Norland. Hearthstone Tavern.
“She is my assistant.”
Joshua replied to the question from his elder sister without much thought.
“Assistant... Joshua, do you lack staff? If so, I can provide you with staffs. They will definitely be trustworthy.”
Joshua didn’t know how to reply to that message. After all, he was indeed lacking in staffs.
But, what he really lacked were ‘programmers.’ Unfortunately, Joshua felt that there shouldn’t be many people in this world that have acquired the ‘programming’ ability yet. Even if they’ve managed to do so, they would only be entry-level programmers.
“Thank you for your concern... I am not lacking any staff right now. I will begin working on the matters with the missionaries and the famine tomorrow.”
Joshua replied to Cecily in a formal manner. Cecily replied back with ‘Hopefully everything goes smoothly.’
With that, Joshua waved his hand and trapped close the magic network interface. He turned to look at Ciri who was enjoying her dinner.
“What’s wrong?” Ciri noticed Joshua’s gaze. With her spoon in her mouth, she raised her head to look at him.
“... It’s nothing.”
Joshua shook his head. He returned to sit behind his desk and opened the magic network interface again. This time around, what appeared before his eyes was not the messenger popups. Instead, they were a bunch of complicated runes and inscriptions codes that even he felt a headache from looking at.
Even though he could increase the speed of his thought process and reactions by entering a state of meditation, the amount of ‘programming’ work was still so enormously vast that he felt the urge to sink himself into his sofa and declare ‘I don’t want to do anything anymore.’
What Joshua was currently programming was only a pixel game. It would be impossible for him to complete those large-scale games with tens of gigs worth of data and required one to two years of development all on his own.
“So the advanced magic academy’s programming course is absolutely necessary?” Joshua picked up the invitation letter sealed with an owl wax imprint.
Right now, Joshua could only hope that one or two programming geniuses like Bill Gates or Linus Torvalds will appear in Norland, the city filled with talented individuals.
Right now, the only ‘genius’ programmer Joshua knew would be Norland’s sage, Gray Mage Lursk.
Joshua took some time to write a message to Gray Mage Lursk. He indicated in his message that he will visit Lursk’s Advanced Magic Academy tomorrow. He also mentioned that there were a couple demons that wished to be admitted as students in the school.
After sending the message, Joshua started to quietly wait for a reply.
.........
An owl landed before a gray-colored mage tower. With a dim flash of green... the owl instantly transformed into an elf.
That owl was one of the various different beast forms Elder Safran could transform himself into. It was also one of the forms he was most proficient with.
He turned his head up and looked at this somewhat shabby-looking mage tower. There were many owls around the mage tower. They seemed to be watching the movements of this uninvited guest.
Mage Towers were the symbols of Norland’s glory. But, among the seven mage towers, this one was the most unremarkable.
Elder Safran pushed open the mage tower’s wooden door and entered it. The interiors of the mage tower appeared much more tidy than the exterior.
Using the special vision of the Blackwood Elves, Elder Safran glanced around the mage tower. However, he cannot find sight of the tower’s owner.
A fork for eating quietly extended out from the darkness behind him, touching the skin of his neck...
“Don’t move.”
A strange voice sounded from behind the elf elder.
A guard for the mage tower... no... this was a familiar aura.
Ever since Elder Safran fought against the Heresy Tribunal’s inquisitors, he became extremely sensitive toward the ‘smell’ of those indiscriminate murderers.
The Heresy Tribunal had destroyed the World Tree in their Blackwood Forest and massacred his kin. To Elder Safran, they were enemies that cannot be forgiven.
Before the person threatening him could utter anything else, a vast amount of green vines emerged from the ground. Those vines forced his attacker away.
“You ruthless intruders, why would you be here?!” Elder Safran turned around and managed to gain a clear view of the person standing in the darkness.
This inquisitor appeared extremely young. She was chewing something in her mouth and butter stains were present on her face... As for the weapons in her hand, they were a fork and a table knife...
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question, elf?!” The inquisitor swallowed whatever she was chewing before loudly speaking to Elder Safran.
Elder Safran was not confused by her young appearance. Light green colored runes appeared in his hand and a vast amount of thorny vines suddenly emerged from the tower’s wooden signboard.
“Stop... I believe the two of you have no reason to fight.”
The door to the tower was pushed open. Gray Mage Lursk had returned to the tower and saw the inquisitor Cheryl and the Blackwood elf elder Safran standing in confrontation.
“Lursk, she’s an indiscriminate murderer from the Heresy Tribunal.”
Elder Safran called out Gray Mage Lursk by his name. At the same time, he warned him how dangerous the person before him was.
“That was the past. Right now, that little lady is an author. Safran, I know you have a lot of questions that you wanted to ask me about. Come, follow me.”
Gray Mage Lursk seemed to have anticipated the arrival of this Blackwood Elf. He slowly walked toward the stairs leading up the mage tower.
Elder Safran took a glance at the ‘weapons’ held by the inquisitor. There were traces of butter on that table knife. No matter how he looked at them, they do not resemble weapons for killing.
His strong self-control allowed him to forcibly suppress his anger toward the inquisitors and follow after the Gray Mage.
“It’s been about thirty years since we’ve last met, no? Safran... human lifespan is truly short. You still look the same as the time when I first met you,” said the Gray Mage.
“I remember that you were still a mage student in Norland back then,” said Safran.
“Don’t mention those things that I can’t even remember well. Safran, you’ve left the forest to seek revenge against the Holy Church’s Heresy Tribunal, right?” asked the Gray Mage as he quietly stared at the elven druid.
“It is partially for my race’s vengeance. As for the other reason, it’s because the Heresy Tribunal had destroyed our World Tree. They’ve done so not to perish my race from this world...”
Elder Safran examined the surroundings. They were at the mage tower’s highest level. Even though the surroundings seemed to be covered in dust and junk, this place was protected by powerful magic formations. If anyone tried to touch any of the books here without permission, they would immediately be reduced to ashes.
“Is it that ancient thing?” With a wave of his hand, a book covered in dust flew over to Gray Mage’s hand.
In addition to the dust that covered the book, there were some spider webs too.
Gray Mage Lursk opened the book. The writing present in the book were not the writings used by the current humans. Instead, they were a bunch of complicated and difficult to understand scripts.
That writing system could be seen in the remnants of the ancient civilization beneath Norland. Those scripts were none other than the symbols used to form various magic runes and inscriptions.
But, only a small number of mages were able to understand the content of the book, Gray Mage being one of them.
“I’d rather believe the things written in this book to be the stuff of delusions written by a lunatic,” said Gray Mage.
“But it is the truth,” Elder Safran stared into Gray Mage’s eyes, “I encountered a dark elf in Norland, an elf that has disappeared from this world for a very long time. She informed me... that her race’s World Tree was also destroyed by the Heresy Tribunal. On top of that, a frost elf has also experienced the same catastrophe as us. Fortunately, that young lady was very lucky. There was still hope for revival for the Frost Elves’ World Tree. The same... holds true for our World Tree.”
“Regretfully, the mages of Norland are a bunch of freemen. They do not obey anyone, Safran.”
Gray Mage Lursk knew the reason why this Blackwood Elf came to him.
Now that the Blackwood Elves had suffered disastrously, they needed to find aid to defeat a colossus as huge as the Nation of the Holy Church.
“But, don’t be dispirited. While I might not be able to command all of Norland’s mages to become enemies of the Nation of the Holy Church, there’s actually someone who is capable of that in Norland.”
“That demon called Joshua?” Elder Safran was able to guess what Gray Mage Lursk was about to say. “All the things that demon has shown me were things that I cannot imagine. But, I still cannot believe that a demon would be able to make all those humans take orders from him.”
“Not orders, Safran.”
Gray Mage Lursk waved his hand again. Pure white runes appeared in his hand. The scene of the inquisitors Cheryl and Teresa enjoying dessert appeared before Elder Safran.
“Her name is Cheryl. She is a defector. She has betrayed the Heresy Tribunal. Utilizing the teleportation formation, she brought her friend and escaped to Norland from the Nation of the Holy Church.”
“Defector? The Heresy Tribunal was willing to let them get away with it?”
Seeing the two people on the projection, Elder Safran’s anger eased.
He was not blinded by hatred.
While the younger girl seemed like a blood-thristy indiscriminate murderer, Elder Safran was certain that the girl dressed in a nun outfit had never touched blood.
Even among inquisitors, not all were the same.
“Of course not. They carried with them secrets that the Heresy Tribunal has kept hidden for who knows how many years. Upon arrival, they were immediately caught up by the inquisitors that went after them and were forced to desperate straits.”
Gray Mage Lursk was one of those people who was paying attention to the ‘live broadcast’ back then. As such, he spoke with a tone of ‘actually being there’ when he narrated what happened back then.
“You rescued them?”
That was the only possibility that came to Elder Safran’s mind. Else, those two inquisitors wouldn’t be living in his mage tower.
“I am only one of the many mages that came to their rescue. Among the rescuers were even dwarves.”
The magic network interface appeared before Gray Mage Lursk. He signed into the Mage Forum and entered the Motionless Library sub-forum.
For the time being, Mage Forum does not possess a search function. As such, Gray Mage Lursk began to flip through the posts based on memory.
At this moment, Lursk once again experienced how convenient and fast the Mage Forum was. No matter how old a post was made, it would not be lost to time. One only needed to spend some time in order to find it.
The posts in the Motionless Library sub-forum were much fewer in quantity than Daily Discussions and Magic Research sub-forums.
As a veteran user of the Mage Forum, Lursk was able to find the post made by Skotan Nun, that is Cheryl, crying for help after flipping through only a dozen or so pages.
Gray Mage Lursk showed Elder Safran the replies made to that post.
Reading that post, Elder Safran felt like he was reading a battle conference...
A battle conference for the sake of rescuing Skotan Nun. All the participants of the conference do not know each other. Yet, all of them decided to extend a helping hand to this stranger they’ve never met before.
“Exactly how was such a thing accomplished?” Elder Safran was unable to understand the motive behind those humans and dwarves. In the end, he was left with no choice but to ask Lursk.
“Perhaps it’s because Skotan Nun wrote a very fascinating story.”
Gray Mage Lursk closed that post and returned to the first page of the Motionless Library. He tapped open the post with nearly eight thousand replies.
‘Diary of an Inquisitor’ written by Skotan Nun.
“I’ve read that diary before.”
Elder Safran had hoped to be able to find some information concerning the Heresy Tribunal from the Mage Forum. As for this ‘Diary of an Inquisitor,’ it practically informed him everything about the Heresy Tribunal and inquisitors.
“That is a fascinating diary. There are a lot of people that love to read that diary,” Gray Mage Lursk did not water down his praises.
“Regretfully, Lursk, I am unable to understand the things humans like.”
“That’s because you’ve not read more into the diary. To the readers that loved the diary, they cannot imagine the pain of being unable to read till the end. The death of the author will lead to that outcome. As for the reason why the dwarves were there too, it was because of that game called ‘Hearthstone,’” said the Gray Mage.
“...”
Hearing those words, Safran pondered for a brief moment. He was able to understand why Gray Mage was attempting to tell him.
“It is that demon who created the magic network. He was also the creator behind that ‘Hearthstone’ game. Lursk, you mean to tell me this is all facilitated by him?”
Gray Mage gently waved his hand. A book recording the history of the world flew out from the shelf and into his hand.
“Many years ago, the missionaries from the Nation of the Holy Church walked through the entire world. Through their words, writings and gospels, they’ve embellished demons as cruel and ruthless monsters, enemies of humanity,” Gray Mage Lursk displayed that portion of the history to Elder Safran.
Then, he said, “So, why couldn’t a demon use his creations, the magic network, the Voice of Norland and even movies to reveal to the world the true nature of the Nation of the Holy Church? These are his weapons. Safran... they are far more terrifying than magic, swords and armies.”
“But, time is needed for his weapons to show their edge... There aren’t many World Trees left in this world that could still serve as ‘locks,’” said Elder Safran.
“It won’t take long.”
As Gray Mage said those words, he received a message from Joshua. After reading the content of the message, a smile appeared on his face.
“Safran, why don’t you accompany me tomorrow to see how vast of an influence that demon has in this city?”