"The Root One says she can be trusted," the human said. Then, he translated for the roarer, "The mother tree also gives trust to the queen worm." ”

"Are you going to give her your land?" Ander insisted.

"The world is big," the human translator translated for the roar. "She can use the forests of all the other tribes. You can too. We give them to you free of charge. ”

Ender looks at Oanda and Ella. "That's nice," said Ella, "but are they entitled to the forests?"

"Absolutely not," Ouanda said. "They're even fighting other tribes. ”

"If they cause you trouble, we will kill them for you," the human proposed. "We're very strong now. Three hundred and twenty babies. Ten years from now, there will be no tribe to stand up to us. ”

"Humans," Ender said, "tell the Howler that we're going to negotiate with this tribe now. We'll talk to the other tribes later. ”

The human quickly translated it, and his words were swift and swift, and he was quickly answered by the roarer. "No, no, no, no. ”

"What is she against?" Ander asked.

"Don't deal with our enemies. You come to us. If you go to them, you are enemies. ”

Just then a light appeared in the forest behind them, and Arrow and Leaf Eater led Nowanhua, Kim, and Orjardo into the wives' clearing.

"Miró sent us," Orjado explained.

"Is he okay?" asked Ouanda.

"It's paralyzed. Kim said frankly. This saved Nuo Wanhua the effort of euphemistic explanation.

"Nossasenhora (Note: Portuguese, O Our Lady. "Ouanda whispered.

"But to a considerable extent, temporary," Ms. Noe said. "Before I left, I shook his hand. He felt it and shook me back. There was only a little left, but the neural connections were not necrotic, at least, not all of them. ”

"I beg your pardon," said Ender, "but you can go back and continue these conversations in Miracle Town. I have other important business to attend here. ”

"I'm sorry," Ms. Nuo said. "Miró's message is as follows. He couldn't speak, but he spelled it out to us letter by letter, and we deduced the incoherent parts. The pigs are planning a war. Take advantage of the advantages they get from us. Bows and arrows, their numerical superiority - they will be unstoppable. However, as I understand it, Miró says that their act of war is not just a matter of conquering land. It is an opportunity for genetic mixing. Male surname exogamy (note: exogamy, refers to marrying someone outside the clan/village/tribe/home country). The victorious tribes were able to use the trees that grew from the bodies of the war dead. ”

Ender looked at the humans, the leaf-eaters, the arrows. "It's true," Arrow said. "Of course it's true. Now we are the smartest tribes. We all make good fathers better than any other pig. ”

"I see," Ender said.

"That's why Miró asked us to come to you tonight," Nowanhua said. "Before the negotiations are over. The scheme must be terminated. ”

The human stood up, bouncing up and down, as if he was about to take off. "I'm not going to translate that," the human said.

"I will," said the leaf-eater.

"Stop!" Ander yelled. His voice was much louder than ever. Everyone fell silent at once, and his roar seemed to echo among the trees. "Leaf eaters," said Ender, "I don't want any other translation than human. ”

"What the hell are you telling me I can't talk to my wives? I'm a pig and you're nothing. ”

"Human," Ender said, "tell Howler that if she asks the Leafeater to translate what we humans say within herself, he's a spy." If she asks him to spy on us, we will go home now, and you will get nothing from us. I'll take the Queen to another world to resurrect her. Do you understand?"

Of course he understands. Ender also knows that humans are happy to do this. The Leaf Eater was just trying to usurp humanity's place and degrade him - and Ender. After the humans had translated Ender's words, the Howler sang a few words to the Leaf Eater. Ashamed, he quickly retreated into the forest, joining the rest of the pigs.

But humanity is not a puppet in any sense of the word. He didn't show any gratitude. He looked Ender in the eye. "You said you wouldn't try to change us. ”

"I said I wouldn't try to change you unless I had to. ”

"Why does this have to change? It's something we do with the rest of the pigs. ”

"Beware," Oanda said. "He's irritable. ”

He had to convince the humans before he could hope to convince the roarer. "You are our earliest friends among the pigs. You have our trust and love. We will not do anything to harm you, or give any pig an advantage over you. But we're not here just for you. We represent all of humanity, and we are here to teach all the pigs what we can. No tribes. ”

"You do not represent all of humanity. You are preparing for war with the rest of humanity. So how can you say that our war is evil and yours is good?"

Pizarro, despite all his disadvantages, must have had an easier time dealing with Atahualpa.

"We're trying not to go to war with other humans. Ender said. "And if we go to war, it will not be our war either, a war in which we try to gain an advantage over them. It was your war to win you the right to travel across the stars. Ender held out his outstretched hand. "We put aside our human identities to become aliens with you. He clenched his hands into fists. "Humans, pigs, and worm queens, here in Lucitania, will become one. All human beings. All Zerg. All pigs. ”

The human sat down in silence, digesting the words.

"Speak of people," he said at last. "It's hard. Until you humans arrived, the other pigs were always killed, and their third life was to be our slaves in the forests we had. The forest was once a battlefield, and the oldest trees were the warriors who died in battle. Our oldest fathers were heroes of that war, and our house was made of cowards. All our lives we have been preparing to win the war against the enemy, so that our wives may plant a mother tree in a new battle forest to make us stronger and greater. Over the past thirty years we have learned how to attack from afar with a bow and arrow. Pottery and cabra fur were used to carry water over the parched land. Amaranth and Medonagan made us numerous, physically strong, and fed us far from the Maxio bugs in our forests. We rejoice in that, because it means we will win every battle. We will take our wives, our little mothers, our heroes to every corner of this great world, and one day into the stars. It's our dream, to talk about people, and you're telling me now that you want us to give it up like giving up a breeze from the sky. ”

It was a powerful speech. No one else could give Ender any advice on how to answer. Humanity almost convinced them.

"Your dreams are good," Ender said. "It is the dream of every living creature. This desire is the foundation of life itself: to grow to the point where all the spaces you can see become part of you, under your control. It's a desire for greatness. However, there are two ways to achieve it. One is to kill all that is not yours, devour it or destroy it, leaving nothing against you. But the path is evil. You say to the whole universe that only I will be great, and that in order to make room for me, the rest of you must give up what you already have and become nothing. Do you understand, humans, if we humans think so, and by doing so, we can kill every pig on Lusitania and make this our home. If we were evil, how many of your dreams would be left?"

Humanity is trying to understand. "I know you have given us a great gift when you can take away from us even what little we have. But if we can't be great with these gifts, what are you giving them to us for?"

"We want you to grow up and travel to the stars. We want you to be strong here in Lusitania, with hundreds of thousands of brothers and wives. We want to teach you how to grow many different kinds of plants and feed many different animals. Ella and Nowanhua, the two women here, will spend their lives developing more crops that can grow here in Lusitania, and for every good thing they develop, they will give it to you. so that you may grow. But why should pigs in other forests die just so that you can enjoy these gifts, and how will it hurt you if we give them the same gifts?"

"If they become as powerful as we are, what have we won?"

What am I expecting this brother to do, Ender thought. His people always measure themselves by comparison with other tribes. The size of their forests is not fifty or five hundred hectares - but whether they are larger or smaller than the forests of the tribes to the west or south. I must now do what should have been done in a generation: I must teach him a new way of thinking about the condition of his own people. "Is the Root One great?" Ander asked.

"I assert that he is," the human said. "He's my father. His tree wasn't the oldest, nor was it the most luxuriant, but no father we know of had so many children so soon after he was planted. ”

So in a sense, all the children who have been his father are also part of him. The more he becomes a father to his children, the greater he becomes. The human slowly bowed. "And the more you accomplish in your life, the greater your father becomes, right?"

"If his children do a great job, yes, that's a great honor to the father tree. ”

"Do you have to kill all the other great trees to make your father great?"

"That's different," the human said. "The other great trees are the fathers of the tribe. Not-so-great trees are just brothers. "But Ander can see that the human beings are a little unsure. He was still resisting Ender's train of thought because it was so strange, not because it was wrong or incomprehensible. He began to understand.

"Look at the wives," Ender said. "They don't have children. They will never be able to be great in the way your father did. ”

"Speak people, you know they're the greatest. The whole tribe obeyed them. When they rule over us well, the tribe will prosper, and the greater the tribe, the more powerful the wives will become—"

"Though none of you are their own children. ”

"How could we be?" the human asked.

"But you still add to their greatness. Even though they are not your mothers or fathers, they will grow with you. ”

"We are all of the same tribe. ”

"But why are you from the same tribe? You have different fathers, different mothers. ”

"Because we belong to this tribe! we live in the forest here, and we—"

"If another pig comes here from another tribe and asks you to let him stay and become a brother—"

"We're not going to make him a father tree!"

"But you try to make Pippo and Lipo the father tree. ”

Humans breathe heavily. "I see," he said, "they are part of the clan. From heaven, but we treat them as brothers and try to make them fathers. We believe that what a tribe is, it is. If we say that the tribe is all the little ones in the forest, and all the trees, then the tribe is all that. Even some of the oldest trees here are warriors from two different tribes, killed in battle. We became a clan because we asserted that we were a clan. ”

Ander was amazed at the little man's heterogeneous ability to think. How rare are human beings who can grasp this concept, or let it go beyond the narrow borders of their clans, their families, their countries. (Translator: Reminds me of the events of 7.5.) and others. When will this notion be accepted by the majority of people?)

The human walked up behind Ender and leaned against him, the weight of the young pig-clan weighing on his back. Ender's face felt the human breath, and then their cheeks pressed together, both looking in the same direction. Ander understood in an instant: "You see what I see," Ander said. "

"You humans have grown up by making us a part of you, and humans are with pigs and zergs. Then we became a tribe, and our greatness is your greatness, and yours is ours. Ander could feel the human body tremble at the power of the thought. "You are advocating to us that we must look at all other tribes in the same way. As a clan, our tribe is one, and in this way we grow by letting them grow and we grow. ”

"You can send teachers," Ender said. "Let the brothers go to other tribes, and they may enter their third life in other forests, and give birth to children there. ”

"It's a weird and troublesome thing to ask wives for this," the human said. "Maybe it's impossible. Their thinking is different from that of a brother. A brother can think about many different things. But a wife thinks only of one thing: what is good for the tribe boils down to what is good for the children and the little mother. ”

"Can you make them understand this?" Ander asked. "Definitely better than you can do," the human said. "But most of the time it still doesn't work. Most likely I will fail. ”

"I don't think you're going to fail," Ender said.

"You have come here tonight to sign an agreement between us, the pig people of this tribe, and you, the humans living in this world. Humans outside of Lusitania don't care about our agreement, and neither do the pigs outside of the forest. ”

"We hope to sign the same agreement with all of them. ”

"And in this agreement, you humans promise to teach us everything. ”

"You can teach as fast as you can understand. ”

"Anything we asked. ”

"If only we knew the answer. ”

(Note: The original text is when.) I don't know if it's a pen mistake by the author or a human slip of the tongue. In the first sentence, Ender uses the word as instead of when. Translation. If! These are not the words of an agreement! answer me directly, now, the deceased speaks of people. The human stood up, pushed Ander away, and circled in front of him, bent slightly, looking down at Ander. "Promise to teach us everything you know!"

"We are committed. ”

"You'll also promise that the resurrection worm will help us later. ”

"I'll resurrect the Worm Queen. You have to make your own agreement with her. She does not obey the laws of humanity. ”

"You promised to resurrect the Worm Queen, whether she helps us or not. ”

"Yes. ”

"You promise to obey our laws when you enter our forests. And you agree that the grassland areas we need are also under our legal jurisdiction. ”

"Yes. ”

"And you will fight against all the other humans in all the stars in the sky to protect us and allow us to travel to the stars?"

"We're already doing it. ”

The human relaxed, took a few steps back, and crouched down in his previous position. He used his fingers to draw on the dirt. "Now, let's talk about what you want us to do. Humans said. "We will obey the laws of humanity, in your cities, and in the grassland areas you need. ”

"Yes," Ender said.

"And you don't want us to go to war. Humans said.

"Exactly. ”

"That's all?"

"One more thing," Ender said.

"What you ask for is already impossible anyway," the human said. "You ask for more. ”

"Third life," Ender said. "When did it start? When you kill a pig and he grows into a tree, right?"

"The first life is in the Mother Tree, where we never see the light, where we blindly eat our Mother's body and the sap of the Mother Tree. The second life is when we live in the shade of a forest tree, semi-bright. Pigs believe that there is something that cannot be seen in the animal state. Run, walk, climb, see, sing, speak, and work with our hands. In the third life we reach out to the sun, drink the light, and finally have full vision, never to move again unless there is wind, only to think, and to talk to the brothers in those special days when they are beating on the trunk of your tree. Yes, that's the third life. ”

"Humans don't have a third life. ”

The humans looked at him, bewildered.

"When we die, even if you plant us, nothing will grow. There are no trees. We will never drink the light. When we die, we die. ”

Humans look at Ouanda. "But another book you gave us. It keeps talking about life after death and resurrection. ”

"Not as a tree," Ender said. "Not as anything you can touch or perceive. Neither does talking. There was no answer. ”

"I don't believe it," said the human, "and if that's true, then why did Pippo and Lipo let us plant them?"

Nowanhua fell to her knees beside Ender, next to him—no, leaning against him—so she could hear better.

"How did they get you to plant theirs?" said Ender.

"They have made a huge contribution and won great honors. Humans and pigs together. Pippo with the big guys. Lipo with the Leafeaters. Both the Big Man and the Leaf Eater thought they would win a third life, but each time, Pippo and Lipo refused to give them to them. They insisted on keeping the gift for themselves. If humans don't have a third life, why would they do that?"

At this time, Nuo Wanhua's voice came, hoarse and excited. "What do they have to do to give a third life to the big man or the leaf eater?"

"Of course they were planted," the human said. "Just like today. ”

"Like what is it today?" Ender asked.

"You and I," said the human, "the human and the dead speak of the man." If we had come to an agreement with the wives and the human race, it would be a great and noble day for us. So either you give me a third life, or I give it to you. ”

"By my own hands?"

"Of course," the human said. "If you refuse to give me this honor, then I must give it to you. ”

Ander remembers the image he first saw two weeks ago, of Pippo's limbs detached, his intestines flowing sideways, and parts of his body spread out. was planted. "Humanity," Ender said, "the worst crime a man can commit is murder." And one of the worst ways to commit a crime is to cut a living person open and make him seriously injured to death. ”

The human crouched down again, trying to sort it out. "Speak of people," he concluded, "I have two ways in my mind. If human beings don't have a third life, that kind of next is killing, eternal death. In our eyes, Lipo and Pippo are keeping the honor for themselves, leaving behind the big guys and leaf eaters, you see, they will not get the credit they deserve for their achievements until they die. In our eyes, you humans come out of the fence and go up to the hillside and pull them up from the ground before they can take root. In our eyes, it was you who committed the murder when you took Pippo and Lipo. But now I'm looking at it from a different angle. Pippo and Lipo are reluctant to send the big man and the leafeater to a third life, because for them it would be murder. So they prefer to let themselves die, simply because they don't want to be forced to kill any of us. ”

"Yes," Ms. Noe said.

"But if so, then why didn't you go into the forest to kill us all when you humans saw them on the hillside, and why didn't you light a fire that burned all our fathers, and the Great Mother Tree itself?"

The leaf-eaters wept at the edge of the forest, howling and weeping, and were in pain.

"If you cut down one of our trees," said the humans, "if you murder any of them, we will come to you in the night and kill you, every one of you." Even if some of you survive, our Messenger will tell each other tribe about the event, and none of you will be able to leave this land alive. Why didn't you kill us for the murder of Pippo and Lipo?"

The big man suddenly appeared behind the human, panting for air. He threw himself on the ground, his hands reaching for Ender. "I cut him open with those hands," he cried. "I wanted to give him glory, but I killed his tree forever!" ）”

"No," Ender said. He took the big man's hand and held them. "You both think you're saving each other's lives. He hurt you, and you - hurt him, yes, killed him, but you both think you're doing good. So far, that's enough. Now that you know the truth, so do we. We know you're not trying to murder. And you know that if you give a knife to a human being, we will die forever. This is the last of the agreements, humanity. Don't send other humans into a third life anymore, because we don't know how. ”

"When I tell the wives this story," said the human, "you'll hear them crying as terrible as the trees breaking in a thunderstorm." ”

He turned and stood in front of the yeller and spoke to her for a moment. Then he turned to Ender. "Leave now," he said.

"We haven't reached an agreement yet," Ender said.

"I have to speak to all the wives. They would never do that: leave no one to protect the little ones, while you are here, in the shade of the Mother Tree. Arrows will take you out of the forest. Wait for me on the hillside, where the Root One watches over the gate. Sleep if possible. I will present the agreement to the wives and try to make them understand that we must be as merciful to other tribes as you are to us. ”

The human impulsively stretched out a hand and placed it firmly on Ender's stomach.

"I propose my own personal agreement," he said to Ender. "I will always respect you, but I will never kill you. ”

Ender reached out his hand and placed his palm on the human's warm abdomen. The protrusions under his hands were warm to the touch. "I will always respect you, too," Ender said.

"If we make a pact between your tribe and us," said the human, "will you give me the glory of a third life?

"Can we do it faster? not in that horrible slow way—"

"Turn me into a dumb tree, so that I can never be a father, and let me have no honor but to feed the filthy Macio worms with my sap, and to offer my wood to my brothers when they sing to me?"

"Can no one else do this?" Ander asked. "A brother who knows how you live and die?"

"You don't get it," the human said. "That way the whole clan will know that we are telling the truth. Either you have to send me to a third life, or I have to send you there, or there is no agreement. I don't want to kill you, talk about people, and we both want to make a pact. ”

"I'll do it," Ender said.

The human nodded, withdrew his hand, and returned to the Howler.

"Ódeus," Ouanda whispered. "How can you be so ruthless?"

Ender couldn't answer. As the arrow led them through the forest, he silently followed him. Nowanhua gave the arrow her own glow-in-the-dark rod to lead the way, and the arrow played with it like a child, making the beam of light flicker and flicker, and let it fly high and low in the woods and bushes like a sucking fly. None of the pigs Ender had ever seen were happier and more naughty than he was now.

But behind them, they could hear the voices of their wives, singing a discordant, horrific song. The humans had told them the truth about Pippo and Lipo, and that they were finally dying, and in agony, all because they didn't want to be forced to do what they considered murder to the big man and the leafeater. No one spoke until they had gone far away, far away from the wails of their wives than the sound of their own footsteps and the wind in the woods.

"It was a requiem for my father's soul," Oanda said softly.

"It's for my father," replied Nowanhua, and they all knew that she was speaking of Pippo and not of the long-dead Venerable Gasto.

But Ender doesn't join in their conversation, he doesn't know Lipo and Pippo, and he doesn't have their sad memories. All he could think about was the trees in the forest. They used to be living, breathing pigs, and every single one of them was. Pigs can sing to them, speak to them, and even, somehow, understand what they say. But Ender can't. To Ender, these trees are not people, and they can never be people. If he plunged a knife into a human, it probably wasn't murder in the eyes of the pigs, but in Ender's own case, he was taking the only part of a human's life that he could understand. As a pig race, humans are a true xenomorph, a brother. As a tree, he was no different from a tombstone, as far as Ander could understand, and what he could truly believe.

Again, he thought, I had to kill, even though I swore I would never again.

He felt Nouvan's hand grasp the crook of his arm. She leaned over him. "Help me," she said, "and I can barely see anything in the dark." ”

"My night vision is good," Orjardo cheerfully offered behind her.

"Shut up, idiot," Ella whispered viciously. "Mother wanted to go with him. ”

Both Nuo Wanhua and Ander heard her words clearly, and they could both feel each other's silent laughter. As they walked, Nuo Wanhua pulled him closer. "I think you're determined to do what you have to do," she said softly, so that only he could hear.

"Ruthless?" he asked. His tone hinted at sarcastic humor, but the taste of the words in his mouth was sour and frank.

"Compassionate," she said, "to put a hot soldering iron on a wound when that is the only cure for it." ”

She had the right to say so, as someone who had experienced his burning iron burning her deepest wounds, and he believed her, so that his heart was no longer so bitter about the bloody work that was to be done.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Ander hadn't expected to fall asleep, knowing what was waiting for him ahead. But now that he had woken up, Nuo Wanhua's voice sounded softly in his ears. He realized he was in the open air, lying on the kapim grass, his head resting on Nowanwa's lap. (The legendary dream of a beautiful woman's knee pillow...... It's still dark.

"They're coming," Nuo Wanhua said softly.

Ender stood up. As a child, there was a time when he would be fully awake at once, for a moment, but at that time he was being trained as a soldier. Now it took him a bit of events to figure out where he was. Oanda and Ella were both awake and watching, Orjardo was sleeping, and Kim was waking up. The tree of the third life, which is the root, stands just a few meters away. Not far away, over the fence at the bottom of the valley, the first row of houses in the town of miracles stands on the slope, and the cathedral and monastery stand atop the highest nearest hill.

In the other direction, there is the forest, and the humans who are coming out of it, the big man, the leaf eater, the arrow, the cup, the calendar, the worm, the tree dancer, and a few other brothers whose names you don't know.

"I've never seen them," she said. "They must have come from other brothers' houses. ”

Have we made an agreement?, Ander muttered. That's the only thing I care about. Have humans given wives a new way of looking at the world?

Humans carry something. Wrapped in leaves. The pigs silently placed it in front of Ender, and the humans carefully untied it. It is a computer-printed book.

"The queen and the overlord," Ouanda said softly. "The one that Miró gave them. ”

"Agreements," the human said. Only then did they notice that the print was placed in reverse, with the blank pages facing up. There, in the light of a glow-in-the-dark rod, they saw faint handwritten letters. The letters are large, and the font is awkward. Ouanda was in awe. "We never taught them how to make ink," she said, "and we never taught them to write." ”

"The calendar learned to spell the alphabet," said the man, "and wrote it on the ground with a stick." And the worm made ink from the dried macios and the feces of the cabra. That's how you sign the agreement, isn't it?"

"Yes," Ender said.

"If we don't write it down on paper, then in the future we will have a different memory of it. ”

"That's right," Ender said. "You guys did the right thing about writing it down. ”

"We've made some revisions. The wives want some revisions, and I think you'll take them. "Humans point these places out. "You humans can make such a pact with other pigs, but you can't make a different agreement. You must not teach anything to the pigs that you have not yet taught us. Can you accept that?"

"Of course," Ender said.

"The following one is easy. Now, what if we have a disagreement about the rules? So the roar said, let the queen make a judgment between humans and the little ones. Let humans make a judgment between the little ones and the queen worm. And let the little ones make a judgment between the queen worm and the human. ”

Ender wondered how easy it would be. He still remembered, though no other living person still remembered, how terrifying the Zerg were three thousand years ago. They (Note: The Zerg are all female surnames, so they are translated as them.) The insect-like body is a nightmare for humans as a child. How easy will the people of Miracle Town be to accept their judgments?

So it's hard. But it's no harder than what we're asking the pigs to do.

"Yes," Ender said. "We can accept that, too. That's a good idea. ”

"There is one more revision," Humanity said. He looked up at Ender and grinned. The smile looked terrifying, as the pig-dwelling face was not born for this human expression. "That's why it took so long. All these revisions. ”

Ander smiled.

"If a pig tribe is unwilling to make a pact with humans, then if that tribe attacks a tribe that has signed an agreement, we can go to war with it. ”

"What do you mean by attack?" Ander asked. If they can treat a mere insult as an attack, then this paragraph will nullify the war ban.

"Attack," the human said. "From the time they enter our land and kill their brothers or wives. They expressed their willingness to fight on their own, or if they made an agreement to go to war, it was not an attack. If they don't declare war, it's an attack. Since we would never agree to a war agreement, attacks by other tribes became the only way for the war to begin. I knew you were going to ask. ”

Pointing to the wording of the agreement, he found that what constituted an attack was carefully defined in the treaty.

"That's also acceptable," Ender said. This means that the possibility of war will not be eliminated for generations, perhaps centuries, because it will take a long time to bring this agreement to every pig tribe in this world. But long before the last tribe joined the pact, Ender thought that the benefits of peaceful exogamy would become apparent, and few pigs would ever want to become warriors.

"Here's the last revision," the human said. "The wives say it's to punish you for making this agreement so difficult. But I think you'd think it's not punishment. Since we are forbidden to send you to the Third Life, humanity will also be forbidden to send the Pigs to the Third Life when this agreement comes into force. ”

For a while, Ender thought it meant his relief, that he wouldn't be forced to do something that both Lepo and Pippo had refused.

"After the agreement," the human said. "You will be the first and last human to give this gift. ”

"I hope ......," Ender said.

"I know what you want, my talker friend," said the human. "It feels like murder to you. But for me - if a brother is given the right to enter into a third life, to be a father, then he will choose his best rival or his truest friend to send him on his way. You. Speakers - I've been waiting for you since I learned the language of the stars, and since I read the Worm Queen and the Overlord. I have said many times to my Father, the Rooter, that He will be the one who understands us among all human beings. Then when the Root told me about your starship landing, carrying you and the Queen of Worms, I knew you were going to take me on my way, as long as I did a good job. ”

"You've done a great job, human," Ender said.

"Here," he said, "see, we have signed this agreement in the human way. ”

At the bottom of the last page of the agreement, there are two crude, laborious drawings there.

"Human," Ender read aloud. There was another word he couldn't pronounce.

"That's the real name of the Howler," the human said. "Stargazers. She was not a good writer - the wives did not use the tools often, because the brothers did the work. So she wants me to tell you what her name is. And to tell you that she got the name because she was always looking at the sky. She said that although she didn't know it at the time, she was looking forward to you. ”

So many people have placed so much hope on me, Ander thought. But, in the end, everything depends on them. By Nowanhua, by Miro, by Ella, they brought me in, by humans and stargazers. And also by those who are afraid of my coming.

The worm brought the ink cup, and the calendar brought the pen. It was a slender stick of wood with a crack and a small pit in it, leaving a little ink in it when he dipped it into the cup. In order to sign his name, he had to dip five times. "Five," said the arrow. It was then that Ander remembered that the number five pair of pigs was a mysterious number. It's just a coincidence, but it would be much better if they chose to see it as a good sign.

"I will submit this agreement to our chief and bishop," Ender said.

"Of all the documents that have been remembered in human history...... Ouanda said. No one needs her to finish the sentence to understand. Humans, leaf-eaters, and bigwigs carefully wrapped the book and handed it to Oanda instead of Ender. Ed knew immediately, fearfully, what that meant. The pigs still have work for him to do, jobs that require his hands to be empty.

"Now the agreement is done in human terms," the human said. "You've got to do it exactly the way the little ones do. ”

"Isn't signing enough?" Ander asked.

"It's enough to sign from now on," said human. "But that's only because the hand that signed for humanity also completed the agreement our way. ”

"Then I'll do it," Ender said, "as I promised, I'll do it." ”

The human reached out and tapped Ender's throat and then his stomach. "The promise of the brother is not only in his mouth," he said. "The brother's promise is in his life. He turned to the other pigs. "Let me talk to my father one last time before I stand by his side. ”

Two strange brothers stepped forward, their little sticks in their hands. They walked with the humans to the Root Tree's tree and began to beat it, humming in paternal language. The trunk cracked almost immediately. The tree was still quite young, with a trunk not much thicker than a human being, and it was a great struggle for him to squeeze in. But he went in, and then the trunk closed behind him. The percussion changed the melody, but it didn't stop for a moment.

Jane whispered in Ender's ear. "I could hear the reverberation of the tapping inside the tree changing," she said. "The tree is slowly modulating the echoes, translating the percussions into words. ”

Other pigs began to clear the ground for the human trees. Ender noticed that he would be planted in such a way that from the gate, the Root appeared to be standing on the left hand and the human on the right. Uprooting the kapim grass was hard work for the pigs, and soon Kim was helping them, then Orhado, then Onanda and Ella.

Ouanda handed over the agreement to Nowanhua, and she also went to help dig up the kapim grass. Then, with it in hand, Nuo Wanhua walked over to Ender, stood in front of him, and looked at him steadily. "You're signing it up for Ander Viking," she said. "Ender. ”

It was a name that sounded ugly to his own ears. Too often he'd heard it used as a swear word. "I'm older than I look," Ender said. "This is the name I was known for when I destroyed the Zerg home. Perhaps the appearance of the name in the first agreement between humans and xenomorphs will bring a slight change in the meaning of the name. ”

"Ender," she whispered. She held out her hands to him, and she held the wrapped treaty in her hand and pressed it against his chest, which was heavy because its pages contained the full text of the Queen and the Overlord on one side, and the pact on the other. "I never confessed to the priests," she said, "because I knew they would despise me for my sins." But today when you speak of all my sins, I can bear it, because I know that you do not despise me. I don't understand why, though, until now. ”

"I'm not one to despise others for their sins," Ender said. "I haven't found anyone to say in my own heart that I'm doing worse than that. ”

"You have borne the sins of all mankind for all these years. ”

"yes, well, it's not a mystery," Ender said. "I thought it was like a sign of Cain. You don't make many friends, but no one hurts you (God's expulsion of Cain was accompanied by a sign on him that no one would kill him.) See Old Testament Genesis 4:9–4:15. ）。 ”

The ground cleared. The big man speaks to the pig-struck in the language of the tree, and their melody changes, and then the opening in the tree opens again. The human slid out like a baby that had been laid. Then he walked to the center of the ground that was clear. The Leaf Eater and the Big Man each handed him a knife. Humans took the knife and said to them - in Portuguese, so that humans could understand them, so that they could have a greater impact. "I said to Howler, you missed your path to the third life because of the great misunderstanding between Pippo and Lipo. She said that in another hand and one hand of the day (note: ahandofhandsofdays. Pigs seem to use the "hand" as the carrying card. Maybe it's a hand-to-hand index?), both of you will sprout towards the sun. ”

Both the leaf-eaters and the big man let go of their knives, lightly touching the human's stomach before retreating to the edge of the clearing.

The human hands the knife to Ender. They are all made of thin pieces of wood. Ander couldn't imagine any tool that could polish wood so polished, so sharp, and so hard at the same time. But of course, there are no tools to grind these out. They are born to be so perfectly shaped, coming from the heart of a living tree as a gift to help a brother enter a third life.

It's one thing for him to know in his heart that humans don't really die. It's another thing to believe that. Ander didn't take the knife in the first place. Instead, he reached over the blade and grabbed the human's wrist. "It doesn't feel like death to you. But for me - I saw you for the first time only yesterday, but tonight I feel that you are my true brother, as if the root was my father. But when the sun rises in the morning, I can't talk to you anymore. It feels like death to me, human, no matter how you feel. ”

"Come and sit in the shade of my tree," said the human, "watch the sun shine through my leaves, and rest your back against my trunk." Also, please do this. Let's add another story after the Queen of Worms and the Overlord. Call it a human life. Tell all mankind how I was conceived in the trunk of my father's tree, born in the dark, and gnawed at my mother's **. Tell them how I left the dark phase of my life and entered my half-light second life, learning the language from my wives and learning all the miracles that Lipo and Miró and Oanda had taught us. Tell them how my true brother came from heaven on the last day of my second life, and how we came to this agreement together, so that humans and pigs would become one tribe, not a human tribe or a pig tribe, but a different tribe. And then my friend opened me up to the third life, to the full light, so that I could ascend into the sky and give life to thousands of children before I died. ”

"I'll tell your story," Ender said.

Then I really got eternal life. ”

Ander took the knife. The human lies on the ground.

"Orjado," Nowanhua said. "Kim. Go back inside the door. Ella, you too. ”

"I'm going to witness this, Mother. Ella said. "I'm a scientist. ”

"You've forgotten my eyes," Orjardo said. "I'm documenting everything. We can show humanity anywhere that the treaty has been signed. We can also show the Pig Clan that the Speakers have done the same thing as they did. ”

"I'm not leaving," Kim said. "The blessed virgin is still standing under the cross. ”

"Then stay (Note: The first edition here is for you to stay.) From a later version. "Nuo Wanhua said softly. She also stayed.

The human's mouth was stuffed with kapim grass, but he didn't chew much. "Chew more," said Ender, "so that you don't feel anything." ”

"That's not right," said the big man. "It was the last moment of his second life. It's good to feel some bit of pain in this body, so that you can remember it when you're in the third life, beyond the pain. ”

The big man and the Leaf Eater tell Ander where and how to go with the knife. It had to be done quickly, they told him, their hands reaching into the bleeding bodies to point out the organs that had to be placed here and there. Ender's hands were fast and steady, and his body was steady, but even though he could only occasionally catch a glimpse from this surgical operation, he also knew that throughout his bloody work, human eyes were watching him, looking at him, full of gratitude and love, full of pain and death.

It was happening under his hands, so quickly that they could see it grow in the first few minutes. Several large organs withered, and roots flew out of them, tendrils spread in all directions, man's eyes widened in the last pain, and a new shoot, two leaves, four leaves, burst out of his spine.

Then stopped. The ** was dead, and the last of its throbbing strength had been exhausted in the creation of the tree that had taken root in the human backbone. Ander saw the roots and tendrils pass through the body. The memories and souls of human beings have been transferred to the cells of this budding sapling. It's over. His third life has begun. Soon after, when the sun rises in the morning, the leaves taste the sun for the first time.

The rest of the pig clan is rejoicing. The Leaf Eater and the Grand Man took knives from Ender and stuck them in the ground on either side of the human head. Ender was unable to join them in the celebration. He was covered in blood, and the stench of the body he had just slaughtered. He crawled away from the body on all fours, to the place on the hill where he didn't have to see it. Nuo Wanhua followed him. They were all exhausted by the day's work and all kinds of emotions, and they were sleepy. They didn't say anything, they didn't do anything, they just lay down in the thick kapim grass, and everyone leaned or lay on top of the others. As the pigs danced out of the hill and into the forest, they finally fell asleep and sought solace there. (What a coincidence...... Translation: I'm so tired that I'm sleeping)

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Bishops of Bosquina and Peregrino set out for the gate before the sun rose, waiting for the Speakers to return from the forest. It was a full ten minutes before they saw a little movement, much closer than the edge of the forest. It was a boy, sleepy urinating into a bush.

"Orhado!" shouted the mayor.

The boy turned, waved, and hurriedly fastened his pants and began to wake up the others sleeping in the tall grass. Bosquina and the bishop opened the door and went out to meet them.

"It's stupid, isn't it," said Bosquina, "but now is the time when our rebellion feels most real." When I first stepped out of the fence. ”

"Why did they stay outside all night?" Peregrino questioned aloud. "The door is open, they can go home. ”

Bosquina quickly surveyed the crowd outside the door. Oanda and Ella, holding hands like sisters (Hey, Mayor, they're sisters, aren't they...... ）。 Orjardo and Kim. Nuo Wanhua. And, well, the talker, sitting there, Nuo Wanhua behind him, her hand resting on his shoulder. They all waited, not saying a word. Until Ender looked up at them. "We reached an agreement," he said. "It's a good deal. ”

Nowanhua held up a small package wrapped in leaves. "They wrote it down. She said. "Sign for you. ”

Bosquina took the package. "All the files were restored before midnight," she said. "It's not just the ones we've put in your queue. No matter who your friend is, he is really powerful. ”

"She," said the speaker. "Her name is Jane. ”

By this time, however, the Bishop and Bosquina could see what was lying in the clearing beneath the hillside where the Talker slept. Now they understood what those black spots on the hands and arms of the speaker were, the stains that splattered on his face.

"I'd rather have no agreement," Bosquina said, "than a deal you have to make by killing." ”

"Wait and judge," the bishop said. "I think there's a lot more going on that night than what we've seen right in front of our eyes. ”

"Very wise, Father Peregrino," the speaker whispered.

"I'll explain it to you if you want to," Ouanda said. "Ira and I understand this as well as anyone else. ”

"It's like a sacrament," Orjardo said.

Bosquina looked at Nowanhua incomprehensibly. "You let him see it?"

Orjado patted his eyes. "All pigs will see it one day, through my eyes. ”

"It's not death," Kim said. "It's rebirth. ”

The bishop approached the corpse of the tortured corpse and touched the small sapling that had grown from his chest. "He is called a human being," said the Speaker.

"You too," the bishop said softly. He turned to look around at the members of his little flock, who had taken a step towards places they had never set foot before. I am the shepherd, Peregrino asked himself, or the most bewildered of the flock?" Come and come with me to the cathedral. The bell of Mass will ring soon. ”

The children gathered and got ready to go. Nuo Wanhua also walked away from the position behind the speaker. Then she stopped, turned to face him, and looked at him with a silent invitation in her eyes.

"Right now," he said. "Wait a little longer. ”

She also followed the bishop through the gate and climbed the hill into the cathedral.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――

As Mass was about to begin, Peregrino saw the speakers enter the back of the cathedral. He paused, then used his eyes to find Nowanhua and his family. After walking only a few steps, he sat down next to Nuo Wanhua. Makau had sat there on one of the few occasions when the family had come together.

The duties of the ceremony diverted his attention, and after a while, when Peregrino was able to raise his eyes again, he saw Grego now sitting next to the speaker. Peregrino remembered the provisions of the treaty that the girls had explained to him. I remembered the meaning of the death of the pig tribe called human, and the meaning of the death of Pippo and Lipo before him. Everything is clear, everything is in place. The young man, Miro, was lying on the bed, cared for by his sister Oanda. Nowanhua, the lost one (Note: See the story of the ninety-nine lambs and the lost lamb in the supra note. ), and now it has been recovered. The fence, whose shadow once enveloped the minds of all those who lived within its confines, now stood still, unharmed, imperceptible, and fragile.

It was the holy bread of miracles, which became the flesh of God in his hands. How suddenly, we discover that God's flesh exists in us after all, and when we think we are nothing but dust of dust (see Genesis 2:7).