Lanevus's Child

Alice was utterly bewildered.

She had been on her way to the Divination Club when, for some reason, the horse pulling a Public Carriage by the roadside suddenly went mad—despite the Coachman desperately trying to control it, the carriage charged straight toward Alice.

Alice froze in terror. She felt that she should Do Something, but fear had left her body unable to move. All she could do was watch the carriage rush toward her—before it tripped over a pole knocked down by the scattered pedestrians and crashed to the ground in front of her.

Alice could even feel the gust stirred up by the charging carriage. Still dazed with fright, she received the Coachman's apology, distractedly declined compensation, and left.

But why... did that thrilling, perilous scene give her an inexplicable Sense of Familiarity? It was as if she had experienced such coincidences countless times before—brushing past bizarre accidents and death, yet emerging completely unscathed.

When Alice entered the Divination Club with that confusion in her heart, three people passed by her. She sensed her Spiritual Perception being stirred, and instinctively looked in the direction they had gone, but their backs had already vanished around the stairway corner. She only caught sight of half a cloche hat.

"Alice?" Klein noticed her arrival in surprise and was the first to speak up.

Unaware that anything was amiss, Alice quickly closed her eyes, walked to where the voice had come from, and sat down. "Didn't Expect to run into you here."

Words that should have come from Klein left him silent—after all, it was Very Normal for him to be here while he was trying to summarize the Seer's Acting Principle, wasn't it?

"You seem to be quite famous here, Mr. Seer." Unable to see Klein's expression, Alice started chatting with him in the mindset that as long as she was not embarrassed, the other person would be.

Having some understanding of Alice's personality, Klein decided to seize control of the conversation. "Do You Know? I just heard news about a despicable swindler."

"How despicable?" Alice asked curiously, just as he had expected.

"He swindled away more than ten thousand pounds!" Klein's tone carried inexplicable grief and indignation.

"...What's his name?" Even Alice was affected by that amount.

"Lanevus. His name is Lanevus," Klein replied. "Two of his victims happened to come to me for a divination just now. They've already reported it to the police, and the police take it very seriously. They're also willing to offer part of the recovered money as a reward. Anyone who provides useful clues can get ten pounds, and if they can help the police catch Lanevus, they can receive a hundred pounds in cash!"

Alice was briefly astonished by the two people's generosity, then asked, "But didn't he swindle ten thousand pounds?"

Klein's train of thought was thrown off for a moment. He Recalled Briefly the logic of their conversation before confirming what Alice meant. "There were more than just those two victims."

Alice nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "Didn't you try to divine Lanevus's location?"

"I wanted to," Klein admitted without concealing his longing for the reward, "but there isn't any information. Even his name has a High Probability of being fake, and there aren't any personal belongings... Er, I can't say there aren't any."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Alice Pressed On.

"Lanevus's girlfriend is carrying his child..." Klein answered hesitantly.

Alice Remembered the Spiritual Perception that had been stirred earlier and the group of three she had Missed for another reason. Her smile abruptly vanished as she asked, "Before I arrived, had Lanevus's girlfriend just left?"

Klein was slightly stunned. He did not understand why Alice was asking that, but affected by her suddenly serious attitude, he answered, "Yes. Those two victims came with Lanevus's girlfriend, and they left just before you arrived. You should have run into them."

Alice then said to Klein, "We need somewhere convenient to talk."

Klein understood the implication. That Evening, they met Above the Gray Fog.

"What do you want to say?" Klein asked impatiently.

Alice frowned and began:

"This afternoon... I encountered a carriage accident.

"It ultimately caused no consequences at all, only delayed me, which made me pass by... the people you mentioned at the entrance.

"And when we passed each other, there was a girl among them wearing a cloche hat... She should have been Lanevus's girlfriend? She stirred my Spiritual Perception."

Klein said nothing. He suddenly Remembered the Spirit Vision he had failed to recall after being interrupted, and abruptly realized that there had to be something wrong with that Megose.

"Klein?" Alice asked in confusion as she watched Klein remain silent for so long.

"...This afternoon, I wanted to activate Spirit Vision on her, but I forgot." Klein spoke softly.

"..." Alice Pressed Her Lips Together. After a while, she hesitantly said, "Maybe, I Mean maybe, seeing her would put us in danger?"

"But what kind of danger would make even Take a Look At..." Klein did not finish his sentence, because he suddenly realized What Kind of Thing could not be looked at—God, or a Mythical Creature.

"That child...?" They looked at each other and said nothing more.

The next morning, they very unusually went to Dunn's office together.

Under Dunn's gaze, Klein spoke impatiently:

"Captain, yesterday at the Divination Club, I met victims of Lanevus's fraud case. They wanted me to divine Lanevus's whereabouts. I told them I needed Lanevus's personal belongings, and they suggested divining through Lanevus's child.

"They brought Megose, the mother of Lanevus's child. Megose behaved very strangely. I wanted to try using Spirit Vision on her, but..."

"But he forgot." Alice took over from Klein. "Yesterday afternoon, I had intended to go to the Divination Club, but I encountered a carriage accident on the way. When I arrived, I happened to pass by Miss Megose, and she stirred my Spiritual Perception."

Paused for a Moment, Alice added, "I likewise failed to see Megose."

"You suspect there is something wrong with that child?" Dunn sorted through Alice and Klein's thoughts.

"Spirituality warned Klein not to look at that child, while Fate helped me avoid the possibility of seeing that child... Captain, what kind of child would be impossible to look at directly?" Alice threw the question to Dunn.

"Which district did this happen in? What does Megose's family believe in?" Dunn began asking according to procedure.

"Lanevus's steel company is in the South District. As for Miss Megose... her family believes in the God of Steam and Machinery." Klein answered.

Dunn therefore signaled for them to return first. He needed to discuss the matter with the Mandated Punishers and the Machinery Hivemind. Klein and Alice could only obey—after all, even if they wanted to secretly Take a Look At Megose, they would have to do it secretly.