23 How The Printing Press Was Invented.
Howard sort of expected this to happen. From what he is told, the city governments and lords of Lukeword were more concerned about stuffing their own pockets rather than their own officials. Of course, they will make sure to stop any attempts at harming their customer base. However, there were a few questions he had to ask…
"Excuse me, Mr. Frisk. I don't mean to interrupt, but I have a question to ask you."
"Go on."
"From the moment he was banned, did the city lord send out a warrant for his arrest?" Howard asks.
"Why do you think that?"
"Well, from what I am hearing, it is only a matter of time till the city lord comes after him. If Mr. Rach got banned from submitting any stories to the board, wouldn't he also be arrested as well?
It seems illogical to keep the man around. He would be a great liability for them and their pockets," Howard asks. He assumes that the board was either ordered by the lord to reject the story, or the board itself rejected the story and banned Rach himself. In any case, the city lord should have been informed of what was going on.
"He would have if they had an excuse. However, the only thing he was guilty of was complying with an anonymous leaker."
"That is not a crime?" Howard queried, raising an eyebrow.
"If it was, a lot of people working for the lord would have gone to jail. They have used leakers to arrest a lot of criminals," Frisk answers.
With that, it solves why Frisk was able to stay in the city. Now the question is, how did they manage to spread Frisk's story? He knew the printing press was involved, but he did not know how they did it, nor how long it took the kingdom to ban it, and for what reason.
Feeling as if they were important, he continued to listen in to his story. However, Howard made sure to try and speed things up, so that he wouldn't waste his time just listening to him tell him about some stranger's story.
"Now although he got banned from publishing stories there, Rach was not demotivated by it. Quite the opposite. He felt invigorated to find another way to get his story out. The question is, how? He tried multiple ways, but couldn't quite figure it out.
Then one day, when he was at home helping out his family, he saw two things that gave him an idea of what to do," Frisk states.
"First was his baby brother, applying some paint on his hand and then placing it on a sheet of paper. The next thing was seeing his mother using an intricate nutcracker, which used what he called a 'Toggle-Joint Lever' to help his mother break the nut in two," he explains.
"It was only after seeing those two events, that the idea of the printing press came up to him. What if he could combine these two principles, and make a device capable of printing out a lot of papers in a quick manner?
If he pulled it off, he would be able to…"
"He would be able to distribute his stories to the public while bypassing the News Board?" Howard filled in. Frisk snaps his fingers and points at the prince.
"Exactly! Now, it did take him a while to make one, but once he did, he got to work printing as many articles as he could, and started selling them."
"Did he have any problems he had to deal with? Did the knight come after him? Did they use his as an excuse to arrest him?" Frisk shakes his head at Howard's question.
"No. It wasn't a proper reason to arrest him at the time. His stories were, by all means, classified as a regular good he could sell to the public. There were no laws prohibiting something like that at the time," he quickly answers.
"Anyways, once he got his printing press made, he bought a lot of papers and started printing out his story. He then started selling these stories to the people and got the people's attention.
With their public support, I was able to redeem myself in front of my community, and finally able to meet up with my family. My mother even apologized to me for what she did. Although, I think the only reason she did that was because everyone was still furious at her."
"Hmm… That is very interesting. But how does all this tie to you being my escort?" Howard finally asked. His near-infinite patience was starting to run out.
"Well, once Rach established himself in the industry with his new invention, he asked me to head north, sneak back inside to acquire more documents to "prove the innocence of the men, women, and children who had suffered because of the false accusations made by the nobles of the north!"
At the time, I was financially devasted. That fake uniform cost me a lot of money to make, and even though I was proven innocent in court, the legion of knights still refused to reenlist me into the training program.
Even with all my experience in hunting demons with shitty equipment, the legion still refuses to accept me. I guess they were angry that I had pissed away a potential revenue source."
"They knew it was you?"
"No, but they sure did suspect me of it. The knights were told by their superiors to treat me as an outsider, but most of them didn't follow that rule. I think they felt really guilty for not keeping their faith in me," he comments.
"Anyways, considering my financial situation, I decided to accept his deal. He gave me a list of nobles to steal from, and I did.
I went back there, snuck into their homes, invaded their privacy, and stole a lot of information from them. Once I got back, Rach paid me a handsome reward, which I used to purchase some good equipment for my… main profession," he explained.
"This went on for 2 whole years, without a single hiccup. I made sure to cover my tracks, and he made sure that we were not involved. It was all going well until…"
"Until you got caught?" Howard filled in for Frisk. He nods his head.
"Yes. I got caught. Though it was by pure luck on their part, and a horrific mistake on my part, I got caught. It did not take them long to uncover my connections to Rach, about our various dealings.
It gave them the evidence they needed to put Rach in jail and ban the printing press throughout the kingdom. Pretty soon after that, we were sent to trial and sentenced to be hanged."
Frisk stopped to take in a deep breath, as the traumatic memories came right back. Howard could feel Frisk's heartbeat and stress rise, just after muttering that one line.
"I thought…" Frisk starts to struggle to speak.
"I thought that was it. I thought I was going to die. I was… I…" he pauses to recollect his words. His voice starts to sound a little raspy, all probably stemming from the overwhelming emotions he is feeling.
"I thought my life was over… but then…" Frisk wipes off his sweat and tears using his coat.
"But then, just before the day I was supposed to be hanged, the king himself, your father came up to me and asked me to escort you to safety.
He even told me that he would forgive my actions, pay me a huge reward of 25,000 Ducats, a plot of land in Parados, and even a chance to become a knight again!" he claimed.
"I swear, your highness, I had never felt such happiness, such gratitude in my entire life. I immediately accepted it on the spot. It was my way of escaping the death penalty, so I took it. I accepted the king's deal, and that is how I ended up here."
Howard was silent, taking some time to process the story of Frisk, and his employer/ partner Rach. As he listens to Frisk speak, he can't help but notice a lot of similarities between the two men.
These traits were ingenuity, persistence, adaptability, defiance of Unjust Authority, and adaptability. He wondered if these traits were seen in other Lukewordians, or if these traits were just exclusive to these two.
Considering his whole motivation to listen to Frisk was rooted in his desire to know everything he could about Lukeword and its people, Howard wanted to ask him more stories about that place, maybe even ask him about that Angel Knight fellow.
"Hm… That is quite a story, Mr. Frisk. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Can you tell me about… your life? Your friends you had? Can you spare some time to share your moments with them?" Frisk, feeling very honored that the prince finds his story fascinating, happily agrees to his demands.
