Goddess Kaleidoscope

These cinemas have already started operating, and the first film shown is "The Count of Monte Cristo," but it's not a true movie; it's a recording of a stage play, so it's not quite what you'd expect.

Moreover, no matter how good the movie "The Count of Monte Cristo" is, most viewers will only watch it once or twice. Only a minority of die-hard fans will watch it repeatedly. Therefore, they urgently need more movies now.

Ludwig fully understands Brothers Studios' need for more films, but he doesn't want to accelerate the production of "Seven Samurai" because of it. This film is a masterpiece on Earth, and Ludwig doesn't want to be perfunctory; even if he's copying it now, he wants to do it with care.

So Lude thought about it and decided that since the cinemas wanted more films, he would give them the previously edited "The Maiden of Light in the Labyrinth" first. He would also take some time to shoot the trailer for "Seven Samurai" and some interesting short films. On the one hand, this would help the cinemas increase their screenings and generate revenue, and on the other hand, it would help promote the feature film "Seven Samurai".

Hume thought Ludwig’s plan to cooperate with the Church of Light was a good move. The Church of Light was the most suitable of the three major religions to make contact with, and Lord Carius was indeed an upright, kind, and compassionate god who cared for mortals.

However, Hume was also worried that the Pantheon and the Church of Light were vastly different in strength and status, and their cooperation was not based on equality. Ludd's unilateral overtures might not be respected.

"The current Pope, St. Leonid, is a very capable but also very powerful figure. He has always hoped to establish a religious alliance and then become the leader of this alliance. The Holy Church of Light spends a lot of money every year to provide foreign aid to small and medium-sized local sects in the hope of gaining their support."

"Tsk tsk! It sounds like His Holiness the Pope wants to be the big brother! That's not a bad thing!"

“There are advantages and disadvantages. The Pope’s money isn’t given away for nothing. Accepting the Holy Light Church’s aid means that they will interfere. Aren’t you afraid that they will send people to Pine Town?”

“Everything has risks, I understand that. But as I said before, we should try to avoid the three major religions from standing against us at the same time. The Pantheon can no longer play the role of a nobody as it used to. At least for now, it’s not a bad thing to have a big brother over us.”

"Sigh! In short, you're responsible for finding the right balance."

"Yes, I understand. I've always been very good at judging things."

"...Is this all there is to it?"

Hume glanced down behind him and saw that Ludwig's claws had somehow already touched her buttocks. The human and the god stared at each other silently for a moment, and a soundproof divine barrier quietly formed in the study.

A few days later, Ludwig went out into the Void Forest and took Kanna to pay a special visit to the Black Dragon family. He had some things he hoped to ask the Black Dragon brother Nidhogg for help with.

Riding on the transformed Kanna, Rudd quickly flew to the top of Nidhogg's cave. From afar, he saw the black dragon's huge body squatting on the grass below the cave, with many plants and animals in front of him. His two sons, Brown and Brahmoth, were squatting obediently opposite him, looking like they were in class.

As soon as Ludwig landed, he heard Nidhogg speak to his sons in a deep, booming voice, pointing at a trembling giant wolf.

"This one is edible, but this thing (pointing to a mushroom) is not!"

"..."

As the culprit who distorted the dragon's accent, Lu De almost suffered internal injuries from suppressing his laughter.

In fact, it's not just the large black dragon in front of us; Songshu Town is also experiencing a growing "Northeastification." After all, Lu De frequently broadcasts his sermons (and crosstalk) to the entire town through a loudspeaker, and the residents, after listening to him for a long time, have naturally had their accents distorted without them even realizing it.

In a sense, Rudd did indeed successfully establish his "second home" in another world.

Upon seeing Ludwig arrive with his youngest daughter, Nidhogg, who was teaching his sons a wilderness survival class, stopped the lesson and gestured for his two sons to take a break.

The giant wolf, which was on the verge of a mental breakdown under the dragon's might, wanted to take the opportunity to escape, but as soon as it took one step, it was blocked by two three-and-a-half-year-old black dragons from the front and back.

The two boys were wondering what to do during recess, so they decided to use this unfortunate "teaching tool" to play a game together.

Nidhogg looked at Rudd, while the shrunken Kanna naturally flew onto her father's head. The great black dragon vaguely guessed that Rudd had something on his mind.

What do you want from me?

"I need your help."

"Let's get this straight! I won't do this kind of delivery job. My sons are still young, and this family can't do without me right now."

"It's not that."

"what is that?"

"I'd like to ask you to help me shoot an advertisement."

Limited by the current rudimentary film and television technology, Lude can only perform relatively simple post-production processing, such as clip editing and adding subtitles, on the original film at this stage.

As for special effects compositing, he had no other options but to resort to using as many "real" effects as possible on camera!

Lude came to Nidhogg this time to ask Black Dragon to help him shoot a short film as the opening logo for Brothers Pictures.

So Ludwig decided to copy MGM, directly plagiarizing their incredibly classic "Lion's Roar" and creating an even more impressive "Black Dragon's Roar" as the opening sequence. From then on, every Brothers Pictures movie would feature Nidhogg's roar.

After giving a brief explanation of his purpose, Nidhogg thought that as long as he went to Pinetown and shouted at the film set, it wouldn't be a difficult task. However, Nidhogg couldn't understand what Ludd was doing.

"I remember that red dragon worked for you, didn't it? Wouldn't it be easier if you just roared at her?"

"She's a female dragon, she doesn't look as imposing as you, brother!"

Rudd wasn't being complimentary; female dragons were indeed more delicate-looking than males, and their horns were shorter and less flamboyant. Nidhogg, on the other hand, was undoubtedly the most handsome dragon in the race, with a well-proportioned face that perfectly matched Rudd's expectations.

So the two sides immediately agreed that Nidhogg would make a special trip to Pinetown in a few days, but he really couldn't get away at the moment.

Trusting Ludwig, Nidhogg pointed to his house and explained that his wife, Tawawa, was going to molt in the next few days, and that dragons that had just molted would be in a period of weakness, during which time Nidhogg dared not leave his house.

"Tawawa is currently at a critical stage. I estimate that after three or four more molts, she will be considered an adult according to the standards of the dragon race."

"Haha! Brother, you're really good at torture!"

Ludwig gave Nidhogg a genuine thumbs-up.

After reaching an agreement with Nidhogg, Ludwig allowed Kanna to stay in her hometown and spend time with her family. If possible, she should learn to be like her parents, since the little one has been looking more and more like a cat lately. Although she is very cute, it feels a bit cheap.

After leaving the Black Dragon's lair, Lude turned and went to Peach Blossom Village, where the demi-humans lived. This place had always been Lude's testing ground for "civilizing the demi-humans." Although Lude's level of dedication was far less than that of Pine Tree Town, it was still quite impressive.

Currently, the demi-human population of Peach Blossom Village comprises eleven races and over 1,500 residents. They are mainly weak demi-humans like kobolds and grey elves, who have relatively high average intelligence but lack combat power.

It is worth mentioning that Lud recently transferred Hugh to this place and assigned her to teach these demi-humans.

Rude originally hoped to recruit Hume's "sister," as she possessed the strength of a peak third-tier being. Although she bore the curse of the God of War in Hume's place, she was, in a strict sense, a god as well.

As soon as Lude arrived at Peach Blossom Village, he saw many demi-human villagers working in the fields not far away. These weak races, who originally maintained a tribal civilization survival mode, have now been successfully led by Lude into a more advanced agricultural civilization, supporting themselves through farming.

As soon as Lude arrived, many villagers who were working stood up and bowed to him. In the eyes of these demi-humans, Lord Lude was an "archangel" sent by the gods to save them. He not only protected them and created this safe home for them, but also taught them how to farm.

And Lud did indeed place his hopes on them, hoping that one day he could try again to incorporate these demi-humans, who had the potential to integrate into civilized society, into the "community" he was about to build.

Lud still remembers the failure of his last attempt. He had thought he could educate the townspeople of Pine Town to accept these demi-humans, but it turned out that prejudice was deeply rooted. In the eyes of most humans, these inferior demi-humans were no different from beasts, and they were treated as slaves or even livestock. They were unwilling to acknowledge that these people were also human.

After the massacre and poisoning incidents, Lud realized that if these demi-humans stayed in Pine Town any longer, something terrible would happen sooner or later. So he staged a "mass escape" to get these demi-humans back to the forest and found a secluded valley near Nidhogg's territory for them to settle down.

Lud is certainly not a mindless saint; he did not indiscriminately accept all demi-humans, but rather selected those who could be educated.

Ogres, with their low intelligence and cannibalistic tendencies, were not within Rudd's considerations. Similarly, orcs and lizardmen, who possessed a certain level of civilization but were determined to oppose humans, were also excluded.

Lude only wanted weak, subhuman races with average intelligence above average and the potential to become civilized. If these races also had some special talents, that would be even better.

These weak demi-human races generally don't have any major grudges against humans, but unlike the high elves who are beautiful and magical geniuses, or the dwarves and halflings who have technology that makes humans admire them, they have neither good looks nor value, so they are naturally discriminated against by humans who are greedy and snobbish.

Another unfortunate reason is that powerful demi-human races like orcs and lizardmen, who have considerable strength and are at odds with humans, would temporarily capture a group of these weaker demi-humans to act as pawns before raiding human villages.

If they were in a good mood afterwards, they would give them some leftovers to send them on their way. If they were in a bad mood or the robbery failed, these cannon fodder might be killed by the tyrannical employer and used as reserve food.

These tragic experiences are true, but the victims, in their anger, don't care about that and think these lowly demi-humans deserve to die! These weak races live in the cracks between the two sides.

It is worth mentioning that among the many inferior subhuman races, the kobolds were surprisingly living quite well in the southern Canary Empire. Although they did not enjoy human dignity, they successfully received the treatment of dogs!

Kobolds are one of the very few races among the many inferior subhuman races that possess loyalty. Therefore, many imperial nobles would specially raise those kobolds who had good appearances and were intelligent, so that they could lead their hunting dog teams. They were good helpers in hunting activities.

When Lude arrived in the village, he didn't see Hugh. Instead, the kobold captain, Aqin, caught Lude's scent and came running over, wagging his tail enthusiastically to pay his respects to his sworn lord.

"My lord, I've missed you so much!"

Ah Qin is the captain of the Dog-Headed Ranger Team in Taoyuan Village, leading more than a hundred members of his clan and forming the main security force of the entire village.

To be honest, the kobolds are not very good at direct combat. They are a small subhuman race, about the same height as dwarves, but they do not have the high density of muscles like dwarves. Under normal circumstances, an adult ogre can easily defeat ten kobolds.

But kobolds also have their strengths. They are intelligent and quick-witted, have a strong sense of teamwork, are extremely loyal, and most importantly, have an exceptional sense of smell, making them a natural scout race.

Therefore, after Aqin and his compatriots were incorporated into Lud, Lud created the Kobold Rangers, who were mainly responsible for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. They were Lud's eyes and ears in the Virtual Forest, monitoring demi-human tribes like the Lizardmen who were not friendly to humans.

Surrounded by a group of lackeys, Ludwig entered the village. Ah Qin told Ludwig that Lord Hugh had gone out on errands that morning.

As Lude had always instructed, the village regularly organized people to go out and collect herbs. However, not long ago, a herb-collecting team was robbed by a nearby jackal tribe while they were out collecting herbs. The tribe also took several villagers hostage and demanded food from Peach Blossom Village, threatening to kill them if they didn't get it.

This group of audacious jackal-men had only recently moved to and settled near Peach Blossom Village. Being newcomers, they only saw the weak, subhuman tribes in the village, unaware that the village had powerful backers. Therefore, they were extremely arrogant towards the village's representatives sent to negotiate.

In fact, if these guys hadn't been so few in number, with only about a hundred clansmen, less than a tenth of the population of Peach Blossom Village, they probably would have already stormed in and robbed them.

The mere mention of these jackals made Ah Qin's teeth itch with hatred.

During the first negotiation, Ah Qin was wary of the fact that the other party was holding about ten hostages, so he thought it best to be cautious and exchange his own people first before teaching the other party a lesson. Therefore, he took some food and some rare wine from the forest and took the initiative to negotiate.

As a result, his actions were taken as weakness by the other party, who immediately demanded that A Qin give ten times more before they would release him, and also verbally humiliated A Qin and his people.

From the perspective of the gnolls on the other side, although they were not a renowned and powerful race, they were at least a level stronger than the kobolds.

But they didn't know that if the two sides really started fighting, Aqin and his people could crush these jackal people. If it weren't for the safety of the hostages, they wouldn't have wasted a single word on them.

The kobold rangers were using equipment provided by Lud, wearing chainmail with camouflage netting, and equipped with a triple-shot crossbow, a short sword, and a wooden shield with a steel core, while the gnolls were still using stone tools—a clear case of superior equipment.

After the first negotiation failed, A Qin returned to the village dejectedly. He wanted to report to Lu De and ask for the adults' help, but he felt that if he had to ask Master Lu for help with such a small matter, he would be too shameful.

At this time, Hugh, who had been assigned by Lu De to "teach" in Peach Blossom Village, learned of the matter and said that she could help. She had a way to rescue the hostages safely without having to pay ransom to those jackals.

So early this morning, Hugh went out alone, and I estimate that almost two hours have passed.

"You're really just going to let her go alone like that?"

"Ms. Hugh won't let us follow her, and she's so skilled that we can't keep up with her at all."

Lude knew that even though Hugh was cursed by the God of War, sealing away his divine power, he still possessed combat strength equivalent to or higher than a high-ranking mortal warrior. However, even so, taking down more than a hundred gnolls single-handedly would be quite a challenge.

Out of concern, Lude was about to have Aqin lead the way so he could personally visit the gnoll tribe and demonstrate his "Russian negotiation" skills when he heard cheers coming from the village entrance. Hugh had returned with more than a dozen hostages and had also captured the gnoll tribe chief alive, tying him up like a dumpling and bringing him back with him.

"Wow, that's amazing! How did you do that?"

"Hmph! Just a little trick."

Upon seeing Ludren in the village, Hugh appeared calm and collected, as if she had only done a trivial task. However, she was secretly pleased with herself, feeling that her efforts had not been in vain and that her positive performance had been noticed by the higher-ups.

Hugh had been in Peach Blossom Village for almost a month. At first, she was very unwilling because Lude actually asked her to be a teacher to a group of demi-human brats, teaching them to read and write. This made Hugh feel that Lude looked down on her and wanted to use this trick to humiliate her, a prisoner.

You really want to humiliate me! Why don't you humiliate my body instead?

Fortunately, at this time, Shanis, who had been quite kind to her in private, comforted Hugh, saying that Ludd valued education the most and that sending her to be a teacher was an opportunity for her to prove herself. If she wanted to actively move closer to the organization, she had to work hard and produce some outstanding results.

So when he arrived at Peach Blossom Village, Hugh tried his best to be patient and play the role of a teacher well, and gradually began to like the job.

Of course! Hugh did not give up his ambition to make a comeback. He even secretly resolved that as long as he had the chance, he would definitely "win over" Ludwig and make the man completely fall at his feet. Maybe he could even see Hume showing a resentful expression.

With Ludwig currently in Peach Blossom Village and no other competitors around, Hugh felt that a golden opportunity was right in front of him.

"Master, what brings you here today?"

"Nothing much, just asked Nidhogg for help and stopped by to drop by. How are you doing? Getting used to the teaching job?"