"Cecilia, you've gotten a bit thin. Have you been eating properly lately?"
After finishing braiding his sister's hair, Silas asked with some concern.
His sister's body was as slender as a kitten's. Her calves beneath the white dress could be encircled with one hand, and her collarbones stood out sharply.
When she had sat by the fireplace earlier, Silas even felt the firelight passing through her body, giving her an unreal, almost ethereal quality.
"Calling a lady thin is actually a compliment."
The young woman smiled gently.
"You shouldn't say such things casually to other ladies, you know. They might misunderstand."
"Alright."
Silas replied offhandedly, "Though honestly, no matter what I say, they're willing to misunderstand anyway."
His face always brought trouble.
He'd grown used to the goodwill from strange women. However, since coming to Backlund, he'd either been in disguise or concealing his features, so such encounters had become much rarer.
"By the way, Cecilia, has there been any news from Miss Fors?"
The atmosphere on the streets had gradually eased recently, and the underworld had revived along with it.
Silas estimated that the languid lady should be taking action soon.
"There's news.
She says Miss Audrey has already joined the Psychology Alchemists and is happy to help.
However, Miss Audrey still needs to contact the Psychology Alchemists to ask if they're willing to provide treatment."
"Going back and forth like this will probably take several more days."
Silas said, "But at least things have been going smoothly so far."
"Don't worry, brother. Everything will work out."
She said with a smile, "Alright, I need to go prepare dinner. What would you like to eat?"
"Roasted meat by the fireplace."
"I'm was just joking with you. We can't actually roast things in the fireplace."
The young woman smiled and glanced at him, then turned toward the kitchen.
"Just sit by the fire for now. Once our landMa'am Miss Emily returns, we'll be able to eat soon."
"Alright, alright."
Silas agreed and sat down by the fireplace.
Although after reaching Sequence 5, external climate changes no longer affected his body much, the warmth of the fire still made him feel comfortable.
The chaotic voices in his head seemed to quiet down considerably.
Facing the quietly burning flames, his thoughts churned and rose.
Besides the problem of that sea, he had other matters to resolve.
First, there were his various enemies.
Enemy number one, Ince Zangwill, was in Backlund and should currently be a Sequence 4 Beyonder.
With Silas's current abilities, he had no way to deal with him for now. He even needed to hide himself to prevent Ince from discovering he was still alive.
Enemy number two was the True Creator, even more troublesome than Ince Zangwill.
However, as a deity, before His true form descended into reality, His threat to Silas was limited to the spiritual level. He just needed to continue resisting.
Of course, if something unexpected happened later, he'd make other plans.
Enemy number three, and currently the most likely to discover him, was the Aurora Order's Shepherd, Mr. A.
Silas had destroyed his cherished wish and made him experience tremendous pain.
When fleeing the scene, although his consciousness had been very confused, he'd still heard Mr. A's roar and his mad declaration of pursuing him to the ends of the earth.
"I hope the Evernight Goddess's Church catches Mr. A soon."
Silas said to himself once again in his heart.
Besides external enemies, his mental condition was also a major problem.
Silas hoped the Psychology Alchemists could provide help. Although it would cost some compensation, fortunately his financial situation was relatively good.
Besides large amounts of cash, he also had multiple Beyonder items and characteristics.
The Evernight Goddess Church's internal records showed that the Psychology Alchemists were a new organization born only in the last century, so they should have an urgent need to strengthen the organization.
Such Beyonder items would definitely be in demand.
Of course, besides external treatment, Silas also needed his own efforts.
Inside his body, there was still an undigested Shepherd potion.
The mental imprint in this potion was also affecting his psyche, pushing him toward loss of control and madness.
For this reason, he had to quickly grasp the "Shepherd's" acting method and digest the potion as soon as possible.
But how should he act as a "Shepherd"?
The flames in the fireplace had dimmed somewhat. Silas stirred the ashes and added new firewood, thinking to himself.
First, following the usual pattern and the teachings in Roselle's diary, he should start from the potion's name.
Shepherd (literally, one who herds sheep). In other words, a person who tends flocks.
What does a person who tends flocks do?
Silas recalled his own "grazing."
In the mystical sense, his "grazing" was plundering lambs, then penning and imprisoning them, whipping and driving them when needed.
It probably isn't "grazing" in that sense.
He thought to himself.
So far, Silas had already grazed several souls, but the Shepherd potion in his body showed no obvious signs of digestion.
This confirmed his thinking: simple "grazing" wasn't the key to acting.
So what do shepherds in the real sense, or similar herders, actually do?
Obviously, first you need a flock.
That is, lambs.
If the souls inside his body didn't count as lambs, did that mean he needed real-world lambs?
Silas thought to himself.
Of course, these "lambs" certainly didn't refer to actual livestock. They should be people.
"Gathering a large group of believers, teaching them, bewitching them, making them driven like cattle, that does seem like something this pathway would do."
Silas thought with disgust.
But there was no helping it.
If this was what acting required for digestion, he could only do it.
However, the good news was that "flocks" weren't hard to find in the East Borough.
Almost like irony, Backlund, Loen's largest city, also had Loen's largest slums.
Countless people struggled on the edge of survival. Extreme emotions and a dense aura of death pervaded the area.
For food, to suffer less, they would do anything. These people were natural target believers.
"No wonder the Aurora Order keeps getting wiped out but always rises from the ashes."
Silas sneered inwardly.
He'd decided.
After meeting with people from the Psychology Alchemists, he would start secretly spreading faith in the East Borough, gathering a flock of believers who worshiped him.
Then, based on feedback from the potion's digestion, he would modify his acting and gradually work out the "Shepherd's" acting principles.
This whole process would probably take quite a while. But no matter how troublesome, he had to continue.
---
Backlund, in some unknown abandoned building.
"I repent, I repent..."
Mr. A was praying.
His entire body was nearly prostrate on the cold floor.
His tone was agonized and sorrowful, his handsome face twisted as bloody tears flowed down.
"Bang, bang!"
Mr. A slammed his head against the floor, once for each line of prayer.
The floor already had a pool of blood, and from time to time chunks of flesh splattered from his head, falling to the ground and twitching slightly.
Yet he seemed completely oblivious, only crying out his prayers in pain.
Opposite him, that tall statue hung silently inverted, sketching a vague outline in the darkness.
"Hehe, how pathetic."
A voice suddenly sounded from behind Mr. A.
It was an extremely seductive female voice that made any man who heard it unable to help conjuring up chaotic, indecent thoughts.
"..."
Mr. A stopped praying. Eyes bloodshot, he slowly turned his head.
By the building's dilapidated window stood a beautiful woman in white robes, giving him an enchanting smile.