Chapter 198 With one heart and one mind, humans, gods, and immortals unite...
"From a homeless child to the twin magicians who are well-known in Fontainebleau, from a poor boy in Grey River who couldn't afford to eat to a famous diver, this is truly... so inspiring!" The audience covered their faces and wept.
"Wait! Don't focus on us! Look at Mr. Eun! Look at Mr. Eun! The amazing Mr. Eun!"
"Mr. En refers to Mainkuhn... sigh."
Xia Worei watched the video with a sigh. The silver-gray cat stared blankly at the fish basket left by the mother and child for a while, then suddenly pounced into the sea in a fit of rage, stunning the fish in the waves.
It's obvious who they arrested them for.
"It is indeed very good so far, Mr. Mainkuhn. It is truly rare to be able to extend goodwill to the world despite suffering so much."
On the long beach, the cat, carrying food, followed its mother's footprints. Its reluctant yet persistent steps brought smiles to the faces of gods and immortals.
"But please don't forget that the first bloody crime committed by 'Lynx' also took place in this cold early autumn, and he only took a few months to escalate his crimes from murder to kidnapping a national treasure-level scientist, Mr. Linni, although you may feel very sad to hear me say this."
Xia Wore didn't know much about the inside story. Looking at the four-nation delegation that came to file a complaint, she could only sadly come to this conclusion.
"But he has most likely fallen, lost in the shadow of violence and pain, and become the master of fear... I regret it."
She was genuinely heartbroken. Anyone would be saddened to discover that the kind cat who had helped them had suddenly become an epic villain. However, she failed to notice that the 'plaintiffs' who had traveled thousands of miles to Fontainebleau all displayed strange expressions as she revealed her true feelings.
"Why don't you... watch it a little longer?" Kavi scratched his head guiltily.
Could there possibly be some kind of reversal? Chavorei fell silent in confusion, watching the cat walk into the gray river, leaving the fish in front of the dilapidated door, and then galloping across the tin roof, its paws striking rhythmic notes.
"So this is what the Grey River looked like ten years ago. I'd almost forgotten... Wait a minute!"
Navia was astonished to see her younger self in her memories: a bright yellow-clad girl next to little Clarin and...
"White!"
"White?!"
"...White?!"
Three voices echoed in the opera house: one from the past, one from the heir of the Rose Society, and the last from the dock, where the Duke suddenly stood up.
"Wow! Is this someone you know?" Paimon was startled, but the traveler next to him quickly covered his mouth.
"Huh?!"
"Don't, don't ask. Just eat the apple, eat the apple."
The traveler broke out in a cold sweat. It wasn't surprising that he was recognized by Leosley, but how he could be recognized by both Mainkun and Leosley was a big problem. There was only one possibility!
"Could it be that she was sold by human traffickers...? That can't be wrong."
The audience also realized what was happening and showed expressions of sympathy to the emaciated man, which reached its peak when he knelt down and licked Les.
"Completely destroyed..."
“Raising a child is so difficult, but ruining a child is so easy.”
Tina felt uncomfortable watching this and covered her eyes with her hands.
"What were the Prince Xian feeling at that time?"
Cats' facial muscles are not very flexible, so they cannot express emotions like humans.
But the way his downy ears tucked down instantly and his tail, which he tried to tuck but couldn't, were enough to express his terror.
"White, why...where's my brother?"
Intelligence/intelligence is lacking!!
He was terrified, fearing that his brother would end up like that.
"Clolind, go to his house and search for Les. I'll lock him up first and wait until his addiction subsides!"
Okay.
With a silent scream in his heart, Mainkun immediately leaped off the roof, slipped into the room, and disguised himself as White's pet beforehand. He affectionately snuggled up to the purple-haired girl who walked in with a gun, gently rubbing against her calf.
"Meow~"
"Give me a clue! I need my brother!!"
Little Claude blushed. "So-cute."
Clarinde couldn't blush; her heart was ice-cold.
"Calm down, calm down, your brother would never do that! Your brother will always be the most perfect one, White is just unlucky. Find a chance to sneak in and get some information..."
"I'm honored to have a friend who can turn into a cat. To be honest, it's really cute."
Anxiety kept echoing in my ears, making the scene of the girl playing with the cat seem like a false illusion.
"But I still hope... our first encounter could have been happier and simpler, sigh."
"cat!"
Little Navia excitedly pinched the cat's paws, amazed by his gentleness.
"My adorable kitten! Let me pet you!"
"Young lady, be careful, it looks more like a lynx than a cat..."
Whether they like it or are wary, no one can see through the anxious feelings beneath that facade.
Mainkuen deftly escaped the girl's grasp and squeezed into the room where his sworn brother was locked up.
He was then bombarded with the madman's foul language.
"Less has probably already damaged his brain nerves."
Higewen shook her head helplessly. "In other words, he's no longer a normal person, but a madman. It will be difficult for Mainkun to get information about the Duke from him."
Sure enough, after White unleashed a torrent of abuse, he began to sing, followed by screams, and finally, a series of wailing cries.
"Have you ever been raped, Mainkun? Look at you, you beast... Ahhhhhh! Give me Les!"
"Don't listen, Paimon."
The traveler covered the guide's ears.
Leosley also wanted to cover his ears.
But he didn't.
A person only has one pair of hands, and he actually wanted to leave those hands to Mainkuhn... no, he seems to have four ear piercings, so he can't cover them all up. Luckily, he's still dizzy.
"Was Les really that harmful?"
The audience below was whispering among themselves.
"I don't know, Les has disappeared from Fontainebleau for many years."
"I remember, first the lynx brutally killed a group of vendors and the creator, Vashe, and then the Shadow Chaser and the Rose Thorn Society joined forces to carry out the cleanup..."
"Could this incident have led to his downfall?"
Chavory continued her analysis, "Having witnessed the dark side of Fontaine, she found it unacceptable and, out of a desire to protect her missing brother, began slaughtering every criminal she encountered..."
And that seems to be the truth.
The boy, who had originally decided to become a cat, trembled as he reverted to human form. He was terrified as he put on his sworn brother's oversized overcoat and was abducted from the Thorn Rose Society.
"...I think I've seen him wearing that trench coat before."
Navelette whispered in the Duke's ear.
…I've not only seen it, I once traded a new dress for it from Mainkuhn, and now it's in my closet.
An extremely anxious and fruitless young man, in despair, threatens an old man with his scarred arm, trying to get some information about his brother.
"I forgave him a long time ago."
Miles quickly stepped forward.
“Mr. Navelette, look at that jar of scalp that was made into a murder weapon. It can’t even cut a hair! Please don’t make things difficult for this poor child.”
Navilette immediately granted permission.
"You have reached an out-of-court settlement."
But the forgiveness of one sin does not prevent the next sin from coming.
Based on the intelligence he had received, Mainkun arrived at the sinful manor.
"Gods, protect my brother and keep him from malicious attacks..."
But a lustful gaze was clearly fixed on the praying boy first.
"Stupid Maine... worry about yourself..."
Blood seeped into his brother's eyes, robbing him of his once clear vision.
"I was doing much better than you were back then..."
After gaining freedom, their hands were stained with blood once again.
The audience began to shout.
"This...this murder is different from the one in the fireplace house. It wasn't out of self-defense, and...and..."
"Those who died weren't foreigners, they were legitimate citizens of Fontainebleau, this..."
"What can we do? There's no escaping this crime. Even if Vilette wanted to let it go, she couldn't..."
"I won't let it go."
Navelette closed her eyes in anguish, but her words remained resolute.
"I'm sorry, Leosley, you saw it too, the Marquis was smashed to pieces, he was practically tortured to death..."
"Yes, I know."
Gods.
Leosley couldn't help but mimic his sworn brother's actions and began calling out to him in his heart.
Why do you torment my child like this, choking him in murky sewage?
Little do they know that when everyone is thirsty, the first to die will surely be the one who bleeds to feed the crowd!
"Brother, brother, where are you?"
Sometimes it was the cat that cried, sometimes it was people, and many people tried to comfort him. Linnie and Lynette gave him catnip, Navia bought him shoes, and Miles tried to teach him to cherish life…
But it seems nothing can hold back the soul that is slowly sinking into the abyss.
"White is dead too. You're not dead either, are you?"
"Perhaps you were also tricked into drinking L'Oreal and became like White..."
"No! I can't think like that!"
"...Search, keep searching, Mainkuhn, don't think, don't stop."
He stood at the door of the Les Merchant's shop, thinking this.
After a while, he went out and killed eight more human traffickers.
"Too bloody! Even if it's revenge, it's far too bloody!"
"Life in his hands is like withered branches and fallen leaves, easily crushed with a pinch!"
A great panic began to spread throughout the opera house.
"Mr. Navelette!"
They screamed and looked at the unconscious young man next to the Water Dragon King.
"Even if he was a good person in the past, he's completely out of control now!"
"Sentence him to death! There should be no more victims in Fontaineble after those two scientists!"
"quiet!"
"idiot!"
The roars of the water dragon and the skirmishers instantly echoed throughout the opera house: "Blind fool! What grows in your eye sockets are not eyes; charred pebbles are clearer than them!"
"Sumeru, you're calling me blind? Didn't you see how dangerous the lynx was?! It's all torture! He's completely rotten, indulging in the pleasure of killing!"
"……wrong."
Amidst the clamor of condemnation and complete disadvantage, Leosley's eyes, fixed on the image, grew brighter and brighter, filled with hope.
His act of forcing himself to review every single second of his memories finally paid off.
"Mainkuhn was not conscious when he committed the murder..."
"Mainkuhn was not conscious when he committed the murder!!"
The Duke cried out in surprise, a rare occurrence for him. He turned and gripped the traveler's arm tightly; he needed to share his joy with someone.
"Am I right? Traveler! The massacre wasn't his intention! He's still that righteous and gentle child!"
"yes."
The traveler paused for a moment, then gave him a warm, golden smile.
"Don't worry, Duke, what killed them was their own malice, not Mainkuen."
"What do you mean, blondie?!"
The sharp-eared audience heard this and questioned loudly.
“We all saw it clearly: those black claws picked up the wooden bucket and poured dozens of liters of sorbet down the throats of two people to death, then swung the money bag and smashed the traffickers’ heads!”
"Fine! You brainless idiot, why don't you think about it?"
Before the traveler could reply, the stragglers began to mock him.
"He has hundreds of ways to torture people, why does he have to use Lorsi? It's time-consuming, laborious, and he gets soaked."
"Of course, it's to give those two even longer torture!"
"Why did he only strike the head to kill them when he took the money bag, instead of striking their feet, stomach, or hands, thus subjecting them to a longer period of torture?"
"...How would I know what he's thinking? Don't forget him, he crushed someone alive before! He takes pleasure in torturing people!"
"That's not the case."
Zhongli suddenly stood up from the front row and looked at the terrified audience with his unchanging diamond-shaped pupils.
"Fear nothing, children of the water."
“Those who die in pleasure, with a heart full of longing for drinking, will have their wish fulfilled.”
"When the skull is shattered, the front face is the first part to break. The children who crave beauty in their hearts are the ones who are ugly."
"Those crushed to the ground."
Zhongli paused for a moment, then tactfully stated:
"He probably wanted to put Mr. Mainkuhn under his thumb before he died, but I can't go into details about what he wanted to do."
The startled audience stared at him, but were involuntarily soothed by his calm demeanor. "...I don't understand what you're saying, the plaintiff from Liyue."
“I understand, it is indeed a bit abstract.”
Morax explained it magnanimously, as has been done for thousands of years, to enlighten the people.
"So you can simply understand it as Mainkuhn refusing to accept their wishes, and those wishes twisted and rebounded, causing retribution upon themselves."
"……What?"
"Didn't you notice? You should recall why Mainkun grew back its nails, ears, and teeth, and why it completely lost its tail and came back to life."
Many distinct physiological phenomena were manifesting in that young child, and now they were finally guided to explain the reasons.
"Is it... a wish?"
"Yes, congratulations on getting the answer." The Emperor smiled approvingly.
"If you always maintain a pure heart, then evil retribution will never come upon you."
"..."
A fantastical answer doesn't seem to bring people a real sense of reality.
"I don't believe this... It's like an answer from a fairy tale. You need to provide evidence. There's no such thing as a magic lamp born to grant other people's wishes. Such an existence would only be pathetic in reality... You need to provide evidence, you need to provide evidence..."
Amidst the cries of fear born of ignorance, only the Emperor remained steadfast.
"The evidence is still on its way and it's not time to reveal it yet."
"Then we cannot trust you! Fontainebleau is a country that believes in seeing is believing!!"
"So I will vouch for Mainkuhn until that evidence arrives."
"……guarantee?"
"Yes." Zhongli placed his hand on his chest and recited aloud.
“I guarantee that everything I have said is true.”
“I guarantee that those with kind hearts will not suffer this harm.”
“I guarantee that Mainkuhn’s mind has never been corrupted by hatred; he is still the boy who wants to find his brother.”
Every word he uttered carried the will of the rock, almost suppressing the fear of the people.
"...Who do you think you are, daring to spout such nonsense here?"
But there are still doubts.
In that moment of hesitation, the small green figure suddenly raised its arm high, very forcefully, even its heels were on tiptoe.
"I also vouch for it!"
Naxida said that she used her divine power at the same time.
“I am a god. Even if you don’t believe in him, you should at least believe in me.”
The scene shifts, playing back again and again, focusing on past memories—those they had ignored because of their fear.
Beside the mangled corpse, a trembling teenager reached out and helped the terrified victim out from under the bed, returning her to her elderly mother.
Beside the bloated corpse, a boy intently sniffed Mora, searching for the family members sold off by the addict.
And in front of the human traffickers' cages, haha, how many people in this world dare not even show their faces when doing good deeds, only daring to force people to leave at gunpoint, and then secretly leaving behind all the valuables they have stolen, not a single one left?
"Strip away the cloak of fear and see the truth once more."
Naxida looked at the crowd with wise and honest eyes.
"So what is truly frightening, is it him or the evil heart?"
"..."
The audience remained silent.
"I've never heard of such a peculiar creature before, not even in Merusin..."
They hesitated.
"I also vouch for it."
Diluc, annoyed, stood up expressionlessly and bowed in all directions.
"I suppose the richest man in Mondstadt should have some weight to his words here."
"Hey, Diluc! Why are you so impulsive... Alright, alright." Before the audience could react, Kaeya also stood up, almost like following the trend, but his expression was surprisingly serious.
"I am the representative of the Knights of Favonius, and I also vouch for them."
"I also vouch for it."
Upon seeing this, Xiao immediately stood beside Zhongli, assuming a guard-like posture.
"I am the Liyue Master, the Great Sage who has protected the Geo Kingdom for a thousand years... I have some weight to my name."
……ah?
The audience in Fontainebleau watched in bewilderment as members of the foreign delegation stood up one after another, each more eager than the last.
Even the vizier of Mount Sumeru had a look of utter disbelief in his eyes, as he spoke directly to the image.
"Deep down you can't believe that a child who has suffered such injustice can still maintain a kind heart."
"But whether it's out of stupidity or nature, that's the truth."
Okay, maybe what you're saying is actually true...
"But aren't you... the plaintiffs?"
Look carefully, who are you vouching for?!
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