Addicted to Reading

At the same time, in Joshua's room.

White magical particles gathered within the room, forming the silhouette of a human in just a few seconds.

The phantom silhouette gradually solidified into a physical body.

A human woman appeared in Joshua's room. She collapsed weakly onto the floor, and the mage robes she wore proved that physical strength was not her forte.

A line of tiny words was engraved at the end of the delicate short staff in her hand: "Ciri Lloydel."

That was her name.

She was a mage apprentice who traveled far and wide to study. Due to financial difficulties, she had caught a ride with a merchant caravan, intending to seek help from her Elder Sister in the Magic City, Nolan.

Who could have expected such misfortune? Or perhaps she was simply too unlucky. The caravan she had joined was not only raided by bandits, but afterward, she was kidnapped by a group of dangerous demons.

Whenever Ciri recalled the moment she had been abducted, lingering fear gripped her heart. After all, beings like Sin Demons were something she had only glimpsed in the records of books.

When she truly came face-to-face with such a dangerous being as a Sin Demon, terror had long since made Ciri forget how to breathe.

After that demon kidnapped her and several surviving Villagers to the Demon Realm, it merely locked them in a cage instead of killing them.

Ciri had no idea what awaited her inside that cage. Perhaps she would be fed to some demonic beast as food, or perhaps she would become a sacrifice for some bloody ritual.

Humanity's impression of demons as cruel and violent made it impossible for Ciri to continue waiting helplessly in the cage, so she chose to use the most valuable thing she had on her: a ring engraved with the Short Distance Teleportation spell.

As she watched the ring on her fingertip turn to powder, Ciri felt as though her heart had crumbled into powder along with it.

That thing was worth three years of food money for her. Back then, she had only managed to get it by swallowing her pride and asking her wealthy Elder Sister for it.

Three years of food money in exchange for her life was well worth it.

Ciri tried to convince herself with that thought, but she was still in the Demon Realm—the Demon Realm inhabited by countless demons.

Escaping from the cage proved nothing. She had to find a way back to the human world.

Ciri examined the room. It was messy enough for her to mistake it for some kind of storage room.

A storage room... There were so many books piled on the floor. Maybe there was a map of the Demon Realm among them?

With that thought in mind, Ciri began searching through the books piled on the floor.

In a place as perilous as the Demon Realm, running around without any plan was no different from courting death. Ciri was not brave enough for that.

As long as she could find a map here, her chances of survival would increase by another sliver.

So, with nervous anticipation, she began searching through the piles of books. Gradually, her search expanded from the floor to the desk beside her.

"Beauty and the Demon"? What was this?

A stack of White Paper on the desk caught Ciri's attention—or, more precisely, the title written on it.

Curiosity was something every mage needed, and Ciri was no exception. She reached out and opened the first page of the folded White Paper. The moment she saw the first line written on it, her attention was instantly captured.

"Long ago, there was a wealthy merchant with three daughters. This merchant was a very wise man, and in order to educate his children..."

After Ciri finished reading the first paragraph, the thought of taking one look and leaving completely vanished from her mind. In its place, her thoughts were filled with scenes from the story woven by the words on the White Paper.

As a mage apprentice, Ciri had always believed words were dull things. Words had been invented for the purpose of recording things.

Great mages used obscure and difficult language to record their newest discoveries and theories about magic, compiling them into books. Most books in this world were like that. They were indeed full of useful knowledge, but dull enough to make Ciri want to sleep.

Yet at that moment, Ciri suddenly realized that words... could be such interesting things.

What happened next in the story? What became of the heroine Belle's father? Did Belle go to that demon's castle?

Questions like those filled Ciri's mind, like someone who had gone without food for a long time finally tasting a feast.

Just as Ciri was reading with great enthusiasm, the story had reached the thrilling point where the heroine Belle confronted that demon in the ancient castle... Ciri turned the page and found nothing but blankness afterward.

Why was there no more!?

Ciri flipped through several more pages to make sure, only to find that they were all blank. The story had come to an abrupt stop at its most exciting point.

The desperate urge to know what happened next left Ciri unbearably frustrated.

Who was it... Who exactly wrote this?

She had the sudden urge to find the author and force him to finish writing the entire thing.

But in an instant, Ciri suddenly came back to her senses.

She... was in the Demon Realm! That meant the author was most likely a demon, and she was currently... trying to escape!

Oh no!

By the time Ciri realized she should be finding somewhere to run instead of becoming engrossed in these words, it was already too late.

The door to the room was slowly pushed open.

Joshua returned alone from the reception hall to the Imperial City.

The issue of the female lead had been temporarily resolved. The greatest remaining obstacle in the film production plan was the matter of the camera.

Joshua had to find a way to solve the problem of editing the footage stored within the Source Crystal Stone as soon as possible.

Joshua was not directionally challenged. After spending more than ten minutes returning to the door of his room, he sensed something inside before even pushing it open—perhaps a little... mouse?

Sure enough, the moment Joshua pushed open the door, the magical elements around him began to stir. A tremendous impact rushed toward him, instantly extinguishing the candles in the room.

Gray magical power overflowed from Joshua's hand. With a gentle clench, the impact formed from magic instantly dissipated into nothingness.

Although Joshua was the weakest among his siblings, that did not mean he was so weak that he lacked even the slightest combat ability. After all, he was a Chaos Demon, a race that stood at the pinnacle of all demonkind.

That little mouse's attack had not ended yet. Pale white Runes flickered around her body, and several books on the floor floated into the air, transforming into weapons that shot toward Joshua.

Joshua's pupils narrowed. Gray magical power instantly surged from his hand, crushing the magical power wrapped around those books.

The unique trait of a Chaos Demon's magical power was "chaos." Not only could Joshua throw his own magical power into a state of chaos, he could do the same to his enemy's magic.

"Didn't your teacher teach you how to treat books?"

Joshua picked up the three books that had fallen to the floor, brushed the dust from them, and called loudly to the little mouse in the room.