Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 988 Don’t you want to drink juice on the boat?
"Great☆victory☆daze!"

Alice struck a victory pose, looking smug: "As expected, as long as I'm here, I'm invincible!"

Everyone was speechless after hearing this: Although you did make the game, the person who strengthened the Arus binary starship was Rorona, the pilot was Ieta, and the person in charge of the command was Gloria. And then you attributed all the success to yourself, isn't that a bit shameless?
Of course, it also fits the character of the golden-haired maid.

The captain was too lazy to talk nonsense with her and waved his hand casually: "I'm tired, can anyone calm this guy down?"

But there is only one person on this ship who can restrain Alice.

The shepherdess silently reached out her hand to the golden-haired maid, who felt a chill on her neck and quickly shrank into the corner, not daring to do anything else. But she secretly made up her mind that after she usurped the position of captain, she would definitely take back all the humiliation she suffered today. Gloria, Xiaoxia, and you, Lingge, don't even think about running away!

If Ling Ge knew what she was thinking at this moment, he would definitely feel wronged, because he didn't do anything, how could he be affected. Moreover, if you must say that it is against Alice, everyone on the ship has done it. Alice, do you want to go against everyone?

It's really impressive to fight against the whole world on your own.

However, trying to figure out the thinking process of a golden-haired maid was not something a humanoid creature with normal intelligence should do, so Linger did not take her reaction to heart. Instead, he turned his head and said to the captain, "Thanks to you this time. Thank you."

Although the final tactical concept of the breakout was proposed by him and Saint Shalia, and Iyeta, who was responsible for operating the Arus twin starship, also played a crucial role, anyone with a discerning eye could see that Gloria was still the person who made the greatest contribution in the brief encounter that just broke out. Without her precise timing judgment and decisive command style, it would have been difficult for the Arus twin starship to escape relying solely on its own performance.

Apart from anything else, the opponent's commander is a very difficult character. He has judged the tactical intentions of the Arus Twin Starship many times, used the Lancers to contain it from the side, used the fleet cluster as bait to lure it, and relied on the magic protection position to confront the stellar impact device head-on without being at a disadvantage. If the repulsion engine device activated at the last moment is successful, it is more likely to push the Arus Twin Starship back into the dark quagmire, making it unable to move forward in the face of siege from all sides.

If anyone other than Gloria had been his opponent on this ship, the result would probably not have been what it is now.

"Wow?" The captain glanced at him, a hint of amusement flashed in his gray eyes: "It's really rare to hear words of thanks from you. But there's no need to flatter me so much. You and Xiao Xia are not bad either. In terms of tactical thinking, you are barely qualified."

Ling's idea of ​​concealing the true maneuverability of the Arus twin starships, and Saint Shallia's idea of ​​disguising one's own tactical intentions, are both very important, especially Ling's.

The enemy commander's on-the-spot performance was actually very good. His only mistake was misjudging how terrifying the speed of the Arus binary starship could be with the help of the meteor propulsion device. This also indirectly confirmed how correct his tactical thinking was. If the maneuverability of the enemy was exposed at the beginning, it might be able to gain the upper hand in a short period of time, but the enemy would soon be pulled into their rhythm and unable to escape.

"What about me? What about me?" Yieta, who was in the driver's seat, turned around and asked excitedly.

She was looking forward to getting praise from the captain, but given that her performance was entirely based on her own wise command and somewhat lacked some subjective initiative, the captain just said a few perfunctory words, saying that of course you are very good and work very hard, and that you have seen the enthusiasm and resilience of the daughter of the sea, and that she should continue to maintain it in the future and not let me, the captain, down.

Miss Angel didn't hear any perfunctory tone at all. She was even more excited after being praised, and even a little carried away. She asked with a smile: "Since I performed so well, can I be the first mate, Captain?"

what! ?

Alice, who was hiding in the corner, suddenly raised her head and looked at Miss Angel in astonishment: Miss Shelia is so good to you, and you actually want to take her position? What about your promise to repay kindness and be indifferent to fame and fortune? It turns out that you still have such ambitions. I really misjudged you, Yieta!

You are the least qualified to say such things.

Yieta ignored her and just looked at the captain eagerly, who smiled and said, "No."

"Eh? Why?" Miss Angel pouted, a little depressed: "Is it possible that I can't get a promotion even though I performed so well? Captain, you——"

You don't know how to reward and punish!
Gloria shook her head slowly: "Don't be so naive, Yieta, you have to know that on the sea, especially in a pirate group like ours, the only reward for outstanding members is this -"

She gently raised the musket in her hand and pointed the dark muzzle at Miss Angel's forehead. Her thumb was already on the hammer, and a playful arc appeared at the corner of her mouth: "One bullet to ensure that she will not threaten the captain's position. Do you want this reward, dear Miss Yieta?"

“Wooooo!” Yieta immediately wrapped herself up with her wings, curled up like a quail ball in the driving seat, trembling: “I don’t want a reward, Captain, please let me go, woooooo!”

"Hehe~" Gloria then put away the musket with satisfaction, a look of pleasure in her eyes.

Is it fun to scare a little girl? Ling Ge was a little speechless, and Saint Xia Liya also looked at her with a reproachful look: "Don't say such things to scare Yieta, Gloria, you should know that she is the most timid."

"So I just taught her in advance that the world is dangerous." The captain always has his own reasons.

The palms and backs of the hands are all flesh. As a sister, Saint Shallia couldn't say anything too harsh to reprimand her. She could only walk to the driver's seat, reach out and hold Iyeta in her arms, gently patting her weak back to comfort her frightened sister. The scene looked very warm. Well, it would have been better if the one she held in her arms was Iyeta in the form of a beautiful girl, instead of a trembling quail ball.

The captain stood on the platform, watching the scene quietly, her eyes flickering, and no one knew what she was thinking. After a while, she retracted her gaze and said to Ling Ge, "I'm tired, let's go back and rest."

Go back and rest? In other words, the person who commanded the battle before was not Gloria, but...

"If you dare to tell anyone," the gray-haired girl glared at the young man coldly and squeezed out a word from between her teeth, her voice so soft that only they could hear it clearly: "Especially if you tell Xiao Xia, I will kill you."

"I don't think she would mind this." Ling Ge said, "If you want, you can actually act like a spoiled child in her arms..."

"Tsk!" The girl sneered, "Don't think of me as that Gloria."

After she finished speaking, without waiting for Lingge's answer, she turned around. At that moment, her temperament changed drastically. Although she was still wearing the pirate captain's costume, she made people feel closer for some reason. She was not as moody and unapproachable as before.

"Eh?" The captain turned around and blinked his big gray eyes at the young man: "Is it over?"

"Yeah." Ling'er looked normal, as if he hadn't noticed that the personality in this body had changed in some way: "Thanks for your command, Gloria."

"Hey, that's not me... cough, cough, I mean, you're welcome!" The captain coughed awkwardly twice to cover up the embarrassment of almost letting the cat out of the bag, then held his head high and tried to look dignified: "After all, I am the captain. It is my duty to lead the crew through the difficulties."

Linger nodded seriously: "I believe it."...

Regardless of whether Lingge believed it or not, Gloria believed it herself. She established her prestige through this battle. No one would doubt her ability as a captain and would be willing to follow her instructions. So the gray-haired girl quickly got into the state. She pursed her lips tightly, put her hands behind her back, and had a serious expression. Her beloved bird Xiaobai was standing on her shoulder. She walked around the cabin with what she thought was the most courageous pace of a pirate. Every time she patrolled behind a person, she would stop and pretend to look at him for a while, then pat the other person's shoulder to show her approval, as if she really understood what the complex graphics and data on the screen meant.

"When do you think she will have enough fun?" Ling asked Saint Xia Liya next to him.

The blue-haired girl's eyes were always following Gloria's back. After hearing this question, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, outlining a shallow arc: "Wait until she has had enough fun, Lingge, everyone is very patient."

Whether it was Lorena, Ieta, or even Alice, who had the most eccentric personality, they were all willing to play the pirate game with Gloria until she got tired of it. But at the moment, it seemed that she quite liked her current identity, so after three months, she still had no intention of changing her identity.

Ling Ge shook his head: "But I'm not referring to her."

But another her.

A thoughtful look appeared in her lake green eyes. Saint Shallia was silent for a while before she replied, "I think she should have a lot of fun, just like she did just now."

"Did you see it?"

"Well, because I'm her sister." The girl raised her head with curved eyebrows. "So I can see that everyone is hiding something from me. Bai Ye hid it from me and secretly exchanged identities with Gloria, not wanting people to see her loneliness; Olvera hid it from me and always appeared in the middle of the night when no one was around, not wanting me to discover the truth about her insomnia; Rolena hid it from me and concealed her illness every time, as if she thought this was a kind of strength; Yieta hid it from me and wrote some strange words in her diary every day, which was her understanding of happiness; Xino looked cheerful, but sometimes she would hide it from me, not wanting to show her longing for her hometown; of course, there is also Leticia, she asked Medien to copy her homework, but she always felt that I couldn't see it."

The giant whale swam through the dark and silent ocean. The girl's voice was as gentle as a faint light on the bottom of the sea: "If I can't see these, then I'm not a qualified sister, right?"

It turns out she knew everything.

Lingge was slightly surprised, but not that surprised, perhaps because he could see a familiar shadow in Saint Xia Liya, a shadow of himself. Young people are like this too, they clearly see through many things, but never say it out loud, because they know that not everything in this world needs to be traced to the root.

He chose to remain silent out of respect for personal privacy and moral standards, while Saint Xia Liya chose to remain silent out of a sense of responsibility. She wanted to be a qualified sister, so she should naturally learn to keep a distance from her sisters' little secrets.

The ideal state is that they can be open to each other without reservation and confide in each other, but such an ideal state can perhaps only be seen in the original heavenly temple. When the young queens fell to the human world and learned to be happy, sad and angry, some memories were submerged by the tide and never returned.

"Just like you," Ling Ge suddenly said, "you are hiding something from them, right?"

"It seems so. Does Lingge think I shouldn't do this?"

"I just think that we should have done this a long time ago." Linger glanced at her with a meaningful look: "Before you have the identity of a sister, you are first an independent person, a girl named Saint Xia Liya in the world. If you are overwhelmed by too many responsibilities, what should you do next?"

"Lingge, do you think we still have a long way to go?"

"kindness."

"Why do you feel that way?"

"It's just intuition."

"Will Lingge accompany us forever?" The girl said this, gently pursing her lips, a touch of cherry blossoms gradually spreading between her lips like spring flowers: "Always accompany me."

The pair of lake green eyes that seemed to be able to speak stared straight at Lingge, not hiding their expectation for the answer. Somehow, facing this gaze, Lingge felt a little unnatural. He turned his head away, avoiding the girl's gaze, and replied in a calm tone: "At least, before this matter is completely resolved, it should be."

But how to end it?
He didn't say anything, and Saint Xia Liya didn't ask. She just suddenly laughed out loud, and her eyebrows curved into crescents, looking very happy.

"Linger."

"what happened?"

"In fact, I really hope that a child as stubborn as Bai Ye can one day let down her guard in front of me and act coquettishly in my arms. By then, I will definitely stroke her hair and comfort her. So -"

She reached out her hand, stood on tiptoe, and gently patted the young man's head. The touch was warm, like a ray of sunlight hidden in the silver-gray hair, quietly following the girl's whisper: "You too, Lingge, don't be too stubborn. If one day you feel very tired and want to act like a spoiled child, come find me."

Lingge was silent.

He turned his back to the girl and said nothing, as if he was lost in some complex, profound thinking that was comparable to human nature and fate. Just as Saint Shalia was about to ask, the young man suddenly gently pulled his head away from her palm, and then walked away without saying a word, without looking back. It was more like running away than leaving.

If it were in the past, this reaction would definitely make Saint Xia Liya very sad, and she would even wonder if she had said something wrong, done something wrong, or made Lingge angry? But now, she felt that the young man was just... shy, right?
Well, that's it.

Saint Xia Liya looked at Ling Ge's hurriedly escaping back, and suddenly had a strange feeling, as if...

"Strange, why is there a sour and sweet smell in the air?" Captain Gloria, who was patrolling here, stopped and sniffed the air, then flew into a rage: "Who drank juice on the boat? Stand up!"

Uh.

That’s the feeling…right?

　Give me some meow
　　(End of this chapter)