Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1164 Are you touched?

Yieta wanted Lingge to put her down, but before she could say anything, the young man had already carried her into the hotel, and then calmly put her down in the eyes of everyone in the room, who were either surprised, curious, or intrigued. The bartender who was preparing after-dinner drinks for everyone behind the bar saw this scene and couldn't help but blurt out: "Yieta, why are you here?"

Could it be that he was too slow and couldn't stand the hunger, so he ran to the hotel to find food?
Probably not.

But her mind turned and she soon understood what was going on. A smile of sudden enlightenment appeared on her face. She glanced at a young man who seemed nonchalant and said teasingly, "I didn't expect you to be so considerate, Lingge."

Upon hearing this, Saint Xia Liya, who was helping to arrange the dishes, couldn't help but retort: ​​"Lingge has always been very considerate."

"But sometimes I can be too considerate." Lorena added with a smile.

"Compared to Lingge, I am more surprised by Yieta." Countess Nevill, who was reading a world classic and cultivating her sentiments during the leisure time before dinner, also put down the book in her hand, and her tone was full of intriguing meaning: "It is known to everyone that someone is considerate, but you, Yieta, don't seem as simple as you seem on the surface?"

Even the dignified Blood Fang Ancestor was fooled by you. What an amazing disguise.

She didn't continue speaking, but her eyes clearly expressed this meaning.

"Woo!"

Miss Angel cried out in grief, feeling that the atmosphere in the room was not right. She should not have agreed to Lingge's request. Wouldn't it be better for her to stay in her windmill tower room? She looked at the young man who was the culprit with a sad look, but the other party did not seem to be aware of it at all, as if he could not hear the deeper meaning behind everyone's words. Then she thought again, it seemed that she was the one who took the initiative to ask Lingge to carry her over, and she immediately lost the confidence to complain. Faced with this embarrassing situation, Miss Angel habitually spread her wings, wrapped herself up with a swish, revealing only an innocent little head. Under everyone's gaze, she walked to the dining table tremblingly and sat down, waiting for the arrival of dinner time.

The landlady who was busy in the kitchen was also very happy when she found out that Yieta was finally willing to come back to the Fairy Sleep Inn for dinner. She announced to everyone that today's dinner would be lard pie, fish soup, roasted bacon with rosemary and stewed chicken, and the dessert would be apple pie and puff pastry cheese. However, to celebrate Yieta's arrival, she decided to add a dish of the girl's favorite, Saizeriya Chestnut. This was undoubtedly a preferential treatment, but obviously, the landlady didn't know what had just happened in the hall, so when everyone stared at Yieta, she thought they were dissatisfied with this special preferential treatment, and quickly promised that not only Yieta, but everyone could ask for the dessert they wanted, and she would definitely try her best to satisfy it.

"I want to eat sweet ginger cookies." Shelia said, staring at Yieta curiously.

"Give me some lemon cake as a topping for the after-dinner tea." The countess made her request, staring at Yieta meaningfully.

"In that case, I want to eat... uh, apple candy?" After a little consideration, Rorona chose the dessert she wanted most, while staring at Yieta with a smile.

"Prepare more cheese for the lamb." Saint Xia Liya, who had already set the plates and returned to her seat, did not care about the type of dessert. Instead, she thoughtfully asked for some more cheese for her greedy friend, while staring at Yieta calmly.

"Ah, is the dessert tonight self-selected? Then I want to eat sugar-roasted chestnuts... Why are you all looking at Yieta?" After finishing the afternoon training, Shino returned with misty water droplets hanging between her hair. It was unknown whether it was sweat or she took a bath by the stream to wash away the fatigue and exhaustion accumulated during the day. As soon as she entered the door, she found that everyone was staring at Yieta, and she was immediately startled, and then she also cast a puzzled look at the girl, wanting to know what happened.

Yieta was on pins and needles, trembling with fear, wishing she could shrink into her wings and degenerate from a quail into a ball of hair. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that in front of everyone.

As for the reaction of the other party involved in this incident... Lingge said to the boss lady as if nothing had happened: "I want to eat almond cake..."

"Shut up Ling!"

In an instant, everyone shouted at the same time, except for Shino who didn't understand what was going on - yes, except Shino, even Iyetta.

The air suddenly became quiet.

……

This awkward atmosphere lasted until Metien and his two friends barged into the hotel, "Linglinger, listen to me! Today's missionary work was very successful! Mitch and Kadora said they would come again tomorrow, although they mainly came to play games, but it doesn't matter, as long as I keep working hard they will definitely... Uh? Um, am I in the wrong place?"

Looking at the strange scene in the hall, Medien could not help but stop at the door and blocked Leticia and Shemi outside. Behind them were Gloria and Livia dressed as nuns, but one was a real nun and the other... hard to say.

The pink-haired girl hesitated for a long time and didn't dare to enter the door. After all, this scene was too weird. Why didn't anyone say anything? Why was Sister Yieta sitting there with a wronged look on her face? Did everyone gang up on her to bully her? And Sister Xiaoxia just watched and had no intention of standing up to protect her sister. What happened?
She looked at Shemi on the left and Leticia on the right, hoping that her friends could give her some advice. However, their performance was even worse than that of Medina. They had already quietly retreated to the back and used the pink-haired girl as a shield. Although they didn't know what they were shielding against, it would definitely be right to let Medina go first. After all, she would not be scolded even if she made a mistake, but it was not certain for her. Her sister (grandmother) was not someone to be trifled with.

Finally, it was Sister Livia who spoke up and broke the awkward situation: "What's wrong, Metien? Why don't you go in?"

In an instant, it was as if a frozen drama was broken, and the actors on the stage regained their lives and began to perform the plot according to the script. The bartender behind the bar calmly put the wiped wine utensils back to their original positions one by one, and nodded with satisfaction; the countess picked up the book again and critically reviewed the last plot of this chapter, commenting on it from a position that even the most rigorous literary critics could not reach, showing her aristocratic background; Saint Xia Liya calmly turned her eyes away and called the lamb's name out of the window, calling it to come back for dinner; the proprietress smiled and instructed Mr. Rabbit who appeared from nowhere to bring the sumptuous dishes that had been prepared in the kitchen to the table one by one, still steaming; and Xino, who had been confused from beginning to end, finally breathed a sigh of relief and was able to recover from this severe atmosphere. She borrowed a handkerchief from Shelia and gently wiped the water drops between her forehead and hair - at first she couldn't be sure, but now Linger guessed that at least half of it was sweat.

This feeling of oppression was so terrifying that no ordinary person could resist it. Even the knights of the Gustaf family were trembling with fear and dared not move rashly.

Time resumed its flow, and in less than a second, the heavy atmosphere disappeared, replaced by the most bland daily scene that can be observed every day. Metien stared at this scene with his mouth wide open, almost suspecting that the scene he had just seen was all an illusion. Ieta had the same feeling, but unfortunately she had finally gotten rid of everyone's attention and did not want to experience it again, so she wisely closed her mouth and shrunk a little more into her wings, pretending to be a quail - evolved from a ball of hair. "Don't be in a daze, Metien." Shemi urged, "Go in quickly!"

"That's right." Leticia nodded repeatedly to show her agreement. "I can smell cookies, lemon cake, cheese, apple candy, and pie. There are so many desserts today. If we don't hurry up, they will be eaten up!"

You two, how can you still stand beside me as if nothing happened? Where were you when you used me as a shield just now?
Medien had an expression as if he had just gotten to know his friends again, but unfortunately Shemi and Leticia were indifferent. Their expressions were more calm than each other, and they didn't seem to feel guilty at all: Let what happened just now become beautiful memories and blow away with the wind... I don't know who they learned this kind of shamelessness from.

In this way, everyone was present except Oliva and Alice who were still upstairs.

"I'll go get Olivia to come down for dinner."

As the eldest sister, Saint Xia Liya has no choice but to do it. As for Alice, no one mentioned it tacitly, as if they had tacitly agreed that she still needed some time to adjust her mood before she could get out of this period of gloom. As for how long this time was, no one knew. Anyway, in the past half month, everyone had tried everything they could do. Both Saint Xia Liya and the boss lady had tried more than once, including yesterday when Ling Ge talked to Alice. As a pastor, he was already the best person on Yunjingkong Island at comforting and enlightening others. If even young people couldn't do it, others didn't think they had the ability to do so.

In the final analysis, Alice's problem is too serious. It is not only a psychological problem, but also involves historical factors left over from the old world of Eden, as well as philosophical speculation about fantasy and reality. But living in this world, which creatures dare to say that they have never been troubled by the problem of illusion and reality? It's just that most people don't have the interest or energy to get stuck in this dead end. For them, getting through the present is already a very difficult thing, so thinking about what is false or what is real has become a luxury trouble.

At least, if we ask the same question to the Ash Rangers, even Mitch and Kadora, who are still children, will definitely look down on us, right?

Understanding is the hardest thing to do in life.

The atmosphere in the hall was a little quiet for a while. Even when the dishes were served, no one started eating. Everyone was silently waiting for Saint Xia Liya to bring Ovira down to eat. It seemed that if they started eating before everyone was there, they would feel something was missing. However, that feeling actually existed all the time. Only Metien was not affected by this atmosphere. She quietly reported to her brother about the situation of today's mission. Although strictly speaking, she was the resident pastor of Tianxin Church, and Ling Ge had become an irrelevant person, in actual feelings, I am afraid no one would feel that way.

Carson Borg still believed that Lingge was the pastor of Tianxin Church, and was even very likely the saint of the goddess, and the young man did not seem to have any intention of clearing up this misunderstanding. Whether it was based on practical considerations, such as retaining this identity, subsequent negotiations with the Ash Guerrillas would be smoother, or for other purposes, it was unknown.

However, Saint Xia Liya was gone for too long. Ten minutes had passed, and there was no sound of her footsteps coming back. Could it be that Princess Bemang had reached her rebellious phase, and was no longer willing to be a good girl who ate, bathed, and went to bed when the time came, but decided to confront her sister and show her adolescent personality? Although she had never slept on time, and she was no longer in adolescence.

Everyone speculated.

Another five minutes passed, and just when the proprietress was getting impatient and wanted to go upstairs to check the situation, the familiar footsteps finally came, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Avella did not rebel after all. Maybe she had an inspiration today and wrote 30,000 words in a rage? However, some more perceptive people, such as Xinuo and Lingge, had already noticed something was wrong, because they could hear that the footsteps that were gradually walking down the stairs, one after the other, were not two, but one more.

Could it be?

At this time, with the sound of low footsteps, Saint Xia Liya finally appeared in everyone's sight. She walked down the stairs, waving to everyone happily with one hand, and holding someone in the other hand. However, it was not Olvera, but a reluctant... Alice?

“I told you I’m not hungry…” The genius player seemed to be dragged out of the room by Saint Shallia. He could only choose to surrender because he could not resist the hand of fate. However, he still muttered unyieldingly: “I don’t have time to eat. I need to finish… my puzzle… earlier…”

The voice was too soft and the crowd couldn't hear it clearly, but it didn't matter. They just needed to listen to Saint Shallia's explanation.

"I told Alice that everyone is here tonight, and if you don't come for dinner, everyone will be very sad, so she agreed to come out with me." The blue-haired girl said with a smile.

Is it really that simple?

of course not.

The person who followed closely behind was Ovira. Princess Beman yawned and walked down the wooden floor slowly, making a creaking sound. She added details for everyone: "No... just now Alice wanted to escape, but I blocked her. Then... Sister Xiaoxia used her hand to, uh, grab Alice's neck... Uh uh!"

Saint Xia Liya turned her head, her smile remained unchanged, but there was a flash of coldness in her eyes, as if saying: Do you want to try it too?
Avella shuddered immediately, and her whole body perked up. She exclaimed, "I can testify, I can testify! It's just as Sister Xiaoxia said! Alice didn't want to make everyone sad, so she decided to come downstairs and have dinner with us! She cares about our feelings, I'm touched, what about you?"

Saint Shalia turned back again and looked at everyone with a smile.

Yes, we were moved too.

Including Alice, everyone lowered their heads guiltily and wiped their foreheads guiltily, probably wiping away tears of emotion.

Give me some meow