The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 130

Chapter 130 – Don’t Mislead Children

“Someone recently discovered a large plot of destroyed land in the rear mountains. The most severe area doesn’t even have anything remaining. Currently, the academy suspects that it is the work of grave robbers.” While having lunch one day, Zauna suddenly brought up this topic to Alice. “The academy’s senior management have grown restless because of this matter, but as there were no cameras installed in the rear mountains, they couldn’t find any records of the perpetrators… Do you have any clues about this matter, Alice?”

“How would I know?”

Alice nearly choked on her food when she heard Zauna’s question. Fortunately, she avoided the fate of choking to death and simply got away with two light coughs. Then, she used her swallowing action to hide her embarrassment.

Of course, Alice naturally knew who was responsible for the damage done to the rear mountains. It was the result of the experiments she and Luna conducted.

Although Alice had only used a defensive taboo and Luna had only used an offensive taboo that was moderately powerful, the result of the two taboos clashing had still caused significant damage to the rear mountains. So, it was inevitable that the academy noticed the damage.

Fortunately, Alice and Luna had already figured out the Enochian Pyramid’s tolerances during these past few days, so they no longer needed to conduct any more experiments in the rear mountains. Even if the academy’s staff laid in wait at the rear mountains, they wouldn’t be able to catch Alice and Luna in the act now.

The school trip would begin in two days. Meanwhile, according to Rosa, the power armor should arrive at the March Academy today.

Following Alice’s request, the power armor was delivered inside a weapon storage box that operated using space magic. Moreover, to prevent outsiders from opening the box and discovering its content, a special locking mechanism was also implemented on the box, making it so that it could be opened using a specific method.

However, the power armor arriving today meant that Alice would only have tomorrow to familiarize herself with it. Though, it shouldn’t be much of a problem since Alice only needed it to stand in place and cast taboos.

“By the way, I have some not-so-good news to tell you, Alice,” Lalu, who joined Alice and Zauna for lunch as usual, suddenly said as she looked at Alice with an awkward expression. “I don’t think I can get you our race’s taboos anymore.”

“What? Why?”

Alice’s heart sank when she heard Lalu’s words. For the sake of prolonging the school trip, she had already tasked the demons to exert pressure on the elves, and the demon army was even prepared to cross into the elven border tomorrow. Yet, now, Lalu was suddenly telling her that she couldn’t get her the elves’ taboos?

“This should’ve been a secret originally, but one of my friends in the Elven Forest managed to catch wind of it,” Lalu said. She was honestly quite embarrassed over this situation. After all, she had originally promised Alice that she would let her read the elves’ taboos. The Elven Forest’s leadership had even given their permission already. Yet, now, the Elven Forest’s side was going back on its promise. So, she didn’t hesitate to share the secret she learned with Alice, saying, “It seems to be related to the Demon King.”

“The Demon King?” Alice’s expression changed a little when she heard this answer. Don’t tell me the demons have already started putting pressure on the elves? But that’s not right. I explicitly told Flaman to only take action after the school trip began. With Flaman’s and Davis’s personalities, they wouldn’t do something so rash.

Fortunately, Lalu’s subsequent answer relieved Alice of her concerns.

“You know that the clash between the Hero and the Demon King is, in reality, a clash between taboos, right?” With a solemn expression, Lalu said, “But not all taboos are the same, and some possess countering effects against each other. So, for the sake of increasing their chances of victory, the Hero and the Demon King would typically try to learn as many types of taboos as they can. The previous generation’s Hero has made the mistake of not doing this. She failed to learn any taboos that targeted the soul, so she was forced with no choice but to imprison the Demon King’s physical body with the War God’s Lock until he died.”

“Ahaha… Does everyone know about this now?”

Kristine’s awkward voice suddenly entered Alice’s ears. She had always treated this as a part of her embarrassing history. However, she didn’t expect even the general populace to learn about her shortcomings. This left her feeling quite embarrassed.

Not to mention, the consequences of Kristine’s laziness were far more severe than Lalu described. Most people had assumed that the previous generation’s Demon King was no longer of this world after the War God’s Lock had worn down his physical body. Only Kristine, Alice, and a small number of people knew that Demon King Grant’s soul had remained alive all these years. If not for Alice erasing his soul some time ago, Grant would remain a potential threat to the world in the future.

“Compared to the several human countries, the Elven Forest is far too weak. So, the Elven Forest has adopted a self-isolation policy and avoided contact with the outside world. Even after establishing friendly diplomatic relations with the human kingdoms, the Elven Forest still avoids getting too close to others,” Lalu said, sighing. As a young elf studying in the human realm, she couldn’t help but express her helplessness and frustration toward the older elves’ stubbornness and conservativeness. “So, to make sure that our race’s taboos don’t get leaked to the Demon King, the Elven Forest has decided to seal all of our taboos and prevent anyone from learning them.”

“Not even elves are allowed?” Zauna asked curiously. If elves were allowed to read the taboos, they could have Lalu write down a copy for Alice. With Lalu’s personality, she shouldn’t mind doing such a thing, either. After all, while Lalu might not be aware of Alice’s identity as the Hero, Alice didn’t look like she could be the Demon King, either.

“Only the elders and the patriarch can look at them right now… After all, they can’t be sure if any elves in the Elven Forest have defected to the demons,” Lalu said depressingly. However, she could also understand why the Elven Forest’s leadership had made such a decision. The elven population was vastly smaller than the human race and the demon race. So, imposing this restriction was the only way the elves could ensure that their strongest weapons were not compromised. “I’m very sorry, Alice. Even though I already made a promise to you…”

Alice could see the guilt on Lalu’s face, so she didn’t try to blame the loli elf. Instead, after thinking for a moment, she asked, “Do you know where the elves’ taboos are stored, then, Lalu?”

“That’s easy. They’re most likely stored in the Elven Forest’s Nature Shrine.”

The Elven Forest wasn’t very large, and the elven population was quite small. So, apart from a few top secrets, all elves living in the Elven Forest knew everything there was to know about the Elven Forest. However, as soon as Lalu answered Alice’s question, she quickly realized something and asked, “Alice, don’t tell me you’re trying to…”

“Cough, cough. I can’t help it. My desire for knowledge is too great. The more they don’t want me to see something, the more I want to see it,” Alice said. Then, she looked Lalu in the eye and tentatively asked, “So, I plan to sneak into the sealed location to check out the taboos… Lalu, are you willing to help me?”

Lalu was shocked to the point of becoming speechless when she heard Alice’s idea. Logically, as an elf, she shouldn’t allow others to sneak into the elven race’s Nature Shrine and read the books sealed there. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she grew excited at the thought of doing so…