Joshua had no intention to start residing in the Farucci’s Mansion. After all, Madam Schroder was only temporarily handing the Farucci’s Mansion to Joshua.
That said, Joshua did feel that the Farucci’s Mansion’s indoor garden was useful.
Once the frost elf’s World Tree starts growing, Joshua could consider having it temporarily reside in the indoor garden.
It was already late into the night when Joshua’s carriage returned to the Hearthstone Tavern. Mrs. Melina had already prepared dinner for him.
Ciri had accompanied Joshua to Farucci’s Mansion but didn’t receive the dinner she was promised. Because of that, she immediately sat down on the counter and began to replenish all the energy she spent today.
“There’s no need for you to rush like so. No one’s fighting over the food with you.”
Seeing Ciri’s puffed cheeks filled with food, Joshua handed a cup of fruit juice to her.
“It’s a habit I obtained from surviving in the wilderness,” replied Ciri after swallowing the food in her mouth.
The gift Joshua received from Gallolei during their farewell was absolutely not something he expected.
Ciri was standing right beside them and witnessed the entire scene. Yet, a rare occasion, she did not show any reaction at all. She even had a mysterious sense of calmness to her.
“Miss Tylene! Is the story about the magical lamp in the Great Analok Desert you spoke of real? May I know which ancient text you read that story from?”
“No... the magical lamp is merely a fictional story.”
The conversation that sounded from behind caught Joshua’s attention.
Being in the Tavern for so long, Tylene was already someone the customers had become well acquainted.
After the Voice of Norland opened, Tylene rarely sang in the Hearthstone Tavern. The musical originium crystals had replaced her singing and was resounding throughout the entire Hearthstone Tavern.
Because of that, Tylene had more time to practice broadcasting. But, during the time when she does not have to do any broadcast, she would go down to the tavern’s first floor to help out. While it was said to be ‘helping out,’ it was more like ‘messing with’ and ‘assaulting’ Ynor.
“Fictional? That’s truly unfortunate then. I’ve heard that the Adventurers Association were even planning to check out the Great Analok Desert,” sighed the man asking the initial question.
“Those little guys from the Adventurers Association will likely all be eaten up by the Death Sandworms a few days after stepping foot into the Great Analok Desert,” said an old dwarf with a loud voice.
Then, Joshua could hear the laughter from the dwarves in the tavern...
Many people had asked the same question – ‘Is the magic lamp real?’ – in the Mage Forum’s Voice of Norland sub-forum.
A lot of text researchers even appeared. They made posts stating that they’ve consulted with countless ancient records in the Central Library of Norland and really managed to find records of a powerful ghost goblin hidden in the depths of the Great Analok Desert.
It would appear that in a world with magic, the fairy tales and fantasies from earth were not at all fantastical to the mages...
This also happened in the Hearthstone sub-forum. A poster unflinchingly proclaimed that they had seen Ragnaros the Firelord in the underground lava-covered central region.
When Joshua was skimming over the posts in the Voice of Norland sub-forum, a post caught his attention.
‘Frost Elf Tylene, do you know exactly how many World Trees there are in this world?’ Poster: Skotan Nun
The posts on the Voice of Norland sub-forum were all discussing the magic lamp and Aladdin. Because of that, that post that asked Tylene a question directly appeared extremely eye-catching to Joshua.
Joshua tapped into the post and skimmed through the content. The content of the initial post was only a duplication of the title. But, the replies to that post were much more interesting.
Many of the repliers knew of this Skotan Nun. They were also replying with astonishing consistency.
‘Miss Nun, you didn’t write your diary today.’
‘Does the elven race’s World Trees have something to do with your writing?’
‘I’m meditating and waiting for Miss Nun’s diary entry today.’
‘Miss Nun, please upload a new entry. I would have to rely on it to get through my magic medicine course tonight.’
Diary? Joshua remembered! Skotan Nun was the Heresy Tribunal’s inquisitor Cheryl who returned to the Nation of the Holy Church from Norland.
She wrote a book by the name of ‘Diary of an Inquisitor’ on the Mage Forum’s Motionless Library sub-forum. It was similar to an early concept for NovelFulls of web-biographies.
‘Diary of an Inquisitor’ was unexpectedly well-received in the Mage Forum. A portion of the users would wait for the latest release every day.
The replies to the post she made with the account Skotan Nun were a bunch of people asking for her to update them with a new release.
Even though Cheryl had become a somewhat well-known writer in the Mage Forum, she was still an inquisitor of the Heresy Tribunal.
The dark elf had once warned Joshua that the reason why her race’s World Tree withered was solely because of the Heresy Tribunal.
“Mister Joshua, should I... answer her?”
Tylene had also noticed the post that Cheryl made in the Voice of Norland’s sub-forum. She sat down on the other seat beside JOshua and asked him for his opinion.
“Do you know how many World Trees there are in this world?”
Faced with Joshua’s question, Tylene shook her head.
“The only full-grown World Tree I knew of is the one of the forest elves in the Blackwood Forest. In other words, it’s the elven race Miss Gallolei’s bodyguard belonged to,” said Tylene.
Blackwood Elves. Joshua had a bad feeling.
According to what the dark elf told him, the destruction of her race’s World Tree was very likely because of the Heresy Tribunal. The black mist that was affecting Tylene the entire time seemed to be the power of the inquisitors too.
Could it be that those deranged bastards had, apart from arresting ‘heretics,’ they were also chopping down World Trees over the decades?
Currently, Joshua had no idea why the Heresy Tribunal would do such a thing. He could only hope to obtain some useful information from the inquisitor lady who had penetrated into enemy lines.
‘Miss Cheryl, I am very curious as to why you asked about the amount of elven World Trees.’
Joshua used the Mage Forum’s private message function to send a message that only Cheryl could see. For the time being, Joshua had yet to open the private message function to the public.
Before the Mage Forum’s development was complete, Joshua was not planning to open up an instantaneous message function.
Joshua soon received a reply from Cheryl. But, the content of the reply was a series of ellipses.
‘Who are you?’
Soon, he received another private message. The inquisitor lady still had no idea Joshua’s nickname on the Mage Forum was ‘Firebringer.’
‘Someone who could help you.’
Joshua was only asking her as a test. It seemed like Cheryl was extremely cautious. After Joshua sent her that private message, she stopped responding.