“Squirrel Street? That street that was said to be the most dirty and disordered in all of Norland? I hope you’re not messing with us...”
Owl couriers were exceptionally fast. Madam Schroder’s response speed was also unexpectedly fast.
At the time when Joshua was planning to get on a carriage to return to the Hearthstone Tavern, an owl flew onto Joshua’s shoulder with a letter attachment.
As expected, Madam Schroder indicated her doubt in Joshua’s site selection for the movie.
Squirrel Street possessed a bad reputation in Norland. But, the extremely curious mages would frequently come to this street to interact with the non-human races.
Unfortunately, that was not the same for outsiders, especially the nobles from other countries. Majority of them held concern for the non-human races.
Joshua originally thought that Farucci’s Grand Duchess of Blackwood would not hold prejudice toward other races. After all, the House of Blackwood cooperates with the forest elves year-round.
But, it would appear that the bad reputation the Squirrel Street possessed made Madam Schroder unwilling to bring the Black Swan Theatrical Troupe here.
“We’ll be proceeding to Norland’s central district.”
Madam Schroder’s letter changed Joshua’s plan to return to the Hearthstone Tavern.
Truth was, especially preparing a filming site for ‘Léon: The Demon’ would be the best choice. But, filming sites were not things that could be prepared that easily.
Specialized film-setting artists and builders would be needed. While architects might be able to design beautiful buildings, the setting for ‘Léon: The Demon’ was an old and chaotic place. That atmosphere was not something that one could meticulously recreate.
Joshua was very fond of hotel Black Dove. Because of that, he had no choice but to proceed to Madam Schroder’s residence to persuade her with his script.
“That female knight is still following us.”
Ciri said to Joshua with a quiet voice. At the same time, she took a glance at the side of the street hotel Black Dove was on.
Wearing the Ecclesiastical Templar’s armor, Messai appeared extremely conspicuous standing among a street filled with non-humans. This female knight seemed to have no intention of concealing the fact that she was tailing Joshua. Just like that, she followed Joshua through half the city of Norland.
The manner of conduct for the Ecclesiastical Templars was truly open and candid. Even when tailing people, they would do so openly.
Fortunately, as Messai was a templar, her stamina far surpassed that of mages. Even though she ran after a horse carriage for multiple hours, she was not at all tired.
“About this... let me think.”
Joshua waved his hand at Messai.
“Hey! Aren’t you tired of running after a horse carriage? You want to come inside?”
“Absolutely not!”
The female knight immediately rejected Joshua’s goodwill. She was certain that the demon was plotting something. It would appear that Joshua’s multiple occasions of scamming her had left a deep psychological trauma upon her.
“That’s what she said. We’ll just ignore her.”
Joshua got in the horse carriage. Ciri also followed him into the horse carriage. Ciri was truly at a loss for words toward Joshua’s attitude for that female knight.
“If someone was tailing me like the way she did you, I will definitely find an alley and knock that person unconscious and then interrogate them to find out who sent them.”
Ciri pulled away the carriage’s curtains and stared at the female knight on the side of the street.
“Don’t worry about that. I believe you will soon have the opportunity to do that. But, the question is, Ciri, will you be able to defeat her?”
Joshua looked to the roof of a building on Squirrel Street. As Joshua looked to the roof, a black feather slowly fell from above. It seemed like some sort of bird had flown past him.
“That female knight? Fine... I’m no match for her.”
Ciri knew her own fighting strength.
“If you can’t, I’ll help you,” said Joshua.
.........
Two hours later. Norland’s central district. Outside Madam Schroder’s mansion.
Joshua once again arrived at this mansion filled with the aura of nature. It was already approaching dusk.
Two sworded bodyguards were standing outside the mansion. When Joshua approached, the two of them both placed their hands on their waist’s sword hilts.
“Please pass along that a filmmaker wishes to see your Grand Duchess.”
Joshua took out the Grand Duke of Blackwood’s insignia. Seeing the insignia, the two guards immediately exchanged glances. Then, one of the guards entered the mansion.
In a short few minutes, the middle-aged butler came out from the mansion.
“Mister Joshua. Never would I expect for you to pay a visit at such a time...”
This middle-aged butler was the same butler Joshua met the last time he came to the mansion. He led Joshua into the mansion and, after leaving to give announcement, Joshua finally got to meet the owner of the mansion, Madam Schroder.
This time around, they met inside a study. Madam Schroder’s outfit was no longer a heavily ornamented dress. It had changed into a form fitting robe.
“I hope you can provide me with a reasonable explanation as to why you want my Black Swan Theatrical Troupe to film in a place as dirty and disordered as the Squirrel Street.”
Once Joshua entered the study, Madam Schroder immediately entered the main subject, her concern and doubt that she had written on the letter.
“That’s because that is the setting that my next movie needs. Madam Schroder, filming a movie is different from a stage play. It is not that... perfect.”
Joshua pondered for a bit and ended up using ‘perfect’ as the description. Joshua felt that the way stage plays were performed was too exaggerated, so much that it was simply unrealistic. Whether it be the performer’s costumes, the settings or the way they spoke their dialogues, none of them were realistic.
But, empty words would not be able to persuade anyone. As such, Joshua took out a portion of the script for ‘Léon: The Demon’ and some of Ciri’s impression sketches and placed them on the desk.
“Madam Schroder, this is the script for my next movie. You can read it over and see if it is sufficient for your Black Swan Theatrical Troupe to perform in.”
Madam Schroder picked up the script on the desk. That was what she wanted the most. Originally, she was planning to force Joshua to change his script and film a renowned stage play from Farucci should Joshua not be able to produce a script that could satisfy her.
Since Joshua decided to show her the script with such confidence, she decided to check out exactly what sort of story this young man created.
When Madam Schroder saw the cover of the script, she immediately thought the script to bea fairy tale like ‘Beauty and the Demon.’
But, Madam Schroder was hoping for Joshua to write something different... And, after reading it, ‘Léon: The Demon’ came out to be a completely different sort of story, exactly what she wanted.
A hitman, magic drugs, a power struggle between criminal organizations and the dark secrets of the law enforcers...
Those were all words that should not appear on the stage plays filled with art and elegance. But, it was different for this movie. The script for the movie was filled with elements from the dark side of the world.
Using the encounter between a demon hitman and a young girl, this movie could, from a certain point of view, be said to be unmasking the hidden darkness..
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Translator YangWenli:
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