Chapter 76
The tavern’s second floor was Joshua’s workshop. Joshua has been sleeping here the past couple days. Ciri was doing the same.
But, the situation today was slightly different. Today, Joshua brought over all the money he earned since the opening of the Hearthstone Tavern to the second floor.
"If this pile of gold coins are placed in the countryside somewhere, it will most definitely attract a dragon to guard and sleep on top of the gold coins!"
Ciri was repeatedly using illumination magic to increase the brightness of the room. It was all so that the giant hill-like pile of gold coins could glisten with light.
Having been by Joshua’s side for so long, Ciri has witnessed Joshua doing a lot of astonishing and unimaginable things. But, of all the things, it was this that caused her to feel a sense of loss toward the reality.
Money! An enormous amount of money, so much that she would not have to worry about food and whatnot for the rest of her life, was placed before her. If it wasn’t for Joshua stopping her by saying that those gold coins were too dirty, Ciri would’ve thrown herself into the pile of gold coins and started rolling around in them.
"Ciri, calm yourself."
Joshua looked at the young woman who was once nearly driven mad from being so poor. No matter who it might be, if they had to catch bears and tigers in the mountains just to feed themselves, they will most definitely not be able to calm themselves with such a vast sum of wealth was placed before them.
"I am very calm."
Ciri took a deep breath. No matter what, she was someone who had seen tens of thousands of golden coins before. Besides, these golden coins here were not hers.
"So, what are you planning? Are you planning to find a dozen or so chests to store those coins and then bury them?"
That was the wealth storage method most commonly utilized by nobility. While many of them will store their wealth in gold storages, some of the wealthier nobilies would have special locations that they would store their wealth in.
"They will be used to expand the tavern. This tavern is too small."
Joshua cleaned up the paper that had accumulated on his deck. The management of wealth and personnel was Joshua’s expertise. But, he was capable of drafting an employment offer.
Ever since the implementation of the patent laws, the country of Norland began to gradually emphasize all sorts of contracts. Take employment contracts for example, there were laws pertinent to them since a long time ago.
"Oh, Ciri. Sign this."
Joshua pushed an exquisitely constructed piece of paper to Ciri.
"What’s this?"
Ciri picked up the white piece of paper and took a glance at its contents.
"Slave contract," joked Joshua.
"Then, it doesn’t seem like there’s any difference whether or not I sign it..."
Ciri pointed to her red
"There’s definitely a difference. Once you sign it, you’ll become an official employee of mine. At that time, I will remove the explosive originium crystal from your neck."
As Joshua has been getting along with this female mage for a very long time now, he felt that it was time to return her freedom back to her.
"Remove it? So I’m finally able to escape from that abominable thing. That thing has made it very difficult for me to sleep every night."
Ciri admits that after she got to know Joshua, apart from the initial days where she was panicking after being abducted by a demon, she found the remaining days after she accepted her fate to be quite interesting and fun.
After all, following Joshua meant that she would gain access to the manuscripts for the explosively popular movies like the one being shown in Norland. Furthermore, she was able to go up to Joshua to demand for him to continue writing more movie scripts!
As the number one movie fan, that gave her a sense of glory and... duty!
Ciri picked up a pen and signed her name on the paper. The paper emitted a faint light and a rune branded the paper with the insignia of the Norland’s Chamber of Commerce.
The contract was official the moment Ciri signed her name. This meant that Ciri had officially become an illustrator for the Joshua Corporation.
"Congratulations miss mage. You are now someone who has signed a contract with a demon."
Joshua stood up from his table and extended his hand to remove the red originium crystal that has been around Ciri’s neck for nearly half a month.
The skin on Ciri’s neck was very beautiful. When Joshua’s finger touched the female mage’s neck, he could clearly sense her body becoming slightly stiff.
Gray colored magic power flowed out from Joshua’s finger. It undid the necklace around Ciri’s neck.
After removing the red originium crystal necklace, Joshua eliminated all the runes within it with his magic power.
"That originium crystal can be reused?"
Several days ago, Ciri had successfully acquired her rank four mage certification. To obtain that sort of achievement at the young age of nineteen, it was no exaggeration to say that she was a genius among geniuses. One must know that her sister Hyrlan was still striving for the rank four certification.
Because of that, Ciri’s keen senses detected that Joshua had removed the runes that were inscribed into the originium crystal.
"No, it cannot. You can consider this a special characteristic of my magic power. Since it’s only three runes, it is very simple for me to neutralize their effects."
The magic power possessed by Chaos Demons could cause destruction toward all magic compositions by rendering them a ‘chaotic’ state.
Strictly speaking, originium crystals were single-use items. After Joshua removed the three runes inscribed into the originium crystal, he had, in essence, transformed it into a slightly pretty gem.
"Then, can you... give it to me as a souvenir?" asked Ciri all of a sudden.
"Souvenir? A souvenir for Miss Ciri to remember that you were imprisoned by me for over half a month?" Joshua was certain that this young female mage had acquired Stockholm syndrome or ‘I’ll-die-if-I-can’t-read-any-more-movie-script’ syndrome.
"Well, it’s useless for me to keep it. Furthermore, it does look pretty good on you."
Joshua handed the now powerless originium crystal stone to Ciri. When he did so, he discovered Ciri’s fair face had turned slightly red.
"I was only thinking that I can sell that thing for some money."
Ciri took the ‘necklace’ she had worn for half a month from Joshua without any hesitation. Before Ciri could justify herself more, a new guest arrived in Joshua’s office.
"Am... I bothering you two?"
Hyrlan was standing at the doorway and looking at her younger sister in a meaningful manner.
She did not expect for the crazy girl who used ‘Mage Hand’ to grab a bee’s nest and then started running around the Elementary Magic School would reveal a... look of embarrassment as an adult?
Oh Vengert, the God of Flowing Waters and Healing! In the Elementary Magic School, Ciri was pursued by countless boys. She was the sweetheart of their dreams. Yet, annoyed by their pursuit, she would beat them all up.
Furthermore, she didn’t use magic. Instead, she beat them up with her fists!
From that day on, Hyrlan thought her younger sister will not have anything to do with ‘feeling shy,"being soft and gentle,’ and all sorts of womanly vocabularies.
"No you’re not!"
Ciri shouted at her big sister. As for Joshua, he could only shrug his shoulders to express that she was not bothering them.
"Mr. Joshua, I have an item that I wish to show you."
Hyrlan didn’t come to Joshua’s play purely to visit her sister. Instead, she caught sight of a troublesome matter on her way back to her alchemic atelier — a gospel from the missionaries of the Nation of the Holy Church.