"Your Highness Joshua, are you planning to continue to raise that Frost Elf?"
Prophet was sitting at the back of the vehicle and carrying a small suitcase.
The suitcase was filled with leaves from the Frost Elves' World Tree. Even though there was a suitcase separating them, Prophet could still sense the tremendous amount of vitality emitting from within.
Prophet had learned from Joshua that should one possess the World Tree's leaf, one will be able to connect with the magic network from anywhere in the world.
The 'function' of the leaves caused the World Tree's leaves to become the goods desired by all users of the magic network.
Apart from that function, the World Tree's leaves were also precious alchemic materials. Prophet could recite over a dozen different alchemical formulas that utilized the World Tree's leaves. The medicines produced by those formulas were goods of incomparable value on the marketplace.
"Raise? Prophet, could you be mistaken about my relationship with Tylene?" asked Joshua.
"Was I wrong? Your Highness Joshua, you've provided her with protection and food in exchange for the World Tree and these leaves. In my opinion, your relationship with her is no different from a shepherd and his sheep."
"Fine. I admit that what you've said sounded very reasonable. But, a shepherd wouldn't possibly pay the sheep a salary and buy her pretty clothes, no? Furthermore, she has a two day vacation every weekend." As Joshua spoke, he stepped on the brake and parked the arcanotech vehicle to the side, "Compared to the master-servant relationship present between nobles, I am more inclined to consider my relationship with Tylene to be that of two friends."
"Friends… I had thought Her Highness Cecily's treatment toward the masses is already exceptionally good. Never would I imagine that Your Highness Joshua would be completely unaware of your identity as a prince," said Prophet.
Completely unaware of his identity as a prince? Joshua couldn't possibly tell Prophet that he's a well-behaved youth that grew up under modern ideologies. To him, being a prince was merely a profession in name. After he arrived in Norland, he had practically forgotten his status as a prince.
"Then, Prophet, do you know how my elder sister Cecily planned to… transform the Demon Realm?" Joshua asked in a probing manner.
After calculating the time, it was about time for the contest over the throne issued by the King of the Demon Realm. Joshua had already withdrawn from the cruel struggle on his own accord.
Right now, the only strong competitors would be his elder sister and elder brother. The victor shall become the Demon Realm's ruler and gain the authority to completely transform the Demon Realm to their wishes.
Right now, Joshua wanted to maintain neutrality. After all, his impression of his elder sister remained in that of a cold-hearted Sentinel.
"A world of mutual-understanding," Prophet carefully recalled the ideal Cecily mentioned to her before, "Her Highness Cecily said that before mutual-understanding could be achieved, one must first gain the acknowledgement from the other party. The current Demon Realm is too weak and backwards. That is the reason why we came to Norland."
"A world of mutual-understanding… was it? What will happen if the production level of the Demon Realm caught up to or surpasses the human world?"
Joshua believed that as long as Prophet and her four students returned to the Demon Realm with the knowledge they acquired in Norland, they will be able to lead the production level of the Demon Realm to Norland's current level after some time.
"I don't know."
Prophet shook her head. Joshua's question was above the scope of the mission Cecily entrusted her with.
"At that time, I would like to develop a tourism industry in the Demon Realm," Joshua's gaze turned to the end of the street. If they continue proceeding forward, they will reach the Squirrel Street located at the edge of Norland.
That street used to be the street most disdained by the citizens of Norland. But now, it has transformed into a well-known tourist attraction.
"Tourism… industry? You plan to allow humans to play around in the Demon Realm?"
With her knowledge, Prophet was able to understand what Joshua meant by 'tourism industry.' The Third Prince's thoughts were truly strange and incomprehensible.
"Your Highness Joshua, let me remind you that humans believed the Demon Realm to be an extremely dangerous place."
"In the past, the citizens of Norland had the same impression for Squirrel Street. Aren't humanity's impression toward the Demon Realm gradually changing? In the future, we might be able to establish an amusement park in a vacant land in the Demon Realm."
"Amusement… what?"
Suddenly, Prophet began to miss the days when Joshua was accompanied by that mage called Ciri. When she's present, she would be able to immediately offer an understandable explanation whenever Joshua spoke of some unknown terms.
"We can discuss this matter in the future. After all, it's something that can only be established after the Demon Realm becomes genuinely powerful and able to incur fear in the hearts of the human nations. Unlike now where humanity is able to wantonly raise war against the Demon Realm."
Joshua pressed down on the arcanotech vehicle's gas pedal. While chatting with Prophet, the arcanotech vehicle had arrived at the entrance of the underground city.
...…...
Norland's underground. In the mine cave belonging to the Frostaxe Clan.
In the form of a bat, Pest was hanging upside down on the ceiling of the cave and looking at the wooden chests piled up in the cave. The wooden chests were all sealed and tagged with the labels 'Klia Trading Company' and 'Foods.'
The mine cave had transformed into a large-scale food storage. In order to prevent insects and rodents from eating the food, a magic barrier that repels small and weak creatures has been set up around the cave.
At the end of the cave was a teleportation gate that emitted a faint green glimmer. Pest had only flown into the teleportation gate for a short period of time before a group of people donned in pitch black armor emerged from the gate.
These people's hands were on their sword hilts the moment they stepped into the cave. They began to unleash their killing intent throughout the cave.
"Sentinel, you want us to steal the dwarves' food reserves?"
After confirming that there was no other living creature present in the cave, the leader of the knights turned up to look at Pest hanging from the ceiling.
"Dwarves? No, General Fesley, the foodstuffs here all belonged to us. Or perhaps I should say, they all belonged to His Highness Third Prince Joshua Annerlaude. He is the one who purchased these foodstuffs in Norland and brought relief to the crisis caused by the famine in the Royal Capital."
Immersed in a bath of scarlet blood, Pest transformed from a bat into a humanoid. She stood before the armored demon and spreaded her arms as she gave the explanation.
"There's no reason for those cunning humans to sell their foodstuffs to a demon…" It seemed like this general wasn't convinced by Pest's explanation. Then, he suddenly pulled out his sword. He sensed a dangerous aura approaching this place.
"Sentinel! Are you certain that this is not a trap set up by those cunning humans?!" He yelled at Pest.
"Calm yourself! The humans of this place are different from your imagination."
Pest tried to stop the general from taking drastic measures. However, her words were unable to reach this General Fesley.
"Prepare for battle!"
Gray-colored magic power began to gather on the general's sword. The black-armored knights following him also drew their swords and held their shields. They walked up before him and took a formation to stop the charge of cavalries.
In a short few seconds, they've finished making preparations to face enemies. Even if it was a trap, General Fesley was determined to bring these foodstuffs back to the Demon Realm!
Seeing the fully armed and battle-ready knights, Pest sighed. She couldn't help but recall her behavior when she last returned to Norland. It was more or less the same as theirs.
Humanity and the demons have been enemies for simply too long, much too long. To the demons that stood at the front line in the war against humanity, human cities were forts filled with enemies.
In the cities, threats that could cause potential death were everywhere. That was the reason why this general was so tense and alert against dangers.
When Pest informed them back in the Demon Realm that they would be proceeding for Norland, these knights had the expressions of being prepared for death.
The black-armored knights held their breaths and carefully listened to the approaching sound. Their grasp on their weapons grew stronger. It was as if what was approaching them was a monster that could devour them with one bite.
"If it was a trap, you all wouldn't be able to stand there unscathed."
A voice sounded from the other side of the mine cave. The moment General Fesley saw who the person approaching them was, the magic power that engulfed his sword immediately disappeared.
He immediately thrust his sword into the rocky ground and half-kneeled on the ground.
The knights in formation before him also realized who the person approaching them was. They too laid down their weapons and took an identical posture to General Fesley.
"Your Highness Joshua… please forgive my rudeness."
"Don't mind it. It's normal for demons to become oversensitive when coming to Norland. The Sentinel Pest beside you reacted in the same manner too. She even shouted 'Your Highness, your current situation is very dangerous.'"
Under Prophet's guidance, Joshua arrived at the mine used to store the gathered foodstuffs. Standing at the side, Pest could only silently listen as Joshua openly exposed her dark and shameful history.
"But Your Highness, you are currently in a city filled with humans. Those cunning humans are indeed very dangerous!"
Hearing the righteous-sounding warning from the general, Joshua felt a headache and massaged his forehead.
Even though Joshua had transformed the way humans viewed demons after staying in Norland for so long, the impression demons had toward humans remained completely unchanged.
A portion of the demons held hostility toward humans. As for the other portion, they were afraid of humans.
That said, Joshua does not have the time to bother educating this general, like how he educated Pest and Prophet's apprentices, that there existed both good and bad humans.
He had learned from the messages from his elder sister and they were only here to transport the food supply in preparation for the upcoming war. They did not come to Norland for a one day tour of Norland.
"Well, I don't know about that. Speaking of it, what's your name?" Joshua pointed at the general as he asked.
The general removed his helmet. Long shiny black hair poured out from the helmet, scattering across his shoulders. It was very difficult to imagine that this fully armored knight looked as femine as a woman.
"Fesley Annerlaude. I belong to the Second Legion under your elder brother." The knight general gave a brief self-introduction.
"The supplies you need are here."
Joshua patted at the large pile of wooden chests. The surface of the wooden chests were inscribed with rune inscriptions that could prevent the spoilage of food. The food would remain edible for at least a year or two in the wooden chests.
"While transporting them, tell me what's going on; why there's an 'upcoming war?'"
General Fesley immediately ordered for his subordinates to start transporting the wooden chests to the other side of the teleportation gate. As for him, he was still half kneeling before Joshua and explaining to him the story behind the war.
"At this time every year, the ice in the stronghold's surrounding will start melting. At that time, attacks from the human army will arrive… In the past couple years, we've been able to successfully ward off humanity's assaults. But this year, due to the extensive 'ashening famine' throughout the Demon Realm, the stronghold's supplies are nearly exhausted. It was Her Highness Cecily who proposed that we seek out your help." When his words reach this point, he came to a pause to take a glance at the knights transporting the supplies.
"When we learned from Sentinel Pest that we will be proceeding to the human world to obtain the supplies, we've prepared ourselves for a battle to plunder food from humans. I never imagined that it would be this smooth. I… am very curious as to how Your Highness Joshua accomplished this."
So this 'war' was something that happens every year? It was no wonder that Prophet and his elder sister remained so calm.
But, if the Demon Realm's frontier stronghold was breached, it would definitely become a full-scale war.
"One merely has to raise one's prestige in Norland to 'friendly,'" said Joshua.
"Pre...stige?"
General Fesley raised his head in a confused manner. He discovered that Prophet was standing next to Joshua. Prophet who served the Second Princess Cecily was famous in the Demon Realm.
Fesley hoped that Prophet would be able to offer an explanation. Unfortunately, Prophet shook her head to express that she didn't understand either.
"Well, this is not important. Come… take these. Deliver them to my elder brother Knox. There's a letter inside. He'll understand after reading the letter," Joshua handed two wooden cases to General Fesley. A hundred originium crystals that contained the magic network interface was present in one case and a hundred pieces of World Tree's leaves were present in the other.
Since Tylene's World Tree grew, it would shed over a dozen leaves every day. It was enough for Joshua to consider opening up a mobile Wifi store.
"Your Highness Joshua," General Fesley received the two cases with a serious expression. He looked at Joshua and asked, "Are you entrusting me with your legacy?"
"Legacy?"
And here Joshua was wondering why the atmosphere suddenly turned solemn.
"For the sake of the citizens of the Demon Realm, you've chosen to stay in this incomparably dangerous city of Norland. Originally, your elder brother thought that you've been in despair after renouncing to take part in the contest for the royal power. But to our surprise, you've actually…"
"Stop! Stop your imagination!"
Joshua kept feeling like he would be put into a coffin filled with flowers and brought back to be buried in the Demon Realm if Fesley continued.
"Fesley, listen carefully! Right now, as long as we demons do not commit any crime, the humans of Norland will not be hostile toward us! Right now, demons are able to freely walk about the streets of Norland!"
"Your Highness Joshua, I don't understand."
Ever since this Chaos Demon was born, he grew up battling against humans. Perhaps in his eyes, humans were an extremely cruel and ruthless race.
"Fine…" Joshua packed up three originium crystals and handed it to him, "While I don't think they'll do much, you can check them out when you're free.. Do not use Chaos Magic to activate the originium crystals."
