Lilith eventually had her wish fulfilled as Alice made good on her promise and handed her the super rare Magical Girl Hikari figurine. Alice also refused Lilith’s offer of monetary compensation, giving the latter the excuse of “this student ID is very important to me.”
This situation touched Lilith. Although this was her first time meeting Alice in person, Alice’s generosity and kindness to others made her think “as expected of someone who grew up in the countryside.” Alice did not show the overbearing attitude generally found in nobles. On the contrary, she was a very amicable person.
Because of this, although Lilith eventually followed Alice’s request and accepted the figurine without paying any money, she still patted her disappointing chest and vowed to Alice: “I still have some authority in the Rhine Kingdom. If someone tries to make trouble for you, come to me.”
Essentially, Lilith was trying to say, “You look like a gullible person. I worry that you’ll be tricked, so I’ll protect you while you’re in the Rhine Kingdom.” When Andusia heard Lilith’s words, she couldn’t help but inwardly sneer. This was a perfect example of information asymmetry. Lilith might think that Alice was giving her(Andusia) to her for free, but little did Lilith know that she was the gullible one in this transaction.
Throughout her interactions with Alice, Andusia learned that Alice wasn’t a bad person deep down, and most of her actions were done with good intentions in the big picture. However, Alice could also be much more devious than the average person if such behavior was necessary to accomplish some of her goals.
As for why Alice had refused to take Lilith’s money, Andusia guessed that Alice must be feeling guilty over conning a fake student ID out of Lilith and felt it’d be inhuman of her to take Lilith’s money on top of that.
Simply put, Lilith was still too young, even if she was royalty. She still wasn’t aware of the evil in humans. At this point, Andusia couldn’t help but wonder how Lilith would react once she disappeared. Would the girl realize that Alice had tricked her? Or would the girl think that she had accidentally misplaced her?
“This figurine is really well made. Every part of it feels like a real human body. There are no doll joints to give it an artificial feeling. I can’t even begin to imagine how this thing was made.”
The first thing Lilith did after receiving Andusia was to fondle Andusia’s body, her actions nearly causing Andusia’s break her act. Then, she mimicked Alice and placed Andusia on her shoulder, only to be surprised when she saw Andusia sitting steadily on her shoulder. She could feel that so long as she didn’t make any large movements, Andusia wouldn’t fall off her shoulder.
If not for the fact that shrinking magic for living creatures did not exist in this world, Lilith would have most likely suspected that Alice had given her a miniaturized person. Of course, Lilith also didn’t think of the possibility that Andusia might be made using the rare Living Wood. With how young Lilith was, she might not even know about the existence of Living Wood.
“By the way, since you are the Gryffin Kingdom’s princess, you should have heard about the latest information circulating among the various royal families, right? I’m talking about the one about Demon Kings,” Lilith, who was in a good mood after receiving the rare “figurine” she had been longing for, suddenly asked. “If I’m not mistaken, this information should have originated from your side… Yes, the Hero is in the Gryffin Kingdom, so your side must have been the first to receive this information.”
“Information about the Demon Kings?”
Alice was originally prepared to follow Lilith’s suggestion to tour the humongous Royal Magic Tower from inside to outside. Then, only after familiarizing herself with the tower’s layout would she seek out the demon spy lurking in the tower. However, Lilith’s words caused her to pause her footsteps.
The Gryffin Kingdom received new information relating to the Demon Kings? Why haven’t I heard about it before?
Alice was the Hero. In theory, if the Gryffin Kingdom were to uncover new information about the Demon Kings, Catherine should have immediately informed her about it. However, before Alice had left for the Rhine Kingdom, not once did Catherine reveal any such information to her.
Lilith couldn’t help but look at Alice suspiciously. However, it didn’t seem like Alice was faking her expression, so the younger girl most likely didn’t know about this new information.
After giving the matter some thought, Lilith concluded that this might be because Alice had only become a princess not long ago, and King Hatter still hadn’t decided to have Alice take over managing the kingdom’s affairs. Hence, Alice wasn’t kept up to date with classified information.
However, the new information on Demon Kings wasn’t something highly classified. Not to mention, Alice was a member of the Gryffin Kingdom’s royalty. She naturally had the qualifications to learn about this information. So, after suppressing her voice, Lilith said, “It’s about how Demon Kings would stuff anal beads in their bodies when fighting against Heroes. This information came directly from the Hero, so its credibility is very high.”
Alice was dumbfounded. What kind of retarded information was this? Moreover, this information came directly from the Hero? Since when did she say such a thing? Or could it have come from Kristine?
However, Alice quickly denied her last thought. Kristine had been busy researching how to purify the demon realm’s polluted mana with Lacey recently, so she shouldn’t have had any contact with Hatter or anyone else. Moreover, even if Kristine did make contact with Hatter or Catherine and told them about this highly implausible information, Alice should have heard about it.
Andusia, who sat on Lilith’s shoulder, naturally heard what Lilith said to Alice, her expression crumbling instantly. However, she quickly suppressed her shock and rage and reverted to her usual expression, doing her best to make herself look like a normal figurine. After all, they were currently in the Royal Magic Tower’s main lobby. Many people were coming and going here, and it’d be bad if someone noticed the change in her expression.
Fortunately, Andusia was fully aware of Alice’s recent actions and knew that Alice had never said such drivel to anybody, so she didn’t grow displeased with Alice. Instead, she quickly worked her brain to figure out how such a retarded information would appear in the information network of the human kingdoms’ royalty.
Very quickly, both Alice and Andusia thought of the most likely cause of this nonsensical information.
—A misunderstanding.
Alice quickly recalled Catherine’s question: “So you’re saying that these Demon Kings will use the tools they created with the Demon King’s Power’s essence and wear them?” Her mind was partially focused on untangling the cloth that bound the anal beads at the time, so she had agreed to Catherine’s question without thinking too deeply about it. However, now that she retraced her memories, she found that the way Catherine had worded her question was somewhat strange. Specifically, the “wear them” part…
Alice wasn’t aware that the weapon Catherine brought to her was in the shape of anal beads at the time. Moreover, what Alice had tried to convey to Catherine at the time was that Demon Kings would carry the tools, which they’ve made using the Demon King’s Power’s essence, on their persons when fighting their Hero counterparts. However, it would seem that her absentminded response had led to Catherine misunderstanding that all Demon Kings would shape the stolen Demon King’s Power’s essence into anal beads and “wear” them.
This was a very awkward situation. Immediately, Alice made a mental note to herself to clear up this misunderstanding with Catherine as soon as she returned to the Gryffin Kingdom. Otherwise, the reputation of all Demon Kings would be taking a hit. Although Alice didn’t care about the reputation of Demon Kings, that evidently wasn’t the case for Andusia. If she didn’t take care of this matter properly, Andusia would probably fight her to the death.
Not to mention, Alice was also bearing the identity of a Demon King currently. If this information reached the demon realm, she, too, would have her reputation ruined.