Chapter 70: The Shattered Portrait

Robert slightly frowned, but after a moment, he got up himself and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr. Secretary-General," Avinash's familiar voice came from the other end of the line. "You're up very early."

"What is it?"

"Have you seen today's newspaper? The front-page headline of *The Defiant*."

Robert glanced sideways, gesturing to the butler to bring him the newspaper.

Avinash continued, "If you haven't seen it, I suggest you take a look. That's all I wanted to say. Goodbye."

A busy tone came from the other end; Avinash had already hung up.

The butler brought over the folded newspaper. The moment it was unfolded, Robert's blood pressure spiked.

The front page featured a portrait of Hesta—the girl was staring directly at the lens, her gaze piercing through the paper like a knife driven straight toward him.

The sudden impact left Robert momentarily unsteady on his feet, and the butler quickly rushed over to support his arm.

There were faint traces of dried blood on Hesta's cheeks. Her icy blue eyes carried a cold, sharp intensity, making her look like a ferocious and menacing beast. The most striking of all was her fiery red short hair, which looked like a demon's flames, burning fiercely.

Robert steadied himself against the nearby fireplace and muttered in a low voice, "Get... get my glasses."

The butler immediately complied.

Robert unfolded the newspaper once more, narrowing his eyes at the massive headline—

*MANIPULATION! FOOLERY! Stripping Away the Disguise: How a Born Demon Fooled Everyone's Eyes!*

"Get the car ready... get the car ready!" Robert was growing panicked, his voice rising. "I need to go to the office immediately!"

Outside the Tanyi Municipal Building, reporters had already gathered in twos and threes at the entrance. Robert spotted these troublemakers lugging cameras and boom microphones instantly. In his eyes, these reporters were like tiger sharks drawn to the smell of blood; the slightest misstep on his part would invite them to tear open an even wider wound.

He immediately instructed the driver to change routes and head straight for the underground parking garage of the municipal building. A reporter recognized Robert's car, but the vehicle had already turned around and sped away in a blur.

After some maneuvering, Robert finally slipped quietly into the building, where Alan had been waiting for a long time.

"Mr. Secretary-General!"

Robert walked at a brisk pace, and Alan immediately caught up with him.

In a low voice, Robert asked, "What is the meaning of today's report in *The Defiant*?"

"It was the work of one of their intern investigative reporters—a young person who just graduated from Lembong University last year, named Stella Viking."

As Alan spoke, he raised his hand, and a holographic bust of Stella Viking appeared before them both.

Robert frowned—she was a young woman with long, curly brownish-red hair, her smile carrying a distinct air of aggression.

Robert came to a halt, beginning to swipe across the air screen in the corridor to review the young woman's background.

Stella Viking, 21 years old. Adopted at age 5 by District 3 doctor John Viking, she went to Lembong University in the Core City for her primary education at age 16. She returned to Tanyi last year and joined *The Defiant* as an investigative journalism intern.

With a disgusted wave of his hand, Robert closed the floating window—the trait of "red-haired female" was already beginning to cause him a sense of unease.

"Ever since our last report on Hesta was published, Viking began her investigation. She assumed a false identity to work as a cleaner in the orphanage for half a month and re-interviewed the children at the monastery in secret. Hesta's time at the monastery was not nearly as idyllic as portrayed...

"She was reclusive and always seemed out of place among the other children in the monastery. Aside from Mother Alma and a little boy from District 14, almost no one spent time with her. Sister Golding was driven to absolute fury by her every few days and constantly locked her in solitary confinement to reflect.

"And regarding the squirrel we mentioned earlier—that squirrel was actually found by another girl named Fulasang. Not only did Hesta refuse to join in the prayer, she even suggested eating it—"

"I've read all of this! You don't need to repeat it!" Robert interrupted impatiently.

Robert had already read through the entire full-page text report in the car on his way here. In the article, Stella completely shattered the previous image of the "angelic Hesta," replacing her with a wasteland savage as cruel, cold, and devoid of basic moral concepts as the Hekla brothers.

Earlier, to prevent incidents like today's, the City Hall had specifically issued a directive forbidding all media from disturbing the lives of these surviving children under the guise of interviews—he had no idea what the people underneath him were doing, failing to conduct even a basic background check during recruitment and letting an investigative reporter slip right in.

"Recall the issue!" Robert was incandescent with rage. "Have them retract it immediately!"

"We've already sent people to collect and destroy today's newspapers, and the online version of this article has already been taken down from *The Defiant*'s website—but AHgAs republished the full text early this morning and featured it on their homepage. It has already been synchronously translated and retweeted to Districts 1, 4, 5, 11, and 14. The remaining major districts have also published the Common Language version first, and translating it into local dialects is only a matter of time..."

Robert refused to listen any further. "...Is there any other new information?"

"Stella Viking just published a new post ten minutes ago," Alan's expression turned extremely grim. "She... she also discovered that Hesta is not an abandoned infant or stray from the habitable zone at all. Two nuns deliberately concealed this fact in the archives out of kindness—before being taken in by the St. Anne Monastery, she lived in... Short-Chime Alley."

Short-Chime Alley.

The notorious Short-Chime Alley.

A rush of blood surged to Robert's head once again.

It was over... how could it be Short-Chime Alley?

In the habitable zone, Short-Chime Alley was a place even more infamous than Hekla. Everyone knew it was packed with robbers, prostitutes, and desperados... To employers, assassins from Short-Chime Alley were not only cheaper than those from Hekla, but their methods were also far more brutal and merciless. It was just that these people were hard to control, so unless necessary, most people still preferred the Hekla thugs who understood the underworld's rules.

"Where is this Stella Viking right now?!" Robert roared furiously. "What is her motive for writing these things, who ordered her to write them, who is behind her—investigate! Find out!"

"She is currently... probably at the Reserve Base," Alan said softly. "Because the location of her post ten minutes ago... was right there."

Robert slammed his palm against the nearby wall—he knew it.

It must be Chiba Masaki; it had to be her scheming!

"Furthermore," Alan's throat bobbed. "In the version of the report republished by AHgAs, there is some... newer content directed straight at us."

"What is it?"

"It's a bit long..." Alan silently reopened the floating window from before, pulling up Stella's updated article. "It's hard for me to recount it verbally; you should just read it yourself."