Goddess Kaleidoscope

However, during the last work report, they were surprised to find that other deities were also present, namely the three goddesses of craftsmanship from the divine realm who were also interested in the Pantheon. They had heard that Rudd was going to put on a play, and insisted that Rudd include them in the cast. As long as Rudd could meet their demands, the three goddesses agreed to join the Pantheon.

After explaining the reason, Lud said that things happened too suddenly and he didn't have enough time to prepare, so he was now in a very awkward "deadlock" state. He was thinking about whether he could come up with a solution together. He had asked some people at the temple in the past two days, but none of them had any reliable ideas, so he came to bother Servis.

After explaining her purpose, Servis's first reaction was one of being flattered.

You see, Lu De is now her idol, an incredibly talented and brilliant playwright, the ultimate master among masters! For such an amazing person to come to her for advice, what an honor!?

As for the fact that a god forced Lud to add scenes for himself in the play, Servis didn't find it strange at all, because in the general understanding of this world, gods have never been saints who are pure of heart and desire; there are quite a few who like to act willfully.

The most famous of them all is probably the God of War, the Madman.

Rumor has it that this guy often descends upon the stronghold of their War God Cult, Shield City, which is home to the world's most famous "Infinite Arena".

This arena is not only the largest in the world, but also has a "Supreme Divine Seat" at the highest point of the circular audience seating area, specially prepared for the God of War, Figor. Once the God of War arrives, the match automatically escalates into a life-or-death struggle. The surviving warrior will receive the God of War's blessing, and if the gladiator is a slave, he will immediately regain his freedom and become a "chosen one" of the City of Aegis.

The Cult of War does not oppose slavery; in fact, their doctrine explicitly states that it is only natural for the strong to dominate the weak! You become a slave because you are not strong enough, and only by becoming strong can you reclaim your freedom.

This doctrine, which advocates the survival of the fittest, made the God of War religion popular in many slave-owning countries.

Back to the script, after learning the whole story, Servis felt that Lude had come to the right person! Although she wasn't good at writing scripts, she was, after all, the owner of a circus, and she had done countless commercial operations like advertising and adding scenes.

Since the goddesses of craftsmanship are going to be the ones cutting in line, Servis may not have heard of them before, but since they are the goddesses of "craftsmanship," they must be very skilled in forging weapons, right? It wouldn't be unreasonable for her to have a few divine weapons blessed by these goddesses, would it?

If you follow this line of thinking, things will be much easier.

Having thoroughly read the script, Servis remembered that there were three life-or-death duels in the entire play. The first was between Romeo's friend Mercutio and Juliet's cousin Tybalt, in which Mercutio was killed. The second was Romeo avenging his friend, stabbing his cousin Tybalt to death with a sword. The final duel was Romeo's duel with his rival, Count Paris, at his grave.

It is easy to see that Romeo is undoubtedly the strongest fighter among all the characters in the play. He won both duels and finally committed suicide by poisoning himself while holding Juliet, who was pretending to be dead.

According to the setting of the play, Romeo is only 17 years old this year. If they don't want to make his two rivals too weak, then they have to strengthen Romeo.

"So how about we add a key item to the story? A great sword passed down through generations and blessed by the gods. Romeo won those two duels thanks to this divine weapon."

"Um...won't winning by relying on superior equipment make the audience feel that the male protagonist's victory is somewhat unfair?"

"No, noble duels have always considered financial resources as part of their fighting strength. There are even cases where people pay others to fight for them!"

With Servis's help, the issue of adding scenes for the three goddesses was perfectly resolved. All that was needed was to make a cool-looking prop sword and add a couple of lines for the male protagonist that mentioned the goddesses' names.

After the problem was solved, Ludwig was in a great mood. He chatted with Servis about the circus's plans to upgrade to a song and dance troupe, and finally took out a stack of notebooks from his pocket and handed them over.

Upon seeing this, Servis immediately became excited.

"This, this is..."

"Relying on just one script is definitely not enough, right? Since I've invested in your Rainbow Dance Troupe, I naturally hope that one day you can become a top-tier artist. This may not be a divine weapon, but it's definitely a powerful tool!"

As Lude spoke, he handed the script to Servis, who quickly and solemnly accepted it with both hands. There were three scripts in total, titled "The Merchant of the Sea City," "The Ghost Beauty," and "The White-Haired Princess."

The prototypes of these three new scripts all come from Earth, but Lud has made "localized" adaptations to help Servis and the others enrich their script library, specifically choosing stories that are shorter than medium length and have few characters.

It is worth mentioning that although the three stories were written by different authors, Ludd still consistently attributed them to "William Shakespeare." He intended to make it a "brand symbol," but this only further convinced Servis that Ludd was indeed Shakespeare.

"If everything goes well, let's set the premiere for two weeks from now. I'll take care of the venue. Oh, and by the way! There might be a few very special audience members coming, so don't be too scared!"

End of this chapter

Now that the performance date has been set, the next step is to promote and hype the show. The conventional methods are, of course, hiring people to hand out flyers on the street and shouting at the top of their lungs. But Lud is, after all, an Earthling who has received a modern education, and he has seen many advertising methods before.

As early as the beginning of the village expansion, Lu De reserved spaces for billboards on both sides of the street and also helped some villagers who opened shops design very modern store signs.

Since this was a good opportunity to promote the Rainbow Choir's upgraded debut performance, Lude decided to make use of all these signs.

A few days later, the villagers were surprised to find that the wooden signs erected on both sides of the village's main road had suddenly been covered with beautiful paintings. Before that, the wooden signs had simply written some slogans, teaching the villagers some health and hygiene tips.

The billboard was covered with colorful pictures of a young couple, facing each other with their hands clasped together. Above the silhouettes was a circle of text, which was the name of the play, Romeo and Juliet. Below were two lines of a brief synopsis of the plot: True love that is hindered by hatred!

Thanks to the school and literacy classes, although the illiteracy rate in the village is still over 50%, the number of literate people has increased significantly. Therefore, even if someone can't read, once everyone gathers around, there will definitely be a few who can help explain it.

Thanks to the advertising effect of the billboards, news of the play's performance spread rapidly, quickly reaching the nearby military camps and dwarf settlements.

At the temple, Lud was busy making a new idol when Aina returned from outside carrying a brush and a bucket of paste. The sleeves of her nun's habit were rolled up above her elbows, revealing a slender and fair forearm.

"Master, the posters you asked me to put up are all done."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work. Take a good rest."

Hearing Ludwig's praise, the little nun smiled sheepishly, put down her tools, ran to wash her face, and then trotted back to squat next to Ludwig and watch him sculpt the figurine.

Since their last quarrel and subsequent reconciliation, everyone in the temple could clearly feel that Aina had become even more attached to the High Priest than before, following him around like a shadow every day, never hesitating to do anything he was asked to do.

This undoubtedly gave Shanis a great sense of crisis, because after Aina became more diligent, she had become the laziest and most useless person in the family, and she felt that her status had dropped by one rank without her realizing it.

Soon, Ludwig finished the clay sculpture he had on hand. It was Atropos, the eldest of the three goddesses, and her style was a classic "mature woman with a pipe in her mouth".

It's worth mentioning that although Lude didn't intentionally try to reference anyone at the beginning of the design and was willing to try something original, the final effect of the clay sculpture subtly resembled St. Louis from the mobile game Azur Lane.

They are at least 70% similar in build, face and hairstyle.

Looking at the work he had spent two days creating, Lu De realized that although the final result did deviate somewhat from his original intention, it was undeniably beautiful, making it difficult for him to redo it for the time being.

"Fine! Let's leave it at that!"

"Master, are you done? Can I take a look?"

"It looks fine, but please don't touch it! The mud isn't dry yet."

The little nun gently pushed the clay sculpture that was dragging on the wooden tray in front of Aina. She was overjoyed and stared intently at the exquisite clay beauty in front of her with her big eyes shining.

It has been almost ten months since Aina was "born". Lude did not hide the secret of creating gods from her, so Aina knows very well how she came to be. Lude is both a father and a mother to her, but there is no blood relationship in the general sense.

When Aina learned that Lud was going to help the dwarves outside the village create new gods, and three at a time, she didn't show jealousy. Instead, she was more curious, just like a child who is curious about "where he came from" before he learns about physiological health.

After letting Aina look at it for a while, Lud carefully moved the finished clay sculpture to a dark, shaded spot in the study. The creation of the Three Goddesses of Crafts has not yet been made public; fewer than ten people know about it, and therefore no faith has been gathered. The clay sculpture will not receive protection from the power of the faith to which it belongs.

"We're just waiting for the play to officially open the week after next."

To Lud, the Rainbow Dance Troupe's theatrical performance was a grand ceremony for harvesting faith, just like the mythological stories he told the villagers before, only in a slightly different way.

Yesterday, Lude approached Chief Gulig, hoping he could provide manpower to help build an open-air opera house for the performance. The location was chosen near a mountain hollow in the southwest of the village; the semi-circular terrain would create a natural amplifier, and many children in the village often went there to play shouting games.

However, this performance was not free; tickets were priced at five copper coins.

The reason it wasn't free was mainly because Lud didn't want to cultivate a "freeloading" habit among the local villagers.

He used to treat patients in the same way, charging very low consultation fees. If they didn't have money, they could use fruits and vegetables instead. If all else failed, he would write an IOU and promise to do something for Lu De after he recovered. But he would never give anything away for free!

Moreover, to be honest, the ticket price of five copper coins is not expensive. In the eyes of nobles, it is just a drop in the ocean. The local income level in Pine Village has increased, and there are quite a few families with spare money. Not to mention the dwarves of the Steel Whip Clan, they belong to the typical middle class and may be richer than some knights.

However, considering that locals have not yet developed good spending habits and many are used to being frugal, Ludwig specifically organized some free ticket promotions.

First, at the school, every student received a free ticket. Then, at Lu De's behest, the village's grocery stores, taverns, and other consumer venues launched a promotional campaign, offering a free ticket with every purchase of XX yuan.

The villagers had never seen such a scheme before and thought the tickets were free. In the end, they ended up spending far more than the ticket price, which allowed several shop owners in the village to make a small profit.

In addition, Lude also sent tickets to the heads of various families. Out of respect for Lude, they would definitely come to watch the show, and when they came, many of their subordinates would surely follow.

Thanks to Lude's series of maneuvers, the Rainbow Dance Troupe's premiere performance alone attracted at least tens of thousands of spectators on its very first show.

Moreover, making money is secondary; the key is the publicity effect. The audience present would likely be unaware that certain "key messages" are subtly embedded within the exciting plot, unconsciously etched into their memories—and this is Ludd's true purpose!

End of this chapter

It must be admitted that the dwarves are incredibly efficient. The day after Lude met with Gulig, they had already completed the opera house design. And judging from their attitude, it seems they didn't intend to just settle for a temporary solution.

The dwarves are currently repairing roads, and the byproduct is a large amount of logs, with thousands added every day. If so much timber could be transported to the interior of the kingdom, it would certainly be a considerable fortune. However, due to practical limitations, most of it will probably have to be piled up in open fields, left to rot and decay in the wind and rain.

So the timber was quickly put to use. The dwarves first spent a day building a timber drying kiln. They had a unique runic magic drying technique that could compress the natural air drying process, which would normally take weeks, into less than thirty minutes.

Once the wood has dried, it will be handed over to dwarven craftsmen using specialized tools to cut it into various parts, a process far more efficient than that of ordinary carpenters.

To be honest, looking at these dwarves using all sorts of magical gadgets, Lud felt a subtle sense of unease. Logically speaking, dwarves and humans had been living together for over three hundred years, and he hadn't heard of any racial segregation policies in various countries. But after so much time, these advanced technologies of the dwarves hadn't become widespread in human society, which he found very unreasonable.

Ludd found the answer to this question in a later casual conversation with Hamilton.

In this world, there exists a concept called "magic affinity." The higher the affinity, the greater the talent for learning magic. Some races are naturally favored by the magical element, such as the elves, who are deeply disliked by the dwarves. This race possesses extremely high magical affinity, and almost all of them are natural-born mages.

In comparison, while the average magical affinity of dwarves is not as high as that of elves, it is still at least one level higher than that of humans, and this is the fundamental reason why humans cannot widely use dwarven technology.

At their peak, the dwarves were masters of runic technology, creating a wide variety of runic magical tools. These tools were incredibly powerful, but required the user to possess a certain level of magical affinity.

Because their per capita value is higher than that of humans, these runic magical tools are universally applicable within the dwarf race, but not among humans.

There are humans who can use these tools, but almost without exception they choose to become magicians rather than craftsmen who can use magical tools. The social status between the two is worlds apart!

So ultimately, it's related to the social environment.

With the help of the dwarven craftsmen, the open-air opera house was built at an unimaginable speed, but the dwarven designer soon raised a problem with Lud: the opera house's audience capacity limit, theoretically, could only hold a maximum of two thousand people.

It's not that the dwarves couldn't build such a large building, but if they really did build one, the last row of seats in the opera house would be more than fifty meters away from the stage in a straight line. If your eyesight isn't good enough, you probably wouldn't even be able to tell whether the actors on stage are male or female.

Lud said it wasn't a big problem and he had a way to solve it, but the dwarf designer was very skeptical from his professional perspective.

"Priest, this isn't realistic, is it? Amplification equipment isn't a problem; we can handle that. But you're putting on a play, not a concert. The audience in the back rows will complain if they can only hear the noise. Unless... you can find a group of giants around ten meters tall to be the actors."

"I can't find an actor who's ten meters tall, but I know a friend who knows illusion magic. She can make an actor look like a giant!"

"Do you know a high-ranking mage who can use illusion magic?"

"Yes, on par with Hamilton."

"Then there's no problem. We can enlarge the stage as well. As long as you can persuade that master to condescend to grace us with his presence, a 10,000-seat opera house, or even a 20,000-seat one, is no problem at all. Leave it to us!"

Upon hearing that Lud had a solution to the problem of the back rows not being able to see clearly, the dwarf designer immediately patted his chest and guaranteed that his people could work in three shifts and build an open-air opera house that could accommodate 15,000 people within ten days. Moreover, they were capable of upgrading the opera house later, as long as Lord Lud was willing to pay more.

And so, thanks to the efforts of the dwarven craftsmen, the open-air opera house rose from the ground at a visible speed, like building blocks. It was constructed entirely of wood using mortise and tenon joints, with a seating area over twenty meters high and fifty rows of seats from top to bottom.

To prove that the grandstand he built had sufficient load-bearing capacity and would not collapse when tens of thousands of spectators sat on it, on the day the opera house was completed, Gulig summoned 15,000 dwarves to sit on it on the spot. The entire grandstand remained stable without any sign of shaking.

If even a dwarf, with their weight as heavy as a scale, can sit on it without any problems, then other races would have no issues either.

"Wow, that's awesome! My old friend!"

“We dwarves call this ‘structural resistance’! Even if you had 15,000 dwarves, or even two giant dragons sitting on it, it would never collapse.”

"Okay, I'll try it in a few days."

"That's for sure... um!?"

He vaguely sensed something was off about what Lude had said earlier, but before he could ask, Lude had already started looking around.