Enmat Street, Mapel General Store.
"Hello," Alice greeted with a smile after scanning the store's layout. "I'd like to buy a dice."
The shopkeeper, a kind elderly lady, looked Alice up and down before saying, "That'll be one pound."
Alice paused for a moment. A thought popped into her head—this felt oddly familiar.
"The price of the shirt is nine pounds and fifteen pence, so you choose option C..."
She shook her head, pushing the stray thought aside, then handed over the single-pound note, once again marveling at the 'School of Life's' whimsical methods.
A Grade 0 Uniqueness hidden in a general store, up for sale at just one pound? Truly, fate works in mysterious ways.
If that's the case… maybe I really am some kind of protagonist.
As Alice waited, that amusing thought flickered through her mind. She chuckled briefly—then just as quickly, her smile faded.
Protagonist or side character, it didn't matter. In the end, they were all just characters in someone else's story.
With a quiet sigh, she accepted the small ring box containing the dice she had seen in her dream and left the store.
"How did it go?" Klein asked when he saw her.
Alice lifted the ring box slightly. "I haven't opened it yet. Judging by how I reacted to potions before, opening it here doesn't seem like a great idea."
Klein nodded. "Are you heading back to the inn to check it out?"
Alice blinked, placed a hand on her stomach, and hesitantly asked, "Can I eat first?"
A perfectly reasonable request. Klein had no objections and took her to a nearby restaurant.
As Klein watched Alice casually toss the ring box to the side and eagerly pick up the menu, he finally understood why the 'School of Life' had left a Uniqueness in a general store.
…They had been influenced from the top down, hadn't they?
Alice, oblivious to Klein's thoughts, carefully flipped through the menu. After a moment, she raised an important question: "Are you treating me?"
Klein, who had already planned to pay, fell silent for a moment before asking tactfully, "Have you heard of splitting the bill?"
Alice pondered for a moment before responding, "Have you heard of AAB?"
"What does that mean?" Klein asked, confused.
Alice put down the menu, glanced around to ensure no one was eavesdropping, then switched to Chinese: "If it's just the two of us, it should be called AB.
"It means you pay, and I shamelessly enjoy the meal."
Klein was speechless for several seconds before throwing her own words back at her: "Ladies shouldn't talk like that."
Alice choked on her response, then straightened up seriously. "Actually, I have another idea."
Klein suddenly had a bad feeling. He frowned. "What is it?"
Alice's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Beyham has plenty of churches dedicated to the Lord of Storms, right…?"
After a long silence, Klein put on a gentle, fatherly smile and said, "Alice, let's talk about your education."
Alice quickly lowered her head and pretended not to hear him, refocusing on the menu.
Klein sighed and pulled the menu away. "I'm serious. If you keep this up, the Goddess might personally drag you to school."
Alice stiffened slightly. After a moment of reflection, she solemnly raised her head and said, "Maybe I should steal from the 'Aurora Order' instead… Uh, but do they even have money? The Eternal Blazing Sun and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom don't have churches in Backlund either…
"Maybe the Witch Sect? Hmm, or some other secret organization…
"But if we're talking about wealth, the Church of Steam and Machinery should have the most, right? After all, they have Artisans…
"But their donation boxes might not have much cash—wait, is there really much difference? The Steam Church mainly has a lot of artifacts…
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Klein glanced at Alice, who seemed utterly unaware of her own problematic thoughts. He decided he didn't want to continue this conversation and called the waiter instead.
Once the food arrived, Alice pushed the ring box further away and focused entirely on eating. Watching her, Klein felt a strange sense of bewilderment.
The meal went by quickly, though Alice took her time, savoring each bite. But in the end, even the slowest eater had to finish eventually.
After paying (on an 'AB system'), Alice stood up, preparing to leave the restaurant—completely unaware that she had forgotten something.
Klein, feeling exasperated, grabbed her arm and asked through gritted teeth, "Don't you think you forgot something?"
Alice blinked blankly.
Klein, at his wit's end, retrieved the ring box from the corner of the table, bringing it back into the light. Only then did Alice suddenly realize and slap her forehead in confusion.
"That's odd…"
…
Meanwhile, in another part of town—
Vilma and Alan were having dinner at home when Vilma suddenly clutched her stomach, pain flashing across her face.
Alan tensed immediately. He knew exactly what was inside Vilma's stomach. He rushed forward to support her, but she quickly recovered as if nothing had happened.
"It's fine," Vilma reassured him with a smile. "The baby just kicked."
Alan forced a weak smile and returned to his seat, though he couldn't shake his unease.
For the rest of the meal, Vilma seemed completely normal. But just as Alan finished washing the dishes, her pained voice rang out again:
"Ugh…
"It hurts…"
At that moment, Vilma was curled up on the sofa, her tightly scrunched face revealing immense pain.
…
Alice returned to the inn, absently playing with the ring box as she spoke to Klein. "Make sure I don't eat anything weird."
Then, sitting cross-legged on the bed, she finally opened the box.
The moment she lifted the lid, her thoughts came to a halt.
Inside the box, just as in her dream, lay a milky-white six-sided dice.
However, unlike in the dream where it had landed on four, the dice now showed six—its blood-red pips stark against the pale surface, as if whispering an ominous tale.
—A tale just like now.
Her spirituality screamed for sustenance. Alice barely restrained herself from swallowing the dice—box and all—as her trembling fingers reached out to touch it.
The dice vanished.
Instantly, a wave of sheer terror washed over Klein. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to flee, but he remained frozen, unable to move or even breathe.
—This was the primal response to encountering something far beyond human comprehension.
All he could do was sit there, stiff as a board, watching Alice remain motionless.
Time felt frozen until the suffocating pressure finally lifted. Klein saw Alice slowly raise her head, her eyes filled with blank confusion.
Then, in a voice he knew all too well, she asked:
"So this is what it feels like to have a human body?
"How… unfamiliar."