Chapter 809: Antimony's Triumphal Chariot
"A one-and-a-half-year-old child... probably can't speak yet."
Bayard said in surprise, tapping his fingers lightly on the amber wine glass.
"That's about right. I can say a word or two, but I can't say a complete sentence."
Franz Pomponazzi nodded. "I was killing before I could talk. That was the first time I drank blood from a living person, not from a bottle.
"When I grew up, I found out... it seemed like everyone knew about this. It seemed like everyone knew... that when I just learned to walk, I killed my own sister with my own hands. Hahahaha..."
He laughed heartily, but there was no joy in his laughter.
He put his glass back on the table.
Even if the wine in the glass was the best in the world, he would not be in the mood to drink it.
"Do you remember what people called me?"
Pomponazzi didn't wait for "Bayard" to reply, because he was asking and answering his own question: "That 'little monster in the Pomponazzi family'."
"So, you became a real monster?"
Bayard whispered, "Killed his entire family?"
"Why not?"
Peng Bonaqi said frankly: "My brother killed my sister, and my sister killed my brother. My father killed my brother, and I myself killed my sister. Since this is the education I received since childhood and people expect me to be like this, why can't I become such a person when I grow up?
"Besides, I didn't kill them completely..."
As he spoke, Peng Bonazi reached out and touched his chest and abdomen.
Aleister realized something: "You can't be..."
"Oh, it's not as simple as just eating it."
Peng Bonaqi smiled and said, "At that time, all the servants in the house were killed by us as 'blood bags'. We fought each other until we were ashen... and the final winner was me.
"But I myself was seriously injured and dying in that 'civil war,' cursed by my mother. So I prepared a resurrection ritual—I drained the remaining blood from my body. I mixed it with the remaining blood I had collected, and used it to revive myself again... This way, the curse would be removed.
"At that moment, an idea suddenly occurred to me - because I was worried about what would happen if I failed to revive them due to lack of blood, and they were resurrected by others by chance.
"So I smashed all the statues of my family members and gathered some of their ashes around me. I took a part of them, so that none of them could be resurrected in their entirety.
"And when I died and was reborn, I merged with them. I had a sister, two brothers, my father, and my mother, a total of five, and I was the sixth... exactly the 'adaptability number'. The blood I had back then wasn't even enough to revive one, let alone six. I think... perhaps the Lord of Scales and Feathers was blessing me for surviving that state."
——That’s why he called himself “Pomponazzi”.
Aleister understood.
It wasn't because he was estranged from others, nor was it because he, as a fallen noble, still remembered his surname. Because to him, it was more than just a surname... it was a "family."
He is not pure "Franz", but the ultimate fusion of all "Pomponazzi".
That's why he likes both men and women, is gentle but also irritable, conservative but also radical... because the consciousness that constitutes "Pomponazzi" is not the same.
"Since I'm the only one left in Pomponazzi, the family assets naturally belong to me. Although my family is considered noble, we no longer have any fiefdoms... we're just a noble family in decline. So I simply sold off all the family assets to provide for my own enjoyment.
"People hate me and reject me. Even though they respect me on the surface, I know... they just want my money."
Pomponazzi sneered. "If they want it, I'll give it to them. I enjoy watching them fight to the death over that kind of thing, accusing each other of slander and framing each other - who is the monster? Me? Them? Or those shiny little round cakes?"
"After all, I don't care about that kind of thing. Rather, I've long been prepared to die. I'm not a ritualist, and that resurrection ritual is just a mechanical device. If something goes wrong, I might not be able to be resurrected. Even before I did this, I didn't know whether it would be me or some chimera that was resurrected.
"Until I met Bashir. He was a very interesting human being... I could sense that he was one of the few who wasn't afraid of me or laughed at me—he dared to ask me for money directly when we first met."
"……oh?"
Aleister couldn't help but laugh.
So it's going to be something like "This man is so special that he caught my attention"?
But Pomponazzi's words denied Aleister's guess:
"To finance his research, he was even willing to die. Not as a blood slave, nor with empty promises like 'I'm willing to die for you'... He came to me directly, holding a contract certified by the Silver Crown Dragon, and offering me his life in exchange for money.
"Even after he became monarch and founded a kingdom... this contract remained with me. He never asked for it back, nor did he ask me to destroy it."
"You must have agreed."
"Of course I gave it to him! It's just a small amount of money, how can it be more fun than this!"
Pomponazzi laughed heartily, and it was hard to tell how much of his laughter was genuine and how much was exaggerated.
It's like a child tells a joke and then starts laughing.
In a sense...Pombonazi, who was born as the son of the moon and has permanently bright red eyes, has never experienced a true coming-of-age ceremony.
The Moon Children's transformation into adulthood occurs when they realize they are no longer their former selves. In that moment, the emotions and desires suppressed by morality burst forth... and thus, [beast] triumphs over [love], and the Moon Children are completely transformed into bloodthirsty beasts.
——So-called adulthood means abandoning the naive self of the past.
As for Pomponazzi, he "matured" too early and "became an adult" too late - as early as he could remember, he had been doing things that only adults would do; when he was a teenager, he gained part of his family's personality and memory out of thin air.
But perhaps until now, he has not truly matured.
Because he doesn't have the innocence to give up.
Seeing that "Lady Bayard" did not laugh, Pomponazzi's laughter gradually stopped.
He was silent for a moment, his mood calming down before he continued, "I was very curious at the time, what exactly was he studying... that made him work so hard. Do you know what he was talking about?
"—He said, 'I'm researching the Moon Child.' But I can't find a Moon Child to use for research, so I can only find someone to buy the Moon Child's ashes at a high price.'"
This time even Aleister couldn't hold it back any longer.
...Is Bashir so awesome? The person in front of you is the Son of the Moon!
At this point, Peng Bonazi laughed again: "Because at that time, the Son of the Moon had not yet completely occupied the upper echelons of the empire.
"At the time, some 'vampire hunters' harbored a grudge against us. To trick the other nobles into targeting us, they teamed up with the Medical Association to fabricate a rumor claiming that the Moon Child's ashes could enhance male virility.
"...It must be said that this widespread rumor has created a significant obstacle to our infiltration. Many nobles have hired 'vampire hunters' at high prices to hunt down Moon Children. Although there are many fakes on the black market, there are occasionally genuine ones. At the same time, some nobles will attempt to raise Moon Children.
"Most often, Moon Children are young, beautiful, immortal, and possess strong desires. Because they cannot cross flowing water, when they are imprisoned underground and surrounded by underground rivers, they become a one-way cage from which they cannot escape.
"So, some nobles paid exorbitant prices to purchase the 'complete ashes of the Moon Child' and then shed blood to revive. Others yearn for immortality... Although some have warned that the Moon Child's resurrection isn't what they desire, it doesn't stop some from wanting to imprison the Moon Child to force them to reveal the method of transformation, or to use contracts to bind them to become their thugs. This is why I specifically decided to shatter my family's ashes.
"For this very reason, those Moon Children of higher 'birth' are less vulnerable, while those of lower birth are often ruthlessly hunted by hunters. Even so, the price of Moon Children's ashes on the black market is extremely high... so high that Bashir could never afford it in his lifetime with just his income."
"So you gave him the money?"
Aleister asked.
"No," Pomponazzi shrugged. "Although I don't care about money, this level of waste is unnecessary."
"……waste?"
"Well, I gave him all my family's ashes."
Pomponazzi laughed happily: "His 'disenchantment' will completely destroy the possibility of their resurrection - if I had known this, I would not have used that method to integrate them.
"Perhaps it's because I often sigh and say 'Why didn't I meet you earlier' that the child probably regards me as a confidant or a close friend."
But it was clear that even then... Pomponazzi hadn't considered Bashir a person with whom he could communicate on an equal footing. It was simply that Bashir, with his low emotional intelligence, thought he was "already a friend."
"—until he gave me his research."
Peng Bonazi said softly, "That's why I admire his talent—by demystifying the Moon Child's ashes, he actually figured out the method of becoming a perfect human."
"...'The Triumph of Antimony'?"
Aleister knew what he meant by "research".
The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, written by Valentine I, tells the story of the alchemy of sublimating animal nature into divine transcendence.
If this alchemy could be fully completed... it would mean he had created an ability that could "stabilize him as a Celestial Master." In Xianxia novels, this would be a technique that could be used from Qi training to ascension.
But it is obvious... perhaps because the material Bashir consumed in his research was the Son of the Moon, Pomponazzi believes that this book talks about how to achieve the "perfect man".
"Let a fierce gray wolf devour the king's body, and then burn it in a great fire until it is ashes. Repeat this three times, and the lion will have the upper hand over the wolf, and there will be nothing left in him to devour.
"Then the Lion purified himself with the wolf's blood, and the color of the blood matched the color of the lion most beautifully; and when the Lion's hunger was quenched, his spirit became more powerful than before, and his eyes shone like the sun..."
Pomponazzi recited the words from "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony" without hesitation: "The lion is the 'soul of gold,' and the color of the moon is gold." This sentence ostensibly describes a method of purifying gold, but in reality it describes the predation and sublimation of the Moon Child.
"Both beasts of transcendence, the more powerful lion is the Son of the Moon. The gray wolf represents mortals and also symbolizes alchemists—mortals draw divine power from the dream world and burn themselves to ash in the ascension ritual. After three repetitions, they ascend to the fourth energy level... and the human body is purified.
"Taste the golden blood, and the lion's hunger will be quenched. The Moon Child's blood can only quench its thirst. Only blood above the fourth energy level has the sacred power to bring complete peace to the Moon Child..."
...So that's how it is.
Aleister finally understood why the blood of Isabel and Aiwass could calm him down, while Selene's blood only made him more excited and restless...
For a moment, even Aleister himself was a little doubtful - could it be that he had misunderstood?
Does "Antimony's Triumphal Chariot" really implicitly tell the story of how to become a perfect person?
"And at the same time... he also prepared his own path to advancement. 'The king traveled through the six regions of the sky and settled in the seventh. There, golden tapestries adorned the palace. If you understand what I mean, this key will open the first lock and push the first bolt.'... This is the first of the twelve keys Bashir proposed in the book. After reading this, when you become an alchemist, you will become a Star Antimony alchemist.
"The 'Golden Stone Knight' will transform his soul seven times. The first six energy levels have already reached the limits of the world, and the seventh energy level has undoubtedly reached the divine realm.
"This book records both his ascension technique and my own. In the mortal realm, he is the king, and I am the wise minister... When we ascend to the dream realm, I will be the Immortal King, and he will be my Stone Knight."
Pomponazzi said softly, “From that time on, I regarded him as my true friend.
"Closer than my family... my only friend, my fellow traveler."
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