Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 133 Is the princess sleeping inside?

The wind and rain eroded the rusty traces, and the mosses that were used to the dark environment grew in the quiet corners. The low footsteps that had not been heard for hundreds of years disturbed the sleeping dreams, and finally realized that they were living in a mobile world. The ghosts of the past lingered on the collapsed doorposts, mottled exterior walls and broken half of the tower, creating a dead scene.

The mysterious castle that Sir Roman had been searching for for half his life but had found in vain now appeared in front of everyone in the most horrifying appearance, and was as silent as if it had already been dead.

Walking along the main road of the castle, which was large enough to accommodate two carriages driving side by side, the group arrived at the large iron gate at the end. It seemed to be closed by some strange force, welded tightly, leaving no gaps. However, Lingge only pushed it tentatively, and the door was pushed inward, making a low and hoarse biting sound.

"Ling Ge, it turns out you are a strong man!"

Alice praised.

Lingge ignored her and watched the crack in the door gradually widen, eventually revealing the entire interior of the castle. He then frowned: It's too dark.

If the environment outside the castle is a pitch-black night, then the interior of the castle is pure darkness where even the concept of "night" does not exist. Here, light cannot exist at all, and darkness itself spreads like water, swallowing up all the surrounding matter, until it finally forms a state of being as it was before, as if it was born this way, and was naturally insulated from light.

He took out the luminous fluorite prepared in advance by the proprietress Shesta from his backpack. This is a crystal that will release bright white light as long as the temperature is right, but its effect is limited at the moment. It only increases the visible range from the original zero to an area of ​​several feet square at the feet.

He also recalled what he had observed when he walked through the snowy courtyard: all the walls of the castle had no windows. Whether it was the towering main wall or the wings and towers on both sides, they were all sealed with dark stones, blocking every path for light to enter.

"What are you daydreaming about, Ling?" Alice poked his arm. "Why don't you go in?"

Forget it.

He said calmly, then holding the fluorite in his hand, he was the first to step into the castle.

And the poor person who was unfortunately bound by the darkness is naturally the target of their trip, the young girl Wang Quan who possesses the power of "mystery".

He originally thought that this was the unique architectural style of the alien civilization in the past, but combined with the thick and persistent darkness inside the castle, he suddenly had another guess, such as it was a cage, surrounded by darkness, leaving no chance for the trapped people to escape.

The development of the story's plot is more and more consistent with Sir Roman's narration in "March Diary". Could it be true, as Alice said, that in the end she has to kiss the sleeping princess awake?

The young man sighed in his heart: Having come this far, there is no way I can go back the same way.

But the dangers lurking in the darkness are often blinder and more insane than what the naked eye can see.

He shook his head subconsciously, thinking that this was ridiculous. At least, although the princess was asleep, there should be other ways to wake her up, not necessarily relying on a stranger's kiss.

"Let's go."

In this case, the only way forward is to move forward.

Lingge looked back and realized that she had made all the preparations, even holding the game console in her hand. She was just waiting for the battle to break out, then she would call upon the magical game magic to defeat her enemy.

Others followed in a line, following behind.

……

In the darkness as thick as ink, the faint light emitted by the fluorite is like the starlight at dawn at midnight, trudging through the black tide with difficulty. Travelers who come from afar to visit the legend can only vaguely see the things around them by following its brilliance closely, but they can only see the same rough stone bricks, which are laid together to form an insurmountable high wall. The architectural style of this castle is extremely rough. In addition to stone bricks, no other materials are used, not to mention decorative statues, paintings, columns and arches. This cold and dark corridor leads to nowhere. People often feel like they are walking in an underground tunnel left over from the Middle Ages. Upwards, it connects to the city's sewer pipes, and cold sewage drips from time to time.

The oppressive feeling brought by darkness was worse than that of sewage. At least Metien was so scared that she had to whisper with Shemi to relieve the pressure. The sound of their conversation could not be heard more than ten centimeters away before it was swallowed up by the surging black tide.

Since the direction cannot be seen clearly, travelers can only move forward based on intuition. However, the structure of the castle is very simple. After going several hundred meters inside, they will encounter stone stairs leading to the upper level. Carefully touching the railing, they climb up the stairs. The scene on the second floor is exactly the same as that on the first floor, and this continues until the third and fourth floors.

And along the way, they didn't encounter a single enemy.

Not to mention Noctus the Dark that devoured the sun in "March Diary", even other enemies were not encountered. Only their footsteps echoed on the empty and cold stone bricks, accompanied by Alice's dissatisfied muttering: "What's going on? I have the cassette ready, but there are no monsters?"

She had been staying up late every night for the past three days and had finally finished editing the new cassette. She was just looking for an unlucky guy to try her hand at, but she encountered this situation and was very depressed.

But she was the only one who was depressed. Everyone else thought that this was not a bad thing. It would be even better if it could last until they left the castle.

Although, it probably won't go that smoothly.

Arriving at the fifth floor, which is also the highest floor of the castle, Linger couldn't tell how long they had been walking. It could be several hours, or it could be just over ten minutes. Darkness not only amplifies the depression in people's hearts, but also blurs the passage of time, leaving the world in an unpredictable state of existence.

I continued to explore under the silent high wall, but when I reached the end, I found that there was no staircase leading up. This was the highest floor, and if I wanted to go up, I would have to climb the wings guarding the castle. Instead, there was a closed door, made of iron like the castle's main door. It looked like a whole piece of iron, with no gap to open it, as if the whole piece of iron was burned into the wall bricks.

"Oh!"

Finally, a different scene appeared, making Alice open her eyes wide with excitement. Although it was clearly a guess, her tone was full of confidence: "I bet that the princess mentioned in the story is in the room, and she is also the young queen we are looking for. She is sleeping, waiting for someone to wake her up with a kiss. Lingge, are you interested?"

"Not interested." Lingge replied coldly: "It's just a script created by humans."

"That's a shame."

Alice said hypocritically, and then her eyes rolled around as she came up with a trick: "Since you don't want to, why don't I do it? I'm a hero after all, and it's my duty to wake the princess up with a kiss!"

Lingge didn't give her time to continue talking nonsense. He handed the fluorite in his hand to Saint Xia Liya beside him, then walked forward, exhaled lightly, and reached out to push open the door of the room.

Will the sleeping princess really be waiting in the room?

Although he was sure that he had no interest in it, a similar thought still popped up in his mind at that moment.

At the same time, the scene in the room came into the young man's eyes through the gradually opening crack in the door.

first of all--

light.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)