Black ribbons had already been hung from the treetops.
When he received the notice from the Silver and Tin Palace, Dimit was overcome with excitement.
His fingers even trembled uncontrollably as he repeatedly stroked his beloved camera in the carriage, squirming restlessly as though he had thorns growing under his backside.
He was a reporter from the Glass Staircase Newspaper.
Two months ago, when Iver had bravely fought the vicious Deformed Limb Demon at the Holy Sword Medal ceremony, he had been there.
To be more precise.
He was the reporter who, overwhelmed by terror when the demon appeared, had frenziedly snapped photo after photo of it as if possessed. He was also the one who had taken the final photograph of Iver and Gordon after they defeated the demon.
Gordon's armor had been battered to pieces, and his helmet had fallen off, revealing a resolute face covered in sweat and grime. Blood seeped from the chest of Iver, who sat in a slightly misshapen wheelchair, staining the Holy Sword Medal pinned there red. Beneath the evening light, it shone with a ruby-like radiance—
It had become the best photograph he had ever taken in his life.
After that, he was no longer merely a photographer, but became a specially appointed reporter for the Glass Staircase Newspaper.
It could be said that photograph had changed his fate.
And on a deeper level, it was precisely because of Iver that he had become who he was now.
The benefactor who had saved his life and elevated both his life and career to greater heights.
Unlike those who knew Iver only through the newspapers and therefore loved to criticize the overly young "Minister Moriarty," Reporter Dimit worshiped Iver.
Because he had truly witnessed everything from beginning to end.
The demon had crawled