Lueran awkwardly stood up, bowed and apologized: "General, I am very sorry, I..."
His expression was uneasy, his tone was wavering, it could be seen that he was very worried about losing this job because of it.
This mistake was not on Lueran, Klein understood this. He suppressed the desire to question Alice, and said in a voice without much emotion:
"Continue the report."
This instead let Lueran breathe a sigh of relief, but he did not try to sit again. Rather, keeping the bowing posture and bending at the waist, he took out a stack of documents from the black briefcase he was carrying:
"Your Excellency Admiral, this is the 1349 consolidated accounts submitted by the Olavi Naval Base."
Klein reached out to take it, casually flipped through a few pages, and skimmed them.
A roll of toilet paper costs 1 pound, the naval base's bathhouse was renovated twenty times in a year... Alice sneakily peeked at this bill. Without even needing to think, the "Machine"'s extraordinary ability calculated some absurd numbers.
Admiral Admiral Amyrius's subordinates really are... strictly ordered.
Alice looked away with a complicated expression, feeling her understanding had been refreshed, but she remembered Klein's warning after all and did not show herself to scare Lueran.
As for just now... what does that have to do with her? That was Lueran's own bad luck!
Alice, without the slightest guilt, nodded, then watched as Klein finished flipping through the documents and said without expression:
"Put it on my desk."
Alice blinked twice. She felt Klein's non-committal reaction was quite marvelous. After all, the important figures in her impression all seemed to be like this — just like the goddess who didn't want to say anything at first.
Alice decided to learn this matter.
"Yes, Your Excellency Admiral." Lueran's expression didn't change, as if he had already expected this, he stuffed the documents back into the briefcase and straightened his body.
There was no more to report. Lueran looked back to confirm the seat's position before sitting down.
Klein quietly used the "Clown" extraordinary ability to control his facial muscles, leaned back against the carriage wall, half-closed his eyes, and pretended he was thinking.
Lueran also remained silent, not speaking first.
Alice sneakily looked at the two of them, hesitated for a moment, and finally gave up on the idea of letting Klein fall asleep just like that.
Still... better to mess with someone else... Alice secretly glanced at Klein, nodded slightly, and silently looked toward Lueran.
Even though he hadn't discovered anything, Lueran still uneasily shifted his body twice, looked around left and right, then started staring at the door, his expression gradually becoming anxious.
One after another tall, iron-black gas street lamps rapidly swept by. The carriage arrived near the naval base and turned into a house with a garden and lawn.
Klein got off the carriage and walked up the steps. Lueran finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his mood settling down.
The butler opened the door. One by one, the servants stood respectfully on both sides.
The living room of this house was decorated very elegantly, with landscape oil paintings hanging, plaster statues, simple vases placed about. A faint yet lingering fragrance filled the air, refreshing and pleasant.
A beautiful young lady dressed in casual home attire came to greet them. Klein instantly tensed up, while the hidden Alice's eyes lit up — this was obviously the legendary Miss Cynthia.
She looked to be just over twenty, with the same blond hair and blue eyes as Alice, but her hair was not as dazzling as Alice's, the color was softer, and her eye color was also deeper and more mixed.
She was right between mature charm and girlish innocence. As she walked slowly, her swaying figure made Alice suddenly have a desire to capture her with a paintbrush.
She should be the main character of some painting... This thought flashed through Alice's mind as she re-evaluated Cynthia.
Cynthia carried both the softness of a woman and the youthful energy unique to a girl. For a moment, Alice felt as if she saw a gracefully swaying tree.
On that tree were beautiful flowers — some already blooming, some about to bloom — and layers upon layers of fleshy tumors, some already cracked open into flowers, others still in their original state.
...Tumors?
Alice, terrified, withdrew her gaze from Cynthia and forced herself to lower her head and look at the floor.
Of course, she wouldn't be corrupted just from that one glance, but Alice immediately remembered the reason she was standing here — that incomplete revelation.
She remembered clearly the sense of crisis brought by that dream, and so she deeply understood one thing — that one behind it, she couldn't afford to provoke.
Klein did not know what Alice had discovered. While hoping that Alice wouldn't act strangely, he made the face of "Admiral Amyrius" show a smile, then opened his arms.
Cynthia threw herself into his arms, stood on tiptoe, cheek to cheek, and said with a soft laugh:
"General, I've already heated the water for you and put it in the tub."
Alice couldn't help but raise her head again to look at the two of them. In that instant, another scene presented itself before her eyes.
It was a tall, pale body covered with tumors and flowers, with brownish "branches" extending from it. The tumors were still continuously splitting open into flowers.
Klein was in front of that body. Comparing their height difference, Alice was sure that the owner of that body was three meters tall.
At the top of that body turned a head — it was a female face, with long golden hair and azure eyes, a high nose bridge and full lips. Clearly, this was Cynthia.
The "branches" were still waving, and the "flowers" opened and closed. Alice had no mind to pay attention to those. She looked at Cynthia's shy expression, her cheeks blushing as she looked down at Klein and said:
"General, I want, I want to have a child with you..."
A mix of terror and joy enveloped Alice. She realized this was probably the scene she had wanted to paint, but it was also something brought about by the owner of that dangerous dream.
Danger was so close to her.
Alice bit her lip, brought her attention back to the current scene, and looked at Klein, whose cheek was pressed against Cynthia's. Yet she had no teasing thoughts at all.
"Very good," Klein praised, then pushed Cynthia away. This made Alice breathe a sigh of relief.
Perhaps she should thank that contract with Admiral Amyrius... though it probably wouldn't be of much use by that point.
Following Klein into the washroom, after confirming Cynthia had left, Alice unhesitatingly locked the door and set up a spiritual barrier.
After doing all this, she looked at Klein, took a deep breath, blinked her eyes twice to calm her expression, and said in a voice devoid of emotion:
"Congratulations.
You've got yourself in deep.
A evil god wants to have a child with you."
(End of Chapter)