The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1117

Chapter 1116
Dancing Skirt and Little Deer
Iris Kingdom, Lessar Gnaire.
A lady wearing a hat and a light green silk dress, carrying her small purse, sits quietly in one of the few shrines in this city, quietly closing her eyes and praying.
Her appearance is quite delicate, the kind that is quite pleasing to the eye. She has deep brown curly hair, almost black, and wears light makeup. She doesn’t wear any jewelry, giving people a pleasing and “ordinary beautiful” feeling.
Father Cassius, who was consecrating the Sacred Statue with Holy Water, looked at her from afar, somewhat lost in thought.
He knew her—at least he knew her name. This was information he obtained once when he distributed gifts during a festival.
Her name is Clara, a Dance Teacher at an art university in Lessar Gnaire. She also teaches ballet to the daughters of wealthy people during her vacation. She is usually gentle and always smiles faintly with her eyes curved. She gives the impression of being very gentle, not liking to talk much, and not being very sociable.
She looks like some noble young lady…
Father Cassius had this thought.
This is not surprising. After all, in Iris Kingdom, noble status can easily be lost in a random Uprising. As the Iris Kingdom develops, some families that have prospered for a hundred years may suddenly fall into decline one day. Once the women from these families lose the protection of their families, it is difficult for them to find any proper work beyond etiquette, dance, and music.
Even… even this kind of work might not be available. Compared to men, women often have a harder time supporting themselves.
It’s not that they can’t endure hardship or lack ability. It’s because Eagle Eye likes to capture people from these fallen noblewomen.
They have good looks, figures, and temperament. With a little training, they can become excellent dancers—if they are willing to become assassins, they will have more assassination opportunities than male assassins; if they are unwilling, they can also provide funds for the organization through various means. From this perspective, Eagle Eye doesn’t actually want them to be able to support themselves.
“Father Cassius,” an old voice came from behind, “Come here—the barrier seems to be making some noise.”
“Oh… okay.”
Cassius, who was loafing around, heard his teacher’s voice and quickly responded.
As he left, he subconsciously glanced back at Clara.
A middle-aged gentleman, dressed neatly and looking quite well-off, sat next to Clara.
He did not interact with Clara, but with a solemn expression, he closed his eyes and prayed in a low voice.
“Father Cassius?”
“—Coming, coming!”
Cassius cast one last reluctant glance at Clara before wiping his hands and hurrying over.
After he left, the middle-aged gentleman let out a soft scoff.
“That child seems to like you, [Dancing Skirt].”
His lips were still moving with the prayer, but a voice completely different from his lip movements reached Clara’s ears.
“I know.”
Clara responded similarly.
She replied softly, her voice sounding colder than her gentle and tranquil appearance.
“Is he also your hook?”
“No, he’s just a bell.”
Clara replied, “He’s already hooked, we can reel him in at any time.”
Hook and bell are both code words in the Eagle Eye organization. The former refers to those who can help make money or do dirty work for the organization and are controlled by it—for example, by holding their weaknesses or by bribing them with money and beauty.
The bell, on the other hand, means “something that can be used to attract attention.” For example, some assassins marry civilians who have no idea of their identities, using this method to conceal their identities, allowing them to enter certain places legitimately or have a sufficient reason to go somewhere.
As long as the actions are reasonable, non-directional astrology is ineffective against them. This is because their motives for assassination will be concealed by the motives of another event, thus confusing them—for example, someone plans to take their child to the zoo and kill someone on the way back. Then, when predicting his trajectory, one can at most discover that he plans to go to the zoo.
Evading astrology that can predict the future is a mandatory course for high-level assassins. Those important figures—especially the Children of the Moon—often spend a lot of money to hire Ritualists and astrologers to intercept curses and assassinations. If they cannot bypass divination, the astrologer might know what they plan to do even earlier than the assassin themselves.
The essence of astrology is limited precognition by detecting the intentions of others. It is not that they can truly see the future.
For example, who will go where, who has clear hostility and killing intent towards whom, and from which direction the person with killing intent comes—at most, with the resonance of the Path, they can occasionally see fragments of the future.
However, mature astrologers usually do not believe the future they see and only take it as a reference… because fragments without beginning or end are more likely to mislead themselves.
Therefore, unless the assassin’s identity is completely exposed, the registered assassins of the Eagle Eye organization usually do not abandon their social identities. Mature assassins often do not go to the stronghold; instead, the contact person directly assigns missions—because any stronghold might already be under surveillance, thus becoming unsafe or exposed.
Once they enter a monitored stronghold, it might mean their identity has been revealed.
And if they lose the protection of their identity… a person with no social interaction and a blank identity is too easy to track. They don’t even need astrology; ordinary intelligence gathering and identity verification will cause their assassination missions to fail due to various accidents. They might even expose or lead to the capture of everyone in a stronghold due to the exposure of their identity.
Clara, as a dance teacher, and the wealthy businessman with three children, have no reasonable overlap in public. They both cherish the identities they have cultivated for years and clearly do not intend to break them due to unreasonable behavior. The most suitable place for them to communicate is the church.
Although the relationship between Iris Kingdom and the Church is not good, and there are not many devout believers here, it is not strange for anyone to believe in God. Moreover, there will be no listening devices or precognitive rituals set up in the church… this is a sufficiently safe place.
They can exchange information while praying.
“Are you just baiting him, or do you really plan to marry him?” the man asked.
“We’ll see how he performs.”
Clara said calmly, “That guy is an honest person, with a gentle personality. He’s fine as a bell at least. His potential should allow him to become a Bishop… Since Teacher is now following the Church, we should also build good relationships with the people of the Church in advance, Xiaolu.”
“Yes, I know.”
Despite being the father of three children, he had the cute nickname “Xiaolu.”
This politely dressed entrepreneur remained silent for a moment, then asked his senior sister, who looked young, about serious business: “How’s the investigation going?”
“It’s basically confirmed, it’s under this church.”
“Dancing Skirt” said softly, word by word.
“It’s the ‘darkness under the lamp’…”
Xiaolu lowered his eyes nonchalantly. “Should we report it directly, or investigate further? We can let those young assassins try it out. Just so happens… they’ve been quite worked up lately.”
“…Report it directly. This much is enough. If I investigate further, I’m afraid something might go wrong.”
Dancing Skirt was silent for a moment, but still didn’t follow Xiaolu’s suggestion.
She lowered her eyes with a touch of sadness.
(End of this chapter)