Chapter 21: Another Coincidence

Chapter 21: Another Coincidence

Alice's reminder startled Klein, but at this point, his situation was the same as Alice's—they had both unwittingly accepted fate's gift and could only wait for the day to pay the price.

But at least, when we become stronger, perhaps the same price won't hurt us as much, right? With this thought, after Alice left, Klein began to try divining clues for the Joker potion.

Alice soon saw a portrait from Klein at Dunn's place, but it was meaningless because Klein quickly encountered the person in the portrait and killed him.

When Cohenli returned to clean up the aftermath, Alice was doodling on paper.

"Speaking of which, I've always wanted to ask," Alice complained as she followed, "Doesn't the 'Sleepless' pathway 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 at least did other tasks, unlike her, who seemed to exist solely to prepare various ritual magics—in a sense, Alice might be closer to a clerical worker.

"The 'Sleepless' pathway lacks auxiliary abilities before Sequence 6…" Cohenli seemed not quite accustomed to Alice's personality, but he still offered an explanation.

Alice realized this and silently closed her mouth, no longer troubling the poor guy.

They soon arrived at the scene, and Klein had gone home to rest due to exhaustion from spiritual consumption. Without Old Neil's teachings, Klein unsurprisingly handed over the formula for the Joker potion.

Since Klein had already performed necromancy and divination on the body, all that was left for Alice was some simple finishing work.

"So, why did the fight start here?" After processing the scene, Alice found Leonard, the least tight-lipped, to gather information, "Was this an encounter battle?"

"You should ask Klein that," Leonard, completely unaware that his position in Alice's heart had changed, said, "He's like bound by fate to the Beyonder and evil forces, you know, the biggest Beyonder event I dealt with before this was you."

"…You don't need to remind me of that," Alice, as the Beyonder event itself, struggled to control her expression, "So this has something to do with Klein?"

Leonard didn't hide his intent to mock, and recounted the whole story to Alice: "Klein went to the underground market to buy ritual materials and suddenly thought of Hainas Vansente leading Selena into the Dragon Bar, indicating that Hainas was a regular there. So, he suspected the person in the portrait might have also been to the underground market.

"Klein asked the owner Svein with the portrait, and the owner confirmed, telling him that this gentleman tried to buy artifacts and ancient books related to the Hornachs mountain peak, which made him think of this place, recalling someone had just returned the corresponding journals…

"So he came here with the trainee inspector's badge and the special operations department's emblem to investigate the borrowing records of those journals. But he happened to bump into that person, and the library manager recognized him, shouting for the officer's help…"

"…" Alice remembered the topic of coincidence they had just discussed not long ago, and her deferred worries resurfaced, a sense of unease slowly climbing in her heart, and she was powerless against it.

"It sounds like the encounter of a story's protagonist." In the end, Alice only gave such a dry comment.

But Alice's abnormal performance seemed to hit a sensitive spot for Leonard, who widened his eyes and asked, "Hey, don't you think I'm more like the protagonist of the story than he is?"

This successfully pulled Alice out of her chaotic thoughts, and she looked at Leonard somewhat speechlessly, saying, "I really don't understand what there is to argue about. Whether it's the protagonist or a supporting character, aren't they all characters under someone else's pen? As actors on the stage, as puppets pulled by others' strings, is there really a distinction between nobility and lowliness?"

This time, Alice's exceptional performance left Leonard speechless, the self-proclaimed protagonist suddenly unsure how to refute Alice's words.

Alice quickly realized her tone was too harsh and immediately apologized to Leonard, "Sorry, I just… I just feel that all this is too coincidental…"

Being emphasized about coincidences by two different people in a short time, Leonard also paused, suddenly reining in his casual and unserious attitude, falling into silence.

The silence was uncomfortably quiet, and Alice couldn't bear it, quickly finding an excuse to leave the scene.

The next day, after class, Alice found Leonard playing cards with Cohenli and others, and tentatively greeted him, "Hi, Leonard?"

"Three Aces," Leonard threw out three cards while responding to the greeting, "Alice? Good morning."

Then, Leonard re-engaged his fiery emotions into the card game, so Alice fell silent, suddenly unsure whether she should continue speaking, especially since she had bluntly confronted Leonard just yesterday.

The card game didn't last long, and before starting the next round, Leonard excused himself and pulled aside Alice, who was standing there foolishly, "What's wrong?"

"Cough," Alice carefully gauged Leonard's expression, "I didn't mean to speak to you like that yesterday, I was just in a bad mood."

Realizing why Alice was acting this way, Leonard exaggeratedly looked at her, "No way? Just for that, you stood by my side while I was playing cards, not speaking, and made me think about it the whole time?"

"Uh…" Alice suddenly fell silent, realizing Leonard didn't mind what she said yesterday, which made her feel awkward. She decided to steer the conversation in another direction, "Why do you think you're more like the protagonist?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Leonard raised an eyebrow, "I think from any angle, I'm more deserving of the protagonist's fame than Klein… Hey, did I say something wrong?" Note 1

Alice was amazed at his shamelessness.

After confirming that Leonard wasn't angry about what he blurted out yesterday, Alice quickly found an excuse to leave—she really couldn't stand Leonard's adamant claims that he was the protagonist.

Note 1: The second half of this sentence was actually addressed to a certain old grandfather he carries with him.

(End of Chapter)