Ch.362[Episode 362] Alice in Gacha Land
by fnovelpia
“This is quite an interesting place.”
The white-haired woman was looking around the streets of Gachaland with curiosity, like someone who had just arrived from the countryside.
Could she be someone who lived elsewhere and was invited to Gachaland?
But even that seemed questionable.
Her behavior and attire were far too noble and classical to suggest she had lived in the countryside.
A very light brown dress shirt with a very dark brown tie.
And a moderate brown suit with a slightly darker brown coat and a wide-brimmed fedora the same color as the suit.
The cane in her hand was made of yew, with a silver crow’s head figure at the end that served as a handle.
On the opposite side of the hand holding the cane was a rather heavy-looking trunk, with several stamps attached to the outside featuring a white crow perched on a white yew tree against a brown background.
The stamps all seemed to be made at different times and places, as the overall pictures and numbers written below them were all different. The newest-looking stamp had the number 1733 written on it with a brown-drawn factory area as the background.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a vacation, and coming to Gachaland seems to have been a good choice.”
The white-haired woman walked down the street with a bright smile.
Occasionally she would buy something to eat if she wanted it, or purchase items she liked and put them in her trunk.
Since she had already exchanged her money before coming to Gachaland, there was no issue with not having enough funds.
Originally, she had been forced to work without rest for her employer for many years.
She had accumulated quite a bit of money during that time, and even if she ran short, she knew several places where she could exchange more, so she didn’t think there would be any problems.
The real problem appeared elsewhere.
“Hey, miss. Do you have some time?”
Someone called out to the white-haired woman.
However, she didn’t realize the words were directed at her and continued admiring the scenery of Gachaland.
The person who had called her seemed irritated by her behavior and called out again, more irritably than before.
“Hey! Miss! Yes! You there with the white hair! I’m talking to you!”
The woman turned around at someone’s shout.
There stood a man with a fierce expression and a scar on one eye that looked like a bear had clawed him. He couldn’t contain his anger at the fact that the woman had ignored him.
He seems to be quite hot-tempered.
That’s what the woman thought.
“Can I help you?”
But the woman hid such thoughts and displayed a bright smile on the outside.
This was something she had learned from someone.
The harder and more irritating the situation, the more you should smile.
Of course, it wasn’t something he had said directly, but something she had learned from observing his behavior.
At that smile, the fierce-looking man’s face turned slightly red.
He had fallen for the smile of one of Gachaland’s most beautiful women.
“It’s nothing much. I was just wondering if you had some time.”
The man mumbled to the woman.
“If it’s okay with you, how about a cup of coffee?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I have something I must do right now.”
The woman, still smiling, rejected the man’s offer.
She rejected it so firmly and immediately after he finished speaking that there was no room for reconsideration.
The man was irritated by the woman’s resolute attitude.
“Aren’t you being too stuck up?”
The man suddenly grabbed the woman’s wrist.
Her wrist seemed so thin it might break in his hand.
“I’m just asking you to have coffee with me!”
With those words, the man tried to pull her along by her wrist.
Despite pulling strongly enough to make one wonder if it was acceptable, surprisingly, the woman didn’t budge at all.
“…Hmm. This would count as self-defense, right?”
“What?”
The man looked at the woman who had suddenly muttered something.
But the woman wasn’t looking at him.
She seemed to be thinking about something while stroking her chin.
Eventually, after finishing her brief contemplation, the woman nodded as if she had made some decision, and said to the man:
“This is self-defense. Got it?”
And the woman dragged the man into an alley that appeared to be deserted.
Shortly after, a very pitiful scream echoed from the alley.
…
“Whew. That was quite refreshing.”
The woman returned to the street just 10 minutes after entering the alley.
She came out of the alley looking extremely refreshed, with no major differences from when she entered except for slightly wrinkled clothes.
More precisely, the hem of her pants was a bit wrinkled, as if someone had grabbed her ankle.
“Good. Let’s start again with this refreshed feeling. Let’s see… according to what’s written here…”
She took out several sheets of paper from inside her coat.
Surprisingly, those papers were what Arcus had written about Gachaland.
It was unknown how she personally possessed something designated as a sacred object, but she didn’t seem to care much about that as she read through the contents she had already read many times.
“Sir Dominic was here and here… The part about meeting him in a dream is a bit far-fetched, so I’ll skip that…”
She began circling parts where Sir Dominic’s whereabouts were recorded with a red pen.
She was doing something that might make the White Crow Order of Feralant cry out in shock and call it blasphemous, but she did it without hesitation.
“So the place where dream Sir Dominic said to meet is… here.”
The woman finally arrived at the place where Arcus had received a revelation from Sir Dominic in his dream.
It was the place where Sir Dominic would appear when leaving home for downtown Gachaland.
“So if I wait here, I can meet Sir Dominic…?”
The woman stood still in that spot with quite an expectant expression.
Although she didn’t know when Sir Dominic would appear, she seemed determined to stand there until he did, looking around to pass the time.
Of course, she couldn’t stay there forever.
Because the Gachaland police came and took her away.
“That’s her! That’s the person! She’s the one who hit me!”
“Huh?”
The man who had been dragged into the alley earlier appeared with the police.
She was puzzled by the sudden appearance and shouting of the man.
He had clearly promised never to bother her again just moments ago!
“Excuse me. Did you hit this man?”
The police officer approached her and carefully began to speak.
It was Inspector Javert, with his distinctive mustache.
“Ah, no?”
She decided to deny it for now.
Unless someone had seen what happened in the alley, her actions were a perfect crime.
“I’m sorry, but the damage log is recorded in the system. You did hit him.”
“…?”
The woman’s eyes widened at Inspector Javert’s words.
System? She didn’t know what that was, but it seemed this “system” had secretly observed her actions.
“Y-yes, that’s true. But I had no choice. He first—”
“Ah, I’m not blaming you for the assault itself. That’s not a crime in Gachaland.”
Inspector Javert corrected her misunderstanding.
“Well, actually, it is an assault issue.”
After saying that, Inspector Javert let out a deep sigh.
“It’s a crime for a Star to assault a citizen in Gachaland without having their power sealed upon arrival.”
Inspector Javert said they needed to go to the station to file a report, but the white-haired woman didn’t hear his words.
It seemed her identity had been exposed.
The woman just stood there in a daze.
Even as she was taken to the police station.
…
Not long after the woman was taken to the police station.
“I didn’t realize that was the last of our ingredients…”
Sir Dominic appeared near where the woman had been just moments ago.
Sir Dominic had realized that the stir-fried meat and bread he had just eaten were the last of today’s ingredients.
So he had come out to buy ingredients for dinner.
Regarding this matter, Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica had played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go shopping, and as the result shows, Sir Dominic had lost.
It was a shameful defeat for the ever-victorious warrior Sir Dominic.
“…Hmm?”
Sir Dominic was just considering where to shop today when he suddenly raised his head and looked around.
A scent carried on the breeze. That scent was quite familiar.
However, as always happens with scents carried on the breeze, it disappeared again with the wind.
Sir Dominic tilted his head briefly at this familiar scent, but soon resumed thinking about what to eat for dinner and what ingredients would be needed.
The scent that had brushed past Sir Dominic flew in one direction and finally reached someone.
“No, I’m telling you I didn’t know about that! They didn’t tell me at immigration either!”
“P-please calm down a bit…”
To a woman venting her grievances at the police station.
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