When A Mage Revolts

Similar to the height of Renaissance in Europe, the newspaper had already been invented and exerted a particular amount of influence on the upper class society. However, for various reasons, the press was a niche market amongst the people; the commoners barely had the habit of reading the news.

Benjamin did not plan to push their newspaper to the people, so this did not affect him.

As it was before, the newspaper was basically a business for only the government, but as time passed, the right to this business had opened up to the people. There were two or three press companies in Ferelden; the production chain was not too developed yet but there was already some professional employees. From typography, printing until distribution, there was an easier working model for them to emulate.

Although Benjamin did not know anyone in the business, but… Someone did!

"Mage Vinci, we are preparing to start a newspaper publication, I believe you know some professionals in the business. Could you introduce us to them?"

The day after dispersing, Benjamin used secret codes to get in touch with mage Vinci and met in a secret building. He wanted to ask for help.

Mage Vinci’s expression was, however, one of devastation.

"...What are you up to this time? I’ve let you off on the whole Declaration of the Freedom of Magic issue, I had helped you absorb so much of the pressure for that thing to be distributed successfully. You’re really something. It hasn’t even been two days and now you want to make some newspaper? What on earth are you up to?"

Benjamin scratched his head, laughing in embarrassment: "That… Don’t you worry, I won’t trouble you this time. I just need you to pull some strings for me, we’ll deal with everything after that."

Hearing that, Mage Vinci asked doubtfully, "Really?"

"Of course!"

"...Alright then." There was still some reservation in Mage Vinci’s demeanor, but as it was all to rebel against the Church, he still nodded, and even advised, "Oh right, you had better be careful. The Church has been suspiciously quiet lately, and there seems to be some undercurrent."

"Don’t worry. We will be very careful."

Regardless of what the situation was now in the City of Snow, they would definitely not get involved. In last night’s meeting, they had discussed and determined the stronghold cities; these were all middle sized cities in Ferelden that were quite a distance away from the City of Snow, and could probably put an end to the influence the Church had on them.

Ever since the serial assassination, the Church had quiet down and been up to god-knows-what. Concerning this, Benjamin of course subconsciously felt that they were holding on to some trump card; therefore he was on high alert and went about his business very carefully.

The situation so far had been good. He could not let the Church use the element of surprise and destroy everything.

Thus, after Mage Vinci had agreed, he quickly put Benjamin in contact with a publication house. However, it was surprising to him that this publication house was not from within Ferelden, but from Carretas.

"Ferelden’s publication houses have inextricable links to the government officials. So to be on the safe side, you’d best look to them for help." Mage Vinci explained.

Although Benjamin knew Ferelden had links with the Church, but at least… The enemy nearest to them now was the Church’s influence on Ferelden. Carretas was further off, the influence might not be effective.

He had no choice. Although they had published the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic before, that was slightly different from publishing a newspaper. A booklet could be written in a more casual method; as long as there was enough magic knowledge and inspirational quotes, it was good enough. But for a newspaper, they needed professional journalists and artists, in addition to the great necessity of paper and printing.

Because of that, he nodded and did not protest.

"We need articles on these topics, and suitable illustrations. Set the print quota on thirty thousand copies. You have specialized printing presses over in Carrestas. So you should be able to get it done?"

A few days later, in a little city on the borders of Ferelden, Benjamin met up with a representative from the publication house.

"As long as you can meet our fees, anything can be done." The representative rubbed his hands, answering with a grin.

Benjamin nodded.

After learning he standard procedures for the publication of a newspaper from him, he handed over the relevant materials to the representative and paid the deposit. After agreeing on the time for the next meeting, they left the place cautiously.

The name of the newspaper had been determined. It was going to be ‘The Free Mage’.

The influence of the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic still existed amongst the mages. To ride on the trend and cause the mages to feel that this was a continuation of the booklet, he had to continue on this intellectual property and work diligently on making this business a brand of his own.

Benjamin’s first requirement for the articles in the newspaper was that they had to be entertaining enough to attract the mages to continue reading. However, he did not hand over the responsibility for the most important piece of news on the headlines to the publication house’s journalists; he was going to handle that himself.

In the past, Mage Vinci had mentioned to him that, when the Church’s ban had been lifted, there were mages that had gone to the palace to petition the Queen, and subsequently disappeared without a trace. Benjamin had obtained the names and information on all the mages for such a time as this, to be the first list of victims used to criticize the Church.

And so, returning to the City of Rayleigh, Benjamin made arrangements, for his men to move about to begin building the secret strongholds and newspaper channels in every city. On the surface, they seemed to be a newly established publication house. Underground, however, were the secret rooms, tunnels, offices… These were constructed, bit by bit.

In twos and threes, the mages and the mercenaries entered a total of seventeen mid-sized cities, and began their organization’s foundation building.

As for Benjamin himself, he sat in the hotel looking at the bundles of information next to his hand. He took a deep breath and, on a crisp new piece of paper, wrote the title of his article.

‘Remembering Mage Deere’

Dipped into ink, in Benjamin’s hand, the tip of the feather pen moved lightly, at a rapid speed, laying line upon line of words on the white paper.

"A true warrior who dared to face a dismal life, brave…"

"...I have never refrained from assuming the worst when judging the Church, however I had never expected…"

In his mind, his consciousness unwillingly repeated in his memory, the text he had learnt back in High School. And he was now editing these words, translating… Finally wrapping it up into an entirely new analytical piece on current affairs.

This was definitely a good opportunity. He was aware of his limited penmanship, he could not reach the level necessary, so he could only borrow the wisdom of his predecessors. He did not intend to profit this way, and did not want to depend on this to copy his way to literary fame. He only wished to borrow these classical discourses and inspire more of the mages’ rebellion.

He believed that, in the nether world, the masters six feet under would not blame him for this.