Night

A crow perched beside an open window of the castle. It tilted its head as it watched the scene inside, when soft piano music suddenly began to echo through the castle.

Under the soothing piano melody, even the castle's originally eerie lighting seemed to soften.

The forest surrounding the castle also seemed touched by the music. The evil spirits dwelling in the darkness ceased their unrest, some of them lifting their heads in confused bewilderment to listen to notes that seemed intent on soothing the hatred in their hearts—so gentle and warm that they made one want to drift into a deep sleep.

The crow hopped several times along the windowsill. It had intended to spread its wings and leave, but the notes, warm as sunlight, affected it as well. It closed its eyes and chose to rest briefly on the sill.

"Not a bad lullaby."

Joshua sat on the floor of the room where they had eaten earlier, enjoying Bone Duke's slow rendition of Canon.

Bone Duke seemed to devote no less effort to music than he did to necromancy. After Joshua had written out the score for "Canon," Bone Duke could play it with hundreds of different moods.

This version was a slow one meant to lull people to sleep. It seemed Bone Duke still remembered that Joshua was a creature who needed sleep.

A furry rug lay on the floor, soft enough to serve as a bed.

In fact, Miss Mage Ciri had already treated the rug as a bed. Leaning against a pillow embroidered with golden patterns beside the fireplace, she had fallen asleep.

The events of the past few days had exhausted Ciri. Her experiences in the Demon Realm could absolutely be called thrilling and dangerous. Even though Ciri knew she must never reveal her defenseless side before these demons, driven by fatigue, she had simply fallen asleep against the pillow in the hall.

Unfortunately, Ciri had not let down her guard around Joshua. Joshua glanced at the magic staff clutched tightly in her hand. At the slightest disturbance, she would wake immediately.

Miss Mage's long, pale gray hair spilled down to her shoulders, and her cheeks looked faintly flushed in the firelight.

She was rather pretty when she was quiet.

Joshua had always felt that Ciri possessed a unique sort of temperament, though he could not quite describe it. Wild? That did not seem quite right. To put it in a less refined way, she was a little fierce.

If Ciri had been on Earth, she would probably have been the sort of girl who never wore makeup when going out and never acted cute even after getting a boyfriend. But Joshua felt that girls like that were exactly the kind who deserved to be spoiled.

Ciri had fallen asleep, but Joshua was not sleepy in the slightest.

Programmer Apes were creatures that did not need sleep while writing code. Working overtime was practically a daily routine.

Joshua's work had not been that exhausting, but whenever he wrote code, he really did often forget to sleep... As for why, Joshua could only say that modifying code was more interesting than writing it!

"Zennas, don't you need sleep?"

Joshua's fingers kept tapping through the air, trying to convert these Rune symbols into the programming language he knew best.

Being able to see these Runes did not mean Joshua could use them. At present, he only understood about half of their meanings, while the rest were still under study.

But that half was enough for Joshua to write a few little things that could run without relying on the system.

Joshua picked up a cup of hot mulled wine from the floor with his other hand. This working state finally made him feel as though he were back on Earth. Of course, there had never been a humanoid lion nearly two meters tall standing behind him on Earth.

"Your Highness." Since Joshua was sitting on the floor, Zennas knelt on one knee. He hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure whether he should say what came next.

"Just say it. I won't mind."

Joshua could tell that this Sin Demon had something on his mind. His heart was far more delicate than his appearance suggested.

"I do not object to you being friendly with humans, but if you intend to seek a spouse, His Majesty will absolutely never agree to your marrying a human." As he spoke, Zennas glanced at the sleeping Ciri beside the fireplace.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Zennas's words made Joshua choke on his wine.

The bloodline of the Chaos Demon was exceptionally rare in the Demon Realm. On top of that, the race itself had pitifully short lifespans and low fertility, so Chaos Demons were forbidden from marrying members of other races in the Demon Realm.

Even the Demon Realm's nobles were out of the question, let alone a human.

"I still have three other siblings. Even if my father wants to continue the family line, he will not have to rely on me. Besides... I already have someone I like."

Joshua set down his cup. With his other hand, he lightly swiped through the air, dragging the Runes he had written to one side. Then he clenched his hand, and the Runes immediately fused into a whole before taking the shape of a window.

It reminded Joshua of Tony controlling Jarvis in Iron Man.

"Let's not talk about that. Zennas, do you have any faith?"

Joshua took out a wooden statue. It was the very statue Ciri had used when preaching to Joshua before. Dipping his finger in the wine, Joshua began writing magical Runes on the floor beside him with the wet stain, forming a magic circle.

"We demons believe in Sin Flame, the fire representing sin and punishment. The more sins our enemies have committed, the greater the suffering they endure."

Faint sparks burst from the cracks in Zennas's magma-like skin.

Since Joshua intended to end the topic, Zennas did not dare ask who the person Joshua already liked was. Instead, he focused his attention on the small magic circle Joshua was writing.

"Then, Zennas, you would not mind learning another kind of magic, would you?"

The magic demons used was nowhere near as methodical as human magic. Demons emphasized power and firepower above all else. If they could use an RPG launcher, they would absolutely not pick up a Beretta pistol.

This also meant that demons did not rely on Runes to construct spells with different functions. Simply releasing their magic power was enough—simple and brutal.

"If it is Your Highness's command..." Zennas said.

"Then put your hand on this statue."

Even the leader of demons like Joshua could believe in God, so naturally Zennas had no issue with it. Pale white radiance flowed into Zennas's body, and the fearsome-looking demon successfully changed class into a White Magician who represented order.

"How many symbols like these have appeared before your eyes?"

Joshua displayed several of the simplest and easiest-to-understand Runes to Zennas.

"One."

It seemed that this brave Sin Demon possessed little talent for magic. The power he had was enough for him to discard all that so-called knowledge.

"Then can you see this thing in my hand now?"

Joshua spread open his five fingers. In Zennas's eyes, a white cube was rotating in Joshua's hand.

Zennas nodded to indicate that he could see it.

"Then catch."

Joshua waved his hand and threw the cube at Zennas. The cube easily entered Zennas's body directly.

This result delighted Joshua. It seemed that even if someone understood very few Runes, they could still receive the Rune Programs Joshua wrote.

After all, when users used a program, they could not be expected to first learn how the program had been written, could they?

It seemed that the definitions the gods of this world had given to Runes worked the same way.

Then, a white square object suddenly appeared in Zennas's field of vision.

"Your Highness... what is this..." Zennas rubbed his eyes, only to find that the object was still floating within his vision.

"Mm, a Chat Window. As for what it does..."

Joshua tapped once through the air.

'Are you ready for the performance the day after tomorrow?'

A line of text suddenly appeared in the window before Zennas's eyes. He froze, then looked toward Joshua.

"Uh... You only have one Rune, so it seems you cannot reply to me. Do I really need to write an Input Method too?"

Joshua realized that he still had a long way to go before he could achieve Internet interaction, even though he was currently using a Local Network.