"Hey, there is a book titled Alice, but it looks like a normal story book.. I don't think this is what we're searching for, right?" Reina picked up a book from one of the shelves she checked.
It had a yellow cover, and five letters spelled out the na 'Alice' on the front in capital bold font.
"..Let see that. We need to check it just to be sure," Aria approached Reina, taking away the book from her and opening its contents.
She read through the paragraphs and found it to be bizarre.
It was a story about a fairy nad Alice.
Alice was a newborn fairy who was a happy, jolly individual that cheered up her fairy comrades everyday. However, behind her happiness, the fairy had sothing to hide.
Regarding her feelings, the fairy Alice was not at all sincere at tis. But there was one thing that kept her going.
"Alice, your na ans happiness. You have to be happy in order for everyone else to be happy," Her mother spoke.
"Alice, your happiness will result in the world's happiness. So, be happy," Her father added to her mother's words.
Collective phrases like that made Alice very confused with what she was supposed to feel.
Like other fairies, she also felt sad, anger, and other emotions. And yet, she was tied down with her existence's aning.
Happiness.
She was not supposed to feel other emotions other than happiness, because her changing emotions would also effect everyone else, not just her.
She was the Happy Fairy.
The Happy Fairy Alice had to be happy for the world to be happy.
The happiness you face on a daily basis might be due to Alice's pretense, or the real feelings she emanated. If she is sad, then heavy rainstorms might occur, because Alice is ant to be happy.
Thus, today too, she continued to be happy.
The story ended on a sowhat sad note that left you contemplating on this little fairy's situation.
It was strange to say the least. Aria frowned deeply, becoming even more confused after reading this book.
Why was a child's storybook filled with contents like this? Wouldn't they just ruin the psyche of said child?
"...Alice," Aria muttered. "Can I interpret this story according to Leonis?"
Alice being Leonis' daughter, and the fairy's condition sohow relating to that.
"I'm not sure. Even if this belonged to Leonis, would he really make up such a story? It's vague and the details don't match with what he experienced," Rallaka joined in on the investigation.
He had also read up the book, and couldn't tie anything down back to Leonis.
Aria pursed her lips as she thought deeply.
"It could also be his fantasy. Inside one of the passages, a pink room was briefly ntioned, but not in detail. It was the fairy Alice's room. The color pink was associated to Alice's happiness. It was her favorite color... Maybe.. this is a representation of sorts for him,"
"Hmm.." Rallaka humd in confusion. "But what would his intention be?"
Such a strange motive.
If Leonis truly loved his daughter, shouldn't the story book be sothing positive and not this type of dark story?
"To.. subrge himself in his desired reality. In a sense, this dungeon, if the boss was truly him.. Wouldn't he beco the King? The Ruler of this place. This place can be whatever he desires for it to be. Only.. it would take a price," Aria looked at Rallaka aningfully, emphasizing on the word 'price'.
Everything had a 'price'. Nothing was free in this world.
To begin with, Aria did not know how dungeon bosses were selected. Rallaka was a special dungeon boss which had a proper consciousness and mind to actively interact. If Leonis was this dungeon's boss, then he should also be a special one judging from his identity.
If so, a conversation might be possible.
Aria swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
A conversation with the infamous Necromancer Leonis. What would it be like? How has he changed?
Most importantly, what made him stay in this dungeon?
Rallaka stilled in the air.
"So you are saying that Leonis took up a similar offer like I did and beca a dungeon boss after getting tricked," Rallaka said.
He, too, had made a huge mistake by taking up a forbidden deal. He was now freed due to Aria's intervention, but he could imagine that soone like Leonis had the potential to be entrapped in a deal too. Just like him.
"Maybe, yeah. Leonis is desperate. Who knows to what extent he'll go to in order to achieve his goals? Nothing is confird yet, though. We can keep this suspicion, but searching farther might be the best option for now," Aria sighed, standing back up and putting aside the book.
Rallaka humd in response, floating around the book with interest as Aria continued to speak to her team.
"Everyone, let's go back to searching. The book might be one of the clues, but that doesn't erase the possibility of other clues surfacing inside this room. Let's look again," Aria clapped her hands and announced.
They all nodded and went on their own separate ways to continue searching through the items.
After a few minutes of searching, Aria gathered everybody up once more since no one was calling out any information.
Why was it this hard to find their missing clue? Could it be sothing obvious that they missed, or missed the chance to interpret?
"Did you find anything? Not just Alice, but anything interesting.. or seemingly out of the place," Aria asked.
"Not really. I read through the books' contents as well and nothing implied Alice or this dungeon," Reina was stumped. She beca frustrated after looking for so long, yet finding no results.
She was used to dungeons that were straightforward, or just had simple puzzles that could be solved within a minute. This type of puzzle which required extensive searching that yielded them no results pestered her.
The other mbers were also annoyed, since they couldn't discover anything special. The rest of the books were just normal ones with normal plotlines. The toys were normal. Everything was normal.
This normal discoveries made them frustrated, much more than direct fights with monsters.
At least, when fighting, they had a clear goal. To defeat said monster.
But now, they didn't even know what kind of opponent they were up against.
Aria sat down, grumbling at the dilemma they faced.
"So.. there is really nothing but this book?" Aria stared at the book she held within her hands and opened it once more, massaging her temples.
She wanted to check it again. This book was the strangest discovery they made. Unlike the other books, this one contained a grave aning. Or perhaps, it was just one of those stories that attempted to tackle a dark matter, and Aria was taking this way too seriously?
She read it closely. Every single word, sentence, passage, all the things ntioned.
Alice. The Happy Fairy, Alice.
It was a short story, so not much descriptions was written. Most of it were vague statents that did not seem important.
It was hard to identify which ones were implied references, and which ones were just ant for the fantasy elent the story told about.
Alice.
She had repeated that na so many tis that she was starting to beco sick of it.
Alice, Alice, Alice.
"Alice ans.. noble, right?" Aria raised a brow.
"I think so, yeah.. Wait, the na Adele also ans noble. I suppose that's why the child's na is Alice? Because of the aning behind it?" Rallaka answered, discussing the definitions.
Maybe they were straying from the correct answer, but they were desperate right now.
"Is that sohow relevant.. noble? Nobility? What could that entail to?" Aria thought.
People na their child after similar sounding nas or ones that contained the sa aning pertaining to the parents' ones too, normally. It could just be a coincidence for Leonis' 'never seen before' daughter.
But then, Aria's attention was brought to a detail that she hadn't thought much of when reading the story.
She picked up the book once more and read one of the passages.
"Rallaka!" Aria called out, drawing said Earthen Spirit's reaction.
"What? Did you find sothing out?" Rallaka questioned.
"I don't know if this is relevant or not.. But look here," She pointed out to a paragraph.
[The fairy's na, which ant 'happiness', always resonated with her thoughts. Her parents constantly told her about that na again and again.]
"In here... it says that the na 'Alice' ant happiness. Wouldn't this be contradictory?" Aria asked.
"Who knows. Maybe he just made the aning up. So people do that, don't they?" Rallaka replied.
"Well... for soone like Leonis.." Aria said, but then stopped. "Well, I don't actually know what type of person Leonis is. But I have a strong feeling that this might be the answer," Aria said with confidence sparking inside her eyes.
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