Translator: Yang_Wenli
Hearthstone Tavern.
Joshua finished handling the ‘disturbance’ caused by the inquisitors’ assassination attempt. This included compensating Kaos, the Nation of Steel’s prince, of the loss of his golden legendary card.
By this time, it was already in the wee hours of the night. Only now was Joshua free to return to his study.
“Your Highness Joshua...”
The sentinel Pest has been waiting in Joshua’s study for a long time. The blood that stained her clothes had disappeared. One could only tell that she had experienced a fierce battle a couple hours back from her damaged sentinel attire.
“Are you not planning to stay and rest for a couple days?”
Joshua took a glance at Pest’s abdomen. She had suffered two wounds that endangered her life. One was her left arm that was severed. As for other, it was the wound to her abdomen.
With the vampire’s outstanding healing abilities, extremely pale flesh could be seen from the ripped portion of the clothes on her abdomen. There wasn’t even a scar to be seen.
“Thank you for your kind intentions. But, I must deliver the letter you’ve written to Her Highness Cecily.”
After Pest learned that Joshua had dispatched ‘professionals’ to destroy the teleportation formation below the chapel, she knew that staying in Norland any longer would be meaningless.
If the Holy Church planned to dispatch more inquisitors or an entire army of Ecclesiastical Templars to take down Joshua, it would take them over three months to reach Norland from the Nation of the Holy Church.
Three months was a period of time enough for Joshua to do a lot of things.
“At the very least, change into a new set of clothes before leaving.”
Joshua knew that it would be impossible for him to detain this sentinel lady. As such, he pointed to her abdomen. Her morbidly pale flesh and thin waist was completely exposed. He also pointed to the other areas of her attire that were damaged. To men, it was a very ‘tempting’ thing to see.
“No one will be concerned with what a bat might wear.”
Pest made a joke toward Joshua. The atmosphere of Norland... or perhaps better stated as the atmosphere of the Hearthstone Tavern, was completely different from that of the Demon Realm’s Royal City.
The lively atmosphere that filled the tavern all day long had managed to affect this ice-cold sentinel. But, for her mission from, her loyalty to and her admiration of the Second Princess, she must return to the Demon Realm.
“Okay then... Send me regards to my older sister. Also, you can deliver this to her too.”
Joshua took out an originium crystal that contained the magic network and a fresh leaf from the World Tree.
As more and more people started listening to the Voice of Norland, the growth of the World Tree had reached a rapid rate. At least now, it was no longer as stingy as before in handing out leaves.
In the past, it would react like it wanted to fight Joshua when Joshua plucked its leaves. But now, it had accepted its fate and would allow Joshua to pluck its leaves.
“Magic network... wasn’t its range only limited to Norland?”
Beneath her mask, Pest was staring at the originium crystal in Joshua’s hand. From the ‘network connection’ introduction post, she had already learned that the magic network’s effective range was limited to the City of Norland.
“This is the World Tree’s leaf. It remains connected to the World Tree even after leaving it. You can understand it as a base station, a router or a receiver for the wireless signal,” said Joshua.
“With this leaf, one could utilize the magic network in the Demon Realm?”
Pest was able to understand the first couple sentences Joshua spoke of. When he started mentioning base station, router and receiver, she was completely confused by those new vocabularies.
But, she was able to quickly comprehend what the use of the leaf was.
“In theory, that is the case.”
Joshua handed the leaf and the orignium crystal containing the magic network to the sentinel lady.
Pest held the leaf. The moment she came in contact with the leaf, she could feel a vigorous amount of vitality within the leaf.
If Pest remembered correctly, the leaf of a World Tree were rare alchemy ingredients to any alchemist. Generally, they would be used to concort medicines with healing properties.
Apart from the aura of life, something a bit contradictory to her race, she also... felt that her magic network’s signal grew even stronger.
“After my older sister gained the usage rights to the magic network, please tell her this.”
Joshua stared at Pest’s scarlet eyes. At this moment, Pest was startled. She finally sensed ‘ambition’ from this demon prince who had an extremely tired look like someone wanting to sleep the entire time.
“The magic network’s range being limited to Norland is only temporary. One day, I will have its range cover the entire world.”
“I... will pass on the message to Her Highness Cecily.”
Pest had used the magic network for a couple days. Her knowledge of the magic network was limited to the usage of the mage forum. But, merely the mage forum was enough to cause her to spend some time staying on the forum to check out posts.
“Well then, Your Highness Joshua, I’ll be taking my leave.”
After receiving the departure gifts from Joshua, Pest walked over to the window and turned around to bow respectfully to Joshua.
Then, she transformed into a bat, flew out the window and disappeared into Norland’s night sky.
Not long after the sentinel Pest left, Ciri entered Joshua’s office with a plate of two portions of honeyed barbecued meat, her night snack.
“You’re not planning to return to the demon realm with her?”
Ciri placed the honeyed barbecued meat on the table. The Hearthstone Tavern opens 24 hours a day. The employees work in shifts. Because of that, Ciri had grown fond of ordering some food when she stayed up all night.
“How could the demon realm be as interesting as Norland? Besides, I don’t have the time right now.”
Joshua picked up several movie manuscripts from the top of his desk.
Now that the teleportation formation below the chapel has been destroyed, it would take the inquisitors two to three months to reach Norland from the Nation of the Holy Church if they wanted to attempt to kill him again.
As such, Joshua had enough time to carry on his next development project.
The dark elf Thousand Faces had returned to Norland. The news department for the Voice of Norland was now in its infancy stage. Because of that, Joshua was pondering if he should officially hire a couple performers and artists to officially expand his ‘entertainment guild.’
“Ciri, do you need assistants to help you out with the original arts?” Joshua the most outstanding artist lady he employed.
“Assistants? Doesn’t really matter to me... Instead of that, I actually wanted to take a couple days off.”
Ciri’s cheeks were bulging. Grease covered her lips.
“Taking a leave of absence is naturally not an issue at all. I’ve been planning to give you a vacation to begin with. Else, you might end up ruining your figure completely.”
Joshua walked over to Ciri and examined her. When he first met this female mage, Ciri looked rather thin and weak. But now, even though she was still thin, she looked much more womanly.
“I’ve been working out on the regular! Also, about taking days off, I’m planning to spend the time to take the rank five mage test. According to you, it’ll be me going to level up my professional ranking.”
Ciri was wearing a loose-fitting mage robe. As such, Joshua could only determine the figure of this mage lady from her arm. But, to prove that she didn’t have unneeded fat on her body, Ciri grabbed Joshua’s hand and placed it on her waist.
Without paying attention, Ciri’s movement pulled Joshua toward her. Joshua looked at the mage lady at such a close distance. He could even smell the fragrant smell of... barbecue from her body. Suddenly, Joshua recalled that he still hadn’t had dinner yet.