Chapter 364 — The First Newspaper

"And for the parts I do not understand, I have my apprentice. We can go and ask those who do. They know this knowledge; they just do not know how to write it down. And that is exactly what I am good at."

"Mr. Orlando," Santis bowed his head slightly to Godwin Orlando, "you had best act quickly. The lord usually gives a man a second chance—but you are not the only scholar on this territory."

"Thank you for your help and your counsel," Godwin Orlando said to Santis in a most solemn tone. "And from now on you may call me Godwin—using my family name is too distant."

With that, the old gentleman took his leave of Santis, turned, and walked briskly toward the academy gate.

Only after his figure had vanished beyond the gate did a hazy black shadow surface beside Santis, gradually taking on Amber's form.

The half-elf lady glanced at Santis with some surprise. "Santis, you have quite a gift for persuasion."

"It is not persuasion—I only said what I wanted to say," Santis said, bowing to the shadow master who wandered all over the territory every day but was in truth one of the lord's personal guards, and then asked curiously, "I am just a little curious why the lord cares so much about this matter. Godwin is an excellent scholar, but there is nothing special about him."

"Call it an experiment," Amber said offhandedly. "Pay it no mind."

"An experiment..." Santis muttered, then pursed his lips. "In any case, the lord must have his own considerations."

Amber did not reply. Her body faded gradually from the air and soon vanished from Santis's sight.

Four days after that, the people of the Cecil territory beheld something entirely new in the plaza before the government hall at the center of the city.

They gave off the unmistakable smell of printer's ink, stacked in neat piles on a small concrete platform—a thing found only in the Cecil Territory, and one that, in most cases, the officials of the Administrative Hall used to display the newest novelties of the land to its people. Two soldiers stood beside the platform, guarding those tidy stacks of printed matter and at the same time explaining to the gathering crowd just what it was that sat upon it.

A newspaper.

A kind of reading material that could belong to everyone.

The gathered crowd discussed it among themselves; those who had arrived early explained to the newcomers what new thing their lord had invented, some speculated about the contents of the newspaper, and more still speculated about its price and its precise purpose.

At first, perhaps only a small minority would try it out of curiosity.

But soon the Cecils with a bit of spare coin would realize that from then on they possessed "books" of their own.

Some distance from the platform, Godwin Orlando, in his gray scholar's robe, stood with his two apprentices—temporary editors and "reporters"—watching the goings-on around the platform from afar.

Santis stood beside Godwin. Looking at the scene in the distance, he murmured softly to himself, "From today on, another privilege has been broken."

Godwin said thoughtfully, "The privilege of possessing knowledge, of reading freely, you mean..."

"How does it feel to have a hand in it yourself?"

"Not bad at all."