Nighttime.
The end of the World’s Singers competition was announced. As usual, Joshua returned to his study on the Hearthstone Tavern’s second floor.
However...
“Diamond! Ciri! I’ve mined a diamond!”
“I got a Fortune III Pickaxe here.”
Joshua lowered the book in his hand. He looked at the four people playing co-op in his study.
Since Gallolie started playing ‘Minecraft,’ her skills became increasingly proficient. She was now capable of entering underground to mine ores by herself. This was also Gallolie’s first time mining in her life.
The competent miner girl was grabbing onto her elven bodyguard and shouting in excitement.
“Miss Gal...Gallolie... zombies!”
As usual, the Frost Elf Tylene was not very good with the game. Even when it comes to food, she would need the help from others.
“My apologies... Mister Joshua.”
With an apologetic look, Priestess Oranka walked over to Joshua. This was not the first time Gallolie came to Joshua’s study just to play Minecraft.
Priestess Oranka had reminded Gallolie countless times that she should not spend too much time on this game. Regretfully, the only person capable of discipling Gallolie was her mother.
“Don’t worry about you. You just have to imagine this place as a net cafe.”
Joshua placed his book on the table and took a glance at the excitement-filled diamond miner girl Gallolie before turning his line of sight to Priestess Oranka.
“Are you all planning to return to Farucci after the competition?”
“Yes, that’s right. Our kinsmen are still waiting for us. Son of Chaos, we thank you for the aid you’ve provided us with. That child Luvita’s outstanding performance in the competition has provided the Holy Tree with a great amount of Belief Power.”
Compared to when she first came to Norland, Priestess Oranka was no longer on guard and distrusting toward Joshua.
The World’s Singer competition had transformed her opinion toward humans.
“Is Luvita also planning to return?”
Joshua recalled the World’s Singers competition today. Even though Holme’s performance was breathtaking, Luvita and Herolia were still the most powerful contenders for the competition’s champion.
“The competition will only serve to be a start for her career as a singer.”
“I understand what you’re trying to say, Son of Chaos,” Priestess Oranka was a bit hesitant, “I am unable to have that child Luvita stay in this city by herself. But, I will respect her decision.”
“Perhaps I should go and ask her directly.”
Joshua kept having a feeling that the country girl would not be willing to leave now that she had experienced city life.
“That said, the World’s Singers competition is about to end too.”
Joshua took out a piece of white paper from beneath his desk. There were some scribble-like characters written on the paper. It was a brief program outline for the Voice of Norland.
Compared to the television programs from earth, the programs on the Voice of Norland were pitifully few.
Currently, there only exist two daily programs. They were respectively Norland Today and Tylene’s story-telling and music-sharing.
Joshua cannot imagine that he would be able to support an entire television station with only two hosts.
“I guess there’s still too few programs.”
Joshua took out a pen and began to ponder on how to add new programs to support the Norland Television Station.
Perhaps he should film a TV drama? That would be a pretty good idea. Joshua immediately began writing the screenplay.
But, time was needed to film a TV drama. Compared to movies, TV dramas would be much more troublesome to make.
If TV dramas wouldn’t do, then only variety shows and documentaries would be left?
At this moment, Joshua once again realized that he was truly lacking in talented personnels. Hosts and cameramen were concepts that do not exist in this era. He would need to cultivate everything from the start.
Suddenly, an owl landed on the study’s window sill. The owl’s hoots interrupted Joshua and brought him back to reality.
“The Gray Mage’s owl?”
Joshua waved at the owl. Intelligently, the owl leaped over to Joshua’s table.
The next moment, Joshua received a message from the Gray Mage. Essentially, the message was stating that ‘he would be coming to visit.’
Joshua took a glance at the diamond miner Gallolie. He suspected that this Flower of Farucci wasn’t even this excited when she saw the box office numbers for ‘Léon: The Demon.’
Joshua did not bother to spoil the girls’ moods and quietly left his study and quietly closed the door behind him.
Ciri noticed Joshua’s departure and had wanted to follow after him. But, Joshua gestured for her to stay. Because of that, she stayed in the study and continued her underground mining and exploration adventure with Gallolie.
“This place is as lively as ever.”
Joshua saw the Gray Mage again on the tavern’s first floor.
Donned in a filthy robe, one cannot imagine this old man to be one of Norland’s Seven Sages. Instead, he seemed more like a street-beggar or vagabond.
“A bit too lively, I’d say,” Joshua took a glance at how crowded the tavern’s first floor was.
The number of dwarves had clearly increased. At the beginning, the dwarves that would frequent the Hearthstone Tavern were mostly from the Frostaxe Clan.
But, after all this time, all the clans of Norland’s underground dwarves had learned about the existence of this Hearthstone Tavern. A large portion of the younger dwarves found themselves enchanted by Hearthstone.
“Nowadays, some of the dwarves would even consider fighting over the seats to be a battle between their clans,” Joshua must admit that no matter how much he expanded the footprint of the Hearthstone Tavern, he would not be able to contain the enormous amount of customers.
It was time for Mrs. Melina to set up a branch tavern.
“I’ve heard from Frostaxe that they’ve had a disagreement with another dwarven clan over an ore vein. In the end, they decided the ownership over the ore vein through a Hearthstone competition,” said the Gray Mage.
“Well, let’s find somewhere quiet to talk.”
Joshua led Gray Mage Lursk to the tavern’s second floor. Although his study was taken over by the girls, the Noiseless Room next door was absolutely quiet.
In the Noiseless Room, one would not even be able to hear the noise from the tavern’s first floor.
“Is it another question concerning programming?”
It was not Gray Mage Lursk’s first time coming to the Hearthstone Tavern. This mage who considered his curiosity to be his life was so eager to learn programming that it gave Joshua a slight headache.
Even if it was very late into the night, if he was to encounter some problems that he cannot solve on his own, he would immediately rush over to the Hearthstone Tavern to ask Joshua about them.
Gray Mage Lursk shook his head regretfully. Then, with a slightly serious tone, he said, “No, I came here today because of what happened in the Sage Parliament.”
“Sage Parliament? So this day finally came?”
As Joshua has been in Norland for close to half a year now, he had already gotten a clear understanding of Norland’s nobles. But, the nobles would always change somewhat following the yearly Sage Parliament.
Joshua does not believe that the Seven Sages would ignore the existence of the magic network. Because of that, he wanted to make the majority of the Sages view the magic network to be something beneficial and not detrimental.
That principle holds true in his other entertainment endeavors too.