Chapter 728 Tombstone No. 14
Aleister looked at Prince Szijjártó with interest.
"It's really strange."
She smiled and said, "If I remember correctly...wasn't your mother, Queen Louise, a child of the moon?"
After Aleister finished speaking, Prince Szijjártó was silent for a moment.
Astrologer Fenrir subconsciously turned around to see the prince's expression - but the prince was not angry.
He didn't clench his fists on the table, but instead fumbled and slowly raised the cup of black tea that the maid had just brought him. But he stared at the black tea in the cup for a long time, and even when he had already raised it to his lips, he slowly put it down again.
“…That’s why.”
After a long silence, he said this.
Szijjártó did not explain his actions in detail, but Aleister understood.
"You mean," Aleister, who had transformed back to his original form, leaned back in his chair and raised his head to reveal his smooth, small chin, "when she gave birth to you, she wasn't yet the Son of the Moon...right?"
Prince Szijjártó did not answer.
However, his somewhat sad eyes, looking down at the black tea in the cup, had revealed the truth of everything.
It is clear that Valentine VII believed that his "resurrected queen" was still his beloved. Or, in other words, he believed that as long as Louise could be resurrected, he would accept it no matter what.
But as her child, Prince Szijjártó clearly felt the changes in his mother.
Aleister's lips curled up slightly, but then she calmed down again. It was the first time she took a serious look at Prince Szijjártó.
At this moment, Aleister looked like a young girl, no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, thin to the point of pity. The back of the chair behind her was even taller than her upper body.
Yet she was dressed in a gorgeous elven-style dress—a light, flowing garment of gold and red, with rich gold ornaments studded with rubies and emeralds.
The regal aura of her gorgeous attire completely overwhelmed the fragility of her youthful appearance. Although she was a guest, she inexplicably possessed the air of a host.
"I see."
Aleister sighed softly. "You still miss your real mother from your childhood, but you also don't deny the love of 'the mother who appeared later,' and therefore don't consider her an enemy. In your perception, these are two completely different yet related people... and yet, on this basis, they coexist in one person."
"...How rare! There are actually people who believe that the Moon Child and his predecessor existed simultaneously. Within the Moon Child's philosophy, yours is considered a minority."
Only with this kind of philosophy could Szijjártó take such action, "caring about his predecessor's image and identity and actively interfering with Moon Child's actions." To others, such behavior would seem overly naive... and considering his identity, even a bit ridiculous.
"There's no need to analyze it to this extent."
Prince Szijjártó took a sip of his tea and said calmly, "Has anyone ever told you that this would make people uncomfortable?"
"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were so easily stressed..."
Aleister paid no attention to Szijjártó's subtly thorny yet soft and feeble words. He simply asked with interest, "In your opinion, what am I to 'her'? A thief who stole identities and memories, an evolved being who has returned from the dead... or simply a reborn being with a different personality?"
"……tombstone."
After a long silence, Szijjártó simply replied, "I think so."
Tombstone...
Hearing the unexpected answer, Aleister widened his eyes slightly.
The "artifact" that records the life of the deceased is also worthy of respect and remembrance. It is not regarded as a complete person, but its existence is acknowledged, rather than being regarded as a thief or a monster.
Compared to Bayard who transformed into a shadow demon back then, this seems to be a more mature concept.
"……Oh."
The corners of her mouth rose slightly, and her tone softened: "Good boy."
Regardless of which definition of the Moon Child is correct—or whether none of them is entirely correct—Aleister can be sure that Prince Szijjártó is at least a man of soft heart.
"You may have been in this world for a long time, but there is no need to act like an elder in front of me."
Prince Szijjártó raised his head and said seriously, "Everything I do is not for anyone's praise. I do it because I want to."
"Including your father?" Aleister asked.
"Of course, Miss Aleister."
Prince Szijjártó took a deep breath, looked at Aleister, and said seriously, "I invited you here not entirely because of Fenrir's prophecy, nor because I saw such a young and innocent girl about to enter such a corrupt and filthy place. It's also because I saw your soul—it is so pure, without a trace of sin."
"…My soul?"
Aleister was a little surprised.
But soon, she thought of the glasses: "Can it even do something like this?"
"—That is an alchemical creation made by Valentine I himself."
Prince Szijjártó said frankly, "I might as well tell you... Your Majesty also frequented such places in the past."
"Is it okay to tell an outsider like me about this?"
Aleister raised his eyebrows.
Szijjártó nodded slightly. "Of course, because this incident wasn't something to be ashamed of—it was during that incident that His Majesty felt the contradictions of the Moon Child. He personally witnessed the Moon Child's downfall, yet his best friend was also a Moon Child. He doubted his previous prejudice against the Moon Child—the Moon Child's consumption of blood slaves, versus the atrocities committed by those nobles against them—which was noble and which was base?
"So, when he was lost, he created these glasses that could 'see clearly into the human heart.' These glasses were blessed by the Twin Mirror. Not only could they see clearly whether the other person's soul was pure and clear, or hideous and evil, they could also see clearly the carnage they had committed..."
Prince Szijjártó looked at Aleister with a complicated expression. "And I've never seen a Moon Child with such a pure soul. So I think... Miss Aleister, you must have just become the Moon Child not long ago, and she... is still young."
——Nonsense, because I was really just born.
Aleister thought.
No wonder Prince Szijjártó was so enthusiastic about chatting me up the first time he saw me—he wasn't exactly an outgoing person, more of a reserved person. He even emphasized his "nobility" and didn't even show any signs of vigilance when I revealed my murderous intent in the car.
It turned out that he had seen his own killing record...
His previous life was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and now all karma on his body is clean.
So in Prince Szijjártó's opinion, he was either a child who had just replaced his predecessor and didn't know how to show that he had become the Son of the Moon, so he used illusion to disguise himself as an adult and planned to enter the buffet restaurant dedicated to the Son of the Moon; or he was the Son of the Moon who had never killed anyone so far, so he talked with Aleister for so long and told so many secrets without hesitation - because he had already determined Aleister's "inclination towards good and evil."
Meanwhile…
"...Do you think I will be influenced by that strange ritual and commit murder?"
Aleister asked back.
(End of this chapter)
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