Chapter 260: The Fruit Farmer Attends the Meeting x Gotoh's First Embrace
Whoosh~
From spring to summer, the days grew longer, and the wind grew warmer...
The Testing Gate suddenly opened wide, revealing the touch of fish-belly white appearing in the sky, piercing the darkness, radiating a morning glow that dyed half the sky red. At the same time, it draped a rosy cloak over the boy standing right in the center of the gate... who had already shed his youthful innocence and possessed a hint of a young man's appearance.
"He opened it... He actually pushed the gate open a step ahead of me..." A gust of mountain wind blew, gently swaying Illumi's smooth black hair.
The boy stood behind Roy, watching him bathe in the morning glow, holding up the gate with a single hand like holding up the sky, showing no pressure at all, even appearing somewhat relaxed and effortless... The anticipated feeling of loss did not appear...
Is it because the gap is so large that he completely couldn't muster any desire to "compete with him"? Or is it that...
He had actually always been genuinely happy from the bottom of his heart for any progress and achievement Nii-san made, no matter how small?
Illumi slightly lowered his eyes, hazy and unable to distinguish clearly. He only knew that he wasn't like this in the past.
At the right moment, the night receded, and the red sun finally revealed a rounded corner. The slightly dazed Illumi suddenly heard a voice: "Illumi, come to my side."
Subconsciously looking up, he saw Roy tilting his head, smiling and waving at him...
The boy walked over without a word. Standing right inside the abruptly opened gateway, beside his older brother, he accompanied him in admiring the sunrise. At a certain moment, his forehead felt warm. His head was grasped by Roy's large hand and gently rubbed.
"Little brother, let's take a photo."
"Mm..."
Illumi's voice was as soft as a mosquito's.
Roy smiled faintly and glanced at Zebro: "Zebro,"
"Coming... Young Master!" The bald uncle performed a kip-up, stood up nimbly, took out his phone, pointed it at Roy and Illumi, and snapped a bunch of photos with a click, click sound. After a moment, he handed it over: "Young Master, would you like to take a look?"
"No need,"
"I know, the present moment is the best."
Saying that, he released his right hand.
The seven doors of the Testing Gate, weighing a massive two hundred and fifty-six tons, crashed down, vibrating the ground so much that it seemed to jump, and simultaneously isolating the clamor outside the gate...
Whoosh— The rising dust billowed everywhere.
It was immediately blown away by Roy with a single wave of his arm, unleashing "Wind Breathing" to form a clear breeze.
Along with the three feet of darkness in front of him, it vanished completely.
The boy then blinked at Illumi: "I'm hungry, I'll go on ahead."
As his words fell, his body turned into fluorescent light, instantly merging into the morning glow. Drifting with the light, he crossed Kukuroo Mountain, which crouched in the wilderness like a great dragon, and strolled towards the mountain peak... In a flash, he disappeared without a trace,
Leaving only Illumi and Zebro staring blankly out of the corners of their eyes...
"Hand it over." A moment later, when not even a corner of Roy's clothes could be seen anymore, Illumi took a deep breath. He seemed to have regained his former lifeless appearance with hollow eyes. Expressionlessly, he stretched out his right hand towards Zebro and said with unquestionable authority: "Hand it over."
"What?"
"The phone."
"The phone?" Zebro finally reacted. "Young Master means the photos, right? Don't worry, I will go print them right away. I promise to deliver them to you once they are printed."
"I want the photos, and I want the phone too." Illumi looked at Zebro with a gaze that brooked no argument: "It contained him... and me."
Zebro: "..."
The corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly, and he said with an ingratiating smile: "Young Master, give me a minute, at least... let me delete my browsing history..."
Unexpectedly, Illumi was unwilling to give him even a second. Like a phantom, he brushed past his shoulder. Immediately after... Zebro felt a chill in his palm. Looking closely, his phone had somehow already fallen into Illumi's hand, accompanying him as he darted up the mountain towards the Zoldyck family castle...
"Young Master," Zebro's face turned bitter. He opened his hands, watched Illumi leave, and finally sighed helplessly...
Perhaps it was because of his advancing age, or perhaps because he guarded the gate all day and interacted with many tourists clocking in to see the sights, the old gatekeeper had forgotten... the Zoldyck butlers hold no secrets from their masters.
In short, this early morning "farce" fell into the eyes of a certain shriveled old man, making him feel it was surprisingly somewhat fresh.
Creak— In that dim little room on the first floor of the Zoldyck family castle, Maha swayed in his rocking chair on his own. Having sent Zeno away, he half-squinted his eyes, listening to the cartoons. He only vaguely opened them for a moment when Roy passed by.
As he listened to the boy's footsteps gradually fading away, the Nen aura on his body surged, revealing a hazy mist of Nen.
As the Nen shifted, it revealed an elderly woman with a few clear crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, yet still looking heroic... It was exactly Maha's beloved wife, the one Roy had seen in the old man's Unconscious Domain... Great-Grandmother... Betty Zoldyck...
"Maha, don't you feel that this child Roy is looking more and more like Zzigg?"
A golden ponytail cascading down to her waist, the moment Betty Zoldyck appeared, she pressed close to Maha, wrapped her arms around his neck, and sat on his lap. Her gaze passed through the heavy walls, faintly landing on Roy, who was strolling towards his bedroom. Her beautiful emerald eyes flickered with shimmering light...
"Does he? Where does he look like him?" Maha gently wrapped his arm around Betty's waist. Just as his hand naughtily tried to reach inside, Betty extended a hand and slapped it away with a Smack.
The woman scolded: "Where does he not look like him?"
Betty Zoldyck started counting on her fingers as if enumerating family treasures: "Both are 'Conjurers', both are rebellious, both are occasionally startling and don't give people peace of mind, and..."
Item by item, case by case.
Betty Zoldyck listed Roy's actions and compared them with Zzigg.
Maha simply closed his eyes and listened quietly without refuting. He waited until Betty finished counting before finally adding a sentence at the end: "You forgot, there's also,"
"Audacity!"
The old man snorted coldly in exasperation and said: "One dared to make a deal with a God, the other... hasn't even achieved much yet, but dares to boast about asking the God with a sword..."
"Ah, Betty,"
"None of our children ever give us peace of mind!"
"Otherwise, why would you need to endure it?" Betty Zoldyck covered her mouth and giggled. Just like when she was young, she looped her arms around Maha's head and said: "It's nothing for us to suffer a little hardship and worry. As long as the children are well, everything is fine."
"In the past, you didn't want Zzigg to walk that path, but he insisted on taking it. Now Roy has also taken it. If you don't keep an eye on him, I'm really afraid that the two of them... will get into trouble..."
"You're just treating this old man like a donkey to be ordered around." Maha rolled his eyes at her, turned his head away, and pretended to be angry.
Betty giggled continuously. With a forceful push of her hands, she forcibly straightened his head and scolded: "What kind of talk is that? You've seen this child Roy's growth speed too. Who knows, give him a few more years, and he might not even need you by then."
"What use is it for him to be strong alone?"
Maha glared: "Do you want him to end up like me, taking you, Brook, and Randall to die together?"
Those thousands of graves were still floating there today.
A nation perishing together wasn't a dream, nor was it an illusion. Betty was a witness, a personal experiencer, and even more so, a martyr... Being able to retain a wisp of a remnant soul today relied entirely on Maha's "Nen Power" and "former divinity" to... sustain it!
The woman fell silent.
For a moment, she didn't know what to say...
Seeing this, Maha couldn't bear it. He gently stroked her back and comforted her: "That's why I reminded him, he absolutely must not neglect his believers."
"Only by bringing his believers along is there a hope of overthrowing the God's divine kingdom, truly achieving what he said: asking the God with a sword!"
"But, how long will that take?" Betty Zoldyck's expression cleared slightly, and she said with some melancholy: "Giving is always harder than receiving. [Gods] have holy water; they can rely on 'divinity' to implement 'divine protection' upon the believers under their seat. This child Roy doesn't even have divinity. Even if he has the heart to help his believers, what methods can he possibly have?"
Maha fell silent...
He understood the reasoning, Betty understood, and he believed the mysterious skeleton Leon Zeppeli, who came to observe and deliver a gift just before Killua was born the day before yesterday, also understood. But specifically implementing how to do it, and having to do it beautifully so that all the believers following him would "ascend to heaven" together with him, was the most difficult part!
After a moment, Maha sighed leisurely: "Sometimes, the disparity between people is greater than the gap between a dog and a person. Talent is what it is, it cannot be forced..."
"You said it yourself, forcibly changing a person's talent and implementing 'divine protection' on them, this is something only a [God] can do..."
Rumble rumble rumble... At this time, outside the window, the soft sound of a dining cart rolling over the stone floor of the corridor could be vaguely heard...
Betty Zoldyck could vaguely see the young butler pushing the dining cart closer through the window frame. With a flash, and along with Maha's surging Nen aura, she was silently retracted, drilling into the old man's body and disappearing...
"Ancestor, I have brought your meal,"
Following instructions, Gotoh pushed the dining cart and knocked on the door.
Maha swayed in his rocking chair on his own, looking at him through the door, silently shaking his head in his heart... This believer chosen by his good grandson was clearly a failed product with "extremely poor talent".
Even if saying it out loud might make Roy unhappy, Maha had made up his mind in his heart:
To advise him to give up on Gotoh early on, find some seedlings with greater potential, and focus on cultivating them. Thus,
He gave a noncommittal, faint "Mm": "Come in."
He let Gotoh come in, set up the breakfast, and bow out.
"Ancestor, please take your time and enjoy."
The cover was lifted, revealing the Yu-Xiang shredded pork he had specifically requested...
Gotoh pushed the dining cart away, turned around, and closed the door. Then he delivered the tomato and egg stir-fry that Zeno had specifically requested. Finally, rumble rumble rumble... he pushed the dining cart to Roy's bedroom.
"Young Master, I'm back." The young butler seemed to be able to truly relax and truly smile only in front of Roy.
With ten times the diligence he showed Maha and Zeno, he served Roy his meal.
Roy sat by the dining table in the morning glow. While eating, he flipped through the Game Walkthrough his father had given him. In reality, it was a "real game" adapted using his Grandpa Zzigg's Nen ability [re: Game of the Dead], based entirely on the real Dark Continent. He took a few glances, focusing on "Bandle City", "Security Corps", "Entry Permit", and "Shantytown Area".
With a heavy heart, he couldn't help but think again of...
The old Mark and Nora couple he had seen in the forest on the outskirts of Bandle City, who, in order for their little granddaughter "Maddie-kun" to enter the city and obtain better living conditions, willingly offered their lives to feed the "Magical Beasts".
This time, he had resolved to delve deep into the Dark Continent again, deep into the Principality of Samir, deep into Bandle City, and turn it upside down. At the same time... he would inquire about news of his Grandpa Zzigg and... everything related to the curse...
"A person cannot be suffocated to death by holding their urine,"
"And a person will not sit still and await death,"
Roy took a fierce bite of the baguette, drank it down with cream of mushroom soup, and suddenly thought of... the "Truth Cult". He frowned, glanced at Gotoh, and said, "Has Hall gathered any intelligence over there recently?"
"He called last night," Gotoh pushed up the glasses on his nose. "At that time, Young Master was asleep. I figured I would report it in the morning, so I didn't tell Young Master."
"Speak,"
"Guzman is not dead,"
"Tell me something I don't know..."
Roy had already guessed it long ago. Unless the owner of the [Scapegoat Rag Doll] was dealt with, it was impossible to kill him. He had verified this point, and his Grandpa Zzigg had also verified it.
"Yes," Gotoh nodded and continued: "Also, that Hisoka Morow whom Young Master is paying attention to. The other party killed a Bishop. Not only was he not treated as an apostate, but according to Hall's informant deep within the cult, he was recently seen penetrating the core circle of the cult, meeting with Guzman a few times, and suspected of being entrusted with heavy responsibilities..."
Crunch... crunch... Roy popped a few slices of bacon into his mouth, raising an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
Killing cult members and not getting disciplined... The so-called [Truth] being double-standard to this extent... is also quite despicable...
"What else?"
"Also... according to the on-site report sent by Hall's arranged informant, Hisoka Morow appeared on the Yorbian Continent a few days ago. Someone spotted him appearing at an auction in Yorknew City the day before yesterday. Hall said..."
"Said what?"
"Said... telling Young Master to be careful," Gotoh said with a solemn expression: "It is highly likely he is heading straight for Meteor City..."
One portion... two portions... ten portions of the meal, finished... Roy remained noncommittal. He pulled out a tissue, slowly wiped his mouth, and said faintly...
"He is originally a person from Meteor City. It's perfectly natural for him to go home and take a look, no need to make a fuss over nothing."
"Of course," the topic suddenly shifted,
Roy narrowed his eyes and smiled: "If he has other ideas, I don't mind... playing with him."
Gotoh carefully reminded: "Young Master, have you forgotten? Last time you shoved him... into the wall."
"Is that so?" Roy flicked his wrist and threw the crumpled tissue into the trash can: "Then I'll just shove him in again."
Best case... he also brought a [Scapegoat Rag Doll] with him!
The boy glanced at the [Targeted Tracking Technique] lying quietly in his skill bar.
If some guys playing the devil really think they can recklessly cause trouble and run amok relying on a few ragged dolls... Roy wouldn't mind cleaning them up too!
It would also serve to further establish [Taiyi]'s firm foothold in Meteor City, preach to the Spiders, and establish prestige!
Swish~ The crumpled tissue hit the center of the trash can.
Gotoh finished his report,
And began clearing the dishes.
Roy withdrew his thoughts. With another glance, he waved his hand to stop him and said: "Stop busying yourself, I have a task for you."
"Young Master, please speak." The young butler straightened his back,
His eyes then bulged, abruptly seeing Roy slice open his own palm...
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