Unlike the bustling outside, Violet Fox had no customers inside.
'Even reporters desperate for scoops would have barged in here recklessly.'
Looking at the interior scenery of the shop, there was a good reason for that.
Not just Ronan, but Diolan and Loraine, Mist and Asmer as well. They were all openly emanating their aura, creating a heavy atmosphere.
While it was an aura that didn't affect Osian and Basilio, reporters with low immunity to such things would feel like their throats were being directly strangled. It was a deliberate action to drive away unwelcome guests.
"More importantly, why is this guy here?"
When Osian pointed this out, an immediately bristling reaction came from the other party.
"What about me!"
It was Lupona. She glared at Osian with a growling expression. The look in her eyes that still showed displeasure was a bonus. What a brat. Osian had the same thought while looking at Lupona, but didn't show it outwardly.
Ena, who had just come out of the kitchen, spoke as if protecting Lupona. Lupona seemed pleased with Ena's help and giggled, then glared at Osian again.
"It seems everyone knows that it's noisy outside."
Ronan answered.
"It can't be helped. Look at this."
Ronan handed over a newspaper. Osian looked at the newspaper, then placed it on the desk with a small sigh. There was no need to unfold and examine the contents. It was already written in huge letters on the front page.
'The Return of Hell. And the Birth of a Hero.'
That's what the headline read. It was so intense that even first-time readers would probably recall it for about a week, even in their sleep.
"I thought everyone's attention would be focused only on the District 17 incident."
Who would have thought an article related to himself would come out. And it wasn't even some third-rate media outlet. It was a place evaluated as mid-level or above in the industry. What that meant was that these bastards were serious.
Loraine asked.
"Just asking, but there was no prior agreement, right?"
While it's good for a fixer's reputation to be high, excessive fame sometimes acts as poison. Especially for professions like fixers who don't have solid backing, excessive fame easily makes them targets of large organizations.
Being used. Being assassinated. Or getting intoxicated by their own fame and self-destructing.
Having worked in this industry, Loraine had seen many similar scenes, so she was worried.
"I also learned about this after coming here today."
"Damn it. I knew it would be like this. Sigh, my head is already aching."
Loraine roughly tousled her ivory hair and sighed. The worst-case scenario she had imagined had come to pass.
"What exactly happened?"
Diolan, who still hadn't fully grasped the situation, asked. Normally, Diolan wouldn't have shown interest in this matter. Even if war broke out in the world, like a cat sunbathing on a building rooftop, he would have just ignored it as if it were a story from another world.
But what had happened now wasn't something Diolan could easily ignore. Especially since it involved Osian.
"What happened in District 17?"
"A group of heretics following outer gods conducted a ritual there."
"I heard about that. But wasn't it over? Why are people flocking here?"
"To divert attention."
The one who answered instead was Seren Gracia. As if demonstrating her ability, she appeared like a mirage from thin air.
"Hello. It's been a while, everyone. You too, old man."
Seren waved her hand at Basilio and Basilio also waved back appropriately. After finishing her light greeting, Seren continued her previous explanation.
"As you know, Tirna's situation isn't good right now. Beyond just not being good, honestly speaking, this is at a level where we should worry about an existential crisis."
It would have been better if it were just a bad joke or exaggeration filled with bravado. But this was a plain reality that had approached right before their eyes.
The disaster that occurred in District 17 had too great a ripple effect. In fact, there were too many problematic issues to simply pass it off as having great aftermath.
'It's ridiculous to explain all the reasons in detail now.'
Nothing else but the involvement of outer gods was the most troublesome.
"The existence of outer gods hasn't been clearly revealed, but similar things can be inferred from the situation at that time. Because of that, citizens are feeling extreme anxiety and fear."
Just looking at the tentacles captured blurrily in photos, people would sense that it wasn't something ordinary. The tentacles summoned by Red Eternity stimulated primal human fear just by looking at them.
It was natural for those who served Red Eternity to appear. What humans fear most is fear itself and Red Eternity presents them with fear while simultaneously giving them the opportunity to overcome that fear.
'In crude terms, it's giving illness and then giving medicine.'
It's a nasty trick of forcibly selling the opportunity to serve it. But it was equally effective.
Citizens with no immunity to such things couldn't handle the overwhelming fear. Saying that a curse had befallen Tirna or that the city would collapse was cute. Going further, there were people shouting that the end of the world was coming.
"It's relatively okay here, but if you go to other areas in the 30s districts, it's no joke. On my way here, I saw people holding pickets and causing a commotion with demonstrations."
"Actually, such signs are starting to show here too."
Ronan shook his head as if troubled.
"Moreover, the problem isn't just the simultaneous demonstrations occurring throughout the city. Discontent between classes is also surfacing."
Osian recalled what the followers of the Eternal Church had done. Most of them were old, wealthy people. People who had money but were too old to fully enjoy everything they possessed.
They tried to sacrifice the lower class as offerings to enjoy eternal life. It was all because of greed. The city government tried to cover up this fact somehow. Not to take their side. It was because of the ripple effects that would occur if it became known. But they couldn't completely prevent it. Those who should know already knew through word of mouth.
"Because of that, the demonstrations became even more intense. There was already discontent and hatred toward the wealthy class, but it rarely surfaced. Because the common people lack power."
"You're saying those common people exploded with enough anger."
"Yes. And simultaneously at that."
Ronan nodded.
The fuse was lit on the gunpowder that had accumulated layer by layer. The citizens exploded. From exploited workers to street vagrants. People called the so-called lower class took to the streets and caused riots.
And the explosion was happening in real-time even now, and was scheduled to grow even larger in the future.
"The city government will try to suppress it somehow, but the current momentum boiling up like an active volcano isn't something that can be controlled by suppression. The more they try to suppress it, the more the citizens will rebel, erupting all the anger they've condensed over many years at once."
"That's right. Moreover, the widespread distrust of Tirna's city government is also one of the reasons."
Seren crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
"If the city government had done things properly, even a little, they could have prevented this situation from growing this big. That it's come this far is partly the fault of the city government and the officials who took bribes."
Tirna is a giant ship cruising the great sea. But what makes that ship move is multiple sources of power. One of those engines had completely broken down. And it was starting to have a bad influence on the surroundings. If that happens, the ship will stop. In severe cases, it might even sink.
If external forces had launched a sudden attack, they could have used that as an excuse to firmly unite internally. But problems that erupt from within, especially when classes are divided, are quite difficult to patch up.
Ronan narrowed his eyes and said.
"What's even more troublesome is that this news is spreading outside as well. Since heretics performed a ritual to summon foreign gods, other countries can't think of it as someone else's problem."
Basilio let out a groan.
"They had no choice but to give room for intervention."
Among them, the one that would exercise the greatest influence would be the Petra Papal Court. The Papal Court, which had been sharpening its teeth because it couldn't properly exercise influence over Tirna, had no intention of missing this opportunity.
'But it won't end there either.'
Osian instinctively felt that the flowing situation was not to be taken lightly. Internal division and foreign intervention. Each was a serious headache.
But the division hadn't even begun yet.
Osian couldn't forget, to a strange degree, the giant airship he had seen yesterday morning.
'A giant airship led by the military.'
Division would also occur within Tirna's city government due to this incident. Among them, the military, which had been keeping its head down recently, beginning to raise its voice again would be the signal.
'The military tried to assassinate Princess Orlea to provoke a war. When that failed, they had to cut off a large part of their forces. Their influence decreased. But now it's different. They've grasped a clear justification to move.'
Osian doesn't think Tirna is a perfect city. Honestly speaking, this place was wilderness wearing the mask of civilization, made of steel and steam but even such a Tirna has its own laws and regulations.
There is minimal order but that order was now about to collapse.
Cracks were forming throughout the entire city. What flows down through the broken gaps is black filth, poison named chaos. The moment that poison overflows, terrible things will happen around.
It will devour the entire city and affect the connections made while coming here.
'I can't quell all this chaos at once. But there's one thing that's possible.'
That was exactly the headline of the newspaper Osian had seen.
"Hero, is it?"
The city, and the world, needs a hero so Tirna's city government had made one choice here: to make Osian a hero.
A mere fixer who was nothing. A person who started from the very bottom entered Trinity Building with just a sword and cut down the corrupted ones of the Eternal Church.
Excellent. It truly feels like a hymn to humanity. Especially since the profession of fixer was good for evoking sympathy from those at the bottom.
'Well, if we're being precise, it's not wrong that I played a decisive role in resolving the incident.'
Still, people naturally recognizing it and someone deliberately spreading rumors for political use are strictly different.
And while the article said this side had done something great, it didn't specify exactly what that was, what the clear achievements were. Just that it was resolved and that great contributions were made. That was all.
Perhaps because Osian's such displeasure showed on his expression. Loraine asked carefully.
"Don't take it so badly. Well, it's unpleasant that they're trying to use you arbitrarily, but it doesn't necessarily work as a disadvantage."
"It's true that their arbitrary use is unpleasant. But that's not all."
"What else is there?"
"Rather, the article written here is even more reduced than what I actually did."
"Huh?"
Loraine unconsciously let out such a sound.
"Reduced, you say."
"I cut off the head of the Eternal Church's cardinal and killed an archbishop too. I also killed bishops and countless corrupted beings. I even cut the Trinity Building in half."
Osian explained his actions matter-of-factly. Of course, every time they heard that explanation, the expressions of Loraine, Ena, and Seren subtly changed as if they had encountered something indescribable.
Especially at the part about cutting Trinity Building in half, they nodded, going "Ah, yeah."
'They don't believe it.'
Basilio, who was watching that scene, thought to himself. He wanted to testify too, but if he did, he felt like he'd be treated as strange together, so he decided to keep quiet.
"Yeah, yeah. I know you worked hard. So don't get so angry."
I understand that this guy shoots streams of light from his sword, but still, cutting a building over 300m tall in half seems a bit too much, doesn't it?
"Whatever the case, the city government is trying to create a hero now, and that target is Mr. Osian."
Ronan summarized the situation simply. With the appearance of that hero, people became enthusiastic. Even a small light tends to look brilliant in pitch-black darkness. In the current situation filled only with fear and despair, the appearance of a hero provided them with both peace of mind and enthusiasm.
Of course, this is only temporary. Therefore, the city government had to somehow proceed with this hero-making while periodically reassuring the citizens.
'The storm has passed, but the aftermath around me doesn't seem to be over yet.'
Rather, the storm became smaller and compressed, concentrated only on the individual named Osian.
And this was just the beginning.
Mist, who had been silently listening to all this conversation, thought to himself.
'Ah, I'm envious. I want to be a hero too.'
Deliphiros looked through all the daily newspapers that came out this morning. Around him were piles of all kinds of documents. This was the workload that had accumulated in just one day yesterday. Documents were still coming in real-time even now, and tomorrow would be even busier.
Even in the midst of this, Mayor Deliphiros focused on one project.
"At least we succeeded in making him famous."
A hero was born in Tirna. In Tirna, where you get treated well if you have ability, it's not like celebrity-like figures don't exist.
But [Hero] it's a word that doesn't fit the current era. It's closer to an outdated, old-fashioned story from the past.
That's why it's effective. By imprinting that name that was thought to have disappeared, they could significantly neutralize the chaos.
Of course, this process is just the beginning. And more problems will arise in the process.
Deliphiros' secretary approached. After reading the report he handed over, Deliphiros narrowed his eyes.
"As expected, they're moving. The rebels, that is."
Subversive organizations that didn't like Tirna wouldn't miss an opportunity like this.
The dangerous elements that had been staying quiet until now began to spread explosively because of this incident.