The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

With the GPS navigator, which she had won for free from the crying salesperson, in hand, Alice left the department store with a satisfied smile on her face.

Although the salesperson initially wanted to renege on his bet, he quickly caved after Alice threatened to call the shop's manager. If the manager heard that he tried to trick a little girl, he wouldn't be losing only the money for two GPS navigators. He would even lose his job.

Between losing a little money and his job, the salesperson naturally chose to keep his job. Thus, Alice had successfully conned…earned a brand new Brilliant Navigator Model XB-005 thanks to the Milu Rabbit.

"Beautifully done, Milu Rabbit," Alice said as she tied the unconscious Milu Rabbit back to her waist. A measly GPS navigator naturally couldn't withstand the Milu Rabbit's headbutt. It also wasn't enough to give the Milu Rabbit the fix it sought after, either. So, after destroying the GPS navigator, the Milu Rabbit had proceeded to crack one of the department store's walls before it fainted in satisfaction. "I'll make sure to name you next time."

After futilely appeasing the unconscious Milu Rabbit and arriving at the department store's entrance, Alice activated the navigator's ability using her right hand. Although the navigator's two skills—Advanced Navigation and Advanced Positioning—might seem like navigation functions, after the navigator became Alice's weapons, these two skills did far more than just navigate directions.

Sure enough, it works.

Alice nodded in satisfaction when she saw the coordinates and map that had appeared on the navigator's screen after she had entered "Rosa" into the navigator's search bar. She definitely wouldn't have gotten such a result had she tried to search such a vague search criteria using a normal GPS navigator. She hadn't placed much hope on her theory succeeding initially, so she was pleasantly surprised to see her theory hitting the mark.

It's as if my right hand had altered the laws of the navigator's functions.

In reality, Alice had suspected more than once that her right hand might be the Demon King's Power. However, looking at it now, that didn't seem to be the case. While her right hand's ability might have altered this world's laws, such as turning panties into Artifacts, it did not destroy the world's laws, unlike the Demon King's Power. Rather than destruction, it looked more as if her right hand was…creating laws?

Take Alice's idea of searching for Rosa using a GPS navigator, for example. It was originally an incredibly vague concept. Yet, Alice's right hand had forcibly implemented her idea and made it possible for her to search for Rosa using a GPS navigator. It was as if the world itself was helping Alice search for Rosa. The fact that her right hand's ability was capable of such a feat meant that it was already touching upon the laws of this world.

However, Alice was still ignorant about many things in this world, and there were still many theories she needed to verify. Thus, she quickly threw this matter to the back of her head and focused on her primary goal.

Rosa's location…isn't very far from here. That's good. This means she is still in Mana City. I wouldn't know where to find her if she had already left the city.

When Alice saw the displayed map and coordinates, she quickly recognized Rosa's current location. It was a standard residential district, and she could probably reach there in 20 minutes by car.

…

Mana City's Pigeon Bar had a unique layout that separated it from other bars in the city. There were no individual tables for guests to sit around in the bar. There were no private rooms, either. Instead, bar counters lined the establishment's walls, and many bartenders stood behind these counters, ready to serve drinks to guests at any time.

Currently, Rosa was the only woman drinking in the bar, her beautiful figure and exquisite face causing many eyes to turn to her. Yet, despite this situation, nobody dared to approach her and strike up a conversation.

There was no helping this situation. The mercenary badge hung on Rosa's belt was a huge deterrence for the men in the bar. Everyone living in Mana City would know what a mercenary represented. Mercenaries were people with genuine combat power and combat experience. Mercenaries were also individuals supported by the various human kingdoms. If average joes like themselves rashly provoked a mercenary, not only would they receive a beating, but they might even get sued for harassment.

Moreover, it was still early in the afternoon, so the few customers in the bar were still sober and could see that Rosa was evidently in a bad mood. So, nobody was dumb enough to try their luck with her.

As to why Rosa was in a bar at such an early hour, it was because she was trying to drink her sorrows away. There was no helping it. She had caught the Hero's attention, after all. She also knew very well how troublesome it was to have the Hero's attention.

The reason why Rosa became a thief in the first place was that she liked to maintain a low profile and lead a secretive and peaceful lifestyle. However, she never expected that she would offend people all around after becoming a thief. Left with no other choice, she had to give away most of the money she earned as a thief to get out of trouble. Afterward, she had chosen to change careers and become a reporter, thinking that she could maintain a peaceful lifestyle with such a job.

However, she never thought that the first task she received would be to investigate the Hero. Moreover, she had gotten caught and targeted by the Hero.

"It's been a while since I've seen you depressed like this. What happened? Is something troubling you?"

The bartender manning the counter in front of Rosa was a woman with her hair tied into a ponytail. When the bartender saw Rosa, a regular of hers, drinking alcohol somberly by herself, she knew that the other party must've come across some trouble.

"Feel free to vent your complaints if you have any."

"A female pervert has recently set her eyes on me."

Although Rosa was feeling a little drunk, she was aware that she couldn't get herself thoroughly drunk at this time. She was currently being pestered by the Hero right now. She would be in real trouble if she got fully drunk and blabbered about the Hero to others. However, while she couldn't reveal everything about the Hero, that didn't mean she couldn't indirectly complain about the Hero.

"Not only did that person barge into my home while taking advantage of her identity, but she even stole three of my underwear!"

"...Your trouble is indeed a little unique." The female bartender was a little stunned. As someone who worked in a bar, she had listened to the troubles of many people before. However, this was the first time she was hearing an encounter like Rosa's. "You should go to the police, then. Trespassing on private property and theft are punishable crimes. Even if the stolen goods' value isn't high, it should still be enough to get that person locked up for some time."

"It's useless. You have no idea how terrifying her identity is," Rosa said, shaking her head. Then, she downed the rest of the red wine in her glass into her mouth. Although she heard that people often liked to drink beer when they were drinking to drown their sorrows away, she didn't really like the taste of beer. So, she used wine as a replacement instead. "You might not believe me, but it wouldn't work even if I brought this matter up to the king, let alone the police. The king might even exile me from the country for reporting that person."

"I am indeed having a hard time believing you…" the female bartender said with a bitter smile. What kind of identity would this so-called pervert need to have to deter even the king from taking action? Could the other party be the Hero, maybe?

However, that evidently wasn't possible. After all, the pervert harassing Rosa was a female. Meanwhile, the Hero was a tall and robust man. There was a drastic difference between the two.

"Anyway, nobody can help me with this problem," Rosa said and sighed. Then, she shook her head to clear her thoughts and said, "Give me another glass."

"I might not be able to help you, but not all problems need to be solved. Rather than agonize over a solution, you can try to shift your attention onto something else to take your mind off your worries," the female bartender said, smiling as she refilled Rosa's empty glass with wine. "Take the cute little girl standing behind you, for example. Just looking at her smile heals my soul. You can take this as an example and try to distract yourself by looking at some cute objects as well."

"Cute little girl?"

The bartender's words made Rosa think of Alice. Honestly, if it weren't for Alice's identity and the trouble Alice brought to her, Rosa would indeed consider Alice to be a very cute girl as well. Unfortunately, Alice's cute appearance was nothing but a cover to hide the perverted Hero within her.

"Where is the cute little girl you speak of? Why would a little girl come here?"

While saying so, Rosa turned to look behind her. However, as soon as she laid eyes on the "cute little girl," her soul nearly left her body.

"Yo. It's been a few days since we last met, Rosa," Alice said with a friendly smile. Then, after climbing onto the barstool next to Rosa's, she asked, "You two were talking about a female pervert just now?"

"..."

Rosa suddenly felt her life becoming dark and gray.