Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 299: Is it a decadent angel?

Walking into this house is like walking into a gloomy and heavy winter.

Everything in the room is white: the grayish-white brick floor, each piece fitting together perfectly; the snow-white walls, as if covered with thick foundation; the pale white spiral staircase, like the road to heaven; and the girl sitting against the wall, she also has long white hair, tied with a ribbon at the end, hanging over her shoulders to her chest; behind her waist, six pairs of holy white wings are woven with smooth and graceful lines, each feather is straight and soft, quite like a dagger-shaped snowflake. If the wings are flapped, you will surely see the beautiful sight of flying feathers all over the sky, but they are carelessly placed on the shoulders, arms, knees, legs and even on the ground by their owners, and the ends of the feathers are gradually clung to by the fine dust floating in the air, stained with a little gray haze, thus presenting a half-gray and half-white color.

White invades people's vision, making people feel panic for no reason.

Some people may think that white is the color of holiness and nobility; in fact, after depriving of the fanatical religious meanings bestowed by human beings with subjective emotions, white may be the most monotonous and empty color in the world, always endlessly expanding the boundaries of its sadness. Therefore, this windmill tower house is occupied by it, becoming the most monotonous and empty enclosed space in the world.

Here, white becomes an image of loneliness and depression, as if there is snow falling forever. The cold and damp breath of winter lingers in every corner, creating an atmosphere that complements the inner emotions of their common owner, the lonely one.

The source of all this was the white-haired girl sitting against the wall. She was tilting her head and looking at these uninvited guests with a strange gaze, just like looking at a group of gray-throated swallows whose wings were wet in a rainstorm. Her eyes were azure blue, which should have been as clear as the sky, or as peaceful as a lake in the depths of a deep forest that no one cared about, but they were inevitably stained with a little gloom.

This kind of gloom is not caused by changes in external materials, nor by self-loathing in the heart. It is purely stimulated naturally, just like the weather is cold, so it snows. Those monotonous and empty snowflakes gradually fall, and gather together little by little, forming the gloom in the girl's eyes.

Cold, heavy, melancholy, tired, confused, lonely... It seems that any paranoid emotion can be found on this face that reflects human emotions. In short, this is a girl who only lives in winter. There is always snow falling in her heart. The snow drifts and affects the space where she is, making everyone who steps into this place shiver uncontrollably.

The young man was stunned when he saw the girl, and he had a sense of déjà vu. At this moment, Alice behind him exclaimed: "Ah! Why is it you!?"

It was natural for her to be surprised, because the other companions were also surprised. They saw some familiar traces in the face and features of the girl, and realized that this was not the first time they met her. They had met her once a few days ago. But at that time, she was still a statue standing in the most crowded place on Gaunt Street, and her face always had a happy smile of the harvest season, as if she had never been sad about anything.

In terms of temperament, this white-haired girl trapped in the gloomy snowy season and the Avion country girl who greets people on the street are two extremes, and it is impossible to find the slightest similarity in the knife and pen that depict their expressions. But if you erase these illusory images, the faces of the two are almost exactly the same, and even the clothes they wear are no different: they are wearing traditional Avion country-style clothes, blue and green colors, similar to skirts, but lighter; a gray fluffy cloak is draped over the shoulders, the hem falls to the back, and there are traces of sewing on the edges; a white feather hair ornament is pinned on the neat bangs in front of the forehead, which is slightly tilted and fixed; the graceful arch of the foot is stepped on a pair of local traditional open-toed sandals, with two wooden teeth nailed on the shoe plate, which is very suitable for walking freely in the countryside.

The only difference from the street statues is that if you look up along the sandals, you will see a heavy chain tied around her ankles, which are as white as handicrafts. The chain passes through the ground, blocked by the naturally drooping gray-white wings, and then goes around the girl's back, crawling towards the only open window like a snake, and the end is tightly wrapped around the three iron bars of the window, as if it is afraid that she will escape, and it wraps around each iron bar three times before it is completely fixed.

The girl fixed her cloudy blue eyes on Alice who had screamed. After staring at her for a few seconds, she turned her head silently and looked into the void, as if she was talking to an invisible person: "It seems that you know me, but I'm sorry, I haven't seen you... Never mind, it doesn't really matter."

She sighed softly, as if she had lost interest in conversation. She leaned her head gently against the cold wall, staring blankly into the void, and no longer paid any attention to these uninvited guests.

"Uh." This reaction seems a bit strange? Alice and her friends behind her looked at each other in bewilderment.

I did see an angel, and it did have twelve white wings, but why did this angel look so decadent and world-weary? Did it lose hope in life after being betrayed by humans?
Only Lingge was not shaken by the character shown by the angel. He said to her: "Whether it is so-called is not determined by personal feelings, but by our next conversation. Before that, can you tell me your name first?" Oh my god, Lingge is so proactive! What happened?
My friends (mainly Alice) all expressed their surprise. I couldn't believe it at all. Lingge didn't look away and continued to stare at the white-haired girl's face.

The latter stared blankly at the empty space. After a period of silence, he slowly opened his lips and said quietly, "What's the point of knowing the name? It's just a code name, something we all have and can be discarded at any time. On the contrary... it would be easier if we didn't know..."

This statement sounds so depressing.

The friends all frowned, but Lingge remained unmoved and replied, "Exchanging names is an important part of social etiquette and is usually the best way to start a conversation. Therefore, wanting to know your name does not mean that I will remember it, but it just means that I want to have a conversation with you - my name is Lingge, a traveler from another land."

In order to show that this was indeed basic courtesy and not a hidden agenda, he first introduced his name and background to demonstrate his sincerity.

Although his statement was not discouraging, it was not very pleasant to hear.

The girl continued to stare at the nonexistent person in the void, and did not speak for a long time. Just when everyone thought Ling Ge had failed, in the pale white room with snow falling, a word suddenly came from an empty corner, and it seemed to echo: "Yeita."

Her eyes seemed to be in a daze, unfocused, and her lips only moved up and down gently, with no sign of movement: "My name is...Yetta Raphael."

"What do you want from me?"

Although she told the guests her name and asked about their purpose of coming, her indifferent expression did not seem like she wanted to know the answer. Her mentality was probably similar to "you guys talk nonsense and I'll just listen."

Alice, who has always been cheerful, carefree, unrestrained and heartless, suddenly became unhappy. She hated such depressed and decadent people the most, just like Olvera who advised them to leave quickly when she first met them in the castle. Could it be that these young royal characters have more or less flaws?

"It's easy!"

She took a step forward, slashed her arm downwards with all her might, splitting the whistling wind, and said with her head held high and her chest puffed out, "I'm Alice, a brave warrior! We're going to take you away from here!"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)