Flower of Falosi

"I intend to establish a Commercial Guild."

Joshua had named the very trade Ma Linna had once worked in. While her husband was still alive, she had owned a Commercial Guild of her own, but now all of it had vanished like a bubble. Yet her experience in running a guild remained, and Ma Linna was confident she could use it to rise again.

"A Commercial Guild... then, Mr. Joshua, what goods do you intend to sell...?"

"This." Joshua took out a Ticket Token from the White Thorn Flower Theater and set it on the table. The pale-gold token bore the silver-plated pattern of a white thorn flower. It was a VIP Seats ticket for the White Thorn Flower Theater.

"A coin?"

Ma Linna looked at the gleaming coin on the table. It certainly looked expensive, but such silver-plated luxury goods did not sell particularly well in Nolan.

"No. More precisely, this is my product."

Joshua pushed the ticket toward I Nuo, then raised a hand and pointed at her.

"Mr. Joshua, surely you don't mean to sell people?"

Beneath the table, Ma Linna tightened her grip on I Nuo's hand, soothing her unease that way. If Joshua truly intended to treat I Nuo as merchandise, she would refuse at once.

"I mean I Nuo's voice and her charm, not I Nuo herself. I believe Miss Ma Linna has heard the title 'Flower of Falosi,'" Joshua said.

"Flower of Falosi?"

Ma Linna glanced out the window. Beyond it, she could vaguely see the glow cast by the Runes above the Nolan National Theater.

Though she was advanced in years, neither her mind nor her eye for opportunity had grown old with her. Ma Linna immediately understood what Joshua intended to invest in.

"Mr. Joshua, do you want I Nuo to become an actor in a troupe?"

With I Nuo's appearance, she certainly had potential. At the very least, Ma Linna believed her adopted daughter's charm was no less than that so-called Flower of Falosi.

"In fact, I Nuo is already an actor. The format simply isn't as complicated as a troupe's. If you wish to learn more, Mrs. Ma Linna, you can go to the White Thorn Flower Theater and watch its newest production."

Joshua had long prepared for this day. Judging by Ma Linna's concern for I Nuo, perhaps after watching the film Beauty and the Demon, this elderly woman would calmly accept I Nuo as well.

After all, I Nuo's feelings for Ma Linna were genuine now, and Ma Linna did not wish to go on living alone and destitute.

Joshua pushed two VIP Seats tickets toward Ma Linna.

"I'll bring the contract tomorrow afternoon. Before then, Miss Ma Linna, please familiarize yourself with the industry you'll be entering."

"I believe I can handle it."

No—she had to handle it. Ma Linna accepted the two tickets Joshua had given her. If she wished to continue living in Nolan as a merchant, then she had to accept new things, and she was already prepared to do so.

"Then I suppose that concludes today's visit. Hmm... oh, there's one more thing."

Joshua took out a money pouch filled with quite a few gold coins and tossed it to I Nuo. Instinctively, I Nuo reached out and caught what he threw her.

"A qualified actor can't be illiterate. Miss Ma Linna, use this money to send I Nuo to school."

Joshua knew of Ma Linna's current poverty. Nolan's Magic Academy was the finest in the world, and at the same time, the most expensive. The mages who came to Nolan to study were usually nobles in their home countries, or exceptionally gifted geniuses.

I Nuo was neither, but she still had the right to learn. Everyone had that right.

"Your Highness... Mr. Joshua..."

I Nuo once again became as frightened and unsettled as she had been when Joshua first met her. Her inferiority complex ran too deep. Even after coming to the human world and gradually forgetting her identity as a lowly succubus, Joshua's appearance reminded her once again of her standing in the Demon Realm: nothing more than insignificant scraps of dregs.

"My investment in you must be repaid twofold in time."

Joshua did not offer I Nuo any encouraging words. Sometimes, cruel reality could stir a person's fighting spirit far more than all that chicken soup for the soul.

"Do you understand?"

I Nuo nodded again and again. Her throat was choked with sobs, leaving her unable to say a single word. She could only watch Joshua leave.

At the same time, inside the Nolan National Theater.

Helan sat in the VIP Seats worth thousands of gold coins and felt nothing in particular. Her only thought was that the boy beside her, named Li Kaer, was far too noisy.

The stage play unfolding before her also became dull and tedious in Helan's eyes. No matter how wonderful outsiders found it, to Helan it was merely a group of people running and jumping around on a stage.

And then there were those lines that sounded more like chanting than recitation. If not for the sake of maintaining her ladylike image, Helan would probably have yawned several times already.

"Helan, the Flower of Falosi is coming on!"

Sansa, seated on her other side, whispered into Helan's ear. Those words lifted Helan's spirits a little, and she looked toward the stage, hoping to see what the rumored most beautiful woman in the world looked like.

And when the only black swan in the Black Swan Troupe—the Flower of Falosi herself—appeared, Helan became certain that whoever had coined the title "Flower of Falosi" was an out-and-out pervert.

Because that black swan onstage... was tiny. Smaller even than her Younger Sister, Ciri. She was perhaps only around one point four to one point five meters tall, which proved that this Flower of Falosi might not even be fifteen years old.

She was clearly just a child.

But... though Helan, as an adult, found it rather unwilling to admit, this child truly possessed astonishing charm.

It was not merely her beautiful appearance. Dressed in an elaborate jet-black dance gown, from the moment she stepped onstage, she seemed to become the center of the world. Every frown and smile, even the simplest movement, drew the audience's gaze. The people around her held their breaths as though bewitched.

It was a kind of bearing. Having seen Belle's stunning beauty, Helan was likewise dazzled when she looked upon the Flower of Falosi—but she quickly recovered herself.

Beyond beauty, what made the Flower of Falosi even more captivating was a unique air about her. Helan could not describe it at all. She only felt that this presence resembled her Younger Sister Ciri's somewhat. Although her performance was elegant and dignified, her faint smile portraying the image of a gentle, fragile noble girl.

But the roles actors performed were generally not their true selves.