CHAPTER 372: CHAPTER 372: A CONVERSATION AND A CONFRONTATION

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Aoko Aozaki’s awkwardness was fleeting. With a soft sigh, her expression relaxed, and a faint smile touched her lips. "Well then, putting all that aside, it’s been a long time, Alice."

"Miss Touko’s looking well," Alice replied, her voice impassive, though her words held a strange, underlying meaning.

Touko’s lip twitched. She knew that, despite her makeup, her face still held a certain... alluring quality from her earlier encounter with Haru.

"You’ve always been so observant, Alice," Touko said, her voice filled with a nostalgic fondness.

Alice nodded slightly, accepting the compliment as her due.

Touko and Alice had known each other for over ten years, so they were well-acquainted. But their relationship was not as deep as Alice’s two-year bond with Aoko. The reason, perhaps, was that they were both orthodox mages.

Orthodox mages only saw a profit.

To them, friendship was merely an extension of mutual interest. A life-and-death struggle one moment, a pleasant conversation the next—it was all the same, as long as there was enough to gain.

So, compared to the pragmatic Touko, the complementary-natured Aoko, who lacked a magus’s profit-above-all-else mentality, was a better fit for Alice.

Therefore, to protect Aoko, to strike down her sister, Touko, was, in Alice’s eyes, perfectly normal.

"Well then, what will you do, Alice? Will you interfere in my and Aoko’s family matters?" Touko tilted her head slightly, looking down at Alice, her tone questioning.

The dispute between the Aozaki sisters was over the Magic Crest containing the Fifth Magic, the Aozaki family’s inheritance. In the magical world, there was an unwritten rule that outsiders were not to interfere in the disputes over a family’s magical inheritance.

So, Touko could naturally question Alice.

With her question, a strange aura filled the air.

The stray dogs surrounding the two instinctively sensed the danger and, without even daring to let out a low growl, they began to retreat, their bodies trembling.

"I am the guardian of the Misaki City ley line," Alice said, a flicker in her dark eyes, her voice flat.

An outside magus attacking the ley line barrier was considered a challenge to the guardian. This was a common rule in the magical world, and Alice’s pretext for interfering in the Aozaki sisters’ confrontation.

"I can explain that. Can you give me five minutes?" Touko said, a troubled look on her face. She lifted her right hand and, with a small gap between her index finger and thumb, she emphasized the brevity of the five minutes.

"I refuse. If I give you five minutes, my kidneys might be sold," Alice said, her eyes half-closed, her tone sarcastic.

The next moment, Alice leaped back, her hand gestures as exaggerated as a stage magician’s, a blur of motion that was dizzying to the eye.

Ting—!

The magical tool known as Banquet of the Night was silently produced from under Alice’s shawl and thrown onto the snow. It sank slowly, as if falling into a lake.

Thwack—!

An explosion suddenly rang out. Banquet of the Night, which had already sunk halfway into the ground, instantly exploded, and golden patterns flashed across the ground.

Alice froze for a moment, then her gaze sharpened. "Runes—??"

"That’s right. I spent a day carving the rune for ’sun’ all over the park, including the forest. The whole park is four hundred square meters, a huge canvas for me to write on. Interesting, isn’t it? I carved three hundred thousand runes," Touko said with a faint smile, her tone as if she were introducing a friend to her handicraft.

"Hiss—!" Alice took a step back, sucking in a sharp breath.

The advanced technique of runes, even for a magus familiar with them, to carve ten a day was a struggle. And yet Touko had carved three hundred thousand ’sun’ runes in the park.

Though the concept contained in each individual rune was extremely weak, when three hundred thousand were gathered, it was enough to turn night into day.

To have carved three hundred thousand runes in a single day was impossible by manual labor alone. So, had the other party improved the runes, or even mass-produced them?

"What a terrifying technique," Alice murmured, her voice barely audible.

So, the park was now equivalent to daytime? That was why Banquet of the Night, which represented the concept of night, had automatically shattered.

"...To go to such lengths to deal with a little girl like me, Miss Touko is really putting in a lot of effort," Alice said, her expression impassive, her tone sarcastic.

"Oh my, I don’t think of you as a little girl. After all, Alice’s body, in my eyes, is so beautiful."

Touko said, her words dripping with a lewd insinuation. Though she was smiling, her brownish-red eyes were filled with an endless coldness, like a scientist looking at a lab rat.

A rare witch, to a magus, was an exceptionally precious ’research material.’ The rare Fairy Tale Magic, the mystery that far surpassed that of a conventional magus, was a constant source of fascination for Touko.

’I really want to turn her into a puppet’

Alice accurately read this meaning in Touko’s eyes, a faint chill on her impassive face.

Her dark eyes suddenly focused on Touko, and a change occurred in an instant. Alice’s once-dark right eye turned a sinister crimson.

Clang~ clang~

In an instant, an invisible magical power constructed a sturdy cage, firmly sealing Touko’s movements. In a single moment, Touko was immobilized.

"Mystic Eyes," Touko said, her brow furrowed, her voice strained.

Of all the magic, Mystic Eyes, which were activated by ’seeing,’ were the fastest and most concealed. So, unaware that Alice possessed them, she had been caught off guard.

Alice was about to press her advantage, but a strange aura suddenly emanated from Touko.

"A pity it’s not paired with Banquet of the Night. The effect is greatly reduced," a cold, merciless voice said slowly.

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