Harem: Shooting Anime In Another World

Chapter 13

The beast girl in the distance turned towards him a bit flustered, but Dulin, seeing a beastman for the first time in his life, showed a look of surprise and instinctively blurted out, "Um... is this guy for sale too?"

"Hehe, please don't make such jokes, dear customer..."

The shopkeeper was a little tense, but seeing Dulin clearly being oblivious, he couldn't help but explain, "It's basically impossible to meet beastmen in the southern border, so it's understandable if you don't know. This child is a beastman, not a monster, and cannot be bought or sold."

"Beastman?"

Having heard similar stories in the past from the Empire and watched many anime featuring beast girls in his previous life, Dulin directed a curious gaze at the real beastman for the first time. On the other side, Wenli and others were less prominent but held some curiosity as well.

Seeing their expressions, the shopkeeper couldn't help but laugh and said, "You haven't been to the western border, so outside the Empire's western border, there is a beastman kingdom where various beastmen live, and I've heard that sub-spirits like half-spirits also exist there. However, in recent years, due to the Empire's trade dumping and the main war faction's claims of colonization against the beastman kingdom, the relationship between the Empire and the beastman kingdom has gradually become tense, and the presence of beastmen within the Empire is becoming increasingly difficult to see."

"This child was picked up by me when I went to the western border, in a local beastman village. At that time, she seemed to have been abandoned by her original parents, and just as I was passing by looking for rare magical beasts, I happened to take her in During my bad luck. Although she was separated from her family, she doesn't seem to care about that."

As the shopkeeper said this, a doting gaze appeared on his face. The beast girl he took in looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years old, but in his eyes, she seemed just like an ordinary child.

"I see."

Nodding, as the anime screen floated up in the mind of the beast-girl Dulin, he considered the possibility of future filming and attempted to ask the beast-girl, "Could you tell me your name?"

"...."

Although he received no reply, the girl's watery, large eyes stared intently at Dulin, while the shopkeeper next to them hurriedly said, "The reason she doesn't have a name yet is that she doesn't want to remember her past. No matter how much you ask her, she won't say her past name, so I don't have the courage to give her a name. Just a name will do."

"I see, then could you tell me your name, shopkeeper? My name is Dulin Edward."

"Of course, Dulin-san, my name is Lawrence, and I am the manager of this monster shop."

Listening to the other party, Dulin understood that the topic of the beast-girl was over, but he still had questions he wanted to ask. Realizing the main topic was important, he quickly said, "Well then, Manager Lawrence, the purpose of my visit this time is to search for a creature called a giant slime. I heard you have traveled around, so you must know about it. Let me share some clues."

"A giant... slime?"

With a surprised expression, Lawrence opened his mouth after a moment of thought. "Yes, but this monster is not only somewhat corrosive, but it also cannot be kept as a pet like a regular slime. Initially, when I came to hunt, I thought it would be a waste not to collect such strange monsters. However, I later regretted realizing that no one wanted to buy them."

"Is it really available? Don't worry, I want all the giant slimes you have, the price is not an issue."

Dulin, who didn't expect this problem to be resolved so easily, smiled, and Lawrence nodded while saying, "Yes, but to be honest, recently there have been fewer people willing to spend money to buy monsters. Previously, a noble from the town came to my shop with the idea of buying a young silver-gray wolf, but due to an unavoidable accident, his youngest child was bitten, and after that rumor spread, even fewer people came to buy monsters in town. If no one comes to buy monsters in a few months, I plan to take this child and travel to other towns to seek other opportunities."

"I see..."

Upon entering the real monster room inside, Dulin was surprised that the monsters in this shop far exceeded his imagination, with cute slimes, silver-gray wolves, slightly scary goblins, giant spiders, and almost every kind of monster gathered here.

Noticing Dulin's surprise, Lawrence just laughed and said, "You're surprised at how many monsters are here, right? Actually, I used to love traveling, and During that process, I caught various monsters. Taking care of them is quite troublesome, but I never thought it was a nuisance. However, if this shop ultimately goes bankrupt, I think I'll have to say goodbye to these monsters. After all, the financial resources needed to take care of them are truly a huge burden..."

Feeling that his eyes were shining upon hearing Lawrence's words, Dulin hurriedly said, "Wonderful! If there are so many 'group performances,' Manager Lawrence, I have a proposal right now, would you like to hear it?"

"A proposal?"

In response to the man's confusion, Dulin laughed and said, "Yes, or rather a deal, a deal that can save this monster shop. To put it simply, advertising, yes, advertising. Mr. Lawrence, have you heard of advertising? It's something you can live on through power generation."

"Are you talking about the paper posted on the wall??"

Clearly, this world had given rise to small advertisements like those posted on walls due to the invention of paper and printing technology, but the advertising Dulin referred to was obviously not limited to just that.

Seeing that Lawrence was increasingly unable to understand his words, Dulin, who no longer sold relationships, organized his language and explained the meaning of video advertising, pointing out that if Lawrence lent him his monsters, Dulin would appropriately embed advertisements related to monsters in the movie he filmed. Of course, he intended to embed them not in the main feature, but rather in intermediate cutscene animations or at the ending.

By doing so, not only could the concept of monsters accumulate a certain popularity and save this endangered monster shop, but it could also provide Dulin with a large number of monster-related "extras," achieving a win-win situation.

After listening to his explanation, Lawrence, who did not understand the meanings of "filming" and "advertising," could roughly grasp Dulin's enthusiasm and said, "If it's a rental, then of course that's fine. After all, if we can't hold on for these few months, this shop might go bankrupt directly. More importantly, Mr. Dulin, what you mentioned is a bit hard for me to understand, but at least it is certainly a way to save this monster shop, right? I agree."

"Hahaha, don't worry. If the movie really gets made, remember not to be surprised by the crowd that rushes in! At that time, it won't be a problem for us to ask for your help."

"I hope so."

Lawrence did not explicitly state it, but he clearly did not fully believe Dulin's words. After all, the idea that countless people could come to buy monsters from his shop just from one advertisement seemed too wonderful to be true.