Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2600: Late Night Whispers

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Southern Capital, Fine Gold Capital Branch, Teleportation Hub

Cindy and I used the teleportation array together to arrive at the Southern Capital. The freedom fighters’ array masters had picked up the pace and were doing an impressive job constructing teleportation hubs, linking them one by one to the teleportation network across all first-tier cities of the Southern Region.

Our focus on first-tier cities was deliberate. These hubs could be opened to the public sooner, allowing us to generate revenue to maintain the completed infrastructure while simultaneously funding the construction of hubs in other cities. Expecting a single individual to shoulder the full cost of a project of this scale was never realistic. My intention was only to invest enough to initiate the project and keep it operational long enough for the revenue it generated to fund the expansion.

This approach ensured that the project was self-sufficient from the ground up, preventing it from collapsing and dragging my savings down with it. Now even the Southern Royal Family, which was still sitting on the fence, would have no choice but to stop stalling with senseless politics and begin pulling their weight.

All of this was possible because the first-tier cities of the Southern region proved remarkably welcoming and accommodating toward the Fine Gold, despite the higher-ups having yet to greenlight the project within their jurisdictions. These cities went out of their way to assist us, helping select suitable land and construct solid infrastructure so that, in the end, all that remained was for the array masters to arrive, inscribe the teleportation arrays, and connect them to our teleportation network.

In their efforts to accommodate the Southern Hope and do him a favor, they were, in truth, acting in their own best interests.

It was not that they failed to understand the benefits a functional teleportation hub would bring to their cities. Rather, they lacked the authority to approve a project of this magnitude on their own. Even so, where there was will, there was a way. These cities exploited loopholes in their bylaws to not only allocate land for the teleportation hubs, but also secure funding to build the infrastructure, then patiently wait in line for the array masters to arrive and complete the inscriptions, integrating each hub into the teleportation network.

Proving that when interests were aligned, no force could halt progress.

”Keep up the good work,” I said to Cindy before taking to the skies. As I rose into the night, my Hive Spirit detected multiple demigod-realm energy signatures hidden among the clouds, picked up through the edge of my primordial soul pupils. I had not been paying attention, but it had.

As I drew closer to the demigods concealed in the clouds, their heated argument drifted to my ears.

”How can you still have the face to defend him after he killed so many innocent people, including the demigods on duty who tried to stop him?” one of them demanded.

”Stop repeating the same lie over and over,” another snapped back. ”It’s not as if telling a lie enough times will turn it into the truth. We both know what actually happened. Leave while we are still being civil.”

”He killed nearly sixty elite demigods. With the second demon invasion on the brink, do you have any idea how long it will take to make up for those losses? How can you be indifferent to such a senseless massacre?”

”How can you be so indifferent when you know that what you call senseless is exactly what you speak of?” came the cold reply. ”Please leave. My answer will remain the same. He is under the protection of the Southern Royal Family. Nothing you shout or do here will change that.”

”You’ve said enough. What is there left to discuss?” the other voice snapped. ”He is a bloodthirsty murderer. We only stopped out of courtesy to notify the Southern Ruler. We will do what we must. It would be best if you do not get in our way, if you know what’s good for you.”

”What exactly are you trying to achieve here?” the voice snapped. ”Everyone knows the Southern Royal Family will never abandon him. And if you truly intended to bring him to justice, you would have acted already instead of coming here to ’inform’ us. Don’t tell me you’re not here to seek justice, but to blow this matter out of proportion and use it to pester him into paying you a sizable compensation. What makes you think that would work, when he wasn’t afraid to face nearly four dozen demigods inside a temporal separation array?

”How—what in the hell are you talking about?” the other voice blurted.

”Don’t deny it, we know exactly what you bastards tried to pull. Fortunately for you, he ended it quickly and cooled down after massacring those pups from the Brothwork family. Had he delayed even a little longer, you would have been forced to face the Southern Prince himself. And given the path he is walking, he wouldn’t have concluded it by wiping out the Brothwork family’s pups anyway. So whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish here, stop it now, before it’s too late for you to regret it,” the voice warned them to stop seeking disaster.

Instantly, the other voice refuted, ”Believe whatever you want, but you can’t deny the hard evidence. He killed Brolock and other Brothworks in their Morningstar Manor over a rivalry in the pleasure card market. When the demigods on patrol attempted to intervene, he killed them as well. There are numerous cases lodged against him. Unfair trade practices are the least of his concerns.”

”Unfair trade practices?” came the mocking reply, followed by laughter. ”Now I finally understand. You’re not here to beg, you’re here to bury him under a mountain pile of laws and steal what’s his claiming you are following legal procedure. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from you lot.”