The Vampires who had paid had no desire to stay at the banquet and left the hall. Annan treated those without money fairly, too: he had them sign IOUs.
Annan looked over the remaining human guests, his gaze settling on the Crimson Princess.
Lena asked timidly, "Do... do I have to pay too?"
"Not this time."
After all, they had filmed mostly at Sturette Castle. If he charged her, the Queen, who was so determined to raise her daughter, might turn around and charge him for using the castle.
Annan returned to the Bedroom with two chests of coins, opened a Teleportation Portal, and asked Olmedo to collect them.
"Is this the Theater's revenue?" Olmedo appeared with Ingrid.
"That's in my Ring. These came from the Actors." Annan proudly told them how the Vampire Actors had paid to appear in the Magic Film.
"That's a little..." Olmedo trailed off.
"Shameless?"
"You said it, not me."
Annan disagreed. He patted the chests. "There are two chests of gold coins here. Which one do you think is noble, and which one is shameless?"
"It's not the gold coins that are shameless. It's you."
"Huh?"
Olmedo gave a startled murmur. Had that slipped out? Then she saw Ingrid beside her, covering her mouth.
"They aren't my friends. Some of them are even enemies. It's perfectly reasonable to charge them," Annan said, feeling thoroughly innocent. "I never charged anyone for the earlier films."
"But you never paid them, either."
After sending Ingrid to get people to carry away the chests, Olmedo asked, "When are you coming back?"
"We'll finish filming Five Hundred Years of Terror in a few days. Then I'll head back and leave things here to Lena and her mother."
"You're not getting involved anymore?"
"I'm human, after all. If I get