Coiled Serpent Ring

The farmers in the audience gasped in astonishment.

There was actually the soul of a fallen god inside the ring!

Was this boy someone favored by that esteemed [Astrologer]?

Meanwhile, onstage, the boy began his training with the god backing him.

Only then did the farmers realize that the old man was not a real god, but part of the "performance."

Some farmers who had been about to kneel in worship sat back down.

"Whew, that gave me a fright!"

"Good grief, I nearly dropped to my knees."

The farmers chattered among themselves.

At that moment, seven or eight boys who looked very similar came onstage, portraying the boy in various training scenes.

[Knight], [Sculptor], [Fire Wielder]... the boy had taken on three whole classes!

Then, one day, the boy finally stood atop an interplanar teleportation array.

With his back to the audience, the boy stood tall and straight. "...Vivian, I'm coming! I'm coming to divorce you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the light from the Servant of Truth onstage abruptly went out.

The farmers, engrossed in the show, were left bewildered.

"Where is he? Where's Xiao Leisi?" one farmer shouted.

"Did he teleport to that plane?"

"Xiao Leisi has to divorce that woman!"

The farmers shouted excitedly, some even standing up to roar.

Just then, however, the stage lit up again, and John appeared instead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the first episode of our first play, 'Coiled Serpent Ring'! The second episode will be performed the day after tomorrow!"

John came onstage, as exuberant as ever.

Only then did the farmers catch on.

What we just watched... was a performance?

Whoa, that was amazing!

Everyone discussed it enthusiastically, occasionally casting respectful glances at Lin Ke and the others up in the sky.

Their future young lord of Azan really was something...

"Next up is our second act, 'Free to Fly'!"

This time, John did not speak as much as he had at the opening. He left the stage after just a couple of sentences.

The stage lights dimmed.

The farmers began to look forward to what came next.

Now they knew what a performance was, and they were eager for the next one.

But the next act was strange.

It was something called... singing?

Ten-year-old Sophie was Lin Ke's personal maid.

At least, she had been once.

Furon had chosen her back then precisely because she had a lovely voice and a cute face.

But as soon as young master Lin Ke could speak, he had immediately removed her from that position.

And so she had become a cleaning maid.

At first, she had felt resentful, but as time passed, only regret and sadness remained.

Whenever she encountered the young master, he would even smile and nod at her.

She knew she must have done something wrong while caring for him when he was little, making him dislike her.

The young master was so kind, yet she had failed to serve him properly. She blamed herself deeply for that.

Today, when the young master summoned her, she thought he had changed his mind and would let her serve him again.

Instead, he wanted her to "sing"?

Still, whatever the task, Sophie wanted to do well for the young master. If she could return to his side, all the better.

Looking at the two hundred or so people before her, she was not nervous in the slightest. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the slightly smaller figure seated on a cloud nearby.

She began to sing. "Who is singing? A warm loneliness..."

Her voice was sweet and lilting, yet tinged with a faint sadness.

The farmers, still fired up after watching "Coiled Serpent Ring," fell silent the moment the ten-year-old girl began singing.

"...Over your heart, flying free..."

"...Come with me, far away..."

The girl's voice gradually shifted from lilting to clear and ringing, and Ove's magic carried it far into the distance.

Though she sang unaccompanied, the melody was simple. And when had the farmers ever heard a song with such a strong rhythm? Several could not help humming along.

Up in the air, however, Lin Ke was not entirely satisfied. Without instruments or anything of the sort, the unaccompanied singing felt a little thin.

Ove beside him, on the other hand, was quite pleased. He even began singing softly along.

Ove, who was who knew how many centuries old, wore mage robes and had snow-white hair and a beard, yet he softly hummed, "Who is singing? A warm loneliness..."

Listening beside him, Lin Ke squirmed in his seat.

Fortunately, he had asked the maid to sing a gentle, tender version rather than the bold, boisterous original. Otherwise, this would have been quite a sight.

As for why he had chosen this song?

After all, he remembered songs like "Love for Sale," "Horse-Wrangling Pole," "Free to Fly," and "Mice Love Rice." They were all catchy tunes.

There were also songs like "Learn to Meow" and "A Young Man Speaks."

He planned to bring them all out eventually. Watching plays all the time would get tiring, too.

Onstage, Sophie finished singing "Free to Fly" three times, bowed deeply, and left.

"That was beautiful! So beautiful!"

"Over your heart, flying free~"

"Ohhh! Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!"

The farmers cheered and bounced with excitement, their limited vocabulary making them look just like the audiences in his previous life who could only say "holy shit" and "badass."

"Next up is a short play-'Romeo and the Forty Thieves'! Please welcome Group Two of the Azan Drama Troupe!"

John made a brief appearance, then handed the stage back to the so-called drama troupe.

"Next up is 'Snow White'!"

"Next up..."

Seven whole acts!

They included one long-form serial play, two short fairy tales, and four very short stories.

Three songs were interspersed between them, sung by two maids and a manservant.

Finally, the show ended with a chorus of "Glory of Azan."

Only then did everyone realize the performance was over, leaving them with a lingering sense of loss.

Based on Lin Ke's own observations, this performance had been a tremendous success!

Even though, to his eyes, the plays were riddled with flaws.

The actors' acting was subpar, as were their voices and delivery. They could not remember their lines and kept glancing at cheat sheets...

The venue had no special lighting, instruments, or background music...

There were also problems with the makeup, props, atmosphere, costumes, and all sorts of other things.

Even the audience did not know how to applaud. They only cheered and shouted at random.

But to Lin Ke, having this much in a world starved of entertainment was already pretty good! The happy faces in the audience said it all.

If Nathang had never given rise to Professionals, if the plane itself had possessed enough resources and never discovered the endless planes, if it had discovered the endless planes but never invented teleportation arrays...

There were too many ifs!

If all those conditions had been met, perhaps the Nasengge Continent would now have been alive with song and dance, and might have developed mature systems of art, entertainment, and philosophy.

But there were no ifs.

Nathang had given rise to Andrew, and through him, the Professional system had emerged, allowing talent to flourish and combat power to grow.

After all, in the magic system, if you had no elemental aptitude, you essentially had no talent at all. You could not become a Mage.

Under the class system, however, your Bloodline might grant you all sorts of talents, with all sorts of classes waiting for you to choose from.

Ove, for instance, had no elemental aptitude. His talent actually lay in research; lightning was merely an ability he had mastered through his studies.

Nathang had originally possessed sufficient resources, but as the number of Professionals increased, those resources became insufficient, whether natural resources, manpower, land, or anything else.

Then the Professionals created interplanar teleportation arrays.

Gods and legends could roam the Star Realm directly, after all. They knew there were many other planes out there and explored them, but occupying and ruling them was difficult.

However powerful a god or legend might be, each was still only one person.

But then the Professionals invented teleportation arrays, allowing ordinary people and low-level Professionals to travel to other planes as well.

The endless campaign began.

They barely had time to conquer planes. Who had any time left to develop culture or art?

If they wanted amusement, they could simply head to Pink Street.

And this was Lin Ke's opportunity!

An opportunity to make money!

Nobody understood entertainment's money-making potential better than Lin Ke!

In this world, in Nathang, who had the most "gold"?

The nobles, of course!

He was merely the heir to a minor frontier noble. Strictly speaking, he did not even count as a noble himself.

Develop industry? Develop science and engineering? Advance science and spread ideas?

Not a chance!

If he were an actual viscount, he could give it a try. After all, there were many interests involved.

But what if he set out to rake in the nobles' gold?

Whether in his previous life or now, whether in the past or the future, what did nobles need most?

Once their material needs were met, what they needed most was fulfillment of the mind and spirit.

If he made paper, even if it cost as little as one copper coin a sheet, farmers might still ask him for freebies, like buying three sheets and getting one free.

But what about entertainment?

Charge a noble one gold coin to watch a play, and they might even think it was low-quality.

Charge ten gold coins, and bored nobles might flock to it.

So, if he wanted to rake in gold, he should rake in the nobles' gold!

Entertainment! Culture!

He would start with those two areas!

P.S. Happy New Year, everyone! Now hand over those monthly tickets you get at the start of the month~