“Um... Hello, everyone. Hi. I’m Thibault, a blacklisted freelance journalist!” he announced, forcing himself to sound as cheerful as possible. “I have borrowed a magic item from some very special people, and I will use it to make a big announcement!”
The commotion in the city grew even louder.
“All right, then. Let’s start, shall we?”
To me, Thibault sounded pretty eloquent, despite this being his first time addressing such a large audience.
“I never would have guessed he had such strong public speaking skills,” Char commented, clearly as impressed as I was.
“Let’s see... First, let me start with a quick explanation for those out of the loop. A few months ago, I published an article detailing the dissolution of the Motar Faith in a newspaper. But then—!” He paused for dramatic effect. “Rumors began spreading across the kingdom, branding me a liar, and I was forced to seek temporary asylum in another nation. For those interested in the details, I recommend looking at the ‘Overview’ section of the article that rained down from the sky earlier.”
I was in awe. The stuttering, timid man from earlier was completely gone!
“As you can imagine, I was pretty desperate to prove my innocence and to make you all aware of what was happening, so I projected the images you saw earlier in the sky. Everything said in these recordings is the truth! And— Whoa! H-Hey, what are you doing?!” Thibault exclaimed, suddenly starting to panic.
A group of noblemen wearing fancy clothes appeared beside him on the screen. They looked like important people.
“Huh? Wait, aren’t these the kingdom’s big shots we saw earlier? The ones we didn’t send to the Faith’s main church?” I asked in surprise.
“They are.” Char nodded. “They must’ve come to prevent Thibault from divulging the truth about them.”
“Oh, no! We have to go help him!”
Flustered, I began to prepare a teleportation spell, but Char grabbed my hand to stop me. “It’s fine. The twins are with Thibault, remember? If they haven’t stopped these men...”
“Then they must have a plan,” I said, finishing the thought for him.
“Most likely.” Char was perfectly calm. He must’ve held a lot of trust in Fouet and Barre.
While we’d been speaking, one of the government officials—a man with a sturdy build—had seized Thibault. The back of the man’s head took up the entirety of the screen, causing the crowd to stir once again.
The nobleman appeared completely oblivious to the magic item on the table. In fact, he probably didn’t even know that an object capable of projecting images in real time existed.
“Hey, you! What is that weird rectangle of light in the sky?! Stop this charade at once!”
“No!” Thibault fought back. “The people of the kingdom will hear the truth! They need to know that the Faith doesn’t exist anymore!”
As he flailed around, his hand knocked the item over, causing the images to flicker. With the device’s current position, the only image we had was a close-up of the government official’s nostrils. Beyond his nose, we could hear the two of them tussling with one another: The nobleman wanted Thibault to stop the projection, while Thibault refused to comply. The perspective whirled once again, as if the item was rolling across the floor, before settling in a position that captured both Thibault and the noblemen.
“Oh, we have a great view now,” I remarked.
“Perhaps the twins sneakily designed the item to stop there,” Char surmised.
It was definitely too good an angle to have happened naturally, so he must’ve been right.
“Your efforts are futile, you fool! No matter what you say, we’ll cover everything up again!” the government official yelled, his voice thundering throughout the city.
Too angry to process what was happening, he clearly had no idea that his words were being broadcast for everyone to hear—especially since he wasn’t familiar with magic items.
“You won’t get away with this!” Thibault yelled in response, glaring at the man and fighting back.
“Oh, but we will,” another nobleman interjected. “We’ve silenced countless journalists before. All that’s needed is to just call you a liar again! You’ll be done for! The citizens will believe us, not you!”
The man’s shrill laughter echoed through the streets. He and his friends were the only ones who hadn’t noticed.
Char and I watched over Thibault through the light screen. After a few minutes, more people appeared in the mess hall.
“There he is! It’s him! Thibault, the blacklisted journalist! We’ve found him!” one exclaimed, pointing at Thibault.
“Wow, he really was in the knights’ mess hall! There are some important folks from the palace too!”
Citizens of the capital surged into the room.
“You’re right! That’s Lord Menteur, the minister. And the prime minister, Lord Cacheur, is here too!”
Some of the common folk seemed familiar with the government officials and revealed their names to the public. More onlookers poked their heads through the door frame, trying to see what was happening in the mess hall.
“Uhhh, anyway, we’re done here! Thank you for listening until the end! If you have any questions or comments, please send them to the Royal Knights’ barracks. If you enjoyed this reporting, please subscribe to the magazines publishing my articles and tell your friends and family about them! Thanks!”
With that, Thibault’s chaotic announcement came to a close.
The broadcast caused a huge uproar throughout the entire kingdom. In the following days, the people in charge of the nation’s public information admitted in a panic that, yes, the Faith really was gone. The public opinion of the three government officials who had come to stop Thibault—two ministers and the prime minister—plummeted so badly that they were fired on the spot. As for the Royal Knights, they were temporarily dissolved, then reformed under a better structure. The knights would now be treated like proper human beings. However, the exam to join the organization would now be much more difficult.
Either way, I could now rest easy knowing that we had achieved our objective.