Alice in the Land of Steam

Is Chapter 253 in his script?
In the past night, too many wonderful things happened in the world, which may bring unpredictable changes to future destiny. However, no one can be sure whether such changes are good or bad.

Ling has already confirmed the time. He will leave Rostin in three days and go to Nimscher in Leisenburg to look for the next young queen and visit the grand occasion of the 11th World Expo.

This is a large-scale exhibition with a long history. It is said that it can be traced back to the period when the Steam Cult still existed. The first World Expo was held in Platinum, the "City of Heavenly Lakes" in the Kingdom of Great Brittany, with the theme of "Industry in the Steam Age". Later, it was held in famous cities such as Feromont, the "Silver Snow City" of the Mindreas Empire, Mühl, the "Sycamore City" of the White City-State Republic, Roshanda, the "Emerald City" of Metosh, and Hines, the "White Fang City" of Lisde. As time went by, it was finally the turn of Nimscher, the capital of the neutral country of Leisenburg, which is also known as the "Primrose City", "Fountain City" and "International City".

Although Leisenburg is a small country, it is quite influential internationally. However, this influence does not come from its economic, political or military aspects that are worthy of attention from outsiders, but purely from its geographical location: it is awkwardly sandwiched between the Great Brittany Kingdom, the Minderias Empire and the White City-State Republic.

With such a "unique" geographical advantage, if this country did not declare permanent neutrality, I'm afraid there would be no such country in the world.

Lingge didn't know much about Leisenburg and its capital, so he spent the past three days collecting relevant information and reading it, so as to at least have the most basic understanding.

Sitting quietly at the desk, facing the warm afternoon sun and the aroma of sawdust in the room, flipping through the yellowed soft papers, watching each ink-colored lead block of words gradually flash before my eyes, some of which were so blurred that I couldn't see their original appearance clearly, and I could only guess based on the meaning of the words before and after. This leisurely and casual reading experience made Ling Ge feel like he was back in college.

While he was immersed in reading, other people were not idle either.

In order to collect and process the materials needed for brewing magic potions, Saint Shalia has been staying in the herb garden in the underground garden these days. It is said that she has obtained the consent of the owner, Shesta, and can pick any herbs she needs. Therefore, the herb garden has been in a state of high tension these days, fearing that she will be the unlucky one chosen - it doesn't matter if some flowers, fruits, branches and leaves are picked, but it hurts a lot, and these magic herbs with an average mental age of no more than eight years old are very afraid of pain.

Metien followed Saint Shallia, helping her and learning some knowledge about magical plants. She said she wanted to become a doctor without borders among the aliens, so she started working hard from now on, even harder than when she was reviewing materials for the pharmacist qualification exam.

The little elf Xiemi, who is about to embark on the journey with everyone and start her first pilgrimage in her life, begins to receive special training from her eldest sister Xiesta and the second sister Xielia. The former teaches her how to better master her talents and avoid causing trouble to her companions with immature fairy magic, while the latter teaches her more basic common sense of survival in the wild and contact with aliens, as well as knowledge about human society, such as how to avoid being tracked by the Night Watch and the Scales of Order.

Although all of them were very useful knowledge, every time Lingge saw the little elf Xiemi listening in a daze and just nodding her head, he was a little worried whether she could really learn these things.

It seems like there's a crucial guy missing?

She didn't have much to say, and after saying "I want to develop a new game", she went into her room and even ate and drank in there. The few times she went out, she would drag Metien and Ovira to play games with her. It wasn't the "story mode" that would change the world, but the "leisure mode" that was purely for entertainment.

What's more, Alice is a "genius player". She must know how to make good use of its power better than people like us who have never played games before, right?

After the two incidents in Linville and Rostin, Linger realized the power of the game console and cartridges. If used properly, they would be a great help in the journey. But he did not use this as an excuse to forcibly interfere with Alice's game making process. After all, it was her thing, and the young man felt that he had no right to interfere.

Olvera was commissioned by Saint Shalia to obtain the names of all magics in the fourteen paths and nine sequences from her, and searched them using the Library of Truth and recorded the potion formulas. Although it was a tedious job, she seemed to enjoy it. On the one hand, it was because she was a literary girl who liked reading books, and any kind of knowledge would make her happy. On the other hand, it was because being able to help everyone was her original intention.

Oh, it's Alice.

Maybe?
Every time he thought of this, Lingge couldn't help but sigh, and his sigh was filled with indescribable complex emotions.

Three days later, when the travelers were about to set off on a journey to another city in a foreign country, there was still no sign of Alice. Unable to bear it any longer, Medien, along with Shaymi, broke into her room and dragged the genius gamer, who was addicted to the game, off the bed.

The pink-haired girl and the princess of Beman agreed to play with her several times at first, and thought it was a good pastime, but later they became busy and had no time to play with her. So Alice did not force it and continued to stay in the room tinkering with the game console. No one knew what she was doing.

According to a traveler fairy who reported the incident, when she entered the room, Alice was not developing the game at all, but was concentrating on playing a game called "Dark Castle: Dawn Waltz", and she was even worse at it than Olivia, and was being tortured to death by the first BOSS, the giant wolf.

Although Alice herself insisted that this was a malicious slander by the hostile forces and that her gaming skills were by no means that bad, at least she could still defeat the first BOSS...but considering that she had no credibility at all, everyone was more inclined to the former statement.

After bidding farewell to the proprietress Shesta, the bartender Shelia, the rabbits, the magic plants, and even the stone gardener and magic herbs in the underground garden, the group left the Fairy Sleep Inn with mixed feelings of reluctance, confusion, expectation, and longing. There is no direct train from Rostin to Nimsher, so everyone will depart from Rodrans Railway Station and first go to Chausal, the "City of Fallen Wood" on the border between the Kingdom of Great Brittany and Leisenburg, where there is a part of the transportation route that has been completed in the "Ouroboros" plan, which is also the most convenient route to Leisenburg across the border.

Coming to Rostin from the Rodlans train station, and also leaving Rostin from this train station, there was a destiny between coming and going. When Lingge bought tickets at the ticket office, he bought three more tickets for the goblin Shemi hiding in his sister's pocket, the passively invisible shepherdess Saint Shallia, and the princess Olvera who concealed her existence with the thread of fate.

Their race and identity did not allow them to take the train openly, so they could only take it indirectly. Although no one knew about it, Lingge did not want to take advantage of others, so he took the initiative to buy more tickets. He used practical actions to teach a lesson to the morally corrupt golden-haired maid who kept clamoring to take advantage of others.

On the way back after buying the ticket, Metien suddenly remembered something, looked up curiously, and asked his brother: "Lingge, have you sent out all the letters you wrote?"

"Yeah." On the day of leaving Rostin City, Linger got up very early and went into the post office to mail the letter as soon as it opened.

"Including the one to your friend?"

This time Lingge did not answer immediately. After a brief silence, he nodded gently: "Yes."

After saying this, he took his sister's hand and led her to the platform, where his companions were waiting: waiting for the train to arrive, and also waiting for him to start this journey.

"Let's go, Metien."

"Okay, Ling!"

The two figures were submerged in the crowd and eventually disappeared.

……

At the same time, in a house on Scherer Street, Rawls, the owner of the Central Theater and also a playwright, opened the door and was about to go to the theater to start today's work, but suddenly he let out a light exclamation and his eyes fell on the small flower bed at the door. He saw a letter lying quietly among the soil and roots full of the fragrance of flowers.

Who would write a letter to themselves and leave it on the door?
He walked over, picked up the envelope, gently opened it, and read it carefully. The rigorous and neat handwriting and the content described instantly attracted his attention and made him deeply immersed in it, unable to extricate himself. He didn't even notice that his hand holding the letter was getting tighter and tighter and gradually began to tremble. The expression on his face changed from confusion, hesitation, astonishment, thoughtfulness to excitement.

Finally, he almost forgot the purpose of his going out. He turned around and rushed back to the room like the wind, took out paper and pen from the drawer, and without even having time to adjust his posture, he lay on the table and began to write furiously, wanting to firmly record all the inspirations that were constantly brewing in his mind at this moment.

He had a feeling that this would be the most proud work of his life. Perhaps it would also be the great work that would restore the Central Theater to its former glory and make the people of Rustin recall the joyful days of the early days of drama since the death of their ancestor Sir Roman.

Its core is derived from the ancient legend of the obscure monster, and the plot is borrowed from the traditional "March Diary". The traveler who is called here by fate, the princess sealed by darkness in the castle, and the awakening of strength from the memories of past years will become new characteristics, giving it another meaning of the era.

Mr. Rawls was naturally extremely grateful to the friend who gave him such wonderful inspiration.

"This feeling cannot be described in words."

He murmured in a low voice: "The only thing I can do is to name this new play according to your suggestion."

"Let's call it...Sleeping Beauty."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)