Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 135: A Girl Without a Shadow?
This was a rather heavy topic, and people didn't know how to continue. The atmosphere was a little cold for a while. But Ovella was only stunned for a while, and then under the silent gaze of Lingge and others, she slowly raised her hand and yawned, turned around, and said to them in a listless tone: "Although I may not miss it very much, I still thank you for bringing me news about the outside world."

"I'm not very good at communicating with people. If you want to do anything now, please feel free to do so. But I suggest you leave quickly because it's very dangerous here, um..."

She seemed to have no interest in continuing, so she retracted her gaze and turned her back to the guests. Her thin back gradually drooped and she made inarticulate humming sounds from her mouth, as if she wanted to sink herself into the deepest part of the bed sheets.

"Wait!"

Faced with her indifferent attitude, Alice couldn't help but shout, "We are here to save you. Even if we have to leave, we have to take you with us. Don't you want to leave this castle?"

A person is sealed in a dark world, lonely and without support for hundreds or thousands of years. Suddenly someone says to her, "I can lead you out of this darkness." Then, even if her reaction is not so exciting that she can't control herself, she should at least be happy.

However, the girl in front of him named Olvera did not show the slightest sign of being moved.

She didn't even turn her head. Only a deep voice came through her platinum hair that was casually scattered on her shoulders and cascading like a waterfall: "You can't save me."

Can't help?
Alice couldn't stand such discouraging words, so she immediately retorted, "You haven't tried it, so how do you know? It's just kissing the princess, who can't do it?"

Ling Ge heard this and pressed his forehead helplessly: This guy actually still believes the plot description in "March Search Diary" until now. Doesn't he know that it is just a script created by Sir Roman? Should I deprive her of the right to speak and let me negotiate on my own?
"Kiss the princess?"

Oliva reached out and groped around for a while, and finally found the black lantern close at hand. She grabbed the iron ring on the top of the lantern, slowly climbed down from the bed, and found her boots, which were a pair of brown boots wrapped in gray fox fur. Under the light of the fire, every strand of tanned animal hair shone with a warm luster.

The first person she encountered was Lingge, but he showed no intention of stopping. Just as they were about to collide, Lingge moved aside to make way for her. Then she passed Alice, Metien, and Shemi, and finally passed Saint Shalia. Olvera paused, tilted her head slightly, and looked at her with her eyes that were clearly bright like stars but seemed hazy and trance-like.

"Yes."

She put on her boots, held a lantern, and staggered towards Lingge and the others. Perhaps because she hadn't tried to walk on the ground for a long time, her steps were a little unsteady, and people were worried that she would suddenly fall down at any moment. The candlelight burned in the dark tide, coating her elegant long dress, pale skin and sleepy eyebrows with a layer of drowsy warm light, as if she was sleepwalking and unconsciously wading across a red river.

Alice asked suspiciously, "Fight against the darkness?"

There was a hint of doubt in Avella's voice, but she didn't think about what it meant. She just shook her head and said, "I don't know what you mean, but if you really want to save me from this cage, you may have to have the courage to fight against the darkness first."

The eyes of the two young royal ladies met at a distance just inches apart, and for an instant she saw a golden thread flowing through her eyes, one end of the thread connected to countless complex illusions, like a large carved and painted glass window covered with vines, the fragrant violets blooming in the garden, or the trivial whispers of all the subjects in a two thousand miles territory surrounded by a vast forest... But in another instant they all disappeared, and no one knew where the other end of the thread was still connected to.

"Hello." Saint Shalia said softly.

Her lamb bleated in response, showing its closeness and friendliness. Perhaps it smelled a similar scent to its owner from the girl in front of it. "Hello."

The princess of the royal family of Leslie responded lightly, then continued forward, passed the crowd, and came to the door. She shone the lantern in her hand into the corridor, and the flames released by the burning candle instantly melted a large area of ​​suffocating darkness, illuminating the stone bricks that had been corroded for a long time and were gloomy and cold.

"You can come and take a look." She said slowly.

Everyone followed her instructions and came to the door, casting curious glances towards the corridor. Just a glance made them feel creepy. The timid ones, like Metien, even covered their mouths and cried out in surprise. The little elf Shemi hid behind her shoulder, saying in a trembling voice, "What, what is that? It's so scary..."

In the light of the lantern, in the dim shadows, the black beasts were sharpening their claws and glaring, their cold and evil eyes, like scarlet gems, reflecting a frightening light. They were in different shapes, some lurking in the corners of the wall, wandering around like dark wolves; some were hanging upside down on the cold ceiling, with their wings spread out, like howling evil bats...

The number of animals visible to the naked eye within the range illuminated by the lanterns could not be counted with two hands. This corridor stretched out for a long time. How many insidious and brutal beasts were hiding in the darkness, waiting for the ignorant to fall into their trap? Their existence seemed to be a microcosm of the overall image of the castle, and they were the clones of the huge living creatures entrenched on the evil hill. All the prey torn apart by their claws and teeth would eventually become the silt nutrients that kept the castle sealed forever.

When Lingge thought about how he and his companions had just come here, surrounded by so many hideous monsters without noticing, he felt a chill on his back. He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, then looked at Olvera holding the lantern and asked the same question as Shaymi: "What are they?"

Olvera’s answer was simple: “Shadow.”

As if these two words triggered some kind of mechanism, all the dark beasts in the corridor, at the base of the wall, on the ceiling... cast their gazes towards the girl at the same time. Their scarlet gazes possessed an oppressive power in the stagnant silence, like the tail of an "evil fire meteor" falling from the sky, enough to tear apart the night sky and burn the earth.

Linger frowned slightly: "Shadow?"

"Yes."

The girl seemed to be very familiar with these monsters. She didn't care even though they were staring at her like that. She even had the energy to yawn before she said slowly, "It's a shadow that separated from me~"

scare!
This sentence stunned everyone, including the calm Lingge. He was stunned for a moment, and then everyone moved their eyes downwards at the same time, passing the girl's light-colored star-patterned skirt and brown boots, and fell on the floor of the room where candle wax solidified. Sure enough, they saw that in the flickering candlelight, where Ovella was standing, there was only one person there.

She has no shadow.

In other words, the darkness of the entire castle was her shadow.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)