Demon King behind him, had most likely used a hypnosis taboo to get these magicians to cooperate with him.


    In addition, Alice noted these magicians were considerably powerful based on the mana fluctuations radiating off their bodies. They should be at the level of professors employed by famous universities. Meanwhile, the fact that Haydn had managed to abduct so many powerful magicians without causing amotion on the inte must mean that he was also controlling the cirction of information on the inte.


    In any case, this situation simplified matters for Alice. Since Haydn had hypnotized these magicians to help him, Alice only needed to release one or two from their hypnotic state to break the taboo they were operating. With howplicated of a taboo they were operating, any inconsistencies should be more than enough to turn the taboo into an inoperable mess.


    If Haydn truly was backed by a Demon King, this Demon King should be responsible for hypnotizing all these magicians. If that were the case, it should be impossible for the average person to break the hypnosis on these magicians. Fortunately, Alice knew how to use Consciousness Transformation, which was also a spirit taboo. Although she didn''t dare say that she couldpletely suppress the Demon King''s hypnosis magic, if she only needed to liberate one person from their hypnotic state, it shouldn''t be all that difficult for her to aplish.


    The problem was that Alice would need to separate some of her mana from her body to activate Consciousness Transformation on a target. Meanwhile, mana that had separated from her body would no longer be counted as part of her presence, which meant Mana Concealment would no longer shield it. So long as Haydn or the Demon King backing him were paying attention, they would immediately notice this mana and realize that an intruder was in the mansion.


    However, Alice couldn''t afford to hesitate. Even now, Luna was still having her mana drained by Haydn''s taboo. If Alice didn''t do something about this taboo, Luna would eventually die from having her life force depleted. So, without hesitation, Alice used Consciousness Transformation on the old man sitting closest to her.


    Immediately, the elderly magician''s memories appeared in Alice''s perception. Simr to past instances, Alice could not understand any of the garbled characters that had appeared in her mind. However, that did not matter since all Alice needed to do was insert a "wake up"mand at the end of the memory code.


    Spirit-type magic feared interference the most. Although a simple "wake up"mand wouldn''t be enough to break the hypnosis taboo right off the bat, it would create ripples that would rapidly spread and affect the taboo''s stability.


    It was simr to how a calmke would react when a pebble was thrown into it. The pebble might not create a huge impact when it first fell into theke, but it would create ripples that would gradually spread and cover arge portion of theke''s surface.


    Meanwhile, once these "ripples" covered a sufficientlyrge area, the hypnosis taboo would crumble apart.


    Sure enough, shortly after Alice nted hermand into the old magician''s memories, the magician gradually opened his eyes as if he had just woken up from a dream. Though judging by the look of confusion on the old man''s face, it was evident he didn''t realize what was happening here.


    However, Alice couldn''t be bothered to care about the old magician''s thoughts right now. This was because as soon as the old magician woke up, she could sense the mana flow of the other magicians in the living room growing chaotic.


    Removing the old magician from the taboo''s activation was akin to putting a hole into a beaver dam. As soon as this hole appeared, water began pouring out of it. Moreover, this hole grew bigger and bigger as water continued pouring out of it. At this rate, it wouldn''t take more than half a minute before the "dam" copsedpletely.


    With the situation as it was right now, Haydn and the Demon King backing him should have already realized that someone had snuck into the mansion and sabotaged their n.

 Chapter 400: Haydn: Why Do I Feel Like a Country Bumpkin?

    Chapter 400: Haydn: Why Do I Feel Like a Country Bumpkin?


    Alice was right to assume that Haydn had noticed her disrupting his taboo. After all, the taboo was so powerful its mana fluctuations covered the entire mansion. Now that these mana fluctuations had suddenly disappeared, it''d be strange for Haydn not to notice.


    Moreover, Haydn''s reaction to his taboo getting disrupted was much more intense than Alice imagined. Because Haydn just so happened to be in the second-floor study, which was directly above the living room, as soon as he discovered his taboo''s operation stopping, he did something that waspletely outside of Alice''s expectationshe crushed the floor under his feet and jumped straight down into the living room from the second-floor study. While it might be a crude action, it was also the quickest way to reach the living room.


    The rubble from the shattered ceiling crushed several hypnotized magicians in the living room. However, even while being crushed byrge boulders, none of these magicians showed any signs of waking up. This showed just how powerful the hypnosis magic used on them was. It was most likely at the level of taboos.


    When Alice saw Haydn, the man wore his usual gloomy expression. He also had the appearance of a malnourished middle-aged man, his body looking quite slender and hisplexion looking quite pale. At first nce, one wouldn''t think that Haydn was someone with greatbat power. However, the fact that he managed to break through the living room''s ceiling using brute force was enough to prove that he wasn''t as weak as he looked.


    In the eyes of most people, the human realm''s kings weren''t powerful warriors. Instead, they were people proficient at governing entire nations. However, no matter how Alice looked at it, Haydn could not be considered ipetent as a warrior. Haydn might not be as strong as Gunst, but he was definitely much stronger than the average civilian.


    "Who is it?"


    The falling debris sent a lot of smoke and dust into the air when it smashed into the living room. So, Haydn couldn''t tell who had disrupted his taboo right away. Moreover, Alice was still hidden by Mana Concealment, making it even more unlikely for Haydn to see her.


    After thinking for a moment, Alice removed her magic robe, canceling Mana Concealment''s effects in doing so. Although she could eliminate Haydn while staying invisible, there wasn''t any real meaning to do so since the person she needed to be aware of wasn''t Haydn but the Demon King backing him instead.


    At this point, Alice was already certain Haydn had a Demon King backing him. Moreover, said Demon King could cast taboos through certain means. After all, there was no way Haydn could cast a hypnosis taboo that could affect over a hundred great magicians.


    Since that was the case, Alice decided to face Haydn directly and hopefully get some information out of his mouth.


    "Hm? So you finally decided to show up?" Haydn quickly noticed a person''s silhouette suddenly appearing amidst the dust and smoke. Needless to say, this person must be the culprit responsible for disrupting his taboo. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the other party and said, "It seems you still aren''t aware of who you have just provoked. You"


    Haydn froze before he could finish his words. This was because, partway through his sentence, he finally got a clear look at the petite figure standing amidst the dust and smoke


    "Why did you stop speaking? Who did I provoke? Is it a former Demon King''s soul?" Alice asked, smiling as she looked at Haydn.


    <em>Dammit?! How did she find out?!</em>


    Haydn instantly broke out into cold sweat. He couldn''t understand why Alice would suddenly appear in his mansion. He had clearly sent people to keep an eye on Alice and was certain she hadn''t left her home since returning from the ruined neighborhood.


    If Alice had left her rented apartment, his subordinates should have informed him about it right away. Moreover, his subordinates'' mana crystals remained intact, which meant Alice hadn''t silenced them In that case, how did she evade all those eyes and appear in his mansion?


    However, how Alice had evaded his subordinates'' detection and snuck into his mansion was no longer important. What was more important was how he was supposed to deal with Alice.


    Fight her? That''d be the biggest joke of the century. He might have learned a thing or two from the Demon King backing him and gained strength outside the average person''s reach, but he was well aware that he stood no chance against the Hero. Two taboos would be enough to reduce him to ashes, and a third one would erase even his ashes from this world.


    Moreover, what did Alice just say? A former Demon King''s soul?


    "You How do you know about the Demon King''s soul?" Haydn asked in an uncertain tone, his originally paleplexion turned even paler. "I''ve never told anyone about this matter."


    When Haydn first met a former Demon King''s soul, he was naturally frightened out of his wits. After all, he had never heard of any Demon King''s soul being preserved to modern times. Although he had heard examples of people storing their souls in special containers, the souls of those people would crumble apart after a few years in storage, either because their souls weren''t durable enough or they chose to pass on after being unable to endure the long period of solitude.


    As for Demon Kings, their souls might be more durable, but that just meant they had to endure an even longer period of solitude. It should be known that even the most recent Demon King died several centuries ago. This meant that if a former Demon King''s soul were to survive until modern times, they''d have to endure hundreds or thousands of years of solitude. This was simply unimaginable for the average person.


    So, Haydn never thought he woulde across a Demon King''s soul in modern times. It was also why Haydn was so surprised to hear Alice''s question. After all, it was already incredible that one Demon King''s soul had survived until modern times. He felt that it was highly unlikely there''d be a second one.


    "Why are you so surprised? Do you think the souls of Demon Kings are very rare?" Alice rolled her eyes at Haydn. She felt that the man was overreacting. "I''ve seen plenty of these things. I even personally extinguished the soul of the previous generation''s Demon King. He was hiding in the radioactive crystal in Demon King Castle."


    Haydn could also feel his blood pressure rising when he heard Alice''s response. Was this the difference between the Hero and normal people?

 Chapter 401: That All You Got?

    Chapter 401: That All You Got?


    Haydn couldn''t be med for his ignorance. The feasibility of soul storage might have been proven long ago, but the darkness and loneliness one would have to endure as a bodiless soul was not something most people could endure.


    When the feasibility of soul storage was initially proven, many people tried to attach their souls to objects to continue existing past their expiration date. However, when people tried to extract these souls from their containers a few yearster, they found that almost all of these souls had long dissipated. Meanwhile, the cause of their dissipation was due to the crumbling of their consciousness.


    If it was incredibly rare to even see souls surviving for more than a few years, who would possibly expect to find a Demon King''s soul in modern times? After all, any Demon King''s soul would have to endure hundreds, if not thousands, of years of solitary confinement to survive until this day.


    So, it was only natural that Alice''s "I''ve seen plenty of them before" behavior would cause Haydn to fall into self-doubt. He couldn''t help but wonder if he was the strange one for not meeting with the souls of multiple Demon Kings.


    In addition, Haydn had kept a close eye on the demon realm due to his interests, so he knew that the radioactive crystal that had been guing the demon realm''s Demon King Castle for hundreds of years was destroyed a few months ago. Hence, he didn''t think Alice was lying about having previously eliminated a Demon King''s soul.


    Uponing to this realization, Haydn instantly felt demoralized. Originally, he thought that Alice still refused to reveal her identity as the Hero to the public because she had yet to grow to her peak strength. Hence, he had considered using a veteran Demon King to keep her in check. Yet, it turned out that not only did Alice meet with the souls of other Demon Kings long ago, but she had even eliminated one before.


    This put Haydn in an awkward situation. Now that the tables had turned on him, if he didn''t think of a way to chase Alice away or eliminate her, it''d be game over for him.


    Nothing needed to be said about the Hero''s reputation. Even if Alice caused a blunder, so long as she didn''t bring great harm to the human realm, the human realm''s inhabitants would forgive her. Not to mention, the fact that Alice had chosen to take action now most likely meant that she had already grasped evidence of his wrongdoings.


    Haydn''s expression tensed up when he thought up to this point. Immediately, he extended a hand to Alice, his action causing countless magic arrays to appear on the living room''s walls and floor.


    These magic arrays appeared to have been drawn using some kind of translucent magic material. It was why Alice didn''t notice them when she first entered the living room. It was only after Haydn had activated the magic arrays, which caused them to glow because of the flow of mana, did Alice notice their existence.


    By the looks of things, Haydn had made ample preparations for the unlikely event that an intruder broke into his mansion. Moreover, from what Alice could tell, these magic arrays carried a significant amount of mana. The average intruder would be making a one-way trip into the mansion if they stepped into the living room. Even Gunst would suffer heavy injuries if he was caught off-guard.


    However, these magic arrays weren''t simply designed to cause destruction. Under Haydn''s maniption, the mana in these magic arrays transformed into countless magic ropes that extended toward Alice.


    Haydn knew he was not a match for Alice in a frontal confrontation. So, instead of butting heads with the Hero, he thought of restraining Alice''s mobility. If he could limit her strength sufficiently, he might just have a chance at winning.


    Unfortunately, Haydn''s n was doomed for failure.


    Based on Alice''s observation, the magic ropes weren''t just restraints. She noticed these ropes vibrating at high speeds while rapidly closing in on her. Most likely, these ropes relied on high-frequency vibrations to achieve a powerful cutting effect. It might not seem very impressive, butbined with the magic ropes'' toughness, they should have no trouble cutting through objects such as steel. Although Alice doubted she would be cut into pieces should these magic ropestch onto her, injuries would be inevitable.


    Before any of the magic ropes could reach Alice, a semi-translucent prism formed around her. Although the ropes carried destructive power close to rivaling taboos, when they struck the barrier erected by Enochian Prism, a bona fide defensive taboo, they didn''t even manage to leave a crack on the barrier, let alone break it.


    <em>Dammit! A defensive taboo?</em>


    Unlike Heroes and Demon Kings, Haydn did not study many taboo books, so he failed to recognize the identity of the barrier protecting Alice. However, seeing that his attack had failed to leave any traces on the barrier, he could still tell it was a taboo-level defensive spell.


    Unfortunately, it didn''t matter even if he knew he was going up against a defensive taboo. Although he had drastically improved hisbat power in recent months, he didn''t have the talent of Heroes and Demon Kings to learn taboos in a matter of days. He''d need months or years of continuous research to learn a taboo. So, even until now, he had yet to learn how to use a single taboo.


    "If that''s all you got, just surrender," Alice said as she stood within her Enochian Prism. Due to hercking mana, the Enochian Prism she just used was an iplete version of the defensive taboo. Yet, even then, Haydn still couldn''t break through it.


    This situation caused Alice to pay even closer attention to the Demon King''s soul backing Haydn. Moreover, she also had an idea of which Demon King was backing Haydn. After all, Haydn had gone out of his way to steal the <em>Demon King''s Shadow </em>book. Meanwhile, Demon King''s Shadow was a taboo designed to create a projection of the Tenth Demon King. So


    "The one backing you is Fugallo Fold, the Tenth Demon King, right?" Alice voiced her conjecture as she looked at Haydn''s solemn expression. "It''s best if you have hime out. You can''t stop me by yourself."


    Alice couldn''t be certain if Fugallo Fold nted any countermeasures on Haydn''s body. If she recklessly tried to apprehend Haydn without taking care of the Demon king first, her actions might end up backfiring on her. So, she decided that the safest course of action was to eliminate the biggest risk first. Then, she would apprehend Haydn.

 Chapter 402: Fatty Demon King Fugallo

    Chapter 402: Fatty Demon King Fugallo


    "That''s enough, Haydn. You are still far from matching this girl. You will only make a fool of yourself if you insist on fighting her."


    While Haydn was struggling toe up with more ideas to get out of his predicament, a somewhat deep male voice came through the hole in the ceiling. The other party got straight to the point and stopped Haydn from taking any further action, seemingly worried Haydn might lose his sense of judgment from anxiety and try to fight Alice to the death. Then, this voice added:


    "Let me handle her."


    Subsequently, under Alice''s gaze, the semi-translucent figure of a person gradually descended through the hole in the ceiling. The other party''s semi-translucent state reminded Alice of when she met Grant''s soul in Demon King Castle. Evidently, this should be the soul of the Demon King backing Haydn.


    However, when Alice got a good look at the person who had descended from the second floor, a strange expression appeared on her face. This was because the soul''s appearance wasa little different from what she imagined.


    Generally speaking, a person''s soul would look like they did when they were at their peak spiritual state. Hence, the souls Alice had seen thus far were between their adolescence and prime years. For example, Kristine''s soul was that of an adolescent girl, while Grant''s soul bore the appearance he had during his prime.


    Although most people would usually reach the peak of their strength and intelligence during their middle age, the spiritual state they had at that time definitely wouldn''t beparable to what they had during their adolescence and prime years. So, all of the souls Alice had seen thus far had excellent appearances.


    As for the soul currently before her The other party might look like a man in his twenties, which still put him in his prime years, but wasn''t he a little too fat?


    The other party had a bulging belly, a round head, and eyes narrowed so much they looked like horizontal slits. While Alice wasn''t trying to discriminate against fat people, she found it truly hard to imagine there''d be a Demon King who would be this fat.


    After all, Demon Kings were existences created by the Demon King''s Power. So long as Demon Kings trained, they could simultaneously develop their mana, physique, and flexibility. In other words, by the time a Demon King reached their peak strength, their appearance should have also reached its peak.


    So, Alice found it truly iprehensible how a Demon King could get so fat despite having trained to be a full-fledged Demon King. Looking at the other party''s fat-filled belly, Alice couldn''t help but wonder if the other party had truly done any training.


    Gut training, maybe? Alice would believe it if that were the case.


    Honestly, when Alice first heard the Demon King speaking, she never thought the other party would have such a rotund appearance. The Demon King had a husky voice, and the way he spoke to Haydn was rtively polite and free of disgusting pride and contempt. So, her mind automatically assumed the other party would look like a nobleman. However, what she ended up seeing contrasted her imagination significantly.


    Meanwhile, noticing Alice''s strange gaze, Haydn couldn''t help but feel a little awkward. Truth be told, he had quite a good impression of the Demon King backing him. The other party didn''t put on any airs or try to order him around like a ve. This attitude also convinced him that working for this Demon King might not be a bad thing. But if he had to point out a problem about this Demon King, it''d have to be his appearance


    <em>Why?! Why do you look like that?! You''re a Demon King, for god''s sake! Can''t you take more care of your body?! Just look at the Hero over there! Even though she''s young, she already has the makings of a beauty! Even as an enemy, just looking at her is enough to cleanse my eyes and heart! Do you not feel ashamed of how you look, Lord Demon King?! </em>Haydn mentallyined.


    Unfortunately, not only did Haydn''s "Lord Demon King" feel no shame, but he had evenpletely ignored the strange gaze Alice was giving him. Although his soul was twice as wide as Haydn''s skinny body, he didn''t see any need to manage his figure.


    Of course, there was some logic behind such a decision. For the average person, obesity would usuallye with many bad symptoms and possibly even death. However, Demon Kings had powerful bodies, so they wouldn''t face any health issues even if they became obese. At most, it would affect how others perceived them.


    "So, you''re the Demon King helping Haydn?" Although her first impression of the Demon King was somewhat affected by the other party''s appearance, Alice could feel the unique mana fluctuationsing from the other party''s body. So, she was certain that the other party was the soul of a former Demon King. "You''re Fugallo Fold, the Tenth Demon King, right?"


    "Indeed, it is I," Fugallo calmly said with a smile. He didn''t react in fear to Alice even though he was only a soul. "Are you thetest Hero? Interesting. You look no more than thirteen or fourteen years of age. The Hero of my generation was only chosen at the age of sixteen."


    "Although I don''t know what kind of trouble you are trying to stir up, the mana you are currently draining belongs to my friend." Alice did not intend to waste time talking to Fugallo. She didn''t know what measures the other party had prepared, so she decided it was best to take action as soon as possible. Immediately, she took out the weapon box in her waist pouch and opened it, causing the Hero''s Sword to appear in her right hand. "Dead people should just go and reincarnate. Stop trying to make a mess of this world."


    [Weapon: Hero''s Sword - Okay]


    [Quality: Law]


    [Effect: Strength +8000, Constitution +8000, Speed +8000, Spirit +8000, Control +8000, Mana +8000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Word of God (Passive Skill. When praying sincerely, you canmunicate with God and receive God''s blessing);


    Blessing of Light (Passive Skill. Your affinity with the light attribute is increased to MAX. When you are wielding a weapon blessed by God, exude a holy light that deals additional damage to dark-attributed enemies);


    Holy Cross sh (Active Skill. Releases a cross shposed of light to shatter the target''s soul);


    Fearless Will (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by spirit magic. Individuals or objects that try to apply spiritual magic on you will suffer a bacsh);


    Hero''s Call (Passive Skill. The Hero''s Sword can hear the Hero''s call and answer it.)]


    As soon as the Hero''s Sword appeared in Alice''s right hand, holy light wrapped around her body. At the same time, tremendous power filled her body. Throughout the past few months, her body''s various attributes had grown beyond normal humans. Combined with the boost she received from the Hero''s Sword, even if her strength still wasn''tparable to that of a full-fledged Hero, she shouldn''t be too far behind.


    "The Hero''s Sword"


    When Fugallo saw Alice wielding the Hero''s Sword without a problem, he was finally certain Alice was the Hero. Only, there was one thing that puzzled him. The instant Alice wielded the Hero''s Sword, he could clearly feel her strength rising substantially


    <em>What''s going on? I don''t recall the Hero of my generation having such an ability. Did the Hero''s Sword receive an upgrade?</em>

 Chapter 403: Unison

    Chapter 403: Unison


    Generally speaking, souls were immune to most physical and magical attacks.


    However, that was not a problem for Heroes and Demon Kings. Or, more specifically, anyone capable of casting taboos could cause damage to souls.


    Most offensive taboos had incredible destructive power. They were so powerful that they could affect souls to a certain extent. Light and dark taboos, in particr, could cause devastating damage to souls.


    Hence, the instant Fugallo saw Alice wielding the Hero''s Sword, his expression instantly changed. Immediately afterward, he let some mana leak out of his soul, converted it into psychic power, and wrapped it around Haydn. Then, he flew into the air with Haydn and clung to the living room''s ceiling.


    The next moment, a huge cross-shaped beam of light cut through the space Fugallo and Haydn had previously upied. As Fugallo and Haydn weren''t there to receive the beam, the attack continued traveling forward and struck the wall opposite Alice, cutting through it like a block of tofu.


    However, the cross-shaped beam did not stop after cutting through the living room wall. Instead, it continued cutting through every wall in its path until it flew out of the mansion. Fortunately, Alice had nned and adjusted the attack''s trajectory beforehand, so after her attack left the mansion, it did not continue in a straight line, which would ultimately destroy the buildings around Haydn''s manor. Instead, the attack curved up and disappeared into the sky.


    "The Holy Cross sh What a nostalgic move." Fugallo lowered Haydn back to the ground after Alice''s Holy Cross sh disappeared from the living room. Compared to Haydn''s paleplexion, Fugallo looked very calm despite having just witnessed Alice''s Holy Cross sh. After all, this wasn''t the first time he had seen this move. "I didn''t think a child so young could have learned this move already."


    In reality, Alice hadn''t learned the Holy Cross sh at all. Holy Cross sh was a move that came with the Hero''s Sword. Only, unlike Heroes of the past, Alice didn''t need to learn how to use it. Instead, she could outright use it thanks to her right hand''s ability. Moreover, her right hand also granted her full control over the skill, which allowed her to limit the skill''s area of effect and avoid identally injuring any of the hypnotized magicians in the living room.


    As for the old magician Alice had previously woken up, he, too, was unhurt. However, he had already fainted from shock, so neither Alice nor Fugallo paid him any attention.


    "It seems you have been on the receiving end of this move quite a lot," Alicemented as she looked at Fugallo with narrowed eyes. Previously, as soon as Fugallo saw her entering a stance with the Hero''s Sword, he immediately fled to the ceiling with Haydn in tow. This development honestly surprised her.


    This meant that Fugallo had not only recognized she was going to use Holy Cross sh in a sh, but he had also simultaneously determined the blind spot in her attack and capitalized on that knowledge to dodge her attack.


    It should be known that Holy Cross sh''s cross-shaped beam covered a significant area. Even after Alice had limited its area of effect, it still covered a significant portion of the living room. Yet, Fugallo had not only managed to find a blind spot in the attack, but he had done so before she had evenunched the attack. Honestly, thebat experience Fugallo had just shown scared Alice a little.


    Fortunately, Fugallo was still stuck in the state of a soul. Although he could umte some mana with his soul, this amount of mana wasn''t enough to cast any powerful spells. At most, he could use it for simple applications such as lifting Haydn into the air. Or, he could mimic Miriya and cast basic spells such as Mana Bncing.


    If Fugallo wished to cast stronger spells, he would need to rely on a medium, such as how Grant had relied on several gigantic magic crystals to cast his gravity magic. And if he wished to cast taboo-level spells, he would need to have a real body as Kristine and Andusia did.


    Currently, it was obvious Fugallo had yet to reconstruct his body, so this was good news for Alice. Even if Fugallo relied on a medium to cast some spells, he still wouldn''t be a match for Alice.


    Of course, Alice wouldn''t naively believe that Fugallo couldn''t use his full strength. Fugallo obviously knew about his limitations and must have had a way to deal with this problem. After all, if Fugallo couldn''t even cast a taboo, there was no way he could have hypnotized all of the magicians in the living room. Most likely, Fugallo had some method that allowed him to use his full strength.


    "Haydn," Fugallo suddenly called out to Haydn. However, he did not say anything else, confident Haydn would get his point. In their current state, neither of them was strong enough to fight Alice. It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that they were no different than ants in front of Alice.


    Haydn naturally understood what Fugallo was trying to convey, and he couldn''t help but sigh. However, he didn''t object to the other party''s decision. Instead, he spread out his arms and gave up resisting.


    Before Alice could follow up her Holy Cross sh with an offensive taboo, she suddenly saw Fugallo''s soul flying into Haydn''s body. Then, to her surprise, Haydn''s body started radiating an astonishing amount of mana.


    <em>Did Fugallo possess Haydn''s body?</em>


    Although possession magic was a very niche type of magic, Alice had heard of it before. Or, more specifically, she had previously seen Grant possessing Heris''s body. Meanwhile, seeing how Haydn''s body had unleashed such arge amount of mana after merging with Fugallo''s soul, it was obvious this wasn''t the first time Fugallo had taken over Haydn''s body.


    Based on the bits of research Alice did on possession magic, Fugallo shouldn''t be able to unleash any strength if this was the first time he possessed Haydn''s body. He''d have to adapt his soul to Haydn''s body over a long period before he could gradually use Haydn''s body to unleash his soul''s full strength.


    <em>I see. So this is how they used all of these taboos?</em>


    Realization dawned on Alice when she saw this scene. By the looks of things, Haydn and Fugallo had been partners-in-crime for quite some time already. Otherwise, Fugallo''s soul wouldn''t have such a high affinity with Haydn''s body. Though, it was a wonder how Fugallo''s rotund soul could fit inside Haydn''s scrawny body


    Jokes aside, Alice didn''t forget that these two fellows were prepared to modify the Demon King''s Shadow taboo. Although she had already disrupted the Law-grade taboo they used to drain Luna''s mana, she wasn''t sure if they had already umted enough mana to execute their n. So, Alice decided that she still needed to be careful.

 Chapter 40: Knowledge Blind Spot

    Chapter 40: Knowledge Blind Spot


    Previously, Alice had still been wondering how Fugallo had cast a hypnosis taboo despite being stuck in the state of a soul. However, after seeing him take over Haydn''s body and unleash such an exaggerated amount of mana, she instantly understood what was going on.


    Fugallo must have possessed Haydn''s body numerous times before and developed his soul''s affinity with Haydn''s body. Hence, when Fugallo''s soul took over Haydn''s body, he could already use almost all of the strength he had when he was alive.


    Of course, this possession magic shouldn''tst very long. Possession spells typically had short durations, and this duration would be further reduced if there existed a big difference in strength between the possessor and possessed. So, Haydn was unlikely to withstand Fugallo''s soul in his body for a significant amount of time.


    Rather than Fugallo possessing Haydn, what surprised Alice, even more, was Fugallo''s personality. Fugallo might not be good-looking, but he looked like someone with good character. He didn''t behave like a bloodthirsty maniac trying to eradicate all humans. Instead, he was capable of expressing sincerity and partnering with humans.


    It was a pity that Fugallo was still up to no good. After all, no matter how Alice looked at it, there was no way Fugallo could be up to anything good if he was trying to achieve resurrection by using a taboo like Demon King''s Shadow. Alice did not wish to get disturbed by former Demon Kings when she was hunting for the Demon King''s Power in the future, so she needed to eliminate Fugallo here and now.


    Immediately, Alice gathered her psychic power and sent it smashing into Fugallo like an invisible boulder, sending Fugallo crashing through multiple walls and flying out of the mansion. After doing so, Alice used her psychic power to carry herself out of the hole she had just created in the building and arrived before Fugallo, who had already stabilized himself in mid-air.


    "Were you worried about those human magicians? It seems no matter the generation, you Heroes will always be the same," Fugallomented, chuckling.


    Alice''s intentions were obvious. There was still a group of hypnotized magicians in the living room. Had they fought there, most, if not all, of those magicians would have be coteral damage. Realizing this, Alice used psychic power to send him flying out of the mansion before he couldplete his possession of Haydn''s body.


    However, Fugallo also had to admit that Alice made the right decision. He might look like a civil person on the surface, but he was still a Demon King at the end of the day. If they were to start fighting in the mansion, he definitely wouldn''t care about the safety of those human magicians. After all, humans were the main target of hatred for Demon Kings. There was no way a Demon King like himself would care about the lives of a bunch of humans.


    If Alice hadn''t sent him flying out of the mansion, unless she didn''t care for the lives of the human magicians, she''d have to restrain herself once they started fighting in the mansion. In that case, she would be of no threat to him.


    "If I have to be honest, you just wasted an excellent opportunity to injure me," Fugallo said as he clenched and rxed his fists, the stiffness he previously felt after possessing Haydn''s body disappearing. "Had you struck me with something powerful while I was ustomizing myself with Haydn''s body, I would be heavily injured right about now."


    Fugallo could tell that the psychic st Alice had used against him just now was created by a spell that had already reached the taboo level. Unfortunately, the taboo wasn''t offensive-oriented. It was significantly weakerpared to actual offensive taboos, so it failed to cause any substantial damage to him. Had Alice used an actual offensive taboo just now, he would have most certainly suffered some heavy injuriesOf course, the offensive taboo would have also blown apart the entire mansion.


    In a fight between a Hero and a Demon King, one could say that Alice had missed an excellent opportunity just now.


    "Don''t get me wrong, Fugallo." Alice sneered in response to Fugallo''s taunt. It might be true that she had chosen to use Psychokinesis Transcendence instead of Burning Star to avoid harming the hypnotized magicians, but wasn''t Fugallo being a little too overconfident? "I might have lost an opportunity to injure you, but I have plenty of ways to create more of such opportunities!"


    As soon as Alice finished speaking, a gigantic fireball resembling a miniature sun appeared above her. Just the heat it radiated to its surroundings was enough to scorch the skin of anyone nearby. Even though Alice and Fugallo were currently in the sky, the nts in the manor below had started to dry up because of the heat radiated by the fireball.


    Meanwhile, this fireball was created by theplete version of Burning Star, which Alice could now use thanks to the bonuses the Hero''s Sword provided. Compared to the Burning Star Alice had previously cast, there was an obvious difference in the amount of energy the current Burning Star contained. If anyone were to see the Burning Star from a distance, they''d think that a second sun had appeared in the sky.


    Burning Star was a taboo created in thest few centuries, so Fugallo didn''t recognize it. However, it didn''t stop him from sensing the taboo''s power. The fireball hovering above Alice definitely wasn''t something as simple as a bunch of mes concentrated into arge ball. If he got struck by this thing, he''d still suffer severe skin burns even if he didn''t get killed on the spot. Of course, that was only because he had the strength of a Demon King. If the average person got struck by this thing, not even their ashes would remain.


    The next moment, before Fugallo could make any responses, the miniature sun above Alice suddenly flew at him, its speed in no way proportional to itsrge size as it arrived before him almost instantly.


    However, Fugallo wasn''tpletely unprepared for this attack. When speaking to Alice just now, he had already gathered his mana for an attack. Only, before he could convert that mana into a taboo, Alice had thrown this terrifying fireball at him. So, without hesitation, he abandoned the notion of attacking Alice and converted all of his mana into a defensive taboo.


    Immediately, ayer of silver liquid appeared around Fugallo and enveloped himpletely. Then, rather than retreat, Fugallo flew toward the approaching Burning Star and dove straight into it.


    Due to the Burning Star''s huge size, Alice didn''t see Fugallo''s actions. Fortunately, she could sense the mana fluctuations Fugallo gave off, so she could still determine his exact location.

 Chapter 405: I Should Study More

    Chapter 405: I Should Study More


    Based on what her senses told her, Alice knew that Fugallo had crashed straight into her Burning Star, which confused her greatly. It should be known that Burning Star was a powerful taboo. Even aplete Enochian Prism would shatter under the might of aplete Burning Star. Yet, Fugallo had not only chosen to avoid it, but he had even flown straight into it.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice immediately entered high alert. She wasn''t so ignorant to think that Fugallo was trying tomit suicide. The Demon King most likely had some means to resist her Burning Star.


    A momentter, Alice noticed a small shadow in her Burning Star, the shadow rapidly growing in size under her gaze. When Alice got a better look at the shadow, she realized what she was looking at wasn''t a shadow at all. Instead, it was Fugallo flying at her at great speeds.


    Alice''s expression instantly grew serious when she made this discovery. At this moment, Fugallo appeared to be covered in some mercury-like substance. At first nce, this mercury-like substance was soft and didn''t look like it had any defensive properties. However, when Burning Star''s mes came into contact with this mercury-like substance, the mes would vanish.


    Upon closer inspection, Alice found that this mercury-like substance wasn''t blocking or extinguishing Burning Star''s mes. Instead, it was dposing the mana around it.


    No matter how powerful a taboo Burning Star was, it was still a spell made of mana. Although the mercury-like substance was incapable of resisting Burning Star''s mes, it could dpose the taboo''s mana once it got close. To make matters worse, the concentration of the taboo''s mana wasn''t very dense due to the Burning Star''srge size. Hence, the mercury-like substance could dpose Burning Star''s mana easily.


    This should be the first time Fugallo had seen the taboo known as Burning Star. Yet, he had immediately noticed the Burning Star''s mana was somewhat sparsely concentrated and could be dposed easily. He had also devised a solution to capitalize on this property and pass through Alice''s Burning Star unscathed.


    "Tsk. As expected of a Demon King."


    Alice clicked her tongue. After fighting against Miriya and now Fugallo, Alice couldn''t help but feel fortunate that she managed to defeat Andusia so quickly and easily. Out of all the Demon Kings she had fought thus far, Andusia was the closest to achieving resurrection. If not for Andusia''s Living Wood body having a ring weakness, she would have never been a match for Andusia.


    Regardless, although Alice didn''t know what kind of magic Fugallo had just used, seeing as the other party was rapidly closing in on her, she promptly gathered her mana for an Enochian Prism.


    To Alice''s surprise, Fugallo didn''t try to attack her when she was in the midst of erecting her Enochian Prism. Instead, he hovered before her without doing anything.


    Alice was initially surprised by Fugallo''s behavior. However, she quickly learned what the Demon King was aiming to do.


    Although Fugallo had carved a path out of the Burning Star with the help of that mercury-like substance enveloping him, the mana he dposed was only a small portion of Burning Star''s mana. Hence, the Burning Star continued traveling downward and crashed into the nearby forest with almost all of its power intact.


    Immediately afterward, a massive explosion urred, the explosion so powerful it raised a mushroom cloud in the middle of the forest. Those ignorant of the situation would probably think someone had detonated a small taboo bomb in the forest if they saw this mushroom cloud.


    Meanwhile, along with the explosion, arge amount of residual mana spread out from the point of explosion, forming a powerful mana st that reached all the way to Alice''s and Fugallo''s positions.


    Fugallo remained unfazed when he saw the rapidly approaching mana st, behaving as if he had long since expected this to happen. With how loosely packed the mana in Alice''s Burning Star was, it was only natural there''d be a severe spread of residual mana once the taboo exploded. However, the mana st formed of residual mana was of no threat to him. The moment the mana st reached him, the mercury-like substance covering him instantly dposed all of the mana that threatened to crash into him.


    As for Alice, her situation was not at all goodpared to Fugallo''s. She might be the Burning Star''s caster, but due to how infrequently she used the taboo, she didn''t have much understanding of its effects in a real-world situation. Hence, she didn''t anticipate such a severe mana st, which led to the activation of her Enochian Prism getting disrupted. Although the prism barrier did not break apart on the spot, its glow had darkened significantly.


    <em>Shit</em>


    Alice panicked. She finally understood why Fugallo let her construct her Enochian Prism without interrupting her. He must have been waiting for the mana st resulting from Burning Star''s explosion to do his job for him.


    Meanwhile, sure enough, the mana st had disrupted the activation of her Enochian Prism, weakening it by arge margin. Although this weakening effect wouldst for only a moment and wouldn''t matter most of the time in battle, Fugallo was hovering right in front of Alice right now. At such a close distance, it would take Fugallo only an instant to capitalize on this weakness.


    Once more, Alice came to realize she still had a long way to go before she could match a full-fledged Demon King''sbat experience and judgment. The difference was so huge that Fugallo seemed to know more about the spells Alice used than Alice herself did.


    The next moment, taking advantage of the weakened Enochian Prism, Fugallo willed the mercury-like substance protecting him to separate from his body and ssh onto Alice. If the Enochian Prism was in a perfect state, the mercury-like substance would have had a tough time dposing the barrier made of concentrated mana. However, with the current state of Alice''s Enochian Prism, the mercury-like substance took only an instant to eat through the barrier and continue on its way to Alce.


    Alice''s eyes widened at this scene. Immediately, she spread the psychic power she created using Psychokinesis Transcendence out of her body to repel the mercury-like substance. Since the mercury-like substance was designed to dpose mana, she decided she might as well use something other than mana to defend against it.


    However, Alice quickly realized she had miscalcted. What Psychokinesis Transcendence created was indeed psychic power. However, because of how pure this psychic power was, there were hardly any differences between it and actual mana. Hence, when Alice tried to block the mercury-like substance with her psychic power, she found that the mercury-like substance could even dpose her psychic power.


    The corners of Alice''s eyes twitched when she saw this. Then, she suddenly remembered that she had previously used psychic power to send Fugallo flying out of the mansion. In other words, Fugallo knew that she could use psychic power, and her psychic power''s purity was so high it was no different than actual mana. This also meant that he had most likely attacked her with the expectation that Alice would defend herself using psychic power

 Chapter 406: This Taboo Is Not Bad; Its Mine Now

    Chapter 406: This Taboo Is Not Bad; It''s Mine Now


    The mercury-like substance was evidently a product of magic. Moreover, the magic in question should be a taboo-level spell, judging by its incredibly powerful corrosive properties. Even if Alice''s Enochian Prism was weakened, it was still a defensive taboo. Yet, it had failed to stand up to the mercury-lie substance for even a moment.


    As soon as Alice saw the mercury-like substance dposing her Enochian Prism, she subconsciously raised her arms to protect herself, particrly her eyes. It would be over for her if that thing hit her eyes. If she couldn''t even see, there was no way she could win a fight against Fugallo.


    In no time, the mercury-like substance made contact with Alice''s arms. Then, almost immediately, an intense stinging sensation spread to her brain, the pain causing her to grit her teeth to keep herself from screaming. This pain that reached all the way to the bone definitely wasn''t something the average person could endure.


    The instant the mercury-like substance made contact with Alice''s arms, visible damage also appeared on her skin. It should be known that Alice''s current physique was beyond extraordinary. It wouldn''t even be an exaggeration to say that her body was as tough as a dragon''s. Yet, the mercury-like substance had still managed to eat away at her skin and flesh.


    The mercury-like substance was so powerful that Alice didn''t even dare to block it using the Hero''s Sword. She could still heal herself if her body got wrecked. However, she could do nothing if the Hero''s Sword got broken. She''d have to get the Loli Goddess to make her a new one.


    Fortunately, due to the intense pain, Alice''s mind started to work even faster, which allowed her toe up with an idea she had failed to consider before.


    <em>Doesn''t it seem like I can touch this mercury-like substance?</em>


    While sensing the physical contact she shared with the mercury-like substance, Alice suddenly recalled when she had gone up against Aird. At the time, she had stolen control of the chains created by Aird''s War God''s Lock and the stone spike created by Aird''s Gaia''s Spear. Both the chains and the stone spike were undoubtedly products of magic. Meanwhile, as soon as Alice grabbed onto those objects with her right hand, her right hand would recognize them as weapons and transfer control over them to her.


    In that case, didn''t that mean she could simrly steal control over this mercury-like substance?


    Alice immediately acted on her hypothesis. While continuing to defend herself with her left hand, she returned the Hero''s Sword in her right hand to its weapon box. Of course, the instant Alice lost the Hero''s Sword''s bonuses, her physique weakened significantly. This allowed the mercury-like substance to corrode her left hand even quicker. In only an instant, Alice could already feel the mercury-like substance reaching her bones.


    However, Alice was no longer as mentally fragile as when she first transmigrated to this world. Her high Spirit stat allowed her to endure the excruciating pain. After gritting her teeth, she reached for the mercury-like substance corroding her left arm with her right hand.


    Although the mercury-like substance looked liquid, the instant Alice grabbed onto it, she found that it was actually an incredibly soft solid material. This was good news as this meant that the mercury-like substance had one whole body and wouldn''t split into two puddles just because she grabbed onto it.


    Meanwhile, it went without saying that Alice''s actions had caught Fugallo off-guard. Originally, Fugallo had been prepared tounch another attack while Alice was busy protecting herself from his initial attack. However, just as he was about to gather enough mana for a second attack, he couldn''t help but be dumbfounded when he saw Alice putting the Hero''s Sword away to grab the Feather of Silver that was corroding her.


    <em>Did she lose her mind?</em>


    Fugallo never thought Alice would do such a thing. His Feathers of Silver were clearly corroding Alice''s body. Yet, even as her left hand was being severely corroded, Alice had taken the initiative to grab the Feathers of Silver with her right hand. This action was no different than suicide.


    However, unbeknownst to Fugallo, the instant Alice grabbed onto the mercury-like substance corroding her, the substance''s weapon information sessfully appeared in her mind.


    [Weapon: Feathers of Silver]


    [Quality: Legendary]


    [Effect: Strength +500, Control +500, Mana +1500]


    [Additional Effect:


    Mana Feathering (Passive Skill. Feather all mana in a five-meter radius. The degree of feathering depends on the nature of the surrounding mana);


    Material Repulsion (Passive Skill. Feather all objects touched. The degree of feathering depends on the nature of the object touched);


    Wings of Silver (Passive Skill. You may transform the Wings of Silver into any form to manipte or attach to yourself.)]


    "Feathers of Silver" appeared to be the name of the mercury-like substance. Moreover, going by her experience of wielding the "War God''s Lock" and "Gaia''s Spear," the name of this substance should also be the name of the spell used to create it. Although the Feathers of Silver was only rated as a "Legendary," it possessed great power and functionality. So, it was most likely a taboo-level spell.


    Although Alice still suffered mild corrosion on her right hand when she initially grabbed onto the Feathers of Silver, the corrosion stopped the instant the Feathers of Silver''s weapon information appeared in her mind. This was because she now had absolute control over the Feathers of Silver.


    However, things were a little different on the other side.


    Just like how Aird could feel her connection with her War God''s Lock and Gaia''s Spear severed the moment Alice grabbed onto them, Fugallo simrly sensed his Feathers of Silver breaking out of his control. Adding on the fact that the Feathers of Silver had stopped corroding Alice''s body...


    With Fugallo''s wealth ofbat experience, he instantly realized what had happened. Alice, through some unknown means, had taken control of his Feathers of Silver! This also meant he could no longer use the Feathers of Silver to restrict Alice''s movements!


    To make matters worse, although the Feathers of Silver had left his control, Fugallo could feel that his mana was still powering the taboo. So, unless Alice took the initiative to dismiss the Feathers of Silver, the Feathers of Silver would continue to deplete his mana!


    This was a taboo they were talking about. A taboo''s mana consumption was no trivial matter. Although it took much less mana to sustain the Feathers of Silver than to create it, having to sustain a taboo that was under the enemy''s control would obviously be disadvantageous for him. If this situation persisted throughout the battle, the advantage inbat experience he had over Alice would get neutralized sooner orter.

 Chapter 407: Using the Enemys Strengths

    Chapter 407: Using the Enemy''s Strengths


    Fugallo had naturally tried to cancel the taboo. However, now that the taboo was no longer under his control, he found that not only did he no longer have a connection with the taboo, but he couldn''t even cancel it.


    "What is this magic?!"


    Fugallo was frightened. Although he was a Demon King with plenty ofbat experience, he had never encountered such a situation. Not only did Alice steal control over his taboo simply by grabbing it, but he couldn''t even cancel it. Moreover, even though the taboo was clearly under Alice''s control now, it was still draining his mana to sustain itself. How was this even fair?!


    Because of this sudden turn of events, even though Fugallo was supposed to have the upper hand now that Alice''s left arm was severely injured, Fugallo still couldn''t help but go on the defensive. Whatever Alice just did was incredibly strange, so he had to guard against it.


    After all, on the off chance this budding Hero could steal all taboos, how was he even supposed to win against her? Alice wouldn''t even need to attack him. All she needed to do was take control of a few of his taboos, let them drain his mana, and he''d be rendered powerless in no time.


    Although Alice noticed Fugallo''s panicked reaction, she didn''t growcent. Taking advantage of Fugallo''s confusion, she immediately went on the offensive.


    Fugallo was an experienced Demon King. Her right hand''s ability might have caught him off-guard, but he should be able to quickly figure out her right hand''s secrets, particrly its limitations. After all, if her right hand could steal control of all spells, she would have done something about the hypnosis taboo hypnotizing the magicians in the living room rather than just forcibly waking up one magician.


    "Have a taste of your own taboo!"


    Alice didn''t dare to let go of the Feathers of Silver at this time. After all, Fugallo would immediately regain control of the Feathers of Silver if she did so. He would also realize what she was relying on to control his taboo.


    Hence, Alice could only attack Fugallo with the Feathers of Silver right now. Fortunately, even though she couldn''t afford to have the taboo separate from her body like Fugallo did, she could use it like a whip due to its extraordinary sticity. Immediately, holding one end of the silver whip, she sent the other endshing out at Fugallo.


    Fugallo naturally didn''t dare to defend against the whip. He knew about the Feathers of Silver''s abilities. Now that he no longer had control of the Feathers of Silver, if he let the mercury-like substance wrap around his body as he did before, he''d be reduced into a pile of bones in the blink of an eye.


    Hence, as soon as Alice attacked him using the whip made of Feathers of Silver, Fugallo relied on his speed and agility to evade the weapon.


    Although the Feathers of Silver gave Alice a significant stat boost, the bonuses the taboo gave her were much worse than the Hero''s Sword''s bonuses. So, Alice didn''t have any statistical advantage right now. On the contrary, she was even weaker than Fugallo stat-wise. Hence, even after swinging the whip with all her might for several minutes, she failed tond a single hit on Fugallo.


    <em>It seems I can''t just rely on the Feathers of Silver.</em>


    Alice frowned. If this situation continued, Fugallo would soon realize something was wrong with her right hand. After all, she showed no signs of loosening her grip over the Feathers of Silver. Honestly, if Fugallo wasn''t so focused on evading and trying tounch counterattacks, he would have already realized her strange behavior and linked it to her right hand.


    However, despite how suspicious her behavior might seem, Alice still didn''t dare to let go of the Feathers of Silver. Once Fugallo learned about her right hand''s secrets, he would most likely focus his attacks on her right hand. And should he sessfully cause heavy damage to her right hand, she didn''t know what would happen. Would it lose its ability? Or would it release something strange like Kamijou Touma''s Imagine Breaker?


    Although curious, Alice didn''t wish to test this theory. So, Alice needed to start trying to use other taboos to assist her in battle.


    While attacking Fugallo with the whip in her right hand, Alice swung her left hand in Fugallo''s direction. At the same time, the phantom of a dragon gradually expanded from Alice''s left hand, eventually bing a full-sized white dragon that hovered above Alice. After materializing, the dragon promptly attacked Fugallo with its maw.


    <em>Dragon''s Shadow? So she can use other taboos at the same time?</em>


    Fugallo felt incredibly aggrieved when he saw Alice using Dragon''s Shadow. After dodging Alice''s attacks for several minutes, he naturally noticed that Alice was attacking him using nothing but the whip made of the Feathers of Silver. When he realized this, his first thought was to assume that Alice couldn''t use other taboos when controlling other people''s taboos. Yet, just as he was getting ready to capitalize on this w, Alice had summoned a dragon using Dragon''s Shadow


    The white dragon''s massive body blotted out the sky as it lunged at Fugallo. Fugallo knew he couldn''t get out of the dragon''s way in time, so he gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk of using another taboo. Immediately, powerful winds spread from his body and kept the white dragon from getting near him.


    Although Fugallo''s physique was stronger than the dragon''s, he wasn''t so foolish as to trade blows with the dragon. After all, once he let the dragon pin him down, he was certain the Feathers of Silver would strike him.


    However, as Fugallo stopped moving during the brief moment he had cast his taboo, the whip made of Feathers of Silver still smashed into his body. Although Fugallo had already surrounded himself with powerful winds, these winds were made of mana. Moreover, simr to Alice''s Burning Star, the concentration of mana in these winds wasn''t very high due to howrge of an area they covered.


    So, the Feathers of Silver effortlessly ate its way through the wind barrier without losing any speed andnded on Fugallo, leaving behind a huge wound on the side of his body.


    Like the wound on Alice''s left arm, Fugallo''s wound was deep enough to expose bone.

 Chapter 408: What a Valiant Way of Fighting

    Chapter 408: What a Valiant Way of Fighting


    Despicable Hero!


    A sh of rage appeared on Fugallo''s face when he sensed the deep wound he had just sustained to his waist. At the same time, he realized that he couldn''t continue dilly-dallying any longer. Simply put, his current body belonged to someone else, not his own. So, he could only fight at peak strength for a short period. If he continued dragging things out, not only would he ruin Haydn''s body, but he would also have difficulty winning against Alice, the new Hero.


    After all was said and done, Fugallo was still a Demon King. His sense of pride might not be as strong as other Demon Kings like Andusia, but he wasn''t an anomaly like Luna. He still had some sense of pride, and his pride forbade him from letting a new Hero look down on him.


    Immediately, Fugallo made a rapid decision and shifted his gaze to Alice''s right hand.


    As Alice expected, Fugallo, with his years of experience as a Demon King, had indeed noticed something strange about Alice''s right hand. It should be known that half of Alice''s left arm was basically gone already, so casting spells with it would put a significant burden on Alice. Yet, Alice would rather cast Dragon''s Shadow using her left hand than free her right hand and use it to cast her taboo. This situation naturally roused Fugallo''s suspicion.


    As the Feathers of Silver''s caster, Fugallo naturally knew about the taboo''s properties. Even when the Feathers of Silver was separated from the caster, the caster could still manipte it regardless. An example would be how he had willed it to fly toward Alice just now.


    Hence, Alice''s decision to use Dragon''s Shadow with her left hand instantly allowed Fugallo to theorize that Alice was most likely relying on her right hand to steal control over the Feathers of Silver. Moreover, to keep the Feathers of Silver under her control, she couldn''t loosen her grip over it!


    "Since that''s the case"


    After shredding Alice''s Dragon''s Shadow with his wind taboo, Fugallo relied on the same taboo to fly straight toward Alice!


    Although closing the distance on Alice would give him less time to react to Alice''s attacks, Fugallo had to take the risk. If he couldn''t quickly wrestle control over the Feathers of Silver back from Alice, not only would he have to continuously lose mana to the taboo, but he would also have to face its constant harassment. This was an incredibly aggravating and disadvantageous situation for him, so he needed to take care of it as soon as possible.


    Of course, Fugallo wasn''t charging head-first at Alice without a n. Mid-flight, he condensed the strong winds that had yet to dissipate, creating a small tornado that enveloped him and protected him.


    <em>This guy It took him only an instant to convert an offensive taboo into a defensive one</em>


    Alice was honestly surprised by what Fugallo just did. The wind taboo Fugallo used to shred her Dragon''s Shadow was obviously an offensive-type taboo. Yet, as soon as Fugallo was done using it offensively, he had transformed the remnants of his taboo into an armor that protected him. She had never thought of using taboos in such a manner before. Moreover, it had taken Fugallo only an instant toplete this conversion.


    However, Fugallo''s actions were futile. Although the mana making up his makeshift wind armor was much more densely packed, its defensive capabilities couldn''t actually rival a specialized defensive taboo since it was made using the remnants of an offensive taboo. So, while it might be able to keep the Feathers of Silver at bay, it could only do so for a moment.


    Subsequently, as Fugallo got closer and closer to Alice, it became increasingly easier for Alice to target him with her attacks. Although Fugallo initially managed to dodge all of Alice''s attacks, after he reached a certain distance, Alice was able to sessfully make her attack connect. Then, sure enough, although the whip made of Feathers of Silver got stopped by Fugallo''s wind armor, after a brief pause, it quickly tore through the armor andnded on Fugallo''s body.


    The whip struck Fugallo''s chest this time, its powerful corrosive capabilities instantly splitting apart his skin and sh. Because of how close they were to each other, Alice could even see a sliver of white through Fugallo''s chest wound.


    Although fights between Heroes and Demon Kings were typically beyondmon sense, these fights would usually consist of the two sides throwing taboos at each other until one side messed up and created an opportunity for the other side tond a lethal blow. Hence, in a fight between a Hero and a Demon King, the bodies of both sides would remain mostly intact throughout most of the fight.


    It couldn''t be helped. Full-fledged Heroes and Demon Kings possessed physiques surpassing dragons. They would only suffer minor injuries even if they ate a taboo to the face. Not to mention, most, if not all, Heroes and Demon Kings had defensive taboos under their belts. So, it was incredibly rare to see a Hero or a Demon King be covered in serious injuries before the fight was even over.


    However, the Feathers of Silver could aplish this feat. If even an amateur Hero like Alice could give Fugallo such a hard time using the Feathers of Silver, one could easily imagine how hard it must have been for the Hero of Fugallo''s era to achieve victory over the fatty Demon King. The Hero in question had probably sustained significant physical injuries by the end of their fight.


    Meanwhile, after getting struck in the chest, Fugallo had an even more difficult time evading Alice''s attacks. As a result, it didn''t take more than a second before Alicended another strike, her whip striking Fugallo''s neck this time. Immediately, blood gushed out of Fugallo''s neck. From Alice''s perspective, it looked like nearly half of Fugallo''s neck was cut through, the sight considerably horrific.


    Yet, even then, Fugallo remained unperturbed and continued advancing. Then, once within proximity of Alice, he sneered and swung his arms at Alice''s right hand.


    Just as Alice was wondering what Fugallo was attempting to do, she suddenly noticed Fugallo''s arms giving off a metallic luster. She had been so focused on Fugallo''s injuries previously that she didn''t notice that Fugallo''s hands had transformed into two sharp des.


    When Alice saw this, she quickly realized that Fugallo must have deliberately let himself get injured to distract her, preventing her from noticing the transformation of his arms. That way, she would be caught off-guard when he attacked her at melee range.

 Chapter 409: You Know Nothing

    Chapter 409: You Know Nothing


    <em>So he had such a card up his sleeve.</em>


    Alice narrowed her eyes at the desing for her right hand. She could feel the mana contained in Fugallo''s arms-turned-des, so she knew Fugallo must have used a taboo to achieve this transformation. Even with the constitution of a Hero, if she got hit, there was a good chance the attack would heavily injure her.


    Alice didn''t wish to gamble at such a chance, so as soon as she realized Fugallo was trying to cut off her right hand, she immediately responded to the attack. Under her control, the Feathers of Silver instantly wrapped around her entire right arm, forming a thickyer of defense.


    Subsequently, Fugallo ruthlessly shed Alice''s right hand with his de arms. Sure enough, it was as Alice expected. Fugallo must have used a taboo to convert his arms into weapons. Although Fugallo''s arms were still corroded to a certain extent, they had no trouble breaking through the Feathers of Silver''s defenses.


    The next moment, Alice could feel two sharp des making contact with her right hand and threatening to break past her skin and flesh. However, Alice did not panic. This was because she noticed that her reinforcements had arrived already.


    "You must have noticed I arrived long ago, right? Is that why you are so fearless?"


    A teasing voice suddenly appeared next to Alice and Fugallo. Before Fugallo could react to this sudden turn of events, he felt a huge forceing from his side, breaking through his wind armor and hitting him squarely in his chest.


    There was originally already a bone-deep wound in Fugallo''s chest. After he suffered this powerful hammering blow, his blood sttered all over the ce, and his body flew back and away from Alice. Ultimately, all he managed to aplish with his suicidal attack was leave two shallow cuts on Alice''s right hand.


    "Who is it?!"


    Fugallo panicked. His fight with Alice was a fight between the Demon King and the Hero. How dare anyone intervene? Moreover, what shocked him even more was that the attack that hit him just now was incredibly powerful, so powerful that it had overwhelmed his defenses and sent him flying.


    This was not strength that the average person could have.


    Hurriedly, Fugallo relied on the power of wind to stop and stabilize his body. Then, he spat out a mouthful of blood against his will, a testament to his severe internal injuries.


    Afterward, Fugallo looked to Alice''s side, trying to see who was responsible for attacking him with such a powerful blunt attack. Then, he saw a hammer the size of his arm hovering next to Alice, the sight stunning him for a moment.


    It was obvious that the floating hammer was responsible for attacking his chest just now, but...what? Was the hammer self-conscious? But that shouldn''t be possible. Even among Artifacts, he had never heard of any being self-conscious.


    "You look surprised."


    While Fugallo was feeling confused, the hammer suddenly spoke up. It was the voice he had heard just before he was hit, and it sounded like a cheeky female voice.


    "What? Don''t recognize the ''Weaponized Body'' you just used?"


    As soon as Fugallo heard this question, he saw the floating hammer melting and transforming into the shape of a miniature person. When he saw this miniature person, he faintly recalled seeing the other party''s appearance before. If he remembered correctly, he had seen this appearance in a report Haydn had previously shown him.


    However, that wasn''t important right now. What was important was that Fugallo finally realized that the floating hammer was actually a transformed product of the taboo ''Weaponized Body.'' It was simr to how he had used Weaponized Body to transform his arms into des. Only, the other party had taken things one step further and transformed her entire body into a hammer.


    Moreover, to make matters worse, Fugallo could feel a familiar presence in the miniature person.


    "Dark mana? You''re a Demon King?"


    Without the assistance of specialized devices, Fugallo couldn''t be certain whether the other party''s mana was demon mana or not. However, he could still tell that the mana coursing through the other party''s body was of the dark element. Moreover, it was an incredible amount of dark mana. Combining this point with the fact that the other party could use taboos, it wasn''t hard for Fugallo to figure out the other party''s identity.


    "What are you doing?! Do you have any idea who that person is?! How can you be helping her as a Demon King?!" Fugallo yelled at Andusia while pointing at Alice.


    "Of course I know. She''s the Hero, right?" Andusia nonchntly answered as she nced at Alice. Then, she returned her gaze to Fugallo.


    After getting brought back up to speed by Alice, Andusia already knew who Haydn was and how the Rhine King looked. So, when she saw Haydn''s body bursting with dark mana, she immediately understood that a Demon King was currently possessing Haydn''s body. And going by what they''ve learned about Haydn''s actions, she quickly concluded that the Demon King possessing Haydn was the Tenth Demon King, Fugallo Fold.


    "You know she''s the Hero, yet you''re still helping her?" Fugallo asked, dumbfounded by Andusia''s response. "Aren''t you supposed to hate humans?"


    "That''s back during my era. Times have changed, kid," Andusia responded with a sneering.


    Demon Kings were all prideful creatures. This would remain the case even when they were dealing with other Demon Kings. Andusia might keep her pride in check when dealing with Alice, but she naturally had no reason to be polite against a Demon King who was hostile to Alice.


    Moreover, it wasn''t exactly incorrect for Andusia to refer to Fugallo as a ''kid.'' Andusia was the Ninth Demon King, while Fugallo was the Tenth Demon King. Strictly speaking, Fugallo was her junior.


    "During your era I see. So you''re one of those Demon King''s souls this Hero here has spoken about meeting?"


    Fugallo had naturally overheard Alice''s previous conversation with Haydn. When he first heard that Alice had long since met the souls of other Demon Kings, he thought Alice was spouting nonsense. However, he now realized that might not be the case after all. The palm-sized Demon King hovering next to Alice appeared to be the soul of a former Demon King as well. Only, for some inexplicable reason, the other party had ended up in such a tiny body.


    Regardless, this wasn''t good news for Fugallo. He already had enough trouble facing Alice. Now, he had to go up against a Demon King as well.


    Fugallo frowned and clenched his fists. It might be true that Demon Kings were prideful creatures, but being prideful wasn''t an excuse to kill himself. With his current strength, there was no way he could go up against a Hero+Demon Kingbination.


    </p<>

 Chapter 410: This Is a Crisis

    Chapter 410: This Is a Crisis


    Alice and Andusia had good coordination with each other. Or, more specifically, Andusia was excellent atplementing Alice''s actions. After all, Andusia had been tagging alongside Alice for quite some time now and had seen how Alice fought multiple times. Hence, she knew Alice''s habits and which taboos Alice was capable of using.


    Simply put, Andusia understood Alice''s fighting style very well. Hence, she could make up for all of the holes in Alice''s defenses as well as help Aliceunch follow-up attacks.


    Meanwhile, Alice alone was already enough of a challenge for Fugallo, so adding a former Demon King into the mix only worsened his situation. After making a probing attack on the duo, Fugallo quickly understood how terrible of a situation he was in. Not only did his attack fail to do any damage to Alice and Andusia, but he had nearly gotten his left leg severed. Although his left leg remained attached to his body, there was a very deep cut at his knee, and he could no longer feel anything below that knee.


    "Time to finish him."


    Alice also realized that Fugallo was at his limits. Although she still wasn''t fully certain what Fugallo was plotting, she decided it would be best to get rid of this troublemaking Demon King as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary problems.


    After saying so to Andusia, Alice promptly flew toward Fugallo andshed the silver whip in her right hand at Fugallo''s head. If the Feathers of Silver struck Fugallo''s head, its powerful corrosive capabilities could instantly dpose at least half of his head.


    Fugallo was naturally aware of the Feathers of Silver''s might. So, the moment he saw Alice attacking him with the taboo, he promptly lowered his elevation. Fortunately, he had reacted to the attack in the nick of time as the Feathers of Silver barely scraped his scalp.


    However, as soon as Fugallo evaded Alice''s attack, he was startled to find a small figure sitting at the end of the whip through the corner of his eyes.


    Andusia coldly smiled as she jumped off the whip, grabbing the end of the whip as she got off. Alice currently held absolute authority over the Feathers of Silver. So, under her control, the Feathers of Silver would not corrode Andusia''s body. Hence, Andusia could sit on and grab the Feathers of Silver without getting harmed.


    Now, with Alice holding one end of the whip and Andusia holding the other, the whip made of the Feathers of Silver had suddenly be something akin to a jump rope. Meanwhile, Fugallo, who was directly below this jump rope, immediately realized the severity of the situation.


    "Surprise!"


    Andusia shouted before swinging the Feathers of Silver back at Fugallo. Because Fugallo was caught off-guard this time, he failed to react to the attack as quickly as before. So, even though he had already tried his best to lower his body''s elevation, he still failed to evade the Feathers of Silver.


    Hiss


    The sound of flesh and bone getting torn apart sounded as the Feathers of Silver swept through a portion of Fugallo''s head. Fortunately, as he had desperately lowered his elevation, the attack did not take away half of his head. It only shaved off a portion of his scalp and skull. Although the wound was gruesome, it wasn''t fatal.


    <em>Dammit. I''m really going to die at this rate, </em>Fugallo mentally cursed as he panted for air. Andusia''s participation in the fight instantly caused his situation to plummet. If he had reacted even a bit slower just now, he would most likely be dead already.


    Thinking up to this point, Fugallo looked down at the mansion below. He noticed that throughout their fight, Alice had deliberately avoided letting any of their attackswhether it was her Burning Star or his Windstormfrom affecting the mansion.


    As for why Alice avoided damaging the mansion, it was naturally because of the magicians inside. Seeing as Fugallo and Haydn had recruited these magicians to help them cast their Law-grade taboo, all of them must be great magicians capable of working as professors in magic academies. If over a hundred such magicians suddenly died, it would be devastating to the Rhine Kingdom.


    Alice did not wish to destroy the Rhine Kingdom''s foundations just to get rid of a former Demon King. Hence, she would always redirect her and Fugallo''s attacks away from the mansion.


    However, Alice probably failed to realize that Fugallo had simrly avoided dragging the mansion into their fight.


    The reason was also simple. Although Alice''s intervention had caused his taboo to stop functioning, the demon mana the taboo had collected thus far was already enough to achieve his primary goal. The only reason he had let the taboo continue running until Alice''s intervention was so that he could alsoplete his secondary goals.


    However, beggars couldn''t be choosers. If he didn''t start his n right now, death would be his only oue. Thinking up to this point, Fugallo stopped hesitating. After giving Alice and Andusia a hateful re, he promptly flew downward and crashed straight through the roof.

 Chapter 411: Recovering in the Middle of Battle Is a Flag

    Chapter 411: Recovering in the Middle of Battle Is a g


    "What is that guy trying to do?"


    Andusia had arrivedte to the battlefield, so she didn''t know what was happening inside the mansion. So, when she saw Fugallo suddenly fleeing into the mansion, she couldn''t help but grow confused.


    "That guy"


    Alice''s expression suddenly turned serious as two possibilities appeared in her mind. The first possibility was that Fugallo was already grasping at straws and trying to use the hypnotized magicians as hostages.


    However, the likelihood of this being the case was smaller. After all, Fugallo was a Demon King. Alice doubted his pride would let him do something so tasteless. Although Demon Kings despised humans, there had never been a case where Demon Kings would use despicable means, such as taking hostages when fighting against the Hero.


    The second possibility was that Fugallo nned to carry out his original n. Although Alice had already disrupted the taboo draining Luna''s mana, by the time she did so, the taboo had already depleted Luna''s mana dry and then some more. As a pseudo-Demon King, Luna''s mana pool was at least hundreds of timesrger than the average demon. So, the mana the taboo absorbed might just be enough for Fugallo to start his n.


    Although Alice still wasn''t fully certain what Fugallo''s n was, when she thought about the Demon King''s Shadow taboo and how it could be modified into a possession-type spell, she couldn''t help but get a bad feeling. Thinking up to this point, Alice hurriedly chased after Fugallo, going as far as to use psychic power to propel her forward like a bullet and instantly smash her way through the mansion''s roof.


    <em>Why is she in such a hurry?</em>


    Andusia grew even more confused when she saw Alice''s panicked reaction. She had been stuck in Lilith''s home the entire time Alice was going around looking into the incidents taking ce in the Rhine Kingdom. Although she had learned about the general gist of the situation from Alice, she still didn''t clearly understand the situation''s severity.


    However, after seeing Alice throwing caution to the wind and smashing through the mansion''s roof at high speeds, Andusia knew that the situation must be much more dangerous than she thought.


    Unfortunately, Andusia was a step toote. Before she could reach the mansion, a frightening amount of mana suddenly exploded from the mansion. Andusia was shocked when she sensed this mana. This was because she had not only sensed the dark element in this mana, but she also sensed that its strength had seemingly reached the standard of Demon Kings already.


    To make matters worse, when Andusia carefully inspected the mana fluctuationsing from the mansion, she could feel three particrly powerful mana sources. Of them, one belonged to Alice, and another belonged to Fugallo. Alice''s mana source was a powerful yet strange one thatcked the presence of light and dark elements. Meanwhile, although Fugallo''s mana source was the weakest of the three, Andusia could clearly sense the dark element''s presence in it.


    As for the third power source, which was responsible for the burst of mana, it was the strongest of the three mana sources that Andusia could sense. The volume of mana contained within this mana source was practically on par with a full-fledged Demon King''s mana source. Moreover, the mana fluctuations this source gave off were strikingly simr to Demon Kings.


    However, the fact that Andusia could sense both Alice''s and Fugallo''s mana sources right now meant that this third mana source did not belong to either of the two but from another person instead.


    <em>Ormaybe it''s not from a person?</em>


    Andusia recalled the information Alice had shared with her previously. If she remembered correctly, Haydn and Fugallo had stolen a taboo out of the Royal Magic Tower, the taboo''s name being "Demon King''s Shadow." Although a Hero or a Demon King didn''t invent the taboo, it could summon a Demon King''s projection. Or, more specifically, the Tenth Demon King''s projection.


    The taboo could only summon the Tenth Demon King''s projection because theveloper had used a sample of Fugallo''s mana as the basis of Demon King''s Shadow. However, even though the taboo was theoretically proven usable, nobody had ever sessfully cast.


    When Andusia linked Demon King''s Shadow''s function with the Demon King-level dark mana she just sensed, she quickly concluded where this frightening mana originated from. Most likely, Fugallo had sessfully cast Demon King''s Shadow and summoned a projection of himself during his prime.


    At the same time as Andusia reached this conclusion, the mansion''s roof suddenly exploded. Then, Alice''s figure came flying out of the building.


    At this time, the Feathers of Silver in Alice''s right hand had disappeared already. When she got struck by the Demon King''s Shadow in the mansion, her grip over the Feathers of Silver broke. Hence, control over the taboo had now returned to Fugallo.


    Subsequently, under Alice''s and Andusia''s gazes, Fugallo flew out of the mansion. Although his body retained the injuries he had previously sustained, his expression had loosened up significantly. He even revealed a victorious smile when he looked at Alice and Andusia.


    Meanwhile, hovering next to Fugallo was a pitch-ck figure. Apart from having a body simr in shape to Fugallo''s, this pitch-ck figure did not look like a person. Not only did this figure not have any distinct facial features, but it also maintained a stiff and straight posture as it hovered next to Fugallo. In addition, there was also ayer of pitch-ck fog constantly surrounding the figure.


    However, based on the mana fluctuations this stiff figure radiated, Alice and Andusia did not doubt even for a moment that this was the product of the Demon King''s Shadow taboo. Apparently, the taboo that had only ever been theoretically proven to be feasible could indeed be used in the real world.


    "Whoever developed this taboo is a fucking genius" Andusia said with an ugly expression.


    When Andusia first heard about Demon King''s Shadow from Alice, she highly doubted the taboo could create a replica of a Demon King like Dragon''s Shadow could create a replica of a dragon. After all, while dragons were powerful creatures, Demon Kings were even more powerful. At best, she thought Demon King''s Shadow could create a slightly stronger projection than Dragon''s Shadow.


    However, it turned out that she was wrong. Demon King''s Shadow was truly capable of creating a projection with a full-fledged Demon King''s mana and physique


    Fortunately, the Demon King''s Shadow looked stiff andcked self-consciousness. If it could only rely on Fugallo''smands to fight, its actualbat power would definitely be far weaker than Fugallo''s. It might have a slight advantage in the first one or two exchanges, but once the fight extended, its stiff and dyed movements would quickly get it killed by a real Hero or Demon King.


    "Andusia, don''t forget what I told you before." When Alice saw Andusia''s expression rxing, she instantly knew what was going through the other party''s mind. So, she promptly reminded Andusia, saying, "Fugallo''s trump card isn''t as simple as something like the Demon King''s Shadow Did you forget why he drained Luna''s mana?"


    Andusia was briefly stunned by Alice''s words. Then, she quickly remembered that Haydn and Fugallo needed arge amount of demon mana to modify the Demon King''s Shadow taboo.


    They were trying to alter the taboo that was originally designed to summon a Demon King''s projection into a possession-type taboo that allowed them to gain the projection''s strength!

 Chapter 413: People on the Same Side Clashing With Each Other

    Chapter 413: People on the Same Side shing With Each Other


    Alice''s Fountain of Uys was incredibly powerful. If struck by the falling magic water, there was almost nothing a great magician could do to block it. Their only option would be to evade it.


    Yet, the colorful barrier Fugallo created had stopped the descending water. When the torrent of water reached the barrier, all the water that struck the barrier instantly evaporated, creating a huge hole in the water column that descended from the sky.


    When Alice saw the colorful barrier''s effect, she knew that if nothing unexpected urred, she would have used the Fountain of Uys for nothing. Moreover, as she had deliberately strengthened it by fueling it with more mana, even though her mana was regenerating rapidly, she couldn''t immediately follow up her Fountain of Uys with a second taboo.


    Like Alice, Fugallo also thought he was safe for the time being. However, before he could feel relieved, he was surprised to suddenly hear a somewhat muffled female voiceing out of the huge Fountain of Uys.


    "Ho? Isn''t this ''Chaos Barrier?'' Kid, you''re using a taboo I invented."


    The voice belonged to none other than Andusia. Coincidentally, the taboo named Chaos Barrier that Fugallo had just used was a taboo Andusia had developed. So, Andusia naturally knew where the taboo''s weakness was at.


    However, what surprised Fugallo, even more, wasn''t the fact that Andusia was Chaos Barrier''s inventor. Instead, he was surprised that Andusia''s voice came from within the Fountain of Uys.


    Unlike the Feathers of Silver, the Fountain of Uys could not be controlled to affect only specific individuals. Anyone caught within the taboo''s range would suffer from the taboo''s effects. Even the taboo''s user would not be an exception.


    So, unless Andusia was willing to subject herself to the Fountain of Uys''s effects, she shouldn''t be inside the water column. It also didn''t sound like she was being restrained or damaged by the Fountain of Uys, either.


    While Fugallo was feeling confused over this situation, the sound of ss cracking suddenly came from before him. Upon hearing this sound, Fugallo''s expression instantly turned severe. This was because the only thing that could crack in front of him was the Chaos Barrier he relied on to block Alice''s Fountain of Uys.


    When Fugallo turned to check on his Chaos Barrier, he found that, sure enough, a thin crack had formed on the colorful barrier. Moreover, this crack was continuously expanding over time.


    In only a few seconds, the crack had already worsened to a point where some water was seeping through it. Evidently, it wouldn''t take more than a few more seconds for the Chaos Barrier to breakpletely. Then, nothing would stop the Fountain of Uys from washing over him.


    Fugallo frowned when he realized this point. Immediately, he manipted his mana to transform himself into a steel javelin. Then, he shrunk the Chaos Barrier, having it wrap around himself.


    Simr to Andusia, Fugallo had practiced the Weaponized Body taboo to a high level of mastery. So, he could likewise transform his entire body should he want to.


    Since Fugallo had transformed himself into a javelin, his "piercing" attribute had naturally reached a frightening level. On top of that, Fugallo had also wrapped the cracking Chaos Barrier around himself. So, he had now transformed into a javelin with powerful prating and defensive capabilities.


    "Oh?"


    Andusia''s voice came out from the column of water, seemingly surprised by Fugallo''s decision. Then, a clear stream of water broke out of the majestic waterfall that was the Fountain of Uys and flowed around in mid-air for a moment before eventually coalescing into Andusia''s figure.


    In the meantime, Fugallo, relying on the piercing attribute of his transformed body, rapidly ascended the water column and pierced through the spring from which Alice''s Fountain of Uys originated.


    The spring was both the Fountain of Uys''s origin and weakness. Once the spring was destroyed, the Fountain of Uys would immediately disappear.


    Normally, it would have been nigh impossible for anyone caught within the Fountain of Uys to take advantage of this weakness since an incredible amount of strength was needed to ovee the powerful torrent. However, Fugallo had not only transformed his body into a piercing-type weapon using the Weaponized Body taboo, but also proceeded to wrap his body using the Chaos Barrier. He had essentially d himself in two taboos that protected him and reduced the amount of impact he suffered. Hence, he overcame the powerful torrent, reached the Fountain of Uys''s spring, and destroyed it in one fell swoop.


    "Hmph"


    Alice lightly snorted and frowned, annoyed that Fugallo had shattered her taboo without taking any damage. She had expended nearly all of her mana to use and enhance her Fountain of Uys. Otherwise, if it were the normal Fountain of Uys, it would have never been able to achieve such power and scale.


    If she were to unleash this enhanced Fountain of Uys on a city, she wouldn''t need more than ten minutes to flood the entire city. It was only because Haydn''s mansion was located next to a forest that she dared to use this enhanced taboo. Even then, she had set the taboo to disappear automatically after a minute to avoid flooding the forest.


    Yet, after all the effort she had put into the taboo, Fugallo had broken through it without taking any damage.


    "He has a good head on his shoulders if he can think of such a way to break the Fountain of Uys''s spring" Andusiamented after returning to Alice''s side. Then, after taking a moment to scrutinize Fugallo, who had transformed back into his original appearance, she sighed and said. "It also doesn''t seem like the Fountain of Uys has had any significant impact on him. On the other hand, we have overdrawn ourselves a little."


    Indeed. Fugallo''s current mana pool had grownrger than when he first possessed the Demon King''s Shadow. Hence, even though he had expended a lot of mana to break through the Fountain of Uys, he still had a lot of strength remaining.


    In contrast, Alice didn''t even have enough mana to cast another taboo right now. Although it shouldn''t take long before she recovered her expended mana, Fugallo naturally wouldn''t be so foolish as to watch that happen without doing anything.


    Immediately after breaking the Fountain of Uys''s spring, Fugallo flew straight for Alice. It was obvious he intended to capitalize on her momentary weakness to decide the winner of this fight.

 Chapter 414: Peoples Sorrows and Joy Are Not Connected

    Chapter 414: People''s Sorrows and Joy Are Not Connected


    "Don''t ignore me, you bastard!"


    Andusia also realized Fugallo''s n, so she immediately appeared before Alice and created a gigantic multi-colored barrier to stop Fugallo''s hands that had transformed intorge axes. Meanwhile, despite Fugallo''s hands-turned-axes carrying tremendous power, they only managed to cause Andusia''s Chaos Barrier to tremble a little when they struck it. They failed to do any substantial damage to the barrier, let alone break it.


    Andusia was the Chaos Barrier taboo''s creator, so she could naturally also use it. Moreover, seeing how it took little to no damage from a taboo-level attack, it was obvious that Andusia''s Chaos Barrier was stronger than the one Fugallo previously summoned. It made sense, though, since Andusia would naturally be more knowledgeable about the taboo she created than someone who had just learned it afterward.


    "Move aside, Andusia!" Fugallo said with a cold expression. After hearing Andusia''s previous words, he could finally determine Andusia''s identitythe Ninth Demon King Andusia, the Demon King from a generation before him. "How can you even call yourself a Demon King if you''re helping the Hero? Do you not hate humans?"


    One of the main conditions for a person to get selected by the Demon King''s Power was to harbor hatred for humans. If an individual did not resent the human race, they would never be chosen to be a Demon King.


    Meanwhile, as a former Demon King, Andusia must have had a time when she had fallen into despair because of humans and despised humans. Yet, now, Andusia was fighting alongside a Hero. This situation greatly confused Fugallo.


    "I did hate humans, but that was long ago. By now, the group of humans I detested the most have long since disappeared in the ebbs of time," Andusia responded with a mocking smile. Then, after transforming her multi-colored barrier into a multi-colored bullet and sending it flying at Fugallo, she continued, "I''m not so tasteless as to vent my hatred on innocent people!"


    "It seems words won''t get through to you."


    Fugallo naturally wouldn''t fall into self-doubt because of a few words Andusia said. Even after all these years, his hatred for humans never faded in the slightest.


    Immediately, Fugallo used a taboo called Mana Breakdown to neutralize Andusia''s mana bullet. Then, his body started radiating a light-green glow before transforming into a gust of wind instantly swept by Andusia''s side.


    Andusia''s current Living Wood body allowed her to mimic the state of her real body. Unlike Alice, Fugallo also didn''t get to see Andusia when she still pretended to be a figurine in Marion''s house. So, unless Fugallo went out of his way and used special magic to inspect theposition of Andusia''s body, it was highly unlikely he would learn that Andusia''s body was made of wood.


    In such a situation, it was only natural for Fugallo to prioritize targeting Alice, the supposedly weaker link of his two opponents.


    "This bastard"


    Andusia was caught off-guard by this sudden development. Based on the spells Fugallo had used thus far, it wasn''t hard to determine that he was most proficient in wind-type magic. However, Andusia didn''t think Fugallo would transform himself into a gust of wind to slip past her. By the time Andusia reacted and turned around, Fugallo had already swung his hands-turned-axes at Alice.


    Fortunately, although Alice was a little low on mana right now, her physique remained. So, even though Fugallo''s speed was very fast, Alice still managed to react to his attack and defended herself with the Hero''s Sword.


    Although Fugallo''s hands-turned-axes carried destructive power rivaling Artifacts, the Hero''s Sword was a Law-grade weapon. It was an item on par with the Demon King''s Power and God''s panties. So, Fugallo''s hands-turned-axes naturally couldn''t break it.


    Meanwhile, the instant Fugallo''s axes made contact with the Hero''s Sword, Andusia finally reacted. Andusia was originally positioned a short distance ahead of Alice, so Fugallo''s act of sneaking past her to attack Alice had put him directly behind her. If Andusia couldn''t even hit Fugallo at such a close distance, she might as well pack her bags and join a retirement home.


    Turning around, Andusia summoned a ball of ck light in her right hand. Although she had learned how to use other elements after bing a full-fledged Demon King, the dark element was still the most familiar element to her as a Demon King.


    Dark Sunburst!


    Subsequently, the ball of ck light separated from Andusia''s hand and struck Fugallo in the waist.


    Alice had seen this attack before. Luna had used it during their fake fight outside the Elven Forest. At the time, Luna''s Dark Sunburst had missed her and crashed into the nearby grasnd, resulting in an explosion that created a mushroom cloud. Based on that reaction, it was obvious Dark Sunburst was an offensive taboo with incredible power.


    <em>Boom!</em>


    Sure enough, even with a Demon King''s physique, half of Fugallo''s waist instantly disappeared from the resulting explosion. The damage was so severe that his kidneys were erased, and parts of his spine were shattered and exposed. If any ordinary person suffered such a severe injury, they would have died on the spot.


    However, thanks to his extraordinary vitality, not only did Fugallo not die, but he even managed to endure the pain he suffered and increased the strength he put into his hands-turned-axes.


    Alice originally already had a difficult time keeping Fugallo''s axes at bay. So, Fugallo increasing the strength he used immediately caused the axes to move closer and closer to her body.

 Chapter 415: Fugallo X3

    Chapter 415: Fugallo X3


    <em>Is this guy crazy?</em>


    Alice frowned as she struggled to keep Fugallo''s axes from reaching her. Even though Fugallo had just suffered a wound so severe it looked like his whole body would snap in half the next moment, the strength he exerted into his axes did not weaken in the slightest. On the contrary, his strength had increased after getting injured. Moreover, it was to a point where Alice was struggling to hold him back, even with the assistance of the Hero''s Sword''s bonuses.


    It should be known that Alice, with the Hero''s Sword wielded, could wrestle dragons and emerge victorious. In terms of physical strength, Alice should already be stronger than even full-fledged Heroes and Demon Kings. Yet, Fugallo still had her beaten in physical strength.


    By the looks of things, it would seem that Fugallo''s strength had indeed increased after he had possessed the Demon King''s Shadow and absorbed its power. Otherwise, there was no way Fugallo could have overwhelmed Alice with his original strength.


    However, what confused Alice, even more, was the fact that Fugallo hadpletely ignored Andusia''s attack and let Andusia erase half of his waist. If she didn''t know any better, she would have thought that Fugallo wanted to kill her so badly that he was willing to let himself get killed in the process. After all, with his current injuries, there was no way he could survive Andusia''s subsequent attacks unless


    <em>Unless This bastard can regenerate his body again</em>


    Alice was startled when she thought of this point.


    Indeed, although Fugallo had only managed to heal his previous injuries and increase his strength by possessing the Demon King''s Shadow to heal his previous injuries, no one said he could use the Demon King''s Shadow taboo only once! Not to mention, seeing how frantically Fugallo and Haydn were in searching for and collecting demon mana, did they only prepare for one possession attempt?


    Her danger senses ringing, Alice hurriedly gathered the mana in her body. Although she had yet to fully recover the mana since no more than ten seconds had passed since she cast Fountain of Uys, she had no choice but to cast another spell, even if it meant depleting her mana pool.


    At this moment, Alice could feel her body howling in agony. It wasn''t good to use up all of the mana in one''s body as this would damage the body to a certain degree. Although recovery was possible, there was also a certain chance for the body to suffer irreparable damage.


    However, Alice couldn''t care less about such a consequence right now. After all, unless she used up every bit of mana she had, she wouldn''t have enough mana to cast a spell that was strong enough to work on Fugallo.


    After Alice concentrated her mana, she immediately spread this mana out of her body in the form of a light-green crystal.


    Forest Crystal!


    Fugallo''s expression instantly changed when he saw the crystalline barrier spreading out from Alice. Forest Crystal was an old taboo belonging to the elves, so Fugallo immediately recognized it. He also knew what the taboo was designed to do.


    Aside from defensive purposes, Forest Crystal could also be used to trap opponents. Once someone was enveloped by the Forest Crystal, if they wanted to break out of it, they would have to expend several times more mana than what was used to create the Forest Crystal. On top of that, the Forest Crystal''s mana could also be used to prate the trapped target''s body and seal the target''s mana source. So, if a person trapped by the Forest Crystal did not break out of it quickly, they might be put in a situation where they couldn''t ess their mana.


    Currently, Fugallo was already having difficulty moving his body due to his severe waist injury. He had also spent most of his mana. This was also why he had abandoned any thoughts of attacking from range and chose to engage Alice in a melee instead. So, if he were to get trapped by Alice''s Forest Crystal now, he would most likely have no chance of breaking out of it.


    As soon as Fugallo realized his predicament, he decisively retreated, sessfully avoiding capture by Alice''s Forest Crystal.


    Meanwhile, Alice couldn''t help but sigh when she saw the empty Forest Crystal before her. Had she managed to capture Fugallo with the Forest Crystal, she was certain Fugallo''s fate would be sealed.


    To make matters worse, Alice could feel her body aching all over, a consequence of squeezing all of her mana out of her body. If not for her extraordinary mana regeneration instantly refilling her body with some mana, she would have already lost consciousness, simr to Luna.


    "This guy really is something. He doesn''t show mercy even to his own body," Andusiamented as she flew back to Alice''s side after seeing Fugallo retreat from the battlefield. "But the fact that he dodged your Forest Crystal shows that he still doesn''t wish to die. In that case, why did he not protect himself from my Dark Sunburst?"


    "It might be because he still has a way to recover again," Alice said, frowning as she expressed her conjecture. Then, she looked toward Haydn''s mansion and continued, "Most likely, that Demon King''s Shadow isn''t limited to just one use"


    As soon as Alice finished speaking, a dark figure flew out of the nearby mansion. Alice and Andusia both had good eyesight, so they naturally saw what this figure looked like. It was none other than a "Fugallo-shaped" Demon King''s Shadow.


    "A second Demon King''s Shadow? Don''t tell me"


    Andusia''s expression instantly turned severe as she realized what was going on. Unfortunately, before she could do anything, the Demon King''s Shadow had already arrived next to Fugallo. Then, simr to before, Fugallo merged with the Demon King''s Shadow and achieved a full recovery Moreover, even stronger mana started to radiate from Fugallo''s body.


    "I see. So this guy''s n is to continuously create Demon King''s Shadows and possess them to increase his strength" Alice finally understood why Fugallo needed to absorb so much demon mana to carry out his n. It turned out that Fugallo''s n was never to stop at possessing only one Demon King''s Shadow. "But why does he need so much strength? Does he want to destroy the world?"


    "Demon Kings aren''t interested in world destruction. Generally, Demon Kings are only looking to take revenge on humans. After all, who''d be interested in conquering a ruined world?" Although Andusia felt a little unnerved by the mana Fugallo radiated, she still dutifully answered Alice''s question as Alice''s encyclopedia. "Unless, of course, this guy has totally lost his mind"

 Chapter 416: Theres Nothing a Little Brute Force Cant Solve

    Chapter 416: There''s Nothing a Little Brute Force Cant Solve


    Did Fugallo lose his mind? Alice didn''t think so. From how Fugallo interacted with Haydn, Alice could see that Fugallo was very rational. It even looked like he had a friendly rtionship with Haydn.


    Haydn was the Rhine Kingdom''s king. Yet, when faced with Fugallo''s request to possess his body, he showed no signs of rejection or enmity. Instead, he merely expressed a hint of frustration. This meant that he wasn''t being forced to let Fugallo possess his body. Instead, the two had most likely discussed it before and reached a mutual agreement.


    If Fugallo could convince a human king to abandon his position and support a former Demon King''s activities, it was highly unlikely he would be a lunatic out to destroy the world. After all, unless Haydn was simrly such a lunatic, there was no way he would agree to let Fugallo destroy the world.


    But this still begged the question of why Fugallo was trying to gain so much strength. Was it for world domination? But if that were the case, he wouldn''t need to endlessly create Demon King''s Shadows to possess. One or two would be enough for him to surpass everyone in this world, including the Hero. After all, it was highly unlikely Fugallo had expected to encounter a "Hero" like Alice, who would have the assistance of another former Demon King.


    Yet, Fugallo''s aim from the get-go was clearly to endlessly increase his strength. In Alice''s opinion, what Fugallo was trying to do was meaningless. After all, having too much strength wasn''t necessarily a good thing. After a certain point, the power in one''s body would oversaturate, causing one''s body to copse.


    Although Alice couldn''t understand Fugallo''s behavior, she didn''t try to understand it. It was pointless to understand Fugallo''s goals if she got killed here.


    "What should we do? We might have been able to win against him before, but I don''t think we stand a chance now," Andusia asked Alice when she saw Fugallo retracting all of his mana into his body. They already had difficulty dealing with Fugallo previously. Now that Fugallo had grown significantly stronger, they stood no chance against him. At most, they could drag out the fight for some time, but it was still only a matter of time before they lost.


    Not to mention, Alice had yet to recover her mana. After exhausting her mana to use Forest Crystal just now, she would probably need half a minute before she could make a full recovery.


    "Anyway, I''ll try to hold him back while you hurry up and recover your mana."


    Immediately, Andusia moved in front of Alice. As soon as she did so, Fugallo also made his move, crossing the distance separating them and arriving in front of her in the blink of an eye. If there hadn''t been a sufficientlyrge distance between them, Andusia might have been struck by Fugallo''s attack without being able to react.


    Fugallo was originally plenty fast already, thanks to his proficiency in wind magic. Now that his stats were further improved, Andusia could no longer cope with his speed by herself. Fortunately, Andusia didn''t need to beat Fugallo. She only needed to buy enough time for Alice to recover. Then, they could deal with Fugallo together.


    After Fugallo''s strength increased, his attack method also saw a change. Although he was still trying to engage Andusia in a melee, he no longer used Weaponized Body to transform his body into a weapon. In reality, while Weaponized Body might be considered a taboo, it was on the weaker side of taboo-level spells. Normally, Fugallo would only use Weaponized Body when he wascking mana or forced to engage his opponent in a melee.


    Andusia had yet to realize this point. She was still of the opinion that Fugallo would fight her using Weaponized Body like how he fought Alice previously. So, she kept her eyes fixated on Fugallo''s limbs in anticipation of an attack from them. However, even after Fugallo got within melee range of her, she failed to notice any of his limbs transforming into a weapon.


    <em>This bastard! He''s not using Weaponized Body!</em>


    Like Fugallo, Andusia also had a wealth ofbat experience. So, as soon as she realized Fugallo didn''t n to use Weaponized Body, she promptly abandoned all thoughts of trying to counter this taboo and used Chaos Barrier to create a gigantic, spherical barrier around herself and Alice. Since Andusia didn''t know how Fugallo would attack her, the safest solution would be to erect an all-epassing defensive barrier.


    After realizing Fugallo wouldn''t be attacking with Weaponized Body, Andusia instantly thought of many possible attack methods Fugallo would use. For example, Fugallo might summon a powerful storm using his prided wind magic andunch it at her barrier at point-nk range.


    However, contrary to Andusia''s expectations, Fugallo did not use any magic. Instead, he simply crashed his entire body into Andusia''s Chaos Barrier.


    <em>Huh? What is this guy trying to do?</em>


    Andusia couldn''t help but be stunned by Fugallo''s actions. Demon Kings might possess powerful physiques, but they still weren''t strong enough to go against taboos without the assistance of a taboo.


    It was simr to how Fugallo had lost half of his waist after taking a direct hit from her Dark Sunburst. Although Fugallo''s strength had further increased after possessing a second Demon King''s Shadow, there was still no way he could do anything against a defensive taboo if he relied solely on his physical body.


    However, as soon as this thought shed in Andusia''s mind, she immediately sensed something was amiss. This was because her Chaos Barrier was trembling after getting struck by Fugallo''s physical body. It even felt like it was about to shatter.


    <em>What?!</em>


    Andusia hurriedly lifted her head to look at Fugallo. Then, she found that Fugallo''s body was no longer limited to just a human shape. More specifically, a dragon-shaped phantom ovepped his body, making it look like the dragon was crashing into the Chaos Barrier with Fugallo.


    Dragon''s Shadow!


    Demon King''s Shadow and Dragon''s Shadow were simr types of spells. Hence, it wasn''tpletely out of the question for a modification that could work on Demon King''s Shadow to also work on Dragon''s Shadow. Moreover,pared to Demon King''s Shadow, Dragon''s Shadow was a weaker taboo.


    Hence, Fugallo, having already learned how to convert Demon King''s Shadow into a possession-type magic, managed to possess the dragon projection summoned by Dragon''s Shadow as well, further increasing his strength. Although the effects of this impromptu possession weren''t permanent and would disappear only after a few seconds, it was more than enough for a sneak attack.


    Meanwhile, dragons originally already possessed physical strength close to rivaling Heroes and Demon Kings. So, after possessing a phantom dragon, Fugallo''s physical strength had nearly doubled. In the blink of an eye, he had smashed through Andusia''s Chaos Barrier and into Andusia, sending her crashing into the forest down below, the collision destroying arge patch of trees and raising arge amount of dirt into the air.

 Chapter 418: Strength-Type Challenger

    Chapter 418: Strength-Type Challenger


    "We can''t win using brute force. This guy''s strength has already gone beyond the level of the average Demon King," Alice said as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. Of course, the blood didn''t originate from internal injuries. Instead, her mouth simply suffered a few cuts from Fugallo''s wind des. "Andusia, we''re going to have to use tactics, so listen up"


    Fugallo naturally wouldn''t give Alice and Andusia time to discuss ns to go against him. The instant Alice started speaking to Andusia, Fugallo promptly began gathering a frightening amount of mana next to him, the sound of strong windsing from the ball of mana.


    Evidently, apart from dark magic, the second elemental magic Fugallo was most proficient in was wind magic. Apart from being able to increase the user''s speed, wind magic could also be used to exhibit considerable cutting power, so it was a very useful magic type.


    "This Is it really doable?"


    While Fugallo was gathering mana, Alice summarized her entire n into one short sentence for Andusia. Although it was only one sentence, Andusia immediately understood what Alice was aiming to do. However, when she saw Alice''s current state, she couldn''t help but grow concerned.


    Unfortunately, despite her concerns, Andusia had no choice but to trust in Alice since she couldn''te up with anything better. She might have considerablebat experience as a former Demon King, but Fugallo wasn''t some amateur, either. He didn''t leave much room for her to exploit. She also couldn''t possibly keep relying on Alice to protect her, right?


    After gritting her teeth, Andusia jumped off Alice''s shoulder and flew straight at Fugallo. During her brief conversation with Alice, Andusia had also been gathering her mana like Fugallo, so she was ready to take action at any time.


    "Hm?"


    Fugallo originally wanted to use another Eye of the Storm to thoroughly eliminate Alice and Andusia. However, before he couldunch the mana gathered next to him, he saw Andusia flying at him at great speeds.


    Andusia''s current body might be tiny, but the mana contained within that tiny body was not at all weak. While rapidly approaching Fugallo, Andusia transformed her mana into arge ck w. Then, she had this w ball up into a fist and sent a punch flying at Fugallo.


    The w was the product of a taboo called Dark Hand. Compared to other taboos, Dark Hand had a rtively crude effect. Honestly, if not because of the mana and level of control needed to cast it being just barely at the taboo level, one wouldn''t think it was a taboo. However, because of its simplicity, Andusia managed to finish casting it andunched it at Fugallo before Fugallo could evenunch his attack.


    Fugallo''s physique might have been strengthened to beyond the standard of the average Demon King, but that didn''t mean he could shrug off taboo-level attacks. Although Dark Hand was weaker than most offensive taboos, it was a taboo of the dark element. This meant that the taboo inherently possessed corrosive properties. Combined with the taboo''s raw destructive power, Fugallo would inevitably suffer some internal injuries if he took the hit without defending himself.


    Fugallo had seen Alice and Andusia saying something to each other, so he was certain the two hade up with a n to defeat him. So, although he was confident in his current strength, the cautious personality he had developed during his time as a Demon King forbade him from defenselessly receiving Andusia''s attack. After all, even if Andusia''s attack wasn''t lethal to him, he might be ying right into Alice''s hand if he took it without defending himself.


    Immediately, Fugallo transformed the mana for Eye of the Storm into a suit of wind armor that covered his entire body. As soon as he finished doing so, Andusia''s Dark Hand also smashed into his body.


    Eye of the Storm might have been originally intended as an offensive taboo, but it could still show extraordinary effects when used defensively. At the very least, it was more than strong enough to fend off the attacks of Dark Hand, a spell that could only barely be considered a taboo. So, even though Andusia had given her all into her Dark Hand, her taboo had failed to connect with Fugallo''s body. All the taboo managed to aplish was scatter some of the mana making up the Eye of the Storm.


    However, Andusia did not retreat even after her attack failed. Instead, she promptly followed it up with a second Dark Hand.


    When Fugallo saw this, it further reaffirmed his conjecture that Andusia''s usage of Dark Hand was part of a bigger n. Realizing this, Fugallo decided tounch a counterattack instead of letting Andusia continue to hit him.


    "Are you trying to trade blows with me? Have you already forgotten how I sent you two crashing out of the sky just a moment ago?" Fugallo said with a somber expression.


    Although Fugallo had already decided tounch a counterattack, he still couldn''t help but feel offended by Andusia''s actions. After all, he had already proven himself to have strength beyond the average Demon King. Yet, Andusia still chose to attack him with a taboo as weak as Dark Hand. Twice, even.


    Hence, at the same time as Fugallo decided tounch a counterattack, he also decided he would crush Andusia''s Dark Hand head-on to teach Andusia a lesson.


    The next moment, the phantom of a gigantic dark dragon appeared behind Fugallo. Naturally, this was the dragon projection summoned using the taboo "Dragon''s Shadow." However, unlike other people, Fugallo did not have the phantom dragon do his bidding after summoning it. Instead, he had the phantom merge with his body.


    The instant Fugallo merged with the Dragon''s Shadow, his body suddenly radiated a burst of power so great that it shattered the ground he stood on. Now, he was probably strong enough to shatter an entire mountain with his fists alone.


    Seeing the Dark Hand approaching him, Fugallo let out a guttural roar and covered his body in ayer of mana. The wind armor he had previously created for himself had disappeared along with the sudden burst of power, so he needed a newyer of protection to keep the Dark Hand from touching him. Then, after doing so, he kicked against the ground and propelled himself forward.


    The instant Fugallo collided with Andusia''s Dark Hand, thetter broke apart on the spot. Then, without any decrease in momentum, Fugallo crashed head-first into Andusia''s body, sending Andusia flying and crashing into the distance.


    "<em>Hiss</em>"


    Andusia''s Living Wood body might not have any internal organs, but she could feel fractures urring all over her body. It should be known that Fugallo had attacked her using only physical strength. This meant that Fugallo''s physical strength was already enough to overwhelm the physique of a Demon King.

 Chapter 419: Not The Face

    Chapter 419: Not The Face


    Andusia got sent flying and crashed next to Alice.


    Currently, Alice had already stopped bleeding from the cuts she suffered from Fugallo''s Eye of the Storm. After all, they were only shallow wounds. Fugallo''s Eye of the Storm also didn''t carry any corrosive properties like the Feathers of Silver or Dark Hand. Although it would probably take until after the battle for these cuts to fully heal, they would no longer pose a problem to her.


    "Are you alright, Andusia?" Alice asked as she hauled Andusia out of the ground and ced the other party on her shoulder using psychic power. Andusia''s body was made of Living Wood and was devoid of any internal organs or blood, so Alice couldn''t tell how exactly Andusia was doing right now.


    "Does it look like I''m fine to you? Dammit," Andusia grumpilyined while holding her stomach. She could faintly feel that a few cracks had formed in her body. Fortunately, these cracks weren''t permanent, as her recovery abilities as a Demon King were gradually taking effect on her Living Wood body. So long as she was careful and didn''t let her body thoroughly shatter, she should be able to make a full recovery given enough time.


    "It seems you''ve also suffered internal injuries, Andusia," Fugallo said as he walked up to Alice and Andusia, the mana around him stirring with every step he took. If any normal person were to stand in Fugallo''s presence right now, they would probably suffocate from the powerful mana he radiated.


    After saying so, though, Fugallo couldn''t help but reveal a confused look as he looked at Andusia holding her stomach. Logically, Andusia should have suffered severe internal injuries after receiving his headbutt. Andusia''s current pose and expression also indicated that she was suffering from internal injuries. Yet, not even a drop of blood hade out of her mouth.


    However, that wasn''t an important detail. Fugallo could tell that Andusia was injured through the mana fluctuations she radiated. He could also tell that Alice wasn''t in any better of a state. So, in his current state, where he had taken possession of two Demon King''s Shadows, he was confident he held an absolute advantage over Alice and Andusia.


    "It seems you don''t n to spare us," Alice said when she sensed the rumbling mana around Fugallo. "What exactly is your goal?"


    "My goal?" Fugallo chuckled. He was wondering what Alice would say in her final moments, but he didn''t think she would ask about his goals. However, he did not care about hiding his goals, so he frankly admitted, "It is to eliminate the divide between humans and demons."


    "???"


    Alice and Andusia were stunned. They had thought of many possibilities, but they never thought that Fugallo''s goal would actually be such a noble-sounding one. However, after hearing Fugallo''s answer, Alice grew even more confused:


    "Eliminate the divide between humans and demons? By relying on Demon King''s Shadow?"


    "Demon King''s Shadow is but a means to an end. To achieve my goal, I need to endlessly increase my strength until I am strong enough to alter the rules of this world," Fugallo patiently exined as he looked at Alice. Then, after a short pause, Fugallo continued:


    "What do you think is the main reason humans and demons are in contention with one another? It''s obviously because of the difference in living environments, right? Because of humans having a more favorable living environment, a divide has formed between humans and demons, leading to the two races shing with one another."


    Alice frowned. She still couldn''t figure out where Fugallo was going with his point. Setting aside why a Demon King like Fugallo was trying to aplish something as noble as eliminating the divide between humans and demons, how was he going to aplish this by changing the world''sws?


    "Do you still not get it? Since the difference in living environments is the case of the divine, the solution to rectify this problem is simplechange the human realm''s environment," Fugallo said. "So long as we transform the entire world into one big demon realm and all humans into demons, a divide between the two races won''t exist."


    "You" Alice was frightened by Fugallo''s words. While she was trying to improve the demon realm''s environment to match the human realm''s environment, Fugallo was actually aiming to do the exact opposite...


    Alice knew how terrible of an environment the demon realm had. Every naturally urring thing there was twisted in some way, and not in a good way, either. Although Fugallo''s n could indeed eliminate the divide between humans and demons, it wouldn''t lead the world''s development down a better path.


    "Rather than try to transform hell into heaven, you are trying to turn heaven into hell instead?" Andusia also understood what Fugallo was aiming for. Snickering, she said, "It seems you are still nothing but a beast driven by hatred, Fugallo."


    Fugallo fell silent. However, he did not try to refute Andusia''s words. Instead, he started transforming the mana around him into a powerful storm to eliminate Alice and Andusia.


    "Did someone get angry after getting called out?" Andusia sneered. Then, she gathered her mana, transformed it into another Dark Hand, balled it into a fist, and sent it flying to Fugallo.


    "You just don''t learn, do you?"


    Fugallo narrowed his eyes when he saw Andusia using the same attack against him. Immediately, he expanded his Eye of the Storm to have it shred Alice and Andusia into pieces.


    "That should be about enough." At this time, Alice suddenly smiled. Then, she shouted, "RiseForest Crystal!"


    "Huh?" When Fugallo heard Alice''s abrupt shout, he subconsciously tried to retreat to avoid getting sealed by Alice''s Forest Crystal. However, as soon as he moved his feet, he realized that there wasn''t any manaing out of Alice''s body. Immediately, anger shed in his eyes as he said, "You dare to trickWhat?!"


    Fugallo''s expression abruptly changed before he could finish speaking. This was because he could feel a stream of foreign mana suddenly invading his body. Then, this foreign mana transformed into a dark-green crystal that imprisoned a portion of his mana, preventing him from essing it.


    As a result of a portion of Fugallo''s mana being sealed, the Eye of the Storm he summoned was also instantly scattered, leaving Fugallo momentarily defenseless. Meanwhile, before Fugallo could react to this unexpected development, Andusia''s Dark Hand unerringly smashed into his face.


    Alice and Andusia both had good hearing. So, the instant the Dark Hand collided with Fugallo''s face, both of them could clearly hear the sound of Fugallo''s nose shattering.

 Chapter 420: How to Quickly End a Battle

    Chapter 420: How to Quickly End a Battle


    Without any resistance, Fugallo ate a punch from Andusia''s Dark Hand with his face, the impact instantly shattering Fugallo''s nose. Fugallo''s nose breaking was also clearly audible, the sound reaching Alice''s and Andusia''s ears without fail.


    Fugallo was fortunate that he was only struck by Andusia''s Dark Hand. Because of how weak Dark Hand was as a taboo, it failed to cause any significant damage to Fugallo. All it managed to aplish was break Fugallo''s nose, corrode a portion of Fugallo''s face, and send Fugallo flying. Had Fugallo been struck in the face with a stronger taboo, such as Dark Sunburst, he would probably be ready for his funeral right about now.


    Unfortunately, with the situation just now, Andusia didn''t have any time to gather more mana for a stronger taboo. Had she tried to go for a stronger attack, she definitely wouldn''t have achieved as good of a result as she just did. Regardless, the fact that Fugallo got hit squarely in the face by her Dark Hand must mean that Alice''s n worked.


    After crashing into the distant ground, Fugallo quickly stood back up. At this time, his face waspletely disfigured. Haydn''s face originally had a gloomy appearance already. Now that the bridge of his nose was caved in and arge part of his face became corroded and wrinkled by dark mana, his face looked somewhatical.


    "What did you do?!"


    Fugallo shouted in a panic. This development was beyond his expectations. He never expected Alice to directly create a Forest Crystal in his body and seal off a portion of his mana. Because of the Forest Crystal, he had lost ess to all of the extra mana he gained from possessing the second Demon King''s Shadow.


    This situation didn''t make sense. If Alice wanted to condense a Forest Crystal into his body, she would first have to inject a sufficient amount of mana into his body. However, he was sure he didn''t have any physical contact with Alice previously. In that case, since when did Alice inject her mana into his body?


    There was also no way Alice had injected her mana into him across a distance. His senses weren''t dead. Had Alice pulled such a stunt, he would have noticed it immediately.


    "You still haven''t noticed it? And to think you are a Demon King."


    Alice breathed a sigh of relief. It would seem that the senses of a veteran Demon King weren''t wless. This realization allowed Alice to gain a little confidence. She might not be a match for veteran Demon Kings when it came tobat experience, but when it came to trickery, it turned out that she wasn''tpletely outssed. At the very least, the tricks she pulled wouldn''t necessarily be noticed by a veteran Demon King.


    Unfortunately, Alice failed to sneak enough mana into Fugallo''s body. Hence, the Forest Crystal she created could only seal around half of Fugallo''s mana.


    Even so, this was already enough. Now that Fugallo''s strength had reverted to when he had only absorbed one Demon King''s Shadow, Alice and Andusia had a chance to defeat him.


    Of course, the injuries Alice and Andusia sustained during this period couldn''t be ignored, either. If Alice and Andusia were in their peak states, they could defeat the current Fugallo with 100% certainty. In their current states, though, their chances of victory were only 50%.


    "I see. I understand now." After pondering in silence for a moment, Fugallo looked up with a look of realization on his face. "I was wondering why I lost hardly any mana when I summoned that Dragon''s Shadow to possess It turns out that it wasn''t my Dragon''s Shadow."


    "So, you''ve finally noticed?" Andusia said as she put herself between Fugallo and Alice, the mana around her boiling. "That''s right. The Dragon''s Shadow you absorbed was Alice''s creation."


    Fugallo had made it clear that he could and would possess Dragon''s Shadow to boost his melee prowess when forced into a melee. So, Alice came up with the idea of taking advantage of this point.


    More specifically, Alice''s n was to have Andusia engage Fugallo in a melee. At the same time, in anticipation of Fugallo''s reaction, she would create a Dragon''s Shadow behind Fugallo a split second before Fugallo would create his own. This was so that she could have Fugallo mistakenly possess her Dragon''s Shadow, thereby allowing her to introduce her mana into Fugallo''s body.


    Of course, the n did note without risks. There was a chance that Fugallo would notice that the Dragon''s Shadow that appeared behind him had actually finished forming earlier than it should have. However, in the heat of battle, the chances of that happening were very low.


    Fortunately, Alice''s gamble paid off, and she sessfully introduced her mana into Fugallo''s body. Although a portion of the mana she invested was exhausted by Fugallo''s possession magic, what remained was enough for her to construct aplete Forest Crystal and seal half of Fugallo''s mana.


    "Now that your strength has plummeted, it''s our turn to attack," Andusia said, sneering as she gathered a ck ball of mana in front of her. The spell she was preparing to cast this time was none other than the Dark Sunburst that had previously exploded half of Fugallo''s waist into smithereens.


    Previously, Andusia could only afford to use simple taboos like Dark Hand since Fugallo was too quick and strong for her to achieve any effective results with stronger and moreplex taboos like Dark Sunburst. Now, though, she was confident that her Dark Sunburst could chew through any defensive measures Fugallo could put up.


    In the meantime, Alice also started to gather her mana to attack Fugallo together with Andusia. Although a two-on-one fight might seem unfair, Fugallo was relying on his "Possession Magic - Demon King''s Shadow" to strengthen himself. So, Alice and Andusia needed to work together if they wanted to have any chance of winning.


    Moreover, Alice was concerned that Fugallo might be preparing to use more instances of his "Possession Magic - Demon King''s Shadow." Who was to say that a third Demon King''s Shadow wasn''t in the midst of being created in Haydn''s mansion? Once that third Demon King''s Shadow finished forming and merged with Fugallo, Fugallo would receive another massive boost in strength.


    Hence, they needed to eliminate Fugallo as quickly as possible to avoid such a situation.


    Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn''t help but fall into a dilemma as she looked down at her skirt.


    <em>Must I really use it?</em>

 Chapter 421: An Unexpected Development

    Chapter 421: An Unexpected Development


    Alice would normally tie her hair into twintails using panties to make it convenient for whenever she needed to grab a pair. Although it was an abnormal behavior, it saved her from the embarrassment of having to strip in the middle of a fight.


    However, as luck would have it, she didn''t have her hair tied today. Or, more specifically, she would normally let her hair down at home. Meanwhile, she was at home when she discovered Luna unconscious, so in her hurry to help Luna, she rushed out of the house without tying her hair.


    Because of this situation, if Alice wanted to secure a pair of panties right now, she would either have to use the pair she was wearing under her skirt or grab one from her waist-side pouch.


    The problem was that both methods required some time to aplish.


    In the former''s case, it went without saying she would need time to take off the panties she currently wore.


    As for thetter''s case, Alice was ashamed to admit that she had stuffed too many things into it recently, such as the Hero''s Sword''s weapon box and the several tools made using the Demon King''s Power''s essence. The addition of these items filled her pouch to the brim and pushed her arsenal of panties to the bottom. So, if she wanted to reach the panties, she would have to struggle with the other items for some time.


    After realizing this problem, Alice felt she should probably get a specialized spatial storage for her panties. For example, she could get a spatial ring to store them. That way, whenever she needed the assistance of a pair of panties, she could immediately summon one with just a thought.


    At the same time, Alice also realized that she was getting a little toocent recently. After gaining sufficient strength to contend against individuals such as Gunst, she started to think that she no longer needed panties to resolve her fights like before. Ultimately, her arrogance had gotten the best of her, and she was taught a harsh lesson by Fugallo. It turned out that she wasn''t the only one capable of increasing her strength through external means. Some Demon Kings could simrly aplish such a feat.


    "Tempest!"


    Fugallo shouted in a hoarse voice. Apanying his shout, powerful wind des spread out from him in all directions, overturning the surroundingnd and reducing many trees into tiny wood chips.


    In response, Alice and Andusia promptly used their mana to protect themselves and jumped away from Fugallo. Although they still got struck and injured by some wind des, their injuries were shallow and wouldn''t hinder their movements. Then, after enduring Fugallo''s attack, Alice and Andusia gathered their mana tounch another attack.


    In the blink of an eye, several minutes had already gone by since Alice sealed parts of Fugallo''s mana with her Forest Crystal. During these several minutes, Alice, Andusia, and Fugallo traded many blows with one another, bombarding the forest with numerous taboos.


    The forest next to Haydn''s mansion was originally a lush forest situated outside of Icarus City. Although it was much smallerpared to the Gryffin Forest, which served as a natural barrier separating the Gryffin Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom, it was still arge forestpared to other forests in the human realm. However, because of the trio''s fight, more than half of the forest had been reduced into a ruinednd riddled with smoking craters.


    If the treants were here to see this devastation, some of the older treants would probably faint on the spot.


    Fortunately, repairing damaged forests was a rtively easy task for the people of this world due to the existence of wood magic. The elves also had plenty of spells that could be used to expedite the growth of nts. Although growing an entire forest from nothing still required time, it wouldn''t take more than a few months to create a lush forest, which was why there were hardly any barrennds in the human realm. When it came to maintaining forests, the inhabitants of this otherworld were leagues ahead of Earth''s inhabitants.


    This was also why Alice and Andusia didn''t bother to care for the surrounding trees when fighting Fugallo. Both of them fought with all of their strength throughout the fight.


    However, despite their efforts, Fugallo was simply too strong. Even though Fugallo currently had half of his mana sealed, he still managed to fight Alice and Andusia to a standstill, with both sides having exhausted their mana and taken heavy damage.


    At this time, Fugallo no longer had any control over his left arm, the limb crippled after taking a direct hit from Andusia''s Sunburst. There was also a terrible wound in his stomach, a gift from Alice''s Hero''s Sword. Furthermore, he could no longer see through his right eye after Alice had wed through it while using Wind Hunter, a taboo of the catkins.


    Alice and Andusia weren''t in any better shape, either. Alice''s chest was originally t as a board already. However, after receiving a bludgeoning attack from Fugallo''s Weaponized Body, her sternum and ribs shattered, and her chest caved in. She also had the nerves of her left shoulder severed by a wind de, which, in turn, prevented her from moving her entire left arm. Because her panty pouch was ced on the left side of her waist, she would have even greater difficulty retrieving any panties from the pouch now.


    As for Andusia, although she looked the best out of the three, numerous cracks were already covering the surface of her body. In her current state, her Living Wood body would probably shatter after taking a few more direct hits. Fortunately, the clothes she wore covered all of these cracks, so Fugallo still hadn''t realized her body was made of wood even until now. Otherwise, he would have promptly used a wood-type taboo against her, just like Alice did against her previously.


    "We can''t continue like this, Alice," Andusia said. She was brimming with confidence a few minutes ago, but after several exchanges, hardly any of that confidence remained. Instead, recing it was frustration and helplessness. "We might be in a stalemate right now, but this guy If he buys enough time for himself, another Demon King''s Shadow might appear."


    This was the part that Alice and Andusia were most concerned about. If their fight with Fugallo dragged on for too long, Fugallo might gain a new Demon King''s Shadow to possess. Should Fugallo be any stronger than he currently was, the only thing Alice and Andusia could do at that time would be to die.


    After staying silent for a moment, Alice eventually sighed and resolutely said, "Fine. I guess I''ll have to use this move"


    "Oh? Did youe up with a new n? Out with it, then. What do you need me to do?"


    Andusia was a little surprised by Alice''s words. She didn''t think Alice would still have a solution to their already abysmal situation. So, she promptly turned to ask Alice about what she needed to do. However, as soon as she did so, she saw Alice slowly crouching down before using her right hand to lift her white skirt.

 Chapter 422: At the End of the Day, Panties Will Save the Day

    Chapter 422: At the End of the Day, Panties Will Save the Day


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    "???"


    Andusia was utterly dumbfounded, her mind failing to understand Alice''s motives. It should be known that they were in the middle of a tense fight with Fugallo. Yet, in this stressful moment, Alice had suddenly lifted her skirt...


    "What are you doing?!" Andusia shouted in disbelief.


    "Don''t ask! This is our only way out! Just keep him busy for me for a moment!" Alice responded.


    Alice was simrly frustrated by this situation. She wouldn''t have wanted to strip her panties in the middle of an intense battle if they weren''t out of options.


    "Tsk. I hope you''re not joking with me."


    Andusia was aware that Alice had some kind of special ability. For example, she could achieve an astounding invisibility effect using seemingly ordinary magic robes. However, Andusia did not know that Alice could turn panties into Artifacts, so she was naturally confused by Alice''s actions.


    But even if Andusia was confused, she had no choice but to put her faith in Alice. After all, she knew that with her and Alice''s current strength, there was no way they could defeat Fugallo. Although the reverse was also true, Fugallo could afford to wait. So long as he could drag the battle out until the next Demon King''s Shadow formed, it would be the end of the line for her and Alice.


    Hence, they urgently needed a way to break the stalemate.


    However, despite Andusia''s decision to trust Alice, it was still a big ask for Andusia to fend against Fugallo''s attacks all by herself. As soon as Andusia finished speaking, a powerful gust of wind struck the Chaos Barrier protecting her and Alice. Meanwhile, in only an instant, visible cracks had already formed on the colorful barrier.


    Originally, if Alice hadbined her Enochian Prism with Andusia''s Chaos Barrier, the two defensive taboos could have stopped Fugallo''s wind attack perfectly. However, now that Alice was busy stripping her panties, Andusia was left without support, and her Chaos Barrier shattered after putting up resistance for only a moment.


    To make matters worse, Andusia couldn''t evade the remainder of Fugallo''s wind attack in consideration of Alice. So, she had no choice but to clench her teeth and receive the attack on her body.


    Immediately, Andusia could feel the cracks on her body worsening. If she were to receive two more such attacks, her body would most likely shatter on the spot. And should that happen, her soul would also lose its container.


    This fight was a good example of how Heroes and Demon Kings usually fought. They would trade taboos one after another and search for opportunities to achieve victory during these exchanges. It might seem like a crude way of fighting, but it was the most suitable way to fight for individuals with extraordinary strength. In front of absolute power, there was little meaning in relying onplex techniques.


    Fortunately, Andusia didn''t need to take another hit as Alice was already done with her preparations. After all, she didn''t need much time to take off the panties she wore. Had Alice chosen to reach for the panties in the pouch instead, she would have most likely needed more time to get a pair of panties.


    "Andusia! Move out of the way!"


    Immediately, a blinding white light exploded from Alice''s right hand. Even with her back facing Alice, Andusia could still see the bright light illuminating the surroundings. As for Fugallo, who was facing Alice directly, he had a much more miserable time. Because he wasn''t prepared for the sudden burst of light, his eyes were momentarily dazzled by it, and he had to narrow his eyes to alleviate his suffering.


    [Weapon: Soft White Underwear]


    [Quality: Artifact]


    [Effect: Strength +5000, Constitution +5000, Speed +5000, Spirit +5000, Control +5000, Mana +5000]


    [Additional Effect:


    Spiritual Abnormality (Passive Skill. You will not be affected by spirit magic);


    Absolute Defense (Passive Skill. You will not be hurt by physical attacks);


    Purification de (Active Skill. Upon use, releases a de of light that permanently liberates the target''s soul)]


    It was a standard pair of white panties. Although it was simple in design, it was very useful. After seeing Andusia flying into the air and out of her way, Alice promptly raised her right hand toward Fugallo. Immediately afterward, a zing fireball wrapped in holy light flew toward Fugallo.


    By now, Fugallo had already recovered some of his vision, so he could see the fireball flying toward him. He also recognized the fireball right away. It was none other than the Burning Star that Alice had used multiple times previously.


    However, because Fugallo had all of his attention on Andusia just now, he didn''t see Alice''s action of stripping her panties before casting Burning Star. So, when he saw this familiar taboo, he simply snorted and said:


    "And here I thought you were preparing a special move. In the end, you''re still using the same taboo. Haven''t you learned that this move is useless against me?"


    In terms of individual strength, Fugallo was stronger than Alice and Andusia. Hence, Fugallo was confident he could perfectly stop any taboos cast by Alice. Immediately, he used the gathered mana next to him to create a multi-colored barrier in the approaching Burning Star''s path.


    Like Andusia, Fugallo had chosen to use Chaos Barrier to defend himself. However, because Fugallo''s mana was stronger than Andusia''s, the size and defensive power of his Chaos Barrier were stronger than Andusia''s. With his Chaos Barrier''s defensive power, it should be more than enough to stop Alice''s Burning Star.


    Meanwhile, what happened next went ording to Fugallo''s thoughts. The instant Alice''s Burning Star smashed into his Chaos Barrier, it had indeed created an explosion that overturned the surroundingnd. However, even after Alice''s Burning Star dissipated, Fugallo''s Chaos Barrier remained standing. Although the barrier had gained a few visible cracks, it was under no threat of breaking.


    However, before Fugallo could celebrate his victory, his expression suddenly turned serious. This was because he noticed that after Alice''s Burning Star dissipated, something else had appeared in its ce.


    This "something" was a ball of incandescent light. Because it was hidden within the Burning Star, Fugallo had failed to notice its presence right away. However, after the Burning Star dissipated, the ball of incandescent light quickly made its presence known.


    "Fuck!"

 Chapter 423: Hard to Believe, Right?

    Chapter 423: Hard to Believe, Right?


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    Fugallo''s pupils shuddered as he came to a realization. Alice hadn''t attacked him with Burning Star alone. Instead, she had simultaneously used two taboos, hiding the second taboo within her Burning Star. Hence, after his Chaos Barrier stopped Alice''s Burning Star, Alice''s second taboo revealed itself.


    However, Fugallo still couldn''t bring himself to believe this situation. Taboos required precision calctions and control over mana. Setting aside taboos with persisting effects, such as Demon King''s Shadow and Dragon''s Shadow, it shouldn''t be possible to use two taboos simultaneously.


    Even if Alice had the mental capabilities to support two taboos, her body shouldn''t be capable of supporting two different mana cirction systems to create two different taboos at the same time. This situation was already going against themon sense of this world.


    In reality, there weren''t any inuracies in Fugallo''s thoughts. Alice did not have the ability to simultaneously cast two taboos with her body. Instead, the second taboo wrapped in her Burning Star was activated via the white panties'' active skill, "Purification de."


    The active skills of panties might have destructive power above taboos, but it didn''t cost Alice any mana to use them. She simply needed to mentally choose to activate these skills, and they would immediately take effect against her enemies.


    Hence, while casting Burning Star, Alice chose to activate her panties'' active skill, achieving the effect where it looked like she had simultaneously cast two taboos.


    <em>Not good I can''t make it in time.</em>


    Although Fugallo had realized the problem he faced, his misjudgment had cost him the opportunity to take evasive maneuvers. Moreover, because he had just used Chaos Barrier, his mana pool was currently in a temporary deficit state, and it''d be impossible for him to cast another defensive taboo.


    The next moment, a holy light devoured the Chaos Barrier that Burning Star''s explosion had already weakened. Then, under Fugallo''s horrified gaze, the holy light enveloped his body.


    Subsequently, the holy light exploded. Originally, the holy light had given off a sacred and cleansing feeling. At this moment, however, the holy light tried to eliminate everything it came into contact with, its destructiveness reaching a level far beyond that of even Burning Star. It also created a loud explosion that could be heard from far away.


    Although Andusia was hovering in the air, she could clearly feel that the ground and the air in the area were trembling because of the white light. The shattered trees enveloped by the white light also ignited and turned into ashes in the blink of an eye.


    In addition, Andusia could feel incredibly dense residual light mana spreading from down below. Though, she couldn''t help but feel that it was a little inappropriate to consider what she sensed as "residual mana." This was because some taboos on the weaker side didn''t even need such dense mana to cast.


    If even the residual mana was so ridiculously dense, it wasn''t hard to imagine that a ridiculous amount of mana had gone into powering this taboo. The destructive power the taboo possessed should also be at an absurd level. Andusia dared to say that this was one of the strongest offensive-type taboos she had seen thus far. If she were to equate ordinary light magic with a burner, then the light taboo Alice just used was akin to the sun. Even the residual mes of this sun were vastly stronger than the burner''s mes.


    <em>What What is this taboo?</em>


    The corners of Andusia''s mouth twitched when she saw the destruction caused by Alice''s attack. Although she vaguely knew that Alice had an ace up her sleeve, she didn''t think Alice''s trump card could cause suchrge-scale destruction.


    Originally, Andusia thought Alice would use her special ability to salvage the situation. However, Alice had done more than just salvage the situation. The light taboo Alice just used had thoroughly turned the tables on Fugallo.


    Roughly ten secondster, the white light finally dissipated. Sure enough, Alice''s Purification de had devastated the forest outside of Haydn''s mansion.


    At the epicenter of the explosion, not even ashes could be seen. Purification de had "purified" everything near the epicenter, leaving behind only a barren plot ofnd. Even the tree stumps and roots were not spared.


    Farther away from the explosion''s epicenter, although the trees there were not vaporized, they were still reduced to tiny wood chips. And even farther away from the epicenter, trees could be seen split into logs that could barely be used as firewood.


    Honestly, if it weren''t for the fact that the wood magic in this world could be used to create forests, Alice would have most likely been prosecuted for being an environmental terrorist.


    However, rather than the mass deforestation, what surprised Alice and Andusia more was the sight of Fugallo kneeling in the region covered in wood chips. Although Fugallo had evidently suffered heavy damage from Alice''s Purification de, the taboo had failed to kill him.


    Currently, Fugallo was around 20 meters away from Alice and Andusia. With Alice''s and Andusia''s eyesight, they could see clearly see the injuries he had sustained. Meanwhile, the reason Fugallo was kneeling was because of his thoroughly broken left leg. A significant portion of his left leg''s skin and flesh was gone, revealing multiple fractured bones. With the current state of his left leg, it was unlikely Fugallo could continue using it.


    Aside from his left leg, Fugallo also had his clothes incinerated, and extensive burns covered his body. There were also multiple bone-deep wounds on his body. At first nce, it looked like he had just been fished out of a pool of sulfuric acid. If not for his vitality as a Demon King, he would have long since died after having suffered such severe injuries.


    "What...was that move?" Fugallo asked in disbelief when he sensed Alice and Andusia looking at him. At this time, Fugallo''s void sounded a little hoarse, probably because Purification de also damaged his vocal cords. However, he could still barely use it. So, after struggling to raise his disfigured face to look at Alice, he asked, "What did you do just now?"


    Fugallo was certain Alice must have used some sort of trick. Otherwise, there was no way she could have so easily unleashed such a terrifying light taboo, much less cast it together with Burning Star. What Alice just didpletely defiedmon sense. Even if Heroes and Demon Kings were extraordinary existences in the eyes of the average person, it should still be impossible for them to aplish such a feat.


    "Ah, about that"


    Alice awkwardly scratched her head when she heard Fugallo''s question. However, after seeing Fugallo''s practically ruined body, she pondered for a moment before deciding to let Fugallo know the cause of his downfall.


    Subsequently, under Fugallo''s gaze, Alice opened the cloth pouch by her waist and spent roughly half a minute rummaging in it. Then, she eventually pulled out a pair of white panties and held it up to Fugallo:


    "It''s this thing."


    Fugallo was briefly stunned when he saw the white panties in Alice''s right hand. Then, his face darkened, thinking Alice was trying to humiliate him by ying a joke. However, before he could open his mouth to utter an angry curse, he saw a blinding white lighting from Alice''s right hand.


    It was the same white light that he saw after his Chaos Barrier had blocked Alice''s Burning Star.


    When Alice saw the dumbfounded look on Fugallo''s face, she couldn''t help but pity him a little. It would seem that Fugallo was having a hard time epting the fact that he had just been defeated by a pair of panties.

 Chapter 424: Look at What You’ve Done to Poor Fugallo

    Chapter 424: Look at What You��ve Done to Poor Fugallo


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    Fugallo had thought of the possibility that Alice might only be using the white panties to deceive him and that the holy light he was seeing now originated from Alice herself. However, the problem with this assumption was that Alice couldn''t possibly gain so much strength out of nowhere. Meanwhile, the only thing Alice had done during this period was take out a pair of panties and hold it in her hand.


    Not to mention, if Alice could wield such terrifying strength without holding panties, she should have long since used it.


    So, no matter how Fugallo looked at this situation, Alice had indeed gained a terrifying amount of strength after wielding the pair of white panties.


    "He looks devastated," Andusiamented as she flew over to Alice and sat on thetter''s shoulder. After all that fighting, her body was already covered in cracks, and her mind was exhausted. So, when she saw that Fugallo had seemingly lost the desire to fight, she promptly took the opportunity to catch her breath.


    Meanwhile, it went without saying that Fugallo was devastated. He had expended so much time and energy to acquire his current strength, and he might have even be stronger than even the First Demon King, who was rumored to be the strongest out of all Demon Kings. Yet, despite having such strength, he had ended up losing to a pair of panties?


    Demon Kings were prideful creatures, and Fugallo was no exception. He was also an ambitionist who aimed to transform the entire world into one big demon realm and convert all humans into demons to achieve his dream of a world without racial barriers. Yet, just as he was about to seedhis ns were ruined by a pair of panties.


    Any person with even the slightest bit of pride would have difficulty stomaching this situation, let alone a mighty Demon King.


    As a Demon King herself, Andusia could more or less guess that Fugallo was currently on the brink of mental copse, and she couldn''t help but look at his junior sympathetically.


    "B-Bastard I absolutely will not allow such a thing to happen"


    After a short moment, Fugallo snapped out of his daze and lifted his head to look at Alice and Andusia. Although the bright light from Alice''s right hand was interfering with his vision, he could still clearly see Alice''s and Andusia''s visages.


    The tantly obvious sympathetic expression Alice and Andusia made was something he had only shown others in the past. He never thought there woulde a day when he would be on the receiving end of such an expression. Immediately, he stood up and began gathering mana in a fit of rage.


    "I haven''t lost yet! I''ve already perfected my possession magic! I can possess an unlimited number of Demon King''s Shadows! My strength will not have an upper limit!" Fugallo shouted, behaving like a standard movie viin.


    However, Fugallo''s ims weren''t false. Every Demon King''s Shadow he possessed granted him a frightening boost in strength. If he possessed another Demon King''s Shadow at this time, not only could he promptly recover from his injuries, but he could also receive a significant boost to his strength.


    Alice''s expression sank when she heard Fugallo''s words, her right hand tightening its grip over the white panties. She was ready to activate the panties'' active skill at a moment''s notice. She absolutely could not allow Fugallo to possess another Demon King''s Shadow.


    However, before either side could do anything, a loud explosion suddenly came from the distance. Although the explosion''s origin was some distance away from the battlefield Alice, Andusia, and Fugallo fought on, the three of them possessed hearing far superior to that of the average person, so they still managed to hear it.


    Meanwhile, when the three turned toward the explosion, they realized that it originated from the same direction as they came from. In other words, the explosion came from Haydn''s mansion, which also happened to be where Haydn had set up the core of the Demon King''s Shadow taboo.


    The Possession-type Demon King''s Shadow required a core to facilitate its operation. This was something Alice and Andusia were aware of. Only, because Fugallo had been keeping them busy all this time, they never had any opportunities to destroy the taboo''s core inside the mansion. Hence, Fugallo had so many opportunities to turn the tables on them.


    However, they didn''t think someone else would destroy the Possession-type Demon King''s Shadow''s core at this critical juncture.


    "What?!" Fugallo revealed an expression of horror. He didn''t think a third party would attack his base when he was keeping Alice and Andusia busy. "Impossible I used a special taboo to construct the core of Demon King''s Shadow. There''s no way the average person can destroy it, so how"


    Fugallo was naturally aware the biggest w in his n was the taboo core in Haydn''s mansion. While active, this taboo core could continuously produce new Demon King''s Shadows for him to possess. However, once it was destroyed, the production of Demon King''s Shadows would naturallye to a halt.


    Meanwhile, although the taboo core was strong enough to withstand normal attacks, it was nowhere near strong enough to withstand attacks from offensive taboos. Hence, to prevent Alice and Andusia from breaking the taboo core, Fugallo had done everything he could to keep them busy and prevent them from leaving the battlefield. Yet, now


    "The average person can''t destroy it?" Alice was initially stunned when she heard Fugallo''s trembling voice. However, she quickly realized what had happened. "I see Andusia, did you leave Luna the location of Haydn''s mansion?"


    "I did. After sensing your general location, I left Luna a note telling her toe here once she regains consciousness," Andusia said, smiling. Then, in an amused tone, she continued, "I didn''t think she would arrive at such a good time"


    Indeed, the average person might not have the strength to destroy the taboo core created by Fugallo, but Luna wasn''t your average person. Instead, she was someone who wielded Demon King-level strength. Destroying a taboo core would be a piece of cake for her.


    Meanwhile, although Fugallo didn''t know who had destroyed the taboo core he had left in the mansion, it was obvious that the next Demon King''s Shadow he was expecting would not be arriving anymore. This also meant that he no longer had any way to turn the tide.


    No He still had a chance. Since Alice could obtain such terrifying power from <em>that </em>thing, then maybe he, too, could


    Fugallo was already at his wit''s end. Left with no better options, he gradually lowered his head and set his sights on the pair of white panties held in Alice''s glowing right hand.

 Chapter 425 -War Correspondents Arrive

    Chapter 425 -War Correspondents Arrive


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    The courtyard of Haydn''s mansion was currently in a considerably lively state. A bunch of magicians wearing confused expressions were gathered here. These were all the great magicians who Haydn and Fugallo had manipted using hypnosis magic. Although Luna had already freed them from their hypnotized state, they were evidently still ignorant of their current situation.


    "Has everyone been rescued?"


    Takingmand over the situation in the courtyard were Lilith and Etoria. Out of the Rhine Kingdom''s four royal siblings, they were the only ones who could preside over such a situation.


    Lilith was initially stunned when she received a key holding record of her father''s wrongdoings. This was because she never imagined that rather than Gunst, her father would be the real mastermind behind the recent events in the kingdom instead.


    However, the evidence in the key proved too many things, leaving Lilith with no choice but to believe it. Moreover, before she couldunch a detailed investigation into this new evidence, Luna, Alice''s maid, hade knocking on her door and told her the general gist of the situation. Then, Luna told her to bring some people to Haydn''s mansion.


    Although Lilith was confused by Luna''s request, she didn''t refuse the request in consideration of Luna''s identity. As the Hero''s maid, Luna must know some insider information she wasn''t privy to. So, after informing Etoria of the situation and telling him to bring some of his subordinates, she promptly made her way to her father''s mansion with Luna.


    After arriving at the mansion, Lilith and Luna promptly discovered the abnormal situation here. Not only did they sense an incredible amount of mana radiating from the mansion, but they also found over a hundred great magicians dazed in the living room. Moreover, these great magicians were seemingly connected through some special means to activate a powerful spell.


    At this point, even if Lilith didn''t wish to admit it, she had no choice but to believe her father was the mastermind.


    After that, Etoria also arrived with some people and promptly began rescue operations. In the meantime, Luna had lifted the hypnosis on the great magicians before making her way to the second floor and finding the taboo core set by Fugallo.


    The taboo core was a product of alchemy, and it was made up of many special materials. One could feel a tremendous amount of mana contained in the core just by touching it. It also had incredible toughness, making it impossible for the average person to destroy.


    However, Luna obviously wasn''t an ordinary person. After waiting for Etoria''s subordinates to escort all of the great magicians out of the mansion, Luna flew into the air and cast Dragon''s Shadow, creating a bright white dragon under the gazes of the many people in the courtyard.


    Luna didn''t immediately have the dragon she summonedunch an attack. Instead, after catching her breath for about ten seconds or so, she cast Dragon''s Shadow again, summoning a second dragon. Then, under her control, the two dragons pped their wings and nosedived into the mansion with all their might, the impact so great that even the dragons'' bodies had deformed from the collision.


    Needless to say, the two dragons'' collision had destroyed the taboo core set up on the mansion''s second floor along with the entire mansion, thoroughly negating the taboo core''s ability to create more Demon King''s Shadows.


    When Lilith saw Luna slowly descending from the sky, her expression stiffened a little. Although she had heard from legends that Heroes would typically gather powerfulpanions to fight alongside them, she had never heard of any Hero''s maid being able to nonchntly cast two taboos in a row!


    Even Gunst, the Rhine Kingdom''s royal guard captain, would be gasping for breath after casting two taboos consecutively. Yet, Luna looked no different than normal after aplishing such a feat. Didn''t this imply that Luna was stronger than Gunst?


    Etoria, who stood next to Lilith, also wore a confused look. Though, his confusion stemmed from more than just Luna''s showcase of strength.


    Despite being the Rhine Kingdom''s second prince and official sessor to the throne, Etoria still had no idea what was happening. All he knew was that Lilith, his younger sister, had contacted him just now and told him to bring some of his subordinates to their father''s mansion. Of course, although he was confused by his little sister''s request, he still went along with it when he heard the urgency and seriousness in her tone.


    In the eyes of many, children of royalty would typically be at loggerheads with each other over session rights. In reality, though, Lilith and Etoria shared a good rtionship. Although Etoria was a little abnormal regarding his choice of mates, he had never done anything harmful or uwful, so Lilith had a rather good opinion of her second elder brother.


    "Are you ready? If you are, let''s head to the battlefield." After taking care of the taboo core, Luna returned to Lilith''s side and said, "Alice should be almost done with her fight."


    Before leaving for Haydn''s mansion, Luna and Lilith had briefly discussed and agreed that they needed to prepare more substantial evidence to convict Haydn of his wrongdoings. After all, they were going to sanction the Rhine Kingdom''s king. They''d bebeled criminals if they eliminated him without sufficient evidence.


    So, Lilith had decided to take pictures of Haydn...or, more specifically, Haydn being possessed by a Demon King. That way, they could prove that Haydn was colluding with a former Demon King and wasn''t innocent.


    Hence, Lilith was currently holding a camera she had previously bought for an exorbitant price. She normally used this camera to take photos of cosyers. She never thought there woulde a day when she would use it to take pictures of a fight between a Hero and a Demon King. Just thinking about it filled her with anxiety. The fact that her father was on the Demon King''s side onlyplicated her feelings even more.


    However, Luna obviously wouldn''t care about Lilith''s feelings. The only person in this world whose thoughts she cared about was Alice. So, after seeing no objections from Lilith, Luna nodded and used psychic power to lift herself and Lilith, getting ready to propel them toward the intense mana fluctuationsing from the distance.


    "Wait, Lilith, you still haven''t told me what''s going on? Why are there so many hypnotized magicians in Father''s mansion?" Etoria panicked a little when he saw that Lilith and Luna were about to leave. "Also, I still haven''t seen Father. What exactly is happening here?"


    Compared to Lilith, Etoria shared a much closer rtionship with their father due to his position as the Rhine Kingdom''s official heir, and the apparent anxiety on his face clearly showed this closer rtionship.


    However, Lilith knew that Etoria was a rational person like herself. Even if Etoria shared a close rtionship with their father, once he learned about the things their father had done, he wouldn''t hate Alice for eliminating their father. On the contrary, Etoria would most likely thank Alice for putting a stop to their father''s behavior and preventing their father from turning the world into a terrible ce.


    "I''ll tell you about everything once Ie back," Lilith said, opting not to answer Etoria''s question right away. After all, it was impossible to exin the cause and effect of this entire situation in only a few sentences. Then, after saying so, she turned to look at Luna.


    When Luna saw Lilith''s gaze, she knew that thetter was done saying her piece. So, she nodded and flew them into the distance, leaving a confused Etoria in the mansion''s courtyard.

 Chapter 426: Dumbfounded Fugallo

    Chapter 426: Dumbfounded Fugallo


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    As soon as Fugallo had the thought of stealing Alice''s panties, the thought immediately upied his entire mind.


    It couldn''t be helped. Fugallo was already out of options. The bizarre light taboo Alice attacked him with just now was significantly stronger than the average offensive taboo. Even though his physique was stronger than the average Demon King, he still lost half of his body to the light-attributed attack.


    The taboo core Fugallo relied on to create Demon King''s Shadows had also gotten destroyed, so there was no hope for him to rapidly recover from his wounds and turn things around. In his current state, he could, at best, force himself to move at top speed for several more minutes. Once that time passed, he''d be at the mercy of Alice and Andusia.


    Hence, Fugallo''s only way out now was to steal the pair of panties in Alice''s hand and rely on the panty''s abilities to achieve a reversal. Even if he couldn''t kill Alice and Andusia, he needed to create some trouble or injure them to buy him time to escape. Although it was somewhat unsightly to escape using such a method, he couldn''t care less about his image right now. So long as he could escape and go into hiding, he would still have hope of staging aeback.


    Of course, Fugallo couldn''t just escape with his soul, either. He also needed to bring Haydn''s body with him.


    While Fugallo considered Haydn nothing more than a tool to achieve his goals, he could feel that his soul container had been destroyed along with the taboo core. If he were to leave Haydn''s body now, he would instantly be a soul without a container. If he couldn''t find a recement container quickly enough, Alice and Andusia wouldn''t even need to take action against him. He would automatically vanish from this world after some time.


    Fortunately for Fugallo, when he made the decision to steal Alice''s panties, Alice and Andusia shifted their attention away from him. They were apparently discussing the person responsible for destroying Haydn''s mansion. From what he managed to overhear, the person in question went by the name of Luna. Fugallo didn''t know who it was since none of the past Heroes and Demon Kings he knew had gone by this name.


    However, there was one thing Fugallo knew, and that was the fact that Alice and Andusia were no longer paying attention to him. Perhaps, in their eyes, he could no longer cause any trouble to them now that he had lost half of his body.


    Fugallo steered as he gathered thest bits of mana in his body. His body was already in ruins, and his internal organs had suffered varying degrees of damage, causing him to temporarily lose the ability to create more mana. Hence, the mana he gathered now was going to be hisst chance at making a reversal.


    As luck would have it, the elemental magic Fugallo was most proficient in was wind magic. Besides superior cutting properties, wind magic also allowed him to elerate his movements and manipte objects from a distance. Meanwhile, he was currently going to use wind magic to manipte a distant object.


    "Elven Wind!"


    Despite its name, Elven Wind had nothing to do with the elven race. It was a wind-type taboo that allowed the user to exert precision control over wind, making it possible to use wind as a formless power simr to psychic power. Moreover, due to the properties of wind, it was much harder for magicians to detect itpared to psychic power. At the very least, when Fugallo''s Elven Wind was making its way to Alice, neither Alice nor Andusia had noticed its approach.


    Subsequently, without Alice''s notice and under Fugallo''s intense gaze, the formless wind snagged the pair of white panties out of Alice''s glowing hand.


    Alice was momentarily stunned when she sensed a powerful gust of wind wrapping around her hand. Then, she hurriedly looked toward Fugallo and saw a miniature tornado transferring her white panty over to Fugallo.


    Andusia also saw this happening, and her expression darkened. Immediately, she gathered mana in her hand, preparing to steal the panty back from Fugallo. Although Andusia didn''t know how a pair of panties could have such frightening capabilities, she had tactfully avoided asking Alice about the matter. However, if the panty were to fall into Fugallo''s hands, things would be troublesome for them.


    At this time, Fugallo had yet to notice the resigned look on Alice''s face, but he did notice the panic on Andusia''s face and the fact that Andusia was getting ready to take action against him. This further validated his choice, and he no longer suspected Alice''s panty could enable its wielder to cast special taboos.


    "I won''t get defeated so easily!"


    Along with a resolute shout, Fugallo reached for the white panty brought to him by the miniature tornado. As soon as his right hand made contact with the soft underwear, he gripped it tightly and revealed an excited expression. At this moment, he could already foresee himself sessfully fleeing the battlefield with the help of the panty''s power.


    However, even after several seconds had gone byFugallo did not receive the incredible power he had hoped for. At this time, he couldn''t even feel the slightest trace of mana in the white panty, let alone a terrifying amount of light mana. It was as if the white panty was nothing more than an ordinary pair of panties.


    Originally, Andusia had anxiously wanted to snatch the panty back from Fugallo. She had even gathered her mana for an attack. However, before her attack was ready, she saw Fugallo ecstatically shouting and grabbing onto the white panty. Thena few seconds passed with nothing happening, and Fugallo simply stood there with a stiffened look.


    Like Fugallo, Andusia did not know why Fugallo did not receive the same kind of special power Alice received after grabbing onto the white panty. However, Andusia was on Alice''s side. So, although the situation puzzled her, she remained rtively calm. She simply looked at Alice with a curious gaze.


    In contrast, Fugallo''s reaction was a little deranged. Staring at the white panty in his hand with widened eyes, he shouted in a tone of disbelief:


    "What''s going on?! Why am I not receiving any power from this thing?!"


    "Oh, Fugallo. You shouldn''t generalize people''s physiques. Things that grant me power might not necessarily do the same for you," Alice said as she helplessly shook her head. She honestly did not think Fugallo would be so desperate as to steal her panty.


    Evidently, the wind magic Fugallo used to steal her panty was the Tenth Demon King''sst-ditch attempt at staging aeback. In Fugallo''s current state, Alice could kill him using only her bare fists. However, to express her respect for the former Demon King, Alice decided to send him off using her strongest move.


    Subsequently, under Fugallo''s angry gaze, Alice reached into the pouch by her waist and pulled out another pair of panties.


    When Alice was searching for panties in the pouch just now, she had the foresight to move all of her panties to the top and push all those strange tools to the bottom. So, it didn''t take her more than a second to fish out a second pair of panties.


    The next moment, Alice''s right hand suddenly unleashed a frightening amount of dark mana, the dark mana taking on the form of a pitch-ck fog that slowly spread to the surroundings


    "<em>Cough, cough</em> My bad, wrong pair."


    Noticing the surprised looks on Andusia and Fugallo, Alice dryly coughed in embarrassment before hurriedly stuffing the ck panty back into the pouch. Then, she pulled out a pair of white panties and released the familiar holy light.


    After watching up to this point, Fugallo was thoroughly dumbfounded.

 Chapter 427: Fugallos Twofold Death

    Chapter 427: Fugallo''s Twofold Death


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    Fugallo could clearly sense that the instant Alice pulled out a pair of ck panties, an unbelievable amount of dark mana had gushed out of her body. There was no way he could have been mistaken about the mana''s nature, either, since, as a Demon King, he was incredibly familiar with dark mana.


    But wasn''t Alice supposed to be the Hero? How could such a frightening amount of dark mana emerge from her body? Such a situation shouldn''t be possible.


    Had Alice relied on a tool to increase her mana capacity, he would have totally believed it to be possible. It was why he had snatched Alice''s white panty in the first cehe had suspected Alice of using the white panty to increase her capacity of light mana, which, unfortunately, wasn''t the case.


    However, he had never heard of any tool capable of changing the nature of a person''s mana. Currently, the only existence he knew of that could aplish such a feat was the Demon King''s Power. When crowning a new Demon King, the Demon King''s Power would transform the physique of its chosen candidate to suit the housing of dark mana.


    Fugallo also refused to believe that the ck panty in Alice''s hand was the Demon King''s Power. Not only was his reasoning telling him that this was too nonsensical of a situation, but his sensibility also made him unable to ept the possibility that the Demon King''s Power was, in essence, a pair of panties.


    Demon Kings had always prided themselves on their strength. If Fugallo was now being told that all of his strength came from a pair of ckce panties, in reality, he''d rathermit suicide on the spot than continue living in this world in shame. As a Demon King, even if he was going to die, he would do so with dignity.


    Of course, while Fugallo was having such thoughts, he hadpletely forgotten that he was still clutching onto a pair of white female underwear. From an outsider''s perspective, it didn''t look like Fugallo was someone who cared about his dignity. The ferocious expression he wore while clutching onto the white panty also didn''t help his situation, making him seem more like a pervert who had just snatched a girl''s underwear.


    "Anyway, I''ll use the power of a Hero to grant you your final death," Alice said as she raised the panty in her hand. Not only did the light mana that flooded her body heal her internal injuries to a significant extent, but it also replenished some of her expended mana.


    If Alice wanted to, she could replicate her previous feat of wrapping a Burning Star around a Purification de. However, by the looks of things, that wouldn''t be necessary.


    The previous Purification de had devastated Fugallo''s body, making it impossible to produce new mana. Alice could also feel that there was hardly any mana left in Fugallo''s body, so even if Fugallo tried to escape, it would only be a futile effort.


    At this time, Fugallo also finally started to feel fear. Demon Kings might be haughty individuals, but they would still feel fear in the face of death. Not to mention, if Fugallo wasn''t afraid of death, he would have never gone out of his way to preserve his soul after the death of his physical body.


    Lifting his head, Fugallo saw Alice wielding a de of light before him, and he instinctively tried to beg for mercy. Unfortunately, the voice that came out of his mouth was incredibly hoarse and incoherent. Originally, his vocal cords had already suffered serious damage from Alice''s previous Purification de. Meanwhile, the uncontrolled shouting he did after snatching Alice''s panties only served to worsen the damage. As a result, he couldn''t even speak properly now.


    Of course, even if Fugallo could convey his desire for mercy, Alice wouldn''t show him any.


    Fugallo was different from Andusia. Andusia had abandoned her thoughts of revenge after learning about the changes that had taken ce in the world. In other words, Andusia was a Demon King who could be reasoned with. Hence, Alice could afford to keep Andusia by her side.


    Fugallo, however, was not a Demon King who could be reasoned with. Fugallo had already interacted with Haydn for many months, so Alice refused to believe that Fugallo wasn''t aware of the modern world''s situation. Yet, despite knowing how much had changed, Fugallo still couldn''t let go of his hatred toward humans. He even plotted to pollute the human realm and transform the entire world into one big demon realm.


    Fugallo might have spoken about his noble goal of eliminating the divide between the human and demon realms, but that was nothing more than an excuse to fulfill his selfish desire to erase the human race from the world. He was a ruthless viin who did not care about what kind of terrible environment the inhabitants of this world would have to live in. So, there was no way Alice could afford to spare such a Demon King.


    Alice could also more or less tell that Fugallo was trying to beg for mercy. But just as she was about to open her mouth and tell Fugallo why she wasn''t going to spare him, she suddenly sensed mana fluctuationsing from the sky.


    Those were fluctuations caused by psychic power.


    When Alice looked up, she was surprised to see that Luna had already arrived at the battlefield and was currently looking down at them. Though, what surprised Alice even more was that Luna had brought Lilith with her. Moreover, judging by the magic camera Lilith held, it was obvious that Lilith nned to capture the following scene on camera.


    Alice panicked at this discovery. What she currently held in her hand was a pair of panties. Although Lilith had yet to notice its identity due to the holy light obscuring it, should Lilith take a picture or video of it and share it With the capabilities of the modern era''sizens, someone was bound to notice the panty!


    Even if Lilith only shared her photos and videos with other members of the Rhine Kingdom''s royal family and the kings of other kingdoms, it wasn''t entirely impossible for one of these people to discover that Alice the Hero was clutching onto a pair of panties while in the midst of a battle!


    There was no way Alice could let this happen!


    In a panic, Alice abandoned her n to lecture Fugallo and promptly swung her right hand forward, sending a massive white beam smashing straight into the Tenth Demon King.


    Fugallo was stunned when he saw this abrupt development. He had seen Alice opening her mouth just now, looking like she was going to say something to him. Yet, after briefly looking up, Alice had switched to using a taboo against him without hesitation.


    With barely any mana left in his body, Fugallo could only watch with widened eyes as the beam of light mana smashed into his body and gradually disintegrated it. If this attack had beenunched using the real Hero''s power, perhaps Fugallo could have died a more valiant death. Unfortunately, Fugallo was well aware that this attack came from a pair of panties.


    When Fugallo thought about how he had gotten killed by a pair of panties, his anger peaked, and he used his barely functional vocal cords to bellow:


    "Dammit!!!"


    <em>Snap!</em>


    Unbeknownst to Fugallo, Lilith had captured the moment Fugallo got swallowed by the holy light on camera. Although Fugallo was currently using Haydn''s body, Lilith knew how to distinguish between right and wrong, so she did not hesitate to capture photographic evidence of "the Hero ying a former Demon King."


    The only thing that puzzled Lilith was why Fugallo was clutching onto a pair of female underwear. Could it be that this Demon King of legends was a pervert who liked female underwear?


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