!
Other than Sogo Doma, which girl in the Service Club had never suffered because of rumors? How could they possibly believe them? If rumors died with the wise, then Yukino and the others were undoubtedly exceptionally wise...
"Even if we don't believe it, other people..." The more Yukino and the others understood the power of rumors, the more they understood how terrifying they were. Even she herself still had lingering fears, so she did not sound quite so confident.
"That's enough!" Unlike Yukino, Sogo Doma knew how terrifying rumors could be—but he happened to be skilled at manipulating them.
Ahem...
This country did not have politics as a subject. Or rather, most countries in the world did not teach politics; only the Celestial Empire openly placed this dragon-slaying art before its people—
That was why people from the Celestial Empire often thought foreigners looked foolish during foreign interviews. But they were not actually stupid; they simply had never studied it!
That was also why foreign countries distinguished between elite education and commoner education. Most nations outside the Celestial Empire believed that keeping the people ignorant made them easier to govern. If the masses became too clever, would that not make their leaders seem incompetent?
Outside the Celestial Empire, only a small number of elites could encounter and study politics. So although many people knew rumors were terrifying, they did not know why they were terrifying, much less how to manipulate public opinion and turn rumors around...
But in the Celestial Empire...
Everyone knew how important public opinion was! Why had scholars held such lofty historical and social status throughout the Celestial Empire's history? Was it not because scholars in ancient times could manipulate public opinion? Most common people had to rely on scholars to know what was what...
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