Alice in the Land of Steam
Chapter 7 Is language the biggest barrier in communication?
Chapter 7 Is language the biggest barrier in communication?
Ling felt that he could not allow their conversation to continue. He reasonably suspected that the girl who was talking to Metien might not be in a normal mental state.
For the safety of his sister, he pushed the door open without hesitation. The old door hinges creaked, and the remaining light of dusk poured into the dim chapel along with the dust from the street.
The chapel was not completely dark. A white candle was lit on the altar where Lingge usually presided over ceremonies. The flame was swaying gently, releasing a warm glow that drove the shadows to remote corners such as the base of the wall and also reflected the compassionate and loving face of the goddess statue.
At the edge of the fire, the two girls sat on the oak bench and talked. The goddess looked at them quietly, watching the slender shadows stretched to the wall, swaying with the flickering flames. Occasionally, the wind blew in from the high windows, and the shadows swayed more violently. The eerie atmosphere was quite like watching a silent puppet show in an empty theater, or the ignorant villagers in the Middle Ages gathering in the tavern to listen to the bards telling bizarre legends about witches or vampires.
Hearing the noise coming from behind, the two girls turned around at the same time and set their eyes on Lingge.
The girl with pink medium hair and emerald green eyes was Metien. She showed a bit of surprise and fear in her eyes, and subconsciously tightened the rolling pin in her hand. As for why she was holding the kitchen rolling pin, it was a question worth pondering, but it was not the key point at the moment.
Ling's gaze stayed on his sister for only a short while. After confirming that she was not hurt, he slowly turned to the other girl present. In the dim firelight, he saw that she had a long golden ponytail, ruby eyes, and was wearing a silver-grey hoodie and shorts of the same color. She looked very cool, and the exposed thighs were enough to make any gentleman or lady shake their heads and sigh.
The sword-shaped pendant, the fire-patterned ring, the silver bracelet for tying the ponytail, and of course, the more eye-catching rabbit ears decoration hanging around the neck, are different from ordinary people in terms of both dress and style.
Even the most eccentric fortune-teller among the Moryas, who likes to wear cloaks, hoods, and crystal balls, is more like a normal person than her.
“Well…” Metien’s eyes were evasive, not daring to look directly at his brother’s eyes, and hesitantly replied: “She, she actually, uh, fell from a tree…”
He had only heard of cricket, baseball, polo and football, and had been invited to attend community competitions for these ball games. As for the Earth, could it be a new sport from other countries?
"The Earth is not a ball. It's the world I live in."
"Hello." The girl didn't mind Ling's scrutiny at all and greeted him in a friendly manner: "My name is Alice, nice to meet you."
The other item, called a "cassette," is a delicate work of art that is well protected by a brass shell, with only the metal interface exposed. Its shape and size are just right for inserting into the slot of the game console. There are eight cassettes in total, all stored in a silver-gray metal box. The shape is full of strange beauty, and the appearance, specifications and materials are almost exactly the same. The slightest difference cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.
Ling Ge didn't know what to be proud of. He frowned and asked, "What kind of ball is the Earth?"
"No, actually I've already said that I traveled from Earth while playing a game." Alice's voice interrupted the conversation between the brother and sister. She also took out two strange things as evidence: "Here, this is it, a limited edition Super Lever Player game console, referred to as SLP game console, and the matching cartridge."
Lingge did not show too much enthusiasm for her friendliness. He just nodded in response, then looked at Metien and asked calmly: "Is this your new friend, Metien? If I remember correctly, there has never been a girl named Alice on Turquoise Street."
Ling'er's mind suddenly flashed with the figure he saw in the town square, the girl who called herself Saint Shallia, and he gradually put the images of the two people together, because he found that they had a common characteristic: neither of them seemed like people who should appear in this era, it could be said that... they were living in another world?
Actually, there are. Alice is a very common name in the Kingdom of Great Brittany, but Ling is sure that those "Alices" are not the Alice in front of him.
The SLP game console she was talking about was a silver-white cube, full of metallic texture, but not very big and could be held up in the palm of your hand. The surface of the plain and clean shell had mysterious dark gold lines spreading over it, outlining the letters G and I. The whole thing was smooth without any gaps, but there was an elongated slot on the upward side, which seemed to allow some kind of external device to be inserted.
"It's a limited edition." Alice's tone seemed a little proud: "It's the only one on the entire planet!"
Alice blinked her big ruby eyes and explained patiently, "The so-called ball is not what you think it is, but a planet. You should have the concept of a planet, right? I see that the architectural style is similar to the British style of the 19th century, which should be the period of the First Industrial Revolution. I remember what the slogan was when the game was released, "Enjoy a Victorian steampunk fantasy journey?"
"It is indeed the 19th century now." Linger interrupted her nonsense: "But the first industrial revolution in history began in the 12th century, which seems to be somewhat different from your conjecture."
"How is this possible?!" Alice's first reaction was to question, "If your industrial revolution started seven centuries ago, you should have entered the electrical or even new energy era by now. How could you be so backward?"
"Because the Steam Holy War lasted for nearly two hundred years, the technological production of the Western Continent was completely stagnant, and social and economic development directly regressed by one hundred years. The subsequent impact is even more difficult to measure with numbers. Even now, some historians still believe that all the achievements we have made in science today are essentially paying back for the tragic war five hundred years ago."
Linger paused for a moment, then glanced at Alice and said, "Of course, it's normal that you don't know this, because this is something that is only taught in college textbooks."
"Two Hundred Years of Steam Crusade?" Alice muttered the unfamiliar term and fell into deep thought.
But Linger did not give her too much time to think. He said calmly, "For your age, this history is obviously too obscure and complicated. Wait until you are admitted to university to study it in depth, Miss Alice. Then I will be happy to discuss the allusions and secrets with you. But now, it is time to go home. Young girls should not wander outside, even if this is the church of the goddess."
Alice didn't feel angry or anything like that after he ordered her to leave. She was just a little curious: "So, you didn't believe me from the beginning?"
Linger’s answer was decisive: “Absolutely not.”
"Woo!" Medien next to him covered her eyes with both hands, unable to bear to look. She had known for a long time that her brother was a serious person, but she didn't expect that he would be so unromantic in front of a beautiful and lively girl. It really made people worry about his future.
"Is it because I didn't provide convincing evidence?" Alice gestured to the game console and cartridge in her hand: "Aren't these two things enough?"
"Not enough at all." He answered decisively, causing the candle flame to tremble. "Your words are too absurd. No one with a bit of common sense would believe them. They remind me of some widely circulated scams. However, your ideas are much more novel than those charlatans who claim to be the descendants of Nashuai or the reincarnation of the German Emperor."
Alice was very depressed: "Thank you for your compliment, but I'm not a liar!"
"I also believe that you are not a liar, because you did not try to ask for anything from me or Metien, so I assumed that it was a prank played by a little girl on impulse and did not plan to call the police."
"Then thank you so much for the second time." Alice rolled her eyes: "Also, I'm eighteen years old, an adult who can legally drink, not a little girl."
"Drinking is bad for your health." Metien, who was sandwiched between the two, advised weakly. After hearing Alice's answer of "I was just joking", he looked at his brother with a slight firmness in his emerald green eyes: "Lingge, I, I believe Alice is not lying."
She was questioning her brother for a stranger. Alice wiped away her tears hypocritically and said she was touched. Lingge ignored her and was not angry. Instead, he asked his sister seriously: "Why? What is your reason for believing her?"
Metien's cheeks flushed with joy, as if she had thought of something interesting: "Because, because she told me a lot of incredible things: buildings made of steel, huge iron birds flying from one end of the sky to the other, headphones that can be used to listen to music, televisions that accommodate all kinds of bizarre things, and... games that allow you to experience another kind of life in another imaginary world. Don't you think these things are amazing, Lingge? If, if they are not from an alien world, where else can you find them?"
Linger was silent for a moment. He wanted to tell his sister that people with rich imaginations could create things that did not exist in the world, just like the weird novels that have been popular in recent years. Could it be that vampires, werewolves, witches, and wizards really exist? They are just the imagination of novelists.
However, seeing the longing and yearning in Metien's eyes, he couldn't say these words anyway. He pursed his lips and changed the subject: "Language."
Eh?
The two girls were stunned, not understanding what it meant.
Only Ling Ge's eyes remained calm as he looked at Alice. "If you say you come from a world completely different from ours, then why can you understand the language of our world and even communicate with us fluently?"
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(End of this chapter)
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