Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 822: Don’t you need any opinions?
After Lingge said this, everyone remembered that there was still one person left in the carriage.

"Hey, Gloria!" Alice immediately put Saint Shalia's matter behind her, ran to the carriage in three or two steps, and then pressed her cheek against the window, like a bear in the zoo observing humans through the glass window, blinking hard: "Why are you still staying in there? Come out quickly! If you don't come out, I will go in."

"That's not necessary, Miss Alice."

Perhaps the threat from the genius player was too powerful, causing Miss Gloria to have some bad associations. A somewhat helpless response soon came from the carriage. A few seconds later, the carriage door was pushed open from the inside, and Her Highness the Third Princess, still wearing her gorgeous dress, lifted her skirt and walked down slowly, appearing in front of everyone.

"Oh? You finally came out, that's right, everyone is here discussing important things, and you're the only one staying in there, how unsociable!" Alice said as she patted the Third Princess's shoulder, acting as if she was very familiar with her. In a sense, the genius player was indeed a very outgoing person, not to mention that after the experience of fighting side by side tonight, she probably already regarded Gloria as her own: "Anyway, your mother doesn't want you anymore, so you can come with us from now on. With your contribution tonight's comeback, our Gransefa Air Cavalry will not treat you unfairly!"

She was so blunt that everyone thought it would be reasonable for Gloria to slap Alice in the face. However, as a royal noble, the Third Princess was very well-mannered, so she was not angry. She even did not change her expression. She smiled and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Miss Alice. However, please allow me to think about whether I should join your team for a while."

"Still need to think about it?" Alice thought, this is not right. I have already finished the plot, why haven't the reserved teammates joined the team yet? They are even keeping me hanging. Don't they care about the friendship we have fought side by side for so many years? You scumbag: "You scumbag!"

"Huh?" Gloria opened her mouth wide.

"Ah no, I, I mean," Alice, who always thought without thinking, finally couldn't control her mouth and was sweating profusely. "Anyway, besides us, you have no other place to go, right? Do you still want to go back to Lunweiting? Although the Witch Society may not do anything to you for the sake of Her Majesty the Queen, they will definitely monitor you secretly because they are such an evil organization. In comparison, our Gransefa Air Cavalry is much more righteous. You don't know our main mission yet, right? As long as you gather the power of the seven girl kings, you can enter the Holy Temple of Heaven and awaken the legendary goddess who created the world, oh, that is, your other mother, the one who is closer to you than the current mother... Then ask Him to take action and teach those daring and unfilial daughters of the Witch Society a lesson, and usher in a happy and happy Happy Ending. How about it, isn't it great?"

Thinking that the goddess could easily defeat the Witch Society, even Alice, who was chased by the cult army like a stray dog, would proudly puff out her chest. Unfortunately, Gloria still didn't buy it. With a smile on her face, she said her second rejection: "Sorry, I still need to think about it, Miss Alice. After all, this is not just about me."

"That was at the beginning, wasn't it?" Gloria sighed helplessly, "It seems that I didn't perform as well as I thought."

"Oh my god, how can you say such cold words with your mouth of 100 degrees!" Alice was horrified. "The Sky Cavalry is exhausted and the society is powerful. This is a critical moment for survival. We, the Girls' Kingdom, should work together to overcome the difficulties. You can't cause division here, Gloria! And even if you say that this is not just your problem, we all agree that you join the team. If you don't believe me, ask others."

Ling Ge said, "No, your acting is impeccable. I just had a preconceived notion and doubted you from the beginning."

Alice looked behind her for advice.

"I'm sorry if I've offended you."

Gloria listened patiently, and after listening, she didn't say a word, but just smiled and shook her head.

"So I've already said that everyone is not against you joining us. On the contrary, everyone welcomes you..."

"So you already knew, Mr. Ling?" Gloria seemed a little surprised, but soon regained her composure: "That's true. After all, you guessed the true identity of Miss Tiantis. You are indeed a person with sharp intuition. But I'm a little curious, when did you figure it out? Was it during the duel?"

"Because she wasn't referring to us." Ling Ge, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up, interrupting Alice's mumbling. He looked directly into the girl's hazy gray eyes and said word by word, "If you want to seek her opinion, I don't think there's any need to beat around the bush. Wouldn't it be better to just call her out and have a face-to-face chat with us?"

"Ah." Alice lowered her head in disappointment and muttered, "Why are you so stubborn..."

"It was probably earlier than that." Lingge replied, "From the first time I saw you, I vaguely felt that something was wrong. Out of curiosity, I went to verify it. However, it was not until she appeared in the duel that I dared to confirm my guess."

Gloria finally responded, although it was the same sentence as before: "Because this is not just my business."

"Is this something you can say to a girl?"

How did you say "our girl's royal power" with such confidence? And is a mouth with a 100 degree sound still a human being? It's a steam engine, right?
Since there were so many things to complain about in her words, everyone ignored them tacitly. If they were too picky, they would probably not be able to finish talking until dawn. Then they all nodded and said that Alice was right. It was the best choice for you to join our warm family of Yunjing Sky Island. You see, we have sisters who are also girls' royal rights to accompany you, so that you can feel the warmth of your family even if you lose your mother (Alice's original words are completely adopted); there are hotels, churches, flower fields, windmills, gardens and even herbal gardens and other infrastructure and scenic spots, and the benefits of free food and accommodation are enviable; it is also the headquarters of the Adventurer's Guild. As long as you say a word, there will be bored adventurers (especially Lingge) to help you solve various small troubles in life... Such a comfortable and suitable place for retirement, if you miss it, there will be no next one, right?
Of course, the original words were definitely not that straightforward. The above are all the content generated by Alice after artistic processing of what they said. If not completely consistent, it can at least be said that they have nothing to do with each other.

The young man apologized very skillfully, probably because he often did such things that offended girls. The expression on Gloria's face changed from helpless to a subtle smile, as if she wanted to say something but had nothing to say. Alice, who was listening to the conversation, was confused. She looked at Linger for a while, then at Gloria. Because she moved her head so quickly, circles of vortices seemed to appear in her eyes: "Wait, wait, wait, what are you talking about? I don't understand. Someone come and explain it to me!"

The Riddler gets lost on Yunjingkong Island!
Linger glanced at her and said, "Instead of wasting time explaining, why not let the person involved speak for himself?"

Then he turned his gaze to Gloria: "Can you ask her to come out and have a chat, Miss Gloria?" "Yes." The gray-haired girl nodded gently: "That's right, she also has something she wants to clarify with you all."

After saying that, she slowly closed her eyes. Her gray bangs were lifted by the night wind blowing across the sky island. Her thick eyelashes could be seen trembling slightly, as if some unknown changes were happening under her thin eyelids. Less than a breath later, the girl opened her eyes again. At this time, there was no more hazy gray in her eyes. All the mist solidified, as if it had turned into two cold glass balls, reflecting cold light and indifferent expressions.

Gloria looked around as if she had become a different person. She ignored the surprised or hesitant looks of the crowd, and finally fixed her eyes on Linger. She said calmly, "As you wish, I am here at your invitation. Let's make it clear here if you have anything to say."

"Of course, but before that," the young man asked politely, "What should I call you?"

The girl was silent for a while, then whispered, "Call me Bai Ye."

"Okay, Miss Bai Ye." The young man followed suit and changed the way he addressed her.

"Wait!?" Alice jumped out again, pointing a finger at Gloria, who called herself Bai Ye after her personality changed drastically, with an expression of disbelief: "W-what's going on? Isn't it Gloria? How did you become Bai Ye? Are you playing some role-playing game?"

"Role-playing game?" The girl who called herself Bai Ye smiled with a hint of sarcasm and said to herself, "It's a very fitting description."

No one heard this, after all, it wasn't meant for them. Seeing Alice making such a fuss, Linger felt deeply embarrassed for the Gransefa Air Cavalry and the Adventurer's Guild, and couldn't help but worry about her intelligence and determination: "Don't you understand yet? The one who appears in front of you now is not Miss Gloria, but her other personality. You can - no, I think it's better for you to look at them separately."

Dual personality?

This was the first time that everyone had seen such a strange setting, and they couldn't help but take a few more glances out of curiosity. However, with Ling's warning in advance, and the fact that they were actually mentally prepared, this observation seemed obscure and restrained, and it was not that out of the ordinary, and Bai Ye didn't bother to pay attention. Only Alice, like a machine that had stopped working, opened her mouth and said "ah" for a long time, and suddenly screamed, and suddenly realized: "Wow, Gallimas!!!"

So that’s how it is, I understand!

I totally understand!

Why did Ling's intuition tell him that it would be more appropriate to let Gloria play this cartridge? Why could Gloria, who had never been in contact with a duel, fight back and forth with Tiantis just by understanding the rules once, and even play better than the genius player Alice? Why did she always say one or two incomprehensible words from time to time during the duel, as if she was talking to an invisible person? Why could she remain calm in the face of the pressure from the machine god Alexander, fall into despair three times and turn the tables three times, and the last time she turned the tables even when there was only one card left in the deck?
There is only one answer!
"Gloria, it turns out you really have a ghost behind you!" Alice raised her outstretched finger and turned it into a thumbs-up: "Okay, a guy with the duel spirit!"

"Has she gone crazy?" Bai Ye asked Ling Ge.

"You can think so."

Lingge nodded to acknowledge the genius player's condition, and then the two of them ignored Alice, who was practicing the card drawing action over and over again, humming and hawing as if she had cramps, and got down to business.

"You should have heard the invitation just now, Miss Bai Ye." Ling Ge said: "Gloria said she needs to go back and discuss it with you, so we also want to hear your opinion."

"My opinion?" The girl named Bai Ye raised her eyebrows slightly. It was strange that although she had the same face as Gloria, with only some differences in the eyes, the same action made by her gave people a feeling of strength and superiority, as if she didn't really take anyone seriously. She stood here and talked to Ling Ge only out of necessity, not because she really wanted to communicate with these people: "My opinion is that I don't have any opinion. It's good to stay here. At least you are right about one thing: Gloria has no other place to go except this place. In this case, what is the need to hesitate?"

"You mean you agreed?" Even Ling Ge was a little surprised by her decisiveness. "But I think Miss Gloria seems to be a little hesitant. Don't you need to consider her thoughts?"

"That girl is just hesitant out of habit. She's like this in everything she does, slow and dull, and occasionally a little sensitive, like a tortoise that just woke up from hibernation and found that it's still winter instead of spring." As another personality in the same body, Bai Ye's evaluation of Gloria was not very friendly: "As for considering her thoughts, that's even more unnecessary, because a weak, incompetent, self-deceiving girl like her doesn't have any ideas to speak of. She will always just go with the flow or follow others step by step. Saying that she's going back to discuss it with me is actually just putting the responsibility of making the decision on my head. Since she can't bear the weight of her own choice and needs me to do it for her, then I don't have to bother with her thoughts and opinions."

She said coldly, as if summarizing what she had just said: "In short, as for Gloria's affairs, she can't decide on her own, so I'll make the decision."

"She won't have any objections, and you don't need to have any opinions either."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)