Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 556: Are these kids just joking?
Although the reception was of high standard, the meeting was arranged in a study room in the side hall of the Ice Water Palace, which meant it was a private meeting. The guard knight Katins, known as the "Wolf Rider", led the guests to the study room and stopped, abiding by his duty as a subject, and only guarded outside the door without entering. However, Galene did not have so many scruples, and she pushed the door open and walked in without even knocking.

Nevi followed closely with three little girls. As soon as they entered the room, they felt a chilly breath coming towards them, because this study was just as its name indicated, as if it was carved out of a whole block of ice. Whether it was the ceiling, walls or floor, they all reflected a pure, crystal-like ice-blue color. Even the light source inlaid in the holy twelve-branch crystal chandelier above their heads was aquamarine, which is known as the "gem of the blue sky". This beautiful gemstone unique to the deep sea will refract magnificent and magical light ranging from ice blue to dark blue due to the different angles of the seawater during the tide. Thousands of rays of light are reflected by the transparent mirror, illuminating the entire study, presenting a magnificent scene.

The door clicked shut behind her, and three little heads popped out from behind Nevile, curiously looking at the surroundings. This was a slightly cramped study room, but the original space should have been very spacious. The reason why it gave people this feeling was that there were three rows of bookshelves more than three meters high on the walls on both sides, which were densely packed with books. Each book had a cover made of the dark blue skin of the Nova octopus, which could effectively prevent erosion by sea water.

Most of the space in the study was occupied by these bookshelves, leaving only an aisle in the middle, leading to the mahogany desk where the owner reads and handles official business. At this time, the desk was piled with official documents. A woman with luxurious clothes and elegant temperament was sitting behind the desk, frowning slightly at a document in her hand, as if she was embarrassed. She wore a unique crown on her head, and the crown was inlaid with seven unique gems in the blue sky and sea: aquamarine, fluorite, mirage stone, coral stone, tidal stone, clear stream jade and shimmering stone. It was obvious that this woman was the Queen of the Nyerid Court who the visitors on earth were going to meet.

After hearing the footsteps coming from the door, she looked up and saw the smiling Galene gesturing to her, probably to express something like "I'll bring the guest over for you, mother", so she shook her head helplessly. Then, she put down the documents in her hand and stood up to greet the guests: "Hello, guests on earth, I am the queen of Nereids and the ruler of the Nierid Royal Court: Emilia Barcelos Baesa Nierid. On behalf of all the subjects in the city, I welcome you all."

After that, she lifted the hem of her skirt with one hand and bowed slightly. This bow was certainly not the etiquette of welcoming guests as Her Majesty the Queen, but a way for a demigod to express her friendly attitude to another demigod. So, Nevile also bent down slightly, put one hand on her lower abdomen, and put the other hand behind her back, and performed an elegant ancient ceremony to Her Majesty the Queen, showing her manners and demeanor as the oldest noble in the Metosh Empire: "I am very happy to receive your warm welcome, Your Majesty Emilia, I am Nevile Garcia Wei Valenhild, this one is my granddaughter Leticia, and these two are my companions, Miss Medien and Miss Shemi."

She introduced the identities of the three children. Although this made Emila feel that she looked more like an old grandmother with children rather than an independent and powerful demigod, Her Majesty the Queen would not say such a disrespectful thought. She showed a gentle smile to the little girls, and then her eyes fell back on Nevile: "So you are Her Excellency the Silver-Eyed Countess of the Shiqilia Peninsula. In front of you, I dare not call myself a king. You can just call me by my name."

In terms of the value of the territory they ruled, although Emila was the queen and Nevi was only a countess, the radiation range of the Sikilia Peninsula was much larger than that of the Nereides City, and the former Metosh Empire was even more invincible, almost establishing an era that belonged to the aliens. Its eventual demise not only made the aliens in Metosh miss it, but also made other aliens feel regretful and lament. Because, if the Metosh Empire could continue to inherit under the oppression of humans, perhaps they could also take this opportunity to challenge the dominance of human civilization and reproduce the glory of their ancestors in the ancient times?
But this is already an impossible hypothesis, so it is irrelevant to the current topic. Nevill just smiled and didn't take Emila's words to heart: "I didn't expect that my reputation would spread to the Blue Sky and the Sea. Even the mirror elves have heard of it. I am really flattered."

"You're too modest." Seeing that she didn't want to discuss this topic in depth, Emilia wisely ignored it and pointed to the reception area next to her and said, "Dear guests, why don't you come here to chat - Galene, come over too."

The last sentence was said to Galene, and the tone was obviously much more casual. Galene said "Oh" and ran over, and asked casually: "Can I sit next to you, mother?"

"No." Emilia smiled, but this smile was a bit threatening. She pointed to the desk beside her and said, "You sit there and deal with the rest of my documents. I will come back to clean up after I finish talking to the guests... and then I can talk to you. Got it?"

"Eh? Why is this happening?" Galene wanted to run away instantly: "I'd better go back to my patrol mission. Goodbye, mother..."

"kindness?"

"I like handling government affairs the most. Please leave it to me, mother!"

Without saying a word, Galene sat down behind the desk, then stiffly picked up the pen beside her and began to rack her brains over the documents spread out in front of her - the reason for her stiff movements was that she hadn't even taken off her armor. "Sister Galene is so pitiful." Metien said with emotion.

"Yes, yes, doing homework is painful." Leticia also felt the same way, although the two of them might have expressed different things.

"This is how adopted children are treated," Xie Mi said, almost to the point of empathy: "They don't get the love of their parents, they are always bullied by their sisters, and they have to do the most housework... oh, so sad!"

The scene moved her so much that she almost cried.

Of course, the three little girls did not realize that what they thought was whispering was actually no different from loud noises to the two powerful demigods.

"Uh." Nevile said to the queen somewhat awkwardly, "The children are just joking. Please don't take it seriously."

The Countess had been through many battles and had seen a lot, so she could see that there was no emotional barrier between the Queen and her adopted child, but rather a deeper bond than that between real family members. Otherwise, the previously serious and solemn Galene would not have changed into a different person once she arrived at the Ice Water Palace, and Emilia would not have entrusted her with important official business.

"It's ok."

Queen Aimi smiled and said, "All three of them are so innocent and naive. How could I possibly hate such lovely little girls?"

"Really?" Nevile immediately put on a serious expression: "So who do you think is cuter among these three little girls?"

Queen Aimi: “…”

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)