Release that Witch

”...” After reading the letter, everyone fell into an awkward silence.

After a long time, Bernis mumbled bitterly, ”I knew we shouldn’t expect too much from him. Think about what everybody said about Prince Roland in the past and his favorite hangouts in the city. I thought he changed after he became the king, but...”

”Hush.” Egrepo pulled her arm to stop her. ”Be careful. All the nobles who can still come to the theatre are his supporters. Even if they are not, they will pretend to be loyal to him. If someone heard what you just said, you would have been in trouble.”

”It seems that we can never make it to Neverwinter in this lifetime,” Roentgen sighed and said.

”That’s not a big deal. We’re very popular here.” Egrepo comforted her. ”Kajen Troupe is still a first-rate troupe in all cities except Neverwinter. We can support ourselves.”

”But magic movies will come here sooner or later,” Kajen suddenly interjected. ”Recently, I’ve been reading the scripts May gave me, and I found the stories had one thing in common. All of them are set in an imaginary world, an ideal world His Majesty wants to achieve. He intends to use these movies to spread his ideas and promote his national policies, so he won’t just play them in Neverwinter. Can you still be so confident about stage plays when magic movies come here?”

Egrepo thought for a moment and suggested, ”We... we can go to another country, such as the Kingdom of Dawn. Mr. Fels, the theaters there will be more than happy to accept us, if you ask—”

”No, I won’t go to the Kingdom of Dawn,” Kajen replied while shaking his head.

”How about we...”

Suddenly, Kajen looked up and said, ”I want to go to Neverwinter again.”

”What?”

”Mr. Fels, are you sure?”

Everyone was shocked.

”It’ll take at least a month for the troupe to go there and back, and during this period of time, the troupe will have no money coming in.” Egrepo said urgently. ”We’ll be alright, but the new actors and apprentices will be unable to make ends meet and will probably leave the troupe for this.”

Kajen knew that it was hard to take the whole troupe to Neverwinter. Without a theater that was willing to take them in, they would have to prepare all the props and goods by themselves, which was not an easy task.

The next moment, Kajen said something, which was completely beyond everybody’s expectations. ”I’ll go there by myself.”

This time, his students remained speechless for an even longer time before they asked hesitantly, ”What... are you going to do in Neverwinter?”

”Try to be a magic movie actor,” Kajen said slowly. ”His Majesty said that these movies are going to become a popular art form someday, but he didn’t say how long it’ll take to popularize this art form... 10 years or 20 years? I can’t wait for such a long time. Even if it only takes five years, it’ll be too late for us to learn the magic movie at that time, and by then Star Flower Troupe will be far ahead of us.”

Kajen believed that the best time to catch up with a trend was at the beginning of it.

”But His Majesty has Star Flower Troupe already...” Benis murmured.

”Star Flower Troupe only has May and Irene,” Kajen glanced at his students and said. ”Any troupe has to practice repeatedly to present an outstanding performance. May’s troupe can’t cope with all the movies His Majesty wants to shoot, so Neverwinter may be willing to let us stay to reduce Star Flower Troupe’s workload. And if we can outshine them in some type of drama, which they’re not good at, such as a farce, we may have a chance to act in a magic movie.”

”Are you willing to play a role in a... farce?” Egrepo could not believe what he had heard and asked.

”Life is about trade-offs. Most of the time, if you want to get something, you have to give up another thing for it,” Kajen nodded and replied. ”Even if we can only act in a farce, we should do our best.”

He paused for a moment before adding, ”Of course, His Majesty may turn us down again. When that happens, I’ll join Star Flower Troupe. Do any of you want to come with me?”

No one answered.

Kajen guessed that they might just be too stunned to say anything at this moment or reluctant to leave the old king’s city.

He understood their feelings.

They reacted just as he had expected. In fact, he himself also got shocked by this sudden idea. As Egrepo had said, as the most venerated playwright in the world of today, he could continue his career even in the Kingdom of Dawn. However, he decided to give up the theater for magic movies, which was not an easy choice at all.

Because of his age, he could not move quickly and easily on the stage, and his memory was not as good as before. If this drama master really worked as an actor, he would only be able to play a walk-on part. No matter how well he acted, it would inevitably become a joke in the eyes of others.

Many years ago, as a famous actor, he had given up his acting job and begun to write plays. Since then, he had never thought about returning to the stage as an actor. However, now he had no choice. The king had turned down his troupe and he did not seem to appreciate his stories very much. Meanwhile, he was unable to write plays like ”New City” and ”Dawn”. Given these, he thought he probably could only join Star Flower Troupe as an actor to take part in magic movie production.

This is incredible! His students still stood agape.

Kajen could see how shocked they were at a glance.

It was indeed an incredibly bold decision, but after making this decision, he finally felt relieved.

He was not young anymore, but at this moment, he felt young at heart. This feeling reminded him how happy and inspired he had been during his first visit to the theater.

Since then, 30 years had passed and he had never felt the same impulse until he saw the magic movie.

Nothing could stop him from pursuing his dream.

”Among you, Egrepo has worked with me for the longest time and he knows how to manage a troupe. When I’m away, he’ll run the troupe on behalf of me,” Kajen said calmly. ”Many talented young people have joined our troupe recently. Give them more chances to make an appearance. As long as audiences come to our theater to watch plays, you’ll be able to support yourselves.”

”Mr. Fels...” the students still wanted to say something but were immediately stopped by Kajen.

He decided to listen to his heart.

He wanted to follow his dream.

He wanted to act in a magic movie.

...

Neverwinter had produced its first napalm bomb.

As Roland had expected, it did not take the alchemists a long time to make it.

Only a week after finding the ideal thickening agent, the Ministry of Chemicals successfully manufactured the first napalm bomb.

It consisted of a dozen identical iron cylinders, which were one meter high and 30 centimeters in diameter. Explosives were contained inside the cylinders, and the fuses of all the cylinders were connected together.

”Your Majesty, this is the bomb I designed. I call it Burning-city Thunder,” Retnin said excitedly. ”There’re three different substances inside the cylinders. At the bottom, there’s the snow powder layer. The combustion-supporting layer is in the middle, and the fuel layer is at the top. When the snow powder is ignited, the flames will go up and reach the combustion-supporting layer and then the jelled fuel. This process resembles that of a volcanic eruption, and…”

The former Chief Alchemist of the Alchemist Workshop of the old king’s city thought he finally got a chance to replace Kyle Sichi and talked on and on. Apparently, he was very proud of his work, and many details in his design did impress Roland. Apart from the clear arrangement of the three layers inside the cylinders, he also used an electric detonator and adopted the delayed ignition technology to further boost the bomb’s killing power. When this bomb was ignited, the cylinders would explode one by one and would not affect each other adversely. Roland had to admit Retnin was very talented.

He found Retnin was particularly interested in creating bombs and explosives.

He only doubted his ability to name his works.

But for Roland, it was not a big deal. After all, when this kind of weapon became operational, he was the only one who had the right to name it.

”Well then, let’s test your Burning-city Thunder now,” Roland said smilingly.