This Is Unreasonable

While Zennas was out looking for actors, Joshua began working on the script.

Having returned to the Middle Ages, where one had to write with a charcoal pencil, Joshua finally began to miss the modern world, where he could type proposals on a keyboard.

There was nothing wrong with writing by hand; it cultivated one's temperament. But compared to a keyboard, it was simply too slow and utterly inefficient.

Fortunately, a Chaos Demon's physical capabilities far surpassed those of humans, including reaction speed. The tip of Joshua's Charcoal Pencil flew across the White Paper in his hand.

Before long, a string of smooth English lettering emerged beneath Joshua's pen.

A movie script was far more concise than a novel, but the actors under his command were complete beginners who had never even seen something called a "movie." Joshua did his best to write it in a way they could understand.

Joshua could handle the script easily enough. He only needed some time and a few adjustments to the original screenplay.

Besides a good script, a good movie also needed acting, camera work, special effects, music... and much more.

Special effects were what Joshua worried about least. This was a world of magic; the term "special effects" did not even exist here. Everything that happened in a movie could be real. There was no special effect that could not be solved by throwing a few spells at it.

What Joshua found troublesome was controlling the camera shots.

Joshua stopped writing and picked up the magical version of a Camera from the table.

The Camera looked somewhat like an eighteenth-century wooden box camera. Unknown Runes were carved into its black surface. Once Joshua fed magic into it, the Runes replaced mechanical gears and kept the Camera running, while magic took the place of electricity.

Then there was the raw material used to record images, something humans in this world called a "Source Crystal Stone."

It was an extremely malleable material. On Earth, it would be like a combination of silicon, copper, silver... and every industrial material humanity could imagine.

In short, it was extremely convenient. Aside from being unable to forge it into sturdy armor or weapons, it could serve as a medium for nearly every magical element. Every Spellcaster carried at least some of it around.

The process of using Source Crystal Stones to forge things resembled alchemy. There were many ways to alter its structure, such as formation arrays and Runes.

The Source Crystal Stone in Joshua's hand had now been altered into a storage medium capable of recording images.

Joshua had just tested how it worked. As long as magic was fed into it, the images stored inside would appear as holographic projections on any flat surface.

There was no need to worry about the projection quality either. The size of the image changed according to the amount of magic supplied.

The only minor drawback was...

"Why is this thing single-use?"

Joshua held a crystal that had already recorded footage and tried to put it back into the Camera to continue recording. He discovered that the new footage immediately replaced the old footage.

Was he supposed to shoot the entire movie in one take? If it were only a ten-minute Micro Movie, Joshua might have considered it. But what he planned to make was a full-length blockbuster lasting one hundred and twenty minutes.

Filming everything in a single take was beyond Joshua, a novice director, and even Steven Spielberg, one of Hollywood's finest directors, could not pull it off.

He had to find a way to solve the problem of camera shots.

"Since this is a magical world, I'll solve it with a magical method. Screw science..."

Joshua tentatively placed two crystals that had already stored image records together. Gray magic flowed from his fingertips and entered both crystals.

The two crystals seemed to attract each other, gradually merging together. The images within them also began to blend.

It worked? Joshua controlled his gray magic, but before the two crystals had fully fused, their surface temperature suddenly rose, then abruptly plummeted.

Science loudly reminded Joshua of its existence through this method. After being scorched by intense heat and frozen by extreme cold, the two crystals became so brittle that they cracked into fragments right in front of him.

"Am I dual-cultivating ice and fire now?"

Joshua glanced at the magic surfacing on his hand.

This was magic unique to the Chaos Demon race. Its defining trait was... chaos so severe that it had once driven the Third Prince nearly mad.

Its nature was like Chaos Knight's C skill, Chaos Bolt, in Dota. Until the damage number appeared, you had no idea how much damage you had dealt.

Chaos was always the last thing a scientific researcher wanted to see. Because of that, the Demon Prince had even considered secretly learning human magic.

That was also why he had come to the human world.

A sigh from the depths of his soul made Joshua give up on this foolish waste of Source Crystal Stones.

Fortunately, after nearly a full day of writing, the Water Elemental Servant appeared outside Joshua's door again. She faithfully served as a carrier pigeon for messages.

"Your Highness, your guard Zennas requests that you go to the reception hall."

For commoners to approach the Imperial City without permission was a grave crime punishable by immediate execution.

But allowing a crowd of people of unknown origin into the Imperial City was also an extremely irresponsible act toward the safety of the other Royal Family members.

Joshua did not want to create unnecessary trouble for himself.

After tidying up his things and leaving the half-finished script on the table, Joshua followed the Water Elemental Servant's guidance toward the reception hall outside the Imperial City.

It took Joshua more than ten minutes to reach the reception hall outside the Imperial City. The massive Zennas stood waiting tightly by the entrance.

"Your Highness, due to my race, I have no concept of females. I only issued a summons throughout the city. They have been waiting inside for quite some time."

Joshua had forgotten that Zennas's Abyss Demon race reproduced through "mitosis." There was no distinction between male and female, and naturally no aesthetic preference for females.

Thus, Joshua went in prepared with a speech to send any so-called "Evil Eye Misses," "Skeleton Ladies," and "Gargoyle Ladies" home. But the moment he pushed open the doors to the reception hall, he realized his concerns had been unnecessary.

They were all quite beautiful.

Joshua looked at the female creatures standing in the hall. That was his first thought.

His second was whether he had accidentally walked into some kind of brothel. A succubus pleasure house, perhaps.

The atmosphere here was way too damn erotic.

"They're all succubi?" Joshua quietly asked Zennas behind him.

Judging from the appearances of the female creatures in the hall, they matched Joshua's memories of succubi quite well.

"Yes, Your Highness," Zennas answered.

"That works."

Joshua found a table inside the reception hall and sat down. The demons working there efficiently arranged the succubus ladies into a long line.

The discipline, the efficiency... if the lighting beside Joshua had not been candles, he truly would have had trouble imagining that he was in the Middle Ages.

Demons were a strictly hierarchical race. Joshua's status as a Chaos Demon alone made his presence here absolute order to every demon present!

Joshua took out the paper and pen he had brought from his room and began registering personnel.

Succubi were actually quite good. They were beautiful, every one of them had an excellent figure, and perhaps the succubi were the only remotely attractive race among demons.

Their temperament was just a little too bitchy, though. No... not just a little.

"Your Highness, whatever desires you may have, my sisters and I will fulfill them all for you."

The first succubus lady to undergo Joshua's evaluation parted her rosy lips and extended her tongue. Joshua hardly needed to guess what she was implying.