I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 377 - 377 376. Who doesnt have a bit of a girlish heart_1

Chapter 377: 376. Who doesn’t have a bit of a girlish heart_1 Chapter 377: 376. Who doesn’t have a bit of a girlish heart_1 The battle continued, another Bandaged Person’s fight with the mercenary leader Shobu was filled with strength and grace, yet with the monster’s restlessness below their feet, no one could escape their fate.

Splash—

Defeated and falling into the water, Shobu looked at the light reflecting off the surface, she reached out her hand, but darkness enveloped her body even more.

In a moment, all the boats were consumed by that nameless darkness, sinking, and the eternal sea took over all of Mrs. Meritt’s thoughts.

When humans find themselves in the deep sea, they are overlaid with both a sense of confinement and vastness.

In that pitch-black and gloomy world, unknown things stir, awakening humankind’s deepest fears.

And the vastness of the ocean, with all its hidden creatures, fuels boundless reverie and uncontrollable imagination.

Since ancient times, the ocean itself has been one of mankind’s fears, deified alongside the heavens and earth.

Now, Mrs. Meritt experienced it firsthand.

In an instant, she felt as if she was suffocating.

It was an indescribable sensation of blockage, as if the air in the projection room suddenly turned heavy like seawater, making even breathing difficult. Mrs. Meritt involuntarily held her breath, feeling a stifling pressure in her chest, as her legs started to flail as if she was drowning.

In such a state, she saw a huge, unimaginable shadow rising from the sea floor; all those in the water, the fragments of those boats, the shards of shells, everything seemed like trivial, insignificant things.

Within that vast shadow, even death couldn’t claim eternity.

Those who fell into the water were shrouded in blackness, silently, with no one knowing what their final outcome was. Were they torn and in agony, swallowed by the shadow? Dissolved, vanishing without a trace? Or perhaps they were transported miles away, safe and sound in the open sea?

The unknown is the greatest fear.

Mrs. Meritt even felt the whole room darken.

The oppressive, stuffy air, like a ghostly presence of a damp early summer in the south of France, crept into her lungs, like viscous glue, gradually clogging her airways, and with the clouds concealing the last shred of moonlight, the projection room plunged into darkness, where one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face, save for the flickering light of the projection screen, illuminating the room.

There was silence, only the sound of some stray currents brushing past her ears filled Mrs. Meritt’s body.

She stretched out her legs, gripping the armrests of the sofa tightly, with eyes wide open, her whole body resembling that of a drowning person, her complexion ashen.

Until, the camera angle was pulled above water, it was the protagonist’s face, pulling the camera’s perspective, dragging it above the surface.

Mrs. Meritt thought the man looked quite handsome for the first time.

She realized it was the female lead Amber who was being pulled up.

Around were only the remnants of ships, with no trace of the unfortunate victims’ corpses floating on the water. Amber vomited a lot of seawater, lying on a plank, her body drenched.

Mrs. Meritt noticed that the girl’s body, which had blackened because of the prayer she had used earlier, had now recovered. Moonlight spilled over the girl’s body, making her whole being shimmer.

French cinema tends to focus on the beauty of a girl’s youth, and now, in the current scene, a chaotic sea, the possibility of a looming, vast shadow appearing at any moment, the cold moonlight within it, and the pure and unblemished girl create a scenario that would touch the soul of any viewer.

What comforted Mrs. Meritt was that the Director hadn’t, like some traditional films, immediately arranged for a love scene between the male and female leads. Instead, they drifted on the sea like survivors, intoxicated by the illusions reflected by the matches, and after drying their clothes, Amber cuddled up with the little dog and fell into a deep sleep, while the male lead gentlemanly stayed by her side.

Some Directors like to use the Suspension Bridge Effect, typically depicted by a love scene before a big battle or a kiss after a crisis. Mrs. Meritt thought that this basically showed a lack of understanding of how to depict emotions progressively and subtly, instead forcibly pushing two people together in such a manner.

At this point, in the interactions between Amber and the male lead, Mrs. Meritt could see only a bewildered girl and a persistent mercenary, helping each other, struggling to overcome adversity together.

The drifting at sea felt unsettling, but Doggo could still catch fish; they cooked over a fire on a wooden plank: the girl tasted inelegant food for the first time, and the excitement and thrill after encountering the Island and the interaction on the beach calmed the emotions of the audience.

Though a long and perilous journey lay ahead, and they were struggling for survival on a deserted island, for now, at least, the two had nothing else to worry about and were just with each other.

This feeling was very familiar to Mrs. Meritt. After some thought, she realized that this was precisely the daily life depiction at which Island Country cinema excelled. Unlike Europe and America films that often have clear objectives or a sense of rhythm, many Island Country films simply portrayed the daily lives of the protagonists and their surrounding people, not boring or dry but through these details making the characters more fully fleshed out.

For many Europe and America art films, that meant truly artsy to the point of putting viewers to sleep with tangled neon scenes, montages, stream of consciousness, and actors with droopy faces, all nudging at everyone’s sleep nerves.

Mrs. Meritt couldn’t help but feel a pang of melancholy when she saw this segment of the story.

Because Amber was a girl who had been burdened with responsibilities since birth, possibly always growing up according to her family’s plans without any freedom of her own.

And now, without a doubt, she was experiencing the freest moments of her life.

How precious these moments were, Mrs. Meritt understood well, because she knew that later in the story, they would surely continue their journey, eventually reaching their destination. The current freedom and comfort were just momentary dreams, always awakening.

This contemplation of the fleeting nature of good times was like a faint wine, just swallowed and already warming the heart.

Perhaps, this emotion is what is referred to as the sadness of things.

Even when she saw that the protagonists had found a pirate camp and could steal a pirate ship to continue their journey to the destination, Mrs. Meritt felt a sense of loss.

Without a doubt, her heart was now entangled by the characters in the story, and she was completely immersed.

Drifting at sea, arriving at Changfeng Island, pretending to be siblings to live on the Island, teasing the little girl, Amber talking about wanting to give up her responsibilities to stay there as a common girl, this segment hit Mrs. Meritt’s heart precisely, feeling like it was the warmth and healing she wanted, a coming-of-age plot with literary elements.

Even Lu Ban seemed a bit handsomer to her.

Who doesn’t have a bit of girlish fantasy?

If the story ended here, Mrs. Meritt’s rational mind told her it would be imperfect.

But she hoped the story would end here.

However, the Director certainly wouldn’t be willing to let the story end so abruptly, and a twist occurred.