"Thump..."
His heartbeat pounded like a drum, suddenly spiking... Although Gotoh could not speak, through the thick [Thread of Karma] connecting him and Roy, he quietly transmitted his inner voice, saying only, "Good luck, Young Master!"
Roy gave a soft grunt of acknowledgment, turned around, and strolled out the door toward the back kitchen...
Tsubone flicked her two pink pigtails and silently followed behind him. Just before leaving the room, she turned her head and took a deep look at Gotoh inside the blood cocoon... The lucky guy completely deserved such a fortune today. Faintly... it made one envious...
"Creak..." The door gently closed.
The sound of footsteps gradually faded away...
Roy went to the back kitchen and had a simple dinner served by Tsubone. Passing by Kurajing's bedroom, he saw the young girl leaning against the wall, holding a kettle weighing over a hundred kilograms, doing squats...
On this summer night, the young girl silently cheered herself on. Amidst her meticulous movements, fragrant sweat slowly rolled down her smooth, fair neck, eventually converging into her snow-white cleavage.
Roy smiled faintly and did not disturb her. He then glanced at the next room, his gaze piercing through the stone wall to see Kurapika sitting at a desk, writing something with a pen. It looked like a diary, or perhaps a travelogue... Roy quietly withdrew his gaze, took a light step forward, and his body subsequently transformed into light.
In an instant, he blended into the moonlight, drifting out through the hallway window of the butler's villa. Following the wind, he swept toward the mountain peak. In the next glance, he appeared in the spacious, quaint bedroom on the second floor of the Zoldyck family's ancient castle.
At that time, Kikyo was holding Killua in her arms, having just finished nursing him, and was coaxing him to sleep. Suddenly, she caught the scent of a fresh breeze that swayed the dark hair on her forehead. As her electronic eyes flashed, she abruptly looked forward.
The moonlight spilled in, revealing a shadowy figure through the window lattice...
He had a head of silver hair that was in no way inferior to Silva's. The difference was that the ends of the young man's hair flowed with a glazed golden light, hazily emitting a soft solar halo... From a distance, it looked far more gorgeous and mysterious than Silva's...
"Roy?"
"Mother."
Roy stepped out from the moonlight and smiled warmly at Kikyo. He lowered his gaze to the tiny infant held in the woman's arms and said softly, "Listening to Father, I came to see Killua."
Kikyo's gaze was somewhat complex. As her electronic eyes flickered, static snowflakes continuously fell across her vision.
She looked deeply at Roy and said, "Without your father's orders, you wouldn't come to see Killua?"
"No." Roy stepped forward on a swirl of wind, not letting his footsteps disturb the little one. Getting closer, he arrived at the bedside and gently pinched Killua's delicate, flawless little cheek, saying, "He is my little brother. I can see him whenever I want; I don't need anyone to specifically order me to."
Kikyo gave a coquettish snort and said, "You really have grown up and gotten bold. Be careful, or your father will hear you and teach you a lesson."
Roy shrugged indifferently. "It doesn't matter. No matter what I say, even if I curse him, he's going to teach me a lesson tomorrow anyway."
Kikyo opened her mouth slightly, searching for words to say something, but after a long while, she remained silent...
Roy teased Killua. Without even looking, he could clearly capture the complex and strange intertwining of indifference and concern naturally overflowing from the top of the woman's head...
In his heart, he was actually as clear as a mirror...
If it were the mediocre him of the past, he absolutely would not have attracted a single bit of attention from the mother in front of him. It wasn't just him... In the original story, even Illumi, Milluki, and even the later-born Alluka and Kalluto were not worth a fraction of Killua, who was deeply loved by Kikyo... This perverted, unfair love was too crazy, too heavy, and overwhelmingly possessive. In the end...
It all stemmed from,
Killua's head of silver hair...
And today, in the Zoldyck family, besides Grandpa Zeno and Father Silva, Killua was not the only one with silver hair...
This was also the reason why, for the first time in years, he could step into the second-floor bedroom without being reprimanded, and could stand here peacefully exchanging a few words with Kikyo... The ends of Roy's silver hair flowed with a glazed golden light, swaying gently in the wind...
He reached out his hands and gently clapped at Killua, saying, "Come, Killua, let big brother hold you."
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, Killua's lake-blue eyes sparkled with a crystalline luster like jewels. He tilted his head to look at Roy, waving his two tiny hands, opening his mouth toward Roy, and babbling... as if asking Roy for a hug.
Kikyo was slightly startled and looked down at Killua... Thinking about how this child was like a little demon, fussing all day, not liking to be held by Silva, and not liking to be held by her either, unless he was hungry or sleepy and wanted to nurse or sleep, only then could he barely quiet down for a moment...
As her electronic eyes flashed, Kikyo glared at Killua with a hint of jealousy, reluctantly handing him over to Roy. "Be careful. Support his bottom with one hand and his head with the other. Don't be careless..."
Roy said warmly, "I know."
He took Killua into his arms, like holding a fragrant, soft little kitten, and gently helped Killua tidy up the few fine, soft silver tufts of hair on the top of his head...
"..."
The [Thread of Karma] appeared,
One end connecting to Killua, the other connecting to Roy,
The profound bond originating from bloodlines slowly revealed its traces...
Holding Killua in his arms, Roy felt for an instant as if he were holding his past self. That feeling that blood is thicker than water surged into his heart like a wave in an instant, causing him to involuntarily freeze in place...
What was it... It seemed like something... suddenly flashed past his spiritual perception... making him want to grasp it but failing to do so for a moment.
His brows furrowed involuntarily...
Seeing this, Kikyo slipped on her slippers and got out of bed. Noticing Roy's sudden change in expression and worried that he might drop the child,
She hurriedly reached out her hands and scooped Killua back from Roy's arms. Looking up at Roy again, she opened her mouth to say something, but as her lips moved, she suddenly saw...
At the bedroom door, a tall figure approached. After glancing at her from a distance, he signaled for her to keep quiet.
Only then did Kikyo stop talking. Upon seeing Silva, she quietly breathed a sigh of relief...
"Dong..." At ten o'clock in the evening, the wooden grandfather clock sitting in the corner struck the hour...
Silva had finished exercising his body and originally planned to sleep in the study today. At a certain moment, he seemed to feel something, and immediately,
He jumped down from his chair, casually grabbed a towel to wipe his body, and then... with vigorous strides, he left the study and returned to the bedroom.
"Buzz..." The chandelier hanging from the ceiling hazily emitted a soft halo...
Silence filled the second-floor bedroom at this moment.
After extending a finger to stop Kikyo's attempt to disturb Roy, the man found a sofa and lay down himself. Propping his head up with his right hand, he silently watched Roy alongside Kikyo.
The young man's brows were tightly knit as he desperately pursued that fleeting inspiration. He stood as still as an old monk in meditation, yet his body was like a willow tree suddenly encountering a warm spring, sprouting thousands of silk ribbons...
Connecting thousands of [Threads of Karma], the ends linking to all sorts of different people...
There were family members, such as the Zoldyck family, the Kamado family, the Uchiha family...
There were masters and senior brothers, such as Urokodaki Sakonji, Sabito, Makomo, Shinsuke, Fukuda...
There were followers, such as Gotoh, Ubuyashiki, the Nine Hashira, Uchiha along with the Spiders, Vanessa, Old Kohler, as well as enemies and friends...
Such as Guzman, Ging, Netero, Razor, and... all sorts of men and women, young and old, who had once appeared in his life, even strangers he had only met once on the road...
All of them were hung by Roy on the [Willow of Karma] that symbolized [Karma]...
Gradually... Roy finally persevered and caught that trace of inspiration, that trace of spiritual perception originating from bloodline bonds, which he should have valued but had always ignored—
[Karma], or rather... [Karma·Blade]!
'Just like Itachi's Mangekyo controls [Amaterasu] and [Tsukuyomi],'
'Sasuke's Mangekyo controls [Kagutsuchi],'
'Obito's Mangekyo controls [Kamui·Space],'
'My Mangekyo should control [Karma]. Just as the sun leaves filth with nowhere to hide, I, too, can use [Karma] to sever the [True Self] or [Existence] from the lives of those connected to me by the [Thread of Karma]!'
"Buzz..." Slowly, a smear of blood-red color crept out from Roy's pupils. In just an instant, he quickly snapped back to reality and immediately suppressed it...
A faint smile graced the young man's lips, having understood in an instant the direction his Mangekyo should take in the future... He reached out and rubbed Killua's little head, saying with no lack of expectation, "Killua, grow up quickly."
"What you gifted big brother today, big brother will remember..."
"When you're a bit older, I'll take you up to the sky..."
"Babble..." Nestled in Kikyo's arms, Killua looked at Roy in confusion, opened his mouth with a sneeze, and started gnawing on his fingers.
Seeing this, Roy laughed heartily. His confusion completely vanished, replaced by clarity, and he turned to leave...
Just before walking out the door, Silva's leisurely voice called out to him, "Aren't you going to say goodnight?"
"We'll see each other tomorrow morning, so why say goodnight?" Roy paused his steps, tilted his head, and glanced at Silva.
The man's silver hair draped behind his head like a lion's mane. He said expressionlessly, "I thought you would have something to say."
Roy raised his fist, grinned, and said valiantly to Silva, "I think this is more useful than talking!"
"Heh heh heh... Hahaha..." Silva suddenly laughed. It started suppressed, raised in volume in the middle, and completely unhidden at the end, as he laughed wildly and freely out loud...
The sound shook the roof tiles, and it took quite a while before it finally stopped!
The man then waved his hand.
The young man turned his head, not staying a moment longer.
With another glance, he stepped into the moonlight and vanished in a flash, leaving only the bedroom door to be blown by the wind, closing with a creak.
Silently,
It separated the man and the young man, the father and the son, into two different worlds!
"Hmm... A new era is coming..." A leisurely, enlarged ear silently retracted as the door closed...
On the first floor of the Zoldyck family's ancient castle, in that dim little room...
A certain shriveled old man muttered, rolled over, and whether intentionally or not, kicked off the fleece blanket covering him, leaving a shriveled, wrinkled belly exposed in the moonlight. Glared at by the woman who emerged from the hazy mist, she helplessly picked up the fleece blanket and covered him again, just like when they were young...
"Yes, a new era is coming..." Betty Zoldyck, her blonde hair tied in a ponytail draped behind her head, sat on a rocking chair right next to Maha. Her figure bobbed up and down with the rocking chair as she watched Roy walk toward his own bedroom.
At a certain moment, she noticed again,
The young man, just like in the past, arrived outside the room, paused his steps by the window lattice, and respectfully bowed to her and Maha.
A kind smile appeared on Betty Zoldyck's lips. She then watched Roy leave, just as she had watched Zigg leave back then, her eyes filled with unspeakable gentleness...
"Good child, they are all good children... Zigg was a good one, Zeno and Silva are also good ones, and now... it's his turn... Roy's..."
"Hehehe... Creak..." The rocking chair swayed.
A certain shriveled old man, with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep but not, chuckled mischievously. He leisurely reached out a hand and touched Betty's bottom... Suddenly, he received a sharp glare from the woman and his hand was slapped away...
"In front of the child, you're still so improper!"
"Do you want to die!"
"That won't do, this old man can't die yet," Maha slowly opened his eyes, faint thunder flashing within them, and said deeply, "At least... until I see that child slaughter a god,"
"I cannot fall..."
Betty: "..."
Her expression dimmed, and she fell silent...
After a moment, she took the initiative to pick up Maha's hand, placed it on her hip, and then... leaned into his embrace.
Just like in the past, she extended a finger and started drawing circles on his not-so-broad chest...
Outside the window, separated by a wall,
Roy bowed and straightened up. Noticing this scene, he stopped and gazed for a moment before turning to leave...
The sound of footsteps gradually faded away... Sweeping past the dim little room, past the corner, past the mottled ancient corridor steeped in the aura of time, approaching his own bedroom.
Roy paused his steps.
He looked up.
A pale, slanted shadow leaned against the wall of his bedroom, hands in its pockets. It was unknown... how long he had been waiting...
"I couldn't sleep," Illumi, with his smooth black hair falling to his waist, heard the footsteps. He tilted his head, staring at Roy with those hollow eyes, and said, "So I came over to see you."
"Is that so?" Roy lifted his foot again, strolled to the young man's side, brushed past Illumi's shoulder, pushed open the door, and walked in. Without looking back, he said, "I'm the one getting beaten tomorrow, not you. What do you have to be nervous about?"
Illumi said nothing, simply following behind Roy. He plopped down on his chair, resting his two pale arms on the armrests, and stared straight at Roy, saying, "You know, Father won't hold back."
"So, you're afraid I'll be beaten to death?"
Illumi remained silent.
Roy ignored him, summoned Xiao Jin, and let it roll around on the bed. He prepared to catch a quick nap before dawn broke to rest and recharge. As he tidied up the bed, he said, "Don't worry, I won't die that easily, and I'm not as fragile as you imagine. On the contrary, you,"
"Worry more about yourself. Don't just wait around and end up being surpassed by Gotoh..."
Illumi: "You don't have to humiliate me like this."
Roy finished arranging the bedding, turned around, looked earnestly at Illumi, and said, "I'm stating a fact."
Illumi: "..."
Very well.
'When he wakes up, I'll go kill him!'