When the plot-skips players into the game world-Chapter 1021 - 364: The Childhood of Franz Pengbonazi

Chapter 1021 -364: The Childhood of Franz Pengbonazi

Aleister was moved upon hearing these words.

…”The great” Baroness Beyard?

What exactly had Vinesse done to be so respected by Franz Penbonazzi?

No wonder the flighty Franz Penbonazzi was so formal when he came to see her.

It’s likely that when they first met at Crescent Moon Manor, Baroness Beyard’s status was far above that of Penbonazzi.

Realizing that he really might have a chance to coax out some intelligence, Aleister’s attention grew even more focused.

“Great…”

“Beyard” took a sip of wine, a mocking smile appearing on the corner of her mouth: “Are you serious? Or are you mocking me?”

“—No, of course I’m serious.”

Franz Penbonazzi’s graceful right hand touched his chest, earnestly saying: “The ‘Light of Helasal’ on your chest is proof. It was not given to your father or mother, but to you personally, Baroness.

“Under your leadership, the Beaumont Consortium has become a massive entity that can shake the Empire. Even the Emperor has to submit and court your favor… If not for you, perhaps Crescent Moon Manor would not even exist. It’s the place that changed my life.”

Aleister was stunned for a moment.

…So this necklace is the “Light of Helasal”?

This is something Aiwass knew from history lessons in Avalon.

The downfall of nations usually comes from the weakening of national power, but the Helasal Empire fell because it was too powerful.

At least in Avalon’s textbooks, the main reason for the Helasal Empire’s collapse was that a large number of lower-class Transcendents gradually slipped out of control—in that era of loosely regulated Transcendent knowledge, one only needed a Pathfinder to easily become a Transcendent.

There were no comprehensive assessments of quality, nor investigations into family and personal morality. An old man you meet on the street might teach you the secrets to become a Mage; the black market is replete with genuine and fake Transcendent knowledge. Transcendents were always eager to explore various ancient ruins, further enhancing their own strength from them.

All the academies were also training their own Transcendents as much as possible, competing for students. The cost of learning Transcendent knowledge was brought down to a limit… At its cheapest, even a coachman’s child could study Mystical Skills by taking out a loan against twenty years of future earnings.

The result was that the number of nobles did not change, but the number of mad noble progeny increased, and social contradictions gradually intensified… Meanwhile, the numbers of Transcendents from commoner backgrounds kept growing.

Everyone wanted to go on happy and exciting adventures. The ruins around the cities were packed like tourist attractions, and nothing of value could be excavated any longer. Nobody wanted to do low-wage jobs; they preferred to go to sea and explore the far reaches. This was also why when Avalon was founded, it could bring over so many Knights and people from the Empire.

In the last decade before its collapse, Transcendents who were not of hereditary noble origin but were above the Third Level accounted for more than 90%. Initially, the nobles would recruit these Transcendents to join the periphery of their families… but later, even though they eagerly recruited, the wealth they could offer was limited, so more Transcendents still flowed outside.

The gathering of commoners formed all sorts of guilds, consortia, associations, societies, and other civilian Transcendent organizations, constantly competing for wealth, status, and power of discourse. The entire Empire fell into a state of intense infighting, factions attacking each other, with constant alliances and betrayals occurring between different factions.

The last Emperor was determined to change this situation.

He was gentle by nature, and between the “invasion of the Parthian Ancient Country” proposed by the Prime Minister and “mediating class conflicts,” he chose the latter. Between violent suppression and non-violent enticement, he still chose the latter… Hence, he implemented the “Light of Helasal” program, commending outstanding civilian Transcendents and conferring upon them non-hereditary noble titles.

It was quite common for the royal family to bestow noble credentials, actually not uncommon during the peaceful years of yore. However, that was the royal family’s commendation of “individuals,” without a clear, automatically operating set of rules and systems.

This was the Helasal Empire’s first automatically operating ennoblement system besides the war merits system.

However, by then the contradictions had already accumulated to an extreme degree, and the standings of both sides were entirely polarized, with no middle ground to speak of. As a result, the reconciliatory monarch was instead considered biased by both sides, further igniting the contradictions.

—In Avalon, the “Light of Helasal” is also known as the “Light of Ruin.”

They are called the countdown to the destruction of the Helasal Empire.

This was on the necklace that came as an accessory when Aiwass first obtained the powers of the Gemini Mirror and became Beyard. It doesn’t have any special powers—in fact, it might have, but as a mirror image, it’s merely an ornament.

And the Shadow Demon himself had never expressed any wish to cherish or save it carefully.

It seems she did not like this necklace.

“But I don’t like it.”

Aleister sighed and imagined herself as Beyard.

She imitated Beyard’s tone during the promotion ceremony, speaking in a manner that was half nonchalant, half carefree: “It’s all in the past now. Power, honor… or even the childhood self. Nothing in the world is eternal… To pursue eternity is no different from pursuing stagnation.”

“…Your words, as always, carry a philosophical air.”

Franz Penbonazzi did not respond to her words, just pursed his lips, then suddenly started laughing obsequiously: “It’s been many years, did you go to the East to rest?”

His face wore a smile, but Aleister distinctly felt that Franz Penbonazzi was unhappy just a moment ago. It was only because he rarely got to see a “fellow countryman” that he suppressed the dissatisfaction in his heart.

“Kind of,” Aleister uttered fluently in the Primordial Language, “A blessing in disguise, one might say.”

Her mastery of the Primordial Language was so fluent and confident that even Pengbonazi, who could barely grasp the gist, harbored no doubt about her words.

This also conveniently explained why Baroness Beyard disappeared after the latter stages of the Split Earth War—she had grown tired of the strife on these lands, so she fled to a distant place. It was a logical move, very much in line with her indifferent nature.

“However,” Aleister paused before asking, “you said the Crescent Moon Manor changed your life?”

Clearly, discussing this topic with Beyard was precisely what Pengbonazi intended.

He immediately perked up, visibly elated.

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Seeing this, Aleister also understood—obviously, Pengbonazi wanted to talk about Valentine I.

Though she hadn’t met Pengbonazi, she knew both the original Black and Red Chancellors came for Bashir’s personal charisma.

The Black Chancellor might have simply acknowledged him as a person, holding Bashir as someone trustworthy. It was for this reason that he was willing to marry his pupil to the already aged Bashir.

But as Transcendents of the Path of Love, their emotions were all jumbled and mixed together. This meant that for Transcendents of the Path of Love, there were no absolutely pure friendships, familial bonds, or reverence—every emotion was “love” to them.

—In other words, Tienan Tong.

But this posed a problem…

The standing of Crescent Moon Manor was comparable to today’s White Dove Opera House. Like a club with a very high threshold for entry, where one could only gain access with an introduction.

Aleister remembered that during the ascension ceremony, Aiwass had once seen a girl chatting jovially with a human youth over wine. That human youth was the young Bashir.

“Beyard” crossed her fingers and said with a smiling eye, “Indeed, I never expected that the child you brought to the Crescent Moon Manor would become a Monarch… while you, in turn, followed a human. You even went as far as to do that kind of thing…”

“That kind of thing… What are you referring to?”

Pengbonazi’s tone became sharper: “Are you talking about how I wiped out Star Antimony’s Son of the Moon entirely, or… how I massacred my own family?”

—You’ve done that kind of thing as well?

Aleister raised an eyebrow and just smiled without saying anything.

She simply said leisurely, “When I was a child… when both my parents were still around, my father would teach me ritual spells every day. And my mother would teach me how to become a charming Witch.

“I remember I used to look quite androgynous as a kid. I found long hair bothersome, so I switched to short hair. When I grew taller, people often mistook me as ‘young master’ rather than ‘miss’… I even asked my mother for a Magic Potion that could make one shorter.”

“… Heh.”

Pengbonazi’s mouth twitched a little as he chuckled dryly: “It must have been before you ‘came of age.’

“Of course. That was the true ‘Beyard’s past, but it doesn’t prevent me from holding it dear.”

Beyard countered, “What about you?”

“‘Franz’ is not like you. I had four brothers and three sisters, all with the same father and mother… but none shared the same bloodline as I.”

Pengbonazi’s fingers twitched slightly, and he tightly grasped his wine glass as a cover: “I am the only ‘pureblood’ in the family.”

“When my father had his third child, he turned into a Son of the Moon. And after my mother gave birth to the seventh child, she too was killed by my father… After eighty days in the resurrection ritual, she became a Son of the Moon as well.

“Shortly after that, my father ascended to the Fifth Power Level, and my mother was already pregnant with me… Though the fertility rate at the Fifth Power Level isn’t zero, it’s extremely low. Essentially, I was the last child in the family.”

Pengbonazi’s lips curled slightly in a sardonic smile: “From the moment you were born, siblings related by blood saw you as an enemy and a monster… Have you ever experienced such a thing?”

Unlike Beyard, and unlike most other Sons of the Moon whose eyes only turn red when excited…

Pengbonazi’s pupils were always blood-red.

This was the proof of his “pureblood” status.

“The earliest memory ‘Franz’ has is from just over a year old.”

Pengbonazi spoke softly: “My eldest sister wanted to strangle me… perhaps because she thought her own father and mother had been replaced by someone else. She was terrified by it.

“Unfortunately… she failed. Because she didn’t expect that I was a naturally Transcendent. She also didn’t seem to understand what a Son of the Moon could actually do.

“When my consciousness returned, it was as I emerged from the Blood Pool reborn from ashes. My mother commanded me to suckle her blood… unlike human infants who need milk, I was raised on ‘blood bottles’, so I quickly grasped this command.

“In the midst of my sister’s screams, I drained her, reducing her to a corpse.

“—That was my first killing.”