Dehya didn't just deduce that the rumor was spread by the Akademiya; she even expanded on their purpose for doing so—'tricking the radicals into actively delivering the 'village guardians' into their hands.'
Too smart—this is the nation of wisdom? Even Dehya, who looks the most like a musclehead, has such a sharp mind.
Completely the opposite of Ei—upon first seeing Ei, everyone thought she was some aloof goddess with her own ideas; only after getting to know her did they realize she's just a ditzy beast.
Dehya is different—at first glance, seeing her outfit and figure, everyone thought she was a brute-force type; who knew she was someone with a sharp mind and strong personal ideas.
It could only be said—worthy of the nation of wisdom. Even the Traveler had to say: Farewell, this nation that can't accommodate me.
[Dehya, dissatisfied: "Hmph, back then they arbitrarily sent the people here, and now they're scheming in every way to get them back… how could we let them do whatever they want."]
What Dehya meant was: Back then you wanted to send them here—you sent them, fine—and now you're using tricks to swindle them back.
Isn't this just farting with your pants down—completely unnecessary?
If you needed these people, why send them here in the first place?
But in fact, the Akademiya doing this wasn't because they were truly idle and just messing around; their real purpose was entirely for their own interests.
This was just like money laundering—the difference being the Akademiya was 'laundering people.'
Mad scholars had existed before; it was only now that they became useful.
But directly making these scholars disappear was definitely not okay—there would be huge public pressure.
After all, these people were scholars, not orphans; sudden disappearance couldn't be explained away.
But what if these people were exiled?
They didn't 'disappear'—they were merely exiled to the desert. At least on the surface, everyone thought these 'mad scholars' had been exiled to the desert.
But how many people would truly care about a mad scholar in the desert? Care whether he was still alive?
No one cared.
No one caring was exactly right—bringing these mad scholars back to the Akademiya, wouldn't they become identity-less 'people'? The 'person laundering' succeeded just like that.
This was the little trick the Grand Sage of the Akademiya had been pulling all along.
The reason it had to be so complicated was because there were still opposing voices within the Akademiya.
Alhaitham, Tighnari, Cyno, and their master—these were the opposing voices.
Openly using these people for experiments would eventually be discovered by them, so they were secretly 'laundering people' behind the Corps of Thirty's back.
But from this, a hidden piece of information could also be seen—the timing.
'Person laundering' had only happened recently; in the past, the Akademiya completely ignored these mad scholars.
Why? Because previously, the mad scholars were useless—so why were they useful now?
That depended on what changes had recently occurred in Sumeru—yes, the Doctor arrived.
If not for the 'new demand' brought by the Doctor, how could the Akademiya suddenly become interested in this group of discarded pieces?
This reasoning was quite concealed; not everyone could analyze it, but there were still quite a few who read this meaning.
For example, people like Kokomi who were quite good at reasoning, or Ayato who excelled at analysis.
Besides them, Diluc also figured it out—he didn't understand all that much, but he understood the Fatui.
Did it even need analysis and reasoning? The moment he saw the Doctor, Diluc understood.
[Cyno: "…The Akademiya again."]
This kind of illegal 'person laundering' naturally had to avoid him, the General Mahamatra, so Cyno was completely unaware.
[Traveler said: "In Sumeru City, Setaria also mentioned… 'The news of the Scarlet King's revival was spread by the Akademiya.'"]
Readers were stunned—what? Traveler, you're only saying this now?
Isn't that a bit too slow? Even if you didn't say it, everyone had already analyzed it.
[Dehya: "...As expected."]
See! As expected, right! She had already guessed it before you said it!
Readers felt that sometimes Lumine really should learn a thing or two from the Raiden family—occasionally being an information leaker wouldn't hurt. Why is the Traveler's mouth so tight!
It had to be said, sister Lumine's mouth was indeed extremely tight—if it was something agreed not to say, she truly wouldn't say it.
Paimon was different—her little mouth was loose; who knows when she might leak information without even realizing it herself.
For example, during that Sea Lantern Festival—everyone was acting so hard; if it were someone else, they'd long want to reveal everything and watch 'rivers of blood.'
Back then, Paimon unconsciously almost forgot to act and blurted it out—it was sister Lumine who reminded her.
As for the Traveler, she just wouldn't say it—her mouth was tighter than the entire Raiden family combined. After all, in the story timeline, the one with the tightest mouth in the Raiden family was already dead.
Sister Lumine was practically a pixiu—information goes in and never comes out. Fortunately, there was someone with a looser mouth beside her to compensate for that.
Your mouth is very tight, but the Paimon beside you just happens to make up for it.
But thinking this way—if the Traveler has a mouth that only takes in and never lets out, then wouldn't Paimon be the one responsible for… the outgoing part…
Ahem, this topic can't be delved into—back to the story.
In the story, everyone's discussion ended—although they didn't know where the 'village guardians' had been taken or what the Akademiya's purpose was, at least they had some gains and a direction.
After the discussion, Dehya and Candace had another segment of dialogue; in this dialogue, it revealed some more of Dehya's tendency to self-deprecate.
What they discussed was about the village guardians; Dehya saw Candace's worry and cared for her.
[Candace responded: "To me, these people are all important companions—they are members of our village."]
[Dehya smiled and sighed: "Your sense of belonging here is really strong. I can't do that—as a mercenary, no matter where I go, I'm like a stray dog."]
She was self-deprecating again, but in reality, Dehya also wanted a place to belong.
She had one before, but for some reasons, she resolved never to go back.
Candace had high emotional intelligence—she saw this and comforted her:
["Dehya, don't say that—you can become one of us here too."]
This sentence to Dehya was like a lamp in a dark room, a Bole recognizing a thousand-li horse—one sentence hit right at Dehya's heart.
Dehya actually craved this kind of recognition—in a certain sense, she was somewhat similar to Eula.
Perhaps because of this similarity, whenever Eula saw Dehya self-deprecating, she could instantly understand exactly what Dehya wanted to hear.
The reason she understood so well was because Amber had said those words to her—that was the true little sun.
One could imagine that if the two met, Eula would have a lot to say to Dehya—they should become very good friends.
===
Character Voice Lines · Scaramouche: About Information Leakers
"Me? Hmph, I simply don't care about this kind of intelligence leaking. So what if they know."