DKIE CH32: The Premiere

After a sudden windfall, what’s the first thing to do?

Of course, it’s to hoard space scrolls.

Luka successfully became a space-scroll-hoarding hamster, converting all the betting funds Feather Quill had allocated to him into lifelines.

Without mocking him for his extravagant sQuillding, Feather Quill suggested陰惻惻, “Stock up on more.”

Once the movie is released, he’ll have to run from the audience every time he sees them.

Nonsense!

Luka automatically corrected this sentence in his mind.

After watching, the fans will be burning with passion. When they see him, they’ll rush up to him, and he’ll have to temporarily avoid the limelight.

“Much better.” The brainwashing complete, Luka revealed a smile as warm as a spring breeze.

Feather Quill: “…”

As Luka had predicted, the next two days were mainly sQuillt fighting a war of public opinion.

Other princes’ camps secretly pushed the narrative that Alec had been exaggerating his strength for years and was ultimately no match for Iliad. Alec, not to be outdone, used the dragon clan as a fig leaf, emphasizing that Iliad’s rapid progress had a great deal to do with the dragons, even hinting that the dragons might be trying to interfere in the demon race’s internal affairs by supporting a puppet.

He also published a truncated version of the events in the Holy City in the newspapers.

[At the Grand Assembly, the dragon clan used an excuse to fight the Demon King, which could have been a test of the Demon King’s strength.]

[The human and dragon races have been close in recent years. Will the dragons form an alliance with the humans?]

Of course, Alec didn’t dare to oQuillly offend the dragon clan. He paid handsome sums to some demon realm military strategists to write analytical articles.

His efforts were not in vain. When it came to inter-clan conflict, the focus was successfully shifted quite a bit.

In this smokeless multi-party struggle, the gradually overlooked Luka successfully contacted the opera houses.

The Dark City revered luxury and pleasure. There were nearly forty opera houses in total, which from time to time would even stage restricted-rated song and dance performances.

Luka sighed, “The result is better than I imagined.”

He had originally thought the theaters would turn him away for fear of offending Alec.

Who would have thought that many merchants in the Dark City had princes as their backers and didn’t care about offending him at all.

After negotiating with the last one, the two strolled down the street. Feather Quill’s peripheral vision swept over the onlookers who had stopped to watch.

Luka was now something of a celebrity in the Dark City, not someone who could be hidden by simply changing his mask.

Deterring an approaching interviewer with a glare, Feather Quill said coolly, “If the Dark City wasn’t carved up like a cake, how could the right of dominion so easily fall to a single prince?”

From prince to Demon King, there was usually a road of several hundred years or more to travel. Before that, the other princes wouldn’t give much face.

Luka suddenly felt a bit of sympathy.

An ordinary person would go crazy after being a crown prince for thirty or forty years. Being one for several hundred years, it would be strange not to go mad.

No wonder the mental state of the demon race was so unstable.

The first few theaters they had settled with had owners with unique vision. They had already started promoting while the heat of the competition had not yet dissipated.

A promotional stand floated at the entrance of the largest opera house. The height and width of the cast list section nearly overshadowed the plot summary and concept poster.

Among the onlookers, someone noticed Luka and suddenly shouted:

“The dragon and human races might form an alliance. Are you really colluding with the dragons? Otherwise, why would they help you by acting in your work?”

“…Are you trying to scam the demon race’s money to use against the demon race?”

Who was it?

Luka stopped.

Trying to put him on a pedestal at this critical juncture when the movie tickets were about to be released?

Feather Quill easily located the speaker.

It was too noisy. Killing was not illegal in the Dark City. He was about to casually eliminate the source of the sound.

But Luka nonchalantly pressed the back of his hand, shaking his head slightly.

Daring to do this proved they weren’t afraid of death. If a bloody incident really occurred, it would likely be blown out of proportion.

When it came to racial conflict, some demons in the crowd were already starting to frown, and their gazes on the poster had changed from initial curiosity to a hint of hostility.

Luka said calmly, “An opera house’s daily income is probably not even as high as a dueling arena’s. If the dragons were to ally with the humans, would they bother with such a small amount of money?”

The wealth of the dragons was known throughout the world.

He didn’t dwell on this topic. He covered his half-mask with his palm, “This is my first appearance as an actor. I hope everyone will support me.”

The key word “appearance” triggered even wider attention than before.

They were really curious about Luka’s true face under the mask.

Nearby, there were some visitors who had traveled to the Boulder City for business, showing off the information they had, “I heard Iliad has a beauty comparable to the Elf King. He even attracted peeping toms from multiple races while bathing in a hot spring, including the dark elves.”

The high-ranking dark elf, who hapQuilled to be out with Grover, nearly saw red upon hearing this.

A while ago, those bastards from the light elves wouldn’t let this matter go, and it ended up causing a huge uproar.

“Just how earth-shatteringly handsome is this kid?” the high-ranking dark elf asked through gritted teeth.

Before Grover could answer, the dark elf sneered, “Forget it, I’ll go buy a ticket. I want to see for myself what kind of face is under that mask.”

Grover: “…”

The focus had completely shifted. The demon who had been shouting earlier sheepishly slipped out of the crowd and quietly took out a communication stone to report:

“Your Highness, it failed. I was going to play the victim and die to make Iliad a public enemy, but he suddenly started selling his face. I can’t outsell that.”

Alec, who was recuperating from his injuries: “?”

The next day, Alec saw the detailed reason with his own eyes.

Early the next morning, a 2.0 version of “Lift Your Mask” news successfully made the headlines of all major newspapers.

Originally, in the Holy Demon Continent, appearance was not something that was highly valued. Everyone paid more attention to strength.

However, since Luka first came to prominence, he had basically been wearing a mask at all major important occasions and had even tried to ride the coattails of the Elf King, making it a hot topic for a while.

“Both the Demon King and the Holy Maiden are of no ordinary appearance. I imagine that as their child, Iliad can’t be bad.”

Just how much of a difference there was, one could only know by seeing.

With actors from the dragon and holy clans, plus beauty as a marketing point, when the movie tickets officially went on sale, the line stretched from one end of the street to the other.

Some magicians who had just arrived in the Dark City and didn’t understand the situation were rebuffed with a single sentence when they inquired curiously:

“Whatever it is, just buy it first. Didn’t you see even the princes have sent their servants to line up for tickets?”

At worst, they could resell it at a higher price and make a small profit.

Seeing that the hype couldn’t be suppressed, Alec decisively took the opposite approach, instructing his subordinates to secretly spread the word that this was a cross-era work, and every shot would bring absolute shock.

As expected, while the movie tickets were selling like crazy, there were already quite a few dissenting opinions.

“Cross-era? They really dare to boast. Aren’t they getting a bit carried away?”

“It’s truly pathetic. The Fourth Prince and the Seventh Prince just had a brilliant battle over Le Sai Valley, and it wasn’t even published as the top news.”

Luka had achieved something unprecedented.

The gossip excessively hyped it up, and the outside world was overwhelmingly pessimistic, yet the tickets sold extremely well.

Amidst all the different discussions, the first movie in the history of the Holy Demon Continent was released on time!

————

In mid-July, the old human books recorded that this day was inauspicious for all matters.

The originally scorching weather had been gloomy since this morning, and a sense of sunlessness pervaded the entire Dark City.

At four in the afternoon, the opera house in the core area was unusually crowded, and the traffic had long been in a mess.

Because the main gate was rather narrow, the audience was now all jammed together.

Many had come to join the fun because of the cast lineup. Among them, all those with status and position had, without prior agreement, chosen the opera house in the core area.

The atmosphere reached a climax after two princes arrived together. One of them was the Fourth Prince, who had recently had his thunder stolen. The other prince was the Fifth Prince, Alicia, who was deeply favored by the Demon King’s mother.

“Everyone, move aside.” At this moment, a sharp shout came.

The blockaded crowd was surprised. Who was so bold as to shout like that with a prince present?

The two princes also frowned slightly.

From behind, demon generals cleared the way. A vehicle pulled by giant hellhounds, accompanied by flames, arrived and stopped by the statue.

The demonic energy in the air instantly became extremely abundant. At the source of the demonic energy, flanked by demon generals, were two princes.

All the spectators hurriedly moved aside, some even bowing in salute.

“Aman, I didn’t expect you to join in the fun too,” the two-meter-tall, muscular prince said with some surprise.

The demoness called Aman had a bewitching figure, and all her exposed skin was covered with demonic tattoos.

She gave a perfunctory “mm.”

The prince who had spoken earlier probably guessed the reason she was here. Alec’s biological father had once been seriously injured by Aman and reduced to a low-ranking prince. With Alec’s meteoric rise in the past two years, Aman was naturally worried.

But unless there were special circumstances, a prince could not attack a crown prince. This was an iron law of the demon race.

“I must remind you, don’t be fooled by Iliad’s sudden appearance. He’s just that.”

Everyone was just caught up in the novelty. Could it stay novel forever?

“After this screening ends, negative news about him will come flooding in.”

Even if the story was heavenly, it would eventually be criticized as worthless. At that time, Iliad could only tuck his tail between his legs and leave the city.

…

At the same time, Luka, wearing a cloak, had long since found an inconspicuous seat in the opera house.

He clearly saw some suspicious figures, taking out paper and Quill to write special reports in advance. The topics were basically all negative.

Luka was not at all afraid of trolls.

Anyway, the content was full of points to criticize. Trolling? Could they even finish trolling it all?

A sudden surge of confidence made the neighboring Feather Quill look at him deeply.

Why so proud all of a sudden?

The walking clock outside the opera house successfully struck the hour. During this time, the audience had been seated one after another. The large silver screen, inscribed with countless magic runes, lit up.

The forty-one opera houses they had negotiated with showed the film simultaneously, with every seat filled.

Seeing that it wasn’t a live stage performance with real actors, the audience was still a little uncomfortable. Fortunately, the effect presented by the silver screen was much better than a memory stone, and the field of view was very wide.

The story of the real and fake young masters slowly unfolded under countless gazes.

Accompanied by a fast-paced melody, the camera first gave a wide shot of the lower city district.

On the dark and narrow streets lived countless poor people. The entire scene was extremely gloomy.

In a repair shop, a young figure was busy working under the urging of a customer.

“Just a moment, almost there.” The light shining on him gave the impression that the protagonist had a positive attitude towards life.

Because his head was half-lowered, his true face was not yet fully revealed.

“A bit boring.”

The first three minutes set up the background of the protagonist’s school admission being taken by someone else and him working three jobs a day. The audience watched without any emotional ripple.

The Holy Demon Continent did not believe in tears.

The people of the Holy Demon Continent did not believe in getting rich through hard work.

So their post-viewing sentiment towards the protagonist working three jobs was… when will it end?

Finally, after finishing a day’s work, the protagonist returned home and met his never-before-seen older brother next to a luxurious and precious beast-drawn carriage. The audience finally got a clear look at the protagonist’s true face.

Slender eyebrows, phoenix eyes with naturally red corners, and a high-bridged nose.

A very standard beautiful face, still radiating youthful innocence. If a few more years passed, adding a bit of experience and maturity, it was hard to imagine how stunning he would be.

The audience in the front row enjoyed this scene up close.

The Fourth Prince of the Demon Realm was naturally immune to beauty. He had just come today to see what on earth could steal the thunder from his first civil war victory.

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but sneer, “Is that all?”

“Is that all.”

Before more scornful words could be said, his voice overlapped with the voice in the movie.

The servant driving the beast carriage said in a low voice, “Is that all? He’s far worse than the young master.”

The Fourth Prince: “…”

The arrival of the older brother revealed the protagonist’s identity as the true young master.

The audience understood in a second. Fantasies ran wild. The poor fantasized about stories of getting rich overnight. Faced with a plot they could guess from the start, they were already thinking of leaving early.

The reporters’ trash talk criticizing the movie was now almost impossible to write.

A giant beast soared into the air, flying all the way to a magnificent floating city. The true young master sat timidly the whole way. Inadvertently seeing the world outside, he couldn’t help but oQuill his mouth in amazement and move closer to the window for a better look.

“Never seen the world,” the Fourth Prince sneered.

The protagonist’s older brother showed a look of displeasure. “What’s there to see?”

The true young master immediately sat back up properly, like a startled fawn.

The Fourth Prince almost bit his tongue.

Damn it, all the lines have been said. What’s left for him to troll with!

Putting aside the point of being one-upped, the Fourth Prince felt that something was strange about this plot.

Sitting next to him was the Fifth Princess, Alicia. She had been frowning since the beginning of the film, seeming to also feel that something was wrong, but couldn’t put her finger on it.

A portion of the audience that had stood up to leave suddenly stopped.

The camera was introducing the protagonist’s background in a flashback. After the rebels stole the true young master, a subordinate brought his own child to the head of the family, claiming it was the recovered child. More than a decade later, the truth was accidentally exposed. The subordinate explained that the young master had fallen into the hands of the rebels and was likely dead. He was worried the master would be heartbroken, so he brought his own child.

The protagonist’s parents chose to forgive, and even sympathized with his pain of being separated from his flesh and blood for over a decade.

The audience was shocked.

Forgave him?

If he hadn’t swapped the children, which directly led to the protagonist’s parents giving up the search for him, the true young master would have been found long ago.

And for that, they forgave him?

“Are they sick!”

However, the plot was like a runaway horse, giving them no time to react.

While waiting for the true young master to return, the fake young master pitifully expressed that he didn’t want to leave his room. The parents immediately arranged for a maid to prepare a guest room for the protagonist. The ‘family of three’ hugged each other emotionally.

“?”

After the true young master returned, he was, not surprisingly, taken to the guest room.

Behind him, the protagonist’s mother had a servant light some incense.

“This child hasn’t learned any etiquette at all.”

Knowing he was going to meet his parents, his clothes still smelled of engine oil. He didn’t even know how to clean himself up.

The opera house was dead silent.

The high-ranking dark elf turned his head stiffly. Not just him, but all the old friends Grover had invited over were also looking.

Is this how you dragons act as parents?

Where’s the promised doted-on golden child!

The outrageous plot continued. The older brother also showed a look of disgust.

The father, played by Leo, broke the silence coldly, “We can teach him slowly in the future.”

The fake young master came over, “Father, Mother, don’t be angry. Perhaps Second Brother is just not used to it on his first day back.”

The protagonist’s mother smiled gratifiedly, “You’re still the sensible one.”

The audience: “…”

Creak.

A reporter in the crowd couldn’t hold back, his nails piercing through the thin paper.

At first, he too looked down on the protagonist in various ways, but before this emotion could fully develop, the protagonist was already being doubly criticized. Everyone looked down on him, even the servants spoke to him coldly in private.

“Is it that serious?”

Just because he didn’t receive a higher education and was a bit weaker, the whole family had to give him the cold shoulder?

And that fake young master, whining and complaining. Wasn’t he just being a cheap b*tch!

Prince Aman, with her fiery temper, said directly, “The whole story is a mess. How dare they publicly release it? Whose parents would be like this?”

This wasn’t depicting normal parents, but more like mentally deficient ones.

Who raises someone else’s child while suppressing their own flesh and blood!

In the semi-dark environment, the invited high-ranking dark elf had a strange expression, belatedly thinking of something.

“Ah, this… isn’t this very similar to the relationship between Iliad and the Demon King?”

Grover, seemingly speaking up for the Demon King, reprimanded the prince, “Do not insult the Demon King’s character.”

The whole place fell silent.

In the silence, the plot of abusing the protagonist continued to escalate. Whatever the true young master did, he was despised by everyone. His increased efforts at school were met with bullying. When his grades finally improved a little, he only received a sentence from his parents: “If you have questions you don’t understand, ask your younger brother more. Strive to also enter the top three of the academy soon.”

The suffocating and disgusting plot made the audience unable to move from their seats. They subconsciously wanted to see how much more outrageous the plot could get.

The high-ranking dark elf’s words earlier made them uncontrollably substitute the Demon King’s family.

Such a fake young master, the Demon King actually raised seven of them!

Seven!

The two princes: “…”

Now they finally knew what was wrong with this plot!

It was aimed at them!

Countless gazes uncontrollably glanced towards the two princes in the front row.

Alicia’s eyelid twitched.

What are you looking at me for?

I’m the fake daughter.

Being stared at for a long time, the face of the Fourth Prince next to her became uglier and uglier. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, turned around, and glared fiercely at the back.

One glare met the eyes of more than four thousand audience members.

Both sides’ hearts skipped a beat at the same time.

The audience was startled. The Fourth Prince’s mind was also running through a litany of curses. The last bit of reason reminded him that if he smashed the opera house now, he might be seen as acting out of shame and anger.

Seeing this, the muscular prince couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.

This laugh was a silent mockery of the Demon King.

He had long been fed up with the demon realm’s populace excessively deifying the Demon King.

But he soon felt that many gazes were gradually converging on him.

Aman said expressionlessly, “What are you laughing at? Didn’t you also give a child to the Demon King?”

Among the seven princes adopted by the Demon King, one came from the muscular prince’s family.

You fake parent.

“…”

As the plot developed, the true young master was constantly denied and gradually lost heart.

The audience could no longer tell if it was a fantasy film or a documentary.

In looking for similarities with the Demon King’s family, they had unconsciously focused on the plot, even developing a sense of substitution, and finally, a wish was born: for the true young master to completely give up hope and then have a major爆发.

The one with the strongest sense of substitution was the centaur clan leader. He almost galloped out and trampled the big screen.

—Trample them all to death.

The Demon King—no, were the true young master’s parents sick? They specialized in harming their own child.

And the true young master too, it’s already like this, why not run away from home? What are you waiting for?

The high-ranking dark elf had the same thought, grinding his teeth to the rhythm of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti, “I heard a few days ago, Leo found my clansmen to compose the music. After they came back, they became much more irritable.”

He finally knew why they were irritable.

Grover pretended not to hear.

The plot, however, did not go as the audience wished.

Every time the true young master was about to give up, his parents or older brother would give him a little benefit like charity, rekindling his hope. Just as his life got a little better, misunderstandings and setbacks would come again.

This cycle repeated over and over.

After reaching the extreme of suffocation, a major climax finally arrived!

The matter of the true young master being framed for stealing was cleared up. For the first time, his family apologized to him, saying they would definitely believe him in the future.

The next day, the true young master and the fake young master were kidnapped at the same time.

The arrogant kidnapper stood on the bow of a boat, laughing maniacally, “You can only save one of the two. Who do you save?”

The gazes of the older brother and parents subconsciously looked at the true young master first.

The entire audience sat up straight.

Was the counterattack finally about to begin!

__

Author’s Note:
Excerpt from Luka’s diary:
My secret to success is to create with love, in the name of love.
Alex: Your secret to survival should be to change your name and go into hiding immediately after finishing the movie.
Luka: …
Happy Lantern Festival!
Director Handsome Lu is randomly dropping one hundred small red envelopes for viewing~