The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

How could they not be familiar? Just a week ago, Lilith had been attacked by a demon loli suspected to have come from thousands of years ago. Meanwhile, that loli had one particular trait: her pitch-black skin. She had a similar skin tone as the shota sitting across Alice.

"I only met him today. I saw that he looked quite pitiful, so I decided to treat him to food." Alice dryly laughed as she hastily came up with an excuse to separate herself from the shota magician. The shota magician and the sledgehammer loli were Dark Guards made entirely from dark mana. Although they normally wouldn't reveal any properties of having dark mana unless they used dark mana, their trait of having pitch-black skin was unavoidable.

"Treat him to food?" Lilith muttered as she looked at the table dubiously. Currently, there was a plate of fried chicken and a half-finished cup of iced orange juice in front of Alice, while in front of the shota magician was…nothing.

Alice became tongue-tied. The Dark Guards didn't have a digestive function or the need to consume food, so Alice had only ordered a cold drink and some food for herself. She never thought that her hastily made-up excuse would get suspected by Lilith so quickly.

However, Alice reacted quickly to this situation. When she noticed a waitress walking by her table with a plate of food, she sent her psychic power into the waitress's forehead and activated Consciousness Transformation through it.

It was fortunate that Alice's skill in magic had already reached an extraordinary level. So, she could instantly complete this entire process without batting an eyelid. Meanwhile, using Consciousness Transformation, Alice added a command into the waitress's memory code, having the other party bring the plate of food to her table instead. Although Alice couldn't alter memories, adding commands and memories to the beginning or end of a person's memory code was still a simple task for her.

The average person did not have the ability to resist taboo-level spells. So, the waitress briefly fell into a daze before halting her feet and turning toward Alice's table. Then, she placed the plate of food onto the table and said:

"Here is your food. Enjoy."

"See? It just arrived."

Alice chuckled, cold sweat forming amidst her hair. Fortunately, a waitress happened to be walking by at this time. Otherwise, she had no idea how she should explain the flaw in her excuse.

"I see. So you ordered this shop's chicken meatballs? I heard that this shop uses magic to crush and knead chicken into meatballs on the spot, so it takes longer to make than the standard fried chicken," Lilith said, not doubting Alice's claims. Although Lilith felt that the shota magician's black skin was a little familiar to the loli that attacked her a week ago, since Alice had only met the shota by chance today, she found no reason to cast suspicion over Alice.

However, even though Lilith completely failed to notice Alice's actions, Sylvia did notice something. Unlike Lilith, a student with half-baked combat capabilities, Sylvia was a professional thief. Even though her mana wasn't as strong as a career magician's, she possessed extraordinary combat senses and perception.

Spirit spells had a particular trait: their mana would completely penetrate the target's brain. Unless one deliberately inspected the target, it'd be impossible to notice the mana of spirit spells. However, psychic power was different. Psychic power was a special kind of magic that turned a mixture of mana and spirit into a physical entity. In other words, psychic power could appear outside the body.

Sylvia could vaguely sense some traces of magic activation around Alice. However, when she focused her senses, she found that what surrounded Alice was different magic activation residues. Instead, what she sensed felt more like pure mana.

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The reason Sylvia had failed to recognize this pure mana as psychic power wasn't because she didn't know about psychic power. Instead, it was because Alice's psychic power originated from the taboo "Psychokinesis Transcendence." Her psychic power was of greater purity than ordinary psychic power. She could even use it as mana. For example, she had previously used her psychic power to cast Dragon's Shadow.

Hence, when Sylvia noticed that the mana fluctuations around Alice were only ordinary mana and not the residues of a psychic-type spell's activation, she quickly relaxed. This situation was akin to someone thinking that there was cyanide in the air because they smelled almonds, but after careful observation, they found that someone was only eating almonds.

Like so, Alice managed to escape suspicion from Lilith and Sylvia and successfully severed any ties she had with the shota magician. Even if Lilith suspected that the shota magician was somehow related to the loli Dark Guard, she wouldn't direct her suspicion toward Alice.

Meanwhile, under Alice's command, which she had secretly sent using a strand of mana, the shota magician began eating the chicken meatballs before him. In reality, though, he was only stuffing the meatballs straight into his mouth, swallowing them whole, wrapping them up in mana to keep warm, and pretending to chew a few times. This way, Alice could retrieve the meatballs and eat them once she got home.

"What is your name, little guy?" Sylvia asked as she looked at the shota who was currently "eating." Although Sylvia knew Lilith wanted to ask this question, she felt it would be better if she were the one doing the talking. She was much more experienced at interrogations than Lilith, so she knew which questions to ask to extract the most information. "Which school are you going to? Where are your parents?"

Sylvia had previously helped Lilith investigate the demon loli, so she knew that this shota was suspicious. The boy's pitch-black skin was identical to the loli's, so it was necessary to ask the boy a few questions.

Under Alice's hidden instructions, the shota magician lifted his head, looked at Sylvia, and calmly said, "I don't have a name. I don't have any family. I don't attend any school. My current mission is to ensure Collins Doyle's safety."

Lilith's and Sylvia's expressions instantly changed when they heard the shota magician's answer. They naturally knew about Collins's bodyguard situation. All of those bodyguards were either sent by the king or nobles trying to get into the royal family's good graces.

Yet, it would seem that this shota magician was one of those bodyguards?

In other words, if this shota magician was allies with the loli who had attacked Lilith previously, then the mastermind behind that attack was most likely a noble of the Rhine Kingdom.

As for whether Collins could be the mastermind, Lilith did not consider this possibility even for a moment. Unlike Alice, Lilith had already interacted with Collins as siblings for well over a decade. She had conducted numerous investigations on Collins during this period, so she was certain that Collins was nothing more than a cross-dressing otaku. This was also why Lilith shared a good relationship with Collins. Collins shared the same interests as her yet did not possess any ambitions. Had Collins been an ambitionist, Lilith would definitely keep her distance from him.

Alice also noticed the change in Lilith's and Sylvia's expressions, and she couldn't help but sigh in relief inwardly. Their reaction most likely meant that they had shifted their suspicion toward the Rhine Kingdom's nobles.

I should be more careful when walking around with the Dark Guards in the future. Who knows when I'm going to come across an acquaintance again?