Rumors Abound
"Have you heard? There's a lawyer who's been lurking in our Fire Moth all along!"
"Are you kidding me?"
"I'm not joking. Ninth Law, do you know the Ninth Law who destroyed the Mu Continent? I heard she was a high-ranking military officer on the Mu Continent! If she hadn't been lying low on the Mu Continent for so long and had such a thorough understanding of its military deployment, how could the Mu Continent have sunk!"
"Hearsay!"
"Hey! Rumors don't come from nowhere! Why is the Fire Moth so vague about the Ninth Law's matter? Why is it unwilling to disclose the detailed information about the Ninth Law's extermination battle? Can't we even think about it?"
"Tsk..."
"I have a friend who fled from the Mu Continent. He heard it with his own ears: the Ninth Lawyer identified Feng as the Lawyer!"
"Stop talking nonsense. Feng can't possibly be Lu Zi. If Feng were Lu Zi, we would be finished long ago!"
"Heh... How can you be so sure he isn't? Before any of the Lawyers were discovered, who would have thought they were Lawyers? The first Fusion Warrior, a survivor of a Honkai..."
"Where did these rumors circulating among the soldiers originate?" Lionel asked, frowning as he looked at the briefing in his hand.
Beifengge chuckled and walked to the window, saying slowly, "Our people are still investigating, but what we can confirm is that the main person who spread this information is a survivor from the Mu Continent, including some of the soldiers you led, Leon."
Lionel took a deep breath, put down the briefing, rubbed his temples, and said, "The sinking of the Mu Continent is indeed an unbearable catastrophe for the survivors... We were once the most powerful nation in the world, once the leader of the entire world, but now... ha..."
"A stray dog, isn't it?" Beifengge said with a hint of mockery.
"...I'll reluctantly refrain from refuting your words." Lionel lowered his eyes. "After all, even I am now merely a guest in someone else's house, and I have no right to criticize this much... Our country was not destroyed by law, but by our own arrogance... If we could put aside our prejudices, if we could cooperate instead of fighting alone, how could we have ended up in this situation?"
"Hmph..." Beifengge chuckled lightly. "Leon, you've always underestimated the ugliness of human nature. The sinking of the Mu Continent, for the Mu Continent people, no matter how many mistakes Mu Continent made, it's already sunk. Besides, doesn't the Fire Moth bear any responsibility? If they had sent support sooner, if Feng's actions had been faster, or even if Feng had been hit by the Mu Continent's Honkai Energy Jamming Bullet, why couldn't he have perished with the Ninth Law? Heh... Even if most people wouldn't think this way, isn't it normal for the self-centered and arrogant Mu Continent people to think this way? Leon, you're a typical representative of the Mu Continent people, you should have some understanding of this, right? Or rather, haven't you really thought this way?"
Beifengge looked into Lionel's eyes, and Lionel didn't avoid Beifengge gaze, choosing instead to frankly admit, "Why not? Of course I've thought about it. I wondered, if Feng and the others had been able to provide support earlier, if more of them had participated in the operation, would things have turned out differently? But, Beifengge, I know very well that this time we were wrong, Mu Continent was wrong. Instead of shifting the blame onto others, why can't we look for the reasons within ourselves? If I had discovered His Majesty's distrust of me sooner, if I had stopped the rift between the two sides from widening sooner, would things have been different?"
"You've changed, Leon." Beifengge looked away and walked behind Lionel with his hands behind his back. "You know, even now, the older warriors of the Fire Moth still remember what you said to them after Atlantis sank."
Lionel remained silent.
"Let me think... what did that girl named Disaster say again..." Beifengge tapped her head with her finger, mimicking Disaster and Lionel's tone, "'As an organization dedicated to combating Honkai, you didn't even notice this underwater Honkai, and you lacked corresponding measures after Honkai occurred. It's really hard to have confidence in your capabilities. Mayor Kandela has already protested to His Majesty the King about this. Hopefully, you can learn from this and improve your technology in the future.'"
Lionel lowered his eyes. If it was Disaster who said it, then it wasn't surprising to him. After all... it wasn't a new thing for Disaster to have a problem with him.
"And another thing, let me think..." Beifengge continued as if she were digging up Lionel's dark history, "'We Mu Continent have a lot of things to study, not just Honkai. You Fire Moth are an organization that specializes in Honkai. Do you need us to teach you how to do things?' Oh dear, back then, you were thinking that most Mu Continent people would think, if not every one of them, right?"
Lionel remained silent.
"Anyway, we, the Mu Continent, are the navigators of the world, the superiors of the Fire Moth, the beacon of human civilization. We can't afford to be wrong, no matter what." Beifengge spread his hands. "If we are wrong, then surely others are wrong even more, aren't they?"
Lionel sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead. After a long pause, he said, "I know, I know... Excessive arrogance is also a form of ignorance, and under the weight of our nation's long-standing glory, ignorance has spread to every single person... I understand. Since it's a problem of the Mu Continent, it should naturally be solved by the people of the Mu Continent. If we let them continue down this path, the already tarnished glory of the Mu Continent will only continue to be defiled."
"What are you planning to do?" Beifengge asked.
Lionel stood up, walked to the window of his office, and said, "I am very grateful to the Fire Moth for not disclosing too much about the attack on the Ninth Law in order to save face for the Mu Continent and the royal family... But this has become a fig leaf for many surviving Mu Continent people to keep their illusions, so we can only tear it off."
"Hey, hey, hey, the Fire Moth isn't so kind. The main problem is that what Mu Continent did was truly outrageous. Once exposed, it won't just destroy the surviving Mu Continent people's illusions about the Mu Continent, but also the trust of ordinary people in our official institutions." Beifengge's casual expression turned serious. "Think about it, if Mu Continent has conducted cloning experiments and Artificial Herrscher, wouldn't the Fire Moth do the same? Mu Continent can develop Honkai Energy Jamming Bullet specifically designed to kill Fusion Warrior; wouldn't the Fire Moth research something similar?"
This fig leaf wasn't something the Fire Moth wanted to drape over Mu Continent. If they could, they'd even rather throw all the mud at the Mu Continent, ideally trampling this teammate-betraying bastard into the mud. But they couldn't do that.
The glory of the Mu Continent is not just for the people of the Mu Continent to see. Many ordinary people from other countries around the world also have a misplaced trust in the Mu Continent because of its past glory. Just like how some people in China always like the green card of the United States, they think that the moon in the Mu Continent is rounder and brighter, and even the toilets in the Mu Continent smell better.
Perhaps no one understands this better than Mostima, who surfs the internet intensely every day. Now, she is overwhelmed by the rumors that are spreading online and has no choice but to cooperate with the cybersecurity department of the Fire Moth to carry out internet control and pinpoint the origin of the rumors.
"There's an old saying in Shenzhou, 'Three men can scare a tiger.' It started spreading from the people of the Mu Continent, and then it was further spread by people from other countries who blindly worship Mu Continent. That's how the rumor started." Beifengge said to Lionel. "Moreover, although similar rumors circulated before, they were not nearly as widespread as they are now. In fact, by the time we started to notice them, their roots had already spread to who knows where."
After the sinking of the Mu Continent, the Fire Moth have been using all available resources to control public opinion, including but not limited to: propaganda by Eden, propaganda by Nahamah's family, and public opinion control by other business figures represented by Davien. However, all of this seems to have erupted suddenly, and although the rumors are varied and seem to have multiple sources, the purpose is quite clear.
Whether it's a conspiracy theory or something else, it all eventually comes down to one person.
Zhu Yufeng.
Regardless of the specific rumor, Zhu Yufeng was always the one suspected. Some said he wasn't putting in any effort, others said he deliberately neglected Mu Continent wanted it to sink, and still others said he was Herrscher and would definitely betray humanity in the future.
Beifengge had to admit that even someone who enjoyed watching the spectacle couldn't help but feel annoyed when he saw the compiled list of rumors. And when he saw that most of the rumor-mongers were verified to be survivors of the Mu Continent, Beifengge's feelings were quite complex. As a Mu Continent native, he couldn't possibly be completely devoid of affection for his homeland, though in reality, he didn't feel much...
He also thought it best to just end it all and deal with everything secretly.
Beifengge is not only a PhD in law, but also Expert in psychology. He is well aware of the conclusion that these rumors are leading to. After all, for the public, there are so many rumors. Even if most or all of them are false, why is Zhu Yufeng involved in all of them to some extent?
Why him?
Once the seed of doubt is planted, it is very difficult to kill it. It may be dormant for a short time, but it will surely sprout again at some point in the future.
Zhu Yufeng didn't seem to care much about these things, which didn't surprise Beifengge. After all... apart from having a few more CPs, no one was as obsessed with fighting the Honkai as he was.
Therefore, Beifengge suspected that a new Herrscher had appeared, but what Herrscher could be associated with rumors? What kind of power does this Herrscher possess? Where is this Herrscher hiding?
If the Herrscher, or rather the Tenth Great Honkai, primarily manifests as malicious rumors, could it be that this time the Herrscher's vessel isn't just one person? After all, while rumors may seem absurd and unreasonable as a form of power, their spread still requires a population as fertile ground. This explosive emergence of rumors clearly wasn't the work of a single individual...
Assuming there are many Herrscher, are there individual Herrscher lurking within the Fire Moth? And how many of them can be trusted?
"Speaking of which, it seems like Feng has been Honkai by the Honkai for quite some time now..." Beifengge thought to herself with a hint of helplessness. "Ever since the Seventh Herrscher tried to self-destruct and take him down with her, the Eighth Herrscher did everything she could to trap him in a dream, and the Ninth Herrscher tried to frame him from the very beginning... Does he have some deep-seated grudge against both sides of the Honkai?"
"Human hearts are unpredictable..." Lionel frowned. He was already considering whether to take drastic measures and nip the rumors in the bud. However, it was clear that it was better to guide than to suppress. Such attempts to silence people would only increase the perceived credibility of the rumors for ordinary people.
After the Ninth Herrscher incident ended, Lionel offered to take the blame for the sinking of the Mu Continent, intending to take all the responsibility upon himself in order to stabilize the restless hearts of the people, although he knew very well that if he did this, he would at most receive a less-than-dignified death.
However, as long as sacrificing one person can appease people's hearts, that's a gain. As for his reputation before and after death, Lionel said he didn't care about it anymore. After all, when he was working for the king on the Mu Continent, he was already cursed for not cooperating with other families for profit and only focusing on fighting the Honkai.
It's not a big deal if you don't have a pot. jpg
The Fire Moth ultimately rejected Lionel's proposal, believing that there were few experienced commanders like Lionel who were at least discerning and reliable, and that it was worthwhile to spare some resources to save him.
This gave Lionel a rare feeling of relief. In some areas, such as technology, the Fire Moth might not be able to catch up with the Mu Continent yet, but at least the higher-ups wouldn't feel like he was fighting the Honkai alone, unlike on the Mu Continent.
"No matter what, we need to take action," Lionel said. "Feng is Heroes, all Fusion Warrior are Heroes. They underwent the Fusion Warrior surgery, facing death with unwavering determination... If an era cannot accommodate Heroes like them, then civilization is worthless. Heroes protect us, and humanity should reciprocate."