Chapter 143 Chapter 143 Long Live Vongola!
Cozart, who was waiting in the workshop and chatting casually with Talpo's apprentice, was surprised to find that Giotto and Elio had returned.
It wasn't that their return together was surprising; Cozart had long known that Giotto was going to look for Elio. As soon as he noticed Elio was missing, he frowned and went out to look for him, as if the matter was more serious, even though Cozart had told him many times that Elio had already told him he was just going out for a walk.
So, it was normal for them to come back together. What really surprised Cozart was their state: one looked smiling for some reason, while the other looked weak and pitiful for some reason. Elio was clearly a whole head taller than Giotto, but with his head lowered and Giotto's arm around his shoulders, he looked as if he had been carried back.
"I never thought it was Damon who kept you here." Giotto sighed with a smile.
Elio whispered, "He said the Vongola needs an assassination team..."
Giotto gritted his teeth, "I didn't even know Vongola needed this thing!"
They were actually talking about this. Cozart coughed loudly, intending to warn them, but Giotto, hearing the noise, rushed over in a few steps, grabbed Cozart and asked, "Cozart, do you have an assassination team?"
"...Giotto," Cozart said helplessly, "Have you forgotten that I just disbanded the army? There are only fifty of us left in all of Simon!"
Giotto let go of Cozart awkwardly, "Oh, yes."
"But before that, there really wasn't." Cozart still answered his question.
Giotto immediately perked up and looked at Elio. Elio scratched his hair, clearly feeling a bit helpless. "Giotto..."
"All right, all right," Cozart interrupted at the right moment, "let's go and look at the ring!"
Had Giotto not pressed the point so bluntly, Cozart probably wouldn't have joined in on their conversation about the "assassination squad." He and Giotto were close friends, to be sure, but the Vongola and Simon were two completely different things. One chose to stay in Italy, maintaining and becoming part of its order, while the other prepared to sail away, avoiding all conflict. These were two completely different paths. But Giotto was always like that, transcending all worldly boundaries with his unconstrained friendship.
No one can do anything to him.
But for now, the three of them obediently went to look at the rings. Talpo crafted and upgraded the rings for them, detailing the fire attributes like "sky" and "earth." Giotto and Cozart exclaimed in amazement, while Elio, already aware of the situation, stood aside, his arms folded, and simply watched them with a smile.
“But if you decide to wear them,” Talpo concluded, “you will also share in the responsibilities and costs of the Ring-bearers.”
"The Ring-Bearer?" asked Cozart.
Elio was still wondering why the word sounded so familiar when Giotto suddenly turned and stared at him. Before Elio could understand what he was looking at, Talpo also looked at him, as if the assassin should know something. Cozart was the last to look over, with a blank look.
"Didn't you tell them?" Talpo asked in his rough voice.
Elio dropped his arms in confusion, "Tell them what?"
Suddenly, the metal engraver looked at him like he was some idiot who had forgotten his own name. "Have you ever seen a normal person light a fire out of thin air? You're overdrawing your own life force, and you don't even know this, yet you're wearing that legendary ring?! Take it off now!"
Elio uttered, "Ah."
Giotto grabbed his hand and almost pulled the ring off Elio's finger. Talbo immediately stopped him again, "Wait! How long have you been wearing it?"
Elio glanced at Giotto guiltily. "Twenty or thirty years."
Giotto stared at him. Talpo stared back, expressionless, for a moment speechless. Finally, Cozart broke the silence. "Should Elio take it off, Talpo?"
"Better not," Talpo turned his head away, "unless he's prepared to die if he takes it off."
Giotto gasped. Elio thought he was going to let go of his hand, and he did, but before he did, Giotto looked him in the eye and cracked his knuckles. Elio nearly cried out.
"You should be prepared for this," Talpo said with a sour face. "The ring will unleash supreme power in you, and you should use it correctly—you'd better use it correctly!—in return, it will extend your lifespan, allowing you to always light the flame and fight like young men. Almost. But if you wear it for longer than the normal lifespan, then I advise you not to take it off and clean it on a whim."
The workshop was silent.
Giotto and Cozart exchanged a solemn glance. The jeweled ring forged by Talbo gleamed with a beautiful and deadly brilliance within the disc.
Elio broke the silence. "I once heard that death is a gift from the gods to mankind," he said, twirling the ring on his finger briskly. "Isn't it wonderful to be able to decide when to accept this gift and to make the most of your life to do good for the world?"
Talpo's eyes flickered slightly. Giotto suddenly laughed, grabbed his own Sky Ring, and slipped it onto his finger.
"Time," Giotto said briskly, "is a gift from the gods!"
Cozart sighed, shook his head, and put on his own earth ring, but instead of expressing his gratitude like the others, he calmly told the craftsman, "Thank you for telling us this, Talpo!"
The three of them walked out of Talpo's workshop, clutching their family rings. Coming out from that shady place piled high with metal parts, leather, and ancient books, basking in the sunlight felt quite different. I don't know if they were thinking the same thing, but in any case, they paused in the sunlight for a moment, tacitly understanding each other.
"I was going to give you one," Giotto said to Elio, "but now it seems unnecessary."
"What do you want for me?" Elio laughed. "This one of mine can light any flame. Do I need yours?"
"But yours doesn't have a Vongola badge!" Giotto muttered. "I was thinking of giving one to Elena, but now I think I can't. Damon would kill me."
Cozart interrupted slowly, "Speaking of Spedo, Giotto..."
"Hmm?" Giotto's attention immediately shifted to him.
Cozart glanced at Elio silently. Elio glanced back and touched his nose. They both seemed to understand each other's subtext, and they both looked very embarrassed. Only Giotto looked between them in confusion. "What's wrong?"
"The last time Spedo told me 'Vongola needs you' was in London," Elio said as objectively as possible. "Well, although he didn't say it that way, it sounded like you wanted me to import arms from London for Vongola."
"I didn't say that!" cried Giotto. "I said I'll let you do whatever he wants if he can convince you—and I don't think you can be convinced!"
"I knew it!" Elio breathed a sigh of relief. "In fact, I just asked a few more questions and he admitted what you said. But, Giotto..."
He glanced at Cozart, who took over the conversation, understandingly saying, "Perhaps you should be careful of him."
Giotto remained silent for a moment. Elio was about to say, "That's what I meant," but he took one look at Giotto's expression and swallowed his words back. This was the first time he had seen Giotto with such an obscure expression, even though the first Vongola's gently fluttering eyelashes obscured his orange, sunset-like eyes.
But still, he could easily tell that it was the expression of Vongola I, not Giotto Vongola.
"Damon is also my friend." Vongola I sighed in a voice so soft that it was almost inaudible.
They didn't discuss the matter any further.
Elio and Cozart knew exactly why they had gathered around Giotto, and why everyone was willing to be "driven" by him, even though Giotto himself never liked the term. He protected and cared for every friend without expecting anything in return, and loved and trusted every friend from the bottom of his heart, as warm as the sun and as gentle as the moon!
And when such a person—when such a person with a smile of gold, a fire of gold, holds his heart of gold in your hands...
You will always follow him unconsciously and willingly, becoming a figure behind his cloak fluttering in the wind.
This is why Giotto was able to lead the Italians in battle; his powerful fighting ability and the spiritual power that united the people were inseparable. However, after the war ended, when "peace" arrived, when the Vongola needed to bring its thunderbolts to their competitors, rather than the enemy troops who fought for their lives during the war...
When the time came for the Vongola to use drastic measures internally to eliminate those voices that disagreed with the leader...
In 1866, the Vongola family established an assassination unit. The meeting also announced the creation of an independent agency, the "Outside Advisors," to oversee the Vongola family. In the event of an emergency, the head of this department would be allowed to exercise authority second only to the head.
If Spedo didn't understand what this meant at this point, when Giotto announced that Arnold, the guardian of "Floating Clouds" with whom he had always been incompatible, would serve as the first leader of the outer counselors; when Spedo found that Arnold sitting opposite him was staring at him with an indistinguishable emotion, and Giotto, who was sitting in the main seat far away, was also looking at him calmly, Spedo, who understood everything, suddenly smiled.
It was a smile that seemed to be neither a smile nor a smile, seemed to be happy and angry, seemed to be shy and annoyed, and seemed to be happy.
"Long live the Vongola!" Spedo echoed.
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The author has something to say: The original work didn't have a setting where this kind of ring had to come at a price. It's purely my personal preference... I think when giving the protagonist a powerful cheat code, there has to be some kind of price to pay, otherwise it's just a pure cool novel.jpg However, it's not the kind where you'll die if you take it off. It's like if you wear it for 40 or 50 years and then take it off, you'll only age instantly and won't die directly (this is more like Bilbo in Lord of the Rings), but if you wear it for 200 or 300 years in a row and then take it off, you'll definitely die (this is more like Cassandra in The Odyssey)
Power is also a curse! (Sigh)
So the Vongola ring is passed down from generation to generation, but after Cozart used it up, he took it directly to the grave.jpg What grew out of the ground returned to the ground, huh!
(There's also a setting where the user of a Vongola ring will keep their memories of their previous life inside the ring. Since only Giotto knows this, Oreo's perspective doesn't know... I'll insert it into the plot if there's a chance, and if not, I'll put it in a side story...)
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