Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Dark Realm, Owlape Territory, Moonpraise Capital, Mulias Royal Palace, Royal Cabinet

Seeing that Her Highness, the Empyrean Queen’s, anger had been suppressed, the Grand Vizier got back on his feet and continued the proceedings where he left off.

“Demon Merchant Code has refused to reveal any information about the True Evil that became a Devil Merchant.”

“It refused to reveal the identity of the Devil Merchant who gave the True Evil their Devil Merchant Token.”

“It refused to inform us where the True Evil Devil Merchant travelled to after leaving its realm.”

“It refused to inform us how the True Evil Devil Merchant paid for using its inter-realm teleportation function.”

“It refused to inform us where the True Evil is right now.”

“It refused to share the True Evil Devil Merchant’s Merchant ID.”

“It refused—”

“Basically, it refused to reveal anything remotely related to the True Evil Devil Merchant. We get it. Now move on,” His Highness cut in, asking the Grand Vizier to skip the parts about where they failed to get the Demon Merchant Code to reveal anything, even a hint or clue, about the True Evil Devil.

His Highness had never been the impatient one. The fact that he could starve himself for days and still maintain a calm mind as he addressed his agitated wife was evidence of his willpower and self-control.

However, now, he impatiently not only cut in but asked the Grand Vizier to skip a part of the proceedings because whenever he heard the Grand Vizier say, “The Demon Merchant Code refused to…,” all he heard was the Demon Merchant Code saying their Owlape race was too poor to afford its services.

He knew that the Grand Vizier was doing his job to the best of his ability, but him changing the words of the Demon Merchant Code to fit their tolerance only made it worse for him. It made him feel like an incompetent Empyrean in the history of the Owlapes. Even during the period when their race was struggling, the Empyreans back then managed to keep the dignity of the Owlapes, even though they failed to help the race prosper again.

Usually, something like that would get him worked up pretty hard, still he would never show it in front of his cabinet. Maybe it was because he had been starving himself for days now. Still, that was simply unbecoming of him as the Empyrean of a proud, true Ruler-class race.

“Yes, Your Highness,” the Grand Vizier said, bowing his head respectfully before beginning again, skipping a few pages ahead.

“Since the Demon Merchant Code wasn’t cooperating with us, we had to strengthen the investigation from our side. We made the following observations. Nothing conclusive yet.”

“Knowing that the Devil Merchant who handed the True Evil the Devil Merchant Token had to have entered the Realm of True Evil through the Devil Merchant Code, we have gone through our records of all the Devil Merchants and even Demon Merchants that visited the Realm of True Evil.

“We learned that there are at least several thousand Devil Merchants who have been living in the Realm of True Evil for thousands of years now. Each one of them treating it as a free, resource-rich home for themselves, allowing them to focus on their cultivation and path to transcendence.

“We initially believed that it could have been any one of these guys, or maybe someone using an inter-realm teleportation array. Though we are looking into those two scenarios, one of our staff has brought a discrepancy to our notice.

“It appears a Demon Merchant who recently entered the Realm of True Evil through the Devil Merchant Code somehow left the realm without using the Devil Merchant Code.

“I have looked into the Demon Merchant. He is non-native, from a backwater realm that uses a very restrictive power system which has similarities with our power system.”

“Despite his short time being a Demon Merchant, he has amassed a lot of wealth, established a very successful merchant guild, bought rights to three realms, even fought and won small victories against a Semi-Ruler-class dark faction invading his native realm and the Chaos Dwarfs.

“However, all of those achievements fall short compared to the fact that Librarian Jr. gave him a pixie as his personal book guide.

“The Demon Merchant Code refused to reveal why Librarian Jr. would give a non-native Demon Merchant one of their precious pixies.

“As for the current location of the Demon Merchant, he seems to be in Azorheim.

“We have already made an appeal against him with the Demon Merchant Code, and the hearing will be held in an hour.”

With that, the Grand Vizier bowed, saying, “That’s how far our investigation into this matter has taken us, Your Highnesses.”

With that, the mental fluctuation in the room became an all-time high as the ministers discussed among themselves before they would present their opinions to His Highness. Finally, one of them asked, “Why are we filing an appeal to interrogate a mere non-native Demon Merchant?”

“Due to his unclear relationship with Librarian Jr., we decided to address this issue as professionally as possible so as not to hurt our current and future prospects with the Librarian and his forces,” the Grand Vizier calmly answered, knowing this question was being used by his sycophants to make him look good in front of His Highness.

“If you all are done patting yourselves on the back, I would like to point out the absurdity behind your conclusion. If he really were involved in this incident, I don’t think it would have been so simple to get to him. Not to mention the fact that he found a True Evil who not only did not killed him on sight, but was smart enough to become a Devil Merchant using a Devil Merchant Token. Things simply don’t add up. Unless you believe that His Highness Librarian or his forces are behind this, or you have more concrete evidence about his involvement, I believe that we shouldn’t involve a Demon Merchant who might be deeply connected to Librarian just yet.”

The opposition immediately countered not out of rivalry but out of disgust that the Grand Vizier and his goons were treating this cabinet and the True Evil Devil Merchant incident as a joke.

Novel Raider: The First Fiction Summoner