The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Chapter 336: I, Collins, Only Desire a Peaceful Life

As Alice expected, she received a reply from the Thieves Guild on the same night.

Because Rosa had filled in Alice's phone number in the commission form's contact information section, the reply was sent directly to Alice's phone. This saved Alice the trouble of using one of the Thieves Guild's custom devices to inspect the Thieves Guild's reply.

Of course, this wasn't really a problem for Alice. Now that Alice had learned about the existence of the Thieves Guild's internet, so long as she was wanted, she could access it from any mobile phone. "Alice VPN" could access even the demon realm's internet, so it was only natural that it could access the Thieves Guild's internet.

She accepted my meeting application without even bothering to negotiate prices with me. It seems she really wants to find out who is trying to investigate Lilith.

When Alice read the reply she received, she further reaffirmed her hunch that the gyaru thief was working for Lilith. After all, she hadn't exactly been sincere when she filled in the commission form. She had even written 'Negotiable' in the compensation section, the part where thieves were most concerned. Yet, the other party had still agreed to meet her without trying to bargain with her.

If the gyaru thief was only working for Lilith on a commission basis without actually knowing about Lilith's identity, it wouldn't make sense for her to react so desperately. The fact that the gyaru thief had reacted in such a manner proved that she was working for Lilith, the Rhine Kingdom's princess.

Alice did not rush to give the gyaru thief a reply. Although she was indeed trying to investigate the Rhine Kingdom's princess and several princes, so long as she, the "Demon King," did not offer a response, the person attempting to drag the demons into the Rhine Kingdom's royal affairs could not succeed in their goal.

Laying on her bed in her rented apartment, Alice played with her phone as she waited for her other Dark Guard to return. She had dispatched two Dark Guards when she visited the Franken Convention Center this morning: the sledgehammer loli and shota magician.

Among them, the sledgehammer loli had gotten killed by Kurse, Lilith's bodyguard. Fortunately, Alice had successfully recovered the loli's spy camera.

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As for the shota magician, he had never suffered any attacks. He hadn't been caught by anybody, either. From what Alice could perceive through her connection with the shota magician, the latter was able to safely observe the otokonoko prince the entire day at the convention center. Only after the spy camera was about to run out of battery did the shota magician choose to return to Alice's side.

Soon, Alice heard a knock on the door. When she opened the door with her psychic power, the shota magician entered the house and walked up to her. Then, under her gaze, the shota magician removed the spy camera from his left eye socket and placed it on the table. Then, he nodded to Alice before fading out of existence.

Unlike the sledgehammer loli, the shota magician was able to safely complete his task and return to the anadagger normally. Although Alice was glad that she didn't have to go through the trouble of recovering the shota magician's spy camera, she also couldn't help but be perplexed by this situation. Could the eldest prince not have any bodyguards protecting him?

If Lilith's bodyguard had managed to discover the sledgehammer loli's actions, it didn't make sense that Collins' bodyguard would fail to notice the shota magician's actions. Unless, of course, Collins did not have any bodyguards. However, Alice had difficulty believing this to be the case.

Even if Collins had disappeared from the public eye for a long time already and most people had already forgotten what he even looked like, he was still the Rhine Kingdom's eldest prince. Logically, he should still have a basic level of protection as a member of the royal family.

However, when Alice started inspecting the camera footage, she immediately understood what had happened. The reason the shota magician had managed to carry out his mission unnoticed wasn't that Collins did not have a single bodyguard around him. Instead, it was because Collins had too many bodyguards.

The biggest difference separating Lilith and Collins was that Lilith had nurtured a group of loyal subordinates. Hence, Kurse, Lilith's strongest bodyguard, knew about every bodyguard responsible for ensuring Lilith's safety. So, when the sledgehammer loli, an unfamiliar face, kept following Lilith around the convention center, Kurse immediately took notice of this suspicious behavior.

However, Collins had not nurtured his own forces as Lilith did. Either that or he chose not to invest his private forces into his protection. Hence, the bodyguards responsible for protecting Collins were all sent by the Rhine Kingdom's government. Moreover, these bodyguards came in batches.

Collins' bodyguards would often appear in the footage. Moreover, the majority of them operated independently and did not recognize each other. In the footage, Alice could often see several muscular men appearing in the shota magician's field of view. However, whenever these muscular men made eye contact, they would only look at each other briefly before looking away indifferently. It was obvious they did not know each other. Yet, at the same time, they were also aware that they were all bodyguards sent to protect Collins.

Meanwhile, because of this peculiar arrangement, Collins' bodyguards mistook the shota magician for one of their own. Although the shota magician didn't really look the part of a bodyguard, he managed to avoid suspicion because of the magician's robe he wore.

This discovery left Alice at a loss for words. She never thought that Collins having too many bodyguards would actually play into her favor. Collins' bodyguard probably wouldn't have guessed that an enemy had snuck into their ranks.

However, upon closer observation, Alice noticed that even though Collins' bodyguards all maintained a considerable distance from Collins, they would quickly shorten this distance whenever they came across someone suspicious or if someone tried to approach Collins. So, even if an enemy were to sneak into the ranks of Collins' bodyguards, they would quickly be swarmed by Collins' actual bodyguards should they try to approach Collins.

In fact, it would be even harder for an enemy to get close to Collins if they were to disguise themselves as one of Collins' bodyguards. After all, none of Collins' bodyguards would approach him unless they noticed suspicious activity. So, if one of these bodyguards were to approach Collins suddenly for no good reason, it would instantly attract the attention of the other bodyguards.

Alice only required the shota magician to record Collins' interactions with other people, so he naturally did not need to stay close to Collins. Because of this, the shota magician managed to observe Collins the entire day and safely return to Alice's side.

Watching up to this point, Alice took out a pair of panties from her pouch and held it in her right hand. Then, she sped up the replay. With the huge boost in Spirit and Control stats the panties provided, she could see everything clearly, even if the footage was sped up significantly.

However, to Alice's frustration, Collins behaved no different from an otaku throughout the day. After sitting at his company's booth the entire morning, he switched to wandering around the convention center in the afternoon. He even sang a song in a singing competition held on the first floor and bought some doujinshis and figurines.

It was no wonder the bodyguards captured in the footage would always wear numbed expressions. They had probably gotten used to Collins' otaku lifestyle long ago.

Fortunately, the Dark Guards summoned using Chaos General typically wouldn't make any expressions. Because of this, the shota magician maintained an indifferent expression throughout his entire "work shift." Otherwise, Collins' bodyguards might have grown suspicious of him.

I wonder if Collins is just very good at hiding his strength or if he really is just an otaku

Alice sighed. She honestly couldn't decide whether Collins was suspicious or not. After all, his behavior in the footage was too normal. As the prince of a kingdom, such "normal" behavior was somewhat abnormal.

But considering Collins' past actions, his current behavior wasn't exactly surprising. This was because Collins did not regard himself as a prince at all. He had dressed as a girl, participated in an anime convention that most nobles regarded as meaningless, worked as the receptionist for a small game company, and voluntarily relinquished his succession rights to the throne.

Under these premises, it was reasonable for him to conduct himself in a way unbefitting of a prince.

Unable to come to a decisive conclusion, Alice decided to focus her attention on investigating Lilith's forces. If Lilith was the most suspicious of the royal siblings, Alice could ignore Collins for the time being. However, if Lilith turned out to be clean, Alice would probably have to investigate Collins and the young Arcana further.