I loaded the Mysticism panel.

In the afternoon, Catherine's topic of debate was: "Can a nation be collectively guilty?"

This question is even tougher than Richard's.

She drew the opposite side.

The contestant opposite her was Henry, a preparatory student at the school in Derbyshire.

Henry spent a year at Eton before moving to Derbyshire.

"His family owns large coal mines in Derbyshire." Montagu seemed to know the man.

"Although he doesn't come from a particularly prominent family, his aunt is the wife of the current Minister of Education of the Empire."

He transferred from Eton to Derbyshire because of something that happened to him... I didn't ask for details.

Montagu continued.

"He came here because he wanted the newspaper ad."

Henry walked up to the podium.

"Distinguished judges, I would like to talk about the city of Leuven."

On August 25, enemy troops burned down the university library in that city.

Inside were 900 years' worth of handwritten manuscripts dating back to the Carolingian era, which were burned to ashes overnight.

On the same night, nuns at St. Peter's Monastery in the north of the city were raped, and three hundred civilians in the east of the city were driven to the riverbank and lined up to be shot at by machine guns.

This was an order from an army, backed by a killing system cultivated by Prussia over forty years of "cultural superiority."

In Book VI of the Iliad, Hector bids farewell to his wife Andromache.

Paris robbed Helen, and the whole city must repay him. One man's crime, the whole city's punishment.

A very soft, yet exceptionally enthusiastic round of applause filled the lecture hall.

The story of Leuven was on the front page of every newspaper.

Those sketches and photographs of the tragic scene brought tears to the eyes of many ladies.

Richard saw a monastery erected on the other side of the curtain.

The Gothic spires were charred black, half of the tower had collapsed, and a flag blackened by smoke still hung on the ruins.

In the square in front of the monastery, several hanged men lay sprawled out of nowhere.

The nun's white headscarf lay scattered on the stone pavement, fluttering in the wind.

The audience's grief and indignation poured into it.

Richard's brow twitched slightly.

Public outrage adds flesh and blood to the image behind the scenes.

But why cite Troy as an example? Has this person suddenly gone mad?

Richard's gaze swept toward the opposing side's podium.

Catherine walked to the podium.

The atmosphere in the lecture hall changed abruptly the moment she opened her mouth.

Mr. Henry spoke very movingly about Leuven.

But Mr. Henri just forgot to mention Father Pierre Dubois.

He was a local priest at St. Peter's Monastery in Leuven, and had ancestry from an enemy country.

On the night of August 25, he hid eleven nuns in his cellar.

Mr. Henry just mentioned "the hanged man," and he was one of those men.

"Mr. Henry borrowed the sixth volume of the Iliad."

But after bidding farewell to his wife, Hector went out of the city to fight Achilles, and he died.

Homer wrote twenty-four books for him to tell the audience that the "Paris" and "Hector" in the city were not the same kind of people.

If Homer had championed "collective responsibility," he wouldn't have written about the old king kneeling before Achilles' tent to redeem his son's body.

In this book, Homer tells posterity that even enemies can distinguish who should bear the burden and who should not.

"Our argument today is that the collective cannot bear the blame; only specific individuals can."

Are the priest and the enemy officer who ordered the massacre the same kind of person?

complete."

The lecture hall was deathly silent.

Beside the burning monastery behind the curtain, an entrance to a cellar appeared out of nowhere.

The wooden planks were turned over, and an old priest was squatting in the cellar.

The priest already had marks on his neck from the rope, but he held the cellar entrance firmly, preventing the people above from dragging the nun out.

The grief and indignation on the faces of the audience were complicated by Catherine's words.

"Cross-examination," the moderator began. "The opposing side will ask questions."

"Mr. Henry, can this be verified that your family owns coal mines in Derbyshire?"

Henry frowned. "...Okay, what does this have to do with today's debate topic?"

"Your family's net profit for the past two months, according to the Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce's September briefing, is 3.4 times that before the war."

Can this be verified?

Henry's expression changed slightly: "...This has nothing to do with today's debate topic."

"It's related." Catherine's voice was quiet: "You just mentioned #039 taking responsibility #039..."

"The opposing side!" the host's voice suddenly rang out.

"Your question has strayed from today's debate topic. Please return to the topic."

Catherine glanced briefly at the host.

She held back and bowed slightly to the host: "Yes, I'll return to the topic of debate."

"On August 25, the Leuven coal mine was bombed by enemy troops, killing more than 300 miners.

That mine produces hundreds of thousands of tons of coal a year; someone has to make up for the missing portion.

"I've done the calculations for you. Your family's increased production in September amounted to approximately 9,000 pounds, which is the Leuven bonus."

Nine thousand pounds is equivalent to about thirty pounds for each life lost in the mine.

"You were just talking about monasteries, nuns, and hanged men on stage."

You didn't mention that coal mine, or the income your family earned after it was bombed.

With a loud crash, the burning monastery that Henry had pressed down on collapsed.

Richard frowned.

That's Nemesis's skill.

Several people in the audience quietly stood up and left through the side door.

"The opposing side, please make a brief statement and return to the topic of debate as soon as possible."

The host spoke, his voice even more serious than before.

"Yes." Catherine looked away.

She wanted to stop, but she couldn't.

Henry is already down, but Catherine must trample him into the ground.

"Mr. Henry is defending the collective crime of #039 today, but what he really wants to erect is a fig leaf covered with #039 crimes against enemy nations #039."

#039TheOneToTakeResponsibility#039 refers to the enemies and priests who died thousands of kilometers away; #039TheOneToCountTheMoney#039 refers to the local coal mines that raised prices due to the burning of Leuven.

"The victors tell the losers #039 the losers deserve it #039; but they should also say #039 the perpetrators deserve it #039."

If we don't distinguish the order of these two sentences today, tomorrow the Empire will recognize all #039 losers #039 as #039 perpetrators #039.

Our opposition is unwavering and will continue to be so. That's all.

Richard could clearly see that the shape Catherine had pressed behind the curtain was growing at an alarming rate.

Henry was pale, his lips were moving, but he couldn't utter a single word.

In the closing statement, Henry said only one sentence: "...I stand by my position."

He didn't say anything more.

The judges' discussion lasted longer than in previous rounds, a full twelve minutes.

The host announced on stage:

"Preparatory group, third session."

Henry Chesterton, representing the affirmative side, scored 7.2 points in verbal arguments and 6.8 points in declarative statements.

The opposing side, represented by Catherine Blackwood, scored 8.9 points for her verbal statement and 7.6 points for her declaration.

The opposing team leads by 2.5 points and wins.

Catherine's score was 8.9, almost the highest score in the preparatory group that day.

However, her score was reduced to 7.6.

Applause broke out, tinged with an indescribable hesitation.

Richard sat in the audience and slowly closed his eyes.

Catherine won this match, but she won by a large margin.

The judges' panel does not award points for offensiveness; it awards points only for the accuracy of the wording and the stability of the declaration.

Catherine's announcement goes beyond the scope of today's debate.

Montagu walked over from the other side of the audience.

"...I give up."

"Um."

"But what about her later..." Montagu's brows furrowed slightly.

Richard knew what Montague wanted to say.

Nemesis's mask truly gave her an extremely sharp blade.

But Catherine has offended more than just Henry today.

Henry's aunt was the wife of the Secretary of State for Education, and Henry's family was a coal mining family in Derbyshire.

Catherine stripped him naked in public, laying bare all these vested interests in the Iliad building.

She will be ostracized and guarded against in academic circles in the future.

Catherine stepped down from the platform.

The red-haired girl walked slowly and calmly, her face expressionless.

She walked down the steps, passing Richard's side.

She didn't look at Richard, nor at Montagu.

The burning monastery on the other side of the curtain still stands alongside Catherine's cellar, account books, and the corpses of coal miners.

When the next debate is about to begin, the organizers will clear all the forms from this curtain.

Before it is cleared, it can be seen by everyone with clairvoyance.

mundus vult decipi (People are happy to be deceived)

But the curtain is never deceived.

He watched Catherine walk out of the lecture hall's archway.

The red-haired girl did not turn around.

………………

During the preparation for debate week, Richard also never forgot to refine his Breathable Moisture technology.

At first, I felt really awkward, wearing someone else's shoes.

Inhaling is difficult and slow, exhaling is uncontrollable, holding one's breath is stuck between the waves, like stepping on loose stone slabs.

I experience night sweats and feel hot after eating during the day.

However, the four aspects of the body's constitution largely alleviated those discomforts.

The rest depends on practice.

Practice day by day, hone your skills one breath at a time.

Having practiced until now, he no longer needs to use his mind to push that breath.

The breath knows where to go, at what depth to inhale and then turn, at what point to exhale and then hold, and at what position to release the pressure.

Early that morning, Richard sat cross-legged on the bed, doing his daily breathing exercises.

In the past, every time he reached the third beat, there was always a spot in his chest that felt like there was a small pebble in his shoe.

That pebble is gone today.

Richard closed his eyes and went through several more complete cycles.

Each cycle is so smooth...the body actively cooperates.

The moment it fit perfectly, that column on the panel moved.

[Breathing Lv.3, progress 100%.]

[Breathing level lv.3 → lv.4.]

[I have fully mastered the advanced breathing technique—tidal breathing.]

Upgrading to level 4 does not consume points.

The changes spread from the inside out.

The level 3 [Healing] skill provides real-time repair to the body with each breath, which is already quite powerful.

lv.4 further improves the repair precision; previously, it was just a matter of "brushing" over to smooth out minor damage.

Now it's "seeping" in, even the tiny stagnations deep within old wounds are beginning to dissolve little by little.

Richard felt a sense of clarity fill his chest cavity.

The ether brought in with each breath is lost less when it flows through the Sun Constellation.

Moreover, the combination of Tide Breathing and the level 4 [Breathing] produced a bonus that he hadn't anticipated.

The characteristic of humidified breathing is "adaptive," automatically adjusting according to the body's condition.

The level 4 breathing skill provides a patch for this adaptive set.

When there is more activity and energy expenditure during the day, it automatically intercepts more ether from the air to replenish it;

When it rests and consumes less energy at night, it automatically stores excess ether in its spirit form.

After level 4, the recharge speed of the spirit's appearance also increases.

Richard then looked at the next gear.

[Preview of Effect - Breathing - Yongquan Point]

Healing and strengthening effects allow the storage of vital energy with each breath;

It greatly accelerates self-healing when injured; or it can guide energy to heal others.

That was something he had been longing for for a long time.

Once he obtains the [Spring of Life], he will be able to give his mother a real etheric massage.