Reinette Tinekerr ignored Klein's roar and continued describing exactly what Alice had done in the same tone:
"She asked whether she could install a fake head on her neck, so that whenever she nodded in the future, she could nod with that one."
Of course that was something Alice would do... Klein looked at Reinette Tinekerr with a pained expression and apologized on Alice's behalf:
"Don't take it seriously. She... uh, she was just a little, a little..."
Klein tried hard to find an excuse for Alice, only to discover that there was no particularly suitable one besides her age. But if he used age as an excuse...
Uneasily, Klein reached out and touched his lower abdomen. Under the abilities of a Faceless, there was no unusual bulge there, not even any excess fat.
He let out a relieved breath and looked hesitantly at Reinette Tinekerr, who neither continued speaking nor showed any intention of leaving, then tried to explain further:
"Kids grow up eventually..."
His tone was full of uncertainty.
Reinette Tinekerr's four pairs of red eyes swept over Klein before finally forming a sentence:
"She...""Did not...""Pay...""Gold coins."
At that moment, Klein finally briefly empathized with Reinette Tinekerr's anger. He coldly paid one gold coin, then went back to scrubbing the toilet.
That evening, Alice received the edited video of Reinette Tinekerr's visit from Klein, along with a voice message:
"Alice, you've gone too far."
Alice fell silent. Alice hesitated. After wavering for a long while, she finally replied:
"...When you say I've gone too far, do you mean what I said, or the fact that I didn't pay?"
—She stared at Reinette Tinekerr's final act of demanding gold coins from Klein and thought about it for a long time, eventually realizing that the Clown's Beyonder Ability was especially