Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 87 Is It Dying?

"The Rothwild district is located in the western suburbs of the city, closest to the southern foot of the Thorsen Mountains. In ancient times, it was still a barren highland. The wind fairies who drifted here brought it the call of the distant wind, and the breath of life was stimulated. When the ancestors of Rothstin came here to build the first house with reeds and straw, the wind fairies quietly watched their smiles from the leaves of the treetops."

"For a long time, the wind fairies and the local residents did not offend each other, or rather, they maintained an equally alienated attitude towards all life because this was their nature, as distant and unpredictable as the wind. Therefore, even the Fairy Deep Sleep Hotel rarely received guests from the wind fairy clan. Miss Angel was the only exception."

When Xie Liya mentioned the name in the registration book, the story returned from the ancient and poetic era to the cold reality.

"The city expanded so rapidly that a thousand years seemed like a blink of an eye. Before the wind fairies could get away from their memories, a giant beast had already devoured their home, taking the lush forests, green fields, and flowing rivers into houses made of wood and stone, and making them part of what you call 'civilization.'"

"What followed was a siege by the Night's Watch."

When the bartender said this, a rare flash of fear flashed in her eyes. "I don't want to describe the killings that took place under the light curtain again. It's just that every guest who registered their name at the hotel will never come back here in the end. They either feared the guns of the night watchmen and fled to a more remote wilderness, or they have become a pile of ashes under the smoke, unable to make a sound. In just a few decades, only one in ten of the aliens in this city survived, and the rest lived in panic. No one has stepped in front of the hotel since then, and it has gradually been covered by weeds. That is the forest you passed by when you came here, and perhaps it also foreshadows our fate in this city."

"It's not that no one tried to resist, but the long-awaited resistance seemed more like a counterattack of a caged beast to the Night's Watch, which only added to the ridicule. They wield overwhelming power, which is a terrifying thing that you can never imagine, Mr. Ling. It's like the rise of a mountain or the falling of a star..."

She pursed her lips and suddenly fell silent.

Lingge did not disturb the girl's trance. Perhaps he could understand her feelings, because the strength of the united religious orders was not only reflected in their extraordinary power, but also in their supreme authority in the secular world. A "Religious Decree" destroyed the spiritual home of countless people, and he was just an ant floating in the tide.

"Then I should tell you something." Shelia said, "When the Rodrance Railway Station project was first launched, there were many voices of opposition among humans because they were worried that the thick smoke emitted by the train would pollute the pure air and make the city no longer beautiful."

"While people were arguing about this, the wind fairies, whose living space was gradually encroached by the city, heard about this and suddenly had a new idea: they wanted to negotiate with the Night Watchmen and use their innate magic to purify the polluted smoke and haze for the city. Wind fairies are born to be the darlings of the sky and the wind, so it is easy for them to do this. All they ask for is the right to live in peace on this land without fear."

"They are clearly the earliest inhabitants of this land. They are the ones who brought the vitality and prosperity that humans are proud of. If there hadn't been that gust of wind from the ancient times, what would Rostin City look like now? Wasteland? Swamp? Dead forest? No one can be sure."

After a while, Shelia recovered her breath and continued to speak, but she talked about a topic that seemed unrelated to the matter: "Did you come to Rostin City by train?"

As a tourist city, if it is no longer beautiful, it seems to have lost its value of existence.

Lingge nodded slightly.

She shrugged, a casual gesture. Ling Ge was speechless and could only ask, "What was the result of the negotiation?"

This is a win-win cooperation. If it were a normal person, there would be no reason to refuse it. However, based on Ling's understanding of the alliance of religious groups, this may not be the case.

Sure enough, Shelia answered him: "The attitude of the Night Watch has always been as firm as the bullets they fired, so they rejected Miss Angel's proposal for negotiation without hesitation, and soon, the wind fairies paid the price for their naivety: they exposed their position and were attacked by the Night Watch, suffering heavy casualties. The remaining members of the tribe had to leave Rostin City and wander in search of a new hometown." "With the precedent of the wind fairies here, those who were originally afraid of the Night Watch became even more afraid; those who originally hated the Night Watch became even more hateful. But no matter whether it is fear or hatred, we are powerless to resist, so we can only live silently in the shadows, living in fear, enduring a life without guests and friends, suppressed to the point of almost going crazy, with no hope for the future, just like this hotel."

She raised her head and looked around the hall. She felt nostalgic for the bright light, the old tables and chairs, the bunny that was skipping past the counter, and the potted plants in the corners: "It will die one day, but now it is just dying."

……

While the young man and the bartender were talking about the past history at the counter, the fairy maid Shemy, Alice and Metien, opened the door to the underground garden. The proprietress Shesta, who was preparing the menu for tonight in the kitchen, turned around and slowly reminded them, "Be careful, Shemy~ Don't scare the guests~"

"I know, big sister!"

Xie Mi waved his hand to show that he had received it, and then led the two guests into a sloping underground tunnel, which was similar to the tunnel they had entered the hotel through, the only difference being that there was an additional train track with a small mine cart on it. Next to it were piles of wooden racks and barrels, which contained various tools of unknown purpose: mining drafts, shovels, mattocks...

Shaymi took three yellow helmets from the shelf next to him, handed them to Alice and Metien, and said seriously, "Be careful!"

Alice was speechless: fairies and mine cart tracks, what kind of trendy combination is this?

After fastening the strap of his helmet tightly, Shaymi pressed the searchlight on his head, and a beam of white light suddenly shot out, illuminating the dim shadows. But if you look closely, you can find that there is actually a hexagonal gem inlaid in the searchlight, and the light source is refracted from the inside of the gem.

Alice was even more speechless: Is this high-tech or fantasy?
Xie Mi pulled the two of them onto the mine cart, unfastened the safety valve, and then... flapped his wings vigorously, his face flushed red: "Hey!"

It was clearly a narrow tunnel, but suddenly a gust of wind blew, pushing the mine cart slowly forward and down along the track. The beam of light emitted by the searchlight was like a sharp sword, guiding the road ahead straightly.

Alice collapsed in the mine cart and sighed silently: It's still human-powered, how retro.

Metien was very excited as it was his first time experiencing this. He looked around and observed the surroundings. Within the range of the searchlight, he could see that the material of the tunnel wall was constantly changing. It was brown with the texture of trees at first, then it turned into a hard and solidified black soil layer, and finally it was some kind of cold and shiny metal, as if it was running through the underground pipes of the city.

After going down for several minutes, Miss Xie Mi, who was sitting at the front of the mine car, shouted, "We're here!"

Alice and Metien looked up at the same time and saw a large dim light at the end of the tunnel.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)