Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 458: Can’t you chat at all?
"As you all know, you are all guests that Her Majesty Fei Er specifically requested to see. Since we parted at Salia Field, Her Majesty has been looking forward to your presence and eager to have a sincere conversation with you. Therefore, please allow me to apologize for my previous impoliteness and accept this sincere invitation to stay here for a while. After Her Majesty defeats her enemies, I will come to entertain you personally. I believe you will not be disappointed."

After saying this, Dickens placed his palm on his abdomen, put the other hand behind his back, bent slightly, and performed an elegant ceremony. From the ups and downs of his lips and teeth, like the sincere tone of reciting poetry, to the sincere emotion and not-at-all-false look of shame between his eyebrows, all of them reflected the demeanor and cultivation that the classical aristocrats in the Middle Ages were proud of, which made people unable to find any fault with him.

At least, in Alice's eyes, she was definitely more like a noble than a certain Countess from the Valenhild family.

"Really?" Nevile sneered disdainfully: "Thank you for your warm hospitality. We almost died here. But I think, if welcoming guests from afar with artillery fire is not the usual etiquette among you humans, you should plant dahlias and poinciana here, plant the tallest olive trees and fig trees, cover the meadow, put up a parasol to block the moonlight, put out tables and chairs and tea sets, prepare desserts and cakes, and brew a pot of pure White Mountain Castle black tea - in this way, I will reluctantly recognize your sincerity, although night is not the best time to enjoy black tea. This is the only flaw besides your hypocritical posture."

You see, real nobles are so troublesome, and they are also sharp-tongued and unforgiving, just like shrews.

Alice thought so, but didn't dare say it out loud.

Dickens smiled and nodded in a gentlemanly manner, saying, "We were inconsiderate this time. We will try our best to meet your needs next time. If you think it's boring to just wait here, I'd be happy to chat with you. What do you think?"

"No thanks." Nevile said indifferently, "I have nothing to talk to you about."

Others probably felt the same way, and they also felt that the middle-aged gentleman in front of them was an extremely scary person. Although he always had a gentle smile on his face, he was scarier than the stern Ronning Ravel and the serious and indifferent Christian Huygens next to him. He was like a pool of dark night, so deep that it was impossible to see through, so they all avoided his sight.

Linger didn't avoid it. His eyes met Dickens's. He was about to shake his head to show that he had no interest in chatting, but Alice pushed him from behind and urged him in a hurried tone: "Talk to him, talk to him! Get more information. Also, buy me some time. I'll think of a way to escape!"

So when his eyes met Dickens's, he did not avoid it, but hesitated. This hesitation was immediately noticed, and Dickens smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Ling, do you have anything to say?"

Linger then noticed that the golden-haired maid had unconsciously shrunk into the middle of the crowd, letting others use their bodies to cover her movements. She was taking her game console off her belt, and at the same time, she winked at Linger and other friends, suggesting that they should not look over here, disguise themselves, and not expose what they were doing. Her sneaky appearance made people speechless at first sight.

This is a natural disguise in itself.

To be fair, Lingge didn't think she could come up with any reliable ideas. After all, the several activated game cartridges didn't seem to be suitable for the current situation. But he decided to delay for some time - not for Alice, but in the hope that Yieta in the distance would notice the abnormality here earlier and drive the Cloud Whale to support. This might be the only feasible escape strategy.

Did she forget that there were also the Order Balance mechanical soldiers in the sky watching, and they could see everything on the ground clearly - but even if they noticed Alice's little movements, they probably couldn't understand what she was doing. All their actions depended on whether they could capture abnormal magic fluctuations, but Alice's SLP game console did not have the properties of a holy relic, so it would not emit any magic.

Ling Ge shook his head: "No."

"That's a pity - I do have some questions that I'm interested in asking you."

"what is the problem?"

Lingge answered while thinking, Alice asked him to get some information from the other party, but it seems that the other party has the same idea?

Dickens was not in a hurry to ask, but looked at the young man in front of him with interest. He saw rough calluses on his palms that were deliberately hidden in his sleeves, and slightly inconspicuous deformations at the knees of his legs. These were very significant features. Dickens thought he had quite a bit of experience in judging whether a person was a devout believer, after all, he had come into contact with many similar people. In the Western Continent, different sects often derive different religious cultures due to differences in the gods they believe in, the ideas they believe in, and the original intentions of their birth. They are complex and difficult to summarize. The most typical symbols are the gestures, rituals, and prayers during prayer, etc. Each set is extremely complicated and trivial, as if it would not be enough to reflect its own unique style without doing so.

But generally speaking, there are two things that are exactly the same: one is the scriptures. Devout believers will often read the scriptures that record the words and miracles of God, and memorize their contents in order to remind themselves to always follow God's teachings and not to make mistakes. Over time, the soft paper will wear calluses on their fingertips and palms, and at first glance they look like farmers who often work in the fields; the second is kneeling, which is the most emphasized posture in all religious rituals. The original intention is to use the smallness of people when they bend their knees to reflect the majesty and solemnity of the gods, highlight the contrast between humbleness and holiness, and psychologically put believers in a state of submission and dependence. It can be inferred that the more devout the believers are, the longer they kneel and pray. Therefore, compared with normal people, their knees often have slight joint deformations. This does not affect their daily actions, but in the eyes of experienced people, it is the basis for judging their identities at a glance.

Well, judging from the two characteristics observed by Dickens, the devout temperament and personality of this young man named Linger are actually about to emerge.

"I heard that you were originally a pastor." Dickens asked, "Would you mind telling me about the sect you belong to, and the god you believe in, his doctrines, his ideas, and why he gathered you under the same crown? Have you ever thought about these questions yourself? I think thinking about these will be of great help to your future path in life, or even to help you see your own beliefs clearly."

His tone was meaningful. After hearing this, Saint Xia Liya immediately raised her head and looked at Lingge, with a silent look of worry in her eyes.

"I don't know." Lingge replied coldly: "I have never thought about these questions."

This answer was inevitably a bit perfunctory, but it was Lingge's true answer. He had indeed never thought about these issues. After taking over Tianxin Church, he just did what his adoptive father did in the past, reading the scriptures silently every day, praying once in the morning or evening service, and holding a seven-day service every weekend. As for other things, they may be important to others, but in the life of this young man, they are just redundant.

Dickens was not disappointed with this answer. He continued to ask, "I heard that devout believers will receive divine revelation, which religious people call divine revelation. Mr. Ling, have you ever received any revelation from the goddess's teachings? Did she guide you to a destined path? Are the things you are experiencing now also under her attention and within her prophecy?"

"I do not know."

"…What if I want to understand the essence of your sect's scriptures?"

"can."

"for example?"

"Love your family, unite your friends; be tolerant to others, forgive their mistakes, tolerate their negligence; do not make irresponsible comments on others' faults, it is rude to criticize behind their backs; correct your mistakes as soon as you know them, so that you can have a pure soul; and go to bed early and get up early, so as not to bring fatigue into the next day's life. In addition, there are many more. It is said that if you can firmly practice every oracle in the scriptures, you can cultivate a perfect personality for yourself. Do you want to listen to it, Mr. Dickens?"

"...No need, Mr. Ling, let's change the subject. What were your actual considerations when you decided to accept the control of the Religious Decree and close the church?"

"money."

"..."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)