The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 398: Bernardino As A Child

Danton looked around.

He vaguely remembered this place.

The familiar hot and humid sea breeze allowed Danton to recognize this place instantly. This must be the Fildes Archipelago of the United Kingdom.

But which island exactly?

Fildes Archipelago consisted of seven islands of varying areas. The largest would be the Gushing Spring Island was about 12,000 square kilometers, while the smallest among the islands was the Treasure Diamond Island which spanned only 6,000 square kilometers. Its population was capped at a few hundred thousand people, far lesser than the number of residents in Noah’s capital.

Every island in the Fildes Archipelago was once a kingdom or a principality. As the losers of the Blood War, the Elegant Elder gave them mercy and sent them out to the small islands after they dedicated their wealth to the Denizoya people.

So the laws vary from island to island.

Even each island had its wizard tower. From this perspective, the United Kingdom might have the highest density of wizard towers.

Danton’s illusory body outlined by icy blue lines was suddenly painted with a layer of flesh and clothes, turning into a middle-aged man wearing a fisherman’s hat with a slightly red and cracked face.

The question was simple.

He would need to locate the iconic buildings on the island.

The icy blue circle in Danton’s eyes lit up slightly and then went out. Then, a thick layer of gloomy clouds quickly gathered atop the island.

A soft drizzle came from the sky with the wet and cold sea breeze passing by.

His perception range immediately spread to the entire island.

With that, he noticed the huge dark blue lighthouse in the north. At the top of the lighthouse was a huge hemispherical diamond with thousands of facets reflecting iridescent aurora.

This was a building that was too iconic to be copied.

“Azure Diamond Tower…” Danton murmured, “So ‘the Purest Spiritual Medium’ is from Treasure Diamond Island.”

This surprised him a little.

Aren’t the people from Treasure Diamond Island usually Edict Wizard or Guard Knight?

How did he venture the path of the traditional Soul Snatch Wizard?

Danton was actually from the United Kingdom too.

But he was different from those country folks. He had the pure blood of Denizoya.

Even though their nationality consisted of both “Denizoya & Fildes Archipelago United Kingdom” in name, they would tend to identify themselves as “I’m from the Kingdom of Denizoya” or “I am from the such-and-such island”.

The reason being they were the countries that were forced to unite at the end of the brutal world war — “Blood War”. To the Denizoyas, the Fildes Archipelago was nothing more than many villagers conquered by their ancestors who had lost their country in the Blood War.

If the Elegant Elder did not provide them with the Fildes Archipelago, they would be pushed to the Great Barrier. Worse still, they would have been completely wiped out in the Blood War. They could either go underground or be exposed to the Gray Mists.

But for the Fildes Archipelago, they never lost their country. It was just that they had no people, no money, and no army.

So far, they still retain the inheritance of the throne of many kingdoms and principalities, and the royal blood had not been completely cut off. It could be said that each island was a small kingdom, but no one recognized these kingdoms.

After all, the formulation and implementation of laws depend on what the Parliament and the Prime Minister said.

The words of the “kings” carried no weight in the kingdom of the Elegant Elder.

The royal family was only a slightly prominent noble in the United Kingdom.

“He’s born in the Treasure Diamond Island.” Danton frowned slightly.

Azure Diamond Tower is not known for the Soul Snatch School. Is that why he took a different approach?

Maybe I can ask him myself.

He had already located the master of the dream through the drizzle.

Danton stepped out, and his body instantly turned into a blurred phantom.

He reappeared beside a little boy with dark skin and a thin body.

The boy was about nine years old, and his skin was rough. He wore mud-stained slippers, khaki shorts, and a somewhat worn shirt. At this moment, he squatted on the beach with his head lowered, sketching at the ground with a branch.

No matter how I see it, he is an ordinary fisherman’s child.

Is this what “the Purest Spiritual Medium”, Bernardino Telesio, looked like as a child?

The very person who drove me to a corner… the very person who is considered a top-level powerhouse in Gold Rank…

Danton was surprised and speechless.

But there was no delay in his movements.

Although the passage of time in the dream was slow, he could not waste time arbitrarily.

With the icy blue flames in Danton’s eyes flickering slightly, his image was utterly replaced from his feet up.

In the blink of an eye, Danton had turned into a stern-faced middle-aged man in a purple robe.

The purple robe was the characteristic of the Elegant Elder’s priest. It was like Silver Sire’s priests would wear a long white robe.

Danton did a rough reading of his mind and learned that this was the person that little Bernardino respected the most, a well-known sculptor and priest of the Elegant Elder.

“Bernard,” Danton spoke in a commanding voice behind Bernardino.

Hearing this, Bernardino immediately raised his head, stood up, cleaned away the dirt on his body, and replied. “Yes, Father Ludwig.”

“Have you done your homework today?”

“Yes, I have completed it.”

Little Bernardino did not raise his head. Instead, he just lowered his head and muttered vaguely, “I came to play after I had finished up the clay sculpture.”

“You should work harder, Bernardino.”

Danton skillfully applied the memory he had stolen from Bernardino’s heart, admonishing Bernard dignifiedly, “Have you finished both [Human Anatomy] and [The Beauty of Solidification] I gave you?

“Practice your skills well. You are talented. Even if you can’t become a well-known sculptor, you won’t live just by selling some dolls like your father.”

The real “Father Ludwig” certainly would not have said this, given his gentle character.

Bernardino’s father was a fisherman.

When Bernard’s father was fishing at sea, he was buried at the bottom of the sea by a sudden tide. The only remnant of him left in the world was the somewhat worn bucket hat on Bernardino’s head.

However, Danton’s fundamental purpose was to blow Bernardino’s self-confidence without a trace.

Bernardino subconsciously thought this was the most important scene in his life. As long as Danton ruined the positive effect of this scene on him and even stirred up the suicidal impulses and suicidal desires, these memories would be overwritten and implanted in Bernardino in mind.

When Danton left this dream, he could easily detonate the emotion, causing Bernardino to commit suicide on the spot.

It was not Danton’s first use of this technique to kill someone.

Even as a Gold Rank transcender, he had used this tactic to kill one person and seriously wound another.

The only disadvantage was that he existed as a spirit body in the other’s memory. Suppose the opponent was a wizard of Soul Snatch, Idol, or Edict school, or priest with purification ability. In that case, the opponent could launch a fatal counterattack once he realized something was wrong.

However, it would be too late for Bernardino to fight back.

Danton’s skill was overkill. He did not alert Bernardino but deftly avoided the alarm.

This was equivalent to sneaking in without triggering any alarms. As long as his modifications were not too bizarre, Bernardino would be unaware.

Unless Bernardino realized that he was now in the depths of his consciousness, he would not be on guard at all.

However, facing Danton’s “Father Ludwig”, Bernardino suddenly raised his head.

“But, Father Ludwig, I don’t want to be a sculptor.” He whispered.

“Nonsense!” Father Ludwig frowned slightly, “Are you just tired? Of course, you can rest when tired, but you cannot stop learning it.

“We are not blood-related, so I can’t support you for the rest of my life. Bernardino, I also have children of my own. I take care of your daily necessities because you are my apprentice.

“If you don’t learn sculpting, there is no need for me to support you. Do you understand?”

“No, I’m-” Little Bernardino’s voice suddenly rose a little.

But he looked at the priest, and his words suddenly stopped.

Looking at the rustic face with no unique features, Danton showed a bit of disgust and annoyance at the right time, “What do you want to say?”

“I want to study natural philosophy, Father.” Bernardino said seriously, “I want to read.”

“Who will feed you?” Danton asked.

“I’m not going to feed you.” His ruthless and irrational words did not surprise Bernardino.

Bernardino hung his head and said nothing. After a long time, he replied in a low voice, “Yes, I will study hard.”

At this moment, Danton’s heart tightened.

The moment Bernardino said this line, he was a little shaken and opened up a flaw in his psychological defenses. Danton also dug up more and deeper memories from Bernardino’s heart.

This familiar conversation happened four years later in Little Bernardino’s memory. At that time, Father Ludwig said that Bernard was old and mature enough, and he could issue a recommendation letter for Bernard to study at the Denizoya Theological Seminary.

If all went well, he should become the Elegant Elder’s priest, a philosopher, and a natural scientist.

However, the letter of introduction that Father Ludwig wrote to Bernardino, along with the priest’s token and tuition fees, were lost along the journey.

Bernardino was disheartened at the time but did not dare to go home. Instead, he wandered in Denizoya and became a scavenger in the art capital, relying on half-baked sculpture craftsmanship.

It was at that time Bernardino met a Soul Snatch Wizard from the Black Glory Tower. The other party fancied his sculpting skills as if the sculptures had souls and wanted to invite him to become a school worker.

Maybe I can modify his memory in this place.