Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 665: Never seen a golden apple?

The night on Yunjingkong Island was still quiet. The windows of Tianxin Church reflected warm firelight, attracting hundreds of colorful moths to circle and dance around. Their golden and silver scales sparkled like schools of fish swimming on the seabed.

It's evening study time now.

Of course, there was no such class originally, but after Nevill left the Whale Island, Leticia was left unattended, and Linger was worried that this energetic little bat would cause trouble everywhere, so he forced her to stay in the church in the name of evening self-study. Considering that the girl might feel lonely studying alone, he also called Leticia's two best friends over, namely, Metien, who was seriously reviewing pharmacology knowledge, and Shemi, who was crying beside her.

Lingge was discussing the golden apple with Saint Shallia.

Before meeting Saint Shallia, Linger had eaten an apple that was said to have originated from Mount Liufende in the White City Republic, and the King of the White City had once waged a war for it. Of course, it was probably just a sales pitch by the vendors. Even the purest varieties at the time, after hundreds of years of local cultivation, had no relationship with their ancestors.

Linger never thought that the apple would push him to embark on a fantastic adventure. No matter how you look at it, it was just an ordinary apple and had nothing to do with the legendary relic of the goddess. Metien even bought it at a discount price in the garden market. The reason was that one day after Linger finished his daily morning prayer, he casually said that he wanted to eat an apple.

Could it be that sentence that marked the beginning of all fate? How could there be such a coincidence in the world?
When the young man confessed his feelings to Saint Shalia, the shepherdess showed a puzzled expression on her face. She put down the scriptures in her hand, frowned her willow-like eyebrows, and said to Lingge in a cautious and slow tone: "I never said that the golden apple is a real apple, Lingge, that is just what my mother called it."

"What do you mean?" Ling'er's pupils shrank. "You mean, the apple I ate was indeed just an ordinary apple and had nothing to do with the golden apple?"

"It doesn't matter." Saint Shallia shook her head gently: "The golden apple is a sacred object left by my mother, and it is also the key to connecting the royal power of the fourteen girls. It is not food, and it is not even a common substance in the world, so it is impossible to eat it in the actual way."

She paused and continued, "Besides, I think that even if I hadn't lost my memory, I probably wouldn't be able to explain this situation."

“That’s a description.”

Saint Shallia said softly, "Because when I first saw you, I did smell the scent of the golden apple in your body. I don't know how it became part of your destiny. Theoretically, it's impossible, so I could only explain it to you in the most common way at the time: you ate the golden apple, so it appeared in your body. As for the actual situation, I still don't understand it until now, because I have lost too much memory and don't remember many things."

Later, there was the glory in the Thorsen Mountain, the giant whale in the Salia Plain, the flames in the virtual root swamp, and the adventure under the blue sky and sea. If fate needs a beginning, then the encounter with Saint Shalia is undoubtedly the beginning of Linger. She wrote the first paragraph of this novel, just like what is written in many storybooks: Once upon a time... and it often ends with "living a happy life".

Lingge was deeply impressed by that scene and still often recalls it in his dreams: in the town square occupied by the Morians, people came and went among the colorful tents. Everywhere there were clowns with oil paint on their faces, jugglers throwing colored balls into the sky, veiled fortune tellers pretending to be mysterious, and steel cages imprisoning black bears and tigers... It was in such a funny and joyful atmosphere that he met a girl as beautiful as an elf in a book, who revealed a prophecy or warning about the future to the young man who had not yet stepped into the vortex of fate.

Lingge didn't know if his own story would end in the same way, but he remembered the memory of the beginning and would never make any mistakes.

Ling asked, "Why?"

"But when you first met me, you did call me... the son of the man who ate the golden apple by mistake?"

"Because all the young royal powers, including me, know very little about the golden apple." Saint Shallia replied, "We only know that it is a holy object that the mother conceived with part of her own power before she fell into a deep sleep, but we know nothing about what it looks like, what power it has, and how to use it."

"How is this possible?" Ling Ge couldn't help but ask, "If you have really come into contact with the golden apple, you should have some impression of it, right?"

"But we haven't touched the golden apple." "What!?"

"The Golden Apple fell into the mortal world at the beginning of creation and has never been preserved in the Temple of Heaven. Therefore, although we, the young queens, know of its existence, we have never actually touched it."

"Why is this happening?" Ling Ge asked hurriedly, "Did the goddess deliberately prevent you from touching the golden apple? Or was it lost in the world by accident?"

Regardless of the reason, it seems to indicate a profound past event, perhaps related to the witches establishing the Witch Society, exterminating aliens, and guiding the history of the Mirror Star World towards the history of the Earth.

but.

"I do not know."

Saint Xia Liya shook her head, lowered her eyelids, and her eyes were inexplicably deep, as if recalling the past would make her feel empty and confused: "I have tried hard to recall, but I have never been able to remember. Those things seem a little far away for me. I'm sorry, Lingge."

For a person who has lost his memory, time always moves forward. It is unreasonable to force it to go back to the past.

Lingge realized that his attitude seemed a bit too coercive. He thought Saint Xia Liya's inner anxiety must be more serious than his own. However, it was not her fault that she could not remember the past, and he had no reason to blame her for it. After realizing this, the young man's tone slowed down a little: "It's okay, Saint Xia Liya, I'm just a little surprised. Why did this happen? It seems that Fei Er still concealed something in the story she told last time."

"But we can't find her and ask her to repeat it." Saint Xia Liya said in a very firm tone: "Don't be fooled by her lively and cheerful appearance. In fact, she is a very tenacious person. If she has made up her mind, no matter what others say, she can't change her mind."

She had clearly lost her memory, but she still knew her sisters' personalities very well. Perhaps this was the instinct of an older sister.

"It would be great if there was a way to find out the truth from other channels." Ling said with regret.

Saint Shalia glanced at him and said, "Entering the Temple of Heaven is one way."

"This will only work if we find the remaining two young queens who symbolize order."

"I believe you can do it, Lingge. You have already found five of us, and the remaining two will surely be found soon."

"I hope so……"

The topic of the two gradually turned to small talk. The flame burning on the copper candlestick flickered, casting two figures close to each other on the wall of the aisle. Perhaps even they themselves did not realize that they were so close to each other, and they were still getting closer. But at this time, Metien's panicked cry suddenly came from the basswood bench under the podium: "Ah!?"

Immediately afterwards, there was the sound of stained glass windows being shattered: clang and crackle!
A dark figure flew out of the broken window quickly before anyone could react and quickly disappeared into the night.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)