Leyton nodded with a half-smile, pulling the penguin Roselle off himself while looking at Bernadette and saying, "I've read many of Roselle's diaries. If you want to understand their content, you can always ask me to translate parts of them for you."
The penguin Roselle glared fiercely at Leyton and said, "Shut up, don't make me turn on you."
Leyton narrowed his eyes, reached out, and pinched the penguin Roselle's head, saying, "What will happen if you turn on me?"
"I'll… I'll… Damn it, let's discuss this in private." The penguin Roselle's tone quickly softened.
Bernadette looked at the two individuals before her, who bore no resemblance to Angels or True Gods, and sighed inwardly. Perhaps this was why they had become friends so quickly.
After two seconds of silence, she walked to the desk and sat down, then spoke, bringing the conversation back on track:
"When do you plan to look for Zaratul? Do you need help?"
Upon hearing this, Leyton stopped teasing the penguin Roselle, leaned back slightly against the chair, and said calmly, "After I become the Knowledge Emperor, I can handle finding Zaratul myself. However, stealing something from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery does require help."
The penguin Roselle looked left and right, finally finding a few books to stack under its feet, raising itself above Leyton and Bernadette, who were seated in chairs. It then said with a serious expression:
"The Church of the God of Steam and Machinery? You plan to steal the Knowledge Emperor characteristic I left behind? Aren't you worried that Steam will directly descend once he discovers you?"
"I even think it's highly possible for Him to rush out of the Land of Perfection and descend in His true form to forcefully kill you."
Leyton tilted his head slightly, looking at the captain's cabin ceiling, and said, "Isn't it more thrilling to steal something in front of a True God and then run?"
The penguin Roselle complained, quite speechless, "You really should have become a Marauder. I feel like your potion would even melt in your mouth."
"Thank you for the compliment. Actually, if this Pathway didn't have Amon, it would indeed be a good choice." Leyton chuckled twice, then looked back at Bernadette and continued:
"Bornova is in the Steel Church. At that time, I'll need your help to hold him off for a while. You can ask Sasrir for help to add some Fallen, negative humanity to him, to counteract the excessively strong divinity on him."
Upon mentioning Bornova, the penguin Roselle's imposing aura instantly dissipated. It hung its head low, sighing, "Bornova is my fault. If I hadn't passed on so many characteristics to him back then, he would have had more time to grow and accumulate humanity…"
Bernadette pursed her lips and comforted him softly, "This was an unexpected development. No one would have thought that Steam would separate a portion of the Knowledge Magister characteristic for him."
While they were chatting, Leyton's inspiration was suddenly triggered. He reached out and caught a pale yellow letter that had Fallen from the Spirit World.
He quickly scanned it; it was a letter from Frank, stating that his research on plants that could survive in darkness had already achieved some success.
"Your messenger isn't quite ordinary..." the penguin Roselle said thoughtfully, retracting its dark gaze from above.
Leyton chuckled, skipping the topic directly, and said, "It's just a book. We need to discuss the issue of compensation."
"I thought you were a kind person who valued friendship like me. Turns out you're also one to demand repayment for favors."
The penguin Roselle, with an expression that conveyed disappointment, slowly sat on the stacked books and continued, "What do you want to do? Or, what do you need?"
He seems to be enjoying this pet-like form; he's even starting to let loose. After two internal exclamations, Leyton raised his hand, extended two fingers, and said with a light chuckle, "Two things: First, I need you to help me reclaim the characteristics and authority from Steam; second, work for me for 200 years."
The penguin Roselle dramatically leaped up from the books, craning its neck and saying, "Two hundred years!"
"Impossible! I, the universally revered Emperor Roselle, will never work for anyone!"
Leyton smiled and nodded, then continued, "You can have Bornova or Bernadette substitute for you. The salary is one Illuminator or Knowledge Emperor characteristic."
The penguin Roselle spoke without hesitation, "Two! You don't need that many characteristics. Giving up one King of Angels position won't affect your state."
Leyton nodded gently, "Alright."
"Agreeing so readily?" The penguin Roselle suddenly looked suspicious.
Leyton shrugged, his tone relaxed, "Just drawing a pie in the sky. Anyway, I have nothing right now."
The penguin Roselle took deep breaths, calming down for two seconds before looking at Leyton and saying, "I really want to punch you in the face."
Leyton picked up the coffee from the table, took a sip, and then lamented, "What a pity, you can't beat me now, and it'll probably be hard to beat me in the future too."
He put down the coffee cup, and as he rose from the chair, he said, "Alright, it's time to say goodbye. I wish you a pleasant life."
"Oh, and if you're not satisfied with this penguin body, you can come to the Southern Continent to find me. I'll be responsible for the after-sales service."
The penguin Roselle waved its hand dismissively, "I don't need to change from a penguin to a panda."
Leyton shrugged, let out a chuckle, and his body instantly dematerialized, disintegrating into complex knowledge, transforming into a pure stream of information, surging like a torrent into the Spirit World Depths.
After Leyton left, Bernadette looked calmly at the penguin Roselle and said in a cold voice, "What was that about the Roselle diary just now?"
"January 1, 1184, the grand New Year's Eve party, and Mrs. Florena… what was the rest of the content she didn't finish saying?"
"The… the diary is… is… at the… at the party…"
The dark Red Light flowing in the penguin Roselle's eyes dimmed, and its voice became intermittent, as if its battery was low and it was about to shut down.
Bernadette looked at the mechanical puppet that seemed on the verge of collapsing at any moment and said without any change in tone, "This is a mechanical puppet powered by a demigod-level characteristic; it won't easily malfunction."
The penguin Roselle sat on the desk like a sad frog, its head hanging low, sighing heavily, "Alas, I've regretted it more than once, why I was so foolish as to write a diary back then, and even let them circulate."
After a moment of silence, Bernadette gave up on questioning further. From her understanding of her father, simply hearing the beginning was enough for her to guess the rest. With a slight sigh, she said in a low voice, "Those diaries served their purpose."
After two seconds of silence, she added, "There is an existence calling himself The Fool who is collecting your diaries. Through Cattleya, a little girl I adopted, I passed some diaries to that Mr. Fool."
"Someone calls himself The Fool, and is consciously collecting my diaries? Interesting, this Pathway doesn't have a Sequence 0 born. Is it some old guy hiding his identity? Or a newcomer from later on?"
The penguin Roselle cupped its chin with its small wings, trying its best to look thoughtful. After two exclamations, he suddenly realized something was off and widened his eyes, looking at Bernadette and asking, "Did you give him the diaries I wrote later, or the earlier ones?"
Bernadette recalled and said, "The parts related to Mr. Door, and some diaries from later periods when your emotions were more volatile."
"Phew~, good, good." The penguin Roselle patted its chest. Before he could be happy, he heard Bernadette continue, "His channels for collecting diaries are not just one. For example, the Roselle Memorial Exhibition, or some gatherings among Beyonders. Those diaries don't have a fixed order."
"In Backlund, one of that Mr. Fool's Blessed acquired the Black Emperor card you disguised as a bookmark, and successfully activated it."
Damn the diaries! I feel like I've already been socially ruined in the transmigrator circle, becoming their after-dinner joke. Beneath the mechanical penguin's body, Roselle felt his spirit becoming distorted and grotesque… I'm about to twist and crawl in the darkness… Damn it, I must destroy those diaries, destroy them all!
Bernadette stared at the mechanical penguin, which was frozen in place, and continued, "I had contact with his Blessed before, wanting to learn that peculiar script from him, but he refused."
"Haha… There's nothing to learn from that, it's just a special encryption method."
The penguin Roselle gave an awkward laugh, and the stone hanging in his heart finally dropped. Phew~, good, good that he refused. It almost provoked me to crawl out of my grave and kill someone.
"A special encryption method? Can you teach me?" Bernadette stared at the little penguin in front of her, her tone without any fluctuation.
The penguin Roselle froze for a moment, then said hesitantly, "Uh… of course, I can. Later, after I revive, I will personally teach you this script."
"Isn't it an encryption method? How did it become a script again?" Bernadette asked, her eyes containing a smile, as she looked at the penguin Roselle.
"Uh…"
Before Roselle could find another excuse, Bernadette calmly said, "I hope you won't forget what you said today after you successfully revive."
As her words fell, she pulled open the cabinet under the desk, rummaged for paper and pen, and began to write a letter to Cattleya, telling her not to pass any more diaries to that Mr. Fool.
After handing the finished letter to her messenger, she turned to look at the penguin sitting on the desk and asked curiously, "What animal is the prototype of this mechanical puppet? I've never seen this creature, neither on the Northern and Southern continents nor above the Five Seas. Is it a mutated form of some bird?"
Roselle sighed softly, "It's called a penguin. It used to live on this planet. That was a very, very long time ago."