"She’s lying."

Every member of the audience realized the little girl was lying, and that this lie would be fatal for Raul.

They also made the absurd discovery that once a lie like this was told, most people would inevitably believe it.

Everyone is conditioned to believe that children are innocent, pure, and kind. That children don’t lie, and even if they do, it’s only because they’ve been corrupted by adults.

Yet, children are the best liars of all.

Before they’ve developed a concept of good and evil, children can lie without even considering the consequences. They feel no anxiety, making their lies more natural than those of any adult weighing the pros and cons.

Sometimes, children even become fanatically convinced of their own fabricated lies. As the saying goes, the first person they deceive is themselves.

Just as Figxin had anticipated, Raul’s life began to be utterly destroyed.

The Guard Corps used the Truth-Telling Technique to verify the little girl’s story and received a confirmation.

The little girl believed her own lie was the truth.

Perhaps in their haste to close the case, they didn’t bother to carefully verify the facts and simply reported their findings.

Raul was suspended from his duties and placed under further investigation.

All his friends and relatives came to believe Raul had truly committed the crime. Isolation and accusations followed swiftly.

The only one who chose to believe in Raul at that moment was his rebellious son.

He was convinced his father would never do such a thing. He rushed to the little girl’s house to confront her, only to get beaten up and thrown out.

It was suffocating. Unbearably suffocating.

Figxin felt a knot in her stomach, as if someone were holding her head underwater. The oxygen in her lungs dwindled, and the pain steadily grew.

She was beginning to understand why the film had first shown Raul’s peaceful, everyday life.

The director’s intention was precisely to manipulate the audience’s emotions.

First, you show them a beautiful crystal ball. Then, you make them watch, wide-eyed, as you shatter it, one hammer blow at a time.

In the story, the Guard Corps investigators began collecting evidence. They gathered testimony from all the children at the orphanage.

An investigator who knew Raul found his son.

"All the children told a similar story. They described your basement, the wallpaper, the color of your sofa... but when we searched your house, we found..."

"We don’t have a basement," Raul’s son replied.

The character on screen smiled, believing Raul’s case to be nothing more than a farce.

Figxin, however, couldn’t smile. She knew the important thing wasn’t the actual truth, but rather the "truth" that people chose to believe.

Raul was found innocent.

Father and son had a simple celebration, and the audience, which had been on edge the entire time, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

It seemed as if everything was finally turning around.

「That night」 A rock shattered the window of Raul’s house and landed inside.

The two of them ran outside to check, only to find the dead body of their dog, a pet they had raised for many years.

Often, an animal can elicit more sympathy than a person. The audience members who had been shouting insults just moments before now fell silent. They too began to sympathize with Raul’s plight.

One wondered if they felt any shame when they recalled how they themselves had treated the real Raul.

On screen, Raul went to the market to buy meat, only to be attacked by the butcher.

In a fine, cold rain, Raul walked home in silence, wounded and limping.

The entire film had not a single frightening or horrific scene, nor did it feature clear-cut villains like those in *Holy Mountain Journey*.

But the sense of dread it inspired far surpassed that of any gory zombie-like enemy.

Many viewers with weaker constitutions could no longer bear to watch.

Raul finally lost control of his emotions during a Church service. He walked straight up to the man who was once his best friend—the little girl’s father.

He rained punches down on the man’s face, venting all his pent-up frustration as his voice turned from a roar into a desperate plea.

"Look into my eyes! Look at me! What do you see in my eyes? Am I lying?"

This friend, who had always been able to tell when he was lying, finally realized he had wronged Raul all along.

At the story’s conclusion, the town finally accepted Raul once more. This time, it seemed things were truly getting better.

They held a new gathering. Raul didn’t press charges; instead, he welcomed the little girl back at the party.

Galina, whose tears had washed away all her makeup, finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the director wasn’t too cruel after all and had given the Shadow of Evil a happy ending.

Raul went hunting in the countryside with his friends again.

Everything seemed tranquil and serene.

Suddenly, a stray arrow grazed Raul’s cheek and embedded itself in the tree beside him.

Blood seeped from the cut.

Looking in the direction the arrow came from, they saw a figure nocking an arrow and drawing a bowstring.

He stood in the sunlight, on the moral high ground, his face obscured.

He didn’t represent a specific person, but every single individual who had contributed to the harm.

The film ends.

Just like the ending of *Holy Mountain Journey*, it offered no definitive answer, leaving everything to the imagination.

The audience was shrouded in silence.

They didn’t even know how to react. They had never witnessed such a Shadow of Evil, nor had they ever seen such a plot.

And as the long credits rolled, another section of the screen began to display pieces of evidence, one after another.

It was evidence from the real-life case of Raul—evidence that had once appeared on the front pages of all the city’s major newspapers, though few had paid it any mind back then.

The lights came up, and the creative team took the stage for a curtain call.

This time, there were no boos or shouts. The hecklers, so arrogant just moments before, now didn’t even dare to look directly at Raul on the stage.

"Thank you all for coming to see our Shadow of Evil," Raul said calmly, his voice augmented by an Amplification Spell.

His words were the same as his response before the screening, but this time, the reaction was completely different.

A smattering of applause rose from the audience. It grew steadily louder, eventually erupting into a thundering ovation that lasted for over ten minutes.

In less than two hours, they had completely reversed public opinion.

While Figxin was stunned by the plot of the Shadow of Evil, she was even more astonished by the power that a Shadow of Evil could wield.

’Will those people admit their mistakes and apologize?’

She thought not. ’Admitting you’re wrong is a huge deal. Unless their lives are literally on the line, it’s very difficult for people to own up to their mistakes.’

But that was also the brilliance of *Hunting*. It didn’t point the finger at any specific individual.

It passed no judgment, simply presenting people’s actions back to them in a straightforward manner.

It made the audience feel guilty.

And guilt makes people want to atone.

She was willing to bet that many people would see this Shadow of Evil. Even if it wasn’t highly entertaining, people would watch it out of a desire to atone.

The creative team was guaranteed to profit, achieving both fame and fortune.

She needed a Shadow of Evil like this, too. Desperately.

The Northern Domain needed money. It also needed to change its public image as a poor, treacherous land teeming with criminals.

Before this Shadow of Evil was widely promoted, she had to get involved as early as possible. She couldn’t let her half-siblings beat her to it.

She had to meet the true mastermind behind the Zog Group.

After saying goodbye to Galina, who was crying too hard to stand, and Uffie, who was trying to comfort her, Figxin and Zete Mage arrived at the Zog Group headquarters.

She certainly hadn’t expected the headquarters to be a toy store.

An incredibly long line snaked outside the store, full of young men in their late teens and early twenties. They would occasionally strike strange poses, as if trying to summon something, clearly having the time of their lives.

After explaining to an employee that she was there to discuss a business partnership, a young woman led her to the third floor.

She knocked twice on the door.

Figxin heard a strange voice from within.

"Flame Dragon Armor, combine!"

’What was that?’