Another Coincidence

Alice's reminder Suddenly Startled Klein, but in this respect, his situation was the same as Alice's—they had both accepted Fate's Gift without knowing it, and could only wait for the day they had to pay the price.

But at least, when we become stronger, perhaps the same price will not harm us as much, Isn't That Right? With that thought in mind, after Alice left, Klein began to Tried To divine clues to the Clown Potion.

Alice soon saw Klein's sketch at Dunn's, but it meant nothing, because Klein quickly ran into the man in the sketch and shot him dead.

When Cohenry returned to find someone to clean up the aftermath, Alice was doodling aimlessly on a sheet of paper.

"Speaking of which, I've always wanted to ask," Alice complained as she followed along. "Doesn't the Sleepless pathway have its own Ritual Magic?"

To Alice's senses, ever since Old Neil left, she and Klein seemed to have become tools for Ritual Magic... Well, mainly her, because Klein at least took on other missions. Unlike her, it was as if the purpose of her existence was to prepare all kinds of Ritual Magic—In A Sense, Alice might have been closer to Clerical Staff.

"The Sleepless pathway lacks supportive abilities before Sequence 6..." Cohenry still Looks somewhat unaccustomed to Alice's personality, but he still gave her an explanation.

After Realized this, Alice quietly shut her mouth and stopped making things difficult for the poor fellow.

They soon arrived at the scene. Klein had already gone home to rest due to fatigue from spiritual exhaustion. Without Old Neil's personal instruction, Klein, Without Hesitation, handed over the formula for the Clown Potion.

Since Klein had already performed Spirit Mediumship and divination on the corpse, all that remained for Alice were some simple finishing touches.

"So, why did they Start Fighting here?" After dealing with the scene, Alice sought out Leonard, the one least capable of keeping a secret, for information. "Was it an accidental encounter?"

"You should be asking Klein that question," Leonard said, completely unaware that his place In Alice's mind had changed. "It's Just Like he has fated Bonds with Beyonders and evil forces. You know, before this, the biggest Supernatural Event I'd dealt with was you."

"...You don't need to remind me of that," Alice, herself a Supernatural Event, did her utmost to control her expression. "So this had something to do with Klein?"

Leonard made no attempt to hide his intent to mock her and Narrated the whole story to Alice in full:

"When Klein went to the Underground Market to buy ritual materials, he Suddenly Thought Of how Hainas Vincent had brought Selina into the Dragon Bar. That meant Hainas was a regular there, so he suspected that the man in the sketch might have visited the Underground Market too.

"Klein showed the sketch to Boss Swain, who confirmed it. He told him that this gentleman had Tried To purchase artifacts and ancient books related to Hornacis Peak. That immediately made Klein think of this place, and of how, when he borrowed the relevant journals and magazines, someone had just returned them...

"So he came here with his Apprentice Inspector identification and the Special Operations Department badge to investigate the borrowing records for those journals. As it happened, he ran right into that man, and the librarian recognized him and loudly called for a Police Officer to help..."

"..." Alice recalled the topic of coincidences they had discussed only recently. The worries she had set aside surfaced again, and a sense of unease slowly rose In Her Heart, yet she could do nothing about it.

"It sounds like something that would happen to the protagonist of a story." In the end, that was all Alice could offer as a dry comment.

But Alice's unusual performance seemed to have struck a sensitive nerve in Leonard. He Widened Her Eyes at Alice and asked, "Hey, Don't You Think I look more like the protagonist of a story than he does?"

That successfully pulled Alice out of her chaotic Train of Thought. She looked at Leonard rather speechlessly and said, "I really don't understand what's worth arguing over. Whether you're the protagonist or a supporting character, aren't you both characters written by someone else? If you're both actors on a stage, both someone else's Puppet, is there really a distinction between noble and lowly?"

This time, Alice's exceptional performance left Leonard speechless. He had always considered himself the protagonist, but now he Suddenly didn't know how to refute her.

Alice quickly realized that her tone had been too harsh and immediately apologized to Leonard. "Sorry, I just... I just thought all of this was too much of a coincidence..."

Having had coincidences Emphasized by two different people within such a Short Time, Leonard was slightly taken aback as well. He suddenly shed his careless, frivolous attitude and fell silent.

The silence was unbearably stifling. Alice soon could not stand it any longer and quickly found an excuse to leave the scene.

The next day, after class, Alice found Leonard playing cards with Cohenry and the others. She tentatively greeted him, "Hi, Leonard?"

"Three aces." Leonard threw out Three Cards as he returned the greeting. "Alice? Good morning."

Then Leonard threw himself back into the heated card game, and Alice fell silent. She suddenly wasn't sure whether she should keep talking, considering she had snapped at Leonard Without Hesitation yesterday.

The card game did not last long. Before the next round began, Leonard excused himself and pulled away Alice, who had been standing dumbly at the side. "What's wrong?"

"Ahem." Alice carefully studied Leonard's expression. "I didn't mean to talk to you like that yesterday. I was just in a bad mood."

Realizing what Alice's behavior was about, Leonard looked at her exaggeratedly. "No way? Because of that, you stood beside me without saying a word while I was playing cards, and now it's all I can think about?"

"Uh..." Alice suddenly fell silent. She realized that Leonard had not cared about what she said yesterday, and that made her embarrassed. She decided to steer the conversation elsewhere. "Why do you think you seem more like the protagonist?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Leonard raised an eyebrow. "No matter how you look at it, I think I deserve the title of protagonist more than Klein does... Hey, did I say anything wrong?" Note 1

Alice was amazed by his shamelessness.

After confirming that Leonard was not angry about what he had blurted out yesterday, Alice quickly found an excuse to leave—she truly could not stand the way Leonard confidently declared himself the protagonist.

Note 1: The latter half of this sentence was actually addressed to a certain Accompanying Old Man.