Afterward, under Qin Wei's questioning, Thomas revealed many more of the Court's secrets.
These were not limited to the "god-summoning" plan the Court had been developing for centuries. From angles more closely tied to people's livelihoods and commerce, he also described in detail the various ways the Court, a financial consortium by nature, clung to Gotham and sucked it dry.
First, acting as prominent families, they would invite Gotham City's officials to banquets, then lay their traps. Money for the greedy, women for the pleasure-seekers. Specialists would record the evidence, and then they would use criminal proxies like Maroni and Falcone to coerce and manipulate them.
Once anything came to light, these proxies would swiftly be "suicided" in prison. Even those who dug deeper would mostly be fooled by the appearance of "collusion between officials and organized crime."
The Court of Owls had used this method for over a century. Its only failure had come when Joker displayed the badge representing the Court before all of Gotham's citizens during a live broadcast.
In truth, the Court of Owls had overreacted somewhat. After all, even being discovered would not necessarily mean anything. But the inherently cautious Court insisted on strangling every destabilizing factor in its cradle.
And so, unsurprisingly, they fell straight into Joker's trap and collided head-on with the equally bewildered Bat Family.
Now, with the decisive battle about to begin, Qin Wei had already raised his hand, ready to play the killing move.
He recorded Thomas's account and organized it into a speech.
Just look at what filled those pages: assassination, intimidation, hostile takeovers, price gouging, drug trafficking. These evils might barely warrant mention in the ledger of judgment cataloging the Court's crimes, but they were enough to stir the citizens' anger.
Yes, even now, some people still believed