Joshua should commend Sir Weissenasche for his excellent light work. The illumination of the light gave the movie hall a romantic ambience.
On top of that, as Belle and the Demon Prince were dancing on the stage to gentle music, the romantic ambience was even stronger.
That was likely the reason why Ciri suddenly asked that question.
“I would say that you’re a very decent girl.”
Joshua did not avoid Ciri’s gaze. He stared back at the female magician.
In the end, it was Ciri who was unable to withstand Joshua’s gaze. With a reddened face, she turned her face away in defeat and started looking elsewhere before speaking with a very quiet voice, “I understand.”
Joshua doesn’t know if his answer satisfied Ciri. But, the performance on the stage was about to read its end.
......
As one of the main performers for this stage performance, Zenarth was feeling very embarrassed. This was one of the few times he felt so embarrassed in his entire life.
But, during the past two days, he had felt this sort of embarrassment countless times. They’ve all happened in the human world.
His gaze looked to the human audiences.
This was the first time in Zenarth’s entire life to meet that many humans. The last time he encountered a group of humans was when Joshua summoned him to get rid of those bandits.
At that time, Zenarth showed no mercy in exposing his claws to slaughter all the bandits.
When he killed those bandits, the expressions those bandits have on their faces would generally be anger or fear.
Zenarth had already grown used to that sort of attitude displayed by the humans.
‘A race as weak as humans should revere Sin Demons.’ Those were the words said to Zenarth by a powerful Sin Demon.
But, the humans here were completely different...
From the eyes of those humans, he saw ‘desire’ and ‘yearning.’ This made Zenarth feel very embarrassed.
If Joshua ordered Zenarth to kill the thousands of people here, he will not hesitate to unleash his weapon and call forth the Flames of Sin to have these humans die with anguish and suffering. That was his expertise.
But, these humans here... they seemed to not fear him at all.
‘After the performance is over, wait for Ynor to make his speech. Some of the humans might ask you questions.’
A chat box appeared before Zenarth. After the Sin Demon believed in the God of Order, he became one of the first demons to enter the Internet Age.
Ask questions? Could it be an interrogation?
Zenarth’s feline-like eyes swept across the spectators. He wanted to determine which of those humans would dare to interrogate a Sin Demon...
Zenarth felt that his gaze was extremely fierce. At least, when those bandits met his gaze, they were so terrified that they ended up dropping their weapons.
But, the humans that he ended up looking at, especially the women, would all react with extreme excitement. Zenarth could even hear them saying things like ‘he’s looking at me.’
Not only did they not show any sign of fear for him, they were instead excited. Exactly what was going on?
No... this shouldn’t be the attitude humans had toward him, a Sin Demon.
If it wasn’t for Joshua especially ordering him to not damage his clothes, this Sin Demon might’ve ignored his Flames of Sin to make those humans behave like how they should when facing a Sin Demon.
With Zenarth finding the situation very difficult to get used to, it was even more so for Ynor.
It was Ynor’s first time standing before this many people. Furthermore, he needed to use the rune Joshua gave him, a ‘voice enhancement’ rune, to make a speech.
Ynor had no idea what sort of speech he needed to make. But, Joshua gave him a script to read. Ynor could see the script through the chat box.
The succubus has also believed in the God of Order after being instructed by Joshua. Once the internet starts to officially spread, Joshua might become the chief missionary for the Church of Order.
But, rather than calling the Church of Order a religion, it would be more accurate to call it the name for a rune system. The Church of Order would be totally capable of functioning without any churches or missionaries. Unlike the God of Holy Light and Righteousness Monicar, the God of Order Lloyd would not need a complete religious system.
Following the script written by Joshua, Ynor began to inform the crowd of ‘Belle’s past.’
It was an emotional backstory enough to cause the crowd to shed tears. It was not a complicated story. But, it successfully strengthened Belle’s image as a simple human girl.
“Miss Belle! I received a gospel distributed by the Holy Church several days ago. The gospel stated that you’re a despicable demon. Are those all true?”
After Ynor finished Belle’s story, a voice suddenly sounded from the audience. That voice was very characteristic. Even though it was not loud, everyone could hear it.
The person making that question was sitting in the theater’s centermost region. He was someone Joshua deliberately placed there. In other words, he was an ‘inciter.’ The purpose behind his job was to shift the topic to the Holy Church and the demons.
Once the question was raised, discussions immediately started emerging from the audiences here and there. The gospels of the Holy Church have been spreading through Norland for several days now.
While it has yet to spread through the entire city of Norland, the contents of the gospel was known to many fans of ‘Beauty and the Demon.’ It was inevitable that the gospel would become a topic of discussion.
Even if Joshua wanted to avoid it, he would not be able to. Thus, he decided to face it head on.
After being questioned, Ynor immediately took a glance at the chat box. The moment he saw his script, he started panicking.
But, Ynor continued to obediently play the character Joshua gave him. He read the script written by Joshua.
“I think... when we look at things from the Holy Church’s point of view, I am indeed a demon.”
The young woman by the name of Belle said those words without any hesitation. Her speech utterly stunned the crowd.”
“After all, I am together with him.”
Belle extended her hand and held the hairy palm beside her.
“I think that, when it comes to the teachings of the Holy Church, a human that associated herself with a demon is no different from a demon. They are the embodiment of evil and cruelness. But, I do not believe him to be evil.”
Joshua was completely turning his back upon his conscience when he sent that line to Ynor. While it was true that Ynor never did anything evil, Zenarth was completely different.
The amount of humans killed by Zenarth had most likely surpassed the hundreds count. Even though Zenarth’s hands were hairy and even padded with paws, his hands had taken away the lives of countless humans.
When the guards of the audiences on the VIP seats saw Zenarth appearing on stage, they all readied themselves for a battle.
That being said, Joshua considered this performance to be a battle in itself, a battle between religion and culture. And, in war and battles, all is fair.