Middle Finger

Their horseplay did not last long, because High Priest Nim of Moon City arrived quickly.

He wore brown beast hide, his gray-white hair was messy, and the wrinkles on his face were deep enough to crush Worms of Time. More than a dozen Moon City residents followed behind him.

Klein was roasting mushrooms with Alice when he spotted Nim and his group. He instinctively looked at Alice and found her secretly slipping an undercooked mushroom into the pile of cooked ones.

This was not the first time such a thing had happened during their time in the Land Abandoned by God. Regrettably, Miss Fortune could not use illusions to conceal the mushrooms' appearance, making such substitutions utterly pointless.

Yet Klein, who had mastered illusions, did not retaliate against Alice this way. It was not because it would not work, but because he feared that it would—he did not want a ball of mushrooms rolling up to him one day and calling him Mr. Fool!

The reason Alice had not vanished was equally simple.

Back when she had faced the Moon City residents, unable to meet their expectations, Alice had practically fled in disarray. But now...

Alice calmly ignored Klein's stare, put the half-cooked mushroom back over the fire, then picked up a fully roasted one and held it out toward the High Priest.

"Want some?" she asked.

Nim's expression froze slightly. He quickly recalled the highly unstable temperament of this Miss Fortune, who had left a deep impression on him. He then walked forward naturally and crossed his hands in a salute.

"Greetings, two honored guests.

"I am Nim, High Priest of Moon City. You may already know me... What is this?"

His expression carried a request for explanation, but explaining things was not something Alice enjoyed doing. She merely