Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 23: Will the encounter have meaning?
"Blood Red Banquet?" Lang Ning frowned slightly. He was very impressed by this name. Just as the man in the windbreaker said, they were old rivals, and they were also related to another old rival. "I heard that they have been trying to contact the Thirteen Hermits, hoping to join their alliance and get a more solid backing?"

"But it has never been successful." The man said with a slightly disdainful tone: "After all, this is a carnival party made up of lunatics and fools. Solomon, who claims to be the orthodox magician, naturally looks down on these hiding hairless bats. What's more, the Heavenly Eater they believe in is essentially just a mental patient who likes to eat raw flesh and blood."

"Can I take it that this is them showing their sincerity?"

Lang Ning thought thoughtfully: "The people of the Blood Red Banquet want Solomon and the Thirteen Hermits to see their determination, so they wooed other churches in Linville City and openly resisted the Religious Decree. If this negotiation is successful, they will have proved their ability, and perhaps Solomon will treat them differently?"

The man shook his head. "That's just one point. I think there's another more critical factor. That's that the Celestial Eater has been stuck at Sequence 3 for a long time. I'm afraid he wants to take this opportunity to try to advance. So, the rats in the sewers have been more active recently. The number of missing cases in the Holy Cross District and the White Citizen District has increased significantly compared to the past few months."

One of these two blocks is close to the slums, and the other is the slums. The population composition is complex, and even if a few homeless people or beggars disappear every now and then, not many people will care. However, the department where the man in the windbreaker works is quite special in nature and is very sensitive to such disappearances. Therefore, they followed the clues and found the cultists hiding underground.

As for what happened to the missing persons, there is probably no need to elaborate.

"Flesh and blood sacrifice is really in line with the style of the 'Monster'." Lang Ning whispered.

The "monster" here is not a description, but a fact. Among the fourteen paths, the "monster" path is destined to be closely associated with blood, which is why it attracts so many vampires to join the blood-red feast.

"What are you going to do?" he asked again.

"..."

His eyes were deep, as if he was staring into the endless night. "This resistance comes not only from the religions affected by the decree, but also from the secular forces. From Great Brittany to the White City, from Methos to Mindreas... the secular rulers mistakenly believe that our ambitions are eroding their power, but they forget that no one was left out of the Steam Holy War five hundred years ago. If the scars cannot make them remember the pain, perhaps only by repeating time can they learn some lessons, and the conspiracy of the Blood Red Feast is just a good warning, which will tell them that these evil cults and pseudo-religions that master refined magic are far more harmful to secular regimes than all natural and man-made disasters."

In this way, the kingdom will realize the harmfulness of these cults and false religions and will more firmly support the implementation of the Religious Decree, and they will not have to worry about being held accountable by associations.

The man fell silent again. He knew that the "controllable range" that Lang Ning mentioned referred to the standards set within the association: if the death toll in a city security incident exceeded 500, it would be classified as a large-scale hazardous incident and the relevant persons in charge would be held accountable; if the death toll exceeded 1,000, it would be classified as an ultra-large-scale hazardous incident and would even attract the intervention of the Supreme Council.

The man was silent for a while after hearing this. When he finally spoke, he neither agreed nor disagreed, but told him: "This will cause unnecessary casualties."

This is indeed a win-win solution, the only problem is that many innocent people will be sacrificed.

"No sacrifice is unnecessary." Lang Ning looked at him calmly: "With the power of the Night Watch, we can completely curb the development of the situation and ensure that it is within a controllable range."

"But the adults also advocate another principle: the overall situation is the most important." Lang Ning stared at the people coming and going on the street and said softly, "Don't you think that the implementation of the Religious Decree has encountered great obstacles? To this day, the only religion that voluntarily obeys the control of the decree and does not show resistance is the Holy Goddess Church. However, there is no extraordinary power behind it, so it cannot be used as a standard reference."

"We establish order, and they overturn it." He finally turned around, looked at the man on the sofa, and said word by word: "There are only these two paths, there is no other choice."

The man threw the information back on the table and replied casually, "What else can we do? As usual, find an opportunity to catch them all in one fell swoop, and by the way, capture the top leaders of the Crimson Prayer Society for interrogation and torture, catch the tail of the Heavenly Feasters, and report them to the people of the Scales of Order. In this way, the so-called 'Religious Mutual Aid Association' will collapse, and there will be a chance to eliminate the Blood Red Feast as well. It saves time and effort, and this is the principle of efficiency that the adults in the parliament have always advocated."

What Lang Ning wanted him to do was to lead the Night's Watch to wait and see, and then come forward to clean up the mess after the Blood Red Banquet completed the sacrificial ceremony, so as to control the level of the incident below a large-scale hazardous incident.

but--

“No sacrifice is unnecessary.”

He murmured in a low voice, knowing in his heart that these words did not come from Longning, but from the original words of the great leader. It was she and the Supreme Council who laid the foundation for the current unity of the Order, or in other words, laid the foundation for the current civilized world. The number of people who sacrificed for this, whether innocent or like-minded, could not be simply calculated.

Everyone followed her and understood her choice.

Lang Ning is such a person. Otherwise, he could have stayed at the headquarters of the association with great prospects, accumulating merits and waiting for promotion. Why should he send himself to this remote area to serve as a so-called tribune and endure the oppression of local church forces and secular regimes?
call--

He exhaled lightly, raised his head and said, "I understand. I will support your decision. However, in addition to me, you must get the support of five other people. This is the rule, and I cannot cross it."

"Don't worry." A smile slowly appeared on Lang Ning's face: "They will support you, just like you support me, because... this is our common goal."

The man in the windbreaker didn't say anything, seemingly agreeing with what he said.

The other five people include Mr. Clement, the bishop of Linville Cathedral and the head of the city diocese, who is a believer of the Crimson Order; Mr. Longdenell, the representative of the parish believers, who is a believer of the Prayer Society for the Dead; Ms. Vera, the secretary general of the City Education Bureau, who is a believer of the Initial Sect; Mr. Raymond, the senior inspector of the city police, who is a believer of the Inquisition; and Mr. Woodgate, the chief technical officer of the City Disaster Detection Bureau, who is a believer of the Disaster Mission.

In addition, there were two people present: Longning Laville, the tribune of the city parish council, a believer of the herb garden; and the man in the windbreaker on the sofa, whose name was Lestrade, the director of the "Axiom II" of the Municipal Customs Countermeasures Bureau, and a believer of the Nocturnal Dwelling. Axiom II had a notorious nickname among folk magicians and aliens, namely "Night Watchman" or "Black Death".

These seven people are the highest leaders appointed by their respective churches in Linville City. Together, they can act on behalf of the will of the entire church. In addition, they have one thing in common: in addition to being believers of the church, they are also members of the "association".

Their rank in the association is "Apostle".

***
When Linger returned home, it was already afternoon. Metien was reviewing materials for the pharmacist exam. Although she was very interested in the negotiation that concerned the survival of Tianxin Church, she could not go to the Linwell City Religious Mutual Aid Association in person to find out the truth, because Linger would not allow it. So, after reading the report in the newspaper, she could only stay at home and prepare for the exam.

As for Alice, she was a maid, but she had no professional ethics at all. After lunch, she went back to her small room and fiddled with something furtively. Ling Ge vaguely knew that it was related to the strange-looking game console, but he didn't ask for details, nor was he interested in asking.

Holding a broom and a paper bag for garbage, I pushed open the small door of the kitchen and walked into the backyard. Several tall Baicheng sycamore trees came into view. The sparse leaves swayed in the frosty wind of October, like withered yellow butterflies, circling and falling, forming a thin carpet on the open space.

One of them was particularly tall, but also particularly old, with ravines of years between its jagged skin. The lifespan of the White City sycamore trees is generally around 80 years, but they will enter the aging stage at the age of 15, such as this one, which was planted by Mr. Yang Ke, the adoptive father of Ling Ge and Metien, the original owner of Tianxin Church.

Mr. Yanke was born in the "Phoenix Tree City" of the White City Republic, Mühlheir. He always remembered the scene of the plane tree leaves falling all over the streets when he was a child. Unfortunately, only in this narrow courtyard can he recall his childhood memories and get some comfort from them.

The two younger sycamore trees nearby were planted by Lingge and his sister Medeen in the year their adoptive father passed away.

According to Metien, Alice fell from a tree, but which of the three trees was it?

Is her arrival really a revelation from the goddess, or is it a message that Mr. Yang Ke wants to convey?
Does the encounter create meaning?
Or a silent farewell?
The young man stood under the tree with a broom in hand, quietly looking at their rough branches and yellow dead leaves, searching for familiar traces among the veins like blood vessels, but found nothing. After a while, he retracted his gaze and began to sweep the fallen leaves on the ground, piled them together, and shoveled them into a paper bag.

There was no point, he thought.

After sweeping this year, the sycamore leaves will fall as usual next autumn.

　I went to volunteer in the afternoon, and updated it in advance. Give me some meow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)