Exchange Information

"It wasn't necessarily so," Klein said. "We could leave Tingen City for the time being, avoid the officials' attention while looking for a way to change our faces... Hmm, we should still prepare identification."

Looking at Klein, who still could not hide his confusion, Alice pressed her lips together and spoke up. "Klein, Mr. Azik... Be careful of 0-08. Be careful of Ince Zangwill."

The name on the wanted poster immediately stirred Klein's memories. He and Azik both looked at Alice.

"...0-08 can make the stories it writes come true," Alice explained softly. "Ince Zangwill used 0-08 to create coincidences. His target should be the Nighthawks Headquarters in Tingen City... Perhaps something inside the headquarters?"

"...Saint Selina's Ashes!" Once the information fell into place, Klein immediately thought of the answer.

Alice looked at Klein in confusion. Meeting her gaze, Klein explained, "Ince Zangwill is a Gatekeeper who failed his advancement, and behind Tingen City's Chanis Gate are Saint Selina's Ashes. Before her death, she was a Sequence 4 Saint of the Sleepless pathway..."

"So the Gatekeeper is Sequence 5 of the Sleepless pathway?" Alice guessed.

"No," Klein continued explaining. "Gatekeeper is Sequence 5 of the Corpse Collector pathway. Adjacent Sequences can be exchanged at high Sequences..."

Alice suddenly understood. She finally grasped Ince Zangwill's goal—he needed Saint Selina's Ashes to advance to demigod!

After confirming that Klein was not as naive and sweet as Alice in this regard, and at least would not brazenly run up to the Nighthawks for fear that his resurrection might go unnoticed, Azik left with the warning to be careful of 0-08 and Ince Zangwill.

Alice and Klein, who had been left behind, fell silent again as they looked at each other.

The earlier sudden incident had diluted the emotions in their hearts. They had not even found the time to sort out each other's circumstances. It was only after Mr. Azik left that Alice remembered the Goddess's warning, and how Klein's circumstances upon awakening had differed from hers.

"Have you seen the Goddess?" Alice asked softly.

"No. Why are you suddenly asking that?" Klein looked at Alice in confusion.

"Um... because I suddenly remembered that the reasons we returned from death should be different." Resting her chin on her hand, Alice looked at Klein and revealed what she had not told Azik. "Someone... no, an unknown existence erased the part of Fate where I died."

Klein was slightly stunned. He had guessed that his resurrection after death was due to that mysterious palace, and before that, he should already have returned from death once. But how did Alice know such detailed things?

"The Goddess told me that before I awakened in this body, an unknown existence erased the traces of this body's original owner from Fate." Alice explained as she looked at Klein's puzzled expression.

The description "this body" made Klein frown. He felt a subtle discomfort, but his attention was still focused more on something else. "The Goddess?"

"Yes, the Goddess." Looking at Klein, Alice tapped her chest four times in succession, drawing the symbol of a Crimson Moon—this was the most sincere prayer she had made since awakening.

Klein's pupils contracted slightly. They both knew what this meant—Alice had already been a blessed of Evernight from the moment she woke up. But he had another question. "Awakened?"

"..." Looking at Klein, Alice recalled that sealed space that had wrapped tightly around her, recalled Megose's absurd death, recalled that first Lucky One, recalled the unknown voice by Megose's ear before her death. She heard herself respond in a distant, bewildered voice, "I suspect that before this, I awakened in Other Places."

Without waiting for Klein's answer, Alice continued, "You're no longer a Nighthawk now, so I can tell you the answer to the earlier question."

Klein was stunned for a moment before realizing which question Alice meant. A trace of sadness surfaced in his heart, but before it could deepen, Alice's voice scattered it. "Have you heard of the Law of Conservation of Extraordinary Traits?"

"What is that?" Klein asked cooperatively.

"Beyonder Characteristics cannot be destroyed or reduced. They can only be transferred from one vessel to another... Honestly, This Thing really sounds like the Mass-Energy Equivalence Law." Alice voiced the complaint she had wanted to make ever since she first heard of this law.

Klein ignored Alice's complaint. He quietly mulled over those words, and a sense of unease arose within him. "Could the substitute materials be..."

"The remnants left behind after a Beyonder dies can serve as the Main Ingredient for potions... Just like Ince Zangwill needs Saint Selina's Ashes." Alice calmly placed the final piece of the puzzle.

"So how did you know this?" Klein felt an even stronger sense of unease.

The familiar smile spreading across Alice's face seemed to confirm his guess. He heard her say, "...When I had just awakened, a Sequence 7 Lucky One fell to his death right in front of me."

"A Lucky One, fell to his death?" Klein repeated. He could fully imagine what had happened next. Alice had swallowed that Beyonder Characteristic and accidentally become a Beyonder—that was all he knew. But he could not understand why a Lucky One would fall to his death.

"Do you know how Megose died?" Alice asked as she looked at his incredulous expression.

Hearing the question, Klein suddenly remembered that this fellow countryman and former colleague before him had seen Ince Zangwill—this meant Megose was dead. Yet Alice clearly lacked the ability to kill the child in Megose's belly, so he had no choice but to ask, "...How did she die?"

"After Megose killed you, she pounced at me..." Alice began recounting that bizarre scene. "Then she fell. As she went down, that bone blade happened to lie across her stomach and cut her cleanly in half..."

"..." This unbelievable answer plunged the atmosphere into silence again. They looked at each other and read the gravity in each other's eyes.

After a long while, Alice finally forced out a smile and said in a self-mocking tone, "On the bright side, at least I can go to Pritz Harbor and find that Beyonder of the Monster pathway, isn't that right?"

"I think I suddenly understand what a Clown is." Looking at Alice's smile, Klein suddenly said.