Lanlus' Child

Alice was feeling very confused.

She had been on her way to the Divination Club when, for some reason, the horse pulling a public carriage on the roadside suddenly went mad. Despite the coachman's desperate attempts to control it, the carriage charged directly towards Alice.

Alice froze in terror. She felt like she should do something, but her body was too scared to move. So, she could only watch as the carriage rushed towards her – and then tripped over a pole that had been knocked over by the scattering pedestrians, collapsing right in front of Alice.

Alice could even feel the gust of wind as the carriage bore down on her. Still stunned with fear, she was met with the coachman's apologies. Distracted, she refused any compensation and left the scene.

But why... why did this thrilling and dangerous moment feel so strangely familiar? It was as if she had experienced this kind of coincidence countless times before – brushing with death due to bizarre accidents, yet emerging completely unharmed.

Carrying this confusion, Alice stepped into the Divination Club. Three people brushed past her as she entered. Alice felt her intuition stir, and she instinctively looked in the direction they had left. Their backs had already disappeared around the stairwell corner; she only managed to catch sight of half of a Lotus Leaf Hat.

"Alice?" Klein noticed Alice's arrival with surprise and was the first to speak up, giving her a heads-up.

Alice, who hadn't noticed anything amiss, quickly closed her eyes and walked to where the voice came from, sitting down. "I didn't expect to run into you here."

These words, which should have been spoken by Klein, left him speechless. After all, it was perfectly normal for him to be here since he was supposed to be summarizing the Seer's Acting principles!

"You seem quite famous here, Mr. Seer." Alice, emboldened by the fact that she couldn't see Klein's expression and adopting the mindset that if she wasn't awkward, the other person would be, started chatting with Klein.

Klein, having some understanding of Alice's personality, decided to seize control of the conversation. "Did you know? I just heard about a terrible con artist."

"How terrible?" Alice asked, naturally curious.

"He swindled over ten thousand pounds!" Klein's tone held an inexplicable indignation.

"...What's his name?" This amount also stirred a hint of emotion in Alice.

"Lanlus, his name is Lanlus," Klein replied. "Just now, two of his victims came to me for a divination. They've already reported it to the police, and the police are taking it very seriously. Plus, they're willing to offer a portion of the recovered money as a reward. You can get 10 pounds for providing effective leads, and if you can help the police catch Lanlus, you can earn 100 pounds in cash!"

Alice was momentarily amazed by the generosity of these two people, then she asked, "But didn't he swindle ten thousand pounds?"

Klein's train of thought was disrupted for a second. He recalled the preceding and following logic of the conversation before confirming Alice's meaning: "There were more victims than just these two."

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

"I did want to try," Klein admitted without reservation, showing his desire for the bounty. "But there's no information, even the name is likely fake, and he doesn't have any personal... Uh, it's not entirely true that he doesn't."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Alice pressed.

"Lanlus's girlfriend is pregnant with his child..." Klein answered hesitantly.

Alice remembered the stirring of her intuition earlier and the group of three she had missed for a reason. Her smile suddenly vanished, and she asked, "Before I arrived, did Lanlus's girlfriend just leave?"

Klein was slightly taken aback. He didn't understand the purpose of Alice's question, but influenced by her sudden serious demeanor, he replied, "Yes, those two victims came with Lanlus's girlfriend. They left just before you arrived. You should have run into them."

So Alice said to Klein, "We need a place where we can talk privately."

Klein understood the hint. That evening, they met Above the Gray Fog.

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

So Alice frowned and began:

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

"The accident ultimately caused no harm, it just delayed me, causing me to brush past... past the people you mentioned at the entrance.

"And as we brushed past each other, there was a girl among them wearing a Lotus Leaf Hat... she must be Lanlus's girlfriend? She stirred my intuition."

Klein didn't speak. He suddenly remembered the Spirit Vision he had been unable to recall after being interrupted. He suddenly realized there must be something wrong with that Megose.

"Klein?" Alice looked at Klein, who hadn't spoken for a long time, and asked in confusion.

"...In the afternoon, I wanted to use Spirit Vision on her, but I forgot." Klein said softly.

"..." Alice pursed her lips. After a while, she hesitantly spoke, "Maybe, I mean maybe, seeing her would be dangerous?"

"But what kind of danger would prevent even a glance..." Klein's words trailed off, as he suddenly realized what kind of things couldn't be looked at – Deities, or Mythical Creatures.

"That child...?" They looked at each other, no longer speaking.

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

Under Dunn's gaze, Klein eagerly began:

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

"They brought Lanlus's child's mother, Megose. Megose's behavior was very strange. I wanted to try using Spirit Vision on her, but..."

"But he forgot." Alice took over Klein's words. "Yesterday afternoon, I was planning to go to the Divination Club, but I had a carriage accident on the way. By the time I arrived, I just happened to brush past Miss Megose, and she stirred my intuition."

Pausing, Alice added, "I also couldn't see Megose."

"You suspect there's something wrong with that child?" Dunn clarified Alice and Klein's thinking.

"Spirituality warned Klein not to look at that child, and fate helped me avoid the possibility of seeing that child... Captain, what kind of child, you tell me, would be unseeable?" Alice threw the question to Dunn.

"Which district did this happen in? What is Megose's family's faith?" Dunn began asking as per procedure.

"Lanlus's steel company is located in the Southern District. As for Miss Megose... her family believes in the God of Steam and Machinery." This was Klein's answer.

So Dunn signaled them to go back for now, saying he needed to consult with the Punishers and the Machine Heart. Klein and Alice could only obey – after all, even if they wanted to sneak a look at Megose, they would have to do so secretly.