Backlund, the grand auditorium of City Hall.
The spacious auditorium, which could accommodate several hundred people, was packed. Lorne spoke confidently onstage, while below sat reporters from Backlund's major newspapers, invited representatives of the public, and, in the front rows, senior government officials and church bishops.
"I did indeed stumble upon those terrorists by accident. Out of a sense of duty as a citizen of Loen and a believer in the Evernight Goddess, I quietly followed them..."
Lorne wore an impeccably tailored dark suit. His expression was solemn, and his voice carried just the right hint of lingering fear.
"As the police chief reported earlier, those lunatics from the Aurora Order had planted large quantities of explosives along Backlund's underground gas mains. As the owner of an arms factory, I'm very sensitive to the smell of explosives. I immediately realized what they intended to do..."
Blow up the gas mains?!
If they exploded and set off a chain reaction, wouldn't all of Backlund be blown sky-high?!
Seeing the terror on the audience's faces, Lorne felt quietly satisfied and continued with his rehearsed account:
"The situation was urgent. There was no time to return to the surface and notify the police. To prevent the detonation, I had no choice but to exchange fire with the terrorists using the pistol I carried."
"Mr. Scott, were you injured during that exchange?" A reporter in the front row raised a hand and asked eagerly.
"That's right." Lorne nodded obligingly, his brows drawing together as though recalling a painful experience.
"Although I fought with everything I had and successfully destroyed the detonator, preventing a possible explosion, the enraged terrorists concentrated their fire on me, and I was wounded."
"With nowhere left to run, I had no choice but to jump into the Tussock River to