Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 731 Aleister: Beat them all!
"Daily outrage..."

Aleister fell into deep thought: "This sounds quite like the style of the Son of the Moon.

"Rage belongs not only to the realm of 'Crime and Punishment' but also to the realm of blood. I believe it should be based on the path of love or the ability to transcend the path - either a curse or a ritual."

"And here's the problem, Miss Aleister."

Prince Szijjártó had a serious expression.

He picked up the tea in front of him and placed it on the left: "If this is a curse, then this disorderly rage itself is what they want to achieve. But if this is a ritual..."

Then he put three sugar cubes into the empty cup on the right.

Just as he was about to pour the black tea on the left into the empty cup, he saw Aleister hold out the teacup and pour the black tea he had only drunk two sips of into it, letting the sugar cube sink and float and gradually dissolve. He then turned the empty teacup over and covered it on top of this teacup... so that he could not see anything except the two inverted teacups.

Szijjártó frowned slightly and looked down at Aleister.

Aleister just continued as if nothing had happened: "That means this is just a 'means'. The other party wants to use this to achieve other goals... right?"

"……Yes."

Prince Szijjártó nodded and said, "So I'm not afraid that this is a curse, but I'm afraid that this is a ritual that I can't recognize... Because if it's the latter, then it means that the chaos they want to stir up is even greater than this."

As he spoke, he looked down at the teacup covered by the upside-down teacup, frowning in thought.

What is the purpose of Miss Aleister suddenly doing this...

"You mean," he said, trying to fathom the young Moon Child's suggestion, "that this is some kind of hidden conspiracy? We can't see the truth because it's all covered up by another ritual?"

“That’s pretty good.”

Aleister sneered and stood up.

She tilted her head slightly and looked back at Prince Szijjártó and the astrologer with an unlucky name beside him: "I mean, don't drink tea here - buckle it up for you, so that your butt won't stick to this chair."

Hearing her words, Fenrir laughed dryly: "Miss Aleister, aren't your words a bit..."

...too vulgar?
He didn't say the second half of the sentence, but Aleister obviously understood it.

She just sneered: "If you think politeness can solve the problem, you can also ask the young ladies at the ball to dance for His Royal Highness.

"You asked me to kill someone - I hope you can understand this. Or..."

Aleister looked at Prince Szijjártó and said, "You don't think that Leipzig's problems can be solved without killing anyone, do you?"

"…Prepare the car."

After a brief silence, Prince Szijjártó answered decisively: "Let's go back to the White Dove Opera House."

"—Now, Your Highness?"

Fenrir was surprised: "But it's too late now! According to the stars, if we go back now, we will definitely not be able to catch up..."

"Ha, forget your horoscope!"

Aleister laughed wildly, his body slightly tilted as if he was slightly tipsy from drinking black tea: "That kind of thing is useless in front of me.

"I said something's wrong over there - it's going to go wrong now."

"Uh... well."

Fenrir was somewhat helpless, but he clearly had the consciousness of being a subordinate. Seeing Prince Szijjártó's firm attitude, he immediately took action.

Prince Szijjártó turned to Aleister and asked, "Is it the intuition of the Moon Child? Or is there any evidence?"

——There is no evidence.

Aleister thought.

Mainly because, as usual, when I approach this kind of special event, I always encounter troubles that I get entangled with...

It's like a famous detective who always encounters cases when he goes out... Although her problems seem to be due to some "heavy cause and effect", at least the manifestation is the same.

Although Aleister couldn't just choose one of the three and then choose the only one with an alibi...but she could at least be sure that as long as Leipzig had this level of trouble, she would definitely not be able to get rid of it. It would get to her sooner or later.

She absolutely did not believe that the matter would end just because she was abducted by the prince before she even entered the house to listen to the song - apart from anything else, the honey badger was brought by herself, and it would be the same if she encountered trouble.

Although Aleister himself has the extremely real fake identity of "Aleister Crowley", the identity of the honey badger is completely false.

Although if she really had to be questioned about her identity, the worst that could happen to her as a master assassin is to just use her invincible power to kill her way out, but that would definitely cause trouble for Hawkeye and further lower the reputation of the Hawkeye organization... After all, the remnants of the fifth-level Tao power are too clear, and Xingti has a large number of astrologers.

——Please don’t find me, otherwise I will have to kill you all to achieve perfect stealth.

"It's the wrong name."

Thinking of this, Aleister sighed: "What a pity."

She shouldn't be called Ezio, she should be called Connor.

"……what?"

Prince Szijjártó was not sure if he was ignored and not answered, or if this was Aleister's answer. He felt a little confused for a moment.

"You are too logical."

Pulling Selene, who seemed to be resisting due to motion sickness, back into the car, Aleister sighed and reached out to take out the makeup mirror on his chest.

The mirror flashed, and Aleister turned back into Ms. Bayard again.

The childish voice suddenly became hoarse and quite magnetic: "Is this a common problem among you alchemists? Or is it the fate of the Balancers...

"I have a sister who has the same problem as you - Balancers are used to analyzing the world with reason, which can make their thinking rigid."

"…Zombified?"

Prince Szijjártó repeated in a murmur.

But he obviously cared about alchemy, so he subconsciously retorted: "If we analyze the world and finally get a 'big formula' that explains everything, then there shouldn't be any problem."

"...So you are an alchemist from the 'Great Formula' faction. That's really rare."

Aleister laughed.

The "Big Formula" faction is also known as the "balancer closest to the path of wisdom." Their balancing act is also for analysis, and analysis is also for application, but they try to find a "universal solution", an "ultimate answer that can explain all problems." This can often be understood as the "truth" pursued by the path of wisdom.

Even if we don’t compare it to the Star Antimony alchemists… compared to other alchemists, this is still a rare faction. “I also studied Star Antimony alchemy for a period of time.”

Prince Szijjártó retorted: “At least I still believe in the Way of the Stars.”

"Really? The Way of the Stars is the Way of Transcendence... If you really understood the Way of the Stars, you wouldn't be confused right now." Aleister leaned back in the back seat, hugged Selene, and put her head into his chest.

"……what?"

Prince Szijjártó in the front seat turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

At this moment, he only felt that Miss Aleister was a pure riddle person who didn't speak human language at all.

However, what he didn't know was that...from Aleister's point of view, every word she said could actually be understood literally.

"It's very simple," Aleister said casually, "You don't have to worry about whether it's a curse or a ritual, and you don't have to try to crack it - they are in the dark, you are in the light; they set the trap, you dismantle the trap, where is the end of this?"

"what do you mean……"

"——Just go to their house directly."

Aleister replied: "Rituals belong to the path of transcendence, and those who transcend in Xingtan are basically demonologists. Curses belong half to the path of transcendence, and half to the path of love... The former are demonologists and spellcasters, and the latter are witches and children of the moon."

"…So who should we look for?"

Before he knew it, Prince Szijjártó had fallen into the position of a subordinate.

But there's nothing I can do about it...

Because Miss Aleister's thinking speed is progressing too fast.

While he was still thinking about what form the current trouble took and how it came about, Miss Aleister already looked like she was ready to fight.

—but he didn't even know who Miss Aleister wanted to beat up.

"Is this even necessary? Or do you know the answer but don't want to say it?"

Aleister smiled happily, "Of course it's a demonologist."

“Why them?”

"Of course, it may not be. Because I'm not sure either."

"...What if it's not them? As you said, there are other forces as well... right?"

"——Then beat them all."

Aleister simply replied, "Sort them in order of the most threatening and suspicious, and beat them up from top to bottom. If you're lucky, it'll be over in the first round; if you're unlucky, then the real criminal is vicious and cunning, so what does it have to do with you?"

"But……"

"Think about it carefully, my dear prince."

Aleister squinted his blood-red eyes in pleasure, and his words were as alluring as a succubus: "Let me give you an example... In Leipzig, a cunning suspect misled the police to suspect others... In the end, the suspect was discovered by the police a little later, and then successfully arrested or killed. In this case, even if the person who was mistakenly arrested complained, would the police bear the primary responsibility for his early recklessness?"

"…Well, I don't know much about the law. But I should still bear some responsibility…"

Prince Szijjártó was sweating profusely.

"However," Aleister added, "what if the person who did this was not an ordinary policeman, but an officer of the police station? Or... I remember that there is a department in the Leipzig Police Department that is specifically responsible for supernatural events, right? Then if this is not because of the suspect's cunning, but because he used supernatural powers - and the person who was misled was a big shot, would people hold him responsible for this matter?"

"...Well, I'm afraid there will be some criticism at most."

Prince Szijjártó thought about it carefully for a while and gave his answer: "But in the long run, people should be grateful for the decisiveness of this great man. Help them end the crisis as soon as possible. I understand, you mean..."

"——You just wanted to save Leipzig, and your methods were a little extreme...but the ultimate goal was to resolve this incident as soon as possible. So who can blame you? Compared to some officials, aren't you, His Royal Highness, more powerful than them?"

Aleister chuckled and murmured, giving the instigation of a busybody: "If you were a qualified Transcendent, you should have thought of this method from the very beginning.

"All the laws, treaties, morals, and conventions of the material world are merely constraints on the free soul of the Transcendent.

"In order to achieve your goal - no matter what that goal is, you must be prepared to ignore it, cut it off, and transcend it.

"Without such awareness, how can you sublimate a mortal's soul into a 'Star Antimony'? Think about it, those true Star Antimony alchemists... they will do anything to climb up, and would rather make themselves ugly to take one step forward. Do you really have such desire and determination? You, the last name 'Valentine', probably don't understand this. After all, as long as you show the desire to move forward, the royal family will naturally allocate you the corresponding resources..."

Aleister's voice was low and soft, and accompanied by a faint fragrance, it filled the small space in the car.

Like a pink spider web, it deeply captured Prince Szijjártó's heart.

……yes.

He couldn't help but begin to doubt himself.

——He previously believed that he had come this far because of his hard work and determination.

But if his last name wasn't "Valentin"... Even if he had the same hard work and determination, would he be able to reach the fourth level so easily now? Would his mentor still be the president of the Royal Alchemy Association? Would he still have the opportunity to access the inexhaustible supply of alchemy books?

The answer is obviously no.

He thought he understood Astral Alchemy - but Astral Alchemy was the ultimate knowledge for mortals to gradually shed their mortal shells and sublimate into gods. To transcend one's own race, transcend the limits of matter, transcend the soul and fate... that was indeed an act of transcendence.

But he just followed the orders of his father and mentor to learn and master the corresponding techniques. Can this really be considered as understanding the way of Xingtan?

"…Then what should we do?"

Prince Szijjártó was confused and began to seek Aleister's help.

Aleister chuckled and said, “Let’s go see if anything happened at the opera house first. If something happened… let’s see who the demonologists are present.

“If nothing goes wrong… we’ll just go ahead and fight.

"My intuition tells me that there must be someone involved in this conspiracy among the demonologists' gathering place."

"What if not?"

Prince Sijardot asked subconsciously, but soon he understood: "Then go beat the next one!"

"Good, you learn quickly."

Aleister raised the corner of his mouth and nodded with satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)