With Asagi Aiba gone, Cid had no choice but to look up the news himself. It didn't take long before he found quite a few interesting bits of information.
Thanks to this terrorist attack, most people's attention had shifted away from the gossip about Rias and Riser's engagement.
The few who were still following that topic were less interested in the gossip itself and more likely just fans of Rias or Riser to begin with, so the remaining discussion was focused almost entirely on the two of them.
It wasn't that no one was talking about him. But since he had beaten Riser up, Riser's fans spoke about him with pure hatred.
As for Rias's fans, because he had been removed from Rias's group, they ignored all kinds of obvious context out of that typical fan mentality of protecting their favorite. They insisted that he had dragged Rias down, and that if she had had a stronger servant, Riser would already have lost.
And among the things they ignored was the fact that the official announcement clearly stated that he had left Rias's group because his body constitution made him unable to fuse with an Evil Piece.
The conspiracy theorists went even further. They treated that straightforward official statement as empty PR talk and invented a "truth" where he had been kicked out for being dead weight. Somehow, that conspiracy theory even got the approval of Rias's more extreme fans, who decided that this was the real truth.
Worried that this "truth" might damage Rias's image, those extreme fans even formed some bizarre little group. Their goal was to prove that, according to the conspiracy theory's "truth," Rias kicking him out was only natural.
Although, to be fair, Cid could understand why some people found that conspiracy theory believable. After all, people with a constitution that rejects Devil reincarnation were already rare, and for that constitution to further mutate for the worse after a severe injury was basically unheard of.
Even so, he could only sigh.
Fandom really is a magical thing...
Right now, most of the internet was discussing the terrorist organization Khaos Brigade, which had launched simultaneous attacks across the territories of every faction and was suspected of being led by Ophis, the Infinity Dragon God, one of the strongest beings in the world.
At the same time, people were also discussing what it meant that the various factions had withdrawn Shadow's wanted notice, supposedly because he had joined forces with them and helped defeat Great Red, another being on the level of the world's strongest.
Did they even do anything while I was fighting?
That thought popped into Cid's mind as he read.
He carefully thought back over everything and came to a conclusion.
Other than being dragged into the attack range by the aura of Samael when the three giant dragons were fighting, and that tiny bit where he threw a nuclear bomb toward the venue floating in the Dimensional Gap to avoid an awkward situation, saying they were just standing around the whole time would hardly be unfair.
Curious, Cid followed the trail and checked the official announcements released by the various factions.
Then he realized that the whole idea of him fighting alongside the factions was nothing more than something the internet had made up.
The announcements only contained two actual pieces of information. One, that he had appeared and participated in the battle between Dragon Gods. Two, that his wanted notice had been revoked.
From there, people online jumped to their own conclusion. Since the strong figures present at the venue obviously wouldn't just sit there and let the Dragon Gods attack them, they reasoned:
"If Shadow had attacked the powerful people of the various factions, then why would those factions revoke his wanted notice?"
On top of that, Great Red was now gradually shedding the "one of" in "one of the strongest" in the eyes of the internet and starting to look like the single strongest being in the world.
Meanwhile, Cid was practically getting kicked out of that same tier by public opinion.
And the logic went like this.
Great Red chased down two Evil Dragons from another world all by himself. That proves his strength is greater than the combined power of those two Evil Dragons. Otherwise, how could he have hunted them down?
Back at the first World Alliance Conference, Shadow barged in and was beaten into a "seriously injured" state by the top fighters of every faction. That proves that, when combined, those fighters are stronger than a single being at the world's strongest level. The number of experts present at this venue wasn't quite as high as back then, but it was close.
So even if the combined strength of everyone at the venue doesn't quite equal one world-level powerhouse, the gap isn't that big. You could basically count them as one.
In this battle involving a full five (?) beings at the world's strongest level, after Great Red fought two otherworldly Evil Dragons, he still had enough strength left to take on Shadow and all the other experts working together.
Great Red is insane!!!
…The internet really is something.
This perfectly "logical" reasoning was so convincing that Cid almost believed it himself.
If he hadn't been there.
In reality, Great Red's strength is at best on par with a single otherworldly Evil Dragon. If you stretch it, you could say he has the advantage because those Evil Dragons are even dumber than Delta and fight purely on instinct.
The fact that he managed to chase one for a whole year only proves how brainless those Evil Dragons are. They attack everything indiscriminately and don't even know how to cooperate.
If two of them actually worked together, even without intelligence, just relying on brute force alone would be enough to leave Great Red with no way to deal with them.
After reflecting on how wildly creative people on the internet could be, Cid continued searching for major events that had happened around the world while he was unconscious.
"Hm? The great hero who repelled the Evil Dragon invasion, the Underworld welcomes its third Transcendent, the bloodline of Lucifer continues to protect the Underworld!!! …That title is way too exaggerated."
Seeing the dramatic headline on an Underworld news site, Cid tapped on it.
"Ding ding ding—"
The class bell rang.
Hearing footsteps approaching from the doorway, Cid reluctantly turned off his phone while the page was still loading.
This was Natsuki-chan's class. She hated it when people ignored her authority as a teacher and used their phones during class.