The words sounded rather cryptic. The guard's eyes widened in surprise and confusion, clearly not understanding what Alice meant.
But Alice didn't mind. She simply smiled and left the ticketing office without a second thought.
A passenger ship sailing the open sea—whether encountering a true maritime disaster or running into a sea monster—wasn't unusual. And most importantly, that wasn't her responsibility. After all, wasn't there a "Lord of Storms" for that?
At most, when she saw the news, she might sigh along with the rest of the world.
But what made the Saint Fleuran special… was that Alice suspected she was the one responsible for this disaster.
She wasn't particularly concerned about how many people would believe her "prophecy" or what impact it might have.
In any case, she had left the prophecy behind. Whether it would come true depended entirely on the people's luck.
Praise the generous Lord of Storms.
Hopefully, He wouldn't be angry about losing a passenger ship.
And if He was...
Well, next time, she'd tear down a church.
Alice's gaze flickered, and she left the docks.
…Does Bayam have any unique ice cream flavors?
She blinked and suddenly remembered the sea salt-flavored ice cream from her past life on Earth, licking her lips at the thought.
Monday, 3:00 PM, above the gray fog.
After pulling the others into the gray fog, Klein realized a problem—at his current level of spirituality, it seemed… he couldn't summon Alice at all?
As the deep crimson glow gathered into illusory figures, he hesitated. Just then, his intuition stirred.
Alice clearly felt someone trying to touch her star spirit body.
She instinctively traced the source back—and then, she "saw" a door.
A looming, faintly glowing blue-black door hidden amidst black-and-white mist.
The door was composed of countless layers of luminous spheres, each orb in turn made up of writhing, twisting worms. Some of the worms were translucent, others semi-transparent, inscribed with incomprehensible or deeply symbolic sigils.
As her spirituality brushed against the door, a thought popped into Alice's mind—
A key… is meant to open doors, right?
Thin strands of light gathered under her will, attempting to form the shape of a spectral key. However, the key shattered halfway through its formation.
Alice blinked twice. Then, the lights coalesced again and lightly tapped the door twice.
…Would this count as knocking?
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~"
Above the gray fog, Audrey greeted as usual.
Like the others, she noticed Alice's empty seat. But no matter what, greeting the Fool came first.
"Good afternoon, Miss Magician~
Good afternoon, Miss Hermit~
Good afternoon…"
Just as Audrey was about to skip over the absent Miss Fate and move on to The Hanged Man, she suddenly heard footsteps.
…Footsteps?
Audrey paused mid-sentence in confusion and, along with the others, turned toward the source of the sound.
Just in time to see Alice push open the glowing door and slowly descend the staircase.
Realizing that she had become the center of attention, Alice hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand and waved twice.
"…Good afternoon?"
Audrey was the first to react. Maintaining her usual serene smile, she turned and curtsied toward Alice.
"Good afternoon, Miss Fate."
Her voice was a little less lighthearted than usual—betraying the fact that, despite her calm expression, she wasn't entirely at ease.
Alice gave a perfunctory nod before cautiously turning to look at Klein. With an almost pleading tone, she called out:
"Mr. Fool, I truly understand my mistake~"
Klein glanced at her, thought for a moment, and spoke in a slightly softer tone than last night:
"Sit down first."
Alice instantly brightened. Abandoning her slow, careful steps, she thump-thump-thumped over to her seat and flopped into her chair.
Then, she suddenly looked up and asked out of nowhere:
"Why don't you change the chairs into sofas?"
Klein barely restrained the urge to curse.
Alice quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
The members of the Tarot Club watched the exchange, their curiosity piqued—what exactly had Alice done wrong?
Only Audrey maintained her usual composure, turning to Alger with a polite, "Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man."
But even her voice was not as cheerful as usual.
After the Fool finished reading this week's diary entries, Cattleya hesitated for a moment before directing a cautious question toward Alice:
"Miss Fate, have you decided on your payment?"
"Ah," Alice turned her head, thought for a moment, then put on a serious expression and said,
"Would you be willing to undertake a task for me?"
Cattleya's heart tensed slightly, but she maintained her composure and asked, "What task?"
Alice studied her for a moment before smiling.
"Spread my name."
Cattleya froze.
"You don't want to?" Alice tilted her head.
Cattleya didn't dare to make any rash movements. Taking a deep breath, she cautiously asked:
"What is your divine name?"
Alice thought for a moment, then turned to the others and said,
"If you need help, you can pray to me as well… but remember to prepare a suitable payment afterward~"
Leaving aside the "Sun" Derrick and the "Moon" Emlyn who didn't notice anything, Alger almost instantly remembered what Alice said at the last Tarot meeting.
Wait until next week...
Thinking of Alice's unusual lateness this time, and the honorific name that suddenly appeared, Alger made the most reasonable inference: Miss Fate successfully recovered her authority this week!
Alice ignored the Tarot Club members who had different thoughts, but tapped the table twice, leaned back on the chair and said:
"The eternal innocent child,
"The embodiment of luck and miracles,
"The origin of disasters and chaos."
It is indeed a three-part format... Alger lowered his head and frowned slightly.
Alice's honorific name format is actually very obvious. The last two sentences reflect authority, and the first sentence is obviously a description of her, so... Miss Fate was really young before? !
Audrey also realized this, but she felt a little confused about the statement "forever innocent" - is your innocence different from our innocence?
What a child... Cattleya felt a sense of absurdity and worry while writing down this honorific name.
After writing down the honorific name, Derrick suddenly realized and asked hesitantly, "Can you receive my prayer?"
Alice fell into deep thought.
"No," Alice said hesitantly, "I don't know, how about you go back and try?"
Derrick nodded solemnly.
After a few seconds of silence, Audrey asked curiously, "Miss Destiny, what about the ritual of praying to you? Uh, there are other rituals..."
Alice was stunned for a moment, and asked hesitantly, "How about... you just set it up?"