The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

There were quite a number of people walking around the ruined street. However, unlike Alice and Luna, these people were dressed uniformly in light armor engraved with magic patterns. The light armor was the uniform for the Rhine Kingdom's military, so it was evident that these were people sent by Haydn to investigate the battlefield.

Alice wore a casual short-sleeved T-shirt and slacks. She also wore a straw hat with a wide brim. As for Luna, she wore a standard maid uniform. When the two stepped into the walled area, they immediately attracted numerous weird looks. After all, the difference in attire was stark.

Fortunately, everyone in the walled area seemed to know beforehand that the Gryffin Kingdom's Princess Alice would be visiting, so nobody tried to stop Alice from entering. However, none of them tried to talk to Alice, either.

It made sense the soldiers here would have such a reaction. In their eyes, Alice was the princess of a neighboring kingdom, and they belonged to completely different walks of life. After all, when talking about princesses, the first thing that came to most people's minds would be the word "pampered." Even Lilith, who had shown herself to be a capable princess, wasn't someone proficient in combat. So, it was only natural that the soldiers would automatically group Alice into this category.

The fact that Alice had brought a maid with her to a ruined battlefield also didn't help her image. No matter how the soldiers looked at it, it didn't seem like Alice was someone they needed to pay attention to in this place. Perhaps the Gryffin Princess had simply decided to see what an actual battlefield looked like on a whim.

Meanwhile, Alice and Luna didn't care about how the soldiers here looked at them. After walking down the ruined district for a bit, they quickly arrived at their previously determined destination.

"It's this place."

Alice looked around to make sure that nobody was paying attention to her side. Then, she nodded to Luna, indicating that they had arrived at their destination.

The place they arrived at was where Alice and Gunst last fought. It was at this place that Gunst had released "Rainbow" in a half-kneeling posture.

According to Luna, Gunst also used a spiritual magic scroll when activating Rainbow in an attempt to interfere with Alice's actions and prevent her from evading his Rainbow. Unfortunately for Gunst, Alice negated the spiritual magic scroll without even realizing it.

The reason why Alice came here was simple. It was because Luna saw something interesting when looking through Gunst's memories. Gunst wouldn't have revealed this matter if subjected to a normal interrogation. Unfortunately, in front of Luna's spirit taboo, it didn't matter how tightly he kept his mouth shut.

"It should be here."

Luna nodded. Then, she circled around the vicinity, eventually stopping ten paces away from Alice. Afterward, she crouched down, effortlessly moved several huge chunks of debris out of the way, and picked up a key from among the rubble.

The key, as a whole, was golden and looked expensive. However, it wasn't just an ordinary gold key. Instead, it was an item Gunst used to receive commands from Haydn. According to what Luna saw from Gunst's memories, so long as one injected mana into the key using the right method, one could see the various commands Haydn had stored in the key.

Moreover, as luck would have it, the key recorded Haydn's commands for Gunst to place the Pollution Roulette in the treants' territory and hire a thief to steal the Demon King's Shadow book. In other words, this key held all the evidence Alice needed to denounce Haydn.

It might seem foolish of Haydn to put the evidence of his wrongdoings in a single place and let someone else take care of it, but he couldn't be blamed for making such a silly mistake. Gunst stood at the pinnacle of this world when it came to combat power. He was also staunchly loyal to the royal family. So, Haydn never thought that any problems would occur if he let Gunst hold onto the key. The only factor he didn't consider was the Hero defeating Gunst.

However, when Gunst realized he was about to suffer defeat, he also tried to destroy the key. It was a pity that Alice had sealed his mana using Forest Crystal before he could do so.

Gunst lost most of his strength when he lost access to his mana. He had also exhausted most of his stamina by that time. So, no matter how much physical strength his body had, he couldn't put any of it to use. Not to mention, the golden key was also reinforced by magic to prevent accidental damage.

So, before his inevitable defeat, Gunst tossed the golden key into the ruins and let the debris bury it. Meanwhile, the reason Haydn had gone through the trouble of cordoning the battlefield and sending so many people to search the place was that he wanted to see if Gunst had left behind the key that held evidence of his wrongdoings.

However, Haydn knew that with Gunst's loyalty, the moment Gunst realized he couldn't win against the enemy, he would immediately try to destroy the golden key. Hence, Haydn was only symbolically letting his subordinates come to search the battlefield. He probably never expected Alice to seal Gunst's mana, preventing Gunst from destroying the key.

Now, not only did the soldiers fail to find the key, but it had even fallen into Alice's and Luna's hands. Meanwhile, the evidence in this key would be more than enough to expose Haydn for his wrongdoings.

The theft of the Demon King's Shadow book and the deliberate pollution of the treants' territory were crimes severe enough to give Haydn several death sentences. Not to mention, there was even the attempted collusion with the demons to obtain the Demon King's strength. Every one of these crimes put Haydn directly against humanity. Even if Alice eliminated him now, her actions would be justified.

"Yep, there's no mistaking it. This key does hold Haydn's instructions," Alice said. When she injected some mana into the golden key using the method Luna described, lines of text emerged from the key's surface, and these texts described the last few commands Haydn had given to Gunst.

Apart from the taboo book's theft and the treant territory's pollution, the key also contained other instructions, such as establishing communication with smuggling caravans for the demon realm. Simply put, this key held enough evidence for Alice to make Haydn disappear.

"But I can't help but have a bad feeling about this..."

Although Alice had acquired evidence of Haydn's recent crimes, she couldn't help but feel a dangerous premonition for some inexplicable reason. It was as if she had ignored something that could potentially result in dire consequences.

However, even after rummaging through her mind, Alice failed to figure out where the problem lay. So, she had no choice but to suppress her bad premonition and get ready to leave this place with Luna. Since she already had evidence of Haydn's wrongdoings, she intended to tell Lilith the truth of this matter.