Animation Producer in a Fantasy World

Some time after “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” caused a huge sensation in the empire.

I was down at the Tersian Barony, not in the empire, for the first time in a long while.

The reason was simple.

Everywhere I went in the empire, I could only hear talk about “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel”, so I desperately wanted to rest quietly at least in my hometown.

But unfortunately, my companion who came down to the Tersian Barony with me didn’t seem to understand my feelings.

“Ragna! Father says that ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’ is set to be screened in other big cities beyond the empire! The number of theaters scheduled for release has already exceeded 50!”

“Ah, yeah. That’s great.”

I nodded with a somewhat indifferent expression at Serika’s excitement.

And Serika was rather puzzled by my reaction.

“What’s wrong, Ragna? The anime you made is successful, why is your reaction so lukewarm?”

“Well, I expected ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’ to be successful anyway.”

“…What?”

“I had already anticipated this would happen, so isn’t it stranger to make a fuss over such news?”

That’s right.

From the beginning, I was certain that “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” would definitely succeed once it was released.

‘I only distilled the essence of DiXney and Ghibli, if it doesn’t succeed, I should just kill myself.’

Although the people of this world don’t know it, I had essentially created the anime using a kind of cheat key.

Rather, if “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” hadn’t been successful, I would have been unable to hide my surprise at that fact.

‘Master Miyazaki, can you see? Your skills seem to work definitively even on the barbarians of the fantasy world…’

I took a moment to pay silent tribute to Master Miyazaki of Ghibli, who could be called my spiritual mentor.

Perhaps Master Miyazaki on Earth would be very satisfied seeing his disciple like this.

Meanwhile, Serika, unaware of my inner thoughts, made an expression of admiration.

“As expected… Ragna, you’re a true artist. Seeing that you have such clear confidence and pride in the work you’ve created. Indeed, you can only succeed if you make works with such an attitude…”

“…..”

Even though I’m a person who can look up at the sky without a single shred of shame, hearing such words to my face makes me feel like the triangle in my heart is being pricked.

“By the way, when are you planning to make your next work?”

“…Next work?”

“Yeah. To be honest, as your fan, I have huge expectations for the work you’ll make. Now that ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’ has been successful, it’s clearly time to make the next work, right?”

Saying this, Serika opened her mouth with her eyes sparkling.

“So, what are you planning to make? A sequel to ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’? Or ‘Nymph and Goblin’? Or if not that, your new work with a completely new world view?”

“Uh, about that…”

‘Actually, I haven’t made any plans for the next work.’

That’s right.

At first, the reason I made “Nymph and Goblin” was to capture the attention of the noble children.

And the reason I made “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” after that was to debut Serika as a voice actor and to make a lump sum through secondary creation rights.

And now that “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” has succeeded and related products and goods are selling like crazy, I was currently making an enormous amount of money.

Even though I was giving 20% of the production cost and intermediate fees to merchants, an unimaginable amount of money was coming in.

In this situation where my bank account was already bursting, why would I be crazy enough to make a next work?

Of course, I haven’t given up on making animations altogether.

It’s just that in this satiated situation, I had no reason or motivation to make an animation.

‘So, well, maybe I’ll slowly make the next work in a few years or so.’

But this perfect plan I had set up in my head was completely shattered before it could properly start.

Because.

“Y-Young master! B-Big trouble!”

“What. What’s the matter?”

“S-Someone looking for you has come to our territory. Th-That is… from the imperial family.”

“…The imperial family for me? Why on earth?”

“W-Well, I’m not sure either…”

In the end, I had no choice but to tell them to let in the person sent by the imperial family.

Although I’m the type who hates getting involved with high-ranking people.

But it was impossible to completely ignore someone sent by the imperial family.

That would be an act of suicide beyond declaring ‘The World Tree is just a big tree’ in front of elves.

And then.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Tersian. I am Hildegard von Mariendorf, the maid serving Her Highness Karleigh von Lohengramm.”

I thought the person sent by the imperial family would be some stern-looking old man.

Unexpectedly, the person who came to see me was a very young and beautiful woman in her early 20s.

“I’m truly sorry for visiting your territory suddenly without prior notice. But Her Highness gave the order so urgently that we had no choice.”

Hildegard bowed her head to me saying this.

And I couldn’t help but make a puzzled expression looking at her.

“…You’re the princess’s maid? That means…”

“Her Highness the Princess sent me here. With instructions to deliver this respectfully.”

Saying this, Hildegard handed me an antique-looking piece of paper.

It was none other than:

“…An invitation?”

“Yes, that’s right. Her Highness the Princess wishes to invite Lord Tersian to the imperial palace. The reason… I think you know well without me having to say it.”

‘It’s because of the animation.’

The “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” I made is causing a huge sensation in the empire and causing various social phenomena.

So it seems that the imperial family has also become quite curious about me, who produced the anime.

Well, it wasn’t that surprising since I had expected it to some extent.

Politicians are people who try to stick their spoons in when something becomes a social issue.

But.

‘I don’t really feel like it.’

An ordinary noble might have burst into tears at the fact that they were invited to the imperial family.

To be honest, I just felt really annoyed about being summoned to the imperial family.

My dream was to be an unemployed slacker, and animation was just something I created as part of a hobby.

But if I accept the princess’s offer here and visit the imperial palace and get entangled with high-ranking people.

I had an ominous feeling that the slacker life I had been dreaming of until now would become a bubble, and a lot of troublesome things would happen.

But it’s impossible to flatly refuse an invitation from the imperial family.

In the end, I had no choice but to use a cheat key to avoid this crisis.

“…I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t accept Her Highness’s proposal.”

“Pardon? What do you mean? Are you saying you’re going to refuse the imperial family’s invitation?”

I quietly opened my mouth towards Hildegard, who was making an expression of utter incomprehension.

“Actually… I’m currently planning a sequel following ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’.”

“…A sequel to ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’?”

“That’s right. And in the process, I’m currently feeling the pain of creation in real-time. Originally, creating something from nothing is never an easy task.”

In fact, I didn’t feel any pain of creation at all since I made anime full of plagiarism and clichés.

I deliberately paused here.

And with a bitter smile on my lips, I looked at her with sorrowful eyes and said.

“That’s why I came down to the Tersian Barony. I thought if I came down to my hometown and took some rest, a good idea might come to mind. And-”

“…Just recently, a decent idea related to the next work popped into my head. But it’s still just an unorganized delusion, so I think I need time to calmly organize it.”

“Ah….”

“This is the reason why I can’t respond to the imperial family’s invitation. I’m sorry.”

“…..”

At my words, Hildegard bowed her head.

And I felt somewhat satisfied seeing her like that.

Web novel writers and manga artists often use this cheat key, ‘I’m running out of material, so I’ll take some time to recharge.’ What can you do about it?

With this, Hildegard should have roughly understood why I couldn’t go to the imperial palace.

“…Hmm, I see.”

“Yes, well.”

“I understand what you’ve said, Lord Ragna. I’ll relay your words exactly as you’ve said them to Her Highness.”

Saying this, Hildegard bowed her head to me apologetically.

By the way, before she left the barony, I even gave her my autograph and a few concept art pieces from “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel” as gifts after hearing that the princess was my fan.

After giving such a bribe to the princess, she wouldn’t say anything different later, right?

I smiled contentedly, thinking that the matter had been resolved peacefully, but.

To cut to the conclusion, that was my misconception.

Because a few days later, Hildegard came back to the barony and told me this:

“Her Highness said she would come to the barony herself.”

“…What?”

“Her Highness said she doesn’t want to disturb Lord Ragna’s creative activities, so she’ll visit the barony herself.”

“…..”

No, damn it. What the hell is this?