On this afternoon when a carriage left the city of Tingen and headed for the small town of Ramde, in a house on the outskirts of the city, a childish and innocent song came from a slightly dark and narrow room.

"Alice, Alice ~ the great witch who is beautiful, intelligent, knowledgeable and kind, my dearest master!"

The little robin, who specially used his innate spell to turn his feathers into bright blue, flapped his wings briskly, hovered and stopped in front of a mirror in the room, raised his wing tips and swung them left and right a few times.

"Today I asked the mirror a question: Magic Mirror, Magic Mirror, who is the most beautiful, elegant and kind-hearted witch in the world?"

After singing this sentence, the little robin jumped to the back of the mirror and continued to sing in a strange accent:

"The magic mirror answered me: Of course that is your master, Eve's master Alice, she is the most beautiful, elegant and kind witch in the world."

After reciting the lyrics she had made up without blushing, the familiar Eve chirped, jumped back in front of the mirror, and continued singing:

"So I asked Magic Mirror again: Magic Mirror, Magic Mirror, do you know when will my great master Alice be willing to nod and let me be promoted to Sequence 8?"

"The magic mirror answered me: Of course it will be soon. She will soon agree to let you change from a 'thief' to a 'scammer'!"

The little robin jumped lively again in front of the smooth mirror that reflected her own appearance. Just as she was about to continue humming, she saw the figure in the mirror who had always had his back to her turn around and glance at her silently.

"...Love, Alice!"

The little blue robin immediately shrank its head obediently, retracted its overly active wings, and blinked its small mung bean eyes in a cute manner.

"If you feel bored and have nothing to do, I can assign you a few reconnaissance tasks," Alice's voice came from the other side of the mirror, her tone was calm, "The most interesting option among them is to track

Investigate the unlucky guy who stole the iron box from you last night and find out his identity..."

When the familiar Eve heard this, she immediately raised her chest and raised her voice to clarify for herself:

"Alice, I, I'm not bored, I'm just watching what you're doing in the mirror... What's the golden food test? Hmm! I just think you'll feel tired after doing salt for almost a day, and I'm afraid you'll be bored.

, I just wanted to sing a few songs for you..."

This time, Alice did not immediately expose the reason that the little robin made up out of sheer guilt.

Because she could feel from the connection with the familiar contract that the little guy's concern for her was sincere, although it was mixed with many distracting thoughts, such as the excitement of looking forward to being promoted to Sequence 8 as soon as possible, such as wanting to urge her to go there quickly.

Dealing with the "stolen items" stolen last night...

With this in mind, Alice controlled the alchemy circle on the experimental platform to enter a stagnant state, retaining the current reaction progress for the time being, and preparing to take a short rest and soothe the anxiety of her familiar.

She changed out of the long coat used for experiments, simply used a cleaning spell to clean away the debris and dust stained on her body, then stepped out of the mirror, opened the curtains, and settled into the lounge chair in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in an inconspicuous manner.

Squinting at the fields extending far outside the house, and the looming steam train tracks at the end of the field of vision, the familiar Eve flew to her hand consciously, letting the girl caress her feathers at will, and cried softly.

"Eve." Alice teased the little guy casually for a while, knowing full well why she was so well-behaved and flattering today, so she asked, "You want to be promoted to Sequence 8 'Scammer', okay?

Any specific reason?"

The blue-feathered bird was stunned for a moment:

"There is no reason for this... After digesting the magic potion, I must be thinking about getting promoted."

"Do you think it was instinct that drove you to have this idea?" Seeing that she didn't seem to understand her original intention, Alice asked again.

"Instinct... I don't understand. Alice Danitaly told me that promotion will give me new abilities, which can strengthen my current abilities and may also make me smarter. So I think this

It sounds good. If you get promoted, you will become more powerful and more useful..." She secretly glanced at the witch master who could not see her emotions, and Eve quickly retracted her head, "I, I just want to help you...

"

As if she had pondered for a while, Alice sighed softly and put a light smile on her face again.

"I understand. Don't be too impatient, Eve, now you are only one potion main ingredient and two auxiliary ingredients away from promotion, and you have two choices before you - first, continue to rely on me and wait for me

Collect the materials and get promoted; second, obtain them through your own efforts, no matter the means. I have told you the names of the materials before, and if you decide to choose the second method, then I can promise to upgrade your crystal core.

, carved into a brand new fixed spell..."

"Alice, do I really have a chance to choose? I always feel that you just want me to choose the second option..."

With the experience of using spells during this period, Eve naturally understood that the significance of a brand new spell to her was almost as much as the improvement that could be obtained by taking potions for promotion.

Therefore, she just chirped and complained for a moment before accepting the task given by her master.

Alice shook her head and chuckled, telling Eve a few words not to trouble her master to clean up the mess, and then turned to another issue that the little robin was concerned about.

"You put that iron box on my desk, right?"

"But Alice, you have a day off today, that's why you stay in this room with the door open to make your salt..." Eve said in a plaintive tone.

"I wanted to correct you before. It was an experiment, not salt. Your Loen language level shouldn't be that bad, right?" Alice rubbed the little robin's soft head with her fingers and brought the topic back to the topic, "

But last night when I cast the detection spell, I discovered that the things inside the iron box were isolated by people with spiritual walls, but the iron box itself could not block other people's exploration and search. So I added

With some magic protection, at least you don’t have to worry about the original owner who stole the iron box from you coming to your door."

"Gee, Alice, but you don't seem to be in a hurry to open the box and see what's inside..."

"Are you impatient? Or do you think that the box contains the magic potion ingredients of the 'Scammer' and you can be promoted immediately if you open it?"

Alice's original intention was to make a joke, but her familiar Eve blinked her little mung bean eyes and nodded seriously.

"Maybe that's it!"

"...Okay." Alice pondered for a moment, stood up and walked to the wide full-length mirror in the room. She stretched out her right hand and put it into the mirror. She seemed to be rummaging for a while before taking out the far away bird from the mirror.

Find the mysterious iron box in Tingen City and place it on the desk in front of the window.

In order to avoid destroying the spiritual blockade, she decided to use water mirror perspective and reached out to touch the cold iron box surface.

As the mantra was chanted in a low voice, a colorless and transparent water curtain spread on the iron box lid. Both the caster and the familiar familiars who were watching could clearly see what was inside the iron box.

That's a hand.

A severed human hand soaked in blood, from its uneven cross-section, thick blood even slowly oozed out, silently flowing into the nearly half-full pool of blood in the iron box.

middle.

"——This, what is this! Chirp! Alice! Help!"

Eve, who had never seen many bloody scenes, was obviously greatly frightened. She flapped her wings randomly and flew towards her master's shoulders. She shrank her head and tried to get into the loose hair.

"Calm down, Eve, it's just a hand."

Alice frowned. The perception through the water mirror was too blurry. It was almost difficult to judge the nature and function of the severed hand from its appearance alone, nor could she deduce why it was carried around in an iron box by a ship passenger.

…

But what is certain is that this weird severed hand that can make one's scalp numb must be a special item with extraordinary abilities.

The church may call it a sealed object, but in the mouths of wild extraordinary people, it is a magical item.

...Could it really be a prop with the ability to be a "scammer"?

Alice was surprised, and quickly pulled out a corner of the mirror world to cover the entire room, and then destroyed the spiritual blockade in the iron box.

The moment he opened the lid of the box, a strong, almost nauseating smell of blood emanated from it. The severed hand soaked in blood seemed to feel some kind of change, as if the section had been torn apart by brute force.

Blood seeped out, and the fingers that were half submerged in the blood trembled slightly but clearly.

"Chirp——!!Hand, hand, hand, it moves!!!"

Eve was so frightened that she screamed and wished she could bury herself in the witch master's hair and never come out again.

"Quiet."

The little robin thought that his master was giving him an order, so he timidly covered his head with his wings.

But this is not the first time Alice has dealt with this kind of prop that is suspected to have the characteristics of a living creature. With the Level 2 sealed item from the Church of the Night as a precedent, she knows how to make this disobedient magical item behave.

So she ignored the strange sign that the severed hand might jump out of the iron box at any time, took out the corresponding spell-casting materials, and cast three spells - spiritual enlightenment, friendship, and mental retardation.

The severed hand was first temporarily endowed with wisdom and personality by the first spell, producing intelligence, and then was forcibly converted into a friendly relationship with Alice by the second spell. Finally, the hand was wiped out of reason and the personality was destroyed.

Shu has become a fool who cannot actively use his abilities and can only recognize instincts... well, fool.

After completing all the preliminary work, Alice felt a little relieved and carefully looked at the severed hand, which was as quiet as a specimen and no longer bleeding. After a while, she showed a strange expression.

"Eve, I don't know how to describe your luck..."

Chirp? The little robin gingerly moved the tips of its wings, letting its small mung bean eyes look at the desk through the gaps in its feathers, and at the strange severed hand that had become peaceful in the iron box.

"This hand... has a high probability of hiding the core substance of the 'Stealer' path. In other words, you can indeed use it to prepare potions..." Alice said slowly.

"Really? Then does this count as the potion material I found myself? Alice, you said before that if I find the potion material myself, it will add an extra spell to my crystal core!"

Eve suddenly forgot her fear and cried excitedly.

"Don't be too happy, I haven't finished speaking yet." Alice looked at her familiar up and down, and suddenly laughed evilly, "The core material in this severed hand can indeed be prepared to help you advance.

The magic potion is correct, but it may be a little early for you... This is definitely not an extraordinary substance concentration at the Sequence 8 level, but a higher level, an extraordinary concentration at the Sequence 7 level."

"Sequence 7... What will my 'Stealer' become when it advances to Sequence 7?" Eve tilted her head in confusion.

"I don't know either."

As Alice spoke, she fished out the mysterious severed hand that had become demented from the pool of blood in the iron box with some disgust. She was about to investigate further when she suddenly received a strange "message".

A strange message sent to her.

"This once belonged to the left hand of a 'decryption scholar'... good at reasoning, restoring the truth of occult events, and foreseeing the development of things... But in an unfortunate accident, he unearthed the truth that he should not have known.

And lost his life... If you carry this hand with you, the wearer's observation, association and derivation abilities will be greatly improved, but be careful not to be drained of blood by this hand..."
To be continued...