Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 555: An unreliable little girl?

In the end, Galene didn't leave.

Even the Crystal Guards who were responsible for escorting the second half of the journey had already left outside the Ice Water Palace, but Galene followed them into the Ice Water Palace. The Cloud Whale flapped its heavy fins and slowly landed on the square on the right side of the palace, stirring up the surrounding sea water. Small whirlpools swirled on the square and quickly disappeared, just like the blooming and withering of flowers, which was quite interesting.

When Galene led the guests down from the Cloud Whale, an official from the Nyrid court was already waiting there. He was a middle-aged general with a stern face, and behind him were two teams of palace guards who were armed to the teeth. Their silver armor shone brightly in the sea water. However, they only looked good in appearance, and were obviously not as imposing as the previous crystal guards. They might not even have experienced actual combat, and were just ceremonial guards used to decorate their faces.

Seeing the distinguished guests on the ground coming, the middle-aged general came forward to greet them, but his first words were not to the guests. Instead, he lowered his head slightly and fixed his gaze on Galene beside him. When he spoke, his tone was stern and merciless: "If I remember correctly, you haven't completed your patrol mission today, Galene? It's really hard for you to lead the guests, but you can't delay your own work because of this. So, you'd better return to your post quickly and don't disappoint Her Majesty the Queen."

As expected, I was scolded.

Nevile was not surprised by this. After all, what Galene did could indeed be considered dereliction of duty, which was a bit disappointing. Of course, the middle-aged general's rebuke of her was a bit harsh. How could she be considered "disappointing Her Majesty the Queen" for being just a patrol captain of the city defense army? Maybe Her Majesty the Queen didn't even know she existed. Nevile felt that it was better to be more tolerant of young people and not put too much pressure on them.

In addition, she had a good impression of Galene, so she was about to say a few good words for her, but Galene was not afraid of the reprimand from her boss. Instead, she defended herself with a smile: "You are right, Lord Katins, as a soldier of the city defense corps, I really shouldn't betray my duties and appear here; but if I am the princess of the Nieried royal court, I am only representing all the people of the Azure Mirror to show the enthusiasm of the mirror elves to the guests who have come from afar and convey our friendliness. This should not be considered as a violation of my mother's expectations, right?"

Judging from her smooth response, it was obvious that she had thought of this speech a long time ago. Maybe she had rehearsed it in her mind countless times along the way?
But that's not important.

The important thing is——

"Princess?" Metien opened her mouth in surprise, unable to believe this shocking fact.

"Just you?" Shemi looked at Galene with a squint and said some very impolite words straight out of his heart.

"What is a princess?" Leticia asked curiously, pulling her grandmother's sleeve.

Little did she know that her grandmother was also surprised: it turned out that it wasn't just a Sequence 8 soldier who wanted to take advantage of these distinguished guests on earth to see the queen, but that they wanted to take advantage of the eldest princess of the Nyerid court? No wonder she brought back the queen's oral instructions directly and negotiated with them on behalf of the queen.

"what."

Seeing the surprised reactions of the guests, Galene seemed to have just remembered that she had not mentioned this to them. Of course, it is possible that she did not mention it on purpose, so she made up for it now: "I am so sorry, I actually forgot to tell you that in fact, in addition to being a patrol captain of the City Defense Corps, I am also the eldest princess of the Nieried Royal Court: Galene Barcelos Caesar Nieried. I did not mention this when we first met because I was afraid that you would have concerns about my identity and find it difficult to express your true thoughts. Therefore, I concealed it. Please forgive me." She seemed to want to bow and apologize, but because she was wearing armor, it was not convenient, so she gave up in the end, lowered her head and smiled at the three little girls and said: "Of course, you can now treat me as an ordinary mirror elf, and you don’t need to care about the identity of this eldest princess. In fact, I don’t have real royal blood. I am just an orphan adopted by Her Majesty the Queen."

"Adopted?" Upon hearing this, Metien's eyes flickered slightly, as if he remembered something.

"Adopt." For some reason, Xie Mi showed an expression of empathy.

"Orphan..." Leticia gave Galene a sympathetic look, as if she had imagined a tragic plot in her mind, which made Galene's smile freeze. He couldn't understand why she was looking at him like that.

"Ahem, ahem!" After coughing twice and forcing herself to ignore the sympathy and pity in Leticia's eyes, Galene introduced the identity of the middle-aged general who came to greet them: "This is Lord Katins, known as the 'Wolf Rider', the leader of the Crystal Guard and a guard knight who is deeply trusted by Mother. Sending Lord Katins here to greet you shows that Mother is looking forward to meeting you."

She subtly ignored the topic of "dereliction of duty". Katins knew it was her little trick, but because Galene had revealed her identity, if he scolded in front of the guests, it would not be "the commander of the Crystal Guard scolding a squad leader of the city defense army", but "Her Majesty the Queen's guard knight scolding Her Royal Highness the Princess of the Nieride Royal Court". The nature of the matter is completely different. If it gets out, who knows how much rumors will be aroused in the city.

So he could only give up, secretly glared at Galene, and then moved his sight to the team of distinguished guests on the ground, and found that besides the adult Nevi, there were only three little girls who obviously had no decision-making ability. At this time, they seemed to be staying behind Nevi, but their eyes were extremely restless and wandering around, curiously looking at the surrounding scenes. Even though this "Rider of the Wolf" had experienced many battles and had seen a lot, he couldn't help but feel a little absurd.

This was of course because no one else was willing to leave the Cloud Whale Sky Island - Yieta couldn't get out of the windmill tower room, and she was the owner of the Cloud Whale Sky Island. Once something went wrong, she would have to control the island and run away immediately. Of course, she couldn't leave at will; Olvera was busy grasping inspiration and translating what she had seen and heard before into words, so although she was looking forward to seeing and hearing in the Nereids Royal Court, she could only entrust this important task to Medien and the other two, waiting for them to retell their experiences today. This was also the reason why the three little girls were so curious and active: they had an important task!

As for the boss lady Shesta and the bartender Shelia, they were not interested in the complicated political events that might happen. They were too lazy to get involved in the internal affairs of the mirror elves. They would rather enjoy the peaceful daily life on the island. At most, they would send the little sister who was still in the "pilgrimage stage" out to let her broaden her horizons. Anyway, with Nevill around, nothing serious should happen.

And the fact is indeed so. Although this group of visitors, who looked like a spring outing at first glance, or even worse than a spring outing upon closer inspection, looked extremely unreliable, and once made people wonder, "Is it really meaningful for Her Majesty the Queen to invite them to visit the Ice Water Palace?", after all, with Nevill, the demigod-level vampire countess, present, Katins could not accuse the other party of not taking this meeting seriously, and even had to force a stiff smile from his face - it was obvious that he had not smiled for a long time, so that his facial muscles had long become as stiff as rocks, and the effect of smiling was worse than not smiling - he slowed down his tone a little, and was no longer so rigid and serious: "As Her Highness Galene said, Her Majesty the Queen has been waiting for your arrival in the Ice Water Palace. Please follow me to meet Her Majesty."

"it is good."

Nevile agreed straightforwardly. Now that they were here, was there any need to hesitate? This straightforward attitude eased Katins's expression a little, and he felt that these people on the ground were not as unreliable as they seemed... But soon he heard Nevile's words to the three little girls behind him: "Remember, after entering the palace, don't run around, don't touch anything, don't move around. Ah, Metien, I'm not talking about you, I know you are very good. It's you, Shemi! Don't use fairy magic indiscriminately! And you, Leticia, you also have to pay attention to me, don't mention mermaids in front of the queen, understand?"

"Oh!" X3
"..."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)