After Joshua returned from the Weissenasche Theater, he immediately brought Zenarth to the dwarven underground city to teleport the Sin Demon wanted by the Holy Church, the servant that was no different from a nuclear weapon, out of Norland.
Mainly, it was because Joshua's servant didn't want to stay in this place filled with humans. On the meet-and-greet, those enthusiastic girls even added some bowknots onto Zenarth's fur.
From that experience, Zenarth realized the human women were not at all less terrifying than male warriors. Because of that, he requested Joshua to send him back to the Demon Realm for the time being. As for Joshua, there was no reason for him to refuse Zenarth.
Joshua was not planning to hold a second meet-and-greet for 'Beauty and the Demon.' He had already accomplished what he wanted to achieve using that movie.
All that's left now was to wait for the popularity of the movie to die down and for it to be recorded onto the annals of this world as a 'classic.'
After sending Zenarth back, it was already late at night. Zenarth returned to the Hearthstone Tavern. The tavern looked practically the same as any other day.
Even if the sky was to collapse, the dwarves and humans in the tavern would still continue to play Hearthstone with no regard to anything. The only difference would be the dwarves had learned how to utilize the 'trade' function of their card storage and began trading cards with one another to obtain the cards they wanted.
While the 'Classic' card set was a bit lacking in cards to do trades, it was enough to last these otherworldly dwarves a couple a month or two. That said, Joshua was currently not planning to launch a new card set.
After Joshua greeted his chief manager Melina, he entered the second floor and returned to his office.
A letter was placed atop the table covered in all sorts of useless documents. The Weissenasche symbol on the letter was particularly eye-catching.
That was a letter from Sir Weissenasche. The owl that delivered the letter was still by Joshua's desk. It had its brown eyes wide open and was staring at Joshua.
This meant that the letter had just arrived. It was definitely something Sir Weissenasche had the owl deliver to Joshua after Joshua left the Weissenasche Theater.
The mages possessed a special sort of relationship with the mysterious creature owls. Because of that, the city of Norland would always use especially trained owls to send letters.
Joshua picked up the letter and opened it. He discovered that, apart from a piece of paper, there was also an emblem inside the envelope. The emblem's background was completely white. In the center was a pitch-black ancient tree with roots entrenched upon itself. The emblem was also giving off a strange aura.
To the nobles of this world, emblems were the proof of their identity.
Back then, the Duke of Bones gave Joshua an unknown emblem. However, that emblem was enough for Sir Weissenasche to realize that there existed a special relationship between the Duke of Bones and Joshua.
As such, Joshua was certain that this emblem with the pitch-black ancient tree was the proof of identity for a certain noble.
Joshua placed down the emblem and began reading the letter.
'Mister Joshua, please excuse me for suddenly disturbing you at such a late hour. A Grand Duchess from Farucci wishes to invite you to enjoy afternoon tea with her tomorrow…"
A Grand Duchess from Farucci?
If Joshua's memory served him correctly, Farucci was known to be the Nation of Arts in this world.
It was the birthplace of stage plays. Furthermore, it has produced countless painters and composers. It was said that even their King was a music-lover.
While Farucci would not be considered to be very powerful in this world, they were not a nation that could be looked down upon either.
Why would a Grand Duchess from Farucci seek him out? Could it be to obtain the method to film movies?
That was the only possible explanation Joshua could think of.
Norland's World Expo would be akin to a 'convention of novel and unusual things' on earth.
The nations of this world would all exhibit their most advanced arcanotech devices in this World Expo. Because of that, there were all kinds of novel arcanotech devices in Norland right now. Furthermore, the nobles from all over the world wanted to obtain excellent arcanotech devices from the World Expo.
To a nation like Farucci, a nation that viewed opera as their history, painting as their flag and music as their national policy, there was nothing more enticing than the method of film production.
But, Joshua was not planning to exhibit the method of film production on the World Expo. What he was planning to exhibit was 'Hearthstone' and 'Mage Forum' instead.
Joshua placed down the letter. With a wave of his hand, a 'window' appeared before his eyes.
During this period of time, Joshua has been working overtime on compiling a simplified version of his system. Or perhaps, one could say he was re-engineering it. After spending all this time and cheating with thought expedition through meditation, Joshua finally completed a simplified system.
He created this system for the 'Mage Forum.'
What was the medium that spreads entertainment information the fastest? Newprint? Movie? Novel? No, the answer would be the internet.
Internet was the medium that carries information the fastest. Because of that, Joshua decided to integrate chat to create a networking community, the Mage Forum.
But, there exists a major problem in the popularization of the forum -- Joshua was unable to find an originium crystal stone capable of serving as the server.
Presently, the originium lizards were the creatures that could sustain the greatest amount of runes. But, for the Mage Forum, originium lizard's server capability would still be greatly lacking.
If an originium lizard was tasked with becoming the Mage Forum's server, that pitiful originium lizard will explode and die from being inscribed with too many runes.
Moreover, there was the issue with the transmission medium too.
There does not exist anything like UTP cables or fiber optics in this world. Joshua had to rely on his own mental power to serve as the transmission medium.
Perhaps he should go ask those nobles if they knew anything?
Joshua picked up the emblem with the black ancient tree. Since it's going to be a free afternoon tea anyways, it would be a waste to not go.
The owl on Joshua's desk jumped a couple times before flying away. Then, a knocking sound came from the door to Joshua's office.
Joshua turned around and saw that it was that young female mage.
Ever since Ciri was no longer restricted by the 'necklace,' she did not have to follow Joshua all day long. But, Ciri would return to Joshua even if she left him for some time. It was just like what was currently happening.
While Ciri was wearing a mage robe, her silver-gray hair was let loose. She was hugging a pillow. Evidently, she came prepared.
"There's no bed here," said Joshua.
"It's fine, I can sleep on the floor."
Without any hesitation, Ciri took the only chair in Joshua's office and sat down on it. No matter how one looked at her, it doesn't seem like she's planning to sleep on the floor.
"Do you want to accompany me to a noble's… afternoon tea tomorrow?"
Joshua brewed a cup of black tea and handed it to the female mage. Joshua admits that Ciri was very pretty. Her loose hair made her look much more tranquil. Unfortunately, that was only a disguise.
Ciri accepted the tea and raised her head like a wolf smelling danger, "Afternoon tea? Which young noble lady invited you?"
Joshua knew what Ciri was thinking. Thus, he explained, "No, the person who invited me is a Grand Duchess, the wife of a Grand Duke."
"Grand Duchess?! That's even worse!" said Ciri.
At this moment, Joshua suddenly felt the urge to make this female mage wear that necklace again.
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Translator YangWenli:
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