Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 124 Is it the dwarf’s lucky magic?

The food that Shesta prepared for everyone was sandwiches with ham, bacon, pickles and tender greens. The portion was quite large and the food was preserved using fairy magic. It was still a little warm when it was taken out of the backpack, which made people sigh that the magical fairy magic could do anything.

Because of Alice's presence, the lunch process was noisy. The golden maid ate her own sandwich, but coveted others'. She came over shamelessly, saying that she wanted to try the difference in taste. Although Shemi repeatedly assured that the sandwiches made by her elder sister tasted the same, she still refused to give up and pestered her. In the end, she was unanimously disliked by everyone and was driven to the other side of the river. She was not allowed to come back until she finished her sandwich.

Alice felt excluded and isolated and was quite resentful. She squatted by the river and sulked. She took a big bite of the sandwich in her hand, picked up a pebble from the ground with her other hand and threw it into the river, pretending that she was skipping stones. In fact, she only startled a few innocent fish in the river.

The stone sank to the bottom of the river with a "plop", making a very crisp sound.

"Yeah!"

"Pfft!"

"Yeah!"

"Pfft!"

Alice threw another stone and replied impatiently, "Stop making noise. I'm eating...eh?"

"Hey, aren't these the dwarfs?" She was originally lying on Metien's head, and now she flapped her butterfly wings and flew down, landing in front of the group of dwarfs. "It's really rare to encounter them on the outskirts of the mountain."

As he spoke, Shaymi turned his gaze towards Alice, or more precisely, towards the sandwich in Alice's hand that she had not yet finished eating. "The dwarfs have a unique habit of exchanging things with other lives. I think these dwarfs must have smelled the fragrance of the sandwich and appeared in front of Alice, wanting to exchange with her."

She realized something was wrong and turned her head quickly, only to see a group of glowing people standing on a large rock nearby, reaching out their hands to greet her in a friendly manner, and making "ah ah" sounds. They looked round-headed and big-headed, with eyes like two black beans that kept blinking, just like those cute characters drawn in the Q-version cute style in the comics on Earth, and they were really cute.

"I don't know them, but I heard from my eldest and second sisters that dwarfs are weak and friendly spirits. They are born from those 'objects that are obviously smaller than their peers.' For example, among trees of the same species, if there is a tree that is smaller than other trees of the same species, to the extent that it can be seen with the naked eye, then there is a possibility that a dwarf will be born. Even among man-made objects, such as plates, dishes, teacups, etc., if they are smaller and inferior products due to technical problems, dwarfs can also be born from these inferior products, but it is a little more difficult. Perhaps because of this, they are not opposed to contact with humans."

"No wonder they have been staring at me." Alice suddenly realized something and then took a bite of the sandwich in her hand as if nothing had happened. This immediately made the dwarfs make "ah ah ah" sounds, and it could be heard that their tone was very anxious.

Metien's eyes sparkled with curiosity and interest: "Shemi, do you know them?"

"so cute!"

"Wow!" Alice's loud shout attracted the attention of her companions on the other side of the river: "What is this!?"

Everyone rushed over to check the situation, fearing that another innocent creature had been killed by Alice. So many people crowded around the river at once that the little creatures with different styles were frightened and quickly gathered together, ready to run away if they disagreed.

At this time, it was Xie Mi who recognized their identities.

Metien's eyes sparkled: "Let's exchange with them, Lingge!"

Although she said it was an exchange, what she was thinking about in her mind was "feeding", just like when she fed those fearless gray wild pigeons in the station square.

There were indeed many sandwiches in the backpack. The kind and considerate lady boss was probably afraid that they—mainly her sister—would get hungry on the road, so she prepared food that obviously exceeded everyone's appetite. Moreover, there was also some private food that a certain bartender had secretly stuffed in when no one was paying attention. It didn't matter if she exchanged a few sandwiches with these dwarfs. The question was... "What can they exchange for?"

Linger had heard a lot of rural ghost stories, saying that the elves would use gold nuggets and gems to exchange what they needed with humans, but that was just fiction. There were no gold mines or gem mines in the mountains of Sosen. If there were, no matter how dangerous it was to open up the wilderness, capitalists and nobles would flock to it, even crazier than the adventurers ten centuries ago. How could these dwarfs have the chance to take action?

"You are so realistic." Alice chewed the ham and bacon in the sandwich and quietly picked out the vegetable leaves. She was clearly doing something against the moral bottom line, but she still blamed others with confidence: "They are so cute, so what if they give them something for free? People should be more loving, Lingge!"

Ling'er had long been immune to her moral blackmail, so he just quietly looked at the little things on the stone, wondering what they could offer in exchange.

The dwarfs probably guessed what he meant, and after a while of talking and talking, they finally came to a satisfactory conclusion. They turned around and quickly spread out, forming a mysterious pattern on the surface of the stone, and then began to jump around, following some unknown and mysterious rules, constantly exchanging positions, causing the pattern to change. The golden light spots on their bodies stretched with this rapid movement, and the trajectory they outlined was complicated and detailed, like a rigorous mathematical model, dazzling.

As the patterns kept changing, the golden dots of light gradually separated from their bodies, flying and dispersing in the air like fireflies, creating a brilliant and dreamy atmosphere. Bathed in the glow, the travelers felt warm, as if they were soaking in warm spring water, gradually dispelling the physical and mental fatigue after the journey.

"What is this?" Alice stretched out her hand curiously and touched the golden spots flying in the sky. However, they seemed to be called by some will and quickly merged into the girl's palm and disappeared.

"This is the innate magic of the dwarves!"

Xie Mi was also bathed in brilliant golden light. The translucent butterfly wings behind her lifted her petite body up and flew up, like a butterfly dancing in the rain of light. She looked elegant and beautiful. Her tone was filled with obvious joy: "It's called 'Lucky Gift'. As the name suggests, it can make the object of the magic better luck! The dwarves usually don't use this magic casually. It can be seen that they really want to eat the sandwiches made by Big Sister!"

Because the sandwich was made by her eldest sister, she proudly puffed out her chest, looking very proud of it.

"A magic that increases luck?" Alice's eyes lit up. "Really? It can make me..."

"No."

"I haven't told you what it is yet!"

"No matter what you say, no means no." After just two days of getting along, even the naive little Xie Mi recognized Alice's true nature, so he flatly denied it: "This magic can only improve your luck to a limited extent. At most, it can only prevent you from being attacked by wild beasts when you sleep at night, or from getting hurt when you fall."

"What? That's it?" Alice expressed her disappointment.

"There's nothing we can do. The dwarfs are very weak demons. They can only do this far, which is their limit."

The dwarfs on the stone didn't pay attention to the conversation between Alice and Shaymi. After performing the magic, they looked at Lingge eagerly. More than a dozen pairs of black bean-like eyes were staring at the human in front of them at the same time, hoping that he would agree to exchange the sandwich for this lucky magic.

The young man was silent for a moment, then he took out two sandwiches from his backpack, gently placed them on the stone, and said, "It's a fair deal."

"Now, this is yours."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)