Chapter 238: Archbishop Hisoka x Physique Breaks a Thousand
Roy's low spirits rippled like a wave, faintly stirring a ripple...
Treading on the mottled stone slabs under the moonlight, and walking along the softly lit path on both sides of the ancient castle, he slowly walked towards Maha. As he drew near, he slightly lowered his body so that Maha could reach his forehead without having to deliberately tiptoe.
"Did you kill someone?" The old man gently stroked the boy's forehead. The child was growing too fast; in a few more years, he probably wouldn't be able to reach him even on his tiptoes...
"Mm." The "Life Energy" lying on the panel was cold and dazzling.
Roy took a muffled breath, raised his head again, and met Maha's profound, dim eyes head-on.
"This is not your first time killing someone, why are you unhappy?"
The Zoldycks are famous worldwide. Earning the title of the "World's Number One Assassin Family" relies entirely on the skill of "killing."
It could be said that for a "Zoldyck", from the masters down to the butlers, and even a dog raised in the house, like Mike... killing should be as common and natural as drinking water and eating. Therefore...
Being "unhappy" means being "unqualified", not a competent Zoldyck...
Roy did not answer. He straightened his back and looked out the window. The sunset faded, the bright moon rose in the east, and night fell, just as darkness shrouded the heads of "outcasts" like Maddie-kun, Old Mark, and Mrs. Nora. He said softly, "I am sorry, Great-Grandfather. Father was right back then, I probably... won't be a qualified assassin."
Whoosh~ A leisurely breeze blew, rolling up a fallen leaf. The boy caught it and gently rubbed it under the moonlight... He just stared at the veins of the fallen leaf and murmured, "I can't be as cold-blooded as Father and Grandpa."
He released his hand, letting the fallen leaf drift away towards Kukuroo Mountain, which crouched and snaked like a giant pitch-black dragon in the Zoldyck family estate...
"That is because you still haven't killed enough people,"
"And you haven't seen enough darkness,"
"When you see more, you will get used to it. Just like me back then... you will slowly get used to it..."
Maha stood with his hands behind his back beside the boy, looking at the heavy night outside the window, and stopped talking.
Just as the old man said, "I was being overly sentimental." Roy was stunned for a moment, regained the focus in his eyes, and bowed respectfully to Maha.
The old man waved his hand: "Wrong... That is not being sentimental, it is... kindness."
Maha tilted his head and looked at the boy with gratification: "That is why I say your father and your grandfather are both worthless... Their kindness is only for their own family, not for others... They absolutely could not walk the path of [Faith]."
"Great-Grandfather doesn't need to comfort me."
"Wrong again... I am not comforting you, I am telling the truth." Maha extended a finger and lightly tapped Roy's chest: "Those two, including your two younger brothers, only have this family in their hearts. Illumi even only acknowledges you. But you,"
"What you hold is... the world, and you must hold... the entire world!"
Millions of graves stood silently and endlessly...
Roy was slightly taken aback. He looked down at Maha, a thin, completely shriveled old man, and his mind automatically recalled the scene he had seen in the other's Unconscious Domain...
Those men, women, old, and young who had once followed his Great-Grandfather to rebel against [Divine Authority] and were buried with the whole nation, gradually overlapped with Maddie-kun, Old Mark, and Mrs. Nora, forming the "silent majority" of the Dark Continent, so silent it was deafening!
They merely died, but they would not disappear. There would always be latecomers stepping up to take over the burdens on their shoulders and inherit their dreams... And among these latecomers, he must be one of them...
His thoughts broadened, and his mind instantly cleared... Roy opened his mouth, gently exhaled, and smiled at Maha: "Or should I say, I am the sun... born to shine upon the whole world..."
"Heh heh heh... scram." Maha laughed, opening his mouth to reveal only a few teeth.
The old man pretended to lift his foot and kick...
Roy dodged it with a leap, taking another glance...
The boy, with his black hair draped over his shoulders, turned and left. His retreating figure was no longer desolate, but had an added sense of freedom and relief...
Tap... tap... Footsteps echoed. The boy rounded the corner and disappeared in an instant, replaced by...
Long silver hair falling to the waist, shining brightly under the moonlight...
"Grandpa," Silva, dressed in a sleek outfit and wearing a pair of black cloth shoes, appeared beside Maha after Roy left, standing exactly where he had just stood. (Note: Silva is Maha's great-grandson, but for convenience of address, he is simply called Grandpa).
Watching the boy walk away, the man said deeply, "I never thought... it would be Roy."
Silva had no way of knowing exactly what kind of path the path of [Faith] was... but he knew that anyone with the ambition to walk this path was no weakling. In other words... Roy had essentially inherited Maha's unfinished "dream."
Maha remained silent. Silva spoke to himself: "In the past, Grandpa always said that only the worthless ones become the head of the family. I am, Father is, and you were back then too..."
"At first, I didn't understand, nor was I convinced."
"Now I understand,"
"This child Roy... truly has a very broad mind."
So to speak... "He is different," Maha said faintly.
"Yes, he is different," Silva repeated. The man took his hands out of his pockets, crossed them over his chest, and his eyes flickered as he said, "I look forward to his growth."
"A year?"
"A year!"
"Perhaps, it won't take that long." Maha patted Silva's arm, turned around, and paced back into the room.
Silva: "..."
Frowning, he emphasized, "A year is not long."
"I think it is long." Maha closed the door with a bang: "If you're not convinced, wait and see."
Silva's silver hair swayed in the wind, and he laughed with a suppressed voice: "Heh heh heh... then I will wait and see."
He turned and walked away.
In the mottled stone corridors of the ancient castle, father and son, grandfather and grandson, each closed their respective doors.
Maha lay back in his rocking chair and continued to listen to his cartoons. Silva didn't return to his bedroom to watch over Kikyo; instead, all alone, he hurried through the night and locked himself in the training room.
Bang bang bang... The sound of sandbags being continuously blown apart echoed endlessly...
Frightening the passing butlers so much they didn't dare to lift their heads while walking, except for... Gotoh.
Rumble... The young butler pushed the dining cart, cast a distant glance towards the training room, and turned to arrive at Roy's bedroom. Just as usual, he laid out a lavish dinner one by one on Roy's table, including... the specific medicine for tuberculosis he had just picked up from a trip to the hospital today. "According to the plan provided by Dr. Logan, combining Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, and Ethambutol for 2 months shows good results. Continuing with Isoniazid and Rifampicin treatment for 4 months should basically... cure it..."
Tuberculosis was not an issue for modern medicine, but in the Demon Slayer world, during the Taisho era, it was practically a terminal illness. Roy took a bite of pizza, took the medicine Gotoh handed him, and carefully read the instructions... His mind automatically pictured Tanjuro's loving appearance, always holding a hand warmer and looking at him gently. Finally... the time had come to fulfill his promise to him.
Three days, probably another three days... to roughly figure out the medical principles of the drugs, and then try to bring them into the Demon Slayer world through "De-Conjuration"... Roy calculated silently in his heart. Swallowing the pizza in his mouth with a spoonful of cream of mushroom soup, he smiled at Gotoh: "You did very well."
"It's what I ought to do." Gotoh pushed up the glasses on his nose and asked tentatively, "Young Master, that blond-haired man sent a photo, saying he wanted you to see his son. Do you want to see it?"
Gon-kun... I haven't seen his infant appearance... "Bring it."
"Yes."
Gotoh took out his phone, opened the interface, and revealed a photo... In the photo, a family of three, especially Ging, holding a chubby baby and grinning foolishly, completely contradicting his usual image of a wise, adventurous, and disciple-testing Two-Star Ruins Hunter... Clearly, he was another father... whose head had been spun by the joy of having a precious son.
Roy's gaze swept over the father and son, then looked at the woman, Ging's wife... She made eye contact with him through the screen. The coldness in her eyes, a disregard that cared for nothing, suddenly made his brows furrow... He immediately thought of Andrew Cooper, whom he had just killed!
"This woman... is not ordinary..."
"I think her name is... Vivian..."
Roy quietly memorized the woman's appearance and said, "Reply to him, say congratulations on having a son. As for... a cash gift, skip it. They don't do that on Whale Island either."
Not just Whale Island, it seems the concept of a cash gift for a newborn doesn't exist on the entire continent... The beard on Gotoh's chin twitched as he nodded, "Yes."
He then pulled out an intelligence report from his jacket and handed it over...
"Hall called and said that the [Cult] organization has been spreading crazier lately, crossing several continents and appearing in many countries. Even Kakin, far across the sea, is said to have traces of them..."
[Mental Morphine] Guzman...
Roy took the report from Gotoh and first noticed the [Sect Name] — [Truth]!
He frowned, immediately thinking of the [Scapegoat Rag Doll].
[What is truth? Believe and it is real, do not believe and it is fake... Believe in the Truth... Revere the [True Creator]... Discover your inner, true self... My friends, partners, beloved ones, relatives... Every one of you will discover a different self... a different world through [Truth]...]
The fundamental dogma was almost nakedly laid out in the open...
Roy read down point by point... At the end, it listed several important believers of the [Truth Cult], namely the [Archbishops of Truth], which included several of Roy's old acquaintances...
[Mental Morphine] Guzman... The two men and one woman who once appeared outside Guzman's villa on 1st Avenue in the West Sector of Meteor City, Ohtsuka Yu, Mark Wayne... and —
Someone he had met once in the "City of Performances", Gaslan... Hisoka Morow!
"How did he become an... Archbishop?"
A sense of absurdity spread... Roy looked in surprise at the photo of the "clown" attached to the report...
A boy with red hair slicked back, painted with a "star" and a "teardrop" on his face, looking over with slanted, hook-like eyes... Draped in a red hooded cloak, he truly looked somewhat... comical!
"Young Master should have beaten him to death back then," Gotoh also recognized Hisoka at a glance. He was exactly that clown who trailed the Young Master in Gaslan, only to be grabbed by the head and shoved into a wall by the Young Master...
"Ignore him, he is fake..."
"Fake what?"
"A fake believer..."
"A fake believer who believes in [Truth]..." Gotoh only felt it was absurd. However... this was exactly the true core that [Texture Surprise] could reflect...
Roy finished reading the intelligence, casually pulled a tissue, slowly wiped his mouth, and said, "Who can really tell real from fake? Gotoh, you only need to remember, 'In the face of absolute power,' "
"'Real can be fake, and fake can also be real...'"
Calling a deer a horse is nothing more than this...
"Yes." Gotoh nodded solemnly. After serving Roy his dinner, he wished the Young Master a good night, cleared the dishes, and pushed the dining cart away...
Roy sat at the dining table, watching him leave. With a thought, he opened the believer panel and glanced at it. [Prompt: Your believer's strength has increased, Faith Power +7...]
[Believer: Gotoh (Note: Overflowing Loyalty)]
[Physique: 224 -> 280]
[Manifested Aura Volume: C- (420/100000) -> C- (3420/100000)]
[Potential Aura Volume: C- (2812/100000) -> C (812/100000)]
[Evaluation: C-]
[Note: Referencing Chimera Ants, your believer "Gotoh" already possesses the aptitude to become an ordinary Chimera Ant Squadron Leader]
It seems... he has been working desperately hard lately, without the slightest slack...
"Young Master, next time, I absolutely will not lose again..." The vow the butler swore in his heart after the battle with Razor still rang in his ears... Roy said nothing. He casually opened the panels of Gyomei Himejima, Kyojuro Rengoku, Obanai Iguro, Giyu Tomioka, and the other Hashira, including Kagaya Ubuyashiki... The strongest was C-, and the weakest, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, also had D-. After opening their Nen, their rapid progress invisibly added a lot of [Faith Power] for Roy.
[Prompt: Faith Power +3+5+8+9+5+4...]
[Demon Slayer Total: 47 points]
With a thought, Roy continued to open the Naruto group's panel... Setsuna Uchiha, Yashiro Uchiha, and a group of Uchihas who had successively awakened their eyes after he injected them with "negative emotions" appeared before his eyes...
Panel prompt...
[Faith Power +7+8+10+11...]
It was actually higher than what the Nine Hashira led by Gyomei Himejima provided... Roy knew that this originated from the power of [Bloodline Bonds]...
The deeper the bond, the more Faith Power could be provided. From this, one could imagine... when Itachi and Sasuke successively awakened their eyes... how high this number would jump...
Amidst his fluctuating thoughts, Roy pulled back his chair and stood up. Taking advantage of the time before he rushed to the Shinobi World War battlefield, he turned into the bathroom to begin a new round of stat allocation...
Splash...
The shower turned on, and the water washed down...
Stripping off his clothes, the boy stood barefoot under the showerhead. Pressing his hands against the wall, preparing himself for the pain, he took a deep breath and said, "Come."
Suddenly, a prompt sounded...
[Prompt: "Faith Power" emptied...]
["Life Energy" emptied...]
["Physique": 946.5 -> 1246.5 (Note: Ordinary person is 1)]
Breaking a thousand for the first time!
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