Alice in the Land of Steam

Is Chapter 1435 different from what everyone understands?

When Alice returned to the hotel, she looked distraught. Ietta, who was waiting for news of her at the hotel, asked curiously, "Are you alright?" Alice retorted, "Do you know what love is, Ietta?"

The kind and pure angel was immediately terrified and stammered, "Waaah! Alice, you're going to die! Why did you suddenly ask such a strange question! How could I possibly know about this? Besides, it's not appropriate to discuss this now! What if someone else hears us and misunderstands? In short, you're not allowed to say such things again!"

The genius player was puzzled: "Why are you reacting so strongly? Besides, it wasn't me who asked, it was Bai Ye who asked."

"Huh?" Ieta's voice trailed off. She blinked blankly, seemingly finding it hard to believe she would hear that person's name from Alice's mouth: "You mean, White Night?"

"Yes."

Alice nodded gently, and then recounted her previous experiences to her: how she searched for White Night on the Cloud Whale Sky Island, how she found the girl admiring the moonlight on the top floor of the Windmill Tower, how she subtly inquired about her feelings, and how she finally got a surprising answer from the latter, or rather, a question that served as the answer.

To be honest, Alice's reaction to the question wasn't much better than Ietta's. While not exactly astonished, she was certainly incredulous. The styles were completely incongruous. A question like this wouldn't seem out of place coming from Medien, Ovira, or even Rorona and Leticia; but coming from White Night felt strange, like hearing the Witch of Reality, Tentis, confess that her wish was world peace—a surreal and ironically incongruous experience.

Alice could swear that she had no intention of slandering anyone, but was simply stating her true feelings. Ietta must have thought so too, otherwise her reaction wouldn't have been so surprised.

“Bai Ye also said,” Alice said, stroking her chin as she pondered, “that if I could answer that question, I might be able to understand her troubles.”

"Oh?" Ietta's interest was piqued. "So, what was your answer?"

The bartender wiping glasses behind the counter, the landlady washing dishes in the kitchen, Sister Medien and Sister Livia organizing medicine lists in the living room, and Shemi deep in thought while working on her homework... Apart from Rorona, who had already returned to the alchemy workshop, and Hino, who went out for her usual horse walk, every girl still at the inn pricked up her ears, waiting for Alice's answer.

Everyone is eager to know how the genius player will answer this question.
Then, as expected, Alice disappointed everyone.

“I said I didn’t know.” Alice put her hands on her hips, speaking with an air of self-righteousness: “Let me go back and think about it first, and I’ll tell you when I’ve figured it out. Bai Ye said it’s fine, it doesn’t matter how long you think about it, but don’t bother me until you have the answer, so I came back.”

A chorus of boos erupted from inside the hotel.

Ietta sighed deeply, though she had expected it, she was still helpless: "Just like you, Alice."

"What can I do?" Alice also felt wronged. "Suddenly I have to answer such profound philosophical questions, and I can't just answer them casually. What if I make Bai Ye angry and she ignores me? Then I can only tell the truth and buy some time, right? You think it's embarrassing for me not to be able to answer, but if it were you, would you be able to answer them?"

"Hmm!" Ietta thought for a moment and realized that it really couldn't be done. The others also shut their mouths and pretended that they didn't exist.

The main problem is that most people wouldn't deliberately think about this kind of question, since they're not philosophers or psychologists specializing in this field. Moreover, there's no standard answer; it's all subjective judgment. Without mind reading, how can anyone know what kind of answer Bai Ye wants or how to respond to satisfy her? From this perspective, Alice's choice wasn't entirely wrong; at least it bought her time.

"So how do you plan to answer her?" Ietta asked curiously. "Dragging this out isn't a solution, is it?"

“Then of course it’s…reading books?” Alice said uncertainly. “I’ve seen quite a few strange philosophy books in Ovira’s room. Maybe they’ll hold the answers I’m looking for? Maybe I’m some unknown philosophical genius who can glean some dark psychology or secrets of human nature from them?”

"Hahaha..." Ietta laughed awkwardly. Let alone comprehending philosophy, if Alice could patiently read a book for ten minutes, the angel would have to look at her with new respect.

“However,” Alice pondered, stroking her chin, “why would Bai Ye suddenly ask such a question? What does it have to do with her recent worries? Could it be… she’s lacking love?”

“…I don’t think so, do I?” Ietta felt there was something wrong with Alice’s statement: “We usually care about Bai Ye a lot, and Gloria too, so it shouldn’t make her feel neglected, right? Besides, I don’t think Bai Ye is the kind of person who would hold a grudge about such things.”

“Oh dear, you don’t understand.” Alice’s tone suggested she knew everything. “The answer is obvious. The love that Bai Ye seeks is not the care between companions or the friendship between friends, but rather a love where there is mutual understanding, mutual dependence, and mutual support with the person she admires… a romantic relationship!”

"Wow wow wow!"

Everyone was shocked by Alice's earth-shattering statement. Ietta blushed, making strange, unintelligible noises while shaking her head frantically, saying that Alice was talking nonsense. How could Bai Ye be that kind of person? Her ability to fall in love was even more unbelievable than Alice suddenly becoming a gaming expert!
"That's going too far," Alice said, clearly dissatisfied. "I've been a gaming pro from the very beginning, okay?"

That's pure nonsense; just listen to it, nobody takes it seriously. Sheria put down the wine glass she'd wiped countless times and said thoughtfully, "Given Bai Ye's personality, it's really hard to imagine her falling in love with someone. Besides, even if she wanted to be in a relationship, are there suitable candidates on Cloud Whale Sky Island?"

"Of course!" Shemi temporarily abandoned those perpetually unsolvable problems and joined their discussion: "Isn't Lin Ge an example? I think Bai Ye's attitude towards Lin Ge is quite unusual, more special than her attitude towards others. Ultimately, isn't it the beginning of love that you feel someone is special and therefore pay extra attention to their every word and action?" Indeed.

No one expected that Shemi could say something so philosophical. Perhaps the little imp only possessed an extraordinary talent and enthusiasm for these kinds of topics? However, the proprietress couldn't allow her younger sister to continue talking nonsense. Having just come out of the kitchen, she wiped her wet hands slowly and deliberately, as if wiping away bloodstains, and said to Shemi with a smile, "You can't say things like that, little Shemi. I believe Lin Ge isn't the kind of person who easily falls for someone else, and Bai Ye certainly doesn't have any interest in stealing someone else's affections, right?"

“That’s right, that’s right!” This time, Medine didn’t stand by her best friend’s side because she wanted to protect her brother’s reputation: “Ling Ge and Sister Xia are in love, and Sister Bai Ye has no objections!”

Shemi felt her scalp tingle under her older sister's gaze, and was rendered speechless by Medien's words. She knew that in this situation, it was best to obediently back down to avoid incurring everyone's wrath, but her stubbornness and rebellious teenage mentality made her unwilling to admit defeat. She stubbornly insisted on her own opinion: "Maybe it's because Xia and Ling were in love before, and Bai Ye didn't want to interfere, so she could only silently hide her love in her heart? Then she wavered between love and distance, tormented by her own emotions, and chose to exile herself, not to associate with everyone, thinking that loneliness could dissolve emotions and cool down this love sooner or later... Wow! Don't look at me like that, big sister, I read this in a book!"

Seeing that Siesta's gaze was becoming increasingly hostile, Shami quickly covered her head and crouched down defensively, adopting a pitiful posture. But the former was not so easily fooled, and instead retorted irritably, "Nonsense, I don't remember having such messy books in the hotel."

“It’s true!” Shamy protested. “I saw it in Miss Neville’s room, Medion can testify!”

Everyone looked at Medien, and the pink-haired girl nodded with a complicated expression. When she was still a carefree little girl, only thinking about studying and playing, Leticia had taken her and Shaymi on an adventure to the Countess's room. The three of them found many books on her bookshelf whose titles and contents were completely mismatched. For example, the book Shaymi mentioned, while indeed about a complex and suspenseful love affair, was titled *The History of the Method Wars*…

Everyone fell silent for a moment, feeling as if they had discovered some astonishing secret.

"Ahem." Sister Livia coughed lightly twice, breaking the silence in the living room. She said softly, "No matter where you saw it, it's very impolite to criticize other people's love lives based on your own imagination, Miss Shamy."

Shemi blushed, and Alice blushed even more, because both of them belonged to the kind of people Sister Livia described as "judging others' emotional lives with their own imaginations," except one was Ling Ge and the other was Bai Ye.

"I also think it's better to say less of these things," Ieta muttered. "It's only because Sister Xia isn't here. If she were still here, not only would we be punished, but Bai Ye would also suffer."

That would be such a misunderstanding.

"It was just that the atmosphere was too awkward, so I was just joking to lighten the mood," Alice, the one who started it all, scratched her cheek innocently, trying to excuse herself. Of course, no one believed this excuse. Rather than trying to lighten the mood, everyone preferred to believe that she had simply given up thinking and was just saying whatever came to mind.

It's not like they have no prior record.

"What are you all doing here?" Just as the atmosphere in the hotel was becoming increasingly awkward, Xinuo walked in from outside. She had just finished her training for the evening and had taken a bath in the forest stream; her hair was still damp, with a misty vapor rising from it. Upon entering the hotel and seeing so many people gathered in the living room, she was taken aback, especially seeing the genius player present. This surprise quickly turned into confusion: "Alice, why are you still playing around here? The joint operation with the Holy War Army starts in two days. Time is tight and the mission is heavy. You are our leader and a combatant participating in the operation. Even if you don't want to think about how to discuss the battle plan with the Holy War Army, you should at least prepare for the battle in advance, right? This operation is very important; we can't go to the battlefield half-heartedly, Alice."

In the end, she became earnest. Alice originally wanted to mutter that she wasn't slacking off, but when she realized that her words were never very convincing, she gave up and honestly admitted her mistake.

Ieta, standing to the side, felt a little guilty because she was also one of the combatants who would be participating in this operation. Moreover, as the one controlling the Cloud Whale Sky Island, she had a more important task than Alice. If there was anything to slack off on, it was her.

Medine felt even more guilty, because although she did not participate in the battle directly, she was an important logistical staff member. She not only provided medicines and medical supplies to the Jihad Army, but was also responsible for providing valuable medical treatment to the combat personnel. This was a difficult task that could not be failed.

Sister Livia thought about how she still needed to help Medion tally the medicine reserves; Sheria thought about how she hadn't had time to check the growth of the herb garden; Siesta thought about how she hadn't yet taken stock of the inn's logistical supplies; and Shamy thought about how she hadn't finished her homework...

In short, everyone started to feel guilty, realizing that gathering here for the sake of so-called love topics was not how they should be before the battle.

It seems that Bai Ye's psychological issues can only be discussed after this war is over. For Alice, this might be good news. After all, she knows nothing about love; such a profound and obscure question will likely require her considerable thought. Perhaps she can ask Ling and Ovira when they return? Especially Ovira, who always prides herself on being the King of Mysteries, encompassing all knowledge in the world—she should naturally know what love is, right?

Well, that's it.

But then again.

Even though she had made up her mind, Alice couldn't help but wonder: what kind of love did Bai Ye pursue?
It must be... different from what everyone understands as love, right?

She had a premonition, deep down.

Give me some cats