Chapter 132: Contact
Zannick, Aoxi, Obei, and Ember’s simultaneous questions embarrassed that Shandia warrior a bit.
He had clearly deliberately lowered his voice, but in the end, it was all heard.
Are these Blue Sea people’s ears this sharp?
“You people living in the sky, what kind of calamity could you have? Typhoon? Or thunderstorm?”
Aoxi asked curiously.
“I don’t know, the chieftain didn’t elaborate. But it does seem to be related to ‘lightning’.”
Then the Shandia warrior recalled that he seemed to vaguely hear the word ‘thunder’ at that time.
“I see~ You guys have it tough too.”
“The probability of getting struck by lightning in the sky should be much higher than on the ground. Looks like I can’t make casual vows here~”
Aoxi nodded to herself and said.
“Haha~ Actually, it’s not that bad.”
“We’ve actually never heard of anyone here being struck by lightning, and we rarely encounter thunderclouds or anything like that.”
“Oh, I see…”
Ember and Obei, following behind, watched the two who were already chatting smoothly and couldn’t help but sigh once again at Aoxi’s social skills.
……
As the group chatted, they passed through a misty area and finally arrived at the holy land hidden in the clouds—Cloud Village.
Although called ‘Cloud Village’, unlike those prosperous so-called “villages” in XX Ninja that are like cities, this place is more like a primitive tribe.
Sparse simple tents are scattered around, with ox horn-like decorations and strange patterns hanging on top.
The cloud island underfoot has been roughly processed to become the so-called ‘road’, with stone pillars featuring strong ‘Indian’ characteristics standing on both sides of the road, and many children chasing and playing around the stone pillars.
“Chieftain, I’ve brought Zannick and the others back!”
“Hm?”
“Zannick has been found?”
At this moment, the Shandia Chieftain was sitting in his own tent, drinking pumpkin juice while thinking about the next strategy.
Hearing that Zannick was fine, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
This warrior captain, about the same age as him, also holds a pivotal status in the village.
The two basically complement each other, with the chieftain handling internal civilian affairs and Zannick responsible for external wars.
Now that the tribe might face an unprecedented great crisis, although the chieftain shows no sign on the surface, he actually feels quite insecure without this warrior captain.
“Yo~ Uncle, are you the shadow of Cloud Village? Do you know Lightning Release?”
The chieftain had just wanted to step out of the tent to ask about Zannick’s situation when he ran head-on into the energetic Aoxi.
Looking at this lively and cute stranger little girl in front of him, the anxiety in the chieftain’s heart miraculously eased a bit.
“Haha~ I’m the chieftain of this village, but not some ‘shadow’, and I don’t know any ‘Lightning Release’.”
“But you… little girl, who are you all?”
The chieftain wearing a wolf-head hat couldn’t help smiling and patted Aoxi’s head, then looked at the group of people behind her.
Hm, except Zannick who seems to have some injuries, with bandages on both palms, the other Shandia warriors look fine.
As for that group of outsiders… a man over three meters tall with flames coming from his back—this one clearly isn’t harmless.
There’s also a blue-haired little girl about the same as the one in front of him, who seems a bit curious and is looking around.
The remaining three look very ordinary, with no notable features.
『Quite a strange group.』
This was the Shandia Chieftain’s first impression.
Although outsiders to Sky Island are rare, he has seen a few.
But outsiders bringing two children like this—he’s encountering that for the first time.
After all, whether coming directly here from the Blue Sea via the “Skyward Sea Current” or via “West Heaven’s Peak”, either method is a nine-out-of-ten chance of death, really not suitable for bringing children along.
“Us… well, that’s a long story~”
“We were originally just passersby eating hot pot and singing on the ship, but suddenly we were attacked by your people!”
“It was that leading uncle, who pointed a cannon as thick as a bowl mouth right at my face and fired!”
“Look, my eyebrows were almost singed off!”
“Wah wah wah~”
Having found an opening, Aoxi unleashed a combo of accusations and professional fake crying, pushing all the blame onto the Shandia people and quickly seizing the moral high ground.
Meanwhile, the nearby Shandia people who were watching the spectacle heard that their own warrior captain had attacked even such a small girl, and their faces showed embarrassment, with their gazes toward Zannick becoming a bit off.
This is not what a qualified Shandia warrior should do!
What’s more, as the descendant of the great warrior Kargra, he shouldn’t have done that even more.
“Ahem! Y-yes, that’s how it is. Sorry, we were rude.”
“Wah wah wah~”
Aoxi didn’t respond, continuing her fake crying.
“We will give you compensation.”
“Really?”
At this, Aoxi perked up immediately, stopping her fake crying and staring intently into the chieftain’s eyes.
“Yes, since we were at fault first, anything we can provide will be given as compensation to you.”
It was a time of troubles right now, and the chieftain really didn’t want to offend this group of unknown origins any further.
He had actually noticed Zannick’s hand injury at first glance; for the tribe’s strongest warrior to be left in such a sorry state, this group’s strength was absolutely not to be underestimated.
If he could resolve it by paying money to avert disaster, that would be ideal.
“So, can you tell me—where is ‘Xan Dorra’?”
“Wha—”
Hearing the name ‘Xan Dorra’, the previously calm chieftain’s expression changed instantly, and the surrounding Shandia warriors all raised their weapons toward Aoxi and the others.
“Little girl, where did you learn this name? And why do you want to go there?”
The chieftain distanced himself from Aoxi and asked sternly:
“This name is basically known to everyone below who knows that ‘Roronoa’ legend, nothing rare about it.”
“As for why go there, of course it’s…”
“You just said ‘Roronoa’? You know Roronoa?!”
Before Aoxi could finish, Zannick in the distance suddenly pushed away his son who was supporting him and rushed right up to her.
Hearing this name of his ancestor’s close friend, the man was clearly surprised and excited.
“I know him, though he doesn’t know me.”
With that, Aoxi told him the contents of the 《Big Talk King Roronoa》 picture book she had read out of boredom before.
“‘Swindler’, ‘execution’, how, how could this be!”
“Ancestor’s close friend, he…”
Hearing that Roronoa was executed and then mocked as a joke for four hundred years, Zannick staggered back a few steps in a daze, then painfully knelt on the ground.
The other Shandia warriors, hearing Roronoa’s later fate, also showed pity on their faces.
“What’s wrong with him? Could that Roronoa be his relative?”
Aoxi asked the chieftain puzzled.
“Sigh~ Wenbulang Roronoa was the hero who saved the Shandia tribe over three hundred years ago, and also the lifelong close friend of the great warrior Kargra. Back then…”
The chieftain briefly told Aoxi about the events from over three hundred years ago.
“I see, that’s quite a pity.”
The two who promised to meet again ultimately never saw each other again due to an irresistible calamity, both dying with regrets…
“Nothing pitiable about it.”
A cold voice suddenly interjected.
“Roronoa and your great warrior ultimately not meeting might have been the best outcome.”
