Alice in the Land of Steam

The young man didn't seem surprised by the sudden sound. He turned around and met a pair of curious eyes.

"Why not say 'I love you'?" Gloria repeated her question. "Isn't that the correct way to answer?"

Lin Ge countered, "What constitutes 'correct'?"

"Well, the right thing to do is... the obvious thing, right? If you don't do it, people will think it's strange."

Gloria counted on her fingers, giving examples one by one: "Just like people need to eat, it rains, primroses bloom in spring, everyone stays indoors to keep warm in autumn, justice will always prevail over evil, and true feelings will never hurt anyone... These are all true things. Ling, if you're going to marry Ovira, that means you love her, right? In that case, why didn't you tell her 'I love you' just now? Trying to brush it off with 'I like you' isn't a good habit, is it? Or perhaps, you actually—"

She paused abruptly, not continuing, but instead pursing her lips and staring intently at the young man, as if trying to glean some clue from his eyes.

But Lin Ge was already used to hiding his emotions from others, so when faced with such a bold and undisguised probing, he remained calm and did not answer directly, but instead asked, "And who are you?"

"Hey! Lin Ge, don't you recognize me?"

The girl's eyes widened in surprise, her gray braid drooping down as if she were frustrated at not being recognized: "I'm Gloria!"

“Gloria?” The young man frowned. The name did seem familiar, but the memory was like looking through a mirror—clearly visible, yet elusive.

“It’s me!” The girl looked at him expectantly. “Remember me! Remember our relationship, and Bai Ye! Alice! Medien! Hino and Ietta! Rorona! Leticia and Miss Neville! The landlady, Miss Celia and Shemi! And of course, Sister Xia and Little Sheep! You can’t have forgotten them all, can you?”

She rattled off a string of names like reciting a menu, but each name—especially the last one—only made the young man's senses feel even more alienated. He felt an indescribable sense of disconnect, as if his past had been altered, and many years of memories had been forcibly lost. Now, trying to trace back and grope forward was nothing more than struggling through a quagmire, sinking deeper and deeper.

The more he tried to recall, the further the past receded from him. An insurmountable distance seemed to sever the young man's perception; the world was upside down, his consciousness split in two. He was torn between illusion and reality, suffering terribly. Gloria saw his face suddenly turn deathly pale, like that of a living person who should have died long ago, sweat beading on his forehead, his breathing heavy. She was immediately terrified and panicked, reaching out to support him, her voice trembling with a sob: "Lin...Lin! Are you alright?"

"I...I'm fine...cough cough!"

Lin Ge blocked her with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, coughing violently twice. He coughed so hard that one might think he was going to cough up his internal organs. His bangs were soaked with sweat and stuck tightly to his forehead. He looked like he had just been pulled out of the water, disheveled and miserable. Yet, he still stubbornly raised his head, his eyes fixed on the girl. In a hoarse voice, as if forced from an old bellows, he asked Gloria for confirmation: "Then... what about Ovira?"

Why didn't you mention Ovira?

“Ovira?” Gloria blinked, looking confused. “Hasn’t she always been by your side?”

boom!
In that instant, something seemed to burst forth from the young man's mind, surfacing from the surface of his memories. Scenes flashed by like frozen images: the young man's encounter and acquaintance with Princess Bemang, the freedom and peace he felt in the Kingdom of Light Elves, the darkness shrouding everything when a powerful enemy attacked, the friend he regarded as a close confidante who did not hesitate to ask him for help to protect the country and its people, and the promise she made to him that day, word by word: "Please believe me, Ling."

"If you're willing to believe in me, I can do anything."

So, the answer is already right in front of us.

However, the young people chose to believe, and because they believed, they were unwilling to doubt, to the point that they turned a deaf ear to every doubt; or perhaps, the lie was not carefully woven by the princess, but rather because the young people needed it, which is why they were so immersed in it?

It is both real and unreal, like a dream and an illusion; everything is fleeting and uncertain, as untraceable as mortal emotions.

"I see."

Ling took a deep breath, slowly released his grip, and his eyes regained their clarity: "I think I understand the situation now. Thank you, Gloria..."

Gloria tilted her head: "So you finally recognize me, Ring?"

"I suppose so." The young man smiled. In truth, he had never forgotten; it's just that sometimes, emotions and memories clash, making it easy to overlook things. For example, didn't Gloria also overlook the most important thing?
“How did you end up here, Gloria?” Ringer asked.

Logically speaking, even if someone were to invade the dream, it should be Bai Ye, not Gloria. I haven't heard of her having that ability. Or perhaps the powers of dual personalities can be shared? If so, the relationship between the two is even more thought-provoking.

Of course, Gloria's standard answer to this question is—

"I don't know." Her tone was matter-of-fact, as if knowing would be strange. "I only remember being very tired and wanting to sleep, and then when I opened my eyes, I was here. At first, I thought this was my dream, but then I realized it was Ovira's dream..."

For some reason, she sounded a little disappointed.

Ling was silent for a while, and after a long while, under Gloria's questioning gaze, he shook his head seriously and said in a low voice, "This is not Ovira's dream either."

"Ah, whose is that...?"

"It must be my dream."

Although the word used was "should", the young man's tone was very confident, as if there was no other possibility.

"It's actually Ling's dream..." It sounded unbelievable at first, but Gloria quickly accepted the idea. Even though she had personally experienced it, she still couldn't believe she could enter Ovira's dream; but entering Ling's dream seemed much more reasonable. Anything related to this young man, no matter how outlandish, was still within everyone's acceptable range.

“Wait, if this is Ling’s dream, then doesn’t that mean—” Gloria suddenly discovered an incredible secret, and looked at the young man in front of her with a mixture of shock, confusion, strangeness, self-doubt, and disbelief: “This wedding, is it something you wanted to dream about? I… I can understand, after all, everyone has some strange dreams! But… but, isn’t the wedding person wrong? How could it be Ovira? It shouldn’t be Ovira…”

The one who truly made an eternal vow with the young man, swore never to leave each other, and still occupies the most important place in his heart, must be someone else.
“No.” Ling shook his head, denying Gloria’s statement. He calmly gazed at the ripples in his heart, as deep as the unseen future, and whispered, “At least in this dream, it can only be Ovira, and it must be Ovira.”

Gloria didn't say anything more, but her gaze towards the young man changed repeatedly, as if she were looking at the dissolute and heartless protagonists in a classical drama.

Although, although it was indeed Xia Xia who broke the promise and left you first, you changed your mind too quickly, didn't you?

Lin Ge read that meaning in her eyes.

Clearing up this misunderstanding will be a complex and lengthy process.

"In short, it's not what you think," he said helplessly.

But this simple sentence was clearly not very convincing, so Gloria continued to stare at him with suspicion. Ling sighed inwardly, knowing he could never clear up this misunderstanding, so he simply stopped explaining and instead looked up quietly at the towering trees by the lake, where countless stars were twinkling and shimmering among the branches, a truly magnificent sight.

Gloria noticed a hint of melancholy in his profile and, curious about this rare expression, couldn't help but ask, "Can you tell me why you insist on marrying Ovira, Ling?"

The young man didn't look at her, but murmured as if to himself, "To leave this dream."

"Oh? So you mean the only way to leave here is to marry Ovira?"

“Yes, you should have heard Bai Ye say that dreams are the aggregation of emotions, and only by satisfying a certain emotion can the door to reality be opened. So, I will fulfill Ovira’s wish, if that is the emotion she is seeking… and then return to reality.”

"Do we really have to go back?" Gloria asked hesitantly, though she secretly thought the dream was actually quite nice.

“Of course.” Linger finally turned around, glancing at Gloria with surprise, as if wondering why she would ask such a self-evident question. “No one can exist in a dream forever; only reality is the final destination. Besides, you know the situation in reality. Miss Cheryl, Alice, Hino… everyone is doing their best to protect something. How can I so easily ignore their feelings and use dreams as an excuse to escape reality?”

"It seems to be the same..."

Gloria was speechless. She lowered her head, looking at her reflection in the lake of her heart, and for some reason, her tone became somewhat sorrowful: "I just feel that this is very unfair to Ovira. Although you fulfilled her wishes, satisfied her emotions, and gave her everything she needed, it was all just a prelude to returning to reality. Soon you will leave, and essentially she has gained nothing; on the contrary, she has to bear the price of loss. Isn't that a very painful thing?"

Ling Ge remained silent for a long while before saying, "It was just a dream."

Everything in the dream is false, including this Ovira; upon waking, everything will be left behind, including the wedding; upon waking, no memory will remain, including those passionate emotions. Dreams are merely a brief and illusory journey; only reality must be held firmly in one's grasp. This is the consensus of mortals and the foundation upon which the world continues.

Although Gloria doesn't think so.

“What you think about during the day, you dream about at night. Everything in your dreams is a reflection of reality, so those emotions must also originate from reality.” She advised Ling in a rare serious tone: “If you don’t cherish the emotions in your dreams, you will only end up hurting yourself, Ling.”

Lin Ge was surprised that she could utter such philosophical words, and vaguely realized that the girl also had her own confusion and unmet emotional needs; otherwise, she wouldn't have appeared in this dream. Unfortunately, he knew too little about this girl, far less than her other personality, Bai Ye, to offer any advice. If there were more time, if they could spend more time together, they would surely find the answer, but now was not the time.

Now, Ling only wants to do one thing, and can only do one thing.

"The wedding is about to begin."

Hearing the sounds of music drifting from afar, he gave the girl a deep look and said softly, "Get ready, Gloria."

Preparing to wake up from the dream.

Having said that, he walked away without waiting for Gloria's response. For a fleeting moment, as he brushed past the girl, his steps seemed to falter, but a stronger force quickly propelled him forward, unwavering. When Gloria finally reacted and turned to say something, she could only see the young man's figure disappear at the end of the garden path.

"That's not how it is..."

She murmured, in a voice only she could hear, "Why can't you ever understand, Ling?"

Or perhaps you already understood, but because of that person's departure, you were forced to freeze your emotions and revert to your old self?
Getting lost, finding your way, then getting lost again, wandering aimlessly throughout life, never finding the right direction—this is the saddest thing in the world.

and.

Gloria suddenly realized that just now, Ling had admitted that this was neither her dream nor Ovira's dream, but her own dream.

That being the case.

People who need their wishes fulfilled, people who need their emotions satisfied, and even people who truly need to wake up from their dreams...

Was it actually him? (End of Chapter)