Chapter 21 Chapter21 Another coincidence
Alice's reminder suddenly shocked Klein, but at this point, his situation was the same as Alice's - they had also received the gift of fate without knowing it, and could only wait for the price to be paid. that day.
But at least, when we become stronger, maybe the same price will not hurt us so much, right? With this idea in mind, after Alice left, Klein began to try to divine clues to the clown's potion.
Alice soon sees a portrait from Crane in Dunn's place, but this makes little sense as Crane soon encounters the man in the portrait and shoots him dead.
When Cornley came back to find someone to clean up the mess, Alice was scribbling on the paper.
"Speaking of this, I've always wanted to ask," Alice complained as she followed, "Doesn't the 'Sleepless One' path not have its own ritual magic?"
In Alice's senses, since Old Neil left, she and Klein seemed to have become tools for ritual magic...well, mainly her, because Klein would at least do some other tasks, unlike her, It seems that the meaning of her existence is to prepare various ritual magics - in a sense, Alice may be closer to a civilian employee.
"The 'Sleepless One' pathway will lack auxiliary capabilities before Sequence 6..." Cornley didn't seem to adapt to Alice's character, but he still gave an explanation.
After Alice realized this, she silently shut her mouth and no longer embarrassed the poor guy.
They arrived at the scene quickly. Klein had already gone home to rest due to exhaustion caused by spiritual consumption. Without Old Neil's words and deeds, Klein handed over the recipe for the clown potion without any surprise.
Since Klein had already performed mediumship and divination on the corpse, all that was left for Alice was some simple finishing work.
"So, why did the fight start here?" After dealing with the scene, Alice found Leonard, who was the least serious in his tone, to inquire about the information, "Is this an encounter?"
"You should ask Klein this question." Leonard didn't realize at all that his position in Alice's heart had changed. "It's like he has a fateful bond with extraordinary people and evil forces. You You know, the biggest extraordinary incident I have dealt with before this is you."
"...You don't need to remind me of this matter," Alice, who was an extraordinary event herself, tried her best to control her expression, "So this matter has something to do with Klein?"
Leonard did not hide his intention to laugh at all, and told Alice the entire story:
"When Klein went to the underground trading market to buy ritual materials, he suddenly remembered that Heinus Vincent had lured Selina into the Dragon Bar. This showed that Heinus was a regular visitor there. Therefore, he suspected that the person in the portrait May have also been to the underground trading market.
"Klein took the portrait and asked the boss Swain. The boss responded in the affirmative and told him that this gentleman was trying to buy cultural relics and ancient books related to the main peak of Honakis. This reminded him of this place and that he borrowed the corresponding Journals that someone just returned...
"So he came here with the certificate of the trainee inspector and the badge of the Special Operations Department to investigate the borrowing records of those periodicals. As a result, he happened to bump into that person, and the library administrator recognized him and shouted to the police officer for help. …”
"..." Alice thought of the topic of coincidence that they had just discussed not long ago, and her suspended worries resurfaced again. A sense of uneasiness slowly climbed up in her heart, but she was powerless to do anything about it.
"It sounds like what happened to the protagonist of the story." In the end, Alice only gave this dry comment.
But Alice's abnormal performance seemed to have stepped on a certain sensitive point of Leonard's. He looked at Alice with wide eyes and asked: "Hey, don't you think I am more of the protagonist of the story than him?"
This successfully pulled Alice out of her chaotic thoughts. She looked at Leonard quite speechlessly and said: "I really don't understand what's so controversial about this. Whether it's the protagonist or the supporting role in the story, it's not everyone else." The characters in the novel are also actors on the stage and puppets for others. Is there any distinction between being noble and humble?”
This time, Alice's extraordinary performance left Leonard speechless. He always thought he was the protagonist and he suddenly didn't know how to refute Alice's words.
Alice quickly realized that her tone was a little too harsh, and she immediately apologized to Leonard: "I'm sorry, I just... I just think it's all a bit too coincidental..."
Leonard was slightly startled by the coincidence being emphasized by two different people in a short period of time. He suddenly stopped his casual and informal attitude and fell into silence.
The silence was so uncomfortable that Alice soon couldn't bear it and quickly found an excuse to leave the scene.
The next day, after finishing class, Alice found Leonard, who was playing cards with Cornley and others, and tentatively greeted him: "Hi, Leonard?"
"Three Aces," Leonard responded to the greeting while throwing out three cards, "Alice? Good morning."
Then, Leonard returned to playing cards with his passionate emotions, so Alice fell silent. She was suddenly not sure whether she should continue talking, after all, she had just criticized Leonard without hesitation yesterday.
This card game didn't last long. Before starting the next game, Leonard excused himself and pulled Alice away who was standing there stupidly: "What's wrong with you?"
"Hey," Alice carefully looked at Leonard's expression, "I didn't mean to talk to you like that yesterday, I was just in a bad mood."
Realizing why Alice looked like this, Leonard looked at Alice exaggeratedly: "Really? Just because of this, you stood by me while I was playing cards without saying anything, making my mind full of this matter?"
"Uh..." Alice suddenly fell silent. She realized that Leonard didn't care about what she said yesterday, and she couldn't help but feel embarrassed. She decided to lead the topic to other directions, "Why do you think you are more like the protagonist?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Leonard raised his eyebrows, "I think no matter from which angle, I am more worthy of the reputation of the protagonist than Klein... Hey, did I say something wrong?" Note ①
Alice was amazed at his shamelessness.
After confirming that Leonard was not angry about what he blurted out yesterday, Alice quickly found an excuse to leave-she really couldn't stand Leonard's solemn promise that he was the protagonist.
Note ①: The second half of this sentence is actually said to a certain old man.