Chapter 82
With complicated emotions, the adjutant arrived at the theater. The ticket provided by the letter he received was a general admission ticket. Fortunately, his seat was close to the stage.
The adjutant found his seat and sat down. After seating, he looked around. Only then did he discover that all the surrounding seats were packed full.
All these people... came here to see two demons?!
The adjutant felt disbelief toward what was happening. He carefully examined the people around him.
From their expressions and conversations, he was able to tell that they were all feeling very excited. The adjutant even heard several women expressing their desire and admiration for that Demon Prince.
Wait... express their desire and admiration for a demon? If this was in the Nation of Holy Church, what they’re saying would be able to put them in the Heresy Tribunal!
But, the adjutant immediately thought otherwise. This was no different from the rumored evil sects established by demons!
What was happening now was a demon worshipping ceremony! This was an unprecedented evil ceremony with three thousand participants!
One should know that in the recorded history of the Nation of the Holy Church, the only people that would participate in this sort of evil sacrificial ceremony would be those summoners.
But, the Society of Summoners, a group of most wicked people, numbered less than hundred.
Yet, there were three thousand people packing this venue.
Wait, wouldn’t this mean that he was also a follow of that wicked sect? Wait, what’s the name of this sect...? Belle Sect?
Should he run away? The adjutant was unable to sit tight.
He began to wonder if the Sin Demon would sacrifice all the people seated on this venue the moment he appeared on stage, if he would devour the souls of these people.
The Nation of the Holy Church’s recording of those demons had stated that there were many demons that were fond of eating human souls.
Before leaving, the adjutant wanted to warn more people. Because of that, he turned his vision toward the seat next to his.
Sitting next to him was a woman. The adjutant was able to sense magic power identical to his own from her — the magic bestowed by Monicar, the God of Holy Light and Righteousness.
But, her magic power was simply too weak. As such, the adjutant reliminted the possibility that she might be a warrior secretly dispatched by the Nation of the Holy Light to destroy the demons’ conspiracy.
After all, they would need at least an Archbishop to prevent the plot of a Sin Demon.
"Quickly leave this place. This performance is very possibly the demons’ conspiracy," said the adjutant to that woman in a probing manner.
"Demons?"
Sansa raised her head to look at the young missionary.
Ynor
As a faithful fan of ‘Beauty and the Demon,’ the moment she read the introduction and saw that a happy ending for Belle and the Demon Price will be performed to the audience, she immediately cast away her faith, followed her desire and came to the theater.
That said, Sansa never expected to encounter a fellow-minded individual... No, a missionary of the church, in this place.
If this was the Nation of the Holy Church, Sansa would be severely punished on the spot for the crime of betrayal!
"What’s there to be afraid about? It’s only a performance."
After a moment of silence, Sansa provided the young missionary with a ‘disgraceful’ answer.
This missionary himself came to participate in this meet and greet. If he wanted to denounce her crime to the church, he would definitely suffer the same punishment as Sansa.
"Performance..."
The adjutant simply couldn’t believe what he heard. A vicious Sin Demon, after gathering all these humans, was going to perform for them?
It would be as unreasonable as a Legion Commander of the Ecclesiastical Templars stopping work and instead running into the furnace room to use their Holy Sword to chop woods.
However, the unreasonable scene ultimately appeared before the adjutant.
The stage was illuminated by the light created from illumination spells. The black backdrop behind the stage was projecting a scene of swirling snow.
All the audiences that have seen ‘Beauty and the Demon,’ knew that it was the snowy mountain where the Demon Prince’s castle was.
Music appeared all of a sudden. The music resounded through the entire theater. A slim figure slowly walked into the center stage.
At this moment, enthusiastic applause erupted through the theater. If it wasn’t for the fact that this was not yet the climax of the performance, people might already be shouting and cheering with excitement.
But, the moment the singing started, many people had the urge to start cheering.
The reason for that was because that was Belle’s voice. Singing a song that they’ve never heard before, Belle slowly walked forward.
The adjutant stared at the young woman on the stage in a daze. Belle... in the live and not on a movie screen. Belle was real.
Seeing that it was already too late to escape, the adjutant sighed helplessly. He decided to resign himself to fate and sat back down on his seat to join the people applauding.
...
On another general admission seat.
Compared to the male audiences near her, Ciri was able to maintain her composure.
After all, she was someone who had participated in the filming of ‘Beauty and the Demon.’ She had witnessed with her very eyes the birth of the character Belle. As such, it was only natural that she would be able to maintain her composure seeing this scene.
But, Ciri was immediately captured by the song Belle was singing.
Ciri turned her body toward her right, toward Joshua sitting next to her. With a quiet voice, she asked, "What’s the name of that song?"
"‘Let It Go.’ That was originally the song dedicated to a queen capable of controlling frost and snow. However, I decided to change it slightly."
‘Let It Go’ was the theme song for the animated movie ‘Frozen.’ The reason why Joshua selected ‘Let It Go’ was because it was a very easy song to learn but a very difficult song to master.
The song ‘Let It Go’ was very catchy. Joshua was able to remember all the lyrics and sing the song after hearing it only twice. Of course, his version of ‘Let It Go’ was completely off-key.
"Okay. I’ve never heard of it before."
Ciri had no idea where Joshua obtained all his creativity from. This song being sung by Belle was much more pleasant than all the minstrel and bard songs she had heard.
When Ciri turned her focus back to the stage, a lofty figure appeared on the stage. The moment he appeared, applause and cheers suddenly broke out through the entire theater.
Demon Prince... The Demon Prince that had sacrificed himself for Belle was still alive. Merely that was enough to cause the spectators of the stage play to applaud nonstop.
Ciri was following the crowd and applauding too.
"Do you think a demon and a human can really be together?"
Ciri suddenly asked that question as she watched the lofty Demon Prince holding Belle’s waist to start dancing with her.
"Ciri... let me tell you a secret. To Zenarth, humans are hairless monkeys. That other demon races also thinks like him."
Joshua wanted to tell Ciri ‘that’s of course not an issue.’ But, the different demon races possess vastly different senses of beauty. With different senses for beauty, how could they possibly fall in love?!
"Then, what about me?" Ciri suddenly turned around to look at Joshua. The female mage’s silver-gray eyes were fixed onto Joshua.
"What do you see me as?"