Translator: Yang_Wenli
Hearthstone Tavern.
Ynor gently moved his hand across the dress he was wearing. He was familiar with this dress. It was the ordinary villager’s dress worn by Belle in ‘Beauty and the Demon.’
While the dress looked very plain and simple, one will be able to notice the care that was put into making the dress if one was to look closely. Some of the fine details were very charming.
Ynor was not particularly happy wearing the dress again. Instead, he was feeling very cautious. Tightly grabbing onto the side of his dress, Ynor looked toward Joshua seated behind the desk.
“Ynor, did you understand what I just told you?” Joshua looked at the succubus seated before him.
Seeing Ynor behaving in such a manner, Joshua couldn’t help but recall their first encounter. He was like a rabbit trying to find a burrow to hide. His embarrassed appearance was enough to invoke a predatory appetite from all those nearby.
Ynor slightly loosened his hand from his dress and looked around uneasily.
Gathering his courage, Ynor raised his head and asked, “Then... Your... Your Highness Joshua... are you selling me to that merchant called Fritt?!”
After Ynor said those words, Joshua could hear the sound of something falling onto the ground several times from outside his study.
“The people outside should be Tylene and Mrs. Melina. Mn... the Black Dove’s dark elf seemed to be waiting outside with her camera too.”
Ciri tactfully informed Joshua the people outside his study.
“The news of Belle being sold could become a headline story in Norland.”
Joshua rubbed his eyes. Then, he looked to the fear-filled succubus.
It was no wonder Ynor would be this scared. But, it seemed like the succubus had prepared himself the moment he sat down before him.
“It’s... it’s alright. Your Highness Joshua... you’ve given me more than enough. If... if Your Highness Joshua could exchange this lowly self for...”
“Wait!”
Joshua interrupted the succubus’s soliloquy. If he was to allow Ynor to continue with his misunderstanding, Joshua felt that the people outside would break through the door to enter the study.
“I have no intention of selling you! You only need to film two short video clips.”
Joshua was not planning to explain the complicated business details to Ynor and directly informed him of his mission.
“Short video clips?” Ynor wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes and looked to Joshua with a confused expression.
“As Belle. Aren’t there a lot of people on the Mage Forum waiting for the revival plot of the demon prince from ‘Beauty and the Demon?’”
Joshua opened the Mage Forum’s movie sub-forum.
Even though ‘Beauty and the Demon’ was already screening for over half a year, its popularity did not diminish in the slightest.
Apart from the film reviews, the majority of the posts on the sub-forum regarding ‘Beauty and the Beast’ were literary works using it as the theme. In other words, fanfiction.
The majority of the fanfictions included the revival of the demon prince.
From this, it could be seen that the majority of the ‘Beauty and the Demon’s fans were yearning for a happy ending.
Although Joshua had accepted the Klia Trading Company’s advertisement task, he was not planning to film those cheaply-produced ‘brainwash’ commercials.
Since the fans were yearning for the revival of the demon prince that much, Joshua decided to ‘hand out official sweets’ to the fans by having the demon prince bring Belle sightsee Norland. He planned for the main setting of their sightsee to be shot in a shop owned by the Klia Trading Company.
If needed, he would set up one or two fight scenes and point out the ‘quality’ of Klia Trading Company’s goods.
By doing that, he would be able to satisfy the desire of the fans and advertise the Klia Trading Company at the same time.
“No, I have no problem with that. Of course not. To be able to work with Lord Zenarth again, I... I am honored.”
Ynor revealed through his voice his desire to work with Zenarth again. Joshua began to suspect if the succubus had also turned into a cat-lover.
“The time will be today’s afternoon. Although saying this to a man might sound awkward, Ynor... take some time to do some makeup.”
“I... understand.”
After hearing what Joshua said, Ynor ran out from the study with a reddened face.
Not long after Ynor left, Mrs. Melina fixed up her looks and entered the study.
“Please forgive my rude behavior earlier,” said Mrs. Melina.
“To have your daughter... no, son be offered up for sale, who wouldn’t be worried?” Joshua waved his hand to indicate to Mrs. Melina to not worry. Then, he handed a sheepskin scroll to her.
The wax seal on the scroll has the shape of a galloping horse. That was the crest of the Klia Trading Company.
The scroll was also given a magic insignia pact by Norland’s Patent Office. It was something upheld by Norland’s laws.
“This is the initial condition of my negotiation with the Klia Trading Company. Is there anything that you think should be modified?”
Joshua’s understanding of economics cannot compare to the aged traveling merchant lady.
Mrs. Melina picked up the sheepskin scroll and roughly skimmed through its contents...
“A large portion of the conditions present in this scroll desire for the opposing party to provide arcanotech technology... Do you plan to open up an alchemic atelier?” asked Mrs. Melina.
“I am not planning to engage in that business in Norland. But, there’s no problem with opening up one or two alchemic ateliers in the Demon Realm,” said Joshua.
Demon Realm...
Mrs. Melina took out a circular pair of glasses and placed it on her nose bridge. She began to skim through the sheepskin scroll’s directory. A large portion concerned agriculture.
For example, ‘Auto-tilling Arcanotech Puppet,”Alchemic Fertilizer,’ and so on... A portion of them were realized products that were being used by all the nations in the world. As for the other portion, they were products still in their experimental phase.
Seeing Mrs. Melina becoming quiet, Joshua asked, “So, Mrs. Melina, what do you think about the Klia Trading Company’s offer?”
“Extremely extravagant,” A look of disbelief remained present on Mrs. Melina’s wrinkle-filled face.
“Extravagant?”
“Mister Joshua... they’re providing you with a total of five arcanotech devices manufacturing knowledge. On top of that, there’s such a large sum of money too. In exchange, they only wanted my adopted son to... help say a few good words about their merchandise.”
Although Mrs. Melina’s financial management abilities were exceptional, she was only a traveling merchant.
Even though she had experienced a lot of grand matters following Joshua, she was still unable to comprehend how liberal with money the super wealthy merchants were.
Mrs. Melina believed that... the price of the transaction was only for her adopted son to speak a couple good words about their merchandise.
Yet, in exchange, they would gain tens of thousand or even hundreds of thousands in earning.
“I guess this is the characteristic of an information age business deal,” Joshua could tell from Mrs. Melina’s tone that she ‘didn’t quite understand these rich people.’
“What he meant is an era with magic networks and television stations.”
At this moment, Ciri provided a close-fitting explanation for Joshua’s strange vocabulary. Mrs. Melina nodded in understanding.
“I’ve been trying my best to keep pace with Mister Joshua. But, the changes happening to Norland are simply happening too fast.”
Mrs. Melina shook her head and placed the sheepskin scroll back on the desk.
“The clauses are all detailedly listed. Mister Joshua... the Klia Trading Company is extremely sincere.”