Chapter 96 - Exhibition
As the time approached noon, the World Expo officially began.
The nobles that were present stopped their social interactions. They came to the center of the Crystal Palace and turned their eyes to the stage. In the upcoming hours, arcanotech devices with the potential to affect this world might be exhibited on the stage. All of them will become the witnesses to the transformation of this world.
It was an exciting time of greatness. The excitement affected all the people present, including young master Ricard who was at the back of the stage.
Ricard came from Farucci and has been studying abroad in Norland’s Advanced Magic University. With the aid of the professors from the university, he managed to successfully enter the exhibition with the arcanotech device he invented.
“Have faith! Ricard, your parents and nobles from all over the world will see you on the stage. This is a very rare opportunity.”
An aged professor patted Ricard’s shoulder. This young man from Farucci seemed to be feeling some stage fright.
While Ricard was the son of a noble family from Farucci, his family only had little influence.
Unfortunately, things did not develop in the manner Ricard was thinking.
“This here is another arcanotech device that is constructed using my mother’s posthumous work. Soon, I will have two respected elders come on stage to give a demonstration of these arcanotech devices.”
Hyrlan’s line of sight was not on the audience at all. Instead, her eyes were focused on the ‘chat box’ before her. Joshua was instructing what to do through the chat box.
Because of that, Hyrlan invited the two powerful aides at this moment.
Once the two respected elders Hyrlan spoke of got on stage, the mages and nobles that were chatting softly among themselves all gasped in surprise.
Archbishop Desireless from the Nation of the Holy Church and the Chairman in Gray from Norland’s Patent Office…
After they walked over to Hyrlan’s arcanotech device, they sat down on either seats. Witnessing this sight, Ricard had no idea how to describe the shock he felt.
In the magic university, Hyrlan was only a comparatively outstanding student. Apart from her academics, she was an ordinary girl.
But, two legendary mages were personally demonstrating her arcanotech device!
The Patent Office wouldn’t possibly dare to urge Hyrlan to end her exhibition now. After all, their own chairman was going to demonstrate Hyrlan’s arcanotech device to the audience.
The appearance of Desireless and Gray Mage immediately caught the crowd’s attention.
At the time when they were pondering exactly what use Hyrlan’s arcanotech machine had, a projection suddenly appeared on the whiteboard serving as the backdrop for the stage.
In a black background, a series of golden english characters appeared imposingly before the nobles and mages of this world.
‘Blizzard!’ It was the logo of Blizzard Entertainment!
At the time when the crowd were pondering about the meaning behind ‘Blizzard,’ and how that image was projected onto the whiteboard, a voice filled with enthusiasm sounded from above the Crystal Palace.
“Welcome to Hearthstone!”
Hearthstone’s standby screen appeared before the crowd through the projection. But, that was not the end at all.
Desireless inserted his card collection that he had spent weeks constructing into the arcanotech device. As for Gray Mage, he took out the card collection Joshua lended him out of good will and inserted it into the arcanotech device too.
“Anduin versus Jaina!”
“You’ve asked for it!” 1
“The Light shall bring victory!”1
After they finished choosing their class, the two heroes voiced their respective opening remark. With that, the first match officially began before the attentive gazes from the people in the Crystal Palace.
What appeared on the projection screen was a scenery they’ve never seen before. Even though a portion of the nobles participating in the World Expo had seen ‘Beauty and the Demon,’ what was being projected was completely different from ‘Beauty and the Demon.’
The match between the Nation of the Holy Church’s Archbishop Desireless and Norland’s renowned Gray Mage and the special arcanotech device had utterly caught the crowd’s attention.
Even though many nobles felt the arcanotech device to be a gaudy yet useless entertainment machine, there were many nobles that were fond of useless things like that. Most importantly, it was capable of bringing them a wholly new sort of entertainment.
The match between the Priest and the Mage clearly demonstrated to the crowd the rules of ‘Hearthstone.’
Some of the nobles fond of games even started making bets. Naturally, they were betting on whether the Archbishop or the Gray Mage would be the one to win.
“You’re not planning to cheer for your teacher?”
Joshua was standing at an unremarkable corner below the stage. The female templar was tasked with the heavy responsibility of monitoring him. She was standing right next to him and staring at him.
“I believe that the power of the Holy Light will not lose to magic.”
Messai swept a glance at the match on the stage and replied to the cunning demon with full confidence. She was also on alert toward Joshua’s words.
“But your teacher’s playing a Shadow Priest, no, a Steal Priest. Not only did he use ‘Shadowform,’ he’s even stealing his opponent’s cards.1 Could that still be considered as the power of the Holy Light?”
Joshua was observing the ongoing match on the stage. The way Desireless was using his Priest has overturned the impressions of Priest held by many people.
Merely the card ‘Thoughtsteal’ was enough to make many people cry out ‘shameless!’
“This… this… this is the Holy Light! There’s nothing dirty about it! You demons are slandering us!”
Messai knew that the game ‘Hearthstone’ was created by this demon next to her. As such, he would naturally be able to add elements to the game that would slander their Holy Church. This was especially true for the Priest class. A lot of the Priest class cards had to do with shadows.
That was also the reason why Messai was more partial toward using the Paladin class. The Paladin class was truly a class that fought fair and square.
“There are shadows beneath the light. Shadow and light is an equilibrium. Does the Nation of the Holy Church not understand that?”
Joshua wanted to remind this female knight that there was a thing known as the ‘Heresy Tribunal’ in their Nation of the Holy Church.
But, having been deceived by Joshua multiple times already, Messai was totally on guard against him. She refused to acknowledge his words, refused to allow her mind to be affected by him. She had determined all of Joshua’s words to be the devil’s whispers!
However, what Joshua said next once again caused her to hesitate.
“Some nobles over there have begun betting on the match. Your colleague had already betted on your teacher. Are you not planning to try out your luck too?”
Joshua pointed to a table not far away from where they’re standing. A fat noble had openly established a small gambling joint there. Joshua saw a young templar throwing down his wallet to bet on their archbishop’s victory.