The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Chapter 231: Naming Victim

Alice wiggled her fingers a little as she looked at the old gravestone before her. In the end, she failed to muster the courage to dig up the grave.

This was a grave they were talking about. Would a normal person dig up another person's grave just to acquire a weapon? Not to mention, this weapon wasn't even an indispensable item for Alice. While Andusia might have constructed it using the Demon King's Power's essence, there was little research Alice could do on it even if she got her hands on it.

After all, the Demon King's Power was one of this world's laws. Alice's abilities still hadn't reached a point where she could analyze laws. Although she had already learned Psychokinesis Transcendence, a taboo that was theoretically capable of analyzing laws, her mastery over the taboo was only at the surface level right now. She still had a long way to go before she could fully master the taboo. In that case, did she really need to become a grave robber?

"This isn't even your grave, so why are you telling me not to mind you?" Alice complained as she looked at the figurine sitting on her shoulder. "This is someone else's grave. If anyone is to give permission to rob it, it should be the grave's owner or the owner's descendants."

"This grave's owner and I are like sisters. You can rest assured that my words can represent her will," Andusia said as she looked at the gravestone before her. She didn't know who this gravestone belonged to originally. However, she now knew who it belonged to after looking at the name engraved on it. "Also, you don't have to worry about the owner coming to find you. Her soul has...long since disappeared. I am certain of that."

Andusia was naturally certain of this. This was because this grave belonged to her best friend, the brave and righteous catkin named Jill Maelor. After becoming the Demon King, Andusia had invested a lot of effort into searching for Jill's soul. She had hoped that Jill's soul had yet to vanish after death. She could have found a way to resurrect Jill even if she was only a remnant soul.

Unfortunately, Andusia's efforts were in vain. Without the help of soul preservation magic, any creature's soul would vanish out of existence shortly after death. Meanwhile, by the time Andusia had become the Demon King, a long time had already passed since Jill's death.

"Like sisters I think I understand who this grave belongs to," Alice said in realization. She knew that Andusia used to have a slave friend with whom she was close since Andusia had previously told her about it. Meanwhile, it appeared that this friend was also why Andusia hated humans so much. "But I didn't think your friend was actually a catkin"

While saying so, Alice looked at the name engraved in cursive letters on the gravestone. Although the gravestone had become a little mottled, the grave owner's name was still clearly visible, possibly because the gravestone was strengthened by magic.

"Jill Maelor This surname sounds familiar."

Ciel's surname was Maelor. However, Alice had never called Ciel by her surname, so even though she found the surname Maelor familiar, she didn't link it with Ciel immediately.

Search h0sted n0vel for the original.

This just went to show how strange Alice's and Ciel's encounter with each other was. They had entered an SM relationship shortly after meeting. They had skipped so many steps in their friendship that Alice didn't even have a deep impression of Ciel's surname.

"Isn't it just your imagination? Anyway, the weapon should have been buried with her," Andusia said, swiftly redirecting Alice's attention.

Honestly, Andusia didn't mind Alice discovering that Ciel was Jill's descendant. Although Jill's reputation would most likely take a huge dip, it wouldn't cause anyone any actual harm. On the contrary, once Alice learned of the whole situation, Andusia could get Alice to care for Ciel and her family. In exchange, Andusia would obediently cooperate with Alice.

"Although I really want to use this opportunity to learn more about the Demon King's Power, digging up someone else's grave is still too much for me..." Alice said, shaking her head. Although Andusia had already given her permission to desecrate her friend's grave, Alice still chose to abandon the idea.

On the one hand, robbing someone's grave posed too much of a psychological hurdle for her. On the other hand, the descendants of this grave's owner should still be living in Elkite. If she were to dig up this person's grave, what if her descendants found out later?

The Demon King's Power hadn't even found a new host yet. She still had plenty of time to develop a countermeasure for the Demon King's Power. If worse came to worst, she could resurrect every Hero and Demon King who wasn't thoroughly dead yet. She refused to believe that she couldn't find someone who had a solution to the Demon King's Power.

Not to mention, Andusia had said that practically every Demon King in history had laid their hands on the Demon King's Power. In that case, there should be more than one weapon made using the Demon King's Power's essence. Even if she didn't acquire the one in this grave, she could still search for others.

"You could just fill this grave again after you dig it up. Nobody will notice it," Andusia said frustratedly. She didn't know why Alice would be so insistent on such a strange detail.

However, since Alice refused to rob Jill's grave, there was nothing Andusia could do about it. She couldn't possibly force Alice into doing it, right? So, after pondering for a moment, Andusia added:

"Actually, there's one other way to retrieve the weapon. Weapons that have touched upon the world's laws have a true name. You can awaken my weapon and establish a link with it if you call out to its true name."

After pausing for a moment, Andusia continued:

"Once you establish a link with the weapon, you can summon it to your side using a simple Summon spell. It's similar to how you can summon your Hero's Sword from a distance. That means you can obtain my weapon without digging up the grave. How about it?"

What? I can summon the Hero's Sword from a distance?

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Alice grew a little awkward when she heard Andusia's words. She never knew that the Hero's Sword had such a feature. After all, she wasn't an actual Hero, so she didn't receive the instruction manual for the Hero's Sword when she first wielded it like Aird.

"If you knew about this method, why couldn't you have mentioned it earlier?" Of course, even though Alice was hearing about this feature for the first time, it didn't stop her from complaining to Andusia. Since it was possible to retrieve the weapon without desecrating someone else's grave, why didn't Andusia tell her about this method sooner? "What's that weapon's name?"

Andusia fell silent when she heard Alice's question. Then, she said in a gloomy voice, ""This Is Wrong.""

Alice failed to react to Andusia's answer right away as she asked, "What did you say?"

"I said, this weapon's name is called "This Is Wrong!"" Andusia shouted out of frustration. Then, worried that Alice would misunderstand her for having a terrible naming sense, she quickly added, "I didn't come up with this name! It was just that the weapon came out looking slightly different from how I imagined it, soso I blurted out the words "this is wrong"...and the weapon recorded these words as its name"

Alice suddenly understood why Andusia's first suggestion was for her to become a grave robber rather than to summon the weapon using its true name.