Chapter 286 – Convincing Act

“There is a way.”

After everyone pondered in silence for a second time, the first person to speak up was Luna.
As Alice's maid, Luna felt she should always remain silent until her master needed her services.
So, now that Alice needed help, Luna would naturally choose to speak up.

“What way?” Andusia, sitting on Alice's shoulder, asked as she poked her head out of Alice's golden hair and looked at Luna curiously.
She was curious to know what kind of suggestion Alice's taciturn maid had to say.

“With our size, we will definitely attract attention if we were to jump into the fountain.
The park's surveillance cameras will likely catch us in the act as well,” Luna said as she looked at Andusia.
“However, if someone of sufficiently small size jumps in, others will only think that we have accidentally dropped a certain object into the fountain.
In that case, even if the cameras capture this scene, nobody will bother to check the surveillance records.”

“That makes sense.
If a sufficiently small person falls into the fountain, passersby will most likely think that we simply dropped something into the fountain and are unlikely to care,” Andusia said, nodding in agreement.
However, she quickly realized that out of their group of four, she was the only person whose body was small enough to let others think she was an item.
“Wait! Wait! Don't tell me you're talking about me?!”

“It's up to you now, Andusia.
No matter how you look at it, your current appearance is that of a figurine.
So, all we need to do is pretend to drop you into the fountain by accident,” Alice earnestly said as she turned to look at Andusia.
“Once you retrieve the item underwater, we'll pretend to grab you out of the water.
It's a perfect plan.”

“Perfect my ass! Don't forget that my body is made of Living Wood! Living Wood might have mimicked the body my soul represents, but its wooden properties remain,” Andusia said, hurriedly making up an excuse to evade this “responsibility.” “The fact that your Hubert's Tree managed to affect me says it all.
If I fall into the water, my body will most likely absorb water and become heavier.
I don't even know if I can float back up at that time!”

“Use magic.
There are plenty of ways you can use to come back up.
Just think of it as sacrificing your body once for Alice,” Little Death said, interrupting Andusia's attempt at evading responsibility.
“Moreover, Alice has already bought you the things you wanted, so the least you could do is help her in return.”

Andusia fell silent after hearing Little Death's words, a mental struggle beginning in her mind.
What Little Death said was true.
Water might seep into her body, but she could easily get out of the water if she used magic.
She would simply feel a little uncomfortable from having water enter her body.

Moreover, there wasn't any point for her in refusing.
After all, Alice's Forest Crystal's mana remained in her body.
If Alice decided to be ruthless, the girl could seal her mana and toss her into the water, and there'd be nothing she could do about it.
At that time, she'd have to experience the humiliation of being thrown like an object on top of experiencing the discomfort of having water soak her wooden body.

Find the original at Hosted Novel.

However, Andusia's silent contemplation turned into silent acknowledgment in Little Death's eyes.
So, Little Death promptly reached out and grabbed Andusia from Alice's shoulders.

“Wait, what are you—?!”

Andusia cried out in surprise.
Although she wanted to yell for Little Death to stop, the undead girl's actions were too swift.
Before Andusia could even finish her sentence, Little Death had already thrown her into the fountain.

“Oh my! My hand slipped!” Little Death cried out in an exaggerated manner.
However, although her behavior caused some curious passersby to turn to her, nobody really cared about what she just did.
They simply thought this girl with a terrible complexion had deliberately thrown something into the fountain.

Just like Luna said previously, if a normal-sized person were to jump into the fountain, they would definitely attract a lot of attention.
However, hardly anybody would care if it was only a small object falling into the fountain.

That damned undead! I used to be her superior, yet this is how she treats me… Just you wait, you shitty undead! I'm definitely going to let you have it once I get out!

Andusia inwardly cursed at Little Death as she felt her body gradually becoming heavier and heavier.
The undead girl perfectly represented the quote “forgetting one's old love after obtaining new love.” The undead girl used to be rather obedient when she followed her.
She never thought the other party would dare to treat her so rudely now.

Fuck it.
Whatever.
I shouldn't lower myself to an undead's level.
Let's just focus on finding that item.

Andusia snorted.
Since she was already underwater, there was no way she could leave without doing anything.
So, despite feeling displeased by Little Death's actions, she still chose to suppress her displeasure and sank to the bottom of the fountain in search of Alice's target.

At the fountain's spout, there was a device used to output mana.
Because of this device, the water sprayed out by the fountain carried some minor healing properties.
Meanwhile, since this healing mana didn't come from the water itself, this made the dark-attributed mana fluctuations radiated by a certain item were very obvious to Andusia.

But there sure are a lot of things in the water.
It seems quite a few people have accidentally dropped their belongings here.

While propelling herself to the source of dark mana fluctuations using mana, Andusia spotted many items such as mobile phones, soaked books, rings, wallets, etc.
All of these items looked huge to her because of her small size.
However, as none of these items were special, she didn't pay them any attention.

Soon, Andusia found her target—a dagger whose blade was completely inserted into the fountain's brick foundation.
Andusia was incredibly familiar with the dark mana fluctuations the dagger radiated, so she could instantly tell that the dagger was a weapon made using the Demon King's Power's essence.

Tsk.
This thing looks quite normal.

Although the dagger's blade was inserted into the brick, judging by the hilt, its appearance shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary.
So, in terms of appearance, it was vastly better than her misshapen “This Is Wrong.”