Chapter 19: A Media Debut (2)
Translator: Pai_
Vassals' Meeting.
At the Obsidian Baron's estate, a meeting of his closest retainers convened the moment dawn drew its first breath. Meeting was a generous word for it; in truth, it was closer to eating breakfast with their lord.
One might naturally wonder when these people ever slept, and here lay the difference between those who had tempered their Gang Qi and ordinary folk.
At a sufficiently advanced level of Gang Qi mastery, three hours of sleep a day was more than enough.
In other words, this pre-dawn vassal meeting held at the Obsidian Baron's estate was a gathering where the mere ability to attend every day served as proof of the retainers' martial prowess.
"So, it's confirmed that the escaped convict was a Gang Qi User? We're sure?"
"Yes, Your Excellency. The Royal Capital Guards sent a messenger as well, not just the gate. Their pride's already been bruised, so they wouldn't go out of their way to make themselves look more bad. It's almost certainly true.”
"Hmm......."
And so these men knew better than anyone. The gap between a warrior who could wield Gang Qi and one who could not was immense.
That was precisely why the vassals had worn such astonished expressions at Mun Su-ho's modest little victory report.
"Say, Head Warrior. Have my eyes for people gone rusty, perhaps? When I saw the boy Su-ho yesterday, I didn't get the slightest sense that he was radiating any stellar energy."
"Then I must be rusty too, my lord. Unless the young man had the shrewdness beyond his years to conceal his own level of attainment?"
"Born an Illegitimate Child, he must have taught himself Gang Qi on his own. And you're telling me he didn't let anyone around him know? Not even in front of me? Would you have done the same, Head Warrior?"
"Not a chance. I'd have spread the word to every neighbor and distant relative I could find, then slipped the reporters a little something to advertise what a genius I was to every last citizen of the Royal Capital."
The vassals chuckled softly.
The atmosphere was markedly different from when they had sheltered from the rain before the gate.
In truth, this was the original nature of the relationship between the Obsidian Baron and his inner circle, a bond of comradeship forged over decades of ruining their lungs together in the dust of battlefields.
It was simply that when they went out in public, everyone slapped on a blank-expression patch to avoid undermining the Baron's dignity. Here, where no outside eyes watched, the air carried a far warmer quality.
In short, the Obsidian Baron's estate drew a very clear line between the inner circle of power and those on the periphery.
The gatekeeper clan had never managed to break into the inner circle. Not because they were ostracized, really; it was mostly just because of Mun Geum.
To the vassals gathered here, Mun Geum was "a fun person to tease", but if asked whether he was a comrade they could trust to watch their backs in the middle of a battlefield... well. That was a bit much.
"If the boy has enough self-control not to flaunt his attainment even before Your Excellency, that's quite admirable."
Another retainer spoke up.
"Born an Illegitimate Child, he must have faced no small amount of discrimination, whether openly or not, and it would only be natural for him to harbor resentment toward the world. The first opportunity of his life to catch Your Excellency's eye had arrived, so a young man's ambition could easily have gotten the better of him. And yet......."
"He didn't show off. Quite right."
The Baron's eyes gleamed.
"And this fellow, if the report is accurate, simply handed over the escaped convict's body to the guards. When I saw him yesterday, his attitude toward his family seemed perfectly decent, too. It seems like getting along well with those around him is simply in his nature."
"That is how it appears to me as well, Your Excellency."
The air turned warm at the emergence of a promising talent showing real potential for the first time in a while.
This was precisely what Mun Su-ho had been aiming for the previous night when he handed the body over to the guards. A situation where good word was spreading not only about his skill, but about his character too!
Nor was this reputation confined to the Baron's table alone.
"On top of that, the boy played the newspaper reporters beautifully."
Tap. The Obsidian Baron rapped the newspapers with his knuckles.
Unlike a certain hopeless news junkie, the Obsidian Baron subscribed only to the handful of newspapers that wielded significant influence over public opinion.
Even this was, in fact, a remarkably progressive stance, since the political faction the Baron belonged to refused to acknowledge any outlet as legitimate media except the Bedrock Newspaper.
“Look here. Not one of them spat out some unpleasant little piece of fiction about yesterday's explosion. Hmm? The exploits of both children, Mun Su-ho and Si-ah, are covered evenly. Do you understand what that means?”
“......Mun Su-ho didn't boast about his own contribution even in front of the reporters. Considering his family circumstances, that can't have been easy. It's rare sibling affection.”
"Exactly. Their bond as brother and sister is truly something special."
Just before leaving the gate yesterday, this old nobleman had quietly dropped a small test on the gatekeeper siblings.
He had deliberately steered the pair into a head-on encounter with the reporters.
(A test made possible only by his certainty that Mun Geum would never deal with the press himself and would inevitably dump the task on his children.)
Was the bond between the siblings genuinely strong? Or had they merely been performing brotherly-sisterly affection because their lord was watching?
And today, the results were in.
From the Obsidian Baron's perspective, this was a passing grade.
"At the very least, there's no need to worry about the boy's character. Head Steward, send a messenger to Mun Geum before the day is out."
"What sort of message, Your Excellency?"
"Tell him to try promoting that boy Su-ho to Mid-class Gatekeeper."
The Baron smiled faintly.
"Let's find out whether this young man is the kind of talent who can guard the gate well even in the dead of night."
* * *
Meanwhile, Mun Su-ho woke up at 4:30 a.m. after his usual deep sleep, same as always. It wasn't because he was especially skilled in Gang Qi. He had just always been like this.
"I've been playing favorites with the Prophecy Newspaper lately!"
He reflected on his recent daily routine and scolded himself.
'At this rate, I'm going to forget how precious the other newspapers are.'
Of course, the Prophecy Newspaper was so honest and so uncanny that it reduced every other outlet to an afterthought, so it couldn't really be helped.
But just because fine dining was delicious, was he going to eat nothing else for the rest of his life? This world had its own unique flavors that could only be experienced through tabloids and hack journalists, not principled reporting.
Mun Su-ho was the kind of man who understood the value of fast-food french fries.
'Deluxe. I need a dopaming deluxe!'
For the record, the word was detox, not deluxe. As stated repeatedly, for a reincarnator from another world, having a memory as bad as Mun Su-ho's was genuinely hazardous to the healthy linguistic ecosystem.
At any rate, he resolved that for a while, he would save the Prophecy Newspaper for last. It was a decision made with the gut-wrenching resolve of someone eating curry and saving every piece of meat for the very end.
"My beloved little sister!"
Mun Su-ho bundled up the day's morning papers in his arms and rushed over to Si-ah.
"Let's read the newspapers together! This is essentially our media debut as siblings, and on such a momentous day, shouldn't we share the joy?"
"No thanks. I'm busy prepping for my shift, so get lost."
Ah, Su-ho realized. One night had passed, and the little-sister service had been cut off again.
'Better hurry and renew the service with 10 Sita before it... No! No.'
He froze.
His hand had already dipped into his coin pouch with the ease of pure instinct before Su-ho stopped it.
Mun Si-ah tilted her head at her brother's strange reaction. But Su-ho swallowed hard with a stifled grunt.
'That's right. Didn't I just vow this very morning to embark on a dopamine deluxe?'
'Si-ah herself is one massive source of dopamine for me. If I get too hooked on the little-sister act, I might never get to see Si-ah's natural face again.'
'Back to basics, Su-ho. You must not forget the value of an ordinary sister!'
He endured with every fiber of his being.
It was absolutely, categorically not because he had blown the enormous sum of 50 Sita on the rental-sister service yesterday and now regretted the expense. It was because he understood the truth that family is precious just the way they are.
'What's with this guy?'
'He's not paying me today?'
Si-ah, on the other hand, felt an inexplicable twinge of disappointment.
And when she belatedly realized she had felt that way, she recoiled in horror.
'Wait. No allowance is actually a good thing.'
'It means I don't have to use that disgusting "orabeoni" title for the Illegitimate Child, right?'
'Hmph, it's better for my stomach health, too. If I'd had to keep treating this bastard like an older brother through today, my digestive system was about to start refluxing.'
Toward Si-ah, who was inwardly scoffing, Mun Su-ho spoke gently.
"Listen, little sister. Checking today's papers counts as official duty. Wasn't dealing with the reporters an order that came down from our lord himself?"
"Mm......."
Si-ah had a nagging feeling that it hadn't been "we" who dealt with the reporters so much as her alone, yet she chose not to argue. The person who had devised the tailored strategy for handling each individual reporter was, undeniably, the Illegitimate Child standing before her.
Mun Su-ho spoke with an air of gravity.
"Even if only to evaluate our own job performance, we need to read the papers together. How else are we supposed to improve our ability to handle the media?"
"......Fine, I guess. That's not entirely wrong."
Even Si-ah found herself swayed by the Illegitimate Child's logic.
Honestly, she had been planning to buy up whatever leftover morning papers remained at clearance prices on her way home after her evening shift, then sneak a peek at the articles about herself!
The Illegitimate Child probably had every one of those papers already, but there was no way in hell she could ask him to lend them to her. Mun Si-ah's pride would never allow it.
And so, casually, the papers were spread out one by one across the checkpoint's work table, and the siblings leaned over them side by side.
"Move over. A little more."
"Oh, come on. This is my checkpoint, you know?"
"Now, now. These are my newspapers, aren't they? Oh, right. I ran into your friend last night. So Cheon-ri. She's in the guards, right?"
"Oh, Cheon-ri? Yeah. She's my bestie. She's super cute, isn't she? You didn't say anything weird to her, did you?"
“Not really. There was a bit of a commotion yesterday, and she was the one who hit the culprit with an arrow. As expected of your friend, I guess she's a good shot too.”
"Huh? She's actually better with a sword than a bow....... Ugh, wait! Hold on! I said you move over!"
The bickering ended quickly. Both their attentions had already shifted entirely to the newspapers.
As expected, the story hadn't made the front page, but when they turned to the very next page...
『"I'll Protect My Little Sister!"』
『The gatekeeper siblings' tragic family history, blooming in the midst of an explosion?!』
「After apprehending the attackers, they even shared an impassioned embrace... Royal Capital citizens flood in with reactions like, "It was like a scene from a heroic tale!"」
"Pfft!"
Si-ah spat out her black tea.
Mun Su-ho, however, found his eyes sparkling with keen interest. True to the reputation of the Phantom News Daily's famous reporter, the writing style was provocative from the very first line.
「The gatekeeper clan of the Royal Capital's South Gate has become the talk of the town overnight. The traitor had loaded a cart with explosives, intending to turn South Gate into a sea of fire, but the only thing that truly blazed was the bond between a pair of siblings....」
「Despite his status as an Illegitimate Child, Mun Su-ho ssi devoted himself to his duties, with his little sister Mun Si-ah ssi providing cover fire. In particular, the passionate embrace shared between their father, Mun Geum ssi, and his son Mun Su-ho ssi, both drenched in blood and sweat in the aftermath of the incident, was more than enough to move the many onlookers at the scene....」
"What kind of garbage article is this?!"
Si-ah's head was spinning.
"If you stick a subheading like that under the headline, it looks exactly like I was the one who hugged you! It was just Dad hugging you!"
"Hmm. So a reporter was secretly watching me be a filial son."
Unlike his sister, Su-ho's reaction was the picture of nonchalance. Tap, tap. He flicked the splattered black tea off the newspaper with practiced fingers.
"This is actually quite good, as these things go, sister."
“This? This?”
"Of course. It's not as if they fabricated something that never happened. If you read the article all the way through, it does clearly state that the embrace was between Father and me. By Phantom News Daily standards, I'd say this was written with an exceptionally objective tone."
"What kind of garbage....... Typical commoners! Next! Pull out the Bedrock Newspaper!"
The second newspaper article they checked was also on page two.
『Royal Capital Defenses: "All Clear"!』
『Explosives Detected Early at the Royal Capital's South Gate. Gatekeepers' Swift Action Suppresses Bombing Attack.』
「A twenty-year-old Divine Archer who subdued a mage with a single shot... Crushing the traitors' absurd scheme!」
The article featured an extensive write-up on just how divinely inspired Si-ah's archery had been when she shot down the culprit, and how she had always honed herself through unwavering loyalty to His Majesty the King.
“Yes! This is what a newspaper is supposed to be, this is what real journalism looks like!”
At last, Si-ah's stomach settled. She resolved that if the Illegitimate Child next to her looked away for even a second, she would clip this article out and make absolutely sure to show it off to her friend in the guards later.
The remaining papers were all much the same.
In any case, one thing was certain: through this incident, the Su-ho and Si-ah siblings had successfully made their media debut, and their names had at least grazed the surface of the Royal Capital citizens' consciousness.
"I'm done reading, so take your time."
"Okay!"
There was, after all, a difference in reading speed, and Mun Su-ho had finished going through all the morning papers earlier than his sister.
And so, at last, he opened the Prophecy Newspaper, which he had saved for last as a treat. Compared to the past few days, when he had always checked the Prophecy Newspaper first without exception, this was quite a change.
"......?"
There was a difference in the contents of the Prophecy Newspaper too.
His eyes suddenly went wide as he scanned the flyer.
"Huh?"
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. A bug just flew into my nostril."
"Ugh. Gross......."
Su-ho fumbled out a lie in his flustered state.
The previous night, Mun Su-ho hadn't triggered any Corrections of False Report. He had therefore assumed there would be nothing new and had opened the newspaper's flyer without expectations, only to find a message he had never anticipated.
【Surge in Interest!】
【As the reputation of Mun Si-ah, a major Source of this publication, has risen, the level of attention directed toward this Source has increased.】
【The subscriber's contribution has been detected in the rise of Source Mun Si-ah's Fame.】
【Source Mun Si-ah's Fame: ★ (1 Star)】
And then.
【Due to the increased level of interest in this Source, this publication will issue one Special Feature article on the individual known as Mun Si-ah.】
【A Special Edition exclusive to this Source has been unlocked!】
****
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