Chapter 75

Messai didn’t dare believe what she witnessed to be true.

The person who was deemed to be closest to the gods in the Nation of the Holy Church, Archbishop Desireless, was actually together with a demon. Furthermore, they were also to chat so cheerily with one another...

No, that’s not it. Messai believed that Archbishop Desireless must be negotiating with that demon.

Archbishop Desireless had warned them last night that the demon called Joshua was extremely powerful. Taking the lives of the innocent inhabitants into consideration, he ordered the templars that they were not allowed to provoke that demon.

Archbishop Desireless must’ve come here to monitor that demon. He must be braving fatal danger alone.

With that thought in mind, Messai recalled how she too came to this tavern to settle the grudges with the demons. Because of that, Messai grew much more confident.

Desireless had discovered Messai the instant she came through the tavern entrance.

He was not surprised by Messai’s appearance. He merely waved his hand at Messai.

Discovered, Messai walked over to Desireless’s table in a slightly ashamed manner. She removed her disguise helmet.

It was currently midday. The majority of the dwarves were still mining underground. Thus, the majority of the tavern’s customers were humans.

“Lord Archbishop, I...”

Messai tried very hard to think of the reason why she came here. Very rarely would she talk back to her superiors. To her, being captured in the act was already a condemnation from the gods. Because of that, she wanted to confess to her esteemed teacher.

“Messai, you should follow your desire.”

Desireless does not possess any intention of criticizing his disciple.

Messai soon realized her teacher’s intention. She took out her black originium crystal and inserted it into the groove on the Hearthstone machine. Soon, a match between her and Desireless began.

Wait... she... was actually having a Hearthstone match against Archbishop Desireless?

When Messai realized what was happening, she felt utter disbelief.

Her esteemed teacher was actually interested in a card game...

“Tell me, what do you see?”

Desireless raised his head and looked to his disciple. Even though Messai was a brave and upstanding knight, she was still quite rash due to her age.

“I... Lord Archbishop, you’ve chosen the Priest class. I... am using the Paladin class. Furthermore, Lord Archbishop, you’ve just used Mind Vision [1]to copy a card... from my hand.”

Messai didn’t know if she should’ve said the following sentence. But, since it was Desireless that was asking her, she ended up answering his question honestly.

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Desireless pressed the end turn button. He then instructed his disciple, “Use the ‘eye’ that you’re intensely proud of to see this arcanotech device. Do not be confused by its outward appearance.”

After receiving Desireless’s pointers, Messai closed her eyes to strengthen the sensitivity of her ‘third eye.’ She began to use her ‘third eye’ to perceive the arcanotech device.

This was something that Messai had attempted before in the past. Through her ‘third eye,’ Messai was able to detect the runes inscribed onto the arcanotech devices.

Since what they were using was also an arcanotech device, it was most definitely operated through runes and magic power. But, when Messai began to sense the runes that composed the arcanotech device, when she started to peep further into its construction... an enormous amount of information came pouring into her head.

The knowledge that didn’t belong to her made Messai lose her sense of balance. She fell onto the ground.

She was grabbing her forehead. A dull sense of pain was present in her head. A vast amount of runes were gathered together to compose multiple series of indescribable words. Those words were arranged In a strange and complicated manner.

Even though Messai knew that the words composed by the runes was a language that she knew, the language of Norland, it became very difficult to understand them after how they were arranged in such a complicated manner.

If it was one or two such word series, then it would still be tolerable. But, in a split second, Messai saw countless word series. No... they were countless complex sequences.

“Lord Archbishop... these are...”

Holding her aching head, Messai stood up. Even now, she was unable to rid her head of that painful sensation.

“I don’t know.”

Desireless shook his head helplessly. He had never seen such complicated arrangement of runes.

It was so complicated that it would not be excessive to call the person who created this arcanotech device to be a lunatic.

Desireless had recalled all his knowledge of the manners that which runes were inscribed. Yet, he was unable to find them beign utilized in such a manner. The manner of rune inscription that he knew about that resembled this, at least in terms of complexity, that he knew about was the runes he saw in the remnants of the ancient civilization beneath Norland.

But, he had only witnessed it once because the remnants of the civilization beneath Norland had long been erroded by lava.

“Even Lord Archbishop doesn’t know?”

A haze shrounded Messai’s mind. The unknown would generally be the most terrifying of all... Those complicated rune sequences meant that the demon might possess a whole new sort of magic!

“While I don’t know... this remains a fascinating knowledge.”

Desireless had already forgotten how long it has been since he last used the word ‘fascinating.’ The majority of his desires has died numerous years ago. To him, the majority of the matters of this world were so very dull. The desire for knowledge was the only thing that kept his rationality intact all this time.

“But, that’s the demons’ knowledge.”

Even now, Messai’s head was still aching. To be able to cause such a massive burden on her body, she was certain that it was the power of those wicked demons.

“That’s not important...”

Desireless’s response left Messai completely speechless.

Messai sat back onto her seat. She no longer dared to use her ‘third eye’ to see those indescrible writings.

When those complicated rune sequences entered Messai’s head, they resembled utter chaos. But, that didn’t affect Messai from finishing her Hearthstone match.

...

The propagator of chaos, Joshua, was sitting on the second floor. With his inhuman Chaos Demon senses, he was able to hear the conversation between Messai and Desireless with full clarity.

Perhaps Joshua really should write a ‘Three Years of Programming, Five Years of Bugs’ C programming language book that would introduce the concept and eventually make people give up.

Unfortunately, the Nation of the Holy Church was a hostile power to Joshua. There was no reason for him to impart his knowledge to his enemies.

It was definitely impossible for them to learn computing languages merely by what they could see from the surface of the arcanotech devices. Even if it was Dennis Ritchie[2], it would still be impossible.

Joshua did not mind the Templars of the Holy Church stationing themselves in his tavern. As long as they’re willing to uphold the rules of the tavern, the more the merrier.

It was not only the templars. It was also the demons.

Joshua was planning to turn this tavern into a place where the Templars of the Holy Church and the demons could speak calmly with each other through Hearthstone and not with swords and talons.

[1] [1. Mind Vision: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Mind_Vision ]

[2] [2. Dennis Ritchie was the creator of C.]