Undercurrents Stir as the Squadron Leader Walks into the Trap

Fire!

"Is that Lord Edmond's residence?"

"Go and report to Lord Simon immediately!"

The flames will not rest until the villa is reduced to ashes!

The heatwave and flames ignited the entire Shantytown, spreading along the walls to the neighboring Bandle City.

Upon seeing this, the guards on duty immediately notified the city's Security Corps commander, who was in charge of coordinating the entire Shantytown and was known as "Bandle City's most handsome man."

Simon Ferrero!

In the Bandle City Lord's Mansion,

This man, with long, wavy blue hair and a beautifully crafted Western sword always at his waist, gazed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of his office at the ever-growing flames. His handsome face was obscured by an extremely exaggerated captain's hat, and his expression was sinister, almost as if you could squeeze water out of it.

"Understood. You may leave." The man's cold voice echoed as he waved for the guards to leave.

The office door slammed shut with a loud bang.

The security guard, who had just bowed and retreated, suddenly heard a loud crashing sound coming from inside the door. He shrank back and quickly retreated...

"Useless! That damned fat pig Edmond... He can't even handle a simple task. We shouldn't have assigned him the mission in the first place!"

"Darling, what's wrong?" Beside the broken vase, a shadowy figure writhed, a "beautiful snake" emerging and slithering up the carpet to Simon Ferrero's thigh, then all the way up to his shoulder. It flicked its tongue, aiming a gentle breath at Simon Ferrero's ear... [The text abruptly shifts to a different scene:] Simon Ferrero, naked, his long, azure hair flowing down his back, let the woman dress him. He looked refreshed, no longer the sinister figure he had been before, and let out a satisfied sigh. "Lilith, poor Andrew Cooper, that idiot is a blockhead," he said. "After all these years with you, I still couldn't discover your [Succubus] identity, wasting your youth in vain."

[Succubus]: A humanoid monster. Belonging to the [Phantom Beast] family, along with the "Kiriko" family responsible for the pre-test assessments of the Hunter Exam, they typically appear with pointed ears, a pointed tail, and a curvaceous figure before their Aura Nodes are opened. However, once their Aura Nodes are opened and they officially become Nen Ability Nen user, [Succubus] can usually consciously suppress their non-human features such as pointed ears and a pointed tail, transforming into a human form.

A woman Lilith wrapped her arms around Simon Ferrero's waist from behind, resting her delicate chin on his shoulder, and giggled seductively, "If it weren't for your sharp eyes, Young Master, helping me open my 'Aura Nodes,' Lilith would probably never have known she was a Succubus until her death, let alone... when she was just a down-on-his-luck Andrew..."

"Unfortunately, he botched the task I gave him!" Simon Ferrero sneered. "Edmond's mansion burned down, and he mysteriously disappeared. And coincidentally, he was your husband's superior... Lilith,"

Simon Ferrero turned around, hugged the woman tightly, looked down at her, and said, "You don't mind if I question him, do you?"

"Young Master," the woman tiptoed and gently kissed the man's lips, her eyes filled with seductive allure as she murmured, "You said it yourself, that was before, I didn't know any Andrew, but now... I'm yours..."

"Heh heh..." Simon Ferrero, known as "Bandle City's Number One Handsome Man," chuckled wickedly, his head instantly Transformation into a toad's head. He opened his mouth and swallowed Lilith's entire head. "You're amazing, Lilith!"

I'm really loving you more and more!

"Young Master, please don't pity me!"

A second bloom... the ambiguous, pink-hued Nen Qi reappears...

In the towering flames that shot into the sky from the Shantytown adjacent to Bandle City...

Simon Ferrero's two toad-like eyes suddenly shot out, and two cold glints flashed in his straight pupils!

"The road is trodden... the road is trodden..." The wind blows, people drift, and emotions surge like clouds and waves, reaching straight to the sky.

After killing Edmond Sanders and his squire Dunn West, Roy used [Light Release] to merge into the light, drifting with the sunlight. The image of Sanders helping to rescue Edmond Silva kept replaying in his mind, and for the first time in his life, he felt a hazy sense of unfamiliarity with his father.

He felt like he didn't recognize Silva anymore.

It's as if he wasn't the stern, unsmiling father from the original story, whose face always seemed to say "Keep Out" and keep people at arm's length.

Instead, he was an accomplice to evil, a bloodthirsty "executioner," chilling to the bone.

"Assassins don't distinguish between good and bad; they only kill, get paid, and complete their missions." Silva's teachings from years past flashed before his eyes. Roy remained silent, flying over Shantytown, over farmlands, over plains, and then into the Uzuki Forest. At a certain moment, Kuji stopped.

Bathed in sunlight, it slowly descends into the depths of the forest.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned the [Sumeru Mustard Seed] and gently placed Ribery, Garcia, and the boys and girls who had been imprisoned by Edmond as "playthings" on a lawn in the woods.

Wearing an extravagant playing card-patterned trench coat, Ribery Garcia, his hooked mustache twitching upwards, prostrated himself at Roy's feet before Roy could react, exclaiming, "Great being above, Ribery Garcia pays homage to Your Majesty, and humbly awaits your teachings!"

[Hint: Detecting one "Believer"]

[Name: Ribery; Garcia]

[A man influenced by divination, who blindly follows fate, glimpsed the future, witnessed your brilliance, and devoutly converted, eagerly awaiting Officialization.]

Roy snapped out of his reverie, glancing indifferently at Ribery; Garcia said, "You used to hate [God] the most, and now... what are you doing?"

God-Slayer "repent"? Sun-Earring Boy is stubborn, adulthood is inflexible, and by middle age, one's values are formed and one's nature is hard to change. Roy didn't believe it... that he could simply shudder and command the submission of someone so adept at "human relationships," someone who had survived over twenty years of the Church's pursuit... even with the assurance of the panel.

Ribery Garcia lay prone on the ground, raised his head to meet Roy's gaze, neither looking away nor avoiding it, and asked him with a burning look, "Will you become [god]?"

Roy was taken aback, speechless.

He gently stroked the back of his left hand, feeling his life ticking away with each second, and slowly but firmly shook his head. "Rather than being a [god], I'd rather be a guide who never forgets his original aspirations."

Receiving... plundering... setting rules... creating privileges... deliberately solidifying class distinctions, disregarding the lives of the lower classes... This trip, merely a brief visit to the [Shantytown], was enough to make Roy abandon his ambition to become a [god]. He said to Ribery Garcia with no small amount of composure, "I will not abandon my power. In the future, I may lean towards the [divine path]. I cannot guarantee to those who believe in me, respect me, and love me that I will never change, but there is only one thing..."

The Sun-Earring Boy removed the Deception, shed Andrew Cooper's disguise, and revealed his true self... Then,

A head of beautiful silver hair swayed in the wind and entered Ribery; Garcia's eyes widened, and he was startled, continuing to listen to Roy's quiet murmur, "I will always remember who I am... and where I came from..."

"Whoosh~" A gust of wind rose, rustling the leaves.

Sunlight streamed down from the dome, casting dappled patterns through the trees, creating a Sun Halo Cloak for the Sun-Earring Boy, reflected in Ribery's eyes; in a Garcia, it seemed to pull him back to the moment of divination, to the man sitting atop the Sun Chariot in the sky, staring in astonishment, dazzled...

"That's why," Ribery Garcia said solemnly to Roy, regaining his composure, "That's why fate guided me to meet you." The man patted his chest, aggravating his injury, coughing up blood, and vowed, "Ribery Garcia will humbly heed Your Majesty's teachings until death."

"Thump!" He bent over and kowtowed.

The tip of the nose was pressed against the ground.

A wisp of dust rose up...

The panel displayed a message: "[Prompt... Detecting ' Believer ' Ribery; Garcia [Absolute Loyalty] can be trusted...] Roy looked down at him with a complex expression, remained silent for a long while, then conjured [Eclipse] in his hand, lightly tapping Ribery; Garcia's shoulders on either side: 'You apostatized because you couldn't tolerate the filth of the Church and the absurdity of the nobles, which shows that your conscience is not dead, and you have never forgotten the basic qualities that a [human being] should possess.'"

"Ribery; Garcia,"

"Your Majesty, I am here."

Roy raised his voice at the opportune moment, and finally tapped his forehead lightly, saying, "Praise the sun. May you never forget your original intention, and always remember this." "Praise the sun!" Ribery Garcia clasped his hands devoutly, and followed suit... As Roy removed the Light Sword from his forehead, a stream of information, enveloped in Nen Qi, transformed into a stream of water, flowing gently into his mind from between his brows...

[Grace]...[Deception]...

Note: "Nen Transformation" is a practical technique that allows one to pre-imagine the object to be transformed and then use Nen Qi to "disguise" or "transform" it, combining "realism" and "deception" to obscure the naked eye. (Those with a deep understanding of Nen can even deceive [En]'s perception, creating a truly convincing illusion.)

The information flowed out... Ribery; Garcia, in a daze, felt he had grasped something, his spirits jolted, and he stammered in his heart, "This is... [Blessing]?!"

The others cautiously glanced at Roy, only to see the Sun-Earring Boy stand with his hands behind his back, looking at the dozens of boys and girls still fast asleep beside him, and calmly say, "The knights of Bandle City don't treat people like human beings, and I think... I have no reason to treat them like human beings in the future." "Ribery Garcia, I need intelligence, and even more so, I need an intelligence officer,"

Roy turned his head to look at the man again and asked, "Are you sure you can?"

"Praise be to the sun, my lord, Ribery Garcia! I will follow your teachings!" Suppressing his excitement, Ribery Garcia straightened up again and said in a deep voice, "Once I can control the side effects of [Blessing], I will immediately depart for Bandle City to investigate for the Lord." Side effects?

"What I'm talking about are the natural backlashes that come with acquiring [Faith]..." Roy glanced at Ribery Garcia without saying a word, then suddenly recalled the absurd, crazy, and disgusting scenes he had seen in the other man's heart and in Edmond Sanders's villa, all of whom were people who had lost their way because of "power".

He said calmly, "My [protection] has no side effects."

"Moreover, true [protection] should be the [Embrace] that can elevate a person's talent ceiling, just like my bond with Gotoh, Muzan's bond with Guiyue back then, which belongs to a higher level of deep binding." After saying that, Roy added another sentence in his mind.

Then, everything seemed to fall silent in an instant... leaving only Ribery and Garcia speechless with shock. The man stood there stunned for a long while, then stared at Roy in utter astonishment and blurted out, "Why?"

"Because nothing can stop the sun from rising as usual, whether in the darkest of times or in the brightest of times," Roy reached out and caught a ray of sunlight, playing with it in his palm, and said slowly, "That's the reason."

Ribery; Garcia:."

Mu Ran shuddered.

I thought of the Sun Chariot, the Gilded Bird, and the Great Sun wheel that Roy carried on his back...

He lowered his head and said devoutly, "To praise the sun is my narrow-mindedness."

Ribery Garcia raised his head again and solemnly assured him, "As Your Majesty commands, I will depart for Bandle City immediately."

"No rush."

"Let's talk about it after you've recovered." Roy glanced at Ribery Garcia, seemingly casually. The charlatan was indeed a charlatan; his life was truly tough... He was almost dead before, but now he'd regained consciousness in just half a day.

A red light surged in Roy's eyes as he silently activated the [Eye of Truth] to see through the illusion and secretly memorize the opponent's attributes.

[Ribery; Garcia]

[Constitution: 1354]

[Manifestation of Mindfulness: C+ (52,000/100,000)]

[Potential Nen Capacity: B-1 (410,000/million)]

[Rating: C+]

[Note: Elite Chimera Ant Squadron Leader Level 1, similar to the Scorpion Chimera Ant Kazan who invaded Meteor City]

No less than Feitan and Uvogin in their prime,

It suffers from non-combat types, such as "Enhancement" and "Transformation," otherwise, it might be even stronger...