Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: 5. Mecha God Chronicle (3)
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With the character and Mecha God designs, along with all the various settings, finally complete, the real work began.
If we were making an anime on Earth, this would be the most grueling, nitty-gritty part of the whole process.
From storyboarding to the layout work commonly called L/O, followed by key animation and in-betweening, cleanup, tracing, and coloring.
A ton of insanely tough tasks that ordinary people wouldn't even need to know about.
But at least, I wasn't afraid of any of it.
Because, as I've said before, I could handle all those countless steps with just a few snaps of illusion magic and duplication magic.
The work wasn't hard at all.
I just output the scenes from my head using illusion magic, duplicate them endlessly with copy magic, and then animate the drawings with more magic. Done.
Compared to how anime was made on Earth, it seemed like pure fairy-tale magic.
But at the same time, this method had one fatal flaw.
A typical anime uses anywhere from a minimum of 300 key frames to as many as 2,000.
Which meant pulling all those images from my head into reality would consume an enormous amount of mana.
No matter how efficiently I snapped out the keyframes to make the anime, I'd still have to do it at least 300 times.
That's why Kaya had hired a few more mages for the animation team besides me.
It was faster to work with other skilled mages—disposable printers, essentially—than to be the sole illusion magic output machine.
"Hmm, so this is how you make an anime, Raguna."
And right now, a strikingly seductive mage who looked to be in her late twenties was smiling at me from beside me.
On any other day, it might've triggered my classic loser delusions like, "Is she into me? How many kids should we have?"
Unfortunately, her charms didn't make my heart race at all.
For the record, this wasn't because my tastes had suddenly turned hardcore like some marine corps literature.
More precisely...
"...Please don't tease me like this, Master. This disciple of yours has never properly dated a woman, so I'm not immune to that sort of thing."
That's right.
The mage supporting me right now was none other than my master from the Magic Tower.
Her name was Aris Renoa.
She was the current head of the Magic Tower in the sky and one of the empire's top mages.
...Though to me, she was just a clingy mess who grabbed my pant leg begging me to be her official disciple and carry on the tower.
"Hehe, are you smitten with me? Sure, I'm older than you, but the age gap is only three or four years, so it's not impossible for us to get together."
"...As far as I know, the age difference between you and me is more like six or seven years—"
It was then.
Crack!
The table under my master's hand split clean in half.
"That's enough out of you. Men who casually bring up a woman's age aren't popular, you know?"
"...Yes. I'll keep that in mind."
If I'd kept talking, she looked ready to fireball my head clean off, so I clamped my mouth shut.
"Anyway, I'm sorry. I dragged you all the way out here, Master, and all I have you doing is this mindless repetition."
Viewers binge a 20-minute episode and turn into critics overnight, nitpicking keyframes and animation errors like possessed.
But the creators? They slave away for days or weeks to make that 20 minutes happen.
And here I was, making my master do the grunt work. My K-Confucian conscience was screaming in discomfort.
Fortunately, though, Master just gave me a bright smile.
"It's fine. I've always been curious about how anime is made. And as your master, helping my one and only disciple is only natural, isn't it?"
"Master...!"
I felt more overwhelming emotion than if she'd said, "My foolish disciple... I still love you..."
"If you're grateful, make an anime with a mage protagonist later. That way, it'll draw new slaves... er, talented mages to our tower."
"..."
In any case, with Master and the other mages' help, I quickly finished the in-betweening and backgrounds.
And with the animation complete, voice dubbing finally kicked off in earnest.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The commander looked at him and spoke in a voice devoid of any emotion.
[Board the Mecha God, Kai.]
[Pardon?]
[I said board the Mecha God, Kai. And strike down the Outer Gods invading this place. That's the only reason we brought you here.]
[Th-that's—]
In that moment, Kai bit his lip without realizing it as he listened to the commander.
[I came here because you said you'd tell me about my missing little sister. And now you're telling me to pilot this thing and fight Outer Gods?]
[If you're getting on, do it. If not, get out. Your choice.]
[...No, I've never even seen a Mecha God in my life. How the hell am I supposed to pilot it?!]
But then.
[He's right, Commander. There's no need to put a dimwit like him in a Mecha God. I'll pilot Unit 0.]
It was a single girl.
Her entire body wrapped head to toe in bandages, blood seeping uncontrollably through the gaps—a frail girl who could barely hide it.
She panted heavily with every step, as if even walking on her own two feet was a struggle.
Anyone could see she was one step from death, but the commander regarded her with ice-cold eyes.
[Didn't you just lose to an Outer God, Saya? A loser volunteering for Unit 0?]
[...But since this idiot refuses to pilot, I'm the only option left. Right?]
[Fine, no helping it. Saya, board the Mecha God in his place.]
[What?! You're putting a critically injured patient in a Mecha God?]
Kai's eyes widened as he protested, but the commander smirked at him.
[Got a better idea? Outer Gods can't be killed without a Mecha God, and if they invade, humanity ends. And here you are, throwing a tantrum that you can't do anything, then backseat driving. Pathetic.]
[...!]
Stung to the core by the commander's words, Kai bit his lip hard.
But only for a moment. Steel resolve hardened his expression as he spoke.
[...I'll do it.]
[Huh?]
[I'll pilot the Mecha God in her place! What's the big deal? I'll give it a shot!]
"...Cut! Take a break, everyone."
My call wrapped the dubbing session.
The staff, who'd been glued to the scene like they'd forgotten to blink, snapped out of it.
"G-great work, everyone! A-and you too, Lady Serika!"
Riz, voicing Kai, bowed repeatedly to the other actors beside her. Only then did Serika, as Saya, jolt back to reality with a startled look.
"Oh? Ah... Good work, Riz."
"Ehehe, no biggie. I just read my lines from the script."
Riz flashed an innocently beaming smile.
But in that instant, I clearly saw Serika's face stiffen at those words.
'...She's a monster.'
I inwardly whistled as I watched Riz.
'How is this a newbie voice actress? I'd believe she'd been in the industry for 20 years.'
That's right.
Even though she was a rookie I'd scouted myself at auditions.
Riz's acting skills far exceeded my wildest expectations.
Just moments ago, her voice performance had mesmerized Serika and the entire staff.
Not exaggerating—her sync rate was like Kai himself bursting through the screen.
But then.
"Um, Director?"
"Yes? What's up?"
For some reason, Riz shuffled toward me hesitantly, glancing nervously.
"Did I... do okay? I tried my best, but the reactions from everyone earlier felt a bit weird..."
"...?"
I could only stare at her in disbelief.
After turning Serika and every actor into amateurs with one take—what was she on about?
"You were great. Obviously."
"...Really?"
"Absolutely. I'd love to have you back for the next project."
"Ehehe. That makes me so happy."
Riz shyly beamed at my words.
Right as we were filming our own heartwarming youth drama...
"Hm?"
I glanced over.
And there was Serika, staring at Riz beside me with an unreadable expression.
"...That was supposed to be mine. It's mine."
"...?"
Why the hell was she making that face?
And what did that mutter to Riz mean?
'...Probably just professional rivalry as a voice actress.'
I brushed off Serika's glare without a second thought.