"What's that supposed to mean?" The SIxth Headman's frown failed to persist any longer, devolving even further into a scowl. "I don't--"
"It's exactly as I said. All the Prime Beacons before my predecessor were never real. They're fabricated figureheads. Humanity has had actual Prime Beacons for a much shorter period than it knows." He dismissively waved his hand. For once in his life, he almost saw the redness of In-3's fury-filled visage in another man.
"That can't be true. That's a fabrication, it must be!"
"Why?"
"There were public appearances. Speeches! The Prime Beacons were never present in whole with humanity outside of the war, but even a casual search within the public data archives will reveal hundreds of images and recordings of different Prime Beacons. And that's only what they left, never mind the records of their war deeds!"
"The figureheads made those public appearances. None of them accomplished anything their records say, and none of their dossiers have their birth names. The collective imagination of a department under the Third conjured everything about their identities, histories, accomplishments, and legacies from thin air."
The Sixth Headman shook his head with vigor, uncompromising. "It wouldn't surprise me if the Third had involvement in it; I can also see them being capable and responsible for fabricating recordings of the Prime Beacons during moments of conflict. But the Prime Beacons fought alongside tens of thousands of eyewitnesses in even the smallest of skirmishes. If none of them ever participated to become recognized for their achievements, how did every conscript or permanent member of the military fail to raise public awareness?"
"In the fog of war, it's easier to disguise the details than any other circumstance." The Prime Beacon bent down to pick up one of the mannequins. He studied it. This one had escaped the worst of his combat ministrations, suffering little more than a gash down the midsection.
He shoved his fingers into the crevice and pulled, hardly straining himself before the mannequin's torso split down the middle. He dropped it back where he'd found it, and nudged it with his toe. "If you didn't see me do that, and didn't examine the mannequin for a 'cause of death', you'd assume my blade was responsible. Am I wrong?"
Seeing the Sixth Headman acquiesce with a headshake, he continued. "The vanquishing of Aud was of much the same business. Most of the extraordinary kills the fake Prime Beacons tallied to their names," he noticed the Sixth Headman turn tense at "fake", "like larger quantities or higher tiers, were, in reality, the work of Titans or some experiment the Sixth was testing its luck with at the time."
"The Third would coordinate with the two rays beforehand, ensuring that the Prime Beacons would make appearances at skirmishes where either of the two were set to occur, and becoming more specific, around the exact areas where the First positioned the Titans or experiment tests." He snapped his fingers. "After, it was simple enough to attribute those deaths to the 'miraculous' Prime Beacons."
The Sixth Headman took enough time to swallow this information for the janitor to reach their side of the room. He saluted when he grew close, then continued his work to remove himself from their presence as soon as he could. Once he finished and vanished with cartfuls of mannequin scraps, the Sixth Headman tutted.
"Why go through so much trouble for what amounts to nothing? I'd understand if the Prime Beacons achieved what they did through controversial means, but they never accomplished anything at all, if your words are believable."
"So you do believe me?" He blinked. Well, well, well.
"I'm choosing to take your words as they are for now. You don't have any reason to construct falsities that I know of, but if it's you…" He left the rest unsaid, sighing as an alternative and crossing his arms. "Answer my inquiry."
"You're wrong on that." Seeing the confusion at the vague mention of "that", he clarified, "Concealing the truth that most of humanity's strongest individuals were as real as a weak Aud did do something. Something marvelous: it made people hope."
"Can you imagine the difficulties humanity encountered trying to construct a societal story that would enable them to continue persisting in the face of such an enemy? They failed many times until the idea of the Prime Beacon."
"A soldier of immense power, capable of facing off against Aud with nothing but their hands, or very little external aid. Someone like that, both throwing themselves into danger for us and protecting us when the Aud encroach ever further into what little human territory remained."
"A story reminiscent of that, of an invincible individual carrying the Old Man's Blessing that would always stand resolute guard over humanity, was what gave us hope." He grinned at that moment. "And when the idea of the Prime Beacon finally became a reality, that was just a nice bonus for the people in the know."
"That's…"
"A lot, I know. Take your time." His pats worked to distract the older man. With a thoughtful expression, the Prime Beacon deviated from their current topic.
"Don't you find that fascinating? Something with such a storied history concerned with being fake, or rather, being something that isn't, paradoxically found a way to become the opposite of what it always needed to be. Humanity always looks to obvious circumstances and articles to denote as 'miracles', but by reading between the lines, we could discover far more."
"Mmm."
Seeing as his words failed to elicit a reaction, the Prime Beacon extended deeper. "I suppose I'll share a second secret with you today; don't get used to the free handouts." The two of them shared weary grins.
"Then again, this is more a private hypothesis, so take it how you will: the demographic of humans becoming blessed with the Old Man's Blessing has been growing, so it will continue to grow."
This time, the Sixth Headman reserved his surprise for after the inevitable explanation. It was shorter than the previous one. He appreciated the other man's restraint.
"Though the Third's tampering may have compromised the reliability of our earliest records, the first generation humanity saw the Old Man's Blessing appear in only had nine cases. The second generation was one less. Third, there was a jump of four cases. Following this trend, there's a gradual rise in this phenomenon's influence on humanity."
"With time, humanity has first increased the percentage of each generation with the Blessing, and later the percentage of humanity itself with it. This has increased our exposure to the phenomenon enough to create ground rules for what it's capable of, but also find exceptions and outliers to those boxes past scientists have theorized."
"It's why Ch-4 and I developed Vigors well before the assumed age of a presumed blessing; it's also why the Blessings of my predecessor and I were strong enough to fight Aud without little to any external aid."
It was a shame then, that…"Should humanity survive long enough, I know those three elements of consideration," he raised a finger for each, "the percentage of people gaining a Blessing, the age at which a Blessing bestows itself, and the individual capabilities and abilities granted from each should only become more skewed in our favor." But even as the words exited him, he remembered his parting conversation with Tool.
The Sixth Headman didn't remain in his presence long after that. After extracting reassurance the older man wouldn't let slip anything he'd told him to anyone outside the militarists' immediate circle, he let him go. He looked down at the floor, now clear of the evidence of his violent test. No sense in crying over it, but…
What an unfair world, to betray humanity right when it could've found a way to escape the brink.