章節 8: Chapter 8
Alice
Speaking with her future husband before bed was an almost daily ritual for her, the mode of communication mattered little to her so long as she could hear his voice.
The advanced mobile phone William had hand-crafted and gifted to her two weeks ago, a matching pair to his own phone, was laid on the other side of the pillow on speaker mode.
He had gifted her such a lovely present, one that essentially answered the magical communities questions on where a Campione with no official documentation had originated from.
It was not a question of 'where', but of 'when'.
It didn't take her long to figure out that he came from the future, or at least an alternate timeline or universe of sorts, from his various slips and lack of any real effort in concealing that fact. When she mentioned her deductions to him he had smiled, praised her and was perfectly willing to talk about how the next two decades might turn out.
Naturally, it was always more fun to unravel mysteries herself, hence why she only asked for the 'spoiler-free' synopsis.
"-then I'll bring you over tomorrow, after breakfast, at your time 10 o'clock?"
At one point in their nightly conversation, William asked for when would be a good time for him to bring her over to Japan and meet Pandora through his magical phonebooth into the corner of the Astral Plane known as the Netherworld.
"That will be grand, however, is there no way to persuade you to join me for breakfast?"
She confirmed the time before inquiring on whether he would change his mind regarding joining her over a meal.
While most people wouldn't think of eating breakfast twice a day, William always had a preference for an English Breakfast, so long as said breakfast included thrice the amount of bacon and sausages.
It wouldn't be the first time that Alice invited him over to her home in order to partake of extra meals with respect to the time differences between their countries.
"Sorry Alice, something just came up this morning and I've got to sort it out before evening."
Recalling a particular conversation on William's insistence that evening starts at 6pm no matter when the sun would set, she knew that he was cutting things close and would come over the second he reached his self-appointed deadline.
"Very well. It is regrettable but there is always a next time.
She then asked if he would like her cooks to prepare any extra food for him regardless, knowing that he had a 'subspace pocket' where he could store all sorts of things. William had a penchant for snacking on anything when he was bored.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble, I would appreciate having several sausages."
In the end he did ask for some sausages and bacon, a predictable outcome even without using her Spirit Vision.
With her level of ability it wouldn't be particularly difficult to uncover little habits such as those with a mere focused look into a person's being. However, such ability rarely worked as intended when it came to the Sixth Campione, William Gump.
"You're a meat lover through and through."
"If I ate any more vegetables I'll start feeling like a cow."
"I do so hope that hasn't given you any mad ideas like making a cow costume."
Alice grinned as her expectations were met when William started talking about his own ideas for an enchanted cow costume and how funny it would be to make a magic knight defeat their fellows while wearing something as ridiculous as that.
She giggled and turned her head around, resting the side of her head on her bed's pillow.
Alice loved the times when he expressed such pure joy and excitement. Though he was not born into the world of magic like herself, he loved magic and what it could do for others more than anyone else she knew.
When compared to the many arrogant noblemen, standard mages and wealthy businessmen that her father had prepared for her she knew for sure that William was the better choice.
Especially after having seen through her other suitors' characters with her Psychic Sensing.
The technique of psychic sensing was where her strongest talent lied in. Those that knew of her previously sick and frail body would be more aware of her daily use of it by interacting with the root of consciousness, the ectoplasm and the soul, then skillfully and flexibly manipulate it to form her ectoplasm body. However, it could be said that its first and true use was in exploring the presence, emotions and even the thoughts of others.
When she thought back about what she saw in their hearts, she couldn't help but ponder upon whether one of the many reasons why she enjoyed spending time with William and annoying Alexander was because she couldn't read their minds.
Nor could the temptation ever exist given Alexander's terrifying presence and William's overwhelming magical power, that was even comparable to Guinevere's Holy Grail which released the equivalent of several dozens of Campione's (Alexander as a reference point) worth of magical power.
Though when she considered William's nigh-endless magical power generation, he could likely outclass the Holy Grail of Legend by accumulating his own energy for around a minute, but that was only possible with a vessel capable of housing an insane amount of power.
They continued speaking over the phone late into the night.
She could afford to do this more often now that her body was strong enough. She also did not require as much sleep as she used to thanks to his magic items.
Even so, all good times had to come to an end, at least for the moment.
William needed to give his undivided attention to his own projects and duties now.
At the tail end of their long call she felt his familiar magical power saturating her bedroom before it restructured itself into a strangely soothing aura. It was as if several of his 'comfort' enchantments had been placed and concentrated into this very room.
"-I just casted several newly developed spells remotely through the mobile network, by the way, you know, to promote better sleep. Enjoy a lovely sleep and sweet dreams. Good night my princess."
"I wish you luck and a wonderful day, my dearest prince."
There was an awkward silence for several seconds.
Both of them made some odd noises that may have resembled certain dying animals before they touched their screens to end the call at around the same time.
Alice rolled around and laid on her stomach, pressing her face into her pillow hard as much as she could.
"Uuuuuuuuuu… that was oddly embarrassing to say."
It wasn't as if they hadn't flirted along those lines before, though now that she thought about it more, most of their sickeningly sweet words to one another had taken place during their many dates and romantic private moments. They were not used to speaking such words to each other in a manner resembling an old married couple.
Alice felt that the both of them still had a long way to go in becoming a perfectly wedded couple.
She eventually returned to an ordinary sleeping position and began to fall into a restful sleep. That night, she dreamt of a distant memory, she saw her mother again reunited with her father as they lived a happy life together. By the time she woke up from her restful sleep she could only recall odd details here and there involving a pleasant cottage, being together with William as her husband and an outrageously huge plate of fish and chips.
Alice reached for her phone and swiped the screen, turning off the alarm.
"Hwaaah… but why fish and chips?"
She could hardly recall the last time she ate such a plebeian dish.
Extending her consciousness beyond her body to examine the room's spells using Psychic Sensing, she took her time to pick apart the intent of William's spells, and to her dismay, couldn't find anything related to prophetic dreaming in them.
It was a tad bit unfortunate. She had a very pleasant dream and would have hoped her abilities in foretelling the future might have activated during her sleep back then.
Alice did not dwell on the matter for long, after all, she was making good progress in turning that dream into reality already.
After sending a quick text containing instructions to her home's head chef with her phone, she dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom.
It hadn't taken long for her to prepare herself for the day.
She had William enchant her bathroom's showerhead, bathtub and sink faucet with his 'perfected' beautification treatment.
He was probably the only Campione that would casually infuse divine energies into common items for the sake of saving his girlfriend time and money that could be spent on makeup.
"Oh my, it seems like I will require new undergarments. Hmm, William would certainly like to accompany me."
Alice spent around half a minute examining herself in the full-length mirror. She had been doing this more often since being healed, wanting to see the changes of her increasingly healthy body after getting into regular exercise and using the enchanted water.
Before William healed her, she had never spared more than a glance at it and spent most of her time at her dressing table's mirror, putting on sufficient makeup to mask any evidence of her sick body. Her wardrobe was filled with dresses that covered everything for the same purpose.
Even if she could have appeared a healthy young lady through her Ectoplasm body, altering her appearance away from her natural state would drain her focus, hence why covering her entire body with her dress was important.
Old habits die hard, however, as she still felt uncomfortable with showing any skin beneath her shoulders apart from her hands.
The shameless manner in which she comported herself whilst remaining half naked on the day was, by and large, thanks to her jubilant mood and mayhaps her uninhibited infatuation back then.
Dressing and packing up her things for her week long trip to Japan only took a few minutes. Under normal circumstances she would have gotten her employed servants to handle her luggage, however, she had become greatly appreciative of the capability to perform many mundane activities that ordinary people could handle themselves when not hampered by a weak body.
But if she had to be completely honest, her reasoning was influenced by the fact that there were certain articles of clothing that she desired to keep away from prying eyes, until she had the chance to properly present them to William.
It would be as one of her dreams foretold last week.
Alice half-covered her face to hide the shameful expression she was making, who was she hiding it from, she didn't quite know herself… scrying attempts perhaps?
Easily making her way downstairs to the dining hall with luggage (she certainly understood the appeal of William's strength enhancing wares after using it herself), she hummed a happy tune as she took a seat in front of the scrumptious breakfast prepared for her, gave thanks with a quick prayer and began to eat.
She went out into her manor's open gardens and did a bit of reading, as part of her research in Oriental myths to follow up from Lucretia Zola's lead on King Arthur's prototype.
With almost a thousand years having passed from the time that the Divine Ancestor Guinevere had began her plans (at least according to the records they had dug up of the previous times she was active centuries ago in her previous incarnation), Alice was quite certain that the 'King of the End' that she intended to summon would turn out to be a separate God of War, as it would have been enough time for a 'new god' to be formed out of the myths that had been perpetuated by the author of Le Morte d'Arthur.
Which contributed to the inflation of King Arthur's legends that could very well have surpassed the previous Guinevere's original intentions. Should that be so, the myths of King Arthur would have largely deviated from that of the original 'King of the End', sparking the 'birth' of a separate Heretic God.
"Hmm, I suppose I should have William assist me in this."
As it involved the mortal enemy of Campiones, the enemy of her husband-to-be, it was her duty to keep William informed and on top of preventing or preparing for the arrival of the King of the End.
She didn't quite care about the fact that Alexander and her had a pact to share information on this, if he didn't come to her requesting for her findings then she wasn't going to volunteer it outside of the most dire circumstances. That uncouth neurotic insensitive bastard would somehow have discovered an obscure piece of lore and dangle it in front of her with a disgustingly smug expression.
She continued with her studying until a few minutes before the appointed time.
Alice moved to exit from her residence's front gate and waited at the entrance. Just two more minutes before 10, she noticed her Chief Lady-in-Waiting, Patricia Ericson running up to her from across the block while calling out her name.
"Princess! Alice Louise!"
The woman in her early thirties had been employed under her family for many years, at some point Patricia had come to consider Alice as her sort-of niece. While Alice was flattered and grateful for her great care, her assistant's demeanor was the complete embodiment of a strict governess (thin-rimmed glasses included) and was most vigilant in preventing some of her adventures!
Worse of all, she seemed to have a strong (but very justifiable) bias against Campiones after what Alexander had done over the years, and this was unfairly extended over her darling William. Suffice to say, she didn't approve of her relationship with him at all.
Patricia would call him all sorts of horrid things like 'cradle-robber', 'paedophile' and 'inhumane evil sorcerer'. Being the patient and kind Campione that he was, William had let her off lightly by turning her into a cat for only three nights. Alice was greatly saddened by her Chief Lady-in-Waiting's ungrateful attitude and, for the sake of her love towards the woman, did all she could to ensure the two did not meet lest William's anger would be roused once again.
Fixing her expression into that of a practiced innocent smile, Alice greeted her energetically, "Ah hello, good morning Miss Ericson. How are you doing this fine Saturday morning?"
"You unrepentant brat! Don't act as if you're innocent! Did you think I wouldn't notice your hand in those suspicious incidents?"
"Suspicious incidents?"
She tilted her head in a manner to express abject confusion.
"Roadblocks and road maintenance in every route I usually took, a convenient minor human rights protest obstructing my way here, a troupe of oddly talented performers drawing huge crowds in the main street-"
"Tsk! Clearly they weren't talented enough."
"You're even admitting it!"
"In any event, you should have received my notice clearly stating that your services will not be required for the working week. Why don't you take the time to really go through that marriage agencies' candidates?"
"That is none of your concern!"
Miss Ericson had secretly registered herself as a member at a marriage agency.
As for how Alice came to know of this, she was using her spirit powers to foretell the future when she peeked into Miss Ericson's heart by chance.
"Is that so?" Alice responded with a raised eyebrow and a look of disbelief, "Then making your way here in a futile attempt to keep me away from my betrothed is hardly your concern either."
Her subordinate who acted as both secretary and private tutor in one, spoke coldly as she pushed up the rim of her glasses, "The difference between my circumstances of my romantic relationship, or more specifically my regrettable lack of one, and yours… is that I am nearly twice your age, only slightly older than that beast lusting over your body."
Only William would draw out that much vitriol from the lady's usually stiff manner of speech.
Simply listening to her was tiresome and
"Your point?" Alice Louise relished his great interest in her body, whilst the gazes of other men worried or repulsed her, it was an entirely different matter when it came to her beloved.
"Are you so blinded by your feelings that you can't see how… How much of a deviant he is? I-I understand now! He's brainwashed you! He killed two gods known for their expertise in bending the minds of women! It's no wonder that even you can't see it for yourself-"
"Hmm, how strange, did I accidentally land in Melromarc or something? Am I going to be called the Brainwashing Campione next?"
Alice turned around with a big smile on her face when he arrived in his usual unexpected, cheerful manner. William was dressed fashionably as he normally was in her presence, he wore light clothing that hinted strongly at his immensely powerful physique.
He had a friendly, lopsided grin when he made one of his references that would only be understood by others several years later.
"William, my dear, you should try arriving a bit earlier before a meeting."
"I apologise, you do know how much I live by the famous words, 'A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to'. But in all seriousness, I was extremely busy. Well, let's go, oh! Miss Ericson, pleasure to see you again and… now we're gone!"
Everything was a blur as he quickly swept her off her feet while storing her luggage in his subspace inventory. They were in the air in an instant.
"Wha-!? Princess! Come back here you fiend, give her back!"
He seemed to have also applied a spell that carried Patricia's voice from below all the way up to where they were in the air, just so that he could relish her caretaker's impotence.
"You certainly aren't making any progress in endearing yourself to her."
"Fuhahahaha! It is well within my rights as a King to treat my subjects equally, equally as oppressive, that is! I do not need their acceptance nor their love, only obedience!"
"Oh noooooo! Someone, save me from the evil tyrant!"
"Muahaha! I have you now, my pretty."
They enjoyed some laughs together as he landed at the top of a high-rise apartment.
"So from 1-10, how was my generic evil tyrant lines?"
"A flat 6, outstanding laugh, but the wording is wholly uninspired and hasn't gone through sufficient revisions."
"Nooooo…!"
William played dead on the ground, she could see a cartoonish spirit exit his body from the mouth, which reminded her of certain oriental beliefs regarding how the soul would leave the body.
"That's an interesting enchantment."
He stood right back up with a wide, excited grin.
"I know right? I call it my 'Anime Expressions Illusion Ring', I dare say I have all the stock anime-like expressions packed into one tiny object. How crazy is that?"
"Hehehe, super crazy."
William looked at her as if she just gave him a birthday present. A short moment after, he schooled his facial expression to one of utmost indifference.
Taking off the aforementioned magic ring, he immediately flung it behind his shoulder, sending the magical object careening down to the streets.
Alice gave him an odd look, "I thought you put in a lot of effort into that joke product of yours?"
"To be honest, I never really cared for pointless magical baubles. Entertaining or otherwise."
She knew it was an act but couldn't help but feel enraged by such callous words.
"That is a horrible thing to say!"
"Exactly! And the worst part is, someone actually wrote that horseshit!"
Her spiritual powers were giving her the impression of millions of voices suddenly crying out in shock and quickly found themselves immensely disappointed.
Could this be a premonition regarding a battle between Campione and Heretic God with the lives of millions on the line…? Or something else?
"Ahem, anyhow, dealing with yet another supremely assholish Japanese clan took quite a bit of time. Well, it's all sorted out now, he should be able to marry that hot foreign princess without trouble now."
"That sounds startlingly familiar."
"I would be a hypocrite if I didn't help out. After all, I'm in love with a foreign princess of my own. Right, before I forget, yip yip!"
He clapped his hands and made a whistling sound.
A golden light streaked through the clouds and to the forefront of her vision. It's seemingly unstable form coalesced into a fluffy looking golden cloud when it came to a full stop in front of William.
All of this takes some time to describe, but it actually happened in an instant.
Alice frowned just then and noticed William holding out a sigh board saying the exact words she just thought of.
"Was that information magic?" She was extremely curious of the fact that he caught her off-guard using a type of magic she was strong against.
"Yeah. It's a prototype for a magical floating signboard that can get civilians to evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion." Alice awaited further explanation and he quickly added, "I ran out of ideas and wrote all sorts of lines, stuffed them in my inventory and I've been testing it out on everyone."
He took a deep breath and gestured to the golden cloud, "Back on topic… tada! I know [Flight] is a hard magic for others and most mages would have to rely on magical tools with flight enchantments like… uh, brooms. So anyways, the magic carpet was a quick job, so I decided to tackle it seriously and voila! The Flying Nimbus from Dragonball, without any odd limitations except that its programmed to only accept you as its rider… and it's a lot faster, has a lot of other defensive spells and oh you know what, let me give you the functional specs document."
William gave her a colorful booklet titled "Alice and the Flying Nimbus", there were a lot of cute illustrations, user friendly instructions and a much more technical explanation in the appendix.
The process in creating her new wondrous magic flying vehicle involved a total of Four Authorities (or manifestations) and a mind-boggling amount of magical power.
Alice was crying out with delight in her heart.
"This is the best! I love you William!"
She leapt onto the Flying Nimbus which immediately bonded to her in a seamless manner, without wasting another breath, she took off at several times the speed of sound, enjoying her wild ride to its fullest knowing full well that William had accounted for any potentially damaging factors with his spellwork and intelligence.
"You do realize you're going the wrong direction?"
William was easily keeping up with her no matter what angle she was flying in by simply walking in the air… backwards.
Alice could honestly see him chasing after Alexander in his lightning form while just walking backwards like that.
The image of that thief's shocked and humiliated expression made her laugh out loud even as William 'hooked' her Flying Nimbus and began to drag her to Japan, as if she were in a broken down car that needed to be towed.
They quickly reached Japan once William got serious, Alice unpacked her luggage into one of the guest rooms that she would be using during her vacation in Japan.
"Just a few more weeks and I'll be sleeping in the master bedroom." She wanted her first night there to be special and so she restrained herself from the temptation.
Walking out to his gardens, she noted the very distinctive Red Telephone Box in one corner, with many Red Spider Lily flowers in full bloom.
"It's the Autumnal Equinox Day." William explained, "It is the day where the Japanese revere their forebears, and remember those who have passed away. Families usually reunite on this day to remember the deceased… oh, and they eat snacks like Botamochi too."
He took out a ball of sweet rice in red bean paste from his subspace.
It was very delicious, as expected from any meal he made himself.
As they indulge in the snacks peacefully, Alice turned her eyes towards the mango tree that William had mentioned and-
-blinked twice, rubbed her eyes to check again, and blinked once again.
"Wha…. what is that?!"
"Alice, that's a mango tree."
"I know what it is! I am talking about the absurd amount of magical power accumulated in it that rivals Guinevere's Holy Grail!"
The only thing it lacked when compared to the divine item was various types of divine essences and Authority-like functionalities.
William stared at the mango tree, ate his snack and then crossed his arms with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I'm pretty sure the tree converts my magical power into mango power, so I don't think it counts."
"Mango power, magical power, it feels the same to me."
"I disagree, see here, if you licked the aura being released from the leaves-" William plucked some of the mango tree leaves and handed one to her as he placed a leaf into his mouth, "-you can sense that the power tastes like mango. Hence it's not actually magical energy, but mango energy."
For the first time in her life she gaped at him as if she were staring at a fool.
Looking at his insistent expression, she resigned herself and placed the leaf in her mouth.
"Mmn! It does feel like mango!"
Her psychic senses were now telling her that it was, indeed, mango power.
"That it does. How crazy is that?"
"Really crazy!"
Stepping into the telephone box felt like taking a step into the Astral Plane.
"Let's see here, set to speaker mode and…" William tapped a series of numbers, upon closer inspection, the letters indicated by the numbers selected literally read 'PANDORA', "Now we wait. I know it's a little small but please bear with it."
In reality it was quite a bit bigger on the inside compared to the outside, Alice could do some jumping jacks without hitting the walls rather easily.
"Have you tested it befo-"
"William! Waaah, you actually did call! Hang on, hold on for a bit, today is a special case so mom is just going to do a small adjustment and… there!"
All of a sudden, the space where they stood was transferred to the Netherworld-
-No, this isn't… it only looked like the Netherworld.
"We're still in the real world, or at least the border between the physical world and the Astral Realm, but it looks like the view has been swapped."
"I concur. From what Lady Pandora has said, it is conceivable that the Autumn Equinox, a traditional holiday meant to pay tribute to the spirits of deceased relatives and Japanese Emperors has made the connection much more, dare I say, flexible than normal."
"Fufu… that is exactly right. Ah, but drop the Lady part, you're going to be my daughter-in-law so you can call me mother!"
"I will do so then."
She appeared in the form of a little girl just as many of William's sculpture's had shown. Her pink twin tailed hairstyle only managed to reinforce the "cute" image, appearance wise she seemed to only be around three years younger than Alice.
But a quick glance with her Spirit Vision showed the figure of a mature female version of Pandora, who looked around twenty years old, overlapped with her body.
Though she was a true god instead of a heretic, Pandora too, was once a mother earth goddess that possessed great Authorities and wisdom.
"Mom! It's been awhile! Hug?"
Seeing him so happy and eager to reunite with the stepmother of Campione's was heartening.
"Uuu, I really want to, but right now we can only make due with seeing each other like this."
William pouted.
Alice rubbed his back and quickly got him to perk up.
"There's a lot of things I want to talk about, and well, ask as well. But first things first, introductions! Mom, this is Alice. Alice, this is Pandora."
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Lad- ahem, mother."
"Likewise. I'm glad to have such a talented and pretty daughter in law. Hehe, my son has some good taste. I'm so relieved that at least one of my children has a good loving relationship. I didn't have any grandchildren to look forward to since the last era of Campiones."
Pandora spent around three minutes griping about the horrible social skills of the current Campiones (with exception to Madame Aisha, although Aisha still did not have any romantic partners). Her description of Marquis Voban and Luo Hao's 'people skills' were spot on. Alice learned some new things about John Pluto Smith, the female Campione that pretended to be someone else in order to protect the people close to her, specifically on how she has bad luck with relationships as well. As for Alexander… well, it was nothing that Alice didn't know already.
William was smiling ear to ear as Pandora voiced out her concerns about the siblings he had yet to meet.
"It made me really happy that a girl was brave enough to marry herself off to one of my children. Hmm, hmm, reminds me of those ladies back in that era…" Pandora seemed to be reminiscing about the past.
"On my end it felt as if some force was conspiring against me to have me labelled as a pervert." Her son chuckled lightly as he thought back on the day they met.
Come to think of it, many mage association's seem to have the impression that William was interested in children or young girls that just came of age. She tried to disabuse them of the notion, but most seem to believe she was biased. How rude.
"You didn't seem to have much of a problem with it, if I recall correctly, my love."
"You were my type and you seemed like a nice girl so I went along with it. I quickly came to like and appreciate you, then here we are!"
"Indeed. Here we are."
"Aaah! I just remembered something!" Pandora snapped her fingers and made a timer appear over her head, it read like an electronic clock and showed the numbers '51:12', "While I have a lot of leeway in the Netherworld I still have limits in the time I can spend with my children. Less so if I were to give you valuable hints or speak of matters beyond mortal affairs."
Just as she finished her words the timer had 30 seconds striked off.
"I see, a time penalty huh… so we have to make things count. Is there anything you'd like to talk about, mom?"
Pandora placed a finger on her cheek, pondering her choices for the moment, then turned to look at Alice. The goddess smiled and said, "I think it's best that we start from the beginning, I mean, not your whole life story. I would love to know more about my son's life but I believe it would be more pertinent to begin with your arrival in this universe."
William considered it for a moment and then nodded at the both of them, "I figured that you would ask that. Alice figured it out some time ago so it makes sense that you would know."
"Well, you certainly didn't look the type to live off the grid given your media knowledge, and you also didn't seem to be a criminal that could erase all traces of his existence like so most mages think you were-"
"-Wait what? They think I'm some sort of super criminal?"
"To put it bluntly, yes."
He muttered something about 'typical misunderstandings' before allowing her to continue.
"Anyhow, since records of William's existence hadn't extended further beyond the year, I think it would be interesting to hear about how you arrived here."
"Hmm, well, its a rather typical story. At least it will be a typical one in the future of Japan."
Pandora chimed in at this point, "He's talking about Isekai, it's called 'Another World' in Japanese and became a genre by itself."
"As expected of my highly cultured mother."
"Hehe, praise your loli mother more! Oh, pat my head too."
William patted Pandora's head, Alice swore that her twintails here sentient just then.
"Moving on, long story short, I died and some otherworldly being said, hey, tough luck, I'll give you special powers and chuck you into a really fun world. Well, I ended up in a world where I could see mages running about, heard things about Heretic Gods, got scared as hell and started training to get stronger. Oh right, I was also a hobo for nearly two months, since I had no identification or places to stay I often slept outdoors and snuck into hotels to use their showers."
Alice honestly couldn't see William as an unshaved homeless man somehow gaining great physical and magical power in the span of a month. She would have to ask him to clarify in a bit.
"Yes, yes, I remember that. It was one of the few parts of your life here that I could watch."
Pandora snapped her fingers and made a screen appear, showing William swimming his way to a hotel resort's private beach, then acting as if he belonged there until he got to the showers, retrieving his toiletries from his subspace and quickly cleaned himself up before escaping the premises by teleportation.
"Aaaaa…" William's mouth was wide open, "Ah, that is… the embarrassing part of my life, I guess. I was getting better with not settling for mediocrity, if you fast forward to a several weeks later-"
Another screen showed him mutilating himself to narrowly avoid getting killed by the Chief of the Norse Gods.
"-My life started going up from then on."
"Well you could have picked a better place to start with that." Pandora huffed and showed a screen of William reviving as a Campione… in a sewer.
"... William, I just remembered, I believe that Alexander mentioned he had just arrived in Sweden when the fighting was at an end-"
Alice informed him, sparking a recollection of that day's events.
"Ah! So Alex was the thing I sensed at the end! I got so spooked that I teleported out instantly."
"Can you elaborate on how you teleported halfway across the world?" Alice inquired of him, which earned her a hesitant look. He turned to Pandora and asked, "Will the knowledge give Heretic Gods an edge if I, well, explained it? Wouldn't they be aware of it if I spoke of it with my own mouth?"
Pandora shook her head, "I can't answer that because it doesn't work that way. Under normal circumstances what you say will be recorded in the Memories of the Void, which certain gods could have access to, but your existence is different. Unlike say…"
She glanced up at the timer.
Alice caught on to Pandora's intent and spoke her own conclusions in the goddess's place, "Unlike an existence from a parallel universe, an alternate timeline close to this universe with a divergence point or more, or compared to an existence from a different universe with similarities somewhere out in the multiverse."
"Good girl! Yes, now that you mortal visitors clearly understand what's going on, I can give you both the answer with minimal penalty. Unlike an existence that would be considered 'foreign', 'similar' or an 'enemy' to this universe, your home world and current state as a result of your special powers makes you a unique existence that cannot be recorded with significant accuracy. To go back to your question, explaining your abilities to us won't make you predictable or observable. My son, even if you were to announce your abilities in a worldwide speech, you would still have a special resistance to any pesky strings of fate or have your information in the Memories of the Void garbled beyond recognition. Yes, that also applies when third-parties, such as myself or Alice, have full knowledge of your capabilities. I mean, I already know that you have something akin to [The Gamer] since I've since glimpses of it in the future."
William immediately fell forward in shock, then started laughing with joy as if a great burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
"Yahoo! Nice! Ah no! The timer went down by 35 minutes, not nice, not nice!"
"It's the job of a mother to relieve her child of her burdens. And to make sure that her child and future spouse can communicate freely without fear."
Pandora was at peace with the idea of having their chat cut short if it meant that William wouldn't have to fear the consequences of not keeping his own secrets. Alice could see why it would worry William so he liked to be an honest man and didn't enjoy lying, especially to the people he cared about.
This way, now that this barrier between them was removed… Alice felt that they could become much closer to him without having to read between his half-truths on those rare occasions.
"Thanks mum. Okay, I'll keep things quick."
It took him a handful of minutes to explain his abilities. Alice felt that it made a lot of sense considering how his physiology and nigh-unlimited mana broke all laws of nature as if he were a video game character with cheats on.
Pandora looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sheer 'unfairness' of it all, overall however, she seemed optimistic about it.
"Excellent! If it's like this then… William, if you win against that child - 'The King who Manifests at the End of the Era', who is the arch enemy of the godslayers for a long time, I will give you anything that you wish for. Just for you, a hero's reward awaits you!"
"As a self-respecting Gamer, there is only one answer to that. Challenge Accepted. Alice, will you brief me in on all this business?"
"Yes, I brought along my key notes on the matter, so it won't take long at all."
"My, oh my… we're almost out of time. William, my son, we won't be able to speak for another two weeks, rules I'm afraid. We can speak more about your life then."
"Alright mom."
The goddess turned from her son towards Alice.
"Alice, my future daughter-in-law, be a dear and remember to trust your instincts."
"Pardon?"
"I understand you have great faith in your magic and would have a preference for mitigating the problem in the present then prepare for absolute victory in the future…"
"That is oddly specific."
"In any case, sometimes it's best to take a risk and solve the problem in front of you quickly! Just stick with my dear son and don't hesitate when the time comes."
"You could have said that in a more convincing manner like say, 'Do what must be done Lady Alice! Do not hesitate! Show no mercy!"
"William, be quiet, stop making references when I'm having a talk with your bride to be."
He ended up sitting in the corner until the call ended and they properly returned to the red telephone booth.
Alice happily pulled William along back into the manor where they could speak in more detail, he began to share more about his feelings about his own powers, and how he felt as if he didn't earn things certain achievements the right way when things came too easily for him.
She reassured him the best she could, citing her own doubts on her lacking competence in anything not related to magic, Hime Miko powers and her own body. It wasn't as if she could handle the duties of an ordinary wife very well given her reliance on servants.
"Speaking of Pandora's last pieces of advice… what do you think she meant by trust your instincts?"
"No clue. Maybe you'll encounter a super cute harmless looking enemy or innocent looking children and you need to strike them down with no hesitation because they're dangerous?"
They decided to leave it for later and take a break before they dived into the topic of the King of the End.
"By the way, there's this big temple fall festival we could go to…"
"You mean an authentic festival where we dress up in Yukatas and play all sorts of mini-games?"
"I was going to say it was a stock anime trope too. But yeah, sure. Let's go with that. Ah wait… a large magical signature just entered Japan. He's coming around quite fast… feels familiar."
Curse you Alexander!
... Upon reflection, this must have been the frustration he felt whenever she paid him a surprise visit.
"It can't be helped. Let's get rid of him. I mean, pardon me, let's go speak with your brother."
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票