Chapter 4370

Diana strode through the still-damp bushes and arrived at a tall tent. All the wounded were lying here, their faces pale, occasionally letting out painful groans. Diana's brow had never once relaxed.

"Your Highness, the casualty count has been tallied," a female warrior walked over and said, "All the seriously wounded have been saved, but we still lost four people, and there are over sixty injured."

Diana sighed. Don't let the number fool you; there weren't many people in all of Themyscira, and even with the entire population serving as soldiers, there wasn't a large force. They had special abilities and usually didn't suffer non-combat attrition—this was the greatest casualty count for the Amazons in a century.

"Go report to the Queen," Diana said, "It is my fault for not guarding Themyscira well. I will go apologize to her personally."

"This is not your fault, Your Highness. Those Atlanteans are too despicable..."

Diana shook her head and said, "It's not entirely the Atlanteans; I think someone must be instigating this from behind the scenes. I have already found someone to investigate, and there will be results soon."

Diana stayed in the infirmary for a while, and not long after, a phone call came in. Bruce's voice appeared on the other end: "It is indeed as you guessed, Diana. The actions of that bastard named Arthur were leaked from an official U. S. intelligence agency; it should be that people from the Coast Guard are collaborating with Orm."

"Damn it! What exactly are these intelligence agencies keeping secret? Why can anyone get information from them?"

"Although their confidentiality work is indeed not very confidential, this time I'm afraid it's different," Bruce said, "I suspect they did it on purpose."

Diana frowned. Bruce continued, "The situation within the United States is currently very tense. In short, the ruling party with the large lead in votes does not agree to a re-election, while the opposition party wants to use the fact that the Capitol building was moved to Metropolis to deny the legitimacy of the election process, thereby forcing a re-election. I think you should understand now."

Diana hadn't reacted at first, but she soon figured it out: actually, the ruling party had already won this general election, and re-election was a done deal, but because a mishap occurred during the vote counting—the Capitol building was moved away—the opposition party grabbed onto this handle, insisting on a re-vote to turn defeat into victory.

So at this time, the ruling party certainly didn't want any more trouble. After all, although the Capitol building was moved away, it was moved intact; it neither affected the congressmen inside nor interfered with the vote-counting machines, so the appeal to deny legitimacy might not be adopted, at least the reasons were insufficient.

But if some trouble occurred at this time, for example, Metropolis being flooded, or triggering a tsunami or something, then the opposition party's reasons would be even more sufficient—the ballots were all flooded, why can't we re-elect?

Therefore, the ruling party definitely did not want Orm to carry out any tsunami plan. Their greatest wish now was for the election results to land safely, so they had to find a way to make Orm not attack the United States in the short term.

So they deliberately leaked the information, using a tactic of diverting the disaster, intentionally leaking Arthur's actions and the information about the Golden Trident to Orm, making him point his sword at the Amazons, ultimately causing Orm to abandon the tsunami plan due to competitive pressure and turn to attack the Amazons instead.

Diana stood up from the ground, took a deep breath, clenched her fists tightly, and then she flew up with a "whoosh," heading straight for the Amazon airport.

Getting off the plane at the Metropolis airport, Diana didn't even care about the shocked gazes of the crowd, flying straight out of the airport from the exit, rushing toward the Metropolis Central Plaza like a missile.

Just as she flew near the location of the Capitol building, she saw a familiar figure—Arthur carrying the Golden Trident, walking toward the Capitol building in a rage.

So she stopped and flew to Arthur's side. The two looked at each other, and Diana said, "What a coincidence, you're here too."

"Yeah, don't tell me you also found out..."

The two sneered at the same time, more like they were laughed into anger. Just as they were walking toward the Capitol building, their phones rang one after another, but the same voice came through:

"Hello, this is A. R. G. U. S., may I ask how you have considered it?"

And the roar that answered him was also in unison:

"GET LOST!!!!!!!"

The two hung up the phone fiercely, rushing into the Capitol building almost simultaneously, landing in the center of the rotunda. Coincidentally, the congressmen were still arguing about whether to re-vote, and they were all stunned to see two "supermen" fly in.

"Quiet!" Arthur shouted, "Why on earth do you want to start a war between Atlantis and the Amazons?!"

"You damn bastards!" Diana also stepped forward, "Disrupting the world, what good does it do you at all?!"

Both of them carried an intense, inseparable scent of blood and killing intent, and the congressmen were all very good at reading the room. They quickly realized that these two were not here with good intentions; if they didn't give them a satisfactory explanation, things might become very tricky.

So they began to whisper to their colleagues. However, what they were discussing was not whether they had done this, but who exactly had done it.

The saying goes, "If you don't do anything shameful, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door." Most of the congressmen present had been in the business for thirty or forty years, and the shameful things they had done were basically enough to qualify as a "Hundred Ghosts Night Parade," so now that two "ghosts" were knocking on the door, they couldn't even remember for a moment which stage or situation the shameful act was committed in.

As for "not doing it"? That was even more impossible. Don't worry about where Atlantis and the Amazons are; as long as the four words "start a war" are involved, it's basically them. Since World War II, there hasn't been a war in the world, big or small, that hasn't had something to do with them; if it really had nothing to do with them, they would instead doubt their own capabilities.

"Was it that time in the eighties? I remember the Amazon Queen visited the United States then, and we wanted to have the Iberians raid the embassy?"

"That's not it, how do I remember it being the sixties. At that time, our President went to Europe for a visit, and agents disguised themselves as Amazons to install car bombs in Italy..."

"Wrong, you're all wrong, it's the aftermath of that arms embargo in the nineties..."

A group of people whispered, and in the end, they didn't figure out who did it, but anyway, lice don't itch when there are too many. One of the congressmen cleared his throat and said, "I feel very sorry for the war happening in your country. We sympathize with the affected Amazons and... uh, Atlanteans. But this is just the growing pains of normal international relations changes. I believe the U. S. side has the responsibility and ability to act as an absolutely impartial mediator to help you two stabilize the domestic situation as soon as possible. Let's talk about your demands first—are you representatives of a military government?"

Diana and Arthur looked at each other. Before they could speak, an old congressman said, "We support the Atlanteans and Amazons in pursuing their own democracy and firmly oppose cruel dictatorial rule. All armed activities against dictatorship and for freedom should be supported. The United States is willing to support the democratic demands of the Amazon people and the Atlantean people, and can provide you with military aid to a certain extent. Can you tell us about the situation in your country? This will facilitate our judgment on whether to provide you with weapons support or directly send elite soldiers for surgical precision operations..."

"I think the federal government's policy toward that country is problematic," another congressman stood up and said, "The internal disputes in the Amazon country and Atlantis are entirely because the ruling party's mediation efforts in international relations are insufficient, and they have not actively paid attention to the people's livelihood and civil rights of small countries. Such an accident occurring during the President's term reflects from the side that re-election is not reasonable."

"I disagree. The ruling party has no problems in handling diplomatic relations with the Amazon country and the Atlantean country. We have always supported the people of the free world in resisting dictatorial rule in their own way. All wars for democracy are just, which is precisely a manifestation of diplomatic success."

"I think so too..."

"I object!"

"I object to your objection!"

"I object too!"

In fact, Diana and Arthur, who were standing in the center of the hall, were both a bit bewildered. They had thought that when they came to question these congressmen, the other side would try every means to explain or quibble, or offer a perfunctory apology, or even just use abusive language toward them, wanting to take military action to drive them out.

Never expected that they didn't think starting a war was wrong—they thought they were upholding justice.

They didn't even know if there was such a country as Atlantis in the world, and where this country was. Anyway, if a war broke out, it meant there was a dictator oppressing the people, and the people were using armed resistance to fight for democracy.

And all the strategies they adopted toward these warring countries were all to support the people in fighting for democracy. They didn't see this as interfering in other countries' internal affairs or starting a war; they felt they were the embodiment of justice, only now they were arguing about which party was the embodiment of justice.

But I have to admit, their attitude left Diana and Arthur speechless for a moment.

The expected sharp-tongued arguments and back-and-forth never appeared—the other side didn't think war was wrong at all, only that it was a necessary means to fight for democracy, and no matter how many people were sacrificed, it was deserved.

All the conversations seemed to be trapped in a box: no matter what you said, they had their reasons. You say this is not a civil war, they say one country is more democratic, and the war is just to let the other country embark on the road to democracy; you say this is a war between sea and land, they will tell you that the ocean and land have one that is more democratic, and they are also helping the undemocratic side resist oppression; you say this is a war between super-powered individuals, they will say the super-powered individuals on one side are more dictatorial; you say both sides are dictatorial kingdom forms, they will say the people on one side yearn for democracy more, so they started the war.

And they started the war to help the more democratic side get rid of dictatorial oppression and embark on the glorious road of American-style democracy. You say the war casualties are heavy, they say pursuing democracy requires a price; you say the United States doesn't need to manage it, they say "We are the leader of the democratic world, we must manage it."

Obviously, regarding igniting the flames of war all over the world, they have already evolved a perfect closed-loop logic. If you dare to refute any part of it, they will say you are anti-democratic and say you are a cruel dictator.

Arthur took a deep breath, and the hand holding the Golden Trident was trembling slightly. At the same time, the seawater in Metropolis began to rise against the tide.