Overwhelming Firepower

A month after Lucen’s play started being advertised by the bards, Harry’s theater group was trying their best to prepare.

Harry needed to hire more actors as well as more mages from the purple tower to better enhance the quality of the play.

When he read Lucen’s final draft, Harry became even more determined to make this play the best.

Even Lucen came to Caelhart with Harry’s group to help with preparations. With him were Robert and Sir Thalos.

Robert came because he suspected Harry was trying to trap Lucen into continuing as a playwright, instead of continuing to create more wonderful things and explore the truths of the universe with him. So he came here to make sure Lucen wouldn’t be tricked.

Sir Thalos came with Lucen as his bodyguard. Seeing as it was obvious there were some nobles working in the dark to bring down the Thorneharts. With Thalos and Robert beside him, Lucen was quite safe.

Because Sir Thalos was beside Lucen, no one even dared to spy on what was happening inside the theater. No one was foolish enough to get too close or show any suspicious movement.

***

Seeing as this was going to be the grandest play ever produced in Norvaegard, they needed to use the largest playhouse in Norvaegard.

For that reason, Lucen spared no expense and rented Vaelgard’s Theater House, the oldest playhouse and also the largest in all of Norvaegard.

It was the first theater house to open in Norvaegard when it was first acknowledged as a kingdom. It was named in Honor of the First King Richard Vaelgard.

The Vaelgard Theater house was a place where they used to show grand plays depicting the glory and honor a certain person or people gained in battle.

Getting your play to be shown in this place required not only coin, but also permission from the royal family.

Of course, Lucen got that permission from the King directly, who seemed quite intrigued by the upcoming play.

Still, the king did not simply give his permission for free. He knew that Lucen had more advanced firearms like the Thunderspear.

So he asked Lucen to provide the Iron Wolves with a Thunderspear; of course, he needed to teach them how to use it as well. Lucen did not even hesitate as he agreed to the terms the King gave him.

Lucen’s quick agreement surprised the king. Most people who knew Lucen even a little bit understood that this child would not do something that did not give equal or greater return.

The king started to wonder if the Thunderspears were now useless to Lucen, which was why he gave up a few willingly. There was also a thought that Lucen did this because the play would give greater benefit overall.

Of course, the truth of the matter was rather simple. Lucen wasn’t really thinking too much about it.

In his mind, since the rumors about the coup were spreading around, rejecting the king’s request would make it seem like he wasn’t willing to share his equipment with the royals.

There was also the fact that, despite giving the Thunderspear to the Iron Wolves, who could find others that could make the iron balls, as for the gunpowder needed, well, the King would still need to purchase the gunpowder from them.

Overall, it was a pretty good deal for Lucen. Now that they had the venue ready, they needed to prepare it for the play they wanted to show.

***

The Vaelgard Theater House was already buzzing with activity. Scaffolds were erected to hold props far larger than normal, and crews of stagehands ran back and forth carrying crates of costumes, mechanical effects, and magical devices.

Grey Tower mages were hired to check the magical devices that would help with changing the background scenery without the need for illusion spells.

You could see Robert glaring from the side, but since Lucen said not to disturb them, he kept his irritation about the Grey Tower to himself, but that did not stop him from just keeping on glaring at them.

Purple Tower mages floated above the stage, their hands glowing faintly as they cast illusions and subtle enchantments to make the set pieces move gracefully without a single visible string.

Lucen watched as the actors practiced their lines. He found it truly interesting to be backstage watching them do all this.

Watching them do all this reminded him of the slice of life animes he used to watch in his past life.

He was once again amazed by the power of magic that could make any scene you can imagine into a reality.

’Illusion spells truly are something that goes beyond what CGI could provide. If we had this back in my past life, the fantasy and sci-fi movies would have been so much grander.’

While he was thinking Harry suddenly approached him from behind. ”What do you think Lucen are you interested in performing? If you want, you can play the Main Character.”

When Lucen heard Harry’s suggestion, he thought about it for a second. It was true that with Acting Adept, he would be able to act any way he wanted and perfectly at that.

’So should I be the one who plays the main character?...’ Lucen thought about it for a moment and shook his head.

”There’s no need for that. I can’t take away the chance of someone else who has honed their craft for many years. Besides, I like watching plays more than being in them.” Lucen answered while shrugging his shoulders.

Harry was about to say something more, but then Robert suddenly appeared and interrupted him. ”Did you hear that you art loser? Stop forcing Lucen to do things he wasn’t meant to be doing.”

”Huh? I understand now why they call you the mad alchemists. Everything you say is insane.” Harry replied with a smirk on his face.

The two then started arguing again. They had done this numerous times throughout that no one was even bothered by it anymore. It was different at the start, as every time they fought, it gathered quite a bit of attention, but now it was just part of their day.

They continued their preparations like this for another month, hoping that the play they would show would become the best that would ever be seen.