Grain Buds

[Code Name] Grain Buds

[Gender] Female

[Combat Experience] None

[Place of Birth] Yan

[Date of Birth] May 21

[Race] Liberi

[Height] 153cm

[Infection Status]

Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

[Physical Strength] Normal

[Mobility] Standard

[Physical Resilience] Normal

[Tactical Acumen] Normal

[Combat Skill] Normal

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Excellent

Grain Buds is an ordinary girl from Dahuang, an important agricultural settlement in the north of Yan. She has considerable experience handling stockbeasts, and followed Shu to Rhodes Island where she now stays as a temporary visitor.

Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this operator is confirmed to be uninfected.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 0%

Operator Grain Buds shows no signs of Originium infection.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.12u/L

Grain Buds rarely comes into contact with Originium.

Outstanding Farmer of Dahuang, Honorary Stockbeast Breeding Expert, Honorary Rice Planting Master, Excellency in Stockbeast Feed Research...

Upon repeated verification, the above honors were all found to be genuine.

Grain Buds always puts all her effort into doing the things she is capable of.

Having grown up in Dahuang, she's been infected by the residents' gung-ho attitude toward farming since a young age, and believes that to put food on the table, you have to earn your keep. Before she was even as tall as a hoe, she was already imitating the farmers and planting seeds. Unable to bear the sight, the elderly farmers instead sent her to feed the stockbeasts, only to find that they behaved especially well around her, almost as if they were on the same wavelength. As such, she was able to manage the massive ranches there in a very organized and tidy manner.

Grain Buds has kept herself busy even after coming aboard Rhodes Island as a visitor. She's developed new recipes with the logistics operators at the cafeteria, helped care for the plants at the Convalescent Garden, and naturally never forgets to give every one of the new friends she's made here an easy-to-remember and pleasant-sounding nickname. Many medical operators have noted their work stress greatly decreasing thanks to her being around to look after juvenile patients and comfort them when receiving injections or medicine.

'Guess it's easier for kids around the same age to hit it off...'

'Or maybe she thinks she's still taking care of stockbeasts...?'

Rhodes Island is already home to a number of so-called animal experts, and it is not at all uncommon for beasts to be trained to complete certain tasks. That said, none have ever dared to claim to able to speak to animals. Until Grain Buds, that is.

She insisted on demonstrating her talents: First, she found a lost storm cloudbeast on the top deck by 'communicating' with another cloudbeast. Next, she used a flute to command a few metal crabs to pick up the food waste scattered about the kitchen (Beanstalk insists that her crabs had always known how to do this). Finally, she even attempted to bring a couple of slumberfeet to help insomnia patients get to sleep, only to fall asleep herself in the hallway instead. From this, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that she does actually have some sort of strange ability.

According to herself, there was this one time when she was five years old that she got lost and went outside the city. The farmers couldn't find her anywhere, and just as everyone was at wit's end, an old stockbeast waded across the river with her sitting on its back. Ever since, she has been very close to stockbeasts, and over time she found she was able to understand the 'words' of all kinds of animals. The stockbeasts would tell her which orchard had the sweetest fruits, the traveling fowlbeasts would tell her that the flowers were in full bloom in the south, etc. When Grain Buds speaks vividly about the colorful land filled with wonder in her childlike tone, she is always able to pique the curiosity of her listeners.

'How did the stockbeast know the way back?'

'How wide was the river?'

'What's a city full of farms like?'

The listeners gather around her and bombard her with questions. She seems to have an endless number of amazing stories to tell as well. For example, there was the 'gang war' between stockbeasts, the stockbeast and fowlbeast who befriended each other and ran away together, the fin who swam all across Yan on an adventure... Does it matter if they're true? Just imagining the countryside depicted in her stories is enough to stir one's emotions.

Aside from her ability to talk to animals, Grain Buds is most proud of her flute skills.

She would proudly tell others how she performed for Dahuang's operas year after year. With her small bamboo flute, she is able to play a variety of distinct melodies, from grand accompaniments pairing with the operas' epic scenes, to melodious tunes to send resting stockbeasts peacefully to sleep. Everyone who has heard her flute has been astonished to see such a seemingly frail girl exert so much energy in one go. She is always happy to use her flute to bring comfort to those around her, and she also loves to, in her own words, 'write' new melodies according to her mood. Her tunes are all uplifting and pleasing to the ear, and He Sheng occasionally writes lyrics to them. The farmers toiling in the fields would always sing along whenever they heard the music. And just like that, the two of them created a number of childlike folk songs that spread throughout Dahuang.

In her hazy memories, she once heard her mother playing a reed whistle, but her 'Tianshi duties' took her away from Dahuang before she could teach her daughter how to make one. Later, she learned how to make the whistles herself as well as how to play the bamboo flute. The girl learned to play more and more music, yet her parents never returned. To this day, her melodious flute can still be heard by Dahuang's riverbank, awaiting the return of faraway travelers.

[Classified Log]

'...Therefore, a Chamber of Heaven's Designs shall be established roughly a hundred li to the north of Dahuang in preparation for the demonic threat.'

'...Its forces shall consist of those gifted in Originium Arts as selected by each Tianshi Bureau. Those who enter the Chamber of Heaven's Designs, each possessing great skills and a firm resolve, shall train at length and be ready for battle at all times. After a year, only half shall remain. After another year, less than one-tenth shall remain. This shall continue year after year.'

'The scourge of the demon first and foremost robs one of his mind, and by the time one finds his mind even slightly clouded, it is already too late. Countless have been buried in the north to ensure the survival of their fellows. Relatively few instead live out their years with their minds clouded, rendered incapable of coherent speech for the rest of their lives. Skeletally thin, not even their old acquaintances can recognize them...'

—Excerpts pertaining to Dahuang, from a history of Yan requiring a very high clearance level

To those who live on these lands, the word 'homeland' is a transient concept.

No one knows when their home will be destroyed by Catastrophe. Nomadic cities travel everywhere, and villages continue to migrate ceaselessly. What exactly is a 'homeland'? Is it the skyscrapers going up day after day in the nomadic cities, or is it the rubble left behind in the Catastrophes' wake?

Yet there are still those who, regardless of the price, have continued to guard a swath of land important to them for thousands of years. Such a long-lasting defense of the same area is extraordinarily rare.

Such is the place where Grain Buds was born and raised. Having seen all the fields and the men and women working them from a young age, she knows every blade of grass and every tree like the back of her hand; she remembers every crop in every field; she remembers which grasses each kind of stockbeast likes to eat; she remembers how she once fell from a tree and hurt her leg, and He Sheng carried her home on his back across half of Dahuang under the setting sun... The land incorporates the history and memories of the people here, and it becomes part of them. That's how the people and the land are connected.

Which is why she too is holding the fort here, watching the crops grow green and then yellow, before they are harvested and new seeds are sown anew. She watches the fields grow larger and larger, as the stockbeasts around her grow bit by bit. She sits atop a stockbeast's back, playing her flute to guide the passing caravans as well as sending travelers from afar on their way.

'Grain... Buds.'

The stockbeast-herding girl sits atop a pile of straw and slowly reads out her name. 'The Xiangzhang said my parents gave me this name. Grain Buds are what you call the seeds when they're starting to turn full but haven't completely ripened yet. It means I'll be healthy and grow up teeming with hope!'

The woodcutter, still with somewhat lifeless-looking eyes, sits unsteadily on the pile of straw as well. His back is stiff and straight, his legs appear uncomfortable, and he holds tightly onto his Tianshi ruler. Evidently, the girl had dragged him here.

'Give me your hand. I'll write my name. You just read along!'

The man's coarse, thick fingers were pried open by the young girl's small hand to reveal his palm. She stuck out a finger and started writing. The woodcutter thought it was ticklish. He did as the girl said and opened his mouth to laboriously let out some sounds.

'Grain...'

'Grain— Buds.'

'Gra... Grain... Grain— Buds.'

'Yep, that's right! Put them together like that. Grain— Buds. My name!'

'Grain... Grain Buds.'

The woodcutter lowered his head and gently moved his lips.

'Grain Buds.'

The girl leapt in joy, her whole head covered with straw. 'Mute Uncle! You can say my name!'