Release that Witch

After everyone withdrew from the room, Nightingale asked, ”Half a month? Didn’t you just make the decision a couple of days ago?”

”Nevermind the details,” said Roland whilst ignoring Nightingale’s question. ”Do you think she would agree if I told her the truth? If Lorgar refused to participate in this project, we would have to ask Joan. She can’t even talk to people, except Lightning and Maggie. Even if May teaches her acting skills, it wouldn’t be much of a help. That’s why I spoke in such a grave tone so that Lorgar couldn’t refuse... This is also one of my negotiation techniques.”

”Well, I suppose you’re right...” Nightingale muttered under her breath while twitching her lips. ”But why do I have the impression that this wasn’t the real reason she consented.”

”What did you say?” said Roland.

”No, nothing,” Nightingale said evasively with a whistle. She shoved a piece of dried fish into her mouth and asked, ”Is it really OK to leave the Southernmost Region as it is?”

Roland shrugged to indicate that he had no intention of probing into the matter. ”It might be bad news if this happened in the time before their relocation where nobody knew what life in Port of Clearwater would be like. But now, it’s too late for the conservatives to turn the table. The fact that the chief of the Wildflame clan wrote to Lorgar about this incident indicates that he has completely sided with us. Those conservatives can’t win. If they do wage a war, they would be declaring enmity towards all the clans.”

There was a garrison of 500 new recruits stationed at Fallen Dragon Ridge and Port of Clearwater, but Roland was not planning to send them to the desert. He simply needed to inform Brian in the Southern Territory for the latter to know what to do.

Roland was now done with negotiation and persuasion. If someone attempted to stir up trouble, he did not mind resorting to force.

Nevertheless, Roland did not want to waste his time on these trifling matters. He returned his attention back to the Sigil of Recording.

The Months of Demons had been ongoing for half a month already. In the past, by this time of the year, the focus of Neverwinter would normally shift from construction to city defense. People would automatically start to prepare themselves to fight against demonic beasts without the need of Roland to remind them.

But the whole northwest was surprisingly peaceful this year. No demonic hybrid groups had emerged so far, not even the regular demonic beasts that usually acted alone.

Lightning had once flown to Hermes Plateau. She reported that no demonic beasts were found there either. She had also seen the flag of the Wimbledon House ripple upon the city wall of the new holy city. Within, she saw nuns delivering bricks back and forth to build new blockhouses and to form a defensive line at the garrison in Coldwind Ridge. Nothing else came into her view except a desolate land covered by snow as though the entire Fertile Plains was frozen.

After a heated discussion, the ancient witches concluded that the demons had stopped the invasion of demonic beasts.

It made sense. Although the Taquila Ruins was a tiny spot on the vast plains, the demons relied on it to transport supplies and put out sentries. It was very likely that they had exterminated those demonic beasts long ago.

As all the construction work had been suspended due to the interminable snow and there was no need to fight at the border any longer, the residents in Neverwinter soon found themselves in a state of extreme boredom. Roland was well aware how detrimental this could be to people’s morale, especially when this occurred after a major victory. The best example was the witches in the castle who abandoned themselves to card games and carouse. To keep people motivated and also to help the witches release their energy, Roland had thus decided to make a movie.

Roland had witnessed the effect of the Sigil of Recording once at Reflection Church in the old holy city. It was even more impressive than the 3D photography in modern society. The recording was, in a sense, a reconstruction of a scene. Roland believed that before he could successfully develop virtual reality technologies, the Sigil would be irreplaceable in the entertainment industry.

Roland wondered how citizens would react to the lifelike 3D movie when a mere traditional play was sufficient to entertain them.

Now, Roland saw why May had lost her composure after seeing what the Sigil could do. For actresses like her, the technology was definitely epochal. If she could star in the movie, she would be remembered by all her peers in the acting industry.

He didn’t tell May, however, that in reality, movies soon replaced plays, becoming the most popular form of entertainment in modern society. It was a truth May would probably never expect to happen.

Despite its amazing recording feature, the Sigil of Recording had a big drawback, which was that the recording wasn’t modifiable. Moreover, the magic stone of which the sigil was made of was only available to the demons. According to Agatha, one Sigil of Recording had a ”battery life” of 12 hours. Once it was fully ”charged”, it would start to record the scene. The recording would automatically stop upon interruption, which meant no mistakes were allowed during the process. The only way to eliminate a recording error was to recharge the stone for another 12 hours and start again from the beginning. In that case, the new recording would overwrite the old images.

Another downside was that the Sigil could not be recycled.

Like the Sigil of Listening, the Sigil of Recording was also a compound. The Sigil of Listening was composed of two separate parts, a ”receiver” and a ”microphone”. The Sigil of Recording, however, was exactly the opposite. It worked only when two stones were combined. There was a groove at the top of its crystal base. When the magic stone was injected with magic blood and inserted into the groove, the Sigil would instantly start to play all the footages it had previously saved. You could not switch back to the recording mode once the Sigil started to play footages. Removing the magic stone by force would destroy the device. This was actually an asset for preserving important historical records — once the Sigil was in the play mode, nobody could tamper with the videotape.

This made it a big downside for filming.

Because in that case, they only had one chance to shoot, and all shots had to be perfect without any errors, which was almost impossible to achieve.

Fortunately, Roland had found a solution.

He just needed to ask Summer to reconstruct scenes.

In this way, actresses could rehearse as many times as they liked until they were satisfied with their performances. During the final shot, a ”cameraman” would arrive and film with the Sigil of Recording. Since Summer could fast forward, playback and pause footages, they could even achieve some special effects such as bullet time.

Summer’s ability did not include reconstructing sounds, but Echo’s dubbing could easily solve this problem.

Now that all the conditions for filming were met, Roland just needed actors and actresses. He could foresee what a big stir the movie would make among the public.

...

After taking a shower, Lorgar wrapped herself in a bath towel and returned to her room.

She slumped onto her soft bed before her tail was completely dry.

Her body was sore from training, but she felt happy for being productive again. She did not care about how much progress she had made at this point.

All she needed now was a good rest.

Then she saw the yellow book on the nightstand in the corner of her eyes.

”Ah... right, the script.”

Lorgar pricked up her ears, untied the bath towel, got into bed and picked the script up.

May Lannis had told her it was important to familiarize herself with the story first. If she had any questions, she was welcome to ask her anytime.

But this was not what Lorgar cared about.

She just wanted to know what the chief thought of her.

Since it was a story created for her, she might find some clues in it.

Lorgar took a deep breath and started to read.

Then she saw the title —

”The Wolf Princess”