Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1089: One against ten?
"But then again," Ling Ge changed the subject again, avoiding the princess' burning gaze. This question was not easy to answer. Normal people would not remember such a small detail from a year ago, right? Girls are indeed complicated creatures. The young man felt that he might never understand it in his lifetime: "Why do you suddenly want to practice swordsmanship, and run to such a remote place?"

Obviously trying to cover up.

"This, this..."

As soon as this matter was mentioned, Ovilla became hesitant and refused to answer for a long time. It would have been fine if she didn't answer, after all, Lingge was just asking to change the subject, and he didn't really want to know the answer. But Her Royal Highness Princess Bemang was obviously a very contradictory person. On the one hand, she was secretive and refused to tell, but on the other hand, she was eager to talk about it. After struggling like this for a few minutes, until the young man was getting a little impatient, she finally made up her mind, quickly looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping nearby, then she put her head close to Lingge, lowered her voice, and looked extremely sneaky: "Since you want to know so much, it's not impossible to tell you the answer, but - you have to promise me that this matter must be kept secret from everyone, understand!"

She ordered harshly, trying to intimidate Linge.

But actually I don’t really want to know.

The young man looked up at the sky. There was no snow in the middle of June. Then he looked down at the princess's determined expression, as if she had given up all hope. He felt that if he answered like that, his fate would not be much better than that of the leaf just now. So he nodded helplessly, indicating that he would be responsible and asked her to speak freely.

Ovilla began to narrate in a deep voice: "The story dates back to a long, long time ago, when Her Royal Highness Princess Leslie was born..."

"Do we have to start from so long ago?" Linger couldn't help but interrupt her. "Besides, there's no need to describe your life experience in detail. We've already seen enough of it in the castle game."

"Shut up Ling!"

Olvera was angry and annoyed, with a hint of shame. After all, for her, the nostalgia segment of the castle game was still an unspeakable dark history. Not everyone liked to turn their memories into a first-person perspective and play them for everyone to see.

Even Alice doesn't dare to joke about this, Lingge, how dare you!
"I just feel that if you insist on starting from the year you were born, I might not be able to finish your story before dinner." Lingge expressed his opinion sincerely.

The princess blushed and muttered, "I'm not doing this just to liven up the atmosphere and relax. You have to understand my good intentions!"

Ling Ge suddenly felt a little curious: "Livelyn up the atmosphere? Relax the mood? Is the topic you want to talk about very heavy?"

Her Royal Highness the Princess groaned twice: "It's so heavy, I'll scare you to death if I tell you about it!"

"for example?"

"For example, I feel very weak." Avella pursed her lips and said seriously, "I feel very, very weak. Lingge, what do you think?"

Linger looked at her strangely: "I thought you knew it a long time ago."

The princess's face, which had been tense for a long time, was broken by his words. She raised her fist and angrily hit this guy who never said anything nice. Ling Ge did not resist, but just let her cool down, and then said: "I don't mean to mock you, but I thought you should know your own strength level, and your value has never been reflected in combat. Why are you suddenly entangled in such things now?"

"Because, because... we are about to go to war with the Witch Society, right? The commander of the other side is still the same, the Dark Witch Carabosse." At this point, Olvera's tone suddenly became low, and her expression was a little gloomy: "She is the culprit who imprisoned me in the castle with a curse and indirectly caused my country, my relatives, my people and even my teacher to leave me. After breaking free from the shackles and escaping from the castle, the reason why I am willing to embark on this journey with you is, on the one hand, because of you, Lingge, because you need me, or in other words, you need the power of the seven girls' royal power to open the door of the Holy Temple of Heaven, use the power of the goddess to eliminate the influence of the golden apple, and return to normal life from then on. If A long time ago, I must have been confused. Why would someone give up being the hero of a story and be willing to waste time in a long and mediocre life? But after experiencing the demise of my family and country, the disappearance of affection and love, I understand this truth just like you. Only a plain life is the most important thing in this world, and the grand epic and the ups and downs of the legend are more like another curse. The seven girls' royal power is the key to unlocking the curse. If any one of them is missing, it will not be successful. So I am willing to help you, Lingge, and I am willing to be one of the seven destined in your destiny to help you unlock this extraordinary curse. As for the other reason, it is Carabosse, or the guardian in the castle who died because of me. "

She spoke for a long time, which was unusual for her. She was rambling, but she didn't sound annoying. Perhaps it was because she was expressing her true feelings. Sincere emotions always make people immersed in them. It was the first time for the young man to see her open her heart and tell him some emotions and thoughts that outsiders didn't know. He knew that no matter what he said at this time, it would only disturb her, so he didn't say a word and listened to her quietly and patiently.

"In theory, she was my curse, a byproduct of the endless dark nightmare of the past. I should not have sympathized with her anyway. But when she disappeared in front of me, I still couldn't avoid feeling sad. In the past, I thought that I had too many emotions and even confused enemies with friends. But after going through so many things, I gradually began to understand that my sadness at that time did not come from sympathy, but from a request - she asked me to end my sins and also asked me to end that person's pain."

As Ovella spoke, she looked down at her palm. The feeling of the sword piercing her heart in her memory was still so real, as if it came from a long-lost dream. Although she had never had a dream before, she naturally didn't know what it felt like.

Lingge was silent for a moment, and he already knew who "that person" Ovella was talking about.

"When I personally ended the life of the guardian, I knew I had made a promise. The person I feared in the past is still the person I hate today, but I no longer just hate her for destroying my country, my relatives, my people, and even my seven hundred years of life. I hate her even more for abandoning all the innocence and kindness in her humanity without hesitation, letting the bright side of her soul die with eternal guilt and self-blame, while she stubbornly pursued the so-called great ideal." Olvera clenched her hands, her eyes firm: "So at that time I promised her, and also promised myself, that I would embark on this journey to find a way to end everything."

Linger looked up and saw a fragmented sky through the gaps between the branches. The city was starless during the day, but the invisible warships were still hovering, waiting for the upcoming war. He asked, "So, you finally waited for the moment you were looking forward to, that is, this moment, right?" "In a sense, probably."

Olvera pursed her lips and suddenly felt a little discouraged: "But at the beginning, like everyone else, I placed my hopes in the hands of the goddess. Once I learned that the goddess had fallen asleep and I was the only one I could rely on on this road, I suddenly realized how weak I was. You know, last night, when Alice and Xino were arguing about who should fight, I actually wanted to tell them that I could fight too - but we all knew that this was impossible, because I didn't have the strength to fight against Carabosse. I couldn't even step onto the battlefield and face the person I hated the most, because even an attack she launched casually could kill me."

Her Royal Highness Princess Beman sighed deeply, and the sigh echoed in the empty and silent forest, and was carried back by the wind, as if it was another person's sigh heard from afar: "Am I really useless, Lingge?"

Essentially, she wasn't looking for answers, she was just doubting herself.

Ling Ge knew it, but he still thought about it carefully before replying: "Your swordsmanship is very impressive."

"Well, because I have been weak since I was young, and because of the curse, I cannot learn the light magic of the light elves, so I can only practice swordsmanship desperately, hoping to make my body stronger so that my father, mother, and teacher don't have to worry about me anymore."

Aoweila said a little disappointedly, "But what's the use of being good at swordsmanship? It's still within the scope of ordinary people, and the Flash Cross Swordsmanship inherited from the royal family of Leslie needs to be used with light magic to exert the most powerful effect. Otherwise, it is not enough to fight against those truly strong people. I am practicing swordsmanship here today just to regain the feeling of the past, barely gain some strength to protect myself, and make Sister Xiaoxia and everyone less worried."

As for fighting against the dark witch Carabosse and her constructed mecha, it’s better to just dream about it - but Princess Bemang doesn’t even have the qualifications to dream, which is too ironic.

The combination of the two made the princess feel depressed today. It was hard to say whether she practiced swordsmanship to vent her emotions. If Ling Ge hadn't appeared in time to divert her attention, I'm afraid this venting behavior would have continued for a long time.

After listening to Olvera's confession, Ling Ge had roughly understood where her knot came from. In fact, this problem was exposed a long time ago, such as the time in the Virtual Root Swamp. And it was not just Olvera's problem, it could even be said to be a problem for the entire Cloud Whale Sky Island team, that is, their strength was too weak. Normally, the only combat force that could be relied on was Alice with the handheld game console. As for the others, Princess Beman's search ability, Saint Shalia's guidance ability, Iyeta's flying ability, Rolena's alchemical props, and Gloria's concealment ability, they could only be considered auxiliary. Not to mention the two seemingly beautiful but actually costly royal powers of Leticia and Shino.

In the past, they didn't care because they didn't need to confront the witch society head-on, and they even believed that they didn't need to consider this issue until the matter was over, and Her Majesty the Goddess would use deus ex machina to solve the problem. But now, an imminent war has caused the problem to break out completely, and it is more obvious in Olvera, because Princess Beman is someone who has indeed dealt with the dark witch Carabosse - even if she is just a byproduct derived from the curse, she still symbolizes a side of Carabosse's soul, perhaps some softer side, but she has stripped it away intentionally or unintentionally.

She once fought against powerful, evil, cunning or invincible guardians in the dark castle, using the power of holy sword, holy book, holy lock and holy staff to fight against them. Although this power came from Alice's game console, the fighting will, courage, skills and the spirit of never giving up came from Ovira, and were the key to everyone's final clearance of the dungeon.

But what she got today was only an indescribable feeling of frustration.

Linger stared at Olvera thoughtfully.

Of course, he could comfort her by saying things like "everyone has different responsibilities" or "your help to the team is reflected in other aspects" - and these were indeed true, but he knew that Her Royal Highness the Princess would not want to hear these empty clichés at this moment. Perhaps what she needed more was confidence?

How to give her this kind of confidence? Ling Ge thought for a while and found that there seemed to be only one way that was more suitable.

Although this method is not so friendly to him.

"Actually, you are not weak." The young man suddenly said, "At least you are much stronger than me. Your swordsmanship——"

He glanced at the cross sword on Avra's waist and said with great confidence: "It should be no problem for you to beat ten of me with one hand."

This is a phrase Alice often uses, especially when bullying the weak.

Olvera raised her head and looked at Lingge silently. Her thick and long eyelashes brushed lightly, and bright starlight flashed in her platinum eyes. After a while, she seemed to finally react to what the young man meant. She couldn't help squinting her eyes, and her two delicate eyebrows curved into a beautiful crescent moon.

"Pfft!"

Give me some meow