Chapter 31- Communicator of Culture

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“You really wrote the final ending as a tragedy.”

Skeleton Duke sitting on the long table in the hall, furiously looked at Joshua who was busy editing.

Skeleton Duke originally should have been angry for those despicable humans stepping into his territory, but after watching the completed “Beauty and the Devil” movie, the two eye sockets which have long ago lost the eyeballs were overflowing with the tiny soul fire acting as tears, and then she became little sad for a while.

But Skeleton Duke didn’t remain sad for the long, she remembered that the screenwriter of the movie was beside her! So Skeleton Duke quickly sent a threat to Joshua on the spot

“Lord Duke, if you are not satisfied, you can personally write the script and turn it into a perfect ending.”

Joshua, holding the charcoal brush in his hand, was outlining a sphere shape and without raising his head replied to the Skeleton Duke.

“Your Highness, are you saying I can change the ending?”

The Skeleton Duke’s tone was not friendly, it seemed like as long as Joshua gave the permission she really planned to Change the ending by force.

“I mean that you can write a story that you want to be based on the template of this story. This can be done, no matter who you are.”

To speak Joshua’s method of creation on earth was called adaptation, and this minority group was called a fandom.

Most of the later generation films of the “Beauty and the Beast” were actually based on the adaptation of the original. No matter whether it was Disney or the French version, they were called as movie adaptations but not the original works, so were Joshua’s work.

Joshua does not oppose the people of this world adapting the “Beauty and the Beast”, but even encourages them to do so.

Because if there are a lot of adaptations, the story will be spread wide.

Joshua had only one request from these adaptors, and that was, to add the author name: Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont,  the original author of the “beauty and the beast”, a french female writer.

This was also the request Joshua made to himself. Joshua had never intended to take these works as his own idea in this different world. After all, Joshua in this world wanted to spread the culture of the earth, rather than plagiarizing the earth’s culture in this world.

As a qualified Communicator of Culture, this was the most basic requirement.

“I haven’t reached the point of humiliating myself.”

Skeleton Duke thought about it for a moment and then gave up the idea, she indeed doesn’t have any creative cells.

“Lord Duke, I am taking the liberty to ask…is it possible to give me your full name?”

Joshua stopped the brush in his hand. Since he signed the contract with Skeleton Duke, Joshua only knew the first name of the Skeleton Duke but doesn’t know her surname.

“Your highness, what is the meaning of asking it?”

“Because I will let the audience know who performed the soundtrack.”

Joshua took a long complete black piece of paper, in which he wrote the final cast and crew list with white paint. First, naturally, was lady Beaumont, the original author of “Beauty and the Beast”. The second was Ino, the leading actress who played Belle, next was Zenas who played the role of the prince, there were also the names of the ghost who played the moving furniture recorded in it, and also included several guest villagers and Ciri Loidl.

“The last name is of no importance. Your highness, you just write my first name, I am satisfied with that.”

The Skeleton Duke seems to particularly exclude her last name. Since it was Skeleton Duke’s request, Joshua finally wrote only Skeleton Duke’s first name, Soundtrack- Ronica.

The last series of names were only of Joshua’s; director, planner, screenplay, props, setting, camera shots, editor, and so on.

It took so much effort to make the movie, naturally, Joshua wasn’t polite to publicize himself.

When Joshua finished making the ending credits, all that remained was the opening credit.

The opening credit was nothing more than showing the studio LOGO. Joshua had pondered carefully over it, and finally drew a Logo of the earth on a piece of paper. Under the earth logo, he wrote “Produced by Earth studio” in both Chinese and English.

It might look a little silly, but this constantly rotating blue planet was the logo Joshua was going to use for the rest of his life. After all, the movies, novels, and games were all from the earth.

The effect of rotation was made but Joshua in the simplest way, by using a flipbook. Joshua had not yet figured out how to input the image into the program he wrote.

“Done.”

After Joshua made the opening credit and the end credits, he recorded them into the source crystal stone respectively and announced that the final product of “Beauty and the devil” was successfully made.

“Duke, this is for you.”

Joshua took out an empty source crystal stone, made a copy and gave it to the Skeleton Duke.

Altogether, more than a hundred source crystals were used for shooting this movie, and after learning the White magic taught by Ciri, Joshua was able to reuse these source crystal stones, so actually, it didn’t cost him much.

“Is your highness going to the human world to show this movie?”

Skeleton Duke took the source crystal handed over by Joshua. He had already heard about Joshua’s ambition earlier. Joshua doesn’t want just one or two hundred people to watch the movie, Joshua’s ambition was the whole world!

“Obviously. The first stop will be the capital of Magic, Nolan” said Joshua.

However, Joshua hadn’t yet figured out the location of the screening, when the moment comes he would ask Ciri to inquire about it, Ciri was more familiar with the human world than Joshua.

At this moment, a ghost suddenly floating came to Joshua’s side. It was the steward of Skeleton Duke, and also the one who played the role of teacup in the movie.

The steward put down a badge on the table next to Joshua and disappeared.

Joshua picked up the badge, on top of it were very delicate carvings, resembling a bouquet of flowers, and the badge also contained a type of magic power that couldn’t be explained in words.

The badge seemed to be very old, there were many signs of wear and tear on it.

“This is…”

“It is an old thing, and no longer has any use for me. Your highness, you can take this badge and find the humans with the surname Dalke for assistance. If I guess correctly, this family should be currently in the theater business.” said the Skeleton Duke.

“I see.”

This badge of Skeleton Duke’s has undoubtedly opened a new door for Joshua, but Joshua didn’t ask anything, the Skeleton Duke hates her own surname, there must be a past she does not want to mention.

“Then I bid goodbye for the time being. In the next visit, I will surely invite Duke to perform in the theater. Furthermore, this is the music score.”

Joshua tidied up the things on the table and pushed thick sheets of music score towards the Skeleton Duke, which contained the works of some of the great musicians of the earth.

“The performance… I don’t have any hope, this is near-impossible to happen. Just Your Highness… if you make your next movie, you must give it to me in advance.”

Skeleton Duke as if she has found a treasure, very carefully collected the music score that Joshua had given him, and then said to Joshua.

Addicted to movies? This form of entertainment was indeed too novel for the inhabitants of the world.

“Of course.”

After Joshua accepted the request, he carried his suitcase and went to the gates of the Duke’s castle.

Ciri had been waiting outside the castle for a long time.

“Excited to go back to the human world?”

Joshua stepped down from the stairs, came to Ciri’s side, and asked.

“Back to the human world? Wait… I don’t care about it, hurry up and play with me another round of ping-pong!”

Ciri issued a duel to Joshua, since the finishing of the movie, Ciri and Joshua have been playing Ping-Pong. Naturally, the final result was Josua defeating her miserably with a record of ten consecutive wins.

This has completely aroused Ciri’s competitive spirit.

“Can we play after getting on the carriage?”

“Ok.”

Joshua originally thought that this small game was not much fun. For Joshua, he could even count his game time, after all, on earth Joshua has played some AAA masterpiece games till he got tired.

However, the nature of the video game was to bring fun to the players and the ping-pong brought Ciri great joy, even if it was a simple game.

Ciri immediately climbed into the carriage driven by Zenas and then patted the seat beside her to signal Joshua to come up quickly.

“…”

Joshua was able to imagine what Ciri will be like when the internet age really comes.

And Joshua thinks that this era was far away. After all, Joshua has already kicked down the door of this era in a very rough way.

(TN: I searched on the internet and found that the original author is actually Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. The author wrote Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, who is known for writing the best version of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’.)