Translator: Yang_Wenli
It was near dinner time when Joshua received Prophet.
The demon realm’s chief ‘scientist’ looked as young as ever. She was carrying several thick books in her hands. Her tiny arms made people ponder if she could carry the weight of those books.
“What has brought you here today?”
Joshua prepared a chair for Prophet to sit on.
Strictly speaking, Prophet was a subordinate of his elder sister. Even though she was a firm ally to him, she was not, in a complete sense, ‘one of his people.’
“About this... I’ve been to the underground dwarf city beneath Norland and have seen the transportation of foodstuffs. It’s only a matter of time before those foodstuffs reached the Royal Capital. On behalf of Her Highness Cecily, I would like to thank Your Highness for the aid you’ve provided to the citizens of the Royal Capital.”
Prophet placed the books she was carrying on the chair behind her. Then, she suddenly kneeled and lowered her head toward Joshua.
“Shouldn’t this be my duty? While I might look like this, I am still the third prince of the Demon Realm.”
Seeing Prophet kneeling to him, Prophet remembered his distinguished title as a prince.
“Go ahead and tell me what really brought you here. Is there something that cannot be discussed on the magic network?”
Joshua indicated for Ciri to support Prophet back up so that she could talk while sitting on the chair behind her.
“Your Highness Joshua, I am worried that Norland’s Sages could very possibly become hostile toward you.”
As Prophet spoke, she gently pushed back the books she carried over to the back of the chair. After creating a bit of space, she sat on the chair.
“Hostile? You’re talking about the feeling of antipathy the Sages had toward television?” asked Joshua.
“Yes, that’s correct. Your Highness Joshua, you seemed to have realized it sooner than me. Have you managed to think of a way to handle this matter?” asked Prophet, “If the hostility from Norland’s Sages continues to increase, it’s very probable that they will drive you out of Norland. And that would be tremendously detrimental to both you and the Demon Realm.”
Behind the glasses of her wooden frames, Prophet’s eyes were staring straight at Joshua. She was extremely serious toward this matter.
Deep in Prophet’s eyes, Joshua was able to see a feeling of yearning.
After coming to Norland, the Capital of Magic, the young-looking scholar had learned magic knowledge far more advanced than those from the Demon Realm.
To Prophet, this was no different from a long-starved individual seeing a self-service buffet with all sorts of foods. Moreover, all the foods were free of charge and she could also ask for take-out containers to bring the food back to feed her family.
“Through your effort, our race was able to obtain a temporary shelter in Norland. Furthermore, the humans were willing to share their magic knowledge with us. That is something that even I would never dare to imagine in the past. It could be said that it’s a... miracle. As such, Your Highness Joshua, I do not wish to lose this opportunity.”
There was no fluctuation of emotion in Prophet’s tone. But, her final sentence fully revealed her desire to Joshua.
“Prophet, would you mind showing me the books behind you?”
Joshua decided to ‘selectively’ ignore the topic of the Sages’ hostility and shifted topic to Prophet’s study.
When Joshua made that request, Prophet was able to sense the meticulousness behind it. Nevertheless, she did not uncover Joshua’s intention and, with some difficulty, picked up the first book behind her, an extremely thick book, and placed it before Joshua.
‘Private Letters From Big Hat Romer – Connection Between Life and Inscriptions’
Joshua took a glance at the title of the book before opening it to skim its contents.
He discovered that the contents were mainly about the connection between life and magic inscriptions. There were a whole bunch of specialized terms and nouns. Reading them, Joshua felt a slight headache.
“You should stop reading it. Big Hat Romer is a mage from a faraway era. Reading his book would make you feel like you’re reading a whole bunch of crazy and unfounded ravings. It’s possible that not even the Sages are able to make senses out of them. In the past, my elder sister has spent some time reading his books too. But, as she continued reading them, she ended up falling asleep,” Ciri whispered in Joshua’s ears.
“Eh... mmm.”
Joshua also felt like this book was a whole bunch of crazy and unfounded ravings. However, he was very familiar with some of the concepts written in the book — gene.
While Joshua was incapable of understanding all those specialized terminologies, he was able to faintly guess that this book was talking about genes and heredity. The only difference was that this was a magic version.
For Joshua who would generally only get a score from ten to thirty in his biology exams, that book was something that he cannot possibly understand.
He did not expect that a mage from the middle ages would’ve realized the existence of genetics and even wrote it down as a book... Joshua realized that he had underestimated the ‘potential’ of the humans of this world again.
“Prophet, you’re studying this?” Joshua returned the book to Prophet.
“This book mentioned that it is possible for us to alter the growth of wheat, rice and other crops through their ‘foundation.’ As for how to alter the foundations, I’ve only grasped some clues and have yet to put them to test,” said Prophet.
‘Old lady, if your tests were to succeed, you’d become the ‘Mother of GMO’ of this world!’
Joshua no longer dared to view the person before him as a little girl. If Prophet was living on Earth, she’d likely be one of those top researchers, a scientist who would be able to win the Nobel Prize with any minor achievements.
“Apart from this, Your Highness Joshua, regarding the programming course taught by you, I’ve gained a rough understanding of the existence of ‘programming.’ I’ve also attempted to program a ‘basic sequential program’ that you spoke of.”
Prophet was able to quickly guess that Joshua was very interested in her learning abilities and the knowledge she had grasped. She immediately found a pile of papers from the second book.
“You’ve managed to learn programming already?” Joshua was startled to hear that. So far, there were only three ‘locals’ he knew that were able to program.
The first person was Ciri’s elder sister. While that girl’s attainment in magic was not very high, she was extremely hardworking and has barely managed to gain a basic understanding of programming.
As for the other two individuals, they were Gray Mage Lursk and Archbishop Desireless from the Nation of the Holy Church. These two old men who attained exceptional mastery in magic have successfully reached a level of proficiency where they could create basic sequential programs.
In fact, Gray Mage Lursk even requested for Joshua to add more functions, such as being able to open multiple windows at once, to the next versions of the magic network.
And now, the fourth ‘local’ to grasp programming has appeared before Joshua.
“Due to my memories, I possess the same amount of rune inscriptions as Your Highness Joshua. However, as my memories are stored in the Demon Realm, I am unable to utilize those rune inscriptions for magic. Nevertheless, I am able to utilize them to compile these... complex calculations. Unfortunately, as there is no development tool in the magic network, I ended up having to write them down on paper.”
Prophet handed several pieces of paper to Joshua. Those were the simplest programming functions written in english.
When placed on the magic network, thousands or even tens of thousands of rune inscriptions were needed to simulate these one or two line codes.
The codes written by Prophet were merely a simplified version.
“Codes for Pong?” Joshua took a rough glance and was able to determine what she wrote.
Prophet nodded.
“Your assistant Ciri’s elder sister has shown the program to me. I attempted to code it using my own logic. It seemed that the number of rune inscriptions needed for my imitation was a bit much. But, I’ve managed to successfully write the codes in the end. Is it possible to run it on the magic network?” asked Prophet.
“Of... course,” Joshua no longer knew how he should describe what he was feeling. When he raised his head to look at the young Prophet sitting across from him, the expression in his eyes had changed completely.
It was as if the person sitting across from him was not a little girl but instead countless Triple-A titles of the tremendous internet empire.