THE HERALD TIMES

THE HERALD TIMES

"We are from the Herald Times", the reporter replied to the duke.

"Since, when did we have such a rubbish paper in our city?" Duke Erriley asked his advisor.

"It is a new paper owned by the Kaleon family", the advisor replied to the duke.

"Do you think I don't dare to kill you if you brought the reporters to witness how I kill you?" Duke Erriley asked me.

"No, on the contrary, I brought them to show to the city how I repay your violence with death", I replied to the duke.

"Stop this nonsense and die now", Duke Erriley shouted to me as he charged toward me.

Suddenly, a powerful fiery tiger appeared behind the duke. The duke summoned the tiger that sped ahead of him, in a first strike that will consume me with its enormous explosive magic.

"Strike of Flaming Tigers of Moresby"

The reporters and stenographers from Kaleon Times began drawing in their notebooks about this fight between Duke Erriley and me, caused by an earlier argument in the prince's banquet.

"To kill my Earl, you have no right and ability. Face my wrath first", Chash suddenly shouted to Erriley as he stood before me.

"Good acting", I praised Chash softly.

All of a sudden, the duke's powerful tiger conjuration turned sideways, striking a nearby building, destroying it completely as its magic exploded.

"What happened to my conjuration?" Duke Erriley asked in shock and surprise.

The Flaming Tiger of Moresby was a projectile conjuration that was extremely deadly. It could destroy a building on impact, so it would kill most templars in the city when it struck. But the flaming tiger missed me completely.

"Chaos Field"

I am a master of Chaos magic. There was few magic in my school and the Chaos field was one of them. When activated, my chaos field would misdirect any projectiles that came towards me.

"It is my turn to retaliate", Chash shouted out as a powerful beam shot out from his hands that struck the duke.

Duke Erriley of Moresby was completely frozen by magic. Before anybody could help him defrost, another beam struck him, a fiery beam. The second beam destroyed Erriley's frozen body, breaking it into thousands of parts, like shattered glass.

"Wrath of Ice and Fire"

Erriley's guards and supporters were stunned by what happened to their master.

"Oriese the Bully killed our duke", they shouted to themselves as they ran from the Kaleon mansion.

The reporter from Herald Times walked to me and showed me their work. It was the depictions of the fight between Duke Erriley and Chash, showing him being killed by Chash's powerful magic.

"What should we write as the heading to this piece of news?" the reporter asked me.

"Publisher Reagaon, what about, 'The Duke of Moresby seeks vengeance but was shattered by the Big Bully of Starri City".

"Nice, this will be a good follow up from yesterday's news, 'Duke of Moresby's face got smashed in a party'," the publisher told me.

"Make sure the whole city and the other cities will hear of this news tomorrow", I told Reagaon.

"We will print it in our paper and the whole kingdom will read about this tomorrow", Publisher Reagaon replied to me before he left.

"What are we supposed to do now, young Earl? You killed the duke of Moresby", the guards captain asked me.

"Write the truth in your report. It will become news by tomorrow anyway, there is no way to hide this", I replied to him.

Suddenly, someone appeared from our mansion. It was Hagar and he just found out what happened here.

"Since when did you have a newspaper in Tarah city, young master?" Hagar asked me.

"We need to give the refugees from Starri city jobs, and this is one of them. I started a newspaper in the city", I told him.

"What newspaper?" Hagar asked me.

A servant quickly brought Hagar today's Herald Times, and he read it with surprise and admiration.

"How did you manage to draw pictures into these papers. Usually, even scribing the news is a major chore. You have illustrations in your paper?" Hagar asked me.

"I bought a printing press and started printing the newspaper recently. Today's paper is the first print and soon our Herald Times will become the premiere news outlet in this kingdom", I replied to him.

I established Herald Times in Tarah city with the printing presses that Sara brought here from Istiopolis city. While we were at it, we established branches in many other cities in Drachia kingdom, so that everybody could read our news.

The thieves of the Solomon Temple were good at receiving news and selling it for a price. After I brought them to Tarah city, I don't want them doing odd and unkosher jobs anymore. 

But the thieves needed an income, so they became reporters in my new publishing business, the Herald Times. 

The thieves were speedy, they could send drafts to every city in the kingdom in a day for the news to be printed overnight in our printing presses in each of the cities that we had a branch in.

The traditional newspapers in Drachia kingdom were boring scripts, handwritten by scribes. They were difficult to come by and expensive, but our newspaper was different. 

Our newspaper was beautifully illustrated with drawings and cartoons. They are easily available in abundance and are cheap. Advertisement would become the new source of our paper's income besides the paper's selling price.

Sara also taught our publishers how to write sensationalist news to draw more readers to our newspaper.

Hagar was so engrossed with my new newspaper that he forgot to question me about my killing of Duke Erriley of Moresby.

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[In the chambers of Prince Raslee]

"Your highness, you cannot believe this. The Earl of Kaleon killed Duke Erriley in front of his mansion", Minister Holden told the prince.

"Yes, I've read it in today's Herald Times", the prince replied to the minister as a servant handed him a newspaper.

"What in Elis is this?" Minister Holden asked as he read the newspaper.