106. Romantic Dreams and Romance
106. Romantic Dreams and Romance
Carlos granted Allen's request—which wasn't so much a request as a demand that had barged in out of nowhere.
As someone who had watched Allen since childhood almost as much as Leon had, this was far from the first time.
He opened his mouth to recite the information Allen wanted on Agion Karambelt.
======<Story Begins>======
Heinkel Faust was born to a farming family in a count's territory—
"Skip."
- He displayed a talent for magic and became a Hero, and in his tenth year as a Hero, he caught the eye of a certain Sage—
"Skip."
From his thirtieth year as a Hero, he appeared as Agion Karambelt in a work titled <The Bizarre Adventures of Hero Vandel>.
At the time, Vandel's popularity was middling, but thanks to Agion's performance the film was a massive hit.
A film originally planned as a standalone received a second installment on the strength of Part 1’s success.
But Part 2 featured no Agion, and so it recorded a catastrophic box-office failure.
Thus the studio came to a realization.
Agion had been carrying this franchise on his back the whole time.
After that, they brought Agion back for Part 3.
-I have never experienced death.
He was given the new premise that he resurrected every time he was killed.
And so a peculiar series was born, in which the villain stayed the same while the protagonist kept changing.
Vandel was not a given name but a surname, passed down as a middle name by those who inherited his will as they strove to defeat Agion.
James 'Vandel' Rainfeld
Garen 'Vandel' Rostgard
In that fashion.
But this too had its limits.
After the protagonist had changed roughly ten times, the protagonist concepts slowly began to run dry.
The actor playing Agion was an Archwizard, so every time he returned he could bring a different kind of magic with him. The protagonists could not do the same.
That was the start of the decline.
The final descent began in earnest after the studio, its operations growing precarious, was acquired and merged into another.
The existing president was driven out, and the new executive seated in his place shouted "Innovation!" and made a declaration.
They had decided to turn the Vandel series into a multiverse.
======<Story Paused>=====
"Whoa, wait-wait-wait. Multiverse? Did you just say multiverse?"
At Carlos's words, Allen couldn't help but doubt his ears.
There was already a multiverse in this world?
Once, when he had been deliberating whether to make Magical Girl a multiverse or an omnibus, he had felt the pull of the multiverse side.
The reason being, the title of world-first had tempted him.
In the end he chose an omnibus format for the sake of quality, and looking back now, his choice had been the best one.
Had he opted for a multiverse, he would have failed to earn the first-ever title and sacrificed the work's quality as well.
A choice with literally no advantages, only drawbacks.
Imagining that parallel universe made Allen's heart drop.
'Thank you, Lord.'
He offered up a prayer of thanks for about three seconds, then refocused on the story.
======<Story Resumes>======
Anyway, the Vandel series became a multiverse.
Across countless parallel worlds, the production company forgot the lesson of Part 2 and swapped out the demon king.
Naturally the results were disastrous, and eventually Agion returned as the demon king.
From then on, the demon king was fixed as Agion in every worldline.
Even as the protagonist's race changed, gender changed, and family changed, Agion remained the demon king.
Things reached the point where you could only call it the Agion Universe.
But both the fans and the studio had to admit that Agion was essentially the life support keeping that universe alive.
His range as a performer, his combat power, and his charisma propped up countless worlds.
The series, barely clinging to life in this way, faced one more turning point.
In a bad direction.
The executive who had blown things open with the multiverse was dismissed, and once again a new executive was seated.
In his first interview, the newly replaced executive said this:
- The reason the Vandel series is dying is entirely because of Agion.
It was a statement the new executive made in his first official interview.
Naturally, the fans' instincts kicked in.
Ah, it really was over.
As if on cue, the executive launched an Agion record-erasure project with greater zeal than anyone.
Across multiple multiverses he diligently chipped away at Agion's reputation and gradually reduced the scenes where he could shine.
He made everything Agion had achieved up to then look like nothing, and then tried to bestow all that renown upon the demon king's successors.
While the series was rapidly collapsing in this way, one fan raised a question.
- The Heroes. Why are they all imps?
The problem was that every protagonist Hero the executive promoted was an imp.
In itself, having Vandels of various races across countless worldlines was no issue, but anyone could see deliberate intent when all of them were imps.
And when you considered that the executive's own race was also imp, the circumstantial evidence was more than enough.
The fans pressed the executive relentlessly.
The original members of the Vandel series and Agion himself joined the fandom in protesting him.
After an unrelenting pursuit, they extracted a confession from the executive.
- Yes. That's right. I did give the imps a few advantages. But what exactly is the problem with that?
Imps have faced discrimination among the demon races until now, so they deserve to receive this level of benefit. Isn't this equality?
Once he had laid the facts bare, the executive had nothing left to hold him back.
Declaring himself an activist for imps, he went around calling himself an "Impist film producer."
His first act as an Impist was to openly point a finger at Agion.
- Heinkel was a privileged demon species anyway. I merely wanted to show that if he could do it, we imps can do it too.
For Agion, this was beyond absurd.
Of course it was true that imps had suffered discrimination.
That was because imps were a lower demon race on the level of goblins.
And as the Imp Representative said, Heinkel did carry the blood of the Belial Race, an upper demon species.
But the executive's words were specious.
Because if you asked whether that blood had granted Heinkel privilege, the answer was no.
He was born on a farm and cultivated his magical abilities over the course of his acting career, and it could be stated plainly that there was no social privilege in that process.
If the executive were to call talent itself a privilege, there would be nothing to say, but if talent were privilege, how one was supposed to compensate for it was equally impossible to grasp.
But Agion's thoughts on the matter were not something the executive considered for a second.
The executive shamelessly pushed his ideology.
Within the Vandel worldview, Agion had to become progressively uglier and weaker, while imps began to be depicted as a lunatic superior species with all plausibility thrown to the dogs.
To recount the imps' exploits in that worldview—
First, imps possess extremely rapid learning ability.
For an ordinary protagonist to reach Agion's throne, they had to roll around the battlefield for over ten years before barely making it.
Even the strongest protagonist in the series had to suffer through a five-year hellish intensive practical combat course.
But for an imp, one year is enough to reach Agion.
Was the imp a former soldier?
No. He was merely a serf who picked up a sword instead of a hoe and became as strong as a Demon King within a year.
Fine, let's grant that much.
But what follows is even more outrageous.
The film emphasized love over hatred from start to finish.
It sounded plausible on paper.
But the ensuing exploits were never love.
So, were Agion's underlings, killed along the way to Agion, killed with love then?
Were the ones the imp killed people who deserved to die, while the imp was preaching to embrace him with love?
And why the hell were they so obsessed with self-destruction?
Sure, sacrifice was a Hero’s virtue, but did every beginning, middle, and end have to culminate in self-destruction?
The protagonist's master self-destructs! His friend self-destructs! Soldiers self-destruct!
Fuck, if they loved self-destruction that much, the executive bastard could self-destruct along with the film—
=================<Story Emergency Halt>=================
"Whoa, whoa. Calm down."
As Carlos, who had been telling the story, suddenly began convulsing, Allen broke out in a cold sweat and calmed him down.
Allen usually remained detached even in the face of considerable anger, but Carlos's rage was on a different plane entirely.
They said a normally gentle person was scarier when angered.
With his eyes bloodshot and frothing at the mouth as he convulsed, Carlos looked like someone who could be carried off to a temple at any moment.
Especially as someone who had his own trigger with <Fairy Warrior>, Allen could understand exactly how Carlos felt.
Allen brought over an oxygen mask he had used in the past and administered first aid.
Before long, Carlos managed to calm down.
Allen watched Carlos anxiously as he struggled to breathe through the respirator, then spoke.
"Can you keep going?"
"I have shown unsightly conduct. I am all right. I will continue the story."
"Let's stop if it's too hard."
"No. Please, let me say it to the end."
Drawing ragged breaths through the respirator, Carlos opened his mouth again.
=======<Resume Story>========
From then on, the CEO's harassment of Agion grew steadily more blatant.
In one film, Agion died a pointless death at the hands of an ordinary soldier; in another, he died at the very beginning.
And how did the box office fare?
Surprisingly, the downhill slide in ticket sales suddenly reversed.
The CEO proudly displayed this fact and declared:
- Look. This is the proof. Now all that's left is to keep climbing.
But that was the CEO's delusion.
In truth, as the hardcore fans bled away, imp viewers simply filled the empty seats.
Imps had flocked to the theaters, raving over storylines featuring imps in active roles.
Imps were a race with a filthy abundance of numbers, so they could replace the hardcore fans who had left.
Moreover, it wasn't just imps. Lesser demon races that had been discriminated against just like imps—goblins and slimes chief among them—began rallying alongside the Impist movement, and the advance ticket sales ratio saw a clear increase.
Well, judging by that metric alone, the CEO's thinking could be called correct.
The problem was that the imp coalition were not actually fans.
Like a school of fish that swarms briefly toward a ripple on the water's surface only to scatter, they simply raved over the fact that lesser demons appeared in the film. They didn't have an ounce of interest in the content of the series itself.
The proof was that, unlike the hardcore fandom, they never sought out Vandel series merchandise—statues, autographs, and the like. Independent of the box office, revenue hit rock bottom.
And so, as the hardcore fans left one by one, and the films themselves grew boring, the imp coalition abandoned the series as if they'd sucked out every last drop of sweetness.
They'd gotten a single hit of emotional consolation from the fact that lesser demons had appeared in a series, and then they never even glanced back.
Insulting the existing fandoms on their way out was an added bonus.
- Imp can do anything!
- Goblin can do it too!
- Never ignore slimes again!
They, who had actually ruined the series, did not stay to share its fate.
Like a swarm of locusts, they laid waste to the Vandel series, and then, when the series' popularity withered, they departed to find another series they could latch onto.
Merchandise wasn't selling at all. The hardcore fans had no intention of ever coming back.
By any measure, the Vandel series was dead.
If a revival had been even remotely possible, they might have fired the Impist CEO. But now, a revival seemed impossible.
Instead of firing the Imp Representative, the parent company ordered the liquidation of the Vandel series.
Now that it was ruined anyway, that Impist CEO plastered the finale with imps and lesser demons and brought the films to a close.
And in that finale, he didn't even let Agion appear.
Having destroyed the series, the Impist executive mocked the fandom before moving on to another franchise.
- Just watch the movies as movies.
It was enough to make the entire fandom’s blood boil.
There really were fans who were carried out after hearing that remark, and fans who raged and swore they'd wring the CEO's neck.
Amidst it all, fans who couldn't let go of their lingering attachment believed the series would one day be revived, and they waited for Agion and the original members.
But unfortunately, that was just when religious romance began trending.
A trend set in motion by a single Sage became the mainstream current when that Sage was selected as a film festival judge.
Critics and judges declared that hero-demon king stories incited violence, saddling them with all manner of penalties, and proclaimed there was no longer room for them in the market.
And they even designated the original Vandel series—the one at the vanguard of hero-demon king stories—as violence-glorifying and racially discriminatory.
They had never allied with the Impists, but their actions, like a combo, drove the final nails into the coffin of the dead Vandel series.
And, just as they had wished, hero-demon king stories became nearly impossible to find in this world.
Allen.
You asked about Agion Karambelt's retirement, didn't you?
To give you the answer, there was no retirement.
He never even had the chance to hold a retirement ceremony.
Not just Agion—from that day forward, every member of the Vandel series vanished.
They had simply faded into oblivion, as though they had evaporated, without even a malicious kidnapping to explain it.
Agion... no, Dean Heinkel had lived that kind of life.
=======<End of Story>========
Hooooh— hooooh—
As soon as Carlos finished his story, Allen, right beside him, put on an oxygen mask.
To Allen, who had been listening, it did not feel like someone else’s story at all.
He couldn't dismiss the treatment a major industry veteran had received as some trivial matter.
Except the fact that Allen himself wasn't the wronged party and therefore couldn't exact revenge was a lamentable state of affairs.
The two patients met each other's eyes.
A sense of comradeship overflowed between them.
They were no longer merely childhood friends, but two artists—and two fans—bound by souls wounded by the same garbage ideology.
With a grave attitude, Allen spoke to Carlos.
"Hey. What do you think of this?"
Allen made a certain proposal to Carlos.
Without a moment's hesitation, Carlos clasped his hand.
"For this one occasion, I will stand with you."
"Welcome, comrade."
The two of them went straight to Leon.
*
Knock, knock.
Two days after Allen and Carlos clasped hands, they headed directly to the Dean's office.
The Dean, puzzled by the visit request from Allen coming just one day after their previous meeting, granted it anyway.
This time, Carlos was beside Allen.
The two sat across from the Dean and began to lay out their words.
That they knew all about the Dean's past. That they understood the words the Dean had last spoken to Allen were sincere.
"Dean. I'm about to make you an offer you can't refuse. Would you appear in the Liam Walker Series?"
The Dean flinched for a moment at Allen's offer.
Then he shook his head.
It was true that the Liam Walker series had ignited a fire in the actor's soul within him.
But contrary to his burning heart, his reason was telling him:
He could never return as Agion Karambelt again.
He could appear in the Liam Walker series, yes.
But that would not be as 'Agion.' It would merely be as a different character.
For the Dean, whose true desire was a beautiful conclusion for the character Agion, that offer had to be refused.
Just as seawater only deepens your thirst the more you drink, an incomplete fulfillment of his wish would torment him all the more.
With the resolve of one amputating a limb, he declined Allen's offer.
Saying the students' film should remain the students' domain.
But Allen, as if he'd known the Dean would refuse, gave a meaningful smile and said:
"I told you. It's an offer you can't refuse."
Allen placed a contract on the Dean's desk.
At a glance, it was a rights contract.
But examining it closely, it was the rights contract for the Vandel series.
And it wasn't an incomplete lease—it was a full, permanent purchase.
"H-... How..."
Allen simply smiled.
A ruined series like that was hardly difficult to buy from the standpoint of the head of massive franchises like John, Magical Girl, and Wrestle Kingdom.
Of course, the Vandel series' prestige meant negotiations hit a few snags even after it was ruined, but to Allen, an all-American man's man, such issues were trivial.
Buying the rights is difficult?
Then I'll buy out the company.
With overwhelming capital, he had simply purchased the film studio where Agion had once been employed.
Thanks to his alliance with Carlos, Allen's frozen accounts had been liberated, and his capital was now at a level where he could casually acquire a fallen film studio.
But he could hardly tell an industry veteran forced into a humiliating retirement that acquiring his series had been easy, so he merely smiled in silence.
The Dean accepted the rights contract Allen handed him with trembling hands and examined it.
No matter how he looked at it, this contract was genuine.
And what it meant to show him this contract now, at this timing, was one thing.
"So... if I really were to appear... would it be in the form of Agion...?"
Nod.
As if unable to believe it, the Dean looked back and forth between the contract and Allen's face.
By the time he came to his senses, he had already signed the appearance contract.
He was certainly an Archwizard, yet as though hypnotized, he signed every necessary document in a daze.
With the excitement of a man far younger than his years, he asked Allen.
"Who will choreograph Agion's fight scenes, if I may ask?"
Allen silently pointed to himself.
"But wouldn't the school's budget alone fall short for that?"
Allen pointed at himself again.
"Then don't tell me the script as well...!"
"Ah, that will be handled not by me but by Sage Cervantes."
Heinkel's heart beat fiercely.
His body was already brimming with vitality.
Gazing at the visibly elated Heinkel, Allen casually asked:
"Just in case, Dean... no, Agion. Do you have any respiratory condition?"
"No. I'm healthy. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see..."
- I was asking in case you could act while wearing a breathing apparatus.