Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 942: A passionate man on the sea?

Since the Mayflower returned to the "Monsoon City" of Mosong with jewels and spices from foreign continents, human navigation and trade have ushered in unprecedented development. Shipbuilding technology and navigation knowledge are changing with each passing day. Hundreds of large sails that were originally only competing for the flow of inland rivers have transformed into steel fortresses that cover the sky and the sun on the sea, escorting one ambitious person after another to embark on that distant and unknown sea. This is the so-called "Age of Navigation and Trade". However, many people bluntly call it the "Colonial Age" because when some people gain benefits, others are harmed. This is a law that cannot be violated.

The booming maritime trade naturally gave rise to corresponding violence. Many years ago, a merchant caravan captain named Drake revised and published his forty-year navigation diary after retirement. The book, titled "Forty Years at Sea", brought the pirate group into people's attention and sparked heated discussions.

Pirates were originally violent maritime groups that were tacitly approved by the state and enjoyed privateering certificates, but no country would publicly admit this because what pirates did was by no means just. Except for their own financial backers, they were hostile to almost everyone: they attacked the enemy's maritime caravans and abandoned their crews on deserted islands to wait for death; they plundered the natives of foreign continents, and in addition to plundering wealth, they even plundered people; even if they met another pirate group on the vast ocean, the communication between the two sides was by no means friendly negotiation, but the clash of swords and the roar of cannons.

It can be said that these big pirates who roamed the seas need to bear most of the responsibility for the chaos and turmoil in the first hundred years of the Age of Navigation. In order to satisfy their selfish desires and ambitions, they willingly became a bloody blade, slaughtering all enemies they saw in the vast ocean and creating chaos for their supporters hidden behind the scenes in order to gain benefits.

But the people at that time were not aware of this. Some people even mistakenly believed that these pirates were the maintainers of maritime order and extralegal enforcers who used violence to uphold justice, just like the popular chivalrous thieves in the history of Metso. For a time, there was a trend of worshipping pirates in the inland. Notorious executioners such as Whitebeard, Kidd, and Captain Bacon could appear on the cover of newspapers or novels, attracting open discussions. How absurd!

Later, after the initial exploration phase, the governments of the three major powers in the Western Continent accumulated a lot of valuable experience, technology and knowledge reserves. Ships and ports were no longer a limitation for them to challenge foreign continents. Steel warships and large ports would become the solid foundation for them to seize the interests of the ocean. This also meant that the Western Continent was finally fully prepared to welcome the ocean age. What they needed was no longer a chaotic ocean, but a new order based on the distribution of interests.

So, without the knowledge of the pirates, the governments of various countries jointly promulgated the so-called "Pirate Suppression Decree" in an attempt to bury these bloody blades and keep their hands clean. In this premeditated betrayal, only a few smart and decisive people were spared, such as the "retired" Captain Drake, while other pirates died in the deep sea and lost their lives in the areas where they once roamed freely.

The pirate industry declined as a result. Under the protection of the navies of various countries, the trade between the two continents flourished, and there seemed to be no more crises lurking on the vast five seas and four oceans. However, this stable situation did not last long. After the First Silent War, the Kingdom of Great Brittany established the first colonial city in human history, the "Ocean City" O'Shea, in the Silent Bay, and seized countless wealth through this colony. At this time, all the countries in the Western Continent saw the huge benefits, and the fangs under the friendly faces began to stir.

The regime of the East Continent naturally saw the threat, but the traditional feudal regimes of the king and aristocracy had long been corrupt and decadent in the long period of comfortable life. They were unwilling to tear their faces and go to war head-on, so on the one hand they compromised and gave in, selling out the interests of the people to maintain the stability of the ruling class, and on the other hand they made small moves in secret, hoping to curb the invasion of the East Continent by the West Continent from other directions. As a result, the pirate group re-embarked on the stage of history, and many ambitious people, with the secret support of the East Continent regime, raised their flags and established their own pirate groups. They legally plundered West Continent merchant ships in the name of protecting their hometowns. This situation is so similar.

The pirates seem to be free and unrestrained, but in fact they lack the foundation for existence, because the technology, ships and experienced seafarers required for navigation are not supported by individual strength. Even the legal way to sell stolen goods and smuggle contraband goods after looting needs to rely on others. Therefore, they can only exist with the support of large regimes. This is why the two rises of pirates in history are related to national power. The Western Continent needs pirates to disrupt the situation and suppress the development of navigation in other countries, and the Eastern Continent needs them as cannon fodder to fight against the Western Continent fleet when the regular army is not convenient to dispatch.

If the East Continent regime can eventually drive away the colonists from the West Continent, maybe the pirates will face a second betrayal? However, this possibility is too slim. Ling Ge thinks that before being betrayed for the second time, it is more likely that they will be wiped out by the West Continent coalition forces - especially when the cult jointly dispatches the turbo carrier Nidhogg.

That’s right, the turbo-carrier Nidhogg, is the headquarters of the Western Continental Allied Forces on the colonial front of the Eastern Continent. At the same time, as you can guess from the name, it is a constructed mecha, the so-called Creation Saint Machine.

They had heard the name from Gloria.

Ah, you ask why Gloria knows the name of this new machine? Of course, it's because she is also a glorious East Continent pirate - to be precise, the entire Sky Whale Pirates are.

Moreover, unlike some pirate groups who only want to satisfy their own greed and selfish desires by using their pirate identities, the Sky Whale Pirates resolutely plunged into the vast ocean for a more noble reason: for revenge.

The entire Sky Whale Pirates, including Captain Gloria Resbelite, all came from the Silent Bay, and lost their families and hometown in the famous Silent War. In order to seek revenge, they secretly accepted funding from the Second Empire of Yalas, recruited people everywhere to form a pirate group, and began a life of roaming the five seas. Unlike other pirates who plundered merchant ships, they specifically targeted military ships from the Western Continent, so they had a very fierce reputation at sea. Naturally, the casualties were also very heavy. Three captains died in just over a decade after the group was founded. Before his death, the third captain appointed Gloria as the new captain because she was the only one from the Silent Bay in the pirate group, and all the others were dead.

Carrying the last wishes of her companions, Gloria continued to lead the pirate group to challenge the Westland Navy, but the crew members who were not from the Silent Bay did not feel much about it. They wanted to get rich by plundering merchant ships rather than working for the captain's revenge.

In the past, the pirate group had crew members from Quiet Bay in the majority, so they were barely able to suppress these people. But now Gloria is the only one left. She is unable to stop the crew members' rebellion, so she can only rob a small boat and run away. However, she encountered a rare storm on the way, and the robbed boat was torn into pieces by the storm. She herself drifted in a coma for three days and three nights, and finally drifted to the coast of Lothdana.

That's right, it was the "Sea City" Lotdanna, a place full of swimsuit memories, and also a place where Lingge couldn't bear to look back on his past. Ahem, based on the time when this memory occurred, the relationship between the mirror elves of Nereids and humans had not yet deteriorated, so it is reasonable to speculate that Captain Gloria was probably rescued by a kind mirror elf passing by, otherwise it would be impossible to explain why she was not soaked in the sea for three days and three nights...

"Ah." Lorena's beautiful crystal blue eyes flickered when she heard this. "I seem to have heard my sister say that when she was a child, she secretly ran to the sea to play and seemed to have saved a drowning person. Because the storm was very strong at the time, she was kind enough to send her to the shore. As a result, she came back too late and was discovered by her mother, who gave her a severe scolding. Later, I asked her what the person she saved looked like, but I seem to have forgotten her answer. I only remember that it was a girl, and the rest of my memory is very vague. Could it be..."

Could it be?

What a coincidence. Linger's mouth twitched involuntarily: This story is false from beginning to end. In fact, the eldest princess of Nereids, Her Highness Galene, never saved such a person, and the second princess, Her Highness Lorena, naturally never heard her sister mention this matter. It's just that when Gloria's personality changed, the Kingship of the Heart automatically generated the corresponding memory and implanted it into the minds of the relevant people to make the girl's identity more real.

Previously, memories were implanted in the minds of strangers, such as believers in St. Annville Cross Church or spectators who came to watch the Wind Flower Ball Game. This time, acquaintances were chosen. It can only be said that it was a coincidence.

As for why Rorona's memory of this incident is vague? Perhaps it is because she is also a young girl king, so she has some resistance to the power of another young girl king. Knowing that this is a false memory, she is naturally not easily affected.

The story after that is very simple. Although Captain Gloria was betrayed, she was still ambitious and was planning to recruit soldiers in the Western Continent, fight back to the ocean, and take back her pirate group... Then she was betrayed by Alice again. It's a really cliché story, full of classic elements such as war, revenge, ocean, plunder, justice and selfishness, and there are two betrayals. The first time can be said to be necessary for the plot, but the second time is a pure negative effect, especially since the betrayer's intelligence is so low, which makes the dramatic conflict of the reversal not strong enough, which undoubtedly lowers the style of the work...

"I always feel like you're thinking about something very rude?"

Gloria looked at Linge with suspicion, her finger on the hammer of the musket, ready to move, as if she was going to give him a ruthless blow if Linge did anything wrong, proving that the big pirate's musket could not only bury the flowers of the traitors, but also shoot deadly bullets.

"Nothing." Ling Ge looked away and pretended to be calm: "Since you are a pirate, you must be familiar with the situation in the five seas and four oceans, right?"

"Yes, so what? Do you want to get information from me?" Gloria glanced at him, with an intriguing smile on her lips. "Let me warn you in advance, Mr. Ling, that on the sea, the price of information varies not only by the demander, but also by the provider. This involves credibility issues, and no one will joke about such things. So, even if the information you get from a sailor who only knows how to get drunk in a tavern is exactly the same as the information you get from a pirate who travels all over the world, the price will be very different, right?"

It is more like extortion than serving dishes according to the dishes, which is really the style of pirates.

Alice, the righteous person, was immediately displeased. She slammed the table and shouted angrily: "Tell me, how much do you want!"

He said the words of surrender in the harshest tone.

Captain Gloria said slowly, "I'll give you a price that you know well. Just use 100,000 gold coins to buy my information."

"excuse me."

Alice lay back down and pretended to be dead.

"Oh? Are you giving up so easily?" Gloria chuckled. She was not in a hurry because she was in a seller's market and had absolute initiative. "I have a lot of valuable information here, which is definitely worth the price. For example, on the eve of the defeat of the Silent War, some nobles who were trying to survive transported their family wealth out of the bay at night in an attempt to escape liquidation. However, the fleet was sunk by the West Land Navy two hours after it went out to sea. Because the sinking site was full of reefs, the West Land Navy failed to salvage the treasures. Now they are still quietly sinking in the mud on the seabed, waiting for someone who is willing to buy the information from me to discover them."

When Alice heard the word treasure, her eyes widened, and she felt her weak spot had been completely exposed.

"Lingge!" She grabbed the young man's trouser leg and urged him, "Buy it quickly, we will make a fortune!"

Buy shit.

Ling Ge pulled his legs out expressionlessly, thinking that if there really was treasure in the sea, it would be your turn to dig it up. The greedy pirates had already emptied that sea area. Besides, where would I get 100,000 gold coins? Even if I sold you, you wouldn't be worth that price, right?

Captain Gloria's offer was too outrageous, he would never consider it...

"Mr. Ling doesn't seem to be very interested in the treasure information." Gloria seemed to have noticed his thoughts and said with a half-smile, "Then I have another piece of information, which is a hundred times more valuable than the shipwreck treasure just now - about a mysterious island hidden in the depths of the endless sea. Legend has it that there are countless beautiful girls living on the island, mirror elves, mermaids, sea monsters, water elves and even sirens... They are innocent, pure, and full of enthusiasm, and will pour all their love on the first man who lands on the island, but so far, no one has been able to find that island and win their love."

"On these vast seas, all the passionate seafarers are eager to become the one favored by fate."

"Don't you, as a passionate man, have similar thoughts, Mr. Ling?"

Her words were extremely seductive, and everyone's eyes in the entire hall were immediately focused on the young man.

Ling Ge: “…”

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)