Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 517: Will you attend class?
If anyone else came to her and said these words, Nevelle would have told him to get out without saying a word, but the person sitting in front of her was Saint Shallia, a girl who had no other complicated thoughts and simply wanted to be a good sister.

Nevile looked at the other person's face carefully. She could see that although she tried her best to maintain her composure on the surface, the uneasiness that occasionally flashed across her eyes and the constant swallowing in her throat had already exposed her inner tension. This look suddenly reminded the countess of the rainy day when she first met Leticia. She saw the little girl huddled under the sparse dead branches, looking at her with the same expression, as if she had never realized that she would form the deepest bond with this strange woman in the long years to come, an emotion that could not be separated even by death.

The rain in the past has been falling until now, so much so that Nevile can still often feel the cold touch of raindrops wetting the hem of her skirt, and smell the damp and muddy smell of rain in the rustling rain... Thinking of this, her expression eased slightly, and there was a little more tenderness in her eyes when she looked at Saint Shallia.

"You should know that this is meaningless." She had to remind the girl in front of her: "No matter how close your relationship with her becomes, after one reincarnation, she will forget everything about you, unless you let her drink your blood. But I think you would not be willing to do such a thing, right?"

Because doing so would only make Leticia's curse worse, and that's not what a good sister should do.

Upon hearing this, Saint Shalia fell silent, as if she had nothing to say.

Nevile's words really hit the nail on the head. If all memories are constantly reset in reincarnation, then the emotions that accompany memories: joy or sadness, melancholy or cheerfulness, yearning or despair... are they all just false meanings? And are false emotions really necessary?

In Leticia's world, only Nevill is not fake. The rest, even Metien and Shemi, who have been playing well with her recently, are just short gaps filled in the endless years and will soon return to their original state. She originally lives in a fake world, so what she needs is the truth, not more fakes.

but.

"But," Saint Xia Liya said softly, her slow and careful tone seemed to be answering Nevile's question, but also seemed to be talking to herself: "Is the short-lived truth definitely meaningless? Even if Leticia lost her memory, would those emotions definitely disappear? I think they should still exist, even if not in Leticia's heart, at least in someone's heart. Just like Medien, will she choose to forget those memories related to Leticia because Leticia forgot herself? I don't think so. On the contrary, she will cherish them more, and so will I."

Nevill picked up the teaspoon and stirred the tea in the cup carelessly. She asked casually, "It sounds a bit selfish - giving a girl a brief happiness and then forcing her to lose it. Is this just to satisfy your own wishes, Miss Saint Chariah?"

"I don't think so, Miss Nevile." Saint Shallia said seriously, "Even if it is a short-lived happiness, it will soon be forgotten. At least as long as Leticia has memories, it is real. Therefore, I just want her to experience that kind of real happiness. I think this is what I should do as a sister."

It must also be done.

She quietly clenched her palms, placed them on her chest, and said word by word: "I will cherish it too."

Nevi'er slowly stopped her movements. She quietly stared into the girl's clear, flawless eyes. After a while, she suddenly sighed, "Your persistence is beyond my expectation, Miss Saint Charia. I really want to know where your sense of responsibility comes from. Is it just based on the nominal sisterhood?"

Her question made Saint Xia Liya stunned for a moment, and then the scene of the bonfire burning and the flying butterflies that night emerged in her mind. In the dust of scattered stars, someone once said to her: "You must have been a very good sister." From that day on, as if to respond to her expectations, Saint Xia Liya began to pay attention to whether her words and deeds could meet the standards of being a "good sister." She lost her memory and had no experience, so she had to learn everything from scratch. For example, she clumsily comforted Olvera, patiently persuaded Yieta, or urged Metien to do homework, and stopped Alice's wild pranks, etc., were all her efforts for this.

Although no one asked her to do this, everyone got used to her doing it later; although there was no sign that she could succeed, Saint Charity firmly believed that she would succeed, because someone said that she must have been a very good sister in the past.

If it was like this before, it will be like this now; if it is like this now, it will definitely be like this in the future. This is as natural as the fact that Olvera is willing to confide in her sister, Ieta likes to talk to her sister, and Alice will give up those wild ideas under the persuasion of Saint Xia Liya... "I want to do this." Saint Xia Liya said, "I just want to do this."

This seemed to be a strange answer, but the amazing thing was that Neviel actually understood it, so she smiled and said, "Okay, you have convinced me, Miss Saint Charia. In fact, I also like the child to live a happier life. Obviously, always staying with an elderly person like me is not good for the child's physical and mental growth. So I have something related to Leticia, and I may need your help. I wonder if you are free recently?"

Successful.

Saint Xia Liya breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, and the tightly clenched palms on her chest slowly relaxed. She felt her breathing and heartbeat finally stabilized, so she nodded gently: "Yes."

"That's good."

Nevile smiled and closed the book that was originally spread out on her lap, and then handed it to Saint Shallia. The latter took it and took a look. On the colorful cover depicting the sky, earth, grass and hand-painted scenes of children playing, the name of the book was ironed in a cute and playful font: "Andersen's Fairy Tales".

The author column naturally says Andersen, and the publisher is... Northern Mission Press.

If Lingge was here, he would naturally know that the so-called Northern Sect should refer to the original sect headquartered in Granser, the "City of Long Snow" in the Republic of Dendanis, in the extreme north of the continent. It is also one of the members of the united sect and is quite influential in the fields of culture and education. Most of its believers are high-level intellectuals such as teachers, students or writers.

But Saint Charity didn't know all this, so in her eyes, this was just an ordinary fairy tale book. When she opened the table of contents and took a look, she saw that the titles of the articles were also very fairy tale-like: "The Candy House in the Forest", "Rapunzel", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Daughter of the Mermaid", etc.

So, the purpose of the Countess giving herself a fairy tale book is... to use it to coax Leticia to sleep?

Saint Shallia looked at Nevi'er in confusion, and the latter's mouth corners slowly turned up, outlining a subtle smile: "It's actually very simple, not too difficult, Miss Saint Shallia, I just hope you can teach Leticia."

"Attend class?"

"Yes, class."

"..."

Saint Shalia was silent.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)