*Chirp chirp chirp.*
Hearing this call, Farah turned back to the Great Oriyan and replied, "Oh, don't worry. Everything's fine with your new friend. He's just a little tired."
"Aunty Farah can speak to Mr. Oriyan too?" Eris asked, taking note of this brief conversation, "Can I speak to him as well?"
Eris' question immediately caught the attention of all the other youths who were gathered around.
After overcoming their initial fears of the giant beast, curiosity about it soon took hold. They had witnessed Lucas and Farah both talking to this Spirit Beast, so it was only natural for them to wonder if they could do the same.
Farah kept a calm expression on her face when this question came up, but inside, her thoughts were churning rapidly, trying to come up with an explanation for all this.
Fortunately for Farah, Lucas had long anticipated that this day would come, so he had a story prepared and ready to go, "Senior Farah is very strong and can use her Soul Sense, which allows her to speak to the Great Oriyan."
Pausing for a moment to make sure he had everyone's attention, Lucas continued, "As for me, after I woke up from the accident I had last year, my thoughts became much clearer, and my senses also became sharper. I'm not sure why that is, but after Senior Farah examined me, she said that my Soul became stronger than normal. That's probably why I can speak to this big guy as well, but it's still much harder for me than it is for Senior Farah."
Frowns appeared on many faces as the youths puzzled over Lucas' words, but it didn't take long for them to accept them. They all knew that everyone possessed a Soul, and that it could be strengthened by cultivating. This was common knowledge even amongst countryside folks, so what Lucas said made some sense.
As for how all this was possible, most of them simply figured if Lucas didn't know, how were they supposed to?
"Is that how you keep coming up with all those strange thoughts and inventing new things?" Eris asked. She was undoubtedly the closest to Lucas amongst all those gathered, so she had seen much more of the changes he had undergone over the last year-and-a-half.
"En," Laura joined in, "Boss is always teaching us many new things. I always wondered where he learned them, but now I understand!"
"Err… Yes, I guess?" Lucas could only try to muddy the waters on this issue. It wasn't that he didn't trust his people, especially his big sister, but there were still things he felt were better to not tell them at this point.
"Alright you brats, enough questions," Farah stepped in at this point, sensing that Lucas was about to have some trouble explaining himself further.
So far, the boy had managed to obfuscate his own situation without outright lying, but the more he talked, the higher the risk he would let something slip that he shouldn't.
As such, Farah decided to shift the conversation and declared, "All of you should go back to what you were doing. This Spirit Beast being here will certainly buy us some time, but there is still much work to be done!"
"That's right," Lucas quickly grabbed the lifeline he was thrown and began giving out instructions, "Senior Farah and I need to stay here to handle our new friend, but the food collection can't just be stopped. Laura, I'm putting you in charge. Find a way to get the townsfolk back in line and explain to them that this big guy isn't a threat."
"Got it, Boss!" Laura nodded, quickly shifting into work-mode and beginning to organize the other youths.
"Eris," Lucas called out next, "I need you to get a horse and head out to where Uncle Charles is and report the situation here to him. Tell him not to worry and that Senior Farah and I have things under control."
"En!" Eris smiled, happy she could help in some way.
Within a couple minutes, the crowd made up of Lucas' employees dispersed, leaving the young boy, the old butcher, and the giant Spirit Beast behind.
"How did you figure it out?" Farah asked, curious to understand just what tipped Lucas off to the identify of this giant bird. She was able to tell it was a Great Oriyan because she had seen records of them before, but Lucas couldn't possibly have similar knowledge.
Scrunching up his face, Lucas replied, "At first, I thought I was going to be bird food, even if he wasn't giving off any kind of malicious intent, but then I heard a kind of garbled message in my head when he chirped at me, which made me wonder if he wasn't an ordinary beast."
Thinking about that first muddled message, Lucas suddenly thought of something and asked, "How are you able to communicate with this big guy so easily, Senior?"
When Lucas tried to talk to the Great Oriyan, he needed to use extremely simple words, accompanied by gestures, almost like he was talking to a toddler or someone who wasn't fluent in his language.
On the other hand, Farah was able to speak normally and be understood just as easily. The difference was quite stark, making Lucas wonder what exactly he was doing wrong.
"Oh, that," Farah mused, casually waving her hand, "Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with what you were doing. In fact, it's impressive you were able to get your meaning across to this guy at all given the limits of your current Soul Sense."
Mulling over these words, Lucas hypothesized, "Is it that my Soul isn't strong enough to convey my intent clearly?"
Nodding, Farah confirmed his suspicions, "There's also your lack of experience transmitting thoughts and information via your Soul Sense, but your relatively weak Soul Sense is the main problem."
Pursing his lips, Lucas felt he needed to redouble his efforts again to improve his strength.
*thunk*
"Ow!" Lucas rubbed his head, turning a pitiful gaze towards Farah.
"You're thinking too much," Farah simply replied, "Normally, only Spirit Initiates are capable of communicating with a Spirit Beast this young. It's almost a miracle you were able to pull this off while only being in the Sea Establishment Realm."
"Young?" Lucas tilted his head, "I thought you said this Great Oriyan was in his Mature Stage?"
"He is," Farah said, "But the Mature Stage for Great Oriyans begins at the Sixth Order. From what I can tell, this big guy only reached the Low Rank Sixth Order recently, so his intelligence is only about on par with a 10-year-old human child."
Suddenly thinking of something, Farah glanced down at Lucas and muttered, "An 'ordinary' 10-year-old child, not a strange one, like you."
Lucas wasn't sure whether he should take being called strange as a compliment, or an insult, but he decided to let it pass this time and instead asked, "What you mean is, this big guy also isn't very experiencing using his Soul Sense to communicate?"
"Exactly," Farah nodded, "He also doesn't seem familiar with humans in general, so it's possible he's never seen or spoken to our kind before, making the communication barrier even higher."
"Fascinating…" Lucas muttered, finding this whole experience to be somewhat exhilarating. He had always been a curious boy, and his curiosity had only grown after the accident, so this incident was undoubtedly an exciting one for many reasons.
"Lucas! Senior Farah!"
Hearing a voice calling out to them from behind, the pair turned around and saw Helen leading a small group of volunteers with 3 handcarts piled high with fresh grain, vegetables, and fruits, prepared according to Lucas' instructions.
*Chirp!*
The Great Oriyan also saw this and knew that it was finally dinnertime, so he chirped happily as he stared towards the carts and began drooling.
Instantly, the adults who were dragging the carts, Helen included, froze in place and began shivering in terror.
Lucas had to try really hard not to laugh when he saw this.
He knew that the Great Oriyan didn't have any interest in eating meat, and was only salivating at the foodstuffs that were being brought over, but he had to admit that if he didn't know that and was being stared at hungrily by the giant beast, he would probably be panicking too.
"Thanks for bringing the food over, Aunty Helen," Lucas called out, trying to draw the group's attention away from the hungry beast and to him, "You can just leave it there. Senior Farah and I will take care of the rest!"
Snapping out of her daze Helen shook her head vigorously before declaring, "N-N-No, w-we can do this!"
While Helen wanted to act brave, her stuttering tone gave away just how scared she was.
Still, Lucas wasn't going to discourage them and just shrugged, waving the small convoy of food carts over. Unless they acted aggressively for some reason, there wouldn't be any danger, so he wasn't too concerned about something going wrong.