Chapter 205

PHA – Chapter 205 – You Have Very Dangerous Thoughts, Madam

When Marion asked for the whereabouts of her panties, Rosa clearly saw Alice stuffing the pair of black sexy underwear into the pouch hanging by her waist. Then, after committing such a blatant crime, Alice behaved as if nothing had just happened as she calmly said to Marion:

“You were under the curse of the Sunset Bug Erosion previously, Madam. Your entire body was covered in a black carapace, so you could not wear any clothes.”

Despite bearing witness to Alice’s shameless act, Rosa chose to stay silent when she saw Marion nodding and trusting in Alice’s words.

Historical records might have shown that Heroes were selfless people willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the human realm, but that didn’t mean they were void of desire. Although Rosa didn’t know why Alice’s desires were so different from past Heroes, it was a fact that Alice was busily running about trying to defeat the Demon King. Since Marion did not try to probe further into the matter, Rosa didn’t feel the need to expose Alice, either—not that she had the courage to do so.

Regardless, Rosa couldn’t help but be surprised by Marion’s lack of caution. Even though this matter concerned her underwear, the woman had easily believed the words of someone she had never met before. Maybe the fact that she woke up completely naked had also played a role in convincing her to trust Alice’s excuse so easily.

While Rosa was lost in her own thoughts, Alice had quickly brought Marion up to speed. Then, Alice began asking Marion a series of questions pertaining to her being cursed.

Probably because of Alice’s appearance and the fact that Alice was her savior, Marion didn’t hesitate to share everything she knew with Alice, either.

“Have I come into contact with anything new at home before getting cursed?” Marion put on a pondering look when she heard Alice’s question. Then, a moment later, she answered, “I don’t think so. I happened to be binging a new drama series at the time, and I never left home throughout that entire period. Nothing new has been brought into the house, either. The only thing that could possibly come from the outside around that time would probably be…food, I guess.”

“Food?” Alice fell into thought. Marion’s account of the past was similar to what Elodie had told her previously. If both of them were telling the truth, the only way the culprit could strike at Marion would be through her food. However, there was no way a Demon King would attach their soul to food. Setting aside whether there existed any food that could house a soul, would any Demon King dare to attach themselves to food? Were they not afraid that they might get eaten?

“Take care of Marion for me, Rosa.” After pondering for a moment, Alice beckoned at Rosa and had the thief girl take care of Marion. Then, she stood up from her chair and said, “If Marion shows any strange symptoms, call me on my phone.”

After saying so, Alice swiftly left the room without waiting for Rosa to respond. Seeing this, Rosa let out a helpless sigh, walked over to Marion’s side, and sat on the chair Alice previously sat on.

“Long time no see, Little Rosa.”

Marion was acquainted with Rosa. She was also aware Rosa was one of her daughter’s thief acquaintances. However, because Rosa had retired from the thieving industry for some time now, the interactions between Rosa and Elodie had reduced significantly. As a result, it had been a while since Marion had seen Rosa.

“That girl just now should be Her Highness, right?”

News of Alice had long since spread across the entire Gryffin Kingdom even before Marion had been cursed with the Sunset Bug Erosion. So, Marion naturally recognized Alice.

“That’s right. She’s a magic genius,” Rosa said, giving Marion the excuse she previously gave to Elodie. It was necessary to keep Alice’s identity as the Hero a secret. After all, Marion was Elodie’s mother, and Elodie was a thief. Meanwhile, Rosa was well aware of how foolish it would be to trust a thief to keep a secret. The eagerness of her co-workers to expose the secrets of others was also the reason Rosa had chosen to retire from the thieving industry. She simply couldn’t bring herself to accept such behavior.

“Indeed. She must be an extraordinary genius if she can lift the curse on me,” Marion said, nodding with a satisfied smile on her face. However, a moment later, she revealed a somewhat perplexed expression as she asked, “But why is that child so obsessed with underwear?”

“Huh?”

Marion’s words stunned Rosa, her mind failing to keep up with the sudden change in topic.

“My mind might have been in a daze just now, but I still caught Little Alice stuffing my underwear into her pouch through the corner of my eyes,” Marion said worriedly. Yet, there was also an explicable hint of satisfaction in her voice. “Oh… It’s not good to have such hobbies at such a young age.”

Suddenly, Rosa felt that she might be the only normal person in this house.

…

After leaving the room, Alice promptly began searching for items that could potentially house a Demon King’s soul.

Marion might have said that she had been cooped up at home for several days before she got cursed, but Alice remembered that there were servants working in this house. Although those servants were on leave right now, they might have brought in items from the outside when they were still on duty.

There was a large room meant for servants located on the third floor of this house. However, Alice did not make her way to the servants’ quarters even though that was the most likely place for servants to store their belongings.

After all, if the item housing the Demon King’s soul was kept in the servants’ quarters, there was no way Marion would come into contact with it unless the woman had a hobby of visiting the servants’ room. It was also highly unlikely for the servants to put their belongings inside Marion’s room.

So, if the object housing the Demon King’s soul was inside this house, it should be located somewhere which everyone was likely to access, such as the living room and kitchen. These were places that were likely to hold items brought in by servants from the outside and accessed by Marion.

Speaking of which, if a fight breaks out here, wouldn’t this house be destroyed?

When Alice walked into the living room, she suddenly recalled her first fight with Luna. Back then, even though neither of them used any wide-range taboos, they still ended up turning an entire villa district into ruins. If she were to drag out a Demon King’s soul this time, a repeat of that incident might very well occur.

Unlike Grant, the Demon King this time had already recovered to a point where they could cast the Sunset Bug Erosion taboo on Marion on top of preparing a simplified taboo hidden within Marion’s body. This meant that the other party’s soul had already recovered a certain portion of its strength and was more than capable of putting up a good fight.

However, Alice quickly shook these concerns out of her head. Rather than worry about the consequences, it was more important that she located the Demon King’s soul first. Immediately, she took a deep breath and cast Psychokinesis Transcendence, using the psychokinetic threads to analyze every magic tool in the living room.

Lights—normal. It only carried the little bit of mana supplied by the house’s mana wiring, so it couldn’t house a soul.

Television—normal. Although it carried much more mana than the lights, its chaotic mana made it unsuitable to house a soul.ts

Aside from these ordinary household items, Alice noticed that a few decorations also carried mana. Thus, she similarly analyzed these items with her psychokinetic threads. Then, while she was probing into a magic item that looked like a figurine…she finally found a clue.