In the Southlands, in Moore City.
This small city near Tuos Port had once been famous for producing stage actors. Many well-known performers had come from here.
But after a new invention called Magic Film crossed the sea, Moore City was inevitably shaken. Politicians, merchants, and actors had banded together to boycott it. Rumor had it they had even driven away a merchant who tried to buy a theater.
The mood was so fierce that even an unlucky fellow named Jack could get beaten up.
But after Henry secretly went to Tuos Port and spent half a year's wages to see When Freedom Knocks, he could no longer bring himself to hate Magic Film.
He already did the most work for the least pay. It wasn't as if the money would end up in his hands anyway.
Besides, Magic Film really was wonderful. For two brief hours, he felt as though he had entered a real world and become an Orc. Countless times, he had dreamed of becoming Chris, working to earn money, and saving up for a ticket to the Land of Freedom...
Reality was different. Tickets were too expensive, and Henry lacked the courage to abandon everything in pursuit of freedom...
So whenever Henry had time, he went to the Reef off the western Cape. He sat on a rock rising from Sandy Beach, gazed at the dark gray sea, and pretended this was Free City.
He longed for Free City so badly that when his boss, Grita Huffman, decided to send him there, Henry stood frozen like a fool.
"What are you standing there for? Do you want to go or not?"
Henry couldn't tell whether his boss was testing him, so he asked cautiously, "Aren't we supposed to defend the glory of stage plays?"
"That's what