"Fated Encounter"

After accompanying Klein to see Benson and Melissa, they parted ways. Klein was somewhat worried and instructed Alice, "Contact me if anything happens."

Alice went to the bank and withdrew the remaining balance of 200 pounds from her account.

As for where the money came from... shamefully, Alice actually received a salary within the Nighthawks...

Arriving at Emmart Harbor in Tingen City, Alice spent the enormous sum of 10 sols to buy a ticket to Pritz Harbor.

As a bustling port, Pritz Harbor had not only travelers coming and going, but also numerous dockworkers unloading cargo.

Lost amid the crowds of Pritz Harbor, Alice suddenly felt a trace of confusion: how did a Beyonder of the "Monster" pathway ensure that they could run into their target by chance and recognize them under such circumstances?

After leaving the busiest area of the docks, Alice frowned and began considering what to do next.

"Hi, Miss, first time in Backlund? Need a guide?" A small boy noticed the lost-looking Alice, nimbly weaving through the crowd until he reached her.

Alice paused slightly. Raising her head, she found several children about his age nearby, doing much the same thing, and immediately understood the group the boy belonged to.

"I'm looking for someone." Alice looked at the boy and made her request. "I need to find... uh, someone who looks very mysterious, waiting for someone here."

This information-poor description did not defeat the boy, who sincerely wanted to make money. "Now that you mention it, I remember! There's been a strange man hanging around Pritz Harbor these past few days, muttering about waiting for a 'Fated Encounter'..."

The boy's description made Alice fall silent for a moment as she considered the likelihood that approaching this person would get her mistaken for a lunatic.

"Are you looking for him?" the boy asked after finishing his introduction.

Alice had no choice but to answer, "Maybe? In short, take me to see him first?"

Under the boy's lead, Alice quickly met the Beyonder of the "Monster" pathway—rather, it was not that she was so certain, but that the moment he saw her, he smiled for no apparent reason and said, "It seems you're the person I've been waiting for."

Alice felt that she ought to give the little boy some money and send him away. She found a 1-penny coin on herself—thank goodness no one had searched her body when she was buried.

In short, Alice used 1 penny to dismiss the boy who called himself a guide but was actually begging, then looked at the mysterious person. "...So why are you certain that I'm the person you've been waiting for?"

The mysterious person said nothing. His gaze swept across the surrounding crowd, and Alice's eyes followed its movement, understanding his meaning: they could not possibly talk in such a crowded place.

Just like that, Alice carelessly followed a stranger into an enclosed room and let him set up a Spirituality Barrier, placing herself in a situation where no one would come to save her even if she screamed herself hoarse—oh, perhaps Mr. Fool could still hear her prayers.

Fortunately, this mysterious person was not a bad man. He looked at Alice and said, "Where should I start? Let's introduce ourselves first. I'm Charlie King, from the School of Life."

School of Life... The term made Alice pause slightly, but out of politeness, she introduced herself as well. "I'm..."

She suddenly stopped. It was not intentional; she had simply seen an image: a young girl pricked by a spindle, then falling asleep in a castle.

"Sleeping Beauty"... Compared to knowing nothing at first, Alice remembered the name of this story this time. Of course, she understood what it meant—this was how she had obtained her own name in the beginning.

However, Charlie King's puzzled gaze made Alice realize that she did not have much time to carefully consider a new alias. Using her original name directly did not seem quite right either, so she could only obediently say, "Briel Rose."

"Hello, Miss Rose." Charlie King looked at Alice, who had not continued speaking, and asked, "Who told you I was here?"

"That's my question too." Alice pressed her lips together as she replied, "Why were you waiting for me here? How did you know the person you were waiting for was me? You..."

Charlie King raised a hand, signaling Alice to stop asking questions first. "I don't know you, nor had I seen a portrait of you beforehand. In fact, Fate did not tell me to wait for you here—it told me to let that Bishop of Storms from before know my location."

Bishop of Storms? Did he mean The Hanged Man? Alice paused, linking the information Charlie King had given her with the intelligence from the Tarot Club, but she still had one question. "Then how did you recognize me?"

"Someone entrusted me to make a deal with you." Charlie King's expression suddenly turned serious. "They said that once I saw you, I would understand that you were the person I was looking for."

"They?" Alice Frowned Severely, repeating this pronoun used exclusively for gods and Angels.

Charlie King did not answer that question. Alice realized she could not get an answer, so she changed her question. "Then when you saw me, what exactly did you understand?"

"That's the strangest part." Charlie King looked at Alice with interest. "Very strange... I clearly felt that I should have seen your Fate, that I should have seen many things within it, but I can't remember anything."

Alice looked at him in confusion. Charlie King met her gaze. In the end, Alice gave up first and looked away. "What kind of deal is it?"

Charlie King fell silent for a moment, then said with a frown, "They asked me to give you the Potion Formula for Sequence 6 of the 'Monster' pathway, 'Calamity Priest'..."

"?" Alice stared at him in astonishment. Although her next plan included searching for a Potion Formula, someone had come to make a deal with her while carrying the formula for the next Sequence immediately after she had digested her potion. Wasn't this a little...

For a moment, Alice remembered 0-08, but this felt distinctly different from 0-08—0-08 cared about plausibility, while most of what she had experienced from the time she Awakened Until Now had been utterly implausible.

"What does They need me to do?" Though deeply puzzled by this, Alice still decided to hear the terms of the deal first.

"They hope that, someday in the future, you will help seal a Sealed Artifact." Charlie King gave his prepared answer.

People might be more familiar with Princess Aurora when Sleeping Beauty is mentioned... Ah, right, but Aurora has no surname, while this version of Briel Rose has one (you).