Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 278: Are they actually on good terms?
"Kailuer Alexei is one of the few rational and reasonable people among the animists. Although he is sometimes attacked as weak and incompetent, it is undeniable that he has made a decisive contribution to the survival of the Holy Spring Brothers. The key point is that in the A-1792-572 incident planned by Lady Lilith herself, the headquarters of the association had made full preparations to annihilate the Spring Spirit believers entrenched in Nimsher City in one fell swoop, just like when they broke through the Holy City of Bishan of the Fertile Earth Sect. However, the large-scale evacuation operation organized by Kailuer allowed most of the Holy Spring Brothers to escape the encirclement smoothly, and the expected extermination target was not achieved. In terms of the result, it was obviously a failure of the association."

In a corner of the green park surrounding the Lubeon Museum, Wade Locke's voice was narrating the "Purge Operation" that took place at the end of the last century. Its historical background was deeply related to today's mission objectives. Therefore, except for Agil who was concentrating on controlling the clockwork fairy, the other two team members listened very carefully, and the light green parasol slowly stopped turning.

"Kailuer not only preserved the vitality of the Holy Spring Monastery, but also tried to protect the traces of the Spring Spirit faith in this city, preparing for its comeback in the future. These traces include religious sites such as shrines, temples, churches, spring shrines, and ruins left over from the Spring Spirit faith that has radiated the minds of the people for many years. The most important of these is the Lubeon Museum we see before us - or, to put it another way, the Holy Spring Sanctuary - the Temple of Tiphis."

A slightly cold winter sun shone down on the captain's young yet mature face. He looked up at the magnificent building, his eyes gleaming with clarity and brightness. "To this end, Kailuer persuaded a group of believers who were firm in their faith and would never betray to stay. When the association enforced the Religious Decree, they took the initiative to surrender and expressed their willingness to obey the management of the Management Regulations and no longer act as Spring Spirit believers and magicians."

"Our target today, Hansen David, whose father, Schmidt David, is one of them. The David family he was born into is a long-standing noble family in Leisenburg and is very influential in Nimscher. Therefore, when the association showed its intention to take over the Holy Spring Sanctuary, he took the lead in reaching a cooperation with the city government, converted the Tifis Church into the Lubeon Museum, and served as the first curator himself, in fact, to preserve the heritage of the holy land for the Holy Spring Monastery. After his death, he passed the museum to the current Professor David, who is naturally also a believer in the Holy Spring Spirit - that is to say, although the Holy Spring Monastery has left this city for a hundred years, their sanctuary has never fallen into the hands of outsiders."

"There are many examples like this in Nimsher. We can still see shrines, statues or fountains dedicated to spring spirits in the streets today. This is because these people secretly influence the city government's decision-making and interfere with the association's ideological education of the city's residents. Professor David is just the most typical representative. This shows how much the Holy Spring Brothers attach importance to this 'three springs junction' under our feet."

The erosion of three major rivers in history, coupled with a period of eight centuries of barrenness, has given local residents a natural affinity for water and rivers. If they leave Nimsher, it would be difficult for those spring spirit believers to find such a unique place to preach, so it is not an exaggeration to say that this place is their "promised land."

"But," Sally gently turned the small parasol in her hand again and asked in confusion, "Didn't Lady Lilith, who planned the operation, see what these people were up to?"

"Of course I saw it, but what can we do about it?" Wade shook his head and said, "At the Religious Development Conference in 1775, the intention of the association to implement the "Religious Decree" had already made the countries dissatisfied, and they passed this resolution reluctantly. If the believers of various religions who surrendered were still killed at this time, wouldn't it make the governments of various countries doubt and then fear the intentions of the association, and ultimately disrupt the association's various plans in the secular world? Moreover, after they surrendered, at least they behaved well on the surface and never used the power of magic again, which was completely in line with the provisions of the "Management Regulations". Can the association trample on the regulations and reputation it has formulated? Based on various considerations, Lady Lilith consulted many opinions at the Philosophers' Conference before deciding to let these people go."

"Even so, there should be many ways to deal with them, right?" Sally muttered, "The power of the association in the secular world is not weak. Can't we interfere with the decision-making of the Nimscher City Government and make Schmidt David and Hansen David voluntarily give up the position of director of the Lubeon Museum and replace them with our people?"

"It's possible, but such a tough approach will inevitably alienate the officials of Leisenburg. At that time, it was a time when all countries needed to work together and cooperate with the association to expel the animists. In addition, the David family's influence in the local area is indeed deeply rooted. Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, the association gave up this idea."

"Rochelle is alone and weak. It is impossible for him to prepare the manpower, venue, sacrificial utensils, magic crystals, etc. required for the ceremony of summoning the gods by himself. He must have contacted his accomplices in the city and planned together. This group of people is the most likely target of cooperation. Therefore, we must keep a close eye on them and not give them any chance to cause trouble."

"So we have a great responsibility?" Sally shrugged unladylike.

Wade explained to his teammates, "The David family has the manpower, material resources, and financial resources to easily gather the necessary items for the ceremony. Moreover, he also has the most suitable place - the Holy Spring Sanctuary, the Temple of Tifis, which was once the holy place of the Holy Spring Monastery. It is said that the source of one of the three major rivers that gave birth to the city of Nimsher is buried underground. The power of faith has not completely dissipated. If the Spring Spirit believers try to summon the Spring Spirit Tifu in this ceremony, then this is undoubtedly the most suitable place."

Considering that it was impossible to include all targets in the surveillance scope, they followed the usual practice of the association and divided the suspects on the list into different levels. Among them, Professor David, who was monitored by the Wade team, was the highest level S-level.

Wade Locke said in a deep voice, "In fact, it doesn't matter who controls the museum... the Holy Spring Sanctuary. After all, the Holy Spring Monastic Order has been expelled from this city. The city's night watchmen have always been closely monitoring the every move of these defectors and never give them any chance to move. Their work is very effective. Just like this time, after we joined forces with the city's night watchmen, didn't we directly get a detailed list of the relevant personnel?"

Of course, the twelve arbitration teams of the Balance of Order were definitely not enough, so the city's night watchmen also sent people to assist in the surveillance. But there were still some shortcomings. After all, this was the period of the World Expo, and the other meaning of prosperity and bustle was that there were all kinds of people. In order to maintain the normal order of the Expo, the night watchmen devoted a lot of energy.

"Because he is the most likely person to help Rochelle perform the ceremony of inviting the gods."

"Yes," Wade repeated solemnly, "We have a great responsibility."

He was referring to the list of personnel he had obtained from the night watchman in Nimsher a few days ago. It included the group of Quanling believers who surrendered at the end of the last century and their descendants, all with detailed information and life histories, which would have been impossible without a long-term follow-up investigation.

If there is a mistake on their part, which would prevent the ceremony of summoning the gods from being completed smoothly, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Did you hear that, Michelle?" Sally turned to another teammate with long black hair and a formal dress and said, "We have a heavy responsibility, so please don't hold me back, okay?"

Michel from Mindelias was a thin young man with an artistic hairstyle. He usually stayed up late and didn't care about his appearance, but now he had to put on formal clothes and act serious. So he pulled the bow tie on his chest uncomfortably and glanced at Sally casually, with coldness and indifference in his dark eyes: "This is what I should say, Sally." "Tsk, so boring." Sally snorted: "In fact, I still want to carry out this mission with the captain. Pretending to be lovers is not suitable for us."

"Unfortunately, so do I."

"So you also want to pretend to be lovers with the captain?"

"Compared to you, it's a better choice."

"I'm behind the captain?"

"Actually, it's behind Aegir."

…it started again.

Wade forced himself to ignore the bickering between the two and said seriously, "I must assist Aegir here. I'll leave the mission to you, Sally, Michelle."

"No way, since it's the captain's request." Sally sighed, then took the initiative to extend her hand to Michelle: "Come and behave like a gentleman, Michelle."

The latter shook hands with her and emphasized: "I am just respecting the captain's order."

After saying that, he turned around and walked towards the long steps of Mount Seschel. Their mission was to pretend to be tourists and contact Professor David in the museum to get some information. Even if they couldn't get anything out, they had to at least understand the internal structure of the museum to prevent the worst from happening. When Rochelle held a ceremony to invite the gods here, they could rush in and stop it in time.

Sally looked at his departing back, then looked at her hand that had just been held, blinked blankly, and suddenly didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You idiot, I meant for you to hold my arm! Hey, did you hear me? Stop right there, why are you walking so fast, don't you know how to be considerate of women?"

"..." Silently watching the two leave, Wade suddenly felt a little worried: Can they really complete the mission without exposing their identities? Although they are pretending to be a couple, but... do stupid couples count?
"team leader?"

"What's wrong, Aegir?"

"In fact, they have a very good relationship, so there is no need to worry."

"you sure?"

"team leader."

"kindness?"

"You are so slow."

"Uh?"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)