Chapter 56
A man proves himself through action, not a hundred words.
The troupe leader had definitely shot me a look like I was a lunatic.
Well, I probably wouldn't have believed it either.
An acquaintance of a dragon, of all things.
Even I can't believe it.
“Eeeek! It’s too narrow!”
“Esthea. Welcome.”
“Sigh.”
I really can't believe this thing is a dragon.
After plucking Esthea, who had once again poked her head through the laboratory gate and was dangling there, out by the armpits and spending a little time playing with her.
“Whaaat! The new work is a play, not a novel!”
“There’s a novel too.”
“Give it to me right now!”
I spent a nerve-racking moment getting feedback from Goldie, who had hurt my feelings over Sima Yi's departure.
And the result was.
“Uuu... Admiral Yi Sun-sin... ded...”
Unlike Roselyn, who overinvests only in romance, Esthea, who overinvests in every novel, had her tail sag to the floor.
“I don't think it would be bad as a novel either, of course, but I was thinking of turning it into a play so I could show this heroic image more vividly to more people.”
“Hmm... not bad!”
“But I'll need Goldie—no, Esthea's help.”
“Me? Why? What for?”
“By any chance, do you know what magical theater is?”
“No!”
After giving Goldie, who still hadn't seen a magical prism show, a slightly exaggerated explanation.
“Sounds fun!”
The gold dragon, worn down by boredom over the ages, had her eyes sparkle.
As expected, prism shows are all about freedom.
Well.
Surely she wouldn't say something like that just because I took her along and then cut open our Goldie to pull out a dragon heart.
.
.
.
“A-a real dragon...?”
“Ahem! My name is Esthea Golden Lintberius!”
After she showed up with her horns and wings fully spread on our first meeting, I took a moment to admire Goldie's appearance as she greeted us like a little Crimson Demon kid with an eyepatch.
“Since you showed interest in magical theater, we'd like you to give us a demonstration.”
“Ah...”
After soothing the slightly dazed troupe leader, I let Goldie sample a sliver of advanced civilization.
Well, just as I'd already sensed while watching magical theater myself.
“Ooh...!”
As expected, Goldie's reaction was favorable.
Magical theater was still a new innovation with barely five years of history, to the point that traditional plays were still more common.
From what I'd gleaned from Goldie the last time I asked, she'd said that over the past few years she rarely came out of the lair and was just stuffing herself with books and newspapers brought by her servants.
I knew she'd enjoy it.
A kid is a kid, after all.
“What do I need to help with?”
“Then, please come this way for a moment.”
We followed the troupe leader down into the basement.
About three basement floors down.
“Wow.”
“That's a huge magic circle. You made that magical whatever from this?”
I couldn't see the magic circle, though.
There was a giant stone stele standing in the middle of the vast cavern, as if it would fill the whole place.
“This is the central circuit of the magical play. But as you can see... it requires a great deal of mana.”
The Poneglyph-like stele glowed faintly blue at the bottom, but the higher it went, the more it lost its light and sank into darkness.
That blue glow was probably mana.
That stele is probably something like an ESS. Wonder if its main ingredient is lithium.
“Kim Yul! This is what you wanted?”
It wasn't my field of expertise, so I just nodded.
Goldie immediately trotted over, placed her hand on the stele, and closed her eyes.
Right after that.
Fwoosh──!
Tiny blue light began to gather at the tip.
Esthea's wings, which I'd thought were only there as auxiliary handles, suddenly grew enormous and spread wide to both sides.
Rumble……
Rumble-rumble……
Along with the sensation of the entire underground cavern shaking.
“Wow.”
“This is... dragon mana...?”
The troupe leader and I exclaimed at the same time.
In an instant.
The radiant blue light Esthea blew into it spread across the entire front of the stele as if driving out the darkness.
“How much would that be worth, in money?”
“...It’s hard even to calculate.”
“Do you happen to have emergency gold bars in the troupe?”
“Gold bars? Hmm, I think we might.”
“Get them ready.”
Even with the request to offer their precious gold bars as tribute, the awe and smile never left the troupe leader's face.
* * *
After that day.
I consciously stayed away from the play for a while.
I knew that if the original author got too involved in the media mix, horrible things like 'Omniscient Writer's Viewpoint' or 'The Youngest Son of a Rich Family' could happen.
If anything, if that happened, my novel's stock might go up even more.
Even now, I still couldn't fully understand the mindset of the people in this fantasy land.
Take the people around me right now.
Roselyn, Chloe, and Esthea.
Though two of them weren't "people" in the dictionary sense, I still couldn't understand their thought circuits either.
At times like this, it was only right to trust the troupe leader with the first production.
And so.
“All right! Good work, everyone!”
Magical theater.
The rehearsal of the key scenes from 'Hero and the Song of the Sea' was over.
“Wow, the tech is incredible. It's IMAX-level.”
“Waaaaah! It’s fun, it’s fun!”
“…….”
Despite the enthusiastic reactions of Tin Can and Goldie.
I couldn't suppress the headache flooding in.
I mean...
The visuals are amazing. Definitely.
Even without borrowing Tin Can's opinion, who praised it with big data despite never having seen IMAX, that much immersion came through clearly.
Even in the scene where the waves crashed and washed ashore with a splash, the briny smell reached the audience.
The lead actor's performance was excellent as well.
- One swing and you sweep them all away, painting the rivers and mountains with blood... nice, but isn't that sea a little too wide to paint?
- The wider the sea, the more countless the enemies.
The lines woven in here and there were good too.
Especially that final 'that line' sent a shiver through my heart.
But, how should I put it.
I mean...
“The adaptation... is... quite... extensive...”
What is it?
Why is a gold dragon's head attached to the prow of the turtle ship, and why is fire breath shooting out of it? Is that Goldie?
Why is Swordmaster Yi Sun-sin jumping straight onto the enemy warship and slaughtering everyone with flashy dual-blade techniques? How is that actor even lifting and swinging two 2-meter greatswords? Was he a gorilla in a past life?
And also...
Why is the role of Gunwon... no, the naval commander being played by a goblin...?”
Besides, how on earth did they even cast goblins?
“I didn't take you for someone with speciesist tendencies. Mr. Grogen, who took on the Gunwon role, is one of our troupe's main actors, and a half-goblin. For the record, his father's human, so try not to make rude assumptions.”
I think you're the one who just made the speciesist remark. Why are you tacking on useless TMI and scrambling my brain?
The enemy troops being goblins is one thing, but why is Gunwon like that?
“Hm? Wasn't he a spy for the enemy?”
If the Gun family association had heard that, they'd probably have had a seizure on the spot and fired off a vigorous lawsuit at the front lines, so I just kept silent.
Since I, too, had once nearly suffered such humiliation, I had no choice but to use the alias Gunwon in the script. Of course, the published novel still uses his real name.
Trauma carved into your bones is terrifying like this...
Anyway.
As for the play's overall quality, it was fair to say that borrowing a dragon's power had been worthwhile.
The elements I'd been thinking of.
The nobility and competence maintained from the very beginning.
In the middle, it briefly brought out slander and conflict, then quickly moved to his serving as a common soldier, keeping the frustration to a minimum.
From the highlight onward, it turned a string of disadvantageous battles into victories, and even worked in the boldness of the flagship's charge.
“Still, it’s a little different from the original novel...”
“Don’t worry. The rehearsal stage and the real thing are different, and once we add in the parts we skipped today, it’ll be enough.”
“I see.”
Hmm.
Well, adaptation is something that's unavoidable, after all.
A novel can stimulate the imagination through narration, but.
A stage production needs to hammer it straight into the audience's eyes through direction.
Besides, 'Japanese pirates' probably wouldn't really resonate in this fantasy world, so I didn't think it was bad to localize them as goblins.
...Though the fact that they chose to express that by using half-goblin actors was a bit mind-bending.
I did also wonder if this was just blatant species discrimination.
“Species discrimination? Hmm. I think simply letting them stand on the same stage is already contributing plenty to species equality.”
“Troupe leader, you’re way too open-minded, desuwa!”
The troupe leader had a point, and so did that elf who was prejudiced against short-lived races...
“Kikik, this is fun!”
“Loot the Joseon humans... khuk, I got too into it...”
“Acting is fun!”
“Earn money, feed our tribe!”
“You brats, I told you not to laugh so slyly like that! Ah, hello. You're the author, right? I'm the actor Grodek. For the record, my father's the human one. There are people who sometimes imagine it the other way around, but well, I'd rather not talk about the result.”
“Ah, yes...”
At Mr. Grodek's words, as he flaunted his rock-solid, muscular forearms, I decided to just let things flow.
Since they themselves said it was fine.
What does it matter.
* * *
The long-awaited opening day.
“Wow.”
“There are tons of people.”
When Tin Can and I strolled out, countless people filled our view.
So the rumor that new magical plays had been scarce lately was apparently true.
“It’s been so long... I’m so excited!”
“The original is Ulysses, huh. Could it be the Red Cliffs story?”
“Doesn't seem like it's from the Two Heroes series. Yi Sun-sin? There wasn't anyone with that name in either Two Heroes or Heroes Assemble.”
“I want Grodek's abs!”
The heat easily surpassed the stampede for a newly released card pack.
[Title: Hero and the Song of the Sea]
[Public Rating: No rating] [Sales: 0 copies]
I had no idea how much of this heat would actually translate into book sales, though,
...and I also didn't know how much everyone would accept the differences between the adaptation and the original.
The reaction to today's first performance would
decide whether I would receive the power of the Three-Province Naval Commander.
or the power of the Samdasu bottler.
Just as I was about to build up my expectations and head into the staff waiting room.
A sudden silence fell over the plaza.
Wondering what had happened, I looked to the source of the silence as it rolled in like a wave.
Soldiers in flashy armor were laying out a red carpet like arrogant VIP attendants at an airport.
And atop it, two men were stepping down from a carriage and walking over.
“It's the Second Prince!”
“Eek! The prince came to see the performance too!”
“So handsome...”
“Long live the Empire!”
Soon cheers and shrieks began to fill the Artist's Square.
One was a young man so obnoxiously handsome even I could tell.
Beside him was a familiar face.
The Elf Duke was tagging along at his side.