The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Hey, there is a book titled Alice, but it looks like a normal story book.. I don't think this is what we're searching for, right?" Reina picked up a book from one of the shelves she checked.

It had a yellow cover, and five letters spelled out the name 'Alice' on the front in capital bold font.

"..Let me see that. We need to check it just to be sure," Aria approached Reina, taking away the book from her and opening its contents.

She read through the paragraphs and found it to be bizarre.

It was a story about a fairy named Alice.

Alice was a newborn fairy who was a happy, jolly individual that cheered up her fairy comrades everyday. However, behind her happiness, the fairy had something to hide.

Regarding her feelings, the fairy Alice was not at all sincere at times. But there was one thing that kept her going.

"Alice, your name means happiness. You have to be happy in order for everyone else to be happy," Her mother spoke.

"Alice, your happiness will result in the world's happiness. So, be happy," Her father added to her mother's words.

Collective phrases like that made Alice very confused with what she was supposed to feel.

Like other fairies, she also felt sad, anger, and other emotions. And yet, she was tied down with her existence's meaning.

Happiness.

She was not supposed to feel other emotions other than happiness, because her changing emotions would also effect everyone else, not just her.

She was the Happy Fairy.

The Happy Fairy Alice had to be happy for the world to be happy.

The happiness you face on a daily basis might be due to Alice's pretense, or the real feelings she emanated. If she is sad, then heavy rainstorms might occur, because Alice is meant to be happy.

Thus, today too, she continued to be happy.

The story ended on a somewhat sad note that left you contemplating on this little fairy's situation.

It was strange to say the least. Aria frowned deeply, becoming even more confused after reading this book.

Why was a child's storybook filled with contents like this? Wouldn't they just ruin the psyche of said child?

"...Alice," Aria muttered. "Can I interpret this story according to Leonis?"

Alice being Leonis' daughter, and the fairy's condition somehow relating to that.

"I'm not sure. Even if this belonged to Leonis, would he really make up such a story? It's vague and the details don't match with what he experienced," Rallaka joined in on the investigation.

He had also read up the book, and couldn't tie anything down back to Leonis.

Aria pursed her lips as she thought deeply.

"It could also be his fantasy. Inside one of the passages, a pink room was briefly mentioned, but not in detail. It was the fairy Alice's room. The color pink was associated to Alice's happiness. It was her favorite color... Maybe.. this is a representation of sorts for him,"

"Hmm.." Rallaka hummed in confusion. "But what would his intention be?"

Such a strange motive.

If Leonis truly loved his daughter, shouldn't the story book be something positive and not this type of dark story?

"To.. submerge himself in his desired reality. In a sense, this dungeon, if the boss was truly him.. Wouldn't he become the King? The Ruler of this place. This place can be whatever he desires for it to be. Only.. it would take a price," Aria looked at Rallaka meaningfully, emphasizing on the word 'price'.

Everything had a 'price'. Nothing was free in this world.

To begin with, Aria did not know how dungeon bosses were selected. Rallaka was a special dungeon boss which had a proper consciousness and mind to actively interact. If Leonis was this dungeon's boss, then he should also be a special one judging from his identity.

If so, a conversation might be possible.

Aria swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

A conversation with the infamous Necromancer Leonis. What would it be like? How has he changed?

Most importantly, what made him stay in this dungeon?

Rallaka stilled in the air.

"So you are saying that Leonis took up a similar offer like I did and became a dungeon boss after getting tricked," Rallaka said.

He, too, had made a huge mistake by taking up a forbidden deal. He was now freed due to Aria's intervention, but he could imagine that someone like Leonis had the potential to be entrapped in a deal too. Just like him.

"Maybe, yeah. Leonis is desperate. Who knows to what extent he'll go to in order to achieve his goals? Nothing is confirmed yet, though. We can keep this suspicion, but searching farther might be the best option for now," Aria sighed, standing back up and putting aside the book.

Rallaka hummed in response, floating around the book with interest as Aria continued to speak to her team.

"Everyone, let's go back to searching. The book might be one of the clues, but that doesn't erase the possibility of other clues surfacing inside this room. Let's look again," Aria clapped her hands and announced.

They all nodded and went on their own separate ways to continue searching through the items.

After a few minutes of searching, Aria gathered everybody up once more since no one was calling out any information.

Why was it this hard to find their missing clue? Could it be something obvious that they missed, or missed the chance to interpret?

"Did you find anything? Not just Alice, but anything interesting.. or seemingly out of the place," Aria asked.

"Not really. I read through the books' contents as well and nothing implied Alice or this dungeon," Reina was stumped. She became frustrated after looking for so long, yet finding no results.

She was used to dungeons that were straightforward, or just had simple puzzles that could be solved within a minute. This type of puzzle which required extensive searching that yielded them no results pestered her.

The other members were also annoyed, since they couldn't discover anything special. The rest of the books were just normal ones with normal plotlines. The toys were normal. Everything was normal.

This normal discoveries made them frustrated, much more than direct fights with monsters.

At least, when fighting, they had a clear goal. To defeat said monster.

But now, they didn't even know what kind of opponent they were up against.

Aria sat down, grumbling at the dilemma they faced.

"So.. there is really nothing but this book?" Aria stared at the book she held within her hands and opened it once more, massaging her temples.

She wanted to check it again. This book was the strangest discovery they made. Unlike the other books, this one contained a grave meaning. Or perhaps, it was just one of those stories that attempted to tackle a dark matter, and Aria was taking this way too seriously?

She read it closely. Every single word, sentence, passage, all the things mentioned.

Alice. The Happy Fairy, Alice.

It was a short story, so not much descriptions was written. Most of it were vague statements that did not seem important.

It was hard to identify which ones were implied references, and which ones were just meant for the fantasy element the story told about.

Alice.

She had repeated that name so many times that she was starting to become sick of it.

Alice, Alice, Alice.

"Alice means.. noble, right?" Aria raised a brow.

"I think so, yeah.. Wait, the name Adele also means noble. I suppose that's why the child's name is Alice? Because of the meaning behind it?" Rallaka answered, discussing the definitions.

Maybe they were straying from the correct answer, but they were desperate right now.

"Is that somehow relevant.. noble? Nobility? What could that entail to?" Aria thought.

People name their child after similar sounding names or ones that contained the same meaning pertaining to the parents' ones too, normally. It could just be a coincidence for Leonis' 'never seen before' daughter.

But then, Aria's attention was brought to a detail that she hadn't thought much of when reading the story.

She picked up the book once more and read one of the passages.

"Rallaka!" Aria called out, drawing said Earthen Spirit's reaction.

"What? Did you find something out?" Rallaka questioned.

"I don't know if this is relevant or not.. But look here," She pointed out to a paragraph.

[The fairy's name, which meant 'happiness', always resonated with her thoughts. Her parents constantly told her about that name again and again.]

"In here... it says that the name 'Alice' meant happiness. Wouldn't this be contradictory?" Aria asked.

"Who knows. Maybe he just made the meaning up. Some people do that, don't they?" Rallaka replied.

"Well... for someone like Leonis.." Aria said, but then stopped. "Well, I don't actually know what type of person Leonis is. But I have a strong feeling that this might be the answer," Aria said with confidence sparking inside her eyes.