He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 57 Anda (First Subscription, Meow!!!)

The shepherd and her lambs, bathed in the sun, were a warm, slightly yellowish white. Just passing through the green wheat field was like laying a soft woolen blanket over it, and even the radiance passing by was enveloped in it and softened.

As Anda slowly approached in her field of vision, Ai slowly stood up and stood in the path that Anda was bound to take.

The little wolf quickly spotted the uninvited guest ahead. The black and white sheepdog lingered beside Anda for a moment, then rushed towards Ai Yi like the wind, circling around him. As a result, the approaching flock of sheep, like cotton candy sliced ​​open with a knife, parted to the sides, bypassing him.

"Awesome! Awesome!"

Ignoring the little wolf's tightly furrowed, disgusted face, Ai rubbed the dog's head hard twice, then slightly raised her eyes and saw that the girl had stopped in front of her, swaying the tassel.

She couldn't see, so her gaze was slightly off-center from where Ai was standing. Ai silently took two steps, meeting those perpetually unfocused golden-red eyes. Anda patted the little wolf that had retreated to her feet, tilted her head, and asked in confusion, "Rhodes?"

"it's me."

Ai thought to herself, not uttering a sound immediately, but silently pondering—

—In the task hints given by the door, Anda is the red bird mentioned in the revelation. She will complete the "Trial of the Birds," bringing the name of Agdewey to the ears of the Lord, so that the wingless may regain the favor of the sky.

Whatever kind of evil rituals were being performed in the village, Anda was always at the center of it all. In order to witness this history from more perspectives, Ai stood before her with mixed feelings.

"it's me."

He finally spoke, clearing his throat twice as if making conversation, and then said in a low voice, "What a coincidence, we meet again."

—Uh, this seems a bit awkward—

Ai shook her head and sighed silently in her heart: Humans are always visual creatures. When faced with a girl as soft and gentle as a lamb, even the most despicable fox would feel that the methods used to deal with "Abram" were not appropriate here.

Moreover, this body houses Rhodes, the man who insists on being a gentleman, and the idea of ​​him being violent towards a young girl is too contradictory.

—Tsk.

If we used gray instead, we probably wouldn't have so many problems.

Let's try first and see if we can increase the favorability through communication.

"Would you mind if I stayed here for a while?"

He smoothly changed the subject, "I was born in Tun Ling and grew up in the city. Before coming here, I had never seen such a view—the sky and the earth can be connected, and lambs can be in flocks like clouds."

Ai Yi shifted her gaze to the sky at just the right moment, let out a soft sigh, and then looked at Anda with a smile, saying, "As for shepherds, they are figures that only appear in fairy tales—especially such a lovely shepherd."

After saying that, his facial features constricted as if he had licked a lemon, as if he couldn't even stand himself.

—Damn, I need to get down here.

"————"

Despite the rather clumsy attempt to get her to agree to something, the shepherdess girl showed no impatience. She remained as weak and submissive as if she could be bullied, simply tilting her staff forward and gently touching Ai's head.

Ai hesitated to move, asking, "Is this... a blessing ceremony?"

"This is a herding tradition." Anda walked slowly around him, murmuring softly, "Lambs are weak and harmless animals. Even a flock of lambs cannot resist being hunted—they can only let themselves be devoured. Therefore, there must be a shepherd next to the flock."

Anda squinted, the wind ruffling her warm white hair, her holiness flickering like candlelight. "So we raise our shepherd's staffs and wave our silver bells, so that the lambs may be marked with the shepherd's scent. In this way, they are marked, and even the lambs' natural enemies may stop in their tracks upon seeing such strays. We offer the same blessing to those travelers who leave their homes, wishing them peace."

A crisp bell rang above his head. Ai was silent for a moment, then softly said "thank you," and then said with some curiosity, "Perhaps it's because my living environment doesn't expose me to these kinds of ideas—I'm very interested in the folk customs that still exist in Fukano, which reminds me of the picture books I read when I was a child."

"You just mentioned the sheep's natural enemy—" Ai asked, "Will wolves appear in this place?"

"They used to exist, but we haven't seen them for a long time—wolves are afraid of humans and avoid the ever-expanding railways and trains—their packs have migrated to the source of the great river, and there hasn't been a trace of them for a long time."

Anda blinked and gently shook her head.

"However, it seems that in people's eyes, when they think of the natural enemy of sheep, they immediately think of wolves —"

The girl has this kind of charm; any topic that originally had an ulterior motive will slowly melt away with her soft voice, turning it into a casual chat with a childhood friend.

"But at least in Agdewe, eagles and vultures are more common than wolves—they swoop down from very high places to hunt newborn lambs, whose limbs are still soft and cannot stand up fully—"

During their conversation, Anda followed behind the flock of sheep. They passed through grasslands, climbed low earthen slopes, and then saw dark shadows circling in the distance.

Those are birds of prey that roam the deep wilderness.

Soon, they spotted the large white mass moving in their direction, and began to gather in large numbers above the sheep, causing a commotion.

"Wait a mininute."

The shepherd smiled apologetically, then took down the oddly shaped, long and thin-looking horn from his waist:

Eeu

—

She brought the long horn to her mouth, and the next moment, instead of the low hum Ai had expected, came a clear and bright cry like a bird's song—a cry that fell perfectly between "sharp" and "bright," any higher and it would have been noisy, any lower and it might have been dull.

Anda's horn-blowing sound was like the song that birds are skilled at, playing a melody powerful enough to awaken the sky.

The crimson liquid rippled, and the art of "birdsong" brought Ai a vague inspiration—he heard a clear meaning in the horn's sound. Anda was communicating with the birds, advising them not to harm the lambs on the ground and persuading them to leave.

The birds of prey quickly dispersed from the sky.

-----

"Wow—that's amazing!"

The fox clapped in surprise, even without realizing it, which drew a slightly embarrassed chuckle from Anda. Faced with Ai's almost tangible gaze of shock, the girl initially looked away, but quickly accepted his praise with delight. Her golden-red eyes narrowed into slits, just like the fox's when he was smug—meaning, "Praise me quickly!"

—Incredibly powerful—

Ai Yi absentmindedly placed her hand on Anda's hair; the striking height difference made the gesture look particularly natural.

He was still a little dazed, so his tone was rather perfunctory: "Great, great—"

Unaware of the fleeting resentment on Anda's face, Ai was still immersed in the shock of what had just happened—

He was proficient in "birdsong studies," so he knew it was a genuine and mysterious art, even considered a profound art by most mystical scholars.

Even if Ai wanted to use it herself, she had to carefully activate the red liquid to produce orderly, meaningful bird calls.

Andako has no mysterious powers.

She truly achieved communication with birds purely through her understanding of music theory and her comprehension of birds—even to the point of being able to communicate with them in an orthodox way.

Identified by "orniscientology".

Is it open yet?

After hesitating for a while, Ai couldn't help but ask, "Do other shepherds know how to do this too?"

Anda had already noticed that the guy in front of her was absent-minded. She was a little sulky at first, but like a cat that only dares to hiss quietly when no one is looking, her slight resentment was instantly replaced by guilt after she realized that Ai had come back to her senses. Instead, she looked even more timid: "No—I'm the only shepherd in the village."

"?" Ai tilted her head.

"Because—" Anda looked thoughtful, then quickly came up with an answer. She said lightly, "Because the lamb is sacred and weak, a sufferer walking on the ground—the lamb should exist but should not grow endlessly, otherwise its whiteness would obscure the original colors of the sky and the earth."

"For the insignificant Agdius, one shepherd is enough. There is a limit to the number of sheep I can herd. In order for the earth to remain green, the stray lambs return to nature. Wolves, eagles, and vultures will devour their flesh and blood, and the bones of a lamb will sink into the soil to nourish the new life of the next generation."

"————" Ai listened to everything carefully, then fell into deep thought.

—A very simple set of values, which also fits well with the environment of Agdewu—For this village, which is stagnant in the tide of the times, the power of change is weak and insignificant. Only the accumulated "experience" can take root in this land in the form of "common sense" and become a rule, a force.

This is a cycle that exists only within a closed system, where all driving forces arise from within, naturally enveloping the skeleton of civilization as if rotting in an eternally stagnant time.

"Agdewu————"

This godforsaken place is so dense and solidified, as if it were wrapped in something.

Exhaling a stale breath from deep within her chest, Ai shook her head vigorously to alleviate the inexplicable stuffiness.

He looked up and saw that Anda had already sat down on a sunny grassy slope. She had taken off her boots at some point, and her white cashmere socks were neatly tucked into them, one on each side.

The ill-fitting, oversized robe revealed two slender, smooth legs as delicate as reeds—the barefoot girl sat upright on the lawn. Despite being a shepherd who toiled daily, her face possessed a childlike innocence, as if she had never seen the light of day. Her skin, thin to the point of being almost transparent, was sickly pale. Her frail frame supported this pitifully small figure, as if it might break in the wind—

The scene presents a grotesque beauty, like shattered glass.

Ai felt her breath catch for a moment.

Just a few steps away, Anda curled her toes, rested her chin on her hand, and looked at the flock of sheep roaming the pasture not far away. She watched the wolf cub chasing after the stray, her eyes slightly narrowed in the morning light.

"I used to be terrified of being at such heights—I didn't even dare to be in a position that was slightly above the ground."

Anda let out a sigh.

Ai silently approached where she was sitting, listening to the girl's faint, whispered words, and gently replied, "Why?"

She murmured, "Yes—why?"

"Are you afraid of being blown away by the wind?" Ai asked with a smile.

".——."

"

Anda was silent for a moment, then continued as if in a dream: "I can always remember—stories that someone once told me."

She seemed to be trying to suppress the fear in her voice, and whispered as if something had noticed her: "In Agdewe, the things that soar in the sky are not always birds—there are some other creatures that also have wings, and whose colors are as bright and beautiful as birds, and they also know the principles of flight."

"But unlike birds, they are creatures banished from the sky, born with wings yet hating the Lord—some of them sneak into Paradise from the shadows of the sky, disguising themselves as birds and soaring through the heavens—their wings are stronger and more powerful than most birds, their beaks are longer, and their talons can seize a pregnant ewe, something even eagles cannot do—"

The fox was taken aback—this sounded like the kind of bird-like monster mentioned in ancient texts, but not quite a bird.

Let's discuss this further.

"Are you afraid they'll take you away?" Ai walked to Anda's side and quietly looked into her pupils, which had shrunk in fear.

After a moment of silence, he sat down silently next to the girl.

"Indeed, if they can catch a pregnant ewe, it will be much easier to catch you—"

Ai shook her head. "But do those strange birds really exist? Or have you seen one with your own eyes?"

He casually remarked, feigning nonchalance, "That's just a scary story made up by adults. They can't even come up with a name for that kind of monster—it's only good for fooling girls like you who don't eat properly and are too thin and light."

"No!"

Anda suddenly retorted, more fiercely than ever before, but she was quickly startled by her own words, and her voice gradually softened until it was as weak and feeble as before.

She took a deep breath, her already meager chest heaving, and her body trembled slightly: "Their names are recorded deep within Agdius, brought back from the sky by that 'fledgling.' It is a divine decree, one I cannot understand, but I can relay it to you."

Anda opened her mouth, and with a melody imbued with the principles of resonance, she sang out this obscure and complex vocabulary as if in song:

D·ny7in

"Birdology" as usual dissected the meaning of this sentence, pouring it into Ai's red liquid.

The next moment, his pupils dilated and his gaze became vacant.

Now it was his turn to take a deep breath, his turn to tremble.

"Holy crap—"

Ai pinched the soft flesh on her forearm with her fingernails, gritting her teeth in pain, but she still couldn't hide the shock in her heart.

In his understanding, this word meant: "dragon".

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