"Fire!"
"Is that Lord Edmond's mansion?"
"Quick, go report to Lord Simon!"
The soaring flames seemed determined not to rest until the villa was burned to ashes!
The heatwave and firelight ignited the entire shantytown, spreading along the walls to the adjacent Bandle City.
Seeing this, the guards responsible for security immediately notified the city. The man in charge of the overall planning of the shantytown, the deputy commander of the security force, known as the "Most Handsome Man in Bandle City"—
Simon Ferrero!
Inside the City Lord's mansion in Bandle City,
This man, who possessed long blue hair like ocean waves and always wore an exquisite rapier at his waist, looked out through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of his office at the soaring flames that burned ever brighter. His handsome face was obscured by a highly exaggerated captain's hat, his expression so gloomy and sinister that it seemed to drip with malice.
"Understood... step down..." The man's cold voice echoed as he waved his hand, signaling the guard to leave.
With a heavy *bang*, the office door slammed shut.
The guard who had just bowed and backed out suddenly heard the sound of things smashing from inside. He shrank his neck and quickly scurried away...
"Trash! That damn fat pig Edmond... he can't do anything right. I shouldn't have given him the task in the first place!"
"Darling, what's wrong?" Beside the shattered vase, the shadows squirmed, and a "beauty snake" emerged, winding her way up Simon Ferrero's thigh along the carpet, continuing all the way up to his shoulder. She flicked her "snake tongue" and gently blew a breath into Simon Ferrero's ear...
Dispersing his [Ren], Simon Ferrero stood naked, his long blue hair draped over his back, letting the woman dress him. Now feeling refreshed and clear-headed, his previous gloominess gone, he let out a satisfied sigh and said, "Lilith, that poor fool Andrew Cooper is just a blockhead."
"After being with you for so many years, he never discovered your identity as a [Succubus]. He wasted your youth for nothing."
[Succubus]: A humanoid magical beast... Belonging to the [Magical Beast] family, just like the Kiriko family responsible for the Hunter Exam's preliminary tests.
Before their aura nodes are opened, they usually appear with "pointed ears," "pointed tails," and a devilish, curvaceous figure... But once their aura nodes are opened and they officially become a Nen user capable of using Nen abilities, a [Succubus] can usually use their will to independently retract their non-human features like "pointed ears" and "pointed tails," transforming into a human.
The woman named Lilith wrapped her arms around Simon Ferrero's waist from behind, resting her delicate, petite chin on the man's shoulder. She giggled charmingly and said, "If it weren't for your sharp eyes, Young Master, helping me open my aura nodes, Lilith probably wouldn't have known she was a [Succubus] until the day she died. Not to mention... Andrew was just a destitute loser at the time..."
"It's a pity he messed up the task I gave him!" Simon Ferrero snorted coldly. "Edmond's mansion was burned down, and the man himself disappeared inexplicably. It just so happens that he is your husband's superior... Lilith."
Simon Ferrero turned around, hugged the woman, and looked down at her. "You don't mind if I bring him in for questioning, do you?"
"Young Master," the woman stood on her tiptoes, gently kissing the man's lips. With eyes full of affection, she murmured, "You said it yourself, that was in the past. I don't know any Andrew. Now... I am your person."
"Hehehe..." Simon Ferrero, known as the "Most Handsome Man in Bandle City," gave a wicked smile. His head instantly transformed into a toad's head, and with an open mouth, he swallowed Lilith's entire head in one gulp. "You're amazing, Lilith!"
"I really love you more and more!"
"Young Master, please don't hold back!"
A second round... the pink, ambiguous Nen aura reappeared...
Amidst the soaring firelight in the shantytown adjacent to Bandle City...
Simon Ferrero's two toad eyes suddenly looked over, and two cold gleams flashed in his horizontal pupils!
*Step, step...* The wind blew, the person drifted, and his emotions surged like rolling clouds, reaching straight into the sky...
After killing Edmond Sand and his retainer Dunn West, Roy used [Light] to merge into the light, drifting along with the sunlight... The image of Silva intervening to save Edmond Sand kept replaying in his mind. For the first time in his life, he felt a hazy sense of unfamiliarity toward his father.
He felt as if he didn't know Silva anymore.
It was as if he wasn't the unsmiling, strict, and stern father from the original story, whose face always bore the words "strangers keep away," pushing people thousands of miles away.
Instead, he was an accomplice to evil, a murderous "executioner," which chilled his heart.
'Assassins do not distinguish between good and evil; they only care about killing for money and completing the mission.' Silva's past teachings surfaced in his mind. Roy remained silent, flying past the shantytown, past the plantation fields, past the plains, and re-entering the Uzuki Forest. At a certain moment, he suddenly stopped.
Accompanied by the sunlight, he slowly descended deep into the forest.
With a wave of his hand, he summoned [Sumeru Mustard Seed], gently placing Ribery Garcia and the young boys and girls whom Edmond had imprisoned as "playthings" onto a grassy clearing in the woods.
Ribery Garcia, wearing an exaggerated poker-card trench coat, curled his hook-shaped mustache upward. Without waiting for Roy to react, he immediately prostrated himself at his feet and cried out, "Praise the Great Existence above! Ribery Garcia pays his respects to Your Holiness, willing to devoutly listen to your teachings!"
Roy pulled himself out of his thoughts just in time, glancing lightly at Ribery Garcia. "You used to hate [God] the most. Now... what are you doing?"
A blasphemer 'turning over a new leaf'? Youth is stubborn, adulthood is obstinate, and by middle age, one's worldview is set and nature is hard to change. Roy didn't believe that just by exuding a bit of an imposing aura, he could easily make a man who was well-versed in the "ways of the world" and had survived the Church's pursuit for over twenty years submit... even with the system panel's guarantee.
Ribery Garcia lay on the ground, raised his head, and met Roy's gaze head-on without avoiding it. Instead, he asked with burning eyes, "Will you become a [God]?"
Roy was taken aback, stumped by the question.
He gently stroked the back of his left hand, feeling his life slipping away second by second, and slowly but firmly shook his head. "Rather than being a [God], I prefer to be a guide who never forgets his original intentions."
Seizing... plundering... making rules... creating privileges... deliberately solidifying social classes, disregarding the lives and deaths of those at the bottom... Just this one trip to the [Shantytown] had completely severed Roy's thoughts of becoming a [God]. He spoke candidly to Ribery Garcia, "I will not abandon power, and in the future, I might lean towards the [Divine Path]. I also cannot guarantee to those who believe in me, respect me, and love me that I will never change. But there is one thing."
The boy dispelled [Deception], shedding Andrew Cooper's outer appearance and restoring his original look... Then,
A head of beautiful silver hair swayed in the wind, catching Ribery Garcia's eyes and leaving him stunned. He continued to listen as Roy spoke faintly, "I will always remember who I am... and where I came from..."
*Whoosh*, a gust of wind blew, rustling the leaves...
Sunlight spilled from the canopy, casting dappled spots of light through the shade, weaving a haloed cape for the boy. Reflected in Ribery Garcia's pupils, it was as if in a trance, he was pulled back to the moment of his divination, staring dumbfounded and tongue-tied at the man seated on the sun chariot in the sky, completely mesmerized...
"Because of this," Ribery Garcia snapped back to reality, speaking deeply and solemnly to Roy, "that is why fate guided me to meet you."
As the man finished speaking, he thumped his chest heavily, aggravating his injuries and coughing up a mouthful of blood. He vowed solemnly, "Ribery Garcia will devoutly listen to Your Holiness's teachings, unwavering until death."
*Thud*, he bowed and kowtowed.
His nose pressed tightly against the ground,
Kicking up a slight cloud of dust...
The panel prompted... [Prompt... Detected "Pending Believer" Ribery Garcia's [Absolute Loyalty], can be trusted...]
Roy looked down at him with a complex expression. After a long silence, he reached out and conjured [Solar Eclipse], lightly tapping Ribery Garcia on both shoulders. "You rebelled against the Church because you couldn't tolerate its filth and the absurdity of the nobles. This shows that your conscience is not dead, and you have never forgotten the basic qualities a [Human] should possess."
"Ribery Garcia."
"Your Holiness, I am here."
Roy raised his voice appropriately and finally tapped him lightly on the forehead. "Praise the sun... May you never forget your original intentions and always remember this."
"Praise the sun!" Ribery Garcia devoutly clasped his hands together. Then... as Roy pulled away the lightsaber from his forehead, a stream of information wrapped in Nen aura turned into a flowing stream, trickling into his mind through his brow...
Note: A practical technique of "Nen Form Transformation." By pre-imagining the object to be transformed into in one's mind, one can use Nen aura to "disguise" and "transform." Combining "truth" and "deception," it achieves the purpose of blinding human eyes from detection. (Those with a profound understanding of Nen can even deceive the perception of [En], making it indistinguishable from the real thing.)
The information stream dissolved... Ribery Garcia hazily felt that he had grasped something. His spirit jolted, and he muttered tremblingly in his heart, 'Is this... a [Divine Protection]?!'
The man then looked carefully at Roy, only to see the boy with his hands behind his back, looking at the dozens of young boys and girls who were still sleeping soundly nearby. He said calmly, "The knight lords of Bandle City don't treat people as human beings. I was thinking... in my future actions, I have no reason to treat them as human beings either."
"Ribery Garcia, I need intelligence, and even more so, I need an intelligence officer."
Roy turned his head to look at the man again. "Can you do it?"
"Praise the sun, my Lord. Ribery Garcia is willing to follow your teachings!" Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Ribery Garcia straightened his back again and said in a deep voice, "Once I can control the side effects brought by the [Divine Protection], I will immediately set off for Bandle City to investigate for my Lord."
Side effects?
'He must be talking about the [Nature] backlash brought by acquiring [Faith]...' Roy glanced at Ribery Garcia calmly, suddenly recalling the absurd, crazy, and unsightly scenes he had seen in the other party's mind and in Edmond Sand's villa. They were all a group of people who had lost themselves because of "power."
He said lightly, "My [Divine Protection] has no side effects."
'Besides, a true [Divine Protection] should be a [First Embrace] that can raise the upper limit of a person's talent, just like what I did to Gotoh, or what Muzan did to the Demonic Moons back then. That belongs to a higher level of deep binding,' Roy added in his heart after speaking.
Immediately after, he felt that the surroundings seemed to quiet down in an instant... leaving only Ribery Garcia looking shocked to the point of speechlessness.
The man was stunned for a long while, then stared at Roy in inexplicable astonishment and blurted out, "Why?"
"Because nothing can stop the sun from rising as usual, regardless of whether it is dark and filthy, or bright and magnificent." Roy reached out and pinched a ray of sunlight, playing with it in his palm, and said slowly, "That is the reason."
Ribery Garcia: "..."
He suddenly shuddered.
Thinking of the sun chariot, thinking of the gilded bird, thinking of the great sun halo carried on Roy's back on the chariot.
He lowered his head and said devoutly, "Praise the sun, I was being narrow-minded."
Ribery Garcia raised his head again and solemnly promised, "Following Your Holiness's orders, I will set off for Bandle City immediately."
"No rush."
"Wait until you heal your injuries." Roy discreetly glanced at Ribery Garcia again. A charlatan is indeed a charlatan, his life is truly tough... His soul had almost flown away earlier, nearly dying, but now, in just half a day, he could hold on and regain consciousness.
Red light surged in the depths of Roy's eyes as he quietly summoned the [Eye of Truth] to see through reality and illusion, secretly memorizing the other party's attributes.
Not inferior to Feitan and Uvogin in their prime.
He was just at a disadvantage for not being in a combat-oriented category, such as "Enhancement" or "Transmutation." Otherwise, he might have been even stronger...
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