episode_0136

‘Your Majesty, please keep your dignity.’

Seeing Elsa’s figure moving as if she were alive before his eyes, Edric remembered what his former chamberlain had said.

After first reading and learning about the character of Elsa, he quickly became absorbed in the world of comics.

At first, he started reading comics, and later, he started collecting comic-related items, which became an indescribable pleasure for him.

And as he became more and more absorbed in comics, the concerns of those around him grew day by day.

There was even an incident where his chief chamberlain, who had assisted Edric since he was young, earnestly begged him to return to being the prince he once was.

‘Sometimes I felt stifled by the palace.’

And that was Edric’s answer to the chief’s worries.

From the time his memory begins, as a child, he always had to be careful about his actions.

Not only did she have to watch her father’s face, but she was also a little scared to get close to her half-brothers.

Even his mother always told him to be careful with his actions and words.

Edric gladly accepted all of this as a duty he had to endure, but he couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness in his heart at times.

However, during those days, the movie that he happened to see felt like a ray of light to him.

The character Elsa in the manga was very similar to him.

Was that why?

The scene where she is freed from all shackles and sings freely made him shed tears without realizing it, and the latter part where she finally accepts the fate given to her again resonated with him greatly.

To others, it might have just been a fun book with pretty pictures, but to Edric, it was a work that seemed to acknowledge his struggles and comfort him.

It must have been from that time.

Edric started to think that it would be nice if Elsa from really existed.

Of course, Edric knew that the idea was absurd even without the people around him telling him.

‘But isn’t that thought enough?’

If I continued to live only looking at what other people thought, I would be no different from Elsa when she was locked in the palace.

Now, Edric wanted to live his life doing what he wanted.

Clap clap clap.

When the credits finally appeared on the screen, signaling the end of the play, Edric stood up and began to applaud.

And following Edric, other audience members also stood up one by one and began to applaud, and soon the theater was filled with the sound of applause.

“My name is….”

Among them, there were some people other than Edric who were shedding tears.

It was none other than those who participated in the production of this animation.

Wolfgang, who supervised all the music written for this , could not contain his overwhelming emotions.

From the image of Rupert, who came to him as if by fate and gave him another chance when he had lost his hand and was wandering.

The time I spent staying at Somerset Manor during the holidays and composing music with my friends from the music department passed by quickly.

It was fun at first, but then I started to worry that my music might ruin the work.

In the end, he was determined to pour everything into this work, staying up all night comparing the script and music and making revisions.

And while re-watching , which he had already seen dozens, if not hundreds, of times to get the sound and image to match, at a demonstration, he received an unexpected gift.

‘I hope you will watch the work until the end.’

Wolfgang remembered what Rupert had said to the invited guests before today’s demonstration.

After the final scene of ended, the screen turned black for a moment, and then white letters began to appear.

Those letters, written densely but clearly, were all people’s names.

If you participated in the production of a work, regardless of the size or importance of the work, it was listed on what is called the ending credits on Earth.

“I honestly didn’t know why I had to include that, but now I do.”

“Unlike comics, animation is never my work alone.”

Rupert and Esteban, who were watching the film in the projection room that managed the theater’s video and sound, were also talking while watching the ending credits appear on the screen.

“I’ve felt this way before, but you don’t seem like a nobleman in a good way.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, if it were another noble, they probably wouldn’t care whether the names of those who participated in the work were written down or not.”

‘Rather, he would be angry that the praise he deserves is going to those who did trivial things.’

Even though Rupert treated him with the utmost respect, Esteban kept his words to himself because he was a nobleman.

“If there had been no Yuren Top, it would have taken at least several years to establish a distribution network throughout the empire.”

Rupert answered calmly after hearing Esteban’s answer.

“In the meantime, other nobles or the upper class would have interfered, so the growth we have now would never have been possible.”

Some have even criticized the Uren top as a parasite that lives off of Somerset.

They say that they were lucky enough to catch Rupert’s eye and make a fortune overnight.

However, on the other hand, if it weren’t for the Yuren top, which didn’t have a solid card of its own, it would be true that there would not have been a top among the Seven Grand Sects that would have supported Rupert as fully as they do now.

And it was thanks to the help of the Uren family that the Summerset family was able to grow and expand explosively until now.

“Also, without the royal family’s help, it would have been difficult to sell the work exclusively like now.”

They had almost had a headache from those selling illegal copies of the work in the early days of its sale, but they had resolved it with a single imperial certificate given to them by Iolin.

“If there had been no magic pen created by Amelia, or if the writers had not participated in our contest.”

If you think about it, the path Rupert walked was filled with repeated choices that could have easily gone wrong.

“The reason I was able to succeed like this is not because I was good, but because everyone helped me.”

“Your Majesty… .”

Esteban couldn’t finish his sentence.

It was because I saw the words ‘Ford Esteban (top of Uren)’ written at the end of the ending credits that were appearing on the screen.

***

“What is this?”

Even though the video was not very long, people felt as if they had just sat down and stood up.

People who were so impressed that they were reluctant to leave their seats had no choice but to come out of the theater, where they were greeted by the staff who had been waiting.

“This is a poster and special goods commemorating the opening of Ice Kingdom.”

“Poster?”

“Yes, you can think of it as a piece of paper that conveys information about the animation being screened.”

People each took a poster, something they had never heard of before, and began to check out its appearance.

The paper, which felt shiny like the cover of a comic book volume, had a drawing of the Elsa sisters on a blue and white background.

“Oh, this is so pretty, I want to hang it in my room.”

The poster’s artwork was of excellent quality, as Rupert had spent several days agonizing over it and putting in his best effort.

“Are you just providing this when you watch a movie?”

“Yes, and the type of poster will change every two weeks.”

There were people who thought that if they could get these posters for free, it would be worth watching the anime for that alone.

“Check out this special item! It’s a postcard with the Ice Kingdom drawn on it!!”

“My daughter would love this!”

If other people heard that they were giving out posters and special goods just for watching the anime, wouldn’t they say it was a scam?

“No! Is it okay to spread it like this?”

“It’s okay. If you guys are happy, that’s enough.”

When the invited guests expressed concern about whether it was okay to run a business like this, Rupert answered with a gentle smile.

“No, I don’t think there will be anything left… .”

“Aren’t there any of you left?”

“No, how can someone with such little desires… .”

Esteban watched quietly from behind as people shed tears of joy as they held Rupert’s hand.

‘Both posters and postcards are essentially made of paper, so their prices are very cheap.’

Moreover, since they can all be manufactured in-house at Somerset Workshop, the cost can be further reduced.

However, the reason it doesn’t look cheap is because it looks luxurious thanks to the painting that Rupert put all his effort into.

-When will you make money by letting people watch animation once? You have to make people watch it again and again, and people who watch it again keep watching it!

Esteban suggested that they change the posters and special merchandise every two weeks, recalling what Rupert had said.

As it was a large-scale project to build theaters throughout the empire, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Rupert had poured in all the money he had earned so far, and he was very concerned about recovering the principal.

Of course, the easiest way to recover the principal was to raise the theater ticket price, but since raising the price would make it difficult for commoners other than the nobility to see the play without a burden, they chose the method of making it available again.

The method of making people watch the movie again not just once but to collect the special items given out at the theater was the pinnacle of commercialism that even Esteban could not help but praise.

‘What if we sold rare cards in the King of Cards separately at a high price?’

Recently, with the King of Cards cards selling like hotcakes, people are going crazy trying to get their hands on the rare ones.

It was Esteban’s offer to Rupert.

but,

‘Absolutely not! The moment you sell this separately is the moment when the King of Cards goods go out of business.’

When I heard Rupert’s strong opposition, saying that even if selling it would be profitable in the short term, it would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, I understood again.

‘No one wants what is easy to get.’

The more Esteban looked at Rupert, the more surprised he became.

Not only did he occasionally display insight and knowledge that surpassed that of a merchant, but his greed for money was sometimes greater than that of other nobles, and at other times, he was strangely generous.

‘Could it really be that I am an apostle sent by the goddess?’

Esteban was getting closer to the correct answer without even knowing it.