ROBOT

From the very beginning, it never mattered whether they had actually cheated or not. Leonel truly had no proof, but that was never really the point.

Just like Minerva had said, at a certain realm, the objective truth wasn't all that mattered...

But Leonel did feel that she was wrong about something... even on the lowest levels, objective truth was hardly ever what was most important either.

The idea that truth alone should reign supreme were the ideals of an idealistic and naive individual. Truth was only as important as the way it was packaged, and the way it was packaged was dependent on era, on culture, on the immediate climate...

If one couldn't accept this, you only really needed to look at the historical trends.

By definition, every time the majority changed their minds and accepted another path as their reality, it required convincing.

But how many could truly understand the science that proved the Earth was round and not flat? How many understood the nuance of evolution? How many could read Einstein's paper on relativity and actually come to understand what he was talking about?

And yet most accepted this as the objective truth.

Why?

It was because they had been convinced of it. It was because at a certain point, enough people had been pushed off their current course that it became natural to accept it as the truth.

It wasn't the first time it happened, and it wouldn't be the last by any stretch.

Even further than that, how many times were discoveries ignored for years before they were accepted? How many different scientists had come to prove the same matter, only for just one of them to get the credit for presenting it the best way first?

No matter what realm of academia you were at, the objective truth never mattered as much as the timing and the packaging in which it was presented.

Everything else could be ignored.

And right now, Leonel could see some of those wheels turning. He hadn't made another breakthrough, but he had had a shift in mindset.

He was already doing a lot of this. What was he doing now if not trying to change the public's perception of himself and his Wise Star Order status?

The intelligent and the powerful could always make the truth what they wanted it to be. If a God descended now and told everyone that Leonel was a menace to be killed, would the objective truth even matter?

If these people wanted to play games, Leonel was more than prepared to play along with them. In fact, he would give them more than they could handle.

At that moment, Leonel's pillar began to slowly dim and his point total moved up from 1 point to 3. It seemed that the pillar had deemed his rebuttal worth more than just a single point.

Celestia's expression was flushed with hints of embarrassment and anger. It felt to her like Leonel had just treated her like a child who didn't understand anything. Then, her very own Race's treasures had agreed with him.

This was the most humiliating moment of her life.

Leonel turned toward Lumina as though Celestia didn't exist. By now, she must have realized that Leonel responded exactly the way he did to goad her into responding the way she had. If not for her targeting Leonel on his third place finish, would it even have been possible for things to end like this?

Orion, who stood beside Lumina, felt his heart constrict under Leonel's gaze. Lumina was far too foolish and far too enraged to see what was happening. He could already tell that Leonel had shifted his target to them, but she was too busy clenching her fists to realize that they should probably prepare.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

They were a seed beneath Leonel and had placed fifth. Just below them was Aerin and Lyra who seemed to be close, so they were already at a disadvantage against Leonel to begin with due to the silencing rules.

This wasn't a battle they should have picked, at least not yet.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. That saying about fearing bone-headed teammates was really ringing true right now.

Leonel smiled, but his gaze seemed to be particularly cold when it flashed over Orion. Mimicking him during a fight against his wife already signed this man's death warrant. The Cloud Race member was just very lucky that Leonel wasn't in a position to kill him outright right here and now.

But even so, he could do something else.

Beneath his smile, as expected, Lumina spoke first as Orion was too shaken to stop her.

"You've been doing a lot of questioning and accusing, but you've yet to contribute anything. Have you forgotten what this exchange is all about? This isn't a sparring match."

"Oh?" Leonel smiled. "I don't mind, but that's precisely what it is. Sparring of the minds. Do you disagree?"

"Semantics." Lumina spat. "I used the word sparring to point toward your needless aggression. What your statistics don't account for is the relative upbringing of those here. It is natural that they might have the same answers because they have systematic training that are of relative similarity. The fact that they might draw the same deductions is only natural."

"Ah, so you mean to say that they're robots incapable of self-thought. An interesting summary."

Lumina was flustered for only a moment before she recovered.

"There goes the aggression and ad hominem attacks again. You seem incapable of engaging with the topic and want to constantly obfuscate and hide the truth. We can all see through you.

"First you forced Celestia to answer a question for your own personal gain, and then you don't show any sincerity by providing your own perspective. Instead, you just launched another attack.

"How can such a petty, narrow minded person possibly achieve great things? You'll always be stuck in the same mindset, and ironically you'll form your own barriers and make yourself into your own robot."