Stelle looked at Nero, her eyes avoiding his a little. "Uh... they... they're here to help. If we want to catch someone, we need clues first. It'll be much easier to catch Blade with the clues they find.
"I just... just told them you needed their help."
"Oh, I see." Nero turned to the huge crowd. They had rushed over like a tide, but now they stood in neat, orderly lines as if they had formed up. He asked, "So, how did it go? Did you find any clues?"
"We did!"
"They're a bit unusual, but they're definitely connected."
"We don't think any detail should be ignored."
Everyone answered at once, yet it wasn't chaotic. Anyone listening could easily understand what they meant.
Standing nearby, Professor Ratio opened his eyes a little wider, surprised by what he was seeing.
He had never expected such a fanatical group to maintain such discipline.
It made him think more highly of them, and even improved his impression of the space station.
"These victims all have different backgrounds, and they don't have any social connections with each other," said someone named Pamela, who was both a Himeko fan and a Fish fan.
Then everyone else eagerly continued, "However... they all seem to have posted extreme comments against the management on the dark web, and many people supported them."
Hearing this, Stelle frowned.
This was clearly meant to drag uninformed people into the situation, deepen the trust crisis between the management and the researchers, split them apart, and stir up internal conflict within the space station.
The method reminded Stelle of Phantylia. Back on the Xianzhou, that Lord Ravager had seemed to want to do something similar.
Unfortunately, she had no idea how much Nero would affect her plan. In the end, the child caught her and threw her into the factory to be burned as fuel.
Although Stelle didn't understand why that monster Professor Ratio described as naturally violent would use such an indirect method, they had already been labeled by Nero as future employees...
Without anyone noticing, their fate seemed to be heading down the same path as Phantylia's.
Could they actually be Phantylia's fans?
If that was the case, then if we send them to meet Phantylia, shouldn't they be thanking us?
"But that doesn't matter. Whatever problems other people have with the management has nothing to do with us."
"Exactly. We work hard to run the space station, not to watch them fight."
"Don't worry, Nero. If both sides start fighting, our Nero Knights will hold everyone down!"
"That's right! Our captain learned a lot of body training methods from Mr. Argenti. We've been practicing every day so that one day we can fight for Nero."
"Being Nero's fans isn't just about using our brains. If they won't listen to reason, we know some martial arts too!"
The fans kept chatting excitedly. Some of them even showed off their muscles. As the mentally healthiest group on Herta Space Station, they never felt numb from their daily work and were still full of hope, so they didn't really care about either the management or the opposition.
That Duke Inferno had clearly made the same mistake as Phantylia. He had underestimated Nero's influence and how much that influence would disrupt his plan.
These "Fish fans" were far from a small group on the space station. On top of that, they had learned some fighting skills from Argenti. It was hard to imagine how his plan to deepen the division within the station could possibly succeed.
If he had understood the station's current situation beforehand, it might have been easier if he had first created a group that opposed Nero. But that would have been extremely difficult. Perhaps he would have needed to work with the Mirror Holder.
And what happened to the last person who worked with the Mirror Holder?
Listening to the fans' information, Ratio fell into thought. He also greatly approved of some of the things they had said.
For example, the line, "If they won't listen to reason, we know some martial arts too." Ratio especially agreed with that.
Of course, he didn't need to say anything. One look at the clearly defined muscles on his strong arms said enough.
Sometimes, during debates, when facing complete fools, Ratio also believed that muscles solved problems better than words.
Different people required different methods. When dealing with "primitive people" who simply refused to listen, fists were the simplest, most direct, oldest, and most honest language.
To put it simply, if the other side refused to accept your opinion, then you could beat them until they did.
Of course, although the professor was proud, he wasn't that extremely self-centered.
Nero, however, really was capable of doing exactly that. Of all the people he had caught and sent to work in the factory, how many had truly been willing and happy about it?
"It's time to go back and talk with Miss Asta and Screwllum," Ratio said to Stelle. "I looked through that booklet earlier. It records the lives of many geniuses, including quite a few interesting stories."
The professor seemed to have figured out an important piece of the puzzle.
Meanwhile, Nero's "Knights" continued providing information. Their efficiency and ability were astonishing. Even a strict teacher like Professor Ratio couldn't help but think highly of them.
Besides the connections between the missing people that Stelle had asked them to investigate, they also said that after discovering those people had recently disappeared, they had investigated the incident themselves.
They uncovered the spontaneous human combustion cases that Stelle's group had already discovered. They also investigated the properties of the flames and found quite a lot of new information.
By now, they had even narrowed it down to two main suspects.
The first was the Curio, Phase Spirit Flame. It had the ability to phase through space. However, since it was part of Madam Herta's collection, it shouldn't be doing something like this. Not knowing that Herta had lost the Curio, they ruled it out.
Then they told the three of them about their second suspect, Duke Inferno, Ifrit.
No one knew where they had found the information. Based on descriptions of Duke Inferno's appearances, they concluded that his flames might also possess the special ability to phase through space.
After hearing the fans' investigation results, Stelle was completely shocked.
'We spent so much time and effort finding all this out. How did you manage to discover everything in such a short time when you started with no leads at all?'
'And the negative effects we were worried about don't seem to have happened either... Oh, right. They're Nero's fans. Never mind, then.'
This was an "army" with such incredible unity that it would practically absorb anyone who opposed it, carrying a corrupting influence like that of an ancient god.
Any trace of disagreement was disrespect toward Nero.
Any trace of hesitation was distrust toward Idrila.
'Beauty is everywhere. Praise Beauty!'
After getting all the information he wanted, Ratio prepared to leave. And after fully understanding just how far these fanatics had gone, the usually stern professor actually showed a faint smile of satisfaction.
If the students he had scolded to tears or hit with pieces of chalk saw that smile, they would probably rush over to check whether someone was wearing a skin mask that looked exactly like their respected teacher.