The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

The situation was slightly more troublesome than Alice initially anticipated.
She knew that the new Demon King must've awakened already since Aird, the new Hero, had already appeared.
However, what she did not expect was for the new Demon King to have mingled their way into human society already.

Moreover, what troubled Alice even more was that this black sedan had already been tainted by the Demon King's Power, becoming a monitoring device for the Demon King.
This meant that the Demon King would be able to see every action she made in the car.

With a scrutinizing gaze, Alice looked toward Luna, sitting in the driver's seat in front.
The silver-haired maid had taken on the task of being the driver, and she skillfully drove the car out of the car park and onto the main road.

Luna had naturally become one of Alice's suspects.
Though, to be honest, Alice doubted Luna was the Demon King.

Luna was a maid the king had sent to pick Alice up.
However, for the sake of maintaining Alice's identity as the Hero a secret, the king did not tell Luna about Alice's true identity.
Thus, if Luna was the Demon King, there should be no reason why she needed to specifically monitor an ordinary little girl like Alice.

Of course, there was also the possibility that Luna might be an extremely cautious Demon King.
She might also be curious why King Hatter had personally requested her to escort a little girl.
Thus, she had imbued this car with some of her tainted mana, using it to closely monitor Alice's actions in the car.

Apart from Luna, the person Alice was most suspicious of was naturally Chris Hatter, the Gryffin Kingdom's king.
After all, he was one of the few people in the world who knew about her identity as the Hero.

Please don't let it be the case.
The Hero infiltrating the demon realm and mingling her way into the position of one of the Four Heavenly Kings is already ridiculous enough.
If the Demon King manages to mingle his way into the position of a king in the human realm as well…

Alice inwardly sighed as she sincerely hoped that her guesswork was incorrect.
Otherwise, she would be in an incredibly awkward position.
After all, the demon realm's Four Heavenly Kings currently acknowledged her as the Demon King and had no idea that Chris Hatter might be the true Demon King.

If Alice were to kill Chris Hatter in such a situation, the likely thing to happen was that nobody could prove that Hatter was the Demon King, which also meant that she would have a difficult time justifying her killing of the Gryffin King.
If she wanted to avoid this predicament, she would need to have Chris Hatter reveal himself to be the Demon King in front of everyone beforehand or take out evidence showing that Chris Hatter was the Demon King.

Hah… Why did I have to get transmigrated to such a civilized world? How great would it be if this world was actually civilized on the surface but barbaric on the inside? Why couldn't the fight between the Hero and Demon King be as straightforward as described in otherworld novels? Alice inwardly lamented.

“By the way, Luna, how much do you know about the king?” Alice asked.
Since both Luna and King Hatter were currently suspected to be the Demon King, Alice felt that she might as well ask Luna of her opinion on King Hatter.
It didn't matter whether Luna's opinions were true or false.
It was fine so long as she could get some information for her to make a breakthrough.
“What kind of person is King Hatter?”

Luna fell into thought for a moment when she heard Alice's questions.
Just when Alice thought that Luna might not wish to express her thoughts, the silver-haired maid slowly opened her mouth and said, “King Hatter…has actually been suffering from illness all this time.”

“Suffering from an illness?”

Alice was stunned.
Immediately, she thought of the information she had heard of Rosa.
Combined with the words Luna just said, could Chris Hatter's mental problem be related to a type of illness?

“Although King Hatter behaves normally when he is in front of civilians, almost everyone working in the palace knows that he frequently suffers from headaches, dizziness, and hysteria,” Luna said, her eyes fixated on the road and her voice void of emotions as she described King Hatter's strange symptoms.
“The king has said that only the Hero can resolve his troubles.
So, when news of the Hero appearing reached the palace, the king became incredibly happy and eagerly thought of inviting the Hero for a meeting.
However, exactly when they will meet is something I do not know.
Most people working in the palace haven't even heard of the king sending an invitation to the Hero.”

Of course nobody would hear of it.
After all, he has long since extended his invitations to the Hero.
Moreover, that “Hero” is sitting right behind you.

Alice felt a little awkward when she heard Luna's words.
For the sake of concealing her identity as the Hero, King Hatter naturally wouldn't let others know about the Hero's tracks.

But what does Hatter mean by “only the Hero can solve his troubles”?

If Hatter was the Demon King, killing the Hero would be the only thing that could appease his heart.
In a sense, it would solve his troubles as well.
However, Alice felt that the situation wasn't as simple as it seemed.
After all, if Hatter was the Demon King, why was he experiencing headaches, dizziness, and hysteria? With how powerful the Demon King was, Hatter should be immune to most, if not all, illnesses.
The Demon King's Power shouldn't have such side effects, either.

Moreover, Alice dared not guarantee that Luna's words were entirely true.
There was also the possibility that Luna was trying to deceive her into believing that Hatter was the Demon King.
Should she reveal any unnatural reactions upon discovering Hatter's identity, Luna could use those reactions as a reason to assume that she was the Hero.

It seems I'll have to ask the Loli Goddess exactly how the Demon King's Power manifests itself in its hosts.

Alice gently caressed the pouch tied to her waist with her right hand.
Apart from panties, the small box holding the Hero's Sword also rested inside the pouch.
Meanwhile, through the Hero's Sword, Alice could directly ask God about matters relating to the Demon King's Power.

The Loli Goddess had relied on Heroes to combat the Demon King's Power for more than ten thousand years now.
So, nobody would be more knowledgeable about the Demon King's Power than the seemingly unreliable Loli Goddess.

“We've arrived.”

While Alice was immersed in her thoughts, Luna safely drove the black sedan to their destination—the palace located in the heart of the city.
The palace could also be regarded as the heart of the Gryffin Kingdom's government operations.

After snapping out of her daze, Alice opened the door beside her and stepped out of the car.

Initially, Alice had been rather worried the Demon King might try to assassinate her on her way to the palace.
The other party could monitor her every action in the car, after all.
However, it would seem that the other party didn't wish to take action so soon.
Thus, the drive to the palace was very peaceful, so peaceful that Alice felt a little unnerved by it.

Meanwhile, Alice's anxiety was also clearly reflected onto her limbs.
After her right foot got out of the car and planted itself on the ground, her left foot quickly followed suit.
However, instead of planting itself on the ground, her left foot had stepped onto her right foot instead.

The consequences of having one's left foot stepping on one's right foot went without saying.
Immediately, Alice stumbled out of the car and fell onto the floor.
Alice's impact with the ground was so strong that the Milu Rabbit's ears and Alice's pouch had slipped out of the rope tying them to Alice's waist.
Then, both the Milu Rabbit and pouch ended up flying and crashing into the ground a few meters away from Alice.

“Are you alright, Alice?”

When Luna got out of the car and saw that Alice had fallen to the ground, she hurriedly walked over and helped Alice retrieve the Milu Rabbit and the small pouch that had fallen aside.
However, when Luna picked up the pouch, her body stiffened momentarily.

To give herself easy access to the pouch's contents, Alice made sure to keep the pouch's drawstring loosely tied.
Thus, when Luna picked up the pouch, she naturally saw the pouch's contents—several pairs of neatly-folded panties.

However, this wasn't the most important point.
The crucial point was that a few of these panties clearly shouldn't be worn by a girl of Alice's age.

After seeing Rosa's “lucky” underwear collection, Luna's indifferent expression finally cracked a little.
Then, after silently looking at Alice, who had stood up from the ground, for a moment, Luna said the following in a strange tone:

“…It seems you are quite mature, Alice.”