Enmat Street, Maple Grocery Store.
"Hello." After looking over the store's layout, Alice smiled and said, "I'd like to buy a die."
The owner was a kindly elderly Lady Daly. After sizing Alice up several times, she said, "The die you need is worth one pound." Note 1
Alice's movement paused for a moment. A sentence very similar to those words suddenly surfaced in her mind: "The shirt costs nine pounds and fifteen pence, so you choose option C..." Note 2
Alice shook her head, tossing the voice from her mind. Then she pulled out a one-pound note and handed it over, once again marveling inwardly at the School of Life's tendency to leave things to fate.
—Leaving Uniqueness in a grocery store and selling it for just one pound... wasn't that simply letting the fated one obtain it?
Come to think of it, perhaps I could count as a kind of protagonist too... While waiting, Alice suddenly recalled her protagonist theory. The thought had inexplicably surfaced, and she smiled, only for it to vanish quickly.
—Whether protagonist or supporting character, they were all merely figures living beneath someone else's pen. There was nothing to be happy about.
Alice sighed and accepted the ring box she had seen in her dream from the shop owner before turning and leaving the grocery store.
"How about it?" Klein asked when he saw her outside.
Alice raised the ring box in her hand. "It hasn't opened yet. I think, judging by what happened when I encountered potions before, opening it here isn't a good idea."
Klein nodded, then asked, "Are you going back to the hotel to open it?"
Alice blinked her eyes blankly, touched her stomach, and asked hesitantly, "Can't I eat first?"
That was entirely reasonable. Klein had no way to