Lionel: Headache!

"If what you truly believe is what you say, Leon..." Annal lowered her eyes, "His Majesty the King has been waiting for you. Let's go."

Lionel nodded and followed Annal out of the airport, boarding the special car bound for the palace.

His return this time was also a report on his work and observations within the Fire Moth. In addition, the recent turmoil Fusion Warrior and the assassination of a former Fire Moth councilor all required him to personally go to the palace to relay information to the king and participate in the court's decision-making.

Meanwhile, his term as a member of the Fire Moth was also coming to an end. Lionel was preparing to try to stay on as a member of the Fire Moth for a long time, which should have been fine, but... before he came, he heard from his family that His Majesty the King intended to transfer him back to the Mu Continent to take charge of the Mu Continent's defense against Honkai.

It seems that this is because the Fire Moth has completed the subjugation of the first to eighth Laws and has also formed a team of Fusion Warrior. On the other hand, the Mu Continent has no notable achievements other than the subjugation of the Judgment-class Honkai Beast, Varuna. Although the Mu Continent also participated in the collection of contaminated information in the subjugation of the eighth Law, the final subjugation was entirely taken over by the Fire Moth. The three key figures, Seele, Maple, and Kosma, are all Fusion Warrior of the Fire Moth.

This made some people on the Mu Continent anxious. King Pu also believed that Fire Moth could do it, there was no reason why the Mu Continent couldn't.

First of all, it must be clarified that while the Fire Moth was indeed built with the participation of the Mu Continent and provided with technical and financial support, the Fire Moth is actually a subordinate organization of the United Nations, and there are some differences between the Mu Continent's own organizations.

Just like how the two intelligence agencies of the same country, one for domestic use and one for foreign use, often clash, the Honkai institution on Honkai in the Mu Continent and the Fire Moth are not easy to deal with. Although one specializes in researching Honkai and the other focuses on combating Honkai, they both dislike each other.

It must be acknowledged that the various armed forces on the Mu Continent in the fight against the Honkai are actually quite complete. The organized Armed Doll troops have been gradually constructed. The Present, there are two Armed Doll responsible for security guarding Lionel. The armed forces they are referencing are Black Abyss White Flower and Heavenly Fire Judgment...

This is another reason why Mu Continent wants to operate independently, Fire Moth. All ownership of the Law Cores they have acquired currently belongs to the Fire Moth, since they were the ones who Fire Moth. Mu Continent only has the research rights to the First Law Core, and that's time-limited; it will have to be returned to the Fire Moth after the time is up...

The Scripture was made into the core of the Divine Key. Apart from the satellite-shaped Fourth Divine Key, Wind of Purification, the Third Divine Key, Seven Thunders of Purification, the Sixth Divine Key, Black Abyss White Flower, and the Seventh Divine Key, Heavenly Fire Judgment, all belong to the Fusion Warrior of the Fire Moth. In addition, the recently completed Second Divine Key: Thousand Worlds of Chariots Scripture, is expected to be sent to the Fire Moth branch in Europe for observation.

However, there is really no other way. The power of the Divine Key is indeed great, but to control it, basically only Fusion Warrior can be immune to its side effects and wield it freely.

Just like the Heavenly Fire Judgment, which was personally designed by Dr. Mei, because the power of the core of the Law was too strong, it had to be split into two halves and made in the form of dual pistols. As a result, after a short time, Kevin abandoned the dual pistol mode and combined the two halves into one to unlock the greatsword form... It can be said that no one but Kevin could do it.

Hmm... Feng Si took the Heavenfire and examined it, ultimately concluding that it wasn't as handy as the Black Abyss White Flower...

I just don't know why SEELE, who was next to him at the time, had an expression that said, "Isn't this obvious?"

Perhaps that child also likes the Black Abyss White Flower? Although the Black Abyss White Flower was the first Divine Key to be created, and the Law Core it wields is not yet fully awakened, it is still difficult for ordinary people to use. After all, the weight of the Black Abyss White Flower as a lance is considerable. Among the Fusion Warrior, currently only Kaede, Seele, and Elysia can wield the Black Abyss White Flower freely.

In short, the Mu Continent needs its own Law Core, a Divine Key under its own control, and Fusion Warrior squad. His Majesty the King of Mu does not seem to object to such opinions.

This is also Lionel felt that His Majesty the King's subsequent appointment of him was not as rumored... The Fire Moth needed internal checks and balances, and there also needed to be a balance between the various organizations outside of it.

His Majesty probably doesn't want the Fire Moth the fight against the Honkai. From His Majesty's perspective, if the only voice against the Honkai is the Fire Moth, the higher-ups outside the Fire Moth will feel their rights are being challenged. Since the Honkai has increasingly become a major threat to humanity's future, everything needs to make way for the fight against the Honkai. Furthermore, there is internal strife and power struggles within the Fire Moth, making it even harder for outsiders to trust them.

In other words, people only feel at ease when they have the child in their own hands.

Ultimately, the Fire Moth has always been a subordinate agency of the United Nations. However, as the threat of Honkai grows, the Fire Moth's position has begun to challenge the existing vested interests.

To put it bluntly, they didn't want the Fire Moth to have the final say in matters of fighting the Honkai, leaving them with absolutely no say. As a result, the Honkai research institutions on the Mu Continent took this opportunity to cooperate with those people, since they shared the same interests in engaging in internal strife with the Fire Moth.

If I hadn't been transferred to the Fire Moth, and hadn't personally experienced the extermination operations of the seventh and eighth Ritsuki, as well as the daily battles against the Honkai, I probably would have ended up like those people...

Just like when I first met Feng and the others...

Lionel sighed deeply. He had always been proud of his home Mu Continent, but... having stood on the front line of the fight against the Honkai for so long, he had also realized that humanity had reached a point where it could no longer afford to drag each other down in a tug-of-war. Even though humanity's achievements in fighting the Honkai were outstanding so far, in reality, a single misstep could lead to irreversible consequences.

Take the Seventh Law incident alone, for example. This was arguably the closest Lionel ever came to the brink of extinction in his mind. If Feng hadn't been the first to discover Uriel's anomaly and allowed her to continue developing in secret, what would have happened? Or, to put it another way, if Mobius hadn't performed the Fusion Warrior surgery on Xila beforehand, and if several influential people, including himself, had subsequently pushed for the Fusion Warrior Project, how far would Himiko's destruction of the Australia continent have gone?

There was also the incident involving the Eighth Law, where Feng, one of the two top fighters among the Fusion Warrior, was directly affected. Kevin was powerless to do anything about it, and in the end, it was Kosma and Seele who completed the final defeat.

One wrong step, or one step too late, and who knows how far the meme weapon of the Eighth Law will spread.

But even if I said all this, what are the chances that those people would believe me? More likely, they'd think I've been with the Fire Moth too long, enjoying its power for so long, and they wouldn't want to relinquish it. Plus, I've offended a lot of people and endured a lot of pressure in order to fight for the Fire Moth's voice and push forward the Fusion Warrior Project...

Convincing those who only rely on verbal skills to fight the Honkai is a real headache... And most importantly, His Majesty the King, who has always supported him, has the Present become uncooperative... If he is not allowed to bring back Beifengge, the debating genius, it is already clear that His Majesty the King's the Present attitude may be biased towards them.

Lionel rested his chin on his hands, pondering how to steer the course of the upcoming court debates in a way that minimized internal strife.

If His Majesty the King of Kuo really intends to replace me and have me return to the Mu Continent to take up a post, then the best candidate to replace me should be Beifengge, although it is also possible that it would be Dr. Einstein, who proposed the Armed Doll Project.

If things really come to the point where he has to return to the Mu Continent, he must ensure that these two people are the ones who will take his place. Only these two people can cooperate with him on the Mu Continent to stabilize the situation and reduce internal friction among humans. He cannot trust anyone else; he cannot gamble with the lives of humans.

His Majesty's change of attitude, aside from the constant whispers in the palace, was also undoubtedly influenced by the assassination of the Fire Moth councilor from Far Afyanga. Although various investigations have shown that it was the result of a local armed conflict, things just happened at this critical juncture when the Fusion Warrior had already aroused suspicion among the higher-ups.

With the abilities of Fusion Warrior, it wouldn't be difficult to do this. The armed conflict might just be a pretext. At the same time, although I have been investigating, I have never been able to find any evidence, yet I can clearly sense that the organization Fire Moth could not have been involved in this matter.

Even though the subsequent investigation revealed that the senator had sent letters attempting to contact local armed groups to reclaim his position, even if he knew it was the right thing to do, the question remained: if the organization in the shadows could kill that former senator this time, wouldn't it be him next?

Even if there's no concrete evidence of the organization's existence, even if there's no proof that they were the ones who did it, often just a little suspicion is enough.

This is also a headache for everyone...

Seeing Lionel's pensive expression, Annal, sitting opposite him, sighed softly and looked out the car window.

She and Lionel had indeed known each other since childhood. In her eyes, or rather in the eyes of most people her age, Lionel was definitely the kind of person who was "someone else's perfect child." Although she was his fiancée, it was precisely because of Lionel's excellence and the equal status of their families that the pressure from her family had never been less.

Neither of them wanted to be seen as Lionel's appendage after marrying Lionel, and she herself felt the same way.

So she has always tried her best to catch up with Lionel, striving to at least not bring shame to her family... But Lionel is really getting further and further away from her. Since he went to the Fire Moth, he has successively participated in and commanded the battles to subdue the Seventh and Eighth Herrscher, while she herself on the Mu Continent has not made any progress...

She then turned her gaze to Lionel, who was still deep in thought. He'd been like this since childhood... Logically, as betrothed individuals, shouldn't they have said something on their way back together? But he hadn't uttered a single word since getting into the car the Present; he was lost in thought...

It must be something that I want to do to fight against the Honkai...

When he voluntarily applied to be transferred to the Fire Moth, his attitude was already very clear: he wanted to be more involved on the front lines of the fight against the Honkai and to learn more about the Honkai...

Annal also remembered how Lionel stared blankly at the warship debris floating on the sea after the battle against the Varuna. Strictly speaking, that battle should have been jointly commanded by her and Lionel, but she... probably didn't think as much as Lionel did.

She had always been chasing after him, following the path he had taken. It wasn't just the pressure from her family, but also her own ideas. She wanted to prove that she was no less capable than Lionel, and that she could do well in any field.

In addition... she also wanted to have something in common with him that he was interested in.

She still remembers the scene when she first met Lionel, when he was still young and came to her rescue, pretending to be an adult and inviting her to dance.

However, Lionel himself probably doesn't remember these things. Perhaps for Lionel, many things were simply things he felt he should do, and that's all he did, regardless of what others thought.

That's just the kind of person he is.

Ironically, I... developed feelings for someone like that.

How much goodwill could a single meeting at the banquet have brought? At least there was a basic level of goodwill. In her eyes at that time, Leon was like a prince who had defeated a dragon and saved a princess. After her family and Leon's family were engaged, how many girls envied their engagement? And how much she enjoyed the envious glances of others!

Although these gazes have brought me a lot of pressure...

Besides that, his gaze... also seemed to fall on himself.

Perhaps it was because Leon had barged into her world on his own, left a deep impression, and then left on his own that she had become so demanding of men... Looking around at other men her age, there really wasn't one who could compare to Leon...

Excluding Beifengge, if he were a woman, Annal thinks Lionel might very well choose to break off the engagement and go to Beifengge... It's fortunate that Beifengge is a man...

As for Yanar, so many years have passed, and now, is her the Present towards Leon more of an obsession or more of love? Annal can no longer tell.

"If... I become Herrscher, will you... set your sights on me?"