076: Dragon Slayer Play Part 1

December 6, 2020 - 10 minutes read - 2109 words

“Hey, we’re down now” Al

I tell Eric, who has tightly closed his eyes and is shaking in fear.

“For real? That was faster than I expected, are you serious?” Eric

“Not joking” Al

We are currently located on the roof of a building near the theatres in the northwest area of the royal capital. I got us down with Transfer magic instead of Shield magic. I was planning to use Shield magic, but Eric was shaking so badly I was worried he’d fall off. I got desperate when I was escaping from the rotten women, so I didn’t pay attention when I was running away.

It’s certainly scarier to go down than to go up. You have to look at the ground the whole time. Eleanora was able to climb up fearlessly, but froze up as soon as she looked down. When Eric closed his eyes and the girl in the royal castle looked away, I cheated and Transferred down to a building’s roof.

“Ground! Wait, on a building?” Eric

Eric stomps on the roof a few times, as he sighs with relief.

“Sorry” Al

“Ugh, you didn’t have to up to such a high place!” Eric

“Well, I wanted to lose any pursuers, and high places let you see the scenery well.” Al

“I see your point. By the way, are we now in the northwest area?” Eric

Eric looks around and tries to change the topic, he may be embarrassed by his reactions when we were in the sky.

“We should be in the northwest near the theater.” Al

I was looking for a secluded rooftop of a building in the northwestern part of the city, we ended up taking a lateral move during the Transfer. I could probably use an alley, but since there’s two of us, I used the safer destination of a large building’s roof. When Transferring multiple people, the magic energy required is increased proportionally. Since the energy doubled, I’d like to experiment to discover if an adult with a larger mass would increase the energy as well. I got a valuable result from transferring with another person.

“Then, are you going to go down?” Eric

“Are you fine now? If you’re scared, we can hold hands and go down together.” Al

“I’m fine! Get yourself down!” Eric

Eric got angry when I offered to hold his hand, but he was quaking in his boots a few minutes ago. He huffs as he descends from this building to another, then down to the ground from that building.

“Get down quickly!” Eric

“Hey, I’m coming” Al

“I’m leaving…” Eric

I quickly moved down from the roof.

“Is this what a royal capital theatre looks like? It’s quite big.” Al

We’re looking at a big brick dome-shaped theatre in front of us, there’s many people both commoners and aristocrats rushing to the entrance. The theatre’s entrance is a large white staircase, and there’s plenty of windows in the dome, it looks very luxurious.

I’m not sure the statue of a random older man makes sense. It stands centered and ahead of the entrance, and the man looks to have an arrogant expression. It’s fancy, so hopefully the play will be well-produced.

“Looks expensive” Al

“Well, it’s a theatre that caters to aristocrats. It’s well run.” Eric

Ah, that makes a lot of sense why the theatre looks so nice. So the statue must be of the founding aristocrat. We entered the theatre and bought tickets at the aristocratic reception, then made our way to the seats.

The theatre is setup in a circular manner, with seats on the ground floor, and two balconies above, all the seats are made of red cloth. There are stairs and passages in the places I’d expect, and a large red curtain is hiding the stage. I bet actors and stagehands are getting things ready behind the curtain.

The ground floor is setup for commoners, and the lower balcony is available as well, but expensive. It seems the upper balcony is reserved for the aristocracy, but we only paid for the lower balcony. I’m guessing the people around us are merchants. I’m not worried about missing out, the lower balcony has a good view. Plus the upper balcony admission is five gold coins, that’s silly expensive.

Eric is lamenting that he’s spent most of his pocket money on food and the play, but I’ve got plenty thanks to the Slowlette family’s Reversi revenues. Have we already made a lifetime’s worth of spending money?

I spend the time waiting for the play to start by people-watching. The theatre fills up quickly and there’s some lively conversations happening.

“Daddy! The dragon slayer play is about to start!” Child

“That’s right. The actors are cool, but the real Lord Nord is said to be even coolor!” Father

“For real? Then I want to marry him in the future!” Child

“Haha, so you’ll be going to a ball in the future?” Father

I can hear the conversation of an innocent girl and a doting father. Nord’s wife is Elna and that isn’t going to change, so she’ll have to give up. Even the princess can’t make that change. It seems like some aristocrats will take multiple wives, but our family doesn’t do that. Perhaps the girl will marry Silvio, he has Nord’s looks and isn’t taken.

“My dad seems a to be a popular figure.” Al

“There aren’t many people who can say they’ve defeated a dragon.” Eric

“How did he defeat it?” Al

“I’ve seen the play before, they do a good rendition of it.” Eric

“Ok” Al

Before long, an announcer appeared in front of the curtain. He greeted the audience, then as he left the stage the lights went out and the curtain raised. It looks like the Dragon Slayer play is starting. The stage lights come up as the actors appear.

An energetic blue-eyed blonde man stood center-stage, he is dressed in blue-colored adventurer-style clothes and carries a sword on his waist. That must the actor playing Nord, he is similarly handsome, but doesn’t look as reliable at the real article.

Still I wonder how happy the female audience likes the actor, some of them are making weird comments. As for me, since I’m familiar with the real Nord, I can only see the actor as a faux Nord, a Norf.

“Hey, just because your father’s face is handsome, don’t make weird faces at the actor. He’s pretty good looking.” Eric whispers to me, I must have made a weird face.

“Yeah, I get it” Al

In the end, the real Nord is obviously cooler. If it was that Norf, he’d get instantly defeated by Eleanora during training.

“There was a man named Nord, a young adventurer” Narrator

A woman’s voice echoes in the venue as she provides the narration. It’s got to be either Wind Magic or a magic tool that has the same effect. Following the narration, Norf walked down a road on the stage. He’s walking playfully, but I guess it’s in line with the play. His expression is oddly proud, I feel like Nord or Elna would want to slap his silly face. Norf talks about his journey to leave his village and head to the royal capital to become a famous adventurer.

“That’s right! It’s such a nice day, I should sing a song!” Norf

Norf was walking down the road normally, but after he finished introducing himself, he declared he wanted to sing. At that point, upbeat music started playing and Norf pranced around the stage singing a solo. He doesn’t seem to have a normal attitude of a villager heading to the royal capita, but he is a good singer at least.

Norf gracefully dances along the stage with splendid moves. The dancing and singing entranced many of the female audience members. I heard some comments from fascinated people. Eventually, the song ended and Norf returned to a regular walk, then three goblins jumped out from behind a grass prop.

“Goblins!” Norf

The actor pulls out his sword as he shouts. Obviously, they aren’t real goblins but men who had their bodies painted green. They’re stooped over wearing dirty leather armor wielding wooden clubs.

“Good! Good!” Goblins

The weird voices and distinctive crab-like movements are reminiscent of real goblins. It reminded me of the goblin I ran into with Rumba, the actors must have observed real goblins. The goblins bounced from foot to foot while waving their hands in excitement. The stage becomes tense as the peaceful scene turns dangerous.

“The goblins found you because you were singing” Al

“Don’t comment on the play, just enjoy it” Eric whispered.

On the stage, tense music is playing while Norf and the goblins are maneuvering around each other. Normally goblins will just rush in if they outnumber their opponent, but this is dramatized.

“Good!” Goblins

Norf avoids the clubs of the goblins and draws his sword across their bellies.

“Gau!” Goblins

The goblins fall to the stage with pained cries, they’re using exaggerated movements so the audience can comprehend what is occurring. Perhaps Norf has some martial arts knowledge, his movements are pretty good.

“Hah!” Norf

He cuts down the attacking goblins with a short shouts. After he defeats the final one, he stows his sword back into a sheath with a flourish.

“Hmm, it’s good I was energetic today, but there’s too many monsters showing up recently. I have a bad feeling about it.” Norf

After that line, Norf walked down the road and off the stage. On the stage, the goblins lay where the fell without moving. I assume that most theatre patrons will watch the ‘fallen’ actors to see if they move, I was.

Then the scenery changed and Norf arrived at the royal capital. He enters the Adventurer Guild, where many adventurers are making merry. Many of them are holding mugs in a hand, yelling or eating. Some are arm wrestling, others are screaming various things. There are some female adventurers scattered throughout the crowd, but not that many. It shows that not all adventurers are men, I guess.

“Is this the adventurer’s guild of the royal capital?” Norf

Norf observes the chaos of the guild.

“You got a problem kid?” Adventurer

One of the nearby adventurers approaches Norf with an aggressive stance. He has a nasty smile that isn’t welcoming, his face is red, as if he’s drunk.

“Uhh, is this a stereotype?” Al

“Stereotype?” Eric

Oh, whoops. Stereotype derives from a printing process that doesn’t exist in this world. Eric is confused with my word choice, I’ll say it’s an inside joke so he turns back to the play. If Eric tries to ask again, I’ll take him for a hike through the sky.

“Even so, you’re a real pretty boy. I though you were a woman!” Adventurer

The first adventurer ridicules Norf, and the surrounding adventurers laugh in response. Norf tries to pass by the aggressive adventurer, but is waylaid.

“Are you ignoring me!” Adventurer

It seems the aggressive adventurer is not allowing Norf to just pass by. Norf avoids the adventurer and trips him so he falls to the ground. That technique feel familiar, hasn’t it been pulled on me during sword practice? How did it make it into the play?

“Haha, welcome newcomer, I’m Boles. Sorry about that guy!” Boles

The mockery and laughs turn towards the adventurer.

“Remember, looks can be deceiving.” Boles

“Aren’t you getting to friendly with the newcomer, Boles? Augh!” Adventurer

The adventurer got angry from the humiliation of being knocked down by a handsome newcomer and being laughed at by the other veteran adventurers. Norf sighed as the adventurer swung at Norf again.

“This bastard!” Adventurer

Instead of trying to stop the quarrel, the surrounding adventurers form a circle to encourage them on. You can hear adventurers offering bets on which one would win. For some reason, I feel like I’ve seen this before.

“Hey, can you stop!” Girl

A girl’s voice is heard from the entrance to the guild, apparently a drunkard almost collided with her. At this point, the rest of the guild stops moving. The girl with maroon hair tries to cut in between adventurers to enter the guild. She could be quiet and let things proceed, but she has no intention of going with the flow.

She has long glossy, chestnut-colored hair that goes down to her waist. She has fiery eyes with a neat face, a feminine body, and gear befitting a magician (a robe and a long cane). I wonder who this could be?

“Hey, Elna” Boles

I almost shouted ‘What?’ at that line.