Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 273 Did you agree easily?

When Rochelle left, he did not go towards the door, which meant that he might still be in the museum. However, no matter how hard he looked, Linger could not find him.

The Lubeon Museum, once known as the "Holy Spring Sanctuary" of Tiphis, still retains its grand scale. The walkways on both sides of the main building, which are made of slanted flying buttresses, are more than 300 meters long. In its heyday, the Holy Spring Monastery could accommodate 12,000 believers to gather in the magnificent hall for prayer ceremonies. It is too difficult to find the footprints left by a single person on the floor that these 12,000 people have stepped on.

After searching in vain for a few minutes, Lingge gave up this futile action without any results. He took a last look at the direction the traveler left, then turned and left, leaving the old envelope in the display case behind him, still lying quietly behind the cold glass wall, staring silently at the empty and noisy hall.

After the young man left, it was a while before the tourists passing by seemed to finally notice the display case. They gradually gathered around it, pointed at the letters displayed in it, chatted in low voices, and talked loudly, drowning out the impulses of the old era with the voices of the new era.

Liveliness might be a good thing, but it had nothing to do with Lingge. With a complicated and heavy heart, he returned to the place where he had just separated from Saint Xia Liya.

The complex feelings he had just heard from Rochelle were a lot of incredible history, and for the first time he realized that the peaceful life he had thought of in the past had never existed from the beginning. The surface world and the inner world of human civilization had never been separated too far, and were even one and the same. Those turbulent things were all flowing silently in the dark, just like the ancient undercurrents running through the underground of Nimsher.

Humans cannot understand history only because governments and religious groups have disguised the truth so well. The "conventions" and "agreements" that are laid out in the open are like twisted iron bars that have forged the strongest cage for mortals in the world. This reminded Ling of a novel he read during college, in which the heroine kept eleven lame and blind gray sparrows in her room. Their names were Panic, Smog, Disguise, Garbage, Dust, Stupidity, Stubbornness, Truth, Numbness, Pain, and Deception.

All these images coincide with certain laws of the human world.

As for the heavy feeling, it was naturally because of what Rochelle said before she left.

It was so noisy that I would have thought she was visiting the Wendel Garden Market in Linville City. Fortunately, there were many tourists from various countries in the West Continent in the museum who were as low-quality as her. There were people talking or arguing about the exhibits everywhere, and this guy's shouting didn't seem out of place among them.

"Ah, Linger!"

As seemingly unrelated clues were linked together, Linger gradually figured out the context of the entire incident. A terrible thought emerged in his mind: Could it be that Rochelle wanted to -

I vaguely remember that he said the same thing to me when we first met in Rustin City.

There is a special kind of magic in this world that can gather the power of everyone into one. Perhaps, it is enough to fight against the constructed mechas of the cult... Such a sentence suddenly flashed through Ling'er's mind, and his expression was immediately moved.

A vigorous voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts: "So you are here, where did you go before? We have been looking for you for a long time, did you go to the bathroom? Actually, I feel like going to the bathroom too, can you tell me where it is?"

Linger's thoughts were interrupted and he turned around helplessly. He saw Alice holding her head high, followed by other companions. However, compared with the golden maid's arrogance, the companions, including Metien, were in low spirits. Even the lamb who loved to compete with her the most hung his head and bleated weakly. What happened?
Alice would never tell him that everyone was shocked by her intelligence. She jumped to Ling's side and looked around like a thief. After confirming that no one was eavesdropping on the conversation, she sneakily said to her employer: "Ling, shall we go to Avignon?"

What exactly is going to happen in Nimcher City that makes him remind himself to leave quickly? What role does Rochelle play in the upcoming events? He is a walker of the Fertile Soil Sect, collecting spirituality along the way, and finally came to the city where the Holy Spring Monks once flourished. What is his purpose? And... why does he always emphasize that sentence to himself?
Only when everyone is united can we achieve our goals.

However, that time was different from this time. With the change of time and place, the speaker's intention and mood seemed to have changed a lot.

The walkers of the Fertile Soil Sect wandered the Western Continent, constantly collecting the spirituality of the earth; although the Holy Spring Monks were expelled, they did not disappear, and the spirituality of the underground ancient spring Sadler was also secretly collected; the city of Nimsher was once a place where three large rivers converged and washed away, and the belief in the spring spirit was deeply rooted. Could it be that it could be erased in just a hundred years? And, when Rochelle was chased by the arbitrators of the Balance of Order, he was still able to calmly overcome the trial of the Sosen Mountains and collect spirituality, which means that if he was interested, he would be able to easily shake off the enemy's pursuit and get away safely, but now it seems that he seems to have intentionally led those arbitrators here, or through them, to convey certain messages to the church alliance...

The young man frowned upon hearing this: "Why do we want to go there?"

Olvera, who was holding a thick book, yawned and muttered casually, "Because she wants to find the angel's treasure..."

"Nonsense!" The golden-haired maid rushed in front of Ovilla and covered the princess' mouth with her hands, so that she could only make unclear whimpering sounds. Her movements were so fast that even Lingge, who was close at hand, couldn't see clearly. He couldn't help but sigh, if she could show such agility at Tianxin Church, the housework might not have taken two or three hours to complete, right?

After using extremely rude actions to stop Olvera from leaking information further, Alice turned her head and gave her employer a well-behaved and ingratiating smile: "Lingge, don't listen to her, she's just a kid and she's joking! Actually, actually I want to go to Avignon because... uh, because..."

She racked her brains for half a minute, and Ling Ge and her companions watched her think silently for half a minute. Finally, her eyes lit up and she finally came up with a suitable excuse: "Because there are clues to the next young girl's royal power! That's right, that's it!"

I never expected that people could go to such lengths just for their own selfish desires.

Metien couldn't bear to watch, and quickly stood up to explain to his brother: "Actually, Sister Olvera is right. Sister Alice just wants to go there to look for treasure. It has nothing to do with other things."

"Metien!" Alice glared at the pink-haired girl: "How could you betray me?"

Aren't we an unbreakable alliance?
Metien took a step back quietly: I'm really unfamiliar with you.

Sister Avella is still covered by your mouth, how dare you say this?

"Treasure?" Ling Ge raised his eyebrows slightly. It seemed that something interesting happened during the time he was away. He looked at Alice who was laughing dryly and asked, "What treasure?"

In fact, what he wanted to ask was "What treasure is it your turn to dig?", but considering that saying this would seem to hurt Alice too much, he finally held back.

“It’s the angel’s treasure.”

Metien told Linger the contents of the Kreisov brass scroll, including how they found it and how they deciphered it. After listening to it, the young man was thoughtful.

Alice felt guilty after her conspiracy was exposed and didn't dare to face Lingge. She wanted to hide behind Olvera, but how could Princess Bemang, whose mouth she had just covered, give this golden maid a chance to take advantage of her? She leaned against the lamb and took a defensive posture, with a look of vigilance and suspicion on her face.

Alice wanted to hide behind Metien, but she just accused her of betraying her, so she couldn't bring herself to do that. As for Shemy and Lamb, they were two people who would only take advantage of others' misfortunes. Alice, who was desperate, could only hide behind Saint Xia Liya, saying "Wow, Xiao Xia, you are the best to me", while sneaking her head out to observe Ling's reaction.

Fortunately, the young man didn't seem to show any signs of getting angry.

Even thinking about it.

In other words, there is still room!
Alice perked up and quickly struck while the iron was hot: "Actually, I'm not just after the treasure, Lingge? Didn't we come to Nimsher to find the next young queen? But now we don't have any clues, we can't just search around in such a big city, right? So, this Kresov brass scroll is very suspicious, and the so-called covenant and the 'Angel Given by the Lord' are even more suspicious! I have a hunch that as long as we find out the truth behind it, we can find the whereabouts of the next young queen! Of course, if we find the treasure along the way, it would be a pleasant surprise, what do you think? Or we can think about it, anyway, we are still young, and young people should have the courage to try and make mistakes..."

"Then go and have a look."

Linger looked up and interrupted Alice's chattering with a calm tone: "Go to what you said, Avignon."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)