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.

However, Kroon warned him that it would be a much more difficult task than anticipated.

The prototype had just failed after barely running for 30 seconds. Extending that run time by more than twentyfold would require extensive adjustments.

"And to top it all off, I’ve got to deal with making a new type of book format this time."

Kroon grumbled about the endless tasks piling up on him.

But despite his complaints, Rupert wasn’t worried. Kroon, who always threw himself into the process of creating new inventions, had already begun organizing the disheartened artisans and urging them to return to the workshop to continue their work.

‘We have to replace the entire setup to make the new magazine format from scratch.’

Every time they transitioned from storybooks to manga or from manga to magazines, the necessary equipment and materials changed, causing additional challenges.

While the continued production of storybooks and manga meant the investments weren’t entirely wasteful, the growing expenses remained substantial even for Rupert.

If this animation project failed, it could potentially put his finances in a precarious position.

‘Still, if I can introduce animation to this world, that alone will be worth it.’

This venture wasn’t one Rupert had undertaken to make a profit. It was more of a luxury project he allowed himself after his finances had stabilized.

Rupert fondly recalled how, during his childhood, he’d spend entire school breaks glued to the TV, watching anime on various channels.

The countless hours of anime he had watched still remained some of his most cherished memories, and now he wanted to leave similar memories for the children of this world.

‘I’ll leave the projector and film improvements to the team and focus on the academy and magazine now.’

Since the technical side wasn’t his area of expertise, Rupert resolved to focus on what he could control.

In this world, being an artist was one of the fastest ways to starve.

At least if you had connections with the nobility, you could earn a living by painting portraits or landscape art, but for those who didn’t, it was a constant struggle for work.

There had been occasional commissions for mural or religious paintings from the church in the past, but after a few poor-quality projects ruined their credibility, those jobs had dried up as well.

Recently, however, things were beginning to change.

"We need your artwork!"

After Rupert’s storybooks and manga took the empire by storm, the demand for artists had skyrocketed.

The Yuren Trading Company, which handled the distribution of books, caused a ripple effect that shocked all the trading companies in the empire.

‘It’s not just about book sales!’ ‘Look at this! Customers who come to buy books end up purchasing other items too!’ ‘And that’s not all! People are buying basic necessities from Yuren just to meet the minimum spending requirements to become VIPs at their merchandise stores!’

In truth, Yuren Trading didn’t make much profit from book sales alone.

Excluding labor costs, the margins weren’t particularly high. But despite this, the book business was aggressively expanded because of the significant secondary profits.

Nobles who had never done business with Yuren Trading began purchasing goods just to get their hands on the latest books, and even commoners, once there, opted to buy from Yuren as well.

As a result, Yuren Trading had risen to become the empire’s top trading company, with everyone acknowledging that Rupert’s books were at the heart of this unprecedented success.

Just a few months ago, when people named the top trading companies of the empire, they would collectively refer to the “Seven Major Trading Companies.” But now, Yuren stood above them all.

• We need to sell our own exclusive products too!

Any merchant worth their salt wouldn’t just stand by and watch this success.

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.