Chapter 133: Distrust is spreading

"Brother Nozomi...hug..."

"Okay, hug~"

In response to Griseo's request, Nozomi did not refuse. He just smiled, stretched out his hand, held her in his arms, and let her rub his cheek affectionately.

"Ah... Griseo really likes you. If Hen were here, he would definitely complain again, saying that you stole Griseo or something."

Blanca looked at the intimacy between the two and sighed helplessly.

"Yeah, they really look like siblings..."

Mobius' voice came faintly. Although her words were meant to express the close relationship between Nozomi and Griseo, anyone could feel the sourness in her words.

"Dr. Mobius, are you jealous?"

"Aunt Mobius, are you unhappy?"

Nozomi and Griseo looked over at the same time, using different names and words to express similar meanings... Their simultaneous actions and similar expressions made people think for a moment, "Maybe they are really a brother and sister."

"No, how could that be... and please don't say weird things. Why would I get jealous over such a small thing... No, I don't have such low-level emotions."

The corners of Mobius' mouth twitched. She first denied Griseo's statement, and then glared at Nozomi, warning him not to say strange things in front of Griseo. However, the words expressing this meaning... were somewhat strange.

"And don't look at me with that tone or that look. It only reminds me of that Elysia girl."

"I see... So you don't like Elysia?"

"Who would like her? She only comes to me for trivial matters all day long, whispering some weird ideas in my ear... She only causes trouble for me."

"Then I'll tell Elysia later, okay?"

"You dare?!"

Mobius raised her eyebrows and shouted harshly.

"You see... you still care about Elysia, don't you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about... If you tell her about this, she will definitely find another opportunity to come to my place. Then she will hang out in my lab all day and interfere with my experiments... Will you compensate me for these losses?"

"Well, okay, okay, I won't tell Elysia."

Nozomi and Blanca looked at each other and saw the helplessness and smile in each other's eyes. Then Nozomi nodded and said so.

"Well, I won't tell Sister Elysia."

Griseo also nodded and repeated.

"Elysia...sister?"

Hearing this name, Mobius's brows jumped again.

"Yes, sister Elysia said she would be very happy if you called her that."

"Oh... She will be very happy indeed..."

"Then, sister Elysia also said that I could call Aunt Mobius [Oba-san]."

"...Why?"

Mobius tried her best to be patient and asked Griseo in a gentle tone.

"Because sister Elysia said that if others hear this, they will definitely show a very surprised expression, which will definitely be very interesting."

Griseo blinked and answered Mobius' question innocently. Then she rubbed Nozomi's cheek with her head. Her sky-blue hair stayed on the corner of Nozomi's slightly raised mouth, and then quietly moved away with her movement, giving people an itchy feeling.

"...But Brother Nozomi told me that it wouldn't be nice to call you 'Oba-san'... Does Aunt Mobius dislike this title? Or does she... hate it?"

Griseo tilted her head and asked with some confusion.

"No, it's not that I hate it... Never mind, just listen to your brother Nozomi on this matter."

Mobius touched Griseo's head, comforting her slightly depressed mood. At the same time, she glanced at Nozomi. The sourness in her eyes was reduced, and there was a hint of gratitude.

Then, Mobius narrowed her eyes, and her already strange snake pupils became even more dangerous at this moment.

"As for Elysia...I'll go talk to her myself."

"Okay."

Griseo nodded as if she understood and stopped talking... She was a good and well-behaved child. Since Brother Nozomi and Aunt Mobius said so, and Mom and Dad agreed, then let's do it.

(Elysia, who is currently on a battle trip: A-choo... This is so strange, why do I suddenly feel like someone is talking about me... Could it be that... someone is missing me again? Ah~ It turns out that cute girls are always missed by others~?)

"Brother Nozomi...can we draw together?"

Griseo gently pulled Nozomi's drooping hair, and the white hair ends at the ends flowed in her small palm like waves. This wonderful water-like touch seemed to give her some unique inspiration, and she spoke like this.

"Okay~ Then... Sorry, Miss Blanca, I'll borrow little Griseo for a while, okay?"

"It's okay. I just happened to have something else and needed to leave for a while... I believe that you and Dr. Mobius can take good care of Griseo. I should be the one thanking you for taking such good care of my child."

Blanca looked at the time and said with a smile.

"If other people knew that you, Nozomi, took such good care of my child... they would probably be envious to death, right?"

"Haha... But don't worry, nothing like that will happen."

"That's great... Well, I'll be leaving for a while. Griseo, please listen carefully to what Dr. Mobius and Nozomi say, okay?"

"Okay~ Goodbye, Mom~"

"Goodbye~"

......

"...You can go there and paint with Griseo. There's a spot reserved for you two... And don't let Griseo get too much paint on her body. It's hard to wash off."

After Blanca left, the few people who stayed behind fell into silence again. Finally, it was Mobius who spoke first, pointing to a place in the corner with a simple baffle, indicating that Nozomi could take Griseo to play there.

"And lastly, if it's not necessary, don't bother me. Otherwise, even if you're just a guinea pig, I'll make sure you have some deep memories..."

"Okay, okay, I know~"

Nozomi ignored Mobius's narrowed, pretentiously dangerous snake eyes and just kept nodding in response... As he spent more time with Mobius, Nozomi already knew what kind of person she was, so he didn't take her "threat" seriously.

"...snort."

Looking at Nozomi, who sat down with Griseo and skillfully set up the drawing board and pasted the drawing paper together, Mobius snorted lightly. Especially when she saw Griseo sitting in Nozomi's arms very naturally, and even shrank into his arms like a baby swallow longing for warmth, Mobius's brows jumped again... But in the end, she didn't say anything and just continued with her own thing.

......

.........

"Dr. Mobius."

As the laboratory door opened with a slight sound, Mei's voice rang out. She first nodded to Nozomi and Griseo who were hiding in the corner as a greeting... Her gaze lingered on Nozomi for a while, then she retracted her gaze and turned her attention to Mobius.

"Hey, Mei, how's it going? Any interesting news?"

"How is Nozomi doing?"

Mei asked simply.

"Oh my... So you're here on their behalf? How boring..."

"It's important to know how he is doing, Dr. Mobius."

Mei asked again, slightly emphasizing her tone.

"Yes, I know, but... as you can see now, he is normal and there is nothing wrong with him."

Mobius narrowed her eyes and spoke in a calm and steady tone.

"He is also safe here. Even if those guys want to do something to him, they can't get around me... Humph, it's really funny. Those guys actually doubted him at this time. They really have no shame at all."

"Dr. Mobius, in the face of Honkai, everyone is worthy of suspicion... If we allow the Herrscher to lurk around us and cause even greater damage... that is definitely not the scene we want to see."

"Humph, funny. If that guy was really the Herrscher, we would have died long ago. How could we be here to discuss things leisurely? Those guys only know how to pick on the weak and bully those who won't bother with them. Hehe, sooner or later, they will kill themselves."

"Dr. Mobius, please be careful with your words..."

Mei pinched her brows with a headache... Although she also didn't like the behavior of "Fire Moth," she was talking to her with an attitude of handling official business at the moment. Mobius's overly bold remarks were really not good, and it was easy for others to make trouble for her... Oh, no, Mobius was originally a member of the core power layer, so it was okay.

"But how are his [songs] these days? Is there any problem with the data collection?"

"Of course. This is just a small matter that won't take up much of my time... The result is just as we expected. There is nothing wrong with the mouse itself, but there is something else mixed in his [Song]."

"Eden also told me that there seems to be a hint of noise in Little White Mouse's melody... It's not a problem with the melody or tune, but there's something strange mixed into his song in the middle, just like a particularly noisy audience member coming to a quiet theater. Although it doesn't affect the performance too much, the sound that comes in is still annoying."

Mobius touched her lips lightly, brushed the corners of her mouth with her fingertips, and gently rubbed her chin with her fingertips, falling into thought.

"Interesting... It seems that this Herrscher is using the mouse's song to exert her power so that we can stop using the song and make us suspicious of the mouse. Haha, she a made progress. She has quickly transformed from a killing machine into a thinking and calculating being..."

"Dr. Mobius, whatever you have in mind now, please wait until the incident is resolved."

"You don't need to remind me, Mei... You are becoming less and less lovable."

Mobius smiled casually, then put on a serious expression.

"Since I can guess this, then I'm sure you can also think of it... In this case, you shouldn't let those guys continue to harass Little White Mouse, and you shouldn't stand on the same front with them."

"You should know that we cannot and should not doubt the white mouse now. Once something like this exists, it can never be erased. By then... we may do something not so good and push the white mouse into a position that none of us want to see."

Mobius narrowed her eyes and gave Mei a slight warning.

"They have forgotten what happened to the White Mouse during the Seventh Herrscher period, but I don't want you to forget it either, Mei."

"You are too partial to him, Dr. Mobius."

Mei pushed her glasses up slightly and spoke calmly.

"Although I know that he has a good relationship with the few friends you have... Griseo, whom you like, likes him very much, and you have a certain liking for him because of this, but I have to remind you that being too obviously partial will only attract unnecessary suspicion."

"…Are you trying to say that I was influenced by him?"

"Your behavior will only keep them guessing."

Mei looked at Mobius, ignoring her increasingly dangerous snake eyes, and spoke slowly.

"Besides, we really shouldn't and can't doubt him at this time... His unique [characteristics] and [power] are extremely beneficial to us because it is definitely not advisable to completely cut off our relationship with a little suspicion and unfounded speculation... That's why we must clear the doubts about him."

"…Mei, when did you become so naive?"

Mobius lowered her eyes slightly, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

"To doubt others without authorization... When encountering such a thing, instead of solving the doubter's inexplicable thinking, you ask the person being doubted to prove something he has not done... Mei, do you know what you are talking about?"

"Dr. Mobius, this is what has to be done, isn't it?"

Mei took out the terminal, retrieved a piece of data, and projected it for Mobius to see—it recorded the data of people who had been affected by the "Song" and fell into a coma, as well as part of the investigation of those who were still awake.

Now, many people have resisted listening to Nozomi's songs, and there have even been comments such as "These songs were deliberately released by the Fire Moth. They are a special weapon! They want to make us all fall into a coma and then drag us for human experiments. These are just despicable means! And Nozomi is their accomplice! Who are they kidding? They say that listening to songs can cure diseases! It's all just a trick!"

Although this strange speculation will soon be refuted by others and "Fire Moth" will be banned immediately, this approach will make others believe in this strange statement more. After all... everything can be explained by the sentence "Fire Moth is forbidding us to tell the truth!"

Anyway, you only need to spread rumors with your mouth, so what if the "Fire Moth" comes to you? This speculation is reasonable and well-founded. Who told you to play the song that really made people fall into a coma?

Moreover, this strange phenomenon is spreading rapidly, and there is a tendency that it will cover the whole world. Under such circumstances, panic and suspicion have been accumulating in the hearts of the people, oppressing their already tense nerves.

The emotion called "suspicion" is spreading among the people, and "distrust" is spreading among the crowd, gradually engulfing the "fire moth."

In this situation, the "Fire Moth" can only direct its spearhead towards Nozomi, who currently has the biggest problem and is the most suspicious.

"Fire Moth" did not directly judge Nozomi as a "Herrscher." After all, many people have stood up for him, and the test data of Mobius and Vill-V can also explain some problems. But "Fire Moth" must now find a breakthrough, and Nozomi, who has the biggest problem now... isn't he a good breakthrough?

On the one hand, it can clear Nozomi of suspicion and let those who believed the rumors and unconsciously rejected and distrusted Nozomi in their hearts know how outrageous their inexplicable speculations are. On the other hand, it can also open up the situation and find the real culprit of this is "Honkai."

"...Okay, I understand what you want to do... Where's that weird woman Aponia? Has she returned from the "Deepest Place"?

"Of course, since we have already guessed the ability of the Herrscher, we must make corresponding preparations... Thanks to the warning we got from Nozomi before, the Fifth Science Department, with the assistance of Aponia, has developed a defensive drug in time and has distributed it to everyone. You should have received it as well, Dr. Mobius."

"I received it, but I didn't use it... Hehe... I really want to experience the power of this [Herrscher] so that I can explore what the spiritual world is like."

"Please take back this idea for now... After this [Great Honkai Eruption] is resolved, there will always be a chance for you to study it."

"I know, so I'm not planning on doing anything... hehe..."

Mobius looked at Nozomi, who was still playing with Griseo, as if she hadn't heard anything they said, and smacked her lips in dissatisfaction.

"... You can talk to Little White Mouse about what happens next. You know his character. He won't refuse... Tsk."

Mobius pinched her brows with a headache. Although she understood that this approach was normal and correct, the feeling of being forced to do something still made her uncomfortable.

But there is no way, everything must give way to "eliminating the Honkai." "Solving the Great Honkai ruption" is the most important thing at the moment, and everything else must be put aside, including the so-called emotions and "partiality"... naturally.

Besides, the method proposed by "Fire Moth" is not too excessive, right?

"I understand."

Mei also looked at Nozomi, looking at the corners of his mouth that almost never dropped, and looking at Griseo sitting in his arms with the innocent smile that only belonged to a child, Mei's mouth corners couldn't help but rise slightly.

It's so strange... Even if I just look at him, even if I just stay around him, I can vaguely feel the rising emotions, the feeling as if I have touched a glimmer of light... It's really wonderful.

"He is now... in a sense, indeed our [hope]."