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((The Wednesday Triple: page 2 of 3))
‘I agree,’ said Orric. ‘Everyone wants to blame aberrations for everything, but I would say their presence has only caused the Vanguard to grow--and not necessarily anything beyond that. It’s the ease with which information is spread nowadays that lets everyone learn about all of the mistakes that the Vanguard is making.’

Garovel nodded. ‘You’re absolutely right. In the olden days, it was so much easier to cover things up. Frankly, I’m surprised the Vanguard is doing as well as it is on that front. Did you know that there are still entire countries that barely know about the existence of servants?’

‘Ah, yes. There are quite a lot of them in Qenghis and Luugh, aren’t there?’

‘Even here in Eloa, there are a few.’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘Oh, no, I’m not. Hector’s home country of Atreya is one of them.’

Orric’s empty eye sockets fell upon him. ‘Is that really true?’

“Ah... yeah.”

‘I can hardly believe it. Granted, I’ve never been there, but even so...’ Orric looked at Melchor. ‘Did you know that?’

Melchor shook his head.

‘All of the countries in that region are the same way,’ said Garovel. ‘Kahm, Rendon, Lorent, Mara, Ajax, Dante. Even parts of Intar, I think.’

‘How have they remained so ignorant all this time?’ said Orric. ‘Is it really just the Vanguard’s doing?’

‘I’m not entirely sure, myself. I assume the Vanguard has been a big part of it, but in Atreya at least, the public DOES know that people with superhuman abilities exist elsewhere in the world. They just don’t know where the power comes from. And they’re afraid of it. Which is understandable.’

‘So they only don’t know about reapers, then?’