Premiere

Another crushing defeat pulled Helan's attention away from Tennis for Two and towards White Thorn Flower Jazz and Joshua, who were coming out of the room.

"Mr. Joshua's meeting is over? Then Ciri... you should come back to the academy with me now."

Helan had underestimated Ciri's 'affection' for Joshua. Joshua had already reminded Helan before entering the room that this negotiation might take a long time.

Therefore, Helan was prepared to drag Ciri back to the school to salvage her academic status, but Ciri stubbornly stayed by the door, unwilling to leave.

Looking at Ciri's stance, it was as if she would die if she got too far away from Joshua.

However... this was the truth, a truth only Ciri and Joshua knew. Ciri hadn't found a good opportunity to explain her relationship with Joshua to Helan yet.

Fortunately, the hospitality at this theater was excellent, and coupled with the charm of the game Tennis for Two, it finally managed to distract Helan.

"Sister, it's already evening now."

Ciri pointed to the clock on the wall of the corridor. This was one of the magic-driven machines produced by the patent revolution thirty years ago. Since the advent of inscription-driven clocks, humans in this world had for the first time accurately measured their time in seconds.

"Evening? It's only been a little over ten minutes..."

Helan's words stopped abruptly when she saw the clock on the wall. The hour hand on the clock pointed precisely to seven.

Before Helan arrived, this number was five, which meant she had been sitting here with Ciri for a full two hours!

But Helan felt as if these two hours had passed in the blink of an eye. All she had done this afternoon was play a few rounds of that game called Tennis for Two with Ciri.

Truly... terrifying!

Looking at the white Tennis for Two window in her vision, Helan felt a chill down her spine.

Helan had always believed that wasting time was a serious sin, and this game of Tennis for Two had made her squander two hours.

She hesitated whether to use magic to erase Tennis for Two from her consciousness.

The reason for her hesitation was her unwillingness to give up. She had just lost three consecutive games to Ciri, and each time, she felt she could have won if she had just persevered a little longer.

So, after some thought, Helan gave up on that idea.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Next, we need to prepare for the premiere. I'm afraid Ciri won't be willing to go back so early," Joshua said.

Joshua's words hit the little thought Ciri had in her heart.

If you truly like a movie, you won't get tired of watching it dozens of times. However, Ciri's treatment wasn't as good as Bone Duke's; she hadn't seen the final completed part yet.

So, Ciri had been waiting for this day for a long time!

"But, Mr. Joshua..."

Helan seemed a bit troubled. The Advanced Magic Academy she attended stopped classes at eight in the evening. If she rushed over now, she might still catch the teachers' classes.

Ciri hadn't reported for nearly half a year. If Ciri's talent in magic wasn't even more terrifying than hers, Ciri might have been expelled from the Advanced Magic Academy long ago. In fact, the teachers in the academy already had quite a few complaints about this crazy girl who hadn't attended a single class in half a year.

The profession of Mage was a true symbol of status in Nolan, and Helan still hoped that Ciri could continue studying at the Advanced Magic Academy.

"Anyway, I haven't been to class for half a year. It doesn't matter if I wait another day. Sister, I choose to stay and watch the premiere. If I miss it, I'll regret it for the rest of my life," Ciri said.

"..."

Helan had always thought of stage plays as something to pass the time. She had been dragged to watch them by her classmates before, but she had no interest in them.

Even if Helan were to take Ciri to the School as her older sister now, it would be useless, because... she couldn't beat Ciri.

Despite having a Level 3 Mage certificate, she was no match for a Level 2 Magic Apprentice.

Ciri's magic was more geared towards practical combat, while hers was more academic.

"Alright..." Helan finally agreed.

So, under the guidance of White Thorn Flower Jazz, Joshua arrived at the performance hall of this theater.

The White Thorn Flower Theater had a total of two performance halls. The first was the main hall used for formal performances. The Audience Seats were divided into three levels: upper, middle, and lower, capable of accommodating two thousand people for a single performance.

Even though no one had visited this theater for a long time, the seats in the Audience Seats were spotless. The ceiling was inscribed with delicate pale gold patterns, giving the entire theater a somewhat magnificent feel.

This theater had indeed been glorious in the past...

"My lord, what do you think?"

White Thorn Flower Jazz came to Joshua's side. He no longer had the humble demeanor he had just moments ago, because everything around where he stood was something he could be proud of, enough to allow him to straighten his back in front of outsiders.

"The Stage is too small."

Joshua walked to the side of the Stage and glanced at the back of the Audience Seats. This place was quite suitable as an opera house, but if it were for a Stage play, the audience sitting on the third level or higher would need to use the 'Eagle Eye Technique' magic to see the scenery on the Stage.

"My lord, I can swear this is the largest Stage in Nolan, not even that despicable theater can compare."

"But it's still too small."

The area of this theater was much larger than a Cinema. If White Thorn Flower Jazz could accept it, Joshua would definitely tear down and rebuild the entire theater.

But Joshua didn't have the time for that now, and this Jazz, who valued the theater more than his own life, would certainly not accept it.

"Take down the curtain above."

Joshua pointed at the curtain hanging above the theater. When switching scenes in a Stage play, it was usually done by drawing the curtain.

After a moment of hesitation, White Thorn Flower Jazz still had people take down the red curtain that had been hanging above the Stage for decades.

After the curtain was removed, the Stage was completely revealed to all the audience. What Joshua cared about was not the Stage, but the huge white board behind the Stage, which almost occupied the entire flat space of the theater.

"My lord, that is the white wall used to arrange the background..." White Thorn Flower Jazz explained to Joshua.

"Can it be moved?"

Joshua didn't expect to achieve a panoramic film in this World, but a giant screen was the most basic... The convenient thing about Source Crystal Stone was that no matter how large the projected image was, it wouldn't affect the picture quality.

The white board behind the Stage was undoubtedly a good projection medium.

"Of course."

"Push it to the very front of the Stage."

Under Joshua's command, White Thorn Flower Jazz had the huge white board slowly moved to the very front of the Stage.

"Perfect, Jazz, have those glowing stones extinguished."

Joshua felt that this white board could indeed serve as a projection medium... Joshua directly walked down the steps to about the tenth row of the first level Audience Seats. After inputting magic power into the Source Crystal Stone, the movie screen was magnified countless times and projected onto the white board.

The effect... was not bad.

Joshua sat in the seat with the soft cushion, looking at the image projected on the giant white board, and finally found the feeling of watching a movie in a Cinema again.

"It's starting." Ciri sat down beside Joshua without ceremony, then whispered to Helan.

"Is this... a Stage play?"

Compared to Ciri who was concerned about the movie's plot, Helan was more concerned about what was happening with the image appearing on the white board. No matter how she looked at it, it didn't resemble any kind of Performance Helan knew of.