“Will you let me go if I cooperate to play this boring game with you?”
God knows how Ciri became so courageous to be able to say such provocative things to the demon in front of her.
This was the character of Ciri, who never bows to anyone.
Anyway, her life was in the hands of Joshua, the worst result would be dead…. Well, it does look bad.
The issue was Ciri had tried to hold respect attitude towards Joshua to get along with him, like those inside the royal courts ”conserving in the outward appearance,but having thought in heart how to seduce the noble lord’,that kind of style,she was was barely able to mimic 1/10th of it.
Because to obtain her own life,but she found that she absolutely couldn’t do this.
Because she could not feel any threat or pressure from Joshua, there was no demon’s contempt towards human being nor superior’s disdain towards the servant.
This was the cause that led to her being talking big with Joshua, her nature was completely exposed.
“Yes, I’ll set you free when the shoot is finished.”
Joshua was certainly clear about the whip and sugar principle, giving her a very small hope, so she would work for this hope.
“However, let me correct it a little bit, the thing we are doing is making a movie, not playing any game.”
“A demon saving the villagers, isn’t it a whip kind of thing to pass time?”
Ciri whispered this sentence to herself, but she did not try to control her voice as if to let Joshua hear.
Ciri saw this kind of many idle terrible nobles, really, they should all be thrown into the open wilderness for survival, experience them eating tree barks to fill the stomach, making them understand how valuable things were.
Hold on!….thinking till here, Ciri suddenly remembered that she had almost not eaten anything for a day.
The hunger in the stomach made her give up on the idea of continuing to fight with Joshua, she began to turn up things in the small bundle under her magic robe.
Ciri discovered that except useless drawings and pen there was nothing to eat
No, there was a half piece of bark at the bottom of the bundle.
Ciri’s excitement was absolutely not less than Witcher Geralt finding a certain specialized master Gwent card, from the package she took out the dry bark, she didn’t even have time to chew when she found that Joshua was looking at her with strange eyes.
“What’s wrong?Didn’t you anytime see the bark of cacao tree?This tree in the world of humanity is one of the delicacies…., um. I mean it”
Ciri said words could not be taken back, and the fact that she was very poor that she does not have money to eat food was exposed to others, it would really let Ciri somewhat unable to face others.
“I wish to ask, Was this drawn by you?”
Joshua was holding a piece of white paper, this paper was one of the things that fell down from inside of the package.
In the whitepaper there was a sketch of a landscape, with the stream, small forest, a grill, and bonfire; the black and white color created a perfect view of the camp picnic under the night sky.
“Where did you find it?AH! No, give it back to me!”
Ciri realized that it had fallen out of from her own bag, and immediately stepped forward to take the picture that was in Joshua’s hand.
However, her identity as a magician and in addition to the negative state caused by hunger made it impossible to snatch the picture that was in Joshua’s hand.
Not only she was unable to snatch, but because of being too excited, her movement speed was too much, causing her body to unable to maintain the balance, and soon her face was about to fall directly on the ground.
Joshua took consideration of this poor lady’s little chest goods, it was possible that because of falling a problem might arise, so in a courteous manner he extended his hand and embraced Ciri’s small waist.
Which made her body to stabilize the balance.
This slight embrace made Ciri’s body tremble, she immediately backed away several steps.
In Ciri’s long life this was the first time a man has touched her belly which was a sensitive part!But, before she could pay attention to this problem, she found that bark on hand fell on the ground!
She hurriedly went to the side of Joshua and picked up the dry bark to pat it several times.
It should be not a problem! Ciri once heard a famous magician saying ‘it’s okay to pick up the food and eat it within three seconds.’
“I was saying…”
Joshua crouched down to look at Ciri and began to feel a little sympathy towards this poor magician.
How poor was she that she had to chew tree bark every day?
“If this picture is drawn by you, then I might consider to treat you some meat.”
Joshua put the picture in front of her and said.
Perhaps it was an illusion that when he said “ treat you some meat” Ciri’s eyes lit up, her reluctant look was completely gone.
“Yes, I drew that”
From the look of Ciri’s excitement, he should not have promised to “let her go free”, but should have directly used the phrase, “follow me and I will make sure you eat meat every day.”
“Can you sketch?”
Initially, Joshua really did plan after the film completion to release this female magician, letting her regain her freedom.
However, the painting in Joshua’s hand has proved that there was some value in keeping her.
“Sketch? What is that? This I drew using the magic spell to create strokes from charcoal, that day I caught some fishes in the stream, ……I drew this picture in order to remember that thought.”
Ciri explained it carefully.
She was a traveling Magician Apprentice and was not rich, the burning of usual casting material had left her in a state of destitution.
This kind of lifestyle has tempered Ciri’s Craftsmanship, using thunder and lightning technique to catch fish, using fire mist technique to catch small rabbits; this kind of work she was particularly good.
And one of the other specialty was drawing pictures.
“Are you self-taught?”
“If not learn on own then who is going to teach me! Just those court painters paint would cost my whole 20 years of the meal, if I want them to teach me then I guess I would need to pay 50 years of my meals ”
“Very good, perhaps, I think I can officially hire you, miss Ciri.”
Joshua didn’t think that this female magician would have painting talent.
To learn sketch was very simple, but to learn the essence was difficult, and the painting of Ciri had undoubtedly stepped into “exquisite” realm.
Must know that to learn basic sketching was a foundation skill, perhaps some geniuses might skip this basic sketch stage, for Joshua in those years of learning drawing sketch took ten years and five years to apply paints.
Considering the Joshua’s future development of game design, the talent of drawing he needs would not be few.
“Hire? Well,… Didn’t you say you’d let me go after movie shoot was finished?”
Ciri gnawed at the bark in her hand, she did not seem to believe Joshua’s promise, including the sentence “ treat you to eat meat”
And here the so-called employment and Slavery was a synonym.
“You might not wish to work,but I think my price tag will certainly satisfy you”
Joshua said.
“What price?”
“Guaranteeing the meals for the rest of your life”
