Farucci’s Mansion.
Gallolie was standing in the center of the indoor garden. Vegetations affected by the vitality of the World Tree were blooming with flowers around her.
“Mister Joshua, is this posture fine?”
Gallolie was gently caressing her black hair on the side of her face, lifting it to the back of her ear. Then, while facing Joshua, she leaned forward and lowered her waist slightly.
“Gallolie, you don’t have to try so hard to pose like that. I’m only trying to test out the functions of the World Tree.”
Joshua was holding a ‘video camera’ in his hand. It was pointed at Gallolie.
After having participated in the filming for ‘Léon: The Demon,’ Gallolie started acting a bit like the models from earth when she faces the camera’s lens. Unfortunately, her height was far from that of a ‘model.’
Through the originium crystal Joshua held in his hand, the image recorded by the camera was directly projected onto a wall in the center of the garden.
The recording began from Gallolie nibbling on a biscuit like a little rabbit. Then, the Flower of Farucci suddenly discovered Joshua recording her eating her dessert with a camera. She wiped clean the cracker bits on her mouth and stood up to display her most charming side to the camera lens.
Joshua did not save the recording onto the originium crystal. Instead, he used the World Tree’s leaf as a medium and directly connected the ‘video camera’ with the originium crystal in his hand.
Observing from the side, Priestess Oranka suddenly asked, “Son of Chaos, although I’ve seen the miracles you’ve created over a dozen times, I’m still curious as to how you were able to record the images from the past.”
“The principle behind this is a bit complicated. You can think of this originium crystal to be storing a large amount of light elements.” Joshua searched through the memories of the third prince. The invention of the video camera was purely an accident. Because of that, it was very difficult for him to explain things through either magic or science. As such, he could only provide a concept behind it to Priestess Oranka.
“Then, through instructions given by the World Tree, those light elements are rearranged to refract lights of different colors. Together, those lights formed an image.”
“Such... a detailed operation of elements would need a large amount of rune inscriptions.”
Priestess Oranka was incapable of imagining that those detailed images were composed of extremely small light elements.
“Movies are a bit different from the images projected before you. But, with the Blackwood Elves’ World Tree, we are now able to gain basic command over the glimmering light elements.”
Joshua gently waved his hand and the magic network interface appeared before his eyes.
Joshua was immensely pleased with the addition of Gallolie’s ‘sever no. 2.’ With it, the burden on the Frost Elves’ server has been eased enormously. The speed for the runes transmission has increased two-three folds.
Even though the speed was still pitifully slow compared to the gigabit fiber optics internet from earth, it was at least able to load some pictures now.
“Mister Joshua, is this the television you spoke of?”
After learning that the images were not going to be publicized, Gallolie faced the camera and pinched her cheeks. The Flower of Farucci from earlier disappeared in an instant.
In a short few seconds, the face Gallolie made toward the camera was projected to the wall. All the Blackwood Elves at the center of the indoor garden were able to see the expression their Daughter of the Forest made.
“Television... This can only be considered to be the prototype. After all, the leaves of the World Tree are needed as the receptors.”
Joshua picked up the green leaf placed on top of the originium crystal. The image on the wall instantly disappeared.
A single originium crystal would not be able to sustain all the sequences in the magic network. Joshua could only use it as a broadcasting medium — a tool that cannot accomplish anything apart from watching television. It was so much that there wasn’t even a button.
Magic power served as its power supply. It was completely eco-friendly and would not suffer any wear and tear. The World Tree’s leaf served as the receiver.
“In other words, if this item is to be sold as a commodity, then we will all be able to see Léon while listening to the Voice of Norland?” Gallolie soon realized the use of ‘television.’
“This is a defective product. If we are to attempt to mass produce it, the Frost Elves’ World Tree will likely become furious...”
“Furious? Son of Chaos, the Frost Elves’ Holy Tree is very fond of you. Furthermore, the Holy Trees are always very generous and amiable toward their people,” said Priestess Oranka.
She looked at Gallolie. She was already able to hear the blessings from their race’s Holy Tree.
“About that, if you are to attempt to pluck out all the fur from a cat, getting angry will be a small consequence. It’s more likely that the cat will attempt to kill you instead.”
Joshua showed the World Tree leaf to Priestess Oranka. That World Tree leaf had fallen naturally from the Frost Elves’ World Tree.
“To complete the image transmission, every single originium crystal will need an entire World Tree leaf to serve as the medium. Right now, the Voice of Norland has, by conservative estimates, seventy thousand listeners. They are long unsatisfied with only listening to ‘Léon’s’ voice. They all wanted to see him. The originium crystal and the leaf will be able to satisfy their desire. If the price isn’t too expensive, I believe that there will definitely be a lot of people that will offer up the money to purchase it.”
The example given by Joshua caused Priestess Oranka to shiver in fear.
She should be feeling anger instead of shivering in fear. After all, it was an extremely repelling thing for any elf to have their World Tree’s parts being sold by humans as commodities.
But, if the World Tree itself agreed to it, then even if the elves had complaints, they would not be able to do anything to stop it.
“Son of Chaos, the Frost Elves’ Holy Tree is more willing to listen to you... I hope that you will be able to treat it well.” Priestess Oranka had once offered Tylene to receive the protection of the Blackwood Elves. But, she was refused by her. No, it was not only Tylene... the World Tree inside of Tylene also refused her offer.
“I wouldn’t strip the leaves of the World Tree for the sake of creating these defective goods. I am thinking of a more effective method. But, too much time is needed for that method. I needed to wait for Gallolie’s World Tree to grow further.”
Gallolie raised his head and looked to the eight elven priestesses behind Priestess Oranka. In the end, his eyes landed on the youngest priestess Luvita.
Luvita was holding her hands and nibbling her lower lip. She seemed to still be feeling guilty in failing to be present for the World Tree’s rebirth ceremony.
“As priestesses, you all are also able to provide nourishments for the World Tree like Gallolie. Because of that, I plan to establish special ‘viewing spots’ all over Norland to broadcast the ‘World’s Singers.’”
While Joshua was incapable of mass-producing television, he could still provide the white cat with more cat food so that it will be happy enough to allow him to pluck a hundred plus leaves. With that, he should be able to create several hundred originium crystal televisions. Or perhaps... arcanovision?
“I will begin planning the program ‘World’s Singers’ today. Priestess Oranka, I know that the epics sung by elven singers possess great charm. But, you will not be able to win over the people of Norland using only one style of music. It is best for you all to attempt other styles of music too. I will provide some songs for you all to practice with.”
One of the main attractions for programs like a singing contest was the diversification between the contestants. Back on earth, the contestants would, at the very most, be from different places and different trades. But, in this world, there were different races in addition to that.
While the singing voices of the elves were indeed very beautiful sounding, the elven epics sung by them were akin to lullabies. If one was to listen to elven epics too excessively, one will start getting tired of them.
“Other... styles of music? For generations, we’ve only been singing the ‘elven epics’ passed on from our ancestors. Because of that, we’ve never attempted other styles of music,” said Priestess Oranka regretfully.
“It is not too late to attempt now. Do you all like rock ‘n’ roll, jazz or country music better?”
Joshua had only just started listing some of the genres he knew when the elven priestesses started looking at him with confused looks.
Perhaps the music of this world was not as classified as that of the earth.
“Okay then... I’ll go to the study and write a couple musical scores.” Joshua felt that they will have to personally practice and experience the charms of the music to understand them.
He remembered that Madam Schroder’s study had a lot of blank score sheets. By relying on his memories, Joshua would be able to write the tunes for many different songs.
Before leaving, Joshua suddenly asked, “Oh, that’s right... do you all mind working together with people from my race and the undeads?”
The magic formation the elves created to cast a barrier around the World Tree’s rebirth was simply too powerful. Even after they finished the ceremony, it was still there.
Joshua felt that he could utilize the power of the magic formation to summon a grand existence from the Demon Realm.
.........
The Prophet left the Weissenasche Theater half an hour ago. The manager of the Weissenasche Theater, Sir Weissenasche was enthusiastically driving his newly purchased arcanotech vehicle to bring the Demon Realm’s missionaries to Farucci’s Mansion.
“Esteemed teacher, do you know how this arcanotech device is constructed?” asked the Prophet’s students sitting at the back of the vehicle.
To those who were from the Demon Realm that still lagged in the middle ages, being able to come to a place where they could see things from the industrial age and even signs of the information age was simply too novel of an experience.
MInutes ago, the four apprentices were discussing the movie ‘Léon: The Demon.’ In fact, they were even feeling scared when they recognized Sir Weissenasche to be the actor playing Stansfield. One courageous apprentice even stood forth to courageous take on the crazed law enforcer.
It took the Prophet some time to dispel the misunderstanding her apprentices had toward Sir Weissenasche. She repeatedly emphasized to them that ‘Léon: The Demon’ was a fictional story. After that, their interests were all captured by the vehicle.
With the permission from Sir Weissenasche, the apprentices started touching the vehicle all over. Like her apprentices, the Prophet was also engrossed with the embodiment of Norland’s peak arcanotech technology.
“For the time being, I do not know the source of magic. But, merely from the surface, the materials used to construct this arcanotech device...”
The Prophet stroked her hand across the surface of the vehicle. The toughness of these metals far surpassed her expectations. With the current standards of the Demon Realm’s manufacturing techniques, it would be impossible for them to smelt such quality metal products.
As such, even if they were to know the principle behind this arcanotech device, they would not be able to mass-produce it in the Demon Realm.
Her desire for knowledge made the Prophet turn her eyes to the only mage from Norland sitting in the vehicle, Ciri.
“Don’t look at me, I got a F in my arcanotech devices class. I even ended up fighting my teacher for that class because of this. Of course, I won the fight.”
Ciri shrugged her shoulders to show that she had absolutely no knowledge about arcanotech devices. She even took the chance to brag about her ‘past glory’ from the time she was in the magic academy.
“That being said, you all should look out the window. We will soon be passing the Gear River. On the other side of the Gear River is the district where Norland’s arcanotech workshops are. We also call that region the factory district. Oh, let me mention this too. The residents living by the Gear River are deeply annoyed by the noises coming from there.”
Ciri delightly took on the job of a tour guide. The vehicle driven by Sir Weissenasche happened to arrive at the coast of the Gear River while Ciri was speaking.
When the imposing arcanotech workshops appeared before the eyes of these demonkin, the Prophet and her apprentices stuck their faces to the windows.
To these knowledge-seekers, few could reject the power created by the fusion of steel and iron. The magic granules gushing out from the chimneys of the arcanotech workshops was a beautiful sight.
The Prophet was able to retain a calm expression. But, she was not feeling joyous.
It was only after coming to Norland that she experienced how vast the gap between human civilization and Demon Realm has reached.
The Demon Realm were still worrying about the problem with food and harvests. The number of smithys were pitifully few. The demons had ward off the human armies with their powerful physiques. But, the weapons the human armies utilized were getting more and more powerful. Sooner or later, the city walls of their borders would be breached by the humans.
When she thought of those, terror filled the Prophet’s heart. As her wooden glasses reflected the imposing factory building across the Gear River, she stealthily concealed her sense of longing into the bottom of her heart.
“Are we... able to enter those places?” asked the Prophet.
“You will be free to tour some of the smaller factories. But, the factories established by the merchants, gnomes and dwarves completely forbade entries. I suggest that you all do not attempt to sneak into those factories either. If you do, you’ll likely be beaten up to a state of near-death by the mages and boorish attendants in those factories.”
Ciri waved around her staff. It seemed as if she had personally experienced beating up those boorish attendants to a state of near-death.
“That wouldn’t stop us,” The Prophet was not against taking on the risk of being surrounded and beaten up so that she could check out the insides of the factories.
She came to Norland to learn human knowledge. To obtain the knowledge, taking on some risks was worth it to her.
“There’s no need for that,” Ciri pointed to a factory across the river, “You see that building with the largest chimney? That’s one of the largest arcanotech factories in Norland. If you all are interested, you can go and swing by that place at any time.”