Abyssal Awakening

Staring at Arwen momentarily, Alice let out a fatigued sigh and nodded her head.

*Yawn~

"Seems like you're already putting your voice to work." Alice rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Of course! Big sis gave me this opportunity so I need to make the most out of it." Arwen grinned and gave Alice a peace sign.

"Right… On that, why are you calling me big sis?" Alice asked curiously while picking out an outfit for today. Since Darrow knew her true appearance, there was no need for her to dress up as Calista anymore.

Instead, she wanted to wear something she liked. However, she also felt pretty lazy today so she decided to go with something simple instead.

"Hmm… because big sis is big sis! You saved me and you're bigger than me." Arwen thought about it for a moment before answering.

"Quite the literal way to look at it huh…" Alice raised her eyebrow before looking through her pouch for an outfit.

Flipping through her closet, she found an outfit that fit what she wanted.

A white beret with a pair of fake round glasses for fashion, an off shoulder white sweater with straps on her shoulders, a pair of shorts with black tights and boots.

Adjusting her hat, Alice looked at her reflection in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction while Arwen cheered on in the background while clapping her hands.

Rolling her eye, Alice couldn't suppress the smile on her face and gave Arwen a pat on the head before making her way down.

She could see that breakfast was already prepared with Tristan washing the dishes in the back.

"Good morning, did you have a nice rest?" Tristan poked his head out before pausing in surprise. He didn't expect Alice to dress like this considering her outfit yesterday.

"It was good. I assume you're going to look for some workers soon considering Arwen's voice is back. Plus some advertisement since I don't see any other customer aside from me." Alice replied, taking a seat.

"That's because big brother is bad at doing adverts. He doesn't want to annoy the bigger inns so we're not getting any customers despite how the outside looks. They don't even know if we're open yet." Arwen pouted in annoyance, clearly still annoyed by the extravagant outer appearance.

"Look, I already said sorry for that okay?" Tristan scratched his cheek as Arwen folded her arms.

"Oh! I know! Big sis, if you were to wear a maid outfit I'm sure we'll get plenty of customers!" Arwen ran over to Alice as her eyes shimmered with expectation.

Tristan was distracted by the fact that Arwen called Alice big sis.

As for Alice, she tapped her chin and contemplated the idea.

"Sure I don't see why not. Once I get my money from Darrow, I'll visit the arena and do advertisements for a bit." Alice smiled before eating her breakfast while Arwen sat next to her with a happy smile.

Naturally, Alice wasn't used to this but she couldn't exactly say no to those puppy eyes and smile.

"Wait, Arwen, when did you get a maid outfit?" Tristan paused as he realised what exactly Arwen had asked for.

Curling her lips into a grin, Arwen rested her hands on her hips.

"Fufufu~ I prepared plenty big brother. I got suits for butlers and maid outfits for maids. You were too busy so you didn't see my wardrobe. I got all the sizes prepared." Arwen declared proudly while Tristan face palmed. He was wondering why the bill for some of her purchases was a little higher than usual but to think this was where it went to.

Giving Alice a quick scan, Arwen ran upstairs before coming down with a maid outfit in hand.

"Big sis, do you want to try it on now?" Arwen asked but Alice shook her head.

"Not yet. I need to go collect a debt. I doubt it'll look good if I went looking like a maid." Alice chuckled.

Arwen was a little disappointed but she got over it quickly and nodded her head.

After talking to Arwen and Tristan for a little longer, Alice left the inn and made her way towards the port. Darrow owed her quite a bit of money from yesterday and she'll be crazy to miss out on it.

She needed to take a ship to Pirate Bay in order to find him. However, that was only when she took into account the normal way. Instead, she had a different idea.

Just thinking about it caused her to grin in excitement.

###

"Why aren't you taking this chance to completely demolish the Underworld?! Lorien's dead, the Underworld is in chaos and they're running around like headless chickens. It's the perfect chance is it not?!" Minerva slammed her hands on the table as Darrow didn't budge.

"We're not cleaning them out." Darrow was firm on the matter.

"Why!? Explain it!"

She had lost so many of her crew yesterday with Lorien turning into a giant monster. If she didn't wipe out the Underworld today, she wouldn't know how she could face her crew.

"Just taking out the Underworld won't solve our issues. It's merely a symptom of the cause. Rather than taking them out with brute force, think of why they exist in the first place. If anything, I'd rather you put this effort of yours into helping me figure out who these guys are first." Darrow spoke patiently as he tapped his finger on the sheet in front of him.

It had a drawing of the three eyes within a flame that Alice had seen on the ship.

Minerva wanted to argue but a firm stare from Darrow caused her to shirk back. However, she truly didn't want to back down this time since too many of her crew died.

The others were looking to her, waiting for her to act.

Naturally, Darrow noticed this and took out a cigarette.

"If you follow other's expectations for your entire life, you'll lose sight of yourself. Know when to accept the suggestions and when to stand firm. If I buckled under your pressure every time you brought something up, don't you think that Caethis would be under a sea of flames by now?"

Darrow didn't need to hear Minerva's answer since he already knew what she was thinking. Even though she might be too embarrassed to admit it, Minerva also knew that some of her rash decisions in the past were wrong and it was always up to Darrow to stop her.

Therefore, Minerva took a deep breath and sighed out.

"Fine, but the crew still want an answer."

"I'll sort it out. The monster is dead anyway and it's something outside of our scale of work. Hopefully, the crew can be grateful that it didn't reach the city." Darrow shrugged.

He could still remember the demonstration of power that Feris performed, wiping out that kind of existence with a wave of her hand. Even if he were to reach the realm of Lord, he still wouldn't be able to compete with someone like that.

Which only begs the question of how Alice knew someone like Feris.

According to the monster, she was the ruler of the Void.

"What even happened to Lorien? I've never seen anything like that." Minerva asked with a frown, recalling the strange beast that he turned into.

This wasn't her asking for the crew but simply out of her own curiosity.

"If I'm being honest, I'm not sure. But I think Alice might have a clue on it." Darrow scratched his chin. But upon hearing the name, Minerva simply tilted her head in confusion.

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"Alice? Who's that?"

"Hi~ that would be me~"

"!^$^"%T^$!!!!" Minerva yelped in shock as her first instinct was to draw her firearm but red thread bound her arm in place.

Above them, a portal opened up as Alice could be seen dropping down and sitting on the table.

"Alice would be me." Alice grinned, satisfied with the shock on Minerva's face. Though it wasn't as smooth as how Allura would pull off her stunts.

After all, Allura never needed a portal. She was able to eliminate her presence and wait behind you until the very moment you spoke her name.

Seeing Minerva's confusion and shock, Alice realised that Minerva never saw her without the disguise and sighed.

Waving her hand, blood gathered around her hair and dyed it red as she finally recognised Alice.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Calista!"

"Yep, that'll be me. Now then, I believe both of you owe me a bit of money right? Care to pay up?" Alice crossed her legs and rubbed her fingers together in the motion for coin.

Without hesitation, Darrow opened the drawer next to him and placed a heavy pouch on the table.

"I'm way ahead of you. Though next time if you wanted to eavesdrop, maybe don't make yourself so obvious and come through the front door." Darrow chuckled.

He had already noticed her presence earlier but it seemed like she was waiting for something. Turns out it was something so childish that it honestly gave him a small chuckle.

"Tsk, no fun. Let's see…" Opening the mouth, Alice could see the sparkling lights of Platina coins and a grin appeared on her face.

With this, she has now earned just over 100 Platina coins during her holiday in Caethis. Indeed, if one should meet new people, it's best to meet the rich ones first.

Confirming the amount owed, Alice threw it into her pouch with a satisfied smile.

"Since you were so kind as to prepare the money so diligently, I suppose it's only fair for me to give you some information too." Alice pretended to be generous but it was actually part of her goals.

She didn't have the network or time to investigate a strange set of traders like the three eyes in a flame.

Therefore, it's best to give this kind of task to someone else! And who better than the person in front of her?