The Aftermath (2)

The original manuscript of Volume 1 of The Chronicle of Xenon had been stolen. That single piece of news was enough to throw the entire world into an uproar.

If it had been a copy made by the publishing house or a first edition, people might have shrugged it off, but this was the original manuscript—the manuscript pages Isaac had written by hand and sent to the publishing house.

It was an artifact of immense historical importance, not merely something that had left a major mark on the cultural world, so its theft was inevitably an extremely serious matter.

[Shocking! The Theft of Volume 1 of The Chronicle of Xenon!]

[They didn't crack the safe—the very entrance was torn off... This was definitely not the work of an ordinary organization.]

[The company president is currently unconscious from the shock. There will be calls for accountability over the manuscript's lax security, but there are ample mitigating circumstances.]

[Who could have expected someone to steal the safe itself? And for what purpose did they take it?]

In less than three days, the news spread far and wide. The incident was so shocking that the newspapers printed special editions as if their presses were factories.

As a result, people gathered once again to demand an explanation from the publishing house, but they dispersed again before long.

The higher-ups had sensed the seriousness of the situation, and an investigation team dispatched directly from the imperial palace had begun examining the safe. Fearing that they might be caught in the fallout, people returned to their own affairs despite their suspicions...