Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 300: Were we suddenly attacked?

The white-haired girl named Iyetta hugged her knees with her hands, stared blankly into space, and murmured, "But I never said I wanted to leave here. Besides, what's the point of leaving? No matter where I go, I'll feel the same sadness. There's nothing to remember, and nothing to leave behind. It's just a waste of effort..."

Alice shuddered at the overwhelming negative emotions. For a moment, she thought that she might not be able to convince the other party no matter what. However, as a talented player, she would not give up easily.

"Don't worry about the meaning of leaving. Just leave here first! Because only those who are not bound are qualified to discuss the meaning of life, right?" She answered the girl's question in a simple and rough way, and then moved her eyes to the heavy chain: "Is this the thing that made you lose your freedom? It doesn't matter, watch me cut it off! Metien, take my sword!"

That’s enough. Where did you get the sword?

Metien had a speechless expression on his face.

"free?"

Ijeta laughed in a low voice, and the curve of her mouth had a gloomy taste: "You want to say that freedom is the meaning of life, but perhaps freedom itself is a meaningless concept. Each of us living in this world is always bound by something, birds are bound by the sky, clouds are bound by the wind... There is no difference."

"And what are you bound to, Miss Ieta Raphael?"

Lingge suddenly spoke. He didn't look at the chain wrapped around the girl's ankle. Instead, he fixed his gaze on her profile and said in a narrative tone rather than a questioning tone: "Are you trapped by the memories of the past? Or are you blaming yourself for a mistake that was not based on your subjective will? Like every person with low self-esteem and sensitivity often does."

The snow is still falling, and the weather is gloomy, cold and depressing.

"I'm not leaving here, ever."

Ijeta interrupted his story sadly: "These are things in the past. The past is meaningless, so... it doesn't matter at all."

"say no more."

As soon as the words fell, an invisible force suddenly pushed Ling Ge and others to retreat uncontrollably to the door. The force was not strong enough to hurt them, but it was hard to resist. When they came to their senses, they found themselves standing outside the windmill tower room. The old wooden door in front of them closed gently, resisting their sight and words.

The girl's eyes were slightly slanted, and the pale white color of snowflakes was reflected in the corner of her eyes. Her expression was gloomy: "You don't understand anything."

……

"Please go away."

"I really don't know anything, but I can guess some truths." Lingge said, "Seven hundred years ago, you came to this land, which was called Avignon Village at that time. Seeing the barrenness and poverty here, you used your power to blow away the mountains for them, thus improving the climate and environment here. But at the same time, this power also attracted the fear of those in power, that is, the Kreisov royal family and the Heavenly Cult. They called you an angel, the messenger of heaven, and signed a covenant with you not to harm each other, but later took the initiative to tear up the covenant..."

A faint sigh spread through the room, and then, the twelve wings covered in gray and white were called by the sigh and woke up from hibernation. They slowly lifted up, and moved carefully, and gently covered the owner's body as if it was weightless, just like covering her with a white sheet. From hands to feet, every part that would be exposed to the cold air was covered tightly. The fluffy and soft feathers could not make people feel the warmth of a quilt, but more like a cage made of steel, locking up the most miserable loneliness in the world.

Knowing that this angel had been betrayed by humans before, he still said it so directly. How is this different from stabbing someone's wound? So it is only natural that he was driven out.

"I was kicked out, it's all your fault!" Alice complained to Lingge while standing on the steps at the door.

What should we do now?
The golden-haired maid sighed, with a melancholy temperament of "I played great but was betrayed by stupid teammates". However, Ling Ge saw through everything earlier than her, so he just replied calmly: "Obviously, this is not the crux of the problem. Didn't you notice that she never showed any resistance to the predicament she was in, and she also said that she didn't want to leave and wouldn't leave, instead of being unable to leave."

"Oh." Alice replied sullenly, "What does that mean?"

"That means she might not be trapped in the tower by external forces, but she chose this ending on her own initiative?" Olvera, who had had similar experiences and could empathize with them, showed a thoughtful expression: "If it was an enemy, we could still defeat her and rescue her; but if she herself didn't want to leave, it seems that we can't force her to change her mind." "Of course I know this too." Alice scratched her cheek: "The legend mentioned that after being betrayed by humans, the angels were very sad, so they tore the earth apart and sank themselves into the depths of the rift, never to contact mortals on the ground again - is that what they are talking about now?"

"So, this is the problem." Ling Ge said, "If you don't want to contact mortals, you can just leave. Why trap yourself in this abyss and punish yourself by losing your freedom just because of the mistakes of others? I don't think there is such an absurd reason in the world."

"That's right, why?"

Alice held her chin and frowned as she thought for a while, but she couldn't figure out what she was thinking. She turned her gaze to the pink-haired girl beside her: "Metien, do you know?"

Metien hurriedly shook her head and answered honestly: "I'm sorry, I don't know, Sister Alice."

My lovely Metien, if you don’t know, then you don’t know, it doesn’t matter.

His eyes moved upwards and landed on a certain goblin: "You know what, Shaymi?"

Xie Mi put his hands on his hips, with a righteous expression on his face: "Silly Alice, don't ask me, how would I know!"

How dare you call someone a fool if you don't know? I can't say who the real fool is.

Alice curled her lips and looked at the quiet Saint Xia Liya. Before she could speak, the shepherdess shook her head gently, indicating that she didn't know the reason either. However, the lamb next to her was ready to move.

"Bah!"

Ah this, the lamb said it knew.

You know shit!
After a round of searching without any results, Alice looked away in frustration, thinking that this team was indeed unreliable and that she could only rely on her own intelligence. At this moment, Lingge suddenly seemed to have noticed something, and suddenly raised his head and looked towards a certain part of the forest. A hurried voice came out of his mouth: "Saint Xia Liya!"

The shepherdess reacted quickly. Almost at the moment when Lingge's voice fell, she raised her hand and made a gesture of plucking the strings of a harp towards the void, playing beautiful and melodious notes. Then, the invisible thread of fate was pulled by her hand, and the fate that should have been on the right track was deviated to another path.

boom--!
Deep blue magic rays appeared out of thin air, like hundreds of thousands of broken spider silk threads, densely occupying the sky, and launched a fierce bombardment towards an area on the ground. The terrifying explosion sounded in their ears, the steps they were standing on shook violently, and the diffuse smoke and dust also blocked everyone's sight, making it difficult for them to see what was happening.

It was not until a few seconds later, when the noise gradually died down, that the people who had been attacked were finally able to raise their heads. Through the smoke and sand that seemed to be filled with the smell of gunpowder, they saw that under the passionate baptism of artillery fire, the beautiful primroses, ferns and shrubs, dead leaves and petals, and even the humus at the bottom of the ground... had all been turned to ashes and turned into scorched earth. Every scar on it was straight and deep, and traces of magic rays could be found. The closest one was less than half a meter away from Lingge.

The originally beautiful and peaceful scene was broken. Metien and Shemi hid at the back in fear. Olvera looked at the charred earth that had been baptized by artillery fire with a pale face. The lambs surrounded their owners and bleated anxiously. Alice gasped: "Hiss - what is this!?"

“Creator Path, Sequence 8 Mechanic’s magic, [Saturation Shot].” Saint Shallia whispered, “It looks like we’ve been attacked.”

Of course I know about this! The key point is the identity of the attacker! Where is he? And why did he attack us!

Alice was so anxious that she kept jumping up and down, but Lingge ignored her and continued to stare at the smoke-filled forest. Then, he said word by word, "Since we have been exposed, there is no point in hiding any longer."

"You can come out now."

"Professor David."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)