Program

What would happen if an authoritative program began reporting on a company suspected of fraud? The reason authority was authority was that people tended to trust it unconditionally!

It was like how professors often represented authority in students' eyes. They believed what professors wrote on the blackboard, and few people would question it.

It was like government announcements. Once people learned of them, they would not harbor any doubts, though there would always be some who questioned them. Just not many.

Nothing could make everyone stand on the same side completely and thoroughly. Trust was the same. So having doubts was naturally no big deal—it was perfectly normal.

The power of authority was terrifying. Used well, it was a beacon that guided people forward. Used poorly, it became the cause of disaster.

At that very moment, the people sitting in front of their televisions and watching this authoritative program were staring at the title written in gold on the screen, recalling the short clip they had just seen.

The investors and stockholders in it had revealed crazed, twisted expressions, as if their bodies had been possessed by demons. Even people who had not participated could feel that atmosphere—that thing that made them somewhat afraid, yet also filled them with an indescribable longing.

His Majesty the Emperor stopped eating. It was not that the meal was over; he simply felt that matters seemed to be slipping out of control.

That morning, the Minister of Finance had just told him that everything was under control. Yet by noon, these matters had already begun to reveal ominous signs.

Even through the screen, His Majesty the Emperor could smell the stench, and he knew where it came from—the nobles.

The nobles' discontent had lasted for a long time. In their words, they had provided