Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2709: New Age Merchant Guild

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City, TSR Guild Headquarters

”You mean... like otherworld mercenaries?” Corey asked, not wasting a second. The question caught the saintess off guard, as she had half expected Corey to curse her, to accuse her of being a demon-worshipper or a sympathizer. Instead, Corey actually got her. Thanks to Park’s memories, Corey was far more open-minded than most card apprentices and instantly understood what the latter was getting at.

”Or is it something else?” Corey pressed when the Saintess failed to respond. The latter was taken aback by the sheer range of Corey’s imagination– Otherworld Mercenaries –She could not have phrased it more precisely herself.

”No, no, you can call them otherworld mercenaries,” the Saintess hurriedly said. She thought it was going to be hard for her to explain herself, but this made it easy. Then, she could help but wonder, ”Wait, did you guys come in contact with beings from other worlds?”

Knowing Henricks’s abilities, the Saintess could not help but wonder if they had already established contact with beings from another world. That possibility lingered in her thoughts and seemed the most plausible explanation for Corey’s unusual open-mindedness about beings from other realms.

”Saintess, you are not here to interrogate us. You are here to explain why we should ally,” I said, cutting in before Corey could speak.

I had intended to sit back and let Corey handle this meeting. That had been the plan. But the moment the Saintess mentioned beings from another world, that option disappeared. I needed clarity.

The ’Seven Princes of Hell’ dark factions were already enough of a headache. If another faction had been eyeing the card world, I wanted to know as early as possible.

The Saintess was not offended by my remark. On the contrary, she seemed almost pleased. For the first time since the meeting began, she not only had my full attention but my interest as well.

Now that she had me exactly where she wanted, she did not waste the opportunity.

”There is an inter-realm merchant guild composed of powerful beings from different worlds,” she began. ”They primarily engage in inter-realm trade, though they occasionally undertake mercenary work. His Highness, Demigod Godson, maintained a strong friendship with them. He intended for his descendants to preserve that alliance. As such, he left behind the guild’s merchant token.”

She paused briefly before continuing, ”His Highness Pax has already used that token to establish contact and formally join the merchant guild. We have been trading with them for quite some time now. Recently, they have offered to assist us with our current situation.”

”If you already have everything figured out, why do you want to ally with us?” Corey asked, studying the Saintess carefully, trying to determine what she stood to gain by proposing an alliance with someone who had just been declared the world terrorist.

Unlike her boss, Corey was operating with incomplete information. She had no idea that the Emissary of Light was pursuing the Saintess and Pax Godson as well. In her view, the Saintess had likely approached them because she was just as concerned about Sky Blossom City as Corey was.

Still, Corey was not naïve. It took her a while, but she understood that whatever friendship Demigod Godson once shared with that inter-realm merchant guild had been forged long ago. Time erodes even the strongest alliances. If the Saintess intended to hire them as mercenaries, they would not act out of goodwill. They would demand a price steep enough for her to reach out to her boss, the richest individual in the entire card world. And as it so happens, he too loved this just as much as her.

Before Corey could voice the realization forming in her mind, the Saintess answered her first.

”The price they are demanding is too steep for us to bear alone,” she explained, eyeing me. ”However, if the world’s richest individual were to sponsor us, that would change the equation entirely.”

”Before we discuss this any further, can you show me the token of this inter-realm merchant guild? An image will suffice,” I said, intent on confirming a growing hunch.

The Saintess regarded me with visible doubt. My request was far too specific. If I merely wanted information about the inter-realm merchant guild, I would have asked her to elaborate. Instead, I had asked to see the merchant token itself.

After a brief pause, she seemed to decide the demand was harmless. Without further comment, she used her grimoire and materialized a clear image of the inter-realm merchant guild’s merchant token in the air before us.

It was a coin-shaped obsidian token. Along its outer ring, the name of the guild, New Age Merchant Guild, was inscribed with gold in a precise circular script. At its center rested a symbol, engraved in gold, one that immediately drew my attention because of its familiarity.

”That’s a devil merchant quota,” Corey exclaimed, recognizing it at once. The token felt familiar because it was a customized devil merchant quota.

Among Dark Guilds, it was common practice to pool the merchant quotas of their members every decade and reforge them into customized tokens. These were then granted to promising recruits. Once the recipient chose to join the devil merchant code as a demon or devil merchant using that quota, they would automatically become a member of the issuing guild.

Corey turned to me abruptly, shock written plainly across her face. She slapped my arm and grabbed it, as if to steady herself, blurting, ”Wyatt, Pax is the unknown demon merchant we’ve been looking for. He was right next to us all this time.”

A realization struck Corey so suddenly that she blurted it out before she could restrain herself.

”Wait... does that mean Demigod Micheal Angelo Godson was a Devil Merchant?”

”How dare you slander His Highness,” the Saintess snapped at once, her composure cracking for the first time. ”This has nothing to do with devil merchants.”

Her voice carried sharp indignation. It was clear she was defending her lord’s honor on instinct alone, triggered by the word Devil Merchant. She had no understanding of the context behind our exchange, nor what conclusions we had drawn from the image of the token.