The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Although Alice's overall parameters were still a little ways off from reaching the level of fully-grown Heroes and Demon Kings, she could already rival Luna, who was superior to even the likes of Catherine and the demons' Four Heavenly Kings. Naturally, her senses had also sharpened to an extraordinary level.

Meanwhile, based on her senses, Alice noticed that she wasn't actually alone on this street. Specifically, there was a man wearing a black long-sleeved shirt standing by a nearby alley. The man appeared to have used some kind of concealment magic to hide himself, so she hadn't noticed his presence right away. Only after she realized something was amiss and paid closer attention to her surroundings did she notice the hiding man.

The other party was evidently surprised by Alice's words. He probably didn't expect Alice to notice him. Originally, he had thought that Alice was simply making a random guess to trick him, so he had thought of standing still and remaining concealed. However, when he saw Alice looking straight at him, he quickly understood that Alice wasn't bluffing and she had indeed found him.

Hence, even though it was different from his plan, the man still chose to reveal himself. Originally, he had planned to ambush Alice when she was walking past him. If he attacked her at that time, the chances of failure were essentially zero. However, what his plan didn't account for was for Alice to have such a monstrously powerful perception.

Compared to the Mana Concealment skill Alice had access to when she held a magic robe in her right hand, the concealment magic used by the black-clad man was evidently inferior. The moment the man moved, the slight mana fluctuations his movements created instantly caused his invisibility to lose effect, revealing his face to Alice.

"Although it is a little different from the plan, no matter…"

The man was not wearing any protective equipment, such as armor. Instead, he only wore a black shirt and a pair of black slacks. After coming out of concealment, the man looked at Alice with an indifferent expression on his somewhat handsome face and said, "While it pains me to kill a little girl, you only have yourself to blame for touching something you shouldn't touch."

Even though this was the first time Alice had met this man, she had long since seen his pictures on the internet. This man was none other than Gunst Brianken, the Captain of the Rhine Kingdom's Royal Guards. He was also the idol Lilith had admired since she was a child.

Meanwhile, Gunst's appearance also validated Alice's previous conjecture about King Haydn being responsible for the treant settlement's pollution. It would seem that King Haydn had finally realized that the Pollution Roulette had been moved and hurriedly located it through the tracking magic he had placed on it. Then, he mobilized Gunst to retrieve the Pollution Roulette and kill whoever had moved it.

Based on what Gunst just said, he didn't seem like a bloodthirsty person. It made sense, though, since he was able to become Lilith's idol. If he didn't have an upright temperament, there was no way Lilith would come to admire him. Only, he was foolishly loyal to King Haydn and would carry out any order he received, no matter how unreasonable they might seem to be.

After seeing Gunst, Alice took a moment to scan her surroundings with her senses and verified that apart from herself and Gunst, nobody else was in the vicinity. Although Gunst had most definitely mobilized his subordinates to disperse the pedestrians in the area, it would seem that he never planned to involve his subordinates in his ambush. However, Alice wasn't surprised by Gunst's decision since his subordinates would only hold him back.

Gunst was a human strong enough to fight head-on with the demons' Four Heavenly Kings. The average warrior wouldn't be of any help to him. On the contrary, they might even become a burden to him if their opponent turned out to be a tough nut to crack. Hence, the wisest move would be for Gunst to carry out the ambush himself.

However, Gunst probably never expected that his decision would work in Alice's favor. After all, if there were no bystanders in the area, even if she exposed her identity, she wouldn't have to worry about her identity reaching King Haydn's ears. As for Gunst leaking her identity, she could simply silence him by erasing his memories with Consciousness Transformation after defeating him.

Although Alice could also erase the memories of any bystanders nearby, having to erase the memories of many people was a troublesome task she would like to pass on. Not to mention, there was also the risk of her missing some bystanders.

"Hand over the Pollution Roulette, and let me kill you. I will make it hurt as little as possible if you don't struggle."

Gunst did not bother saying things such as "I will spare you." As the captain of the royal guards, he was a stereotypical military man with a straightforward personality. Since King Haydn had ordered him to kill whoever had stolen the Pollution Roulette, he would carry out his orders perfectly. He also wouldn't try to trick his opponent.

"But if you struggle, I cannot promise you can die painlessly."

What an arrogant way of speaking.

Alice's mouth twitched a little when she heard Gunst's words. However, she could understand why the man was so confident. In a situation where the Hero and the Demon King did not appear, Gunst would be part of the strongest combatants in this world. Even if he went up against the demons' Four Heavenly Kings, he likely could fight them to a draw.

Of course, that was under the condition that there wasn't an authentic Hero pretending to be a Heavenly King.

"Although I've already verified some of my conjectures after seeing you, I doubt you'll leave even if I say I don't want to fight you, right?" Alice chuckled as she stretched the Pollution Roulette, showcasing its elasticity. Then, she snapped the collar onto her left wrist and said, "Come, then. If you want this collar, you'll first have to cut off my left hand. Otherwise...hey! A sneak attack?!"

While Alice was talking, Gunst had almost instantaneously appeared in front of her and ruthlessly swung a glimmering longsword at her left hand, giving her no time to finish her words. Fortunately, Alice had reacted to the attack in time and executed a quick sidestep, dodging the attack completely. Unfortunately, everything behind Alice wasn't as lucky.

When Gunst's longsword brushed past Alice's left shoulder, some of the energy concentrated in the sword oozed out and separated from the weapon in the form of a sword wave. Meanwhile, this sword wave instantly created a huge gash in the street behind Alice. The sword wave had even cut through some water pipes, causing water to gush out of the gash in the road.

It was fortunate that most things in this world were powered by mana, while electricity was only used as a backup energy source. Otherwise, that attack would have caused the entire neighborhood to be out of power for a few days.

How can an upright person fight in such a dastardly way? Alice was rendered a little speechless by Gunst's actions. However, she didn't stay idle after dodging Gunst's first attack. Immediately, she summoned a green translucent crystal to trap Gunst. "I don't wish to kill you, but to get you to be obedient, I'll have you lose your combat effectiveness first."

"...Forest Crystal?" Gunst quickly recognized the green hexahedron trapping him, his expression turning serious. He never thought his opponent would be an existence capable of casting a bona fide taboo. "You're an elf?"