NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32: Celebration Banquet
Compared to movies in the modern world where, after the screening, the box office revenue has to go through various expenses such as promotion and taxes before the production side can get any money, the conditions proposed by the Adventurers Guild were very favorable. Not to mention that theoretically, Edward hadn’t spent a single penny on the investment for this film; it was all pure profit. So, he naturally had no reason to refuse.
Upon hearing Edward’s explanation that the filming of “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World” had finally paid off, the celebration banquet, which should have ended, continued on. Overexcited individuals couldn’t find a reason to sleep at this moment. They simply left the Adventurers Guild and found another relatively empty tavern room to start a second celebration banquet.
“Edward, I had never expected that we would actually be able to earn so much money.”
During these days, Zat, who had rekindled his childhood relationship with Edward, gradually reverted to addressing him as he used to. Edward, who didn’t mind at all, accepted this kind of relationship and laughed after taking a sip of sweet wine, “This is just the beginning. If I’m not mistaken, the real earnings will come from the actual screening. Although this world’s cinema format isn’t popular yet, I believe the Southern Adventurers Guild won’t disappoint me this time.”
Yes, after all, the purpose of the Southern Adventurers Guild was to make more people become adventurers. Therefore, compared to making money, their actual goal was to spread this film more widely. For this reason, they would spare no effort in promoting it, allowing “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World” to reach every corner of the South.
It should be noted that just Nosrick Town alone has over 10.000 people living in it, and considering the surrounding villages, there must be at least 7 times that in total. Although this world doesn’t have things like population censuses, the estimated population of the entire Southern Territory of the Empire is at least in the millions. With such a population scale, even if only one-tenth of the population gets exposed to “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World,” it would still achieve commendable results, certainly far exceeding the small figure of 5.000 Gold Coins.
Of course, to prevent these guys from getting too cocky, Edward still didn’t reveal his thoughts. Instead, he shifted the topic, saying, “Anyway, the official shooting of ‘KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World’ will sooner or later be put on the agenda. Due to the long shooting period, possibly extending for more than half a year, I need to ask about your schedules now. If there are any conflicts, I can adjust the timing.”
Indeed, due to the upcoming shoot involving snow scenes and mobile fortresses, which couldn’t be resolved quickly, the shooting period this time would undoubtedly be very long. Therefore, Edward had to confirm the timing with these main actors to prevent any situation where he couldn’t find them later.
“I and Aya are available anytime. Or rather, I’m now your personal knight, so whatever time you say is fine with me,” replied Zat.
Edward simply nodded silently at Zat’s response, then turned to Helena beside him. She didn’t hesitate much and calmly said, “I need to go back to the Mage Tower to handle my leave procedures in the summer. Otherwise, they might count me as a missing person. And since I can earn money here, I can openly go back home and tell them I’ve found a good-paying job.”
“Well, I remember your family’s financial situation isn’t too good. So, why did you accumulate such a large debt?” Edward inquired.
“I’ve told you, it’s for a great cause. Mortals won’t understand—”
“Yes, yes. Can I ask you to settle your debts before discussing great causes?” Edward quipped, then ignored Helena’s attempt to defend herself and turned his gaze to the least noticeable girl among the lead actors, the one who played Dacnis, whose name Edward still hadn’t been told.
Faced with his question, she seemed very nervous, but quickly expressed that she didn’t have anything urgent coming up next. If there were any further filming, she would definitely rush over immediately, indicating that she had already become enamored with the experience of acting and living a second life.
Aside from that, Viz and Belldia were basically relying on Edward to live now. Without him, these two wanted criminals didn’t know where to go. Therefore, once the main cast was confirmed, there shouldn’t be any unresolved issues with the other actors.
“All right, now that these issues are resolved, Lawrence, it’s your time to shine. Do you remember the advertising deal I offered you before?” Edward asked.
“Uh, yes, I remember, but Lord Durin, the rental fee you gave me is enough for my monster shop to continue operating. It seems unnecessary to shoot an advertisement now…” Lawrence hesitated.
Seeing Lawrence’s uncertain look, Edward smiled and said, “Don’t worry, the Adventurers Guild also plans to let me include an advertisement for them in the film. So, you don’t need to worry about this small matter.”
“That’s great.”
Seeing Lawrence’s smile, Edward asked puzzledly, “By the way, where’s that orc girl who was with you earlier?”
“Oh, she went back because she was too tired. But she was obviously very interested. At the celebration banquet just now, she kept asking me to inquire about the sequel plot from you, haha.”
Hearing Lawrence’s words, Edward simply smiled silently and said, “It would be great if most people could like this film. After all, the subsequent plot will be even more interesting.”
As Edward’s words fell, the guys who, due to their actor identities, couldn’t directly ask the director and screenwriter Edward for the script, jumped out one after another. It was the actor who played the lead role, Zat, who first asked, “What’s going to happen next? As the protagonist, shouldn’t I get some awesome divine weapon and achieve something great?!”
In response to his words, Edward chuckled and shook his head silently.
“Haha! Zat, how could you become a powerful adventurer? Besides, didn’t my portrayal of Aqua demonstrate goddess-like grace? During the battle against the Headless Horseman, I also showed immense strength. If it weren’t for me, how could we have defeated the powerful Headless Horseman so easily?!” Aya exclaimed.
Edward shook his head again in response to Aya’s words and said directly, “As I’ve said, this is a comedy. There’s basically no element of leveling up or becoming stronger, so don’t expect your characters to become stronger and more powerful.”
Edward didn’t elaborate on anything related to the upcoming plot. After all, keeping some mystery about the plot was necessary, and it also prevented these guys from spoiling the story everywhere.
After realizing they couldn’t get any information about the plot from Edward, the group resumed their idle chatter about “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World.” It was like a classic debate about power levels in another world. Aya’s words directly sparked a quarrel among the main cast actors about the last battle, with the undisputed point of contention being who played the bigger role in that final battle.
“If Zat hadn’t discovered his weakness, how could we have defeated him so easily?!”
“Huh? Wasn’t it because of Aqua’s goddess-like strength that we won?”
“The Explosion Magic was the most powerful type of magic!”
“Da—Darkness also held the enemy for a while–”
Each actor stood from the perspective of their character, and naturally, since the battle couldn’t have been won without any of them, there would be no conclusion to this argument from the beginning.
Seeing the group of guys arguing and making noise discussing about the story, Edward couldn’t help but deeply feel that his decision to make anime was an extremely correct choice!