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    Chapter 10

    On the same day of August 4 th, in the afternoon,  the media have flocked onto Miyakijima.

    Of course, they came to Tatsuya.

    Anomalous (in terms of season, place, and scale) ice fields, which appeared all of a sudden in the coastal waters of Miyakijima and just as suddenly disappeared, were observed not only by the national meteorological observatory, but also by civilians. Nevertheless,  none of the reporters even tried to pry the truth about that unnatural phenomena, which would be the top story in normal circumstances.

    Reporters from  TV, newspapers, and online news sites - everyone was shoving microphones at Tatsuya, hoping to catch any sensational comments.

    Tatsuya didn’t turn down interviews, although he didn’t answer all of the questions from the media. If he tried to satisfy every request from the media, he would have no time to eat or sleep.

    Among the reporters, there were also those who asserted in a provocative manner that  Tatsuya’s actions were nothing more than terrorism, and his proclamation was in defiance of the international community. Moreover, they didn’t stop at mere provocations: one newspaper wrote an article, branding him as a criminal; there was also a TV station, condemning Tatsuya in every way possible on one of its programmes… All of them were companies belonging to a certain media group that had long since been creating journalistic content by depicting  magicians as enemies.

    However, the government immediately stated that the acts committed by Tatsuya were legal, both in terms of domestic and international l aw. Therefore,  such comments from some of the media outlets  failed to change public opinion in any way .

    The goal of such a quick reaction from the government, seemingly, was to negate suspicion and criticisms as to why the Self-Defense Forces didn’t respond to the missile, which targeted the Japanese territory, or even the possibility  that they couldn’t detect the missile altogether .

    The Ministry of Defense countered that they detected the hyper-sonic missile at the moment of its launch and asserted that Tatsuya was entrusted with the interception of the missile under the Defense Cooperation Memorandum, which had long since been established between the government and the Magic Association.

    Many people got the impression that such an answer was an attempt to evade the essence of the question. But since the memorandum itself had been published a long time ago, their suspicions didn’t become a widespread opinion.

    However, the comments of the Japanese government alone couldn’t have influenced public opinion so much. It was p robably the American military experts, together with  diplomatic commentators and international law experts, who spoke out  in Tatsuya’s defense one after another, that had a much greater i mpact.

    One might even say that American commentators were more proactive about this issue than the Japanese. Each and every American expert (at least those who publicly expressed their opinions), although having different [legal] grounds, claimed that attacking the Birobidzhan base and killing Bezobrazov was self-defense by Tatsuya, and it was lawful .  The New Soviet Union, meanwhile, stubbornly  denied the death of Bezobrazov.

    Such enthusiasm from the Americans  even generated speculations that the White House might be pulling the strings behind the scenes.

    Stories about the dominating positive public opinion hold little interest for  the media. The belief that journalism’s raison d’être [31] is criticism remained deeply-rooted  even at the end of the 21 st  century.

    Only three days after the incident occurred, the media left Miyakijima en masse (all at once), attracted by another fresh story.

    August 7 th , three days after the event later called the ?Miyakijima Incident?.

    The USNA Secretary of Defense, Liam Spencer, made an urgent visit to Japan. The event was reported with great surprise by both Japanese and American media.

    After World War III, the American president stopped leaving the country, so the overseas trips of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense symbolised  the USNA’s diplomacy at the highest level .  Moreover, Liam Spencer was a well-known politician who had even been called the strongest presidential candidate in the next election.

    Furthermore, this visit from Secretary of Defense Spencer was made without prior notice to Japan. There was no body from the political world, business community, or the media industry who couldn’t see the great significance of this visit .

    Therefore, the loss of interest in Tatsuya was a natural course of events.

    “Lina.”

    Tatsuya looked at Lina and smirked faintly.

    “W-what?”

    Lina’s face twitched slightly out of an ominous premonition.

    “ Here is written: ? In proof that the intention of cooperation is not a lie, Lieutenant Colonel Angelina Shields is indefinitely lent to you as an ally for free?.”

    “What did you say!?”

    Lina shouted that, and then froze.

    “Amazing. Lina got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, didn’t she?”

    “ Hey, hang on !”

    But she quickly regained her senses and began to object with a panicking face.

    “I’ve quit the Stars! They’ve got my resignation notice!”