No matter how the government of Blue Dawn tried to suppress the news, it was only a matter of time before it leaked out.
After all, not only was it not ‘confidential’ to their own departments, the government’s control over their own country was no longer what it used to be just a few months ago.
With the lack of ‘concrete evidence’ and any ‘official confirmation’, however, the version that was spread outside inevitably ended up being more and more distorted.
From her being the ‘mascot’ of the rebel movement who was doing all she could in her own capacity, to the ‘secret leader’ who was spearheading the whole campaign, many different versions started circulating all over the world.
And with Emilia’s social media going completely silent, it only added fuel to the fire.
Of course, the ‘fact’ that she had been kidnapped and brainwashed was widely refuted by experts worldwide who scoffed at the Blue Dawn government’s ‘incompetent’ attempt at ‘hiding the truth’.
After all, wasn’t Emilia’s current stance completely consistent with her initial declarations and views before she ever even left her home country to help the people of Blue Dawn?
Fortunately, the top government officials were too busy dealing with the crisis around them to even be bothered by any of these statements.
In the end, the most commonly accepted version was that Emilia had been ‘detained’ by the government of Blue Dawn as soon as she flew into the country, but she managed to escape and join the rebels shortly after, and was now helping them in any way that she could.
”Even if she’s talented, the girl is still too young to really be able to make much of a difference, especially without her family’s support.”
”Of course, but it’s admirable enough that she’s willing to stand up for what she believes in. Wish there were more people who did that.”
Naturally, with her age and lack of experience, the number of people who believed that she was spearheading the movement were few and far between. Not to mention they’d already made far too many ‘brain dead fanatic’ comments to really be taken seriously by anyone else.
”To be honest, she was incredibly rash and naïve, but her luck is just too good. I never expected that the rebels would actually be strong enough to really make any waves, but it doesn’t seem to be the case at all.”
”Yeah, all these people praising her for being brave and strong don’t seem to realize just how stupid she was. You want to help people overcome oppression by yourself, huh? Well, normally you’d just be sending yourself to death!”
”Is it really just luck that the rebel movement took off the moment she joined them, though?”
”Are you a braindead fan of hers? Obviously, the only impact someone like her can have on a larger scale is through the power of her family.”
”To be fair, we can’t discount the fact that the White Deer is playing the clever fisherman using this little daughter of theirs as a disposable bait, right?”
”Chilling. To think they claim to ‘adore’ her too, hah.”
The ‘knights’ were naturally furious when such statements came out, and fought back tooth and nail to restore the honor of their princess.
For a while, this ‘war’ was even more intense than the one in the Republic of Blue Dawn. And perhaps the scariest thing was that these ‘fanatics’ were crazy enough to set up ‘appointments’ to anyone daring enough, especially in Oriana.
Most people took it as a joke, of course, but when the pictures of a whole bunch of teenagers waiting with baseball bats and crowbars surfaced on the internet, no one dared to even consider going to these ‘appointments’ to ‘discuss’ the matter at all.
”Hey, is it just me, or there seem to be a shockingly large number of lunatics around every time there is a discussion about Emilia?”
”It’s like she’s a magnet for crazies!”
”Yeah, I used to love her before, but now I really hate her! How can she put such a cute and adorable girl like herself at risk like this?! If I ever get my hands on her, I’ll definitely lock her up and keep her safe forever!”
”Hello, I’ve discovered a new breed of crazy upstairs.”
”Heh, that knight army must be so confused right now.”
Of course, these were the more ‘innocuous’ arguments that attracted only a fraction of the ‘knights’. Most of their focus remained on fighting back against the far more nefarious speculations.
”This girl claimed to be this shining light of justice before she went to Blue Dawn, but look at the situation now. The public order there is worse than it has ever been, and there is a smell of death and decay even in the still pictures.”
”Agreed. It’s easy to spout a bunch of fancy words, but her actions paint a completely different picture, don’t they? She only cares about making herself look good. It doesn’t matter how many people die.”
These ‘unbiased’ people were naturally much larger in number than the ‘knights’, and had they been brave enough to confront the other party in person, perhaps they would directly be able to drown Emilia’s supporters with just their spittle.
But even though they tried their best to sweep the opinion completely against Emilia, they vastly underestimated both the stubbornness and resourcefulness of the knights.
”Hello? Can you not make it seem like all of this is the fault of our princess?”
”There are so many parties who were in the wrong, from Gray Wolfe to Black Tiger to the government of Blue Dawn, but somehow these idiots can blame it all on our princess, who only wants to help? Hah, I’m speechless.”
”Based on your IP, you’re from the Phoenix country, right? Would you like to join us for a coffee to have a polite discussion?”
Of course. all of these speculations came to a screeching halt with the surfacing of a certain video.
It was the combination of footage from multiple security cameras, and it clearly captured the shockingly complete picture of what really happened in the major military base of the Blue Dawn Republic’s central province.
From the initial storming of the troops to the murder of one of the generals, it was clearly not for the faint of heart. And yet, anyone who started watching couldn’t look away from the morbid scene at all.
Although the soldiers who defended the base seemed to be oblivious to the fact, the spectators could clearly tell that the number of attackers was vastly inferior. Rushing in blindly like this wasn’t much different from committing suicide.
And yet, there was no fear in their eyes, only a sense of urgency and hope.
In contrast, the defenders were unorganized, panicked, and completely without a sense of determination. On multiple fronts, they surrendered before the fight had truly even begun!
But what really caught the attention of the audience were the scenes featuring a certain crimson-haired beauty.
She didn’t carry a gun like the rest of them, but only a solid metal military baton. In her hands, however, it was far, far more deadly than any gun could ever be.
After all, it would eventually run out of ammo, and she would need to reload.
She took down the general, struck and dismantled all the primary command posts in person, and then plunged into one battle after another with not a moment’s respite.
From one person to another, it took the girl barely any time to flutter between the opponents like a weightless butterfly, and had the uncensored scenes of death not been so jarringly clear in the previous scenes, many would have even suspected if it was all real.
After all, with so many bullets flying around, some were bound to hit her if she moved like that regardless of how lucky she was, right?
But with her layered crimson dress and the distance of the scene from the camera, there was no way to tell just how many bullets had really made their way into her body.
The crimson-haired beauty didn’t seem to care at all, though, and the metal baton in her hand struck one enemy after another in either their neck or head without mercy.
It wasn’t clear from the footage just how many of those she struck down were dead, and how many had just been knocked out. But by the time she was done, Emilia’s dress had completely changed from crimson to a deep, dark red the color of blood.
Whether it was her own or the enemy’s, though, no one could tell.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━