"I want to learn [Ren] too!"
On the night of November 23rd, after Silva accompanied Zeno on a mission and returned, he was worried about causing too much noise and disturbing Killua, so he ordered someone to heat a bucket of water in his small training room, to take a simple bath and wash away the fatigue of the journey.
This time, they went to the Kakin Empire to kill someone. The target had a complicated background, with deeply intertwined connections, more convoluted than usual.
'Xiuwuwu... Aiyi... Jiaxia... Belair United....'
When the royalty and the mafia form a "government-mafia integration" to jointly manage the country, even a man like Silva, who was used to life and death, still felt that compared to "them," his family was practically clean and spotless.
The man thought of Roy and Illumi, wary of them straying off the path... His hands lazily rested on the rim of the wooden tub, letting his silver hair float freely on the water's surface. At a certain moment, his gaze sharpened, looking out the window...
A pale little face slid down along the eaves, staring at him with hollow eyes, peering through the glass, and said.
Silva: "..."
His lips curled up, his voice icy: "You want to take me down too?"
Illumi, expressionless, felt as if ants were crawling in his heart...
The itch was uncontrollable...
With his black hair flowing down like a ghost, he rasped with a hoarse voice: "Take down Roy first, then you."
"Heh heh..."
Silva lowered his head, his shoulders shaking...
He raised his eyes again, fingertips formed a "Nen Bullet," flicked it, pierced through the glass, and instantly blew him away.....
Seeking guidance requires picking the right occasion, you rebellious child!
The father's anger was spreading...
The night, followed by fear and trembling, became completely quiet...
Meanwhile,
In a not too big, not too small, bedroom on the north, sun-facing side of the first floor of the castle, the light flickered, casting shadows, revealing a figure bowing over the table, studying earnestly.
Grandfather Jager's words served as a wake-up call for Roy, "Question your heart" was not an issue, nor was finding a "reference point" worthy of contemplation, but when it came to interpreting responsibility through "action," there was a big problem.
With his current level of "Nen," he could not withstand the scorching "sun"...
He would be exhausted in a matter of minutes, unable to endure long-term combat.
In the light,
The young man frowned in deep thought.
On the table, three notebooks lay open; one belonged to Silva, one to Jager, and the last one... Biscuit...
Roy even incorporated "Shingen-ryu" into his reference system, cross-referencing it in search of a solution,
Ultimately, he identified two reasons—
First, his "Nen," both in "quantity" and "quality," did not meet the mark.
Second, his understanding of the "sun" was too shallow, capable only of manifesting "heat... scorching" into reality, but unable to embody deeper aspects of the "sun," like "the nurturing of all things," "the ebb and flow of tides"....
"Young master, have a cup of milk and take a break."
It was already eleven o'clock at night. After several days of staying up late, Wutong was behind him, watching with a heartache, and asked the kitchen to heat a cup of milk to bring up.
The weather turned cold; drinking something warm would comfort the stomach a bit.
Roy rubbed his eyes, immediately stopped persisting, drank the milk, moved his neck a little, and chatted leisurely with Wutong: "If there's any part of the notebook you don't understand, let's discuss it."
Wutong had copied a set, had been watching these past days....
Carefully considering his words, he said: "To be honest, young master, I already have a little clue."
Hmm?
Roy looked surprised: "Let's hear it."
"Yes," Wutong adjusted his glasses on his nose, recalling that night, full of stars, dotting the night sky, only one meteor streaked across the sky, vanishing in an instant...
He smiled at Roy and said: "I laid down 'Constraints and Oaths' yesterday; whenever the young master is in danger, it will trigger a self-destruct sequence, bursting with a hundredfold of usual [Ren], forcibly boosting Nen output, to make up for lack of talent. I believe it could help the young master."
At the cost of burning life, in exchange for a moment of brilliance....
"You!" Roy stared blankly at Wutong, at a loss for words...
Wutong beamed a smile, showing a row of teeth: "By then, the young master need not look for me in the dust; I shall turn to ash myself."
Silence... was the Kukuroo Mountain that night... The night wind rustled the curtains....
Wutong stopped speaking,
Roy slumped in his chair, stared at him dumbfounded, after a while, he waved his hand: "Go down."
"Yes," the butler put the cup away and left the room, heading towards the butler's villa on the mountainside.
As usual, he walked cautiously, fearing to disturb the master late at night... Unbeknownst to him, a gaze followed him all the way until he exited the garden, vanished into the woods, disappearing completely.
Roy still watched, moving from the room to the corridor window... By then, the moon was high in the sky, approaching midnight, when the moon is brightest, the youth lost Wutong's sight, lifted his head, gazing at the night sky, a meteor dragging a long tail, traversed among the stars, blossomed beneath the sky, self-admiring...
The youth took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily, pondering that someone's idea was quite good, but unfortunately...
"I won't let you have your way!"
A gust of cold wind blew,
Roy broke his gaze, rubbed his face, forcibly perked himself up, continuing his studies,
One day, two days, three days... In between, after consulting father Silva and great-grandfather Maha, Roy gradually grasped a way to solve the problem——
If "quantity" of "Nen" was insufficient, he would further strengthen his "constitution," enhancing his own "Sense."
If "quality" of "Nen" was lacking, he would employ the training method recorded in grandfather Jager's notes—"Hookless Fishing," using imagination to shape "Nen" into a hook and line, further mastering "Form Change."
As for... the shallow understanding of the "sun"....
Roy thought of "Sun Breathing," thought of "Tsugikuni Yoriichi," thought of "Full Concentration"... closed the notebook, turned off the light, and lay down on the bed without a second wasted...
First, he would completely inherit Tsugikuni Yoriichi's understanding of the "sun" before proceeding.
That night, in the Zoldyck Family castle, a certain boy with hollow eyes nestled in a dirt pit in his bedroom, alone licking his wounds... a certain old man rocking leisurely to an anime in his rocking chair... a man with silver hair hanging down to his waist, cautiously tucking in a woman and gently massaging her abdomen for a while, the woman hummed, turning to wrap her arms around his neck....
"Hoarse~" As night progressed, the moon fell to the west, Roy, forced into sleep, finally...
At the stroke of one in the morning, successfully entered a dream, crossing through the multi-colored dream pathway, reaching his own Sea of Cognition.
The boundless blue sea stretched infinitely, the youth shed his coat, sprinted a few steps, and outright plunged into the sea, swimming freely to flush out chaotic thoughts, only then he dressed, glanced at the locked "Gate of the Dark Continent," turned and pushed open the Demon Slayer's gate.
The familiar sense of falling came....
When he opened his eyes again, he found his reflection in the beautiful pupils of Makomo, and he calculated the timing, the day after tomorrow was the festival, tomorrow he was going down the mountain to go home, then...
Today, he should give the gift he'd long chosen to his master!
The youth's gaze passed over Makomo, looking to Sabito, looking to Shinsuke, looking to Fukuda, to his fellow apprentices, flipping off the bed to get up.