"Alright. What else?"

Hao Xuan picked up a cup of piping hot tea and took a sip.

"There has been a sudden inflow of 'hateful' rhetoric over the last few months. The first thread popped up about seven months ago. It gave a lot of incorrect facts and misinformed readers about the last batch of humans that came from 'earth'. Since then there have been more and more such sites and threads that complain about a number of things from the military's inadequacy to the shortcomings of the Royal clan."

Hao Xuan who was about to take another sip stopped and looked at the watch, "What? How bad is it now?"

"In the last five months, there has been an increase of over 400% in such content. But most of these 'sites' and user's aren't even real. I tried to track down them down and it seems it's only a few thousand people pretending to be several million with the use of sophisticated softwares. They make up a fake story and then post comments pretending to be other people."

Hao Xuan frowned, "That shouldn't be possible. Everyone has to go through a lengthy process when they get access to a spirit band. How can someone just pretend to be other people?"

"The identities are real. From what I've gathered so far, these identities belong to the dead. Millions upon millions of them. Most of them died during different accidents, monster hordes, etc, but someone is keeping their social media profiles alive by posting a bunch of generic posts. From the outside, it looks completely normal."

"Do you have any idea who's behind this?"

"None. Its everywhere now. Although it was initiated by a select few, it has now spread to much of the population."

"To what end? What would anyone hope to achieve by doing this?"

Baracus calmly replied, "I don't know,"

"Guess then motherf*cker. You're an AI, use some of that intelligence!" Hao Xuan retorted, irritated.

".....the best guess would be....to destabilize the kingdom. That is the most feasible assumption, but I cannot speak for any intentions behind that. The public was content and happy. There were issues but nothing abnormal. As soon as these posts came up people started distrusting the government, the military, each other."

"And the spark to set it all off was incident from a couple of months ago."

"What incident?"

"A human that came from Earth went on a killing spree. He killed over 110 mortal children belonging mostly to the older residents of the kingdom. He said it was because this world was 'cursed' and it needed to be cleansed. He was of course arrested and sentenced to death soon after."

"Since then there has been a massive spike in hate crimes against earthlings. The government hasn't taken any actions either so both sides are almost up in arms."

"...."

Hao Xuan's appetite died instantly.

Something that Aria once said to him rang in his ears once again. She mentioned something about this, the difference in treatment of earthlings and the natives of Mei. She said this wasn't their home and they were treated as second class citizens. Maybe this was it.

'So someone was behind all this from the beginning.'

They finished their meal with Fortis having eaten literally everything on the table. He was lying on Hao Xuan's head belly up, swollen like an overstuffed bun.

Hao Xuan paid the bill and walked out of the shop. He walked around absentmindedly, without a destination with many things going through his mind.

The cold night had set in. He walked aimlessly for hours, finally walking out of the city gates.

He entered a random village and bought a cup of tea from a roadside stall before continuing his wandering.

Time passed rather quickly.

His roaming came to a halt upon hearing a nostalgic laugh and a giggle, waking him from his stupor.

He looked around and recognized the surroundings. He was standing in a field, staring towards a homey little manor a few dozen meters in front of him.

He could see a family sitting around a table having dinner. There were eight seats around the table but only seven were occupied.

An older couple sat on either end of the table with their children in the middle.

"Ma, can you pass the salad," the young man of 18-19 years of age said to the older lady.

"If you keep eating like this you're never gonna get a girlfriend," the girl next to him said loudly. She was a couple of years older than him.

"Who says I want one?!" the boy proudly countered with a puffed chest while taking a bite of a large piece of meat.

"Well sweety, it's not really your choice is it?" the older lady joined in with a smile, making everyone break out in laughter.

Two little girls were sitting in the middle of the table, laughing, happily swaying their feet back and forth as they ate. One of them had a small teddy bear in her embrace.

Looking in at the family having a good time, unconsciously, Hao Xuan's lips arched up, forming a dazzling smile. He was happy for them from the bottom of his heart.

Fortis who was lazying around atop Hao Xuan's head turned his body around with some effort and looked at the source of the laughter.

"Emi!" he pointed at one of the little girls with his tentacles.

"Hmm, you remember them too, I forgot," Hao Xuan nodded. He reached above his head and picked up Fortis in his arms.

"Go in?" Fortis asked excitedly, propping himself up in Hao Xuan's arms to get a better view. He really wanted to meet her in person too.

Hao Xuan shook his head gently, "No. We can look but never touch. I...am no longer one of them. It would only bring them more trouble at this point," he whispered softly.

Those words were aimed towards himself rather than Fortis. He was reminding himself.

Their paths had branched off. They were mortals, whereas he, was something else now.

*Cough*

*Blergh*

It felt like someone had just punched him in the gut suddenly. He keeled over, throwing up several mouthfuls of blood.

"!!!"

Fortis jumped down from his embrace and looked at him worryingly.

Hao Xuan wiped the sides of his mouth with his sleeve and saw his blood mixed in with a green substance, giving off a wretched stench

"...Poison..?"

He frowned. His complexion turned pale quickly.

'The tea!' he remembered the random roadside stall in the village he passed through a while back.

*Blergh*

He threw up again. This time there was more green liquid than blood.

His face regained a bit of color. The Immortal Devouring Demon physique had kicked in automatically. It detected a hazardous substance in his system and was expelling it out.

Hao Xuan closed his eyes and tried to regulate his blood flow.

*Shiiiinn~*

A sharp noise rang in his ears as he fell to his knees. His vision blurred.

He quickly waved his hand and Ensis appeared beside him.

"My body...is shutting...down. Take me back...to my mansion, Fortis....he...knows the way back...quickly!" he mumbled before passing out on the ground.

"Master!" Ensis kneeled beside him swiftly and checked his pulse. It was erratic but still strong.

He picked him and Fortis up before quickly disappearing into the darkness like a shadow.

Emi's ears twitched as she looked out of the window, seeing a black silhouette vanish into the night.

"Big..brother....?"

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