Encore 58 — Welcome to Wonderland (II)

"This is the team protecting me. Team Eden from the Divine Church. They are Kyrie, Yuichi, Renya and Shinobu."

They all bowed to us.

"These are the mercenaries I hired as bodyguards. Arthur, Elizabeth, Myraliana, Mei and..."

Lucia looked over at Kaito, acting slightly lost. He was the least memorable of the lot.

"Kaito! My name is Kaito!"

"Uhm... Kaito."

We did our best to hide our laughs as Lucia said Kaito's name.

"Oh, what do you call yourselves?"

Kyrie asked them.

"Call?"

"You're mercenaries, are you not? I thought you would have a name like our Team Eden. It would be easier for your future clients to hire you by such."

"We've never thought about it, have we?"

Myraliana crossed her arms, mulling it over. She beamed when she received an idea.

"How about Myra?!"

"No, Myra, please leave it to us since you're fairly childish."

Elizabeth stopped her.

I have to keep in mind to never ask her to name anything. She'll simply name it after herself. Well, if we're talking about names then...

I raised my hand and wrote something.

'Longinus.'

"As in the spear that pierces Jesus?"

Elizabeth and the others appraised the name for themselves and nodded at each other.

"It's a whole lot better than the name that Myra suggested."

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"Mhm."

"I'll kill you all, you know,"

·———·

We split into two groups. Two of us would stay with Team Eden and three would be in the shadows. It was decided that Kaito and I would stay with them while, Mei, Elizabeth and Myraliana watched our surroundings.

Apparently, we were supposed to head to a warehouse around half an hour away. In that warehouse, there should be a secret base called Wonderland.

"Can you not talk, Arthur-san?"

The hooded girl asked me out of concern.

I lifted my finger.

'No, I have a curse placed on me. Although, I can only talk during certain situations.'

She narrowed her eyes as I wrote those words.

(‹She doesn't believe you.›)

February warned me.

I could tell that much. She's been suspicious of Myraliana and Elizabeth too ever since she met them. If she realises who I am, I'll have to get rid of her.

I'm not like Yuichi, someone who's hesitant on killing and selfless. I'm rather selfish. I'll do anything to achieve my goal of killing the gods.

We agreed to deliver Lucia and nothing else. Since I have Sable Aquarius we don't benefit from this.

We'll have to pause our plans for now. Originally, we were supposed to meet with a friend of Kaito's. Our... Longinus' overarching goal is to kill the gods antagonizing Earth and working with the Imperi. For now, we're gathering information. Of course, we don't nearly have enough power to trouble the gods.

But there is something that could damage a god greatly. That's for another time, however.

As for those times when I can talk, it refers to when I use this so-called Authority.

Authority refers to the difference in power. Not physically, magically or mentally but spiritually. The stronger someone's spirit, the stronger the Authority. Usually, the only people who can use Authority are people like gods or angels. It must be because I'm a humanoid Imperi that I can use it.

February said I may be to use Hope/Despair while using this Authority but I can't exactly control it.

I looked over at Kaito, who was walking beside my right.

'What're you making this time?'

Kaito may not be the most adept in magic or he may not be the best physically. Those titles both belong to Myraliana. He's the craftiest and slyest of us.

He's what you would call a magesmith, someone who makes maguscraft, weapons that give an edge in battle used by Streia.

"Hm? Oh, this time..."

He clicked the watch on his wrist and it transformed into a black gauntlet.

"It's a gauntlet. I designed it so that it could temporarily nullify magic and discharge it at will. Of course, it has a limit."

'No, that in itself is amazing.'

At first, I thought he was useless when he followed us around but he proved his worth when it came to his advice, plans, and tech.

"You make gear? So you're a magesmith?"

"Yes. Until two months ago, I was more like a swindling magesmith though..."

"Despite their usefulness, magesmiths aren't used often. They don't get paid much, but still, that equipment looks very advanced."

The purple-haired boy, Kyrie, admired Kaito's invention.

I smiled.

As they were talking about magesmiths, I thought back to my friend, Reina Shinomiya. She's a great magesmith. I wonder what she's doing. I hope my disappearance hasn't affected her too much. We've known each other since middle school—and before, supposedly—so I hope she's doing fine without me.

After half an hour, we reached the supposed warehouse.

"Do any of you have a phone I can use?"

Lucia asked us.

Kaito gave her his phone and she called someone on it. Seconds after she spoke on the phone, a man appeared in front of the warehouse. He bowed to us and show his hand towards the warehouse itself.

The Agnes sisters joined us and the man led us into the warehouse.

"Huh?"

As soon as we entered, we were in somewhere else completely.

Did we pass through a teleportation circle? I don't remember seeing one...

It was like an underground city filled to the brim with people. It was different to the Underworld. Rather than thugs and bandits living here, it was regular people.

This is where we were supposed to deliver Lucia. This is Wonderland.

"Welcome to Wonderland, Miss Lucia and co."

The man said.

"Come this way. I will get you to meet the leader."

The man took us to a bungalow. He took us to the door and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, ma'am. Miss Lucia Winters and company have arrived."

"Come in."

That voice...

The man opened the door and showed us inside the living room. We sat down and waited a little while.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

A woman walked into the room with a big smile on her face. She was a foreigner with crimson hair and glistening violet eyes. The woman glanced over at me.

"Ah,"

Shit. As I thought...

This woman is Alice Kanata. The first time I met her was when I went to London. She's an acquaintance of my father's and, as I have just found out, the leader of this 'Wonderland...'

I better say something before she recognises me. A disguise like this won't work on her...

'Hello there, I am Arthur, the leader of the group, Longinus, who has been hired to protect Lucia Winters and bring her here.'

When Kanata-san saw me writing in text, she narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so? Thank you for protecting her then. I am Alice Kanata, the leader of Wonderland. Please, make yourself at home."

I wonder how I'll explain it to her.