Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1078 Do you believe in yourself?

Because of his heavy heart, Lingge did not take the elevator, but walked down the stairs, as if he wanted to give himself enough time to think before returning to the Fairy Sleep Inn, and it would be best if he could think things through here. But this was destined to be a luxury, because the situation was so complicated that it was beyond human wisdom. The truth was hidden behind the fog, and it needed a pair of firm and powerful hands to brush it away and set things right.

But in the end, it is not the most important issue now. Even if some signs are about to happen, they are destined to happen in the distant future. If they cannot overcome the difficulties in front of them, they will have no future. So the young man has decided in his heart that if he still cannot come up with an answer by the time he returns to the Fairy Deep Sleep Inn, he will suppress the problem in his heart and focus on dealing with other situations.

Between the choice of the individual and the choice of the group, young people always subconsciously choose the latter. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Saint Shallia always thinks that he is not confident enough.

"Linger?"

He was interrupted by a call, and when he looked up, he found that it was Ovira who had stood in the corridor and was staring at him curiously. The warm sunlight came in through the glass window, casting a warm luster on her long hair. Due to the refraction of light, the young man could not see his reflection in her eyes, and what kind of expression she had at that moment. But the next moment, the girl put her hands behind her back, leaned forward slightly, and approached Lingge with her cheek. Her eyes also jumped out of the light, but they did not dim at all because they were out of the sunlight. Instead, they flashed with a vivid guess and questioning, like a clumsy but confident cat, wondering if its two-legged beast servant was hiding something delicious: "I called you several times, why did you react now? What were you thinking about just now? Were you... thinking about that celestial Themis!?"

Her eyes suddenly turned contemptuous, and she said quietly, "Because you are in the same room with a girl, you are secretly happy, right, Lingge? How despicable, she is just a child! As old as Metien!"

She tried to use the pink-haired little girl to bring back the little conscience and morality left in young people's hearts.

Lingge was speechless, and after a while he said, "Metien is not as old as Themis in the celestial world - in fact, her age is not even a fraction of yours."

Hearing the second half of the sentence, Princess Beman's eyebrows suddenly stood up. She hurriedly wanted to argue something, such as physical age does not represent psychological age, or that a hundred years of the young royal power is equal to one year of an ordinary person, so she is actually younger than Medien... and so on.

But Ling Ge didn't give her the chance, he shook his head and changed the subject: "I'm not thinking about the messy things you think, I'm just thinking about a problem."

"Oh? What's the problem?"

Olvera suddenly became excited. She moved closer and stared at Lingge with sparkling eyes full of expectation, encouragement, and a kind of pride that only little girls have: "Why not ask the smartest, most omniscient, and the spokesperson of wisdom and knowledge on the entire Yunjingkong Island-"

"Miss Shesta and Nevile?"

“That’s right… No way! It’s me, me!”

Olvera puffed up her cheeks angrily: "Have you forgotten what my royal power is?"

“I haven’t forgotten.” Ling Ge raised his eyebrows: “It’s just that I don’t think the answer to this question can be found in the [Library of Truth].”

"Just ask." Olvera lowered her voice, pretending to be mysterious and proud, "All the books in the world, the history of time; or the wisdom of man, the essence of civilization... nothing can not be found on these papers, because the mystery is watching over all the knowledge in the world."

She paused, then emphasized, "I'm watching, you know?"

If she had a tail, she would have been shaken into a windmill.

Lingge had no choice but to ask for help from this symbol of wisdom: "Then do you know who I am?"

"Who are you? This question is very simple, of course it's...eh?" Olvera was stunned for a moment. What kind of question is this? It seems that she can think of the answer without the power of the secret kingship: "Isn't it Lingge?"

"Besides Lingge?"

"Besides Lingge?"

Avella couldn't help but ponder deeply. This question was obviously not as simple as it seemed, otherwise Linger wouldn't have been so devoted to thinking about it. So she should also see through the appearance and the essence - obviously, this is a philosophical question! Just like most philosophers would think about the relationship between self and the world, consciousness and body, spirit and soul, Linger seemed to have reached this confused stage.

But it doesn’t matter, I can use the knowledge I learned from the book to enlighten him!

Olvera said with a measured tone: "In psychology, human self-cognition can be roughly divided into three structures, namely the id, the ego and the superego. The id is a primitive program affected by emotions, and can also be considered a protective mechanism naturally produced by humans under the constraints of the living environment; the ego is the side of humans that connects with the real society, and a regulatory function that can be presented under the constraints of the moral standards of all mankind; and the superego is a regulator above the two, a perfect personality hatched by factors such as social norms, ethics and values. These three kinds of 'I' are all human cognition of their own existence and mental state. Generally speaking, we believe that only by restraining the id, coordinating the ego, and pursuing the superego can we unify the complete personality in daily life and reach the state of 'I am me'. This matter is also mentioned in the work of the master of psychology Freud, "The Ego and the Id"..."

As she spoke, she carefully observed Ling's reaction, suspecting that the young man was on the verge of collapse under the extreme pressure, and might suffer from schizophrenia in the next second, giving birth to a second personality or something... Although there was already a schizophrenic patient on Sky Island, that was because of the curse and did not count.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to say anymore." Ling Ge interrupted her chatter and rubbed his brows tiredly: "I shouldn't have counted on you."

"Hmm!?"

Princess Beman, who was originally a little worried about him, puffed up her cheeks like an angry hedgehog. If anger could affect reality, she would definitely spit out a stream of fire from her mouth and let the young man feel her anger for himself.

However, seeing her puffy cheeks, Ling Ge's mind moved, and he didn't know what he remembered, so he slowly stretched out his finger -

stamp.

"!!?"

Olvera opened her eyes wide, as if she saw the sky falling. She stepped back several steps, covering her face with one hand and pointing at Lingge with the other hand, and shouted in disbelief and anger: "You, you, you, what are you doing, Lingge!? How dare you humiliate a lady like this? It's really rude!"

Her cheeks had turned red all the way to her ears and neck, and could not be covered with one hand. In the sunlight, her fair and flawless skin was dyed a bright red like wine, like a pure and clear blood-red stone.

Ling Ge was amused by his childish behavior, and also found her reaction quite interesting. He couldn't help but chuckle and apologized, "I just remembered Metien when she was a child. She also liked to do this when she was angry, and I had to coax her to calm down. So what I did just now was completely, uh, subconscious. But your reaction was much more intense than hers at that time."

"This, this is it..."

Not sure if she was stunned by his smile or was intimidated by this reason, Ovilla did not pursue Ling's rude behavior just now, but muttered: "Of course I will be excited, you and Medien are siblings, not me. You should, you should treat me as a more charming and beautiful girl, right? When you come to my room at night, don't always sit there reading..." "What did you say?" She gradually lowered her voice as she spoke, so that Ling could only hear a mosquito-like murmur, so he asked again.

"I said--"

Avella glared at him, then took a deep breath, mustered up her courage, and was about to speak out her heart, when suddenly there was a clanging sound from the other end of the corridor, followed by someone's angry scolding: "Oh, didn't I tell you to handle these with care? These are antiques, they can't stand being dropped! Hold them steady, if you break one of them, I'll grow mushrooms all over your body!"

What a creative way of threatening. For a moment, both of them forgot what they were going to say. They turned their heads and looked in the direction where the voice came from. In front of the gate of the Game Museum, Alice was standing with her hands on her hips like a black-hearted supervisor, shouting and commanding a group of hardworking and patient stone guards to help her pack up the game consoles, arcade machines, controllers, cartridges, etc. collected in the museum and take them away.

What is this? Robbery?

Linger cast an inquiring look at Olvera. Princess Beman probably also felt that Alice's behavior was embarrassing. She sighed rather melancholy, "Alice said she had asked Themis in the celestial world. Anyway, these game consoles are left here and no one plays them, so why not give them all to her and maximize their surplus value. Themis in the celestial world actually agreed, so she came to ask me for help and pestered me for a long time. I couldn't stand her anymore, so..."

It turned out to be the case.

"Help?" Ling Ge thought, how can you help? Aren't it the stone guards who are moving things?
"You don't know that."

Princess Beman puffed up her chest proudly. "I have a very good relationship with everyone in the herb garden. For example, the stone guards only listen to me except for the boss lady. Alice can't command them, and she doesn't dare to disturb Miss Shesta who is taking a nap, so they can only come to me for help."

I really don't know. Maybe it's because of the Tree Lady, the young man thought. Before his death, the respected elder left many legacies to his only student, and perhaps his only teacher a long time ago. Helping her leave the castle was just one of them. In addition, there was a new home, some like-minded companions, a group of magical herbs and stone spirit guards who were willing to accompany and comfort her, a new ideal, etc. The violets planted outside the windmill tower of Ieta might also be one of them. However, under Olvera's careful care, although they grew lushly, they never bloomed.

Does this mean that even though Princess Belman has a new home, new friends and new ideals, she is still obsessed with certain things in the past?
Lingge suddenly remembered something: If they decided to leave the initial star field and continue the journey against the Witch Society, the first enemy they would encounter would be the Dark Witch Carabosse, who was the culprit who cast a curse on the Mysterious Kingdom in ancient times and caused the Kingdom of Bemang to be destroyed by darkness.

However, Themis in heaven said that the curse did not come from royal power, but from another unknown force.

Hatred, ideals, persistence, pain, faith... all are tormented in the fate of Her Royal Highness the Princess, and it is unknown what kind of flavor will be brewed.

“Lingge?” Avella suddenly turned around, her thick eyelashes brushing lightly: “What’s wrong with you? Why are you staring at me?”

"Nothing." Ling Ge retracted his gaze and looked at Alice who was supervising at the door, and asked: "Is she going to empty this museum? Where does she want to put so many game consoles?"

Her own room alone would definitely not be enough. If she stayed in the hotel lobby, the landlady and the bartender would kill her. She couldn't move to the windmill tower room in Yieta, could she? Although she was the most talkative person on the entire Yunjing Sky Island, it was a bit too much to always catch a sheep and pluck its wool. Even rabbits bite when they are angry. Isn't the genius player afraid of being bitten back?

"Tianxin Church." Olvera said honestly.

"Oh...wait, where?"

"Put it in Tianxin Church." Olvera looked like she was trying hard to hold back her laughter. "Metien has agreed, because Alice said that these game consoles are the collection of the goddess, they are holy objects, and naturally they should be placed in the church dedicated to the goddess. And after placing so many holy objects, Tianxin Church might be blessed by the goddess, so Metien was convinced, and he also helped Alice convince Sister Livia who originally wanted to object."

"..." The young man wondered whether he should go up and stop Alice.
But it was just a thought. He shook his head gently and said, "Let them do as they please. After all, I am no longer a pastor of Tianxin Church and have no right to interfere in their affairs."

Olvera couldn't help but glance at him, as if she had seen some strange creature.

"I always feel like you've been a little too indulgent with Alice today, Lingge." She expressed her feelings: "If it was in the past, even if you didn't stop her, you would have given her a few verbal warnings, right? Also, Alice was a little too excited. Although she's always been very emotional, she was obviously more excited today than usual. I always feel..."

She looked at the back of the man who was directing the stone guards to move things and said softly, "It makes me a little worried."

The young man beside him fell silent for a moment. After a long while, he replied in a low voice, "It's okay."

"Trust her, Olvera."

"It'll be fine."

……

Her Royal Highness the Princess shook her head slightly: "I don't believe her, Lingge."

"Besides, Alice must not believe in herself either."

"But we all believed in you and the words you said, whether it was sincere comfort or false confession, or something in between, a little more sincere than comfort and a little more gentle than confession. That's why she cheered up so quickly."

"What about you, Ringo?"

"Do you believe in yourself?"

……

The young man fell silent again.

This time, he didn't say anything else.

Give me some meow