Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 871 Are human sexual preferences very complicated?

After waiting for a few more minutes, Rorona finally finished her work. The reactants in the alchemy cauldron were finally concentrated in a small test tube. The deep blue like gemstones and the dark purple like the night sky mixed into a mysterious and magnificent nebula color, which lightly changed shape in the alchemist's hands. Rorona pondered over the potion she had just made for a long time, and finally said, "Since it is a potion for improving the intelligence of animals, how about calling it... Deep Purple?"

Is there any necessary connection between the two? And who did you learn this naming habit from?

Linger looked at her with his eyes slanted, with a speechless look on his face. Rolena turned her head, smiled and acted cute: "Miss Shelia suggested that I do this. She said that if a painstaking work doesn't have a good name, how can it reflect the creator's painstaking efforts? I think it makes sense, so I tried it, but judging from your reactions, it seems that you haven't reached Miss Shelia's level yet."

Give up, it's very difficult to reach her level.

Lingge complained silently, and then suddenly realized that something was wrong - it was not that there was anything wrong with the previous conversation, but that the Rorona in front of him gave people a wrong feeling, as if there was something extra on her face?
It's something that didn't exist before.

"what?"

Saint Shallia and Alice also noticed this abnormality. The golden-haired maid put her face directly in front of Lorena, looked her up and down carefully, and asked suspiciously: "Have you ever worn glasses, Lorena?"

That's right, glasses.

At this time, the alchemist was wearing a pair of small and exquisite crystal glasses on his nose. They didn't notice it because he was facing away from the three people. The frame of the glasses was light blue, and the translucent material looked like a gem, and there seemed to be traces of flowing water in it. Because she was wearing glasses, Lorena deliberately tucked her long hair behind her ears and tied it into a small braid. At the same time, she left a flat bangs to cover her originally smooth and bright forehead. With the pair of crystal blue eyes that always smiled at the few people behind the crystal lenses, she actually gave people a feeling of elegance and tranquility. At least she looked more like a literary girl than a certain Princess Berman who always yawned and rubbed her eyes.

Alice, vomiting blood and dying.

What a heated debate! I believe that after listening to their friendly exchange, readers will have a new understanding of character setting, right?
Of course, there are also people I don’t know at all.

"You, you, you—Ah, poof!"

Alice thought so, so she couldn't tolerate such behavior.

"Can't understand? Then it's better not to understand." Linger put his hand on the bridge of his nose, then realized that he was not wearing glasses, so he took it back calmly: "Maybe it's an early embryonic form of some abstract art."

I want to correct you, a beautiful girl who has ruined her own image. She wanted to say this, but before she could open her mouth, Lorena had already raised her left index finger and gently shook it at her, saying, "Wrong, wrong, wrong! Alice, I thought you and I were of the same mind, but I didn't expect you to be so superficial. I'm totally wrong!"

"You are wrong because you confuse the attributes of a girl with glasses with those of a literary girl. Does wearing glasses make her a literary girl? Do literary girls have to use glasses as an identity? The answer is of course no. The charm of a girl with glasses lies in the mysterious sense created by glasses, an ordinary accessory, which attracts the audience to explore her true character, like the feeling of surprise when the curtain is unveiled on stage. The charm of a literary girl lies in her inner qualities, a kind of weakness, melancholy, inability to resolve loneliness in reality, and the fragility of being able to place hope only on the false world in books, as well as the warmth and enthusiasm when she finally lets down her guard and reconnects with the real world. No matter how withdrawn, cold, and self-indulgent she was before, in the end, she only needs a smile to make everyone feel her charm... Alice, don't you have this clear understanding?"

Alice immediately expressed her dissatisfaction: "What did I say wrong?"

"They," Saint Xia Liya looked at Ling Ge hesitantly: "What are they talking about?"

What! Someone dared to criticize me for being superficial?

“Even so!” But she was unwilling to admit defeat so she stood up stubbornly, wiped the non-existent blood from the corner of her mouth, and continued to confront Rorona: “Changing your character suddenly is a big taboo, especially since your previous and later characters are totally incompatible. You will definitely fail in the end!”

You know, in an RPG game whose selling point is a harem of beautiful girls, duplicating characters is a big taboo!
Do you think you are a harem game?

……

"You, me, this old man—Ah, poof!"

Alice, Dies Twice.

"So," Alice asked seriously, "Why do you suddenly want to wear glasses? Do you really want to change your personality?"

"How is it?" Seeing that everyone's attention was focused on her, Rorona reached out and gently pushed the frame of her glasses, smiling and saying, "It fits well, right? Has it improved my image?"

Lorena pushed her glasses down again and looked disdainfully at the pale-faced genius player in front of her: "Then I am so disappointed in you."

After the fun, let’s get back to business.

"It's suitable, but..." Alice tilted her head: "Why did you suddenly change your character? I think the original alchemist character is very good, and there is also the background of the Umi Princess. As for the literary girl, there is already an Olvera on Sky Island. It doesn't seem right to have another one?"

"You can't reason with me, so you start psychological attacks? I've seen through your methods, Alice." Lorena pushed her glasses for the third time, a disdainful smile on her lips: "But the character setting is something that needs to be constantly changed while maintaining the overall style of the character. Only in this way can it constantly bring freshness to the readers. Just like Alice, don't you have both the 'genius player' and 'maid' personalities at the same time? What qualifications do you have to teach me a lesson?"

Is this the original story?
Lingge glanced at this unreliable guy.

"Well," Rorona looked at the young man opposite her with a half-smile, "You'll have to ask Mr. Ling."

Ling Ge was startled and was about to ask what it had to do with me? But Princess Haiqi explained seriously, "Because I have always had a question: Why are there so many young and beautiful girls on Yunjingkong Island, but Ling Ge has never been moved? For a boy of this age, it is definitely an incredible thing, right? As a scientific researcher, I am full of desire for knowledge and exploration."

You are just an alchemist, not a scientific researcher?
The young man instinctively felt something was wrong and wanted to change the subject, but Alice was already impatiently asking, "Yes, yes, why?" Even Saint Shallia stared at her sister with her eyes wide open, hoping to get a reasonable answer from her.

"It's actually very simple." Rorona pushed the frame of her glasses, and an intriguing reflection appeared under the lenses: "Because there are many beautiful girls on Yunjing Sky Island, but there is no type that Lingge likes."

Saint Xia Liya was stunned when she heard this. Her pupils suddenly contracted, and she looked as if she couldn't believe it. Alice was also very surprised, and even raised her tone subconsciously. Of course, it is not ruled out that she did it on purpose, wanting to spread this shocking news with her loud voice: "Oh my God! Do you mean that there is no one on Yunjingkong Island who meets Ling's sexual preferences? This is impossible! We obviously have Olvera, the literary girl, Yieta, the natural and cute, Saint Xia Liya, the gentle big sister, Xiesta, the elegant and black-bellied, Xie Liya, and even the old grandmother... ah, I mean Miss Neville, the noble and sexy. Can't this satisfy his requirements? Ling, your taste is too picky!"

At the end of her speech, she sighed deeply, as if she was worried about the future of the young people.

Ling Ge: “…”

Rorona shook her head gently. "That's not the case. After all, people's sexual preferences are very complicated. Mr. Ling may just be a little more special than others. As a qualified scientific researcher, we should try to explore the type of sexual preferences that suit him within the existing cognitive boundaries and discover his unknown side... Ah, I mean, let him correctly understand his heart and bravely face his sexual preferences. And the glasses I'm wearing now are the first step in the exploration!"

After she finished speaking, she turned her head and met Ling'er's cold gaze. Suddenly, two suspicious blushes floated on her fair cheeks, and her eyes became uncertain. She acted like a girl in love, shyly in front of her lover: "If it's for Mr. Ling'er, I can accept becoming a girl with glasses..."

Each of these words sounded so outrageous, and when combined they were even more outrageous. The young man had a blank expression on his face, and almost forced out a voice to reply: "Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need it."

"learn!"

Rorona changed her expression and put away her shy expression. She concluded, "It seems that glasses girls are not within Mr. Ling's sexual preferences. It seems that this experiment has failed."

"It doesn't matter, there's still a chance." Alice immediately came up to offer advice: "How about changing to a girl with animal ears next time?"

"Eh, it seems a bit difficult. After all, I need to use potions to make my body develop animal characteristics. If I don't strictly control the extent of the change, I might become a complete beastman?"

"It doesn't matter. Linger will like it better that way."

“Ah? Y-really?”

The complexity of human sexual preferences has shocked even Miss Lorena, a rigorous scientific researcher.

……

Let's get back to the point again - this time we really got back to the point, because both the cranky Lorena and the trouble-seeking Alice were taught a lesson by Saint Shallia, and they dared not do anything rash anymore. Perhaps because the jokes they made were really too much, the shepherdess got angry, which was rare. She caught the two of them and gave them a verbal lecture for nearly half an hour, until Lorena was humbled and Alice was drowsy.

But, I don't know if it was Ling's illusion, he always felt that Saint Xia Liya's anger was not so much a grievance for him, but rather a result of disappointment after some kind of expectation was not met... What was she expecting? And what was she disappointed about? Ling couldn't figure it out, the girl's emotions were too complicated, perhaps even more complicated than human sexual preferences.

"In short, in short—"

After finally escaping from Saint Shallia's hell of preaching, Princess Umi quietly wiped the sweat from her forehead, and said tremblingly, "You need a potion that can heal injuries, right? According to your description, Miss Shino's grandfather is afraid of cold, sleepy, and can't stand for a long time. He needs to rely on a wheelchair to get around... Most of the injuries are in the waist and legs, and it is very likely caused by cold weapons piercing the internal organs or thigh bones. The sequelae left by not receiving good care during the injury. This symptom cannot be completely cured, but it can be alleviated, at least it can be restored to the level of normal people. It's just that you can't do strenuous exercise on weekdays and need to pay attention to keeping warm in winter."

Linger then asked the most crucial question: "After the remission, how long will he live?"

"Since he has recovered to the level of a normal person, then of course he has a normal lifespan." Rolena thought for a moment and said, "It mainly depends on whether he takes care of his body. The lifespan of a person who has no worries about food and drink and no lack of medical conditions and a person who works hard in the fields every day for half his life are naturally not comparable. You should understand what I mean, right?"

Ling Ge nodded slightly, saying that there was no need to worry too much.

He said to Rorona, "Then I'll leave it to you to make the potion, Rorona. It would be best if you can finish it within two days. If you need any materials, go to the herb garden and get them. I will talk to Miss Shesta."

"Really?!" Rorona's eyes lit up.

"But I'll let Metien supervise you when you go to collect herbs."

"Oh." Lorena was listless.

It was clear at a glance what this guy had done in the herb garden. Last time, Little Sun came running over in a panic and said that there had been a thief in the garden. Then, after finding out the true identity of the thief, Lorena was permanently banned from entering the herb garden - not because Shesta or Ovira had any objections, but mainly because the magical herbs spontaneously boycotted them, because they really couldn't stand this alchemist coming to pick herbs but never picking the ones with the best medicinal properties, but instead liked to make some strange requests, such as the thirteen thorns that fell naturally from the shell of the fried gall, the leaves of the silver dragon grass soaked in the tears of the crying mushroom, etc., and once she even secretly dug a handful of soil from Little Sun's flowerpot. Everyone was tortured by her and couldn't stand it.

In comparison, Metien is more considerate.

After all, she would ask the other person if it hurts before picking herbs with a small shovel.

If it doesn't hurt, just keep digging. If it hurts... the lackeys Shaymi and Leticia will help them do it without pain.

(End of this chapter)