Odin no longer stood, and he seemed to have truly taken Catalasson, who was staring at him, as a loyal listener, and sat on his knees on the damp stone slabs, all the flames around him extinguished, as dark as a tomb, except for Odin's voice echoing through the underground passages. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"The first story is about a flock of birds by the sea. Walking above the shadow of the earth, struggling on the edge of life and death every day. For about a month, I walked to a promontory at the edge of the earth, where there was nothing but hurricanes and waves, and there was only a flock of seabirds. ”

"The living conditions of these birds are very harsh, and in the winter, they have no ability to cross the sea, they cannot find food, and most of them can only starve to death, and the remaining birds eat the carrion of their companions to survive. ”

"So, for a whole month, waiting for the wind and waves to subside, I raised a flock of birds, whose white feathers were frozen in the snow and ice, and whose eyes were closed almost all day because of hunger, except that occasionally when one of the birds died, the flock would fight over food. ”

So I fed the flock of food—I don't know if it was a coincidence, the first bird to eat smacked its head on the ground—and it took a shell from my hand. ”

Odin paused, and found Carter looking at him silently—as if thoughtful. So, he continued: "The other birds, seeing that there is no danger, have taken the food from my hands one after another. ”

So, for a whole month, I spent a whole month knocking shells on the icy reef and digging up fresh meat to feed the seabirds. In winter, the shellfish is fat and tender, and the birds no longer have to feed on carrion. ”

"Next, I noticed a strange phenomenon, you can guess what-"

Odin looked at Carter and saw that the other party had no intention of answering, as if he was impatient with this story without any plot, so he said: "In the first few days, a small number of seabirds had to knock their heads on the rocks before taking their food away. ”

"This senseless act is contagious like a disease. ”

"Until the first few days of my crossing, almost the entire flock of birds had to bang their heads against the rocks before eating the meat I gave them!"

"It's a boring story, what do you want to illustrate?" said Katralsson, finally with a look of annoyance.

"All collective animals have a sense of collectivity - this consciousness is not intelligent, and some can even be said to be very stupid. But if you are in this group, if you don't believe in this obvious fallacy, you will be isolated from the group and doubt your own beliefs - what most people believe, at least not outright false. ”

"This group mood is fanatical, contagious, and - easy to succumb to simple, contagious figurations. It's like a bird that believes that kowtowing will give you better food, and a small flock of seabirds believes in it, and then the belief of the seabirds infects the whole community - and finally they firmly believe that only kowtow can get food. ”

"So you think the god Osiris is false?" Carter asked very calmly.

"I didn't say that, you can judge for yourself - at least for now, the Sanctuary does use some special means that allows you to control the weak power of the Origin - that's what you often call a spell. In this sense, there is indeed an unusually powerful force that underpins the entire imperial belief system. Odin said.

Carter was speechless, and there was only a slightly rapid breathing in the entire dark passage, and finally the young heir finally calmed down, made up his mind, and asked, "So, what about the second story?"

"You've seen the Ghost Eaters - they're the most common creatures in the Shadows. Once I was traveling on an ice field and came across such a group of monsters. ”

"At that time, my Origin Power was still very strong, and it was not too restricted by physical growth, so I easily subdued them. Because walking in the wasteland was so lonely, I didn't kill the devourers, but let them stay with me. ”

"Only the leader of this creature is the authority of the race, and it commands, leads the devouring hordes to attack, hides, and enjoys the most females. The rest of the devourers are basically equal - sometimes they have to fight for food. ”

"I killed the lead devourer in order to get the beasts to obey the order, and for days on end, the group spent time fighting over food and fighting each other. Sometimes, of course, I hunt ice bears, and when there is enough food, they will consciously divide it equally - when every member of the pack is equal. ”

Odin noticed that Carter was holding his breath, understanding that the other party was beginning to take an interest in his narrative.

"In order to make it easier to manage, I have begun to assign official positions to these devourers - they have a low level of intelligence and can understand simple prophecies. Two were responsible for distributing food, one for arbitrating disputes, and the other three for enforcing the punishment - if orders were not followed, food would be starved, the population would be temporarily expelled, or freedom of movement would be prohibited. ”

Odin smiled and said: "To be honest, I don't like rough punishment, at that time I was very yearning for human civilization, and I always felt that this was a continent without blood, full of wisdom, and everyone had noble character. So, I took some civilized punishments. ”

"There are thirteen devourers in this group, and when the leader dies, the administrator and the governed are divided half. Theoretically, there is no distinction between the two sides, and they can rebel against my arrangement together, or one side can unite over the other. ”

Odin paused again, as if to hear Carter's guess. He observed the other party's spiritual sea and found several interesting opinions—as if he had been completely attracted to his story.

"On the first and third days, the Eaters in charge of management showed slackness, deliberately not carrying out their judgments and distributing food, leaving most of them for themselves, except for one Eater who acted unexpectedly - the monster that became the arbiter, the most cowardly member of the Race, and which was unusually determined to carry out my orders. ”

Of course, the manager's actions caused the other members to be dissatisfied, and the remaining six devourers pounced on them, making a big deal, and stealing a lot of meat. The two-headed monsters that distributed the food, let's call them 'allotters' for now, didn't express strong opposition, they didn't want to do their duty in the first place, and they just succumbed to me, a higher creature with a deterrent power. ”

"In the past three days, the executive officer has not once punished his companion for snatching food. At this time, we believe that the community is still equal and united. ”

On the fourth day, things took a turn for the worse - two civilian ghosts snatched the food of the executor, and the arbitrator ruled that the two criminals should be deprived of food. ”

"The allocator executed the sentence for the first time, divided the food equally with the other managers for the next two days, and the executor tasted power for the first time, and began to embrace the usually estranged arbiter. ”

"Strangely, the three-headed executive is so strong that either one can easily defeat the arbiter and replace him, but instead of doing so, they obey the weakened leader. ”

Since then, the stewards have faithfully carried out their duties, as if enjoying the pleasure of power, and have intensified their punishments and obtained more food for themselves. ”

"Of course, this would lead to revolt - the two devourers deprived of food attacked the arbiter one night - and they tried to incite their other companions to do so, but without success. All the allotters, the executors, rushed out, and the weak leader who swore to protect them to the death drove out the attacking beasts that night. ”

In the dark, Carter took a breath and waited for the end of the story.

"In the end, the Eater of Demons formed an unusually peculiar structure—the weakest arbiter was always at the front, the Distributors and Executors carefully followed the left and right, while the four strong Commoner Eaters humbled to the rule of the other class, and the two rebels were isolated by the entire race, and even the oppressed civilians did not give them a second glance. ”

Odin utters the end - bland, not even narrative, more illustrative of the phenomenon.

Katralsson, who was standing in front of him, clenched the "meeloid worm" and seemed to have made up some kind of determination.

"With that said, do you still think the Sanctuary has the power to rule over the territory, collect taxes, and adjudicate everything?" Odin asked.

The heir of the Larson family is astonishingly sane and calm, and his emotions tormented by faith and hatred have been completely calmed, as the black-robed warlock said - he has "abandoned his faith". He was determined to take another path for hatred.

Carter said in an extremely cold voice, "So, what do I need to do?"

======================

No matter how you rushed, it was still a few minutes late