Fat Apothecary

Alice reached out to steady herself against the doorframe, quickly reoriented herself, then smiled at Bogda.

Bogda, however, looked at her with respect. He counted out 6 Pence and said, "You are a diviner worthy of respect."

"I'm merely a lucky one who occasionally catches a glimpse of a corner of fate." As Alice spoke, she absentmindedly pondered that sentence—why had "Huanhuan" written something like that?

Deep down, Alice had always felt that it was something extremely important. And that sentence itself might have been very important as well...

Lost in thought, Alice left the Diviner Club, only to hesitate over where to go next.

"...Should I go take a look at that herb shop?"

Alice instinctively resisted the idea. After all, running into Bogda again on the road or in the shop would not be a pleasant experience for her.

...Right! Alice slapped her forehead. Since she might run into Bogda anyway, why not simply follow him directly?

Using the tracking techniques she had learned, Alice quietly followed Bogda. When he began walking from one end of Vlad Street to the other for the third time, Alice started doubting her decision.

Thankfully—this gentleman was troubled by his liver and could not make a fourth trip. Ah, this was truly wonderful...

Alice sighed helplessly and rested near Rosen's Folk Herb Shop.

After Bogda's departing figure, with a packet of herbs tucked away, had disappeared into the distance, Alice walked inside.

The boss, who had been about to shout something toward the back door, paused. He looked Alice over, his expression turning somewhat strange as he asked, "Miss, are you... um, are you an adult already?"

"?" Alice looked at him in confusion, clearly not understanding what this had to do with whether she was an adult.

"I mean, you look very healthy." The boss wiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead.

"Hmm..." Alice looked at him thoughtfully. After turning it over in her mind several times without finding a tactful way to put it, she asked bluntly, "Do you know where I can find a monster?"

"?" It was the first time the Fat Apothecary had encountered such a straightforward Beyonder. He trembled, looking at Alice's youthful face that still carried a trace of innocence, unsure for a moment what he should do.

"I mean no harm." Alice blinked her eyes and decided to reveal a little. "I just... well, is it convenient to talk here?"

The Fat Apothecary looked at Alice for a while. Perhaps realizing that she did not seem inclined to make a move, he locked the door and set up a Wall of Spirituality before looking at her again.

"I accidentally became a Beyonder," Alice explained.

"Accidentally?" The Fat Apothecary's eyes were filled with distrust.

"I accidentally swallowed a Beyonder Characteristic, and then..." Alice explained haltingly, successfully watching the Fat Apothecary's expression turn strange.

"Was it... 'Monster'?" the Fat Apothecary asked uncertainly. If it was a Monster, then finding him was indeed possible. Monsters often saw things they should not because their Spiritual Perception was too high, though they occasionally saw something useful.

"No, worse than that." Alice rubbed her brow with a headache. "I swallowed the Beyonder Characteristic of a Lucky One."

"That is...?" The Fat Apothecary had some guesses. He remembered his teacher saying that the Monster Pathway could make people lucky, but he was not clear which Sequence this was.

"Sequence 7 of the 'Monster' Pathway," Alice replied.

"..." The Fat Apothecary opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he seemed to have briefly lost control of both his speech and facial muscles. He could only stare at Alice with a stunned expression.

"I now believe that the 'Monster' Pathway really can improve one's luck." This was the Fat Apothecary's first sentence after recovering his ability to speak. "How can I contact you?"

"I guess you'll pack up and move away tomorrow," Alice guessed. She successfully saw the flesh on the Fat Apothecary's face tremble. "I said I mean no harm. I only want to know more about this Pathway and meet Beyonders on the same Pathway. You can contact the School of Life first. If there's no problem, you can find me at the Church of the Night, or write to..."

Alice left behind her address and contact information, then left the herb shop without hesitation. She was not worried that nothing would come of this—even if they suspected it was a trap, someone would come investigate Alice's circumstances.

Besides...

Alice lowered her head thoughtfully to look at herself, though she could see nothing from doing so.

"Perhaps the real problem with that first incident was actually me?"

On Monday morning, Alice heard shocking news at Blackthorn Security Company.

"So, the captain entered Hainas Vincent's dream, and that person died before he came out?"

"Yes," Leonard replied.

Alice immediately jumped up to find Dunn.

Entering Dunn's office, Alice found him sitting behind his desk as usual. She quietly observed Dunn—hmm, he seemed to be fine.

"What did you want to ask?" Dunn asked after Alice had studied him for quite a while.

"I heard Leonard talk about what happened last night and was a little worried about you..." Alice explained her behavior.

"So that was it." Dunn gave Alice a gentle look. "Don't worry. I'm fine."

"...Can you tell me what you saw in the dream?" Alice was still somewhat uneasy, so she pressed on.

"..." Dunn fell silent for a moment before answering Alice. "It wasn't a pleasant memory... In Hainas Vincent's dream, I saw a huge cross that filled the sky. A naked man was nailed to it with black iron nails..."

Alice listened carefully to Dunn's description. The man hanging upside down on the cross easily made her think of an image—the Hanged Man Tarot Card.

Thinking of Dunn's coma, and of how Tarot Cards were said to be connected to the Twenty-Two Divine Pathways, Alice suddenly recalled again that sentence—"Cannot Look Directly at God."

What if the captain had truly seen a certain god in the dream? Especially when it sounded like an evil god...

The thought surfaced uncontrollably in Alice's mind. As she had already begun to suspect that Dunn's doomed fate was related to losing control, the thought became increasingly terrifying.

She looked at Dunn and the dense shadows shrouding him, pursed her lips, and abruptly asked a question completely unrelated to the topic. "Captain, do you think the names of Sequence Potions exist merely to reflect their effects?"