Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 40 Is Alice a Crow's Mouth?

"So this is how Linville City got its nickname."

Alice learned another piece of useless knowledge.

After telling the ghost story, Metien didn't see the maid's frightened expression, and was a little disappointed: "Sister Alice, don't you think it's scary?"

"What's so scary about it? It's so cool." Alice was fascinated. "Whoever dares to oppose will be killed. This is the decisiveness that the protagonist of a cool novel should have. Na Shuai is indeed a role model for us time travelers!"

"..."

The pink-haired girl calmly moved her chair back a bit, praying silently in her heart that the goddess would quickly take back this messenger who was suspected to have an antisocial personality and not give her the opportunity to harm the world.

Alice didn't notice that their alliance was on the verge of breaking down because of their different values. She was still imagining the scene when Na Shuai showed his might. Then she asked, "How about we sneak over to the Tanteville Plains some other day and get up close to the ghost legends of Linville City?"

"what?"

Metien blinked blankly. Alice thought she was unwilling and was about to persuade her, but she heard her say, "If we want to visit the floating ruins of Tanteville Plain, we don't need to be sneaky. We can just tell Lingge and ask him to take us there at a certain time, right?"

"No, experts from the Royal Academy of Sciences once came here for a field investigation and finally found that it was the influence of a certain magnetic field. Some people also believe that this magnetic field will affect people's emotions invisibly, so Marshal Napoleon at the time issued such a cruel order."

Now it was Alice's turn to be confused: "Does that mean that place can be entered and exited freely?"

Metien nodded his head seriously.

The maid was devastated and heartbroken.

"I don't believe it anyway."

Her definition of "fun" is difficult to agree with, but the final conclusion is indeed a good one. As a local resident of Linville City, Metien, who has visited the floating ruins several times, recalled the memories of that time and shuddered: "Actually, I think so, Sister Alice. It feels very uncomfortable there, too depressing, and there is a... gloomy smell."

Metien tilted his head, not understanding what she was sad about, but he comforted her: "So, Sister Alice, do you want to go? If you do, I can ask Lingge. He should agree after I finish my exams."

"how so……"

"It must be the resentment of the undead at work!" Alice's eyes lit up and she suddenly became interested again.

“That’s the science.”

"what?

"So I said, it's just a legend, a legend from hundreds of years ago. Now this kind of saying is no longer circulated in Linweier City."

"Tourist attractions!" Alice was struck by lightning and couldn't believe it. "What about the ghost legend? Won't it devour the souls of passers-by? Aren't people afraid of it?"

“Is it that scientific?”

The problem is that this world is not scientific.

Alice was not interested in this: "It's just a ruin. There are no dead souls or ghosts. What's so fun about it?"

"Why can't we just come and go? It's a tourist attraction in Linville City. Many people come here every year to witness the major turning point of the Hundred Years' War."

Alice frowned and said, "Just wait and see, Metien. Something will happen to this floating ruins one day. When that happens, I wonder how the experts will explain it!"

At this moment, there was a sound of a door being pushed open downstairs.

"Oh no, Ling Ge is back!" The golden-haired maid ran away: "I'm going to run away first, Metien, remember not to tell Ling Ge that I was here, okay?"

Metien watched her fleeing the scene in silence, her footsteps gradually disappearing in the corridor. After a while, she stretched out her fair palm and gently rubbed her brow. This was not because she was tired, but because...

“There’s always a sense of foreboding.”

The pink-haired girl whispered to herself, "Why?"

***
At the same time, in the floating ruins of the Tantville Plain, three hundred meters underground, in a man-made tunnel, kerosene lamps emitted a dim light, casting long shadows on the mottled rock walls. Numb-looking, ragged figures holding shovels, mattocks and other tools were working like miners, digging between the accumulated sand and gravel and the solid soil, looking for something.

The soil was dug up, the rocks were broken, and what was exposed to the lights again were fragments of ironware and pottery, as well as some ancient coins, all of which were badly worn and had lost their original luster in the long-term oxidation, leaving only spots of rust. In addition, there were pieces of pale bones, skulls, hand bones, patellas... When illuminated by the flame of the kerosene lamp, they looked eerie and somewhat scary.

During the Hundred Years' War, the old king and conservative nobles who were killed by Marshal Napoleon were buried by Queen Victoria I after the War of Independence, so that their souls could return to their hometown and rest in peace. However, those soldiers who were loyal to the orders of their superiors and rebelled and were also slaughtered in the end were not so lucky. Most of them still have their bodies buried in the underground of the floating ruins, and no one has buried them, and no one even remembers their existence.

Therefore, for hundreds of years, the Linwell people believed that the cries of the dead did not come from those corrupt superiors, but from those innocent soldiers who suffered only because of their blind loyalty. How many of them were there, thousands? Tens of thousands? No one could tell for sure, at least what was not clearly stated in the history books was that the massacre lasted for three whole days and nights.

This terrifying resentment was enough to give rise to equally terrifying undead spirits: night wandering ghosts, ghouls, angry spirits and even liches, which once roamed the countryside, making people afraid to go out late at night. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, bards often said that "the ghosts of the Tanteville Plain will devour the souls of passers-by", which was not a pretentious threat.

In order to quell the resentment of the undead, the Steam Cult of the 12th century and the Cult of the 18th century joined forces and took measures here. The former directly eliminated them by force, while the latter built floating ruins here, enshrining a very high-ranking holy relic, cutting off the possibility of the birth of the undead from the root.

But the purpose of Fiyali's appearance here was not to covet the holy relic. Even if she had ten thousand courages, she would not dare to have such an idea. She was only responsible for supervising these blood slaves, digging up the remains of the soldiers and taking them away.

As we all know, the resentment of the dead is attached to their bodies when they were alive, not the land where their bones are buried.

The reporter who had visited Tianxin Church changed her clothes and wore a black windbreaker. She held a chain whip with barbs in her hand. Her sharp blood-red eyes emitted a seductive bloody light in the dim light. She closely monitored any movement in the corridor. Once she found any suspicious movement, she would run away without hesitation.

There was no other way. The floating ruins in the Tanteville Plains were already under close surveillance by the cult. The Bone Church of the Prayer Society was less than a kilometer away, and night watchmen disguised as tourists often appeared. Fialli's action of digging up the remains of the dead here was tantamount to stealing their treasures under the dragon's nose. If they were discovered, they would not even have the choice of death.

If it weren't for the fact that most of the attention of the church union had been diverted to the upcoming negotiations in recent times, and Bishop Closel had not been pushing too hard, Fiali would not have dared to do such a bold thing.

Although, this was not her own will.

Thinking of this, the reporter gritted her teeth in hatred, cursing in her heart that piece of stinky shit that had no parents, Virol. She was afraid of the Night Watch's investigation, so she wanted to use the flesh and blood of cattle and horses to replace the flesh and blood in the sacrificial ceremony. After being scolded by Bishop Closher, he not only did not repent, but came up with another bad idea. He asked her to come here to collect the remains of the dead, hoping to rely on their resentment to make up for the incompleteness of the sacrifices in the ceremony. She didn't even need to use her pig brain to think that the Night Watch was not easy to mess with, but were the group of death-calling birds in the Death Prayer Society easy to bully?
No, that guy knew that the dead bird was not easy to deal with, so he pushed the task to me! He kept saying that he was busy preparing for the sacrificial ceremony and had no time, so he had to make the hard trip himself. His hypocritical attitude made me want to vomit.

But she couldn't refuse. After all, the workplace was still very cruel. Virol was at the same Sequence 7 as her, but his status in the church was one level higher. He suppressed her so much that she couldn't resist.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get!

But calm down, Miss Fialli, calm down.

According to reliable information, Virol had offended Bishop Closel because of his stupid proposal and was about to be sent to the most remote parish to clean toilets. There must be many people coveting his vacant position, and as long as he completed this dangerous task, it would be equivalent to gaining a point in Bishop Closel's mind, and maybe the great Lord of Heaven would look at him differently.

By then, wouldn't it be easy to replace Virol?
Fortune and wealth are achieved through risk, so just give it a try!

A hint of excitement flashed across the reporter's eyes, as if she had already seen the bright future beckoning towards her.

No, she is a "vampire" from the monster path.

So it should be——

That dark future is waving at me!

That's right.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)