Roy's depressed mood rippled slightly, like a wave across the water...
Stepping on the mottled stone slabs under the moonlight, guided by the soft lights lit on both sides of the ancient castle, he walked slowly toward Maha.
As he drew near, he slightly lowered his body so that Maha wouldn't have to stand on his tiptoes to reach his forehead.
"You killed 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...
"Yeah." The 'life energy' lying on the panel was cold and glaring.
Roy took a muffled breath. When he looked up again, he met Maha's profound, dim yellow eyes.
"This isn't your first time killing. Why are you unhappy?"
The Zoldycks were famous worldwide. Earning the title of the "World's Number One Assassin Family" relied entirely on their ability to kill.
It could be said that for a Zoldyck—from the masters down to the butlers, and even a pet dog like Mike—killing should be as natural and routine as eating and drinking. Therefore...
Being unhappy meant being incompetent. It meant not being a qualified 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 the abandoned people like Little Matty, Old Mark, and Mrs. Nora.
He said softly, "I'm sorry, Great-Grandpa. Father was right back then. I probably... won't be a qualified assassin."
Whoosh. A gentle breeze blew past, bringing a fallen leaf that the boy caught between his fingers. He gently rubbed it under the moonlight... He just stared at the veins of the leaf,
murmuring, "I can't be as cold-blooded as Father and Grandpa."
He loosened his grip, letting the leaf go. It drifted toward Kukuroo Mountain, which sprawled like a pitch-black dragon over the Zoldyck family estate...
"That's because you haven't killed enough people yet,"
"And you haven't seen enough darkness,"
"Once you see more, you'll get used to it. Just like I did... you will slowly get used to it..."
Maha stood beside the boy with his hands behind his back, looking at the heavy night outside the window, and fell silent.
Just as the old man said,
"I'm being overly sentimental." Roy froze for a moment, his eyes regaining their focus, and respectfully bowed to Maha.
The old man waved his hand. "Wrong... You aren't being sentimental. You are... kind."
Maha tilted his head and looked at the boy with gratification. "That's 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 never walk the path of [Faith]."
"You don't need to comfort me, Great-Grandpa."
"Wrong again... I'm not comforting you. I'm 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,"
"You hold... the world in your heart, and you must hold... the entire world!"
Millions of graves stood silently, stretching endlessly...
Roy was slightly stunned. He looked down at Maha, who was thin and looked like a shriveled old man, and his mind automatically recalled the scene he had once seen in the other party's unconscious domain...
The men, women, old, and young who had followed his great-grandfather to rebel against [Divine Right] and were buried with the entire nation gradually overlapped with Little Matty, Old Mark, and Mrs. Nora.
They formed the "silent majority" of the Dark Continent, a silence so profound it was deafening!
'They only died, but they won't disappear. There will always be successors who will step forward to take up the burden on their shoulders and inherit their dreams... And among these successors, I must be one of them...'
His mind broadened, and his thoughts instantly cleared... Roy opened his mouth and gently exhaled, smiling at Maha. "That's why they say I'm the sun... Born to shine upon the whole world..."
"Hehehe... get lost." Maha laughed, opening his mouth to reveal only a few teeth.
The old man feigned a kick at him...
Roy swiftly dodged it, and then...
The boy with black hair draped over his shoulders turned and left. His back was no longer desolate, but instead carried an added touch of freedom and relief.
Step... The sound of footsteps echoed as the boy turned the corner and disappeared in an instant. In his place appeared... long silver hair cascading down to the waist, shining brightly under the moonlight...
"Grandpa," Silva, dressed in a sleek martial arts outfit and wearing black cloth shoes, appeared beside Maha after Roy left, standing exactly where the boy had just stood.
The man watched the boy walk away and said deeply, "I never thought... it would be Roy."
Silva didn't know exactly what kind of path the path of [Faith] was... but the man knew that anyone who aspired to walk this path was no weakling. In other words... the child Roy could be considered to have inherited Maha's unfulfilled "dream."
Maha remained silent.
Silva continued speaking to himself, "In the past, Grandpa always said that only the worthless ones become the family head. 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 broad heart."
That was why... "He is different," Maha said faintly.
"Yes, he is different," Silva repeated. The man took his hands out of his pockets and crossed them over his chest, his eyes flickering. "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 fell silent.
He frowned,
and emphasized, "A year is not long."
"I think it's long." Maha slammed the door shut. "If you don't believe me, just wait and see."
Silva's silver hair swayed in the wind as he laughed with a suppressed voice, "Hehehe... Then I'll wait and see."
He turned around 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 down on his rocking chair and continued listening to his cartoons.
Silva didn't return to his bedroom to look after Kikyo. Instead, he hurried through the night alone and locked himself in the training room.
Bang, bang, bang... The sound of sandbags being continuously blown apart echoed endlessly...
It frightened the passing butlers so much that they didn't dare to look up as they walked, except for... Gotoh.
Rumble... The young butler pushed the dining cart, glancing at the training room from afar, before turning and heading to Roy's bedroom. Just like any other day, he laid out a sumptuous dinner on Roy's table, including... the specific medicine for tuberculosis he had just gone to the hospital to fetch today.
"According to the plan provided by Dr. Logan, the combination of Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, and Ethambutol for two months has shown good results. Continuing the treatment with Isoniazid and Rifampicin for another four months should basically... cure it..."
Tuberculosis was not a problem 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, accepted the medicine Gotoh handed him, and carefully read the instructions... His mind automatically recalled Tanjuro's loving appearance, always holding a hand warmer and looking at him gently. It was finally... time to fulfill his promise to him.
'Three days, probably three more days...' before he could roughly understand the treatment principles of the medicine, and then use the "Reverse Conjuration" method to try and bring it into the Demon Slayer world... Roy silently calculated in his heart. He washed down the pizza in his mouth with a spoonful of cream of mushroom soup and smiled at Gotoh. "You did very well."
"It's my duty." Gotoh pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose and asked tentatively, "Young Master, Ging sent a photo and said he wanted you to see his son. Do you want to take a look?"
Gon... He hadn't actually seen what he looked like as a baby... "Bring it here."
"Yes."
Gotoh took out his phone and opened the interface, revealing a photo... The photo showed a family of three, especially Ging, holding a chubby baby and smiling foolishly. It completely contradicted his usual image of a wise, adventurous Two-Star Ruins Hunter who loved testing his disciples... He was clearly just another father whose head had been spun by the joy of having a son.
Roy's gaze swept past the father and son, then looked at the woman, who was also Ging's wife... She met his gaze through the screen. The coldness in her eyes, an indifference that cared for nothing, suddenly made his brow furrow... He immediately thought of Andrew Cooper, whom he had just killed!
"This woman... is extraordinary..."
"I think her name is... Vivian..."
Roy quietly memorized the woman's appearance and said, "Reply to him and say congratulations on having a son. As for... a congratulatory gift of money, skip it. They don't do that kind of thing on Whale Island anyway."
It wasn't just Whale Island; looking across the entire continent, there didn't seem to be such a concept as congratulatory money... The beard on Gotoh's jaw twitched as he nodded. "Yes."
He then reached into his pocket and handed over an intelligence report...
"Hall called and said that the [Cult] organization has been spreading crazier lately. It has crossed several continents and appeared in many countries. Even in Kakin, far across the sea, it's said that traces of them have appeared..."
[Spiritual Morphine] Guzman...
Roy took the intelligence report from Gotoh and immediately noticed the [Cult Name]—[Truth]!
Frowning, he immediately thought of the [Scapegoat Doll].
[What is truth? To believe is true, to disbelieve is false... Believe in the truth... Revere the [Creator of Truth]... Discover your inner true self... My friends, partners, beloved ones, relatives... Each of you will discover a different self through [Truth]... A different world...]
The fundamental doctrine was laid out almost nakedly in the open...
Roy read down item by item... At the end, it listed several important believers of the [Church of Truth], also known as the [Archbishops of Truth]. Among them were a few of Roy's old acquaintances...
[Spiritual Morphine] Guzman... the two men and one woman who had once appeared outside Guzman's villa in Meteor City's West District Numbered Streets, Otsuka Yu, Mark Wayne... and—
The one he had briefly met in the "Capital of Performance" Gasland... Hisoka Morow!
"How did he become... an Archbishop?"
A sense of absurdity spread out... Roy looked in surprise at the photo of the "clown" attached to the intelligence report...
A boy with red hair slicked back, a "star" and a "teardrop" painted on his face, his eyes slanted upward, looking over like hooks... The way he wore a red hooded cloak was truly somewhat... comical!
"Young Master should have beaten him to death back then." Gotoh also recognized Hisoka at a glance. He was the clown who had tailed the Young Master in Gasland, only to have his head grabbed and smashed into a wall by the Young Master...
"Ignore him. He's a fake..."
"A fake what?"
"A fake believer..."
"A fake believer who believes in [Truth]..." Gotoh only found it absurd.
However... this was exactly the true core that [Texture Surprise] could reflect...
After reading the intelligence, Roy casually pulled out a tissue, slowly wiped his mouth, and said, "Who can really distinguish between true and false? Gotoh, you only need to remember—"
"In the face of absolute power,"
"Truth can be false, and falsehood can be true..."
Dictating reality itself was no different...
"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 by the dining table, watching him leave. With a thought, he opened the believer panel and cast a glance over it...
It seemed... he had been working desperately hard during this time, without the slightest slack...
"Young Master, next time, I absolutely won't lose again..." The vow the butler had sworn in his heart after the battle with Razor still echoed in his ears... Roy said nothing. He casually clicked open 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, was at least D-.
After awakening Nen, their rapid progress invisibly added a lot of [Power of Faith] for Roy.
With another thought, Roy continued to open the panels of the Naruto group... The Uchiha clan members, such as Uchiha Setsuna and Uchiha Yashiro, who had successively awakened their Sharingan after he injected them with "negative emotions," appeared before his eyes...
The panel prompted...
It was actually slightly higher than what the Hashira, led by Gyomei Himejima, provided... Roy knew that this stemmed from the power of [Bloodline Bonds]...
The deeper the bond, the more Power of Faith they could provide. From this, one could imagine... when Itachi and Sasuke successively awakened their eyes... what heights this number would reach.
As his thoughts fluctuated,
Roy pulled back his chair and stood up. Taking advantage of the time before he had to rush to the ninja war battlefield, he turned and entered the bathroom to begin a new round of stat allocation...
Splash...
The shower was turned on, and the water washed down...
Stripping off his clothes,
the boy stood barefoot under the showerhead. Pressing his hands against the wall, he braced himself for the pain, took a deep breath, and said, "Come."
Suddenly, a prompt sound exploded...
Breaking a thousand for the first time!
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