Chapter 157

"Sherlock—"

When the filming of the opening short film progressed to the point where Ruri Kawai, who was dressed as Mrs. Hudson, turned around and called Sherlock, most of the cast members were gathered together chatting, waiting for the filming of this group to be completed so that they could move to another location. However, Saesua Kii, who was in charge of the planning of "The show must go on", changed the topic to the shortage of manpower.

"…There are still not enough prop masters and set design team members." Saesa Kie crunched the chocolate produced by the sponsor of "Chocolate Popcorn Detective" while counting the number of people with the idle idols. "The only professional prop master is Mr. Tetsurou from the Mankai Theater Company, and the amateur ones are only the members of the Mankai Theater Company and GODZA who are not performing..."

Normally, there are three groups of idle members in the Mankai Theater Company, but because the Mankai Theater Company has always been self-sufficient, the costume designer Ruri Kawa Yuki is from the summer group, the poster designer and official website operator Sanyo Kazunari is also from the summer group; the photographer and dormitory chef Fushimi Omi is from the autumn group, and the makeup artist Izumi Izumi is also from the autumn group...

To put it mildly, Winter Troupe leader Tsukioka Tsumugi is the tutor for all the junior and senior high school members of the troupe - a group of students that has recently been expanding into other areas.

——In short, although the Mankai Theater Company can spare some manpower, it is impossible for them to have more than 15 people free to help with other projects.

What's more, there are so many projects going on at the same time in Special Point - if a dozen people take it apart and use it, it will be like a drop of water entering the ocean and disappear without a trace in an instant.

"Are you short of prop masters?" Ritsuka Fujimaru went to the logistics area where the idols of Starlight Academy were in charge to get a glass of tomato juice. When he came back, he heard Saesusa Kii worrying about the lack of manpower for "The show must go on". He blinked his eyes subtly and said, "Well... our Animusphia Office actually has many vacancies."

——Well, props and scenery, these two tasks are just right for Casters who are good at making props and battlegrounds!

"A lot of people? How many people?" Saesusa Noriyuki confirmed with Fujimaru Ritsuka very cautiously.

"If it's just props and scenery..." Fujimaru Ritsuka paused, silently eliminated a few candidates in his mind, and then gave an answer to Saesusa Kii, "To be conservative, there are more than 20 people available - if we exaggerate, our entire office will do these jobs."

——Well, the props are made. Which magician in Chaldea doesn’t know how to make magic costumes? If you round it up, they are all prop masters!!!

"Do you have staff in your office who can do other kinds of work?" The one who got more excited than Saesusa Noori was Minaki Ayano, who came to confirm the roles for the first episode of the show so that she could write the scripts. "Every project needs to be scripted!! Two scriptwriters really can't handle it!!!"

Although the statement that two screenwriters can maintain the operation of all the agencies seems like a joke - but in fact, the number of screenwriters may be less than the number of makeup artists who work part-time as models and designers... After all, strictly speaking, the only professional screenwriters are Minaki Tsurugi of the Mankai Theater and Kakugamaru of GODZA; and the rest of the screenwriters are the ones who have worked hard and sharpened their skills on the battlefield by the producers.

——Hmm… As for scriptwriting, the Mankai Theatre Company is adapting “Romeo and Juliet”, so why not disband the temporarily unemployed Clover team… And Merlin doesn’t just have stories about King Arthur to tell. Sending him to work in another firm can not only exchange idol elements for start-up funds, but also allow us to see him come up with some new stories.

"We don't have that many people who can be screenwriters here, but we do have some." Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded to Minagi Tsunayoshi, who had dark circles under her eyes, and reminded Saesusa Nori and Minagi Tsunayoshi, "However, no matter where and who goes, the requirements are the same as those set with Shining Office before--"

"Don't be curious about the name of our firm's idol."

Here, Fujimaru Ritsuka was pulling work from different agencies for all the members of Animusphia Agency, but the recording work over there had been completely completed - the Holmes and Watson were standing in front of the door of 221B Baker Street, where the set was made, in the studio, shooting a poster. They just had to wait for the poster to be shot before they could start moving to the location.

A coffee-haired male photographer was holding up his camera, ready to shoot - and before this, he had shot every set of posters by himself.

“Maybe…” When Fujimaru Ritsuka saw the male photographer finish filming, he suddenly had an idea and suggested to everyone, “You guys should also need a photographer? Or a lighting technician? Mr. Holmes is an excellent lighting technician! Oh, and by the way, Molly can also be used as a lighting technician!”

“Cough cough cough!!!”

Of the two names mentioned by Fujimaru Ritsuka, Holmes, the only one present at the scene, suddenly started coughing violently. Watson, who knew the inside story, just smiled and said nothing. In front of Sherlock, who was dressed in the classic Holmes costume, he pushed the gentleman-like Holmes directly in front of the idols who were short of staff.

"It's a good thing to have a job, and it's also good to keep him busy." Watson talked to everyone, "After all, everyone in our firm knows——"

"Watson!!!"

At Holmes' protest, Watson obediently shut up and chose to go easy on his roommate - as for whether the old matter would be brought up again in the future... ha, that depends on their master.

"By the way, what does the scenery on the other side look like?"

The person in charge of this project is Kiriya Aoi. Except for the staff working on the set, most of the members have never seen the long-term set that will accommodate all the detectives until now. Although the journey is not far, some people began to guess the real scene on the way; so some people began to ask Kiriya Aoi questions.

"Why don't you go and see it with your own eyes?" Kiriya Aoi smiled and led everyone into the area of ​​the studio where the scenery was located. "There are many kinds of party scenery, but this is a party where detectives are invited to reason and solve cases together. None of the invited characters are the organizers of the party, and the staff will not appear in the world view of this project..."

"That's why it's called Round Shield." Ritsuka Fujimaru looked at the huge round table in the center of the set, and the scene of the Cretaceous City suddenly appeared in front of him. "Round Shield represents the spirit of the Knights of the Round Table that there is no hierarchy. In this project, it also symbolizes the equality between detectives."

"Because it's the opening, we've only invited detectives and detective assistants—" Kiriya Aoi ran to get a loudspeaker and shouted to everyone, "Other characters will be added later—now, detectives, go to the round table to choose your seats! Assistant detectives, come here to draw lots!"

Following Kiriya Aoi's order, the participants split into two groups and went in different directions - the detectives gathered around the round table to think about which seat they should choose; while the detective assistants stood in front of Tachibana Izumi and Kamisaka Reni to draw lots, and together took out balls marked with numbers from the lottery box.

"I remember the arrangement in the plan was that the detective assistant would go on stage with the detective, and the detective without a detective assistant would 'borrow' the detective assistant of someone else... The only exception was the group of "Chocolate Popcorn Detective." The male idol with blue princess-cut hair held the ball in his hand and recalled the content of the plan, "They are each other's detectives and assistants--"

"Ah, your drawing of lots is the pre-process of 'borrowing', Mr. Zhen Dou." Tachibana Izumi kindly explained to the detective assistants, "If the detectives without assistants get the detective cards, then they will draw lots to choose their assistants - whichever number is drawn will be the one who gets the number and will be on the show with them."

“So the assistant can’t choose his own character – but the screenwriter will definitely write a character that matches the detective’s identity, so there won’t be any problems.”

"But..." Fujimaru Ritsuka trembled as she raised the hand that didn't hold the numbered ball. "I'm very lucky. If I do this, there's a chance that I can take over all the detectives without assistants."

Fujimaru Ritsuka is a person who possesses "the destiny that controls his fate, and the ability to make decisions when destiny comes" - that was only the evaluation he could get when he was standing on the earth in the past, still not far away from his homeland, as a human being, and the judgment of the Servants on Fujimaru Ritsuka's luck.

Even though her destiny was depleted when she used the replica of the black barrel "Black Barrel" in the Atlantic Novel Belt - the strength of her destiny and her lifespan both dropped - however, now she has stepped into the sea of ​​stars, she has left the realm of humans and is upgrading towards Alaya.

So, strictly speaking, Fujimaru Ritsuka's luck right now is at the pinnacle of what all humans can achieve.

"Ah, that's it!" Gray looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka and pulled the gray hood on her head. "Ms. Ritsuka has very good luck. In a sense, it can even be said that she is blessed by God... So, have you prepared a balance between the program effect and the frequency of assistant appearances?"

"If that's the case, then we can only intervene manually." The chestnut-haired middle-aged man standing behind Tachibana Izumi and Kamisaka Reni answered Gray with a smile, while recording the number drawn by Fujimaru Ritsuka with an asterisk to indicate that he was paying special attention to it. "Well, the seat selection over there should be finished - let's go find Yu and the others to touch up their makeup and prepare for the warm-up shoot."

"Tachibana..."

"Haha, Rennie, don't always have a stern face - this kind of thing is very common, and the solution is always simple, right?" Tachibana Yukio smiled and patted Kamisaka Rennie's shoulder, picked up the loudspeaker that Kiriya Aoi left behind the camera, and said, "Please all detectives leave - the official shooting is about to begin, please bring your assistants in according to the order of the short film shooting!"

When the detectives stood in turn behind the door leading to the round table in the set, and stood together with their respective detective assistants and the camera director, the makeup artist Izumi Izumi, who was free, took on the role of script supervisor. He grabbed the clapperboard with the corresponding content written in black and white and slammed it in front of the camera, announcing the official start of filming.