Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1087 Is it too despicable?
After this incident, Shino did go to everyone to apologize, but no one took that night's incident to heart, and they didn't even think that Shino and Alice had any conflicts. In their view, it was just an exchange of different opinions. As the protagonist, Alice patted her chest and promised Shino that she, a talented player, would live up to everyone's expectations and defeat the Dark Witch and her Construct Mecha, then rush to the Ladist, capture Tiantis alive, and liberate the All-Mirror Star... and so on.

In her words, the Witch Society seemed to be a stray dog ​​on the roadside, which could be bullied at will. People like Tiantis, Carabosse, and Feier were not worthy of her attention. Xino didn't know whether to agree or disagree. If she agreed, it would boost Alice's arrogance; if she opposed, it would seem that she had no confidence in her side. In the end, she could only smile and let Alice experience it herself.

Apparently, Alice took it as encouragement, so she left with great pride, and stayed in her room for several days. Even the three meals a day were delivered by the landlady. It was said that she was adjusting the cassette, correcting the data of the Genesis mecha, and trying to enhance its performance. It can be seen that although she was shouting fiercely, she did not really despise her opponent; or it could be said that this battle was of extraordinary significance to her, to the point that even a genius player had to be cautious and must not make any mistakes.

This performance reminded Xino of the conversation she had with Lingge in Tianxin Church on that moonlit night, and she couldn't help but sigh. She had to admit that the young man did have the ability to see through people's hearts. His analysis and interpretation of Alice was obviously completely correct. The genius player was not like other young queens, driven by a strong sense of mission and justice to join this battle. Instead, what supported her to move forward was an escapist mentality, escaping from both reality and fantasy; escaping from both the past and the future; escaping from others' expectations of her, and escaping from her own trust in the world.

But, how long can we escape like this?

All it takes is one failure...

Whenever she thought of this, Xino would gently shake her head, forcing herself to dispel this ominous thought in her mind. She was the victorious king, and should be full of confidence in victory. Why did she start to worry about failure before the battle even started? She thought, what she had to do was actually very simple, nothing more than trusting her partner, waiting and hoping.

She retracted her worried gaze, suppressed her uneasy thoughts, and focused on the task at hand, which was to persuade the aliens from the Forest of Loser to temporarily leave the Cloud Whale Sky Island and live in the Goddess's sanctuary to avoid the upcoming war. The reason why she said "temporarily" was because this sudden change made many alien tribes panic. Therefore, Xino had to promise as the heir of the Gostaph family that as long as she was still a knight of the Whitethorn Flower, the sacred covenant would never be erased. After the war subsided, she would return to the sanctuary and lead them back to the Mirror Star, and they would surely usher in a better new home.

If order can defeat chaos, and Yunjing Sky Island can defeat the Witch Society, such a promise will naturally not be difficult to fulfill; but what if... then for these aliens, staying in the original star field that the society cannot reach may be the only and best choice.

Under the persuasion of Xino and the lady boss, most of the aliens on the Sky Island agreed to stay, including those brought by Xino from the Forest of Loser and the rotten wood monsters who followed from the Virtual Root Swamp. After all, they first landed on the Cloud Whale Sky Island to preserve the heritage of their tribe under the butcher knife of the Night Watch and the Balance of Order, and they have long been accustomed to a life of hiding. For these aliens, if the Temple of Heaven is not too remote, located at the end of the universe, far away from the world and civilization, otherwise, it is really a suitable place to live.

As for the magic herbs in the herb garden, the potted plants and rabbits in the hotel, and the stone guards who took care of them, they all chose to stay without exception, no matter how the proprietress persuaded them, or even threatened to capture them to make soup, they remained unmoved. But it is very likely that these simple-minded guys with low IQs did not actually know what it meant to stay, and they just chose the Cloud Whale Sky Island out of habit - or, in other words, chose the Fairy Deep Sleep Hotel.

In Xiao Yang's words, "We have lived in a hotel since we were born, and we will always live in a hotel in the future. How can we live somewhere else? That's impossible!"

It couldn't even imagine itself leaving the Fairy Sleep Inn.

"It's dangerous, huh?"

The lady boss continued to persuade him: "You may have to fight with the bad guys from the Witch Society. Do you think you can beat them, Little Sun?"

The little sun looked down at his weak leaves and shuddered, but he was still very stubborn and refused to give in: "What's the big deal! Do you think I'm scared? I'll beat those bad guys from the Witch Society one by one. None of them are my opponents! Oh no!"

It made a couple of pretentious gestures and almost tipped over its own flowerpot. Fortunately, the landlady helped it up in time, so the tragedy of the flowerpot being destroyed and the flower dying did not happen. The latter couldn't help but put the flowerpot back in place, then reached out and gently patted its leaves, saying, "Okay, I was just kidding you, leave the fighting to us, you don't need to trouble yourself. Since you don't want to stay, just stay in the herb garden. If you are afraid, you can hide in the hotel, but except for these two places, don't run around in other places and don't cause trouble to others, understand?"

"Then you can rest assured, Sister Shesta..."

When the little sun said this enforced name, it paused for a moment, as if it was disgusted. However, it quickly put away its unnecessary expression, folded its two leaves together, and made a gesture similar to a human crossing his chest with both hands, with a serious and solemn face. When it spoke, its demeanor and tone were quite similar to Alice's: "We are so well-behaved!"

If the proprietress didn't know what kind of people these guys are like on a daily basis, she might have believed it.

However, the boss lady was somewhat moved by their willingness to stay, and she felt sad because she felt that she was not a qualified owner. In the past, in order to avoid the pursuit of the night watchmen, they could only place the herb garden in the city's sewers and rely on uninterrupted banquets to cheer everyone up; after moving the hotel to Yunjingkong Island, they did spend a period of freedom, joy and unrestrained time, but it did not last long. Soon, the flames of war would spread here again, bringing these innocent little guys back to the dark and depressing years of the past.

The lady boss herself is not afraid of war. She has seen too much killing and sacrifice in her long journey, and even experienced the bloody dark period of the Siqilia Peninsula. At that time, the efficiency of the silver mad dogs in killing aliens far exceeded any war you can imagine. She was just sad for those lives that had never experienced peace since their birth, including her two sisters. Shesta was fine. She had already completed her pilgrimage and was no longer naive. As for Shemi, she was still on the pilgrimage. If she could finish it, she would surely become a legend among the traveler elves. After all, no traveler elf had ever taken the pilgrimage to the universe, or even to the starting point of creation, the temple of the goddess. However, the question was, could she really finish it smoothly?

Then she thought of the tree lady, the old lady who had left for a long time but seemed to still be alive here. She was the first guest of the hotel and the longest-staying guest. She built the prototype of the herb garden with her own hands and cultivated these magical herbs with different personalities with her magic power. She was as great as a mother to them and as warm as the sun. However, this gentle and kind old lady eventually left in a rainy season to fulfill a promise made long ago. At that time, the little sun and the magical herbs were very sad when they knew she was leaving. How did she comfort them?

She said that everyone has their own choices, and the meaning of life is that when one day you have to make a choice, you can muster up the courage to do it, that is the most important thing. Therefore, these innocent little guys have actually experienced a life and death separation a long time ago. They are stronger than they think, so they can make a choice without hesitation and stay in this place with the breath of Mrs. Tree, her students, everyone in the hotel, and those memories that are condensed together. Instead, I was tied down by those weak and hesitant emotions and forgot the warnings left by the elders.

Perhaps the tradition of the traveler fairy clan is wrong.

Even if they have completed their pilgrimage, they can still move on, because the journey of life is endless. They will always meet new friends, experience new emotions, and understand new truths on the road.

Just like it is now.

"Um, Sister Shesta—"

Little Sun had been secretly observing the boss lady's expression. Seeing that she was silent for a long time, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, wondering if he had said something wrong and that he would be hit hard by a storm. He was still young and didn't want to return to nature, nor did he want to be thrown to Saint Shallia for ideological re-education like Shemi. So he asked tremblingly, "What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to take a rest?"

She took every opportunity to flatter and curry favor, trying to gain the possibility of leniency for herself.

Seeing its furtive and fearful appearance, the proprietress's mood suddenly improved. She stood up, gently brushed off the dust on her skirt, and then said with a smile while Little Sun looked horrified, "Nothing, I was just thinking that since everyone has chosen to stay, it shows that you still like the hotel very much. Should I hold a banquet to respond to your kindness? It can also help boost everyone's morale so that we can prepare for the upcoming battle."

The more she thought about it, the more reliable it seemed. Without waiting for Little Sun to answer, she nodded. "Well, that's a really good idea. I have to go back and discuss it with Xie Liya and Xie Mi, and finalize the process as soon as possible. Ah, by the way, should we invite Miss Themis from the Celestial Realm to the party? She used to have a very good relationship with Alice and Xiao Xia. If we ask them to invite her, maybe they will agree. In that case, why not schedule the party the day before we leave? This should be considered... a farewell party? Although it's us who are leaving, not her, no one has stipulated that a person who is leaving can't hold a farewell party for themselves, right? Well, that's completely reasonable!"

The proprietress, who had never held a banquet since entering the universe, seemed to be proud of her flash of inspiration and did not bother to ask the little sun what it thought - after all, its thoughts were not important. To be precise, when it came to holding a banquet, no one else's thoughts were important. Everything depended on Shesta's own wishes - in short, she happily left the herb garden and went to prepare for the upcoming banquet.

Anyway, Xiao Yang was relieved, but Xie Liya, who was cleaning the hotel, was not so lucky. The bartender felt a chill running up her spine and shivered uncontrollably, muttering to herself, "Why do I have such a bad feeling? Could it be -"

"Xie~li~ya~~"

A familiar voice came from afar. I heard it before I saw the person: "I'm going to hold a banquet. Let everyone in the hotel get ready~~~"

really.

The ominous premonition came true, and it came true so quickly that I didn't even have time to find an excuse to escape.

There was a sound of hurried footsteps on the stairs, and the next moment, a young man walked down the stairs and came to the first floor. After seeing Xie Liya in a daze, his expression was a little unnatural, but he quickly adjusted himself, coughed lightly, and said seriously: "I have to go out and check on how Avella and the others are preparing."

"I'll leave the hotel to you, Shelia."

At the end, he said in a complicated tone, not knowing what his mood was, "...thank you for your hard work."

Then he left the hotel without looking back. His hurried back seemed as if he was afraid that he would be caught if he was a step late. There were not many people in the world who could make Lingge so embarrassed.

The bartender watched the young man walk away, and it took her a while to react: "Ah!"

"You actually left me alone and ran away, Lingge, you are so despicable!"

Give me some meow