Meeting

Nolan's Lower City District.

Ever since the Patent Law had come into effect, a craze for invention had swept through all of Nolan. Mages had set up workshops of every size across the city, and the Lower City District was where such workshops were most densely concentrated.

However, the workshops here belonged to relatively unknown mage apprentices, all hoping that one day, some great merchant would take a fancy to their creations and allow them to rise above the masses like those great inventors.

Helan was one of those many mage apprentices, but her aspirations were far loftier than those of her classmates, who cared only about money and status.

What she wanted was fame. She hoped to exhibit a new type of Magic Mechanical Device she had created at the World Expo two months from now, so the entire world would know her name—and her family name: Lloydel.

It was the wish left behind by her mother, who had passed away years ago. The work Helan intended to enter into the Expo was also her mother's unfinished creation.

Unfortunately, reality was far crueler than Helan had imagined. The Stereoscopic Plotter she had created was nowhere near as valuable as those so-called "new means of transportation that can replace horses."

After all, every painter preferred to paint on real paper. No one was willing to paint upon a projection refracted through magic power, turning their work into a storage unit within a rune.

Thus, Helan had been hesitating over whether to abandon this line of research and return to school to finish her studies. To keep up with the World Expo's schedule, she had already skipped several classes in a row.

If this continued, she might not even be able to obtain a Fourth Level Mage Certificate after graduation.

Helan set down the tool she had been using to inscribe runes. She heard someone knocking at the door.

Could it be that classmate again, coming to persuade her to give up? Helan smoothed her long, light-gray hair, which fell all the way to her waist, and hurried to the entrance of her Alchemy Workshop. Through the window beside the door, she saw a family member who had been missing for nearly half a year... her Younger Sister.

Under Joshua's coercion, Ciri had no choice but to obediently bring him to her Elder Sister's residence.

Bringing a dangerous demon before one's family—if word got out, it would absolutely be a vile deed worthy of contempt.

Ciri admitted that she was indeed a little afraid of death. With a ticking time bomb strapped around anyone's neck, no one would dare pound their chest and declare, "I'm fucking fearless."

Besides, Joshua was not as bad as Ciri had imagined.

"Ciri, where have you been these past six months?!"

Helan pushed open the workshop's front doors and looked her Younger Sister, whom she had not seen for half a year, up and down.

"Lots of places..."

After thinking it over, Ciri decided not to tell Helan that she had recently spent half a month living in the Demon Realm.

"Then... this gentleman is?"

Helan did not reprimand her Younger Sister for suddenly disappearing. Instead, she turned her gaze toward Joshua, who stood behind Ciri.

"A friend Ciri met while traveling. My name is Joshua."

Joshua gave the tall woman before him the introduction he had prepared long ago. Ciri's Elder Sister was about the same height as Ciri, but her figure far surpassed her Younger Sister's, and her bearing was much more mature and reserved.

"Helan Lloydel. Thank you for taking care of Ciri during this time. Please, come in and have a seat."

Helan did not seem like Ciri's Elder Sister at all. She seemed more like Ciri's mother.

At Helan's words, Ciri could only obediently enter the Alchemy Workshop, while Joshua followed without ceremony.

The Alchemy Workshop was much simpler in layout than Joshua had expected. Compared to the Demon Prince's experimental grounds, this place greatly satisfied Joshua's modest obsession with cleanliness.

At the center of the workshop sat a pale-blue cube. The translucent phantom displayed above it caught Joshua's attention...

"Mr. Joshua, could I ask you to find somewhere to rest for a while? There are some things I want to ask my Younger Sister."

Helan gripped Ciri's arm. From the look of it, even if Ciri wanted to run, she would not be allowed to.

"Of course."

After so long apart, Joshua gave the two sisters plenty of space to be alone.

Helan pulled her Younger Sister into a small partition within the workshop. She glanced at Joshua on the other side of the room, and after confirming that he was not paying attention, she lowered her voice and questioned Ciri.

"The last time you ran away from home for a year, you came back with a Second Level Mage Certificate. This time, you ran away for half a year and actually brought a man back with you. Ciri, didn't I tell you that you had to tell me first before dating someone?"

"Elder Sister! I'm already nineteen this year."

Ciri lightly bit her lower lip and rebutted her Elder Sister with words she had said who knew how many times before.

Ciri's life could not be called tragic, nor could it be called happy. Her mother had died when Ciri was ten, and that irresponsible father had abandoned both Ciri and her Elder Sister that same year. For the past nine years, Ciri and Helan had depended on each other for survival.

Since she was fifteen, Ciri had believed herself capable of living independently. Yet her Elder Sister Helan seemed to think she would never grow up... Back then, for such a childish reason, coupled with her inability to endure the endless nagging of those academic teachers at school, Ciri had chosen to run away from home.

"That's true. You're already an adult. Then can you tell me the identity of the guest who traveled all this way here with you? And how did you meet him?"

Helan's questions completely stumped Ciri.

Joshua's identity? Did the Third Prince of the Demon Realm count?

But if Ciri told the truth, Helan would probably call the guards at once. Nolan's security force would rush over and arrest Joshua, and the ticking time bomb around Ciri's neck would separate her head from her body.

"Is this a gift from him?"

Ciri's unconscious motion of touching her neck made Helan notice the beautiful Necklace that had appeared there.

"A Flame Crystal Stone... Ciri, this is an extremely precious gift."

Helan recognized the red crystal Ciri wore around her neck.

Of course Ciri knew this thing was valuable, because it was worth her life!

"Elder Sister, that guy named Joshua is just an ordinary... artist. But some of the things he makes are quite interesting."

Having spent so long by Joshua's side, Ciri had picked up all sorts of strange vocabulary, including the Mini Programs Joshua had sent to her.

"Something interesting?"

"This..." With a wave of her hand, Ciri manifested the game Tennis for Two, which Joshua had transferred into her consciousness, for Helan to see. Displayed on the tennis table was a record of 1:210.

Yet judging by Helan's puzzled expression, she still did not understand what those numbers meant.

"I remember him doing it like this."

Along the way, Joshua had taught Ciri how to "transfer" programs. Ciri was rather gifted at it and had mastered it in a single day. A faint cube appeared in her hand, which she directly handed to Helan.

Among the gods Helan worshipped was the God of Order, whom Ciri also worshipped. Besides that, Helan also worshipped "Swengelke, God of Flowing Water and Healing." Thus, without any hindrance, Helan received the program Ciri had "transferred" to her.

The interface for Tennis for Two appeared before Helan. As she watched the window floating within her field of vision, Helan felt something wonderfully strange.