"Recklessly chasing glory, indiscriminately slaughtering civilians..."
"These headlines are getting more outrageous-and more blunt."
Lorne sat on the sofa with a freshly delivered newspaper in his hands, muttering as he read the bold black headline.
Over the past two days, damaging allegations about Colonel Hall had flooded all the major newspapers in Backlund.
He suspected this was definitely a calculated political attack. Someone must have been using the Balam riots to go after Earl Hall, seizing on this incident as an excuse to stir up public opinion.
However, alongside that overwhelming flood of scandalous reports, accounts explaining the complexity of the situation-or, rather, defending Colonel Hall-had also begun circulating in Backlund that morning.
Some newspapers, for instance, had started publishing articles claiming that "the colonel was forced to return fire to protect expatriates" and that "Cultists were inciting the riots behind the scenes."
Lorne figured Earl Hall must have made his move. As Loen's biggest banker, he could hardly lack media connections.
Still, given the public's general appetite for drama and resentment of the rich, the bloody, scandalous allegations naturally spread much further.
Ordinary people might never see a great noble openly attacked and exposed in the press even once in their lives. Naturally, they found the spectacle all the more entertaining.
"Then again, could what the papers are saying actually be true?" Lorne's curiosity suddenly stirred.
He took a coin from his pocket and lightly tossed it toward the table.
Clink-
The coin tumbled rapidly through the air. After landing on the tabletop, it did not fall flat immediately, but kept spinning. Only after quite some time did its momentum gradually fade, and it finally came to rest heads up.
"So... there's some exaggeration, but the incident itself is probably true..." Lorne rubbed his chin as he interpreted the