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Before setting out, Joshua sorted through the inheritance left behind by the Third Prince. After organizing part of it, he discovered that this Demon Prince's inventions rivaled a certain Blue Fatty's dimensional pocket.

It was filled with a heap of bizarre creations, and Joshua successfully found a ring that was useful at this stage.

This ring was called the Shapeshifting Ring. In a more sophisticated name, it was called Joshua Anoroth's Ring. The ring had been inscribed with magic that could affect the minds of those nearby. As long as someone wore it, they would appear differently in the eyes of others.

When Zennas killed the bandits, both the Villagers and the caravan members had seen him speaking with Joshua. It was clearly impossible for Joshua to continue disguising himself as a human and infiltrate them, so he could only find a way to change his face.

"Mm... mm... mm?!"

As Joshua pondered how to test the ring's effects, he heard a strange muffled whimper beside him. Looking up, he realized it came from the Female Mage, Ciri.

A dining table had already been set up in Joshua's room, with dinner delivered by the Water Elemental Servant placed atop it. The meal was fairly lavish... at least, to a programmer like Joshua, who had been perfectly content to make do with instant noodles every night, the Roast Meat and other dishes on the table were extravagantly plentiful.

For Ciri, however, the food on that table was likely a delicacy she could not have eaten even once in a month.

Driven by hunger, Ciri had no ladylike manners whatsoever when it came to eating. Even the little intellectual air she possessed as a mage had been utterly destroyed by her puffed-up cheeks.

She looked kind of cute instead? In professional terms, adorably dumb...

"I suggest you don't eat too much, Miss Ciri. We have quite a bit of physical work to do soon."

Joshua pushed a glass of water toward Ciri. Judging by the way she kept patting her chest, she had obviously choked.

"What physical work? And why do you look different?"

Ciri took the glass Joshua had pushed over and drained it in one go, narrowly avoiding earning the epic title of "the first mage in history to choke to death."

"It's just a little trick to fool people. That isn't important. Have you forgotten about the prison break planned for dawn?"

Joshua removed the ring from his hand. Even Ciri, a novice mage, could see that something was off. It seemed the Shapeshifting Ring could only deceive ordinary people with very little magical knowledge, but that was enough.

"I haven't forgotten. You really do like making trouble, though."

Ciri wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin from the table. She had only caught the general gist of what Joshua had said earlier, since all her attention had been focused on the fragrant feast spread before her.

Even so, Ciri roughly understood what Joshua intended to do next.

"For the birth of a good movie, this much work hardly counts as trouble."

Compared to Earth, Joshua's current filming conditions would be praised even if they were called crude.

On Earth, an outstanding movie needed a long period of painstaking refinement from filming to production. Take Cast Away, for example. It took nearly a year and a half from filming to release, and one full year of that was spent waiting for the lead actor's hair and beard to grow to the right length.

Joshua's only advantages now were his own memories and the acting talent possessed by the people of this world.

Joshua remembered every shot of every movie. When filming, he did not need to consider professional questions like, "What kind of shot should be used to convey this scene?" He only needed to recreate the movie exactly as it had been. The only difference was the cast.

"I still don't really understand what this movie thing is, but... I do want to see how Beauty and the Demon ends."

As expected, Ciri cared deeply about that story. She had only read the script Joshua left on the desk up to the point just before the ending, when he had stopped writing.

If she had not been so hungry that she would have died without eating, she might truly have worried herself sick over it.

"You'll know the ending in a few days. Now it's time to get to work."

Joshua calculated the time. It was already close to dawn, and about four hours had passed since I Nuo had been thrown into prison.

If I Nuo's acting was good enough, four hours would be enough for those Villagers to accept her.

Joshua put on the Shapeshifting Ring, changed into a fairly respectable mage robe, and picked up a completely useless wand...

Joshua had spent four hours carving this wand from a stick, so apart from decoration, it served no other purpose.

Joshua now looked exactly like a seasoned mage.

"Can't you just tell me the ending now? Mm... fine, I understand."

Ciri rose reluctantly. Before, she had been forced to obediently listen to Joshua because her life was threatened. Now, she was driven by her conscience.

Before escaping the prison, she had promised to return and save those Villagers. Though it had only been a lie she made up on the spot, she had not expected the day would come when she could fulfill it.

Ciri was playing the role of Joshua's assistant...

When her own life was on the line, this Female Mage could still be trusted. Not to mention Joshua had already made good on his promise that there would be meat to eat if she followed him, and there was also the ending of that script.

Helping someone break out of prison was something Joshua had actually done several times in his past life. Though it had all been in games, at least he had practiced beforehand, so he was somewhat mentally prepared.

The prison in the capital was indeed very close to the Imperial City.

Joshua led Ciri onward, and after more than half an hour, they could see the prison beneath the night sky, its eerie green lights glowing in the darkness.

"Miss Ciri, please relax. The residents of the Demon Realm are ordinary people with minds of their own. They won't hurt you."

Ciri had walked the entire way with her nerves taut. After all, she was human! A human strolling openly through the streets of the Demon Realm was bound to attract attention.

Ciri could almost constantly hear whispers coming from the corners along the street, remarks that made her shudder all over, such as, "Looks pretty tasty," and, "Smells especially delicious."

But Ciri was not someone to be messed with either. The word cowardly had never suited her, so she had rolled up her sleeves the whole way, clutching her small magic staff with an expression that said she was ready to fight anyone at any moment.

This was the law of the jungle she had learned in the forest, learned while facing down a bear!

The moment one backed down in a narrow encounter was the moment one lost. Against a few ordinary demons, Ciri could knock them flat even with the magic staff in her hand.

Yet Joshua's reminder, accompanied by the gesture of pointing at her neck, instantly drained all of Ciri's fighting spirit and momentum.

No matter how fierce a beast was, it could not defeat a despicable hunter! Besides, Ciri was not some fierce beast. At most, she was a small feline with slightly sharper claws, like a serval.

"We're here."

Joshua stopped at the prison gates. Several Overseers emerged from the shadows of the building and made a welcoming gesture toward Joshua.