Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 973 Is it too hot?

"It's just a little joke, why are you so excited, Mr. Ling?" Rorona pressed her fingers on the edge of the teacup, turning it intentionally or unintentionally, her eyes and tone full of meaning: "Or, in fact, you have had similar expectations in your heart for a long time, and you panicked when I exposed it?"

This was an extremely malicious speculation, so Ling Ge didn't bother to find a handkerchief to wipe the tea stains from the corners of his mouth. Instead, he straightened his face and clarified himself: "I didn't mean that. It's just that there have been too many similar jokes recently, which made me a little stressed."

"Do you make a lot of similar jokes? It seems that you are very popular, Mr. Ling." Rorona couldn't help but chuckle, with a hint of teasing in her laughter: "Of course, I already knew about this kind of thing, so there's no need to emphasize it deliberately."

Why do you think I emphasized this?
Linger glanced at her warningly, but Princess Kaisu was thick-skinned and showed no sign of shyness or shame. She leisurely picked up the teacup and took a sip of the still steaming black tea. The astringent taste on the tip of her tongue made her feel nostalgic. After putting down the teacup, she couldn't help but sigh, "It tastes a bit like the sap of the gend tree. It really reminds me of the home I haven't seen for a long time. Mr. Linger, do you think that a snowy peak 7,000 meters high can produce the same taste as the seabed 20,000 miles deep?"

"I do not know."

The alchemist fairy beside him offered a handkerchief. Lingge took it and wiped the corner of his mouth, then pointed out seriously: "First, as an inland sea, the deepest part of the Lujian Sea cannot reach a depth of 20,000 miles. Secondly, you have been away from home for less than half a year, which is too short to miss your hometown compared to the three years you spent in Rotdana City. Finally, I don't think the taste of snow toon tea is similar to that of the sap of the Gend tree, because not all bitterness is the same, just like the difference between snow and sea water."

When the young man was a guest in the city of Nereides, he had drunk the special drink of the mirror elves and still remembered the taste vividly.

After listening to Lingge's rigorous, serious and merciless correction, Lorena stared at his face for a while, and then sighed helplessly after a long time: "Every time I want to discuss poetry with you, you start talking about philosophy. Don't always be so unromantic, Lingge, it will make many girls sad."

She dropped the teasing honorifics, and her tone suddenly became much more intimate, like a conversation between two old friends.

Poetry or philosophy? Linger recalled Chief Wilhelm's evaluation of himself, sometimes like a sentimental poet, sometimes like a self-confused philosopher. Unfortunately, the young man thought he was a rational person. If possible, he would rather be called a doer.

A few simple jokes, accompanied by a cup of snow tung tea and some simple desserts, Lingge only ate a piece of sweet gingerbread, and ignored the remaining milk pudding, apple pie and cheesecake, all of which were accepted by the master. The two alchemy fairies worked together, one flapped its copper teeth and clockwork wings, lifted the teapot with difficulty, and tilted it slowly, while the other was responsible for adjusting the direction of the spout, calibrating the position, and ensuring that the steaming arc could be accurately poured into the empty teacup to fill it up.

While they were refilling their tea, the young man told the workshop owner why he was here: "I need your research data on the nature of magic tides and the changes in magic concentration in the Mirror Star World, Lorena. This is very important for our surveying work."

"Oh?"

Rorona's eyes flickered. "You came to me for something, not alchemical items but research data? How strange! I still have the data, but what does it have to do with your surveying work?"

As a scientific researcher (let's call it that), she showed some interest in this area, but it was just an interest. After all, astronomy and astrology were not her strong points.

The young man briefly explained the meaning of the formulas and data in the saint's manuscript, emphasizing the unique position of March's movement trajectory in this calculation system. Because the explanation was very easy to understand, even Lorena, who was not sensitive to mathematics, could realize its importance.

"So that's how it is. The disappearance of the Blue Moon and the Red Moon not only caused the imbalance of the magic tide, but also left an unsolved mystery for future generations, resulting in no one being able to find the way to the Holy Temple of Heaven by stargazing like Saint Tumi did. I have to say, it's an incredibly amazing coincidence." After listening, she smiled and sighed: "Perhaps every miracle in the history of civilization has its limitations and timeliness. If you don't understand the mysteries of history, you can only rely on chance to replicate it. Ling Ge, you are very lucky."

At the end, he teased the young man, but the latter did not refute. In this matter, he also felt that he was very lucky: he happened to contact the Misty Mountain Hermitage through the mountain tribe and successfully borrowed the manuscript of Saint Tomi; Saint Shalia happened to have been baptized by the old wizard, was proficient in the astrology of the Moryas, and was able to interpret the biggest difficulty in the manuscript; it happened that the mirror elves had lived in the deep sea for a long time, and their astrologers did not rely on observing celestial phenomena, but relied on tidal changes to record the phases of the moon and were not affected by the disappearance of March; what's more, in order to find a way to purify the magic pollution, Lorena had conducted relevant research a long time ago, and those research materials will become the most important reference data.

If any one of these links is missing, this miracle cannot be replicated.

"You are so lucky that people would envy you. Maybe you are favored by your mother? Of course, I am referring to another mother."

"I was just lucky in this matter."

Looking at Lingge's expression, he was not resisting this statement, but he really felt that he was not favored by the goddess. Although he was a believer of the goddess, he did not seem to be as superstitious as other believers of gods in terms of personal fortune. Rolena did not take this matter to heart, because it was consistent with her usual understanding of young people.

Princess Umi stood up, and the alchemy fairies who were spinning around in the air, busy with something unknown, made way for her and surrounded her to the three cabinets in the corner. One of these three cabinets contained the rare alchemy materials that Rorona had taken from her private treasury, one contained her failed works on the two long-term projects of magic pollution purification reagents and curse removal reagents, and the last one naturally contained the more important research materials.

Lorena opened the third cabinet and started searching inside. The careful Princess Haiqi classified and labeled every research material she handled, with a level of detail that was no less than that of Professor Heinrich's secret study. As she searched, she hummed an unknown tune and seemed to be in a good mood.

Linger saw it, but he didn't ask any more questions. He glanced around and suddenly landed on the second cabinet. Through the transparent window glass, he saw rows of test tubes of medicine neatly arranged inside. The colors were colorful and complicated, from pure sea blue to shining gold, from mysterious purple to dark brown. It looked like an over-colored oil painting. His eyes flickered and he asked, "It seems that you have done a lot of experiments recently."

"Ah, you mean those purification reagents?"

Rorona said without looking back, "Because I wasn't very busy and I had some new ideas, I tried it a few times. Unfortunately, the results were not very ideal."

If it’s not ideal, then it’s a failure.

"Don't be so blunt. Please give me some face." Rorona took out a document from a thick stack of documents and handed it to an alchemist fairy next to her. Then she continued to search and said, "Also, the failure of these experiments is not entirely due to the problems of the experimental subjects themselves. It is more due to insufficient samples and lack of effective experimental data. So... put it on hold. Yes, put it on hold for the time being."

She nodded confidently, feeling proud of herself for coming up with such an appropriate adjective. "Insufficient samples?" Linger raised his eyebrows slightly: "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that the water source on Yunjingkong Island is too good, and the magic environment is also very balanced, so the experimental products I refined have no chance of practical application." Rolena took out another document, flipped through it, looked at it for a few seconds, put it back, and said, "I guess this is the credit of Yieta. She used her royal power to maintain the magic balance on the island, and the balance of the natural ecology is positively correlated with the magic balance. Therefore, the environment on the island is so good. Of course, this kind of artificially created balanced environment cannot be maintained for too long in the natural environment. Apart from other things, the seasonal imbalance caused by the absence of winter can easily lead to serious consequences."

She first said a lot of terms that Lingge didn't quite understand, then looked out the window. From this angle, the line of sight passed over the lush yew trees, sycamores and autumn chestnuts in the forest, and vaguely saw the majestic and holy shadow of the Osor Snow Mountain. The snow-capped mountains, which had been frozen for many years, towered into the clouds, unstained by dust. In the fragmented silhouettes of the sun, they seemed to be surrounded by circles of white halos.

"It looks like ice cream," she said suddenly.

"What?" Lingge didn't hear clearly.

"Nothing. I mean, the snow in the Eastern Alps is very clean." Rorona said, "Compared to the sea of ​​the Nereids."

As she said that, she closed the cupboard and turned back to the workbench. She had found all the documents she was looking for, held up by two small alchemy fairies, following her closely. The shaky appearance made Ling Ge very worried that they might not be able to hold on any moment and let go, letting the white papers float around the room like snowflakes.

It was not until two clockwork fairies floated down in front of him that he finally let go of his worries. The young man reached out and pressed the rough cover. On it was written the title "A Study on the Regularity of Changes in Magic Tides" in elegant and graceful handwriting. The date was marked below: December 1882, 12, a winter three years ago.

At that time, the pollution in the sea-ringed city of Nereids might not have been so significant, but the mirror elf princess, who had landed on land for the first time, was keenly aware that some changes were taking place. She wrote this report after in-depth research, but unfortunately, it was not taken seriously by humans or her tribesmen, because at that time, the former were pursuing interests, while the latter were struggling to survive.

The young man did not open the document, but looked up and asked Lorena: "Is there any connection between the two?"

As far as Ling'er knew, she was the first person to connect the snow-capped mountains and the sea.

"Perhaps." Rorona's tone was ambiguous. Rather than answering, it was more like she was talking to herself: "Snow and sea are both the purest and most flawless things in the world, but the purer they are, the easier it is to be contaminated by dust. The sea of ​​the Nereids has been corrupted beyond repair. I don't want the snow in the Eastern Alps to suffer the same fate one day. That would be a pity."

This beautiful mountain range that runs through the northern Ashok belt has left behind countless moving legends and poems, and its noble and sacred posture has been praised by generations. If one day, even it is polluted, Lingge can hardly imagine such a world.

For people who have lived in the northern Ashok Mountains for generations, this is not only the loss of a living home, but perhaps also the loss of a spiritual home.

The young man stared at Lorena for a while, then suddenly said, "You were there at that time."

"Me?" Rorona blinked. "What does this have to do with me, Mr. Ling?"

She resumed using honorifics, and Ling Ge knew that every time this happened, she would start to act stupid.

He had always ignored it before, but today, for some reason, he wanted to burst that fragile bubble: "Because only you can purify this pollution with that magical alchemy."

"Mr. Linger really thinks highly of me. My purification reagents have never been successful so far. Even if they succeed, their application scope is limited to magic pollution and ocean pollution, not snow mountain pollution. Even if they can really solve the problem, so what? I will definitely give priority to purifying the Nereids Sea. After all, that is my hometown. What does the snow in the Eastern Alps have to do with me?"

"You wouldn't do that."

"Don't speak in such a certain tone, Mr. Ling. No one can predict the future..."

"You just said it yourself."

"what?"

"Snow and the sea are both the purest and most flawless things in the world." Linger said word by word, "I don't think that the person who can connect these two things together would be a selfish person who only cares about personal feelings. She should also have a pure and flawless heart, right? Just like the snow in the Eastern Alps or the sea in the Nereids."

"..."

There was silence.

"Why aren't you talking, Lorena?" Linger looked at the girl opposite suspiciously.

Princess Umisu gently picked up the teacup, took a sip, and then made an expression as if she was scalded. Her little face flushed and she stuck out her tongue: "This tea is so hot."

Give me some meow