A Joyful Choice: Did You Drop a Golden Father or a Silver Father?

"Erina?"

When Jonathan saw her, he seemed to freeze for a moment. "And… Danny too!?"

"JoJo, are you alright?"

Erina did not seem to care about Jonathan’s expression. She was genuinely anxious, lifting her skirt as she hurried over and asked him worriedly, "I came as soon as I heard Joestar Manor was on fire. How are you? Are you hurt?"

"Sorry for worrying you, but I wasn’t injured."

Jonathan shook his head. "Maybe it’s the magic of the Sunstone. This level of heat can’t hurt me. But you, Erina… what’s with that outfit?"

"I…"

Erina hesitated, glancing at the Broadsword in her hand before saying, "I want to protect you, JoJo."

"Woof!"

Danny barked excitedly beside her, wagging his tail nonstop at Jonathan.

"Protect… me?"

Hearing Erina’s words, Jonathan could not help showing a somewhat strange expression. He was a gentleman of the Joestar family. How could he let the woman he loved protect him?

But before he could voice his refusal, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

"JoJo, I’d advise you not to reject her." Fang Mo looked at Jonathan with a smile. "You think she’s just a weak woman, but she’s actually awakened the blood of the Red Dragon. She’s the noble Queen blessed with the fortune of all Great Britain. If she throws a punch at you… you might very well die."

"Huh?"

Jonathan was completely dumbfounded.

"…Mr. Steve?" Only after hearing Fang Mo’s voice did Erina finally notice him. She looked at him in surprise. "You’re back? When did that happen?"

"I just got here too."

Fang Mo smiled. "Sorry, I left in a hurry because something came up, so I didn’t get the chance to tell you… and now you’ve all grown so much."

"Mr. Steve hasn’t changed at all. You’re still so young."

Erina said politely, then turned her gaze back to Jonathan. "JoJo, what happened to Uncle George?"

"Father was stabbed by Dio."

Jonathan immediately clenched his fists and said angrily, "I’ll never forgive him again!"

"So it really was that bastard Dio?"

Erina nodded after hearing Jonathan’s explanation. "Why not take Mr. George to my family’s hospital first? This place probably isn’t fit to live in anymore. Is Mr. George badly hurt?"

"Mr. Steve?"

Hearing Erina’s question, Jonathan instinctively looked up at Fang Mo.

"According to his original fate, he should have died here." As Fang Mo spoke, he suddenly took out a lighter, held it in his mouth, and snapped it hard. With a bang, flames burst forth. Then, while everyone stared in confusion, Fang Mo slowly continued, "But I pulled some tricks on him."

Everyone was more or less baffled by what they had just seen.

To be honest, gas lighters were still rare in this era, so they had no idea what Fang Mo was doing. Was it some kind of magical ritual?

"So…"

In the end, Jonathan broke the awkward silence. "Mr. Steve, is my father alright now?"

"He’ll be fine after resting for a while."

Fang Mo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm… but to be safe, I suggest you give him a grand funeral."

"Huh?"

The two of them were dumbfounded again and could not help asking, "Why?"

"Mysticism."

Fang Mo explained, "Your Joestar family has been short-lived for generations. Only by deceiving fate can you live safely. Take your beloved grandson, for example. He was already over sixty and still managed to have an affair…"

"What?"

Jonathan was stunned. "My grandson? Teacher, what are you even talking about?"

"Is this prophecy magic too?"

Erina caught on instead. She was much smarter than the simple and kind Jonathan, and she could not help rubbing her forehead. "How could that child behave like that… Didn’t he inherit the gentlemanly bloodline of the Joestar family?"

"Now that’s something I can talk about all night!"

Fang Mo immediately laughed. "Your good grandson fights if he can win and runs if he can’t. At sixty-five, he still fools around with women. His great-great-grandson went to prison before he even came of age. His special skill is smoking five cigarettes in one breath, and he dines and dashes too. In Cairo, Egypt, he openly beat a centenarian to death. And then there’s Gio—uh, Giorno’s relationship is a little hard to explain to you, but he should count as part of your Joestar family too. His biggest dream is to become a mafia boss!"

"Is… is all of that true?"

Jonathan was completely stunned, his hands trembling slightly. "How did the gentlemanly bloodline of our Joestar family turn into this?"

"Hahaha, so you’d better live well."

Seeing their conflicted expressions, Fang Mo could not help throwing back his head and laughing. "JoJo, if you and Erina can grow old together, you might be able to influence their personalities a little, right?"

"I’ll do everything I can to stay alive!"

Jonathan nodded with absolute determination. "I absolutely won’t allow them to forget the gentlemanly spirit of the Joestar family!"

"Alright, then work hard toward that goal."

Fang Mo smiled and raised the Luminous Broadsword in his hand. "But for now, you two should step outside first. I still need to perform surgery on Old George…"

"Huh?"

Jonathan froze. "Wasn’t he already healed?"

"Are you only burying an empty coffin?" Fang Mo asked. "With so little sincerity, you still want to deceive fate?"

"But…"

Jonathan wanted to say something more, but Erina grabbed his hand the next second.

"JoJo, let’s go outside and talk."

Erina smiled. "You should trust Mr. Steve. There are many things I’ve been hiding from you all these years, but it’s time to tell you. Aren’t you curious about what happened to me?"

"Alright."

Jonathan lowered his head and thought for a moment before finally leaving with Erina.

After the two left, Fang Mo got to work on George lying on the ground. He was a gentleman worthy of respect. Although he had said more than twenty years ago that he was willing to die, after thinking it over, Fang Mo still decided to save him. He could not bear seeing family members die anymore.

While George was unconscious, Fang Mo used a beacon together with a Regeneration Potion and directly recreated an entirely new George Joestar from scratch.

As for the headless corpse on the ground, it was still twitching, as though it was not quite dead. Fang Mo pondered for a moment and poured a Healing Potion over it too. Not long afterward, it actually grew a head.

"Holy shit?"

Looking at the two Georges on the ground, one real and one fake, Fang Mo was at a loss.

"This…"

Fang Mo rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Don’t tell me they’ll both wake up later? Should I send one to Dio as a dad?"

After thinking on the spot for quite a while, Fang Mo decided to seek outside help first.

He took a small bone dagger from his pocket and summoned something with a wave of his hand. Amid a cloud of dark, frigid mist, a skeleton suddenly stepped out.

This was the Lich Fang Mo had brought out of the Twilight Forest.

Considering that it was a Lich, it should have some connection to sorcery and Undead Creatures after being materialized in reality, so Fang Mo simply asked it.

"Come on, Ner’zhul, I’ve got something to ask you."

Fang Mo beckoned the Lich over, then pointed at the two Georges on the ground. "I’ve got two Georges here right now. Hurry up and help me see which one is real and which one is fake."

"…"

The Lich said nothing. It merely slowly walked forward to inspect them.

Almost instantly, the Lich extended a withered skeletal finger and pointed at the George Fang Mo had healed from scratch. Its jawbone clattered as it moved.

A dry, low voice came from its mouth.

"His soul… is here."

The Lich said, "The other one is… merely… an empty vessel…"

"Oh, so that’s how it is."

Hearing that, Fang Mo finally let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed that although Regeneration Potions could restore a body to some extent, they could not duplicate something like a soul. But if that was the explanation, then what about the people on the Grim Reaper’s side? Weren’t they souls to begin with?

So perhaps what Regeneration Potions could not affect was a person’s subjective consciousness?

"Forget it, whatever."

Shaking his head, Fang Mo could not be bothered to think about it any further.

He was not a scientist like Orochimaru, needing to research every matter until he understood it completely. Block People only cared about practicality. If it worked, that was enough. Why care so much about the principles behind it?

After putting the Lich back into the bone dagger, Fang Mo gently lifted the two Georges with Gravity Field and walked outside.

Meanwhile, near the gates of Joestar Mansion.

Erina was explaining to Jonathan how Dio had tried to force a kiss on her several years ago, only to be killed by a single palm strike instead.

After hearing all this, Jonathan finally realized what had happened.

No wonder Dio had looked so aggrieved back then. He had not bullied Erina at all. Instead, he had been beaten senseless by her. No wonder he had shouted, "Do you think I, Dio, was the one bullying Erina?"

And since Erina had started talking, she had no intention of hiding anything from Jonathan.

So she simply told him about the Golden Apple and Sword in the Spring that Fang Mo had given her, as well as the prophecy magic. Learning that the Joestar family was short-lived for generations, Erina had finally made up her mind to protect JoJo.

There was also Danny, her battle pet.

This dog had originally been sent to another city by George. But after all, it had eaten a Golden Apple. It was basically like Iggy, the Stand dog from Part Three. How could ordinary people possibly keep something like that under control? So it escaped that very night.

Erina said she had encountered it in the forest several years ago. At first, she thought it was just a stray dog. Later, the more she looked at it, the more it resembled the Danny Jonathan had mentioned. So she tentatively called it Danny. To her surprise, the dog immediately nodded and barked excitedly.

But when Erina tried to take it to meet Jonathan, it absolutely refused to go. It clamped its teeth around a table leg and would not let go, probably afraid that George would catch it and give it away again.

Jonathan accepted this explanation rather quickly.

After all, he had met a mage when he was young, and that person had always said magic could do anything. Under that kind of upbringing, it was easy for him to accept such things.

However, Jonathan really was curious about exactly how strong Erina was.

After all, he himself had been born with extraordinary strength, and with the Sun Hamon from the Sunstone, he did not think Erina could be much stronger than him.

But when Jonathan tried arm-wrestling Erina, he discovered that even using both hands and all his strength, he could not overpower one of hers. Jonathan was instantly numb. His little girlfriend was actually this strong!?

Just as Jonathan was utterly shocked.

Fang Mo came out as well. Jonathan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. At last, he could ease the awkwardness between himself and Erina. But when he saw the two Georges behind Fang Mo, he was struck like lightning.

"So, uh, your father accidentally fell into the water just now."

Fang Mo wiped his face and said, "River God Tham and I are Old Friends, so he just gave me two Georges… So did you drop this golden father, or this silver father?"