Great Serpent

After resolving the crucial matter of renting a place, Alice was finally about to begin her work.

Just as she had told Klein, she really could draw comic books... though of course, she could do more than just draw strange things!

Moreover, Emperor Roselle, who bore a long list of titles such as famous novelist, inventor, poet, composer, and so on, had not actually cut off the path for transmigrators entirely.

Emperor Roselle had still left behind many things that could be copied, such as comic books, games, movies...

Even if she was limited by subject matter and many things could not truly be recreated one-to-one, making money was nothing to be ashamed of.

Thus, over the following days, Alice resumed a regular life: after breakfast, she went to church to pray, then came back to copy... came back to draw comic books, ate, continued drawing comic books, ate, continued drawing...

I can't keep drawing anymore!

On the very first day of beginning this boring daily life, Alice was defeated by her own patience—she decided to go out for a walk after dinner and deal with the rest later.

Backlund was a far larger city than Tingen. Strolling through its streets and mingling among pedestrians who were either hurried or leisurely, Alice's mood slowly calmed down.

To Alice, the essence of walking had never been the scenery—of course, beautiful views and pleasant weather would certainly make people happier. Unfortunately, there were no natural landscapes in the city that Alice longed for, and Backlund's weather was truly hard to describe.

"A culinary desert combined with the City of Smog... what an easy association to make." The impression of a certain country flashed through her mind, but it did not prompt Alice into deep thought.

To Alice, the true essence of walking was wandering among the crowd. She enjoyed the feeling of being amid the crowd, of becoming a part of it. It gave her a strange sense of security.

Alice's peace did not last long. When she received a Dixie Pie and sweet iced tea from a roadside vendor, a scream made her instinctively turn her head.

—A carriage was speeding toward a boy of around ten, who had fallen onto the ground and did not seem able to get up anytime soon.

Almost instinctively, Alice set down the Dixie Pie and sweet iced tea in her hands, turned, and lunged toward the child.

Shielding the child, she rolled out of the carriage's path. The carriage came to a difficult stop, and amid the clamor of the crowd, the coachman and a couple suspected to be the boy's parents came forward.

"Thank you, thank you..." The couple came up to thank Alice emotionally, still visibly shaken by what had just happened.

"Very sorry, Miss, and sir and madam," the coachman said apologetically after speaking with his employer for a few moments. "My employer is willing to compensate everyone for their losses."

As the main victims of the incident, the couple ultimately chose to let the matter rest and accepted the compensation.

As a bystander who had been accidentally drawn into the matter, Alice also received a huge compensation of fifty pounds—intended for her to buy new clothes and get examined, though Alice repeatedly stated that she had not been injured.

Alice realized that this was probably a wealthy person who feared trouble.

This matter had been utterly ordinary from beginning to end. If it had ended there, Alice should not have remembered much about it.

But when the couple pulled the boy over to thank Alice, causing her to turn her gaze back to him, Alice was suddenly seized by a bone-chilling sense of terror.

"Thank you, big sister∽"

The little boy's tone was light and cheerful, yet it did nothing to ease the cold sweat seeping down Alice's back or her bristling body hair. She almost stiffly fixed her gaze on the boy and replied, "It's nothing."

Yet the little boy seemed to have no intention of letting Alice go. "Big sister, you look like you're really scared?"

Alice gave a stiff smile and brushed him off. "I was just frightened by what happened... It's good that you're all right."

Then, without waiting for a response from the boy or the couple, she picked up the pie and sweet iced tea she had just set down, turned, and hurried away.

After turning at the end of the street, Alice even clutched the things in her arms and broke into a run, not stopping until she returned home.

Only after closing and locking the door did she sit on the sofa in the living room and recall the details of what had happened.

—Everything had clearly been so normal. Where had that bone-chilling feeling come from?

Alice naturally knew that its source had to be that boy, or at least something closely related to him. But what exactly was so unusual about him?

Clearly, Alice could not think of an answer. She could only fall asleep amid her thoughts, burdened by that unease.

This was a black, towering spire. Alice raised her head and held up her hand to measure it, but regrettably, even then, she could not see the top of the tower.

Curiously, Alice stepped into the spire. Its interior was as black and eerie as its exterior, and Alice frowned the instant she entered.

Alice followed staircases up, down, left, and right. The staircases inside this tower were utterly irregular and quite bizarre—if she had to describe it, every step took her in one of six random directions: up, down, left, right, forward, or backward. The chances of each direction were entirely equal, yet for some reason, by sheer coincidence, she ended up at the top of the tower. Note 1

—Yes, the top of the tower.

After passing through one locked door after another, crossing one wall after another, and watching the rooms become narrower and narrower until there was only space for her to stand, Alice was certain that she had come to the top of the tower.

Alice raised her head. She finally saw what was at the top of the tower—a white Great Serpent was coiled above her!

The serpent had its tail in its mouth and was slowly writhing. Its body seemed to be covered not in scales, but in symbols that made Alice dizzy whenever she looked at them for too long.

"Hiss, hiss." The serpent lowered its head, and Alice saw a pair of Blood-Red eyes. Their owner stared at her coldly and without emotion, then flicked its tongue at her twice.

As Alice watched the serpent's head draw closer and closer, she finally realized—the snake was truly enormous, so enormous that she did not think she was even as tall as its fully opened mouth.

...Its fully opened mouth?

The Great Serpent opened its enormous jaws, completely enclosing Alice, then shut them—and Alice abruptly woke up from her dream.

After pressing a hand to her chest and calming her heartbeat somewhat, Alice opened her pocket watch and checked the time—it had only just passed midnight.

Unable to fall asleep for the time being, Alice fell silent for a moment before deciding to do something she had planned for a long time—she was going to wake Klein up...

Note 1: This was actually a mathematical model. You may have heard the saying, "A drunk man can always find his way home, but a drunk bird may never be able to return home." Of course, I have no idea how to calculate the exact probability either. (Looks away)