The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 129

Chapter 129 – The Scapegoat Has Been Decided

Three days had passed since Alice had Rosa put in an order with the Ymir Kingdom’s Dwarven Technical Unit.

Rosa’s connections did not disappoint Alice, and the thief girl had successfully contacted the Dwarven Technical Unit’s leader and told them about Alice’s order.

Moreover, because the development of power armor had achieved a pleasant breakthrough, and the various countries had already started preparing to put the power armor into use, the power armor was no longer regarded as top secret. Thus, constructing a strangely customized power armor wasn’t against national laws, and the unit leader readily agreed to Alice’s request after considering his friendship with Rosa.

However, this situation also made Alice realize that Rosa must’ve been someone extraordinary during her time as a thief. After all, a Level 2 Certified Mercenary wasn’t a very high position in the Mercenary Union. Yet, Rosa seemingly possessed connections with people from various lines of work, nationality, and race. Because of this, Alice couldn’t help but start considering whether she should ask Rosa for help more frequently in the future.

Anyway, the Ymir Kingdom’s dwarves could manufacture the power armor with relative ease, just like Luna said so previously. According to them, they should finish Alice’s order in just four days. If not for Alice’s request to attach simulated skin and flesh to the armor, they could’ve reduced that time by one day.

After factoring in the time needed to transport the armor from the Ymir Kingdom to the Gryffin Kingdom, Alice should be able to see her power armor arriving in five or six days. If that was the case, she might not have any time to familiarize herself with the armor before she had to leave for her school trip.

However, Alice wasn’t particularly concerned about this. It didn’t matter even if she wasn’t familiar with the armor’s controls since she wouldn’t be making any complex maneuvers with it. All she needed to do was stand still and trade taboos with Luna. Nobody would suspect that the tall and muscular Hero was actually an inflexible suit of armor.

Meanwhile, Alice hadn’t been completely idle during these past three days. After all, the power armor had a big flaw in its defensive capabilities. It might be able to handle normal spells, but it’d break instantly if hit by a taboo.

Hence, Alice had temporarily halted her study of Psychokinesis Transcendence, Burning Star, and Wicked Wind and focused on studying the defensive taboo named “Enochian Pyramid.”

The principles of this taboo were similarly very simple. However, the arrangement of mana needed to be incredibly precise. Every bit of mana must be arranged according to the written formula to form a near-perfect pyramid structure to ensure that the taboo wouldn’t collapse. Of course, while it was difficult for others to learn the taboo, Alice still managed to master it after studying overtime.

“Enochian Pyramid.”

Alice wielded the Hero’s Sword like a wand and gently nudged it against the ground. Then, a huge amount of mana poured out from the tip of the Hero’s Sword, the mana spreading out into a triangular shape on the ground before rising to a translucent pyramid that enveloped Alice completely.

Although Alice’s mana pool had grown rapidly recently, it still wasn’t enough for her to cast a taboo without aid. Hence, Alice still needed to hold onto the Hero’s Sword in her right hand when casting taboos.

After Alice had finished erecting the pyramid barrier, Luna, who stood outside the barrier, lifted her foot that was immobilizing the struggling Milu Rabbit. Then, as soon as it regained its freedom, the Milu Rabbit enthusiastically volunteered to become Alice’s first experiment, charging straight toward Alice, crashing into the Enochian Pyramid, and fainting happily.

Seeing this, Luna stepped forward to pick up the Milu Rabbit and let it rest under a nearby tree. Then, she walked up to Alice and looked at the Enochian Pyramid, asking, “Should I give it a test?”

“Go ahead. We need to know what kind of taboos it can withstand. Otherwise, it’d be awkward if it cracks in battle and the residual power of your taboo destroys the power armor,” Alice said, nodding. It was definitely necessary for Luna to test the Enochian Pyramid. While Luna might have lost the Demon King’s Power, she still possessed strength far surpassing the demon race’s Four Heavenly Kings.

Meanwhile, as a mass-produced weapon of war, the power armor had limited defensive capabilities. It was still a question of whether it could withstand the residual power of a taboo spell. So, Alice needed to first test the Enochian Pyramid’s defensive capabilities and see how many attacks it could endure.

“Here I come,” Luna said, nodding. She obeyed Alice’s orders unconditionally. So, as soon as she received Alice’s permission, she lifted her hand and released a frightening amount of dark-attributed mana without hesitation.

The two were currently conducting their experiments in the March Academy’s rear mountains. Other than the occasional top student who came here to collect research materials, nobody would come here normally. It was especially true for the nobles in Class Group A. They definitely wouldn’t come here and risk dirtying their clothes.

Even so, to ensure that nobody would come and interfere with their experiments, Alice chose to come here while classes were still in session.

Meanwhile, as an excellent employee of the Gryffin Kingdom’s intelligence department, Luna naturally came into contact with and learned many taboos. However, due to the Demon King’s Power’s influence, all of the taboos she cast would always turn into a dark-attributed spell. Hence, as soon as Luna started casting a taboo, dark mist immediately radiated from her hand, which was a sign of the Demon King.

Under Luna’s control, a spinning black sphere descended from the sky and smashed into Alice’s Enochian Pyramid. The black sphere’s terrifying destructive power rapidly ate away at the Enochian Pyramid’s mana, looking like it was trying to forcibly deconstruct the defensive taboo. Moreover, the sphere was gradually expanding its area of effect as time passed, and all trees enveloped in its power were twisted into nothingness.

The destructive power of this taboo was so immense that the Four Heavenly Kings would probably have their bodies twisted beyond recognition even if they tried to defend against the taboo together. Yet, despite the black sphere’s power, the Enochian Pyramid held strong, proving that it was a rather effective defensive taboo.

“Be careful. Don’t let the Milu Rabbit get hit,” Alice hurriedly reminded when she noticed the black sphere’s power expanding without stopping.

In response, Luna nodded and clenched her right hand, causing the black sphere to shrink and concentrate into an incredibly powerful ball of mana. Then, she retracted this mana back into her body.

“The attack I used has moderate destructive power among taboos. It seems this Enochian Pyramid is quite strong.”

“The pyramid is the shape for stability, after all. The inventor of this taboo must’ve developed it based on this principle,” Alice said as she retracted her Enochian Pyramid. After this experiment, she concluded that it shouldn’t be a problem for her to fight Luna using the Enochian Prism.

“But why are you trying to clean the demons’ reputation, Alice?” Luna suddenly asked. Although she wasn’t trying to go against Alice’s decision, she couldn’t help but be curious.

“The demons actually have it quite hard in life. Many of them aren’t bad people. They were only forced to invade others because of the demon realm’s harsh environment and lack of resources,” Alice said as she picked up the Milu Rabbit and tied its ears to her waist. “You should’ve heard of the Third Demon King’s era, right? After conquering the human realm, the demons didn’t massacre the humans. The demons merely forced the humans back and occupied a large portion of their land. Frankly, they are just forced by their circumstances.”

Seeing that Luna was still looking at her in confusion, Alice continued, “Although the demons have tried seeking other solutions to their environment and resource problem, they face a few problems in doing so. Firstly, the human realm’s resource production is only enough to meet the human realm’s demands. Even if the demons want to procure resources through trade, they have no option to do so.

“Secondly, the demon realm’s harsh environment has caused the demons to yearn for a normal living environment. The demons might have evolved unique organs to help them survive in the harsh environment, but their fleshy bodies remain largely the same as humans. They will still find it uncomfortable to live in the demon realm’s environment.”

While taking the path back to the academy with Luna, Alice shook her head helplessly and said, “That’s why the best solution I have come up with is to figure out a way to eradicate the demon realm’s pollution from its roots and let the demon realm have the same environment as the human realm. That way, one of the main causes of war would disappear.”

“But the demon race’s reputation will remain a big problem, right?” Luna said, subconsciously touching the small and indiscernible horns on her hand. As a human-demon half-breed, Luna had experienced first-hand the malice humans held for the demons.

“Although the demons were forced by their circumstances, it is an inescapable fact that they have waged war against most of the other races in this world. Even if the demon realm’s pollution problem is solved in the future, the demons will still have to atone for what their people have done in the past,” Alice said, nodding. “However, by getting rid of the main cause of war, the demons would be able to interact with the other races normally, at the very least… Of course, we still need to shift most of the blame to someone.”

“You mean to shift the blame to the Demon King’s Power?” When asking this question, Luna couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “You are really cunning, Alice.”

“How can that be called cunning? If it weren’t for the Demon King’s Power turning humans with great malice toward the human race into the Demon King, the demons would’ve never seen any hope in invading the human realm, and they might never have waged any wars against the world,” Alice said, shrugging. “So, there is no problem in making the Demon King’s Power the scapegoat.”