Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2609: Kidnapping

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Northern Region, Northern Capital

Yes, I was in a proper café after a long time. Even the prestige café I visited in Sky Blossom City could not compare to this.

I passed a wall lined with cups and siphon brewers, crossed the checkered floor, and reached a tiny, marble-topped circular table that was realistically too small for two people to dine comfortably. It seemed deliberately designed to force couples to sit uncomfortably close to one another.

Just as I neared my table, my gaze fell upon a girl who appeared to exist in a different reality from the rest of the café. The light from the street outside, pouring in through the window behind her, was so bright that it formed a halo around her head and shoulders. Though we were indoors, a strange, gentle breeze lifted a few strands of her golden hair, causing them to drift upward as if she were submerged in water.

At that moment, she gracefully turned, and our gazes met for the first time. In that brief moment, the café walls and tables seemed to vanish, as if it were just the two of us left in the world. All diegetic sound in the background, the hiss of the espresso machine, the chatter of other customers, the music, cut to dead silence. The only sound that remained was a single, heavy heartbeat, my own.

The reflection in her eyes resembled a kaleidoscope filled with me, and me alone. Not the disguised version of myself, but the true me. How was that even possible? I snapped out of the moment and back into reality, only to hear the maid sigh softly, ”Ah, youth.”

Youth? What did she mean by that? I was a middle-aged man at the moment. Unless she was far older than she appeared. To my disbelief, she was a semi-card demigod. No wonder.

After taking my seat, I turned to look at the girl once more, only to see her friend joining her with two cups of coffee before activating the privacy array of their table. An impulse rose within me to use my Soul Pupils to spy on them, but I restrained myself, reminding myself that just because I could did not mean I should. Doing so would make me no different from a voyeur.

I sent the maid away ordering their best coffee along with a pastry, all the while finding my gaze drifting toward the golden-haired girl’s table. There was something about her that unconsciously drew my eyes in her direction. I had no idea what it was that I saw in her eyes earlier, but I refused to let it unsettle me enough to spy on them.

Under normal circumstances, I would not have hesitated to violate someone’s privacy, yet for some reason, when it came to this golden-haired girl, I found myself unusually reluctant. I had no idea why.

I deliberately lingered over my coffee and pastry, hoping to catch one last glimpse of the golden-haired girl. No, it wasn’t romantic interest that stirred me. Rather, it was an unexplainable sense of curiosity and familiarity I couldn’t quite place. Still, it seemed that such a moment was not meant to be. She and her friend never lowered the privacy array shielding their table. I couldn’t help but wonder what they had been discussing.

Shaking my head, I settled the bill and left the maid a more than generous tip. As I stepped out of the café, my thoughts drifted back to the golden-haired girl and the lingering taste of the coffee. I hadn’t even noticed the café’s name, nor had I cared enough to check, let alone ask.

Following Hive Spirit’s directions, I made my way toward Demigod Gainover’s manor, quickening my pace as I set out to carry through my plan to force Anna into meeting me.

Upon reaching Gainover’s manor, I conducted a brief reconnaissance to confirm his presence and assess the array formation enveloping the estate. Once I was certain he was inside, I activated my soul pupils and focused on deducing how to dismantle the formation in an instant.

I had no intention of running into the city guards, especially those affiliated with the Northern Royal family, midway through the operation. I had heard more than once that the Northern Royal family’s descendants were not to be underestimated, and after witnessing the brutal winter they endured, I found those words hard to doubt.

Moreover, the Southern Hope killing Northern guards or royal descendants would only further inflame the already fragile tension between the two regions. I needed to proceed with precision, keeping the scope of destruction limited strictly to Demigod Gainover and sparing any innocent bystanders. The last thing I wanted was to worsen the Southern Region’s position while it was already locked in a dangerous confrontation with the Masters on my behalf.

It didn’t take long for Hive Spirit and me to deduce a method to instantly break the array formation shielding Demigod Gainover’s manor, allowing me to seize him and withdraw from the Northern Region well within the Northern Capital guards’ response time.

Once my preparations were complete, I moved without hesitation. I deployed my Limitless Celestial Domain over both the manor and the array surrounding it. This time, the space within the domain compressed inward. When I released it, the space snapped outward, generating a suction pressure so overwhelming that, with a heavy clunk, the array encasing Gainover’s manor shattered, its fragments raining down to the ground below.

I did not rush into the manor in search of Gainover. Instead, I immediately began to contract my domain, allowing the space within it to stretch endlessly to trap the manor inside it. Soon, the entire domain rested on my palm, no larger than a small marble.

”If you want Gainover, come find me where we first met.”

Revealing my original appearance, I announced in a voice that carried to every nook and corner of the Northern Capital before departing the city and returning to Sky Blossom City using the Devil Merchant Code.

Just then, inside a corner café, a golden-haired girl seated at a window-side table shot her friend an annoyed glare and complained, ”See? I told you it was Wyatt. You didn’t believe me.”

Without waiting for a response, she sprang to her feet and rushed out of the café, shattering both the privacy array and the door in her haste. However, she was already too late.