12-2

89 Jacob's Taste

It would be fine if he didn't think about it, but thinking about it made Klein even more unable to sleep.

Never mind his past ungodly deeds, for they were nothing compared to what he was about to do.

——You know, he was planning to steal something from the church basement next.

The gaze of the Goddess of Night was by no means good news for Klein at this moment. The main problem was that he was not sure why the Goddess of Night was staring at him.

Because of Alice? Because of the identity of a time traveler? Because of the thing on his body that Alice called Sefirah Castle? Because of the experience of resurrection from the dead? Or in other words...

It seems that these things are not isolated, they are related to each other, and the reason why he is being watched is the part that connects all of this.

Klein's mind moved slightly, and he couldn't help but think about his next choice.

His original plan was to go into the basement of the church and steal the notebook, but when he suddenly realized that the goddess's gaze was on him, he inevitably hesitated about such a blasphemous act.

But he soon remembered what Alice had said - if the red moon in Alice's mouth referred to the goddess, then she clearly meant for him to ask the goddess for help.

In other words, the goddess may have tacitly approved of this matter?

That's true... No matter what the reason is, the goddess must have noticed me for a long time. If she didn't acquiesce, I would not be here now...

Thinking of this, Klein sighed and lay back down on the bed.

...Let's sleep a little longer before daybreak.

…

Early Wednesday morning, in a manor outside Backlund.

A maid finished her breakfast, took a newspaper from the mailbox outside the manor, and returned to the manor.

"Good morning, Mary," a companion passing by greeted her, "Are you going to read the newspaper?"

"Hannah? Yes, I was just about to go... Hey," Mary responded and was about to leave, but suddenly noticed that her companion was unusual today, "Why are you wearing glasses? Or a monocle... I remember you didn't seem to like wearing this?"

Hannah touched the monocle on her right eye and smiled:

"This...I bought it yesterday.

"I had a day off yesterday, so I went out for a walk and happened to run into a traveling merchant... Oh, by the way, do you want some? I even bought a few extra."

Bought a few more...? Mary's first reaction was confusion. In her impression, Hannah would not buy several pairs of monocles on a whim and share them with her companions like this - especially since the monocles in Hannah's hand did not seem to be cheap.

Her eyes swept over the monocle in Hannah's hand. The lens shone brightly in the morning light, looking very beautiful. Mary's doubts just now disappeared at once. She took the monocle and said with a smile:

"Okay, thank you, Hannah, but I have to go to work quickly..."

"I have to go to work too." Having said this, Hannah put away the remaining monocles and turned to leave.

Mary turned around and continued walking towards her destination. She put on her monocle and raised the corners of her lips in a playful arc.

She walked towards Flora Jacob's room with a smile, nodding to other servants and maids wearing monocles on the way, until she entered Flora Jacob's room and saw the mouse lying on the blanket.

"Come to think of it," she said to herself as she closed the door, "it seems that nobody has ever thought of making monocles suitable for mice, crows, owls, or smaller creatures."

The mouse lying on the blanket did not respond to this sentence, but simply turned over.

Seeing this, Mary sat down with a newspaper in her hand, poked the mouse with her hand, smiled even more deeply, and said softly:

"It looks like it's in good spirits..."

…

Flora Jacob noticed something was wrong.

In just one day, the monocle appeared on the faces of every servant in the manor like an infectious disease.

When the servants saw her moving around the manor, they would look at her with the same playful smile, nod at her, and then leave.

With the same style of monocle, Flora Jacob had the illusion that they were actually the same person.

Most importantly, she had heard of examples where a group of people was one person.

As a descendant of Jacob's family, although her branch has been scattered and lost contact with others, she grew up listening to ghost stories such as "If you don't listen, I will throw you out to feed Amon" in her childhood.

This is a name that is well-known to all descendants of the "Thief" family. Flora Jacob is sure that Amon can and will do so.

Especially since His Highness had told her this when he found her...she would be found by Amon and would be wearing a monocle.

...really coming?

"Hiss," a monocle-wearing servant beside her breathed, looking down at her in surprise, "Did she warn you?"

Flora Jacob paused for a few seconds before she realized the deep meaning of these words. She let out a sharp hiss and was about to escape from the manor, but the servant just stood there with a smile, watching her frantically moving her short legs and stepping on the spot.

"She is much smarter than you," another voice came from a distance, gradually approaching. Flora Jacob was very familiar with this voice. It was Mary who read the newspaper to her every morning. "At least she knows that she can't escape even if she uses her extraordinary power."

Flora Jacob looked at Mary, and despair spread from the bottom of her heart.

——Mary was the first, but not the last. Within her field of vision, many servants wearing monocles were walking towards her.

She was surrounded by Amon.

"Amon!" Flora Jacob shouted in a trembling voice. Fear spread out when she remembered the prophecy Alice told her.

Having been hiding in the body of an ordinary animal for a long time, Flora Jacob was not in a good condition. Her overly intense emotions made her skin swell up, and something seemed to be wriggling under her skin. The male servant who had spoken to her first laughed out loud when he saw this:

"Ha, as expected...

"You have been parasitizing ordinary animals for a long time, but you have no experience of interacting with humans - in this respect, you are no match for her.

"Are you confused? When you were promoted to Sequence 4, there was no 'reminder' about this in the secret knowledge you heard?

"Well, I deleted it."

The brown mouse on the ground began to tremble violently, and its fur kept bulging out, as if something was trying to come out from it.

"You!!!" she roared again.

"It's too late," someone sighed, and all the Amons pinched their monocles in unison. "If you had struggled and resisted at the beginning, maybe it would have worked. But now…"

Needless to say, the number of Amons around speaks for itself.

Flora Jacob's body was shaking, and finally collapsed as if it could not hold on any longer. One after another, strange insects with seven or eight segments on their bodies crawled out, from the nose, ears, mouth, eyes, from under the skin, and from everywhere.

Many three-dimensional patterns are floating on the transparent parts of these insects, and it seems as if time is passing above the links.

"You're not half as frightened as she is..." Amon, who was wearing a monocle and had a gentle face, sneered, "By the way, you don't know yet, do you? She was the one who told me you were here. She said your fur didn't feel very good, and she asked me to taste it and tell her how you tasted."

After a pause, looking at Flora Jacob whose body was gradually disintegrating, Amon finally smiled and said,

"I hope you taste as good as your ancestors."

"No!!!"

A sharp voice filled with resentment and malice sounded, heralding the end of the funeral. Flora Jacob's body completely collapsed into a ball of wriggling insects, then turned into streams of light and flew into the body of the male servant who spoke first.

Next, he took off his monocle gracefully, took out a piece of silk, wiped it and said thoughtfully:

"Maybe I should have called her over... or left a bite for her to taste?

"By the way, Flora Jacob has another student... Tsk, with the uniqueness of 'fate', Flora Jacob's fate is indeed a mess."

He frowned as if remembering something unpleasant and put on his monocle.

…

Alice received Bernadette's reply on Thursday morning.

The reply was as concise as Alice's request. Bernadette told Alice that she would wait for her at 11 o'clock tonight on the south bank of the Tussock River in Backlund, near the entrance of the bridge.

She told Klein about this without hesitation. Klein, who possessed the "travel" ability, could have gone alone, but after hesitating for two seconds, he decided to give Alice a sense of participation:

"Do you want to come along?"

"Okay." Alice agreed.

Following Klein's request, Alice showed up at his home at 10:55 pm, exactly in his bathroom.

After waiting for half a minute, Dwayne Dantes entered the bathroom and took out a paper figure under Alice's curious gaze.

Pah!

Klein shook it, and the paper figure transformed into Dwayne Dantès, who was sitting on the toilet, holding a book, and seemed to be in a trance.

Then, he suddenly became three or four centimeters shorter, his face became thinner, and the lines on his face became deeper. He had become German Sparrow.

Alice looked at Klein's shorter height and was silent for two seconds. She said in a deep voice:

"It seems you are also worried about your height."

"Are you going to leave or not?" Klein raised his left hand wearing the Creeping Hunger indifferently.

Alice hurriedly walked forward to grab Klein. Before she disappeared, she couldn't help but ask:

"Tell me, if you stay in the washroom for a long time, will your servant think you are constipated?

"No, maybe they have started to think that you have a frequent and urgent urination..."

Klein turned his head expressionlessly to look at Alice and replied coldly,

"I think they are still confused as to why I would eat ice cream in the middle of the night."

Alice lowered her head silently and left with Klein.

When they landed again, Klein asked with a little curiosity:

"Speaking of which, how do you locate it?"

"Intuition," Alice said calmly.

Klein turned his head with a confused look. Alice spread her hands and answered while observing the surrounding environment:

"Well, actually, I rely on the nodes of fate to adjust my position..."

This was the entrance to the Backlund Bridge on the south bank of the Tussock River. At this time, it was dark at night, and no one was walking on the bridge. The surroundings were extremely quiet, and only a team of soldiers guarding the bridge could be vaguely seen standing not far away.

As if noticing that they had finished their conversation, green pea vines began to hang down from the sky, interweaving into a lush and dense forest.

You can't see the top of this "forest" if you look up. Vines form different paths, interweaving or circling, extending all the way to the sky.

This was not the first time Alice had seen this scene. After looking around and realizing that Bernadette was not here, she pulled Klein and found a path hanging in the air that was made by pea vines. She walked up it excitedly.

The vine path was very steady. After walking for a while, Alice saw that the green plants were connected into a hammock-like seat, swaying gently at high altitude.

Bernadette was sitting there, wearing a seductive Intis shirt and a dark black jacket, with a thin rapier slung over her waist. Except for not wearing a tricorn hat, she was dressed like a standard sea captain.

Her long chestnut hair was draped naturally, and her deep blue eyes looked over. When she noticed Alice, her movements froze slightly. Then she left her seat, walked forward, took off her hat, bent her knees slightly, and said:

"Miss Destiny."

Alice nodded randomly, pointed at the chair and asked,

"Can I sit here?"

"...Okay." Bernadette replied.

Her voice was soft but lacked emotion. Alice didn't care much about her emotions. She left Klein on the spot and climbed onto the chair.

Bernadette watched Alice sit firmly before naturally moving her gaze away to Gehrman Sparrow. She nodded and said,

"Thank the person behind you for me."

Klein nodded politely and said, "Okay."

Klein paused for a second and spoke the words he had already organized:

"I would like to ask you to help him show that he has been eroded by the core power of the seal behind the Chanis Gate of the Church of Evernight for a long time."

As he spoke, Klein made the Wrathful Spirit Senior appear beside him.

Alice looked away after just one glance. Bernadette looked deeply at the Blood Admiral standing upright. She did not ask Gehrman Sparrow why he knew that she had a way. She said calmly,

"The seal cores of different churches in the Church of Evernight are different, and their states after being corroded are also different.

"Is it the 'Night' path, the 'Death' path, or something else?

"Is it the parish cathedral, or the general city center church?"

"I know!" Alice raised her hand and answered, "It's St. Samuel's Church! Uh..."

She looked at Klein.

"The 'Night' path." Klein added. (End of this chapter)

90 Encounter

"Mysterious Queen" Bernadette gently led the way and said:

"Then I can make him suffer the corresponding erosion, but in this way, your secret puppet will basically be surrendered. At the beginning, it can be used normally, but as time goes by and the erosion deepens, he will gradually fall into a dormant state and will never wake up again."

Klein paused and turned to look at Alice.

Alice understood what he meant. She wanted to say that she could do it, but then she remembered that the goddess might intervene, so she shook her head and said:

"I can't guarantee that. You'd better treat it as if you will lose the secret doll."

No guarantee...? Klein glanced at Alice, but he was not familiar with the authority of angels. Alice was the only case he could bring up anytime, anywhere. Although he felt something was wrong, he couldn't think of anything.

He suppressed his distress and asked, "Can the time for complete erosion be extended as much as possible?"

The secret puppet of "Admiral of Blood" Senior is the most valuable of all his properties!

Bernadette said calmly, "Two months at the longest."

Klein struggled internally for two seconds and replied expressionlessly,

"Okay."

He immediately put his hand on his chest and bowed: "Thank you for your help."

"Why don't you bow to me like that?" Alice asked, sitting on the vine chair.

Bernadette paused slightly. Klein was already used to it, and immediately had a response:

"Because I have no way to repay you for your kindness to me. I can only repay you in the next life."

Alice was silent for two seconds, and then asked Bernadette with a sincere look on her face, "Do you think resurrection after death can be considered the afterlife?"

Bernadette didn't say anything. She looked at Alice, then at Gehrman Sparrow, and began to wonder whether she should speak.

"…I don't think it counts." Klein chose to answer quickly.

"Why?" Alice insisted.

Klein glanced at Alice, shook his head and said,

"At least we should completely cut off contact with our previous life before we can call it the next life, right?"

Alice lowered her head in thought. Klein turned to Bernadette and signaled her to take the opportunity to start.

Bernadette withdrew her gaze, stretched out her right hand, and hooked out words in the air that were different from the giant language, dragon language, elven language, and ancient Hermes language.

Those words glowed like stars, interweaving into strange symbols, as if opening a secret door leading to the depths of the spiritual world.

The "secret door" opened, a gust of wind blew out, and the upper body turned into a man wrapped in white cloth.

"The horn of sleep." Bernadette said in a soft but majestic voice.

The man with a human upper body and wind lower body responded respectfully and took out a human skull from a white cloth.

The eye sockets of this skull are deep and dark, with the bottom difficult to see. The rest of the skull is dotted with holes of various shapes, with cracks all around, and is as white as jade.

Bernadette took the "Sleeping Horn", glanced at German Sparrow and said,

"Retreat at least 50 meters."

Klein didn't ask why and stepped back obediently. Bernadette looked at Alice. While she was still hesitating, she had already jumped down and hid far away, fearing that she would be affected.

After running away from the vine path with Klein, a distant, quiet, sad and dark song was heard.

Alice looked up and saw Bernadette sitting with her back slightly bent in the shade of the pea vines. Her chestnut hair moved slightly and she lowered her head. She put the "human skull" to her mouth, letting air blow out of the holes, interweaving into a night melody.

The music spread out little by little with its calming power and a touch of sadness, but it did not alarm the soldiers guarding the bridge outside the pea vine forest.

Alice suddenly recalled some very distant memories, such as the ice cream that fell on the ground, the birthday cake and the birthday song.

"…I want to go home." She suddenly turned her head and said to Klein.

Klein didn't say anything. He sighed softly, then closed his eyes and listened to the music quietly.

Alice felt a breath stuck in her heart. She pursed her lips and glanced at Klein. The previous question popped up in her mind again.

...Does she come from the past Earth civilization, or from another world?

If she came from another world, maybe...she could really go back?

Alice suddenly longed for her original guess to be true - because she did not belong to this world, and her fate was unpredictable, so the "Key of Light" longed for her.

If I could go back... If I could leave the things that belong to this world here... Beyonder characteristics... Source essence... Uniqueness... Klein...

...No.

Alice suddenly hesitated for a moment. She looked at Klein uncertainly, and another idea popped into her mind.

...Or, wait until he becomes a god before going back?

But even if I go back... can I really be an ordinary child now?

Alice pursed her lips, stopped thinking, and closed her eyes with Klein, listening attentively.

When the melody finally disappeared, Alice opened her eyes and looked up. Bernadette was handing the "human skull" with holes in it to the "servant" with the upper body of man and the lower body of wind.

"Okay." Bernadette's soft and calm voice sounded.

"Thank you for your help." Klein bowed again and controlled the Wrathful Spirit, Senior, to walk back to his side.

Alice didn't say anything this time. She just watched the pea vines shrink upwards and gradually fade away. The green forest soon disappeared.

They landed at the entrance of the bridge at the same time. It was quiet and deserted, except for a group of soldiers guarding the bridge not far away, with their backs to this side, which was no different from before.

Alice stared at Senior without blinking, observing the difference between him and before.

She soon discovered that Senior looked more like a dead man than before, with a pale face, cold breath, and a distinctly eerie feeling.

Alice watched Klein put away Senior and asked him:

"Shall I take you back?"

Her voice was lower than usual, but Klein didn't think there was anything wrong. He thought it was due to the song. He sighed to Alice and said,

"Usually it seems like you're the one who comforts me at times like this."

Alice blinked, and Klein continued:

"Let me think about how you comforted me before?

"Oh, that's right...

"After you restart, should I take you to school?"

"..." Alice instantly forgot the vague sadness she felt and stared at Klein expressionlessly.

Klein asked hesitantly, "...I'll go back by myself?"

Alice rolled her eyes at him, then she was the nicest person and sent him home, then left without saying a word to him.

…

When Alice returned home, the room was brightly lit and a gentle man wearing a monocle was sitting on the sofa, looking at her with a smile.

Alice hesitated for two seconds between running and waiting to die. After realizing that it was just a clone, she walked over, sat opposite him, and asked calmly,

"How was it? Was the dish I recommended to you delicious?"

"Haha," Amon laughed softly, "Not rich enough."

Alice looked at Amon hesitantly and said sincerely,

"If you mean the Time Worm, I don't think there is any dish in the world more sumptuous than yourself."

"..." Amon pushed his monocle and the atmosphere became dangerous.

Alice's muscles tensed and her hair stood on end. She instinctively wanted to run, but she forced herself to stay where she was and smiled:

"I can apologize, really."

"I don't want it," Amon said in a willful tone, "I want you to come and play with me for a few days."

"?" Alice opened her eyes wide in alertness and jumped up on the spot.

Amon's expression did not change at all. He raised his head while sitting in his original position. Alice sat down quietly with a smile on her face, then stared at him and said:

"You are just a clone."

This should actually be a threat. Alice was afraid of Amon's real body that she met in the "God-Forsaken Land". The clone in front of her was stronger than the most common Sequence 4 and could reach Sequence 3, but it was far inferior to the real body. Alice was not that scared. If she really had to say she was scared, it was because she was afraid that the real body would suddenly come over or she would have a hard time explaining herself when she saw the real body next time.

Amon nodded and said,

"I know, so this sentence is just the literal meaning.

"I really only came here to invite you to play - I stole a manor."

"…Ah?" Alice looked at Him in confusion.

Amon stretched out his hand, and Alice hesitated for two seconds before taking it. Within a few seconds, she appeared in the manor and saw a group of Amons.

Yes, a whole estate of servants.

Now, Alice was really panicking.

…

Hazel Macht always went to the suburban estate on Saturdays or Sundays to report on her experiences of the week, and this week it was Sunday.

After falling into a coma at the party that night, she woke up the next day. The family doctor probably couldn't find anything wrong and finally told her parents that she was under too much stress and overworked.

Hazel had reservations about this.

Congressman Macht and his wife observed her for two days, and after confirming that she was fine, they felt relieved and no longer restricted her from going out.

So on Sunday, she arrived at the manor at eleven in the morning, got off the carriage, a servant wearing a monocle led the horses, and another servant wearing a monocle came to meet her.

A sense of uneasiness rose from the bottom of her heart and then disappeared. Hazel walked inside and kept meeting servants wearing monocles who nodded to her, but their eyes did not fall on her face, but on her lower abdomen with a little interest.

Doubts kept rising and disappearing until she arrived outside Flora Jacob's room and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A familiar voice sounded from inside.

Hazel exhaled, pushed the door open, and shouted nervously:

"Teacher..."

She subconsciously glanced at the mouse's right eye, and when she found that it was not wearing a monocle, she inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed completely.

What happened next was the same as usual. Mouse listened to her progress this week, then looked at her abdomen and chuckled,

"I'm a little curious.

"Did you know she was pregnant?"

"What...?" Hazel looked up in confusion.

It seemed that these words were not directed at her, and in fact, it was true. In her eyes, the mouse just now turned into a man wearing a monocle, with a wide forehead and a black windbreaker. He looked aside with a playful smile. Hazel followed his gaze and found a familiar face.

"It's you!" Her pupils constricted and her body tensed.

"That's not the right attitude to ask for help, little Alice," the man on the sofa pushed his monocle and smiled at the girl next to him, "Besides, you should have made it clear—the clone's strength is not enough to help you deal with Him. It's only enough to alert the enemy."

Alice, who had been caught playing cards with Amon for two days, ignored him and turned to look at Hazel's abdomen, her eyes slightly drooping:

"…What if you are particularly lucky?"

"Hmm?" Amon raised his eyebrows slightly.

Alice turned her head and pursed her lips.

"I know what you want from me... In fact, it's exactly what I need."

Amon stared at her with narrowed eyes. Alice took a deep breath, glanced at Hazel, and lowered her eyes in thought.

Will Auceptin's condition was as bad as she had expected. He had "restarted" in a hurry and dropped a large amount of blood of mythical creatures, but he still had not been able to completely complete the process - to put it in easy-to-understand terms, Hazel's pregnancy was not stable, and even if she did nothing to protect it carefully, she could miscarry at any time.

What's more, Hazel goes to the sewer every night.

Will couldn't even stay awake for a long time, but that was not the point, because Amon's cover-up was not thorough. To be precise, after Hazel, who was pregnant with Will Auceptin, stepped into the manor, Amon immediately sealed off the manor with great force.

——He even resorted to the power of authority.

This certainly awakened Will Auceptin in Hazel's belly, but Will Auceptin had not made any move until now. Alice guessed that He must be looking for an opportunity, and it seemed that He did not want to waste energy arguing with them.

But no matter what Will Auceptin was planning, Alice knew that she absolutely could not let him go today, and the culprit of all this...

She raised her eyes to look at Amon and said without any emotion: "I had other ways to deal with Him, but you alarmed Him."

"...Very good," Amon laughed, "As a reward and compensation, I have to help you solve this trouble, right?"

Alice didn't say anything, her expression showed her attitude, but Amon didn't seem to be willing to give in. He planned to bargain again:

"…Little Alice.

"I just don't believe that you didn't mean to mention Flora Jacob's student in the letter.

"Also, you know why you sent me the news about Flora Jacob."

"But I didn't ask you to do it," Alice answered clearly. "After all, it's you who has to do it..."

Before she finished her words, Amon raised his hand to interrupt her, and looked at Hazel beside him with a smile, or to be more precise, at Hazel's lower abdomen, and said leisurely:

"Let's put it this way.

"How about you also put forward your own conditions, and I will consider standing on your side?" (End of this chapter)