Alice thoughtfully stuffed the necklace back in, restoring everything to how it was before she made a move, striving to replicate every fold and every strand of hair.
After doing all this, Alice stared blankly at the closed room door, ready to blink into the washroom, but suddenly felt that something was off.
Klein… is he done washing?
After being dazed for two seconds, Alice appeared at the entrance of the washroom.
...Better not go in.
Speaking of which… where's Cynthia?
Alice blinked her eyes, looked at the empty hallway, hesitated for a moment, but stayed where she was.
Actually, I think I can leave now… After all, under the situation of having signed a contract, it's not possible for Klein to really do anything with Cynthia… uh, wait a minute.
Alice lazily leaned against the wall, letting her thoughts run wild, and suddenly jumped up.
If I remember correctly, what Cynthia said was… "I want to have a child with you," right?
This sentence wouldn't be strange under normal circumstances, but considering the other party is an evil god, Alice couldn't help but start thinking — just who would be the one giving birth?
Exciting.
While she was marveling at this, Klein came out wearing a bathrobe, his hair still steaming.
Alice looked at the especially tightly tied belt outside the bathrobe and fell into thought.
She stared for quite a while, only to realize Klein was just standing there without moving. After seriously thinking for a few seconds, Alice finally realized — ah, he doesn't know the way here.
Alice's gaze drifted for a moment, but after thinking, she felt this wasn't her problem. She was considering whether to give Klein directions.
At that moment, the door to the room diagonally across opened with a creak, and Cynthia stepped out wearing only a silk nightgown.
Her blond hair hung down slightly messy, with a few strands drifting in front of her blue eyes and bright red lips, half-concealing her gaze, lips half-parted, making her look extremely seductive in the dim and ambiguous light.
The neckline of the silk nightgown was very open, and Alice's gaze was drawn over. After a dozen seconds, she curiously turned to look at Klein — who supposedly couldn't "respond" to such things.
Klein was sizing up Cynthia from head to toe with a "playful" gaze. Alice looked at the belt tied tightly around the towel, grinding her teeth a little.
Watching Cynthia become increasingly shy under Klein's gaze, Alice realized that if we disregard any acting involved, at least up to now, Cynthia was still human.
But none of them cared about that — especially Klein. Although he hadn't yet realized the thought-provoking issue of "who exactly would give birth," he also didn't have the intention of having a child with Cynthia. He calmly responded:
"Prepare coffee for me and bring it to the study.
"I have a lot to handle tonight. You don't need to wait for me."
So unromantic… Mr. Fool… Alice suddenly wanted to laugh. She shook her head and sighed inwardly.
—Klein now looked like one of those guys who'd invite girls to a hotel just to play video games all night.
Sure enough, Cynthia looked up in confusion, unable to understand the response.
This clearly wouldn't get past Cynthia. Klein understood that too, but just thinking of Alice's earlier appearance made Klein instinctively repulsed at the idea of interacting with Cynthia.
Klein didn't touch Cynthia but instead gave a soothing smile and said gently:
"I'll keep you company properly in a few days."
Maybe hugging her or kissing her would've worked better, but…
Klein fiercely cursed Alice in his heart — he felt that even if he hadn't signed that contract, he wouldn't be able to develop interest in these sorts of things for a while.
Disappointment was plainly written on Cynthia's face, but she wouldn't go against "Emilus's" will. She quickly suppressed her emotions and forced a smile:
"Okay.
"General, your pajamas are in the room. A bathrobe isn't suitable for handling affairs."
She's smiling so falsely… Alice glanced at Cynthia, and suddenly chuckled softly as she recalled the final scene from the revelation, whispering where no one could hear:
"It's okay. From now on, you'll never have to force yourself to smile like that again."
—Because once you're dead, isn't that exactly it? No more need for fake smiles?
Alice curved her lips, watching Klein enter the bedroom and then come out again wearing dark red pajamas.
Ah, why not bright red… Alice withdrew her gaze in disappointment.
Cynthia diligently opened the study door, which made Alice quite sad — after the bedroom, she missed seeing the scene of Klein not being able to find the study.
Alice sighed, ignored the attentive Cynthia, and slipped behind Klein, browsing through the documents and materials along with his page-turning.
So, after Klein flipped a page, Alice watched the seemingly very professional Klein and fell into deep thought.
…He can understand this?
Ironclads, sailing battleships… all kinds of messy ship-related data and design concepts slid through Alice's smooth brain without leaving a single trace.
Watching Klein carefully browse and imitate the admiral's handwriting to sign… huh?
Alice saw Klein write "reconsider further" on some documents and realized he was actually just pretending earlier.
Watching Klein fake-review the files, Alice thought for a few seconds, then stole a chair from another room and silently appeared beside Klein with it.
She half-turned her body to face him, eyes filled with a smile, and called out:
"Mr. Fool, I want to—"
"Shut up." Klein said expressionlessly. At the same time, the pen in his hand snapped.
Alice stared at the broken pen for two seconds. The two snapped pieces rejoined into a complete pen.
Klein finally turned his head to look at Alice because of the repaired pen.
Alice shrank her neck when she saw his expression, raised her right hand in a not-so-standard swearing pose, and said:
"I won't speak nonsense again for the rest of the day. I swear."
Klein gave her a glance with emotionless eyes and continued reviewing documents.
Alice stared at him for several minutes, but he never looked up. She gritted her teeth and decided to throw a big bomb:
"That line I said before was word for word from Cynthia!
'Want to have a child with you'... Tsk tsk, tell me — who exactly is giving birth to the child, you or Cynthia?"
Klein turned his head almost in horror, suddenly remembering Alice's joke in front of Bilt:
"Maybe one day in the future, I'll call you father… or mother?"
—Because, even though it was a joke, the one speaking was Miss Destiny.
(End of this chapter)