Chapter 302: Great Swindler Alice
Chapter 302: Great Swindler Alice
"This is the forged ID you asked for," Blonde Twintails said as she took out a crystal card from her bag and handed it to Alice.
The crystal card looked similar to the March Royal School of Magic's student ID, but the Royal Magic Tower's ID was made with a light-purple crystal instead. Moreover, the magic runes and texts engraved on the card were different.
The words "Rhine Kingdom's Royal Magic Tower Entry and Exit Card" were written in bold. Moreover, Alice could feel the presence of mana in every one of these engraved words. Evidently, these words were engraved using special magic, and the average person would find it impossible to make a forgery of this card. So, Blonde Twintails was most likely telling the truth when she said she would get the Rhine Kingdom's thieves to forge an ID.
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Written in the middle of the card was the student information. However, to Alice's confusion, although the class and course sections were filled in for her, the name, gender, and photo sections were left blank.
"I didn't know your name and appearance before, so I decided to just leave them blank and let you fill them once I met up with you," Blonde Twintails explained when she noticed Alice's gaze stopping on the student ID's blank spaces. Then, she pulled out a square box from her bag and handed it to Alice, saying, "Insert the ID inside, then enter your personal information accordingly by compiling text into mana."
Compiling text into mana was a commonly used technique hundreds of years ago. The technique was called managraph, and it was one of the main methods of information transmission adopted by the people of this world back then. It was somewhat similar to the outdated telegraph in Alice's memory.
However, managraphs eventually became obsolete with the advent of the internet. Although the technique of converting text to mana still received improvements afterward, it never managed to regain its popularity in society. Now, the technique would typically only be used by students to pass messages to each other in class.
Unlike the students on Earth, the students of this world would not use paper strips when trying to pass messages to each other in class. Instead, they would convert their words into mana and pass this mana to the person they were trying to talk to. Alice had seen this method used quite a few times when attending classes in the March Academy.
Although there was also the option of using phones, the risk of being caught was incredibly high. This was because a phone would generate weak mana fluctuations when unlocked. It would be very easy for teachers to notice these mana fluctuations in classrooms with calm mana. As a result, exchanging managrams became the main method for students to hold secret conversations in class.
Alice couldn't help but reevaluate her opinion of Blonde Twintails and the thieves the other party employed to forge the student ID. With how much importance the Rhine Kingdom had placed on the Royal Magic Tower, it went without saying that the tower would have a very strict and thorough verification system for its student IDs.
Although Alice still hadn't verified the validity of the forged ID, if it was usable, it meant that Blonde Twintails and her thief associates had a way of inputting information into the Royal Magic Tower's verification system. So, the forged ID was actually no different than a real ID.
"Done."
Through the strange little box, Alice engraved her name, gender, and photo of herself on the student ID. Of course, she wouldn't be so dumb as to use her real information. Although the photo on the student ID was an actual image of herself, she had changed her name to "Kryst."
Indeed, Alice had chosen to use the pseudonym Kristine had gone by after getting resurrected. Kryst wasn't exactly a rare name, so nobody would suspect her to be the Gryffin Kingdom's Second Princess. Alice also wasn't worried that others would recognize her appearance. After all, who would be so bored to inspect the student photos on the Royal Magic Tower's database?
The Royal Magic Tower's verification system didn't have the ability to think for itself, either. It would only verify whether Alice's appearance matched the photo on her student ID. So long as the two matched, Alice would be allowed into the tower. The system wouldn't automatically report her to the tower's higher-ups just because she had a face that looked like the Gryffin Kingdom's princess.
So long as nobody had the sudden urge to inspect the Royal Magic Tower's database of student photos, Alice would be safe to wander around inside the tower. Even if someone eventually discovered her, she would probably be done with her task in the tower and have long since disappeared. The Rhine Kingdom's royal family was also unlikely to make trouble for her at that time.
"Kryst?" After taking a look at Alice's student ID, Blonde Twintails looked at Alice curiously and asked, "Are you going in with your actual appearance? Weren't you trying to sneak into the Royal Magic Tower without others finding out? You'll get recognized easily if you don't disguise yourself."
"I just need to trick the tower's verification system. As for others recognizing me, I can just wear a hat. The Royal Magic Tower doesn't prohibit people from wearing hats inside, right?"
Alice shrugged. She would have chosen to disguise herself if she had an effective disguise spell at her disposal. Unfortunately, disguise magic wasn't particularly well-developed in this world. Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to get a suit of power armor made to disguise herself as a muscular Hero.
"I guess you're right. So long as you don't reveal yourself or break any rules in the tower, usually, nobody would bother looking through your student file," Blonde Twintails said, nodding. Then, she returned the ID to Alice and looked toward Andusia, saying, "I've helped you get the ID you wanted, so as promised, this Hikari figurine is now mine, right? I've been eyeing this figurine for a long time now. I've never seen such a fine movable figurine before."
Blonde Twintails had been glancing at Andusia repeatedly since Alice had put the figurine on the table. Now that she got to observe Andusia at such a close distance, she could see just how extraordinary of a figurine Andusia was. Every part of Andusia's body was finely crafted to the point where it looked like real flesh. Even Andusia's eyelashes looked like they were made with real hair, a stark contrast to the strips of clay commonly found on figurines. Seeing how realistic and lifelike Andusia looked, Blonde Twintails couldn't help but feel that the figurine before her was a living being.
"Of course. But before that, shouldn't we verify if this ID can be used?" Alice said, chuckling as she raised the student ID in her right hand with two fingers.
"Tsk, you're really cautious," Blonde Twintails clicked her tongue. However, she didn't voice any objections since Alice's wish to verify the forged ID's effectiveness was completely reasonable. Subsequently, she stood up from her seat and said, "In that case, I'll guide you to the Royal Magic Tower so you can verify this student ID's authenticity."