Advancement

Alice's voice fell silent for a moment, as if she were thinking over what was wrong, before she asked uncertainly:

"Klein, you're not really deceiving me, are you?

"History... time... they both seem to fall within your authorities? If so, Fate shouldn't have been left out either... Your ritual can't really be this, can it?"

She's even more wary than I imagined... Hiss, but if I want to deceive her, this is necessary. I can't keep the contents of the ritual from her forever... Fortunately, she doesn't have mind-reading abilities or anything like that. This should just be instinct, an instinctive wariness toward threats involving herself... Still, since no real harm has occurred, she shouldn't be too alert. As long as I keep denying it and don't reveal anything unusual, I should be able to bluff my way through this step fairly easily...

Klein's thoughts spun, but he denied it with an almost amused expression.

"What exactly are you thinking... Alice, do I look that bad at deceiving people? If I wanted to deceive you, would I deliberately ask you like this?

"Or do you actually want to hear me question you? Alice, you've disappointed me too much. You actually suspect that I would deceive you!"

"Maybe you're using reverse psychology..." Alice muttered in reply.

She still had many doubts. That subtle suspicion simply refused to fade, but Klein's usual honesty before her played its part. Only after confirming that the Worms of Spirit showed no abnormalities did Alice ask suspiciously:

"Forget it... Do you have any ideas about how to fool history or time?"

Klein had actually given this question some thought—though only about how to deal with it. He shook his head, then nodded, explaining:

"I don't have a specific plan. I asked the Goddess about the method