Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 528: Set sail?
On April 1856, 4, at the end of the month of Germinal, the Cloud Whale finally entered the territorial waters of the Mindelias Empire. Standing on the top floor of the windmill tower of Iyeta and looking out, one could already see the outline of the continental coastline in the distance, as well as the giant shadow of the city looming in the slightly dark clouds.

The cloud whale stopped in the sea area still some distance away from the city of Rotdan, and at the same time, it slowly landed in the clear and transparent blue sky sea like sapphire with soft clouds all over the sky, stirring up the momentum of the stormy waves. The area where they landed was located on the north bank of the Rost River, the fourth largest river in Mindrias. This river will flow south along the Bosende Plain, passing through the "Giant Mountain City" Solo, "Star City" Thales, "Pilot City" Guland and other cities along the way, and finally merged into the blue sky sea in the "Sea City" Rotdan. Its existence made the latter one of the top ten port cities in the empire. The shipbuilding industry was once very developed. In the early days of the Age of Navigation, the daily throughput and trade volume of the port were extremely amazing, but later this glory was gradually overshadowed by the development of the tourism industry and is now unknown.

Among the towering cliffs on the north shore, there is a place that is slightly concave inward. The protruding part is gradually worn away by the abrasion and weathering erosion of the sea over time, and finally forms a natural sea arch. Because its calcareous surface is mostly covered with a lichen called "blue moss", it looks like a blue arch bridge from a distance, so it was called "the blue bridge on the blue sea" by the White City navigators who sailed here. However, there are no large cities nearby, and it is not an important sea route, so the name of the blue bridge is only mentioned briefly in the logs of those navigators as a topic of entertainment after dinner, and it is not widely circulated.

At this time, the Cloud Whale quietly anchored in the natural hole that extended from the Blue Bridge to the sea, spanning more than 70 meters, allowing the shadow to cover its body and block the harsh light above its head. Most of its body sank below the sea surface, revealing only the back area with higher terrain and the most lush vegetation. It looked like an ordinary island, but the plants growing on this island were not the common palm trees and coconut trees in the tropics, but the spring ivy trees, summer cherry trees, etc. from the distant inland country of Leisenburg.

The reason why the Cloud Whale stopped here was because Alice still had important things to do, which was to go to Cheshire Maiden Street in the city of Lothdana to find a few skilled old tailors to turn the swimsuits on the drawings into real objects and give soul to the upcoming seaside holiday!

This was a very difficult and dangerous mission. For safety reasons, Alice did not plan to bring too many people with her. She only specifically asked Ling Ge and Saint Xia Liya to go with her because they were her most trusted companions. This might make you think that Alice was the one leading this operation, but the actual situation was that she chased Ling Ge and Saint Xia Liya for a long time before finally getting them to agree to accompany her to have fun.

Entering the sphere of influence of the cult for the sake of a few swimsuits and risking being discovered, what else could this be? If it weren't for the thread of Saint Shallia's fate as a cover, and Alice almost swore that she would never cause trouble, Ling Ge would not have agreed to her.

As for the others, they stayed on the island. This was also their original intention. After all, Medien still had homework to catch up on, Olivia still had a novel to write, and Leticia still had classes to attend... In short, everyone was very busy and had no time to play around with Alice.

After determining the candidates and targets for this operation, the trio of the Rainy Harbor can set out again and start their adventure. But before that, they have to solve the problem of transportation first.

For this purpose, the proprietress brought a few stone spirit guards to work in the forest for three days, selecting suitable wood, cutting down the selected trees, and then after a series of very mysterious processes, built a... small wooden boat for them.

Well, it's the kind of small wooden boat that is about three meters long and one meter wide, can just accommodate three people sitting inside, and can only meet two basic requirements, that is, floating and not leaking. It will capsize when encountering a little wind and waves, and it is basically certain to be dead when encountering a storm at sea. It is a miracle if it can safely sail for one thousand meters, and it is almost a fantasy to rely on this thing to cross the sea and land on the coast...

Conditions were limited, so this was their only means of transportation to attack Lotdana. After seeing the real thing, Alice couldn't associate it with the majestic three-masted sailing warship she imagined. She almost wanted to flip the table to say that you are fooling consumers, but the proprietress smiled and said, "Don't worry."

Then she brought the anxious Alice and the small wooden boat to find Yieta, and asked her to use the royal power of [Great Wind] to buff this thing. It is well known that [Great Wind] can even blow the central island of Ruilanthos, so it is easy to provide strong power for a small wooden boat. Moreover, its affinity with the wind allows it to avoid various dangerous waves and storms at sea, and there is no need to worry about capsizing. The only small flaw is that it is time-limited.

"It should be enough for you to reach the city of Lotdana." Yieta's tone was a little uncertain, because it was her first time to do such a thing. In the past, her power covered the village of Avignon 24 hours a day, so the local windmills never stopped. But that was because the windmills would not move and would always stay within the range of the Great Wind, so the effect was of course significant; while the effect of the ship would gradually weaken as the distance increased, so how long this temporary BUFF would last, she could only guess by feeling: "By that time, the power of the kingship should be ineffective, so you may have to find a way to come back by yourselves."

"It's okay, it's okay." Alice waved her hands carelessly, saying, "It's all small matters. As long as I can get through, I can definitely come back. No problem!" After that, she smiled brightly, her white teeth shining. Lingge next to her wanted to ask her on the spot, "Then think of a way to come back now", but considering that they couldn't have an internal conflict before an important action, he wisely remained silent.

Yieta also gave each of the three people a big hug, still carrying out her previous idea: when everyone else went out to adventure, although she could only stay here, she would use her hug to bring happiness to everyone.

Although this adventure is not so necessary.

To show the importance of this operation, Alice held a launching ceremony for the wooden boat she named "Snow Wind". Specifically, she walked in front with a proud and heroic spirit, and two silly stone guards carried the wooden boat behind her, circling the island for about a quarter of a circle - why a quarter of a circle? Because Alice was tired at this point, so she decisively announced the end of the ceremony, and then pushed the wooden boat into the sea on the spot. Then, as the captain, she took the lead and jumped into the cabin first.

The Snow Wind sank visibly, struggling in the blue water like a drowned duck, but finally held on and gradually regained its balance. The movement frightened the onlookers, and Ling Ge and Saint Charia fell into a long silence. After several minutes, they reluctantly boarded the ship amid Alice's repeated calls of "It's okay, it's okay".

At this point, Captain Alice, First Mate Saint Shalia, and Boatswain Linger were all ready, and the power of the Great Wind began to take effect, pushing this small wooden boat, which had no elements of adventure, on a magnificent journey. The Snow Wind was destined to leave its own strong mark in the history of world navigation...

Our era has begun——Alice’s original words.

Is there any need to start such an era? - Lingge thought to himself.

Alice, you are standing too far forward, be careful not to fall down - a warm reminder from Saint Shallia.

"Wow!"

Almost fell.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)