The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Chapter 224: People Start to Reminisce Once They Grow Old

Although the process was vastly different from Andusia's expectations, there were no differences in the results. At the very least, Ciel was no longer sulking. The only problem was that the sight of her blushing while panting softly on the chair could easily create a misunderstanding.

After "pacifying" Ciel, Alice resumed reading the Wind Hunter in front of her. After all, this was her goal in visiting the catkins' settlement. Moreover, from what she gathered through reading the taboo books' introduction just now, she found that all three taboos had unexpectedly useful effects. So, she needed to learn all three of them.

Ciel knew about Alice's identity as the Hero. So, since she had already gotten the attention she wanted, she naturally wouldn't continue disturbing Alice's studies. After telling Alice the location of her house in a tsundere manner, Ciel left the archive building.

Although there were hostels specifically prepared for guests in Elkite, Ciel still invited Alice to stay over at her house throughout her visit. Though, the way she extended her invitation remained stubborn as usual, saying something along the lines of "I'm just worried that you're not used to living in a hostel." Alice had found the catkin's invitation quite funny at the time.

Maybe all catkins were like this? Alice wasn't sure. However, based on her experience interacting with catkins thus far, she found that catkins were rather amiable people. Ciel could also be regarded as a friendly person so long as she wasn't dealing with Alice.

After Ciel left, Andusia could finally relax a bit. There was no one else on the archive building's second floor, so she didn't have to continue pretending to be a figurine.

"That girl has really grown attached to you. You've thoroughly tamed her into a domestic cat," Andusia said as she hopped off Alice's shoulder. Then, she sat down on the table and looked at Alice with a slightly frustrated look on her face.

Andusia had seen Alice's interactions with Johanna and the archivist just now. She didn't think these catkins would behave so obediently in front of Alice.

As far as Andusia could remember, the catkin slaves were all incredibly disobedient toward slave owners. There would constantly be news of catkin slaves scratching off their owners' faces circulating around human society. Because of this, the first thing most slave owners would do after buying a catkin slave was to trim their slave's nails and bind their hands tightly.

However, neither Johanna nor the archivist had shown any resistance in front of Alice. This situation puzzled Andusia very much.

"Isn't that good? Honestly, I quite like small animals," Alice replied, smiling as she read the Wind Hunter in her hands. However, she didn't know what catkins were like a couple of thousand years ago, so she thought that all catkins had obedient personalities.

"You say you like small animals?"

When Andusia heard Alice's words, she warily glanced at the unconscious Milu Rabbit hanging off the side of Alice's waist. She had seen Alice knocking the Milu Rabbit unconscious several times now. No matter how she looked at it, Alice didn't seem like a person who liked small animals.

However, Andusia wasn't about to tell Alice about the catkins' behavior during her era, either, since that wasn't a good memory for catkins. Since the catkins of modern times liked Alice so much, Andusia decided to just let them do what they wanted. Everything was fine so long as the catkins were satisfied.

After their conversation ended, Alice began immersing herself in the book before her. Wind Chaser was a taboo that involved the physical body and wind mana. It was a spell used mainly for tracking purposes. However, because the spell placed a high requirement on the coordination between the body and wind mana, it was categorized as a taboo.

Of course, the fact that Wind Chaser could be categorized as a taboo also showed that the spell had outstanding effects. After all, a spell wouldn't be considered a taboo simply because it had high usage requirements.

However, while Alice was occupied with her studies, Andusia quickly found herself growing bored after watching Alice study for some time.

Andusia had basically given up her thoughts of getting revenge against humans already, so she no longer had any goals to look forward to achieving in life. She didn't have any need to learn new taboos, either. Moreover, she had already spent so many years idling inside the block of Living Wood. Now that she finally had a chance to see what the world had become, how could she possibly bear to continue doing nothing and enduring boredom?

"Hey, Alice, I'm going out for a walk by myself, okay?"

Andusia tried to call out to Alice twice, but Alice was too immersed in her studies to respond. However, Andusia didn't find this situation strange. She had studied taboos herself before, so she knew that one would need to focus all of one's attention when studying a taboo.

Of course, Andusia also knew how to interrupt Alice if necessary. However, after thinking it over, she felt that there wasn't a need to do so. She could use mana now, in any case. So, she could easily avoid others' attention while walking outside.

Hence, rather than interrupt Alice's studies, Andusia stood up, skipped and hopped a few times in her miniature body, and quickly arrived at the nearest window. Then, she pushed the window, which was gigantic to her, open with little effort.

"Elkite hasn't changed much even after all these years"

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Looking out the window, Andusia saw the architectural layout of the nearby streets and found that it wasn't all that different from the small town in her memories. Apart from the buildings taking on a modernized appearance, the only significant difference she noticed was the catkins' lifestyle. Specifically, the catkins in Elkite behaved much more carefreely now.

During her era, beastkins were put in a bad situation where they were at constant risk of being captured by humans. Catkins were no exception. As a result, catkins lived in constant fear that humans would one day locate Elkite. The catkins of that time would probably find it very hard to believe that there would come a day when they could coexist with humans peacefully.

At this time, Andusia suddenly thought of her catkin friend. Her friend had always hoped to get the various races to accept and understand each other. Unfortunately, her friend got betrayed by human nobles and died a miserable death in a dungeon. This also became the source of Andusia's hatred for humans.

Perhaps Elkite's current situation was the picture her friend had always wanted to see.

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"I wonder what has become of her home now?"

Andusia reminisced for a while. Then, when she turned around and saw that Alice was still immersed in her studies, she curled her lips a little before casting a small concealment spell on herself. Then, she jumped out of the window without a second thought.

Since she had followed Alice to Elkite, she naturally had to visit her old friend's house and see what had become of it.

In reality, she still held a little hope in her heart. Since her family in the human realm managed to continue existing until this day, there might be a chance that her catkin friend's blood was still circulating in Elkite.

TL Notes:

It was previously mentioned that the catkins have several tribes in the Gryffin Kingdom, but judging by this chapter, I think the author must have forgotten about that and just started writing under the assumption that there is only one big catkin tribe. I'm not certain, though, since I haven't read that far ahead.