Ch.427[Episode 427] Cinematic

A few minutes ago, the director was smoking and chatting with other staff members.

More precisely, it was a gathering where they were expressing anxiety about whether Sir Dominic would be able to arrive on time.

One of the staff members, unable to overcome his anxiety, finally asked the director directly.

He was one of the staff members who hadn’t been present when Sir Dominic fell from a boat in the blue vortex.

“Will Sir Dominic be able to arrive on time?”

“He will.”

The director asserted.

“But even if he does, wouldn’t he need more time for makeup and memorizing the script? Then naturally—”

“Not necessary.”

“…Pardon?”

“Sir Dominic doesn’t need such things.”

The director dismissed the staff member’s concerns.

The staff member seemed to want to argue something with the director, but the director looked at him with extremely firm and serious eyes.

“If you had seen Sir Dominic, you would have had the same reaction as me.”

“?”

“It’s because you haven’t properly seen the effect of [Cinematic].”

The director said, comforting the staff member.

“[Cinematic]? What’s that?”

“Simply put, it’s a technique that makes everyone focus their attention on Sir Dominic.”

“…What does that have to do with the current situation?”

“Well.”

The director extinguished his nearly burnt-out cigarette in the ashtray and said to the staff member.

“Just wait. Sir Dominic will definitely arrive while drawing everyone’s attention.”

In the director’s eyes as he spoke, there was a certain conviction.

…

Sir Dominic was sailing smoothly and arrived near the Black Company headquarters.

“If all goes well, I might even arrive on time.”

Sir Dominic said as he looked at his watch.

Fortunately, it was a time when he could arrive not just within the mentioned 5 minutes, but even on time.

“I hope nothing goes wrong. Yes, as long as nothing goes wrong.”

Sir Dominic said as he safely piloted the airship at the speed indicated by the navigation system.

Just when it seemed like he could definitely arrive on time.

[Warning! Sudden appearance of wildlife!]

“…Hmm?”

Sir Dominic was bewildered by the navigation system’s sudden warning.

Wildlife? What on earth could it be referring to?

At that moment, Sir Dominic felt a great impact and the airship shaking violently.

“Wh-what’s happening?”

Sir Dominic looked around, trying hard to maintain his position inside the still-shaking airship.

And… he ended up making eye contact with a dragon.

“…I suppose dragons are considered wildlife these days.”

Sir Dominic tried to ignore the dragon, but the dragon, seemingly offended by the collision with the airship, began repeatedly ramming its head into the airship.

Sir Dominic tried to counterattack with the weapons on the airship, but…

[Warning! ‘Wild Dragon’ is currently an endangered species. Attacks on dragons may result in fines of over 10 million Credits or imprisonment of up to 3 years under the Wildlife Protection Act.]

Sir Dominic was dumbfounded.

Really? He was about to die right now, and attacking the dragon was an issue?

But Sir Dominic was a knight who unnecessarily adhered well to regulations.

In the end, Sir Dominic had no choice but to withdraw his attack on the wild dragon.

The dragon continued to ram its head into Sir Dominic’s airship.

However, since the airship was influenced by Sir Dominic’s stats, there wasn’t much damage.

The dragon, offended by this fact, then breathed out a powerful breath toward the airship.

Of course, if this had been an ordinary breath, Sir Dominic’s airship would have been fine, but…

[Critical hit! Defense-ignoring damage!]

The problem was that this breath happened to be a critical hit that ignored defense.

“Good heavens.”

In the end, Sir Dominic’s airship took massive damage and began to burn.

[The steering system is damaged.]

[Gas for flight is leaking.]

[Altitude is decreasing. We are crashing!]

As the airship burned, problems continued to arise inside.

Sir Dominic could no longer move the airship or increase its altitude; he could only remain still as the airship moved on its own.

“But the direction is right, so if it continues like this…”

Sir Dominic remembered that the airship was currently flying toward the Black Company headquarters.

With luck, Sir Dominic could fall right onto the Black Company headquarters and arrive at the meeting place.

If a burning airship fell near a crowded area, there would certainly be problems, but Sir Dominic hadn’t thought about that issue yet.

Right now, his mind was filled only with the thought that he must get to the meeting place.

Of course, there was no reason for Sir Dominic to have major problems with the issues that would arise after the burning airship landed.

Sir Dominic was one of the wealthiest individuals in Gacha Land, and if necessary, he could take responsibility and compensate for everything.

In Gacha Land, sometimes money was more valuable than life.

Though Sir Dominic wouldn’t think so.

…

Anyway, the airship that was falling after being attacked by the dragon was, fortunately, flying toward the stage.

Fortunate in the sense that it wouldn’t fall on the audience or the event staff, minimizing human casualties.

But what about the people on the stage?

Did they also think it was fortunate?

Well, I don’t know about Zero, but Unryu Hime certainly didn’t.

They say that when a person receives a tremendous shock, they go through five stages.

“…Eh?”

First is denial.

“Ehh?”

Next is anger.

“Ehhhhh?”

After negotiation,

“Ehhhhhhhhhh?”

Depression.

“Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-?”

And finally, acceptance.

But in pirate reality shock, there were no such stages.

Just fear! Overwhelming fear!

Unryu Hime’s fear of pirates was clearly the result of acquired learning.

However, just as Unryu Hime gained fox ears and a tail through the alpha test and beta test, her pirate reality shock had already transformed to the level of being innate, engraved in her genes.

Until now, her fear of pirates had been diluted for various reasons, but…

“Aieeeeeeeee-!”

Currently, Unryu Hime had somewhat returned to her original state due to the Enchant collaboration.

In other words, her pirate reality shock factor had manifested as it did at the beginning.

The only improvement was that she didn’t faint immediately.

Whether that was a helpful development for Unryu Hime is uncertain.

“This is it!”

“It’s Enchant! This is Enchant!”

“That’s right! Ninjas can’t defeat pirates!”

Surprisingly, despite this sudden situation, people didn’t lose their composure.

No, they were actually enjoying it.

To be precise, they were viewing all of this as a play or attraction.

Sir Dominic might not have known, but Enchant, the game in which he first appeared, was one of the more well-known indie games.

That’s why Don Castello of Greed chose it as a funding source and business item.

Moreover, among broadcasting Stars like I’m Not Little, such short, roguelike games that could be enjoyed one round at a time were something that could be enjoyed for a long time.

For these various reasons, Enchant had acquired quite a large fandom.

There was even a fairly deep, maniacal fan base due to its gameplay and settings that were good for role-playing.

“But I’ve never seen an airship like that before, isn’t it a setting error?”

“How stupid! It was only mentioned that Sir Dominic is a pirate knight. The exact setting has never been revealed. If he was a sky pirate, everything would make sense!”

“W-well, there was a clockwork device among Sir Dominic’s exclusive items. ‘A clockwork device of unknown origin’ must have referred to a part of the airship!”

…I didn’t know they were this maniacal.

Anyway, everyone here, not knowing that this was a real situation, thought it was just part of the production.

“Maybe part of the setting will be revealed here after two years.”

Someone who genuinely loved Enchant said.

“Well, I don’t know about the game, but they really put effort into the production.”

Someone who enjoyed Heroes of Legend, but didn’t know about Enchant, said.

“…I’ll have to see its performance first.”

It even made those who were serious about Heroes of Legend take notice.

And so, the burning airship fell onto the stage and split in half.

Fortunately, it didn’t explode, but half of the stage was already in ruins due to the burning airship.

“…Oh my.”

People’s attention was focused on the airship.

“I didn’t expect there to be a dragon there. I almost died and had to come back.”

And from the split in the airship, Sir Dominic emerged with his hand on his head, drawing his sword.

And at that moment, a cheer so loud it could deafen erupted from the audience below the stage.