Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2730: All New Three Mischiefs

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

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

Corey frowned at her boss, who wasn’t responding despite her standing right in front of him. She was just about to shake him when a bright beam of light shot out from the center of his forehead.

The beam halted midair and began to expand, folding into the shape of a slender, curvy woman dressed in an elegant purple evening gown. There was a quiet majesty to her presence, it would make one unconsciously want to bow to her.

Ignoring the Snake and the two Coreys in the lab, she turned to their boss, bowed gracefully, and said, ”Master, you thought of me.”

”Yes, I did,” I replied, slightly flustered.

I hadn’t expected Sansa to manifest physically just when I reached out to contact her. I only meant to call her through our connection, not summon her outright. But it seemed that the combo of Hive Spirit and her origin card, made her a perfect aid. She could respond to my thoughts as I was having them. None of my current bloodkins could do that.

That unlikely combo only made her incredibly useful. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to benefit from it for long. She still had to go.

”Wyatt, is she the Hive Spirit you told me about?” Corey asked. From the look on her face, she clearly had a lot she wanted to say to the Hive Spirit.

”No, this is not Hive Spirit,” I replied calmly. ”She is Sansa Baylor, top ten on the central government’s most wanted list. She’s also the tormentor and the guiding hand behind my parents. Recently, she joined my criminal rehabilitation and reintegration program. So don’t tell anyone. They won’t understand.”

I let that sink in, deliberately giving Corey something substantial to process. That alone should keep her occupied long enough for me to hear Sansa’s report without interruption.

Ignoring the shell-shocked look on Corey’s face, I turned to Sansa. ”Since you’re here, I assume you have something to report.”

”Yes, Master,” Sansa nodded gravely before reporting, ”I believe Gideon Grim is calling for reinforcements from the Dark Realm. His forces are gathered and ready, but instead of launching an attack taking advantage of the blood storm, they intend to wait until nightfall.”

I wasn’t particularly concerned by the idea of Gideon calling for help from the dark faction. With the realm suppression imposed by the Card Celestial, anything that crawled out of the Dark Realm would be little more than weeds waiting to be uprooted. Besides, this was still speculation on Sansa’s part.

What truly caught my attention was something else in her report. Unable to hide the spark of excitement in my eyes, I asked, ”Does this mean you’ve located all three of them?”

”Yes—”

”You should have started with that,” I cut in immediately before Sansa could finish. ”Let’s move. We’ll finish this before the moon rises.”

”Master, I would advise against attacking them at their camp,” Sansa said calmly. ”Each of them distrusts the others and has an escape plan prepared. If we strike directly and they sense defeat, they will scatter immediately. At best, we might catch one of them, but not all three.”

She continued without hesitation, clearly having studied their habits.

”If they escape now, it will be much harder to track them again. After this, they will flee the moment they sense us. Instead, we should lure them out with a false sense of security and kill them where they cannot retreat.”

The Emissary of Light possessed his miracle that allowed him to teleport anywhere, so long as he was willing to expend the necessary faith. Catching him would never be simple. Gideon was no easier. As a devil merchant, he had the Devil Merchant Code at his call and its functions at his finger-tips. And then there was the Supreme Leader. No one knew what kind of origin cards he had accumulated over the past decades.

Each of them was slippery in their own way, and none would hesitate to run the moment they sensed defeat. If I wanted to root the three of them out for good, I couldn’t confront them inside their camps. I would have to draw them out into unfamiliar terrain and give them just enough false confidence for them to walk to their deaths. Exactly as Sansa had suggested.

”I don’t understand either,” Corey blurted out in disbelief.

She stared at me as if I’d just confessed to something unfathomable and unforgivable. She couldn’t comprehend how I could remain this calm, this composed, in front of someone who had taken everything from me. How could I not only spare the woman responsible for my parents’ deaths, but also work alongside her?

Her mind searched for something that made sense, and when it found nothing, she latched onto the only explanation that didn’t shatter her worldview. ”You’re messing with me, right, Wyatt?”

”This is not funny,” Corey said, holding my indifferent gaze.

”It’s the truth,” I replied evenly. ”It’s not meant to be funny. Maybe this will give you some context. She and her husband were my mother’s closest friends. They were the strongest supporters of my parents’ relationship. When my mother’s family opposed it and even tried to kill my father, she was the one who saved him. She helped him win my mother over. In different circumstances, she and her husband could have been my godparents.”

I let that settle, deliberately giving Corey more to process. It would keep her occupied long enough for me to issue Sansa her new orders, remove Agony’s memories, and refine the memories into a card, before she left to go monitor the activities of the three mischiefs.

”Wyatt, stop being a dick,” Park stepped in, clearly sensing the emotional storm building inside Corey after everything I had just revealed.

Before I could respond, Corey spoke up.

”I’m sorry.”

The words caught me off guard. I turned toward her, but before I could say anything, she hugged me tightly with teary eyes as she whispered, ”Thank you for everything you’re doing to protect all of us. I’m sorry for being judgmental. I promise you, your secrets are safe with me.”