The root cause of all this is undoubtedly magic, or rather a teleportation magic circle.
Yes, when the news was first received, some wealthy people who had the capital to use the teleportation magic circle were spreading the news, which inadvertently accelerated the spread of information.
Banil, who managed the Northrick Cinema, originally planned to sell the premiere tickets at a higher price, five gold coins each, in order to earn some money from the rich.
But the result was beyond his expectation. Not only the rich, but even some audiences with only moderate incomes spent their family savings to watch the movie when they heard that the premiere tickets were selling for five gold coins each. In the end, he had to set the premiere ticket price at a whopping fifty gold coins each, which limited the terrifying flow of people.
But even so, faced with a price of fifty gold coins, which was enough for ordinary people to live for a year, there were still a large number of wealthy people who came to buy, and the premiere tickets were almost sold out in an instant.
This shows that there is indeed a lack of entertainment options in this world, and most people actually have money but cannot spend it. After all, most of the nobles in the southern border are still boycotting movies. Those who can afford a premiere ticket at fifty gold coins either have wealthy families or own mines. In any case, they are at least big businessmen in a region.
Therefore, even if Banier tried to suppress his mentality as much as possible, he could not help but realize that the film industry will usher in a spring in the future regarding the consumption potential of these people. For this reason, he almost worshipped Durin, who invented the film, as a god. If there were such things as action figures in this world, the first thing he would order would definitely not be the characters in the movie, but the action figures of director Durin would be placed by his bedside and worshiped three times a day.
Even now, the Northrick Cinema has completely lost all traces of its past as a theater. Not only has the stage been completely dismantled, but the old musical layout at the door has also completely disappeared.
If Baniel's old-fashioned father had not died, he would probably have been so angry that he had fallen into his coffin. But since Baniel's father had passed away, what he had to worry about now was whether his father, who valued the theater more than anything else, would be so angry that he would crawl out of his coffin.
On the other hand, for ordinary people, although the premiere tickets are so expensive, the audience has no complaints. After all, they all know that the price of the official screening will definitely drop. If they can't see it now, they only need to wait a little bit to experience the same experience as the rich. What does it matter
... ... .
At the Northrick Cinema, all the production staff of "Goblin Slayer" gathered here, including some adventurers from the North who came here out of curiosity about the movie. Almost everyone came to the South, thousands of miles away, with the help of a teleportation array.
Under such circumstances, Durin only glanced at the northern adventurers who had not yet seen the movie, then turned to the somewhat nervous Barnil and asked, "Can the plan to develop the Northrick Cinema chain industry in the North be implemented? I'm only giving this matter to you because I trust you, otherwise I was planning to let Guild President Elisa take over."
"Of course, I never stopped when Director Du Lin was shooting a new movie. Now the Northrick Cinema has conquered half of the theaters in the southern border, and even those cities without local theaters have developed open-air movies. So please teach me how to build cinemas in the north! I will definitely spread the movies you shoot, Director Du Lin, throughout the empire!!"
Seeing Vanir getting excited on his own, Du Lin just nodded slightly, then turned to look at the protagonists of this movie.
Right now, needless to say, Saeki, who plays the role of Goblin Slayer, several other actors including the half-elf girl, the lizardman and the dwarf are all gathered here, and they are all very nervous because they know that they will be on the screen soon. Having never experienced this before, the only thing they can do at this moment is to take a deep breath to ensure that they don't explode when they go on stage after the premiere.
In comparison, Daphne, who had seen the movie before and knew what it was, was in a better state...
She was now shivering with her head buried in the guard's arms, and it was estimated that she would not come out until the end of the movie premiere.
"You guys... Anyway, the premiere is about to start, and we'll need you all to show up at the closing ceremony."
Although it did not appear in the last "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World" screening, that was because the premiere was too hasty and the only people who watched it were a group of people from the Adventurer's Guild.
This time it is obviously more formal, so he naturally has to make an appearance. The main reason is that most of the audience are used to the closing ceremony at the end of a stage play, and they really want to meet the actors, so Du Lin will join this link this time.
... ... .
The premiere caused a huge stir. When General Wilhelm, Knight Commander Wycliffe and Rhine arrived in Northrick, the whole city had already spread the news about the new movie. Everyone really wanted to crawl into the cinema during the premiere and watch the whole movie secretly.
As for such a grand occasion, not to mention Rhine's excited look, Knight Commander Wycliffe has already said: "How boring, movies? They are just fictional things. Only sissies like those things. Real soldiers would rather take up weapons and chop off the heads of aliens on the battlefield than watch a movie, even if it is an ordinary goblin!"
General Wilhelm couldn't help but laugh at the Knight Commander's words and said, "That's quite typical of you. If it weren't for the monster eradication plan you launched, there would probably still be monsters everywhere in the empire. You've done a good job over the years. So, even if the village where you were born was destroyed by monsters, it's been so long, you should let it go."
"Let it go? How is that possible?! Even if I die on the battlefield, I will never let a single evil monster go! So General, let me go back now. I will never waste my time on something as boring as watching a movie!"
Wilhelm, who was standing by, immediately realized that he could not persuade Wycliffe after hearing his righteous words, so he stopped talking and quickly brought the two of them to the entrance of the Northrick Cinema.
Seeing the poster at the entrance of the cinema, Rhine was the first to say excitedly: "Goblin Slayer? Is this the new movie that is being circulated on the street? The name is quite interesting. Is the movie of this style? I feel that the movie I saw on the flyer before is more relaxed..."
Chapter 59 Premiere Begins
Chapter 59
After paying for the premiere, and at the invitation of General Wilhelm, Knight Commander Wycliffe and his disciple Rhine had no choice but to walk into the performance hall of the cinema with the premiere tickets worth fifty gold coins each.
Along the way, compared to Wycliffe's stiff appearance, Wilhelm and Rhine, the old and the young, were talking and laughing all the way, and soon arrived at the performance hall for the premiere.
Looking around, there were less than a hundred viewers who were eligible to watch the premiere. They were all wealthy businessmen and their families from all over the country. The children of these wealthy businessmen seemed to be talking and laughing, and they were obviously looking forward to watching a happy movie like "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Beautiful World" later... ... .
In response to this, Wycliffe and Rhine, who came to watch the movie for the first time, found their seats under the guidance of General Wilhelm. A certain knight commander immediately closed his eyes and began to meditate. Although meditation does not improve the abilities of non-magicians much, it is still a compulsory course for most knights because it can train their mind.
As for the reason why Knight Commander Wycliffe did this, it was undoubtedly to follow his previous words "I don't want to waste time on boring things like watching movies", so even if he used the time for meditation, he was adamant not to watch a movie.
In response to this, General Wilhelm and Rhine immediately showed helpless expressions, and then did not say anything more, just looking at the huge white wall in front of them with anticipation. They had never watched a movie before and were curious about what kind of performance would be presented later.
Soon, all of a sudden, the magic crystals on the ceiling of the entire performance hall lost their brightness. The entire empty space became pitch black, and at the same time, bright lights of the picture slowly appeared on the white walls of the stage.
Soon, accompanied by a dripping sound, like blood dripping on the ground, the movie "Goblin Slayer" began.
It was a dark cave with blood and water flowing slowly on the ground. Then the scene changed and a shivering girl leaned against the rock wall of the cave, as if she had seen something horrifying.
Then, the scene changed again, and a 'knight' in armor holding a torch walked from the far end of the cave. His filthy figure blended into the dark environment, and the light leaking from the gap in his helmet was even scarleter than the torch in his hand.
Amid the girl's timid sobs, a figure in armor in the distance slowly approaches. Finally, the picture disappears, and the story officially begins.
It can be said that most of the people present did not understand the meaning of this opening. Most of the audience who had already prepared themselves to watch a comedy similar to "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World" were still confused at this moment.
After all, "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World" left such a deep impression on them. The groundbreaking comedy and sarcasm almost led the overall trend of the Southern Territory during this period. At the same time, they also unconsciously associated the word movie with comedy and nonsense in their minds. This premiere without any advance publicity made these unprepared audiences still keep their minds on the previous story.
Therefore, under various suspicions, most people speculated that the figure in armor was the enemy boss of this story.
After all, no matter how you look at it, the person who made the priestess look so timidly cannot be a good person.
Soon, as the title of Goblin Slayer and the annotation of Winter City in the North appeared on the screen, the entire theater fell into silence.
Yes, after seeing the annotations on the screen, the audience realized that this story actually took place in the most dangerous land of the empire, which most people at the scene had never been to - the North!
Watching the few young adventurers who set out to fight the goblins at the opening, for some reason, in the overall depressing atmosphere of the movie, the audience all felt a bad premonition, because the movie has been revealing a dark and depressing style from the beginning, as if to give the audience a shot of prevention.
And when the movie reaches the point where a few adventurers enter the cave of the goblin's lair with some excitement...
"No, absolutely not. These young people are going to be in big trouble."
Hearing General Wilhelm's deep voice, Rhine beside him couldn't help but ask softly, "Why? They are only going to defeat ordinary goblins, right? I think the equipment of these adventurers is pretty good. Moreover, the members of this team include swordsmen, boxers, priests, and magicians. Isn't this combination of team configuration very complete?"
In response to Rhine's doubts, Knight Commander Wycliffe, who had been meditating, suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Good equipment? No one in this team is wearing armor that can resist attacks, and there are no other defensive measures. In this situation, if you attack a goblin's nest, do you think the goblins will stupidly stand in a row for you to chop them down?"
"But they were just goblins..."
In response to Rhine's explanation, the Knight Commander, who knew that the young man had very little experience, silently criticized him: "Humph, how stupid! Have you forgotten everything I taught you, Rhine? A team of adventurers, without a map, without an antidote, without a way to escape, without intelligence about the enemy, and most importantly, without self-knowledge, they were dead the moment they stepped into this cave."
It seemed like he wanted to say something else, but Rhine, who had never been an adventurer, or rather, had never been an adventurer in the North, knew that he could not win the debate with the two soldiers beside him who had experience as adventurers and had even fought against alien races in the cruel North, so he finally turned his attention back to the movie in front of him.
As for the other side, a certain Knight Commander Wycliffe had unknowingly completely forgotten what he had said before the movie started. He opened his eyes wide and focused his attention on the movie in front of him, or the ending that this group of adventurers were about to face, along with the audience.
Soon, the ending came as expected...
The young adventurers were slaughtered by the goblins without knowing it. The inexperienced adventurers had no chance of resistance against the cunning goblins. Even if they managed to kill a few goblins, it was useless because of their terrifying numbers.
When the female magician was stabbed by the goblin's dagger, most of the women present closed their eyes in fear, and some younger children were hastily blindfolded by their parents.
And this scene was just the beginning. Hearing his companion's screams, the male swordsman hurried over and started fighting with the short goblins. However, because this was a narrow cave, the young swordsman could not use his skills at all. In the end, as the long sword was stuck in the narrow cave, the goblins who were eyeing it covetously rushed forward and tore it into pieces.
The movie was only played for less than ten minutes, and the audience had already witnessed several fierce massacres, which told everyone present that this story was not a happy fairy tale, but a real "adventure"!
When they saw the female boxer being dragged away by the giant goblin and screaming, some women who could not bear it covered their mouths and screamed. Such a cruel reality was unacceptable to them who had always lived in a greenhouse!
It seems that the filmmakers understood that the audience's tolerance was about to reach its limit. When the last survivor, the priestess, was about to be killed, the figure in the first scene of the movie, the armored "knight", finally appeared.
At this point, some viewers who had previously thought of him as the villain suddenly realized and murmured, "Is this dirty knight the protagonist of this movie?"
Chapter 60: Killing
Chapter 60
As the plot of "Goblin Slayer" slowly continued, the audience's original intention to watch a light-hearted and funny movie was completely shattered. At this moment, they watched the plot almost numbly. At the same time, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after seeing the knight in full armor successfully rescue the only surviving priestess.
After all, they could no longer bear the fact that such a lovable girl was being abused by the goblins.
"First there was a..."
"Then the second one..."
Then, the Goblin Slayer in the picture quickly knocked down the two goblins that attacked him to the ground with lightning speed.
There is no playing around, nor any sudden comedy. In this "Goblin Slayer", only blood and killing are torn apart from the gorgeous packaging called glory, and then clearly placed in front of every audience.
When the cold-blooded Goblin Slayer said with his own mouth that the female magician lying on the ground beside him was beyond saving and ended her life with his own hands, most of the female audience present gasped.
After all, there are no such explicit deaths in stage plays, and there are almost no scenes of human death in the plot of "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World". However, this "Goblin Slayer" obviously had no intention of restraining the realism of the killing from the beginning. Instead, it clearly showed the bloody corpses to everyone.
At this time, even the knight Rhine seemed a little uncomfortable. After all, a young girl died in such a cruel way, and the protagonist not only did not try to save her but directly confirmed her death. For him as a knight, this viewing experience was not something he could still be in a good mood.
However, Wycliffe, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but say, "This is the right choice. The most frightening thing on the battlefield is not a powerful enemy, but a teammate who becomes a burden. Reality is different from those heroic stories. When a companion is injured and cannot be healed in a short time, the most important thing is to prevent her from suffering more pain and ensure that you can destroy the enemy."
"But as knights, isn't it our responsibility to protect the weak?"
General Wilhelm, who was also watching a movie in the distance, couldn't help but sigh at Rhine's naive words, "Everything has its own sacrifices. The Goblin Slayer made this sacrifice to save more people who were captured by goblins in the cave. If he was still wasting time taking care of a person who can hardly be saved, then one can imagine what will happen to the female boxer who was just captured."
Seeing that the two experienced elders had expressed the same opinion, Rhine immediately shut up, but in his heart he still couldn't understand the actions of the protagonist in this movie.
However, gradually, when the protagonist eliminated the remaining goblins in the cave with an absolute experience gap and said, "These guys didn't even consider that they would be ambushed," Rhine suddenly felt a tingling sensation from top to bottom.
It’s not because I’m scared of this scene, but because I think this protagonist is so handsome!
Yes, even though the Goblin Slayer in the movie is not a brave dragon slayer, nor is he an adventurer who has accomplished great deeds, but even so, all the audience present gradually realized the charm of Goblin Slayer and looked forward to the next plot.
The movie has just begun? What will happen next? Will the protagonist destroy more terrible monsters? What will happen to the lovely priestess that the protagonist rescued
Under the expectation of the audience, the goblin extermination operation was carried out quickly. In the end, when the Goblin Slayer, who had perfectly exterminated the goblins in the entire cave, slowly pushed the oil-covered Goblin Slayer into the cave, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and were happy that justice had been executed.
After all, the protagonist eliminated the evil goblins and rescued the captured villagers. This is a common plot in most adventure novels. Although the description of this movie is really not pleasant, the result is undoubtedly good.
However, when the Goblin Slayer opened a hidden wooden door and threw the axe in his hand at the trembling little goblins in front of him, the audience could no longer sit still.
"This... Since all the adult goblins have been killed, there is no need to kill these cubs..."
Rhine's words reflected his inner struggle. After all, his knight education made him regard protecting the weak and punishing the strong and helping the weak as his life creed. So even when facing the young of evil monsters like goblins, he still couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart, and this atmosphere also spread among the audience.
When Goblin Slayer said, "Only goblins who don't show up in front of people are good goblins!", the entire theater fell silent, and everyone fell into a kind of thinking between races.
People clearly know that the protagonist has done the right thing, but no one can enjoy the pleasure of executing justice. Instead, they feel very upset...
Soon, watching the captured girls being rescued and the female boxer who suffered severe psychological trauma retreating, the audience present suddenly felt a deep depression.
This depression made them dare not even think whether there was a story like the one in the movie happening in the world. They only felt a little comfort when they saw the priestess' determination to eliminate the goblins together with the experienced Goblin Slayer.
After watching this first scene, everyone's hearts could not calm down for a long time, so the scene was silent, with only the picture on the white wall continuing to flicker.
During this time period, everyone's opinions on the Goblin Slayer were still mixed. Some girls even suspected that there was actually a giant goblin under the Goblin Slayer's armor. After all, his behavior was not like that of a normal human being, and it was more realistic to regard him as a monster.
As the plot continues to develop, the Goblin Slayer's memories, which are carried out along with the Goblin Slayer's daily life, begin, especially when the Goblin Slayer destroys the Goblin Village in the distance and tells his past... ... .
The audience present finally realized that the cold-blooded Goblin Slayer in the movie was actually just an ordinary, hopeless man who was immersed in revenge.
In response to this, General Wilhelm, who was sitting in his seat, sighed and said with emotion: "Wycliffe, did you see that? This Goblin Slayer is exactly like you when you were young. What color do you see in this world?"
"It must be gray..."
Knight Commander Wycliffe's words were calm, but at the same time, they also conveyed a sense of vicissitudes, as if he was remembering something that he could not forget after a long time...
Chapter 61: The Reality in Illusion
Chapter 61
"Suppose one day, the place where you live is suddenly attacked by a group of monsters. They walk around like they are at home. They kill friends and family members and rob everywhere. In addition, suppose relatives like your sister are attacked, raped, used as toys, and killed..."
“Imagine that you hide yourself, hold your breath, and watch this scene from beginning to end…”
"It is impossible to forgive these guys. They will definitely take up arms, train themselves, think, grow, and think about revenge no matter what. Then they will take action, search, force these guys to have no way to escape, start a war, attack, kill, kill, and kill non-stop..."
"Some confused, kindhearted people put on a smug look and said they would let the children go, but they never dreamed that these 'children' would attack the village and steal livestock in order to survive..."
"The goblins that survive and gain experience will continue to grow. Before long, they will become the leaders of the nest or bodyguards..."
"Which side will win in the end? I think it doesn't depend on strength, but luck. In other words, humans and goblins are no different. To them, I am just a goblin in their eyes."
... ...
During Goblin Slayer's long speech, the scene remained dead silent, and Knight Commander Wycliffe, who was watching this scene, closed his eyes unconsciously. His slightly furrowed brows revealed the same thoughts as the Goblin Slayer in the picture, which eventually turned into a long sigh.
On the other hand, after truly understanding Goblin Slayer's thoughts, all the audience either shed tears or clenched their fists. To describe it in the simplest terms, they were immersed in the character.
Most of the people present were wealthy people living in the South. They had never experienced threats from foreign races and rarely experienced battles. These were the things that they would never think of at ordinary times, but at this moment, Goblin Slayer told them through the movie.
The cruel and bloody world created by the movie "Goblin Slayer" made them experience the deepest fear in the human heart, and at the same time, after putting themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, they experienced the deepest courage in the human heart!
The movie continues to play, and the next long plot is about the new partners finding the Goblin Slayer and asking him to go together to exterminate the goblins.
Because this part of the plot was not as heavy as the previous ones, the audience breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed it from the perspective of a pure adventure story. But no matter how orthodox the plot was, the worldview of "Goblin Slayer" destined that the adventure here was not as desirable as that in "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World", so much so that many young people who wanted to become adventurers after watching "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World" before re-evaluated themselves.
Do I have the ability and courage to become an adventurer
As such thoughts gradually extended, the story came to the end of an event. During the period, the Goblin Slayer used all kinds of strange tricks, and the scenes of beating the goblins in various ways made the audience finally regain a little thrill of adventure. At the same time, they suddenly realized that their three views had unknowingly changed into a state where any despicable means could be used to defeat the enemy.
After realizing this, the audience did not feel ashamed, but instead looked forward to what unimaginable methods Goblin Slayer would use to defeat the enemy next.