Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 717 Will You Never Provide False Information?
"Why do you have to be so absolute, Mr. Ling?" Gloria put down her teacup and tapped the edge of the cup and plate with her pipe, making a crisp ding-dong sound. She said in a playful tone, "You must know that nothing is impossible in the world. As long as you eliminate all wrong answers, the remaining answers, no matter how incredible, are facts. This is something that even a detective cannot change."

Regardless of the reactions of the other two companions, Linger's first reaction was to frown deeply and ask, "Are you trying to convince me that the Cult Union that overthrew the rule of the Steam Cult and replaced them is actually the same organization as the former?"

During the Steam Holy War, the Steam Cult, which was weakening due to internal divisions, was no longer able to curb the rise of other sects. The Seven Orthodox Churches secretly supported by the Witch Society came onto the historical stage during that period. The first time they were active, they directly destroyed the Steam Cult's headquarters in Platinum City and took away the foundation on which they relied: the most core steam technology and magic technology research data, laying the foundation for their own strong rise at the end of the war.

In fact, the contradiction between the two is far more than that. According to Rochelle's oral account of the Hundred Years' War, the Blue War, the Fog Moon Massacre and other historical events, it can be seen that the Witch Society has always firmly promoted the magic system that they have innovated and established on the basis of the magic potion system, and for this purpose they have not hesitated to slaughter gods, destroy pagans, and expel extraordinary people to the continent across the sea; while the Steam Cult is the founder and promoter of the magic system. The magic system they promote has completely subverted the magic system that was in its heyday, just as the magic system in the past subverted the magic potion system that was in its heyday.

From this perspective, the two sides are undoubtedly mortal enemies. How could they be from the same organization? Or is this a fight between different factions within the Witch Society? Is that mysterious and powerful organization far from being as united and harmonious as it appears to outsiders?

"You mean the Steam Holy War? I don't have much information about this war, but I can tentatively infer a conclusion from the clues." The detective girl pushed the monocle on her nose with one hand. The reflection of the lens made her gray eyes look inexplicably deep. "It is said that it was an experiment led by the Witch Society. The purpose was to verify a certain energy that humans in this era could not use at all. However, an unexpected event occurred in the middle of the experiment, causing the experiment to completely lose control, and the Steam Holy War broke out. After the "Skeleton Disintegration" incident, the Steam Cult, which was supported by the society, saw its influence gradually decline, and it was no longer able to help them maintain their rule. Because of this, the Witch Society gave up the Steam Cult and instead supported the Cult Union. By manipulating the latter to defeat the former, they sought prestige and benefits for the newly established Cult Union, so that they could continue to maintain their influence on the countries of the Western Continent after the war."

She sneered, "So to put it bluntly, the Steam Holy War is nothing more than the Witch Society coming out to clean up their mess after they got out of control. They also changed into a new identity as a disguise and used it as a trick to pass money from one hand to the other. This kind of situation is often seen in the financial center of Lunweiting. The difference is that those stock companies let their agents go to jail to take the blame for themselves, while the Witch Society directly let the entire Western Continent bear the price they had to pay for their failed experiments."

experiment?

Ling'er's expression changed slightly, and he subconsciously asked, "What kind of experiment?"

"I don't know." Gloria shrugged. "This is top secret information. Apostle-level members are not qualified to read it. I only vaguely heard that it is related to a church called the 'Cult of the Goddess of Creation'. But later I searched through the information and couldn't find any relevant information about this church. I guess it was erased by the Witch Society."

it is as expected.

Ling Ge and his two companions looked at each other and saw different expressions in their eyes: Saint Shallia's thoughts and sorrow, Alice's sudden realization and thoughtfulness, and he immediately knew that they had thought the same thing as he did. In the battle of the Virtual Root Swamp, the Witch of Fear Fei'er mentioned the "anchor effect", believing that the "power of faith" provided by the goddess's believers would lock the girls' souls after reincarnation like an anchor, helping them to recover their memories and strength faster. After realizing this, the Witch Society decided to take action to completely destroy the Creation Goddess Cult, and at the same time suppress the beliefs related to the goddess, making sure that these sisters would not cause trouble for them before the Eden Plan was realized.

Perhaps it was because of this incident that the Witch Society realized the existence of the "power of faith" and decided to establish the Steam Cult to begin research and experiments on it. In this way, the time when the Witch Society first appeared on the historical stage was not in 1399 when the Cult was established, but in 1161 when the Steam Cult was established, which was more than years earlier than Linger's conjecture.

According to this logic, there is a sufficient reason to explain why they gave up their previous practice of hiding behind the scenes and began to interfere in the course of history openly: because they need a huge amount of faith to conduct research, and a church hidden in the dark cannot attract a large number of believers, and will only be regarded as a false religion or a cult and suppressed by those in power. As for what the experiment was about and what consequences it caused, Gloria didn't know, but Lingge and others knew it clearly, that was the birth of the steam engine god Alexander, the most famous "deus ex machina" event in the history of mystery!
As for the subsequent disintegration of the wreckage, the Steam Holy War, the God-inviting Ceremony (Holy Stone Magic), the "Religious Decree", the "Truth and Civilization Initiative Treaty"...they were just the follow-up effects of that incident. As Gloria said, everything the Witch Society did was to clean up the mess of its own failure.

In addition, if the Steam Cult and the Union of Cults are regarded as the same organization, both of which are disguised as the Witch Society, then some mysteries that are considered unsolved mysteries in the history of the occult world will be reasonably explained.

Why did the great wizard Merlin, the great sage Nicolas Flamel, the beast wizard Aleister, the Minister of Magic Ursula, and the magicians of the Seven Crowns, who had established the magic system, remain silent and turn a blind eye to the defeat of the magicians? Why was the steam engine, the foundation of the Steam Cult, invented by the philosopher Watt? Why is the origin of the magic system mysterious and no one knows its founder, but it has been successively mastered by philosophers such as Clausewitz, Durreny and Helmut, the Steam Cult, and even today's cult, and regarded as the sharpest weapon in their hands, and has never fallen into the hands of outsiders...

A failed experiment, a successful infiltration, and a detective girl with mysterious origins, brought these historical truths buried deep in time to Linge and his two companions in an unexpected way.

"Looking at your expressions, it seems that you believe what I said."

Gloria's voice timely awakened the guests from their trance. She bit her pipe lightly, and a cunning and playful look flashed in her eyes behind the monocle: "I have said it before, a famous detective like me will never provide you with false information."

“This is my principle~”

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)