Just as Klein was pondering, he saw Alice turn towards the window and smile faintly.
"If you saw the house's exterior and the surrounding scenery with your own eyes, are you sure you could recognize it as the red-chimney house you're looking for?"
Klein's spirits lifted at her words:
"At least I can eliminate many incorrect options by looking at the house's appearance, saving a lot of time."
Although the images seen in dream divination were blurry, once he saw the corresponding real-world scene, his spirituality would surely respond, allowing him to find the house with the dark red chimney foretold in the divination!
After a agonizing wait, like waiting for a verdict, for about several tens of seconds, he heard Alice seem to sigh.
"Well, I am indeed capable of taking on your request, and judging from your expression, the importance of this matter even makes you willing to pay 'any price you can afford'… So, let's get to the conclusion."
Klein couldn't help but hold his breath during her brief pause.
"Tomorrow during the day, any time is fine, but preferably not near dusk, as we need to allow some time for the subsequent investigation… Hmm, let's meet at the intersection of Bessick Street and Zotland Street. Let me know when you arrive via telepathy." The girl said, pointing to the silver ornament behind her ear.
Klein nodded slightly to indicate he understood, inwardly marveling.
Otherworldly black technology… no, otherworldly magic is so convenient, it even achieves the functions of a 21st-century mobile phone…
"Also, regarding the price you should pay… the listed price is probably over 500 pounds, but I know you can't afford that much, and you wouldn't offer to use that wish slot to pay off the debt for such a small amount. Hmm, let me think…" Alice rested her chin on her hand, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Can I pay on credit? Or in installments?" With the same frankness he displayed when filling out a reimbursement application, Klein asked shamelessly.
As he asked, he quickly calculated in his mind. His current weekly wage was £6. After deducting various living expenses and the portion saved for emergencies, he should be able to make a stable repayment of £1 to £2 per week. At a weekly "installment" repayment of £1.50, over a year (12 months, approximately 48 weeks), it would take him nearly seven years to pay off the £500 debt…
Hmm… seven years? Would she stay here that long?
Sure enough, as he expected, Alice gently shook her head.
"No, there's no need. I have a better plan, but I don't know if you'd be willing to accept it."
"…A better plan? What plan?" For some reason, Klein noticed she started looking him up and down, and a vague, ominous premonition arose within him.
"Well, how should I put it?" Alice bluntly stated her thoughts, "To put it simply, you can pay with your body, use yourself to settle the debt; to put it more complicatedly, I plan to formulate a potion using materials from this world, and I need a brave and trustworthy local volunteer to help provide experimental data… Do you understand what I mean?" She
wanted him to be her guinea pig again?!
Klein's expression froze, almost instinctively feeling resistance. Even his increasingly rapid heartbeat felt like it had been doused with cold water, before calming down and returning to normal.
Seemingly sensing his hesitation, Alice smiled and added,
"Remember the potions I gave you? I assume you already understand their effects and their strategic importance in this world. By the way, I concocted them myself… Now, think about it. A healing potion that has a long shelf life and is made from local renewable materials might come in handy sometime, or even save a life… I probably don't need to emphasize the benefits of completing this research again, right? Of course,
please
trust my alchemical skills. I plan to focus on exploring the basic properties of herbs and various spiritual materials in the initial stages. You just need to cooperate with me to complete this phase of research… Hmm, the duration will be about a month, but I'll need you to come and test the potions almost every day." After a silent and intense internal struggle, reason prevailed over instinct, and Klein finally opened his mouth, asking hesitantly,
"If I divine that it's a drug harmful to my health, can I refuse to take it?"
"If you can confirm it's harmful, I'd be happy to take it back and continue improving it." Alice blinked her left eye. "Also, oral medications are riskier, so I'm planning to make the experimental drug into a topical form… Hmm, you seem to be doing physical training lately? Then I'll temporarily set the goal as an ointment to speed up the body's recovery… So, any other ideas?"
Klein thought for a moment and said,
"There's a problem. What if the ointment has side effects, but I don't experience the corresponding symptoms immediately, but instead the adverse reactions erupt during the day, while I'm at work… What should I do then?"
"Oh, you've come up with a good hypothesis! Very good, very good…" Alice's eyebrows curved slightly, and she clapped her hands happily. "It's okay, don't worry. The experimental drug shouldn't be too strong. One regeneration spell and one purification spell will definitely be enough to eliminate the side effects… However, I can't be by your side every day…"
Alice thought for a while and quickly came up with a solution.
"Here's another potion for you. Keep it with you at all times."
Klein took the small round bottle she handed him, staring curiously at the thick, dark red liquid inside, his eyes glued to the transparent crystal bottle covered in strange patterns.
"This is… well, explaining the name is pointless. Anyway, as long as your head is still attached to your body, and you have the strength to open the bottle and drink the potion, even if you only have half a body left, it can grow back." The girl spoke lightly, revealing a terrifying truth. "Unlike the potions I gave you before, this one alone can sell for a lot of money. So you must accurately assess your physical condition and use the medicine accordingly… This is your last resort."
A severe injury that left only half a body could be revived? That's practically resurrection!
Klein was startled, nearly dropping the small round bottle.
"This... how much money is that...?"
"I've never sold this potion, but I used it to save the life of a nobleman from a remote region. After he recovered, he generously gave me ownership of a precious metal mine and deposits money into a church account I designated every year," Alice said honestly.
Value always varies from person to person, that was what she meant, but seeing how carefully Klein handled the potion bottle, he had clearly misunderstood.
Helpless, Alice added,
"You don't need to worry about accidentally breaking this potion... the protective array on the bottle isn't just for show; it's far more robust than you imagine. Even if you fall from a roof, it won't be damaged..."
Klein's face flushed, and he quickly coughed lightly, ceasing his examination of the potion worth a gold mine. He then cautiously raised a few questions that concerned him, finally nodding to indicate his agreement to her terms.
"Alright then, the drug trial will start tomorrow… um, let's start the day after tomorrow. As for your request, don't forget to come see me during the day tomorrow." Alice emphasized the time again.
After thinking about tomorrow's arrangements for a moment, Klein made a suggestion and then arranged to meet her at 1:30 pm tomorrow at the intersection of Besik Street and Zotland Street.
…
The unfortunate accidents that had been following Klein's life seemed to have finally left him. At least for this day, he didn't encounter any coincidences, had a smooth morning, and arrived at the agreed location with Alice on time.
In order to find the terrible mastermind as soon as possible, Klein had specially cleared the time he would have used to practice his marksmanship at the shooting club today. Under the scorching July afternoon sun, he walked from Blackthorn Security Company all the way to the intersection with Besik Street.
He stopped by a street lamp, took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time. The minute hand was still a little short of the bottom.
After waiting for a few minutes, Klein heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.
"Good afternoon, you're quite punctual."
He turned around, cane in hand, about to reply, saying "Good afternoon," but then his words seemed to catch in his throat, unable to come out.
The reason was simple: Alice had changed her attire again. An outfit he'd never seen before.
She wore an extremely thin trench coat, its base color a familiar white with gold trim, underneath which lay a tightly fitting dark half-armor. A belt with multiple small pouches slung across her waist, and unusually, instead of a skirt, she wore leather trousers that barely covered her thighs, her legs encased in black silk fabric, revealing alluring curves from the edges of her boots upwards.
Seemingly to avoid the sun, she also carried a large parasol, almost entirely hidden in its shade.
"Don't look at me like that… I need some magical equipment to amplify my senses."
Before the person being looked at could show any embarrassment, Klein averted his gaze, unable to bear looking at her any longer.
He gripped the handle of his cane tightly, then, realizing his tension, loosened his grip slightly and said casually,
"Let's go... completing the case is the priority."
"Then follow me," the girl said, seemingly choosing a direction randomly.
Klein caught up with her in a few steps, walking alongside her, then asked with a hint of curiosity,
"How are you planning to show me what those red-chimney houses look like? Find a secluded spot, take me flying, and then use some invisibility magic so we can search together from the air?"
If that were the case, it would indeed be easier to search.
Sigh, it's a pity about the deposit he paid to the private investigator... If he had known Alice was working as a detective assistant at that agency, handling all sorts of cases, he would have asked her directly.
With a sigh of regret, Klein felt the girl beside him glance at him sideways.
"Are you kidding me? Flying in such a sunny day? I'll get sunburned."
"...Huh?" He was taken aback, looked up at the sky and clouds as usual, and thought that the temperature was at most 28 or 29 degrees Celsius, which should be far from being scorching hot enough to make someone faint.
"I, I can hold an umbrella for you...a parasol, don't you have one?" Thinking of the possibility of flying, Klein asked quite proactively.
"No." Alice stubbornly turned her head away, then after two seconds turned back to look at him, extending her left hand, which wasn't holding the umbrella. "Come here."
Suppressing the small emotion that was disturbing his heart, Klein took her hand as if he understood. "Want to go to the Mirror World?"
The girl stopped in front of the bright glass window of a shop, handed the parasol to Klein, raised her hand to set up an invisible wall to isolate the surroundings, and casually hummed, "Yeah, what else?"
Hearing her affirmative reply, Klein couldn't help but recall that bizarre and fantastical scene from his memory, and was slightly hesitant amidst his surprise.
Now his knowledge of the occult was gradually expanding, and he knew a lot of anecdotes and legends about mirrors—well, most of them were negative and terrifying stories.
Moreover, the concept of the "mirror world" seems to belong to a rather profound and mysterious part of the knowledge in the extraordinary realm. The information he has seen so far doesn't even mention anything similar, and Old Neil doesn't know much about it either; furthermore, abilities related to mirrors are completely different from the extraordinary abilities of the "Diviner" sequence…
In short, the "mirror world" is a place full of unknowns and risks for him!
However, at least with Alice by his side, it seems quite safe…
Thinking this, Klein couldn't help but steal another glance at her before quickly looking away.
Alice didn't notice his small action, or even if she did, she wouldn't react in any particular way. After a moment's thought, she looked up at the young Night Watcher sharing an umbrella with her.
"In your understanding, what is a 'mirror'?"
"A smooth surface that can reflect the appearance of things under light," Klein replied, seeing her reach out to touch the gleaming glass window. He quickly folded the parasol in his hand and hung it on his arm.
He felt Alice glance at his reflection in the glass.
"That's not entirely wrong."
She took his hand and slowly led him into the world behind the reflection.
A street almost perfectly symmetrical to its original form, except the noise of pedestrians and vehicles was absent, and the shop signs and logos were completely upside down, making them particularly difficult to read.
"This is the first layer of the mirror world, the layer closest to reality…" After passing through the horizontal mirror that separated the two worlds, Alice stopped, her free right hand resting on the glass window that had previously displayed the reflection.
"This layer is a mirror world perfectly symmetrical to reality, and the scenery visible is limited to this small block. To go further, you must use mirror grafting technology to stitch the distant mirror space together with this mirror… Well, I digress. What I mean is, this place is most similar to reality, but its essence is closer to the second layer of the mirror world, which is—"
As she spoke, she took Klein's hand again and turned back through the glass window that no longer reflected their images.
The scene before him instantly transformed into a blurry, illusory fragment, an endless array of fragments of varying sizes reflecting all sorts of different scenes: workers, impeccably dressed businessmen, houses, rivers…
Beneath his feet lay a twisted passageway that disoriented him, its end unknown.
"This is the second layer of the mirror world, I call it the psychedelic layer… hmm, because every time I enter this layer, it's this chaotic mess, making my eyes dizzy."
Klein circled around, roughly surveying the fragments reflecting the shapes of houses and streets, and a guess formed in his mind:
"So we're going to look for the house with the red chimney here?"
Alice nodded slightly at first, then shook her head and added,
"Yes and no. Normally, searching directly on this level wouldn't be a problem, but that would take too much time and be too inefficient. Besides, I've been avoiding using mirror magic for extended periods lately..."
Avoiding mirror magic? Why?
Without giving Klein a chance to ask, she quickly continued,
"So today, I'm going to take you deeper into the third level of the mirror world."
"A third level? Are there even deeper fourth and fifth levels?" Klein asked in great surprise.
Although he had roughly guessed from her previous explanation that the mirror world she mentioned seemed to be divided into different levels, hearing her say that she was going to take him to a deeper level of the mirror world made him feel both nervous and curious.
"Guess."
For some reason, Alice did something, and he saw the passage beneath his feet seem to twist and bend inexplicably...
No, not just seem, this illusory passage was really twisting and deforming! Like the numerous scattered passages extending in unknown directions, it was twisted into random shapes by some unseen force, gradually forming a bottomless abyss at its end.
Alice gazed at the confluence of the passages ahead and whispered,
"Ready? We're about to fall... Remember, don't let go of my hand."
"Before we came here, you didn't warn me about this extreme sport at all..." Klein's face paled slightly, and he instinctively gripped his cane and parasol tightly.
She glanced back at him.
"If you're really scared, you can hug me... I mean, hug me from behind around the waist, but then you'll have to crouch down a little."
Having said that, Klein straightened his back and composed himself, saying,
"No, there's no need to go that far. I think I can handle it."
Alice silently glanced at him again before finally turning back to the front.
If she hadn't felt her fingers being gripped tightly by this prideful guy, she would have believed he wasn't scared.
"Then, the fall begins."
She said no more, closed her eyes, and took a step forward.
Almost simultaneously, Klein felt something grab his ankle and violently drag him downwards!
The weightlessness he had experienced before, only on amusement park rides like drop towers, was nothing compared to this fall.
He was instantly terrified, about to scream out loud—you call this a fall? This is clearly a plane crash, being grabbed and dragged down by a sea monster!
If he hadn't felt his right hand tightly intertwined with her slender, soft fingers, he had no doubt he would have raised his cane and lashed it at his feet.
After closing his eyes and barely managing to regain his composure using meditation techniques, Klein silently counted his breaths. On the tenth count, the terrifying, almost dizzying, acceleration suddenly vanished, but he didn't feel any change in his speed; it wasn't like he was moving in a certain direction, nor was it like he was completely still.
He cautiously opened his eyes, and before he could even make out the scenery before him, he was suddenly struck by a long-forgotten force of gravity, and he collapsed, headfirst.
Pain—wait, it doesn't hurt?
The floor here is so soft?
Klein instinctively propped himself up, his blurred vision gradually returning to normal. Before him stretched a magnificent mountain range of considerable size, and above that, he could see the delicate outline of a young girl's collarbone, a purple crystal necklace cascading down her fair neck.
Finally, he met a pair of blue-green eyes glistening with misty tears. "
Holy crap!" Klein was startled and quickly got up, forcibly suppressing the burning sensation on his face, and reached out to help her up.
"This is the third level of the Mirror World… I call this the Hall of Contemplation,"
Alice said, avoiding his hand as she stood up, then gave a slightly displeased snort.
"Every time I come here, I end up in a mess, it's really annoying… but there's nothing I can do, the Meditation Hall has higher 'authority' and can do more."
Klein tried his best to appear calm and composed, "For example, it can save time from searching for each Red Chimney House one by one?"
"Remember the question I asked you at the beginning? In your understanding, what is a 'mirror'? You answered that it's a smooth surface." Alice didn't answer, but instead looked around.
Seeing this, he finally abandoned his concerns about secretly observing the scene out of the corner of his eye and looked around openly.
The mirrored world on this floor… just as Alice said, resembled a strange and fantastical, spacious hall.
Underfoot was a smooth, pitch-black floor, reflecting nothing. The exquisitely crafted, ornate, openwork pillars, adorned with runes and pictorial patterns, stretched into the distance, supporting a magnificent starry dome. Between these pillars, countless beautiful silver mirrors were erected, making it difficult to count their number.
"No need to count. There are 25,920 silver mirrors in total, but we don't need that many today. Considering the total population of Tingen, 2,160 mirrors will be more than enough."
Alice clapped her hands lightly, dimming most of the light in the ha