I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 455: Shinji — My Awesomeness Has Exceeded Even My Own Expectations
Although Shinji directly used Fou's true name, Cath Palug, in the movie, he doubted that anyone besides Merlin would understand the significance of that name—not even magi.
There was no helping it. As Mystery declined, the once-infamous Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors had long since faded into obscurity. Many younger magi had never even heard of them.
After researching a vast amount of material, Shinji concluded that they had either disappeared entirely or gone into hiding somewhere special—perhaps even retreating to the Inner Sea of the Planet to serve out an eternal sentence.
Even Fou, a genuine Child of Gaia, could not escape this fate.
If he no longer interacted with modern magi, his reputation would naturally diminish over time until it vanished completely.
So forget Cath Palug—even if Shinji had outright called him the Beast of Gaia or the Primate Murderer, most magi probably would have had no idea what he was talking about.
As for why Aoko felt a sense of unease around Fou...
Perhaps it was simply the intuition unique to idiots.
Still, if Fou hadn't hidden himself within the Inner Sea of the Planet, Shinji suspected he might be lurking somewhere deep within the mountains of China.
Compared to the severely depleted spiritual veins found elsewhere, China's spiritual vein network remained remarkably robust because it had been unified during periods of centralized rule.
To put it in perspective, the spiritual veins of most regions were like a private library owned by an individual magus. The books belonged entirely to that magus, but the collection was small and vulnerable to loss.
China's system, meanwhile, was more like every magus contributing their books to a massive nationwide public library. Everyone shared access through a common borrowing system.
As a result, there were far more resources available, and the system itself was much more resilient.
Even in the modern era, China—thanks to its integrated spiritual vein network—remained the region richest in Mystery.
Unfortunately, the master key granting full control over that "library" had been lost during China's repeated cycles of unification and fragmentation.
Today, China's spiritual veins still functioned as a single enormous magical network, but even those with the highest authority could only access a small portion corresponding to their own territory.
One of the reasons Hinako chose to work as a flight attendant and travel all over China was because she knew the various backdoors hidden throughout the network, allowing her to siphon enough magical energy wherever she went.
'People who've lived for thousands of years really do develop their own little secrets for longevity.'
Looking over the list Hinako had provided—a roster of individuals controlling magical-energy permissions throughout China—Shinji couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
Without Hinako's help, obtaining something like this would have been nearly impossible.
Many families had already lost their magical traditions entirely, and some custodians didn't even realize they possessed administrative authority over part of the network.
With this list, Shinji could save himself a tremendous amount of work.
"An elder in the house is worth a treasure."
"The old saying wasn't lying."
Miss Olga Marie looked utterly unimpressed by Shinji's habit of talking behind people's backs.
"Why don't you try saying that in front of her?"
Shinji answered without hesitation.
"No thanks. She'd rip me in half."
Olga Marie: "..."
"Stop focusing on my side of things. Shouldn't you be paying attention to the first movie you've ever appeared in?"
Perhaps worried that continuing to discuss Hinako would somehow summon the woman herself to take a bite out of him, Shinji decisively changed the subject.
Olga raised an eyebrow.
"Do I really need to? Since when have your movies had problems?"
The young Lord had never once considered the possibility that Prologue might fail.
She knew nothing about filmmaking, but she did know that nearly every young magus was paying attention to Shinji's work.
With that level of influence alone, Prologue was guaranteed to achieve at least respectable results.
And reality proved her right.
Not only Fate fans and magi, but plenty of ordinary viewers had also given the film extremely positive reviews.
As a AAA-level production that could be watched for free aside from a streaming subscription—and with some new users taking advantage of seven-day free trials without paying a single cent—Prologue was widely regarded as an exceptionally generous offering.
There was no helping it—moviegoers of this era were simply too innocent.
Having never experienced the streaming-platform wars of the future, most people subconsciously assumed that streaming services only hosted old movies.
The sudden appearance of a brand-new film came as a genuine surprise.
Driven by the belief that "Shinji Matou is incredibly generous," viewers who had watched the movie began recommending Type-Moon's streaming platform to their neighbors, coworkers, and friends.
After all, registering an account grants seven days of free membership. The platform offered hundreds of films—including the entire Times Group catalog—for unlimited viewing.
No matter how they looked at it, there was no downside.
During this process, many people found themselves genuinely impressed by the service and simply became paying subscribers.
Although the conversion rate from free users to paying members wasn't particularly high, the enormous user base more than made up for it.
Eventually, all of those new subscription figures were compiled and sent to Times Group headquarters.
"Three million new users on the very first day! And 150,000 of them are paying subscribers!"
Looking at the post-release streaming statistics for Prologue, Cloris suddenly felt as if the report in her hands had become scorching hot.
The streaming platform had not undergone a major marketing campaign beforehand.
At Shinji's request, the streaming division had spent its time refining the platform based on user feedback, so promotional efforts had been relatively limited.
Now, however, both the platform's systems and content library were fully prepared.
With a visual-effects blockbuster like Prologue acting as its flagship release, the platform had burst onto the scene with astonishing momentum.
Cloris had expected the numbers to explode over the following days.
What she had not expected was for them to explode this much.
After all, Shinji had warned her beforehand.
Although Prologue was still a commercial film produced by Shinji, it was a step below works like Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/stay night in nearly every respect as a standalone movie.
To some extent, it was really just an extended trailer.
In fact, before release, Times Group had already conducted preliminary forecasts.
5 million free users and 200,000 paying subscribers.
That was the company's estimated growth for the platform during Prologue's first week.
As a seasoned film distributor, Cloris had considered those projections highly accurate.
So when she saw the platform's first-day user growth figures after the movie launched, she was completely stunned.
For an online platform centered around subscription services, the subscriber count was the single most important metric.
Countless subscription businesses had committed acts bordering on insanity just to make those numbers look attractive.
Anyone familiar with console platforms might remember the infamous controversy surrounding Sony's PlayStation subscription upgrade program.
Users who had originally purchased discounted memberships were required not only to pay back the amount they had saved through those discounts when upgrading, but also to pay additional fees for membership time they had already used.
It was like this:
Yesterday, a supermarket sold a drink with a regular price of $3 for a discounted price of $1.50.
Today, you return to buy another bottle at the normal $3 price.
The owner suddenly grabs your collar and says:
"It's you! You owe me $4.50! Pay back the discount from yesterday's bottle first!"
At the time, countless people joked that Sony had become completely obsessed with money.
In reality, the strategy was intended to encourage long-term subscribers to create new accounts and purchase fresh memberships instead.
By doing so, Sony could present impressive subscriber-growth figures in its financial reports and demonstrate to its board of directors that its subscription service was a success capable of competing with Microsoft's Game Pass.
Of course, players responded with overwhelming backlash.
Sony eventually had to retreat and blame the situation on "technical issues."
One could only say that they had brought the criticism upon themselves.
Cloris knew nothing about Sony's future misadventures.
But she understood perfectly well how important subscriber numbers were.
"At this rate, we'll recover all of our costs next week, won't we?"
Compared to Fate/Apocrypha, which featured even more visual effects and additional 3D technology, Prologue had been dramatically cheaper to produce.
Shinji had completed the entire film with a budget of only 1 billion yen—roughly 7 million US dollars.
Even if they counted only the newly acquired subscribers, Prologue was already more than capable of earning back its production costs.
"Not only that, we also managed to advertise Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons ahead of its release at the end of the year."
The truth was that when Shinji himself saw the numbers, he was just as shocked.
He had never imagined that he possessed this much influence over movie fans—so much influence that his name alone could effectively serve as advertising for a film.
He knew perfectly well that Prologue was completely different from Fate/Apocrypha.
FA was a heavily commercial production, packed with blockbuster appeal and enhanced by the theatrical gimmick of 3D visual effects.
Prologue, on the other hand, wasn't that kind of movie at all.
Shinji's original plan had been simple:
First, harvest the Fate fanbase.
Then gradually attract ordinary viewers over the long term.
Finally, carry that momentum into the release of Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons at the end of the year.
"This completely exceeded my expectations."
"Should I say that, as expected of me?"
Leaning back in his chair with one leg crossed over the other, Shinji sighed smugly.
"Indeed. As expected of you."
Sitting across from him in the office, Olga Marie offered her congratulations as well.
"That's why I told you before. Your movie was never going to have problems. It was bound to succeed."
"Mm-hmm."
Still staring at the report, Shinji nodded repeatedly.
He completely failed to notice Olga Marie studying him from head to toe, as though there was something she wanted to say.
"Since you've succeeded this time..."
"So... um..."
"Well..."
She nervously twirled a strand of hair around her finger, struggling to get the words out.
"Marie, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Shinji looked utterly confused.
"If you need to use the bathroom, just go. You don't have to ask my permission."
"I-It's not that!"
"It has absolutely nothing to do with that!!"
Perhaps because Shinji's assumption was far too blunt, Olga Marie's face instantly turned bright red with embarrassment and irritation.
Fortunately, the outburst also gave her the courage to finally say what she wanted.
"Shinji..."
"Could you let me keep acting in your movies?"
Shinji blinked.
"Nani?" ("What?")
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