Matilda

"After becoming a Calamity Priest, you would constantly encounter all kinds of disasters..." Charlie King barely composed himself. "What does that expression of yours mean?"

"..." Alice suppressed the distinctly Earth-like terms that had surfaced in her mind, such as "Unlucky One" and "Black Ghost," and asked a relatively gentle question. "What kind of mindset did you have when you drank the potion?"

Charlie King fell silent for a moment. He clearly understood what Alice wanted to ask, but merely asked politely, "Could you wait until I finish?"

Alice politely made a "please continue" gesture.

Seeing Alice calm down, Charlie King continued:

"After becoming a Calamity Priest, you would constantly encounter all kinds of disasters. However, these disasters are foreseeable. You can prepare in advance and find ways to eliminate or lessen their impact.

"Through this, you can draw your opponents into an environment where your own advantages can be best utilized, allowing you to defeat them.

"In addition, you can use the spirituality we possess, far greater than that of other Pathways, to affect the other party's spiritual body by creating a Mental Storm, causing a certain degree of dizziness or mental disorientation."

After listening to Charlie King's introduction, Alice pondered hard for a moment, then asked, "...So what advantages do I have?"

"Isn't that something only you yourself would know?" Charlie King asked back.

"I mean Extraordinary Abilities... I thought Sequence 6 would at least have a little direct combat ability?" Alice's expression was full of confusion.

"Because this is Fate's gift." Charlie King looked at Alice, answering both her questions with one sentence. "Whether fortune or calamity, both are Fate's gifts."

Charlie King's words made Alice pause slightly, but this was not what she wanted. Without much hope, she asked, "...But what if I don't want to passively accept whatever gifts Fate gives me, and instead want to control my own fate?"

"Advance." Charlie King gave an ambiguous answer.

Alice did not respond to that. Smiling, she changed the subject. "What about the other things I asked for?"

"This is the identification you wanted." Charlie King handed over the second item. "Briel Rose was originally the only daughter of a rich merchant. Her mother died in childbirth when giving birth to her, and her father committed suicide after going bankrupt. She left her hometown alone and came to Backlund... I thought this identity suited your personality rather well."

"...You didn't need to say that last sentence." Alice took the identification.

Charlie King shrugged. "After all, anyone can tell what kind of person you are at a glance... Honestly, your thoughts are too easy to read, and you trust others too easily."

"I'll change!" Alice stressed without much conviction. "What else?"

Charlie King handed over a box. Under Alice's gaze, he opened it, revealing an exquisitely ornate necklace. Seeing the amazed expression on Alice's face, he slowly said:

"This necklace can alter many details, such as your appearance, height, and build. It can make you look like another person. Of course, you need to design the target of the transformation in advance—take note, the details must be thorough, or there may be strange consequences... My suggestion is that you use a real person as a template.

"Its negative effect is that it amplifies the wearer's vanity, desire to perform, and desire to show off. In addition, wearing it for a long time will make you unwilling to take it off. This mentality will gradually become more extreme over time, and it will take the same amount of time the necklace was worn to recover after taking it off.

"The necklace's previous owner wore it for more than twelve hours. After someone removed it from her, she lost control and became a monster because she could not get it back. She was ultimately killed.

"This necklace is called..."

"Matilda." Alice suddenly interrupted Charlie King. "From now on, it's called Matilda."¹

"That should be a person's name, right?" Charlie King asked in surprise.

"I just want the necklace to be called that. Is there a problem?" Alice asked, puzzled.

"No problem." Charlie King shrugged. "In that case, do you have any other questions?"

"Yes." Alice frowned at him. "How am I supposed to contact you? Or how will you contact me?"

"..." Charlie King was silent for a moment before asking, "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

"What do you mean?" Alice suddenly had a Bad Premonition. "What's the lie?"

"Fate will let us meet again." Charlie King answered in a rather mystic fashion.

Alice stared at Charlie King's Wizard's Robe in silence for a while, then asked, "Did He not tell you about this?"

Charlie King was silent for a moment before saying hesitantly, "...That's not quite it. If you're willing, you can recite His Honorific Name."

Alice paused slightly. Right, as an Angel, that person should indeed have an Honorific Name, but...

"Do I look like an idiot?" Alice asked seriously—who would randomly recite the Honorific Name of someone whose nature they didn't know?

At this moment, Alice completely ignored the fact that she had directly recited Mr. Fool's Honorific Name at the very beginning.

"Even if you don't plan to recite it, you probably wouldn't refuse to know it, right?" Charlie King asked.

"If you wanted to directly recite His True Name, I probably wouldn't have any way to stop you." Alice gave the obvious answer.

"Because so far, He seems to be benevolent," Charlie King replied with a smile. "So I don't mind being a little benevolent to you as well—and your experiences sound far too suited to the Fate Pathway."

"The Fate Pathway?" Alice repeated the term.

"The Monster Pathway is the Pathway of Fate," Charlie King explained.

Alice froze slightly. At that moment, she once again felt that everything had been predetermined.

—Could her desire to control fate have also been secretly arranged?

This was a question she absolutely could not think too deeply about. She forcibly redirected her train of thought, took a deep breath, and looked at Charlie King. "Tell me His Honorific Name... Mm, don't use something like Ancient Hermes Language."

"You already said you're not an idiot. Of course I wouldn't do that..." Charlie King said with a smile. "Remember this—Incarnation of Fortune; Monster Who Foresees the Future; Calamity That Spreads Misfortune; Witness to All Fates in Backlund; Warden of Chaos and Madness."

"He's in Backlund?" Alice caught the key point in those words.

"Actually, I don't know either." Charlie King gently shook his head. "Don't try to pry information out of me—you know, I'm just a messenger."

¹ Both the name and the necklace's design were inspired by Maupassant's short story "The Necklace." Matilda was the female lead's name.