The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 116

Chapter 116 – This Kid Really Is Gullible

“The Third Demon King, Clyde Vapula, has left a deep mark on the demon realm’s history. He is the only Demon King who has ever succeeded in leading the demon realm to occupy the human realm. Even though it has been thousands of years since he passed, there are still many documents that allow us to know about him in detail,” Frosette said while looking through the pile of books on the table. “He once invented a taboo called Psychokinesis Transcendence, and he regarded it as magic that had surpassed its era by thousands of years at the time. Eventually, the book recording the taboo’s information was left in the human world and hidden away by the Hero at the time. This event was also recorded.”

Magic that’s thousands of years ahead of its time…

Alice couldn’t help but sigh ruefully when she heard Frosette’s words. She didn’t think that the Demon King named Clyde Vapula was boasting when he made his claim about the taboo he invented. This was because thousands of years had already passed since his era, yet nobody had managed to create a Law-grade taboo even until now. If there was, Kristine, the previous generation’s Hero, would’ve certainly known about it.

“I think he might be wrong in his claim. Although I cannot cast taboos by myself, I have inspected the contents of that book, and many of the theories inside are beyond my understanding,” Frosette said in frustration. Although her talent wasn’t comparable to the Hero and the Demon King, she was still a considerably strong individual in this world. After all, she could construct a barrier that sealed all magic tools underneath the Artifact rank. This was more than enough to prove her capabilities. “So, I am guessing that only the Demon King and the Hero can learn that taboo… Found it!”

After digging through the pile of books for some time, Frosette finally found the book she wanted—The Incredible Secrets of the World. Then, she opened the book and retrieved an ancient-looking key hidden within it.

“Is this the key to the magic workshop?” Alice guessed when she saw the key Frosette took out of the book.

“That’s right. It’s a key with special magic applied to it. But the encryption magic from thousands of years ago was a little too crude, so I cracked it with ease, and it is now just an ordinary key,” Frosette said in a delighted tone. While some ancient magic, such as Demon King Clyde’s Psychokinesis Transcendence, has wonderful designs, most are just plain simple and crude when viewed in today’s light. So, cracking them isn’t hard.”

“So there is a key… Where is the entrance, then?” Alice nodded to express her understanding before asking the question she wanted to ask the most. “There’s no button for a basement floor in the elevators. I heard that the stairwell that used to lead underground has been replaced by the current elevator well.”

“That’s right. Under normal circumstances, it is indeed impossible to reach the underground workshop. However, I’ve left a backdoor to reach it,” Frosette said as she handed the old key to Alice. “On the library’s sixth floor, on bookshelf B13, there is a popular science book titled The Generality of Dark Attribute Mana. I’ve drawn a magic array on page 16. So long as you inject a bit of dark-attributed mana into it, the magic array will activate and teleport you and the people you want to take with you to the magic workshop’s entrance.”

“Dark mana?” Alice was momentarily stunned. “If it needs dark mana to activate, how did you get in?”

“Of course, it is because I also possess dark mana,” Frosette said with a smile. Then, she lifted her right hand and summoned a small bundle of dark mist in her palm. “However, as my talent with it isn’t very high, I can only exercise a small amount of dark mana at a time. So, I chose to prioritize practicing water magic and sealing magic instead.”

Alice came to a realization. It would seem that Frosette was one of the few demons who had an affinity for dark mana. However, she didn’t focus on developing her dark magic and only used it as a backup because of her lack of talent. For example, the teleportation array she left in the book she mentioned could only be activated using dark mana. Since there were no humans in the human realm capable of using dark mana, she didn’t even have to worry about the magic array getting discovered.

…

But I don’t have an affinity for dark mana…

After bidding Frosette goodbye and exiting the cubicle, Alice quickly realized a troublesome problem: she didn’t actually have an affinity for dark mana.

While Alice could use dark mana if necessary, the problem was that she would have to activate the teleportation array while in the presence of Zauna and Kristine. Meanwhile, the dark mist that would appear due to holding onto a pair of black panties was something she couldn’t hide. At that time, she would have to think of a way to explain the situation to the two of them.

It seems I’ll have to trouble Luna with this matter, Alice thought, sighing. The Demon King’s Power had attached itself to Luna before, so Luna naturally had an affinity for dark mana. And even if Kristine asked about Luna’s ability to use dark mana, Alice could use the excuse of Luna being a human-demon half-breed.

Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn’t help but envy Luna’s half-breed status a little. If her identity hadn’t been fixed already, she would’ve hoped to obtain a half-breed status as well.

“Huh? What happened just now?”

Shortly after Alice left the cubicle, Kristine’s dazed voice entered her ears.

“Why do I feel a little dizzy? Also, why did you leave the cubicle as soon as you went in?”

“You probably got used to daydreaming during these past three hundred years, so you might have subconsciously dozed off just now,” Alice gave a random excuse. Kristine couldn’t have sensed anything inside the cubicle just now, so it was unlikely that she would see through her lie.

“Is that so… I guess that’s possible. It seems I still haven’t fully recovered from my muddleheaded state,” Kristine said, seemingly believing in Alice’s excuse. Then, she sighed and continued, “I think I’ll have to talk with you more often in the future. Otherwise, it’d be terrible if I keep dozing off once I reconstruct my body.”

Sure enough, this kid really is gullible.