Discussion

"...Why aren't you saying anything?" After Klein finished his previous sentence, Alice had kept staring at him without a word, prompting him to ask.

"Were you insulting me?" Alice asked seriously.

"Why would you think that?" Klein carefully recalled whether there had been anything wrong with what he said.

"It sounded like you were saying I was like a Clown..." Alice realized she had misunderstood Klein's meaning and explained, "Fine, I was judging you by my own standards. That's the sort of thing I would say."

"...I really just suddenly thought of the Acting Principle!" Klein emphasized earnestly.

"Mm... so you're going to start acting?" Alice responded perfunctorily, changing the subject.

"I... no," Klein looked at Alice as though he had suddenly remembered something. "Why can you see me now?"

Alice became silent. She had not deliberately ignored the question; the answer was simply obvious. "If that unknown existence could make me wake up as Alice and bring me back from the dead... then solving this problem while reviving me wouldn't be anything strange, would it?"

"...Would a Great Being even care about such a trivial matter?" Klein found it difficult to understand.

"Maybe it wasn't a Great Being? After all, even my name was chosen for me by someone else... ha." A distinct look of disgust appeared on Alice's face. She particularly hated that helpless feeling of having no control over herself.

After personally experiencing the pain of death once and the pain of watching a friend die, the pain that had originally belonged to Shen Yinghuan and surfaced through those recalled memories seemed to suddenly become real. Alice could no longer peacefully accept Fate's arrangements, and a desire to take control of her own destiny gradually rose within her.

Klein was slightly stunned. He could not offer an opinion on that. He knew exactly how awful that feeling was; when faced with the coincidences created time and again by 0-08, unable to do anything about them, he had felt the same way.

Looking at the silent Klein, Alice forced a smile. "Let's change the subject... Mm, first of all, although I think you already understand what a 'Clown' should be like, but... I was already that kind of person to begin with. What about you?"

"I understand what you mean. I'm only acting, right?" Klein immediately understood what Alice wanted to say.

"It's good that you know. Then the next thing..." Alice's expression suddenly turned serious. "Have you figured out how to hide what you look like?"

"Huh?" Klein blinked his eyes blankly. "I can wear a pair of glasses, then grow out my beard..."

Klein suddenly fell silent. He realized that this was probably what Alice had thought of—girls could not grow beards...

"What... are you going to do?" Klein, unable to think of an idea, asked.

"I don't know." Alice shrugged. "Maybe Fate has already arranged it for me? Anyway, I want to go to Pritz Harbor first."

Alice understood that, judging by Megose's dramatic death, she currently had no choice but to obediently do as she was told.

"Have you never considered going back to the Nighthawks?" Alice was extremely determined to go to Pritz Harbor, but Klein remembered that her circumstances differed from his—her resurrection had been witnessed by a True God.

Alice took a look at Klein. Remembering the Goddess's attitude and the time when she had awakened, she said softly, "...I feel that neither the Goddess nor Fate itself wants me to continue being a Nighthawk."

"..." Klein looked at Alice with a complicated expression and asked, "Do you know where Ince Zangwill is now?"

"You want to take revenge on him?" Alice looked at Klein. "You know, he's already a Sequence 5 now. In the near future, he might even become a Demigod."

But Klein's attitude was firm, and he did not seem discouraged by Alice's words in the slightest. Thus, Alice answered, "I don't know, but maybe you can try divination... Mm, and while you're at it, divine where your hope of advancing lies—after all, you don't know where to go either."

Thus, in the results of their divination, they saw an incomparably prosperous city.

There were bustling docks, rows upon rows of houses, streets filled with people coming and going, strange machinery, and thick smoke.

At the end of the vision, gray-blue, off-white, and pale-yellow rooftops wound upward, clustering around a magnificent palace and a towering Gothic clock tower.

Dong!

As the bell reverberated, they both understood where the city they had just seen was—the legendary "Land of Hope," the "City of Cities," Backlund!

As for the Main Peak of the Hornacis Mountain Range... haha, of course Klein could not possibly go there.

"Then, before leaving, is there anything else you want to do?" Once the last matter had been settled, that sorrowful atmosphere finally returned between them. Realizing that they might not be able to see their old acquaintances again for a long time, Alice looked at Klein and asked.

"I want to take one more look at Benson and Melissa..." After being silent for a moment, Klein gave that answer.

"Benson and Melissa?" Alice repeated doubtfully.

Remembering that Alice didn't know about this, Klein explained, "They're my family."

"Family..." Repeating the word, a trace of confusion suddenly flashed through Alice's eyes. Unlike Klein, Alice still regarded herself as a pure visitor from another world. At least for now, she still could not see herself as part of this world.

Let alone...

The Goddess's words surfaced again. Alice suddenly felt an indescribable sadness for this body's original owner—perhaps she had her own family and friends, perhaps she should have had a name of her own, but now she had completely ceased to exist, and no one would even feel sad over it.

If she knew all this, would she feel as helpless and pained as I do?

"Let's go." Reining in the emotions that had surged up in that instant, Alice said in a voice whose feelings were impossible to discern, "Let's go see your... your family one last time."

"...But they should have already received news of my death, right?" Reason made Klein hesitate as he looked at Alice. "If I show up now, they'll be frightened, won't they?"

Mm, Melissa would probably faint on the spot... Benson would likely become so nervous that his hair would start falling out, then try his best to calmly persuade me, in the name of curly-haired baboons... Such thoughts made Klein sad again, and his expression turned somewhat bitter.

"You can put on Clown makeup before going over. If you don't know how, I can help you." Alice had finally found an opportunity to get revenge for Klein's unintentional mockery at the beginning.