“The remnant... of the World Tree?”
Herolia’s sudden and descriptive words caught Messai’s attention.
Before meeting the World Tree sapling Tylene held in her hand, Messai only knew World Trees to be very ancient and were things of legend.
But, Herolia knew that she had a leaf from the World Tree with her just by coming in contact with her.
The Saintess did not answer Messai. Instead, she grabbed her hand again. Messai tried to pull her hand back but discovered the Saintess possessed astonishing strength.
Her strength was not the type of brute force capable of causing pain. Instead, it seemed like time had stopped on Herolia.
At this moment, Herolia closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, a pitch-black world... the ‘Conscious World,’ appeared before her.
Inside that world, a sphere of light was illuminating the darkness. Gradually, that sphere of light transformed into a deer-like creature.
Herolia extended her hand and petted the deer-like creature’s fur. Then, she turned around to look behind her.
It was an unimaginable scenery. Threads of golden light were gathered together on that deer.
The golden light represented her believers, the people that admired her, in the Holy City. The power of their beliefs were being provided to the deer before Herolia as nourishment.
That amount of believers was the result of Herolia’s over a hundred years of effort.
Herolia was able to see a small sphere of light on Messai. But, apart from the small sphere of light, she could also see a large sphere of white light. Beside that white light laid a purely white kitten.
“Should I celebrate your awakening?” Herolia asked quietly.
Unfortunately, the kitten ignored her. It yawned, used its paw to scratch its chin and then laid back down on the sphere of light with its eyes closed.
“You’ve slept for so long, now... how many believers do you still have remaining?”
Herolia’s words caused the kitten lying on the sphere of light to open its eyes. At this moment, a large amount of white spheres of light appeared in the pitch-black space before Herolia’s field of vision.
The bodies of lights gathered in the pitch-black space resembled twinkling stars.
“Impossible, in only a month...”
Even though Herolia was prepared for it, she still couldn’t help but reveal an expression of shock.
“How exactly...?”
Perhaps to answer Herolia, the pitch-black space began to gradually disappear. When she blinked her eye, the spheres of light had disappeared before her and was replaced by the Mage Forum’s interface. A series of new posts were being updated on the screen.
“Lady Herolia, are you alright?”
Messai shouted for Herolia repeatedly. Ever since a while ago, Herolia’s expression had turned sluggish. This lasted for roughly a minute.
“I’m... fine.”
Herolia removed her grasp of Messai’s hand. The instant she did that, her connection with the Magic Network severed. She couldn’t help but recall the scene of the large amount of white spheres of light.
She felt like the effort she put forth for the past hundred years couldn’t even match the achievement gained by a white kitten lying asleep in an afternoon. It was a sense of defeat.
Exactly how? Was it a contract with the demon?
“Messai, if I remember correctly, you said you were protecting an elf? That elf was on the Chaos Demon’s side, correct?” asked Herolia all of a sudden.
“Yes. That elf... is working for the Chaos Demon.”
Messai honestly replied to Herolia Tylene’s occupation in the Hearthstone Tavern. It was true that Tylene was living in the Hearthstone Tavern.
Judging from the interactions between the Frost Elf Tylene and the Chaos Demon Joshua, she wasn’t a slave or a servant. Instead, they seemed to be ‘associates.’
“What job?”
“...Singing.”
Messai took some time to recall what Tylene does in the tavern.
Apart from occasionally helping the servers of the tavern deliver beverages to customers, she would more often be found on the small stage with her harp singing songs that causes people to desire to sleep.
But, ever since the Hearthstone Tavern introduced the originium crystal that could record one’s singing, Tylene had rarely got back on the stage to sing.
Nevertheless, Messai was certain that Tylene was working as a singer under Joshua. She would sing two types of songs: those that would make one want to sleep and those that would impassion one with the desire to enter a battlefield.
Regardless of which sort of songs she sung, Messai, from the bottom of her heart, felt that her singing was comparable to that of the Holy Church’s choir!
Of course... Messai wouldn’t dare make this sort of evaluation before the leader of the choir, the Saintess Herolia.
“In other words, her job is basically the same as my choir?”
After hearing Messai’s description, the only thing Herolia could think of was the choir.
“It’s a bit different. That Chaos Demon had recorded the Frost Elf’s singing into originium crystals called ‘musical records.’ Paying a certain amount of money, anyone could purchase those musical records. With a musical record, one will be able to hear her singing anytime and anywhere. On top of that, there’s the ‘Voice of Norland’ on the magic network.”
In order to demonstrate, Messai tapped open the Voice of Norland.
The Voice of Norland’s Morning News program had already ended. The next program just so happened to be Tylene’s program.
The Saintess Herolia grabbed Messai’s hand again. She connected onto the magic network and, with Messai’s instructions, tapped open the Voice of Norland.
‘Good afternoon everyone. I am Tylene. Today, we will be continuing with the story of “Aladdin.”‘
Herolia didn’t bother to pay close attention to exactly what Tylene was narrating. Her attention was completely focused on the Voice of Norland’s lower right corner, the ‘Current Listeners.’
At the beginning, there were a thousand four hundred and twenty seven listeners. But, in less than three minutes after the program started, the amount of listeners had increased to five thousand seven hundred and twenty-four. Furthermore, it was still increasing.
There exists a festival called the Radiating Light Festival in the Holy City. It was a festival commemorating the birth of God. On that day, the choir will sing a hymn to the entire Holy City. But, due to the plaza’s limited space, only a small number of people were actually able to hear the hymn.
Evidently... the amount of listeners of the Voice of Norland program was approaching the amount of believers that will make pilgrimage during the Radiating Light Festival.
“Lady Herolia... about the Frost Elf’s occupation, I’ve once heard a definition from that Chaos Demon.”
Messai felt that Tylene could no longer be considered as a wandering minstrel or bard. But, her performance method was vastly different from those singers.
After all, in this world, one will need to spend a large sum of money to enter a theater in order to hear a singer’s performance. Messai felt that songs sung by singers were luxuries that only the nobles could enjoy.
Even the Saintess Herolia and her choir belonged to that sort of ‘rare treasure.’
But, this Frost Elf’s signings were different. One will be able to obtain them by spending a small sum of money or some time to listen to the Voice of Norland.
“What... definition?”
Herolia seemed somewhat entranced by the Voice of Norland’s interface.
“I...dol.” Messai recalled the term Joshua used. It was a profession she had never heard of before.