Drawing Manga in a Romance Fantasy

Chapter 87

Bzzz—

The sound of interlocking gears turning inside a rectangular box, accompanied by a faint beam of light, captured the attention of all the employees at the Somerset workshop.

As the image of a small dog hopping around was projected onto a screen mounted on the wall, gasps of awe escaped from the onlookers.@@@@

"So this is animation!"

The eyes of the artisans who had toiled for months under Rupert's instructions to develop the projection technology sparkled with excitement.

Up until now, despite having heard many explanations, they hadn’t fully grasped what kind of machine it was they were working on.

It had been compared to a video playback stone, so they had wondered why bother creating this machine when they could just use a video playback stone instead.

But they realized now how mistaken they had been.

"This is nothing like photos or video! It’s a completely different thing." "How can a drawing move so smoothly like that? The images seem alive!" "Now I understand why the young master insisted this machine was necessary."

The artisans immediately understood the greatest strength of animation compared to ordinary video.

Right now, it was just an image of a dog moving, but what if that image was of a dragon?

While photos and video are bound by the constraints of time and space, animation could break free from those limitations and show exactly what the artist imagined.

For example, Rupert’s storybooks or manga depicted worlds of pure fantasy, making them difficult to recreate through traditional filming methods.

How would they animate the living wooden puppet from Pinocchio, or the fictional alchemy and chimeras in The Alchemist of Steel?

But with this projector, which replayed drawings, it was all possible.

Pop!

The moment of awe was short-lived. With a small sound, the projector sparked briefly, followed by smoke rising from the machine as it abruptly stopped working.

"No!"

Cries of frustration filled the air as the artisans saw the first prototype they had spent two months developing, with help from various collaborators, reach the end of its short life.

"Is it an issue with the film?"

"It seems like the surface of the film wasn’t uniform, causing it to jam inside the machine."

Amid the chaos of screams, only Rupert and Kroon remained calm, opening up the machine to inspect the damage inside.

Examining the charred surface of the film, the two calmly discussed the situation. They had never expected the prototype to work perfectly from the start, so their reaction was one of patience.

Rupert and Kroon understood that this projector was a new creation in this world, so naturally, they anticipated several trials and errors along the way.

Had they worked without the assistance of the Magic Tower and the Alchemy Guild, this level of progress might have taken them several years to achieve on their own.

"Do you think we can create something capable of running for at least 10 minutes within the next month?"

"Ten minutes... that’s a short yet long time."

Rupert had in mind to debut this projector during the closing ceremony at the Empire Academy.

Since the academy was filled with talent from all across the empire, presenting the first animation there would ensure incredible publicity.

We need to sell our own exclusive products too!

Naturally, other companies scrambled to recruit talented artists by offering them higher pay, and for a while, artists enjoyed a surprising boom in business.

However, things didn’t go as smoothly at first, and many companies struggled, with some even going under.

‘Why aren’t our books selling!!!’

Despite spending large sums to hire both skilled storytellers and talented artists, the resulting books didn’t sell, and these companies suffered massive losses.

The reason was simple: the quality of Rupert’s storybooks and manga was just too high.

‘What’s this? This is just a clichéd story!’ ‘And this is just recycled knightly literature!’ ‘Tsk, Rupert’s illustrations were so full of life.’

Rather than boosting their own sales, the release of books by other companies only caused Rupert’s sales to increase, much to the other merchants' frustration.

However,

"This one’s actually not bad." "Well, The Alchemist of Steel ended, so I’ll give this a try." "I do like stories with knights in them."

Instead of giving up after their initial failures, some companies persisted in releasing new works, gradually improving the quality, and eventually gaining popularity.

Of course, a major reason for this was that, with The Alchemist of Steel finished, many readers were left looking for something to fill the void.

Additionally, no matter how popular Rupert’s works were, he couldn’t possibly create stories in every genre, so people welcomed the emergence of books that suited their specific tastes.

In this way, artists who had nearly disappeared from the empire were once again finding success through storybooks and manga.

"Can’t this be improved a little more?"

Rupert’s books weren’t only creating a storm in the world of illustration.

His works, particularly The Alchemist of Steel, were causing a frenzy not only among alchemists but also among engineers.

"I can’t believe they actually created a new golem arm."

One of the most popular topics was Kroon’s creation: the new model golem arm, first worn by the Crown Prince.

An iron golem arm that moved like a real arm—engineers were so amazed by it that they practically begged for a chance to see it in person.

There were so many engineers swarming Somerset’s workshop that they had to display a prototype at the merchandise shop just to accommodate the demand.

However, creating a golem arm was an incredibly complex and costly process, requiring rare and expensive materials, making it impossible to mass-produce.

Kroon had determined that until it could be refined further, the golem arm wouldn’t be available for general use, but the engineers had a different perspective.

Does it really need to move perfectly?

While the ideal goal was for the arm to move like a real limb, they believed even a version that could perform basic movements would be immensely useful.

The same went for durability.

For knights and mercenaries, durability might be crucial, but for ordinary people, a moderately sturdy arm would suffice, so the engineers began looking for ways to replicate the design but lower the quality to make it more accessible.

As a result, various lesser versions of the golem arm began to appear on the market.

‘Let them be, it’s for a good cause.’

Rupert, normally keenly sensitive to his own financial gains, had no objection this time. If the new golem arm became widespread, it would benefit many people, so he even went as far as to release the design, encouraging others to produce it.

After all, the original golem arm Kroon had made wasn’t something that could be mass-produced, so Rupert was more than content with the current situation.